Ukraine

Thursday 28th of March 2024

2016 Presidential election The president's intense resistance to the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia systematically interfered in the 2016 campaign – and the blame he cast instead on a rival country – led many of his advisers to think that Putin himself helped spur the idea of Ukraine's culp- ability, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. One former senior White House official said Trump even stated so explicitly at one point, saying he knew Ukraine was the real culprit because “Putin told me.” Washington Post, December 19, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Bullshitters say Every time I talk with a foreign leader, I put American interests first, just as I did with President Zelensky. Donald Trump, letter to Nancy Pelosi, Dec. 17, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Coups d'etat On Wednesday, Mr Trump was asked what he wanted from his Ukraine call. He dismissed the inquiry as a hoax driven by the corrupt media. Those who lied about him were guilty of treason. His verdict leaves no middle ground. Either you believe Mr Trump, or you are corrupt. In an old-fashioned coup, the people kept their heads down. In the 21st-century version, public opinion is key to whether one can succeed. Edward Luce, Financial Times, October 4, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say At some point, I'm going to sit down perhaps as a fireside chat on live television, and I will read the transcript of the call. Donald Trump, who believes the transcript of his call with Ukraine's president exonerates him of wanting a quid pro quo with Ukraine © 2019 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say No, I don't take any. Zero, to put it mildly. They took a perfect phone call that I had with the president of Ukraine, an absolutely perfect call, you know it, they know it, nothing was said wrong in that call – to impeach the President of the United States for that is a disgrace and it's a mark against our country. Donald Trump, responding to a reporter who asked, “Do you take an responsibility for the fact that you are about to be impeached?” © 2019 Kwiple.com
Energy Thanks to an unseasonably warm winter in  Europe, Putin's moment of maximum leverage has passed uneventfully, and … the biggest  victim of Putin's gas gambit was Russia itself.  Putin's natural gas leverage is now noneistent, as the world — and, most importantly, Europe — no longer needs Russian gas. Far from freezing to death, Europe quickly secured alternative gas supplies by pivoting to global liquefied natural gas (LNG).  Putin … has zero remaining leverage and no way to replace his erstwhile primary customer; he is finding out the hard way that it is much easier for consumers to replace unreliable commodity suppliers than it is for suppliers to find new markets.  Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Foreign Policy, Jan. 19, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Impeachment I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. From Trump's July 25, 2019, telephone conversation soliciting President Zelensky of Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Bien and his son  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Impeachment Was there a quid pro quo? The answer is yes. Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret. Gordon Sondland [“Everyone” includes Trump, Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pompeo, Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton, who wanted no part of what he called a “drug deal”] © 2019 Kwiple.com
Nukes By taking nuclear blackmail seriously, we have actually increased the overall chances of nuclear war.  If nuclear blackmail enables a Russian victory, the consequences will be incalculably awful. If any country with nuclear weapons can do whatever it likes, then law means nothing, no international order is possible, and catastrophe beckons at every turn. Countries without nuclear weapons will have to build them, on the logic that they will need nuclear deterrence in the future.  Nuclear proliferation would make nuclear war much more likely in the future. Timothy Snyder, New York Times, May 6, 2022, on Russia's threats to use nuclear weapons to guarantee a win in its war with Ukraine © 2023 Kwiple.com
Nukes Russia's nuclear talk is itself the weapon. … Russian propagandists want us to think that nuclear powers can never lose wars, on the logic that they could always deploy nuclear weapons to win. This is an ahistoric fantasy. Nuclear weapons did not bring the French victory in Algeria, nor did they preserve the British Empire. The Soviet Union lost its war in Afghanistan. America lost in Vietnam and in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Israel failed to win in Lebanon.  Nuclear powers lose wars with some regularity. Timothy Snyder, New York Times, May 6, 2022, on Russia's threats to use nuclear weapons to guarantee a win in its war with Ukraine © 2023 Kwiple.com
Politics It's perfectly possible to conduct yourself with ethics, integrity, and no hint of scandal, even in politics, even in D.C., even in Ukraine. Politics don't corrupt people, people corrupt politics. Judge Amy Berman Jackson, during sentencing of Rick Gates © 2019 Kwiple.com
Profiles in courage NO WAR Остановите войну, не верьте пропаганде, здесь вам врут. Russians against war [ Stop the war Don't believe the propaganda You are being lied to here ] Sign displayed by Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One Russia TV channel, after sneaking up behind the anchor during a live broadcast to the nation to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, before the anchor switched to pre-recorded footage and she was taken away for interrogation © 2022 Kwiple.com
