updated 28 June 2024, 10:03 MDT

After our 11/15/22 emergency meeting on the Ukraine War we committed to providing near-daily updates of what we think are some of the most valuable news and analyses for fellow activists. This is that selection. If you find this page helpful please forward it to your friends and contacts. Beginning Nov 16, 2023 we will be updating this page on a semiweekly basis. Stopping this war is of critical, emergency importance. Please do whatever you can.

Unless otherwise noted, the italicized comments below are Greg Mello's.

Highly recommended resource: Judge Andrew Napolitano's video podcast on YouTube.

Jun 28, 2024

Featured • Ukraine's Zelensky Singing a Different Tune, Larry Johnson, Jun 27, 2024

I am very surprised that the following video [link added] of Zelensky is not getting more attention. After more than two years of intransigence, young Mister Zelensky apparently has gotten the equivalent of a cold shower of reality. He admits that Ukraine is suffering horrific losses and cannot last much longer. I don’t think this is contrived. While Zelensky is still pushing his dead-on-arrival peace plan, the desperation in his voice speaks volumes. The man is on the edge and headed towards full-blown panic. I wonder if the British bookies are taking odds on how long he will survive in office.

And with good reason. Ukraine is suffering massive casualties all along the line of contact. Last year, according to Russian MOD briefings, Ukraine was losing around 800 men a day, killed and wounded. Now? The numbers are in excess of 2,000. This is an unsustainable rate of losses. It would be one thing if Ukraine had 100,000 new recruits being trained for combat, but reports out of Ukraine indicate that men snatched off the streets and being shoveled towards the front without more than three or four weeks of training at best. I can only surmise that Zelensky has been given a no-holds-barred briefing on the combat realities and he is visibly shaken.

The desire of the US to dominate and its refusal to see other countries as equals, willing and able to assume equal responsibility for peace and stability, is the short answer to the question of why Moscow-Washington relations cannot get out of the current state of crisis. This attitude also leads the US to the same difficulties in its relations with China, India and even some of its own allies, such as Turkey. ...

The US-Russian standoff should be seen as a long-term confrontation. It will continue even after Washington realizes that Ukraine has lost its importance as a tool. As a result, the US will shift the center of anti-Russian activity to another country that, like Ukraine, is willing to sacrifice itself and be at the forefront of the fight against Moscow. The US will not cease to be a strategic rival, and therefore we cannot afford to ignore it in our planning. We must regard the Americans as a constant threat, and prepare for a long confrontation.

Amid recent escalations in the Ukraine proxy war, the Russian Federation is considering downgrading relations with the West, though no decision has been made yet. This comes less than a week after Kiev launched long-range missile strikes on Crimea, leaving four Russians dead and well over 100 wounded. Moscow vowed “retaliatory measures” would follow.

Downgrading ties with the West as a result of NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine would be unprecedented. At the height of the previous Cold War, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, relations between the two nuclear superpowers were never abandoned. Currently, the US and its allies in Europe maintain embassies in Russia and, likewise, Moscow still operates its diplomatic facilities in Washington and European capitals. However, diplomats report working in the most hostile environment in decades.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow is studying the issue and explained to the Izvestia newspaper that ambassadors have historically played an arduous but critical role, permitting communications channels to function during particularly tense periods.

Jun 27, 2024

Featured • The Last Wunderwaffe, William Schryver, Jun 27, 2024

So, if they're really working to prepare what is reputed to be the "largest NATO base in Europe", the logical conclusion is that it is intended to house, maintain, and sustain at least a couple squadrons of NATO "volunteer" pilots flying much later F-16 models than the European boneyard relics Ukraine has long been promised...

Never mind that literally no one in the US air fleet, at any level, has any experience whatsoever in high-intensity air combat operations against an enemy that:

- can match or exceed you with high numbers of superior air frames

- will be flying from interior lines, with well-established logistical infrastructure

- backed by high numbers of the finest layered air defenses on the planet

- with far superior magazine depth

- and will significantly outrange NATO platforms in almost every plausible scenario.

Oh, yeah. And I almost forgot: anyone (including the perpetually catastrophist Russian murmurers) who believes for a moment that Russia will not act to obliterate a NATO base in Romania under such circumstances ... well, that's just silly talk.

Of course they will. They'll hit it hard. Really hard — with a strike package that exceeds anything ever thrown at a Ukrainian target over the course of this war.

It could well become the most intensely pressure-packed moment in modern times — a situation exceptionally fraught with the possibility of catastrophic miscalculation.

Every time I stop to think about these things, I just shake my head at the obvious stupidity of it all.

If the Imperial Masters of War actually attempt such an air campaign against Russia, not only will the entire operation almost certainly end up being a logistical debacle of truly epic proportions, but the combat results will be shockingly one-sided — disastrous to the point the US will very likely feel compelled to cease operations after just a few days, and try to spin it into some sort of "bold statement” that "achieved its purposes".

But it will be ugly. Exceedingly ugly.

President Joe Biden is preparing to sign off on hiring American military contractors to work in Ukraine. If the White House moves forward with the proposal, it will be another significant escalation in the proxy war in Ukraine.

Four unnamed US officials told CNN that Biden is shifting his policy and would soon allow private soldiers from American mercenary firms to aid the fight in Ukraine. The change is expected to take effect sometime later this year.

Initially, the White House sees the contractors fixing American-made advanced military equipment, such as the F-16 fighter jet. The Kremlin says the warplanes, which are set to arrive in Ukraine later this year, present a nuclear threat to Moscow, and vows to eliminate the bases they are stationed at, inside or outside of Ukrainian borders.

Increasing the number of American soldiers, even if retired from official service, on the ground in Ukraine will likely be viewed as another significant provocation by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Tensions between the White House and Kremlin ramped up further over the past month, following Washington and many other NATO countries signing off on Kiev’s use of Western weapons to attack Russia. The pressure hit a high point last week when American-made ATACMS missiles were used in strikes on the Crimean Peninsula that led to the deaths of four Russians, per local officials.

According to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, the US “has effectively become a party” to the war on Ukraine’s side, adding, “Retaliatory measures will certainly follow.”

That the White House is beginning to offer contracts to mercenary firms is an act of desperation, as Ukraine has been unable to stop the Russian advance. CNN reports that Alexander Vindman, former National Security Council director for European Affairs under President Donald Trump, now director of an organization supporting victory in Ukraine, is one of the lobbyists pushing Biden to allow the Pentagon to pay to send private soldiers to Ukraine. Vindman, who was born in Ukraine, testified against Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial.

“We highly value your consistent and unwavering support for Russian policy, including in relation to Ukraine,” Putin remarked when he and Kim faced the press after their talks.

“I am referring to our struggle against the hegemonistic and imperialist policy towards the Russian Federation, which the United States and its satellite states have been dictating for decades.”

This is another of the costs the West must pay for its relentless assertions of its lapsing global supremacy. Putin now seems to bless, if implicitly, Pyongyang’s development of its nuclear arsenal, whereas previously he appeared to favor a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. I have never embraced the concept of nuclear deterrence, because the need for it is always regrettable, in my view. But there are circumstances, as Putin knows firsthand now, when it is best to maintain it....

The big item taken up during Putin’s two days in Hanoi was, paradoxically, also perfectly routine. This was “further developing their comprehensive strategic partnership” — the same language used to name the renovated relationship between Pyongyang and Moscow.

In this connection, Putin made remarks in Hanoi I take to be the most interesting of his four-day journey. “Developing a reliable security architecture” is an aspiration “of special importance in Russia-Vietnam relations, he said to his Vietnamese counterparts, and he then went on to qualify his meaning: It must not be based on the use of force and there can be no place in it for “closed military-political blocs.” I draw here from a TASS report last Thursday, and another carried in Dawn, the Pakistani daily, the next day.

This is astute statecraft in the context of talks with the Vietnamese. For one thing, Moscow has been pressing the West for a new security architecture in just this language for more than three decades to no avail. If I read Putin correctly, he has just signaled Russia’s intent to build it to the fullest extent possible in a non–Western context.

The West has repeatedly displayed its “inability to negotiate,” which has now become evident to everyone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Western “vassals” of the US are willing to breach “any agreements” and violate international law upon receiving “orders” from Washington, Lavrov claimed at the Primakov Readings International Forum in Moscow. Russia had been interested in a mutually beneficial relationship with the collective West, but building one has proven to be effectively impossible, the top diplomat argued. “Our interest was much broader and more comprehensive, but the West was not ready for mutually beneficial, equal cooperation,” Lavrov stated. “When it needs to do something on orders from Washington, it resorts to breaking any agreements, any violations of international law.”

Moscow is now seeking to ensure its security and prevent any threats emanating from the “Western direction,” Lavrov said. The collective West, at the same time, is trying to make an example of Russia to assert its neocolonial policies, the diplomat claimed. “The Westerners are seeking to punish our country, using our example to intimidate everyone who is pursuing or seeks to pursue an independent foreign policy, who puts national interests above all, and not the whims of the former colonial powers,” Lavrov stated. The Western efforts to “punish” Russia, however, are doomed to fail and are “already producing effects opposite to the intended ones,” the minister insisted.

Leading Western officials have repeatedly said they are seeking to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in the Ukraine conflict, or at least ensure that it does not emerge victorious. Moscow perceives the hostilities as a proxy conflict being waged by the collective West. Russia has insisted it will fully achieve its stated military goals, but has nonetheless signaled it is ready to negotiate an end to the hostilities through a diplomatic settlement.

Jun 26, 2024

 • Russian proposal can end Ukraine conflict – Putin, RT, Jun 25, 2024

Russia’s offer for a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine conflict is a realistic way to end the hostilities, but the West is simply ignoring it, President Vladimir Putin has said.

In a keynote foreign policy speech earlier this month, the Russian leader promised to order a ceasefire if Ukraine vows not to seek membership in NATO and withdraws its troops from all territories claimed by Russia. Kiev immediately rejected the proposal.

In an address to an international forum hosted by Russia this week, Putin said his offer should be carefully considered by interested parties.

”Unlike many Western politicians who didn’t even bother to get to the core of the initiative we proposed, participants of this forum, I expect, will study it thoughtfully and rationally and will see that it gives a real opportunity to stop the conflict and move to its political-diplomatic resolution,” a written welcome message from Putin said, as read on Tuesday by his foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov.

Ushakov went on to say that Moscow is offering a “chance to at once stop the settlement of our differences on the battlefield and the loss of life,” adding, however, that the West wants to keep fighting Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

“For now, the West-spurred military frenzy” is not subsiding, he lamented, citing Ukraine’s missile attack last Sunday which injured over 150 civilians and claimed at least four lives at a beach in Sevastopol, Crimea.

Moscow claims that Washington shares responsibility for the strike, since Ukraine used US-supplied ATACMS missiles with cluster munition warheads. Some Russian officials have argued that American military specialists must have been directly involved in the use of the sophisticated weapon. Mikhail Podoliak, an aide to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, claimed that the beachgoers were “civilian occupiers.”

Ushakov stated that Russia has the overarching goal of creating an indivisible pan-Eurasian security system to replace the “Euroatlantic and Eurocentric models that are passing into oblivion.”

China is seeking to foster peace through diplomacy in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and opposes any attempts to escalate the hostilities or smear Beijing over its stance, President Xi Jinping has said. The US and its allies have accused China of being indirectly involved in the fighting between Moscow and Kiev by supposedly failing to curb the supply of dual-use goods to Russia. Western nations are providing weapons, training, and intelligence to Kiev, but claim they are not participants in the conflict. Speaking on Monday after talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who is on a state visit to China, Xi said Beijing’s goals were to “avoid the expansion and intensification of the conflict,” to deflate tensions, and to “create conditions for peace talks.” “China opposes some people who are using the excuse of normal Sino-Russian trade to divert attention and smear China,” he added.

“China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis in its own way.” Earlier this month, Switzerland hosted a “peace summit” at Kiev’s request. Russia was not invited, which prompted China to decline to participate. Duda expressed hope that Beijing will play a role in resolving the conflict “in accordance with the principles of international law.” Poland, which borders Ukraine, is among the most vocal Western supporters of Kiev. The Polish president said he had explained Warsaw’s stance to Xi, including its opposition to changing national borders by military force.

The Chinese government has rejected the Western framing of the Ukraine conflict, which has presented it as an unprovoked act of aggression by Russia. Instead, Beijing has cited NATO’s expansion in Europe as a key cause. It has also repeatedly urged other countries to drop their “Cold War mentality” and avoid “zero sum games” in foreign relations. The Polish-Chinese talks lasted for some four hours and were focused on bilateral issues, including the relaxation of visa rules and Poland’s participation in the Chinese Road and Belt initiative, according to the two leaders.

The administration of US President Joe Biden is reportedly “moving toward” allowing American military contractors to maintain and repair weapons systems in Ukraine. The policy change is still under review by US officials and has yet to receive final approval from Biden, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing four unidentified people familiar with the deliberations. Allowing contractors to deploy to the conflict zone is seen as one of the possible ways to “give Ukraine’s military an upper hand against Russia,” the media outlet said. Biden remains firm in his refusal to send US military forces to Ukraine, one of the sources told CNN. However, the president has repeatedly approved escalating US involvement in the conflict, including providing American tanks and long-range missiles to Kiev, despite previously stating he wouldn’t take such steps.

A symbolic ceremony kicked off Tuesday in Luxembourg which marks the start of formal European Union accession talks for the two ex-Soviet countries of Ukraine and Moldova, putting yet more distance between them and Russia. The process will move forward, despite some recent roadblocks set by Hungary, and from here is likely to take years with nothing guaranteed in what’s expected to be a long, arduous path. “These are truly historic moments. Ukraine is and will always be part of a united Europe,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said when Ukraine was approved for the talks. “Millions of Ukrainians, and indeed generations of our people, are realizing their European dream.” Ukraine had a achieved candidate status in June 2022, but its historic and well-known corruption (with studies showing it to be among the most corrupt governments in the world), was cause for concern and surprise in some corners of Europe.

A chilling and alarming statement. Sergei Lavrov summoned U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy to the Russian Foreign Ministry and delivered a stinging demarche in response to the use of U.S. supplied cluster munitions in the attack on Russian civilians sunbathing on the shores of the Black Sea. Press reports offer this summary of the Russian position:

Washington “has effectively become a party” to the war on Ukraine’s side, the ministry said in a statement, adding, “Retaliatory measures will certainly follow.” It did not elaborate.

What does Lavrov mean by saying, “Such actions will not go unanswered.” Brother Mercouris discounts the likelihood that Russia will declare a “No Fly” zone in the Black Sea or will shoot down U.S. Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft flying over the Black Sea. Instead, he argues that Russia will likely opt to supply weapons, previously denied, to Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and North Korea. Alexander argues that President Putin is not going to unnecessarily escalate in a way that might provoke a U.S. response. He may be right. But I think even those actions would be seen by Washington as a provocation requiring a U.S. response.

I have a different perspective from Alexander. Lavrov’s statement is extraordinary. He does not use any diplomatic weasel words. His message is clear — “The U.S. is responsible for this massacre, and they will get an answer.” This stark language that leaves no room for quibbling. In publicizing this message, Putin and Lavrov have closed down diplomatic options and gestures. Either they act, and act forcefully, or they do nothing and risk being excoriated by the Russian people. Neither Putin nor Lavrov are known for speaking idle words or making empty threats. While Russia is not going to act impetuously — Alexander and I agree on that — this public declaration, in my opinion, has created an expectation of future action that will entail something more than just giving weapons to a foreign group that is facing off with the United States.

