This may end up being one of the most extraordinary revelations of this entire conflict so far.
One of the main grievances Russia had with Ukraine was the fact that it was being groomed for NATO membership – a national security risk which Moscow deemed as completely unacceptable.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal revealed how German chancellor Olaf Scholz had offered Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky a peace deal only days before Russia launched its “Special Military Operations” in Ukraine on February 24th. But Zelensky turned down the deal – claiming that Putin couldn’t be trusted to keep his promises.
It turns out that Scholz was in the process of brokering a deal and told Zelensky during his visit to the Munich Security Conference on February 19th, “that Ukraine should renounce its NATO aspirations and declare neutrality as part of a wider European security deal between the West and Russia,” and that “the pact would be signed by Mr. Putin and Mr. Biden, who would jointly guarantee Ukraine’s security.”
Incredibly, Zelensky rejected the offer to make a concession by declaring NATO neutrality, and thus avoid a war with Russia, and claimed that, “Putin couldn’t be trusted to uphold such an agreement and that most Ukrainians wanted to join NATO.”
This revelation really exposes two key points.
Firstly, that as a head of state, Zelensky is either grossly incompetent or completely reckless to needlessly place his country on the path to war with its neighbour.
Secondly, it indicates the level of control that Washington has over his government, as he is being advised at every step of the way by the US State Department and CIA. It’s no secret that the US and UK have been egging-on Kiev to fight NATO’s war with Russia on their behalf – even if that means placing Kiev into an unwinnable position where it may end up having its armed forces completely destroyed, and Ukraine losing even more territory than it already has.
Maybe Zelensky could have defused tensions 6 months ago by disavowing NATO aspirations and declaring Ukraine a neutral state. Such a declaration would certainly be welcome by Russia today, but in light of the West’s continued proxy war against Moscow, and the US and UK-led campaign to ‘cancel’ Russia from the global economic and financial system, as well as media, culture and sport, then it’s safe to say things have moved on considerably from this being just a NATO issue.
All of this makes Zelensky more a liability than an asset for the future of Ukraine.
On February 17, President Joe Biden announces that Russia will attack Ukraine in the coming days. How does he know? Mystery… But since the 16th, the artillery shelling of the populations of Donbass has increased dramatically, as shown by the daily reports of OSCE observers. Naturally, neither the media, nor the European Union, nor NATO, nor any Western government reacts and intervenes. We will say later that this is Russian disinformation. In fact, it seems that the European Union and some countries purposely glossed over the massacre of the people of Donbass, knowing that it would provoke Russian intervention.
At the same time, there are reports of acts of sabotage in the Donbass. On January 18, Donbass fighters intercept saboteurs equipped with Western equipment and speaking Polish seeking to create chemical incidents in Gorlivka . They could be CIA mercenaries , led or “advised” by Americans and made up of Ukrainian or European fighters, to carry out sabotage actions in the Donbass Republics.
In fact, as early as February 16, Joe Biden knows that the Ukrainians began to shell the civilian populations of Donbass, putting Vladimir Putin in front of a difficult choice: to help Donbass militarily and create an international problem or to sit idle and watch Russian speakers. from the Donbass being run over.
In Ukraine, with the blessing of Western countries, those who are in favor of a negotiation are eliminated. This is the case of Denis Kireyev, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, assassinated on March 5 by the Ukrainian secret service (SBU) because he is too favorable to Russia and is considered a traitor. The same fate is reserved for Dmitry Demyanenko, former deputy head of the main directorate of the SBU for Kiev and its region, assassinated on March 10 , because too favorable to an agreement with Russia: he is killed by the Mirotvorets militia(”Peacemaker“). This militia is associated with the Mirotvorets website which lists the ” enemies of Ukraine” , with their personal data, address and telephone numbers, so that they can be harassed or even eliminated ; a punishable practice in many countries, but not in Ukraine . The UN and some European countries have demanded its closure… refused by the Rada.
Bucha Atrocities: Were Perpetrators Russian Troops or Ukrainian Neonazis?
