In their first call since the Ukraine war began, Russian President Vladimir Putin confronted French President Emmanuel Macron over Western involvement in the conflict. Putin blamed NATO expansion and years of Western military support for turning Ukraine into an “anti-Russia bridgehead.

Despite suffering over 1 million casualties, pounding Ukrainian cities nightly with missiles and drones, and committing countless war crimes, one startling fact about Russia's full-scale invasion remains — Moscow has yet to officially declare war on Ukraine.

Russia has faced economic turbulence caused by sanctions imposed after Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that are aimed at choking Moscow's military machine. Strong GDP has been driven by high military spending amid predictions for harder times as inflation and high interest rates take their toll.