Author: Steven Sahiounie

The decision is “a logical conclusion” of Russophobic post-coup policies, Moscow says The Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday that it’s not surprised by Kiev cutting all diplomatic relations with Moscow. Russia would not have made this choice but considers it “the logical conclusion” of the “Russophobic policies” of the Ukrainian leadership, according to a remark cited by RIA Novosti. The ministry noted that Ukraine has been ramping up discriminatory policies against ethnic Russians living in Ukraine and downgrading the relationship with Russia since the 2014 armed coup, which ousted elected then-President Viktor Yanukovich from power. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky announced that all diplomatic…

Kiev says financial institutions and government departments have been taken down Government websites and banks in Ukraine have been hit by outages as part of a reported cyberattack against the country’s digital infrastructure, with officials in Kiev say is a major attempt from hackers to take down online platforms. A statement issued on Wednesday evening by the country’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mikhail Fedorov, said that “at around 4.00pm, another massive ‘denial-of service’ attack on our state began. There is data to this effect from a number of banks and there are also problems with accessing the website of the…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference on 19 February that Kiev may reconsider the country’s non-nuclear status under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. What message does this statement send to the US, Europe, NATO, and Russia? “The [Ukrainian] president’s words should be very disturbing for Europe because it means that security will depend on a strategic military buildup, which must sound very dangerous to Brussels”, says Alberto Hutschenreuter, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Service of the Nation (ISEN) and former professor at the Escuela Superior de Guerra, Argentina. “For the world, this means that nuclearisation…

The Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republic’s representative offices at the JCCC reported that the bombardment of the LDPR territory by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) has significantly increased. The LDPR People’s Militias recorded 114 incidents of shelling by the Ukrainian side . The LPR Representative Office at the JCCC identified the following incidents as the most significant ones last night. One LPR serviceman was killed on the front lines near the village of Zhelobok.Two civilians were killed as a result of the shelling of the village of Berezivske when ammunition hit their car. A massive shelling on the village of…

n February 21, five fighters of the pro-government Baqir Brigade we killed in Syria’s central region when they stumbled on a landmine that was planted by ISIS cells. The incident took place in the Homs desert, which lays between the eastern countryside of Homs and the western Deir Ezzor countryside. The desert area is ISIS main stronghold in the central region. A day after the incident, warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out more than 100 airstrikes on ISIS hideouts in the Homs desert. Furthermore, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and other pro-government formations deployed additional forces around the…

Moscow recalls embassy personnel amid rising tensions Russia has started to evacuate employees working at the country’s diplomatic missions in Ukraine, just one day after the Foreign Ministry in Moscow announced it was concerned for the safety of personnel, it has been reported. Citing a source at the embassy in Kiev, Russian news agency TASS revealed that the evacuation has “already begun.” Moscow currently has four diplomatic missions in Ukraine, located in the cities of Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, and Lviv. According to the Ministry, the buildings have been the targets of aggression since 2014. “In the current circumstances, our primary task…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Yesterday, Russia officially recognised the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) as independent states, becoming the first UN member state to do so. Russia had formerly already recognised identity documents, diplomas, birth- and marriage-certificates, and vehicle registration plates issued by the DPR since February 2017. Both the DPR and LPR are at the center of the 2021–2022 Russian-Ukrainian crisis. Ukraine regards both the DPR and the LPR as terrorist organizations. Steven Sahiounie of MidEastDiscourse interviewed Alexander Markovics to gain insight to this conflict between the US and Russia.  Alexander…

The warning comes after Germany suspended Nord Stream 2 pipeline certification Europeans will soon have to pay €2,000 ($2,200) per thousand cubic meters of natural gas, former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev tweeted on Tuesday. The warning comes after Germany ordered a halt to Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline certification. “German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered to stop the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Well, welcome to the new world, in which Europeans will soon pay €2,000 per thousand cubic meters of gas!” Medvedev wrote in a half-ironic Twitter post. Earlier…

Russian President Vladimir Putin refuted all claims of alleged plans of restoring Russia’s “empire”, saying it “does not correspond to reality.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he does not plan to restore “Russia’s empire”, refuting all claims of an alleged Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We predicted speculation that Russia plans to restore (its) “empire” within imperial borders,” Putin said at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in the Kremlin, adding: “This absolutely does not correspond with reality”. On Monday, Putin recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics. He announced the decision after an hour-long speech heavy with historical…

The situation in Donbass remains tense, with Ukrainian forces shelling the territories of DPR and LPR, prompting evacuations of people to Russia. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Donbass has confirmed that Ukrainian militants violated international humanitarian law by shelling residential buildings in the region, according to the Lugansk People’s Republic Militia. “In its report dated 21 February 2022, the OSCE Mission confirmed the violation of international humanitarian law by Ukrainian militants and recorded damage to residential buildings, as well as heavy damage to the production premises of an oil workshop, which were caused by a shelling…