"Saint Francis is probably devastated that the Pope has taken his name," Donald Tusk, the former prime minister of Poland and ex-president of the European Council, responded to the recent statements of the Roman pontiff.
JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Citigroup and Crédit Agricole have provided in total more than 12 billion dollars of loans for Russian oil and gas companies in the run up to Russia’s full scale military invasion and continued providing financial services for them after Putin started the massacre.
Exactly two months ago, on June 23, the European Council granted Ukraine EU candidate status but came up with seven conditions for obtaining it, which Ukraine must fulfill. As they say in the EU, the non-standard procedure (when the conditions are provided simultaneously with the status) has become a signal of trust in Kyiv.
Would you say that Ukrainians have all the reasons for despair? But the war became a magic wand that turned the world upside down and made us optimists!
The visit of Türkiye's President to Ukraine, together with the UN Secretary-General, has stayed without historic agreements, but it got a lot of attention.
Estonian Narva, all of a sudden, turned into the main newsmaker on August 16. The government removed the Soviet T-34 tank, which was extremely important for the Russian community.
Ukraine, which is waging a heroic war against the aggressor, is also achieving tangible and perceivable results on the diplomatic front. The joint efforts of diplomats, state representatives, and non-governmental players secure international support for Ukraine.
In late July 2021, a cultural festival, "Global Values," was organized specially for Vladimir Putin's family in occupied Ukrainian Sevastopol. The dictator's daughter, Ekaterina Tikhonova, personally supervised the event.
The Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Péter Szijjártó, paid an official visit to Russia on Thursday, breaking the Western diplomatic blockade of the Putin regime.
In late February, right when Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union made an unprecedented decision: it opened its borders to Ukrainians fleeing the war, Russian shelling, missiles, and tanks. One week later, surprisingly fast for Eurobureaucracy, the EU unanimously adopted an implementing decision introducing temporary protection to persons fleeing Ukraine due to the war.