European Press Photo agency
26 August, 2014
A kitchen table in Donetsk, on 26 August, a day on which several districts of the city came under artillery fire from government troops.
Protests in February had toppled Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych from power, and installed the pro-European Petro Poroshenko as president. Separatists in the largely Russian-speaking east of the country demanded greater autonomy and stronger links with Russia.
In April, rebels seized government buildings and established self-proclaimed people’s republics in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk later asked Moscow to deploy troops in the area and consider absorbing eastern Ukraine into Russia. Clashes between government and separatist forces over the ensuing weeks resulted in heavy casualties on both sides. Russia conducted a number of military exercises near the Ukrainian border, while Ukraine and NATO officials accused Russia of arming the rebels and invading Ukrainian territory with military units and personnel, a claim that Moscow denied.
Sergei Ilnitsky
Sergei Ilnitsky is a staff photographer for European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) in Moscow since 2003. He was born in 1974 in the small town of Mariupol, Ukraine. His passion for ph...
