Darkness descends upon Donetsk, the regional capital of the Donbass. Traditionally a coal-mining and industrial center, today the city has about a million inhabitants.
Anti-fascist signs on the barricades outside the occupied regional administration building, the headquarters of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Sunday afternoon fun in Donetsk’s luna park at the end of April.
Miners on their way to work in the early hours of the morning at a mine in Makeevka, a mining town on the outskirts of Donetsk.
The occupied regional administration building in central Donetsk, known as the “Rada”.
Anti-Maidan activists gather in front of the occupied Rada to watch Russian TV.
Soviet propaganda on the walls of the occupied Rada.
Ukraine policemen face hundreds of anti-Maidan protesters who decided to conclude their 1st of May Workers’ Day parade by occupying one of the few remaining police stations.
Anti-Maidan activist during the occupation of Donetsk’s prosecutors office on May 1st, which effectively shut down the last institution of Ukrainian state authority in the city.
Tthe occupation of Donetsk’s prosecutors office on May 1st.
Activists enjoy a quick game of chess inside the occupied Rada.
Second World War veterans are welcomed by anti-Maidan activists on Victory Day, the Soviet holiday marking the capitulation of Nazi Germany on May 9th.
For the first time, the Vostok Battalion parades in central Donetsk during the Victory Day celebrations, before going off to the increasingly besieged front lines.
A crowd of Donetsk residents react to the Vostok Battalion parading in the city center during the Victory Day celebrations.
Gennady, a former Red Army spetznatz (special forces soldier) who was in charge of security at the occupied Rada, with his wife at their house on the outskirts of Donetsk.
On a barricade at the entrance to Slavyansk, the most militant anti-Maidan stronghold besieged by the Ukrainian army for more than two months.
A citizen of Slavyansk votes in the referendum organized by the anti-Maidan movement on the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic on the 11th of May. The very same evening, the organizers announced that 89% had voted yes.
Portraits of people killed by Ukrainian government forces on the barricades around the occupied administration building of Kramatorsk, another anti-Maidan stronghold near Slavyansk.
A pro-Russian militiamen with his family in Kramatorsk.
A banner hung on the occupied Rada in mid-May celebrates Igor Strelkov, the commander of the rebel militias of Slavyansk. A retired colonel of Russia’s military intelligence, he emerged as the most powerful figure of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
The Vostok battalion returns to central Donetsk in a show of force on the 25th of May, the day of Ukraine’s presidential election which did not take place in any of the cities where the Donetsk People’s Republic was in control.
A statue dedicated to the workers of the Donbass in Krasnodon, a mining town a few kilometres from the Russian border.
A woman killed in front of Donetsk’s train station by an unidentified sniper during the fighting that followed the failed attempt by the Vostok battalion to seize the city’s airport on the 26th of May.
Coffins for members of the Vostok battalion killed while retreating from the airport. More than 35 of them turned out to be Russians, their bodies sent back across the border in a refrigerator truck.
A militiamen aims his gun at the Rada during its violent takeover by the Vostok battalion on the 29th of May, following allegations of looting by activists of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
The Vostok battalion carrying out an arrest near the Rada, in what became a common sight that contributed to a significant deterioration of the atmosphere in Donetsk, which was also placed under night-time curfew by the militias.
A religious icon left behind at the Rada by anti-Maidan activists depicting Nicholas II, the last tsar of Imperial Russia executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and rehabilitated by Putin's government in 2008.
Citizens of Lugansk inspect the damage caused by a Ukrainian air strike on the local occupied building which killed three passersby on the 2nd of June.
The commander of the Russian Orthodox Army, one of the most organized anti-Maidan militias, in his office at the occupied SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) building in Donetsk.
Weapons training for new volunteers of the Russian Orthodox Army at the beginning of June.
The assistant of the prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic after his assassination by unidentified gunmen a few hundred meters from the Rada, in the middle of the day on the 7th of June.
