There was something surreal in discussing the possibility of a wider Middle East war while outside, in the most exposed of Ukrainian towns, the air-raid sirens were wailing, signaling a threat of a wider European war.
Last weekend in Kharkiv, as in so many other places, Iran’s attacks on Israel were the talk of the town. Standing on the city’s empty Freedom Square, my friend Olga Shpak — a volunteer with Assist Ukraine — and I were weighing what the possible scenarios mean for Ukraine. The optimistic approach went: If Israel hits Iran, perhaps there will be fewer Iranian-made Shahed drones for Russia to use against Ukraine?… Seguir leyendo »
Critics of the proposed $60 billion package of U.S. aid for Ukraine in Congress, Mar-a-Lago and beyond ask what the beleaguered country could do with the money and associated ammunition and new weaponry. Would it give Ukrainian forces the wherewithal to beat Russia? It’s a good question.
The answer is a solid maybe. Given restored U.S. support and ongoing help from Europe, Ukraine might be able to turn the tide. It wouldn’t be easy, but the possibility is great enough that, before letting Vladimir Putin notch a partial victory in this war, the world should help Ukraine try once more to take its territory back — if that’s really what Ukraine wants.… Seguir leyendo »
After more than two years fighting one of the world’s most powerful armies, Ukraine has enacted a new mobilization law—a move hailed by the West as an urgent reform. Signed into law on April 16, the legislation comes at a time when Ukraine faces a series of growing challenges in its defense against Russia, from shortages of Ukraine’s soldiers and ammunition to wavering Western support. In this view, the new law could make it easier for the government to replenish its forces as it prepares for a major Russian offensive this summer.
For Ukrainians, however, the law also represents something else.… Seguir leyendo »
La Unión Europea debe prepararse para una victoria de Donald Trump. Con la guerra abierta en Ucrania -probablemente en el momento más crítico para la posición defensiva de este país y ante el chute de confianza que a Putin le ha brindado su reelección-, el riesgo para la seguridad y para el mantenimiento del apoyo a Kiev es alto si al mismo tiempo Europa debe afrontar una crisis dentro de la OTAN y con una eventual Administración republicana. Una crisis como la que ya se produjo con Trump a lo largo de su mandato, especialmente durante sus visitas a Europa en 2017 y 2018.… Seguir leyendo »
Hace ahora diez años, en abril de 2014, la guerra ruso-ucraniana, que había comenzado con la ocupación ilegal de Crimea por parte de Rusia, el 20 de febrero de 2014, se convirtió en un gran conflicto armado.
Muchos de los analistas y comentaristas que hoy simpatizan con Ucrania y condenan la invasión a gran escala de Rusia del 24 de febrero de 2022 siguen siendo ambivalentes sobre su prehistoria. Ya sea por la propaganda rusa, por prejuicios teóricos, por simple ingenuidad o por otras razones, numerosos observadores extranjeros siguen haciendo una marcada distinción entre los combates en Ucrania antes y después de esa fecha.… Seguir leyendo »
In the early hours of February 24, 2022, the Russian air force struck targets across Ukraine. At the same time, Moscow’s infantry and armor poured into the country from the north, east, and south. In the days that followed, the Russians attempted to encircle Kyiv.
These were the first days and weeks of an invasion that could well have resulted in Ukraine’s defeat and subjugation by Russia. In retrospect, it seems almost miraculous that it did not.
What happened on the battlefield is relatively well understood. What is less understood is the simultaneous intensive diplomacy involving Moscow, Kyiv, and a host of other actors, which could have resulted in a settlement just weeks after the war began.… Seguir leyendo »
President Biden wants the world to believe that the biggest obstacle facing Ukraine is Republicans and our lack of commitment to the global community. This is wrong.
Ukraine’s challenge is not the G.O.P.; it’s math. Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies. And it needs more matériel than the United States can provide. This reality must inform any future Ukraine policy, from further congressional aid to the diplomatic course set by the president.
