The paper is based on a review of conflicts over oil and gas from World War I to the present day. It discusses the significance of these derivatives for economic development and whether the conflicts in the Middle East are linked to the spread of democracy or, in this case, a struggle for dominance and the widening gap between developed and undeveloped countries. The wartime events from the second half of the 20th century resemble today's conflicts between Russia and Ukraine: the main motives are economic and political dominance and control over oil and gas resources. Of course, with the development of digital media, information availability has accelerated globalization and the spread of propaganda. The press is a disseminator of truth and freedom of speech. Still, today's world is saturated with information, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish fact from falsehood and objectivity from subjectivity. The second part of the paper focuses on analyzing the content of the most-read Croatian online daily news portals (Index.hr, Dnevnik.hr, and Jutarnji.hr) to determine how objectively, conscientiously, and reliably Croatian media inform the public about the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The study examines their sources and whether they exhibit bias in reporting current events. Two hypotheses were formulated, one being rejected and the other partially accepted. The paper's objective was to present a concise overview of contemporary geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East, underscoring the significance of oil and gas as national security factors, and elucidate how Croatian media report on the war situation in Russia and Ukraine in 2022.