The war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine almost three years ago is rightly recognized as one of the great crimes of the twenty-first century. Understandably, little attention has been paid so far to the impact the conflict is having on Ukraine’s international image. And yet amid the trauma and horror of Russia’s invasion, there are […]
Peter Dickinson
Posted inSecurity
Naval Drones: Ukraine’s secret weapon in the Battle of the Black Sea
On the very first morning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, a huge Russian warship loomed over the Black Sea horizon and approached the tiny Ukrainian garrison on Snake Island with an ultimatum: “Lay down your arms and surrender, or you will be bombed.” Although hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, the handful of Ukrainian troops […]
Posted inGeopolitics
NATO chief urges long-term Ukraine aid: “Moscow must understand: They cannot win. And they cannot wait us out.”
With Russian troops once again advancing in eastern Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has accused alliance members of failing to provide Kyiv with promised military aid and renewed calls for a more sustainable response to Russian aggression. Speaking during an unannounced visit to Kyiv on April 29, Stoltenberg acknowledged that supply shortfalls had left […]
Posted inMedia
Ukraine’s first ever Oscar victory highlights the horrors of Russia’s ongoing invasion
Ukrainian wartime documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” won the country’s first ever Oscar at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 10. For most Ukrainians, however, this victory was a bittersweet moment. Two years on from the horrific events captured in Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing film, their country is still fighting for national […]
Posted inSociety
Vladimir Putin’s biggest mistake was underestimating Ukrainian resilience
Over the past eighteen months, Ukraine’s ability to overcome the destruction and disruption created by Russia’s invasion has been so striking that some outside observers have even questioned the reality of the war. Every so often, video footage of Ukrainians engaged in everyday activities appears on social media accompanied by suggestions that the situation in […]
Posted inOpinion
Putin’s nuclear blackmail
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin hopes the threat of a nuclear escalation will enable him to rescue his rapidly unraveling invasion by scaring the West into abandoning Ukraine
Posted inOpinion
OPINION: NATO poses a threat to Russian imperialism not Russian national security
Moscow’s passive response to Finnish NATO membership is confirmation that Putin never really saw the alliance as a security threat to Russia. In reality, he merely exploited NATO expansion as a smokescreen for Russian imperial aggression against Ukraine
Posted inPolitics
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA FAILS THE TEST OF VLADIMIR PUTIN’S SHAM REFERENDUMS
A number of prominent international media outlets and news agencies published highly misleading coverage of the Kremlin’s late September sham referendums in occupied Ukraine that highlighted continued vulnerability to Russian disinformation
Posted inOpinion
Why Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska’s Vogue magazine photo shoot was a soft power triumph
Kyiv’s key objectives on the information front are to keep the Russian invasion in the international headlines and to overcome Ukraine Fatigue among global audiences. Olena Zelenska’s Vogue interview succeeded on both counts.
Posted inSociety
Goodwill gestures and de-Nazification: decoding the lexicon of Putin’s Ukraine War
War of Words: The Kremlin has constructed an entire alternative reality in order to distort perceptions of Russia’s Ukraine invasion