The Biden administration has applied increasing pressure on Republicans to pass a supplemental aid package of more than $60 billion to Ukraine.… Seguir leyendo »
The war between Russia and Ukraine has been catastrophic for both countries. With neither side enjoying an overwhelming advantage and their political positions completely at odds, the fighting is unlikely to end soon. One thing is clear, though: the conflict is a post-cold-war watershed that will have a profound, lasting global impact.
Four main factors will influence the course of the war. The first is the level of resistance and national unity shown by Ukrainians, which has until now been extraordinary. The second is international support for Ukraine, which, though recently falling short of the country’s expectations, remains broad.
The third factor is the nature of modern warfare, a contest that turns on a combination of industrial might and command, control, communications and intelligence systems.… Seguir leyendo »
Las disputas más trascendentales en la política suelen ser las que tienen lugar dentro de los partidos políticos, no entre ellos. En Alemania, estas rupturas internas son muy poco frecuentes. La última tuvo lugar en 1959, cuando el Partido Socialdemócrata de Alemania (SPD, por sus siglas en alemán) rompió con el marxismo y se convirtió en uno de los partidos de centroizquierda más populares de Europa. El SPD podría estar a punto de sufrir otro cambio de este tipo, pero esta vez las fuerzas de resistencia son más formidables.
Un grupo de eminentes historiadores alemanes, todos ellos miembros del SPD, ha escrito una carta abierta para criticar la negativa del partido a distanciarse de Vladímir Putin y por no apoyar a Ucrania.… Seguir leyendo »
Que la población civil en democracia no comprenda cómo se produce el periodismo y para qué sirve es preocupante. Pero más preocupante aún es que alguien que dice ser periodista tampoco comprenda que el oscarizado documental 20 días en Mariúpol es periodismo del bueno y no una ficción en la que pondría o quitaría esto o lo otro para que quedara más cuqui. Que les pongan o les quiten figuritas a los pesebres sobre los que escriben es a lo que se dedican estos bien pagados.
Descubrí la columnita de marras a la que aludo porque varios compañeros se mesaban los cabellos en redes, aquí y aquí.… Seguir leyendo »
Since Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, a rare consensus has formed in Washington around this conviction: America must provide military support to Ukraine’s resistance. Three administrations and large majorities of both parties in Congress have consistently held that President Vladimir Putin’s aggression cannot be tolerated. When has such deep solidarity last occurred on any difficult subject?
Now members of Congress are arguing that we must turn away from spending more money to help Ukraine, choosing instead to focus on our own needs, pursuing our own interests. This is a false choice.
The choices facing America are always based on the same foundation: what best serves our nation.… Seguir leyendo »
In this appeal to Congress, more than 35 artists, activists, scholars and others call for funding for Ukraine. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the signatories.
Together we call upon Congress to do the right thing.
Ukrainians are fighting for their existence. On territory that Russia occupies, it tortures Ukrainian citizens, kidnaps Ukrainian children and murders Ukrainian leaders. On territory Russia can reach with its weapons, it strikes civilians and rescue workers. Russian missiles, drones and bombs destroy churches and monuments to the Holocaust. Russian occupation threatens Ukraine’s Muslims, the Crimean Tatars.
Russian leaders say openly that their goal is the destruction of the Ukrainian state and the elimination of Ukrainians as a people.… Seguir leyendo »
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, has brought a glimmer of hope to supporters of the Ukrainian war effort. He suggested to Fox News on March 31 that he would try to rally his divided party behind the so-called REPO Act. That piece of legislation would allow President Biden, working with European allies, to seize Russian currency reserves frozen in the West and use them to aid Ukraine.
Grabbing these reserves would be politically convenient. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and its allies have thrown more than a quarter-trillion dollars into the war, to little ultimate effect.… Seguir leyendo »
Walter Duranty fue jefe de la oficina del New York Times en Moscú de 1922 a 1936. Hoy en día se le recuerda por haber encubierto en sus artículos la hambruna artificial que causó casi cuatro millones de muertos en la Ucrania Soviética. "Las condiciones son malas, pero no hay hambruna", escribió en una época en la que los periodistas internacionales apenas podían salir de Moscú.
