Tag: ukraine

Bill To Prolong Death and Destruction

I am speaking about a $95-billion foreign military aid package that included $61 billion for Ukraine. Speaker Mike Johnson’s turnaround from opponent to supporter of the war in Ukraine raised many eyebrows. His meeting with Trump in advance of this announcement added intrigue and speculations about the reasons for this sudden change of heart.

Most likely both men decided that it would help Trump and the GOP to win votes in November, and how many more Ukrainians would die in the process was of no particular concern to them.  Instead, Johnson used the same Lindsey Graham and Co’s language that financing this war was the best investment ever made since no Americans were dying, and the only new element was that the Speaker added a personal touch by adding his son into the equation.  “To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys,” Johnson told reporters last week. “My son is going to begin in the Naval Academy this fall. This is a live-fire exercise for me as it is for so many American families. This is not a game; this is not a joke.”

Well, nowadays it is useless to ask whether such statements correspond to moral, ethical, or any other values that US and EU politicians (there are exceptions, of course, but, so far, their numbers are not enough to change the course) claim to adhere to but Ukrainian President Zelensky surpasses their cynicism by thanking Congress saying “The vital US aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives.” He is talking, of course, about saving American, not Ukrainian lives.

Such statements and actions from Washington or Brussels, and from Zelensky confirm what was known anyway. The West found a foreign leader ready to serve its interests of weakening Russia by sacrificing the Ukrainian people and their country in exchange for money and glory.  In the Western media, he is now George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Winston Churchill together in one face.   I doubt all of them or their heirs would be thrilled by being compared to someone who converted his own country into a foreign mercenary legion.

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Pentagon Chief Engaged In Pressuring EU Countries To Give Up Their Patriot Systems

America’s top defense official is engaged in efforts to pressure European countries to give up their own US-made anti-air defenses for Ukraine.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday he’s been actively encouraging countries to donate their Patriot missile systems to Ukraine. “There are countries that have Patriots, and so what we’re doing is continuing to engage those countries,” Austin testified before a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

“I have talked to the leaders of several countries… myself here in the last two weeks, encouraging them to give up more capability or provide more capability,” he said.

Last Friday Austin announced that as part of a massive new $6 billion aid package for Kiev, the US will provide additional Patriot missiles. This is part of the first approved roll-out in the wake of Biden signing into effect the $61 billion in defense funding for Ukraine belatedly approved by Congress this month.

President Zelensky and his top officials have been essentially begging for more Patriots as Russia continues pummeling its cities and infrastructure. 

A Ukrainian outlet has quoted Zelensky as ramping up the pressure on his backers in NATO:

“Regarding the number of missiles to Patriots, we really expect a positive result in this regard. Thank God that after we convened the Ukraine-NATO Council, we received an assurance that there will be no delays in the process (of supplying missiles to the Patriot systems – ed.), Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Earlier this month a disturbing report by Financial Times identified Greece and Spain as being under the most pressure from Western allies to give up what few Patriot anti-air defense systems that they possess.

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Ukraine Army Chief Admits ‘Tactical’ Retreat Underway

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi has just issued a new dire assessment confirming widespread international reports that Ukraine forces are getting beaten back from the frontlines.

He has confirmed that his outnumbered troops have fallen back to new positions on the eastern front, west of the villages of Berdychi and Semenivka, outside of Avdiivka – and near Novomykhailivka. Gen. Syrskyi has essentially admitted for the first time that a ‘tactical’ retreat is underway.

“The situation at the front has worsened,” Syrskii wrote on Telegram, ironically coming just days after President Biden signed into effect a $61 billion defense aid package for Ukraine. The Pentagon has vowed to ship new weapons as fast as possible, while some Ukrainian officials have been warning that it is too little, too late.

“In general, the enemy achieved certain tactical successes in these areas, but could not gain operational advantages,” Syrskii said, noting too that Russia has been able to pour additional manpower into the east with ease.

“The enemy has engaged up to four brigades in these directions, and is trying to develop an offensive west of Avdeevka and Maryinka,” the top Ukrainian commander said.

The statement also comes following Russia’s defense ministry announcing that its forces had captured the village of Novobakhmutivka on Sunday.

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$61 Billion Was Just The Beginning – Ukrainian President Zelenskyy Announces 10 Year Funding Agreement with U.S.: “GLORY TO UKRAINE”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after speaking with Democrat House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, announced on Sunday the U.S. and Ukraine are “working on fixing specific levels of support for this year and for the next ten years.”

This will likely supersede President Trump’s authority on the matter if passed.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Congress recently passed three bills to hand out $95 Billion in “foreign aid” to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and other non-U.S.-involved conflict zones around the world. Of the $95 Billion, over $60 Billion was allocated for Ukraine.

