Russian Strike on Kharkov TV Tower Deprives Ukraine’s Army of Eyes and Ears for Spying
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 23.04.2024
Russia attacked the Kharkov Television Tower with a precision cruise missile on Monday, destroying it. Ukrainian officials instantly labeled the strike an act of meaningless “terror” against Kharkov’s civilian population. In reality, it’s going to become a massive headache for Ukraine’s military, says veteran defense observer Viktor Litovkin.
Kharkov’s pro-Russian underground confirmed to Sputnik on Monday that the Russian military had struck the Kharkov Television Tower, an awesome, 240.7-meter tall Soviet-built structure used for radio and television broadcasting situated in the northern part of the city in local woodlands, causing it to break in half.
The attack occurred at 4:36 pm local time. Kharkov regional military administration chief Oleh Synegubov blasted the Russian “occupiers” over the strike, saying that while there were no victims, “there are interruptions with the digital TV signal.”
“Therefore, we once again appeal to citizens: trust only official sources of information,” Synegubov urged.
President Zelensky, meanwhile, went on television Monday night to accuse Russia of trying to “make the terror visible to the whole city and to try to limit Kharkov’s connection and access to information.”
Ukrainian Institute of Mass Information chief Oksana Romaniuk called the tower’s destruction a “war crime,” saying “civilian objects, such as TV towers, have absolute protection and cannot be a legitimate target in an armed conflict.”
But according to the Kharkov underground, the structure was used by the Ukrainian air defenses to communicate, with the military said to have attached a communications antenna to the tower.
Vitaly Ganchev, head of the Russian administration in the Kharkov region, did not rule out that along with its use by Ukraine’s air defenses, the tower may have been used to coordinate artillery and missile strikes targeting nearby Belgorod and other Russian cities.
“This tower contained radar antennas, there were also communications antennas, electronic warfare antennas, and communication antennas,” Viktor Litovkin, a veteran Soviet and Russian Army officer and respected military journalist, told Sputnik.
“This equipment was situated at an altitude of almost 200 meters, which made it possible to see at a great distance the territory both of the Russian Federation and areas in which Russian troops are concentrated, that is – to engage in reconnaissance. The higher the antenna, the better the visibility. Because [things like] mountains, trees, houses and so on interfere with radio waves. But at such a height there’s nothing interfering with their distribution. Moreover, from this tower it was possible to coordinate the work of several military systems: air defense systems, reconnaissance systems, Ukrainian artillery systems, control centers, etc. It was possible to transfer information, commands and orders between military units and combat systems,” the observer explained.
For these reasons, Litovkin said that Monday’s precision missile strike was a “very important” step in depriving Ukraine’s military and intelligence services of the eyes and ears afforded by the tower. “Now, Ukraine is deprived of the opportunity to conduct reconnaissance and coordinated actions against our armed forces,” the retired military officer said.
The tower was the only comparable piece of infrastructure of its kind in the region, but its destruction will not allow Russian forces to rest easy, Litovkin stressed.
“In addition to the tower, there are also cables, there is also the internet. So of course, the tower has ceased to function as an information channel. But I don’t think Kharkov’s communication system can be destroyed completely… You know that in Ukraine, despite the categorical ban by the government on Ukrainian citizens receiving information from Russia, many citizens receive Russian information through the internet, through small antennas at home, watch our television and so on. So it’s very difficult to completely deprive someone of information in the world today,” the observer summed up.
Ukraine, Israel Aid Bill ‘Abomination’ That Will Prolong Suffering – Former US Diplomat
Sputnik – 23.04.2024
WASHINGTON – The $95 billion aid bill that Congress passed on Friday is an “abomination” that will only prolong the suffering caused by the Ukraine war and the Israeli onslaught in the Gaza Strip, former US diplomat and State Department consultant James Carden said on Monday.
“Seems to me the spending bill will only prolong the suffering in Ukraine and Gaza,” Carden said. “The parts of the bill having to do with funding Israel are an abomination and make us even more complicit in their crimes.”
