Zelensky’s diplomacy: In December 2019, Zelensky was seen laughing as Putin spoke about implementing the Minsk Agreement to end the conflict in Donbas. Years later, Angela Merkel acknowledged that the agreement was intended to give Ukraine time to strengthen and build up its armed forces.

Scott Ritter on how close Russia and NATO were to nuclear war during the NATO/Ukraine invasion of Kursk. https://greatereurasia.substack.com/p/the-world-is-drifting-toward-nuclear

An obscure Telegram assertion has been laundered into "respectable" commentary and is now being repeated as fact by world leaders and intelligence chiefs.

Follow the NYT hyperlinks, and the CIA chief sources his "Russians dead in 35 minutes" intel from a widely mocked FP story by Peter Frankopan, who sourced it from Astra, a Russian opposition Telegram channel.

A textbook example of  how western disinformation becomes "established fact."

Excellent thread by Emil Kastehelmi (X):

An obscure claim from a Russian military blogger has somehow morphed into an accepted fact, and is being echoed by major media outlets and even the CIA director.

Step by step, the people of Britain are being conditioned for war, slowly, deliberately, and under the guise of preparation.

Tobias Ellwood, former head of the British parliament's defence committee:

"Britain should engage directly in war against Russia ,we are at war in Europe, we need to move to martial law"

Putin explains why Russia is conducting the special military operation:

"Orcas eat polar bears like they're nothing. They just attack in a pack like that — bam — and tear them apart. That's the food chain for you. Kids need to be told about this too, so they understand what kind of world we live in"

"Blame Russia" propaganda playbook 🤡

Spain blames Russia for Ceuta migration crisis 🤣

Ukraine Zelensky has attacked yet another NATO country.

Ukraine, funded by NATO, is engaging in international terrorism against NATO countries, while NATO’s leadership pretends everything is perfectly fine and goes looking for yet another bag of cash for Kiev and Zelensky’s gang.

Turkey has summoned the Ukrainian ambassador over attacks on two vessels in the Black Sea. The cargo ship Lider Bordo Mavi, carrying vegetables from Samsun to the Russian port of Tuapse, was reportedly attacked by three drones.
Five crew members were injured.

Kharg Island is not under attack, but Trump's sense of reality is under attack - assisted by AI.

The US Army launched 96 to 160 PAC-3 MSE interceptors from its Patriot batteries in Jordan tonight against 32 to 40 Iranian ballistic missiles. Three to four rounds at each missile.

At ~$4 million a shot, that is $380-640 million burned in a single wave to keep two bases covered. A fully loaded battery holds 72-96 MSE on the rails. Two batteries plus a local reload is a few hundred rounds in-country, and tonight took a third to half of that.

Without a restock from the Gulf or US mainland, two or three more nights like this empty the Jordan magazines. If those batteries weren't fully loaded going into the night, the ready pile is already gone this morning.

Each PAC-3 MSE takes about two years to build.

François Fillon, former French Prime Minister, reveals for the first time what Putin privately told him right before the war, about why diplomacy with the Europeans - Macron in particular - failed.

Putin, on the advice of Fillon, had tried to engage with Macron, but came away with this verdict: "When Emmanuel Macron comes to see me, he tells me what I must do."

In short, in Putin's telling, Macron didn't want to negotiate, but to dictate.

In other words, there was never a genuine effort at diplomacy - at least as far as Putin (and Fillon) see it.

Via @ RnaudBertrand (X)