Latest news with #Kremlin-aligned
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Return to the dark days': Protests take aim at Zelensky for first time in the war
The crowd grew on Tuesday evening as the sun set on a hill just above Maidan Nezalezhnosti, a central square in Kyiv where more than a decade ago crowds gathered to protest the corruption of the Kremlin-aligned president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych, leading to his ouster. 'It is a very sad moment because for me it means we are going back in time when we had this same discussion,' said Mustafa Nayyem, a former member of parliament who took part in the earlier protests. 'It is very sad and very dangerous.' Amelina said her husband had called her from the front, upset by news of the parliamentary vote, and told her that many other soldiers were also unhappy. Activists and analysts see the legislation as part of a broader crackdown on independent news media, voices critical of the government and government oversight groups, both public and private, threatening hard-won progress towards democracy. One of Ukraine's most prominent anti-corruption activists, and a frequent critic of the Zelensky administration, Vitaliy Shabunin, was accused in a court proceeding last week of evading military service and fraud. He has denied the accusation, which his many domestic and international defenders call baseless, even farcical. If convicted, he could face a decade in prison. There was a widespread view in Ukraine that Zelensky and his administration had grown cloistered, losing touch with the people. 'It's impossible to tolerate what's been happening these past weeks and months – the attacks on civic activists, the attacks on the anti-corruption system,' said Iryna Nemyrovych, 36, the director of the Ukrainian Health Centre, an independent research group. 'We've seen all of this before.' Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a veteran of the Russo-Ukrainian war, was one of many influential figures calling for protests. 'Time is not on our side,' he said in a message shared widely online. 'We must take to the streets tonight and urge Zelensky to prevent a return to the dark days of Yanukovych. See you this evening!' The demonstrators were largely young and peaceful, and there was little police presence, with only few security personnel at the barricades outside the presidential complex of offices. There were also protests in Lviv and other cities as public anger swelled and word spread of the gatherings. One demonstrator in Kyiv, Sashko Adamliuk, 25, said Ukraine was fighting for more than land. 'Our democracy is under attack,' he said. Like many of those gathered, he feared the government was systematically stifling dissent. Oleksandr Teren, 29, a veteran who lost both his legs in combat, said the actions of the government were an affront to all those who had sacrificed so much in the war.
The Age
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
‘Return to the dark days': Protests take aim at Zelensky for first time in the war
The crowd grew on Tuesday evening as the sun set on a hill just above Maidan Nezalezhnosti, a central square in Kyiv where more than a decade ago crowds gathered to protest the corruption of the Kremlin-aligned president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych, leading to his ouster. 'It is a very sad moment because for me it means we are going back in time when we had this same discussion,' said Mustafa Nayyem, a former member of parliament who took part in the earlier protests. 'It is very sad and very dangerous.' Amelina said her husband had called her from the front, upset by news of the parliamentary vote, and told her that many other soldiers were also unhappy. Activists and analysts see the legislation as part of a broader crackdown on independent news media, voices critical of the government and government oversight groups, both public and private, threatening hard-won progress towards democracy. One of Ukraine's most prominent anti-corruption activists, and a frequent critic of the Zelensky administration, Vitaliy Shabunin, was accused in a court proceeding last week of evading military service and fraud. He has denied the accusation, which his many domestic and international defenders call baseless, even farcical. If convicted, he could face a decade in prison. There was a widespread view in Ukraine that Zelensky and his administration had grown cloistered, losing touch with the people. 'It's impossible to tolerate what's been happening these past weeks and months – the attacks on civic activists, the attacks on the anti-corruption system,' said Iryna Nemyrovych, 36, the director of the Ukrainian Health Centre, an independent research group. 'We've seen all of this before.' Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a veteran of the Russo-Ukrainian war, was one of many influential figures calling for protests. 'Time is not on our side,' he said in a message shared widely online. 'We must take to the streets tonight and urge Zelensky to prevent a return to the dark days of Yanukovych. See you this evening!' The demonstrators were largely young and peaceful, and there was little police presence, with only few security personnel at the barricades outside the presidential complex of offices. There were also protests in Lviv and other cities as public anger swelled and word spread of the gatherings. One demonstrator in Kyiv, Sashko Adamliuk, 25, said Ukraine was fighting for more than land. 'Our democracy is under attack,' he said. Like many of those gathered, he feared the government was systematically stifling dissent. Oleksandr Teren, 29, a veteran who lost both his legs in combat, said the actions of the government were an affront to all those who had sacrificed so much in the war.
