April 2024

Apr 30, 2024

 • Zelensky demands EU ‘fulfill obligations’ to Ukraine, RT, Apr 29, 2024

Kiev has fulfilled every requirement the EU has set out for it, and is ready to begin accession talks, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky stated in a video address on Sunday, demanding that the bloc now follow through. Kiev made a formal request to join the bloc in February 2022, shortly after the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It was granted candidate status in June of the same year. In December 2023, EU officials agreed to open up accession negotiations, setting out a number of steps for Kiev to take first in preparation. All these steps have been completed, Zelensky claimed in a video address on Sunday, promising that this is the year to bring “results with the European Union.”

“Ukraine has fulfilled all the necessary conditions for the real start of the accession negotiations, and now the EU side must fulfill its obligations,” he said.

The EU’s accession criteria include stable democratic institutions, the rule of law, protection of human rights and minorities, along with a robust market economy and the institutional capacity to cope with the responsibilities of being an EU member state. One of the key issues to tackle was widespread corruption.

The events of recent weeks have produced a sudden jolt in Western politics. From a lethargy that was starting to creep into US and western discourse over the Ukraine war, Iran’s attack on Israel suddenly seemed to have had the effect of awakening Ronald Reagan from his grave and leading to a surge of neo-conservativism on steroids, on both sides of the Atlantic.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson did a complete 180-degree U-turn and proclaimed himself a “Reagan Republican” passing a series of aid bills for astronomical overseas spending that he had otherwise blocked for months, as he denounced an “axis of evil.” Along with that, a proposed TikTok ban bill came out of nowhere too and was quickly signed into law.

Then the UK decided to devote its largest ever aid package to Ukraine, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warning of an “axis of authoritarian states” and amplifying ideologically combative rhetoric. At the same time, it was then revealed Biden had sent 300km long range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine despite having pledged not to do so for years, fearing escalation. Finally, EU President Ursula von der Leyen has suddenly dramatically increased economic warfare on China, pushing the European Commission to open probes on scores of Chinese exports. Where exactly did all this come from?

Two of the America’s most influential tech entrepreneurs, Elon Musk and David Sacks, have expressed concern over a security agreement currently in the works between the US and Ukraine.

Former PayPal chief David Sacks took to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday to warn that the controversial $61 billion in aid to Kiev approved by Washington earlier this month “was just the beginning.” He was commenting on a statement made by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who said that his team and the administration of US President Joe Biden were “working on fixing specific levels of support… for the next ten years, including armed support, financial, political, and joint arms production.”

“The next two US presidents won’t be able to switch it off,” Sacks, who’s also the founder of the corporate social network Yammer, wrote on X. In separate posts the entrepreneur went on to mention recent reports that NATO allies were working to “Trump-proof” weapons for Ukraine and claimed that the goal of the current US administration was “to turn Ukraine into a Forever War.”

“This is insane. The forever war,” Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote in response to Sacks’ posts.

The Ukrainian president does not want to disrupt an already-struggling mobilization drive, a local MP told the paper.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky knowingly deceived the public about the true extent of military losses in the conflict with Russia to offset panic amid a struggling mobilization campaign, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing sources.

In February, after months of silence on Ukrainian casualties, Zelensky claimed that 31,000 troops had been killed since the start of the conflict in February 2022, without disclosing the numbers of those wounded due to security concerns.

Russia, on the other hand, claims that Kiev has suffered devastating losses during the conflict, with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu estimating them at nearly half a million troops since the start of the conflict.

Apr 27, 2024

 • SITREP 4/27/24: U.S. Admits Top Weapons Failures to Superior Russian EW, Simplicius, Apr 27, 2024
Always Interesting.

 • Russia must fear NATO €œ bloc member, RT, Apr 26, 2024

Russia should fear clashing with NATO because such a war would end in inevitable defeat for Moscow, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in parliament on Thursday, claiming that the US-led military bloc has several times more troops and resources. Sikorskis comments come as a number of European leaders have raised concerns that Russia may attack an EU member state if it is allowed to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield. It is not we, the West, who should fear a clash with Putin, but the other way around, he insisted, adding that it is worth reminding [people] about this to show that an attack by Russia on any NATO member would end in Moscows defeat. Putins only hope is our lack of determination, he stated. The minister said the US-led military bloc remains a defensive pact, but nevertheless boasted that it has three times as many military personnel, three times the aerial resources, and four times as many ships as Russia.

Apr 26, 2024

Featured • Biden Rushes Aid to Ukraine As US Cost of Living Skyrockets, John Miles, Sputnik International, Apr 25, 2024

American households in 2024 are spending an extra $11,434 annually to maintain a similar standard of living to the one they enjoyed just three years ago. Thats according to a new study by Republican members of the US Senate Joint Economic Committee who examined consumer price data to arrive at an analysis of the impact of inflation from state to state. In some parts of the country the cost of living increase stood at a comparatively modest $8,500 per year, while in states like California and Colorado it approached $15,000. The Biden White House rejected the study as one-sided, pointing to attendant wage increases across the economy. Still, recent polling suggests most Americans dont feel the increased income makes up for the rise in inflation, and economic issues remain at the forefront of voters concerns with Novembers presidential election less than seven months away.

Geopolitical consultant and founder of Global Perspective Consulting David Oualaalou pointed to the troubling data during an appearance on Sputniks The Critical Hour program Wednesday, questioning the US presidents focus on foreign policy amidst a grim economic outlook for millions of Americans. The fact that [the US] keeps sending more money to Ukraine [and] its already a failed state, what is it for? asked the author and global speaker. We have been taking money out of average Americans that are paying taxes. I hope your listeners understand € and this is a sad reality € that the cost now of living in America has risen by about $11,434, give or take, in comparison to when Biden took office. And why? Because we are taking money out of Americans and giving it to the corrupted government in Ukraine. he insisted. I saw those images of the incompetent members of Congress waving the Ukrainian flag inside Congress. Well to me it became like, why dont you go and represent Ukraine? Shame on our politicians. But, again, until the structure of our system has changed, nothing is going to change fundamentally.

Seizing assets? Two can play at that game¦ Just days after Washington voted to authorize the REPO Act €œ paving the way for the Biden administration confiscate billions in Russian sovereign assets which sit in US banks €œ it appears Moscow has a plan of its own (lets call it the REVERSE REPO Act) as a Russian court has ordered the seizure of $440 million from JPMorgan.

US President Joe Biden recently signed a long-delayed $95 billion package, including $61 billion in aid for Ukraine, into law. At least $13.8 billion of this sum will be used to deliver weaponry, such as long-range ATACMS missiles and F-16 fighter jets. This is a lot of money but it will not turn the tide of the conflict, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said in an interview with Sputnik.

Apr 25, 2024

Featured • SITREP 4/24/24: Comedown After Post-Aid 'High' Brings West Back to Reality, Simplicius, Apr 25, 2024
Good as usual. One of the best overviews of current events.

Featured • INTERVIEW: ‘We dont see any pathways to peace, says Scott Ritter, George Gallaway, MOATS, Apr 24, 2024
An excellent primer on the situation and also a spot-on introduction to the pathetic state of Congress and what that means for us. Much more can and must be said about that.

Featured • US sided with evil and fascism €œ Russian envoy, RT, Apr 24, 2024

The US government has made its choice in favor of war, siding with evil and supporting fascism, the Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has said, in comments on the latest massive American military aid package for Ukraine.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden signed a long-stalled $95-billion foreign-aid package, including $61 billion for Ukraine. Biden said the US would start sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine in the next few hours.

Washington is balancing on the brink of a direct clash between nuclear powers, Ambassador Antonov told reporters following the news. The development strikes a severe blow to prospects for a hypothetical revival of Russian-American relations in the future, Antonov believes.

For the sake of its greedy and insatiable defense industry, the [Biden] administration sacrifices the lives of ordinary people. With their decision, local politicians actually put an end to the fate of the entire state [of Ukraine], which is used as a ‘battering ram against Russia, he stated.

The high-ranking Russian diplomat accused the US administration of violating the UN Charters obligation to maintain ‘primary responsibility for international peace and security.

American aid will not save [Ukrainian President] Zelensky he stressed, adding that any new weapons being sent by Washington to Kiev would be destroyed, and that the tasks and goals of Moscows military operation will be realized.

The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that Washingtons lethal aid will not change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraines favor. According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the US government has effectively been funneling billions of dollars into its own defense industry through the aid scheme.

Washington secretly sent Kiev an unspecified number of longer-range ATACMS missiles last month, multiple US outlets reported on Wednesday, citing an anonymous US government official.

The Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), with a range up to 300 kilometers, were included in the $300-million package of military aid approved by President Joe Biden on March 12, according to the official, who spoke with Reuters, Politico and the New York Times, among others.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that Ukraine used the missiles for the first time last Wednesday, targeting a Russian airfield about 165 kilometers (103 miles) from the front line.

Biden proclaimed it a good day for world peace when he signed the World War 3 bill which will pour weapons of death and destruction into Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. This is the inverted reality the US-centralized empire premises its narratives about itself upon. Theyve got the mainstream public espousing a completely backwards and upside-down worldview, which is why we live in a completely backwards and upside-down civilization.

Biden just signed the mammoth war funding bill. "It's a good day for world peace," he says, without a hint of irony. New arms shipments will flow to Ukraine within hours. It's a shame Trump couldn't be there for the signing ceremony, they could've bonded over their shared support.

€ Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 24, 2024

The top-ranking Republican in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, has claimed Tucker Carlsons interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin convinced too many rank-and-file Republicans that spending billions of taxpayer dollars on arming Kiev against Moscow was harming Americans and wrecking the economy. As a new multibillion-dollar US aid package to Ukraine was clearing the last procedural hurdles on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader McConnell attempted to pin the blame for months of delays on former Fox News anchor Carlson and former President Donald Trump. I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who in my opinion ended up where he should have been all along, which was interviewing Vladimir Putin, McConnell told a press briefing....

I reject the whole premise of the war in Ukraine from the American perspective, Carlson said in February, looking back at his conversation with Putin. Theres a war going on that is wrecking the US economy in a way and at a scale that people do not understand. US President Joe Biden requested additional cash for Ukraine last October after burning through $113 billion in previously approved spending bills. However, the request had been stalled until this week due to opposition from Republican lawmakers, who argued that Biden was merely prolonging Kievs conflict with Russia while offering no clear strategy for victory or a peace agreement. Most Republicans voted against the aid bill on Saturday, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) overrode his own party by enabling a vote and pushing it through with unanimous Democrat support.

The Ukraine conflict is among the major events that will determine the future of the world, and the West is emerging weaker from it, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed on Wednesday. The leader of Belarus, a close Russian ally, addressed the situation in Ukraine during a keynote speech to the All-Belarusian Peoples Assembly, a gathering of officials and public figures. He contrasted Kievs policies with those of Minsk, arguing that unlike its southern neighbor, his nation has preserved its independence under Western pressure. Everyone understands that todays Ukraine is a military range, where the future of the world order is partially decided. The largest nuclear powers indirectly, and now even directly, are waging a war on its territory, Lukashenko stated.

Meanwhile its authorities have sunk to the level of striking a bargain with the West to exchange weapons for the lives of Ukrainians. Watching this is painful, he added. Kiev has miscalculated, Lukashenko argued, because whoever is willing to serve a master for scraps will sooner or later lose. Ukraine is risking its statehood after betraying its past and traditions, he also warned. The Belarusian leader described the entire conflict as the latest clash between the West and the East, and suggested that neither side has become stronger. The outcome of the confrontation will not save the existing order, Lukashenko further predicted. He urged the US and its allies to accept that their future role will be restricted as one of several centers of power that determine world affairs.

Apr 24, 2024

 • Ukraine to deny consular services to draft dodgers abroad, RT, Apr 23, 2024

Ukrainian consular offices will not serve fighting-age men living abroad who are unwilling to risk their lives for their countrys survival, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Tuesday. Kievs diplomatic missions in several Western nations stopped processing such service requests on Tuesday, according to multiple Ukrainian media reports. Documents that have been finalized for fighting-age Ukrainian men are being withheld, reports claim. Kuleba confirmed in a social media post on Tuesday that he had ordered the policy change and that it is meant to encourage men to come back to Ukraine for possible call up for military service. How it looks like now: a man of conscription age went abroad, showed his state that he does not care about its survival, and then comes and wants to receive services from this state. It does not work this way. Our country is at war, he wrote.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has lashed out at Russian President Vladimir Putin for quoting iconic German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Speaking on Tuesday at an event marking the 300th anniversary of Kants birth, Scholz accused Putin of trying to poach the great thinker as well as misrepresenting his ideas. Kant was born in 1724 in Koenigsberg (present-day Kaliningrad), which belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia before later becoming part of the Russian Empire. The philosopher is famous for his work on ethics, aesthetics and philosophical ontology, and is considered one of the pillars of German classical philosophy. Putin doesnt have the slightest right to quote Kant, yet Putins regime remains committed to poaching Kant and his work at almost any cost, Scholz said at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, as quoted by Die Zeit.

Apr 23, 2024

Featured  • Scott Ritter: Ukraine Collapsing in Plain Sight, Judging Freedom, Apr 22, 2024

Featured • US-led West on verge of causing nuclear war €œ Lavrov, RT, Apr 22, 2024

The three Western nuclear powers are among the chief sponsors of the Kiev regime and main organizers of provocations against Russia, the foreign minister has said.

