wessel de jong

Journalist at foreign board of @NOS and @Nieuwsuur member of Ukraine desk. Often in Kyiv. Previous: Washington, Brussels, Budapest (and Mockba.)

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

'Er is iets gaande' in het Kremlin, toch heeft Poetin 'touwtjes strak in handen' /via @NOS https://t.co/444nrawGq1

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

Poetin wijst uitnodiging Zelensky af, ziet het nut er niet van in /via @NOS https://t.co/NrkrJV6ixu

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

https://t.co/V8F4gyzVNm

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

Russen ongetwijfeld blij met Oostenrijk https://t.co/C7IkRE6M7f

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

https://t.co/YJCedrYi8S

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

EXCLUSIVE: Hungary has signaled it will drop its long-standing opposition to Ukraine’s bid for EU membership, allowing it and Moldova to begin formal negotiations to join the bloc in the coming days, four diplomats told POLITICO. https://t.co/B4jaW4lByv

[Donald Tusk @donaldtusk]

Poland, Baltic states, now Romania. More and more Russian provocations. Yesterday the former president @MedvedevRussiaE said that the peaceful sleep of the EU citizens is over. Everyone in NATO should finally start taking these facts and words seriously.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

SEN. KELLY: I've spent 15 years working with Russian cosmonauts. Took me 5 years to understand what motivated them.

Number one, appearance that they were in charge of something. Two, who to blame when something goes wrong. Three, what to steal today. Only four, mission success.

I think as Ukrainians, as Americans, as Brits, we're often motivated by mission success. You want organization you work for to be successful, you want your country to be successful, you want British Army to be successful, I want US Navy to be successful, I want NASA to be successful.

That wasn't my experience with Russian cosmonauts I worked with. I'm talking about dozens of people that I knew well, what motivated them when they went to work every day.

At the top of the list was that they really cared about the appearance that they were in charge of something, not mission success. Now, whether they were really actually in charge of it or not didn't matter so much. Mission success wasn't even number two.

Number two on the list, I would say, was whether they knew who to blame when something went wrong, like placing the blame. Russians have a position in their Mission Control Center which is called "mistakes officer." When a Russian cosmonaut makes a mistake, they keep track of it and they take money out of their pay.

I would say the third thing, even before mission success, was what am I going to steal from my employer today. And we would talk about that. They were very open about this. And apparently there's a saying in Russian that if you didn't steal something at work that day, you did not have a good day.

For us, and I think everybody in this room here, mission success is the thing that matters more than anything else. And for the Russians I worked with, it might have been number four on the list. So I actually was not that surprised about their incompetence.

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

'Als er morgen oorlog in Taiwan uitbreekt, produceren de VS binnenkort geen wapens meer, want overal zitten Taiwanese chips in. Stopt China de verkoop van onderdelen voor drones, dan hebben we over drie maanden geen drones meer.' artikel van de Volkskrant https://t.co/z7aesv5Syi

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

De US embassy heeft als enige Kyiv verlaten. https://t.co/d3nkpWNAF3

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

Hi Christopher,
Would you have a picture of what it looked like when you lived there?

[Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM]

This destroyed section of the building was the second apartment I lived in during my time in Bakhmut. My bedroom and window would be right where the rubble meets the still-standing wall. It was owned by my friends who left behind nearly everything when they fled, and it was home for a while back in 2011-12 for me. As this recent video filmed by Russian occupiers shows, there's little left of Peace Street.

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

…. If negotiations begin…

[NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @NOELreports]

❗️EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc will demand limits on Russia’s armed forces if negotiations over Ukraine begin. She also said the EU will demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and Georgia. #Russia

[MediaScore @Mediaproof_nl]

https://t.co/EJ2u1FJRc7

[MediaScore @Mediaproof_nl]

Eickhout bij aftreden: 5.6/10
Oprecht excuus, geen pad vooruit.

🟢 P 8 | 🟡 R 5 | 🟢 O 6 | 🟡 O 4 | 🟡 F 5

"Dat had ik niet mogen doen." Eickhout neemt na 17 jaar afscheid van Europa, zonder omwegen over zijn fouten.

Wat opvalt is niet wat hij zegt, maar wat hij weglaat. Hij erkent zijn verantwoordelijkheid voor "relaties die niet pasten bij zijn rol" en spreekt over gebrek aan energie. Maar waarom stopt hij nu? Wat gebeurde er precies? Die vraag blijft onbeantwoord.

Een patroon dat je vaker ziet bij politici onder druk: ze nemen verantwoordelijkheid voor de vorm, maar laten de inhoud weg. Eickhout vertelt wat hij fout deed, niet waarom hij het deed. Hij erkent dat hij energie mist, niet wat die energie wegnam. Het is transparant genoeg om integer te lijken, vaag genoeg om vragen open te laten.

De kracht zit in zijn directheid. "Dat had ik niet mogen doen" is veel eerlijker dan de gebruikelijke politieke omzeilingen over "onverstandige keuzes" of "nieuwe uitdagingen". Hij zegt het zoals het is, ook als het pijn doet.

Maar een afscheid dat meer vragen oproept dan het beantwoordt, is geen afscheid. Het is een pauze in een verhaal dat nog niet af is.

Herken je dit in je eigen lastige gesprekken: verantwoordelijkheid nemen zonder de volledige waarheid?

Eigen optreden testen? Eerste analyse gratis.

👉 https://t.co/kWAS6R2vRr

#MediaScore#PRO#PVDA

[U.S. Embassy The Hague @usembthehague]

The United States and the Netherlands share one of the world’s strongest and most enduring partnerships, built on 250 years of shared values, innovation, and cooperation. We were disappointed by the Dutch government’s decision regarding the Kyndryl-Solvinity deal.

Read the full statement: https://t.co/v8MtI9DG1z

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

Swedish Ambassador Martin Åberg visited the sites destroyed in the russian attack:

“My name is Martin Åberg, and I am the Ambassador of Sweden to Ukraine. Today is May 25, the day after a massive russian missile attack. A devastating strike on Kyiv.

What you see behind me is one of the sites visited by all invited ambassadors so they could witness the consequences with their own eyes. Six russian missiles struck a shopping center, a market, and the entrance to a metro station. It is simply staggering.”

Source: Embassy of Sweden in Kyiv

[wessel de jong @wesselNOS]

Rusland vuurt gevreesde Oresjnik-raket af op Oekraïne, Europa reageert geschokt /via @NOS https://t.co/tfGSfjyLW4

[The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent]

⚡️ Czech police detain Russian Orthodox metropolitan over suspected drug possession.

Metropolitan Hilarion's car was stopped by Czech police officers on May 24. During a subsequent search, "four small containers with a white substance were found in the trunk," according to Hilarion's Telegram channel.
https://t.co/b4f6iwz9oa

[МИД России 🇷🇺 @MID_RF]

⚡️ ВC Российской Федерации приступают к нанесению системных ударов по предприятиям украинского ВПК в Киеве.

Предупреждаем иностранных граждан, включая персонал дипмиссий и представительств международных организаций, о необходимости покинуть город.

📄 https://t.co/e8aIXw633K

[Phaedra Werkhoven @Phaedrajanine]

Een stukkie in Kyivse media over mijn boek https://t.co/t5gCDtuQ3h