Browsed by
Category: War

In Afghanistan, Biden has turned a crisis into a catastrophe

In Afghanistan, Biden has turned a crisis into a catastrophe

Ezra Klein writes: Ninety-five percent of Afghans don’t have enough to eat. Nearly nine million are at risk of starvation. The U.N.’s emergency aid request, at more than $5 billion, is the largest it has ever made for a single country. “The current humanitarian crisis could kill far more Afghans than the past 20 years of war,” David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, wrote recently. And we bear much of the blame. We have turned a crisis into…

Read More Read More

Does the U.S.-Russia crisis over Ukraine prove that the Cold War never ended?

Does the U.S.-Russia crisis over Ukraine prove that the Cold War never ended?

Robin Wright writes: In his final State of the Union address, in 1992, President George H. W. Bush sounded almost ecstatic. “The biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this: by the grace of God, America won the Cold War.” The ideological struggle between the U.S.-led West and the Soviet-dominated East—which played out in proxy wars around the world over four decades—had not simply ended, the President declared. The U.S. had triumphed….

Read More Read More

Russia extends Belarus military drills for thousands of troops as Ukraine violence escalates

Russia extends Belarus military drills for thousands of troops as Ukraine violence escalates

The Wall Street Journal reports: Russia will extend its military drills with Belarus because of rising violence in Ukraine’s Donbas region, the government in Minsk said, as Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted a new round of talks with Kyiv in the midst of warnings of an imminent Russian invasion. Mr. Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron said after speaking Sunday that they agreed to continue seeking a diplomatic solution. Russia has amassed as many as 190,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders,…

Read More Read More

In Ukraine crisis, the looming threat of a new Cold War

In Ukraine crisis, the looming threat of a new Cold War

The New York Times reports: Vladimir Pozner was an English-language Soviet propaganda editor in Moscow in 1962, a job that gave him rare access to American newspapers and magazines. That allowed him to follow the Cuban Missile Crisis outside the Soviet media filter, and sense a world at the brink of war. Mr. Pozner, a longtime Russian television journalist, says he now feels something similar. “The smell of war is very strong,” he said in an interview on Friday, a…

Read More Read More

West plans to arm resistance if Russian forces occupy Ukraine

West plans to arm resistance if Russian forces occupy Ukraine

The Observer reports: Secret discussions are under way between western allies over how to arm what they expect to be fierce Ukrainian resistance in the event of a Russian invasion that topples the Kyiv government. Boris Johnson laid bare the case for such a move in a dramatic speech to the Munich security conference where he stated it was in the collective self-interests of the west for any Russian invasion to “fail and be seen to fail”. He said that…

Read More Read More

Putin oversees nuclear drills, U.S. says Russian forces ‘poised to strike’ Ukraine

Putin oversees nuclear drills, U.S. says Russian forces ‘poised to strike’ Ukraine

Reuters reports: Russia’s strategic nuclear forces held exercises overseen by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, and Washington accused Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s border of advancing and being “poised to strike”. With Western fears of war rising, foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich nations said they had seen no evidence Russia is reducing its military activity in the area and remained “gravely concerned” about the situation. After Kyiv and Moscow traded accusations over new shelling near the border,…

Read More Read More

Beijing uneasily weighs how far to go in backing Putin on Ukraine

Beijing uneasily weighs how far to go in backing Putin on Ukraine

The Wall Street Journal reports: China’s longstanding foreign-policy stance, set forth soon after the founding of Communist China by then-Premier Zhou Enlai in the “five principles of peaceful coexistence,” is to not endorse any country’s aggression or intervention in another’s affairs. That helps explain why China hasn’t recognized Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, or fully supported Moscow when it deployed forces to Kazakhstan early this year to quell unrest in the Central Asian nation. Beijing is aware that by so…

Read More Read More

In 2008 Russia announced a military withdrawal from its border with Georgia. 8 days later, it invaded

In 2008 Russia announced a military withdrawal from its border with Georgia. 8 days later, it invaded

Business Insider reports: Russia on Tuesday claimed it was withdrawing some troops from Ukraine’s border as it denies plans to attack the country, but the US and NATO said Russia appeared to be increasing its military presence there. They may worry that the situation could mirror Russia’s actions in 2008, when it said it was withdrawing troops and invaded eight days later. At the time, Russia said it sent soldiers to the Abkhazia region to fix a railroad, and then…