The US-led collective West could cause a potentially catastrophic war between global nuclear powers due to its openly hostile stance toward Russia and efforts to undermine existing arms control agreements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

Addressing the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference organized by the Centre for Energy and Security Studies, Lavrov noted that the globe is in a state of crisis with regard to mechanisms for arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation and that this jeopardizes international security. He placed the blame for this on Washington, which, according to the diplomat, has been cynically combining the deliberate destruction of balanced and equal [arms control] agreements with blatantly dishonest schemes that are advantageous solely to the US.

Lavrov explained that the US and allies were responsible for blocking the recent review cycles of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which, Lavrov says Washington long used to pressure its foes. He also noted the potential danger posed by the three-way AUKUS agreement between the US, UK and Australia, which is becoming increasingly similar to a military bloc, as well as NATO, which has been boosting its military spending.

According to the senior official, the Wests support for Ukraine is also fraught with danger, especially as the three major Western nuclear powers, the US, UK and France, are among the main sponsors of the criminal Kiev regime and the main organizers of provocations against Russia.

The US and their NATO client states are still dreaming of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat on Russia and are ready to carry on with their policy of deterring our country ‘to the last Ukrainian¦ The West is balancing on the dangerous edge of a direct military confrontation between nuclear powers, which could have catastrophic consequences.

The US and Russia hold nearly 90% of the worlds nuclear warheads, according to the US-based Arms Control Association. Last year, Russia suspended its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as ‘New START, the last remaining nuclear agreement between the US and Russia that caps arsenals. Russia cited US involvement in the Ukraine conflict as the primary cause for the suspension. Washington has since appealed to Moscow to renew dialogue on the treaty, but the latter has said that doing so is impossible as long as the US continues to support Kiev.

In his address, Lavrov reiterated this stance, saying that he saw no basis whatsoever for an arms control dialogue with the US in the face of a total hybrid war being waged against our country.

Troops from the US and other NATO countries will be in Ukraine fighting Russian troops within a year, security and international relations expert Mark Sleboda predicted on Sputniks The Critical Hour on Monday. We (The United States) were at trainers and advisers and CIA and special forces [in Ukraine], and now already, were at logistics and maintenance personnel. Its quite clear where this is going, Sleboda began. US troops and [troops] from several other NATO member states will most likely be on the ground in Ukraine fighting the Russians within a year. On Saturday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that includes $61 billion earmarked to support Ukraine, however, Sleboda explains that it will not have a major effect on the battlefield. It will, maybe, slow Russian forces down a little bit. Thats the extent of what the $61 billion [will do].

And, in another six months or perhaps a year, theyll be back, demanding more from the US taxpayer to try to prop up the Kiev regime a little longer. One underreported aspect of the bill is that a large portion of it is going towards replenishing US weapon stockpiles and not weapons that will end up on the battlefield in Ukraine. I would say, that of the $61 billion, actually only $14 billion of that is going to go to Ukraine for direct military aid and weapons, Sleboda explained. It sounds like a lot of money, its really not considering that just one Patriot battery of 6 to 8 launchers costs more than $1 billion, and theyve already lost several of them. The Patriot surface-to-air missile system is considered the most advanced anti-aircraft system in Ukraines arsenal. However, the first confirmed Russian destruction of a Patriot system occurred back in May 2023. Since then, several more have been taken out, including two last month.

The reports of an increased US presence in Ukraine were presented as theyre going to be working out of the US embassy, in Kiev, Sleboda said, but that assertion is far from reality, he argued. Im not quite sure how big the US embassy is in Kiev, but I doubt its enough to set up a maintenance workshop for, I dont know, Abrams tanks or something like that, Sleboda jokes. So it almost certainly means that these US troops will be out and about in Ukraine, probably not too far from the front line. And you can certainly see the slippery slide. While the aid shows that, despite some hype in the media, the US is not giving up on Ukraine, Sleboda notes that it doesnt change the calculus for the Russian government, who expected the aid to pass last year after US President Joe Biden requested it in August. You already have Ukrainian military commanders speaking anonymously, of course, to the Financial Times, saying that this isnt actually going to change much, Sleboda recounted.

Professor Michael Brenner joins this episode of Journalists for Sale to discuss the moral emptiness of Western empire, most visibly expressed through its unequivocal support of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. Brenner details how this depravity manifests not only in the form of mass slaughter and total disregard for human life, but also through mass psychosis of government leaders who consistently make global decisions through a distorted lens completely detached from reality. Only this can explain their escalations in Ukraine at every turn, their acknowledgement of Palestinian life yet total complicity in its destruction and the mass censorship being imposed upon dissidents by the ruling class, most recently at the University of Southern California. Brenners wealth of knowledge and impressive ability to articulate the philosophical implications of this ongoing lunacy form a unique analysis one cant quite get anywhere else but from the man himself.

The US is considering increasing its small military presence in Ukraine by sending up to 60 additional military advisers, POLITICO reported on Saturday, the same day the House approved $61 billion in spending for the proxy war.

Four unnamed US officials told POLITICO that the additional troops would support logistics and oversight efforts for the weapons the US is sending Ukraine.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the potential deployment would augment US personnel based at the US Embassy in Kyiv. Throughout this conflict, the DOD has reviewed and adjusted our presence in-country as security conditions have evolved. Currently, we are considering sending several additional advisers to augment the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) at the Embassy, Ryder said.

Apr 22, 2024

 • The Bad Faith Olympics, James Howard Kunstler, Apr 22, 2024

Did it warm your heart to see all those blue and yellow Ukrainian flags waved by our elected officials in Congress Saturday night with the passage of the $60-plus-billion aid bill to the Palookaville of Europe? You realize, dont you, that the tiny fraction of that hypothetical money € from our countrys empty treasury € that ever reaches Ukraine will rebound on the instant into Mr. Zelenskys Cayman Islands bank account. The rest of the dough enters the recursive shell-game between US weapons-makers and the very hometown folks in Congress waving those blue and yellow flags, who will receive great greasy gobs of fresh campaign donations from the grateful bomb and missile producers. No wonder theyre cheering.

What the $60-plus-billion wont do is provide any fresh arms and equipment to Ukraines sad-sack army soon enough to prevent Russia from bringing this cruel, stupid, and unnecessary war, which we started, to a close. Yes, we started it, not Russia, in 2014 with our Intel blob overthrowing elected President Viktor Yanukovych in the so-called Maidan Revolution of Dignity (what Wikipedia calls it). And for what reason? To jam Ukraine into NATO as a prelude to weakening Russia sufficient to bust it up and gain control over Russian oil, ores, and grain.

Passing of a harsh bill on mobilization in Ukraine to make up for the armys losses was a condition for new supplies of arms to Kiev by NATO countries, a diplomatic source in Brussels told TASS. Passing of a new harsh bill on mobilization in Ukraine was a condition for new supplies of weapons by NATO countries. Arms supplies are only reasonable if a large number of military personnel able to use those weapons in defense and assault operations is available, and if losses are swiftly made up for, for doing which new soldiers should be actively drafted into the military, the diplomat said. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed the bill into law to tighten mobilization rules on April 16. The document tightens the mobilization procedure and penalties for draft evaders, and also refines the categories of those subject to mobilization. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are expected to be drafted.

Let me start with this caveat € If the following report is true, the war in Ukraine has entered a new realm of danger. Dima (not my Brazilian buddy Nima) reports that French troops are now on the ground in Odessa.

This is insane. Macron is ignoring history and playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette. Only all of the chambers of the revolver are loaded. Many of these French soldiers will die or fall wounded. And for what?

I think the Russians will warn the French quietly through back channels that they see this action as a direct attack on Russia and will take all necessary means to defend themselves. If there was any doubt that Macron is not a serious person, this decision should erase them completely.

Apr 21, 2024

 • US Billionaire Investor Warns Ukraine Will 'Collapse Anyway,' Despite Aid Bill, Svetlana Ekimenko, Sputnik International, Apr 21, 2024

According to Sacks, it is a bizarre world, where If you vote to send our money abroad while waving a foreign flag, youll be called an American patriot. If you vote to keep our money at home to fund domestic priorities like the border, youll be called a foreign agent.

Theres really no amount of artillery and other munitions and weapons Ukraine could receive at this point and remain intact, Maloof argues.

Kwiatkowski agrees, saying expectations that the US will be able to resolve artillery shell and air defense missile shortages by throwing more money at the problem is "not realistic at all and we found this out two years ago with news of the real rates of US artillery, ammunition and missile production. The US defense production system is not oriented to high volumes of lower value items, but low volumes of high cost units along with a lifetime of maintenance and logistics support with upgrades."

The US aside, Europe is in no financial position economically to deal with the Ukrainian crisis over the long term, either, Maloof noted.

Theyve got their own problems now as a result of this crisis, and try to come back economically and politically and regain the quality of life that they had before. But right now, Europes in a recession. Theyve cut off their energy sources. And its going to take a long time and a lot of capital to regain some semblance of that. What they had before I doubt that theyll be able to replicate on any near term basis. Europe has got its problems and the US has got its problems, and were trying to resuscitate a dead dog, Maloof stressed, referring to the Zelensky regime.

Asked to comment on sentiments expressed by some hardline MAGA Republicans, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz and others, that Speaker Johnson "betrayed" the conservative wing of the party and voters by prioritizing aid to foreign countries over the crisis at the southern border, University of Iowa political science professor Timothy Hagle said there's something to be said for that....

"As for the prioritizing aspect, it's not really a matter of suggesting that one is more important than the other. Rather, it's likely more a matter of which can be done. Along those lines, given the position of the Biden administration and the Democrats' control of the Senate, there doesn't seem to be much that the Republicans in the House can do. Sometimes they can hold votes even when they know something will be killed in the Senate, but even that can be hard with such a small majority," the academic explained.

On top of that, supporters of aid for foreign wars can count on the sense of "urgency" in Washington regarding funding, and the comparative 'ease' with which it can be sent, something supporters of urgent measures to stem the migration crisis cannot count on.

After more than 2 month of hard negotiations, the US House of Representatives has passed a multi-billion foreign aid package. However, the bill has sparked debate and criticism, with experts questioning its efficacy and allocation. David Pyne, a former US Department of Defense officer and executive vice president of Task Force on National and Homeland Security, offered a critical assessment of the aid package. He argued that the allocated funds are woefully insufficient for Ukraines wartime needs. The bill will not change the outcome of the war which will inevitably end with a Russian victory and Ukraine being forced to accept Russias peace terms, Pyne believes. Questions also arise regarding the distribution of the aid, since House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated that only a fraction, approximately $12-14 billion, would directly provide weapons to Ukraine.

However, Pyne raised concerns that a substantial portion, around 80%, would benefit US defense industries. He highlighted the potential for President Biden to utilize drawdown authority, enabling the redirection of additional funds from existing military stocks to Ukraine. Furthermore, Pyne shed light on Ukraines critical shortages of artillery shells and air defense missiles. He outlined Russias success in inflicting significant casualties on Ukrainian forces and emphasized the challenges in addressing Ukraines munitions deficits. Russia has been quite successful in its goal of ‘demilitarizing both Ukraine and NATO, causing the US and its NATO allies to unilaterally disarm themselves of tens of thousands of its most modern weapon systems and transfer them to Ukraine, stated Pyne.

Pyne highlighted the stark disparity between Russian and Ukrainian&NATO artillery capabilities, noting that Russia produces over three times as many artillery munitions than all of NATO combined. Russian forces have been successful in inflicting half a million Ukrainian military casualties including about 250,000 killed in action and 250,000 seriously wounded with as many or more Ukrainian amputations over the past two years than France suffered¦ on the Western Front during World War One, Pyne said. The assessment underscores the complexity of providing effective support to Ukraine amidst escalating conflict. As the aid bill moves forward, discussions surrounding its implementation, distribution, and broader geopolitical implications are likely to persist, as well as questions regarding US true purposes and intentions towards Ukraine as a nation.

Expensive American M1 Abrams tanks delivered to Ukraine are increasingly falling prey to Russian drones that cost only a fraction as much, the New York Times reported on Saturday. Even one of the most powerful symbols of American military might is not invulnerable to such attacks, it said. At least five US-supplied tanks out of the 31 provided by Washington have already been destroyed by Russia, the American media outlet said, adding that three others had been moderately damaged. In most cases, the tanks have been destroyed by first-person-view (FPV) kamikaze drones, also known as loitering munitions. Such drones are capable of actively maneuvering before hitting their target.

In at least one instance, though, an Abrams tank was taken out in a duel against a Russian T-72B3 main battle tank. The Russian military has published upwards of a dozen clips, mostly taken from drones, showing the destruction of US-supplied equipment. According to the NYT, the tanks turned out to be more easily taken out by exploding drones than some officials and experts had initially assumed. The media outlet cited an Austrian historian and military expert, Colonel Markus Reisner, who described such a situation as unbelievable. The paper also described the Russian UAVs as highly-accurate, low-cost tank killers.

The drones accuracy exceeds 90%, the NYT said, adding that they are also capable of hitting heavy armor in its weakest spots. The UAVs can cost as little as $500, the paper reported, are capable of taking out a $10 million Abrams tank. The paper also admitted that there was no easy, or single way to defend a tank against a drone attack.

