As world leaders promote nuclear power as SAFE, a dangerous situation develops at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant _- Zaporizhzia in Ukraine !
| Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory agency faces an unprecedented struggle to maintain nuclear safety, most notably including “terrorism against firefighters and nuclear power plant personnel” at the Russian-occupied Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, according to Oleg Korikov, the organization’s beleaguered interim head. Korikov warned fellow Europeanregulators in Europe that Ukraine’s Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate (SNRIU) is unprepared for further deterioration at Zaporozhye, a six-reactor facility that is Europe’s largest nuclear plant, and is essentially in uncharted waters. “We do not have rules, regulations [for] how we can regulate, how we can operate, in these conditions,” said Korikov. Staff at Zaporozhye “is under heavy psychological pressure of Russian soldiers,” theSNRIU’s acting chairman and chief state inspector told a Jun. 20 meeting of the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group. There is “kidnapping and attacks on nuclear power plant staff” in Enerhodar, the Russian-occupied city closest to the plant. “We have evidence of this.” This appeared to = confirm what has emerged as one of the most troubling aspects of the situation at Zaporozhye and Enerhodar since both were occupied by Russian troops on Mar. 4: the kidnapping, intimidation, interrogation and torture of Zaporozhye workers. Energy Intelligence 24th June 2022 https://www.energyintel.com/00000181-910f-d7da-adc1-976f35b80000 |
Dispute among Members of European Parliament over move to classify nuclear energy as ”green”
| THERE ARE DISAGREEMENTS between Government party MEPs on whether or not the EU should classify nuclear energy as green, as the European Parliament prepares to vote on the issue next month. The debate is being held after the European Commission sought changes to regulations to classify both nuclear power and gas as green energy until at least 2030. These regulations, known as ‘taxonomy’, are a set of multiple standards to help grow sustainable investment. The idea behind taxonomy is to encourage the financial sector to prioritise investing in eco-friendly and green initiatives. While MEPs within the European Parliament’s environment and economy committee voted down the proposals to add gas and nuclear power last week, a full vote is set to take place in Strasbourg in July. This has lead to significant debate between MEPs within the European Parliament, with some criticising the move by the Commission to add natural gas and nuclear power to the deal. The debate has also split Government MEPs, with some in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backing the change to taxonomy rules while the Green Party remain opposed to the Commission’s position. The Journal 25th June 2022 https://www.thejournal.ie/government-split-on-nuclear-power-5798800-Jun2022/ |
Rolls Royce wants fast-track approval of its small nuclear reactors, even though they are barely developed yet
| Rolls-Royce is urging the UK Government to fast-track approval of its small modular nuclear reactors, despite the technology still being in the early stages of development. Trawsfynydd has been identified as a possible site for the reactors, and earlier this week the company established to develop a new reactor there set out plans to start work on a new nuclear development in 2027 – with the plant expected to go online in the early 2030s. UK Government sources have insisted the new reactors must go through exhaustive safety checks, but Rolls-Royce wants clearance to deploy its reactors from 2029 and is frustrated at the pace of the process to gain approval, which is not expected to be completed until 2026. Nation Cymru 25th June 2022 https://nation.cymru/news/uk-government-urged-to-fast-track-safety-approval-on-reactors-linked-with-trawsfynydd/ |
Nuclear Free Local Authorities support Cumbria’s new group opposing Nuclear Waste Dump
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have written to a new group in Cumbria
endorsing their opposition to plans to develop a nuclear waste dump. Millom
and District Against the Nuclear Dump was only established a few days ago
by a town resident and Councillor, yet the strength of feeling is such that
several hundred local people are now already backing the campaign.
Public feeling is currently running high after recent revelations by the local
campaign group, Radiation Free Lakeland, that seismic testing is due to
take place offshore over the summer. Environmentalists, marine welfare
organisations, residents, and the NFLA have all expressed their opposition
to the testing regime as there is strong scientific evidence that blasting
sound waves into the ocean repeatedly over 3-4 weeks will cause real harm
to marine wildlife.
Millom and District Against the Nuclear Dump is the latest group to manifest its opposition to testing, and in conjunction with Radiation Free Lakeland’s campaign, ‘Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole and
Nuclear Waste Out’, there are now joint plans to hold a public protest in
Haverigg this coming Saturday.
Now the Chair of the NFLA Steering
Committee, Councillor David Blackburn has written to the group’s founder,
Jan Bridget, offering the support of Nuclear Free Local Authorities to the
new group. Councillor Blackburn outlined the NFLA’s position on GDF:
“The NFLA has been opposed to a Geological Disposal Facility from the
start. Rather than dumping Britain’s nuclear waste in a big hole in the
ground or under the seabed, we favour near-site, near-surface storage under
rigorous supervision.
