Imagine this: Western/European allies take a EUR 150 billion loan to create a 🇺🇦 fund to pay for weapon systems it needs.
The interest cost of ~3 billion EUR p.a. is paid for by proceeds from frozen RU state assets. That we could do NOW and help alleviate financial pressure. /1 This is the idea of Torbjörn Becker, 58, Director of the Stockholm Institutes of Transition Economics (SITE) und Member of the Yermak-McFaul International Working Group on Sanction. I first read about his idea in this Spiegel interview. /2
spiegel.de/wirtschaft/ukr…

Really interesting @wapo investigation based on over two dozen interviews with Ukrainian and western (former) officials about the daring SBU/HUR operations behind enemy lines and the CIA links with 🇺🇦 domestic & military intelligence services. Small 🧵
washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/… Little did most of us know that over the past nine years significant efforts were undertaken to train and equip both services. The daring and effective 🇺🇦 operations, even if not directly aided by the CIA, are a partially a result of that long-term assistance. /1

The Ukrainian Corridors via the Black Sea continue to export more and more goods from the seaports of the Odesa region. How to make sense of these numbers?Small 🧵

https://twitter.com/OlKubrakov/status/1712859213448286639

According to the U.S. ambassador @USAmbKyiv, 740,000 tons of goods were exported from the three seaports of the Odesa region. These numbers do not only include grain or agricultural products. /1

https://x.com/USAmbKyiv/status/1712475786211709374?s=20

I deeply respect Lena Zerkal but comments like these are irritating. Germany is investing billions into the integration, childcare, healthcare etc. of Ukrainians and integration into the labor market is clearly in the interest of the 🇺🇦 in 🇩🇪. /1
euromaidanpress.com/2023/08/03/ukr… So far, only about 18% of the 1.1 Mio. Ukrainians in Germany work. But 2/3 of those who aren't working say that they want to find work soon. This of course only goes through language skills. 3/4 are attending classes and see their progress of the 🇩🇪 improve. /2

The number of refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status in the EU has risen again above four million. Of these, almost a third were hosted in Germany, according to the European statistics office Eurostat. Small 🧵
zeit.de/politik/2023-0… According to the report, Germany hosted more than 1.1 million Ukrainian citizens and other third-country nationals who fled the war as of the June 30 cutoff date. That is more than in any other country within the European Union. /1

The approval of Stalin as an interesting indicator to describe the differences of values of the Russian and Ukrainian societies.
In RU the approval for the Soviet dictator grew from 28% in 2012 to 63% in 2023 whereas in 🇺🇦 it declined from 23 to 4% in the same period. /1 The graph and the data are from a Kyiv Institute for Sociology (KMIS) survey published on August 3. /2
kiis.com.ua/?lang=ukr&cat=…

Nearly half of Ukrainians held in one of the 35 Russian detention centers in occupied Kherson were subjected to widespread torture including sexual violence, according to a report by international war crime investigators published Wednesday. A small 🧵 /1
cnn.com/2023/08/02/eur… The report contains an analysis of an initial sample of 320 cases of detention in Kherson in more than 35 identified places of detention.
Almost half of the 🇺🇦 held there by the Russians were subjected to widespread torture, including sexual abuse. /2
reuters.com/world/europe/t…

If you read one long-read this weekend, read this harrowing and well researched @APNews article about how Russia is fast expanding its repressive apparatus, well known from the Donbas and Crimea, to all recently annexed 🇺🇦 territories. Small 🪡
apnews.com/article/ukrain… Thousands of Ukrainians in the occupied territories are already known to be jailed, most of them have been tortured, raped and dozens have been executed. The idea that RU would treat the Southeast differently to say Bucha was a wrong believe. /1

Justice at last!

In 2018, Katya Handziuk, a Kherson activist, died after being attacked with acid. Now, the former head of the Kherson Regional Council was found guilty of ordering the attack and an assistant of a regional MP was found guilty of organizing it.

Small 🧵 /1 Kateryna, was a prominent local activist, who participated in both of Ukraine’s Maidans – the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2014 EuroMaidan. She sharply criticized the work of law enforcement agencies as well as the local authorities in her home town. /2
opendemocracy.net/en/odr/who-ord…

Last fall, Zelenskyy has warned about Russia blowing up the Kakhovka dam and demanded international observers to safeguard the dam. Russia didn’t agree and blew up the dam in early June.
Now, Zelenskyy is explicitly warning us of RU sabotage plans for Zaporizhzhia NPP. /1

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1671805650106474497

In light of a smaller or bigger nuclear catastrophe in Zaporizhzhia, Russia has to be deterred from doing so.

