Ukraine: US Lies, Provocation, Broken Promises, Fake News

[Anthea]

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Kiev tried to coerce reporter

A report published by The Intercept said Denmark’s leading chronicler of the war in Ukraine, Matilde Kimer, revealed last week that Ukraine’s intelligence service had canceled her work permit and "would only return it if she agreed to let the spy agency direct her reporting."

According to Kimer, an award-winning Moscow correspondent for Denmark’s broadcaster, DR, the proposal was presented to her by an officer from the Security Service of Ukraine, during a meeting this month in Kiev that two diplomats from the Danish Embassy attended.

"The diplomats had brokered the meeting as part of an effort to help Kimer find out why Ukraine had suddenly canceled her accreditation in August, shortly after she made a reporting trip to the front lines around Mykolaiv, a strategically important Black Sea port where a Ukrainian counteroffensive had been playing out," the report said.

"After a misunderstanding at a checkpoint near the front line, which led to them being briefly detained for traveling without a military press officer, local officials had scoured the Danish journalist’s social media accounts," an interpreter who worked with Kimer in Mykolaiv told the Ukrainian news site Zaborona, as per the report.

The fact that Kimer had been based in Moscow for over 10 years, her social media pages are full of pictures and reports on official speeches by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the 2018 World Cup in Russia, as well as daily life in "Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, including Donetsk and Crimea."

"That, apparently, was enough for some Ukrainian soldiers to suspect that Kimer might be a Russian sympathizer," the report added.

Still, a senior military press officer eventually assured the correspondent that she was free to continue reporting and returned to Nikolaiv, where she filed two short dispatches from the front line.

Weeks later, the Ukrainian military sent Kimer an email stating that her "press credential allowing her to work there had been canceled, without explanation, at “the request of the Security Service of Ukraine,” the report said.

Kimer spent the next three months "trying to get an explanation for why she was suddenly barred from reporting," and eventually, her boss Niels Kvale enlisted help from Denmark’s foreign ministry, and "Kimer was invited to the SBU headquarters in Kiev."

Before the meeting, Kimer posted on her Facebook page she had heard from three sources that “the security service considers me pro-Russian — and perhaps even a Russian agent.”

Kimer added that Kvale told her by phone from Copenhagen that “lots of different accusations were made against" her, due to "random photos from her social media profile, Facebook, primarily, photos that were taken by a photojournalist, her colleague, who went with her to Donetsk back in 2017.”

According to Kimer’s own Facebook account, an intelligence officer told her that photos she posted on the social network from a May 9 Victory Day parade in Donetsk "was suspicious because it showed people and vehicles adorned in what the Ukrainians consider 'illegal Soviet propaganda.'"

When Kimer and the Danish diplomats asked how she could convince the intelligence service that she was not a Russian propagandist, the official said that "Kimer would have to agree to produce a series of 'good stories' about the war, based entirely on video and photographs provided to her by the SBU, and post them on her Facebook page to prove that she was not pro-Russian."

Kimer told the intelligence officer that she couldn’t base her reports on someone else’s material and that she needed to meet in person with her sources. Consequently, "the meeting ended abruptly," the report said.

That obliged Kimer to report that the Ukrainian intelligence service had tried to coerce her into joining its propaganda effort, the report said, "even if that might make it impossible for her to ever get her accreditation back."

Kvale explained the reason why they felt the story had to be told, saying "we feel that this is an attack on our independence and the freedom of the press,” adding, “We didn’t really feel like we had any choice but to say publicly that this situation arose and this happened at this meeting.”

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... oining-its

[Anthea]

Merkel and Hollande confessions

betrayal of DONBASS

The Russian Senator noted that Moscow ended up being the only co-author and guarantor of the Minsk Accords

The former EU leaders' admission that they never intended to uphold the Minsk agreements means they have the blood of thousands of Donbass victims on their hands

An influential Russian lawmaker claimed that the recent admissions by former French President Francois Hollande and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel that they had no intention of upholding their obligations under the Minsk agreements constituted a "formalization of betrayal... by the West" of the people.

Hollande came clean on Wednesday about the fact that the international agreements for which France acted as guarantor were little more than a ruse to buy the Ukrainian regime some time while it upgraded its military with equipment and training from NATO.

“Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military posture… It is the merit of the Minsk Agreements to have given the Ukrainian Army this opportunity,” the former French president told a Ukrainian outlet.

Deputy Speaker of the Russian Federation Council and long-time Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Duma, Konstantin Kosachev, issued a harsh condemnation of Western duplicity on Telegram.

The Influential legislator wrote on Friday that "the confessions of Merkel and Hollande are a formalization of betrayal," in what appears to be the first public criticism of both Hollande and Merkel's remarks by a senior Russian official.

The southeast of then-Ukraine was betrayed by the West:

The price of this betrayal was thousands of human lives over the last eight years of the civil war in Ukraine – which was not stopped by the West, which turned the Minsk agreements into scrap paper – but which Russia is now forced to stop with its special military operation

“For the West, the territorial integrity of Ukraine is all about control over land,” he continued. “It’s about territory, not people.”

Kosachev explained that the main point is about "violence, not negotiations", which he noted, “directly contradicts so-called European values.” He stated that his country turned out to be the only co-author of the Minsk agreements. As opposed to Ukraine, Germany, and France, he believes that it was Russia who stood up for the people of Donbass.

Russia was fooled

Earlier last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was hoping for peace agreements back when it signed the Minsk agreements in 2014, but it was fooled.

"We all endured, endured, endured and hoped for some kind of peace agreement, but now it turns out that we were simply fooled," Putin told reporters.

"After the revelations of [ex-German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, [ex-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko, and other politicians about the true goals of the Minsk agreements, it became obvious to everyone that Russia was not the source of the conflict in Ukraine," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said a day before Putin's statement. 

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, earlier in December, confessed that the Minsk agreements were only "meant to give Ukraine time"

In an interview with the Italian Corriere della Sera, the ex-chancellor noted that she is oblivious about how the war in Ukraine will come to an end, arguing that "it will eventually end in negotiations," adding that "wars normally end at the negotiating table." 

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... ian-offici

[Anthea]

Over 5 million refugees in Russia

The number of refugees arriving in Russia from the territory of Ukraine and Donbass has exceeded 5 million people, law enforcement agencies said

“According to the latest data, more than 5 million refugees, including more than 721,000 children, have arrived in Russia since February,” the source said.

Only 42,000 people, including 12,000 children, are currently in temporary shelters. The rest have chosen to live with relatives, privately or have left for other countries. According to the Russian government’s decision, the refugees receive lump-sum allowances of 10,000 roubles per person. A total of 12.1 billion rubles has already been paid.

On February 18, the heads of the Donetsk and the Lugansk People’s Republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, announced the evacuation of the republics’ residents to Russia, in particular to the Rostov Region, due to the growing threat of hostilities. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the sovereignty of the DPR and the LPR.

https://sana.sy/en/?p=293549

[Anthea]

On the Influence of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine
scheerpost.com

A short history of neo-Nazism in Ukraine in response to NewsGuard’s charge that Consortium News published false content about its extent
By Joe Lauria / Consortium News

The U.S. relationship with Ukrainian fascists began after the Second World War. During the war, units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) took part in the Holocaust, killing at least 100,000 Jews and Poles. Mykola Lebed, a top aide to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the fascist OUN-B, was recruited by the C.I.A. after the war, according to a 2010 study by the U.S. National Archives. 

