Increased activity at nuclear test site in northern Russia: expert
Active construction has been seen at a nuclear test site in northern Russia since last year, raising the possibility that Moscow is preparing for a fresh nuclear test, a Japanese expert on the Russian military said Monday.
Citing analysis of satellite images, Yu Koizumi, associate professor at the University of Tokyo, said a large-scale facility presumed to be related to nuclear testing appears to be almost complete at the site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Sea.
Koizumi called the activities exceptional and said Russia could be preparing a subcritical nuclear test, which does not create an explosion.
He believes the move is “to intimidate European countries and the United States” over their support for Ukraine, which is at war with Russia.
Novaya Zemlya was the site of the Soviet Union’s around 130 nuclear tests, including in the atmosphere, underground and undersea, between 1955 and 1990.
Russia continued with subcritical nuclear tests on the island to enhance nuclear weapons and assess their capabilities, with the latest conducted in 2004.
Satellite images by space tech company Maxar Technologies Inc. and Earth imaging firm Planet Labs PBC, both of the United States, showed that works to construct the large facility got fully underway around last summer at the test site on the southern part of Novaya Zemlya, according to Koizumi.
The building, some 200 meters in length, is around double the size of other facilities in the area and was nearly complete in the Maxar images taken in early February, Koizumi said.
“It is highly likely that the facility was newly built for a (nuclear) test,” he said, adding a pile-up of materials around an airport suggests that the facility could be further enlarged.
At the same time, the images did not show any direct evidence of a nuclear test, Koizumi said, citing snow covering an entrance of a tunnel located around 3 kilometers from the nuclear site in the mountains, which could be used for a subcritical nuclear experiment.
In November last year, Russia revoked its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions, whether for military or peaceful purposes, in a move seen as its de facto exit from the treaty.
“We should seriously worry about Russia playing the card of a nuclear test,” Koizumi said.
Nuclear power plants in war zones: Lessons learned from the war in Ukraine
Joanna Przybylak, SECURITY and DEFENCE Quarterly, April 2024
ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to examine the lessons learned till mid-2023 from the war in Ukraine to find out how attacking or seizing nuclear power plants (NPPs) can be utilised to advance military and political objectives during an armed conflict.
The qualitative research approach has been applied to the study, focusing on an analysis of academic research and relevant acts of international law. In order to examine Russia’s approach to the attacks against the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia NPPs, numerous reports, official statements by the authorities, press releases, and Internet sources have been analysed.
For evaluation of nuclear security and safety standards in Ukraine, the “seven pillars” model proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency has been adopted. The study indicates that strategically located NPPs can be used as “nuclear shields” for the occupying forces deployed at the plant or nearby. They may also become useful tools of “lawfare” waged with the use of flawed interpretations of international humanitarian law.
Finally, nuclear security-related narrations analysed in the paper clearly prove that seized NPPs can be effectively used in information warfare. The research leads to the conclusion that civil NPPs in war zones can be weaponised and exploited by the hostile forces not only for impeding energy supplies (and thus shattering the public morale of the adversary) but also for blackmailing and coercing the decisionmakers of the attacked state and their international allies with a vision of man-made nuclear disaster……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
US, Philippines, Japan, and Australia Conduct First Joint Military Exercise in South China Sea
China launched patrols in the South China Sea in response
by Dave DeCamp April 7, 2024
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/04/07/us-philippines-japan-and-australia-conduct-first-joint-military-exercise-in-south-china-sea/
The US, Japan, the Philippines, and Australia conducted joint military exercises in the South China Sea on Sunday in a provocative show of force aimed at China.
According to Japan’s Kyodo News, the drills marked the first “full-scale exercise” between the four nations. The US has been looking to increase military cooperation between its treaty allies in the region as part of its military build-up to prepare for a future war with China.
The four countries released a joint statement that made clear the drills were meant to push back on China’s claims to the South China Sea. “We stand with all nations in safeguarding the international order based on the rule of law that is the foundation for a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific region,” the statement said.
According to The South China Morning Post, the drills included two Philippine vessels, one American ship, one Australian ship, and a Japanese ship and focused on anti-submarine warfare training, tactical exercises, and photo exercises.
China launched patrols in the South China Sea on the same day in what appeared to be a response to the drill. “The Southern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army will conduct a joint air and sea combat patrol in the South China Sea on April 7,” the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command said.
The joint drills come as tensions are soaring between China and the Philippines over disputed rocks and reefs in the South China Sea. Chinese and Philippine vessels frequently have tense encounters in the waters, which often end in collision. In the most recent incident, a Chinese vessel fired a water cannon at a Philippine supply boat, injuring several crew members.
The incidents in the South China Sea could potentially spark a major war as the US has repeatedly affirmed that the US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty applies to attacks on Philippine vessels in the disputed waters.
President Biden is hosting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington this Thursday for the first-ever trilateral summit between the three nations. They’re expected to announce the launch of regular joint patrols in the South China Sea.
