From the war in Ukraine to protests in Kosovo to the forced deportations of hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals from Pakistan, here's a look back at some of the most compelling images captured in 2023 by RFE/RL's photographers.
People attended a memorial rally in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on January 5 to mark the first anniversary of a deadly government crackdown known as Bloody January. More than 230 people died after President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev issued a "shoot to kill" order against nationwide protests. (Petr Trotsenko, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service)
Trench candles made by Ukrainian refugees in the Czech capital, Prague, on January 10. Tins stuffed with cardboard and paraffin wax were sent to Ukrainian troops at the front. (Yulia Bondar, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Rescue workers search through the rubble of an apartment building in Dnipro, Ukraine, following a devastating Russian missile strike on January 14. (Yulia Ratsybarska, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Maryam, a Kazakh shepherd, attends to a flock of sheep in a remote corner of the Kazakh steppe on February 3. (Petr Trotsenko, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service)
A winter view of Goris in February. Later in the year, the southern Armenian city became a place of refuge as tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan launched an attack on the region on September 19. (Amos Chapple, RFE/RL's Central Newsroom)
Ukrainian servicemen on February 25 fight to hold the embattled city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. After months of grueling warfare, the city was captured by Russian forces in May. (Serhiy Nuzhnenko, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Kosovo's Gadime Cave is popular with tourists for its many stalactites and other stunning geological structures found within its limestone caverns. This photo was taken in March. (Ekrem Fazliu, RFE/RL's Balkan Service)
Georgian security officers use a water cannon to disperse protesters during a rally in Tbilisi on March 7 against a controversial draft law on "foreign agents," which critics said would have severely restricted dissent and the activity of civil society groups in the country and push it toward authoritarianism. (Gela Bochikashvili, RFE/RL's Georgian Service)
In April, local residents walk past a mural by the British artist Banksy on the charred exterior of an apartment building in Irpin, a commuter city near Kyiv that was heavily damaged during Russia's brutal invasion and occupation. (Serhiy Nuzhnenko, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Twin explosions in a munitions cache on April 24 destroyed the counterterrorism office in the Swat Valley town of Kabal in Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (Niaz Ahmad Khan, RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal)
Members of Kosovo's police force guard municipal headquarters in Zvecan on May 29. Kosovo Serbs gathered to demand the removal of recently elected ethnic Albanian mayors, who took office following elections that local Serbs refused to recognize. (Arben Hoti, RFE/RL's Balkan Service)
A group of children in Pristina cool off in a fountain as a record-breaking summer heatwave swept across Kosovo's capital city in July. (Arben Hoti, RFE/RL's Balkan Service)
Near the Bosnian town of Medjugorje, a group of believers gather at a Christian pilgrimage site where several children reported seeing the Virgin Mary in 1981. In 2023, Pope Francis officially authorized pilgrimages there. (Amos Chapple, RFE/RL's Central Newsroom)
Heavy equipment aided rescue operations following heavy landslides on August 3 near Shovi, a resort town some 140 kilometers northwest of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. Dozens of people were killed in the disaster. (Ilia Ratiani, RFE/RL's Georgian Service)
Spectators watch two bulls grapple at the 251st Grmecka Korida Bullfight near Ostra Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in August. (Amos Chapple, RFE/RL's Central Newsroom)
Wrestler Aruuke Akibaeva, 16, trains with a tire at her house in the village of Kaba in Kyrgyzstan's Jalal-Abad region in August. (Gulzhan Turdubaeva, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service)
Rings of dancers circle a bonfire on August 19 as traditional music is performed at the Zheravna Festival in Bulgaria. (Amos Chapple, RFE/RL's Central Newsroom)
Following two mass shootings in May, demonstrators at a "Serbia Against Violence" protest march toward the headquarters of the country's state broadcaster in the capital, Belgrade, on August 26. (Vesna Andic, RFE/RL's Balkan Service)
Flowers were left on the grave of notorious Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin after a funeral at the Porokhovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia. Prigozhin died in a plane crash on August 23. (RFE/RL's Russian Service)
Kosovar police display weapons confiscated during searches in a northern, ethnic Serb-dominated district where an attack on an Orthodox monastery in September left four people dead, including a police officer. (Bujar Terstena, RFE/RL's Balkan Service)
A Ukrainian serviceman fires a 2S22 Bohdana self-propelled howitzer at Russian positions in the Donetsk region in September. (Serhiy Nuzhnenko, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Eagle hunters relax with their birds of prey in October during a tournament in Kazakhstan's Almaty region, where competitors showcase a traditional way of life. (Petr Trotsenko, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service)
A group of Armenian civilians receives weapons training in Yerevan on October 19, one month after a Baku military offensive resulted in the complete recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, ending a centuries-old presence of ethnic Armenians in the region. (Amos Chapple, RFE/RL's Central Newsroom)
Ukrainian soldiers move past a burning car hit by a kamikaze drone outside the front line town of Avdiyivka amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Donetsk region on November 8. (Serhiy Nuzhnenko, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Afghan citizens wait at a holding center in Pakistan's Balochistan Province on November 2. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have crossed into Afghanistan since Islamabad's announcement that all undocumented migrants in Pakistan must leave the country or face arrest. (Shabad Shabnam, RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal)
Holding a one-man picket on November 4, 21-year-old Almaty resident Ilyas Beisenbay called for labor rights to be observed in Kazakhstan, particularly for miners and oil workers following a powerful blast that killed 46 miners in the Karaganda region in October. (Meirim Bakhytzhan, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service)
Avdiyivka residents on November 8 gather outside their apartment building, which suffered heavy damage from constant Russian military strikes on the city in Ukraine's Donetsk region. (Serhiy Nuzhnenko, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Demonstrators gathered on December 7 in the Kosovar capital, Pristina, to protest against the death of Liridona Murseli, a 30-year-old mother of two who was shot in her car. Prosecutors say the murder was arranged by her husband. (Arben Hoti, RFE/RL's Balkan Service)
A funeral was held on December 7 at the Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi for those who died in the brutal 1992-1993 Georgia-Abkhaz war. Abkhazia, a Georgian breakaway region, recently returned the remains to Tbilisi. (Mzia Saganelidze, RFE/RL's Georgian Service)
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