Putin is near an inglorious end

The End of a Game: Putin’s Exodus During the First Seven Months of the Ukrainian War with the Ukranian Government

Putin is also calling up 300,000 more troops, and he annexed a swathe of Ukrainian territory in the south and the east, claiming it’s now part of Russia forever.

One may excuse Putin if he thought the US would not support Ukraine very forcefully. The major political parties in the United States made Trump their leader. Zelensky had appealed for help, but Trump had toyed with it.

According to Hill, Putin may be trying to end a game. “He feels a sense of acute urgency that he was losing momentum, and he’s now trying to exit the war in the same way that he entered it. The person in charge and him framing the whole terms of a negotiation. That’s right.

More than seven months into the war, the “genius” myth has unraveled. During the past two weeks, at least 200,000 Russian men have voted with their feet to flee Putin’s partial mobilization order. They are aware that Russia has lost this war, despite the Herculean efforts of Putin.

According to independent Russian media, the total exodus was even higher. They say more military age men have fled the country since conscription – 261,000 – than have so far fought in the war – an estimated 160,000 to 190,000.

CNN is unable to verify the Russian figures, but the 40 kilometers (around 25 miles) traffic tailbacks at the border with Georgia, and the long lines at crossings into Kazakhstan and Finland, speak to the backlash and the strengthening perception that Putin is losing his fabled touch at reading Russia’s mood.

Kortunov says he doesn’t know what goes on in the Kremlin but that he understands the public mood over the huge costs and loss of life in the war. “Many people would start asking questions, why did we get into this mess? We lost a lot of people.

Mr. Putin argued that he was forced into his decision. He picked up a phrase that American officials used to describe their desired outcome for Russia in the war against Ukranian, and climbed on our nuclear facilities. He said that the Ukrainians had already used drones to attack strategic air bases in Russia, where the Russian Air Force keeps the bombers that can deliver nuclear weapons.

There is a battle going on between Western leaders and Putin. Last Sunday US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Washington would respond decisively if Russia deployed nuclear weapons against Ukraine and has made clear to Moscow the “catastrophic consequences” it would face.

The First Explosion of the Proto-Kuzmin Stratonovich Sea: Moscow’s Last-Ditch Threat to End the Ukrainian Counteroffensive

The first explosion was recorded at 2 a.m. local time and the second at 7 p.m.

After some patches of sea were discovered, the Danes, Germans, and Norway sent warships to secure the area.

Hill believes that sabotage of the gas conduit could be the last chance Putin has to make headway on gas issues. And it’s not going to be possible for Europe to continue to build up its gas reserves for the winter. So what Putin is doing is throwing absolutely everything at this right now.”

Brennan’s analysis is that Russia is the most likely culprit for the sabotage, and that Putin is likely trying to send a message: “It’s a signal to Europe that Russia can reach beyond Ukraine’s borders. So who knows what he might be planning next.”

Europe rushed to replenish gas reserves and dial back demands for Russian supplies in order to keep its economy afloat, while Putin limited the availability of Nord Stream 2 and 1 as a result.

If this is Putin’s plan, it will be his biggest strategic miscalculation to date. The US Secretary of Defence said as much in the summer as he had before, and there is no appetite in the Western world for him to stay in power.

Having failed in the face of Western military unity backing Ukraine, Putin appears set to test Western resolve diplomatically, by trying to divide Western allies over terms for peace.

Volker expects Putin to pitch France and Germany first “to say, we need to end this war, we’re going to protect our territories at all costs, using any means necessary, and you need to put pressure on the Ukrainians to settle.”

Putin knows that he has a lot of work to do and doesn’t seem to know how much space he has, which is a concern since he has nuclear weapons.

Beijing wanted talks as quickly as possible and said nuclear weapons could not be used in the future, something that Russia doesn’t seem committed to. Russia’s Putin said he was suspending a treaty with the US.

The primary utility, many U.S. officials say, would be as part of a last-ditch effort by Mr. Putin to halt the Ukrainian counteroffensive, by threatening to make parts of Ukraine uninhabitable. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe some of the most sensitive discussions inside the administration.

The scenarios of how the Russians might do it vary widely. They could fire a shell six inches wide from an artillery gun on Ukrainian soil, or a half-ton warhead from a missile located over the border in Russia. A Ukrainian military base or small city could be the targets. The winds and size of the weapon could affect the amount of destruction. A nuke blast can cause thousands of deaths and make a base or a downtown area unsafe for years.

The Cost of Chaos: The Kremlin Address Addressing the Vladimir Putin War in Ukraine and the War Between the United States and the Soviet Union

Peter Bergen is a CNN national security analyst, vice president at New America, and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. Bergen is the author of “The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World.” His views are his own in this commentary. CNN has more opinion on it.

The timing was absolutely terrible. Putin was declaring that the DONETSK region is now annexed by Russia when he lost Lyman.

At home, Putin is also facing growing criticism from Russians on both the left and the right, who are taking considerable risks given the draconian penalties they can face for speaking out against his “special military operation” in Ukraine.

In the Kremlin address on Tuesday, he said that attempts by certain countries to rewrite and change world history are becoming more aggressive, and that they are trying to divide our society and weaken Russia.

His account describes the rationale for the war inUkraine, claiming that it has always been part of Russia even though Ukraine was still within the Soviet Union.

According to a new book by historian, the Soviets wanted to install a puppet government in Afghanistan as soon as possible so that they could get out as quickly as possible.

The US was wary of a wider conflict with the Soviet Union when it was fighting in Afghanistan. The CIA gave Afghans anti-aircraft missiles which ended the soviets total air superiority, eventually forcing them to withdraw from Afghanistan three years later.

The Russian War in Ukraine: Where is the World going? What does the President Biden intend to tell us about the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis?

The outcome of aid and weapons given to Ukranian has global consequences. There could be new rules to the world order after Russia’s victory.

But the US put those fears to rest relatively quickly, and American-supplied anti-tank Javelin missiles and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), GPS-guided missiles, have helped the Ukrainians to push back against the Russians.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 came about due to the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan two years before.

Looking further back into the history books, he must also know that the Russian loss in the Russo-Japanese war in 1905 weakened the Romanov monarchy. The Russian Revolution was started by Czar Nicholas II during the First World War. Much of the Romanov family was killed by the Bolsheviks.

The anniversary of the full scale invasion of its neighbor by the Kremlin is days away. The assembled audience included uniformed soldiers the Kremlin said had come directly from the frontlines of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

This conference was focused on China a year ago. No one was talking about Russia invading Ukraine. But this time the theme was the war in Ukraine — where it’s headed, and how it might end.

Putin’s support among Russians following the collapse of the USSR was once a key basis for his reputation for providing stability.

President Biden’s declaration on Thursday night that the world may be facing “the prospect of Armageddon” if President Vladimir V. Putin uses a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine included a revealing side note: that Mr. Biden has been looking to help the Russian president find an “off-ramp” that might avert the worst outcome.

His logic came right out of the Cuban Missile Crisis, to which Mr. Biden referred twice in his comments at a Democratic fund-raiser in New York, a good indication of what is on his mind. In that famous case — the closest the world came to a full nuclear exchange, 60 years ago this month — President John F. Kennedy struck a secret bargain with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier, to remove American missiles from Turkey.

With that deal, which came to light only later, a disaster that could have killed tens of millions of Americans and untold numbers of Soviet citizens was averted.

The damage to the $3.7 billion bridge between Zaporizhia and Krasnodar Krai revealed by the Russian President Vladimir Putin

The United Nations Security Council is due to convene for an emergency meeting, called by Ukraine, after Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed plans to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Officials told CNN that the plan is not necessarily a starting point for negotiations with Russia. It is an ideal post war order that can hopefully convince Ukraine’s allies to keep their support as long as it takes to get there.

Some road traffic and train traffic has resumed on the estimated $3.7 billion bridge. On Saturday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said repair works on the bridge would be carried out around the clock, with a damage survey to be completed within a day and divers scheduled to check all the supports of the bridge.

The first passenger service on the bridge was inaugurated on Saturday, traveling from the peninsula to Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia.

Car traffic on the bridge has also restarted in two lanes, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Marat Khusnullin said on Sunday. One lane was being used for cars traveling in alternate directions and traffic had already begun, he stated in a Telegram post. Heavy trucks, vans and buses have been travelling since the blast.

The blasts will be accompanied by concerns that Putin may seek to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, after Moscow’s stuttering ground campaign and the damage to the Crimean bridge dealt a major blow to the Russian President.

“It is simply impossible to leave such crimes unanswered,” Putin said in a brief television appearance on Monday. “If attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, responses from Russia will be tough and will correspond in scale to the level of threats to the Russian Federation.”

A round of Russian missile strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed 13 people early Sunday, including one child, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

Moscow’s response to the bridge explosion: Power outages and air raid alert in Kyiv’s subway system, with electricity outage in the rest of Ukraine

The possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons to retaliate for the bridge explosion was dismissed by the Kremlin spokesman.

A senior Ukrainian official said Friday that the Ukrainian military had reclaimed 2,400 square kilometers in the south of the country since the start of the full-scale war.

There are pictures of Ukrainian troops outside of Luhansk, which is less than 12 miles from the crucial post of Svatove.

Authorities in Sumy, in the northeast of Ukraine, said there were power outages across the region after missile attacks, reporting that “two missiles hit an infrastructure facility” in Konotop. The officials in the city reported attacks.

The Ukrainian military said that at least 43 of the 84 missiles fired by Moscow were destroyed by missile defense systems. Twenty-four Russian attack drones were also used in the salvo, 13 of which were destroyed.

For several hours on Monday morning Kyiv’s subway system was suspended, with underground stations serving as bunkers. But the air raid alert in the city was lifted at midday, as rescue workers sought to pull people from the rubble caused by the strikes.

The Prime Minister of the Ukranian nation said Monday that as of 11 a.m. local time, 11 critical infrastructure facilities had been damaged.

As of Monday afternoon, the electricity supply had been cut in Lviv, Poltava, Sumy, and Ternopil, said the Ukrainian State Emergency Services. Electricity was disrupted in the rest of the country.

Putin is terrorizing innocent civilians in Kyiv and elsewhere, and the UN secretary-general condemns the actions of the Ukrainian military commander in Ukraine

The Russian-appointed head of annexed Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said he had “good news” Monday, claiming that Russia’s approaches to what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine “have changed.”

If the actions to destroy the enemy infrastructure were done every day we would have defeated the regime in May, he said.

“All over Ukraine, the air raid sirens will not abate. The rockets are continuing to strike. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. I ask you: do not leave your shelters. Take care of your families and stay safe. Zelensky said that they should hang in there and be strong.

Through the first ten months of war, NATO has stayed largely united in supporting Ukraine’s resistance, with Western nations dispatching billions of dollars worth of weapons and other aid to Kyiv.

“Again, Putin is massively terrorizing innocent civilians in Kyiv and other cities,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. The Netherlands condemns these heinous acts. The will of the people ofUkraine is not negotiable.

As always, civilians are paying the highest price, and that’s why the UN secretary-general described the attacks as unacceptable.

Belarus vs. Ukraine: The Russian-Russian War on 2022 and the Belarusian-Uzberian War for the Restoration of Russo Counties

The G7 group of nations will hold an emergency meeting via video conference on Tuesday, the office of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed to CNN, and Zelensky said on Twitter that he would address that meeting.

Russian troops are going to return to the country in large numbers, a replay of the military build-up there that preceded the invasion of Ukraine.

“This won’t be just a thousand troops,” Mr. Lukashenko told senior military and security officials in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, after a meeting over the weekend with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in St. Petersburg.

In rambling remarks reported by the state news agency Belta, Mr. Lukashenko said that work had already started on the formation of what he called a “joint regional group of troops” to counter “possible aggression against our country” by NATO and Ukraine.

Belarus helped Russia launch its initial invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, allowing the Kremlin’s troops to enter the country from the north. There have been fears throughout the conflict that Belarus will again be used as a launching ground for an offensive, or that Minsk’s own troops will join the conflict.

