Putin

Global leaders and defense officials had spent weeks speculating what Russian President Vladimir Putin might reveal about his Ukraine plans in a speech at ...

The possibility that Russia may win nothing, or very little, in Ukraine is real. All he can do now is to keep Russians on his side as they suffer the economic hardship of crippling sanctions and international isolationism. Even if that had been Putin's plan, he was unlikely to follow through

According to reports, Russian smart TV systems were hacked with an anti-war message on Monday before Vladimir Putin addressed the nation.

TV and the authorities are lying. TV and the authorities are lying. Per the BBC, major channels including Channel One, Rossiya-1 and NTV-Plus were affected.

Victory Day parade showcasing Russia's military power, as Ukrainians accuse Putin's forces of killing 60 sheltering in school.

Russia will likely struggle to replace the precision weaponry it has already expended." "The death of every soldier and officer is painful for us," he said, pledging to do "everything" to help bereaved families. Why it matters: Zelensky left open the possibility of a peace settlement and said "not all the bridges are destroyed" between Russia and Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously promised to continue Russia's unprovoked invasion " until its full completion." Between the lines: The U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence report Monday that the invasion of Ukraine "has revealed shortcomings" in the Russian military's ability to conduct precision strikes at scale, despite publicly promoting its "ability to conduct surgical strikes and limit collateral damage" at the start of the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted in a Sunday night address denouncing Russian shelling that the words "peace" and "never again" were typically associated with Victory in Europe Day on May 8 and Russia's May 9 Victory Day, "which are repeated all over the free world every year on the days of remembrance of the victims of World War II." - Instead, he turned his ire and propaganda on the U.S., NATO and the "Nazis" they support in Kyiv — claiming that a clash was "inevitable" and that Russia moved preemptively against Ukraine to defend itself.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is marking Victory Day with a speech from a grand military parade in Moscow's Red Square as his war in Ukraine struggles.

The Kremlin said 11,000 people and 130 pieces of equipment took part in the parade. Prior to the event, the military had announced that the “Doomsday” plane equipped to take command in the event of a nuclear war, would be on display. “Today, I want to award those Ukrainian heroes who are already clearing our land of mines. “We will take our time to take steps towards a phase-out.” He did not elaborate. Trudeau patted his pockets as if he were looking for a dog treat. Stands filled with spectators also observed the spectacle. Progress in Ukraine has eluded Putin, with Russian forces devastating but far from defeating the country in a war that has ground on for more than two months. Nearly 25 million tonnes of grains are stuck in Ukraine and unable to leave the country due to infrastructure challenges and blocked Black Sea ports including Mariupol, a U.N. food agency official said last week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia may have already stepped up its attacks ahead of the annual holiday, with at least 60 people feared dead after an airstrike on a school where people were sheltering in an eastern Ukraine village. “For a country heavily dependent on energy imports, it’s a very difficult decision. Prices eased slightly in April. We will win now.”

Vladimir Putin "has recognized he has no victory to celebrate," US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN in response to the lack ...

"His efforts in Ukraine have not succeeded," she added. She told CNN the behavior of the Russian diplomats she works with in New York has "absolutely" changed since Russia began its war in Ukraine, and that the seem "uncomfortable" in "the way they carry themselves, the demeanor." "From day one, the 24th of February, when we were sitting in an emergency meeting of Security Council and the Russians were president of the Security Council, we saw their demeanor changed significantly in the council," Thomas-Greenfield said, adding that she believes the Russians at the meeting "were taken by surprise by the attack" that evening that launched Russia's war in Ukraine. "He didn't announce a withdrawal. The fact that Dvornikov oversaw Russia forces accused of committing atrocities in Syria and still remains in power to command forces accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine "is certainly something that the world has to address moving forward," Thomas-Greenfield acknowledged. Thomas-Greenfield, who was in Brussels for a major conference to support Syria, said Moscow's appointment of the "Butcher of Syria" Alexander Dvornikov to command Russia's offensive in Ukraine is "just another example of Russian brutality, Russia's lack of consciousness about humanity, the human rights violations and atrocities that they have committed and they are prepared to continue to carry out in Ukraine."

