Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced, on February 11, that Ukroboronprom (a state-owned association of multi-product enterprises in the defense industry) has successfully tested a new type of domestically produced air-to-ground rocket with impressive technical characteristics (Pravda.com.ua, February 11). This 80 millimeter caliber munition can be... MORE

Ukraine has just concluded its month-long role as rotating president of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) during February 2017. Kyiv has specifically pledged to use this high-level international forum to confront Moscow for its aggression and to seek reimbursement for the damages Ukraine has... MORE

In late January, groups of self-identified veterans and several controversial Ukrainian people’s deputies began blocking railways linking the territory of Donbas (provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk) controlled by Moscow-backed militants to areas controlled by the central government. They say that it is wrong to trade... MORE

A series of protests in Minsk and regional cities in recent weeks made headlines both inside Belarus and abroad (see EDM, February 21). The fact that they gathered the largest number of protesters in almost seven years sparked active discussions among commentators and on social... MORE

Belarus’s standoff with Russia over natural gas prices and the corresponding arrears continues. And so does Russia’s ensuing punishment of Belarus by way of cutting back on duty-free oil. Meanwhile, there is also no end in sight yet to the public rallies against the presidential... MORE

It has been one month since a group of demobilized Ukrainian soldiers and veterans of the volunteer battalions took it upon themselves (starting on January 25) to enforce a trade embargo with the occupied territories of Donbas (region of eastern Ukraine encompassing the Donetsk and... MORE

The Crimean peninsula is a valuable asset, especially for its military attributes. When Russia illegally annexed Crimea in February–March 2014, it notably gained full de facto control over Sevastopol (where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based and had until then been leasing its facilities)... MORE

Since the beginning of February 2017, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has begun to implement the decision taken at the Alliance’s summit in Warsaw last July to deploy a rotational battalion-sized combat unit to each of the Baltic States and Poland. The bolstering of... MORE

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė told journalists in Riga earlier this month (February 2017), “We are worried about the Zapad 2017 exercise, during which concentrations of extremely large and aggressive forces will demonstrate [Russian] preparations for war with the West” (Delfi.lt, February 9). Russia’s large-scale exercise... MORE

Belarus’s legendary calm was shattered by three momentous disruptions in recent days. First, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka surprisingly agreed to a two-hour meeting with Iosif Seredich, the editor-in-chief of the major opposition newspaper Narodnaya Volya. Second, mass rallies have gripped Minsk and Belarus’s other five regional... MORE