The Kremlin approved a Social Design Agency plan to boost Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz before Hungary’s election by seeding Russia-designed messages via Hungarian influencers, according to the Financial Times. www.ft.com/content/34df... 1/2
NEW: The Russian military simply does not have the capacity to overrun Ukrainian defenses that Putin constantly claims. 🧵⤵️ (1/5)
1/ Ukrainian forces are successfully counterattacking not only in the Oleksandrivka and Hulyaipole directions but also in western Zaporizhia Oblast. isw.pub/UkrWar030926
With half the world pivoting to Ukrainian drone incerptors a good overview from @covertshores.bsky.social
www.hisutton.com/Ukrainian-In...
Why didn't the US consult Ukraine, the one country that knows how to country attacks from thousands of cheap drones?
www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
He doesn’t have the cards. He has the interceptors.
Excellent. "America needs a strategy in Iran, just as it needs one in the world." Gift link: www.economist.com/leaders/2026...
”In an age of blood-soaked realpolitik, Europe stands out. Yes, it is meek, a vegetarian in a world of omnivorous geopolitical rivals. [But i]f it is a sin to think that rules matter, the world could do with a few more sinners… the relative sanity found in Europe is a kind of defiance.”
No surprise there. I really hope that Ukraine can get something out of this for its own defence.
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Pentagon eyes Ukrainian interceptor drones to counter Iran
Maybe just maybe the Ukrainian policy of reducing the number of their troops on the front line was the right one and the Russian one of slaughtering their own population the wrong one.
Thankfully the Ukrainians did not listen to the terrible western analytic community on this.
LLM prose is everywhere now. How did it happen so quickly? I think at some point we have to stop blaming the technology. new post
"European nations are snapping up Ukrainian front-line know-how, helping NATO militaries rewire themselves for a transformed battlefield that is dominated by drones and electronic warfare, and where even new weapons can become obsolete in a few months."
www.wsj.com/world/europe...
It is once again time for this joke:
Tired: extended deterrence
Wired: dissuasion élargie
#closethesky :-)
A brief reprieve from the US-Israel-Iran war news to share some photos from Lviv, because the western Ukrainian city was absolutely glorious today, on this first day of spring. Signs point to the long, horrible winter and freezing cold being over. The Russian attacks, however, are likely to continue
🇺🇦🫂 Ukraine greets the first day of spring – the season we’ve been waiting for most after a long, cold, and one of the hardest winters in decades. Russia tried to leave us in the dark and freezing. We endured.
📷 AFUkraine/Facebook, DSNS/Telegram, UkrzalInfo/Telegram,citykharkivua/Telegram
Journalists from The NYT interviewed more than ten Ukrainian women who suffered sexual violence during the Russian occupation. Some women say they became pregnant by Russian soldiers and now live with children who will forever remind them of their attackers.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/w...
The Trump admin has abandoned Ukraine. It hasn't actively put its lot with Ru's war effort. Does Rubio want to be congratulated for it? Or are they considering jumping in on Ru's side? Either way, the admin's Ukraine policy is shameful from a moral standpoint and the opposite of what Americans want.
Good to see that there is *finally* some movement on this!
“Neutral Ireland is seeking closer co-operation with the UK and other Nato countries to defend its vast maritime area as Russia intensifies its surveillance of vulnerable undersea cables that criss-cross Irish waters.”
Today marks four years since Russia invaded Ukraine. These are some thoughts (recorded yesterday) on what Ukrainians have done for all of us and what we can learn from them.
Today marks four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Over a thousand days of fighting, six million refugees abroad, and tens of thousands killed.
We honor those who gave their lives, thank those who fight on, and continue to believe in victory.
Glory to Ukraine.
Putin has failed on a monumental scale in Ukraine. For four years he’s been dependent for survival on a war he started but which Russia cannot win. In the process, he’s turned Russia – which he desperately wants to be a great power - into the dependent of an actual great power.
Today, people are rightly focusing on Ukraine. But it’s also worth taking a moment to think about the monumental stupidity and failure of Putin and his subordinates, who started the longest, most destructive European war since WW2 even though there was no threat to Russia. 🧵
I wrote for @ukandeu.bsky.social on the end of the US-Europe alliance.
On the eve of the 4th anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told @financialtimes.com Russia and Ukraine are at the “beginning of the end” of Europe’s biggest war since WWII, but urged Trump to see through Putin’s negotiating “games”.
Free link: as.ft.com/r/9b99f21a-e...
And now, Foreign Policy have kindly made this short piece available without a paywall - foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/23/r...
A reminder that Europe has plenty of cards...Geostrategic Europe Taskforce report at www.geostrategic-europe.org/publications...
Tomorrow everyone will be asking: when will the Russo-Ukrainian war end? The right question is: what can we do to make the Russian invasion fail?
US & UK volunteers joined the International Legion to fight for Ukraine & democracy. Read their gripping accounts in ‘To Die With Such Men’ by @shannonmonaghan.bsky.social
‘Explores in bloody detail… what it’s really like to volunteer on Ukraine’s front line.’ @thetimes.com
tinyurl.com/bdhkjdd6
It turns out that Europe's greatest strategic problem (and this includes France) is that De Gaulle was right, but no one really listened to him.
