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Europe
Hungary
06.03.2025 Hungary is on the same page with other European countries on the need to strengthen defense capabilities, the prime minister said today. “My meetings in France confirmed that while we may disagree on the modalities of peace, we do agree that we must strengthen the defense capabilities of European nations,” Viktor Orbán said on X following his yesterday meeting with French President Macron in Paris, ahead of today's European Council’s special summit on European defense and Ukraine in Brussels. Orbán underscored that efforts for defense reinforcement should empower member states rather than Brussels bureaucrats. “We will continue to be in agreement that we do not want to create a super-state in Brussels, and we do not want to subordinate our independence and sovereignty to anyone, including Brussels,” he added. Orbán also assured that Franco-Hungarian relations are in good shape with an exceptionally close cooperation both politically and economically. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
France
06/03/2025 - 05:42 Macron said that a meeting of army chiefs of staff of European nations willing to be involved in possibly deploying European forces is to be held in Paris next week to make sure Russia would not invade Ukraine 'again' after a potential peace deal is signed. Those forces 'would not fight on the front line, but they would be there', once peace has been signed, to guarantee that it is fully respected, he said. (Source: France 24)
European Council
Thu, 06 Mar, 2025 Facing the possibility of a 'fundamental disengagement' under US President Trump, European Union leaders opened a day of emergency summit talks at the European Council building in Brussels today, to beef up their own military defences and make sure Ukraine will still be properly protected by its allies. Today’s summit is unlikely to produce immediate decisions on spending for Ukraine or its own defences. Another EU summit where the real contours of decisions would be 'much clearer' is set for March 20-21. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland)
Moldova
6 March 2025 EU-friendly Moldova’s foreign ministry said it had in no way violated the 1960 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and has rejected allegations by Russia that it had violated diplomatic conventions by declining to formally accept the credentials of Moscow’s ambassador. On March 5, the ex-Soviet State’s pro-European Union President Sandu made it clear she had not invited the ambassador to obtain his accreditation because the Kremlin had been “disrespectful” to Moldova. The Russian ministry said its ambassador, Ozerov, had not been asked to present his credentials to Sandu despite being in Moldova since last October. (Source: Brussels Signal, based in Brussels, Belgium / Reuters - United Kingdom)
Russia
06.03.2025 Putin signed a decree appointing Darchiev as Russia’s ambassador to US. Darchiev’s predecessor Antonov completed his mission in Washington, DC in October 2024. A former researcher specializing in North American studies, focusing on both Canada and the US, Darchiev, 64, comes from an academic background. Fluent in English and French, Darchiev has been serving in Russia’s diplomatic corps since 1992, some 10 years in the US and Canada at the Russian Embassy. From Oct. 24, 2014, to Jan. 11, 2021, he served as Russia's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada. He then returned to Moscow to assume the role of the director of the North Atlantic Department, where he served until his recent appointment. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
06/03/2025 About Moscow’s ’threat to Europe’. Russia has responded with scorn to French President Macron’s televised speech - in which he warned that Russia poses a direct threat to France and Europe - as exaggerated fearmongering and accused him of fuelling unnecessary tensions. Kosachev, a senior Russian senator, claimed Macron had fundamentally misinterpreted Russia’s actions, insisting that the French president was misleading his own citizens and allies. arguing that Moscow was merely reacting to NATO expansion rather than pursuing aggression. While President Putin continues to dismiss NATO’s concerns, Ukraine and its allies argue that Russia’s actions amount to an imperial land grab. Kremlin-aligned commentators accused the French leader of distorting reality, with former Kremlin adviser Markov claiming Macron was engaging in slander and military propaganda against Russia. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Zakharova, ridiculed Macron’s assertion that France has the most effective military in Europe, suggesting that he might want to put that claim to the test. Former Russian President Medvedev mockingly referred to Macron as Micron and predicted his political downfall by 2027. Macron’s speech, delivered in a national address on yesterday evening, framed Russia as a clear and present danger to Europe. He described the war in Ukraine as a global conflict and even floated the idea of extending France’s nuclear deterrent to European allies – an idea that has sparked considerable debate. Macron directly stated: Russia has already turned the Ukrainian conflict into a global conflict. ’President Putin's Russia violates our borders to assassinate opponents and manipulates elections in Romania and Moldova. It is organising digital attacks on our hospitals to stop them operating. Russia is trying to manipulate our opinions with lies spread on social networks’. His remarks come at a time when European support for Ukraine is facing growing uncertainty. Divisions within the European Union over military aid and financial commitments have further complicated the situation. As European leaders gather in Brussels for a summit on supporting Ukraine, they are confronted with the challenge of maintaining a united front. With Russian forces advancing on the battlefield and Western backing wavering, the EU’s discussions are centered ’on reinforcing Ukraine’s defences and ensuring that Europe does not falter in its commitments’. (Source: rfi – France)