Apr 20, 2024

 • Speaker Johnson's Ignominious Betrayal, ZeroHedge, Apr 19, 2024

That is to say, the war in Ukraine would stop tomorrow without another dime of aid from the US taxpayers if Washington agreed to partition the wholly artificial polity assembled by Lenin, Stalin (parts of Poland) and Khruschev (Crimea). In every presidential election in Ukraine since 1991 the electorate has essentially voted for separation via 80/20 pluralities in Novorossiya and Crimea for the pro-Russian candidate and 80/20 pluralities in the center and west for the Ukrainian nationalist.

That is, Americas national security would be undermined not one bit by a new map showing two countries and no war: That is, Novorossiya (New Russia) in the east and south, on the one hand, and the parts and pieces of Poland, Galicia-Austria and the Cossack Hetmanates in the center and west, on the other. Agree to keep NATO out of this rump state of Ukraine and its all over except the shouting.

Nevertheless, the insanity of the Russophobia which keeps knuckleheads like Johnson from having an even rudimentary grasp of the matter reveals an even larger issue.

Namely, it explains why Washingtons hegemonic foreign policy is a dysfunctional disaster, which unceasingly spawns madness like todays $95 billion foreign aid boondoggle.

To wit, it encourages the Empires client and allied states to take bellicose positions vis a vis Washington designated rivals and enemies because it brings aid to their treasuries, weapons to their militaries and prestige and self-importance to their politicians and diplomats.

Russia has no intention of ceasing hostilities with Ukraine even if the two countries engage in peace talks, as Kiev has proven itself to be an unreliable actor, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In an interview with Russian media on Friday, the diplomat stressed that Moscow does not trust the leadership in Kiev. We have said that we are ready for the negotiations, but €œ unlike the Istanbul story €œ we will not make any pauses in the fighting during the negotiations. The process must go on, he said. The two sides have not directly talked to each other since their sit-down in Istanbul in late March 2022. Russia, which initially expressed satisfaction with results of the meeting and withdrew its forces from the outskirts of Kiev as a goodwill gesture, later accused Ukraine of backtracking on all progress achieved in Türkiye, saying it had lost trust in Kievs negotiators.

The foreign minister noted that a major obstacle to any peace process that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky forbid himself from negotiating with the current authorities in Moscow. He was referring to a decree that Zelensky signed in the fall of 2022, which banned his government from any talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The realities on the ground have changed significantly since the time when the Istanbul negotiations took place, and those realities must be taken into account, Lavrov stressed. He clarified that he was talking not only about the situation on the frontline, where Russian forces have recently been making gains, but also the fact that the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, which joined Russia as a result of referendums in the fall 2022, are now parts of the country in line with the Constitution. Everybody should understand this very well, the diplomat stressed.

The West is one step away from deploying military forces in Ukraine, which could mean an end for Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday. We are one step away from the West sending troops to Ukraine. This is a military whirlpool that can drag Europe to the bottom. Brussels is playing with fire, Orban said at an event dedicated to the start of the campaign before the European Parliament elections, aired by the HirTV broadcaster. European leaders have already got involved in the conflict in Ukraine, they call it their war, and Europe has already spent about 100 billion euros ($106 billion) on Ukraine, Orban mentioned. French President Emmanuel Macron riled up his NATO allies, especially Germany, when he said in February that Western leaders had discussed sending troops to Ukraine. While no consensus had been reached, nothing could be ruled out, he added. Moscow warned that any threat from NATO would meet a response.

Apr 19, 2024

Featured • Lavrov: West's Obsession with Inflicting Strategic Defeat on Russia Reveals Agony & Hysteria, Sputnik International, Apr 19, 2024

The West's statements about the impending loss of its influence and the restructuring of the world by Russia and its partners reflect an understanding of the ongoing formation of a new and just world order, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"The escalation of this theme of [strategically] defeating Russia, the emphasis on the existential significance of this defeat for the future of the West, reflects not so much a bellicose mood as agony and hysteria," Lavrov said in an interview with Russian radio broadcasters Sputnik, Komsomolskaya Pravda and Govorit Moskva.

Besides fearing the loss of hegemony, the West asserts the dominance of the United States, indicating that everyone must adhere to its commands, he added.

"In addition to this fear for the loss of hegemony, they are still very openly, perhaps without even suspecting themselves that they are being frank in this way, they make it clear that the United States is in charge, and they all fell are under the [influence of] United States," Lavrov told Sputnik.

Russia is not scared by talks of inflicting strategic defeat upon it, which are heard in the West; such rhetoric, Lavrov noted.

"If they put us in a situation where they simply need to strategically defeat us, essentially destroy us as a global player, they cannot understand that we will not be intimidated," Lavrov highlighted.

The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that unlike Russia, those countries that voice threats against Russia would themselves be scared if similar threats were directed toward them "with the same fervor and vehemence."

"And this has strengthened us; let them draw conclusions from this historical lesson," the minister added.

The Istanbul agreements €œ a tentative peace plan agreed between Russia and Ukraine in the spring of 2022 are being discussed again. However, as they were written, at the time, they are no longer relevant and are unlikely to be of any use in the future. The realities on the ground, in the hearts and minds of many key people, have changed completely.

Nevertheless, its no coincidence that talk of negotiations began in Switzerland just as it became clear, to Westerners, that the Ukrainians are unable to make any progress. I am not talking about victory, but about any meaningful success on the battlefield. And thus it has become necessary to somehow limit Russias potential for success, to prevent it from winning.

This is not coming from Ukraine itself, but rather the enemy with whom we are now really at war. The desire to prevent a Russian victory is behind all these diplomatic machinations.

What we are really talking about now is a propaganda campaign. Of course nobody in the West is in a mood for serious negotiations right now.

Dmitry Trenin: Russia is undergoing a new, invisible revolution.

Let me explain what it means. From our point of view, genuine talks are ones that would solve the problem that led to the military operation. If we do not solve it, we will all face a new war in the future, and perhaps a more terrible one, with more serious consequences. Thus, as they say, if you take up arms, you must go to the end, to achieve a solution to the problem that made you take take such a measure in the first place.

Ukraine could lose to Russia on the battlefield by the end of 2024 if the US Congress does not provide more aid to the regime in Kiev, CIA Director William Burns said on Thursday.

"There is a very real risk that the Ukrainians could lose on the battlefield by the end of 2024, or at least put [Russian President Vladimir Putin] in a position where he could essentially dictate the terms of a political settlement," Burns said during an event at the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

However, further military assistance from the US Congress could enable Ukraine to hold out through 2024, Burns said. The US House of Representatives is considering a bill this week with $60.84 billion in Ukraine-related funding, as part of a broader set of legislation to aid Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

Earlier on Thursday, US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said that Ukraine has between two weeks and one month before Russia "takes over" the country.

European politicians claimed late last month that Russia bribed European politicians to spread disinformation and interfere in the upcoming June elections. Russian influence scandal rocks EU, screamed a March 30 Politico headline. Russia is using dodgy outlets pretending to be media [and] using money to buy covert influence, claimed European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova. The BBC agreed: Russian network that ‘paid European politicians busted, authorities claim. Heads of state hyped the alleged scandal. We uncovered a pro-Russian network, claimed Petr Fiala, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, that was developing an operation to spread Russian influence and undermine security across Europe. Polands intelligence agency said it had conducted searches in the Warsaw and Tychy regions and seized 48,500 (£41,500) and $36,000 (£28,500).

However, following an investigation by Public, the head of the Czech Intelligence Agency (BIS), Michal Koudelka on Monday admitted that his agency has no information about any bribery scheme. I cannot confirm anything, he said. Its true that Russias media influence in Europe intensified considerably during the Covid-19 pandemic. At that time, a number of marginalized voices found space on the German broadcasts of the Kremlins propaganda television, Russia Today, which the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promptly shut down in 2022. But von der Leyen has conceded that there is no proof of a Russian bribery network. They have carried [Putins] propaganda into our societies, she said. Whether they have taken bribes for it or not. Public asked von der Leyen what evidence she has for her allegations. What was the misconduct or illegal activity if there were no bribes? Von der Leyen did not respond to Publics requests for comment.

Apr 18, 2024

Featured • Ukrainian/NATO Military Dealt Heavy Blow to Russian Air Defense in Crimea, SouthFront, Apr 17, 2023

The attack was launched by the US-made missiles, with the close support of US military reconnaissance. Most likely, the US military coordinated and launched the strikes on the ground.

If the attack was launched from the Ukrainian military positions in the Kherson region, both MGM-140A with a range of up to 165 km and MGM-140B with the range of 300 km could be used for the strikes.

The American RQ-4B drone and the Boeing P-8a Poseidon NATO long-range radar reconnaissance aircraft was spotted over the Black Sea during the attack.

The Ukrainian/NATO military is preparing for a larger attack on the peninsula. Kiev announced that it is preparing another terrorist attack on the Crimean peninsula used by the civilian population. The main goal of the strike in Dzhankoy was to weaken Russian air defense before attacking the Crimean Bridge. On April 15, two Storm Shadow missiles were intercepted in the area of the port city of Berdyansk in the Zaporozhie region. Then, the Ukrainian military was probing Russian air defense.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) unveiled three foreign military aid bills for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, totaling over $95 billion in spending.

The three bills match roughly with the $95 billion foreign military aid bill that was passed by the Senate, although Israel will get a boost in military aid. Some of the economic aid for Ukraine is in the form of repayable loans. However, reports say Kyiv is not actually expected to pay it back and that the Biden administration will have the power to cancel the debt. The bill to fund the proxy war in Ukraine totals nearly $61 billion.

The Israel bill totals $26 billion, the majority of which will go toward supporting the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and replenishing air defenses following Irans reprisal attack. It includes $9 billion in humanitarian aid, which Democrats said was necessary for them to support Johnsons effort.

Over $8 billion will go toward spending in the Asia Pacific to prepare for a future war with China, including a few billion in military aid for Taiwan. The US has consistently sold weapons to Taiwan since severing relations with Taipei in 1979 but began providing unprecedented military aid last year, a move that significantly raised tensions with China.

Johnson will release a fourth bill for so-called national security purposes. The bill is expected to include a TikTok ban over unfounded allegations that the popular video-sharing app is a Chinese spy tool. It is also expected to give the federal government the power to sell off frozen Russian assets to make more money available for Ukraine, which would amount to outright theft.

Johnson is pushing ahead with the plan despite threats from Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) to hold a vote to oust him. Some House Democrats have signaled they would support Johnson to prevent his ouster if he gave them what they wanted in the bills.

President Biden came out in support of Johnsons effort and called for a quick vote. The House must pass the package this week, and the Senate should quickly follow. I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we wont let Iran or Russia succeed, Biden said.

Apr 17, 2024

 • Dmitry Medvedev's Speech On Russia's Strategic Borders, Moon of Alabama, Apr 17, 2024

 • Johnson Calls Himself a Wartime Speaker, Will Push Ukraine Aid Despite Opposition, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Apr 16, 2024

Rep. Thomas Massie says he will back Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's effort to oust Johnson.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called himself a wartime speaker on Tuesday as he defended himself after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) called for his resignation over a plan to hold separate votes on military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

Russia and Ukraine had almost reached a new Black Sea shipping deal in March after two months of negotiations, only for Kiev to abruptly walk away, Reuters reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The official agreement governing the freight route lapsed in July 2023, when Moscow declined to renew the original - and UN-mediated Black Sea Grain Initiative. Russia said that the US and EU had not kept their part of the deal, blocking exports of Russian food and fertilizer. The most recent talks were brokered by at the prompting of the United Nations, and a tentative agreement to ensure the safety of merchant shipping in the Black Sea was reached last month, according to Reuters sources....

The reasons for Kiev pulling out are unclear, but President Vladimir Zelensky accused Russia of targeting grain export infrastructure during the original deal, thereby putting vulnerable countries at risk. Speaking to reporters earlier this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied that Moscow ever attacked Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea during the grain deal. One of the reasons Moscow did not return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative was Kievs misuse of the shipping passage during the agreement, he said. The Ukrainians used these free secure passages to launch their weapons in the form of naval drones, damaging Russian ships and ports, Lavrov stated. He added under the old agreement, only 3% of the shipped Ukrainian grain went to countries on the UN World Food Programmes list of states in greatest need. Since then, Moscow has donated 200,000 tons of grain to six African nations, with the last shipments arriving in January of this year.

Apr 16, 2024

Featured • PATRICK LAWRENCE: Could the Russians Seize Congress?, Consortium News, Apr 16, 2024

Featured • Ukraine SitRep: The Power Plant War - Ideological Losses - More Signs Of Corruption, Moon of Alabama, Apr 16, 2024

Ground that had been held by parts of the 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade had been given up very quickly.

The Ukraine command investigated and found the root cause in the ideological framework of the 'nationalist' brigade:

After losing some positions on the Chasiv Yar front in Donetsk Oblast, where heavy fighting has been ongoing since the beginning of 2024, the 67th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps is being investigated and the military personnel who served as the brigades backbone are being transferred to other units....

One of the factors revealed by the audit was issues within the brigade. The leadership allegedly separated the soldiers from the Right Sector and those who were transferred from other parts during the recent replenishment (they were referred to as "pixels", in reference to the pattern on the Ukrainian military uniform). The attitude toward the "pixels" was even worse; they were the first to be sent into combat, and their lack of experience made them lose territory.

According to a source of Ukrainska Pravda, this was not the only reason for the brigade's combat capacity deficiencies, as revealed by the audit.

