"There is no one more cowardly, vile, and utterly pathetic than Putin."
A resident of Vladivostok called on Russians to appeal to the Ukrainian government and to anyone "who can help free Russia from the despicable regime that has seized the country and held onto power for a quarter of a century."
"Only Ukraine can stop this war by completely destroying Russia's will to fight. Let's unite, at least speak out, and do everything we can," he added.
In the frontline city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, I just met with the renowned General Andrii Biletskyi, founder of the Azov Battalion and commander of the Third Army Corps in Ukriane @ab3army. Combat operations against Russia are ongoing just 30 kilometers from Kharkiv, and Russia attacks the city with ballistic missiles and drones almost daily.
It was very dangerous for me to travel to this city in Eastern Ukraine amid nonstop air raids, but I went there anyway to speak to the founder of Azov and ask him what every taxpayer in America wants to know:
Is it true or false that Azov Battalion and the Ukrainian Army are full of swastika waving Neo-Nazis? Are our tax dollars funding an army of Nazis to fight the Russians? I asked the General and Founder of Azov himself. No questions were off limits.
General Biletskyi gave me a tour of the city and showed me Rymarska Street, where Ukrainians fought their first armed battle against the Russians in 2014.
He answered all of my questions and walked me through the detailed history of Azov Battalion and the Third Army Corps. We also spoke about the future of modern warfare and how Ukraine’s fight is relevant to the USA and America’s long term national security.
Full interview coming soon! You don’t want to miss it!
Maybe people don’t believe me, that’s fine, but visiting Ukraine has been deeply touching for me. It has opened my eyes to things I was blinded to before and has really impacted the way I view human suffering and how I perceive humanity and threats to US national security. My time in Ukraine has been life changing. I’m never going to forget this and I’m interested in seeing what else it inspires me to do and report on in the future.
You’ll have to travel to Ukraine yourself and see it yourself to understand what I am talking about. Never thought I’d say this. But, I see why Lindsey Graham loved Ukraine so much. I see it now.
"There are smart people and there are not very smart people. I watch smart people. And I never watch stupid people. Because it doesn't help anything. So I didn't watch Tucker Carlson's interview."
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The Irish Prime Minister @MichealMartinTD is here in Kyiv and this morning a Senior Irish politician tweeted “YAWN” about the refinery that’s sending war materiel to russia. If you’re a journalist here in Kyiv interviewing the PM then ask him about this.
Ukraine's Security Service struck an FSB coordination center in the temporarily occupied part of Kherson region.
According to the SSU, operators from the Alpha Special Operations Center hit an FSB command post and personnel base located in a former resort complex. Preliminary assessments indicate that around 100 Russian servicemen may have been at the site.
SSU intelligence also reported more than 70 vehicles, armed security, checkpoints, engineering fortifications, and underground shelters at the facility.
During the operation, 13 SSU drones struck the target, triggering a large fire.
Jake has showed millions of people around the world Ukraines fight for freedom and he’s finally HERE!
He’s spent years telling the truth about this incredible country, and it’s amazing to be united in Kyiv. What great a weekend. 🔥❤️🇺🇦
Actually, I can give you a very simple and comprehensive explanation of what lies at the heart of the current major political crisis and the protests against the dismissal of defense minister Fedorov in Ukraine.
The reason is that Fedorov's brief time in office, together with the impressive successes of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in the air and at sea, gave the Ukrainian people one thing above all else: HOPE.
Hope that this horrific war, with its appalling sacrifices and monumental heroism, might end in something far better than, at best, the bitter and humiliating "peace" for heroic Ukraine that would certainly be nothing more than a short respite before an even greater nightmare.
It is the hope that good will ultimately triumph over evil, that life will overcome death and light will overcome the dark, that justice truly exists in this world, and that the great vile evil embodied by fascist Russia will be punished for its crimes.
And who knows how history may yet unfold -- perhaps that hope will one day lead us back home, to Donetsk, Luhansk, Mariupol, Melitopol, Berdyansk, or Crimea, so treacherously stolen from us.
And hope is a tremendous force.
I strongly advise no one to stand in the way of Ukrainians who have finally seen a light at the end of the tunnel of darkness and a source of genuine good hope.
❗️Residents reported a powerful explosion heard across Sevastopol, while explosions were also reported for around 30 minutes near the Hvardiiske garrison in occupied Crimea. Some reports suggest a possible strike near the Balaklava Thermal Power Plant. #Ukraine
A Russian Tu-95 aircraft has been destroyed by Ukrainian Security Service at Engels airfield. It was used for missile attacks on Ukraine.
The airfield is about 800 kilometers from Ukraine.
Glory!
11-year-old Ukrainian ballerina Polina Denys has become the absolute champion of the Dance World Cup 2026.
Her emotions are priceless. Ukrainian kids are amazingly talented.
Congratulations, Polina!
