Defense Department announces $425M aid package for Ukraine, cleaning out USA’s long-term assistance fund
By Tony Bertuca / November 3, 2023 https://insidedefense.com/insider/dod-announces-425m-aid-package-ukraine-cleaning-out-long-term-assistance-fund
The Pentagon today announced a $425 million military aid package for Ukraine, with $125 million accounting for immediate weapons transfers from U.S. stocks and the remaining $300 million exhausting what is left of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative meant for long-term defense needs.
The weapons transfer package funded via presidential “drawdown” authority includes:
- Additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);
- Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
- 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;
- Tube-Launched, Optically Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;
- Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;
- More than 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades;
- Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing;
- M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel munitions;
- 12 trucks to transport heavy equipment;
- Cold weather gear; and
- Spare parts, maintenance, and other field equipment.
The USAI portion of the package, which includes contracts for “additional laser-guided munitions to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems,” makes use of $300 million provided under a continuing resolution that Congress recently passed and “exhausts the remaining USAI funds currently available to support Ukraine,” according to the Pentagon.
Senior defense officials said the department’s weapons transfer authority is also nearly spent.
“The administration continues to call on Congress to meet its commitment to the people of Ukraine by passing additional funding to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself against Russia’s brutal war of choice,” the Pentagon said.
Congress, meanwhile, has not yet approved additional aid for Ukraine as some House Republicans oppose it. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes #Israel #Palestine
‘Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do.’ Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight
Public support for aid to #Ukraine has been in decline for months in the U.S., and Zelensky’s visit did nothing to revive it.
Despite the recent setbacks on the battlefield, he does not intend to give up fighting or to sue for any kind of peace. On the contrary, his belief in Ukraine’s ultimate victory over Russia has hardened into a form that worries some of his advisers. It is immovable, verging on the messianic. “He deludes himself,” one of his closest aides tells me in frustration. “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.
The cold will also make military advances more difficult, locking down the front lines at least until the spring. But Zelensky has refused to accept that.
with the outbreak of war in Israel. The focus of Ukraine’s allies in the U.S. and Europe, and of the global media, quickly shifted to the Gaza Strip………………. on its own, Ukraine aid no longer stands much of a chance in Washington.
At the start of the Russian invasion, Zelensky’s mission was to maintain the sympathy of humankind. Now his task is more complicated. In his foreign trips and presidential phone calls, he needs to convince world leaders that helping Ukraine is in their own national interests, that it will, as Biden put it, “pay dividends.” Achieving that gets harder as global crises multiply.
BY SIMON SHUSTER/KYIV, NOVEMBER 1, 2023 , ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 30, 2023 https://time.com/6329188/ukraine-volodymyr-zelensky-interview/
Volodymyr Zelensky was running late.
The invitation to his speech at the National Archives in Washington had gone out to several hundred guests, including congressional leaders and top officials from the Biden Administration. Billed as the main event of his visit in late September, it would give him a chance to inspire U.S. support against Russia with the kind of oratory the world has come to expect from Ukraine’s wartime President. It did not go as planned.
That afternoon, Zelensky’s meetings at the White House and the Pentagon delayed him by more than an hour, and when he finally arrived to begin his speech at 6:41 p.m., he looked distant and agitated. He relied on his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, to carry his message of resilience on the stage beside him, while his own delivery felt stilted, as though he wanted to get it over with. At one point, while handing out medals after the speech, he urged the organizer to hurry things along.
The reason, he later said, was the exhaustion he felt that night, not only from the demands of leadership during the war but also the persistent need to convince his allies that, with their help, Ukraine can win. “Nobody believes in our victory like I do. Nobody,” Zelensky told TIME in an interview after his trip. Instilling that belief in his allies, he said, “takes all your power, your energy. You understand? It takes so much of everything.”
It is only getting harder. Twenty months into the war, about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory remains under Russian occupation. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, and Zelensky can feel during his travels that global interest in the war has slackened. So has the level of international support.
Continue readingHow well protected are Ukraine’s nuclear power plants?
“This incident again underlines the extremely precarious nuclear safety situation in Ukraine, which will continue as long as this tragic war goes on,” Grossi said. “The fact that numerous windows at the site were destroyed shows just how close it was. Next time, we may not be so fortunate.”
