What you should know about Russia annexing four Ukrainian provinces

The Poltava-Kharkiv annexation of Ukraine, and Vladimir Putin’s plan for a major visit to the Federal Assembly

Shurokin appeared on Moscow television last week to suggest the Kremlin’s new objective – that actually dates back decades – is to force Ukraine into Russia’s orbit and keep it from joining the EU and especially NATO. Shurokin wants to see Ukraine be independent of the West and NATO, and friendly to the Russian state.

On the ground. There were Russian attacks on the central Poltava region as well as the Bilohorivka and Kreminna areas in the eastern Luhansk region, Ukrainian officials said. The General Staff said several people were hurt in the Russian rocket attacks. It also reported heavy shelling along the frontline that runs north-south on the Luhansk-Kharkiv border.

Putin, however, attempted to claim that the referendums reflected the will of “millions” of people, despite reports from the ground suggesting that voting took place essentially – and in some cases, literally – at gunpoint.

“I want the authorities in Kyiv and their real overlords in the West to hear me: the residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson are becoming our citizens,” Putin said. “I am here forever.”

The annexation was framed by the Russian president as an attempt to fix a mistake he believes was caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Putin’s logical option, Kortunov says, is to declare victory and get out on his own terms. But for this he needs a significant achievement on the ground. “Russia cannot simply get to where it was, on the 24 February of this year, say, okay, you know, that’s fine. The mission has been accomplished. So we go home… …There should be something that can be presented to the public as a victory.”

Despite international condemnation, Russia will proceed with its plans to fly its flag over over 100,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, which is more than any other country in Europe since 1945.

The debate over Biden’s visit will be unwelcome to Putin, who will on Tuesday make a major speech to the Federal Assembly in which he will discuss the ongoing invasion.

Putin signed a document at the St. George hall, saying that the people made their choice. “And that choice won’t be betrayed” by Russia, he said.

The US is in agreement. White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters last week that Putin has “shown absolutely zero indication that he’s willing to negotiate” an end to the war, according to Reuters. Kirby said that everything he is doing on the ground and in the air is indicative of a man who wants to visit violence upon the Ukrainian people.

Senior Russian lawmakers and officials watched as Putin was joined by Moscow-backed leaders and officials from the four regions.

Outside the Kremlin, preparations were under way for an evening concert and rally with banners saying Russia and the newly integrated territories are “together forever.”

Sept. 27: Russia claimed that staged referendums in four occupied regions of Ukraine showed the people chose to join the Russian Federation. The process was called a violation of international law by leaders of the United Nations.

Biden said that the United States would not recognize Russia’s claim to the Ukraine. “This so-called referenda was a sham — an absolute sham — and the results were manufactured in Moscow.”

Putin, however, framed the decision as a historical justice following the breakup of the Soviet Union that had left Russian speakers separated from their homeland — and the West dictating world affairs according to its own rules.

This is not the first time Russia has accused Western nations of turning the conflict into a proxy war by supplying Ukraine with weapons. (Iran has acknowledged providing military drones to Russia.)

Russia launched 36 missiles acrossUkraine in a single day, and Ukraine downed 16 of them. Most hit critical infrastructure, but Ukraine’s power grid operator said there were no electricity shortages.

The annexed territories of the Russian Federation have been annexed: a battle of Russia and the Kremlin

Russia’s parliament and constitutional court are expected to approve the formal annexation of the territories into the Russian Federation.

As the Russian government tries to beef up its military campaign, it is being confronted by a counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops in the south and northeast of the country.

The Russian officials have warned that the newly incorporated territories would be entitled to protection under Russia’s nuclear umbrella.

Fiona Hill, who has advised three US Presidents on national security about Russia, also thinks Putin may be attempting an end game. “He feels a sense of acute urgency that he was losing momentum, and he’s now trying to exit the war in the same way that he entered it. With him being the person in charge and him framing the whole terms of any kind of negotiation. “

Putin has lost a lot of ground on the battlefield, and his recent large-scale enlistment drive is backfiring in his own backyard, causing him to spend a lot of money on politics.

Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled to bordering states in order to avoid the draft because Putin ordered 300,000 more troops in September.

CNN is unable to confirm the numbers, but they say the border with Georgia has seen traffic tailbacks, and the perception of Putin diminishing his prowess at reading Russia is growing.

Kortunov knows that the public is upset about the huge costs and loss of life in the war, which he doesn’t know anything about. Why did we end up in this mess? We lost a lot of people.

There was a time when he threatened nuclear strikes should Ukraine try to take back the annexed territories.

Western leaders are having a fight with Putin. Last Sunday US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Washington would respond decisively if Russia deployed nuclear weapons against Ukraine and has made clear to Moscow the “catastrophic consequences” it would face.

Ukraine’s First Battle: An Address to Putin’s Friends in Europe and the Far Right, and a Challenge to Putin in the Middle East

The first blast at around 2 a.m. was recorded by the Danes, followed by the second blast at around 7 p.m.

Within hours, roiling patches of sea were discovered, the Danes and the Germans sent warships to secure the area, and Norway increased security around its oil and gas facilities.

The Nord Stream pipeline sabotage could, according to Hill, be a last roll of the dice by Putin, so that “there’s no kind of turning back on the gas issues. Europe will not be able to continue to build its gas reserves for the winter. Putin is throwing everything at this right now.

Brennan said that Russia was likely to be the main culprit and that Putin was attempting to send a message to Europe. So who knows what he will do next.

Nord Stream 2 was never operational, and Nord Stream 1 had been throttled back by Putin as Europe raced to replenish gas reserves ahead of winter, while dialling back demands for Russian supplies and searching for replacement providers.

The international impact of the war in Ukraine is about to get worse. Some of Putin’s friends on the far right have turned against him. Some politicians in Europe and the US are in agreement with Putin regarding the war. Their hope is to leverage discontent, which will get worse as winter approaches and heating prices rise.

The war would be over if Putin wanted peace. She said he wants to continued the war after a short break.

Putin is expected to ask France and Germany to put pressure on the Ukrainians to end their war and protect their territories at all costs.

Putin knows that he is in a corner, but doesn’t realize that he has less space than he thought, and that of course is what’s most worrying about his nuclear threats.

At his meeting, Putin discussed the mobilization of 300,000 reservists that he ordered in September to bolster forces in Ukraine. The rest are still undergoing training, but he said only about 150,000 have been deployed. The Defense Ministry and the country should not be preparing for another fight, said Putin.

Through the first ten months of war, NATO has stayed largely united in supporting Ukraine’s resistance, with Western nations dispatching billions of dollars worth of weapons and other aid to Kyiv.

NATO leaders have vowed to stand behind Ukraine regardless of how long the war takes, but several European countries – particularly those that relied heavily on Russian energy – are staring down a crippling cost-of-living crisis which, without signs of Ukrainian progress on the battlefield, could endanger public support.

You can read past recaps here. You can find more NPR coverage here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.

Putin held an operational meeting of his Security Council on Monday, a day after he called the explosions on the Crimea bridge a “terrorist attack” and said the organizers and executors were “Ukrainian special services.”

After a month of military setbacks, the meeting comes at a strategic crossroads for the Kremlin, which will have to make a series of unenviable choices.

Russian passenger and train traffic had resumed on the Crimean bridge after the collapse of Kyiv’s annexation of Crimea

Some road traffic and train traffic has resumed on the estimated $3.7 billion bridge. On Saturday, the Russian deputy prime minister told reporters that repair work on the bridge would be carried out around the clock with divers scheduled to inspect the bridge’s supports after a damage survey was completed.

The first passenger services resumed travel across the bridge on Saturday, traveling from the Crimean Peninsula to Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

Russia’s deputy prime minister said on Sunday that car traffic has resumed in two lanes on the bridge. “Traffic has already been launched along two lanes on the Crimean bridge,” he wrote in a Telegram post, adding that earlier, one lane was being used for cars traveling in alternate directions, slowing down traffic. Heavy trucks, vans and buses have been traveling by ferry since the blast.

The bridge, which was about 12 miles wide, was built in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, but Kyiv did not claim responsibility. The crossing was opened by Putin himself in 2018, and Ukrainian reaction to the explosion has been gleeful and triumphant.

Putin said on television that it was impossible to leave such crimes unanswered. “If attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, responses from Russia will be tough and will correspond in scale to the level of threats to the Russian Federation.”

Peskov was asked by RIA whether the attack on the bridge could trigger an activation of Russia’s nuclear doctrine because it was “aimed at destroying critical civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation.”

The destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure in the wake of the anniversary of the War of Conquest, as witnessed by the U.S. President Vladimir Putin

Hayday acknowledged photographs of Ukrainian troops outside the Luhansk village of Stelmakhivka, less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of the crucial post of Svatove.

Biden’s visit made for a highly symbolic moment, coming a day ahead of a planned speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin marking the anniversary of the war. Biden said the war of conquest was failing.

“First time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use (of a) nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path they are going,” Biden warned during remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in New York on Friday.

The relative calm in Ukrainian cities far from the country’s battlefields was shattered by two painfully familiar sounds this week: the ominous ring of the air raid sirens, and the eruptions of Russian attacks.

