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German Defense Minister visits the Maidan in Kviv on its 10th anniversary, as Germany says it is behind Ukraine.

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German Defense Minister Pistorius visit to Kviv comes as Russia plans an offensive in Ukraine with newly mobilized additions to its armed forces.

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Boone Pickens $ 2 billion investment in Texas to buy land and 700 turbines from GE for wind energy.

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As the European leaders Starmer, Macron, Merz gather together, huddle together at meetings in London, Paris and Brussels, as the US under DJT and Rubio disengage from NATO and perceived expansion, Ariane Chemin gives this report and video in Le Monde on the situation in classrooms, around Square in the centrer of Kviv, at destroyed power plants, and at destroyed buildings in Kviv. Russian drone attacks on Kviv are leaving residents without electricity and without sleep. This is also what Europeans in France and Germany, and Britain, are seeing on news, video and on television.  The last peace initiative stalled after the hopes raised from the Alaska meeting of Putin and the US president. Efforts to get the Russians on board with US envoys in Moscow fail when the European leaders are absent in the talks, and when Russia insists on the 20% of the Donbass and eastern regions it does not control, and limits on Ukraine defense. Ukraine modifies the proposals and Russia insists on territorial concessions. A report in Germany's DW.com from Ukraine calls this "absurd." A new element emerges in this conflict in December 2025 when one sees this in the context of European history where such struggles between European powers happened repeatedly since 1500, with some of them in the period after 1700 involving Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, France, Spain, Prussia and rest of Germany split into many states. That pattern has relevance today because when one power whether France, Austria-Hungary or Russia became dominant the other European powers acted together to keep the balance in Europe.  ...

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One fifth of Kviv's population of 3 million has left the city, 4000 apartment buildings are without electricity in Kviv, this winter January 2026. This is the worst of the last couple of winters of the war, as Russia attacks energy infrastructure in Kviv on a large scale even as peace talks continue. Russia insists on control of Donbas region. Much of Ukraine today remembers a famine from the Soviet period, Russia remembers its proud history, language and culture from its beginnings in the Kviv region around the 14th century, that is the what this conflict is about. On one dimension it is about NATO and European Union expansion on another about the history and culture, language in a Russian language part of the world and the effort of Ukraine in the 21st century to seek a new identity. It is a struggle between fraternal people in the Russian region and in that sense a tragedy. It doesn't have to be one for Europe, for Germany. NATO was created when the Soviet Union expanded after 1948 and Britain was a key protagonist of NATO. Would its disbanding after Soviet Union disbanded leaving Russia as a country with centuries of its own history, would this have been the right action. If needed a new organization with a new name and Russia invited to join, would this have helped? Could this have focused attention on a new power as chancellor Merz has said, the new power being China being something requiring attention. The US is beginning to have new thoughts in this winter on 2026. The northern European nations (Britain, Poland, Finland and the Nordic countries, Baltics) have historical conflicts for centuries among themselves, they appear to be using NATO for their own historical conflicts. The US understands this, it is looking for a way to get a peace settlement so it can focus on the western hemisphere and not entangle itself in northern European conflicts that have been happening since 1600 with changing actors. The Republican have taken the lead under DJT for a new approach to put American people and their wellbeing, their right to live free of drugs(Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia), to live free of illegal migrants (Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela), and improve on the shaky supply chains that were concentrated in China to bring jobs home that were lost by the millions (tariff policy), and to make living affordable (energy, agriculture).  ...

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Fear of homelessness is a big problem for Ukraine refugees among the elderly. Many people who are in their 80's, with little in savings and no relatives in the western parts of the country refuse to leave. Some have not left when the Russian army is only two miles away as shown in towns like Bakhmut near the front lines in Donetsk eastern part of Ukraine. One elderly woman says they would drop her off at the station at Lviv or Dnipro, and then what, where was she to go. Rescue units volunteers take people to safety every day in these towns. Some leave when the artillery shelling becomes unbearable.