Jun 25, 2024

Featured • EU Approves Military Aid to Ukraine Drawn From Frozen Russian Assets, Connor Freeman, Antiwar.com, Jun 24, 2024

European Union foreign ministers have approved, for the first time, the transfer of approximately €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in military and financial aid to Kiev, using interest profits drawn from frozen Russian central bank assets. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made the announcement on Monday, as reports say Washington is preparing to send Ukraine another arms package worth $150 million. The EU also imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia along with entities in China, Turkey, and India.

Given Kiev’s long-range missile strikes into Crimea over the weekend, the EU’s plan comes amid dangerous developments in NATO’s Ukraine proxy war. Russia accuses Ukrainian forces of using US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), with a range of nearly 200 miles, and satellite imagery for the attack, which killed at least four people and wounded more than 100. Russia’s Foreign Ministry declared Washington “has effectively become a party” to the war now and threatened “retaliatory measures.”

For almost a year, Budapest has vetoed further funding of Kiev’s war effort using an off-budget fund known as the European Peace Facility (EPF) worth €6 billion. Another fund holding €5 billion is blocked as well. Borrell referred to this “structural difficulty” during a presser following the foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg. Using interest profits off seized Russian assets was seen as a workable alternative. Such international theft marks an unprecedented escalation in the economic war targeting Russia. Earlier this month, G7 leaders agreed to provide Ukraine with $50 billion by the end of the year using stolen Russian funds.

According to the South China Morning Post, “A legal analysis noted that as Hungary abstained on the decision to use the frozen assets for Ukraine, and that the new aid is derived from the Russian Central Bank assets, and not EU funds, Budapest’s veto does not apply.” Therefore, Borrell said “it’s not necessary” to involve Hungary in the decision-making process. In keeping with Budapest’s objections against the bloc’s support for the Ukraine war, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto condemned the move and said it violated EU rules.

Some 90% of the aid disbursed will be for weapons to support Kiev’s war, while 10% will go toward direct financial aid. Per EU diplomats, Berlin and Prague were selected to use the stolen proceeds first to send Ukraine more air defenses as well as artillery shells. The European Commission says it has frozen roughly €210 billion in the Russian central bank’s funds. Between the US and Europe, about $280 billion in Russian assets have been seized. Euroclear, a financial institution based in Brussels, holds the majority of the European-held assets and claims to have extracted €4.4 billion in interest profits last year.

Moreover, the ministers also announced a series of new sanctions against Russia including asset freezes and travel bans imposed on 69 individuals and 47 entities they claim are linked to the Kremlin’s invasion. Organizations based in China, Turkey, and India were also hit with an EU export ban over accusations that these entities provide goods and services bolstering Moscow’s war effort.

Yesterday evening Sodol was replaced by a former leader of the 36th Marine Brigade who's track record is in no way better that Sodol's.

Syrski will be the next to fall.

The Russian forces now have the men and equipment to largely overrun the Ukrainian lines. But doing so would cost a significant amount of casualties. They are therefore just waiting for the Ukrainian army to exhaust itself and to fall by its own means. Only after a large scale breakdown of Ukrainian defenses will the order be given to proceed.

Jun 24, 2024

Featured • Alastair Crooke: Putin Reshaping the American Mood, Judging Freedom, Jun 24, 2024

Featured • Scott Ritter on Ukraine's Shelling of Sevastopol: It's Direct Attack on Russia by US and NATO, Sputnik International, Jun 24, 2024

“Ukraine since 2014 has been bombarding Russian civilian sites, cities, villages, towns for the sole purpose of inflicting death and destruction on Russian civilians. This is an act of terrorism and given that the ATACMS missiles cannot be deployed by the Ukrainians without extensive intelligence support by the United States, this is an act of terrorism by the United States against Russia,” the analyst said.

Commenting on the terrorist attacks in Russia’s Dagestan, Ritter said they were "deliberately designed to disrupt the civil life of the Russian Federation". He highlighted that the CIA has historically made attempts to “engender a split between the Muslim and non-Muslim segments of Russian society” and failed.

“That effort failed and the effort in Dagestan will fail, too, but it doesn't absolve the parties involved of their guilt in launching what is a direct assault on the Russian Federation,” Ritter insisted.

The coming phase seems likely to entail western escalation, with provocations occurring inside Russia. The latter will react strongly to any crossing of (real) red lines by NATO, or any false flag provocation (now widely expected by Russiam military bloggers).

And herein lies the greatest danger: In the context of escalation, American disdain for Russia poses the greatest danger. The West now says it treats notions of putative nuclear exchange as Putin’s ‘bluff’. The Financial Times tells us that Russia’s nuclear warnings are ‘wearing thin’ in the West.

If this is true, western officials utterly misconceive the reality. It is only by understanding and taking the Russian nuclear warnings seriously that we may exclude the risk of nuclear weapons coming into play, as we move up the escalatory ladder with tit-for-tat measures.

Even though they say they believe them to be bluff, U.S. figures nonetheless hype the risk of a nuclear exchange. If they think it to be a bluff, it appears to be based on the presumption that Russia has few other options.

This would be wrong: There are several escalatory steps that Russia can take up the ladder, before reaching the tactical nuclear weapon stage: Trade and financial counter-attack; symmetrical provision of advanced weaponry to western adversaries (corresponding to U.S. supplies to Ukraine); cutting the electricity branch distribution coming from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania; strikes on border munition crossings; and taking a leaf from the Houthis who have knocked down several sophisticated and costly U.S. drones, disabling America’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) infrastructure.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, ushered in a new post-Cold War reality which saw the notion of a nuclear “balance” where the US and Soviets operated as equals being replaced by a doctrine of “managed supremacy” which saw the US use the mechanisms of arms control and disarmament to promote and sustain its position as the world’s dominant nuclear power. Arms control ceased being a concept premised on equitable deterrence, and instead became a tool designed to subordinate the nuclear capabilities of the Russian Federation that emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Empire to those of the newly-minted American hegemon.

The US began deconstructing the foundation of arms control treaties that had been negotiated on the premise of sustaining a nuclear deterrence-based balance of power, first by using the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) process as a mechanism to promote the unilateral disarmament of the Russian strategic arsenal, and later by withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty that had served as the foundational agreement around which the concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD) was framed.

Deterrence theory is viable only so long as MAD is viewed as the inevitable outcome of any nuclear conflict. By re-embracing the notion of viable ballistic missile defense, the US undermined the premise enshrined in MAD, namely that to use nuclear weapons was to invite your own demise. The US now operated in a world where it embraced deterrence theory only in so far as it deterred other nations from attacking the US with nuclear weapons. From the US perspective, assured destruction was a dated notion, one that was replaced by the concept of a “winnable” nuclear war....

When asked by reporters whether Ukraine's use of Western long-range weapons against Russian territory could be considered an act of aggression and a direct threat to the Russian state, Putin replied “This requires additional research, but it’s close.”

Too damn close.

The United States and Russia are drifting closer and closer to all-out nuclear war. It is high time that the people who would pay the ultimate price for such folly decide, to borrow from the poetry of Dylan Thomas, if they want to go “gently into the night” of nuclear Armageddon, or instead “rage, rage against the dying of the light” by demanding better policy from their respective governments.

As for me, I choose rage.

There will be an event dedicated to stopping this mad rush toward on September 28, in Kingston, New York. Gerald Celente is putting this together, along with a coalition of like-minded citizen patriots.

We hope to organize sister events in cities across the country.

We want to put more than a million Americans into the streets that day, focused on one thing and one thing only—stop the madness of nuclear war.

Will you join us?

Or will you stay at home and listen to the music of the collective versions of modern-day Nero’s, fiddling while America and the rest of the world burns.

Militants have targeted synagogues, churches, and the police in the Russian region of Dagestan.

The southern Russian region of Dagestan was rocked on Sunday by a series of deadly attacks in two major cities, which claimed the lives of multiple civilians and at least 15 police officers, as assailants deliberately targeted synagogues and Orthodox Christian churches....

Reports of the death toll have been inconsistent. The authorities confirmed at least 15 fatalities among police officers, and several civilian casualties.

The regional Interior Ministry said that a total of 16 people, including 13 policemen, had been rushed to the main regional hospital in Makhachkala throughout the day.

Representatives of Russian Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities have universally condemned the attacks on the places of worship. The Dagestan Muftiate called the brutality antithetical to Islam.

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said the perpetrators were seeking to incite religious hatred, calling it “diabolic.”

“Everything possible must be done to prevent even the possibility of radicalization of religious life, to exclude any forms of extremism and ethnic enmity,” he stated

The Ukrainian military launched several US-made ATACMS long-range missiles armed with highly controversial cluster munitions on Russia’s Crimea on Sunday, resulting in numerous civilian casualties, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The strike was first reported by Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev. He said that the attack killed at least three people, including two children. The death toll later rose to four. According to Russia’s Health Ministry, 124 people were injured, including 27 children.

The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the Ukrainian attack, which it said took place at around noon local time. Officials said that the shelling involved five ATACMS missiles, four of which were destroyed mid-air.

The remaining one, however, was damaged by air defenses, veered off course and detonated over the city of Sevastopol. As a result, the falling fragments of cluster munitions led to numerous civilian casualties, the statement read.

I think we are on the cusp of a major escalation in the war in Ukraine, with U.S. assets likely to be targeted in the coming days. It is one thing for Ukraine to hit military targets inside Russia, but Ukraine’s attack with U.S. supplied missiles today on tourists sunbathing on the beaches of Sevastopol breached a Russian-redline that is likely to provoke a significant Russian response, which will include targeting U.S. reconnaissance aircraft operating in the Black Sea and the Baltic Ocean. And that is for starters.

Jun 22, 2024

Featured • Ruling Class Finally Awakens to the Reality of America's Decline, Simplicius, Jun 22, 2024

The article is actually quite long and detailed, so we have Arnaud Bertrand to summarize its finest points. The first bolded portion below gets to the heart of Rhodes’ startling argument—but read the rest of the bolded:

This is an interesting piece by brhodes, Obama's Former Deputy National Security Advisor.

In an immense departure from US policy to date, he advocates that the US "abandons the mindset of American primacy" and "pivots away from the political considerations, maximalism, and Western-centric view that have caused [the Biden] administration to make some of the same mistakes as its predecessors".

He writes, and I find this a very powerful sentence, that "meeting the moment requires building a bridge to the future—not the past." As in not seek to regain a lost hegemony, but adapt to the "world as it is" which he calls "the world of post-American primacy".

To be sure, the piece still has strong relents of the liberal instincts to remake the world in America's image - a leopard cannot change its spots - but at least he acknowledges the reality that the world has changed and that the US should view itself as a power coexisting with others, not THE power that needs to dominate the rest of the world. Which is a first step...

Also, significantly, he points out the insanity of "framing the battle between democracy and autocracy as a confrontation with a handful of geopolitical adversaries" when the West's own democracies are in such sorry states today that they can hardly be called "democracies" anymore... He writes that instead of trying to constantly interfere in changing other countries' systems, "ultimately, the most important thing that America can do in the world is detoxify its own democracy".

The peace initiative that Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined on June 14 is Moscow’s fourth proposal on settling the Ukraine conflict, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"Now we have come up with the next, actually fourth proposal from Russia [on Ukrainian settlement] in the form of an initiative by President Putin on June 14," the top diplomat said at a press conference after a session of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) Council of Foreign Ministers.

Had the agreement on the political settlement not been disrupted in February 2014, Ukraine would have now been within the 1991 boundaries that "it dreams so sweetly now," Lavrov said.

Ukraine itself "destroyed its territorial integrity with the hands of those who came to power through a bloody state coup and began to impose Russophobic and Neo-Nazi rules," Russia’s top diplomat stressed.

"Agreements were reached in Minsk in February 2015 and, had they been implemented, Ukraine would have restored its territorial integrity but, of course, already without Crimea. But Ukraine showed no desire to preserve its territorial integrity at the cost of providing elementary autonomous rights to Donbass, Lugansk and Donetsk, including the right to speak in their mother tongue," he went on to say.

"The next stage, when a chance was missed again to keep Ukraine’s territorial integrity in some form involved the Istanbul accords of April 2022 that also guaranteed Ukraine its territorial integrity but based on the realities that had emerged on the ground by that time," the Russian foreign minister said.

"And again, as you know, Western handlers prohibited [Ukrainian President] Vladimir Zelensky to sign these agreements," Lavrov said.

"I have no doubts that serious politicians, and some have remained there somewhere, understand the need to use some intellectual and diplomatic skills and begin to think about realpolitik instead of concocted illusions," Russia’s top diplomat said.

Biden needs to accept that negotiations are not a sign of weakness. As Kennedy put it, “Never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate.” Ronald Reagan famously described his own negotiating strategy using a Russian proverb, “Trust but verify.”

The neocon approach to Russia, delusional and hubristic from the start, lies in ruins. NATO will never enlarge to Ukraine and Georgia. Russia will not be toppled by a C.I.A. covert operation.

Ukraine is being horribly bloodied on the battlefield, often losing 1,000 or more dead and wounded in a single day. The failed neocon game plan brings us closer to nuclear Armageddon.

Yet Biden still refuses to negotiate. Following Putin’s speech, the U.S., NATO, and Ukraine firmly rejected negotiations once again. Biden and his team have still not relinquished the neocon fantasy of defeating Russia and expanding NATO to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian people have been lied to time and again by Zelensky and Biden and other leaders of NATO countries, who told them falsely and repeatedly that Ukraine would prevail on the battlefield and that there were no options to negotiate. Ukraine is now under martial law. The public is given no say about its own slaughter.

For the sake of Ukraine’s very survival, and to avoid nuclear war, the President of the United States has one overriding responsibility today: Negotiate.

Kiev is holding negotiations with Brussels on the potential extradition of any Ukrainians who crossed into the bloc illegally, Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told the US-funded broadcaster RFE/RL. Ukraine’s border guards are struggling to stem the flow of men fleeing the country to evade military service amid continued mobilization efforts. “We are consulting with our colleagues from the European Union,” Klimenko said when asked if Kiev would like the EU to extradite those who have crossed illegally. “These negotiations will continue regarding the possible return of our citizens,” he added. Ukraine announced a general mobilization in February 2022, and barred most men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country. Kiev’s draft campaign has been marred by widespread corruption; thousands have attempted to depart illegally by either forging documents or attempting to bypass border controls.

The US appears intent on continuing to fight Russia in Ukraine and hopes to win, but Hungary is acting to counter this destructive policy, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. The vocal opponent of the Western approach to the Ukraine conflict expressed fresh criticism during a weekly interview on Kossuth Radio on Friday. “It appears that the Western world, led by the Americans, wants to defeat Russia, with the Germans playing the role of extras,” Orban claimed. He described the strategy as “hopeless,” adding that it is disastrous for the Ukrainians and Russians dying on the battlefield and is potentially escalatory. The Hungarian leader claimed, however, that “we have already slowed the train to war,” citing the outcome of the recent European Parliament elections in which his party enjoyed success while some pro-Ukrainian groups suffered setbacks.

The Hungarian government has secured assurances from both outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and his presumed successor, Mark Rutte, that Budapest will not be dragged into a “mission” that the US-led bloc is establishing in Ukraine, the prime minister said. Hungary will not contribute troops, weapons, or money to the plan, Orban vowed. “I can pull the emergency brake. The train will stop, and we Hungarians will get off this train,” he said. “And if we become very strong and the stars are lucky, we will convince the driver not to go any further.”