NFLA 24th June 2022
Russia to send Belarus nuclear-capable missiles within months, as G7 leaders gather in Germany,
Vladimir Putin again raises nuclear threat during Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, as Olaf Scholz hosts G7 leaders to discuss energy and food crisis, Guardian. 26 June 22
Russia will deliver missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Belarus in the coming months, President Vladimir Putin has said as he received Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
“In the coming months, we will transfer to Belarus Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which can use ballistic or cruise missiles, in their conventional and nuclear versions,” Putin said in a broadcast on Russian television at the start of his meeting with Lukashenko in St Petersburg on Saturday.
Putin has several times referred to nuclear weapons since his country launched a military operation in Ukraine on 24 February, in what the west has seen as a warning not to intervene. Lukashenko said last month that his country had bought Iskander nuclear-capable missiles and S-400 anti-aircraft anti-missile systems from Russia.
The development came on the eve of a meeting of G7 leaders in Germany on Sunday, to be hosted by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the Bavarian alps, which is set to be dominated by Ukraine and its far-reaching consequences, from energy shortages to a food crisis.
The G7 leaders are expected to seek to show a united front on supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary and cranking up pressure on the Kremlin – although they will want to avoid sanctions that could stoke inflation and exacerbate the global cost-of-living crisis……………………………….. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/26/russia-to-send-belarus-nuclear-capable-missiles-within-months-as-g7-leaders-gather-in-germany
No Western ”boots on the ground” in Ukraine? Just commandoes and CIA agents
Western ‘network of commandos and spies’ helping Ukraine – NYTCIA agents have been stationed in Kiev to share US intel with Ukrainian troops, the report claims https://www.rt.com/news/557848-us-cia-agents-kiev/ NATO members have been supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons, including missile launchers, combat drones and armored vehicles, and training Ukrainian troops to use them. In recent months, the Pentagon has delivered M142 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers and M777 howitzers.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that Ukraine was facing “a pivotal moment on the battlefield” and urged Washington’s allies to continue aiding Kiev.
The report about the activities of Western commandos and CIA agents in and around Ukraine comes as a three-day Group of Seven (G7) summit kicks off in Germany on Sunday. The group, which comprises of the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, which have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia.
Moscow has said in the past that it will treat foreign weapons, on Ukrainian soil, as legitimate targets.
A secret network of commandos and spies from the US, and some of its allies, is working to provide weapons, intelligence and training to Ukraine, the New York Times (NYT) reported on Saturday, citing current and former American and European officials.
While much of the activity takes place at bases in Britain, Germany and France, some CIA agents have been stationed in the east European country, mostly in the capital Kiev, the paper said.
The agents are tasked with sharing satellite images and other intelligence with Ukrainian troops, according to the story.
The US announced the evacuation of military instructors from Ukraine in February. Shortly afterwards, Russia launched its military campaign and the US Army’s 10th Special Forces Group set up a planning cell in Germany to coordinate military aid to Kiev, the paper explained. The group has reportedly grown to include participants from 20 nations.
The NYT added that “a few dozen commandos” from other NATO member states, including Canada, Britain, France and Lithuania, have also been working in Ukraine.
NATO members have been supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons, including missile launchers, combat drones and armored vehicles, and training Ukrainian troops to use them. In recent months, the Pentagon has delivered M142 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers and M777 howitzers.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that Ukraine was facing “a pivotal moment on the battlefield” and urged Washington’s allies to continue aiding Kiev.
The report about the activities of Western commandos and CIA agents in and around Ukraine comes as a three-day Group of Seven (G7) summit kicks off in Germany on Sunday. The group, which comprises of the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, which have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia.
Moscow has said in the past that it will treat foreign weapons, on Ukrainian soil, as legitimate targets.22
Radiation Free Lakeland joins local Haverigg Protest against the GDF (Nuclear Dump)
Today I was delighted to be able to represent LAND our Radiation Free
Lakeland campaign at the Protest against the GDF 2plans by
Locals. Twenty locals turned up today in Haverigg to protest the siting of
a Geological Disposal Facility aka Nuclear Dump for heat generating nuclear
wastes under the Irish Sea off the Millom/Haverigg coast and to stop the
seismic surveys. Millom and District Against the Nuclear Dump have a
private Facebook group with 344 members (in less than a week – mostly
locals).
Radiation Free Lakeland 25th June 2022
A despicable Ukrainian PSYOP in Bucha
2:31 pm UT, April 1 Bucha Mayor Fedoruk does NOT mention murders of civilians – Bisher ist Alles in Ordnung ! (So far everything is fine.!)
