President Stubb: I’m not optimistic about a ceasefire or peace talks in Ukraine this year — maybe by February or March.
Until then, we must maximize pressure on Russia and force Putin to rethink his aim of denying Ukraine’s independence. 1/
Stubb: Ukraine needs two things: financial support, using €140-180B in frozen Russian assets as collateral to get through winter — and increased military pressure.
West must keep supplying weapons. With Putin, only the stick works, he won’t negotiate unless forced. 2/
Stubb: Sanctioning Lukoil and Rosneft was the right move — it hits Russia’s oil sector and the machine funding the war.
Ukraine now needs maximum firepower, not just Tomahawks but anything that can strike Russia’s military and defense industry. 3/
Stubb: Peace mediation requires patience and realism. I’ve focused on building security guarantees for Ukraine, exploring how a ceasefire at the contact line could start, and defining parameters for future talks.
It’s a grind — but in diplomacy, patience matters. 4/
Stubb: Zelenskyy must clear this corruption case fast, and he has already begun. War leaves no space for corruption.
Russia exploits every scandal to weaken Ukraine. I want this cleaned up so we can keep building Europe’s and America’s defense of Ukraine. 5/
Stubb: Budapest meeting cancelled because Trump and his team saw that Russia isn’t interested in a ceasefire or peace.
They saw it first in Alaska, then in Trump’s call with Putin and again when Rubio and Lavrov spoke about the agenda for a meeting. 6/
Stubb: Russia won’t come to talks voluntarily. They’ve gained 1% of Ukraine in 1,000 days while losing 5-7,000 troops a week, over a 1M killed or wounded.
They’re nowhere near Kyiv and won’t get there. What could bring them to talks? Security guarantees, the economy and land. 7/
Stubb: Nuclear use is very unlikely — China and India already pushed Putin to drop early threats. My worry is key arms-control treaties are expiring while more states can access nuclear tech.
Major powers [U.S., Russia and China] must restart nuclear-control talks. 8/
Stubb: Be Finnish — calm and firm. Russia fights a hybrid war: pushing asylum seekers over our border, damaging undersea cables and violating our airspace with drones.
Each time, we acted fast and set up NATO’s Baltic and Eastern Sentry operations and the incidents stopped. 9X
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What’s new in the scandal over Ukraine’s largest electricity producer, Energoatom?
1. Ukraine’s migration service canceled Timur Mindich’s citizenship — he holds Israeli citizenship. Mindich fled Ukraine hours before NABU raids on Nov. 10.
1/
2. Zelensky removed Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko from the National Security and Defense Council.
Both ministers filed resignation letters after NABU exposed the bribery scheme.
2/
3. Courts took bail for two Energoatom “back-office” employees — Lesia Ustymenko (₴25M) and Liudmyla Zorina (₴12M), says RBK-Ukraine.
Five suspects are already detained; Mindich and businessman Oleksandr Zukerman escaped abroad.
3/
Russia’s oil export revenues fell to $13.4B in September, a decline of $200M compared to the previous month.
Crude revenues increased by $200M, but this gain was fully offset by a $400M drop in oil product revenues, KSE Institute reports. 1/
Seaborne oil exports increased by 4.1% compared to the previous month. Ships covered by international insurance carried only 26% of crude exports and 81% of oil product exports. 2/
Russian refinery runs dropped by about 800K barrels per day in October, reaching 4.6M barrels per day.
The decline was caused by continued drone attacks that forced Rosneft to reduce processing volumes by 22% compared to July. 3/
Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US: Russia is scaling up its military budget and nightly drone attacks. Pokrovsk is used to create a “victorious” narrative, but Ukraine sees it as Russian agony. 1/
Q: Will Ukraine withdraw from Pokrovsk?
Stefanishyna: There were over 1,100 engagements last week, and Pokrovsk is just one spot. Russia is throwing 5 times more resources there, but it will not be decisive for the whole war. 2/
Q: Chance of getting Tomahawk missiles?
Stefanishyna: Many capabilities exist between Ukrainian drones and Tomahawks. Ukraine is committed to ending the war, but with attacks rising, defending people by destroying aggressor capabilities is natural. 3/