I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, I’ve had a long day, I’m fading fast, so I’m just going to run through the basics tonight as we wait for tomorrow’s train wreck to happen.
Vladimir Putin has hailed Donald Trump’s “energetic and sincere efforts” to end the war in Ukraine ahead of a high-stakes summit that has drawn criticism for excluding Kyiv.
— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.ft.com) August 14, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Ukrainian intelligence has learned that putin is preparing “historic materials” for his meeting with trump, maps intended to “prove” that ukraine is supposedly an “artificial state” and to justify russia’s invasion.
— SAINT JAVELIN (@saintjavelin.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 6:29 AM
This is a classic russian propaganda tactic that contradicts international law. Even if certain territories once belonged to other states, that does not grant the right to commit aggression or alter borders.
— SAINT JAVELIN (@saintjavelin.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 6:29 AM
According to information from Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, Putin is preparing to justify his aggression to Trump by claiming that Ukraine is supposedly an “artificial state” formed from the territories of other countries.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 10:02 AM
What could possibly go wrong if a dangerous war criminal is offered economic benefits and international recognition instead of life sentence and confiscation of his assets? Right?
— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 3:06 AM
President Zelenskyy traveled to London today to meet with Prime Minister Starmer. So there’s no daily address because he’s traveling.
First Lady Zelenska participated in a meeting of the Business Without Barriers community. Video followed by the write up after the jump.
Olena Zelenska Took Part in “Business Without Barriers” Community Meeting to Discuss Implementation of New Projects
14 August 2025 – 18:29
First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska took part in a meeting of the “Business Without Barriers” community, which brings together companies united around the First Lady’s “Without Barriers” initiative.
The event was also attended by: Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine – Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine Oleksii Kuleba, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Andriy Pyshnyy, Minister for Veterans Affairs Nataliia Kalmykova, community leaders, Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine Denys Uliutin, international partners, and representatives of the non-governmental sector.
“When in June the state, together with UNICEF, launched a campaign for social change, it received a very apt name: ‘Barrier-Free Means When You Can.’ The title was chosen so that each person could feel it was about them and their needs. Because when a person understands how a problem directly affects them, they are more likely to become a co-creator of change,” Olena Zelenska said.
Participants of the meeting shared their experience in implementing barrier-free solutions. In particular, DTEK representatives spoke about adapting the surface areas of mines for the employment of people with disabilities and changing labor standards for workers; Ukrzaliznytsia representatives told about station renovations and the launch of an inclusive railcar; and the “Silpo” retail chain presented a project for introducing accessible self-checkout counters.
The event also addressed the preparation of the guide “Barrier-Free in Financial Services: A Practical Handbook,” being developed with the support of Oschadbank, PrivatBank, PUMB, and Visa, in cooperation with the NBU and the NGO “Barrier-Free.” The aim of the program is to establish regulations for providing services to people with special needs, including authentication procedures for individuals with facial injuries and reviewing documents for people with visual impairments. This guide will serve as a reference for all service providers in the banking sector and as the basis for an NBU resolution.
A separate panel discussion was devoted to the implementation of the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development’s program “Movement Without Barriers.” The initiative focuses on adapting public transport stops, schools, hospitals, cultural centers, bank branches, supermarkets, and cafés for people with special needs.
The First Lady emphasized that barrier-free development is not a sphere of competition and urged businesses to work together in this area.
Olena Zelenska noted that she had recently returned from Japan, which, after the atomic bombings and the destruction of its cities, invented tactile street navigation – yellow strips with special patterns on streets, sidewalks, and platforms – which have now become commonplace around the world.
“It turns out that even amid difficult reconstruction, there was time, capacity, and resources for barrier-free solutions. Or perhaps the opposite: it was precisely the attitude toward people as a value to be preserved that led to further success. I am convinced this connection exists – that in the long run, people-centered approaches prevail, both in defense and in business,” the First Lady concluded.
Georgia:
260th day of the #GeorgiaProtests
For the request of the detained Nino Datashvili, a protest made on Freedom Square in support with journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, co-founder and director of Batumelebi and Netgazeti, who got sentenced to a two years jail time on August 6.
— László Róbert Mézes (@laszlorobertmezes.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Protest doggos!
On August 14, day 260 of non-stop #GeorgiaProtests, demonstrators formed a human circle in Tbilisi’s Liberty Square to express solidarity with imprisoned journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli.
📷 Nino Saghiridze/Civil.ge— Civil.ge (@civil.ge) August 14, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Serious world-level mafia clan clashes in Georgia.
Thank you, the Georgian Dream, for letting mafia thrive in Georgia again, and for rapidly making Georgia a Christian Chechnya.
oc-media.org/georgia-arre…
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Georgian lawyers say it’s become common for 🇬🇪 citizens returning from abroad to be stopped at the border over unpaid ₾5,000 “road blocking” fines from protests.
