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Ukraine Violates Draft Rights, Restricts Religious Freedom, and Tortures PoWs – UN Report

Sputnik – 01.01.2025

Ukraine has been violating its own constitution by unduly restricting the right to conscientious objection to military service during mobilization, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a report published on Tuesday.

“The right to conscientious objection to military service has continued to be subjected to undue restrictions in law and practice … Domestic law in Ukraine unduly restricts this Constitutional right only to some forms of religion or belief, excluding others, contrary to applicable obligations of equality before the law and non-discrimination under the ICCPR,” the report said.

For example, five men faced arbitrary detention and torture in Ukraine for attempting to exercise their right to conscientious objection to military service, the UN rights watchdog said.

“During the reporting period, OHCHR documented the cases of five men who were assigned to military duty and transferred to a military training facility after attempting to exercise their right of conscientious objection to military service. In all cases, the men were arbitrarily detained between two to four days by military personnel responsible for conscription and subjected to ill-treatment or torture.” the report said.

Religious Freedom Under Attack

The UN report also found that Ukraine’s new legal provisions restricted religious freedoms by prohibiting the Russian Orthodox Church.

“In territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine, new legal provisions regarding religious organizations entered into force; these prohibit the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian religious organizations found to be affiliated with counterparts in the Russian Federation. The law introducing these provisions established disproportionate restrictions on the freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief,” the report read.

Torture of PoWs

Furthermore, almost all Russian PoWs in Ukraine interviewed by the UN from September to November 2024 were subjected to torture, the report said. Fourteen soldiers were subjected to sexual violence.

“During the reporting period, OHCHR interviewed 25 Russian POWs in Ukrainian internment facilities, including in the newly opened camp ‘Zakhid-4’ in Lviv [Lvov] city. All but one reported experiencing torture or ill-treatment in 2024 at one or several stages of captivity,” the OHCHR said.

The UN agency said it verified the killing by first-person-view drones of three Russian and one Ukrainian servicepersons who were “hors de combat” and severely wounded on the battlefield. It cited drone video footage that showed a heavily wounded, unarmed Russian serviceman being killed by a drone while lying on the ground.

January 1, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Militarism, Subjugation - Torture | , | Leave a comment

Syria’s new leadership receives Ukrainian FM in Damascus

The Cradle | December 30, 2024

Syria’s de facto ruler Ahmad al-Sharaa, better known as former Al-Qaeda chief Abu Mohammad al-Julani, and the country’s new Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaybani hosted Ukraine’s top diplomat in the capital, Damascus, on 30 December.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha arrived in the capital at the head of a high-level delegation, which included President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s special envoy.

“We seek to cooperate with the new Syrian administration in several areas. We share with Syria the suffering from unjust regimes,” Sybiha was quoted as saying. “We are ready to help Syria in collecting evidence and investigating the crimes of the former regime and Russia.”

“Russia and Assad regime are partners in committing atrocities in Syria. We believe that relations between our two countries will witness great development,” he added.

The foreign minister went on to say, “If you can expel the Russians from your lands, you will ensure your security and the security of neighboring countries.”

Shaybani said during the meeting that his country is “turning the page” on the era of the former government of Bashar al-Assad, stressing that there will be a “strategic partnership” between Damascus and Kiev.

Sharaa’s organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as the Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Syria), appointed a transitional authority following the collapse of the Syrian army and the fall of Damascus on 8 December after an 11-day shock offensive that took the region by surprise.

Over the past few years, Ukraine has provided crucial support to HTS and other extremist factions under its command – who were based in Syria’s northern Idlib governorate before the assault that ended the Assad government.

HTS militants and fighters from ISIS and other extremist groups have also been deployed in Ukraine to fight Russian forces.

Before the launch of the offensive on 27 November, Ukrainian drone experts had been training and equipping extremist militants in Idlib.

The Russian military intervened in Syria in 2015 in support of Assad’s government, helping the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) turn the tide against several groups who had taken over large swathes of the country – including the Nusra Front, which became HTS.

Moscow and the former Al-Qaeda branch have established a line of contact since Assad’s government fell in early December.

“Russia is an important country and is considered the second most powerful country in the world. There are deep strategic interests between Russia and Syria. All Syrian weapons are Russian, and many power stations are run by Russian expertise,” Sharaa said on 29 December. “We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way some people would like.”

Russia has said that the future of its presence in Syria will depend on the outcome of talks with the country’s new authorities following the transitional period.

