🇪🇺🇺🇸🇷🇺 European diplomat for FT:

"Putin is doing just enough to convince Trump that he is interested in finding peace in Ukraine, but at the same time he is doing everything possible to prevent it. Trump has fallen for it."

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— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) 17 May 2025 at 10:29

‼️ Kremlin spokesperson Peskov said a meeting between Putin and Zelensky could take place, but only if the Russian and Ukrainian delegations first come to specific agreements.

He noted that both sides are currently exchanging proposals for a ceasefire and that negotiations will move forward.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 17 May 2025 at 10:37

🇺🇸 Sen. Lindsey Graham: “Putin’s Russia is playing games — and it needs to stop.”

Graham is pushing new legislation with 70+ cosponsors to hit Russia with tougher sanctions and slap tariffs on countries buying Russian oil & gas.

“Enough is enough.”

www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 17 May 2025 at 10:43

Italy is ramping up support for Ukraine, pulling 400 M113 armored vehicles out of storage and including them in its 11th military aid package. The M113s have been phased out and replaced by Dardo IFVs.

www.ilgiornale.it/NEWS/POLITIC...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 17 May 2025 at 10:41

🇷🇺🚫 Putin did not even want to consider the 22-point plan prepared by the US, the Europeans and Kyiv, which Witkoff wanted to present to him, — FT

❌ After Putin refused to discuss this plan, Witkoff canceled his trip to Moscow last week (May 12-16).

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— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) 17 May 2025 at 10:52

🇺🇦❗️🇷🇺 FT: A senior Ukrainian official described the situation as a geopolitical game of blackjack between Putin and Zelensky, with Trump as the dealer.

Putin has a “strong but risky” card. Ukraine is betting that if he draws another card, he could “go broke”.

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— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) 17 May 2025 at 11:37

Kaja Kallas: “Everyone wants peace — except Russia.” At the summit in Albania, she stressed sanctions and isolation are key to pressure. The EU plans its largest rollout of 4 sanctions regimes, with over 130 new measures expected on May 20, according to Nexta.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) 17 May 2025 at 11:39

🇪🇪❗️🇷🇺 Estonia Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur:

"Over 60% of Russian oil transport goes through the Baltic Sea. Russia has 500 shadow fleet vessels in play. If we control the shadow fleet, we have a huge impact."

— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) 17 May 2025 at 12:00

🇵🇱 Poland’s Foreign Ministry condemns Russia’s deadly strike on a bus near Sumy, saying the attack — coming right after peace talks — “reveals the Kremlin’s true intentions.”

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 17 May 2025 at 12:04

🇵🇱 Polish FM Sikorski: "The only country that could really put Putin in his place is China."

He says Russia is now China’s economic vassal — and a trade embargo from Beijing could force Moscow to back down. But admits: "That seems unlikely right now."

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 17 May 2025 at 10:55

At this point I'd rather take my chances with trying to convince China than fucking Donald Trump, Lol.

Trump said that in 2022 "Putin's tanks would have been in Kyiv in 5 hours if they hadn't gotten stuck in the mud."

The photo shows that same mud.

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— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) 17 May 2025 at 11:25

Stuck in the mud is 100% coming from some Russian that Trump speaks to because that's spin to make their initial attempt look less disastrous, they didn't get stuck in the mud, they got stuck on the road, they had massive vehicle columns which got blown up by Ukraine's air defence, resulting in a huge advancement slowdown and even more Russians being blown up.