The bill is expected to quickly be approved by the US Senate starting on Tuesday. The measure will provide funds to send Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s regime $60.84 billion, including $23 billion for new US weapons and ammunition; $26 billion to Israel; and another $8.12 billion to the Indo-Pacific region.
“Some of the bill was probably necessary in the sense that the United States needed to ‘restock’ after having wasted so much over the past couple of years,” Carden said.
Close to $30 billion in its provisions will go directly to refill US weapons and ammunition inventories which have been largely emptied over the past two years to primarily arm Ukrainian forces, Carden added.
The bill was approved earlier by 311 votes to 112 in the House of Representatives. No Demcorats voted against the bill and most of them waved Ukrainian flags inside Congress.
US lawmaker demands ‘proof’ on CIA’s Russia scare
RT | April 22, 2024
After stoking fears of Russian expansionism to win congressional approval for more Ukraine aid, US intelligence agencies should provide proof of their justification for continuing to fund a “proxy war” that will inevitably end in defeat for Kiev, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) has argued.
Speaking on Monday in an interview with former White House aide Steve Bannon, Greene pushed back against claims that Russian forces will take Poland and continue “marching across Europe” if they’re allowed to defeat Ukraine. She noted that US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) only agreed to push through the $61 billion Ukraine aid bill, which was approved on Saturday, after hearing intelligence briefings hyping the Russian threat.
“If the American people are going to have to pay for it, then show us this proof that was shown to Mike Johnson in the SCIF [sensitive compartment information facility],” Greene said. “Why is this classified information? If this is a real threat to all of Europe, if this is a threat to America and our national security, then roll out the presentation.”
The second-term lawmaker said Johnson received no such classified briefings on the US border crisis, which poses a real threat to the American people. “They don’t care about that,” she said. “They care about continuing the business model built on blood and murder and war in foreign countries, the business model that continues funding the military-industrial complex in order, supposedly, to create American jobs and build up the American economy.”
“This is the most disgusting business model that anyone has ever seen, probably in the history of mankind.”
Greene reiterated her call to oust Johnson as speaker, saying Republican voters are so disgusted about the Ukraine bill that the party will lose control of the House in this year’s election if the current leadership remains in place. The White House’s emergency funding request for Kiev had been stalled since last fall because a majority of Republicans opposed it. Republican lawmakers voted against the legislation by a 112-101 margin on Saturday, but Johnson overrode his own party by allowing a vote and winning passage with unanimous Democrat support.
Johnson won praise from the Washington media for his reversal on Ukraine aid – CNN even likened him to Winston Churchill – while Greene came under attack for criticizing him. The New York Post put a picture of Greene on its Sunday cover with a Soviet ushanka superimposed on her head and a caption saying, “Nyet, Moscow Marjorie.”
Greene insisted that congressional Republicans can’t win in the November election without the support of ‘America First’ voters. She added that sending more aid to Ukraine will only cause more bloodshed without changing the outcome of the conflict.
“This just continues the war maybe a few more months, maybe to the end of the summer,” Greene said. “It doesn’t guarantee a Ukrainian victory because everyone knows they’re going to lose eventually. It just is a matter of when. But it does guarantee that more Ukrainian men will be slaughtered on the battlefield.”
Ukraine: US doubles down, Russia is cool
BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | INDIAN PUNCHLINE | APRIL 22, 2024
Russia’s free running in the Ukraine war in the most recent months is about to end this week as the Biden Administration has met with success in the US Congress on the long-stalled Ukraine aid bill. The aid approved by the House on Saturday would send $60.8 billion to Ukraine.
Senate approval is expected as soon a Tuesday this week. President Biden has promised, “I will immediately sign this law to send a signal to the whole world: we support our friends and will not allow Iran or Russia to succeed,”
To be sure, the US is doubling down to forestall an outright Russian military victory in Ukraine through this year. Unsurprisingly, Washington’s transatlantic allies are also rallying, which is the message coming out of the virtual meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council at the level of Allied Defence Ministers chaired by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at Brussels on Saturday.
The sense of relief in Kiev is palpable with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling NBC, “I think this support will really strengthen the armed forces of Ukraine, and we will have a chance for victory.” He said the US lawmakers moved to keep “history on the right track.”