The Ukrainian military said at least 84 cruise Missiles were fired by Moscow at it’s territory. There were 24 attack drones and 13 of which were destroyed.

There were underground stations that served as a shelter when the subway system was suspended on Monday. But the air raid alert in the city was lifted at midday, as rescue workers sought to pull people from the rubble caused by the strikes.

Demys Shmygal, Ukraine’s Prime Minister, said Monday that as of 11 a.m. local time, a total of 11 “crucial infrastructure facilities” in eight regions had been damaged.

As of Monday afternoon, the electricity supply had been cut in Lviv, Poltava, Sumy, and Ternopil, said the Ukrainian State Emergency Services. In the rest of the country, electricity was disrupted.

Kyiv-ruled regime resisted air raid bombardment and its military operation: the Podolyak-Like Head of an Annexed Crimea

The Russian-appointed head of annexed Crimea said he had good news on Monday, claiming that his country had changed its approaches to what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

“I have been saying from the first day of the special military operation that if such actions to destroy the enemy’s infrastructure had been taken every day, we would have finished everything in May and the Kyiv regime would have been defeated,” he added.

“All over Ukraine, the air raid sirens will not abate. The rockets continued to strike. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. Do not leave the shelters, I am asking you. Stay safe and take care of your families. Let’s hang in there and be strong,” Zelensky added.

Ukraine’s Western allies doubled down on their support for Kyiv following the strikes, with EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell Fontelles tweeting that “additional military support from the EU is on its way.”

Ukraine does not attack foreign territory and does not kill civilians. RF [ Russian Federation], as well as any other, does second. RF must leave the occupied territories – only then will it have a ‘temporary truce’. Keep hypocrisy to yourself,” Podolyak said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the attacks “another unacceptable escalation of the war and, as always, civilians are paying the highest price.”

The aftermath of the Kerch bridge tragedy: a massive attack on the Donetsk city by the Kremlin, Russian media, and the media

The G7 group of nations will hold an emergency meeting via video conference on Tuesday, the office of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed to CNN, and Zelensky said on Twitter that he would address that meeting.

Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He contributes to CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion.

Even amid irrepressible jubilation here in Ukraine in the aftermath of a massive explosion that hit the hugely strategic and symbolic Kerch Straight bridge over the weekend, fears of retaliation by the Kremlin were never far away.

“At exactly 7 a.m. the (Ukrainians) subjected the center of Donetsk (city) to the most massive strike since 2014,” the Moscow-appointed mayor, Aleksey Kulemzin, posted on Telegram.

At midday, the area around my office in Odesa remained quiet with reports that three missiles and five drones were shot down. Normally at this time of the day nearby restaurants would be crowded with customers and chatter of upcoming weddings and parties.

Monday’s attacks also came just a few hours after Zaporizhzhia, a southeastern city close to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, was hit by multiple strikes on apartment buildings, mostly while people slept. Several dozens were injured and at least 17 people were killed.

The rockets at Nikopol, across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, damaged power lines, gas pipelines, and a raft of civilian businesses and residential buildings, Ukrainian officials said. Russia and Ukraine have for months accused each other of firing at and around the nuclear plant. It is run by its pre-occupied Ukrainian staff.

Some media outlets moved their operations to underground bomb shelters when Russian forces were close to the capital. Large numbers of people taking cover on the platform at a metro station while a small group sang patriotic Ukrainian songs.

Indeed, millions of people in cities across Ukraine will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials, while businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible.

With asylum seekers returning to their home country, the attacks could cause another blow to business confidence.

Putin’s jubilation after opening the China-Kushushusha bridge: The first day since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine

It seems that dictators like to hardwire newly claimed territory with record-breaking infrastructure projects. Putin personally opened the bridge by driving a truck across it. The world’s longest sea crossing bridge was built by China after they regained control of Macau and Hong Kong. The $20 billion, 34-mile road bridge opened after about two years of delays.

The explosion lit up social media channels like a christmas tree and the response among Ukrainians was instantaneous. Many of them shared their jubilation through text messages.

Putin never sat still because he was consumed by pride and self-interest. He decided to unleash more death and destruction with the force that comes naturally to a former KGB officer.

It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.

The next day, the 301st since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the new equipment will not bring the conflict any closer to an end (“quite the contrary”) or prevent Russia from achieving the goals of its so-called “special military operation.”

China is meanwhile injecting its own strategic play into this widening great power brouhaha. It sent its top diplomat Wang Yi – his ears ringing with US warnings not to send Russia arms to use in Ukraine – to Moscow for high-level talks, even as a Sino-American spy balloon feud simmers.

Against a man who probes for weakness and tends to exploit divisions, the most important thing for the West right now is to show unity and resolve. The use of rhetoric and sanctions by Western governments has little impact on Putin’s actions. If they want to speed up the integration of high tech weapons, they need to keep providing crucial training and arms.

Furthermore, high tech defense systems are needed to protect Kyiv and crucial energy infrastructure around the country. With winter just around the corner, the need to protect heating systems is urgent.

Zelensky in Kiev: Predictions for a visit to the United States from Jake Tapper and CNN’s Jake Bolduan

Turkey and Gulf states that receive a lot of Russian tourists need to be pressured to join in on the plan to further impose trade and travel restrictions on Russia.

“I think he’s the leader of the United States, and that’s why he should come here to see,” Zelensky said in April during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. Zelensky said last week that his invitation to Biden to visit Ukraine remained open, even as he acknowledged there were other ways for them to speak.

A senior adminstration official said there was no announcement to make on what the US will consider offering, but that the US will provide short and long range air defense systems to Ukraine.

As of a Department of Defense briefing in late September, the US had yet to deliver NASAMS to Ukraine. The commander at the time. Two systems will be delivered in the next couple of months, with six more expected to arrive later in the year.

Zelensky has been president of Ukraine for less than a year, but he was put to the test in his first face to face meeting with Putin.

John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said Monday that there will likely be additional support packages for Ukraine announced “in the very near future.”

“It’s clear that he’s feeling the pressure both at home and overseas, and how he reacts to that only he can say,” Kirby told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine: Observations of Moscow’s Counter-Ofensive in the Bakhmut-Kuzmin Conflict

As the war in Ukraine draws near, the attacks have taken place. The Ukrainian counteroffensive has led to some Russian troops leaving some of the surrounding areas, but Russia claimed some gains in the fighting around Bakhmut.

Not for the first time, the war is on the verge of a new phase. Keir Giles is a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House and he said that this war was the third, fourth, or fifth war they have been observing.

Giles said that anything that seemed a distant prospect for a Ukraine victory is now much more plausible. Russia’s response is likely to escalate further.

Monday’s attacks, and further strikes throughout the week, were evidence of Russian President Vladimir Putin lashing out after a series of setbacks in the war that have put him under pressure domestically.

The country’s flag was hoisted over a building in the southern Kherson region last month. Ukrainian officials say they have liberated hundreds of settlements.

Russia said Thursday its forces would help evacuate residents of occupied Kherson to other areas, as Ukraine’s offensive continued to make gains in the region. The head of the Moscow-backed administration in Kherson appealed to the Kremlin for help moving people out of harm’s way, which was an indication that Russian forces were struggling in the face of Ukrainian advances.

These counter-offensives have shifted the momentum of the war and disproved a suggestion, built up in the West and in Russia during the summer, that while Ukraine could stoutly defend territory, it lacked the ability to seize ground.

“The Russians are playing for the whistle – (hoping to) avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in,” Samir Puri, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the author of “Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine,” told CNN.

If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking like it is, that is a huge achievement for the Russians.

Ukrainian troops are focused primarily on pushing Russian forces eastwards, having crossed the Oskil River in late September, with Moscow likely preparing to defend the cities of Starobilsk and Svatove in the Luhansk region, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Landing a major blow in Donbas would send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains before temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.

At least 76 strikes on Friday were carried out by missile and drone attacks on power infrastructure in Ukraine, which is struggling with the impact of war. As winter bites, millions of Ukrainians are enduring long periods without heat, electricity and water. Ukrainians have displayed resilience since the start of the war, and they are willing to endure hardship for another two to five years if they are able to defeat Russia.

Russian missiles disrupted the electricity supply to much of the country but the national electricity company, Ukrenergo, said that it had been restored to normal. The Ukrainian Prime Minister warned that there is a lot of work to be done, and asked Ukrainians to reduce their energy usage during peak hours.

Russia may not have the capacity to keep it up, and experts believe that aerial bombardment is unlikely to form a recurrent pattern.

“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief, said in a rare speech on Tuesday.

“Russia’s use of its limited supply of precision weapons in this role may deprive Putin of options to disrupt ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives,” the ISW assessed.

As the war approaches its first anniversary later this month, Ukraine has kept the pressure on Western leaders to provide more advanced and longer-range weaponry to defend and fight back against Russia. Britain, Germany, and the US agreed to send modern tanks in January, but now Ukraine is asking for fighter jets and missiles.

The missile strikes will be an occasional feature for shows of extreme outrage, as the Russians don’t have enough precision weapons to sustain that kind of assault into the future.

