September 18, 2026

18 September 2026

Columns

Fighting a ‘holy war’: Why a sacralised war resists Western strategy

The religious dimension must be integrated into strategic analysis rather than left at its margins: it shapes when Russia fights, how it fights, and whether it can stop. Second, planning horizons must lengthen - a frame built to absorb defeat will not collapse on the timeline that sanctions or battlefield pressure assume

News

Russian forces widely use sexual violence and torture against detainees, UN reports

OHCHR stated that the patterns observed indicate that sexual violence has been used as a method of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment against prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians

Russian shelling kills nine civilians and injures at least 69 across Ukraine on 16 September

Russian military shelling on 16 September 2026 killed nine civilians in the Sumy, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk Regions (Oblasts), and injured at least 69 more, including in Kyiv and the Odesa, Kharkiv and Kirovohrad Oblasts