4 Oct, 2022 19:16

US risks ‘direct conflict’ with Russia over Ukraine – envoy

As Moscow’s envoy warned the UN, the Pentagon announced the list of new weapons for Kiev

ContinuedAmerican deliveries of weapons, intelligence and even fighters to Ukraine are approaching the “dangerous line” of direct confrontation with Moscow, Russian diplomat Konstantin Vorontsov told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Shortly before that, the Pentagon announced the contents of another military shipment to Ukraine, valued at $625 million.

“The US is increasing the deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, providing its military with intelligence information, ensuring the direct participation of its fighters and advisers in the conflict,” Vorontsov, who is the deputy head of the Russian delegation, told the General Assembly’s First Committee, a body charged with arms control and security issues.

This “not only prolongs hostilities and leads to new casualties, but also brings the situation closer to the dangerous line of a direct military clash between Russia and NATO,” Vorontsov added.

Moscow has repeatedly warned the US and its allies against sending weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine, but Washington and NATO vowed to keep doing so for “as long as it takes,” while insisting that doesn’t make them a party to the conflict.

According to the Pentagon, the US has spent more than $19.6 billion in “security assistance”to Ukraine since 2014, and another $16.8 billion since February 24, when the Russian military operation began. The US will continue to provide Ukraine with “key capabilities” and to address Kiev’s “evolving battlefield requirements,” the military added.

The latest batch of weapons and equipment, valued at $625 million, includes four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and ammunition for them, 16 each of the 155mm and 105mm howitzers, 75,000 rounds for artillery ammunition – including guided rounds and remote mine-laying ones – small arms and mortar rounds, and 200 MRAP armored vehicles.

https://www.rt.com/russia/564070-warning-ukraine-deliveries-direct-clash/

3 Oct, 2022 22:12

Former Kremlin leader quips Musk is a 'shadowy Russian agent'

Dmitry Medvedev joked the tycoon had blown his own cover

After Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, and Kiev’s online troll army, savaged Elon Musk’s proposal for ending the conflict with Russia, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev jokingly called the Tesla founder a “shadowy agent” of the Kremlin.

He went on to compare him to Stierlitz, a legendary fictional Soviet spy.

“Kudos to [Elon Musk]! However, the shadowy agent has lost the cover. Deserves a new rank, fast. His next tweet will run like, Ukraine is an artificial state. Anticipating…” Medvedev tweeted, in English, on Monday evening.

On his Telegram channel, in Russian, instead of “shadowy agent” the former president calledMusk “Eustace” – a reference to the code name of the main character in the Soviet-era series ‘17 Moments of Spring,’ better known under his German alias Otto von Stierlitz.

Both references were clearly tongue-in-cheek and poked fun not at Musk, but at the utter hysterics of the Ukrainian government and its online influencers over the American billionaire’s earnest peace proposal.

Crimea would remain Russian and have its water supply guaranteed, Ukraine would declare neutrality, and the four regions that just joined Russia hold UN-supervised referendums on their fate, Musk suggested earlier in the day. The poll was quickly swamped by what he called the “biggest bot attack I’ve ever seen.”

It wasn’t just Kiev’s info-warriors and their Western NAFO backers, however. Ukraine’s departing ambassador to Germany used some very un-diplomatic language, while President Vladimir Zelensky himself launched a pollasking his followers if they preferred Musk who supported Ukraine over this one, who “supports Russia.”

Early on in the conflict, Musk sent hundreds of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites and terminals to Ukraine. Though their stated purpose was humanitarian, Kiev has since admitted to using them for the war effort.

https://www.rt.com/russia/564003-medvedev-musk-proposal-stierlitz/

4 Oct, 2022 19:07

NATO to test ‘psychological resilience’ of EU capital’s residents

Urban combat training exercises are set to take place across Riga in Latvia for sake of “realistic conditions”

Latvia’s capital Riga is set to turn into a mock battlefield for NATO troops over the next few days, the country’s military has warned. The drills, which form part of the annual Namejs 2022 exercise, are set to take place in multiple locations across the country’s capital between October 5 and 9.

“The National Armed Forces calls on the citizens to treat the ongoing military exercises with understanding. Their aim is to improve the comprehensive national defense capabilities and strengthen regional security,” the military said in a statement.

Over the past few days, authorities have repeatedly warned of the impending exercises, releasing multiple statements on the exact locations of the upcoming events. The Namejs 2022 multinational exercise, held in the country every year since 2014, involves some 8,000 service personnel, with both local forces and NATO’s Forward Presence Battle Group Latvia, NATO Force Integration Unit Latvia, and other units of the US-led alliance.

