Temenuga Hasekieva

Foreign Affairs Analyst

[Rob Lee @RALee85]

Drapatyi is an excellent choice. As OTU Kharkiv and Luhansk, OSUV Khortytsia/Dnipro, and Joint Forces Task Force commander over the past two years, he brings a wealth of experience commanding units on most of the front line with a good understanding of the character of the fighting. As Land Forces commander, he also has recent experience in mobilization/training issues. Both are critical as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

[Clash Report @clashreport]

Zelensky posts selfie of himself with Ukrainian intelligence report showing Russian public dissatisfaction with Putin rising steadily.

Zelensky warns: if Putin keeps ignoring reality, Ukraine may eventually be negotiating a deal with someone else in Russia who will.

[Pepel Klaasa @pepel_klaasa]

The first air raid alarm in Omsk.

In fact, the very first in history - during World War II, no one reached there.

Over 2000 km from Ukraine.

[Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 @bayraktar_1love]

🔥🛢️ The Russian Kuibyshev Oil Refinery in Samara, one of the largest oil-processing facilities in the region, was targeted early this morning.

The refinery has a processing capacity of approximately 7 million tons of oil per year.

[NEXTA @nexta_tv]

🇪🇺 An EU country is turning away from Ukraine

Bulgaria is ending its weapons supplies to Kyiv.

The new government, which is considered one of the most pro-Russian in the European Union, says that Russia cannot be defeated on the battlefield.

“We are witnessing a war of attrition, and no matter how many weapons are accumulated, the only result will be more human casualties. It is time to sit down at the negotiating table,” said Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Sofia has provided Kyiv with 13 military aid packages.

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

Bulgaria will no longer send weapons to Ukraine, the country’s Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov has announced.

The move has cemented the new government’s opposition to EU support for Kyiv.
https://t.co/ygjX3qsCd0

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

In Tallinn today. Ahead of the Ukraine – Nordic-Baltic Summit, I met with the Prime Minister of Finland, @PetteriOrpo.

We discussed the work in Europe to develop anti-ballistic defense capabilities, as well as the preparation of an agreement in the Drone Deal format. The teams are working, and the main thing is that there be more protection in Europe. Special attention was given to our needs in strengthening air defense, security challenges in the region, and diplomatic work to achieve a dignified peace. I informed the Prime Minister about our contacts with Europeans and Americans.

I am grateful to the Government, the people, and all of Finland for supporting Ukraine – above all, for all the military packages and contributions to the PURL initiative. Importantly, Finland is ready to continue helping.

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

I had a very substantive conversation with the President of France. We revisited the key points of our discussion the day before in London and coordinated our next steps. We also discussed the details of the conversation with the envoys of the U.S. President. We must use every available opportunity to reinvigorate diplomacy and bring the end of Russia’s war against Ukraine closer. We are preparing for the G7 format in France, and it is important that there be strong results. Thank you, Emmanuel!

@EmmanuelMacron

[JP Lindsley | Journalist @JPLindsley]

King Charles III welcomes many foreign leaders to the UK. None receive a welcome like he affords Zelensky: In the royal family's private quarters, bedecked with whimsical heirlooms, in Windsor Castle.

King Charles's very existence is about optics. And he knows what he is doing.

https://t.co/0OqCEk5ob2

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

There are different people around Putin. Half of them want to continue this war and the other half want to stop it. Businessmen understand that the Russian economy is in a terrible situation.

If Western countries – Europe, Canada, and the U.S. – don’t lift their sanctions, put more pressure on the Russian shadow fleet and other sectors, and Ukraine stays strong on the battlefield, then we will be closer to peace.

I told this businessman, who came to deliver the message about a potential framework of diplomatic negotiations, that we were ready to speak from the very beginning. We didn't want this war, and we want to stop it.

Yesterday I told the journalists that in Anchorage, Russia and the U.S. decided to speak about Ukraine without Ukraine. It was a mistake, especially for America, because Putin weakened the U.S. position. I think he was lying to the President of the United States.

Anyway, we are ready to speak, but we won’t give up our territory.

From an interview with The Guardian. (2/3)

[Alex Raufoglu @ralexdc]

NEW!!! Zelenskyy lands in Estonia to attend the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) Summit.

https://t.co/k3MxTVjPhi

[Barak Ravid @BarakRavid]

🇺🇦🇺🇸Ukrainian President Zelensky spoke on the phone on Monday with President Trump's envoys @SteveWitkoff and @jaredkushner, per source with knowledge

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: In a stunning display of unity, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Freidrich Merz just met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Notably absent was Donald Trump. He’s turned America into a global pariah.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Europe Wins Again. Obviously.

