Slava Ukraini

[Mykhailo Fedorov @FedorovMykhailo]

Ukraine’s experience in technology-driven warfare will help shape the security standards of the 21st century.

Technology isn’t an end in itself. Its purpose is to ensure that every Ukrainian service member comes home alive.

That’s why robots and drones should fight wherever they can.

The first stage is the robotization of the battlefield. Wherever people are on the front lines today, sensors, automated turrets, unmanned ground vehicles, and drones will take their place tomorrow.

The second stage is enabling drones to be operated remotely, allowing operators to work from a safe distance away from the front line.

The next stage is autonomous AI-powered systems capable of carrying out combat missions on their own.

In an interview with @nytimes, I discussed what the wars of the future will look like and why our vision is to win the war for independence through technological superiority and asymmetric warfare:

https://t.co/weBilZCsEe

[Natalka @NatalkaKyiv]

🇺🇦 Mykhailo Fedorov:

“I will never let you down. And I will make sure you never regret saying my name or the name of our team, no matter where I am or what I do.”

One day, he will be the President of a free Ukraine.

[Serhii Sternenko @sternenko]

Думаю, це і є реальна причина відставки Федорова.

Занадто великі потоки і схеми знищив.
Дуже багато тих, хто на цих потоках сидів, почали добиватися його відставки.
І добилися.

Завтра у Києві та багатьох інших містах буде протестна хода.

[Sulkhan Metreveli @Sulkhan]

The West humiliated Russia in the 1990s. This war is the consequence.’

I’ve heard this in every language, from every podium. It is history rewritten backwards.

Recall what actually happened to defeated Russia: no occupation. No reparations. No tribunal. It kept its nuclear arsenal and its UN veto. Its debts were forgiven and refinanced. It was handed IMF billions and a seat at the G8 — a club of democracies admitting a wounded autocracy out of hope.

Now recall an actually humiliated nation: Germany, 1945. Occupied. Partitioned. Cities in ash, leaders hanged, guilt taught to its children by law.

Germany became the most peaceful democracy in Europe. Russia became this.

So spare me the humiliation theory. Russia was not humiliated after the Cold War. It was indulged — and it read every kindness as weakness, every gift as tribute.

The grievance was never mistreatment. The grievance was lost dominion.

Empires do not mourn their wounds. They mourn their slaves.

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

No one in russia understands why Ukraine “attacked” russia. But they know at least one thing for sure: Ukraine is being “pushed by Europeans.”

When people live in a distorted reality for a very long time, they lose their understanding of cause and effect. At first, propaganda distorts their worldview. Then people begin distorting it themselves, because it feels safer. It’s safer not to speak, not to think, not to know. If you try hard enough not to know something, eventually you won’t.

That’s why the fuel crisis in russia isn’t caused by the war - it’s an artificial crisis, a conspiracy by oil oligarchs against ordinary russians.

That’s why the attacks on the warehouses of russian online marketplaces aren’t caused by the war - they’re supposedly orchestrated attacks backed by major international e-commerce companies trying to seize the russian market.

It can’t be a war, because there is no war. For years, television has told them there is no war. There is only the “special military operation” - and that’s supposedly something entirely different.

And besides, why is all of this happening on russian territory? That can’t be right, because the “special military operation” is in Ukraine.

After all, Ukraine was supposedly shelling itself just to publish dramatic photos.

That’s also why there is no anti-war movement - because, officially, there is no war. (During the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the Chechen wars, there were massive anti-war movements.)

So don’t expect reality to suddenly dawn on them.

Don’t expect an uprising against the regime. The regime will most likely collapse simply because it will no longer be able to function. And when that moment comes, opportunists will strip it for parts. The true believers are largely gone. The greedy, however, are in abundant supply.

Source: translated from text of Valeriy Pekar

[Ahmad Mansour @AhmadMansour__]

Deutschland hat ihn aufgenommen – nur damit er dann auf deutschen Straßen ruft: „Fuck you, Germany.”
Das ist absolut inakzeptabel.

#Integration #Deutschland #Migration #Respekt

[Oksii ✚ 🇺🇦 @Oksii33]

“Ukrainians could protest in 2014 because Ukraine had many democratic institutions, unlike Russians.’

Let me remind you of something: Ukrainians didn’t receive these institutions as a gift; we built them, protested for them, and demanded them.

Do you think we had better conditions to develop democracy than the Russians? Wrong. We faced far worse conditions.

We emerged from occupations with millions killed by the Russians, completely robbed by Russians, and built a country from scratch with NOTHING, fighting russian puppets who kept controlling our country.

Meanwhile, the Russians were the ones who robbed everyone and received help from many Western countries (unlike Ukrainians).