The government study said, “Bandera’s wing (OUN/B) was a militant fascist organization.” Bandera’s closest deputy, Yaroslav Stetsko, said: ““I…fully appreciate the undeniably harmful and hostile role of the Jews, who are helping Moscow to enslave Ukraine…. I therefore support the destruction of the Jews and the expedience of bringing German methods of exterminating Jewry to Ukraine….”

The study says: “At a July 6, 1941, meeting in Lwów, Bandera loyalists determined that Jews ‘have to be treated harshly…. We must finish them off…. Regarding the Jews, we will adopt any methods that lead to their destruction.’”

Lebed himself proposed to “’cleanse the entire revolutionary territory of the Polish population,’ so that a resurgent Polish state would not claim the region as in 1918.” Lebed was the “foreign minister” of a Banderite government in exile, but he later broke with Bandera for acting as a dictator. The U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps termed Bandera “extremely dangerous” yet said he was “looked upon as the spiritual and national hero of all Ukrainians….”

The C.I.A. was not interested in working with Bandera, pages 81-82 of the report say, but the British MI6 was. “MI6 argued, Bandera’s group was ‘the strongest Ukrainian organization abroad, is deemed competent to train party cadres, [and] build a morally and politically healthy organization….’” An early 1954 MI6 summary noted that, “the operational aspect of this [British] collaboration [with Bandera] was developing satisfactorily. Gradually a more complete control was obtained over infiltration operations …“

Britain ended its collaboration with Bandera in 1954. West German intelligence, under former Nazi intelligence chief Reinhard Gehlen, then worked with Bandera, who was eventually assassinated with cyanide dust by the KGB in Munich in 1959.

Instead of Bandera, the C.I.A. was interested in Lebed, despite his fascist background. They set him up in an office in New York City from which he directed sabotage and propaganda operations on the agency’s behalf inside Ukraine against the Soviet Union. The U.S. government study says:

“CIA operations with these Ukrainians began in 1948 under the cryptonym CARTEL, soon changed to AERODYNAMIC. … Lebed relocated to New York and acquired permanent resident status, then U.S. citizenship. It kept him safe from assassination, allowed him to speak to Ukrainian émigré groups, and permitted him to return to the United States after operational trips to Europe. Once in the United States, Lebed was the CIA’s chief contact for AERODYNAMIC. CIA handlers pointed to his ‘cunning character,’ his ‘relations with the Gestapo and … Gestapo training,’ [and] the fact that he was ‘a very ruthless operator.’”

The C.I.A. worked with Lebed on sabotage and pro-Ukrainian nationalist propaganda operations inside Ukraine until Ukraine’s independence in 1991. “Mykola Lebed’s relationship with the CIA lasted the entire length of the Cold War,” the study says. “While most CIA operations involving wartime perpetrators backfired, Lebed’s operations augmented the fundamental instability of the Soviet Union.”

Bandera Revival

The U.S. thus covertly kept Ukrainian fascist ideas alive inside Ukraine until at least Ukrainian independence was achieved. “Mykola Lebed, Bandera’s wartime chief in Ukraine, died in 1998. He is buried in New Jersey, and his papers are located at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University,” the U.S. National Archives study says.

The successor organization to the OUN-B in the United States did not die with him, however. It had been renamed the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), according to IBT.

“By the mid-1980s, the Reagan administration was honeycombed with UCCA members. Reagan personally welcomed [Yaroslav] Stetsko, the Banderist leader who oversaw the massacre of 7,000 Jews in Lviv, in the White House in 1983,” IBT reported.  “Following the demise of Yanukovich’s regime, the UCCA helped organise rallies in cities across the US in support of the EuroMaidan protests,” it reported.

That is a direct link between Maidan and WWII-era Ukrainian fascism.

Despite the U.S. favoring the less extreme Lebed over Bandera, the latter has remained the more inspiring figure in Ukraine.

In 1991, the first year of Ukraine’s independence, the neo-fascist Social National Party, later Svoboda Party, was formed, tracing its provenance directly to Bandera. It had a street named after Bandera in Liviv, and tried to name the city’s airport after him. (Svoboda won 10 percent of the Rada’s seats in 2012 before the coup and before McCain and Nuland appeared with its leader the following year.)

In 2010, pro-Western Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declared Bandera a Hero of Ukraine, a status reversed by Yanukovych, who was overthrown. 

More than 50 monuments, busts and museums commemorating Bandera have been erected in Ukraine, two-thirds of which have been built since 2005, the year the pro-American Yuschenko was elected. A Swiss academic study says:

“On January 13, 2011, the L’vivs’ka Oblast’ Council, meeting at an extraordinary session next to the Bandera monument in L’viv, reacted to the abrogation [skasuvannya] of Viktor Yushchenko’s order about naming Stepan Bandera a ‘Hero of Ukraine’ by affirming that ‘for millions of Ukrainians Bandera was and remains a Ukrainian Hero notwithstanding pitiable and worthless decisions of the courts’ and declaring its intention to rename ‘Stepan Bandera Street’ as ‘Hero of Ukraine Stepan Bandera Street.’”

Mainstream on Neo-Nazis

From the start of the 2013-2014 events in Ukraine, Consortium News founder Robert Parry and other writers began providing the evidence NewsGuard says doesn’t exist, reporting extensively on the coup and the influential role of Ukraine’s neo-Nazis. At the time, corporate media also reported on the essential part neo-Nazis played in the coup. 

As The New York Times reported, the neo-Nazi group, Right Sector, had the key role in the violent ouster of Yanukovych. The role of neo-fascist groups in the uprising and its influence on Ukrainian society was well reported by mainstream media outlets at the time.

The BBC, the NYT, the Daily Telegraph and CNN all reported on Right Sector, C14 and other extremists’ role in the overthrow of Yanukovych. The BBC ran this report a week after his ouster:

And this one in July 2015

After the coup a number of ministers in the new government came from neo-fascist parties. NBC News (green check) reported in March 2014: “Svoboda, which means ‘Freedom,’ was given almost a quarter of the Cabinet positions in the interim government formed after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in February.”

Svoboda’s leader, Tyahnybok, whom McCain and Nuland stood on stage with, once called for the liberation of Ukraine from the “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.” The International Business Times (green check) reported:

“In 2005 Tyahnybok signed an open letter to then Ukrainain president Viktor Yushchenko urging him to ban all Jewish organisations, including the Anti-Defamation League, which he claimed carried out ‘criminal activities [of] organised Jewry’, ultimately aimed at the genocide of the Ukrainian people.”

Before McCain and Nuland embraced Tyahnybok and his social national party, it was condemned by the European Parliament, which said in 2012:

“[Parliament] recalls that racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic views go against the EU’s fundamental values and principles and therefore appeals to pro-democratic parties in the Verkhovna Rada [Ukraine’s legislature] not to associate with, endorse, or form coalitions with this party.”

Such mainstream reports on Banderism have stopped as the neo-fascist role in Ukraine was suppressed in Western media once Putin made “de-nazification” a goal of the invasion.

The Azov Battalion, which arose during the coup, became a significant force in the war against the Russian-speaking people of the Donbass, who resisted the coup. Its commander, Andriy Biletsky, infamously said Ukraine’s mission is to “lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival … against the Semite-led Untermenschen.”

