These kinds of decisions are a security necessity for today's governments--but also a colossal waste of time, and that's Putin's fault. That trade, jobs, and cultural interactions get disrupted by one idiot who doesn't care about average people's lives speaks volumes. news.err.ee/1610081680/m...

An informed British perspective on the war in Ukraine: www.rusi.org/podcasts/tal...

Every. Day. www.reuters.com/world/europe...

🕯️🕯️🕯️ 3 people lost their lives, and 6 others were injured in today’s Russian strike on Odesa. Russia is a terrorist state!

Anne Applebaum on Ukraine's strategy for Crimea. As well, Ukraine's successes in Crimea also weaken Putin's portrayal of himself as the strongman who brings Russia security and stability. The people in Crimea unable to buy gas or basic supplies and fleeing to the mainland see something different.

I guess I'm on a Norman Davies kick today. The Welsh-Polish historian notes that Polish nationalists (like Nawrocki) chose to interpret the UPA naming thing as a nationalist provocation.

I think Davies is right about this but that's not something to celebrate. Every time Russia goes through its imperial break-up cycles, it sheds territory--but that just fires up nationalists like Putin and the cycle starts all over. It's constant instability. tvpworld.com/94394857/nor...

Putin continues to threaten the Baltic countries but Europe is still hesitant about blocking former Russian soldiers. www.rferl.org/a/estonia-ru...

This was already known but the (now ousted) Orbán government used a think tank to fund American rightwing political projects. So Hungarian taxpayers, though your country has fallen seriously behind in economic development over the past decade, you've been funding an ideology in another country.

Total devastation across Kyiv in Russia's largest attack ever on the city. These burning buildings are residential. Damn Russia to hell for its war and genocide on Ukrainians. And shame on the West for not stopping Russian genocide as legal duty dictates.

Ukraine's farms grew some 60 million metric tons of grain this year, enough to help feed hundreds of millions of people abroad. Yet along the country's own front line, 700,000 Ukrainians depend for their next meal on U.N. convoys that barely stop moving.

Thousands of ads on Telegram are seeking people to carry out sabotage and espionage tasks in Europe. This was revealed by an investigation by the Poland-based media outlet Vot Tak. Among the recruiters' offers is the opportunity to carry out malicious activities in Latvia. eng.lsm.lv/article/soci...

The medieval Wieliczka Salt Mines in southern Poland are a technical marvel but also one of the oldest continuously-operating businesses in Europe, going back to the 13th century.

There is yet again a flood of Russians online asking "why us?" with sad faces because a Wildberries marketplace warehouse burned down. ​After years of bombing Ukrainians, killing people in their homes, workplaces, roads, and hospitals, burying families under rubble,

If Putin and his sycophants put 1/4 of the energy they put into bullying their neighbors into actually improving average Russians' lives, Russia might actually be a modern country instead of a commodity extraction economy that supports an aristocracy at the expense of average Russians (peasants).

Sorry for the inconveniences.

💙💛 First Lady Olena Zelenska The Healthy Eating Festival in the Kyiv region and the earlier one in the Khmelnytskyi region are not just entertaining events, but the true "voice" of the School Nutrition Reform in communities.

Ukraine continues to bring the war to Russia.

The Baltic states on the brink--again. At least now, aside from NATO, these 3 states have built strong connections with the adjacent Scandinavian countries. ihedn.fr/en/notre-act...

Change, even positive change impacts people's lives. globalvoices.org/2026/07/17/n...

Protesters in Kyiv and still angry about Fedorov's dismissal. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhah...

Indian businesses contemplate the region: www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/e...

Challenges for the Ukrainian army: russiaanalyzed.substack.com/p/fedorov-on...

Latvia has increased security around a hydroelectric dam upstream ‌from its capital Riga and at a huge underground gas storage facility due to intelligence pointing to a threat from Russia, Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs told Reuters on Thursday. www.reuters.com/world/latvia...

This is a European-wide issue. I remember the strong reactions in Hungary to the founding of a Roma Studies Institute in the 1990s. neweasterneurope.eu/2026/07/17/r...

This, of course, is an old issue. Witness the 13th century Great Northern Crusade against Baltic pagans, or the rise of the Hanseatic League to confront pirates and anti-trade kingdoms shortly thereafter. engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-e...

💙💛 The funeral ceremony of Lithuanian volunteer, 25-year-old Ignas Kailius, who was killed in combats during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv on July 17, 2026.