On the other hand, the Russian reaction has been rather polemical — The foreign ministry spokesperson said in Moscow, “White House is no longer banking on an ephemeral victory by the Kiev regime under its control. All it wants is for the Ukrainian armed forces to hold out at least until the November voting without damaging Biden’s image… we confirm that Washington’s actions as an active party to the conflict will be rebuffed unconditionally and decisively, and its increasingly deeper plunge into the hybrid war against Russia will end up in a fiasco for the United States as scandalous and humiliating as in Vietnam and Afghanistan.”
What seems to perturb Moscow most in the US aid bill is its provision for confiscating frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine, which, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov singled out “because this is essentially the destruction of all the foundations of the economic system. This is an encroachment on state property, on state assets and on private property. By no means should this be perceived as legal action — it is illegal. And accordingly, it will be subject to retaliatory actions and legal proceedings,”
Of course, the Russian military moves going forward will be keenly watched. In such fluid circumstances, actions speak better than words. At any rate, an inflection point has come since, evidently with an eye on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forthcoming visit to Beijing, the Biden Administration is also shifting gear to explicitly threaten China for allegedly supporting the Russian defence industry. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is paying a 3-day visit to China on Wednesday.
Taken together, what emerges is that the Biden Administration is doubling down on the Ukraine war, contrary to earlier prognosis that war fatigue is setting in. Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder has disclosed to Politico in a statement that the Biden Administration is considering sending additional military advisers to Ukraine, since “security conditions have evolved.”
The additional personnel “would not be in a combat role, but rather would advise and support the Ukrainian government and military.” The specific numbers of personnel remain confidential “for operational security and force protection reasons.” They will support logistics and oversight efforts for the weapons the US is sending Ukraine and “new contingent will also help the Ukrainian military with weapons maintenance.”
Indeed, the fact remains that even in a non-combat role, what is in the cards is an expansion of the US military presence in Ukraine, notwithstanding Biden’s repeated assertions that US troops wouldn’t participate in the war on Ukraine’s behalf, as doing so would increase the risk of a direct Russian-American military confrontation.
Citing sources, Politico further reported that “One of the tasks the advisers will tackle is helping the Ukrainians plan sustainment of complex equipment donated by the US as the summer fighting is expected to ramp up.”
Interestingly, it has been reported on Saturday that French troops are already on the ground in Odessa numbering 1,000 and another contingent is expected shortly. This was forecast a few weeks ago by the Russian foreign intelligence but Paris flatly denied it.
How does the new US $60.75 billion aid package add up? It includes $23.2 billion intended to replenish US weapons stocks; $13.8 billion for the purchase of advanced weapons systems for Ukraine; and another $11.3 billion for “ongoing US military operations in the region.”
That is to say, in effect, the direct military assistance to Ukraine will actually amount to about $13.8 billion till end-2024. The Russian experts estimate that this allocation rules out another Ukrainian “counteroffensive.” Besides, while the increased flow of US weaponry will beef up the Ukrainian military capability to withstand the Russian offensive, it cannot fundamentally change the balance of forces at the front.
From a military angle, the cutting edge of the bill lies in the fact that it opens the gateway for the transfer to Ukraine of tactical missile systems [ATACMS] capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 300 km, which brings Crimea within its range. President Putin is on record that the ATACMS “are not at all able to change the situation on the line of contact… [but are] “certainly damaging and pose an additional threat.”
Put differently, the aid package aims on the one hand to avoid a catastrophic military situation arising at the front in the coming months, which could be politically damaging for Biden’s re-election bid, while on the other hand, the bulk of funds actually goes to the US arms manufacturers in some key “swing states” and will surely gratify the influential military-industrial complex and the Deep State.
Biden told Wall Street Journal, “We will send military equipment from our own stocks, and then use the money authorised by Congress to replenish these stocks by buying them from American suppliers. This includes Patriot missiles made in Arizona, Javelin missiles made in Alabama, and artillery shells made in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas.”