DW, Lilia Rzheutska, 1 Nov 23
Ukrainian air defense systems recently downed Russian attack drones near the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant. But falling debris still damaged the site. Are power plants in danger?
On the night of October 25, Ukrainian authorities reported downing Russian Shahed kamikaze drones near the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant, in the country’s west. Falling debris and a wave of detonations caused significant damage to the town of Netishyn, where power plant employees live. The nearby town of Slavuta was also affected. Some buildings belonging to the nuclear facility itself were also damaged. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the drones were likely sent to attack the power plant.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who are at the nuclear plant confirmed two loud explosions had occurred near the plant. They were later informed that two drones had been shot down at a distance of five and 20 kilometers, respectively.
AEA director General Rafael Grossi later stated on the organization’s website that powerful explosions near the power plant that night had temporarily cut off power to two radiation monitoring stations. According to Grossi, the detonations did not, however, disrupt the plant’s operations, nor did they affect the power grid. The explosion did, meanwhile, shatter several windows at the plant. “This incident again underlines the extremely precarious nuclear safety situation in Ukraine, which will continue as long as this tragic war goes on,” Grossi said. “The fact that numerous windows at the site were destroyed shows just how close it was. Next time, we may not be so fortunate.”
……………………………… A nuclear power plant is more than just a reactor, says Dmytro Humenyuk, who heads the safety and analysis unit of Ukraine’s scientific and technical center on nuclear and radiation safety. It is a complex facility that consists of safety systems that provides electricity for the plant itself, and transports power generated by the plant. Falling debris or shelling powerlines and substations could lead to a power outage at the nuclear power plant and trigger a dangerous situation, Humenjuk says.
High-voltage substations, through which electricity produced at the nuclear power plant is fed into the power grid and without which the facility cannot function safely, must be well protected from missile and drone attacks well as falling debris. “When substations come under fire, the nuclear power plant’s emergency protection is activated,” says nuclear energy expert Olha Kozharna. “Such an emergency stop is very dangerous for the power plants.”…………………………………………………………… https://www.dw.com/en/how-well-protected-are-ukraines-nuclear-power-plants/a-67271615 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
2
Russia says Ukrainian drone rammed nuclear waste storage facility of Kursk nuclear power plant
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman calls attack ‘nuclear terrorism’
AA, Elena Teslova |29.10.2023 – MOSCOW
A Ukrainian drone rammed a nuclear waste storage facility of the Kursk nuclear power plant, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday.
Ukrainian armed forces purposefully attacked the Kursk nuclear power plant with three drones. One armed with explosives, crashed into the wall of the storage facility and two fell on the plant’s administrative buildings, Zakharova said in a statement.
According to preliminary data, components used to build drones were supplied by Western countries, she said, adding that such actions “could not be carried out without approval if not direct instruction of the Western supervisors.”
Zakharova criticized Kyiv and said, “What happened proves that it has no boundaries,” even in issues of acts of nuclear terrorism……………………………..more https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/russia-says-ukrainian-drone-rammed-nuclear-waste-storage-facility-of-kursk-nuclear-power-plant/3036552 #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes #radiation
Experts fear Ukraine will run out of ammo in 2024 – Le Monde
Rt.com 29 Oct 23
Russia has a distinct arms production advantage, multiple European analysts told the newspaper
The Ukrainian military will run out of ammunition next year, and Kiev’s Western backers won’t be able to fully restock it until 2025, European military experts told Le Monde on Friday. With Russian arms production in full swing, Moscow is better prepared for a war of attrition, the analysts warned.
In a lengthy article dissecting the failure of Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive, the French newspaper highlighted three key factors: Russia’s decision to voluntarily withdraw from Kherson and construct an elaborate line of defenses in late 2022, Ukraine’s insufficient tactical prowess, and Russia’s “greater strategic depth” – or its ability to replace lost men and materiel.
“2024 is going to be fraught with danger for the Ukrainians,” risk consultant Stephane Audrand told Le Monde. “The equipment that has already been delivered to them will be depleted, but they will only be able to partially reconstitute it, as Western production capacities will not be optimal until 2025.”…………….