Truth is the first casualty in war – Ethel Annakin, 1915
Nicolas Cinquini senior intelligence analyst in the field of security risk management, I am a former intelligence officer and lieutenant detective within French State agencies 24 June 22 [Excellent maps and photos on original]
On April 4, 2022, the Western media are roaring against Russia, about the slaughter of civilians in Bucha, a town in Kiev northwestern suburb, Ukraine. The dates and sites of the killings are unknown. The identities of the victims are unknown. The sources are Ukrainian, directly or indirectly officials whose assertions are widely admitted. I am a long time fan of the British media and tabloids. In the United Kingdom, the buzz is a gradient, from Civilians ‘shot in the street’ [The Times] to Putin last atrocities, GENOCIDE [Daily Mirror]. Here is the cover of The Guardian [on original – the title reads – ”Horror in Bucha: Russia Accused of Torture and Massacre of Civilians”]
On April 3, French president Emmanuel Macron has already written on Twitter
the images reaching us from Bucha, a liberated town near kyiv, are unbearable. In the streets, hundreds of cowardly murdered civilians. My compassion for the victims, my solidarity with the Ukrainians. The Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes.
Yet, some journalists have learned how to investigate and State intelligence agencies are supposed to deliver reliable information to the politicians. I am wondering what are the shares of bad faith and hysteria.
By the way, what happened in Bucha and when ?
The military context………………………
- 11:00 pm UT, March 28
Jomini of the West is a Western military analyst, a
polemologist writer and speaker on all things related to human conflict. #Fortuna Podcast ; discussions on waging peace, surviving war, and the fate of Humankind,
who is making analytical assessments and nice maps.
On March 28, Bucha is on the front line and Ukraine forces are counterattacking [map on original]
Jomini won’t make new assessment or map in the region of Kiev before March 31.
- 9:20 pm UT, March 31
On social networks, Ukrainian channels are sharing a video recorded from drone in broad daylight : the Russian forces have left Antonov airport, which is north of Gostomel, which is north of Bucha.
the Russians are conducting a strategic retreat in good order. If they have withdrawn from Antonov airport, a fortiriori, they have left Gostomel and Bucha
- 11:00 pm UT, March 31
The Russian forces are conducting a retreat in good order on the right bank (left on the map) of the Dniepr. The front line is now north of Ivankiv, about 60 km north of Bucha, that the Ukrainian forces are controlling, far behind their new lines. Some wooden areas need to be searched north of Bucha, because Russian elements may remain there. The retreat is conducted in good order and I don’t think that Russian servicemen have been isolated [Map on original]
- 2:31 pm UT, April 1
Anatoliy Fedoruk is the mayor of Bucha. Ecstatic, he publishes on Facebook a video from the town, says […]
March 31 will go down in the history of our Bucha community as the Day of Liberation. The liberation by our Armed Forces of Ukraine from Russian orcs [sic], from Russian occupiers. So today, I state that this day is joyful. Joyful and this is a great victory in Kyiv region ! And we will definitely wait so that there is a great victory all over Ukraine […]
> according to cross-checked information from various sources, the Ukrainian forces are controlling Bucha since March 31. I have found no trace of fresh fighting in the town. On April 1, the Ukrainian administration is back, the SBU (State security) and its PSYOP department too.
Fedoruk does NOT mention murders of civilians
We know that the Ukrainian forces are controlling Bucha since March 31. On April 3, the Russian defense ministry will state that its army have left the town on March 30. There was no urban warfare, the Ukrainians came in the day after.
On April 1, nobody mentions murders of civilians.
The liberation of Bucha – Bisher ist Alles in Ordnung ! (So far everything is fine.!)
We know that the Ukrainian forces are controlling Bucha since March 31. On April 3, the Russian defense ministry will state that its army have left the town on March 30. There was no urban warfare, the Ukrainians came in the day after.
On April 1, nobody mentions murders of civilians.
The liberation of Bucha
- 5:48 pm UT, April 2
AFP (Agence France Presse) writes on Twitter
#BREAKING Almost 300 people buried in ‘mass grave’ in Bucha outside Kyiv: mayor [Anatoliy Fedoruk]
> More than 25 hours after his ecstatic video from the town, two days after its liberation, Fedoruk speaks by phone with a Western news agency, about dead civilians and a mass grave.
Actually, Ukrainian web users are sharing an amateur video, allegedly from Bucha, since 0:15 am. It has been recorded in broad daylight, probably the day before, April 1. A few corpses are scattered in the middle of a street.
300 was already, according to the Ukrainian authorities, the number of vicitms of the alleged Russian airstrike against the Drama theater in Mariupol, Donbass, on March 16.
