Lifelong HUMINTer, U.S. Army FAO 🇩🇪 & 🇨🇳, military attaché and Info Warrior. Counter-disinformation. Prof of Intelligence Studies. Politically centrist.
The U.S. should have two goals with respect to Ukraine:
1. Expulsion of all
#Russian
invaders from every square inch of Ukrainian territory (including Crimea);
2. Admission of
#Ukraine
into NATO.
Everything we do needs to be in support of achieving these two objectives.
Here's why I believe Ukraine was, and remains, such a threat to Vladimir
#Putin
: In 1989, Putin was a KGB officer in Dresden when the Berlin Wall fell and communism collapsed. How did that collapse happen? East Germans who were (illegally) watching West German TV saw that their
I will NEVER vote for another Republican candidate (or any other candidate) who fails to adequately support U.S. aid to Ukraine. I say this as a lifelong Republican.
Supporting Ukraine to the point where it can finally expel all Russian invaders from every inch of Ukrainian soil
Syrian father & son, who were maimed by
#Russian
missiles. (PS: Picture won the Siena International Foto Awards.)
This is what Putin’s Satanic death cult gives to the world.
You invaded
#Ukraine
, a sovereign, independent nation that posed NO military threat to
#Russia
whatsoever. If anyone in the world has Russophobia, you can thank yourselves for that.
By the way: What we have in the civilized world isn't Russophobia, which means "fear of Russia".
💬FM
#Lavrov
: We see that the current 🇺🇸 leaders and their allies are mired in Neanderthal Russophobia and are ignoring the outcries of their own societies.
If and when they come to their senses, we will decide on our position regarding prospects for our relationship.
I'm a lifelong Republican. I'm sorry, but I won't vote for Donald
#Trump
in 2024. I just can't. His flippant, dismissive remarks about NATO and about letting Putin have his way in Europe were simply the last straw for me.
To be honest, Trump is right to criticize NATO countries
Hard to imagine a more strategically-illiterate statement. No understanding (or care) of how NATO actually works or why it's so important for American interests. What's more worrisome is the number of people who cheer/support him. Enablers are as dangerous as him.
@anneapplebaum
Let me put this in terms that a third grader can comprehend:
1. All of the 15 former Soviet republics became independent, sovereign nations when the Soviet Union dissolved.
2. Independent sovereign nations can choose, without outside interference, whether they wish to join
President Vladimir
#Putin
: We agreed with the fact that after the collapse of the Soviet Union our borders should be along the borders of former Union’s republics. We agreed to that.
☝️🏼 But we never agreed to
#NATO
’s expansion and moreover we never agreed that Ukraine would be
I will never support, or vote for, a candidate for president who is unwilling to adequately support
#Ukraine
as it fights off an unprovoked, unwarranted
#Russian
invasion. That's an absolute, non-negotiable litmus test for me.
Ronald Reagan accurately called the former Soviet
Yeah, it's great that we gave
#Ukraine
31 M-1 Abrams tanks.
But why only 31? We have literally hundreds of M-1 tanks that we could have already provided Ukraine. I have yet to hear a plausible explanation for why we have failed to do this.
We need to help Ukraine achieve
I'm a lifelong Republican. Along with countless "Reagan Republicans," and like many other rational Americans, I fully support arming
#Ukraine
. Not only to the inexplicably half-hearted extent we've done so far, but to the extent necessary for Ukrainians to drive all Russian
If you're an American citizen (and voter), please don't look at
#Russia
's war in
#Ukraine
through a partisan political optic. I'm a lifelong conservative
#Republican
, yet I fully support providing military and other aid to Ukraine. I support this because I believe helping Ukraine
I have consistently voted for Republicans since 1976. But I will never vote for a candidate who opposes aid to Ukraine. I know many fellow Republicans share my view that
#Putin
’s Russia must be stopped.
Is Vladimir
#Putin
a war criminal? Absolutely. And it’s not just for the kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children, either.
