A protestor waves a European flag during a pro-EU protest in Kyiv in 2013.
EPA/ Anatoly Maltsev
European integration is often touted as contributing to peace – but Moscow has other ideas.
Ordinary Russians are facing the prospect of higher prices as western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine sent the ruble plummeting. That’s led uneasy people to line up at banks and ATMs on Monday in a country that has seen more than one currency disaster in the post-Soviet era.
(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
With Russia’s “great power status” tied closely to economic power, the country’s crumbling economy is putting Putin’s claims to legitimacy at risk.
Making sense of the reds and the greens.
Standret
Two weeks into the invasion, here’s what’s been happening so far.
This intercontinental ballistic missile was launched as part of Russia’s test of its strategic forces in 2020.
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats have the world on edge, but so far, long-standing arms control measures have helped keep the situation from getting out of control.
A friendship far from flagging?
Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
Beijing and Moscow have had a cozy relationship of late. A scholar of China-Russia diplomacy explains how Ukraine might affect that.
Women offering Ukrainian refugees a place to stay in Berlin on Mar. 4, 2022.
Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images
The Ukrainian crisis is probably the biggest crowdsourced humanitarian aid operation ever undertaken.
A meme showing Adolf Hitler caressing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s face, tweeted by the official Ukraine state account on Feb. 24, 2022, the day Russia invaded.
Official Ukraine Twitter account
How do a country and its citizens deal with the trauma of a deadly invasion by an enemy? Memes, cats and TikToks are emerging – most recently in the Ukraine war – as a way to cope with tragedy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Patriarch of Russia Kirill and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (in background), at a monastery outside Moscow in 2017.
Alexey Nikolsky/AFP via Getty Images
The Bible and its laws were complex and not practiced in the way many of us think about laws today.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo before their talks in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2022, during the Winter Olympics.
(Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
China’s policy of strategic ambiguity could allow it to mediate the conflict at an opportune time, while furthering its long-term geostrategic goals.
Muscovites rushed to buy furniture and other goods from IKEA before it closed its Russian stores.
AP Photo/Vladimir Kondrashov
Over 300 companies so far have closed stores, reassigned staff or halted sales in Russia in the two weeks since the invasion began.
Brought to you by lots of very big companies.
EPA
Many defence contractors have seen their share prices soar since the war began.
A woman and son arrive at the border crossing between Ukraine and Poland.
(AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Children live through the same wars as adults. The effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on children will have long-lasting effects, and underscores the urgency of a peaceful resolution now.
Anne/Flickr
The history of a humble chapel created by Ukrainian prisoners reminds us of our duty to those refugees now fleeing Putin’s war.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has recently praised the BBC’s work.
PA/Alamy
A cold war - and the importance of trusted information - is pushing the UK government to revise its attitude to the BBC.
Russian Defence Ministry Press / EPA-EFE
Academic research about the process of war can shed light on the current situation.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and African leaders at the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum in Sochi in 2019.
Photo by Alexei Druzhinin / SPUTNIK / AFP via Getty Images
Russia is attempting to export its governance model of an authoritarian, kleptocratic and transactional regime onto Africa.
A train with refugees fleeing Ukraine crosses the border in Medyka, Poland, on March 7, 2022.
(AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Canada’s temporary protection measures to Ukrainians fleeing the war ensure they’re brought to safety faster. But will this kind of response become the preferred method for all future refugees?
Displaced Ukrainians try to leave the country at the Lviv train station.
EPA/Miguel A Lopes
Instead of providing safe and legal routes to protection to people in grave danger, Home Secretary Priti Patel has announced a minor loosening of visa rules.
Most Ukrainian refugees, like those pictured here on March 7, 2022, have crossed into Poland.
Nicola Marfisi/AGF/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
More than 2 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the Russian invasion. The EU has welcomed the refugees, but research shows that host communities may tire of the newcomers.
A woman holds a placard with the words ‘language is a weapon’ written in Ukrainian during a 2020 protest of a bill that sought to widen the use of Russian in Ukrainian public education.
Evgen Kotenko/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
To Russian nationalists, if the Ukrainian language is classified as a derivative of the Russian language, the invasion looks less like an act of aggression and more like reintegration.