Commentary

A bloodied shirt, tattered pants, leather shoes sliced open and flesh shaved off by razor-wire are what I endured while getting a closer look at South Ossetia, a Russian-occupied region of Georgia. This rendering took place under the gaze of a nearby Russian watchtower, whose inhabitants thankfully chose not to sally forth. Meanwhile their Georgian counterparts, deployed further back from this sleepy borderline, patrolling a once-important regional highway now little more a weed-covered strip of broken asphalt, were only slightly more curious. Yet, like every Georgian I met, they expressed great sympathy for Ukraine on learning that I was a visiting Canadian professor of Ukrainian heritage. Having suffered a Russian invasion in August 2008, and the subsequent amputation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, their country stands with Ukraine, especially as Ukrainians confront the genocidal agenda of Vladimir Putin, the KGB man in the...

During the first hours of the Russo-Ukrainian War, when it became clear that Vladimir Putin was mounting a full scale 'invasion' rather than any one of the smaller anticipated 'incursions' into Ukraine, most - though not all - of the leading players in Euro-Atlantic' political, military, think tank and media circles (for the Russians, the euphemistic 'West') took to the airwaves to make some rather dire forecasts and dispense some rather dire advice to the Ukrainians. It was predicted that border cities in the north and east as well as coastal cities in the south might fall within a day or two and that the capital Kyiv would be forced to surrender within a week. President Zelensky was advised to move the seat of government to Ukraine's westernmost large city, Lviv, or better (worse) yet, set up shop in exile. The Ukrainian armed forces, in turn, were told to head for the Carpathian mountains and convert to insurgency-style warfare. As the hours turned into...

Today is a very holy day for Christians throughout the world. In the West, today is Easter Sunday. In the East, today we celebrate Palm Sunday. I was baptized a Ukrainian Catholic. My wife and I were married in a Ukrainian Catholic Church in Kyiv, and our children were all baptized in this faith as well. Our church has a Patriarch (i.e. a separate hierarchy from Roman Catholics), but we recognize the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. In Ukraine, the Ukrainian Catholic Church follows the Julian calendar which means Easter will be celebrated next week. Although the Ukrainian Catholic Church is autonomous, we are in communion with the Pope. This week that communion was shaken to its core. On the Roman Catholics’ Good Friday, at the insistence of Pope Francis, during the annual Way of the Cross procession held in the Roman Colosseum, at station 13, the cross was held jointly by two women: one Russian and one Ukrainian. The liturgic gesture was meant to symbolize reconciliation and hope for peace. Peace and reconciliation are both noble...

I have written before that I am a man of conflicted faith. Yet even though I lecture as a professor of political geography, I cannot but bear witness to Ukraine’s agony through the lens of my religion, the faith of my Ukrainian Catholic ancestors. To that I confess, wholeheartedly. And so Ukraine’s tortures have become, as it were, my daily bread. I eat its distress, yet gag as I do, symbolically consuming the flesh and blood of the many now being murdered by Russia’s legions. The land of my predecessors has again become a Golgotha, a place of skulls. This is all Vladimir Putin’s doing. It is happening as we approach the most sacred day in any Christian’s calendar, Easter, marking the triumphant Resurrection from the dead of Jesus, the Christ...

“When you’re at war, you’re at war,” the saying goes, and if so, you have to accept the implications. So too in the present circumstance. The United States and its NATO allies are engaged in a proxy war with Russia. They are supplying thousands of munitions and hopefully doing much else—sharing intelligence, for example—with the intent of killing Russian soldiers. And because fighting is, as the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said, “a trial of moral and physical forces through the medium of the latter,” we must face a fact: To break the will of Russia and free Ukraine from conquest and subjugation, many Russian soldiers have to flee, surrender, or die, and the more and faster the better...

The Pentagon says Russian troops are continuing fighting and efforts in all directions, according to Voice of America correspondent Jeff Seldin. A senior US Defence Department official said today that advanced units of Russian troops are located 25 kilometres from the centre of Kyiv. Speaking about Kharkiv and Chernihiv, the Pentagon said that Russian troops are at a distance of 10 kilometres from the city centres. The United States also cannot deny reports that Russia has seized Kherson, the Pentagon said. Ukrainian forces, the US Department of Defence said, continue to control Mariupol. A Pentagon official also said that there was no reason to doubt Russia's statements about the seizure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. According to the official, the seizure of power plants and important infrastructure may be motivated by the...

Westerners are wondering about Putin’s intentions regarding Ukraine. They take into account the slightest declarations that emanate from the Kremlin, the movements of troops, the evolution of propaganda. But the broader context of the crisis often escapes them. The destruction of the independent Ukrainian state is certainly a priority objective pursued by Putin because of his historical obsessions. But it must also serve as an instrument for realizing a goal no less important in Moscow’s eyes: the training of European elites...

The crisis at Ukraine’s borders has dominated news coverage for weeks, and has sparked a flurry of diplomatic engagement in an effort to de-escalate the threat of an imminent Russian invasion. Amid the acute focus on the hourly breaking news, insufficient attention has been paid to understanding the backstory at play. What are the psychology and motivation behind the Kremlin’s moves? How do they differ from our own? How does Vladimir Putin operate? And why is it that this crisis matters globally – beyond Ukraine, beyond Europe, and beyond the NATO-Russia strategic face-off? The starting question is why does Ukraine want to join NATO in the first place? It aspires to join this critical collective security alliance precisely to protect itself from further Russian invasion. Is this fear justified? Absolutely – if 900 years of history are any indication...

When I met Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time as NATO secretary-general, he opened our meeting by telling me he wanted to disband NATO. If NATO allies engage with Russia’s most recent proposals for a new security relationship in Europe, they will be directly helping him move a step closer to achieving his goal, giving Russia the whip hand over the security of Central and Eastern Europe. Under the new Russian proposals, NATO would have to seek consent from Moscow to deploy troops in Central and Eastern Europe, refrain from “any military activity” across Eastern Europe, the southern Caucuses and Central Asia, and halt any NATO drills near Russia. The agreement also demands a written guarantee that Ukraine will not be offered NATO membership, and a draft treaty with the United States would ban it from sending warships and aircrafts to “areas where they can strike targets on the territory of the other party,” like the Baltics and the Black Sea...

Editor’s note: Moscow’s buildup of troops on and near Ukraine’s borders and bellicose rhetoric have raised the prospect of a major conventional war in Europe. The phone call today between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin underscores the dangers of this Kremlin-manufactured crisis. Below is a statement by twenty-four distinguished experts and former senior officials offering their ideas on how to deter Moscow from escalating its current war of aggression against Ukraine and more broadly to discourage Moscow from future provocations. The statement represents the views of the signatories and not of their institutions. Since President Biden’s virtual summit with President Putin on December 7, Russia has increased its troop presence on or near Ukraine’s borders. Having created this crisis, the Kremlin has demanded security guarantees for Russia that the United States and its allies cannot possibly provide. It has made provocative statements at high levels, including outlandish claims that US private military contractors intend to launch a chemical weapons attack in eastern Ukraine. Moscow wrongly asserts that NATO enlargement has created a military threat to Russia; the Alliance has fully abided by its commitments in the NATO-Russia Founding Act to refrain from deploying nuclear weapons or permanently stationing substantial combat forces on the territory of new member states, despite the fact that Russia has violated many of its own Founding Act commitments, as well as the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, the Paris Charter, and the Budapest Memorandum...