While Trump expands US power in the Western Hemisphere, Putin stays silent.

No outrage. No threats. No speeches.

Bloomberg: For Europe and Ukraine, that silence is the signal. 1/ In January 2026, US forces seized Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro — a Russian ally guarded by Russian S-300 systems and Cuban security.

The S-300s failed. The Cubans were killed.

Putin said nothing. 2/

A Ukrainian scout entered a basement with near 50 Russian troops, planted explosives and left. The blast killed every enemy.

The operation took place on December 31.

“Happy New Year” — Ukrainian soldier Burzhui.

“Ukrainian Witness” shows these moments.

1/ Ukrainian sapper who designed the explosive device: We make sandwiches. Each one contains about a kilogram or a kilogram and a half of TNT.

TMs make them fugasive. They can blow up both equipment and buildings.

2/

Volker: Trump wants a deal on Ukraine more than he cares about what the deal says. That’s why he zigzags, applying pressure in different directions.

But this will not change Putin. He wants to eliminate Ukraine as a sovereign country and will not stop unless stopped. 1/ Volker: Russia’s global position is being severely diminished. Trump sees this.

It may mean he feels he has more military options to support Ukraine and push Russia back because Putin is in a weaker position than at any time since the full-scale invasion. 2/

Putin: NATO moved toward Russia’s borders and broke public promises. They ignored Russia’s interests and built threats to our security. That push sparked the Ukraine crisis.

[Russia has broken more treaties than promises, yet still blames NATO on "broken promises".]

1/ Putin: We proposed a fair security system and offered terms to everyone. We should return to real talks now and reach Ukraine settlement as soon as possible.

[Russia talks about peace while its strikes leave thousands of Ukrainians without power, heat, and water]

2/

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency says MPs sold their votes for $10,000.

To fire ministers and the head of Ukraine’s security service, and to block a new government.

NABU released recordings involving Yuliya Tymoshenko, ex-PM and leader of the Batkivshchyna party. 1/ The recordings describe a cash-for-votes scheme.

Money bought voting to break the parliamentary majority and paralyze the government.

Tymoshenko: We want to crush this majority[in parliament]. No slip-ups.

2/

Sen. Kelly: I never expected that I would have to protect the rule of law against a Secretary of Defense.

Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my 25 years of military service. He doesn't like what I said. And so he is trying to censure and demote me. 1/ Kelly: Pete Hegseth unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military.

If you speak out and say something that the President and Secretary of Defense doesn't like, you will be censured, threatened or even prosecuted. 2/

Denys Storozhuk refused to surrender from Azovstal in 2022, lived under occupation for a year posing as a civilian, and passed information to the Ukrainian military.

Denys: I lived in a sewer manhole for the first three weeks. I had food, water, and a chair.

1/ Denys: What stayed with me most was the constant storm of artillery and airstrikes at Azovstal.

Buildings vanished within minutes, concrete shaking like wood.

Near the end, an airstrike buried my  commander and brothers — we couldn’t reach them in time. Most suffocated from dust

2/

Rutte: If China were to move on Taiwan, it would not act alone. It would force its junior partner — Vladimir Putin in Moscow — to move against us.

By 2027, 29 or 31 Russia will have the capability to try something against us. We must to be ready. 1/ That is 20-25,000 Russians dead every month. In the Afghan war in the 1980s, Russia lost 20,000 in ten years.

Now it loses that and more in a month. This is unsustainable. 2/

Russia is losing money on jet sales to China and can't walk away — United24.

Russia is supplying parts for Chinese Su-27 and Su-30 fighters at a loss to avoid angering Beijing

Component costs surged by nearly 200%, but Moscow keeps selling anyway to preserve the partnership. 1/ A March 2025 internal letter from Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation shows export prices for jet components are no longer competitive.

Costs have risen 193% since 2022 and exceed earlier contract prices by up to 8 times.

2/

Cuba rejected Trump’s demand to make a deal. He warned Havana would lose Venezuelan oil and money following Maduro’s capture.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel: “No one dictates what we do.” — CNN. 1/ Trump: Cuba lived for years on Venezuelan oil and money in exchange for providing security services to Caracas, but not anymore.

There will be no more oil or money going to Cuba — zero. He did not elaborate on what such a deal with Havana would involve. 2/

There will be no ceasefire before the end of winter — Former FM of Ukraine Kuleba.

Russia didn’t destroy Ukraine’s energy system for nothing.

Putin will keep waging war as long as he lives. That is how he rules.

Next real negotiation window is late February, then summer.

1/ Kuleba: Russia is not interested in talks now. Pressure isn’t strong enough.