📹: astiasya/Instagram
In seeking alternatives to automobiles, fuel-starved Russians have begun to purchase bicycles, but not being common in Russia, the sight of them is infuriating some among the population, with violence breaking out.
russian occupation is not peace.
This is Yanina Akulova, a 38-year-old massage therapist from occupied Melitopol.
russians kidnapped, tortured, and forced her to confess to a terrorist attack that never happened. Then they sentenced her to 9 years in prison.
She wrote to her mother:
"They beat me so badly that I no longer cared what happened to me. My whole body was covered in bruises."
Her only "crime" was loving Ukraine.
She evacuated her daughters because she refused to let them attend russian schools. Then she returned home to rescue her pets.
At a russian checkpoint, occupiers claimed they had "found explosives" in her car. She disappeared for two months.
When she finally appeared on russian TV, she was wearing a mask — likely to hide the signs of torture.
She has lost 15 kg in captivity. Her asthma has worsened. Her children have spent nearly four years without their mother.
This is what russian occupation really means.
Don't ever call it "peace."
Don't look away.
Don't stay silent.
Share Yanina's story. Demand freedom for every Ukrainian civilian imprisoned by russia.
It has been a great honor to serve the Ukrainian people as the Minister of Defense.
Here is what our team managed to achieve:
1. Disabled Starlink access for Russian forces.
2. Took over a Ministry of Defense with zero budget, took a risk, reallocated funds from payroll from the end of the year, and effectively invested them in mid-strike capabilities, fiber-optic FPVs, low-cost reconnaissance, ground robotic platforms, interceptor drones, and deep-strike drones.
3. Launched "Logistical Lockdown", this cut off enemy logistics and initiated the isolation of Crimea.
4. Continued the funding program for the Drone Line.
5. Launched a support program for modern drone-assault units that rely primarily on advanced technologies in combat.
6. Introduced a 70% advance payment policy for procurements made via e-Points on the Brave1 Market portal.
7. Fundamentally overhauled the procurement system.
8. Procured thousands of pickup trucks, buggies, and ATVs for the military for the first time—and did so through open tenders.
9. The drone interception rate rose from 83% to 91%, and the cruise missile interception rate soared from 47% to 87%.
10. Contracted Patriot PAC-2 GEM-T missiles for the first time, and submitted an application through an EU loan to purchase PAC-3 missiles.
11. Launched a baseline drone supply system for brigades and corps.
12. Launched a massive grant program for manufacturers of explosives and missiles.
13. Initiated an unpopular but vital transformation of the military.
14. Conducted three UDCG meetings, where we successfully broke through the Russian information trap claiming our defeat, restoring partners' faith in Ukraine. This secured $40 billion in support announced for this year (excluding the EU loan).
15. Launched the mechanism to utilize the EU loan for our military priorities.
16. Found a way to scale cheap missiles against jet-powered Shaheds and signed a record-breaking contract.
17. Our domestic ballistics. We radically revised the technical specifications, maximized accuracy, and reduced the cost by 30%.
18. Signed a contract to procure Gripen fighter jets.
19. Collaborated with the military to plan and execute Operation Auchan, which halted the enemy's mechanized offensive for six months.
20. Opened up exports under the Drone Deal program to attract investment and scale up domestic defense-industrial complex (OPK) production.
21. Launched the Trophy Lab, providing partners with the opportunity to study captured Russian military technologies.
22. Launched the Defense AI Center A1 to accelerate the integration of artificial intelligence on the battlefield.
Thank you to my entire team for their relentless 24/7 service. A special thank you to my family for their patience.
Thank you all for your support!
I will continue to work toward the mission I originally brought to the Ministry of Defense: defeating the enemy through asymmetry, the speed of innovation, and the power of organization.
To be continued.
The russians hit my friend's business in Kyiv this morning, their team is injured.
I wish you all truly understood russians.
I wish you could feel how much we hate them, and why.
They are the worst of humanity.
ROSENBERG: Zelenskyy seems to have some cards, and Trump seems unable to put pressure on him to make a deal that would suit Moscow.
That's surprised people here in Russia. I remember headlines in Russian papers last year like, “Our Donald has come into power in the White House.”
They claimed that NATO was about to collapse and that everything was looking good in US-Russia relationship.
And if everything was good in US-Russia relationship, that would almost certainly deliver a peace deal in Ukraine on Russian terms.
But it just hasn’t happened. So now you’re seeing disappointment being expressed openly here.
They invaded us. They were “the magnificent empire”. We were the lowly “pig breeders”.
When we didn’t greet them with flowers and fought back, they called us “American proxies”.
When America said “it’s not our war”, they called us “war mongers”. As if we attacked them.
In the fifth year of bombarding our cities, they started calling their strikes “retaliation” and our strikes “provocation”.
Which doesn’t change the truth: their war is a geopolitical murder in plain view. It’s fascism pure.
“Never again” is now, again.