Tag: russia

The Biden Administration’s Prisoner Swap With Russia Was Ridiculously Lopsided

The Biden administration’s prisoner swap with Russia is being touted by the corporate press as “historic,” and in a way it is. Nothing like this, on this scale, has happened since the Cold War. But the swap is as lopsided as it is historic.

All Americans should welcome the release of our three unjustly imprisoned compatriots: Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. They were among the 16 western prisoners released by Moscow in exchange for eight Russian nationals released by the U.S. and allies.

But this wasn’t a Cold War-era prisoner swap of the kind immortalized in the Oscar-winning 2015 film “Bridge of Spies.” It was a dangerously uneven exchange that saw the release of a Russian assassin along with Russian spies and hackers, all of whom have committed serious crimes in western countries. Essentially, Moscow arrested a bunch of innocent western journalists and political dissidents, and then used them as bargaining chips to secure the release of its own killers, criminals, and spies.

Among the Russians released from western prisons, for example, was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin who in 2019 killed a Chechen separatist commander in broad daylight in a park in central Berlin. Krasikov, who shot his victim twice with a Glock 26 and then threw it in a river, was sentenced to life in prison in 2021. At the time, German officials said he was a member of the F.S.B., Russia’s domestic spy agency.

Also released was suspected F.S.B. agent Vadim Konoshchenok, arrested in 2022 on espionage charges in Estonia and extradited to the U.S. He was accused of conspiring to obtain military-grade technologies from U.S. companies and pass them to Moscow.

The prisoner swap recalls the 2014 Bowe Bergdahl affair under the Obama administration. Bergdahl was a U.S. Army soldier who, disillusioned with the war in Afghanistan, abandoned his post in 2009 and was subsequently captured by the Taliban and held as a hostage. In 2014, the Taliban agreed to free him in exchange for five top Taliban officials being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including army chief of staff and deputy minister of intelligence. One of them, Abdul Haq Wasiq, is currently the head of intelligence for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the internationally unrecognized name of the Taliban regime.

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Pentagon Again Applies Budget Lies To Deliver More Weapons To Ukraine

Whenever the Pentagon runs out of money designated by Congress as aid to Ukraine it starts to use creative accounting to free up some additional money from its general budget. The ‘accounting errors’ used therein are always in favor of more weapons to Ukraine.

Exclusive: Pentagon accounting error overvalued Ukraine weapons aid by $3 billion – May 19 2023, Reuters

The Pentagon overestimated the value of the ammunition, missiles and other equipment it sent to Ukraine by around $3 billion, a Senate aide and a defense official said on Thursday, an error that may lead the way for more weapons being sent to Kyiv for its defense against Russian forces.

Pentagon accounting error provides extra $6.2 billion for Ukraine military aid – June 20 2023, AP

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years — about double early estimates — resulting in a surplus that will be used for future security packages.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said a detailed review of the accounting error found that the military services used replacement costs rather than the book value of equipment that was pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine. She said final calculations show there was an error of $3.6 billion in the current fiscal year and $2.6 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended last Sept. 30.

As a result, the department now has additional money in its coffers to use to support Ukraine as it pursues its counteroffensive against Russia. And it come as the fiscal year is wrapping up and congressional funding was beginning to dwindle.

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Neo-Nazi Group Claims Responsibility for Murder of Former Ukrainian Politician

Aneo-Nazi group known as NS/WP (National-Socialism/White Power), which is classified as a terrorist organization in Russia, has claimed responsibility for the recent assassination of Irina Farion, a former member of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada. The claim was reported by Lenta.

Punish Those Who Betray the Country

According to the group, Farion was targeted because she allegedly “incited hatred based on linguistic differences within Ukrainian society.”

The group has also vowed to punish those who they believe have “betrayed the country since the Maidan protests” and has declared the beginning of a “white revolution.”

A video purportedly showing the shooting of Farion has been released, though its authenticity remains difficult to verify. Ukrainian media sources suggest that the assassination was carried out with professional precision, indicating that the shooter may have had prior experience with firearms.

The authorities are investigating the possibility that the shooter had accomplices, and it has been revealed that some surveillance cameras at the crime scene were malfunctioning at the time of the attack.

