donetsk

Nuclear weapons could be used; Russia's war gets more dangerous

Nuclear weapons could be used; Russia's war gets more dangerous

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: I have to talk about Russia. There's Brazil, there's United Kingdom, there's Iran, but Russia is the biggest story, and it's because we've just seen the worst week in the war in terms of escalation and danger since the initial invasion on February 24, 2022. President Putin's closest remaining friends on the global stage - the Indian prime minister, the Chinese president, the Kazakh president - all told him directly, "the war is a horrible idea. Please end this as soon as possible." Putin does exactly the opposite and escalates, calling up a minimum of 300,000 additional troops in a mobilization, something he had been dragging his feet on and avoiding because he knew how unpopular it would be in Russia.

Ukraine gains; Russia to escalate

Ukraine gains; Russia to escalate

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: The big news in the world is once again on the ground in Ukraine with the Ukrainians having taken a significant amount of territory with counterattacks against the Russians. The town of Izium has been captured by the Ukrainians, critical because it was the headquarters for Russian military operations in the north and half of the Donbas. And of course, the Donbas is the entire focus of the second phase as the Russians have announced the special military operations, the war in Ukraine.

Putin improves his hand in Ukraine

Putin improves his hand in Ukraine

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: You've probably seen the latest news that Luhansk has fallen. The Donbas, which is now the focus of the Russian war, not the entire focus, but certainly the lion's share of. It is comprised of two different administrative regions, one Donetsk, the other Luhansk. The Ukrainians had been giving a pretty solid fight, but they've been losing territory pretty consistently if slowly, over the last month and a half. And this means that Luhansk is now fully under Russian control.

Putin keeps his war cards close

Putin keeps his war cards close

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: It is May 9th, and that means Victory Day. It's when the Soviets were celebrating their defeat of the Nazis in World War II. The Russians of course, continued that after 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. And today even more important in the context of Russia's invasion into Ukraine, not in any way victorious and Putin, wasn't trying to claim it was, rather, it was all about justifying what he referred to as a preemptive rebuff to NATO aggression. He talked about the Ukrainians as a Nazi regime, that they were trying to get nuclear weapons, that NATO and Ukraine were going to take Crimea back from Russia. All of which was made up from a whole cloth, but nonetheless was the basis of Putin's speech.