any attack on Crimea would be interpreted as an attack on the country itself. Kiev must understand that such moves would be “met with inevitable retaliation using weapons of any kind.”
the administration of US President Joe Biden was warming to the prospect of helping Ukraine to target Crimea, “even if such a move increases the risk of escalation.”
Washington will not limit Ukrainian strikes on territory it claims as its own, Celeste Wallander said.
The US would have no objections to Ukrainian forces striking targets inside Crimea with American-supplied weapons, a senior defense official said on Friday.
Dr Celeste Wallander, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, was asked whether Washington supports Kiev in seizing Crimea, or at least in striking Russian targets there. The peninsula overwhelmingly voted to become part of Russia in 2014 following a Western-backed coup in Kiev.
Speaking at the Center for a New American Security, Wallander reiterated that the US “supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over its internationally recognized borders, and that includes Crimea.” With this in mind, the official argued that Kiev “has the right to defend every inch of its territory.”
As long as Ukraine “identifies operational value in targeting Russian forces on Ukrainian territory… we don’t have objections and do not seek to limit Ukrainian military operations to achieve their objectives.”
She also commented on remarks made by Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, who warned in January that it would be “very difficult” for Ukraine “to militarily eject the Russian forces” from all the territories they currently control.
“I am not going to contradict general Milley, and I think he was giving a hard-headed assessment of the scale of the challenge,” she said.
In January, The New York Times reported, citing sources, that the administration of US President Joe Biden was warming to the prospect of helping Ukraine to target Crimea, “even if such a move increases the risk of escalation.”
On February 3, the US announced a new $2.17 billion security package for Ukraine which included ground-launched, small-diameter bombs (GLSDB) with a range of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles). While the Pentagon said that this long-range capability would enable Ukrainians “to take back their sovereign territory,” it declined to speculate about Kiev’s future potential operations.
Last week, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as Deputy Chair of the nation’s Security Council, warned that any attack on Crimea would be interpreted as an attack on the country itself. Kiev, he said, must understand that such moves would be “met with inevitable retaliation using weapons of any kind.”
Greencoat Capital is considering creating a nuclear investment fund to take a stake in EDF’s proposed Sizewell C plant in Suffolk. The renewables investment manager is eyeing a move into nuclear that could lead to the fund investing in Hinkley Point C, under construction in Somerset, and the existing Sizewell B plant. Bankers working for EDF and the UK government are seeking investors to join them in funding the construction of Sizewell C, which could power 6 million homes and is expected to cost at least £20 billion. Richard Nourse, Greencoat Capital’s founder, said: “My feeling is that there’s a huge amount of money required. When you need a huge amount of money, you normally have to price it to go, and therefore it will be potentially an interesting investment. Given nuclear will be a fearsomely complex and technically demanding area for UK pension funds to evaluate risk, we see an opportunity for Greencoat to be a trusted adviser and manager of funds.”
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is extremely concerned by recent developments at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) in Ukraine. The EBRD, which has been managing over €2.5 billion in international funds to transform Chernobyl since 1995, believes that recent events are putting in jeopardy the achievements of decades of successful international collaboration to secure the site.
The Bank’s position on ChNPP is fully aligned with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is based on the following safety and security considerations: Uninterrupted power supply must be maintained for the Chernobyl facilities.
Any loss of power is potentially a serious threat to their nuclear safety. Since monitoring and control systems on site do not work, operators will not be aware of possible risks. They must stay in operation. The Chernobyl facilities have been operated by the same depleted shift of employees for more than two weeks. Normal shift rotation as well as supplies to operating staff must be ensured.
Any military action on site is extremely dangerous for the old spent fuel storage facility housing around 20000 RBMK fuel assemblies. Inspections by the Ukrainian regulator and the IAEA must be allowed. Beyond Chernobyl, there are 15 VVER-type units across Ukraine. They have a relatively weak containment and will not withstand a direct hit, which may result in irreversible consequences. EBRD 11th March 2022https://www.ebrd.com/news/2022/ebrd-very-concerned-by-situation-at-chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant-.html
What is your strategy to stop Taliban from acquiring nuclear weapons? US lawmakers to Biden WION Web TeamNEW DELHI Aug 27, 2021, A group of US lawmakers has urged President Joe Biden to prevent the Taliban, Afghanistan’s de facto rulers, from destabilising Pakistan and acquiring nuclear weapons.
The lawmakers demanded that Biden answer critical questions about what happened in Afghanistan and his plans for the future.
“Are you willing to provide military support to regional allies if the Taliban militarise the Afghan border?”