Profiles in courage The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride. Volodymyr Zelensky's response to an offer by the US to evacuate him and his family from Kyiv after Russia invaded Ukraine with overwhelming force on February 24, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Public discourse In my own sector, punditry, the man from a high-status country — above all, until now, the US or UK — is invited to explain the world. The man from a low-status country gets to explain his country. The woman from a low-status country is at best invited to explain the situation of women in her country.  Similar dynamics have played out over Ukraine. Traditionally, it was Russians or high-status westerners who got to interpret the country to the world. Even now, Ukrainian views risk being dismissed as partial or emotional. Simon Kuper, Financial Times, July 21, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say By the way, “corrupt intent” is also what you call it when Trump goes camping. Stephen Colbert responding to Senator Ted Cruz's claim that “a quid pro quo is not illegal unless there is ‘corrupt intent’” © 2019 Kwiple.com
Russia The Russian democrat ends where the Ukrainian question begins. Volodymyr Vynnychenko, first Prime Minister of Ukraine, 1917-1918 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Russia The Ukraine war is, Lebedev says: “The defeat of Russian culture. And it is probably the final defeat.  Because if Russia is to have any future at all, it will have to become another country. Another Russia.” Financial Times, April 10, 2023, quoting Sergei Lebedev, the exiled Russian writer © 2023 Kwiple.com
Selfie What are they talking about, if I wanted to do quid pro quo, I would've done the damn quid pro quo. Donald Trump objecting to a Wall Street Journal editorial suggesting he was too inept to execute a quid pro quo with Ukraine © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot It will wash in this shame for decades. Russia after invading Ukraine portrayed by Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian TV journalist who waved a sign reading “Stop the war — Don't believe propaganda — They're lying to you” during a live broadcast to the nation and who now lives in exile in safe houses in Europe  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Mike Pompeo: Last in his class at West Point on ethics in leadership. Mike Pompeo portrayed by Thomas L. Friedman, after it was revealed that Pompeo, as Secretary of State, participated in a smear campaign to remove Marie Yovanovitch, ambassador to Ukraine, because she would block Trump's attempt to bribe Ukraine's president © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot He was being involved in a domestic political errand, and we were being involved in national security foreign policy. And those two things had just diverged. Gordon Sondland portrayed by Fiona Hill, on realizing that Sondland's mission in the Ukraine had nothing to with advancing America's bipartisan foreign policy objectives © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot In ending American isolation, his predecessor Franklin Roosevelt had the “advantage” of a world war. Truman set himself a harder task: to maintain a forward US posture during peace time. The result, an empire in all but name, has had costs. But the past 18 months have been a sublime education in its uses. Imagine Ukraine right now without a committed US. In another 18, depending how Americans vote, you might not have to. Harry Truman portrayed by Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, July 25, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say If you're looking for a circumstance where the President of the United States was threatening the Ukraine with cutting off aid unless they investigated his political opponent, you'd be very disappointed. That does not exist. Lindsey Graham © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say Putin won’t lose. He will not lose. He’s not gonna lose. Ron Johnson justifying voting against military aid to Ukraine © 2024 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say Thank God no one is accusing us any more of interfering in elections in the United States. Now they are blaming Ukraine. Vladimir Putin © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say What I can tell you about the Trump policy toward Ukraine. It was incoherent. It depends on who you talk to; they seem to be incapable of forming a quid pro quo. Lindsey Graham, November 6, 2019, rolling out the latest/6th Republican defence of Trump's extortionate call with Ukraine's president, following earlier defences that: 1- there was nothing wrong with the call, 2- there was no quid pro quo, 3- we do quid pro quos all the time, 4- evidence about the call is second-hand, 5- extorting a foreign country for personal and partisan political advantage is not an impeachable offense © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say You can tell Putin’s on top of his game. One thing he said that, it really rung a bell,  is the propaganda media machiney over here, they sell anything they possibly can to go after Russia, We kept forcing NATO all the way to Eastern Europe, and Putin just got tired of it. He said, “Listen, I do not want missiles on my border from the United States. It’d be like Russia coming to Mexico and putting missiles in Mexico.” I can understand what he’s talking about. Tommy Tuberville, justifying voting against aid for Ukraine by echoing Putin's talking points © 2024 Kwiple.com
