"‘Palianytsia,’ ‘Peklo,’ ‘Ruta’ are all flying, achieving hits and successes. I want to thank our defense industry. These three are taking flight. And also... ballistic missiles are in the works,” Zelensky said.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 23 February 2025 at 15:54

Trump's special envoy Witkoff: "The war, no matter who started it, must end. It shouldn’t have happened. It was provoked. This doesn’t necessarily mean the Russians provoked it. There was talk about Ukraine joining NATO, which shouldn’t have happened. It essentially became a threat to Russia."

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 23 February 2025 at 16:02

Journalist: "If the US stops aid, could China be our backup option?"

Zelensky: "I’m used to fighting until the end. I don’t want to talk about a 'Plan B'. We need to focus on not losing the US."

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 23 February 2025 at 16:03

🇪🇺 EC President Costa convenes a special EU summit on March 6.

“We are at a decisive moment for Ukraine and EU security. In my consultations with EU leaders, I heard a shared commitment to strengthening Europe’s defense and making a decisive contribution to peace and Ukraine’s long-term security.”

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 23 February 2025 at 18:13

🇸🇪 Sweden is purchasing $112M worth of air defense systems for Ukraine, including Robot 70 & Tridon Mk2, via the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration. Additional systems already in Ukraine will also be provided.

omni.se/regeringen-l...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 23 February 2025 at 21:03

🇨🇦🇺🇦 "Ukrainians survived the Holodomor. Ukrainians survived Stalin. Ukrainians survived Chornobyl. Ukrainians survived Putin. Do you think Donald Trump can break Ukrainians?" — Canadian Member of Parliament Charlie Angus.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 23 February 2025 at 21:15

🇭🇺 Hungary co-authored a U.S. draft UN resolution that does not condemn Russian aggression, FM Péter Szijjártó confirmed.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 23 February 2025 at 21:21

Despite the endless Western excuses for russian society, 3yrs in, it’s obvious this is the mainstream russian position:
« We hope [Russia] will be victorious. We want Ukraine's total capitulation." And ofc that’s Putin’s aim too. That’s why Trump can’t.. apple.news/A6ZistPqeT2K...

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— Maria Popova 🇨🇦 (@popovaprof.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 00:40

Trump on the Russia-Ukraine war: "It doesn't have of an effect on us because we have a big beautiful ocean in between."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 21 February 2025 at 21:44

Zelenskyy emphasized that the country will sign only an agreement that is beneficial to both the United States and the Ukrainian people. He also stressed the need for clearly defined security guarantees in the agreement, as they will provide the foundation for a stable partnership and development.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 16:25

European diplomats say the U.S. is pushing numerous countries to not support the Ukrainian text, and instead get behind a U.S. text that doesn't refer to the Russian invasion and doesn't put any responsibility for the war on Russia. The U.S. draft resolution calls for ending the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Trump Puts Ukraine In A Vise

American billionaire and Donald Trump ally Elon Musk has spread disinformation that a "Zelenskyy's Ministry of Defence official" allegedly stole US$46 million by buying a villa, a vineyard and 27 plots of land in France. At the same time, the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office on Saturday published a report suggesting that the person in question is Dmytro Perehudov, the former head of the Yanukovych-era Ukrspecexport and Ukroboronprom (Ukraine’s Defence Industry), who has been on the wanted list since 2017.

Elon Musk Blames ''Zelenskyy's Defence Ministry Official'' For Crimes Committed By Associate of Former President Yanukovych

Commentators have described Trump’s aggressive ultimatum as “mafia imperialism”, a “colonial agreement”, and reminiscent of what the Europeans did in the 18th century when they carved up Africa.

“It’s as if we lost the war to America. This looks to me like reparations,” Volodymyr Landa, a senior economist at the Centre for Economic Strategy thinktank in Kyiv, said. Ukraine’s overall reserves are worth $14.8tn. They include lithium, titanium and uranium, as well as coal, steel, iron ore, and undersea shale gas. Many deposits had not been developed, Landa said, either because they were not feasible or due to political instability.

Residents living near Liodiane said they supported the construction of a new lithium mine. They were not, however, ready to give the profits to Trump. “This idea is too much,” Tetiana Slyvenko, a local administrator, said. “He wants to take resources from a country in a time of war. How are we supposed to live? We have children. It’s as if the US seeks to deprive us of our economic potential. It would finish us off, the same as America did with Red Indians [Native Americans].”

About 300 people live in the neighbouring villages of Kopanky and Haiivka, most of them elderly. Breaking off from ice fishing on Kopanky’s picturesque frozen lake, 72-year-old Stanislav Ryabchenko said he hoped the mine would bring young people back to the community and create jobs. “What Trump suggests is blackmail. He knows we can’t push the Russians out on our own. We need joint production, not a takeover,” he said, showing off two carp.

‘It’s Blackmail’: Ukrainians React to Trump Demand For $500bn Share of Minerals | Ukraine | The Guardian

🧵 This UN resolution vote on Ukraine is worth paying attention to. A brief thread on the Trump administration's bullying under way in the background. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

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— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 18:58

Every year the US has backed a UN General Assembly vote noting the principles of the UN Charter & Russia's violation of those in Ukraine. Now the US is threatening to vote against that & is pushing a new resolution in the Security Council. But it gets worse than that.

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 18:58

The new US sponsored resolution - which unsurprisingly enjoys Russian support - is three sentences. It does not identify Russia as the aggressor nor does it note the UN Charter's prohibtion on acquiring territory by force. "It looks like something the Russians drafted," one diplomat told me.

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 18:59

That’s not all. The US is demanding that Ukraine withdraw its own UNGA resolution and putting considerable pressure on Kyiv to that end. It hopes the UNSC res will derail the UNGA one. US wanted to adopt it Monday morning; China, which holds UNSC presidency, delayed vote to Tuesday, as I understand.

