Ongoing tensions over Ukraine have the potential to greatly impact other flashpoints in the region. This is most clear with regards to pro-Russian Transnistria, which lies less than 100 kilometres from Odesa.

Football used to represent the hopes and aspirations of Donetsk. It has become a symbol of the destruction and changes the region has seen over the last few years.

A closer look at the diplomatic practices of unrecognised states.

Because para states are unlikely to disappear any time soon, we have to see if they are able to sustain themselves and how to include them without any recognition. Non-recognition is a major geopolitical issue. Respect of human rights is another one, and this too directly concerns states without international recognition and outside the jurisdiction of international law.

The international order has never been tidy or complete, always having lands with contested sovereignty. The breakdown of empires is the most common catalyst for producing new aspirant states. The post-Soviet space is especially rich in these territories, which includes Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Transnistria, along with two more recently established shadowy entities in eastern Ukraine.