With ATMs failing, transport halted and food rationed, families on the peninsula are being pushed into a survival mode that could define everyday life for months.
Crimea fuel crisis sparks rare public anger as residents question Putin’s promises (Ukraine battlefield update, Day 1,588)Petrol shortages in Crimea trigger complaints among locals against Russian authorities. While such shortages persist, Russia soldiers appear to be closing in on Kramatorsk, a city in Ukraine.
Conflict over Ukrainian Insurgent Army actions during World War Two recently escalated into biggest tension between Ukraine and Poland in decades. Now leaders of both nations keep returning each other’s honours and medals.
From Wednesday onwards, the European Union is introducing a new €3 customs duty on low-value parcels entering the bloc from outside the EU – will you end up paying for this?
Progressive MEPs visited an external detention centre in light of the recent Return regulation vote, but found unjustified limits to their inspections
Donald Trump has been granted even more powers after a Supreme Court ruling that undermines the independence of the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces privacy safeguards of a EU-US data transfer deal.
Ukraine decimating Russia’s truck fleet, as Putin gives deluded press briefing (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,587)Nearly 800 Russian logistics vehicles already knocked out and supply roads to Crimea and Donbas under constant drone attack. Some frontline units could run short of basic supplies by late summer.
The EU finds itself Trumped in north AfricaThe US is emerging as the main partner for Libya and Morocco, with the EU likely to see its own influence in North Africa diluted in the process.
Russia bombs petrol stations while Ukraine targets bridges, in all-out war on enemy logistics (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,586)Ukrainian drones and missiles torch Russian oil depots and arms plants. Putin is scrambling to stop fuel queues snaking through Moscow.
With war still raging and Ukraine launching a new recruitment drive to fill its military ranks, the EU has proposed excluding Ukrainians with military obligations from blanket protections as of next year.
From a mysterious diamond ring gift to a journalist being ejected after the ambassador called the police, the Brussels bash played out less like a birthday party and more like a meticulously stage-managed piece of Trump-era political theatre.
Catholic cardinal risks Israel’s wrath in moral appeal for EU sanctionsSilence can also be violent, cynical, and spiteful, as with the EU failure to act against Israel, despite what the Vatican called its “destruction of entire cities … the enormous number of children killed.”
The new EU migration pact has been coming into force across Europe for two weeks now, bringing greater uncertainty and slowing down already complicated systems, and leaving asylum seekers suspended in a dangerous limbo.
Crimea declares ’emergency’ also on banks, as viral Russian soldier threatens anti-Putin mutiny (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,583)Soaring fuel prices, cash restrictions in Crimea, and growing talk of forced mobilisation mean ordinary Russians could soon feel the cost of the war.
The enlargement craze has sent legislative mechanisms ablaze in many Balkan and Eastern European countries, with transparency and corruption issues still behind Brussels standards.
The risks of Ebola cases in the EU is still “very low”, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has said. But it has still urged EU states to boost their preparedness.
Putin keen to offset bad news on Crimea by capture of Kostyantynivka, as Russians advance by crawling between houses (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,582)Putin is betting on seizing Kostyantynivka to shift attention from Crimea. Intensified Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure threaten to sap his capacity to sustain a long, attritional push in Donbas.
Ursula von der Leyen announced a ban on Russian cod earlier this month, as part of the next sanctions package – but at least four EU states are holding out against it.
Far from the front, ordinary Russians are starting to feel a war their leaders can no longer afford.
A closed-door event – “Saving Lives at Sea” – jointly-organised by Frontex and UN high commission on human rights, is taking place Thursday in Brussels.