The Wall Street Journal writes about the role of Crimea in the Russian-Ukrainian war. From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation served as important supply bases and ensured the occupation of southern Ukraine, the publication writes. In addition, Crimea played an important role in the plans to create a land route to Moldova through Odesa. Ukraineʼs recent successes in destroying military targets on the territory of the peninsula have identified its weak points. Thus, the explosions at the air base in Saky disabled more than half of the naval aircraft of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, WSJ notes, citing an anonymous Western official. Because of the latest explosions, the Russian fleet performs the function of the coast guard, which sometimes fires missiles, according to the publicationʼs source. How the ability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to hit targets in Crimea will affect the course of the war as a whole is not yet known, but currently Ukraine has the goal of liberating Kherson and is therefore hitting supply chains and bridges to isolate the Russians. Velina Chakarova, director of the Austrian Institute of European and Security Policy, believes that Ukraine can also aim at Crimea in order to erode Russian military potential — according to the principle of corrosion. Experts also believe that the successful strikes indicate that the Armed Forces better understand how Russian air defenses work, use intelligence data and make the most of new Western equipment. At the same time, WSJ notes, the explosions in Crimea can lead to an escalation of the war — in particular, to justify total mobilization in the Russian Federation.
Michael Riordan, a physicist and author, writes about the possible impact of the "new Cold War" on the development of science in a column for The New York Times. Riordan believes that one of the many devastating consequences of Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine is damage to international scientific cooperation. Over the past two decades, the cooperation of scientists from different countries has produced incredible results: this is how the Large Hadron Collider appeared, thanks to which the Higgs boson was discovered. And thanks to the LIGO international project, data on the merger of supermassive black holes was collected. Scientists from Russia also took part in both projects. Because of Russiaʼs aggression, its scientists have become undesirable for participation in such large-scale projects, which, according to Riordan, can slow down scientific progress. In particular, the author writes that major scientific discoveries today are possible only on the condition of cooperation and exchange between different scientists, because individual nations do not have the necessary intellectual or financial resources. Now, for the first time in many years, international scientific cooperation is under threat due to an unjustified attack by one country participating in international scientific projects on another. This, Riordan writes, is likely to eventually lead to a return to the Cold War world order.
Luke McGee, editor of CNN ʼs European politics section, writes about the testing of European support for Ukraine this winter. Six months have passed since the start of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, and during that time the West has demonstrated a unity that many did not expect. But today, writes McGee, Western officials and diplomats are not so sure that Europe will maintain the consensus in winter, when food prices will rise and heating in homes will be limited. Some countries have already started preparing for the crisis: monuments in Berlin are no longer illuminated, and the French are fined for leaving their doors open when the air conditioner is on. McGee writes that among his interlocutors from among European diplomats and officials there is concern that some Western European countries still hope to restore "normal relations" with the Russian Federation. In addition, the supply of weapons to Ukraine cannot last forever, because its reserves are exhausted. War fatigue affects public opinion: the longer a war lasts, the harder it is to hold the audienceʼs attention. Several sources told McGee that they fear that at some point the West will want to reach a peace deal in Ukraine. However, there is no agreement on the terms of such an agreement: whether the West will support Ukraine in its quest to restore the borders by 2014, or by February 24, 2022, is unknown. The sad truth, the author writes, is that countries that do not have a border with the Russian Federation still do not understand the danger posed by Moscow.