- 5:52 pm UT, April 2
At the same time, the official website of the Ukrainian national police publishes an article and photos about its operations in Bucha, since its liberation on March 31 […]
today, April 2, in the liberated city of Bucha, Kyiv region, special units of the National Police of Ukraine began clearing the area of saboteurs and ACCOMPLICES of Russian troops […]
The involved units are special purpose [I am in Love with euphemism] formations. But their names are evocative : Safari, Kord, Thor.
> Released in the afternoon of April 2, two days after the liberation, three days after the Russian retreat, an official Ukrainian article does NOT mention murders of civilians
- 6:41 pm UT, April 2
The AFP (Agence France Presse) adds on Twitter […]
as witnessed by @AFP, he [Anatoliy Fedoruk] said the heavily destroyed town’s streets are littered with corpses […]
- 9:48 pm UT, April 2
The AFP (Agence France Presse) adds on Twitter […]
in the town of Bucha, AFP reporters saw at least 20 bodies on a single street including one with his hands tied […]
> The AFP photographer is Ronaldo Schemidt, a Venezuelan one and a reliable source. His pictures from Bucha are now famous. I won’t share here images of the corpses, which are about two dozens at all, in various sites. They seem still fresh, but a coroner could assert it. They are dressed like civilians. Some are wearing WHITE ARMBANDS, which are the usual identification mark of Russian troops, some others with hands tied in the back with identical white bands.
Some victims were clearly carrying Russian food rations. The Russian army is widely dispensing food rations in the areas under its control. But in Ukrainian nationalist opinion, to accept such ration is an act of treason.
Here is an enhanced screenshot from an amateur video which is shared on social networks the same day [on original]
> The death toll is finally 57, not 300 [Anatoliy Fedoruk] nor hundreds [Emmanuel Macron] The trench is so far the unique mass grave in Bucha, where Ukrainians are CURRENTLY burying the corpses which were previously lying in the streets.
They are NOT conducting forensic investigations. The ABCs of such criminal probe are the identification of each victim, dating and map of each corps, identification of the causes of each death. As we already know, the cops are abounding in Bucha. Why do they not conduct these elementary tasks ?
My expertise
The Russian troops have withdrawn from Bucha on March 30. The Ukrainian forces have occupied the town on March 31. The clearing of Russia accomplices has begun. Nobody claimed it or took credit. But CRASH ! on April 2 : web users have started to share an amateur video which was showing corpses scattered in a street on April 1. The Ukrainian authorities have taken the chance to accuse Russia, with the usual complaisance of Western media and politicians.
Finally, without forensic investigation, 57 people have been buried in a mass grave on April 3. They were Russia accomplices, whom Ukrainian death squads have assassinated, maybe also some fatalities of the previous fighting.
Facts are not the friends of Ukraine and its allies
Scott Ritter, former US intelligence officer on April 4, 2022
Postscript
While the European Union is emerging as no more than a free trade area within NATO, its German president, Ursula von der Leyen, on April 8, visits Bucha, which will become a PR scene for Western politicians.
The disgrace is not that Leyen is a poor actress. The climax of the staging is that one week after the alleged Russian massacre, a bundle of filled body bags, maybe victims inside, are still lying on the ground in the open. Did they wait there for her ? Have they been displaced like movie sets ? The film crew is so disrespectful of the dead, so contemptuous of the public intelligence, so inhuman. https://nicolascinquini.blog/2022/04/04/a-despicable-ukrainian-psyop-in-bucha/
The UK is searching the sea for a nuclear dump site with huge risks to marine life
”Protections clearly mean nothing when the nuclear waste industry wants to pave the way to a deep nuclear dump.”
By Charlie Jaay • euro news green, 22/06/2022
A new report delivers a damning verdict on the proposed seismic blasting in the Irish Sea.
The UK government’s Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) is set to carry out seismic surveys off the Cumbrian Coast between July and August this year.
They are looking for a place to dispose of the waste produced by Britain’s nuclear reactors.
The report, commissioned by Radiation Free Lakeland, calls for these plans to be postponed, claiming the impact assessment by NWS is “deeply inadequate” and “lacking in appropriate scientific and academic rigour”.
What is seismic blasting?
Seismic blasting is a process that allows scientists to find out more about the geography of the sea bed. Loud, repetitive blasts of sound are produced from an underwater airgun – like a powerful horn – and their echoes are measured to map the underwater rocks
The airgun will fire every 10 to 15 seconds, throughout the survey period of around one month.
The surveys, commissioned by NWS, will be looking into the possibility of locating a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). Deep under the seabed, this facility will be used to dispose of the UK’s toxic legacy of high level nuclear waste – the highly radioactive byproducts of nuclear reactors.
Shearwater GeoServices, the company which last year saw the high court put an end to its work on South Africa’s ecologically sensitive Wild Coast, is carrying out the investigations.