Who perpetrated these atrocities? Before evidence could be rationally processed and independently examined to answer this basic question, we were presented with a manufactured “global consensus” on the matter (Russia Russia Russia).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced the Bucha massacre charges as “fake” in a statement carried by Russian news agency TASS on April 4. “The other day another fake attack was carried out in the city of Bucha in the Kiev region after the Russian servicemen left the area in accordance with the plans and agreements reached,” the Russian Foreign Minister said. “A fake attack was staged there a few days later, and it’s being fomented on all channels and social media by Ukrainian representatives and their Western patrons.”
As to be expected, Lavrov’s statement and other similar denials from Russian spokesmen have been dismissed out of hand by western officials and media as self-serving Kremlin propaganda. Normally, that is not an unreasonable position, particularly considering the fact that TASS, Pravda, Novosti, and other Russian media are notorious state-controlled holdovers from the communist epoch of the Soviet Union. But there appear to be troubling facts that contradict the “Russia did it” narrative of Zelensky, the U.S.-European Fake News opinion cartel, and other official and unofficial operatives of the U.S. Deep State.
Various independent analysts have pointed out glaring holes and inconsistencies in the prevailing narrative.
All Russian forces left Bucha on Wednesday, March 30, reporter Joe Lauria observes, citing agreement on this fact from all sides: Russian and Ukrainian officials and western media observers.
The Russian departure, he says “was confirmed on Thursday by a smiling Anatolii Fedoruk, the mayor of Bucha, in a video on the Bucha City Council official Facebook page.” Lauria notes that the “translated post accompanying the video says: ‘March 31 – the day of the liberation of Bucha.
There is not a single piece of video footage of this massive crime; not a single snapshot, social media update, text message — nothing.
"Boris Johnson is meeting the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy during an unannounced visit to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials have said.
A picture posted on Twitter by the embassy of Ukraine to the UK showed the two leaders sitting across a table in the capital, with their respective flags in the background.
The embassy tweeted the photo along with the caption: “Surprise”.
— Embassy of Ukraine to the UK (@UkrEmbLondon) April 9, 2022
A No 10 spokesperson said the prime minister was using the unannounced visit to set out a new package of financial and military aid.
“The prime minister has travelled to Ukraine to meet President Zelenskiy in person, in a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people,” the spokesperson said.
“They will discuss the UK’s long-term support to Ukraine and the PM will set out a new package of financial and military aid.”
In other words: enslave the future generations of Ukraine into more Debt at interest.
"Any live flight tracker like Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24 will show the skies over Ukraine are empty of commercial flights. It’s been this way since the special operation began. Nobody can fly into Kiev without Russian approval, which if you look past the emotional fish hooks and think about it, is unlikely to be given for making anti Russia propaganda movies for western public consumption. They are made on another ‘set’ safely outside Ukraine. Amazingly convincing though, eh!
Please understand, the West has perfected special effects, also, there are over 150 PR companies working diligently on convincing westerners that what they see & hear is factual.
The empire of lies needs to keep it’s citizens in line more than ever now."
Vladimir Putin calls Bucha crimes 'fake', says talks with Ukraine hit 'dead end'
Even as Ukraine and the West continue to target Russia over war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the situation in the region is “fake”. Putin's comments came after he compared the allegations to those concerning the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
“It's the same kind of fake in Bucha,” Putin was quoted as saying during a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Russia's space port Vostochny cosmodrome - located in far east of the country.
Putin further stated that peace talks with Ukraine have hit a “dead end”, while vowing that the “military operation” in the east-European nation will continue. He, however, said what is happening in Ukraine due to the conflict is a “tragedy”.
Earlier in the day, Putin reiterated that the military operation in Ukraine had to be started to protect Russia, adding that they could “no longer tolerate genocide in Donbas”. He further stated that Russian forces would undoubtedly achieve its “noble” objectives in Ukraine.
The Russian president's statement is in sync with the country's defence ministry, which soon after the Bucha killings were discovered, rubbished the allegations that its retreating troops have committed war crimes in the Ukrainian town after the bodies of at least 20 people in civilian robes were found. The ministry described footage and photographs of dead bodies as a “provocation” and a “staged performance” by Kyiv.
The West, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union (EU) along with Japan have imposed several additional sanctions against Russia following the Bucha crimes. These include a ban on Russian coal imports, measures against Putin's two adult daughters, and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov's wife and daughter, among others.
