Omnibus Russia Ukraine crisis

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Junk. We are arming them with our junk and throwing a price tag on it. Instead of sending old tanks to Primrose weapon range for target practice we sent them to Ukraine. Old smelly winter camo? Off to Ukraine. Old ammo about to expire? Send it to Ukraine. Stale MREs...send them to Ukraine.
 
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bill barilko

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Mar 4, 2009
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I've seen something somewhat similar done by the Colombian army down near the Darien panhandle where there's a lot of badness going on.

A guy is walking south toward the paths that lead to a restricted zone when dozens of soldiers all dressed in odd shaped jungle camouflage rise up seemingly out of the earth; the guy they're stopping is So Freaked Out he Shits Himself!
 

Taxslave2

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Junk. We are arming them with our junk and throwing a price tag on it. Instead of sending old tanks to Primrose weapon range for target practice we sent them to Ukraine. Old smelly winter camo? Off to Ukraine. Old ammo about to expire? Send it to Ukraine. Stale MREs...send them to Ukraine.
Oddly, I can see the logic in that. Aside from the dollar figure, which may be our savings in scrapping them. To use a tank for target practice, it must first be drained of any fluids, all insulation removed, and any lead or lead paint removed. And all electronics removed and properly disposed of.
 

petros

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Nov 21, 2008
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Oddly, I can see the logic in that. Aside from the dollar figure, which may be our savings in scrapping them. To use a tank for target practice, it must first be drained of any fluids, all insulation removed, and any lead or lead paint removed. And all electronics removed and properly disposed of.
Not at Primrose. Boom! ALL GONE.
 

spaminator

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Canadian volunteer reportedly killed in Ukraine by Russian attack
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Sep 10, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read
Several aid organizations in Ukraine are reporting that a volunteer Canadian aid worker was killed Saturday morning by a Russian attack. In an Instagram post, humanitarian group Road to Relief says Anthony "Tonko" Ihnat was killed while travelling in a vehicle with three other volunteers with the organization.
Several aid organizations in Ukraine are reporting that a volunteer Canadian aid worker was killed Saturday morning by a Russian attack. In an Instagram post, humanitarian group Road to Relief says Anthony "Tonko" Ihnat was killed while travelling in a vehicle with three other volunteers with the organization. PHOTO BY LIBKOS /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHASIV YAR, Ukraine — Several aid organizations in Ukraine say that a volunteer Canadian aid worker was killed Saturday morning by a Russian attack.


In an Instagram post, humanitarian group Road to Relief said Anthony “Tonko” Ihnat was killed while travelling in a vehicle with three other volunteers with the organization.




Another group, called Brave to Rebuild, posted a tribute to Ihnat on X, formerly known as Twitter. The post said the 58-year-old Ontario man was a joyful, caring, and hardworking man who loved the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Taisia Orikhovska, a coordinator with Brave to Rebuild, added Ihnat volunteered with the group earlier this year in the Kyiv region.



“He was a part of our family … we lost a very important person,” Orikhovska said in a phone interview from Ukraine. “He was a very funny person, he always smiled, he always joked, always hugged. He was amazing.”

Ihnat and his colleagues with Road to Relief were on their way to check on civilians in the town of Ivanivske, in the Bakhmut region, according to the group’s Instagram post. The region was home earlier this year to one of the longest, deadliest battles to play out in Ukraine since Russian forces first invaded the country in February 2022.

The vehicle Ihnat was travelling in was hit by Russian fire just outside the town of Chasiv Yar, Road to Relief said in its post. The vehicle flipped over and burst into flames.

German medical volunteer Ruben Mawick and Swedish volunteer Johan Mathias Thyr were badly injured and hospitalized, the organization said. Its post said the status of Spanish volunteer Emma Igual, the group’s director, was unknown. However, Spain’s acting Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish media that authorities in Madrid had received “verbal confirmation” of 32-year-old Igual’s death.

Road to Relief’s LinkedIn page says the group was established in March 2022 to help people in Ukraine flee areas affected by the war and help Ukrainians whose home were destroyed during the conflict.

The group has around 2,000 volunteers, and many of them knew Ihnat, Orikhovska said. “He was a big part of our organization,” she said.

He was a handyman whose skills were invaluable to the teams that helped to rebuild homes, she said. Many in the organization _ Orikhovska included — are grieving his death, she said.

“He was my friend,” she said. “I will miss him.”
 

spaminator

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North Korea’s Kim vows full support for Russia at summit with Putin at a Far East spaceport
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Kim Tong-hyung and Dasha Litvinova
Published Sep 13, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 6 minute read

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s Kim Jong Un vowed “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday as the two leaders isolated by the West held a summit that the U.S. warned could lead to a deal to supply ammunition for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.


