VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russia’s president, deserves the highest medal of Ukraine. He has done more for its European integration in the past few months than any Ukrainian politician has over the past 20 years. He has stopped the country’s directionless drift, consolidated its elite, given it an impetus westward and mobilised European politicians. Never before has Ukraine been so close to signing an association and free-trade agreement with the European Union, a step towards EU membership.
Nestled amid the green Crimean hills, lapped by the Black Sea’s languid waves, Yalta’s battle-scarred appearance in February 1945 prompted Winston Churchill to call it “the Riviera of Hades.” It still has the faint aura of a seaside resort for secret policemen.
National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, YES Annual meeting 2025 "How to End the War?
«The main message we should be sending to Putin is real pressure to convince him the war will go on for a long time if he doesn’t make peace. The Russian economic position is not good, the whole economy is a war economy. If we can apply the pressure POTUS is talking about through targeted sanctions, we might bring Putin to the table»