30 Jun, 2022 17:27

Biden pledges long-term support for Ukraine

The US will stick with Kiev ‘as long as it takes,’ the US leader said during a press conference

US President Joe Biden has declared that Washington will “stick with Ukraine as long as it takes,”insisting the conflict with Russia won’t end with Moscow prevailing over Kiev.

Biden also argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “getting exactly what he did not want,” suggesting Moscow had “wanted the Finlandization of NATO, [but] he got the NATO-ization of Finland.” Along with Sweden, Finland applied in the aftermath of the military offensive to join NATO, and both countries’ applications were officially accepted earlier this week.

The US has thrown enormous amounts of money into the Ukrainian war effort, providing $54 billion in economic and military aid, with approximately $12 billion of that in weapons. However, Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelensky has declared that is not enough, calling for an additional $5 billion per month in financial support from NATO. He referred to the sum as a “fundamental thing, needed for defense and protection.”

Ukraine’s need for support will continue beyond the war, Zelensky hinted, insisting his country should be supplied with protected status, accompanied by “security guarantees.” NATO “must find a place for Ukraine in the common security space,” he argued.

NATO countries met on Wednesday to adopt a new, more explicitly anti-Russia Strategic Concept in which the bloc accused Moscow of having “shattered peace and gravely altered our security environment”, while a “strong, independent Ukraine” would be critical to the bloc’s stability. Nor did NATO stop with blaming Russia for the world’s ills, also targeting China for supposedly using its “economic leverage to create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence.”

Biden on Wednesday declared the US would permanently increase its military footprint in eastern Europe, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg similarly promising to beef up its “high readiness” troop presence from 40,000 soldiers to a whopping 300,000.

While Biden’s actions with regard to Ukraine have been applauded by US allies within NATO, their reception at home has been less than enthusiastic.Just 11% of Americans appear to believe the administration’s narrative blaming Russiafor ruinously high fuel prices, while Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell has publicly disagreed with Biden regarding the president’s claim that skyrocketing inflation is due to the Ukraine crisis.

Meanwhile, as the administration continues to spend tens of billions of dollars to prop up the Ukrainian war effort, the majority of Americans are concerned about making ends meet, and few see backing Ukraine as a high-priority issue as the country heads into midterm elections in November. The president's approval ratings are at record lows and have been spiraling downward as the cost of living increases.

https://www.rt.com/news/558172-biden-pledges-ukraine-support-indefinitely/

30 Jun, 2022 16:43

Kremlin explains priorities in POW exchange with Ukraine

Bringing captured Russian soldiers home is the key goal

Bringing captured Russian soldiers back home is the top priority for Moscow, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. The official made the remarks following a major POW exchange between Moscow and Kiev.

“The return of our soldiers and all the soldiers who fought and are fighting for the right to live of the people of the LPR and DPR is the main thing for us,” Peskov told reporters.

The exchange, first announced by Ukraine’s military intelligence service, took place on Wednesday. ••Moscow returned 144 captured Ukrainian soldiers== in exchange for the same number of Russian servicemen, as well as fighters from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

The Russian Defense Ministry commented on the swap on Thursday, revealing it had been authorized personally by President Vladimir Putin. The exchange was “organized and carried out on the direct orders of the supreme commander of the Russia Armed Forces,” said Defense Ministry spokesman, General Igor Konashenkov.

Safeguarding “the lives, the health, the release of our servicemen, the fighters of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, who make up the majority of those returned, is the most important task,” he stressed.

According to Kiev, the exchange included 43 fighters of the notorious Azov regiment.Hundreds of members of the neo-Nazi unit ended up in Russian custodyafter surrendering at the Azovstal plant in the port city of Mariupol.

All in all,more than 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been captured during the ongoing conflict, according to the Russian military.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocol, brokered by Germany and France, was first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

https://www.rt.com/russia/558155-kremlin-pow-exchange-priorities/

30 Jun, 2022 16:56

Russia should not fear ‘defensive’ NATO – US

The US is sending more troops to Europe because of Russian “aggression,” the White House insists

Russia should not fear ‘defensive’ NATO – US

Russia should not regard additional NATO troops in Eastern Europe as a provocation, but a legitimate response to its “aggression” in Ukraine by a purely defensive alliance, the spokesman for the US National Security Council John Kirby told reporters.

Kirby was asked by Bloomberg to comment on US President Joe Biden’s announcement on Wednesday that more troops will be sent to Poland, Romania and the Baltic states, along with additional US planes and ships being stationed elsewhere on the continent.