December 30, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Collapsing Empire: RIP ‘Overt Operations’

By Kit Klarenberg | Al Mayadeen | December 30, 2024

In recent months, a remarkable development in the Empire’s decline has gone almost entirely unnoticed. The National Endowment for Democracy’s grant database has been removed from the web. Until recently, a searchable interface allowed visitors to view detailed records of Washington-funded NGOs, civil society, and media projects in particular countries – covering most of the world – the sums involved, and entities responsible for delivering them. This resource has now inexplicably vanished, and with it, enormous amounts of incontrovertible, self-incriminating evidence of destructive US skullduggery abroad.

Take for example NED grant records for Georgia, the site of recent repeated color revolution efforts, at the forefront of which were Endowment-bankrolled organizations. While still accessible via internet archives, they were deleted during the summer. Today, visitors to associated URLs are redirected to a brief entry simply titled “Eurasia”. The accompanying text describes in very broad terms the Endowment’s aims regionally and the total being spent, but the crucial questions of where and on what aren’t clarified. In a comic hypocrisy too, the blurb boldly states:

“The heart of NED’s work in the region is the need to maintain access to objective information for local populations. Across the region, government actors are attempting to limit the space for citizens to distribute information and communicate freely online.”

Resultantly, independent academics, activists, researchers, and journalists have been deprived of an invaluable resource for tracking and exposing the Empire’s machinations. Yet, the Endowment incinerating its public paper trail can only be considered a significant victory for these same actors. NED’s explicit and avowed raison d’être was to do publicly what US intelligence did – and in many cases still does – covertly. Now, after 40 years of wreaking havoc worldwide in service of the Empire, the CIA front has been forced underground, defeating its entire purpose.

‘Spyless Coups’

NED was founded in November 1983, after the CIA became embroiled in a series of embarrassing public scandals. Then-Agency director William Casey was central to its construction. His objective was to create a public mechanism to conduct traditional CIA meddling overseas, except out in the open. Ever since, the Endowment has financed countless opposition groups, activist movements, media outlets, and trade unions to the tune of millions to engage in propaganda and political activism, to disrupt, destabilize, and displace ‘enemy’ regimes the world over.

The NED’s true nature was openly acknowledged by the mainstream media for many years. In June 1986, Endowment’s president Carl Gershman told the New York Times, “It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world” to be subsidized by the CIA. The exposure of such connivances meant they had been “discontinued”, and farmed out to NED. Several high-ranking interviewees strenuously denied there was any connection between NED and the Agency, although the outlet acknowledged many Endowment programs seemed “superficially similar” to past CIA operations.

At this time, NED was hard at work killing off Communism in the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact, and Yugoslavia. This included for instance enormous investment in Poland’s famous Solidarity trade union, which became a global emblem of anti-Communist resistance. In September 1991, the Washington Post published a highly laudatory appraisal of these efforts, stating the “political miracles” the Endowment achieved in the former Soviet sphere had ushered in a “new world of spyless coups” and “innocence abroad”:

“The old era of covert action is dead. The world doesn’t run in secret anymore. We are now living in the age of Overt Action… When such activities are done overtly, the flap potential is close to zero. Openness is its own protection. Covert funding for these groups would have been the kiss of death, if discovered. Overt funding, it would seem, has been a kiss of life.”

NED proceeded to take down a number of governments throughout the 1990s and 2000s, very overtly. In many cases, mainstream outlets published highly revealing accounts detailing precisely how. In Ukraine in November 2004, Endowment-trained and bankrolled activists forced a rerun of that year’s presidential election. As The Guardian jubilantly reported, the entire effort was “an American creation” and “sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in Western branding and mass marketing,” which had been repeatedly deployed in the new millennium to “topple unsavoury regimes”:

“Funded and organised by the US government, deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organisations…the operation – engineering democracy through the ballot box and civil disobedience – is now so slick that the methods have matured into a template for winning other people’s elections.”

‘Kiss of Death’

The next year, USAID published a slick magazine, Democracy Rising, bragging extensively about how it and NED were fundamental to a wave of revolutions in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere during the first years of the 21st century. Fast forward to February 2014, and Ukraine’s government once again fell victim to an Endowment-orchestrated coup, in the form of the Maidan ‘revolution’. Yet, the media either ignored the irrefutable US role in fomenting the upheaval or dismissed the proposition as “Russian disinformation” or conspiracy theory.

This is despite contemporary polls never showing majority Ukrainian support for the Maidan protests; ousted President Viktor Yanukovych remaining the most popular politician in the country until his last day in office; every actor at Maidan’s forefront, including the individuals who started the demonstrations, receiving NED or USAID funding; leaders of US-financed organizations in the country openly advertising their desire to overthrow Yanukovych in the years prior; and the Endowment pumping around $20 million into the country in 2013 alone.