Read More Read More

As oil nears $100, Saudis snub U.S., stick to Russian pact amid Ukraine crisis

As oil nears $100, Saudis snub U.S., stick to Russian pact amid Ukraine crisis

The Wall Street Journal reports: Rising oil prices and fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine have created a dilemma for Saudi Arabia: Help the West by pumping more crude to tame the market, or stand by a five-year-old oil alliance that is helping Moscow at the expense of Washington. For now, the world’s largest crude exporter is sticking with Russia. President Biden has repeatedly called on Persian Gulf producers to pump more oil to reduce gasoline prices that, for…

Read More Read More

Afghans who bet on fast path to the U.S. are facing a closed door

Afghans who bet on fast path to the U.S. are facing a closed door

The New York Times reports: As a combat interpreter in Afghanistan, Sharif Azizi helped U.S. Special Forces hunt down Taliban targets, even after suffering leg and chest injuries from stepping on a land mine. When his life was threatened by the insurgents, the United States acknowledged his eight years of service and in 2017 brought him to safety in Los Angeles. Last year, when Taliban fighters seized Kabul, they came looking for his mother and siblings. Unable to make it…

Read More Read More

Russians have already started hybrid war with bomb threats, cyberattacks, Ukraine says

Russians have already started hybrid war with bomb threats, cyberattacks, Ukraine says

The Wall Street Journal reports: U.S. officials are warning that Russia could be about to attack Ukraine. For many citizens in this embattled country, the assault has already begun. Ukrainian officials say that Russia, which has positioned more than 100,000 troops around three sides of Ukraine, is stepping up a destabilization campaign involving cyberattacks, economic disruption and a new tactic: hundreds of fake bomb threats. Russian forces and their proxies already control portions of Ukraine and frequent skirmish with government…

Read More Read More

Finland’s president knows Putin well. And he fears for Ukraine

Finland’s president knows Putin well. And he fears for Ukraine

The New York Times reports: As the threat of a new Russian invasion of Ukraine grew, the European head of state with the longest and deepest experience dealing with Vladimir V. Putin fielded calls and doled out advice to President Emmanuel Macron of France and other world leaders desperate for insight into his difficult neighbor to the east. “‘What do you think about this about this, what about this, or this?’ That’s where I try to be helpful,” said Sauli…

Read More Read More

Why the West’s diplomacy with Russia keeps failing

Why the West’s diplomacy with Russia keeps failing

Anne Applebaum writes: Tragically, the Western leaders and diplomats who are right now trying to stave off a Russian invasion of Ukraine still think they live in a world where rules matter, where diplomatic protocol is useful, where polite speech is valued. All of them think that when they go to Russia, they are talking to people whose minds can be changed by argument or debate. They think the Russian elite cares about things like its “reputation.” It does not….

Read More Read More

Ukrainian airline grounds fleet as warnings over Russian invasion cause insurers to pull cover

Ukrainian airline grounds fleet as warnings over Russian invasion cause insurers to pull cover

The Wall Street Journal reports: One of Ukraine’s main airlines said Sunday it was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Moldova and suspended sales for flights this week after its insurers stopped covering aircraft in Ukrainian airspace due to an increased threat of a Russian military invasion. The announcement by Kyiv-based carrier SkyUp Airlines came a day after Dutch national flag carrier KLM said it had suspended its flights to Kyiv and wouldn’t operate flights in Ukrainian airspace. Separately,…

Read More Read More

Biden warns Putin of ‘swift and severe costs’ of invading Ukraine

Biden warns Putin of ‘swift and severe costs’ of invading Ukraine

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Biden warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of “swift and severe costs” if Russia moves against Ukraine in a phone call Saturday, as the U.S. ordered most embassy staff out of the country and Moscow also began withdrawing its diplomatic presence there. “President Biden was clear that, if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States together with our allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on…

Read More Read More

The quiet signs that Russia’s elites are deeply divided on Ukraine

The quiet signs that Russia’s elites are deeply divided on Ukraine

Fred Kaplan writes: As Vladimir Putin steps up his military pressure on the Ukrainian border, there are signs that some members of Russia’s officer corps oppose his actions. The most eyebrow-raising of these dissents is an open letter by retired Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov posted on the website of the All-Russian Officers’ Assembly, which he chairs. In it, he rejects Putin’s claim that NATO poses a threat to Russia’s vital interests, warns that invading Ukraine “will forever make Russians and…

Read More Read More