“… [I]n the spring of 1991, I first came to New York, to attend the Glasnost in Two Cultures conference of women writers in Russia and North America. … my first real trip abroad. Going to America at the time was like going to the moon for Soviet people. … Thirty years ago, Russians and Americans discovered each other. … […]
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“The deluge of satellite imagery, drone footage, social media and smart phones has generated enough information to support any story you want to tell about what’s happening on the ground.” “… [T]wo relatively new contributions to the transparency of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict are widely available satellite imagery and social network posts. … [S]atellite data from private Western providers has lent […]
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“The $48 billion Ukraine aid package … Congress approved in December has about $6 billion left … U.S. funding for weapons and supplies could dry up by midsummer. … raising fresh concerns among lawmakers about … when the administration will ask for another major package and whether it will be enough. The funding, many members say, needs to continue … […]
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“Russian-language video on Telegram aims at Russians ‘on the fence’” The Wall Street Journal reports: “The [CIA’s] semipublic campaign to convince Russians disaffected by the war in Ukraine to spy for Washington has borne fruit, CIA officials said … as the spy agency released a new video aimed directly at Russian government officials. Since last fall, the CIA and [FBI] […]
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“Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has been engaged in very public criticism of Russia’s war effort. Experts say that it’s not a challenge to Vladimir Putin, but positioning for the post-war order.” “Russia’s most successful military leader in the Ukraine war … is not [even] a soldier …. Yevgeny Prigozhin is a former convict and Kremlin-connected entrepreneur whose private … […]
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“The Ukrainian historian shows how the Kremlin’s bloody campaign has backfired.” “The Russo-Ukrainian War. By Serhii Plokhy. W.W. Norton; 400 pages … [a] useful account of the origins and early progress of Russia’s war against Ukraine … very much worth reading ….” “…[T]he first six chapters [lay] out an excellent survey of unresolved regional tensions, going all the way back […]
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“Latvia is fighting to counter the spread of Moscow’s disinformation. Given its large Russian-speaking community, this is a tough task.” “… Latvia gained its long-awaited independence in the 1990s … then became a member of the [EU] and NATO. But … the country’s Soviet past still has a potent impact …. Even before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine … Latvian […]
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“Ukrainian president adds Britain to his tour of European nations as U.K. offers hundreds of attack drones.” “… Zelensky last week said Ukraine needed more time before it[s] … offensive because its military awaited equipment promised by Western partners … that proceeding now would cost too many lives. … [F]ace-to-face meetings with [European] counterparts … are designed to drive home […]
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“They can’t track every shell, but at a time of heightened scrutiny in Washington they know they can ill afford slips with the big ticket items.” “… Rocket launchers, precision-guided missiles and billions of dollars’ worth of other advanced American weapons have given Ukraine a fighting chance against Russia …. [I]n Washington, against a looming government debt crisis and growing […]
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“Success of NATO training programs could prove critical Counteroffensive needs surprise and ‘combined arms’ approach” “Armed with … over $30 billion in weapons freshly supplied by its allies, Ukraine is gearing up for a counteroffensive that may push Russia closer to ending its war, or show neither side has enough firepower to seize the advantage. Kyiv’s troops will leverage that […]
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“The Biden administration [reportedly] is scouring the globe for offers that could entice Russia to release two wrongfully detained Americans, Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan …. The U.S. [reportedly] does not currently have any high-level Russian spies in its custody … [and therefore is] approaching allied countries [holding] Russian spies …. U.S. officials [reportedly] have also been surveying allies without […]
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“… It seems … [Joe] Biden … [on election day] owed thanks not only to a cabal of former intelligence officials, but [also] to the [CIA][,] … [according to the] [U.S.] House committees detailing the origins of the October 2020 disinformation letter about Hunter Biden’s laptop. … Joe Biden’s campaign helped engineer a statement from 51 former U.S. spies that […]
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“Kyrylo Budanov, said Putin’s forces were focusing on trying to capture Bakhmut Intelligence boss said new attack will be a ‘landmark battle in Ukraine’s history’” “Russia has all but abandoned efforts to take more territory and is now focusing on defending its positions in preparation for a brutal counteroffensive by Ukraine, the head of military intelligence in Kyiv has said. […]
