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Tomek Jankowski

@tomekjankowski.bsky.social
514 followers 267 following 2.5K posts

Author, analyst, historian

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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 18h
Mine clearing in Kosovo. Sadly, these sort of operations will be needed for years to come in Ukraine because of Putin. www.halotrust.org/news/halo-co...
halotrust.org
HALO celebrates conclusion of work in Kosovo
HALO has cleared landmines in Kosovo for 27 years, restoring land, boosting the economy by $14 billion and extending life expectancy to 78.
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Reposted by Tomek Jankowski
Dejan Pantic @serbianism.com · 21h
Yesterday's elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina didn't change anything. It's just another confirmation that Srpska and Bosnia as a whole are stuck with Milorad Dodik's SNSD, who thanked Donald Trump for his victory.
serbianism.com
Milorad Dodik thanks Trump for today’s election victory
Today’s elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina didn’t change anything. It’s just another confirmation that Srpska and Bosnia as a whole are stuck with Milorad Dodik’s SNSD.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 19h
Per my earlier post about Russian-occupied Oleshky, this is how Ukrainians treat Ukrainians, even the ones under an enemy's control.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 19h
Russia declared there is no such thing as Ukrainians, that they are just deluded Russians. Now look at Russian-occupied Oleshky. Conclusion: Putin has zero concern about Russians, as his severe mistreatment of the citizens of Oleshky demonstrates. To be ruled by Putin is to be oppressed, full stop.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 21h
This compares China and the U.S. The main point: Over the 1980s and 90s, China engaged in (limited) institutionalization instead of strongmen. Xi is reversing this but Russia has never built real institutions. This article sees doom for strongmen-led countries. www.foreignaffairs.com/china/chinas...
foreignaffairs.com
China’s Long Twilight
Demographic decline, political paralysis, and the fate of great powers.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 22h
This failed invasion of Ukraine may be the undoing of Russia in the same way the failed invasion of Afghanistan caused the USSR to unravel. And this analysis suggests that whatever arises in the wake of Putin may not resemble any earlier Russia(s). neweasterneurope.eu/2026/10/05/s...
neweasterneurope.eu
Scenarios for the future of the Russian Federation
Current thinking on Russia’s future trajectory remains focused on a Moscow-centric approach to future events. Despite this, a broader understanding of the country’s various regions provides essential ...
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 22h
A young woman working at a Russian pandemic research institution in Siberia died of an "undisclosed illness" and the institute swears there was no connection between whatever she died of and whatever she was studying, but local authorities seem to be panicking. www.cnn.com/2026/10/04/e...
cnn.com
Dozens quarantined after researcher at Russian plague laboratory dies of ‘unknown’ infection | CNN
Dozens of people were reported to be in isolation after a Russian laboratory worker at an institute dedicated to studying the plague and other infectious diseases died of an undisclosed illness.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 22h
The Latvian prime minister survives an election, in strong part because of the Russian threat. euobserver.com/240937/latvi...
euobserver.com
Latvian PM holds onto power as Russia-Ukraine war shapes election
Despite its ordinary conduct, Russia's war still shaped Latvia's election in a new normal for Europe that most of us had hardly imagined just five years ago.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 22h
A RFE/RL journalist reports from the Ukrainian front, but keep in mind that the Russians use drones regularly to attack specific, individual Ukrainian civilians: www.rferl.org/a/druzhkivka...
rferl.org
Dodging Drones: An 'Apocalyptic' Journey On The Ukrainian Front Lines
RFE/RL joined Ukrainian soldiers on a dangerous journey toward Druzhkivka in eastern Ukraine, where Russian drones make roads nearly impassable. Around 2,000 civilians reportedly remain in the city as...
