jose madeira

Visão,ouvidos,boca,nariz,pele A vida é para ser vivida.

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

Why so many Ukrainians speak russian? Let me explain.

But first, let me ask you a question: Why do Irish and Scotts speak English, Catalans and Basques speak Spanish, Bretons speak French, etc. You probably know the short answer. But let me put a longer one. Ukrainian language was banned by russia 134 times! Here are most notable events:

1720: A decree by Tsar Peter I banned the printing of books in Ukraine.
1753: A decree by Catherine II prohibited teaching in the Ukrainian language.
1768: A decree from the Synod of the russian Orthodox Church called for the confiscation of Ukrainian primers from the population.
1775: Closure of Ukrainian schools after russian troops destroyed the Zaporizhian Sich.
1830-1840s: russification of Ukraine intensified. Even the very name "Ukraine" was prohibited to be used.
1889: At an archaeological congress in Kyiv, it was permitted to read papers "in all languages except Ukrainian."
1895: A ban on Ukrainian children's literature.
1914: A ban on the Ukrainian press.
1938: Mandatory study of the russian language was introduced throughout Ukraine. At the same time, there was a mass closure of national schools, and the prestige of the Ukrainian language declined.
1926-1939: Physical deportations of Ukrainian activists accused of nationalism. Four family members on my mother’s side were deported.
1929: Newly printed dictionary of Ukrainian was prohibited.
1960s: Arrests and extermination of the young generation of Ukrainian intelligentsia.

130 years ago, Ukrainian-speaking area was not limited by Ukraine, but also some parts of russia and Belarus spoke it (see the red area, that's the result of russian Empire census in 1897, when people identified themselves by the language). So, when someone says that some region of Ukraine is “russian speaking”, read the above list again. It’s a miracle that Ukrainian language even survived, and many people sacrificed their lives for it.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

I can't with these videos of Russians standing in fuel lines whining, "But why are they bombing us? What did we doooooo?"

​You invaded a sovereign state. You destroyed the peaceful lives of 40 million people. You leveled our towns and cities. Your scorched-earth bombings turned a once-blooming land into a wasteland visible from space. Most importantly, you are actively killing us right now, and you dare to ask that question?

​Life is a boomerang, babe. What karma fails to deliver, our armed forces will. Unless you all pack up and go home.

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

“A significant part of the Polish response to the UPA is based on ignorance of Ukrainian history.”

Kazimierz Wójcicki
Polish historian and publicist

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

The pinnacle of the russian empire is captured in this photo.

In year five of russia’s “three-day war,” russian authorities have started placing portable toilets alongside the lines of people waiting for fuel.

Make russia small again.

[Devana 🇺🇦 @DevanaUkraine]

Music of Ukraine

The leader of the band "Tartak" Oleksandr Polozhinsky. It was thanks to him that I grew up as I am, because he was the one I looked up to. He had no bad habits, refused to advertise alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, refused politics, read books, thought and fundamentally defended the Ukrainian language during the years of total Russification. He did not submit, as Ukrainian musicians are known today, and is one of the few who has never sung in Russian. From driving rap and punk rock, which gathered stadiums throughout Ukraine, he moved to more thoughtful lyrics, becoming a Ukrainian military man.

English subtitles created by me

[Gianl1974 @Gianl1974]

🚨 Zelensky blew a bombshell declaration

The myth of unlimited power.
For decades, the world lived under two opposite myths.
One was that Russia possessed an almost unstoppable military machine.

The other was that American power was virtually unlimited.

Reality has been cruel to myths.

Russia spent years projecting the image of the world’s second army.

But when it stepped forward in Ukraine, the world discovered that propaganda, corruption, and nuclear threats had concealed profound weaknesses.
Much of what looked like overwhelming power proved to be an illusion.

Now another uncomfortable reality is emerging.
President Zelensky revealed that the United States produces only about 60–65 PAC-3 anti-ballistic missiles per month. During the first day of the Middle East conflict, roughly two years’ worth of production was consumed in just 24 hours.

This does not mean America is weak.
It means that even the world’s strongest military-industrial power has limits.

Factories have limits.
Stockpiles have limits.
Supply chains have limits.

The lesson is not that the United States is declining, just as the lesson from Ukraine was never that Russia was powerless.

The lesson is that dependence itself is a vulnerability.

Europe cannot build its security on the assumption that America will always have enough missiles, factories, political will, or enough attention to fight multiple crises simultaneously.
As Zelensky put it:

“We need our own European independent strong system. And we will build it.”

Because sovereignty is not a speech.

It is the ability to defend yourself.

#StandWithUkraine

[jose madeira @grabmadeira]

@BohuslavskaKate Please, rest , take care of you. All the best to you, think always positive , never give up .