Meet Centuria, Ukraine’s Western-trained neo-Nazi army
The Grayzone, KIT KLARENBERG·APRIL 7, 2024
A uniquely Ukrainian strain of Neo-Nazism is spreading throughout Europe, which openly advocates violence against minorities while seeking new recruits. With Kiev’s army collapsing and a narrative of Western betrayal gaining currency, the horror inflicted on residents of Donbas for a decade could very soon be coming to a city near you.
Centuria, an ultra-violent Ukrainian Neo-Nazi faction, has cemented itself in six cities across Germany, and is seeking to expand its local presence. According to Junge Welt, a Berlin-based Marxist daily, the Nazi organization’s growth has been “unhindered by local security services.”
Junge Welt traces Centuria’s origins to an August 2020 Neo-Nazi summit “at the edge of a forest near Kiev.” There, an ultranationalist named Igor “Tcherkas” Mikhailenko demanded the “hundreds of mostly masked vigilante fighters present,” who were members Kiev’s fascistic National Militia, “make sacrifices for the idea of ‘Greater Ukraine.’” As the former head of the Neo-Nazi Patriot of Ukraine’s Kharkiv division, and commander of the state sponsored Azov Battalion from 2014 to 2015, Mikhailenko has professed a desire to “destroy everything anti-Ukrainian.”
Junge Welt reports that since 2017, the National Militia “had been practicing brutal vigilante justice” throughout Ukraine, including “tyrannizing the LGBTQ scene.” Centuria was subsequently blamed for a terrifying November 2021 attack on a gay nightclub in Kiev, in which its operatives assaulted revelers with truncheons and pepper spray.
Now the same Neo-Nazi sect “has an offshoot in Germany,” Junge Welt revealed. On August 24 2023, the 32nd anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, Centuria convened a “nationalist rally” in the central city of Magdeburg, “unmolested by Antifa and critical media reporting.”
Participants proudly posed with the flag of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) founded by World War II-era Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. Centuria boasted at the time on Telegram, “although Ukrainian youth are not in their homeland, they are starting to unite.” Meanwhile, they threatened the “enemies” of their country with “hellish storm,” pledging that “Ukrainian emigrants” would not “forget their national identity for a few hundred euros.”
Junge Welt reports that Centuria “is currently raising funds for its parent organization’s combat unit,” which is commanded by Andriy Biletsky – the Azov Battalion founder who infamously stated in 2014 that the Ukrainian nation’s mission was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade… against Semite-led Untermenschen.” At home, Centuria’s members express similar attitudes towards Muslims, Africans, and gays, whom they refer to, respectively, as the “German Caliphate,” “black rapists,” and “pedophiles.”
Now, the group’s members are working hard to pass their ideological vision down to future racists across the continent. “We are creating a new generation of heroes!” Centuria’s Telegram channel boasts. Accordingly, the neo-Nazi group has been arranging hiking trips to Germany’s Harz mountains with a Ukrainian nationalist scout association called Plast. This outfit opened chapters across the Western world beginning in the 1950s, in response to the Soviet Union’s hounding of fascists and nationalists. Besides receiving ideological indoctrination, Plast’s youthful members may have the opportunity to improve their physical fitness and receive military training. As Centuria ominously declares on Telegram, “free people have weapons.”
As Washington gradually backs away from its sponsorship of Ukraine’s war with Russia, it has begun ceding responsibility for the military campaign’s management – and likely failure – to Berlin. If US arms shipments continue to dwindle, Germany will become Kiev’s chief supplier of weapons. And the Germans may find that saying “no” to Ukraine could result in some nasty surprises………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://thegrayzone.com/2024/04/07/centuria-ukraines-western-neo-nazi-army/
NATO 75 Years On… A War Machine Long Past Its Sell-By Date
NATO has been sold to the world as some kind of international security agency. How Orwellian can you get? Peace means war, security means chaos and threats, and rules-based order means domination and exploitation.
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/04/05/nato-75-years-war-machine-long-past-its-sell-by-date/
—
This week marks the 75th anniversary of NATO’s founding in April 1949. The organization has become a global danger to peace and security and should have been disbanded more than 30 years ago when the Cold War supposedly ended. That the alliance was not disbanded attests that its real purpose was always to serve as a weapon for U.S.-led Western imperialism.
Barely four years after the end of World War Two – the greatest calamity in world history – and amid the ruins of a devastated Europe and Asia, Western imperialism was once again reinventing its nefarious internal forces.
Nearly 30 million citizens of the Soviet Union had died at the hands of Nazi Germany. And yet despite the horror and evil of war, the Western powers were busy reconfiguring their military forces to confront again the Soviet Union. With the defeat of the Nazi war machine largely by the Soviet Red Army, the Western imperialists innovated a new instrument in the form of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The betrayal and treachery were not just to the Soviet people. All of humanity was once again subjected to the warmongering designs and necessities of a global elite under Western imperialism.