This mass omertà, which has intensified since, may be attributable to ever-rising hostility towards NED by foreign governments and populations, and associated efforts to restrict or outright proscribe the organization. The reality of the Endowment’s raison d’être and modus operandi has thus not only become unsayable but must be vehemently denied by Western journalists. Representatively, a July 2015 Guardian report on Russia banning NED quite unbelievably relied on a brief quote from the organization’s own website to describe its operations.

While the mainstream media may have remained silent on the NED’s mephitic influence overseas over the past decade, the same is not true of independent academics, activists, researchers, and journalists. The Endowment grant database served as an invaluable tool for keeping a close eye on Washington’s international intrigues and mapping the personal and organizational connections of agents and entities of influence. Meanwhile, NED’s status as a CIA front could be simply proven, via multiple public admissions of its own leaders.

Whenever protests erupted somewhere in the world and received widespread Western news coverage, concerned citizens could consult the NED grant database and find in the overwhelming majority of cases, most if not all individuals and groups quoted in media reports were in receipt of Endowment funding. While impossible to quantify, it would be unsurprising if dissident voices calling attention to this fact have averted color revolution efforts, disrupted external meddling campaigns, protected popular governments and political figures, and more.

Of course, despite NED brazenly purging evidence of its vast operations from the web, that conniving continues apace regardless, covertly. One might even argue the Endowment’s chicanery is all the more dangerous now, given individuals and organizations can conceal their funding sources. But the move amply shows NED today cannot withstand the slightest public scrutiny, which its very existence was intended to exemplify. It demonstrates that “overt operations” with open US funding are now the “kiss of death” the Endowment was meant to replace.

December 30, 2024 Posted by | Corruption, Deception | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kiev announces US gift of $15bn from seized Russian funds

RT | December 30, 2024

The US will provide Kiev with $15 billion, leveraging future revenues from frozen Russian central bank assets, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal announced on Monday. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has previously said about Washington’s purported illegal transfer of Russian funds to Kiev that Moscow may challenge it in court.

The American funding is part of a broader $20 billion contribution under the G7’s $50 billion loan framework to Ukraine. The agreement was signed by Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance and the World Bank under the PEACE in Ukraine initiative, Shmigal claimed, in a post on his Telegram channel.

The G7, comprising the US, Canada, Japan, the UK, France, Germany, and Italy, initially pledged the $50 billion loan in June 2022, using profits from frozen Russian assets as collateral. Of the estimated $300 billion immobilized, $213 billion is held in the Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear.

Euroclear froze the assets of the Russian central bank in late February 2022, shortly after the EU imposed sanctions on Russia in response to the conflict escalation in Ukraine. The frozen funds have already generated billions in interest, with the clearinghouse transferring €1.55 billion ($1.63 billion) to Ukraine in July.

Moscow has vehemently criticized the asset seizures. Last Wednesday Dmitry Peskov condemned the measures as theft and warned of legal retaliation. He was reacting to Shmigal’s announcement that the US had already transferred to Ukraine the first installment of the $1 billion from the frozen Moscow central bank funds.

Last month, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said there are plans to mirror the West’s actions, using income from frozen Western assets in Russia.

“We have also frozen the resources of Western investors, Western financial market participants and companies. The income from these assets will also be used,” the official said.

The decision to use frozen Russian assets has previously stirred debate among G7 nations. European members of the club such as Germany, France and Italy have raised concerns over financial market stability and about the legal implications of such actions. The IMF has warned that seizing these assets without robust legal frameworks could erode global trust in the Western financial system.

December 30, 2024 Posted by | Corruption, Economics, Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s ‘Second Front’ in Africa: Zelensky ‘Will Bite Dust’ There

By Oleg Burunov – Sputnik – 30.12.2024

The Kiev regime, unable to defeat Russia on the battlefield, has opened a “second front” in Africa by aligning with terrorist groups in Mali and Niger, both of which have already severed diplomatic ties with Ukraine, said the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Ukraine’s opening of a “second front” on the African continent is “a desperate move aimed at media sensation, with no clear vision and strategy,” Professor Alexis Habiyaremye, Research Chair in Industrial Development at the University of Johannesburg, told Sputnik.

Context for Ukraine in Africa

It is unclear what Ukraine’s strategy in Africa is “beyond participation in destabilization” of the continent, he said, mentioning the Confederation of Sahel States, which are “led by a vision of sovereignty that is stronger than Ukrainian hatred and racism.”

“African countries are motivated by the determination to wrest their full independence from the neocolonial Western powers, while Ukraine is acting erratically based on anger and frustration. [Volodymyr] Zelensky and his agents will certainly bite the dust in Africa,” Habiyaremye stressed.

