In early April 2024, NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary: Ukraine was invited to the celebration, but not yet to the Alliance itself. This did not come as a surprise, so we continue to live life and appreciate every moment as the war goes on.
Every Friday, Zaborona’s photo editor Pavlo Bishko makes a selection of the most striking photos from around the world about the week’s most important events and those that went unnoticed.
Kyiv, Ukraine
Relatives and friends of Ukrainian prisoners of war from the Azov Brigade and subunits hold placards during a rally in the center of Kyiv on March 31, 2024, calling for their exchange with Russian prisoners, amid Russian invasion in Ukraine. Photo: ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images
Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine
Civilian women practice on shooting rifle on March 31, 2024 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Free shooting courses for civilians were organized by the Rifle Training Center ‘The First’. Photo: Elena Tita/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Rafah, Gaza Strip
A young Palestinian man, Muhammad Al-Shanbari, 28 years old, practices the art of balance and the challenge of gravity on April 1, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza. Muhammad Al-Shanbari, 28, from the city of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, was displaced to the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during the war. He practices the art of balance in stabilizing various objects through the fulcrum in an artistic manner and defies gravity. Photo: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
Bnei Brak, Israel
Ultra Orthodox Jews block a highway in Bnei Brak as they protest against their conscription into the Israeli armed forces on April 1, 2024. Israel’s decades-old exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews is poised to end on April 1, a divisive move that imperils the coalition government as the nation is at war with Hamas. Photo: OREN ZIV/AFP via Getty Images
Istanbul, Turkey
Firefighters rest after battling a fire that broke out at the Masquerade nightclub on April 02, 2024 in Istanbul, Turkey. According to authorities, the fire broke out during daytime repair work at the nightclub, located on the ground and basement floors of a 16-story residential building, and killed more than 25 people. Photo: Mehmet Kacmaz/Getty Images
Achim, Germany
People stand around the Easter fire in the village of Uphusen near Achim, northern Germany on March 30, 2024. For centuries, traditional fires have been lit in northern Germany, where people meet on Holy Saturday or Easter Sunday to say goodbye to winter and celebrate Easter. Photo: FOCKE STRANGMANN/AFP via Getty Images
Taunton, United Kingdom
Detailed view of the Knife Angel that is currently being displayed in Taunton Town Centre on April 03, 2024 in Taunton, United Kingdom. The sculpture is made of more than 100,000 knives and is part of a National tour to raise awareness of knife crime. Photo: Harry Trump/Getty Images
Hualien, Taiwan
A person walks past an area of a damaged building is cordoned off following the earthquake on April 04, 2024 in Hualien, Taiwan. A 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Taiwan on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami warning for the coastline in Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan. Photo: Annabelle Chih/Getty Images
Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, China
Aerial view of primary and secondary school students attending a painting and calligraphy competition on March 30, 2024 in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province of China. Over 1,000 students took part in the competition on March 30. Photo: Yang Jian/VCG via Getty Images
Sanaa, Yemen
A boy holds up an assault rifle and chants slogans with others during a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rally outside al-Saleh mosque in the Huthi-held capital Sanaa on March 29, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Photo: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP via Getty Images
Taipei, Taiwan
Pet dogs sniff each other from their strollers while waiting for their pet-friendly train along the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) in Taipei on March 31, 2024. The Taipei Metro on March 31 began operations of two pet-friendly trains along the Red Line, departing Xiangshan station and Tamsui station respectively, with eight trips throughout the day and stopping at all stations along the line as normal. Photo: I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images
Lapland, Finland
Finland’s ice freedivers Kristian Maki-Jussila (R), a 41-years-old, and his wife Henrietta Kivijaervi, 39-years-old, celebrate their union under the ice in a frozen quarry lake, in Lapland near Kolari on March 30, 2024. The ice thickness is 80cm, water temperature +0,5C and the air temperature in Lapland is around -5C to -9C during this season. Photo: OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images
Berlin, Germany
Marijuana smokers celebrate in front of a giant mock marijuana plant at a demonstration outside Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to mark the coming into force in Germany on April 1, 2024 of a law allowing adults to carry up to 25 grams of dried cannabis and grow up to three marijuana plants at home. Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images
Druzhkivka, Ukraine
Communal workers look at a heavily damaged House of Culture following an overnight missile strike, in the town of Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, on April 1, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo: ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images
Kazan, Russia
Alsu Kurmasheva, a US-Russian journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) who was arrested last year for failing to register as a “foreign agent”, attends a hearing on the extention of her pre-trial detention, at the Sovetski court in Kazan on April 1, 2024. Photo: ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images
Paris, France
This photograph taken on April 3, 2024 in Paris, with the Eiffel in the background, shows the construction site of La Concorde Urban Parc site for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. The La Concorde Urban Park will host street skateboarding, BMX freestyle, 3×3 basketball and Breaking Olympic events that will take place in the four arenas set up at central Paris’ Place de la Concorde. Photo: GUILLAUME BAPTISTE/AFP via Getty Images
Lübbenau, Germany
German postal worker Andrea Bunar arrives to deliver mail as she moves her barge on a canal in the Spree Forest (Spreewald) region in Lübbenau, southeast of the German capital Berlin, on April 4, 2024, at the start of a new season to deliver letters and parcels on the water. Mail delivery by barge has a 127-year-old tradition in the Spreewald region and is an integral part of everyday life for most locals. Every week, more than 600 letters, registered mail and postcards as well as around 80 parcels and parcels are delivered across the river, as many of the 65 households in Lehde do not have a direct road connection, according to German postal service Deutsche Post. Bunar during her tour also offers a mobile postal service, during which customers can give her letters and parcels and buy postage and parcel stamps. Photo by TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images
Baghdad, Iraq
Muslim worshippers perform prayer rituals on Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Destiny), one of the holiest nights during Islam’s holy fasting month of Ramadan, at the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim in Baghdad’s Kadhimiya neighbourhood, early on April 3, 2024. Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images
San Juan Bay, Puerto Rico
A stray cat sits next to the El Morro wall in the historic district of Old San Juan fortress as a cruise ship sails through San Juan Bay, Puerto Rico, on April 3, 2024. Maryland-based Alley Cat Allies, a nonprofit organization, sued the US National Park Service (NPS) in March 2024, over a plan to remove stray cats from the historic district. The NPS announced it was going to contract an animal welfare organization to remove an estimated 200 cats, considered a delight and a nuisance by locals and tourist. Photo: RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP via Getty Images
