What made Yevgeny Prigozhin turn his troops back on the road to Moscow?
Pool Photo/Wagner Group/Alamy Live News
A selection of the best of our coverage of the conflict from the past fortnight.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg wants to retire, but may find himself asked to serve another term.
AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File
Nato leaders meet in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius next week - it won’t be plain sailing.
AAP/ Mark Mitchell/NZ Herald via AP and EPA/JADE GAO / POOL
With a visit to NATO in July, and a decision due on joining the AUKUS security pact, Chris Hipkins’ visit to China has been well timed to avoid any further provocations.
Members of the Wagner Group sit atop a tank in a street in the city of Rostov-on-Don, on June 24, 2023.
Roman Romokhov/AFP via Getty Images
A historian explains how Russian President Vladimir Putin, weakened by a short-lived mutiny, might find a path to peace with Ukraine.
Facing harder questions at home.
Contributor/Getty Images
Putin was put on the defensive during an increasingly rare Q&A over the war’s progress. Meanwhile, disquiet among potential rivals is growing.
Lula and Modi walking a new diplomatic path.
Takashi Aoyama/AFP via Getty Images
Brazil and India are among the countries pointedly not taking sides over the war in Ukraine. But this is not the nonaligned movement of yesteryear.
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.
‘I don’t drink coffee, I take tea’ – the quintessential Englishman in, well, D.C.
Paul Faith/WPA Pool/Getty Images
The UK leader’s visit to the US comes amid trouble at home, with low ratings for his Conservative Party. But don’t expect much joy for Sunak on trade or Northern Ireland.
Getty Images
It may be half-a-world away, but the war in Ukraine is escalating geopolitical tensions everywhere – including between China and the US, with major implications for New Zealand foreign policy.
AP Photo/Bojan Slavkovic
Once again ethnic tensions have boiled over in Kosovo.
Supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan celebrate in Istanbul on May 28, 2023.
AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File
Long-term Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was reelected with 52% of the vote. Will he push the country further down an autocratic, anti-West path?
An American guided-missile cruiser off the coast of Japan near Mt. Fuji.
(David Flewellyn/U.S. Navy via AP)
NATO’s growing presence in the Pacific evokes a painful history that the western world has never confronted or fully acknowledged.
An Australian warship is seen off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2018.
Ness Kerton/AFP via Getty Images
Papua New Guinea’s relative proximity to both China and Australia could give the US a military advantage in the Pacific region.
The results of Turkey’s upcoming election will have ramifications far beyond its borders.
EPA
Whoever wins, the road ahead does not look pretty.
Experts expect the war in Ukraine to be a lengthy, grinding conflict similar to what is playing out in Bakhmut.
AP Photo/Libkos
The author was part of a delegation to Kyiv of military, intelligence and diplomatic experts. Here are his impressions.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the media during a visit with members of the Canadian Armed Forces at CFB Kingston in Kingston, Ont., in March 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Canadians are dubious about boosting defence spending for an array of reasons. It’s time for politicians and pundits not to admonish them, but to listen to them.
French marine commandos operate on a speed boat off the coast of Somalia, in the Gulf of Aden.
AYMERIC VINCENOT/AFP via Getty Images
The current focus by extra-regional actors is an elite project that undermines a maritime security strategy that would benefit the African people.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say goodbye at 4 Wing Cold Lake air base in Cold Lake Alta, in August 2022 after a Stoltenberg visit.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Canadians were shocked by how fragile their health-care system was under the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic. But our military is under similar stresses and only a major disaster will open our eyes.
Saudi Arabia has moved closer to China as an ally.
Associated Press/Alamy
Saudi Arabia is edging closer to China and away from the US, says an expert.
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China’s global ambitions are real but they should not be over-hyped. New Zealand’s strategic interests lie outside any direct participation in AUKUS.