Kiev is desperate to relieve pressure along the Donbass front where Russia has continued gradually gaining ground this year and might soon be on the brink of a breakthrough.

The question of who is responsible for causing the Ukraine war has been a deeply contentious issue since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

The U.S. and Europe must wrap up their dangerous proxy war as soon as possible.

Perhaps the administration can’t admit it doesn’t have one.

What are the dangers of states using criminal groups for national defense? This article evaluates this question in the context of Ukraine’s response to the 2022 Russian invasion. It lays out what is currently known about Kyiv’s use of criminal groups as part of its defense efforts, specifically for intelligence-gathering and for bolstering military manpower. Wartime arrangements with criminal actors, however, could compound corruption concerns among citizens that undermine their trust in the state. Such arrangements might entrench a pre-war perception that criminal groups wield influence over state institutions. The state granting leniency to criminal actors in exchange for wartime support could also reduce already low confidence in Ukraine’s criminal justice system. While leveraging criminal groups may be necessary for defense purposes, Ukrainian authorities should remain cognizant of the trade-offs involved – some of which may not become evident until the post-war period.

Berlin signed the ban on such weapons and is now being coy about the arms being stored and transferred from bases there.

U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials throughout the process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991, according to declassified U.S., Soviet, German, British and French documents.

During a visit to Kyiv just after taking over the presidency of the European Council on July 1, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and asked him to call a ceasefire. Zelenskiy flatly refused.

The new offensive focus comes as Ukraine faces depleted forces, sweltering heat and turmoil in a potentially consequential U.S. election.

Russia’s defense minister said he needed to talk to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about an alleged Ukrainian operation. What happened next remains murky.