In 2022, Russia bombed a very well-marked building in Mariupol that was filled with 600 Ukrainian refugees, killing hundreds of sheltering men, woman
Ah, but we DO have a peace proposal:
1. Russian armed forces immediately withdraw, completely, from all Ukrainian territory (including Crimea, which Russia illegally stole from Ukraine in 2014)
2. Russia lives up to its 1994 pledge (contained in the Budapest Memorandum) to
I saw "20 Days in Mariupol" last night. Sobering, serious movie. Here's just a few takeaways from watching that film:
- Russia claims it doesn't target civilians. It's a lie.
- Russia claims it wants to protect Russian speakers/ethnic Russians. It's also a lie.
- Russia claims
Allegedly, Putin’s greatest fear is to end his days like Muammar Qaddafi, who was overthrown in 2011 and then captured by Libyan rebels who killed him and publicly desecrated his body.
A more appropriate fear, though, would be for Putin to end up like Nicolae Ceaușescu, another
And 12 minutes after launching any nukes at the UK, the Russian Federation ceases to exist. So unless you’re suicidal, Дима, you might want to rethink making idle, rabid threats in public.
Now, stop drinking and go put some pants on before Momma comes home.
🔴 Russia will send 'disgustingly damp' Britain into the abyss with a nuclear tidal wave, Russia's ex-president Dmitry Medvedev has threatened.
Read more 👇
BREAKING:
Ukrainian missiles just sunk a 112 meter long (369 feet) Russian landing ship off the coast of Crimea.
This is the ship.
Huge win for Ukraine!
To be clear: I don't hate
#Russia
, or Russians. Not at all! I have been to Russia, I have a Russian wife, and a Ukrainian daughter (both now US citizens).
I have many friends and family in both
#Ukraine
and
#Russia
.
When I hear Russian friends speak today, I am alarmed to
Sigh. Allow me to explain this in the simplest terms possible -- terms that even a second-grader would understand:
1. There was no written agreement stating NATO would not expand.
2. Even Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged this.
3. The reason former Warsaw Pact countries clamored
President Vladimir
#Putin
to
@TuckerCarlson
:
We were promised, no
#NATO
to the East, not an inch to the East, as we were told.
And then what? They said, ”Well, it's not enshrined on paper, so we'll expand.“
So there were five waves of expansion, the Baltic States, the whole
I am a former Army interrogator. (I did my fair share of interrogations in Afghanistan.) I can tell you without hesitation that one of the most effective ways to get a prisoner of war or detainee to cooperate is to treat that person decently, like a human being. This is an
I've been voting for
#Republican
presidential candidates since 1976, but I simply cannot vote for any presidential candidate in 2024 who does not support continuing our vital aid to
#Ukraine
.
Standing up for fellow democracies against totalitarian invaders is what we do as
The Republican Party led the way in the destruction of the Soviet Union. Every threat from the USSR is alive and well with Putin. But now many Republicans, led by Tucker, think a Russian win in UKR is okay. There is absolutely no way to rationalize this betrayal.
Russian mercenaries accused of raping and killing 500 civilians in Mali.
The most alarming part of a story like this is the fact that it will surprise absolutely NO ONE.
A lot of prominent former US military officers and others are now suggesting that
#Ukraine
cannot succeed in driving
#Russian
troops out of the country. I respectfully disagree with those assertions.
I'm not a former general, but I did spend a 30-year-long career in human
It's time for NATO countries to start providing F-16s, and for former NATO F-16 pilots to sign up with the
#Ukraine
Air Force to fly missions.
The West needs to make a decision: To continue giving Ukraine enough not to lose, or give Ukraine the weapons,
Every
#Chinese
schoolchild and adult citizen knows how Tsarist Russia exploited Chinese weakness and seized Chinese territory in the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and the 1860 Treaty of Peking, two “Unequal Treaties” that Tsarist Russia imposed on the decrepit Qing Dynasty.