Ukrainian intelligence services “have unashamedly claimed to collaborate” with terrorist groups in Africa, “hoping to destabilize Russian security partners, and by doing so, to discredit Russia,” the analyst added, pointing to “the blanket impunity granted to Ukraine by its Western backers.”

Why is the Effort Fruitless?

The professor singled out the Sahel region, where he said the Kiev regime relied on “French logistics and American satellite technology” to help “terrorists ambush troops of Malian Armed Forces.”

“By allying itself with terrorists to attack African countries, Ukraine has squandered any possible goodwill it could hope to get from Africa and the rest of the Global South. It is therefore unlikely to achieve anything of significance as it tied its lot with that of the terrorists,” Habiyaremye concluded.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier stated that Mali’s and Niger’s decision to sever diplomatic relations with Ukraine indicates the African countries’ growing understanding of the terrorist nature of the Kiev regime.

December 30, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Slovak PM slams ‘irrational’ EU

RT | December 30, 2024

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has sent an open letter to European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging immediate action to address Ukraine’s imminent halt of natural gas transit through its territory to the EU.

A transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine is set to expire on December 31. Kiev has refused to extend it, citing the conflict with Moscow.

In a letter posted on Facebook on Sunday, Fico accused Kiev of failing to consider the potential impact its decision will have on the EU economy. Brussels’ acceptance of the situation is “absolutely irrational and wrong,” he stressed.

Gas transit through Ukraine accounts for only 3.5% of EU consumption, the letter states, citing an analysis carried out by Slovakia’s main gas supplier and trader, SPP. Despite the modest share, any halt would disrupt the market, raising gas prices by roughly 30%, the document claims. Such a price spike would translate to an additional annual cost of € 40-50 billion for European households and infrastructure, Fico argued.

“It is in the interest of all EU citizens that European efforts to support Ukraine should be carried out rationally, and not in the form of self-destructive and extremely damaging gestures,” the Slovak prime minister noted. Kiev’s decision will lead to “reciprocal measures,” he warned.

Fico also said Russia “will easily place such a small volume of gas in other markets,” thus mitigating its losses.

The situation requires urgent attention from EU institutions and member states to mitigate risks of supply shortages, he added.

Landlocked Slovakia’s position within Europe’s energy network makes it highly susceptible to disruptions in natural gas supply. The country is reliant on Russia for around 85% of its gas demand, primarily through pipelines transiting Ukraine.

Fico has repeatedly voiced concerns regarding EU energy policy. He has consistently advocated for pragmatic approaches to energy security, often clashing with Brussels on its approach to the Ukraine conflict, namely the issue of military support to Kiev and the issue of economic sanctions against Russia.

European Union leaders have repeatedly expressed confidence in the bloc’s ability to manage without Russian gas, accusing Moscow of using energy as a geopolitical weapon.

The European Commission and Council have yet to issue formal responses to the Slovak leader’s letter.

December 30, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Germany whining it’s defenseless against ‘Oreshnik’ after initially mocking it

By Drago Bosnic | December 30, 2024

After the Russian military’s Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) used the latest “Oreshnik” missile in Dnepropetrovsk on November 21, the world was left shocked, with news ranging from “end of the world” scaremongering to ridicule. Some major German media outlets resorted to the latter, with Julian Roepcke (better known as Jihadi Julian), one of the more prominent “military experts” at the Bild, a German tabloid, saying that the missile “likely carried no explosive charge and did not cause any significant damage”. Roepcke’s report, published on November 23, says that the launch was “a propaganda and political action rather than a military one”, as there was “neither a nuclear charge nor explosives inside”. The German author insists “that’s the reason the damage was so insignificant”. As many analysts have already suggested (myself included, both last year and in April), Roepcke also believes that the missile is most likely based on the RS-26 “Rubezh” (although this is yet to be confirmed). However, he erroneously thought that “the ‘Oreshnik’ didn’t contain explosives or a warhead and would have been equipped with a substitute of the same size and weight to simulate the appearance of a nuclear warhead”. While this is true for regular missile tests, the launch of the “Oreshnik” was anything but. Namely, the RVSN used 36 advanced kinetic penetrators to strike heavily fortified targets, including those deep underground. Thus, it’s quite clear that Roepcke’s virtually immediate disregard of the “Oreshnik’s” capabilities was a careless miscalculation, to say the least.

President Vladimir Putin himself stated that the missile is effectively unstoppable, but this too was met with disregard and even ridicule. For some inexplicable reason, neither the mainstream propaganda machine nor its bosses in the political West’s leadership seem to be able to learn from their mistakes. Namely, when President Putin says something, it should be taken very seriously. For instance, back in 2004, just two years after the United States announced its unilateral withdrawal from the ABM (anti-ballistic missile) Treaty, he publicly promised that Russia would resume the development of hypersonic weapons started during the (First) Cold War. However, nobody listened, as NATO was convinced that the Eurasian giant was “finished” (nothing could be further from true).

