The Washington Post

30 March 2024 12:14

Opinion | Zelensky: ‘We are trying to find some way not to retreat’

KYIV — President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a stark message to Congress in an interview on Thursday as Russian missiles were pounding southern Ukraine: Give us the weapons to stop the Russian attacks, or Ukraine will escalate its counterattacks on Russia’s airfields, energy facilities and other strategic targets.

Zelensky spoke in a sandbagged, heavily guarded presidential compound that seemed nearly empty of its old civilian workforce after more than two years of war. The security was so tight, I had to surrender my plastic felt-tip pens. But Zelensky appeared as animated and pugnacious as when he made his defiant stand in the courtyard when the war began.

Read David Ignatius’s exclusive interview with Zelensky here.

The Washington Post

28 March 2024 12:53

As death toll in Moscow attack rises to 143, migrants face fury and raids

Russian authorities on Wednesday raised the official death toll to 143 in the terrorist attack on a Moscow concert venue, and Baza, a Telegram channel close to Russian law enforcement, reported that as many as 95 people are missing and not included on the lists of dead or wounded.

Russia’s Emergency Services Ministry, citing official Health Ministry data, published a list of 143 names of people who were killed Friday when four gunmen with automatic weapons burst into Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow, shot many concertgoers and then set the building on fire. Many of the victims appeared to have died of smoke inhalation, Russian authorities said.

The Islamic State asserted responsibility for the attack, but senior Russian security officials, without citing evidence, have alleged that Ukraine, the United States and Britain had a role in organizing the strike.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

26 March 2024 19:08

Moscow rampage reveals ambition, deadly reach of ISIS successor groups

A few months before being killed in a U.S. Special Forces raid, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi released a final video message that symbolically passed the torch to far-flung followers in distant lands. His self-declared caliphate had been defeated, he acknowledged, and it was now up to the terrorist group’s regional chapters to carry out “revenge operations” around the world.

Friday’s bloodbath at a suburban Moscow concert hall is but the latest reminder of how effectively Baghdadi’s brutal vision is being carried out. While his self-proclaimed Middle East “caliphate” is in ruins, a constellation of Islamic State regional affiliates is gaining strength in many parts of the globe, fueled by a mix of traditional grievances as well as new ones, including the war in Gaza, counterterrorism officials and experts say.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

24 March 2024 14:28

Terrorist attack in Russia exposes vulnerabilities of Putin’s regime

When Vladimir Putin finally spoke about the worst terrorist attack to hit Russia in 20 years, he swept over the glaring failure of his security state to prevent the assault, which left at least 133 dead, despite a clear warning from the United States on March 7 that a strike on a concert hall could be imminent.

He also made no reference to the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack at the Crocus City concert hall on Friday and which Putin denounced repeatedly as an enemy throughout Russia’s long military intervention in Syria. In 2017, Putin declared victory over the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

22 March 2024 18:34

Russia hits energy targets in Ukraine, showing need for more air defenses

KYIV — Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukrainian cities early Friday that destroyed energy infrastructure, caused power blackouts in different regions and killed several people — highlighting the country’s urgent need for stronger air defenses outside Kyiv.

The strikes, which hit Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric power plant in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, amounted to “the largest attack on the Ukrainian energy sector in recent times,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that the strikes showed that Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv, in the northeast, urgently need Patriot air defense systems to protect infrastructure and civilians as Ukraine waits for more Western aid, including $60 billion blocked in Congress by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

20 March 2024 15:43

Ukraine races to build weapons at home

KYIV — Ukraine manufactured practically no weapons before Russia invaded in February 2022, but the local arms industry is now booming.

Factories spit out shells, mortar rounds, military vehicles, missiles and other items crucial to the war effort. Production tripled in 2023 and is expected to increase sixfold this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a Ukrainian government meeting in January.

Local production is not sufficient to make up for a loss of international support, especially weapons from the United States. But with a $60 billion aid package stalled in Congress, domestic manufacturing is more critical than ever.

For certain crucial items, such as the drones that have transformed how the war is fought, Ukraine is already making 90 percent of what it needs, Mykhailo Fedorov, the digital transformation minister, said.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

18 March 2024 14:35

Putin claims a new six-year term in vote condemned as not free or fair

MOSCOW — The Kremlin on Monday brushed aside condemnation of the Russian presidential election as neither free nor fair and rejected allegations of pervasive electoral fraud as the country’s Central Election Commission claimed record-high turnout and said that Vladimir Putin easily secured a new six-year term.

With genuine opposition candidates barred from running and the Kremlin exerting tight control over the news media to Putin’s benefit, Western nations, including the United States, denounced the vote as failing to meet basic democratic standards. Many Russians protested by forming long lines at polling stations at noon Sunday.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

16 March 2024 17:04

In this Ukrainian village, almost no men are left

MAKIV, Ukraine — Few men of fighting age are left in this village in southwest Ukraine, and those who remain fear they will be drafted at any moment.

