Battle fatigue

The “CNN effect” emerged in the 1990s to describe how real-time media coverage could shape foreign policy as graphic reporting increased public pressure on western governments to intervene. However, the decline of mainstream media seems to have dimmed its affect as wars around the world – including Russia’s brutalisation of Ukraine – continue without much pressure to stop them.

Living on the front line

Despite half-hearted support from the West, Ukraine did not crumble in the face of Russia’s brutal aggression, and its agile defence strategies offer important lessons to other countries facing security threats.

Four years of folly

President Vladimir Putin’s war of choice against Ukraine has failed to achieve any of the strategic objectives he laid out when he began this disastrous folly. Yet he is compelled to persist in his vainglorious pursuit of an unrecoverable imperial Russian past for the sake of his own political survival.

Shadows of 1795

Proposals for a Ukraine peace deal that reward Russian aggression and do nothing to protect it from further attacks smack of deals and treaties in previous eras which did nothing to prevent further conflagrations.

Wake up, Europe!

Europe should wake up to the threat posed by Russia by uniting in defence of Ukraine and facing down the school bully of Vladimir Putin, rather than use the vacillations of Donald Trump as an excuse for continued apathy.

Ukraine’s harshest winter

Donald Trump’s ‘peace plan’ would reward Russian aggression and emasculate and isolate Ukraine, allowing another Russian attack to absorb the country with little resistance in the future.

Brains v brutality

The brute force nature of Russia’s assault and the West’s refusal to supply the number and quality of weapons required to defeat Putin’s forces has forced Ukraine to improvise a range of innovative ways to protect itself and strike back.

Putin does not want peace

Despite the recent peace talks, Putin continues to attack Ukraine and murder its citizens in their homes and will not stop the war until he has achieved his goal of imperial expansion.

Peace in our time?

“Peace in our time” said Neville Chamberlain on his return from Germany in late September 1938 after signing the Munich Agreement that effectively handed Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. The circumstances of this “deal” are uncannily like those that Ukraine confronts today.

Ukraine strikes back by looking forward

Ukraine’s stunning success in destroying dozens of Russian bombers on the ground with cheap drones exemplifies the way in which it has fought off Russia’s traditional human wave tactics with intelligence and creativity.

Ukraine’s nuclear regret

Ukraine bargained away its nuclear weapons in the 1990s in returns for security guarantees from Russia and the West which both sides have broken, leaving Ukraine at the mercy of Vladimir Putin.

Fighting online for Ukraine

Despite the apathy of the major platforms and an American President in the pocket of Vladimir Putin, an army of online bloggers are combating Russian’s propaganda war to support Ukraine.