Is the wrong side winning? As the US secretary of state makes a surprise visit to Ukraine, experts say the world is on the brink of a new era of conflict between its superpowers.
Ukraine is now a world war says professor
To the rescue?: Antony Blinken (above) in Kyiv this morning as Ukraine struggles to stop a major Russian attack near its second biggest city. Glossary
Proxy - A person or country used to represent someone else.
Capitalist - Related to an economic system based on private ownership of businesses and goods.
USSR - The United Socialist Soviet Republic, the USA’s main rival in the Cold War before it collapsed and broke up into a number of smaller states in 1991.
Communist - An economic system entailing collective ownership of all means of production in contrast with capitalism, which holds that industry and businesses are controlled and run for profit by private owners rather than by the government.
North Korea - A country formed in 1945 when Japanese-occupied Korea was split between a Communist government in the north and a capitalist one in the south. Today it is extremely reclusive, and hostile to the West.
Venezuela - An oil-producing country in South America.
Drones - Drones are aircraft flown with no humans on board. They are used for many different purposes.
Ballistic missiles - A type of rocket propelled weapons system.
Xi Jinping - The president of China, who has concentrated power and removed term limits allowing him to serve for life.
Hardliners - People who take a hard or severe stance on something and refuse to budge.
Global South - A term increasingly used to describe less-developed countries, most of which are south of a line that separates, on different continents, the USA from Mexico, Europe from Africa, and Russia from central Asia and China.
South Africa - A country at the southern tip of Africa. It is home to nearly 60 million people.
Ethiopia - A landlocked country in Africa. With a population of about 120 million, Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures.
Saudi Arabia - The second-largest country in the Arab world, with a population of nearly 35 million.