In 2014 the now Azov Regiment was officially incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is further integrated into the state by working closely with the SBU intelligence service. Azov is the only known neo-fascist component in a nation’s military anywhere in the world.

As part of the Ukraine military, Azov members have still sported yellow arm bands (until this week) with the Wolfsangel once worn by German SS troops in World War II. Including the atrocities it has continued to commit, Azov shows the world that integration into the state has not denazified them. On the contrary, it may have increased its influence on the state.

The U.S. and NATO have also trained and armed Azov since Barack Obama had denied lethal aid to Ukraine. One reason Obama declined sending arms to Ukraine was because he was afraid they may fall into these right-wing extremists’ hands. According to the green-checked New York Times,

“Mr. Obama continues to pose questions indicating his doubts. ‘O.K., what happens if we send in equipment — do we have to send in trainers?’ said one person paraphrasing the discussion on the condition of anonymity. ‘What if it ends up in the hands of thugs? What if Putin escalates?”

NewsGuard’s Objections

NewsGuard’s argument against the major influence of neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine rests on neo-fascist political parties faring poorly at the polls. This ignores the stark fact that these groups engage instead in extra-parliamentary extremism.

In its charge against Consortium News for publishing “false content” about neo-fascism in Ukraine, NewsGuard’s Zack Fishman wrote:

“There isn’t evidence that Nazism has a substantial influence in Ukraine. Radical far-right groups in Ukraine do represent a ‘threat to the democratic development of Ukraine,’ according to 2018 Freedom House report. But it also stated that far-right extremists have poor political representation in Ukraine and no plausible path to power — for example, in the 2019 parliamentary elections, the far-right nationalist party Svoboda won 2.2 percent of the vote, while the Svoboda candidate, Ruslan Koshulynskyy, won just 1.6 percent of the vote in the presidential election.”

But this argument of focusing on elections results has been dismissed by a number of mainstream sources, not least of which is the Atlantic Council, probably the most anti-Russian think tank in the world. In a 2019 article, a writer for the Atlantic Council said:

“To be clear, far-right parties like Svoboda perform poorly in Ukraine’s polls and elections, and Ukrainians evince no desire to be ruled by them. But this argument is a bit of ‘red herring.’ It’s not extremists’ electoral prospects that should concern Ukraine’s friends, but rather the state’s unwillingness or inability to confront violent groups and end their impunity. Whether this is due to a continuing sense of indebtedness to some of these groups for fighting the Russians or fear they might turn on the state itself, it’s a real problem and we do no service to Ukraine by sweeping it under the rug.” [Emphasis added.]

“Fear that they might turn on the state itself,” acknowledges the powerful leverage these groups have over the government. The Atlantic Council piece then underscores how influential these groups are:

“It sounds like the stuff of Kremlin propaganda, but it’s not. Last week Hromadske Radio revealed that Ukraine’s Ministry of Youth and Sports is funding the neo-Nazi group C14 to promote ‘national patriotic education projects’ in the country. On June 8, the Ministry announced that it will award C14 a little less than $17,000 for a children’s camp. It also awarded funds to Holosiyiv Hideout and Educational Assembly, both of which have links to the far-right. The revelation represents a dangerous example of law enforcement tacitly accepting or even encouraging the increasing lawlessness of far-right groups willing to use violence against those they don’t like.

Since the beginning of 2018, C14 and other far-right groups such as the Azov-affiliated National Militia, Right Sector, Karpatska Sich, and others have attacked Roma groups several times, as well as anti-fascist demonstrations, city council meetings, an event hosted by Amnesty International, art exhibitions, LGBT events, and environmental activists. On March 8, violent groups launched attacks against International Women’s Day marchers in cities across Ukraine. In only a few of these cases did police do anything to prevent the attacks, and in some they even arrested peaceful demonstrators rather than the actual perpetrators.”

The Atlantic Council is not the only anti-Russian outfit that recognizes the dangerous power of the neo-fascist groups in Ukraine. Bellingcat published an alarming 2018 article headlined, “Ukrainian Far-Right Fighters, White Supremacists Trained by Major European Security Firm.”

NATO has also trained the Azov Regiment, directly linking the U.S. with far-right Ukrainian extremists

The Hill reported in 2017 in an article headlined, “The reality of neo-Nazis in Ukraine is far from Kremlin propaganda,” that:

“Some Western observers claim that there are no neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine, chalking the assertion up to propaganda from Moscow. Unfortunately, they are sadly mistaken.

There are indeed neo-Nazi formations in Ukraine. This has been overwhelmingly confirmed by nearly every major Western outlet. The fact that analysts are able to dismiss it as propaganda disseminated by Moscow is profoundly disturbing.

Azov’s logo is composed of two emblems — the wolfsangel and the Sonnenrad — identified as neo-Nazi symbols by the Anti-Defamation League. The wolfsangel is used by the U.S. hate group Aryan Nations, while the Sonnenrad was among the neo-Nazi symbols at this summer’s deadly march in Charlottesville.

Azov’s neo-Nazi character has been covered by the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC, the Telegraph and Reuters, among others. On-the-ground journalists from established Western media outlets have written of witnessing SS runes, swastikas, torchlight marches, and Nazi salutes. They interviewed Azov soldiers who readily acknowledged being neo-Nazis. They filed these reports under unambiguous headlines such as “How many neo-Nazis is the U.S. backing in Ukraine?” and “Volunteer Ukrainian unit includes Nazis.”

How is this Russian propaganda?

The U.N. and Human Rights Watch have accused Azov, as well as other Kiev battalions, of a litany of human rights abuses.”

Neo-facism has infected Ukrainian popular culture as well. A half-dozen neo-Nazi music groups held a concert in 2019 commemorating the day Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

Amnesty International in 2019 warned that “Ukraine is sinking into a chaos of uncontrolled violence posed by radical groups and their total impunity. Practically no one in the country can feel safe under these conditions.” 

Zelensky & Neo-Nazis

One of Ukraine’s most powerful oligarchs from the early 1990s, Ihor Kolomoisky, was an early financial backer of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. According to a 2015 Reuters (green-checked) report:

“Many of these paramilitary groups are accused of abusing the citizens they are charged with protecting. Amnesty International has reported that the Aidar battalion — also partially funded by Kolomoisky — committed war crimes, including illegal abductions, unlawful detention, robbery, extortion and even possible executions.

Other pro-Kiev private battalions have starved civilians as a form of warfare, preventing aid convoys from reaching separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, according to the Amnesty report.

Some of Ukraine’s private battalions have blackened the country’s international reputation with their extremist views. The Azov battalion, partially funded by Taruta and Kolomoisky, uses the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol as its logo, and many of its members openly espouse neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic views. The battalion members have spoken about ‘bringing the war to Kiev,’ and said that Ukraine needs ‘a strong dictator to come to power who could shed plenty of blood but unite the nation in the process.’”

In April 2019, the F.B.I. began investigating Kolomoisky for alleged financial crimes in connection with his steel holdings in West Virginia and northern Ohio. In August 2020 the U.S. Department of Justice filed civil forfeiture complaints against him and a partner:

“The complaints allege that Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov, who owned PrivatBank, one of the largest banks in Ukraine, embezzled and defrauded the bank of billions of dollars. The two obtained fraudulent loans and lines of credit from approximately 2008 through 2016, when the scheme was uncovered, and the bank was nationalized by the National Bank of Ukraine. The complaints allege that they laundered a portion of the criminal proceeds using an array of shell companies’ bank accounts, primarily at PrivatBank’s Cyprus branch, before they transferred the funds to the United States. As alleged in the complaint, the loans were rarely repaid except with more fraudulently obtained loan proceeds.”