< Trumpists say You could also argue the countries they've attacked were part of Russia. Or part of the Soviet Union. Rand Paul, responding to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's statement that the countries invaded by Russia were not members of NATO, and, in doing so, he implied that countries like Georgia, Moldova or Ukraine have no right to self-determination because they were once part of the Soviet Union or Russian Federation © 2022 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say You have some people in this town saying we need to cut social security and throw our grandparents into poverty. Why? So that one of Zelenskyy’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht? Mike Pence, Mamaw's proud Putinista © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine All of these discordant notes [China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Marie LePen and far right in France, etc.] underline that any initial impression that the whole world had united in outrage against Russia was clearly misleading. Instead there is an “axis of outrage” centred on the western alliance and an “axis of indifference” centred on the Global South. Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, April 15, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine As president, I will bring back peace through strength. Peace through strength. It would never have happened. If I was president, there would not have been a war with Russia in Ukraine. Zero chance. …  Even now, despite tremendous loss of lives and destruction of much of that country, I would have a peace deal negotiated within 24 hours. Donald Trump, January 28, 2023, launching his 2024 presidential campaign © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Biden has been overestimating Putin’s nuclear red lines from the start. As a result, Ukraine is still having to defend itself with one hand behind its back. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine A country needs a closed sky like a home needs a roof: it is unfathomable that missiles can rain down on you at home, just as it is absurd to imagine snow falling in your bedroom. But “to close the sky” would have been to risk open war with nuclear-armed Russia, and Europe and the US declined. Sophie Pinkham, New York Review of Books, December 7, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine A cynic would conclude that the west’s unspoken aim is not just to prevent a Russian victory, but to avoid a decisive Ukrainian success, for fear of escalation by Vladimir Putin's regime. If this is true, it is jarringly at odds with US and European public rhetoric. Adam Tooze, Financial Times, February 24, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Do prove that you are with us. Do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you are indeed Europeans, and that life will win over death, and light will win over darkness.  Volodymyr Zelensky, speech to European Parliament, March 1, 2022 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine  Do you still believe that we are one people? Do you still think that you can frighten, crush, and bend us into submission? You really understand nothing? You don't realize who we are? What we stand for? What we are about? Read my lips:  Without gas or without you? Without you. Without light or without you? Without you.  Without water or without you? Without you. Without food or without you? Without you. Volodymyr Zelensky, address to the Russian people after Russia  began its campaign to freeze Ukrainians to death by destroying their energy infrastructure © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Financial assistance is also critically important, and I would like to thank you, thank you very much, thank you for both financial packages you have already provided us with and the ones you may be willing to decide on. Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way. Volodymyr Zelensky, December 21, 2022, speech to Joint Session of Congresss © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine FIRST COME THE TANKS, THEN COME THE NUKES. Get this crazy war ended, NOW. So easy to do! Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump – Jan 26, 2023, 5:44 AM © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine For the first time in years, the United States has demonstrated policy competence during a global crisis. Ukraine's stout resistance and its identification with Europe and the United States have reminded everyone, including Americans, that U.S. soft power and structural power persist. After decades of rhetoric about American decline and a democratic recession, U.S. policymakers can now speak of restored alliances and a determination to strengthen the liberal international order. Perceptions of U.S. hegemony might be starting to shift in a more favorable direction. Daniel W. Drezner, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2022 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine From now on, every history textbook will have a new section, “When Ukraine united the world”. When democracy grew teeth again. When tyranny received an answer in the language it understands. Volodymyr Zelensky, August 24, 2022 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine The futility of imagining that you can shoot Ukrainian culture into non-existence has been most fatuously exemplified by Russian troops who recently “executed” a statue of the great 19th-century Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in Borodyanka, with a bullet to its skull, as though the life of literature was made of metal. Simon Schama, Financial Times, May 6, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Слава Україні  [Slava Ukrayini] [Glory to Urkraine]  © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Good morning, everyone. We