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.
Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, YES Special gathering in Kyiv on February 24th, 2025 “Three Years — Time to Win”
«Аn empire needs at least three states to exist: Russia, which is there, Belarus, which is partially there, and what’s missing is Ukraine. Without it the existence of the Russian empire is impossible. That is why Russia will not stop and will do everything to take over Ukraine by military, political, non-political, and some internal social means.
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