Any further Belarusian involvement in the war could also have a psychological impact, Puri suggested. “Everyone’s mind in Ukraine and in the West has been oriented towards fighting one army,” he said. The war in Russia would be about the reunification of the lands of ancient Rus states, and that is why Belarus would join the invasion.

Global tensions: Even though there is no guarantee the Russian leader will follow through with his plan to station the weapons in Belarus, any nuclear signaling by Putin will cause concern in the West.

Andrei Sannikov, who served as deputy foreign minister under Mr. Lukashenko during his early period in power but fled into exile after being jailed, said Mr. Lukashenko was “running scared,” caught between pressure from Russia to help its demoralized forces in Ukraine and the knowledge that sending in Belarusian troops would be hugely unpopular, even among his loyalists.

The Russian and Ukrainian sides are trying their best to keep things calm ahead of the winter season, which could decide who will win the most titanic battle of forces in Europe since the Second World War. It’s worth a deep look at what’s in play right now.

The war is in danger of reverting to an unpredictable new phase. Keir Giles is a senior consulting fellow at the Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.

The war has been raised once more as winter approaches. Giles said that there was no doubt that Russia wanted to keep it up. But the Ukrainian successes of recent weeks have sent a direct message to the Kremlin, too. “They are able to do things that take us by surprise, so let’s get used to it,” Giles said.

In the south of the Kherson region, Ukrainian troops hoisted the country’s flag above a building. Ukrainian officials say they have liberated hundreds of settlements since their counter-offensive began.

Anticipation is mounting for a possible battle for Kherson, a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine. Kremlin-installed officials have been evacuating civilians in preparation for a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The Institute for the Study of War says that the Russian offensive has not gained too much ground in the first few months of the year. The British Defense Ministry said a Russian ammunition shortage has likely tightened the military’s rationing in many parts of the front.

The strategy is straight out of the Russian one. Russia tried to drag Ukraine into a longer war with its slow advance and defensive lines because it believed it could beat the Ukrainians, officials said.

It would be a huge success for the Russians if they could make it to Christmas with the frontline looking like it is.

They join an army already degraded in quality and capability. The composition of Russia’s military force in Ukraine — as much of its prewar active duty personnel has been wounded or killed and its best equipment destroyed or captured — has radically altered over the course of the war. The Russian military leadership is unlikely to know with confidence how this undisciplined composite force will react when confronted with cold, exhausting combat conditions or rumors of Ukrainian assaults. Recent experience shows these troops may abandon their positions and equipment in a panic, like they did in the Kharkiv region.

The Institute for the Study of War said that Russian forces began their offensive in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, attacking Ukrainian defensive lines and making marginal advances. According to analysts at the Atlantic Council, there are Russian forces trying to surround the city of Bkmut.

Landing a major blow in Donbas would send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains before temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.

Within Ukraine, the economy continues to stumble from the impact of war and persistent missile and drone attacks on critical power infrastructure – including at least 76 strikes on Friday. As winter bites, millions of Ukrainians are enduring long periods without heat, electricity and water. Many Ukrainians say they are prepared to endure hardship for another two to five years if they are able to defeat Russia.

Russia is struggling on the ground and has failed to achieve supremacy in the air, but Monday’s attacks may have achieved one goal – sending a signal of strength towards the growing list of Putin’s internal critics.

After Russian missile attacks on Monday and Tuesday caused much of the country to lose its electricity supply, Ukrenergo has been able to provide power to the rest of the country. Ukrainians are being asked to reduce their energy use during peak hours because of the amount of work that has to be done to fix damaged equipment.

Experts believe it remains unlikely that Russia’s aerial bombardment will form a recurrent pattern; while estimating the military reserves of either army is a murky endeavor, Western assessments suggest Moscow may not have the capacity to keep it up.

Jeremy Fleming, head of Britain’s GCHQ, spoke of that sentiment last month. Fleming said they know Russian commanders on the ground know that their supplies are running out.

Russia may be unable to disrupt the ongoing counter-offensives by the Ukrainians because it lacks a sufficient supply of precision weapons.

And the French newspaper Le Monde has undertaken a major analysis using on-the-ground video and satellite images showing “Russia’s arms and ammunition stockpiles have been severely dented by Ukrainian targeted attacks.”

“The barrage of missile strikes is going to be an occasional feature reserved for shows of extreme outrage, because the Russians don’t have the stocks of precision munitions to maintain that kind of high-tempo missile assault into the future,” Puri said.

The impact of such an intervention in terms of pure manpower would be limited; Belarus has around 45,000 active duty troops, which would not significantly bolster Russia’s reserves. But it would threaten another assault on Ukraine’s northern flank below the Belarusian border.

“The reopening of a northern front would be another new challenge for Ukraine,” Giles said. It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.

KYIV, Ukraine — In a wide-ranging, hourslong news conference in a basement in the heart of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he was confident his country could win the war this year, expressed hope that China would not provide lethal military aid to Russia and implored Israel to get off the fence and side with his nation.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

This week, the IRIS-T arrived from Germany and the NASAMS is expected from the US. , Bronk said.

State of Ukraine: How Russian Forces can help bolster Ukraine’s defence and security needs? An update from the NPR ‘As a Cold War’

However, Ukraine’s civilians remain extremely vulnerable in the face of Russian air strikes. Dmitri Alperovitch says this is a blackmail of energy by cutting off gas supplies, shutting down electricity and bombing electric substations. Putin’s strategy will inflict pain, he said. But he added, “when your kids are dying, you’re going to keep fighting even if you don’t have heat, even if your economy of your country is in dire straits. I think he made a mistake on that front.

That’s not to say mobilized forces will be of no use. If used in support roles, like drivers or refuelers, they might ease the burden on the remaining parts of Russia’s exhausted professional army. Along the line of contact, they could also make use of some of the exhausted units that were already there. They are, however, unlikely to become a capable fighting force. Already there are signs of discipline problems among mobilized soldiers in Russian garrisons.

NATO will hold nuclear deterrence exercises starting Monday. NATO told Russia not to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine, but it said the “Steadfast Noon” drills are a yearly activity.

Russian agents held eight people, including Russian, Ukrainian, and Armenia citizens, who were suspected of carrying out a explosion on a bridge.

Russia’s move to annex four regions of Ukraine was condemned by the UN General Assembly. In the Oct. 13 session, four countries voted alongside Russia, but 143 voted in favor of Ukraine’s resolution, while 35 abstained.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on October 15 that 11 people were killed and 15 were wounded when the two men shot at Russian troops.

In October, the first convoys of almost 9000 Russian service members were expected to be sent to help protect the border from threats from the west and Ukrainians.

You can read past recaps here. For context and more in-depth stories, you can find more of NPR’s coverage here. There are updates on the State of Ukraine via the NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast.

Even if President Zelenskyy reached a conclusion that might stop the punishment, we should negotiate. I don’t believe he can do that anymore because of the Ukrainian people’s conviction.

David Petraeus and the U.S. in the Cold War: Insights from the CIA, the Kennedy School, and the Cipher Brief

At an annual conference in Sea Island Ga. run by The Cipher Brief, Petraeus spoke to a group of people looking at the big picture of global security.

The chief of staff to President Zelenskyy told the conference that conflict needs to end with a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield.

Paul Kolbe, a former CIA officer and now leader of the Intelligence Project at Harvard’s Kennedy School, says that the Russian leader doesn’t want a solution to the conflict. He says it’s the opposite. “Putin has a memory that escalates when he runs into an obstacle”, said Kolbe. There’s a lot of tricks he can pull out to try and undermine the image of the West.

Alperovitch called it a “burning of bridges”. “What this means is that this war is likely to continue for many, many months, potentially many years, as long as he’s in power and as long as he has the resources to continue fighting.”

The fast approaching winter is expected to slow the pace of the fighting, but it is not expected to stop the fighting. The Ukrainians are favored on the battlefield according to David Petraeus. “The Ukrainians can knock on the door and be taken in and get warmed up and get a bowl of soup from their fellow citizens. He said that they are welcomed as liberators despite the fact that the Ukrainians are trying to kill them.

The war was not discussed at the Georgia conference, in a ballroom filled with experienced national security types. “Most wars end with some sort of negotiated solution, whether that comes out of stalemate or defeat, but I don’t see any prospects of talks in the near term,” said Paul Kolbe, the former CIA official.

He noted that this war began with a Russian invasion and is as intense as it’s ever been. Greg Myre is an NPR National Security Correspondent. Follow him @gregmyre1.

Vladimir Putin and the War in the Warsaw Pact: What Putin’s Red Line Can Tell Us About Russia Afterwards Kiev’s General Relativity

The mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, was taking pains to give reassurances. “At present, no measures are being introduced to limit the normal rhythm of the city’s life,” Mr. Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel.

The governors of the regions said there would be no restrictions on entry or exit.

But many Russians are sure to see a warning message in the martial law imposed in Ukraine, the first time that Moscow has declared martial law since World War II, analysts say.

The siloviki, the men close to Mr. Putin, will do what they want, Ms. Stanovaya said, adding that people are worried that they will close the borders.

According to three senior officials in the Middle East who are not based in Russia, Russia has recently redeployed critical military hardware and troops from Syria.

Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He was a correspondent for CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion.

First, he’s seeking to distract his nation from the blindingly obvious, namely that he is losing badly on the battlefield and utterly failing to achieve even the vastly scaled back objectives of his invasion.

European Union policy challenges ahead of the winter: energy price caps, populism and a conference call with Chancellor Olaf Scholz

This ability to keep going depends on a host of variables – ranging from the availability of critical and affordable energy supplies for the coming winter, to the popular will across a broad range of nations with often conflicting priorities.

In the early hours of Friday in Brussels, European Union powers agreed a roadmap to control energy prices that have been surging on the heels of embargoes on Russian imports and the Kremlin cutting natural gas supplies at a whim.

There is an emergency cap on the benchmark European gas trading hub – the Dutch Title Transfer Facility.

While the French President talked about maintaining European unity, he acknowledged that there was only a clear mandate from the European Commission to work on a gas cap mechanism.

The biggest economy of Europe, Germany, is skeptical of price caps. Energy ministers need to iron out details with Germany that will make it difficult to get the supplies they need.

These divisions are all part of Putin’s fondest dream. Manifold forces in Europe could prove central to achieving success from the Kremlin’s viewpoint, which amounts to the continent failing to agree on essentials.

Germany and France are already at loggerheads on many of these issues. Though in an effort to reach some accommodation, Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have scheduled a conference call for Wednesday.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/putin-prolonge-war-ukraine-winter-andelman/index.html

Biden and Salvini: Italy’s New Prime Minister, Putin and the Post-fascist Aspects of the Italian War

A new government has taken over in Italy. The woman who was sworn in as Italy’s first female prime minister tried to downplay the post-fascist aura of her party. One of her far-right coalition partners meanwhile, has expressed deep appreciation for Putin.

In an audio clip, Berlusconi said he returned Putin’s gesture with bottles of Lambrusco wine and that he knew him as a peaceful and sensible person.

The other leading member of the ruling Italian coalition, Matteo Salvini, named Saturday as deputy prime minister, said during the campaign, “I would not want the sanctions [on Russia] to harm those who impose them more than those who are hit by them.”

At the same time, Poland and Hungary, longtime ultra-right-wing soulmates united against liberal policies of the EU that seemed calculated to reduce their influence, have now disagreed over Ukraine. Poland has taken deep offense at the pro-Putin sentiments of Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban.

Comments by DeSantis and other Republicans like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has warned against a “blank check” to Kyiv, show that while Biden can promise the US is with Kyiv for “as long as it takes,” he cannot guarantee it. The future of Ukraine and the United States can be seen as equally important in the 2024 election.

Meanwhile on Monday, the influential 30-member Congressional progressive caucus called on Biden to open talks with Russia on ending the conflict while its troops are still occupying vast stretches of the country and its missiles and drones are striking deep into the interior.

Hours later, caucus chair Mia Jacob, facing a firestorm of criticism, emailed reporters with a statement “clarifying” their remarks in support of Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked to his counterpart in the Ukranian state.