The handout to Ukraine was sold to the American people as a “loan.” However, as The Gateway Pundit reported, the package Johnson announced Wednesday includes terms that will allow the President to cancel 50% of Ukraine’s debt after November 15, 2024, and the remaining 50% after January 1, 2024. It’s no wonder Joe Biden came out “strongly” in support of the package, urging the House and Senate to pass it.

This means after President Trump wins the 2024 election, as expected, Joe Biden can cancel 50% of Ukraine’s debt before his term ends in January. However, if Biden and the Democrats pull off another stolen election, they can forgive 100% of Ukraine’s debt a little over one year later. This isn’t a loan. It’s a handout.

Additionally, as The Gateway Pundit reported, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) revealed that only $44 to $47 billion–40%–of the $113 billion that the United States has handed out to Ukraine is lethal aid.” So what was the other 66 to $69 billion for?” Roy asked on Bannon’s War Room.

Two bills from the latest handout package, the Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 and the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024, both passed the House with more support from Democrats than Republicans. This comes after Republicans under Mike Johnson’s leadership gave up a $1.2 trillion spending bill, also with more support from Democrats than Republicans, and reauthorization for warrantless searches of Americans under FISA Section 702.

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Russia Says Over 3100 Mainly U.S. Mercenaries Fighting In Ukraine

Mercenaries have long been used on both sides to fight in the Ukraine conflict raging in Eastern Europe. The Wagner Group is an infamous example of the use of paid fighters by Russian forces.

Tsarizm’s sister site, ArmedForces.press reported on this several years ago.

The Kremlin this morning alleged thousands of mercenaries, most of them with a background in the United States, are also involved in fighting for Kyiv.

Over 3,100 foreign mercenaries fight for Ukraine during Russia’s special military operation and most of them come from the United States and Canada, the press office of the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement on Thursday, reports Russian state news agency TASS.

“Investigators have information about an overall number of over 3,100 foreign mercenaries taking part in combat activities on the Ukrainian side and the majority of them come from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Georgia,” the statement reads.

The committee added that measures are underway to locate their whereabouts and bring them to criminal liability.

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BBC boosts Ukraine’s falling morale by slandering Russia’s war dead

MI6’s BBC outlet is at it again. This time, in a disgusting effort to boost Ukraine’s flagging morale, they featured a story by their crack Russian unit explaining how Russian graveyards are full to the brim of soldiers who fell in Ukraine. As always with the MI6’s B team, it is the sort of misinformed guff that belongs in a badly edited student newspaper rather than in such a globally prominent propaganda outlet.

Or indeed in the website of Ukraine’s Ministry of Misinformation. If we first go to Ukraine’s site, we see that the Russkies are getting a right mauling, with some 442,880 soldiers dead up to April Fool’s Day, 2024. Although Wikipedia parrots those numbers by using the same tainted NATO sources, to put them in context, Wikipedia claim that the United States lost a relatively modest 58,281 dead during its genocide campaign in Vietnam, and the Watson Intstitute claims that the United States lost 7,057 troops in the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns, with a much higher number, 30,177, committing suicide.

Other things being equal then, the Russkies should be up in arms against their government over these deaths in Ukraine. But other things are not, of course, equal. First off, as a quick Google search shows us these numbers of Russian dead are part of a vociferous NATO echo chamber, we can see no need as to why this should be a major NATO news story today unless Russia is experiencing the turbulence the United States did during its Vietnamese cull or if the BBC has brought additional information to light, thus making it a story worthy of coverage today. Or, of course, as we suspect, that the BBC has once again been leaned on to put its shoulder to the NATO wheel.

That is certainly the impression we get from this Politico article, which claims that the morale of Ukraine’s Armed Forces is crumbling as their casualties exponentially mount. The pleas of Clown Prince Zelensky and the rest of Kiev’s circus for more arms, more sanctions and more Swiss bank accounts certainly seems to help counter BBC’s flagging line that Russia is on its knees. As do all the tiktok and Twitter videos of Ukrainian grandfathers and pregnant women being frog marched off to the front.

This is not to negate the BBC argument but to say that the Ukrainian war has got less hands on media coverage than perhaps any other since the Korean war. And, though much of that lack of direct coverage has been due to the use of long range drones and artillery rather than the preponderance of close hand to hand fighting, much more of it has been due to the way both High Commands are conducting their affairs.

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Geopolitics of human trafficking: How Western regime-change operations enable criminal activities

The slave trade in Ukraine has become one of the most serious problems of our time. Since the 2014 coup d’état, Kiev has been a key player in modern slavery, particularly for human trafficking and sexual exploitation networks. The political and social instability that has affected the country since the Western-led regime change operation is one of the main factors for the growth of such human rights violations.