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This report in FR24 looks at the Ukraine war from a demographic perspective. The chaos in Russia after the collapse of Communism led to fewer births during the 1990's and there are fewer people born during this period who are now of child rearing age. This has led to a further effect on childbirths after the earlier decade when population declined to 143 million.  Mr. Putin has offered incentives for child birth, improved hospital care, and incentive payments to new parents. Yet the war can have its own effects of reducing the sense of economic well being and opportunity that drops the level of childbirths. This is already confirmed by statistics showing a decline in childbirths in the first quarter of 2022. The Russian government and Mr. Putin see that Russia's position in the world depends on its population. Mr. Putin may have wanted to make up for the population decline by integrating parts of Ukraine such as eastern and southern Ukraine into Russia, says this FR24 report. It also shows that other factors such as population decline may have played a part in the invasion. It is a miscalculation according to the Biden administration and also from the perspective of many Russians who see Ukraine as a brotherly people speaking the same language and sharing culture and traditions. Russia's occupation of Poland for 2 centuries since the 1750's, and the region of western Ukraine near the Polish border such as Lviv about 100 miles from the Polish border  with Polish influence and distrustful of Russia, have led to pro-EU sentiment in Ukraine. This played apart in splitting opinion in Ukraine about Russia leading to the conflict. With Putin going by historical ties with Ukraine from the foundation of the Russian state in Kviv in 1000, and today's geographical realities after 2 centuries of occupation of Poland and the desire for options to join the European Union of a younger generation of Ukrainians. ...

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Biden visits Kviv and offers unwavering support in its defense, on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He offers additional support of half a billion dollars. The trip say experts had months of preparation.

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Anton Troianovski reports for NYT from Geneva on the talks between Russian foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on the Russian proposals for redrawing of the boundaries between Russia and Eastern Europe. Russia has insisted talks take place without the Europeans. The Russian view is that the current borders with strong US presence in Eastern Europe- in Poland, the Baltics, Ukraine, and other parts of Eastern Europe were a result of the new borders being thrust on a weakened Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  The US insists it will not do anything without working with its European allies, but is willing to look for some areas of common ground. European Union and Germany see the new Eastern Europe formed as a result of the self determination of countries in the region, and their right to choose their future. Ukraine was historically close to Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Ukraine had developed two identities with eastern parts of the country closer to Russia reflecting earlier close ties and the western parts of Ukraine closer to Poland such as cities Lviv and Kiev reflecting the mood in Poland and Baltics for an independent Ukraine. Lviv is only 70 kilometres from the Polish border and shows traces of the Austro-Hugarian central European heritage. Kiev is about 300 miles from the Polish border in north central Europe. Elections led to governments alternating between close ties to Russia and distant ties to Russia with the two recent governments opposed to Russian interference in its affairs. President Putin responded with invasion of Crimea and forming an autonomous region in eastern Ukraine. In the latest move Putin seeks to reset the borders in a way that is favorable to Russia.   ...

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The Editorial Board of the WSJ had this to say about British prime minister Boris Johnson's visit to Kviv this week on April 10, 2022 with a one on one meeting and a stroll through the streets.

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The collapse of the will of people around Yanukovych, including a deputy interior minister, as fighting units moved with weapons taken from an armory in Lviv towards Kiev, may have been the decisive event that decided the fate of the Yakunovych government. The deputy interior minister then negotiated with a protest leader Levus realizing that other than the front line of police the rest of the police were ready to abandon the fight. Levus then negotiated a safe corridor for the police to withdraw. As the Polish diplomat Sikorski came out to the square he found to his complete astonishment the police simply disappearing from the Square in Kiev. Hours earlier he had warned protesters that a crackdown was coming and they would all be wiped out, according to a report in the WSJ by Benoit, Norman and Fidler, 2/22/2014, so that they should accept a deal which would set a date for new elections but not lead to the immediate resignation of Yakunovych. That deal it also appears came after a Putin call to Yakunovych and not simply from diplomatic pressures, and it is probable that Putin had realized earlier than the diplomats that most of the police were not going to fight. Bringing in the army would have had dangerous consequences for relations between Germany and Russia in particular- as German public and chancellor Merkel felt strongly about the situation in Ukraine- and relations with the European Union and the U.S. Putin, Yakunovych, and even the EU diplomats may have missed the depth of feeling in Ukraine and the organization of the protest movement. Germany and chancellor Merkel, with her determination to make things come out right in Europe after a flawed history, gave hope to the protest movement. ...