The law used to deny entry is unclear — admin fines aren’t legal grounds to bar citizens from their own country.
— Rusudan Djakeli (@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social) August 13, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Poet Zviad Ratiani was detained on June 23 at a protest near Parliament. Charged with assaulting a police officer (4–7 yrs prison). He admits striking the officer, calling it a “minimally painful” act of symbolic protest.
#TerrorinGeorgia
1️⃣
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 8:33 AM
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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 8:33 AM
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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 8:33 AM
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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 8:33 AM
5️⃣
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 8:33 AM
The US:
“I think if I weren’t president, Putin would’ve taken all of Ukraine.”- Trump
I think you need a reality check. Ukraine stands, first and foremost, thanks to its defenders.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Back to Ukraine.
❗️Video of the day from today’s prisoner exchange is published by the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of 🇺🇦Ukraine Budanov
Among those released are a man who spent 4,013 days in a Russian prison, a primary school teacher who was imprisoned in 2019,
— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@militarynewsua.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 9:20 AM
2/and a young boy who was enslaved by the Russians in 2016 at the age of eighteen.
Also returning from captivity are soldiers from the Mariupol garrison, Navy soldiers, and border guards.
— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@militarynewsua.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 9:20 AM
After 9yrs of russian captivity, Bohdan Kovalchuk, civilian hostage, was released, Hromadske reports citing his grandma. He called her saying “Granny, I’m coming home”
The occupiers detained 17yo Bohdan in 2016 when he tried to cross the checkpoint, making up sham charges & throwing him to prison.
— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 12:03 PM
russian occupation is not peace.
It is jailing children.hromadske.ua/suspilstvo/2…
— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Our people are home ‼️❤️🩹🇺🇦
Ukraine returns 84 defenders and civilians from russian captivity!
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 7:55 AM
“We still haven’t fully grasped that we’re home. The realization hasn’t sunk in yet.” – the State Border Guard Service shared the first emotions of those freed from Russian captivity.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Commented to the Financial Time on pressure to cede territories:
“The constitution limits his power: he has no legal right to alter Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Even more constraining is pressure from society and, crucially, the military, which opposes giving up unoccupied territory”
— Tatarigami (@tatarigami.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 7:57 AM
“President Zelenskyy is caught between a rock and a hard place,” the article concludes with my comment.
Given the opportunity, I also want to add that if peace is to be negotiated, we cannot start with non-starter demands, which our President won’t be able to accept
— Tatarigami (@tatarigami.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Diplomacy is an art of compromise and constructive solutions. Ukraine has been constructive, avoiding maximalist demands, but if Moscow imposes such demands, the Trump administration should recognize that Ukraine is not the party which obstructs his vision and peace. Link:
www.ft.com/content/6f40…— Tatarigami (@tatarigami.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 7:57 AM
From The Financial Times: (emphasis mine)
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was still reeling from the most serious domestic political crisis of his presidency — a fierce backlash over a bungled attempt to muzzle Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies — when his phone rang last week. It was Donald Trump.
The US president was telephoning to brief the Ukrainian leader, and European counterparts who joined the group call, on a meeting that had just wrapped up in Moscow.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff had met with the man who had launched against Ukraine the bloodiest war on European soil in generations — Vladimir Putin — with a view to arranging the summit between the Russian and American leaders now set to take place in Alaska on Friday.
Officials present and briefed on the call said that the tone was constructive. The message, however, was confusing. The Ukrainian leader was left wondering what exactly Witkoff and Putin had discussed — and he worried about what might have been promised by Witkoff to Russia’s leader in exchange for ending his invasion of Ukraine.
According to those officials, Trump said that Putin had told Witkoff he would agree to a ceasefire if Ukraine agreed to withdraw all troops from its eastern Donetsk region. There was more confusion around what was said regarding the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which Russian forces partly occupy in southern Ukraine and are now enshrined in Russia’s constitution as part of the country.
Trump said there would be “land swaps” involved. But Ukraine does not occupy more than a sliver of Russian territory since its forces were pushed out of the Kursk region this spring, and so has little to exchange. And the idea of ceding land to Moscow — especially that which its invading army does not currently occupy — is a firm Ukrainian red line.
Moscow, for its part, has since said it would not give up any of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. “The territorial integrity of Russia is bound in our country’s constitution,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
Kyiv and its European allies have launched a high-stakes effort to shape talks from which they will be conspicuously excluded. Their goal is to avoid a nightmarish scenario for Ukraine: being forced into what it sees as an unfair and possibly unsustainable deal or being blamed and punished by the US for resisting an agreement.
