Photo Gallery 'A Real Slaughter'
Putin (left), is pictured here last week in Minsk, Belarus, together with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. So far, Putin has denied that any Russian troops are officially engaged in eastern Ukraine. But Putin has also sought to deceive the world since the very beginning of the Ukraine crisis.
A man runs out of a destroyed building after shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. Fighting has raged in recent weeks in parts of the city between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army. Kiev has been seeking to retake Donetsk for some time now. Initially, it looked like it had a chance, but it has faced strong resistance on its way to the city.
Here, a pro-Russian separatist stands near the damaged war memorial at Savur-Mohyla, a hill east of Donetsk.
Pro-Russian separatists stand in front of destroyed trains at a railway station in the eastern Ukrainian town of Ilovaysk on Sunday. Initially, the Ukrainian commander here believed he had the upper hand, but then shells from Russian Grad rocket launchers began raining down on the town. A Russian tank appeared and a deadly street battle broke out.
Ukrainian servicemen during fighting with pro-Russian separatists in Ilovaysk. The Ukrainians eventually pulled back, reporting "heavy losses". The losses sustained at Ilovaysk account for a quarter of all losses suffered by the Ukrainian military since the fighting began. Ilovaysk marked what could prove to be a turning point in the crisis.
NATO on Thursday released this satellite image of Russian military units moving in a convoy formation with self-propelled artillery in the area of Krasnodon, Ukraine, last week to support its claim that at least 1,000 Russian troops are present in Ukraine.
Here, Ukrainian troops can be seen evacuating the rebel-held town of Starobeheve in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. Ukrainian government forces have succombed to a series of military failures and have seen their holdings in the conflict-ridden east shrink in recent days as Russian-backed rebels continue their fast-paced offensive.