American Military News
3 days ago
- Politics
- American Military News
Will Trump's 50-Day Deadline Shift Putin? Doubtful, Analysts Say
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. US President Donald Trump handed the Kremlin a clear warning this week, announcing plans for weapons supplies to Kyiv via Europe and saying the United States will impose 'very severe tariffs' on Russia if it doesn't reach a deal on the war in Ukraine within 50 days. Trump did not specify whether a cease-fire would suffice, or only a comprehensive peace deal. Either way, many analysts say it's unlikely to happen. Here's why. Territorial Aims Russian President Vladimir Putin's goals clearly go far beyond the conquest of part of Ukraine: He has made plain that he wants to subjugate the country and weaken NATO and the West, restoring a measure of Moscow's Soviet-era sway over swaths of Europe. But a more immediate aim is all about territory. Russia occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine. In addition to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has controlled since 2014, Putin formally and falsely claims that the Ukrainian mainland regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson are now Russian — including the substantial portions that Russia does not occupy. Russia has said a full Ukrainian withdrawal from those four regions is a prerequisite of any peace deal — a demand that Kyiv says is unacceptable. And while analysts say Putin could weather any backlash at home if he agreed to a pact that would limit Russia's presence to the land it now holds, he has given zero indication that he might do that. On the contrary, Russia has stuck to this demand in its rhetoric. On the ground, it has sought to make its claim a reality, pressing forward in the Donetsk region in particular and bearing down on the ruined city of Pokrovsk. In one of the first Russian reactions to Trump's remarks, Kremlin-aligned lawmaker Konstantin Kosachyov said on Telegram that 'oh so much can change on the battlefield in 50 days.' Russia could seek to step up its offensive in the coming weeks, pushing to advance not just in the provinces it claims but also elsewhere, such as in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions north of Donetsk. In June, Putin issued a thinly veiled threat to try to capture the city of Sumy. Still, there actually is a limit to what can change in six weeks on the battlefield, where incremental Russian gains have come at a massive cost in terms of casualties, which are estimated to be close to 1 million killed or wounded since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. But while there is no way Russia can seize the remaining parts of the four regions by September — areas that include the capitals of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson — that may only sharpen Putin's desire to secure control over them on paper ahead of any deal. 'To me, it's clear that Putin does not want any cease-fire, at least not until he gains control over all the regions that are defined as Russian in his version of the constitution,' Dmitry Gudkov, a former opposition lawmaker in the Russian parliament, told Current Time on July 16. 'In essence, it would mean Ukraine's capitulation.' 'Ultimatums Are Unacceptable' Trump has sought to broker an end to the war in Ukraine since he took office six months ago, following an election campaign in which he said he could get it done in a day or two. Facing pushback from Putin, most notably in the form of his carefully worded rejection of the US call for a 30-day cease-fire, Trump has had harsh words for Putin in recent weeks. But the 50-day warning was the first time Trump has given the Kremlin an ultimatum — a form of pressure that Putin, who has made demands that other countries treat Russia as an equal a formal part of his foreign policy, does not seem to like. So while many in the West have been eager for Trump to make specific demands on Putin, it's not clear whether an ultimatum increases or decreases the chances of a deal. Putin has not spoken publicly about Trump's remarks, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said nothing specific about them. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees Moscow's ties with the US, said on July 15 that 'any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us.' 'If we cannot achieve our goals through diplomacy, then the [war against Ukraine] will continue,' Ryabkov said, delivering the closest thing so far to an official rejection of Trump's call for a deal within 50 days — by September 1 or 2, depending on how it's counted. 