The impact of such an intervention in terms of pure manpower would be limited; Belarus has around 45,000 active duty troops, which would not significantly bolster Russia’s reserves. But it would threaten another assault on Ukraine’s northern flank below the Belarusian border.

“The reopening of a northern front would be another new challenge for Ukraine,” Giles said. He said that it would give Russia a new route into the region, which was captured by the Ukrainians.

If Ukraine’s allies remained united in their support, Zelensky was confident that he could defeat the Russian invasion within a year.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

Many incoming missiles this week were shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems, and that’s what these air defense systems are doing.

Ukraine “badly needed” modern systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived this week from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the United States , Bronk said.

Russian actions on Ukrainian counteroffensive: The Bakhmut-Soledar crisis and Russia’s embassy in the north of the Crimea

“There are many things Russia can do to make the war personal, not just for people of Ukraine but around Europe, to try to force pressure on governments to remove their support for Ukraine,” Giles said.

That doesn’t mean the mobilized forces won’t be used. If used in support roles, such as drivers or refuelers, they will be less burdensome on the remaining parts of Russia’s exhausted professional army. They could fill out fatigued units along the line of contact, cordon some areas and keep a man checkpoint in the rear. They are unlikely to be a capable fighting force. There are signs that there are discipline problems among soldiers in Russian garrisons.

The main hotspots on the front line are the surrounding towns. In a video address on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talked about the fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar.

Zelenskyy accused Russia of including convicts “with long sentences for serious crimes” in its front-line troops in return for pay and amnesty — something Western intelligence officials have also asserted.

Kremlin-backed separatist authorities have accused Ukraine of numerous strikes on infrastructure and residential targets in the occupied regions using U.S.-supplied long-range HIMARS rockets.

Moscow was shelling towns and villages along the front line in the east on Sunday, and “activities continued in the south” according to Zelenskyy’s office.

Two men shot at Russian troops preparing to deploy to Ukraine, killing 11 people and wounding 15 before being killed themselves, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Oct. 15.

France was trying to puncture the myth that it had been slow in supporting Ukraine, and confirmed it would be providing air defense missiles and military training. French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said during an interview that up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers would be embedded in France for several weeks of combat training, specialized training and equipment training.

The Institute for the Study of War accused Moscow of conducting a campaign of deportations of Ukrainians which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing.

It referenced statements made this week by Russian authorities that claimed that “several thousand” children from a southern region occupied by Moscow had been placed in rest homes and children’s camps amid the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The original remarks by Russia’s deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, were reported by RIA Novosti on Friday.

Russian authorities have previously admitted to placing children from Russian held areas of Ukraine who they said were orphans for adoption with Russian families in a potential violation of an international treaty on genocide prevention.

— The Ukrainian military accused pro-Kremlin fighters of evicting civilians in occupied territories to house officers in their homes, an act it described as a violation of international humanitarian law. It said the evictions were happening in Rubizhne, in the eastern Luhansk region. It couldn’t provide proof for its claim.

pro-Kremlin commentators stated that a Russian commander wanted for his involvement in the Downing of a Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine has been put to the front. Posts by Maksim Fomin and others said Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, has been given responsibility for an unspecified Russian front-line unit.

He is accused of involvement in downing the Kuala Lumpur bound flight, which killed nearly 300 people and was on an international wanted list. He is the most high-profile suspect in a murder trial with a verdict expected in November.

Recently, Girkin’s social media posts have lashed out at Moscow’s battlefield failures. The Ukrainian defense intelligence agency said it would offer a $100,000 reward for his capture.

Russia’s First Day of Nuclear Deterrence: State-of-the-Art Report on a Bridge-Breaking Event in the Severna River

Nuclear deterrence exercises are going to begin on Monday. NATO says that the exercises are a yearly training activity and warn Russia against using nuclear weapons on Ukraine.

Eight people were taken into custody by the Russian agents on suspicion of taking part in a large explosion on a bridge over the Severna River.

Russia is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and should be stripped of that status, according to the Ukrainian government. Kuleba said they have long “prepared for this step to uncover the fraud and deprive Russia of its status.”

The first convoy of almost 9,000 Russian military personnel were arriving in Belarus on Oct. 15 as part of a regional grouping to protect the country against threats from Ukraine and the West.

Some regional officials — including the mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin — appeared to be taking pains to offer reassurances. “At present, no measures are being introduced to limit the normal rhythm of the city’s life,” Mr. Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel.

The regional governors of the four cities said no entry or exit restrictions would be imposed despite Mr. Putin’s new power.

But many Russians are sure to see a warning message in the martial law imposed in Ukraine, the first time that Moscow has declared martial law since World War II, analysts say.

The people are worried about the siloviki going to do what they want, Ms. Stanovaya said.

On Tuesday, the newly appointed commander of the Russian invasion, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, acknowledged that his army’s position in Kherson was “already quite difficult” and appeared to suggest that a tactical retreat might be necessary. General Surovikin said he was ready to make “difficult decisions” about military deployments, but did not say more about what those might be.

In a signal that the faltering invasion of Ukraine has eroded Moscow’s influence elsewhere, Russia has recently redeployed critical military hardware and troops from Syria, according to three senior officials based in the Middle East.

Andelman’s War with the Kremlin: Energy Price Caps in the War for Europe and Macron’s Presidency

David A. Andelman is a commentator on CNN and author of “A RedLine in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen.” He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views are of his own. View more opinion at CNN.

He wants to distract his nation from the fact that he is losing badly in the battlefield and fails to achieve even the scaled back objectives of his invasion.

It depends on a number of factors, ranging from the availability of affordable energy supplies in the winter to the popular will in a wide range of nations.

The European Union powers agreed on a plan to control energy prices that have been on the rise since the sanctions on Russian imports and the Kremlin cutting natural gas supplies.

These include an emergency cap on the benchmark European gas trading hub – the Dutch Title Transfer Facility – and permission for EU gas companies to create a cartel to buy gas on the international market.

While French President Emmanuel Macron waxed euphoric leaving the summit, which he described as having “maintained European unity,” he conceded that there was only a “clear mandate” for the European Commission to start working on a gas cap mechanism.

Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, is skeptical of price caps. Now energy ministers must work out details with a Germany concerned such caps would encourage higher consumption – a further burden on restricted supplies.

The divisions are part of Putin’s dream. Manifold forces in Europe could prove central to achieving success from the Kremlin’s viewpoint, which amounts to the continent failing to agree on essentials.

Germany and France are already at loggerheads on many of these issues. Though in an effort to reach some accommodation, Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have scheduled a conference call for Wednesday.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/putin-prolonge-war-ukraine-winter-andelman/index.html

Italian First Lady Michelle Berlusconi in the Light of the Cold War: Trump, Russia and the U.S. Against Putin’s Ruling with Ukraine

A new government has taken over in Italy. During her first day in office as Italy’s first woman prime minister, she attempted to wash away the post-fascist aura of her party. The far-right coalition partner that she is a part of expressed deep appreciation for Putin.

Berlusconi, in a secretly recorded audio tape, said he’d returned Putin’s gesture with bottles of Lambrusco wine, adding that “I knew him as a peaceful and sensible person,” in the LaPresse audio clip.

The other leading member of the ruling Italian coalition, Matteo Salvini, named Saturday as deputy prime minister, said during the campaign, “I would not want the sanctions [on Russia] to harm those who impose them more than those who are hit by them.”

At the same time, Poland and Hungary, longtime ultra-right-wing soulmates united against liberal policies of the EU that seemed calculated to reduce their influence, have now disagreed over Ukraine. Poland has taken deep offense at the pro-Putin sentiments of Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban.

Similar forces seem to be at work in Washington where House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, poised to become Speaker of the House if Republicans take control after next month’s elections, told an interviewer, “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They will not do it.

The influential congressional progressive caucus called on Biden to open talks with Russia on ending the conflict, even though its troops are still occupying a vast swath of the country and missiles and drones are striking into the interior.

Mia Jacob, the chair of the caucus, sent a statement to the reporters clarifying their comments. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his counterpart in Europe to thank him for America’s support.

The US has given more than $60 billion inaid since Biden took office, and only Republicans voted against the latest aid package.

This support in terms of arms, materiel and now training for Ukrainian forces have been the underpinnings of their remarkable battlefield successes against a weakening, undersupplied and ill-prepared Russian military.

The Russian government is desperate to access vital parts for the production of high-tech weaponry, which has become difficult because of sanctions by the western world.

The lack of semi-conductors has caused Russia’s production of hypersonic missiles to stop. Plants making anti-aircraft systems have shut down, and the need for replenishment has caused Russia to turn to Soviet-era defense stocks. The Soviet era ended more than 30 years ago.

A day before this report, the United States seized the property of a Russian procurement agent and his agencies, who were involved in procuring US-origin technologies for Russian end-users.

There are charges brought against individuals and companies for trying to bring high-tech equipment into Russia.

Russian rejoinder of the Black Sea agreement to end the war on annealing powers of the Russian Federation: a statement by Zelensky

While there are still hardliners like Gubarev, they are no longer proclaiming that they are going to kill you. If you do not want to be convinced, we will kill you. We’ll kill as many as we have to: 1 million, 5 million, or exterminate all of you.”

