Notices by Anne Applebaum (anneapplebaum@journa.host), page 5

Ukraine is changing in order to win

In which I talk to the Ukrainian defense minister, Rustem Umerov:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/01/rustem-umerov-defense-minister-ukraine/677060/

On the anniversary of January 6, reposting this, from 2020. On complicity. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/

Russia has once again demonstrated its disdain for the Western world with a massive attack on Kyiv and other cities this morning.
Today would be a great day to seize Russia's frozen assets and start using them to pay for the damage.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/ukraine-russia-frozen-assets/676390/

Give Russia's frozen assets to Ukraine. Now. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/ukraine-russia-frozen-assets/676390/

New Polish PM Donald Tusk, in his first major speech:
"By some strange coincidence, politicians who attack the foundations of democracy are anti-Ukrainian. Only a united west can help Ukraine win in the fight for democratic values"

summary in English:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/12/donald-tusk-prime-minister-poland-parliament-coalition-europe-latest-news

Lech Walesa is in the Polish parliament right now, to mark the end of the government that broke the constitution and tried to create a one-party state.
His t-shirt says CONSTITUTION

https://tvn24.pl/polska/lech-walesa-w-sejmie-powital-go-marszalek-szymon-holownia-7530573

"The end of American aid will not end the killing and dying in Ukraine. It will only allow Russian missiles to turn more cities into the hell of Mariupol, and Russian troops to inflict more agony on civilians under occupation." https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/ukraine-russia-war-aid/676287/

"Once the commander in chief says “I will not come to an ally’s aid if attacked,” why would anyone fear NATO, regardless of what obligations still exist on paper? And once the Russians, or anyone else, no longer fear a U.S. response to an attack, then the chances that they will carry one out grow higher.
on the fate of NATO, if Trump wins: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/01/trump-2024-reelection-pull-out-of-nato-membership/676120/

"In just a few years, we have gone from being relatively secure in our democracy to being a few short steps, and a matter of months, away from the possibility of dictatorship."
from Bob Kagan
https://wapo.st/47QyFY1

And there it is: The American far-right's campaign to make it easier for Russian, Chinese and other foreign propaganda to circulate more easily in the US is succeeding https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/30/biden-foreign-disinformation-social-media-election-interference/

Today is the annual day of remembrance for the Holodomor, the Ukrainian famine. 90 years ago Stalin sent activists to confiscate food from Ukrainian peasants. Millions died.
To mark this day, Putin sent dozens of drones to attack Kyiv.
Like Stalin, Putin wants to erase Ukraine.

on the @gaslitnation podcast!
what comes after Putin:
https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/episodes-transcripts-20/2023/11/22/anne-applebaum-after-putin

The accounts given by Ukrainians who have fled the occupied territories sound like accounts of people who escaped Stalin's Soviet Union https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-border-crossing.html

"Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents."

https://www.axios.com/2023/11/13/trump-loyalists-2024-presidential-election

"Right now, even if Zelensky agrees to negotiate, there is no evidence that Putin wants to negotiate, that he wants to stop fighting, or that he has ever wanted to stop fighting. And yes, according to Western officials who have periodic conversations with their Russian counterparts, attempts have been made to find out."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/us-ukraine-support-putin-defeat/675953/

"Putin still believes that time is on his side. If he can’t win on the battlefield, he will wait for the democratic world to splinter, and he will encourage that splintering. He will wait for the Ukrainians to grow tired, and he will try to make that happen too. He will wait for Donald Trump to win the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and he will do anything he can to help that happen too."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/us-ukraine-support-putin-defeat/675953/

The path to end this war does not only lead through the battlefield. We need to start thinking not just about helping Ukraine, but about defeating Russia, using all of the tools available, on and off the battlefield.

"A cease-fire means that both sides have to stop fighting. Right now, even if Zelensky agrees to negotiate, there is no evidence that Putin wants to negotiate, that he wants to stop fighting, or that he has ever wanted to stop fighting. And yes, according to Western officials who have periodic conversations with their Russian counterparts, attempts have been made to find out."

On Putin's waiting game:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/us-ukraine-support-putin-defeat/675953/

Did South American countries recall ambassadors and cut their ties with Russia when the Russian army destroyed the city of Mariupol, killing and displacing tens of thousands of people? I can't remember that happening https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/bolivia-israel-hamas-gaza-war-crime

How, and why, successive US administrations pressured the Ukrainians to give up their nuclear weapons in return for meaningless security guarantees. From George Bogden, who will soon publish a book on this subject: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/deceit-dread-and-disbelief-story-how-ukraine-lost-its-nuclear-arsenal-207076