Neil Bowdler is a multimedia editor at RFE/RL.
Recently freed in a prisoner swap, Ukrainian soldier Valeria Subotina told Current Time how she endured 327 days of Russian captivity as a prisoner of war. After her husband was killed in action two days after their wedding, she says she had nothing more to lose.
Roma living in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh say they continue to face discrimination and have no choice but to beg to make ends meet. Romany women in the city told RFE/RL they receive little financial or social support from the authorities, a claim local officials denied.
Serbia is proposing to extend the country's indoor smoking ban to bars and restaurants, which have so far been exempted. Unlike most countries in Europe, restaurants and bars in the Balkan nation are not required to be smoke-free. About a third of the adult population in Serbia are smokers.
Bulgarians go to the polls on April 2 to vote in the country's fifth parliamentary election in two years amid ongoing political instability. There are concerns over possible political fraud after it was decided voters would be able to use paper ballots as well as electronic voting machines.
Moldova's running community ran 14 kilometers through the country's Old Orhei nature reserve to gather plastic waste left behind by tourists and locals on the 55th anniversary of the founding of this protected area.
Around 80 motorists have taken part in the 10th Hub Rally Cross in Pakistan's Balochistan Province. Dina Patel, the 20-year-old daughter of veteran racing champions Roni and Tushna Patel, won the women's competition with Taimur Khawaja taking the "prepared category" event.
A kindergarten for Ukrainian refugees has opened in Prague in the Czech Republic and has already accepted 25 Ukrainian children aged from 2 to 6. It was set up by a local Ukrainian education foundation after Ukrainians struggled to find places for their children in Czech kindergartens.
Women in the Iranian capital, Tehran, burned their head scarves amid the annual fire festival known as Chaharshanbeh Suri. Videos posted on social media showed anti-government protests erupting in several Iranian cities as celebrations ahead of the Persian New Year, Norouz, turned to defiance.
Nana Malashkhia, 47, became an icon of the March demonstrations in Georgia after she was seen waving a European Union flag while being blasted by a water cannon. She told RFE/RL about how she came to be at the heart of the protests.
RFE/RL spoke to younger Georgians -- the so-called "Generation Z" -- who joined protests against a controversial new law that would have forced entities with over 20 percent of overseas funding to register as "foreign agents."
RFE/RL Georgian Service reporter Sophie Datishvili explains the background to Georgia's controversial "foreign agents" law and talks about why following two days of violent protests, it's now being withdrawn.
There have been clashes with police in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, after a controversial new law passed its first reading in the national parliament. The law would require companies with over 20 percent funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents."
Afghan musician Farida Tarana's new song, Group Sex, in which she criticizes polygamy and Taliban restrictions on women, has caused an uproar in Afghanistan since it was released three months ago. She told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi she's only just getting started.
There has been a wave of mass brawls on streets and at shopping malls in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus involving members of the Ryodan youth group and their rivals. The Ryodan "private military company" is thought to have originated in Russia and draws on the Japanese manga series Hunter x Hunter.
Vyacheslav Yalov's mother died in his arms after she was hit by Russian shelling as they walked home together in the village of Verkhnotoretske in Ukraine's Donetsk region in 2022. Yalov, who has just turned 19, is now the guardian of his four siblings.
A new exhibition of anti-war posters in St. Petersburg by the veteran Russian artist and activist Yelena Osipova has been closed the day after it opened after police confiscated all the works. Speaking to RFE/RL, she said her protests against Russia's invasion of Ukraine would continue.
A Russian restaurateur with terminal cancer is dedicating what remains of her life to feeding pensioners and poor families in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. Irina Guzova runs a "social canteen" where about 40 people come each day to eat for free.
A man who wheeled books around Kabul and gave them out for free in response to a Taliban ban on higher education for girls and women was arrested on February 2. The day before, RFE/RL interviewed him as he made his rounds through the Afghan capital.
Buda Munkhoyev and Vladimir Popov moved from the Siberian region of Buryatia to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to avoid mobilization and the war in Ukraine. In Kyrgyzstan, they started making videos about local life and culture there, notching up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
A hospital in the city of Balaklia in Ukraine's Kharkiv region has reopened after state and international funds were used to repair and reequip it. Medical staff say the hospital was shelled by Russian forces.
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