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A woman cries at a memorial wall in Kyiv honoring Ukrainian soldiers killed in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. (REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko)

Russias spring 2021 saber-rattling on the Ukrainian border helped guarantee that Ukraine would be high on the international agenda during Junes G7, NATO, and US-Russia summit meetings. Fears of a major military escalation also served as a reminder that this unresolved European conflict remains at the heart of international affairs.

Ever since the onset of Russian aggression against Ukraine in early 2014, the undeclared war between the two countries has unfolded alongside an avalanche of deliberate disinformation. Most of this has come from Russian state media or the Kremlin itself, but an ideologically diverse range of Western sources have also echoed many of Moscows more outlandish claims.

One of the latest examples of this trend was a May 30 article by Cato Institute senior fellow Ted Galen Carpenter that appeared in The National Interest. This article is worthy of closer inspection as it repeats some of the most common myths and distortions used by the Kremlin to justify its war in Ukraine.

Carpenter employs a selection of half-truths, misinterpretations, and cherry-picked facts to paint a dark picture of rising authoritarianism and nationalism in todays Ukraine. His talking points would be instantly recognizable to Russian TV viewers, who have encountered similar disinformation on a virtually daily basis for the past seven years.

One can only guess at Carpenters motives. What is clear is that he is far from alone. Since 2014, commentators on both the left and right wings of Western discourse have joined in the chorus of doubters repeating Russian claims that are designed to poison opinion against Ukraine and take the shine off the countrys narrative of democratic transformation.

To be sure, todays Ukraine is not yet a model liberal democracy. In Freedom Houses latest global survey ranking countries according to civil and political rights, Ukraine received 60 points out of a possible 100, leaving it far behind paragons such as Norway, Finland, and Sweden.

However, within the specific historical context of the post-Soviet space, Ukraine is actually rather more democratic than one might expect. The country is clearly on a path towards greater democratization that diverges sharply from the contemporary political realities in what is an increasingly authoritarian region. Indeed, compared to Russia, which received just 20 points in the 2020 Freedom House ranking, or nearby Belarus with its 11 points, Ukraine is a relative beacon of democratic values.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraines politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

Modern Ukraine has succeeded in establishing a tradition of free and fair elections, which is the cornerstone of any democratic system. While the countrys fledgling democratic institutions remain imperfect and vulnerable to manipulation, in recent decades Ukrainian elections have become increasingly transparent and highly competitive, particularly since the watershed moment of 2004s Orange Revolution.

The current generation of Ukrainians now take it for granted that they will enjoy genuine choice at the ballot box and are confident their votes will not be canceled out by Kremlin-style election fraud. This open and competitive political culture was evident in the countrys 2019 presidential election campaign, which saw TV comic and political newcomer Volodymyr Zelenskyy win a landslide victory over the incumbent, Petro Poroshenko. The fact that an outsider could triumph so convincingly over a sitting president in a country at war illustrated the health and durability of Ukraines democratic culture.

Inevitably, some war-related restrictions on public discourse and political activities have been introduced by the Ukrainian government since 2014. Nevertheless, a range of pro-Russian and Euroskeptic parties continue to play an active part in Ukraines fledgling democracy, with officials representing these parties holding government positions in Kyiv and regions across the country.

Despite some significant shortcomings, Ukraines mass media landscape mirrors the countrys political pluralism and stands out in a region where centralized censorship remains the norm. With a handful of oligarchs owning most Ukrainian mainstream media outlets, editorial independence remains weak and often loses out to oligarchic interests. At the same time, Ukraine does not suffer from the kind of suffocating government control that characterizes the muzzled media environment in Russia and other post-Soviet states.

One of the most popular narratives favored by the Kremlin and critical Western commentators such as Carpenter is the idea of Ukraine as a hotbed of right-wing extremism. Such claims are rooted in Soviet-era propaganda which aimed to sully Ukraines national liberation movement by associating it solely with World War II Nazi collaboration.