Just two years after that speech, Moscow inducted the “Iskander-M” missile system, along with its 9M723 hypersonic missile. Since then, the Russian military acquired at least a dozen types of such weapons, resulting in an advantage measured in decades. Back in 2019, I argued that the Kremlin was at least 20 years ahead of its NATO adversaries, including the US. This turned out to be not only true, but it can even be argued that the “Oreshnik” ensured this advantage grows further. Now, much unlike Roepcke, it seems that the German military understands just how outclassed it is, especially by such weapons. Namely, Roepcke’s own newspaper, the Bild, disagrees with his previously mentioned report about the “Oreshnik”. First, the outlet lamented that Russia deployed the missile in Belarus.

According to the report, a recently leaked internal document showed that the Federal Foreign Office (AA) warned that “Germany is not adequately protected against this deadly danger”. Interestingly, the document also posits that “the current protection provided by ‘Patriot’ systems is not sufficient” and that “the federal government now wants to close the gap”. The report also points out that interception rates are atrocious and that the extremely overhyped US-made ABM/SAM (surface-to-air missile) system would “base their performance on sheer luck” when it comes to intercepting Russian missiles (particularly something like the “Oreshnik”). The Bild also added that Berlin would purchase the Israeli “Arrow” ABM system to “help strengthen Germany’s defense against new types of missiles”.

It’s quite interesting that the Germans openly said that the “Patriot” cannot effectively intercept hypersonic weapons. Namely, for nearly three years, the Neo-Nazi junta has been saying its forces regularly “shoot down” Russian hypersonic missiles. I’ve argued numerous times that such claims are virtually guaranteed to be nothing more than war propaganda. Simply put, the numbers behind all this just don’t add up. This fact is supported by other globally renowned experts, including senior military officers. Namely, retired Group Captain Uttam Kumar Devnath from the Indian Air Force recently stated that “Russia’s ‘Oreshnik’ missile system is beyond the interception capabilities of Western defense systems like the ‘Patriot’ and THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense)”.

“The ‘Oreshnik’, described as a hypersonic, intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), is claimed to travel at speeds that exceed Mach 10, making it, according to Devnath, ‘too fast for radar targeting’. This speed, coupled with its maneuverability, purportedly renders it impervious to interception by current Western missile defense technologies,” the Indian Defence Research Wing reported, quoting Group Captain Devnath and adding: “The ‘Oreshnik’s’ velocity and ability to alter its trajectory are cited as key reasons why systems like the ‘Patriot’, designed to counter ballistic threats, would fail to engage it effectively. Devnath highlighted the missile’s design, suggesting it leverages stealth technologies and hypersonic flight principles to evade detection and interception.”

President Putin has already publicly called on NATO to pick any target, deploy its much-touted SAM/ABM systems to defend it and promised that the Russian military would neutralize it either way. Such confidence serves as a testament to Moscow’s unrivaled hypersonic capabilities. Obviously, the political West would never accept such a proposal, which speaks volumes about the veracity of the claims that NATO-sourced missile defenses are supposedly “shooting down” Russian hypersonic weapons left and right. It should also be noted that the usually quoted speed of Mach 10 for the “Oreshnik” is quite misleading, as the missile it was based on, namely the RS-26 “Rubezh”, can actually fly at speeds of anywhere between Mach 20 and Mach 25 (7-8,5 km/s or 25,000-30,000 km/h).

The “Oreshnik” is not only a major asset for Russia, but also for the whole multipolar world, as it offers a massive advantage in non-nuclear strategic deterrence. Although surely nuclear-capable, the “Oreshnik” is armed with a conventional MIRV/MaRV/HGV payload composed of 36 advanced kinetic penetrators (six in each of the six warheads). Coupled with its speed and maneuverability, this makes it the most powerful conventional weapon ever devised. This combination is what makes hypersonic weapons effectively impossible to track and intercept. Namely, unlike traditional ballistic missiles which fly at a predictable path, hypersonic weapons maneuver, making the interception based on the calculations of ballistic computers completely useless and void.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

December 30, 2024 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Major Winners and Losers of Halting Russian Gas Transit Through Ukraine

By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 29.12.2024

As the Ukraine gas transit contract with Russia is set to end, Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK received its first delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US on December 27.

