The Guardian Picture Desk elected Turkish photographer Bulent Kilic from AFP as the best photographer of the year. Here is a look back on 2014 through his lens. Unrest in Ukraine to the refugee crisis on the Turkish-Syrian border through the plane crash of MH17 flight.

Kiev, Ukraine, 20 February / In February, Kilic covered the unrest in Kiev. Here, protesters catch fire as they stand behind burning barricades during clashes with police in the Ukrainian capital

Kiev, Ukraine, 20 February / Protesters stand behind burning barricades during a face-off against police in Independence Square. Hundreds of armed protesters charged police barricades, despite a truce called just hours earlier by the country’s embattled president

Kiev, Ukraine, 22 February / People carry the coffin of a man killed during clashes, as they gather at Independence Square after protesters took control of Kiev’s charred city centre. They also seized Yanukovych’s lavish residence, which had been abandoned, on a day of dramatic twists and turns

Ankara, Turkey, 12 March / A young girl kneels wounded during clashes between riot police and protesters following the funeral of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who died from injuries suffered during anti-government protests in Istanbul

Manisa, Turkey, 13 May / A man kisses his son after he was rescued from a collapsed coal mine. At least 157 miners were killed in the disaster, following an underground explosion

Istanbul, Turkey, 23 May / Armed militants from the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front during a demonstration in May, after the funeral of a protester

Istanbul, Turkey, 31 May / A man protects a woman as they face a police officer dispersing protesters near Taksim Square, as the police blocked access during the one-year anniversary of the Gezi Park and Taksim Square demonstrations

Donetsk, Ukraine, 26 July / Members of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service search for bodies in a field near the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in the rebel-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine. The airliner was believed shot down by a missile, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 passengers and crew

Hrabove, Ukraine, 2 August / A woman walks with her bicycle past the wreckage of flight MH17 Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images

Hrabove, Ukraine, 2 August / A Ukrainian girl cries as she stands by her luggage after leaving her home near Donetsk. A siege by government troops cut off water, electricity and food supplies in the area

Sanliurfa, Turkey, 20 September / A Syrian Kurd pours water on a child after they crossed the border between Syria and Turkey near the southeastern town of Suruc. Several thousand Syrian Kurds began crossing into Turkey in September, fleeing Islamic State fighters who advanced into their villages

Sanliurfa, Turkey, 23 September / A Syrian Kurdish woman crosses the border between Syria and Turkey

Mursitpinar, Turkey, 28 September / Turkish soldiers try to control their crossing gate as Syrian Kurdish people try to pass. Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds flooded into Turkey fleeing an onslaught by Islamic State

Sanliurfa, Turkey, 23 October / Islamic State militants stand during the explosion of an air strike on Tilsehir hill near the Turkish border at Yumurtalik village in October

Sanliurfa, Turkey, 29 October / Heavily armed Kurdish peshmerga fighter convoys are greeted at Viransehir as they travel to join militias defending the Syrian border town of Kobane from Islamic State

Kilic, centre, in the town of Suruc, Turkey / Photograph: Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty Images