For Zelenskyy, it is the biggest diplomatic challenge of his six years in office. He will be stuck outside the Alaskan room where decisions on Ukraine’s fate could be made by the man who invaded his country and the man once impeached over dealings with it.
He will have to face it at a time when his domestic standing has been seriously damaged and as Ukraine’s thinly stretched defensive lines are struggling to prevent a breach by Russian forces from expanding into a disastrous breakthrough.
“This is a moment of maximum pressure,” says Balázs Jarábik, a former EU diplomat who was based in Kyiv and is now an analyst with R.Politik. “My assumption is the Americans are aware this is a moment of weakness for Zelenskyy and they’re using it when they most need it.”
“The situation on the front line is developing poorly ahead of the meeting and could be used by Putin to paint Ukraine as being in an overly desperate position in talks with Trump, as he has done in the past,” says Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Zelenskyy’s most difficult challenge will be winning over Trump with a counter-narrative.
This week’s hastily organised summit in Alaska between the US and Russian presidents blindsided Kyiv and underscored the shakiness of American support.
Relations between Trump and Zelenskyy remain strained since the Oval Office bust-up between the pair. During a press conference in Washington on Monday, Trump said he “very severely disagree[s]” with Zelenskyy’s position on the war.
More at the link.
Ukraine is now fighting Putin and Russia’s genocidal re-invasion on the battlefield and the Trump administration seeking to give away significant portions of Ukraine as part of a misguided attempt to do a deal with Putin because Trump has had a Putin fixation for decades.
Kupyansk, Kharkiv Oblast:
❗️ In its ongoing #HumanSafari, russia targeted a civilian car in Kharkiv’s Kupiansk district with an FPV drone. Two people were killed. Another wounded.
— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Yenakieve, Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:
Something is detonating beatifuly in occupied Yenakieve🤌💥
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 4:16 PM
The Black Sea:
Russian propaganda blogger Fighterbomber, connect to russian aviation, confirmed the loss of aircraft
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Kyiv:
Bolide meteor seen over Kyiv.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Volgograd Oblast, Russia:
Oil refinery in Volgograd, Russia, is on fire for some reason 👀🔥
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 6:21 AM
🔥🛢️/1. Russian Volgograd oil refinery was targeted tonight. Strong fires began on the territory of the oil refinery and continue to this moment.
Volgograd oil refinery has the capacity of 14,5 million tons of oil per year.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 12:11 AM
/2. Volgograd oil refinery on FIRMS after the attack.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 12:11 AM
/3. Footages of fire on the territory of Volgograd oil refinery filmed by locals.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 12:12 AM
/4. Volgograd oil refinery still smoking heavily in the morning.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 12:13 AM
/5. Fire on the territory of Volgograd oil refinery
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Belgorod Oblast, Russia:
Russian channels are posting footage of the moment a UAV struck the “Belgorod Arena.” Drone attacks on Belgorod are ongoing.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Rostov on Don, Russia:
Moment Ukrainian Aeroprakt A-22 Foxbat attack drone hits apartment block in Rostov-on-Don in Russia caught on video. Flying erratically, it appears to have been brought down by Russian electronic warfare jamming.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Explosion in Rostov-on-Don in Russia – the roof section of an apartment block was reportedly hit by a drone, with the explosion causing damage to several upper-floor balconies. Reports say 5 injured – 3 building residents, 2 passers-by. Missile alert in effect in city.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) August 14, 2025 at 3:46 AM
That’s enough for tonight.
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Open thread!
catclub
it is amazing to realize that Putin is more delusional about Ukraine than Trump is about Putin.
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: High on his own supply.
John Revolta
He’s gonna give Trump (and us) the Tucker Carlson treatment which will completely bowl Trump over.
“Listening exercise” indeed
Gin & Tonic
@catclub: It is not just Putin. It is a very large majority of the population and the entirety of the political leadership.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
I don’t understand how the US can give away anything. It’s offensive and a throwback to colonialism. The EU issued a statement supporting Ukraine sovereignty. I hope they back that up. Clearly, we are a lost cause as long as Trump is in office and the current GOP rules Congress.
Thank you, Adam, as always, for your dedication in we these posts.
Westyny
Thank you, Adam.
Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom
Never mind all the talking. Europe needs to make its feelings known by sending all the weapons to Ukraine. That is the “statement” needed .
Thank you Adam. Get some sleep.
wjca
“Listening exercise” meaning Trump will listen, be totally taken in, and end up doing whatever Putin wants. The only question is whether Trump will find a way to give Putin, in addition, something that he hasn’t even asked for.
Aziz, light!
I’m sure Putin has explained to Trump that Alaska is an artificial state that is actually Russian territory. Trump didn’t have to offer him Alaska’s natural resources because he already owns them.
AlaskaReader
Thanks Adam
Jay
Thank you, Adam.