Interesting article on how the Ukraine mess started (you got it US & others)

30 Sep, 2022 16:30

Long way home: How former Ukrainian regions joined Russia

RT recalls the chain of events that led to Kiev’s loss of sovereignty over a significant part of its territory

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed documents paving the way for the formal acceptance by the Russian Federation of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions. The treaties await ratification by the Russian Parliament.

According to Moscow, Friday’s decision followed a democratic vote, in which people living in the former regions of Ukraine exercised their right to self-determination and requested Moscow’s protection from Kiev.

The historic move was condemned and rejected by Kiev and its foreign backers, which described the move as annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory.

RT takes a look back at how an armed coup in Kiev eight years ago led to a change of European borders amid a major armed conflict.

Maidan

In late 2013, a wave of street protest began in Kiev, ostensibly sparked by the government of Viktor Yanukovich shunning an economic agreement with the EU - a deal sold to Ukrainians as a harbinger of immediate social and economic benefits.

As weeks of determined protest stretched into months, the so-called Maidan demonstrations were hijacked by radical nationalists, resulting in violent clashes with security forces in which dozens died. International politicians lent their support to the protests, with senior US diplomats famously handing out cookies in central Kiev. The emboldened movement gathered momentum and, despite a power-sharing deal mediated in February 2014 by Russia, Germany, France and Poland, escalating violence forced then-President Viktor Yanukovich to flee.

The US-backed coup in the capital rallied the radical forces,who resorted to openly threatening the pro-Russian population in Ukraine with violenceif they dared oppose the newly-installed authorities in Kiev.

Minsk agreements

The Crimean Peninsula had strong historic ties with Russia, having been transferred to Kiev’s control only in 1954 under Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev. The region is essential for Russia’s national security as its deep harbours host the Black Sea naval Fleet.

In a daring operation that was thought to have eventually prevented significant bloodshed, Moscow deployed special forces across the peninsula, and local authorities held a referendum on breaking with Ukraine and joining Russia. Moscow formally accepted Crimea’s bid in March 2014.

The situation with two Donbass regions developed differently. In mid-April 2014, Kiev sent the military to quash protests in Donetsk and Lugansk. Protesters responded by forming militias and fighting back, militarising an already inflamed conflict. The following month, the two regions held referendums on declaring their independence.

https://www.rt.com/russia/563814-russia-ukraine-conflict-background/

>>17609250

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The conflict in eastern Ukraine sank into a stalemate after the Ukrainian military suffered serious losses to what Kiev claimed were Russian troops secretly fighting in Donbass. The warring parties agreed to a ceasefire and a reconciliation roadmap, formalized in two agreements signed in Minsk in 2014 and 2015 respectively, was agreed to.

The peace plan never fully worked. While hostilities in Donbass dwindled, Kiev refused to meet its responsibilities, particularly on the question of federalization, unless its troops were given control of the Donbass regions’ borders with Russia.This ran contrary to the terms of the Minsk agreements. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko acknowledged in June that he agreed to the ceasefire only to win time to rebuild the Ukrainian military.

NATO encroachment

The tension over Ukraine escalated in 2021, after Russia accused NATO of expanding into the country without formally admitting Kiev into the alliance. Moscow had for decades made clear that Ukraine’s would-be membership in the US-led bloc would be crossing Russia’s security red line.

Moscow sought guarantees from Washington that would have addressed its concerns. However, US officials declared that NATO’s “open door” policy meant that Ukraine was free to defend itself as it wished. Kiev enshrined the goal of becoming a member of the military bloc in its constitution in 2019. (Pompeo did this for sure!)

Since then NATO members have intensively trained Ukrainian troops, providing Kiev with weapons and otherwise helping to field a more capable army.

Over the same period, Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups became embedded into military structures, gaining political power well beyond their levels public support, given the results of elections held in 2019 and 2020.

Hostilities

On February 22, Russia formally recognized the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as sovereign states and demanded that Kiev pull back its troops beyond their claimed borders. Ukraine refused, and two days later, Russia sent its troops into Ukraine, supported by the Donbass militias. Moscow has since claimedrecovering military documents indicating that Kiev was preparing its own offensive against Donbass, which was preempted by the Russian attack.