The meeting, which lasted over four hours at Russia’s spaceport in the Far East, underscores how the two countries’ interests are aligning: Putin is believed to be seeking one of the few things impoverished North Korea has in abundance -_ stockpiles of aging ammunition and rockets for Soviet-era weapons.


Such a request would mark a role reversal from the 1950-53 Korean War, when Moscow gave weapons to support Pyongyang’s invasion of South Korea, and in the decades of Soviet sponsorship of the North that followed.

The decision to meet at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s most important launch centre on its own soil, suggests Kim is seeking Russian help in developing military reconnaissance satellites, which he has called crucial to enhancing the threat of his nuclear-capable missiles. North Korea has repeatedly failed to put its first military spy satellite into orbit.


Putin met Kim’s limousine, brought from Pyongyang in the North Korean leader’s armoured train, at the launch facility, greeting his guest with a handshake of about 40 seconds. Putin spoke of the Soviet Union’s wartime support for North Korea and said the talks would cover economic cooperation, humanitarian issues and the “situation in the region.”


Kim, in turn, pledged continued support for Moscow, making an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine.

“Russia is currently engaged in a just fight against hegemonic forces to defend its sovereign rights, security and interests,” he said. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has always expressed its full and unconditional support for all measures taken by the Russian government, and I take this opportunity to reaffirm that we will always stand with Russia on the anti-imperialist front and the front of independence,”


North Korea may have tens of millions of aging artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that could bolster Russian forces in Ukraine, analysts say.

The United States has accused North Korea of providing Russia with arms, including selling artillery shells to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Russian and North Korean officials deny such claims.

But either buying arms from or providing rocket technology to North Korea would violate international sanctions that Russia has supported in the past.

It would both underscore and deepen Russia’s isolation in the more than 18 months after its invasion of Ukraine drew increasing sanctions that have cut off Moscow’s economy from global markets and shrunk the circle of world leaders willing to meet with Putin. Wednesday’s summit came three weeks after a suspicious plane crash killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who in June launched a brief rebellion that challenged Putin. The Kremlin denied it was behind the crash.


Moscow’s principal priority right now is success in Ukraine, “and it would do pretty much anything in order to achieve that.” said James Nixey, director of Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, a London-based think-tank.

“Russia possibly wants to settle in for a longer war, but it can’t meet the necessary industrial capacity,” he said, and any deal with Kim would be to ensure that immediate needs are met and any gap is filled by the North Koreans whilst Russia steps up its medium- to longer-term weapons production.”

In return, Pyongyang is likely to get food and missile technology from Moscow, “a relatively easy gift” for the Kremlin, Nixey said.

As the leaders toured a Soyuz-2 space rocket launch facility, Kim peppered a Russian space official with questions about the rockets.


Kim and Putin met together with their delegations and later one-on-one, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. After the talks, there was an official lunch for Kim, Russian state media reported.

Putin told Russian state TV that Kim will visit two more cities in the Far East on his own after the summit, flying to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he will visit an aircraft plant, and then go to Vladivostok to view Russia’s Pacific Fleet, a university and other facilities.

Russia and North Korea have “lots of interesting projects” in spheres like transportation and agriculture, he said. Moscow is providing its neighbour with humanitarian aid, but there also are opportunities for “working as equals,” Putin added.

He dodged the issue, however, of their military cooperation, saying only that Russia is abiding by the sanctions prohibiting procuring weapons from Pyongyang. “There are certain restrictions, Russia is following all of them. There are things we can talk about, we’re discussing, thinking. Russia is a self-sufficient country, but there are things we can bring attention to, we’re discussing them,” he said.


Ambassador James O’Brien, head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. State Department, said after the meeting concluded that Russia was “scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for help because it’s having trouble sustaining its military,”

“Russia is now overtly engaging with a country that the UN has sanctioned. And that’s very problematic for Russia’s global position,” he told The Associated Press.

A deal between the countries would violate existing sanctions, he said, and would trigger the U.S. try to identify the individuals and the financial mechanisms used to “at least limit their ability to be effective.”

Wednesday’s meeting came hours after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative run in testing since 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by war in Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development.


South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t say how far the missiles flew. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said they landed in waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zones and there were no reports of damage.

Official photos showed Kim was accompanied by Pak Thae Song, chairman of North Korea’s space science and technology committee, and Adm. Kim Myong Sik, who are linked with efforts to acquire spy satellites and nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarines, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

Asked whether Moscow will help North Korea build satellites, Putin was quoted by Russian media as saying “that’s why we have come here. The DPRK leader shows keen interest in rocket technology. They’re trying to develop space, too,” using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name. Asked about military cooperation, Putin said: “We will talk about all issues without a rush. There is time.”