Meanwhile, the Azov backer’s television channel had by this time aired the hit TV show Servant of the People (2015-2019), which catapulted Volodymyr Zelensky to fame and ultimately into the presidency under the new Servant of the People Party. The former actor and comedian’s presidential campaign was bankrolled by Kolomoisky, according to multiple reports, including this one by Radio Free Europe (not rated).

During the presidential campaign, Politico reported:

“Kolomoisky’s media outlet also provides security and logistical backup for the comedian’s campaign, and it has recently emerged that Zelenskiy’s legal counsel, Andrii Bohdan, was the oligarch’s personal lawyer. Investigative journalists have also reported that Zelenskiy traveled 14 times in the past two years to Geneva and Tel Aviv, where Kolomoisky is based in exile.”

Before their run-off election, Petro Poroshenko called Zelensky “Kolomoisky’s puppet.” According to the Pandora Papers, Zelensky stashed funds he received from Kolomoisky off shore.

During the campaign Zelensky was asked about Bandera. He said it was “cool” that many Ukrainians consider Bandera a hero. 

Zelensky was elected president on the promise of ending the Donbass war. About seven months into his term he traveled to the front line in Donbass to tell Ukrainian troops, where Azov is well-represented, to lay down their arms. Instead he was sent packing. The Kyiv Post (green check) reported:

“When one veteran, Denys Yantar, said they had no arms and wanted instead to discuss protests against the planned disengagement that had taken place across Ukraine, Zelensky became furious

‘Listen, Denys, I’m the president of this country. I’m 41 years old. I’m not a loser. I came to you and told you: remove the weapons. Don’t shift the conversation to some protests,’ Zelensky said, videos of the exchange show. As he said this, Zelensky aggressively approached Yantar, who heads the National Corps, a political offshoot of the far-right Azov volunteer battalion, in Mykolaiv city.

‘But we’ve discussed that,’ Yantar said.

‘I wanted to see understanding in your eyes. But, instead, I saw a guy who’s decided that this is some loser standing in front of him,’ Zelensky said.”

It was a demonstration of the power of the military, including the Azov Regiment, over the civilian president.

After the Russian invasion, Zelensky was asked in April by Fox News about Azov, which was later defeated in Mariupol. “They are what they are,” he responded. “They were defending our country.” He then tries to say because they are part of the military they are somehow no longer neo-Nazis, though they still wear Nazi insignia (until Tuesday). (Fox’s YouTube post removed that question from the interview, but it is preserved here:)

Outrages Greek Officials

Also in April, Zelensky infuriated two former Greek prime ministers and other officials by inviting a member of the Azov Regiment to address the Greek Parliament. Alexis Tsipras, a former premier and leader of the main opposition party, SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, blasted the appearance of the Azov fighters before parliament.

“Solidarity with the Ukrainian people is a given. But nazis cannot be allowed to speak in parliament,” Tsipras said on social media. “The speech was a provocation.” He said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “bears full responsibility. … He talked about a historic day but it is a historical shame.”

Former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called the Azov video being played in parliament a “big mistake.” Former Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Kotzias said: “The Greek government irresponsibly undermined the struggle of the Ukrainian people, by giving the floor to a Nazi. The responsibilities are heavy. The government should publish a detailed report of preparation and contacts for the event.”

Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis’ MeRA25 party said Zelenky’s appearance turned into a “Nazi fiesta.”

Zelensky has also not rebuked his ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, for visiting Bandera’s grave in Munich, which provoked this reaction from a German MP: “Anyone like Melnik who describes the Nazi collaborator Bandera as ‘our hero’ and makes a pilgrimage to his grave or defends the right-wing Azov Battalion as ‘brave’ is actually still benevolently described as a ‘Nazi sympathizer.’”

Zelensky has closed media outlets and outlawed 11 political parties, including the largest one, Eurosceptic Opposition Platform for Life (OPZZh) and arrested its leader. None of the 11 shut down are far-right parties

Donald Trump was rightly castigated for remarks he made about white supremacists in Charlottesville. But Zelensky, whose oligarch backer funded Azov, and who brought a neo-Nazi to address a European Parliament, is given a pass by a Democratic administration and the U.S. media though he condones the far worse problem of neo-fascism in Ukraine. 
Joe Lauria

Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times.  He can be reached at joelauria@consortiumnews.com and followed on Twitter @unjoe

https://scheerpost.com/2022/12/30/on-th ... n-ukraine/

[Anthea]

Russia relationship with Kurdistan

Russia is committed to furthering its strong relations with the Kurdistan Region and supports the desires of the Region’s citizens to live in peace, the country’s consul told Rudaw while praising Kurdish authorities for their “positive” stance towards Moscow’s war in Ukraine

“The relations between Russia and the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdish people are excellent, historic, and positive. Russia was always committed to Middle Eastern affairs and specifically Kurdish affairs and was always understanding to the interests of the Kurdish people and their desire to live in their lands with prosperity and peace,” Maxim Rubin, the Russian Consul General to Erbil, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih late last month. 

Rubin lauded the Region’s stance for what Moscow calls a “special military operation” against Ukraine, noting that Kurdish authorities have refrained from blindly siding with the West.

“The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) stance is positive, and the KRG did not participate in the campaign against the Russian state which was started by Western media,” the consul stated, referring to the strong global condemnations against Moscow for its war against Ukraine with Western countries slamming the country for alleged war crimes after President Vladimir Putin ordered an all-out invasion against Ukraine on February 24. 

Iraq and the Kurdistan Region share close economic ties with Russia as a number of Russian oil companies operate both in the Kurdistan Region and in oilfields in southern Iraq. 

“The Russian-Kurdish economic relations are focused on the energy infrastructure and in the Kurdistan Region two major Russian companies operate – Gazprom Neft and Rosneft – and they have invested vast finances into the Region’s economy, in the region of $6 billion … and they are considered the biggest investors in the Region,” Rubin said. 

When asked about the possibility of furthering the relations in areas beyond the energy infrastructure, Rubin affirmed that Russian companies are ready to work in the Kurdistan Region but “a lack of information” about the Region’s economic capabilities and the prospect of security risks amid an unclear situation hinder further investment in the Region. 

According to Rubin, Russia is primarily interested in helping to develop the Region’s gas fields but will only carry out its interests given the circumstances are right and that the security situation stabilizes. 

Gazprom and Rosneft’s operations in the Kurdistan Region have continued as normal and have not been affected despite Baghdad’s pressure campaign on international oil companies (IOCs) working in the Region following a ruling by the Iraqi top court against the Region’s oil and gas law. 

Tensions between Erbil and Baghdad has been high since the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court in February deemed the Kurdistan Region’s oil and gas law “unconstitutional”, hence striking the independence of the Region’s energy sector and jeopardizing its industry. The KRG has repeatedly challenged the constitutionality of the court’s ruling.

The war in Ukraine, however, did previously affect the Russian companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, Rubin confirmed but clarified that the situation has been resolved.