In reality, Ukraines nationalist parties enjoy less support than similar political parties in a host of EU member states. Notably, in the two Ukrainian parliamentary elections held since the outbreak of hostilities with Russia in 2014, nationalist parties have failed miserably and fallen short of the five percent threshold to enter Ukrainian parliament.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the accusations leveled at Ukraine is the refusal to acknowledge the extenuating circumstances of the countrys seven-year war against Russia. While Ukraines many flaws are amplified and exaggerated, there is typically little recognition that since 2014, the country has been fighting for its survival as an independent state against one of the worlds foremost military powers.

Such omissions create a politically misleading and historically illiterate impression. Vladimir Putin chose to attack Ukraine in order to prevent the country from becoming a model for a future democratic transition inside Russia itself. The Russian dictator is haunted by the Soviet collapse and sees the emergence of a democratic and truly independent Ukraine as a potential catalyst for a wave of domestic anti-authoritarianism that could spell doom for his own regime.

This explains why Putin decided to use military force against Ukraine seven years ago. It also helps make sense of his continuing readiness to incur seemingly disproportionate international costs in order to keep Ukraine from stabilizing and advancing further along the road towards Euro-Atlantic integration.

Another aspect that critical commentators such as Carpenter tend to miss is the vital self-interest that the United States and other Western nations have in Ukraines territorial integrity and political sovereignty. If Russian military intervention enables the Kremlin to absorb Crimea and prevent Ukraines Euro-Atlantic integration, this will establish a destructive security precedent for countries across the world. Humanity will have taken a giant step backwards towards an international arena where powerful nations are able to dictate to their weaker neighbors.

After the break-up of the USSR, the newly independent Ukrainian state agreed to give up the worlds third-largest nuclear arsenal due to, among other factors, pressure from Washington. In the now infamous 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the US, UK, and Russia provided Kyiv with security assurances as part of Ukraines nuclear disarmament process.

While the American and British response to Russias 2014 invasion of Ukraine does not technically violate the terms of this agreement, Moscows disavowal of the guarantees it provided 20 years earlier threatens to fatally undermine the credibility of broader efforts towards nuclear non-proliferation.

If, as Carpenter advocates in his recent article, the US were to step back from its current support for Ukraine, this would send an alarming message to the wider world. It would once more appear that weaker countries cannot rely on international law, as the West is not willing to protect their sovereignty and integrity against rapacious non-Western powers.

Russia has a number of obvious and compelling motives to pursue its relentless disinformation attacks against Ukraine. It is less clear why international commentators from across the ideological spectrum have chosen to parrot Russias false narratives. For some, Ukraine may represent the wrong kind of anti-imperialism.

The countrys struggle to shed centuries of Russian imperial domination, together with Kyivs openly stated Euro-Atlantic aspirations, have no place in worldviews defined by opposition to an allegedly America-led globalist order. Accordingly, Ukrainians are frequently denied agency and are dismissed as Western pawns, while their efforts to reclaim national identity are ripped from all historical context and slandered as extremism.

This is a dangerous game. The current crisis in Ukraine has already plunged the world into what many regard as a new Cold War. The outcome of the confrontation over Ukraines future now looks destined to set the tone of international relations for decades to come.

Will the West defend Ukraines sovereign right to embrace democracy and choose its own path? Or will we face an increasingly lawless world governed by disinformation where might is right and nuclear non-proliferation has lost all credibility? For many commentators such as Carpenter, this simple geopolitical reality seems oddly difficult to grasp.

Andreas Umland is a Research Fellow with the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, a Senior Expert for the Ukrainian Institute for the Future in Kyiv, and General Editor of the book series Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society published by ibidem Press at Stuttgart.

Thu, Jun 10, 2021

Pro-Kremlin propaganda in Ukraine is changing. Praising Putin is a harder sell since the 2014 invasion, so now the focus is less on boosting Russia and more about making the West look just as bad.

