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
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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Andrew Kerr -
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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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Chuck Ross -
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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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Nolan Peterson -
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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…Shelby Talcott -
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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…Chuck Ross -
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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…Chuck Ross -
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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…Shelby Talcott -
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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…Chris White -
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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…Daniel Davis -
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Lawyer Disputes CBS Report That Whistleblower in Ukraine Matter Under Federal Protection
A lawyer for the whistleblower who filed a complaint regarding President Donald Trump disputed a report Sunday on CBS’ "60 Minutes" saying that his client is under federal protection. A whistleblower complaint filed in August accused Trump of pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to look into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, during…Shelby Talcott -
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How Ukraine Uses US Military Aid
KYIV, Ukraine—Since April 2014, Ukraine has been locked in a land war in its eastern Donbas region against a combined force of Russian regulars, pro-Russian separatists, and foreign mercenaries. During that time, Russia has used Ukraine as a testing ground for its modern warfare doctrines and technologies—in terms of both conventional and so-called hybrid military…Nolan Peterson