So, who had far more and better chances to build democracy and establish a successful democratic country?

Russians. Ukrainians did it despite all the obstacles. So, when you say that Russians can’t protest because they lack democratic institutions like Ukrainians, remember it was ten times harder for victims of continuous genocides to build any democracy... By excusing the Russians and their support for Russian terrorism, you diminish the victims of it.

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

Fedorov’s reaction (i.e. saying no to any offer but the position of the defense minister) is more than understandable.

A deputy PM post for military technology that Zelensky’s offering him might sound sexy, but in reality it’s nothing more than a figurehead role with no authority and no budgets, whose sole function would be to sit tight, put on a show of vigorous reformist activity, and stay out of the way of the respectable people making money off the war’s state procurement.

Some other official would be thrilled to land such a cushy, no-hassle post.

But not someone who actually wants to change the situation and lead Ukraine to victory in the war.

So Zelensky will have to swallow his made-up pride here too and stop listening to his buddies. Because everyone wants Fedorov back, from the new top military command to civil society, and he’ll have to fully correct this incompetent mistake of his.

[@BrennpunktUA 🇩🇪🇺🇦 @BrennpunktUA]

Remember all the private fundraisers for FPV drones for the AFU 🇺🇦 in the last years cause the FPVs the guys at the front received via the UA DoD were crap and the only way to get the best quality custom made FPVs that were even cheaper could only be delivered to the guys at the front by private initiatives?

I know why we were desperately asked for help and tried everything we could with our fundraisers to get the guys at the front what they really needed.

And I am very aware of why this didn’t work in any other way but fundraise, produce and deliver the FPVs to the frontline ourselves and no government officials were ever involved.

There is a reason for that and a lot has changed for the better in the last 6 months since Federov took over.

If I read this I really get scared that old practices will come back:

„The President (Selenskyj) said that Fedorov and the ministry were purchasing equipment based on their own judgment rather than according to requests from the General Staff and the military.“

Let me be very clear as someone that has organized, produced and delivered together with partners FPVs for around 1.5 Mio. Euros for the Ukrainian frontline soldiers at the past, that I know a lot. A lot of details about what was really going on behind the scenes with the so called „Government FPV Dornes“ the Ukrainian soldiers received or even not received!

This is why the dismissal of Federov is a personal thing for me and if get aware of that his successor or any high ranking military officials tries to turn back the very positive development Federov has achieved in that cases and what saved tenthousands of Ukrainian 🇺🇦 lives at the front, I will not hesitate to drop the complete bombshell story with every single detail I know and it will be not only on X. — Enough is enough!

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

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.

[UNITED24 Media @United24media]

Dear readers, our team has temporarily paused publication as our journalists, editors, producers, and social media team take part in protests following the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

[Mykhailo Fedorov @FedorovMykhailo]

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.

[Tatarigami_UA @Tatarigami_UA]

I would like to express my support for the current Minister of Defense, Fedorov. In my opinion, he has been a highly effective minister. While it is still too early for a full assessment of his tenure, the reforms he is pursuing make replacing him at this stage very unwise

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

Among Zelensky's main shortcomings as president are his endless favoritism and his carelessness in personnel policy.

Ever since 2019, there has always been someone this guy, someone at his shoulder, standing behind Zelensky and quietly whispering things into his ear. First it was the notorious lawyer Andriy Bohdan, then, until recently, the untouchable gray cardinal Andriy Yermak, then someone else.

The current situation with the reported threat of dismissing the popular young defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov reminds me of early 2020, when Zelensky suddenly fired his first defense minister, Andriy Zahorodniuk.

It seemed that, after a succession of post-Soviet parade generals, the new president had appointed the country's first genuine civilian defense minister in line with the Western principle of civilian control over the military, a man from senior business management.

Many long-overdue reforms got underway, there was a clear plan, and anti-corruption watchdogs were quite pleased.

But nope -- Less than six months later, Zelensky fired Zahorodniuk before allowing him to finish almost anything he had started.

Because he had "failed to prove himself." At the time, however, the circles around the Defense Ministry, the Presidential Office, and the press persistently said that the sudden decision had been pushed by none other than Andriy Yermak, who had become head of the Presidential Office just a couple of weeks earlier and immediately began putting his own people in place and getting rid of those he disliked.

After his dismissal, Zahorodniuk insisted in conversations that he had never had any conflict with Yermak, but the press of those years persistently reported that Yermak had convinced Zelensky to throw out the defense minister because he objected to the then-time drama of pulling back Ukrainian troops from the frontline with Russian-controlled militant formations in Donbas.

