Vladimir Putin’s obsession with reversing the demographic crisis that has plagued Russia for more than ten years has encountered an obstacle of his own making: the war in Ukraine. Tens of thousands of men, many of them young men of reproductive age, have lost their lives on the front lines since 2022. To try to compensate for this bleeding, which adds to the endemic low birth rate, several initiatives have been proposed so that these soldiers can reproduce after death and render a final service to the homeland and their families.

This year's Victory Day military parade will be remembered for two circumstances. The first, Vladimir Putin's fear, which led him to turn his showcase of military power into a minimal and unprecedented spectacle: without tanks or missiles, practically without foreign guests and without Western media. The second, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's mockery, who, urged at the last minute by Donald Trump, desisted from threatening Red Square with his drones and signed a sarcastic decree to “allow” the Russian celebration this Saturday.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a three-day ceasefire, from this Saturday to Monday, coinciding with the commemoration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in Moscow. The first to announce it was the President of the United States, Donald Trump, but shortly after, Volodymyr Zelensky and the Kremlin confirmed it. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the truce would include a suspension "of all kinetic activity" and also an exchange of a thousand prisoners from each country. The announcement comes the day after the Russian Ministry of Defense declared a unilateral three-day truce, in this case, from Friday to Sunday. For his part, the Ukrainian president had proposed that the ceasefire begin on Wednesday.

This Saturday, the same day that Europe Day will be celebrated in many European cities, there will be a Community Prime Minister who will be neither in Brussels nor in the capital of his country. Instead of commemorating the historic Schumann Declaration, which laid the foundations for the European Union, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, will be in Moscow to commemorate the victory of the Soviet army over Nazi Germany in World War II. He will be the only EU leader to travel to Russia during Vladimir Putin's major annual military display anniversary.

Vladimir Putin has ignored the ceasefire offer proposed by Volodymyr Zelensky, which came into effect this Wednesday, just after midnight. Ukraine denounces that Russian drones have attacked several cities and caused casualties. According to Kyiv authorities, this shows that the Russian president rejects peace and that his invitation to stop attacks on Friday and Saturday only aims to secure Russia's Victory Day military parade this Saturday. Some voices within the Ukrainian government even advocate for not respecting the truce promoted by the Kremlin on its important holiday.

It was the last thing Vladimir Putin wanted in the most important week of the year. A Ukrainian drone has impacted an emblematic luxury residential skyscraper just a few kilometers from the Kremlin. The incident, which has not caused casualties, takes place five days before the Victory Day military parade, the global showcase of Russian military might. For the first time in almost two decades, neither tanks nor missiles will be exhibited because security cannot be guaranteed, and Putin, in full psychosis over a possible attack by Kyiv, has even desperately proposed a truce of a few hours to ensure that Volodymyr Zelensky does not spoil the party.

A Russian influencer from Monaco has shaken up public debate in Moscow like it hasn't been shaken in a long time. In a video addressed to Vladimir Putin, Viktoriia Boniia, a former contestant on Dom-2, Russian Big Brother, warned the president that people and leaders "are afraid of him" and "don't tell him the truth." One of the reasons for her complaints was the growing internet blockages, the last straw for the patience of citizens, tired of four years of war and an increasingly worsening economic situation.

As in so many other aspects, also concerning the management of the family nucleus, Vladimir Putin bears little resemblance to most world leaders. Between transparency and overexposure, the Russian president opts for extreme hermeticism, which gives rise to mystery and rumors about extramarital affairs and illegitimate children. If the misfortunes of royalty are often the subject of the gossip press, in Russia investigative journalists are the ones who delve into the secrets of their head of state's most intimate circle. A tsar's life protected with the zeal of a spy.

Everything was designed to evoke the splendor of the Soviet Union. As a setting, the House of the Unions, a palace from the late 18th century, next to the Duma, which hosted the wakes of all the leaders of the USSR, from Lenin to Gorbachev; the name, Sovintern, recalling the Comintern (the Communist International); and neoconstructivist typography, in homage to post-revolutionary poster art. However, the international network that was presented this Monday in Moscow “does not want to recreate the Soviet past”, declared Sergei Mironov, the head of the promoting party A Just Russia, but rather to build “a socialism of the 21st century”.

Tehran has taken a step in the attempt to resume negotiations with the United States. Last Tuesday, Donald Trump said he unilaterally extended the truce to Iran, awaiting its leaders to present a "unified peace proposal," using a supposed division in the regime as a pretext. This Monday, Tehran has sent a new proposal to Washington in which, according to American media such as Associated Press and Axios, it commits to ending its blockade in the Strait of Hormuz if the United States also lifts the counter-blockade to Iranian ports and applies a long-term or permanent truce. In the third phase, negotiations would take place on Iran's nuclear program. According to the Lebanese channel, Tehran "refuses to discuss this issue until an agreement is reached on the first two phases." If the US accepts this proposal, Iran will agree to resume negotiations with Washington's envoys.Even so, the fact of leaving the discussions on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program until the end suggests that it could be rejected by Washington, which has stated since the beginning of the war that the main objective is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.Hopes for a new round of negotiations between the United States and Iran in Pakistan revived on Friday, but quickly faded again when the Iranian delegation left Islamabad before Donald Trump's envoys arrived. Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, left the Pakistani capital for Oman, and this Monday continued his tour to Russia.

