The Power Vertical Podcast by Brian Whitmore

Vladimir Putin's mobilization runs into a snag as Russians take to the streets and draft-age men flee the country in massive numbers.

In the wake of humiliating military setbacks in northeastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin implicitly threatens the West with nuclear blackmail and calls up 300,000 reservists to replenish his depleted troops on the battlefield

A stunningly successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast in the northeast liberated an estimated 3,800 square kilometers of territory, an area roughly the size of the US state of Rhode Island, in just two days as the Russian front line crumbled and troops retreated.

As Ukraine launches a fresh offensive to retake Russian-occupied lands in the south, another struggle is taking shape that will likely be as consequential as what happens on the battlefield. And that is the energy war.

August 2022 may go down in history as the month Ukraine took the war to Russia and challenged Moscow's dominance over the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula.

Ukrainian special forces and guerilla units strike deep inside Russian-occupied Crimea, hitting two airfields and a munitions depot, challenging Moscow's control of the peninsula.

Three decades ago, U.S. President George H.W. Bush marked the end of the Cold War in his 1992 State of the Union address. It was a heady moment when anything and everything seemed possible. But it would not last.

From torture to the summary executions of civilians to the widespread abduction and forced deportation of noncombatants, the anecdotal evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine has been mounting for months. Both the International Criminal Court and the Ukrainian authorities have launched formal investigations for crimes against humanity and potentially genocide. But as was the case with the downin...

The HIMARS are changing the game on the battlefield. The High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and other longer-range weapons supplied by the West are enabling the Ukrainians to hit high-value Russian targets, reduce their own casualties, and mount a counter offensive in the East and South.

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Michael Sawikiw, Executive Vice President and Director of the Ukrainian National Information Service, Vice President of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, and President of the US Holodomor Committee; and Marta Dyczok, an Associate Professor of History and Political Science at the University of Western Ontario and CE...

NATO's most vulnerable members are also its most hawkish because they understand that should Russia succeed in subjugating Ukraine, then history suggests they could be next. On the Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with veteran journalist and Kremlin-watcher Michael Weiss about how the war in Ukraine looks from the alliance's front line. Sound effects obtained from https...

Just over a century ago, in the aftermath of World War I, almost all of Europe's empires began the process of disintegration and decolonization. The Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and British empires all declined and fell in the first half of the 20th Century.

The Wider War: Russia's Assault on Ukraine -- and the West by The Charles T. McDowell Center for Global Studies and Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center

The battle for the Donbas rages in Ukraine's east with Russian forces on the verge of capturing the strategically vital city of Sievierodonetsk. And with Ukrainian cities facing a merciless onslaught of Russian artillery and missile attacks, Kyiv calls on the West to send more long-range weapons to push back the offensive.

As Ukraine fights for its sovereignty and independence, cracks are appearing in the Western coalition against Vladimir Putin. French President Emmanuel Macron has warned against "humiliating Russia," Italy has floated a peace plan that would have Ukraine cede territory in exchange for peace, and talks are continuing in Turkey, without Kyiv's participation, to ease the grain crisis that Russia crea...

When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, it managed to convince much of the world that Georgia had started the war - an absurd proposition given that Georgian troops never left Georgian territory. When Russia annexed Crimea and invaded the Donbas in 2014, it persuaded much of the world to pretend that it was some sort of "civil war" among Ukrainians and that Moscow was not involved despite massive evi...

If Vladimir Putin's goal in invading Ukraine was to push NATO and the EU out of Eastern Europe, he has failed miserably. Because suddenly, Finland and Sweden have applied to join NATO, a prospect highly unlikely just months ago. Suddenly, the prospect of Ukraine joining the EU, unthinkable just months ago, is now a very real possibility. And suddenly, we are entering into a whole new era of Europe...

Does declaring victory make you a victor? As both Russia and Ukraine say they've won the war, it's far from the only question on people's minds, but an important distinction, nonetheless. Listen to this week's episode as we tackle these lines of questions.

Listen to how Brian Whitmore and Jeff Mankoff argue that imperialism is tied to culture and that Russia may not see the changes you'd expect in a world after Putin.

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore, speaks with former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who was in office at the time of the 2007 attacks, about how they unfolded and what they portended.

Genocide. The word has been thrown out by US President Biden when describing the horrors committed in Ukraine. But is there a legal case to back up the claim?

Week 8 of the Russian war on Ukraine. Is it too early to call this genocide?

Scenes of mass graves and civilians shot execution style in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, are imprinted into the World's mind, and it may never be the same again.

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore unpacks the latest developments on the ground with retired U.S. Admiral James Foggo.

As Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its second month, civilian casualties mount and so does evidence of Russian war crimes. Here are the latest developments.