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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

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questions Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via AP) **FILE**

Republicans fume after closed-door hearing on Afghan pullout

The Biden administration is ducking accountability by refusing to publicly answer key questions about the disastrous U.S. and allied military withdrawal from Afghanistan, top Republicans charged Wednesday after a closed-door hearing that offered lawmakers the rare chance to grill senior U.S. officials about the events and policies behind last summer's deadly pullout.

February 2, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking to the media during a joint news conference with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban following their talks in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. Putin says the U.S. and its allies have ignored Russia's top security demands. In his first comments on the standoff with the West over Ukraine in more than a month, Putin said Tuesday that the Kremlin is still studying the U.S. and NATO's response to the Russian security demands received last week. (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool Photo via AP)

Peeved Putin complains West ‘ignored’ demands as Blinken, Lavrov confer

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. and its allies of dismissing the Kremlin's "fundamental concerns" about the military standoff across Eastern Europe, while Ukraine announced plans Tuesday to dramatically expand the size of its armed forces, adding fresh uncertainty to the slow-burning crisis.

February 1, 2022
Ukrainian soldiers take part in an exercise for the use of NLAW anti-tank missiles at the Yavoriv military training ground, close to Lviv, western Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. British defense secretary Ben Wallace told the U.K. had already delivered 2,000 NLAWs to Ukraine, a number he indicated might continue to rise. The missiles were London's way of providing defensive aid to Kyiv as Russian forces deploying around Ukraine's borders give the impression a new invasion may be imminent. (AP Photo/Pavlo Palamarchuk)

U.S. appeals to Putin’s ‘legacy’ as threat of war looms in Ukraine

Top Biden administration officials said Thursday they are holding out hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin will embrace a legacy of peace and end a long-running military standoff along the Ukrainian border, even as top aides to the Russian leader said they see "little ground for optimism" with the threat of war looming over Eastern Europe.

January 27, 2022
Masked pro-Russian armed militants guard a checkpoint with a Russian national flag on the right, blocking the major highway which links Kharkiv, outside Slovyansk, Ukraine, on May 24, 2014. Russia's present demands are based on Putin's purported long sense of grievance and his rejection of Ukraine and Belarus as truly separate, sovereign countries but rather as part of a Russian linguistic and Orthodox motherland. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

West slams reports of Russian plan for puppet government in Ukraine

Moscow plans to force out Ukraine's political leaders and install a pro-Russian puppet regime in Kyiv, British officials said over the weekend, as the West desperately tries to stave off war in Eastern Europe at a moment when Russian action against its neighbor seems all but inevitable.

January 23, 2022
In this photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, a view of the joint strategic exercise of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus Zapad-2021 at the Mulino training ground in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia, Sept. 11, 2021. The amassing of Russian troops and equipment near Ukraine's border has caused worries in Kyiv and in the West that Moscow could be planning to launch an invasion. (Vadim Savitskiy/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)

U.S., Russia dig in as talks continue on military standoff along Ukraine’s border

The U.S. and its European partners have ruled out Russian security proposals that would limit NATO's expansion, top Biden administration officials said Tuesday, as the two sides dig in ahead of a second round of meetings to resolve the military standoff in Ukraine and tensions all along Russia's borders from the Baltics to the Black Sea.

January 11, 2022
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, presidential aide Yury Ushakov, center, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu wait for the beginning of the Russia-Turkey talks in the Kremlin iin Moscow, Russia, Jan. 23, 2019. While demanding a halt to NATO's eastward expansion, Moscow has also urged the U.S. and its allies not to deploy weapons or conduct any military activities in Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP) **FILE**

Little sign of progress on Ukraine standoff after first U.S.-Russia talks

A nearly six-hour "businesslike" conversation between American and Russian diplomats on Monday outwardly did little to resolve the dangerous military standoff along the Russia-Ukraine border and rising tensions across Eastern Europe, with top officials from both nations publicly downplaying the talks and insisting that the other side had to make the first move.

January 10, 2022
In this file photo, U.S President Joe Biden, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin enter the 'Villa la Grange' during their meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File) **FILE**

Biden faces key test, major opportunity ahead of Russia talks on Ukraine

The slow-burning military standoff along the Russia-Ukraine border could reach a tipping point next week as the Biden administration enters a series of high-stakes diplomatic meetings with Moscow, and analysts say the U.S. and its NATO allies must seize a golden opportunity to turn the tables and extract their own concessions from the Kremlin.

January 6, 2022
Police officers inspect the scene of a bomb explosion in Beni, eastern Congo Sunday Dec. 26, 2021. A bomb exploded at a restaurant Saturday as patrons gathered on Christmas Day, killing at least seven people in an eastern Congolese town where Islamic extremists are known to be active. (AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro)

Congo attacks show Islamic State’s expansion across Africa

The Islamic State's foothold across Africa is expanding amid a recent spate of gruesome attacks and there are growing fears in Washington that the terror group, as well as other extremist outfits like it will use the continent as a staging ground for future jihadist strikes against the West.

December 28, 2021
Members of the Texas Army National Guard stand by as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and 10 other governors hold a press conference at Anzalduas Park on Oct. 6, 2021, in Mission, Texas. Texas' Republican governor on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin the state will not direct National Guard members to follow a COVID-19 vaccine order as GOP opposition to the mandate across the U.S. military grows. (Joel Martinez/The Monitor via AP)

Pentagon goes to court to defend COVID-19 vaccine mandate for troops

The Defense Department is facing multiple high-stakes legal fights rife with national security implications. This includes clashes with Republican governors who claim full control over National Guard forces and the Pentagon's hard line against troops seeking COVID-19 vaccine waivers on religious grounds.

December 27, 2021