Western officials say that Russia may officially declare war on Ukraine on May 9. An international relations expert explains why this day is significant, and why a war declaration would matter.
Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, center, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, at the consecration of the Cathedral of Russian Armed Forces outside Moscow, June 14, 2020.
Oleg Varov, Russian Orthodox Church Press Service via AP
World War II has a central place in Russian nationalism. Its importance is written all over a new cathedral dedicated to the armed forces.
Vladimir Putin watchers the launch of Russia’s latest ICBM via video link in his office in the Kremlin.
EPA-EFE/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin pool/Sputnik
The US has frozen tens of billions of dollars worth of assets belonging to Russians and their government. A legal scholar explains why confiscating them is a bit trickier.
Syrians demonstrate in Idlib province on 1 April 2022.
Omar Haj Kadour/AFP
When it comes to war crimes in Ukraine, the Kremlin is intimately following the Syrian playbook. To prevent further atrocities, leaders must now draw the lessons from the conflict in Western Asia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller at a launch ceremony for the Nord Stream gas pipeline, Sept. 6, 2011, in Vyborg, Russia.
Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images
A digest of the week’s coverage of the war against Ukraine.
Cordial relations: Eritrean foreign minister Osman Saleh shakes hands with Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, Mosclw, April 2022.
EPA-EFE/Yuri Kochetkov
Military tensions and political concern are heating up in Transnistria, a breakaway state of Moldova that borders Ukraine. An Eastern European expert answers four key questions about this region.
Many Ukrainians returned home after fleeing the Russian invasion, including this family that arrived on April 12, 2022, in Lviv, Ukraine, from refuge in Poland.
Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
A young woman in Lviv, Ukraine, writes about fleeing Russian aggression not once, but twice, since 2014 and explains the fierce desire to stay in her home country – a desire shared by many.
Ukraine appeared not to matter much to the US and other Western countries. It wasn’t a vital interest. Russia’s war has redefined Ukraine’s status with the West.
A victory of the far-right presidential candidate would be good news for Moscow, which has a long-standing history with Le Pen and her party.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, on May 9, 2021, marking the 76th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.
(Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russia’s take on the Second World War is not merely for nationalist consumption. The actions of the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany appear to be a blueprint for the Russian attack on Ukraine.