NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Monday pledged the alliance’s support for Ukraine as it faces a bloody insurgency by pro-Russian separatists in its eastern regions. More than 10,000 people have been killed since a Russian-backed rebellion against the pro-EU government in Kiev erupted in April 2014. Ukraine and the West accuse Moscow of smuggling weapons and troops across the porous border, a charge it denies. “Russia has maintained its aggressive […]

Malaysian Airlines passenger jet shot down over Ukrainian/ Russian border The jet had 295 passengers on board and was travelling at 33,000 feet A Malaysian Airlines passenger plane has been shot down on the Russian-Ukraine border, killing all 295 people on board, according to a Ukrainian interior ministry official.   Flight MH17, which was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew, was flying between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpar after taking off […]

On the one side, Ukraine’s interior minister said Saturday that military operations in the east would continue and vowed, “We are not stopping.” On the other, there was the pro-Russian separatist leader in Luhansk who announced the formation of an army to march on Kiev. These and other statements suggest Ukraine’s future will feature yet more unrest, more fighting and more likelihood that it will spawn a full-scale civil war […]

A team of international military observers seized by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine was freed Saturday as Kiev resumed military action to tackle the pro-Moscow gunmen who have overrun the region. Ukrainian troop carriers moved into the eastern city of Kramatorsk, where some residents reported hearing gunfire, as Ukraine’s embattled new leaders launched their most intensive effort yet to try to dislodge the rebels who have reportedly seized government buildings […]

Canada has set aside its former cherished international position as self-proclaimed peacekeeper, and now has an opportunity to graduate from the Harper government’s more commendable but still unsatisfactory status as a mouse that roars, to some level of international relevance. Canada was a good ally in the World Wars and as a co-founder of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The notion of peacekeeping took hold in 1956, after the British […]

Ukraine’s young government is running out of viable options for restoring its control of eastern regions and preserving the country’s territorial integrity. Government and police buildings in more than a dozen places are still held by pro-Russian protesters, sometimes led by masked and well-armed men in uniform. The response from Kiev to this assault has been inconsistent and hesitant. Amid a war of words between Washington and Moscow, the “agreement” […]

Canada is sending six CF-18 fighter jets to eastern Europe as part of a NATO operation in response to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the decision in Ottawa Thursday. He said the jets are being sent “in response to a NATO request” as it expands its operations in eastern Europe.   “Obviously this in response to the situation that’s developing there,” Harper told reporters, particularly […]

Editor’s note: Howard Hall is director of the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair in Nuclear Security. Natalie Manayeva is research assistant at the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security. Dean Rice is adjunct faculty at the University of Tennessee and former congressional policy/legislative aide on energy and national defense. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors. […]

An “anti-terrorist operation” is under way in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region against pro-Russia protesters, Kiev declared on Tuesday, with armored personnel carriers seen on the road in the restive area. Twenty-four hours after a Ukrainian ultimatum expired for the protesters to lay down their arms, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told Parliament the operation would be “conducted step by step, responsibly, cautiously.” “The aim of these actions is to protect the […]

Washington (AFP) – Nearly 100,000 Russian forces have massed on Ukraine’s border, a top Ukrainian defense official told an American audience Thursday, giving a number far higher than US military estimates. “Almost 100,000 soldiers are stationed on the borders of Ukraine and in the direction … of Kharkiv, Donetsk, ” Andriy Parubiy, chairman of Ukraine’s national security council, said via a webcast from Kiev. “Russian troops are not in Crimea […]