Ever since its ignominious defeat in the Napoleonic wars, France is entrapped in the predicament of countries that get sandwiched between great powers. Following World War II, France addressed this predicament by forging an axis with Germany in Europe.

Macron talks of defeating Russia. Instead, Washington and Brussels should concentrate on bringing the conflict to a peaceful end.

Killing off a bureaucracy — whether civilian or military — is nigh impossible. But the impending defeat of Ukraine on the battlefield by Russia presents one of those watershed moments in history where the raison d’etre of NATO will be exposed as a fraud. Much has been made in recent months about NATO’s supposed growing strength by citing the addition of Sweden and Finland as new NATO members. But this is illusory.

Loose talk about Western boots on the ground in Ukraine is a sign of panic and insanely risky, too.

Moscow must make it impossible for Kiev to attack with foreign-supplied long-range weapons, the president has said

Asymmetrical partition between Ukraine’s western neighbors into “spheres of economic influence” alongside a de facto Korean-like partition between NATO and Russia is much more foreseeable than its western neighbors like Poland formally reincorporating their lost territory due to financial and political reasons.

Ukraine war maximalists are portraying diplomacy as futile, pointing to a cherry picked quote from a recent interview with the Russian president

When asked whether France should prepare for war with Russia, the answer of french people was an emphatic “no”

This will be a very short entry, at least for now, as I am still on the road. Ukraine’s invasive attacks, at least five, on the Russian mainland in the Belgorod region over the past two days are reported to have been repelled by Russia, with heavy Ukrainian losses. It is becoming clear that some reports from the Ukrainian side were deeply deceptive.

Ahead of a new mobilisation law, exhausted soldiers on the frontline complain of low morale