China gives Putin a cushion, and without finishing his objective in Donetsk, he has no reason to agree to a ceasefire.

2/

Keane: I think it's high time to put some max military pressure on Putin after this latest fabrication that he came up with. He has one false narrative after another. We've given Putin a lot of rope here. 1/ Keane: I think we've showed an enormous amount of patience in dealing with Russia. It's obvious that Zelenskyy, the people of Ukraine, do want a ceasefire. They can't make themselves more vulnerable because they know Russia's strategic objective is to take Ukraine. 2/

Simon Tisdall for The Guardian: Trump’s lies now bind three crises into one pattern — Greenland, Venezuela, and Ukraine.

From Kyiv’s perspective, the common denominator isn’t strategy or strength, but moral collapse and Europe’s failure to resist it. 1/ Tisdall notes Trump made over 30,000 false or misleading claims in his first term — and governs now by the same logic.

Trump says the only limit on his power is “my own morality.” In practice, that means no external restraint at all. 2/

Zelenskyy: Russia’s network of partners is shrinking. What is happening in Iran shows that things will not get easier for Russia.

Every normal person wants the Iranian people to finally free themselves from a regime that has caused so much harm, including to Ukraine. 1/ Zelenskyy: There is information from intel that Russians are preparing a new massive strike on Ukraine. They want to take advantage of the cold.

[The last Russian strike left thousands of Ukrainians without electricity, heating or warm water. Many are still without all three] 2/

Greenland is not the rare-earth treasure trove the U.S. portrays it to be - Foreign Policy.

The island has no mines, no processing plants, few roads, and ice covers about 80% of its land. Any project would require building power, housing, and processing from scratch. 1/ Greenland has about 1.5 million tons of rare-earth resources, ranking 8th globally. Still behind the US itself.

But Greenland has never produced rare earths. Mining and processing require capital, expertise, and infrastructure — all of which Greenland largely lacks. 2/

Sen. Kelly: With force that we're going to take your territory — is that who we've become? That's Russia.

We are not that kind of a nation. I'm really concerned when you listen to Miller, what he’s said about this. We're the United States of America. We follow the rules. 1/ Sen. Kelly: United States uphold a standard of morality and an ethical code. We just don't go around and take territories from other countries or threaten to do that. I am rather concerned about where this is headed. 2/

Russia has lost at least 19 generals since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine has killed senior Russian officers — by artillery, sniper fire, strikes on command posts, and suspected sabotage — both near the front and deep behind it, The Insider reports. 1/ Recent losses include top figures from across Russia’s military hierarchy:

- Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological defense troops,
- Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the General Staff’s main operational directorate, 2/

Ukraine is producing 1,500 FPV interceptor drones per day.

Each costs $3,000–$5,000. A Russian Shahed costs $100,000. Ukraine is trying to win the air war by matching cheap threats with cheap counters, not $1M+ missiles — United24. 1/ Zelenskyy pushed interceptor drones from an experiment to a core air-defense tool in July.

By January 2026, Ukraine scaled output to 1,500/day and built these FPVs specifically to hunt Shahed-type drones and other low-cost aerial targets. 2/

Ukraine should study Baltic integration policies — what works and what backfires. Because after the war we will need to encourage a shift to Ukrainian without pushing Russian-speaking citizens into alienation.

The Economist uses Latvia as a warning case and calls it a “gift to the Kremlin.” 1/ Latvia shut down Latvian Radio 4 (LR4) on Jan. 1, ending public Russian-language broadcasting after nearly 25 years.

LR4 had a stable audience and an anti-Kremlin, pro-Latvian editorial line. It went silent because it broadcast in Russian. 2/

Sen. Tillis: We had 17 military installations in Greenland, and they'd be happy to have us back. We could do it without taking over a NATO country.

And I would defy you [Trump] to find any credible general with a star on his shoulder who would say that it is a good idea. 1/ Sen. Tillis: Stephen Miller speaks for the President of the United States. But when he says that the US government thinks that Greenland should be a part of NATO, he should talk to people like me who have an election certificate and a vote in the US Senate. 2/

“He stepped on a mine. His foot was torn apart. He couldn’t walk. Medicines were dropped by drones. Dressings were done. He stayed there for 2.5 months — until he could walk out on his own.”

This is how military surgeon Vadym Kryzheminskyi describes his daily work to UP. 1/ Vadym Kryzheminskyi has served as a military surgeon for seven years.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, he has operated at every stage of medical evacuation — from stabilization points 10 km from the front to mobile hospitals and city hospitals in the rear. 2/