Most Americans want continuous support from the US, but backing has weakened a bit. GOP Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN that bipartisan support for Ukraine is “still very strong.”

This support in terms of arms, materiel and now training for Ukrainian forces have been the underpinnings of their remarkable battlefield successes against a weakening, undersupplied and ill-prepared Russian military.

The West continues to attempt to limit Russian energy profits by limiting the amount of countries that will pay for Russian oil. There are some signs the efforts are cutting into profits.

Russian production of hypersonic missiles has all but ceased “due to the lack of necessary semi-conductors,” said the report. Aircraft are being cannibalized for spare parts, plants producing anti-aircraft systems have shut down, and “Russia has reverted to Soviet-era defense stocks” for replenishment. The last time the Soviet era ended was 30 years ago.

As CNN previously reported, the Biden administration last month raised concerns with China about evidence it has suggesting that Chinese companies have sold non-lethal equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine, in an effort to ascertain how much Beijing knows about the transactions, according to two US officials.

The Justice Department has brought sanctions against individuals and companies for trying to bring high tech equipment into Russia.

Donetsk as a Demonstration of Human Rights: The Case of the U.S. and the War in Ukraine

The hardline leader of Russia’s puppet city of Donetsk, Pavel Gubarev, said that he wasn’t coming to kill Ukrainians but to convince them. If you don’t want to be convinced, we will kill you. We’ll kill as many as we have to: 1 million, 5 million, or exterminate all of you.”

Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN and has written for The Washington Post and World Politics Review. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. CNN has more opinions on it.

Iran admitted to providing some drones to Russia but denied continuing to supply them after the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy countered that Iran was “lying” because Ukrainian forces “shoot down at least 10 Iranian drones every day.”

The United States has satellites that keep track of the Russian nuclear program. But there is more than that worry. The agreement that President Biden and Mr. Putin struck during the first months of the new president’s term, was to extend New START for five years. A new treaty would have to be worked out. And while American officials insist that they want to negotiate a new treaty, it is increasingly hard to imagine that happening in the next three years.

The war in Ukraine is being used by the far- right to push their agenda, and it’s partly due to the relationship between Putin and his supporters in the West. Just as a political action committee linked to the former Trump aide Stephen Miller is arguing against spending on Ukraine, somehow linking it to poverty and crime in the US, like-minded figures in Europe are trying to promote their views by pointing to their country’s hardships as the cost of helping Ukraine. Support for Ukraine is very strong in Europe and the US, despite the fact that it is unpopular among Republicans.

The historian Yuval Noah Harari has argued that no less than the direction of human history is at stake, because a victory by Russia would reopen the door to wars of aggression, to invasions of one country by another, something that since the Second World War most nations had come to reject as categorically unacceptable.

The United States led the way in support of Ukranian. The war in Ukraine reinvigorated NATO, even bringing new applications for membership from countries that had been committed to neutrality. It made many in eastern European states more interested in a future in Europe and the West.

Much of what happens today far from the battlefields still has repercussions there. When oil-producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, decided last month to slash production, the US accused the Saudis of helping Russia fund the war by boosting its oil revenues. (An accusation the Saudis deny).

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently reiterated that “Israel supports and stands with Ukraine, NATO and the West,” but will not move those systems to Ukraine, because, “We have to share our airspace in the North with Russia.”

Russia’s assault on Ukrainian ports and its patrols of Black Sea halted Ukraine’s grain exports just after the war started, causing food prices to skyrocket. The head of the World Food Program, David Beasley, warned in May that the world was “marching toward starvation.”

Higher prices affect more than one person. They pack a political punch when they come with the greatest amount of power. Political leaders have been put on the defensive by inflation in many countries due to the war.

More to the Front – Putin and the Chinese Prime Minister: Beijing’s resumption of peace talks after a meeting with Scholz

There is more to it than on the fringes. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader who could become speaker of the House after next week’s US elections, suggested the GOP might choose to reduce aid to Ukraine. The Progressives released a letter that called for negotiations. Evelyn Farkas, a former Pentagon official during the Obama administration, said they’re all bringing “a big smile to Putin’s face.”

While in Beijing, the German Chancellor gave an order to the Chinese leader to use his influence over Russia’s President to prevent further trouble in Ukraine.

In a newly released position paper Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry called for a resumption of peace talks, an end to unilateral sanctions, and stressed its opposition to the use of nuclear weapons – a stance Chinese leader Xi Jinping communicated to Western leaders last year.

But Xi’s comments during his meeting with Scholz, and those of Premier Li Keqiang in a joint press conference, show that this trip had bigger significance for Scholz than maintaining good economic relations in a time of hyperinflation and a crisis in energy security for Germany.

The Chinese premier appeared in a press conference with his successor, Li. All United Nations members have already agreed to protect the human rights of ethnic minorities and so calling for those protections now is not interfering in China’s internal affairs.

Li stressed that the world cannot afford any more escalation in Ukraine. He also said that China remains an attractive place for investment and both China and Germany support multipolar solutions to international problems.

And Ukraine will be watching America’s midterm election results this week, especially after some Republicans warned that the party could limit funding for Ukraine if it wins control of the House of Representatives, as forecast.

The Trouble with the Ukraine: The Case of Joe Biden, the United States President, in the Battle for a Resolution of the Ukraine-Russian Conflict

The Turkish president will meet with the Swedish prime minister on Tuesday. Before it can join NATO, Sweden has to meet certain conditions.

The UN General Assembly is expected to discuss an International Atomic Energy Agency report on Wednesday and it is expected to include the topic of Ukraine.

On November 2, Russia came back to the U.N. brokered deal to safely export agricultural goods from Ukranian. Moscow had suspended its part in the deal a few days prior after saying Ukraine had launched a drone attack on its Black Sea ships.

The Pentagon announced $400 million in additional security aid to Ukraine, on Nov. 4, to include 45 refurbished T-72 tanks, 1,100 Phoenix Ghost drones and other vehicles, technology and training.

It took two years after Joe Biden was elected US President before the leaders of the world’s two most powerful countries could finally speak in person, but when Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping finally met in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday on the sidelines of the G20 summit, the timing could not have been any better for the United States, for democracy and for the world.

The idea of a contest between democracies and autocracies, voiced by Biden while running for president, seemed to be theoretical at the time. Now it is all too real.

There is much more to this meeting than the control of the US House of Representatives and Senate.

The city of Kherson, the one provincial capital that Russian invaders had conquered, was the scene of a triumphant return to it by the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky.

If Putin’s conflict with Ukraine had turned into a swift Russian victory, the alliance of autocracies would have made huge strides. Moscow has slowed down due to its stumbling. As Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman noted, Russia could become an albatross around Beijing’s neck.

Putin’s adventure turned to disaster as the Ukrainians defended their country with unexpected tenacity and as Biden rallied allies in a muscular push to support the country.

Beijing can’t conquer territory: China’s Xi Jinping is the third term he’s been elected to as a mighty country

Neither Russia nor China has specified whether Wang would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “we do not exclude a meeting” between Wang and Putin.

Tellingly, Putin chose not to attend the G20 summit in Bali, avoiding confrontations with world leaders as he increasingly becomes a pariah on the global stage.

To be sure, Biden is not the only leader with a strong hand. Xi has just secured an unprecedented third term as China’s leader, and he can now effectively rule for as long as he wants. He doesn’t have to worry about elections, about a critical press or a vociferous opposition party. He is the ruler of a mighty country for many years to come.

“The policy tools Xi Jinping can use to support Russia is quite limited now, it’s quite constrained,” said Wu. “Politically, domestic support for Xi has declined dramatically. His third term doesn’t start with a good picture.

It is important to show that democracy works, that China and Russia can’t be trusted, and that unprovoked wars of aggression can’t succeed in suppressing democracy and conquering territory.

Putin’s “I want to live” campaign against Ukraine: the case of a missile attack against a member of the NATO NATO Security Council

Now Poland is facing the repercussions from these attacks – and it’s not the only bordering country. Russian rockets have also knocked out power across neighboring Moldova which is not a NATO member and therefore didn’t draw much attention.

Whatever the exact circumstances of the missile, one thing is clear. “Russia bears ultimate responsibility, as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Wednesday.

His forces planted mines in large quantities in Kherson from which they have recently withdrawn, just like the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia in the 1970s. Cambodian de-mining experts have been called in to assist with the difficult task of removing mines from the land of Ukraine. At the same time, Russian armies have also left behind evidence of unspeakable atrocities and torture, also reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge.

Russian soldiers have rebelled against what they have been asked to do and refuse to fight. Amid plummeting morale, the UK’s Defense Ministry believes Russian troops may be prepared to shoot retreating or deserting soldiers.

Indeed a hotline and Telegram channel, launched as a Ukrainian military intelligence project called “I want to live,” designed to assist Russian soldiers eager to defect, has taken off, reportedly booking some 3,500 calls in its first two months of activity.

Diplomatically, Putin finds himself increasingly isolated on the world stage. Zelensky dubbed the G19 the “G20” because he was the only head of state who did not attend. Putin wanted a return to the G7 before he was ousted and it is now a distant dream. Russia’s sudden ban on 100 Canadians, including Canadian-American Jim Carrey, from entering the country only made the comparison with North Korea more striking.

One leading Russian journalist who had fled to Berlin told me last week that he was prepared to accept the reality that he may never be able to return to his homeland.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/opinions/putin-poland-missile-ukraine-nato-andelman/index.html

The French-German War in Ukraine: rumours in the press, on the status of the FAIR project and how it is going to end

The West tries to diminish the country of material resources to pursue this war by nixing Russian oil and natural gas. Ursula von der Leyen is the President of the European Commission and she told the G20 that they learned that dependency was unsustainable and that they wanted fast and reliable connections.

The burden it has been on the Western countries is proving to be unfulfilled, in addition to the dream that this conflict would drive further wedges into the Western alliance. Rumors began to circulate on Monday that the long-stalled French-German project for a next- generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System was beginning to move forward.

Nine months in, Russian hopes of a swift seizure have been well and truly dashed, its army largely on the defensive across more than 600 miles of battle lines strung along the eastern and southern reaches of Ukraine.

According to CNN, retired US General and former CIA Chief David Petraeus said the conflict will end in a negotiated resolution when Putin realises the war is unsustainable on the battlefield.

“The only thing a premature truce does is it allows both parties to re-arm,” Michael Kofman, director of Russian studies at the CNA think tank and a leading expert on the Russian military, told me in an interview.

“This has become a grinding war of attrition and therefore it’s also a battle of logistics,” Stoltenberg said. The war in Ukrainian is consuming enormous amount of arms and is draining allies’ arsenals. The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production.”

The manufacture of bombs has gone from two to three in some factories and it’s shifting from the Ukrainian front lines to Russia. He thinks that they would not be going to double and triple shifts if they had component parts.

The United States is ready to help Ukraine in the end of the Ukrainian crisis, and what they can do about it: Secretary of State Mark Milley’s 12-point position paper

“When there’s an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it. Seize the moment,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff said recently.

“Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis,” the 12-point position paper stated. All the efforts necessary to end the crisis must be supported.

Mick Ryan was a fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and he told me that giving the Russians time to regroup would relieve the pressure on their forces. “They have been at it hard for nine months. Their forces are exhausted.”

He explained that it was a command post or a dump beyond the 80 kilometer range. In many cases, the US supplied rocket systems to Russia and Ukrainians gave assurances that they wouldn’t target them.

“The U.S. and NATO openly say their goal is to see Russia’s strategic defeat. And then, as if nothing happened, they say they’re prepared to visit our military bases, including our newest,” said the Russian leader.

He said that at some point, they will get tired of this war. The Russian mindset might become that they don’t have everything they want. We will have a large portion of the Donbas and will annex it into Russia. And I think that’s kind of their bet right now.”

A ceasefire under those conditions would cement Russia’s control and stop the momentum, which arguably now favors Ukraine. Even in Bakhmut, where Ukrainians are struggling to hold ground, Russia has spent months seeking to capture the now-devastated town. The cost shows how much Ukrainians are fighting.

