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Shannon Monaghan

@shannonmonaghan.bsky.social
411 followers 139 following 188 posts

Historian of modern war (PhD, FRHistS) / Ukraine book TO DIE WITH SUCH MEN (Hurst 2025) / WWII-Cold war book A QUIET COMPANY OF DANGEROUS MEN (Viking 2024) www.shannonmonaghan.com

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Reposted by Shannon Monaghan
Sarah Kirchberger @sarahkirchberger.bsky.social · 8h
The crux of our problem seems to be that there's a segment of East German society with ties to the old elites (SED, Stasi, etc.) that saw German unification as a hostile takeover by the "class enemy" & that subsequently lost their preeminent status not only within East Germany, but the Eastern Bloc.
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Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Headline writers saying Putin "warned the West against escalation" should stop helping the russian dictator manipulate the narrative. He started the war. If he attacks more European countries, he'll be escalating. The West hasn't matched his escalation, let alone ever escalated.
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Keir Giles @keirgiles.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Kieron Monks from The i Paper wrote on Kaliningrad as Russia's vulnerable and exposed weak spot. Sky's "The Wargame" simulated airstrikes there in response to a Russian attack on the UK. Now Russia's embassy in London has reached for the N-word again in response. kyivindependent.com/russia-issue...
kyivindependent.com
Russia issues new nuclear threat over Kaliningrad as tensions with NATO rise
The Russian Embassy in Ireland cited what it called "information" that NATO is preparing an air and naval blockade of Kaliningrad Oblast.
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Anders Puck Nielsen @anderspucknielsen.dk · 30/09/2026
I'm skeptical that more stupid warriors is the best way forward for armed forces.
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 29/09/2026
I don’t claim to understand the financial market but reading about a loss-making company that warns its product might wipe out humanity does not motivate me to buy their shares.
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Keir Giles @keirgiles.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Lessons observed" from behind the scenes at Sky's "The Wargame" series playing out Russian coercion of the UK. Formerly defence-sceptical politicians learned a lot: now the rest of them need to get the message. www.ft.com/content/65da...
ft.com
A TV series shows Britain is woefully unprepared for war
Sky’s ‘The Wargame’ may be fiction but the defence vulnerabilities it reveals are very real
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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
To those keeping tabs on when the GIUK gap is mentioned: it’s mentioned here.
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 27/09/2026
Lest we forget about you, North Korea. www.wsj.com/world/north-...
wsj.com
North Korea Is Testing Swarm Attacks Mixing Drones and Missiles
Kim Jong Un’s regime is incorporating tactics which are proving successful against Western air defenses in Europe and the Middle East.
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Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This a great explainer. I’ll add this: 1) many don’t realize that the reforms were necessary; they were formulated to deal w a real problem; they didn’t break anything that worked; the command economy was inherently flawed and falling apart. I’ll also add that…
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Ruth Deyermond @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is a poor take that suggests Owen Jones doesn't know much about Russia in the 1990s, including Russia-US or wider Russia-West relations in the 1990s. By giving only one part of the story, he is repeating the Russian political elite's self-serving line that it was all the West's fault. Long 🧵
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Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"I’m a mom - an anti-drone radar. Life doesn't stop. But how can I let my child go out alone?" a Ukrainian mom says as she escorts her son to his training session during a Russian drone attack on Kyiv. 📹: misslena_90 / Instagram
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Sven-Erik Volberg @volberg.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
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Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Russia says the quiet part out loud at the UN-- they reject a ceasefire because they don't want Ukraine to rearm. Why? Clearly, because they don't want Ukraine to defend itself from their aggression. Their goal remains Ukrainian capitulation. Never forget that…
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Alina Pereverzieva 🇺🇦 @perevaa.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
⚠️ Russia is developing a plan to launch Gerbera drones at Spain, France or Italy from merchant ships in the Mediterranean, El Mundo reports. The drones could be hidden in shipping containers and launched near Europe’s coast. Moscow wants “its own Spiderweb.”
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Keir Giles @keirgiles.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Attack drones launched from vessels of Russia's shadow fleet at targets in Western Europe, you say? One reason that scenario didn't make it into the plot of Sky's "The Wargame", broadcasting this week, is because the team playing Russia already had too many options. inews.co.uk/news/world/w...
Screenshot describing Wargame discussions of shadow fleet attack drones.
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Ian Bond @cerianbond.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
If Putin accepts, every European leader (at least) should boycott the event. The G20 no longer serves the useful purpose it had during the global financial crisis, when it was founded, so nothing that matters will be lost by not being there.
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Sven-Erik Volberg @volberg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Commander of the British military in Estonia. Listen to him, not to know-alls, scaremongers, doomsayers, clickbaiters and other noisemakers.
