Tag: russia

Zelensky a ‘legitimate military target’ – Medvedev

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, as the leader of a “hostile political regime,” is a legitimate military target, Dmitry Medvedev, the head of Russia’s Security Council, has said.

Speaking to TASS on Monday, Medvedev said that the question of Zelensky’s legitimacy as president is of no particular importance to Moscow.

“For Russia, the final loss of legitimacy by the pseudo-president of the former Ukraine will not change anything,” the former Russian president said, noting that the leaders of countries waging war are “always considered” a legitimate military target.

Medvedev called Zelensky a “war criminal,” who should be caught and brought to justice or “liquidated as a terrorist” for his crimes against Russians and Ukrainians.

Zelensky appeared on the Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted list earlier this month though no data has been released about criminal proceedings against him.

The constitutional powers of the current Ukrainian president expired on May 20. A presidential election was originally scheduled for March, but was postponed under the pretext of martial law, which was imposed after the start of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, and has repeatedly been extended by the nation’s legislature.

Zelensky announced in December 2023 that no presidential or parliamentary elections would be held as long as martial law remains in force. In early May, lawmakers prolonged martial law by another three months.

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WWIII WATCH: Zelensky Begs Biden to Allow Ukraine to Launch U.S. Missiles Inside Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent a delegation to Washington this week to demand that the Biden regime reverse a ban on the firing of U.S. missiles on Russian territory.

The delegation, which included five members of the Ukrainian parliament, met with Biden officials and requested that the U.S. drop the ban, which would dramatically increase the risk of WW3 and perhaps even nuclear armageddon.

The Hill reports:

Ukraine’s struggle to fend off Russia’s massive offensive in the Kharkiv region has underscored a pressing issue that Kyiv has long tried to overturn: a ban on firing U.S. weapons to hit inside of Russia.

Russia launched its Kharkiv offensive from the neighboring Belgorod region, and some Ukrainian officials are arguing that the attack could have been blunted if they were allowed to hit targets in that Russian province.

…

In lieu of a policy change, Ukraine has resorted to hitting inside of Russia with its own weapons, including cheap drones that have harassed Russian targets such as oil refineries. The campaign to hit oil refineries with drones has picked up in pace and breadth in recent months.

But Ukrainian officials say there is no substitute for American-made arms such as the missile launcher weapon High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) or valued long-range artillery like the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).

David Arahamiya, a Ukrainian MP who led the delegation, revealed that the request came directly from the country’s military generals.

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Ukrainian military STOLE aid money intended for fortifications, so nothing got built

Much of the money that the West sent to Ukraine to help the Zelensky regime fight Russia was embezzled by the Ukrainian military, we have learned.

The reason why Russian armor was so easily able to roll across the border into Kharkov without resistance is because instead of using all that cash to build up its defenses, Ukraine stole the money and used it to pad the pockets of key government figures.

It turns out that both military and civilian authorities in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region paid millions of dollars to fake companies to supply non-existent building materials for the construction of defense fortifications. What they really did with all that money was launder it, in other words.

To those who would say that this is just “Russian propaganda” or “the Kremlin’s marching orders,” consider the fact that Russia swept the region with ease precisely because Ukraine spent all that money elsewhere instead of on military fortifications as claimed.

Owners of fake Ukrainian businesses called “avatars” by watchdog

According to reports, Russia captured dozens of towns and villages all throughout the northern part of the Kharkov Region last Friday after launching its offensive and discovering that Ukraine was wearing no clothes.

Russian troops reportedly captured the village of Bugrovatka on the Monday after as well, with additional Ukrainian losses being reported near Veseloye, Volchansk and Liptsi, the latter of which is located about 20 kilometers from the outskirts of Kharkov city.

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Warmonger Victoria Nuland Pushes For Strikes On Russian Bases

ABC News’ Martha Raddatz talked with ex-Biden administration Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland about the war between Russia and Ukraine on Sunday.

During the interview, Nuland claimed America needs to give EVEN MORE military support to Ukraine since Russia is clearly winning the fight.

She told Raddatz, “They need to be able to stop these air attacks that are coming from bases inside Russia. So, I think there’s also a question of whether we, The United States and our allies, ought to give them more help in hitting Russian bases which we’ve not been willing to do.”

Asked if she thinks Ukraine should strike military bases inside Russia, Nuland confirmed she does and blamed Russia for “escalating” the war.

Raddatz pointed out the Biden administration believes Ukraine striking Russian bases would escalate the war and drag the U.S. further into the conflict.

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UKRAINE DARKNESS: Zelensky’s Mandate Expires Today – Streets Are Empty as Men Hide From New Conscription Law – MSM Questions the Power of Presidential Aide Andy Yermak – Power Outages All Over the Country

And so we’ve come to the point of the war in Ukraine in which the west’s ‘Knight in Shining armor’, the ‘defender of democracy’ Volodymyr Zelensky has outrun his Constitutional Presidential mandate, and is now in power only by virtue of the martial law he enacted.

That is just the most dramatic of the absolutely disheartening (for Kiev) series of developments.

To begin with, a series of videos have surfaced showing how the streets of Ukraine now are deserted, with men hiding from conscription into the army – and somehow, everyone else seemed to have stayed at home, too.

In the context of the rapidly progressing Russian Federation forces, even deep-state aligned papers like WaPo feel compelled to report on the shitshow.

They are catching up to TGP’s report on the abnormal powers held by Zelensky’s top aide Andrey Yermak. So now, they’ve come as far as writing:

“If actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky’s top credential when he was elected in 2019 was that he’d played a president on TV, the top qualification of his all-powerful chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, was being Zelensky’s friend.”