At the press conference with Lukashenko, Putin also said that Ukraine has deviated from agreements that were achieved during the face-to-face talks between Moscow and Kyiv negotiators in Istanbul, Turkey on March 29. His statements echoed Lavrov, who too made a similar claim recently, saying that the departure from earlier demands put forth by Kyiv shows their lack of interest in ending the fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has called for more sanctions against Russia, especially on oil and gas. The West recently said that Russia has shifted most of its forces to the eastern side of Ukraine and Belarus as they warn Putin's forces are preparing for a renewed offensive in the east.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who became the first European leader, to meet Putin in Moscow on Monday, said that he is not “optimistic about the war in Ukraine”. Talking to reporters at a press conference after the meeting, Nehammer added that Russia is “evidently” prepping up for a “massive scale” offensive in east Ukraine.
Russia Condemns Biden's 'genocide Of Ukrainians' Remark; Calls It 'unacceptable'
Amid the relentless war between Russia and Ukraine, the Kremlin on, Wednesday, strongly opposed US President Joe Biden's remarks wherein he described Moscow's activities in Kyiv as "genocide." Speaking to reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia strongly disagree with the US President's comment. "We believe that attempts to distort the situation in such a way are unacceptable. Moreover, it’s hardly appropriate for the President of the United States, a country whose actions in recent history are well-known," Peskov added, as per the TASS news agency.
The Kremlin spokesperson further stated that there are no high-level contacts between Russia and Washington at the moment. On Tuesday, US President Biden had remarked that Russian forces' activities in Ukraine appeared to be "genocide," but, that it was up to lawyers to decide whether they qualify as such. "Yes, I referred to it as genocide. It has become increasingly evident that Russian President Vladimir Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be Ukrainian. We will let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it certainly seems that way to me," he added, TASS reported.
As per the report, the US President has often made "derogatory remarks" about Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesperson Peskov believed that those insults were closing the door of opportunity for improving relations between Moscow and Washington. He went on to say that a state leader is expected to maintain a level-headed approach. Last week, Kremlin had slammed Biden for his remark that Putin should face war crimes charges. The Kremlin spokesperson had dubbed Biden's comment as "unacceptable and unworthy" of a US President.
Meanwhile, the Department of State stated in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices that the nation has rebuked Russia for alleged human rights violations in its neighbouring country. According to a report released by the State Department on April 12, Russia or Russia-led authorities have committed a wide range of human rights violations, including arbitrary or illegal killings, torture, and humiliating treatment or punishment. The report also stated that Russia's occupation and claimed annexation of Ukraine's the Crimean Peninsula has had a significant and negative impact on the country's human rights situation.
A Secret NATO Bioweapon Laboratory In The Underground Of Mariupol?
In the underground of Mariupol’s Azovstal there would be a secret NATO facility, managed together with Metabiota. A chemical and biological weapons laboratory whose existence must be hidden from the world. Here’s what the Russian special forces are looking for in the Mariupol dungeons. In the fighting in the last few hours, some Ukrainian command centers, groups and mercenary headquarters have been hit, also destroying many of the military equipment that has just arrived from the West. The port of Mariupol is under the control of the Russian army, but the fighting continues. Mariupol has the Azovstal industrial zone, a company owned by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
Invisible to the eye, the underground networks of the Azovstal would be a web of 24 km of tunnels reaching a depth of 30 meters. What could they have been for? According to the reconstruction of the investigative journalist Pepe Escobar, those underground tunnels would house a secret NATO facility called PIT-404. and a biolab which would be run by Metabiota, a company associated with Hunter Biden, Rinat Akhmetov and the Kiev government.
In the underground of the two Azovstal steel mills, about three thousand soldiers and fighters are still hidden. In the reconstruction provided by Escobar, the presence of several military advisers from countries of the Atlantic Alliance is told. The secret NATO facility would be under the command of US Lieutenant General Roger L. Cloutier, who was arrested by the DNR militias during an attempted escape by helicopter.
The Pit-404 laboratory, again according to Escobar’s reconstructions, would be a structure dedicated to the study of chemical and biological weapons. More than three hundred military consultants would be trapped in the tunnels, officers from Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Sweden and Greece.