“The military operation in Ukraine does not affect the Russian companies [operating in the Kurdistan Region], but the Western illegal sanctions did have an effect in the start … but now, these problems have been resolved,” he said, referring to Western sanctions on Russia’s logistics and its ability to transfer funds.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/interview/02012023

NOTE:
The people of DONBASS shared the same fate as Kurds, they were and still are being attacked; the countries trying to claim their lands have been attacking them for years; mother tongue language banned; music banned; centuries old culture banned; books banned: thousands of innocent civilians killed

[Anthea]

Sanctions less than 0 effective

Member of the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt laments that the Russian economy was doing better as a result of EU-imposed sanctions

Belgian Member of the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt, who also happens to be an avid Ukraine sympathizer, said on Wednesday that sanctions against Russia failed to produce the intended result of "punishing" Russia by weakening its economy. 

The chart on Tweet indicates that between the months of February and August last year, Russia has indeed increased its trade turnover with all countries of the EU with the exception of Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Denmark, Estonia, Sweden, and Ireland - effectively proving that western sanctions against Russia are a failed policy.

Of all countries listed, Slovenia was the country that topped all others in its imports of goods from Russia with a staggering increase of 346%, amounting to a total of €1.1 billion. 

Luxembourg also increased its imports of goods from Russia by 262%, totaling €8 million in profits for Russia. 

Germany recorded the highest amount in its trade turnover, with €20.7 billion worth of imports from Russia. 

It was previously reported that during the period January-July 2022, trade volumes had reached €171.4 billion, a considerable increase compared to prior years. 

While EU exports to Russia declined 33% during the first 7 months of 2022, amounting to just €34.1 billion, EU imports from Russia surged by 69.9% up to €137.3 billion.

Despite initial signs that the sanctions were clearly not working, the EU continued to carry out this ineffective policy.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the most recent data show that Russia's external debt reached $434.1 billion in September 2022, compared with $469.3 billion in the previous quarter - a slight decrease.

On December 31, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he issued a decree allowing European countries to pay their debt using foreign currencies. 

However, the repayment of debts will not mean that the supplies of Russian gas will resume, the decree stated.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/eco ... ussia-less

[Anthea]

Britain proxy war in Ukraine

The Gray Zone says private US-based spy firm Anomaly 6 provided Britain with information that was used for serious acts of sabotage

Leaked files show that US-based spy firm Anomaly 6 is providing intelligence to the British military to use in Ukraine, US website The Gray Zone reported.

The Gray Zone revealed that the information was used by the British military in the bombing of the Kerch Bridge in Crimea and in other serious acts of sabotage in the Ukrainian war.

According to the website, "Anomaly 6’s services are provided to Britain’s soldiers and spies through Prevail Partners, a private military company which The Grayzone has exposed as Whitehall’s arm’s-length cutout for prosecuting its proxy war in Ukraine."

It added that Prevail Partners "has constructed a secret partisan terror army on Kiev’s behalf, and helped plan the Kerch Bridge bombing by Ukraine’s services."

The Gray Zone report also pointed out that leaked files reveal that "Britain’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) has used Anomaly 6’s technology to monitor and track the movements of Russian military and intelligence personnel in real-time, on both a group and individual basis."

"Through aggressive harvesting of data, the technology has enabled the planning of military offensives and artillery attacks, assassinations, asset recruitment, and other measures," the website indicated.

In early December, the US-based website reported that Anomaly 6 markets its technology as impeccably precise but gathers massive amounts of private data and targets innocent individuals, falsely painting them as national security risks.

According to The Gray Zone, Anomaly 6 originally sold its technology to Britain as a means for tracking the movements of newly-arrived refugees to the country without the migrants’ knowledge or consent as they registered at immigration centers.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... raine:-the

I DID NOT VOTE FOR THE UK GOVERNMENT TO SUPPORT NAZIS

Nor did anyone else I know, nor would anyone else if they were told the truth, but the US propaganda machine is in full swing and the Kiev government has silenced the opposition party and arrested legally elected opposition MPs

Everyone in England lost ancestors to the Nazis during WW2

REMEMBER
The Ukrainian government supported NAZIS in WW2 and killed thousands

The DONBASS region fought against the murdering Ukrainian NAZIs

[Anthea]

Orthodox Christmas Ceasefire

Vladimir Putin ordered a ceasefire on the entire frontline in the area of the special military operation in Ukraine

"Considering an address by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I instruct the Defense Minister of the Russian Federation to establish a ceasefire along the entire frontline in Ukraine from 12:00 on January 6 until 24:00 on January 7 this year," the Russian president said according to a statement released by the Kremlin.

Moscow also urged the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire in that period "based on the fact that a large number of residents in the combat zone are Orthodox Christians" in order to "allow them to attend services on both Christmas Eve and Christmas."

Russia's request has met with rejection from Ukraine, which has considered the calls for ceasefire "a cynical trap and an element of propaganda," the adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Mikhail Podoliak, has said.

Putin's move came after Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called for a cease-fire from the parties involved in the conflict ahead of the Orthodox Christmas, which falls on the night of January 6-7.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church seeks that "the Orthodox may attend mass on Christmas Eve and the day of the Birth of Christ."

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Rus ... -0013.html

[Anthea]

Click Image to Enlarge:


Zelensky's fall to grace

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went from a criticized leader in the West to a beloved hero in a matter of months, and all it took was a war breaking out in his country

Ukraine is a corrupt nation, plain and simple. And that was being championed all over the West for years - ever since the country's independence from the Soviet Union after its collapse - but all of that seemed to be forgotten in light of Russia's special military operation and the Ukrainian presidency, after spending decades being criticized by the collective West as corrupt, unjust, and a violator of human rights. Ukraine was now put on a pedestal as this savior of peace and the final buffer between this "Russian beast" that wants to ravage Europe.

One of the greatest beacons of corruption in the world, and the second most corrupt nation in Europe, Ukraine has long been rapped for being a money pit where the rich and the political elite lined their pockets with the money that was supposed to go to the people. Transparency International ranked Ukraine 120th out of 182 countries in terms of corruption, landing it in the second spot in Europe in 2018. The ranking did not improve in 2021, with Ukraine ranking 122nd. Even after the ousting of Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, who was used by the West as a scapegoat for the corruption in Ukraine, the corruption levels barely dropped since he was replaced, which shows a very clear trend in the eastern European country.

The United States itself has acknowledged Ukraine's corruption on various occasions. During a visit to Kiev on May 2021, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeatedly called corruption the main enemy of the Ukrainian economy. Former US President Donald Trump also underlined Ukraine's corruption, telling G7 leaders in 2018 that "Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world."

Incumbent Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, upon assuming the presidency, called on his nation to shoot down corruption, saying: "Let's build a country of other opportunities. Where everybody is equal before the law and where the rules of the game are honest and transparent, that are the same for everyone."

The Ukrainian leader did not stick to his words, nor was Ukraine this utopia that saw everyone being treated equally. As a matter of fact, the complete opposite happened, with various ethnic minorities, mainly the Russian-speaking ones, getting discriminated against.

Fighting corruption in bed with one oligarch at a time!

With the President's promises to rid Ukraine of corruption, one would think that the status of oligarchy - the same social category that Russia is criticized for - would come to an end in the country, but that could not be further from what happened, and what Zelensky did.

The whole thing started during Zelensky's run for president. His campaign was highly supported by Igor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's most notorious oligarchs, with a hold over various key industries in the country, such as the heavy industry, oil and gas, media, ferrous metals and chemicals, agriculture, and air transport. Actually, it goes further back - to 2012; before Zelensky even considered running for office.

