Notes and Essays -- John Brown

Insight & Analysis  Kennan Institute -- Focus Ukraine; a blog of the Kennan Institute   Moscow, Russia - Aug. 8, 2024: Vladimir Putin talks with the governor of Kursk regarding Ukraine's military invasion.  By  Victor Andrusiv  on  September 16, 2024 Over a month ago, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked Russian territory and captured over 1,300 square kilometers. The more time passes since the Ukrainians' successful breakthrough, the more skeptical assessments and comments appear in the Western press. Looking back, can we say that the Kursk operation was successful? One of the most common criticisms regarding the Kursk operation is that Russia did not redeploy troops from Donbas as expected; instead, the situation in that region has drastically worsened. It must be acknowledged that there was indeed rapid progress by Russian troops. In August, Russians captured 477 square kilometers, one of their largest achievements since March 2022. In comparison, in July, they managed

Moscow’s war ‘is feeding itself’ as friends and backers cash in on crops from occupied territories How Russia Profits From Ukraine Invasion by Selling Stolen Grain on a Global Black Market Moscow’s war ‘is feeding itself’ as friends and backers cash in on crops from occupied territories By Benoit Faucon ,  The Wall Street Journal ; photograp hs by Svet Jacqueline for WSJ; updated Sept. 16, 2024 8:40 am ET [ Article contains informative images   on   " An illicit market in grain stolen from Ukraine is helping fund Russia's invasion. Traders are selling wheat plundered in occupied territories directly to friendly nations such as Iran and Syria. The biggest hub for illicit exports is Sevastopol, a port in Crimea that Russia annexed in 2014." ] KYIV, Ukraine— B eyond the bombs and gunfire of  Russia’s war in Ukraine , a parallel economic war is raging. Its front line is on occupied Ukrainian farmlands, from which Russia and its partners have sold almost $1 billion in stolen

Imagine what it would accomplish if given the freedom to strike inside Russia itself. By Anna Husarska, The Wall Street Journal , Sept. 15, 2024 3:38 pm ET [ Anna Husarska is a Franco-Polish journalist, political analyst and former staff writer at The New Yorker. ]  Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, Sept. 11.    PHOTO:  OLGA IVASHCHENKO/BLOOMBERG NEWS The success of Ukraine’s counterattacks into Crimea may be the strongest argument for allowing Kyiv to fire long-range weapons into Russia. What Ukraine has accomplished in the occupied peninsula proves that strikes into Russian territory could save many Ukrainian lives and put  Vladimir Putin  on his heels. The U.S., Britain and France currently provide Kyiv long-range weapons with the caveat that Ukrainian forces not fire them onto Russian soil. While Moscow considers Crimea—the first piece of Ukrainian territory it occupied in 2014—a part of Russia, the West correctly doesn’t. The fighting in Crimea proves that when given the tools and th

By Christian Edwards  and  Anna Chernova , CNN   Published 11:42 AM EDT, Mon September 16, 2024 Russian troops march during the Victory Day military parade in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2024.  Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters  [ full image in article ]  CNN  —  Russian  President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by 180,000, the third time he has expanded its ranks since launching his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The increase would take the overall number of Russian military personnel to nearly 2.4 million, including 1.5 million troops, according to the  decree  published by the Kremlin Monday.  The new staffing will come into effect in December, it said. Putin’s decree comes after Ukraine last month launched a lightning attack across the border on Russia’s southern  Kursk  region – the first foreign invasion of Russian territory since World War II. Last week, Russia stepped up its efforts to expel Ukrainian troops from Ku