Kim also brought Jo Chun Ryong, who heads munitions policies and had joined him on tours of factories producing artillery shells and missiles, according to South Korea.

Despite the frequency of North Korean missile firings, Wednesday’s launches were a surprise. South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said it was the first time the North launched a missile while Kim was abroad.

Kim could have ordered them to demonstrate to Putin the North’s defence posture and show he is in control of military activities even while outside the country, said Moon Seong Mook of the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.

Moon, a retired South Korean brigadier general who participated in past inter-Korean military talks, said the North could have also intended to express anger at Washington after State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Putin was meeting “an international pariah to ask for assistance in a war.”


Speculation about military cooperation grew after Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea in July. Kim subsequently toured his weapons factories, which experts said had the goals of encouraging modernization of North Korean weaponry and examining artillery and other supplies for export to Russia.

At their lunch, which reportedly featured regional delicacies such as Kamchatka crab dumplings and taiga lingonberries with pine nuts, Kim said he and Putin agreed to deepen their “strategic and tactical cooperation,” and that he believes Russia will achieve victory, an apparent reference to Ukraine.

“We believe with certainty that the Russian army and people will achieve a great victory in the just fight to punish the evil forces pursuing hegemonic and expansionary ambitions and create a stable environment for national development,” Kim said.

— Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Associated Press journalists Haruka Nuga and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo; Emma Burrows in London and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.
 

spaminator

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Ukraine President Zelenskyy to visit Canada this week: Sources
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Sep 19, 2023 • 1 minute read
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to visit Ottawa this week following his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to visit Ottawa this week following his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly.
OTTAWA — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to visit Canada this week after stops at the United Nations and the White House.


Sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss matters not yet made public, say he will address Parliament and visit Toronto.


This would be Zelenskyy’s first trip to Canada since Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, although the leader delivered a virtual address to Parliament the next month.

His visit will follow his appearance at the UN General Assembly, where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is expected to dominate global talks, and where Zelenskyy is expected to appeal for more aid.

He is also expected to meet U.S. President Joe Biden and congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. this week.

Zelenskyy made his first official visit to Canada in 2019.
 

spaminator

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Russia 'weaponizing' food, energy, even children, Ukrainian prez tells UN
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jennifer Peltz and Derek Gatopoulos
Published Sep 19, 2023 • 4 minute read

UNITED NATIONS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Russia is “weaponizing” everything from food and energy to abducted children in its war against Ukraine — and he warned world leaders that the same could happen to them.


“When hatred is weaponized against one nation, it never stops there,” he said at the UN General Assembly’s annual top-level meeting. “The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources into weapons against you — against the international rules-based order.”


The war in Ukraine has deepened major global supply disruptions caused by the pandemic, driving a huge spike in food and energy prices, jolting the global economy and increasing hardship in many developing countries.

Decades-old energy supply channels to Europe from Russia, a major oil and gas producer, were halted or severely disrupted by the war due to sanctions, trade disputes, pipeline shutoffs and a major push by western countries to find alternative sources. Both Russia and Ukraine also are major grain exporters and Russia withdrew this summer from a deal that allowed shipments of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.


Zelenskyy pointed to the food and fuel crunches and he highlighted what Ukraine said were kidnappings of at least tens of thousands of children taken from Ukraine after Moscow’s invasion: “What will happen to them?

“Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine and all ties with their families are broken. And this is clearly a genocide,” Zelenskyy said in remarks that ran 15 minutes — the meeting’s often-disregarded time limit.



The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in March for Russian President Vladimir Putin and another official, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine. Russian officials have denied any forced transfers of children, saying some Ukrainian youngsters are in foster care.


Russia gets its chance to address the General Assembly on Saturday. Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky sat in Russia’s seat during Zelenskyy’s address.

“Did he speak?” Polyansky said with a wry smile when an Associated Press reporter asked about his reaction to the address. “I didn’t notice he was speaking. I was on my phone.”

Zelenskyy took to the world stage at a sensitive point in his country’s campaign to maintain international support for its fight. Nearly 19 months after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion, Ukrainian forces are three months into a counteroffensive that has not gone as fast or as well as initially hoped.

Ukraine and its allies cast the country’s cause as a battle for the rule of international law, for the sovereignty of every country with a powerful and potentially expansionist neighbour and for the stability of global food and energy supplies.


