Russian president Vladimir Putin, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, Russia, on September 13, 2023.
North Korean government/AP/Alamy
A selection of the best of our coverage of the conflict from the past fortnight.
A handout photograph shows Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhaev speaking on a mobile phone from the scene of the missile attack.
EPA-EFE/Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev handout
Two successful operations in and around Crimea demonstrate that, while Ukraine’s ground counteroffensive is moving slowly, Kyiv is expanding the scope of its ambition.
Polish defences near Milosna, west of Warsaw, August 1920.
Wikimedia Commons
South-East Asia is anxious about the Ukraine war’s impact on regional economies. For New Zealand, that presents more pressing geopolitical priorities than confronting China.
Election under occupation: a woman casts her vote in Russian occupied Donetsk, in the east of Ukraine.
EPA-EFE/stringer
Elections to install pro-Moscow puppets in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine should not be taken seriously. Here’s why.
Ukrainians celebrate on Nov. 12, 2022, in Kherson, Ukraine, after Ukraine regained control of the city.
Yevhenii Zavhorodnii/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
For President Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s citizens, the country’s quest for NATO and EU membership is about security – and identity.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin toast during their dinner at the Kremlin in Moscow in March 2023.
(Pavel Byrkin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
The spectacle of two UN Security Council members — China and Russia — allegedly perpetrating mass atrocity crimes is deeply troubling. Here’s how the international community must step up.
Brothers in arms: Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at a military parade in Pyongyang in July.
EPA-EFE/KCNA
Michael Bradshaw, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
Those who think the worst of Europe’s energy crisis is over are getting ahead of themselves.
BRICS leaders announce the outcomes of the XV BRICS Summit, at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, 24 August 2023.
Official media of 15th BRICS Summit
Landmines are killing thousands in Ukraine. Clearing the land and making it safe for people is likely to take decades.
Iraqis raise copies of the Quran during a protest in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 22, 2023, following reports of the burning of the holy book in Copenhagen.
AP Photo/Hadi Mizban
Jose Caballero, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
As the Brics alliance signs up new members, Russia continues to win over more allies.
People carry a body bag away from the wreckage of a crashed private jet near the Russian village of Kuzhenkinoi on Aug. 24, 2023. Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, reportedly died in the crash along with nine other people.
(AP Photo)
The core members of the Wagner Group, who are loyal to the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, will likely seek revenge against Vladimir Putin for his death. Is the Russian leader now living on borrowed time?
Face masks depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin displayed at a souvenir shop in St. Petersburg, Russia. Prigozhin reportedly died in a plane crash on Aug. 23.
(AP Photo, File)
Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, reportedly died when a private jet he was said to be on crashed on Aug. 23, 2023, killing all 10 people on board.