Soldiers practice during urban warfare drills on Dec. 26, 2021 in Kyiv. (Kyiv’s 130th Territorial Defense Brigade)
There are questions about troop numbers, questions about diplomacy. There are questions about the Ukrainian military, its weapons, and its soldiers. There are questions about Germany and France: How will they react? There are questions about America, and how it has come to be a central player in a conflict not of its making. But of all the questions that repeatedly arise about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, the one that gets the least satisfactory answers is this one: Why?
Anne Applebaum is a staff writer at The Atlantic, a fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and the author of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.
Andrii Parubii, a Ukrainian politician who previously served as the parliament speaker and played a prominent role in the EuroMaidan Revolution, was shot dead in Lviv on Aug. 30.
Russia launched a missile and drone attack targeting various Ukrainian regions overnight on Aug. 30, killing at least one person and injuring 34 others, officials reported.
U.S. officials have grown increasingly impatient with European leaders, whom they allege are pushing Ukraine to hold out for a "better deal," Axios reported in an exclusive scoop on Aug. 30.
The focus for such U.S. contractors appears to be on helping to build new defenses and securing U.S. business interests in Ukraine, the Telegraph reported.
The so-called "dragon teeth" — pyramid-shaped concrete anti-tank obstacles — were set up as part of the Baltic Defense Line, a planned string of defenses along the Baltic countries' borders with Russia and Belarus.
Polish authorities have expelled 15 Ukrainian citizens after they were detained for offenses like drug possession, drunk driving, theft, and illegal border crossings, RMF24 reported on Aug. 30.
The facility was used to store pyroxylin gunpowder, a smokeless powder used in the production of small arms, artillery, and rocket systems, a military intelligence source claimed.
What’s it really like to live in a Ukrainian village during wartime? Masha Lavrova leaves the capital, Kyiv, and moves to a village to explore authentic Ukrainian rural life. She tries to survive for a month on a $500 budget — the average Ukrainian salary. Follow Masha’s bumpy journey to her new home in a village in Kyiv Oblast in the first episode.
Military spokesperson Andrii Kovalov acknowledged that reassignments take place, but said this does not concern air defense specialists protecting Ukrainian skies.
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that Chinese peacekeepers could monitor a neutral zone along the front line in Ukraine as part of a potential peace settlement, the Financial Times reported on Aug. 29, citing four undisclosed sources.
