Ukrainians have long become used to grim news reports from their besieged lands. But that’s suddenly changed. Following its remarkably successful incursion of Russia’s Kursk region, cheerful Ukrainian journalists are now covering the war from captured Russian territory. Ukraine’s surprise counterpunch, taking the fight into Russia for the first time, shows no signs yet of […]

The post What’s Ukraine’s endgame in Kursk? appeared first on Asia Times.

During July’s NATO summit, the United States and Germany reached an agreement for the US to start what it referred to as “episodic deployments” of missiles in 2026. This will include Tomahawk cruise missiles, SM-6 ballistic missiles and a new generation of hypersonic systems currently under development. The main condition of the agreement is that […]

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The Russians got caught with their pants down in Kursk. The Ukrainians pulled off a large-scale invasion using new tactics. They advanced far into Russian territory, mostly unopposed, or countered only by some inexperienced territorial units. They did it with drone power but not any other air power, mostly because they don’t have any (notwithstanding […]

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According to a recent opinion poll taken by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, almost one-third of Ukrainians are now prepared to make territorial concessions to Russia if this brings the Russian war of aggression to a swift end and preserves their country’s independence. But more than half of the population rejects the idea of […]

The post A third of Ukrainians would yield land for peace – but it’s not so simple appeared first on Asia Times.

The Russian Orthodox Church has approved a statement describing Russia’s “special military operation” as a holy war, arguing that all of Ukraine should be Russia’s exclusive zone of influence. Said Ismagilov, one of Ukraine’s top Muslim leaders, joined the armed forces to fight against Russia’s mass invasion, claiming a Koranic justification for his decision. Moscow’s […]

The post Holy men playing peculiar roles in Ukraine’s unholy war appeared first on Asia Times.

As Ukraine fights against Russian invasion, it faces a battle on two fronts: military and financial. Global attention understandably focuses on battlefield developments, where Russian troops are pushing toward Ukraine’s second city, Kharkov. But Ukraine is simultaneously experiencing financial struggles. With its economy damaged by war and the year’s defense cost estimated to be US$54.4 […]

The post Ukraine’s debt negotiations could decide the war appeared first on Asia Times.

The Ukraine war will end in a surrender, not in a negotiated deal. That is my sense of where the war is headed and why the parties cannot negotiate a settlement. The latest wrinkle in the missing negotiating saga is a declaration in the form of an interview given by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Philadelphia […]

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Was the first so-called “Summit on Peace in Ukraine”, held in Switzerland on June 15 to 16, a failure? Certainly not, if you listen to the fairly upbeat reactions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Western backers. And, to be fair, the summit has enabled Zelensky to keep Russia’s war against Ukraine high on […]

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The “Summit on Peace in Ukraine”, hosted by Switzerland this weekend, is not a peace conference in the usual sense. Russia, which has dismissed it as irrelevant, won’t participate. And any summit aimed at ending the war can’t produce a final settlement without Russia’s involvement. Rather, the summit stems from a push by Ukraine to […]

The post Crucially limited buy-in to Ukraine peace summit appeared first on Asia Times.

NATO is flirting with war and extinction. France is now “officially” sending troops to Ukraine (they have been there for some time) and NATO countries are demanding strikes deep inside Russia. Meanwhile, the US has secretly made a “policy shift” that somewhat falls short of what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted but opens the door to deep strikes by […]

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In the occupied far east of Ukraine, Russian forces are aiming waves of missiles against Ukrainian civilian targets. Each of Russia’s state-of-the-art missile launch systems costs more than US$100 million. They allow Russia to launch attacks from safe positions many kilometers behind the front lines. The S-300 surface-to-air missile launcher is designed to avoid detection. […]

The post Using public satellites to track Russia’s missile launchers appeared first on Asia Times.

There is a large Russian operation underway in Ukraine focused on the Kharkov area. At the same time, the Russians are also attacking elsewhere, primarily in Donbas but also in Zaphorize. The threat in the north has compelled Ukraine to pull troops deployed elsewhere, including Chasiv Yar, to try and hold the line in the Kharkov […]

The post Kharkov fight aims to disintegrate Ukraine’s army appeared first on Asia Times.

Two weeks after the US president, Joe Biden, signed off on a US$60 billion package of military aid to Kiev, the impact on the battlefield has been relatively modest. According to an assessment by the Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War on May 6, Russian offensive operations have continued unabated. Vladimir […]

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When the Ukrainians have taken apart Russian weapons, they have found them stuffed with Western electronics, mainly American.  This applies to Russia’s highly successful Lancet Kamikaze drone, also known as a loitering munition. In the Lancet-3, a key component for its alleged artificial intelligence (AI) capability is the advanced development module called the Jetson TX2, produced by US […]

The post Russia’s killer Lancet drone runs on American AI appeared first on Asia Times.

Somewhere last weekend a few dozen former Cabinet members, senior military officers, academics and think tank analysts met to evaluate the world military situation.  I can say that I haven’t been so scared since the fall of 1983, when I was a junior contract researcher doing odd jobs for then Special Assistant to the President […]

The post America has no Ukraine Plan B except more war appeared first on Asia Times.

Europe is facing defeat in Ukraine as its policies on the war go sideways. Europe’s approach is increasingly unreflective of the growing reality on the ground while growing efforts to punish Russia and promote sending troops to Ukraine appear counterproductive. A good example of this is Germany, which has indicated it will keep supporting Ukraine and push […]

The post Europe dangerously deluded on Ukraine’s lost war appeared first on Asia Times.

Since the big leak of the German officer’s Taurus missile conversation, German authorities have been trying to explain how it happened. The official position is that the intercept of the conversation about the long-range missile’s use in the Ukraine war happened in Singapore, not Berlin.  There, one of the call’s participants who was attending the […]

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This article was first published March 6 in the latest edition of the Global Risk-Reward Monitor — Asia Times’ subscription-only weekly newsletter examining event-driven trends and trading opportunities across world markets. Subscribe now for access at a special price of only $99/year. Clown show or casus belli? I’d have to say, “both” … as is […]

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Leaked communications involving high-level German government and military figures appear to confirm that British army personnel are engaged on the ground in Ukraine. An unencrypted telephone call intercepted and leaked to Russian broadcaster RT suggested British troops were helping the defending forces in the use of Storm Shadow cruise missiles the UK has supplied to […]

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On July 25, 1943, Benito Mussolini, after being voted out of power by his own Grand Council, was called to a conference with King Vittorio Emanuele in the Villa Ada park at the special bunker known as the Villa Ada Savoia. The King told Mussolini that the new Italian prime minister would be General Pietro Badoglio. Tired, […]

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