Tag: ukraine

Someone Wants ‘the War to Continue’

At times, Ukraine has been unwilling to negotiate an end to the ongoing war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has gone so far as to issue a decree banning negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At other times, Russia has given up on negotiating. In a press conference at the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov lamented, if you insist “’on the battlefield’—well, let it be on the battlefield.”

And at times, Ukraine and Russia have been willing to negotiate with each other. The United States, though, has at no time been willing to negotiate. Instead, an administration that promised the world “a new era of relentless diplomacy” has delivered an unhappy pattern of obstructing negotiations.

As early as December 17, 2021, months before their invasion, Russia presented the United States with a proposal on mutual security guarantees that demanded NATO not expand into Ukraine. The proposal demanded that “The United States of America shall take measures to prevent further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and deny accession to the Alliance to the former USSR republics.” A month later, on January 26, the United States rejected Russia’s central demand and formally declined to negotiate, insisting instead on “the right of other states to choose or change security arrangements.”

Vladimir Putin remarked “that fundamental Russian concerns were ignored.” In the official Russian response on February 17, 2022, Russia said that the United States and NATO offered “no constructive answer” to Russia’s key demands. Four days later, on February 21, Sergey Lavrov said, “The assessment of this response shows that our Western colleagues are not prepared to take up our major proposals, primarily those on NATO’s eastward non-expansion. This demand was rejected with reference to the bloc’s so-called open-door policy and the freedom of each state to choose its own way of ensuring security.” Highlighting American stubbornness about negotiating, the veteran diplomat added the important detail that, “Neither the United States, nor the North Atlantic Alliance proposed an alternative to this key provision.”

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Leaked Strategy Doc Shows US Views Corruption In Ukraine As Major Threat

A leaked US government strategy shows the Biden administration is far more concerned about corruption in Ukraine than it’s publicly letting on, Politico reported on Monday.

The State Department quietly released a 22-page public version of an Integrated Country Strategy for Ukraine that makes clear corruption is a major concern for the US. The strategy outlines long-term goals for US policy in Ukraine with an emphasis on rooting out corruption. “Ukraine must slay the corruption dragon once and for all,” the public version of the document reads.

According to Politico, the confidential version of the strategy is three times as long and uses even stronger language when discussing Ukraine’s corruption.

“Perceptions of high-level corruption,” the confidential document warns, could “undermine the Ukrainian public’s and foreign leaders’ confidence in the war-time government.”

Ukraine has long been notorious for its corruption, but the US has sought to downplay the issue as it has poured tens of billions of dollars in weapons and economic aid since the Russian invasion. But recent corruption scandals have brought Ukrainian graft back into the news and resulted in mass firings, including President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent sacking of his defense minister and six deputy defense ministers.

A US official speaking to POLITICO acknowledged that “there are some honest conversations happening behind the scenes” regarding Ukraine’s corruption.

Another US official said the Biden administration was discussing with Ukrainian officials the idea of potentially conditioning future economic aid on “reforms to tackle corruption and make Ukraine a more attractive place for private investment.”

The official said that the idea of conditioning military aid is not being discussed as the administration is determined to keep the proxy war going, no matter what risks or costs are involved.

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The Mad Propaganda Push To Normalize War-Profiteering In Ukraine

There’s been an astonishingly brazen propaganda push to normalize war profiteering in Ukraine as Kyiv coordinates with the arms industry and western governments to convert the war-ravaged nation into a major domestic weapons manufacturer, thereby turning Ukrainians into proxies of the military industrial complex as well as the Pentagon.

At an event in Kyiv which hosted 250 “defense” industry corporations from 30 different countries on Friday, President Zelensky gave a speech urging war profiteers to open factories in Ukraine to cut out the middleman of securing and delivering so many weapons from abroad. This is an investment that the arms industry would ostensibly have plenty of time to set up, given that western officials are now going out of their way to communicate to the public that this war will stretch on for many more years to come.