Winners

US LNG producers:

  • The halting of Russia’s gas deliveries through Ukraine will increase the US share and reduce competition in the EU market.
  • The latest US LNG delivery amounts to 100 million cubic meters of gas (1 TWh of energy, or 3,530,000 MMBtu), bought by D.Trading, DTEK’s pan-European trading subsidiary. The shipment arrived at Greek LNG terminals such as Revithoussa, where it will be “re-gasified” and distributed “through EU and Ukrainian gas networks,” according to DTEK. One network, the Vertical Corridor, will transmit US LNG deliveries between Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
  • LNG from the US for Europe is at least 30-40% more expensive than pipeline gas from Russia.
  • In December 2022, the US became the world’s leading exporter of LNG amid Europe’s energy crisis and the sabotage attack on Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines.

Losers

  • Ukraine: Ukraine will lose almost $1 billion annually from Russian gas transit fees. Additionally, Ukraine is likely to pay more for US LNG coming through the Revithoussa LNG terminal than for Russian pipeline gas, which used to come in the form of a “virtual reverse.”
  • Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia which have long relied on Russian gas transit through Ukraine, will face challenges. Being landlocked, access to LNG delivered to marine terminals is costly and difficult. Long-term contracts with Russia’s Gazprom allowed them to buy natural gas considerably cheaper than EU gas spot prices. For instance, Austria had been receiving Russian gas at a price almost three times cheaper than EU spot prices in 2022, according to Reuters.
  • European Union: After sliding to $11.79/MMBtu in October, European gas prices rose to almost $15/MMBtu on November 22. On December 27, benchmark futures rose further by 5% on the news of halted Russian gas transit through Ukraine. Stopping the supply of Russian gas through Ukraine will cost Europe around $125 billion in total losses in 2025-2026, according to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

December 29, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Russia making military advances as Ukraine insists on “Christmas” propaganda while refusing to negotiate

By Uriel Araujo | December 28, 2024

A recent Newsweek story comments on the advances Russia has made across the border of the Moscow-controlled land, in the towns of Velyka Novosilka, Pokrovsk, Shevchenko, and Vuhledar, as reported by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think-tank. Russian forces took Dachenske around December 22, and, the next day, made advances in Novovasylivka and Ukrainka, which reportedly was seized on the 24th.

Russian strikes have been badly damaging the Ukrainian power grid, a problem which, as I wrote, is aggravated by Ukrainian corruption, which has been destroying its energy infrastructure. Besides that, we know there is an ongoing battle over numbers in Ukraine, with Zelensky disputing Western intelligence agencies death figures for Ukrainians amid a conscription crisis.

On December 24 Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko stated that Moscow is ready to seek some degree of compromise in negotiations with Ukraine, but that it will adhere strictly to the conditions laid out during the March 2022 Istanbul talks. The Istanbul talks, she added, “laid the very foundation, the basis of our approaches.” Earlier this month, the press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia is seeking not just a truce (in Ukraine) but rather peace – which can come “after our conditions are met.”

The Istanbul negotiations were of course the talks that “could have ended the war in Ukraine”, according to Samuel Charp (RAND Corporation scholar) and Sergey Radchenko (a Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Europe). The treaty being discussed back then would have declared Ukraine to remain a neutral state, and would put an end to NATO membership plans. We now know that by April 2022 those very negotiations were making a lot of progress when both the UK and the US pressured Zelensky into abandoning them, which he did, thereby aborting what could have been a successful peace plan.

The Western media in general has made so much about Christmas having “not prevented” Russia from continuing its aforementioned advances that it is worth delving into this issue, for it reveals other less mentioned aspects of the crisis. Biden, for one, has condemned an “outrageous” Christmas attack, and Zelensky talked about timing having been a “conscious decision” by Moscow. Such statements are part of a war of narratives, of course. Just two days earlier Ukraine struck residential buildings in a major drone attack in the Russian city of Kazan. In addition, recently, Ukraine intelligence services have admitted to being behind the terrorist attack that killed senior Russian General Igor Kirillov, by means of a bomb blast in a residential area in Moscow.

Still on the Christmas angle, most Westerns do not realize this, but it should be noted that in the predominantly Christian Orthodox Eastern Slavic world, Christmas is celebrated not on December 25 but rather on January 7. This is due to them adopting the Julian calendar for liturgical purposes rather than the Western Gregorian calendar: December 25 thus falls around two weeks later. This is so despite most Orthodox Slavic countries employing, outside of church cycles, the “international” Gregorian calendar for everyday civic life.

In fact, last year (2024) was the very first time Ukraine celebrated Christmas according to the Western Gregorian calendar, that is, on December 25, at least officially. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky changed the law in July of that same year, so as to further “abandon Russian heritage” – which does not make much sense, since the Julian calendar is also traditionally used by the Orthodox Churches in Greece, Romania, the Levant and most of Eastern Europe. In other words, the official holiday in Ukraine used to coincide with the date as observed in the Church.

