The Malaysian airliner wasn’t the only one following the route over Ukraine, as detours can bring major time and fuel costs. When is it time to close air space?
Tag: ukraine
KIEV — Representatives of the new Ukrainian government are convinced: It is time for Maidan Square to be free of tents. The only question is how to get rid of the protestors from the site that became the center of the pro-democracy movement. The police think Maidan should be cleared with force, as if it […]
MOSCOW — Earlier this week, all of Russia’s ambassadors were called home from their stations abroad to attend an event with members of the Russian Parliament and, of course, President Vladimir Putin. The only ambassador missing at the event was Mikhail Zurabov, ambassador to Ukraine. Apparently, the time he spent in Moscow after being recalled […]
The news in images, and images making news…
The new Ukrainian president’s attempt at peace has failed. What now?
MOSCOW — The funeral for the two young men was held on June 7 in a church in Kubinka, near Moscow. Aleksander Efremov and Alekei Yurin had gone to Donbas in the midst of the battle over the Donetsk airport in the eastern Ukrainian city. Neither came home alive. It was May 22 when 20-year-old […]
One hundred years ago, the Archduke of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian ideologue. Today, the threats are different but, like in 1914, conflicts are multiplying and leaders failing.
MOSCOW — According to a recent poll, the number of Russian citizens who would be prepared to vote for President Vladimir Putin if he were up for reelection now has been increasing every month since Russia annexed Crimea. In April, his approval rating was 62%, in May it increased to 73%. At the beginning of […]
Another twist on the geopolitical and economic chessboard. As relations sour with Russia over Ukraine, Europe looks at an increasingly accessible Iran. But it’s not so simple.
From a once-contested region in the Russian Federation, anti-Kiev forces are spotted in the battleground eastern region of Ukraine. They are “more Russian than the Russians,” says one.
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Living With War In Ukraine
DONETSK — When Ilya Pogorelov leaves his apartment, everything seems normal, at least in the neighborhood where he lives. The 21-year-old student lives with his parents in Kirowski, on the outskirts of Donetsk. “You don’t see any fighting here,” he says by phone. In this residential area, parents are out walking with their kids, and […]
While billionaire incoming president Petro Poroshenko takes over in Kiev, the fate of the country may also be in the hands of another super-rich businessman from contested eastern Ukraine.
Maidan protesters remain in Independence Square, keeping guard despite the election of a new president. When will they leave? The vegetable gardens and henhouses suggest no time soon.
A sit-down with a top Ukrainian defense official, who lays bare the realities on the ground in the embattled country and draws clearly the lines that will not be crossed
Old battles are renewed in the May 25 vote to be Ukraine’s next president. But the first order of business is to make sure the ballot takes place.
Somewhere between war preparations and street theater, the barricades along the roads in Ukraine offer a sign of where the country may be heading.
They come from advertising agencies and the military, but have scant political experience. Eastern Ukraine’s new strongmen have one thing in common: They’re all “Friends of Vladimir.”
LVIV — There’s a commotion in Room 312 of Lviv’s social services department, where over 50 Crimean Tatars are crowded into the small space — families with children, older married couples, students. All of them fled Crimea in March and headed for this western Ukrainian city. They’re now in the concrete block near St. George’s […]
The Russian leader’s propaganda machine attracts all sorts of extremist movements in the European Union, on both sides of the political spectrum.
-OpEd- PARIS — Before the end of 2014, China will have become the world’s largest economy. For the first time since 1872 — when China overtook Britain — the United States will not top the list. This news amid data published last week by the International Comparison Program, a respected institution hosted by the World […]
Using rumors and references to the Soviet past, the Russian media propaganda bears a clear responsibility in the Ukraine crisis.
KOSTIANTYNIVKA — It was still early on Monday morning in the east Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka when the city administration and police station were visited by 20 weapons-bearing men wearing camouflage uniforms. Within a few minutes they had control of the seat of power in this city of 95,000 people, and it wasn’t long before […]
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The Un-United States of Ukraine
Ukrainian politicians are united on the idea of more regional autonomy, but they seem to draw a red line on the question of federalism. That, they fear, would play right into Moscow’s hands.
In Sloviansk, masked men storm homes of Roma families and agitators blame the Jews.
MOSCOW — Amidst the showdown over Ukraine, the United States tried in vain to pressure China into joining the international sanctions against Russia. Moscow officials have said that while other countries were trying to tie a noose of sanctions around Russia’s neck, China has unexpectedly turned out to be an “absolutely solid partner.” And yet […]
MOSCOW — The same picture that we saw at the end of 2013 in Kiev has now simply moved to Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Mykolaiv. Buildings stormed, barricaded streets, people in masks and flags flying. The differences, at first glance, appear insignificant. Before, there was just one center of the protests — Kiev — whereas […]
As the West wastes time with endless discussions and threats of sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to gain ground in Ukraine.
After pleas for help on social media to defend pro-Russians across the border, soldiers and would-be soldiers have left Russia to travel to Eastern Ukraine. On the ground in Donetsk.
As the risk of war hovers over the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, one local explains why he looks to Moscow rather than Kiev.
The two Nordic countries, one of which shares a long border with Russia, have so far been carefully neutral as Moscow flexes its muscles. Could NATO membership be the answer?
MILOVE — This town located 900 kilometers from Kiev and Moscow is unwittingly embroiled in the bitter, and at times deadly, dispute between Russia and Ukraine. The border separating the two countries divides the town of Milove in half, and Ukrainian residents in this poor region vitally need to trade with the richer Russia to […]
The Maidan protests were driven by public disgust with corruption, more than picking sides between the EU and Russia. But ousting Viktor Yanukovych has not ended the dirty business woven into the fabric of Ukrainian life.
Bracing itself for an influx of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, Russia has indicated an easy path to citizenship. But skeptics note Moscow’s notoriously tough migration policies.
Could landlocked Switzerland finally get some coastline? There is a movement afoot pushing Swiss annexation of the Italian island of Sardinia.
While many news outlets have been wondering what will happen to the Ukrainian navy in Crimea, the question that everyone has really been wondering about has finally been answered: The dolphins in Sevastopol’s combat unit will indeed become Russian. The combat program trains these hyper-intelligent mammals to patrol open water and attach buoys to items […]
BEIJING — China is far from being a central character in the Ukrainian crisis drama. Still, it has the potential to become an important mediator on the global stage between Russia and the West. China’s influence in the past was limited to its vote in the UN Security Council, but since the Crimea crisis emerged, […]
BERLIN — Over the past week, the term “original inhabitants” has been used repeatedly to characterize Crimean Tatars, who seem to be the only inhabitants of the peninsula who don’t see a home for themselves in Russia. “The original inhabitants since the late Middle Ages were the Tatars,” a serious historian and professor of East […]
KIEV — In a widely viewed video, the head of Ukraine’s National Television channel can be seen being beaten by right-wing members of the Ukrainian Parliament for allowing the ceremony celebrating Crimea’s entrance into the Russian Federation to be broadcast live on television. Television executive Aleksander Panteleimonov was grabbed by his necktie, strangled, hit on […]
MOSCOW — As expected, the West reacted poorly to Russia signing an agreement allowing Crimea to join the Russian Federation. But will their threats of consequences really be felt? “We join Poland and the international community in condemning the continuing assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrety,” said U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who was […]
Complicated…and crucial to resolving the current showdown between Russia and the West.