NATO’s declared purpose was to defend Europe from Soviet aggression. The same pretense exists today in the claim that the alliance is defending Ukraine from Russian belligerence.
The proof of NATO’s real function is demonstrated by the fact that the organization did not disband in 1991 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. Over the ensuing 33 years, the military bloc has doubled its membership to 31 nations. Russia has replaced the Soviet Union as the Western-designated security threat to Europe. But such rationale turns reality on its head. NATO has always existed as a tool of aggression for Western imperialism. Where Nazi Germany failed to do the job of conquering the Soviet Union, NATO tacitly took over the task, and when the Soviet Union disappeared, the new enemy of convenience became the Russian Federation.
Continue readingThe day of nuclear Armageddon: Newly declassified documents reveal in macabre minute-by-minute detail what the end of the world would like. And why those vaporised instantly by an atomic bomb will be the lucky ones…
Eventually it reaches the troposphere, higher than commercial flights. Radioactive particles then spew across everything below as fallout, raining back down on the Earth.
A nuclear bomb produces ‘a witch’s brew of radioactive products, which are also entrained in the cloud’, the astrophysicist Carl Sagan warned decades ago.
More than a million people are dead or dying and fewer than two minutes have passed since detonation. Now the inferno begins.
ANNIE JACOBSEN, 7 April 2024, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13279197/The-day-nuclear-Armageddon-Newly-declassified-documents-reveal-macabre-minute-minute-end-world-like-vaporised-instantly-atomic-bomb-lucky-ones.html
This story, of what the moments after a nuclear missile launch could look like, is based on facts sourced from exclusive interviews with presidential advisers, cabinet members, nuclear weapons engineers, scientists, soldiers, airmen, special operators, Secret Service, emergency management experts, intelligence analysts, civil servants and others who have worked on these macabre scenarios over decades.
As the plans for General Nuclear War are among the most classified secrets held by the US government, the scenario postulated here takes the reader up to the razor’s edge of what can legally be known. Declassified documents, obfuscated for decades, fill in the details with terrifying clarity.
Because the Pentagon is a top target for a strike by America’s nuclear-armed enemies, in the scenario that follows, Washington DC gets hit first with a one megaton thermo-nuclear bomb. ‘A “Bolt out of the Blue” attack against DC is what everyone in DC fears most,’ says Andrew Weber, former assistant secretary of defence for nuclear, chemical and biological defence programmes. ‘Bolt out of the Blue’ is how US Nuclear Command and Control refers to an ‘unwarned large [nuclear] attack’.
This strike on DC initiates the beginning of an Armageddon-like nuclear war that will almost certainly follow. ‘There is no such thing as a small nuclear war,’ is an oft repeated phrase in Washington.
A nuclear strike on the Pentagon is just the beginning of a scenario the finality of which will be the end of civilisation as we know it.
This is the reality of the world in which we live. The nuclear war scenario proposed in this book could happen tomorrow. Or later today. ‘The world could end in the next couple of hours,’ warns General Robert Kehler, the former commander of the United States Strategic Command.
A one megaton thermonuclear weapon detonation begins with a flash of light and heat so tremendous it is impossible for the human mind to comprehend.
One hundred and eighty million degrees Fahrenheit is four or five times hotter than the temperature at the centre the Sun.
In the first fraction of a milli-second after the bomb strikes the Pentagon outside Washington DC, there is light. Soft X-ray light with a very short wavelength. The light superheats the surrounding air to millions of degrees, creating a massive fireball that expands at millions of miles per hour.
Within a few seconds the fireball has increased to a diameter of a little more than a mile, its heat so intense that concrete explodes, metal melts or evaporates, stone shatters and people instantaneously convert into combusting carbon.
The five-storey, five-sided structure of the Pentagon, and everything inside its 6.5 million sq ft of office space, explodes into superheated dust, all the walls shattering with the near-simultaneous arrival of a shockwave. All 27,000 employees perish instantly.
Not a single thing in the fireball remains. Nothing. Ground zero is zeroed.
Travelling at the speed of light, the radiating heat from the fireball ignites everything flammable several miles in every direction.
Curtains, paper, books, wood fences, clothing and dry leaves explode into flames and become kindling for a great firestorm that begins to consume a 100 or more square mile area that, prior to this flash of light, was the beating heart of American governance and home to six million people.
Several hundred feet north-west of the Pentagon, all 639 acres of Arlington national cemetery –including the 400,000 sets of bones and gravestones honouring the war dead, the 3,800 buried African-American freed people, the visitors paying respects on this late winter afternoon, the groundskeepers mowing lawns, the arborists tending trees, the tour guides touring, the white-gloved members of the Old Guard keeping watch over the Tomb of the Unknowns – they are all instantly transformed into charred human figurines. Into soot.