[Devana 🇺🇦 @DevanaUkraine]

Green holidays in Lviv (today's city walk)

[Jorge Silva Carvalho @JMJSCarvalho]

Xi Jinping, a Armadilha de Tucídides e o erro que NINGUÉM está a prever

Enquanto Trump e Xi se encontram em Pequim esta semana, vale a pena recordar: Xi usa o conceito da “Armadilha de Tucídides” desde 2015. Em Seattle, disse com precisão cirúrgica:
“Não existe algo como a chamada Armadilha de Tucídides no mundo. Mas, se grandes países cometerem repetidamente erros de cálculo estratégico, eles podem criar essas armadilhas para si mesmos.”

Onze anos depois, o enquadramento é exatamente o mesmo. A diferença? O mundo mudou. E a guerra do Golfo está a mudar tudo.

A tese de Graham Allison é clara: potência dominante Esparta igual a EUA teme a ascensão da desafiante Atenas igual a China. Xi aceita a dinâmica histórica, mas nega que a guerra seja inevitável. Desloca o foco para os erros de cálculo e na narrativa chinesa esses erros são sempre de contenção excessiva americana.

É a versão diplomática perfeita: “Se houver conflito, a culpa não é de Pequim.”
Ao mesmo tempo, Xi fala de “novo modelo de relações entre grandes potências” não confronto, não conflito, cooperação ganha ganha enquanto expande a frota, impõe linhas vermelhas em Taiwan e avança no Mar do Sul da China.

Muitos analistas ocidentais lêem isto como um terço genuíno, um terço diplomacia e um terço enquadramento: quem escalar, perde a narrativa.

Mas a referência a Tucídides é mais reveladora do que Xi terá calculado.

Na Guerra do Peloponeso (431 404 a.C.), Esparta venceu. Atenas foi humilhada. Mas a vitória de Esparta não durou.
As duas potências saíram exaustas. O modo de vida grego ficou destroçado.

Décadas depois, em 371 a.C., Epaminondas, o brilhante general e estadista tebano, infligiu a Esparta a derrota decisiva de Leuctra, acabando com a sua supremacia. Foi Tebas a terceira potência que ninguém tinha no radar que derrubou Esparta.
Não foi Atenas.

Xi diz que a armadilha não existe, mas pode ser criada por erros de cálculo.

O argumento mais perturbador para esta cimeira é exatamente esse: o erro que nem EUA nem China estão a antecipar não é o confronto direto entre eles.
É o esgotamento mútuo causado por conflitos terceiros.

Guerras como a guerra do Golfo são precisamente isso.
Estão a fazer ao mundo de 2026 o que a Guerra do Peloponeso fez ao mundo grego: drenar recursos, romper cadeias de abastecimento, fracturar a ordem global que tanto Washington como Pequim precisam para sobreviver.

Xi usou Tucídides para dizer a Trump: “Queremos evitar a guerra entre nós.”
O que não disse foi o final da história real:
Esparta não foi derrubada por Atenas.
Foi derrubada pelo cansaço.
E foi esse cansaço que abriu as portas a Alexandre Magno.

O verdadeiro perigo não é a armadilha que os dois grandes constroem um contra o outro.

É a armadilha que ambos estão a construir juntos sem dar por isso.

#Geopolitica #Tucidides #TrumpXi #GuerraNoGolfo #ChinaEUA

[Meanwhile in Ukraine @MeanwhileInUA]

This is incredible!

A nurse, while helping a Ukrainian soldier who had just returned from Russian captivity, kissed him as a sign of deep support and respect. A gesture that means: I am with you, I am here to help you, I am grateful 💙💛🥹

[MAKS 26 🇺🇦👀 @Maks_NAFO_FELLA]

🇺🇦🇪🇺 More than 4.3 million Ukrainians currently have temporary protection in EU countries, most of them in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Trump spikes global oil prices → lifts sanctions on Russia to “fix” it

Russia feeds intel to Iran to target US troops → Trump calls Putin “helpful”

Ukraine sends Shahed interceptors + experts to save US bases → Trump says Ukraine “has no cards” and zero thanks

Makes sense!

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

How the war in Iran is helping Putin

While the world is watching the Middle East, the Kremlin is quietly benefiting.

Here’s why:

1. Distraction from Ukraine.

The war dominates headlines, political debates, and diplomatic attention. The less the world talks about Ukraine, the easier it is for russia to continue its aggression.

2. Rising oil prices.

War in the Middle East pushes oil prices up. For russia, whose war machine runs on oil revenue, this means billions more flowing into the Kremlin’s budget.

3. Sanctions pressure is weakening.

Because of global oil shortages, the U.S. has already allowed additional russian oil sales to India and is now considering lifting more sanctions on russian oil exports.

4. Western weapons are being stretched thin.

Air-defense systems and missiles — including Patriot interceptors — are limited. If they are needed in multiple conflicts, fewer are available to defend Ukrainian cities.

