And yet, one of the most shameful incidents of the entire four-year-long major war was the conduct of the USA—which initially pressured Ukraine to submit to a tyrant, only to later wash its hands of the matter entirely and forget the Budapest Memorandum.
In fact, it was one of the most shameful events in the entire 250-year history of the United States—an act that reset its image as a "bastion of democracy and universal human values" to factory settings.
https://t.co/B1X3rpskKC
Oh, and by the way, mass murderer Putin wished Trump a happy birthday.
Twelve years ago today, russians shot down a Ukrainian Il-76 near Luhansk, killing 49 Ukrainian defenders.
It is yet another reminder that russia started this war long before February 2022.
Never forget.
Efter 🇺🇦 vällyckade Storm Shadow-bombning av Marinstaben i Sevastopol, SEP 2023 (varefter själva staben flyttades till 🇷🇺), och nyligen även av dess kvarvarande flygdivisionsstab, tycks även den delen av ockupationsmakten finna för gott att schappa.
🤯 Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is reportedly preparing to evacuate its remaining command bodies from temporarily occupied Sevastopol to Novorossiysk.
Driven by intensifying Ukrainian strikes and a crumbling logistical network, some officers are already moving their families.
This year, Serbia granted citizenship to four times as many Russians as people of all other nationalities combined, and some of them were under international sanctions, an RFE/RL analysis shows. This is a red flag for the EU.
Because Serbia has visa-free access to the bloc, these passports give blacklisted individuals an all-access pass to Europe.
By @RSE_Balkan
Personligen tror jag Surkov har haft betydligt mer inflytande på ryskt agerande o påverkan, även i skeenden där han ej haft formell makt, än vad t ex Dugin har haft.
Ändå tycks Dugins förment intellektuella mystiscism o Rasputinframtoning passa bättre in i vår rysslandsstereotyp.
You cannot understand the rot of modern politics without studying Vladislav Surkov, the dark political strategist who engineered Putinism.
He is a profoundly dangerous figure who mastered the art of weaponized illusion, creating a blueprint of deception that has been copied by many, including Donald Trump.
Many know about Surkov’s existence because of The Wizard of the Kremlin, but both the book and the movie have faced intense blowback for humanizing Putin and Surkov too much. The truth is much uglier.
Surkov built the infrastructure of modern Russian authoritarianism through managed democracy, a toxic system where the Kremlin secretly funds and controls almost every political faction, from violent skinheads to liberal human rights organizations, ensuring the population remains divided, confused, and powerless.
His philosophy is entirely built on turning an act into reality. Everything is an act, and while most people realize everything is an act, they choose to play along with the spectacle.
As the chief engineer of the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, Surkov manufactured the entire Donbas separatist movement out of nothing. He deployed paid crowds, fake protests, and crisis actors to stage a civil war, while sending real Russian soldiers to masquerade as local separatists, firing real bullets. This manufactured theater laid the groundwork for the current catastrophic war, an act of aggression that was completely unprovoked, and chosen by Russia.
Donald Trump has mirrored this dangerous methodology, adopting the fake-it-till-you-make-it strategy, utilizing paid crowds, and spreading absolute cynicism. We saw it in Greenland. Trump uses these Surkovian tactics to erase objective truth, gaslight voters, and resort to brute force or raw intimidation the moment his fabrications start to fall apart.
Surkov's horrific legacy continues to poison global discourse. He must be widely studied and exposed so the public understands that chaos is rarely accidental. It is actually a post-modern warfare strategy designed to make us submissive to dictators
@ThomasK05319742 Verkligen. 🇷🇺 hade kanske också, för fem år sedan, kunnat förstärka sitt politiska inflytande över 🇺🇦 - trots att åtta års efterhand mer lågintensivt krig där då Hade förstärkt motviljan mot dem..
Med eskaleringen 2022 blev det dock omöjligt för omvärlden att se åt annat håll.
Belgium allows this support to aggressive dictatorship to continue. I've tried to get Lisin on sanction list and will continue the effort until it happens.
@MatsMagnusson73 Ahaha, mkt snygg formulering. Ja, jag undrar verkligen. Förutom praktikaliteterna skulle det se Väldigt illa ut med långa flyktingköer nu...
