A centralised system of government has allowed Putin to project power, but the country’s health care, schools, infrastructure and general quality of life have sharply deteriorated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks set to extend his leadership.
Contributor/Getty Images
While Putin is all but guaranteed to win, war fatigue, electoral engineering and extreme risk-aversion suggest that the Kremlin is anxious to get these elections over and done with.
Ukrainians are safeguarding their language and cultural identity in the face of Russian attempts to erase it.
A Ukrainian tank fires at Russian positions in Chasiv Yar, the site of fierce battles in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Feb. 29, 2024.
(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Recent laws and pro-Putin sentiment by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov have sparked concern that the Central Asian country is backsliding on democracy.
Soldiers climb out of trenches in this First World War photo. The successes of the 100 Days Offensive in 1918 were influenced by the Allies’ reliance on a strategy of maximum effort, flexible campaigns and advances in tactics.
(CP PICTURE ARCHIVE/AP)
Polish public support for resettling Ukrainian refugees has slipped in recent months, while many new arrivals have had difficulty finding work that aligns with their qualifications.
Will war fatigue be a factor?
Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance via Getty Images
Russia appears to have seized the battleground initiative as the Ukraine war marks its second anniversary – but the conflict is far from over.
Shackled to a vision of a ‘glorious past’: Russian president Vladimir Putin celebrates Defender of the Fatherland Day, February 23 2024.
EPA-EFE/Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/Kremlin pool
In addition to destroyed buildings, there’s an entire underground world – filled with untold numbers of artifacts, bones and ruins – that are exposed and damaged by the digging of trenches.
Satellite radar data shows the complete destruction of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Xu et al. (2024)
Sylvain Barbot, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Satellite photography of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut shows block after block of destroyed buildings. Satellite radar provides a different view – a systematic look at the destruction of the whole city.
A civilian hospital building in Donetsk, Ukraine, after a Russian strike in February 2024.
EPA-EFE/NATIONAL POLICE OF UKRAINE
The erasure of Ukrainian nationhood in occupied territories and frequent denial of Ukraine’s right to exist is evidence the Russian invasion has been genocidal in nature.
Ukraine has fought off relentless waves of Russian attacks over the past two years, but if its Western support dries up, its resistance will be very hard to sustain.
Signing up to ‘pillar two’ of the AUKUS alliance sits uneasily with New Zealand’s distinctive worldview – and could aggravate its wider foreign policy challenges.