Andrij Bilyk

Chill. I roger that.

[Mykhailo Fedorov @FedorovMykhailo]

Ukraine launches TrophyLab: we are opening access to captured Russian weapon technologies for our global partners. Every missile, drone, and vehicle seized on the battlefield is now a source of knowledge for the free world.

Through this secure platform, allied governments, labs, and defense tech manufacturers gain access to deep technical data, reports, and vulnerabilities. Users can also request physical equipment for testing, significantly shortening the development cycle for countermeasures.

What was meant to be the enemy's secret advantage is being dismantled to defend democracy. Join the platform:
🔗 https://t.co/xoeCfXsIy3

[Handre @Handre]

In 1968, while teenage Red Guards beat their professors to death with clubs in Beijing courtyards, Jean-Paul Sartre sat in Paris calling Mao's Cultural Revolution a model of revolutionary democracy. The most celebrated intellectual in France looked at a country burning its own libraries and saw liberation. He sold the Maoist newspaper La Cause du Peuple on French street corners himself, holding it aloft like a sacrament.

Consider what he was endorsing. Between 1966 and 1976, the Cultural Revolution killed somewhere between 500,000 and two million people. Schools shut down across the entire country. Students dragged teachers onto stages, hung placards around their necks, forced them to kneel on broken glass, then murdered them. The historian Bian Zhongyun, vice-principal of a girls' school in Beijing, died on August 5, 1966, beaten by her own students with nail-studded clubs. Sartre called this the people governing themselves.

You should understand why a man this intelligent got it this wrong. Sartre believed knowledge served power, that truth was whatever the revolution required, that the individual existed to be dissolved into the collective will. So when Mao abolished the distinction between teacher and student, between expert and mob, Sartre cheered. He had spent decades arguing that bourgeois reason was a class weapon. Here was a regime taking him at his word and clubbing the reasoners to death.

This is what economic illiteracy buys you. A university, a price, a contract, and a peasant's grain stockpile all carry knowledge that no central planner can seize or replicate. Mises explained the calculation problem in 1920. Hayek explained dispersed knowledge in 1945. Sartre had access to both and chose the dunce cap of the collective instead, then handed out its propaganda on the Rue de Rennes.

He died in 1980, mourned by 50,000 followers, never having retracted a word about Mao. The professors of Beijing got no such funeral. They got a ditch, and a philosopher in Paris explaining that their murder was freedom.

[Andrij Bilyk @billxcafe]

Spring is for hot

[414 Magyar's Birds @414magyarbirds]

A brilliant video by "Ukraine Wow" – agency on the promotion of the Ukrainian Culture. It gave us goosebumps!

In almost three minutes, it captures defining moments of Ukrainian history. And if you watch till the end, you’ll understand why we have one more reason to share it.

The video premiered at the Ukraine Wow exhibition in Kyiv and was shared online just days ago.

We tried to translate the song's lyrics for you. They bring tears to our eyes and carry the spirit of our fight.

The crowd at the beginning chants "Independence! Independence!"

Our Time Has Come (lyrics translated)

Maybe the time has finally come
Time to fight. Time to stand as one.
The goal was always only one –
You are free. And I am free.
So many fell along the way,
Yet you stand. And I stand today.
Hold on – here is my hand.
Tell me, has this day arrived?

Many of us never lived to see
The day when fear would finally leave.
But millions won’t be stopped again –
Ukraine’s independence cannot be chained.

Hold on – here is my hand.
Tell me, has this day arrived?
Yes, the empire will fall.
Love will tear these chains apart.
Everyone here matters now.
Tell your friends: the time has come.

Our time has come. Time to rise.
Time to fight. Time to unite.
So many fell along the way,
Yet you stand. And I stand today.

Credits:
The video was created by Artem Skorozynskyi for the Ukraine Wow exhibition set to a track by MUR.
https://t.co/ZPnmZnlMrb
https://t.co/vqPNCPsk9N
https://t.co/J3P3olJjXg

Track on Spotify: https://t.co/bTlqESTW0f

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk advanced to the semifinals after defeating russian player Mirra Andreeva. There was no handshake at the end — as it should be. A nation committing genocide does not deserve a handshake.

[JP Lindsley | Journalist @JPLindsley]

Freedom is a threat to those who don't know how to be happy.

[Andrij Bilyk @billxcafe]

What are you dreaming, mf putin?

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

This trend among Iranian women is now unstoppable.

[Andrij Bilyk @billxcafe]

🤬

[Learn Latin @latinedisce]

Est cupiditas hominum occulta cognoscere — “It is human nature to desire knowledge of what is hidden.” (St Jerome)

[Andrij Bilyk @billxcafe]

See the vintage robot wearied

[olexander scherba🇺🇦 @olex_scherba]

Why Venezuela Fell Within Hours, But Ukraine Did Not?

An important detail from Ukrainian officer Dmytro Vovnianko.

“Surely, we Ukrainians are badass. Those of us who, in the first days and hours of the war, headed straight to defend Ukraine—are infinitely badass, simply because these people, at the moment of highest threat, did not run away from danger but moved toward it. And overcame the danger.

All true. But. I have to remind everyone of something.

Technically, Moscow acted almost exactly like Americans in Venezuela. The first strike was missile and bomb attacks on bases and air defense positions, as well as on military aviation airfields.

