claire trente-deux 🌻

I'm a low, down, cheap, little punk.

[LBC @LBC]

'We're going to make excuses for Trump until we have our own destruction.'

@PhillipsPOBrien and James O'Brien discuss how pro-Trump sectors of the media are failing to recognise the 'pantomime of him protecting Putin'.

[Christo Grozev @christogrozev]

I happened to see an early version of the "peace plan" , about 6 months ago. It was a purely Russian concept and was nearly identical to what we see today (certainly the 50/50 Russian assets + EU investment in Ukraine reconstruction was there).
However two items are glaringly missing.
First, a proposal that US (investors) bail post-war Russia out of a pending cash- and investment-strapped recession, "like in the 90s". This was meant as an inducement for Trump (whether as a legitimate US sweetener or as one for friends and family, that wasn't explicit)
The second "offering" was a new Russia-US alliance against China. A lot of "Christian alliance" demagoguery was included under that item.
I am absolutely certain that this is a Russian, not a jointly developed, proposal. I also cannot imagine the Russians didn't include the 1st of the two extra items. I can see however how that wouldn't be part of the publicly leaked plan.
On item 2, can't be sure if Russia dared to include the anti China offer. Again, if it did, it wouldn't be public.
So all in all, it might be a 30-point plan after all.

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🚨🇺🇦🇷🇺 BREAKING: UKRAINE ALLEGEDLY EXPLODES MOSCOW'S POWER HUB

Unconfirmed reports of Ukrainian forces purportedly attacked the Shatura Thermal Power Plant.

One of Russia's biggest, churning out 1.5GW mostly on gas,triggering a huge fireball on the northern side that turned the night sky orange.

A distant inferno raging over snowy buildings, with shocked residents dropping Russian f-bombs like "Blyaaat! Bitch!!!" as flames lick the horizon.

No official confirmation from Kyiv or Moscow yet, but all point to a drone strike.

This hits during an escalating tit-for-tat: Russia's pounding Ukraine's grid, now Kyiv flips the script on Putin's backyard.

Blackouts incoming? Damage unknown, but if it's a direct hit, millions could feel the chill.

Source: @Osinttechnical, Telegram Supernova+, Reuters

[Михайло Подоляк @Podolyak_M]

The news about an investigation into a corruption scheme in the energy sector is, unfortunately, not surprising. It is a logical echo of the past, in which the Kremlin spent decades building a system to keep Ukraine within its sphere of influence. Corruption was one of its main instruments, and remnants of that mechanism still exist. However, today’s situation is fundamentally different in nature.

The real news is not the fact of wrongdoing itself. What matters is that the independent anti-corruption institutions established after 2014 are working. The very fact that such an investigation has begun, that extensive investigative work has been conducted, and that the highest levels emphasize the need for fair verdicts — all this convincingly demonstrates Ukraine’s transformation.

Of course, Russian propaganda will try to use this as proof of Ukraine’s dysfunction. But the reality is the opposite: what we are witnessing is not the collapse of the state but a test of its new institutional foundations. Few countries could, in wartime, detect, investigate, and publicly discuss such cases. We are taking difficult, painful, yet absolutely necessary steps on the path toward integration with the European Union.

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

Nine people injured in Kyiv by the massive Russian attack on the city - Kyiv mayor.

One person is in critical condition.

Several residential buildings damaged. There are reports about heating, electricity, water disruptions due to the attack.

[Euromaidan Press @EuromaidanPress]

Aerial view of Myrnohrad devastated by ongoing Russian strikes.

Pokrovsk and nearby Myrnohrad, in Donetsk Oblast, remain the focal point of Russia’s heaviest ground assaults, as Russian forces have been attempting to encircle and seize both cities for months.
📹 TG/kyianyn204

[Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office @FCDOGovUK]

As Putin terrorises Ukrainian civilians, his own losses are piling up. 

Russia has suffered over a million military casualties for just 1.1% territory gained since November 2022.  

Putin must end the fighting, come to the negotiating table and engage in meaningful talks.

[Debunker des Etoiles @DeBunKerEtoiles]

En octobre 2022, quand le démocrate Paul Pelosi, mari de la politique démocrate Nancy Pelosi, a été grièvement blessé chez lui à coups de marteau par un militant pro-Trump, Charlie Kirk s’était réjoui, et avait demandé qu’on paye la caution de l’agresseur.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Another family in Kyiv killed by russia in a strike on the night of July 31st. A mother, a father, and their 2-year-old son🕯

[NewsWire @NewsWire_US]

MILLIONS OF AMERICANS SET TO LOSE HEALTH INSURANCE AS TRUMP BILL PASSES HOUSE

[ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki]

1/ The Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Mikhail Gudkov, may have inadvertently revealed his position in an insecure radio call, enabling Ukraine to kill him on Wednesday. Ukraine may also have tried to assassinated him on 30 May near Vladivostok. ⬇️

[Darth Putin @DarthPutinKGB]

I am now bombing Ukraine with twice as many drones and missiles as I did when Biden was president. Today, a train full of civilians.

[Inna Sovsun @InnaSovsun]

The moment a Shahed drone slammed into a residential building in Kyiv — just minutes ago.

Not the front line. Not a military site.
Just a city, full of sleeping civilians.

[PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 @patriottakes]

Regime Change: Campaign Trump vs. White House Trump

[UNITED24 Media @United24media]

🚨 BREAKING: Russia bombed Kyiv and nearby districts. At least 5 killed.

Apartment building hit, entire section destroyed. Rescuers pulled 10 from rubble, more trapped.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Lol

[The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent]

⚡️Update: Russia's mass missile, drone attack on Kyiv kills 5, injures at least 19.

Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said that the number of those injured has grown to at least 19 people across Kyiv following an overnight Russian missile and drone attack.

https://t.co/4nrVZE6qh9

[Iuliia Mendel @IuliiaMendel]

Russia shelled an emergency medical base in #Kherson overnight — 2 ambulances, fire station, gas pipeline, homes destroyed. 10 houses hit.
14 people were injured, including three emergency service workers. 💔 It hurts to read such news about my home every single day. #RussianAggression

[jacopo iacoboni @jacopo_iacoboni]

Il ministro dello Sviluppo russo Maxim Reshetnikov al Forum di San Pietroburgo ha detto che la Russia è ormai sull’orlo della recessione:

Occhio ora alle finestre

👇🏿

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

I am now almost certain that Putin has made the following decision: if, in the near future, he cannot crush Ukraine on the battlefield and conquer it, he will do everything in his power to make life in the non-occupied territories of Ukraine as unbearable and deadly as possible - so that as many people as possible either flee or die from the relentless mass killings, the total destruction of critical infrastructure, and the collapse of the basic economy.

In his vision, Ukraine’s territory should become a scorched and depopulated land - and if he could, he would have already burned everything alive in Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

Then, as Putin sees it, once Ukraine has bled out completely and what remains of it has turned into a nation in exile, waves of "settlers" from Russia’s poorest regions will arrive on its lands - just like during Soviet times and just like in today’s Mariupol, which has been totally cleansed of everyone who openly supported Ukraine and wished to remain Ukrainian.