America since the end of World War II has become a stratocracy — government dominated by the military. There is a constant preparation for war. The war machine’s massive budgets are sacrosanct. Its billions of dollars in waste and fraud are ignored.

Its military fiascos in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East disappear into the vast black hole of historical amnesia. This amnesia, which means there is never accountability, licences the war machine to leap from military debacle to debacle while it economically disembowels the country.

The militarists win every election. They cannot lose. It is impossible to vote against them. The war state is a Götterdämmerung, as Dwight Macdonald writes, “without the gods.”

Since the end of the Second World War, the federal government has spent more than half its tax dollars on past, current and future military operations. It is the largest single sustaining activity of the government....

The military machine, by diverting funds and resources to endless war, disembowels and impoverishes the nation at home, as Matt’s reporting from Washington, Baltimore and New York illustrates.

The cost to the public — socially, economically, politically and culturally — is catastrophic. Workers are reduced to subsistence level and preyed upon by corporations that have privatised every facet of society from health care and education to the prison-industrial complex.

Militarists divert funds from social and infrastructure programs. They pour money into research and development of weapons systems and neglect renewable energy technologies. Bridges, roads, electrical grids and levees collapse. Schools decay. Domestic manufacturing declines. Our public transportation system is a shambles.

Militarised police gun down mostly unarmed, poor people of colour and fill a system of penitentiaries and jails that hold a staggering 25 percent of the world’s prisoners although Americans represent only 5 percent of the global population.

Cities, deindustrialized, are in ruins. Opioid addiction, suicide, mass shootings, depression and morbid obesity plague a population that has fallen into profound despair....

“While rising empires are often judicious, even rational in their application of armed force for conquest and control of overseas dominions, fading empires are inclined to ill-considered displays of power, dreaming of bold military masterstrokes that would somehow recoup lost prestige and power,” the historian Alfred McCoy writes.

“Often irrational even from an imperial point of view, these micro military operations can yield haemorrhaging expenditures or humiliating defeats that only accelerate the process already under way.”

It is vital we see what lies before us. If we continue to be entranced by the images on the walls of Plato’s cave, images that bombard us on screens day and night, if we fail to understand how empire works and its self-destructiveness we will all, especially with the looming climate crisis, descend into a Hobbesian nightmare where the tools of repression, so familiar on the outer reaches of empire, cement into place terrifying corporate totalitarian states.

Jun 21, 2024

Featured • Putin Announces Plans for Further Development of Nuclear Triad, Sputnik International, Jun 21, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Friday plans to further develop the Russian nuclear triad.

"Our plans include further development of the nuclear triad as a guarantee of strategic deterrence and maintaining the balance of power in the world," Putin said at a meeting with graduates of higher military educational institutions.

"Certainly, we will strengthen our potential, enhance the combat capabilities of all branches and types of the armed forces, put into combat duty the pride of our designers, engineers, and workers — the latest systems that have confirmed their qualities and truly unique characteristics, and continue working on advanced models," he continued.

Putin also promised to continue improving the command and control system for troops and weaponry, increase the effectiveness and quality of combat training, and conduct exercises, including those with the participation of friendly states.

Ukraine’s supporters in the West will likely remove Vladimir Zelensky as soon as he outlives his usefulness, after pushing through all the necessary “unpopular decisions,” Russian President Vladimir Putin has predicted. Zelensky remains in power in Ukraine despite his term in office having officially expired on May 20. He opted not to hold a presidential election, citing martial law imposed due to the conflict with Russia. Putin has repeatedly stressed that the Ukrainian constitution does not provide for prolonging a president’s term, and explicitly states that elected lawmakers should retain their powers until a new parliament can be chosen by the Ukrainian people. On Thursday he reiterated, that the country’s laws clearly state that Zelensky’s “train has left” and that presidential power should be transferred to the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.

“What are we even talking about? The West simply doesn’t want to replace him right now, the time has not come yet. I’ve already said it, but I think it’s obvious to anyone,” the Russian leader said at a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. “They will pin all unpopular decisions on him, including lowering the military age, and that’s it, then he will be replaced. I believe it will be sometime in the first half of next year,” he added. Putin echoed analysis shared by the Russian foreign intelligence service (SVR) earlier in the day, which claimed Zelensky will be scapegoated for the country’s inevitable military defeat. “It is becoming increasingly evident that the White House will soon shut down ‘Project Zelensky’,” the SVR stated on Thursday, noting that retired General Valery Zaluzhny, the former top commander of the armed forces, is a likely candidate to replace him.

Since the West claims it has the right to arm Ukraine with impunity, Russia reserves the same right and might send long-range precision weapons to the DPRK and other countries, President Vladimir Putin has said. Putin spoke with reporters in Hanoi following his meetings with the leadership of Vietnam on Thursday. One of the questions related to his previous suggestion that Moscow could send missiles to the adversaries of the West, in response to the US and its allies greenlighting Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia. ”We do not rule out supplying weapons to other countries, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Putin said. “Let the West think where they might end up.”

Western countries that have supplied long-range and other weapons to Ukraine have said they can’t be held responsible for how Kiev uses them, and insist that it does not make them parties to the conflict, Putin elaborated, adding that Russia therefore reserves the same right for itself. The Russian president also noted that Moscow is considering modifications to its doctrine on the use of atomic weapons, as the West appears to be working on low-yield weapons to lower the nuclear threshold. “We don’t need a first strike,” he said in response to another question. “Because our return strike is guaranteed to destroy any attacker.”

When asked about the peace terms he offered Ukraine last week, Putin said that Russia has always been willing to negotiate, while Kiev and its Western backers sabotaged both the Minsk process and the Istanbul talks. However, the terms he outlined will not be valid forever, Putin cautioned. ”Our terms will change depending on the situation on the ground,” the Russian president said. Putin arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday evening from Pyongyang, where he signed a strategic partnership treaty with DPRK leader Kim Jong-un. His trip to Vietnam has involved the strengthening of bilateral ties with Hanoi, including trade and nuclear energy cooperation.

Ukraine’s demand for the withdrawal of Russian troops is only designed to perpetuate the conflict, because that’s the only way the current Kiev government can stay in power, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Putin was speaking at a press conference in Hanoi following his meetings with the leadership of Vietnam on Thursday. Among other topics, he addressed the Ukraine conflict. “If negotiations are linked to the withdrawal of our troops, about which the Kiev regime dreams, then this will never happen,” Putin told reporters. “Because the Kiev regime does not want to relinquish power, does not want to hold normal elections according to the Ukrainian constitution, they will forever drag out the ceasefire talks,” the Russian president added. “This means that Kiev has an interest in our troops remaining there, because they don’t want to hold elections.”

As for attempts to “beat back” Russian troops from Kharkov, Putin said that Kiev’s orders to achieve a victory on the battlefield “at all costs” will mean it is Ukraine that will suffer. Kharkov, he said, is a tactical operation, which Ukraine is trying to portray as strategic. When asked about the Western rejection of the peace terms he offered Ukraine last week, Putin said that it was true to form. “I expected just such a reaction, at first,” he said. “What happens later, time will tell. It all depends on how the situation develops on the ground.” Russia has always been willing to negotiate, while Ukraine and its Western backers sabotaged the Minsk process and the Istanbul talks, Putin said, noting that the terms he outlined will not be valid forever.

According to the Russian president, Ukraine has to recognize Russian sovereignty over the entire territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, “as defined by their administrative borders at the time they joined Ukraine [in August 1991].” Kiev must withdraw its military from the four regions and inform Moscow in writing that it no longer plans to join NATO, before any ceasefire talks can begin, Putin said last Friday.

Jun 20, 2024

Featured • What’s known, and not known, about the partnership agreement signed by Russia and North Korea, Kim Tong-Hyung and Jim Heintz, AP, Jun 20, 2024
With this treaty, "the world has changed," in Gilbert Doctorow's words.

 • SITREP 6/20/24: Putin Signs Defense Partnership in Historic Pyongyang Trip, Simplicius, Jun 20, 2024
One-sided but nearly always interesting and detailed.

 • NATO and Israel Hurtling Towards Wars of Self-Destruction, Larry Johnson, Jun 19, 2024

I am not Chicken Little aka Henny Penny — “a little chicken convinced that the sky is falling and that life as we, or at least as chickens know it, is over.” So, when I write that the world sits on the precipice of disaster as the West continues to promote war as a solution to Russia, China, Iran and the Palestinians, I am not hyping for the sake of getting attention. I hope for the sake of your children and grand children that I am wrong, but the escalating bellicose rhetoric in the United States, Europe and Israel signals that our future is filled with the potential for horrific destruction not seen since the end of World War II.

Issues with Ukraine’s draft also highlight the fundamental issue: without funding from Western allies, Ukraine is likely to “exhaust its resources long before Russia does”, The Conversation report writes In December of 2023, former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi told leader Volodymyr Zelensky that he needed nearly 500,000 more troops. But a nationwide poll conducted at the end of March showed that Ukrainians believe only 10% of their draft-age acquaintances might respond to a call to serve.“And thirdly,” the professor continued. “Putin’s proposal essentially [shows the lie of] Western statements that Russia intends to conquer all of Ukraine and then all of Europe, because he now specifically says Russia’s territorial ambitions are limited to the four occupied regions of Crimea, which is why I think it is aimed primarily not at Ukraine.”

“The Ukrainian, Western position is we cannot negotiate and we don’t want to negotiate because negotiation itself would be an acknowledgment of an immoral act of aggression, and therefore there’s nothing to negotiate, which is why we have this summit in Switzerland not even including Russia.”“So we’re not actually negotiating or willing to negotiate anything,” Petro said. “We’re simply making a statement of defiance against a Russian invasion versus the other side, in Russia’s case, which is saying [Russia] feels threatened by NATO’s expansion, which is why [they are] taking these actions. There’s also humanitarian reasons, but we are, we have always been and continue to be willing to negotiate on what our mutual security interests are.”

Jun 19, 2024

Featured • Russia, North Korea Agree on Mutual Assistance in Case of Aggression, Sputnik International, Jun 19, 2024

Earlier in the day, Putin said that "a new fundamental document" that will form the basis of the Russia-North Korea relationship for years to come has been prepared.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Wednesday. The Russia-North Korea agreement implies mutual assistance in case of aggression against participants, Putin explained.

The document was inked during the face-to-face talks between the two, which were preceded by the Putin-Kim negotiations with the participation of delegations earlier in the day.

Moscow’s proposals for ending the Ukraine conflict are specific and realistic, unlike the “advertising campaign” coming from the West, Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, has said. Newsweek published an interview with Antonov on Tuesday, in which the Russian envoy elaborated on President Vladimir Putin’s statements last week, outlining the conditions for starting peace talks with Kiev. “There is a path to peace, even if it is thorny,” Antonov said. It involves “withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from four regions of Russia; confirmation of the status of Crimea, Sevastopol, [Donetsk People’s Republic], [Lugansk People’s Republic], Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as subjects of the Russian Federation; Kiev’s refusal to join NATO; Ukraine’s status as neutral, nonaligned and nuclear-free state; its demilitarization and denazification; lifting of Western sanctions; [and] ensuring the rights, freedoms and interests of Russian-speaking citizens of the republic,” the diplomat explained....

Russia pursues dialogue and peace, and is “ready for a serious, thoughtful conversation” without any deadlines or rushed photo-ops, Antonov noted. What Moscow wants is “truly equal and indivisible security in Eurasia, based on mutual respect for one and all. ”In a new political architecture reflecting the transition to multipolarity, there would be “no place for aggressive political and economic dominance of individual nations,” or division into blocs, Antonov said. “If in response we continue to hear only Russophobic barking and calls to use more Western weapons and economic sanctions against us, global risks will only increase,” Antonov concluded. “I am sure this is not in the best interests of the citizens of the United States.”

Putin’s intention after his deception by the West with the Minsk Agreement, was only to drive Ukrainian forces out of the Russian areas that have now been reincorporated into Russia. Apparently Putin did not realize the extent to which the West would involve itself and expand the war. Now that Putin faces an outbreak of a larger war, he clearly stated the conditions for ending the conflict. He said that Russian military action will cease when the remaining Ukrainian forces are withdrawn from the Russian populated areas that have been reunited with Russia and when Ukraine agrees that the country will not become a member of NATO or have foreign bases and missiles on its territory. These are reasonable and generous terms. If these terms are refused, Ukraine faces further conquest and harsher future conditions for ending the conflict....

With the outbreak of major war looming, Biden has still not met with Putin. Instead, Biden has provoked animosity by calling Putin the new Hitler. This is an unprecedented level or reckless irresponsibility. The question before us is: Will Putin continue to accept provocations in hope that a change in the Washington regime in the November election will permit the West to come to its senses, or is Serbian President Vucic correct that the train has left the station?As the Western world lacks a truthful media, the people might be indoctrinated with the “Russian threat.” Even if the people realize that the threat is Washington’s pressure on Russia, the people are impotent to affect government policy. Among the Western governments, public opinion is something to be manipulated, not something to which to listen. I believe the West has convinced Putin that the West intends war. Not even Putin has an endless amount of patience. Instead of recognizing the dangerous situation and sitting down with Putin to defuse the situation, the West is lighting the fuse.

Jun 18, 2024

Featured • Putin reveals goals of North Korea trip, RT, Jun 17, 2024

Moscow and Pyongyang will develop trade and security arrangements, immune from pressure from the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, ahead of his visit to North Korea on Tuesday. The Russian president outlined his goals in an article published by the leading DPRK daily, Rodong Sinmun.

To bring “more democracy and stability to international relations,” Russia and North Korea “will develop alternative trade and mutual settlements mechanisms not controlled by the West, jointly oppose illegitimate unilateral restrictions, and shape the architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia,” Putin wrote.

He also pledged to increase “people-to-people interaction” between the two countries, including “academic mobility” between higher education institutions, tourism, “as well as cultural, educational, youth and sports exchanges” to promote confidence, mutual understanding and well-being.

Putin reminded Koreans that the Soviet army helped liberate them from Japanese occupation in 1945 and that Moscow was the first to recognize the DPRK and establish diplomatic relations with Pyongyang. The USSR also helped rebuild the country after the devastation of the Korean War (1950-1953) with the US-backed South.

“Russia has incessantly supported and will support the DPRK and the heroic Korean people in their struggle against the treacherous, dangerous and aggressive enemy, in their fight for independence, identity and the right to freely choose their development path,” the Russian president wrote.

Tuesday’s visit will be Putin’s first trip to North Korea since 2000, when he met with Kim Jong-Il. Last September, he hosted the current DPRK leader Kim Jong-un at the Vostochny spaceport in eastern Russia.

According to the Kremlin, the Russian delegation will also include Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt, space agency Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov, and Russian Railway head Oleg Belozyorov.

The Ukrainian government announced on Monday it had failed to reach an agreement with a group of foreign bondholders that includes financial giants BlackRock and Pimco on restructuring Ukraine’s $20 billion in Eurobonds, according to a report by Reuters.

The recent remark by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the bloc’s allied members are discussing putting their nuclear arsenals on alert is another bout of tensions, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “This is nothing else but an escalation,” Peskov said. Unlike Western officials, the Russian president never talks nukes “at his own initiative as he takes the issue seriously,” the Kremlin spokesman said. “Whenever President [Vladimir] Putin comments on the issue of nuclear arms, he does so, taking someone’s questions or questions from reporters, including foreign ones,” he explained.

