An almost empty Red Square at dawn in Moscow, Russia, on January 30, 2024. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
Published February 24, 2024
Few could fathom why Vladimir Putin, Russia’s calculating leader, would embark on such a risky military adventure, especially when the mere threat of a Russian invasion was already yielding results.
In June the previous year, as Russian forces massed near Ukraine, US President Joe Biden met Putin at a superpower-style summit, describing the US and Russia as “two great powers” elevating the Russian leader after previous US administrations had sought to downplay Russia’s influence.
In the days before the 2022 invasion, Washington offered a “pragmatic evaluation” of Moscow’s security concerns, signalling openness to compromise.
Pitching Russian forces against one of the region’s biggest standing armies seemed uncharacteristically reckless and, therefore, unlikely.
There were others, though, who rightly saw the invasion as inevitable, better reading the Kremlin’s intentions, and confidently predicting a swift Russian victory at the hands of Moscow’s vastly superior forces.
Two years on, I like to think that those of us who doubted the Kremlin’s resolve were wrong for the right reasons.
What Moscow still euphemistically calls a Special Military Operation has been a bloodbath of catastrophic proportions, unseen in Europe for generations. Even conservative estimates put the number of dead and injured at hundreds of thousands of people on each side. Small gains, such as the recent capture of Avdiivka, have come at enormous cost.
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SOURCE: www.cnn.com
RELATED: Two years into Russia’s invasion, exhausted Ukrainians refuse to give up
Blocked Western military aid is hampering Ukrainian forces on the front line
Published February 24, 2024
It translates as “crooked horn”, but President Zelensky calls Kryvyi Rih his “big soul and heart”.
He credits this gritty, industrial city with moulding his character. He grew up in a sprawling block of flats known as the Anthill.
When you stand in front of this towering structure, Volodymyr Zelensky’s journey from this setting to wartime leader feels remarkable.
“I want the war to end soon,” says Vita, who lived near Zelensky’s parents. “He’s a normal, good guy who fights for people. I just want this war and the sirens to end sooner.”
But with minimal Ukrainian progress and growing Russian dominance, there is no end in sight, and that’s both fuelling and being fuelled by influential pockets of Western doubters.
At the recent Munich Security Conference, President Zelensky told delegates not to ask Ukraine when the war would end, but instead to “ask why Putin is still able to continue it”.
With blocked military aid now directly hampering his forces on the front line, it was a swipe at those delaying the ammunition and weapons his soldiers desperately need.
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SOURCE: www.bbc.com
RELATED: US, EU pile new sanctions on Russia for Ukraine war’s 2nd anniversary, Navalny’s death
FILE – A flower and a picture are left as a tribute to Russian politician Alexei Navalny, near to the Russian Embassy in London, Feb. 18, 2024. The U.S. government is hitting Russia with the largest tranche of financial penalties imposed on Moscow since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. They target roughly 600 people and firms from Russia to China to the United Arab Emirates. The sanctions are timed to the second anniversary of the invasion, and in response to the death of Navalny. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
Published February 24, 2024
WASHINGTON — The United States and European Union on Friday heaped hundreds of new sanctions on Russia in connection with the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of noted Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week in an Arctic penal colony.
The U.S. government imposed roughly 600 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine in the largest single round of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
READ: US charges Russian oligarchs to mark Ukraine invasion anniversary
The EU, for its part, added sanctions on several foreign companies over allegations that they have exported dual-use goods to Russia that could be used in its war against Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc also targeted scores of Russian officials, including members of the judiciary, local politicians and people it said were “responsible for the illegal deportation and military re-education of Ukrainian children.”
President Joe Biden said the sanctions come in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal war of conquest” and to Navalny’s death, adding that “we in the United States are going to continue to ensure that Putin pays a price for his aggression abroad and repression at home.”
But while previous sanctions have increased costs for Russia’s ability to fight in Ukraine, they appear to have done little so far to deter Putin and it was unclear that the latest big round would significantly alter that.
In specific response to Navalny’s death, the State Department targeted three Russian officials the U.S. says are connected to his death, including the deputy director of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, who was promoted by Putin to the rank of colonel general on Monday, three days after Navalny died.
The sanctions bar the officials from traveling to the U.S. and block access to U.S.-owned property. But they appear largely symbolic given that the officials are unlikely to travel to or have assets or family in the West.
