I told CNN Fedorov knows how tech can isolate Crimea and hit Russia’s rear. Russia should worry.
Moscow cheered his removal, now Drapatyi is back. Ukraine showed it is still a vivid democracy that wants innovation and younger leaders.
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Me: Zelenskyy first removed Fedorov, but hedged: in an ideal world, he said, he would also remove Syrskyi, yet could not do it then because it would disrupt military operations.
A week later, after protests continued and grew, he fired Syrskyi too.
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Me: The Fedorov-Syrskyi fight looks political, not battlefield-driven. Ukraine will keep innovating under any commander.
The front and deep strikes continue: Russia attacks Ukraine, Ukraine attacks Russia. Zelenskyy first backed Syrskyi, then reversed fast.
Applebaum: Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner negotiated with Russia over Ukraine while discussing mineral, oil and gas deals for connected US companies. They were not bargaining for Ukrainian security or America's European allies. That is a profound abuse of American power. 1/
Applebaum: The Trump administration is not withdrawing from the world. In Ukraine, it is trying to broker an end to Russia's war while negotiators seek business gains. US power is being used for the clique controlling Washington, not for alliances or peace. 2X
Ukraine’s new Commander-in-Chief is Mykhailo Drapatyi, 43.
In 2014, his BMP smashed through a pro-Russian barricade in Mariupol.
That year, he also led 260 soldiers and 30+ vehicles out of the Izvaryne pocket, driving 160 km under Russian artillery fire.
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He later commanded the 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade and fought in Avdiivka and along the Bakhmut highway.
In 2021, Drapatyi received the Queen’s Sword of the United Kingdom as the best graduate of the operational-strategic level at Ukraine’s National Defense University.
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In March 2022, he led the Southern grouping and stopped Russia’s push toward Kryvyi Rih.
His troops counterattacked, advanced 6-23 km, and liberated settlements in Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
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German lobbyists and ex-politicians Ronald Pofalla and Matthias Platzeck are keeping a back channel to Putin’s circle.
Through meetings in Baku and Abu Dhabi, Moscow gets a private route into Germany’s SPD and CDU, — The Times. 1/
Last week, Pofalla and Platzeck met Putin associates in Baku. Russian participants included Valery Fadeyev, who heads Putin’s civil society council, and Viktor Zubkov, former deputy PM and Gazprom board chair. 2/
Berlin distances itself from the effort. Friedrich Merz’s chief of staff, Thorsten Frei, said Russia has shown no real willingness to negotiate and that all international attempts failed because of Moscow. 3/
Europe Is Back in 1952. France and Germany are competing over weapons again — just when Europe needs them to build defense together against Russia, De Gruyter for FP. 1/
European countries still rely heavily on US defense firms: $68bn spent in 2024, compared with an average of $11bn between 2017 and 2021.
But Europe’s main internal problem is now the Franco-German rift. 2/
The FCAS fighter-jet project was meant to showcase European defense integration. It collapsed in June after Dassault and Airbus failed to agree on leadership, IP and patents.
Germany paid half the bill. Spain was not even informed. 3/