Life Returns To Stepanakert

A shaft of sunlight illuminates a suburb in Stepanakert (known as Xankendi in Azeri) on November 27.

Russian peacekeepers man a checkpoint on the outskirts of Stepanakert on November 29.

After six weeks of fighting between ethnic Armenian forces and Azerbaijan's military, a Moscow-brokered truce was signed on November 9 that brought some 2,000 Russian soldiers to Nagorno-Karabakh.

A boy being taught a traditional Armenian dance in a Stepanakert school on December 2.

Ahead of the cease-fire agreement, Azerbaijan's military overwhelmed ethnic Armenian separatist forces and threatened to advance on Stepanakert.

Men in Stepanakert take a cow to slaughter on December 3.

After being emptied of much of its some 55,000 residents during the conflict, thousands have returned to Nagorno-Karabakh's largest city.

Refugees who fled Stepanakert as fighting raged around the city through October board busses in Yerevan to return to their homes on November 18.

Rusted army helmets litter the ground with other damaged ammunition on the outskirts of Stepanakert on November 23.

A child's texbook at a school in Stepanakert features a drawing of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh flag on December 2. 

A man stands next to his son's grave in Stepanakert on November 27.

The 2020 conflict officially cost the lives of 2,783 Azerbaijani servicemen and 2,425 Armenian soldiers, as has been reported thus far. 

Residents repair a house damaged by shelling.

Dozens of civilians on both sides of the conflict were killed during the hostilities, many in missile attacks. 

A boy walks to school on December 2 past the portraits of ethnic Armenian fighters who died in the first war for Nagorno-Karabakh that ended in 1994.

A baker in Stepanakert cooks traditional Armenian flatbread on November 25.

A recently returned resident said the 2020 conflict was the worst the city had experienced, telling a Reuters reporter: "I have seen the third war already here. In 1992 and 2016 I did not leave the city for even a minute. But this time it was awful."

Food aid is delivered to Stepanakert on November 22.

Residents put furniture back into their home in Stepanakert on November 24.

Locals walk past a billboard sporting the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh flag.

An ethnic Armenian soldier shops in a fruit market in central Stepanakert on November 24.

A resident repairs the shattered window of his apartment on November 24. 

A Stepanakert local harvests persimmons that apparently flourished through the recent conflict. 

Strings of drying laundry indicate a return to normality in Stepanakert on November 24.