Oriontimes

The war in Ukraine has transformed Europe more profoundly than any event since the end of the Cold War in 1989. A peace mentality, most acute in Germany, has given way to a dawning awareness that military power is needed in the pursuit of security and strategic objectives. The E.U. was built on the idea that economic exchanges, trade and interdependence were the best guarantees against war. “Many of us had started to take peace for granted,” Sauli Niinisto, Finland’s president, said this month. Now, a continent on autopilot has been galvanized into an immense effort to save liberty in Ukraine, a freedom widely seen as synonymous with its own. As a long war looms, the E.U. will grapple with how to reinforce its militaries; how to navigate tensions between frontline states intent on Russia’s complete defeat and those, like France and Germany, that are inclined toward compromise. The E.U. will also need to navigate an American election next year that will feed anxieties over whether Wa...

As kingdom of heaven was linked to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom, so I came out of cocoon after more than a year i decided and kept a message with me, but I remembered a quote by Michelangelo who remarked that, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." My spirit was disturbing me not to keep what I saw in my dream as God was talking to America. I recognize Democrat as a party that elected the incumbent president Joe Biden, and I know of Republican where the former president Donald Trump is prepping to faces the like of Florida governor, Ron DeSantis and likewise Mike Pence in the GOP Primary. What really surprised me was that I saw multitude chanting, "I'm a socialist, I'm a democratic, I'm a republican, "give me new Nigeria" , then a thought came to my mind that heaven was requesting something from America which has a lwot to do about Nigeria." Righteousness exalts a natio...

Poland has long been one of the world’s most ethnically homogeneous countries, with a deep-seated mistrust of outsiders and a complicated history with Ukraine. Yet since Russia invaded Ukraine, Poland has provided an open-armed response to those fleeing the war. It is now sheltering around two million Ukrainians. Rebuilt from ruins after 1945, Poland has accommodated far more Ukrainian refugees than any other country. Germany is next, with about a million. Many of the refugees now have jobs with Polish companies, and their children are in Polish schools. All have access to Polish health care and other services. For now, many say they eventually hope to return to Ukraine. Poland’s response to the refugee situation in Ukraine has won plaudits from the E.U. and has given its right-wing government more clout, offsetting some earlier difficulties around what Brussels views as moves to undermine the independence of the Polish judiciary and discriminate against L.G.B.T.Q. people. Atte...

President Biden made a sudden appearance yesterday in Kyiv’s presidential palace. The visit was intended to be a morale booster for shellshocked Ukrainians and a direct challenge to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, whose troops invaded Ukraine a year ago this week. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden said. “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands.” The war in Ukraine is about power and the principle of territorial sovereignty, and about whether the Western-designed global order that Americans thought would prevail for decades will survive new challenges from Moscow and Beijing. But it is increasingly a contest between Putin and Biden, who have been circling each other for years. Today, the men are set to deliver separate speeches, each vowing to stick with the war. Putin will most likely make the case anew that he is not only saving Ukraine from “Nazism” but saving Russia from being overrun by NATO. And Biden is expected to frame the war as a long battle between democracy an...

Nearly a year since Russian forces rolled into Ukraine, there are no real signs of a way out of the conflict. Neither side appears primed for an outright military victory, and progress at the negotiating table seems just as unlikely. Neither side has released figures lately, but analysts estimate that about 200,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war so far. By comparison, Ukraine has seen some 100,000 killed or wounded in action, and 30,000 civilian deaths. Meanwhile, neither Russian leader Vladimir Putin nor Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shows any signs of backing down and abandoning one of the largest military conflicts since the end of World War II. For the civilians caught in the crossfire, that means the bloodshed and suffering brought on by the war has no discernible end. "Animosity between Russia and Ukraine could sustain this conflict for a long time," says Samuel Charap, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corp. Within days of it...

As Moscow steps up its offensive in eastern Ukraine, weeks of failed attacks on the Ukrainian stronghold of Vuhledar have left two Russian brigades in tatters, raised questions about the Kremlin’s military tactics and renewed doubts about its ability to maintain major ground assaults. After weeks of fighting, the scale of Moscow’s losses there is only now beginning to come into focus. Russian commanders made basic mistakes, in this case failing to take into account the terrain — open fields littered with antitank mines — or the strength of the Ukrainian forces, a Ukrainian military spokesman said. Two of Russia’s most elite brigades — the 155th and 40th Naval Infantry Brigades — were decimated in Vuhledar, he said. Vuhledar has been used by Ukraine as a base for harassing shipments on an important rail line supplying Russian forces. In one week alone since the clash for the city began, Russia lost at least 130 armored vehicles, including 36 tanks, according to Ukrainian estimates. ...

The United States hopes China will not use any visits by US lawmakers to Taiwan as an excuse for military action, a senior US diplomat said on Wednesday, adding that all countries should warn Beijing against conflict over the island. US-China relations were rocked last August by a visit by Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the US House of Representatives, to democratically governed Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory. Since then a wave of US lawmakers has visited Taiwan, and speculation has swirled that Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy, who took over as House speaker in January, could soon visit the island, possibly in the spring or summer. US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told an event at the Brookings Institution think tank that the United States was committed to support Taiwan and its ability to defend itself under its one-China policy. "And we hope that the PRC (People's Republic of China) does not use a visit by a member of Congress to Ta...