Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music In dieser Sonderfolge spricht Gordon Repinski mit zwei Experten, die sich regelmäßig mit unsichtbaren, hybriden Angriffen beschäftigen: Sinan Selen, Präsident des Bundesverfassungsschutzes, und Marika Linntam, Botschafterin Estlands in Deutschland. Zusammen haben sie auf der Sicherheitstagung des Bundesverfassungsschutzes und des „Verbandes für Sicherheit in der Wirtschaft“ besprochen, wie Russland mit Nadelstichen versucht, die deutsche Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft zu destabilisieren. Während Estland durch jahrelange Erfahrung eine breite gesellschaftliche und wirtschaftliche Resilienz gegen Desinformation und Sabotage entwickelt hat, warnt Sinan Selen vor einem erheblichen Nachholbedarf in deutschen Unternehmen und der breiten Öffentlichkeit. Im Gespräch geht es deswegen auch darum, wie die Sensibilität gesteigert werden kann, ohne dabei paranoid zu werden. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. ⁠Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren.⁠ Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: ⁠@gordon.repinski⁠ | X: ⁠@GordonRepinski⁠. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 ⁠information@axelspringer.de⁠ Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Sunday that a potential Polish exit from the European Union is now a “real threat,” accusing nationalist President Karol Nawrocki and right-wing opposition parties of steering the country toward leaving the bloc. In a post on X, Tusk said both factions of the far-right Confederation alliance and most lawmakers from the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party wanted to push Poland out of the EU. He called such a scenario “a catastrophe” and vowed to “do everything” to stop it. Tusk also linked the risk of “Polexit” to forces seeking to “break up the EU,” which he said included Russia, the American MAGA movement and European far-right leaders led by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. The warning comes after Nawrocki vetoed legislation on Thursday that would have allowed Poland to access up to €43.7 billion in low-interest EU defense loans. Tusk’s government lacks the parliamentary majority needed to override the veto, deepening uncertainty over how Poland will finance planned military spending that is set to reach nearly 5 percent of gross domestic product this year. Tusk has warned that Nawrocki’s veto could weaken Poland’s position inside the EU. On Friday, former PiS Europe Minister Konrad Szymański wrote in a newspaper commentary that Poland’s nationalist right was drifting onto a “road toward Polexit,” drawing parallels with the political dynamics that preceded Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the bloc. Recent polling suggests support for Poland’s quitting the EU remains weak in the country, but it is no longer marginal. Surveys indicate roughly one in 10 to one in four Poles would back launching an exit process, even as strong majorities still favor continued membership.

Follow live coverage here of escalating conflict in the Middle East. As Tehran was being pounded by U.S. and Israeli bombs on Saturday morning, its top diplomat dialed Moscow’s number.  On the other end of the line, according to an official Russian statement, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered his Iranian counterpart sympathy and promised his — verbal — support. Iran, thus, became the latest country after Syria and Venezuela to feel firsthand what partnership with Russia does, and doesn’t, mean. Since launching its full-scale war in Ukraine four years ago, the Kremlin has flexed its rhetorical muscle as the flag bearer of a so-called multipolar world. But, at decisive moments, its response on the ground in allied nations has been conspicuously anemic as their leaders came under attack.  First, Syria’s Bashar-al-Assad learned in late 2024 that Russian backing did not guarantee the survival of his regime as rebel forces rampaged into Damascus. Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, sitting in an American prison cell since early this year, will also be pondering where the Kremlin was in his hour of need. Today, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed during the assault on Tehran, U.S. President Donald Trump announced. Iran now threatens to become the latest example of the discrepancy between the Kremlin’s big talk in the face of American hegemony and the real world where that hegemony is increasingly on full display. SYMBOLIC SUPPORT ONLY For Tehran, Moscow’s lackluster response should come as no surprise. The writing has been on the wall since at least last summer, when — during a 12-day war with Israel that included a massive U.S. assault on Iranian nuclear sites — top Russian officials similarly offered statements of condemnation but no action.  In the months that followed, Moscow has tried to contain the damage. It has defended the Islamic regime’s right to quash protests, which they, reports suggested, used Russian military equipment and technology to put down. Russia in December agreed to provide €500 million worth of advanced shoulder-fired missiles as Tehran armed itself for a second U.S. attack, according to a report by the Financial Times. And Moscow has publicly cast itself as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran, proposing to store enriched uranium stockpiles on Russian soil.  