In the initial Russian push, Kiev lost control over a large chunk of its territory in the south and east, though in the months since it has managed to retake some of the lost territory. Moscow and Kiev were also engaged in a series of peace talks in the first weeks of the conflict. A negotiated agreement securing Ukraine’s neutral status seemed to be in sight, but the talks collapsed in April.

Kiev now declares that it will only deal with Moscow after ousting it from all the lands it considers under its sovereignty, including Crimea. The US declared a strategic defeat of Russia as its goal and pledged to provide aid to Kiev “for as long as it takes”.

https://www.rt.com/russia/563814-russia-ukraine-conflict-background/

(If Donbass was a region in an African country the US would enable it, or any other country. So their big fear is Russia will treat the people are free citizens, got it!)

Fascinating article on crypto donated to Ukraine. Never give money launderers crypto or anything for that matter

29 Sep, 2022 06:11

Ukraine has taken in at least $100 million in crypto donations this year, but what have officials in Kiev done with the money?

Kiev has used crypto-wallets involved in fraud to process donations from around the world

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To support the conflict with Russia, thousands of pieces of state-of-the-art military equipment, unprecedented media support, and billions of dollars – to maintain financial stability – have poured into Ukraine from the West.

The multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency donations which Ukraine has been collecting “for the needs of its army” since February, seem to have disappeared from public view. Sohow has Kiev disposed of more than $100 million in crypto collected from around the world?

Every little BTC helps

Two days after the start of Russia's military operation, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov announced cryptocurrency fundraising to support the country. Kiev accepted almost all major denominations: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, a number of lesser-known types, and even NFTs.

At the time, the decision to accept crypto, to “help Ukrainian fighters”, appeared innocuous. The Russian offensive was rapid and it seemed as though Western aid, although large-scale, would not arrive in time.

Cryptocurrencies are an ideal tool in this respect: With a few clicks you can transfer millions of dollars to almost any country in the world, theoretically bypassing banking supervision or the attention of law enforcement. Ukrainian officials clearly expected to attract money not only from the governments of the United States and the European Union but also from concerned citizens familiar crypto. And they succeeded.

Just a week after fundraising began, on March 3, Deputy Minister Alexander Bornyakov announced that Kiev had raised $53 million. A week later, this figure doubled – the countryhad received a round sum of $100 millionfrom all over the world. It seemed that a local crypto-paradise had formed in Ukraine and, once this money was put into circulation, the country would be able to successfully resist Russia. However, the reality turned out to be much more complex.

First, the flow of cryptocurrencies drastically weakened. In early June, the same Fedorov reported that “for more than three months, the total amount of donations in crypto assets ==exceeded $100 million=.” After June, he no longer published messages about the value of new contributions.

The money that Kiev managed to collect for confrontation with Russia should have been spent as efficiently as possible.And here the "fun" begins.

Unnecessary crypto

Western propaganda carefully, and falsely, shapes the image of Ukraine as a democratic and open country, whose authorities are accountable to their citizens. In reality, however, Ukrainian officialsdo not provide any detailed and reliable reports on spending. And the case of the millions collected globally in cryptocurrency is no exception.

https://www.rt.com/russia/563261-every-little-btc-helps/

>>17609437

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In total, since collection began in February, the Ministry of Digital Transformation has reported twice on spending – on April 14 and July 7, on a total amount of almost $100 million. Information about the July report appeared only on August 17, when it was posted on Twitter and published by Fedorov.

The publication delay of over a month is in itself suspicious, but the oddities do not end there.

According to the specialized crypto media CoinDesk,Ukraine had received $135 million in cryptocurrencies by June. Given the large-scale support from the West, the actual volume of receipts in cryptocurrencies by September presumably should have grown even more.

Having collected impressive sums, Ukrainian officials, for reasons only known to themselves, are in no hurry tospend the money on the needs of their army. After seven months of active hostilities, Ukraine reported spending only about 75% of the crypto funds collected, and this is taking into account only those amounts that are reliably known. What happened to the remaining funds, and why Ukrainian officials seem to be indifferent to tens of millions of dollars, cannot be unambiguously explained.

