Davide Maria De Luca

«If being on the left means prioritizing the consequences for the most vulnerable - whoever and wherever they are - then the merits of any conflict must be weighed against its broader impact. In a globalized world, few wars remain local; their costs are borne by everyone, with the heaviest burden falling on the poorest living in the poorest nations. Both the war in Ukraine and, especially, the one in Iran had been immensely costly for less developed countries. While in Europe people worry about a 20-cent rise in gasoline, in parts of Asia fuel is already being rationed, and people are losing jobs and livelihoods. It is a bitter irony that defending the Third World from imperial aggression often ends up forcing the oppressed to pay the price». (Link in the first comment👇)

The report is largely about incidents with small drones around airports. Just in Romania, large, war-made drones crossed into the national airspace around 30 times since 2022 and they found 48 wreckages. In any case, I was wondering why do you think this last one was Russian, in particular

@DM_Deluca x.com/battleforeurop…

What we are witnessing is simply the continuation of the NATO proxy war strategy of deliberately provoking Russia into reacting so as to justify further NATO provocations/reactions and thus a state of permanent militarisation. First they deliberately provoked Russia into invading Ukraine; then, for the past two years, by systematically striking deep into Russian territory, they’ve been trying to provoke Russia into counter-escalating against NATO, which Russia so far has refused to do. Which is they’ve had to manufacture countless cases of fake “Russian drone incursions”. Now that (maybe) an actual Russian drone has fallen in Romania, they pretend to be shocked and appalled — while no doubt rejoicing in private that their strategy is finally bearing fruit.

Good point. Too many 'anonymous sources' in that report. And anonymous sources can say pretty much what they want without any public accountability as to accuracy. And methods might differ, but *all* sides are seeking to influence the vote.

‘So the next time you see a mad tweet insulting world leaders, inciting racial hatred, or threatening the West — again — with nuclear annihilation, it is best to ignore it. Medvedev is not an avenue for cunning strategic communications from the Kremlin. His ravings are the result of his fear, frustrations and his wounded ego. There is less to him than meets the eye’. Wrote this last year. Still stands. Medvedev Doesn’t Matter. Stop Acting Like He Does. themoscowtimes.com/2025/08/08/med…

RT @paolomossetti: Stefano Cappellini, vicedirettore di Repubblica, nel difendere De Luca non sorprendentemente ne sposa la logica ricattat…

Shashank picked up on my idea of the "Belloc syndrome" that our vision of the future of warfare in the US and Europe, built on accelerated kill chains, masses of networked manned and unmanned systems, multi-domain operations, information superiority and the rest, triggers: "Whatever happens, we have got the Maxim gun, and they have not." Our belief in inherent technological and tactical superiority convinces us that we are going to win no matter what and lets us lose operational art (which I doubt AI decision-support tools will replace any time soon) and the ability to fight successfully at the operational level of war, meaning the ability to conduct a campaign that goes beyond working down target sets and to link that campaign to successful war termination at the strategic and political level. It does so because our technologically driven understanding of warfare creates the illusion that there are no or perhaps fewer tradeoffs to prioritise and no need to solidly define clear objectives, which is what strategy is actually about.

Oggi ha fatto fumare soprattutto gli ucraini

@LandingMark Catherine Ashton!

@DM_Deluca And people complained about Solana and Mogherini...

I first thought that Kallas’s comment on the Americans leaving Kyiv’s embassy was due to some discreet movement of staff to a safer part of the country, and that she wasn’t completely mistaken. But no, apparently she misinterpreted something the Ukrainian foreign minister told her yesterday and didn’t check the facts with the Americans or even the EEAS staff in Ukraine before lashing out this morning.

(Which begs the question: Is she still even on speaking terms with her own staff?)

@ianinnorway Few, most are skeptical that a negotiated solution could be achieved right now, and many governments fear internal split of their coalition if they lean to hard on negotiations right now

@DM_Deluca Which European countries, besides Slovakia, show willingness to, realistically, negotiate?

I don’t think that’s sabotage. Kallas has no power to stop or slow down the big EU countries if they decide to try to negotiate. I think that’s just posturing and positioning. She’s playing a part in a political theater which is mostly detached from the actual war. That’s why she’s a not a true “hawk”. You won’t hear Kallas arguing for deploying EU troops in Ukraine or to spend 1% of the union to defeat Russia now (and not in some future war after an improbable EU rearmament)

There's a lot of talk about Russian meddling in Armenia's election and certainly Putin has vaguely indicated his sympathy for pro-Russian opposition, but here you have the president of the United States openly endorsing Pashinyan for re-election. How's that for foreign meddling?

This chart illustrates Russian net territorial gains since September 2025. The data indicate that the pace of Russian territorial expansion has slowed considerably since the Ukrainian counteroffensive activity in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in February, while a substantial portion of Russian gains since the beginning of 2026 has occurred in the relatively lightly defended areas of Sumy Oblast. Two important caveats should be noted. Firstly, Russian forces have recently regained some territory previously lost in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, particularly over the past month. Secondly, Russia’s operational centre of gravity remains concentrated along the Kostiantynivka–Kramatorsk–Slovyansk axis, where Russian forces continue conducting gradual but persistent offensive operations.

There's an increasingly visible rift among Russian experts over the war in Ukraine: Some say it must continue, others say its goals can no longer be achieved It manifested at the assembly of Russia's Council for Foreign & Defense Policy last weekend: svop.ru/news/65778/ /1

Tony Blair: Wow, get a load of AI. We should probably cut welfare somewhat. Also, we should be involved in the Iran War for some reason. Broadsheet columnist: Say what you like about the man, but the sophistication of his analysis is unparalleled.

From Italy, this intellectual and political disaster looks somewhat comforting. It wasn’t just us. It’s a European malady and nobody has any idea how to get out of it

@PvPmedievalist Ma guarda, partendo da questi fatti oggettivi, io del panorama mediatico ucraino in generale sono sempre pronto a parlare in un lungo e in largo

@DM_Deluca Giusto, però non è un outlet di quelli "significativi". È una voce estremamente minoritaria nel panorama mediatico ucraino. Direi che è l'eccezione, non la regola. Che poi l'eccezione lì ci sia, è assolutamente vero.

A key article showing how, even after more than four years of brutal war, Ukraine's system remains fundamentally different from Russia's

@PvPmedievalist Sì, il punto che voglio fare e proprio questo. Le opposte propagande esistono, con la differenza fondamentale che un articolo del genere - e molti altri - dall'altra parte è impossibile trovarlo

@DM_Deluca 2/2 Non mi pare granché diverso da quello che succede dall'altra parte quando sono i civili ucraini a morire, compreso l'uso propagandistico di queste morti. A meno che tu non intendessi dire che nonostante i quattro anni eccetera, ci sono media ucraini che si pongono il problema

@mrSatias Are you equating "fundamentally different from Russia" to "oh so great"? T

How do you go from an obvious Ukraine's war crime to praising Ukrainian media, when in our previous discussion you were so adamant about not bombing anything in densely populated areas?? How do you make this about "oh so great Ukrainian media", when it is about a tiny outlet that nobody even knows?