Some experts had worried that Russian President Vladimir Putin would declare war on Ukraine and a total mobilization of Russian society while threatening the ...

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Putin seems to understand when the war is not going his way — hence his withdrawal from the environs of Kyiv at the beginning of April rather than risk the complete destruction of his forces. The easiest thing to do is to continue doing what you’ve been doing, even if there is scant hope that the results will get any better. The major issue now is how far east the front line will run. It often requires a new leader to extract a nation from such a quagmire. The damage will only accelerate as Russian production lines are cut off from Western imports such as microchips. As for using nuclear weapons, that would be the action of a madman who fears that the end is near. The Institute for the Study of War reported on Sunday: “Russian forces did not make any significant advances on any axis of advance on May 8.” Putin is running out of options. Putin was defiant but subdued, trying to portray Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine as a preemptive response to a looming Ukrainian invasion of Russia. Those are the worst losses Russia has suffered since World War II. There has been much discussion about whether Putin is rational, because attacking Ukraine with such a small army was an act of lunacy. He appears to grasp, as I argued last week, that mobilization would bring more problems than it would solve.

The Russian dictator had little to brag about in his annual Victory Day speech and announced no new escalation of the war, as some feared he might.

Still, for American officials to acknowledge it, even in an unauthorized leak, can only intensify the tensions that make a widening escalation of the war more and more plausible. Putin has long deemed this a war with the West, and he is right—though it was he, not U.S. President Joe Biden or anyone else, who made it so and who resolidified the Cold War division of Europe in a way that no one could have expected just a few months ago. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated recently that the U.S. hoped to “weaken” Russia as a military power. Some hoped that the military would turn against the war, and in fact many soldiers—sent into battle without any preparation or special training—have deserted, abandoning their tanks and weapons, which Ukrainians have captured and gone on to use. But he said nothing in his Victory Day speech to dispel the widespread view that this is going to drag on, and dredge more deeply into violence, for a long time to come. Vladimir Putin observed Russia’s annual Victory Day celebrations in the Kremlin’s usual style, with thousands of troops parading through Red Square to honor the defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9, 1945.

With the war now in its 11th week, battles were being waged on multiple fronts, but Russia was perhaps closest to victory in the city of Mariupol.

Russia is perhaps closest to a victory in Mariupol. The U.S. official said roughly 2,000 Russian forces were around Mariupol, and the city was being pounded by airstrikes. “Very soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine,” he said in a video. Each unit has roughly 1,000 troops, according to the Pentagon. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared in his own Victory Day address that his country would eventually defeat the Russians. Specifically, he left unanswered the question of whether or how Russia will marshal more forces for a continuing war. While Western analysts in recent weeks had widely expected Putin to use the holiday to trumpet some kind of victory in Ukraine or announce an escalation, he did neither. Causing dramatic consequences for vulnerable countries.” It was forced, timely and the only correct decision.” Despite Russia’s crackdown on dissent, antiwar sentiment has seeped through. “The danger was rising by the day,” Putin said. He said that unless Russia has a major breakthrough, “the balance of advantages will shift steadily in favor of Ukraine, especially as Ukraine gets access to growing volumes of increasingly sophisticated Western military equipment.” Instead, he sought to justify the war again as a necessary response to what he portrayed as a hostile Ukraine.

In his Victory Day speech, President Vladimir Putin falsely called Ukrainians “Nazis” and insisted without evidence that Kyiv was planning to build nuclear ...

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. In the town of Lyman, where fighting has raged in recent weeks, civilians used the relative quiet to make frantic dashes to the armored evacuation buses organized by the regional government. “I crawled to him and all I could see was blood,” she said. Lying anguished in a Donbas hospital bed, Ludmila Krivanos, 67, said she had ignored her children’s pleas to flee, telling them she could carry on with her normal life when the shelling died down. He offered no details on any of his claims but railed at the United States and European countries for their roles before and during the war with Ukraine. State television broadcast footage of Russian soldiers handing out Soviet flags with the St. George’s ribbon in villages near Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine. The once-thriving city has been nearly razed during weeks of Russian bomb and artillery attacks. The parade began with eight goose-stepping soldiers in dress uniform bearing the Russian flag and red Soviet-era victory banner. Putin said Russia tried to have an honest dialogue on European security, but “the NATO countries did not want to hear us, which means that, in fact, they had completely different plans. In Moscow, Putin arrived at Red Square shortly before 10 a.m. On his black coat he wore a St. George’s ribbon of black and orange — denoting victory over fascism. The Pentagon has seen no sign of Moscow trying to mobilize additional forces inside Russia that are not already focused on Ukraine. The governor of Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-most-populous city, where Ukrainian troops have been pushing back Russian battalions — said there was less shelling Monday than any day since the conflict began 75 days ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to justify his war in Ukraine in a speech on Russia's Victory Day, blaming the West and linking the conflict to ...