Zelensky’s speech twice made use of the phrase “defense-industrial complex”, and used the phrase “arsenal of the free world” no fewer than three times.

“Ukraine is developing a special economic regime for the defense-industrial complex,” Zelensky said. “To give all the opportunities to realize their potential to every company that works for the sake of defense — in Ukraine and with Ukraine or that wants to come to Ukraine.”

“Right now, the most powerful military-industrial complexes are being determined, as are their priorities and the global standard of defense. All of this is being determined in Ukraine,” Zelensky tweeted with photos from the event.

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Now the Clintons Are Getting Involved in Ukraine

I grew up in a very pro-military family.  For a long time, I believed that criticizing military action was hateful to the soldiers themselves because it would demoralize troops and strengthen the enemy’s morale.

Soldiers facing danger overseas do deserve support.  But they also deserve well-thought-out missions.  They deserve a public that holds policymakers accountable for their actions.  Those of us past fighting age have an absolute responsibility to call bullsh*t where we see it.

We who grew up surrounded by World War II stories were raised with the belief that battles were very clear and that there were hard and fast lines between the “good guys” and the “bad guys.”

But that began to change for me in the early 2000s when my best friend came back from her first tour of duty in Iraq.  She was in construction and so traveled throughout Iraq and saw many villages and had many, many encounters.

Readers probably remember that liberals were regularly denouncing our efforts in Iraq as Bush’s war crimes, while conservatives were insisting that we were liberating the Iraqi people.  So naturally, I was curious to hear what my trusted friend had to say.  I wanted to know who was right, Fox or CNN.

My friend just shrugged and told me both sides were kind of right and both sides were kind of wrong.  It really just depended on each individual village.  American leadership was making assumptions about the “Iraqi people” as though they were a homogeneous group, when in reality, ideological battles were occurring at the village level.  And who in Washington, D.C., can know the ins and outs of each Iraqi village?

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Bipartisan House Amendment To Ban US Cluster Bomb Exports Fails

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday rejected a bipartisan amendment to the 2024 military spending bill that would have prohibited the transfer of cluster munitions – which are banned under a treaty ratified by more than 100 nations but not the United States – to any country.

The House voted 160-269 on the amendment to next year’s National Defense Authorization Act co-sponsored by Reps. Sarah Jacobs (D-Calif.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). Seventy-five Democrats voted for the measure, while 137 voted “no”; 85 GOP lawmakers approved the amendment while 132 opposed it.

The vote took place less than a week after U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States would send more cluster munitions to Ukraine.

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‘I was afraid of it’: the Ukrainians dodging conscription and fleeing the country

In Ukraine, Russia’s invasion triggered a patriotic impulse, but some Ukrainians are refusing to fight despite societal pressures and warnings from authorities cracking down on draft evaders amid a difficult counteroffensive.

Ivan Ishchenko volunteered to fight against invading Russian troops, but after a month of combat, he was willing to pay thousands of euros and risk prison to flee the front.

“Before I went to war, I thought I was a superhero. But all heroism ends when people see [war] with their own eyes and realise that they don’t belong there,” Ishchenko said.

“I saw someone being shot near his spleen; the pain was crazy. Then I saw a severed head. It all built up… I didn’t want to see anything else.”

So, one day Ishchenko abandoned his position without warning anyone except his mother and fled Ukraine. 

He managed to leave the country despite a ban on the departure of all men aged between 18 and 60.

The 30-year-old paid €4,600 ($5000) for a government-plated car to escort him to a forest on the border with Hungary.

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Canada’s honoring of Nazi vet exposes Ottawa’s longstanding Ukraine policy

By celebrating a Waffen-SS volunteer as a “hero,” Canada’s Liberal Party highlighted a longstanding policy that has seen Ottawa train fascist militants in Ukraine while welcoming in thousands of post-war Nazi SS veterans.

Canada’s second most powerful official, Chrystia Freeland, is the granddaughter of one of Nazi Germany’s top Ukrainian propagandists.