'This is an unshakable position.' The Blame Game The Kremlin may hope that Trump's turn against Putin in recent weeks is not so unshakable — and that if there's no deal come September, the pendulum will swing back and the US president will lay at least part of the blame on Kyiv. One prominent view in Russia is that Trump's current focus is 'transient' and the increased support for Ukraine is 'a maneuver designed to increase pressure on Putin and test whether this approach yields results,' Tatyana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote on X. Those who hold this view believe that when 'it becomes evident that such pressure is ineffective — expected to be soon — Trump is likely to revert to a diplomatic course, including exerting pressure on Ukraine to reach a compromise,' Stanovaya wrote ahead of Trump's remarks. Trump has put much of the blame on Ukraine at times in the past. And an aspect of his July 14 remarks that flew mostly under the radar was that he stressed that he hopes the push for a deal within 50 days will 'have an impact on Ukraine also.' 'We want to make sure that Ukraine does what they have to do,' Trump said. 'All of a sudden, they may feel emboldened and maybe they don't want [a deal] — this is a very difficult situation.' 'Not Ready For Prime Time' In any case, though, there are at least two reasons why the threat of sanctions seems unlikely to push Putin much closer to a deal with Ukraine to halt or end the war at this point. One is that it is unclear how the measures Trump threatened — chiefly, tariffs or sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil — would work. Trump's July 14 announcement was 'laudable in its intention to hit Russia on the economic side' but 'not ready for prime time in its details,' Daniel Fried, a fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank and an architect of US sanctions against Russia after it seized Crimea in 2014, said on the podcast Just Security. It's also unclear how well they would work if they are put in place, so the Kremlin could be inclined to take its chances. 'China and India are the top two recipients of Russian energy exports, and the expectation that they will pressure Putin to end his war in the next 50 days seems naïve,' Michael McFaul, a political science professor at Stanford University and the US ambassador to Russia in 2012-14, wrote in Time Magazine. The other reason is that Russia has weathered Western sanctions so far and the Kremlin has made that a point of pride, slotting it into the overarching narrative that Russia — in fact the aggressor in an unprovoked war — is fighting a defensive campaign in a major showdown with West — and winning. Against that backdrop, appearing to bend in the face of the tariff threat is something Putin would be loath to do unless absolutely necessary. 'Two Big Contingencies' The same may go for the stepped-up weapons shipments that Trump has promised Ukraine, with NATO allies footing the bill by purchasing Patriot air-defense missile systems and other arms from the United States or sending Kyiv weapons they have already received. Fried, the former sanctions architect, said that if Trump's announcements on weapons for Ukraine and economic pressure on Russia are 'crystallized, sharpened, and implemented,' it could make a big difference in terms of the war and the path to peace. 'Two big contingencies: Get the weapons flowing and keep them flowing; and crystallize our policy options for hitting the Russian economy. You do both and Ukraine's in a very different position,' he said. 'If Putin's assumptions or his hopes for a US failure of leadership and abandonment of Ukraine prove to be false, then he may have to settle.' Other analysts suggest that's not about to happen anytime soon, if at all. 'I think…we're going to need to see the United States showing a lot more muscle if it really is going to be able to bring Putin to the table in any kind of meaningful way,' Russia expert Mark Galeotti said on the This Is Not A Drill podcast. The prevailing view in Russia is that 'none of these developments will alter Putin's strategy of coercing Kyiv into capitulation by any available means,' Stanovaya wrote. 'Putin will not be beaten out of his war optimism easily, and he believes [Trump] has few cards,' Alexander Gabuev, director of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, wrote on X on July 14. As far back as winter 'it was clear that Vladimir Putin is convinced [of] one thing: time is on his side,' Gabuev wrote. 'This is why he isn't interested in a deal [that's] not on his terms.'