Ukrainian officials believed that Russia rejoined the deal because other parties were committed to not having Moscow involved. “A ‘blackmailer’ with Russian roots is inferior to those who are stronger and know how to clearly state their position,” tweeted Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Moscow was trying to use its participation in the agreement as leverage according to analysts. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had received written guarantees from Ukraine that the waters and ports would not be used for military operations against the Russian Federation.

“The Russian Federation believes that the guarantees received at the moment seem sufficient and is resuming the implementation of the agreement,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine is a major exporter of grain and other agricultural products, but after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February, Russia’s Navy used its dominance in the Black Sea to block Ukraine’s exports. In addition to hurting Ukraine’s economy, this helped drive global grain prices sharply higher. Food purchases are difficult for many countries that are already facing food shortages and famine, because of that.

The UN official for the initiative said in a reply to a user that he was happy with Russia’s decision and grateful for Turkish facilitation.

Moscow has also said that it wants to facilitate its own exports of grain and fertilizer and address the concerns of its trading partners who fear that, by dealing with Russia, they could violate Western sanctions. It was unknown if the Russian demand had been addressed.

The Russian War in Ukraine: Implications for the United States, for the Security and Security of the World, and for the Prospects for Future Warfare

A former CNN producer and correspondent is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. CNN has more opinion on it.

Now, CNN has reported Iran is about to start sending even more – and more powerful – weapons to Russia for the fight against Ukraine, according to a western country closely monitoring Iran’s weapons program.

The United States retains some visibility over the Russian arsenal, mostly with satellites that keep track of Russian nuclear movements. But there is a deeper worry. President Biden and Mr. Putin agreed on a five-year extension of the New START in the first month of his presidency. That means an entirely new treaty would have to be pieced together. And while American officials insist that they want to negotiate a new treaty, it is increasingly hard to imagine that happening in the next three years.

The war inUkraine is affecting everyone. The conflict has also sent fuel prices higher, contributing to a global explosion of inflation.

The historian Yuval Noah Harari believes that a victory by Russia is a danger to the direction of human history, and it would open the door to invaders of one country by another, something most nations had come to reject as categorically.

A lot of what happens far from the battlefields still has repercussions. The US accused Saudi Arabia of helping fund the Russian war by increasing oil revenues after the oil- producing nations decided to slash production. The Saudis deny the accusation.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently reiterated that “Israel supports and stands with Ukraine, NATO and the West,” but will not move those systems to Ukraine, because, “We have to share our airspace in the North with Russia.”

The Great G-20 Summit in Indonesia: The impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on American and U.S. families and supporters of Brittney Griner

Higher prices not only affect family budgets and individual lives. They put a political punch on when they have powerful momentum. The war has compounded inflation and put incumbents on the defensive in a lot of countries.

And it’s not all on the fringes. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader who could become speaker of the House after next week’s US elections, suggested the GOP might choose to reduce aid to Ukraine. Progressive Democrats released and withdrew a letter calling for negotiations. Evelyn Farkas, a former Pentagon official during the Obama administration, said they’re all bringing “a big smile to Putin’s face.”

The G-20 summit continues in Indonesia, where the Russia-Ukraine war and its global economic fallout loom large. President Biden had a talk with China’s leader on the sidelines on Monday. British Prime Minister Sunak is scheduled to meet with Biden on Wednesday.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield visited Kyiv, Nov. 8, to talk about world hunger and press for renewal of the grain deal, due to expire Nov. 19. A week before that, Karen Donfried, the top US official on European and Eurasian affairs, traveled to Ukraine.

Following Brittney Griner’s release from Russian prison, fans, friends and family are celebrating the basketball player’s return to the U.S. Some Republican politicians have complained about the prisoner swap and other citizens still held by Russia.

The Biden-Chile meeting at the epoch of geopolitical reform: The message to the world from the midterm elections

A long conflict could cause divisions between the US and Europe, playing into China’s foreign policy goals. And it could further incite political dissent in Washington, weakening Biden’s capacity to fulfill his foreign policy goals on the global stage.

The talks were productive. The Chinese called them “thorough, frank, and constructive.” Biden agreed to try to avoid a new Cold War by being very blunt with one another. It wasn’t “Kumbaya,” the President said, but the two sides are perhaps less likely to start an accidental war against each other.

Biden believes the results of the elections show the US will remain engaged in the world. But there was a bigger message. The most important signal to the world from the midterms is about the health of America’s democracy. The elections in the US went smoothly and peacefully, even though they dealt a blow to many antidemocratic elements.

That’s not the only reason, however, why this was the perfect moment — from the standpoint of the United States and for democracy — for this meeting to occur: There’s much more to this geopolitical moment than who controls the US House of Representatives and Senate.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/opinions/biden-xi-meeting-democracy-ghitis/index.html

Vladimir Putin, the Ukranian, and the problem of the future: the challenge of defending democracy and preserving the sovereignty of the sea of Azov

The President of the Ukranian made an emotional and triumphant return to the city of Kherson, which was taken by the Russians, as he met with Biden and the Chinese president.

Putin avoided confrontations with world leaders at the G20 summit, as he became a pariah on the global stage.

To be sure, Biden is not the only leader with a strong hand. Xi has just secured an unprecedented third term as China’s leader, and he can now effectively rule for as long as he wants. He doesn’t have to worry about things like elections or the press. He is the absolute ruler of a mighty country for a long time.

The mountain of daunting problems faced by Xi is daunting. China is reluctant to release economic data due to the slowing economy. China’s Covid-19 vaccine is a disappointment. China has imposed “draconian” restrictions as the rest of the world returns to normal after the Pandemic.

It’s important for the two systems to show that democracy works, repel attempts of authoritarian countries like China and Russia to undermine it and prove that wars of aggression will not succeed in suppressing democracy and conquering territory.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Wednesday that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is taking longer than expected but said it has succeeded in seizing new territory and added that his country’s nuclear weapons are deterring escalation of the conflict.

“Of course, it could be a lengthy process,” Putin said of the more than 9-month-old war that began with Russia’s invasion Feb. 24 and has displaced millions from their homes, and killed and wounded tens of thousands. Despite its length, he showed no signs of letting up, promising to “fight for our interests and protect ourselves using all means available.” He reiterated his claim that he had no choice but to send in troops, saying that for years, the West responded to Russia’s security demands with “only spit in the face.”

The Sea of Azov became Russia’s internal sea, as Putin described it in a televised meeting with members of his Human Rights Council. In one of his frequent historic references to a Russian leader, he mentioned that Peter the Great fought to get access to that body of water.

Vladimir Putin’s nuclear weapons comment on the recent attacks in Belgorod and other northern hemisphere regions: a response of Putin to his “nuclear weapons”

“If it doesn’t use it first under any circumstances, it means that it won’t be the second to use it, either, because the possibility of using it in case of a nuclear strike on our territory will be sharply limited,” he said.

Putin did not agree with the idea that his previous nuclear weapons comments amounted to saber-rattling, claiming that they were a factor of deterrence.

“We haven’t gone mad. “We are aware of what nuclear weapons are,” said Putin. He added, without elaborating: “We have them, and they are more advanced and state-of-the-art than what any other nuclear power has.”

The Russian leader didn’t address Russia’s battlefield setbacks, its attempts to cement control over the seized regions and the shortages of supplies, treatment of wounded soldiers and limited desertions.

The governor posted photos of the new concrete anti-tank barriers in the open fields. On Tuesday, the Governor said that a fire broke out at an airport after a drone strike. In neighboring Belgorod, workers were expanding anti-tank barriers and officials were organizing “self-defense units.” Belgorod has seen numerous fires and explosions, apparently from cross-border attacks, and its governor reported Wednesday that Russia’s air defenses have shot down incoming rockets.

The damage to the power grid was worsened by strikes on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. Ukrenergo said the eastern areas it was making repairs in had cold temperatures as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius.

Putin’s Water Crisis and UAV Attack on the Kursk Region: Are Drones Really Trying to Stop Us From Providing Water to the Other Side of the River?

He had a glass of champagne with him as he addressed the group of soldiers who were receiving the awards.

During the ceremony, Putin asked, “Who is not providing water to the other side of the river?” Not supplying water to a city of million is an act of genocide.”

The reference to Kursk appears to reference Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the Kursk region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry didn’t comment on the recent blasts in Russia. The targets are beyond the reach of the country’s declared drones.

Violation of the Fourth Amendment and the Second Amendment in Ukraine: a joint French-Russian-President and EU-Ukraine Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. Nobody has said anything about it. It’s at all! Complete silence. ,” he said.

Local Russian authorities in Donetsk — which Putin claimed to annex in defiance of international law — have reported frequent shelling of the city this week.

Ukrainian authorities have been stepping up raids on churches accused of links with Moscow, and many are watching to see if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy follows through on his threat of a ban on the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosts European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store for a working dinner Monday in Paris.

On Tuesday, France will co- host a conference with Ukraine in support of Ukrainians in the winter with a video address by President Zelenskyy.

New measures targeting Russian oil revenue took effect Dec. 5. They include a price cap and a European Union embargo on most Russian oil imports and a Russian oil price cap.

