Latest Articles about Military/Security
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/putin-3-1-1-640x356.jpg)
Failure Looms Over Russia’s Decisive Offensive in Donbas
Triumphalist rhetoric coming out of Moscow notwithstanding, Russia’s war in Ukraine is not progressing according to plan (see EDM, April 11). Nevertheless, President Vladimir Putin repeated yet again last week (April 12) that the central objective of the massive re-invasion of Ukrainian territory starting on... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/president_brussel_gorush_060422_2-640x425.jpg)
In Brussels, Armenia and Azerbaijan Make Progress in Peace Talks
On April 6, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, met in Brussels—their first and, so far, only physical meeting this year. The summit, organized by the European Union and mediated by European Council President Charles Michel, was the third EU-arbitrated discussion... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Russias-embassy-in-Riga-640x407.jpg)
Kremlin’s War Against Ukraine Divides Russians in the Baltics
Ethnic Russians today compose around a quarter of the population of Estonia and Latvia and about 5 percent in Lithuania. For the most part, these communities are made up of the descendants of migrants to the Baltics after the Second World War, whom the Soviet... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Wounded-Russians-Award-640x461.jpg)
Returning Veterans of Putin’s War in Ukraine Pose Serious Threat to Russia’s Future
When veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan—the so-called “Afgantsy”—and veterans of the two Russian campaigns in Chechnya returned to their homes, many had a difficult time fitting back into a peaceful life. Some used the military skills they had acquired to engage in various... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Aleksandr-Dvornikov-receives-medal-from-Vladmir-Putin-640x360.jpg)
Putin’s Leading War Generals and the Legacy of Syria
Russia’s highest-level military officers are heavily influenced in their operational thinking by shared experience of the Syrian theater of military operations. This was used as an en masse training opportunity, which included significant military experimentation, and it boosted combat experience and confidence—arguably over-confidence—among the officer... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Bucha-atrocities-evidence-640x400.jpg)
Why the Russian Military Committed Atrocities in Bucha
The discovery of wide-scale atrocities in Bucha, documented by satellite imagery, incoming Ukrainian forces, and videos obtained by independent Russian media based in Europe (Meduza, April 7), prompted an international outcry to identify and punish those responsible. The war crimes, apparently committed by occupying Russian... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Russian-troops-disperse-pro-Ukraine-rally-in-Kherson-640x360.jpg)
In Southern Ukraine, Russian Occupation Policy Takes Shape (Part Three)
*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. Removing officials loyal to Ukraine from local administrations and replacing them with nominees of the occupation authorities is a high priority of Russia’s occupation policy in southern Ukraine (see Part Two... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/210809-alexander-lukashenko-ew-1237p-640x427.jpg)
‘Accomplice’ No More? How the War in Ukraine Stokes Anxieties in Belarus
Both directly and indirectly, Russia’s ongoing “special military operation” in Ukraine (launched by the Kremlin on February 24) triggers anxieties across the border in Belarus. Thus, on March 30, the authorities apprehended a group of perpetrators of the so-called rail-track war (see EDM, April 6),... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Transnistria-1-640x427.jpg)
Russia Involving Transnistria in Ukrainian War, Raising Stakes for All Parties
Transnistria, the breakaway Slavic-majority region in Moldova, usually attracts attention only when Moscow seeks to use to limit Moldovan moves toward unification with Romania or membership in European institutions. At times, analysts also point to it as an illustrative model for Russian expansion or Moscow’s... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/gazprom-plant-640x427.jpg)
The Economic Aspect of Russia’s War in Ukraine: Sanctions, Implications, Complications (Part One)
Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, which commenced on February 24 (Kremlin.ru, February 24), pushed the world’s largest advanced economies to introduce several rounds of increasing economic sanctions against the Russian Federation (Meduza, March 8). While the initial impact of those punitive measures seemed... MORE