The recent US debate about Russia has focused mainly on Moscow’s disinformation, propaganda, and interference in our elections. But Russia’s aggression against Ukraine remains the original sin and the biggest threat. It’s not just Ukraine’s survival as an independent, democratic state that is on the line, but the future of an international order based on the rule of law rather than the law of the jungle.

It is easy to despair about Ukraine ever reforming and becoming a normal European state. Nevertheless, such despair would be a mistaken response to the flood of stories depicting obstructions to reform—even if they are true. While anyone who has dealt with Ukraine in the last twenty-five years has experienced the frustrations of trying to achieve innovation and reform there, that is only one side of the picture.

The three Georgian nationals who were abducted in the centre of Kyiv on October 21 included a military trainer who has defended Ukraine in Donbas and a man with a Ukrainian wife and child. Any links that some or all of the three men have to former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili may explain the motives behind this extraordinary move, but can surely not excuse its apparent lawlessness.

A great deal has been said by many about the stripping of Mikheil Saakashvi’s Ukrainian citizenship by the decree of President Petro Poroshenko on July 25 and his scandal-filled return to Ukraine on September 10. Nonetheless, I would like to draw attention to certain details which have not been discussed and which seem important.

The Chatham House report says that it is "partly about Ukraine’s struggle to hold together and resist Russia’s interference and pressure – in the military, diplomatic, economic and media spheres. But it is also about a related internal contest to determine the political, institutional and civic future of Ukraine"

Ukraine’s top prosecutor has claimed that the killing of a former Russian lawmaker who was shot dead in Kyiv in March was ordered by a former partner of the victim’s wife, and suggested that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) was behind it.

The European Parliament has demanded that Russia stop its persecution of Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians in occupied Crimea and called on the European Court of Human Rights to give priority status to applications from Crimeans seeking redress

The damning UN Human Rights Office report on “multiple and grave violations” in Russian-occupied Crimea published on September 25 is not just important in documenting a sharp deterioration in human rights since Russia’s invasion and annexation.  It also spells out on virtually every page that Russia is an occupying state, and that its application of Russian legislation is in serious breach of international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention. 

During the pre-conflict period the village of Lopaskino belonged to Slavyanoserbsky district and was a part of Slavyanoserbsky settlement council. On October 7, 2014 the Verkhovna Rada has changed the administrative-territorial device of the Luhansk region by the resolution No. 1692-VII, having established new borders of Novoaydarsky and Slavyanoserbsky districts. The village of Lopaskino (and other settlements of Slavyanoserbsky district) were a part of Novoaydarsky district. The Novoaydarsky regional council has subordinated the villages of Lopaskino and Lobachevo to the Trekhizbensky village council by the decision No. 28/1 of October 17, 2014.

Russia has introduced a United Nations draft resolution for peacekeepers in Ukraine amid acclaim by German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and the chairman of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe

RFE/RL spoke with Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, about the issue of statelessness and what the legal arguments are on both sides of the Saakashvili case

On September 5, a new political season began in Ukraine. Parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy has already branded parliament’s new plenary session “the autumn of reforms” by promising to deliver results on some of the most hot-button issues, including healthcare, pension, education, and judicial reforms

It is no accident that all reports of the detention by Ukrainian enforcement officers of David Saakashvili show photos of his brother, the former Georgian President whom Ukraine has unlawfully stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship.  The grounds cited for his detention on September 2 seem questionable, and the timing significant since Mikheil Saakashvili has said that he plans to return to Ukraine in just over a week

Ukraine now boasts a new layer of democratic paint, but the old oligarchic colors are peeking through. Three years after Petro Poroshenko assumed the presidency, numerous experts warn that a counter-revolution is on the horizon and that Ukraine may slide back to authoritarianism.

More details have emerged of the scale and the money used to recruit Russians willing to fight Russia’s undeclared wars in Ukraine and Syria.  The new documents give the lie to the claims that any Russians inadvertently found fighting against the Ukrainian army in Donbas are there as ‘volunteers’ . The trail leads to one millionaire with close connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin and to the Russian Defence Ministry.   

The main Russian bank working in Russian-occupied Crimea and one other have been informed that the company providing their connection to the SWIFT network will terminate its services from 31 August.. This is a welcome move and one that can surely be used to put pressure on SWIFT to disconnect other Russian banks implicated in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Bloody fighting between government troops and pro-Kremlin separatists and Russian regulars has continued for three years in Ukraine’s east. Meanwhile, an equally fierce battle is being waged for the hearts and minds of civilians on the Ukrainian side, many of whose loyalties hover between Kyiv and Moscow. 

A great deal has been said by many about the stripping of Mikheil Saakashvi’s Ukrainian citizenship by the decree of President Petro Poroshenko on July 25. Nonetheless, I would like to draw attention to certain details.

The official reason why Mikheil Saakashvili has been stripped of the Ukrainian citizenship he was ceremoniously granted in May 2015 is that he concealed criminal proceedings against him in his native Georgia

Germany’s Siemens Company was unperturbed that it was sending hugely expensive gas turbines to equip a non-existent Russian power plant. It only ‘noticed’ that the turbines had appeared in Russian-occupied Crimea after they were reported by the media and has since claimed, with minimum credibility, to be shocked and indignant