Russian forces turned the city of Bakhmut into burned ruins, Zelenskyy said. There has been intense fighting there as Russia tries to take over the city.

The Russian-installed official said that the Ukrainian forces had launched the biggest attack on the occupied eastern region since the start of the year.

“Forty rockets from BM-21 ‘Grad’ MLRS were fired at civilians in our city,” he said Thursday, adding that a key intersection in Donetsk city center had come under fire.

The regional head of the Kherson military administration said that the city had been hit 86 times in the past 24 hours.

A volunteer member of the international organization was one of the victims. They were killed by fragments of enemy armor when they were on the street.

The Energy Security Project of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko: Towards a Solution of the Second Ukrainian War in Ukraine

The Kherson military administration claims the strikes left the city completely disconnected from power supplies.

“The enemy hit a critical infrastructure facility. The place where the medical aid and humanitarian aid distribution point is located, as well as residential buildings, were damaged by Shell fragments.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the city “received machinery and generators from the U.S. Government to operate boiler houses and heat supply stations.”

The Energy Security Project, run by USAID, delivered four excavators and over 130 generators, Klitschko said on Telegram. All equipment was free of charge.

As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its second year, Beijing is pushing harder for a negotiated end to the war. It has repeatedly suggested it would be willing to broker any cease-fire negotiations, a proposal Ukrainians are wary of because of China’s close ties with Moscow.

The Ukrainian side must take into account the realities that have developed over the years, according to the Kremlin.

“And these realities indicate that the Russian Federation has new subjects,” he said, referring to four areas Russia has claimed to have annexed, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

Zelensky, the scrappy kid that defeated Petro Poroshenko: after the invasion of Ukraine, he rallied in support of Putin

Zelensky pulled up to the lysée Palace in a modest car, while Putin went in with a limo. (The host, French President Emmanuel Macron, hugged Putin but chose only to shake hands with Zelensky).

Zelensky was the instantly recognizable wartime president in trademark olive green, as he was known for his ability to stir the imaginations of folks worldwide, by naming and shaming allies who did not provide the military with the equipment it needed.

Failure to demonstrate further progress on the battlefield with billions of dollars worth of military kit could stir unease among Western backers. But capitulation to Russia would be a political death sentence.

Zelensky’s upbringing in the rough and tumble neighborhoods of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine shaped him into a scrappy kid who learned how to respond to bullies.

“After the full-scale invasion, once he got into a position of being bullied by someone like Vladimir Putin he knew exactly what he needed to do because it was just his gut feeling,” Yevhen Hlibovytsky, former political journalist and founder of the Kyiv-based think tank and consultancy, pro.mova, told me.

This is the leader of the United States who when offered to evacuate as the Russians launched their full-scale invasion quipped: “I need bullets, not a ride.”

Zelensky used his political skills back in the day to fight off Donald Trump, who tried to intimidate the young politician in the quid pro quo scandal.

Amid the fog of war, it all seems a long, long way since the heady campaign celebration in a repurposed Kyiv nightclub where a fresh-faced Zelensky thanked his supporters for a landslide victory. He was in disbelief when he stood on the stage to see that he had defeated Petro Poroshenko.

The war appears to have turned his ratings around. Just days after the invasion, Zelensky’s ratings approval surged to 90%, and remain high to this day. Even Americans early in the war rated Zelensky highly for his handling of international affairs – ahead of US President Joe Biden.

His bubble includes many people from his previous professional life as a TV comedian in the theatrical group Kvartal 95. Even in the midst of the war, a press conference held on the platform of a Kyiv metro station in April featured perfect lighting and curated camera angles to emphasize a wartime setting.

I remember well how comforting his nightly addresses were in the midst of the air raid sirens and the explosions in Lviv.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/opinions/volodomyr-zelensky-profile-ukraine-russia-bociurkiw/index.html

The Rise and Fall of Vladimir Zelensky in the U.S.: How the Cold War Affected Its Conquests, and How the US Helps It

“By wearing T-shirts and hoodies, the youthful, egalitarian uniform of Silicon Valley, rather than suits, Zelensky is projecting confidence and competence in a modern way, to a younger, global audience that recognizes it as such,” Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, a fashion historian and author of “Red, White, and Blue on the Runway: The 1968 White House Fashion Show and the Politics of American Style,” told NPR.

“He is probably more comfortable than Putin on camera, too, both as an actor and as a digital native,” she added. Zelensky is doing a better job balancing authority with accessibility as I believe both of them want to come across as personable.

Journeying to where her husband can’t, Zelenska has shown herself to be an effective communicator in international fora – projecting empathy, style and smarts. Most recently, she met with King Charles during a visit to a refugee assistance center at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family in London. (Curiously, TIME magazine did not include Zelenska on the cover montage and gave only a passing reference in the supporting text).

Zelensky has strong tailwinds at his back but there are signs that his influence may be waning. Zelensky tried to persuade the G7 to set a price cap for Russian crude at $30 in order to cause more pain in the Kremlin, despite their insistence that it was $60 a barrel.

Zelensky said in his video address that when the world is truly united, it is the world that determines how events develop.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned from Washington, D.C., having secured billions of dollars in U.S. aid and standing ovations in Congress.

The Biden administration will provide an additional 1800 million US dollars for military assistance to the Ukranians, including the first air defense system. It’s one of the most advanced and expensive defense systems the U.S. has supplied since the start of the war.

In response to accusations of a proxy war, and the fact that Zelenskyy wants a “just peace”, Sloat says that the US has been helping the country defend itself against Russian aggression.

A Russian history professor says that the Kremlin has been selling that line to the Russians.

“Patriots are a defensive weapons system that will help Ukraine defend itself as Russia sends missile after missile and drone after drone to try and destroy Ukrainian infrastructure and kill Ukrainian civilians,” she said. Russia shouldn’t send their missiles into Ukraine if they don’t want their missiles shot down.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba: War crimes, diplomacy, and a peace summit at the United Nations

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s foreign minister on Monday said that his government is aiming to have a peace summit by the end of February, preferably at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as a possible mediator, around the anniversary of Russia’s war.

But Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Associated Press that Russia could only be invited to such a summit if the country faced a war crimes tribunal first.

Kuleba said that he was very satisfied with the results of Zelenskyy’s visit, as well as the fact that the U.S. made a special plan to get the missile battery up and running. Usually, the training takes up to a year.

Kuleba said during the interview at the Foreign Ministry that Ukraine will do whatever it can to win the war in 2023, adding that diplomacy always plays an important role.

The Foreign Minister said the UN would be the most natural broker for those talks. “The United Nations could be the best venue for holding this summit, because this is not about making a favor to a certain country,” he said. The goal is to bring everyone on board.

Zelenskyy offered a 10 point peace formula at the Group of 20 summit in November that included the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, and a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression.

Vladimir Kuleba’s First Foreign Trip to the U.S. since the War in Ukraine: Addressing the Kremlin and Russia’s Cold War

About Guterres’ role, Kuleba said: “He has proven himself to be an efficient mediator and an efficient negotiator, and most importantly, as a man of principle and integrity. So we would welcome his active participation.”

He said that they frequently say they are ready for negotiation, but everything they do on the battlefield proves the opposite.

Zelenskyy’s first foreign trip since the war started was to the U.S. Kuleba underscored the significance of the visit and praised Washington’s efforts.

“This shows how both the United States are important for Ukraine, but also how Ukraine is important for the United States,” said Kuleba, who was part of the delegation to the U.S.

He said that the missile battery training program was developed by the U.S. government to make it quick and painless, without hurting the quality of the weapon on the battlefield.

While Kuleba didn’t mention a specific time frame, he said only that it will be “very much less than six months.” The training will not be done in Ukraine.

During Russia’s ground and air war in Ukraine, Kuleba has been second only to Zelenskyy in carrying Ukraine’s message and needs to an international audience, whether through Twitter posts or meetings with friendly foreign officials.

The Foreign Ministry says that Russian never went through the legal procedure for acquiring membership and taking the place of the USSR at the U.N. Security Council after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

MOSCOW – Speaking to a joint session of the Russian parliament and Kremlin officials, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the war in Ukraine as an existential struggle against the West, while announcing he was suspending Russia’s participation in the last remaining arms control treaty with the U.S.

As has often been the case throughout the conflict, the vaguely conciliatory tone from Putin was quickly contradicted by a heavy-handed message from one of his key officials.

Sergey Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister, said Monday that Ukraine must fulfill Russia’s demands for the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukrainian-controlled territories, repeating Moscow’s well-worn and false accusation of Nazism against Ukraine, which it has used in an attempt to justify its invasion.

Alexander Rodnyansky, an adviser to President Zelensky, told CNN Tuesday that Putin was trying to buy time in the conflict.

Any hypothetical momentum towards a deal could result in a reduction of Western military aid to Kyiv. And it would present a possible face-saving exit route for Putin, whose reputation would be severely diminished at home if he returned from a costly war without meaningful territorial gains.

But Zelensky and his officials have said throughout that they will continue to sound out the possibility of negotiations, without raising any hopes that they would achieve a truce.

Kuleba told the AP on Monday that every war ends in a diplomatic way. Every war ends as a result of actions taken at the negotiating table and on the battlefield.

