Author: Reid Standish/RFE/RL

Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, the United States, Britain, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan have imposed thousands of sanctions on Russia. The main target of the measures has been Russian finances, especially the networks that fund Moscow’s war effort. Amid the grinding conflict that’s claimed tens of...

After 22 days of legislative chaos in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson – a little-known lawmaker from Louisiana – became speaker of the lower chamber of Congress on October 25, reflecting a rightward shift by his party that raises new questions over the future of U.S. aid for Ukraine. The new speaker...

Current Time video screen shotFormer priest Dmytro (left) speaks with a Current Time correspondent near the front line in eastern Ukraine.Near KLISHCHIYIVKA, Ukraine – After months of intense fighting to dislodge Russian units north and south of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces recaptured the nearby tactically important village of Klishchiyivka in a move that...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine 14 months ago, calling for a “political resolution” of the war through dialogue and vowing to send a delegation to Ukraine to hold discussions. During the long-awaited April 26 call, Mr. Xi offered to help facilitate peace...

Chinese President Xi Jinping left Moscow after a three-day visit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that was ripe with symbolism as they set their sights on shaping a new world order. But what results actually came from the meeting? On the evening of March 21, Mr. Xi and Putin signed a joint statement after holding...

As Moscow’s forces advance, Russia and Ukraine continue to dispute control of the salt-mining town of Soledar amid scenes of devastation and fierce fighting on the front line in eastern Ukraine. Russia has made multiple claims of control recently that have been contested by Ukrainian officials, who maintain their forces have not left the town...

Kyiv’s long-discussed counteroffensive in southern Ukraine is under way and already making limited gains, but Mick Ryan, a retired Australian Army major general, says to expect the Ukrainian push to move slowly and come in stages. Ukraine’s military has so far been tight-lipped about the operation it has launched to reclaim Russia-occupied territory in the...

A series of recent attacks on Russian forces in southern Ukraine and its forcibly-annexed Crimean Peninsula reveal what Ukrainian officials say is a new strategy designed to take out supply lines in its occupied territories. Mykhaylo Podolyak, a key adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, recently described it as designed to create “chaos within Russian...

It was supposed to be a lightning strike that could see Russian forces in Kyiv after three days of fighting, but six months after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin instead finds itself locked in a grinding war that has left its military and intelligence services humiliated. While the scale of Russia’s battlefield setbacks have...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelens-kyy has been unable to secure a direct line with China’s Xi Jinping since Russia invaded his country in February. But that has not stopped Mr. Zelenskyy from calling on the Chinese president to use Beijing’s political and economic influence over Moscow to help end the six-month war in Ukraine. “I would...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted global food chains and is contributing to a crisis exacerbated by already-rising food prices and deepening poverty across much of the Middle East and parts of Africa. Both Kyiv and Moscow are leading exporters of agricultural products to those regions, and the deepening ripple effects from the war are...

Ukrainian forces continue to use U.S.-supplied precision rocket systems to target Russian supply lines in occupied parts of southern Ukraine as Kyiv signals the possible launching of a major counteroffensive in the region. The high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) provided by the United States to Ukraine have a longer range, superior precision and a faster...