Brink Has a Message from the Brink

“I cannot stand by while a country is invaded, a democracy bombarded, and children killed with impunity. I believe that the only way to secure U.S. interests is to stand up for democracies and to stand against autocrats. Peace at any price is not peace at all ? it is appeasement. And history has taught us time and again that appeasement does not lead to safety, security or prosperity. It leads to more war and suffering.”

— Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, writing in the Detroit Free Press.

Tillis Calls Putin a ‘Cancer’

“I support President Trump and I believe that most of his policies on national security are right. I believe things are pretty good. But what I’m telling you, whoever believes that there is any space for Vladimir Putin and the future of a stable globe, better go to Ukraine, they better go to Europe, they better invest the time to understand that this man is a cancer and the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.”

— Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), quoted by the Raleigh News & Observer.

2023 Was a Profitable Year for Arms Manufacturers

$632 billion

Major companies in the arms industry saw a 4.2% increase in overall revenue in 2023 with sharp rises for producers based in Russia and the Middle East, a new report said Monday, reported the Associated Press. The report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said revenues from the top 100 arms companies totaled $632 billion last year in response to surging demand related to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Data Scientists Estimate that 50,000 Russian Men Have Died Since the Ukraine Invasion

50,000

Nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine, according to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia’s war dead the AP reports.Two independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany’s Tübingen University, used Russian government data to shed light on one of Moscow’s closest-held secrets — the true human cost of its invasion of Ukraine.