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"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." --Eden Phillpotts
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Numbers don't lie 📉
The Kremlin keeps Rosstat offline, but the data leaks through.
Jan–Sep 2026: ~200K Russian businesses closed, only ~100K opened.
No sector is growing anymore.
#RussiaIsCollapsing #MakeRussiaSmallAgain #RussiaEconomy #Putin #StandWithUkraine
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
🇺🇦🇷🇺🔥 UKRAINE IS PUSHING RUSSIAN FORCES BACK TOWARDS A RIVER NEAR LYMAN!
Something significant may be unfolding on the Lyman front, and the most important development isn’t simply how much territory Ukraine has recovered.
It’s what happens to Russian forces if they lose their remaining positions west of the Chornyi Zherebets River.
Ukraine’s Operation Vivaldi is credited with liberating 16 settlements and approximately 277 square kilometres, putting pressure on elements of Russia’s 20th and 25th Combined Arms Armies.
Yampil is also reported to be back under Ukrainian control.
Russian troops are attempting counterattacks and moving additional infantry across the river, while Ukrainian forces are reportedly detecting and striking groups during these movements.
The battlefield reports still require independent confirmation, and fighting continues.
But the geography explains why this matters.
A river crossing is more than a route for reinforcements. It is also a potential supply bottleneck. If Ukrainian forces can eliminate Russia’s remaining bridgeheads on the western bank, Moscow could face a much harder task rebuilding its positions near Lyman.
That would have consequences beyond the immediate battlefield.
Lyman is an important approach towards the fortified Sloviansk-Kramatorsk area. Losing ground here could complicate Russian plans to advance towards that defensive belt from the northwest.
Ukraine may be turning Russia’s own offensive ambitions into a defensive struggle for access across the river.
The battle is far from over. Russian reinforcements and counterattacks remain a serious challenge.
But if Ukraine consolidates these gains, the result could be more consequential than another change of colour on the battlefield map.
Russia would not just lose territory. It could lose the positions it needs to launch its next offensive.
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
- Anne Applebaum:
"Steve Witkoff has no experience with Russia or diplomacy. I fear he imagines a US-Russia pact where he, his son, Trump's family or their circle benefit personally.
It's disturbing that American foreign policy conducted not for the US, allies or world peace, but for private interests.
Putin knows Trump is vulnerable to such deals ... that's why he keeps suggesting them.
Witkoff and Trump's entourage behave like Russians: capture the state, use it for personal wealth."...
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Throttling Starshield during the peace talks is a crystal-clear attempt to pressure Ukraine into accepting unfavorable deals, I hope everyone understands this.
I hope it is also clear that Ukraine is the only side the U.S. chooses to pressure: the victim, not the aggressor.
Received briefings from Minister of Defense of Ukraine Yevhenii Khmara and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykhailo Drapatyi. Unfortunately, our units have been recording significant disruptions to Starshield’s operations over the territory of Ukraine for several days now – along the entire front line and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Specifically, systematic speed restrictions are being imposed on Starshield, limiting it to 161 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour). The Ukrainian military have already investigated the circumstances, and these are not random errors but systematic speed restrictions. For us, this primarily means a significant complication in intercepting Russian jet-powered drones. Unfortunately, there have already been strikes that got through because our interception systems cannot reach sufficient speeds and are unable to intercept in time. Unfortunately, this is helping the Russians kill more Ukrainians and carry out more accurate strikes against Ukraine. We are trying to establish all the circumstances with the American side.
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Ahoj, Rusko! 🇷🇺
Se svými americkými kamarády vymýšlíš stále absurdnější mírové plány. Přitom řešení války a tvůj návrat mezi civilizované země jsou vlastně neuvěřitelně jednoduché.
Víš, na mapě jsou takové čáry. Říká se jim státní hranice.
Takže se prostě stáhneš za ty své mezinárodně uznané. Vrátíš unesené ukrajinské děti, zaplatíš válečné reparace a přestaneš sousedům vysvětlovat pomocí tanků, komu má patřit jejich země.
A víš co? My ti s návratem do civilizovaného světa rádi pomůžeme!
Můžeme tě seznámit s takovými revolučními vynálezy, jako jsou splachovací záchody, silnice bez výmolů a vláda, která se stará především o vlastní občany, nikoli o dobývání sousedních států.
Rádi od tebe budeme nakupovat nerostné suroviny. Dokonce ti pomůžeme i s jejich těžbou. Technologie na to máme. A představ si, že se s nimi dají dělat mnohem užitečnější věci než vyrábět rakety.
A až nám ukážeš, že dokážeš být dobrým sousedem, rádi přijedeme obdivovat tvou nádhernou přírodu. A ty se zase budeš moci přijet podívat k nám.