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The resilience of 4 young Ukrainian women in their 30's is shown in this Guardian report by Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian's Ukraine in Depth series in 2025. Charlotte Higgins report shows the lives of 4 Ukrainian women, wives, mothers, fighters, in their 30's from Kviv who keep that war torn nation going in 2025. Women have options to leave the country compared to men in Ukraine. These women decided to live in Ukraine in the middle of wars and rocket missile attacks where their children were not safe and where their offices were bombed and they had to move to other offices and locations. Some had served in the army as medics. See the companion in depth stories of Nova Poshta the resilience of people in the postal service that keeps Ukraine going delivering millions of parcels each day across the country in next day service, even in war zones under missile attacks.

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The foreign and defense ministers in the Biden government visit Kviv for the first time to show Biden's strong commitment to bring Ukraine back from this war, helping tackle the refugee crisis for women and children caught in the conflict, and assisting the neighboring countries tackling a refugee crisis.

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In the US Los Angeles and New York City are the two most expensive cities. In Europe, Paris, Copenhagen, Zurich and Geneva. Tel Aviv is ranked the most expensive city in the world. In Asia Osaka and Singapore. Expensive is not a desirable situation as these cities have seen costs soar and become overcrowded, with better alternatives for visitors.

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Paris hosts a large gathering to give $19 billion in loans and $1 billion in direct aid to help Ukraine get through this winter with damaged electricity grid and damaged infrastructure. US plans to send Patriot air defense system to Ukraine after Kviv and Odessa are hit badly by drone strikes on the electricity grid putting the lights out.

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Instead of 80% of Russsian missiles intercepted and 20% gettting through, destroying huge swaths of the industry and 50% of its electric grid, it is now possible for Ukraine with new Patriot systems to knock out mostly all of the incoming missiles and all drones. This happened last night at 3 am as missiles lit up the night sky over Kviv.

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Ukrainian view on surrendering the 25% of Donbass it does not control for peace deal are shown here in interviews by DW.com in that region near the frontlines. The Kviv Institute of Sociology survey shown here is that 71% of Ukrainians are against giving up the 25% of Donbass. Survey in the Donbass region show 47% opposed, 29% undecided and 24% support giving up tereritory for a peace deal. About 200,000 people mostly pensioners and people who do not want to see their home being looted still live in the Kviv controlled Donbass areas near the frontlines. What about elections? If elections are held and an Ukrainian party including that of Zelensky were to agree to surrendering the Donbass how would the Ukrainian 71% opposed or undecided react. Other attitudes to giving up the rest of Donbass is that there is afeeling even among people who might favor this for a peace deal that Russian forces might continue the war at a later time. Germany's Merz is investing heavily to build up the Bundeswehr and recharge the German economy- the German response is to coordinate with UK, France and Italy and the EU to set up a bloc independent of the US to respond to the peace overtures of the US president with one's of it's own that do not include giving up the Donbass, and to create guarantees that the war ends here, no sporadic starts as in the last 2 decades. ...

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A wonderful video on how Ukrainian refugees in Berlin are going back home some for a short time to see friends and their homes. Six buses go back and forth taking people in both directions every day says the bus driver for this bus company for Bonn to Kviv bus. There are 800,000 refugees from Ukraine in Germany. Some young women have family who are soldiers in hospitals who they will see. Most have not seen their homes for 3 months.

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In a show of solidarity with Ukraine Scholz, Macron and Draghi, leaders of the German, French and Italian governments go by train to Irpin and Kviv. The US promises an additional $1 billion in aid this week. The Ukraine war is now mostly fought in the east in the Donbas region and near the town of Severodonetsk where Ukrainian forces face artillery barrages from the Russians and have taken heavy casualties. The longer range rockets needed to counter the Russian advance have not yet reached Ukraine from the US.

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Rehovat, a suburb of Tel Aviv shows how divided Israel has become on the issue of Netanyahu continuing as prime minister. Israel now faces the prospect of a third election and no clear idea of what happens next with no party having a majority in the second election. In the second election Benny Gantz, a retired army chief, had a slight edge in Rehovat, 31% to 27%.

