needfreedom

Did you know? The longest sniper kill ever to be recorded was done by a 58 year old Ukrainian. Viacheslav Kovalskyi in 2023. The Orc fell down from a shot 3540m away! He was a business man before the war. With no combat record. He broke the record previously held by a Canadian 🫡

Salvini just showed up at the Russian pavilion at the Biennale & openly declared his love for Russian culture. The Russians have now got exactly what they wanted from Venice. They didn’t come here for art, they came for propaganda.

@yasminalombaert Putin owns him, I figure. I recall when he was shot, and wondered whether that was a warning.

“I never say one thing in private and another in public... I am an opponent of creating a sort of new Iron Curtain." — Robert Fico, auditioning for the role of putin’s new Trojan Horse. Watch Fico explain why being putin’s remaining bestie is actually just "sovereign foreign policy”. “Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, First and foremost, on behalf of the entire Slovak delegation, I would like to thank you for the welcome and the hospitality. The traditional Russian hospitality. Allow me, on behalf of the Government of the Slovak Republic and the present Slovak delegation, to congratulate you on your most significant national holiday—Victory Day. And it is an honor for me to be here in the Russian Federation for the celebrations of this important day. Mr. President, history binds us remarkably together, and I refuse the distortion of historical facts, just as I refuse to abandon the idea of a sovereign Slovak foreign policy—one oriented toward anyone interested in normal, standard, and friendly relations with the Slovak Republic. The people of Slovakia are well aware that it was not only the direct aid during the Slovak National Uprising in 1944, but primarily the tens of thousands of Red Army casualties who are buried in various locations across Slovakia today. For this reason, I want to reiterate the commitment of the Government of the Slovak Republic: we will care for these memorial sites with all due honor and respect. In Slovakia, we have dozens of military cemeteries where not only soldiers of the Red Army are buried, but also those of the Romanian Army who participated in the liberation. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I inform you, Mr. President, that we have fulfilled the commitment we made regarding the reconstruction of the military cemetery in Michalovce, and I will personally attend the opening of this reconstructed cemetery in Michalovce in a short time. I never say one thing in private and another in public. Even now, while the media are still present, I want to say very clearly that I am an opponent of creating a sort of new Iron Curtain between Europe, the European Union, and the Russian Federation. I am in favor of normal, standard, friendly, and mutually beneficial relations, and I am convinced that both Slovakia and the Russian Federation can take several steps in a short time that will lead to such standard conditions. Once again, thank you for the hospitality, and once again, congratulations on Victory Day.” While Budapest is busy scrubbing the "Orbán era" off the walls and swearing in Péter Magyar, Fico has officially decided to become the EU’s awkward plus-one in Moscow. In this clip, Fico is practically purring over "traditional Russian hospitality" and promising putin that Slovakia won’t let a thing like an "Iron Curtain" get in the way of their "standard and friendly" vibes. As Hungary pivots back to Europe, Fico is busy picking up the pro-Kremlin slack.

@sarobertson_ That Buttigieg attended this event gives me great confidence in the sophistication our ambitions - he's an infrastructure genius!

Pete Buttigieg: "My second greatest fear for my party is if we win in November that we forget that a return to the prior status quo is not the right answer either. What we need is a series of clean bills, legislative projects that will deliver higher wages, that will deliver universal health insurance coverage, that will deliver things like paid family leave."

Russia is not preparing for peace. It is regrouping for another offensive. According to Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, Russian forces have intensified attacks across almost the entire front and massed around 106,000 troops near Pokrovsk alone. Kremlin strategy remains the same: Pressure. Attrition. Escalation. war.obozrevatel.com/ukr/vorog-prov…

@rus_svata15287 He looks pretty focussed! Glad he got there safely!

Воїн НГУ Микола 72 доби пробув на позиції, відбиваючи безперевні атаки ворога. Отримавши поранення 12 км. пройшов пішки до єкуваційної зони.

Їбаште, рідненькі👍🇺🇦 Люблю Україну!