It would be linked to the siege of the Azovstal underground tunnels, the removal of Eric Vido, chief of French military intelligence. General Vido was sacked after only seven months in office by President Macron “for deficiencies in intelligence work during the Ukrainian crisis”. In recent days, a video published on social media, a green beret of the French Legion was found. The dramatic situation of the Mariupol dungeons is sufficient to explain the diplomatic efforts of France and Germany to create humanitarian corridors useful for exfiltrating those foreign officers who should not be there. Mariupol has become the epicenter of the confrontation and is defended so fiercely because it has been the center of the aggression in the Donbass for years and one of NATO’s cornerstones in Ukraine. Under the pressure of the Russian army, barricaded in the tunnels, therefore, there would be not only the Ukrainian troops but also NATO officers and consultants.
With the definitive conquest of the port of Mariupol, the Russians have full control of the coast of the Azov Sea and allows them to seal the land bridge that connects the mainland of the Russian Federation with Crimea. It is also a key element in securing Crimea’s water supply, which had been cut off by Ukraine.
The Russian armed forces arrested Canadian General Trevor Kadier in Mariupol on the night of 2-3 May 2022. He is currently in Moscow awaiting to stand trial.
General Trevor Kadier was apparently not on a mission for his government, but was in charge of biolaboratory No. 1, with 18 staff working under his command.
The National Pulse reported that Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, and Christopher Heinz, John Kerry’s son-in-law, had arranged the subcontracting of Ukrainian research laboratories through their firm Rosemont Capital, on behalf of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), linked to the Pentagon.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry revealed that the United States operates 336 biological and chemical weapons research laboratories abroad.
The Security Council held a meeting on this matter on March 11, 2022.
The French news agency AFP has published a report by Daphne Rousseau from near the Ukrainian front line. It allows us to gain some realistic view of the state of the Ukrainian armed forces.
... As the Ukrainian troops had to walk 12 kilometers a question arises. Where are their armored carriers? Even when infantry is deployed in dugouts and trenches its transport should always be nearby (~3 km) to be able to quickly pick it up when necessary.
The most likely answer is that those BTR-70, as well as the brigade's artillery, no longer exist. From today's 'clobber list' as published by the Defense Ministry of Russia (emphasis added):
In total, 146 aircraft and 112 helicopters, 683 unmanned aerial vehicles, 281 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,756 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 316 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,234 field artillery and mortars, as well as 2,563 units of special military vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed during the operation....
The Ukrainian army is obviously in a very bad shape as it pushes barely trained conscripts to the frontline where Russian artillery will eat them up. That it is in such a state is not astonishing though.
The Swiss military intelligence officer Jacques Baud has worked in the Ukraine and has written about the current war (here, here and here). He describes the sorry state the Ukrainian military was in from the get-go:
The Ukrainian army was then in a deplorable state. In October 2018, after four years of war, the chief Ukrainian military prosecutor, Anatoly Matios, stated that Ukraine had lost 2,700 men in the Donbass: 891 from illnesses, 318 from road accidents, 177 from other accidents, 175 from poisonings (alcohol, drugs), 172 from careless handling of weapons, 101 from breaches of security regulations, 228 from murders and 615 from suicides.
In fact, the army was undermined by the corruption of its cadres and no longer enjoyed the support of the population. According to a British Home Office report, in the March/April 2014 recall of reservists, 70 percent did not show up for the first session, 80 percent for the second, 90 percent for the third, and 95 percent for the fourth. In October/November 2017, 70% of conscripts did not show up for the "Fall 2017" recall campaign. This is not counting suicides and desertions (often over to the autonomists), which reached up to 30 percent of the workforce in the ATO area. Young Ukrainians refused to go and fight in the Donbass and preferred emigration, which also explains, at least partially, the demographic deficit of the country.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense then turned to NATO to help make its armed forces more "attractive." Having already worked on similar projects within the framework of the United Nations, I was asked by NATO to participate in a program to restore the image of the Ukrainian armed forces. But this is a long-term process and the Ukrainians wanted to move quickly.
So, to compensate for the lack of soldiers, the Ukrainian government resorted to paramilitary militias. They are essentially composed of foreign mercenaries, often extreme right-wing militants. In 2020, they constituted about 40 percent of the Ukrainian forces and numbered about 102,000 men, according to Reuters. They were armed, financed and trained by the United States, Great Britain, Canada and France. There were more than 19 nationalities--including Swiss.