In a letter addressed to Biden on Wednesday, a group of 68 lawmakers from the Senate and House of Representatives asked, “What is your plan to help ensure that the Taliban do not destabilise its nuclear neighbour Pakistan?”
According to a report by the UNEP, the World Food Programme and the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), the biggest climate hazards to Afghan livelihoods are drought and floods, caused by irregular snowmelt or rainfall.
global warming should be taken as seriously as fighting insurgents. “Terrorism is not going to be lingering here for ever,” he says. “But climate change is an ongoing death sentence.”
How climate change is a ‘death sentence’ in Afghanistan’s highlands, Global warming should be taken as seriously as fighting insurgents, say those witnessing the savage impact first-hand, Guardian, Sune Engel Rasmussen , 28 Aug 17 ,
The central highlands of Afghanistan are a world away from the congested chaos of the country’s cities. Hills roll across colossal, uninhabited spaces fringed by snow-flecked mountains, set against blistering blue skies.
In this spectacular, harsh landscape, one can pinpoint more or less where human settlement becomes impossible: at an altitude of 3,000 metres (9,840ft).
This is where Aziza’s family lives, in the village of Borghason. In a good year, they just about survive by cultivating wheat and potatoes for food and a small income. However, when the rains fail, as they increasingly do, the family is plunged into debt, unable to reimburse merchants for that year’s seeds. “Last year, we had to borrow money from the bazaar,” Aziza says.
Things are about to get tougher. The precariousness of life in Bamiyan, one of Afghanistan’s poorest provinces, leaves villages like Borghason at the mercy of climate change.
On a recent visit, the Guardian trekked from freshwater lakes surrounded by jagged massifs at 4,500 metres down to villages at the receiving end of erratic weather, a common result of global warming. Warmer temperatures melt the mountain snow earlier, resulting in an increased flow of water before farmers need it.
These are irregularities that farmers living at the margins of economic sustainability cannot afford. “People are surviving,” says Andrew Scanlon, country director for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). “[But] their ability to bounce back is almost zilch.”
Farmers say unanimously that temperatures have risen over the past decades. Rain is scarcer and more unpredictable. “People know about climate change even if they don’t call it that,” says Fatima Akbari, the UNEP’s country assistant. “They know all about change in water and weather.”
Despite 15 years as one of the world’s biggest receivers of international aid, much of it to agriculture, Afghanistan remains woefully underdeveloped and largely defenceless against jolts from nature. Western donors primarily poured money into short-sighted programmes such as heavy engineering and cash-for-work schemes, designed for “quick impact”, Scanlon says.
“Soldiers and engineers were on six-month contracts and needed to quickly win hearts and minds,” he adds. Governments and engineers got accustomed to short time frames. Meanwhile, little was done to build long-term resilience. Winning hearts and minds was meant to win the war, yet climate change endangers that elusive victory.
Although research on the topic in Afghanistan is limited to small-scale anthropological analyses, studies from Iraq and elsewhere link global warming and security. According to the UNEP, about 80% of conflicts in Afghanistan are related to resources like land and water – and to food insecurity, an immediate consequence of global warming.
According to a report by the UNEP, the World Food Programme and the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), the biggest climate hazards to Afghan livelihoods are drought and floods, caused by irregular snowmelt or rainfall.
Bamiyan is the epicentre. The mountains in Shah Foladi, one of four recognised national parks, feed both the Kabul basin and the Helmand river, which runs south for 700 miles (1,126km). In Helmand, water has instigated conflict for decades and been central to foreign intervention since the early cold war, when the US got involved in irrigation projects.
Despite fighting a worsening war against insurgents, the Afghan government seems, to an extent, aware of the need to address the risks of global warming. “In the region, Afghanistan is the most vulnerable country facing the ravages of climate change,” says Prince Mostapha Zaher, grandson of the former king Mohammad Zahir Shah and director general of the NEPA…….
Women are particularly affected by erratic weather. In Borghason, when the rains fail, farmers switch crops from barley to wheat, which is less ideal as livestock feed, says Chaman, an older woman in the village. As a result, women – who are tasked with fetching water and tending livestock – have longer distances to hike.
Helmand is one of the most turbulent provinces in Afghanistan, and is a center of the country’s mining industry and the shadowy drug-smuggling industry. There are four deposits of uranium, magnetite, apatite and carbonite in the south of this region, in the southern village of Khanashin, just 160 km from the border with Pakistan.
According to earlier geological exploration works, the province has lucrative uranium and thorium deposits. It also contains vast resources of tantalum and other rare elements.
