Latvian Political Monitor

🇺🇦 3 days in Ukraine — silence before the storm of cruise missiles. Independence Day, war and cooperation PART 1 - first part There is one thing I can say with absolute clarity after this visit — what we in Latvia experience as an emergency situation for one weekend is everyday life in Ukraine. Every day. Every night. We have much to learn and adopt from them. The scale of problems that 🇺🇦 feels, solves and goes through is unimaginable — and they cope! And Ukrainians have learned to coordinate services extremely effectively, use limited resources and make decisions in circumstances where mistakes come at a very high price. In the crisis management center - the service dispatch center, there is a unified system for all services together with the military center and coordination - fantastic cooperation and resource transfer. 🇺🇦 This was my first - three-day state visit to Ukraine — on the day of the Ukrainian National Flag and during Independence Day celebrations. Russia with its brutal war of occupation has already taken 5 years from Ukraine's 35 years of independence. I not only congratulate President @zelenskyyUA and the Ukrainian people on their ability to defend their independence and fight for their country. I used these three days as practically as possible. 🤝 I met with President Zelensky, Ukrainian Prime Minister @KoretskyiUA , the Defense Minister, the leadership of military intelligence, SBU and other structures. I also visited: ➖️ military operations command center; ➖️ radar and air defense center; ➖️ crisis management center; ➖️ drone attack center LASAR ➖ several military and security structures. From this visit I bring home not only political discussions, but also very concrete contacts, cooperation projects, systems, solutions and potential contracts that we can also use to strengthen Latvia's defense capabilities. 🌙 The presence of our — EU and other allied leaders — in Kyiv was in a way also an opportunity for local residents to finally sleep more peacefully. Putin usually does not allow massive missile attacks when a large number of foreign leaders are in the city. However, during dinner at President Zelensky's, the air raid siren also sounded for us. Air defense worked, and "Shahed" drones were shot down just about 5 km away from us. That quickly reminds you where you really are. 🌍 During the visit there were both NB8 — Nordic-Baltic countries, and Coalition of the Willing meetings with about 30 European and international allies. The overall feeling was very similar: there is no logic in spending enormous energy on organizing peace talks if the aggressor himself is not ready to really negotiate. 🕊️ Peace talks are in the hands of Ukraine and President Zelensky. Our — European and allied — task is to provide Ukraine with everything possible so that it can gain an advantage on the battlefield. If Ukraine reaches real peace talks, we must support them. But until then, Ukraine must be given resources so that it does not enter negotiations from a position of weakness. ⚔️ Ukrainians, with an innovative approach very different from traditional military thinking, have managed to achieve maximum effect with limited resources. (83% of people in service are not from the military sphere) But right now there are very significant technological and strategic changes in the war — unfortunately not all in Ukraine's favor. ❄️ Winter 🇺🇦 will be very hard. 🔴 Russia is preparing to strike Ukraine's critical infrastructure — electricity, heating and water supply. 🔴 The Ukrainian side reports that Russia has currently accumulated about 600 cruise missiles, but by the end of winter it can produce about 700 more. That means potentially up to 1300 missiles. 🔴 The availability of air defense missiles is much lower than the possible scale of Russian attacks. To reliably intercept one target, sometimes several interceptor missiles are needed. 🔴 Russia is already capable of equipping "Shahed" type drones with jet engines. They become significantly faster and much harder to intercept. 🔴 Russia, together with CHINA, is actively developing alternative STARLINK satellite communication and control systems, which could significantly increase its attack capabilities as early as December. 🔴 The new war conditions make Ukraine's defense increasingly expensive — more air defense systems, missiles, drones, electronic warfare tools and ammunition are needed. 💰 And here is a question for us in Europe as well. As long as some countries help Russia circumvent sanctions, continue to buy Russian energy resources, allow shadow fleet operations or allow Western components to reach Russia's military industry, we are actually helping to finance the next missiles that will fly at Ukrainian cities. That is why my position is clear: ⛔ The flow of Western technologies and components into Russia's missile and weapons production must be completely stopped. 💶 The frozen Russian assets (worth 200b €, which covers a whole year of war costs in Ukraine) must be used much more actively for Ukraine's support, rather than endlessly relying only on European taxpayers' money. Hundreds of billions of euros of Russian funds are frozen in Europe. The aggressor must pay for its war. 🚫 I also insist on a firm position — Russia must not be normalized and quietly allowed back into the international arena while it continues its aggression. - Not in sports. - Not in culture. - Not in music. Russia also uses sports, culture and international presence to legitimize its state and regime. 🕯️ During the visit I also visited the memorial for fallen special forces soldiers. There are also two plaques with the names of our compatriots — Maksims Čugunovs and Vitālijs Smirnovs. That is a very heavy reminder of the price people pay for Ukraine's and thus also our freedom. 🇺🇦 Ukrainians must win. There is no other option. Good forces must prevail over the aggressor. And Latvia together with all of Europe must do everything possible for that to happen. 🇱🇻🤝🇺🇦

Gas reserves in Europe are currently at the lowest level in 15 years (from SEB macroeconomics review). This means that next winter season, heating and electricity bills will most likely increase.

If Anita Brauna loses communications during a storm and has no way to restore them, then she has a personal excuse for inaction. She is clear. But if the notification of all of Latvia depends on whether Anita Brauna has communications, then something is very wrong with the organization.

@LovelyJeck1 @AndrisKulbergs in what sense objective - I inform about how incapable Kulbergs is to properly lead the government. Those who claim the opposite are biased, because objectively from Kulbergs at first there was only a lot of talk, but now there are also inactions, mistaken decisions, etc. etc.

Met with the new PM of 🇺🇦. Our conversation came together very quickly because we both come from the private sector, from business, from leading large private companies. We are about numbers, deals, cooperation, and results. We quickly got down to business and addressed mutually beneficial/important issues of cooperation between our countries.

Hats off to our embassy 🇺🇦. You think it's an ordinary embassy.... no, there are Latvians with "balls", because our ambassador is the only one among 4x other world ambassadors who lives there with his wife on a daily basis. The others all change every month and don't live on site, because they are afraid of daily rocket and drone attacks. Similarly, our foreign affairs expert and colleague both live in Kyiv every day. They are the key for our services, foreign affairs, entrepreneurs and nationals to do everything to help Ukraine and our entrepreneurs and supporters.

@maijaroze_ @ltvzinas @LRZinas There is such a thing that responsibility for LSM lies with the Saeima commission, chaired by @ineselibina, which addresses the SEPL matter. The government doesn't really have a say in public media (as the law stipulates, not the old entrenched practice).

@BrunenieceI @DavidsZalans That was decided already with the 2025 budget.

@RaivisZeltits This is something brilliantly sick...

Do not let the progressives split us, woman and man complement each other. 5 quotes with Austris Stankevics. #LatvijaLatviešiem #AustrisStankevics https://t.co/rL58MB9mgB

Another “oops”? https://t.co/j74hFQONSU

@suvajevs Because Bolt dropped the coalition

@maris_mezals She met with Speis X https://t.co/SHu3rLWt35

❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️I, for example, am interested, if the CIA director was in Riga, is it known who he met with, @a_latkovskis? https://t.co/TxqQzGZcpM