Dilemma: some on the left blame Nato for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Avpics/Alamy Stock Photo
The left was split over whether Nato expansion had prompted the Ukraine invasion or whether it was an act of imperial aggression that must be opposed.
Kosovo Force and Kosovo Border Police conduct a joint patrol on the administrative boundary line between Kosovo and Serbia.
U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David I. Marquis, Multinational Battle Group-East/Alamy
Russia’s backing of Serbia during the Ukraine war is aggravating tensions with its neighbour Kosovo.
Fierce fighting has devastated the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine.
REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
Russia appears to have refocused on the land war with the aim of taking more territory.
Most wonderful time of the year, even while there’s a war on.
Igor Evdokimov/Kommersant/Sipa USA
Alex Titov took a trip home to St Petersburg in December. Here’s what he found.
In the remains of her classroom, 16-year-old Khrystyna Ignatova visits her desk in the Chernihiv School #21, in Chernihiv, Ukraine.
AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti
The war in Ukraine affects everyone – including teachers and students, who are meeting the challenges with their people’s famed determination.
Vladimir Putin holds a face-to-face meeting with mothers of servicemen serving with the Russian army in Ukraine, at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence on November 25 2022.
Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin Pool/Alamy Live News
Opposition to the Ukrainian war from Russian soldiers’ mothers has so far been muted.
Yuletide in Kyiv.
PA-EFE/Stepan Franko
Some of the key articles from our coverage of the war in Ukraine over the past week.
Bakhmut: months of fierce fighting has led to a bloody stalemate in this key city in the Donbas region.
EPA-EFE/George Ivanchenko
Ukraine’s morale remains high, despite months of bombardment and drone strikes.
National identity: despite Moscow’s best efforts, Ukrainians are increasingly looking to the west for their future.
Oleksii Chumachenko/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire)
Moscow’s fears that Ukraine was turning towards the west prompted the invasion. This has backfired dramatically.
The festive season in Kyiv.
Newscom / Alamy Stock Photo
Some of the key articles from our coverage of the war in Ukraine over the past week.
President Biden has moved the US back into a leadership position at COP.
dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo
Joe Biden’s move away from Trump’s isolationist policy has won some support from the public, and Congress.
Getting in the Christmas spirit?
EPA-EFE/Sputnik/Kremlin pool
Belarus is unlikely to put troops into Ukraine, but it can make life very difficult for Kyiv’s war planners.
Russian attack on an Ukrainian oil storage facility near Lviv.
Vladyslav Sodel/Alamy
The US had long warned European nations about an over-reliance on Russian gas.
Common ground: back-channel negotiations have succeeded in brokering deals including over grain exports.
vchal via Shutterstock
For now there is little hope of a peace deal, but back-channel agreements show that Ukraine and Russia are at least talking.
Nuanced relationship: Kazakhstan president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with Russian president Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, November 2022.
EPA-EFE/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin pool/Sputnik
The war in Ukraine is threatening Russia’s relationship with its neighbour Kazakhstan.
EPA-EFE/Sergey Kozlov
Some of the key articles from our coverage of the war in Ukraine over the past week.
Cargo ships anchored in the Marmara Sea await to cross the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey. The country is checking all ships’ protection and indemnity insurance coverage before letting them enter its waters, a blow to Russia amid smart new western sanctions.
(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Just like how tax evasion brought down Al Capone, denying Russian ships protection and indemnity insurance could deliver a crushing economic blow to Vladimir Putin.
Who is the ‘big brother’ now?
EPA-EFE/Sergei Bobylev/Sputnik/Kremlin pool
Different translations show the nuances in the relationship between China and Russia over nearly a century.
Ukrainian soldiers prepare to launch a drone.
EPA-EFE/Hannibal Hansche
The use of unmanned aircraft by both sides has massively increased, changing the nature of the air war.
‘Permacrisis’ is Collins Dictionary’s 2022 word of the year, but polycrisis is a more accurate term to describe the world’s ongoing crises and how they’re interacting with one another.
(Pixabay)
What’s a polycrisis? We’re in one, and greed and power are undoubtedly worsening it, but our knowledge remains poor. Experts know a lot about individual risks and crises, but not how they interact.