Russia’s War in Ukraine

He’s not the same as the old boss.

No one man should have all that power, U.S. lawmakers say.

“If you’re on a Russian naval ship, you’re not safe anywhere in the Black Sea,” said one retired U.S. admiral.

Moscow’s regular spies have been expelled. Their kill squads are still active.

How the Institute For the Study of War became the media’s go-to source for tracking the Russian invasion.

The Wagner chief broke the deal struck with Putin for his survival.

For money or out of conviction, some Ukrainians are helping Russia kill their compatriots.

The Kremlin has taken indoctrination and historical falsification to a new level.

Western companies’ assets are under threat.

The idea that a deal with Moscow will bring peace in Ukraine is based on very flimsy assumptions.

The infamous Russian mercenary group finds itself without a leader, but still with a mission.

Interpretations of the Wagner saga are more imaginative than analytical.

The Wagner chief’s death in a plane crash was confirmed by Russia’s aviation agency.

Kyiv is determined to destroy a major supply line into occupied Crimea.

Rhetoric about “European civilization” clashes with anti-colonial ideals.

Cambodia and Laos have direct experience with the aftermath of U.S. cluster bombs, now deployed on the battlefield in Ukraine.

A trail of evidence on social networks and state media detail Minsk’s role in a potential war crime

Too little, too late?

Other states have a legal and moral duty to stop Moscow.

Kyiv’s forces are finally starting to breach the dragon’s teeth.

The answer could have wide-ranging implications for U.S. policy in Africa and beyond

The CIA and MI6 are promising a trust Moscow lacks.

The security state is targeting nationalists like Igor Girkin.

Boeing aircraft are still plying tourist routes from Moscow to Turkey, Egypt, and Thailand, and they’re refueling—and possibly getting repairs—en route.

Moscow used to bang shoes to get attention. Now it blows up grain warehouses.

South Africa’s support for Russia after its invasion of Ukraine has incensed some in Washington.

When it comes to increasing its security footprint abroad, Beijing is facing a conundrum in reconciling Maoist doctrine with contemporary reality.

It’s not Chernobyl 2.0. But experts say Russian threats to cause a catastrophe shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.

The dictator of Belarus recognized the mutiny in Russia as an opportunity to empower himself.

Integrating Kyiv into the Joint Expeditionary Force would help deter Moscow.

Moscow is weaponizing resources that aren’t even its own.

I saw the impact of these weapons on my homeland—but Biden’s decision was right.

Voting in the middle of the Russian invasion is legally and practically unworkable.

In times of political instability, Washington prefers the nuclear devil it knows.

NATO’s former secretary-general on the case for arming Ukraine and what to expect at the Vilnius summit.

Will it be NATO membership or the Israel model?

The decision to send the controversial weapons comes after months of knife fights within the U.S. administration.

Putin faces a choice between punishing Prigozhin and ceding influence and territory to Tehran.

The Kremlin is trying to take control of the Wagner Group’s Middle Eastern empire.

Albrecht von Wallenstein was the Holy Roman Empire’s power broker—until he clashed with his superior.

The Wagner Group’s short-lived mutiny seems to have weakened Putin—but that isn’t necessarily a win for Washington.

Last weekend’s mutiny was partly the product of a mismanaged authoritarian state.

Moscow has a tight command-and-control system—but there’s always a risk.

Xi feels vindicated over Putin’s style of governance—but has made a bad bet on the Russian leader.

With its good fighters out of the picture, Russia’s manpower problems get worse.

In Central Asia and the Caucasus, the Wagner rebellion has exposed Russia’s fragility.

His mishandling of the revolt puts him in the spotlight—and Russians don’t like what they see.

Prigozhin’s revolt has exposed the rotten foundations of a mafia state.

Lawmakers from both parties want Ukraine to have the tools to root out entrenched Russian occupiers.

Conscripts will fear being used as stopgaps in Ukraine.

A 1917 attempted coup d’etat is a reminder that even an ineffective mutiny can alter the course of history.

Gas and oil flows are reshaping geopolitical alignments.

Nobody in Russia understands what the war in Ukraine is about. And now, nobody knows if that war is coming to them.

What Russian elites are thinking about the mercenary leader’s abortive march on Moscow.

Lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan on managing malfeasance while rebuilding.

Conventional institutions won’t be able to handle reparations.

Chinese-linked firms went on a spree of deals in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine.

Unlike last fall, Ukraine has to crack hardened Russian lines before doing any open-field running.

NATO is revamping defense plans that will be a whole lot harder to execute with Sweden on the outside.