Ouch. WaPo discusses how martial law, has concentrated extraordinary authority in the presidential administration, ‘making Yermak perhaps the most powerful chief of staff in the country’s history — virtually indistinguishable from his boss’.

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The Slapstick Horror of Drone Warfare

The Russia/Ukraine war will no doubt mark the beginning of the age of drone warfare in earnest. Reuters reports that Ukraine has orders placed for 300,000 drones of various types and 100,000 are being sent immediately into combat. Russia is set to produce 32,000 drones per year while also currently buying in bulk directly from Iran. The meme that goes around is that a slight young woman sitting in an office block somewhere uses a Nintendo joypad to kill brave men in mud hundreds of miles away, and there’s not much they can do about it. Drone warfare gives off the whiff of dishonour and underhandedness. Still, it is difficult to say exactly why. After all, is dropping bombs out of an airplane or launching ballistic missiles or machine-gunning men desperately climbing out of a trench any more honourable?

Eighty years after Dresden and Nagasaki, can we still even be shocked or depressed by the realities of industrial, mechanised warfare in which armies and entire populations are mere quanta to be erased from a spreadsheet using the “strikethrough” function?

Nevertheless, seeing the realities of drone warfare via the grainy footage on social media left me at least with an uneasy feeling, but one that I could not pinpoint or explain sufficiently or adequately. Typically, such footage consists of soldiers of either side milling about in the oddly featureless Ukrainian landscape and then being hit from a distance or up close by drones or explosives fired from drones. In May 2023, footage was taken of a Russian soldier surrendering to a drone; we bore witness to the fear, dread, and utter helplessness of the man in the face of a remote-controlled gadget the size of a football.

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Pentagon sounds alarm over Ukraine corruption

The conflict with Russia has created new opportunities for bribes, kickbacks and theft in Ukraine, the US military’s inspector general told Congress in the quarterly report on the $113 billion in aid sent to Kiev.

Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch also serves as the special inspector for Operation Atlantic Resolve, the US-led operation to arm Ukraine.

“The ongoing war with Russia has created new opportunities for corruption, with several recent scandals within the defense sector revealing the misuse of wartime resources and weapons procurement funds,” the report said.

“Endemic corruption persists” in Ukraine, which remains “one of the least accountable governments in Europe,” according to the Pentagon’s inspector-general.

“Bribes, kickbacks, and inflated procurement costs are common risks for corruption within the Ministry of Defense,” leading to purchases of “inferior equipment” or “diversion of funds” intended for food and ammunition, according to the report.

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Closer to Nuclear War

I can’t help but wonder what proponents of America’s participation in the old Cold War dinosaur known as NATO are thinking about NATO officials who are contemplating sending NATO military personnel into Ukraine to train Ukrainian troops in their war against Russia. Those who relish the idea of nuclear war between the United States and Russia undoubtedly must be ecstatic over the possibility of such a move.

It has been clear for some time that Ukraine is losing its war with Russia. Ukraine has lost countless young soldiers and their front-line troops are now largely composed of middle-aged men. Its production has plummeted. Its supply of weapons is low, which is why it continues to desperately seek replacement weapons from the United States. Ukrainian forces continue to retreat. And there is the increasing possibility that Russian forces will achieve a breakthrough in Ukrainian defense lines.

Obviously feeling desperate over the battlefield situation, European officials within NATO are contemplating sending military personnel into Ukraine to help train Ukrainian soldiers.

But wouldn’t that put NATO and Russia into direct military conflict? After all, what happens if a Russian missile kills a bunch of NATO soldiers inside Ukraine?

According to the New York Times, “So far the United States has said no, but Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that a NATO deployment of trainers appeared inevitable. ‘We’ll get there eventually, over time,’ he said.”

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Ukraine Formally Asks NATO To Send Troops For First Time, Pentagon Mulling

The continued inevitable and disastrous slide into a WW3 nuclear-armed confrontation between Russian and the West continues as The New York Times reports NATO appears to actually be seriously mulling sending troops to Ukraine to serve in the role as ‘trainers’ at a moment Kiev is desperate to tap and train up new manpower. And this would be closer to front line positions as well.

“NATO allies are inching closer to sending troops into Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces, a move that would be another blurring of a previous red line and could draw the United States and Europe more directly into the war,” NY Times wrote Thursday. What has changed? The Zelensky government is now directly requesting it, apparently on a formal level for the first time of the conflict, according to officials.

The Times confirms “Ukrainian officials have asked their American and NATO counterparts to help train 150,000 new recruits closer to the front line for faster deployment.”

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Revealed: Pensioner poet, 71, accused of shooting Slovakian PM was filmed chanting ‘long live Ukraine!’ – after he gave up his steady life and book club to form anti-violence party when he was attacked at the supermarket by a drunk man

Alleged gunman Juraj Cintula, 71, is facing life in prison if convicted of the ‘lone wolf’, ‘politically motivated’ attack that rocked Europe.

Populist allies of Robert Fico have tried to seize on the shooting with calls to close the Liberal Party and crack down on the free media with some characterising the would-be assassin as a liberal.

But enquiries reveal the poet and retired security guard has a muddled political background having rallied against communism, migrants, and violence – with links to a pro-Russian militia.

Friends in Cintula’s hometown of Levice, western Slovakia, described him as ‘rebellious when he was young, but not aggressive’.

The grey-haired, bearded grandfather wrote poems while chairman of the Duha Literary Club in his hometown and published a racist book on ‘eyeless gypsies’ in 2015.

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