(Air raid alert map of Ukraine in English as of 0241 local time in Ukraine)
(Air Raid Alert Map of Ukraine in Ukrainian)
russian planes are in the air again, likely on their way to bomb Ukraine.
Missiles are expected to arrive by early morning.
One has to admire their dedication to “peace negotiations”.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Three years since brave Ukrainians, many still wearing sneakers and blue jeans, began welcoming our Russian neighbors as they poured into the country.
The video that launched a million memes of defiance and independence – Ukraine’s fight will be a model for generations.
— SPRAVDI – Stratcom Centre (@stratcomcentre.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 5:52 AM
On Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2025, world leaders pay respects at the flag memorial to those killed by fascist Russia in its war of aggression against democratic Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump, or any other top U.S. official, notable by their absence.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 5:15 AM
President Zelenskyy did not make an address today. However, he did address the plenary session of the Support Ukraine event.
He also attended the G7 meeting virtually in the company of several other leaders of G7 states and EU officials who were in Ukraine today to commemorate the third anniversary of Russia’s genocidal re-invasion of Ukraine.
Georgia:
In Batumi, it’s half a meter snow, the public transport was canceled, many residents have no heating or electricity, but protesters still gathered for Day 89 of continuous protests and expressed solidarity with Ukraine. #GeorgiaProtests
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 12:36 PM
🔴 A march in support of #Ukraine is taking place in #Tbilisi, #Georgia.
#StandWithUkraine
— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) February 24, 2025 at 11:08 AM
The anthems of Ukraine, Georgia, and the EU are being played.
— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) February 24, 2025 at 11:14 AM
“Down with the rotten Russian empire” – a solidarity rally and a march were held in Tbilisi three years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦
#GeorgianProtests
#RussiaIsATerroristState— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Georgia’s support for Ukraine—citizens gathered at the Ukrainian Embassy three years after Russia’s invasion.
#GeorgiaProtests
#Ukraine
#RussiaIsATerroristState— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 10:27 AM
“Down with the rotten Russian empire” – a solidarity rally and a march were held in Tbilisi three years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦
#GeorgianProtests
#RussiaIsATerroristState— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 1:25 PM
🗣️ “Putin Khuilo!” – People chant at the march in solidarity with Ukraine in #Tbilisi.
On the 89th day of #GeorgiaProtests, demonstrators are showing their support for Ukraine, as February 24 marks 3 years since Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine
— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) February 24, 2025 at 11:47 AM
February 24 – #Batumi
89th day of #GeorgiaProtests and solidarity with #Ukraine.
— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) February 24, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Small townlet of Chkhorotsku in western Georgia, population 3,000. Day 89 of protests, and gathering in support of Ukraine despite extreme weather conditions in the west. #GeorgiaProtests #StandWithUkraine
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Day 89 of continuous protests in Zugdidi, despite paralyzing snowfall. #GeorgiaProtests
📷 Irakli Takalandze— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 11:42 AM
What you see is the top of a fence. In western Georgia, the snowfall is too great. Families are trapped without heating, electricity, and food supply for days now. An elderly home asks for a rescue.
The regime’s resources are fully immersed in hunting peaceful protesters though.— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:56 AM
A person is reported to have passed away due to heavy snowfall in Guria. Families are cut off without means or supplies.
Due to the regime actively hunting people or killing them through neglect, “Volunteers for Guria” group was formed and people try to rescue compatriots.— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Many people are reported to be injured without rescue. Some families are running out of food supplies yet emergency services tell them “it’s not their job” to deliver food.
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I now cannot remember when it was the last day that I didn’t hear about deaths – by killing, neglect, or suicide due to the rot that the Georgian Dream brings.
And Georgia used to be one of the safest countries around the globe.
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Why make a phone call when you can bring an entire squad at midnight and intimidate the whole family? This is the second time the regime police went to Zurab Girchi Japaridze’s home today (one of the opposition leaders). Earlier, his 11-year-old child was alone. #terrorinGeorgia
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 3:31 PM
The US:
The UN General Assembly approved a resolution put forward by Ukraine and European nations.
The US opposed the resolution.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 11:55 AM
The US voted *with* Russia against the UN resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine and demanding a withdrawal.
Utter betrayal of country, allies, and principles.
— Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com) February 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
“The United States voted with Russia, North Korea, Belarus and 14 other Moscow-friendly countries Monday on a resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for its occupied territory to be returned” www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec…
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 12:23 PM
REPORTER: Can you explain the rationale in having the US vote against the UN resolution that Ukraine proposed?
TRUMP: It’s sort of self-evident I think
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 24, 2025 at 1:37 PM
3yrs ago, russia carpet-bombed Mariupol, forcing people to seek shelter in the drama theater–their last safe haven. Then russia dropped an aerial bomb there, killing hundreds.
Today, the US pushed at the UNGA a resolution that fails to recognize russia as the aggressor.
— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Trump on Russia: “We’re trying to do some economic development deals. They have a lot of things that we want … they have massive rare earth.”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 24, 2025 at 1:37 PM
History demands clear lines. Ukraine drew theirs in blood. Trump erases his with a handshake — because to him, peace is just another transaction.
— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 12:46 PM
France:
Macron, standing next to Trump: “I stopped my discussion with President Putin after Bucha and the war crimes, because I considered we had nothing to get from him at the time.”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 24, 2025 at 3:20 PM
NEW: Macron has to interrupt Trump and correct a lie about Europe’s contribution.
TRUMP: “Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back.”
MACRON: “No. We provided real money. To be clear.”
Trump clearly not used to get fact-checked live.
— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Macron, with Trump scowling next to him, says “the aggressor is Russia”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 24, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Germany:
Germany’s election winner pledges ‘independence from US
Germany’s Merz: « And it must be an absolute priority to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we actually achieve independence from the USA »
on.ft.com/3EMQ5uI
— Gregory Daco (@gregdaco.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Merz comments last night are by far the most radical we’ve heard from any European (near) leader. They go well beyond French rhetoric of strategic autonomy & a European pillar of NATO. However, there are also those privately contended about disavowing NATO before alternatives are mature.
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Denmark:
🇩🇰 Denmark provides new donation package to Ukraine. DKK 2 billion (equivalent to about 280 million USD) to Ukraine. The money will go towards, among other things, ammunition for the Ukrainian soldiers and the building of a Ukrainian brigade-sized force together with the Nordic and Baltic countries.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Ireland:
🇮🇪The Government of Ireland is to donate a substantial portion of Ireland’s ageing air defence systems to protect towns and small cities in Ukraine.
