Worldcrunch
With wars around the world arousing political strife and affecting the personal lives of many athletes, it seems the Paris 2024 Games could be overrun by geopolitics. Polish journalist Radoslaw Leniarski, an 11-time Olympic Games correspondent, explains what is, and isn’t, different this time.
With private military companies (PMCs) multiplying in Russia, on the model of the Wagner Group, the billionaire Rotenberg brothers, friends of Putin, are creating their own private army of football fans.
The leaders of key EU countries have been on the phone with Vladimir Putin since the war in Ukraine began. Weighing the costs, benefits…and morals…of leaving the door open to a man who brutally invaded a sovereign nation — and taking Munich 1938 as a starting point.
From mortal mistakes to brutal punishments, Russian soldiers in Ukraine face daily horrors, not from the enemy but from their fellow officers. One Russian soldier who voluntarily signed up for the army tells his story and the psychological toll the war has had on him.
The feuding Ukrainian and Russian leaders both share the French emperor’s sense of mission and intransigence. The way these modern-day Bonapartes’ messianic ambitions translate into reality, however, differ greatly.
July 24 – July 30, 2023
The destruction of the hydroelectric dam has caused massive flooding and is forcing mass evacuations. And while the disaster is threatening local populations, it is also bound to alter the course of the war — in more ways than one.
The evacuation of residents from flood-affected localities continues after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. Evacuees report that they have been bombarded by Russian missiles and fear the presence of mines in the water.
The Nova Kakhovka dam explosion was undoubtedly carried out by Putin, putting both Ukrainian and Russian lives at risk. The explosion makes clear that there are no limits to how far Putin will go. That has been his message since Day One of the war.
The world has come to know Ukraine’s geography through decisive battles and unspeakable war crimes in places like Mariupol, Bucha and now Bakhmut. We zoom in on what these places mean for the war, in both strategic and symbolic terms.
Reports have emerged of children, retirees, and workers being forced by the Russian military and occupying administration to obtain Russian Federation passports, or face prison, beating or loss of public benefits.
Russia is losing in Ukraine not just because of Putin’s madness and the heroism of Ukrainians, but also because Russia’s army is built for rapid invasion and occupation, not for the type of grinding war it is now fighting in Ukraine.
Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine face a tough moral question: How far are they prepared to go? Around the world, a group of Russians are organizing and raising money to send much-needed drones to help Ukrainian forces fight the Russian invasion.
European Council Chief Charles Michel used much of his face-to-face meeting Thursday in Beijing with Xi Jinping to urge the Chinese President to use his sway over Russian President Vladimir Putin “to end the war and to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine.” [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] Michel’s visit was the first official trip to Beijing by a top […]
While retreating from Kherson, Russian troops forcibly removed more than 2,500 Ukrainians from prison colonies and pre-trial detention centers in the southern region. Those removed included prisoners as well as a large number of civilians who had been held in prisons during the occupation, according to the Ukrainian human rights organization Alliance of Ukrainian Unity. […]
Ukraine’s case for pursuing Russia and its leadership for war crimes now includes Moscow’s current strategy of trying to cut off energy supplies to Ukrainian civilians by destroying the country’s power grid. Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin told the BBC that strikes on key energy infrastructure targeted “the full Ukrainian nation,” which fall under the purview […]
Fears of European discord over energy prices, as Ukraine is facing what the UN calls “appalling conditions of life” amid Russia’s onslaught timed with the arrival of winter.
The reconquest of Kherson seemed like a turning point in the Ukraine war. But while Kyiv and the West can see it as an encouraging sign for the long-term fate of the war, it makes negotiations a veritable non-starter now. A cold, hard analysis from French geopolitical expert Dominique Moïsi.
Kremlin war aims in Ukraine have never been entirely clear. Part of that is due to the setbacks the Russian army has suffered; and now it appears that both the strategic and symbolic objective of reducing the capital of Kyiv to its knees is again very much on Vladimir Putin’s mind.
At least 12 missiles over the past 24 hours were fired at or near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] The surrounding territory and the plant itself, also known as ZNPP, are currently controlled by Russian forces, but the plant is a crucial source of energy for much of Ukraine. The Ukrainian […]
Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Russia has no choice to continue the war because of Ukraine’s “unwillingness to negotiate.” [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] “First they negotiate, then they refuse to negotiate, then they pass a law that prohibits any kind of negotiations, then they say they want negotiations, but public ones,” Peskov told reporters. The comments come […]
Is this what Vladimir Putin’s winter plans look like?
French President Macron used his bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping to try to convince China to take a tougher line with Moscow.
This is among the most important signs of how the war has turned against Russia in the past three months.
After several weeks of mixed messages, the announcement of Russia’s withdrawal from the strategic city of Kherson caught many off guard. It is in many respects a momentous turn, with Ukraine poised to retake a city captured by Russian forces in the very first days after the Feb. 24 invasion. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] The pullout is not […]
If not cannon fodder, many of the reservists are facing shortages of food, weapons and promised payments.
The mixed messages Friday may be part of a Kremlin strategy to fight for the southern city even harder.
Moscow has been forced to turn to rogue regimes for military supplies for its stalled invasion of Ukraine.
Turkish-Brokered deal Is back on after a call between Putin and Ergogan.
Vladimir Putin told the world yesterday “don’t worry” about a nuclear attack, even as he’s setting up a scenario that makes it more likely.
As Moscow and Kyiv direct their troops toward the southern Ukrainian city, the strategic and symbolic value cannot be overstated.
Ukraine and its Western partners say the warnings from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu could be a “false flag” operation used to divert attention from its own potential use of banned weapons.
A missile attack early Friday kills four, as civilians try to evacuate the largest Ukrainian city under Russian occupation.
Russia’s martial law for the occupied territories of Ukraine is a “pseudo-legalization of looting of Ukrainians’ property,” said another official in Kyiv.
The southern city, which fell to Moscow’s forces in the first days of the war, could become the clearest symbol of the success of Ukraine’s autumn drive to retake territory.
Russia has begun evacuating pro-Moscow residents in the Kherson region after a Russian official in the partially occupied area said residents should leave for their own safety.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” U.S. President Joe Biden declared.
The southern advance in the Kherson region is closing in along the west bank of the Dnipro River to cut off Russian supply lines.
Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of Ukrainian territories in a ceremony in the Kremlin. In a village just a few kilometers away from what is now the Ukraine-Russia “border” in Putin’s eyes, life continues amid constant shelling and the fear of what comes next.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign the annexation Friday of four occupied regions of Ukraine to become part of Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced this morning. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] The Kremlin will host a ceremony on Friday where agreements will be signed on the annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Peskov said the ceremony would […]