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“Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell held a call with a pair of Russian pranksters posing as … Zelenskiy, according to video shown on Russian state television. Apparently thinking he was speaking to Zelenskiy, the video shows Powell answering questions on topics ranging from the outlook for inflation to the Russian central bank. There were several clips lasting about 15 minutes […]
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“Russia has boosted … defenses in occupied Ukraine ahead of Kyiv’s anticipated counterattack, wagering its position on 800 kilometers of triple-fortified lines and a gush of manpower. … Ukrainian terrain, muddied by the spring thaw, has begun to dry and Russia’s latest wave of attacks has fizzled out[.] [A] counterstrike may be weeks or … days away. The Russian defensive […]
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“High-level meetings in Washington and New York … could have wide-reaching implications for the war between Ukraine and Russia, geopolitical hotspots like Taiwan and the South Pacific, and the global economy and international finance. With … Lavrov at the U.N. to preside over the Security Council and meet with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, and Guterres then traveling to Washington […]
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“NATO allies and partner countries have delivered more than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine during Russia’s invasion and war, [NATO’s] chief said Thursday, giving Kyiv a bigger punch as it contemplates launching a counteroffensive. Along with more than 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, Ukraine’s allies have sent ‘vast amounts of ammunition’ and also trained […]
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“Russia’s atomic-energy giant Rosatom does business around the world, including with the U.S. and allies like Turkey.” “… Rosatom State Atomiс Energy Corp.[] has expanded its global reach in recent years and is the world’s leader in constructing and operating nuclear projects abroad, working on 34 power units in 11 countries from China to Egypt to Hungary. In recent decades, […]
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“U.S. intelligence holds that Russia will be able to fund the war in Ukraine for at least another year, even under … unprecedented sanctions, according to leaked U.S. military documents. … While some of Russia’s economic elites might not agree with the country’s course in Ukraine, and sanctions have hurt their businesses, they are unlikely to withdraw support for … […]
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“Chinese leader Xi Jinping said … Wednesday … Beijing will send an envoy to Ukraine to discuss a possible ‘political settlement’ to Russia’s war with the country. … Xi told … Zelenskyy in a phone call that a Chinese envoy would visit Ukraine and ‘other countries’ to discuss a possible political settlement, according to a government statement …. It made […]
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“What do Russians want? Sociologists struggle to make sense of responses to their opinion polls, knowing that opponents of the authoritarian government are reluctant to express themselves.” “… [M]any argue that new tools and methodologies are needed to make sense of the data, due to the intense atmosphere of wartime Russia and growing state repression of people with differing views. […]
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“Kharkiv on country’s eastern border has long had Russian-speaking majority but things are changing fast” “… A period of official ‘Ukrainianisation’ followed the October revolution of 1917, with a lively avant garde, Ukrainian-language literary scene springing up in Kharkiv. But from 1933 onwards the novelists, poets, journalists and playwrights of this brief modernist flowering were brutally suppressed. Hundreds of writers […]
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“As Ukrainian and Russian troops fight conventional battles on the front lines, Europe’s first major war of the internet age has also sparked a war of technology as both sides vie for the advantage with their drones and satellite communications. While the two sides have kept pace with one another thus far, Ukraine’s minister in charge of technology told The […]
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“Behind closed doors, the administration worries about what Ukraine can accomplish” “… Ukraine’s ever-imminent counteroffensive will attempt to retake Russian-seized territory most likely in the east and south …. [I]f the impending fighting season yields limited gains, [Biden] administration officials have expressed privately [that] they fear being faced with a two-headed monster attacking it from the hawkish and dovish ends […]
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“… Russia’s bureaucracy … has found ways to withstand the fusillade of sanctions …. suppl[ying] enough men and materiel to propel Russia’s invasion. … without a sharp decline in living standards, which might prompt popular unrest. But any attempt to escalate the conflict would inevitably undo these successes. Russia is having to cope with the broadest array of sanctions ever […]
