While global leaders are focused on the newly elected President in the United States, the conflicts between Russia and Crimea continue to rage. Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) declared that Russia and the Ukraine are in a state of war and said that the armed forces were involved in the continued conflict in the region, despite Russian denial of this. This week, two Russian soldiers were detained by Ukrainian armed forces near Crimean peninsula, which the Russian foreign ministry called as another crude provocation. However, Ukraine claimed that these two soldiers were Ukranian servicemen, who betrayed their country and violated the oath to protect it and joined to serve Russia.

Russia claims that Crimea joined it voluntarily; however, the western world views it as annexed by Russia. In response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea back in 2014, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions. Now the world leaders fear that the United States might take a softer stance towards Russia with Donald Trump as the President, who praised Russian President Vladimir Putin on numerous occasions. Trump has called for an improvement in the US-Russia relations, which hit the lowest level since the cold war.