Symbolically, the Iranian and Russian navies this month also held a joint drill in the Gulf of Oman — although Moscow apparently only provided one warship. Kremlin aide Nikolai Patrushev consequently announced more exercises with China’s participation would follow in the Strait of Hormuz. But when push came to shove on Saturday, there was no talk of Moscow coming to Tehran’s aid militarily.  Formally, Russia isn’t required to. Although Russia and Iran in April 2025 signed a strategic partnership treaty, it did not include a mutual defense clause.  “I’d like to emphasize, that the signing of the treaty does not mean the establishment of a military alliance with Iran or mutual military assistance,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko clarified to Russia’s State Duma at the time.  It has meant that while Iran supplied Moscow with Shahed drones and missiles during the war on Ukraine, the Kremlin isn’t about to join Tehran in waging another battle. In the hours after Saturday’s attack, many social media users dug up Putin’s comments from June 2025 at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, where he defended Russia’s “neutral” stance during the first U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.  He noted that at least two million former Soviet citizens were living in Israel. “It is almost a Russian-speaking country today. And we, of course, take that factor into account,” the president said at the time. DIGGING IN Russia’s failure to intervene in Iran undoubtedly represents a reputational blow on the global stage. But it also might bring some spoils of war.  Moscow will be hoping to deflect attention away from itself by highlighting the West’s — and particularly the U.S.’s — failure to live up to international norms. It is also likely to entrench the Kremlin’s rigid position on Ukraine, which it has consistently framed as a defensive move against Western aggression.  “It will be difficult to convince Putin that he was ever wrong [about the danger of the West,]” said Vladimir Pastukhov, a Russian political scientist affiliated with University College London, on Telegram. “To the doubters he’ll point to Tehran and say: ‘It could have been us.’” At the very least, if U.S.-brokered talks on peace in Ukraine break down, Moscow will have its talking points ready. Among the first Kremlin figures to react Saturday was the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council and former president, Dmitry Medvedev. “The peacekeeper is at it again,” he wrote on X, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump. “The talks with Iran were just a cover. Everyone knew that.” Fyodr Lukyanov, a Russian foreign policy adviser to the Kremlin, went as far as suggesting that the events in Iran show that diplomacy with Trump was “plain pointless.” Moscow will be hoping that is the message that stays with its remaining allies — rather than its own inaction.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is the founder of the New Eurasian Strategies Centre and co-founder of the Russian Antiwar Committee. The Russia-China partnership has no limits — if you believe the two countries’ leaders, that is. Reality, however, isn’t quite so cozy. An uncomfortable marriage of convenience, theirs is a relationship limited by opposing goals: President Vladimir Putin’s Russia wants to tear down what remains of the post-Cold War international order and refashion it in the Kremlin’s own image. Whereas China’s contrasting gradualist approach to creating a Sino-centric global system requires preserving stability, predictability and the semblance of a rules-based order. Putin’s in a hurry because he has a limited window of opportunity to play to his strengths by exploiting the divisions among what he calls the “Collective West.” However, his weaknesses are clearly visible: U.S. intervention in Venezuela, the Kremlin’s reluctance to defend Iran and the Assad regime’s fall in Syria in late 2024  are all part of a pattern — that of an overstretched, weakened Russia that’s becoming less reliable and less trusted among its allies in the global south. And while U.S. President Donald Trump sometimes frames Russia and China as a collective threat to the U.S. — when it comes to the rationale behind his Greenland policy, for example — Washington’s actually much more interested in shaping global dynamics with Beijing than with Moscow. The 2025 meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Seoul made clear that the Trump administration now sees value in separating the “Russia question” from the “China question,” and in building a pragmatic relationship of economic cooperation and Machtpolitik with Beijing. And though many experts dismiss this possibility out of hand, the Kremlin is worried by it — for good reason. For Russia, the implications of a U.S.-China rapprochement — even if based on convenience rather than conviction — are profound. Such a shift would relegate Putin’s Russia to the status of a secondary player on the international stage and sharply weaken its leverage — not least in Ukraine. The Russian leader’s dependence on Chinese supplies for machinery, equipment and the transit of goods essential to sustain his war has reached unprecedented levels. Without China, Putin’s war machine would have likely ground to a halt in 12 months or even less. Pool photo by Evgenia Novozhenina/AFP via Getty Images That’s why Moscow’s reaction to the Trump-Xi meeting was predictably bellicose, with Kremlin-friendly television channels trumpeting the fact that Russia’s new nuclear-capable missiles could plunge the world into ecological disaster or wipe out millions of people in a heartbeat — a sure sign Putin was rattled. True, the China-Russia relationship has strengthened significantly since 2022, and China has done little to rein in Putin’s aggression so far. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also reportedly told EU High Representative Kaja Kallas that his country didn’t want to see Russia defeated in Ukraine, as the U.S. would then concentrate its attention on Beijing. But the maintenance of the Moscow-Beijing partnership rests on the assumption that both countries have more to gain in challenging and resisting the U.S. together. And that’s now in question. It was Washington’s miscalculation to initially believe it could peel Moscow away from Beijing by offering concessions and engage China from a position of strength. But that strategy has changed, with Trump characterizing his most recent meeting with Xi as a “12 out of 10,” and enthusiastically accepting an invitation to visit China in April. The U.S. leader’s pragmatic approach is certainly closer to Xi’s style, which opens the door for Beijing to achieve its goals regarding trade and hegemony in its own immediate neighborhood. Moreover, neither is inclined to provoke military conflict with the other. Trump, for his part, has vowed to curtail America’s “endless wars” — even if he bombed Iran and threatened several neighboring countries. And while Xi has his eye on Taiwan, he has every reason to avoid war with the U.S. because of the risks to the Chinese economy. This is in stark contrast to Putin, who is locked into the logic of war in order to preserve power. His absolutist approach to diplomacy couldn’t be more different to Trump. Every time the U.S. pushed for a ceasefire in Ukraine to enable negotiations, the Kremlin reiterated its maximalist goals and stepped up its air attacks instead. At least Trump appears to have realized he can’t force Putin to the negotiating table with existing sanctions or limited military pressure. However many “constructive” phone calls they have, there’s no deal to be struck. At the same time, talk of Trump walking away from Ukraine has mostly died down in Washington. The U.S. leader remains committed to achieving a peace settlement, and appears to understand that Beijing’s leverage over Moscow now offers the best prospect of achieving this. The question is whether the “no limits” partnership with Putin still offers greater benefits for Beijing, or if China’s current interests lie in a pragmatic détente with Washington and Europe. With Europe eyeing the U.S. administration warily, China now has an opportunity to cement a long-term accommodation with the old continent. And that gives Europe potential leverage to persuade China to distance itself from an unpredictable “ally” and curtail the Kremlin’s neo-imperial aggression. After all, Beijing has no interest in Putin’s continued destabilization of Europe.

The EU’s top sports official has sharply criticized FIFA President Gianni Infantino for saying that world football’s governing body should lift its ban on Russia competing in international tournaments.  Infantino said Monday that Russia, which was banned by FIFA following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, should be allowed to compete again, claiming that bans and boycotts “create more hatred.” It would send a positive message to have “girls and boys from Russia” participating in football tournaments across Europe, he added.  European Sport Commissioner Glenn Micallef pushed back Wednesday, calling for the ban to remain in place in a social media post with the hashtag #YellowCardForFIFA.  “Sport does not exist in a vacuum. It reflects who we are and what we choose to stand for,” Micallef said. “Letting aggressors return to global football as if nothing happened ignores real security risks and deep pain caused by the war.”  Infantino’s remarks also drew a furious response from Ukraine.   “679 Ukrainian girls and boys will never be able to play football — Russia killed them,” said Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha on social media. “And it keeps killing more while moral degenerates suggest lifting bans, despite Russia’s failure to end its war.”  Moscow, unsurprisingly, embraced Infantino’s suggestion. “We have seen these statements [by Infantino], and we welcome them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “It’s high time to think about this.”  The U.S. is hosting the men’s World Cup this summer together with Mexico and Canada. Even if the ban were lifted, Russia could not compete as it did not take part in the qualifying rounds.  Infantino maintains close ties with Donald Trump and in December gave him the newly created FIFA Peace Prize — widely seen as a token honor — after the American president was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The sporting world is increasingly softening in its stance on Russian participation in tournaments, with International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry signaling that Russian athletes shouldn’t be held responsible for the actions of their government.