The question of whether the US and its Allies would be prepared to return to a conflict they already know how to fight is a real one.

Vladimir Putin’s televised comments on Ukraine’s “special military operations” and the consequences of his actions on the escalation of the conflict

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Wednesday that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is taking longer than expected but said it has succeeded in seizing new territory and added that his country’s nuclear weapons are deterring escalation of the conflict.

“It could take a long while,” Putin said of the conflict that started with Russia’s invasion of Chechnya and has left hundreds of thousands dead and wounded. He vowed to keep fighting, and to protect ourselves using all means available. For years, the West responded to Russian security demands with “only spit in the face,” according to him.

In his meeting with the Human Rights Council, Putin described the land gains as “a significant result for Russia,” noting that the Sea of Azov has become Russia’s internal sea. In one of his frequent historic references to a Russian leader he admires, he added that “Peter the Great fought to get access” to that body of water.

After failing to take Kyiv, Russia seized large swaths of southernUkraine and captured the key Sea of Azov port of Mariupol, after a three-month siege. In September, Putin illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions even though his forces didn’t completely control them: Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south, and Donetsk and Luhansk in the east. He annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimean in the year 2014).

If it doesn’t use it first then it will not be the second if there is a nuclear strike on our territory.

Putin said his previous nuclear weapons comments were not a factor provoking an increase in conflicts, but a factor of deterrence.

In his televised remarks, the Russian leader didn’t address Russia’s battlefield setbacks or its attempts to cement control over the seized regions but acknowledged problems with supplies, treatment of wounded soldiers and limited desertions.

The governor posted photos of new concrete anti-tank barriers in open fields. The governor said Tuesday that a fire broke out at the airport in the region after a drone strike. In neighboring Belgorod, workers were expanding anti-tank barriers and officials were organizing “self-defense units.” The governor of Belgorod stated on Wednesday that Russia’s air defenses have shot down incoming rockets, apparently from cross-border attacks.

Two strategic Russian air bases were attacked by drones on Monday, more than 500 kilometers from the Ukraine border. Moscow blamed Ukraine, which didn’t claim responsibility.

The damage to the power grid was worsened by Moscow’s strikes on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. Private Ukrainian power utility Ukrenergo said temperatures in eastern areas where it was making repairs had dropped to as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius (near zero Fahrenheit).

The deployment of 300,000 reservists was one of the topics that was discussed by Putin at his meeting. He said that 150,000 have so far been sent to combat zones, with the rest still undergoing training. Addressing speculation that the Kremlin could be preparing another mobilization, Putin said: “There is no need for the Defense Ministry and the country to do that.”

Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia” at the Kremlin, he addressed a group of soldiers receiving the awards, clutching a glass of champagne.

The reference to Kursk appears to reference Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the Kursk region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The defense ministry of Ukranian offered no response to the recent explosions that took place deep in Russia. Officially, the targets are well beyond the reach of the country’s declared drones.

At the ceremony, Putin continued to list the alleged aggressions that had been committed. It is genocide to not supply water to a million people.

He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. “No one has said a word about it anywhere. At all! Absolutely no words. He said that was the case.

Zelensky’s City of Fire: The Story of a Russian Metropolis during a High-Frequency Cold War

Russian authorities in the city reported frequent shelling this week, which was when Putin said he had annexed the city.

Michael Bociurkiw, a global affairs analyst, is currently based in Odesa. He is currently a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a former spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is an opinion contributor for CNN. The opinions he has in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion.

In Paris at that time, I saw Zelensky pull up to the lysée Palace in a modest car while Putin drove away with an armored limo. The host, French President, shook hands with Zelensky after hugging Putin.

In the days leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion, Zelensky was in a steep, downward trajectory in popularity ratings from the all-time high in the first days of his administration.

Zelensky was described as an ordinary man pushed into extraordinary circumstances by the Eastern European editor of the Economist.

After being bullied by Putin, he knew exactly what he had to do, said Yevhen HlibovYtsky, who founded the think.

This is the leader of the US who offered to evacuate when Russia started its invasion, and he quipped that he needed bullets, not a ride.

Zelensky tried to convince Trump to help deter an aggressive Russia in a phone call after he was impeached. Even though Trump feared Biden as his most effective opponent, he wanted to push for an investigation against him in order to get a favor from Ukraine.

It’s been nearly two years since Zelensky’s victory celebration in a renovated Kyiv nightclub where he thanked his supporters for a huge win. Standing on stage among the fluttering confetti, he looked in a state of disbelief at having defeated incumbent veteran politician Petro Poroshenko.

His ratings seem to have been affected by the war. Just days after the invasion, Zelensky’s ratings approval surged to 90%, and remain high to this day. Zelensky was rated highly for his handling of international affairs by Americans early in the war ahead of US President Joe Biden.

His bubble has many people from his previous professional life. In April of this year, a press conference held on the platform of a Kyiv metro station featured perfect lighting and camera angles to emphasize a wartime setting.

As for his skills as comforter in chief, I remember well the solace his nightly televised addresses brought in the midst of air raid sirens and explosions in Lviv.

Weinstein’s Zelensky Address to Putin and the Crimes of Crime: Views of a Global, Egalitarian Silicon Valley

“By wearing T-shirts and hoodies, the youthful, egalitarian uniform of Silicon Valley, rather than suits, Zelensky is projecting confidence and competence in a modern way, to a younger, global audience that recognizes it as such,” Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, a fashion historian and author of “Red, White, and Blue on the Runway: The 1968 White House Fashion Show and the Politics of American Style,” told NPR.

She believes that he is more comfortable in front of the camera than Putin is. Zelensky is doing a better job of balancing authority with accessibility, but I think both of them want to come across as personable.

Journeying to where her husband can’t, Zelenska has shown herself to be an effective communicator in international fora – projecting empathy, style and smarts. Most recently, she met with King Charles during a visit to a refugee assistance center at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family in London. Zelenska wasn’t included on the cover of Time magazine, and they didn’t include a reference in the text.

Despite the strong tailwinds at Zelensky’s back, there are subtle signs that his international influence could be dwindling. For example, last week, in what analysts called a pivotal moment in geopolitics, the G7 imposed a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian crude – despite pleas from Zelensky that it should have been set at $30 in order to inflict more pain on the Kremlin.

As Zelensky said in a recent nightly video address: “No matter what the aggressor intends to do, when the world is truly united, it is then the world, not the aggressor, determines how events develop.”

She said Zelensky’s historic address “strengthened both Democrats and Republicans who understand what is at stake in this fight against Putin and Russian aggression and now with their ally, Iran, as well.”

The speech “connected the struggle of Ukrainian people to our own revolution, to our own feelings that we want to be warm in our homes to celebrate Christmas and to get us to think about all the families in Ukraine that will be huddled in the cold and to know that they are on the front lines of freedom right now,” Clinton said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” Wednesday.

“I hope that they will send more than one,” she added. She noted there’s “been some reluctance in the past” by the US and NATO to provide advanced equipment, but added “We’ve seen with our own eyes how effective Ukrainian military is.”

Clinton, who previously met Russian President Vladimir Putin as US secretary of state, said the leader was “probably impossible to actually predict,” as the war turns in Ukraine’s favor and his popularity fades at home.

Clinton thinks that Putin will use Russian conscripts to throw more bodies into the fight in Ukraine.

CNN reached out to the Kremlin, which has yet to comment on Biden’s trip. Medvedev dismissed the trip as a ploy by the US to back up its support for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy andUkraine have made clear that they want a “just peace” and the United States has been helping them defend against Russian aggression.

The Kremlin has also been selling that line to the Russian public, who is largely buying it, says Sergey Radchenko, a Russian history professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Following Danilov’s comments, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said Wednesday that there a signs Russia is preparing for a renewed offensive in southern Ukraine.

US officials had argued for a long time that it was too complicated to give the system to Ukraine. Those arguments were thrown out by Russia’s campaign on civilian infrastructure.

That doesn’t mean Ukraine is not open to peace talks. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Associated Press on Monday that Kyiv wants UN-brokered discussions to start by February, but only after Russia faces a war crimes tribunal.

But Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Associated Press that Russia could only be invited to such a summit if the country faced a war crimes tribunal first.

Vlasov’s Peace Formula: How will the United States and Ukraine support each other? A statement by Kuleba on the visit of President Volodymyr Zelensky

Kuleba also said he was “absolutely satisfied” with the results of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the U.S. last week, and he revealed that the U.S. government had made a special plan to get the Patriot missile battery ready to be operational in the country in less than six months. The training usually lasts a year.

Ukraine can win the war this year, he said, as long as its allies remain united “like a fist” and Western weapons continue to be delivered on agreed-upon timelines.

He said that the UN could be the best place for the summit because it’s not about making a favor to a certain country. Bring everyone on board is what this is about.

Zelenskyy presented a 10-point peace formula to the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, which included the release of prisoners, the withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Kuleba commented that Guterres has proven himself as an efficient mediator and an efficient negotiator, and also as a man of principle and integrity. We would like to see his participation.

“They regularly say that they are ready for negotiations, which is not true, because everything they do on the battlefield proves the opposite,” he said.

And Zelensky’s visit to the US – his first overseas trip in ten months – shows his intention to keep his allies focused on the conflict and united in their support.

Kuleba, who was a part of the delegation that traveled to the US, said that the show shows how both the United States and Ukraine are important for their respective countries.

Putin’s message during Russia’s war on Ukraine is not in the interest of the West and for the security of the nuclear energy budget in the United States

He said that the U.S. government developed a program for the missile battery to complete the training faster than usual “without any damage to the quality of the use of this weapon on the battlefield.”

Kuleba said it will be ” very much less than six months” and did not specify a time frame. He said the training will be outside of Ukraine.

Kuleba has been second only to Zelenskyy in carrying Ukraine’s message during Russia’s war in that country, and needs to speak to an international audience through meetings with friendly foreign officials.

The Foreign Ministry says that Russian never went through the legal procedure for acquiring membership and taking the place of the USSR at the U.N. Security Council after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The vaguely conciliatory tone from Putin was quickly replaced by a heavy-handed message from one of his key officials.

Sergey Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister, said Monday that Ukraine must fulfill Russia’s demands for the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukrainian-controlled territories, repeating Moscow’s well-worn and false accusation of Nazism against Ukraine, which it has used in an attempt to justify its invasion.

Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to President Zelensky, told CNN Tuesday that Putin’s comments were likely an effort to buy time in the conflict.

So it makes little sense for Ukraine or the West to even entertain the possibility of a deal that carves up its land or rewards Putin for his invasion.

Zelensky and his officials will not be raising hopes for a truce even though they have been saying throughout that there is the chance of negotiations.

“Every war ends in a diplomatic way,” Kuleba told the AP on Monday. “Every war ends as a result of the actions taken on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”

The steps include a path to nuclear safety, food security, and a final peace treaty with Moscow. He urged the G20 to put a price cap on energy imports from Moscow and make Russia abandon nuclear threats.

The Russian-Russian Confrontation During Putin’s Russia-China War: Prospects for the Xi-Brazil Embedding

But more than 10 months into the grinding war, the world looks much different – and the dynamic between both partners has shifted accordingly, experts say.

Zelensky said that a just peace is not compromises to sovereignty, freedom, and territorial integrity of our country, the payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression.

The two leaders will primarily discuss bilateral relations between their countries, and exchange views on regional issues and their strategic partnership, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

The US accusations of China supporting Russia would be a major step in furthering the war between the two countries.

China, too, is growing more isolated in its stance toward Russia, said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

In September 2015, Modi told Putin that it was not the right time to start a war.

Wang told Putin that the two nations often face “crisis and chaos, but there are always opportunities in a crisis and the latter could possibly turn into the former.”

Instead, the focus of Xi’s Moscow trip will be on strengthening China-Russia relations. Suisheng Zhao, a professor at the University of Denver, says that it will likely be a win for Xi.

