Ukraine News

MARIUPOL, Ukraine—In 1995, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman coined the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention, also known as “McPeace.” The idea was that countries stable enough economically and politically to court a McDonald’s franchise share too many democratic values to go to war with one another. “People in McDonald's countries,” Friedman wrote, "don't…

KYIV, Ukraine—For those who might have thought the Ukraine conflict was finally fading from the headlines, this week should serve as sufficient evidence to the contrary. Renewed fighting has left the Feb. 12 cease-fire, as well as towns in eastern Ukraine, shattered, and edged the conflict closer to a full-on war between Ukraine and Russia….

KYIV, Ukraine—In the predawn hours Wednesday, pro-Russian separatist tanks and artillery bombarded Ukrainian troops in the eastern town of Marinka, spurring Ukrainian military officials and media to speculate whether a major separatist offensive, anticipated for months, had begun. “There were many casualties. Krasnohorivka and Marinka are on fire," Ukrainian Member of Parliament and Kyiv-1 Battalion…

KYIV, Ukraine—Despite Moscow’s warming rhetoric in recent weeks, the Ukraine conflict is showing little evidence of cooling off this summer. On Sunday, three Ukrainian soldiers were killed in combat in eastern Ukraine, at least seven more were wounded, and another two were taken prisoner, according to the Ukrainian military. These casualty figures are not exceptional,…

KYIV, Ukraine—Prisoner abuse, including torture and summary execution, is a daily occurrence on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, reflecting a brutal, ongoing conflict in which both sides are accused of human rights violations and war crimes, according to an Amnesty International report released this week. The 36-page report, titled, “Breaking Bodies: Torture and Summary Killings…

KYIV, Ukraine—The top U.S. Army commander in Europe praised the Ukrainian military Tuesday for how it handled the capture of two Russian special forces soldiers during a battle on Ukrainian territory over the weekend. "I was impressed and want to congratulate Ukrainian armed forces with how they handled the capture of the two Russian solders,”…

YAVORIV, Ukraine—The sounds of gunfire and explosions are constant on the firing range at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center outside this western Ukrainian town. At one spot, behind an earthen bunker, U.S. Army paratroopers are qualifying Ukrainian National Guard soldiers in Soviet-era shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Further down the line, Ukrainian soldiers shoot at…

YAVORIV, Ukraine—At a former Soviet military base outside of the western Ukrainian town of Lviv, about 300 U.S. Army paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is based in Vicenza, Italy, are training the Ukrainian National Guard. The six-month U.S. training exercise, called Fearless Guardian, officially began on April 20. The training is focused both…

LVIV, Ukraine—On Friday, a hush fell over the dozen or so customers in a coffee shop in this western Ukrainian city as President Petro Poroshenko appeared on television to give a speech commemorating the 70th anniversary of World War II. "On May 8, for the first time, the people of Ukraine will join the European…

CHERKAS’KE, Ukraine—It takes about 10 minutes to drive to the highway from the Ukrainian army base in this small town. From there it is 130 miles, about a three-hour drive over Ukraine’s pothole speckled roads, to the front lines in the Donbas. The war is close, both in distance and in the futures of the…

SHYROKYNE, Ukraine—For months, pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces have battled for the beachside town of Shyrokyne, which is about eight miles east of Mariupol. The fighting has been intense. Most of the town has been left in ruins. Nearly every vertical surface is pockmarked by shrapnel, and almost every window is broken. Artillery craters dot…

DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine—Outside this city at a Ukrainian army facility called the Polygon, which is typically used for tank training, about 200 civilian volunteers gathered this past weekend for a military exercise. Many had no military experience; some had never held a weapon. But many decided to train for war due to widespread worries about an…

ODESSA, Ukraine—Outside of the city administration building here on April 16, three older men who said they were from the local Communist party unfurled a red hammer and sickle flag to protest a national law banning symbols of the Soviet Union. Nearby, police and local militia units were standing in a defensive ring around city…

KYIV, Ukraine—At its training camp on the outskirts of Kyiv this past weekend, the Ukrainian National Guard Azov Regiment held its Spartan Test—a grueling three-hour rite of passage meant to test the mental and physical strength of both new recruits and battle-hardened veterans. The ordeal is the capstone to a two-week-long whirlwind military training program,…

KHARKIV, Ukraine—As fighting continues to escalate in east Ukraine, a pro-Russian separatist group calling itself the “Kharkiv Partisans” declared Tuesday that it would execute five Ukrainian civilians for every Communist monument destroyed, underscoring worries that a recent law banning Soviet symbols might escalate tensions in the war-torn country. The threat followed a Monday meeting in…

MARIUPOL, Ukraine—In "All Quiet on the Western Front," Erich Maria Remarque wrote: “A hospital alone shows what war is.” The hospital here is no exception. The faces of soldiers, both young and old, recovering from wounds and sickness incurred on the front lines — located only eight miles away from here — speak to the…

KYIV, Ukraine—The Ukrainian parliament approved a law Thursday renaming the Great Patriotic War as the Second World War, underscoring a sweeping move by the post-revolutionary government here to ditch its Soviet past. Also on Thursday, Ukrainian lawmakers passed a law banning the promotion of symbols of “Communist and National Socialist totalitarian regimes,” as well as…

KYIV, Ukraine—Pro-Russian separatists have been put on “full alert” for a major offensive that Ukrainian and U.S. military officials anticipate will happen in the next two months, a Ukrainian military spokesman said here Wednesday. Ukrainian military officials and front-line troops say the attack will begin sometime from Orthodox Easter on April 12 to May 9,…

MARIUPOL, Ukraine—Even while speaking through a translator, Andrey is a man of few words. When asked why he defected from Russia to join a Ukrainian National Guard regiment, the 22-year-old Muscovite simply replied: “Common sense.” After an assurance that his face would not be photographed or his last name used, Andrey opened up, explaining in…

MARIUPOL, Ukraine—Like manmade thunder, the artillery concussions cut through the light drizzle on the grey, overcast day. Standing in the unpaved parking lot of the Ukrainian National Guard Azov Regiment camp, Ivan Kharkiv, a 20-year-old soldier who has been with the unit since May 2014, smiled and pointed in the direction of the shelling. “You…