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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a National Security Correspondent for The Washington Times. His reporting is regularly featured in the daily Threat Status newsletter.
Previously, he covered energy and the environment, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, and also spent two years as a White House correspondent during the Obama administration.
Before coming to The Times in 2011, Ben worked as political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde at the State Dept., Wednesday, May 4, 2022 in Washington. (Michael A. McCoy/Pool photo via AP)

Swedish officials visit Washington as country edges closer to NATO

Top Swedish officials visited Washington Wednesday as their country weighs whether to join NATO, a move that would ratchet up tensions with Moscow even higher while also exposing divisions across Europe over the future of the alliance and its proper role amid Russia's war in Ukraine.

May 4, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while addresses a meeting of the Council of Legislators under the Russian Federal Assembly at the Tauride Palace, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (Alexander Demyanchuk, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Angry Putin wields energy, nuclear threats against West

Russian President Vladimir Putin cut off natural gas supplies to two key NATO nations, Poland and Bulgaria, on Wednesday and threatened a "lightning-fast" military response against anyone who interferes with Russia's assault on Ukraine, pushing the fallout from the already devastating war deeper into Europe and threatening to accelerate a global energy crunch.

April 27, 2022
Smoke rises after shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. An Associated Press team of journalists was in Mariupol the day of the airstrike and raced to the scene. Their images prompted a massive Russian misinformation campaign that continues to this day. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

Mariupol on the brink as Russians seek breakthrough

Defenders in Mariupol are desperately short on supplies and may lose control of the city within days or less, Ukrainian military officials said Wednesday, as their Russian foes ramped up a non-stop bombardment of the strategically vital port city and inched closer to what would be the first major prize so far in Moscow's two-month war.

April 20, 2022
Ukrainian servicemen study a Sweden shoulder-launched weapon system Carl Gustaf M4 during a training session on the near Kharkiv, Ukraine, April 7, 2022. Western weaponry pouring into Ukraine helped blunt Russia's initial offensive and seems certain to play a central role in the approaching battle for Ukraine's contested Donbas region. Yet the Russian military is making little headway halting what has become a historic arms express. (AP Photo/Andrew Marienko, File)

Backfire: Sweden, Finland eye NATO in reaction to Russian invasion

Finland and Sweden signaled Wednesday that they may announce plans to apply to join NATO within a matter of weeks, dealing a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin's hopes of weakening the Western military alliance and offering further evidence that the alleged atrocities committed by Mr. Putin's troops in Ukraine have only hardened anti-Russian sentiment across the West.

April 13, 2022
In this file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, poses with Col. Gen. Alexander Dvornikov during an awarding ceremony in Moscow's Kremlin, Russia on March 17, 2016. Dvornikov was appointed the new military commander for the campaign in Ukraine. (Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) ** FILE **

Defiant Putin vows victory in Ukraine, denies atrocities

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Tuesday to press on with his military campaign in Ukraine, casting it as a "noble" mission that will end in victory and setting the stage for what is likely to be the bloodiest fighting so far as regrouping Russian troops mount a concentrated assault on the disputed Donbas region.

April 12, 2022
Ukrainian tanks move in a street in Irpin, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukraine braces for Donbas battle as Moscow’s war effort faces new questions

Ukraine braced itself Monday for a massive Russian assault on the country's eastern Donbas region, which is set to become ground zero in a bloody conflict that shows no sign of stopping despite growing questions about whether Moscow can secure anything resembling the original victory it sought.

April 11, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Kyiv failure reverberates for Putin’s shaken regime

Russia's push to capture Kyiv has failed and all of its troops have retreated from the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Pentagon officials said Wednesday, marking a crushing defeat for the Kremlin and dealing a blow to the country's perceived status as a global military power.

April 6, 2022
People walk by an apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodyanka, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian troops of gruesome atrocities in Ukraine and told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that those responsible should immediately be brought up on war crimes charges in front of a tribunal like the one set up at Nuremberg after World War II.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Ukraine battles, fallout far from over, Pentagon brass warn

Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine is far from over, and the West must prepare for a yearslong commitment to support the government in Kyiv, guard NATO's eastern border and gird for the revival of an era of great-power conflict, top Pentagon leaders said Tuesday.

April 5, 2022