American historian of the USSR and Russia Kotkin: Russia became a kind of subordinate or even vassal state to China.

They refuse to be a vassal state to the West and embraced being a vassal state to China. China could at any moment abandon Russia to its fate. 1/ Kotkin: The theory was that even your worst enemies can flip and join your alliance system.

You can defeat your enemies and co-opt them, change their behavior and make them your allies. West Germany and Japan were transformed into democracies, partners of the U.S. 2/

65% of Trump voters back military action in at least one foreign country.

Iran tops the list: 50% of Trump voters support military intervention there, rising to 61% among self-identified "MAGA Republicans."

The new POLITICO poll shows how MAGA has changed. 1/ 32% of Trump voters support military action in Mexico, 30% in Colombia, 28% in Cuba — all targets Trump has publicly threatened as part of his Western Hemisphere dominance strategy. 2/

In a single month now, Russia suffers as many casualties as the USSR lost in 10 years in Afghanistan. Russia loses 900-1,000 soldiers daily in Ukraine.

The scale is unprecedented — yet Russian society stays silent, United24. 1/ December 2025 alone: 35,000 Russian troops killed, most by drones. The final quarter of 2025: 100,000 total losses.

The full year: over 400,000. Nearly 4 years of war: 1.2 million casualties. 2/

After 80 years of close ties, Germany faces a deepening rift with the United States.

For many Germans, especially older generations, America was an ally, a liberator and protector after WWII — Washington Post. 1/ In West Berlin, U.S. troops were symbols of survival and freedom, from the Berlin Airlift to everyday life under American protection during the Cold War. Cultural influence followed, with music, jeans, and a model of openness. 2/

The best kind of reading is watching Russia struggle to export oil — and struggle to fund its war.

Bloomberg: Russia is stuck with 140 million barrels of unsold oil at sea after India cut imports to the lowest level in three years.

1/ In December 2025, India imported about 1.2 million barrels/day of Russian crude.

In January 2026, imports fell further to 1.12 million barrels/day — the weakest level since early 2023.

2/

“I am from Crimea. I don’t want anyone else to live under occupation. Russia is absolute evil.

And the best thing a person can do in life is to resist that evil,” — Kafa, 24, who returned from Germany to defend Ukraine with a weapon in her hands. 1/ UNITED24 tells the story of Ukrainians who never planned to fight, but became part of the resistance to Russian aggression because the alternative was occupation. 2/

A caliper lay in a drawer for years. His mother gifted it “for the future.”

After a combat injury, it led him to a new job. This is Yegor — a veteran of Ukraine’s 23rd Recon Battalion, now training as a CNC operator at KSE ProfTech. 1/ Before the war, Egor spent 10+ years as a graphic designer.

Logos, visual identity, presentations, fonts. He liked work where form and millimeters mattered. One of Kyiv’s early parking meters carried his logo.  2/

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: I want a stronger NATO. It's right for us to complain that NATO didn't do enough.

We need a stronger Europe. That's good for America. It's good for Europe. They know what they need to do. The Draghi report and common markets. 1/ Dimon: That's the best thing to keep the Western world together. Keep the world safer and stronger for democracy so that we don't read that book 40 years from now, "How the West Lost." 2/

“Ukrainians are not going to accept another meaningless security guarantees,” — Alyona Getmanchuk, Ukraine’s ambassador to NATO for The Telegraph.

“They viewed protections against future Russian invasion as an integral part of any wider peace settlement.” 1/ Kyiv must agree to a peace deal that could cede the eastern Donbas regions at the same time as any security pact.

Zelenskyy: “Any painful concessions thrust upon Ukrainians must be backed up by robust security guarantees.” 2/

The British Army is rebuilding itself around Ukraine’s battlefield lessons — but London is papering over the bill.

Soldiers are adapting to drones, EW, mass fires, and trench warfare. But defense spending needs real money, and now it is just accounting tricks, The Telegraph. 1/ At the Army’s Land Warfare Centre, Ukraine drives doctrine.