Today, in practice, most Ukrainians just anticipate the Christmas commemorations, making it last until January 7 (which is December 25 on the Julian calendar). In his Christmas message last year, Zelensky said that (now for the first time) “we all celebrate Christmas together. On the same date… as one nation.” This is clearly a state attempt to interfere in religious life, as part of a cultural westernization campaign.

In line with that same spirit, the newly created independent church called the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) also changed its Christmas date to December 25 (of the Western Gregorian calendar). The OCU is a partially recognized Eastern Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which came into being (as an “autocephalous”, that is, independent church) in 2019.

The traditional Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) has been banned by the Ukrainian government, in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations.” Even the US Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed its concern about the measure, with US Ambassador saying on 7 October that the US is concerned by the law’s potential to collectively punish entire religious communities which is rather ironic considering the role played by the US in the whole “autocephaly affair” from the beginning, the topic being a divisive issue within the Orthodox world.

The UOC, one of the largest denominations in the country, has indeed been the target of a crackdown, with holy sites having been seized (even years before 2022) and clergymen being judicially harassed. This is part of the very civil rights issue which relegates Russian minorities to “second class” status, according to Nicolai N. Petro, a professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island. All of that is hardly surprising considering the fact that neo-Nazism and the far-right have played a large part in the (US-backed) 2014 Maidan ultra-nationalist revolution in Ukraine. They still are major players in shaping national politics to this day, which often causes diplomatic problems with neighboring Poland.

The way the narrative about these issues is often pushed forward in the West (simply omitting the facts I mentioned above) can hardly be described as anything other than Western propaganda war and that pretty much is the case with regards to the Russian advances “on Christmas”.

Be it “on Christmas” or not, the fact is that a Ukrainian military victory remains a scenario outside of the realm of realistic options as Russia keeps on making further advances. When such is the case, peace talks and cease-fire talks must follow, for humanitarian reasons and out of pragmatic realistic decision-making. While the aforementioned civil rights issue (including religious persecution and the campaign against Orthodox churches) plus the matter of NATO expansion remain out of the subject of any talks, there will hardly be any progress in the political and diplomatic sphere.

Uriel Araujo, PhD is an anthropology researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts.

December 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Slovakia threatens Ukraine with power cuts

RT | December 28, 2024

Slovakia could cut electricity supplies to Ukraine if Kiev stops transporting Russian gas to EU nations, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said.

The Central European country, whose economy heavily relies on Russian gas, receives its supplies through Ukrainian territory via Soviet-era pipelines. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal announced earlier this month that, starting from 2025, Kiev will stop transporting Russian gas and will only use its pipeline system to deliver gas from alternative suppliers. The current contract with Moscow expires on December 31, with Kiev stating that it would not renew the deal.

“After January 1, we will assess the situation and potential reciprocal measures against Ukraine,” Fico said in a video message on Facebook. “If necessary, we will stop supplying electricity that Ukraine urgently needs during network outages.” He added that Bralistava could consider other retaliatory steps.

“Stopping the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine is not just a hollow political gesture. It’s an extremely costly move, one that we, in the European Union, will pay for,” Fico said.

He wrote on Facebook that, by scrapping the transit deal, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “will cause billions worth of damages to the EU, including the Slovak Republic, and there will be a further reduction of the EU’s competitiveness.”

Ukrainian officials have criticized Fico for his recent trip to Moscow, arguing that the “pro-Russian” stance of Slovakia and Hungary are damaging the EU’s reputation and undermining the bloc’s resolve to help Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin argued this week that by terminating the transit deal Ukraine was “punishing” EU countries, as the continent continues to battle the energy crisis.

“We have always stood for [energy] supplies, for the depoliticization of economic issues. We have never refused supplies to Europe,” Putin said.

Kiev has so far not responded to potential sanctions from Slovakia. Bloomberg cited a person familiar with the matter as saying that Ukraine’s “counter-move” could be halting the transport of Russian oil to Slovakia.

December 28, 2024 Posted by | Economics | , , | Leave a comment

Biden Orders ‘Surge’ of Weapons to Ukraine in Response to Major Russian Attack

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | December 26, 2024

Russia launched a major missile and drone barrage targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The attack followed a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian residential building. President Joe Biden said he was outraged by the Russian attack and ordered the Pentagon to continue to surge weapons to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Russia fired an estimated 170 drones and missiles at Ukrainian energy infrastructure, causing several deaths, widespread damage, and power outages. “The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardize the safety of its grid,” Biden said in response.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack on Twitter, and said blackouts remain. “ Over 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, and more than a hundred attack drones. The targets are our energy infrastructure. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine,” he wrote. “Our defenders managed to shoot down more than 50 missiles and a significant number of drones. Unfortunately, there have been hits. As of now, there are power outages in several regions.”

