This week, the tense events in Avdiivka have been the focus of attention not only of analysts but of all Ukrainians. There are almost no buildings left intact in the city, and the evacuation of local residents is taking place under endless shelling. The enemy is throwing a huge amount of resources to seize the fortress completely before the re-election of dictator Putin.
These and other events that were memorable in the second week of February 2024 are covered in the traditional selection by Zaborona’s bild editor Pavlo Bishko.
Ashbourne, England
Competitors from the opposing teams, the Up’ards and the Down’ards, fight for the ball during the annual Royal Shrovetide Football Match in Ashbourne, northern England, on February 13, 2024. The mass-participation ball game involves two teams, whose players are defined by which side of a small brook that bisects the town they were born, aiming to score a goal, which are some three miles apart. The game, which has very few rules, is played over two 8 hour periods on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Royal Shrovetide Football is believed to have been played annually in Ashbourne since 1667. Photo: PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Kharkiv, Ukraine
Cemetery workers place crosses at the graves of a family of five people, including three children, who perished in a fire in their house following a drone attack on a petrol station in Kharkiv on February 12, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo: SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images
Saix, France
French gendarmes arrest a man during a security operation on a road alongside the ZAD (Zone to Defend) camp set to protest against the A69 freeway project between Toulouse and Castres, in Saix, south-western France on February 9, 2024. Photo: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images
Huntington Beach, USA
A seagull gets a closer view as a decomposing gray whale rests on the sand and tide washes in at the Bolsa Chica State Beach tidal inlet in Huntington Beach, CA, on Friday, Feb. 9, 2024. The 30-foot decomposing gray whale was likely washed ashore by the storms. Scientists from The Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took samples from the whale and are researching the cause of death. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Turin, Italy
Princess Marina Doria of Savoy (R), widow of Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, and Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy (C) pay their respect by the coffin of late Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, following his funeral ceremony at the Duomo cathedral in Turin on February 10, 2024. Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, son of Italy’s last king and member of a dynasty discredited for collaborating with fascism, died in Switzerland on February 3, 2024 at 86. Photo: MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images
Tehran, Iran
Iranians participate in the annual march of the 1979 Islamic Revolution on Azadi Street in Tehran, Iran, burning symbols and photos of European and American leaders on Sunday, February 11, 2024. Iran celebrated the 45th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution on Sunday amid tensions that have engulfed the wider Middle East. The continuation of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
Bangkok, Thailand
Kan Keaddmeemun, 72, and Pakod-Chakon Wong Supha, 67, take part in a symbolic wedding for LGBTQ+ couples on Valentine’s Day at Siam Center on February 14, 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand. On Valentine’s Day, Thailand is hosting a “Love without Borders” mass wedding ceremony, incorporating the registration of symbolic same-sex marriages. As Thailand moves closer to legalizing same-sex marriage, a draft bill has been proposed in Parliament. If the bill is approved, Thailand will become the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize marriage for all. Photo: Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images
Düsseldorf, Germany
A parade float shows an effigy of Donald Trump stabbing a Ukrainian soldier with a dagger at the annual Rose Monday Carnival parade on February 12, 2024, in Düsseldorf, Germany. The Mainz and Düsseldorf Rose Monday parades are known for their biting political satire. Cities in Western Germany are celebrating the traditional Rhineland Carnival this week, culminating in today’s Rose Monday parades. Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
Madrid, Spain
The Brotherhood of the ”Burial of the Sardine” carry a coffin containing an artificial sardine during the Burial of the Sardine procession on February 14, 2024 in Madrid, Spain. The Sardine procession is a centuries-old Spanish tradition made famous by a painting by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya called ‘El Entierro de La Sardina’. The mourners hold a mock funeral procession mourning the end of Carnival through the heart of old ‘Castizo’ Madrid visiting and enjoying the wines and tapas of local taverns. Photo: Denis Doyle/Getty Images
Cape Canaveral, USA
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from launch pad LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center with the Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C moon lander mission, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 15, 2024. The IM-1 mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to understand more about the Moon’s surface ahead of the coming Artemis missions. Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander would be the first US spacecraft to land on the moon in over 50 years. It is expected to land near the south pole of the moon on February 22. Photo: GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images
Kansas City, USA
People take cover during a shooting at Union Station during the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl LVIII victory parade on February 14, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri. Several people were shot and two people were detained after a rally celebrating the Chiefs Super Bowl victory. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Dagua, Colombia
A Discosura popelairii hummingbird is pictured drinking water next to two other humminbirds in Dagua, department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia, during the 2024 Colombian Bird Fair on February 15, 2024. The 2024 Colombian Bird Fair takes place until February 18. Photo: JOAQUIN SARMIENTO/AFP via Getty Images
Olney, England
Women toss pancakes as they gather for a group photograph after taking part in the annual Olney pancake race on February 13, 2024 in Olney, England. On Shrove Tuesday every year the ladies of Olney, Buckinghamshire, compete in a Pancake Race, a tradition which dates back to 1445. Children from Olney schools also take part in their own races. Olney competes every year against the women of Liberal, Kansas, USA in a friendly race dating back to 1950. Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
People lay flowers at a memorial monument to the Soviet soldiers killed in Afghanistan while fighting against the Afghan rebels in the 1980s, during a commemorative ceremony in Bishkek on February 15, 2024. The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan marked the 35th anniversary of the Soviet troops withdrawal from Afghanistan. Photo: VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP via Getty Images
Lviv, Ukraine
A school director inspects a classroom damaged as a result of a missile attack in Lviv, western Ukrainian city, on February 15, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Ukraine was under a nationwide air alert for over two hours on February 15, 2024 after the military warned that a group of bombers had taken off from a base in Russia. But it was lifted hours later, with the air force saying in a post on Telegram that the “missile threat is over”. Photo: YURIY DYACHYSHYN/AFP via Getty Images
Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico
Couples kiss during a collective wedding celebration at the esplanade of the Municipal Palace of Nezahualcoyotl in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico on February 14, 2024. Around 1200 couples contracted civil marriages on the free collective wedding celebration event. Photo: ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Images
Basra, Iraq
A woman sits at a table wearing a mask as Iraqis attend a Valentine’s Day party inside a hotel in Basra, in southern Iraq, late on February 14, 2024. Photo: HUSSEIN FALEH/AFP via Getty Images
Mestia, Georgia
Georgians celebrate Lamproba, a traditional religious festival honouring the dead by burning fires at their graves, what is believed warming their souls, in the highland townlet of Mestia, located at an elevation of 1,500 metres (4,921 feet) in the Caucasus Mountains, in northwestern Georgia’s Svaneti region on February 14, 2024. Photo: GIORGI ARJEVANIDZE/AFP via Getty Images
Dana Point, USA
An aerial image shows homes along Scenic Drive standing on the edge of a cliff above the Pacific Ocean after a landslide following heavy rains in Dana Point, California, on February 15, 2024. Multi-million-dollar homes crouched on a California clifftop got a little bit closer to the edge when a landslide brought tons of rock and soil crashing into the sea. Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
