Stop Bombing Russian Oil Infrastructure: Trump to Zelensky

Donald Trump urged Volodymyr Zelensky to halt Ukrainian attacks on Russian diesel infrastructure, arguing that refinery strikes are “hurting the world” as U.S. diesel prices rise.

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Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

I personally believe that it was unfortunate for President Zelensky to name a military unit after UPA. UPA had an ideology of one nation, understood as a country without national minorities.

And it carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign in which tens of thousands of people were murdered.

Look, as Ukrainians, you have plenty of real heroes. Don’t put on pedestals people who have a mixed record, because you’re not doing justice to yourself.

And if you do, don’t be surprised if there is controversy.

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

If Russia attacked us and we took our gloves off, I think we would defeat Russia quite quickly.

We have overwhelming superiority over Russia in air power.

If the Ukrainians have knocked out half of Russia’s refining capacity in six months, we could do it in six weeks and take out the other half.

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

Unfortunately, there isn’t such a thing as European defense sovereignty, and there won’t be anytime soon for constitutional reasons.

It’s not just that defense remains a national responsibility. The European Union is a confederation, and you’re describing the function of a federal state.

There is no consensus for moving to a federation, and therefore, to my great regret, we will not yet develop a joint European defense.

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

China is taking over the Russian market. Russia will become a very, very junior partner to China.

If I were a Russian nationalist, I would be horrified of this.

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

The Council of Baltic Sea States, without the rest of Europe and NATO, has a bigger GDP than Russia and a bigger peacetime defense budget than Russia's wartime budget.

Russia has no hope of winning against us.

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

We as NATO should exercise so aggressively on our side to make Putin uncertain of what we will do.

He needs to draw forces away from Ukraine.

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

Putin literally imagined that he would undo the collapse of the USSR and make Russia a superpower again, part of the triad ruling the world, Yalta II.

I think he understands now that's not achievable.

Boris Johnson:

I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning.

What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day - even on civilian railways.

So far Putin has been responsible for the deaths of 1700 staff of Ukrzaliznytsia - Ukrainian Railways. They and their daily passengers are absolutely heroic.

Polish PM Donald Tusk:

The coming weeks and months will be a period of greatly intensified Russian activity, and unfortunately we cannot rule out that this escalation will also affect our territory.

German AfD Leader Alice Weidel on Ukraine:

We will stop payments to Ukraine and all support for the war, and we will also make substantial repayment demands on Ukraine.

German AfD Leader Alice Weidel:

More than one million Ukrainians in Germany are receiving welfare benefits. It is actually unbelievable, and none of this is financially sustainable anymore.

These Ukrainians also have to return. Especially the young Ukrainian men of military age — we’re talking about numbers in the six figures — those young men should kindly go back.

German AfD Leader Alice Weidel:

I really don’t tend toward conspiracy theories, but someone has to explain to me the discrepancy between in-person voting and postal voting.

It is so statistically striking that I cannot explain it.

German AfD Leader Alice Weidel:

The CDU/CSU has a fundamental problem: to put it plainly, it has screwed people over for years.

And then it can’t survive anymore.

German AfD Leader Alice Weidel:

They will replace Friedrich Merz. I am convinced of that.

Looking at the CDU’s entire personnel, I don’t see any alternative that would really be viable for the CDU.

They will not be able to stop the downward trend, because the problem is structural and deeply rooted in the party — namely, its credibility problem.

German AfD leader Alice Weidel on Syrians in Germany:

For Syrian citizens who came to us, as soon as the reason for fleeing no longer exists in their country of origin, these people have to go back.

Asylum is a temporary right, and when the reason for asylum ceases to exist, these people have to return and must not be naturalized.

Under an AfD government, these people — Syrian citizens — will have to return to their country and not remain in Germany as, according to the Syrian foreign minister, a "strategic mass."

We will review naturalized Syrians to determine whether the naturalization criteria were actually met. We have considerable doubts.

German AfD leader Alice Weidel on the EU:

We are simply no longer going to co-finance all this fun for our neighboring countries. We want our money back. Very simple.

We want our money back, and we will make substantial cuts.

Then just watch the drama that will break out in Brussels and Strasbourg when we stop financing this whole circus. I’m looking forward to the reaction.

Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council sanctioned Iuliia Mendel, former press secretary to President Zelensky.

Earlier today, Lithuania briefly closed Vilnius airport and NATO scrambled a fighter jet after a suspected drone was detected in its airspace.

The object turned out to be a flock of birds, and the airport reopened 38 minutes later after the NATO jet visually identified it.

Source: Reuters

CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper:

I’m not concerned at all about a shortage of munitions.

We’re well-armed and ready for any contingency.

Asked if he was worried about future threats: “I’m not.”

Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin:

I believe in Irish unity. Many political parties in the Republic believe in Irish unity, but we also, of course, believe in the Good Friday Agreement and how we got there, and we learned a lot in that process.

What I don’t want to do is go back to the failed sort of approaches historically, where we ended up talking to ourselves, whereas in reality we have to be persuaders as well for Irish unity.