The business manager in a suit was replaced by yet another post-Soviet general from the military bureaucracy, Andriy Taran -- who, during his two years in office became memorable mainly for being unable to string two words together and for constantly failing to complete the state defense procurement program.

That is how we ended up with the endless, barely comprehensible carousel of reshuffles, dismissals, and appointments, which people here in Ukraine sometimes refer to as "rearranging the beds in a brothel."

And now it is starting again.

Fedorov, with enormous progress in Ukraine's digital transformation behind him, has served as defense minister for only about six months.

He managed to cut Russians off from Starlink, drone production is booming, digitalization is accelerating, processes are being optimized, AI is being introduced on a massive scale, and there is now a strategy for technological superiority over Russia.

And that's it -- Fedorov has already fallen out of favor because the young IT guy did not get along with General Syrskyi and his methods of working.

And, according to rumors, Fedorov and his reforms have become a thorn in the side of those who have gotten too used to making very good money from military production.

Now Ihor Klymenko, the interior minister and former chief of the National Police, is reportedly being lined up to replace Fedorov. He is remembered mainly for his video in which he boasted about how National Guard recruits are drilled obsessively to make their beds with the sheets aligned perfectly to a string.

Every time our Defense Ministry starts climbing even half a head above the stagnant swamp, Zelensky's favorites always pop up and whisper in his ear -- urging him to appoint yet another mediocrity who would be comfortable for everyone, change nothing, and get in nobody's way.

That is how we live and fight -- two steps forward, one and a half steps back.

[Ipa 🇺🇦 @ippvch]

I support Mykhailo Fedorov as Defense Minister.

Show your support with this hashtag and let’s demonstrate how strong it is!

#ISupportFedorov

[Beefeater @Beefeater_Fella]

Trailer for the new movie "Pirates of the Black Sea" has been released.

"Madjar" plays the role of Jack Sparrow.

We won't reveal the plot, but we'll just say that the movie is amazing! 🔥

[olexander scherba🇺🇦 @olex_scherba]

A fine Russian “kitchen joke” of today. I.e. not be used in public, only in the kitchen. In whisper.

A pro-Putin guy pulls into a gas station and asks:
- How much for gasoline?
The attendant answers:
- 200 rubles a liter.
- What do you mean, 200?! Yesterday it was 100!
- That’s right: 100 rubles is for the gasoline, and another 100 goes toward building a multipolar world.

The pro-Putin character sighs, but proudly hands over 200 rubles.

The attendant takes the money, hands back 100, and says:

- There’s no gasoline.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

An exasperated and tearful Russian woman explains that Russia is being totally destroyed, and that despite the surety of continuously worsening catastrophes hitting the county, Putin will never stop the war, because it's now all he has left.

[Dr. Rainer Kraft, MdB 🇩🇪 @Dr_Rainer_Kraft]