A path to nuclear safety, food security, and a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes are included in the steps. He called for the G20 leaders to use all their power to make Russia abandon nuclear threats and to impose a price cap on energy imported from Moscow.

Russia’s Cold War: The Challenge of the Cold War and Its Consequences to Social Media, Journalism, and the Internet

There is a chance of a decisive swing on the battlefield in the New Year that will make a difference, but both sides are determined to stay in the conflict.

“For me, as president, a just peace is no compromises as to the sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity of our country, the payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression,” Zelensky said during his joint press conference with Biden at the White House.

At the time, Putin insisted his forces were embarking on a “special military operation” — a term suggesting a limited campaign that would be over in a matter of weeks.

Yet the war has also fundamentally upended Russian life — rupturing a post-Soviet period in which the country pursued, if not always democratic reforms, then at least financial integration and dialogue with the West.

Draconian laws passed since February have outlawed criticism of the military or leadership. 45% of the people that have been held for demonstrating against the war are women, according to a leading independent monitoring group.

In Russia, organizations and individuals are added weekly to a growing list of foreign agents and “non-desirable” organizations intended to damage their reputation among the public.

Even Russia’s most revered human rights group, 2022’s Nobel Prize co-recipient Memorial, was forced to stop its activities over alleged violations of the foreign agents law.

The state has also vastly expanded Russia’s already restrictive anti-LGBT laws, arguing the war in Ukraine reflects a wider attack on “traditional values.”

For now, they remain targeted. Some of the new laws are still unenforced. But few doubt the measures are intended to crush wider dissent — should the moment arise.

Leading independent media outlets and a handful of vibrant, online investigative startups were forced to shut down or relocate abroad when confronted with new “fake news” laws that criminalized contradicting the official government line.

Restrictions extend to internet users as well. The social media giants were banned in March. Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin’s internet regulator, has blocked more than 100,000 websites since the start of the conflict.

Russians still have access to independent sources of information through technical workarounds. Older Russians enjoy state media propaganda and angry talk shows on TV.

The Russian Exodus After World War II: Implications for the Security and Security of the Cold War and the Russia’s Unresolved War

Thousands of perceived government opponents — many of them political activists, civil society workers and journalists — left in the war’s early days amid concerns of persecution.

Even though Russians are a sensitive issue to former Soviet republics, some countries that have absorbed the exodus believe their economies will grow.

The ruble currency cratered and the banking and trading markets looked shaky when the invasion began. Hundreds of global corporate brands, such as McDonald’s and ExxonMobil, reduced, suspended or closed their Russian operations entirely.

President Putin believes that Europe will blink first when it comes to sanctions, because Europeans will grow angry over soaring energy costs at home. He announced a ban on oil exports to countries that comply with the cap, which is likely to make the pain in Europe more acute.

It was Putin who provided “stability” to Russians who remember the chaotic years that followed the collapse of the USSR.

When it comes to Russia’s military campaign, there’s no outward change in the government’s tone. Russia’s Defense Ministry provides daily briefings recounting endless successes on the ground. Putin, too, repeatedly assures that everything is “going according to plan.”

Yet the sheer length of the war — with no immediate Russian victory in sight — suggests Russia vastly underestimated Ukrainians’ willingness to resist.

The number of Russian men who have lost their lives remains a very taboo topic in Russia. Western estimates place those figures much higher.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the threat of a ceasefire: Moscow’s response to Kiev’s aggression against Russia in the Cold War

Expansion orStrengthening military blocs should not be used to achieve the security of a region. It said the legitimate security interests and concerns of all countries have to be addressed properly, seemingly concurring with the conclusion that the West provoked the war through NATO expansion.

Longtime allies in Central Asia have criticized Russia’s actions out of concern for their own sovereignty, an affront that would have been unthinkable in Soviet times. India and China have eagerly purchased discounted Russian oil, but have stopped short of full-throated support for Russia’s military campaign.

The speech was originally scheduled for April but will not be given until next year. Putin’s annual “direct line” — a media event in which Putin fields questions from ordinary Russians — was canceled outright.

An annual December “big press conference” – a semi-staged affair that allows the Russian leader to handle fawning questions from mostly pro-Kremlin media – was similarly tabled until 2023.

There is no reason for the delays. After a decade of war, the Russian leader might have run out of good news to share.

Putin’s order came after the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, called for a ceasefire between January 6 and January 7, when many Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas.

But Ukrainian officials voiced skepticism about the temporary ceasefire, saying Moscow just wanted a pause to gather reserves, equipment and ammunition.

During his nightly address on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia aims to use Orthodox Christmas “as a cover” to resupply and stop Ukrainian advances in the eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak responded to Putin’s move on Twitter by saying that Russia must leave “occupied territories” in Ukraine before any “temporary truce.”

Ned Price of the state department described it as “cynical” and said that the US was not sure about Russia’s intentions.

The promise of a ceasefire would not bring freedom or security to people living under Moscow’s brutal war, warned the German Foreign Minister on Thursday.

In September, Kirill gave a sermon which said that military duty washes away all sins.

The announcement by the Kyiv-headquartered Orthodox Church of Ukraine widened the rift between the Russian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox believers.

In November, a branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox church announced that it would allow its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25, rather than January 7, as is traditional in Orthodox congregations.

In recent years a large part of the Orthodox community in Ukraine has moved away from Moscow, a movement accelerated by the conflict Russia stoked in eastern Ukraine beginning in 2014.

In the southern region of Kherson, Pavlo Skotarenko doesn’t expect much to change. People are dying in Kherson every day. He said that the temporary measure wouldn’t change anything.

From the frontlines in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, a Ukrainian soldier told CNN that the temporary ceasefire announcement looked like an effort to clean up Russia’s image.

The Ukrainian soldier, who goes by the call sign of Archer, told CNN that he doesn’t think this is done for a military purpose.

“Perhaps this is done to make the image of the whole of Russia a little more human, because so many atrocities are constantly emerging, and this could earn them few points of support from the people,” the soldier said.

And in the capital Kyiv, where Russian attacks during New Year soured even the most modest celebrations, Halyna Hladka said she saw the temporary ceasefire as an attempt by Russians to win time.

Russia has already used faith in a variety of ways. And besides, in almost a year of war, Russia has not behaved itself as a country capable of adhering to promises,” she said.

Ukrainian officials warned for some time of a renewed Russian offensive and asked for morepowerful weaponry from Western allies to counter the threat.

In an interview with Sky News, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said that defining months will be the problem within the war.

A representative of the Defense Intelligence said that February and March would be very active.

Military representatives from the two countries will practice joint planning of the use of troops based on the previous experience of armed conflicts, the ministry said in a statement.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the Russian War on Crime: Comparisons Before and After the WW II Ukrainian-Russia War Observed by Mr. Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a visit to Europe,meeting leaders in London, Paris, andBrussels, and repeating his calls for allies to send fighter jets to his country.

Biden’s historic visit came days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, providing a symbolic boost to Kyiv at a crucial juncture in the conflict.

Russian forces are unlikely to be better organized and more effective, but they are willing to send more troops into the meat grinder, according to a senior British official.

A senior Ukrainian diplomat told CNN that the army only had enough manpower to take a few small cities. The sense of panic they were attempting to build in Ukraine was overwhelming.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the US is not seeing Russia massing its aircraft for an aerial operation.

Wang said that Territorial and sovereignty of countries will be respected in China’s proposal.

Throughout his visit to Europe and Russia, Mr. Wang’s public comments have reflected China’s fraught efforts to maintain Beijing’s close strategic alignment with Moscow.

And European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen told CNN on Saturday: “We need more proof that China isn’t working with Russia, and we aren’t seeing that now.”

U.S. officials have warned that China could seek to support Russia with weapons. But there was no mention of Ukraine or weapons in the seven-minute, televised portion of Mr. Wang’s meeting with Mr. Putin on Wednesday, where Mr. Patrushev and Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, joined Mr. Putin around a white, oval table.

Wang Yi, who was promoted as a top Chinese policymaker last month, is due to travel to Moscow this week for an eight-day trip to Europe that will bring into focus China’s attempts to balance its diplomatic and security interests.

As US President Joe Biden touched down in Ukraine to meet with his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, China’s top diplomat was traveling in the opposite direction, on his way to Russia.

The juxtaposition of the two trips, taken just days before the anniversary of the war, underscores the sharpening of fault lines between the world’s two superpowers.

The US accusations, if true, would mark a major escalation in China’s support for Russia – and usher in a dangerous and unpredictable new phase in the war itself.

“We do not add fuel to the fire, and we’re against reaping benefits from this crisis,” Wang said in a thinly veiled dig at the US, echoing the propaganda messaging that regularly made China’s nightly prime-time news program – that the US is intentionally prolonging the war because its arms manufacturers are earning fat profits from weapon sales.

The enigmatic visit of US President Volodymyr Zelensky to Kyiv with Russian Prime Minister Sergei Sergei on Saturday

He urged Europe to think about what they should do to bring lasting peace to Europe, as well as what they should do to manifest their strategic autonomy.

Western officials have also raised concerns that China may be considering providing Russia with lethal military assistance, an accusation denied by Beijing.

