Putin: Historically, Russia developed as an area of cooperation among peoples and respect for their distinctive identities. The Russian Empire was a bloody expansionist project that killed, expelled, deported, and imprisoned millions of people. Only the Chinese communists murdered more of their own citizens than the Soviet communists. Per capita, only the communist Khmer Rouge exceeded the Soviets, although even in that grim comparison the Soviets could win with the atrocities in Ukraine in 1933 and Kazakhstan in 1931-33. Both the Russian and Soviet empires suppressed, violently and repeatedly, non-Russian languages, cultures, traditions, and literature. Russification was the durable policy. Initially, the communists believed that encouraging local cultures would help instill Soviet identity but when this produced actual national cultures, the regime killed the people who made them.

People in the international community, if they know about Oleshky at all, might wonder why fascist Russia indulges in such obvious evil against a seemingly random Ukrainian town under occupation by its army. But there is method in fascist Russia's evil, and Ukrainians understand it well. Oleshky is a message to them from Putin. First, why Oleshky? Why such savagery against this particular town - perhaps the worst case of a long-lasting siege seen yet during the full-scale war? The town is the closest one to liberated Kherson on the other side of the Dnipro, and is a base for the Russian army to carry out its barbaric "human safari" of drone attacks on residents of the city. Largely bordered by marshland, the town is easy to cut off physically. The civilians there are being used as human shields for the Russian drone operators. But the evil being done against Oleshky serves a more sinister purpose: Similar to the broader pattern of attacks across the southern front, the creation of unlivable conditions - cutting off electricity, gas, and running water while allowing critical infrastructure to stay ruined - is a form of psychological pressure. The resulting humanitarian catastrophe is a strategy of attrition aimed at breaking local resistance through isolation and deprivation. But weaponizing starvation and extreme deprivation also carries a uniquely dark, historical resonance in Ukraine, which in the 1930s was subjected, under the psychopathical Soviet dictator Stalin, to the Holodomor artificial famine - an earlier attempt by Russia to erase the Ukrainian nation. By cutting off Oleshky and turning it into a zone of slow attrition, the occupying forces are thus deliberately tapping into generational trauma. It is a calculated message of total subjugation: submit entirely, or face absolute erasure and, pointedly, starvation. It is a message from the old imperialist master, intended for the whole of Ukraine to hear. This strategy of engineered humanitarian catastrophe isn't just a byproduct of fascist Russia's occupation; it is a primary instrument of control. It aims to break the collective will of the population by trying to convince them that further resistance will carry a cost impossible to bear.

🥴 Kremlin: Providing Starlink data for strikes deep inside Russia would be a very harmful, potentially dangerous and reckless step.

Voters in Switzerland will decide in a referendum this weekend whether to enshrine a stricter definition of the country's centuries-old neutrality into the constitution. A “yes” vote would effectively prevent Bern from imposing sanctions on Russia. politico.eu/article/swiss-vo…

One of the most important things over the next months and years will be how we share information and, even more importantly, how we react to what happens around us: And I want to be very clear with all my friends, journalists and people who follow me: we need to be extremely careful, because information itself is part of the battlefield. Europe is facing more hybrid threats, from sabotage and cyberattacks to disinformation and attempts to create fear and division. Not every operation needs to cause massive physical damage. Creating uncertainty, making people angry, or simply making them lose trust in their institutions and in each other already achieve an effect. This is why the way we report an incident matters. If something suspicious happens, report it. But distinguish between what we know, what we suspect, what someone claims and what investigators have actually established. Because if we immediately turn every allegation into a fact, amplify every rumour and push the most dramatic explanation, we can unintentionally create the reaction that someone wanted in the first place. And this applies to everyone: journalists, media, analysts, politicians and people like me who share information online. And if you support a cause, support it in the right way. Don't help it by spreading something simply because it makes your side look good. Help it by being accurate, checking sources, correcting mistakes and being honest when something is still unknown. Because when you constantly push information that people later discover was exaggerated, misleading or simply wrong, you don't just lose credibility. You push people away. And when people stop trusting the information coming from sources they once followed, they start looking somewhere else. They may turn to unreliable accounts, misinformation or conspiracy theories simply because those sources offer them an explanation they feel they can trust. That's exactly the kind of environment where division becomes easier to exploit. Supporting a country or a cause doesn't mean switching off critical thinking. Being first may get attention. Being accurate builds trust. And I believe that trust will be one of the most important things Europe needs in the years ahead. And this doesn't only apply to journalists, analysts or people who post about politics and security. It applies to everyone, including those who simply follow me or talk about everyday life. You can make a difference too. Help the people around you understand how to check information. Show them how to find the original source, compare different reports and recognise the difference between an opinion, an allegation and a confirmed fact. You might be the next person who informs someone else. You might be the person who helps someone stop before sharing something false. You can be a positive part of the community around you. I’m just one small piece of this, but all of you together can be much bigger.