Attention to the Unseen

  Claude Malhuret has been a member of the French Senate since 2014. On Tuesday, he delivered following speech (translated and adapted by The Atlantic): Europe is at a crucial juncture of its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service. This is a tragedy for the free world,…

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The Guardian reports: Russia launched a devastating attack on Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens more, hours after Donald Trump defended Vladimir Putin and said the Kremlin leader was “doing what anybody would do”. Two ballistic missiles hit the centre of Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region. Fire engulfed a five-storey apartment building. As emergency services arrived, Russia launched another strike on the same area. Eleven civilians were killed, with five children among the 30…

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Time reports: The U.S. decision to suspend the flow of military intelligence to Ukraine this week has aided the Russian advance along a critical part of the front, weakening the negotiating position of President Volodymyr Zelensky and killing many Ukrainian soldiers in recent days, according to five senior Western and Ukrainian officials and military officers familiar with the situation. “As a result of this pause, there are hundreds of dead Ukrainians,” one of the officers told TIME in an interview…

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The Guardian reports: European leaders holding emergency talks in Brussels have agreed on a massive increase to defence spending, amid a drive to shore up support for Ukraine after Donald Trump halted US military aid and intelligence sharing. But the show of unity was marred by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, failing to endorse an EU statement on Ukraine pushing back against Trump’s Russia-friendly negotiating stance. The 26 other EU leaders, including Orbán’s ally Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister,…

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  Donald Trump has read out a letter from Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Ukraine is ready to negotiate and the president says he’s getting strong signals from Russia that it is also ready for peace, but – if that deal boils down to Ukraine surrendering territory, American mining companies extracting minerals from Ukraine, and no security guarantee – is that real peace? And would a deal like that hold? In this new world of strong man politics, has Ukraine been bullied…

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Politico reports: Four senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job. The senior Trump allies held talks with Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a remorselessly ambitious former prime minister, and senior members of the party of Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskyy’s immediate predecessor as president, according to three Ukrainian parliamentarians and a U.S….

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Mila Tanghe writes: For the first time in decades, European NATO must consider fighting without the critical support and capabilities of the US military, the backbone of the alliance. The US is no longer “primarily focused on the security of Europe,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told allies in Brussels on February 12. Europe is not defenseless. Its militaries have well-trained forces, but they lack the strategic capabilities, command structures, and the sheer firepower necessary to sustain a prolonged conflict independently….

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The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration’s rewrite of decades of U.S. foreign policy on Russia, laid bare in the Oval Office confrontation between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is bringing Washington into alignment with Moscow, the Kremlin said Sunday — a shift that could upend the geopolitics that have governed international relations since World War II. “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, state television reported Sunday. “This…

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Jennifer Rankin writes: A fortnight after Vladimir Putin sent his troops to attack Ukraine, the 27 leaders of the EU gathered at the palace of Versailles and condemned Russia’s invasion, pledged support to the people of Ukraine – “we will not leave them alone” – and vowed to “take more responsibility for our security”. Three years later, EU leaders are under pressure as never before to live up to those promises. After a summit hosted by Keir Starmer on Sunday,…

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Julia Davis reports: The disgraceful spectacle of President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance taking turns insulting the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a White House meeting on Friday was a welcome sight for pro-Kremlin propagandists in Moscow. They’ve described it as an ambush, designed as a way for America to part ways with Ukraine—and they couldn’t be happier with the way this setup played out. Appearing on Friday’s breaking news broadcast on channel Solovyov Live, political scientist…

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The Observer reports: King Charles will hold an ­official audience at Sandringham with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday as the UK and EU demonstrate their “unwavering” ­support after his humiliation at the hands of Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House. Keir Starmer will also host European heads of government and the leaders of Canada and Turkey at a special defence summit aimed at presenting a united front on the Ukraine crisis. On arrival in Downing…

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In an editorial, The Kyiv Independent says: It’s time to say it plainly. America’s leadership has switched sides in the war. The American people have not, and they should speak up. In the past several weeks, the U.S. leadership has demonstrated explicit hostility towards Ukraine and aligned its rhetoric and policy with Russia. The animosity culminated today when U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting in the Oval Office. After…

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Politico reports: European leaders on Friday rallied to defend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after United States President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance subjected him to a tirade of withering and infantilizing abuse in the Oval Office. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.” In what may prove to a significant turning point in the tottering postwar…

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