China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing, days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. Putin has sometimes described China as an "ally".

Ukraine and Russia have escalated their shadow war of espionage, sabotage, and assassinations, with both countries claiming a growing list of captured agents, intercepted plots, and cross-border attacks.

Ukraine has “eliminated” two suspected Russian secret agents after a gunfight in a spy den in Kyiv. The man and woman killed were thought to be part of Russia’s FSB and behind the daylight assassination of one of Ukraine’s top spies this week.

When Ukraine turned a corner of Russia’s Kursk region into a battlefield, it set in motion some of the war’s fiercest fighting. Our photographer documented the aftermath.

Amid ever-escalating aerial assaults, accelerating Russian advances in the east, and the weariness that comes with nearly 3.5 years of war, all eyes in Ukraine are once again focused upon one man — U.