“Ukraine – Russia”

“Whichever way this war ends,” thought Volodymyr Ishchenko on 24 February 2022, “I will no longer have a homeland.” In the preface to his new book, Towards The Abyss, the iconoclastic sociologist outlines his Soviet-Ukrainian identity as distinct from Ukraine’s Russian-speakers or the population of its south-eastern regions. Instead of ethnicity, these people were shaped by the forces of social revolution, class and modernisation. Looking back at the post-Soviet decades, Ishchenko argues that the political fragmentation of Soviet Ukrainians and the fragility of the “Eastern” (misleadingly called “pro-Russian”) camp in Ukrainian politics, as opposed to the politically stronger “Western” (“pro-European”) camp, is an underestimated cause of the ongoing war.

Oil income: slashed. Oligarchs’ assets: frozen. Access to weapons: choked.

Russia has faced a historic slew of penalties from Washington, Brussels and beyond since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The punishments, chiefly economic sanctions, were designed in large part to drain Russia’s coffers so it would struggle to fund its war. And more pain has been promised as both the U.S. and EU unveiled new sanctions against Russia this week, some tied to the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerged Saturday in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, joining other world leaders at the site of one of the war’s first and fiercest battles to mark the second anniversary of the brutal Russian invasion.

Trudeau appeared at Hostomel airport alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in a show of global solidarity.

As the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine arrives, the Russian Army is showing a remarkable capacity to take extraordinary punishment and regenerate itself at a pace western military leaders and experts had not anticipated.

Only nine months ago, American intelligence officials were telling the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that it would take a decade — or more — for Moscow to recover from the staggering losses inflicted by Ukrainian defenders. The German Council on Foreign Relations refined that estimate last fall, warning that the window would be more like five to eight years.

The Russians have taken Avdiivka, and President Joe Biden faces a tough choice: he either closes the Mexican border or loses Ukraine. The $61 billion supplemental aid package for Ukraine, which may be the minimum required to block further Russian advances, remains held up by Congress, which is unlikely to pass it anytime soon unless the administration returns to the tough border policies of former President Donald Trump. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson responded to Democrat machinations to force a vote last week by putting the House of Representatives in recess.

LYMAN, Ukraine (AP) – When the Russian army mounted a full-scale invasion two years ago, Ukrainian men zealously rushed to recruitment centers across the country to enlist, ready to die in defense of their nation.

Ukrainian soldiers may be manning the front lines, but more Europeans seem to be manning their nearest café tables and shrugging off expectations that Ukraine can prevail over Russia, a new poll finds.

The survey, conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations and released just ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, finds that 10 percent of Europeans, on average, believe Ukraine will emerge the winner in the conflict. The prevailing view, in all 12 surveyed member states, is that a “compromise settlement” will end the war.

Russia has arrested an American–Russian dual citizen on treason charges after she allegedly donated about $50 to a Ukrainian charity.

Video released by Russia’s federal security services showed a 33-year-old woman, identified by the First Department, a collective of lawyers, as Ksenia Khavana, being handcuffed and escorted out of a building in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg with a cream-coloured hat pulled down over her eyes. The video then cuts to a shot of the woman standing inside a glass courtroom cage.

Canada will donate more than 800 drones to Ukraine as part of an additional aid package to the country, Defence Minister Bill Blair announced on Monday.

The drones, worth an estimated $95 million, are paid for by the $500 million package unveiled by the prime minister during his visit to Kyiv last June. Since February, 2022, Canada has spent $9.7 billion supporting Ukraine, including $2.4 billion on military aid.

MUNICH — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants Donald Trump to come and see the war against Russia with his own eyes.

“If Mr. Trump will come I am ready even to go with him to the front line,” Zelenskyy said Saturday morning at the Munich Security Conference.

Trump is leading in the polls to run as the Republican Party’s nominee in this November’s U.S. presidential election and has pledged repeatedly to stop aid to Ukraine and force Kyiv to the negotiating table with Russia.

I’d like to see this.