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“Renewed drone barrage comes ahead of meeting between Ukraine’s Western backers.” “… The latest drone barrage comes as Russia seeks to erode Ukraine’s air defenses ahead of a planned [Ukrainian] offensive … expected in … coming weeks. … [also] after purported [leaked] Pentagon presentations … show[ing] [that] Ukraine is running out of antiaircraft missiles, predicting Russia could achieve … [localized] […]
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“Putin [reportedly] visited [Russian] command posts … in Ukraine for the second time in two months … while … Zelenskyy made his latest trip near the front line. … [T]he war approaches its 14th month [as] … Kyiv readies a possible counteroffensive with Western-supplied weapons. Some of the most significant of those weapons appeared to have recently arrived …. Ukraine […]
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“Some allies fear Kyiv’s planned counter-offensive will falter if Russian air power is left unchecked.” “… Ukraine will plead for urgent shipments of surface-to-air missiles … fearful that an acute shortage could allow Russia to launch widespread bombing attacks. Kyiv [reportedly] will press allies to bolster their dwindling stocks at the so-called Ramstein military co-ordination group on Friday …. Without […]
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“Amid war in Ukraine, some strategists are setting their eyes on the ‘decolonization’ of Russia itself.” “Russia’s poor performance on the Ukrainian battlefield, and the growing belief that … Putin’s nuclear threat shouldn’t be taken at face value, has emboldened Western analysts and Russian dissidents to publicly call for [the] ‘decolonization’ of … the vast Russian Federation, the successor of […]
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“… China has also made recent headway with its Middle East diplomacy. … [especially with] Iran and Saudi Arabia … broker[ing] a deal to restore diplomatic relations between [them]. … [Global] developments [relating to Chinese influence] are causing some concern in Washington. … A significant divergence in attitudes to the war in Ukraine is driving [global] shifts [in attitudes towards […]
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“… Russia keeps feeding the grinder[,] … [reportedly] resupply[ing] their lines around Bakhmut as fast as they lose people …. But … some members of … Putin’s inner circle [reportedly] know … this protracted campaign is folly and that resistance to Putin … is slowly growing. ‘Many of those who supported the special operation yesterday are now in doubt or […]
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“The stark conclusion buried in the documents is that Vladimir Putin’s army has made little progress. Since last July, it has gained an average of just 2.7 kms (1.6 mi) of territory “per month” in its attack around Bakhmut. An equally startling disclosure is that the number of Russian mercenaries fighting around Bakhmut exceeds the number of regular soldiers. According […]
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“Senior U.S. envoys travels to Balkans, an information battleground.” “The State Department is increasing efforts to push back against … Kremlin[] disinformation … even as Russian propagandists have sought to exploit the extensive leak of purported U.S. classified information. … [A] senior U.S. envoy outlined proposals to help [Balkan] governments … ferret out Russian and Chinese disinformation sites on their […]
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“The additional documents also suggest the breach of American intelligence agencies could contain far more material than previously believed.” “… [I]nfighting inside the Russian government appears broader and deeper than previously understood, judging from … classified [U.S.] intelligence documents … leaked online. … [For example,] American intelligence officials say … [the] F.S.B.[] has ‘accused’ [Russia’s] Defense Ministry ‘of obfuscating Russian […]
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“The best path forward is a sequenced two-pronged strategy aimed at first bolstering Ukraine’s military capability and then, when the fighting season winds down late this year, ushering Moscow and Kyiv … to the negotiating table. The West should start by immediately expediting the flow of weapons to Ukraine and increasing their quantity and quality. … to bolster Ukraine’s defenses […]
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“Russian troops in occupied Crimea are reportedly preparing for Kyiv’s expected spring counteroffensive …. Russian units all along the 800-mile front have been preparing new defensive positions for several months, awaiting Ukraine’s next counter push, while their comrades grind forward in bloody offensives in the eastern Donetsk region. Kyiv is hoping to maximize Russian losses in the defense, exhausting Moscow’s […]
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“Ukrainian air force spokesman says, ‘We need jets here, and now’, as leaked documents raise fresh questions over RAF Black Sea incident.” “Ukraine has reportedly been forced to alter plans for its coming counter-offensive because of the leak of highly-sensitive US intelligence. An unnamed official close to … Zelensky … [said] Monday that Kyiv had to reconsider some of its […]