February 14, 2025. A Russian drone loaded with explosives crashes into the structure protecting the old sarcophagus of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The fire burns for three weeks, damages the walls of the new construction and forces it to be repaired because it is no longer capable of containing radiation. Despite this, a year later, on the eve of the fortieth anniversary of the worst atomic disaster in history, maintenance is at a standstill. Russian attacks on Ukraine hinder the engineers' task, and environmental organizations like Greenpeace have just warned that, if nothing is done, there is a risk that the sarcophagus will “collapse” and cause a “catastrophic” radioactive leak, which “knows no borders”. a catastrophic radioactive leak, which “knows no borders”.

Be careful not to fall into the temptation of seeking analogies between Viktor Orbán's spectacular electoral defeat in Hungary and Rumen Radev's no less ostentatious victory in Bulgaria. The far-right leader of the Hungarian government has little to do with the former pilot and former head of the Bulgarian state. Radev is a populist, yes, but one who does not lose sight of his commitments to the European Union. Nevertheless, it is inevitable to point out that the Radev who will be invested as prime minister will not renounce his loyalty to Russia, a factor that may represent obstacles in community aid to Ukraine. A situation that invites, therefore, to wait and see.

August 10, 2023. 2:10 AM, Moscow time. The Luna-25 mission launches from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East. For the first time in 47 years, Russia is launching an unmanned lunar mission, which aims to touch down near the Moon's south pole, study its soil, and search for traces of frozen water. On August 16, the spacecraft enters lunar orbit and, three days later, begins its landing maneuvers. But at the crucial moment, something goes wrong. The engines do not shut off when they should, the craft adopts an incorrect trajectory, and it crashes into the lunar surface.

“A swallow does not make a summer” would be the Russian equivalent of our “A flower does not make a summer”. In this winter Orthodox Easter Week, with temperatures near 0 degrees and snow in Moscow, the Easter truce will have passed like a fleeting mirage of 32 hours. Faced with Vladimir Putin's refusal to extend the ceasefire beyond midnight on Sunday, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy had asked him to, both sides have mutually accused each other of repeatedly violating the pause in fighting in the hope that Donald Trump will see that the other is the main obstacle to peace.

Pessimism has taken hold of Russian military commentators. After the Kremlin's army managed to close the gap with Ukraine in the drone race in the autumn of 2025, in recent weeks Kyiv's unmanned aerial vehicles have once again left Russian technology behind. Their superiority on the front has helped to slow down Volodymyr Putin's spring offensive, while, for the first time since the start of the invasion, more long-range Ukrainian drones than Russian ones are being launched.the distance to Ukraine in the drone raceThe ability to disrupt Kyiv's troop supplies was one of the successes of the Molnia-2, the Russian attack drone that allowed the Kremlin to increase pressure on the Ukrainian rear in late last year and facilitated the progress of Russian soldiers. Now, however, it is the new generation of Ukrainian drones that is causing Moscow's troops to falter. In March, they only advanced 25 square kilometers, according to military observers from the Blackbird group, far from the monthly average of 380 in 2025. The great hope of Russian commanders is that, with the arrival of good weather, the foliage of the trees will serve their men to camouflage themselves from the threat from the sky and allow them to survive the so-called

The war fronts are multiplying everywhere while Donald Trump continues to belittle NATO and opens wars from which he cannot emerge afterwards. In a context of growing global tension, this Thursday the British government revealed that Russia carried out a covert submarine operation in the North Atlantic, in waters near the United Kingdom, for more than a month. A month in which, as in the best moments of the Cold War, Russians and Westerners played the cat-and-mouse game. Because the Russian submarines were being watched at all times: the British frigates were responsible for making it evident.

