Stubb: The Soviet Union marched 1,600km to Berlin in four years. Russia moved 60km into Donetsk in three.
Who knows modern warfare? Ukraine does. They are Europe's best security partner.
1/
Stubb: Ukraine kills or wounds 30–35,000 Russians per month. Kill ratio: 1 Ukrainian to 7–8 Russians.
In April, Ukraine took back more territory than Russia gained. 95% of damage comes from Ukrainian drones. The dead zone stretches 20–40km. Russia stopped advancing.
2/
Stubb: Most Russians now oppose the war. Ukraine strikes reach Moscow airports and St. Petersburg.
Russia shut down Telegram and WhatsApp. The war arrived home. The mood shifted — and now it's time to engage Russia directly.
Gates, former US Def. Sec: It would be a mistake to change the carefully worded US position on Taiwan.
Experts parse these things down to the tense of the verbs. Keeping the US position as it has been is important, and everything I’ve seen indicates the president did that. 1/
Gates: The US should go forward with what we’ve agreed with Taiwan. There is a huge backlog of weapons we sold to Taiwan that we have not been able to deliver.
An important shift is getting Taiwan to focus on weapons needed to defend against a Chinese amphibious invasion. 2Х
Ukrainians are currently teaching 18,000 NATO troops on the Swedish island of Gotland.
The Aurora 26 exercises bring together 12 NATO members and Ukraine as a tutor. Ukrainian soldiers are sharing their experience in drone warfare — Radio Svoboda.
1/
For Sweden, the Aurora 26 exercises are part of the process of deepening its integration within NATO, which it joined just two years ago.
Gotland provides a strategic location between mainland Sweden and the Baltic states to the East.
2/
Aurora 26 presents a show of strength on NATO’s East border.
Gustaffson, Commander of Sweden’s Gotland Regiment: For now Russia is occupied in Ukraine. But if there is a ceasfire, it will easily switch to NATO.
Zelenskyy: Russia is considering plans for operations to the south and north of Belarusian territory, either against the Chernihiv-Kyiv direction in Ukraine or against one of the NATO countries directly from the territory of Belarus — Reuters. 1/
Russia has already deployed tactical nuclear warheads and Oreshnik hypersonic missiles in Belarus.
Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia all share the border. Both systems shorten Moscow's flight time to Warsaw, Vilnius, and Riga. 2/
Lukashenko opened Belarus as a launchpad for Russia's Feb 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
He never sent Belarusian troops to fight, because Moscow needed the territory, not the soldiers. Minsk keeps handing it over. 3/