Also, the NATO chief’s statement runs counter to the declaration issued following last weekend’s conference on Ukraine in Switzerland, Peskov added. The communique, he said, ruled out such rhetoric as inadmissible. Stoltenberg told The Daily Telegraph in an interview that NATO allies had started consultations on the need to put nuclear weapons on alert, including against the background of China’s plans to increase the number of its nuclear warheads. (emphasis added)

Jun 17, 2024

Featured • Zelenski's Summit Has Failed, Moon of Alabama, Jun 17, 2024

The reviews of Zelenski's latest show ain't positive:

Russia’s ghost loomed over Ukraine peace summit - Politico.eu

In Ukraine, soldiers and civilians shrug off Zelensky's summit - AFP

Ukraine’s Global Diplomatic Flurry Fails to Outflank Russia (archived) - WSJ

Significant support for Ukraine at peace summit - but key nations hesitate - Sky News

India opts out of Ukraine declaration at Swiss peace summit as Russia stays away - India Today

Major Ukraine summit ends with fresh plea for peace but key powers spurn final agreement - CNN

Disappointing end to Ukraine summit as allies agree to watered-down peace declaration - Telegraph

The summit served warmed up bullshit without any significant nutritional value. The most important points weren't even discussed...

Stoltenberg insists bloc must show its nuclear arsenal to the world and gives stark warning about threat from China.

An official with the North Atlantic alliance says the bloc has exceeded its goal of placing 300,000 soldiers on standby for a potential war with Russia. The announcement comes as NATO members significantly escalate support for Ukraine, bringing the alliance closer to direct war with Moscow.

On Thursday, a NATO official told AFP that member states have 300,000 soldiers ready to deploy for a conflict with Russia in the space of 30 days. “The offers on the table from allies comfortably exceed the 300,000 that we set,” the official said. “Those are forces which allies have said to us, ‘They are available to you as of now at that level of readiness.’”

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the number of NATO soldiers at high readiness is significantly greater than the 300,000 benchmark. “Allies are offering forces to NATO’s command at a scale not seen in decades. Today we have 500,000 troops at high readiness across all domains, significantly more than the goal that was set at the 2022 Madrid Summit,” he said on Friday....

The Netherlands and Denmark plan to supply Kiev with F-16s in the coming months, and say the advanced aircraft could be used to bomb Russia. Stoltenberg added that he welcomes the policy shift, and said it should not be considered an escalation by Russia.

However, the Kremlin has issued stern warnings to the West about any F-16 transfer, with Russian officials explaining the US-made warplane could carry nuclear weapons and present a strategic threat to Moscow. Ukraine plans to store the F-16s on the territory of other NATO states, and Russia has threatened to strike those facilities.

Additionally, some members of NATO are preparing to send their own troops into Ukraine to train local forces. Earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron said France was working to “finalize a coalition” of NATO countries that are willing to send troops. Moscow has stated that any French trainers deployed to Ukraine would be legitimate targets of the Russian military.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently blasted Western leaders for placing the world on the brink of a larger war. “Ultimately, the selfishness and arrogance of Western states led to the current extremely dangerous state of affairs,” he explained in a speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday. “We have come dangerously close to the point of no return. Calls to inflict strategic defeat on Russia, possessing the largest arsenals of nuclear weapons, demonstrate the extreme recklessness of Western politicians.”

Polish President Andrzej Duda has called for the “decolonization” of Russia, claiming that ethnic minorities should break away from Moscow’s rule and form their own states. Russia is one of the most diverse countries in the world and comprises over 190 ethnic groups that speak more than 270 languages and dialects, according to the government. Speaking at the so-called “Peace for Ukraine” conference in Switzerland on Sunday, Duda described Russia as a “prison of nations.” The country is “home to almost 200 ethnic groups,” which “became the residents of Russia as a result of methods used in Ukraine today,” the Polish leader claimed, referring to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

“Russia remains the largest colonial empire in the world, which, unlike European powers, has never undergone the process of decolonization and has never been able to deal with demons of its past,” Duda stated. “As a member of the international community, we have to finally say – there is no [space] for colonialism in the modern world.” Poland has been one of the most vocal proponents of aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its military operation in the neighboring state. According to the Polish media, Duda’s main mission in Switzerland was to “highlight the scale of the Russian threat.”

Earlier this year, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk suggested his country’s readiness to potentially host US nuclear weapons, which Moscow called a “provocation” and “deeply hostile policy.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Moscow has no intention of attacking NATO members and has dismissed claims to the contrary as scare tactics. In August 2023, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote an op-ed for the Izvestia newspaper, condemning “the crimes of colonialism” committed by the West and arguing that Western overseas possessions, such as France’s New Caledonia, Britain’s Gibraltar, and US’ Guam, are modern-day “colonies.” She insisted that “the free world will undoubtedly win, and the process of decolonization will be completed.”

The members of the bloc agreed that all arms for Ukraine would flow through NATO.

The US took a significant step towards preventing a future American president from curtailing weapon transfers to Ukraine by allowing NATO to coordinate the arms shipments. Washington and some of its allies are concerned that former President Donald Trump will end military aid and seek a diplomatic settlement to the war should he return to office.

The bloc adopted the new policy during a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Friday. “With a command in Wiesbaden, Germany, NATO will coordinate training and equipment donations, with nearly 700 personnel from Allied and partner nations involved in this effort,” a press release from the alliance said. “NATO will also facilitate equipment logistics and provide support to the long-term development of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.”

Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren explained that the bloc took the step as the war may grind on for some time, adding that coordination of arms shipments through Brussels will help prevent any country from altering its policy. “It’s to make it proof to any situation,” she said, observing that Russia’s war “might go on for years – so you want to have something in place that does not depend on specific persons, ministers or whoever.”

One official told AFP that the move was meant to prevent Trump from changing US policy. “it is about Trump-proofing, and that is what Stoltenberg says, protecting it from winds of political change,” the official stated. “Any US president can pull the plug on it tomorrow.”

On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to end the war within “24 hours” of returning to office, but has failed to explain how he plans to achieve that promise. Additionally, the former president gave his political support to the $95 billion foreign military aid bill signed in April – which included over $60 billion for Ukraine – helping to break the deadlock in Congress.

Jun 16, 2024

Featured • Pepe Escobar : Russia Readies War With NATO, Judging Freedom, Jun 14, 2024

 • Rejection of Putin's Peace Offer 'Exposes' True Motivations of NATO's Proxy War in Ukraine, John Miles, Sputnik International, Jun 15, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated the country’s conditions for an end to the Ukraine conflict during a lengthy address at the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Friday. Moscow’s central demands are the same as those put forth during previous rounds of negotiations sabotaged by the United States: Ukraine must become a neutral state not aligned with Western powers’ crusade against the Russian nation. Additionally, Kiev must be demilitarized and de-Nazified, Putin stated, and the country must formally renounce plans to join NATO. The offer was rejected almost as soon as it was extended, leading Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to jokingly ask whether it had even yet been translated into Ukrainian. “With such statements they want to deprive the citizens of Ukraine of a real chance for peace,” said the Russian official. ...

Former Washington Post bureau chief Jon Jeter argued that Western elites still oppose any lowering of tensions between Russia and Ukraine as they remain intent on denying Moscow a victory. “I would be surprised to see any real discussion of this in the mainstream United States news media, or certainly at the White House itself,” Jeter said of Putin’s peace proposal. Independent journalist Caleb Maupin agreed that Western media would continue to help undermine any rapprochement with Moscow. “A recent poll showed 94% of Americans want exactly what Putin just offered, which is a diplomatic end,” he noted.

The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations have demanded that Russia pay $486 billion to Ukraine in damage allegedly inflicted by the ongoing conflict, according to a joint statement issued on Friday. The US and its G7 allies – the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan – indicated that Russian assets will remain frozen until Moscow ends the conflict and pays compensation. The West has frozen roughly $300 billion in Russian sovereign funds since the start of the Ukraine conflict. “Russia must end its illegal war of aggression and pay for the damage it has caused to Ukraine. These damages now exceed $486 billion, according to the World Bank,” the G7 statement, published by the White House, reads. The group declared that “with a view to supporting Ukraine’s current and future needs in the face of a prolonged defense against Russia,” the G7 will launch ‘Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Loans’ for Kiev. This will make available “approximately $50 billion in additional funding to Ukraine by the end of the year,” it said.

The G7 said it intends to provide financing that will be serviced and repaid by future flows of “extraordinary revenues stemming from the immobilization of Russian Sovereign Assets” held in the European Union and other relevant jurisdictions.“

The West must show Moscow that it stands “completely” behind Ukraine by sanctioning everything Russian, Britain’s foreign secretary David Cameron has said. Cameron spoke at a press conference in London as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government announced new sanctions against Russia. His remarks were published on Friday, by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.“We will show [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that we are completely behind Ukraine: we will chase the money and the oil, we will stop the gas, we will stop the ships, we will do everything we can to stop the Russian war machine and show Putin the folly of his actions,” Cameron told the Italian outlet The UK is “hunting” companies that do business with Russia “all over the world,” he said. “We will sanction companies in China, in Türkiye, in Kyrgyzstan, even in Israel, that we believe are supplying dual-use material” to Russia, he added.

Jun 15, 2024

Featured • Putin's Full Speech: BRICS, NATO Expansion and Ukraine Peace Talk Conditions, Moon of Alabama, Jun 15, 2024

Featured • Moscow reveals next steps after Putin’s Ukraine offer, RT, Jun 14, 2024

Russia’s diplomats will communicate President Vladimir Putin’s latest Ukraine peace proposal to Western leaders in “in meticulous detail,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists on Friday. Earlier the same day, the head of state set conditions for peace negotiations with Kiev. The Russian president’s initiative includes a demand that Kiev withdraw its troops from all former Ukrainian territories that joined Russia following referendums in the fall of 2022 and abandon its plans to join NATO. Moscow is ready to order a ceasefire and start negotiations “the minute” Ukraine agrees to those terms and starts the withdrawal, he told Lavrov and other senior Russian diplomats at a meeting.

Following the event, Lavrov told journalists that he believes the world is already well-aware of the president’s proposal. Moscow has no plans to issue the offer in a formal document, the minister said. Russia’s ambassadors will nevertheless hand the text of Putin’s speech to the relevant foreign officials and clarify the Kremlin’s stance, he said. “We won’t chase after anyone,” Russia’s top diplomat said, adding that Moscow would simply make its position clear and “look at the reaction” of the foreign nations. He stated that his ministry plans to raise the issue at the meetings of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as well as in talks with China and the Latin American and African nations.

The minister also expressed his hope that the initiative would be discussed at the ongoing G7 summit in Italy and at the conference on Ukraine which Switzerland is set to host this weekend. When further asked by journalist Pavel Zarubin if he believes the latest peace initiative could lead to some meaningful dialogue with the West, Lavrov responded by saying that “hope is the last to die.” “Those that have ears to hear, let them hear. Those that have brains, let them understand,” the minister said, adding that, although he was “not sure that everything is alright with those organs” when it comes to the Western politicians, he still hopes that some good can come of it.

President Vladimir Putin has outlined another proposal to solve the Ukraine crisis once and for all at a meeting with top diplomats at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, making clear that Moscow is not interested in freezing or postponing the conflict. According to the president, Russia is ready to cease fire and start negotiations once Ukraine begins to withdraw from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions within their administrative borders and officially renounces plans to join NATO. Additionally, Russia requires Ukraine to adopt a neutral, non-aligned, and non-nuclear status. “We are ready to sit at the negotiation table tomorrow,” said Putin. “Today, we made another specific, real peace proposal. If Kiev and the Western capitals refuse it, as they have previously, then ultimately, it is their matter, their political and moral responsibility for the continuation of bloodshed,” the president stressed.

Putin’s new peace proposal is a brilliant move, according to former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter. “A [Western] peace conference in Switzerland [from June 15 to 16] that was never going to succeed now has a completely different angle to it,” Ritter told Sputnik. “It will now be discussing the Russian peace initiative. No longer will they be talking about Zelensky’s unrealistic expectation of having Russia leave the new territories. The West will now be saying, what about this offer? Can we do this offer? The NATO summit won’t be about ‘How do we expand, how do we enlarge?’ It will be about ‘What do we do about the Russian peace proposal?’ This puts the West in the horns of a dilemma. That’s exactly where Russia wants them.” Ritter underscored that Russia isn’t looking for a ceasefire or freezing the conflict to make it fester any longer: “Russia’s looking for conflict resolution. They want a genuine peace plan.” The plan is based on the 2022 Istanbul communiqué while taking into account the reality on the ground, the former US Marine Corps intelligence officer noted.

The roadmap proposed by Vladimir Putin also meets the initial goals of the special military operation launched on February 24, 2022, i.e. de-militarization and de-Nazification, the military expert continued. “Demilitarization will occur through the negotiation process. When Ukraine commits to not being a member of NATO, this resolves a number of issues, such as what to do with all of this NATO equipment that has been accumulated by Ukraine. There’s no longer a need for it. It will go away. So too will the NATO advisors. Demilitarization has been accomplished.” “De-Nazification… Vladimir Putin made it clear that Volodymyr Zelensky is not the political future of Ukraine. Neither are the right-wing political parties that have produced Nazi-type organizations like the Right Sector, Svoboda*, Azov**, and other neo-Nazi-affiliated paramilitary and military organizations.

These will, of course, have to be done away with. But who’s going to do away with that? Russia’s not occupying Ukraine. This will be part of the post-conflict political rebuilding, restructuring of Ukraine. And again, once Ukraine has walked away from NATO and has assumed a position of genuine neutrality, this changes the domestic political dynamic inside Ukraine, empowering political entities that otherwise have been suppressed, the opposition that Volodymyr Zelensky has sought to silence over these many years,” Ritter explained. The military veteran pointed out that the Russian president has also made it clear that if the proposals are snubbed, the military confrontation will continue and the future requirements for peace could be very different.

Kiev must withdraw its troops from Russia’s new territories, the president has said.

Ukraine must remove its troops from Russia’s new regions before any meaningful peace talks can begin, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Moscow rejects Kiev’s claims of sovereignty over five formerly Ukrainian regions, four of which voted to join Russia in 2022. However, fighting continues in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions.

Ukrainian troops must be removed from these territories, Putin said on Friday at a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior Russian diplomats.

“I stress: the entire territory of those regions as defined by their administrative borders at the time they joined Ukraine [in August 1991],” Putin stated.

“Our side will order a ceasefire and start negotiations the minute Kiev declares that it is prepared to take this decision and starts actual withdrawal of troops from those regions, and also formally informs us that it no longer plans to join NATO,” the Russian leader pledged.

Putin outlined the conditions after condemning Kiev’s Western backers for allegedly preventing it from holding peace talks with Moscow while accusing Russia of rejecting negotiations.

“We are counting on Kiev to take such a decision on withdrawal, neutral status, and dialogue with Russia, on which the future existence of Ukraine depends, independently based on the current realities and guided by the true interests of the Ukrainian people and not at Western orders,” Putin stated.

At this point, Moscow will not accept a frozen conflict, which would allow the US and its allies to rearm and rebuild the Ukrainian military, Putin claimed. The full resolution of the issue will involve Kiev recognizing the four new regions as well as Crimea as part of Russia, he insisted.

“In the future, all those basic principled positions have to be enshrined in fundamental international agreements. Naturally, that includes the lifting of all Western sanctions against Russia,” Putin stated.

Accepting these terms will allow everyone involved to turn the page and gradually rebuild damaged relations, the president said. Eventually, a pan-European security system that works for all nations on the continent could be created, Putin added, noting that Moscow has sought this outcome for years.

