I was in Dnipro today. A missile hit this building earlier this year. 46 people burned and evaporated.
Dnipro is close to the border and missiles can come any time without warning.
Yesterday, there was an attack and more people died.
But the city lives. 1/
Just next to the destroyed building there is a new development full of live. 2/
There is beautiful architecture and art 3/
People open and operate upscale stores, designed by Ukrainians, and giving a shockingly different vibe. 4/
The authorities put up shelters around the city so that people can get to some kind of safer if there is no warning attack. 5/
The city is clean, garbage collection is working. 6/
They appear to be playful and in good mood. But the moment you talk to them you see trauma, fear, exhausting, commitment, resilience and anger. All at once. 7/
The drinks are innovative. This is a lemonade with raspberries. 8/
Our waiter was giving attitude :))9/
I have not slept well for weeks now, but even my mood got lighten up. 10/
And the colors of the city are beautiful. 11/
Dnipro city is wonderful, and it is horrible crime what Russians are doing to it. There are good people in Dnipro, goof humans, who want to live free. Without Russia. And it will happen. 12X
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Ukraine is playing by its own rules in the US game. The US asked Kyiv to stop striking Russian energy facilities. On April 5 Ukrainian drones hit a Lukoil refinery near St Petersburg anyway, writes The Telegraph. 1/
A 30-drone barrage hit the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod region — 250 miles east of Moscow. Two facilities were damaged. Photographs showed large flames and explosions lighting up the night sky. 2/
A separate strike damaged a Baltic oil pipeline near the port of Primorsk, between the Finnish border and St Petersburg. 3/
Kellogg: During the nuclear negotiations, I used to say: trust, verify. That is what we need now.
I would caution Iran against dragging this out with back-and-forth games. Trump means what he says, and over the next two weeks they need to take that seriously. 1/
Kellogg: Look at Trump’s record. He struck the sites Assad used for nerve gas, moved the embassy to Jerusalem, walked away from the JCPOA and killed Soleimani.
The Iranians know this is a president who means what he says. He will deliver. 2/
Kellogg: The goal is clear: keep the Strait of Hormuz open and make sure Iran never becomes a nuclear power.
They enriched far above the limit and moved toward weapons grade. This time we have to watch closely, go in on the ground and verify what is happening. 3/
Trump's land-for-security-guarantees formula for Ukraine has stalled. Russia won't stop at the Donbas. It wants to block Ukraine from Western weapons.
Ukraine won't surrender the "fortress belt" and become more exposed — Samuel Charap and Jennifer Kavanagh, Foreign Affairs.
1/
Negotiations have proceeded on separate tracks. US-Ukraine, US-Russia, Europe-Ukraine.
No meeting has included Russia, Ukraine, the US and Europe together. This creates misunderstandings and makes it impossible to identify terms all parties accept.
2/
The security guarantees under discussion could actually backfire. A "coalition of the willing" led by France and the UK would deploy troops to Ukraine after a ceasefire — exactly what Russia fears most. More land for Russia, but NATO boots still on Ukrainian soil.
3/
Lesson for Ukraine from Ray Dalio: We must be strong and ready to endure Russia’s pressure.
Dalio: No country enforces global rules — conflicts spread. Wars are decided by endurance. The US is strongest, but with 750+ bases it’s overstretched — and Iran war is testing that.
1/
Dalio defines today’s wars as one system: Russia–Ukraine–US–Europe, Israel–Gaza–Iran, and Yemen–Sudan conflicts run at the same time. Nuclear states sit inside these wars, and trade, tech, and capital fights connect them.
2/
Markets expect a short war and a return to normal. Dalio rejects that view. He says the world has entered an early-stage world war that will last years, not weeks.
3/
Keane: I do not trust the Iranians at all. Trump does not trust them either. He knows they are liars and cheaters.
My preference would have been to keep the war going as leverage. A ceasefire takes pressure off them, and that is exactly what they wanted from the start. 1/
Keane: The deal has to take away everything military force took from Iran. Number one is nuclear enrichment.
That was the issue at the start. We will know quickly if Tehran is serious when we get to the fine points of the deal, the verification, and the concessions they make. 2/
Keane: If this blows up, we have to finish what we started. It comes down to Kharg Island: take control of it and its oil, or destroy it and force economic collapse.
That is the leverage to bend Iran to our will, and in my view it puts the regime on a path to collapse. 3X
Tucker: Easter morning should have been about resurrection, peace, and victory over death.
Instead Trump threatened power plants and bridges in Iran. Civilian infrastructure, blackouts, refugees and dead noncombatants — including over a million Christians who live in Iran. 1/
Tucker: Millions of Christians backed Trump not because he was pious, but because he looked like a protector — of religious liberty, of Christians, of the unborn.
I think the first moment they should have stopped and asked what this really was came on Jan. 4, over Venezuela. 2/
Tucker: The problem was not that Maduro was anti-American. The problem was the motive Trump gave us: we did it for the oil.
That crossed a line for me. If a country says it can take what it wants by force, it is not defending order. It is legalizing theft at scale. 3X