A recent investigative report published by the Foundation to Battle Injustice showed in details the seriousness of the slave trade in Ukraine. According to the organization, Kiev has become one of the main global hubs in the human trafficking market, with free exploitation and circulation of irregular workers – in addition to the well-known trafficking of women and children in the predatory sex market.

The study points out that more than 300,000 Ukrainians were victims of the slave market between 1991 and 2021. This situation, however, has deteriorated even further since Vladimir Zelensky came to power. It is estimated that since the beginning of Zelensky’s government, more than 550,000 Ukrainians have been enslaved. These numbers are alarming and place Ukraine as one of the main agents of human trafficking in the entire world.

In its report, citing sources familiar with the topic and several insiders, the Foundation exposed how the slave trade in Ukraine is not limited to the exploitation of Ukrainian citizens. Since 2021, two reception centers for refugees from Africa have been operating in Ternopil. These facilities were used not only for receiving migrants but also for selling them on the European black market. An alleged member of the Ukrainian Presidential Cabinet, on condition of anonymity, reported to investigators that the organizer of the Ukrainian human trafficking network is Ruslan Stefanchuk, current chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.

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Ukraine Moves to Force Fighting-Age Men Into the Meatgrinder for U.S.

Dmitry Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, posted on X Tuesday that Kyiv is moving to pressure Ukrainian men who fled the country to avoid war with Russia by potentially cutting off their access to essential government services.

Ukraine will be receiving $61 billion in funding from the U.S., but it is having a hard time fielding a capable army. Thousands of men have fled and it is believed that up to 500,000 have died on the battlefield since the start of the war.

Kuleba posted on X that it is unfair that men who left the country would be treated the same as those who stayed.

”How it looks like now: a man of conscription age went abroad, showed his state that he does not care about its survival, and then comes and wants to receive services from this state. It does not work this way. Our country is at war,” he posted, according to RT, the Russian outlet.

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What Can We Learn From Our Forever War in Ukraine?

It has been a while since the United States won a war.  It looks as though we are about to lose yet another one – the war in Ukraine.  This is a proxy war justified as an effort to “weaken and isolate” Russia.  Our strategic defeat in this effort now leaves us with three unpalatable alternatives.  We can continue to support Ukraine as Russia grinds it to bits and reduces it further in size and population.  We can escalate the war, as French President Emmanuel Macron has advocated, despite the Russian threat to answer us with counter-escalation, possibly to the nuclear level.  Or we can face up to failure and save what we can of Ukraine by negotiating with Russia.  I know which of these choices I would prefer, and I suspect you do too.  And, however this unwise and unnecessary war ends, we need to ensure that there are no more like it in future.

They say that a mistake is only a mistake if you don’t learn from it.  Our country has recently made a lot of mistakes in its foreign policies.  Sadly, we don’t seem to be learning much of anything from this experience.  We have instead invented something uniquely American called a “forever war.”  Such wars routinely fail.  Still, we keep launching them.

I want to speak to you this evening about why we do this, why we shouldn’t, and how we can stop doing it.  My focus will be the forever war with Russia in Ukraine.

Forever wars can take many forms.  They can be economic or technological, like the one the Trump administration kicked off against China and that the Biden administration has enthusiastically doubled down on.  They can be military, like our twenty-three year “global war on terrorism.”  That has taken us into combat in over eighty countries, killed over 900,000 people, and cost us an estimated $8 trillion.  Forever wars need not be direct, as our proxy war in Ukraine illustrates.  They can even be covert, as our multiple barely concealed interventions in Syria demonstrate.

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The Ukraine war is lost, but Hollywood and DC don’t know it

On April 10, stars in Hollywood joined politicians in D.C. in demanding that Congress take up a war aid bill authorizing $60 billion in new assistance for Ukraine. 

But they’re all wrong. The war is lost. In fact, 90% of people in Europe believe that to be true. 

If that comes as a surprise, it shouldn’t. In late February, the Times of London published the results of a poll asking residents throughout the continent a very simple question: 

Can Ukraine win the war against Russia? Only 10% said yes. 

So, what do they see that Hollywood stars, the White House, and leaders on Capitol Hill do not? 

Three things. 

First, Ukraine lacks the soldiers to win. Kiev has lost at least 70,000 killed in action, with another 100,000 otherwise combat ineffective. 

And that’s a crisis. As Ukraine’s Commander of Joint Forces said on April 11, there are seven to 10 times more Russian soldiers than there are Ukrainians on the battlefield. 

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