The Russian president’s keynote remarks came ahead of a Swiss-hosted summit supposedly meant to further peace in Ukraine. Kiev has insisted that Moscow could not be invited to the event because it would try to “hijack” it by promoting alternatives to the “peace formula” pushed by the Ukrainian government.

Putin claimed that the event was meant to distract public opinion from the “true roots” of the conflict, and that Vladimir Zelensky has usurped power in Ukraine after his presidential term expired last month. Nothing but demagoguery and accusations against Russia can come out of the Swiss gathering, he predicted.

In retrospect, it becomes crashingly clear that the “communist threat” was indeed only a pretext for great powers seeking more power. More land, more resources.

The Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, like the Anglo-American liberals, looked at Russia in the way mountain-climbers proverbially look at mountains. Why must you climb that mountain? Because it’s there. Because it’s too big, it has all that space and all those resources. And oh yes, we must defend “our values”.

It’s nothing new. The dynamic is deeply institutionalized. It’s just the same old war, based on illusions, lies and manufactured hatred, leading us to greater disaster.

Is it too late to stop?

Russian forces did not plan to storm Kiev when they advanced towards the Ukrainian capital in the first weeks of the conflict between the two countries, President Vladimir Putin has said. During a meeting with his Russia’s top diplomats on Friday, Putin noted continued “speculation” in Ukraine and the West about the intentions of Russian units when they reached the outskirts of Kiev in late February 2022. “But there was no political decision to storm the city of 3 million, no matter what anyone says due to their lack of thought,” Putin insisted. According to the president, the Russian advance towards Kiev was “nothing more than an operation to persuade the Ukrainian regime to [make] peace.” “The troops were there to motivate the Ukrainian side to engage in negotiations, to try to find an acceptable solution and this way end the war unleashed by Kiev against Donbass back in 2014,” he said.

The conflict between the Ukrainian government and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, which erupted after the Western-backed coup in Kiev in February 2014, “posed a threat to the security of our country, to the security of Russia,” Putin stressed. The move by Russia did result in talks that led to agreements that “in principle, suited both Moscow and Kiev,” he said, referring to the negotiations that took place between the two sides in the Turkish city of Istanbul in late March 2022. “On March 29, 2022, we withdrew our troops from Kiev because we were assured that it was essential to create conditions for the conclusion of the political negotiating process,” the president recalled. “Our Western colleagues” insisted back then that the Ukrainian authorities “cannot sign such agreements… with a gun to their head,” he added.

However, Kiev and its Western backers have been claiming that the Russian withdrawal from the area of the Ukrainian capital was not a goodwill gesture by Moscow, but the result of military successes achieved by Kiev’s troops. Already in April 2022, US President Joe Biden said “the ‘Battle of Kiev’ was a historic victory… won by the Ukrainian people with unprecedented assistance by the US and our allies.” The next day after the Russian troops left, the Ukrainian leadership seized their participation in the negotiating process, staging “a provocation” in Bucha, Putin said.On April 1, 2022, the Zelensky government blamed the Russian military for massacring civilians in the town of Bucha near Kiev. Moscow denied those accusations, saying that the purported evidence of the crimes was fabricated. “I think it’s clear now that this dirty provocation was needed to somehow explain the rejection of the results that had been achieved during the negotiations. The path to peace was again turned down,” the Russian leader stressed.

Zelensky’s characterization of Putin’s offer as an ultimatum was dismissed as “a wrong understanding, definitely,” according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday. “This is a comprehensive, very deep and constructive proposal,” Putin’s press secretary told Izvestia. If the terms seem harsher than those Moscow proposed in the spring of 2022, he explained, that’s because “a different situation has arisen,” with four regions choosing to become part of Russia. Residents of Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics voted overwhelmingly in September 2022 to leave Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Kiev and its Western backers have denounced the vote as “rigged” and a “sham,” just as they refused to recognize Crimea’s return in 2014.

Peskov reminded Izvestia that Ukraine received very generous peace terms in March 2022, but rejected them “on orders from the British.” Ukrainian media and officials have confirmed that Boris Johnson, UK prime minister at the time, told them they should not accept any deal with Russia. Announcing the military operation against the government in Kiev, in February 2022, Putin said that Moscow intended to achieve the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine and secure guarantees that Kiev would never join NATO or any other anti-Russian military bloc.

Jun 14, 2024
Featured • Putin Sets Conditions for Ukraine Peace Talks: Full Ukrainian Withdrawal From New Russian Regions, Sputnik International, Jun 14, 2024
These are the same demands as before the conflict began, except now Russia wants to absorb and protect 4 regions instead of 2, following the clear self-determination votes in those regions.

No NATO, no nukes, no Nazis. We will let you keep Odessa and Kharkiv.

It's a good deal. Take it.

Featured • Putin addresses top Foreign Ministry officials: As it happened, RT, Jun 14, 2024

Featured • Use of F-16s over Russian territory ‘not escalation’ – NATO chief, RT, Jun 13, 2024

Ukrainian strikes anywhere inside Russia using Western-donated F-16 aircraft would not be an escalation of the conflict and would not make NATO member states parties to it, according to the military bloc’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. He was asked on Thursday whether restrictions should be imposed on how Kiev can use the US-designed fighter jets. Several European nations intend to provide dozens of the warplanes once Ukraine has pilots and ground infrastructure to fly them. Speaking ahead of a NATO defense ministers’ gathering in Brussels, Stoltenberg said “different allies have different types of restrictions on the use of their weapons,” and welcomed the recent relaxation of these rules by some member states.

Washington reportedly gave Kiev the green light to fire American weapons at targets outside of what the two nations consider Ukrainian territory, allowing strikes inside Russia’s Belgorod Region as part of the fight for the neighboring Kharkov Region. Some other Western nations have also said their weapons can be used in similar ways. Ukraine has the right to defend itself, and this includes “striking legitimate military targets” on the territory of Russia, Stoltenberg declared. “Self-defense is not escalation,” he added. “And we have the right to help Ukraine,” he continued. “By doing that, NATO allies don’t become party to the conflict.” Moscow perceives the entire conflict as part of a US-initiated proxy war against Russia. It considers NATO’s increasing military presence in Ukraine and its intention to eventually bring the nation into the fold as major national security risks.

NATO member states arming Ukraine, providing “mercenaries” to bolster its troops, and helping Kiev to plan and deliver attacks against Russia are de facto participants in the hostilities, senior Russian officials have claimed. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any attacks using Western weapons deep inside Russia will be retaliated against. Moscow could supply long-range weapons from its own arsenal to third parties, who would then use them against Western military assets, he suggested. Such tit-for-tat escalation could lead to a major disaster for all parties involved, Putin has warned.Andrey Kartapolov, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee, said last week that Moscow would consider any bases used by Kiev to fly donated F-16s as legitimate military targets regardless of what country they are located in.

The step will mark a significant escalation in the economic war against Russia.

Group of Seven leaders agreed at a summit in Italy on Thursday to give Ukraine $50 billion using frozen Russian Central Bank assets, a step that marks a significant escalation in the economic war against Russia.

The plan is to provide the $50 billion to Ukraine by the end of the year in the form of a loan, which will be paid back using profits from the approximately $280 billion in frozen Russian assets held by the US and its allies.

The idea is seen as a compromise between the US and Europe, as President Biden wanted to steal all of the frozen Russian funds to give to Ukraine. But the vast majority of the money is held in Europe, and EU leaders were hesitant to do that.

Instead, the EU devised a separate plan to provide Ukraine with about $3 billion per year using the interest made by the Russian assets. Ukraine said that amount wasn’t enough, and the US proposed the $50 billion loan.

“This has been something that the United States has put a lot of energy and effort into,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters. “We see proceeds from these assets as a valuable source of resources for Ukraine at a moment when Russia continues to brutalize the country, not just through military action on the front but through the attempted destruction of its energy grid and its economic vitality.”

Russia has made clear it would view either plan as the theft of its sovereign funds and is preparing to retaliate. Stealing the money makes reconciliation between Russia and the West even less likely since lifting sanctions would mean having to give assets back to Moscow that have already been spent. The move will also reduce faith in the Western banking system and speed up global de-dollarization.

As they meet on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Italy, President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are planning to sign a deal for long-term US military assistance for Ukraine. The deal commits Washington to ten years of arming and training the Ukrainian military, and which bolsters the military-industrial complex toward producing more of its own needs for the nation’s armed forces. However, given the pledge is an “executive agreement” and not a formal treaty, it can be undone by future American administrations. CNN previewed of the expected soon to be announced deal, “The US-Ukraine agreement does not make a specific monetary pledge to support Ukraine’s defense, two of the sources familiar with the agreement said.”

“An annex in the agreement will lay out how the Biden administration plans to work with Congress on the implementation of the security commitments, one of the sources said, specifically the long-term funding that will be needed to support Ukraine’s defense,” the report added. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had further previewed Tuesday that the US “will continue to be right up front and clear” at the G7, and that Washington “will take bold steps to show Mr. Putin that time is not on his side and that he cannot outlast us, as we support Ukraine fight for freedom.”

While the big decade-long security pact will provide “consultations” for Kiev in the event of another future Russian attack on Ukraine, there’s nothing in it that legally binds the United States to direct intervention in its behalf in the future. Despite the continued talk out of Brussels of future Ukrainian membership in NATO, European powers continue to line up their own separate defense pacts with Ukraine. NATO still wants to “Trump-proof” its future commitments to Ukraine… “The pledge the US and Ukraine are expected to sign will be similar to the 14 other bilateral agreements Ukraine has already reached with other allies, including the UK, France and Germany,” CNN writes. “The US-Ukraine agreement will be the 15th such deal signed, one of the sources said, and 17 other countries have committed to negotiating similar bilateral security pacts with Ukraine,” the report underscores.

The endless parade of Western sanctions on Russia barely makes the news anymore. But this week the US Treasury did manage to conjure up something that has generated attention. In what may be the most ambitious package since the initial wave back in February 2022, the American authorities greatly increased the scope for applying secondary penalties on foreign financial institutions found working with restricted Russian entities, and placed the Moscow Exchange and its clearing house under blocking sanctions, among other measures. The exchange subsequently announced that it was suspending all settlements in dollars and euros. It’s the latter that is the most interesting and has elicited the most chatter.....There is another important angle to consider here. Formally, only American correspondent banks have been barred from working with the NSC. But experience has shown that once a Russian entity falls under US sanctions it is seen as radioactive elsewhere and other institutions steer clear. The increasingly bellicose rhetoric about secondary sanctions emanating from Washington will surely only exacerbate this tendency....

The US could have opted for a similar approach of granting generous access to the dollar-centered system even to foes and scrupulously preserving that access even in the midst of competition. This would have kept even adversaries in the US orbit and comfortable and complacent about the status quo. Without a pressing need, few countries would have embarked so determinedly on the path of building a whole new infrastructure and revamping trade ties. But such an approach would have required far more foresight than is found in Washington these days.

In the short term, Russia will, somewhat paradoxically, seek workarounds to maintain its ability to convert between dollars and rubles. But at the same time, the ground is being laid for the yuan to play an even more prominent role in Russia’s economy. And it hardly bears mentioning that other countries are taking notice. This trend toward a new financial order is one that the US, in its blind zeal to punish Russia, keeps stumbling into new ways to encourage.

Jun 13, 2024
 • G7 to give Ukraine $50 billion loan with Russia’s money – media, RT, Jun 13, 2024

Leaders of the G7 intend to back a US plan to provide $50 billion in aid for Ukraine through a loan issued against frozen Russian assets, before finalising some contentious parts of the plan, according to media reports.

Washington’s idea is to use future profits from seized Russian assets to pay interest on the proposed loan. Leaders of the G7 club of nations will approve the arrangement in principle during this week’s summit in Apulia, Italy, according to news outlets including Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Politico.

Disagreements remain as to who will carry the loan risks if Western powers lose control over the Russian assets.

Ukraine must prevail in its conflict with Russia if it wants to join NATO, the bloc’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Wednesday. The comments come as NATO countries prepare to meet for an annual summit in Washington on July 9-11. “I expect that allies will actually make important announcements between now and the summit and also at the summit for more military equipment … which is urgently needed to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation,” Stoltenberg told reporters during a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels. “And without that, of course, there is no membership issue to be discussed. We need to ensure that Ukraine prevails – that’s an absolute minimum for Ukraine to become a member of the alliance.”

Ukraine formally applied to join the US-led bloc in September 2022, citing the armed conflict with Russia. Despite Kiev’s requests for an expedited path to membership, the bloc has so far refused to provide a timetable or roadmap for accession. The allies have further ruled out admitting Ukraine until the conflict with Russia is resolved.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) has taken swift and decisive action against the Data Journalism Agency (texty.org.ua), a Ukrainian NGO with US State Department links that recently published an ‘enemies list’ of individuals and organizations opposed to the war in Ukraine. Following a letter sent by Banks to his Republican colleagues, the House Appropriations Committee has passed a provision that would prohibit US funding and sever ties with the NGO, which deemed 76 organizations and 388 individuals as enemies of Ukraine – including ZeroHedge and prominent American politicians opposed to the war in Ukraine. “Federal bureaucrats should not support or partner with foreign groups that attempt to intimidate and silence U.S. citizens and lawmakers,” Banks wrote in his letter.

“I am urging the Appropriations Committee majority to support efforts in the Fiscal Year 2025 SFOPS bill to force the State Department and USAID to end all relations with foreign NGOs like TEXTY that seek to silence the speech of Americans they dislike and to sway U.S. policymakers to serve their own interests.” Texty.org.ua was founded by Anatoly Bondarenko, a participant in the State Department’s TechCamp program, which aims to train foreign journalists and activists in digital skills. The relationship between Bondarenko and the State Department has been publicly acknowledged, adding layers to the debate over the NGO’s activities and its impact on U.S. interests. This legislative action occurs amidst broader discussions about foreign influence in American politics, with increasing scrutiny on how foreign entities may use U.S.-linked platforms or resources to sway public and political opinion in the United States.

Jun 12, 2024

Featured • Scott Ritter: Risking Nuclear War, Judging Freedom, Jun 11, 2024

Featured • Scott Ritter: Why did it take Russia so long to realize Donbass was worth fighting for?, RT, Jun 11, 2024
Ritter is not only a superb military-political analyst but also a fine journalist and writer -- and incredibly productive.

Featured • BRICS must prevent new ‘Cold War’ – China, RT, Jun 11, 2024

The BRICS countries should work together to promote peace and prevent the onset of a new Cold War, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said. Speaking at the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod on Monday, Wang stated that some major powers still harbor a “Cold War mentality.” According to the diplomat, this attitude directly contradicts UN Security Council resolutions and undermines the authority of multilateral mechanisms. China is willing to work with Russia to maintain strategic cooperation, respond to external pressures, and promote the sustained progress of bilateral relations, he said. Describing BRICS as an important platform for unity and cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries, Wang said the expanded BRICS mechanism will play a crucial role in creating a more just and reasonable global governance system.

He accused the West of the “politicization and excessive securitization” of economic issues, which has resulted in “rampant” unilateral sanctions and technological barriers for countries such as Russia and China. Wang urged the “big BRICS to “leverage” its political significance and transform the group into a new type of multilateral cooperation mechanism. The BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was joined by Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates in early 2024. “By expanding our membership, we have ushered in a new era of joint self-reliance for the Global South, with the influence and appeal of BRICS continually rising,” Wang stated.