Armenia went to the polls yesterday. And the results are exactly what you’d expect if you’d been paying attention for the past five years, rather than wallowing in Kremlin nostalgia like a damp sock.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared victory on Monday, with his Civil Contract Party leading with 52.5% of the vote.  Armenia, a landlocked country the size of Belgium that Russia has spent decades treating as a vassal state, has looked at its options and made a decision that required roughly the same level of intellectual effort as choosing between a Michelin-starred restaurant and a skip fire.

They chose Europe.

This election was less a routine vote than a referendum on Pashinyan’s post-2020 course reducing dependence on Russia and moving toward an explicit European orientation. And Russia, naturally, did everything in its power to stop it. According to Reuters, citing Western intelligence officials, the election faced heavy Russian covert interference, including disinformation campaigns and a plan to transport Russian Armenians into Armenia to sway the vote. One analyst collective described it as one of the largest state-backed disinformation campaigns in modern European history. And Armenia still told them to get lost.

Putin had already warned Armenia it would face economic consequences for drifting westward, and introduced restrictions on Armenian agricultural exports in the weeks before the vote.  Threats, propaganda, economic blackmail. The full Russian toolkit. Result: irrelevant.

Now, Trump, Tucker Carlson and JD Vance would like you to believe that Russia represents some superior civilisational model. A proud, white, Christian fortress holding the line against the Muslim hordes supposedly swamping Europe. It is a compelling narrative, in the same way that flat earth theory is compelling if you ignore every single fact available to you.

Here is one such fact: between 10 and 15 percent of Russia’s own population is Muslim. Tatars, Bashkirs, Chechens, Ingush, Dagestanis. Millions of them. Russia is, by its own demographic reality, a multi-ethnic, multi-faith state with a larger Muslim population than most of Western Europe. But you’re not supposed to know that. It complicates the story.

Meanwhile, the Muslim share of the EU population sits at around 5 percent. But the Tucker Carlsons of the world need you frightened, so the numbers get quietly shuffled off stage.

So Armenia joins the queue. Behind Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, and every Eastern European country that isn’t currently run by a Slovak who seems to have wandered in from a Moscow focus group. The pattern is not subtle. Every country that has actually experienced Russian influence in practice is sprinting in the opposite direction. The only nation currently moving toward Russia’s orbit is the United States, which managed to elect a man whose foreign policy instincts were apparently shaped by a property developer’s admiration for strongmen with good buildings.

The world watches America and hopes it finds its way back. Most people think it will. Eventually. The damage, however, is already considerable, and democracy, like a soufflé, does not always survive rough handling.

Armenia made its choice. The right one. Obviously.

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[NEXTA @nexta_tv]

😏 Zelensky said that Ukrainian soldiers on the front line have greater access to the internet than Russians in central Moscow

“Our soldiers can use social media right on the battlefield. Nobody stops them. In Moscow, they don’t have that — even in the center of the capital, people don’t use social media.”

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

I congratulate Armenia on holding democratic and free elections, and @NikolPashinyan on his victory. This is also a victory for Armenia’s sovereignty, your independence, and your right to live the way you choose. We wish you success.

Ukraine is ready to expand our cooperation, and now is precisely the time for the European Union to provide real support to Armenia and do everything necessary to ensure that people feel their lives are better thanks to their relationship with Europe. This is a test for the European Union. It is important not to lose time or miss opportunities.

[Emil A. Georgiev @emilageorgiev]

#Bulgaria's FM Petrova contradicting #Radev's line on the Special Tribunal for #Putin: where Radev publicly grounded the refusal in substantive (albeit flawed) reasoning - "Russia hasn't capitulated, the leader isn't captured" - Petrova now reframes the same refusal as a purely procedural question of cost and logistics.

[Joe Wilson @RepJoeWilson]

Congratulations to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on his sweeping electoral victory! This is a repudiation of Russia’s malign interference and an affirmation of the Armenian people’s goal of peace and prosperity in the region. A South Caucasus free of Russian, Chinese, and Iranian influence means a bright and successful future. President Trump’s vision proved correct!!

[The Ukrainian Review @UkrReview]

🇦🇲 Armenia’s PM Pashinyan on election day:

If Armenia applied to the European Union today, and I were a European Union official objectively assessing the application, I would say that we are not ready today. We must continue our reforms.

I do not see any tension with Russia. That tension is artificial. Certain political forces in Armenia are trying to create tensions in Armenia–Russia relations.

Those tensions are not materializing because we maintain direct communication with the President of the Russian Federation.

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

Andrey Bezrukov, an adviser to Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russia would remain in a state of war for the next "couple of decades."

According to him, Russia must learn to live with war, while its state system and economy should be structured not only around development, but also around defense.

He also said that Russia would see the emergence of two "wartime generations" and admitted that drone strikes reaching any region of the country have become a serious problem for which Russia was unprepared.