Es gab nie billiges russisches Gas
(alle Links im ersten Post)
TL/DR Version: Billiges Gas aus Russland ist ein Mythos. Deutschland hat für dieses Gas immer Weltmarktpreise bezahlt, zu Beginn der 2010er Jahre tatsächlich sogar höhere Preise für dieses Pipelinegas bezahlt, als der Preis am niederländischen Gashub TTF für Import-LNG betrug. Die Entscheidung für das Nordstreamprojekt hat in erster Linie die Koffer der Gazprom/Russlands gefüllt, wir hätten das Gas auch über den Hub, zum gleichen Preis kaufen können.
Langversion: Seit 2022 wird sehr viel über Gas aus Russland nach Deutschland geredet und geschrieben. Gewusst hat man aber immer wenig. Erzählt wurde, dass es billig wäre und unseren Wohlstand sichert (aber das sagt man über Vielfalt auch). Anfragen an die Regierung haben die Frage nicht beantwortet. Der massive Anstieg des Gaspreises in Europa wurde als Kennzeichen genommen, dass importiertes LNG grundsätzlich teurer gewesen sei, dass die höheren Kosten des LNG an den Kunden weitergegeben werden müssen und der Kunde von Pipelinegas von dessen niedrigeren Bereitstellungskosten profitiert.
Beides ist nicht wahr!
Beginnend mit einem Artikel bei @Reuters hat sich dann ein anderes Bild ergeben. Reuters verweist auf die Artikel des „Oxford Institute for Energy Studies“ (OIES; @OxfordEnergy). Nach Studium dieser Veröffentlichungen („The Pricing of Internationally Traded Gas“ (PITG) von Jonathen Stern und „What Drives International Gas Prices in Competitive Markets?“ (WDIGP) von Mike Fulwood) und kurzen Rückfragen beim OIES (vielen Dank an dieser Stelle auch an Jack Sharples) zeigt sich aber ein klares Bild, untermauert durch zahlreiche Beweise. Russisches Gas wurde zu keinem Zeitpunkt unter dem Weltmarktpreis bezogen. Zu manchen Zeitpunkten musste dafür sogar mehr bezahlt werden als für frei handelbares LNG am niederländischen TTF Hub, dies betrifft den Zeitraum zwischen 2009 und 2015. (Linie RUSGER ggü. Linie TTF, siehe Bild aus WDIGP/Mike Fulwood).
Der höhere Preis resultierte aus einem herkömmlichen Verfahren den Verkaufspreis von Gas durch einen Vergleichspreis basierend auf Erdöl, oder einem Warenkorb verschiedener gehandelter Rohölsorten, abzubilden. Diese Art der Preisfindung war früher üblich, bevor sie in den 2010er Jahren in Europa durch marktbasierte Hubpreise abgelöst wurde (vgl. Stern, PITG). Auch wenn die Graphik in 2015 endet, so ändert sich das Bild nicht. Zwischen 2015 und 2022 waren die Preise für russischen Import und die Preise am Hub gleich.
Mike Fulwood führt dazu aus, dass die Illusion von ‚billigem russischem Gas‘ aus den für den Verkäufer niedrigeren Bereitstellungskosten des Gases beim Verkauf auf dem europ. Markt herrühren. Das zweite Bild (aus WDIGP/Mike Fulwood) enthält eine Abschätzung dieser Kosten für 2022. Da der Verkaufspreis entweder über Erdöl gebildet wurde oder, später, über die Preisbildung des Hubs definiert war bedeuteten geringere Gestehungskosten mehr Profit. Die niedrigen Bereitstellungskosten des russischen Pipeline Gases kamen also nicht den Kunden am deutschen Ende der Pipeline zugute, sie wanderten in die Koffer der Gazprom und füllten die russische Kriegskasse.
Das Fazit ist damit klar. Russland war der Profiteur des Nordstreamprojektes. Mike Fulwood schreibt dazu:“ While Europe, and Germany especially, may have been hooked on Russian gas, given the volume of imports from Russia, it was not cheap.“
Abschließend zur Motivation dies zusammenzutragen. Die AfD wirft, wie ich finde zu Recht, anderen Parteien vor nicht in der gleichen Realität wie die Bürger in Deutschland zu sein. Die Ignoranz ggü. den Auswirkungen der durch Energiewendemaßnahmen verteuerten Strompreise auf die Industrie und Unternehmen in Deutschland sei da ein Beispiel. Wer nicht in der gleichen Realität wie die Wähler lebt, kann deren Leben nicht verbessern. Das gilt aber auch umgekehrt. Gas aus Russland ist keine magische Substanz die Deutschlands wirtschaftliche Probleme beseitigt. Die Probleme in der Energiepolitik sind hausgemacht und sie müssen in Berlin politisch gelöst werden. Ein Wechsel des Gasanbieters hilft nicht und es wäre fahrlässig dem Wähler etwas anderes zu erzählen.

[Roderich Kiesewetter🇪🇺🇩🇪🇮🇱🇺🇦 @RKiesewetter]

Jahrzehntelang folgte die deutsche Politik drei Lebenslügen: Sicherheit durch die USA, scheinbar billige Energie aus Russland und grenzenloses Wachstum durch den chinesischen Markt. Dieses Modell ist nicht nur gescheitert, sondern in der neuen geoökonomischen Realität brandgefährlich geworden. Wir dürfen Wirtschaft und Sicherheitspolitik nicht länger als getrennte Säulen betrachten.

Europa und Deutschland dürfen nicht zum Spielball fremder Mächte werden – weder durch Russlands imperialen Vernichtungskrieg, noch durch Chinas systematische Schaffung von Abhängigkeiten oder die kompromisslose Machtpolitik Washingtons in einer zweiten Trump-Amtszeit. Europa muss seinen geoökonomischen Raum selbstbewusst gestalten und verteidigen.

Das bedeutet konkret, dass wir die Ukraine als unabdingbaren Pfeiler unserer künftigen Sicherheit und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zwingend in unsere Sicherheitsarchitektur und den Binnenmarkt integrieren müssen. Zudem gilt es, digitale Souveränität aufzubauen und uns aus der fatalen doppelten Abhängigkeit von chinesischer Hardware und amerikanischen Cloud-Infrastrukturen zu befreien. Nicht zuletzt müssen wir Rüstungskooperationen konsequent als strategisches, geopolitisches Werkzeug begreifen, um Partner an Demokratien zu binden und Autokratien nicht kampflos das Feld zu überlassen.

https://t.co/YH2uIWRuWf