Giraffe Mark IV radar systems will be transferred to the Ukraine. Ireland possesses 7 of the Giraffe systems, at least 3 are to be handed over.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Canada:
🇨🇦Canada will provide Ukraine with 25 LAV III infantry fighting vehicles, 4 F-16 training simulators, ammunition and $5 billion in frozen Russian assets, — Trudeau during a visit to Kyiv
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 5:37 AM
The Baltic and Nordic States:
Writing for the @financialtimes.com,
the foreign ministers of the Baltic and Nordic states warn against a rushed peace deal in Ukraine on.ft.com/41jbmnE— Jonathan Derbyshire (@jderbyshire.ft.com) February 24, 2025 at 2:34 AM
From The Financial Times:
The writer is Denmark’s foreign minister. He writes on behalf of the foreign ministers of the Nordic and Baltic countries
There are certain milestones you look forward to. A birthday. A wedding anniversary. Your national day. And then there are those milestones you would do anything to avoid. Today belongs in the latter category.
Ukraine has been under attack from Russia for more than 10 years. And the full-scale, illegal and unprovoked invasion has now lasted for three years — a full 1,096 days. This is how long the Ukrainian defenders have been repelling the attacks of Putin’s army of killers. Meanwhile, millions of civilians in Ukraine continue to fear for their families and their future. Dreams have been shattered and everyday life has been turned upside down.Those years will never come back. Nor will the thousands of killed Ukrainians. And for what? Because Vladimir Putin, with his imperial ambitions, decided that it should be so.
The Nordic-Baltic countries have supported Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression. Our support has been a top priority and remains so — militarily, politically, financially, and by humanitarian means. Ukraine is not only fighting for itself, but for all of Europe.
Both in relative terms and in absolute numbers, our countries have been some of the largest contributors to Ukraine. Together, the Nordic-Baltic countries are the world’s second largest military donor to Ukraine after the United States. We are proud to stand fully and firmly behind our Ukrainian friends in defending freedom and security in Europe. At the same time, this calls for serious reflection.
This is a team effort. The future of Ukraine is the future of Europe. European unity has been historic when it comes to sanctions and mobilising political support. But how can it be that eight small countries in northern Europe are leading in that support?
In this existential moment, we are ready and willing to do more. But as the future of European security hangs in the balance, now is the time for the whole of Europe to step up. It’s about prioritising the security of Ukraine and Europe.
Going forward, three things must be clear.
First, before discussing postwar plans, we should do everything we can to help Ukraine achieve peace through a position of strength.
Strength on the battlefield translates to strength at the negotiating table. The sense of urgency must be clear to everyone. We need to provide more military support as quickly as possible to bolster Ukraine and deter Russia from further aggression. We have to move faster and be more resolute. More countries need to do more. Europe must take on a larger responsibility.
Second, any settlement must be sustainable over time. This requires Ukrainian and European commitment and involvement. As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the Munich Security Conference: “No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine. No decisions about Europe without Europe.”
Third, If Europe steps up, we will also become a stronger partner for the US. It is only by increasing our own efforts that we will become indispensable in future negotiations.
We too are focused on ending the war of aggression. But a quick deal risks becoming bad — and dangerous — if it does not lead to a lasting and just peace in Ukraine that includes strong security guarantees. A peace that respects Ukraine’s borders and right to self-determination and ensures that Russia cannot exploit the situation to rearm and attack again. A deal imposed on Ukraine will not be sustainable.
We are ready to think creatively to find new financing for Ukraine’s military. The time to do so is now. But the European countries must dig deeper into their pockets.
Russia is the most significant direct threat to the security order that we, together with our American allies, have built in Europe since the second world war. This remains true in the long term, regardless of how the war against Ukraine unfolds.
“Reset” is a tested path — it has brought nothing but conflict. Therefore, in addition to doing everything we can to support Ukraine, we must invest much more in our own defence, ensuring that Nato’s defence plans can be implemented in all circumstances.
President Zelenskyy is an elected statesman who has heroically led Ukraine through three years of constant attacks on his country and people. We owe it to Ukraine that there is no fourth anniversary of the full-scale war. This requires all of Europe to step up. It is still not too late. Let’s go.<
The following foreign ministers also contributed to this article: Margus Tsahkna (Estonia); Elina Valtonen (Finland); Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir (Iceland); Baiba Braže (Latvia); Kęstutis Budrys (Lithuania); Espen Barth Eide (Norway); Maria Malmer Stenergard (Sweden)
Europe, the UK, the EU, NATO:
Hypothesis: we’re still seeing a split in Europe between ‘radicals’, e.g. Merz warning NATO might vanish by June, and ‘engagers’, like UK, who think priority is to engage Trump to shape Ukraine diplomacy & keep the US engaged, even if at a lower level of presence and/or commitment. Discuss.
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 5:26 AM
I think this overstates the difference. Merz has been a supporter of close transatlantic relations for many decades, he will try to keep the Americans engaged in Europe. He just doesn’t seem very hopeful that it’ll actually succeed. And who can blame him?
— Marcel Dirsus (@marceldirsus.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Some good answers. Other possible framings:
– Optimists v pessimists. Those who think engagement has more chance of keeping US committed vs those losing faith
– Level of dependency: those for whom decoupling would be horribly painful vs those for whom its easier
bsky.app/profile/shas…— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 7:33 AM
The EU:
The European Commission is in Kyiv for the 3rd anniversary to mark the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They’re probably all heading for the bomb shelter now, as fascist Russia has just launched a MiG-31K missile carrier, causing a countrywide air alert.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:12 AM
Air alert over. Putin apparently likes to make his influence known on such occasions by triggering a countrywide air alert – he did the same during former U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv on Feb. 20, 2023.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:47 AM
Back to Ukraine:
Zelenskyy on his relationship with Trump:
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 24, 2025 at 10:51 AM
My question to Americans: How does it feel to be on the same side as Russia and North Korea at the UN? Does it feel like you’re heading in the right direction?
— Tatarigami (@tatarigami.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 2:55 PM
I don’t think Zelensky should go to D.C. and sign any deals that do not include well-defined security guarantees. After the U.S. signaled readiness to extract resources from occupied Ukraine as part of Russian territory, signing such deals would end him politically in Ukraine.