Biden subsequently ordered a “surge” of military support for Kiev. “In recent months, the United States has provided Ukraine with hundreds of air defense missiles, and more are on the way.” He continued, “I have directed the Department of Defense to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and the United States will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in its defense against Russian forces.”

The Russian attack on Ukraine follows a series of provocations by Kiev. Ukraine has used long-range Western missiles to hit targets deep into Russian territory, fired drones at civilian targets in Russia, and assassinated a Russian general.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin may target Ukraine’s decision-making centers if Kiev continues to order “terror” attacks. “We select targets for strikes on the territory of Ukraine, proceeding solely from threats to Russia. These may be military facilities and defense enterprises.” The diplomat added, “Decision-making centers in Kiev can also quite be such targets.”

December 27, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

European countries fear losing reliable Russian gas as Zelensky remains stubborn

By Ahmed Adel | December 26, 2024

The contract for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine is just days away from expiring, but several European countries, including Hungary, Austria and Slovakia, seek to extend critical supplies. This agreement is necessary for Central Europe since there are few replacement options.

Major Central European gas companies have signed a statement calling for the continuation of transit. These include Slovakia’s SPP, its gas network operator Eustream, Hungary’s MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Plc and MVM Group, as well as trade associations and major industrial customers from Hungary, Austria, Italy and Slovakia, Bloomberg reports.

“We will present the declaration to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, so that she has first-hand information about the threat to energy and economic security in our region,” SPP Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Vojtech Ferencz said.

Russia’s share of Hungary’s gas imports is 47%, while Slovakia’s is almost 90%. Austria also received 97% of its gas imports from Gazprom in January 2024. Economists attribute this high dependence to infrastructure and long-term contracts. Nord Stream, Yamal and transit pipelines through Ukraine provide uninterrupted direct supplies, and long-term agreements ensure the predictability of gas supplies.

Geography is also a tangible factor in this situation. Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia are landlocked, so access to liquefied natural gas (LNG) is difficult. Any other means of supply would raise tariffs and result in discontent among the population. This means alternative supplies can only be obtained through intermediaries, which is much more expensive. For example, the price of LNG is several times higher this way for these countries.

The countries mentioned, Gazprom’s main customers in Europe, have built their energy policies around reliable supplies from Russia for many years.

Many observers believe that Austria, Hungary and Slovakia have little to rely on. Traditional gas sources for Europe—Norway, Algeria, and Azerbaijan—are unable to cover the volume of imports needed. Together, they are ready to supply up to 45 billion cubic meters a year, which would create a deficit of about 15 billion cubic meters in the markets of individual EU countries. Experts predict that these European countries could turn to the Balkan Stream pipeline. However, its capacity fully occupies the Balkan countries.

In this context, Brussels is categorical and unwilling to budge from its stubborn position. Reuters quoted a representative of the European Commission as saying that the regulator has taken an unequivocal position.

“The Commission does not support any discussions on the contract extension nor other solutions to maintain transit flows and has not been involved in any kind of negotiations on this,” the spokesperson said.

It is recalled that the current agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine expires on December 31, 2024. The Kiev regime has repeatedly said they do not plan to extend the agreement. On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed during a press conference that there would be no new contract for the transit of gas through that European country.

Europe faces a new energy crisis due to the decrease in gas reserves, the arrival of cold weather and sanctions imposed by the United States against the Russian bank Gazprombank, which handled payment transactions for importers of Russian fuel. Fuel prices have already risen by 45% during 2024.

At the same time, stocks are rapidly declining due to the cold, resulting in increased demand. According to Bloomberg, in the second quarter of 2025, during the warm season when gas typically becomes cheap enough to fill tanks, prices could be higher than in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia exported “around 50 billion cubic meters of gas in the first 11 months – despite all the statements and pressure from sanctions – because it is a very ecological product, it is in demand, and Russian gas is the most advantageous in terms of supply logistics and price.”

He said that Russia’s LNG exports will amount to 33 million tons by the end of 2024, adding that gas reserves in European storage facilities are currently 3-5% lower than in the past five years.

The EU has damaged its economy by refusing to cooperate with Moscow, as evidenced by the decline in production, bankruptcies and recession in the bloc countries. Russia has not denied any country the supply of its energy resources even when the European Union expected the country to collapse without energy revenue.

However, Brussels insists on a complete break with the Russian energy sector and the definitive rejection of energy from Russia in favor of more expensive alternative supplies, especially from the United States, and this will only hurt many European countries, particularly those in landlocked Central Europe.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

December 26, 2024 Posted by | Economics | , , , , | Leave a comment

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