Ben Wallace: Russia allocated $1.8B in 2024 to misinformation campaigns in the West, aiming to undermine support and paint Ukraine as hopeless.
They haven't been successful. We should take stock of where Russia is: not as strong as they pretend. Russian oil — $36 a barrel. 1/
Wallace: Zelenskyy's been dealing with corruption, he needs to do more on it but you can see the failure of Russian efforts despite $1.8B [in propaganda]. Public opinion across Europe is still high in favor of defending Ukraine. 2/
Wallace: We've seen people arrested in the UK with links to the Russian intelligence. We've seen the alleged firebombing of properties. We saw the DHL plot where bombs through DHL went off in warehouses. Putin's trying to say to the West he's coming for them. 3X
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“They decided to kill us with cold,” — says courier Adam Davidenko.
In Chernihiv, residents endure 14 hours without electricity a day, lighting their homes with head torches as Russia tries to plunge Ukraine into darkness with waves of Shahed drones, The Guardian. 1/
Valentyna Ivanivna cooks and washes dishes wearing a headlamp, saying it’s “impossible to plan anything without power.”
Lifts don’t work, water stops above the fourth floor, and daily life collapses into a cycle of outages starting before dawn. 2/
People crowd into “invincibility points” — warm tents with sockets, Starlink and tea — to charge phones and feel human.
Pensioner Liudmyla Mykolayivna scrolls TikTok while reading detective novels by torchlight at night. 3/
Washington is pressuring Kyiv harder than ever before, threatening to cut intelligence and weapons unless Ukraine agrees with US-brokered peace deal by next Thursday.
One source said, “They want to stop the war and want Ukraine to pay the price.” — Reuters. 1/
US delivered 28-point plan that backs key Russian demands — forcing Ukraine to cede more territory, shrink its military, abandon NATO membership.
Framework mirrors concessions Washington now expects Kyiv to accept. 2/
Senior US military officials met Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday to push plan forward and secure rapid sign-off.
US delegation described talks as successful and called for aggressive timeline for Ukraine’s signature. 3X
Putin: After the Alaska talks, the U.S. paused negotiations on Trump’s peace plan because Ukraine rejected it.
That produced a new 28-point version. We have the text, but the U.S. didn’t discuss it with us.
[Ukraine obviously rejects capitulation.]
1/
Putin: Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine was discussed before the Alaska meeting. The U.S. asked us to accept certain compromises and “show flexibility.”
In Anchorage we confirmed that, despite difficulties, we agreed to those proposals and were ready to show that flexibility.
2/
Putin: The U.S. still cannot get Ukraine to agree. Ukraine says no. Ukraine and its European allies “dream” of a strategic defeat of Russia because they lack real battlefield information.
[Ukraine will defend its land and sovereignty and no one can force another choice.]
Zelenskyy: Our choice is our dignity vs risking losing [the US] support.
It is a 28-point “peace” vs an extremely hard winter.
We asked to live without freedom, dignity, and justice. We are asked to trust [Russia], which has betrayed us already twice. 1/
Zelenskyy: [The US] asks to give an answer if we agree to this.
But I already answered in 2019 when I became president and swore an oath to protect Ukraine, its sovereignty and independence, people's rights, and justice. 2/
Zelenskyy: We will work on diplomacy. We will rely on EU support. We will not allow Russia to depict us as dealing with the peace process. But we will not betray Ukraine. 3/
Axios published a full 28-point Trump’s Ukraine-Russia peace plan. Trump will drive it hard and Zelenskyy might not have much choice.
Trump is aiming to get it done before the end of the year to have the cycle move off Epstein. 0/
The deal is pro-Russian but might be the only deal Ukraine can ever get given the US and Europe are unwilling to fund Ukraine
Ukraine is forced to give up territory, stay out of NATO, weaken its military, accept a vague U.S. guarantee and give Russia amnesty. 1/
Here is it point by point:
1. Ukraine’s sovereignty “will be confirmed,” according to the plan.
2. A comprehensive non-aggression agreement will be concluded between Russia, Ukraine, and Europe, declaring all ambiguities of the last 30 years settled. 2/