Whether on purpose or not, western leaders have been rather muted in their outcry after Kakhovka. How do they act now? Without fear of consequences, RU will continue. /2

Tymofiy Mylovanov touches a very important point… when ‘lecturing’ Ukrainians on their tasks in combating corruption & nepotism it’s worth remembering that nearly all of those stolen funds are stashed away in the west and the graft is only possible with help of western enablers.

https://twitter.com/mylovanov/status/1671846822690603008

Especially we as Germans ought to be very humble about addressing the real corruption problem in Ukraine. For decades, our political class (not just the Social Democrats) have enjoyed a shady and cozy connection with Russian lobbyists, Kremlin cronies and crooks. /2

Yesterday, the @nab_ukr and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office stated that they opened a corruption case concerning the state-owned railway monopoly @Ukrzaliznytsia. /1
t.me/nab_ukraine/19… Four people are suspected of fraud during the company's gas purchases worth Hr 206 million ($5.6 million).

Instead of a fair and open tender, the participants in the scheme were allegedly purchasing gas at inflated prices, distributing the margin among themselves. /2

An important thread by @ChrisO_wiki summarizing some of the most important consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

On a whole, Russia is depriving #Ukraine of its economic viability by making large parts of southern 🇺🇦 uninhabitable and unusable for agriculture. /1

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1667246208795164673

The agriculture losses from the Kakhovka HPP disaster may exceed $10B, and environmental damage already exceeds UAH 55B, as Minister of Environmental Protection Ruslan Strilets reported. /2

If you read the 🇩🇪-🇺🇦 & 🇫🇷-🇺🇦 declarations, you find them to be pretty much in synch on most matters including ambiguous language on Nato. But there are certain nuances when it comes to the core issue of justice 🧵 First, both statements support Ukraine in its efforts to join the EU by ‘strongly supporting 🇺🇦‘a reform efforts’.
Both 🇩🇪 & 🇫🇷 call for increasing & expanding partnership with NATO but fall short of mentioning 🇺🇦 aspiration to join or even get a clearer path to membership. /1

Der gestrige Tag war wie ein Balsam für alle, denen die Ukraine und die 🇩🇪-🇺🇦 Beziehungen wichtig sind. Manche sprechen sogar, wie ich finde zurecht, von einer Zeitenwende in den Beziehungen beider Länder. Dazu ein paar Gedanken von mir in Form eines 🧵 Vor dem Besuch gab es Ärger über die Berliner Polizei, die Details zu Selenskyjs erstem Besuch seit der vollumfänglichen Invasion von Februar 2022 herausposaunt hatte. All das war vergessen als Selenskyj Samstagnacht in Berlin eintraf. /1

President @ZelenskyyUa‘s first visit to 🇩🇪 since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion is under way. He already met with the Federal President and the meeting with Chancellor Scholz is ongoing. The press joint conference is commencing shortly. /1 twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Zelenskyy wrote into the guest book of the 🇩🇪 President:
"In the most difficult time in Ukraine's modern history, Germany has proven to be our true friend and reliable ally, standing resolutely by the Ukrainian people in the fight to defend freedom and democratic values…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

🇩🇪 Polling on 🇺🇦 negotiations...
Shortly before the possible visit of President @ZelenskyyUa to 🇩🇪, 55 percent advocated talks aimed at ending the war in a survey conducted by the YouGov. Only 28 percent are against. /1
zeit.de/news/2023-05/1… I understand why people in 🇩🇪 answer yes if they are asked whether talks should be held to end the war but everyone needs to explain that RU is hellbend to destroy 🇺🇦 and even cease-fire will simply yield a rearmament period, after which Moscow will likely renew its attack. /2

'Although the coming offensive will do much to set expectations for the future trajectory of this war, the real challenge is thinking through what comes after', write @KofmanMichael & @RALee85 in their must-read text on the anticipated 🇺🇦 offensive. /1
foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/russia… "If this operation proves to be the high point of Western assistance to Kyiv, then Moscow could assume that time is still on its side and that bedraggled Russian forces can eventually wear down the Ukrainian military."
/2

A report commissioned by 45 OSCE states & written by independent experts concludes that Russia abducted hundreds of thousands of 🇺🇦 children. Some cases amount to serious violations of the Geneva Convention as well as war crimes," says the report. Short 🧵
osce.org/odihr/542751 The mission was established after 45 OSCE participating States invoked the 'Moscow Mechanism' to investigate possible contraventions of relevant OSCE commitments, violations of international humanitarian and human rights law related to the forcible transfer of 🇺🇦 children. /1

In a speech titled “No Peace without Justice for Ukraine” given in The Hague Zelenskyy said that Putin “deserves to be sentenced for these criminal actions right here in the capital of the international law.”/1
dw.com/en/ukraines-ze… "Whoever brings war must receive judgement," Zelenskyy said and added that "only one institution is capable of responding to the original crime, the crime of aggression, a tribunal." /2

https://twitter.com/OlenaHalushka/status/1654060718415650817?s=20

Despite @wintershalldea's denials, a joint investigation by @Global_Witness and Radio Free Europe (RFE) provides new evidence of links between the firm’s fields in its Gazprom joint ventures and the Russian military. Some points from their report. 🧵
/1
globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/s… In November 2022 and January 2023, German media alleged that Wintershall’s gas condensate may have produced fuel used in Russian jet bombings that killed dozens of civilians in Ukraine. /2
spiegel.de/international/…