Jako turista. S fotoaparátem.
Ne s tankem.
Co myslíš, Rusko? Není to vlastně docela dobrý plán?
A to nejlepší? Nepotřebujeme k němu žádného geniálního amerického vyjednavače. Stačí respektovat jednu čáru na mapě.
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
The peace talks are failing because Putin still believes he can win the war, and because Trump, Kushner and Witkoff encourage this belief. By pressuring Ukraine, not Russia, they are prolonging the conflict, which will kill more people.
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Dänemarks Premierministerin:
„Dies sollte der am einfachsten zu beendende Krieg sein. Es gibt ein Land, das aggressiv auftritt und einen umfassenden Krieg begonnen hat, und es gibt ein Opfer. Es sind nicht zwei Länder, die in diesen Krieg eingetreten sind.“
Genau.
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Anne Applebaum:
„Steve Witkoff nie ma żadnego doświadczenia z Rosją ani dyplomacją. Obawiam się, że wyobraża sobie pakt USA-Rosja, w którym on, jego syn, rodzina Trumpa lub ich krąg odnoszą osobiste korzyści.
To niepokojące, że amerykańska polityka zagraniczna jest prowadzona nie dla dobra USA, sojuszników czy pokoju na świecie, lecz dla prywatnych interesów.
Putin wie, że Trump jest podatny na takie umowy... dlatego ciągle je proponuje.
Witkoff i otoczenie Trumpa zachowują się jak Rosjanie: przejmują państwo i wykorzystują je do osobistego wzbogacenia.”...
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
PANIC NEAR ST. PETERSBURG: OIL TERMINAL HELICOPTERS MISSILE SHIP DESTROYED Vlog 1590: War in Ukraine
youtu.be/ZDgz8Kd4wmA
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Stop wasting time with these charades and focus on the only thing that will end the war: kicking Russia out of Ukraine.
Once again proving that yet another round of fake negotiations was only meant to serve as theatrical background for the Trump family to remove Russia sanctions while blaming Ukraine, Putin's chief negotiator Medinsky in Abu Dhabi confirms that Putin still intends on occupying Ukraine.
"We will return every inch of OUR land".
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Ucrania ahora también ataca a la armada rusa en el Báltico.
Drones del Servicio de Seguridad de Ucrania (SBU) atacaron con éxito a la corbeta misilera rusa Naro-Fominsk cerca de la isla de Gogland, en pleno corazón de la Flota del Báltico.
El ataque se produjo a unos 1.200 kilómetros del territorio ucraniano y a apenas 180 km de San Petersburgo. Hasta ahora, las operaciones navales de Kiev se concentraban en el Mar Negro. Llevar el combate naval directo al extremo norte demuestra que Rusia ya no tiene "santuarios" seguros para su flota en el este de los Urales.
La corbeta Naro-Fominsk es un buque misilero moderno de la clase Buyan-M (incorporado recién en 2022), diseñado con tecnología furtiva y armado con celdas verticales para lanzar misiles de crucero Kalibr y Oniks, los mismos que Rusia utiliza para bombardear ciudades ucranianas a larga distancia.
Este golpe va a obligar a Rusia a desviar radares y sistemas antiaéreos lejos del frente en Ucrania para proteger puertos y buques en el noroeste y expone la vulnerabilidad de la Flota del Báltico en su propio patio trasero
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
🇺🇦🇷🇺 BUDANOV SAYS PUTIN HAS REACHED A DEAD END
Kyrylo Budanov 🇺🇦 - "Everyone understands this is a collapse.
Putin has reached a dead end: he can neither end the war nor win it.
Victory is no longer possible for objective reasons.
But to stop the war would mean admitting that Russia is not as strong or as great as he wanted."
Budanov’s point is that Putin is trapped by the war he created. He cannot achieve the victory he promised, but ending the war would expose the failure behind Russia’s imperial myth.
That is why Moscow keeps fighting. Not because it has a real path to victory, but because admitting defeat would mean admitting that Ukraine broke the image of Russian power Putin built his regime around.
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Ust-Luga is burning 🔥
Russia's top Baltic oil terminal hit. 3 helicopters lost defending it, likely to their own air defense.
Bonus: a Kalibr-capable ship is down in the Baltic. After the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Baltic Fleet is next.
#RussiaIsCollapsing #MakeRussiaSmallAgain #Putin #StandWithUkraine
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
When the Americans and Russians talk about security, it’s not just about security guarantees for Ukraine. In fact, it’s more about some kind of new security framework between Europe and Russia.
We find this approach a bit strange. Because for 30 years after the Soviet Union collapsed, Europe treated Russia well. And Europe tried to have as much trade as possible, as much cooperation as possible, and as good relations as possible with Russia.