Putin’s speech was preceded by the usual show of pomp and pageantry, with neat rows of soldiers in parade uniforms and a military orchestra performing patriotic songs. We will now.” The address was nervously watched by observers in Europe and Washington, who for weeks expressed concerns about what Putin might announce. "We won then. In a rare nod to the scale of the sacrifice, Putin acknowledged Russian losses in Ukraine. While Putin repeatedly mentioned the war, which the Kremlin refers to only as a “special military operation,” he steered clear of any major announcements in the relatively short speech.

The Russian leader praised his forces but made no major announcements in a defiant speech at the annual Victory Day parade that marks the defeat of Nazi ...

A separate group of pro-Ukrainian activists, covered in white blankets splattered with red dye, lay on the ground at the entrance to the Warsaw memorial complex in front of a banner that read “criminals.” Others waved Ukrainian flags and shouted “killer” as Mr. Andreev arrived at the sprawling Soviet-era cemetery. “For steel mills to continue as an economic lifeline for the people of Ukraine, they must be able to export their steel,” Gina M. Raimondo, the commerce secretary, said in the announcement. Mr. Putin reserved his toughest language in Monday’s speech for the United States. It was the United States and its “minions” that were using Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” to threaten Russia, he said, forcing him to respond militarily. The eastern region of Donbas, which the Kremlin is trying to seize in this war, has traditionally looked to Moscow as a center of political and cultural gravity, and many residents have close family ties to Russia. The war has complicated this relationship. But analysts said that a mass mobilization of the Russian public, an increase in conscription or a switch to an austere wartime economy would undermine the balance he had struck and bring the reality of war into many more households. In the video, Mr. Zelensky said only “a madman” would follow the path of the fascists who started World War II. He made no claim of victory or “mission accomplished” and no promise that the fight in Ukraine could end soon. “Russia is trying to monopolize V-Day as if it was a war won by Russia, but it was a victory for all 15 republics of the former Soviet Union,” he said. On Monday, Mr. Putin said the United States and its “minions” were using Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” to threaten Russia and thus had forced him to launch the war. “This day’s supposed to be about celebrating peace and unity in Europe and the defeat of Nazis in World War II,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said at a briefing afterward. President Vladimir V. Putin used a speech delivered from his rostrum near the Lenin Mausoleum to try and turn Russian pride in the 1945 victory into increased support for what he has called the “special military operation” in Ukraine. “I am pleased that, in my conversations with congressional leaders, there appears to be strong support for the proposal I submitted, and Congress is likely to pass it in substantially the form I proposed,” Mr. Biden said in a statement Monday afternoon.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin marked his country's biggest patriotic holiday Monday without a major new battlefield success in ...

Russia is perhaps closest to a victory in Mariupol. The U.S. official said roughly 2,000 Russian forces were around Mariupol, and the city was being pounded by airstrikes. The Ukrainian military said Russian forces fired seven missiles from the air at Odesa on Monday night, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse. “Very soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine,” he said in a video. One person was killed and five were wounded, the military said. Each unit has roughly 1,000 troops, according to the Pentagon. Specifically, he left unanswered the question of whether or how Russia will marshal more forces for a continuing war. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared in his own Victory Day address that his country would eventually defeat the Russians. While Western analysts in recent weeks had widely expected Putin to use the holiday to trumpet some kind of victory in Ukraine or announce an escalation, he did neither. Causing dramatic consequences for vulnerable countries.” It was forced, timely and the only correct decision.” Despite Russia’s crackdown on dissent, antiwar sentiment has seeped through. “The danger was rising by the day,” Putin said.

