The aim aim is our policy is certainly not to destroy 🇷🇺. The aim is to defeat - and decisively - the policies of the Putin regime. But the propagandist in Moscow are obviously going overdrive in their fears at the moment.

The Gallipoli landing in 1915 - at the initiative primarily of Winston Churchill 🇬🇧 - was a spectacular strategic failure which huge human losses. Soldiers from 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 bled and died on the beaches, and with Kemal Ataturk in command of the defenders a new 🇹🇷 started to emerge.

“We estimate that approximately 450,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands more have already deserted since the start of the conflict.” ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-estima…

It’s evidently been very rewarding to be Deputy Defence Minister of 🇷🇺. But I suspect his arrest now is part of a wider story. It’s not that these excesses of his haven’t been known before. I guess sands are shifting in Moscow.

“Ukraine's largest private energy company, DTEK, reported that four of its thermal power plants were significantly damaged in the attack.” kyivindependent.com/russia-attacks…

The odds of Ukraine holding the line and surviving any new Russian onslaught this year have dramatically improved. Suddenly, it is no longer so clear that Vladimir Putin has time on his side, Carl Bildt observes. bit.ly/3UzgrpI

That’s a powerful and important message from David Cameron 🇬🇧, but it is of course the message from 🇪🇺 as well. And if 🇪🇺🇬🇧 work together we also strengthen that message.

I unfortunately believe we will see more of direct 🇷🇺 sabotage operations in our countries in the years ahead. The frontlines of their war against 🇺🇦 will be wherever they find an opportunity. It’s a new challenge for 🇪🇺🇬🇧 to counter. bbc.com/news/uk-688991…

Leaving Brussels 🇪🇺 after doing a 🇸🇪 TV program yesterday evening highlighting the importance of the upcoming elections to the European Parliament.

A hectic day in Stockholm 🇸🇪, and now it’s off to Brussels 🇪🇺 for a dinner meeting.

Vladimir Putin probably has been banking more on Donald J. Trump riding to the rescue than on Russian forces securing meaningful battlefield victories, Carl Bildt suspects. bit.ly/3UzgrpI

History is a complicated thing, also for 🇺🇦🇵🇱, and 🇷🇺 is trying to sow division. But it’s the future that we should be focused on. Clear language from Radek Sikorski 🇵🇱.

I haven’t seen a text of the Emmanuel Macron 🇫🇷 speech yet, but I will certainly read with keen interest. Always stimulating. NATO doesn’t seem to be brain-dead any longer, which is reassuring, but there is evidently a risk of Europe dying, which is less so.

Today 🇵🇹 celebrates 50 years since a coup overturned the old dictatorship. This initiated a couple of tumultuous years with leftists military trying to dominate the scene, but eventually the democratic and 🇪🇺 forces gained the upper hand. Congratulations! dn.pt/5616321375/mil…

The pattern looks very familiar. This is standard 🇹🇷 operating procedure.

Slight drizzle, but there should be sun later, so I decided it’s time for the spring premiere today.

There is no doubt that Baiba Braže brings a wealth of expertise to her new position as FM of 🇱🇻. Congratulations!

I’m looking forward to the new Sorbonne speech by Emmanuel Macron 🇫🇷 today. These speeches are normally the rhetorical equivalent of carpet bombing.