Bottled Diplomacy

Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter pilot Air Davy shared footage of people in Kharkiv Oblast waving to him as he flew past on his way back from a combat mission in Donetsk Oblast.

Trump admin goes for the all-time record breaking level of bullshit in attemot to appease their Russian master, now saying that Ukraine kidnaps Russian kids.. Insane.

A large, carefully planned Russian propaganda operation appears to be underway. Having starved people in the town of Oleshky for months, Russia, withe US help, will now "liberate" it. Source.

Julian Assange sides with pro russian contrarian-bros.

I think Russian propaganda in Italy is winning hands down and that we’re vastly underestimating the problem. Today, in all the squares, the same slogans could be heard: “No to war,” “No to rearmament,” “Get Italy out of the war.” Let’s remember that not a single euro has been taken from schools to fund rearmament or war. And besides, what war are we even talking about? The war of a country defending itself from an aggression? What on earth are we discussing? And yet people are protesting precisely about this. In the most extreme cases, it even gets to the point of justifying violence with these very arguments. How can anyone think Russia has nothing to do with it? Who spent billions, using the most underhanded methods too, to plant certain ideas in people’s heads? If we keep going like this, things are only going to get worse.

This is how German police deal with rioters and restore order. French police should take notes.

Finland’s Nokia and ICEYE Challenge Starlink with a Satellite Broadband Initiative to Support Ukraine Finnish companies ICEYE and Nokia are exploring ways to address Ukraine’s satellite communications needs by developing an independent space-based broadband system. The initiative could provide Ukraine with an alternative to Starlink and strengthen its communications resilience.

Here is an article from 2019, Very funny to look at hindsight but also a reminder that despite it being true Zelenskyy was relatively soft on Russia compared to Poroshenko, Putin still decided to invade nevertheless.

A wild story: the CEO of a US energy company whose plans were discussed during the Witkoff-Kushner-Putin negotiations resigns. Why? He learned that his company's main investor is a sanctioned Russian company, not the UAE

Mark Carney on Elon Musk throttling Starlink: "I search for the right adjective to describe whoever took this decision or group of people took this decision against a country that is literally fighting for the lives of the citizens against naked aggression."

Oryol, more than 30 people are missing. Proton plant is on fire. The Ministry of Emergency Situations cannot begin recovering the bodies until the flames are extinguished.

Day 12 1072 of a 3 day special military operation. Storm Shadows hitting Proton factory in Orel. Balloons with explosives spotted over Moscow.

Several Storm Shadow missiles destroyed Proton mil tech factory in Russian Orel. Adding a video of how it looked inside before being denazified.

The US new peace plan to end the war in Ukraine has been revealed: -A demilitarised zone will be created along the current frontline or when the fighting for the Donbas has concluded. -Trilateral negotiations will start between Ukraine, Russia and the US to end the war. -Ukraine will drop NATO bid and in return will be given investments and EU integration. -Many sanctions will be lifted on Russia and US investment will take place, as well as the west and Europe normalising relations with Russia. -Potential restart of Nord Steam gas pipeline into Europe supplying energy.

RIP Tom Skerritt

Trump's America has now joined the exclusive club of countries that have blocked or obstructed independent international election observation. Other members include Russia, Belarus, Georgia and Tajikistan.

“when Kushner used the phone, they could see his screen. Almost as soon as they got inside, the [Dutch] intelligence service began capturing every image of Kushner’s screen as he used it, filing their own cache of surveillance on their internal computer servers.”

The GRU hacked into Jared Kushner's iPhone. Dutch military intelligence (MIVD) then recruited a GRU spy who gave them access to the hacked phone. What MIVD discovered was that Kushner had access to two bank accounts --one Azerbaijani, the other Israeli --where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Emirati ruler Mohammed bin Zayed deposited money. It sounds like a slightly far-fetched episode of "Slow Horses," but it's real. And it proves just how eye-poppingly corrupt this administration was and continues to be as its "special envoy" decides the fate of tens of millions in Europe in the Middle East. Simply incredible reporting by Matthew Cole, drawn from his new book on Kushner.

Rosneft deep dive by Bloomberg News Officials at Russia’s largest oil producer are concerned that even a few more months of the war with Ukraine could leave lasting damage across the business. One of Rosneft’s biggest refineries, Ryazan, has been shut for more than half the time since it was first hit by Ukraine in May and has run well below full capacity when operating, according to damage assessments seen by Bloomberg. Another, Syzran, has spent much of the past six months either completely shut or operating at less than a third of capacity, according to data reviewed by Bloomberg. The Tuapse refinery has been offline since April. Ukraine is conducting repeat strikes on the refineries as soon as repairs are completed or nearing completion. The need to repeatedly repair damaged equipment is straining operations and causing costs to pile up to levels that Rosneft officials have privately warned cannot be sustained long-term. Some plants have deliberately slowed repairs as a result, stretching work that should take days into weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Efforts to protect the facilities with shipping containers, nets and steel cables have proved ineffective against swarms of drones, company plans show. The damage is particularly difficult to repair when strikes hit complex secondary units, whose parts would previously have been sourced from the West. It means relying on Russian-made copies and Chinese imports that can take months to obtain and are not always compatible with existing machinery. It’s put Rosneft into financial trouble. Even before the ramping up of Ukraine’s drone campaign, the company saw a “perfect storm” for its finances. Since then, its profits are down and debt is rising despite what should have been a big windfall from the Iran war. Moscow Credit Bank, which is linked to Rosneft, is showing signs of distress with $8 billion of problem loans. It highlights how both Russia’s energy and banking sectors are coming under strain at the same time, a dynamic causing concern to Russian finance officials. All this and much more in the full story here:

Pete Hegseth wanted Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s globe for his office. His staff broke it. They broke Eisenhower’s globe because they didn’t want to wait for a team of specialist historians to move it. I cannot think of a more apt metaphor for Pete Hegseth’s DoD.