And there is another dangerous consequence.

Every new violation of international law weakens the global order — the same order russia violated when it invaded Ukraine and now tries to justify.

In geopolitics, consequences are rarely isolated.

Right now, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the war in Iran sits in the Kremlin.

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

And I’d like to remind everyone that not so long ago, by helping Ukraine with weapons, America was:

- securing valuable contracts for its own defense industry and spending a large part of U.S.-Congress-allocated funds in America
- gaining massive global advertising for American weapons, which in Ukrainian hands performed superbly in a war against a vastly superior enemy (just look at the impact systems like the Bradley, HIMARS, and Patriot had)
- gaining an extremely loyal ally in Ukraine, ready to share its cutting-edge experience from a new era of warfare, especially in drones and highly intensive missile defense
- reinforcing its image as the arsenal of democracy and the powerful leader of the free world, sending a clear signal to dictatorships worldwide: don’t even think about wars of conquest, we will support our democratic allies
- sending Ukraine, to a significant extent, older weapons from its stockpiles that would have had to be written off anyway in the future, while simultaneously modernizing its own arsenals
- achieving the radical military weakening of an aggressive militaristic Russia, a dictatorship fundamentally built on revenge for the Cold War, hatred of America and the West, and a desire to dismantle the American-led world order

And all of this -- without a single American servicemember having to get deployed and fire a single shot.

Ukraine pleaded, humbly asking for nothing more than a simple win-win partnership: with your weapons we save ourselves from extermination -- you get a defeated fascist Russia.

I genuinely cannot understand how anyone could trade all of that for absurd lies about “$350 billion,” then smear and humiliate Ukraine, insult America’s key NATO allies, side with that KGB cyborg in the Kremlin -- and then to squander billions of dollars, cost American lives, and derail the global economy in a poorly thought-out war in the Middle East.

And then eventually end up asking Ukraine to help defend American bases in Jordan from Iranian-Russian drones.

[Devana 🇺🇦 @DevanaUkraine]

🗺️ Where Did Russian-Speaking Ukrainians Come From?

The map of the spread of the Russian language coincides one-to-one with the map of genocides against the Ukrainian people.

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Ukrainians always defend what is theirs. Defend their independence. Dignity. Their right to live freely. It was the people who won freedom for Ukraine. Ordinary people who care about Ukraine's future and how Ukrainian children will live. We remember what it cost in 2014. We honor the courage of everyone who took part in the Revolution of Dignity, everyone who did not leave the Maidan so that Ukraine would not be left without freedom. Blessed be the memory of all the Heavenly Hundred heroes, as well as every Ukrainian who gave their lives so that Ukraine would be free. Glory to Ukraine!

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

U2, together with British musician Ed Sheeran and the Ukrainian band Antytila, have released a joint song “Yours Eternally.”

The song tells the story of a Ukrainian soldier addressing his loved ones, urging them not to lose faith and to continue dreaming despite the war.

Lyrics excerpt:
Don’t sleep, don’t even think about it
No need, maybe a little bit
Still dream about waking up free
As free as we can be

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

The U.S. markets are actually not doing great.

You have probably seen the recent memes with Pam Bondi saying, “But have you seen the Dow just hit 50,000?” She was trying to defend Trump’s incompetent policies.

But for all the talk about being a “great businessman,” Donald Trump is now presiding over the weakest first-year stock market performance of any U.S. president in two decades.

From Inauguration Day to January 20, 2026, the S&P 500 rose 13%. That may sound decent in isolation, but it is the worst first-year performance since 2005.

And this underperformance is happening under unusually favorable conditions. Trump inherited:
• Back-to-back years of 20%+ market gains
• A powerful AI-driven bull run
• Strong corporate balance sheets

Yet despite those tailwinds, U.S. markets lagged, while international stocks outperformed the U.S. in 2025 for the first time in years.

Why? Because markets don’t just price earnings — they price risk. And Trump has injected a lot of it.

Investors are now dealing with policy whiplash, unpredictable trade threats, politicized economic institutions, and growing concerns about rule-of-law stability.

Political risk under Trump is actively weighing on U.S. assets, pushing capital toward safer and more predictable markets abroad. This is the quiet but devastating part of Trump’s economic record: not a sudden crash, but a slow erosion of confidence.

And this is how Trump is making “America great again” — by weakening it.

The troubling part is that there are still people who support this.

[Roksolana @lana_s2022]

February 20, 2014 - the day russia began its war against Ukraine.

Never forget this war did not start 4 years ago but 12.

Ukraine has been fighting russian parasites since 2014. And it is still fighting today

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

Well, this is what the real world actually looks like, outside the bubble of hatred toward Ukraine incited by armies of bots on this hellsite.