Russia needs to lose, and lose badly. That's what every dictator on the planet needs to see. Our ability or failure to stop and punish Russia's crimes in #Ukraine will deter or encourage the aggression of dictatorships worldwide, and thereby determine the course of this century.

🚨 Putin plans to use Ukraine peace talks to push NATO back to its 1997 military posture According to The Telegraph, the Kremlin wants to force NATO to scale back its military presence in Europe to levels seen before Eastern European countries joined the Alliance. This could mean demanding the withdrawal of NATO forces from Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland. That is why Moscow is pushing for European countries to participate in negotiations over Ukraine. Diplomatic sources cited by The Telegraph say Putin wants to turn talks about ending the war into negotiations over the entire European security architecture. The issue may also have been discussed during Putin's three-hour meeting with Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in St. Petersburg. However, European countries have previously rejected the Kremlin's demands to reduce NATO's military presence on its eastern flank.

Een miljardair bepaalt hoe Oekraïne zich mag verdedigen. Dronevluchten tegen Russische troepen op bezet Oekraïens grondgebied zijn zelfverdediging, geen “loophole”. Musk maakt het Kyiv bewust moeilijker. We zullen het niet vergeten: toen het erop aankwam, koos Musk de kant van Rusland.

❗️Ukraine violated the terms of use of Starlink and used it for offensive drone strikes with the aim of killing people. This loophole was closed last week — Musk.

Proposals to resume Russian gas sales to Europe, as reported by @TheEconomist, are flawed and dangerous. After decades of Russian energy blackmail, Europe has only just begun to achieve true energy independence. For Moscow, energy is a weapon, not a business. This lesson has been learned the hard way. In 2019, President Trump's firm decision to halt Nord Stream 2 construction was one of the greatest investments in Europe's security. By contrast, the US decision to let construction resume in 2021 was one of the gravest strategic mistakes. Allowing Russian pipelines to bypass Ukraine invited Putin to launch his full-scale invasion. Past mistakes must be neither forgotten nor repeated. These strategic failures brought no greater prosperity or security — only war, turmoil, and crisis. An end to this war will not come through concessions, business deals, or flattery. It can end only through strength and by depriving Putin's regime of the resources to continue it.

⚡️ "Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine—they haven't been doing much," US President Donald Trump said when asked about potential talks with Russia and China.

The deal being proposed to Ukraine right now is that it withdraws from Donbas and sanctions are lifted on russia in exchange for russia promising not to advance any further. Ukraine gets peace. So Ukraine said, OK, but let's establish guarantees that russia won't advance any further immediately without stopping. The Trump administration refused to provide any, and russia said it wouldn't allow foreign troops to be present on the new line, no foreign country agreed to provide any either. In 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances regarding its territorial integrity from russia, the UK, and the USA. Today, the main argument used to justify russia's violation of those assurances and the USA's refusal to help Ukraine is that the 1994 Budapest Memorandum wasn't legally binding, just like russia's promise today not to attack any further. So underneath the shiny peace proposal is nothing but a gift to russia and the conditions for the war to continue.