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$106 Billion Loan Reflects E.U.’s View That Peace in Ukraine Is Far Away

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The delayed funding, which was approved on Thursday, is heavily weighted toward military spending, unlike previous European packages. A firefighter working at the site of a recyclable materials warehouse hit by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv this month. Credit... Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters By Constant Méheut  Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine,  The New York Times   April 23, 2026 Updated 8:04 a.m. ET For weeks, Ukraine had been caught in a bind. A path to ending the war seemed increasingly illusory, as peace talks with Russia went from yielding no results to being put on hold. That meant Kyiv needed to prepare to fight indefinitely, even as vital financial support from the European Union remained frozen. On Thursday, a breakthrough finally arrived. After Hungary dropped its  opposition to a $106 billion E.U. loan to Ukraine the day before, European leaders unblocked the funds and adopted a new package of economic sanctions against Russia. The money, which had been held u...
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Threat of Evictions Darkens Russia’s Rosy Picture of Occupied Ukraine

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April 23, 2026 A new law forces Ukrainians in the captured regions to get Russian title deeds or risk losing their homes. Recently built apartment buildings in Mariupol, a Russian-occupied Ukrainian city, last year. The Kremlin is trying to remake the city after its brutal siege, but many residents still lack homes. Credit... EPA, via Shutterstock  map from BBC By Nataliya Vasilyeva, The New York Times April 22, 2026  Original article contains links After Russia’s bloody 86-day siege of Mariupol, which damaged or destroyed up to 90 percent of the Ukrainian city’s residential buildings, residents who still had a home counted themselves lucky.  But their luck may be running out. Under a new Russian law, the authorities in Mariupol, which has been occupied by Russia for four years, are threatening to seize property from owners who do not obtain a Russian title deed. The requirement, human rights advocates say, is intended to cement Russian domination of the occupied territor...
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[Found on the Web: An article on my dear Pater Familias]

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  54  | 2015 Formes de la diplomatie (XVI e -XXI e  siècle) 3. Cultural Diplomacy: Soft Power in the Post-War World / La diplomatie culturelle: le  soft power  dans le monde d’après-guerre John Lackey Brown,  public diplomat  par excellence Raphaël  Ricaud p. 273-305 https://doi.org/10.4000/caliban.3100 Abstract  |  Index  |  Outline  |  Text  |  Bibliography  |  Annex  |  Notes  |  Illustrations  |  References  |  About the author Abstract American public diplomacy is a hard-to-define but often-used phrase which refers to the ways in which Washington seeks to influence domestic and foreign audiences through semi or unofficial channels. Throughout the 20 th  century, it has taken on various forms. Some argue public diplomacy is a euphemism for white propaganda. Others claim it is an alternative form of diplomacy. This study tackles the issue by del...
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