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"Silicon Valley "has about as much cultural capital as an airport...The richest people in the tech industry have blocked policies that would raise taxes, increase wages or otherwise reduce their wealth to make life better for the people who live around them." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | In the Land of Billionaire Barbarians
The center of the tech industry is culturally barren because wealthy executives have no interest in communities outside their fiefs.
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UNITED24 Media @united24media.com · 21/09/2026
⚡️ Thirty years of data show Ukrainians are increasingly democratic, skeptical of authority, and distant from Russia. 🔗 united24media.com/opinion/ukra...
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Driving east from Kyiv to Kharkiv, there was no place to get gas from Poltava eastwards, because all of the stations had been destroyed by distant Russian drone operators. The Russians send drones at the pumps, causing explosions, killing attendants and customers. snyder.substack.com/p/a-meditati...
snyder.substack.com
A Meditation on Gas Stations
On Total War and Individual Responsibility (1/2)
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Keir Giles @keirgiles.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I missed this last week. A helpful demolition of scenarios assuming Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are (a) undefended (b) unprepared (c) passive victims of Russian nonsense with no ability to resist and fight back. www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrain...
atlanticcouncil.org
Putin is escalating against NATO but a Baltic incursion remains unlikely
The recent escalation in Russian gray zone aggression across Europe has sparked a lively debate over how far the Kremlin may be prepared to go, but a Russian attack on the Baltic states remains unlike...
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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 21/09/2026
A journalist asked what I thought about the elections in Russia. I said that elections in Russia would be a great thing, and I look forward to seeing them.
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Anders Puck Nielsen @anderspucknielsen.dk · 20/09/2026
I'm not sure what Russian officials think they get out of claiming astronomical numbers of repelled drones. It mostly just signals that they have failed to stop Ukrainian drone production.
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Alina Pereverzieva 🇺🇦 @perevaa.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Well done 👏 Can’t wait till these are mass-produced and deployed so I can finally sleep through the night again without waking up every hour.
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Sven-Erik Volberg @volberg.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Estonian security expert, former chief of Foreign Intelligence Service Saks with some interesting news. "Based on information from recent months, it can be inferred that the decision to conduct a new wave of forced mobilization has not yet been made, and the russian president prefers to avoid it🧵
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Keir Giles @keirgiles.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I’m glad to see that Sky’s ‘Wargame’ will be watched in Ireland. Interesting to see how it will go down in a country even worse prepared to deal with Russian coercion than the UK.
Irish Examiner preview of Wargame
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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If you keep getting punched in the face and never hit back, guess what? The punches get harder. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
washingtonpost.com
String of daring Russian plots is testing Washington’s restraint
A strike on a train that imperiled former European leaders and CIA officers is among a spate of attacks that risked a dangerous escalation with the West, experts say.
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Sarah Kirchberger @sarahkirchberger.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
„It was just before the planned operation that 🇺🇸 officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of AI — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the 🇨🇳 ship was carrying.“
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 18/09/2026
😂🫣😭
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Sarah Kirchberger @sarahkirchberger.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A very good way to react to 🇷🇺 provocations 😎
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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 16/09/2026
How Russia turns Europe's divisions into power. buff.ly/h7fZE5X
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 14/09/2026
@economist.com ‘s Adam Roberts on Russia’s drone attacks on Ukrainian trains The War Room newsletter: Russia is hunting Ukraine’s trains economist.com/europe/2026/...
economist.com
The War Room newsletter: Russia is hunting Ukraine’s trains
Russia’s drones and missiles are battering the railway system, writes Adam Roberts, our foreign editor
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 14/09/2026
Good article on how well Ukraine is preparing its energy grid for the winter - but there are limits to what can be done in the face of permanent attacks. Ukraine is bracing for Russia’s hardest winter blitz yet economist.com/europe/2026/... .
economist.com
Ukraine is bracing for Russia’s hardest winter blitz yet
It is reinforcing fast, but perhaps not fast enough
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 14/09/2026
“Shortages of munitions are common in wartime, especially in big, attritional wars. Yet America is running short after a brief war against a medium-sized power. What if it had to fight mighty China?” What happens when interceptor missiles run out economist.com/internationa...
economist.com
What happens when interceptor missiles run out
The growing shortage is causing panic in Ukraine and elsewhere
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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is the most counterintuitive part of NATO cooperation for the US to stay out of, because hunting these subs has always been about US homeland security - the Russian idea used to be to sneak through the GIUK gap and continue towards US East Coast. Try to find them in the Atlantic, good luck
politico.com
NATO races to guard against Russian nuclear subs without the US
Allied forces gathered near Iceland to practice hunting for Russian submarines, with a key member missing.
