Ukraine News
The Daily Signal provides reporting and analysis on the conflict in Ukraine, American military assistance, and the geopolitical consequences for Europe and beyond.
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news
‘We’re Not Closing Our Eyes’: Senate Panel Seeks Documents in Biden-Ukraine Investigation
A Senate committee is poised to issue a subpoena for documents as part of an investigation of the Ukrainian dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. The subpoena by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee almost certainly will move forward, as a spokeswoman for Sen. Mitt Romney said… -
news
The War in Ukraine Was Supposed to End 5 Years Ago. But It Didn’t.
KYIV, Ukraine—Saturday marked the fifth anniversary of the day the war in Ukraine was supposed to end. But it never did. On early Tuesday fighting flared in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region when Russian-backed forces assaulted Ukrainian troops as they occupied an observation post near the front-line town of Zolote. Under intense shelling, Ukrainian forces were… -
news
Ukrainians Mark a Bittersweet Beginning to 2020
KYIV, Ukraine—The holidays are over and the winter doldrums have begun. For Ukrainians, the New Year has gotten off to a particularly bittersweet start, alternating between moments of monumental hope and tragedy. The year began on an optimistic note. The closing days of 2019 saw a landmark prisoner exchange between Ukrainian and Russian forces, marking… -
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Ukrainians React to Iran’s Admission of Guilt in Shooting Down Airliner
KYIV, Ukraine—Ukrainians of all generations know what it’s like to have a war in their homeland. In World War II, Ukraine was the deadliest battlefield of the deadliest war in human history. And today, just 400 miles southeast of Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers remain hunkered down in trenches and improvised forts, facing… -
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Trump Administration Illegally Withheld Aid From Ukraine, GAO Finds
The Trump administration violated the law by withholding $214 million in security assistance to Ukraine in the summer of 2019, according to a legal opinion by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. “Today, GAO issued a legal decision concluding that the Office of Management and Budget violated the law when it withheld approximately $214 million appropriated… -
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Iran Admits to Shooting Down Ukrainian Airliner
KYIV, Ukraine—U.S. officials say Iran likely shot down a Ukrainian airliner by accident Wednesday morning, just hours after the Islamist regime launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops. >>> Update: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani admitted Saturday morning local time that Iranian forces unintentionally shot down the airliner. “The Islamic Republic… -
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Questions Mount as Ukrainian Airliner Crashes in Iran, Killing All Onboard, Hours After Missile Attack
KYIV, Ukraine—A Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed Wednesday morning only minutes after takeoff from Tehran and only hours after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at U.S. forces based in neighboring Iraq. Data from Flightradar24, a website that tracks aircraft, indicates the Ukrainian airliner crashed roughly two minutes after taking off from Imam Khomeini… -
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Why Ukrainians Are Skeptical About Peace With Russia in 2020
KYIV, Ukraine—This is Ukraine’s sixth consecutive New Year at war. In the frigid steppes of the country’s southeastern Donbas region, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops remain engaged in a defensive, limited conflict against a Russian invasion force. Europe’s only ongoing land war has so far killed more than 13,000 people and casualties still occur… -
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What My Ukrainian In-Laws Taught Me About Freedom and Rock ’n’ Roll
KYIV, Ukraine—When the guitarist for Deep Purple hit those epic opening notes of “Smoke on the Water,” my 54-year-old Ukrainian father-in-law grabbed me by the shoulder with one hand, pumped his other in a fist, and yelled a drawn out “da!” No translation needed. The crowd in the Kyiv sports hall was going wild. The… -
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Rep. Devin Nunes Sues CNN, Denies Meeting Ex-Ukrainian Prosecutor
Republican California Rep. Devin Nunes is adamantly denying that he traveled to Vienna last year and met with a former Ukrainian prosecutor to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, as CNN alleged in a story published last month. “CNN is the mother of fake news,” Nunes said in a defamation lawsuit against the network filed Tuesday in… -
opinion
Setting the Record Straight on the Value of US Military Aid to Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine—U.S. military aid is a luxury, not a necessity, for Ukrainian combat operations to counter Russian aggression. From what I’ve seen, the country is perfectly capable of fighting its own war—with or without the American military aid. However, recent news reports and social media commentaries highlight the fact that Ukraine’s armed forces suffered at… -
opinion
China Poised to Benefit If Ukraine’s Western Relationships Fray
KYIV, Ukraine—As Ukraine reels from a series of recent setbacks in its relationships with the U.S. and the European Union, China ultimately stands to gain. China has been steadily increasing its economic clout in Ukraine through a broad gamut of infrastructure investments and other economic initiatives. This year, China overtook Russia as Ukraine’s top trading… -
opinion
Ukraine Is Now Europe’s Bulwark Against Russian Aggression
KYIV, Ukraine—Thousands of Ukrainians marched through central Kyiv last week to celebrate the Day of the Defender, a holiday meant to honor the country’s veterans and active-duty soldiers. The date, Oct. 14, also coincides with the anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a paramilitary fighting force that fought against both Nazi Germany… -
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Ukrainians Protest Leader’s Olive Branch to Russia
KYIV, Ukraine—Protesters flocked to Kyiv’s central square, the Maidan, by the thousands Sunday to oppose Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s gambit to make a major concession to Russia for the sake of restarting peace talks to end the war in the nation’s eastern Donbas region. Along an entrenched front line in the Donbas, after five and… -
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Sen. Lindsey Graham Invites Rudy Giuliani to Testify on Ukraine Concerns
The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham, has invited Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, to testify before his committee amid House Democrats’ move to launch an impeachment inquiry into the president. Giuliani has been vocal about stories of corruption in Ukraine, sounding off on allegations that former Vice President Joe Biden influenced Ukraine's… -
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‘Plausible’ Ukrainians Meddled in 2016, Former Envoy Testifies, but He Doubts Biden Allegations
Kurt Volker, the former envoy to Ukraine, told Congress that he believed it was “plausible” that individual Ukrainians had meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, bolstering one of the concerns that President Donald Trump and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have floated publicly about Ukraine. But Volker poured cold water on another theory promoted by Trump… -
opinion
Here Are Texts Among US Diplomats on Trump, the Bidens, and Ukraine
U.S. ambassadors dangled a potential face-to-face meeting with President Donald Trump in an apparent effort to compel Ukraine’s president to investigate a Ukrainian gas company linked to Joe Biden’s son, according to text messages released Thursday night by House Democrats. Kurt Volker, the now-former special envoy to Ukraine, provided the messages to three House committees before a… -
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Secretary of State Confirms He Was on Trump Phone Call With Ukraine’s President
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed Wednesday that he was on the July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Pompeo spoke at a press conference in Rome after being subpoenaed to testify by Democratic chairmen of three House committees on Sept. 27. The House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump… -
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House Democrats Subpoena Giuliani for Ukraine Documents
Democratic lawmakers subpoenaed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday for documents related to their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. House Democrats’ inquiry “includes an investigation of credible allegations that [Giuliani] acted as an agent of the President in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of… -
opinion
How Ukraine Views the Whistleblower Feud in Washington
The whistleblower complaint over a phone call between President Donald Trump and the president of Ukraine has all but upended U.S. politics. But how does Ukraine feel about all this? Today, I’ll speak with our foreign correspondent Nolan Peterson, who is based in Ukraine. I’ll ask him what regular Ukrainians think about this controversy and…