Shannon Monaghan

A brief reprieve from the US-Israel-Iran war news to share some photos from Lviv, because the western Ukrainian city was absolutely glorious today, on this first day of spring. Signs point to the long, horrible winter and freezing cold being over. The Russian attacks, however, are likely to continue

🇺🇦🫂 Ukraine greets the first day of spring – the season we’ve been waiting for most after a long, cold, and one of the hardest winters in decades. Russia tried to leave us in the dark and freezing. We endured.

📷 AFUkraine/Facebook, DSNS/Telegram, UkrzalInfo/Telegram,citykharkivua/Telegram

Journalists from The NYT interviewed more than ten Ukrainian women who suffered sexual violence during the Russian occupation. Some women say they became pregnant by Russian soldiers and now live with children who will forever remind them of their attackers.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/w...

The Trump admin has abandoned Ukraine. It hasn't actively put its lot with Ru's war effort. Does Rubio want to be congratulated for it? Or are they considering jumping in on Ru's side? Either way, the admin's Ukraine policy is shameful from a moral standpoint and the opposite of what Americans want.

Neutral Ireland seeks closer ties with Nato over maritime security New Dublin strategy against backdrop of heightened Russia concerns could involve request for UK and French naval assistance

Good to see that there is *finally* some movement on this!

“Neutral Ireland is seeking closer co-operation with the UK and other Nato countries to defend its vast maritime area as Russia intensifies its surveillance of vulnerable undersea cables that criss-cross Irish waters.”

Today marks four years since Russia invaded Ukraine. These are some thoughts (recorded yesterday) on what Ukrainians have done for all of us and what we can learn from them.

Today marks four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Over a thousand days of fighting, six million refugees abroad, and tens of thousands killed.

We honor those who gave their lives, thank those who fight on, and continue to believe in victory.
Glory to Ukraine.

Putin has failed on a monumental scale in Ukraine. For four years he’s been dependent for survival on a war he started but which Russia cannot win. In the process, he’s turned Russia – which he desperately wants to be a great power - into the dependent of an actual great power.

Today, people are rightly focusing on Ukraine. But it’s also worth taking a moment to think about the monumental stupidity and failure of Putin and his subordinates, who started the longest, most destructive European war since WW2 even though there was no threat to Russia. 🧵

I wrote for @ukandeu.bsky.social on the end of the US-Europe alliance.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges Donald Trump to see through Russia’s ‘games’ [FREE TO READ] In an FT interview, Ukraine’s president says conflict at ‘beginning of the end’ because both sides need a ceasefire

On the eve of the 4th anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told @financialtimes.com Russia and Ukraine are at the “beginning of the end” of Europe’s biggest war since WWII, but urged Trump to see through Putin’s negotiating “games”.

Free link: as.ft.com/r/9b99f21a-e...

And now, Foreign Policy have kindly made this short piece available without a paywall - foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/23/r...

A reminder that Europe has plenty of cards...Geostrategic Europe Taskforce report at www.geostrategic-europe.org/publications...

Tomorrow everyone will be asking: when will the Russo-Ukrainian war end? The right question is: what can we do to make the Russian invasion fail?

To Die With Such Men | Hurst Publishers Based on interviews and body-cam footage, a gripping account of British and American volunteers fighting in Ukraine, from Kyiv to Bakhmut.

US & UK volunteers joined the International Legion to fight for Ukraine & democracy. Read their gripping accounts in ‘To Die With Such Men’ by @shannonmonaghan.bsky.social

‘Explores in bloody detail… what it’s really like to volunteer on Ukraine’s front line.’ @thetimes.com

tinyurl.com/bdhkjdd6

It turns out that Europe's greatest strategic problem (and this includes France) is that De Gaulle was right, but no one really listened to him.

Your regular reminder that anyone who pushes "let's give Donbas to Russia to end the war" as a solution is either ignorant or pro-Russian. Donbas is not a "disputed" nor a special region and therefore its occupation by Ru doesn't solve anything at all. Ru wants all of Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is caught in a vice of his own making Russia’s president cannot win the war, but fears peace

"In the Great Patriotic War, from June 1941 to May 1945, the Red Army advanced 1,600km from Moscow to Berlin. In this longer war, Russian forces in Donetsk, the main focus, have advanced just 60km—the distance from Washington to Baltimore." www.economist.com/leaders/2026...

Opinion | When Will This War End? The Question Is Meaningless.

“It can seem that the world watches Russia’s war on Ukraine as if it were a film. When attention wanes, there is a demand for an ending — if not good, then bad. For Ukrainians, this is not cinema but reality. It will last as long as it lasts” — Nataliya Gumenyuk. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/o...

How a four-year onslaught has changed Ukraine The border guards who faced Russia’s tanks were changed for ever, like their country

"The border guards say February 24th taught them a lesson: the only security guarantee worth anything is your own guns. “God forbid you ever face what we did,” says Koshyk. “But if you do, remember it’s on you [...] Because no one else will do it for you.” www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

The administration thinks it's in a multipolar world of competing great powers and spheres of influence but also in a unipolar world sustained by American exceptionalism. Because it doesn't know much about IR, it doesn't understand its error. 🧵

"russia wants peace on their own terms" is the equivalent of "the Taliban want to educate women differently". We'd all mock and reject the second framing. Stop whitewashing russia and its intentions.

Europe’s Next Hegemon The perils of German power.

“If Germany does not take steps to mitigate mistrust and discomfort, competition really could return to Europe.”

I don’t share Liana’s concern to the same extent but she is not wrong. Worth reading.

www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/euro...

Russia’s Wagner Group pivots to European sabotage, say western officials Recruiters involved with fighter group are said to be targeting agents for operations on Nato soil

How do you stop this? Defeat Putin in Ukraine.

www.ft.com/content/dbd1...

2) NATO is NOT “stronger than ever”, and the fact that this even needs saying is utterly absurd after the year we had.

Ar one point I was even told that it is THE ALLIES TALKING UP DIVERGENCES WHICH ARE THE PROBLEM 🤯
bsky.app/profile/rike...

RUSSIA AND THE EMERGING WORLD ORDER powervertical · RUSSIA AND THE EMERGING WORLD ORDER One would think that Vladimir Putin is smiling when he looks at the rapidly changing US role in the world. One would assume that the Kremlin is d…

How does the changing U.S. posture in the world look from the Kremlin? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, I spoke with the always insightful Mikhail Zygar (@zygaro.bsky.social) to break it all down.

www.powervertical.org/2026/02/13/r...

I agree with this analysis. Trump’s America is not Europe's friend, and European leaders mustn't kid themselves that Rubio's speech is a valentine message from Washington. He's less strident than Vance last year, but he's still telling Europe to be Trumpian - or else.

I hadn’t realised until spotting it just now that @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social’s dissecting knife was of course just what I had been waiting for, for pellucid explanation of the latest Munich Security Carnival goings-on.

There will be people who are understandably desperate to hear this, but it's important to be clear-eyed about Rubio himself and what the Trump administration is doing. 🧵

The FT contest that challenged readers to redraw Europe’s borders The extraordinary story of when, two months into the bloody Great War, the newspaper launched an unusual competition

A beautiful essay and data journalism about WWI's border changes, with implications for today. In 1914 the FT ran a contest to see who could draw the most accurate post-war map of Europe. Where everyone blew it? Assuming Russia's "immutability." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...