According to a former Ukrainian Volunteer Corps fighter who served in the unit during the 2014-2018 anti-terrorist operation in Ukraine's east and the first year of the full-scale invasion, the current problem stems from the inability to reform the former volunteer unit into a regular brigade of the Armed Forces.

Following the reformatting of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps into the 67th Brigade, volunteers were forced to live "according to military tenets", as determined by the newly formed army command. The former Ukrainian Volunteer Corps leaders lacked the military experience necessary for high positions.

The street gangs and hooligans of the fascist Right Sector, who played a major role during the so called Maidan revolution, were not keen to be real soldiers. They put the least experienced mobilized men into the frontline and kept their ideological brethren in the back.

Such behavior had been fine under the former Commander in Chief General Zaluzhni who has a well known affinity for the hard right 'nationalists' units. But the new Commander in Chief General Syrski needs real soldiers, not amateurish terrorists:

During the tenure of former Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the backbone of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, particularly Andrii Stempitskyi, was able to maintain some autonomy in the brigade while receiving assistance from the General Staff.

Quote: "And when Sirskyi was appointed, they were confronted with the fact that they must only do activities that are appropriate for their official position. They saw it as political persecution. For highly ideological Ukrainian Volunteer Corps combatants, this appears to be the end of a movement, but it is actually the system bringing its combat units up to standard."

Russian investigators have confirmed that there is a link between the perpetrators of last months terrorist attack in Moscow and Ukrainian nationalists, the secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev has said.

He reiterated Moscows suspicions about Ukraines role in the Crocus City Hall atrocity, in which over 140 people were killed.

During the investigation, the link between the perpetrator of this terrorist attack and Ukrainian nationalists has been confirmed, Patrushev said during a meeting of the body.

Four suspected gunmen were arrested in a Russian region bordering Ukraine hours after the mass murder they are accused of committing. Russian officials previously described them as radical Islamists and claimed that a money trail connected them to Ukrainian nationalists. The group was instructed by their handler to flee across the border, investigators have claimed.

Patrushev reiterated his countrys pledge to hold every person responsible for the crime accountable.

The perpetrators, accomplices and organizers of the monstrous bloody terrorist attack, affiliated individuals, wherever they hide and however they try to cover their tracks, will face deserved punishment, he said.

Kiev, which initially claimed that Moscow itself had staged the massacre, has denied any involvement. Its Western backers maintain that all evidence they have is pointing to ISIS-K, an Afghanistan-based offshoot of the once-powerful international terrorist organization Islamic State, as the culprit. The group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Moscow has accused Kiev of being behind a number of targeted assassinations and bombing attacks on its soil, some of which Ukrainian special services have acknowledged as their operations. According to Russian officials, Ukraine is resorting to terrorism because it cannot prevail on the battlefield even with the unprecedented amount of Western assistance it has been receiving.

It was a relatively bright day, November 21, 1920, when Vladimir Lenin, having won the civil war and driven off the American, British, French, Canadian, and Australian invasion forces, announced: Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country, since industry cannot be developed without electrification. Come November 2024 it will be a century and four years to count what Lenin meant, and how Russia is proving itself against everything which the military industries, special forces, weapons, intelligence so-called, operations, and plans of the old invasion coalition, plus Germany, can throw at it. So on November 21, 2024, it will be time to revise Lenins maxim to read: Russia is military power plus the de-electrification of the countries which attack it. This is electric war.

To make the war aim unambiguously clear, President Vladimir Putin ordered his ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Vasily Nebenzya, to read out a paper at his desk in the UN Security Council chamber on April 11: very soon, the only topic for international meetings in Ukraine will be the unconditional surrender of the Kiev regime. Note what the terms unconditional surrender of the Kiev regime mean: total military defeat of the Ukrainian, American, British, French, Polish, and other forces on the Ukrainian territory and in the air surrounding; surrender of the municipal administrations of the east-bank cities, including Kharkov, Dniepropetrovsk, and Odessa; disarmament and demilitarization of the territory between Kiev and the Polish border; exit of every member of the regime, starting with Vladimir Zelensky. This is an ultimatum without alternatives for either Moscow or Kiev. In electric war, are there any alternatives?

Israel, through its political action committee, AIPAC, in the United States, has pretty much bought the United States Congress. Theyve bought the United States presidency. They control American media. And as a result, America comes to the defense of Israel because weve been paid to do so, Ritter said. With Ukraine, its the other way around, the observer said. America, on the other hand, has bought and paid for Ukraine.Youre not a friend. Youre not an ally. Youre a tool being used by the United States for its larger foreign policy and national security objectives vis-à-vis Russia. We provide you weapons only so far as it facilitates our objective of creating a problem for Russia. We dont want you to win. We dont care about you. We give you just enough to keep you going. And then we stand by and watch you bury your dead. Because we dont care, Ritter said, channeling the sentiments of the American establishment.

Youve done your duty. You created a problem for the Russians. But now youve become inconvenient. And were going to stand by and let the Russians finish the job without spending any more money or providing you with much more assistance. You dont matter to us. Youre not Israel. You dont own us. Were not going to fight and die for you. I hope I made that clear, Ritter summed up.

Apr 15, 2024

 • Kiev asks to lease Patriot missile systems, RT, Apr 15, 2024

Ukraine is willing to accept any conditions that Western donors attach to supplies of long-range air defense systems, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on national TV on Monday.

A single MIM-104 Patriot battery, which is manufactured by US arms giant Raytheon, costs over $1 billion. President Vladimir Zelensky told US media last month that Ukraine needs at least five to seven of them to protect its industrial capacity from Russian long-range strikes. Kuleba has been at the forefront of lobbying the US and its allies.

Behind closed doors, I tell all of our partners: My dears, anything you want. You want them to be leased, so be it. You want them to protect your border, they will. Just give them, Kuleba said in an interview with TSN.

The fact that the West can no longer even manufacture enough weapons to supply its proxy wars almost certainly means that the dominoes will keep falling. This is a jolt to the system described here by Malcolm Harris in his 2023 book Palo Alto:

War Capitalism could put on a blindfold and run into a maze of horrific, absurd plans with confidence because it had class power echolocation for a guide: As long as the rich strengthened and the working class weakened, then things had to be going in the right direction. It didnt matter that capitalists were investing in finance sugar highs, monopoly superprofits, and an international manufacturing race to the bottom rather than strong jobs and an expanded industrial base. The twenty-first century was going to be all about software anyway, baby. The robots will figure it out. Silicon Valley leaders sat on top of this world system like a cherry on a sundae, insulated from the melting foundation by a rich tower of cream.

They likely still feel insulated from the consequences of their actions, which fall most heavily on their proxy fighters and the working class dealing with inflation and declining living standards, but the panic over this systems implosion is real and with good reason. The idea that the US can just spend more money and develop more wonder weapons is breaking down in humiliating fashion....

Lets say, for arguments sake that the US ponied up $1 trillion tomorrow to help firms bring back this manufacturing, what other problems would arise? Theres at least one, which is already evident from the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act. According to this tracker, $263 billion has been invested and 113,400 jobs have been created, but a major problem has arisen. There arent enough workers with the necessary skills.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company had to delay the production start date of its Arizona plants to 2025 due to a lack of workers, and a major shortage is expected to continue in coming years. The shipyard building the US Navys new frigate cant find workers, leading to a three-year delay at least. Apply that to other industries, add in the countrys crumbling infrastructure, and the price keeps climbing.

Apr 14, 2024

Featured • Is a peaceful accommodation between BRICS and the West possible?, Alastair Crooke, Apr 13, 2024

Our ability to discriminate on these key issues lies deep within us. But it is precisely here where the BRICS might seek common cause with Europe. They could adopt a moral language that resonates within the vestiges of such moral sentiments that still linger on in the West.

With the rediscovery of the Domus Aurea and the Hermetica, the Italian Renaissance believed itself to have rejoined the ancients in spirit a release, after the Middle Ages had brought barbarian repression and the closing of the European mind.

Thus, when Florentine Neo-Platonism became the dominant view, it is understandable that those artists like Michaelangelo, who had been lowered into the Domus, viewed its distinct beauty as connecting them to the wider world of earthly beauty. This experience was seen by the artists of the time to be the mortal veil through which we discern eternal human values, shining out through the veil.

Their moral reaction then, was so to speak, an assent, an affirmation of what it is to be human. It is over the latter experience that a dark epistemological cloud of subsequent empiricist or rationalist theories of knowledge has hung.

What makes any conjuncture of this nature so subject to fiery passions is simply that anything that was good and true about Western civilization is preserved and thriving in Russia. This is the unspoken insight that so infuriates the western lites. And it is also why, in part, BRICS states so evidently look to Russia for leadership.

In a sense, Russia fell into the hole on Romes Oppian Hill when Russians flung open the doors to its churches after the Communist period, and people poured in. Orthodoxy and traditionalism somehow self-ignited. Russia was finding a new Self.

This occurrence perhaps was impelled in part, by the fact that when Byzantium fell in 1453, bringing to an end the millennia-old Roman imperium, Russia found itself in a unique position. It was now the only Orthodox Christian power remaining in the world.

This fact created a sense of world-historic religious siege; surrounded on all sides by Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Turco-Mongol Khanates, Russia itself became a prototypical Eschatological Garrison State the last redoubt of authentic Christianity and of meaning, beyond the literal world, in the wider Hartland.

As I have indicated, Europe has the elements to multi-culturalism buried within memory. We do have common sources that reach far-back. That is the hope; but first, we in the Atlanticist West, must dispense with the charade of todays fabricated European values.

Kievs new effort to scoop up more bodies for the front is a response to looming catastrophe and a catastrophe in itself.

Ukraines situation is extremely precarious, if you want to put it optimistically. A more realistic term is catastrophic. The country faces steady, accelerating advances of Russian forces that are well-motivated and trained and superior in quantity and equipment. Even Ukraines commander-in-chief has admitted that the situation on the eastern front has significantly worsened in recent days. A massive understatement but still proof that things are even worse.

We also know from Ukrainian polls that ever more Ukrainians are open to ending the war by making concessions. Yet the Zelensky regime is doubling down. Instead of entering serious negotiations the kind where you adjust your aims to your losses so as to avoid even greater ones it is seeking to throw more lives into a war that has become a meatgrinder for Ukrainian troops.

Ukraine Armed Forces C-in-C Syrsky confirmed the desperate situation at the front in an order that was issued on April 4 and leaked to Russian media on Saturday, listing issues he said require immediate attention from law enforcement including insubordination, failure to comply with orders, threats or violence against superiors, unauthorized abandonment of positions, desertion, evasion of military service by inflicting self-harm, and refusal to use weapons. In a Telegram post Saturday, Syrsky offered an unusually frank public assessment of the battlefield situation, which he said had significantly worsened in recent days, primarily due to the significant intensification of the enemys offensive actions, which he said was facilitated by warm, dry weather, which has made most open areas accessible to tanks. Syrsky assured that his personal communication with servicemen has made him well aware of the real scale and degree of threat from the enemy.

The Kiev regimes soldiers sabotage army orders, threaten their commanders, refuse to fire their weapons, leave the battlefield, and desert. This was revealed in a new order on strengthening discipline signed by Commander-in-Chief of Ukraines Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrsky and seen by Sputnik.The document notes that army commanders, law enforcement, and other government agencies have faced new challenges that require an immediate response. Among the military criminal offenses, the commander-in-chief listed insubordination, failure to comply with an order, threat or violence against a superior, unauthorized abandonment of a military unit or place of service, desertion, evasion of military service by inflicting self-harm or in any other way, and unauthorized abandonment of the battlefield or refusal to use weapons.

US President Joe Biden is dragging out an obviously lost cause in Ukraine because his administration will not admit to its policy failures in trying to weaken Russia, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) has claimed.

At some point in time, you have to recognize reality and you have to base your decisions on reality, Johnson said on Thursday in an interview with podcast host Glenn Greenwald. But the Biden administration is not willing to do that, the generals arent willing to do that, because theyd have to admit theyve been wrong all along.

As Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to plead for more military handouts from the West, he told German newspaper Bild on Tuesday that he needs advanced weapons for a new counteroffensive against Russian forces.

There will be no great Ukrainian counteroffensive, as Russia has entirely changed the game on the battlefield, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told Sputnik.

Kiev cannot win against Moscow because it has run out of men and needs more weapons and ammunition than Washington could possibly provide, US Senator J.D. Vance said on Friday.

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer argued that the biggest reason Ukraine is losing the war is because the hard-right in the Congress has paralyzed the US from acting. The New York Democrat claimed that a small group of Republicans have been holding up a vital $60 billion aid package for Kiev.

In an op-ed published by the New York Times, Vance addressed Schumers claim and accused President Joe Biden of having failed to articulate even basic facts about What Ukraine needs and the reality on the ground.

The Biden administration has no viable plan for the Ukrainians to win this war, Vance argued.

Ukraines challenge is not the GOP; its math, the Ohio Republican wrote. Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies. And it needs more matriel than the United States can provide.

Not only is $60 billion a fraction of what Ukraine would need to turn the tide, Americans lack the capacity to manufacture the amount of weapons Ukraine needs us to supply to win the war, Vance argued.

He pointed to the fact that the US can make 360,000 shells for 155mm artillery per year, less than a tenth of what Ukraine says it needs, and thats after doubling prewar production capacity.

Vance also took aim at the White Houses messaging that funding Kiev is good for US military industry.