“The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they’re considering providing lethal support, and we’ve made very clear to them that that would cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship,” Blinken said.

Responding to the accusations Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry blasted the US for “shoving responsibility, shifting blame and spreading false information.”

“It is the US side, not the Chinese side, that supplies a steady stream of weapons to the battlefield. The US doesn’t understand China and wouldn’t be able to lecture it, the ministry spokesman said at a news conference.

“Who is calling for dialogue and peace? And who is handing out knives and encouraging confrontation? The international community can see clearly,” the spokesperson said.

The officials wouldn’t give a lot of detail, but said that US officials have been concerned enough that they have shared the intelligence with allies and partners.

Beijing had avoided actions that could lead to secondary sanctions, which would have been a devastating blow to the economy because of the zero- Covid policy.

And while Beijing’s pro-Russian rhetoric appears to have softened in recent months, its support for Moscow – when measured by its annual trade, diplomatic engagements and schedule of joint military exercises – has bolstered over the past year.

The highly secretive visit – which took place as air raid sirens could be heard ringing out around Kyiv while Biden walked alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky around the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral – comes at a critical moment in the 12-month conflict, with Russia preparing for an expected spring offensive and Ukraine hoping to soon retake territory.

On Saturday evening, before he departed, Biden went out to dinner with his wife in Washington. He was last in public when he arrived in Kyiv on Monday.

Biden is travelling with a small group of people, including a national security adviser Jake Sullivan, a deputy chief of staff and a personal aide.

The trip comes ahead of Biden’s planned two-day visit to Poland. The President is scheduled to be in Warsaw on Tuesday where he will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, the White House said Sunday.

Biden has been itching to visit Ukraine for months, particularly after several of his counterparts in Europe all endured lengthy train journeys to meet with Zelensky in Kyiv. The leaders of France, Germany, Canada, Britain and the former British prime minister all made visits to the country to show their support.

Last year on Mother’s Day, Dr. Biden paid a surprise visit to a small city in the far southwestern corner of Ukraine. She met with Zelenska at a former school that was converted into temporary housing for displaced Ukrainians, including 48 children.

Now, with the war nearing its one-year mark on February 24, Biden is hoping to demonstrate to the world his commitment to Ukraine, even as it remains unclear how much longer US and western resolve can last.

Putin’s Special Military Operation and Crimes against Humanity: The Case of Bakhmut, Russia, the Security Council, the Munich Security Conference and NATO

American officials told CNN on Saturday the US has recently begun seeing “disturbing” trends and there are signs that Beijing wants to “creep up to the line” of providing lethal military aid to Moscow without getting caught.

The visit caused fury in Russian pro-military circles as it upstages Putin who is expected to talk about the successes of his military operation in an address on the eve of a major speech.

“Biden in [Kyiv]. Demonstrative humiliation of Russia,” Russian journalist Sergey Mardan wrote in a snarky response on his Telegram channel. There is a chance that tales of miraculous hypersonics may be left for children. The holy war we are fighting with the West is similar to spells about it.

Russian army veteran and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Igor Girkin meanwhile suggested that Biden could have visited the frontlines in eastern Ukraine and escaped unharmed.

The grandfather is not good for anything but simple provocations and nothing would happen to him if he came to Bakhmut.

A number of military bloggers, who have hundreds of thousand of followers and provide analysis of the conflict for large swaths of the Russian population, have criticized what they consider to be a soft approach on the battlefield by Putin’s generals.

Participants of what Russia refers to as its “special military operation” will be in attendance but foreign guests or representatives will not be invited, the Kremlin’s spokesperson told reporters Monday.

The U.N. General Assembly is holding a special session on Ukraine. The Security Council discusses Nord Stream pipelines at Russia’s request. And Russia’s parliament will hold extraordinary meetings.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opened the Munich Security Conference, speaking via video link to attendees including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Vice President Kamala Harris. The vice president later told the gathering that Russia had committed “crimes against humanity.”

NATO defense ministers met in Brussels, where Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged a boost in ammunition to Ukraine, warning that the Kremlin is preparing for new offensives and attacks.

Wang vs. Putin : “We don’t exclude a meeting” between Russia and the U.S. in the final stage of the New START treaty

Neither Russia nor China has specified whether Wang would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “we do not exclude a meeting” between Wang and Putin.

WARSAW — When President Vladimir V. Putin announced at the end of a 100-minute speech on Tuesday that he would suspend Russia’s participation in the New START treaty — the last surviving arms control agreement between the two largest nuclear-armed powers — it was one more indication that the era of formal arms control may be dying.

During the PAIN period, regular inspections of both sides were put on hold, to make sure neither side is cheating. Russia postponed talks to restart those inspections, as relations between Moscow and Washington continued to deteriorate over Ukraine.

But he made clear that the United States would not be inspecting Russian nuclear sites, a central element of verifying compliance with the treaty. He sounded like a leader done with arms control at a time of escalating confrontation with the United States.

Whoever is sitting in the Oval Office when the treaty ends will face a world similar to one of 50 years ago, when nations could field missiles at a moment’s notice.

He said inspectors could pass on their findings from the survey to the Ukrainians, so he wouldn’t allow them to do it. This is a theater of absurdity, he said. We know that the West is involved in the plan to strike at the bases.

None of this changes the status quo very much. Nuclear inspections were stopped when both sides couldn’t get into Russia or the U.S. In the past year or so, when travel restrictions were lifted, Russians came up with reasons to deny inspecting the United States. Mr. Putin said on Tuesday that the US was not living up to its inspection requirements.

There are a lot of reasons. There is very little communication between the two countries. The “strategic stability talks” that Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin agreed upon in June 2021, at their only face-to-face meeting as presidents, were suspended after the invasion of Ukraine.

Third, the treaty as it stands does not cover the nuclear weapons the world worries about most in conflicts such as in Ukraine — the “battlefield nukes,” or tactical nuclear weapons, that Mr. Putin has episodically threatened to employ against Ukrainian forces. Russia has 2,000 or so; the United States has a few hundred.

Still, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Tuesday, after Mr. Putin spoke, that he would be willing to negotiate a new treaty that was “clearly in the security interests of our country” and, he added, “in the security interests of Russia.”

Putin called on those present to stand and observe a moment of silence in their memory, acknowledging Russia’s losses in the war. The leader of Russia promised to give support to families of the fallen.

Vladimir Putin and the United States: Nuclear Security, the Warhead Problem and the American Foreign Policy – a Brief Report on Moscow’s New Start

New Start was in effect until the end of the year. It caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that Russia and the U.S. can deploy. The two countries have the vast majority of all deployable warheads.

“The U.S. and NATO openly say their goal is to see Russia’s strategic defeat. And then, as if nothing happened, they say they’re prepared to visit our military bases, including our newest,” said the Russian leader.

Should the US carry out new tests, Putin told his agency to be prepared to test additional nuclear weapons.

Putin presented a now-familiar list of grievances against the West, including what he described as its moral and spiritual collapse whose values, he said, threaten the children of Russia. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church was sitting in the middle of the hall.

The Russian leader again equated Ukraine’s “neo Nazi” government with Nazi Germany, and said Russia was defending itself just as the Soviet Union defended its territory during World War II.

Russian lawmakers gather for an extraordinary session of both chambers on Wednesday, when Putin will address a mass rally at Moscow’s largest stadium.

The image of the Russian leader holding court across a hallway, consulting with his closest advisors, has become famous since the televised session on independence was assembled by Putin’s National Security Council.

Biden said that Putin thought that Ukraine was weak, and that the West was divided. “As you know, Mr. President, I said at the beginning, he’s counting on us not sticking together.”

Biden will try to assure the region that U.S. support remains strong and that the U.S. needs to stay behind its ally, Ukraine.

Poland has given $3.8 billion in military and humanitarian assistance to NATO. Kirby said Biden will also use the opportunity to thank Poland for hosting U.S. forces.

And this new and complicated foreign policy picture is not just a problem for American diplomats. Rising challenges abroad as well, as the depletion of US and Western weapons stocks as arms are sent to Ukraine, pose questions about military capacity and whether current defense spending is sufficient. Biden is accused by Republicans of snubbing voters who are faced with economic and other problems, even as he tries to position Democrats as protectors of working Americans.

The estrangement between the US and Russia is almost complete, as shown by Biden’s trip.

Given that its economy is struggling, and its conventional forces are under extreme pressure, Russia also lacks resources to ignite a new nuclear arms race with Washington. But the collapse of one of the last building blocks of a post-Cold War thaw between Russia and the US exemplifies the almost total lack of communication between the rivals.

The Biden administration believes that Russia has committed crimes against humanity and will not allow a return to normal relations between the two countries.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that such a step would cross a US red line but did not specify what consequences could result.

China and the Chinese-Russian Relationship: It’s a Wonderful World, but it’s not a Threat to the U.S.

China may not risk US sanctions if it sends arms to Moscow, due to its own economic problems. It is possible that Beijing cares about the war being longer in order to distract the US and its military resources from Biden efforts to respond to China’s power in Asia.

