Tag: Europe, War Zones

The Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia, Bulgaria, a day after it had been painted in the colours of the Ukrainian national flag. Photo by Vassia Atanassova/Wikimedia Commons. There has been an awful lot written in the Canadian and wider Western press since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine about how

Ukrainian soldier stands watch in Kyiv. Photo courtesy the Armed Forces of Ukraine/Flickr. In Neville Chamberlain’s expression, in war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers. The brutal war in Ukraine is now in its second year with no serious prospect of

Illustration by Ziniu Chen. Photo courtesy the US Department of State. It’s just a year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I am not going to discuss the politics of this war in this article. There are plenty of sources for debate on this. Instead, I want to look at

Photo courtesy the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Twitter The new Cold War, like its predecessor, can be traced back to the misinterpretation of Russian intentions. In case of old Cold War, as we now know from diplomatic archives, the West grossly misunderstood the intentions behind the 1948 Berlin

Photo courtesy the 28th Mechanized Brigade/Ministry of Defense of Ukraine/Twitter The following is an excerpt from How the West Brought War to Ukraine: Understanding How U.S. and NATO Policies Led to Crisis, War, and the Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe, by Benjamin Abelow, published in July 2022 by Siland Press. For

The gas leak in the Baltic Sea from Nord Stream photographed from the Danish Coast Guard’s aircraft on September 27, 2022. Photo courtesy EPA-EFE/Danish Defence Command. The explosions that hit the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26, 2022 were described as a wartime mystery by the New York Times—but this

A Leopard 2A4 tank from Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) travels on the Black Route of the 3rd Canadian Division Support Base Garrison Wainwright Training Centre in preparation for Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 21, on April 30, 2021. Photo by Sailor First Class Camden Scott/Canadian Armed Forces/Flickr. After nearly a year

Ukrainian flags fly in Dnipro, marking the graves of soldiers killed in action following the Russian invasion in February 2022. Photo by Svitlana Korableva/Instagram. Does war change geopolitical attitudes? The answer seems obvious—yes!—but the question is more complex than it appears. In December 2014, John O’Loughlin and I organized a

Andrei Reshetin, former violinist in the Soviet rock group Aquarium, recently joined the Russian army and went to fight in Ukraine. Photo courtesy Glasnarod.ru. In 1966, the Soviet writer Vladimir Soloukhin penned an article in the journal Molodaia Gvardiia (Young Guard) entitled “Letters from the Russian Museum” (the Russian Museum

Photo by Jamie Christiani/Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists WASHINGTON, DC – The Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight, due largely but not exclusively to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increased risk of nuclear escalation. The new Clock time was also influenced by continuing threats posed by

The war in Ukraine has almost reached its first anniversary. When it will end is unclear. Indeed, it has actually been going on since 2014 with the overthrow of the pro-Russian Yanukovychregime by ultranationalists backed by the United States. Russian seizure of Crimea and the state of siege instituted in

Ukrainian artillerymen from the 24th brigade load an ammunition inside of a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer at a position along the front line in the vicinity of Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Photo by Ihor Tkachov. “The soldier’s main weapon against death is the shovel.” It doesn’t sound like modern hi-tech war.

Soldiers from the 53rd Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, currently deployed in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. Photo courtesy the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine/Twitter. The complex nature of the war in Ukraine, and especially of the question of the relative responsibility of the different parties, has made difficult the

Russian philosopher, naturalist, and economist Nikolai Danilevsky. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. November 28 marks the 200th birthday of Russian thinker Nikolai Danilevsky. Relatively unknown in the West, Danilevsky is extraordinarily influential in modern Russia, and understanding his ideas is essential to grasping the essence of the current political conflict between

The Ukrainian flag is flown in front of the US Capitol building, March 2022. Photo by Darren McGee/Flickr. 1. Why is the principle of self-determination so important to understanding the conflict in Ukraine? There are three aspects to the question of national self-determination. One, a recognition that “nations” of peoples

A Ukrainian flag flutters on a monument commemorating Soviet soldiers who fought against Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Reports of Ukrainian triumph and imminent Russian defeat have flooded the West since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February. Yet how much merit is there

Photo courtesy the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine/Flickr “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time,” British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey famously remarked to a friend in August 1914. He was, of course, dead right about the longevity of

Photo courtesy the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine/Facebook Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski famously described Ukraine as a “geopolitical pivot” of Eurasia, central to both US and Russian power. Since Russia views its vital security interests to be at stake in the current conflict, the war in Ukraine

This handout picture released on September 30, 2022 by the Danish Defence Command shows one of four gas leaks at one of the damaged Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Photo courtesy Danish Defence Command. When unexpected events occur in foreign affairs, like a sudden ousting of a

The gas leak in the Baltic Sea from Nord Stream photographed from the Swedish Coast Guard’s aircraft, September 27, 2022. Photo courtesy the Swedish Coast Guard. This episode of ‘Hybrid Industrial-Commercial War,’ in the form of a terror attack against energy infrastructure in international waters, signals the absolute collapse of