Their neighbors are already hundreds of miles east in trenches on the front lines. Some have been killed or wounded. Several are missing. Others from this rural area — about 45 miles from the borders of Romania and Moldova — have fled abroad or found ways to avoid the war, either with legitimate exemptions or by hiding.

“It’s just a fact,” said Larysa Bodna, deputy director of the local school, which keeps a database of students whose parents are deployed. “Most of them are gone.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

14 March 2024 16:15

Opinion | Vladimir Kara-Murza: Putin’s next term is illegal. The world should call him out on it.

“SPECIAL REGIME” PRISON COLONY No. 7, OMSK, Russia — The radio in my prison cell is turned on all day, from the wake-up call at 5 a.m. to the lights-out at 9 p.m. And the closer it gets to the weekend of March 15, the more announcements I hear on the air about the so-called presidential election. I don’t mean, of course, campaign ads that you would expect in democratic countries. No, the announcements are all simply telling listeners the different ways they can cast their vote, in-person and online.

Many people wonder why dictatorships even bother to hold “elections” when everyone knows that they are nothing but staged, meaningless rituals. But in the 21st century, the only broadly accepted source of legitimacy for any government comes in the form of a ballot box — and even regimes that don’t have real legitimacy feel the need to create an appearance of it.

Read the full opinion here.

The Washington Post

13 March 2024 20:45

Opinion | Yulia Navalnaya: Putin isn’t a politician, he’s a gangster

On Feb. 16, one month before the scheduled “presidential elections” in Russia, my husband, Alexei Navalny, was murdered in prison on Vladimir Putin’s direct order. I never wanted to be a politician, I never wanted to speak from the rostrum or write for international media. But Putin left me no other choice. Therefore, I want to tell you a few important things that Alexei had been trying to say all these years.

To defeat Putin, or at least seriously punish him, one must realize who he is. Unfortunately, too many people in the West still see him as a legitimate political leader, argue about his ideology and look for political logic in his actions. This is a big mistake that breeds new mistakes and helps Putin to deceive his opponents again and again.

Putin is not a politician, he’s a gangster.

Read the full op-ed here.

The Washington Post

12 March 2024 20:01

U.S. to send Ukraine $300 million arms package as further aid stalls

The Biden administration said Tuesday that it will send another $300 million in security assistance to Ukraine as President Biden’s request for billions of dollars more remains stalled in Congress.

The emergency package, announced by the White House on Tuesday, will be funded by “unanticipated cost savings” from contracts the Pentagon had brokered to replace weapons previously provided to Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. The package will include artillery shells and other weapons, he said.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

11 March 2024 18:27

Ukraine calls out Pope Francis over ‘white flag’ remarks

Leaders in Ukraine vehemently rejected Pope Francis’s suggestion of negotiations with Russia to bring an end to the war — his use of the words “white flag” drawing particular scorn — reiterating that the country would never surrender.

In a recent interview, Francis used the term “white flag,” repeating the words of a journalist, which some read as a call to surrender.

President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the pope without naming him in his nightly address Sunday.

Praising Ukrainian chaplains on the front line, Zelensky said: “This is what the church is — it is together with people, not two and a half thousand kilometers away somewhere, virtually mediating between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

08 March 2024 17:37

Russia’s opposition and Ukraine find it impossible to unite against Putin

MOSCOW — Ukraine and the liberal Russian opposition share a common enemy. Both want to see an end to President Vladimir Putin’s reign and his war against Ukraine.

But the Ukrainian reaction to the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Putin’s greatest opponent, has highlighted the depth of the disconnect between the two sides. It has also underscored the complexities of achieving lasting reconciliation between the two neighbors, even if Putin were no longer around.

As tens of thousands of Russians inside the country and around the world flocked to pay their respects to the late politician, grieving the loss of what many saw as Russia’s last remaining democratic hope, in Ukraine the response was muted — if not actively hostile at times — for a man many viewed with heavy skepticism.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

07 March 2024 17:36

Breaking news: Sweden finally joins NATO in expansion spurred by Putin’s Ukraine war

Sweden officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Thursday, a historic shift that highlights how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is transforming European security in ways he may not have foreseen.

At a meeting in Washington, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson deposited the final paperwork with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the last step needed for the former militarily nonaligned nation to become NATO’s 32nd member. Sweden’s neighbor, Finland, joined last year.

