Author: JRL Russia List

“Western officials say restrictions are damaging Russia’s economy and military output but acknowledge the impact is slower than hoped.” “… Western sanctions have failed in their most important task — stopping the Kremlin’s war machine. Western officials and experts say … financial, economic, military and energy sanctions imposed on Russia since February 2022 have damaged Russia’s economy and arms-production capacity, […]

“ASEEES 56th Annual Convention Virtual Convention, October 17-18, 2024 Boston Marriott Copley Place, November 21-24, 2024 Theme: Liberation 2024 ASEEES President: Vitaly Chernetsky, University of Kansas” “Building on the productive discussions stimulated by the 2023 theme, decolonization, we offer liberation as the 2024 focus. … As our field is engaged in a profound reexamination of its history, of many previously […]

“The dominant narrative today holds that … Biden and … Trump are opposites on Ukraine. The president supports the Senate bill that includes about $60 billion for Kyiv …. The former president attacks it, and his influence among House Republicans is why Speaker Mike Johnson is reluctant to bring it to the floor …. But when it comes to the […]

“Military operations in Ukraine [reportedly] have cost Russia up to $211 billion … [Russia also] has lost $10 billion in canceled or paused arms sales. At least 20 medium to large Russian naval vessels have been sunk … and 315,000 Russian soldiers have … been killed or wounded, according to [DOD] data. U.S. support for [Ukraine] helps a democratic partner […]

“Statespeople, diplomats, military brass and spies at a defence conference this weekend fear war is tilting in Moscow’s favour” “… This year’s gathering of political leaders, diplomats, military brass and spy chiefs in the Bavarian capital — a conference nicknamed the Davos of defence — was dominated by the war in Ukraine amid fears that Russia is gaining the upper […]

“There is a dawning recognition that the continent urgently needs to step up its own defense, especially as the U.S. wavers, but the commitments still are not coming.” “… In Munich, the mood was both anxious and unmoored, as leaders faced confrontations they had not anticipated. Warnings about [] Putin’s possible next moves were mixed with Europe’s growing worries that […]

“The Steadfast Defender exercise, the biggest since the Cold War, comes as it is revealed Moscow has lost 3,000 tanks in Ukraine” “… The exercise … will see nations rehearse how U.S. troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on [NATO’s] eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with a ‘near-peer’ adversary. The Royal Navy’s […]

“Decision to replace Ukraine’s popular top general comes as the army struggles to hold back Russian forces” “… The move is aimed at rebooting the country’s war effort, Zelensky said …. [R]eplacing a figure as popular as Zaluzhniy with … Syrskiy, … seen as closer to the president, will bind Zelensky more tightly to battlefield decisions, making him more accountable […]

“… Russia has lost over 2,900 main battle tanks … about as many as it had in active inventory at the outset …. Moscow has been able to … pull[] thousands of older tanks out of storage …. Russia’s stored equipment inventories … could potentially sustain … three more years of heavy losses … even if at lower technical standard […]

“… The process of ‘vymorozka,’ which roughly translates as ‘freezing out,’ is backbreaking and tedious work that takes weeks in some of the world’s harshest conditions, with temperatures dropping to minus 50 degrees Celsius (-58 F). Workers chip away at the ice encasing the ships, looking for areas in need of repair … docked in the harbour of Yakutsk on […]

Putin granted a two-hour interview to Tucker Carlson … Zelenskyy replaced Valerii Zaluzhnyi with Oleksandr Syrskyi as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine […]

“An interview with Russia’s leader and congressional resistance to aid for Ukraine underscore the transformation of the parties and electorate in the United States more than three decades after the Cold War.” “The idea was to isolate him, to make him a pariah, to put him in a box as punishment for brazen violations of international law. They kicked him […]

“… [A]ccording to a recent poll by Ukrainian think tank Razumkov Center … published Wednesday, around 41 percent of citizens said that they believe Ukraine is ‘developing in the right direction,’ 38 percent felt it’s heading in the ‘wrong direction,’ and 21 percent were undecided … based on … responses [from] 2,000 Ukrainian adults surveyed face-to-face … from January 19 […]