According to a freedom of information request, a licence of exemption to carry out these surveys was given to NWS for ‘scientific research’. But Radiation Free Lakeland says the survey is not for ‘scientific research’ but a plan to dispose of nuclear waste.
“We commissioned an independent report because we need to counter the PR spin from the nuclear waste industry who are calling the seismic testing ‘non-invasive scientific research,’” says Marianne Birkby, Founder of the campaign group.
She argues that, rather than seismic blasting for scientific purposes, the plans facilitate a commercial venture for a “deep nuclear dump for heat generating nuclear waste.”
A limited company that wants to enable ever more nuclear waste from new nuclear builds, Radioactive Waste Management, is behind it, Birkby claims.
“Despite the marine protections this part of the Irish Sea has, it is an outrage that independent environmental impact assessments have not been carried out. Protections clearly mean nothing when the nuclear waste industry wants to pave the way to a deep nuclear dump.”
In response to the claims, NWS says “there is no requirement to undertake a public consultation for these surveys.”……
Seismic surveys can devastate marine life
Low frequency sounds generated by a single seismic airgun can extend over large distances, particularly in deeper waters.
They have been recorded at locations up to 4,000 kilometres from the source, and can blanket areas of up to 300,000 square kilometres with noise. Studies have shown that, because seismic surveys can disturb, injure or kill a wide variety of marine life, they can impact entire ecosystems.
Zooplankton are the base of the marine food chain and are extremely important to our ocean’s health. They are also very vulnerable to these loud noises, according to scientists.
Researchers have found that seismic surveys significantly increase the death rates of zooplankton in the 1.2 kilometre range they tested, killing all larval krill in the range.
Radiation Free Lakeland’s report says the surveys will take place when zooplankton populations are expected to be high. These creatures provide a food source for a wide variety of organisms including baleen whales, basking sharks and fish which, in turn, feed many other species.
Many other marine animals rely on sound for survival too. Seismic testing can interfere with basic functions such as communication, navigation, feeding and mating.
“Noise exposure can be a problem for a wide variety of Cetaceans-dolphins, porpoises and whales,” according to the Zoological Society of London’s Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme.
“Noise related impacts have also been causally linked to many cetacean stranding and mass stranding events globally.”
The NWS investigation will focus on a survey area five to 20 kilometres off the Cumbrian coast in the north west of England in an area of approximately 250 square kilometres. The proposed GDF may extend over an area of 25 kilometres square, deep beneath the seabed.
This region is one of a number of designated Marine Conservation Zones in the Irish Sea. It has protected habitats and is home to a number of European protected species, such as sea turtles, minke whales, common and bottlenose dolphins, and harbour porpoises…………………
Marine habitats are already under huge pressure from pollution, irresponsible development and bottom trawling – as well as the consequences of climate change, she explains. Joan Edwards. Director of Policy at the Wildlife Trusts
We are concerned about the implications of seismic testing in the Irish Sea, which evidence shows can be devastating for marine life.”
The report claims many of the hugely important marine species found in the area have not been studied for their sensitivity to seismic surveys.
A ‘marked lack of transparency’ from Nuclear Waste Services
Marine radioactivity researcher and consultant Tim Deere-Jones is the author of Radiation Free Lakeland’s report. He says that NWS’s licence application for the seismic survey is characterised by “a marked lack of transparency.”
We are concerned about the implications of seismic testing in the Irish Sea, which evidence shows can be devastating for marine life.”
The report claims many of the hugely important marine species found in the area have not been studied for their sensitivity to seismic surveys.
A ‘marked lack of transparency’ from Nuclear Waste Services
Marine radioactivity researcher and consultant Tim Deere-Jones is the author of Radiation Free Lakeland’s report. He says that NWS’s licence application for the seismic survey is characterised by “a marked lack of transparency.”
The UK government, similar to many others, favours deep geological disposal to deal with the most radioactive waste – whether deep below ground or deep beneath the seabed.
However, there are still many concerns about this £53 billion (€62 billion) facility in the Irish Sea, which has not been tried or tested and provides no guarantees of safety. https://reliefweb.int/report/world/let-us-move-towards-world-without-nuclear-weapons
West’s Ukraine fantasy will spell doom for the Ukrainian nation
There is a price to be paid for the fanciful delusions of the West, and those in Ukraine who believe them, and that price may be the very existence of a Ukrainian state.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/06/17/684090/West-Ukraine-War-Fantasy-Death-Ukrainian-Nation
18 June 2022 By Scott Ritter
In the words of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Europe is undergoing one of the greatest struggles in the name of freedom since the American Revolution.
“The Ukrainians are fighting for their country; they’re fighting for their future; they’re fighting for their freedom,” Blinken said recently.