Meanwhile, the Pentagon emptied its stockpiles of 155mm ammunition in South Korea and Israel to keep Kiev’s guns firing. With Israel also asking for this increasingly rare ammo, Washington has reportedly diverted tens of thousands of shells back into its Israeli depot, having originally set them aside for Ukraine…………………
Even if the entire Western world were to mobilize its entire arms production capacity exclusively for Ukraine, “that will be not enough for this war,” Ukrainian Strategic Industries Minister Aleksandr Kamyshin told Politico on Monday. https://www.rt.com/russia/585972-ukraine-run-out-ammunition/
IAEA warning after explosions heard near Khmelnitsky nuclear power stations
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi warns that nearby explosions which shattered windows at Ukraine’s Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant “show just how close it was – and underlines the extremely precarious nuclear safety situation … which will continue as long as this tragic war goes on”.
WNN 27 Oct 23
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts stationed at the plant in western Ukraine said air raid sirens sounded at 01:26 local time on Wednesday followed by two loud explosions which they were later told were two drones being shot down 5 kilometres and 20 kilometres from the site.
Although the site was not hit or have its operations affected, the IAEA reported that “shockwaves damaged the windows of several buildings at the site, including the passageway to the reactor buildings, an integrated auxiliary building, a special equipment building, the training centre, as well as other facilities, the plant said. The seismic monitoring stations installed in the vicinity of Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant also recorded the seismic impacts of the blasts”………
Grossi said: “Next time, we may not be so fortunate. Hitting a nuclear power plant must be avoided at all costs.”
Khmelnitsky’s first reactor was connected to the grid in 1987, but work on three other reactors was halted in 1990. Work on the second reactor restarted and it was connected to the grid in 2004 but units 3 and 4 remain uncompleted.
The primary focus of safety concerns for the IAEA since the outbreak of the war has been on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which has been under Russian military control since early March 2022. It is located on the frontline between the forces, and although it has not been reported to have been hit by shelling in recent months, military activity nearby has continued. In its update on the situation at the weekend, the IAEA said its experts at the site “have continued to hear explosions almost every day and they have also heard occasional machine gun fire”. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/IAEA-warning-after-explosions-heard-near-Khmelnits #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes #radiation
Ukraine expects €18 billion from EU in 2024 – PM
Rt.com 25 Oct 23
Ukraine’s economy has experienced its sharpest downturn in three decades, financial experts have warned
Kiev expects to receive at least €18 billion ($19 billion) in foreign aid from the European Union (EU) next year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal has said. The tranche matches the amount the country will receive from the bloc in 2023.
“EU budget support to Ukraine in 2023 already amounts to 15 billion euros – this is one of the most important factors helping Ukraine be economically resilient and stable,” Shmigal wrote on Telegram on Monday.
Kiev has recently received a sum of €1.5 billion ($1.59 billion) in what was a ninth set of EU financial assistance tranches, he added. Two more payments are expected to be completed before the end of the year to bring the total to €18 billion, according to Ukraine’s finance ministry.
Ukraine has become heavily dependent on foreign financial aid since Moscow launched its offensive in the country in February of last year, as millions of people fled due to the conflict and as logistical and supply chain routes became disrupted. Ukraine’s economy shrank by about one-third in 2022, financial experts said, in what was its sharpest economic downturn in more than 30 years.
It was announced earlier this year that the Ukrainian government would be funded by a European Commission long-term program, which will see Kiev receive €50 billion in payments between 2024 and 2027……………………………………………………………………. more https://www.rt.com/news/585631-ukraine-financial-aid-eu/ #Ukraine
US Forbade Ukraine to Make Peace With Russia in March 2022 – Former German Chancellor
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ukraine was ready to make peace with Russia and give up its plans to join NATO during negotiations in March 2022, but eventually abandoned the idea due to pressure from the United States, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told the German newspaper.
“The only people who could settle the war against Ukraine are the Americans. During the peace negotiations in March 2022 in Istanbul with [then-Ukrainian chief negotiator] Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainians did not agree on peace because they were not allowed to. They first had to ask the Americans about everything they discussed,” Schroeder said in an interview with the newspaper on Saturday.
The former German chancellor said that Kiev had contacted him in 2022 to learn whether he could mediate talks with Russia, after which he had meetings with Umerov and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ukraine was ready to make peace with Russia and give up its plans to join NATO during negotiations in March 2022, but eventually abandoned the idea due to pressure from the United States, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told the German newspaper.