To be sure, the triumphalist narrative of the Ukraine war by the US state department is on a comeback trail. Equally, it appears that Donald Trump has shed his ambivalence and decided to be supportive of the bill. The meeting between Trump and the Republican House speaker Mike Johnson in the run-up to the vote in the House on Saturday would suggest that the latter will not be ousted by his far-right House Republican colleagues.
Final Nail in America’s Coffin?
By Ron Paul | April 22, 2024
When future historians go searching for the final nail in the US coffin, they may well settle on the date April 20, 2024.
On that day Congress passed legislation to fund two and a half wars, hand what’s left of our privacy over to the CIA and NSA, and give the US president the power to shut down whatever part of the Internet he disagrees with.
The nearly $100 billion grossly misnamed “National Security Supplemental” guarantees that Ukrainians will continue to die in that country’s unwinnable war with Russia, that Palestinian civilians will continue to be slaughtered in Gaza with US weapons, and that the neocons will continue to push us toward a war with China.
It was a total victory for the war party.
The huge spending bill is all about politics for Biden, yet so many Republicans simply went along with it. The last thing the people running Biden’s White House want to see as a close election approaches are ads blaming Biden for “losing Ukraine.”
The US and its allies have already sent over $300 billion to Ukraine and the country is still losing its war with Russia. Nobody believes another $60 billion will pull a victory from the jaws of defeat. But this additional money is meant to keep up appearances until November at the expense of Americans who are forced to pay for it and Ukrainians who are forced to die for it.
Speaker Johnson could not have passed these monstrosities without the full support of House Democrats, as the majority of Republicans voted against more money for Ukraine. So in the worst example of “bipartisanship,” Johnson reached across the aisle, stiffed the Republican majority that elected him Speaker, and pushed through a massive gift to the warfare/(corporate) welfare state.
After the House voted to send another $60 billion to notoriously corrupt Ukraine, Members waved Ukrainian flags on the House Floor and chanted “Ukraine, Ukraine.” While I find it distasteful and disgusting, in some way it seemed fitting. After all, they may as well chant the name of a foreign country because they certainly don’t care about this country!
Along with sending $100 billion that we don’t have to fund more overseas war, Speaker Johnson threw in another version of the Tik Tok ban, which gives Joe Biden and future presidents the power to shut down websites at will by simply declaring them to be “foreign adversary controlled.”
Not to be outdone, the US Senate on that same day passed the extension of Section 702 of the FISA Act, which not only allowed the government to continue spying on us without a warrant, but also contained new language massively expanding how they can spy on us.
Many conservative voters are asking what the point of Republican control of the House is if the agenda is determined by Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is even reported to have bragged to his colleagues about how easily Speaker Johnson gave Democrats everything they wanted and asked for nothing in return.
What is the silver lining in all this bad news? Most Republicans in the House voted against continuing the Ukraine war. That’s a good start. Our ideas are growing, not only across the country but even in the DC swamp. Take courage and don’t give up! Work for peace!
NATO Pressuring Greece and Spain to Give Remaining Air Defense Systems Away to Ukraine
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 22.04.2024
Russia dramatically ramped up its air and missile strikes inside Ukraine in March in the wake of a coordinated campaign by Ukraine’s military targeting Russian infrastructure using drone warfare. The strikes created large holes in Ukraine’s air defenses which Kiev’s NATO patrons are now hoping to patch up.
Officials in the European Union and NATO have launched a pressure campaign targeting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to give their advanced air defense systems away to Ukraine.
“We all know who has them, we all know where they are, and we all know who really needs them,” a person briefed on the campaign told London-based business media in an article published Monday.
The campaign mirrors increasingly loud appeals by Ukrainian President Zelensky asking NATO allies to donate their air defenses to Kiev amid Russia’s strikes. “Patriots can only be called air defense systems if they work and save lives rather than standing immobile somewhere in storage bases,” Zelensky wrote in an X post Sunday.
Germany agreed to give one additional Patriot to Kiev, but other countries, among them Greece and Spain, have hesitated, reportedly sharing more than a dozen Patriots and a handful of S-300 launchers between them (the latter bought by Greece in the 1990s). Greece previously ruled out handing off its S-300s to Ukraine, citing the need to keep its forces balanced with the capabilities of Turkiye – which possesses Russian-made S-400s.