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Thursday he couldn’t say whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal of a weeklong truce would work, but cast the initiative as an “opportunity.” Trump’s ceasefire initiative is an attempt to spare the residents of Ukrainian cities from an onslaught of Russian attacks that have plunged civilians into sub-zero conditions by devastating their power grids and central heating systems. The U.S. president had said Thursday that he secured an assurance from Russian President Vladimir Putin that Moscow’s forces would not fire on Ukrainian cities during a period of bitter cold. “This is an initiative of the American side and personally of the president of the United States. We can regard it as an opportunity rather than an agreement. Whether it will work or not, and what exactly will work, I cannot say at this point. There is no ceasefire. There is no official agreement on a ceasefire, as is typically reached during negotiations,” Zelenskyy told reporters Thursday evening. Zelenskyy said the prospect of such a truce reopened a long-running discussion to de-escalate the war via an agreement that the Kremlin would stop destroying Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and Kyiv would halt attacks on Russian oil depots and refining facilities. Zelenskyy said the Russians had not accepted such a deal last year and he sounded skeptical about their sincerity this time. “At that time, Russia’s responses to such de-escalation steps were negative. We will see how it unfolds now,” he told the reporters. DAMAGE ALREADY DONE A truce would come very late, given the scale of damage already wrought by the Russians. In Kyiv, Russian forces have destroyed an entire power plant in the biggest residential district, depriving almost 500,000 residents of heating and electricity. The situation is so dire that the European Commission had to send 447 emergency generators worth €3.7 million, with individual countries, such as Germany and Poland, also sending other energy equipment worth millions of euros to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Kyiv and other cities. The Ukrainians have hit back by striking Russian oil refineries and power plants in Belgorod, and some other Russian cities within the range of strike capabilities. “The Americans said they want to raise the issue of de-escalation, with both sides demonstrating certain steps toward refraining from the use of long-range capabilities to create more space for diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said.   He added that Kyiv has agreed with the U.S. initiative, as it always agrees to “all American rational ideas.” “If Russia does not strike our energy infrastructure — generation facilities or any other energy assets — we will not strike theirs. I believe this is the answer the mediator of the negotiations, namely the United States of America, was expecting,” Zelenskyy said. Whether Russia is really serious about a ceasefire was another question, Zelenskyy cautioned. NEW BOMBARDMENT Indeed, there was little sign of goodwill from the Russian side on Friday. The Russian armed forces shelled Ukraine with more than 112 drones and various missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force reported Friday.  Although Kyiv has not been attacked on Friday, and no strikes on energy facilities were reported, the eastern region of Kharkiv was heavily shelled. Two people there were wounded, and one person was killed, the governor, Oleh Synegubov, said in a Telegram statement. Civilian infrastructure was hit and power cables were damaged by the attacks. The air force also reported Russian drones in Sumy, Dnipro and Chernihiv regions, as the attacks continued. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also sounded skeptical about a ceasefire on Thursday. “We have spoken many times. President Vladimir Putin has often reminded us that a truce, which is again being sought by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at least for 60 days, and preferably longer, is unacceptable for us,” he told Turkish media. Lavrov claimed all the previous periods in which Russia has slowed its offensives were used by the West “to pump Ukraine with weapons, and restore the strength of its army.”

