I know that Rose covered the big news from this morning, which is good because I don’t want to have to do so. I will just say that this kind of sloppiness is unlikely to be a one off. The question that has to be asked is how many more times has this happened over the past two months and who other than Goldberg ended up getting highly classified information from Trump’s senior natsec team?
The Russians unloaded on Sumy today.
Russia attacked Sumy with missiles just now!
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Russia just bombed a school and several apartment building in Sumy, as their delegation negotiates “peace.”
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 12:15 PM
UPD Sumy. The number of injured in russian missile attack has risen to 74.
— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 11:00 AM
14 children injured in Sumy in Russian missile attack. This is Russia’s “negotiations.”
— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Sumy right now‼️
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
The War Was Brought from Russia, and It Is to Russia That the War Must Be Pushed Back. They Must Be the Ones Forced Into Peace – Address by the President
24 March 2025 – 20:49
Dear Ukrainians!
The key takeaways from this day. Right now in Sumy, a rescue operation is still ongoing. All services are involved – Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, National Police, our medical and municipal services. There are many injured – as of now, reports confirm nearly 90 people injured, including 17 children. At the epicenter of the attack were a school and residential buildings. Fortunately, the children at the school were in shelter. I am grateful to everyone helping the people and to all those saving the lives of Ukrainians. Each day like this, every night under Russian missiles and drones, every single day of this war brings loss, pain, and destruction that Ukraine never wanted. The war was brought from Russia, and it is to Russia that the war must be pushed back. They must be the ones forced into peace. They are the ones who must be pressured to ensure security. Thank you to everyone who is helping us in this. Thank you to all who are working for the security of Ukraine, for the protection of our people, and for the defense of our cities.
I held a Staff meeting today – various issues were discussed. In particular, the training of our warriors and the modernization of that training. There was a report from General Oleh Apostol, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, on the changes in training – including the implementation of modern methodologies. We also reviewed training programs, psychological support, information support, and cooperation with partners. There are certain issues that need to be addressed. There was also a report on the 18-24 contract program, including the first results. We will be expanding it – I was at the front on Saturday, there is a demand from specific brigades. We will respond positively to that demand – more brigades will be able to take in young volunteers. This experience should also be extended to the National Guard of Ukraine and Border Guard units. All effective units within the Defense Forces must be given every opportunity to develop and enhance the potential of our country and our resilience.Today, we also held meetings focused on diplomatic efforts. I recently spoke with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. Yesterday, there was a meeting with the U.S. team. Today, U.S. representatives spoke with the war team – that is, with representatives of Russia. After that, another meeting took place between the Ukrainian and American teams. I’m expecting a new report. What we need is movement toward real peace – toward guaranteed security. And this is something we all need – in Ukraine, in Europe, in America, and across the world – everyone who wants stability in international relations. Russia remains the only actor dragging this war out, jeering at both our people and the global community. To push Russia toward peace, we need strong moves and strong actions. We are ready to support every strong initiative that can make diplomacy more effective – and that means applying pressure to force Russia to want to end this war. That means sanctions. That means support for Ukraine. That means international coordination. This week, we are also preparing substantive work with our European partners on concrete security steps – joint security steps. A significant part of Europe is ready for concrete security work – and that’s a good thing. I thank everyone who stands with Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
Georgia:
Protests continue in Georgia.
Day 117.
#GeorgiaProtests
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Day 117. You can help us avoid whatever costs can be avoided by targeted sanctions and calls for new, free and fair Parliamentary elections, because things won’t just “stabilize” in Georgia, we won’t stop – and because Georgia is what Russia plans for Ukraine. #GeorgiaProtests
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 1:29 PM
“For nearly 3 months, the people of Georgia have been protesting in favour of a future in the EU & against the course of the Georgian leadership. They continue to face intimidation, arrests & violence” – stated in a statement released by the German Foreign Ministry.
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Jonathan is amazing! It was my pleasure!
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 5:02 PM
The so-called Supreme Court of the Russian-occupied Donetsk region has sentenced Georgian fighter in Ukraine, Nadim Khmaladze, in absentia to 14 years in prison in a strict regime colony.
