Ukraine Crisis Media Center

Russia has recently announced the creation of an international development agency. The initiative was announced by the head of Rossotrudnichestvo, Yevgeny Primakov. He said that the Russian Foreign Ministry is drafting a federal law that will allow the launch of a Russian analogue of USAID. According to him, the goal of the reform is to increase the effectiveness of Russia's international influence projects and reduce the bureaucratic component in the work of the agency. The Hybrid Warfare Analitical Group at the UCMC decided to find out why the Kremlin is thinking about reforming this instrument of hybrid influence in the global dimension.    Read more: https://lnkd.in/eFVU6iBx By Микита Кузьменко

On December 25, 2024, an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane flying from Baku to Grozny was shot down by a Russian air defense missile, killing 38 people, including 26 Azerbaijani citizens. The Kremlin's response was demonstratively cynical - rather than taking responsibility, Moscow focused on shifting blame to Kyiv, promoting the narrative that Ukrainian drone attacks were the primary cause. This refusal to acknowledge responsibility became the catalyst for a devastating diplomatic crisis. Summer 2025 brought further escalation with the killing of the Safarov brothers during Russian raids in Yekaterinburg and Azerbaijan's subsequent crackdown on Russian propagandists, signaling the complete breakdown of decades of pragmatic partnership. One of the narrative used by Russians to describe this situation is the one of the pursuit of a «third force». The Russians based this narrative on the claim that the crisis in relations between Moscow and Baku was inspired by «external forces». The purpose of this narrative is to distract from Russia's own actions by portraying the conflict as the result of provocations by "external players." In fact the escalation was a direct response to actions taken by Russian security forces. Read more: https://lnkd.in/enKJidEx

A group of Chinese nationals suspected of espionage has been exposed in Kyiv. Reports indicate that their object of interest was Ukraine’s “Neptune” missile. Ukraine believes that the information they collected could be useful to Russia. The Kremlin actively engages students and workers from third countries to gather intelligence. This was stated on the air of FREEДОМ TV channel by Volodymyr Solovian, Head of the Hybrid Warfare Analysis Group at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center.

On July 8, U.S. President Donald Trump made important statements regarding Washington’s policy on the Russia-Ukraine war. For perhaps the first time, he voiced harsh and principled assessments of his Russian counterpart. “We get a lot of bulls – thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless”, – said the American leader. It is too early to speak of a definitive shift in the U.S. administration’s approach to relations with the Kremlin. However, a number of signs indicate Moscow’s anxious reaction to Trump’s rhetorical pivot.

On July 8, U.S. President Donald Trump made important statements regarding Washington’s policy on the Russia-Ukraine war. For perhaps the first time, he voiced harsh and principled assessments of his Russian counterpart. “We get a lot of bulls – thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless”, – said the American leader. It is too early to speak of a definitive shift in the U.S. administration’s approach to relations with the Kremlin. However, a number of signs indicate Moscow’s anxious reaction to Trump’s rhetorical pivot. More details: https://lnkd.in/eXVj6_MH

"The claim of an «ethnic mafia» partially relies on the real existence of criminal elements in any diaspora. However, it distorts the nature of the issue and the scale of the reaction. The internal focus of this narrative is driven by an overt (and sometimes even blatant) appeal to the xenophobic beliefs of ordinary Russians, who consider the Russian national element superior to representatives of the national «peripheries» of the empire. Therefore, this episode shows that Z-propaganda not only cultivates hatred toward Ukrainians but also toward members of other nationalities who, at certain points in history, found themselves within the geopolitical ambitions of Moscow" Read more: https://lnkd.in/enKJidEx

Relations between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation, which have for decades been characterised by a pragmatic partnership, have undergone a radical transformation in recent months. The trigger for these changes was the tragedy of 25 December 2024, when an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane en route from Baku to Grozny crashed as a result of a Russian air defence missile. The refusal of the Russian authorities to take responsibility and issue a proper apology became the reason for a diplomatic crisis between Azerbaijan and Russia. The Hybrid Warfare Analytical Group at the UCMC studied the Kremlin’s propaganda rhetoric on Russia’s relations with Azerbaijan amid the crisis in bilateral relations.

Last week, it became known that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered a halt to the transfer of certain types of weapons to Ukraine due to concerns on the stockpiles of the U.S. Armed Forces. Among the items placed under “freeze” were surface-to-air missiles for the Patriot air defense system, munitions for HIMARS MLRS, and Hellfire guided missiles. These systems are critically important for Kyiv amid intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, as well as Russia’s attempts to accelerate its summer-autumn offensive on the front lines. In this context, Volodymyr Solovian, PhD, Head of the Hybrid Warfare Analysis Group at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center (UCMC), responded to journalists from the FREEДОМ TV channel regarding the reasons for the current U.S. reassessment of its military aid policy.