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EU’s Ukraine weapons goal ‘unattainable’ – Germany 

Rt.com 14 Nov 23

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he had been skeptical of Brussels’ pledge all along, citing inadequate production capacities 

The European Union will not be able to make good on its pledge to provide Ukraine with one million artillery rounds by next March, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has admitted. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has also echoed this assessment.  

Brussels made the promise earlier this year, expecting to reach the ambitious target within 12 months by dipping into existing stocks, as well as by procuring shells from arms manufacturers. However, several media outlets have reported that the bloc is falling behind schedule.   

Speaking ahead of a meeting by EU defense chiefs in Brussels on Tuesday, Pistorius said that “the one million won’t be achieved. One must proceed on this assumption.” The minister blamed the supposed shortfall on inadequate production capacities in European nations, explaining that even if the economy was switched to a wartime mode, the ammunition output would still not become prolific enough overnight.   

Pistorius admitted he had been skeptical about the bloc’s target right from the start when it was set in March, fearing that it could prove unrealistically ambitious.  

Commenting on a report by Bloomberg, which suggested last week that Brussels would not be able to fulfill its promise, Kuleba told local media that the report was “unfortunately” true.  …………………………………………………… more https://www.rt.com/news/587258-german-defense-minister-eu-ukraine-shells-target/

November 16, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Zelensky may be ousted – ex-presidential aide

 https://www.rt.com/russia/587135-zelensky-may-be-ousted-aide/ 13 Nov 23

The idea of peace talks between Moscow and Kiev has become a “prevalent narrative” in the West, Oleg Soskin believes

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s unwillingness to consider peace talks with Russia might lead him to being ousted to make such negotiations possible, Oleg Soskin, an adviser to two former Ukrainian presidents, said on Saturday.

Zelensky, who continues to maintain that victory should be achieved on the battlefield, simply “cannot” enter peace talks with Moscow, Soskin said on his YouTube channel. Such actions, he believes, are pushing Russia and at least some of Ukraine’s Western backers to think that they need someone else to represent Kiev who can “agree on even a temporary truce.” In order to achieve that, the current Ukrainian leadership needs to be “neutralized,” the former presidential aide added.

The idea of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine has become a “prevalent narrative” not only in Russia but in the West as well, Soskin suggested. He noted that French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed such ideas not so long ago.

Macron told the BBC in an interview this week that although it was France’s “duty” to support Kiev the time might have come for some “fair and good negotiations” with Russia. Meloni recently told a pair of Russian pranksters, Vovan and Lexus, that “there is a lot of fatigue” in the EU over the conflict. “We are near the moment in which everybody understands that we need a way out,” she added at that time.

Soskin, a renowned economist who was the deputy head of the Institute of the World Economics and International Relations of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in the 1990s, said that the EU would also be potentially unable to satisfy Kiev’s needs for military equipment and ammunition, particularly if US military aid decreases.

The former official served as a senior adviser to Ukraine’s first president, Leonid Kravchuk, in the early 1990s and was later an economic adviser to the nation’s second leader, Leonid Kuchma, between 1998 and 2000.

Kiev has repeatedly ruled out any talks with Moscow and demands a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from all territories Ukraine claims as its own. Zelensky reiterated this demand in an interview with Reuters this week, adding that Kiev would continue the fight even without US aid if need be.

He also denied media reports about Ukraine’s Western backers allegedly encouraging it to engage in peace negotiations with Moscow. “This is not going to happen,” he said last week.

Russia has repeatedly signaled its readiness to engage in negotiations with Kiev but has insisted that such talks should take Moscow’s security interests and the “reality on the ground” into account. In the autumn of 2022, four former Ukrainian territories – including the two Donbass republics – officially joined Russia, following a series of referendums.

Kiev declared the votes a “sham” and has sought to reclaim control over the four territories, as well as Crimea, which joined Russia in 2014 following another referendum.

November 15, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Deadly alliance: Why has the CIA decided to allow US media to confirm its involvement in Ukraine’s brutal assassination campaign?

The scale of US intelligence support for Kiev’s murderous operations has been brought to light at a very interesting moment

 https://www.rt.com/russia/586692-cia-sbu-kiev-assassinations/
By Chay Bowes, journalist and geopolitical analyst, MA in Strategic Studies, RT correspondent

As Ukraine slips quietly from the top of the Western media’s news agenda, fascinating insights into the granular nature of the CIA’s involvement in Kiev’s assassination program are being revealed. By the very same outlets that had previously suggested Ukraine was on a solo run with its slew of extrajudicial killings and terror attacks.

