Ukraine recap: Putin on top as Kyiv scrambles to play catch-up on the battlefield: Vladimir Putin has been looking pretty chipper of late. Two weeks ago saw him wearing his trademark vulpine smile as he presided over the Victory Day commemorations in Moscow. It was a rather more upbeat occasion than in the two years …
Ukraine recap: Russia won’t attack Nato countries says Putin, believe it or not: Vladimir Putin says he has no intention of attacking any Nato members. Visiting an airbase in Torzhok, on the road between Moscow and St Petersburg, the Russian president told a group of pilots he didn’t plan to spark a war with any …
Ukraine recap: Russian election special – and the winner will be … Vladimir Putin: Russian voters have been heading to the polls this week. But it would be misleading to say they were voting to choose a president. That’s already been done for them – it’ll be Vladimir Putin. If there had ever been any …
Ukraine recap: prospect of renewed US funding a boost for beleaguered Zelensky: It’s appropriate, a fortnight out from the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion, to look back and see what the mood was this time last year as we marked the end of the first year of all-out war in Ukraine. We had …
Ukraine recap: Zelensky battles corruption and a major row with his commander-in-chief: The Russian winter offensive flagged here a fortnight ago appears to be under way, according to the Institute for the Study of War, which has noted operations in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts resulting in small Russian gains of territory. Ukrainian intelligence reports …
Ukraine recap: Zelensky’s defiant new year speech foreshadows tough 2024 as government tightens conscription laws: Ukraine is alive. Ukraine lives. Ukraine fights. Ukraine advances, Ukraine overcomes the path. Ukraine gains. Ukraine works. Ukraine exists. In his new year’s speech this week, Volodymyr Zelensky was characteristically bullish about his country’s prospects as the war heads towards …
Ukraine recap: as cracks appear in western support, 2024 looks set to be a desperate fight for survival: While it may seem glib to repeat the notion of a new cold war, winter 2023-2024 has brought with it the sense that there is now an ever-more uncertain faultline between the west and an increasingly aggressive …
Ukraine recap: western divisions an ominous sign for Kyiv as the aid funding tap begins to dry up: For the past week or so it has felt as if Ukraine’s fate is more likely to be decided in Washington and Brussels than on the battlefield as US president Joe Biden struggles to get his US$ …
Ukraine recap: naval success raises hopes of advantage against Russia this winter: War in wintertime is especially challenging militarily. Troops have to deal with the risk of frostbite while vehicles can’t always move over muddy or frozen terrain. It’s no wonder then that wars tend to move much more slowly during the colder months. Cold …
Ukraine recap: with winter closing in Zelensky resists calls to negotiate – but Gaza war adds to pressure: For the past month, the world’s attention has reeled at the violence in Israel and Gaza. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has ground on, day by day, metre by metre. Fierce fighting has continued in the north-eastern …
Ukraine recap: future of US support for Kyiv in question as Israel conflict reshapes Washington’s priorities: There was some worrying news for Volodymyr Zelensky this week when the US House of Representatives finally elected a new speaker. Mike Johnson, a Republican congressman from Louisiana, has consistently opposed US funding for the Ukrainian war effort. Now …
Ukraine recap: what war in the Middle East means for Putin and Ukraine: For some people it was a week when they forgot that the Ukraine war was happening. As news from the Middle East took up longer and longer slots on news programmes and websites, reports from Ukraine were pushed off the front pages, …
Ukraine recap: Ukraine and allies maintain optimism despite slow progress on the battlefield: At a press conference after talks with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, this afternoon, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg sounded like a man determined to take a “glass half full” attitude when he said that “every metre that Ukrainian forces regain is …
Ukraine recap: Kim Jong-un visits Putin for arms-for-tech talks while Kyiv urges west for longer-range missiles to aid counteroffensive: Vladimir Putin spent a few pleasant hours this week with one of his friends and allies – an increasingly exclusive club these days. Putin met up with North Korea’s supreme leader, Respected Comrade Kim Jong-un, who …
Ukraine recap: fallout from death of Yevgeny Prigozhin will be felt far beyond Moscow: Where were you when you heard that Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aircraft had crashed and he was presumed dead? For Ukraine watchers it was something of a surreal JFK moment. And, like the Zapruder tape, the video footage of the …
Ukraine recap: bridgehead across the Dnipro river a key objective as Kyiv works to maintain solidarity among allies: Google the words “Ukraine counteroffensive” and the adverb you will most commonly find associated with them is “slowly”. The popular misconception in the months leading up to the launch of Ukraine’s summer push was that, like last …
Ukraine recap: counter-offensive gathers pace while Wagner Group takes on new role: Reports from the front lines of the various conflict zones reveal daily just how difficult Ukraine is finding its summer counter-offensive. Russia has had months to build defensive fortifications and Ukrainian troops are having to fight their way through territory which – according …
Ukraine recap: Yevgeny Prigozhin and the mystery of the mutiny that never was: Ukrainian units are forcing their Russian foes back by what on some days seems like a few metres at a time. But on June 24, at least some Russian troops moved much more rapidly toward their own capital. Our last Ukraine recap, …