Putin’s wars are really about only his attitude toward others – not some kind of permanent confrontation with Europe that was impossible to avoid. But still, we hear what we hear today.
From an address at the 9th European Political Community Summit. (1/3)
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
We keep hearing again that Russia supposedly needs security guarantees. Even though no one has attacked Russia for many decades. Since the Second World War, Moscow has not gone through even one decade without starting a war or using military force against another country.
So when the Russians now talk about a security architecture for themselves, or about security guarantees for Russia – they are hardly talking about real security. And peace.
What they really want – is to freely interfere in the affairs of other countries, and to use force whenever they want, and to make sure that no one can support liberty inside Russia because Putin wants to keep his personal power forever and pass on his imperialist and, in many ways, simply fascist views to the next generations.
From a speech at the Danish Folketing. (3/3)
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦🇪🇺
Abu Dhabi’s big diplomatic breakthrough by Trump’s real-estate boys: Zelensky had to sit them down and explain, like they were five, that Ukraine isn't a distressed asset in Florida.
"I've had to explain this to the Real Estate Bros Kushner & Witkoff: the Donbass isn't my personal property to flip. I can't just gift them an extra two kilometers because it makes the term sheet look cleaner or because someone in Moscow offered a 'package deal'. The Donbas is not my building. People live there.
Try thinking about it as if Russians had already taken half of Florida and were asking Trump to hand over the rest so you two could finally close the deal and go back to building luxury resorts on the rubble."
Once again, Ukraine rejected the US plan to gift its regions to Moscow.
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
RUSSIA’S BUSINESSES FACE COLLAPSE: PUTIN NEEDS MORE SOLDIERS Vlog 1589: War in Ukraine
youtu.be/ZB82hh0whBs
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Трамп рассылал спонсорам письма, в которых предлагал им доступ к секретным отчётам нацбезопасности за деньги.
Сенатор Марк Келли тычёт в такое письмо носом директора ЦРУ, а тот говорит что ничего о них не знал 😁
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Left: Five times on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Nigel Farage claimed the UK couldn’t control EU immigration under freedom of movement and had an 'open door policy' - that’s a lie.
Right: In 2017, Femi got him to admit on LBC that EU rules allowed restrictions. “Femi, in theory, you’re right.”
My view:
There was no “open doors” policy with the EU. Freedom of movement was and still is managed migration.
Freedom of movement meant British citizens could live and work in any of the other 27 EU countries, and their citizens could do the same here.
After three months, an EU citizen could stay in the UK if they were working or self-employed.
Students and people living on their own funds could also stay if they had enough money to support themselves and comprehensive health cover.
That’s Article 7 of EU Directive 2004/38/EC.
Article 14(4)(b) also protected jobseekers who could show they were still looking for work and had a genuine chance of finding it.
Article 8 allowed the UK to require EU citizens staying longer than three months to register.
The UK chose not to apply these rules.
Just as it was the UK government’s choice to impose austerity and cut public services, causing real frustration and making life more difficult for people.
At the end of the video, Femi warns that ending freedom of movement could lead to more immigration. And that’s exactly what happened. Under the UK’s post-Brexit rules, put in place by lead Brexiter Boris Johnson, net migration rose to 944,000 in the year to March 2023.
Five times Laura Kuenssberg could have corrected Nigel Farage on his remarks, five times she ignored it. It's this type of dishonesty from journalists who drive narratives instead of providing objective analysis.
🕷❄Paul Blackburn 74%❄🕷🐟💙🇺🇦 retweeted
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk:
“What is happening now is a simulation of a peace process.
Trump promised to end the war in 24 hours. Now he has decided to finance it. These are already the longest 24 hours in human history.
Witkoff called putin a humanist.
I have interviewed hundreds of people released from russian captivity. They were tortured, raped, mutilated and subjected to electric shocks. One woman told me her eye had been gouged out with a spoon.
In Kyiv, I met a five-year-old girl whose mother had been abducted, tortured and repeatedly raped by russians. The girl hugged me, cried and begged: ‘Please, bring my mother back.’
My friend and colleague, journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, was abducted, tortured and died in russian captivity. Her body was returned with several organs missing. We still do not know how she died.
My friend and mentor, Professor Ihor Kozlovskyi, spent 700 days in captivity. He was tortured so brutally that he had to learn to walk again after his release. In his isolation cell, he gave philosophy lectures to rats just to hear a human voice.
He told me: ‘The foundation of our existence is dignity. And dignity is action.’
𝗗𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡!
We have acted throughout these so-called ‘24 hours’. We acted before them, and we will keep acting for as long as it takes to bring peace.
Thank you to everyone who continues to stand with us.”
