Martin Smith

Zelenskyy: Lukashenko said it's time for the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus to meet. Interesting result — Lukashenko spoke, but Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya showed up. Welcome, Sviatlana. 1/

It’s the traditional playbook. Both the XVIII century partitions of Poland and the September 1939 Soviet invasion in collaboration with Nazi Germany used the same pretext. Just at the time when the Soviet Union was murdering millions of its own citizens in the purges, the GULAG and the Holodomor.

Ukraine is too petty for a Sacred War. But we are not fighting Ukraine, and haven't been since Boris Johnson's fateful intervention in 2022. We are fighting the whole of Europe. Our stakes are existential.

Russia’s drone and missile strikes on Dnipro, Ukraine are the latest in a series of attacks on the country amid Russia's ongoing war of aggression. The strikes, which happened earlier today, injured at least 18 people. Among them were children. The attacks hit civilian buildings and set them alight, causing firefighters to attend the scene. Last week, Russia carried out one of its largest aerial attacks yet on Ukraine, involving over 1,500 long-range drones and missiles. In Kyiv alone, one Russian strike on a residential building killed at least 24 people including children, as rescuers cleared the rubble. Across the city, dozens of civilians were injured and residential buildings were damaged. Earlier that day, other Ukrainian cities, including Rivne and Ivano-Frankivsk, were also under attack, with civilians killed and injured there as well. A UN vehicle carrying aid to Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson was also struck last week, followed by another hit while the delivery was underway. Amnesty International has documented numerous war crimes and other crimes under international law committed by Russian forces since the beginning of its war of aggression against Ukraine. This includes deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. These are crimes under international law. Russia’s aggression must be stopped, and civilians in Ukraine must be protected.

The more striking thing from this is that more current Tory voters voted to Remain than Leave the EU: as they have shed votes to Reform the party is now not only less Leave than 2019 Johnson coalition, but also more Remain voting than those who voted for Cameron in 2015.

Some people talked about reducing net migration, I did something about reducing net migration.

A reminder that Russia is waging a terrorist war on Ukraine, and a reminder that standing by and watching are the richest nations on Earth, controlling the most powerful military alliance in history, an alliance created specifically to stop Russia in Europe. Sickening.