By Gwynne Dyer - On January 18 US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that “our assessment has been that (a Russian invasion of Ukraine) could happen any time between mid-January and mid-February”.
A downbeat Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed as a “joke” the grounds laid out for the impeachment inquiry into him, as Democrats stood firm in accusing the US president of a “mafia-style shakedown” of his Ukrainian counterpart.
Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky has been elected president of Ukraine twice - first as a character in the popular TV show Servant of the People, now for real. The 41-year-old performer's bid started out as a long shot but, on the back of popular discontent with the political class, he sent establishment candidates tumbling.