After nine months of death and destruction, the key to Russia's war against Ukraine lies in the craggy, sea-swept peninsula of Crimea - with its limestone plateaus and rows of poplar trees - which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
It was in Crimea in February 2014, not February 2022, that Russia's invasion and occupation of Ukraine began. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insists that only by retaking Crimea will the war end, with Ukraine defeating its Russian invaders.