Section: National Post (Canada)
Ukraine truce shattered in battle for Debaltseve — where pro-Russian rebels say ceasefire doesn’t apply
Shelling resumed around the contested Ukrainian town of Debaltseve Sunday, shattering a delicate truce and jeopardizing hopes of a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Guns fell silent across swathes of the front line at midnight on Saturday after Ukrainian and pro-Russian separatist leaders issued public ceasefire orders. Both sides reported an...
Marc Bennetts: How Putin is priming Russia for nuclear stand-off with the West
Earlier this month, as fighting raged in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian rebels and forces loyal to the Western-backed government in Kyiv, Dmitry Kiselyov, the pugnacious, middle-aged journalist who heads Russia’s main state news agency, gazed defiantly into a TV studio camera. “What is Russia preparing for?” he asked. As if in reply,...
Cease-fire period begins in Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine — The cease-fire period for fighting in Ukraine began one minute after midnight Sunday, but there are no immediate indications of whether either side in the conflict that has killed more than 5,300 people is observing it. Under an agreement struck last week, Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatist rebels are to begin this...
Heavy fire rocks eastern Ukraine despite looming cease-fire agreement
SVITLODARSK, Ukraine — Heavy artillery fire roared Saturday in eastern Ukraine as fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists continued hours before a cease-fire was to take effect in the conflict that has killed more than 5,300 people. Associated Press reporters saw the artillery barrage near the town of Svitlodarsk as well...
National Post View: A dubious ceasefire in Ukraine
The fatal flaw in the agreement to end the fighting in Ukraine is not hard to spot. To succeed, it depends heavily on the good faith and goodwill of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has amply demonstrated he can’t be trusted on either count. The ideal solution to the clash between Ukraine forces and Russian-backed rebels would have...
Charles Krauthammer: America’s passive president leaves the world to burn
WASHINGTON — His secretary of defense says “the world is exploding all over.” His attorney general says that the threat of terror “keeps me up at night.” The world bears them out. On Tuesday, American hostage Kayla Mueller is confirmed dead. On Wednesday, the U.S. evacuates its embassy in Yemen, cited by President Barack Obama last September as...
Ukraine says 11 troops killed and 40 wounded, fighting reportedly increased since ceasefire agreement
Fierce fighting surged in east Ukraine as Russian-backed separatists mounted a major and sustained new push Friday to capture a strategic railway hub ahead of a weekend cease-fire deadline. Clashes appeared only to have increased in the day since a peace agreement was sealed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine,...
Leonid Bershidsky: A win for Putin
When world leaders pull an all-nighter, something has to come out of it. What came out of the 17-hour, Ironman-level endurance test in Minsk is a ceasefire deal for eastern Ukraine that mitigates the Kyiv government’s defeat in a war it could not have won, gives Russian-backed rebels two days to make final territorial gains and freezes the...
Noah Feldman: Arms alone won’t save Ukraine
Should the U.S. arm Ukraine for its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin? Before you say “Duh,” consider this: Arms shipments alone are almost never enough to enable a smaller, weaker actor to defeat a big-time power. If the U.S. commits itself to sending arms to Ukraine, it’s signing up for more than military aid. When Ukraine...
Alan Riley: Moscow’s strategy of using pipelines to control markets, and countries, is no longer working
At a meeting in Moscow on Jan. 14, the European Commission’s vice president for energy union, Maros Sefcovic, was surprised to hear the head of Gazprom, Aleksei Miller, declare that if the Europeans want continued access to the Russian natural gas that is currently piped through Ukraine, Europe would have to build its own pipelines to the...