Training blends constants of war — artillery, fear, exhaustion — with accelerants: FPV drones, electronic warfare, motorcycle assaults. Soldiers must handle both at once. 2/

Don Bacon: Every president of the US has said "I could do business with Putin" until they've been stabbed in the back multiple times. Putin is a bold-faced liar.

Trump should send long-range weapons to Ukraine and do tough sanctions. Russia, you cannot win. 1/ Bacon: Isolationists and those who don't stand up to bullies get us into wars. We saw that in 1938 when Chamberlain tried to give away part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler.

Ukraine is a democracy and we have an obligation to help. 2/

Russia wants to push Ukraine into the Stone Age — to freeze us, exhaust us, and leave us without a future. That will not happen.

This why Kyiv School of Economics is hosting a 3-day Science Mini School for high school students and early-year undergraduates, right now in Kyiv. 1/ We know it’s winter break. We know it’s hard. That’s exactly why we made it offline, free, and warm.

Because Ukraine must keep learning — in warmth, with smart teachers.

Now. Today and tomorrow. In a month. Always. 2/

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister: Hungary is the only obstacle to Ukraine’s EU membership.

In an interview with European Pravda, he also spoke about Belarus, Transnistria, the conflict with Viktor Orbán, security guarantees, and Ukraine’s path to NATO and the EU. 1/ “I believe that Hungary’s prime minister is a threat to his own people.

The period of diplomatic ‘looking the other way’ is over.

Any unfriendly steps toward Ukraine will be met with a response. 2/

The best guarantee that Russia will not attack Europe is a well-armed Ukraine, write Eric Ciaramella and Sophia Besch in Foreign Affairs.

Paper guarantees failed in 1994 and that Europe now faces a concrete bill: $390bn to keep Ukraine militarily viable through 2029. 1/ Europe’s current focus is on ceasefires, monitoring missions, and postwar guarantees.

Deterrence begin after with Ukraine’s combat power while the war is still ongoing. 2/

Russian strikes leave apartments icy. People wake up shivering, warm their hands by ovens, and wear 3-5 pairs of socks just to get through the day.

Tetiana from Kyiv: Cold. Very cold. Everything is icy. I turn on the oven and stand there to warm myself. That’s life.

1/ Daria: With a child, it’s impossible to stay in the apartment. We came yesterday for two or three hours, and I froze so badly my throat started to hurt.

2/

Applebaum: A Russian victory in Ukraine would endanger not only countries on Russia’s borders, but all of Europe.

Putin has said that anywhere a Russian soldier has ever been could be Russian again. That is not only Warsaw or Riga. That also means Berlin. 1/ Applebaum: Europe faces pressure from two sides. On one side, a rearmed and radicalized Russia using hybrid warfare.

On the other, an American administration whose strategy defines European liberal democracy itself as an adversary. 2/

Ben Hodges: It's naive to believe Russia wants to be a responsible global player.

The Kremlin represents a government killing Ukrainians daily, including civilians and children. To say they were “almost friends” is absurd and deeply misguided. 1/ Hodges: U.S. has not shown real commitment to Ukraine, and Ukrainian leaders rightly doubt any promises.

Trump administration hasn’t delivered weapons or guarantees. European allies must show their support, as the U.S. risks destroying trust with its inconsistent actions. 2/

“She’s been in the Ukrainian army for 10 years. She lives with her soldiers, calls them ‘my boys,’ and sends drone pilots a few kilometers from Russians to track and kill.

She’s the most extraordinary woman” — author Marlowe on Yulia Mykytenko, Ukrainian drone unit commander. 1/ Lara Marlowe: I went to see Yuliia on the front line in Donetsk.

She commands a drone unit, lives in a house with men, and constantly goes out to dugouts near Russian positions. They watch everything Russians do and use FPV drones with explosives. 2/

Russian strike drones hit a passenger train in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. If we call things by their names, this was another act of terrorism.

As of now, 4 people are confirmed dead. 1/ In any country in the world, a drone strike on a civilian train would be classified the same way — as a terrorist attack.

There is no military objective, and there can be none, in killing civilians inside a train car. 2/

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/

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.

1/ 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.

2X