John Mearsheimer gave a talk about the situation in Ukraine on Monday, May 22.  For those of you who may not know, Mearsheimer is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, and may be the most distinguished academic of the “realist” school in the world today.  Here’s the video, which is about […]

I write in response to David Carroll’s interesting post today, Understanding Russia Doesn’t Equate to Praise.  I think that David makes some good points, though he does condemn Russia’s invasion as “unjustified,” a point that doesn’t seem relevant to the arguments presented in the post. I’m going to set forth some of my thoughts.  I imagine […]

For some weeks now, I’ve heard allegations about neo-Nazis in Ukraine, including some group called the Azov Battalion.  Among other things, this seems to be part of Putin’s argument in support of the Russian invasion.  It may or may not be true.  I’ve never been to Ukraine, and never talked to any Ukrainian about anything […]

I came across this article today (March 16) in the Financial Times, reporting on negotiations between the Russians and the Ukrainians.   The article claims to be based on reports from “three people involved in the talks,” and includes a quote from Mykhailo Podolyak, identified as a senior advisor to Zelensky.  As usual, I cannot vouch for […]

I listened to the Ricochet podcast yesterday with John O’Sullivan.  It was a good discussion.  Thanks to Rob, Peter, and Blue Yeti for bringing this to us. I do have a question for O’Sullivan.  Perhaps there’s a chance that he’ll answer — if not, perhaps some of you could help. Preview Open

This is an update to my post exactly one week ago, which gave my preliminary analysis of the invasion of Ukraine, based on the first apparently reliable map that I’d seen.   I found a new map source which looks credible, though I can’t vouch for it.  It’s from  the Critical Threats Project at the American […]

I’ve been writing some things about the situation in Ukraine that are, shall we say, not very popular with some of you. I see a number of claims that Putin is a madman, and that Putin has ambitions of restoring the Soviet empire in eastern Europe.  I am very skeptical of these claims, though I […]

I found a story in the Daily Mail UK (here), with what looks like very bad news for Ukraine in general, and Kiev in particular. The story reports a Russian military convoy approaching Kiev from the north, 40 miles long.  Not 40 miles away.  40 miles long. Preview Open

I’m going to set forth my speculations about Putin’s goals, strategy, and tactics in Ukraine.  I’m pretending to be Vlad for a day. My assumption is that the Russian forces will prevail in Ukraine, probably in the next week or two.  My impression, discussed at my prior post today, is that the Russians are winning.  […]

Today, I was finally able to find a few good maps, purporting to show the advance of Russian forces in Ukraine.  I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these maps.  I am going to use one from Reuters (link here).  This one is pretty consistent with several others, from Washington (WaPo, here) to London (BBC, […]