The notion that we should prolong a bloody and gruesome war because its been good for American business is grotesque. We can and should rebuild our industrial base without shipping its products to a foreign conflict, he wrote.

Ukraines American-backed fight against Russia is being waged not only in the blood-soaked trenches of the Donbas region but also on what military planners call the cognitive battlefield to win hearts and minds.

A sprawling constellation of media outlets organized with substantial funding and direction from the U.S. government has not just worked to counter Russian propaganda but has supported strong censorship laws and shutdowns of dissident outlets, disseminated disinformation of its own, and sought to silence critics of the war, including many American citizens.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs, commentator Tucker Carlson, journalist Glenn Greenwald, and University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer are among the critics on both the left and the right who have been cast as part of a network of Russian propaganda.

But the figures targeted by the Ukrainian watchdog groups are hardly Kremlin agents. They simply have forcefully criticized dominant narratives about the war.

Apr 12, 2024

Featured • Pentagon warns US could miss Ukraine pay off, RT, Apr 11, 2024

Washington must double down on funding Kievs war effort against Moscow, to ensure that billions of dollars in previous investments do not go to waste, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, Celeste Wallander, has claimed.

The US has provided Ukraine with over $113 billion in various forms of assistance since the start of hostilities in February 2022, including more than $62 billion in military aid funneled through the Pentagon. However, more funds are urgently needed to protect this investment, Wallander told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

What we need right now to prevent Russian success and Ukrainian defeat is passage of the supplemental, she said, urging Congress to approve President Joe Bidens aid package which would earmark another $60 billion for Kiev.

"None of that work that weve done for two years in investing in Ukraines future will pay off, unless we get them through the next few months."

Ukrainian leaders are unlikely to publicly acknowledge the scale of a new mobilization campaign, fearing it would send shockwaves across the country and demoralize the population, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The Ukrainian parliament passed a long-awaited mobilization bill this week, which is awaiting signature by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. It significantly simplifies procedures for the draft and forces all men aged 18 to 60 including those residing abroad to register with the military authorities.

In a last-minute move, the bill was stripped of a clause envisaging the demobilization of men who had served for three years, meaning that many troops would have to remain in the army until the conflict is over. Aleksandr Syrsky, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, reportedly lobbied for the change.

Russian influence has penetrated the US political system and warped the information field around the world, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed in an interview with Politico on Tuesday.

Zelensky was asked to comment on recent statements made by two Republican lawmakers: Mike Turner of Ohio and Mike McCaul of Texas. They claimed that pro-Russian propaganda has filtered into the minds of some of the members of Congress, which has failed to greenlight the $60 billion aid package for Kiev.

The Ukrainian leader stated that Russia has succeeded in distorting the information field of the world.

They have their lobbies everywhere: in the United States, in the EU countries, in Britain, in Latin America, in Africa, he said. When we talk about the Congress do you notice how they work with society in the United States? he noted, adding that the scale of Russian influence in the US has been underestimated.

He claimed that US citizens were helping Russia by spreading its ideas in the American media.

They pump their narratives through the media, Zelensky said. These are not Russian citizens or natives of Russia, no. They are representatives of certain media groups, citizens of the United States.

According to Zelensky, these people work in the US media and deliver the appropriate messages, which are sometimes very pro-Russian. He hasnt mentioned any names though

Apr 11, 2024

Featured • SITREP 4/11/24: Zelensky in Shock as Kiev's Largest Power Plant Wrecked in Massive Strikes, Simplicius, Apr 11, 2024

Very soon, the only topic for any international meetings on Ukraine will be the unconditional surrender of the Kiev regime, I advise all of you to prepare for this" - Nebenzya.

To sum up:

• The Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries do not have the desired secondary effects on Russia. Fuel is available at cheap prices and resource based state income continues to be high.
• Ukraine's attacks on Russia are the purported reason given by Russia for the de-energization of Ukraine.
• NATO and the U.S. defense establishment do not have a consistent position.
• Global fuel prices are rising and are hurting Biden's campaign efforts.
• Ukraine continues to be de-energized.

One might think that the negative effects from the above are significant enough to lead to a change in policies.

How come I do not expect to see any?

The Biden administration has admitted that it massively undercounted what it has spent on the proxy war in Ukraine, The American Conservative reported on Tuesday.

The report said the White Houses Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had previously estimated the US has spent $111 billion on the war. For over a year, a group of members of Congress pressed the OMB to figure out the real number and recently found that it was $125 billion, $14 billion more than what the White House had previously claimed.

In a letter sent to the director of the OMB on Tuesday, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and 15 other members of Congress said that they now have confirmation from OMB that the total Ukraine spending figure is significantly higher than the administration has ever admitted.

The lawmakers asked OMB Director Shalanda Young to answer a series of questions about US spending on the proxy and gave her a deadline of April 30.

The Biden administration also still has around $4 billion that could potentially be spent on Ukraine aid in the form of Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the US to send weapons straight from Pentagon stockpiles. The $4 billion comes from funds that became available after the Pentagon claimed an accounting error freed up additional spending for the proxy war.

The Pentagon hasnt been using the $4 billion in remaining PDA funds because it says theres no money to replace the weapons after theyre sent to Ukraine. But the US has been finding ways to continue arming Ukraine.

Last month, the administration announced a new $300 million arms package for Ukraine and claimed the money was found in US Army budget savings. On Tuesday, the State Department announced a $138 HAWK air defense deal for Ukraine using funds included in the annual military spending bill President Biden signed into law last month.

President Biden is seeking another $60 billion to fuel the proxy war even though Ukraine has no chance of beating the Russians on the battlefield. The new aid would bring total US spending on the conflict to $185 billion.

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that almost 6,000 foreign mercenaries, who came to Ukraine to fight on the side of the Kiev regime, have been killed since the beginning of the special operation. According to the MoD, at least 1,113 mercenaries came from the United States, 491 of whom have already been killed. The Defense Ministry earlier stressed in a statement that the Kiev regime uses foreign mercenaries as cannon fodder and that their lives are not spared by anyone in the Ukrainian command. Therefore, they have only one choice to flee Ukraine or to die. The Russian armed forces will continue to destroy foreign mercenaries in the course of the special military operation, regardless of their location on the territory of Ukraine, the statement read.

Smaller American products aimed for military use are too expensive and vulnerable to electronic warfare, the newspaper has said.

Small drones sent to Ukraine by US manufacturers have largely proved ineffective on the battlefield due to Russian electronic countermeasures, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Ukraine conflict has seen the widespread use of small expandable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for reconnaissance, as well as for dropping small explosives and serving as loitering munitions. US products have proved unsatisfactory, however, forcing Kiev to rely on Chinese models instead, the WSJ reported on Tuesday.

The general reputation for every class of US drone in Ukraine is that they dont work as well as other systems, Adam Bry, CEO of drone maker Skydio, told the newspaper. He admitted his own companys products are not a very successful platform on the front lines. ...

Many American commercial drones cost tens of thousands of dollars more per piece than their Chinese competitors, the WSJ noted. US producers aiming to sell their UAVs to the Pentagon must meet its regulations, including restrictions on using Chinese parts and software updates.

Russia has significantly increased domestic production of military drones amid the hostilities with Ukraine. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported last November that the country was supplying 16 times more drones compared to January 2023.

Forbes suggested in December that Ukrainian assessments that Russia makes as many as 40,000 smaller first-person-view kamikaze quadcopters per month may be too conservative.

The Ukrainian president says he is determined to recapture territory which is now part of Russia.

New deliveries of Western military technology can enable Kiev to launch a new counteroffensive against Russia, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky believes.

Ukraines leader made the same claim last year before Kievs failed attempt to recapture land lost to Moscow in 2022.

While his forces are presently being pushed back on the battlefield, Zelensky hopes to turn the tide, he told the German tabloid Bild this week.

Russia has more men, more weapons. But the West has modern weapons systems, Zelensky mused. If we get [production] licenses from our partners, then its not about the number of people. Its about the quality of the weapons.

Rafael Grossi promised to bring up the seriousness of the situation surrounding the attacks on the ZNPP in his address to the UN Security Council "next week".

VIENNA, April 9. /TASS/. Tuesday's drone attack on the training center of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) points to readiness for new attacks on the plant, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said.

Apr 10, 2024

Featured • Russiagate About Seizing Power as Much as Stopping Trump, Ian DeMartino, Sputnik International, Apr 9, 2024

On Sunday, US Rep. and chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Michael R. Turner (R-OH) claimed that it is absolutely true that members of the US Republican party are repeating pro-Russia messages" on the House floor, without naming the members.

The US establishment disproven conspiracy that former US President Donald Trump was controlled by the Kremlin is about seizing control of social media and the internet as much as it is designed to harm Trumps political ambitions, Serbian-American journalist and columnist Nebojsa Malic told Sputniks Fault Lines on Tuesday.

Malic argues that the completely fabricated Russiagate conspiracy was not just to sabotage the Trump presidency, but to literally take over these social networks, [which] all these big tech people thought was going to be this lovely garden of earthly delights and turn it into a prison.

Last year, a panel of federal judges ruled that the US intelligence agencies contact with social media companies, urging them to take down specific posts and block or ban certain users, likely constituted government censorship. The administration of US President Joe Biden has appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

Russiagate was the pretext that started this entire ball rolling, and it wasnt even based on anything real. And now they want to do it all over again, Malic explained.

I was listening to [Senate Majority Leader, Senator] Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speak yesterday about how Ukraine is losing the war because [House Speaker, Rep.] Mike Johnson (R-LA) doesnt want to give them money. No, Ukraine is losing the war because it has always been [losing] because it is fighting an industrial war it cannot win, Malic continued. The West cant win because it doesnt have the industrial capabilities because in the past 30 years, we shut down our industry and turned everything over to finance, but Chuck Schumer is too thick to understand that.

The reality on the ground in Ukraine has turned many against US support for NATOs proxy war in Russia, with more Americans (37%) saying the US spends too much on Ukraine than too little (27%) and only 13% responded that they were either extremely confident or very confident Ukraine will defeat Russia, compared to 49% who say they are Not too confident or Not confident at all.

People are asking How is this helping freedom and democracy, exactly? Malic contended. And [the establishments] response is shut up, Russian Agent.

This is a breakdown. Because, again, the blobs agenda is to use Russias phantom menace for a power grab at home on one hand, and to push for this geopolitical fantasy that Russia needs Ukraine to be a global empire, Malic said, explaining that Russia doesnt want a global empire.

They voluntarily dissolved the Soviet Union in 91, believing all of these stories about freedom and democracy and capitalism and human rights, and they got taken advantage of. Demographically, the country was worse off in the 90s than during World War Two, Malic explained. When we talk about the golden age of the 1990s, post-Cold War, freedom, democracy, transition from socialism, this is a horror story to these people and nobody in America seems to understand this because they didnt live through it.

The owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, has rejected accusations that Russian misinformation was widespread on his platform. The entrepreneur, who describes himself as a champion of free speech, has been accused of making the social network vulnerable to Russian activities by changing its content moderation protocols after purchasing Twitter in 2022. His latest denial came on Tuesday, while he was discussing X on In Good Company, a podcast. Host Nicolai Tangen suggested that Russian activity via fake accounts was huge in Germany. We dont see a lot of Russian activity, to be frank, on the system. We see very little, Musk responded. We do see a lot of attempts to influence things, but they seem to be coming from the West, not from Russia.

Tangens remark apparently referred to claims made by Berlin in January. The German government said that the use of specialized monitoring software had allowed it to identify an estimated 50,000 fake accounts engaged in a pro-Russian misinformation campaign on X. Local press claimed that the messaging was strikingly similar to that of the right-wing opposition party AfD. Germany is not alone in its wariness regarding Moscows influence; this week US Congressman Mike Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, accused some fellow Republicans of repeating Russian propaganda in the chamber.

It is absolutely true we see, directly coming from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor, the Ohio congressman told CNNs Jake Tapper. Similar remarks came last week from House Foreign Affairs chair Michael McCaul, another Republican lawmaker. In his interview, Musk hailed X as arguably the best source of truth on the Internet that, he argued, by far surpasses traditional news outlets in terms of accuracy thanks to user-driven fact-checking tools. A lot of people still run under the illusion that the legacy newspapers they read are actually true. There is so much nonsense in them, he lamented. (emphasis added)

Terrorist activities have also reached beyond the country, aimed at the elimination of prominent political and public figures, as well as causing economic damage, she added. The committees specialists have been working in cooperation with other intelligence services and financial intelligence, Petrenko noted. The scrutiny currently revolves around checking sources of income and further movement of funds in the amount of several million US dollars, and examining the potential involvement of specific individuals from among government officials, people with civic and commercial organizations of Western countries, the spokeswoman stated. Burisma is probably best known internationally for its controversial ties to the current first family in the US. In the spring of 2014, following the US-backed coup in Kiev, the Ukrainian energy firm hired Hunter Biden and his business partner Devon Archer on its board of directors, offering $1 million a year in pay.