Army Needs

Questions also arise over what exactly Ukraine, as officials claimed, spent the collected crypto on. For example, according to a July report, 213 drones were purchased for $11.8 million. Settling on an average cost of goods is the conventional approach, but it turns out thatone drone bought for crypto cost nearly $55,800. An extremely impressive amount, despite there being simply no such equipment in the public domain.

For example, the DJI Mavic 3 drone, which has become popular in the conflict, costs between $2,000 and $5,000 depending on modifications. It can be used for reconnaissance and for dropping grenades on the enemy and it is the most common civilian drone. UAVs, on the other hand, with an average cost of $55,000, are more likely to be military grade with secure communication channels. Andsuch UAVs obviously cannot be bought for crypto– they are officially purchased as part of defense contracts.

Another feature of Ukrainian purchases for cryptocurrencies is extremely vague reporting on purchases. With public fundraising, it’s an established norm that the ‘collector’ publish how much money was spent on which model of what particular equipment, with photographic confirmation. However, in the case of the Kiev government, such reports are de facto absent.

For example, on May 4, it was announced that31 thermal imaging sightshad been handed over to Ukrainian border guards. In total, as reported, they received more than 5,000 optical and thermal imaging sights, bought from crypto. At the same time, published confirmation of the transfer of these items amounted to a single photo of one unspecified unit, taken in an unknown location.

Of course, this in itself is not proof that Ukraine has permitted the misappropriation of the collected crypto and falsified information about purchases. However, no confirmation has been published that the equipment was transferred to troops.

All Ukrainian reports onthe spending of the collected crypto look literally like a web-page, on which the distribution of funds is randomly indicated. It is impossible to verify and, in fact, officials are asking us to simply take their word for it.

It is also interesting that the Kiev authorities claim that tens of millions of dollars were spent on the army's needs, but the government Twitter account which supplies spending reports, offers no information about purchases worth such an amount.All expenses publicly reported there do not exceed a few hundred thousand dollars.

https://www.rt.com/russia/563261-every-little-btc-helps/

>>17609440

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Tangled footprints

An analysis of transactions further suggests that Ukrainian officials arbitrarily disposed of the donations collected from around the world.

A feature of cryptocurrency is that it’s quite easy to create a wallet to store digital currency and there's no need to worry about banking or tax controls. Bitcoin and others are considered to be completely anonymous. In fact, a bitcoin address itself is just a set of Latin letters and numbers that have no connection to a specific person. However,it is still possible to track bitcoin operations.

It's all based on blockchain technology, where all transactions are recorded. This means that anyone can find out when and how much cryptocurrency was transferred from wallet X to wallet Y. Anyone can track such transactions thanks to publicly available and free services such as Blockchain.com or Etherscan.

Thanks to this, it was possible to establish that more than half of the bitcoin withdrawn from the Ukrainian government wallet were transferred to 3CcF942kYVRotGrfYQxD4QNn4aKVywpRxb. This wallet was created in 2018 and since then its turnover of funds has amounted to more than $6 billion. Interestingly, according to the Check Bitcoin Address profile service,this bitcoin wallet has been repeatedly used to receive money from fraud and blackmail.

Furthermore, it may have been used by cybercriminals to launder money and cover their tracks. In the crypto sphere, this is called bitcoin mixing – when “dirty” bitcoins that are involved in crime are mixed with “clean” cryptocurrency.

Hundreds of operations are carried out and, as a result, it becomes impossible to trace where the ill-gotten money went. An example of this kind of bitcoin mixer is Tornado Cash, against which the US Treasury has imposed sanctions. One of its founders has been arrested in the Netherlands.

Ukrainian officials could have used the mixer simply to ensure greater anonymity of military equipment dealers. However, the openly criminal background and the lack of full-fledged reporting cast doubt on the proper use of the service

Another suspicious bitcoin wallet is bc1qu4qcqp5xthrreedgk4s28kkqddpv4my53zx3uw. Created immediately after the start of active hostilities,it received $8.3 million from the Ukrainian government wallet. It has been used mainly to receive funds from the government crypto wallet and the criminal wallet mentioned above. According to Blockchain.com, the money was moved between them in small chunks, possibly to make it harder to track transactions.

