Russia’s war on Ukraine [What Think Tanks are thinking]

Summary:

The Ukraine Defence Contact Group (Ramstein group) of 54 countries supporting Kyiv in its struggle against Russia’s military aggression meets on 21 April to discuss sending more military equipment to Ukraine. As President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in regions of Ukraine under Moscow’s military occupation, Russian forces stepped up heavy artillery bombardments and air strikes on the devastated, symbolically important Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Poland, Ukraine’s neighbour and staunch ally, has banned imports of Ukrainian grain in defiance of EU trade policies, saying local prices of wheat had plummeted, causing protests from Polish farmers. Transport shipments would be restored after a deal to ensure that Poland would be only a transit country for the commodity. Meanwhile, Russia has cast doubt over whether it will agree to extend the agreement not to block Ukrainian shipments of grain via the Black Sea. This note gathers links to the recent publications and commentaries from many international think tanks on Russia’s war on Ukraine. Earlier analyses of the war can be found in a previous edition of the ‘What Think Tanks are Thinking’ series.

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