Conflict Zone

Speaking to DW's Conflict Zone after Moscow's "subdued" Victory Day parade, Nina Khrushcheva says, "the question of prestige is no longer that relevant for Putin."

"We need to convince our citizens across the EU what's at stake is the future of the European Union," says EU Council chief Charles Michel. But is Brussels doing all it can to ensure a Ukrainian victory?

US lawyer Alan Dershowitz says the proposed Israeli judicial reforms are none of Europe's business. The longtime Harvard law professor says that even if the reforms put forward by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were enacted, Israel would remain a "vibrant, vital democracy." Dershowitz does oppose what he calls a "weakening" of the court.

A leading Russian economist tells DW Putin has always acted like a mafia boss. Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics and Provost at Sciences Po in Paris, was a top economic advisor and banking official who fled Moscow in 2013. He now says the Russian president will use every additional dollar to "kill Ukrainians" but added that sanctions are keeping cash from the Kremlin.

Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu says his country is "managing to manage" in a "very difficult region" following Russia's war of agression in Ukraine. Popescu told DW's Tim Sebastian that Kyiv "liberating all of its territories is the best way to keep Moldova's path to the EU open." He also said his country had been the target of Kremlin hybrid attacks for more than 30 years.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze called for a tribunal to bring Russians who commit war crimes in Ukraine to justice. The Ukrainian MP told DW the recent arrest warrant for war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court against Russian President Vladimir Putin would further isolate Moscow. She called the cases of Ukrainian children taken by Russian authorities in occupied territories "genocide."

The fates of Ukraine and Belarus are "intertwined," says Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of Belarus' opposition now living in exile. But why is Kyiv reluctant to offer its support to her movement?

The EU has said it will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes — but has it overpromised and underdelivered? Katarina Barley, a vice president of the European Parliament, speaks with DW’s Conflict Zone.

As the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine nears, DW sat down with Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko, himself a veteran of the fighting. "We just want to be alive, with our families, on our land," he told Tim Sebastian for Conflict Zone. The parliamentarian discussed Western promises and his own experiences since February 24, 2022.

A retired senior Chinese military officer told DW that the balloon incident was an "inadvertent" accident, but Senior Colonel Zhou Bo also expressed concern that "extreme competition" could lead to conflict with the US. Zhou also told host Tim Sebastian that if China took sides in Russia’s war in Ukraine, it would lead to World War Three.