This lost
Why the U.S. didn’t provide
#Ukraine
with many more M-2 Bradleys than we did is an utter mystery to me. 40-year-old, combat-proven technology successfully goes toe-to-toe with the best equipment the
#Russian
army has in the field today.
Making Putin wait for a meeting is a HUGE slap in the face to the little man with a huge ego.
#Putin
used to routinely make Western leaders wait for hours before meeting with them. (This was a well-known ploy he used to assert his dominance.)
Having to now wait for a meeting
Putin had to wait for quite some time for the president of Egypt.
This is not the first time that foreign leaders have made Putin wait for their meetings.
The
#Russian
way of waging war is simply barbaric. Intentionally targeting residential areas, raping, looting, murdering POWs, kidnapping thousands of
#Ukrainian
children, and “double tapping” medical facilities (an art they perfected in Syria). Now they’re targeting food
NO ONE ever promised that NATO would not expand eastward. NO ONE. Even Gorbachev acknowledged this before he died.
NO ONE lies with the frequency and ease of the Russian government.
NO ONE.
🎙 President Vladimir
#Putin
to
@TuckerCarlson
:
💬 After 1991 <...> the promise was that
#NATO
would not expand eastward, but it happened five times, there were five waves of expansion.
🔗
Russian soldiers refused to fight? If this is true, this will be significant.
Word spreads fast, and other Russian soldiers in other places along the front will soon figure out that if the 328th and 104th could balk and get away with it, they can, too.
It is worth remembering
On Twitter, I usually talk about Russia and Ukraine, but for a moment I'd like to talk about
#China
. I have a graduate degree in Asian Studies/Chinese, I speak Chinese, I've been to China multiple times, and the Army certified me as a Foreign Area Officer (FAO) for China. I spent
1. 2007 - Russia conducted the world's first cyber war against Estonia
2. 2008 - Russia waged a five-day-long war against Georgia, seizing (and still occupying) 20% of Georgian territory (Abkhazia and South Ossetia)
3. 2014 - Russia seized Crimea and launched a not-so-covert
President
#Biden
needs to effectively make the case to the American people for supporting
#Ukraine
. I say this as a lifelong Republican and as someone who fully supports what we have been doing to aid Ukraine.
Responsible Republican leaders need to also step up and make this
Did you know that there is a MASSIVE ammunition depot, believed to be one of the largest in Europe (if not the largest), located in Cobasna, which is right smack on the Transdnistrian border with Ukraine? (You know, artillery ammunition starved Ukraine.)
That ammunition depot
The more
#Putin
and his buddies (China's
#XiJinping
, Brazil's
#Lula
da Silva) express the need to negotiate, the more you realize how terrified the Russians are of the looming Ukrainian offensive.
And for good reason. The sky has turned black, there's lightning on the horizon,
I’ve been watching and studying Vladimir Putin for almost a quarter century now. I understand (as much as any foreigner can…) how he thinks, how he operates. I also know the huge role that information operations (IO) plays, and has played, in Russia for the past 100 years.
The
"Putin will not stop until he is stopped."
Just like Hitler. Just like any rabid dog in the neighborhood.
We can stop him now by adequately supplying Ukraine, or we can stop him later during a direct conflict between Russia and NATO.
I know which I would choose...
Some sources are reporting that “the national security threat” relates to the 🇷🇺 military space program.
Putin, like a dog who has bitten someone, has demonstrated that he is a threat to humanity.
Putin will not stop until he is stopped.
👉 End Putin Now.
#Russian
culture is absolutely Satanic. I'm sorry, but there's no way to sugar-coat this unfortunate, and blatantly obvious, truth.
When a Russian Orthodox Priest talks publicly about the need to "burn out Ukrainians" with Solntsepyok (a horrendous piece of military equipment,
"Burn out Ukrainians with "Solntsepyok" and cut their throats" - a priest and director of the Orthodox radio "Radonezh" urges in one of the archive videos.
I think it is important to show the true face of today's "Russian world".
