Politics

The briefing from Defence Intelligence was typically understated. “Russian territorial advances in Ukraine have accelerated through 2024,” it said. “This has been underpinned by the Russian leadership’s tolerance for casualties, and Russia’s land forces’ quantitative overmatch relative to the Ukrainian armed forces. The front line is now less stable than at any point since the opening stages of the conflict.” Translated into layman’s terms, Russia is making significant gains and Ukraine is in a weaker position than it has been at any point since the start of the war. The Russian “meat-grinder” — or as officials at the British government agency put it, its “tolerance for casualties” — is having an effect. More than 700,000 Russian personnel have been killed or injured, while 3,500 tanks have been...

Donald Trump’s looming return to the White House is seen as a major gain for Russia and a potentially disastrous turn of events for Ukraine. But neither of the two warring sides wanted to say so out loud on Wednesday. The Kremlin reacted cautiously – at least in public – to news of Mr. Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was among the foreign leaders racing to congratulate Mr. Trump even before the vote counting was finished. Mr. Trump has spoken repeatedly in the past of his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and hinted at ending the massive U.S. military aid to Ukraine that has allowed the country to defend itself against the full-scale invasion Mr. Putin ordered 2 ½ years...

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) is outraged with Russia’s recent attempts to blame Ukraine, the UK and the USA for the horrific attack in Moscow on March 22. The Russian leadership is promoting this lie despite all signs pointing to a militant group of religious fanatics. This is a cynical demonstration of the Putin regime’s own negligence towards Russian civilians, and one that marks a new stage in Russia’s hybrid aggression against Ukraine and the West. We call on the international community to reject this Russian propaganda and false narrative, and to take all of the steps that are necessary to bring the inhumane Putin regime to justice...

This baffling explanation likely sounded presumptuous to an exclusively European institution. Yet, as Talbott asserted, “the U.S. has sought to avoid an abstract, theological debate on the extent to which Russia and Ukraine were part of Europe.” As a result, Ukraine’s attempt at a concrete security guarantee—even a much less potent one—remained out of the question. Rather, Ukraine would instead have to settle for the high-level public restatements of the assurances it received in the Trilateral Agreement and, later, via the Budapest Memorandum. A month later, Talbott addressed the North Atlantic Council regarding his efforts on ...

The House of Representatives, after three agonizing weeks, has a speaker in Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA). But the question remains: will Ukraine now get U.S. taxpayer dollars for its fight against Russia? A major contributor to the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the question remains at the heart of House Republican angst and is by no means settled, whatever President Joe Biden may say. But while most in official Washington trumpet their support for Ukraine, never-before-released archival evidence dating back 30 years proves their forebears in office share blame for the current crisis. The documents show conclusively how two American administrations, senior Pentagon leadership, and NATO, all pressured Ukraine into giving up its only deterrent against Russian aggression — nuclear weapons — despite the credible risk of Russian invasion. With this...

A prime task of Russia’s State Security Service (FSB), successor to the KGB, is to devise and execute active measures in the sphere of foreign relations. During Russian President Vladimir Putin’s era, one of the most successful initiatives to arise from its headquarters in the infamous Lubianka in Moscow, has been the proposal to relaunch Track II (unofficial and backchannel) negotiations between Moscow and Washington. When Putin concluded that official diplomatic contacts were failing to produce the results he wanted, he embraced the FSB’s proposals to establish an informal working group of retired US and Russian officials and experts who are “close to decision-making centers.” Meeting in picturesque locales and in a relaxed atmosphere that excluded neckties but could include swimming trunks, the respected participants, so it was thought, would be able to reach unexpected but ...

Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced a new security assistance package to support Ukraine's battlefield needs and underscore unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine. This package, which includes critical air defense capabilities and munitions, will be provided as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). This USAI package highlights the continued U.S. commitment to meeting Ukraine's pressing requirements by committing critical near-term capabilities while also building the enduring capacity of Ukraine's Armed Forces to defend its territory and deter Russian aggression over the mid and long term. Unlike Presidential Drawdown authority, which DoD has continued to utilize to deliver equipment to Ukraine from DoD stocks at a historic pace, USAI is an authority under which the United States procures capabilities from...

Putin's threats to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus reflect his goal to keep Crimea after Russia's defeat in the war. Three days after Chinese President Xi Jinping left Moscow for Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his intention to allow the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, a satellite dictatorship involved in Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The idea to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus is not new – Russia has been preparing for this move since 2020. On the one hand, it can be seen as a guarantee of control over the pseudo-legitimate Lukashenko regime. On the other hand, since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Putin has used nuclear threats as an integral part of Moscow's Anti-Access/Area Denial...

Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin on 17 March, in the view of the situation in Ukraine. Source: International Criminal Court press release, as reported by European Pravda Details: Per the court's press service, Pre-Trial Chamber II issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova on 17 March 2023. The latter is the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Affairs. Putin and Lvova-Belova are suspected of committing the war crime of illegal deportation of children from the occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, which has been taking place since at least 24 February 2022...

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reaches the one-year mark, the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin in February 2022 is still far from over. Nevertheless, it is already abundantly clear that Ukraine’s relations with Russia have fundamentally changed forever. After Mariupol, Bucha, and countless other Russian war crimes, there can be no more talk of a return to an earlier era of close ties and blurred borders. The troubled history of Russian-Ukrainian relations stretches back centuries. It’s a story of unequal interaction shaped by the politics of Russian imperialism. During the post-Soviet era, the bilateral relationship has been particularly turbulent as Russia has sought to retain its dominant position while preventing Ukraine from asserting its independence. Throughout this period, the Kremlin’s heavy-handed and tone-deaf policies have consistently proved counter-productive, serving only to widen the divide separating today’s Russia and Ukraine...