JOANNA KOZLOWSKA

The gas pumping station is viewed at Sudzhe, Russia, Jan. 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov, File)
Russian forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian troops from the rear in Kursk
Ukraine’s military and Russian war bloggers say Russian special forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region.
 
A view of the business tower Lakhta Centre, the headquarters of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)
Ukraine halts transit of Russian gas to Europe after a prewar deal expired
Ukraine has halted Russian gas supplies to European customers through its pipeline network, almost three years into Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbor. A prewar transit deal expired at the end of 2024.
 
President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Notre Dame Cathedral as France's iconic cathedral is formally reopening its doors for the first time since a devastating fire nearly destroyed the 861-year-old landmark in 2019, Saturday Dec.7, 2024 in Paris ( Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)
Trump calls for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and says a US withdrawal from NATO is possible
Donald Trump is pushing Russian leader Vladimir Putin to act to reach an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine. Trump describes it as part of his active efforts as president-elect to end the war despite being weeks from taking office.
 
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack in Poltava region Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Russia launches one of its fiercest missile and drone attacks at Ukraine’s infrastructure
A Ukrainian official says a Russian strike on a nine-story building in the city of Sumy killed eight people and wounded dozens, as Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack described by officials as the largest in recent months.
 
A central streets covered in debris from destroyed residential buildings after Russian bombing in Kurakhove, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Drones strike Moscow as top UK official highlights Russian casualties in Ukraine
A massive drone strike has rattled Moscow and its suburbs, injuring several people and temporarily halting traffic at some of Russia’s busiest airports. Meanwhile a huge nighttime wave of Russian drones targeted Ukraine.
 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a joint press conference with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (Christoph Soeder, Pool Photo via AP)
Zelenskyy hopes for quick US action as more arms depots are hit in Russia
Ukrainian drones have struck multiple Russian arms depots, destroying what Ukraine’s General Staff claimed were thousands of tons of weaponry, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travels to the White House next week.
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to released Russian prisoners upon their arrival at the Vnukovo government airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. The United States and Russia have made their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history. (Kirill Zykov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
US and Russia tout prisoner swap as a victory. But perceptions of the deal show stark differences
In the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending a clear, morale-boosting message to his security services: If you get caught, Russia will bring you home.
 
FILE A demonstrator gestures trying to stop riot police during an opposition protest against "the Russian law" near the Parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Thousands of people rallied in Georgia for weeks against the foreign influence bill. Critics compared it to similar legislation Russia uses to stifle dissent, and they worried it would jeopardize Georgia's prospects of joining the European Union. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze, File)
As Georgia presses on with ‘Russia-style’ laws, its citizens describe a country on the brink
In Georgia, campaign groups and independent media say a new law purportedly to curb “foreign influence” represents an existential threat to them.
 
In this photo taken on Friday, April 26, 2024 and released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, a Russian soldier poses for a photo next to a 2A65 "Msta-B" howitzer at a position in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
Ukraine says it struck a top fighter plane deep inside Russia
Ukraine says its forces have hit an ultra-modern Russian warplane stationed on an air base nearly 370 miles from the front lines.
 
A newly recruited soldier of the 3rd assault brigade trains, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, May 17, 2024. A divisive mobilisation law in Ukraine came into force on Saturday, as Kyiv struggles to boost troop numbers after Russia launched a new offensive. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukraine’s divisive mobilization law comes into force as a new Russian push strains front-line troops
A divisive mobilization law in Ukraine has come into force as Kyiv struggles to boost troop numbers after Russia launched a new offensive that some fear could close in on Ukraine’s second-largest city.
 
This June 2017 photo provided by Aitbek Amangeldy shows a selfie taken by his sister, Saltanat Nukenova, in Astana, Kazakhstan. Her husband, former economics minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev, is standing trial in her November 2023 death – a case that has riveted the Central Asian country and boosted awareness of domestic violence. (Courtesy of Aitbek Amangeldy via AP)
A high-profile murder trial in Kazakhstan boosts awareness of domestic violence
A trial of a former government official charged with killing his wife has riveted Kazakhstan with lurid video of the attack, sparking a national conversation about domestic violence and leading to the government enacting a tougher law on spousal abuse.
 
