opinion
Just a month after the U.S. Congress approved the much-awaited aid package for Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kyiv with a clear message: Washington supports the embattled country despite political bickering and the ongoing election campaign. Blinken also announced a special military-industrial complex development and weapon export fund worth $2 billion, encouraging Ukraine to bolster its own defense capabilities. This move is timely for Kyiv, which seeks to reduce its reliance on the West and attract investors to replenish its exhausted budget. Ukraine is focusing on g...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
Far-right populist parties performed exceptionally well in the European Parliament elections, finishing first in France, Italy, and three other countries. They won nearly a quarter of the seats in the Parliament, just behind the center right. With Europe already reeling from Russia's war in Ukraine, the threat of a second Donald Trump presidency in the United States, stagnant living standards, strained welfare systems, and extreme weather events, nationalists pose a severe threat. These parties are often sympathetic to Russian President Vladimir Putin and downright hostile to green policies, m...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
Two years ago, I outlined eight lessons from Russia's war against Ukraine. And though I warned that it was too early to be confident about any predictions, they have held up reasonably well. When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he envisaged a quick seizure of the capital, Kyiv, and a change of government – much like what the Soviets did in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. But the war is still raging, and no one knows when or how it will end. If one sees the conflict as Ukraine’s “war of independence,” rather than focusing...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
For better or worse, memes and video games might now play a more significant role in shaping people’s worldviews than textbooks, movies, and literature. As Russia’s war against Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war capture global attention, it’s crucial to consider how people form their conscious and unconscious beliefs about the world. This question extends beyond the billions of global citizens to influential individuals like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Ukrainians have grievances against both, ranging from unfair content moderation on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) that censo...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
There is a saying in Poland that, “No one will die for Gdansk.” No matter what kind of security guarantees Poland gets from Western countries, most Poles believe that we will still have to fend for ourselves. After all, when the Nazis invaded in 1939, Poland had security guarantees from Great Britain and France, yet neither country came to its aid (though they did formally declare war on the Third Reich). Yes, according to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all, and faith in this mutual-defense commitment remains strong in Poland. U.S. presiden...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
Estonia’s parliament enacted a law on May 15 enabling the use of frozen Russian assets to compensate Ukraine for the damages caused by Russia’s war. Kyiv and its Western allies have discussed using around $300 billion in Russian assets held in Western accounts to support Ukraine. As of October 2023, the Estonian government estimated having 38 million euros ($41.3 million) in frozen Russian assets. “We will adopt this law because Ukraine’s victory is our victory,” Hendrik Johannes Terras, the chairman of Estonia’s Constitutional Commission, said. “We are adopting this law because Russia must co...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the Kremlin has sought to play the nuclear card – both to frighten Ukraine and to deter the West from assisting. Kyiv and its partners cannot ignore Moscow’s nuclear threats, but they should understand that the Russian leadership does not want a nuclear war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to cast a nuclear shadow over Russia’s full-scale invasion from the beginning. Three days after Russian troops crossed Ukraine’s borders in the north, east, and south, Putin said he had put Russian nuclear forces on “special combat readines...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
Editor’s Note: This article was published by the twice-weekly newsletter “The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak” on May 30, 2024, and has been re-published by the Kyiv Independent with permission. To subscribe to "The Counteroffensive," click here. Nataliia Kalinichenko treasures her newspaper archives, with clippings dating back to the 1940s, more than her own life. As Russia launched a new offensive in Ukraine's Kharkiv Oblast in early May, rockets struck just 300 meters from her newspaper office in neighboring Sumy Oblast. Despite the danger, Kalinichenko and her colleagues refused to abandon t...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
As the West’s political leaders become increasingly preoccupied with the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, they risk losing their geopolitical influence in a small but strategically significant Black Sea country: Georgia. On April 29, in one of his rare public appearances, Bidzina Ivanishvili – the founder and de facto leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party and a reclusive billionaire – accused the United States and the European Union of being a Western “global war party” and meddling in Georgia’s internal affairs. Taking a page from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s playbook, Ivanishvili ...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
Earlier this month, the European Union celebrated the 20th anniversary of its biggest-ever enlargement, which brought 10 new members into the bloc. That event remains a potent reminder of the EU’s potential to advance peace and unity across the European continent. But, at a time of deep internal divisions and an increasingly volatile external environment, the giddy idealism of 2004 seems a distant dream, and the prospects of further enlargement appear uncertain. The promise of EU accession has been long considered a powerful mechanism for strengthening stability, democracy, and prosperity acro...
Kyiv Independent (UK)
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