The war affected me and my family on many levels. Most of all, it moved me closer to Ukraine and pulled me away from Russia. I don’t want to hear what Russians say about the war, they usually try to educate me about European history. But for the first time I hear Adélie Pojzman-Pontay asking razor-sharp questions to a seemingly friendly Russian diplomat in person and I laughed out loud. in my kitchen preparing for dinner. Her questions are good, it’s very relevant burning questions I would ask myself, although, I could never put the words so neatly as she did. His responses unremarkable, still the fact that these questions were asked, in public, in real life, is a significant achievement. And the fact that we have full audio recording is a historical artefact of a great significance.

Transcripts taken from Overcast and corrected by yours truly.

Adélie Pojzman-Pontay: Sorry to cut you, but, like… The way to improve British-Russian relations is to stop the war in Ukraine. Why don’t you retreat? You had a ceasefire in Oleshky to protect civilians. And yet, a week later, you bombed an aid distribution center in 55 people I killed?

Roman, Russian Diplomat: If we are speaking about bilateral relations of the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. What Ukraine is about? It’s a third party. The bilateral relations are just Russia and the UK. So we need to start dialogue, and hopefully, one day, it will start. And Ukraine is a separate issue.

Adélie: Again, you have invaded Ukraine.

Roman: That’s how you call it. We don’t…

Adélie: What do you call sending tanks across an internationally recognised cordon?

Roman: We call it defending Russian speaking people in Ukraine, people who think who are close mentally to Russia, and who consider themselves as part of the so called Russian speaking world, who may be Ukrainian citizens and live in a country called Ukraine, but who are close to Russia, who want to have friendly relations with Russia.

-//-

Adélie: What do you say to the fact that most native Russian speakers in Ukraine, who had no problem with speaking Russian before 2022, have actually now stopped speaking Russian, and do no longer want to speak it?

Roman: But how do you know? Have you, yourself, been to Zaporizhzhia, Dnieper, Nikolaev, Odessa?

Adélie: Actually, I have each all of these places, yes.

Roman: To one of these? Which one?

Adélie: I have been to Odessa. I have been to Mykolaiv. I’ve been to Kharkiv. I have been to Kiev. I’ve been to Bucha, Irpin, Rivne, Chernihiv.

Roman: Well, that’s nice, then tell me the way you saw it.

Adélie: Yes, I saw destruction.

Roman: And you spoke to Russian-speaking people who stopped speaking Russian?

Adélie: I did. Lots of them. Lots of people across Ukraine, every single one of my trips. I’ve gone four times.

Roman: It’s difficult for me to imagine this, but unfortunately, I haven’t visited the cities that you have mentioned. So you have more experience in this.

Adélie: Yeah, so one of us actually has been on the ground and has spoken to people, the people you claim to liberate.

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant comeback. Personally, I don’t think that Roman went to this meeting without a direct order from his superiors. He was very well prepared repeating propaganda I heard and read so many times, it makes me sick to my stomach. But this particular answer he didn’t expect. He is a diplomat, probably raised in safety of Moscow. He was sent to London as his first assignment. He probably raised in a very well-connected political family. In London he meets a real journalist who was risking her life on the ground. Phenomenal, just phenomenal. I am so glad she was able to get him nervous. He says that “I hope you won’t publish ‘something terrific’ (meaning horrific). I would place a bet he didn’t realise that he had been recorded, or he didn’t realise that the interview would be published as it is. No edits, no editorial. For him such an idea doesn’t even fit in his tiny and dense Russian head.

Bloomberg:

The suit claims Trump violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, a provision of the US Constitution that bars presidents from taking payments from foreign governments without the approval of Congress, in two World Liberty transactions with the United Arab Emirates.

It’s not difficult to transfer $2 billion from Russia to the UAE.

Pavel Durov (Telegram founder) put a banner for every user which declares that “Internet is dead”. Tapping on the banner reveals this post.

I’m turning 41, but I don’t feel like celebrating.

Our generation is running out of time to save the free Internet built for us by our fathers.

What was once the promise of the free exchange of information is being turned into the ultimate tool of control.

Once-free countries are introducing dystopian measures such as digital IDs (UK), online age checks (Australia), and mass scanning of private messages (EU).

Germany is persecuting anyone who dares to criticize officials on the Internet. The UK is imprisoning thousands for their tweets. France is criminally investigating tech leaders who defend freedom and privacy.

A dark, dystopian world is approaching fast — while we’re asleep. Our generation risks going down in history as the last one that had freedoms — and allowed them to be taken away.

We’ve been fed a lie.

We’ve been made to believe that the greatest fight of our generation is to destroy everything our forefathers left us: tradition, privacy, sovereignty, the free market, and free speech.

By betraying the legacy of our ancestors, we’ve set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological.

So no, I’m not going to celebrate today. I’m running out of time. We are running out of time.

Blaming the UK and EU for internet freedoms violations while not even mentioning russia (he’s country of origin), China or North Korea. I have no doubts that he’s a voluntary or forced russian propagandist. And judging by his character and long history of hate posting towards Western culture, I think it’s the former.

Address by Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the Independence Day of Ukraine via president of Ukraine website, and YouTube.

In yesterday’s episode of Ukraine: The Latest podcast, from New Zealand correspondent, there’s a conversation between Russian civilian and Ukrainian soldier sheltering in a bunker in Sudzha, Kursk region in Russia. Ukrainian asks Russian their opinion about the war. Russian says he is not interested in politics—a common response.

We have to care about politics because it makes a difference. Steve Jobs understood how important individual actions followed by great public reactions caused big positive societal changes. It was reflected in the Think Different campaign. Ignorance leads to tyranny and abuse, individual opinions matter. Every day we have opportunities that affect the views of people around us.

There is a general election here in the UK on July 4th. I would like to stress three crucial points which can lead our democracies into a successful future.

1. Recommend and implemented by Estonia plan increasing 3.0% GDP towards defence (UK petition).
2. Plan 0.25% of GDP to military aid for Ukraine for the next four years (president.gov.ua, PDF).
3. Ukrainian integration into NATO and EU.

Parties are ordered in my priority list.

1. Liberal Democrats
2. The Conservatives
3. Reform UK

Rishi Sunak promised 2.5% increase with the concreted date of 2030 (BBC). Liberal Democrats and seems to support the plan (Full fact).

However, the Conservatives have been in power for 14 years and losing their support. It is unlikely Rishi is going to win. Nigel Farage has been extremely controversial which is why I am not recommending to vote for his populist right-wing party.

“If anyone can get the two around the negotiating table… It may fail. We can send British troops, have World War Three, I don’t mind… I don’t approve of anything Putin’s done in terms of this invasion. But we have to think through what is the endgame of this, what is the goal? If we think it’s a Ukrainian victory, that’s for the birds.”

Quoted from Telegraph.

Nigel claimed that we could end the war by forcing Kyiv to negotiate and give up its territories. In this scenario, Putin will take advantage of the necessary break and Russia will invade Ukraine third time. It has already happened twice this decade.

I listen to every episode of Ukraine: The Latest since August last year. I would like to share yesterday’s episode – it has an interview with Lt Col Куриленко. This is the first time I heard him and both questions and answers are insightful and valuable. Listen to Russia sucks top naval commander (Overcast). Also available as an article.