Ukraine
Portrait of the week
Home Liz Truss, the Prime Minister, came up with a message for the Conservative party conference: ‘Whenever there is change,…
What Elon Musk doesn’t get about peace
The power one person can hold should never be underestimated. They can take people’s lives, as Vladimir Putin does, or…
Putin at 70: How The Spectator has covered his life
Vladimir Putin turns 70 today. Since he became Prime Minister of Russia in 1999, some of The Spectator’s greatest contributors…
Does Ukrainian exist?
After six months of war in Ukraine, most observers agree that the roots of Russian aggression lie in the country’s…
Diary
Moscow A week of somewhat mixed messages from the Kremlin. One day Vladimir Putin opened Europe’s largest Ferris wheel…
Will Nato accept Ukraine?
Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky made an offer to Vladimir Putin. Ukraine would drop its ambition to…
Life among the Russian refuseniks
Yerevan, Armenia It was getting dark outside Yerevan Airport when I arrived, but there were still a dozen flights from Russia…
Make mine a triple
Good, better, best was the satisfying trajectory of Northern Ballet’s terrific programme of three original short works, which moves south…
What’s behind Putin’s no-show?
Has Vladimir Putin carried out a cynical stunt, or ducked out of a seismic decision? That’s the debate among Kremlinologists…
More mad than Vlad
Putin’s most dangerous opposition comes from Russia’s ultra-nationalists
I’ve become a war addict
It is an almost unquestioned orthodoxy that war is hell, and that every needless death in a needless war diminishes…
Why the Baltics fear Russia
In the historic heart of Riga, Latvia’s lively capital, there is a building that reveals why the Baltic States remain…
Caught in the Mittel
Joseph Roth’s writing about interwar Europe speaks to present-day Ukraine
Barometer
Of mice and Moon What did Nasa achieve last time it visited the Moon? Apollo 17, in December 1972, involved…
Ukraine stuns Russia with a counter-offensive in Kherson region
The southern city of Kherson, which fell to Russian forces in the first few days of the war, is one…
Why Crimea could be key to Ukraine winning the war
Over the six months since Russia invaded Ukraine, the ambitions of President Zelensky and his compatriots have only grown. From…
Portrait of the week
Home Inflation would reach 18.6 per cent by January and the energy price cap £5,816 in April, according to a…
Quite an education
Ukrainian schools are starting to re-open, but will they be safe?
The stalemate in Ukraine won’t last forever
Addressing the vexed question of who is winning the war in Ukraine, six months on, is a task to challenge…
The strange morality of sponsoring weapons
Forget fund-raising concerts donating spare clothes and offering your spare room to a refugee family. There’s a better way of…
How Ukraine is sabotaging Russia’s army
Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SOF) or possibly partisan fighters have conducted successfully attacks on three significant targets in occupied Crimea…
The Russian enigma
Nothing is certain in a country where the past is constantly rewritten, says Owen Matthews
Can Zelensky afford to freeze Ukraine’s gas prices?
This morning, Volodymyr Zelensky signed a moratorium on energy prices – so while gas bills are rising all over Europe,…
Ukrainians aren’t surprised by Amnesty’s victim-blaming
Is Amnesty International victim-blaming? The Ukrainian military has been endangering civilians, it said, by establishing military bases and putting weapons…
Planet Liz
What foreign policy would look like under a PM Truss