are all here. Our soldiers are here. Civil society is here. We defend our independence. And this is how it will always be from now on. Volodymyr Zelensky, surrounded by government officials outside a government building in Kyiv, in a video message to the nation 38 hours after Russia's invasion began at 4:30 a.m. on February 24, 2022 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine He [Putin] would have never done it. That's without even negotiating a deal. I could have negotiated. At worst, I could’ve made a deal to take over something, there are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly, but you could’ve worked a deal. Donald Trump's peace-by-appeasing-Putin peace plan © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine History is unfair. We are not the ones who started this war. But we are the ones who must finish it. And we are ready for dialogue to do so. Volodymyr Zelensky, May 20, 2019, five years after Russia "annexed" Crimea and invaded Donbas and three years before deciding that victory is more useful than dialog with people who want you dead  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine  I hope others can help keep Ukraine alive. Learn the history. Light a candle on  Holodomor Remembrance Day in November. Mourn the dead. Remember Ukraine. Lev Golinkin, New York Times, March 2, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine I need ammo, not a ride. Volodymyr Zelensky, rejecting American offers to airlift him out of Ukraine following Russia's invasion © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine I want people to stop dying over this ridiculous war. Donald Trump, who refuses to side with Ukraine in its war with Putin's Russia and says Ukrainians “earned a lot of respect” for defending their territory but have to give it up if they want peace © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, “This is genius.” Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful.  So, Putin is now saying,  “It’s independent,” a large section of Ukraine. I said, “How smart is that?” And he's gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were more army tanks than I've ever seen. They're gonna keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who's very savvy … I know him very well. Very, very well. Donald Trump, February 22, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine In May 2019 Ms. Dunphy continued working in her role as Director of Business Development and as Giuliani's executive assistant, monitoring his email and social media. During that time, Giuliani discussed with Ms. Dunphy his work to try to have Ambassador [Marie] Yovanovitch removed from her position at the request of a foreign oligarch. From the verified complaint against Rudy Giuliani filed by Noelle Dunphy © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine It is impossible to win a war — or make enough headway to reach a favourable settlement — if you are limited to fighting the invader on your own soil. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Ivan the Terrible. Peter the Great. And Catherine the Great. Sergei Lavrov's response, when asked on the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, who was advising Putin [Russia's great expansionists/imperialists] © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine The more Russians we kill now, the fewer Russians our children will have to kill. Roman Ratushny, renowned 24-year-old Ukrainian environmental and civic activist who was killed June 9, 2022, fighting against  Russian invaders in Izyum, not far from Khardiv; in a tweet widely shared after his death © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Obama looked at Ukraine [after Russia seized Crimea in 2014] and asked, “What’s in it for us?” Trump looked at Ukraine and asked [in trying to shake down Zelensky], “What’s in it for me?” For neither president was the question of staving off another Russian invasion, much less of encouraging Ukraine's democratic development, a particular priority. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin looked at Ukraine and concluded: “It's all for me.” Bret Stephens, New York Times, March 8, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Over the past 12 months, the US spent 0.21 per cent of GDP on military support for Ukraine. That is slightly less than it spent in an average year on in its ill-fated Afghanistan intervention. In Iraq the spend was three times larger.  The Korean war cost the US 13 times as much. Lend-Lease aid for the British empire in the second world war ran to 15 times as much in proportional terms. …  To support the American-led operation to oust Saddam Hussein from the oilfields of Kuwait, Germany gave three times as much as it is offering to Ukraine in bilateral aid. Adam Tooze, Financial Times, Feb. 24, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Putin did not thrust into Ukraine to reconquer this fabled “breadbasket.” The quest was for a certified sphere of predominance from the Caspian to the Baltic Sea. Unopposed for years, he did it because he could, and he could because the West had cashed in its peace dividends after the suicide of the Soviet Union in 1991. The American military in Europe, once at 300,000, had dwindled into 65,000 before Putin pounced.  Germany's 3,000 panzers had shrunk into 360. Opportunity, not acreage, beckoned. Josef Joffe, New York Times Book Review, April 4, 2022, review of Blood and Ruins  by Richard Overy  © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Putin's assault threatens the core values and interests on which postwar Europe is built: inviolability of frontiers; peaceful co-operation among states; and democracy. It particularly threatens the security of the countries closest to Russia, which were, not long ago, inside the Soviet empire. If Putin wins, who comes next?  