American Military News
17-06-2025
- Politics
- American Military News
Pro-Kremlin Media Hail Los Angeles Unrest As ‘Civil War'
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. Kremlin-friendly pundits and programs have been savoring every shot of protesters in Los Angeles this week, some proclaiming that the United States must be in midst of a new 'civil war.' Prominent state-run Rossia-1 TV host Vladimir Solovyov put it bluntly: 'I'm enjoying what I see.' He was not alone. 'Congratulations on the beginning of a civil war in the United States of America,' pro-Kremlin TV personality Sergei Mardan said. 'Unfortunately, I'm joking,' he added mirthlessly. Andrey Cherkasov of RFE/RL's Current Time surveyed the Kremlin-friendly media landscape over the past few days and found it rife with pronouncements of widespread pandemonium in the United States. 'In reality, the unrest in Los Angeles is limited to a small area,' Cherkasov said, 'but the propagandists describe it as a nationwide catastrophe.' The key scenes and images appearing so far are generally those of street demonstrations in the Los Angeles area, which were sparked by recent high-profile arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants by agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Locals have demanded an end to ICE raids and enforcement actions there, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. ICE said it arrested over 40 suspected undocumented migrants at a work site and another 77 people were reportedly arrested by ICE and federal partners across the greater L.A. area on June 6, which appeared to be the focus of the protests. 'This is a city of immigrants,' Bass said. 'This is a city that wants to help you get your legal status. This is a city that embraces everybody that is here, regardless of when you got here or where you came from.' Kremlin-friendly journalists have been airing a far more alarmist viewpoint — but at times are also gleeful. 'I can't help gloating over it all, I admit,' Mardan said on-air on Rossia-1. 'The worse it is for the United States, the better it is for us.' As Cherkasov pointed out, 'Cheering over unrest in the United States is standard fare for the Kremlin and Kremlin-friendly media.' The rhetoric is well-practiced and hardly new, he added. 'These outlets have, after all, come up with surveys that purportedly show America as their country's main adversary for the last 20 years.' Much of the pro-Putin coverage that depicts the Los Angeles area as 'apocalyptic,' Cherkasov said. But he noted that some broadcasters in the United States have been using similar language, at least some of the time. Viewers of CBS's Face the Nation heard reports with a voiceover that said: 'Chaos erupted in the Los Angeles area over the weekend following increased activity across the country by ICE.' But the Kremlin-aligned outlets have shown a passion for the most tabloid elements, Cherkasov said. 'Russian presenters are savoring every detail: flying rocks, smoke, and rubber bullets. Three he cited were succinct: 'Chaos in Los Angeles,' proclaimed Russia-1 TV, 'Fighting, violence, and provocations,' said a TVC host, and 'The tension is rising,' announced another Russia-1 TV presenter. Another usual angle in the Putin-approved media, Cherkasov said, was the invocation of Ukraine's Euromaidan protest movement, sparked a decade ago when pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych blocked progress toward EU membership. 'Just remember the Kyiv Maidan in 2014: It was a war zone,' said a commentator on Russia's Vesti FM. Suggesting deliberate conspiracies behind the Los Angeles demonstrations is also standard pro-Kremlin fare, said Cherkasov. 'The Kremlin has always tried to suggest there's foreign backing behind any civil protest.' So-called color revolutions are also said to be the work of US agents, he said, such as Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution and Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution. As if on cue, a presenter on Russia's Channel 5 summed up the L.A. protests this way: 'All the elements of a color revolution are there.' Another, a guest on Solovyov's program, Solovyov Live, proclaimed, 'This did not happen spontaneously.' According to Western sources, since June 6, nearly 400 people have been arrested in Los Angeles, including 330 undocumented migrants and 157 people charged with assault and obstruction — including one charged with attempted murder of a police officer.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Putin calls for major upgrade to Russia's Ground Forces
Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has directed his military command to substantially enhance the combat capabilities of Russia's ground forces. Source: Putin's statement at a meeting on the state armaments programme, as reported by Kremlin-aligned Russian Telegram channel Smotri Quote: "The ground forces remain the dominant force in conducting modern military operations of any scale and intensity. It is crucial to enhance their combat capabilities as quickly as possible, to establish a solid foundation for development and to ensure the creation of advanced weapons systems with the highest tactical and technical specifications and modernisation potential." Details: Alongside this, Putin instructed the development of the Russian navy. Background: Putin previously claimed that 95% of Russia's nuclear triad consists of modern weapons, asserting this as the highest figure globally. He directed officials to prioritise nuclear weapons as a cornerstone of Russia's sovereignty in the new state armaments programme, set for 2027–2036. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
