The negotiations in Turkey are going great – Russia sent some low level id1ots so Marco Rubio left, and then the low level management threatened Ukraine with forever war and want lots of more territory than they hold today.
Ukraine sent their defense minister and the head of military intelligence, and the President intended to be there but it was to low of a level of the Russians even for him.
Ukraine is leaking to the press which is good.
Has anyone seen Starmer, Macron and Merz lately?
A couple of days ago the threatened Putin with german-level violence if he did not want peace.
Where is that violence?
First we zoom out a bit –
Trump together with the troika – Starmer, Macron and Merz have held Ukraines hands tied since beginning of the year so that it shall be peace in our time. Somehow it is ukraines fault that it is war not peace 😐
Ukraina stopped attack the refineries, they left Kursk two days before peace negotiations in Moscow, they did not drone the 9th May parade and they did not further attack across the northern border (almost).
At the same time none of the id1ots above go hard on Putin – he continues with his genocide in Ukraine.
China have shown their loyalty towards Russia on the 9th May together with 29 more countries – a larger group now than 2023 when it was only the old soviet republics.
China and possibly also Russia has instigated the war between India- Pakistan.
Russia threatens the Baltics and Finland and has a strategic offensive reserve ready for a limited campaign.
Russia also has offensive capacity in Ukraine and is about to start.
Ukraine is playing wests game here, kudos, but the fact remain – either Russia win or Ukraine win. The longer this drags on the closer to global conflict it gets.
Trump blows both hot and cold and it is hard to figure out his long term plan if any.
Back to the meeting to bring peace in our time –
Ukraine and Russia agreed on a ceasefire the month before Putins 9 May parade – only Ukraine adhered to it and Russia did not.
Europe and USA stopped to discuss that ceasefire a while after they noticed Russia did not care. Before that it was extremely important.
Nobody thanked Ukraine after a month for following up on the agreement.
Before the parade 9th May Putin panicked and BEGGED Ukraine for a ceasefire 8-10 May. Ukraine scared all the days before but did not bomb the parade.
Xi Jinping also begged Ukraine to not bomb the parade and Ukraine did fly +500 drones daily over Russia including Moscow but went silent on the parade day.
Likely a request from Europe and Trump.
Putin projected strength – lots of vehicles, lots of soldiers, ten countries joined with their soldiers and 29 big leaders including China.
Xi was there last 2015 so a bit of a biggie.
After the parade our troika Starmer, Macron and Merz went absolutely medieval on Putin – “if you don’t follow a ceasefire from the 12th May we will rain death upon you, capiche”.
They had a meeting with Zelensky and called Trump – all bet their full prestige on this.
Putin replied – foooock you I will not consider a ceasefire you d1cks (after he just got it for his parade 😐) but I can come to Turkey for peace talks on the 15th if Zelensky dare to show up and meet me.
Out troika replied – “yeah, ok – only for this time but you need to come there otherwise it will be consequences for you, biig consequences”.
Trump got all excited and tweeted that he would meet his two buddies in Istanbul for McDonalds.
Full-Prestige-Invested.
Zelensky spotted an opening and confirmed he would come to negotiate with Putin in person.
Putin now looked weak – he can not come to Turkey if Zelensky demands it, and he turks might send him to Hague anyway.
Zelensky did his bit – got off the plane, waved and said peace in our time.
Then Ukraine started to hint that Putin would not come – media ignores it.
Putin – “you guys are nerds”.
Trump – “they got great kebab here in Qatar, I will stay for another two days”.
Macron, Starmer and Merz turned off their phones.
And then it is all lost – the world media “ Zelensky will not attend the meeting”, “Zelensky accuses Putin”, “all three will not come to the meeting”.
And then swedens biggest newspaper – “it is the Ukrainian people that rejects trumps peace plan”.
Game over, Putin survived.
In swedish we use the expression – “not so good” – for really big fiascos like these.
-Starmer, Macron and Merz have now held back Ukraine long enough to allow Putin to prepare for his offensives.
-Nothing ever have consequences for Putin, that is the message he takes with him.
-Starmer, Macron and Merz have show that they are weak – Russians can smell weak miles away.
-Trump is now passive and on a Ghandi-mission in the middle east and got trade deals to do.
Europe should have gotten their big-boy pants on by now by all accounts – WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED.
We know Zapad25 is in September and Russia uses excercises to mobilize for war. Right now they are also extremely concerned for the Russian minorities in the Baltics and raise frequently that it is ancestral Russian land that the west took from Russia.
Russia has submitted a notice to mariners that 22 areas in the Baltics are no go zones from now until September.