Those incinerated are spared the horror that begins to be inflicted on the one to two million people gravely injured but not yet dead.
Continue readingCIA Front Companies Play Crucial Role in Arms Pipeline to Ukraine and Profit From the Human Misery it Generates
Covert Action Magazine, By CIAgate, April 1, 2024
Noetic Continental Inc. Foists Military Equipment Through Private War Companies
Analyzing the CIA’s records, we’ve noticed that there were many references to the Noetic international Inc., a company with questionable origin and activity.
According to its website, the enterprise specializes in “delivering products and services including assessments, operations and finance to clients in the energy, telecom, space, cybersecurity and intelligence sectors.“
In a previous article on substack we wrote that the CEO of the Noetic International Inc. was Johnna May Holeman, a former U.S. artillery soldier and CIA operative, who took part in the supply of 155mm white phosphorus rounds to Ukraine through a tea-trade company in Bulgaria.
Now we can say that there was another CIA officer behind the creation of the Noetic International Inc. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet John Alan Irvin–the godfather of clandestine operations.
Through his extensive ties, resources and expertise, John Irvin has developed a vast network of contacts, informants and partners to achieve a comprehensive range of goals in accordance with the CIA’s design. Given John’s age, today the bulk of the work is now done by Johnna Holeman. The Noetic International Inc. has offices in Illinois, California, Germany, England and Austria.
The Noetic “specialists” address complex problems in wide range of domains including air- and sea-based drones, renewable energy, cybersecurity and cryptocurrency, technology and robotics, as well as strategic influence campaigns and analysis and decision making.
The network includes hundreds of influencers connected by both personal acquaintance and virtual meetings. The Noetic operatives help local and foreign authorities to achieve goals in order to enlist the support afterwards.
According to our source, the Noetic International Inc. has a shell company in Puerto Rico, that under the guise of cannabis dispensary addresses essential tasks on behalf of the CIA, such as supply of various kinds of unmanned aerial and maritime drones to foreign countries, including Ukraine, reshore of semiconductor production to the U.S., as well as the supply of small-module nuclear reactors.
Initially, we doubted the veracity of the source’s information. Yet, as it was with the investigation surrounding Chanda Creasy, a yoga coach and a head of the CIA division responsible for arms transfers to militants in Africa and Middle East, painstaking analysis and careful sieving of information made it possible to determine that it was the Anyon Minds LLC……………………………………………………………………………………..
It seems like this outlet is not a trading platform, but a certain communication hub for a dedicated circle of persons…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
We are also extremely curious what kind of advice the cannabis company could receive from a former Chief of Staff of the 82nd Airborne division, Jouni Keravuori, who also worked at the SAS Institute, General Dynamics and the same Pax Mondial and Pax Safe. Perhaps his daughter-in-law and, concurrently, Brigadier General Rose Lopez Keravuori, helps him with this. Since 2023, she has been serving as the Director of intelligence (J2) of the U.S. Command in Africa………………………………………………………………………………..
Drones’ modernization and delivery to foreign countries
According to our source, Mr. Benitez maintained close cooperation with Johnna Holeman and another member of Noetic International, Hans Mumm, mentioned in one of our previous investigations.
The cooperation was focused on:
⦁ improving capabilities of automated drones manufactured by the Airgility and the Safehaven Marine paramilitary companies;
⦁ optimizing the automated functionality of existing UAVs, including an anti-missile drone capable of intercepting shells and counterattacking a missile launch site;
⦁ improving the “world’s fastest sea drone” with a customer-tailored weapons system (aerial and underwater) (Project Barracuda by Safehaven Marine).
⦁ Noetic team also discussed a special “Vanilla program” related to a new unmanned aerial system. Check the project summary here…………………………………………………………………………………………………
What’s the most interesting is that the representatives of the Anyon Minds DIRECTLY negotiated with the Ukrainian authorities. It should be noted that during his trip to Kyiv in October, 2022, Benitez personally communicated with Mykhailo Fedorov, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for Innovations, Education, Science and Technology–Minister of Ukraine for Digital Transformation. They discussed the issues related to the supply of drones as part of military assistance. …………………………………………………..
This war not only fabulously enriched Benitez and his team, but also allowed the CIA to establish gray-trading schemes and market channels for the sale of unmanned vehicles to Ukrainian officials. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.
PART II
The Gallant Nights LLC
Below we talk about one dubious private military company (PMC) also involved in CIA’s corruption scheme in Ukraine. We will show how the agency uses Hollywood celebrities to empty the wallets of their fans……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/04/01/cia-front-companies-play-crucial-role-in-arms-pipeline-to-ukraine-and-profit-from-the-human-misery-it-generates/?mc_cid=af5fe30ca7&mc_eid=65917fb94b
The Looming Ukraine Debacle
There is indeed a serious risk that, rather than the West teaching Russia a lesson and putting Putin in his place, the opposite may occur.
by Matthew Blackburn , The National Interest, Sun, 07 Apr 2024
With Ukraine’s military situation deteriorating, NATO foreign ministers have gathered in Brussels to develop a long-term plan to deliver the necessary supplies to Kyiv. As NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg put it, “Ukrainians are not running out of courage, they are running out of ammunition.” Distracted by other matters, America increasingly looks to Europe to coordinate the defense of Ukraine. But, other than scrambling for shells and money or unveiling a modest EU defense industry strategy, European leaders do not appear to have the ideas or the means to intervene in a decisive or timely fashion.