The White House has made an ironclad commitment to holding Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for the atrocities his forces have committed in ...

But this is a more promising route to accountability than compiling evidence of atrocities in the vain hope there will someday be a venue capable of prosecuting Putin and his lieutenants. In that regard, sanctions will never be as satisfying as seeing him stew in a prison in The Hague. The problem is that we can’t always get the justice we want. The task is therefore not to trade sanctions for peace but to build a sustainable sanctions regime that the United States and its allies are prepared to enforce consistently and vigorously for several years or even a decade. The system for prosecuting crimes against humanity has failed in case after case: In Myanmar, the Biden administration has determined that the military junta is committing genocide against its Rohingya minority—but there is little hope of bringing the perpetrators to justice. In Syria, for example, the Western commitment to punishing Assad was intermittent at best—and has now diminished to a point where Damascus was able to begin a process of diplomatic rehabilitation. When the Russian withdrawal from the Ukrainian town of Bucha exposed evidence of massacres, Biden called for “a war crime trial.” When Blinken told reporters at a press conference, “I can say with conviction that there will be accountability for any war crimes that are determined to have occurred” in Ukraine, he got some well-deserved pushback. Ten years of brutal ongoing war have shown the deficiency of the process U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration hope to apply to Ukraine now. A month after Biden’s inauguration, Blinken committed to “putting human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy.” On Syria, State Department officials pledged to seek accountability and enforce the Caesar Act, a sanctions law that Congress passed with bipartisan majorities in 2019. The system for prosecuting crimes against humanity has failed in case after case: In Myanmar, the Biden administration has determined that the military junta is committing genocide against its Rohingya minority—but there is little hope of bringing the perpetrators to justice. Ten years of brutal ongoing war have shown the deficiency of the process U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration hope to apply to Ukraine now. The White House has made an ironclad commitment to holding Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for the atrocities his forces have committed in Ukraine. But don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen. The White House has made an ironclad commitment to holding Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for the atrocities his forces have committed in Ukraine. But don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin marked his country's biggest patriotic holiday Monday without a major new battlefield success ...

Russia is perhaps closest to a victory in Mariupol. The U.S. official said roughly 2,000 Russian forces were around Mariupol, and the city was being pounded by airstrikes. The Ukrainian military said Russian forces fired seven missiles from the air at Odesa on Monday night, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse. “Very soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine,” he said in a video. One person was killed and five were wounded, the military said. Each unit has roughly 1,000 troops, according to the Pentagon. Specifically, he left unanswered the question of whether or how Russia will marshal more forces for a continuing war. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared in his own Victory Day address that his country would eventually defeat the Russians. While Western analysts in recent weeks had widely expected Putin to use the holiday to trumpet some kind of victory in Ukraine or announce an escalation, he did neither. Causing dramatic consequences for vulnerable countries.” It was forced, timely and the only correct decision.” Despite Russia’s crackdown on dissent, antiwar sentiment has seeped through. “The danger was rising by the day,” Putin said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Jewish president once again undercut Vladimir Putin's attempt to rewrite history and justify his war as an effort to ...

“We thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop, and this war has been brutal,” Biden said. “TV and the authorities are lying. “Russia repelled this aggression in a preventative way.” “The road to it is difficult, but we have no doubt that we will win.” The remarks came shortly before Putin’s own speech, and undermined the propaganda the Russian dictator has used as the pretext for the onslaught, which observers worry he could soon intensify. And very soon, there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine.”

Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has backfired on a number of fronts. But one of the most disastrous consequences of all for the Russian President is ...

But with public approval, political support and Russia providing every reason for another of its neighbors to join its hated rival, there's little doubt that Putin's gambit to decrease NATO'S influence in Europe has backfired, spectacularly. Its military has for decades used equipment purchased from the United States that is compatible with NATO allies, meaning it could easily join NATO missions should it choose to do so. Martti Kari, who previously served as Finland's assistant chief of defense intelligence, told CNN that Russia is already starting a misinformation campaign against it. "In an ideal world we want to cooperate with Russia, which we cannot escape being our geographical neighbor. Russia currently shares about 755 miles of land border with five NATO members, according to the alliance. After that, the Finnish parliament will hold an extraordinary debate on whether to approve the security report recommendations.

