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The Ukrainian counteroffensive, under way since the spring, is slogging through miles of trenches and minefields. Progress will depend on the battlefield, not on Western impatience.
First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:
Dragging On, as It Must
Attacking an entrenched
The European Union is set to slap on a fresh sanctions package against Belarus after EU ambassadors okayed the raft of measures at a meeting this Wednesday.
The sanctions are set to include export restrictions on dual-use goods like drones or computers that can be used on the battlefield against Ukraine, as well as aviation parts.
The latest package also includes new listings against 38 individuals and 3 entities, according to four EU diplomats who were granted anonymity to speak
A private jet belonging to Yevgeny Prigozhin landed in Belarus this morning, days after the Wagner mercenary warlord abandoned his mutiny and agreed to go into exile in Russia’s neighbouring ally in exchange for standing his forces down.
The jet’s arrival in Belarus came amid reports that Moscow is preparing to transfer weapons and military hardware held by Wagner to the Russian army, and that the Kremlin is dropping charges against the group – following suggestions that the charges had
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has given a sensational order to his mercenary army this evening to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to their field camps in Ukraine.
‘We are turning our columns around and going back to field camps,’ an audio message on his Telegram feed said after a meeting between Prigozhin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
Prigozhin announced that while his men were just 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Moscow, he decided to turn them back to
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The year 2022 will go down in the history books. And it includes a chapter few wanted to see written: War returned to Europe.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his tanks rolling into Ukraine, marking the start of a brutal conflict that, 10 months later, shows no signs of ending anytime soon. The early weeks of the war saw a wave of refugees flood the EU
Sweden’s policy smorgasbord is already groaning with some chewy (and even unpalatable) items — but the Commission keeps adding more to its plate.
By this point in a five-year EU election cycle, the vast majority of new policy proposals have already arrived from the EU executive branch, and are already on their legislative journey. But as Sweden takes over the rotating Council presidency with a year-and-a-half left until the next European election, that’s not the case.
With massive official bandwith
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Ursula von der Leyen’s whirlwind tour of the United States started in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, where she rubbed shoulders with the world’s most senior leaders, from U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
From there, the president of the European Commission was whisked across the Hudson River and into New Jersey, to Princeton University. In a wood-paneled hall in one of America’s most storied Ivy
This is the moment an uncomfortable-looking Vladimir Putin squirmed in his seat as he was forced to endure a bizarre lecture on people fleeing his rule from fellow autocrat Alexander Lukashenko.
The Belarusian president – who needed Putin’s help to crush a pro-Western democratic movement in his country in 2020 – assured the Kremlin leader he would win his war in Ukraine, despite the growing unrest over his decision to mobilise 300,000 new troops.
The Kremlin chief looked hunched and
Kyiv is halfway normal now. Burnt-out Russian tanks have been removed from the roads leading into the city, traffic lights work, the subway runs, oranges are available for purchase. A cheerful balalaika orchestra was performing for returning refugees at the main rail station earlier this week, on the day we arrived to meet Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.
The normality is deceiving. Although the Russians botched their opening campaign, they continue to bombard the capital and are now gathering
MUNICH
It was the kind of tense moment that Wolfgang Ischinger was born to defuse. The veteran German diplomat and chairman of the annual Munich Security Conference was hosting a meeting between leaders from the Balkans and senior European and American diplomats when anger bubbled up over the slow progress countries from the region were making toward joining the European Union.
“You have to tell us if you want us or not,” Serbian President Aleksandar