So, just to provide some context for Brazilian President Lula's advocacy of peace talks:
1. Russia invades Ukraine, expecting to overrun Kyiv and replace the government in three days
2. The Russian armed forces utterly fail to achieve their strategic objectives
3. The Russian
"The US should stop encouraging war in
#Ukraine
and start talking about peace. EU needs to start talking about peace," Brazilian President Lula slams the US as he finished his China visit.
Real
#Republicans
fully support US aid to
#Ukraine
. I've been a Republican voter since 1976, and I stand 100% behind Ukraine.
#Putin
's Russia is no less evil and imperialist than the Soviet Union was. In 1983, Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" for a reason.
I
The only time in NATO's history that Article 5 was ever invoked was in the wake of 9/11, and the U.S. is the country that invoked it.
After 9/11, we had Norwegian pilots in their F-16s flying combat air patrols (CAP) over Washington, DC. We had AWACS aircraft (with their
Nah, that's NOT the reason. You stupidly decided to invade
#Ukraine
last February. That's the reason the US (and most of the civilized world) treats
#Russia
like a pariah, like you're North Korea.
So, how'd that three-day-long "Special Military Operation" work out for you?
💬Vladimir Putin: Unfortunately, relations between 🇷🇺and 🇺🇸, which directly affect global security and stability, are going through a deep crisis.
❌It is rooted in fundamentally different approaches to the formation of the modern world order.
🔗
If the Russians actually did attempt to assassinate Zelensky, they might want to rethink that strategy.
In 1949, Stalin arranged several assassination attempts on the leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito. In response, Tito wrote Stalin a letter: “Stop sending people to kill me.
Citing a Greek newspaper Russian media sources published that there was a missile strike in Odesa, allegedly on Zelensky's motorcade during his meeting with the Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
According to Greek media, the explosion occurred shortly before the
This is the real problem with Russia; as much as the civilized world loathes Vladimir
#Putin
, the sad, troublesome truth is that he could disappear from the face of the earth tomorrow, along with his entire kleptocratic regime, and
#Russia
would STILL be a significant problem for
I'm genuinely curious what lame excuses the Biden Administration has now for refusing to provide Ukraine with ATACMS and F-16s. This is really inexcusable.
Every single U.S. ground offensive since World War II has begun with aircraft bombarding enemy positions. (There's a reason
Imagine how much more damage to Russian logistics Ukraine could do if they had ATACMS and Gray Eagle Drones...no Russian ammunition storage site anywhere inside Ukraine would be safe. Russian bases and the Black Sea Fleet would not be safe.
@SecDef
Sir, what are we waiting for?
“Instead of hearing and understanding Russia’s key demands…”
1. We understand Russia. We do.
2. That’s why we don’t pay any attention at all to your demands
3. Here are OUR demands:
- Stop invading and harassing your neighbors.
- Get your genocidal orcs out of Ukraine.
- Stop
🇷🇺🇺🇸 Ambassador Anatoly Antonov exclusively for
#Newsweek
👉 Instead of hearing and understanding Russia's key demands, Washington and its satellites are only making things worse
📎
Hey, Russia: If you really want to see the West lower its arms deliveries to Ukraine, maybe you could just declare victory, turn around, and go home?
You brought this on yourself. YOU did. Maybe launching a genocidal war of extermination against a sovereign neighboring country
“close observers of Ukraine’s military actions against Russia & its assets have said four highly valued fighter jets that were destroyed or seriously damaged at a base in Western Russia late Saturday were the victims of Australian drones made of cardboard”
It's a damned shame we didn't provide Ukraine with many more M-1 Abrams tanks and M-2 Bradley IFVs.
Even in cases where Bradleys were disabled on the battlefield, its soldiers managed to survive.
The performance of the few M2 Bradley IFVs Ukraine received from the USA is absolutely astonishing. In some cases a single Bradley wiped out entire Russian units and single-handily blunts entire Russian assaults near Avdiivka, thanks to the superior optics and accurate 25mm
These are the far right political parties supported and funded by Russia. There are also political parties on the far left that are supported by Moscow as well.
