The long-brewing Ukraine crisis exploded early Thursday morning when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Strikes began around the country immediately following Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s declaration of a “special military operation” for — as he put it — the “demilitarization and denazification” of the country.
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As we’ve noted in our live coverage of Russia’s declaration of war and subsequent full-scale military attack on Ukraine in the last 24 hours, there is a schism growing in the Republican Party on whether Vladimir Putin is a mortal enemy, or a brilliant friend. The wildly divergent thinking within the GOP has been on display repeatedly in recent days and weeks.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: A Reminder That Even Tucker Carlson’s Lawyers Don’t Think He Should Be Taken Seriously”As Russian troops advance on key Ukrainian cities, Kyiv’s Western allies are debating: how can we help?
Continue reading “How Russia’s War On Ukraine Risks Entangling NATO”I wanted to note this report that Ukraine has essentially opened its armories to civilian volunteers. They claim to have given out up to 10,000 automatic weapons today to citizens willing to fight as home guards or essentially paramilitaries and irregulars. This makes perfect sense for how this conflict is evolving. It is clearly an existential battle for the Ukrainian state. But I just wanted to focus in on what this means. This means giving out machine guns to any Ukrainian citizens who are ready to kill Russian soldiers. This is an invitation to the kind of merciless and bloody urban warfare that insurgents and irregulars excel at and which regular armies struggle with. Don’t get me wrong. If I were running Ukraine I would be doing this too. Watching ordinary Ukrainians, in various ways, put their lives on the line to fight back against this entirely unprovoked aggression inspires me. But I just want to focus in on how dark and desperate a situation this is. This is to-the-death kind of fighting. Where who is military and who is civilian is totally blurred. It’s a level of ferocity you don’t easily come back from.
District attorneys in five of the largest counties in Texas on Thursday announced that they will not comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) and state attorney general Ken Paxton’s (R) directive that state agencies begin investigating gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths.
Continue reading “Five Texas DAs Defy Abbott’s Order To Probe Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth”This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was first published by the author as a thread on Twitter.
On Wednesday, the intelligence community warned that Putin’s war plans could include a major attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. By Thursday morning, multiple media outlets captured video of explosions near the city as Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine.
The city appears to be one of the primary targets of Putin’s renewed invasion — and it’s a city I love and am deeply worried about, having spent a year working in its archives for my doctoral research. So I wanted to share some thoughts on the Kharkiv I know: a dynamic, multi-ethnic metropolis of 1.4 million, located just 40 kilometers from the Ukraine-Russia border.
Continue reading “A Love Letter To Kharkiv, As Russian Troops Advance”
Earlier today TPM’s executive editor David Kurtz and Ukraine specialist/TPM reporter Josh Kovensky hosted a live conversation on Twitter. Here is the link in case you missed it: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1jMJgeAEYrYKL
The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the state’s Republican-dominated redistricting commission to appear in person and explain why it shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for failing to draw fair state legislative maps.
The order to appear before the court came weeks after the state’s Supreme Court rejected maps from the commission for being overly partisan, in violation of a state constitutional amendment passed by Ohio voters in 2015.
Continue reading “Ohio Supreme Court Orders Hearing On GOP-Led Mapmaking Commission’s Failures”Through my writing over recent weeks I’ve tried to keep up a secondary focus on the decisions the U.S. made about the Soviet Union, Russia and NATO during the 1990s. I think this is only a secondary part of the story. But it’s a part. In those debates we hear about Russia’s security concerns about NATO enlargement. I think it’s important to be specific and clear about what these security concerns really amount to.
Continue reading “Whose Security Concerns?”As Russian President Vladimir Putin escalated the Ukraine crisis over the past several months, he retained a range of key options.
Continue reading “Putin Had A Lot Of Options. He Chose The Most Aggressive One.”