— Tatarigami (@tatarigami.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Three years ago this morning, I was listening to Russian bombs fall on Ukraine. Three years on from Russia’s full-blown invasion, its war continues. But Russia’s attempt to subjugate Ukraine, undermine its sovereignty and erase its identity has been met with the fiercest resistance…
— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.ft.com) February 24, 2025 at 1:35 AM
To those out there who might want to shove a ceasefire down Ukrainians’ throats thinking that that would be the end of this war, I would remind you that Russia has never kept its word on a ceasefire since it first invaded Ukraine in 2014 – that this nation was given days or weeks at most in 2022…
— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.ft.com) February 24, 2025 at 1:35 AM
…and here we are 1,097 days later. I am in awe of Ukraine and of Ukrainians. 🇺🇦
— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.ft.com) February 24, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Three years ago, I filmed my first video in Kharkiv. Back then, no one believed in Ukraine. Today, Ukraine is a symbol of resilience and strength. Stand with Ukraine—we will prevail! 🇺🇦
— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Your photos from rallies in support of Ukraine around the world warm my heart! Thank you to everyone who participated and to those who continue to keep Ukraine in their thoughts.
— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Together 🤝
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Tsupkivka, Kharkiv Oblast:
Today, russian troops bombarded the small village of Tsupkivka in Kharkiv Oblast, destroying or damaging at least 20 houses. Four civilians were wounded, two of whom are in critical condition.
— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Kyiv:
Kyiv honored fallen heroes on Independence Square by lighting hundreds of candles.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Kharkiv:
Explosions in Kharkiv ‼️ the city is under the russian glide bomb attack right now ‼️
They are bombing us on the third anniversary of their invasion
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 3:58 PM
There were five explosions in Kharkiv already ‼️and russia keeps launching more glide bombs
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Over the 3 years of the full-scale war, Russia has attacked the following in Kharkiv:
🔴8239 residential buildings
🔴132 schools
🔴114 kindergartens
🔴129 universities
🔴89 medical facilities
🔴15 cultural institutions
🔴23 administrative buildings
🔴2344 infrastructure and commercial properties— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 7:30 AM
I wrote this story on a young man from Kharkiv who was kidnapped by Russian troops from his home village while trying to rescue his mum, and on his mum’s two-year quest to find him and bring him home. With striking photos by Julia Kochetova
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f…
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 1:01 PM
From The Guardian:
Ivan Zabavskyi was looking for his mother when he disappeared.
It was September 2022, and he had grown increasingly nervous as he read reports of intense fighting in the area where Maryna lived. Eventually, he decided to cycle across the frontline to rescue her.
That was the last anyone saw of him, until he appeared in a courtroom in St Petersburg last month, accused of being a Ukrainian spy.
As Russia’s full-scale invasion reaches its three-year mark, Ivan and Maryna’s story of kidnapping, torture and separation is just one of hundreds of thousands of family tragedies that have afflicted Ukrainians across the country, both those who are serving in the armed forces and those who are not.
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been seized by Russian troops in occupied territory over the past three years. Some end up dead, many languish in black detention sites, while others, like Ivan, eventually turn up in Russian courtrooms on criminal charges.
Ivan was the type of person you could rely on if you were in a tight spot, friends and family agreed. He was “kind and good-hearted, maybe even a bit naive,” said his cousin, Yulia. Fiercely loyal to loved ones, he had always been close to his mother.
Maryna Zabavska was born in Tavilzhanka, a village in the Kharkiv region close to the border with Russia, to a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother from Leningrad. Ivan was born in 1995, and she raised him as a single parent, with help from her mother. The trio spoke Russian at home, and Ivan went to the same school in Tavilzhanka that his mother had attended two decades earlier.
When Ivan got older, he DJed on the weekends at the village nightclub, and later he opened a fast food kiosk, serving burgers and kebabs. His business struggled during the pandemic, and he moved to the metropolis of Kharkiv in the hope of making more money, so he could supplement the income his mother made as a cleaner. He dreamed of having a wife and children.
When the Russians rolled into the Kharkiv region during the first days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Tavilzhanka fell under occupation, while Kharkiv remained in Ukrainian hands. With no mobile reception in the occupied zone and no way to cross the lines, Ivan was cut off from his mother for months.
In September, during a surprise Ukrainian counteroffensive, Kyiv’s troops managed to push the Russians back almost to the border. Tavilzhanka became the new frontline. With fighting raging, Ivan could not handle the thought of his mother stuck in the midst of it all. He decided he was going to rescue her, whatever it took.
Just before setting out, he called his cousin Yulia to let her know. She begged him not to go, but he brushed her off. He told her: “I’m all she’s got and she’s all I’ve got. If something happens to her, I won’t be able to forgive myself.”
Ivan packed his car with loaves of bread to hand out on the way, in villages where people were emerging from months of living under occupation. He got as far as the home of Natalia, the mother of an acquaintance, who lived a few miles from Tavilzhanka. The Russians had blown up a bridge during their retreat, and there was no way to go any further by car. So he borrowed Natalia’s bicycle to go the last part of the journey.
“Wait here, I’m going to get my mum and then we’ll all go together to Kharkiv in my car, I’ll drive you to safety,” he told Natalia. He never came back.
What Ivan did not know – what he could not have known, as there was no telephone reception – was that his mother had left her village just before he set out on his journey.
For several days, artillery shells had whizzed over Tavilzhanka, some landing haphazardly amid the cottages. Maryna had hurried to her sister Tetiana’s house, two doors down from her, to take cover in the basement. Tetiana was 15 years older: she had worked as a TV engineer in the surrounding villages, doing house calls to fix faulty sets. The two sisters had lived side-by-side their whole lives. Now, they huddled together in the cellar, terrified by the muffled booms from outside.
Tetiana occasionally ventured outside to draw water from the well, or to cook food on a makeshift grill. On one of these excursions, a shell landed nearby and shards of shrapnel went flying. Maryna heard screams and came rushing up the stairs. She found Tetiana on the ground, covered in blood. She ran into the street in a blind panic and waved down a passing Russian tank. The vehicle ground to a halt and a suspicious soldier emerged from within. When he heard Maryna’s breathless story, he promised to call for medical help. But it never came. Tetiana’s screams of agony turned to moans, and then silence, as she bled to death over the next two hours. She was 63 years old.
In the relative quiet of the night, Maryna began to dig in Tetiana’s back yard. She shovelled earth for more than four hours, with one short break to regain her breath and composure, until she had created a shallow pit. She washed her sister’s body and dressed her in fresh clothes. Just before dawn, she dragged the corpse into the makeshift garden grave. “When I’d buried her, I pushed a stick into the ground and tied a purple scarf around it,” she said.
The next day, with the fighting still raging and shells flying, she finally made up her mind to flee the village. She headed in the only safe direction: into Russia. As soon as she picked up mobile reception, she tried to call Ivan, but his phone was off. Then she called another relative, who told her: “Ivan just left – he went looking for you.”
They had missed each other by a single day.
Maryna turned full-time detective, calling everyone she could get hold of in Tavilzhanka, which remained under Russian occupation. She quizzed all those who left the village in the subsequent weeks. Nobody had any news of Ivan.