UkraineAlertbyPeter Pomerantsev, Inna Nelles, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Angelina Kariakina

Tue, Feb 9, 2021

Kremlin TV chief Margarita Simonyan called on Russia to annex eastern Ukraines Donbas region during a recent high-profile forum that signaled an escalation in Moscows seven-year hybrid war against Ukraine.

UkraineAlertbyAlvydas Medalinskas

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraines politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Centers mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The dangers of echoing Russian disinformation on Ukraine - Atlantic Council

The basics

Ukraine vs Austria will be played at 5pm BST on Monday, June 21. The match will take place at the National Arena in Bucharest, Romania.

The game is available to watch in the UK on ITV 4 or via the ITV Hub.

ABC and ESPN are sharing broadcast rights for the tournament in the United States, with ESPN showing this game. Kick-off is at 9am PT/12pm ET.

A draw should be enough for both sides to progress to the last 16 on four points, however, neither side will wanting their fate to be decided elsewhere.

Of the two teams, Ukraine have shown themselves to be the smarter outfit in this tournament, giving the Netherlands a hard time in the opener before dispatching of minnows North Macedonia with relative ease on Thursday.

Yet, with Marko Arnautovic returning after his suspension, Austria will be hoping for a stronger display following their disappointing 2-0 loss against the Netherlands on Thursday.

From their previous two meetings, both sides have taken the spoils on one occasion. Who will get the upper hand on Monday?

Andriy Yarmolenko has scored in three consecutive matches for Ukraine for the first time since October 2016, while he's the first player to score in consecutive appearances at a major tournament for Ukraine since Andriy Shevchenko at the 2006 World Cup.

Will Marko Arnautovics return help spark an uninspired Austrian attack back into life?

(Photo: Getty Images)

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Ukraine vs Austria, Euro 2020: What time is kick-off, TV details and our Group C fixture prediction - The Athletic

Meet Nina (71) and Ivan (75) from eastern Ukraine, where the conflict has entered its eighth year.

They are the dramatis personae in a new video/social media campaign being run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to help focus attention on the plight of the 3 million people affected by the fighting.

Along with the 1.4 million displaced, over 10,000 people have died in the conflict. Health-care facilities, living quarters, schools and roads have been damaged while water and electricity supplies are frequently disrupted.

Before the conflict, Nina and Ivan lived a good life. There was a real sense of community in the village, with family and friends close by. They got married 50 years ago, had two sons and worked as teachers in the local school until they retired.

When the conflict started in 2014, they didnt think it would last very long. But the fighting soon reached their village. There were days and nights when the shelling was too severe to stay, and they had to find shelter further away. Thankfully, they were not home the day their house was hit.

When the fighting moved further away, Nina and Ivan decided to come back. This was their home and the community pulled together to help them fix their damaged house.

Nina and Ivans sons quit the village before the conflict but used to visit regularly. When the conflict started and the contact line separating government- from non-government-controlled areas came into being, visits became increasingly rare.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, movement restrictions became even more severe and their sons have not been able to visit at all. These new restrictions made it very difficult for Nina and Ivan to get their pensions.

Their children manage to send some money from time to time, which Nina and Ivan spend on food, medicine, heating materials and other basic needs. They can never save enough to fix the roof.

Humanitarian assistance such as coal deliveries by IOM teams, made possible through European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), have helped relieve stress on limited resources and allowed them to save money to cover additional essential needs, such as, in the case of Nina and Ivan, much needed roof repairs.

Here are some more stories of people who have been helped by IOM and the EU.

Vira was among 5,400 householders to receive coal which helped keep families warm during the harsh Ukrainian winter. Three tons of coal per family were delivered along a 427 kilometre-long contact line dividing the region into areas under the Governments control and those outside it.

Her son Volodymyr has special medical needs. I used to buy coal on my own and hire people to help move it to the barn, which was quite expensive. Now, as I received coal as humanitarian aid, I can buy medicines for my son, says Vira.