@JayinKyiv
SOME Germans have woken up. Many -- such as the AfD, and the far Left -- have not. (Partly because Putin's agents have been subsidizing and influencing them both for years.)
This is NOT a good time for
#Ukraine
to negotiate with
#Russia
.
#Putin
knows Russia has captured all it could ever capture in Ukraine, so this is the optimal time for HIM to say, “Okay, let’s negotiate.” Ukraine needs to counterattack and humiliate Russia and Putin, and negotiate
President Macron putting pressure on
#China
. Said to president Xi Jinping in Beijing "The Russian aggression in
#Ukraine
has dealt a blow to stability. I know I can count on you to bring back Russia to reason & everyone back to the negotiating table."
UAF are running rings around the Kremlin. Russians seem unable to protect energy infrastructure, airplanes on the ground in Crimea, or their Ships. We, the West, should stay out of the business of telling Ukraine how to fight. Just give them the tools.
This Twitter user is lying. NATO was created to protect its members from being attacked and gobbled up by the former Soviet Union. It was not devised to destroy anything.
In 2022,
#Putin
’s Russia invaded and attempted to eliminate a sovereign, independent nation — a neighbor
NATO was created to destroy Russia, then the much larger Soviet Union.
Now NATO is seeking to destroy what is left of a united Russia to satisfy the aims of neocons and war profiteers.
Anyone telling you otherwise is lying.
A combined strike using ATACMS and Taurus is the most effective way to destroy the Kerch bridge — Ukraine Battle Map
To destroy the bridge, you need to combine:
📍Taurus — for impacts on supports of two bridges (railway and road bridge);
📍ATACMS M57/M57E1 to weaken piers and
Ukraine’s Valley Forge Moment.
“Ukrainians are no more inclined to give up than Americans were in 1777-1778.”
It’s who they are.
As long as Ukrainians are willing to find and die for their freedoms, we should support them.
It’s who WE are.
Russia's NOT going to escalate, folks. It's just not. Do you seriously think that
#Putin
and his pals are going to commit suicide by either expanding the conflict to attack NATO, or by using nuclear weapons in
#Ukraine
? No. It's just NOT gonna happen.
Like most dumb animals in
Russians 'learn very well' during war against Ukraine - Reznikov
“When we brought HIMARS, and this is 80 km of defeat, we began to destroy their command posts, control posts. But now they have taken all their control centers, all their warehouses, all their 120 km logistic
I've been a Republican my entire life, but if the Republican Party fails to adequately support Ukraine in defending itself from Russia's invading hordes, I'm done.
Hey
@CPAC
, why did you cut her comments about Ukraine aide?
@trussliz
is a HUGE advocate, as are MANY Republicans like myself. You’re alienating a massive portion of your base. That won’t age well.
Why haven’t we made more M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles available to Ukraine 🇺🇦 over the past two years?
We can’t claim they weren’t available; we had 500 sitting around that we were able to provide to Morocco, a country that is not embroiled in an existential struggle with a
Trump's former National Security Advisor asks a legitimate question about the scale of our aid to
#Ukraine
. "I mean, like, 30 tanks? How about 300 tanks?"
We need to properly support Ukraine with what they need, in the quantity necessary, and when they need it. This
Former Trump National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster on the trickle of American aid to Ukraine:
"I mean, like, 30 tanks? How about 300 tanks! I think it's silly the way these capabilities are being dribbled in."
This is why I support Nikki
#Haley
: Her stated strong support for
#Ukraine
, and her ability to effectively articulate a comprehensible rationale for that support.
Russian Orthodox Church priests bless a ballistic missile known as “Satan”.
Nothing to see here, folks! This is just another day in the life of
#Putin
’s
#Russia
.
Ukraine is not a “European problem”; it is a transatlantic problem. Therefore, we in the U.S. need to get together ASAP with our Western partners to collaborate, strategize, and respond to the Russian threat to Ukraine collectively.