OPTICS HOW SOVIET SOLDIERS BECAME THE LATEST CASUALTIES OF RUSSIA’S WAR ON UKRAINE The World War II fallen Moscow won’t claim — and Latvia can’t lay to rest. Text and photos by BENJAMIN MACK-JACKSON in Riga Only the dead, it’s often said, have seen the end of war. In Latvia, thousands of Soviet soldiers killed in World War II are still waiting for that certainty. In a field outside Priekule, in the country’s rural Courland region, volunteers from Legenda Military Archaeology fan out across the soil in search of the missing. The group — an international network of enthusiasts and supporters — has spent years recovering the remains of the fallen from World War II and providing them a proper burial. On a chilly morning, the volunteers sweep the ground with metal detectors, acting on a tip from a landowner. The devices hum constantly: spent bullets, twisted shrapnel, fragments of ordnance. Then a shout goes up across the field. A rusted Soviet helmet has appeared in the churned earth. The diggers kneel and clear away soil until a jawbone emerges, followed by the full skeleton of a soldier who died here more than 80 years ago. Advertisement Until recently, this discovery would have set in motion a familiar bureaucratic chain, ending with remains repatriated to Russia or interred in a Soviet military cemetery in Latvia. But now the diggers stop with a different understanding. This soldier is not going anywhere. The war that killed him ended generations ago; the war that keeps him from resting peacefully began on February 24, 2022. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has frozen the system for transferring Soviet war dead to the Russian Federation, the legal successor to the Soviet Union. Moscow no longer responds to notifications. Latvian authorities no longer receive instructions. As a result, thousands of recovered bodies remain in limbo — unclaimed by Russia, unburied by Latvia and trapped in a conflict that did not exist when these soldiers died. The departed: Tālis Ešmits, 61, seen above, is the founder of Legenda Military Archaeology. When his volunteer group finds the remains of German Army soldiers in Latvian soil, it stores the bodies in small black coffins (top) and regularly buries them with guidance from the German War Graves Commission. Remains of Soviet soldiers are a different story. Ešmits estimates that since the Russians cut ties in 2022, Legenda has recovered the remains of more than 3,000 Red Army soldiers that Moscow refuses to take. What to do with them remains an open question. Aftermath: Western Latvia’s Courland region still bears the scars of one of World War II’s most brutal battlegrounds. From late 1944 to Germany’s surrender in May of 1945, Soviet forces encircled nearly 300,000 German soldiers here, in what would become known as the Courland Pocket. Fighting was relentless, with tens of thousands of casualties on both sides. Many of those who perished were never recovered and are deemed “missing in action” to this day. Due process: When a body is found, it’s carefully exhumed and placed in a plastic bag. Anything found on or near the body — medals, insignia, rings, watches — stays with the bones. Unlike the German soldiers that Legenda recovers, Red Army soldiers did not carry identification discs that can be traced in archival records. As a result, putting a name to the body is often quite difficult. Sometimes makeshift plaques or markers are found near a body, acting as temporary grave markers with details about the soldier and when they died. However these objects are often found above mass graves that can contain dozens of soldiers. Backyard surprise: Viktors Duks, 56, one of Legenda’s founding members, got involved after finding several Soviet soldiers buried on his countryside property. “In 1994, I contacted the Russian Embassy, but they said they weren’t interested,” he said. “They told me all their soldiers were already buried. I didn’t know what to do with the soldiers buried in my yard.” His dilemma wasn’t unique. Across Latvia, others were searching for answers too, leading to the formation of Legenda. Task force: The group employs the same methods that civilian cemeteries use to exhume bodies. Ešmits says it’s the only way that they will be able to make an impact. Today, Legenda has dozens of eager volunteers from across the European Union, the United Kingdom or the United States. Most have no professional archaeological experience. Above, Krzysztof Gernand, 23, one of Legenda’s youngest members. He travels to Latvia from Poland for the organization’s international expeditions. “I simply haven’t met people from all over the world who were so close-knit, so united, and did their work out of passion, not for money,” he said. “There is no other solidarity like this.” Advertisement Past lives: Much of why history is so visible and divisive in Latvia lies in its experience of two occupations. The Soviet Union invaded and annexed Latvia in 1940. Nazi Germany’s invasion a year later was seen by many Latvians as a liberation, only for the new arrivals to impose their own brutality. When the Red Army returned throughout 1944 and 1945, most Latvians saw it as a renewed occupation, not a liberation — a view sharply at odds with Moscow’s triumphant mythology. Since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Latvians have worked to rebuild a truthful account of the war, free from Soviet censors. Resentment: Roberts Sipenieks, above, a council member in Saldus, a city at the heart of the Courland region, believes that Russia is effectively engaged in a hybrid war with Latvia. “We don’t have any illusions about Russia,” he said. “Maybe somewhere in the Western world, especially in the United States, some people have illusions that they could change and somehow end this war now. They are naive about Russia. They don’t know Russia.” Memories: When Latvia was under Soviet control, numerous political and military monuments were erected that glorified the regime and the Red Army. Many are now being removed.  