In the autumn of 2020, the military actions between the armed forces of Azerbaijan and the armed formations of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with the support of Armenia resumed. The clashes were the longest and bloodiest in the region since the end of the Karabakh war in 1994. The fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia lasted six weeks and ended on November. Many Armenian families had to leave Karabakh and their houses even though the truce was announced. The exodus of the Armenians that repeated the events of the end of the last century is depicted on the family portraits.

Collapse of the USSR, turned into a series of territorial and ethnic conflicts throughout the former Soviet Empire, especially in the South Caucasus. Ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan declared independence and won during the armed conflict in 1994. Most of the territory came under their control. The Azerbaijani population was forced to leave Nagorno-Karabakh. In the autumn of 2020, the military actions between the armed forces of Azerbaijan and the armed formations of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with the support of Armenia resumed. The frozen conflict of the late 20th century suddenly exploded like a dormant volcano. The clashes were the longest and bloodiest in the region since the end of the Karabakh war in 1994. The fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia lasted six weeks and ended on November 10, 2020 with a peace agreement. Azerbaijan regained control over the areas that Armenia seized in the 1990s.

First time I visited the Donbass region was at the beginning of summer of 2014, right at the beginning of the military conflict. People of Donbass truly hoped the war would end quickly, and peace would come back to their long-suffering land. Five years went by. Along the contact line of the fighting sides, so called Gray Zone has been created. This is a conditional name for the territories without a specific status, with no official government or law enforcement. People's lives are in constant danger because of the fighting. This protracted long lasting conflict and the foggy future turned the entire Donbass region into the territory of the Gray Zone. Zones without any clear boundaries in space and time. The Gray Zone is not only a territory, a piece of land, it is a sensation of a person completely immersed in the darkness of the unknown in the face of war. This is the vital state of existential loneliness of a person who has lost all the hope.

Syria continues to sink in blood of own people, to collapse from explosions and attacks. Civil war goes four years. According to UN figures, more than 250 thousand people were killed in military operations. Government forces confront militias belonging to various armed groups. The future of Syria and its citzens is still covered with a thick smoke of the next projectile. Syria has turned into splinters. Splinters of broken silence.

I arrived in the Ukrainian city called Luhansk in the early summer of 2014 and it was then a peaceful town but the feeling of impending disaster was already in the air and every day, it was getting even stronger. The conflict between separatists and the official Ukrainian authorities gradually escalated into the war. Full-scale hostilities errupted in the south-east of Ukraine. This summer became the bloodiest time for the strategically important city of Luhansk. The locals had to survive without any water and electricity under the daily shelling. And each new day could have become their last. There are always at least two armed fighting sides in any war. For me, as a journalist, the most interesting side in this conflict was the third one – ordinary civil people. Disaster came into their lives unexpectedly. These people found themselves in the middle of the military confrontation against their will. They experienced the most terrible things: the death of their friends and relatives, destroyed houses and ruined lives of thousands of people. I stayed in the Luhansk region for more than a month documenting the dramatic recent events in Ukrainian history. This series of photos reflect the most awful events I witnessed in the summer of 2014.

In 2012, a rebellion broke out in the north of Mali, where the Tuaregs established and proclaimed the independence of their own state, Azawad, to protest against alleged racial discrimination, as the color of their skin is not as dark as that of the Malian majority. The world saw a new type of conflict emerge between state and non-state actors in Mali, where separatists attacked government troops from a neighboring state. Mali is a case in point in this respect. Furthermore, although live coverage of conflicts has long become common practice, not a single reporter was allowed into the combat zone. From the very start, the conflict area was to be virtually inaccessible. I was able to visit several parts of the country and witnessed the aftermath of the conflict first-hand.

A village Gymry is being a symbol of the independence and freedom of the mountaineers, a center of Islamic culture and a Mecca for the pilgrims. In the 19th century when the imperial Russia was conquering the Caucasus it was Gymry which became the battle line which the Russian troops were unsuccessfully trying to breakthrough. After the fierce assault when the Russians burst in Gymry, the first Imam of Dagestan Ghazi-Mohammed who was in control of the defense of the village, jumped out of the castle onto the bayonets of the Russians. This death became the symbol of the mountaineers rebellion to Imperial Russia. In the 30s on the 19th century the most famous Imam of Dagestan and Chechnya Shamil was born in Gymry. He was the head on the fight of the mountaineers with Russian army for 25 years. Since then Gymry is sacred place for many Moslems. Today Gymry is on the battle line again. This line goes between the secular way of living and the Islamic traditions which are getting stronger. The security agencies are trying to suppress the blistering Islamisation of Dagestan. But the more Russia pressures the local Moslems, the more they oppose. The border between Russian mentality and new Caucasus mentality passes just here.