Two Russian reporters appeared to post at least 30 articles on Monday that criticized President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

"Don't be afraid, don't be quiet," they continued in an apparent call to action. Putin and state media still refer to the full-scale ground war in Ukraine only as a "special operation." Reporters Egor Polyakov and Alexandra Miroshnikova made several claims in their articles, including that Russian defense officials were "lying to relatives" of those killed on the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet flagship. The article claimed the Russian navy may have recirculated old images of the Moskva's crew to suggest more sailors made it off the ship unharmed than really did. "Putin repeatedly lied about his plans for Russia in Ukraine, naming one goal at first then a completely different one." CNN reviewed the articles, which were taken down almost immediately after they were published on a pro-Kremlin news site.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have realized that he will not win the ongoing war with ...

"The Russians did not veto it," Kellogg said. Former President Mike Pence appointed Kellogg to serve as his national security adviser in 2018. "You blow up bridges when you're being in retreat and somebody's chasing you." Putin mentioned Donbas several times during his speech on Monday. He did not once utter the word "Ukraine." "So maybe what we're looking at is him looking out and saying 'There's gotta be a way out of this thing and maybe we can figure a way through it including with the U.N,'" Kellogg went on. Putin did not announce any new actions, such as military mobilization.

Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov's article follows multiple reports that Putin punished numerous FSB agents over poor Ukraine intelligence.

The GRU has cut a low profile in connection with the Ukraine invasion to date. Christo Grozev, the lead Russia journalist at Bellingcat, also said last month that Putin had purged a key FSB unit over Ukraine intelligence failures. The FSB is Russia's main intelligence agency and the successor of the KGB, where Putin served as an officer.

A proposal that would help Russian scientists and tech professionals to emigrate serves to undermine the Kremlin while benefiting the U.S. and its allies.

Human capital, after all, is the hardest to replace. But eventually widening the welcome to other professions, along with travelers and students, would further refute this line, while supporting the creation of a new, post-Putin intelligentsia open to other ideas for the future. For the U.S., one benefit of welcoming these high-skilled workers is that it will undermine a key tenet of Kremlin propaganda, which holds that the Western alliance merely hopes to harm the Russian people. The total number is likely to be several times that. They’re also young: Nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds last year expressed a desire to move abroad, along with a third of 25- to 39-year-olds. It’s a welcome move, and long overdue.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on February 7, 2022. Moscow (CNN) Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered regional officials on Tuesday to do more ...

"[Forests are] the ecological shield of our country and the entire planet. Eight people were killed on Saturday as fires ripped through hundreds of buildings in several Siberian villages, with high winds hampering efforts to extinguish the blazes. "We need to fight fires more efficiently, systematically, consistently, and improve the quality and level of all types of prevention."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged authorities to take stronger action to prevent wildfires and increase coordiation between various official ...

The authorities responded to last year’s fires by beefing up monitoring assets and rapid response forces. The much-criticized transfer led to the force’s rapid decline. In recent years, Russia has recorded high temperatures that many scientists regard as a clear result of climate change.

By Felix Light. LONDON (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin told regional officials on Tuesday to deal with forest fires in Siberia and said there ...

At least eight people died in Siberia on Saturday as fires ripped through hundreds of buildings in several villages, with high winds hampering efforts to extinguish the blazes. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with officials on fighting wildfires, via video link in Moscow, Russia May 10, 2022. Putin said: "We cannot allow a repeat of last year's situation, when forest fires were the most long-lasting and intensive of recent years." LONDON (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin told regional officials on Tuesday to deal with forest fires in Siberia and said there could be no repeat of last year's fire season, the worst on record. In an online meeting shown on state TV, Putin said the blazes were causing significant material damage and posing a threat to life, the environment and the economy.

Many badly wounded fighters are among the 1000 Ukrainian troops still holed up at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. Latest news.