Vladimir Bortko, a well-known Russian film director and former member of the State Duma, stated that after bombing Ukraine with tactical nuclear weapons, Russia would win "within two weeks”. "Since I am an absolute, what you might call, 'statist’, I can allow myself to say this. In order for the internet to start working, we need to use TNW—and we should have done it a long time ago. Tactical Nuclear Weapons. Then everything will start working. Then we will win in two weeks. ‘Oh-oh-oh, they won't understand us there...' Let them not understand us—our enemies. That would be better. But this is my opinion, it completely disagrees with yours, but that is what I think." It's a pretty intense take on how to solve putin’s war against Ukraine. It’s easy to dismiss this as just one old director having a meltdown on camera, but he isn't just a lone voice. While many people hope these are just "crazy" fringe views, polls and social trends in Russia show that this kind of hardline rhetoric has become mainstream. Recent data suggests that around one-third of Russians now believe using nuclear weapons in putin’s war against Ukraine could be justified, and that number has been steadily climbing as the war drags on. For many in Russia, Bortko isn't being "extreme"—he's just saying out loud what a huge chunk of the population is thinking. It shows how far the conversation has shifted from "protecting people" to "winning at any cost," even if that cost is a nuclear disaster.

When governments and the private sector work together, we can get more done, faster. Yesterday, we met with leaders in banking and finance to discuss how we can create the right conditions to catalyse massive investment in Canada — and create new opportunities for workers and businesses.

The caption on the video reads: “Today, on this Victory Day, I want to congratulate my beloved Russia on becoming what it once fought against. And the Russia that has become like the Third Reich is not my Russia.”

Ukraine's intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov about Finnish volunteers in Ukraine: "I do not want to offend anyone, but Finnish fighters are from another planet compared to fighters from other countries"

We finally got our Eddy back to his natural habitat for the first time since his injuries, living on a boat, on the open seas as our sailing rehabilitation veterans set sail from Athens for the Greek islands ⛵

@ChuckPfarrer Looks like some action in the Black sea was what Ukraine got up to, meanwhile: youtu.be/rxiteszv6Yg (RFU news, YouTube)

RUSSIA’S CEASEFIRE? A US-brokered 3-day truce (9-11 MAY) was ignored by Russian troops. Russia launched >140 attacks, 10 assaults, and >850 drone strikes in the hours around the parade."

NEW: Russian and Ukrainian forces continued limited offensive operations across the theater throughout the first day of the May 9 – 11 ceasefire. Other Key Takeaways: Russian forces used the ceasefire to conduct rotations, reinforcements, redeployments, and logistics throughout the theater, likely to support imminent future offensive operations. Russia and Ukraine have not yet conducted the reportedly agreed to prisoner-of-war (POW) swap of 1,000 prisoners each as of May 9. Ukrainian defense successes on the battlefield have prevented Russian forces from making significant advances across the theater, depriving Russian President Vladimir Putin of any significant operational successes to celebrate on Victory Day. Russia’s war in Ukraine forced Putin to hold his Victory Day parade on a much smaller scale than in previous years, as Putin cannot reliably defend deep rear areas, including the capital, from Ukrainian drones. Putin’s insistence on holding the Victory Day parade despite the threat of Ukrainian strikes reflects Putin’s refusal to accept the realities of the current battlespace. Putin used Victory Day to position the war in Ukraine as this generation of Russians’ equivalent to the Soviet Union’s role in World War II. Russian forces continue to suffer increasing casualty rates. Ukrainian forces recently advanced in northern Kharkiv Oblast and in the Borova direction.

Postmedia Trump hedge fund owned: National Post Ottawa Citizen Calgary Herald Toronto Sun Edmonton Journal The Vancouver Sun The Gazette The Province If we want to win the war against Trump tariffs etc we need action to re-patriate our press @MarkJCarney @RRYGTR

For a better and more just future, we must name plainly what is broken, say how we will replace it, and do the hard work of building. That’s what we focused on at the Global Progress Action Summit in Toronto.

Crimea is Ukraine🇺🇦 No peace with Russia without the de-occupation of Crimea

@jurgen_nauditt Bunker behaviour.

Today, Putin speaks openly about a war with Finland, claiming: "The Finns want to carve something off from Russia." Furthermore, he is currently threatening Armenia with war over its desire to join the EU. Moreover, the world can watch as Putin becomes increasingly paranoid.