The crypto wallets created immediately after the start of Russia's military operation are generally typical for Ukraine. An example, this time using the second most popular cryptocurrency in the world, ETH, would be 0x88ef7bf4e94d9c6a4615e5a9f32ea2d2f141f2e9. In total, 5260 ETH was withdrawn out of almost 10,000 ETH collected by Ukraine. And, interestingly,most of it was withdrawn three days after the publication of the April spending report. Prior to this, no funds had been withdrawn from the wallet for two months.

According to Ukrainian officials, transactions using crypto are quite normal for many equipment dealers. For long term operators, it is natural to use their usual wallet, no matter its history. But here we see that more than half of the amount in the two most popular cryptocurrencies was withdrawn either to newly createdone-day wallets, or those with a criminal mix.

In addition, as mentioned earlier the Ukrainian authorities do not provide detailed reports on spending and it is impossible to verify exactly how thecrypto transferred to one-day wallets was used. All this creates the impression that people in Kiev, contrary to all their talk about accountability and transparency, arbitrarily disposed of tens of millions of funds collected in this manner.

https://www.rt.com/russia/563261-every-little-btc-helps/

The money probably bought the mansion his parents bought in Israel and the rest of the funds are for their retirement until Zelensky leaves Ukraine

30 Sep, 2022 14:56

EU approves emergency measures to curb prices

The plan assumes mandatory energy savings and cap on company revenues

EU energy ministers on Friday approved their first package of emergency measures in response to the deepening energy crisis in the bloc driven by skyrocketing prices.

The package, negotiated in less than a month, includes mandatory power savings, a cap on excess market revenues and a levy to capture surplus corporate profits.

The plan prescribes a mandatory 5% target during peak hours, when gas plays a bigger role in price setting, and a voluntary 10% reduction in overall electricity demand.

It also suggests a cap on the excess revenue made by power plants that do not use gas to produce electricity, such as solar, wind, nuclear, hydropower and lignite. The cap will be uniform and set at €180 per megawatt-hour. All revenue that exceed the barrier will be collected by governments.

The ministers have also approved a so-called ‘solidarity mechanism’ to partially capture the surplus profits made by fossil fuel companies.Authorities will be able to introduce a 33% levy on the profits made by those companies in the 2022 fiscal yearin case the profits represent a 20% increase compared to the average seen in the last three years.

The extra funds will be reportedly re-directed to households and companies under financial stress in the form of subsidies, reduced tariffs or income support.

The Czech Republic’s minister for industry and trade Jozef Sikela told reporters ahead of the meeting that while the package is a decisive step, further action is needed. “We must not stop here. We are in an energy war with Russia. The winter is coming. We need to act now. Now means now,” Sikela was quoted as saying by euronews.

His French counterpart, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, echoed the call, stating “Let me be very clear: we will have to go much faster, much further and make other proposals.”

The EU’s emergency package comes as inflation in the Eurozone hit double digits for the first time in the history of the single currency.

https://www.rt.com/business/563806-eu-approves-emergency-measures/

I bet all the companies they are going to overtax are joyous that their compamies need to pay for the stupid mistakes of the EU. It wouldn’t surprise me if Russia pulls all energy from the EU once this is enacted.

As an act of solidarity all the Brussles leaders of the EU should give up their salaies for a year! Kek. The top EU jobs are lucrative hovering around the 25 000 EUR per month mark with extra perks. EU to 24,505.085 US Dollars monthly, or $306,061.08 annually

https://euemployment.eu/how-much-do-eu-officials-earn/

30 Sep, 2022 15:35

770,000 excluded from Biden’s student loan relief

A last-minute change by the White House appears to be designed to defuse legal challenges from multiple states

The administration of US President Joe Biden has tweaked its much-hyped student loan relief program to exclude about 770,000 borrowers with private loans guaranteed by the federal government, it announced on Thursday.

The move, revealed via email, appears to be designed to defuse legal challenges from multiple states and a libertarian law firm calling into question whether the Biden administration can use public money to wipe out private student loan debt or do so without congressional approval.

Students who obtained their loans through the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFEL), which ended in 2010, and the Federal Perkins Loan Program, which ended in 2017, will no longer be eligible for loan forgiveness. In both programs, the federal government acted as guarantor to the private lenders who supplied the loans, meaning the private lenders and guaranty agencies involved have standing to sue over the financial injury they could suffer if such loans were forgiven.