The House of Representatives will vote on sending billions more in aid to Ukraine on Tuesday, the day after President Joe Biden conceded he would separate his $33 billion emergency request for Ukraine from the billions he’s seeking in pandemic funding. He didn't declare victory over Ukraine, and there was no discernable or markedly noticeable increase in attacks Monday. Brink currently serves as ambassador to the Slovak Republic. Senate Democrats are likely to push for her quick confirmation, saying she is highly qualified and desperately needed. There has been historic bipartisan support for helping Ukraine, but Republicans have complained that Biden is seeking too much additional pandemic funding. Russian troops have overwhelmed most of the embattled city, home to 450,000 people before the war. The situation is deteriorating every day."

The assessment, by Avril D. Haines, suggested that even if Russia makes big gains in eastern Ukraine, it wouldn't end the war.

“Putin most likely also judges that Russia has a greater ability and willingness to endure challenges than his adversaries,” Ms. Haines said. That stalemate, he said, could last for a while. But she said that even if Russia were successful in taking the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, it would not end the war. But she said the Russian leader was pursuing a longer-term aim. Under questioning from Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, General Berrier said Ukraine was better able to generate additional combat power. “The reality that Putin faces a mismatch between his ambitions and Russia’s current conventional military capabilities likely means the next few months could see us moving along a more unpredictable and potentially escalatory trajectory,” Ms. Haines said.

The U.S. intelligence community assesses Russia is preparing for a "prolonged conflict" in Ukraine that is likely to become "more unpredictable and ...

- The U.S. believes Russia will continue to use "nuclear rhetoric" to deter the West from providing further military assistance to Ukraine, but that Putin "would probably only authorize the use of nuclear weapons if he perceived an existential threat to the Russian state or regime." - The U.S. also sees "indications" that Russia wants to extend the land bridge further west to capture the historic port city of Odessa and connect with the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldova, fully cutting Ukraine off from the sea. - Consolidate control of the land bridge that Russia has established from the Donbas along the southern coast of Ukraine to Crimea, allowing Russian forces to occupy the Kherson region and control Crimea's water supplies. - Encircle Ukraine's military west of the Donbas "in order to crush the most capable and well-equipped Ukrainian forces fighting to hold the line in the east." The U.S. intelligence community assesses Russia is preparing for a "prolonged conflict" in Ukraine that is likely to become "more unpredictable and escalatory" due to a "mismatch" between Vladimir Putin's ambitions and military capabilities, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified Tuesday. The big picture: While Russian forces have refocused on the eastern Donbas region after failing to capture Kyiv in the first few weeks of the war, the U.S. views this as "only a temporary shift."

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a military parade marking the Soviet Union's triumph over the Nazis during the Second World War to defend his invasion ...

"But let me put on the record categorically: NATO, Britain, eastern Europe is not planning to invade Russia and never has done." However, many of the weapons systems currently being used in Ukraine were represented, as were long-range nuclear weapons. The decision of a sovereign, strong, independent country." Thus, a threat that is absolutely unacceptable to us was systematically created, moreover, directly at our borders," Putin said. He repeated previous claims that he had been forced into military action due to Western nations planning operations in Ukraine's Donbas region and because of Kyiv touting its possible acquisition of nuclear weapons. Despite widespread speculation, Putin did not declare victory in Ukraine or hint at any stronger push on the battlefield there.

Texas A&M School of Law Dean Robert Ahdieh pictured with Mikhail Gorbachev, the former leader of the Soviet Union. The dean worked with Gorbachev at his ...

Ahdieh said the end goal is unclear, and described the conflict as so “irrational” that its origins could be attributed to any number of sources. Ahdieh would later track him down backstage at a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He walked away with Gorbachev’s personal fax number and an internship opportunity. On the photograph, Gorbachev wrote a note. “Among my new neighbors was this little Russian babushka who saw me and was unhappy that I looked like I was fading away,” he said. Ahdieh was determined to learn the language. “She would drag me into her apartment, and that was my introduction to Russia. I totally fell in love with the culture. When a professor told him that he would likely never be able to speak the language fluently, Ahdieh worked even harder. Under Putin’s leadership, however, he saw law became more of “window dressing” each passing year – with the real decisions made based on politics, not law. The dean saw this process play out firsthand during a pivotal time in the country’s history. He wasn’t a figure of note.” He didn’t even cross my mind as someone it would be a good use of time to interview. After Gorbachev resigned that December, the former president established his own foundation.