Taras Chaban

King Charles reminds Trump and MAGA that NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time after 9/11, when all alliance members came to the aid of the United States. “Today, Mr. Speaker, that same unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people,” the king said, receiving a standing ovation🇺🇸🇬🇧🇺🇦

Ukrainians show how their lives have changed over the past five years. 📷: chorna_lyudmyla / Threads

After the whole internet watched his moves in Moscow, Yanis Varoufakis wrote an explanation. The music was too loud. He didn’t hear the sound of russian drones murdering civilians in my hometown Kherson and everywhere else. He went to Moscow to meet financiers. Technologists. “Journalists.” He calls this civil society. It tells you everything about how little he understands Russia or civil society. He offers the Good Friday Agreement as a model for the Donbas. The audacity is almost impressive. Northern Ireland did not have filtration camps. Its people were not interrogated, and sorted for deportation. Its children were not systematically taken and re-registered as russian. The Good Friday Agreement resolved a political conflict. What russia is conducting in occupied Ukraine has a different name. You do not apply the logic of power-sharing to an active crime scene. You do not call it creativity. You call it what it is. “Stand with Ukraine but not NATO expansion” he wears this like a medal of honor. It is the oldest trick in this particular game: position yourself equidistant, collect the applause of the contrarian, and produce analysis that is, functionally, indistinguishable from Moscow’s own talking points. russia didn’t need him to change his mind. It didn’t need him to endorse the invasion. It just needed him to keep talking. At the end of his piece, he describes surrendering happily to the party atmosphere after presenting his plan to Moscow’s elite. Surrendering happily. His word. While in Ukraine, the dead are running out of places in morgues. Keep dancing, Yanis.

Sanctioned Russians arriving in DC to present another aid package to the Trump family bank accounts in exchange for continuing to cut off and pressure Ukraine into surrendering. European had better wake up.

While the world’s media obsesses over every spit and fart from the White House over Iran, and Trump’s endless commentary on talks and deals and negotiations, the 🇷🇺 🇺🇦 war he said he would solve in 24 hours continues unabated … and in addition to benefiting from the oil price rise and lifting of sanctions Putin has also unleashed the largest 24 hour aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began. Almost 1000 drones. A UNESCO world heritage site hit. A maternity hospital hit. Residential buildings hit. Several killed. Dozens injured. Barely registers on the news. This war must not be forgotten

Don’t look away, @la_Biennale. This is the ugly face of barbaric Russia—destroyed UNESCO World Heritage in the protected center of Lviv. This is the barbarism you wish to normalize at the Biennale. Get real!

My friend Boris Nemtsov was murdered 11 years ago today. He was one of the few who openly challenged Putin, and it cost him his life. 🧵The case was solved just enough to bury it. [1/10]

Alexander Dotsenko and his wife Anastasia Dyudyaeva were jailed for anti-war leaflets in a supermarket. He had a heart attack in a penal colony and died at 65. Today she was denied permission to attend his funeral.

Tonight, I will shine yellow and blue in support of Ukraine. 🇺🇦

Today marks exactly four years since Putin started his three-day push to take Kyiv. And that says a great deal about our resistance, about how Ukraine has fought all this time. Behind those words stand millions of our people, immense courage, incredibly hard work, endurance, and the long path Ukraine has been pursuing since February 24. Looking back at the beginning of the invasion and reflecting on today, we have every right to say: we have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood; Putin has not achieved his goals. He has not broken Ukrainians; he has not won this war. We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to secure peace and justice. Glory to Ukraine!

