Three Russia-linked stories from the last week of December 2019

What did the days around 26 December 2019 show about Russia's reach in Ukraine's neighbourhood and beyond? Three reports from the preceding days point in different directions.

On 23 December 2019, construction of the bridge across the Kerch Strait was completed, and a railway connecting Russia with Crimea, which Russia occupies, was put into operation. For Kyiv, this was a further physical link between Russia and the occupied peninsula.

On 21 December 2019, Nord Stream 2 said it would finish construction of its pipeline to Europe as soon as possible. The statement came after a contractor suspended pipe-laying because of U.S. sanctions on the Russian gas pipeline. The work was therefore halted at the contractor level while the project's owner insisted it would proceed.

On 24 December 2019, a war monitor reported that eight people, including five children, were killed when a missile struck a school in Jobas, in Idlib District, northwestern Syria. The school was being used as a shelter for displaced civilians. Opposition activists blamed Russia. The strike fell within the northwestern Syria offensive that began in December 2019.

What connects them

Each report involves Russia, but in a different arena: infrastructure in occupied Crimea, an energy project facing sanctions, and a war in Syria. Together they show Moscow extending physical connections on one front, meeting Western pressure on another, and facing accusations over civilian deaths on a third.