Ukraine

The tragedy of Paul Celan – trapped in his own allusive poems

27 June 2026 9:00 am

By his late thirties, the great poet of the Holocaust had succumbed to clinical paranoia, in which every aspect of daily life was saturated with evil significance

Vance

For J.D. Vance, Israel is the new Ukraine

19 June 2026 2:32 pm

J.D. Vance didn’t call Benjamin Netanyahu out by name, but in sternly reprimanding the “Cabinet of the Israeli government” from…

Forever war: will Zelensky and Putin be brought to an exhausted peace?

13 June 2026 9:00 am

Volodymyr Zelensky stood proudly on the steps of 10 Downing Street this week, flanked by Sir Keir Starmer and the…

Trump’s ballroom drone port is no joke

10 June 2026 9:32 pm

When Donald Trump unveiled plans for a counter-drone installation on the roof of the new White House ballroom, critics called…

Portrait of the week: Sturgeon speaks, Henry Nowak’s killer is jailed and Mandelson’s messages are released

6 June 2026 9:00 am

Home Vickrum Digwa, 23, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years for the murder of Henry…

Putin and Erdogan are playing with fire in the Balkans and the Caucasus

6 June 2026 9:00 am

As Russia and Turkey jostle for influence in Europe’s overlooked corners, regional tensions begin to resemble those in the build-up to the Great War

russian

Russia is relying on drones to bring it victory in Ukraine

5 June 2026 2:32 am

Earlier this week, Ukraine was subjected to one of the largest aerial assaults by Russia since the start of Vladimir…

Is the West deserting Ukraine at precisely the wrong moment?

30 May 2026 9:00 am

Moscow is coming under direct drone attack, the Russian economy is creaking, patriotic bloggers are ever more apocalyptic in their…

Why drones will carry out the next 9/11

20 May 2026 10:17 pm

Few know more about drone warfare than Brett Velicovich. During the Iraq war, the former Delta Force intelligence analyst lived…

Zelensky

The tide has turned in Ukraine

20 May 2026 5:33 am

The long war in Ukraine has morphed into a new and decisive phase, one that could lead to Ukraine’s upset…

Russians no longer believe Putin’s war propaganda

9 May 2026 9:00 am

A year ago, Russia marked the 9 May Victory Day celebration with a spectacular display of fireworks that lit up…

Accelerating the ‘kill chain’ – a terrifying glimpse of future warfare

9 May 2026 9:00 am

A misfit band of military personnel and Silicon Valley uber-geeks apply AI to target America’s enemies more rapidly and accurately than ever before

Putin

The Kremlin’s secret plans for post-war Russia

9 May 2026 4:37 am

A top-level Kremlin policy document discussing post-war political planning and how to neutralize potential ultranationalist discontent has been leaked to…

For Trump, it’s lonely at the top

30 April 2026 8:31 pm

King Charles III and Queen Camilla were at their most emollient in Washington, where they exchanged a flurry of presents…

Ukraine

How the Ukraine war could end in revolt

28 April 2026 10:05 pm

Ukraine and Russia are exhausted. Neither side is close to defeat and yet discontent is growing on both sides. In…

Letters: The uncomfortable truth about Gen Z churchgoers

11 April 2026 9:00 am

Clerical errors Sir: Glad though I am that The Spectator bucks the trend in its conviction that the C of…

Barksdale drone

Is the US nuclear bomber base being targeted for a strike?

7 April 2026 11:00 am

A lockdown at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana triggered by a mysterious drone swarm last month didn’t last long.…

A Ukrainian win is more important than ever

4 April 2026 9:00 am

On 3 April we mark 1,500 days since Russia invaded Ukraine; on 11 June, the conflict will have lasted longer…

With no coherent strategy, Britain seems perpetually adrift in the world

4 April 2026 9:00 am

But rather than stagger from one global crisis to another, we could unite the disparate tools we still possess and truly take back control, says Jack Watling

Why Ukraine’s Russian oil strikes are backfiring

27 March 2026 6:46 am

Every drone Ukraine fires at a Russian oil terminal is meant to defund Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Right now, each…

‘More than half our squad were executed’: Inside Russia’s rotten army

28 February 2026 9:00 am

The Russians are on the warpath – and Europe is Vladimir Putin’s next target. That was Sir Keir Starmer’s alarming…

How Silicon Valley is calling the shots on the battlefields of Ukraine

26 February 2026 10:07 pm

Sometime in the late morning of February 4, somebody at SpaceX headquarters pressed a computer key. A command line was…

No, Zelensky: World War Three hasn’t started

23 February 2026 9:54 pm

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that World War Three has already started. Speaking to the BBC on the eve of…

The secrets of Putin’s shadow fleet

7 February 2026 9:00 am

Of all the weapons in Vladimir Putin’s arsenal, the most strategically crucial has proved to be not hypersonic missiles but…

Why is Ukraine trying to cancel Swan Lake?

31 January 2026 9:00 am

Two of Ukraine’s most famous ballet dancers face dismissal, cancellation and possible mobilisation into the army. Their crime? They dared…