French president Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion that NATO troops may enter Ukraine was supported by Poland and Czechia but caused some consternation in France itself. More importantly, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States still rule out boots on the ground. Instead of a new approach, the old pattern continues: NATO mulls over how to help Ukraine without provoking open war with Russia and fails, in the end, to deliver the kind of decisive assistance needed to turn the course of the war.
Another established pattern is the repetition of moralistic binary language. The West “cannot let Russia win.” The “rules-based order” could unravel. Then there is the new domino theory: if Ukraine falls, Russian hordes will flood further west. The personalization of the conflict onto one evil man, Vladimir Putin, continues with the death of Alexei Navalny. It is a Manichean struggle of good and evil, democracy and authoritarianism, civilization and darkness. There can be “no peace until the tyrant falls.” The Western alliance must not waver in its commitment to Ukraine.
What is lacking throughout the discourse is realism. What is the real balance of power between the warring nations, and what can be concluded from two years of Russia-NATO hard power competition? Unsurprisingly, Western leaders are reluctant to admit that the dire situation facing Ukraine is related to their own fundamental miscalculations about Russia. Russia’s multiple blunders in this war are well-known but what of those made by the Western alliance?
The West’s Plan A Failed; Russia’s Plan B is Slowly Succeeding.
About two years ago, it became clear that Russia’s Plan A in Ukraine failed. Putin’s initial approach was a sudden movement of troops into Ukraine that, in the best case, could topple Ukraine’s government or, at least, coerce Kyiv into signing a new and less favorable version of the Minsk II agreement. Russia’s Plan A was resisted by the Zelenskyy government, whose military forces held firm on the outskirts of Kyiv in March 2022. After the collapse of the Istanbul peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow in April, Russia shifted to Plan B: waging a grinding war of attrition to exhaust Kyiv’s will and capacity to resist while testing the Western alliance’s collective ability to sustain Ukraine.
Russia’s Plan B had mixed results in 2022……………………………………
As the slow success of Russia’s Plan B becomes more apparent, the failure of the West’s own Plan A to deal with Russia is now clarified. ………………………………………………………..
Western sanctions were thus a double failure: they did not wreck the Russian economy or destabilize the elite coalition around the regime.
The other set of assumptions was military in nature……………………………………. The claims of astronomical Russian losses reinforced the long-standing assumption of NATO military superiority over Russia, creating a remarkable war optimism in the West. Ukraine would now use higher caliber Western weapons, tactics, and training to defeat Russia comprehensively. NATO’s game-changing wonder weapons were kept on the sidelines and could be introduced when Ukraine needed decisive assistance.
These military assumptions have now been proven incorrect. The drip-feeding of advanced weaponry, calibrated to avoid crossing Russian redlines too flagrantly, did not allow the Ukrainians to achieve decisive success in 2023…………………………………..
Overall, NATO was not well prepared for the war in Ukraine; its military doctrines foresaw interventions in civil wars or conflict with weaker opponents, not a proxy war of attrition with a peer competitor.
In contrast, Russia was better prepared for the long haul of military production and has also successfully innovated in response to the military setbacks it has experienced. ……………………………….. On the tactical and operational level, Russia is engaging many parts of the front simultaneously, forcing Ukraine into an exhausting and constant redeployment of troops. Presenting Russian military successes as “human wave” or “meat assaults” is clearly inaccurate. Russia’s approach is gradual, attritional, and anything but mindless………………………………………………….
Despite all the above indicators, many in the West want to continue Plan A: more sanctions on Russia, new weapons, and more training for Ukraine, all to somehow prepare Ukraine to launch another offensive in 2025. Yet it remains unclear how Ukraine can survive 2024 if Russia is outproducing the West by more than three-to-one in shells and has more troops at its disposal. Something has to give in the next phase of the war.
What Next?
The current rather desperate effort to scrape together munitions to ensure Ukraine’s immediate survival does not constitute a Plan B for the West in Ukraine. A definition of “victory” is still lacking. It is unclear what prerequisites must be in place for “honorable” negotiations with Russia. The Western alliance’s Plan B must be a choice between rapidly developing an effective means of doubling down its support for Ukraine or starting to talk about a compromise with Russia…………………more https://nationalinterest.org/feature/looming-ukraine-debacle-210160
America’s crazed proxy war on Russia is destroying Ukraine’s economy
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 7 Apr 24
I’m no economist. But you don’t need to be one to figure out the economic catastrophe the US has imposed on its Trojan Horse Ukraine in its lust to weaken Russia.