The urban training “in realistic conditions” is designed to hone the soldiers’ fighting skills, and to enhance cooperation between various units and military branches. Moreover, the exercise is important to “strengthen the psychological resilience of society,” as it shows “every citizen that we will do everything to protect the country,” the military asserted.

The continuous public warnings about the impending drills are intense, apparently, after last year’s fiasco, when similar urban military training during Namejs 2021 drills caught Riga’s residents by surprise. On that occasion, the military failed to provide a coherent warning about the training, with footage going viral of civilians getting caught in mock crossfire. A public uproar forced the military to offer an apology.

“During such drills, we only use blank cartridges, which make noise but do not pose any danger to the health and life of others. In this case, blank cartridges were also used, and this situation was a bitter misunderstanding, for which we apologize,”the ministry said at the time.

https://www.rt.com/russia/564058-riga-latvia-nato-drills/

4 Oct, 2022 17:57

Russia ‘fully committed’ to UN consensus on nuclear war

Atomic conflict should never be fought, Moscow’s nonproliferation envoy tells the UN General Assembly

Moscow maintains that a war between nuclear-armed countries should never be fought, the top nonproliferation official in the Russian foreign ministry told the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Tuesday.

“We believe that one of the most important tasks is to maintain adherence by all countries of the ‘nuclear five’ to the postulate that any war between countries possessing nuclear weapons cannot be allowed to happen, which was reflected in the January joint statement of the leaders of nuclear powers. Russia is fully committed to it,” said Vladimir Yermakov, director of the arms control and nonproliferation department at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The committee, which is in charge of arms control and international security, heard the statement through Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy head of the Russian delegation to the UNGA.

Yermakov’s remarks follow a clarification from the Kremlin that Moscow will only use nuclear weapons based on its official doctrine – meaning, in self-defense from weapons of mass destruction, or where its survival was threatened by conventional means.

“There can be no other considerations here,”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

Russia has been repeatedly accused by the US and its allies of threatening the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Putin’s spokesman Peskov has repeatedly directedreporters to the official doctrine in order to dispel any misunderstandings. According to Russia’s nuclear posture, Moscow reserves the right to use atomic weapons only “in response to the use of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies,” as well as “in response to a conventional attack that threatens the very existence” of Russia as a sovereign state.

Over the weekend, however, head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov proposed using “low-yield nuclear weapons” as one of the “more drastic measures” regarding the conflict in Ukraine. Kadyrov was addressing the withdrawal of Russian troops from a Donetsk Region town due to a persistent Ukrainian assault.

While Russian regional heads – including Kadyrov, who Peskov said has “contributed a lot” to the operations in Ukraine – are free to express personal opinions, they cannot give free rein to their emotions, “even in difficult times,” the Kremlin spokesman said

https://www.rt.com/russia/564066-nuclear-war-russia-un/

4 Oct, 2022

US floats new fears of Russian election interference – media

Federal officials have reportedly warned that Russia aims to “amplify doubts” about the integrity of the congressional midterms

US officials are once again pointing fingers at Russia over interference in American elections, reportedly warning that Moscow is trying to sow seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of November’s congressional midterms.

“Russia is amplifying divisive topics already circulating on the Internet – including doubts about the integrity of American elections – but not creating its own content,” the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified FBI official. The outlet also obtained an unclassified intelligence advisory warning about potential election interference by Russia and China.

The red flags are just the latest in a long line of US election-interference accusations against Russia. A 22-month investigation in 2017-2019 failed to find evidence that Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election, but the media-hyped probe disrupted the new president’s policy agenda. Former intelligence officials and media outlets claimed Russian meddling again when allegations of influence-peddling by Joe Biden’s family surfaced weeks before the 2020 presidential election. The basis of the alleged scandal – a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden – was later authenticated by the New York Times and the Washington Post, long after Joe Biden was elected.

China’s efforts in the midterm elections include targeting certain candidates whom it sees as opposed to its policy interests, the FBI official told AP. Beijing is taking a different approach in this year’s congressional races than it did in 2020, according to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). US intelligence agencies reportedly determined that Chinese officials considered trying to influence the 2020 presidential election but chose not to get involved.

“The current environment is pretty complex, arguably much more complex than it was in 2020,” DHS cybersecurity director Jen Easterly told reporters on Monday.

https://www.rt.com/news/564073-us-warns-russia-china-election-interference/

Here we go again