The hangover

Three months after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny, in which the former Putin ally marched towards Moscow with thousands of his brutal, ramshackle troops, the mercenary leader lies cold in his grave but Putin’s grip on power has also been severely shaken.

Taking back the Black Sea

Ukraine has targeted Russia’s assets in the Black Sea and Crimea in recent months, including warships, bases, air defence systems and the Kerch bridge which connects Crimea to mainland Russia. Stepping up this pressure with new weapons will help bring Russia to its knees.

Stand with Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has addressed the United Nations General Assembly in person for the first time since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of his country in February 2022. Here is his speech in full, calling for the world to stand up to Russia’s unprovoked criminal aggression.

Homelands – A personal history of Europe

Europe made great progress towards becoming a “whole and free” continent during the 35 years after the collapse of Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers another inflection point. In his new book, Timothy Garten Ash argues that a Ukraine victory would offer the opportunity to renew efforts to create a “whole and free” Europe.

Strike back!

The West has been reluctant to give Ukraine long range weapons to strike back against the Russian invaders lest the conflict spread, but giving Ukraine longer range missiles would do much to turn the tide of the war against the aggressors.

Why New Zealand must help Ukraine

ASEAN countries have hesitated to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or help Ukraine defeat the aggressors, but it’s in the interest of every state – not least New Zealand – to support the international order, defeat Russia and deter China from similar imperialist adventurism.

Ukraine’s future lies in NATO

Although Vladimir Putin strives to reabsorb Ukraine into a resurgent Russian empire, Ukraine’s future lies in being another strong democracy in a united and resolute NATO.

Ukraine’s cardboard airforce

Australia has refused to send surplus F18 fighters to help Ukraine, but it has supplied low-cost cardboard drones to successfully attack enemy targets in Russia.

F16s give Ukraine a fighting chance

After months of diplomatic pressure, European governments have finally persuaded the US government to let them supply badly needed F-16 aircraft to the Ukrainian air force, with 40 jets on their way to drive the Russian air force back behind its borders.

How Ukraine won the social media war

Russia’s well funded propagandist bots and troll farms proved as ineffective as its lumpen armed forces in the social media war for Western hearts and minds in vital first weeks of Putin’s failed invasion.

Revenge of the Tartars

A resistance group of Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group native to the occupied peninsula who suffered terribly under the Russian Empire and Soviet rule, are now a prominent player in Ukraine’s struggle against the Russian invaders.

What now for the Wagner gang?

The Wagner mercenary group overplayed its hand in Ukraine but Prigozhin may now concentrate on continuing to disrupt the security of at-risk states, bringing a new plague of chaos to the world.