To justify his aggression in Ukraine, Putin cited the possibility of NATO expansion. Now, in one of the conflict’s many twists, his war has brought a bigger, stronger alliance to his door. Russia will have to live with the consequences for years.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

06 March 2024 16:25

Russian missile strike hits near Zelensky motorcade in Odessa

KYIV — A Russian missile strike appeared to target Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, landing near his motorcade in the Black Sea port city of Odessa, where the president was meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Zelensky and members of the Greek delegation were not harmed, despite the missile landing some 500 feet away, Greek officials told the Protothema news outlet.

Zelensky and Mitsotakis were visiting the Odessa port around 10:40 a.m. when air-raid sirens could be heard. The explosion then occurred within minutes.

“We witnessed the strike today,” Zelensky told reporters after. “You see who we're dealing with; they don't care where to hit. I know there were casualties today; I don't know all the details yet, but I know there are casualties.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

29 March 2024 15:11

Russia strikes power plants in heavy blow to Ukrainian electric grid

KYIV — Large-scale Russian bombing Thursday night damaged at least three energy stations in Ukraine, leaving parts of the country without power as President Volodymyr Zelensky urgently appealed to the Republican leadership in Congress to approve a stalled aid package amid relentless Russian airstrikes.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power provider, said three of its thermal power stations were targeted in the overnight barrage, which the Ukrainian military said included dozens of missiles and at least 60 explosive drones aimed at energy infrastructure.

Ukraine’s air force said 84 of 99 targets were shot down, but Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, posting on social media, said the Russian strikes damaged energy assets in six regions. In some areas, that required emergency shutdowns.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

26 March 2024 20:32

FSB chief, citing no proof, blames Ukraine and U.S. in Moscow terror attack

Russia’s intelligence chief on Tuesday directly blamed Ukraine for orchestrating the assault on the Crocus City Hall concert venue with Western help, alleging without evidence that Kyiv “trained militants in the Middle East.”

The accusation by Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, seemed intended to deflect attention from his agency’s failure to prevent the attack, in which at least 139 were killed, and to fan anti-Ukrainian rhetoric even as officials presented an increasingly convoluted narrative of what transpired Friday night.

“We think the act was prepared by the radical Islamists, but of course, the Western special services have aided,” Bortnikov told state media reporters, singling out the United States and Britain. “And the special services of Ukraine have a direct relation to this.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

25 March 2024 17:45

Terror suspects appear in court in Russia showing signs of torture and abuse

Russian authorities arrested three more suspects in the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue that killed at least 137 people, and court documents said investigators believe they aided the four men who carried out the attack on Friday by providing transportation.

The four suspects arrested over the weekend appeared in court late Sunday showing signs of torture and severe abuse — confirming videos and photographs that had surfaced after their arrest suggesting brutal treatment at the hands of Russian authorities.

A barrage of videos had emerged of Russian security agents torturing the suspects — including forcing one to chew on a piece of his own ear that had been cut off, while another was stripped half-naked and subjected to electric shocks with wires attached to his genitals.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

22 March 2024 19:32

Explosion and gunfire hit popular Moscow concert venue

Several gunmen opened fire Friday night at Crocus City Hall, a popular concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow, Russian state news agencies reported. Dozens of people were reported injured or killed.

“People in camouflage, at least three, burst into the ground floor of the Crocus City Hall and opened fire from automatic weapons. There are definitely wounded,” state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing its correspondent on site.

“After that they threw a grenade or an incendiary bomb, which started a fire,” RIA Novosti added. “The people in the hall lay down on the floor to escape the shooting, and stayed there for 15-20 minutes, after which they began to crawl out. Many managed to get out.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

22 March 2024 14:41

Two years after start of Ukraine war, Russian titanium keeps flowing to West

Western firms bought hundreds of millions of dollars of titanium metal from a Russian company with deep ties to the country’s defense industry after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to a review of Russian export data.

The purchases illustrate how the West remains dependent on Russia for certain products despite pledges to break economic ties with Moscow. In the case of titanium, that dependence raises security concerns, industry and defense analysts say, as the metal is vital in the manufacturing of both commercial and military airplanes.

“Russia could shut off the flow of these … materials and leave companies critical to national defense and civil aviation scrambling,” said William George, director of research at ImportGenius, the company that supplied the trade data gathered from an official Russian database to The Post.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

18 March 2024 19:25

With Putin’s new coronation, Kremlin cultivates image of leader for life

When Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared for a late-night news conference to claim a fifth term, he looked visibly elated, as if manipulating another election to remain indefinitely in power with 87.28 percent of the vote were a triumphal victory in a real competition.

The tally, virtually unimaginable in any democratic nation, suggests that the Kremlin is now less focused on manufacturing a veneer of electoral legitimacy and more on creating a cult of personality around Putin as Russia’s undisputed national patriarch and leader for life.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

17 March 2024 18:02

Russian voters, answering Navalny’s call, protest Putin’s forever rule

MOSCOW — On the final day of a presidential election with only one possible result, Russians protested Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian hold on power by forming long lines to vote against him at noon Sunday — answering the call of opposition leader Alexei Navalny who had urged the midday action before dying suddenly in prison last month.