Bidens father Joe was President Barack Obamas vice president at the time, and oversaw Washingtons Ukraine policy. He once famously bragged about getting a corruption prosecutor fired which just happened to occur after that prosecutor began investigating Burisma. Nikolay Zlochevskys company also offered protection payments to the government in Kiev, according to former Ukrainian MP Andrey Derkach. Zlochevsky paid some 800 million hryvnias [over $21 million] for terrorism financing in various jurisdictions, Derkach claimed in January. The leaders of Ukraines security services make no secret of the fact that they carry out terrorist acts and political assassinations for extra-budgetary cash, he said at the time. Once again: Bidens partners in the corruption business in Ukraine finance terrorist acts, thus avoiding responsibility for corruption in Ukraine. Derkach claimed it was common practice for the owners of large businesses in Ukraine to donate to the war effort in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He pointed to a criminal case against Zlochevsky relating to a $6 million cash bribe that ended with the Burisma owner paying a $1,800 fine.

The oil and gas firm was named by the Russian Investigative Committee among organizations potentially used to finance terrorism.

The Russian Investigative Committee on Tuesday said it launched a criminal probe into the financing of terrorism, naming the Ukrainian industrial conglomerate Burisma among the suspects.

RT spoke about the unfolding scandal to Arnaud Develay, an international human rights advocate and the author of a book covering ties between the Ukrainian company and the family of US President Joe Biden.

This is something that the Russian Investigative Committee is going to have to determine to be sure, but this is nothing new, Develay stated, describing the Ukrainian company as a vehicle to launder taxpayers money.

The investigators have already established that the funds, flowing through commercial organizations, including the oil and gas conglomerate Burisma Holdings, operating in Ukraine, have been used in recent years to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia and beyond.

READ MORE: Hunter Biden-linked Ukrainian firm connected to terror attacks in Russia Moscow

Should the allegation prove to be true, the West will try its best to swipe the whole affair under the rug, as well as to derail any attempts to bring it before international bodies, Develay believes.

They would try to fight tooth and nail to basically deny it, he said, adding that an attempt to establish a UN-backed tribunal to handle the affair is bound to get vetoed by the Big Three - the US, the UK and France.

This is something that is going to have to be handled a different way, he warned.

Develays work, titled Foreign Entanglements: Ukraine, Biden & the Fractured American Political Consensus is set for public release on Wednesday.

Watch the full interview below...

Apr 8, 2024

Featured • Edward Luttwak: Time to Send NATO Troops, Simplicius, Apr 7, 2024
Important, per usual. However it is best to ignore his ignorant comments about nuclear war. He is not thinking straight about that. I am sorry to say that this puerile view of nuclear war needs to be factored into his other analyses, as very valuable as they are.

Featured • Ukraine - Faking News Still Does Not Help Winning, Moon of Alabama, Apr 6, 2024

 • America's Hypocrisy as an Authoritarian State Being Exposed as Ukraine Founders, Larry Johnson, Apr 7, 2024

Guess what? The United States has prosecuted (and persecuted) twice as many political prisoners than Russia.

In the three years since the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, federal prosecutors have charged more than 1,265 defendants across nearly all 50 states and D.C. and secured sentences of incarceration for more than 460 people, according to newly released numbers from the U.S. Attorneys Office in D.C.

In remarks Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland described the Justice Departments sprawling probe of the Capitol attack as one of the largest and most complex and resource-intensive investigations in our history.

None of these numbers capture the law fare assault on former President Trump and many of the people who served in key positions during his administration. The Biden Administration routinely chastises many other countries most recently India for prosecuting political opponents. Talk about lack of self-awareness and irony.

So spare me the bullshit about Russia being a soul crushing attack on personal liberty while claiming the United States is the bastion of freedom and justice. It is a lie. And I say that without delving into the Federal Governments collaboration with social media to attack conservatives and censor articles and persons who are not in line with Bidens woke agenda, as thoroughly documented by the reporting of Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi. Then there is the proven case of the Biden Administrations attack on scientists and physicians who challenged the specious CDC claims and remedies for COVID is just another glaring example of the putrid authoritarianism emanating from Washington, DC.

Here is part two of my discussion with Nima. We focus on the implications for NATO and Secretary of State Blinkens crazy claim that Ukraine will get to join the NATO club.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi characterized the recent drone attack on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP) as a violation of nuclear security principles and called for an end to such "reckless attacks" Sunday.

The IAEA confirmed minor damage to the sixth power unit of the plant as a result of the drone attacks.

"This is a clear violation of the basic principles for protecting Europes largest [nuclear power plant]. Such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident and must cease immediately," Grossi was quoted as saying in the IAEA statement.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian kamikaze drones attacked the territory of the power station immediately after an inspection carried out by IAEA experts, the plant's press service said. The attack left three of the facility's workers injured, with one of them sustaining serious injuries, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said.

The IAEA had previously confirmed damage to the plant in a separate statement. "IAEA experts confirmed physical impact of drone attacks at ZNPP today, incl. at 1 of its 6 reactors," the agency said. "One casualty reported. Damage at unit 6 has not compromised nuclear safety, but this is a serious incident with potential to undermine integrity of the reactor's containment system."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the international community must respond to Ukraine's attack, calling it "an act of nuclear terrorism."

"The world community must realize and react to an act of nuclear terrorism on the part of the Kiev regime," Zakharova said on Telegram.

The Zaporozhye nuclear plant, constructed in the 1980s by the Soviet Union, is Europe's largest and one of the world's largest. The massive power station is reportedly now completely reliant on a single 750-kilowatt line for external power after previous attacks. A connection to outside electricity is necessary to ensure the plant is able to cool its reactors an interruption in the delivery of power could precipitate a catastrophic meltdown.

Russia took control of the sensitive asset in March 2022 and it has endured Ukrainian fire ever since. Ukrainian drones, missiles, and artillery have all been used against the plant by Kiev, which has repeatedly attempted to reassert control.

GLENN DIESEN: I think what makes it so challenging to get out from is because economics is so deeply tied to the political. And for so many years now, since the end of the Cold War, we effectively re-divided Europe. We re-militarized the dividing lines in Europe. And the problem of doing this in Europe is eventually you would have a crisis, and then divided, militarized Europe would then become a chessboard, if you will, the object of great power politics, in which it would be severely weakened in this way.

So again, this is why I find it so frustrating, because if Europe really wanted to get out of this, we would seek immediately to negotiate an end to this war, so we would reduce the dependence on the US, allow us to diversify our economic connectivity to greater extent, and begin to restore something resembling to political autonomy. But there is none yet.

But again, I have some optimism as well that if we can just get this horrific war to an end, there might be some opportunities to rethink some of the policies and some of the wrong paths weve chosen.

Anyways, before we go, Michael Hudson, any last words, Professor?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, just to comment on what you just said, that theres a new Cold War underway, and the United States has started it against China, and again, because its against China, its against Russia, and because its against Russia, its against Europe.

So there has to be a recognition that does Europe really want to be a part of this new Cold War, or does it want to have a different direction? Thats really what were talking about.

Apr 6, 2024

Featured • Ukraine will become a member of NATO top US diplomat, RT, Apr 4, 2024

Ukraine will become a member of NATO, Blinken told reporters on Thursday in Brussels. Our purpose at the summit is to help build a bridge to that membership and to create a clear pathway for Ukraine moving forward.

The top US diplomat also urged Congress to approve $60 billion in additional aid to Ukraine. The proposal has been stalled by rising opposition from Republican lawmakers since last fall. The administration of US President Joe Biden has already burned through $113 billion in previously approved Ukraine funding.

US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said in an interview on Wednesday that the latest aid bill is likely headed for passage when Congress goes back into session next week. The Georgia Republican argued that Washingtons escalating proxy war in Ukraine is making Americans less safe and pushing the world closer to World War III.

Reacting to Blinkens statement on Thursday, Greene reminded her 3.2 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) that under the NATO charter, an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. Making Ukraine a member of NATO means that the US will be going to war against Russia, as mandated by Article 5, she wrote.

Ukraine joining the bloc is like the start of a movie about end of the world, the billionaire has said.

A pledge by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Ukraine will become a member of NATO looks like a scene from a movie about a nuclear apocalypse, entrepreneur Elon Musk believes.

The top US diplomat reiterated the rock solid determination of his country and other members to eventually include Ukraine in the military bloc at a NATO summit in Brussels this week. Speaking alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, he said the purpose of the event was to help build a bridge to membership.

"This is literally how the nuclear apocalypse movie starts, Musk responded on X (formerly Twitter). He shared a video from the 1983 American television film The Day After, which depicts a fictional nuclear war between the US and the USSR.

The terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall was well organized, it was accompanied by extensive and pre-orchestrated media coverage in the West, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said on Wednesday. *The terrorist attack was well organized and was accompanied by extensive, pre-orchestrated coverage by Western media in the right tone for them, Patrushev said at the 19th annual meeting of security council heads of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states.= On March 22, several armed men broke into Crocus City Hall and started shooting at people. They also started a fire in one of the auditoriums, which was full of people ahead of a concert. The attack left 695 casualties, including 144 dead, according to the latest data from the Russian Emergencies Ministry.

The Islamic State Khorasan Province* (ISKP, also known as ISIS-K) terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The four main suspects in the case all citizens of Tajikistan tried to flee the scene in a car but were detained and charged with terrorism. Russian authorities believe their plan was to flee to Ukraine, where the masterminds of the attack had arranged a safe haven for them. An investigation is underway. It is well known that the Kiev regime is not independent and is completely controlled by the United States. We should also bear in mind that ISIS*, Al-Qaeda* and other terrorist organizations were created by Washington, Patrushev noted, commenting on the alleged role of ISIS* in the terrorist attack on Crocus in Moscow.

The reaction of Volodymyr Zelensky who said that the Russian authorities were responsible for the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack is inadequate, Patrushev pointed out. The inadequate reaction of Zelensky, who accused the Russian authorities of organizing the terrorist attack, is also typical. At the same time, Slovakia directly says that the Kiev regime has been sheltering ISIS* militants on its territory for a long time and is using them for its own purposes, Patrushev stressed. Immediately after the terrorist attack, phone calls from Ukraine to the Russian emergency services with false reports of mining of buildings began en masse, the official added.

Apr 4, 2024

Featured • The Ukrainian Army Is No Longer Mechanized, Moon of Alabama, Apr 4, 2024

In the first year of the war the Ukrainian army often lost more armored vehicles per day than general vehicles, i.e. trucks. By mid 2023 the numbers of armored vehicle and trucks destroyed per day, as reported by the MoD, were about equal. By the end of 2023 that ratio was on average two trucks per one armored vehicle. It has since increased further. Yesterday's report claimed 32 destroyed Ukrainian trucks but only 4 destroyed armored vehicles.

The numbers provide that the armed forces of Ukraine, as well as its allies, have run out of armored vehicles of all kinds.

A mechanized brigade is supposed to have some 100 armored (i.e. 'mechanized') vehicles of various kind plus some 30 tanks. An infantry brigade has, if its lucky, some unarmored trucks or buses.

An infantry brigade can only fight on foot. Its men have to dig in, by hand, to have a chance stay alive without armor protection. To do this in an environment where the enemy has a near perfect view of the battlefield, a reported artillery supremacy of 7 to 1 plus the ability to drop hundreds of precision guided bombs deep behind the frontline is not really survivable.

A 2024 counter offensive by the armed forces of Ukraine was and is a pipe dream. The five new brigades will be destroyed as soon as they come near to the frontline.

Ukraine has been demilitarized. It is high time to acknowledge that.

To give up now is the only way for Ukraine to survive.

U.S. intelligence sources have, at times, fed bullshit to Seymour Hersh:

DUTY TO WARN Seymour Hersh, Mar 27 2024 (emphasis added)...

According to the above President Putin of Russia is responsible for ignoring the warning of a terror attack the U.S. gave to Russia.

Similar bullshit was fed to Shane Harris of the Washington Post:

U.S. told Russia that Crocus City Hall was possible target of attack Washington Post, Apr 2 2024...

The Russian and Chinese suspicion that IS-K has been formed or is used as a tool of U.S. intelligence service is well founded.

Three years ago, based on reports from the Afghan Analyst Network and other sources, I found that IS-K and the CIA had strong relations:

How The CIA Used ISIS-K To Keep Its Afghanistan Business - Moon of Alabama, Aug 29 2021...

It seems IS-K, like certain journalists, is just a tool used by U.S. intelligence services to further their information and terror operations while blaming U.S. 'enemies', here Putin, for the results.

But what is really disturbing is that people fall for it.

Rep. Greene is threatening to hold a vote to oust Speaker Johnson if he forces a vote on Ukraine aid.

Democrats are looking to bypass Johnson to force a vote on the foreign military aid bill through a Discharge Petition, which requires 218 signatures. So far, it has 192 signatures as a group of 22 progressive Democrats are not signing on due to opposition to arming Israel to support the slaughter in Gaza, and only one Republican has added his signature.

Antiwar.com contributor John V. Walsh has been urging Americans to contact their representatives about the Discharge Petition. He wrote on April 1:

The task for antiwar activists is straightforward. Contact your Representative in the House. (Here is a list of their phone numbers and email addresses.)

If they have not signed on to the Discharge Petition, congratulate them on their antiwar stance, express your support and urge them to stick to their position.

If they have signed on to the Discharge Petition, urge them to remove their signatures. (Removing ones signature can be done at any time before the 218 signature majority is reached.) A list of the signatories as of March 22 before the two-week Easter recess can be found here. (Signatures are not permitted when Congress is not in session.)

It is important to note that the Russian elites, which since the 1990s have been closely tied to the West, have had to make a hard choice recently between their country and their assets. Those who decided to stay have had to become more national in their outlook and action. Meanwhile, Putin has launched a campaign to form a new elite around the Ukraine war veterans. The expected turnover of Russian elites, and the transformation from a cosmopolitan group of self-serving individuals into a more traditional coterie of privileged servants of the state and its leader would make sure that the foreign policy revolution is complete.