03/06/2025 The new balance between the USA, China and Russia. Russian observers say change of guard in Washington has meant China is no longer able to benefit from the conflict in Ukraine, but has been reduced to the role of onlooker. On 27 February, Lin, a representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, observed that ‘relations between China and Russia will continue to develop steadily, despite changes in the international situation’. These statements came the day after the US Secretary of State, Rubio, declared in an interview that Trump intended to modify relations with China, to ‘prevent any form of dependence’ on it. On 28 February, the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, Shoigu, immediately travelled to Beijing to meet with President Xi and senior Chinese foreign policy officials to ensure that Moscow adheres to China's positions on all regional and international issues. He himself emphasised that ‘the meeting was arranged at very short notice’, basically admitting that he had been ‘summoned’ by the Chinese leadership. Does Beijing call Moscow to account for its new relationship with Trump? Sharipzhanov, a commentator for Radio Svoboda, wonders if the Chinese leadership believes that ‘there is an attempt by Washington to provoke a schism in Russian-Chinese relations’, and to what extent the impromptu summit is due to the irritation of Xi and Foreign Minister Wan. Another worrying sign for Beijing was the vote at the UN on 26th February, when the USA refused to approve the resolution condemning Russia's aggression, assigning Europe the responsibility for security in Ukraine, leading various European leaders to declare the need to become independent from the USA in order to look after the whole of the European Union. According to Sharipzhanov, this ‘should be considered by China as a positive factor’, with Moscow's diplomatic successes in resolving the conflict in Ukraine, something that the leadership in Beijing had been hoping for since the beginning of the Russian invasion. In reality, in this way "China loses the opportunity to calmly observe the conflict's exhaustion, remaining on the sidelines", considering the war in Ukraine a test of the West's resilience. Many observers have expressed the opinion that the confrontation between Russia and the West over Ukraine makes China the only real beneficiary of the whole situation, and that ’Beijing only supports Moscow with words, while offering some (very cautious) support in circumventing sanctions and in the production of armaments’. The war weakens Russia and allows China ’to expand its influence over Siberia, the Far East’ and all of Central Asia, and makes the West less capable of defending Taiwan from Beijing's ambitions. Now the U-turn by the Trump administration radically changes the situation. With the possible end of the Ukrainian conflict, allowing Moscow to come out of international isolation, thanks to Washington's support - comments Sharipzhanov - ’the descendants of the great Confucius lose the chance to remain sitting on the branch, like the wise monkey waiting for the end of the fight between the two tigers, in which one of the two destroys the other in a deadly embrace, but remains so weakened that the monkey only has to jump on it to achieve full victory’. ’China has not forgotten a similar circumstance that brought ideological enemies closer together: in 1971 Kissinger arrived in Beijing to prepare for Nixon's visit the following year, which allowed China to come out of the closet on the international markets’ and begin the phase of its grandiose economic development, a circumstance that is also being recalled these days by Rubio. Kissinger himself later admitted that the turning towards China played an important role in weakening the USSR, and many are wondering if today the opposite effect might not occur, encouraging Moscow ’to hit back at China’. (Source: AsiaNews, an official press agency of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). headquartered in Rome, Italy)
by Rozanskij
Ukraine
March 6, 2025, Thursday Several key allies of U.S. President Trump have held confidential talks with Ukrainian opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Tymoshenko and members of the party of former President Poroshenko. These discussions have centered around the possibility of holding presidential elections in Ukraine despite the ongoing martial law. Trump's allies are reportedly confident that Zelensky would lose any election due to growing public discontent over the prolonged conflict and widespread corruption. Zelensky has faced declining approval ratings. Recent polls suggest that he remains 'the most popular' figure in Ukraine, still holds a commanding lead, with 44% of support, while his main rivals - Zaluzhnyi and Poroshenko - are far behind, with Poroshenko securing only 10% and Tymoshenko a mere 5.7%. Both Tymoshenko and Poroshenko have publicly opposed holding elections before the war ends. Tymoshenko has been trying to recruit lawmakers from rival parties to form a new parliamentary majority, banking on the assumption that elections will soon be inevitable. "A growing portion of the population is advocating for peace talks". A majority are more focused on negotiating an end to the conflict, even if it requires significant concessions from Ukraine. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)
United Kingdom
March 6, 2025 Zaluzhny, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom accused the United States under Trump of ’destroying’ the world order. Today, at the Chatham House think tank Zaluzhny - a former Ukrainian general sent to represent Kyiv in London last year - said actions by the White House under U.S. President Trump had called into question the unity of the whole Western world, as he attacked U.S. handling of the war in Ukraine. ’We see that it is not just the axis of evil and Russia trying to revise the world order, but the U.S. is finally destroying this order.’ He warned that Trump's negotiations with Russia for an end to the war were a sign the White House was making "steps towards the Kremlin, trying to meet them halfway." The ambassador suggested Moscow's next target ’could be Europe.’ The Ukrainian government appeared to distance itself from Zaluzhny's remarks today afternoon. Its foreign ministry responded that the opinion voiced by the Ukrainian ambassador had been his personal position. Zaluzhny previously served as the military's commander-in-chief and was widely praised for repelling Russia's full-scale invasion of February 2022. He was dismissed early last year after Kyiv's counter-offensive stalled, and Zaluzhny became the ambassador to the U.K. in July. (Source: Politico - Headquarters Arlington County, U.S., owned by a German media company)