Mitsotakis and Sanchez were reportedly asked to give up their air defense systems to Ukraine at a summit in Brussels last week, and pressure was expected to “intensify” at a Monday meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers, according to officials.
“There are countries that are not in an immediate need of their air defense systems, to be very honest. Each country is being asked to decide what it can spare,” an EU diplomat involved in Monday’s negotiations said. “The most important discussion will be to identify what member states can do to support Ukraine’s air defense. That’s the most important thing,” a senior EU official said.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell confirmed to reporters on Monday that Brussels has been “asking all member states to do whatever they can in order to increase the air defense capacity of Ukraine.”
NATO has engaged in its own push lobbying members to surrender their air defense systems, with alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg announcing Friday at a defense ministers meeting attended by Zelensky that allies had agreed to provide additional air defense support.
“NATO has mapped out existing capabilities across the alliance and there are systems that could be made available to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said, elaborating that “this mapping confirms that there are systems including Patriot systems available to be provided to Ukraine.”
Weeks of Russian strikes targeting Ukrainian military positions, defense factories, ammunition depots and electricity-generating infrastructure have left Ukraine’s air defense network in a shambles, with the national air defense system disintegrating and forces reduced to operating on a local level. “Their [unified] radar field has been completely lost, and the automated control system has been lost. Their air defenses act locally: what they see, they shoot down. That is, there is no centralized leadership there, like we have with a central command post,” former Commonwealth of Independent States’ Integrated Air Defense System deputy commander Aytech Bizhev told Sputnik last week.
Russia’s defense ministry says it has destroyed over 508 pieces of Ukrainian air defense equipment since February 2022, including 63 systems destroyed since the start of the current year. Along with Patriots and S-300s, Russia has targeted an array of other systems, from mobile tracked Flakpanzer Gepard anti-air artillery to SAMP-T extended range air defense systems, IRIS-T short-range SAMs, NASAMS short-to-medium-range air defense systems, AN/MPQ-64F1 Sentinel radars and other equipment.
The NATO and EU pressure campaign asking members to throw even more pricy air defense equipment into the Ukrainian crisis contrasts sharply with claims by bloc officials that Russia may be preparing to attack European countries, and warnings by military officials in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Belgium and other countries that the depletion of weapons and ammo stocks has left allies with enough supplies to last just days in case of a full-scale conflict.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed Monday that the risk of a direct clash between Russia and the West exists, but said this was the result of NATO’s continued sponsorship of the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
PM Orbán’s warning to Europe: ‘World wars are never called world wars in the beginning’
“This vortex of war could drag Europe down”
BY DÉNES ALBERT | REMIX NEWS | APRIL 22, 2024
Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán has issued a new warning about rising tensions in Europe, saying that world wars are never called world wars in the beginning, noting that the First and Second World Wars were initiated by a series of smaller conflicts.
“Brussels is playing with fire. What it is doing is an act of temptation. World wars are never called world wars in the beginning. The Third Balkan War, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the partition of Poland, and the end was a world war twice over,” he warned.
Tensions are rising in Europe, Orbán said in a post on his Facebook page on Sunday, pointing out that the mood on the continent is one of war, and that politics is dominated by the logic of war.
“The NATO secretary-general wants to set up a NATO-Ukraine mission. European leaders have already fallen into war, they see this war as their own war and are fighting it as their own war,” he said.
“At first, it was only about sending helmets. Then sanctions, but not on energy producers! Then, yes, on those too. Then, came the arms shipments. First firearms, then tanks, then planes, and then financial aid. More and more, tens of billions. Now, we’re somewhere around a 100 billion — in euros. Money, supplies, weapons, but the situation is not getting better, it’s getting worse,” the prime minister said.
Orbán reiterated a warning he has now issued a number of times, saying that Europe is one step away from the West sending troops to Ukraine. He said that Brussels is promoting a “war vortex” that could drag Europe into the abyss.