The breach could unleash a disastrous new humanitarian crisis as Kyiv readies its counteroffensive.

“We’re basically homeless here, but at least we’re home.”

But Taipei is also getting tired of supply chain issues.

Sergiy Kyslytsya talks about Putin’s nuclear blackmail, what to do with the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, and how even Henry Kissinger can learn.

By pitching himself as a hero to the U.S. right, he’s taking a page from the 1960s North Vietnamese playbook to undermine support for Ukraine.

With their livelihoods threatened and the state stretched thin, agricultural workers are taking demining into their own hands.

How the nonstop blare of Russian state media fuels the war effort—and blurs reality.

Eight takeaways about Russian evasion of Western sanctions.

Kyiv’s top brass hopes to get Western fighter jets before their kids go off to college.

From deterrence to military readiness, Ukraine aid is a major boost to Pacific security.

Moscow’s massive losses may not neutralize its threat to NATO countries.

No matter how this war ends, Russia will need to be deterred from attacking again.

A new generation of Russians glorifies war, death, and Vladimir Putin.

Debate rages over whether to pick the “gold, silver, or bronze” medal option for prosecuting war crimes.

Do South Africa’s denials that it supplied weapons to Russia ring true?

“I would really hate to be a Russian private sitting in a trench right now,” said one former U.S. military commander.

More ambassadors, more embassies, and, the hope is, more countering Russia.

The end of the Black Sea Grain Initiative would hurt Beijing, too.

The recruitment of prisoners via the Wagner Group has boosted manpower but cost morale.

What bestselling books tell us about how Russians are processing the war.

It’s time for the United States to prioritize members of the alliance that understand the Russian threat and are taking it seriously.

The group’s Afghanistan branch is capitalizing on the Russia-Ukraine war to recruit, fundraise, and incite violence.

Overflowing graveyards and other parallels signal a threat to Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Ukraine has enjoyed air superiority for more than 400 days. Time may be running out.

The nonaligned country has strong diplomatic traditions—and its president is a pro at building global coalitions.

Behind closed doors in western Ukraine, the devastating impact of the distant war becomes clear.

But some damage can’t be fixed by bricks and mortar.

Every day Kyiv waits, the Russians dig deeper trenches.

Videos of atrocities stem back to the bloody wars of the 1990s.

The first 24 hours of the expected counteroffensive will likely be decisive.

The Pentagon’s top policymaker on Kyiv’s forthcoming spring offensive, the impact of recent leaks, and the long-term challenge of China.

Kyiv says more than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia. This is the story of a few who made it home.

Many have begun to associate anti-gay bigotry with imperial aggression.

Moscow’s efforts to deflect Western intervention may be applied to Taiwan.

But they will make his job much more difficult.

Both Washington and Kyiv sought to downplay the more than 50 classified documents that surfaced on an internet server in March.

Advanced tanks will be critical to any summer offensive.

The Wagner Group is strikingly reckless with its own men’s lives.

The war in Ukraine exposes a vulnerable seam in NATO strategy.

As Finland joins NATO, a few European holdouts cling to nonalignment.

Beijing’s diplomatic overture has three ulterior motives.

China hawks in Washington rattle nerves in Europe.

Russian weapons dominate India’s arsenal, but Moscow can no longer deliver.

Putin’s war in Ukraine is about to add 800 miles to his headaches.

Western vagueness about war aims is creating a risky vacuum for the Kremlin to exploit.

No one wants long, grueling wars—but the consequences of impatience can be worse.

As Argentina’s president prepares to meet with the U.S. president, the bloc’s consensus on Russia’s war in Ukraine will be put to the test.

Moscow is stumbling on energy diplomacy even now.

Russian state-run media outlets have spread the Kremlin’s Ukraine war narrative effectively in the region.

There is evidence the Russian president is not ignorant of the security benefits of arms control.

The charges may be an important step in pushing global justice forward.

Philip Breedlove, a former supreme allied commander for NATO, says policymakers are falling for Putin’s nuclear rhetoric.

Front-line officers are desperate for a less glamorous weapon: the infantry fighting vehicle.

The court has issued arrest warrants for the Russian president and another senior official over the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children.

Russia wants more concessions to keep allowing vital food exports to leave Ukrainian ports.

A crushed society is incapable of facing the truth.

Nicholas Berliner, a veteran diplomat, has joined the White House to run Russia policy.

The invasion of Ukraine has finally reconciled Europe’s liberals and nationalists.

Moscow is grasping for meaning in a meaningless invasion.