“There’s no reason that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin needs to view any force posture change on NATO’s eastern flank as a provocation. NATO is, will be, always has been a defensive alliance,” said Kirby.

“The reason we have to do this is because Mr Putin has been the destabilizing influence on the continent. Mr Putin decided to invade a sovereign, neighboring state. Mr Putin is the one who is the aggressor,” Kirby added.

The retired US Navy admiral, who left his job as the Pentagon spokesman last month to move to the White House, also argued that while NATO wants the conflict in Ukraine to end, it’s up to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “to determine when and where, [and] under what circumstances, the negotiations can even begin.”

Meanwhile, NATO leaders have given Zelensky unconditional support to fight, not to negotiate. “We make it very clear that this war can only be won on the battlefield,“ Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Wednesday.

Moscow has scoffed at NATO’s claims that it’s a purely defensive alliance, pointing to its track record over the past two decades, from the 1999 war against Yugoslavia to the 2011 regime change in Libya and the bombing of Syria in recent years.

“In futile attempts to justify their aggression against sovereign states, the collective West had to come up with exotic concepts, such as ‘humanitarian intervention,’ ‘war on terror,' ‘preventive strikes’,” Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council earlier this month.

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

https://www.rt.com/news/558160-nato-defensive-provocation-kirby/

30 Jun, 2022 17:27

Ukraine severs diplomatic ties with Middle East state

Kiev also wants to impose a trade embargo on Syria over its recognition of the Donbass republics

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday that it’s severing diplomatic ties with Syria after Damascus recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in Donbass.

In a statement published on its website, the ministry said it “strongly condemns” Syria’s decision, which it considers an “unfriendly act against Ukraine” and an “encroachment on its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“In response to this unfriendly act, Ukraine declares the severance of diplomatic relations with Syria without the severance of consular relations,” the message reads further.

Kiev has also said that it intends to impose a trade embargo on Syria and is considering “other sanctions on Syrian legal entities and individuals.”

On Wednesday, Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a foreign ministry official as saying that theSyrian Arab Republic has decided to recognize the independence and sovereignty of both the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic

Following Russia, Syria has become the second country among UN members to formally recognize the independence of the two states which make up the Donbass region. Both of the republics decided to break away from Kiev’s control in 2014 after a Western-backed coup ousted the democratically-elected president Viktor Yanukovych. Their decision prompted Kiev to try and reclaim the areas by force, leading to an eight-year conflict.

https://www.rt.com/news/558166-ukraine-cuts-ties-syria/

30 Jun, 2022 22:12

=•Russia warns of new ‘Iron Curtain’==

It’s the West that’s putting it up this time, the foreign ministers of Russia and Belarus agreed

A new “Iron Curtain” is going up across Europe, this time put up by Western powers seeking to cut off Russia and Belarus over the conflict in Ukraine. Practically overnight, the EU destroyed all of the relations with Moscow it had been building for decades, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday in Minsk.

“The Iron Curtain is now being erected by Westerners themselves,” said Vladimir Makei, the foreign minister of Belarus. He clarified he was referring not just to the severance of political and economic contact, but to the physical barrier that just went up along the Poland-Belarus border.

Makei said the isolationism was one-sided, as Belarus continues to advocate for dialogue with the West and finding diplomatic solutions to problems.

“It is practically already up,” Lavrov agreed, adding that Western countries “are only doing it carefully, so as not to pinch anything off, but the process is underway.”

The Russian foreign minister, who was visiting Minsk, added that theEU had “destroyed” the entire relationship with Moscow that took decades to build.

“The summits that took place twice a year, and the meetings of the Russian government and the European Commission, and the common spaces along which the four ‘road maps’ were built, twenty sectoral dialogues, a visa-free dialogue … All this was brought down overnight,” Lavrov said, referring to the events of 2014, when Brussels condemned what it called the Russian “annexation” of Crimea. “Relations have been nonexistent since then.”

Moscow remains open to diplomacy and dialogue, but will make a decision on how to re-engage with its own interests in mind, the Russian diplomat said.

“I can only say that from now on, we will not trust neither the Americans nor the EU. We will do everything necessary so we don’t have to depend on them in critical sectors,” said Lavrov.