At the end of his post, Orbán stressed that Hungarians know what war is like, referring to the devastating period of destruction Hungary faced during the Second World War and the subsequent decades-long occupation of Hungary by Soviet forces, including a crushed uprising against communist rule in 1956.
At the same time, Orbán stated Hungary’s position: “This is not our war. We do not want war, and we do not want Hungary to become the plaything of great powers again.”
“That is why we have to stand up for peace — at home, in Brussels, in Washington, in the UN and in NATO,” Orbán concluded his post.
World Military Expenditure Reaches All-Time High of $2,443Bln in 2023 – SIPRI
Sputnik – 22.04.2024
Global military expenditure increased by 6.8% in 2023 year-over-year and reached a new record high of $2,443 billion, with the three largest spenders being the US, China and Russia, according to new data published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
“World military expenditure rose for the ninth consecutive year to an all-time high of $2,443 billion,” SIPRI said.
Moreover, military expenditure increased in all five of the geographical regions defined by SIPRI, the institute added.
The US remained the world’s biggest military spender with a 37% share of the world total and $916 billion spent in 2023. It is followed by China with a 12% share and an estimated $296 billion spent on the military and Russia with a 4.5% share and an estimated $109 billion spent on defense last year, which represents a 24% increase compared to 2022.
Ukraine, the eighth largest spender in 2023, increased its military spending by 51% year-over-year to $64.8 billion, which is 58% of the country’s total government spending.
The Middle East has seen a 9% surge in military spending, with Israel’s spending growing by 24% to $27.5 billion amid its operation in the Gaza Strip, the institute added.
West mired in Ukraine crisis due to unwillingness or inability to confront reality
By Eusebio Filopatro | Global Times | April 21, 2024
As the Russia-Ukraine war drags on, a peace conference is to be held in Switzerland this summer. But Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that Russia hadn’t been invited to participate in June’s talks. “It would have been funny if it weren’t so sad,” he commented.
Practically all Russian commentators, and even some prominent Western ones, trace the roots of the conflict in Ukraine to NATO’s attempts at incorporating Russia’s neighbor – as officially stated since at least as far back as 2008. A disregard for Russia’s status as an equal and sovereign partner was evident in the contempt for the Minsk agreements, which both former German chancellor Angela Merkel and former French president Francois Hollande described as gimmicks to buy time for the only option that was seriously pursued, military confrontation. Later on, Vladimir Putin’s vocal request for security guarantees was dismissed yet again.
Fast forward a few years, and this historical tragedy has snowballed to its extreme conclusions. Politico recently reported Ukrainian officials’ concerns about a collapse of the frontlines. As Elon Musk calls for a negotiated settlement to come soon, he warns that the longer the war drags on, the larger the territory Russia will seek to annex. Even CNN is now explaining how Russia’s guided bombs are wreaking havoc on Ukrainian defenses. Meanwhile, the IMF has raised Russia’s growth outlook. In short, and irrespective of whether this will take weeks, months or years, Russia is well placed politically, economically and militarily to inflict the final blow.
The conditions of Ukraine’s sponsors are remarkably less favorable. Europe’s economic problems are “far bigger than a shallow recession.” The Union faces a dilemma over restricting imports from Ukraine or throwing its own agriculture under the bus. It is also split on the use of frozen Russian assets to finance the war. The Union will renew its Parliament in June and it is unclear whether Ursula von der Leyen will be re-elected. Even though the US House of Representatives on Saturday passed a $95 billion legislative package, including $60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine, the US’ presidential elections in November still cast another shadow of uncertainty, to the point that NATO is considering setting aside “Trump-proof” funds.
Europe’s public opinion has also made up its mind on the matter. Only one in ten Europeans believe Ukraine can defeat Russia. The Pope has literally invited Ukraine to raise a white flag. Wolfgang Streeck, the Director of the Max Planck Institute, said, “The war is lost but our governments refuse to admit it.” A crushing military defeat would be the worst possible background for European and American elections, and erode confidence in the respective leaderships: The West should not fall prey to a sunk cost fallacy of catastrophic proportions. What would then be the way forward?