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Moscow on the Potomac with a detour through Brasil:
Glenn Greenwald, Tucker Carlson & Alexander Dugin. “This is not just eccentric provocation by MAGA attention-seekers; it is a window into a serious, philosophical concordance that is emerging between parts of the American and Russian right.” www.economist.com/united-state…
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 6:52 AM
‘Mr Bannon “has been arguing that the United States and Russia are both Christian and nationalist in their essence,” says Mr Teitelbaum. He argues this is a prelude to a new Republican conception of American identity based on rootedness and peoplehood’ www.economist.com/united-state…
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 6:54 AM
From The Economist:
Russophilia was once an affliction of the American left, of socialists who made excuses for Stalinism or Soviet totalitarianism. No longer. One month ago, Glenn Greenwald, a heterodox American journalist once lionised by the left and now admired by the conspiratorial right, dropped by Moscow to absorb the wisdom of Alexander Dugin, a prominent, anti-liberal Russian thinker sometimes likened to “Putin’s Rasputin”.
During his trip to Moscow a year ago to film a sympathetic interview with Vladimir Putin, Tucker Carlson, an influential MAGA media personality, visited Mr Dugin, too, and found him irresistible. “We were having a conversation that we were not going to film…but what you said was so interesting that we got a couple of cameras and put this together,” he gushed at the start of their interview, and nodded enthusiastically as Mr Dugin lambasted the failures of liberalism and the excesses of wokeness. This is not just eccentric provocation by MAGA attention-seekers; it is a window into a serious, philosophical concordance that is emerging between parts of the American and Russian right.
The most obvious alignment is over geopolitics, especially the position of Ukraine. The hardline MAGA right objected to Joe Biden’s military aid not just out of partisan instinct but also because they believe Ukraine ought to have been more accommodating of its regional superpower. Just as America gets to dictate terms within its sphere of influence, to Canada over trade or to Panama over its canal, Russia has rights over Ukraine, this thinking goes. Adherents of America First are realists, not idealists like their neoconservative predecessors. They see foreign interventionism as futile adventurism. Their view of the world is multipolar, as is Mr Dugin’s.
But Mr Dugin’s contempt for Ukraine runs deeper. His most famous work published in 1997, “The Foundations of Geopolitics”, advocates for “Eurasianism”—the idea of a restored, great new Russia that straddles both Asia and Europe. He argued that Ukraine was a “huge danger” to this project. He elaborated: “Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning. It has neither a special cultural message of universal significance, nor geographic uniqueness, nor ethnic exclusivity.” During Mr Putin’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, Mr Dugin’s enthusiasm for conquering Ukraine reached such excessive heights that he lost his appointment at the prestigious Moscow State University. His Rasputin-like reputation therefore seems overblown, though he still works as a kind of international ambassador to illiberal right-wing movements. An assassination attempt in 2022—via car bomb, believed to be planted by agents of Ukraine, which killed his daughter—has amplified Mr Dugin’s prominence.
The alignment with MAGA involves more than geopolitics. The ideas that have emerged to justify the governance of Mr Trump and Mr Putin—neither of whom are renowned philosophers—bear striking resemblances. Within the West, the international coalition of nationalist conservatives, stretching from Trumpism in America to bolsonarismo in Brazil to Orbanism in Hungary, rejects the basic precepts of enlightenment liberalism, like individualism and the universality of human rights.
The alignment with MAGA involves more than geopolitics. The ideas that have emerged to justify the governance of Mr Trump and Mr Putin—neither of whom are renowned philosophers—bear striking resemblances. Within the West, the international coalition of nationalist conservatives, stretching from Trumpism in America to bolsonarismo in Brazil to Orbanism in Hungary, rejects the basic precepts of enlightenment liberalism, like individualism and the universality of human rights.
This critique is shared by Russian justifiers of Mr Putin, who see an alliance against the decadence and depravity of liberalism. They disdain globalism and wokeness, which they see as the logical endpoint of Western liberalism. To prevent global hegemony of any kind, national conservatives in America, France, Hungary and Italy argue that the sovereignty of the nation-state must be supreme. Whereas Mr Dugin once argued that Russia ought to create an axis with Germany and Japan (“dismembering” China in the process) to stand up to American hegemony, he now recognises that such efforts are unnecessary. “Each day it becomes more and more evident that USA and Russia are on the same wave, but EU-globalists are on the opposite one,” he wrote recently on X.
You might think there would be irreconcilable differences between the MAGA and Russian right, since Mr Dugin is straightforward in his advocacy for an authoritarian state unified with the Orthodox Church, even suggesting the restoration of the oprichniki, the tsarist secret police established by Ivan the Terrible. “Should we not recognise autocracy, patriarchy and the authoritarian system not only de facto, but also de jure? Shouldn’t the Church and the institutions of traditional society regain their dominant position in society?” he wrote in 2022. The nationalist conservative movement in America and Europe, however, is couched in majoritarian populism—expressing the democratic will of people while imposing ever-fewer limits on the authority of their elected representatives. In America the goal is to smash the liberal state.