He added that in a “contest” where some forces promote global multipolarity while others maintain a “unipolar hegemony,” the BRICS countries should “stand on the side of fairness and justice, and make the right choices.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed last week at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Western governments are “obsessed” with the idea of global dominance. She argued that Western leaders continue to adopt “exceptionalism” at the expense of other ethnic and cultural identities. However, the “collective West” is a minority whose worldview is not shared by the global majority, which has already embraced the concept of multipolarity, Zakharova insisted.

For 80 years, the Atom bomb has prevented a repeat of the horrors of the 1940s – Russia needs to leverage it again to stop American aggression.

Nuclear deterrence is not a myth. It kept the world safe during the Cold War. Deterrence is a psychological concept. You have to convince a nuclear-armed adversary that it will not achieve its objectives by attacking you, and that if it goes to war its own annihilation is assured. The mutual nuclear deterrence between the USSR and the US during their confrontation was reinforced by the reality of mutually assured destruction in the event of a massive exchange of nuclear strikes. Incidentally, the abbreviation for Mutually Assured Destruction is MAD. And that’s very apt.

There are several reasons for ‘mythologising’ nuclear deterrence. Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a widespread belief that every conceivable reason for nuclear war has disappeared. A new era of globalisation, with its emphasis on economic cooperation, has dawned. For the first time in history, the hegemony of a single power, the US, has been established globally. Nuclear weapons remain in the arsenals of the great powers - though fewer than at the height of the confrontation - but the fear of their use has faded. More dangerously, a new generation of politicians has come to the fore, unburdened either by the memory of decades of confrontation or by a sense of responsibility.

The American belief in its own exceptionalism and European ‘strategic parasitism’, devoid of any sense of self-preservation, is a dangerous combination. It’s in such an environment that the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on the nuclear power the is Russia – in a proxy conventional war in Ukraine –has been born. Russia’s atomic capabilities are being ignored. The parallels that Moscow tried to draw with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when Washington considered the possibility of a nuclear war with the USSR in response to the deployment of Soviet missiles in the neighbourhood of the United States, were rejected by the Americans as far-fetched.

In response, Moscow was forced to activate the deterrence factor. Under an agreement with Minsk, Russian nuclear weapons have been deployed in Belarus. Russian non-strategic nuclear forces have recently begun exercises. Nevertheless, Western countries continue to pursue escalation in the Ukrainian conflict, which, if left unchecked, could lead to a frontal military conflict between NATO and Russia and a nuclear war. This scenario can be prevented by further strengthening deterrence - more precisely, by ‘nuclear sobering up’ our adversaries. They must realise that it is impossible to win a conventional war involving the vital interests of a power armed with the bomb, and that any attempt to do so will lead to their own destruction. This is classic nuclear deterrence.

Dmitry Suslov: It’s time for Russia to think about a ‘demonstrative’ nuclear test.

The word ‘deterrence’ itself has a defensive connotation, but theoretically the strategy can also be used in an ‘offensive’ sense. This can happen when one party succeeds in dealing the first disarming blow to the enemy, and with its remaining forces threatens the weakened opponent with total destruction if they strike back. More appropriate here is the Anglo-American version of deterrence, which literally means ‘to intimidate’. The French, by the way, use the term ‘dissuasion’ in their concept.

A club of Eastern European and Baltic NATO nations is considering forcing out Hungary, a member state, for refusing to take the same stance on Ukraine, the Financial Times has reported, citing sources. The Bucharest Nine was founded in 2015 and includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Senior officials from the regional group regularly meet to coordinate their foreign and security policy; a gathering of its leaders is scheduled to take place in Riga on Tuesday. Hungary, however, may be expelled from the club over its refusal to endorse joint statements of support for sending military aid to Ukraine and otherwise support Kiev in its confrontation with Moscow, insider sources told The Financial Times.

”We are likely meeting in this format for the last time,” one of the people familiar with the situation told the newspaper, calling the discussions “very serious.” All members of the Bucharest Nine were either Warsaw Pact nations or Soviet republics during the Cold War, and joined NATO during its expansion after the USSR collapsed. Hungary, however, is at odds with the other countries over the Ukraine conflict. Budapest opposes the continued arming of Kiev, saying this only prolongs the hostilities, and advocates for immediate peace talks instead. It is also highly skeptical of Western promises to eventually bring Ukraine into NATO and the EU. Supporters of Kiev have branded the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “pro-Russian” over the position, which he says is guided by his nation’s interests.

A similar push to ostracize Hungary is reportedly underway within the EU, where some members have called for suspending its voting rights. Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency in the European Council, believes that the future of the bloc may depend on it, Politico reported last week. ”This is a moment of truth,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib told the news outlet, referring to the so-called Article 7 proceedings against Hungary. “If we go all the way with this mechanism, it must work. If it doesn’t work, we have to reform it. That’s the future of the European Union.” Hungary is scheduled to take over the presidency in July.

Jun 11, 2024

Featured • Using Ukraine Since 1948, Joe Lauria, Consortium News, Jun 10, 2024

The C.I.A. worked with Lebed on sabotage and pro-Ukrainian nationalist propaganda operations inside Ukraine until Ukraine’s independence in 1991.

“Mykola Lebed’s relationship with the CIA lasted the entire length of the Cold War,” the study says. “While most CIA operations involving wartime perpetrators backfired, Lebed’s operations augmented the fundamental instability of the Soviet Union.”

The U.S. thus covertly kept Ukrainian fascist ideas alive inside Ukraine until at least Ukrainian independence was achieved.

Mykola Lebed, Bandera’s wartime chief in Ukraine, died in 1998.

He is buried in New Jersey, and his papers are located at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, the U.S. National Archives study says.

The successor organization to the OUN-B in the United States did not die with him, however. It had been renamed the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), according to IBT.

“By the mid-1980s, the Reagan administration was honeycombed with UCCA members. Reagan personally welcomed [Yaroslav] Stetsko, the Banderist leader who oversaw the massacre of 7,000 Jews in Lviv, in the White House in 1983,” IBT reported. “Following the demise of [Viktor] Yanukovich’s regime [in 2014], the UCCA helped organise rallies in cities across the US in support of the EuroMaidan protests,” it reported.

That is a direct link between the U.S.-backed 2014 Maidan coup against a democratically-elected Ukrainian government and WWII-era Ukrainian fascism.

As the Ukraine’s peak summer electricity season approaches, the list of the Russian General Staff’s Electric War targets is shrinking. This is because almost all the Ukrainian electricity generating plants have been stopped. What remains for destruction are the connecting lines and distribution grids for the Ukraine’s imported electricity from Poland and other European Union neighbours. The microwave and cell telephone towers, and the diesel fuel stocks which are powering the back-up generating sets are next....

On June 6-7, The Washington Post – editorial motto, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” – reported Ukrainian utility managers and state officials as confirming that at least 86% of the country’s electricity generating capacity has now been destroyed. “We are catastrophically short of electricity for our needs,” the newspaper quoted Sergei Kovalenko, chief executive of the Ukrainian private electricity distributor YASNO, ….The power cuts have divided Kiev into the haves and the have-nots — with even residents at some privileged, high-end addresses suddenly finding themselves in the latter category.”...

“This is in no way sustainable,” comments a NATO military engineer. “Note how each shop has its own genset. The generators in the video are not designed for the duty cycle they’re being run at. They’ll wear out soon enough. The military, including deployed NATO personnel, use the shops and the gensets, too.”...

Independently of one another, Russian and Ukrainian reporters are confirming the impact of the power losses on the operation of water and sewerage systems in the majority of Ukrainian cities. According to Oleg Popenko, a Ukrainian expert on energy for communal services, “Armageddon has already arrived. We just don’t feel it yet. But the residents of Poltava, for example, feel it, because since May 5 of this year, 120,000 residents of the city receive water by the hour and use sewerage by the hour. You can imagine what happened in Zhitomir when the central sewerage collector didn’t work there for a week, but now in Poltava [it’s been] a month. And this is the problem with water utilities in 70% of Ukrainian cities. Water utilities are probably more important than rest of the infrastructure in the city. Heat and electricity can be replaced somehow, and you can go somewhere. But if the sewer system breaks down in a city, the city is no longer viable in principle.”

The State Department has allowed the delivery of US weapons to Ukraine’s Azov Brigade, whose members openly espouse ultranationalist and neo-Nazi views. The flow of arms had previously been restricted due to the unit’s ties to hateful ideology...

The unit’s primary co-founder Andrey Biletsky was a member of a white supremacist organization in the 2000s. He has since toned down his rhetoric and denied ties to neo-Nazism. Nevertheless, many Azov fighters continue to sport Nazi tattoos and memorabilia associated with the Third Reich....In 2018, Congress banned the delivery of arms to the Azov Brigade, citing its ties to neo-Nazi ideology. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, said at the time that “white supremacy and neo-Nazism are unacceptable and have no place in our world.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which combats anti-Semitism and monitors hate groups, described the unit in 2019 as a “Ukrainian extremist group” with ties to US-based neo-Nazi organization Atomwaffen and similar white supremacist movements in Europe. The ADL has since changed its view, however, writing in an email to The Grayzone news outlet in late 2022 that it no longer considered Azov as the “far-right group it once was.” Many Azov fighters surrendered to Russian troops during the siege of the city of Mariupol in 2022. Moscow has accused the members of the unit of war crimes, including torture and execution of civilians.

Jun 10, 2024

Featured • Western war hawks want Ukraine’s resources – Orban, RT, Jun 9, 2024

Western countries want Kiev to achieve victory in the conflict with Russia, because it would give them the opportunity to “acquire and divide” Ukraine’s wealth, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. In an interview with Hir TV on Saturday, Orban contemplated the reasons behind NATO’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict, which has grown more pronounced in recent months with numerous aid packages, weapons deliveries, and talk of Western troops on the ground in the battle zone. According to him, the bloc’s members see Ukraine as a potentially huge source of revenue, which they will be able to control once Russian forces are driven out. “The fact is that the Western warmongering leaders want to defeat Russia in this war, and the reason is rather simple – it is money.

Consider Ukraine’s capabilities: It is a rich country that is hugely indebted… Ukraine’s wealth can be acquired and divided, the agricultural land, the economic opportunities, and who knows what else,” Orban stated, noting that the process of gaining influence over Kiev has already begun, with talk of Western loans for its military effort and reconstruction. Orban noted that the West viewed Russia in a similar light after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, when then-President Boris Yeltsin came to power. They wish to go back to the 90s, when not only Ukraine, but also Russia was available, those resources, wealth, money… Many Americans and Europeans remember the 90s as a period of great economic opportunities, when they were welcomed without any obstacles into the Russian economy, and started to transform and exploit it,” he said, adding, however, that eventually the Russians “decided it was not such a brilliant idea” and took their economy back.

According to Orban, the Ukraine conflict itself has become a major source of revenue, which is why it is difficult to stop at this point. “When such a war starts, they see the opportunity, they ask – what can we get out of this? Then come the arms suppliers, the creditors, the speculators, and they look for a chance to enrich themselves and they push the war machine forward.” Orban stressed that Hungary has been opposed to Western involvement in the conflict from the start, calling Brussels and Washington “the sources” of the “war madness.” He also claimed that the conflict could be ended within 24 hours if pro-peace forces come to power in the US and EU, which he hopes will happen in the upcoming EU Parliament elections and the US presidential election later this year. (emphasis added)

The concepts of hegemony and global dominance, which the Collective West clings to, have no place in the multipolar world order – which is already becoming a reality, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday. Speaking at a panel discussion on new norms of international relations at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Zakharova slammed Western governments for resisting the structural changes which have already started with regard to the self-organization of nations and their interactions with other states. “We are talking about polycentrism, a departure from previous norms, and we see the desperate resistance of the Collective West… They see the norm differently – as their own dominance, as a world order based on one rule – that they must dominate as before, and everyone must do only what the dominant allows them to do,” she stated, adding that the drive for dominance has only ever “led humanity to monstrous tragedies,” including colonialism and Nazism.

“Today it is hegemonism, an obsession with domination, a painful pseudo-messianic idea of [the West’s] global mission… But neither people nor states can declare themselves as missionaries, only history can prove whether their mission was good or based on unhealthy ideas,” Zakharova said. She added that the ideas of global dominance, of the exceptionalism of some nations amid the destruction of ethnic and cultural identities of others have repeatedly been expressed by Western leaders. She went on to say that these ideas are not shared by the global majority, which has already embraced the concept of multipolarity. “We should not forget, they are a minority – the Collective West… their worldview is shared by no one except for them,” she said, citing memorandums adopted by multinational blocs as the Russian-led BRICS group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, African Union, and others, in which member states commit to forming a multipolar world order.

“The SCO… covers 3 billion people – half of humanity… BRICS covers over 30% of the Earth’s land mass, 45% of the world population – some 3.5 billion people, and 33% of global GDP… 3% more than the GDP of the G7,” she stated.= Zakharova noted that even in the West, some analysts claim that “the US has not been a world hegemon for a long time,” while “its actions in the international arena have led to the destabilization of world politics.” However, until there are significant changes in policy and ideology, Russia and its global allies have “a long struggle ahead” to form a truly polycentric world order, she said. “While our cause is not simple, it is worthy and noble. And we will walk this path as a global majority. We don’t call it a mission, though, we call it our goal and objective.”

Ukraine’s Western sponsors crossed a red line when they allowed Kiev to use their weapons to strike at targets in Russia, Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner said in an interview to Die Presse published on Saturday. Several NATO members have openly supported the use of Western-produced armaments for cross-border strikes against Russia in recent weeks, ostensibly in a limited manner. The West insists that it is still not a party to the conflict, and only supports Kiev’s efforts to stall Russia’s push into Kharkov Region, which Moscow launched to move the line of contact away from the border to prevent further Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians. “A red line has been crossed,” Tanner said when asked about the US, France, and Germany granting permission to use their weapons in cross-border strikes.

When the interviewer asked how else Kiev could stall the Kharkov operation, the Austrian Defense Minister replied that “as a militarily neutral state, it is not our place to judge.” Tanner added that she is at least “pleased that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has clarified that NATO will not be sending troops to Ukraine.” In a press conference on Thursday, Stoltenberg said the US-led military bloc has no plans to deploy ground forces to Ukraine. Despite this, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday that he is almost ready to finalize an international coalition to officially send Western military “instructors” to train troops in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed that Moscow has long been aware that Western military personnel are already fighting in Ukraine under the guise of “mercenaries” and “volunteers.”

Western-produced long-ranged armaments used by Kiev in cross-border strikes are also often controlled and serviced by these foreign troops, the Russian president said last month. And even if Ukrainians are pulling the trigger, the US and its allies are the ones providing Kiev intelligence on Russian targets, he added. Moscow has warned that Western-backed long-range attacks on Russian territory will amount to direct Western participation in the conflict, and that Russia reserves the right to respond in kind. “We can respond asymmetrically,” Putin said on Wednesday, suggesting that Moscow could supply similar weapons around the world, where they could be used against Western targets.

The belief in the West that allowing the use of long-range weapons and F-16s to attack targets on the Russian mainland would change the course of the war is embarrassing in its naiveté. Any elemental analysis of the balance of power between the Ukraine side (along with the support from the West) and the Russian side shows that Putin’s forces have decisive advantages in air power, air defense, armor, missiles, drones, industrial capacity, and manpower.

Launching a handful of long-range shots into Russia will hurt them, but it will do nothing to change the course of the war, much less its outcome. Consider that even the Russian campaign of consistent and devastating long-range missile strikes into critical Ukrainian military infrastructure has never brought Kyiv’s forces to heel. A sustained and large-scale campaign from the West against Russia would have similarly minimal results – but it might push Russia to retaliate.