The Ukrainian army will not win the war nor will the fascist militias. The country simply has no chance.
'Western' governments are abusing the Ukraine and its soldiers. They want to 'weaken Russia' and do not allow the Ukraine to sue for peace.
[D]espite [President Zelensky's] probable willingness to achieve a political settlement for the crisis with Russia, Zelensky is not allowed to do so. Just after he indicated his readiness to talk with Russia, on 25 February, the European Union decided two days later to provide €450M in arms to Ukraine. The same happened in March. As soon as Zelensky indicated he wanted to have talks with Vladimir Putin on 21 March, the European Union decided to double its military aid to €1 billion on 23 March. End of March, Zelensky made an interesting offer that was retracted shortly after.
Apparently, Zelensky is trying to navigate between Western pressure and his far right on the one hand and his concern to find a solution on the other, and is forced into a " back-and-forth," which discourages the Russian negotiators.
...
Today, Zelensky must lead his country under the sword of Damocles, with the blessing of Western politicians and unethical media. His lack of political experience made him an easy prey for those who were trying to exploit Ukraine against Russia, and in the hands of extreme right-wing movements. As he acknowledges in an interview with CNN, he was obviously lured into believing that Ukraine would enter NATO more easily after an open conflict with Russia, as Oleksey Arestovich, his adviser, confirmed in 2019.
The Ukraine has lost the war. All the weapons systems the 'west' is now pushing into it are of no use as the Ukraine obviously lacks the men to field them. They will likely get pilfered and in future some of them may well be used against the 'west' itself.
On Monday, Putin delivered the annual “Victory Day” speech celebrating Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. The Russian president made none of the hyperbolic pronouncements the media had predicted but, instead, gave a brief recap of the events leading up to the war in Ukraine. There was none of the bravado you’d expect from a leader trying to gin up support for the ongoing war. Putin simply reminded the crowd that he had done everything he could to avoid the bloody conflict in which Russia is currently embroiled. Here’s part of what he said:
“Last December we proposed signing a treaty on security guarantees. Russia urged the West to hold an honest dialogue in search for meaningful and compromising solutions, and to take account of each other’s interests. All in vain. NATO countries did not want to heed us, which means they had totally different plans. And we saw it.”
This is an accurate account of what took place in the months preceding the war. Putin tried to avoid a confrontation by repeatedly asking the US to address Russia’s reasonable security concerns. Unfortunately, the Biden administration brushed off Putin’s demands without even providing a response. The US and NATO insist that Ukraine has every right to choose whatever security arrangement it wants. But that’s clearly not the case. The United States and every nation in NATO have signed treaties (Istanbul in 1999, and Astana in 2010) that stipulate they cannot improve their own security at the expense of others.
The principle underlying these agreements is called “the indivisibility of security”, which means that the security of one state can’t be separated from the security of the others. In practical terms, that means that signatories to these treaties are not free to develop their own military capability to the point where it poses a danger to their neighbors. These terms are especially applicable to Ukraine which is seeking membership in a military alliance that is openly hostile to Russia. NATO membership has always been a “red line” for Putin who has stated repeatedly that he will not allow NATO bases, combat troops and missile sites to be located on Ukrainian soil where they’d be just a stone’s throw from Moscow. As one critic from Texas put it, “You wouldn’t let a rattlesnake make its home on your front porch, would you?” No, you wouldn’t, and neither would Putin. Here’s more from a speech Putin gave in 2007:
“I’m convinced that we have reached the decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security. And we must proceed by searching for a reasonable balance between the interests of all participants in the international dialogue.” Munich Security Conference, 2007
For Putin, security has always been the paramount issue. How do we create a world in which ordinary people can feel safe in their homes, their communities and their countries? How do we protect the weaker countries from the constant threat of intervention, invasion or regime change by an impulsive superpower whose behavior is guided by its own material interests and its own insatiable geopolitical ambitions? Concepts like the “indivisibility of security” might appeal to the sensibilities of idealists, but where’s the enforcement mechanism? And, how do we use these grand ideas to rein in an intractable hegemon rampaging across the planet?
