Russia isn’t formally a party to the conflict but a concerned neighbor. The de facto double role of warmonger and peacemaker puts all the cards in Putin’s hands.
Russia
The Madness of Mariupol
“The city was vulnerable. We didn’t have enough tanks and artillery to hold back the aggressors,” Mayor Khotlubei says. “Now we’re an impregnable fortress.”
Should Putin Fear the Man Who ‘Pulled the Trigger of War’ in Ukraine?
Igor Girkin views himself as a warrior against a godless West. There is no question of who started the conflict; he claims to have started it himself.
Putin the Pariah
Putin’s isolation points to a larger problem and one of the greatest failures of his presidency: namely that Russia has practically no allies left.
Putin Waging Information War in Ukraine Worthy of George Orwell
Only hours after I first arrived in Donetsk in March, I was informed that I too was a combatant in the “information war.”
25 Years After Its Fall, Vladimir Putin Puts Berlin Wall’s Lessons Front and Center
Putin punished Ukrainians by dismembering their country not only because he saw a threat to his power. It was late revenge for the world he lost in 1989.
Massacre at Ilovaisk
“When we passed their second checkpoint, they started shooting at us like in a shooting gallery,” Yuriy Bereza recalled. “It was an ambush.”
On Eastern Ukraine’s Front Lines, Strategic, Besieged Mariupol Faces Economic Destruction
To the region’s workers and miners, who have seen living standards drop, Russia looks familiar and welcoming, while the EU is foreign and threatening.
One Week in Crimea
When I checked into Simferopol’s deserted Hotel Ukraina, nobody imagined that a Russian invasion was being considered and would be completed within a week.
Ukraine Accused of Targeting Civilians in East
“They’re bombing the civilian population,” said Natalya Kiselyova. “We’re ordinary people who want to get up in the morning, go to work and sleep at night.”
