Worldcrunch
While voluntary enlistment is still strong in Ukraine, it is no longer enough. Kyiv has begun allowing prisoners to apply for early release in exchange for military service. While Russia’s similar policy was criticized, Ukrainian officials insist there are crucial differences.
The Russian president has no problem talking about negotiations and peace treaties. But he’s a master decoy artist. Putin has built his power on conflict, and now he needs war to hold on to it.
Would you fight for your country? My generation hears this question a lot these days. But my generation was taught to fight for peace — so why aren’t we holding onto that aim, especially now?
The Russian president has no problem talking about negotiations and peace treaties. But he’s a master decoy artist. Putin has built his power on conflict, and now he needs war to hold on to it.
An international front is refusing to bow to the White House’s demands, and it’s the only way out of the crisis.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin discussed Ukraine and other international matters during a call on Tuesday. What do the two leaders have in common? A shared worldview alone no longer explains it.
Known in France and on social networks under several false identities, the daughter of a Russian millionaire was born in 2003 from an extramarital relationship with the Russian president, who never recognized her.
With Trump’s White House warming to Putin on international matters, Europe must rethink its military independence — and that may mean closing the many U.S. bases on its soil before they become threats rather than safeguards.
Ukraine needs satellite internet defense capabilities like that provided by Starlink. But do they really want to be dependent on Elon Musk? The good news is that Europe is not completely empty-handed. But time is of the essence.
It is likely that there will not be a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia this year — or ever one at all. If negotiations stagnate, they could resemble the post-World War II relations between Japan and the Soviet Union: A peace treaty was never signed, and the dispute over the Kuril Islands has persisted for more than 70 years.
Ahead of Germany’s crucial national elections Sunday, Russia is actively working to destabilize the country through cyberattacks, agents, and disinformation campaigns. Can anything be done to stop or at least counter these attacks?
Around the world, the left and progressive media are serving Russia’s interests against the West when they lambast Israel. Since the Cold War, Russia has exploited and distorted the Palestinian cause to serve its ideals. And Iran is pursuing it on a smaller scale and with its own proxies, as Moscow’s geopolitical tool in the region.
U.S President Donald Trump appears to be pushing forward his pledge for a quick peace in Ukraine, following his surprise call Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But what would a ceasefire look like? And how doe we get there?
With the global rise of the far-right, many Germans are afraid that the past is about to repeat itself. German writer Florian Illies explains the trap about such analogies — even as other dangers lurk.
Will America become revisionist, unilateralist and expansionist under Donald Trump’s second term? In the early 1970s, French philosopher Raymond Aron spoke of the United States as an “imperial republic,” Now, in 2025, there is potentially much less “republic,” and much more “imperialism.”
Elon Musk is hosting Alice Weidel in an interview on X, having tried to convince the American tech billionaire she’s not an extremist. But who is Weidel, really? She’s described the Germans as “slaves” of the U.S. and quotes the infamous text of a nationalist philosopher that is a dog-whistle for the far right in Germany.
Misleading videos on the platform are said to have influenced the election in Romania, with accusations against Russian influence. Have we learned anything about manipulation and disinformation since Facebook faced a similar outcry in 2016?
The overthrow of the Assad regime is about more than just Russia’s boasting rights as a major power. It will have consequences on the war in Ukraine, and Russian expansion in Africa. Indeed, it may be proof that it is not a major power.
While the Islamic Republic of Iran mulls an official response to the fall of its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad, Iranian politicians are already voicing their anger at the “backstabbing” conduct of two key powers, Turkey and Russia. Could Tehran be the next to get left to fend for itself?
Romania’s out-of-nowhere far right presidential candidate Călin Georgescu has become the latest case study showing just how much sway social media platforms can have over elections, going even farther than Donald Trump on Elon Musk’s X.
In wartime Russia, women are behaving in starkly different ways: some are fighting desperately to bring their men home, while others are actively encouraging them to go to the front — for the promise of good money.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine 1,000 days ago. Since then, many Western nations, scholars and politicians have suggested negotiating for peace with Russia, rather than letting the war go on. But negotiations will not stop Putin’s imperial ambitions.
Pyongyang has just ratified its new defense pact with Moscow. North Korean soldiers are deployed near Kursk, in an unprecedented engagement that marks a reversal of Kim Jong-un’s foreign policy.
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly said he could end the Russia-Ukraine war “in a day” if reelected. Now that he has won, some Ukrainian commentators and politicians are hoping that they can use his unpredictability — and vanity — to their advantage.
Republicans and Democrats agree on just one thing: being tough with China. That’s why Chinese leaders are not expressing a preference in the U.S. presidential election. Yet some in Beijing are leaning toward Donald Trump and what they see as his penchant for “pragmatism” and “deals” between China and the United States.
When politicians call for more diplomacy instead of weapons delivery, the basis of their arguments is misleading. The Russians and Ukrainians have already reached diplomatic agreements in many areas, but there are limits to open negotiations — mainly around whether Putin himself really wants to negotiate.
With tens of thousands North Korean troops confirmed to be moving toward the Russia-Ukraine front line, to fight on Moscow’s side in Ukraine, the two big questions are: What is Kim Jong-un trying to achieve? And more importantly, how does China fit into this picture?
Packed full of Russian culture, the children’s cartoon Masha and the Bear is a very popular cultural export. But does that make the little girl and her furry friend pro-Putin propaganda? Reflections from a conflicted parent in Germany.
Mongolia is a signatory to the International Criminal Court treaty and should have arrested Vladimir Putin on his arrival in the capital yesterday. Of course, it didn’t — nobody believed it would. But for international affairs specialist Pierre Haski, this is only a setback for international justice.
Russia’s pro-war influencers, or so-called ‘Z’-bloggers, have sought to blame those responsible for Ukraine’s breakthrough into the Kursk region. Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name never comes up. Fear of reprisals is only one reason; another is belief in Putin’s infallibility.
The arrest in Paris of Telegram founder Pavel Durov raises a lingering question about who actually controls the Russian messaging and social platform. Some say it’s Vladimir Putin’s most powerful (not-so) secret weapon in the global hybrid war aimed at spreading backward ideology and destabilizing the world.
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.
In Kazakhstan, prison sentences are regularly handed down for separatist activity. Yet the defendants in such cases are overwhelmingly “online separatists” — people far removed from politics and activism. Who are they and why does the state consider them such a threat?
It is the right-wing movements internationally that have used hate speech as a political weapon, inciting political hatred as a form of fuel to create consensus. But that strategy can backfire, as the attack on Trump showed.
After more than two years of war, Russia’s bombing of a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday was among the most violent. What does Vladimir Putin aim to achieve with this escalation of horror — which came just 48 hours before the NATO Summit in Washington in the presence of Volodymyr Zelensky?
Having gained notoriety for his Male State movement, which was deemed too radical, even for Putin, Vladislav Pozdnyakov came up last year in connection with brutal videos being shared online, as well as a more recent attack against an ally of late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
At just 18-years-old, Daria Kozyreva sits in a pre-trial detention center. She is facing five years for “repeatedly discrediting the Russian army.” Here is her letter to all Russians, trying to convince people of good will to denounce the Kremlin regime.
The canceled rapper who’s praised Hitler and Putin’s Russia are a perfect match, writes music critic Nikolay Ovchinnikov
Through quiet diplomacy, Russia may be courting the rising star of Latin American populism, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. In time, he must decide between international respectability and a bear hug from Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin presents himself as the leading advocate for multipolarism, but continues to reveal his true world view, where we are divided among those that respect nothing but personal power — and fools.