John T Psaropoulos

Ukraine’s Chasiv Yar falls after a 16-month battle, fight for Kupiansk begins Russia claims Ukraine is not ready for peace talks, but its actions show it is not interested in de-escalation

After a 16-month battle, Russia finally overran a key high ground in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, and claimed to have laid siege to Kupyansk in the north. Now he eyes Ukraine’s ‘fortress belt’ of cities in the east. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

How the Greeks came of age Two remarkable books on the Greeks reveal that soft power preserved them as a nation during periods when they failed at political unity

Two remarkable books on the Greeks reveal that soft power preserved them as a nation during periods when they failed at political unity.
open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Trump sells the EU more energy and protection, muscling Russia out Moscow called an EU-US trade deal “anti-Russian” as the US formally took over its former energy market

The US sought to formally position itself as Europe’s biggest seller of protection and energy security following a $750bn trade ‘deal’ on Sunday July 27. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Greek marine parks revive Turkish claims to Aegean islands Turkey sees Greek efforts to save the environment as a way of asserting sovereignty and quashing Turkish territorial claims in the Aegean

Turkey has said it won’t respect marine nature preserves Greece announced on July 21, and has threatened to launch rival environmental projects challenging Greek sovereignty in the Aegean Sea. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

EU steps up air defences for Ukraine and sanctions for Russia The US returns as a seller of critical anti-ballistic systems, but remains neutral, with no ideological standpoint

Week 178 in the Ukraine war: Europe passed an 18th raft of sanctions severing all energy imports from Russia, is working to deliver the defences Ukraine needs to deny Russia access to its airspace, and is proposing to quintuple its confederal defence budget. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

The Road to 1974: The Invasion and Occupation of Cyprus A tragedy of predominantly Greek errors led to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus 51 years ago today. It could have been averted

Henry Kissinger, Adnan Menderes and the vindictive Harold MacMillan all had something to do with enabling Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus 51 years ago, but it was Greek and Greek-Cypriot errors that allowed their efforts to succeed. johntpsaropoulos.substack.com/p/the-road-t...

The Road to 1974: The Invasion and Occupation of Cyprus A tragedy of predominantly Greek errors led to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus 51 years ago today. It could have been averted

Henry Kissinger, Adnan Menderes and the vindictive Harold MacMillan all had something to do with enabling Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus 51 years ago, but it was Greek and Greek-Cypriot errors that allowed their efforts to succeed. johntpsaropoulos.substack.com/p/the-road-t...

Haftar’s Game: What Libya’s strongman wants from Greece and the EU After Russia’s demise in the MENA, it is likely that Haftar seeks new security guarantees from Turkey or the EU

Libya’s Halifa Haftar threatens to support ratification of a maritime delimitation with Turkey which Europe has called illegal. At the same time, refugee flows from Libya are reaching Crete in challenging numbers. Is Haftar behind this, too, and what does he want? open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Europe assumes financial burden of Ukraine war, alarming Russia “We’re getting our money back in full,” says Trump, as Europe buys US weapons for Ukraine

With the announced sale this week of $10bn of US weapons to Europe, the continent has become Ukraine’s main sponsor in its war against Russia’s invasion. The US has become a beneficiary of that war, without an ideological standpoint. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Haftar’s Game: What Libya’s strongman wants from Greece and the EU After Russia’s demise in the MENA, it is likely that Haftar seeks new security guarantees from Turkey or the EU

Libya’s Halifa Haftar threatens to support ratification of a maritime delimitation with Turkey which Europe has called illegal. At the same time, refugee flows from Libya are reaching Crete in challenging numbers. Is Haftar behind this, too, and what does he want? open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Putin confirms he wants all of Ukraine, as Europe steps up military aid Trump made no pledge of assistance to Ukraine at last week’s NATO summit, but said he’d “try” and sell it Patriot interceptors

Last week’s NATO summit did not bring the US back among the countries helping Ukraine militarily, but secretary general Mark Rutte revealed European allies have stepped up their aid to keep Ukraine in the fight. Meanwhile Putin confessed he wants all of Ukraine. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Greeks looks on with apprehension as two regional wars grow under Trump US president Donald Trump was meant to be a ‘peacemaker’. He has instead emboldened Russia in Ukraine and joined Israel in strikes on Iran

After blowing up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, Trump finally blew up Iran’s secret nuclear sites as well. Will he stop there? Two regional wars are growing under the peacemaker president. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

EU squeezes Russia financially to achieve ‘peace through strength’ in Ukraine After banning Russian oil in 2022, the EU proposes to phase out Russian gas and maximise profits from Russian assets

With the Trump administration no longer interested in sanctioning Russia or helping Ukraine, the EU has accelerated both. On the chopping block are Europe’s last remaining €22bn in oil & gas purchases, a fifth of its pre-war energy purchases. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

The South Cyclades Park and Greek sovereignty in the Aegean Kyriakos Mitsotakis curtailed a previously announced marine protected area, bending to Turkey’s view of maritime law