Even CNN understands Russia has offensive plans.
We know Russia mobilizes 50 000 – 60 000 monthly since beginning of the year.
India got Pakistan, Bangladesh, Talibans and China against them and they are looking for friends now.
Then the psyops has started – “india is etnically cleansing their muslim population”, a powder keg that.
Are we being tough on Putin.
Will he retract his claws?
I do not think so, I think this encourages him to go further – and soon.
As soon as Putin do some kata-moves in the air Starmer, Macron and Merz are trying to hide behind each other – for f sake…
Our opposition are getting excited now and that means more war.
September is not far off – Baltics will be attacked.
Good idea to support India here – anyone heard anything?
We have Thyberg-gate in Sweden, an appointment of a senior diplomat in Sweden as national security adviser and 33 minutes after the appointment the government got nude pictures of him by email.
Apparently old from a dating site, account closed down years ago.
The email address used to send the pictures was protonmail and a name to another top diplomat in the foreign ministry.
Secret police immediately arrested him, he got beaten up, released, went to hospital and now he apparently committed suicide – all in a couple of days.
Some days after the first arrest another diplomat in Sweden got arrested, or civil servant in the foreign office, we don’t know yet.
And in a town further north – a prominent man in the kurdish diaspora arrested by secret police posing as a delivery service and phone repair men.
Media gets all the information almost in real time.
But all different media gets different information so they all contradict each other.
Who said Sweden was boring 😀
Rather safe to say that security services from third country somehow is in on this to some extent.
We will have AI translation of the Swedish posts from next week and I post them all on Substack so if you can curb your excitement until then – all posts will be in English and Swedish
As soon as the AI translation is up I sincerely recommend johanno1.se as it is plenty of initiated comments in the comment field.
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social
Don't forget to donate, Ukraine's cause is ours! Support Ukraine!
NOTE: Those of you who do NOT want to allow automatic translation of your comments, please go to your profile page and set it.
Hover over your name at the top right, select edit profile, and you will then find the setting under the language settings heading.
Good morning!
Russian losses 2025-05-18:
SLAVA UKRAINI!
Back over 1000! Very low armor.
999 thanks 🙏
Artillery 😳
High level of attacks in Pokrovsk, Novopokrovsk, and Lyman while Siviersk is rising. Continued fighting in Kursk.
Update as of 08.00 18.05.2025 on the Russian invasion
In total, 167↗️ combat engagements were recorded over the past day.⏱️145, 165, 168, 163, 166, 155, 161, 196, 193, 196, 171, 200, 269, 253, 216, 199, 199, 177, 178, 168, 174, 156, 175, 168, 144, 165, 96, 127, 162, 143, 125, 111, 99
#Kharkiv 3⏱️5, 6, 3, 4, 7, 3, 3, 6, 4, 11, 18, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 2, 2, 9, 6, 0, 0, 0, 4, 4, 0, 1, 2, 7, 1
#Kupyansk 1⏱️4, 4, 1, 2, 5, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 3, 5, 7, 6, 6, 5, 6, 9, 7, 3, 4, 5, 4, 1, 3, 2, 1, 7, 11, 4
#Lyman 24💥↗️ ⏱️17, 16, 24, 29, 20, 25, 8, 17, 27, 24, 21, 31, 22, 16, 27, 27, 36, 21, 18, 20, 22, 19, 15, 20, 14, 25, 12, 14, 17, 20
#Siverskyi 10💥↗️ ⏱️4, 3, 5, 3, 6, 8, 4, 8, 5, 6, -, 0, 3, 3, 1, 4, 2, 4, 6, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2
#Kramatorsk 8⏱️8, 8, 4, 4, 9, 10, 6, 10, 5, 4, 10, 6, 8, 6, 6, 13, 10, 16, 13, 8, 13, 1, 6, 4, 5, 7, 6, 8
#Toretsk 14💥↘️⏱️19, 8, 18, 6, 9, 6, 12, 15, 9, 13, 8, 6, 16, 7, 8, 4, 10, 6, 14, 9, 29, 16, 17, 13, 23, 10, 18, 26, 11
#Pokrovsk 54💥💥💥 ⏱️52, 75, 74, 54, 60, 70, 60, 65, 71, 61, 77, 78, 115, 78, 113, 83, 64, 85, 75, 59, 64, 68, 44, 65, 56, 53, 61, 39, 54, 64
#Novopavlivka 23💥💥↗️ ⏱️18, 23, 26, 30, 24, 13, 19, 31 , 28, 32, 23, 24, 52, 66, 23, 15, 16, 13, 23, 13, 13, 19, 10, 15, 17, 19, 5, 12, 9, 9
#Huliaipil 0⏱️0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 13, 0 , 0, 1, 1, 2, 7, 5, 0, 6, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
#Orikhivsk 7↗️⏱️2, 3, 3, 3, 6, 6, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4, 14, 3, 3, 5, 4, 5, 0, 5, 1, 4, 4, 9, 3, 5, 3, 4, 3, 3, 1
#Prydniprovsky 2⏱️0, 1, 1, 5, 4, 1, 3, 6, 5, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 5, 1, 1 , 1, 3, 1, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0
#Kursk 14💥 ⏱️13, 14, 9, 12, 9, 8, 25, 19, 19, 19, 11, 18 23, 23, 20, 33, 21, 25, 15, 23, 15, 30, 27, 26, 22, 21, 16, 20, 23, 21
In the Kursk sector, 14 firefights took place yesterday. The enemy 🇷🇺 carried out 15 air strikes, dropped 20 guided bombs, and made 224 artillery attacks, including three from multiple launch rocket systems.