We thought there were buffer states in Europe. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revealed they are frontier ones.

No matter the goal, Washington needs to quickly fill gaps in defense production.

Moscow has made economic statistics a central part of its information war.

An embassy event celebrates the seizure of ancient swords from a would-be Russian smuggler.

Washington urgently needs a 21st-century communication strategy.

A Ukrainian victory may be the country’s only chance at long-term salvation.

Ad hoc, one-off decisions and lagging implementation are undermining the strategic effects of U.S. military assistance.

The United States and Europe get a few things wrong about global attitudes toward Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Fellow victims of Russian imperialism are finding solidarity with Kyiv.

Beijing’s phony proposal lays bare its conditions for winning an East Asian war.

Despite fresh salvos of Western sanctions, Tehran and Moscow are buddying up on defense ties.

Russia’s war is receiving critical assistance from authoritarian regimes around the world. 

Open-source investigations were once potent journalistic tools, but in Ukraine, they’re being used on the battlefield.

A paralyzed Security Council and a toothless General Assembly can’t come to grips with Russia’s challenge to the international order.

Moscow is out to destroy a people.

Russia’s full-scale war started a year ago. Ukraine’s military started slashing its Soviet roots long before.

The most pointed criticisms of the war are coming from those charged with fighting it.

Activists argue the struggles for state transparency and national liberation are one and the same.

What government officials are saying in public, and private, is fascinating—and full of contradictions.

Russia may well emerge from the war poor, belligerent, and with President Vladimir Putin still in power.

Russia’s invasion has made Europeans more emotionally attached to the continent than ever before.

Caviar and vodka on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine is a year old. Here are the stories of some who have survived.

The Russian state is doing more than ever to crush dissent.

Russian intelligence ignored facts in favor of wish-casting.

The right to life trumps the right to fight, and knowledge of a war’s damage trumps belief in its justice.

What has the West learned from one year of unprecedented economic sanctions?

Putin’s anti-Western speech elicited eye rolls, even at the Kremlin.

If year two of the war were a carbon copy of the first, Russia would control almost one-third of Ukraine next February.

Angela Stent and Michael Kofman discuss one year of the war in Ukraine—and what to expect next on the battlefield.

The Netherlands’ prime minister argues that Russia’s war is a great-power conflict—with the world’s small states near its center.

A Ukrainian attack on the Russian-occupied peninsula might only be a matter of time.

What kind of country do Russians want to live in after the war?

Russia and the United States hold about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons. What happens when they’re no longer talking?

The West’s historical anxieties have made it impossible to come to terms with the war’s reality.

Side by side with Zelensky, the U.S. president declares: “We stand here together.”

Ironically, a defeat by Ukraine could trigger Russians to reexamine their national identity.

Washington’s prewar efforts were weak and inadequate.

Someday, soldiers hope to return home and topple Lukashenko.

For the GOP, it was all about reassuring Europe.

But long-range weapons aren’t a cure-all for Ukraine.

In a long struggle against Putin, Britain can’t ignore any ally.

Crowdsourced donations are fueling eyes in the sky.

It’s all about artillery rounds and air defense, not just tanks and fighter jets.

The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukraine—but not everything.

As large-scale conflict appears possible again, NATO members should focus on reserves.

Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future.

A new book examining Russia’s 2014 invasion of eastern Ukraine reveals some uncomfortable truths.

Fetishizing femininity has complicated and painful post-Soviet roots.

Why has it taken a war of conquest for experts to recognize Russia’s nature as a vast imperial enterprise?

The Gulf Cooperation Council has maintained links to both Russia and the West.

Europe’s brutal conflict has been a harsh but instructive teacher.

Russia is sending more bodies. Ukraine doesn’t have enough. And the tanks won’t arrive in time.

Vienna will allow sanctioned Russian parliamentarians to attend the next big security meeting on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Jerusalem’s ties to Moscow are partly about security. They’re also about illiberalism.

The West should remind Serbia not to hitch its wagon to a diminished Russia.

Poland and Estonia are planning to push the alliance to raise its defense spending benchmark this year to at least 2.5 percent of GDP.

Withholding support for Ukraine in reclaiming the territory risks undermining gains made thus far.

Western tanks pack a punch. They also bring a long tail.

Sending American tanks now helps guarantee a safer world tomorrow.

Competing ideas about the end state of the war are striving for dominance.

With alternative sources in place, Putin’s attempt at blackmailing Europe on energy has failed.

The United Kingdom and Eastern Europe are pushing for the United States and Germany to seriously arm Ukraine—and quickly.