Tag: Volodymyr Zelensky
What to expect in Russia’s winter offensive in Ukraine
M. K. Bhadrakumar
Indian Punchline | November 29, 2022
Wading through the 18,000-word transcript of an hours-long meeting that President Vladimir Putin took with the “soldiers’ mothers” last Friday in Moscow, one gets the impression that the fighting in Ukraine may continue well into 2023 — and even beyond.
In a most revealing remark, Putin acknowledged that Moscow blundered in 2014 by leaving Donbass an unfinished business — unlike Crimea — by allowing itself to be lured into the ceasefire brokered by Germany and France and the Minsk agreements.
Moscow took some time to realise that Germany and France connived with then leadership in Kiev to scuttle the implementation of Minsk accord. Then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko admitted in a series of interviews with western news outlets in recent months, including on Germany’s Deutsche Welle television and Radio Free Europe’s Ukrainian unit, that the 2015 ceasefire was a distraction intended to buy time for Kiev to rebuild its military.
Read More »Ukraine Update: U.S. Prepared Ukraine For Counteroffensive, Reports CNN
Countercurrents | September 02, 2022
Citing anonymous sources CNN claimed on Thursday, U.S. officials helped prepare the Ukrainian military for its counteroffensive against Russian forces in the south of the country.
In its article, CNN, one of largest US news organizations, alleged that this assistance included joint “war gaming” analytical exercises designed to help the Ukrainians get a clear picture of how much personnel and hardware they would need in different scenarios. U.S. officials reportedly were able to better understand what kind of equipment, munitions or intelligence Washington could offer to Kiev.
According to the CNN report, which cites multiple U.S. and Western officials and also Ukrainian sources, U.S. had suggested that Kiev should keep its counteroffensive focused solely on the Kherson region in the south of the country as opposed to trying to strike on multiple fronts, which had supposedly been the Ukrainians’ initial plan.
Read More »Ukrainian army endangers civilians says Amnesty International
Slavisha Batko Milacic
Countercurrents | August 09, 2022
Ukrainian forces have threatened civilians by setting up bases and operating weapons systems in populated areas, including schools and hospitals, as they battled the Russian intervention that began in February, Amnesty International said in a statement.
“Such a tactic violates international humanitarian law and endangers civilians, as it turns civilian objects into military targets. The Russian strikes that followed in populated areas killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure,” the statement said.
– Amnesty International has documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when conducting operations in populated areas – said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
Read More »Ukraine war is losing its sparkle. Where’s the Lady with the Lamp?
M. K. Bhadrakumar
Indian Punchline | August 02, 2022
The Russian Defence Ministry announced yesterday that at around 9.20 a.m. Moscow time, Razoni, ship flying the flag of Sierra Leone, left Odessa port in Ukraine as part of the recent grain deal. Razoni is carrying a cargo of maize to Istanbul port.
The MOD said the “control of the humanitarian operation for the departure of the first ship carrying agricultural products was planned with the active participation of Russian officers who are part of the Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday, “this is a good and important first step” that the first ship with 26-, 27,000 tons of grain sailed out of Odessa.
Read More »West prepares to plunder post-war Ukraine with neoliberal shock therapy: privatization, deregulation, slashing worker protections
Western governments and corporations met in Switzerland to plan harsh neoliberal economic policies to impose on post-war Ukraine, calling to cut labor laws, “open markets,” drop tariffs, deregulate industries, and “sell state-owned enterprises to private investors.”
Jake Kallio and Benjamin Norton
Multipolarista | July 28, 2022
While the United States and Europe flood Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars of weapons, using it as an anti-Russian proxy and pouring fuel on the fire of a brutal war that is devastating the country, they are also making plans to essentially plunder its post-war economy.
Representatives of Western governments and corporations met in Switzerland this July to plan a series of harsh neoliberal policies to impose on post-war Ukraine, calling to cut labor laws, “open markets,” drop tariffs, deregulate industries, and “sell state-owned enterprises to private investors.”
Ukraine has been destabilized by violence since 2014, when a US-sponsored coup d’etat overthrew its democratically elected government, setting off a civil war. That conflict dragged on until February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded the country, escalating into a new, even deadlier phase of the war.
Read More »Jeffrey Sachs on NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine and attaining peace
Farooque Chowdhury
The Ukraine War is today’s most important geostrategic issue. Along with capital flow/investment, trade and profit, it’s impacting the global dominance map. At the end of the war, significant changes in geopolitics will appear. Different parts of world capital are behaving/moving in different ways; and a few parts are interacting with, pushing/pulling each other, at times, in antithetical ways. This is significant, and also dangerous for the world comity.
Jeffrey Sachs, 68, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, played a leading role in advising the Kremlin’s economic policy in the early 1990s. In a recent interview (Sachs: “On Ukraine, Joe Biden doesn’t want to compromise”, https://www.corriere.it/politica/22_maggio_01/sachs-joe-biden-doesn-t-want-to-compromise-67c95d0a-c8a1-11ec-85c4-7c8d22958d02.shtml, © RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA), Jeffrey Sachs discussed the war in Ukraine, its background, the US approach to Russia and Ukraine, sanctions imposed on Russia, Russia’s position, and attaining peace in Ukraine. He said: “The big mistake of the Americans is to believe that the NATO alliance will defeat Russia.” Jeffrey Sachs finds US’ “tragic mistakes” regarding Russia.To him, the US forgot Keynes’s lesson on the long-term costs of humiliating a defeated enemy.
Read More »On a Knife’s Edge in Ukraine
Joe Lauria
Consortium News | March 11, 2022
The choice is stark for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: accept that his defeat is inevitable and accept Russian terms for surrender or continue to seek a way for NATO to become perilously involved in his fight against Moscow.
Russia is making three demands of Kiev to end the war on its terms: recognize Crimea as part of Russia; grant independence to Lugansk and Donetsk in the Donbass and enshrine Ukraine as a neutral state in its constitution, meaning it will never join NATO. A 90-minute meeting in Turkey on Thursday between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers resulted in no progress at all towards a solution, as this phase of the war enters its third week.
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Journal of People 