19 May, 2022 11:17

HomeWorld News

Ukraine disappointed with level of US support – media

Politico says Biden’s reluctance to give Ukraine high-powered rocket systems has become a source of consternation for Kiev

Ukrainian officials are becoming increasingly frustrated with the Biden administration’s failure to supply Kiev with US-made long-range multiple launch rocket systems, Politico reported on Wednesday.

According to the article, citing three unnamed officials “familiar with the issue,” even though the Ukrainian government has been soliciting the delivery of the US-made Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) for months now, the White House is apparently still dragging its feet over the potential shipment, concerned it could be construed as a further escalation by the Kremlin.

A congressional staffer “with knowledge of discussions” held at the US Ramstein Air Base in April told Politico that the “momentum” seen during the talks “seems to have cooled” now, with “frustration building” in Kiev as a result.

An anonymous Biden administration official, in turn, confirmed to Politico that Washington and Kiev were “in active discussion” about the MLRS, noting, however, that not all of the weapons Ukraine was asking for could be delivered quickly.

The unnamed staffer went on to explain that the White House has to “make decisions about what weapons systems provide the biggest bang for the buck.” With this in mind, the Biden administration reportedly decided that “it was more effective and efficient to send the 90 M777 [howitzers] because you can send more of them” for the amount of money allocated, compared to the MLRS.

While the US has had no problem shipping Soviet-era multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine, which America’s Eastern European allies have in abundance, Politico noted, Washington has stopped short of providing Kiev with artillery systems with longer range and greater destructive power, which wouldallow the Ukrainian military to hit targets inside Russia. According to the article, President Volodymyr Zelensky listed the M142 HIMARS and M270 MLRS multiple launch rocket systems among the weapons his country needs the most.

The M270 MLRS boasts a range of up to 70km, and over 165km with more advanced missiles. The more modern HIMARS can hit targets between 300 and 500km away.

Judging by reports in the German media, it is not only the US that Ukraine is unhappy with. Die Welt reported on Wednesday that last Friday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba took to task German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht during a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in the country. In a private conversation with Lambrecht, Kuleba reportedly asked her for an honest answer regarding the delivery of the Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, which was promised to Kiev by Berlin earlier.

According to the report, the Ukrainian official demanded that either the missing ammunition for the vehicle be promptly arranged, or Germany would have to finally admit that the topic is off the table – in which case, Berlin would be expected to “focus on a new project.” Unnamed Ukrainian sources told Die Welt that it had been a “difficult conversation” in which Kuleba became “really furious.”

The Ukrainian foreign minister had reportedly told Lambrecht it is “not ok” to “declare something, knowing that there is no ammunition.” Anonymous Ukrainian officials told the outlet that the German defense minister promised Kuleba that Berlin would continue looking for the missing ammunition in third countries.

When asked for comment, the German Defense Ministry declined to disclose any details, citing the private nature of the conversation.

The German government gave the green light to the delivery of Gepards to Ukraine in late April. However, there has not been any progress since. Kekkity!

During their meeting, Kuleba also reportedly urged Lambrecht to issue an export permit for the shipment of Leopard 1 tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles along with ammunition to Ukraine.

(So with all the bravado of US and EU sending massive weapons to Ukraine they are sending parts of equipment and missing other materials. Its almost like these countries are doing PR only.)

https://www.rt.com/news/555736-ukraine-unhappy-us-failure-deliver-rocket-launchers/

19 May, 2022 11:02

'This is just a lie': How Jeff Bezos' Washington Post twisted a report about Donbass refugees to fit its narrative

The American newspaper disregarded the testimonies of volunteers to support its consistently anti-Russian stance

Last week, the Washington Post published an extensive article titled ‘Ukrainian refugees in Russia report interrogations, detention and other abuses’.

Bias against Russia is nothing new for the newspaper, owned by the oligarch Jeff Bezos. However, this particular story – authored by its former Moscow bureau chief Michael Birnbaum and reporter Mary Ilyushina (known as Maria when she worked in Russian domestic media) – appears to have gone even further than its usual output…..

Makhnitsky has worked with temporary refugee facilities in Taganrog, Azov, and other Russian cities. When the Washington Post journalists contacted him, he was in Rostov-on-Don. He said he had suspected his story would be skewed, but everything seemed pretty decent.

“My conversation with Birnbaum [The Washington Post author covering military conflicts who wrote the article – RT] was in English and lasted an hour or an hour and a half. At the time, I thought Birnbaum was quite reasonable – he asked sensible questions, showed a good grasp of the facts, didn’t even look as if he fully trusted the official Ukrainian propaganda’s narrative, which was the only thing the article ultimately reflected. My impression was that he was really trying to understand, to get to the bottom of things,”Makhnitsky said. However, something happened between the conversation and publication. He hopes the author was forced to distort the story due to editorial policy; he doesn’t want to believe that Birnbaum had another motive.