“The only people who could settle the war against Ukraine are the Americans. During the peace negotiations in March 2022 in Istanbul with [then-Ukrainian chief negotiator] Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainians did not agree on peace because they were not allowed to. They first had to ask the Americans about everything they discussed,” Schroeder said in an interview with the newspaper on Saturday.
The former German chancellor said that Kiev had contacted him in 2022 to learn whether he could mediate talks with Russia, after which he had meetings with Umerov and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Schroeder told the newspaper that the potential peace agreement included five key points. First, under the draft deal, Kiev was supposed to abandon its NATO aspirations. Secondly, Ukraine should have restored the official status of the Russian language. Thirdly, Donbas was supposed to remain part of Ukraine, but with a special territorial status, like South Tyrol, an autonomous province in Northern Italy. Fourthly, Ukraine should have received security guarantees from the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany. The final, fifth issue under discussion was the status of Crimea, Schroeder told media.
He said that Kiev had demonstrated willingness to compromise, including on the provision about NATO membership, but the talks still failed because everything “was decided in Washington.”
“I think the Americans did not want a compromise between Ukraine and Russia,” Schroeder was cited as saying by the newspaper.
Moscow launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The Russian and Ukrainian delegations have engaged in several rounds of peace talks since then, including those in Turkiye in March 2022, but the negotiations have ultimately reached an impasse. In October 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree stating that Kiev could not hold peace talks as long as Vladimir Putin was president of Russia. #Ukraine
Declassified Soviet files reveal horror crimes of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators
https://www.rt.com/russia/584980-kgb-documents-ukrainian-nazis/ 16 Oct 23
Nationalists began ethnic cleansing of Jews during WWII, even before German occupation began, documents show
RT has obtained a trove of declassified KGB documents, highlighting crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalists in Soviet territories occupied by Nazi Germany during WWII. The files include witness accounts of people who survived ethnic cleansing, as well as testimonies of Ukrainian collaborators captured by the Soviet domestic intelligence, then known as the NKVD.
Large swaths of present-day Ukraine fell under Nazi occupation in summer 1941 as German troops advanced deep into the Soviet Union. In fact, attacks on ethnic Jews and Poles, as well as local communists, began immediately as Soviet troops withdrew.
“In the first hours following the retreat of the Bolsheviks, the Ukrainian population has demonstrated commendable activity against Jews,” a status report from the Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s secret police, dated July 16, 1941, reads.
Said “commendable activities” involved burning down a synagogue in the western Ukrainian city of Dobromyl and the murder of some 50 Jews by an “angry crowd” in Sambor. In Sokal, the help of local “trustworthy Ukrainians” allowed Nazis to find and exterminate some 183 “communist Jews.” Moreover, Ukrainian nationalists rounded up and brutally abused around 1,000 Jews in Lvov, subsequently putting them into a local prison, with the facility and the ‘inmates’ eventually taken over by the Germans, according to the status report.
With the German occupation regime properly established, the ethnic cleansing process was streamlined, with the so-called Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, created by the Nazis in August 1941, playing a very active role in it. According to the testimony of the Ukrainian police commander in Belya Tserkov, a major city in the Kiev region, Mikhail Tomasevish, members of his unit were so eager to kill Jews that they acted even beyond orders given by their Nazi masters. Namely, the local police secretary took pleasure in “questioning” arrested Jews, beating them with a rubber tube, and freely taking them “away” afterwards, with none of the detained ever returning to the police HQ.
Tomasevich led the police unit until 1943, when he fled alongside retreating German forces but ultimately ended up in the NKVD’s custody. While Tomasevich claimed most of the city’s Jews were exterminated before he assumed the post, he admitted partaking, one way or another, in the killing of over 1,000 people. Under his leadership, the police continued to actively search for survivors, using various tricks to lure the remaining Jews in the city to their deaths.
“To identify hiding persons of Jewish nationality, the [German field] gendarmerie, through the [Ukrainian] police, organized so-called traps, i.e., it was announced throughout the city that henceforth Jews would be allowed to live freely, but only in select houses,” Tomasevich testified.
“I put all the Jews who believed that and settled in the houses on a special register, a special folder of cases, titled ‘Yids’ [a derogatory term for ‘Jews’], was opened,” he explained, adding that when the flow of Jews willing to settle in the houses waned, all of them, some 50 people, were detained and killed “around January or February 1942.”