A coalition of Republican-governed states sued the Biden administration on Thursday for allegedly overstepping the limits of executive power, arguing the administration’s debt forgiveness plan is “not remotely tailored to address the effects of the pandemic on federal student loan borrowers,” as is required by the 2003 law the government has used to legally justify the unprecedented move. Biden, the plaintiffs said, is still invoking Covid-19 – and extending the ‘health emergency’ declared in 2020 – to justify the sweeping debt cancelation even though he said earlier this month that the pandemic was over.

“The Department of Education is required, under the law, to collect the balance due on loans. And President Biden does not have the authority to override that,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, leading a six-state group that also includes Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina, told the Associated Press in an interview on Thursday.

Biden’s much-anticipated student loan forgiveness initiative was unveiled in August, promising up to $20,000 in debt cancelation for Americans making under $125,000 annually. The plan has been criticized from both sides, with progressive Democrats arguing it doesn’t forgive enough debt, while Republicans insist the taxpayer should not be on the hook for someone else’s failure to repay their financial obligations. Some 44.5 million Americans have student loan debt, according to the Chamber of Commerce;just 3% of those are expected to be affected by Thursday’s announcement.

https://www.rt.com/news/563820-biden-student-loans-private-cancel/

States need to file 100s of 1,000s of lawsuit against Bidan, he has no authority to write an EO to dispense billions to billions to 25,123,000 million American and probably foreigners

>>17609450

No one like Zelensky and they are certainly not going to let a pariah country that is known for their massive corruption join NATO, no leader in Ukraine is capable and his only reason he wants to join is to try to destroy Russia. But he fucked up his own country anc people for not accepting these regions wanted their freedom from being killed and persecuted daily. He’s not anyone’s ally, they all know it and hes a big cry baby. Further the only small victory he’s had over Russia was due to huge help from nato and other countries intelligence.

I can’t stand that creep!

Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky (C), Prime Minister Denis Shmygal (R) and parliament chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk (L) pose with the document requesting fast-track NATO membership. © HANDOUT / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP

Zelensky looks like he’s held hostage by the two thugs standing by him

30 Sep, 2022 18:47

Ukraine reacts to former regions joining Russia

Kiev demands ‘accelerated’ admission to NATO, but the bloc’s chief insisted that it’s not party to the conflict

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed an application to join NATO on Friday and demanded an accelerated procedure for admission. While pledging the bloc’s support for Kiev, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated that its actually joining would require the consensus of all 30 members, suggesting it was a tall order at the moment.

In a video address, Zelensky said Ukraine was already a “de facto NATO ally” and said he was applying to make it official, calling the ceremonial signing of the application form a “decisive step.”

“We trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other,” the AP quoted him as saying.

Though NATO had announced an “unprecedented” address by Stoltenberg after Zelensky’s video, when the bloc’s secretary general actually appeared before reporters he did not appear to offer anything new.

“NATO is not party to the conflict, but we provide support to Ukraine so it can uphold its right for self-defense enshrined in the UN charter,” Stoltenberg said. “Ours is a defensive alliance. We stand united and determined to defend and protect every NATO ally and every inch of allied territory.”

When asked if NATO was willing to accept Ukraine’s application, Stoltenberg replied that “every democracy in Europe has the right to apply” but getting accepted would require the consensus of all 30 members.

“Our focus now is providing Ukraine immediate support,” he added.

Stoltenberg also repeated the rejection of Russia’s “illegal annexation” of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

“If Russia stops fighting, there will be peace, if Ukraine stops fighting, it will cease to exist as an independent sovereign nation in Europe,”he added, using a variation on a talking point recently embraced by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Zelensky’s wife.

Calling Kiev a “victim of aggression, ”Stoltenberg said the bloc must work to “ensure [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin doesn’t win,” because anything else would tell the world that “authoritarian countries like Russia can use force” to achieve their goals.

Taking only four questions from the press, Stoltenberg concluded by repeating, “NATO is not party to the conflict, we support Ukraine but that does not make us party to the conflict.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/563831-ukraine-reacts-nato-russia/

The only reason the EU and US & NATO got involved in Ukraine was to start “The Great Reset” and to destroy Russia because they are in the way. Just watch Zelensky will call NATO and EU anti-semites sooner or later

30 Sep, 2022 18:09

This winter will be hard but next one will be even worse – EU

Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson warns of a “difficult” winter amid the energy crisis

EU energy officials are concerned about the effects the ongoing energy crisis in Europe will have on the continent once cold weather sets in, Commissioner Kadri Simson told journalists on Friday.

