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In eastern Ukraine, trench warfare grinds on against backdrop of invasion fears

In his raspy smoker’s voice, the middle-age Ukrainian soldier urged a visitor to hurry through a stretch of muddy trench that traversed an open clearing. Gesturing eastward, he warned of snipers lurking only a few hundred yards away. “We must run until we reach cover,” he said. On the front …

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Is Putin Following In Steps Of Peter The Great? – Analysis

Three hundred and forty kilometers east of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, lies the city of Poltava. At its heart is a semi-circular square with a cast-iron column and nearly two dozen eighteenth-century Swedish cannons captured in the 1709 Battle of Poltava, a decisive encounter in the Great Northern War, waged …

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Hypocritical Scolding Won’t Stop Russian War On Ukraine

As Moscow signals its apparent readiness for war over Ukraine, the U.S. government seems determined to ignore Russia’s not-so-ridiculous concerns over the military alliances of neighboring states and the prospect of nuclear weapons on its borders. Should Americans worry about our country inserting itself into another war? Ukraine is far …

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Kazakhstan: Dying In The Darkness

When Aidana Zhanadilova and her friends arrived at Republic Square on January 6, Almaty was enveloped in a meteorological and communications fog. The day before, after a crowd of several thousand people overpowered security forces and broke into Almaty’s city hall, the government flicked the switch on the internet. What …

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Why Is Europe So Obsessed With Pacific Tax Regimes?

Among the 9 jurisdictions singled out by the European Union for their “abusive tax practices”, no less than 6 are small, Pacific island nations with underdeveloped economies. As unlikely as it seems, Brussels’ obsession with the region looks like it has less to do with the noble fight against tax …

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US threatens use of novel export control to damage Russia’s strategic industries if Moscow invades Ukraine

The Biden administration is threatening to use a novel export control to damage strategic Russian industries, from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to civilian aerospace, if Moscow invades Ukraine, administration officials say. The administration may also decide to apply the control more broadly in a way that would potentially deprive …

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EU agency seeks clearer rules on balancing borders, rights

The European Union needs clearer rules on balancing respect for human rights with the need for border protection, the chief of the EU’s Frontex border and coastguard agency said on Friday. Frontex is under growing scrutiny over allegations it violated the human rights of certain people seeking asylum while forcefully …

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What are US military options to help Ukraine?

President Joe Biden is not planning to answer a further Russian invasion of Ukraine by sending combat troops. But he could pursue a range of less dramatic yet still risky military options, including supporting a post-invasion Ukrainian resistance. The rationale for not directly joining a Russia-Ukraine war is simple. The …

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NATO should shut the door, but not because Russia said so

After three successive rounds of discussions between the United States, Europe and Russia, the sides are as far apart on the ongoing Ukraine dispute as when the talks began. Moscow remains adamant that under no circumstances can Ukraine, a neighbor and former Soviet republic, join NATO (among other demands). The …

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Satellite images show more Russian troops, equipment near Ukraine

New satellite images released Wednesday show additional Russian troops and equipment near the country’s border with Ukraine. The images, released by satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies, show equipment and troops as close as eight miles to Ukraine in Klimovo and about 18 miles from the border in Klintsy. Maxar says …

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