Western media has routinely ignored the brutal exploits of Kiev’s successor to the KGB, the SBU. When they are reported upon, instead of calling out the illegal killing of journalists and activists, the press seeks to frame them as masterful operations of a band of freedom fighters administering tough justice to the “enemies of Ukraine.” A key element of that narrative was that while the US, British, and French intelligence services worked closely with the SBU, they didn’t have any direct control of its actions, particularly when those actions involved assassinating unarmed civilians. However, a recently published article in the Washington Post has now revealed that the CIA had, and continues to have, a central role in the group’s most disturbing activities.

A Washington Post article “Ukrainian spies with deep ties to CIA wage shadow war against Russia” outlines a labyrinthine relationship between the two intelligence agencies, and while the CIA still maintains it doesn’t sanction particular operations, the details revealed in the telling article suggest that this is nothing more than the usual stock disclaimer which accompanies most of Langley’s covert operations. The article is based on interviews with “more than two dozen current and former Ukrainian, US and Western intelligence and security officials” and its revelations are both shocking and fascinating.

One of the first claims it makes is that the relationship between the Ukrainian SBU and the CIA has been developing for decades with the latter working to “develop” Ukraine’s abilities to carry out sabotage and “operations” since at least 2014. The CIA has also been providing detailed intelligence, equipment and training to the SBU during that period and continues to spend “tens of millions” of dollars developing its capabilities. The sources quoted also confirm that the CIA even designed and built a new headquarters for the SBU in Kiev and currently share “levels of information and intelligence unthinkable” prior to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

According to the Washington Post, the CIA also now maintains a significant presence in Kiev, not only in terms of men and materiel but also information flow, all of which suggests that despite maintaining an overt distance, the CIA is in fact intimately involved in all aspects of SBU operations including the planning and execution of operations outside the state.

One such operation, and probably the most infamous carried out by the SBU since February 2022, was the assassination of Daria Dugina, daughter of prominent Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin. The Washington Post article goes into great detail to outline the complexity of the “operation” performed by the SBU that resulted in the death of the unarmed 23-year-old non-combatant in a car bombing outside Moscow in August 2022. It tells of the use of a pet carrier to transport explosives into Russia, and of the surveillance of the deceased woman’s home by the assassin, who then fled across the border soon after the horrendous killing, which was cynically referred to by the SBU as a “liquidation.” 

The granular details outlined in the article suggest sources either within the CIA or SBU have now confirmed that their relationship, once presented as purely advisory and business-like, is in fact a deep and long-standing partnership. The article goes on to confirm the SBU’s involvement in several other targeted murders on Russian territory, including the assassination of Vladlen Tatarsky with a bomb in a crowded St. Petersburg cafe and the murder of ex-submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky, who was shot in the back while jogging unarmed in a park in Krasnodar.

The revealing article also refers to “uneasiness” in Kiev and Washington regarding the SBU’s penchant for this kind of assassination, noting concern that they could tarnish Ukraine’s image abroad especially among donor countries who recently admitted that without their help Ukraine would collapse within weeks.

What is most interesting about this piece is probably not its confirmation that the CIA is intimately involved in the operations of the SBU, what’s most fascinating is why a newspaper widely recognized as itself having an intimate relationship with the CIA has suddenly decided to basically confirm what many analysts already knew when it comes to Langley and the SBU.

The Washington Post’s revelation comes not only in the aftermath of the bloody Hamas incursion into Israel and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza but also as international attention, and more importantly, appetite to support Kiev, wanes. This shift in attention, not only in the media but also potentially in the scale of aid, bodes poorly for President Vladimir Zelensky’s regime, as it faces increasing domestic pressures and war-weary neighbors.

Couple this with the oncoming winter and the view looks increasingly grim for Zelensky even before mentioning Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive and recent Russian battlefield gains. It now also looks inevitable that Ukraine will find itself playing second fiddle to an emerging political and potentially military crisis in the Middle East while competing for the vital US aid that keeps the Kiev regime afloat. Crucially, all of these woes offer a beleaguered NATO an opportunity to apply pressure on Zelensky to seek peace, potentially solving an increasingly difficult puzzle for Kiev’s backers as they head towards elections that will be decided by populations ever more vocal in their disdain for the conflict.

So as Kiev’s woes compound and the world’s gaze shifts towards Gaza, it seems the truth about the West’s intimate relationship with the SBU is now being pulled out of the closet, not by a whistleblower or dissenting investigative journalist, but by a stalwart of the US intelligence community, the Washington Post. The question we should all be asking is why? How does this benefit or promote a Western ‘victory’ in Ukraine? The answer may well be that it’s not a victory that these revelations are supposed to facilitate. It’s more likely that it’s part of a strategy of edging Kiev towards accepting the undeniable reality that the entire US project in Ukraine is set to fail, and for Zelensky to seek accommodation before there’s nothing left to negotiate with.