Russian forces struck a passenger bus near Bilopillia with a Lancet drone. At least 9 people killed, 4 injured. Rescue operations are ongoing.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 17 May 2025 at 06:10

Czech Prime Minister Peter Fiala believes that Moscow's approach to negotiations with Ukraine should be met with increased sanctions pressure.

cesky.radio.cz/fiala-na-pos...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 17 May 2025 at 13:14

🇫🇷 French Defense Minister Lecornu: Europe must boost Ukraine’s military for the medium and long term — especially as Russia talks about "demilitarizing" it.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 17 May 2025 at 12:08

Russia's behaviour is looking more and more like open mockery of Trump at this point. I'm not sure if Trump is just unable to see if or if he think's it's a sign of Russia's strength. Unlike some, I don't think Russia has anything on Trump, it's just Trump's admiration of 'strong leadership' and poor judgement. He also seems like the kind of guy that would happily delude himself for things to make sense to him, which I bet is a part of his poor judgement. Or maybe he really is just a coward, but I have a hard time seeing how he could act so confidently if he was actually that much of a coward instead of e.g. confidently deluding himself.

(Why yes, sometimes I like making assessments without knowing a person too well. I'm also happy enough to change my mind if it seems like I'm wrong.)

Like I said before talking is all Europe can do. They lack any real militairy power and surely are lacking the will to begin with. Europe always has and will rely on North America to get things done from a military point of view.

I was looking at an article about oil exports from Russia since the was has started and discovered that they've declined to a large degree.  Here is a copypasted picture from the article to explain better:

And, who might be buying?

https://energyandcleanair.org/april-2025-monthly-analysis-of-russian-fossil-fuel-exports-and-sanctions/?utm_source=perplexity

Even Lindsey Graham is slowly having enough of Trump after bending over backwards several times over for him before.

Also, finally Italy is doing something! Meloni may have talked much about supporting Ukraine (in stark contrast of her coalition partners, who for a while openly supported Putin until she put them into their place), but actual shipments from Italy have been few and far between, and apart from Artillery systems and some air defense, they actually didn't send much to Ukraine (admittedly, 100+ M109 is actually crucial support for Ukraine, but apart from 6 PzH 2000 and a couple Bandvagn, also the only armored vehicles Italy has sent so far), so this shift is very welcome for Ukraine.

Maybe it's time to convince China: "Stop trading with and supporting Russia or we'll stop trading with you guys for the time being."

Sadly, China knows it's in too strong a position for this, since so many necessary raw materials are coming from China...

If Russia were to lose their shadow fleet it would get very difficult for Russia to sell it's oil anymore, most pipelines went towards Europe and China isn't overly interested into Russian oil and gas. Add those sanctions on top of that, and it could cripple Putin's war economy by overheating the economy.

And as for Putin striking a bus full of civilians:

yeah, LNG or piped gas weren't sanctioned as some countries, especially Germany, were wayyy too dependent on it to even just function, and Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia have an exemption on Russian oil, as they were still dependent on it.

Still, as the charts show the total amount exported in all those categories keeps dropping, so I think that Europe is trying to vane itself off of Russian gas, but finding another source is difficult, especially one that could deliver the same throughput as piped gas.

One good side effect: Since they struggle to replace the imports with some from other countries, they also push electrification forward to get rid of the need for fossil fuels. Electric heating via heat pumps or district heating are expanding, renewables are continuing to rise in the electricity mix, and France is additionally planning to build 6 new nuclear reactors, which would also allow them to retire some of the older designs after completion. All those wouldn't have moved forward at the same speed without the restrictions on Russian oil and gas.

Despite exit polls that predict a victory for pro-Western Nicușor Dan, his opponent, far-right Euro-sceptic George Simion, has already declared himself the winner of the race.

"We are the clear winners of these elections. We demand victory on behalf of the Romanian people," he said.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 18 May 2025 at 20:17

This dude is a Putin puppet, anti-EU and supports cutting all aid to Ukraine. He has been banned in both Ukraine and Moldova for being a Russian mouthpiece. Nobody is declared winner yet but he is already claiming he has won, this could be a delicate situation for Romania stability, Russia is trying to dismantle democracies across Europe. Romania is narrowly close to becoming the next Hungary. It's ridiculous how pathetic EU is at defending themselves against Russia's blatant election interference via social media.

🇷🇴 81%

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— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) 18 May 2025 at 20:14