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Europe
Denmark
03.03.2025 Denmark today took over the rotational presidency of the UN Security Council from China for the month of March. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
European Union
01/03/2025 Macron said he is ready to 'open the discussion' on a possible future European nuclear deterrent, following a request from Germany's next leader Merz. 'Merz has stressed the need for the continent to move quickly to achieve independence from the United States on defence matters. However, not all European leaders were ready to jump to 'Ukraine's aid'. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, one of the closest partners of both Trump and Russian President Putin, thanked Trump for standing "bravely for peace". "Strong men make peace, weak men make war," Orbán posted on X. (Source: France 24)
Russia
2 March 2025 Yesterday, Russia unleashed Iskander-M missile attack 'to sink the Panama-flagged MSC LEVANTE F - reportedly Swiss-owned - container ship in Odesa carrying cargo of British weapons for Ukraine.' (Source: Daily Mail - United Kingdom)
Ukraine
March 2, 2025 Uniformed personnel, abducting a youth while he was out walking his dog on the morning of February 28. The soldiers had the Ukrainian insignia on their uniform and spoke Ukrainian. "Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems, US Vice President Vance had accused Zelensky of forcefully sending people to the frontlines to fight Russia. Those sharing the viral video claimed thousands of such footage that showed civilians being taken away to fight for Kyiv from across the country are available on the internet. /Video/ *. (Source: The Week, India)
* From X
Note: Since 7:11 PM 1 March 2025: 11 900 000 views
Ukrajna
2025. III. 2. "Józanabb elemzők szerint azért sem írhatta Ukrajna alá, hiába készítette elő az ásványi anyagok átadásáról történő megállapodást, mert igazából egy titkos paktum keretében ezt már rég odaígérte a briteknek akik a háború első perceitől igen benne vannak ebben a háborúban. (Forrás: Kossuth Rádió - Magyarország)
United Kingdom
(3 March 2025) At the summit of some European leaders in London, Britain and France said they were working on 'a European-led solution' to the conflict. After the meeting, hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday, Zelensky said a deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia was 'still very, very far away'. He added that he expected the US to continue backing Ukraine despite his own fraught relations with Trump. "This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer! It is what I was saying, this guy doesn't want there to be Peace as long as he has America's backing," Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social media network. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
(Sunday), 02/03/2025 Defence summit /video/ (Source: France 24)
March 1, 2025 Britain’s leader Keir Starmer voices support during meeting with Zelensky who arrived in London for 'crucial' talks, one day after his public argument with US President Trump over Russia’s war and peace talks. /Video/ (Source: CNN – U.S.)
Australia
Mar 02, 2025 Chinese warships circumnavigate Australian territory. Australia’s military spotted three Chinese warships on Feb 10 in the Arafura Sea, off the northern tip of Australia. The ships were just setting out on an unprecedented voyage that would bring them within 150 nautical miles of Sydney. On Feb 19 by the nation’s spy chief Burgess, without naming China, warned that Australia faces unprecedented interference and espionage threats. On the morning of March 1, the warships were 890km south-west of Adelaide. Deploying warships to the area with no apparent purpose beyond intimidation is out of the ordinary. (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore)
by Pearlman, based in Sydney. He writes and explains matters on Australia and the Pacific to readers outside the Oceania region.
