Russia and Ukraine have been locked in an intractable-seeming conflict that has thrown not only the two nations into a state of prolonged chaos but huge swaths of Eastern Europe as well. While ostensibly a war over territorial expansion and ethnic sovereignty,

Serhii Kyslytsia, Ukraine's representative to the United Nations, has said that the numerous war crimes and atrocities committed by Russia in the war against Ukraine are not isolated acts of violence but a policy of the Kremlin to systematically destroy the culture,

Vladimir Putin stated that Russia is "striving" to end the conflict in Ukraine. The Russian President mentioned that the government is ready to deploy intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missiles or other more powerful intermediate-range weapons if necessary.