There is nothing for the United States to gain and a great deal to lose by expanding the allowed target list of our weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. Risking nuclear escalation is foolish to the highest degree. Biden's permission last week should be rescinded immediately before any damage is done.

The most prudent course of action at this point is to seek a negotiated settlement on the best terms available, end this current war, and do all in our diplomatic power to prevent the outbreak of a future one. Risking an existential war with Russia when American national security is not at risk is the height of foolishness.

Jun 9, 2024

 • ‘Has the West Successfully Demonized Russia?’ RT panel: Key takeaways, RT, Jun 7, 2024

 • EU is in ‘war psychosis’ – Orban, RT, Jun 7, 2024

The EU has plunged into “war psychosis” in the Ukraine conflict, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said, arguing that this mindset will almost certainly lead to the deployment of Western troops in the country. In an interview with Radio Kossuth on Friday, Orban said the West was “approaching the end of its possibilities” for the conflict between Moscow and Kiev to be ended, adding that “whoever claims that there is no immediate danger of war is deceiving people.” “Only a blind person does not see that there is a war psychosis in Europe, the logical conclusion of which will be the arrival of the military units of the Western European countries on the territory of Ukraine, at best not on the front line,” the prime minister said.

Orban said that, despite tensions reaching boiling point, “hope dies last” and the ongoing European Parliament election could defuse the crisis to a certain extent. According to the Hungarian leader, if the conflict does not spill beyond the Russian-Ukrainian front in the coming weeks, “as early as November if [US presidential candidate] Donald Trump returns, and with a good European election behind us, we can make a pan-Western, transatlantic peace coalition” to cease hostilities. Orban insisted that Hungary must refrain from taking part in any possible NATO mission in Ukraine, noting that if Budapest’s troops were to do so, they would be commanded by officers appointed by the US-led military bloc.

“If this happens, then we have lost a very important part of our sovereignty,” he said, adding that Hungary was already paying an economic price for the conflict.

Jun 7, 2024

 • Russian Public Opinion Sharpens on End-Of-War Objectives, Dances with Bears, John Helmer, Jun 6, 2024

A newly released national poll reveals that Russian public support for the Army and for President Vladimir Putin is growing. At the same time, the proportion of Russians in favour of expanded military operations is rising at the expense of those who favour negotiations. The outcomes for negotiations acceptable to the Russians who support them are rapidly shrinking, too. This Russian conviction is strengthening in the face of the battlefield casualty rate which, unusually, Putin acknowledged this week to be ten thousand a month. Putin told a press conference on June 5 : “our losses, especially as concerns irreparable losses, unfortunately, then they are several times less than on the Ukrainian side. If we talk about approximate irretrievable losses, then the ratio is the same: one to about five… According to our calculations, the Ukrainian army loses 50,000 people per month as sanitary and irretrievable losses both, although their irretrievable and sanitary losses are approximately 50/50.”

Since the Russian rate of casualty survival for troops at the front is substantially better than the Ukrainian rate because of superior evacuation, front-line and rear medical care, Putin’s numbers suggest that the Russian killed-in-action (KIA) number is at least 3,000 per month. According to a nationwide survey by face-to-face interview in Russian homes between May 23 and 29, the Levada Centre in Moscow, an independent polling organisation, reports: “Half of the respondents believe it is necessary to move on to peace negotiations — 43% are in favour of continuing military operations, their share has been growing in recent months. However, the majority is not ready to make concessions regarding Ukraine and this share is growing. Russians consider the exchange of prisoners of war and a ceasefire to be acceptable conditions for signing a peace agreement, while the return of new regions and Ukraine’s accession to NATO are completely unacceptable.

Peace talks must start right now to end the Ukraine conflict, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told journalists on Thursday on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Russia. The minister is attending the economic forum to discuss energy cooperation between Hungary and Russia, among other things. Hungary differs from the majority of EU and NATO members in opposing the continued arming of Ukraine. Szijjarto said Budapest’s position is driven by the fact that as long as hostilities continue, the risk of a major escalation will grow “each day.” “Peace needs to be achieved as soon as possible. Peace talks need to start, and a ceasefire has to be achieved now,” he was quoted as saying. ”It is absolutely obvious that the war cannot be resolved with arms,” he added. “The sooner negotiations start, the fewer people will die.”

Andrea Zhok is a professor of Ethical Philosophy at the University of Milan and one of the foremost independent Italian intellectuals. Zhok takes us further into the – appropriately tragic – dead-end now contemplated by the collective west.

The west under the Hegemon, he says, only ever had a Plan A. There was no Plan B. That implies the west will continue to apply all forms of Divide and Rule against the major Eurasian powers – Russia, China, and Iran. Zhok notes, correctly, that India is substantially under control.

That’s the crossroads scenario we’re in right now. Looking ahead, it’s either an Open Hot War or an array of Hybrid Wars between major powers and their vassals – essentially, the Third World War.

Zhok shows how the west under the Hegemon is now obsessed with creating “systemic wounds” capable of cyclical destruction. To open these “wounds,” there are two main procedures: war and pandemics.

He argues that only “a new horizon of human sacrifice” is capable of allowing the west’s “Ultimate Truth” to continue standing on its clay feet.

In fact, it is this “new horizon of human sacrifice” that is conditioning the west’s non-response – or worse, legitimization – of the Gaza genocide. And that is inexorably corroding the European psyche from the inside. What used to be called European civilization – now completely vassalized by the Hegemon – may not ever be cured of the cancer.

If these trials and tribulations were not enough, irrational messengers – under orders – are busy bringing us closer day after day to a nuclear war.

It is hard to say what the Russians will do beyond what they are already doing. The new policy, unfortunately, commits NATO to a war with Russia and approaches a declaration of war against Russia.

This means that the Russians could retaliate and some in Russia are known to be pushing for that. Doing so would instantly expand the war to Europe, a policy shift Putin has resisted.

The likely result of all this is that the Ukraine war will continue. NATO will take even more losses, including NATO soldiers. Behind the scenes, plans to use air power or NATO ground forces are unlikely to be implemented given the dire consequences for Europe. NATO’s flirtation with a bigger war is horribly risky, as serious thinkers in Europe and the United States realize.

Spooking the Russians to back off by attacking Russian territory or sending in French soldiers will not work as the Russians have already priced in that reality and are plowing ahead with the war in Ukraine. Furthermore, NATO’s failure to negotiate over Ukraine means the bleeding out of NATO’s already limited capabilities will continue.

Jun 6, 2024

Featured • Normalizing War with Russia, Paul Craig Roberts, Jun 6, 2024

Featured • "He's Not The Same Person": Biden Allies Freak After WSJ Blasts "Slipping" Brain, ZeroHedge, Jun 6, 2024

The Biden administration is scrambling for damage control over the president’s mental condition. Over the past month, the White House claimed executive privilege over an audio tape of Biden’s classified documents interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, the transcripts of which were altered to make Biden seem more competent Next, TIME Magazine’s Massimo Calabresi couldn’t give a straight answer over Biden’s serious cognitive decline exhibited during an interview. Now, the White House and Biden allies are slamming a Tuesday report from the Wall Street Journal in which 45 people from both sides of the aisle told the outlet that Biden is, to put it mildly, two sandwiches short of a picnic. The Journal cites a January meeting behind closed doors during a critical discussion about Ukraine funding, Biden’s soft-spoken nursing home demeanor led some participants to question his engagement, as he occasionally read from notes and paused. “You couldn’t be there and not feel uncomfortable,” one attendee noted about the meeting’s dynamics, adding “I’ll just say that.”

The US only cares about its own grandeur and is involved in the Ukraine crisis in order to fulfil its global ambitions, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the leaders of global media agencies ahead of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Wednesday. Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Kiev since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.When asked about a potential shift in US policy towards Russia, Putin said that it is largely dependent on Washington itself and its perception of reality. America is currently obsessed with globalist ambitions that are “destroying the US from within,” the president said. US involvement in the Ukraine conflict is just one manifestation of that globalist policy, he told journalists.“Nobody in the US cares about Ukraine’s interests,” Putin said. Americans are “not fighting for Ukraine or the Ukrainian people, they are fighting for their own grandeur and global leadership.”

According to Putin, the current administration is not so much interested in helping Kiev prevail in the ongoing standoff but is rather “determined to prevent any Russian success precisely because they believe it would damage US leadership [positions].” Those globalist ambitions are harmful to America itself, Putin maintained, naming “high inflation and a huge debt” among the biggest challenges the US is currently facing. A future administration could reverse this destructive trend by focusing on “strengthening the US from within, strengthening its economy and finances, and building up normal relations with the world,” he said, adding that such policies could then bring some “real change” in relations between Moscow and Washington as well. The president’s words came just a day after the Kremlin called the US an “enemy” for the first time. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred to Washington as such while speaking to journalists on Tuesday.

“We are now an enemy country for them – much like they are for us,” Peskov said at that time, describing the two nations’ attitudes toward each other. The Kremlin has previously referred to the US as an “unfriendly state” or “opponent.” Peskov was commenting on Washington’s decision not to allow former US marine, UN weapons inspector and RT contributor Scott Ritter to travel to St. Petersburg to take part in several SPIEF panel discussions. Earlier, the US also let Kiev use American-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia, beyond what the US considers Ukrainian territory. Moscow has repeatedly warned that such actions, alongside continued weapons shipments to Kiev, only lead to further escalation and increase the risk of an all-out war between Russia and NATO, which can easily spiral into World War III.

“Unfortunately, Europe today is a Europe of war. This is the current European agenda… I cannot conceal my sadness… I have always dreamed about a Europe of pluralism, a Europe of freedom, constitution, art,” she told the meeting, adding that Europe has "lost its soul, it is dead.”

On June 3, the former Marine Corps intelligence officer and Sputnik contributor was removed by US Customs and Border Protection officers from a plane bound for Russia, where he was to attend the 2024 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) does not have the authority to seize passports without probable cause, former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter told Sputnik, commenting on Monday’s incident. Ritter recalled that as he prepared to board the plane, he was pulled out of line by three armed CBP officers who took control of his passport. He said that when he asked them “on what authority,” they cited orders from the US Department of State. “They provided no warrant, no documentation, nor did they provide a receipt for my passport. They provided no explanation of what they were doing. They just did it,” the Sputnik contributor pointed out.

Ukrainian nationals with dual citizenship have been barred from leaving the country, a border guard official said on Tuesday. They are also no longer exempt from the military draft under a new mobilization law. The authorities are struggling to replenish the army ranks as a result of heavy casualties suffered on the battlefield. Russia’s Defense Ministry estimates that Ukraine’s armed forces lost more than 35,000 troops in May alone. Ukrainians with dual citizenship were previously allowed to leave the country, border service spokesman Andrey Demchenko told state TV on Tuesday. “We are not letting this category of citizens through now,” he added.He cited a recent government decree that obliged such people to register for the draft within 30 days. Previously, dual citizens and Ukrainians who were living abroad under a residence permit had been exempted from military service.

Earlier, Defense Ministry spokesman Dmitry Lazutkin also demanded the return of Ukrainians who were residing abroad, saying they should visit their territorial draft offices in person even if they have updated their data remotely. The US embassy in Kiev immediately warned Americans who hold Ukrainian citizenship against traveling to Ukraine. “Effective June 1, Ukraine has eliminated a ‘residence abroad’ exception that previously allowed certain Ukrainian males aged 18 to 60 to depart the country,” it said in a statement, adding that “US-Ukrainian dual citizens… may no longer be able to depart the country” in light of the changes. The diplomatic mission then advised those who are already in Ukraine to “shelter in place and obey all local orders,” while cautioning those “not currently in Ukraine” against traveling there. “There is an extremely high risk you will not be allowed to depart, even with a US passport,” the statement said.

The countries of Eurasia have little to fear from Russia achieving its goals in Ukraine. The emerging mutual security space within the SCO will make the continent – minus Western Europe, for the time being – far more stable, whether in terms of strategic stability in major-power relations, regional security systems (like the one proposed by Russia in the Gulf), or the risks of terrorism. New financial arrangements within the BRICS group will make dollar-free transactions among the members safer; new Eurasia-wide logistics can provide for better connectivity within the world’s largest and most diverse continent. Eventually, the countries of Western Europe – or far western Eurasia, if you like – will have to make a choice between staying in the US orbit as America’s power continues to shrink, or reaching out east to a vast and vibrant new world next door.

Nothing will change after US elections – Putin The upcoming presidential contest in the US will not fundamentally alter Russian-American relations, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Putin spoke with heads of international news agencies on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

“We believe no serious changes will happen after the elections,” the Russian leader explained, in response to a question from Reuters.

Putin reminded reporters that he had already commented on this issue, describing the incumbent US president Joe Biden as “an old-school politician” and “more predictable” than his predecessor and challenger Donald Trump.

“Everyone took my statement about Biden as some kind of joke at his expense,” Putin noted, adding that the American president’s reaction – to attack and insult the Russian leader – just proved his point that Biden was predictable.

Putin pointed out that Russia “never had any special relations” with Trump, whom the Democrats in 2016 accused of being a kind of Russian agent. The Republican president had in fact introduced “massive sanctions” against Russia and exited the INF treaty.

By prosecuting Trump in court, however, the Americans are “burning themselves up from the inside, their state, their political system,” Putin told reporters. “They are burning it down to the ground.”

The entire world can see that the persecution of Trump is just abuse of the American judicial system for political purposes, the Russian president said. He pointed to a spike in Trump’s popularity and fundraising after the felony conviction in New York as proof that Americans don’t believe in the impartiality of their justice system anymore.

“The current administration is making one mistake after another,” Putin said.

Asked if a change in the White House might translate into a change of US policy on Ukraine, the Russian president said it would depend on the next administration’s goals.

If their objective is to make the US stronger and build better relations with the rest of the world instead, “then something might change,” Putin replied.

“Nobody in the US cares about Ukraine’s interests,” Putin said. Americans are “not fighting for Ukraine or the Ukrainian people, they are fighting for their own grandeur and global leadership.”

Ritter was slated to participate in the annual St.Petersburg International Economic Forum as a guest speaker.

“As I was boarding my flight out of New York I was pulled aside by three CBP officers, who seized my passport. When asked why, they said orders of the State Department. No further information was provided. My bags were removed from the flight, and I was escorted out of the airport,” the former US Marine intelligence officer told Sputnik.

Scott Ritter added that his passport was not given back. He said he will appeal the decision.

Ritter believes US authorities are afraid of his participation in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

“Is this done under the First Amendment to the US Constitution or the Fourth?” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked sarcastically, commenting on Scott Ritter's removal from his flight to Russia and the confiscation of his passport.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees, among other things, non-interference with the freedoms of speech and assembly, while the Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and detentions.

SPIEF is the largest annual Russian business event in the economic sphere, and is attended by dozens of politicians and entrepreneurs from around the world. This year, the forum will take place on June 5-8.

Jun 3, 2024

Featured • West Opts for Borodino Strategy in Ukraine and China, Larry Johnson, June 3, 2024

Putin now is warning the West that Ukrainian strikes inside Russia is another redline that will be met with a Russian military response. It is deja vu all over again, most of the West is ignoring Putin’s admonition. While the missiles the West is supplying — i.e., Himars, ATACMS, Storm Shadows and Taurus — have limited range (the Taurus can travel the farthest, an estimated 300 miles), it is still a gross violation of Russia’s sovereignty. I will reiterate the point I made in an earlier article, if Russia supplied missiles to Mexico that were then used to hit targets inside the United States, the American people would demand retaliation. Why in the hell do Americans indulge the fantasy that the Russians won’t care? Total madness.

