What Ukraine really needs from Europe
Bear hugs and kind words are not enough
Owen Matthews
Owen Matthews is an Associate Editor of The Spectator and the author of Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Tuesday
Wednesday
Why Putin thinks he’s winning
Believing that time and destiny are on his side, Putin is sticking to his maximalist war aims
Tuesday
Why Putin thinks destiny is on his side
From our UK edition
The Kremlin pulled out all the stops for the visit of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow today. Accompanied by Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev, Witkoff and Kushner strolled through crowds on Red Square with minimal security after lunching at a fancy restaurant on Petrovka street. Not coincidentally, Chinese foreign
Thursday
The path to peace in Ukraine will be tortuous
From our UK edition
In order to impose peace terms, you first need to win the war. That fundamental principle seems, for the moment, to elude Ukraine’s European allies. Donald Trump, on the other hand, has taken the more pragmatic – some would say more cynical – view that Ukraine will never defeat Russia and therefore needs to make
Saturday
Was Nathan Gill recruited by the Kremlin?
From our UK edition
Was 52-year old Anglesey man Nathan Gill, a member of the European parliament, taking money from the Kremlin, or just from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch? We may never know. But on Friday Gill was sent down for ten-and-a-half years at the Old Bailey, after he was found guilty of accepting bribes from Ukrainian operatives in exchange
Friday
Labour’s toxic budget, Zelensky in trouble & Hitler’s genitalia
From our UK edition
39 min listen
It’s time to scrap the budget, argues political editor Tim Shipman this week. An annual fiscal event only allows the Chancellor to tinker round the edges, faced with a backdrop of global uncertainty. Endless potential tax rises have been trailed, from taxes on mansions, pensions, savings, gambling, and business partnerships, and nothing appears designed to
Thursday
Witkoff’s Ukraine peace proposal is unworkable
With Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s political authority already under grave assault in the wake of a major corruption scandal, he now faces a new challenge – this time from his erstwhile ally, the United States. A high-level US delegation led by army secretary Daniel Driscoll is meeting Zelensky in Kyiv today to present the latest
Ukraine is on the verge of political collapse
From our UK edition
Defeat, political implosion and civil war – those are the jeopardies that Volodymyr Zelensky faces as Ukraine heads into the most difficult and probably the last winter of the war. Evermore effective Russian strikes against Ukraine’s energy and transport infrastructure are likely to plunge swaths of the country into cold and darkness. Russian troops continue
Wednesday
Why Europe can’t go it alone on Ukraine
Who will pay for Ukraine’s war effort now the Trump administration has turned off the financial taps? European leaders have expressed themselves ready and willing to take up the burden, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen affirming that “if we continue to believe that Ukraine is our first line of defense, we need
Wednesday
The scandal that could bring down Volodymyr Zelensky
From our UK edition
A solid gold toilet and cupboards loaded with bagfuls of €200 bills are among the treasures linked to the prominent Ukrainian businessman Timur Mindich, after an investigation by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu). Mindich is big in real estate, fertilisers, banking and diamond trading – but he is best known as a long-time co-owner of Volodymyr
Wednesday
Putin thinks time is on his side
He is now willing to stake all on victory in the field
Thursday
Trump is getting serious about punishing Putin
From our UK edition
Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again threats to sanction Russia for its intransigence over peace talks in Ukraine solidified today into concrete action. The US has announced sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, two of Russia’s largest oil companies, and their dozens of subsidiaries. Between them, the two giants are responsible for nearly half of Russia’s oil exports
Wednesday
Will peace in Ukraine elude Trump?
From our UK edition
28 min listen
With a Gaza ceasefire deal, President Trump’s attention has turned to ending the war in Ukraine. A meeting with Putin was suggested, before coming to nothing. Owen Matthews joins Freddy Gray to talk about the fundamental differences between Trump and Putin, the limits on Ukraine’s President Zelensky when it comes to negotiation and why the
Tuesday
Should the Nord Stream saboteurs be extradited to Germany?
Berlin prosecutors see the operation as an attack on Germany – the Poles see it as an attack on Russia
Monday
Trump doesn’t understand what Putin wants
From our UK edition
Is Donald Trump’s peace process in Ukraine moving forward – or it is merely going around in circles in a series of gut-wrenching loop-the-loops? Less than a fortnight ago Trump raised Ukrainian hopes by dangling the possibility of sending Tomahawk cruise missiles, describing the Kremlin as a ‘Paper Tiger’ and warning that the Russian economy
Tuesday
Would taking back lost territories make Ukraine whole again?
Restoring Ukraine’s prewar borders sounds, on the face of it, a just solution to an unjust invasion
Friday
The ‘shadow fleet’ tanker raid was pure theatre
From our UK edition
The news footage was satisfyingly reminiscent of Mission: Impossible. Masked French commandoes swarmed up the side of the rusty oil tanker Boracay, assault rifles drawn, and commenced their search for evidence the vessel had been responsible for launching Russian drones at Danish airports. The captain and first officer – both Chinese nationals – were taken
Thursday
Moldova has been saved from Russian influence, but at what cost?
From our UK edition
The European Union, guardian and champion of democracy, rightly takes a dim view when ruling parties ban their opponents, refuse to open polling stations in areas likely to vote against them, censor opposition news channels and allow a large staff of foreign election monitors to police social media in the run-up. If Serbia, say, or
Wednesday
Trump has called Europe and Ukraine’s bluff
From our UK edition
Has Donald Trump just announced the most consequential foreign policy reversal of his presidency? If so, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and France’s Emmanuel Macron – the last leaders to speak to Trump just before his epochal announcement – should be careful what they wish for. Despite a reputation in some quarters for being a master
Wednesday
The Kremlin had nothing to gain from sending drones to Poland
From our UK edition
Provocation, mistake, or something in between? Either Putin sent Russian drones into Poland’s airspace on Tuesday night to test Nato’s reaction, or Ukrainian electronic jamming scrambled the targeting systems on Russian drones and sent them haywire. Or perhaps the Kremlin is playing a grey-zone game, launching an accidentally-on-purpose attack to push Europe’s boundaries. The problem
