Ukrainian soldiers head toward the strategic town of Bakhmut on 20 may 2023, days before the start of the counteroffensive launched in early June.
Sergey Shestak/AFP
Ukraine’s recapture of villages in the Donetsk region in early June raises a myriad of questions.
Preparing for the push: a Ukrainian soldier hands an automatic rifle to a comrade.
SOPA Images Limited / Alamy Stock Photo
Ukraine says it will push Russian troops out of the country. This offensive could be critical to that aim.
Destroyed: a bridge in the town of Chernihiv near Kyiv in the north of Ukraine.
Andrii Oleksiienko via Shutterstock
Russia’s military machine is finding the terrain in the Donbas region extremely challenging.
Cut off: a Ukrainian soldier takes shelter in a trench near the village of Luganske in the Donetsk region of Donbas, eastern Ukraine, 2016.
EPA/Vadim Kudinov
Ukraine and Russia have already been facing off in Donbas for eight years. Now the stage is set for a crucial confrontation there.
Firefighters extinguish fires in an apartment building after being hit by shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 15, 2022.
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Seizing Kharkiv or Kyiv is going to take time and heavy use of artillery— called ‘the God of War’ by Joseph Stalin — if it happens at all.
A resident sits outside a destroyed apartment building after it was hit by artillery shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 14, 2022.
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Military behaviour usually becomes more restrained when troops feel securely in control of a city. That means Ukrainian civilians may bear the brunt of growing Russian military frustration.
Russian strike aircraft have yet to play a major role in the war in Ukraine/
EPA-EFE/Maxim Shipenkov
Nato fears that an attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would inevitably escalate into war with Russia.
The Charge of the Light Brigade happened 163 years ago, but historians still debate who was to blame for the military fiasco.
William Simpson
The Charge of the Light Brigade was brave but fruitless. Could it have worked if the feuding British leaders had interpreted their orders differently?
Statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster, London, UK.
Shutterstock
He strapped on a sword aged 43 – and changed British history.
The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.
Reuters
After the terrorist atrocity, Western powers pledged to strike back at Islamic State. They will need to do more than rattle sabres.
Does this make you feel calm?
EPA/Larry W Smith
The town of Ferguson, Missouri has now seen ten days of almost nightly disorder following the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by the police. The decision to bring in the National Guard has not…
Syrian troops on patrol in Aleppo. Historically, what has the role of counterinsurgencies been in conflict zones?
EPA/SANA
The Syrian civil war is in its 31st month and shows few signs of abating. The death toll is now estimated at over 115,000, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Understanding this level…