Hoy en día, Rusia ha vuelto a llevar desolación y muerte a Ucrania. Sus crímenes, sin embargo, quedan a la vista de todos, como así reportan numerosas organizaciones internacionales. Por ende, la manera de encubrir estos crímenes ha evolucionado y se ha adaptado a los tiempos.… Seguir leyendo »
On the computer screen, you can see the thicket of Russian jammers and antiaircraft missiles that obstructs a simulated Ukrainian drone attack from “Launch Site Alpha”, near Kherson, to “Target Site Oscar” in Russian-occupied Crimea.
The menacing images I watched here were sketched using signals captured by sensors from land, sea, air and space. The Russian air-defense systems appeared as towering cylinders, miles wide and thousands of feet high. The electronic warfare jammers look like jagged fences of cross-hatched lines. The system also captured weather, wind speed and ground obstacles like tall buildings.
Ukrainian drone operators can instantly map a safe route to the target using this system, which was developed for them by the U.S.… Seguir leyendo »
Speaking in Prague in early March, Emmanuel Macron warned Europeans that now was not the time to be “cowardly”. This comment came just a week after a conference on Ukraine in Paris, during which the French president told a reporter that the prospect of sending Western troops to Ukraine should not be “excluded”. Europeans, he said, will “do everything that we must so that Russia does not win”. The remarks proved controversial and irritated several allies. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pushed back, distancing himself from Macron’s pronouncements. Leaders in Greece, Spain, Sweden, and the United States also clarified that sending troops to Ukraine was not on the table.… Seguir leyendo »
Es notorio que, tras la agresión armada de Rusia en febrero de 2022, la respuesta militar de Ucrania tiene su fundamento en la legítima defensa. Aquella agresión inicial rusa ha sido continuada y seguida de invasión, ocupación parcial y, además, posterior anexión ilegal de los territorios ocupados (desde 2014 y otros nuevos).
La legítima defensa frente al agresor es un derecho inherente de todo Estado, si bien solo puede ejercerse con un conjunto de limites objetivos y procedimentales (art. 51 de la Carta de la ONU). Por tanto, el Estado que se defiende contra el agresor no tiene un derecho ilimitado a usar la fuerza armada.… Seguir leyendo »
After more than two years of fighting, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has bogged down into a bloody impasse. Both countries continue to spend substantial resources to gain territory, but their advances are rare and small. Sometimes they are quickly reversed. Neither side has the resources to achieve a decisive victory on the battlefield. Both are incurring heavy casualties every day.
Typically, academics describe such situations as “mutually hurting stalemates”, and they often foster the conditions that cause parties to negotiate. If the warring actors lack the means to alter the trajectory of fighting, they often rethink how much they can accomplish by force.… Seguir leyendo »
Late morning Monday, from occupied Crimea, the Russians launched two hypersonic ballistic missiles at Kyiv. Our friends heard the explosion and the air raid sirens simultaneously — which is unusual. Hypersonic missiles are faster than the speed of sound.
Fragments hit the Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design, where the students, with no time to get to the shelter, lay down on the ground.
Kyiv is dependent on air defense. In turn, air defense is dependent on American aid, and that aid is currently hostage to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is at the moment among Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most powerful allies.… Seguir leyendo »
Muchos políticos, diplomáticos y otros comentaristas internacionales datan, inadvertida o deliberadamente, el inicio de la actual guerra rusoucraniana en febrero de 2022, en lugar de febrero de 2014. Tres narrativas (formadas por la desinformación mundial de Moscú sobre su anexión ilegal de Crimea y su intervención encubierta en Dombás) explican este malentendido que lleva ya diez años autoperpetuándose.
Una primera narración afirma que la secesión de Crimea de Ucrania, así como el estallido de los combates en Dombás poco después, estuvieron determinados por la dinámica local y no por la injerencia extranjera.
Una segunda, que la toma de Crimea por Rusia fue un traspaso pacífico y no un acto violento.… Seguir leyendo »
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