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“… [H]undreds of economics professors signed on to an open letter to Columbia University Professor Jeffery Sachs, arguing the Ivy League economist has pushed Russian propaganda in his writings about the war in Ukraine. … The group of professors takes issues with several points in Sachs’ public writings on the war in Ukraine, accusing the economist of denying the agency […]
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“It’s a marked departure from the Biden administration’s public pronouncements about the vitality of Ukraine’s army and is likely to embolden critics calling for negotiations to end the war.” “… [T]he bleak assessment from early February warns of significant ‘force generation and sustainment shortfalls,’ and the likelihood that such an operation will result in only ‘modest territorial gains.’ … Military […]
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“… Countries closer to Russia, such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, see the war quite differently. Their flinty perception … draws on deep historical traumas. … The atrocities Russia inflicts now on Ukraine echo these experiences and awaken new fears. The east Europeans’ intense support for the Ukrainian cause rests not on the desire to back a winner […]
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“The [IMF] raised its 2023 economic growth forecast for Russia on Tuesday, predicting that deficit-fueled government spending would help counteract the growing costs of its war in Ukraine. But the Russian invasion is expected to have a significant impact over the medium term, with the IMF predicting the Russian economy would be about 7% smaller by 2027 than pre-war forecasts […]
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“Event was ‘overwhelmingly pro-Russian’, says one attendee, as bank calls clients to apologise.” “Bank of America [reporetedly] cut short an online client conference on geopolitics and apologised to attendees after some balked at what they saw as pro-Russian comments about the war in Ukraine …. The conference was designed as a two-day event beginning … Tuesday, but BofA Securities cancelled […]
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“The secret documents were first posted in January to a small group on a messaging channel that trafficked in memes, jokes and racist talk.” “One of the most significant leaks of highly classified U.S. documents in recent history began among a small group of posters on … [the] [Discord] messaging channel that trafficked in memes, jokes and racist talk. Sometime […]
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“Desperate tactics used by Ukraine and Russia to secure a crucial victory in the city are taking a mental toll on soldiers.” “… The human wave tactics that [World War II Soviet General Georgy] Zhukov pioneered — sending men to charge German buildings suicidally, with a second squad of men behind to shoot anyone who turned and fled — are […]
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“… [N]early 200,000 Russian troops … [reportedly have been] killed or wounded … in a military operation … incompetent and ill equipped. Morale is reportedly low and complaints common. … [Y]et a significant number of Russian men are still keen to fight …. One obvious reason is fear. Men called up to the army have no choice but to obey, […]
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“The Kremlin on Thursday said it saw no “prospect” for China to mediate the Ukraine conflict and that it had “no other way” than to press on with its offensive. The comments came as French President Emmanuel Macron was in Beijing to try to dissuade China from supporting Moscow’s campaign. … China has outlined a proposal for peace in Ukraine, […]
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“In Warsaw last February, President Joe Biden condemned the lawless Russian invasion of Ukraine: ‘The idea that over 100,000 forces would invade another country—since World War II, nothing like that has happened.’ One month later marked the 20th anniversary of the greatest U.S. foreign policy debacle since Vietnam: America’s ‘war of choice’ against Iraq, with 130,000 US soldiers invading the […]
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“Russia’s unprovoked invasion is impossible to justify. Now is not the time to relent in helping Ukraine.” “… Putin is trying to convince his public that this war is existential, but with little success. Russia’s existence as a strong, sovereign state is not dependent on … control of Ukraine …. That’s why, since Putin implemented a partial mobilization last fall, […]
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“… Whoever emerges as the Republican candidate, they are more likely to be in the Ukraine critic lane than the supporter one. … [which] may have some advantages … in the general election. … [S]urvey questions about Ukraine that explicitly identified policies as Biden’s got much lower approval than those about just the policies themselves. … An October 2022 Reuters/Ipsos […]
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“The move comes amid a major schism between Ukraine’s Orthodox churches..” “… Wednesday is the deadline for the monastery’s 1,000 inhabitants to leave what was their home amid heightened political concerns that some of them were too close to Moscow, and were Russian fifth columnists. … [T]he spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew [of Constantinople], hardened […]
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