“I am convinced and confident that, at the end of the day, Ukraine’s independence, Ukraine’s sovereignty will prevail and will be there long after Vladimir Putin has left the scene.”
What was left unsaid was the reality that Russian President Vladimir Putin has survived four US presidential administrations and is well on his way to outlasting a fifth — the Biden administration that Blinken serves.
Blinken’s comments come on the heels of continued calls from Ukraine’s embattled President, Volodymyr Zelensky, for additional deliveries of heavy weapons needed for his country’s ongoing fight against invading Russian forces.
While acknowledging that Ukrainian forces were suffering “painful losses” on the front lines, Zelensky believes that Ukrainian forces would be able to hold on to the contested Donbas region, and eventually launch a counterattack that would throw Russian troops from the totality of sovereign Ukrainian territory—including both Crimea and the Donbas.
While many military analysts have come to assess that the war in Ukraine has tilted in Russia’s favor, US defense officials believe that the opposite is in fact true — Ukraine is emerging from the current struggle with “an advantage” brought on by the provision of billions of dollars of military assistance by the US and the West to the Ukrainian armed forces.
The US stance has apparently emboldened Ukraine’s European allies, with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis all travelling to Kiev to pledge their ongoing support for Ukraine, both in terms of continuing to provide advanced weaponry to fend off the Russians, but also to support Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union.
Not to be outdone, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made his own solo jaunt to Kiev on Friday, armed with a plan for Great Britain to provide training for 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers every 120 days.
The problem facing the European leaders is the harsh reality of military math. The driving force behind Ukraine’s desperate need for heavy weapons is the fact that in the 100-plus days Ukraine has been fighting Russia, the Russian military has destroyed the vast majority of Ukraine’s pre-conflict arsenal.
This fact is played out with violence daily — in a conflict that has taken on the characteristic of a massive artillery duel, the Ukrainians are able to fire some 5-6,000 rounds of artillery per day toward the Russian forces. Russia, on the other hand, replies with 60,000 rounds — per day (by way of comparison, US forces fired a total of 60,000 artillery rounds during the entirety of Operation Desert Storm, in 1991.)
The hard truth is that Russia will destroy whatever weaponry the West provides well before Ukraine would be able to assemble the mythical “offensive capability” of American imagination.
Moreover, with Ukrainian officials themselves admitting casualty rates of 200-plus killed and 500-plus wounded per day, there is no way Johnson’s offer of training could reverse the inevitable tide of Ukraine’s looming strategic military defeat — with Ukraine losing 10,000 troops every two weeks, the British offer to replace them every four months rings hollow.
The President of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, in a statement made during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, indicated that Ukraine’s decision to receive heavy weapons from the West leaves the Russian forces no choice but to continue military operations even after the liberation of the Donbas.
All cities in Ukraine where there is a large Russian population, such as Kharkov and Odessa, will be captured, and the Ukrainian armed forces destroyed.
Pushilin believed that when the so-called special military operation was over, which he believed would be before the year ended, that Ukraine would no longer exist as a nation.
It is hard to imagine that Pushilin would make such a statement on Russian soil, at a conference organized by the Russian Presidency, without first clearing it with his Russian hosts.
There is a price to be paid for the fanciful delusions of the West, and those in Ukraine who believe them, and that price may be the very existence of a Ukrainian state.
After lying for months, the media are preparing the public for Ukraine’s military collapse.
THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE DOUGLAS MACGREGOR JUNE 17, 2022
Diogenes, one of the ancient world’s illustrious philosophers, believed that lies were the currency of politics, and those lies were the ones he sought to expose and debase. To make his point, Diogenes occasionally carried a lit lantern through the streets of Athens in the daylight. If asked why, Diogenes would say he was searching for an honest man.
Finding an honest man today in Washington, D.C., is equally challenging. Diogenes would need a Xenon Searchlight in each hand.
Russian errors were exaggerated out of all proportion to their significance. Russian losses and the true extent of Ukraine’s own losses were distorted, fabricated, or simply ignored. But conditions on the battlefield changed little over time. Once Ukrainian forces immobilized themselves in static defensive positions inside urban areas and the central Donbas, the Ukrainian position was hopeless. But this development was portrayed as failure by the Russians to gain “their objectives.
Ground-combat forces that immobilize soldiers in prepared defenses will be identified, targeted, and destroyed from a distance. When persistent overhead intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets, whether manned or unmanned, are linked to precision guided-strike weapons or modern artillery systems informed by accurate targeting data, “holding ground” is fatal to any ground force. This is all the more true in Ukraine, because it was apparent from the first action that Moscow focused on the destruction of Ukrainian forces, not on the occupation of cities or the capture of Ukrainian territory west of the Dnieper River.