With a media empire in his pocket, Kolomoisky supported Zelensky throughout his presidential campaign from Switzerland and occupied Palestine, where he had been living due to concerns over prosecution back home. But even back in 2012, 1+1, one of the largest media conglomerates in Ukraine, signed a contract with Zelensky's Kvartal 95, a media company owned by the then-comedian. The contract focused on the production of sitcoms and films, and this document kicked off a relationship like no other.

With a billion dollars to his name, Kolomoisky was residing in exile back before Zelensky continued his career in comedy at the Mariinskyi Palace, with a slew of cases against him and a major fear of facing heavy fines or even years in prison if he were to return to Ukraine. 

Those fears were still there - and rightfully so - before Zelensky made it to office, even just days before the presidential election, then-candidate Zelensky pledged not to show mercy to the billionaire, stressing that he would not give him any special treatment if he were to become president, boldly saying: "If Kolomoisky breaks the law, he will go to jail."

Long story short, Kolomoisky was either innocent or just happened to strike gold because he returned home and faced no prosecution, conducting business deals as usual.

After Zelensky's election, Kolomoisky conveniently returned home and started winning court battle after court battle related to the nationalization of PrivatBank, the biggest Ukrainian retail banking corporation, which he owned up until Kiev decided to pass it into state ownership. The bank was nationalized under former President Petro Poroshenko after it was found that Privat Bank had been funneling money into the pockets of its shareholders through corporate loans, 97% of which had been given to Kolomoisky and his partner Gennadiy Bogolyubov.

After Kolomoisky met with Zelensky in September 2019 for the first time since the latter's inauguration, the President's press office declared that the meeting was about "doing business in Ukraine" and the country's energy sector. Days later, the billionaire told reporters that he had not discussed the future of his former bank, though he hinted that the issue could be resolved easier under Zelensky. "[Privat Bank's former owners] do not agree with the nationalization. This dispute is easier to resolve today than under the previous president,” he said.

Following various issues surrounding the Israeli oligarch, which led to relations souring between the president and the billionaire that helped him become the nation's leader, and saw the United States sanctioning him, and in light of cases raised against him in the US, the United Kingdom, the Israeli occupation, and Switzerland, Zelensky had to give in to the pressure and ended up taking away his Ukrainian citizenship.

Zelensky was also forced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to pass a bill preventing former bank owners from challenging the nationalization of their banks, as well as receiving compensation - because Kolomoisky was demanding $2 billion from the state as compensation - if Kiev wished to receive funds from the IMF in exchange.

However, Zelensky dragged his feet on the legislation before crumbling under pressure. Eventually, he started getting into bed with various other oligarchs. "Zelensky sold himself as a fighter of oligarchs. He only had to take on one oligarch, but he had to align himself with others," said Tim Ash, a London-based emerging markets strategist from BlueBay Asset Management, according to Eurasianet.

The oligarchs that Zelensky ended up clinking glasses with included his predecessor, highly corrupt president Petro Poroshenko, as well as Rinat Akhmetov, the world's 607th richest person and Ukraine's richest man with $11.54 billion to his name.

At the end of the day, Zelensky's ally was simply dealt a bad hand of cards, but it so happened that the president had a royal flush and came out with his pockets more lined than he had come in.

Having promised to end corruption in Ukraine, Zelensky could not possibly have more ties to corruption. Right? The Pandora Papers that leaked five months before the Ukraine war kicked off would beg to differ.

Pandora and her friends

In October 2021, about five months before Russia declared that it was going to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine, the infamous Pandora Papers were leaked, revealing many things that put Zelensky in quite an unfavorable position. The papers, obtained by various major news corporations after they were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, revealed that the Ukrainian President (and his inner circle), before becoming President, was one of many world leaders who had hidden their assets offshore in shell companies.

The documents showed that Zelensky and his friends (several oligarchs, alongside his chief aide, Serhiy Shefir, and the head of the Ukrainian Security Service) owned a network of offshore companies related to businesses they had that were based in the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and Belize.

Apparently, Zelensky's close allies used the offshore companies they had to purchase real estate in London with a sizeable price tag. Meanwhile, weeks before he was elected, Zelensky handed over his shares in one of the most significant offshore companies owned by the group to this chief aide, though it was stipulated that Zelensky's family would continue receiving money from the offshore company.

It is worth noting that before becoming his top presidential aide, Shefir was a close business partner of Zelensky's - nepotism at its finest, especially given that his other biggest partner, Bakanov, is currently the chief of the Security Service of Ukraine. Currently, the offshore company is paying dividends to a company that belongs to Olena Zelenska, Ukraine's first lady.

Going back to Kolomoisky, a political ally of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko published on Facebook, in light of the campaign that culminated in Zelensky's win, a chart allegedly showing that Zelensky and his partners in Kvartal 95 were the beneficiaries of a network of offshore companies that had received $41 million in funds from Privat Bank. Though that these allegations were not substantiated, the Pandora Papers proved that some of the details in the chart were factual, as they revealed information about 10 firms that matched what had been claimed in the Facebook post.

A Cypriot branch of Kolomoisky's Privat Bank was also found to have given $750,000 to Gimentiano Holdings Ltd, a company owned by a close friend of Zelensky's, Andriy Iakovlev, back in 2015 under the guise of "payment of interim dividends."

Also coincidentally, the Pandora Papers revealed that there was a company that was part of the aforementioned network that was used to acquire real estate in London - in one of the most expensive parts of the English capital. The three-bedroom apartment was bought for $2.28 million in 2016 by a Belize shell company owned by Shefir, SHSN Ltd. Additionally, a two-bedroom apartment was bought by Shefir for $3.5 million in 2014 before it was transferred to the same company in 2018. 

Another major Kvartal 95 shareholder, Andrii Iakovlev, also bought a pricey apartment in London. Worth $2.3 million, the apartment was acquired in 2015 after the company he owned in the British Virgin Islands bought another company in the offshore British territory that owned the property.

Riding a tide of anti-oligarchy and anti-corruption during his campaign, Zelensky sure failed to deliver on his promises and rid the country of the oligarchy and its corruption, and this definitely harmed his reputation in the West, with various mainstream media companies criticizing the president and his practices, such as The Guardian, with their piece entitled Revealed: ‘anti-oligarch’ Ukrainian president’s offshore connection, Brookings with their piece entitled Ukraine's Zelenskiy ran on a reform platform — Is he delivering?, the Atlantic Council's piece entitled Independent Ukraine’s free speech gains are under threat, and GIS's piece entitled Ukraine remains firmly in its oligarch's grip.

This all came crashing down, however, when the war broke out. All of the corruption was forgotten, and everyone began calling for Europe and the United States to start pumping money into Ukraine, dubbed a corrupt nation months earlier.

Selling a nation's misery

Running on a populist platform and making campaign promises that he knew the people would want to hear, such as making reforms and fighting corruption and the Ukrainian oligarchy, Zelensky was expected to fight tooth and nail for his country and his people, but quite the opposite took place when it came to the Ukraine war and with all the Western aid received by Kiev to fight against Russia.

From tanks and armored vehicles to HIMARS and MLRSs, Ukraine has received a lot of weaponry from the West throughout the past nearly 11 months, but many reports came out about where all of these weapons have been going, and a lot of them have been going out of the country to be sold and give the Ukrainian authorities more money as their people struggle with basic necessities such as electricity and water.