“He asked me if we had seen refugees being forcibly held somewhere or their passports taken away. And I said it like it is – we have talked to thousands of people, and none of them told us anything like that or tried to ask for help or pass a note.”

“Volunteers and refugees develop relationships based on trust. When you bring aid to people, they don’t see you as part of the administration or the authorities. Sometimes they complained about the administration’s actions or about their living conditions. Some of them resented their situation – the very fact that they had to leave because of the fighting. But none of the thousands of people gave us any hint that they were taken away or were being held by force, or that their documents had been taken away.”

According to Makhnitsky, refugees often shared their plans with the volunteers. Many said they wanted to continue living in Russia or someplace abroad, while the majority said they’d prefer to return home. When talking to Makhnitsky,Birnbaum mentioned a couple of cases in which people had their passports taken from them.

Makhnitsky recalls: “Well, that’s what I said in response, that possibly, given the huge number of refugees, it could have happened. But I spoke to a huge number of all sorts of people and the feedback and nothing like this was going on en masse. In those few cases when it happened, we don’t know for what reason.Sometimes, combatants try to present themselves as refugees, which is wrong, they cannot pose as refugees, they must be processed as POWs, so such things are inevitable.”

Makhnitsky says that nothing he said was published in Birnbaum’s piece in the Washington Post, except this one sentence: “Some of the refugees don’t understand where they are going when they sign up.” Makhnitsky insists that these words of his were ripped out of the context and placed into a narrative that changes their meaning completely.

“I was talking about a refugee center in Taganrog that receives refugees from Mariupol before they can go elsewhere in Russia. People spend one or two days at most in this place to get their papers. They don’t stay there for a long time."

In this center, there were some promotional posters by the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East. They invite people to come to Khabarovsk [a large city near the Chinese border] and offer some incentives, like some money, better loan rates, and even a possibility to get a hectare of land. And some of the people who saw these posters talked to me about this opportunity while it was clear they didn’t even know where Khabarovsk was. No one was forcing them to go there, and yet when ripped out of the context my words sound like that’s the case, like people don’t even know where they will go. This is just a lie.”

Makhnitsky also said that the choice of contributors to the piece by Birnbaum and Ilyushina was quite telling. “The reporters chose to talk to people who don’t even deal with this directly, such as, for instance, the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE. How would he know what’s going on there?

https://www.rt.com/russia/555609-western-media-ignores-donbass-refugees/

19 May, 2022 11:20

More Ukrainians surrender in Mariupol – Russia.Total number of captives from the Azovstal plant has reached 1,730, the Defense Ministry said

An additional 771 Ukrainian combatants have surrendered to Russian personnel at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday morning. This pushed the total number of captives from the neo-Nazi dominated stronghold up to 1,730 since Monday, the report said.

Azovstal served as the last bastion of Ukrainian forces in the key port city, which the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) claims as its territory. According to the Russian military, the prisoners were “militants from the nationalist unit Azov” and were transferred to locations in Novoazovsk and Donetsk, two DPR-controlled cities. Medical assistance is being given to the 80 wounded Ukrainian fighters, the update said.

The surrenders, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered and later described as an evacuation allegedly taking place “thanks to” Ukrainian military and intelligence agents, are being monitored by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The aid organization gave a brief description of its involvement in a statement on Thursday.

The ICRC said it “registered hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs)” at Azovstal and that the process was still underway. The organization is compiling lists and recording personal details of the captives to track them while they remain in custody and to “help them keep in touch with their families.”

It highlighted its role as a neutral observer in the matters of war and said it maintained “a confidential dialogue with the parties to the conflict on their obligations under international humanitarian law.”

In a separate thread on its Twitter account, the ICRC stressed that it was bound by certain restrictions on how it operates, such as not being able to testify in court about prisoner visits it conducts or to prosecute the detaining parties.

The ICRC is an internationally-recognized watchdog for the Geneva Conventions, the rules of war that, among other things, regulate how signatories are obliged to treat POWs.

Some Ukrainian officials previously accused the organization of various misdeeds, including allegedly participating in forced displacement of Ukrainians. They were referring to the evacuation of civilians from eastern Ukraine to safety in Russia, which Kiev insisted was done at gunpoint.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk at one point accused the ICRC of “working with the enemy.” The organization denied the accusations, sayingit never takes part in forced evacuations, whether in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world.

https://www.rt.com/russia/555743-azovstal-prisoners-icrc-registration/

>>16303804

Sure seems like Ukraine would rather have dead fighters, because tge info Russia is getting will be mind blowing.

Now I’m wondering where the foreign scientists and military are, and if they are still hiding there.

Russia’s plans are to blow the entire plant up. And perhaps make it a huge park. (Got that from Intel Slav Z on telegram)

>>16303803

Ok anon what is trick to get so much text on one post???