The result has been the piecemeal annihilation of Ukrainian forces. Only the episodic infusion of U.S. and allied weapons kept Kiev’s battered legions in the field; legions that are now dying in great numbers thanks to Washington’s proxy war.
Kiev’s war with Moscow is lost. Ukrainian forces are being bled white. Trained replacements do not exist in sufficient numbers to influence the battle, and the situation grows more desperate by the hour. No amount of U.S. and allied military aid or assistance short of direct military intervention by U.S. and NATO ground forces can change this harsh reality.
The problem today is not ceding territory and population to Moscow in Eastern Ukraine that Moscow already controls. The future of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions along with the Donbas is decided. Moscow is also likely to secure Kharkov and Odessa, two cities that are historically Russian and Russian-speaking, as well as the territory that adjoins them. These operations will extend the conflict through the summer. The problem now is how to stop the fighting…………….
Extreme torture — Beyond Nuclear International
24/7 blasting for nuke waste dump will devastate marine life, Beyond Nuclear 19th June 2022
Extreme torture — Beyond Nuclear International magine being subjected to ear-shattering blasts every ten seconds, twentyfour hours a day for four straight weeks? By any metric, that would qualify
as the most appalling form of torture. But that is exactly what is about to
be inflicted on whales, dolphins, seals and other marine creatures in the
Irish Sea if a new wave of opposition cannot stop it. The Irish Sea is
already the most radioactive sea in the world, in large part a result of
decades of radioactive discharges from the Sellafield reprocessing facility
on the Cumbrian shoreline. Now, Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) has contracted
a company called Shearwater Geosciences to blast its undersea seismic
airguns off the Cumbria coast this summer, calling it “scientific
research”. https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2022/06/19/extreme-torture/
Predictable monstrosity: UK approves Assange extradition
https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/predictable-monstrosity-uk-approves-assange-extradition,16482, By Binoy Kampmark | 20 June 2022,
The only shock about the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel’s decision regarding Julian Assange was that it did not come sooner.
In April, Chief Magistrate Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring expressed the view that he was ‘duty-bound‘ to send the case to Priti Patel to decide on whether to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States to face 18 charges, 17 grafted from the U.S. Espionage Act of 1917.
Patel, for her part, was never exercised by the more sordid details of the case. Her approach to matters of justice is one of premature adjudication: the guilty are everywhere and only multiply. When it came to WikiLeaks, such fine points of law and fact as a shaky indictment based on fabricated evidence, meditations on assassination, and a genuine, diagnosed risk of self-harm were piffling distractions.
The U.S. Department of Justice would not be denied.
Under the Extradition Act 2003,’ a nameless spokesman for the Home Office stated, ‘the Secretary of State must sign an extradition order if there are no grounds to prohibit the order being made. Extradition requests are only sent to the Home Secretary once a judge decides it can proceed after considering various aspects of the case.’
Evidently, overt politicisation, bad faith, and flimsy reassurances from the U.S. Department of Justice on how Assange will be detained, do not constitute sufficient grounds.
But the cue came from the courts themselves, which have done a fabulous job of covering the U.S. justice system with tinsel in actually believing assurances that Assange would not be facing special administrative detention measures (SAMs) or permanent captivity in the ADX Florence supermax in Colorado.
The statement read:
‘In this case, the UK courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process to extradite Mr Assange.’
In such a scatterbrained and amoral cosmos that marks decision-making in the Home Office, no mention has been made of the surveillance operation against the publisher in the Ecuadorian embassy, orchestrated at the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). None, either, of contemplated abduction or assassination, or the frail mental health Assange finds himself.
As late as 10 June, a letter from the group Doctors for Assange, comprising 300 doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists, noted that the Home Secretary’s ‘denial of the cruel, inhuman treatment inflicted upon Assange was then, and is even more so now, irreconcilable with the reality of the situation’.
In April, an umbrella grouping of 19 organisations dedicated to press freedom and free speech urged Patel, in reviewing the case, to appreciate that Assange would “highly likely” face isolation or solitary confinement in the U.S. ‘despite the U.S. Government’s assurances, which would severely exacerbate the risk of suicide’.
The co-chairs of the Courage Foundation’s Assange Defense Committee, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg and Alice Walker, reflected on the depravity of the order in a statement.
They wrote:
‘It is a sad day for western democracy. The UK’s decision to extradite Julian Assange to the nation that plotted to assassinate him – the nation that wants to imprison him for 175 years for publishing truthful information in the public interest – is an abomination.’
As for the UK, it had:
‘… shown its complicity in this farce, by agreeing to extradite a foreigner based on politically motivated charges that collapse under the slightest scrutiny.’
