"Their words should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the civilian leadership intends to use the threat and actuality of violence to infringe on Americans’ constitutional rights."

During Berlin International Literature Festival, Volodymyr Yermolenko, PEN Ukraine President delivered a powerful speech,emphasizing the need for Europe to keep faith in itself and fight tyrannies like Russia. I'd like to share some quotes by Yermolenko.Below,u will find a link to the whole speech⤵️

Russia is causing tremendous damage in Ukraine. It is not right that anybody else should pay for it. At today’s European Council, we will discuss a reparations loan, backed up by frozen Russian assets, to help Ukraine defend itself. My doorstep ↓

Pu spells out Ru's imperialist motivations for the war. He calls the conquest a long-held dream and historical destiny. He beclowns those who insist NATO expansion caused the war. Let's see if anyone from the Mearsheimer fan club admits the claim has been falsified. www.kremlin.ru/events/presi...

My goodness, I won’t post quotes but both Hegseth’s and Trump’s speeches from today are minefields— almost every sentence blows up spectacularly and, by the end of the speech, truth, honour, logic, and reason are all dead.

In 2026, Russia will increase funding for state TV channels (propaganda) to 106.4 billion rubles ($1.12 billion), a 54% increase over what was previously planned. Source: verstka.media/rashody-byud...

Read the thread. Lesson: Sustainable organizational success is hard when you’ve been under relentless attack for more than two thirds of your existence.

I expanded the points in the thread into the short piece below. This is the VDem trajectories in rule of law and control of corruption that illustrate Sandu's successful record. She took office in 2020. www.policymagazine.ca/maia-sandus-...

OTOH, this is a welcome message coming from the guy who was so deeply committed to the conquest of Ukraine that he first went in leading the invasion in 2014. OTOH, he's saying this from prison so I'm not sure Pu cares much about his opinion these days.

Russia has officially withdrawn from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture after Putin signed a law denouncing the treaty. By pulling out, Russia blocks the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture from monitoring its detention facilities.

Trying hard to moderate my Maia Sandu fangirling right now, but I gotta stress she's accomplished something no EEuropean reformist ever has: brought a fugitive oligarch back to face justice AND fended off massive Ru interference to win a referendum and two re-elections (parliamentary+presidential)!

Moldovan voters have (yet again!) thwarted Ru’s efforts to intimidate, buy, and manipulate them into abandoning their pro-EU course.

The pro-EU Party of Action & Solidarity has crushed the pro-Russia Patriotic Electoral Bloc in the Moldovan election. It won 51 seats - an outright majority. Moldova is now on a trajectory towards EU membership. A very bad night for Putin, who targeted Moldova with a wave of election propaganda.

Let's go

Eastern European reformist politicians regularly run on promises to punish grand corruption. None have delivered as spectacularly as Sandu has! That's why today Ru is trying every dirty trick in the book to undermine the deserved electoral victory of Sandu's party in the parliamentary elections.

A clear explanation: "further westward, Moscow’s goal isn’t to fight but to have us wake up one day to find NATO’s guarantees void, EU institutions ruined and transatlantic solidarity gone. No need for Ru to fire a shot if it can convince Europeans that defending themselves isn’t worth the effort."

There are signs fascist Russia is preparing a big missile strike tonight: communications with Tu bombers on combat frequencies have been recorded, monitors say. Shahed attack drones are already crossing the country from the east. A large attack has been expected for some days.

Ru constantly plays the victim. It's a huge empire that is trying to expand as we speak and it complains that it's encountering resistance and others aren't submitting to Ru domination like Belarus did.

Lol. Makes this random interaction I had with him on Twitter a couple of days ago even funnier www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Diplomacy needs more of this, calling a spade a spade.

Move faster

Except the actually existing communist regimes were very much about despotism, bigotry and eugenics!

My money is on the Ru diplomats 💯 lying here. They keep recycling the “we’re afraid of NATO, we think NATO is attacking us” lie because they know a segment of Western decision-makers will eat it up and try to “manage escalation” again. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

👀👀👀

Great interview: "Taken together, the events of the last three and a half years demonstrate that this war was not precipitated by geopolitical wrangling between Russia and the West. Rather, it was driven by Russia’s ongoing goal to destroy Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence."