The rational course of action would be for the West to turn to diplomacy to correct such a disastrous trajectory, much like Musk and the Pope suggested. Even if Russia refused, or the attempt failed, the West would at least claim the moral high ground on this occasion. A comprehensive peace conference with the involvement of representative guarantors from the Global South could offer a lifeline to Ukraine, and a model for ironing out geopolitical tensions that are dangerously multiplying all over the world. Chinese diplomacy is going out of its way to make this possible, and the African Union, Brazil, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and many others have also stepped forward with constructive proposals.
Yet leaders on both shores of the Atlantic are headed elsewhere. US Vice President Kamala Harris and European Council President Charles Michel are adamant that “There is only plan A”: military support for Ukraine. Along this path, some risky decisions appear increasingly likely. And pressure is mounting to use seized Russian assets to finance Ukraine. Of this move, in 2022, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said “would not be legal.” But, apparently, a green light could come at the G7 summit in June.
If a botched peace conference would exact high reputational costs for Western diplomacy, the seizing of Russian assets could turn into a kamikaze attack, and unsettle the very domain wherein the West retains relative dominance, the international financial system. Neither initiative is likely to end the conflict in Ukraine.
If all such workarounds are really only dead ends, a reckoning with reality should be hastened rather than delayed. Yet, it is precisely the unwillingness or inability to confront the reality of the situation that got us here in the first place.
The author is a foreign policy analyst for Italy and the EU.
Rep. Gosar on Ukraine Vote: Congress ‘Seems to Want to Help Every Country Except America’
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 21.04.2024
The House of Representatives gathered for a rare weekend session Saturday to advance $95 billion in new assistance for Washington’s foreign allies and clients, including just shy of $61 billion for Ukraine. Moscow slammed the decision, saying it signals US ruling elites’ commitment to Ukraine’s destruction in a hopeless proxy war against Russia.
Saturday’s vote to provide new US aid to Ukraine is a sign of the US political class’s readiness to “waste” taxpayer money abroad instead of using it to focus on issues Americans actually care about, Congressman Paul Gosar has told Sputnik.
“Unfortunately, 210 Democrats joined 101 Republicans in voting in favor of wasting more money on a war half a globe away. America is in a ditch and too many in Congress refuse to find the will to address the long list of issues ailing our nation,” Gosar, a Republican representing the state of Arizona, said.
“I’m angry that Congress and Joe Biden don’t hesitate to find another $60 billion for a corrupt country but are unbothered that inflation is 19% higher since Biden took office, gasoline is hovering around $4 a gallon nationwide, 11 million illegal aliens have poured into our country, interest rates for a home mortgage are 8%, our roads and bridges are in disrepair, our national debt is $34 trillion, real wages are in decline, parents have to decide between feeding their children or putting fuel in their automobile and we have a growing veteran homeless crisis in every corner of our country,” the lawmaker said.
Pointing out that he has voted consistently “against every dime wasted on the war in Ukraine” and “repeatedly called for peace,” since the escalation of the crisis in February 2022, Gosar confirmed that he voted against the $61 billion package which advanced through the House on Saturday as well.
“To say that I’m very unhappy that these politicians seem to want to help every single country except America is an understatement. I am beyond angry. It’s long past time we put America first,” he said.
Gosar is one of a handful of conservative Republicans in the House who have sought to rein in defense spending and US funding for conflicts abroad in favor of dealing with more urgent priorities facing the US, including economic issues, the debt and the border crisis.
Gosar joined Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky this week in a motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson from his seat for advancing the Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid bills.
The Arizona congressman has taken a hardline, principled ‘America First’ foreign policy stance, voting Saturday against not only Ukraine aid, but against $14 billion in additional assistance to Israel. Last year, he joined Representative Matt Gaetz, Senator Rand Paul and others in calling for an end to the illegal US military presence in northeastern Syria. In 2021, he joined with House Republicans to vote to repeal the 2002 Congressional authorization for the Iraq War. In October 2022, he extended an invitation to Presidents Putin and Zelensky to come to Arizona to hold negotiations to end the Ukrainian crisis.