Valerii broke his leg eight years ago and had no money to pay for surgery, so he has been suffering ever since. When shelling started in 2014, he was unable to make it to the shelter, but he and his wife somehow survived a direct hit on their house.

We had to choose whether we would buy bread or coal, he remembers. We heated our house only once in two days to save fuel and money, shivering day and night before we received three tons of coal.

My yard was hit by a shell and we sat in a basement for a month, recalls Valentyna. We keep suffering from water shortages, because the water filtration station is often interrupted by hostilities. I do not know how we are getting through all these difficulties. I just want peace.

She plans to use the money she saved on coal to cover other essential expenses, such as drinking water, food and medicine.

In 2016, Oleksandr, a former bus driver, suffered a stroke and has been living alone on a small disability pension ever since. He also mentions having funds for medicine as a most important impact of the IOM aid: I had been saving money for heating, but after IOM brought me three tons of coal, I was able to cover some of my other pressing needs.

Visits to social and medical institutions have been a challenge for people like Oleksandr. The facilities in the region suffer from the collateral damage of aging infrastructure and the recent hostilities. To help keep the chill at bay during the cold season, IOM has provided essential rehabilitation works to medical and social facilities in the Donetsk Region, including two hospitals, one clinic and a boarding school, that were damaged by fighting.

The Organization has also contributed to the renovations of a newly established centre for internally displaced persons. In total, over 14,000 people will use the services of these renovated institutions, now without risking their health due to broken windows or leaky roofs.

The seven-year-old armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has taken a heavy toll on the lives of millions of ordinary Ukrainians living on both sides of the contact line. It is anything but frozen. Frequent military escalations and ceasefire violations continue disrupting the lives of civilians. The conflict has destabilized the entire country and caused a negative impact on the general stability of the region.

New social risks that are likely to have long-term, generational effects have emerged, with mental health consequences that are especially dire for children living within the conflict zone, survivors of gender-based violence and victims of exploitation. The elderly population is considered to be particularly fragile.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created additional pressure on an already weakened health-care and social service systems. During the first months of the pandemic, all crossing points along the contact line were closed in an attempt to contain the virus.

This made it almost impossible for many elderly and disabled people to receive pensions and social benefits or to maintain family ties. The pandemic has made hundreds of thousands of conflict-weary people more vulnerable and more dependent on humanitarian aid, while the humanitarian access has remained restricted.

Compounding these issues, the precarious security situation in Ukraines eastern conflict area presents a constant concern that any deterioration of security conditions there could severely aggravate the humanitarian situation for over 3 million people in need of assistance, whose resilience is already strained.

Though the number of people in need in eastern Ukraine remains the same as in 2020, their needs became much more severe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Anh Nguyen, Chief of Mission at IOM Ukraine. IOM works to leave no one behind on both sides of the contact line and we are grateful to donors and partners for their support to the most vulnerable.

Written by Varvara Zhluktenko. Photos by IOM/Polina Perfilieva. Illustrations by Jenya Polosina.

Continued here:
Bread or Coal: The Bitter Choice for Ukraine's Conflict-Affected - Ukraine - ReliefWeb

KYIV, June 18 (Reuters) - After 123 days handcuffed together to save their on-again off-again relationship, Ukrainians Alexandr Kudlay and Viktoria Pustovitova have split up, shedding their bonds on national TV and saying the experiment had brought home uncomfortable truths.

The young couple from the eastern city of Kharkiv decided to handcuff themselves together on Valentine's Day, in a last-ditch attempt to break the cycle of breaking up and making up.

Throughout the experiment, which they documented to a growing social media following, they did everything together, from grocery shopping to cigarette breaks. They took turns to use the bathroom and take showers.

Pustovitova, who initially resisted the handcuff idea, shed tears as she discussed the latest break-up.

"I think it will be a good lesson for us, for other Ukrainian couples and couples abroad not to repeat what we have done," she told Reuters in an interview in Kyiv.

Pustovitova said personal space is what she missed most, although she also felt her boyfriend did not pay her enough attention while they were chained together.