Civilian Ukrainian authorities, established under German occupation, have actively contributed to ethnic cleansings as well. For instance, according to an indictment in a 1944 case about Nazi crimes committed in the city of Sarny and its vicinity, local Ukrainian mayor Marinyuk directly facilitated the extermination of the entire local Jewish population in August 1942.
Some 13,000 people were gathered at a local concentration camp, guarded by field gendarmerie and Ukrainian police, under the pretext of being relocated for “work” in Germany. Instead, the Jews ended up before firing squads, with children thrown into the death pits and buried alive. Only some 40–50 people managed to escape the massacre, with Ukrainian nationalist units in pursuit, and those who managed to capture escapees were awarded a sack of salt.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive is over – Moscow
Russia is opposed not by the armed forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost exhausted, but by the collective military machine of the NATO countries and their combined defense industry,
https://www.rt.com/russia/584853-ukraine-offensive-failed-nebenzia/ 16 Oct 23
Kiev has achieved nothing and Russian troops have now taken the initiative, top diplomat says
The four-month “counteroffensive” by Ukrainian forces has failed to reach any of its objectives, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council on Friday.
“For several days now, Russian troops have switched to combat operations, practically along the entire front line. Therefore, we can consider the so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive formally over,” Nebenzia said.
According to the Russian envoy, four months of Ukrainian attacks resulted only in “hundreds of units of destroyed Western equipment” and “tens of thousands of lives of those conscripted by the Kiev regime, most of whom did not want to fight.” Some of the lucky ones surrendered and stayed alive, Nebenzia added.
Ukraine’s casualties have amounted to “over 90,000 people,” 557 tanks and 1,900 armored vehicles, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed last week at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi.
Instead of putting an end to the “massacre” of Ukrainians on the frontline, the West “continues to feed them weapons, like a drug to an addict, thus prolonging his agony,” Nebenzia told the UN Security Council.
“Let me emphasize that Russia is opposed not by the armed forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost exhausted, but by the collective military machine of the NATO countries and their combined defense industry,” the Russian envoy added.
The cynicism of our former Western partners is simply amazing,” he said, bringing up the recent statement of Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren that arming Ukraine is “a very cheap way” to confront Russia.
A Ukraine that lives in peace with its neighbors and respects the rights of all of its citizens “had and still has a future,” the Russian envoy concluded. “The criminal neo-Nazi regime of [Vladimir] Zelensky does not.”
The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, admitted on Thursday that the offensive wasn’t just “behind schedule” but “off the schedule entirely,” adding that the explanation for that is classified.
Zelensky orders reporters to keep silent about corruption – Ukrainian media.
https://www.rt.com/russia/584929-ukraine-gags-media-corruption/ 16 Oct 23
The Ukrainian president reportedly told journalists not to mention the issue until the end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict
President Vladimir Zelensky has allegedly ordered Ukrainian journalists to avoid reporting on corruption, the editor-in-chief of the Zerkalo Nedeli (‘Mirror of the Week’) news outlet has claimed.
The Ukrainian president told journalists not to mention the issue until the end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a leading Kievb outlet.
Speaking at the National Media Talk 2023, Yulia Mostovaya said that she had learned of Zelensky’s demand from colleagues who had attended an off-the-record meeting with him.
The president reportedly made the request after the Ukrainian press published reports about inflated food prices paid by the country’s armed forces.
According to Ukrainian media reports, including Zerkalo Nedeli, the Defense Ministry had been buying food and clothing for its service members at prices two to three times higher than the market price. For example, the ministry paid up to 17 hryvnia ($0.47) for a single egg and 22 hryvnia ($0.60) for a kilogram of potatoes, while the average prices for those goods at stores in Kiev at the time were about seven hryvnia ($0.19) and eight hryvnia ($0.22), respectively.
Mostovaya stated that Zelensky’s request to avoid the topic of corruption in media publications was something the Ukrainian press may have considered if Zelensky had presented it in a “balanced manner” and explained that reporting on such issues could affect Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities.
“We would accept these conditions if the president had said: ‘Here is a person. Here’s his phone number. If you have substantiated facts, please provide them to this person, he will immediately pick up the phone. And give us a week to respond. If there is no reaction within a week, send it to print.’”