US Pumping Ukraine With Weapons to Protract War ‘Up Till Last Ukrainian’ – Moscow
Sputnik – 21.04.2024
MOSCOW – The United States is prepared to pour weapons into Ukraine as long as necessary and spare no Ukrainian lives to make sure that its proxy continues fighting Russia, including via terrorist attacks and killings of journalists, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
“The ruling elites in the US, regardless of party affiliation, are ready to arm the regime in Kiev so that it will be able to fight up till the last Ukrainian and continue, among other things, terrorist attacks on civilian targets on Russian territory, sabotage attacks and killing journalists,” the ministry said in a statement.
The White House is no longer counting on a “mythical Ukrainian victory,” but wants the Ukrainian army to hold out at least until the presidential election in the US, in order not to ruin the image of US President Joe Biden, the ministry noted.
“The actions of the US, as a de facto party to the conflict, will be unconditionally and decisively rebuffed, and Washington’s ever-deeper plunge into hybrid warfare against Russia will turn out to be as loud and humiliating of a fiasco for the United States as it was in Vietnam and Afghanistan. In any case, the feverish attempts to save [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s neo-Nazi regime are doomed to failure. The goals and objectives of the special military operation will be fully achieved,” the ministry added.
On Saturday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would unlock $60.84 billion in Ukraine-related aid, if approved by the Senate.
US could send more military personnel to Kiev – Pentagon
US Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine © John Moore/Getty Images
RT | April 21, 2024
The US is considering sending additional military advisers to its embassy in Kiev, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder told Politico magazine on Saturday.
The troops would be serving a non-combat role, primarily supporting logistics, monitoring the delivery of US weapons, and assisting with weapons maintenance.
The news comes as the US House of Representatives passed a $61 billion aid bill on Saturday, with the Pentagon saying that the package would include “things like air defense and artillery capabilities.”
Although Ryder did not specify how many personnel could be sent to Kiev, citing “operational security and force protection reasons,” sources familiar with the matter told Politico that the number would be up to 60.
The additional advisers could work at the Office of Defense Cooperation at the embassy, Ryder explained.
Ukraine is struggling to regain the initiative on the battlefield in the wake of a failed counteroffensive last summer, as well as more recent losses exacerbated by the dwindling supply of foreign ammunition.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently admitted that “things on the battlefield begin to shift a bit in Russia’s favor” with Kiev’s forces struggling “in terms of holding the line.” According to Politico, the advisers would be tasked with helping the Ukrainians with the newly delivered equipment as the fighting is expected to intensify during the summer.
Although President Joe Biden promised that American troops will not be sent to fight Russia in Ukraine, Moscow has repeatedly warned that it considers the US and other NATO members de facto participants in the conflict. Russia further criticized French President Emmanuel Macron and other European politicians who said that they could not rule out Western boots on the ground in Ukraine in the future.
Russia maintains that no amount of foreign aid would change the course of the conflict or save Ukraine from defeat.
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NATO Sanctions and the Coming Global Diesel Fuel Disaster
By F. William Engdahl – New Eastern Outlook – 11.04.2022
Amid the ongoing global inflation crisis, NATO heads of state and mainstream media repeat a mantra that high energy prices are a direct result of Putin’s actions in Ukraine since end of February. The reality is that it is the western sanctions that are responsible. Those sanctions including cutting SWIFT interbank access for key Russian banks and some of the most severe sanctions ever imposed, are hardly having an impact on the military actions in Ukraine. What many overlook is the fact that they are increasingly impacting the economies of the West, especially the EU and USA. A closer look at the state of the global supply of diesel fuel is alarming. But Western sanctions planners at the US Treasury and the EU know fully well what they are doing. And it bodes ill for the world economy.
While most of us rarely think about diesel fuel as anything other than a pollutant, in fact it is essential to the entire world economy in a way few energy sources are. The director general of Fuels Europe, part of the European Petroleum Refiners Association, stated recently, “… there is a clear link between diesel and GDP, because almost everything that goes into and out of a factory goes using diesel.” … continue
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