EPA-EFE/Sergey Dolzhenko
While Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield have been mixed, its operations in Crimea and the Black Sea have been rather more successful.
A tiger shark swims among surgeonfish off Fuvahmulah Atoll, Maldives, in the Indian Ocean.
imageBROKER/Norbert Probst via Getty Images
A new initiative is pinpointing areas in the world’s oceans that are key habitats for sharks and their relatives, so that governments can consider protecting these areas.
Pressure: Joe Biden’s package of military aid for Ukraine has hit a roadblock in the US senate.
EPA-EFE/Michael Reynolds
Nato is showing ominous signs of becoming war weary. It must maintain its support for Ukraine.
Ukrinform/Alamy Live News
Ukraine’s successes against Russia’s Black Sea fleet have increased confidence in its ability to protect shipping in and out of its ports.
Sevastopol: Russia’s naval base in Crimea has suffered several major attacks in recent months.
Sipa US/Alamy Live News
Russia has lost control of the Black Sea, which will have major implications for the war on land.
Keeping up morale: Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, with Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, after talks at Nato headquarters, September 28 2023.
PA-EFE/Sergey Dolzhenko
A selection of the best of our coverage of the conflict from the past fortnight.
Retaking Snake Island in May 2022 has become symbolic of Ukraine’s defiance.
PA-EFE/Mykola Tys
Ukraine’s recent successes at sea and in Crimea create strategic opportunities in the Black Sea and, in the longer term, for the war on land.
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.
A well in Afanasyeva village, Mykolaiv region, damaged by flooding after the Kakhovka Dam breach.
Anatolii Stepanov /AFP via Getty Images
Breaching the Kakhovka Dam and reservoir had all the hallmarks of a scorched-earth strategy. Two expert observers of the Russia-Ukraine war explain this event’s destructive long-term effects.
Seneline/Shutterstock
Ukraine appears to be mounting an operation to retake the tiny headland.
Gratuitous destruction: a children’s playground after a Russian bombardment, October 2022,
Patricia Huchot-Boissier/ABACAPRESS.COM
Some of the key articles from our coverage of the war in Ukraine over the past week.
Crimea’s ports have been recognised as strategically important for centuries. Here, celebrations of the memorial of defence of Sevastopol in 1941-42 were cancelled due to a Ukrainian military strike.
Sipa US/Alamy
Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Crimea is using unexpected guerrilla tactics.
Ukraine is a major supplier of wheat globally but exports from the Black Sea ports are now blocked by the Russians.
Viacheslav Khmelnytskyi/Alamy
Food prices are not the only issue to worry about as the world starts to feel the economic fallout from the Ukraine war.
Ukraine’s sea port of Mariupol, blockaded and now fallen to Russian forces.
Getty Images
Ukraine is one of the world’s breadbaskets, but exports have been blockaded by Russia. Despite grave potential consequences in famine-prone countries, international law is largely silent.
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Many crew members from merchant ships have escaped, but plenty more are stuck on cold ships with supplies of everything from food to medicines fast running out.
EPA-EFE/Ukranian presidential press service handout
If talks succeed in ending the violence, it would cement Turkey’s role as a key regional power broker.
A Russian warship, the Patrol Ship Dmitry Rogachev, travels through the Dardanelles on Feb. 15, 2022.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits gives Turkey control over the water route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.