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Ukraine’s Acoustic Drone Detection Network Eyed By U.S. As Low-Cost Air Defense Option

The U.S. should integrate a low-cost acoustic network to detect aerial threats developed by Ukraine into its own air defense systems, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command said Wednesday morning. Consisting of thousands of acoustic sensors across Ukraine, this system helps detect and track incoming Russian kamikaze drones, alert traditional air defenses in advance, and also dispatch ad hoc drone hunting teams to shoot them down.

“Their use of acoustic sensors has proliferated across the country to the point now where they’re almost positively identifying drones in the distance because of this acoustic and the fireteams attached to that acoustic, low-cost capability that they’ve developed and proliferated,” Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Gainey said during a discussion at the Hudson Institute. As a result, Ukraine has a “low-cost defeat” system. The U.S., he added, should “find a way” of integrating “that type of low-cost capability into our system. We should be able to find ways to work together and augment some of our capability with some of that lower-cost capability.”

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Russian Media Reports Chinese Diplomats Say Ukraine Ready For Negotiations To End War

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said at a meeting with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Guangzhou that Kiev is preparing for talks with Russia, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning, reported Russian state news agency TASS.

“Ukraine is willing to engage in dialogue and talks with Russia and is making preparations for that,” Mao said at a briefing, citing Kuleba.

According to the Ukrainian foreign minister, “talks need to be rational, substantive and aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace.”

Kuleba stated that Ukraine highly appreciated China’s active and meaningful role in facilitating peace and maintaining international order. Kiev highly values Beijing’s opinion and has studied the initiative of China and Brazil aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict, the top Ukrainian diplomat pointed out. He noted that “China is a great country,” and added that Ukraine and China were important economic and strategic trade partners.

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The battle for the skies over Ukraine is about to commence – either Russia or NATO will be humiliated and a key factor for the outcome of the war for Ukraine will be determined

From here:

F-16 fighters are coming to Ukraine soon (usatoday.com)

“Ukraine will soon begin receiving U.S.-made F-16 Fighting Falcon jets from Western allies to use in the war against Russia, a move designed to bolster Ukrainian defenses and challenge Russian air superiority.”

Around 100 F-16’s of varying vintage are due in Ukraine in the next week, of which:

“The Netherlands will begin delivering 24 jets to Ukraine “without delay,” Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said during a visit to Kyiv on July 6. Other nations will send F-16s as well. Norway will give 22 jets and Denmark and Belgium will transfer an unspecified number of the aircraft.

The F-16’s from the Netherlands represents almost a quarter of the 107 in its air force, Norway had 57, but these were phased out in favour of F-35’s in December 2021 (32 were sold to Romania – 3 of which arrived a few weeks ago). Belgium has pledged 30 out of its stock of 45. Poland has pledged some of its 58 F-16’s, maybe Romania has as well. The USAF and UK’s RAF have pledged none, preferring to send sophisticated “air to air” and “air to ground “missiles instead.

“The F-16 is considered a fourth-generation fighter jet, the modern standard in combat aircraft, according to militaryfactory.com.”

Here is a link to another article around the US F-16’s here:

F-16s head to Ukraine to begin flights this summer – POLITICO

“The U.S., Denmark and the Netherlands announced during the NATO Summit in Washington on Wednesday that the two latter countries had sent over the aircraft, though they did not say how many. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also mentioned the news during a public forum.”

Here is one take on how dogfights – if such things even happen these days of distance killing – might fare:

Russia’s Su-57 Felon vs. F-16 Fighters in Ukraine War: Who Wins? | The National Interest

“The Felon sports air-to-surface missiles in addition to air-to-air missiles to take on ground targets and carry out longer-range air combat operations. With two internal weapons bays, the Su-57 can carry up to eight K-77M air-to-air missiles. The airframe is powered by Izdeliye 117 or AL-41F1 turbofan engines, which Moscow asserts will be replaced by newer Izdeliye 30 engines.