Most opponents of this endless US debacle focus on the hundreds of thousands dead Ukrainian soldiers without a single US death to weaken, isolate Russia.
But we should not ignore the economic basket case Uncle Sam has created, essentially degrading life for every Ukrainian not yet killed.
Since goading Russia into invading 26 months ago, Ukraine has ceased to exist as an economically independent nation. Its exports have largely vanished, its imports have exploded. Ukraine has gone from a surplus exporter to a massive importer. That dries up foreign currency making the paying for further imports, even the national debt, increasingly problematic.
Exports plummeted by 17% and 30% respectively in ’22 and ’23. Imports? More than doubled since America’s disastrous, losing proxy war crossed the Red Line to invasion.
Ukraine now spends half its GDP on defense that’s accomplishing nothing but more soldier cemeteries and spiraling economic collapse. Its borrowed over $40 billion in last 2 years, a 200% increase compared to the previous 10 years. Its external debt is now 90% of GDP and heading north to 140% by 2026 according to EU estimates.
All this could have been avoided had the US realized 33 years ago that the Soviet Union’s demise meant the true end to the Cold War. Now, having turned the Cold War into a Hot War destroying Ukraine, America’s crazed leaders, including most Democrats and Republicans, lust for another $61 billion in weapons that will prolong the flow of red blood and red ink.
And the Big Fool in the White House just says ‘Push on.’
Israel targeted aid convoy ‘car by car’ – charity founder
https://www.rt.com/news/595400-israel-targeted-aid-convoy-car-by-car/ 7 Apr 24
Jose Andres has dismissed the IDF’s claim that the deadly attack on the World Central Kitchen aid workers was a ‘mistake’
The Israeli attack that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity group in Gaza was not a mistake, as the convoy was targeted “systematically, car by car,” the group’s founder and celebrity chef Jose Andres told Reuters on Wednesday.
Three Britons, a Polish national, an Australian, a Palestinian, and a dual US-Canadian citizen were killed in the incident, which has sparked international condemnation.
Israel’s military, the IDF, knew the aid convoy’s movements as there had been clear communication between the WCK and IDF, Andres said.
“This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” the chef told Reuters.
The convoy was made up of three cars, including two armored vehicles, which clearly displayed the WCK logo. All three were hit during the strike.
According to the chef, after the IDF attacked the first armored car, the team was able to escape and move to the second armored vehicle. The second car was then attacked, forcing the volunteers to move to the third.
The aid workers tried to communicate to make clear who they were, Reuters cites Andres, but the third car was then hit, “and we saw the consequences of that,” he concluded.
Andres’ account of the events echoes Tuesday’s report in the Haaretz newspaper that said that the IDF bombed the convoy three times intentionally, as it suspected that there was a Hamas operative among the aid workers.
The Israeli leadership apologized for the incident. IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi called the incident a “grave mistake” and said the military had no intention of harming WCK aid workers. The general blamed the strike on misidentification. Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed “deep sorrow and sincere apologies” to Andres. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that such “tragic” and “unintended” incidents happen “in wartime.”
The air strike was condemned by Israel’s staunchest allies the US, UK, and other countries, including those whose nationals were among the dead.
According to the UN, at least 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s offensive six months ago. Hamas has previously accused Israel of targeting aid distribution sites, Reuters notes.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the Palestinian militants carried out a surprise cross-border raid on October 7 last year, killing some 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. The Israeli military campaign has since left nearly 33,000 people dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Russia calls out US over plans to militarize space
https://www.rt.com/russia/595548-moscow-us-militarize-space/ 7 Apr 24
Washington uses hostile rhetoric and baseless allegations to cover up its own intentions to send weapons into space, Moscow claims
The US has been seeking to dismantle legally-binding international security mechanisms and replace them with vague norms of the so-called ‘rules-based world order’, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.
The remarks were in response to statements from the outgoing US assistant secretary of defense for space policy, John Plumb, at a Defense Writers Group meeting on Friday. According to Zakharova, Plumb dismissed Russian-Chinese initiatives on the prevention of an arms race in space as a “political ploy,” claiming that adherence to the deal would not be verifiable.
“The US is an ardent opponent of Russian initiatives to prevent an arms race in outer space. Strong opposition to the aforementioned Russian-Chinese draft treaty has long been an integral part of American foreign policy,” Zakharova said in a Telegram post, referring to a 2008 draft agreement.
Instead, the US has been pursuing its own approach to keeping space free of weapons by promoting a “set of norms of ‘responsible’ behavior within the framework of their concept of a ‘rules-based world order,’” which is untenable both in technical and international legal terms, the spokeswoman said.