Over the past day, the aviation, missile forces and artillery of the Defence Forces🇺🇦 hit four areas of concentration of personnel, weapons and military equipment and four enemy 🇷🇺 artillery systems.
High level of attacks in Pokrovsk, Novopokrovsk, and Lyman while Siviersk is rising. Continued fighting in Kursk.
Update as of 08.00 18.05.2025 on the Russian invasion
In total, 167↗️ combat engagements were recorded over the past day.⏱️145, 165, 168, 163, 166, 155, 161, 196, 193, 196, 171, 200, 269, 253, 216, 199, 199, 177, 178, 168, 174, 156, 175, 168, 144, 165, 96, 127, 162, 143, 125, 111, 99
#Kharkiv 3⏱️5, 6, 3, 4, 7, 3, 3, 6, 4, 11, 18, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 2, 2, 9, 6, 0, 0, 0, 4, 4, 0, 1, 2, 7, 1
#Kupyansk 1⏱️4, 4, 1, 2, 5, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 3, 5, 7, 6, 6, 5, 6, 9, 7, 3, 4, 5, 4, 1, 3, 2, 1, 7, 11, 4
#Lyman 24💥↗️
⏱️17, 16, 24, 29, 20, 25, 8, 17, 27, 24, 21, 31, 22, 16, 27, 27, 36, 21, 18, 20, 22, 19, 15, 20, 14, 25, 12, 14, 17, 20
#Siverskyi 10💥↗️
⏱️4, 3, 5, 3, 6, 8, 4, 8, 5, 6, -, 0, 3, 3, 1, 4, 2, 4, 6, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2
#Kramatorsk 8⏱️8, 8, 4, 4, 9, 10, 6, 10, 5, 4, 10, 6, 8, 6, 6, 13, 10, 16, 13, 8, 13, 1, 6, 4, 5, 7, 6, 8
#Toretsk 14💥↘️⏱️19, 8, 18, 6, 9, 6, 12, 15, 9, 13, 8, 6, 16, 7, 8, 4, 10, 6, 14, 9, 29, 16, 17, 13, 23, 10, 18, 26, 11
#Pokrovsk 54💥💥💥
⏱️52, 75, 74, 54, 60, 70, 60, 65, 71, 61, 77, 78, 115, 78, 113, 83, 64, 85, 75, 59, 64, 68, 44, 65, 56, 53, 61, 39, 54, 64
#Novopavlivka 23💥💥↗️
⏱️18, 23, 26, 30, 24, 13, 19, 31 , 28, 32, 23, 24, 52, 66, 23, 15, 16, 13, 23, 13, 13, 19, 10, 15, 17, 19, 5, 12, 9, 9
#Huliaipil 0⏱️0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 13, 0 , 0, 1, 1, 2, 7, 5, 0, 6, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
#Orikhivsk 7↗️⏱️2, 3, 3, 3, 6, 6, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4, 14, 3, 3, 5, 4, 5, 0, 5, 1, 4, 4, 9, 3, 5, 3, 4, 3, 3, 1
#Prydniprovsky 2⏱️0, 1, 1, 5, 4, 1, 3, 6, 5, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 5, 1, 1 , 1, 3, 1, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0
#Kursk 14💥
⏱️13, 14, 9, 12, 9, 8, 25, 19, 19, 19, 11, 18 23, 23, 20, 33, 21, 25, 15, 23, 15, 30, 27, 26, 22, 21, 16, 20, 23, 21
In the Kursk sector, 14 firefights took place yesterday. The enemy 🇷🇺 carried out 15 air strikes, dropped 20 guided bombs, and made 224 artillery attacks, including three from multiple launch rocket systems.
