To Understand The Russia-Ukraine War It’s Necessary to Focus on Russia’s Black Sea Politics

More than a year and a half after Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine, the fighting grinds on with no end in sight. For Russia, the Black Sea is an important springboard for projecting power into Europe, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. The fastest access to the “Warm Seas.” The months-long Ukrainian counteroffensive continues, while Russian President Vladimir Putin braces for a long war. Putin casts the war as an existential battle with the West for Russia’s survival. As Boris Bondarev, Russia’s diplomat who resigned in protest of the Ukraine so-called “invasion” explained, from Putin’s perspective, it is “the…