How absurd to frame Ukrainian victory as a "task" given to Zelensky by Trump! Zelensky does what he does because he has a democratic mandate from Ukrainian society. If Ukrainian society gives up on reclaiming territory, the Ukrainian govt will adjust its military and diplomatic goals...

My wide-ranging interview about the Russo-Ukrainian war for the Forum for Ukrainian Studies. One take-away: "The only reason there is an inkling of hope that the international world order will survive this enormous challenge is because Ukraine is resisting." ukrainian-studies.ca/2025/09/23/i...

I hope Rubio informed Lavrov the US now thinks Ukraine can kick Russia out completely but I doubt he did.

These are coming more and more often. Perhaps Zelensky described well to Trump what Ukraine has achieved and what’s in store, leading to the sudden change of tone yesterday.

Can’t count the number of times I’ve had to tell people they shouldn’t underestimate Ukraine and assume Ru would win on the battlefield.

Russian channels getting increasingly frustrated with the fuel shortages inside Russia after drone strikes "Several districts in Belgorod Oblast only have A100 and diesel left. It’ll be truly epic if, by year four of the war, we still haven’t crushed Ukrainian energy but they end up crushing ours."

🔴 Zelenskyy: "Ukraine doesn’t have big fat missiles that dictators love to show off in parades, but we have drones that can fly two to three thousand kilometers. We had no choice but to build them."

This is a good sign for the future of American democracy

Trump is just wasting time with these ridiculous rhetorical swings. The reality is that his policy is weak and tending to lower aid. The story isn’t in what he said last. Just like blowing up at Zelensky didn’t mean Ukr was finished, saying that Ru is a paper tiger doesn’t bring Ukr victory closer.

Nothing to see here. He’ll probably swing back to pro-Ru propaganda soon. The pro-Ukrainian bipartisan consensus is stable, but Congress is weak and the admin is full of incompetents/pro-Ru. The resulting US policy of uneven, weak support coupled with wild rhetorical swings will likely continue

1) There’s no such thing as an aggressive stance towards Pu. Pu is the only aggressor in Europe. 2) The Baltic stance is based on experience and knowledge. It’s the Trump admin that’s being ideological— coddling dictators, entertaining a return to “spheres of influence”, and pushing appeasement.

I'll add that the corporations have independent power, which cannot be swiftly/reliably culled by the incumbent so they have agency in how they respond to the incumbent's autocratizing moves. Something that distinguishes the US very clearly from Pu's Russia, but also from Orban's Hungary.

Many purposefully ignore this. “Ru is afraid of NATO and/or protecting Ru in Ukr” crowd can’t explain why Ru is forcefully settling Ru in the occupied Ukr territories to maintain control. The “Ru is anti-imperialist because it’s anti-US” crowd will ignore the blatant colonial settlement project.

"German jets scrambled after Russian military plane flies over #Baltic Sea" - #Germany #Russia #NATO www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Also, mixing up countries aside, the description of the Azerbaijan-Armenia war is not factual. The war was frozen for decades and ended in 2023 without any US participation! It ended w Aze retaking territory, not w talks. Trump talks about the leaders as if they’re wild animals he tamed. Unhinged!

If by “us” he means the Russo-American alliance then yes, Xi is already helping.

Always colby at the scene of the crime

👇!!!!!!

The writing is on the wall. The US is abandoning Europe. Europe will have to fend off Ru on its own.

Who knew this line about Africa in the 2000s would sound applicable to the US in 2025: “subordinates owe loyalty to their personal patrons, not to laws and institutions.” The difference is that corruption hasn’t seeped into the entire bureaucracy and congealed into political culture but…

This is Ru’s Witkoff. A reminder that the Ru Orthodox Church is more of a state institution working to spread the policies of the Ru state domestically and abroad than a spiritual/religious institution

Majorities of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of crime, immigration, tariffs, the economy, Russia and Gaza, per @washingtonpost.com @ipsosus.bsky.social poll. Overall, Trump's approval rating is 43%. @emgusk.bsky.social @sfcpoll.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Czech President Petr Pavel warned Russia that repeated violations of NATO airspace could lead to Russian planes being shot down. He said NATO must respond firmly, even militarily, if Russia crosses the line.

A story to follow