“We must stand up to this naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow,” U.S. President Joe Biden told the assembly Tuesday in his own speech. As he pledged support for Ukraine, there was a round of applause, including from Zelenskyy.

Russia insists its war is justified, claiming that it is defending Russian speakers in Ukraine from a hostile government, protecting Russian interests against NATO encroachment and more.

The war has raged longer and losses have been greater than Russia hoped for and the fighting has spurred widespread international condemnation against Moscow.

But the Kremlin also has influential friends that haven’t joined the chorus of censure: China and India, for instance, have staked out neutral positions. So have many Middle Eastern and African nations. Many Latin American and Caribbean countries prefer to focus world attention on other global issues, including climate change and conflict in Africa.


Moscow is keen to display its global influence and its relationship with China and insists that it cannot be internationally isolated by the U.S. and its European allies.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is concerned that backing from its allies may be ebbing. They have supplied billions of dollars’ worth of arms, but fear that their stockpiles are shrinking and that defence contractors are struggling to boost production lines.

Hours before Zelenskyy spoke at the UN, allied defence leaders convened at a U.S. military base in Germany to discuss next steps. Some nations pledged further money and weapons. But a key sticking point is whether to supply longer-range missiles that Kyiv insists it needs.

The U.S. Congress is weighing Biden’s request to provide as much as $24 billion more in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, amid a growing partisan divide over spending on the conflict. Zelenskyy is scheduled to spend time Thursday on Capitol Hill and to meet with Biden at the White House.


After landing Monday in New York, Zelenskyy suggested that the UN needs to answer for allowing his country’s invader a seat at the tables of power.

If there is still “a place for Russian terrorists” in the UN, “it’s a question to all the members,” Zelenskyy said after visiting wounded Ukrainian service members at Staten Island University Hospital.

Russia is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, which is entrusted with maintaining international peace and security.

Zelenskyy took the United Nations to task even before the war. In one memorable example, he lamented at the General Assembly in 2021 that the UN was “a retired superhero who’s long forgotten how great they once were.”


A former comedian and actor who took office in 2019, Zelenskyy later became a wartime leader, wearing military fatigues, rallying citizens at home and appearing virtually and in person before numerous international bodies.

At the Staten Island hospital, he awarded medals to military members who had lost limbs. With help from a New Jersey-based charity called Kind Deeds, 18 troops have been fitted for prostheses and are undergoing outpatient physical therapy, hospital leaders said.

“We all will be waiting for you back home,” Zelenskyy told those he met. “We absolutely need every one of you.”
 

Dixie Cup

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Ukraine President Zelenskyy to visit Canada this week: Sources
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Sep 19, 2023 • 1 minute read
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to visit Ottawa this week following his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to visit Ottawa this week following his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly.
OTTAWA — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to visit Canada this week after stops at the United Nations and the White House.


Sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss matters not yet made public, say he will address Parliament and visit Toronto.


This would be Zelenskyy’s first trip to Canada since Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, although the leader delivered a virtual address to Parliament the next month.

His visit will follow his appearance at the UN General Assembly, where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is expected to dominate global talks, and where Zelenskyy is expected to appeal for more aid.

He is also expected to meet U.S. President Joe Biden and congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. this week.

Zelenskyy made his first official visit to Canada in 2019.
Where has all the money gone? In whose pockets is it going? No accountability, no money!!
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Low Earth Orbit
Where has all the money gone? In whose pockets is it going? No accountability, no money!!
What money? "Allies" have been sending warn out junk that gets refitted enough to run as " billion aid packages". Ukraine is on the hook for any cash they borrow from world bank or IMF, Black Rock etc
 
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bill barilko

Senate Member
Mar 4, 2009
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Vancouver-by-the-Sea
Great News if it's true!

Commander of Russian Black Sea Fleet Killed in Ukraine's Attack on HQ, Kyiv Claims

Along with Admiral Viktor Sokolov, 34 officers were killed in Ukraine's missile attack on Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine's Special Operations Forces said.


Russia's Black Sea Fleet Headquarters on fire Friday.

The Ukrainian military reported that it killed Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet – as well as 34 officers – in a missile attack on his Sevastopol headquarters on Friday.

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SSO) made the announcement in a Telegram post on Monday, Sept. 25, in which it also reported extra details of a Ukrainian strike earlier this month which damaged the “Rostov-on-Don” submarine and the “Minsk” Large Landing Ship.

"After the defeat of the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, 34 officers, including the commander of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, died.

"The headquarters building cannot be restored."

In April 2022, Sokolov, 61, had been handpicked by Putin after the loss of the Moskva flagship to Ukrainian missiles.
 
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