March 6, 2025 The prime minister sees the U.K.'s national security as a primary function of his role as prime minister, Starmer’s spokesperson said today. Defense analysts in London called into question the future of the U.K.’s £3 billion-a-year Trident program, which relies heavily on U.S. cooperation to keep running. They are urging the British government to make contingency plans for its aging fleet of jointly-maintained nuclear-armed - Trident-armed - Vanguard submarines. Britain has operational control over its Trident nuclear arsenal. But the missiles, loaded on to four nuclear submarines, are U.S. manufactured, and jointly-maintained by the U.K. and U.S. They are subject to periodic refurbishing by the U.S.. Britain is already working on a replacement for the aging fleet with MPs in 2016 voting to renew the program and press ahead with newer so-called “Dreadnought”-class ballistic missile submarines over the coming years. Defense suppliers Rolls Royce and BAE Systems are working on that project. (Source: Politico)
6 March 2025 ’Contrary to the widespread view, Europeans have a lot of cards they can play. They have, for a start, $200bn of frozen Russian reserves that could be seized immediately and transferred to Ukraine. That sum would go a long way into building the best drone industrial complex in history, something Ukraine is already close to possessing'. Eutelsat, a European rival to Musk’s satellite communications operator Starlink, said on 4 March that it was actively collaborating with European institutions and business partners, stressing that it had equipment that could enable the swift deployment of additional user terminals for critical missions and infrastructure even if Musk was to disable Starlink in Ukraine. Also on 4 March, Merz announced a deal with Germany’s Social Democratic Party, his likely coalition partner, 'to exempt defence spending above 1 per cent of GDP from the debt brake' that caps government borrowing. He pledged that Germany would do ’whatever it takes’ to fend off ’threats to freedom and peace’ in Europe. The announcement sent German borrowing costs soaring. The mere suggestion that Europe will need to rearm itself has already given a significant boost to the ailing European economy. European stocks are leading the global markets this year, with double-digit gains of over 11 per cent. So far in 2025, the seven stocks that make up the Aerospace and Defence Index in Europe have gained over 20 per cent, leaving America’s Magnificent Seven stocks - that is, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla - behind. If mere speculation about European rearmament has done this, imagine the effect of a new ’revolution in military affairs made in Europe and Ukraine’, ’a deliberate and coordinated effort to invest in the new generation of weapons systems’. (Source: New Statesman - a British news magazine, published in London, United Kingdom)
Asia
Taiwan
Mar 6, 2025, 10:55 AM Taiwan’s Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant in Hengchun, Pingtung County, was reported to be releasing large plumes of thick black smoke around 11:30 a.m. local time today. (Source: MEHR News Agency - Iran)
North America
United States
March 6, 2025 U.S. Secretary of State Rubio in an interview with Fox News on yesterday said the United States, by helping Ukraine is engaged in a “proxy war” with Russia. “It’s been very clear from the beginning that President Trump views this as a protracted, stalemated conflict. And frankly, it’s a proxy war between nuclear powers – the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia – and it needs to come to an end,” Rubio said. „No one has any idea or any plan” on how to end the war, Rubio added. According to him, the Russian side has “made some progress,” but there are no signs that Russia is winning, so the conflict has reached a stalemate. “All the President is trying to do here is figure out if there’s a path towards peace. We have to engage both sides, the Russians and the Ukrainians,” Rubio said. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia / U.S. State Department)
Thu 6 March 2025 U.S. President Trump's administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation. The move is expected as soon as April. White House press secretary Leavitt pushed back on the Reuters report in a post on X, saying "no decision has been made at this time." U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson McLaughlin said yesterday that the department had no new announcements. The planned rollback of protections is part of a broader Trump administration effort to strip legal status from more than 1.8 million migrants allowed to enter the U.S. A Trump executive order issued on January 20 called for DHS to "terminate all categorical parole programs." These programs covered more than 70,000 Afghans escaping the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The administration plans to revoke parole for about 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans as soon as this month. An additional 1 million migrants scheduled a time to cross at a legal border crossing via an app known as CBP One. Thousands more had access to smaller programs, including family reunification parole for certain people in Latin America and the Caribbean. Migrants stripped of their parole status could face fast-track deportation proceedings. Immigrants who cross the border illegally can be put into the fast-track deportation process known as expedited removal, for two years after they enter. But for those who entered through legal ports of entry without being officially "admitted" to the U.S. - as with those on parole - there is no time limit on their rapid removal. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