Since the start of the war and through September, the US had given Ukraine $15.8 billion in "security assistance". Additionally, the White House asked Congress for $13.7 billion for "security and economic assistance" for Ukraine. Meanwhile, the United States has sent 5,500 Javelins and 1,400 Stingers to Ukraine as of May, with the current number definitely being a lot higher due to several aid packages approved since then. Kiev has received billions and billions of dollars in donated arms from the United States and its allies such as the United Kingdom and other NATO states.

The opposition to aid to Ukraine is growing; not because the continuous flow of arms would only prolong the war, but because Republican members of Congress cannot justify spending so much money overseas when their country is grappling with various economic and financial crises, most notably soaring inflation. 

In addition to burdening the US with requests for aid, Ukraine is selling weapons it acquired from its allies on the black market due to the Kiev forces' limited ability to use them because of their lack of training, logistical challenges, and the diminishing size of the Ukrainian armed forces, as revealed former senior Pentagon advisor Karen Kwiatkowski.

Similarly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had pointed out that Stingers and Javelin missiles, supplied by the West to Kiev, were already being sold at a discount on the black market and have surfaced in Albania and Kosovo, which Russia has for long warned of.

Last month, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari warned that weapons supplied to Ukraine from Western countries were "starting to flow" into the Lake Chad basin region. "Regrettably, the situation in the Sahel and the raging war in Ukraine serve as major sources of weapons and fighters that bolster the ranks of the terrorists in the region," he told the heads of state from neighboring countries.

In August, an American news outlet unmasked that a shockingly large amount of weaponry heading for Ukraine was untraceable. "Like 30% of it reaches its final destination," said a tweet that was later deleted after a swarm of online trolls attacked it

Months later, Politico reported, citing a State Department cable they got their hands on, that the Biden administration has been running into major obstacles tracking the aid sent from Washington to Kiev, resorting to blockchain technology and Ukrainian personnel to help them track the aid flowing into their country. This pushed the Biden administration to mull utilizing an unnamed US firm by February to implement a three-year initiative that would help with oversight regarding the aid arriving in Ukraine.

The cable, sent out from the US embassy in Kiev back in September, details what the United States is going through in terms of oversight as it tries to monitor where its money is going, as they abide by the restrictions and limits on the number of officials they can have in the field, as well as the security measures prohibiting them from moving flexibly.

The aforementioned cable also talked about how crises such as the one in Ukraine can turn into a fiasco that Washington just throws money at until it becomes an over-expensive hassle that the cash allocated to cannot be tracked precisely due to the ensuing chaos and the corruption that the governments taking the money are notorious for, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

From Hrushevskyi Street to Wall Street

Back in September, Zelensky rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, boldly declaring his country, which is currently engulfed in war, "open for business". The ringing of the bell was almost like a ceremony calling on any foreign corporation that so wishes to come and "invest" in Ukraine as its economy is undergoing skyrocketing inflation, which would grant the "investor" access to Ukraine's resources and very cheap labor - the capitalist dream!

Zelensky, in what might sound like a joke, urged capitalists to invest in Ukraine because of all the money it would make them, saying his country was "The greatest opportunity in Europe since World War II."

The Ukrainian President inaugurated "Advantage Ukraine", a potential hotbed for capitalists who will try and exploit the Ukrainian people and society as much as they can well after Zelensky is out of office. Zelensky sold his country to Wall Street amid an ongoing war, plain and simple. Meanwhile, liberal media will definitely keep calling him a hero.

"As the largest exchange globally, we stand for freedom, investor protection, and unfettered access to capital. We are pleased to welcome President Zelensky virtually to the NYSE bell podium, a symbol of the freedom and opportunity our US capital markets have enabled around the globe. We are honored the President has chosen the NYSE to mark the kickoff of Advantage Ukraine and engage with the world’s business community," said Lynn Martin, the president of NYSE Group.

A mix between capitalism and subservience to the West, Reuters reported that Advantage Ukraine was being run by the WPP advertising group, a British public relations firm.

Meanwhile, in a bid to sell bigger chunks of Ukraine to the West, Western governments and corporations met in Switzerland in July. The meeting saw them, according to Multipolarista, "plan[ing] harsh neoliberal economic policies to impose on Ukraine." Reportedly, the participants in the meeting sought to call on Kiev to undermine its labor laws, open Ukraine's markets, lower tariffs, and sell nationalized enterprises to private investors while deregulating industries.

A harsh reality for Ukraine

Despite various revelations regarding Ukraine's current leadership, the West will continue to pump money, aid, and arms into Ukraine, all acts to spite Russia and prohibit it from forcing the West to lose its grip on the world order, and this brings a grim reality for Ukraine: its interests will not be fulfilled so long as the West has a hand in the country and so long as it is using the country as a tool to stoke security concerns in neighboring nations, namely Russia.

The West will back Zelensky until the very end; for he is now their proclaimed hero and champion whom they must defend at all costs - up until he is no longer of use just like various other leaders all over the world. 

The comedian-turned-head-of-state will continue serving the West's interests over his country's. This will lead to many problems in Ukraine, and will definitely lead to unrest in the eastern European nation. Though it is unknown what the repercussions of Zelensky's actions will be exactly, it is indisputable that he will go down in history as a corrupt politician that put his interests and those of the collective West - whose only aim is not to lose the battle over unipolarity - over those of the Ukrainian people.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... n-the-west

[Anthea]

Click Image to Enlarge:

Glorifying Bandera unacceptable

Poland's premier underlines that he would address Ukraine's public support of Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera

Warsaw will remind Ukraine that glorifying Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera is not acceptable, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.

Morawiecki said he would tell his Ukrainian counterpart, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, that it was inadmissible to glorify the controversial far-right Ukrainian figure at the soonest meeting they have.

This comes a day after Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, published information about Bandera's birthday on its official Twitter page

When asked to comment on this situation, Morawiecki said Warsaw was highly critical of any praise or even mention of Bandera and views it negatively.

"During my first conversation with Shmyhal, I will relay this very, very clearly," Morawiecki told reporters. "The Verkhovna Rada recalls the person who was the ideologist of criminal times."

Bandera was a Ukrainian nationalist leader who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II and was responsible for mass atrocities against civilians as a leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

The UPA operated mainly in western Ukraine and fought against Soviet forces in cooperation with Nazi Germany

The UPA had many crimes to their credit, including the Volhynia massacre, a mass slaughter of the Polish population residing in Volhynia and Galicia in 1943

Polish historians consider the massacres as genocide and ethnic cleansing, which claimed the lives of up to 130,000 people

In the 1930s, Bandera joined the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, a union between radical nationalists and extreme right-wing organizations, including the Union of Ukrainian Fascists. 

The OUN initiated a campaign of terror in Poland, which included the assassination of prominent Polish politicians, such as interior Minister Bronislaw Pieracki, as well as Polish and Ukrainian moderates, such as Tadeusz Holowko.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... a-unaccept

[Anthea]

Donetsk's Soledar City FREE

On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov reported that his country’s army liberated the Soledar city in Donetsk People’s Republic (RPD)

"After hard battles, we managed to free Soledar city, whose control is important for continuing military operations in the RPD," Konashenkov highlighted.

Russian army can now block the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) supply routes in southwestern Artyomovsk city, where some AFU military units remain.