North America
United States
March 4, 2025 U.S. President Trump has paused military aid to Ukraine, a White House official said. “President Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” said the official yesterday. Since Russia’s invasion three years ago, the U.S. Congress has approved $175 billion in total assistance for Ukraine, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The Trump administration inherited $3.85 billion worth of Congressionally-approved authority to dip into U.S. arms stocks for Ukraine. It was already unlikely for that assistance to be used. Beyond the military portion, U.S. assistance to Ukraine also includes budgetary assistance, largely delivered through a World Bank trust fund, and other funds that had been delivered through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The U.S. decision left many questions unanswered, including whether munitions for the already delivered weapons systems can now be supplied or if the U.S. would still share intelligence with Ukraine on target identification and missile launches. If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine, Vice President Vance said in an interview on Fox News. France, Britain 'and potentially other European countries' have offered to send troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire – something Moscow has already rejected – but say they would want support from the U.S., or a 'backstop.' The Hungarian government, a vocal critic of EU sanctions against Moscow and the bloc’s financial and military support for Ukraine, said of Trump’s pause in military aid: “The U.S. President and the Hungarian government share the same stance: instead of continuing weapons shipments and the war, a ceasefire and peace talks are needed as soon as possible.” (Source: Daily Ausaf, an international Urdu daily newspaper, headquarters Islamabad, Pakistan / Reuters - United Kingdom)
4th Mar 2025 Earlier today morning US Vice-President Vance said: “Here’s the problem with the Europeans - they need to be realistic, and the craziest part about this is sometimes you have European heads of state who in public will puff up their chest and say ‘we’re in this with President Zelensky for the next ten years’. And in private they’ll pick up the phone and say ‘this can’t go on forever, he has to come to the negotiating table’. “I honestly don’t care what the Europeans say in public. What I care is what they say in private and what they need to be saying to President Zelensky is ‘this can’t go on forever, the bloodshed, the killing, the economic devastation, it’s making everyone worse off’.” (Source: The Scotsman - Scotland)
March 4, 2025 U.S. Security Cooperation with Ukraine. Fact Sheet / Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. "The killing must stop". "President Trump wants to promote peace, and at his direction we are ready to provide the strong, decisive leadership necessary to reach a sustainable resolution. The President has been clear that he is focused on peace. Effective March 3, 2025, we are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution. To date, we have provided $66.5 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its premeditated, unprovoked, and brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and approximately $69.2 billion in military assistance since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014. We have now used the emergency Presidential Drawdown Authority on 55 occasions since August 2021 to provide Ukraine military assistance totaling approximately $31.7 billion from DoD stockpiles". The full, extensive list of Air Defense; Fires; Ground Maneuver; Aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Systems; Anti-armor and Small Arms; Maritime; Other capabilities. "To date, nearly 50 Allies and partner countries have provided security assistance to Ukraine. Among their many contributions to Ukraine, Allies and partners have delivered 10 long-range Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), 178 long-range artillery systems, nearly 100,000 rounds of long-range artillery ammunition, nearly 250,000 anti-tank munitions, 359 tanks, 629 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), 8,214 short-range air defense missiles, and 88 lethal UAVs". (Source: U.S. Department of State)
(March 4, 2025) US President Trump's new 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada took effect today, along with a doubling of duties on Chinese goods to 20 percent, launching new trade conflicts with the top three US trading partners, after Trump declared that all three countries had failed to do enough to stem the flow of the deadly fentanyl opioid and its precursor chemicals into the US. The 20 percent tariff will apply to several major US consumer electronics imports from China previously untouched by prior duties, including smartphones, laptops, videogame consoles, smartwatches and speakers and Bluetooth devices. China responded immediately after the deadline, announcing additional tariffs of 10-15 percent on certain US imports from 10 March and a series of new export restrictions for designated US entities. China's new tariffs announced today targeted a wide range of US agricultural products including certain meats, grains, cotton, fruit, vegetables and dairy products. US farmers were hard hit by Trump's first-term trade wars, which cost them about $27b in lost export sales and conceded a share of the Chinese market to Brazil. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ottawa would respond with immediate 25 percent tariffs on US$20.7 billion worth of US imports, and another US$86.2b if Trump's tariffs were still in place in 21 days. He said previously that Canada would target American beer, wine, bourbon, home appliances and Florida orange juice. Ontario Premier Ford told that he was ready to cut off shipments of nickel and transmission of electricity from his province to the US in retaliation. Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council representing Detroit automakers, called for vehicles that meet the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement's regional content requirements to be exempted from the tariffs. Both the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso fell against the greenback. Trump on Saturday opened a national security investigation into imports of lumber and wood products that could result in steep tariffs. Canada, already facing 14.5 percent US tariffs on softwood lumber, would be hit particularly hard. A week earlier, Trump revived a probe into countries that levy digital services taxes, proposed fees of up to US$1.5 million on every Chinese-built ship entering a US port and launched a tariff investigation into copper imports. These add to his plans for higher "reciprocal tariffs" to match the levies of other countries and offset their other trade barriers, a move that could hit the European Union hard. (Source: RNZ - New Zealand / Reuters - United Kingdom)