Plumb’s remarks, as well as Washington’s ongoing activities in the UN Security Council with regard to nuclear weapons in space, are part of its longstanding efforts to dismantle the system of legally-binding security treaties, she claimed.
The Russian Embassy in the US provided a similar assessment of Plumb’s remarks, suggesting they are part of a concerted campaign to divert attention away from Washington’s own pursuits. “We consider the Pentagon’s manipulations of information to be further proof of US attempts to use Russophobic slogans to justify its own plans for militarizing space,” the mission said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Washington has been promoting a resolution on the non-deployment of nuclear weapons in space. The UN Security Council is set to vote on the US- and Japan- backed document next week, which, if adopted, would reaffirm that countries must fully comply with their obligations under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bans weapons of mass destruction in space.
The resolution comes amid claims in the US media early this year that Russia is seeking to deploy anti-satellite nukes, or at least mock-ups, into space. Moscow has strongly denied the claims, with Russian President Vladimir Putin describing them as “unfounded accusations.”
West helping Ukraine attack deep inside Russia – CNN
https://www.rt.com/russia/595314-west-helps-ukraine-drone-attacks/ 5 Apr 24
Kiev’s foreign backers are coordinating the flight paths of kamikaze drones, a report says
Western countries are helping Ukraine to launch kamikaze drones deep into Russian territory, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing a source close to Kiev’s drone program.
An unnamed Ukrainian official who spoke to CNN described how Kiev uses UAVs with longer ranges and “more advanced capabilities” to strike targets located more than 1,000km (621 miles) from the border.
“The flights are determined in advance with our allies, and the aircraft follow the flight plan to enable us to strike targets with meters of precision,” the source said.
The admission of receiving guidance from abroad follows multiple reports that Western personnel are providing Ukrainian troops with intelligence and information about specific targets.
The Washington Post cited a senior Ukrainian official last year as saying that Kiev’s soldiers “almost never” use advanced weapons, including US-made HIMARS rocket launchers, without receiving coordinates from the Pentagon.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian drones targeted Russia’s Tatarstan, a region 650km east of Moscow (400 miles), which had not previously been attacked by UAVs. One drone was aiming to hit an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, a city located roughly 1,100km (680 miles) from the border. Mayor Ramil Mullin said that the aircraft was disabled by air defenses and caused no damage.
Another drone struck a student dormitory inside the industrial zone in Elabuga, injuring 13 people. The hub hosts several companies that make high-tech equipment, including drones, according to Russian media.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that the delivery of weapons and other military aid to Kiev makes Western countries de facto direct participants in the conflict. The Russian Defense Ministry and local authorities have said that Kiev uses Western-supplied arms to indiscriminately fire at civilians.
Ukrainian military leaders know they can’t win on battlefield – Guardian
https://www.rt.com/russia/595341-ukraine-gur-attacks-guardian/ 5 Apr 24
Their army’s weakness has prompted Kiev’s strikes on Russian infrastructure, senior officers have allegedly told the London newspaper.
Ukraine has no other option but to launch attacks inside Russia, including on its oil infrastructure, because its army faces continued setbacks on the battlefield, The Guardian has reported, citing the leadership of the country’s military intelligence service, the GUR.
Officers who allegedly spoke to the British newspaper were candid about Kiev’s desperate military situation. GUR Brigadier-General Dmitry Timkov said his country was like a patient on life support.
”We are attached to a drip. We have enough drugs to stay alive. But, if the West wants us to win, we need the full treatment,” he admitted, referring to the dwindling quantities of military aid coming from Kiev’s western backers.
Major General Vadim Skibitsky, the deputy head of the GUR, admitted that a Ukrainian victory, widely promised by Kiev, is impossible at the moment. Facing multiple setbacks, the agency had “no choice” but to launch strikes deep inside Russia. He described this as a “NATO-standard procedure, known as center of gravity, or COG.”
The concept was first developed by Carl von Clausewitz, the famous Prussian general and military theorist, and essentially refers to targets that have the most value for the enemy, physically or morally.
GUR officials that spoke to the Guardian claimed credit for a recent string of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. This contradicts public statements by the head of SBU, the Ukrainian civilian security agency, Vasily Maliuk who said it was his agents who were responsible for the operations.
Both branches have been overhauled in the years since the 2014 armed coup in Kiev, with the CIA’s help, according to Western media reports. Both were allegedly involved in targeted assassinations of people deemed enemies of Ukraine, since before the conflict with Russia began in 2022.
The newspaper said GUR intends to launch a new major attack on the Crimean Bridge – and to disable it – “in the first half of 2024.” Ukraine has previously targeted the structure, twice in 2022 and 2023.
READ MORE: West helping Ukraine attack deep inside Russia – CNN
The first plot involved a powerful bomb hidden in a truck, which killed the vehicle’s driver and four other civilians in nearby cars. Moscow said GUR masterminded this attack. The second strike involved naval kamikaze drones that SBU said were deployed by its agents. That bombing killed two civilians.
