Madyar, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Force Commander: Putin hits his own people hardest — drains their money, kills their social media. Every dictator needs to know the limit.
This one has no brakes and breaks himself.
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Madyar: Ending the war? Stopping it — maybe, under pressure. But Russia demands we leave Donetsk.
That won't happen. No deal without third parties. Even a frozen line buys time — they rearm in years, then push again: Ukraine, then NATO members.
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Madyar: Don't get emotional about Hungary's new leader. Let it settle. Hungary bans me — I couldn't care less.
My father is Hungarian, my kids born there. But I'm Ukrainian, I live this war. What the new leaders do — time will tell.
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McFaul: Iran has a good reason to think it did not lose.
Trump team declared Epic Fury over without achieving its major goals: no nuclear deal, no missile limits, no end to terror funding, no regime change. 1/
McFaul: If the Americans have already quit, Iran is in a strong negotiating position.
Now the whole discussion is about reopening Hormuz — something that was open before Epic Fury even started. That is perfect for Tehran. 2/
McFaul: Trump never clearly explained why America needed this war.
That makes it almost impossible to explain how he is ending it — especially when none of the goals he used to justify the war are being achieved. 3/
Last night Russia bombed Kyiv for 8 hours and killed 24 people.
Today it forced the city into air raid sirens again. KSE students ran to shelters four times during classes and came back to continue studying each time.
This is what university life in Kyiv looks like now. 1/
On May 14 Russia launched 1,560 drones at Ukraine in 24 hours — one of the largest drone attack since the start of the full-scale war.
Most of them hit Kyiv. Air raid sirens lasted from 00:50 until 8:43 a.m. 2/
Nobody forced students to return to classrooms after a night like that. They came anyway. And nobody will stop them. Not Putin. Not drones or missiles. Not exhaustion.
KSE students keep studying, working, and supporting each other because they refuse to live in survival mode. 3/
His latest nuclear threats is attempt to convince Russians that he still holds cards.
After 4 years of war, much of its Black Sea Fleet damaged, territorial gains limited, so Moscow relies on nuclear rhetoric to project strength. 1/
Kremlin’s latest showpiece is the RS-28 Sarmat, branded “Satan II.”
Putin claims it can strike targets 21,750 miles away and bypass Western missile defenses — but the program suffered repeated delays and failed tests. 2/
Sarmat is liquid-fueled, requiring lengthy launch preparation from fixed silos — a vulnerability against modern precision-strike systems used by NATO countries. 3/
Putin’s system was built specifically to survive rumors of coups, elite dissent, and instability.
Every arrest, defection rumor, mysterious death, or crackdown can itself become a tool to justify even harsher repression and reinforce fear inside Russia, Sean Wiswesser for FA. 1/
Putin did not “learn authoritarianism” after taking power.
He entered the Kremlin as a career KGB officer already trained in surveillance, coercion, elite control, and suppression of dissent from inside Soviet security structures. 2/
His system is layered around overlapping security forces loyal personally to him.
FSB: 350,000-400,000 personnel. Rosgvardia: 300,000. Federal Protective Service: 50,000 protecting Putin, state infrastructure, and continuity of government. 3/
The US-China relationship is a zero-sum contest. Their meetings and negotiations do not change that — even after Xi and Trump’s summit in Beijing on May 14th, writes The Economist. 1/
Xi greeted Trump with a ceremony on Tiananmen Square, talks in the Great Hall of the People and an escorted tour of the Temple of Heaven — the first American president to visit it since 1975. 2/
Trump called Xi a “great leader” and said they would have “a fantastic future together.” The main goal: extend the year-long trade truce agreed in South Korea last October. At their peak, Trump’s tariffs on some Chinese goods reached 145%. 3/
USA brokered five temporary truces in the Russia-Ukraine war since Trump returned to power. Every time, violations marred them.
As the latest truce expired, Russia bombed Ukraine again. 12 civilins killed.
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Analyst Joshi studied 42 comprehensive peace agreements reached between 1989 and 2018. A successful peace process takes an average of 1,570 days of technical labor.
The latest Russia-Ukraine truce lacked independent oversight and a substantive political foundation.
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Georgetown professor Byman: "For the president, a cease-fire equals 'peace.'"
Trump announced the latest truce in a Truth Social post. His envoys Witkoff and Kushner have halted peace talks for months.
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