Author: Reporter

Oleksandr Donii was one of the leaders of student-led protests for sovereignty and political reform in 1990 that preceded Ukraine’s declaration of independence. He remembers thinking the fight for autonomy would take decades. Instead, it came much sooner than he ever imagined. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine quickly declared independence in 1991 and later conducted a referendum backed by more than 90% of voters. “I was preparing myself for prisons and labor camps, and I thought the struggle would last about 20–30 years,” Donii told The Associated Press. MOSCOW’S GRIP ENDURED AFTER INDEPENDENCE As the country marks 34...

Donald Trump declared a diplomatic breakthrough on August 18 in his bid to prod Moscow and Kyiv closer to peace, announcing he had begun arranging for direct talks between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Four days later, the optimism of the convicted felon occupying the White House had diminished. Russia’s top diplomat made it clear on August 22 that Putin won’t meet with Zelenskyy until the Ukrainians agree to some of Moscow’s longstanding demands to end the conflict. It’s another stinging setback for Trump, who had been touting his diplomatic blitz as resulting in indisputable momentum for...

An American Orthodox archbishop’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, in which they exchanged warm greetings and gifts of holy icons, is drawing a denunciation by Ukrainian Orthodox bishops in the United States. They called it a “betrayal of Christian witness” in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war. Archbishop Alexei — the bishop of Alaska for the Orthodox Church in America, the now-independent offspring of the Russian Orthodox Church — met on August 15 with Putin at the Fort Richardson National Cemetery in Anchorage following Putin’s summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. Putin also placed flowers at...