Over the past day, the aviation, missile forces and artillery of the Defence Forces🇺🇦 hit four areas of concentration of personnel, weapons and military equipment and four enemy 🇷🇺 artillery systems.
Thank you for the report 😀😀
Thank you 205
Ryssland dömer australiensare som kämpar för Ukraina till 13 års fängelse i skenrättegång.
https://kyivindependent.com/russia-sentences-australian-fighting-for-ukraine-to-13-years-in-prison/
Russia’s Shaheds are getting more dangerous
Numbers scraped from the Ukrainian Air Force’s reports on Shaheds incoming, lost, and shot down also show a major uptick in their effectiveness, even as the total number of Shaheds Russia sends is on the decline. One hundred and eleven made it through in February, compared to 404 in March and 424 in April. Meanwhile, the number of Shaheds that the Air Force reported as launched dropped by about a third between March and April.
How?
➖Russia has been sending them in larger swarms
➖Outfitting them with jet engines
➖➖Maximum payload that these Shaheds carry has tripled from about 30 kilograms to 90 kilograms.
➖➖Bring Shaheds higher in the sky, as needed, reaching a ceiling of around 2 kilometers. The vertical range of a Browning machine gun like the one that Oleksiy shoots is, he says, more like 1,800 meters. Shoulder-mounted surface-to-air missiles like the Soviet Igla and American Stingers work at higher ranges, but are in shorter supply.
➖Shaheds are also flying with Starlink Terminals that keep them connected to pilots in Russia in flight.
What Ukraine is doing about it? See article: https://kyivindependent.com/how-russias-shaheds-are-evolving-and-what-ukraines-air-defenses-are-doing-about-it/
Concerning that they are using Starlink ☹
I couldn’t have guessed in 2022 that it would be North Korean ammunition and Iranian drones that temporarily saved the world’s second largest and best army from crashing into the ditch.
Now I want to see extreme kwi or preferably zero, i.e. that they have returned home to Mordor.
Russians are driving with top of the line now 🤣
The point that Torbjörn Becker and colleagues want to make is that the EU has the economic prerequisites. All that remains is simply a question of political will, he argues.
https://omni.se/a/8qMpXW
I haven’t got Omni anymore so feel free to share the points 😀
Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar has been found dead in a tunnel in southern Gaza, reports TT referring to the Saudi TV channel al-Hadath. Sinwar is said to have been the target of Israeli attacks on Khan Yunis last week.
Mohammed Sinwar is believed to have become Hamas’ military leader in Gaza after his predecessor, his brother Yahya Sinwar, was killed in October 2024.
His death could affect the negotiations between Israel and Hamas, said a senior Israeli official to the Jerusalem Post last week. “If he is out of the picture, it should simplify the efforts to reach an agreement.”
👍
Who sent the email with the nude photos of Tobias Thyberg? Svenska Dagbladet has spoken to several sources at and around the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and several of them say that the traces point to Russia. What speaks for Russian involvement is that the email was sent shortly after Thyberg was introduced as national security adviser, to the people who handled the recruitment process, the sources say. The person who sent the pictures managed to damage the Swedish government, create a debate about homosexuality, and remove a person with extensive experience of Russia and Ukraine from an important position. Other sources the newspaper has spoken to say that it could be someone who harbors a grudge against Thyberg or Ulf Kristersson, or a political opponent.
UD is working frantically to blame the Russians, because surely no one at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs could be so rotten as to stab a colleague in the back?
🥴 The Russians have a new type of “ground robotic systems”.🤣🤣
The enthronement of Pope Leo XIV has begun in the Vatican.
https://bsky.app/profile/wartranslated.bsky.social/post/3lpgmhgao4c2a
Zelensky is there, hopefully also Starmer, Macron, and Merz, otherwise missing people have a mission.
Can we hope for some good conversation between them?
It may not be in good taste to threaten to bomb Russia back to the Stone Age during the Pope’s installation, so we’ll have to give them until tomorrow.
I see that many world leaders are not coming, JD Vance is there, we hope that our new Pope survives his visit.
