As Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime collapsed in a matter of days, Russia's influence in the Middle East appeared to wane. Preoccupied with its all-out war against Ukraine, Russia was unable to prevent the Dec. 8 downfall of its main ally in the region. The stunning rapidity of the rebels'
The Kyiv Independent’s reporter Oleg Sukhov sat down with Robert Kelley to discuss whether the weapon Ukraine gave up would be of much use now and if the country still has the capacity to produce a nuclear device.
The shock capture of Aleppo by Syrian forces opposed to Bashar al-Assad in recent days has dealt a humiliating blow to the regime and its backers, Russia and Iran, analysts have told the Kyiv Independent. The surprise offensive has also indirectly helped Ukraine, analysts say. "This is really quite the
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Nov. 27 decision to choose Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia is not ideal for Kyiv but is an acceptable and reasonable choice for Ukraine, analysts say. Kellogg has co-authored a peace plan that would freeze the front line in Ukraine,
With the purchasing power of the Russian ruble hitting the lowest point since March 2022, the economic toll of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine becomes glaring. Russia's expanding spending on the war has fueled inflation, prompting Russia's Central Bank to hike its interest rate to the highest level since the
Amid rising fears of U.S. aid being cut off under a second Donald Trump presidency, Ukrainians are left wondering whether Europe can rise to the challenge and fill the gap. Trump has promised to swiftly end Russia's war against Ukraine, speaking highly of Russian President Vladimir Putin and making
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's first team picks have both positive and negative implications for Ukraine, with Kyiv left guessing what kind of policy they will pursue, according to Ukrainian and Western analysts. Some appointments seem to lean in Kyiv’s favor, while others hint at a more Moscow-friendly stance.
Amid the looming risk that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may pull the plug on Washington's support for Ukraine, Kyiv has begun to flirt with the option of nuclear deterrence. The prospect of such a scenario was raised weeks earlier when President Volodymyr Zelensky in October said he had told
With Ukraine's future hanging in the balance ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, Ukraine’s president turned up the heat, invoking the specter of nuclear weapons to nudge whoever lands in the Oval Office toward offering more conventional weaponry and robust security guarantees to Kyiv. Volodymyr Zelensky
As Americans head to the polls on Nov. 5, Ukraine is nervously watching the elections being held by its top Western ally as the outcome could determine the country’s fate in its fight against Russia’s almost three-year-old full-scale invasion. The two candidates' pre-election positions on continuing to support
Voting in arguably one of the most consequential elections of modern times is set to conclude on Nov. 5, as U.S. citizens will pick their country's 47th president. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump enter the home stretch neck-and-neck, according to recent polls, with neither
Georgia's Oct. 26 parliamentary election presented a clear geopolitical choice for the country’s voters, but criticism is mounting that the ruling regime stole the vote. After years of vacillating between the West and Russia and paying lip service to European integration, the country's ruling Georgian Dream party began to
The formal reason for Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin's resignation on Oct. 22 was the ongoing major corruption scandal involving hundreds of prosecutors who obtained disability benefits, including financial support, the ability to evade the military draft and leave the country at will. A crucial question is whether Kostin's resignation will
"I think part will be declassified, and the other part will be present to the leaders of (parliamentary groups)," David Arakhamia, the leader of Zelensky's Servant of the People parliamentary group, said in comments for the Kyiv Independent.
Russian pro-war milbloggers have reacted to yet more reports of Ukrainian POWs being executed by Moscow’s forces by seeking to justify the killings, while some have even called for more. In the latest case of what appears to be an increasingly common occurrence, Russian troops reportedly shot dead nine
As the Nov. 5 presidential election in the U.S. approaches, debate is intensifying over whether one of the two potential winners, Donald Trump, will act in the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Although discussions on the topic have raged since Trump’s first presidency, they accelerated this week
Amid speculation that the Kremlin is considering a new mobilization of conscripts, some potential draftees say they are not enthusiastic about defending Russian territory just over a month after the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast. "I won't go (to the front). I swore an oath to the Constitution, not to
Just before sunrise on an otherwise sleepy weekend near Moscow, a Russian eyewitness of Ukraine’s kamikaze drone attack on the Kashira Power Plant appeared stunned, unleashing an expletive-laden tirade with his wife alongside. "They f***g attacked the power plant! Wow, honey!" he said in a video posted on
Gizo Uglava, the second-in-command at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), has been fired following a probe into his alleged pressure on a whistleblower, the bureau said on Sept. 3. Semen Kryvonos, head of the NABU, dismissed his first deputy chief Uglava for violating a public servant's oath, ethics
The future of Ukraine's top anti-corruption agency hung in the balance as its second-in-command lashed out at his boss after a disciplinary commission recommended firing or reprimanding him. Gizo Uglava, first deputy chief of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), continued to deny accusations of wrongdoing as he claimed
Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk Oblast has derailed Russia's plans to dictate a peace deal on its terms and strengthened Ukraine's hand in any future negotiations, Ukrainian officials and analysts say. “We must force Russia, with all our might and together with our partners, to make peace,
The 1,000 square kilometers Ukraine says it controls in Russia's Kursk Oblast amounts to a tiny share of Russia’s massive terrain. Yet, politically, the surprise Ukrainian move poses one of the biggest challenges to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power. The stunning operation, conducted by Ukraine’
The new role of Kellyanne Conway, a former top White House official and advisor to Donald Trump, as a lobbyist to boost support for Ukraine highlights hopes in Kyiv that the Republican Party’s presidential candidate can be swayed to take Ukraine’s side — and benefit politically from it. According
An internal probe into alleged pressure on a whistleblower at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine will be completed this week, Semen Kryvonos, chief of the anti-graft agency also known by its acronym NABU, told a parliamentary committee probing the affair. "The deadline (for the probe into the pressure on
Editor’s note: In accordance with the security protocols of the Ukrainian military, soldiers featured in this story are identified by first names only. As calls mount for U.S. President Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming presidential election among Democratic party allies in Washington, Ukrainian soldiers more
Scrambling Kremlin propagandists have projected conflicting narratives of disinformation and spin to deflect blame from Russia's July 8 massive missile attack that shocked the world by striking Kyiv’s primary children’s hospital. The deadliest attack in months involving nearly 40 missiles targeting Kyiv and other regions threatens to backfire
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, the Russian government has focused all of its financial resources on funding the war. As the war is the Kremlin's number one priority, all tools at its disposal have been used: increased taxation, sovereign funds, domestic borrowing, and the printing of
Members of the Ukrainian parliament's anti-corruption committee on June 20 lambasted Semen Kryvonos, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), for refusing to report at the committee on a scandal over alleged leaks from the NABU. The NABU has been in turmoil since journalists found out in May
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has come under fire as more details emerged over the past weeks about leaks from the bureau and its handling of the scandal. For nearly a month, the country’s key anti-corruption agency has been in turbulence. In late May, it was revealed
Ukraine faces yet another test in its efforts to meet conditions for joining the European Union – the creation of a credible and trustworthy Constitutional Court. The ongoing selection of new Constitutional Court judges under new rules is in its final stages – the judges have already been chosen and need to
The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) said on May 22 that it had searched the house of a detective of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). The case involves alleged corruption at the President's Office, law enforcement sources told the Kyiv Independent. The President's Office and the NABU did