The “Noon Against Putin” protest, with voters forming queues outside polling stations in major cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, was a striking — if futile — display of solidarity and dissent designed to counteract the Kremlin’s main message — that Putin is a legitimate president commanding massive support.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

15 March 2024 19:15

As voting begins in Russian presidential election, so do the protests

RIGA, Latvia — On the first day of a presidential election widely seen as the least competitive campaign since the fall of the Soviet Union, some Russian voters expressed their anger in stunning individual protests across the country — setting fire to polling booths or pouring green antiseptic fluid or dye into ballot boxes.

At least five people, including several older women, set polling booths on fire, burned ballot papers or threw incendiary devices at polling stations, according to Russian independent media — a wave of highly unusual protest actions in a nation challenged by President Vladimir Putin’s two-year-old war in Ukraine and harsh political repressions.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

14 March 2024 12:13

Why does Putin always win? What to know about Russia’s pseudo election.

In a three-day election that leaves no room for doubt, Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to win a fifth term on Sunday, allowing him to stay in power until 2030 — and, should he run again, to 2036.

But many analysts believe the 71-year-old autocrat will rule this nation of 146 million people for life.

It was not supposed to be this way. Under Russia’s constitution, Putin’s term in power was supposed to end in 2008 — but under a tricky bait-and-switch, he effectively ruled Russia as prime minister for four years, swapping places with Dmitry Medvedev. Putin returned as president in 2012, sparking massive protests that changed nothing.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

13 March 2024 18:53

Ukraine launches new wave of strikes against Russia’s oil facilities

KYIV — Ukraine and Russia traded attacks on each other’s territory Wednesday, including a second day of drone attacks against Russian oil facilities, which President Vladimir Putin called an attempt to disrupt presidential elections set for this weekend.

One of the Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in the Ryazan region, about 100 miles southeast of Moscow, causing a fire that was extinguished after a few hours, local governor Pavel Malkov said. A Ukrainian official with knowledge of intelligence operations, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed that the refinery was the target.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

12 March 2024 14:34

Ukraine drones hit Russian oil facility as anti-Kremlin units stage attack

Ukrainian drones hit nine Russian cities and towns — some deep inside the country — as three groups of anti-Kremlin Russian fighters claimed a cross-border attack in southern Russia on Tuesday.

The drone attacks underscored Ukraine’s capacity to keep Moscow off-balance and to penetrate deep within Russian territory, despite Russia’s superior manpower and supplies of equipment and ammunition.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

11 March 2024 14:46

Russia’s air power roars back into the war with devastating guided bombs

KYIV — Russia’s air force has dramatically boosted its effectiveness in the Ukraine war with its increased use of “glide bombs,” contributing to Moscow’s recent battlefield successes, according to Western experts.

The plentiful Soviet-era bombs, which carry up to a half-ton of explosives, have been fitted with wings and guidance systems to fly long distances with some accuracy — allowing the Russian jets that release them to operate away from Ukrainian antiaircraft systems.

Along with Russian drones, missiles and artillery, the glide bombs have added new destructive firepower to Russia’s campaign in eastern Ukraine, as seen in the recent conquest of the city of Avdiivka, Russia’s first major victory in nearly a year.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

08 March 2024 13:20

Former Ukraine military head appointed to U.K. ambassador role

KYIV — President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday appointed his former military chief, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, to become Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain — a next step outside of the military for Zaluzhny a month after he was replaced.

Zaluzhny was offered the post last month but didn’t immediately accept, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

07 March 2024 13:59

U.S. Democrats probe Musk’s SpaceX, examining Russia’s alleged Starlink use

House Democrats opened an investigation of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, examining whether the company implemented adequate safeguards to prevent Russia from deploying its Starlink satellite internet service in its war against Ukraine.

Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) sent a letter Wednesday night demanding that the company report complaints about potential illegal acquisitions of Starlink terminals, including in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine. The lawmakers said they were alarmed by Ukrainian intelligence officials’ allegations that Russian forces deployed the company’s terminals in eastern Ukraine, potentially running afoul of U.S. sanctions.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

05 March 2024 16:55

International Criminal Court issues warrant for two Russian military leaders

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for two Russian military leaders in connection to alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

The court said in a statement that it had issued warrants for Lt. Gen. Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash and Adm. Viktor Kinolayevich Sokolov. At the time of the alleged crimes, Kobylash was the commander of Long-Range Aviation of the Aerospace Force in the Russian Armed Forces, while Sokolov was commander of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet.

The court’s pretrial chamber found that the “two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the forces under their command against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 2023,” the ICC said in the statement.

Read the full story here.