Worldcrunch
Russia has occupied of parts of Ukraine for almost a decade, busy promoting a pro-Russian narrative in those territories. Moscow’s aim is to ensure loyalty and deliberately create tensions among Ukrainians in free territories. It is a formula that has been
Russia has deployed more than 100,000 troops in the northeastern regions of Ukraine that were liberated by Kyiv late last year, which appears to come in response to the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
A month into Ukraine’s counteroffensive, claims that it has failed are wildly premature. Even more troubling are the steady whispers that Kyiv must sit down with Russia to negotiate. But it’s clearer than ever that only complete Ukrainian victory can bring lasting peace.
The excitement with which the West watched Prigozhin’s failed uprising reveals the delusional hopes that somehow a Russian white (or black) knight will come to overthrow Putin. No, there’s still only one way to be rid of him, argues Ukrainian writer Anna Akage.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been marked by grueling combat. Independent Russian news site Agenstvo spoke to military experts who explain why progress is slow and how worrying the situation is for Ukraine.
June 19 – June 25, 2023
The idea of “peacemaking” with Russia has been creeping into Western media, bolstered by fears that Putin could ultimately resort to nuclear weapons. But Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, warns of the traps of this thinking.
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.
When both sides of a conflict blame each other for something as important as the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, there’s only one way to understand what’s going on: find out who benefits from the crime.
Putin is hesitant to mobilize troops for political reasons. And the Ukrainian military command is well aware that the key to a successful offensive lies in creating new front lines, where Russia will have to relocate troops from Ukraine and thus weaken the existing front.
In another scenario, Putin could be bragging about Russia’s control of Bakhmut after nearly a year of fighting, and the bombing of the Ukrainian Intelligence’s headquarters, which was recently acknowledged by Kyiv. But instead he must retreat to the ultimate home front after drone attacks in the capital.
Whether Ukraine or Russia is behind the clamorous attack on the Kremlin, which Moscow says was an assassination attempt against Vladimir Putin, it is bound to shape the imminent counter-offensive.
Citizens of the now destroyed Ukrainian city of Maryinka are left struggling to remember what their town used to look like.
Journalists from Ukrainska Pravda report directly from the trenches near Avdiivka, one of the oldest settlements in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, where troops are facing near-constant Russian fire.
As Xi’s closely watched visit to Moscow begins, China and Russia may seem like strategic partners, but it has ultimately shown to be a marriage of convenience. And both countries are naturally competitors, wary if the other grows stronger.
If Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hadn’t gone so badly, the Kremlin had two possible plans for governing the country under the Russian flag.
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.
A look back on some of the most striking magazine covers published this past year across the globe, marking the milestones in a bloody conflict that is entering its second year.
One year after the Russian invasion, Kyiv has become an international symbol of resistance, also in the way that ordinary life continues, despite air raids and bomb blasts.
From the first fake news reports that Zelensky had fled to Putin’s latest speech Tuesday that blamed the war on the West, Russia’s attempts to manipulate opinion have wound up leaving Moscow itself as the prime victim of its own lies.
In the inevitable race for symbolic victories on the eve of the Ukraine invasion’s first anniversary, Joe Biden scored a major victory with his surprise visit to Kyiv. Meanwhile, one year on, Vladimir Putin has yet to visit his own country’s troops on the front line.
Moscow’s offensive appears to be underway, but it will be rolled out in phases in the coming days and weeks. There are no surprise this time, but the stakes are just as high.
Germany and the U.S. overcame months of reluctance in the past 24 hours to commit to sending heavy combat tanks to Ukraine. Russia responded with official bluster, but others in Moscow fear that the tanks delivery could be a gamechanger on the battlefield.
A retired German general spells out in clear language what the choice is for Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and what the long-term consequences of half-hearted support for Kyiv as it battles for survival against the Russian invasion.
Russia has a complicated history with Islam, often built on Moscow’s repression of the religious minority. Now, Muslims in Ukraine are ever more committed to a project for a multi-religious society that Kyiv espouses. Ukrainian Mufti Said Ismagilov has taken up arms for that cause, and to defend his nation.
Fighting has been fierce for the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. What is the price of a victory that is, above all, symbolic?
Will 2023 be the year of victory? A negotiated settlement? The beginning of the new year was a time for speeches in Kyiv and Moscow aimed at inspiring the respective nations 10 months since Russia’s bloody invasion. Yet, for one good reason, certain words were not spoken.
Ukraine’s fertile soils used to feed the world. But even when the war ends, food production will take decades to recover because of damage to the land.
The Ukrainian Culture Minister has called for a total boycott of Russian culture. Such a move should be resisted because it ignores culture’s potential to challenge power.
On his historic trip to Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recalls Winston Churchill in multiple ways, including that we wouldn’t have thought much of either one before war turned each into leaders of epic proportions. A view from Germany.
For the Russians, the Ukrainian president went to the U.S. “begging for money.” But elsewhere in the world, this visit was shaping up as one of the most significant episodes of a 10-month-old war with planetary implications.
While Russia again launched a major missile and drone attack Friday, there are growing signs that Vladimir Putin is planning a major ground operation against the capital Kyiv in early 2023. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the path to Moscow victory would be through massive Russian troop casualties.
As they’ve done for the past year, Ukrainians have spent the past three days studying maps and calculating distances. But there’s a difference now: The maps are of Russia. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] The unprecedented drone attacks this week of airfields deep inside Russian territory open a new phase in the war that is both tactical and symbolic. […]
Russian commentators are asking if Ukrainian forces have the means and will to strike Moscow itself.
Reports of Ukraine’s possible use of kamikaze drones deep inside Russian territory.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin was open to negotiations, adding that the possibility of talks would be hampered by the United States’ refusal to acknowledge annexed Ukrainian regions as being part of Russia. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] “The United States still does not recognize new territories as part of the Russian Federation, and this complicates the […]
The European Union is committed to setting up a special court with the backing of the UN to investigate and prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and force Russia and its oligarchs to pay the growing pricetag for the destruction of the country. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised in a video […]
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.