For those who think that Russia is winning the war in Ukraine, if Russia was to keep advancing at this rate, it would take 140 years for the frontline to reach Kyiv.
That’s not a typo. 140 years.
APPLEBAUM: The war in Ukraine is really fault line between democratic and autocratic worlds. Russians are trying to destroy Ukraine as a nation, they want it to disappear.
As an empire, they want Ukraine to be their colony. And they understood perfectly well that by invading Ukraine, they were defying this liberal world order.
They were defying the rules of post-war Europe, because in post-war Europe decision was made after 1945: we are not going to invade each other anymore, we are not going to have wars.
Instead, we are going to decide everything by diplomacy, and borders will not be changed by force. And Russians understood they were breaking that norm when they invaded Ukraine.
They also invaded Ukraine because Ukrainians were using that powerful democratic language we take for granted. Putin said, “If they can do it in Ukraine, then people could do it in Russia. So, I need to crush this Ukrainian democracy movement.”
Russia is now systematically attacking gas stations in Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region.
During the busy daytime in a city with over a million civilians.
These last 2 months, Ukraine 🇺🇦 dug 1 300 km of fortifications from Kyiv to Odesa
In the eastern part of the country, the AFU can now rely on 2 to 6 defensive lines, with kilometers of obstacle lines extending behind the front.
🧵THREAD🧵1/24⬇️
A 94-year-old woman was found dead in Konotop, Sumy region, as a result of a russian strike.
She survived the Nazis in WWII — only to be killed by so-called “brotherly” russians decades later.
There is no justification. No logic. Just terror.
A Belarusian volunteer, former political prisoner Tsikhan Kliukach, was killed fighting for Ukraine. He was only 23.
After his release from Lukashenka’s prison, Tsikhan chose to defend Ukraine’s freedom against Russian aggression.
We will always remember him as a hero.
Update from the Highway of Death, the land corridor between Russia and Crimea is now under the control of Ukraine's Armed Forces.
A week into the campaign - military, logistics and fuel will no longer pass.
Overnight the Government has sneaked out an announcement that they have lifted sanctions on Russian diesel and aviation fuel if processed in a third country.
They’re also now permitting Liquified National Gas to come to the UK direct from Russia.
Incredible that for all their rhetoric about the war in Ukraine Labour is now allowing Russia to benefit from oil revenue, undoing sanctions that go all the way back to the invasion of Crimea in 2014.
I never had them pegged as Putin appeasers.
This Government is a disgrace.