After a largely bloodless routing of Russia-backed separatist rebels in Ukraine’s southeastern industrial port city of Mariupol in June, a combined force of regular and volunteer Ukrainian military units has been steadily pressing an offensive to crush the rebellion and regain control over the entire... MORE

On August 26, the 3 + 1 + 1 summit devoted to the crisis in Ukraine took place in Minsk. Presidents of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, as well as three European Commissioners attended the summit. While nobody expected a breakthrough regarding the war in... MORE

The summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that opens in the Welsh Celtic Manor resort tomorrow (September 4) will feature the Ukraine crisis as an agenda item of top priority and extreme urgency. Only a week ago, this crisis appeared manageable as Russian... MORE

On August 18, the Ekho Kavkaza news service published an interview with two Ossetian militants who are fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine. The militants preferred to be identified by their nicknames—Mamai and Volk (Wolf). They were interviewed at a café on the mountain... MORE

After recent successes by Russia-backed rebel forces in southeastern Ukraine, increased reports of Russian regular troops involved in the conflict, and belligerent statements by the Russian leadership, speculation mounts in Moscow as to the nature of the Kremlin’s “war aims.” Some clues as to Moscow’s... MORE

On July 29, a series of photos posted to Lavdrim Muhaxheri’s Facebook account showed the 25-year-old Kosovar-Albanian jihadi combatant beheading a young Iraqi teenager (Gazeta Tema [Tirana], July 29). The photos sparked outrage among government officials and the public in Kosovo, reflecting the strong security... MORE

One hundred years ago, World War I erupted on the European continent, ultimately leading to the fracturing and collapse of the multi-national Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman and Russian Empires. However, out of the rubble of the old Romanov state, the Bolsheviks managed to cobble together a... MORE

The secessionist “Luhansk People’s Republic’s” (LPR) leadership is experiencing even greater turmoil, compared with that of the adjacent “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) in Ukraine’s east. On August 14 the “head (glava) of the republic,” Valery Bolotov, returned to Luhansk after a Moscow visit and announced... MORE

On August 14–15, the “Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) government” and its military command underwent another recasting—the second within one week, while Ukrainian forces tighten the ring around the city of Donetsk. Colonel Igor Strelkov/Girkin, a hero to Russia’s nationalist public, has now been stripped of... MORE

At the end of July, Ukrainian border guards reported three instances of reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) from Transnistria violating Ukrainian air space (korrespondent.net, August, 1). The drones were seen over the administrative border area between Ukraine’s regions of Odessa and Vinnitsya, as well as... MORE