Det är 30 mil körning fr Sevastopol t ryssland, så med "ranson" på 20 l/tankning o dag - och förbud mot att fylla reservdunkar etc - behöver man Redan planera lite innan man bidrar till spontantömningen av ockupationsnjutare.. När svartbygget Kerchbron åtgärdas blir det svårare.
A russian woman whines that she’s scared and exhausted living in occupied Sevastopol under constant threat, and is leaving everything behind as life has become unbearable.
But when they moved into occupied territory, it was fine then—what did they expect?
You reap what you sow.
Today the flags fly at half-mast.
On the night of 14 June 1941, doors were knocked in the dark across Estonia. Mothers were given minutes. Children clutched whatever they could carry. More than 10,000 people — among them infants and the elderly — were loaded into cattle wagons and sent east, into the cold, into silence. Men were torn from their families and sent to camps from which most never returned.
They committed no crime. Their only offense was being Estonian, being educated, being landowners, being someone the regime decided to erase.
We lower our flags today not out of habit, but out of memory. For the empty chairs at kitchen tables. For the letters that stopped coming. For the graves that have no markers in the Siberian earth.
A nation that forgets its grief forgets itself. So we remember. We say their names. We teach our children why this day is quiet.
Mälestame. We remember. 🕯️🇪🇪
Sverige har föregått med utmärkta exempel, men jag tror 🇷🇺 rent perceptionsmässigt reagerar starkare på att nu 🇬🇧 äntligen får tummarna ur.
Kanske får detta också 🇩🇰 att, med sitt utmärkta läge i östersjöutloppen, agera mot sk skuggflottan.
Britain has intercepted a Russian shadow fleet tanker for the first time.
The sanctioned tanker SMYRTOS was boarded and detained in the English Channel during a six-hour operation involving Royal Marines, the National Crime Agency, Royal Navy warships, maritime helicopters, and an RAF P-8 patrol aircraft, conducted in coordination with France.
We are seeing Russian admit to the "Lanchester Square Collapse" of their air defenses in face of Ukrainian OWA (one-way attack) drones
FP-2 bridge busting drones cost less than a single US Army Javelin anti-tank missile. Hit harder than a GMLRS.
Plus they can engage and kill armored vehicles at 300 km.
In the early hours of this morning, I directed our Armed Forces to intercept a shadow fleet oil tanker attempting to pass through the English Channel.
This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin's war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide.
I want to thank those involved, including our Armed Forces and law enforcement officers who keep this country safe 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Overnight, multiple Ukrainian attack drones successfully struck Russia's AZOT chemical plant in Novomoskovsk, setting it ablaze.
The plant is/was a major producer of nitrate products used in Russian explosives.
“Tulsi Gabbard and her staff promulgated Russian intelligence products as American work.”
Yes, and she did this before joining ODNI and again on her way out the door, which should probably tell you where she’ll wind up next. Senators who voted to confirm her should think on their sins.
It took a one-two punch over three years (2023-2026) for Ukraine to isolate the Kinburn split.
First, killing the S-400 high altitude SAM's in Crimea unlocked TB-2 drones to "landing craft plink" the Russians the way F-111's did to Iraqi tanks in the 1991 Gulf War.
1/2
OTD in 1952 we shot down a Swedish Air Force DC-3 in international airspace. Later in the day we shot down a search & rescue plane looking for it
We denied it until 1991.
🇳🇴 har länge klargjort att de militärt måste tillse att det ej finns glapp mellan högstanivån för vad de själva kan hantera o lägstanivån för när NATO "garanteras" hjälpa.
🇷🇺 vill skapa/vidga det glappet.
Då behöver man påverka endera partens förmåga - eller (tron på) garantin...
1. Kun Venäjän mahdollisesta uhasta Natolle puhutaan, moni kuvittelee uuden Ukrainan. Pitkiä rintamalinjoja, vuosia kestävää kulutussotaa ja valtavia maahyökkäyksiä.
Todennäköisempi riski on lyhyt ja raju kriisi, jonka tavoitteena olisi hajottaa Nato. 🧵 https://t.co/J4mY9gQ7xf