You can see in the picture a border guard who, exactly four years ago (February 24, 2022, at 3:45 a.m. Romanian/Ukrainian time), is recognized as one of the first Ukrainians to see the russian army invading Ukraine. He and three other border guards were killed immediately after these scenes were captured on surveillance cameras. Location: Kalanchack crossing point, Kherson Oblast. Since then, the world has changed radically because of this war. Somewhere around 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed. Estimates of civilian casualties run into the tens of thousands if we add the massacre in Mariupol, which we can only estimate from images seen from space showing huge mass graves. Thousands of rapes against Ukrainian women, children, and men. Over 20,000 children have been kidnapped from their families in Ukraine and deported to russia. Ten million (read that again) people have been forced to leave their homes. Tens of millions of lives changed, broken, destroyed. Thousands of heroes became martyrs. But hundreds of thousands of ordinary people became heroes. I could tell you volumes about this war. We could talk at length about where we were on that infamous day that will forever remain in history. But after four years of war, the most important thing is that Ukraine is still standing. This is the most important thing from a moral and justice perspective. Morally, from the perspective of good and evil, of victim and aggressor, it is extraordinarily important that good has not been brought to its knees. The terrible evil embodied by Putin and russia has not succeeded in bringing the Ukrainian people to their knees. Today, exactly four years later, most of russia's disinformation campaigns focus on the idea that russia is invincible and relentless in its path to victory. This is a lie. Nothing could be further from the truth. With the help of Europe, (in the first two years) the US and the Coalition of the Willing, Ukraine has resisted. The Ukrainian people have achieved this success that no one would have thought possible. They did so with the sacrifices mentioned above. And they continue to do so. A few days ago, I said that we should not expect peace in 2026, and I firmly maintain my opinion. Today, analyzing Europe's reaction (regardless of Hungary's blockade of the 90 billion aid package), Ukraine's will and courage, and the capabilities and capacities of Ukrainians and russians, I can say with conviction that, barring a betrayal that would cause us all to change our opinion of any rule of common sense that governs this world, Ukraine will withstand this year as well. russia will NOT prevail! And if Europe and the allies in the Coalition of the Willing are willing to show political will, the fate of the war—which russia so desperately wants to paint as sealed with its victory—will change in Ukraine's favor. And I really hope that happens. To repair the initial injustice of 2014 and four years ago and all the injustices and wrongs that have occurred since then. So that we, not just Ukrainians, can regain our confidence that good really does triumph. It is possible! I continue to believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the Ukrainian people, and I hope that in the end I will be able to say that I am truly proud of the European family to which we all belong! Until then, I will support Ukraine, its cause, and that of those like me. Like us. Because it is right. Because it is moral. Because it is just! Slava Ukraini!

A father gently rocks the small coffin of his one-year-old son, who was killed by russians. He is the only survivor. In a single moment, he lost his wife and two young children.

The true "Olympic principle" according to the IOC today is money—and being exploited by authoritarians willing to spread it around. Disqualifying a Ukrainian athlete for a quiet act of remembrance of his murdered fellows aligns with decades of Russian corruption in sport.

Disgusting decision. Shame on the Winter Olympic chiefs.

Never forget

Quick market update: As forced liquidations continue and new margin calls are issued, Bitcoin prices have now plummeted 25% this week alone. The scale and disorderly nature of the sell-off are spilling to crypto-adjacent assets and also beyond. #markets #crypto #bitcoin

Another element that makes sense if you operate on the assumption that Trump's goal is to help Russia destroy Ukraine and make profitable deals with Putin.

I am a Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. I have a question.  Why has Trump's year of negotiations been the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion? The number of deaths and injuries has increased by 31 percent compared to the previous year. Why did Putin not allow himself such brutal strikes on civilian infrastructure under Biden, whom Trump calls “weak,” but totally destroys peaceful cities and disregards the “strong Trump”? Photo Liz Landers

Stop standing with Ukraine and start fighting with Ukraine! Cut off Russia's ability to fund its war machine and give Ukraine the weapons it needs to defend itself. Both of these things could be done today and save countless innocent lives. Instead, more talk.

Lord Mandelson gave Jeffrey Epstein advance notice of a €500bn bailout to save the Euro He messaged Epstein about the bailout on the evening of May 9, 2010 It was formally announced the following morning