Geographically isolated and with an inclement climate (it rains 300 days a year and the wind reaches hurricane-force gusts), the Faroe Islands are another piece of the Kingdom of Denmark that has gained growing importance on the geopolitical chessboard. This archipelago, made up of eighteen islands, is in a privileged position to monitor the North Atlantic, where world powers compete for control of the Arctic gateways. European fishing fleets and American warships converge in its waters. At the same time, the Faroe Islands maintain a controversial trade agreement with Russia on fishing, the heart of an economy that does not depend on donations from Copenhagen (as is the case with Greenland). The Faroe Islands are part of NATO through Denmark, but they are not part of the European Union, as the autonomous government is not interested in entering into community fishing regulations.In these circumstances, the Faroese (55,000 inhabitants) elected a new government at the end of March to manage their extensive autonomy, while Denmark retains powers over defense, security, foreign policy, currency, and courts. The victory of the Conservative Party at the polls opens the door for Beinir Johannesen, 29 years old, to become the youngest prime minister the country has ever had.At a time when Donald Trump's desires for Greenland have generated anxiety in the region, the elections have set aside geopolitics and have focused on the economy, which is in expansion. The Atlantic nation's GDP per capita exceeds that of Denmark, thanks to salmon farm exports, which are worth one billion euros annually. The unemployment rate is around 1%, and the country has modern infrastructure, such as the world's first roundabout built under the sea.However, housing prices in the capital, Tórshavn, are a headache for those who want to live there, at the same time as the islands face a serious depopulation problem. Among 25-year-old Faroese, 40% choose to move abroad and approximately one in five never return. Another controversy is the largest construction project in their history: a 23-kilometer subsea tunnel that will cost the equivalent of 20% of the country's GDP.In the background of the elections, there has also been independence with Denmark, an option defended by five of the six main Faroese political formations. In 1946, the Faroese voted by a narrow margin to separate from Denmark, but at that time the Danish king Christian X did not approve it. Finally, self-government powers were expanded in 2005, after the Faroe Islands and Denmark had been connected for more than 600 years.At the beginning of this year, the Faroese government was set to reopen negotiations with Copenhagen with the intention of pushing for greater autonomy. But that was before Trump triggered the worst diplomatic crisis in the Danish kingdom over control of the Arctic island of Greenland. Faced with this situation, the Faroese leaders decided it was not the time to enter into in-depth negotiations with Copenhagen over their sovereignty: “Given the climate that was generated, it was seen that it was not opportune to start negotiations on the condition of a new state, as everything was unpredictable”, reasons Heini í Skorini, an expert in international relations at the University of the Faroe Islands.The expert explains that the reasons for independence are based on the will to have a voice of our own on the international stage: “For us, the fact of not being a sovereign entity makes it very difficult for us to negotiate new and better free trade agreements because this is done between states”, he argues. Skorini also points out that “there is a political consensus that the next step is to achieve statehood, without this necessarily implying leaving the Danish Commonwealth”.Increase in geopolitical tension

While the issue of sovereignty has been put aside, the Faroese government has extended the controversial fishing agreement with Russia year after year to exchange quotas, despite the war in Ukraine. This cooperation in fishing has irritated Copenhagen and Brussels, even though from Tórshavn it is justified that food products are not subject to sanctions. They also recall that Norway has ratified similar agreements with Moscow: “On the one hand, all EU sanctions against Russia have been adopted because we want to be part of Europe and NATO, but, on the other hand, the decision has been made to maintain fishing cooperation with the Russians,” details Skorini.Although the Faroe Islands have attracted much less attention than Greenland, the Faroese perceive the growing interest of superpowers: “Some years ago it would have been science fiction to see a North American nuclear submarine surfacing in a Faroese port, but today it is no longer the case,” assures the expert. The archipelago is located in the so-called GIUK gap between Greenland, Iceland, and Scotland, a point that NATO keeps a close eye on because it represents the exit to the Atlantic for the Russian submarine fleet based in the Arctic. Faroese politicians have also expressed their concern that Russian fishing vessels anchored in the islands may be carrying out espionage operations. To monitor all this, the United States will install new radars to observe what is happening in the archipelago's waters, “although the increase in US military presence also creates some suspicions,” acknowledges Skorini.

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The territorial dispute clouds the peace negotiations over Ukraine, now suspended due to the conflict in the Middle East. Although the recognition of the occupied regions as Russian is important for Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin's ambitions involve the Belarusianization of Kyiv, that is, its political subordination. Moscow wants a meek and friendly neighbor that poses no threat in itself to Russia, nor as a vanguard of hypothetical Western aggression. However, the Russian president missed the opportunity to depose Volodymyr Zelensky at the start of the war, and after four years of daily bombings, the advent of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine seems like a fantasy or a bad joke.

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“Are there any men in the audience? No? What a shame! Take off your pants and put on a skirt!” With these words, the dean of Voronezh State University of Engineering, in southwestern Russia, tried to pressure his students to go fight in Ukraine. The Kremlin has demanded that the rectors of the institutions send 2% of enrolled students to the war. They promise them one year of service in a drone unit far from the front lines, astronomical salaries, and a secure future, but activists warn that it is a trap and that they are very likely to get caught and lose their lives. astronomical salaries and a secure future, but activists warn that it is a trap and that they are very likely to get caught and lose their lives.

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Volodymyr Zelensky fears a perfect storm: a prolonged conflict in the Middle East, from which Vladimir Putin continuously benefits with the sustained increase in oil prices, which fattens the Russian budget for the war in Ukraine and stalls the economies of Kiev's European allies. To prevent this, the Ukrainian president is carrying out the most intense campaign of attacks against Russia's crude oil export ports since the start of the invasion. However, this strategy could be counterproductive to Zelensky's short-term interests, as it could contribute even more to the increase in oil prices and, therefore, to the Kremlin's revenues.

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