March 1, 2025 Zelensky’s diplomatic failure. Zelensky did not “do his homework” when stepping foot into the Oval Office with President Trump and his Vice, Vance. Zelensky’s mission was to secure a historic minerals deal, a pact vital for Ukraine’s struggling economy and ongoing war effort. Instead, he left humiliated, escorted out of the White House by a low-level aide - Deal canceled, lunch scrapped. Even one of Ukraine’s most vocal allies in Washington, Senator Graham, suggested that Zelensky should either “resign” or “change.” This failure was about a leader who misread the room, misunderstood his opponent, and mishandled a moment of geopolitical weight. Ukraine is in a fight for survival. The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives, its economy is in freefall, and Russia shows no sign of relenting. Kyiv’s military ’success’ depends on continued Western aid. The United States is the only power capable of counterbalancing Russia’s aggression. Yet, rather than negotiating from a position of pragmatism, Zelensky chose confrontation. He miscalculated, treating a high-stakes diplomatic engagement as a public relations stunt. He came to Washington seeking a security guarantee. However, the Oval Office was the wrong place, and Trump was the wrong person to strong-arm. Trump did not respond to emotional appeals or moral arguments; He values leverage, loyalty, and transactional politics. Zelensky walked into the room already weakened. His previous actions: speaking at a Harris campaign rally, posing for partisan photo-ops in U.S. battleground states, and failing to assist Trump in 2019 when asked to find information on Biden ahead of the 2020 election, had eroded any goodwill he might have still had. Then, he challenged Vice President Vance on live television, escalating tensions and ensuring his failure. If Zelensky believes Europe can replace the U.S. in Ukraine’s war or negotiations with Russia, he has ignored history. The European powers, once dominant, are now mere shadows of their former selves. Their economies resemble that of one of fifty States, their military strength is comparable to the Illinois National Guard, and their geopolitical influence has long faded since 1945. Unlike past American presidents who indulged the fiction of European autonomy, Trump refuses to play along. French President Macron, banking on his rapport with Trump, visited Washington in hopes of steering him toward a more nuanced approach. Trump, unimpressed, saw only weakness. Weeks later, he imposed a fresh wave of tariffs on European goods. The same fate befell Britain’s prime minister. After initially expressing reservations about Trump’s return to power, he rushed to the White House to mend ties, carrying a personal invitation from King Charles III. Trump did not need to remind him of Britain’s dependence; the prime minister arrived hat in hand, eager to reestablish relations. Europe’s response to Trump’s foreign policy has been one of reluctant adaptation. Some leaders continue to express skepticism. Others, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, fully support Washington’s approach. Europe remains deeply vulnerable and dependent on the U.S. for security. The war in Ukraine has made this clear. European nations have provided significant military and financial aid to Kyiv, but without U.S. support, the war likely would have been lost long ago. The challenge for European leaders now is not just maintaining support for Ukraine but doing so without antagonizing Trump. Many European governments understand this reality. They have taken steps to ensure they remain in Washington’s good graces, primarily by ’purchasing U.S. military equipment and reinforcing their NATO commitments’. Poland and the Baltic states, discuss to prioritize strong ties with the U.S., knowing full well that their security depends on it. Zelensky seems to have ignored these lessons. His failure in the Oval Office was a failure to grasp the new reality of international politics. The war with Russia is not a stage for grandstanding. It is a brutal contest where survival depends on strategy, not theatrics. The world has changed, and so has the balance of power. If Ukraine is to endure, its leader must learn the rules of the game. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Charai, the Publisher of the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune who serves on the boards of directors of the Atlantic Council, the International Crisis Group, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the Center for the National Interest.
February 28, 2025 President Trump and Zelenskyy in Oval Office. /Video/ (Source: YouTube / White House - U.S.)
235 085 views
NATO
March 1, 2025 The Trump administration is vocalizing its desire to cut a deal with Moscow rather than continue the war. Some of the pro-Ukraine hawks in NATO are concerned that Russia will take Ukraine and then ’attack an actual NATO member state, like Poland’. The Netherlands’ snap deployment of a pair of F-35s stationed in Estonia to assist what they feared was a surprise Russian assault on neighboring Poland is a great example of the high-tension situation in Europe today - NATO almost went to war with Russia earlier this week. The two Dutch F-35s were sent into Poland to ensure that the Russians ’were not possibly initiating a wider attack’ against a key NATO member. Russian commanders might very well have assumed this was the NATO attack they have long feared was coming. Nerves are frayed on both sides, especially as neither side fully knows what the outcome of the war will be. Any objective observer would have seen that the Russians were not attempting a wider attack on Poland. Putin favored a relatively limited military campaign against Ukraine rather than seeking an expansive blitzkrieg through Europe. This was not the first time that NATO had a scare during the Ukraine War. And a new, hawkish government reigns supreme in Poland. NATO should stop looking for a casus belli with which to justify a direct conflict with the Russian Federation that is far stronger than it has generally acknowledged. Instead, the alliance must seek an end to the war. Moscow may one day decide to try their luck once more against a NATO member. But that day will not be any time soon. Indeed, Moscow will need to spend the next decade or so rehabilitating its forces after the Ukraine War is resolved. NATO should not be itching for a fight with Russia right now. Those planes should have never been deployed into Poland when and how they were. Greater restraint is needed to let the diplomats from the United States and the Russian Federation have a chance of resolving the war without further bloodshed. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
By Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest, a contributor at Popular Mechanics, who consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book: A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine.
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