Europe | Stop the war

Anti-war parties are set to clean up in eastern German elections

Scepticism about support for Ukraine runs deep in parts of the former communist republic

A woman walks past an election campaign billboard of the leftist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance
Photograph: Getty Images
|DRESDEN

ANATOLI CALUTCOV, who was born in the Soviet Union, slotted right in when he moved to Dresden 20 years ago. Visiting western parts of Germany always felt a bit strange, he says, but Dresden was like home—perhaps because it used to sit in the communist East German republic (GDR). Business is still brisk in Kalinka, the Russian food shop he runs, even if these days his Russian customers have been largely replaced by Ukrainian refugees.

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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Peace in our time”

From the August 17th 2024 edition

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Miners work underground near the city of Pokrovsk, Ukraine.

Why Russia is trying to seize a vital Ukrainian coal mine

Without it, the country’s remaining steel industry will be crippled

The search for Ukraine’s missing soldiers and sailors

The families of missing loved ones are trying to find them, alive or dead


A big truck emblazoned with the US flag on the side and the words MAGA above the cab (which resembles Donald Trump's face) flies over the brow of a hill. A startled deer is caught in the headlights

Europe could become Trump’s geopolitical roadkill

A second dose of MAGA will put the EU in a pickle


Russia continues to advance in eastern Ukraine

But it is encountering growing problems

Turkey’s long hard struggle with inflation

High interest rates are starting to do the trick

Delays on Italy’s spruced-up trains have got worse

Matteo Salvini is making feeble excuses