Military tensions and political concern are heating up in Transnistria, a breakaway state of Moldova that borders Ukraine. An Eastern European expert answers four key questions about this region.
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
Evidence of atrocities in districts retaken by Ukrainian forces suggest that Russian soldiers are as complicit in war crimes as their leader Vladimir Putin.
There is little evidence that Russia has coordinated cyber operations with conventional military operations in Ukraine.
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
Estimates of casualties from the war in Ukraine have varied widely. Some of this is due to genuine difficulty counting the dead, but there are also strategic reasons to put out misleading death tolls.
Ruling clique: Putin with some of his top military and intelligence officers in Crimea in 2014.
EPA/Alexey Druginyn/Ria Novosti/Kremlin pool
The best of the past week’s coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Slovenia Prime Minister Janez Jansa (left), Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Fiala (second from left) and Poland Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (third from left) meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a visit to Kyiv on behalf of the European Council on March 16, 2022.
Ukrainian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Anders C. Hardig, American University School of International Service
The Russian invasion has triggered an outpouring of support for Ukraine from European countries. Will Putin’s gamble backfire and ultimately push Ukraine firmly into the European fold?
Heat of the battle: a Russian tank convoy is ambushed in the town of Brovary east of Kiev, March 2022.
Ukrainian Ministry of Defence/Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
International law says that the Russian invasion is illegal in itself. The Russian military’s alleged conduct also breach various international legal treaties.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, points to the training facility hit by Russian artillery at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
AP Photo/Lisa Leutner
The world held its collective breath as Russian troops battled Ukrainian forces at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The battle is over and no radiation escaped, but the danger is far from over.
Distraught: Russian soldiers’ mothers with pictures of their sons killed in Chechnya, 1995.
EPA/Sergei Chirikov
Soldiers’ mothers have a history of opposing Russian wars.
Much of the region around Chernobyl has been untouched by people since the nuclear disaster in 1986.
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
With Russian troops rolling through the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine, a biologist who studies wildlife in the area describes the risks of disturbing this radioactive landscape.