However, no such proposal was put forward by Zelensky, Mostovaya claimed, noting that instead the president told reporters to “remain silent until victory.”
“If we remain silent, there will be no victory,” the editor-in-chief said.
The issue of corruption in Ukraine has repeatedly been brought up by journalists and officials, both within the country and in the West.
Last week, the former president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, stated that Ukraine will likely be unable to join the EU anytime soon because it is “corrupt at all levels of society.” He also urged Brussels not to make any “false promises” to the Ukrainian people who are already “up to their neck in suffering.”
Ukraine has for years been seen as among the most corrupt countries in Europe and was ranked 116th out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index for 2022. #Ukraine
IAEA: Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to move second reactor into hot shutdown
Y! News, Abbey Fenbert, Sat, October 14, 2023
The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) intends to transition a second reactor into hot shutdown, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on Oct. 13.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said authorities at the plant informed the agency they were beginning to move reactor 5 from cold to hot shutdown in order to provide warm water and heating for Enerhodar ahead of the winter season.
Previously, only one unit, reactor 4, was in hot shutdown mode. The IAEA has said that for safety purposes, all units at the nuclear plant should be kept in cold shutdown.
The agency has strongly recommended that the ZNPP find an external source of steam generation. The IAEA experts were told that the plant is looking into purchasing an external steam generator, but that “installation of this equipment is not expected until the first part of 2024, possibly not until after the end of the heating season.”
Occupying authorities at the plant did not tell IAEA inspectors how long unit 5 would remain in hot shutdown. They also said there were no plans to transfer addition units from cold to hot shutdown…………………….. https://news.yahoo.com/iaea-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-move-010453561.html #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
US bails on Ukraine…but doesn’t tell Zelensky.
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 13 Oct 23
In an astonishing statement at a press briefing Wednesday, National Security Department spokesperson John Kirby admitted the US is running out of interest in weaponizing Ukraine for the long term. Since Ukraine is on US life support to continue fighting their lost cause to recapture Crimea, Donbas and join NATO, it’s clear ‘game over’ for Ukraine looms.
“I think in the immediate term, right now, we can continue to support Ukraine – with the authorities in the appropriations we have. But, you know, we’re … certainly running out of runway.”
Kirby then shifted from the runway metaphor to one even starker. “The US administration had the means to support Ukraine in the near term. But you don’t want to be trying to bake in long-term support when you’re at the end of the rope,” And on the Ukraine funding, we’re coming near to the end of the rope. I mean, today we announced $200 million, and we’ll keep that aid going as long as we can, but it’s not going to be indefinite”
Is Ukraine President Zelensky listening to Kirby’s ominous warning? If he had an iota of understanding of Ukraine’s rapidly deteriorating plight, he’d immediately partner with responsible countries such as Turkey to initiate negotiations with Russia to end the war. He did that 18 months ago, Marcy 31-April 1, 2022, inking a tentative deal with Russia to end the war without losing any territory in Donbas, albeit giving Donbas regional autonomy under Ukraine sovereignty. The agreement would also have ended Ukraine’s self-destructive NATO aspirations.
To sum up: The US provoked the war by championing Ukraine NATO membership and weaponizing their civil war that killed thousands in Donbas. When Russia invaded to prevent both, the US sabotaged every effort to end the war quickly and peaceably, prolonging it with $113 billion in weapons and other aid. Result? Hundreds of thousands of dead Ukrainians with no chance of victory.
It’s not just the US that is “certainly running out of runway” and “coming near to the end of the rope.” The US is moving on to enabling and supplying the ongoing destruction of Gaza. No more runway and no more rope are much more appropriate to the former comedian staring in ‘Tragedy in Ukraine.’ #Ukraine #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants
EU facing ‘huge shortage’ of ammunition – media
Rt.com 11 Oct 23
The Israel-Palestine crisis has increased the strain on Western arming of Ukraine, Foreign Policy magazine has reported
The war between Israel and Palestinian militant movement Hamas will divert Western attention and resources away from Ukraine, meaning more uncertainty for Kiev, Foreign Policy magazine has reported citing anonymous sources.