Amnesty International expressed similar views, as did Reporters Without Borders. There was even concern from Conservative MP David Davis, who expressed his belief that Assange would not “get a fair trial.” The extradition law was, as matters stood, lopsided in favour of U.S. citizens.
Under the arrangement, individuals crossing the channel will receive one-way tickets to Rwanda to have their claims processed without the prospect of settling in the UK. The Rwandan Government, hostile to contrarians, the rule of law and refugees, will be subsidised for their pain and labour.
To this sadistic streak can be added her admiration for the Espionage Act being used to prosecute Assange. This fact should have disqualified her in any country operating under the rule of law. Even as Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a Conservative no-confidence vote this month, Patel’s National Security Bill passed its second reading in Parliament.
The bill articulates an offence of ‘obtaining or disclosing protected information’ that includes ‘any information… which either is, or could reasonably be expected to be, subject to any type of restrictions of access for protecting the safety and interests of the UK’.
In a polite nod of deference to U.S. law, the proposed law states that an offence is committed when a person ‘obtains, copies, records or retains protected information, or discloses or provides access to protected information’ for a purpose ‘that they know, or ought reasonably to know, is prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom’ and if ‘the foreign power condition is met’.
The requirement is that the act is ‘carried out for or on behalf of a foreign power’, including instances where ‘an indirect relationship’ exists.
Assange has 14 days to appeal this insidious rubber-stamping of judicially sanctioned brutality. His legal team are hoping to use the High Court as the route to highlight the political dimension of the case and draw attention back to the way the extradition law was read.
If the defence fails, Assange will be sent across the Atlantic, entrusted to officials, some of whom considered murdering him, to be made an example of.
It will be the clarion call to regimes across the world that punishing a publisher is something supposed liberal democracies can do as well, and as deviously, as anybody else.
Hungarian Greens: nuclear energy ‘severely pollutes the environment
Hungarian Greens: nuclear energy ‘severely pollute the environment’, https://dailynewshungary.com/hungarian-greens-nuclear-energy-severely-pollute-the-environment/ 18 June 22 Opposition LMP, as a member of the European Greens party group, called on Hungarian lawmakers in the European Parliament not to support “labelling nuclear energy and natural gas green”. Co-leader of the party Erzsébet Schmuck told an online press conference on Friday that she had written a letter jointly with László Lóránt Keresztes, head of parliament’s sustainable development committee, asking all Hungarian MEPs not to give their support.
She said that a resolution would go before the EP in July and the European Commission had submitted an amendment proposal to this resolution “under pressure” from the nuclear energy and natural gas lobby.
The resolution will serve as a guideline to investors concerning what sustainable projects to invest in, she said. Approving the amendment proposal would be a great drawback to Europe’s green transition plan, going against the target to achieve climate neutrality by the middle of the century, she added.
Schmuck said that these sources of energy severely pollute the environment. The EP’s economic and environmental protection committees have not supported the amendment, “but we have not yet won the battle and the unscrupulous pushiness of the nuclear and fossil energy lobbies must be reined in now,” she said.
Kazakhstan FM calls for elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2045
Kazakhstan FM calls for elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2045 https://news.am/eng/news/707992.html, 19.06.2022
The world is now in crisis, the risk of using nuclear weapons is very high, and what is happening in Ukraine and mutual threats are prompting a ban and elimination of nuclear warheads. This statement by Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi was published on the ministry’s official Telegram channel on the eve of the first meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which will be held next week in Vienna, BB-CNTV reported.
“The current military conflict on the territory of Ukraine, talk about the return of nuclear weapons and mutual threats to use nuclear weapons make us, more than ever before, think about the collective vulnerability of humanity and the urgent need to ban and eliminate these deadly weapons,” the minister said.
He called on all countries of the world to develop a phased plan that would allow the complete elimination of nuclear weapons by the UN centenary—by 2045. According to Tleuberdi, the corresponding agreements could be reflected in the final documents of the first conference of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Minister referred to the data of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who earlier said that about 13,400 nuclear warheads are now dispersed around the world, and the threat of their use has become “more real than in the darkest days of the Cold War.”
“Kazakhstan’s practical contribution to nuclear disarmament gives the moral right to continue calling on peoples and governments to redouble their efforts to rid our planet of the threat of nuclear self-destruction,” Tleuberdi stressed.
Having inherited a significant part of its nuclear arsenal after the collapse of the USSR, Kazakhstan voluntarily renounced the position of a nuclear power and in 1993 joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) with the status of a state that does not possess nuclear weapons.
The Treaty was developed in support of the NPT and fully complements its current importance in strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime, the peaceful use of atomic energy and, in general, ensuring international security, the press service of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry specified.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force in January 2021.
1 This Month
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- May 2026 (163)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
- June 2025 (348)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 