On Monday, Pakistan launched airstrikes against several suspected hideouts of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Afghanistan’s Khost and Paktika provinces. The Afghan Taliban responded by firing on Pakistani positions along the border, according to the Afghan defense ministry. Pakistan’s defense and foreign ministries called the strikes on Afghanistan “retaliatory,” likely referring to the suicide bombing
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Egypt on February 14 marked a milestone in diplomatic relations between two countries that fell grievously afoul of each other during a rare period of political and ideological divergence that lasted almost a decade. The carefully choreographed and worded meeting between Erdogan and his Egyptian counterpart, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, also
More than two years into Russia’s war in Ukraine, the once solid wall of US public support for aid to Ukraine has become less vocal. Because of this decrease in discourse supporting Ukraine, a small number of loud detractors is seeking to sway public opinion by asserting that supporting Ukraine isn’t in the United States’
A series of news items in recent weeks have reignited the simmering debate over a possible peace deal to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While none of these developments provided a plausible roadmap toward a sustainable settlement, they did help highlight some of the key obstacles preventing a return to the negotiating table. The
When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Ukrainian Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov found himself having to repeatedly reassure Ukraine’s doubting partners that the country was not about to collapse. “At the beginning of the war, nobody believed we would stand,” he recalls. Danilov says the lack of faith
Since the beginning of March, Ukraine has been powering thousands of homes in neighboring European countries, exporting large amounts of clean energy from solar and hydro plants. Data from Ukraine’s electricity grid operator, Ukrenergo, indicates that the country is making full use of its interconnection capacity to sell electricity to Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Poland, and
Living in an active war zone over an extended period of time can play odd tricks on the mind. A calm moment in the park can be suddenly overtaken by visions of the previous evening’s air strikes. Roller coaster-like mood swings become commonplace and loud bangs ignite the urge to flee. This is very much
Ukrainian wartime documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” won the country’s first ever Oscar at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 10. For most Ukrainians, however, this was a bittersweet moment. Two years on from the harrowing events captured in Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov’s film, their country is still fighting for national survival against
Washington’s engagement with the Black Sea has ebbed and flowed in the post-Cold War era. The lack of consistent focus has contributed to relative insecurity in the littoral states and emboldened Russian aggression. But as the region continues to be destabilized by Russia’s war on Ukraine, there is a sign that this period of US