Legacy: “The war in Ukraine revived collective memories of past Soviet occupation among many Latvians,” said Jānis Tomaševskis, historian of the War and Military History Research Section at The Latvian War Museum. “As a result, political elites and public institutions have framed Russia’s aggression not only as an attack on Ukraine — but as part of a broader Russian imperial legacy that also victimized the Baltic states.” Storage: Since 2022, the question of what to do with the remains of Soviet soldiers has been unresolved. Enter the “Bone Depot,” as the Legenda team likes to call it. On a small farm in rural Latvia, a large barn houses the remains that are in limbo, waiting to be buried or repatriated. It’s no state-of-the-art facility, but it’s the best Legenda volunteers can muster. Once an expedition is complete, the bagged bodies are transported here to be inventoried and examined. Femurs and clavicles are measured, teeth are cleaned to look for dental work, and the cranium is examined. Detailed notes are made and kept with the body. When the time comes, such information could prove vital to identifying the soldier. Below, a volunteer looks at a medallion from World War I. Next, a Red Army badge from World War II. Advertisement The future Classified: At Legenda’s “Bone Depot,” stacks of bagged bodies containing the remains of Soviet soldiers (right), and small coffins with the remains of German soldiers, are spread throughout the barn. They are separated based on when and where the remains were uncovered or what unit of the Red Army or German Army they were likely serving in when they were killed. By the numbers: “The numbers say that up to 500,000 soldiers died during the two world wars on Latvian territory,” explained Ešmits. “But fewer than half of them ended up in cemeteries.” Since Legenda Military Archaeology was founded in 1999, they have recovered an estimated 25,000 fallen soldiers. An estimated 20,000 have received a proper burial on Latvian soil or were repatriated to their countries of origin. Carry on:  While the fate of the remains of thousands of Red Army soldiers has yet to be determined, Ešmits, Legenda’s founder, says the politics of today matter less than the humanity of the soldiers he recovers. “Humans are humans,” Ešmits said. “We have to show care and respect to the dead … I come from a family of Latvian farmers,” he explained. “You start working on one side of the field, and no matter what, you finish on the other side.” Closure: “Most of these soldiers were conscripted against their will,” Ešmits said. “And their fate was to die in Latvia.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is considering U.S. President Donald Trump’s invitation to the Gaza Board of Peace — but did not agree outright.  He thereby appeared to directly contradict Trump who, on Wednesday evening, said the Russian president had already signed up to join.  Speaking during a video call with members of Russia’s Security Council on Wednesday, Putin thanked Trump for the personal invite, saying “we have always supported, and continue to support, any efforts aimed at strengthening international stability.”  He added he’d ordered Russia’s foreign ministry to review the document and to “consult with our strategic partners.” Thanking Trump for his role in mediating the “Ukraine crisis” — a Kremlin euphemism for its full-scale invasion — Putin emphasized the Board of Peace would mainly focus on the Middle East.  He also suggested the U.S. tap into frozen Russian assets in lieu of the $1 billion payment to be paid by countries who want to join Trump’s group, “in view of Russia’s special relations with the Palestinian people.” “The remainder of our frozen assets could be used for the reconstruction of territory that has suffered from combat after the reaching of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine,” Putin said.  The Russian president said that option would be discussed during a meeting in Moscow on Thursday with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.  Earlier on Thursday, Putin was also scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

European leaders descend on Brussels this evening for a crunch summit with the transatlantic relationship top of their agenda. U.S. President Donald Trump backed down Wednesday from his most belligerent threats about seizing Greenland from Denmark, but that hasn’t assuaged European concerns about America’s posture toward Europe. It’s another busy day in Davos too, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaking and Trump potentially set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And if that wasn’t enough, Trump’s everything envoy Steve Witkoff is headed to the Kremlin for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Whew. Strap in.