Finally, Russia may not have been able to start moving so quickly in the direction of sovereignty had it not been for the Western policies of the past two decades: the increasing demonization of the country and its leadership. These choices have succeeded in making perhaps the initially most Westernizing, pro-European leadership that modern Russia has seen including notably Putin himself and Dmitry Medvedev into self-avowed anti-Westerners and determined opponents of US/EU policies.

Thus, rather than forcing Russia change to fit a Western pattern, all that pressure has instead helped the country find itself again.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will propose establishing a $100 billion five-year fund for Ukraine when the alliances foreign ministers meet on Wednesday, multiple media outlets reported on Tuesday.

The idea is to lock in long-term support for Ukraine amid uncertainty around US aid to Ukraine as the $60 billion President Biden is seeking for the proxy still hasnt been authorized by Congress.

The plan is also meant to prevent any future US president from withdrawing support from Ukraine. Financial Times described it as Trump-proofing the proxy war as the former president has expressed opposition to the conflict, although he recently floated the idea of providing Ukraine with loans.

POLITICO reported that one idea would involve the 32 members of the alliance contributing to the $100 billion fund at the same rate they contribute to the alliances budget. That would put most of the burden on the US since Washington pays for about two-thirds of NATOs budget.

The US and its allies are also considering shifting control of a US-led coalition that coordinates arms shipments to Ukraine, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, to NATO. US officials said the purpose of doing so is to ensure weapons continue to flow to Ukraine during a second Trump term.

The reports said that Stoltenberg is hoping to get the plans worked out before NATO leaders hold a summit in Washington this July, but it could face resistance from members who oppose the proxy war, such as Hungary and Slovakia.

This will be crossing a Rubicon. NATO will have a role in coordinating lethal support to Ukraine, a NATO diplomat told Financial Times. I see consensus emerging and I think it will be there by the time we get on the plane to Washington.

NATO is looking to secure long-term funding for the proxy war despite the reality that Ukraine has no chance of winning on the battlefield. As thats become clear, Ukraine has stepped up attacks inside Russia, which risks escalating the conflict into a full-blown war between Russia and NATO.

Who thinks voters will prioritize rearmament? Janan Ganesh asked in his FT column last week. There is little to suggest electorates are willing to accept a rupture of the welfarist social contract in order to tool up.

I hope Ganesh is right in this observation. As Europeans try to rediscover who they are, the historical magnitude of this moment is difficult to overstate.

The very best one hopes for now is a ripping confrontation between the defenders of Europe-forEuropeans and those who sponsor a version of the militarized monster that long ago overtook America.

Barricades, blocked highways, yellow vests, occupied ministries: As we used to say in the 1960s, Let it happen, Capn. This will be a war worth waging for the Continents soul.

In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry said that more than 100,000 people had signed contracts since the start of 2024, with numbers increasing nationwide.

Officials estimate that up to 1,700 volunteers register at recruitment centers each day, and that in the past 10 days some 16,000 Russian citizens have signed contracts...

In late December, Putin said that a total of 617,000 service members were present in the zone of the military operation against Ukraine. He noted at the time that out of this number, 244,000 had been mobilized in the autumn of 2022. At the time, Moscow had called up 300,000 people.

The Russian president also said that 41,000 had been dismissed for various reasons since then. Putin added that Moscow does not plan to announce a second wave of mobilization, as nearly 500,000 troops have current contracts with the Defense Ministry.

Ukrainian forces have lost more than 80,000 troops since the beginning of the year, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday, adding that the Russian military is continuing to reduce the enemys combat potential.

More than 14,000 pieces of military hardware have also been destroyed by Russian forces since January, including 1,200 tanks and other armored combat vehicles. During the same period, Moscow has liberated some 403 square kilometers of Russias new territories, Shoigu told a conference call with the countrys military leadership.

Apr 2, 2024

Featured • 'Too Old and in Poor Health': Ukrainian Conscripts 'Unmotivated' to Fight Report, Oleg Burunov, Sputnik International, Apr 1, 2024

Quite a few Ukrainian conscripts recruited by the dysfunctional and unwieldy drafting system are often too old, in poor health and unmotivated, The New York Times has cited brigade officers as saying. Alina Mykhailova, an officer in the Ukrainian Armys Da Vinci Wolves battalion, told the newspaper that of the 200 conscripts they had received, only 25 showed a desire to fight. According to her, the goal is to recruit volunteers faster, so that we get fewer of those people who are absolutely unmotivated. Its like a market. You must try to find people with marketing methods, another Ukrainian officer, Myroslav Hai, said, referring to public relations recruitment campaigns that aim to lure more people into joining the army. The remarks come after The Washington Post reported that the Kiev regimes lack of any clear mobilization strategy aimed at plugging the gaping holes in the ranks of its armed forces is fueling deep divisions in Ukraines parliament and more broadly in Ukrainian society.

The Financial Times, in turn, suggested that Ukraines plans to mobilize half a million additional troops via a controversial new mobilization law have little hope of panning out if new Western assistance doesnt arrive. The draft legislation, expected see a vote in Ukraines parliament in mid-April, looks to lower the draft age to 25, commit recruits to three years of service, and force eligible men to register via a digital portal, among other measures. Shortly after Russia started its special military operation, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced martial law and general draft in Ukraine. Under martial law, men aged between 18 and 60 are banned from leaving the country, and men aged 27 and older are eligible to be drafted, with some exceptions. In a sign that the problems of draft dodgers show no sign of being solved, draft cards are handed out not only in recruitment offices, but also on the streets, at gas stations, or in cafes.

Every NATO member already has military personnel in Ukraine, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur claimed on Monday. Under no circumstances, however, will forces from the US-led bloc take part in the hostilities against Russia, the minister insisted in an interview with Austrian media outlet Die Presse. NATO servicemen are operating in the embattled country as advisers and are involved in training Ukrainian soldiers in Poland, the UK, and Estonia, Pevkur told the outlet. Western defense officials are currently planning to set up training camps in Ukraine in a bid to avoid issues with border crossings and to speed up the preparation process, he added.

At the same time, Pevkur insisted there is no talk of NATO soldiers fighting directly in the conflict, stating that this has already been ruled out. The reality is that every NATO member country already has military personnel in Ukraine, such as military attaches or people who travel to Ukraine from time to time, the official said. What [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron said mainly related to personnel training, he added. Macron openly raised the possibility of putting NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine in February, saying that we cannot exclude anything and that the West will do everything necessary to prevent Russia from winning this war.

The remarks, which Macron later described as having been weighed, thought through, and measured, prompted a wave of denials from a vast majority of NATO states and the blocs leadership. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg publicly refuted the idea shortly after Macrons initial statement, saying that no plans existed to deploy troops to Ukraine. Numerous Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, have also denied any such plans. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said any NATO troop deployments in Ukraine would not change the situation on the battlefield, given that Western soldiers are already active in the country as military advisers and mercenaries. He nonetheless warned that the ramifications of such a move would be tragic.

Apr 1, 2024

Featured • Russian investigators to probe US for terror, RT, Apr 1, 2024

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a probe into allegations that Ukraine and its Western backers are involved in terrorist activities on Russian soil; these were supported by some MPs and public figures last week.

The law enforcement body announced on Monday that it was moving forward with the procedural investigation after reviewing the claims. The initial complaint, which the Committee confirmed receiving last Wednesday, identified the US and its allies as allegedly driving a string of attacks on Russian soil. The agency is looking into the purported organization, financing and conduct of terrorist acts by those nations.

Nikolay Kharitonov of the Communist Party, one of the MPs who filed the complaint, insisted that Western nations benefited from the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow earlier this month. He reasoned that the geopolitical opponents of Russia stood to gain from the tragedy on Russian soil, and counted on their inaccessibility and impunity....

The US and its allies are today conducting terrorist acts on Russian territories with the hands of ISIS and Ukrainian special services, Kharitonov claimed on Telegram last week. We demand that the political leadership of the US and Ukraine, as well as the intelligence services of these countries, be held criminally liable for organizing, financing, and conducting terrorist operations directed against Russia and the entire modern world.

The current state of relations between Russia and NATO can be described as something more than a Cold War, the head of Moscows delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov, has said.

Much more than a Cold War. The United States, and NATO are at war with Russia. The U.S. and NATO have sponsored and paid for an actual invasion of Russia with the aim of capturing towns and holding them hostage to interfere with Russian elections. Our Ukrainian proxy has used a terrorist group created by U.S. and UK intel agencies to murder civilians in Moscow. We help Ukraine target Russian civilian and military infrastructure deep into Russia. How does this end? How does this end?

Featured • Professor Jeffrey Sachs on Russian TV, X, Mar 30, 2024
This interview should really open up the Overton Window. That is, if we use it as a pry bar. Please spread far and wide. Sachs knows all this history cold.

Featured • Are Ukraine and NATO Waiting in Vain for a Russian Offensive?, Larry Johnson, Mar 30, 2024

One of Marats key observations is a less pithy version of the aphorism, dont change horses in mid-stream. He writes, And here the question arises: if the situation is developing steadily in our favor and is improving progressively, then is there any point in changing something? In other words, Russias current grinding strategy, which has added the extensive use of glide bombs on Ukrainian defensive position and taking out thermal and hydroelectric power plants along the Dnieper River, may not require an offensive.

If Russia decides to take out the most of the bridges over the Dnieper River in the coming weeks then the Ukrainian forces east of the river will face a logistics nightmare. They will be in the same position as the Nazi Army of Von Paulus when it was surrounded at Stalingrad. They will have no way to provide the artillery and fuel needed to sustain tanks and armored vehicles. The lack of electricity will add to their problems. Russia would be in a position to compel their surrender or force all Ukrainian troops to try to escape to the West bank of the Dnieper. Russia may not need to mount a major offensive. It can simply keep doing what it is doing and achieve victory without risking Russian casualties.

Kiev should pursue a negotiated settlement with Moscow before it loses all access to the Black Sea, the billionaire has argued.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has reiterated his belief that Ukraines position is weakening with each passing day of hostilities, warning that the real question is how much territory Kiev will lose and how many lives it will waste before sitting for talks with Moscow.

The entrepreneur claimed in a post on his platform X on Saturday that any fool could have predicted that Ukraines much-touted counteroffensive last year would fail, adding that even if Kiev had followed his recommendation to entrench and apply all resources to defense, it would be tough to hold land that doesnt have strong natural barriers.

It was a tragic waste of life for Ukraine to attack a larger army that had defense in depth, minefields and stronger artillery when Ukraine lacked armor or air superiority!, Musk wrote.

The Ukrainian army has seen over 444,000 military casualties during the course of the ongoing conflict, including more than 166,000 during last years counteroffensive, according to last months estimates from the Russian Defense Ministry. However, President Vladimir Zelensky claimed in February that only 31,000 of his country's troops had been killed since February 24, 2022.

The billionaire went on to argue that the longer the war goes on, the more territory Russia will gain until they hit the Dnepr, which is tough to overcome.

However, if the war lasts long enough, Odessa will fall tooWhether Ukraine loses all access to the Black Sea or not is, in my view, the real remaining question. I recommend a negotiated settlement before that happens.

Elon Musk has shifted his position on Ukraine several times since the conflict began in early 2022. He initially supplied Kiev with free Starlink internet terminals and access to the satellite-based network, but declined to activate the service near Crimea for fear that Ukraine would use it to guide drone attacks on Russias Black Sea Fleet. If this had happened, he explained last year, SpaceX would have been complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.

Taking the war to Russias homeland and destroying major infrastructure is one way to transform the proxy war with Ukraine into a general European war. Another is to deploy NATO soldiers in Ukraine, something that French President Emmanuel Macron has broached (but almost certainly does not intend to do).

Remarkably, not a word was said about a possible negotiated solution to the conflict. Any negotiated outcome at this juncture would award Russia the Eastern Ukrainian oblasts that it has annexed and probably give Russia a buffer zone reaching to the east bank of the Dnieper River followed by a normalization of economic relations with Western Europe.

Russia would emerge triumphant and American assets in Western Europe would be degraded. The impact on Americas world standing would be devastating: As several attendees observed, Taiwan is watching carefully to see what happens to American proxies.

The rules of the meeting prevent me from saying much more but I am free to report what I told the gathering: Sanctions against Russia have failed miserably because Russia had access to unlimited amounts of Chinese (as well as Indian and other) imports, both directly and through a host of intermediaries including Turkey and the former Soviet republics.

But Russias economic resilience in the face of supposedly devastating sanctions is only one reflection of a great transformation of world trade. Chinas exports to the Global South doubled during the past three years and China now exports more to the South than to developed markets. Chinas unprecedented exporting success, in turn, stems from the rapid automation of Chinese industry, which now installs more industrial robots per year than the rest of the world combined.

This is evident, I added, in Chinas newfound dominance in the world automotive market but it also has critical military implications. China claims that it has automated plants that can make 1,000 cruise missiles a daynot impossible given that it can manufacture 1,000 EVs a day, or thousands of 5G base stations.

The implication is that China can produce the equivalent of Americas inventory of 4,000 cruise missiles in a week while American defense contractors take years to assemble them by hand.