“In the Russian case, the state is the embodiment of the nation. It’s not the case in the us. Trump is dismantling the federal state; Putin’s goal is to reinforce the state,” says Marlene Laruelle, a professor at George Washington University.
In this respect, the Russian political right does not represent the mainstream of the Trumpist intellectual right. Yet some of its ideas resonate with fringier figures. One strain of right-wing, post-liberal thought in America is integralism. Its adherents argue for the unification of the Catholic church with the state. Some, like Patrick Deneen, a critic of liberalism and professor at Notre Dame University, argue for “aristopopulism”—replacement of rule of the current, decadent elite with a different elite with the right politics.
American thinkers affiliated with the so-called “Dark Enlightenment” or “neo-reactionary movement” are more straightforward in arguing against egalitarianism and democracy. Curtis Yarvin, one such thinker, has called for an American monarchy that would be run by a dictator-president, a figure sometimes referred to more politely as a “national CEO”. Vice-President J.D. Vance has approvingly cited Mr Yarvin’s work, though not the monarchic aspects of his outlook. Recently Mr Vance greeted him at a party by saying, in jest, “Yarvin, you reactionary fascist!”
There are other discordances, too. Western national conservatives aim to defend the nation-state from globalism, whereas the sacred object for Mr Dugin (and Mr Putin) is the Russian civilisation-state, which transcends Westphalian borders. “They describe me as ultranationalist, but I am not nationalist at all!” Mr Dugin told Mr Greenwald in his interview.
More at the link.
Oleksandr Merezhko, head of Ukraine’s Foreign Policy Committee, called for U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff’s recall, labeling his remarks on referendums in Russian-occupied areas “disgraceful.” Merezhko accused Witkoff of echoing Russian propaganda, questioning if he represents Trump or Putin.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Back to Ukraine.
The cost:
Russian captivity kills! Red Cross neglects their duty before Ukrainian prisoners held in russian captivity, failing to provide protection, any help whatsoever, or even visit them.
On the picture is Ivan Petrovsky. He spent 1037 days in russian captivity and lost 40 kg.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Marusya is 7 years old and from Dnipro
— Sofia (@sofiaukraini.bsky.social) March 20, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Despite their own intelligence, American officials began to take Putin at his word. Russia was able to influence some people from Trump’s team: they told them that Ukrainians do not want the war to end and we must be forced to- Volodymyr Zelenskyy for TIME.
— Vitalis Viva (@vitalisviva.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 9:23 AM
From Time:
early six years have passed since Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine, yet he still cringes at all the polished brass and chandeliers that crowd his office. The place does seem rather gaudy, like a room plucked straight from Mar-a-Lago, and Zelensky can’t seem to stop apologizing for it as he shows me around one evening in March. He would rather scrap the furniture, he says, rip down the pilasters, and use white paint to hide the gold leaf on the ceiling.
“But, you know, we haven’t had much time for renovations, especially these last few years,” he says, referring to the war. Only in the back of his chambers, behind Ukraine’s version of the Resolute Desk, is there a space that feels like home to Zelensky—a small room with a single bed and a set of paintings that he chose himself. They are not museum pieces. At the local bazaar, similar ones might fetch a few hundred dollars at most. But they matter to the president because of what they represent.
The one that hangs above his bed shows a Russian warship sinking into the Black Sea. Another shows Ukrainian troops fighting recently on Russian territory. The third, Zelensky’s favorite, shows the Kremlin engulfed in flames. “Each one’s about victory,” he says as we cram into the space for a look at the pictures. “That’s where I live.”
But he did not invite me over for a tour. His basic aim, as far as I could tell, was to clear the air after his recent visit to the Oval Office, the one that became a viral sensation for the world and a source of trepidation for his country. For several interminable minutes on the morning of Feb. 28, President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance had berated Zelensky, calling him ungrateful, weak and dangerous while talking over his attempts to argue back. “You don’t hold the cards,” Trump told Zelensky. “You’re gambling with World War III!”
On the advice of people he trusts, Zelensky has mostly avoided talking about the episode, not wanting to deepen a diplomatic crisis that had threatened to cost him nothing less than his country’s existence. His standard answer to questions about it has been, “Let’s leave that to history.” Even now, he hopes to turn the page and move on. But his instincts rarely allow him to keep quiet for long about the things that bother him, which is partly what got him into trouble with Trump.