19 May, 2022 09:39

Russian exports can solve global food crisis – UN

António Guterres urges to reintegrate the sanctioned country’s food produce and fertilizers into the world markets

Food products and fertilizers from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus must be allowed on the world markets if the global community wants to stem an unfolding food crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at a ministerial meeting on global food security on Wednesday.

“Let’s be clear, there is no more effective solution to the food crisis without the reintegration of Ukrainian food production, as well as food and fertilizer produced by Russia and Belarus, into world markets,” he stressed.

Earlier this month, Guterres warned that a fifth of humanity was at risk of poverty and hunger due to the current situation in the grain market, with wheat prices soaring following Western sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently stated that the threat of a global famine is the result of the West’s “sanctions obsession.”

According to Guterres, instead of being the sole reason behind the current food crisis, Russia’s military operation has added to the problems that were already affecting the situation, namely climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, he stressed, are leaders in the production of fertilizers and food products, which should not be overlooked.

Guterres pointed out that Moscow should stop blocking the export of food from Ukrainian ports. At the same time, fertilizers and food products from Russia should be allowed to the world markets without obstacles, as well, he continued.

“I am in close contact on these issues with the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, as well as a number of other key countries. I am sure that there is still a long way to go,” the official said.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denied allegations that sanctions against Russia are the reason for the deterioration of the food situation in the world. He pointed out that Washington has made exceptions to restrictive measures for fertilizers and agricultural products, adding that international organizations and authorities of various concerned countries can work together to open corridors for the safe export of food from the territory of Ukraine, both by land and sea. However, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently said that Ukrainian ports are “heavily mined” and pose a danger to shipping until they are cleared.

(No World leader thought this war with Russia through. Putin had been raising the issue of 14,000+ Ethnic Russians being killed and slaughtered in Ukraine since 2014.No one listened, so Putin et al, had 8+ years to plan this mission. So even with sanctions and feezing their foreign reserves, Russia is doing better than any country on the planet. The world leaders failed to remember Russia lost 27,000,000 people fighting the Nazis and defeated them, they are not going to lose now to a shithole country Ukraine)

https://www.rt.com/business/555729-food-fertilizers-russia-food-crisis/

Paris Court Upholds ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ Charge Against Lafarge Over Payoffs to Daesh in Syria

The Paris Appeals Court has upheld Lafarge’s "complicity in crimes against humanity" over payments made via intermediaries to Daesh and other terrorist groups in a precedent-setting ruling.

Lafarge previously acknowledged making payoffs worth over $13.7 million to keep its cement factory in northern Syria operating between 2012 and late 2014, while the Middle Eastern nation was overrun with al-Qaeda*, Daesh, and so-called "moderate rebel" militants, but rejected any complicity in these groups’ crimes.

The ruling is a major setback for the cement giant, CEO Bruno Lafont and seven other current and former executives, who could now face trial if a judge orders it. Officials could face up to 10 years in prison on the terrorism financing charge, with the punishment for abetting crimes against humanity unclear.

Wednesday’s ruling was not a final verdict, but a step in an ongoing investigation.

The company, now a subsidiary of Swiss construction colossus Holcim, previously had the complicity in crimes against humanity charges dropped in 2019. However, in late 2021, France’s highest court, the Cour de cassation, ordered the lower court to review its judgment, leading to Wednesday's decision.

Dozens of former employees of the plant launched the case against the company in 2017 with foreign rights groups’ assistance. Joseph Breham, a lawyer representing the employees, hailed Wednesday’s decision as “one more step against impunity for the worst crimes by economic players”.

“Today it’s no longer possible to hide behind the fig leaf of orchestrated ignorance”, Breham said.

Lafarge’s $715 million, state-of-the-art cement plant was completed in 2010, and situated in Jalabiya, northern Syria. The company abandoned the facility in September 2014 as Daesh approached, forcing Syrian employees to stay on until the last minute, while so-called "expat" employees were evacuated two years prior.

The plant was later occupied by US forces, who turned it into a military base. The US withdrew in 2019 amid pressure from Turkey, which launched a military operation in the region. The area is now thought to be controlled by Turkish-backed forces hostile to the Damascus government.

Over one third of Syrian territory, including oil, gas, and food-rich areas in the country’s north and east, continue to be occupied by the US and its Kurdish militia allies, and by Turkey. SyrianPresident Bashar Assad has estimated that it could cost up to $400 billion to rebuild the country from the conflict. The United States and its European allies have added to the economic pain through crushing sanctions, preventing the import of everything from construction materials and food to medical supplies and medicine. The West has also threatened to sanction any country which does business with Damascus.

https://sputniknews.com/20220519/paris-court-upholds-crimes-against-humanity-charge-against-lafarge-over-payoffs-to-daesh-in-syria-1095634731.html