After communism fell, Russia’s rulers, the siloviki (strongmen, like President Vladimir Putin and his cronies) experienced a period of uncertainty. Eventually, Russia came back under their control. They said, you can’t really run a Western democracy in a post-Soviet country, it just results in chaos. But then Latvia,
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov made a statement on Jan. 20 which has been perceived as a veiled threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Peskov expressed his concerns that implementation by the U.S. of new financial sanctions on Russia will encourage Ukrainian leadership to "start a new
Russia has begun sending its troops and combat vehicles to Ukraine’s northern neighbor Belarus ahead of next month’s joint military exercises, in a move likely to stir Western fears that Moscow is preparing to further invade Ukraine. Belarus's defense ministry announced on Jan. 18 that Russian troops have
Editor’s Note: The following is the latest edition of the Kyiv Independent’s newsletter, Ukraine Daily. If you would like to receive news about Ukraine in your mailbox six days a week subscribe here. It’s free. Russia’s war against Ukraine UK to provide Ukraine with anti-tank weapons.
Russia’s president made strong self-serving demands recently. Among them seeking security guarantees from the United States, its allies and NATO, determining NATO’s membership, and withholding military co-operation to the now independent former USSR states. Otherwise the Zircons will fly, he threatened. President Joe Biden shot back. Ukraine’s
The first thing I do every morning is grab my phone to read the latest news. And every morning I read about yet another ominous threat of Russia invading my home, Ukraine. It’s either Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Ukraine joining NATO would mean death to Russia as we
Russia launched a surprise combat readiness check of its military forces deployed in the Far East, amid an ongoing security crisis which threatens an escalation of Russia’s war with Ukraine. The drills envisage testing the capacity of the country's transportation grid to project military force "by large distances," according
The week of diplomacy with Russia ended without a clear resolution and Europe teetering on the brink of war. The West and Russia have reached an impasse, neither willing to budge on Russia’s core demand of excluding Ukraine from NATO and pulling NATO members’ forces back from Eastern Europe.
I have certainly put myself out there as having the most hawkish view on Russia (compared to the street consensus), but I still find it difficult to see anything but escalation by Russia with Ukraine from the current postures. Why? First, I just don’t see much room for compromise
Russia has neither accepted nor rejected de-escalation on Ukraine after meeting with NATO in Brussels on Jan. 12, according to U.S. Deputy State Secretary Wendy Sherman. The meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, the first since July 2019, is part of a week-long flurry of diplomacy in Europe. On Jan.
A new bill that's about to be introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives advocates for the U.S. to increase military funding to Ukraine and implement strict measures against Russia immediately, according to Politico. The bill, titled "Guaranteeing Ukrainian Autonomy by Reinforcing its Defense Act" (GUARD), is signed
U.S. Deputy State Secretary Wendy Sherman held an eight-hour-long security discussion with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Ryabkov, in Geneva on Jan. 10. The talks marked the end of the first day of a week of diplomacy spurred by Russia’s buildup of over 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s
A majority of Ukrainians would vote for joining the European Union and NATO if the referendum took place in the upcoming week, according to a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) survey published on Dec. 24. The poll showed that 67% of surveyed Ukrainians would support joining the EU, while
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called for a new meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in early 2022 to establish a dialogue regarding the Kremlin’s ongoing threat of full-fledged war against Ukraine. Stoltenberg made the statement on Dec. 21 during his Brussels meeting with newly-appointed Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae
Any aggression from Russia against Ukraine would trigger “serious consequences,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Nov. 30. Blinken told a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Riga that Russia is combining military movements along Ukraine’s border with internal efforts to destabilize the country. NATO Secretary-General
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