These are questions that need to be answered, after all, if the United Nations actually worked the way it is supposed to work, Russia’s demands would have been thoroughly debated at emergency meetings before the first shot was ever fired. But that didn’t happen. International law and global institutions failed again. As everyone knows, most of these institutions have been hijacked by Washington which now uses them to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy for its serial depredations. That’s certainly how they are being used in the current war against Russia.
The western media is also being used as a weapon against Russia. For example, Russia has been universally blamed for starting the war, but Russia did not start the war and everyone on the Security Council knows it. Ukraine started the war, and the Observer Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has collected evidence to prove it. Check out this excerpt from an interview at the Grayzone with Swiss Intelligence officer and NATO advisor, Jacques Baud:
JACQUES BAUD: “I think we have to understand, as you know, that the war in fact hasn’t started on 24 February this year… what led to the decision to launch an offensive in the Donbas was not what happened since 2014. There was a trigger for that…
The first is the decision and the law adopted by Volodymyr Zelensky in March 2021—that means last year—to reconquer Crimea by force…
(And,also,) the intensification of the artillery shelling of the Donbas starting on the 16th of February, and this increase in the shelling was observed, in fact, by the Observer Mission of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe], and t hey recorded this increase of violation, and it’s a massive violation. I mean, we are talking about something that is about 30 times more than what it used to be... On the 16th of February you had a massive increase of violation on the Ukrainian side. So, for the Russians, Vladimir Putin in particular, that was the sign that the operation—the Ukrainian operation—was about to start.
And then everything started; I mean, all the events came very quickly. That means that if we look at the figures, you can see that there’s…. a massive increase from the 16th-17th, and then it reached kind of a maximum on the 18th of February, and that was continuing.
… And that’s why, on the 24th of February when Vladimir Putin decided to launch the offensive, it could invoke Article 51 of the UN Charter that provides for assistance in case of attack.” (“US, EU sacrificing Ukraine to ‘weaken Russia’: fmr. NATO adviser“, The Grayzone)
You can see that by the time Putin invaded Ukraine, the war had already begun. The shelling of ethnic Russians had already intensified by many orders of magnitude. People were being slaughtered in droves, and tens of thousands of refugees were fleeing across the border into Russia. And, all of this had been going on since the 16th of February, a full week before Russia crossed the border. (Moon of Alabama has compiled the data on the bombardment that took place in the Donbas preceding the invasion: “The February 15 report of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine recorded some 41 explosions in the ceasefire areas. This increased to 76 explosions on Feb 16, 316 on Feb 17, 654 on Feb 18, 1413 on Feb 19, a total of 2026 of Feb 20 and 21 and 1484 on Feb 22.”)
So, why does the media keep repeating the lie that Russia started the war when it is clearly false?
The fact is, Putin sent in the troops to put out a fire not to start one. If ever there was a situation where the Responsibility To Protect (R2P) could be justified, it’s in east Ukraine prior to the invasion. 14,000 ethnic Russians had been killed before the shelling began. Should Putin have looked the other way and allowed another 14,000-or-so to be slaughtered without lifting a finger?
No, Putin did what he had to do to save lives and defend Russia’s national security. Even so, he has no territorial ambitions and no desire to recreate the Soviet Empire. His “special military operation” is, in fact, a defensive operation designed to remove emerging threats that could no longer be ignored. Putin’s 83% public approval rating proves that the Russian people understand what he is doing and fully support him. (A political leader would never garner that level of support if the people thought he had launched a war of aggression.)
Some readers might remember that –before sending in the tanks– Putin invoked United Nations Article 51 which provides a legal justification for military intervention. Here’s an excerpt from an article by former weapons inspector Scott Ritter who defended the Russian action like this:
“Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing Article 51 as his authority, ordered what he called a “special military operation”…. under Article 51, there can be no doubt as to the legitimacy of Russia’s contention that the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass had been subjected to a brutal eight-year-long bombardment that had killed thousands of people.… Moreover, Russia claims to have documentary proof that the Ukrainian Army was preparing for a massive military incursion into the Donbass which was pre-empted by the Russian-led “special military operation.” [OSCE figures show an increase of government shelling of the area in the days before Russia moved in.]
..
The bottom line is that Russia has set forth a cognizable claim under the doctrine of anticipatory collective self-defense, devised originally by the U.S. and NATO, as it applies to Article 51 which is predicated on fact, not fiction.