Alexandr Kudlay and Viktoria Pustovitova, who handcuffed themselves and spent 123 days together, have the chain dismantled by a representative from a Ukrainian record book in Kyiv, Ukraine June 17, 2021. The Ukrainian couple split up after 123 days handcuffed together, shedding their bonds on national TV and saying the experiment had brought home uncomfortable truths. Picture taken June 17, 2021. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

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"We stayed together all day, I did not receive any attention from Alexandr because we were constantly together. He did not tell me: 'I miss you', while I would like to hear that," said the 29-year-old beautician.

Kudlay said he did not regret resorting to desperate measures to save the relationship, adding that the cuffs helped him understand that the two were not "like-minded people".

"We are not on the same wavelength, we are totally different," the 33-year-old car salesman said.

The couple plan to sell the handcuffs in an online auction and donate part of the money to charity.

They had the bonds removed in front of Ukrainian TV news channels and a representative from a Ukrainian record book, who said no couple in the world had managed a similar feat.

Their last photo on Instagram, where they have more than 7,800 followers, showed the couple standing apart, looking at the floor.

Editing by Matthias Williams and Mike Collett-White

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Ukraine's inseparable couple ditches the handcuffs and parts ways - Reuters

Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine When the President of Ukraine invited CBS News to visit the front line in his country's war against Russian-backed separatists, we expected a quick trip in an armored motorcade to the muddy trenches that cut a bloody scar through the wheat fields of eastern Ukraine. We did not anticipate an informal breakfast lard on rye bread, salmon sashimi, homemade cookies and shots of brandy with President Volodymyr Zelensky and his elderly parents in their tiny, Soviet-era kitchen.

The war in Ukraine has raged since 2014, when protests in the capital, Kyiv, toppled a government friendly to Moscow. Russia retaliated by sending troops across the border to seize control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and by backing a separatist insurgency in the east. The United Nations puts the death toll after seven years of war at more than 13,000.

The U.S. has supported Zelenskyy's government with money, weapons and training. But the president told us what he really wants is America to back his country's bid to join NATO a move that the U.S. fears could exacerbate tensions with Moscow.

Just days before President Biden's summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, during which Ukraine will figure near the top of the agenda, we asked Zelensky why ordinary Americans should care about the conflict in his country, which is thousands of miles from their own.

"It can be tomorrow in their houses" he told us.

That may sound far-fetched, but experts say Russian hackers are using Ukraine as a testing ground including attacking its power grid before employing similar tactics in the U.S. When tens of thousands of Russian troops massed at Ukraine's border earlier this year, some saw it as a move intended not only to scare an American ally, but as a threat to the United States and its allies.

President Zelenskyy grew up in an era when Ukraine was part of the USSR, and he was raised in a Russian-speaking household. Part of his early years were spent in the Mongolian city of Erdenet which, at the time, was within the outer reaches of the Soviet empire. His father Oleksandr, a professor of computing, had been sent there to teach.

Like many Ukrainians, Zelenskyy believes that Vladimir Putin has neo-imperial ambitions for Russia, to control its neighbors once again.

"They don't want to make us free", he told CBS News.

Zelenskyy started down his surprising path to the presidency as a comedian with his own production company. He played a fictional President of Ukraine, contending with corrupt oligarchs, in the wildly popular television series "Servant of the People."

It served as a springboard for his own, very real political career. One of Zelenskyy's top priorities in office has been combating widespread corruption.

Over breakfast, Zelenskyy, an only child, told us that his parents were "always" worried about him since his election to Ukraine's top job.

In a country where corruption is endemic and Enemy No. 1 is the massive nuclear power next door, I asked the president's parents whether they preferred comedy or politics as a career path for their son.

"Maybe comedy is more to my liking," replied his father, with a wry smile.

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Ahead of Biden-Putin summit, Ukraine leader tells Americans war with Russia could "be tomorrow in their houses" - CBS News