She spent hours calling the information lines of various Russian official bodies to see if he had been taken prisoner. After a while, she travelled back to Tavilzhanka with a stack of printed posters featuring Ivan’s photo. She hung them around town, and questioned Russian soldiers on whether they had seen her son. They all said no.
Finally, she got a lead. An elderly woman recalled seeing Ivan being led away by two Russian soldiers. “Hello, I am Ivan Zabavskyi,” he had said to her, as he was marched past her, as if to send out a message for when his mother came looking.
But from there, the trail went dark. Maryna spent several months in Russia, travelling between army offices, police stations and government buildings, knocking on doors and asking for news of her son. In each new region, she was either politely rejected, laughed at, or simply ignored.
Eventually, she received a scanned letter by email, on Russian defence ministry paper. Ivan had been arrested “for opposing the special military operation”, it stated, and he was being held on Russian territory. There were no further details.
Maryna would later discover that her son had spent nine months in a black site prison in Russia’s Belgorod region. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are held in this way, without the right to communicate with relatives and with no official criminal charges.
Later, in court, Ivan would describe the nine months he spent there as follows: “A day felt like a year or even an eternity. They beat you a minimum of twice a day, sometimes three times … lice simply devoured us.”
Eventually, he was transferred into the official Russian prison system, and formal espionage charges were filed against him. Rights advocates say those with criminal charges are often better off as they can receive packages and letters, and their families know where they are being held. Maryna even managed to have two short phone calls with Ivan. “I finally got strength again after hearing his voice,” she said.
In January, two years and four months after Ivan was seized on the street in his home village, he surfaced in a St Petersburg courtroom, for the verdict in his espionage trial.
When Ivan was a young boy, his Russian grandmother had told him stories about the grand palaces and beautiful canals of her home city. Now, he set foot there for the first time, hauled from a prison van to stand trial as an enemy spy.
In his latest appearance before the court, Ivan suggested that he had helped Ukrainian authorities with information about Russian army positions, although any confession obtained under torture cannot be considered reliable. But, he added, all his actions had been carried out with the sole goal of helping his mother, hoping for Ukrainian troops to liberate her village quickly so that she would be out of danger.
He asked the judge what she would have done had her own home city been occupied by foreign troops, and her own mother in danger. He told the judge: “A mother is something sacred, and if what I did helped even a tiny to bit to save her, I would do it again without thinking, just so that she might stay out of harm.”
In his final words to the court, as relayed by a website run by a group of Russian defence lawyers, Ivan also spoke of the abuses to which he had been subjected during the nine months before he was transferred into the official prison system.
He said: “I am alive, but it would have been better if they had killed me. The electric shocks, the rubber batons. My legs were turned into traffic lights, one set of bruises fading as another set appeared. Every day like this: torture, interrogations. For nine months. I beg you to take into consideration the hell that I have been through, and to hold to account those who allowed this to happen, so that people no longer have to go through such horrors.”
The judge found Ivan guilty of espionage, and sentenced him to 11 years in prison.
Much more at the link.
Kherson:
Kherson: I interviewed people in a cafe. They told me about a theater premiere at 2 pm in a bomb shelter nearby. (Nothing goes after 4-5 pm.)
The play was written and acted by a soldier injured at the front. Nuanced, poignant, powerful. Just right.
Outside, shelling continued.
— Zarina Zabrisky (@zarinazabrisky.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM
🇺🇦Come with me for a walk around Kherson, a frontline city, on the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion.
See for yourself what the war criminals are doing to this soulful river town.
I will next share a theater premiere, interviews and evening attack videos. pic.x.com/1W4eUAhZdc
1/3— Zarina Zabrisky (@zarinazabrisky.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Part 2/3
— Zarina Zabrisky (@zarinazabrisky.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Part 3/3
and more is on the way
— Zarina Zabrisky (@zarinazabrisky.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast:
Russians continue to show how much they “want peace” by attacking Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Ryazan Oblast, Russia:
Ryazan oil refinery in russia was on fire last night for the third time this year
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 5:41 AM
/1. Strong fire on the territory of the Russian Ryazan oil refinery. After tonight’s drone attack.
Ryazan oil refinery processed 13.1 million metric tons (262,000 barrels per day), or almost 5% of Russia’s total refining throughput in 2024.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 1:28 AM
/2. Feb 24 (Reuters) – Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery has suspended operations.
The main crude distillation unit at the refinery, CDU-6, caught fire in the attack. The CDU-6 unit has a capacity of some 170,000 bpd, or some 48% of Ryazan’s refining capacity.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:33 PM
/3. The refinery may turn on CDU-4 and CDU-3 prime distillation units, while CDU-6 is under repair.
CDU-4 and CDU-3 have a total refining capacity of around 145,000 bpd, or some 41% of the plant’s installed refining capacity. www.reuters.com/world/europe…
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Tula Oblast, Russia:
It is reported that last night Ukrainian drones attacked an oil depot in the Uzlovsky district of Tula Oblast.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) February 23, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Moscow:
Putin believes that Russia attacked Ukraine because it was destiny and the will of God.
Indeed.— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 9:13 AM
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
A new video from Patron’s official TikTok:
@patron__dsns 🫂🇺🇦❤️
Here’s the machine translation of the text overlayed on the video:
I invited my little self for a walk. He is only 2 months old and I am 5 years old.
He said that he dreams of being loved and scratched by the ear every night. And I told him that I have the best family in the whole world.
Little Patron made a new ball and a duck for Christmas. And I told him that for the third year we have only one cherished wish for the whole of Ukraine.
He complained that he was terribly afraid of loud noises and hid under the bed from them. And I admitted to him that in three years of full-scale war I had almost gotten used to explosions and sirens.
He thought that the world was divided into those who gave treats and those who did not. As an adult, I know that the world is divided into those who protect and those from whom it is necessary to protect.
He asked me why there is so much evil and cruelty in the world. And I couldn’t find the words to answer.
As a child, I did not understand what his mission was in the world. Then I showed him my work and told him that I was making this world safer and the people in it a little happier.
I looked at my little self and was glad that that little dog had a peaceful and safe childhood. And he quietly said that good always wins. He licked my nose and ran to play.
Open thread!
TaMara
After what went down on Bsky today, just wanted to express gratitude for all the work you do on these posts. Fuck the haters.
Adam L Silverman
@TaMara: Thank you.
Chief Oshkosh
Adam, another amazing effort tonight.
I still can’t believe Trump just pissed away 80+ years of relative stability, paid for with enormous amount of US treasure and an enormous number of US lives…for what?
And not a peep from all those Republican hawks, all those shitheels who, right up to this year, would bang on and on about the need for strong national defense and security. Where are they now? Cowards.
hrprogressive
@Chief Oshkosh:
They aren’t “Cowards”. They are Fascists. This is 1000% what they want.