No one disputed the data I presented. And no one believed that Russia is taking 25,000 casualties a month. Facts werent the issue: The assembled dignitaries, a representative sampling of the foreign policy establishments intellectual and executive leadership, simply couldnt imagine a world in which America no longer gave the orders.

They are accustomed to running things and they will gamble the world away to keep their position.

Ukraine could go bankrupt as early as next year unless Western countries agree to write off or restructure its debts, an official from the World Bank told TASS on Saturday.

Moscow has demanded that Ukraine surrender everyone in the country it suspects of terrorism, including Kievs domestic spy agency boss Vasily Malyuk, and to immediately stop supporting any related activities such individuals and groups undertake, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday. The ministry said it had officially contacted Kiev with the demands under the UN-adopted International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. The demands include the immediate arrest and extradition of all the suspects which Moscow has identified and linked to the recent terrorist attacks against Russia. The deadly attack on the Crocus City Hall, which shocked the whole world is, by far, not the first terrorist attack endured by our country recently, the ministry noted.

The investigations carried out by the competent Russian bodies indicate that the traces of all these crimes lead to Ukraine, it stressed. Apart from the concert hall attack, which left at least 144 people dead and more than 500 injured, the ministry cited such incidents as the assassination of the military blogger Maksim Fomin (best known by his pen name Vladlen Tatarsky), the deadly bombing of the Crimean Bridge, as well as recent cross-border raids into Belgorod Region and elsewhere which have been attributed by Kiev to the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK). The paramilitary unit, advertised as composed of Russians collaborating with Ukraine, has been designated as a terrorist entity by Moscow.

The ministry did not reveal any of the names of those it has demanded due to their suspected involvement, aside from the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasily Malyuk. The spy boss cynically admitted on March 25 that Ukraine organized the bombing of the Crimean Bridge in October 2022 and revealed details on the organization of other terrorist attacks in Russia, it noted.

William J. Burns has published a long piece in Foreign Affairs under the title 'Spycraft and Statecraft. Transforming the CIA for an Age of Competition'. This is an essay likely to be read with great attention, maybe even parsed, not only by an American elite audience, but also abroad, in, say, Moscow, Beijing, and New Delhi, for several reasons. Burns is, of course, the head of the CIA as well as an acknowledged heavyweight of US geopolitics in the state and deep-state versions....

Yet Burns agenda is more important than his terminology. While it may be complex, parts of it are as clear as can be: He is eager (perhaps desperate) to prevent Washington from ending its massive aid for Ukraine a battle he is likely to lose. In the Middle East, he wants to focus Western aggression on Iran. He may get his will there, but that wont be a winning strategy because, in part thanks to multipolar trend setters, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, Irans escape from the isolation that the US has long imposed on it is already inevitable.

Regarding China, Burns real target is a competing faction of American hawks, namely those who argue that, bluntly put, Washington should write off its losses in Ukraine and concentrate all its firepower on China. Burns wants to persuade his readers that the US can have both its big fight against China and its proxy war against Russia....

Describing Hamas 7 October assault as butchery, Burns finds nothing but an intense ground campaign on Israels side. Lets set aside that this expression is a despicable euphemism, when much of the world rightly sees a genocide taking place in Gaza, with US support. It also bespeaks an astounding failure of the strategic imagination: In the same essay, Burns notes correctly that the weight of the Global South is increasing, and that, in essence, the great powers will have to compete for allegiances that are no longer, as he puts is, monogamous. Good luck then putting Americas bizarre come-what-may loyalty to Israel first. A CIA director at least should still be able to distinguish between the national interests of his own country and the demands of Tel Aviv.

Burns multipronged strike in the realm of elite public debate leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. It is genuinely disappointing to see so much heavy-handed rhetoric and such basic errors of analysis from one of the less deluded members of the American establishment. It is also puzzling. Burns is not amateurish like Antony Blinken or a fanatic without self-awareness, such as Victoria Nuland. Yet here he is, putting his name to a text that often seems sloppy and transparent in its simple and short-sighted motivations. Has the US establishment decayed so badly that even its best and brightest now come across as sadly unimpressive?

Ukraine was one of the main testing grounds for trials of a drug that could potentially cause various forms of cancer and that was used on patients in the psychiatric ward of Mariupol Hospital No. 7 with the support of local officials in the interests of Western pharmaceutical companies, according to documents seen by Sputnik. In particular, the trial involved the experimental drug SB4 for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The drug inhibits the action of molecules of the so-called tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF), which plays an important role in the immune system, and its use creates the possibility of developing various forms of cancer, including in the lymphatic and hematopoietic systems, as well as skin. The manufacturers of SB4 were Biogen Idec Denmark Manufacturing ApS (Denmark), Catalent Pharma Solutions (Belgium), and Fisher Clinical Services UK Limited (UK). The study was sponsored by South Koreas Samsung Bioepis, the documents read.

An application from Quintiles Ukraine for approval by the state expert center of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and the Ethics Commission at the medical and preventive institution for conducting clinical trials of SB4 was found among the documents. Quintiles Ukraine was established as a division of the US outsourcing pharmaceutical company Quintiles Transnational. According to the application, signed in February 2013, at that time it was planned to test the drug in Ukraine on 152 patients (later this number increased to 180), and in total on almost 500 patients around the world. According to the periodic report of the SB4-G31-RA project on SB4 trials, by November 2013, 777 patients had been selected for testing, including 285 in Poland, 143 in Ukraine, 108 in the Czech Republic, 77 in Bulgaria, 60 in Lithuania, 37 in the Republic of Korea, 34 in Mexico, 17 in Hungary, 14 in Colombia, and two in the United Kingdom.

The documents found in Mariupol Hospital No. 7 were collected between 2008 and 2016. The results of the initial inspection show that drugs with numbers and without names were tested on people, with the tests also conducted on toddlers. Companies such as Pfizer (US), AstraZeneca (UK, Sweden), Celltrion (South Korea), Novatris International AG (Switzerland, US), IQVIA (formerly Quintiles and IMS Health Inc., US, UK), Sanofi (France), Galapagos NV (Belgium), Janssen Pharmaceuticals (now Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, Belgium), Abbott Laboratories (US), Covance (now Labcorp Drug Development, US), and Merck KGaA (Germany) are mentioned in the documents.

Ukraines path to peace and security could lie in establishing a buffer zone next to the Russian border, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. With the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in its third year, the Western flow of military and financial aid to Ukraine is dwindling, while its army is losing ground.

Orban suggested that now is the time for a ceasefire, Hungarian magazine Mandiner wrote on Friday, quoting the prime ministers interview with former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel in Budapest.

There is no remaining reasonable dispute between Russia and the West, Orban added.

People in Europe are not happy that their governments want to provide more financial assistance to Ukraine, he said, explaining that Europe cannot provide the kind of support that would result in a military victory for Ukraine. EU states have allocated 77 billion ($83 billion) in aid to Kiev, while pledging 144 billion since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022, according to Germanys Kiel Institute.

US issues veiled threat to Hungary

Ukraine has lost several strategically important cities in Donbass in the last month. Officials in Kiev have repeatedly cited the lack of Western-supplied munitions as the reason for their battlefield setbacks.

Orban doubled down on his idea of a buffer zone next to the Russian border as Ukraines ideal peace solution, provided there are additional security guarantees. Without this, he said, they could lose their country.

June 2024

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 • ‘The Real Purpose In Making The Bomb Was To Subdue The Soviets.’ Now It’s Happening Again, On A Vast Scale. Why? – July 22 At Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos Reporter, Jul 19, 2023

 • Bulletin 330: "'The real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets.'* Now it's happening again, on a vast scale. WHY?" A conversation with acclaimed historian Peter Kuznick and Greg Mello in Los Alamos, July 22, Jul 7, 2023

 • Ukraine War Makes it Harder to be a Nuclear ‘Dove’ | Our Land, Laura Paskus, New Mexico in Focus, Jun 30, 2023

 • Bulletin 329: Russia rules out nuclear disarmament negotiations; second week of Ukrainian offenses fail; what will US and NATO do? Build 60 projects in LANL's Pajarito Corridor?, Jun 17, 2023

 • Ukraine; Biden's Manicheism; the U.S. cannot even conduct a nuclear arms race, let alone win one, LASG friends ltr, Mar 16, 2023

 • Ukraine protest and updates, pit production delays and cost increases in NNSA's new budget, LASG friends ltr, Mar 14, 2023

 • Antiwar rally 2 pm Saturday in Albuquerque; LANL pits delayed, endorse the "Call for Sanity"; Ukraine update; the Nordstream investigation (and likely impeachment) "imperative" LASG friends ltr, Mar 11, 2023
 • Ukraine losses mount toward critical point; ANSWER rally against the war is now 2 pm (not 1 pm), March 18, Albuquerque; nearly half U.S. citizens believe WWIII is near, LASG friends ltr, Mar 7, 2023

 • Ukraine news and views; antiwar rally March 18; pending guest editorial; pit production precis, LASG friends ltr, Mar 3, 2023

 • Bulletin 325: Understanding the Nordstream sabotage and punishing those responsible, Feb 18, 2023

 • Ukraine news with comments and excerpts; bookmark for future reference if desired,LASG friends ltr, Feb 8, 2023

 • Bulletin 324: Opposition to Ukraine war gains visibility in New Mexico and via our web site, more broadly, Feb 6, 2023

 • Anti-nuclear activist opposes helping Ukraine, encourages peace, Santa Fe New Mexican, Feb 5, 2023

 • Bulletin 323: "Nuclear Hotseat" interview / Ukraine war updates, Feb 4, 2023

 • Bulletin 322: Right and Left To Join in D.C. Protest: ‘Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine’ / Bulletin of Atomic Scientists resets clock, blames Russia, Jan 25, 2023

 • $10 Trillion for Nuclear War: Racing to the Nuclear Cliff, The Socialist Program with Brian Becker, Jan 10, 2023

 • Bulletin 321: Last day for 2022 donations! / A few quick updates, Dec 31, 2022

 • Bulletin 320: Neocon humiliation -- or nuclear exchange / The centrality of war resistance in moral politics / 3 days left for 1:1 donation match!, Dec 29, 2022

 • Bulletin 319: Ukraine; NDAA: omnibus appropriations bill; fundraising --thank you; some matching funds still available, Dec 21, 2022

 • Stop the war now, Jean Nichols, The Taos News, Dec 19, 2022

 • Bulletin 318: Speak out now against further U.S. escalation in Ukraine; daily updates for your use, Dec 14, 2022

 • Agenda for tonight's emergency Ukraine meeting in Albuquerque, and by Zoom, Nov 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 314: Reminder re next week's antiwar, disarmament, & nuclear safety events: come if you can or tune in, outreach needed; pit interview on KNME tonight 7 pm; fundraising drive continues; erratum, Nov 11, 2022

 • Bulletin 313: Important meeting about Ukraine next week; DNFSB hearing in Santa Fe; more, Nov 7, 2022

 • Biden Administration releases aggressive nuclear strategy envisioning "first use" of nuclear weapons in wars like Ukraine, press release, Oct 27, 2022

 • Bulletin 310: Speak up! We urge you to take up the call for peace in Ukraine, Sep 25, 2022

 • Pope Francis: "World War III has been declared." We agree. Stop LANL's pit factory; Stop the U.S. war against Russia, presentation, Jun 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 301: Oppose the war! Demand and create accountability for lawmakers who fund and promote more war in Ukraine, May 16, 2022

 • Grave dangers loom in Ukraine war votes and escalations; opportunities open for journalists and citizens; We urge news media to widen debate, pose questions, create accountability, press release, May 16, 2022

 • LASG friends ltr: Thursday evening public discussion in Albuquerque: Ukraine, propaganda, progressives supporting Nazis and war, May 10, 2022

 • Escalation in Ukraine: The Nuclear War Danger is Real, Brian Becker & Greg Mello discuss the U.S. policy of waging proxy war on Russia, BreakThrough News, May 4, 2022

 • Bulletin 299: Emergency call to action: stop Biden's proposed $33 billion war escalation, Apr 28, 2022

 • Bulletin 298: Talk on pits & renewed U.S. nuclear weapons production Tuesday evening 4/26/22; antiwar billboard; what you can do, Apr 25, 2022

 • The core debate, Searchlight New Mexico, Mar 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 294: Please consider forwarding this fine statement from UNAC re Ukraine, Mar 23, 2022

 • Nuclear expert speaks on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Website, Mar 15, 2022

 • A Proposed Solution to the Ukraine War, Consortium News, Greg Mello, Mar 7, 2022

 • Bulletin 293: Ukraine conflict: If you want a ceasefire (as we do), stop firing, Mar 5, 2022

 • Bulletin 292: Statement on the Ukraine conflict and war with Russia, Mar 1, 2022

 • "What can we in New Mexico do?," LASG letter, Feb 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 288: US nuclear weapons since 2020: continuity and change, Dec 7, 2021 (see discussion of US, NATO, and Russia)

 • Nuclear experts speak on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Web Site, Apr 15, 2017

 • US Leaders Reject “Nuclear Winter” Studies, Ignore Existential Danger of Nuclear War. Turn a Blind Eye towards Armageddon, Steven Starr, Global Research, Nov 1, 2016

 • The Ukraine Conflict: What's Behind It? Why Is It Important?, Sep 26, 2015

 • Bulletin 200: Warhead budget bloat; U.S.-caused Ukraine catastrophe at the brink; hello peak oil, Feb 8, 2015