WARSAW – This wasn’t supposed to happen. With sweeping control over state financial resources and public and local media, Poland’s populist ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), had a massive structural advantage in this month’s parliamentary election. It should have won handily and continued consolidating its illiberal, anti-democratic
Proposals for peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are pointless and dangerous. The Kremlin will not offer peace in exchange for Ukrainian territories, because its goal is not territorial but the elimination of Ukraine on the way to completing Russia’s “historical mission” of destroying the “decadent West.” BERKELEY/KYIV
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Oct. 12 that it would suspend the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) after it incorporated the regional sports organizations from four territories illegally annexed from Ukraine. In its statement, the IOC said the ROC’s inclusion of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia’s sports
The debate surrounding the European Union’s potential expansion is no longer really about Ukraine and the western Balkans. Enlargement is now an existential question with far-reaching implications for the EU and its ability to remain a prominent player in a rapidly changing global environment. BERLIN – Where will Europe’s
By declining to include funding for Ukraine as part of the recent deal to avert a government shutdown, the U.S. Congress sent a signal of encouragement to Russian President Vladimir Putin. That makes tightening the price cap on Russian oil exports all the more important. WASHINGTON, DC/CAMBRIDGE – Wars
“Ukraine is the second-most corrupt country in Europe." "The situation with bribery has been at a standstill.” “Corruption reform doesn’t work in Ukraine.” These statements have been repeated at various international forums, by foreign officials, and by the media. But how much truth is there to these statements? In
For the U.S., Slovakia's general election may produce another unreliable allied government. But instead of turning a blind eye to such allies, as U.S. President Joe Biden has been doing with Poland, or confronting them with an uncompromising stance, the U.S. should spearhead efforts to help mend
Slovakia’s early parliamentary elections on Sept. 30 resulted in a clear victory for pro-Kremlin politician Robert Fico and his party, SMER. While we don’t know which parties will form the government, scenarios in which Fico is not the strongest party leader of the ruling coalition are not really
Editor’s Note: This is an analysis by Nataliya Bugayova, Kateryna Stepanenko, and Frederick W. Kagan for the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). This analysis was originally published by the ISW on Oct. 1, 2023, and has been republished by the Kyiv Independent with permission. Russian President Vladimir
Robert Fico’s Direction – Social Democracy (Smer) has secured victory in the latest Slovak elections with 23% of the vote. Ex-Prime Minister Fico, who expressed dissatisfaction with his country’s support of neighboring Ukraine, has an open road to a third stint as the country’s prime minister. Yet, despite
According to the Ukrainian government, more than 8 million Ukrainians have left the country since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with around 6 million currently in EU member states and approximately 800,000 in the United States. Canada’s already large Ukrainian community has also expanded significantly. The
As world leaders gather for meetings at the UN’s Climate Ambition Summit, the urgency of addressing the climate crisis cannot be overstated. At the same time, we must confront Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, where innocent lives are being lost daily. Over-dependence on Russian fossil fuels has already
As President Volodymyr Zelensky makes a long-awaited trip to the U.S., the White House is set to announce a new $325 million military aid package. According to reports, it will again be missing the much-desired ATACMS long-range missiles, which Kyiv says may turn the tide of Russia’s ongoing
The rise in Russia's disinformation efforts continues to be an ever-growing concern for Western nations. This uptick is notably concentrated on Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine, aiming to weaken Western backing for the country. These strategic propaganda operations are far from isolated events. They represent a broader pattern of information
Editor’s Note: The following is the first issue of “Ukraine’s economy weekly,” a weekly digest by Yaroslav Zhelezniak, the first deputy head of the parliamentary committee for finance, tax, and custom policy. The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport
MADRID – If anyone had lingering doubts about the fractured state of global rule-making, they should now be dispelled. The just-concluded G20 summit in New Delhi attracted as much attention for who was not there – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping – as for the discussions among those who