All the “National Security Republicans” from the last 25 years have only been about wealth and power through the defense industry, and/or blowing up brown people because they could.
It was always a farce, and always will be.
YY_Sima Qian
India also abstained, which is consistent with/ past practice, but so did Iran. I think Iran’s & Cuba’s abstentions are noteworthy. Hungary clear feels it has permission to be much more overt w/ its pro-Russian stance, now that Trump is in the WH & breaking apart the Western alliance & Europe. Other far right reactionaries that are Russia-curious will be similarly emboldened if they gain power.
It will be interesting to see if/how Giorgia Meloni evolves. I suspect her Russo-skeptic turn since winning the Prime Ministership was to be accepted into polite company in DC, Brussels, Berlin, Paris & London. Now she has much greater space to be herself.
hrprogressive
I haven’t asked a question in any of these for a long time.
I kinda feel like there isn’t any point, but maybe I’ll be wrong.
Adam – does the EU/Rest of Europe, especially in light of recent German Elections, actually have the fortitude/backbone/firepower to “get it done for Ukraine”? Or are they SOL without the Disunited Soviet States of America?
Realistically, it’s hard to see how this doesn’t end up in a replay of WWII, except apparently America either sits on the sidelines, or fights itself with Civil War 2, or some other such.
Do you see any other realistic / plausible outcomes?
YY_Sima Qian
@TaMara: Wait, what happened on BlueSky?
SC54HI
A terrible anniversary.
Thank you, Adam, for all your work.
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: You have occasionally been accused of being a “Doomer”. I am curious whether the speed of US national suicide domestically & internationally has exceeded even your estimations from before Jan. 20.
Adam L Silverman
@Chief Oshkosh: Thank you for the kind words. You are most welcome.
McConnell made a weak statement in support of Ukraine without mentioning Trump. I decided not to include it.
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: Israel also voted against.
Jay
Thank you, so much, Adam.
Patron kinda gutted me.
Adam L Silverman
@hrprogressive: I don’t know. Several leaders are making the right statements. We will have to wait and see.
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: No. Once Musk got involved, it was clear that he would leverage his investment/ownership stake in Trump to do what he’s done everywhere else. Gut everything, rip everything out and tear it up, burn everything down to the foundations, and then try to crack the foundations open.
YY_Sima Qian
Speaking of national suicide:
Adam has often posed the question that if Trump & crew are Russian assets, would they be doing anything differently from what they have been doing. Well, I doubt Putin (or Xi, Bibi, MBS, MBZ, etc.) could imagine a useful idiot, or even an active agent, can be so efficient at advancing Russian (& PRC, Israeli, Saudi & Emirati) interests.
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: Yep.
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: Well, your imagination (based on your experience & expertise, surely) certainly exceeds mine, & I consider myself jaded, cynical & pessimistic.
John S.
@Adam L Silverman:
I know politics makes strange bedfellows, but holy shit. The vote today at the UN was just bonkers.
We are through the looking glass and so far off the map that we can’t even see the map anymore.
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: This was originally the opening for tonight’s update. I deleted it before I hit the publish button:
That’s what happened.
John S.
@YY_Sima Qian:
I have extra contempt for Michael Waltz. The shit he has said and done with regard to Ukraine is just appalling.
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
After much arm twisting by the US.
Initially I thought it was because of Israel’s on ideas on taking other peoples lands,
turns out it was “defund Israel” threats by the DJTdiot’s team threats.
Adam L Silverman
@John S.: Other way around. Through the map and off the looking glass.
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: Huh, missed that on the screenshot. Just wow.
When will American anti-Fascists start to realize that Israel under the current (& any far right religio-/ethno-nationalist government) is our enemy?
These countries could have chosen to abstain & that would have been embarrassing enough, they did not have to vote w/ Russia, Belarus & DPRK.
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: It wasn’t listed in the screen shot. I only know because Israeli journalists reported it.
Ariobarzanes
@Adam L Silverman: I read these threads every night, as does my spouse, even though we almost never comment on them. Your work has value, and we appreciate it.
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
I have valued everything you have posted, through out the years.
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: Fuuuuuck! Toxic, narcissistic, trollish assholes of bad faith.
I am very glad you are still here, & MM has returned in a limited capacity.
Could it be reactionary agents working to tear any resistance apart, & prevent resistance from coalescing?
I hate thinking along the lines of conspiracies.
John S.
@Adam L Silverman:
Damn right. What you do here is valuable in so many ways. You are not allowed to quit. Some people just say and do crazy things. Let them. You do you.
Chaver, ani po bishvilcha.
John S.
@Adam L Silverman:
There it is. I thought I screwed it up, but I figured you’d correct me anyway since it’s one of your favorite sayings.
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: The screenshot of the UNGA roll call posted by Kate from Kharkiv actually does show Israel as “NO”. I was still in shock of the US “NO” vote.
John S.
@YY_Sima Qian:
Try not to think that way. Besides, Occam’s razor usually works just fine. People are people, and they just can’t help being shitty sometimes.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: WTF?!!!
Adam L Silverman
@Ariobarzanes: Thank you for the kind words, you are most welcome.
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: Thank you. Much appreciated.
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: No. I’m pretty sure I know which commenter it is. It’s par for the course for that individual.
Adam L Silverman
@John S.: Thanks.
Adam L Silverman
@John S.: Just remember to invert looking glass and map from the way the expression is normally stated.
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: Ahh, okay.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
https://nitter.poast.org/ChrisO_wiki/status/1894153922450747509#m
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: Here’s the translation of Barskiy’s reporting by tweet:
She’s a reporter for Maariv.
lashonharangue
@Adam L Silverman: Adam I have followed your work here for a long time and always appreciated your knowledge and dedication.
John S.
@Adam L Silverman:
What a fucking shanda fur die goyim.
Ohio Mom
I am completely out of this loop, and glad to be. Also gobsmacked that we have homegrown Balloon Juice trolls stalking front pagers. I am reminded of that old cartoon, “Something is wrong on the internet.”
Anyway, I have long agreed with Cole that Adam’s posts are and important historical document cans I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, I hope Adam or Cole or someone is printing out hard copies. Things on the internet disappear, links break, this needs to be permanent.
Adam L Silverman
@John S.: I believe it’s spelled Bibi.
Adam L Silverman
@lashonharangue: Thank you for the kind words. You’re most welcome.