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Police Press Office, emergency workers work on the site of a destroyed multi-store building after a Russian attack on residential neighbourhood in Odesa, Ukraine, Saturday, March 2, 2024. (Ukrainian Police Press Office via AP)
A woman clutching an infant is found in the rubble of Ukraine building after Russian drone strike
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Western allies to boost his country’s air defenses after a Russian drone strike destroyed an apartment block in the southern port city of Odesa and killed at least 11 people.
 
A woman places a piece of paper with words of grief for Alexei Navalny paying the last respect to him at the Memorial to Victims of Political Repression in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. Navalny, 47, Russia's most well-known opposition politician, unexpectedly died on Feb. 16 in the penal colony, prompting hundreds of Russians across the country to stream to impromptu memorials with flowers and candles. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mother, aide says
An aide to Alexei Navalny says the body of the Russian opposition leader has been handed over to his mother.
 
Yekaterina Duntsova, a Russian journalist speaks during her interview with the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Duntsova, a little-known journalist and mom-of-three from a small town in western Russia, hopes to force President Vladimir Putin into a run-off in Russia's next presidential vote scheduled for March, despite her political inexperience and analysts' assessments that the Kremlin leader's reelection is all but assured. (AP Photo)
Russian presidential hopeful vows to champion peace, women and a ‘humane’ country
Yekaterina Duntsova is a little-known journalist and mom-of-three from a small town in western Russia.
 
FILE - A Ukrainian soldier sits in his position in Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Aug. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos, File)
Kyiv investigates allegations Russian forces shot surrendering Ukrainian soldiers
Ukrainian officials have launched an investigation into allegations that Russian forces killed surrendering Ukrainian soldiers, after grainy footage on social media appeared to show two uniformed men being shot at close range.
 
The Jasna Gora Monastery, Poland's most revered Catholic shrine, during a sunset in Czestochowa, Poland, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. As the ruling conservative Law and Justice party seeks to win an unprecedented third straight term in the Oct. 15 parliamentary election, it has sought to bolster its image as a defender of Christian values and traditional morality. Yet more and more Poles appear to be questioning their relationship with the Catholic church, and some cite its closeness to the government as a key reason. (AP Photo/Michal Dyjuk)
In Poland, church and state draw nearer, and some Catholic faithful rebel
For many Catholic Poles, their country’s heart beats in Czestochowa. Yet others associate the cathedral city, famous for Poland’s most revered Virgin Mary image, with an apparent alliance between the Catholic church and government officials, prominent among those making “pilgrimages” to its shrines.
 
Relatives and friends mourn near the coffins of Tetiana Androsovych, 60, and Mykola Androsovych, 63, killed by a rocket strike, at a graveyard in the village of Hroza, near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The Ukrainian village of Hroza has been plunged into mourning by a Russian rocket strike on a village store and cafe that killed more than 50 people on Thursday, Oct. 5. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
Days after deadly missile strike on Ukrainian cafe, grief and a search for answers
U.N. and local investigators are searching for answers at the site of a Russian missile strike on a small Ukrainian village.
 
In this photo released by the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry press service on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, an Azerbaijani police officer gives food to an ethnic Armenian woman in a camp in Khojaly, settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. (Azerbaijani Interior Ministry press service via AP)
Aid shipments and evacuations as Azerbaijan reasserts control over breakaway province
More badly needed humanitarian aid was on its way to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh via both Azerbaijan and Armenia.
 
FILE - In this photo provided by the Moscow City Court, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny makes a heart gesture standing in a cage during a hearing in Moscow, Russia on Feb. 3, 2021. Navalny is due to hear the verdict Friday Aug. 4, 2023 in his latest trial on extremism charges. The prosecution has demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said he expects a lengthy prison term. (Moscow City Court via AP, File)
Protests, poisoning and prison: The life of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
In a span of a decade, Alexei Navalny has gone from the Kremlin’s biggest foe to Russia’s most prominent political prisoner.