Casey Michel

The past month has seen an entire string of successes in Ukraine's war against Russia, with both long-range attacks and swarms of drone strikes slowly turning the tide in Kyiv's favor. Few things, though, have been as successful as Ukraine's efforts to isolate the occupied region of Crimea, forcing Russian authorities to declare a state of emergency as Kyiv continues to bombard the peninsula. The successes, however, haven't been only military. In its months-long campaign to strangle Russia’s h

For years, an idea has percolated among certain Western officials that the best way to break the burgeoning partnership between Russia and China is to appease Moscow, including to the point of choking off all support for Ukraine. Known colloquially as the "reverse Kissinger," it is an idea that builds on U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's efforts in the early 1970s to peel Beijing away from Moscow. As the theory goes, it is only in offering Moscow what it wants — sanctions relief, new i

The recent anniversary of Russia's expanded invasion, which is now stretching into its fifth year, is as good a time as any to take stock of the state of the war itself. For Ukraine, the fighting remains existential, and it is Ukrainians themselves who continue to suffer and to sacrifice not just on behalf of their own defense, but on behalf of broader stability in Europe. Somehow, though, many Western partners still fail to see one clear fact: that it is Russia, and not Ukraine, who has suffer