Jay
https://nitter.poast.org/Osinttechnical/status/1894170403020411057#m
Adam L Silverman
@Ohio Mom: This person/commenter wasn’t stalking me, just bad mouthing me. Another commenter made a rather anodyne and tongue in cheek comment about MM’s moving on and this person jumped in to blame me. I had no idea about any of this until a different front pager told me I needed to see what was going on. Which I did. When I then set the record straight, the person/commenter doubled down. When I challenged him, he then slunk away like the coward he is.
Jay
short video at link,
https://nitter.poast.org/ZelenskyyUa/status/1893903871040463251#m
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: Oh no. Good Lord. Enough drama on BJ. I rarely wander onto Bluesky. I am sorry for whatever you endured.
Please keep on keeping on. And ban whoever is causing such grief.
What is up with all of this?
Last, amazing it has been three years. I was in Germany when Russia invaded. Would not have thought war would last this long, but Slava Ukraini.
Ashamed for what the US is doing, but that is them, not us.
Again, sorry you had a terrible day. I am glad you are still with us.
AlaskaReader
Thanks Adam
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay:
@Adam L Silverman:
All that the Israeli vote is going to accomplish is further isolating Israel from most parts of the world. But I guess if Trump promises to turn a complete blind eye to Israel’s conduct in Gaza & the WB, it might be worth it to Bibi.
I wonder if Merz’s invitation to Bibi to visit Germany still stands, or if Bibi dares to do.
wu ming
adam—
from a long-time lurker: your ukraine series and AL’s covid series are why i read BJ daily. an old friend serves in the ukrainian military, and there is no better place online or off- to keep up with the state of things over there. thank you so much for sticking with it, despite the horror of the subject matter, and people being idiots online. cole is right to ask you to keep it going, it really is incredibly important work. someone really ought to compile these into a single text at some point, once all of this is over.
Jay
During the DJTdiot’s presser with Macron,
https://nitter.poast.org/atrupar/status/1894093468219105411#m
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: Thank you for the kind words, you are most welcome.
Adam L Silverman
@AlaskaReader: You’re welcome.
Now I can go to sleep with a clean conscience.
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: Bibi’s supporters, and those even more extreme, think Merz’s invite and assurances are a trap so that Merz can have him arrested and turned over to the ICC.
Adam L Silverman
@wu ming: Much appreciated. Thank you for the kind words. You are also most welcome.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: I just feel terrible that somebody subjected you to that. Whatever it was.
Take the dog lanterns for a really good walk, and hug them more than usual. Dog therapy.
Darkrose
Adam,
I’m really sorry you’re having to deal with nonsense. I appreciate what you’re doing here, even if I haven’t read every post, because you are and have access to credible sources of information, and you’re good at cutting through the noise. I would absolutely understand if you said “Fuck this shit; I’m out,” but I hope you don’t.
just another boomer
Adam, I have followed your work ever since Pat Lang’s website. You have always shown a clear intelligence and a moral foundation–a truly helpful guide through our misadventures. Moreover, you have been the soul of courtesy under criticism that is often just ignorant and boorish carping. Please soldier on here. You are valuable and valued here.
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: Yep, saw those comments.
At some point, the Israeli far right in power (& their supporters/enablers/excuse makers among the Jewish diaspora around the world) will cause a tremendous backlash against Israel, & that will provide a big opening (bigger than it otherwise would have been) to the Anti-Semites to go after Jews. Already has happened to an extent.
IMHO, the lengths to which these supporters of the Israeli far right, a small but vocal & powerful minority of the Jewish diaspora, are willing to go to enable & make excuse for Israeli conduct, the arms they are willing to twist, actually reinforce the dangerous stereotypes & age old conspiracy theories leveled against all Jews. Their conduct paint a target on all Jews that gentile supporters/enablers/excuse makers of the Israeli far right IMO do not. This dynamic is not right or just, & we have to strenuously fight against it, but nevertheless represent powerful sociological/anthropological forces.
I hope I am not speaking out of turn or ignorance, as a non-Jewish person.
wjca
I’d bet yes. The Russians tend to insist on assets following orders. And I doubt anyone there has the imagination to come up with some of the shit these scum are doing. So, as assets they would be doing less.
Not that it will keep the Russians et al. from taking advantage of the damage being done. Slowed only by the challenge of keeping up with all the opportunities suddenly on offer.
John S.
@YY_Sima Qian:
I don’t find much flaw in what you said, but I can’t speak for all Jews.
Personally, I think an outside perspective is often helpful. Sometimes it’s hard to see clearly from the inside.
Bill Arnold
@Ohio Mom:
I’ve spot checked the internet archive (web.archive.org) and it has had these, so there’s that.
PDFs would be better, though. Poking around, it appears that the usual approach is a chromium-family browser in headless mode, with some wrapping scripting to make sure the page is fully loaded before printing to pdf. (I might prototype as a fun project; doing the whole set would just mean putting it in a loop.)
Omnes Omnibus
I have not commented on your threads for quite a while, and I been staying away from Balloon Juice for a few weeks as well. I am very sorry that something I wrote on BlueSky led to the idiocy that it did. Once that began to happen, I deleted the post. As you noted, I had intended a tongue in cheek reference to the fracas over the weekend. Obviously, this was enough to set people speculating wildly. Again, I am sorry that my post caused any bother.
Adam L Silverman
@Darkrose: I’m here for the duration, but I appreciate the kind words. You are most welcome.
Adam L Silverman
@just another boomer: Thank you. You are most welcome too.
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: You’re not. I have often remarked that what Bibi does, claiming to be Mr. Security not just for Jewish Israelis, but for all Jews everywhere, only puts us at more risk.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: This was most definitely NOT your fault. But I do appreciate your comment.
Chris
@YY_Sima Qian:
It seems to me, though, that at this point the Israeli right wing and Western anti-Semites are largely on the same page when it comes to Jews that live anywhere but in Israel. Both of them consider the diaspora to be something liminal, that refuses to stay in its lane, that blurs national identities that they believe should be racially defined. To the Israeli right-wingers, the diaspora are race traitors who think they’re too good to live with their own kind, to the Western anti-Semites, they’re interlopers polluting a land that isn’t theirs. As far as both of them are concerned, if diaspora Jews suffer, well, that’s what they get for making the choices they did, isn’t it?
Gin & Tonic
Been on the road, just catching up. Adam, I’m very sorry someone is dishing out crap to you. Your work on these threads is invaluable. You have a good sense of what this war means to me, and even though I don’t say it very often, I think you understand how important your bearing witness is. Thank you.
Captain C
@YY_Sima Qian: I mean, this story about Musk and Putin having regular phone calls just came and went in October.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: You’re most welcome.
YY_Sima Qian
@Chris: Yes, their interests appear to be aligned in so far as getting all of the Jews to decamp to Israel (which Adam has remarked on before), & for Israel to dominate the Arabs. What happens after, they are probably not at all aligned.
