Soon the Balkan rebellions were beginning to falter. In Europe, papers were filled with reports of Ottoman soldiers killing thousands of Slavs. Even in Great Britain William Ewart Gladstone published his account of Ottoman atrocities in his "Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East". Soon, a new Russo-Turkish war had begun. Despite fighting better than they ever had before, the advanced Ottoman armies still were not equal to the Russian forces. This time there was no help from abroad; in truth, many European nations supported the Russian war, as long as it did not get too close to Istanbul. Ten and a half months later when the war had ended the age of Ottoman domination over the Balkans was over. In the Balkans, the Russian army, having crossed the Danube, captured the Shipka Pass. The Turkish army of Osman Pasha, after a stubborn struggle, surrendered to Plevna. After that, the Russian army crossed the Balkan Mountains, defeated the remaining Turkish troops and reached the approaches to Constantinople. In the Caucasus, the Turkish army held back the Russian offensive, but after the defeat at Aladzha, retreated to Erzurum, after which the Russians took Kars. On the Black Sea, the Ottoman fleet had a colossal advantage, since the Russian fleet did not recover after the Crimean War. Despite this, the hostilities on the Black Sea in this war were not important.