Articles from ‘Independent News Roundup’

On today’s Sanchez Effect, Donetsk Republic head Denis Pushilin argues that corporate profit, rather than Western rhetoric about ‘justice’, remains a powerful force behind the Ukraine conflict. He discusses European politics, Germany’s economic pressures and continuing Western arms supplies, while outlining reconstruction already underway in Donetsk and an ambitious economic strategy extending to 2042.

Protesting Romanian farmers clash with police in the EU country's capital, after Brussels imposes an export ban on Romanian livestock. European officials disrupted an agreement between Russia and the US to stop the Ukraine conflict a year ago. That's the latest revelation from Moscow's top diplomat. Nation-wide protests in Syria over a sharp rise of fuel prices turn violent, with government forces reportedly shooting at crowds blocking roads.

The United States has publicly acknowledged for the first time that its Space Force has weapons operating in orbit. The disclosure does not reveal what the systems are or exactly what they can do, but it confirms that military competition in space has moved beyond surveillance, communications and navigation into operational weapons capability. INR Report: Based on reporting by RT, with additional verification from the US Space Force and Air &…

US Congresswoman Nancy Mace has called for Lindsay Clancy to be publicly executed for killing her three children, saying the punishment should serve as a warning to other women. The intervention comes after Clancy's murder trial ended with jurors deadlocked 11-1 in favour of finding her not criminally responsible, placing postpartum psychosis, criminal responsibility and political rhetoric at the centre of an increasingly bitter American debate.

Ursula von der Leyen approaches her 2026 State of the Union address with the European Commission exercising an expanding role in defence, migration, borrowing, digital regulation and support for Ukraine. Behind the institutional language lies a larger question: how much power and financial responsibility is moving towards Brussels, and how effectively are those decisions being scrutinised? INR Report: Based on reporting by the RT newsroom in…

In 2008, NATO made an unequivocal declaration: Ukraine and Georgia "will become members of NATO." Fourteen years later, Russia invaded Ukraine, setting in motion a devastating war, transforming European security and generating hundreds of billions of dollars in military expenditure. INR Report: Based on remarks by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, examined against declassified diplomatic records, NATO documents, Ukrainian parliamentary records, corporate…

Germany has developed an unusual system for financing weapons for Ukraine: German taxpayers provide billions of euros, German officials scrutinise projects, but Ukraine can become the legal purchaser. The arrangement has dramatically accelerated weapons procurement while raising a fundamental question about how transparency and competitive safeguards operate when public money moves outside conventional purchasing structures INR Report: Based on…

Ukraine spirals further into political turmoil, as its former Prosecutor General, who’s being probed for corruption, accuses the head of Kiev’s anti-graft agency NABU of forgery and unlawful benefit. The US president warns Ukraine to stop attacking Russia’s energy infrastructure. Anti-government protests rage for a second day in Syria, as people demand the resignation of senior officials over a sharp rise in fuel prices.

The Ukraine war is usually presented as beginning on 24 February 2022: Russia invaded, Ukraine resisted and the West rallied to its defence. But political scientist Ivan Katchanovski argues the real story begins years earlier, with Maidan, the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, Crimea, Donbas and Western intervention. His research raises a far harder question: how many Ukrainians can be sacrificed before defending the country becomes…

Political scientist Ivan Katchanovski argues that Ukraine's military, economic and manpower position is becoming increasingly unsustainable as Russian forces continue advancing. In a wide-ranging interview with Lena Petrova, he challenges Western narratives about the battlefield, forced mobilisation and the prospects for victory, arguing that continued Western support is prolonging a war Ukraine cannot win. INR Report: Based on an interview…