alanjjohnstone
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Supporting evidence for YMS suggestion that the war against Ukraine’s electric infrastructure is to create more refugees
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63687037
The head of Ukraine’s biggest private energy firm says people should consider leaving the country to reduce demand on the country’s power network.
“If they can find an alternative place to stay for another three or four months, it will be very helpful to the system,” DTEK chief executive Maxim Timchenko told the BBC.
“Russia is not running out of weapons. It has been preparing for this conflict since 2012.”
Do you mean 2014?
“I’d like to see the Taliban take on Russia on Russia’s border.”
We do have the example of the two Chechen wars.
Russian superiority did prevail but the body count and destruction dwarfed the Ukraine war.
Interestingly there are allegations that the terrorist bombings that created the justification for the 2nd war were false flags by the Russian FSB
Parts of the Russian economy may be described as improving but so can the Western economy – the energy corporations enjoying windfall profits as well as the armament industry and the grain speculators.
China unlike the Iranians appear to be generally abiding by the UN sanctions on Russia regards arms trade but it is taking full commercial advantage of the economic sanctions extracting trading price advantages from Russia such as cheap oil, in contrast to the rise in global prices
“The main buyers of both Iranian and Russian crude are the private refiners in China—the so-called teapots. Unlike the state-owned majors who need to tread carefully around sanctions and who have fuel export quotas…Even before Russia joined the sanctions party, however, China was gobbling up Iranian and Venezuelan barrels that pretty much nobody else wanted. Beijing may very well be secretly celebrating the sanctions on Russia…”
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/China-Is-Taking-Advantage-Of-Western-Sanctions-On-Russia.html
How different from the price-gouging of Saudi Arabia regards US oil supplies.
Hungary will not support a EU plan to provide Ukraine with billions in budget assistance next year.
Orban said that while Hungary condemns Russia’s aggression and supports the Ukrainian people, he is not willing to put Ukraine’s interests before those of his own country.
The aid plan would provide 18 billion euros to Ukraine next year in regular payments to help keep its energy and health care facilities running as well as to fund salaries and pension schemes. The European Commission, said the aid to Ukraine would involve loans with extremely favorable terms worth around 1.5 billion euros every month, possibly starting in January. Ukraine would not have to reimburse the funds for at least a decade, and EU member countries would cover the interest costs. The commission intends to borrow the money on capital markets using the combined weight of the 27 countries to secure more favorable terms. Some of the effort would involve restructuring part of the EU’s long-term budget, and this requires the unanimous approval of member countries.
Orban recommended that the EU’s 27 members determine how much they are willing to provide to Ukraine and distribute the sum in a “proportional and fair way” among themselves without jointly taking out loans to make the payments.
He said Hungary would be willing to provide Ukraine with 60-70 billion forints ($152-$178 million) from its own budget on bilateral terms — an amount he said would not fundamentally harm Hungary’s national interests.Russian forces are digging new trenches 60km back from the current front line in Ukraine, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD), suggesting the Russians are bracing themselves for further Ukrainian advances.
A Russian governor appeared to confirm the British intelligence report by saying that his forces are carrying out work to fortify the Crimean territory.
Russia continues to lose ground and its forces are focussing on reorganising, preparing and refitting defences across Ukraine, the MoD said in its latest intelligence update.
Sort of supports my guess that this could be a very long war with no quick offensives breaking the deadlock and stalemate.
Will a winter with no heating break Ukraine’s and Europe’s resolve?
Hopefully, it brings serious attempts at resolution via the negotiating table.
Path to Peace
Noam Chomsky, Jill Stein, Jeremy Corbyn, Vijay Prashad, Medea Benjamin, Brian Becker, Eugen Puryear and Claudia de la Cruz on the need for negotiation, not escalationStarmer has said he accepts that there is a £55bn gap in the public finances, a figure provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). He did not dispute the OBR’s calculations.
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I have used my edit facility to remove the offending word from Robbo’s post and I have also deleted your repetition of it.
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Once again we have witnessed a trend in name-calling.
I have permitted it within certain limits but there are boundaries that should not be exceeded.
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If there is no change in attitude, I will return to deleting posts that transgress my understanding of what is gratuitously insulting to another forum member.
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Past posts by myself would reveal I seriously question pet ownership.
“…a wet food diet for a typical dog resulted in an “ecological pawprint” for the animal that was the same as for its human owner. There are estimated to be 840 million cats and dogs in the world and, with numbers rising, the impact on the environment of feeding them is under increasing scrutiny…”
“Russia did not start this war Ukraine/NATOstan did”
When was Russia invaded? When was there any attack on Russia?
Russia illegally under UN Charter intervened in another country’s civil war.
Russia illegally annexed another nation’s territory, again in breach of the UN Charter.
Even if the claim to be a pre-emptive war is accurate, it is still illegal under international law.
I cannot quite understand if Ukraine sought to provoke NATO intervention it used (if reports are accurate) a surface-to-air missile on an insignificant border town rather than making a precision strike using a Russian-made ground-to-ground rocket on one of the numerous military bases in Poland – a direct attack upon NATO.
My commonsense still leads me to believe it was unintentional and Zelinsky is merely trying to make as much political propaganda out of it as he can.
If Lizzie and TS are correct that it was a false flag op to incite NATO intervention, wiser heads in NATO have remained calm and have no intention of escalating the war.
Can we be sure if Zelensky is in 100% control of the army? Are rogue maverick commanders acting on their own?
Increasingly there is talk of talks with America declaring it is not feasible that Ukraine can re-take all occupied territory.
Experts say it is an unwinnable war. Russia’s tactics has switched to long-range attacks on civilian populations.
Has the front-line become stalemate trench warfare?
The threat of ending the re-supply of weapons to Ukraine may be what is needed to pressure them into negotiations.
>>>“Russia itself now accepts that conclusion by the IAEA” Russian officials have made no such statement.<<< Mea Culpa I misunderstood this statement in the report "We're quite satisfied because we raised the awareness," Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters at the UN at the time. "I don't mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf if this doesn't happen because this is a terrible, terrible disaster that threatens potentially the whole of the Earth."
