Commentary

Russian forces killed two Ukrainian teenagers – Tyhran Ohannisian and Mykyta Khanhanov – in temporarily occupied Berdiansk. Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets confirmed the information. Before his death, Ohannisian managed to record a video with the words: “Two for sure. That is, it is death, guys, goodbye! Glory to Ukraine!” Before that, the invaders pursued, held captive, and tortured the boys allegedly for preparing sabotage on the railway. The Investigative Committee of Russia charged the teenagers with “violations” of the article, which provides for 10 to 20 years of imprisonment. At that time, the European Parliament demanded that the minors be released to the territory under the control of the authorities of Ukraine. However, the Russians placed Ohannisian and Khanhanov under house arrest in Berdiansk...

The recent “almost civil war” and “imminent coup d'etat” in the Russian Federation has caused some turmoil and, at its conclusion, recognition that it was “much ado about nothing”. Putin and his former chef Yevgeny Prigozhin notwithstanding, Russians remain in control. The only positive result may be that the brutal Wagner forces may be out of the war in Ukraine, only to be replaced by equally brutal but less capable Russians. Those most hopeful or at least with the most vivid imagination perhaps forget that Putin and Prigozhin are peas in a pod or equally war criminals with the only difference that one has been issued a warrant for arrest by the International Criminal Court...

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) calls on the international community to resolutely condemn and impose crippling sanction on Russia for its nuclear terrorism. “Russia is threatening to cause a nuclear incident at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to stop Ukraine’s ongoing liberation of its occupied citizens. The United Nations (UN) and the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) must comply with their own rules to prevent any “incidents” at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which has been occupied by Russian invaders for more than a year,” stated UWC President Paul Grod. On June 22, 2023, during his address to the nation, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing a “terrorist act” at the Zaporizhzhia NPP...

On the eve of the NATO Summit on 10-11 July 2023 in Vilnius, the Ukrainian World Congress calls upon all Ukrainian communities, organizations, Ukrainians, and friends of Ukraine abroad to join the global advocacy campaign #UkraineInNATO. Ukraine is already a de facto part of the Alliance, aligning its national standards with NATO standards in a full-scale war, completing the transition from a Soviet-style to a NATO-style military in real-time, and, most importantly, already playing the role of the Alliance’s eastern flank...

In the 1940s, as Ukraine was squeezed between German Nazis, Russian communists, and Polish nationalism, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) sought to create an independent state. Eighty years later, some consider them national heroes, others traitors of the Soviet Union, and others as Nazi collaborators. Who and what was the UPA? Dr. Volodomyr Viatrovych, a Ukrainian historian, recently co-edited a book, in English, on this topic with a Canadian colleague: “Enemy Archives: Soviet Counterinsurgency Operations and the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement,” published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. In an exclusive interview for Kyiv Post, he explains what his research, involving delving into the former KGB archives, has uncovered...

In some Western media and among some politicians, pundits, religious leaders, cultural figures and et al. there have been frequent calls to settle Russia's war on Ukraine through some sort of “reconciliation” between Moscow and Kyiv — between the aggressor and the victim. Because, as their argument goes, this is merely “Putin's war” rather than Russia's war. A historical truism about Russia: Russian leaders do not make Russia; Russia “makes” its leaders. Vladimir Putin did not “make” Russia, and the war on Ukraine is not just “Putin's war”. Russia “made” Putin as its leader, and the war is Russia's war on Ukraine fought by Russia's current leader, Vladimir Putin, and his gang. This pattern of Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine has been the same for centuries — being it under Putin, Stalin, Lenin, or tsars Catherine II, Peter I, Alexei, etc. To refute this...

Are you a venerated scholar in the field of international relations? Do you feel compelled to publish an article about Russia’s war on Ukraine? To bring your decades of experience to bear to help end the suffering? A smart, contrarian piece, perhaps? One which cuts through the utopian misconceptions of the “whatever-it-takes” crowd? A necessary reality-check that both acknowledges the inevitability of a negotiated settlement and reminds the world of your wisdom and indispensability? If that’s you, I have some advice: Close your laptop, go outside, and take a walk. Meditate. Adopt a dog. Volunteer at a food bank. In fact, almost anything that doesn’t involve typing words on a page about Ukraine would be preferable to typing words on a page about Ukraine. Ever since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, we’ve been subject to a merry-go-round of Esteemed Experts calling on the West to force the two sides to the negotiating table. While admired in their fields of study—usually international relations—few of them have any actual expertise on Ukraine or Russia...

“We went and killed everyone. There were women, men, seniors, and children.” These were the words of Azamat Uldarov, an ex-fighter of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who personally admitted to shooting dead a five or six-year-old girl, speaking to Russian independent outlet Gulagu.net. Uldarov, together with ex-Wagner commander Aleksei Savichev, both described being given and carrying out orders to “clean” entire buildings or areas in Donetsk Oblast of civilians by murdering them all. The confessions came out on the back of a video of Russian troops, later reported as also belonging to Wagner, beheading a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war with a knife. Three days after the Wagner confessions, Russian state-sponsored patriotic singer Shaman released a new music video, entitled “We,” of him walking down Red Square sporting a full black leather outfit, combed blond undercut, and Russian flag armband. “Faith and love is with us, God is with us,” he sings. No, this is not a fever dream, this is fascist Russia in 2023. Back in May last year, American historian Timothy Snyder invigorated the discussion around the fascist label in his New York Times op-ed “We Should Say It. Russia Is Fascist.”...

On February 24, 2022, something considered so unlikely in the twenty-first century as to be almost unimaginable happened: A large ­European state mounted a full-scale, full-­spectrum invasion of another large European state. The invaded state posed no threat to the aggressor's security, only to its leader's warped ideology. And in another chilling parallel to the mid-1930s, scripts written in that low decade returned with a vengeance: The aggressor polluted the global information space with a barrage of propaganda and lies, while some in the West, echoing Neville ­Chamberlain, asked why they should be concerned about a "quarrel in a far away country, between people of whom we know nothing." Now, after a year marked by bestial cruelty on one side and astonishing courage on the other, the Russian war on Ukraine stands before us as a pivotal moment in contemporary history. Grasping what that moment means is essential in devising wise policy that promotes peace, security, and freedom for both the United States and Ukraine; failure to...

In an interview with RBK-Ukraine, the chief of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s intelligence said that the current pace of Western weaponry supply does not make him revise his earlier projection – the turning-point battle before the end of this war will take place this spring. “It absolutely does not. Like it or not, we’re approaching a landmark battle in the contemporary history of Ukraine. This is a fact, and everyone understands it. It’s a secret when it will start. But everyone understands we are getting closer to it,” said Gen. Kyrylo Budanov. He agreed that if the future offensive operation fails to succeed sufficiently, the odds are that Ukraine’s partners will urge it to negotiate with Russia. However, he emphasized that the fate of Ukraine is in its hands. “Whoever urges us to do whatever, it’s up to us to decide.” Budanov also said that...