The Czechoslovak Group is a business owned by a Trump-style Czech nationalist involved in mostly defense-types of manufacturing. They're known for clumsy public relations, and leaving themselves vulnerable to something like this seems normal for them. eualive.net/chinas-hosta...

This is shocking at one level but on another, it's not sadly surprising. We live in an anti-democratic era where the post-World War II gains are under constant attack.

The Kyiv Independent takes sides in Zelensky's cabinet changes: kyivindependent.com/editorial-by...

Some thoughts on how advances in warfare in Ukraine have changed the NATO position in the Baltics: www.clingendael.org/publication/...

I think this war--through great pain, to be sure--has positioned Ukraine to become a major technology, manufacturing, and security leader in the postwar world. The usual "if done right" caveats apply, but Ukrainians have mastered many domains since 2022. www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrain...

The thing about serving dictators is that you may be utterly loyal and doing something extremely valuable for them one day--but the next day, that same thing may be seen as a threat. Any independent network or activity beyond their direct control is a threat. carnegieendowment.org/russia-euras...

More on the political crisis in Kyiv. russiaanalyzed.substack.com/p/political-...

Protests erupt across Ukraine about Zelensky's recent changes to his cabinet, especially the firing of the popular minister of defense, Mykhailo Fedorov. This is messy for Zelensky but these protests are proof that Ukraine is still a strong democracy. www.bbc.com/news/article...

We live in an era when this kind of talk is being re-empowered, despite all the suffering of earlier ages. We've learned nothing, apparently. So Hungarian attempts to ethnically cleanse Vojvodina of Serbs in the 1940s were criminal, but it was OK for Kosovo in the 1990s? eualive.net/a-view-from-...

Russian expat Elvira Bary discusses one of many problems Putin faces in ending his failed invasion: the returning Russian soldiers, many of whom were criminals before the war. All have been both traumatized and all saw the truth of how Russia treats its soldiers. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nEl...

Zelensky's political shake-up in the Ukrainian government is ruffling some feathers, and the pundits are all over the place in their reactions: www.counteroffensive.news/p/newsflash-...

Leonid Bershidsky arrives via a different route than I did but we both came to the same conclusion: that the model pushed by oligarch Andrew Melnichenko in his Economist interview would likely generate more instability rather than placate a post-Putin Russia. carnegieendowment.org/russia-euras...

More on the Ukraine-Poland dust-up over the naming of a military unit after UPA, a wartime Ukrainian resistance group. History in Eastern Europe is always a double-edged sword: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Many Polish businesses stopped accepting credit cards years ago, in favor of e-wallets (because of credit cards' 2-3% service charge). But while being early adopters has its advantages, it also carries risk: neweasterneurope.eu/2026/07/14/e...

Poland's foreign minister (and also deputy prime minister) Radosław Sikorski says what most Eastern Europeans think: abc7.com/post/deputy-...

Some more on the corner Putin has painted himself into:" russiaanalyzed.substack.com/p/putins-the...

The very existence of a living, vibrant Ukraine--not just politically but culturally--is an existential threat to Putinism and «Русский мир» ("Russian World"): now.tufts.edu/2026/07/13/w...

What we all know, any cease-fire for Putin is just a chance to regroup: www.foreignaffairs.com/russia/putin...

A Russian Molniya drone struck a civilian car near Berezivka, Kharkiv region, killing the 61-year-old driver.

Russia often portrays Ukrainian culture as ‘inseparable from Russian history’ in its propaganda. The repeated targeting of Ukrainian cultural heritage tells a rather different story.

Sam Neill has passed and while most remember him for "Jurassic Park," I first saw him in the miniseries "Reilly, Ace of Spies" about Sidney Reilly, a stunningly effective (and ruthless) Russian-born spy who worked for British intelligence in the early 20th century. www.bbc.com/news/article...

NEW | Ukrainian forces continue to intensify and expand their strike campaign aimed at denying Russia's ability to sustain logistics and transport fuel to occupied Crimea and isolate the peninsula. www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/rus...

I'm less certain about this author's thesis that Kennedy (and Eisenhower) provoked the Cuban Missile Crisis by playing up the missile gap, but regardless, this article is right that Putin seriously miscalculated in 2022, and he's still doing it today: a man with no ideas. thehill.com/opinion/inte...