Tag: ukraine

Massive explosion hits Russian Gazprom gas pipeline amid suspicions of sabotage linked to Putin’s war on Ukraine

An enormous explosion has hit one of Russia’s major gas pipelines, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky above and prompting fears it was a retribution attack for Vladimir Putin’s continued invasion of Ukraine. 

The fireball was visible for miles in every direction after hitting about 14 miles east of St Petersburg, the nation’s second largest city and Putin’s hometown.

One source said: ‘Everything is automatic there, and such explosions by themselves, without external influence, are impossible.’

The blast is believed to have hit the main gas pipeline belonging to Gazprom Transgaz SPB, and could have potentially impacted up to one million people. 

Ambulances and emergency vehicles were rushing to the scene this afternoon. Eyewitnesses reported intensive care vehicles also drove to the site of the explosion.  

It’s understood investigators and forensic specialists were also at the site of the explosion as they rush to determine the cause. 

However, the major blast did not hit close to residential areas, and there are no initial reports of casualties coming out of Russia. 

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Ukraine has policy of executing POWs – Russia

A “barbarous killing of Russian prisoners of war” is just the latest in a series of war crimes committed by Ukrainian troops, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Friday. The statement came after videos surfaced online purportedly showing Russian servicemen who were executed after they surrendered.

“This is a widespread practice of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that is actively supported by the Kiev regime and outright ignored by its Western backers,” the ministry stressed. It also blasted the actions of the Ukrainian soldiers as a “deliberate and methodical murder.” 

“No one will be able to portray it as a ‘tragic exception’ amid the Kiev regime’s alleged total compliance with the norms regulating the rights of POWs,” the statement reads.

The footage allegedly shows a group of soldiers dressed in Russian uniforms surrendering to troops in uniforms with Ukrainian insignia. It also depicts the captured servicemen lying on the ground, presumably dead.

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Associated Press Issues Correction After Publishing False Report that Could’ve Started WW3

The Associated Press has issued an official correction for its not-so-inconsequential bit of reporting Tuesday that could have easily set off a chain of events leading to a WWIII scenario.

“The Associated Press reported erroneously, based on information from a senior American intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity” …and we the know rest which unleashed a day of incessant warmongering based on the allegation that Russia attacked a NATO member. The incredibly embarrassing correction further states, “Subsequent reporting showed that the missiles were Russian-made and most likely fired by Ukraine in defense against a Russian attack.”

And the next time this happens will it be too late for a “correction”?

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US Empire Views Ukrainians And Russians As Lab Rats For Weapons Testing

A surprisingly frank article by The New York Times titled “Western Allies Look to Ukraine as a Testing Ground for Weapons” describes how the imperial war machine is capitalising on the US proxy war to test its weapons for future use.

“Ukraine has become a testing ground for state-of-the-art weapons and information systems, and new ways to use them, that Western political officials and military commanders predict could shape warfare for generations to come,” write’s NYT’s Lara Jakes.

Jakes writes that “new advances in technology and training in Ukraine are being closely monitored for the ways they are changing the face of the fight.” These new technological advancements include an information system known as Delta, as well as “remote-controlled boats, anti-drone weapons known as SkyWipers and an updated version of an air-defense system built in Germany that the German military itself has yet to use.”

A former Lithuanian president is quoted as saying, “We’re learning in Ukraine how to fight, and we’re learning how to use our NATO equipment,” adding, “It is shameful for me because Ukrainians are paying with their lives for these exercises for us.”

Yeah, no shit.

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FTX partnership with Ukraine is latest chapter in shady Western aid saga

The Ukrainian government mysteriously disappeared online records of its fundraising arrangement with the FTX crypto scam just days before the scandal erupted. The initiative claims to have raised $60 million for Ukraine, but where did the money go?

The demise of FTX, the fifth-biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume in 2022, and the second-largest by holdings, has sent a wave of chaos through global financial markets. 

As the turbulence grows, the government of Ukraine is conducting an ongoing cleanup and whitewashing operation to rid any and all references to a high-level cryptocurrency fundraising arrangement it struck with FTX from the web. Eerily, it seems to have commenced just days before the scandal erupted. 

Online records unearthed by The Grayzone claim tens of millions were raised by FTX for the Ukrainian government, and put to a variety of belligerent uses. But with the company now exposed as a Potemkin village lacking underlying assets, and major question marks hanging over whether its operations were from day one fraudulent top to bottom, where does that leave the supposedly successful donation scheme? Were those sums truly raised, and if so, to what purposes were they actually put?

FTX’s destruction resulted from a mass sell-off of the company’s native bitcoin token, FTT, by the rival exchange, Binance. Its value plummeted, prompting a three-day “run” on billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency, which in turn created – or exposed – a “liquidity crisis” within FTX, as it did not have the available assets required to redeem client withdrawals. FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11th. 

FTX founder and top Democrat Party donor Sam Bankman-Fried now faces criminal investigations in the Bahamas, where the exchange was headquartered, and calls for official investigations into the largely unregulated cryptocurrency industry are reverberating across the globe.

The sudden death of FTX has been compared to the 2008 disintegration of Lehman Brothers that precipitated the financial crisis.

Massive customer holdings have apparently gone missing thanks to a secret “back door” in the FTX bookkeeping system that allowed Bankman-Fried to make changes to the company’s financial records without any accountability. This connivance may have been used to hide at least $10 billion in client funds Bankman-Fried transferred from exchange to another company he founded, digital asset trader Alameda Research. 

While mainstream media pores over the details of Bankman-Fried’s gargantuan crypto scam, not one single major outlet has investigated or even acknowledged FTX’s relationship with the government of Ukraine. 

Were client holdings unaccountably and illegally funneled into the West’s proxy war? Or did the supposed aid FTX sent to Kiev find its way into the hands of Ukrainian scammers, corrupt warlords and illicit actors? 

The corporate media’s failure to explore these questions appears all the more perverse given Bankman-Fried’s flamboyant promotion of his intimate financial relationship with the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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U.S. Officials Admit Missile That Struck Poland Was Most Likely Fired by Ukraine, Not Russia

Three US officials admitted to the Associated Press late Tuesday night that preliminary assessments implicate Ukraine — not Russia — as the culprit behind the missile strike in Poland that killed two people in the rural village of Przewodow.

“Three U.S. officials said preliminary assessments suggested the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian one amid the crushing salvo against Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure Tuesday,” the AP reported. “The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.”

Another unnamed US official told the AP earlier in the day that the missile was fired by Russia.

They spread that disinformation all day and waited until the middle of the night to admit the opposite was likely true.

Biden first was sent out on Tuesday evening to soften the blow by saying “it’s unlikely” Russia fired the missile given its trajectory.

“I don’t want to say that till we completely investigate, but it’s unlikely in the minds of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia, but we will see,” Biden said, leaving open the possibility Russia was behind the attack.

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