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 22h
By the military history blog The Bazaar of War, an analysis of the role of attrition in war outcomes, with obvious potential implications for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. dispatch.bazaarofwar.com/p/the-parado...
dispatch.bazaarofwar.com
The Paradox of Attrition: Psychological Defeat by Material Means
Military theory has grappled for centuries with how to categorize attritional warfare.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The Baltic countries also face a challenge with civilians: en.ara.cat/internationa...
en.ara.cat
Evacuation plans, sirens and new shelters: Eastern Europe prepares for the Russian threat
Lithuania and Finland rehearse hypothetical military attack scenarios with thousands of volunteers
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Poland confronts the reality of what an invasion would look like, and how the civilian dimension will be key. tomorrowsaffairs.com/poland-bring...
tomorrowsaffairs.com
Poland brings civilians back into European war plans
Most EU governments measure preparedness by the percentage of GDP, while shelters, backup power for hospitals and trained citizens remain at the margins of their budgets
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Down with the Tsar, indeed!
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A Ukrainian discusses how the West has grappled with its colonial past but far less so has Russia ever attempted to confront its own colonial legacy. endrussia.today/p/north-asia...
endrussia.today
the north asia russians hid from you.
the empire documented North Asia in exhaustive detail. It rarely understood its people. Ukrainians filled the gap.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Life in Russian-occupied Ukraine: neweasterneurope.eu/2026/10/02/d...
neweasterneurope.eu
“Do you know what the Oleshki morgue is?” - What a humanitarian disaster looks like
Only a few kilometres separate Russian-occupied Oleshky from the Ukrainian-held bank of the Dnipro, where food and medicine are available. In Oleshky itself, finding either can cost a life. Residents ...
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Reposted by Tomek Jankowski
Dave Kosak @thefargo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Fascinating find in a museum in Stari Grad, on the island of Hvar in Croatia. This is a clay mold from around 300 BCE, used by Ancient Greeks to make game pieces! Games are truly universal. (Nearby, a clay tablet was found accusing the devs of being lazy.)
An ancient stone mold - Greek, from around 300 BCE - used for making clay game pieces! An example piece is shown in the mold, looking very much like a Chess pawn. This is located on a museum in Stari Grad on the island of Hvar, Croatia.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Every. Day.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Putin doing the only thing he knows: destroying other people's lives. mymotherlode.com/news/east-eu...
mymotherlode.com
A Russian drone hits a Kyiv school as Moscow presses its aerial campaign against Ukraine - myMotherLode.com
A Russian drone has struck a school in Kyiv as the Ukrainian capital endured another day of relentless aerial attacks in the 4 1/2-year-old full-scale invasion by Moscow. Children and staff were in sh...
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Ukrainian analyst Alexandra Prokopenko details how Putin's economy works: carnegieendowment.org/russia-euras...
carnegieendowment.org
Who Is Funding Russia’s War in the 2027 Budget?
For every ruble allocated to social policy, health, and education in 2027, double that amount is earmarked for the army, the police, and the security services.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
About how Putin's war against Ukraine (and arguably, against Russia itself as well) is a total war of annihilation, intended to level everything. audioboom.com/posts/895892...
audioboom.com
Russia’s war on Ukrainian science
Earlier this week, a Russian drone strike hit the National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv, bringing terror to the historic centre of Ukraine’s capital and damaging a symbol of national independen...
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Russian attacks have shut down some bridges in Kyiv.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
There's a point when you realize, it's time to get out of Dodge because you may not be alive when the sun rises. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Hungary’s Biggest Bank Looks at Exiting Russia With Baltic Deal Under Scrutiny
Documents seen by Bloomberg show Hungary’s biggest bank had clients providing services to organizations close to the Kremlin.