KYIV — Without electricity for 12 hours a day, the fridge is no longer any use. But it’s a stable minus 10 degrees Celsius on the balcony, so I store my food there. Outside today you’ll find chicken soup, my favorite vegetable salad and even my birthday cake — all staying fresh in the biting chill. This is the latest terror the Russians have inflicted on our capital — during the cruelest winter since their all-out invasion began in February 2022. They have smashed our energy grids and central heating networks with relentless drone attacks; the frost then does the rest, caking power cables and heating pipes in thick ice that prevents repairs.  At times the temperature drops to minus 20 C and the frost permeates my apartment, its crystals covering the windows and invading the walls. Russia’s latest attack disrupted heating for 5,600 residential buildings in Kyiv, including mine.  My daily routine now includes interspersing work with a lot of walking up and down from the 14th floor of my apartment block, carrying liters of water, most importantly to my grandmother. Granny turned 80 last year. Her apartment at least has a gas stove, meaning we can pour boiling water into rubber hot water bottles and tie them to her body. “Why can’t anyone do anything to make Putin stop?” she cries, complaining that the cold gnaws into every bone of her body. The Kremlin’s attempt to freeze us to death has been declared a national emergency, and millions of Ukrainians have certainly had it harder than I. Many have been forced to move out and stay in other cities, while others practically live in malls or emergency tents where they can work and charge their phones and laptops.  FEELING FORGOTTEN Kyiv is crying out for help, but our plight rarely makes the headlines these days. All the attention now seems focused on a potential U.S. invasion of Greenland. Our president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, complains he now has to fight tooth-and-nail to secure deliveries of air-defense missiles from allies in Europe and America.  “In these times when so many lives are being lost … you still have to fight for all these missiles for various air defenses. You beg for them, squeeze them out by force,” he said.   His outrage that Ukraine’s allies are losing interest has struck a bitter chord this winter. The West’s reluctance to give us security guarantees makes us feel the Kremlin’s crimes are being normalized. Watching Greenland only makes us more afraid. Many Ukrainians no longer believe international law can do anything to rein in the world’s superpowers. Might is right, once again. We are living through what happens when an unchecked superpower is allowed to kill at will. Russia’s goal is to break our defiance, mentally and physically. Weapons designed to sink warships are being turned against our power plants, government buildings and apartments.  KEEP GOING When you’re forced to shiver in the dark for so long, deprived of sleep by nightly missile barrages, you can quickly slide into despair.   “What can I do to cheer you up, Mom?” I asked via a late-night WhatsApp message. “Do something with Putin,” she replied sarcastically, adding she can handle everything else. That means getting up and working every day, no matter how cold or miserable she feels. Veronika Melkozerova/POLITICO Whenever workers manage to restore the grid after yet another attack, the light brings with it a brief moment of elation, then a huge to-do list. We charge our gadgets, fill bottles and buckets with water, cook our food — and then put it out on our balconies.  What’s inspiring is the genuine sense that people will carry on and keep the country running — even though there’s no end in sight to this sub-zero terror. Just do your job, pay your rent, pay your taxes, keep the country afloat. That’s the mission.  So much of the city functions regardless. I can get my granny an emergency dental surgery appointment the same day. Recently, when I went for my evening Pilates — ’cause what else you gonna do in the dark and cold — I saw a woman defiantly getting a manicure in her coat and hat, from a manicurist who wore a flashlight strapped to her head. Bundled-up couriers still deliver food, but the deal is they won’t climb beyond the fifth floor, so those of us up on the 14th have to go down to meet them. Personally, I have access to any kind of food — from our iconic borscht to sushi. I can charge my gadgets and find warmth and shelter at a mall down the street. The eternally humming generators, many of them gifts from Ukrainian businesses and European allies, rekindle memories of a European unity that now seems faded.  Critically, everything comes back to the resilience of the people. Amid all the despair, you see your fellow Ukrainians — people labeled as weak, or bad managers — pressing on with their duties and chores at temperatures where hypothermia and frostbite are a real danger. That’s not to say cracks aren’t showing. The central and local governments have been passing the buck over who failed to prepare Kyiv for this apocalypse. Some streets are covered with ice, with municipal services having to fight frost and the consequences of Russian bombing at the same time. But there’s a real solidarity, a sense that all of us have to dig in — just like our army, our air defenses, our energy workers and rescue services. I find it impossible not to love our nation as it endures endless murderous onslaughts from a superpower. No matter how hard the Russians try to make our lives unbearable, we’re going to make it.