When men like Ted Postol, Stephen Bryen and Doug MacGregor are expressing open alarm over the rhetorical and physical escalation by the West towards Russia, you know you have entered a zone of enormous danger. I know all three men, and they are not given to emotion or wild predictions. Yet, in this current situation, they are genuinely frightened by what they are seeing. I share their fear.

The Borodino strategy is not confined to Ukraine. The United States is intent on going to war with China. That is insanity. Just as Napoleon’s deep incursion into Russia stretched his lines of communications (i.e. logistics) to the point of collapse, the United States is talking about a military confrontation with China that it cannot sustain.

The failure of Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea, which ostensibly has nothing to do with China, is in fact a precursor of what the United States would encounter if it goes to war with China. Projecting power with surface ships in an age of drones and hypersonic missiles, is the 21st Century analogy of attacking a machine gun position with horse-mounted cavalry.

NATO members Norway and Finland have said Ukraine can carry out long-range strikes against Russia using Western weapons provided by the US-led military bloc. The statement came after US President Joe Biden reportedly gave Kiev permission to use American weapons to hit targets in the part of Russia bordering Ukraine’s Kharkov Region. On Thursday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called on member states to permit Ukraine to use weapons for striking targets inside Russian territory. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has said there should be no restrictions on the use of weapons provided to Ukraine by Western countries.

“We also believe that Ukraine has an absolutely clear international right to attack Russia on its territory as part of its defense of its own territory,” Eide said in an interview with Norwegian broadcaster NRK.In an interview with Japanese media on Thursday, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said there was no problem with Ukraine striking Russian territory with weapons provided by the West, as long as it complies with international law.“There is no problem with using the weapons provided to attack Russia in self-defense. It would be hypocritical to send weapons that cannot be used,” he said, as quoted by Nikkei news agency.The Ukrainian leadership has been demanding for NATO to permit the use of its weapons to attack targets deep inside Russia.

Latvia and Poland earlier said they were in favor of such strikes. However, Italy and Hungary have voiced their opposition to the idea. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reportedly made a U-turn on the issue, saying on Wednesday that he now supports Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia, despite earlier concerns about escalation with Moscow, according to Politico. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Kiev’s Western backers need to understand that long-range strikes on Russian territory using weaponry they have supplied would represent a conflict escalation and lead to “serious consequences.”

The West is thoroughly involved in the ongoing Ukraine conflict and is also widening it, former US Assistant Treasury Secretary in the Reagan administration Paul Craig Roberts told Sputnik commenting on the latest US announcement that President Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to use its weapons near Kharkov. Roberts pointed out that the Ukraine conflict has been widening ever since it started with the West sending every weapon to Ukraine that initially it said it would not. “Troops would never be sent, but the French Foreign Legion is now sent, and the NATO consensus is building to send NATO troops,” he said. A State Department spokesperson told Sputnik that Biden has greenlighted Ukrainian strikes using US-supplied weapons inside the Russian territory for counter-fire purposes in the Kharkov region of Ukraine, but has not authorized the use of long-range missiles, including ATACMS, inside Russia. “There is no reason for long-range missiles supplied to Ukraine by Washington except to hit distant targets. Long-range missiles are not battlefront weapons, Roberts asserted.

“If the missiles are not intended to be used for their purpose, why give them to Ukraine?” Roberts went on to say that although Russia has won in its stated goal of liberating Donbas, that region is not the endgame for the West.

“Putin has won his version of the war – the liberation of Donbas – but Washington’s version of the war is not limited to Donbas,” he said. “If Putin doesn’t quickly use the necessary force to bring the conflict to a quick end, he will be faced with NATO troops in Western Ukraine and the incorporation of Ukraine west of the Dnieper into NATO with nuclear missile bases on Russia’s expanded border.” Ukraine has received billions of dollars in donations and loans from its allies since Russia launched its special military operation in February 2022. The United States alone has provided more than $100 billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid. Russia has repeatedly warned countries supplying weapons to Ukraine that it sees military shipments as legitimate targets.

Washington is “not looking” for a shooting war with Russia, national security spokesman John Kirby has said.

US President Joe Biden does not want the standoff with Russia over Ukraine to trigger a global war, the White House national security spokesman has said.

John Kirby was speaking days after the White House confirmed that Biden had granted Kiev permission to use US-supplied weapons for strikes deep inside Russia.

Ukraine had requested an easing of restrictions on the use of foreign arms after Russian troops launched a new offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkov Region last month, capturing several border villages.

“We’ve been concerned about escalation since the very beginning of this war. And those concerns remain valid,” Kirby told ABC News on Sunday. “The president has said he does not want to be responsible for starting World War III. We’re not looking for a conflict with Russia, another nuclear power.”

Kirby said Biden “had understood all of the ramifications” of allowing Kiev to use American weapons “for counter-fire purposes.” He reiterated that Ukrainians were only permitted to target bases, artillery positions and other military sites “that Russians were using to create some sort of buffer zones.”

Saudi Arabia will not attend the Swiss-hosted peace conference on Ukraine in June because Russia will not be represented, German news agency DPA reported on Sunday, citing Saudi diplomatic sources. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Saudi Arabia, scheduled for past Saturday, may now take place after the “peace conference” in Switzerland, the report read. Riyadh has not yet officially announced its decision not to attend the conference. Switzerland will host the summit on Ukraine not far off from the city of Lucerne from June 15-16. In April, the spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Bern, Vladimir Khokhlov, told Sputnik that Russia was not invitied to the summit, adding that Moscow had no plans to participate in the event even if invited.

China and Brazil have also refused to take part in the conference. Even Washington, despite being its main proponent, cannot say who will represent the US. President Joe Biden is due to attend a Hollywood fundraising gala for his re-election campaign instead.

Hundreds of thousands participated in a peace march in Hungary’s capital, Budapest on Saturday, denouncing the EU’s policy of escalating tensions with Russia. The event culminated with a speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who accused Brussels of bringing Europe closer to a global conflict. The demonstrators marched from the iconic Chain Bridge to Margaret Island on the Danube River. Many carried flags, chanted pacifist slogans, and held signs reading “No war” and “Give us peace, Lord.” “Never before have so many people lined up for peace. We are the biggest peace corps, the largest peacekeeping force in Europe,” the prime minister said, as quoted by Reuters. “Europe must be prevented from rushing into war, into its own destruction.”

Orban said his country must draw lessons from the devastation it went through the darkest times of the 20th century. “In the two world wars, the Hungarians lost 1.5 million lives, and with them – their future children and grandchildren,” he told the crowd. “I’m saying this slowly so that Brussels would understand: we will not go to war. We will not go to the East for a third time, we will not go to the Russian front again.” Orban urged everyone to support the “pro-peace and pro-sovereignty” agenda of the ruling Fidesz party in the European Parliament election next week. “Do we want to shed Hungarian blood for Ukraine? No, we don’t,” he said. The pro-war [forces] have gone beyond common sense by wanting to defeat Russia as they tried to do during the First World War and the Second World war.

Since the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, Orban has repeatedly accused the EU leadership in Brussels of dangerous brinkmanship with Moscow and warned that the bloc must not allow itself to be dragged into a full-blown war. Budapest has refused to provide any military aid to Ukraine and threatened to veto financial assistance to Kiev. Orban heavily criticized the economic sanctions imposed on Moscow by the EU, arguing that the bloc had “shot itself in the lungs” by undermining trade and its own energy supply.

The first group of French military instructors are coming to Ukraine, high-profile Ukrainian politician Aleksey Goncharenko said on Friday. His statement comes just days after Ukraine’s top commander Aleksandr Syrsky announced that had authorized the presence of the French personnel in the country. “My sources informed me that the first group of French instructors is already on its way to Ukraine,” Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and a delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday evening. NATO boots on the ground is a contentious issue inside the US-led alliance, whose members maintain that they are not parties to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Moscow, meanwhile, has said that it views Ukraine’s Western backers as direct participants, stressing that Western-supplied weapons are being used to strike targets on Russian soil. In February, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he could not rule out the possibility of NATO member states sending troops to Ukraine in the future, although French officials soon clarified that he meant non-combat personnel. Macron later argued that NATO should adopt a policy of “strategic ambiguity” towards Russia. The French leader has been working behind the scenes to forge a coalition of countries willing to dispatch trainers to Kiev, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The West is bringing the Ukraine conflict to a stage in which it could spiral into uncontrolled escalation with potentially global repercussions, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said. This comes amid reports that many Western countries have allowed Ukraine to use foreign-made weapons to strike deep into Russia. Writing on Telegram on Friday, Medvedev, who serves as the deputy chief of Russia’s Security Council, stated that Western countries, which are said to have signed off on long-range strikes, must understand that their military equipment and personnel either operating in Ukraine or carrying out attacks on Russia from other countries, “will be destroyed.” He stressed that Russia considers all long-range systems used by Ukraine to be directly controlled by NATO personnel. “This is not some kind of ‘military assistance, this is taking part in a war against us.”

Medvedev said NATO wants Western involvement in the conflict to be seen as the independent initiative of certain countries, hoping to avoid the need to invoke the collective defense clause. The former president dismissed this narrative as a “dangerous and harmful delusion.” According to him, actions such as sending troops to Ukraine or guiding long-range weapons are a “serious escalation of the conflict.” While the US-led military bloc wants to believe that Russia would never use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine or NATO, “life could be much worse than their frivolous reasoning” allows, Medvedev warned. He went on to say that the West risks miscalculating the chances of nuclear weapons being used, just as it failed to anticipate the start of Russia’s Ukraine operation. This is not intimidation or nuclear bluff. The current military conflict with the West is developing according to the worst possible scenario. The power of the deployed NATO-made weapons is constantly escalating. That is why today no one can exclude the transition of the conflict to its final stage. (emphasis added)

Russian officials blasted Washington and its allies on Friday over the escalation of the Ukrainian proxy war through NATO countries’ decision to approve long-range attacks on Russia, with both the Kremlin and the Foreign Ministry pointing out that the alliance never shied away from allowing its proxies in Kiev to target the Russian hinterland.“We are aware that attempts to strike Russian territory with American-made weapons are already being made. This is sufficient for us, and it clearly demonstrates the extent of the United States’ involvement in this conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

Separately on Friday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that allies had approved long-range strike weapons’ deployment, and said the bloc expects Kiev to use these arms “in a responsible way” in line with international law. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed Stoltenberg, saying in a Telegram post that it was “obvious that NATO was lying and creating a smokescreen, inventing a story that they supposedly had not yet decided to allow or not allow the Kiev regime to carry out strikes using Western weapons on Russian territory.” Former Russian president and deputy Security Council head Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that Russia would “proceed from the fact” that all long-range weapons used by Ukraine “are directly controlled by military personnel of NATO country,” and emphasized that “this is not ‘military assistance’, but participation in a war against us” which constitutes a possible “casus belli.”

If there is any hope, it may be that the abominable reality galvanizes the world to rise up against this criminal system and the war criminals that lord it in high office.

This week may go down as the week that saw the collective Western leadership being self-indicted as criminally insane.

First of all, we see United States President Joe Biden declaring that the massacre of civilians in Gaza does not “cross any red lines” that might bar further crucial American support for the Israeli regime.

Then we have Biden and other Western political figures declaring their permission for the Ukrainian regime to strike Russian territory with long-range NATO weapons. This is the same regime that glorifies the Nazi Third Reich and collaborators in World War Two genocide, and whose president canceled elections, now becoming a dictator.

It is entirely fitting – and heinous – that accomplices to genocide in Gaza are also recklessly pushing for global nuclear conflagration.

The abhorrent public position of Biden and other Western leaders should be a shocking wake-up call for citizens all around the world as to the criminal nature of these powers. It is all the more sickening given the arrogant claims of the US to be the “leader of the free world” and narcissistic notions about “Western, American, European values”.

Biden has personally taken up a crusade based on a narrative of “leading democracy against autocracy” and promoting a “rules-based global order”.

The conceited Western powers routinely vilify Russia, China, Iran, and others as “autocracies” that are threatening supposedly precious freedoms of democracy and international law.

However, the world can vividly see how bankrupt the US and its Western partners are. Never before has the ugly truth been so naked.

The likelihood of a full-scale war breaking out between Russia and the West is growing, but it is not inevitable, Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) Director General Ivan Timofeev told TASS.

"A full-scale war is not is not a foregone conclusion, but unfortunately, its likelihood is growing," he pointed out ahead of an international conference titled "Russia and China: Cooperation in a New Era." "One option is that there will be a great rise in confrontation between us. At the root of this is the Ukraine issue, as the West continues to provide large-scale military assistance to Kiev," Timofeev added.

According to him, the looming possibility of an escalation in the Ukrainian conflict includes a direct clash between Russia and the West. "A number of officials, particularly in France and the United Kingdom, have said that individual military units from NATO countries may be deployed to Ukraine. If they take part in military operations against Russian forces, they will become a legitimate target for our army," Timofeev explained. "Let’s hope this possible escalation involves conventional arms and not nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, NATO is spending ten times as much as Russia - if not more - on defense. It’s certainly a dangerous scenario," the RIAC director general noted. (emphasis added)

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November 2022

 • Stop the War in Ukraine While We Can, Greg Mello, LASG Vlog, Jun 24, 2024
 • What we’re up to, and reflections on some opportunities and dangers at hand, Greg Mello, VFP Webinar, Jun 20, 2024
 • Can U.S. seize the moment for peace?, Greg Mello, Santa Fe New Mexican, Jun 16, 2024
 • Bulletin 346: Momentous events, and two op-eds, Jun 16, 2024
 • Press backgrounder: U.S. Considers Expanding Its Nuclear Arsenal, Jun 10, 2024
 • Bulletin 345: Ukraine strikes Russian early-warning radar against nuclear attack, May 25, 2024
 • "Russophobia, the Ukraine war, and nuclear weapons," LASG presentation, Peter Kuznick, Steven Starr, & Greg Mello discuss the dangerous phenomenon of "Russophobia" in the West in the context of the potentially widening war in Ukraine, with its attendant nuclear dangers, video, Apr 16, 2024
 •Bulletin 342: Russophobia, the Ukraine war, and nuclear weapons," panel discussion in Santa Fe Tuesday April 16, 6 pm / Pit production: myths and contradictions, Apr 10, 2024
 • LASG friends ltr: "Russophobia, the Ukraine war, and nuclear weapons" -- panel discussion Tuesday April 16, 6 pm, St. John's United Methodist Church, Santa Fe, Apr 8, 2024
 • Bulletin 341: Pit seminar materials available; Russophobia seminar postponed; big jump in FY24 warhead spending as arms race takes hold; Ukraine losing war sparking panic in West, Mar 4, 2024
 • Bulletin 340: "Year in Pits;" Zoom update & discussion on pits 2/27; rich opportunities in the land of nuclear (dis)enchantment; end the Ukraine carnage and genocide in Gaza, Feb 22, 2024
 • The Real Purpose In Making The Bomb Was To Subdue The Soviets. Now Its Happening Again, On A Vast Scale. Why? July 22 At Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos Reporter, Jul 19, 2023
 • LASG friends ltr: Ukraine over the tipping point; more on July 22 event in Los Alamos; comment on generic "nuclear disarmament," Jul 12, 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
 • LASG friends ltr (06/15/2023) Pit production zoom today; halt military "aid" to Ukraine, which just kills more Ukrainians, accept peace
 • 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