The phrase “Iron Curtain” originated with Winston Churchill, the British politician who led the UK through the Second World War but lost the election right afterward. The ousted PM accepted US President Harry Truman’s invitation to speak at a college in Fulton, Missouri in March 1946, and heralded the upcoming Cold War by declaring that “an iron curtain has descended across the continent,” in reference to the establishment of socialist governments in territories liberated by the Red Army in Eastern Europe.

Western historiography holds that the original “Iron Curtain” was destroyed in 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany – followed by the collapse of the USSR two years later.

https://www.rt.com/russia/558177-lavrov-iron-curtain-europe/

30 Jun, 2022 16:06

‘Go to hell,’ Ukrainian ambassador tells German intellectuals

(All for the shithole country Ukraine)

Andrey Melnik has slammed the signatories of an open letter which calls on the West to stop providing Ukraine with weapons

Kiev’s ambassador to Berlin has insulted a group of German intellectuals, who penned an open letteradvocating the end of arms deliveries to Ukraine. The signatories called on the West to make Volodymyr Zelensky's regime negotiate peace.

Commenting on their appeal, Andrey Melnik tweeted “Not again” on Thursday, adding in English: “What a bunch of pseudo-intellectual loosers (sic).”

Referring to some of the signatories by their last names, Melnik suggested they “should go to hell with [their] defeatist advice.”

The open letter, which infuriated the Ukrainian diplomat, was published in Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper on Wednesday, titled “Ceasefire now!” In it, a group of 21 German academics, philosophers, journalists, artists and ex-diplomats urged the “West to end the Ukraine war through negotiations.”

According to the signatories, it is the EU’s duty to “restore and secure peace on the continent.” To this end, countries should come up with a strategy, which would bring the hostilities to an end as soon as possible, the appeal suggests.

“Ukraine has so far been able to defend itself against the brutal Russian aggressive war thanks to, among other things, massive sanctions and military support,” they argued.

However, the longer these measures last, the less clear their end game is, they added. In these intellectuals’ eyes, it is highly unlikely that Ukraine will be able to regain control of “all occupied areas including Donetsk and Lugansk regions and Crimea,” as Russia is “militarily superior and has the ability to mount further military escalation.”

In light of these considerations, the letter urges Western nations supporting Ukraine militarily to ask themselves “what goal they are pursuingand whether (and for how long) weapons deliveries are still the right way.”

The signatories go on to warn that the continuation of the armed conflict would mean thousands more deaths, as well as “massive humanitarian, economic and ecological emergencies all around the world.” The letter refers to food shortages in Africa and rising prices further afield as further proof of this point.

The West, the authors argue, must be united in its opposition to “Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and further revanchist aspirations.” However, the “continuation of the war in Ukraine is not the solution,” the German intellectuals say.

This is not the first time German public figures have penned a public letter calling for the end of Western weapons deliveries to Kiev.

https://www.rt.com/russia/558164-melnik-appeal-german-intellectuals/

30 Jun, 2022 21:28

Anti-oil activists glue themselves to Van Gogh painting

(Kekkity idiots, why are these cretins so ugly and look like tramps?)

The stunt comes a day after the same group targeted another painting in a British museum

Climate activist group Just Stop Oil raided the Courtauld Gallery in London on Thursday, gluing themselves to a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. Two activists targeted the 1889 painting ‘Peach Trees in Blossom’. (Why are these painting not protected with glass or barriers?)

The activists glued their palms to the painting’s frame, apparently seeking to avoid damaging the masterpiece itself. It was not immediately clear whether the activists used petroleum-based adhesives for their stunt.

The two activists then called upon the UK government to end new fossil fuel projects. The group also said in a statement that the action targeting museums was supposed to rally “art institutions to join them in civil resistance.”

The stunt has prompted a heavy police response, with multiple officers arriving to the scene to detach the protesters from the painting’s frame and bring them in, footage shared by the group on social media shows.

The protest comes a day after the group staged a similar stunt at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. The activists targeted a 19th century painting by Horatio McCulloch, ‘My Heart’s in the Highlands’, with two gluing themselves to its frame. Other activists spray-painted the museum’s walls with the ‘Just Stop Oil’ slogan. All in all, five activists ended up arrested for the group’s stunt in Glasgow.

https://www.rt.com/news/558175-anti-oil-van-gogh/

29 Jun, 2022 19:11

HomeWorld News

Updated strategy, new members, old enemies: NATO summit highlights

On day two of its annual summit, the bloc formally focused its sights on Russia

(Look at Bidan he looks like a delusional Howdie Doodie character)

https://www.rt.com/news/558102-nato-summit-highlights-russia/