Now imagine for a moment that Moscow had destroyed the main air defense units and combat aircraft on the airfields in the very first hours of the war. Imagine that Moscow had achieved complete air superiority. What would have happened then?
What would have happened is that

Russian airborne troops would have guaranteed the capture of the Hostomel airfield near Kyiv. Because the resistance from the militia would have been suppressed by Russian planes and helicopters. The artillery that started shelling the runway would have been suppressed by Moscow’s aviation. Moscow would have captured the airfield. Moscow would have accepted the personnel of their bloody Airborne Forces by landing method…

Yet none of this happened. Because, literally just before the Russian invasion, Ukrainian combat aircraft were given the order to take to the skies. And air defense units were ordered to leave their bases and deploy to positions in the fields. Because of this, Moscow struck empty squares, and then Ukrainian air defense and Ukrainian aviation went into action. And Moscow gained no air superiority at all.

However.

Moscow could still maneuver with the troops it had in abundance. But…

For example, the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade arrived in Kyiv in time and took up defense along the Irpin River.

I served in the 72nd and spoke with sergeants and officers - they told me that they began moving to their positions not on February 24, when Moscow attacked, but as early as the morning of the 23rd. For a long time, I couldn’t understand how that happened.

It turns out that Ukrainian brigades were given the order to advance to combat lines before the Russian invasion, and that’s why they made it in time. Not just in Kyiv. The same thing happened in Kharkiv. The occupiers were met on the Kharkiv Ring Road just a few hours after the invasion - and engaged in battle. It wasn’t militia that met them, but regular army units- with command, combat equipment, and fire support.

The enemy was met by an army - with equipment, technical means, coordination, artillery, and missiles. And that’s precisely why the enemy was stopped near Kyiv and then started babbling about a “gesture of goodwill.”

All of this happened because in Ukraine there was a person who ordered the air defense to leave bases with their equipment and assets. This person ordered the aircraft to take to the skies. This person ordered 🇺🇦 brigades to advance to combat lines.
This person took an incredible risk. Because he wildly exceeded his authority. That person was the then-Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi…”.

[Andrij Bilyk @billxcafe]

The acting is lame, the action is tame

[Vladyslav Starodubtsev (Lazuto)🌹 @VlStarodubtsev]

As again there is an idiotic discussion, promoting myth of Petlyura as an antisemite, I will post this following quote written by him:

"An antisemite is a rotten sheep. Drive him out (...) As the Chief Otaman of the Ukrainian Army, I order you: Bolshevik-communists and other bandits who carry out Jewish pogroms and destroy the population are to be punished mercilessly, and, as a single act of defense of the poor, tormented population, to be dealt with immediately through your military courts"

Petlyura in fact order execution of every single one of the biggest pogromists in Ukraine. In a country where death penalty was half-taboo.

Petlyura is a character that espoused strong values of inclusivity, duty and social justice. He is a strong symbol of Ukrainian republicanism and Progressivism.

However it is true that Ukraine during Directory, trying to organize as big army as possible as fast as possible both recruited a lot of low quality cadres, and experienced lack of discipline and rule of small warlords — which are in the root of the problem. Badly organized mobilization, collapse of central governing apparatus and thus force to punish warlords — created the monsters — pogromist movement — not a so-called "antisemite Petlyura" which is just as blatant falsification of history as one can make.

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

Kyiv is the only capital on earth where New Year arrives in silence.

While the world celebrates with fireworks, Ukrainians have to listen for drones.

Wherever you are in the world, think of Ukraine and remember who caused this

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

Any land grab by russia would be a colossal defeat for the world democracy and the beginning of World War 3.

The ongoing "negotiations" are based on the idea of how much Ukrainian territory to give to russia. The idea of such appeasement is completely flawed.

1. Ukraine is a sovereign country. What if somebody were to grab a plot of land on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and open "negotiations" on how much should be kept. What do you think would be Trump's response? Ukraine is a sovereign country and the land belongs to Ukraine.

2. Leaving any territories under russian control means handing millions of Ukrainians over to russian despotism, the repeat of gulag and Holodomor. Russia has clearly stated why they started this war - to eliminate Ukraine. The russian official press agency “RIA Novosti” has explicitly published a program for the complete elimination of the Ukrainian nation as such.

3. Russia always lies and cannot be trusted. Starting with Budapest memorandum, where russia agreed to protect Ukrainian sovereignty, and ending with hundreds of direct lies from Kremlin, such as “we are not going to attack Ukraine.” They lie all the time. So, any guarantees by russia are not worth a dime.

4. Any appeasement of the aggressor justifies future aggression. Have we learned nothing from history? In 1938, British PM Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler, and famously called it "peace for our time." This appeasement of the aggressor led to Czechoslovakia being divided by Germany, expansion of Hitler's aggression, and the beginning of WW2.

Any appeasement of russia today will give permission to all dictators around the world to attack other countries, knowing that eventually, like russia, they will receive something as a reward for their aggression. And this would be the beginning of World War 3.

[Andrij Bilyk @billxcafe]

D — is for Defence Design 🫡

[JP Lindsley | Journalist @JPLindsley]

🎄🇫🇮 This was one of our most-watched videos of 2025:

This is quite cool: The Finns refuse to call Russia by the stolen name “Rus”—which anciently defines Swedes and, later on, Ukrainians. Instead, they call Russia “Venäjä.”

Finland, with just 5.6 million people, is one of the strongest nations in Europe—aware of its identity, prepared to fight, and, understanding the Russian threat, generously helping Ukraine. Its president @alexstubb has elevated Finland as a key geopolitical player.

music: the great Finnish composer Sibelius

UFN / https://t.co/0OqCEk5ob2

[Learn Latin @latinedisce]

Nōbilis nōn vīlis — “Is noble he who is not vile.” (Dante)

[The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent]

The Kyiv Independent’s Dominic Culverwell reports from an undisclosed thermal power plant operated by DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, to show how energy workers are keeping critical infrastructure running as temperatures drop and attacks continue.

https://t.co/3k8A0AvMVw

[Andrij Bilyk @billxcafe]

Siversk. 3 years since...

Photo: Max Verstak