The Chinese news media shared the footage of the meeting between Mr. Wang and Mr. Putin, in which he said that the international situation is very complex. “But Chinese-Russian relations have withstood the test of international turbulence, and are mature and durable — as steadfast as Mount Tai,” he said, referring to a famed Chinese mountain.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Putin highlighted the economic aspect of the China-Russia relationship, predicting that the countries’ annual trade volume could reach $200 billion as early as this year, compared with $185 billion last year.

“Everything is moving forward, developing, we are reaching new frontiers,” Mr. Putin said. We are having a discussion about economic issues.

The position paper was first discussed last week by top diplomat Wang Yi at a security conference in Munich, as he attempted to cast Beijing as a responsible negotiator for peace during a diplomatic charm offensive in Europe.

Conflict and war don’t benefit anyone. The paper said that all parties need to stay rational and exercise restraint if the crisis is to not spiral out of control.

Beijing has refused to acknowledge the nature of the conflict and it has also refused to call it an invasion, which has hurt its claim to neutrality.

The language used in the document appears to be aimed at the West. In a thinly veiled criticism of the United States, the paper said, “Cold War mentality” should be abandoned.

It appears to criticize the economic sanctions that the US and other countries imposed on Russia. “Unilateral sanctions and maximum pressure cannot solve the issue; they only create new problems,” it said. “Relevant countries should stop abusing unilateral sanctions and ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ against other countries, so as to do their share in deescalating the Ukraine crisis.”

Sullivan said that he thought it could stop at the point where it respected the sovereignty of all nations. It wasn’t attacking Russia thatUkraine was attacking. NATO wasn’t attacking Russia. The US wasn’t attacking Russia. This was a war of choice waged by Putin.”

Kamyshin, Putin and the Russians during the 2022 Russian-Russian War: A Journey on the Iron Sea to Mariupol

Putin, who welcomed Wang with outstretched arms as the Chinese diplomat entered the meeting room, said relations between Russia and China were “reaching new milestones.”

“This requires us to identify changes more voluntarily and respond to the changes more actively to further strengthen our comprehensive strategic partnership,” Wang said.

Two days after Russian troops withdrew from Kherson, Alexander Kamyshin, CEO of Ukranian Railways, was in the city with Ukrainian special forces and a small team of railway workers. They reached the train station before the army arrived to secure the city. The first train from Kyiv rolled into Kherson seven days later.

It was a wonderful day, according to Kamyshin. “We saw the faces of the people seeing the train, crying, waving their hands. It was unforgettable, trust me. That’s one of the days to remember forever.”

Since Russia began an intense assault on Ukraine a year ago today, Kamyshin and his colleagues have worked ceaselessly to keep Ukraine’s trains running. They’ve moved 4 million refugees and more than 330,000 metric tons of humanitarian aid, sending trains right up to—and sometimes beyond—the front lines of the conflict. With air travel all but impossible, Ukraine Railways has brought at least 300 foreign delegations into Kyiv in a program it calls “iron diplomacy.” The train dubbed Rail Force One carried the US president Joe Biden to the Ukrainian capital for a symbolic visit.

All that work has taken place under near constant attack. The Russians shell everything, Kamyshin says. Two hundred and fifty people died and 800 people were injured. That’s only railwaymen and women. The price we paid in this war is that.

In Mariupol, a port city on the Black Sea close to the Russian border that was bombarded relentlessly until resistance finally collapsed in May 2022, rail workers managed to get trains in and out several times before the tracks were destroyed. The stranded crews were able to evacuate by road, but two trains are still stuck there.

What the Chinese government really had to do to help Ukraine? A remark on the “Positive Solution to the Ukrainian crisis” by Ian Chong

The position paper stated that dialogue and negotiation is the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis. “All efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be encouraged and supported.”

There is not much leverage involved. The document lays out broad, general principles, but no real reason why you might want to cease and desist, right? There’s no big appeal that you’re getting something. There’s no big cost if you don’t comply,” said Ian Chong, associate professor of political science at National University of Singapore.

Not one to shy away from questions, he still tread carefully when speaking of China, even if he thinks they could be doing more to help Ukraine.

Asked about reports that Beijing was considering providing Moscow with lethal weapons, Mr. Zelensky initially ignored the question. He said that he wanted to ensure that China did not arm Russia when it was raised a second time.

Mr. Zelensky had the second question translated into another language and then spoke directly to the reporter explaining that it was not about geography or geopolitics but basic principles.

Vladimir Zelensky during the first Ukrainian war: Why did Russia invade Ukraine in the first half of the second world? A Russian diplomat tells us what happened in Kiev, and why did Ukraine invade?

Does China believe that innocents should not be killed? That a nuclear power plant should not be occupied? That respect for the sovereign rights of a nation means an invader should withdraw?

“I am already starting public diplomatic relations here,” he said, before switching to English to stress his openness to direct talks with China. We have so many issues that we have to talk to each other.

Mr. Zelensky’s confidence in Ukraine’s victory is premised on the idea that Moscow will not find a way to quickly and robustly rebuild its battered military.

Again, Mr. Zelensky was careful not to alienate a potential ally. The public support for Israel is likely more important than the targets it is targeting in Iran.

He said that he understood Israel’s long and complex history with Russia but said that he had wished for Israel to take a firmer stance against it since the start of the war.

There were hard questions about possible internal disputes in his government. There was also a journalist from Azerbaijan who simply wanted a selfie with the Ukrainian leader, for his son. (Mr. Zelensky obliged.)

The Ukrainian leader said the darkest moment of the war for him personally was when he saw the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers for the first time, in Bucha. “It was horrible,” he said.

It took more than two and half hours for people to ask about how and when Ukraine could win the war, despite the fact that it would be decided on the battlefield.

Cold War with Moldova: State of the Art and Prospects for Peacekeeping in the Context of the Cold War, and the Implications for NATO

Russia has been making stuttering military progress since then. Moldova has been warned that they could be next on Putin’s list.

Russia has been accused by the President ofMoldova, Maia Sandu, of using undercover agents to stoke unrest, in comparison to the warnings from the President of Ukraine.

While there is no sign of him accepting her invitation, the White House still supports the sovereignty ofMoldova.

Sandu said the government last fall had planned for “a series of actions involving saboteurs who have undergone military training and are disguised as civilians to carry out violent actions, attacks on government buildings and hostage-taking.”

In an interview with CNN, Iulian Groza, the former deputy foreign minister and now the director of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, said that threats from Russia and the desire to escalate the war towards us is very high.

He said thatMoldova was the most affected country by the war. “We are still a small country, which has still an under-developed economy, and that creates a lot of pressure.”

When Moldova became independent the following year, Russia quickly inserted itself as a so-called “peacekeeping force” in Transnistria, sending troops in to back pro-Moscow separatists there.

War with Moldovan forces ensued, and the conflict ended in deadlock in 1992. Transnistria was not recognized internationally, even by Russia, but Moldovan forces left it a de facto breakaway state. That deadlock has left the territory and its estimated 500,000 inhabitants trapped in limbo, with Chisinau holding virtually no control over it to this day.

Russia may launch aSpring offensive that centers on Ukrainian south and link up with Transnistria, creating a land bridge that will bring it closer to NATO territory.

Violation of the Kremlin’s Rule: Alexander Lukashenko meets Xi Jinping at the SCO summit in Beijing

The House subcommittee on defense appropriations and the Senate Armed Services Committee will conduct hearings on the war in Ukraine.

Some Russians defied the Kremlin’s rule by protesting against the war in several cities, with one independent Russian outlet reporting more than 50 people were detained at different demonstrations where they picketed, laid flowers and wrote messages.

China is preparing to host a key ally of the Russian president who is currently attacking Ukraine, despite warnings from the US.

Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese officials in Beijing from Tuesday to Thursday at the invitation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, China’s Foreign Ministry announced Sunday.

His trip comes after the two leaders agreed to upgrade their countries’ ties to an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” during a September meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan, which Putin also attended.

The conflict in Ukraine will loom over talks this week, but they are expected to be key parts of the discussions.

Xi has yet to speak with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky since Russia’s invasion began, though he has spoken with Putin on multiple occasions, including in person during the SCO summit.

In an interview with Chinese state news agency Xinhua released ahead of his visit, Lukashenko is cited as saying the position paper was a testimony to China’s peaceful foreign policy and a new and original step that would have a far-reaching impact.

Belarus already had fraught relations with Western powers, with the European Union not recognizing the results of Lukashenko’s 2020 election win – which sparked mass pro-democracy protests in the country and were followed by a brutal government crackdown.

The trade between the two countries increased by almost a third last year to $5 billion, thanks to the Belt and Road initiative launched a decade ago.

In a call between Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Belarussian counterpart Sergei Aleinik on Friday, Qin pledged that China would “support Belarus in its efforts to safeguard national stability and development,” and “oppose external interference in Belarus’s internal affairs and illegal unilateral sanctions against the country,” according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vui and his mercenary partner Prigoshyn have left the region

One commander said that the Ukrainians were mostly holding their positions, but at a high price.

Two months ago, the last Serbian national in the mercenary group’s fighters left the area, said Yevgeney Prigoshyn, the group’s boss. The comments come after Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić accused Wagner of trying to recruit Serbs to fight in Ukraine.