Two months into the “special military operation” against Ukraine, accompanied by the most comprehensive barrage of sanctions ever leveled against any country, Russian life, at least around Moscow, looks shockingly normal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s effective diplomacy and ability to nudge Western allies to act have helped enable Ukraine to not just hold off Moscow’s aggression, but to repel it and humiliate a world power. Even so, he surely knows that as his country enters the third month of war with Russia, the clock is ticking. The United States understands this, too.
The Russian mercenary outfit Wagner Group is a major player in the conflict in Ukraine, but they are also active in the Middle East and Africa.
Russia has a nuclear doctrine known as “escalate to deescalate” or, more accurately, “escalate to win,” which contemplates threatening or using nuclear weapons early in a conventional conflict.
It cannot be a good sign that Russia, China, and North Korea at the same time are threatening to launch the world’s most destructive weaponry.
The Russian UN envoy noted there are vested interests in certain circles that have sought for a long time to transform Ukraine into a bridgehead for a battle with Russia.
The Russian permanent representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said during a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine that a world war is currently taking place at an economic level in light of the measures taken against Russia in response to its special military operation in Ukraine.
The transformation of the Hungarian energy system would take years and thousands of billions of forints in order to replace Russian oil, President Orban stressed.
The European Commission (EC)’s planned oil embargo against Russia can be considered as a “nuclear bomb” on Hungary’s economy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned into the largest testing ground for ballistic and cruise missiles in modern warfare. According to the latest figures from a senior U.S. official as of April 29, 2022, Russia had launched more than 1,950 missiles — far more than the 955 cruise missile strikes U.S. forces carried out during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Russia’s largest bank will be excluded from the SWIFT payments messaging system, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday.
Sberbank is among three Russian banks to be sanctioned as part of the European Union’s sixth package of sanctions against Russia after it invaded Ukraine in February.
A popular Russian state TV anchor has warned that Moscow could wipe Britain off the map with a nuclear tsunami in retaliation for supporting Ukraine.
In his Sunday evening primetime show on Channel One, one of the most-watched in Russia, Dmitry Kiselyov claimed on May 1 that a strike by the country’s Poseidon nuclear underwater drone could drown the UK under a 500-metre tidal wave of radioactive seawater.
As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) is keeping a close eye on Russia’s movements across the military, cyber, and information domains. With more than seven years of experience monitoring the situation in Ukraine, as well as Russia’s use of propaganda and disinformation to undermine the United States, NATO, and the European Union, the DFRLab’s global team presents the latest installment of the Russian War Report.