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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
”This is Canada turning from looking at itself as a North American nation to a trans-Atlantic nation,” said a senior Canadian official. “Canadians, we sound like Americans, we dress like Americans, but as a society we’re much more European.”
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Mick Ryan @warinthefuture.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
"Offensive operations are still possible in modern war. But they need the intellectual effort to develop new techniques to make them viable and repeatable at scale." A review of potential implications of recent Ukrainian counteroffensives in the east & south. mickryan.substack.com/p/ukraine-bu...
mickryan.substack.com
Ukraine Builds New Forms of Offensive Manoeuvre
What Ukraine’s recent counteroffensives in the south and east tell us about the status of the war on the ground, and what they might mean for the trajectory of the conflict in 2026 and 2027.
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Shannon Monaghan @shannonmonaghan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Some good news out of the front line lately; as always I recommend Stefan Korshak: "For those of you who like “maneuver warfare”, this is the template that the Ukrainians are using, if your country doesn’t or isn’t planning to, you are behind the curve." stefankorshak.substack.com/p/sept-11-20...
stefankorshak.substack.com
Sept. 11 2026, Day 1,660a — ZSU Gains Ground, Kuban Gets Pounded, NATO Trains Hard and Gives Russian Drone Free Pass
Hi All!
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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
”Russia believed Witkoff shared part of the blame for the failure of a summit with Trump in Alaska last year to achieve a breakthrough, according to Ukrainian officials and people briefed on the Kremlin’s thinking.” Even the Russians have noticed Witkoff doesn’t know what he’s doing
ft.com
US spy chief prepares for greater role in Russia-Ukraine talks
CIA director John Ratcliffe will be involved in shuttle diplomacy between Moscow and Kyiv
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Sven-Erik Volberg @volberg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is a gift that keeps giving. There are certainly a decent chunck of russians now cut off behinde the lines. Second, several large Z-channels are confused how could this happen, how was no reinforcement sent? The answer is easy. 🧵
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Kaja Kallas @kajakallas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The public glorification afforded to a convicted war criminal in Belgrade is an affront to the memory of the victims, their families, and all those who suffered during the conflicts in the Western Balkans. (1/2)
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Keir Giles @keirgiles.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"If nothing else, read Keir!" Evergreen sound advice here from Julian Lindley-French in his latest piece discussing "What is Europe's Ukraine Strategy"? (Do read the rest of it too though, as there are other urgent practical steps that could be taken.) lindleyfrench.blogspot.com/2026/09/what...
lindleyfrench.blogspot.com
What is Europe’s Ukraine Strategy?
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Shannon Monaghan @shannonmonaghan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
"It is completely clear that we aren’t doing enough to deter sub-Article 5 provocations [...] We are providing enough deterrence to prevent Russian conventional and nuclear escalation,” they added. “But we really need to rethink our approach to hybrid." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Europe failing to deter Russia’s ‘hybrid’ war, warn defence officials
Foiled drone attack at German airport seen as sign of Nato’s weak response and Moscow’s impunity
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Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Some further thoughts on the new round of peace negotiations with Putin over Ukraine. Moscow is offering the United States not "peace in exchange for business," but rather "business in exchange for war." The Kremlin is offering Washington major Russian-American deals, access to energy resources, ⤵️
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Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
So it wasn’t NATO expansion after all 🤣🤣
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Sven-Erik Volberg @volberg.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
​AfD may gain more than power! ​Behind the election result in Saxony-Anhalt lies a less visible consequence: access to information. The AfD is already showing that through parliamentary inquiries and requests 🧵 ukladsil.pl/w-europie/af...
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 06/09/2026
“One recent British cabinet member admitted the west had been “crap” at educating its public about the scale of the hybrid conflict with Russia.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Europe would not be able to sustain war of attrition with Russia, defence officials say
Security experts fear Putin may be winning hybrid war with the west amid rise of pro-Kremlin, far-right parties
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John R. Deni @johnrdeni.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Inside the Battle to Save One Pioneering General From Hegseth’s Purge www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/u...
nytimes.com
The Battle to Save General Donahue From Hegseth’s Army Purge
Gen. Christopher T. Donahue’s vision for fighting future wars won him powerful supporters around the world. Could they save his career?
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 06/09/2026
“Allied forces gathered to practice hunting for Russian submarines… But for the first time since this decades-old annual exercise began, no American ships or aircraft joined the chase.” In the GIUK gap, btw, so relevant for Greenland. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...
politico.com
NATO races to guard against Russian nuclear subs without the US
Allied forces gathered near Iceland to practice hunting for Russian submarines, with a key member missing.
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Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Before we go into this useless discussion for the umpteenth time, let me remind everyone that territory is NOT the main issue. Donbas is NOT special to Russia. The only reason they’re asking for it so insistently is to speed up a future invasion by taking over the fortified belt.
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