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Ukraine's electricity grid makes it though a tough winter with frequent Russian missile attacks that led to power cutbacks throughout Ukraine. Kviv residents had only 4 hours of electricity and heat, water were also cut off for hours as the winter progressed. With better more advanced defense systems the attacks are fewer now, and the power grid is being repaired. Large transformers and other spare parts are being sent to Ukraine for the repairs. Ukraine is now able to resume exports of electricity in April 2023 showing that the worst of the electricity grid crisis is over.

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WSJ's Alistair MacDonald talks to farmers in the Chernihiv region north of Kviv which was overrun by Russian troops early in the war before withdrawing. Herd farmers brave mines and continue to farm in difficult conditions. Many have borrowed heavily for next years harvest. Many farmers have damaged equipment and craters from bombing in the fields. About $4.3 billion in damage happened in the early days of the war. 

Farming is the occupation of 14% of the population. It brings in 40% of the $68 billion in Ukraine exports each year making it important to get farming back as early as possible. 

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The US envoy to Belarus responds to overtures from Belarus's leader Lukashenko for improved relations, release of hundreds of political prisoners including the husband of a opposition leader who is thought to have won the last Belarus open elections in 2020. Today it is not realized that politicians with lack of vision or foresight - Bush, Obama, Merkel, failed to grasp that in 2020 two events happened that were linked- the Belarus electons bringing another pro-EU government on Russia's border which was squashed before it could take office and the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong also squashed in 2020 by China PRC. Crimea was made part of Russia in 2014 when Ukrainian protesters in Kviv and Lviv near Poland ousted the government of pro Russia leader Yanukovych in the Maidan revolution. Russia under Putin responded 2014-2020 with a simmering effort to take parts of eastern Ukraine that were close to and sympathetic to Russia. This was an effort to counter NATO or pro-EU countries coming to Russia's borders in the way JFK opposed pro-Russian regime in Cuba. Obama and Merkel never understood or grasped this or were too involved in the eurozone, migration crises (Merkel) or war in Afghanistan (Obama). The result was that in 2020 Russia helped squash the election results in Belarus with another pro-EU government impending. Within 2 years Russia under Putin with tacit Chinese support invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022. Belarus shares a border with Russia and it is closely allied with Russia in the Eurasian Economic Zone that includes former Soviet Bloc countries such as Kazakhstan. Gradually following the recovery of the Russian economy by 2010 the emphasis shifted to create something similar to the Soviet Union, a bloc of countries in central Asia and in Eastern Europe that are part of a Russian sphere of influence. For much of the period of the Obama/ Merkel administrations in US and Germany this was ignored as most of the politicians never gave Russia the importance it sought, not accepting that the economic power was not measured only in GDP- also in science and technology, nuclear technologies, space, in energy resources, and Russia's position in Northern/Central Europe and Central Asia since 1700.  It is this situation that the DJT administration faced with US challenges of the Mexican and Venezuelan drug and people trafficking in the western hemisphere has responded with the Monroe Doctrine to reassert American influence in Latin America by respecting Russia's effort to have some measure of influence on its borders, that the US seeks on it's borders. Without Russian or Chinese intervention in Latin America and with the the Monroe Doctrine in place America can protect the interests of the American people and the people of Latin America for free and good government. What Bush, Obama, Merkel lost sight of is that by each power having some strong measure of influence in their regions, and the tendencies for benevolent influence put in place, there is significantly more room for respecting the hopes and aspirations of people in their regions through democratic or other people oriented forms of government than by the situation in which economically the US was dominant after the fall of the Berlin Wall but other influences would lead to US decline- open but not free trade with China, and the recovery of the Russian economy, drug and people trafficking by gangs in Latin America where the Monroe Doctrine for US leadership had prevailed till the 1960's. ...

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In his Bastille day interview French president Macron says Russia could cutoff all gas supplies to France at any time. He says "we will do without Russian gas completely." France gets about 20% of its total gas imports from Russia. Norway, Qatar, Algeria and the US are adding to gas supplies to France. France expects to have gas reserves filled to "near 100 percent by the autumn." In the event of a protracted war France will continue western sanctions against Russia and help Kviv defend its country, said Macron.

France gets 70% of its energy needs from nuclear energy. France will continue to invest in nuclear energy.