Sikorski: The Nobel Peace Prize is of some interest. Right now, prime ministers get letters. As foreign ministers, we have the right to nominate.
If President Trump secures a fair peace for Ukraine, I shall do it myself. But it's I who will decide what a fair peace is. 1/
Sikorski: Norwegian air defense systems and F-35s were the 1st to help protect the Polish sky. Defense cooperation has been growing steadily and effectively.
Together we are helping Ukrainian soldiers who can now train in Poland in camps. 2/
Sikorski: Our locations give us a strategic role in the regions near to Russia. Poland is between East and West. In NATO, they used to joke that God created Poland for tank warfare.
We are trying to get away from that. We like to think of ourselves as southern Scandinavia. 3/
At the end of Ukraine conflict, we'll have a very big Russia problem
Russia will be reconstituting its force on NATO borders, led by the same people, convinced we're the adversary, and very angry. Putin taking on Baltic republics might be a gamble he's willing to take, Times 1/
Russia maintains the world's biggest nuclear stockpile: ~5,000 warheads on 324 ballistic missiles, 71 bombers, and 12 missile launching submarines.
Much of its arsenal, including strategic weapons, has not been damaged in Ukraine. 2/
Russia produces more than 200 Shahed drones a day.
If there was a ceasefire with Ukraine and production continued at the same rate, they would soon have stockpiled thousands for possible use against NATO countries. Russia's arms industry is running hot. 3/
Kasparov: Europeans’ dominant thought has been that somehow war in Ukraine will end: “Somehow they’ll come to an agreement. We don’t want to go all the way; we’re not at war with Putin.”
It’s still this mentality of detente. No one took any radical action. 1/
Kasparov: The Russian government will be a threat. This threat could escalate into outright aggression. Europe is preparing for this. Multi-year military budgets are being planned. It is understood that this war must be won and Putin deprived of the ability to fight. 2/
Kasparov: This is a war in which the stakes aren’t just Ukraine’s survival as a state and a nation. Essentially, the future of all of Europe is at stake. The future of the Russian opposition depends on whether we can offer an adequate political expression of this demand. 3X
Sarah Paine: Putin is fixated on Ukraine, Xi on Taiwan — opposite ends of Eurasia. Their main theaters don’t align.
The West should avoid hot war, avoid trade wars, grow stronger. While Putin burns through Russia’s assets in Ukraine. That’s how the last Cold War was won.
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Sarah Paine: Putin is trying to build an empire in the age of nationalism. It’s a non-starter.
He’s burning Russia’s military in Ukraine while China expands into Central Asia.
Moscow chose a hot war while weak, and Beijing is strong. That’s what makes this so damaging.
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Sarah Paine: Siberia has exactly what China needs — resources and, above all, water.
Lake Baikal holds over 20% of the world’s surface freshwater.
China is famous for massive water projects, and Siberia is the nearest ‘quick fix.’
In a Kyiv suburb a Shahed strike erased a family in minutes.
Svitlana Blatova and her partner Maksym were killed instantly. Their 4-year-old daughter survived.
“A child screaming, ‘Mama, mama, mama.’ And her mother wasn’t answering. The upper floor was burning,” — Hromadske. 1/
Hours before the hit, Svitlana posted plans for the next day — errands, work, preparations for her eldest son’s 20th birthday. She went to sleep smiling. 2/
At 1:30 am, a Russian Shahed hit her apartment in Bilohorodka.
The duplex they had nearly finished paying off burned out completely. Svitlana and her partner Maksym were killed instantly. Their 4-year-old daughter survived. 3/
At 22, Ukrainian Viktoriia Honcharuk had a Manhattan banking job, Midtown apartment. Two weeks later, she was evacuating wounded soldiers under Russian fire, NY Post. 1/
Viktoriia quit her investment banking role in Dec 2022 and flew home.
No combat or medical background. She signed up as an emergency combat medic because it was the most needed job. One week of training. Then the front. 2/
Viktoriia: “I was afraid of blood. Afraid of needles. I’d never done anything medical. But I knew that’s what I had to do.”
She worked about 800 meters from the front, racing in a makeshift ambulance to retrieve the wounded. 3/