The task now is to end it as painlessly as possible for NATO and Kiev’s exhausted backers, and to move on to the next crusade, leaving a devastated and dysfunctional Ukraine to be consigned to the growing graveyard of bloody US foreign policy misadventures.

November 15, 2023 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine, USA | Leave a comment

Russia raises alarm about nuclear waste storage in Ukraine reaching unsafe levels

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova warns of high chance of approximately 12 million tons of radioactive waste entering Dnieper river, groundwater

Elena Teslova  |10.11.2023 –  https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/russia-raises-alarm-about-nuclear-waste-storage-in-ukraine-reaching-unsafe-levels/3049929

Russia raised the alarm on Friday about nuclear waste storage in Ukraine reaching unsafe levels, warning of a high chance of approximately 12 million tons of radioactive waste entering the Dnieper river and groundwater.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the “situation with dangerous nuclear waste storage in Ukraine is taking a disastrous character.”

In a statement published on the ministry’s website, Zakharova said the volume of nuclear waste at the Prydniprovsky Chemical Plant, located in the city of Kamianske, has reached 42 million tons.

“The plant was constructed during the Soviet era, and it is processing wastes that are presently stored in nine open-air dumping grounds containing sand-like low-radioactive residue.

“These wastes are a significant and dangerous source of environmental pollution. There is a high probability of about 12 million tons of radioactive waste entering the Dnieper (river) and groundwater as a result of possible erosion of the dam at one of the storage facilities located 800 meters from the river and its tributary Konoplyanka,” Zakharova warned.

Also, she added, about 14 tons of radioactive dust is blown throughout the area every year, contaminating agricultural land.

“According to our information, Kyiv does not allocate funding to ensure the environmental safety of the facilities of the Prydniprovsky Chemical Plant, which, ultimately, can lead to an environmental disaster not only in the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime but also beyond its borders,” she said.

Concerns over the plant’s poor condition have been raised for many years with no response from officials.

November 12, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, wastes | Leave a comment

No American money left for Ukraine – USAID

USAID’s help has enabled Ukraine to spend all of its own government revenue on its defense, including soldier salaries.

 https://www.rt.com/news/586853-us-ukraine-humanitarian-funding-runs-out/ 10 Nov 23

Kiev faces economic collapse if new funding isn’t approved, an official has warned US lawmakers

The US government agency overseeing Washington’s humanitarian relief program for Ukraine has warned lawmakers that funding has run out, putting Kiev at risk of economic ruin if more money isn’t allocated amid the former Soviet republic’s conflict with Russia.

“We have no more direct budget support,” Erin McKee, an assistant administrator for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), testified on Wednesday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington. “The last tranche was disbursed at the end of the fiscal year. This jeopardizes, particularly over the coming months, Ukraine’s ability to maintain its economic stability while it continues to fight the war. It’s urgent.”

The US government’s latest fiscal year ended on September 30. Ukraine has relied on Washington not only as its biggest provider of weaponry, but also for money to meet its non-military expenses. President Joe Biden has proposed a $106 billion emergency spending bill that combines aid to help Ukraine fight Russia and Israel fight Hamas. It also includes $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid tied to both conflicts.

McKee said USAID’s help has enabled Ukraine to spend all of its own government revenue on its defense, including soldier salaries. “That means they don’t have any resources to take care of their own people and govern,” she added.

Such outlays as paying teachers, police and health care workers would be suspended without new US funding being approved, McKee said. A prolonged funding disruption would cripple the Ukrainian economy, she claimed, giving Russian President Vladimir Putin the upper hand in the ongoing conflict. “If their economy collapses, Putin will have won.”

Congressional opposition to Biden’s Ukraine policy has grown in recent months. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a $14 billion aid bill for Israel alone last week, leaving new funding for Ukraine to be decided separately. The Democrat-controlled Senate blocked the House bill on Tuesday, demanding that Biden’s bundled aid package be approved instead.

Congress previously approved $113 billion in Ukraine aid in four rounds of legislation. McKee warned that without the approval of a new tranche of funding, Ukraine’s government “would need to use emergency measures, such as printing money or not paying critical salaries, which could lead to hyperinflation and severely damage the war effort.”

November 11, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, Ukraine | Leave a comment

U.S., European officials broach topic of peace negotiations with Ukraine, sources say

The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal with Russia.

nbc news, Nov. 4, 2023, By Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee and Kristen Welker

WASHINGTON — U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.

The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.

The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.

They began amid concerns among U.S. and European officials that the war has reached a stalemate and about the ability to continue providing aid to Ukraine, officials said. Biden administration officials also are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s open-ended conscription requirements.

And there is unease in the U.S. government with how much less public attention the war in Ukraine has garnered since the Israel-Hamas war began nearly a month ago, the officials said. Officials fear that shift could make securing additional aid for Kyiv more difficult. 