Going into that meeting, Zelensky says, he had it all planned out. He had been to the White House a handful of times during the war. But this would be his first sit-down with Trump in the Oval Office, and it would mark a critical point in Trump’s effort to force a peace deal in Ukraine. To make an impression, Zelensky decided to bring a set of gifts. Their aim was to break through any ill will the U.S. President felt toward Ukraine, and to dispel what Zelensky believed was the influence of Russian propaganda on the White House.
One of the gifts fit with an emerging tradition of the Trump era, in which guests bring shiny tokens of their respect and fealty. In a recent example, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, gave Trump a golden pager, commemorating the explosive devices Israel used to kill or injure thousands of its enemies last year in Lebanon. Vladimir Putin went further than that, commissioning an oil painting of Trump and sending it this month to the White House. In Zelensky’s case, the gift was even glitzier: the championship belt of his friend Oleksandr Usyk, who holds the world heavyweight boxing title.
As he took his seat in the Oval Office, Zelensky placed the belt on a side table near his right elbow, planning to reach over and hand it to Trump in front of the assembled journalists. Instead, as the televised briefing began, Zelensky reached for another one of his gifts. It was a folder containing a series of gruesome photographs, showing Ukrainian prisoners of war after their time in Russian captivity. Some of their bodies were grotesquely emaciated. Others showed signs of torture. “That’s tough stuff,” Trump said, his face leaden, as he took the photos from Zelensky and began leafing through them.
Those pictures, according to some U.S. officials, marked the point when the meeting went wrong. Had Zelensky offered the championship belt, the gesture might have lightened the mood. The photos had the opposite effect. They seemed to get Trump’s guard up, as though he were being blamed for the suffering of those soldiers. Still, even today, Zelensky does not regret his decision to present these images. He had been trying to reach beyond Trump’s transactional instincts, beyond his need for flattery, and appeal to Trump as a human being. “He has family, loved ones, children. He has to feel the things that every person feels,” Zelensky says. “What I wanted to show were my values. But then, well, the conversation went in another direction.”
Among the most painful exchanges in the Oval Office meeting took place near the end, when Zelensky asked whether J.D. Vance had visited Ukraine during the war. They both knew he had not, and Vance shot back that he had no interest in Zelensky’s “propaganda tours.”
The insult must have stung. Throughout the invasion, it has been the policy of Ukraine to encourage guests to see its destruction up close. Zelensky often brings visitors to hospitals full of wounded soldiers, ruins caused by missile strikes, or mass graves that Russian forces leave behind. Envoys from the White House have made a point of avoiding such excursions since Trump took office in January. But Zelensky remains committed to their value in diplomacy, and his team invited me to take such a trip on the day of our interview.
Much more at the link.
Ukrainian tennis star Marta Kostyuk wraps up her victory over russian Anna Blinkova at the Miami Open today with an underarm ace serve💥
— Sofia (@sofiaukraini.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 7:28 AM
A drone operator from the Czech Republic is destroying Russians.
“We all enjoy it when we eliminate Russians – one arm goes one way, everything else goes the other.” – says Karolína, a UAV operator from the 59th Assault Brigade.
youtu.be/Op3noVfgnY8?…— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Kharkiv:
In Kharkiv, russian drone just landed on the children’s playground.
Thankfully, it didn’t detonate.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Kyiv:
Kyiv Patrol Police showed the first moments after drone debris hit a high-rise building on March 23.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Nadia, Russian occupied Luhansk Oblast:
Democratic Ukraine could defeat fascist Russia if the West gave it full military support and imposed (and enforced) more damaging sanctions on the Kremlin.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 5:28 AM
Somewhere in Russia:
Several Ukrainian drones successfully reached the Russian ammunition depot.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Primorsky Krai:
Russians report a crash of a Su-25: “A Su-25 crashed in Primorsky Krai (Russia). Preliminary cause: engine failure. The pilot ejected. He is alive and well.”
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Belgorod Oblast, Russia:
🚀HIMARS missiles with 180,000 tungsten carbide balls strike on the Russian military helicopters in the Belgorod region of Russia.
🚁Two Russian Ka-52 and two Mi-8 helicopters were targeted. t.me/ukr_sof/1518
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Obligatory:
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
There are no new Patron skeets or videos today. Here is some adjacent material.
When we see these eyes, we have no choice but to help. #DogsOfUkraine 🇺🇦
— Nate Mook (@natemook.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Open thread!