While it might be in vogue for people, organizations, and governments in the West to embrace the knee-jerk conclusion that Russia’s military intervention constitutes a wanton violation of the United Nations Charter and, as such, constitutes an illegal war of aggression, the uncomfortable truth is that, of all the claims made regarding the legality of pre-emption under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, Russia’s justification for invading Ukraine is on solid legal ground.” (“Russia, Ukraine & the Law of War: Crime of Aggression”, Consortium News)
And here’s more on the topic from author Danial Kovalik in his article titled “Why Russia’s intervention in Ukraine is legal under international law”:
“One must begin this discussion by accepting the fact that there was already a war happening in Ukraine for the eight years preceding the Russian military incursion in February 2022. And, this war by the government in Kiev… claimed the lives of around 14,000 people, many of them children, and displaced around 1.5 million more … The government in Kiev, and especially its neo-Nazi battalions, carried out attacks against these peoples … precisely because of their ethnicity. ..
To remove any doubt that the destabilization of Russia itself has been the goal of the US in these efforts, one should examine the very telling 2019 report of the Rand Corporation… entitled, ‘Overextending and Unbalancing Russia, Assessing the Impact of Cost-Imposing Options’, one of the many tactics listed is “Providing lethal aid to Ukraine” in order to “exploit Russia’s greatest point of external vulnerability.”…
In short, there is no doubt that Russia has been threatened, and in a quite profound way, with concrete destabilizing efforts by the US, NATO and their extremist surrogates in Ukraine….
It is hard to conceive of a more pressing case for the need to act in defense of the nation. While the UN Charter prohibits unilateral acts of war, it also provides, in Article 51, that “nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense… ” And this right of self-defense has been interpreted to permit countries to respond, not only to actual armed attacks, but also to the threat of imminent attack.
In light of the above, it is my assessment.. that Russia had a right to act in its own self-defense by intervening in Ukraine, which had become a proxy of the US and NATO for an assault – not only on Russian ethnics within Ukraine – but also upon Russia itself. A contrary conclusion would simply ignore the dire realities facing Russia.” (Why Russia’s intervention in Ukraine is legal under international law”, RT)
Assigning blame for the current conflict is more than just an academic exercise. It is the way that reasonable people weigh the evidence to determine accountability. That might be a way-off, but it’s a goal worth pursuing all the same.
Finally, it should be clear by now, that the war in Ukraine was planned long before the Russian invasion. At every turn, Washington has orchestrated the provocations that were designed to lure Russia into Ukraine, drain its resources and, thus, remove a major obstacle to US strategic objectives in Central Asia. The ultimate goal– as US war planners have candidly admitted– is to “break Russia’s back”, splinter the country into smaller pieces, topple the government, seize its vast energy resources, and reduce the population to a permanent state of colonial dependency. Washington knows that it will not be able to encircle and control China’s explosive growth, unless it crushes Russia first. That is why it has embarked on such a reckless strategy that could end in an unprecedented catastrophe. Our miscreant leaders believe that preserving their grip on global power is worth the risk of nuclear annihilation.
The Art of Disinformation–Western Lies About the War in Ukraine
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Russian counterpart for the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon announced on Friday. The call lasted approximately an hour and was at the request of Austin, who used the first call between the two in 84 days to urge Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to implement an “immediate ceasefire,” according to a brief readout of the call. The two last spoke on February 18, a week before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. CNN
If Russia was losing or completely stuck in Ukraine, one would expect that Sergei Shoigu would be the guy calling Austin and begging for mercy. Well, that is not what happened. Nope. It was Austin that placed the call, apparently unconcerned about his recent public call to weaken Russia. Why would Austin urge Shoigu to implement an “immediate ceasefire” if Russia was getting its ass kicked? Russia getting whipped by Ukraine is exactly what Austin has called for. Remember?
“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine. . .”
If Russia is on the ropes, why call off the beating? You call off the fight when its your guy getting pummeled. The Russian offensive in the Donbass has ramped up significantly in the last week and it is carving up entrenched Ukrainian units with no hope of being reinforced or rescued by a counter-offensive.
(Russia plans to annex the south and east, which are Russian speaking)