Some U.S. military officials have privately begun using the term “stalemate” to describe the current battle in Ukraine, with some saying it may come down to which side can maintain a military force the longest. Neither side is making large strides on the battlefield, which some U.S. officials now describe as a war of inches. Officials also have privately said Ukraine likely only has until the end of the year or shortly thereafter before more urgent discussions about peace negotiations should begin. U.S. officials have shared their views on such a timeline with European allies, officials said…………………………………………………………………………………..

The Biden administration has spent $43.9 billion on security assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, according to the Pentagon. A U.S. official says the administration has about $5 billion left to send to Ukraine before money runs out. There would be no aid left for Ukraine if the administration hadn’t said it found a $6.2 billion accounting error from months of over-valuing equipment sent to Kyiv.

Public support slipping

Progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been very slow, and hope that Ukraine will make significant advances, including reaching the coast near Russia’s frontlines, is fading. A lack of significant progress on the battlefield in Ukraine does not help with trying to reverse the downward trend in public support for sending more aid, officials said.  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-european-officials-broach-topic-peace-negotiations-ukraine-sources-rcna123628 #Ukraine #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNuke

November 8, 2023 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine, USA | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s counteroffensive is finished – governor

 https://www.rt.com/russia/586687-ukraine-counteroffensive-halted-zaporozhye/ 6 Nov 23

The attempt to cut Russia’s land corridor to Crimea in Zaporozhye Region has failed, Evgeny Balitsky has said

Moscow’s forces have stopped the Ukrainian counteroffensive dead in its tracks, Evgeny Balitsky, the governor of Zaporozhye Region, has said. 

He further described what he called Kiev’s last-ditch attempts to breach Russian defenses as not particularly impressive. In recent months, Zaporozhye has emerged as a scene of some of the fiercest fighting.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Balitsky stated that “the enemy has been halted, as has been its much-hyped counteroffensive.” He said that the ongoing fighting near the settlements of Rabotino and Shcherbaki and on the Vremievsky Ridge was “almost an agony for the Ukrainian regime.”

The official declared that Ukrainian forces, which have been trying to storm Russian positions for months, have “completely run out of steam.” 

“Now, when the enemy launches an attack, they deploy only small forces because their companies are understrength,” he added.

According to Balitsky, the plan to reach the Sea of Azov and cut Russia’s land bridge to Crimea – widely seen as the main objective of Kiev’s summer campaign – has been thwarted. He also claimed that Ukrainian attacks are now largely unsupported by armor, as Russian forces have knocked out many vehicles.

The governor stated that the current “meat onslaught” had been organized by Kiev’s Western backers, suggesting that the latter would prefer to lose Ukrainian soldiers rather than their own expensive military equipment.

Ukraine began a large-scale offensive in early June, but has failed to make substantial progress. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said last week that “the Kiev regime is losing.” He has previously estimated Ukraine’s losses at more than 90,000 troops, nearly 600 tanks, and 2,000 armored vehicles since the start of the push.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have admitted difficulties with the campaign, blaming a lack of progress on delays in Western support, strong Russian defenses, and extensive minefields as well as Moscow’s air superiority. 

Last week, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhny, characterized the frontline situation as a “stalemate” due to the level of technological prowess of both sides. That assessment, however, was rejected by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who insisted that while his country found itself in a “difficult” situation, it still had the initiative. #Ukraine

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

NewsReal: Ukraine War Ends, Mid-East War Begins? Why America is Shifting Gears


Sott.net, Sun, 05 Nov 2023

Anglo-American legacy media this week “quietly” announced an “end” to the Ukraine War, informing – correctly, for the first time since February 2022 – Western audiences that Kiev doesn’t stand a chance militarily against Russia, that Zelensky is “deluded” and “messianic” about recovering the four provinces lost to Russia, and that American and European leaders have begun pushing him to enter negotiations with Moscow.

So, peace on Earth?!

Given current events in the Middle East, not least the Israeli obliteration of Gaza and the major deployment of US warships and forces in Israel and on the surrounding seas, it’s more likely that the US Empire is ‘pivoting’ from Ukraine only because it considers the job there ‘done’ and now has bigger goals in sight………. more https://www.sott.net/article/485737-NewsReal-Ukraine-War-Ends-Mid-East-War-Begins-Why-America-is-Shifting-Gears# #Ukraine #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes #Israel #Palestine

November 7, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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

November 6, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

‘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 reading →

November 4, 2023 Posted by | PERSONAL STORIES, Ukraine | Leave a comment

How 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

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November 3, 2023 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

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

October 30, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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/

October 30, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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

October 28, 2023 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

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

October 26, 2023 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine | Leave a comment

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