Photojournalist Petr Shelomovskiy has covered the unfolding of the Ukraine crisis: from the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv, the fighting in eastern Ukraine, to the crash site of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. In this series of photos, he looks at the harsh realities of daily life in Donbas, a region in eastern Ukraine still blighted by war.
Daily Life In War-Torn Donbas
1
Rebel field commander Igor Bezler, who is known to his comrades as "Bes," plays guitar at the wedding of one of his unit members in Gorlovka, in the Donetsk region.
2
Tatiana, a nurse assisting pro-separatist fighters, inside a dugout at a rebel checkpoint in Gorlovka.
3
Nikolai sells grapes, grown in his own garden, to an elderly woman in front of a destroyed building in Gorlovka. According to the new separatist mayor, 80 percent of the city's population has returned to their homes. Job opportunities are still very limited
4
A separatist takes cover in the Kiyevskiy district of Donetsk. The district is close to the airport, which has been the scene of much of the fighting.
5
A poster calling on people to vote in the disputed November 2 elections in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic is being set up on the Shevchenko boulevard in Donetsk.
6
Several local families are living in a bomb shelter in the Petrovskiy district of Donetsk. Their houses were destroyed by shelling.
7
A young refugee boy unwraps chocolate distributed by volunteers in accommodation for displaced Ukrainians in Donetsk. Despite the truce between the separatists and Ukrainian government forces, there is still sporadic fighting. Refugees from shelled areas have sheltered inside Donetsk University campus buildings.
8
Iosif Kobzon, a singer known for his loyalty to the Kremlin, and Aleksandr Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, sing a Soviet-era song together during a concert in Donetsk.
9
In Donetsk, bags of humanitarian aid are ready to be distributed to mothers with small children.
10
While aid is available in the city of Donetsk, it is harder to distribute it to the more isolated areas of the Donbas region.