In the Spring of 1943, Yaroslav Hunka was a fresh-faced soldier in the 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS Galicia when his division received a visit from the architect of Nazi Germany’s genocidal policies, Heinrich Himmler. Having presided over the battalion’s formation, Himmler was visibly proud of the Ukrainians who had volunteered to support the Third Reich’s efforts.

80 years later, the Speaker of Canada’s parliament, Anthony Rota, also beamed with pride after inviting Hunka to a reception for Volodymyr Zelensky, where the Ukrainian president lobbied for more arms and financial assistance for his country’s war against Russia.

“We have in the chamber today Ukrainian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today even at his age of 98,” Rota declared during the September 22 parliamentary event in Ottawa.

“His name is Yaroslav Hunka but I am very proud to say he is from North Bay and from my riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming. He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service,” Rota continued.

Gales of applause erupted through the crowd, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Zelensky, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Canadian Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre and leaders of all Canadian parties rose from their seats to applaud Hunka’s wartime service.

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When Zelensky Brought a Nazi to the Greek Parliament

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been making a virtual world tour with video hookups to parliaments around the globe, as well as to the Grammy Awards and the U.N. Security Council, sometimes with troublesome results.  

On April 7, 2022 a major row erupted when Zelensky brought along a Ukrainian soldier of Greek heritage from the city of Mariupol, who just happened to be a member of the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment. Greece was under Nazi occupation during World War II and fought a bitter partisan war against Nazism (later to be betrayed by Britain and the United States.)   

With Zelensky in the screen, the man, who gave only his first name, told Parliament: “I speak to you as a man of Greek descent. My name is Michail. My grandfather fought against the Nazis in the Second World War. I am born in Mariupol and I am now also fighting to defend my city from the Russian nazis.”

Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main opposition party, SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, blasted the appearance of the Azov fighter before parliament.  

“Solidarity with the Ukrainian people is a given. But nazis cannot be allowed to speak in parliament,” Tsipras said on social media. “The speech was a provocation.”  He said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “bears full responsibility. … He talked about a historic day but it is a historical shame.”  

Former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called the video being played in parliament a “big mistake”.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Kotzias said: “The Greek government irresponsibly undermined the struggle of the Ukrainian people, by giving the floor to a Nazi. The responsibilities are heavy. The government should publish a detailed report of preparation and contacts for the event.”

Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis’  MeRA25 party said the event turned into a “Nazi fiesta.”

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Ukraine Situation Report: Black Sea Fleet Commander Reappears After Kyiv Declared Him Dead

Aday after Ukrainian Special Operations Command (SSO) claimed that Russian Adm. Viktor Sokolov was among dozens of officers killed in the Sept. 22 cruise missile attack on the headquarters building of the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) in Sevastopol, the BSF commander was seen apparently very much alive Tuesday during a meeting held by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The SSO said it is now clarifying its original report, without stating it was in error.

As Shoigu talked about the current status of the war in Ukraine, Sokolov appeared to be seen on a video feed during a meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board Session held in Moscow. In this image below, published on the Russian Defense Ministry (MoD) Telegram channel, Sokolov is seen on the bottom left on the large screen, just under Shoigu.

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US Taxpayer Dollars are Subsidizing Small Businesses in Ukraine

A report from 60 Minutes that aired Sunday detailed how US taxpayer dollars are not only funding weapons in Ukraine but are also subsidizing small businesses and paying first responders salaries, among other things.

While the bulk of US support for Ukraine has gone toward military aid, the US has also provided tens of billions of dollars in a form of assistance known as direct budgetary aid.

According to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), budgetary aid “keeps basic government services like hospitals, schools, and utilities running, and it sustains support for emergency responders and firefighters.” According to the 60 Minutes report, the US aid pays for the salaries of all 57,000 of Ukraine’s first responders.

Tatiana Abramova, a woman who runs a knitwear business in Ukraine, spoke with 60 Minutes and said she received subsidies funded by the US taxpayer. “We realize that it’s the aid from government, but it’s the aid from the heart of every ordinary American person,” Abramova said.

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