Ukraine was already experiencing issues with receiving additional weapons and funding for its counteroffensive against Russia, even before the surprise escalation of violence in the Middle East on Saturday. European nations in particular have found their armories and political willpower stretched thin, according to the outlet.
“We face a huge ammo shortage due to Ukraine,” a German official told the magazine on condition of anonymity.
Kiev has enjoyed unprecedented Western assistance for its military, but its failure to achieve significant gains during the summer counteroffensive and political turmoil in the US appear to have diluted support for its plans. Last month, the US Congress declined to include aid for Ukraine in a 45-day stopgap spending bill under pressure from Republican lawmakers.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has attempted to link Israel’s situation with the needs of his own nation. He claimed this week that Ukraine has “clear” intelligence that Russia “is interested in triggering a war in the Middle East” to “undermine world unity” and “destroy freedom in Europe.” He offered no proof of the allegations.
In its report, titled ‘What will Russia do with Gaza chaos?’, Foreign Policy acknowledged there was no sign of Russian involvement in or prior knowledge of the deadly Hamas incursion into Israel.
Russia and Israel have a long-standing amicable relationship, with both sides recognizing each other’s security concerns and the complexities of their respective positions.
Moscow has mocked Zelensky’s attempt to control the narrative regarding the Israel crisis………..
Washington has pledged military support for Israel as it retaliates against Gaza, claiming it can do so without compromising assistance for Ukraine or its global readiness. The White House is reportedly seeking to include Ukraine in an aid package for Israel to push it through Congress. https://www.rt.com/russia/584538-israel-crisis-ukraine-support/ #Ukraine
Are more weapons that USA will send to Ukraine likely to end up in the hands of Hamas ?
Hamas using weapons given to Ukraine – ex-Russian president
RT Mon, 09 Oct 2023
Arms Washington sent to Kiev and left in Afghanistan are about to be “uncontrollably used” around the world, Dmitry Medvedev has warned.
The weapons Kiev’s Western backers have actively supplied to Ukraine have found their way to Hamas militants and are now “being actively used in Israel,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said in a Telegram post on Monday, adding that any future military hardware supplied to Kiev could end up on the black market as well.
It will only get worse from here,” Medvedev warned, predicting that the world should “expect missiles, tanks, and even planes from Kiev on the black market soon.”
His words came amid rumors that Hamas militants that control the Gaza Strip had gotten their hands on some US-made weaponry before their attack on Israel over the weekend. No solid evidence confirming these claims has emerged so far. However, an unverified video circulating online showed a Palestinian militant displaying assorted US-made pieces, including a standard-issue M136 anti-tank grenade launcher, while thanking Ukrainians for the weapons.
According to Medvedev, “corrupt authorities” in Ukraine would not hesitate to trade everything they had received from their backers. “They would steal everything in sight,” the former president claimed, adding that the Western weapons sent to Ukraine would soon fuel conflicts in other parts of the world, just like the trove of weapons the Americans left in Afghanistan during their hasty withdrawal from the country in 2021.
The aforementioned video has already sparked concerns in the US, with Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene saying on Sunday that its origins must be investigated. The congresswoman also claimed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that some of the arms used by the militants might have come from Ukraine or Afghanistan.
Washington has been Kiev’s biggest supplier of military aid since the onset of its conflict with Moscow. The US has poured a total of $46.6 billion into military assistance to Ukraine, including direct weapons and ammunition shipments, as well as grants and loans for weapons and equipment.
Kiev has repeatedly faced accusations of misusing or selling off the weaponry, which it has vehemently denied. On Monday, the Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) blamed the rumors about weapons supposedly coming from Ukraine to Hamas on Russia………. more https://www.rt.com/russia/584448-hamas-use-weapons-given-ukraine/–#Ukraine
1 This Month
22 June – Virtual Event –Climate Change: New Data, New Debate
Monday, June 22, 2026 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. CT
YouTube. Register here
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
25 June- THE PUKE ON NUKES
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7pm Central Time (8pm ET, 6pm MT, 5pm PT) UTC – 5
From NRC & DOE Deregulation to Techno-Fascist Billionaires Going Nuclear, Plus a Few Songs from Atomic Cabaret REGISTER
26 June – Radiation Trainwreck at the NRC / Join the Protect Better Campaign – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4ZlZ5_qLSHGiLSCg8FF6Bg#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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