She added that trade between the two countries had increased this year due to high energy prices globally – and the two leaders could “reaffirm their vows to cooperate economically.”

War against Ukraine has left Russia Isolated: An analysis of the recent anti-government protests against Xi and alleged crimes against women

However, Wu said, the protests, Covid outbreak and consequent economic toll have placed Xi in a more vulnerable position that could mean less material and public support for Russia.

At the time, Putin insisted his forces were embarking on a “special military operation” — a term suggesting a limited campaign that would be over in a matter of weeks.

Yet the war has also fundamentally upended Russian life — rupturing a post-Soviet period in which the country pursued, if not always democratic reforms, then at least financial integration and dialogue with the West.

The military and leadership have had their critics banned by the cruel laws passed in February. Nearly 20,000 people have been detained for demonstrating against the war — 45% of them women — according to a leading independent monitoring group.

A long prison sentence has been meted out to high profile opposition voices that questioned the conduct of the Russian army.

In other parts of the country, people and organizations are added weekly to a growing list of “non-desirable” organizations that want to damage their reputation.

The co-recipist Memorial was forced to stop its activities because of alleged violations of the foreign agents law.

Russia’s anti-LGBT law has been greatly expanded by the state, which believes the war in Russia reflects a wider attack on traditional values.

For now, repressions remain targeted. Some of the new laws are still unenforced. Should the moment arise, most doubt the measures are intended to crush dissent.

Leading independent media outlets and a handful of vibrant, online investigative startups were forced to shut down or relocate abroad when confronted with new “fake news” laws that criminalized contradicting the official government line.

There are restrictions on internet users as well. American social media giants such as Facebook were banned in March. Since the beginning of the conflict, tens of thousands of websites have been blocked by the Russian internet regulator.

Technical workarounds such as VPNs and Telegram still offer access to Russians seeking independent sources of information. The state media is now covering the airwaves with propaganda for the older Russians.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/31/1145981036/war-against-ukraine-has-left-russia-isolated-and-struggling-with-more-tumult-ahe

The Russian War of Independence in the Early Years of the Second World War II: Russia’s Ruins and Its Economic Implications

Many perceived enemies left in the early days of the war because of fears of persecution.

Some countries that had absorbed the Russian exodus predict their economies will grow even as Russians remain a sensitive issue for some former Soviet republics.

In the initial days of the invasion, Russia’s ruble currency cratered and its banking and trading markets looked shaky. Hundreds of global corporate brands, such as McDonald’s and ExxonMobil, reduced, suspended or closed their Russian operations entirely.

President Putin is betting that the Europeans will pull back on their support of Ukraine because of high energy costs at home. He instituted a five-month ban on oil exports to countries that followed the price cap, which is a move that will make the pain more acute in Europe.

When it comes to Russia’s military campaign, there’s no outward change in the government’s tone. Russia’s Defense Ministry provides daily briefings recounting endless successes on the ground. Putin assures everyone that “everything is going according to plan.”

The length of the war suggests that Russia didn’t underestimate the Ukrainians’ willingness to resist.

There is a highly taboo subject about the true number of Russian losses. Western estimates place those figures much higher.

Indeed, Russia’s invasion has — thus far — backfired in its primary aims: NATO looks set to expand towards Russia’s borders, with the addition of long-neutral states Finland and Sweden.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Decay of the Defense Minister in Ukraine: Pressure on Russia and the Security and Security of the State of the Nation

A state of the nation address was supposed to happen in April but was delayed and won’t happen this year. Putin’s annual “direct line” — a media event in which Putin fields questions from ordinary Russians — was canceled outright.

An annual December “big press conference” – a semi-staged affair that allows the Russian leader to handle fawning questions from mostly pro-Kremlin media – was similarly tabled until 2023.

The Kremlin has given no reason for the delays. Many suspect it might be that, after 10 months of war and no sign of victory in sight, the Russian leader has finally run out of good news to share.

America has done this before. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the most dangerous nuclear confrontation so far, the Soviet Union’s position shifted in a matter of days, ultimately accepting an outcome that favored the West. America may have accepted an inferior compromise that weakened its security and credibility if it had had red lines thinking.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his defense minister to implement a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine for 36 hours this week to allow Orthodox Christians to attend Christmas services, according to a Kremlin statement Thursday. But the proposal was swiftly dismissed as “hypocrisy” by Ukrainian officials.

But Ukrainian officials voiced skepticism about the temporary ceasefire, saying Moscow just wanted a pause to gather reserves, equipment and ammunition.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to use Christmas as a ruse to stop the Ukrainian advance in the east of the country, the Ukrainian President said in his speech on Thursday.

Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukrainian presidential adviser, said that Russia must leave occupied territories in Ukraine before a truce can be reached.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price described it as “cynical” and that the US had “little faith in the intentions behind” Russia’s proposed ceasefire.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Thursday also warned that the promise of a ceasefire would not bring “either freedom or security” to the people living under Moscow’s brutal war.

Kirill has been a supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and in September said that military duty washes away all sins.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church is locked in a dispute with Pope Francis who has described the invasion of Ukraine as Russian expansionism and imperialism.

In November, a branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox church announced that it would allow its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25, rather than January 7, as is traditional in Orthodox congregations.

In recent years a large part of the Orthodox community in Ukraine has moved away from Moscow, a movement accelerated by the conflict Russia stoked in eastern Ukraine beginning in 2014.

In the southern region of Kherson, Pavlo Skotarenko doesn’t expect much to change. “They shell us every day, people die in Kherson every day. He said that the temporary measure wouldn’t change anything.

From the frontlines in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, a Ukrainian soldier told CNN that the temporary ceasefire announcement looked like an effort to clean up Russia’s image.

“I do not think that this is done for some military tactical purpose, one day will not solve much,” the Ukrainian soldier, who goes by the call sign Archer, told CNN by phone.

The soldier said that it was possible that this was done to make the whole of Russia a little more human, since so many atrocities are constantly emerging in the country.

In the capital of Kyiv, where Russian attacks soured even the least modest celebrations, Halyna Hladka said the truce was a ploy by Russians to win time.

Russia has already used their faith in a number of different ways. And besides, in almost a year of war, Russia has not behaved itself as a country capable of adhering to promises,” she said.

Ukrainian officials have warned for some time of a renewed Russian offensive and have asked for more powerful weaponry from Western allies to counter the threat.

In an interview broadcast Tuesday, the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of the Ukrainians told Sky News they will be defining months in the war.

“We are on the edge of a very busy period of hostilities in February and March,” said a representative of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.

Military representatives from the two countries will work together on planning for the use of troops based on their experience of armed conflicts in the past.

NATO Security Conference Summary: The U.S. Embassy to Ukraine During the First Anniversary of the Kiev Warsaw, and Preparation for a Security Conference emailed to NATO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise Europe tour, meeting leaders in London, Paris and Brussels, and reiterating his call for allies to send fighter jets to Ukraine.

One year ago, the world was awakened by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. During the lead-up, President Biden visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as well as Poland.

The international team investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 said there was “strong proof” that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the go-ahead to provide anti-aircraft weapons to the rebels.

Mr. Putin is looking to shore up alliances as the Ukraine war approaches its first anniversary and the early stages of Russia’s new offensive to swallow up territory appear to be sputtering. As Mr. Putin and Mr. Wang met, President Biden was gathering with NATO members from the alliance’s eastern flank in Warsaw in a display of unity.

Vice President Kamala Harris heads to the security conference this week, which is when the rhetorical and diplomatic offensive will intensify. President Joe Biden will meanwhile visit Poland and a frontline NATO and ex-Warsaw pact state next week, bolstering his legacy of offering the most effective leadership of the Western alliance since the end of the Cold War.

Why the US is so strongly concerned about NATO and Russia, as Trump argued in a panel discussion about the new majority in the House of Representatives

Some Republicans in the US House are uneasy about the new majority. Gaetz demanded an end to aid to Ukraine and for the US to demand that all warring parties reach a peace agreement. A bipartisan majority for saving Ukraine still exists in the House and the Senate. Biden might not be able to guarantee massive aid packages forUkraine for the rest of his life. If Trump wins, the US aid could be in serious doubt.

The outside world knows Putin is not contemplating defeat or an exit from the war because of the complete lack of any diplomatic framework for ceasefire talks.

There were no signs that Russia was wavering on President Putin’s determination, according to a leading expert on Russia and Putin who worked for Donald Trump.

The Chinese peace plan has been doubted recently by State Department officials. As US officials worry that China may provide lethal support to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, this comes as well.

“You’re going to end up with an albatross around your neck,” Sherman said at an event at the Brookings Institution, though admitted the US was concerned about tightening ties between China and Russia at a time when it is locked in simultaneous showdowns with each power.

Arms control coordination between the two countries must continue “no matter what else is happening in the world or in our relationship … just as the United States and the Soviet Union did, even at the height of the Cold War.”

In addition to fortifying NATO and strengthening alliances, which President Joe Biden’s administration has accomplished with great success, the US must aim to forestall the creation of a credible, unified force of aggressive antidemocratic regimes.

From the US perspective, the effort has the potential to start loosening the ties in the “no-limits” friendship between Xi and Putin which, as I argued before, should be a goal of US foreign policy. It’s a bit of jujitsu, with China’s success in the Middle East potentially helping US aims elsewhere, by encouraging Xi to try his hand in Ukraine – opening the possibility that it could put distance between him and Putin.

But the rule of the strongest doesn’t work when you can’t win, which is how Russia’s plans started to unravel, and China had to rethink its commitment.

According to US intelligence, Russia has bought artillery shells from North Korea, another notorious dictatorship, which denies its involvement in a war whose morality is beyond the pale.

Xi Raisi, the First High-Power Iranian President to Visit China and Why China is Listening to Europe and Not Supporting Russia

This week, Ebrahim Raisi became the first Iranian president to visit China in 20 years. The trip, at Xi’s invitation, ostensibly aims to implement an agreement for a 25-year strategic cooperation pact the two reached at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in 2021.

The Beijing-Tehran ties have raised alarms among both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who fear China’s support could help Tehran evade sanctions related to its nuclear and conventional weapons programs, support for terrorism and human rights abuses.

Clearly, there’s an internal contradiction in Xi’s dual goals. If you want to elevate your standing to that of a respected global leader, it’s hard to create an alliance of rule-breaking autocrats and assorted dictators, and then expect other countries to join enthusiastically.

Territorial and sovereignty integrity of all countries will be respected in China’s proposal, Wang said, adding that Beijing will continue to work for peace.

Yet China is also wary of alienating European countries further with its notable lack of condemnation of Russia’s war. China tried to walk a fine line in the position paper.

CNN asked von der Leyen if she agreed with Wang that China was listening to Europe and not supporting Russia. She said that the opposite had been seen so far.

The Chinese official in charge of Moscow will make the first visit to Russia from a Chinese official in that role since the war began.

The U.S. War in Ukraine and the Emergence of a Critical Moment in the Relations Between Russia and the European Union: Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu

The United States and its major allies have been steadfast in their resolve to support Ukraine in its fight, and their people have largely accepted the enormous cost. In the United States, the political resistance has been limited largely to a few voices on the far right and far left. But questions will become only more common as the war drags on. As Representative Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House, a Republican and a strong supporter of Ukraine, has warned, “There should be no blank check on anything.”

“I do think this is a critical moment,” Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told NPR. “The battlefield, as difficult as it is and as bloody as it is … is something that’s going to play a very major factor in both President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and President [Vladimir] Putin’s calculations as to whether or not to go to the negotiating table … and under what conditions.”

“This is something that leads me to the question – for whom do we document all these crimes?” The head of the Center for Civil Liberties told us. “Because I’m not a historian, I’m a human rights lawyer, and we document human pain in order sooner or later to have all these Russians … brought to justice.”

Speaking to NPR’s Leila Fadel, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said his country is learning lessons from the war in Ukraine and keeping a wary eye on China.

They have a lot of motivation. They want to continue to expand their sphere of influence. They want to continue to expand their power. And if they are not stopped, then they will continue to march on,” Wu told us.