STOCKHOLM – Russian President Vladimir Putin had obvious reasons for hosting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un at Vostochny, Russia’s new spaceport in eastern Siberia, this month. Owing to his illegal war of aggression in Ukraine, Putin is running low on both friends and ammunition. The Vostochny spaceport has a
Editor’s Note: President Volodymyr Zelensky vetoed the Verkhovna Rada's amendments to the draft bill on electronic asset declarations for public officials on Sept. 12, saying "declarations must be open." In early September, President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukraine’s parliament to adopt a draft law critical to Ukraine’s
Russia has terrorized Ukraine beyond the point of no return. In doing so, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) have exposed the Russian army’s many weaknesses. The Kremlin failed to achieve all its strategic objectives since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Rather than preventing the expansion
Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 dealt a staggering blow to the Ukrainian media market, which had already been struggling prior. The media have lost their regular audience. Millions of readers, viewers, and listeners have either left the country, are internally displaced within Ukraine, have found themselves in Russian-occupied
Let’s not pull punches. Russia could end up winning the war. But, contrary to the repeated assertions of people like U.S. Colonel (ret.) Douglas Macgregor, a Russian victory isn’t inevitable. The truth is that if Russia does eventually win, the West, with its leaders’ “doublethink,” will be
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, has cast a spotlight on the emergent role of cryptocurrencies in a modern war zone. In a time of crisis, where conventional financial systems faltered, crypto has emerged as a critical and unexpected ally for Ukraine. However, the full-scale invasion in
MADRID – The just-concluded BRICS summit – bringing together the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – was touted as a pivotal event that could change the contours of international relations. Some compared it to the Bandung conference of 1955, which laid the foundation for the Non-Aligned Movement, while others
Aside from the capital city of Tbilisi, where 40 miles away Russian occupying troops are stationed in Georgia’s South Ossetia region, the danger of unjust peace is also felt in Batumi, the country’s tourist hotspot on the Black Sea coast. Over the horizon lies Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea.
WARSAW – There is a growing belief that Poland will soon have Europe’s strongest army. Poland’s ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), has not missed any opportunity to drum this message home, and one increasingly hears it being echoed abroad, too. But is it true? The claim largely rests
The renewal of Ukraine’s Independence on Aug. 24, 1991, was clearly one of the most defining moments in the history of the 20th century. Why? Ukraine’s independence allowed the Ukrainian people to finally emerge from colonialism and enter the circle of free peoples of the world. Ukraine's independence
It’s a weekend, a sunny summer day. Surrounded by a pond and a field is a base station, which connects thousands of Ukrainians in the south. A car arrives and three engineers get out. Instead of vacationing with their families, they are going back to work. A trench has
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has increasing repercussions beyond Eastern Europe – political, economic, social, legal, and humanitarian. Against this background, it is worth revisiting the full-scale war’s earliest and most urgent Ukrainian request for direct Western military support. Shortly after the start of Russia’s massive invasion on Feb.
Putin has shot himself in the foot. His recent expropriations of Western companies will actually help the West by damaging the Russian economy. Expropriating the Russian assets of French company Danone and Danish company Carlsberg's Baltika subsidiary is reprehensible, but Putin is unwittingly actually harming Russia. He has bitten the
CAMBRIDGE – Who should pay for Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction? Shortly after Russia’s invasion, my co-authors and I estimated that it would cost roughly €200-500 billion ($220-550 billion) to rebuild the country and called for Europe to spearhead the recovery effort. After more than 500 days of death and destruction,
Russian President Vladimir Putin relies on the manipulation of media narratives and limiting access to information to maintain popular support and acceptance of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has pruned Russian news to convey a firehose of disinformation based on three storylines: life outside Russia is horrendous, Russia
Despite more than two-thirds of NATO members supporting a path for Ukraine into the alliance, Ukraine got a flat no. The alliance’s decision at the 2023 Vilnius summit was both unsurprising and a disappointment. Opposition primarily from Washington and Berlin dashed any hopes of a clear invite for Ukraine,
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