The war’s origins trace back to 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea following pro-EU protests in Kyiv, which led to conflict between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in Donetsk and Luhansk. Tensions escalated in late 2021 as Russia massed troops near Ukraine’s borders, demanding security guarantees from NATO. When diplomatic efforts failed, Russia launched a full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, citing security concerns and alleged persecution of Russian speakers. Initial assaults targeted Kyiv, but after failing to seize the capital, Russian forces withdrew in April, refocusing their offensive on eastern and southern Ukraine, where as of 2024, they occupy around 20% of Ukraine, having gained over 4,000 square kilometres.
Tag: Drones
AI earn its Developers a Nobel Prize in Chemistry
It has been a big year for artificial intelligence models. For the first time ever, insights enabled by an AI model were deemed sufficiently significant to earn its developers one of the highest accolades in science: the Nobel prize in chemistry. The award jointly honoured the use of AI for protein-structure prediction and protein design. Innovations that underpin machine learning, meanwhile, were awarded the physics prize. Geoffrey Hinton, one of the winners, mused that by assisting mental labour, generative AI might have as big an effect on society as the industrial revolution did by assisting physical labour.