Worldcrunch
Russia’s invasion pushed some 8 million Ukrainians to leave the country. While some are starting to return — for their families, education or other reasons — the total number of Ukrainians who return home depends on the duration of the war. And some demographers warn that only one-third or one half of emigrants may come back.
In the language of math or geography: two thousand kilometers and three and a half years — that’s five settlements. Bucha. Hostomel. Narovlya, Belarus. Novozybkov, Russia. Pakino, Russia. Udarnoye, Russia.
The return of war in Europe is not just a political or strategic challenge — it is changing how people live, relate to one another and imagine the future.
👋 नमस्ते* Welcome to Thursday, where Russia has launched a massive missile attack on Kyiv, floods in Pakistan displace 250,000 people and today’s quiz question is about a lawsuit involving Sting. Meanwhile, Emma Confrère in French daily Le Figaro focuses on the rise of cryptocurrency sponsors in sports, from Formula 1 to soccer. [*Namaste, Nepali] […]
Ten days after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, the hopes for peace negotiations that it had raised have faded: Russia has set conditions that are difficult to accept. There is no meeting between Zelensky and Putin planned, Russian Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed yesterday. What will Trump do?
The looming possibility of a Putin-Zelensky summit is forcing Russia’s power brokers to confront which camp they truly belong to — and what will happen if the unthinkable occurs.
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?
Poland, one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine since the beginning of the war, and a neighboring country to Ukraine, has accepted over one million refugees fleeing the Russian invasion. However, as time has gone on, Poles have grown to increasingly resent Ukrainians. But why? Olena Babakova, a Ukrainian journalist, explains for Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
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.
Russia announced that it has taken back Sudzha, the biggest town in Kursk, just hours after a surprise visit from the Russian president in the region and as a U.S. delegation arrives in Moscow to discuss a ceasefire proposal. All eyes are now on Putin.
Now that the U.S. has relinquished its role as “leader of the free world,” Europe is on its own. But that doesn’t mean it’s out of options, writes former German diplomat and ambassador Hans-Dieter Heumann.
Even his critics inside Ukraine are uniting behind Volodymyr Zelensky for standing up to U.S. President Trump and Vice President Vance to defend their nation’s interests.
After walking the 50 kilometers that separate the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and the Russian border, Spanish reporter Unai Aranzadi arrives in the small village of Kozacha Lopan. Places like these are perhaps the ones where it will be most difficult to heal the wounds of all that has been suffered to date.
It is now clear that Germany needs to invest a lot more money in defense. Friedrich Merz, who is likely to be Germany’s next chancellor, has yet to come up with a plan to do this.
February 21 – February 28, 2025
The war in Ukraine has reached a stalemate, and a ceasefire appears increasingly likely. Painful compromises with the aggressor may be inevitable. But what comes next?
Vladimir Putin says he is “ready” to talk with Volodymyr Zelensky. But it’s a feigned openness to dupe Trump, since he continues to question the legitimacy of the Ukrainian president and does not alter one iota his demands for a kind of capitulation by Kyiv and a reversal of Baltic entry into the Atlantic Alliance.
Europe’s back is against the wall — Putin’s wall. The meeting in Paris of European leaders who are ready to defend Ukraine in the face of U.S. withdrawal was an opportunity for Europe to rebuild itself to preserve its interests and its honor.
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.
February 7 – February 13, 2025
As a candidate, Donald Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine within his first 24 hours in office — a deadline the US president has now missed. Even so, negotiations to end the three-year conflict are expected to accelerate. What are Russia, Ukraine and the United States’ current positions? And what do experts think will happen?
Among the images, are photos from France, China, Canada, the U.S., Ghana and Greenland.
In partnership with ZUMA photo agency, here are the top images for the week of Dec. 27-Jan. 2. The selection includes a devastating plane crash in South Korea that claimed 179 lives, an apparent terror attack that marred New Year’s Eve in New Orleans, while Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners in a UAE-brokered […]
The key question is whether any peace agreement will satisfy the U.S. president, or if he will push for real security guarantees for Kyiv. The question is what Trump will do if Russia or Ukraine (or both) refuse to negotiate on U.S. terms and are not intimidated by the threats of the American leader.
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’s invasion of Ukraine and fears of westward escalation have already led many European countries to up their own defense strategies. But instead of the latest technologies, rockets, and fighter jets, the true key to fighting back may lie in studying the polar region, critical for world stability.
Two undersea communication cables were severed in the Baltic Sea this weekend, prompting Germany’s defense minister to say that “no one believes” it was an accident. Many suspect a new escalation of hybrid warfare in a sea where Russia is the only country not part of NATO.
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.
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.
With the U.S. elections on the brink, and polls extra tight in swing states, the Kremlin is lapping it up. Rather than outwardly pulling for a Trump victory, however, Wacław Radziwinowicz argues that Moscow is above all, hoping for the high level of chaos that would come with a hung election.
A network of Ukrainian teachers, parents and administrators teach online classes to families trapped in Russian-occupied territories. But it comes with serious consequences if they are discovered.
Russians want to publish a translation of Polish author Szczepan Twardoch’s bestselling novel The King — a confusing development given that the writer has just been awarded for helping Ukraine.
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.
The Ukrainian attack on the strategically important Kursk region has taken Russia’s military and residents by surprise. But experts doubt whether the operation makes sense for Ukraine’s depleted military forces.
Rodents in the trenches are making life difficult for both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers on both sides, and leading authorities and activists send house cats to the front lines.
Disappointed by poor gains over the past three years in Ukraine, Russia’s pro-war Z community is blaming a new scapegoat. Russian writer and historian Ivan Philippov explains why a society that just wants to live and to work is now their main enemy.
This spring, Kharkiv has been under almost daily shelling. Yet cafes, beauty salons, theaters and shops are still open in Ukraine’s second-largest city, and residents are spending time in parks, jogging and maintaining elements of a normal life.
As the U.S. presidential election draws closer, independent Russian-language media Vazhnye Istorii spoke with American politics specialists about the possibility of a second Trump term and what it would mean for the Russia-Ukraine war, traditional U.S. allies and China.