But this moment finds the United States negotiating worsening foreign policy crises at the same time – with its former Cold War adversaries in the Kremlin and its belligerent new superpower rival led by Xi Jinping. Both these rivals are questioning the rule of law and rejecting the standards that have underpinned the international system for decades.

Natalia Vova: The Russians and the U.S. in the First Days of the Second World War II: The Secretary of State and the Department of State

Natalia thinks that the family car was hit by Russian forces during the first days of the war. Her husband was killed, along with her 6-year-old nephew, Maxim. Vova had seven bullets in his body and was hospitalized for months.

Danny Hajek produced and edited the audio for this story. Additional editing and production help from Carol Klinger, Denise Couture and Nina Kravinsky. Hanna Palamarenko and Tanya Ustova provided reporting and translation help.

It is thought that China will not risk US sanctions if it sends arms to Moscow. Beijing may want the war to linger so that it can distract the US from Biden trying to respond to China in Asia.

The officials would not say what intelligence the US has seen suggesting a recent shift in China’s posture, but said US officials have told their allies and partners about the intelligence over the last few days.

The issue was raised by the Secretary of State at his meeting with Wang Yi on the sideline of the conference.

A senior State Department official told reporters that the Secretary warned that China could be in trouble if it provided material support to Russia.

The War Between Russia and Ukraine Can’t Continue, Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Tx) told the Associated News Source at the Blinken Research Center in Munich

The warfare can’t continue. Wang said at the conference that efforts must be made to bring the warfare to an end.

Chinese companies have supplied non-lethal support to Russia for use in the Ukrainian crisis, according to a senior State Department official.

“The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they’re considering providing lethal support, and we’ve made very clear to them that that would cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship,” Blinken said.

In a joint interview with House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner, Texas Rep. McCaul stated that bipartisan support for Ukrainians is very strong.

McCaul warned against hedging support for Ukraine because it could prolong the war and allow anti-Ukraine opposition to grow.

“The longer (Biden administration officials) drag this out, they play into (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin’s hands. The Texas Republican told CNN that the war could last for a long while and that the American people may lose their will if it goes on too long.

McCaul said he hopes that the US will send fighter jets to Ukraine, while noting that he is worried about a drawn-out conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Turner equated the resolution to a letter more than two dozen progressive House Democrats sent the White House last fall, asking it to pursue diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine. The letter was removed.

“You have a handful on both sides, both sides, Pamela, who have been cautious or who have said that they don’t support, or they want support to come to an end,” he said from Munich. “There are 435 members of Congress. 400 of them are for continuing this direction and path.

The Blue Moon of Defense Conference Summary: The U.S. and China’s Role in the Strategic Security of the World, as Sentiments Toward a Common Understanding

McCaul said to CNN that the parts for the suspected Chinese balloon that flew over US airspace were made in the United States and urged the US to restrict the flow of weapons technology to China.

“They steal a lot of this from us. They don’t have to sell us the technology that they can use to make an attack against Taiwan or the US in the Pacific. I think there’s great bipartisanship on this issue,” he added.

McCaul said the tension between the two countries is high and both Democrats and Republicans are in favor of confronting Chinese threats.

McCaul thinks we can be bipartisan on national security against one of the greatest threats to the world.

“No one, of course, wants a cold war, but that isn’t the issue. We want to see a China that isn’t going to be an aggressive country, that doesn’t threaten the U.S., and that doesn’t have negative comments about us instead of apologizing for sending a balloon over us.

The conference is known as the blue moon of defense because of its large number of heads of state, generals and intelligence chiefs.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine set the tone of the three-day conference by urging Western leaders to act rather than talk, calling via videolink for the speedy deliveries of weapons and warning of dwindling supplies on the battleground.

The United States and Russia plan to hold crimes against humanity in Ukraine and other world locations, as revealed by the U.S. Secretary of State

The United States made its presence felt this year with a record number of delegates and significant bipartisan and bicameral representation from Congress.

But with delegations attending from every continent, beyond Europe and the members of NATO, broader geopolitical issues were at play, both on the conference stage and on the sidelines.

It is not yet certain if dialogue with President Putin will take place at next year’s conference. But as Vice President Kamala Harris announced Saturday, the U.S. administration is preparing to see Russian leaders stand trial for crimes against humanity.

Harris described how Russian soldiers are deliberately targeting civilians, citing evidence of “widespread and systemic” rape, torture, execution-style killings, beatings, electrocution and deportation, including children who, she said, have been cruelly separated from their parents.

She told the delegates not to look the other way, and said that a four-year-old was sexually abused by a Russian soldier.

The U.S. Secretary of State said in a statement released at the conference: “We reserve crimes against humanity determinations for the most egregious crimes.”

Peace in Ukraine and other world locations is Beijing’s top foreign policy priority, according to Wang. He warned against international interference on the issue of Taiwan. Wang said maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait meant opposing Taiwanese independence forces.

China is meanwhile injecting its own strategic play into this widening great power brouhaha. Even though the US warned Russia not to weapons use in Ukraine, the country sent its top diplomat Wang Yi to Moscow for high-level talks.

After much “will they, won’t they”, Blinken and Wang sat down together on the last night of the conference, in the first high-level meeting between the two countries since the U.S. shot down an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon.

In a statement, the U.S. State Department said that Blinken told Wang that the U.S. is not seeking conflict with China but warned him against Beijing providing any material support to Russia, or helping Moscow evade Western sanctions.

European leaders are committed to increasing investment in weapons because Wang Yi called for peace in Ukraine without detailing what peace in the region means.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier this month that Europe and NATO’s production capacity needs to be ramped up if the West is going to meet Ukraine’s needs.

The German Chancellor asked his European partners to keep their pledges to deliver battle tanks to Ukraine. During a Q&A session, Scholz quipped it was ironic that he’s now having to urge others to deliver Leopard tanks quickly to Ukraine after they’d put pressure on him to do the same in previous weeks.

Boris Pistorius continued in the same vein, pushing for higher military spending in Europe. He went further than Scholz’s promise to meet NATO’s spending target of 2% of GDP with a call for them to agree on 2% as a minimum commitment. Germany currently does not meet the 2% target and is not expected to do so for another couple of years.

On several occasions, Scholz had said no to requests from Ukraine to send fighter jets. He said Germany’s support for Kyiv is resolute but warned against hasty decisions and the dangers of escalation.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sparks anger and embarrassment between the world’s two superpowers, a warning from the Kremlin

Prominent Kremlin critics, including exiled oil tycoons and chess champ Gary Kasparov, were pointedly offered seats instead.

The conference is known for promoting dialogue even between enemies, but the Chair of the conference didn’t want the conference to be a podium for Russian propaganda.

Heusgen – who served as former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s top foreign policy aide – admitted in an interview earlier this week that he left last year’s conference convinced Russia would not invade Ukraine. The invasion began four days later.

President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine sparked anger and embarrassment among many of Russia’s hawkish military pundits on Monday, increasing pressure on Vladimir Putin as the Russian leader prepares to justify his stuttering invasion in a national address.

The optics of the two trips – taking place just days before the one-year anniversary of the brutal war on Friday – underscores the sharpening of geopolitical fault lines between the world’s two superpowers.

The US is deliberately prolonging the war in order to get more benefits, said Wang, in a subtle reference to China’s nightly prime time news program.

Peace talks might not be popular with some forces. They don’t pay attention to the life and death of Ukrainians or harm to Europe. They might have strategic goals larger than Ukraine itself. This warfare must not continue,” Wang said.

He wants European officials to think about how Europe can bring lasting peace to Europe.

The Russian Army is NOT the Grandfather of the Cold War: Military Bloggers and Military Blogbers Dispute What Putin’s Generals Can Say About Russia

The US has been slammed by the China’s Foreign Ministry for “shoving responsibility, shifting blame and spreading false information”.

“It is the US side, not the Chinese side, that supplies a steady stream of weapons to the battlefield. The US side doesn’t have the right to lecture China, and we wouldn’t accept any pressure from them, a ministry spokesman said at a news conference.

Why are people calling for dialogue and peace? Who is encouraging confrontation and handing out knives? The international community can see clearly,” the spokesperson said.

Previously, Beijing had carefully avoided actions that could trigger secondary sanctions, which would deal a devastating blow to an economy hampered by three years of costly zero-Covid policy.

Beijing has provided Moscow with much-needed diplomatic and economic assistance despite its calls for peace talks.

Russia’s military bloggers were aghast. A “demonstrative humiliation of Russia” is how Russian journalist Sergey Mardan described the moment. The Telegram app managed by Russian service members had an account that joked that they were waiting for the president of the Russian Federation but not the president of the US.

Russian army veteran and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Igor Girkin meanwhile suggested that Biden could have visited the frontlines in eastern Ukraine and escaped unharmed.

“Wouldn’t be surprised if the grandfather (he is not good for anything but simple provocations anyway) is brought to Bakhmut as well… AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO HIM,” Girkin said.

A number of hardline military bloggers have criticized what they consider a “soft” approach to the battlefield by Putin’s generals, as well as covering the conflict for large swaths of the Russian population.

Biden’s historic visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, marks the one-year anniversary of the war-torn country Xi’s invasion

As the world prepares to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine, President Joe Biden made a historic visit to the capital of the war-torn country.

Medvedev, who is currently the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, is known for making statements that appear to be attempts to shore up his nationalist credentials.

The debate over Biden’s visit will be unwelcome to Putin, who will on Tuesday make a major speech to the Federal Assembly in which he will discuss the ongoing invasion.

The participants of the military operation will be in attendance and no foreign guests or representatives will be invited, according to a Kremlin spokesman.

The risky trip on Monday to an active war zone was not just a powerful symbol of American support, it was a shot in the arm to a population that has endured Russia’s devastating attacks on civilian apartment blocks, hospitals, schools and the power stations that provide heat and electricity.

“It was a convenient excuse for him to go in advance of Xi’s visit to show that he’s still the commander-in-chief, that he’s still in charge, and that his military still has occupied territory inside Ukraine. He said that it was obvious that he could see how bad his military was doing and we would hope that he would see for himself.

The day after Biden arrives in Kyiv, he will speak to the world about the importance of democracy in the world and vow to continue his help with the Ukrainian people.

Russia’s uniforms seemed to be expecting a victory parade as Ukraine said it found them at the beginning of the invasion.

The Fate of the United States: After Five Years in Washington, D.C. Biden and the New START Nuclear Arms Treaty

Biden is older than him and walks with a hunched back. But he has no shortage of courage (air raid sirens sounded over Kyiv while Biden was there) or, crucially, competence.

A joyous Zelensky said Biden’s visit “brings us closer to victory,” adding it will “have repercussions on the battlefield in liberating our territories.”

GOP members criticized Biden’s trip to Ukraine. The trip was denounced by Marjorie Taylor-Greene as “incredibly insulting” and indicative of an America Last policy. And Rep. Scott Perry — at the center of a legal dispute with the Justice Department over his cell phone in the special counsel’s January 6 probe — described as “breathtaking” that Biden would help Ukraine defend its borders and not do the same for America.

Putin, for example, announced Tuesday that Russia would suspend participation in the New START nuclear treaty with the United States. Since Moscow has stopped fully implementing the deal, it is not clear what impact this will have.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described Russia’s decision as “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible.” The United States has accused Russia of violating the last remaining nuclear arms treaty.

He made it clear that the United States would not be inspecting Russian nuclear sites to verify compliance with the treaty. He sounded like a leader who was done with arms control at a time of escalating confrontation with the U.S. and NATO.

If that attitude holds, whoever is sitting in the Oval Office when the treaty expires in a bit more than 1,000 days may face a new world that will look, at first glance, similar to the one of a half-century ago, when arms races were in full swing and nations could field as many nuclear weapons as they wanted.

The Case for a New Security Treaty Between the United States and Moscow, as Informed by the Russian Prime Minister and by the Crimes of Crime

He said that inspectors could pass their findings on to the Ukrainians, so he wouldn’t let them survey those facilities. “This is a theater of the absurd,” he said. The attempts by the regime in Kyiv to strike at bases are being participated in by the West.