Greece has announced the creation of the South Cyclades marine protected area, a curtailment of its original vision for a South Aegean park stretching to the Dodecanese. It is a loss for the environment and a loss for international law to Turkish coercion.
open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Ukraine keeps up pressure on Russian airfields and war production Russia responds with ever-larger strikes on Ukraine’s cities, scaling up drone and missile production

Ukraine kept up the pressure on Russian airfields and war production in the past week, following its highly successful Spiderweb operation that destroyed Russian strategic bombers on June 1. Russia responded with its biggest yet air raids on Ukrainian cities. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Greece is on the frontline of the EU’s new deportation policy It means longer detention to coerce asylum applicants who’ve been turned down to leave voluntarily

The EU is stiffening its directive on returns of non-legally resident migrants. It relies on coercion to persuade people to leave voluntarily, because forced returns are legally and practically difficult. Greece, is advocating even stiffer prison terms than the EU. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Russian war in Ukraine intensifies as peace talks appear at a dead end Russia showed it had no intention of compromising on its goal of subjugating Ukraine even as it lost a third of its strategic bombers

A day after losing up to 40 irreplaceable strategic bombers and a $500mn surveillance plane to a Ukrainian special op 4,000km inside Russia, Russia presented Ukraine with the same terms of capitulation as in March 2022, when its troops were in the outskirts of Kyiv. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Greece poised to make marine parks a reality Greece is reportedly on the cusp of creating two marine parks that will almost double its marine protected areas

Greece is reportedly about to make two announced marine parks a reality, almost doubling its marine protected areas to 30% of territorial waters, in line with UN goals. It says these will not be paper parks, but properly monitored and policed. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Russia responds to Ukraine's ceasefire plan with escalation Russia launched its largest yet air assaults on Ukraine’s cities in the 170th week of the war. In response, the EU threatened more sanctions and Taurus missiles

Russia and Ukraine are to meet for a second round of talks on Monday, but the outlook is grim. Russia accompanied the 1,000-man POW exchange it proposed with its largest strikes against Ukraine’s cities, and refused to submit its ceasefire plan ahead of talks. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

This is the size of the “buffer zone” Dmitry Medvedev deems may be necessary to protect Russia from Ukraine. It seems entirely fair, given the temerity with which the country defended itself after Russia invaded it.

The fight between democracy and oligarchy is precariously balanced America finds itself now where Greece was in 1915 – in a battle between cynicism and the popular will

America is now in a similar position to Greece in 1915, fighting to preserve its democracy against a cynical élite. King Konstantine didn’t believe the Entente could win in 1915, and Trump doesn’t believe the Ukrainians can win now. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Russia mocks Ukraine during direct talks, raising suspicion of bad faith Russia confirmed it still seeks to annex four regions of Ukraine, plus Crimea, and force Ukraine to be a buffer state

Russia questioned Ukrainian sovereignty and undermined the authority of its president as they engaged in their first direct talks since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, creating suspicion that Moscow is laying the groundwork to wriggle out of any agreement. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

EU membership, seizing Russia’s money needed to rebuild Ukraine: Analysts A simple ceasefire is unlikely to set the stage for undoing the damage from Russia’s war, experts say.

Ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine may soon be underway, but Ukraine’s economic recovery will be hobbled unless the EU fast-tracks Ukraine’s membership and provides hundreds of billions in insurance and investment, experts tell Al Jazeera. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/...

Europe considers the perils of flying fighters in Ukraine’s airspace Leaders weigh the risks of a plan named Skyshield that could see European air forces defend Ukraine from the air.

Ukraine’s European allies are considering the possibility of using their air forces to defend the country’s western skies from drone and missile attacks without the help of the United States, sources familiar with the talks tell Al Jazeera. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/...

Greece and the Baltics: Can small states alter the fates of great nations? Both the Greeks and the Balts certainly think so, and have a great deal of history to prove it

It is a conceit of smaller nations to see themselves as pivotal at particular moments in world affairs through the influence they exert on the great and powerful states. This sentiment was on display at the 16th Conference on Baltic Studies in Cambridge. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Putin fails to show up at his own peace talks, and grabs a bit more of Ukraine Russia ignored a new US-EU call for a 30-day ceasefire, and showed signs it was preparing for new offensives

Moscow walked back from its own offer of direct talks with Ukraine this week as Russian forces made creeping advances through Ukraine’s east, revealing that there is no appetite for a ceasefire or a peace in the Kremlin.

open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Putin fails to show up at his own peace talks, and grabs a bit more of Ukraine Russia ignored a new US-EU call for a 30-day ceasefire, and showed signs it was preparing for new offensives

Moscow walked back from its own offer of direct talks with Ukraine this week as Russian forces made creeping advances through Ukraine’s east, revealing that there is no appetite for a ceasefire or a peace in the Kremlin.

open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

On the bright side, good for South Africa?

Greece’s grid slows a revolution in green energy Self-production capacity by households, businesses and farms is approaching the 1GW mark, but the grid has refused to connect more than half of all applicants

Self-production capacity by Greek households, businesses and farms is approaching the 1GW mark, but the grid has refused to connect more than half of all applicants, harming decarbonisation, social fairness and strategic decentralization of large-scale production. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

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