Ruins of Donbass: Photo Evidence of the Region's Destruction

After the February 2014 coup in Kiev and the eruption of mass protests in eastern Ukraine, the new authorities announced an ‘anti-terrorist operation’ in the Donbass.

The conflict quickly escalated into a hot war, leaving thousands killed or wounded as well as the wide-scale destruction of homes and infrastructure. See the photographic evidence of Kiev’s crimes.

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May 2014: Slavyansk, Donetsk People’s Republic. A resident of an apartment building destroyed by Ukrainian shelling.

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May 2014: The village of Chervony Molochar, Donetsk People’s Republic. This man’s home was struck by an artillery shell fired by Ukrainian forces.

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May 2014: Donbass militiaman returns home to the village of Semyonovka outside Slavyansk. Only ruins remain of his family home.

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© Sputnik / Valeriy Melnikov

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July 2014: Ukrainian forces strike the settlement of Stanitsa Luganskaya in the Lugansk People’s Republic.

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July 2014: Stanitsa Luganskaya: Local resident attempts to put out fire following a Ukrainian air raid.

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July 2014: Resident of the village of Malaya Vergunka, Lugansk People’s Republic in his home, destroyed in a Ukrainian air strike.

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July 2014: Malaya Vergunka: Residents of a house destroyed in a Ukrainian air raid.

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July 2014: A woman in the town of Snezhnoe, Donetsk People’s Republic sits near the ruins of her home after a Ukrainian air strike.

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July 2014: 70-year-old Snezhnoe resident Viktor Stepanenko outside his apartment building, leveled by a Ukrainian missile. His wife and 11 others were killed in the attack. Stepanenko miraculously managed to survive after falling out of the fourth floor of the apartment bloc onto a spruce tree growing nearby.

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July 2014: The consequences of a Ukrainian air strike in Snezhnoe.

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July 2014: Snezhnoe: Rescuers and local residents clear rubble in a home after a Ukrainian air raid.

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July 2014: Women in an apartment damaged during the shelling of Kramatorsk, Donetsk People’s Republic.

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July 2014: A woman walks through the courtyard of a bombed out apartment building in Lugansk.

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February 2015: Residents of a house damaged by shelling in the Kuybyshevsky district of the city of Donetsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

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February 2015: A resident of the town of Debaltsevo, Donetsk People’s Republic sits near a building damaged by Ukrainian Army shelling.

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August 2015: Resident of the village of Alexandrovka, Donetsk People’s Republic stands in his wrecked home. The majority of the destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Donbass occurred between 2014 and 2015 in shelling and Ukrainian air attacks.

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August 2015: Woman stands near her home, which has been damaged in Ukrainian strikes, in Alexandrovka.

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June 2017: Children inspect the cladding of a building damaged during shelling of the Kievsky district of the city of Donetsk.

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December 2017: A woman in the city of Yasinovataya, Donetsk People’s Republic does her best to clean up a room in her home, which has been heavily damaged in Ukrainian shelling.

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July 2019: A woman weeps near her apple tree, destroyed in a blaze along with her home in shelling by Ukrainian forces.

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September 2019: Shattered window in a home in the village of Oktyabr, DPR. On the night of 23 September, the village was subjected to an artillery attack.

These photos are just a small part of an array of photographic evidence of the systematic destruction of the cities and villages of Donbass over the course of nearly eight years.