Snyder: The United States in its current form wants to undermine European democracy.
In particular, it wants to undermine European Union, and those two things work together. The Union helps create the conditions for democracy. 1/
Snyder: There’s no moment when we were innocent and everyone else was guilty. History’s never like that.
History gives us a sense of possibility. The more you know about the past, the more scenarios you see. All kinds of things have actually been tried and did happen. 2/
Snyder: The EU is a positive example where state sovereignty is strengthened because states are working together.
Some Americans and lots of Russians want to break up the EU to weaken European states, not because they care about European nations. 3X
Ukraine’s drone and cyber attacks inside Russia set the reference for MI6.
Britain’s MI6 is shifting from intelligence collection to active covert action against Russia — FP.
This includes sabotage, resistance support, and grey-zone operations.
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New MI6 chief Blaise Metreweli explicitly invokes WWII-style SOE tactics: disrupting enemies, supporting resistance, and operating “between peace and war.”
Ukraine is described as the only country that has successfully fought back in this grey zone.
Kuleba: Russia uses talks to buy time, not to stop the war.
They are open to talks, but too far from settlement to stop.
They will keep bombing and advancing. For Ukraine, nothing has changed — we must survive what may be the hardest winter of our independence.
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Kuleba: A ceasefire is impossible without three detailed agreements approved by Ukraine: security guarantees, Ukraine’s reconstruction, and EU membership.
Without these, there are no real guarantees the deal will hold — and no reason for Ukraine to make concessions.
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Kuleba: EU accession is first of all about money. The EU budget runs in 7-year cycles, and the next one starts in 2028.
If funding for Ukraine’s enlargement isn’t built into that budget by 2027, adding it later will be extremely hard.
China's top general, Zhang Youxia, is accused of leaking nuclear weapons data to the U.S. and accepting massive bribes.
Once Xi Jinping's most trusted military ally, the 75-year-old faces investigation for severe violations of party discipline and state laws — WSJ. 1/
A closed-door briefing on Saturday revealed shocking details: Zhang allegedly leaked core technical data on China's nuclear weapons to the U.S., formed political cliques, and abused his authority in the Communist Party's top military decision-making body. 2/
Evidence against Zhang came from Gu Jun, former general manager of China National Nuclear Corp., which oversees all civilian and military nuclear programs. The probe into Gu linked Zhang to a security breach within China's nuclear sector. 3/
Russia sentenced Margarita Kharenko to 20 years in prison for her pro-Ukrainian stance.
In Russian-occupied Melitopol, she was convicted on fabricated “espionage” charges.
Ukrainska Pravda shows how Moscow has turned courts into a machine for jailing civilians. 1/
Margarita Kharenko is 36 years old.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, she worked as a pharmacist and volunteered with the Ukrainian Volunteer Service, helping elderly people and caring for animals. 2/
After the occupation, Kharenko stayed in Melitopol.
She ran social media in Ukrainian, helped residents find scarce medicines, and openly wrote about the death of a close person — a Ukrainian soldier.