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
Despite the UN sanctions against North Korea, Russia is apparently trading weapons and technology which could help Pyongyang’s missile programme.
Hold on to your hats (and coats).
EPA
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
Indonesia has taken a good decision by not joining BRICS, but still needs to be aware that this bloc remains important for the country, and ASEAN.
The good old days: Wagner Group leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, rose to prominence after being a Kremlin catering boss.
Associated Press/Alamy Stock Photo
A selection of the best of our coverage of the conflict from the past fortnight.
Ukraine has reportedly used cardboard drones built from flatpack kits to attack a Russian airfield.
Sypaq
The drones are light, cheap, easy to transport and have proved to be highly effective as a weapon of war.
Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko with Vladimir Putin at military exercises in Kaliningrad in 2013.
EPA/Alexey Druginyn/Ria Novosti/Kremlin pool
What are tactical nuclear weapons and would Russia resort to using them in Ukraine?
Landmine contamination is a problem which has blighted many countries for decades after the conflict has ended.
Stringer/Sipa USA/Alamy
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
Several countries across Europe are introducing new legislation to curb hate speech against religions, even as they get rid of older blasphemy laws.
Russian president Vladimir Putin speaking via video link at the 2023 Brics summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Marco Longari/Pool via AP
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.
Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, photographed on June 24, 2023, in Russia.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The lesson in the presumed death of the mercenary leader two months after his mutiny against Putin: Don’t make yourself an enemy of Russia’s leader.
Getty Images
Does New Zealand have more to lose than gain by joining ‘pillar two’ of the AUKUS security pact? The next government will have to decide, with serious implications for the country’s foreign policy.
China’s President Xi Jinping at the 2018 Business Forum meeting during the 10th BRICS summit in South Africa.
Gianluigi Guercia/ AFP
The African continent is an obvious contender for courting by major powers.
BRICS foreign ministers meet in Cape Town, South Africa, in June 2023.
Jaco Marais/Die Burger/Gallo Images via Getty Images
BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – compose 41% of the world population and almost a third of global GDP.
A Russian peacekeeper guards the Lachin corridor.
TOFIK BABAYEV/AFP via Getty Images
The 120,000 residents of the disputed region are being deprived of food and medicines after a crucial link to Armenia was cut off by Azerbaijan.
A Ukrainian flag is displayed in front of a destroyed house in eastern Ukraine in October 2022.
Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images
An analysis of tweets posted by the Ukrainian national government and the Kyiv city government in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 shows a national resilience.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, hands out medals to servicemen at a hospital in the Zaporizhzhia region, August 2023.
EPA-EFE/Office of the President of Ukraine
A selection of the best of our coverage of the conflict from the past fortnight.