In The News

Samuel Bendett says, “I think the two most tangible results [of the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping] are an increase in economic cooperation—both countries pledged to reopen their bilateral trade and economic initiatives. These have grown in number and volume since about a decade ago. And another important element is high-tech cooperation. Both countries are pledging to cooperate on numerous initiatives.”

Dmitry Gorenburg says "Undoubtedly there's pressure from the U.S. on various countries to abide by sanctions, and of course Russian officials have been talking for over a decade about the U.S. having a regime-change strategy."

Samuel Bendett notes that although Russia and Ukraine are adept at this kind of electronic warfare, its effect is patchy. Racing-drone bombers are still useful.

Samuel Bendett says, “Everyone is assembling these FPVs at a fast pace now. But even if the threat is in many thousands it sounds legitimate.”

Jeffrey Edmonds says, "In a standoff between the two, I would not want to be in the T-72. I think that where the benefit comes from is the accuracy and power of the round."

Samuel Bendett says, “Undoubtedly this is a very important visit, Chinese leadership traveling to Moscow is a sign of political support to the Russian federation and Vladimir Putin. We don’t yet know the full extent of the actual military support .”

Sebastian Bae says, “I wanted Marines to understand Force Design 2030 and why these changes were happening and why the commandant was making the changes he was.”

Samuel Bendett says that Russia claims that Ukraine uses the same Mugin drones for long-range strikes into Crimea and Russia proper.

Michael Kofman says, “If we don’t supply them with enough artillery, this whole thing is an intellectual exercise.”

Samuel Bendett says that the Reaper "is much better than Orion since it's been flying for many years and is a much more battle-proven platform than the Russian drone."

Nilanthi Samaranayake says “For example, uncertainty over sedimentation and food security outcomes raises anxiety for both India and Bangladesh. In particular, there are concerns in Bangladesh, as the lowest riparian, about water quality impacts.”

Michael Kofman says, “The question is whether Ukraine’s relative advantage is sufficient to attain their objectives, and whether those advantages can be sustained. That depends not just on them, but also on the West.”

Brian Waidelich wrote, “In 2016, a Chinese astronaut participated in an ESA astronaut training course. The next year, two European astronauts carried out sea survival training with their Chinese counterparts. But after 2017, the budding human spaceflight cooperation between the two sides hit a snag.”

The Kyiv Independent's Illia Ponomarenko sits down with military analysts Michael Kofman, director of the Russia Studies Program at CNA, and Rob Lee, senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Eurasia Program, to discuss the current situation on the battlefields, Ukraine's planned counteroffensive and Russia's attempts to stop it, and the likely developments in Russia's war against Ukraine in 2023. 

Michael Kofman says that the argument about Ukraine’s diminished counter-offensive capacity “may be overstated; I think the main question is to what extent does defence of Bakhmut represent a strategy with diminishing returns relative to other options.”

Samuel Bendett says, "Russian forces began countering Ukrainian electronic warfare by launching very small DJI drones like Mavic2 in order to see how they behave in order to determine EW (electronic warfare) presence before launching larger and heavier DJI combat drones."