None of this changes the status quo very much. Nuclear inspections were suspended during the Covid pandemic, when inspectors on either side couldn’t get into Russia or the United States. But over the past year, as travel restrictions lifted, Russians came up with reasons to deny inspections — and charged, as Mr. Putin did again on Tuesday, that the United States was not living up to its inspection requirements either.

There are many reasons. There is almost no communication between the two countries. The “strategic stability talks” that Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin agreed upon in June 2021, at their only face-to-face meeting as presidents, were suspended after the invasion of Ukraine.

It makes sense for another treaty to be between Moscow and Washington. China could potentially have as many as 1,500 weapons in the next 12 years, matching the American and Russian arsenals, according to the Pentagon. The arms control treaty that left one of the three major powers out would be useless. And so far, China has showed no interest in joining negotiations — if there were any.

Still, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Tuesday, after Mr. Putin spoke, that he would be willing to negotiate a new treaty that was “clearly in the security interests of our country” and, he added, “in the security interests of Russia.”

Putin urged those present to stand and remember Russia’s losses in the war as a moment of silence. The Russian leader also promised a range of social support packages for families of the fallen.

Putin’s Cold War with Ukraine: The Challenge for the U.S. and for the Security Effort of the Cold War on Ukraine

Signed in 2010, New Start came into force in 2011, and was extended till 2026. The number of nuclear warheads that Russia and the U.S. can deploy is capped. The two countries have the vast majority of all deployable warheads.

Should the U.S. attempt new tests, Putin instructed the military and civilian atomic energy agency to be ready to do so.

Putin presented a now-familiar list of grievances against the West, including what he described as its moral and spiritual collapse whose values, he said, threaten the children of Russia. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarch Kirill, was seated front-row center in the hall.

“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is not just a European matter, but a challenge to the rules and principles of the entire international community,” Kishida said at the time.

Today’s address also kickstarts a series of connected and choreographed events: Russian lawmakers gather for an extraordinary session of both chambers of parliament Wednesday, when Putin will also address a mass rally at Moscow’s largest stadium.

And despite claiming the “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries must be effectively upheld,” the document fails to acknowledge Russia’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty.

Putin then assembled his National Security Council for a televised session to discuss the independence issue — now famous for the image of the Russian leader holding court across a vast hallway to consult with, in theory, his closest advisors.

It has taken a dramatic increase or change of battlefield conditions for the US to do more, similar to the decision by Biden to give a defense system.

Not only would the US follow through on sweeping sanctions, Biden also detailed his intent to provide more security assistance than any provided on a consistent basis to Ukraine since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Biden made the pledge “crystal clear,” a senior administration official recalled.

At the same time, Ukraine has continued to press for newer and more sophisticated weapons, including longer-range missile systems and fighter jets, requests the US has denied previously. Zelensky was hoping to convince Biden to listen to his personal appeal when he pressed him on both during Biden’s surprise visit to Kyiv.

The U.S. Military Response to Ukraine’s Air Defense Challenge: Jake Sullivan and Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Andrey Ermak and Valery Zaluzhn

In addition to lower-level military contacts, National security adviser Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley all speak directly with their counterparts multiple times a week.

Sullivan and Milley also hold regular joint calls with top Zelensky adviser Andriy Yermak and Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces. These calls give Sullivan and Milley a chance to get the latest reports from the battlefield and assess the Ukrainian military’s needs.

To assess the impact of Ukrainian requests on the battlefield, how quickly the Ukrainians can train and integrate the new weapons, and the impact of transferring the weapons on US military readiness, officials conduct rigorous analysis of the requests through these various channels and send them to the Pentagon.

Even as the process has gotten more organized, with US equipment now often landing in Ukraine within days of Biden approving a security package, the urgency persists.

A State Department official said they had never seen the bureaucracy work as fast as it is doing.

“The president was obviously outraged about this, as we all were, and really pushed our teams, particularly at the Pentagon, to look at what we could do on our side to help them defend against this problem,” a senior administration official said.

Russia’s targeted campaign on civilian infrastructure could leave Ukraine’s air defenses too thin and force the government to deploy its limited air defense assets to protect frontline troops or its cities.

At the White House, where Sullivan hosts a daily meeting of key National Security Council officials to coordinate the government-wide effort to support Ukraine, that launched an effort to get US allies to also get Ukraine more air defense capabilities.

“We really went around the world and found for them, not only additional systems that other countries had and persuade them to transfer them, but parts,” the official said, allowing Ukraine to get non-operational S-300 systems back online.

At key inflection points – from the decision to provide howitzers in April, HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in June and tanks last month – the ratcheting up of US security assistance has been matched or complemented by allies.

The senior administration official said that they have adapted to make sure the Ukrainians are successful in the conflict. “We have adapted, they have adapted.”

Ensuring the pace of weapons and ammunition supplies to Ukraine as their stock dwindles is the biggest challenge facing the West in its support for the war.

“A lot of the ammunition stocks have been depleted in Europe,” Estonian Ministry of Defense Permanent Secretary Kusti Salm told CNN, and Europe’s current industrial capacities are limited in terms of how fast the ammo can be manufactured.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/politics/ukraine-us-military-aid-reservations-one-year/index.html

Ukrain and China: the status of Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan, including a pledge to end Ukraine’s war

The US says that the Ukrainian military was interested in fighting an shelling war in which heavy bombardment was fired at the enemy’s defensive lines.

The US has urged the Ukrainian government to use a more maneuver warfare style of fighting that uses rapid, unforeseen movements and a combination of different combat arms instead of relying on heavy weaponry.

The first group of 635 Ukrainians training on this style of fighting wrapped up their course at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany last week, according to Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder. The second group of more than 700 soldiers has already begun the five-week training course.

John Kirby, an official with the National Security Council, said last week that the US has provided input on Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan.

The plan includes calls for the restoration of Ukraine’s state borders with Russia and the withdrawal of Russian troops, a special tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes, and the release of all Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The allies are getting to the realization that this is going to be a long war, according to the defence secretary of the country. The war is going to be an extremely costly war and you need an end goal in order to manage it.

The senior State Department official said the US understands this position. An end goal “has to be something that any democratically elected leader in Ukraine can sell to his or her public,” the official said. “But I think he’s committed to get there.”

Biden’s dramatic visit to Kyiv Monday amid wailing air raid sirens and his soaring speech in Warsaw a day later reinforced the West’s remarkable support for Ukraine’s resistance to Russia and directly repudiated President Vladimir Putin.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Lukashenko’s visit to Beijing would be an opportunity to further progress the relations between the two countries.

Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: Donald J. Biden and the Russian Embassy to the United Nations (State of the Union)

This complicated foreign policy picture is a bigger problem than just American diplomats. Questions about military capacity and whether defense spending is sufficient are posed by the decline of US and Western weapons stocks, as well as rising challenges abroad. Key Republicans meanwhile are accusing Biden of snubbing voters facing economic and other problems, even as he tries to position Democrats as the protectors of working Americans as the 2024 campaign dawns.

And Biden vowed, “President Putin’s craven lust for land and power will fail, and the Ukrainian people’s love for their country will prevail,” he added.

To Western ears, Putin seems to be living in an alternative reality. And Biden contradicted his claims of Western imperialism, saying, “I speak once more to the people of Russia. The nations of Europe do not want to destroy Russia. The West was not plotting to attack Russia, as Putin said today.”

Biden’s trip also demonstrated that the estrangement between the US and Russia – a factor that will shape global politics for years – is almost complete.

The US has imposed thousands of sanctions on Russia after the war in Ukraine, causing a collapse in relations between them.

Even if the war between the US and Russia ends, there will be no return to normal relations between the two countries.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that such a step would cross a US red line but did not specify what consequences could result.

A long-dragging conflict could lead to further dividing between the US and Europe. Biden’s ability to fulfill foreign policy goals on the global stage could be weakened due to political dissent in Washington.

This week, Beijing also sent its top diplomat, Wang Yi, to Moscow where he met with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin among other Russian officials and reiterated the only way to resolve the crisis was through diplomatic negotiation.

The Chinese news media shared video of the meeting that showed Mr. Wang telling Mr. Putin that the international situation was complicated and grim. Chinese-Russian relations have withstood the test of international turbulence and are steadfast, as evidenced by Mount Tai.

The annual trade volume of China and Russia could reach $200 billion by the year’s end, as predicted by Mr. Putin in his opening remarks.

“Everything is moving forward, developing, we are reaching new frontiers,” Mr. Putin said. Above all, we’re talking about economic issues.

China can’t stop the Russia-Ukraine crisis: The Washington Post reports on Wang Yi at the Security Conference on Russia and the European Union

A State Department official said the Biden administration expects China to come up with a plan for resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Friday.

Victoria Nuland, the State Department’s under secretary of political affairs, told the Washington Post she wasn’t sure what the Chinese put on the table but it is supposed to be announced tomorrow.

Wang Yi was the top diplomat of China when he spoke at the Security Conference last weekend. After Wang traveled to Moscow later this week, however, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said he had not discussed the reported plan with China’s top diplomat.

“In neutrality, China should talk to both sides: Russia and Ukraine, and now we can see China is not talking to Ukraine,” she said, noting that Kyiv was not consulted before the release of the paper.

China should do everything in their power to stop the war and restore peace in Ukraine, said Zhanna Leshchynska, the Chargé d’Affaires to China.

The position paper was discussed last week at a security conference in Germany where Wang Yi tried to cast Beijing as a responsible negotiator during a diplomatic charm offensive on Europe.

“Conflict and war benefit no one. The paper said that all parties need to stay rational and restrained, avoid fanning the flames and get the crisis under control.

The document uses a lot of language that is aimed at the West. In a thinly veiled criticism of the United States, the paper said, “Cold War mentality” should be abandoned.

It criticizes the economic sanctions imposed by the US and other Western countries on Russia. lateral sanctions and maximum pressure only make the problem worse. There should be a cessation of sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction on part of countries that are relevant to theUkraine crisis.

The paper was swiftly criticized by American officials, with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan saying the war “could end tomorrow if Russia stopped attacking Ukraine and withdrew its forces.”

In Beijing, the ambassador of the European Union to China, Jorge Toledo, told reporters at a briefing that China’s position paper was not a peace proposal, adding that the EU is “studying the paper closely,” according to Reuters.

Wang explains what he feels about China and how he intends to ensure that China is not providing the right kind of lethal weapons

“This requires us to identify changes more voluntarily and respond to the changes more actively to further strengthen our comprehensive strategic partnership,” Wang said.

There isn’t a lot of clout involved. The document is broad and general but there’s no reason why you should stop or cease using it. There’s no big appeal that you’re getting something. There’s no big cost if you don’t comply,” said Ian Chong, associate professor of political science at National University of Singapore.

Not one to shrink from questions or to shy away from calling out even allies if he feels they could be doing more to help Ukraine, he nevertheless tread carefully when talking about China.

Asked about reports that Beijing was considering providing Moscow with lethal weapons, Mr. Zelensky initially ignored the question. When it was raised a second time, he said that working to ensure China did not arm Russia was one of his top priorities.

Mr. Zelensky had the question translated a second time and then engaged the reporter directly, telling her that it was not about geography or geopolitics but basic principles.

Ukraine’s War with Russia – a Memorino with Israel and a View from the Prospects for the Council of European High Commissioners

Does China think innocent people shouldn’t be killed? That a nuclear power plant should not be occupied? Is respect for a nation’s sovereignty part of the reason that an invader should leave?

“I am already starting public diplomatic relations here,” he said, before switching to English to stress his openness to direct talks with China. “We have so many common issues, we have to speak between us with no one else.”

Mr. Zelensky’s confidence in Ukraine’s victory is premised on the idea that Moscow will not find a way to quickly and robustly rebuild its battered military.

Again, Mr. Zelensky was careful not to alienate a potential ally. Public support for Israel’s targets of Iranian drones and missile production is more important than the targets themselves.