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 18:59

US vote could be blocked if 7/15 states on council (see image below) vote against or abstain. It is unclear whether those numbers can be met. Denmark, Greece, Slovenia likely to oppose. Others might be persuaded, like Panama. But not clear whether threshold will be met. That takes us to option two.

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— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 19:00

The other route to blocking this would be a veto by France or the UK. Both have proposed amendments which would kill the text for the Russians. US might take note. But both countries' leaders are in Washington this coming week & veto would be explosive. I am told France more "solid" than UK on this.

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 19:01

US is playing hardball on the issue. It has issued bellicose démarches to a wide range of states, including allies, which, I am told, are full of reference to Trump, highly aggressive & threatening—"like something one would have expected from the Nazis or Soviets in the 1930s", one person told me.

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 19:01

The three relevant parties (CDU, SPD, Greens) all performed a bit worse than the last polls before the election. Now the main reason why the Greens will be left out is because they didn't get enough votes to make CDU+Greens possible, so the only option including them would be CDU+SPD+Greens, but why go with three parties into a coalition when you can have it a lot less complicated with only two. So it will be CDU+SPD and hopefully fast, which means by Easter.

The latest projection has the FDP clearly below 5.0%, but the annoyance BSW is still within striking distance, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow. If they get in, CDU+SPD won't be sufficient because the ongoing shifts in projections favor the AfD. In that scenario the Greens have to be added to a coalition.

Regarding Scholz, in the ensuing panel he implied that he'll be out and perhaps others who fell in line with him in the SPD will go as well. After all, this is the SPD's worst result ever; the first time under 20% and by a notable margin at that.

Even if the results do end up to necessitate a three-party coalition, the global circumstances create pressure that the involved parties have to make it work, whether they want to or not. That's why I am slightly optimistic that everyone will be a bit more willing to agree to compromises on a myriad of topics. And when I say everyone, I am actually only talking about the CDU/CSU and especially the CSU, because in the past the SPD and Greens have commonly given more than they've gotten back.

What I had left out so far is that the conservatives of Germany have a unique setup where the CDU is present in 15 of Germany's 16 states while Bavaria has its own version (CSU). The Bavarians have a habit of making things unnecessarily complicated, kind of like the bullshit the FDP has pulled off from 2021 to 2024.

Hope Starmer grows a pair of balls and vetoes it and stops being a lapdog to America, I don't know whether he's being such a fence sitter because BREXIT has fucked UK's ability to have any sort of spine and weakened us severely or it's just Keir being spineless. I assume he thinks that if he annoys Trump then America will tariff the UK too and he is desperately trying to avoid that, well guess what Keir, America is going to fuck our economy either way (and the rest of the world, and its own) so stop trying to delay the inevitable.

I'm like 90% sure that Keir would gain more support in the UK if he actively sided against America more than what the economic damage America could inflict to us would do to his poll numbers, simply because Brits tend to get nationalistic as fuck when "attacked" by another country like that, Brits largely support Ukraine, a lot of Brits hate Trump and in general aren't major fans of America either, Lol.

More likely France vetoes it and UK lets France take the bullet.

DUDE BE QUIET

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 23 February 2025 at 20:05

You think Trump mixed up CDU with AFD? Lol. Meanwhile Merz...

Merz with remarkable clarity: „Absolutely no illusions“ about Trump. Goal needs to be step by step
independence from a US who „pretty much no longer cares about fate of 🇪🇺“.
„Unclear whether we will still speak of NATO in present shape“ by time of June summit or we need to come up with 🇪🇺alternative.

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— Thorsten Benner (@tbenner.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 20:43

Merz with visible outrage takes aim at Musk:
„Look at these recent interventions into 🇩🇪by a Mr Elon Musk. Interventions from DC no less dramatic, drastic & brazen than those from Moscow. We are massively under pressure from two sides“.

In the face of this "European unity absolute priority".

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— Thorsten Benner (@tbenner.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 20:44

Remarkable assessment by an incoming German chancellor. “for me it is an absolute priority to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, so that we achieve independence from the US, step by step.” www.dw.com/en/german-el...

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— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) 23 February 2025 at 21:18

🇩🇪🇺🇸 “Look at these recent interventions into Germany by Mr. Elon Musk. Interventions from DC are no less dramatic, drastic & brazen than those from Moscow. We are massively under pressure from two sides.” — Friedrich Merz.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 23 February 2025 at 21:18

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Nobel_Peace_Prize
This is the current list of nominations for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. Both Trump and Musk are on there, but the reasons for both nominations seem to be directly counter to actual events. The Ukrainian MP who has nominated Trump, I can only assume it was an attempt to pander to Trump’s ego and the summary does not reflect current events.

He definitely did, but that's a very American thing to do. After all, they refer to the far-right in the USA as conservatives while in Europe conservatives are still conservatives.

There's barely a threshold for nominations, as long as someone is a member of a Countries Government, the ICC, Institute of International Law, International Board of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, University Professors, Professors of History, Social Sciences, Law, Philosophy, Theology, Religion, University Rectors, Directors, Directors of Peace Research, Foreign Policy Institutes, Previous Winners, Members of Board for Previous Organisation Winners, etc. Then they can nominate pretty much whoever they want to, Lol.

Theoretically, someone could nominate Putin. But the full list is not made public.

That Ukrainian MP is from Zelenskyy's party and nominated Trump in November 26, 2024 so yeah it was pretty much just trying to massage Trump's ego. When asked about his motivation for the nomination, the lawmaker said he wants to use it "as an opportunity to attract Trump's attention so that he could help Ukraine to survive."