No line can be drawn between our values and our interests, whatever "realists" suggest. Our values are our interests. This war is for a way of life built on the ideal of freedom from destructive coercion  by thugs like Putin. This makes it our war, too. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, February 28, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine The reason Ukrainians have surprised and inspired so much of the world  — themselves not the least — since Russia’s invasion isn’t simply that they have fought.  It’s that they have things worth fighting for: civil rights and an elected government;  a news media that holds leaders to account; a culture of innovation and enterprise; a spirit of kinship, compassion and obligation for fellow citizens caught in the maw of war. Bret Stephens, New York Times, September 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine So why are Putin’s sympathisers making such inroads into the Republican party? Because Putin is Biden’s enemy, and the enemy of your enemy is your friend.  It is not much more complicated than that. There are genuine Putin backers on America’s hard right. But the bulk of his American fellow-travellers are dark opportunists, like Donald Trump. Anything that is harmful to Biden is good for them. Ukraine’s defeat would thus be good for Republicans.  Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 13, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine The survey reveals that Vladimir Putin's war of outright aggression, and his military failures during the conflict, do not appear to  have caused people in non-Western countries to downgrade their opinion of Russia or to question its relative strength. Russia is either an “ally” or a “partner” for 79 per cent of people in China and 69 per cent in Turkiye. Moreover, around three-quarters in each of these two countries and in India believe that Russia is either stronger, or at least equally strong, compared to how they say they perceived it before the war.  Timothy Garton Ash, Ivan Krastev, Mark Leonard, "United West, divided from the rest," European Council on Foreign Relations © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine This is not merely Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is the beginning of a war aganst Europe. A war against the unity of Europe,  against elementary human rights in Europe, against the peaceful coexistence of the countries of Europe — and against the fact that European states refuse to settle border disputes by force. Volodymyr Zelensky, February 25, 2022, the day after Russia's invasion began © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine This year can be called a year of losses for Ukraine, for the whole of Europe and the whole world. But it's wrong. We shouldn't say that. We haven't lost anything. It was taken from us. Ukraine did not lose its sons and daughters – they were taken away by murderers. We did not lose our lands – they were occupied by invaders. The world did not lose peace – Russia destroyed it. It's impossible to forget and it's impossible to forgive, but it's possible to win. Volodymyr Zelensky, December 31, 2022 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine To stand up for Ukraine now, one must be willing to knock the halo off a lot of countries. It means wading against half a century of postcolonial theory about where moral authority lies in the world. It is easy, and right, to implore the likes of France and Germany to do more for Ukraine. It is more transgressive to suggest that poorer nations are being cavalier in their attitude to the global order or selective in their opposition to imperialism. But transgress we must. It is the truest egalitarianism. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, June 3, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning. Alexander Dugin, far-right Russian nationalist philosopher known everywhere as “Putin's brain” © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Ukraine’s resistance to Russia's genocidal invasion does more for American security than any American policy does — or could do. It has changed the global balance in a way that makes peace more likely in decades to come. 2/ My concerns about the Russian invasion of Ukraine are the prevention of genocide and the defense of democracy. But those who think first of U.S. interests should acknowledge what Ukrainians are doing for American security. The least we can do is be on our own side 13/13 Timothy Snyder, 9:15 AM — Nov 6, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine What animates Ukrainians, and should animate Americans and West Europeans, is the brutality with which Russia wages war. There are lots of complicated issues in international relations, but this is stark: Russia has tried to annex part of a sovereign country and persistently commits crimes against humanity. Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, November 16, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine What will bring the end of the war? We used to say “peace”. Now we say "victory". Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian Independence Day, August 24, 2022 six months after Russia's invasion © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entan- gled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them. … Without question, peace should be the objective. The U.S. should not provide assistance that could require the deployment of American troops or enable Ukraine to engage in offensive operations beyond its borders. F-16s and long-range missiles should therefore be off the table. Ron DeSantis, co-leader of MRGA Republicans © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Who told you that Ukraine will remain on the map of the world in two years’ time? Dimitry Medvedev, 2020, former Russian president and prime minister, now head of the ruling United Russia party © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire. Zbigniew Brzezinski © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine You're occupants, you're fascists. What the fuck are you doing on our land with all these guns? Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here. A Ukrainian woman shouting at a heavily-armed Russian soldier in a viral video from February 2022 [Sunflowers are Ukraine's national flower] © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War But other global threats haven't gone away since this war began. We're just ignoring them. In an age of constant crisis, the urgent shoves aside the important, which in our case is climate change. I don't see how we fix this. Simon Kuper, Financial Times, March 24, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War Every one of us has got a list of things that we will never forgive this war and its occupying forces for. Oleksandr Mykhed, a Ukrainian writer, Financial Times, March 4, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War I started to think about the parallels between climate change and this war and it's clear that the roots of both these threats to humanity are found in fossil fuels. Burning oil, gas and coal is causing warming and impacts we need to adapt to. And Russia sells these resources and uses the money to buy weapons. Other countries are dependent  upon these fossil fuels; they don't make them- selves free of them. This is a fossil fuel war.  It's clear we cannot continue to live this way; it will destroy our civilization. Svitlana Krakovska, Ukrainian climate scientist and member of the  UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, quoted in The Guardian, March 9, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War I will venture only one prediction about Putin: Vladimir, the first day of this war was the best day of the rest of your life. I wish that I could blithely predict that Ukraine will be Putin’s Waterloo — and his alone. But I can't, because in our wired world, what happens in Waterloo doesn’t stay in Waterloo. Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, February 25, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War  One disturbing effect of this cruel madness and invasion of an innocent and sovereign state is that an entire generation of children will have a clearly defined enemy, an irreversible consequence. Haska Shyyan, a Ukrainian writer, Financial Times, March 4, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War One way to frame the war between Russia and Ukraine is as a contest between lateral networks and vertical hierachies. Or as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt observes: “Russia is playing a hierarchical war — top-down generals are planning the usual stuff. But Ukraine is playing a networked war. The real strategic question is: what is the limit of a networked war? We are going to find out.” Financial Times, July 22, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War  The Russian army’s incompetence in Ukraine  may only heighten dangers. Six weeks ago,  Putin thought he had a strong military. Now,  to adapt the cold war jibe about the USSR, Russia looks like Burkina Faso with nukes plus a brutal artillery. That could encourage Putin to use his one unbeatable weapon: nuclear. We may, God forbid, start getting used to isolated nuclear attacks, after which we move on, like after the atomic bombs of 1945. Simon Kuper, Financial Times, March 24, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War There is no doubt that attacks on healthcare are central to the Russian military’s way of waging war. On February 24, the first day of the invasion, Russian forces hit three hospitals. Since then, attacks have damaged more than six hundred others, according to Ukraine's health ministry. Annie Sparrow, Financial Times, July 5, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War Welcome to World War Wired — the first war in a totally interconnected world. This will be the Cossacks meet the World Wide Web. Like I said, you haven't been here before. Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, February 25, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
War The future use of military forces, driven by autonomous systems, weaponized algor-  ithms, and hypersonic weapons, highlights the potential for a more destructive form of warfare in the twenty-first century. However, as the Russians and Chinese have demonstrated over the past decade, if objectives can be achieved without violence, most actors will do so. New ways of using information operations, lawfare, and deniable military and para- military activities offer different pathways to achieve strategic outcomes for state and nonstate actors. Mick Ryan, War Transformed  [2022] © 2022 Kwiple.com
War crimes It [Russia's “special military operation” in Ukraine] is going on strictly in accord- ance with the plans and the purposes that were established beforehand. We have a concept of domestic security and it's public. You can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used. So if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be used in accordance with our concept. Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary, March 13, 2022, interview with CNN, well after Russian started bombing houses, apartment buildings, schools, maternity wards, food markets, etc. © 2022 Kwiple.com