He said that he understood Israel’s long and complex history with Russia but said that he had wished for Israel to take a firmer stance against it since the start of the war.

There were hard questions about possible internal disputes in his government. There was also a journalist from Azerbaijan who simply wanted a selfie with the Ukrainian leader, for his son. Mr. Zelensky agreed.

The Ukrainian leader said the darkest moment of the war for him personally was when he saw the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers for the first time, in Bucha. “It was horrible,” he said.

Even if the answer to how and whenUkraine could win the war was determined on the battlefield, there were many questions about it over two and half hours.

Lawmakers will attend hearings in the Senate and the House about the war in Ukraine.

Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko meets Xi Jinping in an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership on September 17 – 24th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Some Russians defied the Kremlin’s rule by protesting against the war in several cities, with one independent Russian outlet reporting more than 50 people were detained at different demonstrations where they picketed, laid flowers and wrote messages.

China is planning to welcome a key autocratic ally of Putin for a visit, despite warnings from the United States that Beijing might help Moscow in its offensive against the Ukrainian people.

Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese officials in Beijing from Tuesday to Thursday at the invitation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, China’s Foreign Ministry announced Sunday.

His trip comes after the two leaders agreed to upgrade their countries’ ties to an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” during a September meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan, which Putin also attended.

Lukashenko could be interested in boosting economic ties with China because of the damage done to his ties with the West and the interests of a Russia dependent economy.

Belarus has been targeted by sweeping sanctions from the US and its allies in response to Moscow’s aggression after Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to invade Ukraine through the 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) Ukrainian-Belarusian border north of Kyiv.

Belarus was an early joiner of China’s Belt and Road development initiative, launched a decade ago, and trade between the two last year increased 33% year-on-year to surpass $5 billion, according to Xinhua.

In a call between China’s Foreign Minister and his Belarussian counterpart, he pledged that Beijing would oppose interference from outside and would back up the country in its efforts to keep its economy growing.

According to Chinese state media, Lukashenko was welcomed with a 21-gun salute in Tiananmen Square, where he reviewed honor guard troops with Xi, who later declared the China-Belarus friendship “unbreakable.”

The United States was not interested in China’s policy paper, although leaders from France and Ukraine said they would like to have a discussion with their Chinese counterpart.

There were a number of bilateral agreements signed during the signing of a joint statement on the further development of the China-Belarus All-Weather Strategic Partnership.

In 2020 Lukashenko won a sixth term as president of the former soviet republic in an election that was widely viewed as fraudulent. The election resulted in Lukashenko retaining his power, which led to months of street protests.

Vui’s disappearance leaves no Serbian nationals among the mercenary group’s fighters in the Bakhmut region

The Ukrainian forces are mostly still around the city of Bakhmut, but at a high price, according to one commander.

On the ground. The central Poltava region was attacked by the Russians, as well as the eastern Luhansk region, Ukrainian officials said. The General Staff said several civilians were wounded in Russian rocket attacks in the northern region of Kharkiv. Heavy shelling has been reported along the frontline on the Luhansk-Kharkiv border.

Wagner update: Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said there are no Serbian nationals among the mercenary group’s fighters in Ukraine, after “the last one” left the area two months ago. The comments come in the wake of the accusations made by Serbian President Aleksandar Vui.

Blinken said he reiterated the call for Moscow to accept Washington’s proposal to release Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine imprisoned in Russia since 2018.

A Russian court convicted Whelan of espionage charges in 2020 and sentenced him to 16 years in prison. Blinken has previously said “Russian authorities subjected him to a secret trial and sentenced him to 16 years in a Russian penal colony based on secret evidence.”

Xi, Putin and the Global South: A High-Sensitivity View of the G20’s External Affairs Mission in India

On Thursday, he said, “We’re determined to bring Paul and every other American citizen who is unjustly detained around the world home. We will not stop until we do.

India, which holds the rotating chair of the G-20 this year, hoped the war in Ukraine would not dominate proceedings at the meetings of the group’s foreign ministers.

Climate change, food security, inflation and debt relief are issues that are relevant to the Global South according to the host country.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, visits the White House Friday for talks with President Biden, following her trip to Canada.

The top US and Russian diplomats met for the first time since the invasion in a brief walk and talk, alongside the G20 nations’ foreign ministers in India.

A center-right party won the election in Europe’s newest nation and Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is set to remain in her post.

But in many Western capitals the optics of the visit will look very different – two autocrats who have long described themselves as firm friends shaking hands and banqueting while a conflagration in Europe rages.

Just days ago China brokered a surprise rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia that helped to restore diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Hours after the announcement of Xi’s trip on Friday, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes over Moscow’s deportation of Ukrainian children.

China’s top leader will be dining with a suspected war criminal whom he has called a “best friend” and affirming his “no limits” partnership with a global pariah who has caused thousands of deaths in Iraq and wreaked havoc on the global economy.

For Xi, who this month locked up a rare third term as China’s president, the Russia trip offers a chance to strengthen relations with a key neighbor and partner-of-convenience. At the same time, the trip could help burnish China’s credentials as a global heavyweight.

Xi will be walking a diplomatic tightrope in Moscow, as he seeks to present China as a neutral peace broker while deepening ties with Russia, without further antagonizing Europe – a key trade partner Beijing has sought to woo away from the US.

In a signed article published in Russian state media Monday, Xi framed his upcoming visit as “a journey of friendship, cooperation and peace,” vowing to open “a new chapter” of bilateral relations.

The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, published a letter the same day from Putin filled with praise for “Comrade Xi” and his view that Western powers will one day come for China.

The Chinese leader will be able to use his victory in the Middle East to help shape the trajectory of the war in Ukraine as a result of the timing of the meeting, he said.

“But the war will be a much taller task. The key question is whether or not we can see which way the war will go in the near future.

Russia, China, and Iran have finished three-way naval exercises in the Arabian Sea, sending a powerful message to the Western alliance, according to the Russian defense military.

The plan generated a warm reception from both Moscow and Kyiv, but despite their warm feelings, they did not even recognize the Russian violation of Ukraine sovereignty.

John Kirby said any framework offered by Beijing would be one sided and reflect the Russian perspective.

Beijing could not change the situation because neither Moscow nor Kyiv appeared ready to make the concessions needed to end the war.

Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow and the nuclear equivalence between the United States, South Korea, and Japan: The view from a Chinese perspective

The Biden Administration said that it is watching the visit of the Chinese President to Moscow very, very closely, as top officials express their concerns about any call for a ceasefire at this time.

“These are two countries that don’t have a heck of a whole lot of trust between one another, but they find common cause in pushing back on the West, in pushing back on American leadership,” he said.

China’s leader Xi Jinping lands in Moscow on Monday to show support for Russian leader Vladimir Putin and probe possible steps toward peace in Ukraine.

Paul Haenle said that he doesn’t have to achieve a lot to accomplish this goal, as he can cast his visit to Moscow in the context of some grand international diplomacy.

Rana Mitter, a professor of Chinese history and politics at the University of Oxford, says China may hope the Moscow trip will help persuade some in Europe “to take a more America-skeptic position on questions of security and economic cooperation.”

“The mood has been set. The framework has been set. The idea of China possibly being the peacemaker that goes where other countries can’t is something that has been set. But the actual solution still looks in some ways much, much more vague, much more fluid,” said Mitter.

The Chinese are not really aiming to be “the real problem solver here,” according to Yun Sun, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C.

In the Six Party Talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, Beijing excelled at bringing negotiators to the table, according to Haenle of the Carnegie Endowment. The Chinese rarely pressed any of the parties to move the ball.

“We always had the sense that the United States, South Korea, Japan, we were really aggressively trying to find a way to solve the North Korean nuclear issue, where the Chinese were really looking for a process to manage the North Korean nuclear issue,” he said.

Russian Warplanes and U.S. Embedding in the Cold War with Ukraine: What will they teach us about Russia?

“Whether they’ll play an active role in ending the Ukraine conflict, I think, is probably something that we will not see here in the near term,” Haenle said.

A rule change has been made by the International Monetary Fund that could allow for a loan to be made to Ukranian.

Putin also visited Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine, which most governments condemned and consider illegal.

The American aircraft crash-landed in the Black Sea after it was hit by a Russian warplane. The U.S. officials said the Russian fighter jets clipped the drone’s propeller as it flew in international airspace. Russia’s government denied the collision but awarded the pilots of the two fighter jets.

Poland and Slovakia will send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, the first NATO countries to answer Kyiv’s call for allies to share their warplanes to fight Russian forces. The U.S. has refused Ukraine’s request for F-16s.

Leaders of Belarus and Iran hailed their countries’ ties in meetings in Tehran. China and Iran have supplied attack drones to Russia, which is a Kremlin ally and has followed its footsteps in warming up.

According to Gallup, only 9% of Americans said they had a favorable view of Russia, and it has the lowest approval rating in America since the Soviet times.

The U.S.-Russia War on Crime and Security: How happy is Washington with the news about the Xi-Zelensky meeting?

It is not surprising that Washington is happy about the news, given the potential outcomes that could follow from the meeting.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan hailed the idea, saying the US has been trying to convince Xi to speak with Zelensky. Zelensky has not had a chance to speak to one of the major global players since the war began.

Both of the autocracy brothers have the same wish to see the United States and the western alliance weakened, as well as their disdain for democracy and their autocratic practices at home. It’s fair to say Xi would prefer the war to end without a Russian defeat.

He would be a peacemaker if he could convince Putin to accept security guarantees and force Ukraine to stop trying to join NATO. Other elements could also factor into a deal, such as a legitimate, internationally supervised referendum in certain regions – without Russian troops on the ground – on which nation people want to join.

Optimism about a peace deal, however, is in short supply. The two sides are far apart. Western support for Ukraine is thought to be a factor in Putin’s favor. If the likely presidential contender wins in 2024, Ron DeSantis supports the view that the war has not yet ended. Both Trump andDeas seem like they wouldn’t mind allowing Russia to take parts of Ukraine.

A day after the controversial state visit to Russia by China, a Japanese leader is set to arrive in Ukraine, where he will sit down with the Ukrainian president.

The dual visits by the Japanese Prime Minister and the Chinese President underscore the deep divisions in northeast Asia toward the war inUkraine, with Japan giving substantial aid for Kiev and China remaining a key ally of Putin.

In the face of China’s growing assertiveness and global reach, Japan and the United States have moved closer in recent years, especially on regional security and intelligence cooperation.

Last month, on the eve of the invasion’s one-year anniversary, Japan pledged $5.5 billion of aid to Ukraine, quadrupling its previous contributions.

While in New Delhi on Monday, Kishida unveiled a plan to invest $75 billion into the region to counter China and to deepen ties with other countries in the region.

Putin meets Putin at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Hungary, Finland and Turkey, and formally announced Finland’s application to join NATO

The only Asian nation that has done the same is India, who has continued to purchase Russian oil despite the fact that they invaded Russia.

By the beginning of July, Putin told Russia 1 that Moscow will complete the construction of a tactical nuclear weapons storage facility.

The leader of Russia said that the Iskander short-range missile system had been transferred to Belarus.

During the interview, Putin stated that Russia helped convert 10 aircraft to be able to carry tactical nuclear warheads. He said that Russia will start training pilots to fly the planes next month.

Speaking in October, US President Joe Biden said it would be irresponsible for him to talk about what we would or wouldn’t do about the use of nuclear weapons by Russia.

Hungary’s parliament has just ratified Finland’s application to join NATO. The president of Turkey said that they would begin the process of approval for the country to join the euro. Both NATO members have left Sweden’s application unresolved.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine will be the location of the International Atomic Energy Agency director general’s visit to assess the security situation.

Stabilization of Bakhmut in the Ukraine’s Donbas Region due to the visits of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Vladimir Putin

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was talking to his Iranian counterpart on Wednesday. On Thursday, the foreign minister of another of Russia’s friends is due to talk with Lavrov.

The situation in Bakhmut could be becoming stabilized, Ukrainian army chief Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said on the Telegram social app, speaking about a city Russia has fought to take control of for months as it tries to capture the whole of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.