“Ministers were concerned, as am I, that this will not be an easy winter for us, and thenext winter will be even more difficult,” said Simson during a press conference after an extraordinary meeting of EU energy ministers.

The meeting was meant to address the skyrocketing gas prices in Europe and to develop a package of emergency measures aimed at assisting European households and businesses amid the crisis

The agreed-upon steps include placing a cap on energy company revenues and distributing excess profits back to consumers. The plan also prescribes mandatory energy savings, requiring EU members to cut energy demand during peak hours by 5% and suggesting a 10% reduction in overall electricity use.

The ministers failed, however, to agree on a price cap on wholesale natural gas, which was one of the key demands issued to the European Commission by a group of 15 EU member states ahead of the meeting. In a joint letter, the group argued that a price cap was the one measure that could help the bloc “mitigate the inflationary pressure, manage expectations and provide a framework in case of potential supply disruptions.”

While the European Commission has not completely ruled out the possibility of a price cap on natural gas, it has warned that such a move would weaken the bloc’s ability to secure gas supplies in the global market. The issue will reportedly be discussed at a later date, according to Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys.

As Russian gas deliveries to the EU have declined by as much as 48% this year, according to Gazprom, inflation in the Eurozone has since hit double digits for the first time in recent history. It’s feared the situation will further deteriorate after the Russian Nord Stream pipelines suffered damage in a suspected act of sabotage earlier this week, which will severely limit potential gas deliveries to the bloc in the near future.

https://www.rt.com/news/563822-eu-gas-difficult-winter/

Are these people ever aware that all their problems are brought on by their stupid mistakes? And the fear porn they spread daily has got to a toll on the psyche of the citizens in the EU. She never explains why next winter after this will be bad too. Since our southern border is open, some good anons from the EU could come to America to stay warm! Kek

30 Sep, 2022 18:35

Nuking Ukraine would be attack on NATO – US senator

Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Russia that using nuclear weapons in Ukraine would bring a massive retaliation from NATO

Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine would be the equivalent of an attack on “NATO itself,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham declared on Thursday, adding it would be met with a “catastrophic” response.

Speaking during a joint press conference with Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Graham noted that in such an attack the radiation “would not be confined to Ukraine, you would be irradiating parts of Europe that are under the NATO banner.”

“If that day ever comes — and I hope and pray it doesn’t — [a nuclear strike] should be considered by NATO writ large and the United States as an attack by Russia on NATO itself,” he said.

If Russian President Vladimir Putin did use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the US and its allies would have to devise an “overwhelming” response that would be “catastrophic” for Moscow, Graham said.

Graham and Blumenthal called the press conference to unveillegislation blocking foreign aid to any country recognizingthe results of the referendums in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson, regions formerly part of Ukraine that earlier this week voted overwhelmingly to become part of Russia.

The US and its allies have refused to recognize the results, while Ukraine has vowed to retake all lost territory, including that of Crimea, which voted to join Russia in 2014 following the US-backed coup in Kiev.

While Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky admitted as recently as March that Kiev was unlikely to become part of NATO, he announced on Friday that the country is reportedly filing an expedited application to join the military alliance.

Andrey Yermak, head of the President’s Office for Ukraine, and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen earlier this month unveiled a proposal for a ‘Kiev Security Compact’, aNATO-style agreement demanding “security guarantees” in the form of hefty financial and military aid commitments from Western guarantor states. (Are you fucking kidding me!)

The compact, which would be “legally and politically binding,” explicitly obliges the US and Europe to defend Ukraine “in case of aggression,” potentially putting them in direct conflict with Russia.

Putin vowed earlier this month that Russia would use “all the means” at its disposal to defend itself in a scenario where its territorial integrity was threatened.

https://www.rt.com/news/563833-graham-nuclear-nato-strike-referendums/

Lindsey Graham is a hysterical idiot! Now they want to stop foreign and humanitarian aid to the countries that recognize the regions as part of Russia. Our elected leaders are making it clear that their main concern is not the freedom of people but the control of all people WW.