 Since Moscow is struggling financially under sanctions, this engine upgrade may not occur as soon as the Kremlin wishes. “

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TWO-FACED ZELENSKY: Floats End of ‘Hot Stage’ of War in 2024, While Insisting for Permission To Shoot Long-Range Western Missiles Into Russian Territory

While the Russian Federation are taking up territory with a speed that makes it incredibly hard to even enumerate the towns and villages conquered, and with the main defense lines in the vital Donetsk region seemingly about to crumble, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky keeps on unabated with his foreign trips asking for more money, weapons, planes, missiles – the works.

But in the last few days Zelensky introduced a new talking point in which he states that the active phase of hostilities in the war may be imminent.

During his trip to the UK, he said that he hopes to see the end of the ‘hot stage’ of the war with Russia by late 2024.

The New York Post reported:

“‘I believe that if we are united and follow, for example, the format of the peace summit, we can end the hot stage of the war’, Zelensky told the BBC, adding ‘we can try to do it by the end of this year’.”

The Ukrainian leader didn’t get into particulars regarding what that actually means.

“’It doesn’t mean that all territories are won back by force’, he added. ‘I think the power of diplomacy can help. By putting pressure on Russia, I think it is possible to agree to a diplomatic settlement’.”

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The real reason why Russia invaded Ukraine

I shall here state and — by means of links to my sources — document, the actual history of the war in Ukraine, and then will present the Russian version of this history, as that was stated at the U.N. Security Council on July 16th by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The most important difference between these two historical accounts is that whereas mine attributes Russia’s 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, to Russia’s main reason for the invasion being Russia’s need to prevent the U.S. Government from achieving its long-held dream of placing its nuclear missiles a mere 317 miles away (five minutes of missile-flying time away) from The Kremlin (since only Ukraine is even nearly that close to the Kremlin); Russia’s instead attributes its 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine to Russia’s main reason for the invasion (“Special Military Operation”) being Russia’s desire to protect the residents in the breakaway far-eastern former Donbass region of Ukraine (which by then had separated itself from Ukraine), to protect them from the military attacks that ever since April 2014 Ukraine’s government was making against the residents there.

Did Russia do it to protect itself, or to protect the Donbassers?

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Could a Change in Tone Lead to Peace Talks in Ukraine?

Though hope, which has raised its head before only to be decapitated, may be too optimistic a word, recent changes in tone, coming from many parties to the conflict, forecast the chance that negotiations to end the war on Ukraine are, at least, peaking above the horizon. Those changes come from recent European elections, upcoming American elections and even from within Ukraine itself.

Donald Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as his vice-presidential running mate signals a possible change in Ukraine policy should the Republicans win the November election. Trump has already telegraphed that change with his repeated promise that, if elected, he will solve the war in Ukraine before he even takes office.

Suggestions have now emerged as to how he plans to accomplish that. Two key Trump advisers, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg and Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst, have submitted a plan to him. According to Kellogg, “We tell the Ukrainians, ‘You’ve got to come to the table, and if you don’t come to the table, support from the United States will dry up.’ And you tell Putin, ‘He’s got to come to the table and if you don’t come to the table, then we’ll give Ukrainians everything they need to kill you in the field.’”

The plan conditions continued U.S. support for Ukraine on Ukraine’s commitment to negotiating a diplomatic end to the war. That diplomatic end would include a promise not to offer Ukraine NATO membership for an extended period of time. It would further include a ceasefire along the current battle lines. Ukraine would not have to formally cede the lost territory to Russia but would have to pursue its recovery diplomatically.

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WSJ Reporter Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison, Employer Calls It a ‘Disgraceful, Sham Conviction’

An American reporter for the Wall Street Journal was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison after being convicted of espionage in what his employer called “a hurried, secret trial that the U.S. government has condemned as a sham.”

Evan Gershkovich was ordered to serve the sentence at a high-security penal colony, the Journal reported.

“The court’s Friday verdict — after three days of hearings — was widely viewed as a foregone conclusion, since acquittals in Russian espionage trials are exceedingly rare,” according to the report.

“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker and Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour said in a statement.

Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 by Russian authorities while on assignment for the Wall Street Journal in Yekaterinburg.

Russian officials “have produced no public evidence to support their allegations,” the Journal reported.

“Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S.,” the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. State Department said Gershkovich was “wrongfully detained” and said it is working to secure his release.

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