According to NASA estimates, there are also deposits of copper, iron and other metals worth of $81.2 billion. Until now, there was no industrial uranium mining in Afghanistan. During Taliban rule, the captives did all the mining.
Deputies of the lower chamber of the country’s parliament from the province of Helmand have repeatedly said that much evidence exists that uranium from Khanashin is being smuggled out in US cargo planes, Sputnik Afghanistan quotes local media reports as saying.
The deputies said that the US military have set up their military base near the uranium mines and smuggle uranium through it.
The deputies said that since the US military intervention back in 2001, the Americans and their British allies have concentrated their bases in this particular province as the largest uranium resources are concentrated there. The uranium deposit in Khanashin was previously controlled by the Taliban. However since the foreign troops set up their air bases and air fields, which are working around the clock, in the neighboring settlement of Garmsi, the deposit has been since controlled by them.
Local residents confirmed to Sputnik Afghanistan that at nights, the US military are smuggling out uranium in trucks and then in cargo planes.
US Forces Just Dropped Their Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb For The First Time, Gizmodo, Adam Clark Estes Apr 14, 2017,Citing military sources, CNN reports the United States just dropped a 9.14m-long bomb with a blast yield equivalent to 11 tons of TNT on suspected ISIS targets in Afghanistan. Nicknamed MOAB (short for “Mother of All Bombs”), the weapon is the largest non-nuclear bomb in America’s arsenal. This is the first time a MOAB has been used in combat.
Details of the attack remain sparse. According to CNN, the bombing aimed to take out ISIS tunnels in the Achin district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. The network also says that the bomb was dropped from an Air Force Special Operations Command MC-130 aircraft and that the military is “currently assessing the damage.”
What we do know is that the MOAB is an extremely powerful weapon. First developed in the lead up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, the bomb, officially named the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, had only been detonated in testing before Thursday’s attack in Afghanistan. However, the MOAB served as a weapon of psychological warfare after it was moved into the theatre back in 2003. The US military also distributed videos of test drops that show how the 9,798kg, GPS-guided bomb can level entire armies. They are indeed scary videos:…….. https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/04/us-forces-just-dropped-its-largest-non-nuclear-bomb-for-the-first-time/
just one small group of US Naval vessels dropped here the equivalent of many thousands of Nagasaki bombs…
Did US drop tactical nuclear weapons on Iraq/Afghanistan – You bet!, Cplash, Peter Eyre19 July 2010“….. the US , UK , NATO and Israel have been using WMDs on an almost daily basis since the conflict in the Balkans in the 1990s. In fact it started well before this when the Israelis went to war with Egypt … this was the first time WMDs had been used on mass with weapons purchased from the US and with US technicians acting in an advisory role… Continue reading →
VICTIMS OF URANIUM MUNITIONS USED BY THE US FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN |AajMedia News VICTIMS OF URANIUM MUNITIONS USED BY THE US FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN AajMedia News by Abasin Khan Sharzai June 13th, 2010 These photos of newly-born infants have been taken by Dr. Mohammad Daud Miraki, a well-known Afghan researcher, anthropologist, sociologist and scholar. He visited Afghanistan to find out about the situation after the American invasion of Afghanistan. The deformed infants are the result of the uranium munitions used by American troops and bomber aircrafts all over Afghanistan Continue reading →
VICTIMS OF URANIUM MUNITIONS USED BY THE US FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN: Creative-i /23 March 2010, Warning – Horrific Images aution: The images presented here are so horrific that it had me in tears just dealing with the ‘technics’ of uploading them. As with the Gaza victims file, I have left them off the Home Page. If you wish to view them click on the Continue Reading link. And I urge folks to do something about this, how can we stand aside? It is after all, being done in OUR name….. Continue reading →
America’s Poison Legacy Pacific Free Press by Dave Lindorff 19 October 2009 Depleted Uranium Weapons:
The Dead Babies in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No Joke The horrors of the US Agent Orange defoliation campaign in Vietnam, about which I wrote on Oct. 15, could ultimately be dwarfed by the horrors caused by the depleted uranium weapons which the US began using in the 1991 Gulf War (300 tons), and which it has used much more extensively–and in more urban, populated areas–in the Iraq War and the now intensifying Afghanistan War. Continue reading →
‘Hush’ over Afghan mission must end Rainbow Warrior September 20, 2009 Liberal Senator Colin Kenny says politicians are too afraid of offending soldiers and their families by questioning Canada’s role in Afghanistan, but it’s important to have an honest debate about the mission…… Continue reading →
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