Below is a graphic that shows what Ukraine
Be careful which books you choose to read, Senator.
The overriding reason why former Soviet republics (the Baltic States) and former Warsaw Pact states (Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia) joined NATO is simple: They wanted an insurance policy to avoid the
In 2019 actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky ran as the peace candidate winning the Ukrainian presidency with 70% of the vote. As Benjamin Abelow observes in his brilliant book, “How the West Brought War to Ukraine,” Zelensky almost certainly could have avoided the 2022 war with
One look at
#Russia
's demographic projections for the next 20 years, and you realize that the Russian Federation is in serious trouble.
#Putin
just made matters incalculably worse by engaging in Russia's foolhardy and ill-advised invasion of
#Ukraine
.
Russian males killed or
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, advised the Ukrainians to also send sabotage groups into the Russian rear, saying there “should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they’re going to get their throat slit in the middle of the
Putin’s
#Russia
, which has justifiably been described as the world’s largest Mafia-operated gas station, is now mass producing the FAB-3000, the world’s most destructive aerial bomb.
For those of you who are still in inexplicable denial about the Hitlerian threat that Vladimir
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not a “territorial dispute”. Sorry. Hitler’s invasion of Poland wasn’t either.
I’m looking for a Republican candidate who has their head screwed on straight with respect to foreign policy.
The Soviets -- and now the
#Russians
-- conveniently whitewashed the fact that they and the Nazis were not only allies, they jointly seized and eradicated a European nation in 1939.
And now Russia is trying to eradicate ANOTHER European nation -- Ukraine.
This behavior is not
Russia always denies it, but they started WW2 together with Germany.
On September 17, 1939, the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland, splitting the country in half with Germany as previously agreed between the two.
This video shows the joint German-Soviet victory parade on Sep. 22nd
Okay, since you raised the subject of money: Russia’s armed forces are poorly led, poorly trained, poorly equipped, and their vaunted death machines do not work as advertised because corrupt Russian generals and officials bought yachts and mansions and boob jobs for mistresses
CIA Director William Burns wrote that failing to continue passing weapons to Ukraine would prove to be a mistake "of historic proportions". Burns is absolutely right.
For all sorts of reasons, Vladimir Putin's Russia must be stopped in Ukraine. Providing Ukraine with the weapons
I am a lifelong centrist Republican who long admired DeSantis personally, and also the work he has done to date in Florida. I absolutely preferred DeSantis over Trump. Last week, I was appalled when DeSantis inexplicably referred to
#Russia
's war on Ukraine as a "territorial
I was right about DeSantis losing support for criticizing UKR aid: he was dropped 10-15 points in the polls. The non-Trump voters are overwhelmingly pro-UKR aid. He will not move Trump voters in large numbers, so his shot is getting the non-Trump vote united.
#GOP2024
Psst, Maria...You and your government started this whole thing when you invaded a sovereign, independent nation. (Maybe that wasn't such a hot idea, huh?)
At this point, you really shouldn't be worried about how the West chooses to help Ukraine defend itself against genocidal
I agree 100% with Amb. McFaul; we need to provide
#Ukraine
with the tools it needs to defeat and drive off the
#Russian
invaders. We can start with
#ATACMS
, which will immediately put all Russian defenses and facilities on Crimea at risk.
I also strongly advocate for giving
It's not too late for the US & allies to provide Ukrainian soldiers with more and better weapons to help their counteroffensive succeed. Send ATACMs now.
How to Get a Breakthrough in Ukraine via
@ForeignAffairs
Vladimir Putin did not create Russia’s aggressive national culture; Russia’s aggressive national culture created Vladimir Putin. As malignant as
#Putin
is, the problem in
#Russia
🇷🇺 goes far deeper than just one man. Far, far deeper.
"I will grow up to be a military chemist, I will make bombs out of dough" - a children's song in Russia.
What Russia does to its children is a crime of its own.