Moscow has accused Kiev of engaging in terrorism as a method of war. The regime in Kiev has adopted the tactics, Russian officials are claiming, because it is unable to score victories on the battlefield.
Israel Lets Some Aid Into Gaza So The US Will Keep Giving It Weapons To Kill People In Gaza
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, APR 06, 2024
Israel has generously and compassionately reopened the Erez crossing to allow aid into Gaza, as it is the only way to ensure that the US will keep sending them weapons to kill the people in Gaza.
Biden sent Netanyahu one warning about a failure to protect civilians possibly costing Israel its US support and the crossing opened immediately, which proves (A) that Israel has been intentionally starving Gazans by closing entrances off from aid and (B) that Biden could have ordered this to stop at any time.
The Biden administration approved another weapons package for Israel on the same day Israel killed a bunch of international aid workers in Gaza and bombed the Iranian consulate in Syria. But please, tell me more about how frustrated and angry and outraged and upset Biden’s feelings are feeling toward Israel.
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The huge amount of western outrage and sympathy we’re seeing over the IDF assassination of an international aid convoy compared to the systematic extermination of Palestinians we’ve seen over the last six months confirms the west only regards white people as full human beings, which is a point we’d already seen driven home by the disproportionate amount of outrage and sympathy we saw over Ukraine.
But you know what? We’ll take it. Things are that desperate that if you can only support an end to the Gaza genocide if you see six westerners get killed, I say welcome aboard anyway. Hopefully this is the beginning of the formation of an actual conscience that’s worth a damn.
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The mass media are reporting that the preliminary IDF debrief into the killing of several World Central Kitchen employees in Gaza has found that the multiple strikes were not carried out with the intention of killing those workers, a report which if you ask me has big “CIA Says It Has Found No Link Between Itself and Crack Trade” energy.
Haaretz has a new article out titled “At Singapore Airshow, the Gaza War Was a Selling Point for Israeli Weapon Manufacturers,” which is exactly what it sounds like. One of the ugliest things about this dystopia is that acts of mass military slaughter are always immensely profitable for a specific industry. They’re profitable in and of themselves, even before you add in things like land and resource grabs, just by helping to market and sell more weapons.
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Stop calling this a “war”. A war doesn’t involve conversations about whether or not a walled-in population should be allowed to have food, medicine and electricity. If you have that much control over a population, you can’t be at war with it. You’re just killing a bunch of prisoners.
Biden and his cohorts aren’t mad at Netanyahu for committing a genocide, they’re mad at Netanyahu for not hiding a genocide………………………………………..more https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-lets-some-aid-into-gaza-so?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=143320632&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
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Ukraine aid will bankrupt future US generations – congressman
https://www.rt.com/news/595344-ukraine-aid-bankrupt-us/ 5 Apr 24
America risks getting bogged down in “yet another forever war,” Republican Eli Crane has warned.
The US should end its financial support for Ukraine and instead focus on how Kiev can settle the conflict, Republican congressman Eli Crane has said. His comments come as House Speaker Mike Johnson said the chamber is likely to vote soon on providing Kiev with new funding.
Several months ago, US President Joe Biden proposed a supplemental security package that would earmark around $60 billion in assistance to Ukraine, but it has since remained stalled in Congress as Republicans demand more focus on security at the Mexican border.
On Sunday, however, Johnson signaled that the package could come up for a vote soon, with “some important innovations.” Among these, he said, is a possibility of extending a loan to Ukraine – an idea favored by GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump – as well as seizing Russian sovereign assets frozen in the US and transferring the proceeds to Kiev.
Since the start of the Ukraine conflict, the West has frozen around $300 billion in Russian assets, most of which are under European control. While numerous Western officials have proposed seizing the funds to finance Ukraine, many have pointed out that there is no legal basis for doing so. Moscow, for its part, has called the blocking “theft,” warning of retaliation if its funds were to be confiscated.
Some GOP members, however, have argued against aiding Kiev. In this vein, Eli Crane told Fox News on Tuesday that Washington is “funding what appears to be yet another forever war.” This effort, the Arizona congressman suggested, “will bankrupt future generations – all while disregarding our own security as our southern border remains open.”
“It’s absurd that overnighting more tax dollars to Ukraine is even a consideration. It should be totally off the table and replaced with a push for peace talks,” he added.
This sentiment was also shared by Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who suggested on Tuesday that any talk of loaning money to Ukraine sounds “absolutely ridiculous.”
“It’s… laughable to even try to tell the American people that Ukraine will ever pay us back!.. Why isn’t our government brokering peace in Ukraine?” she said.
The US has provided Ukraine with $113 billion in various forms of assistance since the start of hostilities. Meanwhile, Russia has repeatedly condemned Western arms shipments to Ukraine, saying these will only prolong the conflict, while making the West a direct participant in the hostilities.
1 This Month
26 September – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
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