Escalating drone strikes, fuel shortages and power cuts in the region Russia annexed are among the factors turning up the heat on President Vladimir V. Putin./ Yevpatoriya, Crimea, last month. The Black Sea region, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has become a flashpoint in the war. Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters/ By Paul Sonne and Nataliya Vasilyeva / Paul Sonne reported from Berlin./ Published July 2, 2026/ Updated July 3, 2026, 10:54 a.m. ET/ Ukraine is trying to turn Crimea into a new pressure point for the Kremlin, aiming to inflict so much pain on a region especially dear to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that he will agree to end the war./ Crimea has long been a flashpoint between the two countries, even before Russia captured the region — a peninsula jutting into the Black Sea — and annexed it in 2014./ Since the days of Catherine the Great, Crimea has functioned as a Russian military stronghold and a place for faraway Moscow to project its power into the Blac...
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Four Reasons Crimea Has Become Crucial in the Ukraine War
Escalating drone strikes, fuel shortages and power cuts in the region Russia annexed are among the factors turning up the heat on President Vladimir V. Putin./ Yevpatoriya, Crimea, last month. The Black Sea region, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has become a flashpoint in the war. Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters/ By Paul Sonne and Nataliya Vasilyeva / Paul Sonne reported from Berlin./ Published July 2, 2026/ Updated July 3, 2026, 10:54 a.m. ET/ Ukraine is trying to turn Crimea into a new pressure point for the Kremlin, aiming to inflict so much pain on a region especially dear to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that he will agree to end the war./ Crimea has long been a flashpoint between the two countries, even before Russia captured the region — a peninsula jutting into the Black Sea — and annexed it in 2014./ Since the days of Catherine the Great, Crimea has functioned as a Russian military stronghold and a place for faraway Moscow to project its power into the Bla...
As Ukraine War Escalates, Witkoff and Kushner Are Focused on Iran
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are pivotal players at a moment when the posts of U.S. ambassador to Moscow and Kyiv are both vacant. Steve Witkoff, a White House special envoy, has met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia seven times since President Trump returned to office. Credit... By Anton Troianovski Reporting from Washington The New York Times , July 2, 2026 Russia’s president has said he understands why the Trump administration is “distracted” by Iran. Ukraine’s president has lamented that his country is not the top U.S. priority, telling reporters, “unfortunately, we are in this queue of these wars.” In the meantime, Russia and Ukraine have escalated their attacks on each other’s territory to what experts describe as one of the most dangerous moments since Russia’s invasion began more than four years ago. At the center of the disconnect between the increasing violence in Eastern Europe and the Trump administration’s seeming lack of focus on it are the president’s t...