Thread by @NTenzer

Quick #thread on #Putin's speech.
1 We in the West need to stop buying into the rhetoric about #redlines and the nuclear threat.
I reminded him yesterday on a program: he has been using this rhetoric for many years.
1/13

To buy into it is to give up—with consequences for other countries elsewhere.
Not coincidentally, this is also a narrative picked up by Putin's propagandists in the West who push for a negotiated solution, peace talks, not arming #Ukraine, no trial for Putin, etc.
2/13

This narrative is what the Kremlin expects. Always keep in mind whose game you are playing and be ruthless to those who relay it.
More than time to throw this Putin #redline narrative in the trash.
3/13

2 This speech applies to the territories that #Russia has illegally annexed: #Crimea, tomorrow those in which the masquerade of referendums will be held. I recalled yesterday the lack of reaction to the beautiful Ukrainian strikes against Russian base in #Crimea.
4/13

In a previous thread, I reminded that we must stop giving a specificity to Crimea among the Ukrainian territories. It is Ukrainian like the rest. The Allies must help Ukraine to reclaim it too.
It's not optional.
5/13

https://twitter.com/NTenzer/status/1571514003062505473?s=20&t=tOi3Yco6RWnyecSMoZuKLQ

3 Partial mobilization cannot work. Even if reservists are theoretically better trained than new recruits, they cannot be said to be well trained... We have seen this with the regular army, whose debacle has surprised (quite) everyone.
6/13

More than 50,000 Russian soldiers died and probably more than 150,000 were wounded and unable to fight.
They are cannon fodder, nothing more. This confirms a point that I often made: Putin's goal is not power, greatness, but pure destruction—of others and of his own people.
7/13

I stand with the Ukrainian civilians and soldiers, monstrously massacred by the Russians. Every day I not only think of them, but I ask that we, the Allies, do more to save them.
It's our major failure and our guilt before history.
I mourn them as if they were my own.
8/13

No one can rejoice over the death of Russian soldiers and Ukrainians do not. The Ukrainians are defending themselves, that's all.
(And never forget the war crimes perpetrated by the Russian soldiers. They are responsible and the guilty ones will be brought to court).
9/13

But you, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, fiancées of Russian soldiers, are you so insensitive, cowardly or stupid to see that Putin takes away your children, your brothers, your loves?
What are you doing?
Give up your passivity and fatalism at last!
Your guilt, too.
10/13

4 Putin has clearly named the West and NATO as his enemies—which is hardly new.
But the West and NATO have not attacked anyone. They are defending our principles, our values, our security.
When #Ukraine is attacked, we are all attacked.
Just propagandists blame the West.
11/13

Today, we must win this war quickly—very quickly, massively increase our deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, all weapons, with no restriction.
Not only #Ukraine must win, but #Russia must lose.
As long as Putin remains in power, there won't be peace in the world.
Take action!
12/13

Let's not let a miserable criminal against humanity and his henchmen threaten us! This regime must be destroyed, also for the sake of #Russia.
To say it again and again:
This is our war.
We are at war.
13/13