“The feat in Soledar city became possible thanks to concentrated attacks uninterruptedly launched at AFU positions, a strategy that impeded reserve forces redeployment and ordnance supplies,” Konashenkov explained.

On Friday, Russian air defense forces shot down nine projectiles launched by the AFU and neutralized Ukrainian no-manned aerial vehicles in liberated territory nearby Soledar city

"We applaud this great victory and will always remember the heroes who lost their lives to achieve it. However, we urge our soldiers not to stop since there is still a lot of work to fulfill our operation’s objectives,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine to contain the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion towards its borders and the security threats posed by this alliance’s backing to Ukrainian neo-Nazi movements

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Rus ... -0006.html

The people of the Donbass voted to be FREE from Ukrainian Nazis and the world should support them NOT the Nazis

[Anthea]

WHAT IS NOT BEING MENTIONED:

Ukrainian soldiers receive very little support both food and equipment wise, some are running away from the front but most are too frightened to run because if they are caught by the Ukrainian secret police they are executed

The Ukrainian army receives less than 30% of the equipment, medical support, weapons supposedly sent to them, many soldiers are becoming ill

Still no news about the Ukrainian opposition party or the opposition MPs who have been imprisoned

[Anthea]

Click Photo to Enlarge:


Peace talks possible

Russian Envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia revealed on Friday Russia's readiness for peaceful talks on Ukraine, only if it ensures that no kind of threat will emerge from Ukrainian territories in the future

“The goal is to ensure that no threat will emanate from Ukrainian territory for Russia, and the discrimination of the Russian-speaking population, and if this can be achieved through peaceful negotiations, we're ready to engage,” Nebenzia said during a UN Security Council session.

He warned that Moscow will achieve its goals through military means if peaceful negotiations are not on the table.

"Ukraine now is running brandishing the idea of some sort of a peace summit suggesting anyway it can that it is Russia who wants war," Nebenzia told the Security Council members.

He added that this could be "merely an attempt" to win sympathy among the west, who he believes are increasingly questioning where the money to Kiev is going. 

The comments surfaced as Russia called for a United Nations Security Council meeting to be held next week on the persecution of the opposition in Ukraine and the continued crackdown on the Orthodox Church.

"More recently, in addition to persecuting dissidents and leaders of the opposition we've seen an attempt to destroy the only canonical church in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Nebenzia said

"The consequences of such actions for regional peace and security could be very severe, which is why we believe that this situation deserves close scrutiny by the members of the Security Council in this connection."

US military packages to Ukraine

Till today, the US has sent over multiple multibillion-dollar military aid packages to Ukraine, with the most recent amounting to some $3 billion.

Republican lawmakers have repeatedly voted against additional Ukraine aid installments, instead favoring moves to remedy domestic matters, such as the US' federal debt and recession fears.

As part of concessions made by newly-elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in order to be elected House Speaker, recent reports suggested he agreed to cuts to defense spending.

His Right-wing opponents from the chamber's Freedom Caucus, nicknamed the “Taliban 20”, had justified their earlier vote against him by demonstrating their opposition to aid sent by the US to Ukraine. 

McCarthy, an ally of and advocated by former president Donald Trump, promised to "pass bills to fix the nation's challenges, from the wide open southern border to 'America last' energy policies, to woke indoctrination in our schools."

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... om-ukraine:

[Anthea]

Dnipro hit by interceptor missile

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov affirmed on Monday that the Russian military is not striking civilian buildings and infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, pointing out that the cause of the collapse of a residential building in the city of Dnipro was Kiev's interceptor missile

"The Russian armed forces do not strike residential buildings or civilian infrastructure facilities, strikes are carried out against military targets," Peskov made clear.

The Russian Spokesperson considered that the possible supply of tanks by the UK and other Western weapons will not change the situation in Ukraine.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office announced on Sunday that London would provide Kiev with 14 Challenger 2 tanks in the coming weeks.

"They [tanks' supplies] are not able to change the situation on the spot, they [Western states] must understand this. They are able to ... bring more trouble to the state of Ukraine," Peskov indicated

"However, we strongly doubt that they somehow care about the fate of those people who live in Ukraine, about their future," he told reporters.

The diplomat warned that the tanks will be considered potential targets by the Russian armed forces, adding that the special military operation will continue.

On Saturday, officials at the Russian Embassy in the UK stated that Britain’s declaration to possibly transfer Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine will only intensify combat and generate more casualties.

No conflict between Russian MoD and Wagner

The Kremlin Spokesperson considered that the allegations of a "conflict" between the Russian Defense Ministry and the Wagner group are the products of information manipulation by Moscow's opponents.

Elsewhere, Peskov said it is not known whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has read the latest article written by former Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk published by Russian media.

Russia's Izvestia newspaper published earlier in the day Medvedchuk's article, in which he accuses politicians from the US and Europe of not wanting peace in Ukraine.

"I cannot tell you for sure whether Putin has read it, but it widely circulates in the media, of course, it is of great interest," Peskov told reporters.

It is noteworthy that Russian President Vladimir Putin affirmed on Saturday that his country's special military operation was going positively, saying that its dynamics were optimistic and stressing that everything was going according to plan.

During an interview with the Rossiya-1 TV channel, Putin voiced his hope that Russian soldiers would once again please everyone with the results of their work.

The Russian leader confirmed that "the dynamics are positive. Everything is developing within the plan of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff."

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... ldings:-kr

[Anthea]

Helping corrupt Zelensky regime wrong

Heritage Party leader David Kurten has slammed the decision of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to send main battle tanks to Ukraine

UK Heritage Party leader David Kurten slammed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's decision to send main battle tanks to Ukraine, saying the UK should be working to de-escalate the crisis instead.

“Sunak is wrong to send British tanks to Ukraine. The UK government should be trying to de-escalate the Ukraine conflict, not prolonging it by supporting the corrupt, Nazi-infested Zelensky regime,” Kurten said in a tweet late on Saturday.

Sunak is wrong to send British tanks to Ukraine.
The UK government should be trying to de-escalate the Ukraine conflict, not prolonging it by supporting the corrupt, Nazi-infested Zelensky regime.https://t.co/QTX6BjudCi
— David Kurten (@davidkurten) January 14, 2023

Last year, Kurten became an outspoken critic of the conventional narrative on the Ukraine situation. He appeared on Piers Morgan's chat show in September, saying that "the West has been poking the [Russian] bear for eight years essentially" and that "the Ukrainian Army and forces, backed by the Azov Battalion, have been shelling, maiming, and killing ethnic Russians in the Donbass for eight years."

At the time, Kurten stressed that he “simply ha[s] the opposite opinion,” arguing that the UK “should be trying to end this peacefully,” instead of delivering more lethal weapons to forces “who wear Nazi symbols and flags on their shirts,” or discussing “regime change” in Russia, which he characterized as “very dangerous talk.”

This comes as the United Kingdom government confirmed that it was planning on providing Ukraine with Challenger 2, the British Army's main tank.

The Sun newspaper reported, citing sources in the UK government, that out of 12 tanks pledged by Sunak, four would be sent immediately and eight shortly afterward.

It is worth noting that Challenger 2 was used in NATO operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, as well as the US-UK-led aggression on Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in London said the decision to send modern samples of heavy armor to Kiev was made "to persuade other, less belligerent Western countries to follow suit and provide their own tanks to the Ukrainian armed forces."

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