Ryanair wants to introduce a limit of up to two alcoholic beverages per passenger at airports, reports TT. The background is recurring incidents with intoxicated passengers on board, according to the company’s CEO Eddie Wilson. “We regularly have employees who are attacked,” he told the news agency. Ryanair does serve alcohol on board, but according to Wilson, the cabin crew is trained to handle intoxicated passengers – something he believes airport staff often fail in. At the same time, the airline is planning to expand in Sweden when the Swedish flight tax is abolished on July 1. However, Denmark is being excluded due to the introduction of a new flight tax.
https://omni.se/a/Jb8r4R
Why not implement the Swedish variant with PEth tests like for driver’s licenses?
Racism 😡
Don’t touch my airplane beer
Belgium is testing a Leopard 1A5 tank equipped with an unmanned Cockerill 3105 turret in Ukraine, a potential upgrade that could modernize over 100 tanks.
The new configuration, featuring a 105mm gun and improved combat capabilities, is part of a €1 billion aid package to Ukraine.
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.com/post/3lpgp7utmi22f
Better than scrapping them, it could turn out well.
I am trying to figure out what will happen and which alliances will be formed based on what is the top priority for different countries. What do you think?
Russia: Ukraine. Oil buyer. China: Silk Road (passes through Pakistan), Taiwan. Iran: Nuclear bomb. USA: Control over national debt.
What is most important for Germany, India, Japan?
🇺🇸🇫🇮 Trump is losing patience over the war in Ukraine, but it is playing into Kyiv’s favor, — Finnish President Stubb
🗣️ He had a long conversation with Trump, and today he talked with Zelensky. “The situation for Ukraine has noticeably improved over the past two weeks.”
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lphhhrvbp22u
Stubb is positive 😃😃
Majority supports taking over the Russian Orthodox Church.
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vastmanland/vasteras-majoritet-stodjer-m-forslag-ta-over-rysk-ortodoxa-kyrkan
Now make sure to show some Finnish sisu and carry this out.
One also becomes thoughtful about who the hell gave permission for this
The appropriate government agency should have taken action a long time ago and shut down the crap.
🇺🇸🇫🇮 Trump is losing patience over the war in Ukraine, but it is playing into Kyiv’s favor, — Finnish President Stubb 🗣️ He had a long conversation with Trump, and today he talked with Zelensky. “The situation for Ukraine has noticeably improved over the past two weeks. https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lphhhrvbp22u
Stubb is positive 😃😃
🇷🇺⚠️🇪🇪 On May 18, Russia detained the oil tanker Green Admire, sailing under the Liberian flag and owned by a Greek company.
❗️This happened when the vessel was leaving the Estonian port and was sailing through Russian territorial waters. The route was agreed upon in advance.
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lphepzlqgk2c
Now the Russians have started to obstruct oil tankers in the Gulf of Finland.
It’s time to take a tough stance and close the straits to the Russians.
⚡️ Zelensky meets Vance for first time since Oval Office showdown, discuss Istanbul peace talks, sanctions on Russia.
The meeting occurred one day before a scheduled call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
https://bsky.app/profile/kyivindependent.com/post/3lphdkngt422w
Zelensky also got to meet the Pope while Vance had to settle for meeting Zelensky.
🇺🇦🇺🇸 President Zelensky, meeting with Rubio and Vance in Rome, wanted to make sure that after the Trump-Putin conversation on Monday, Ukraine would not be given an ultimatum regarding an unacceptable peace — WP, citing an informed US diplomat.
https://bsky.app/profile/theukrainianreview.bsky.social/post/3lphnbjdvck2e
🚁 The Finnish Army has begun testing helicopter-based counter-drone tactics inspired by Ukraine’s experience in intercepting Shahed-type drones.
https://bsky.app/profile/united24media.com/post/3lphnmxe3fj2p
Not sure if this is the ultimate solution. Drones will soon become too fast for helicopters while requiring several expensive helicopters.
💥🏍️ Destruction of Russian bikers!
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lphnsnxljs2e
It wasn’t enough with a bicycle helmet there.
Pro EU in the lead in the presidential election in Romania 👍👍
✈️💣💥 Airstrike with French bombs on Russians in Nova Kakhovka!
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lphmkaljks2b
Kaboom 💣💣 as my French favorite restaurateur had expressed it.
Maskirovka numbers from #fckptn
U.S. and EU intelligence sources have estimated that Russia is recruiting maximum between 30,000 and 40,000 individuals monthly, primarily through financial incentives rather than formal conscription!
I think those numbers also are a bit high!
Germany sends corvette to Finnish waters after Estonia tried to stop ships from the shadow fleet with RU fighter jets escort and after RU stopped ships leaving Estonian port.
https://bsky.app/profile/auonsson.bsky.social/post/3lphubq737c2m
Good, now we raise the stakes 👍
Thank you to Westley for holding the fort and providing updates!