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Reposted by Tomek Jankowski
Maria Drutska @mariadrutska.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Discontent in Russia keeps growing: 🔹Propagandists publicly speak of traitors and civil war 🔹Zyuganov is warning the elections were stolen, the economy is terrible, and Putin's war will be lost 🔹Businesses are moving funds out of Russia so they don't get taken for Putin's war
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"Putin is unwittingly showing vulnerability. Kaliningrad is a hollowed-out shell of what it was before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine." [...] “There are hardly any [Russian] troops [in [...]Kaliningrad].” But this gives Putin a chance to whine that Russia is under attack. thehill.com/opinion/nati...
thehill.com
Kaliningrad is just Putin’s red herring
Moscow is hellbent on messaging to NATO that Kaliningrad — its exclave that is nestled between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea — is the new nuclear red line in Europe. In the wake of “…
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Let's be honest; this has been the plan for a long time. Putin ran out of ideas shortly after 2022 and, seeing average people like ants, has believed he can terrorize Ukrainian civilians into...what? Even worse, tyrannical Russian rule? www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrain...
atlanticcouncil.org
Putin aims to break Ukraine by terrorizing the civilian population
With the Russian army unable to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, Putin is turning to terror tactics and is using ballistic missiles and jet drones in a bid to bomb Ukraine's civilian population into...
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A nice breakdown of the birth and growth of the neo-Nazi AfD party in Germany. And while many elements of this story are German-specific, this story has been playing out across the Western world. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zq5...
youtube.com
What’s Going On in Germany?! We Need to Talk About the AfD.
YouTube video by Feli from Germany
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Honestly, it is baffling to me how many of the lessons of the 20th century are being ignored, from nationalist extremism to Brezhnev-style mindless statism. I keep hearing, "It * looks * like it failed last time but we just need to make this one tweak and it'll all work out." And so more suffering.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This is one of those things that keeps being said, but apparently, never enough. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10...
telegraph.co.uk
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
When I was a student in Hungary, my university city--the 4th largest city in the country--already had fairly sizeable Arab, Laotian, Vietnamese, Kurdish, Pakistani, eastern African, Chinese, and other immigrant populations. tol.org/client/artic...
tol.org
The Edge Between Two Cultures - Transitions
The first generation of Vietnamese immigrants survived; the second generation is figuring out who they are now that survival isn't the end goal.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This story is bizarre on several levels, but Cervantesian American diplomacy aside, Lukashenko is trying to be an accomplice to Russia's war without having to absorb any consequences. platformraam.nl/uit-andere-m...
platformraam.nl
Trump promised Belarus a massive potash deal, but Minsk wants more
RAAM – op Rusland, Oekraïne en Belarus. Platform voor kennis, analyse en debat.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I'm always cautious but the Ukrainian ground strategy at the moment seems to be panning out well. russiaanalyzed.substack.com/p/how-ukrain...
russiaanalyzed.substack.com
How Ukraine Is Winning Ground in 2026
Insights from General Apostol on Ukraine’s offensive operations, battlefield adaptation, Russian mobilization, and the war ahead
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
So long as Putin is alive, Russia will behave like Germany in 1938 or France in 1803. He knows nothing else, and has nothing to contribute to the world but misery. So, Europe needs a plan and Eastern Europe can play a big part in that plan. www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrain...
atlanticcouncil.org
Europe needs a new strategy for Russian gray zone aggression
Europe needs a new counter-hybrid playbook, but an approach that focuses on coordinating responses after Russian attacks have already taken place is not an effective deterrent, write Maksym Beznosiuk ...
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
How one of the big rating agencies evaluates the investment risk of a national capital under constant military attack: www.fitchratings.com/research/int...
fitchratings.com
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
History wars, Part MCXVIII: The (mutual) histories of Bulgaria, Greece, and North Macedonia have generated much angst in the 20th and 21st centuries. And it isn't just nationalists screaming at each other but mass ethnic cleansing, terrorism, and history-washing as well. eualive.net/a-sarcophagu...
eualive.net
A sarcophagus of Macedonian marble for the tsar of the Bulgarians
Tsar Samuel no longer divides Bulgaria and Greece, but he still stands between Bulgaria and ...
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A quote: "[Zelensky] argued that Putin already rules the largest country in the world and is not motivated by the prospect of seizing additional territory[...]. “Putin doesn’t need extra kilometers, he needs Ukraine. He needs Ukraine to be part of Russia.” www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrain...
atlanticcouncil.org
Vladimir Putin only has two options in Ukraine: Total victory or endless war
US-led efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine War by offering the Kremlin limited territorial concessions reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the imperial ambitions driving Putin's invasion, writes P...