Aziz, light!
Adam, thank you. I am grateful for your daily dose of expertise and insight. I beseech you to keep calm and carry on.
YY_Sima Qian
@wjca: Putin thinks chaos is a ladder, Trump & Musk are obliging & more. Putin does not want a pliant but capable U.S. sidekick that might eventually come to its senses & become a threat again, he wants a broken & collapsed U.S. w/o the capacity to recover any time soon,
Aziz, light!
@Chris: Like most American Jews, I was raised to revere and defend the State of Israel. I’ve reached the point of wanting Israel to either award full citizenship to everyone in Palestine, with equal rights and representation, or cease to be a state. I never dreamed that it would come to this. It’s a very sad reckoning.
YY_Sima Qian
@Aziz, light!: I fear for the Israeli Jews in either scenario, but successive Israeli governments have rendered the only just & viable alternative increasingly unviable.
(Sure, Palestinians of Gaza & WB have agency over & responsibility for the current state of affairs, too, the Fatah & Hamas above all, but Israel is by far the stronger party in this conflict, by orders of magnitude.)
SpaceUnit
Poor Adam.
Jay
Late night pie, is the best.
Adam L Silverman
@Aziz, light!: Thanks. You are quite welcome.
Gvg
@Chris: The last few days I have been thinking about that old slur “rootless cosmopolitans” which implied it was impossible for the Jewish people to be loyal citizens of anywhere. I was thinking about it because of Musk’s family and how they immigrated multiple times because things weren’t exactly the way they wanted. Then there was some mention of Thiel having South African connections too, and I was reminded how some people had been saying the truly wealthy had no citizenship but just moved around the world now, only associating with each other.
The next story up was Adam reporting about one of the “kids” working for Musk was the grandson of an executed Soviet spy who the USSR thought had been turned by the CIA and had been exposed to them by one of our traitors. I read the story and wondered if it would be surprising if the grandson felt no loyalty to either the US or Russia and might even want to hurt both or either.
I wonder what the background is on the other kids Musk has working for him. Kind of afraid to know.
Trump also has no loyalty, but I think that is on him. What a weird fucking man he is, besides being bad.
They are all so odd.
Traveller
Initially I thought that Adam’s work here was part of and preparation for a book…I encouraged this effort by Adam until he told me that I was way off base, all these insightful posts were a passion project of sorts for him, and fulfilling a promise he made to Cole to bear witness as long as this terrible war continued.
1,096 days and still counting…Unbelievable.
No one back on February 22, 2022, thought that this war of aggression by Russia would still be ongoing 3 years later or, and here’s the inconceivable part, that Ukraine would still be standing toe to toe with mighty Russia and exchanging blows with Mother Russia, giving as good as it got.
The fact that today Russia is willing to accept NATO aligned troops on its border really surprised me….just 24 hours ago this was an absolute No, Nyet, Never….! Maybe Russia is in trouble…Hummm we can hope so.
Lastly, I still say…that all these days, all these posts would make a fine book when all is said and done…I would buy it, hell I’d buy three and give them to friend.In any case,
I am glad you are here…stick around soldier! LOL Best Wishes, Traveller
Gin & Tonic
@Jay: I think some people are born assholes. But looks like Adam handled it.
Gin & Tonic
@Traveller: Finland became a NATO member nearly two years ago and shares a 1300 km border with russia.
Eos
Several concluding comments/questions/recapitulations regarding the German election (both this one and the next):
(1) The most important result may be the whisker-thin failure of the sixth-place BSW to gain representation in the Bundestag. Not only because their presence would have forced a three-party coalition (which would have taken weeks or months to work out, even under ideal circumstances), but because the BSW itself is one scary little party.
Their objectives, apparently:
* to cripple Die Linke — the party from which they seceded — and, ideally, to fill that left-wing space on the German spectrum with a communism without communality, with Herrenvolk socialism, with National Stalinism.
* to enter the Bundestag with sufficient representation so as to block the formation of any effective coalition government.
* to build the horseshoe, to take a theoretically left-wing constituency and yoke it to the AfD — presumably in the next election, following another four years of another failed coalition.
Serendipitously — and a little surprisingly — the BSW failed to accomplish either of the first two objectives. Despite successfully seceding from an already wounded Die Linke, demonstrating their own viability in 2024’s state elections, and starting this election campaign consistently above the 5% threshold (with Die Linke sputtering at around 3%), they ultimately tallied 4.972% — as Die Linke surged to 8.77% (apparently they’ve discovered the youth vote, presumably a combination of (a) disillusioned idealists, who traditionally trend FDP (but were repulsed by that party’s backstabbery) and (b) the German equivalent of the Insoumise constituency, or perhaps the Corbynist Momentum).
(2) The far-right’s benefactors seem to have miscalculated, hopefully severely. The AfD realistically wasn’t planning to win this election, but to lay the groundwork for the next one, in the expectation of another failed coalition (their post-election spin was all about that). But for some reason — overconfidence, stupidity, ketamine — they tried to force the issue four years early, and tried so obviously and clumsily that Merz (who’d ordinarily be neutral-to-sympathetic to his fellow plutocrats) is *pissed*.
And his (and Germany’s) chances of success (or at least not-failure) are substantially greater than they looked a few days ago.
One final note (which probably will be final, as it seems that these attempted contributions haven’t exactly resonated round these parts), even if the idea of a “leader of the free world” is representative of some poorly-directed idealism, or if it has typically been assumed by people and governments who too often have proved unworthy of the title, it should not be carelessly discarded. There need to be people in power who try to be motivated by more than Kissingerian manipulation, by self-interest, by predatory enthusiasms, by sneering realpolitik. By vice.
Decency matters. Honesty matters. Without them government is just gangsterism, but with less-shiny suits.
Thank you all for your time, and your continued efforts to keep the flickering light alive.
Jay
The “rootless cosmopolitans” slur comes from Western Europe. Jewish people in the Middle and later ages were barred from many trades, and specialized in FinCen amongst other trades. When the “Crowns” owed too much money to the bankers, they purged the “Bankers”. So, they would flee to another State that offered them shelter, but still restricted their roles in the economy, Ad infinitum.
In Eastern Europe, they were confined to ghetto’s. Agricultural districts or urban areas where in the urban areas they offered services and products that could not be found outside the ghetto.
Madeleine
Cole is right. Night by night you are creating a history of this hideous war.
Gin & Tonic
@Eos: I speak for myself, but I appreciate informed analysis of polities I am not familiar with. This space is, IMO, the perfect environment for that.
Traveller
@Eos:
Seriously! Eos, you are very much appreciated, I have not seen anywhere a finer analysis of the German Election and….how it matter…why it matters.