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Ukrainian scholar Alexandra Propkopenko from the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center has a new book coming out exploring how Russia's oligarchs--Godzillas in the 1990s--became subservient pussycats by the 2020s. www.youtube.com/live/drwh_ie...
youtube.com
LIVE: Inside the World of Russian Elites
YouTube video by Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Ukraine's recent counter-offensive that is having some success: russiaanalyzed.substack.com/p/must-read-...
russiaanalyzed.substack.com
Must-read: Operation Vivaldi, First-hand Insights
Unique Details of Ukraine’s Offensive
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
There's a whole separate discussion to be had here about Trump and his whims, but Putin is executing this war in the most disgraceful and criminal way possible--proving he has learned absolutely nothing from what happened to his own country in 1941-1945. www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-gr...
rferl.org
As Russia Targets Civilians, Pressure Mounts On Trump To Use Sanctions Powers
A new wave of deadly Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities is fueling bipartisan calls in Washington for US President Donald Trump to use sweeping new sanctions powers against Moscow, with lawmakers arg...
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'll only add that Putin's dream is unobtainable, in strong part because Putin himself has weakened Russia and made it unable to be what the USSR once was. In the future when students read about the decline of Russia from a once-mighty power, Putin's name will be a prominent part of that history.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Some likely Mladić fans go full-on thug on someone who dares doubt in Belgrade.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Every. Day.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Oddly, after the western Roman collapse one of the earliest long-distance forms of trade to revive was Baltic amber traded via Slavic networks for Middle Eastern silver. Caches of Arab silver dating to the 6th-8th centuries have been found from Berlin and German Pomerania to Gdańsk.
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Reposted by Tomek Jankowski
Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Dobrobut clinic on fire after russian attack on Kyiv right now ‼️ We badly need air defense!
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Reposted by Tomek Jankowski
Kane Korso @godevils2.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Orc targeted Ministry of Science building in the middle of Kyiv at 10:39 a.m. 1/12
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is what torpedoes John Mearsheimer's claims that NATO expansion provoked Russia; After decades (for some, a century+) of living under a Russian imperium, Putin from 1999 on resumed threatening neighboring countries and claimed Russia still deserved to rule them. And he continues this today.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Serbia struggles withe the legacy of Mladić but so, too, does Kosovo strain to fully digest Hashim Thaci's past. And ironically, Thaci's crimes were mostly against fellow Kosovars who rejected his KLA. An 'Us-vs.-Them' mentality never bodes well for democracy. apnews.com/article/koso...
apnews.com
Protests against war crimes verdicts add pressure on Kosovo's government
Daily protests in Kosovo against war crimes convictions for former rebel commanders have spread throughout the small Balkan country.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Growth? That's a future problem. Throwing more men and resources at the failed invasion is a 'now' problem.
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Even in Poland, there was genuine gratitude in 1944 for Soviet liberation but Moscow then brutally subjugated Poland over 1944-1947. That Putin can't understand this doesn't surprise me but that average Russians can't is why they are ruled by an idiot like Putin. notesfrompoland.com/2026/09/26/r...
notesfrompoland.com
Russia condemns Polish city's "barbaric" removal of Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is a post on my (under-utilized) blog. I am (over?) reacting to a thought piece put out by the Hoover Institution, but it triggered some strong feelings I have about the simplistic perceptions of socialism in the Eastern Bloc many in the West have. tomekjankowski.com/whats-it-gon...
tomekjankowski.com
What’s it gonna be, Socialism or Capitalism? | Official Tomek Jankowski Website
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Tomek Jankowski @tomekjankowski.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
If you value freedom and the rule of law, basic decency, and the belief that everyone deserves a fair shot at a good life, oh, and also, if you value what Jefferson called "certain unalienable Rights," then Putin's Russia is your enemy even if you don't believe so yet.
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