This certainty educated me…and I appreciate this more than you could possible know…I am certain that other people feel the same way I do about your excellent writing and analysis. Best Wishes, Traveller
Thor Heyerdahl
Adam, I generally read your posts every day. Documenting the horrors of the last three years must weigh tremendously on you. Thank you for all heartfelt effort you have put into this for 1096 days too long.
I greatly appreciate all the Georgian, Moldavian and other stories that you share of people striving for a better life away from Moscow’s grip.
Slava Ukraini!
YY_Sima Qian
@Eos: I will join the others in thanking you for the detailed explanation of the German political scene, greatly appreciate it! I for one look forward to more, as I think there will continue to be turbulence in German politics (& that of many other countries, Western or otherwise). I had hoped that the direct interventions by Musk & Vance would produce blowback, & I am glad to see it happen. BSW & AfD are just the kind of extremist forces that are angling to take advantage of the current anti-establishment, populist, nativist & reactionary moment.
As for needing a “leader of the free world”, there currently aren’t any obvious candidates, Western powers need to get their houses in order 1st. I would prefer to see a world system built on inclusive, equitable & just multilateralism, ideals that once underlined the post-WW II global institutions & the formation of the EU. The entire concept of a “free world” inevitably becomes exclusive, inequitable, & this unjust. The “free world” is self-defined, self-referential, hegemonic, & hierarchical even w/in.
However, that doesn’t really matter right now. What is needed is for the Leftists, progressives & liberals to coalesce into anti-Fascist movements everywhere where the reactionaries are gaining steam & threatening to seize power. We can include the few centrist plutocrats/technocrats who can prioritize defeating the Fascists over defending their parochial interests.
Gloria DryGarden
@YY_Sima Qian: murder.
They don’t think they are harming themselves.
It seems almost like it might be intended revenge against the whole nation, because so many didn’t vote for him, and because of being stopped, and slowed down, and tried in the legal system. Or because, perhaps in elons case, they like destroying things. Does anyone know if Elon use to harm small animals, as a child, or some such callous behavior?
redoubtagain
Mr. Silverman, thank you for your work here.
AxelFoley
Exactly. The Party of Patriotism was never about patriotism.
Rusty
Adam, thank you for continuing your work. Hopefully we can begin to regain some civility here, I know it’s only a few people but they are having an outsized negative influence. Peace be with you.
Gloria DryGarden
@AxelFoley: The party of making money off our duped populace..
Gloria DryGarden
@Adam L Silverman: it sucks ti feel unwelcome.to be made unwelcome.
I am so grateful for your nightly posts, your thoroughness, and perspective.
holding up exotic prayers for peace and protection, for you; sending them to the translator to be adjusted to your flavor.
Chief Oshkosh
@Adam L Silverman: I’m buried with dealing with doggy-shit (my pronunciation of DOGE) at work, and missed this.
I am glad you’re here and welcome reading your posts or commentary in any thread. I certainly don’t agree with everything you say, but so what? And besides, you’ve proven to be way more right than wrong, so maybe it’s time of a lot people to STFD and STFU and pay attention. Regardless, you’re the man in the arena, and you’re getting it done.
I also agree with Cole – your chronicle is important. Thank you again.
Debbie(Aussie)
@Gin & Tonic: Me too.
And a very big thank you to Adam. I can’t believe I have been reading these posts for three years. It makes me more sad (and angry) than I know how to express.
eta last paragraph
Traveller
Very late to the party again…but I so hope this is true…this would be some perfect humiliation for Mr Trump! Richly deserved
Some text because this comes from a site with a thousand buttons you have to shift to be able to get into…
The European Union has proposed a “win-win” agreement with Ukraine for the extraction of critical minerals, as announced by EU Industrial Strategy Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, according to Politico.
Séjourné presented the deal, which rivals US President Donald Trump’s proposal, to Ukrainian officials during a visit to Kyiv on the third anniversary of the full-scale war with Russia.
“21 of the 30 critical materials Europe needs can be provided by Ukraine in a win-win partnership. The added value Europe offers is that we will never demand a deal that’s not mutually beneficial,” Séjourné said, according to AFP.
This proposal comes as U.S. President Donald Trump stated on February 24 that the U.S. is “very close” to reaching an agreement with Ukraine regarding its mineral resources.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has refused to sign the two proposed agreements from the Trump administration, deeming them too stringent.
“I will not sign something that future generations of Ukrainians will have to pay for,” Zelenskyy stated during a press conference on Sunday.
Ukraine possesses vast reserves of critical elements and minerals, from lithium to titanium, which are essential for modern technology production and highly sought after in the global resource race.
The country also has significant reserves of coal, oil, gas, and uranium, though many of these resources are located in Russian-occupied territories.
Trump has suggested that the U.S. could recoup “tens of billions of dollars” through a minerals deal with Ukraine, previously mentioning alleged hundreds of billions in Ukrainian debt.
Zelenskyy has clarified that Ukraine received $100 billion in aid from the United States, primarily as grants, and is unwilling to acknowledge this as debt.
Fingers Crossed…Traveller
kalakal
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s appalling. I’m disgusted by the treatment of front pagers.
I’m glad you’re staying, I rarely comment these days but remain an avid lurker. I find your posts invaluable.
I agree with Cole about the historical value of the record you are creating.
You’re predictions over the last view were always bleaker than mine, and mine were pretty bleak, I have to say you were right.
Once again thanks for all the time and effort you put in our behalf.
A question. Turkey has a long history with both Ukraine and Russia and possesses significant power. Do you forsee them applying more pressure on Putin in the future?
MagdaInBlack
@Adam L Silverman: Dear god, Adam, I’m sorry. That’s just nuts.
I never miss your posts, and I’ve learned so much from you, but I sure don’t blame you for wanting out.
greenergood
@Adam L Silverman: Adam, I’m a lurker – in the past ten years of reading BJ, I’ve probably made a half-dozen inane comments, but today when I read that you had decided to quit, I started to cry, until I saw two lines later that our Overlord Cole has forbidden it. Over the past three years, your posts have been so illuminating, so informative and truth-telling that the thought of not being able to access your analyses on a daily basis made me nearly weep. Thank you so much for all your work; it can’t be easy poring over terrible news every day to keep us informed, never mind also having a busy, engaged life outside of these posts. Again and again, thank you!
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Sorry.
You’re welcome to me.
I never comment on these posts because there’s only so many times I can display my own ignorance or repeat some variation on “this is a nightmare”, but I for one have always appreciated your take on All The Things.
For the record. FWIW
HopefullyNotcassandra
Your posts are the most complete I have found on Ukraine and Georgia’s fight for freedom. Please keep doing them !