Berlin Munich Kyiv: Berlin Bulletin No. 202 June 13 2022
By Victor Grossman (Posted Jun 14, 2022)
The tide of public opinion in Germany is as overpowering–and changeable–as elsewhere: “Stop the Russian invasion!“–“Defend Ukraine!”–“Send money”–“More, bigger, further–reaching weapons!”–“Defeat Russia!” Sustaining this tide is an all–encompassing media campaign. No politician is exempt; even President Frank–Walter Steinmeier and ex–Chancellor Angela Merkel are pressured to make excuses for long–past efforts to achieve detente and decrease confrontation with Russia, now denounced as “appeasement”. (Steinmeier has abjectly apologized, Merkel stubbornly refuses to do so.) And the calls to defend Ukraine are expanding: now we are told to defend our “democratic rules of order” in a new crusade.
Every epoch has had its call to battle the Forces of Evil. Once it was Anarchism, then Bolshevism, Communism. After those menaces were defeated new ones were required; in 2001 it was Terrorism. With that frightening term eroding, it is being replaced by Authoritarianism. The gargoyle staring at us from magazine covers–after Stalin, Mao and Fidel have died and Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Gaddafi been eliminated–is now a scowling Putin. And with him Russia, which must be ostracized, sanctioned, wrecked, starved and, above all, defeated. I have not yet heard any direct use of the word “bombed,” but the weapons are ready, with $800 billion spent annually in the USA, about thirteen times Russia’s military budget, not counting the others in NATO. In Germany, on top of its already huge military outlay, a special €100 billion fund was added, after receiving the required 2/3 parliamentary majority to overrule constitutional limitations. Its use is restricted to strengthening and modernizing the Bundeswehr, for F–35 planes, capable of dropping atomic bombs on Moscow in record time, for warships capable of landing at any shore, for latest–model, deadliest tanks.
All this is “to achieve security”. German borders are nowhere threatened, but the Ukraine invasion, it’s said, proves Putin’s plans to regain the area of the USSR or the czarist empire. So who knows? And any call to reason, to push for a truce and negotiations instead of demands to defeat and “ruin” Russia, oust Putin and put him on trial, is denounced as appeasement, with allusions to the 1938 Munich Agreement, when Neville Chamberlain and French premier Daladier sold out Czechoslovakia.
I also see parallels, but very different ones. Hitler’s main aim, proclaimed in his Anti–Comintern Pact with Italy and Japan, was to invade and destroy the USSR, seizing the wealth of its giant expanse and moving closer toward hegemony, with Japan, of all Eurasia.
How did “the West” view such plans? In a secret meeting on November 19 1937, Lord Halifax, Britain’s representative, congratulated Hitler “that the Fuehrer had not only achieved great things in Germany, but that by destroying communism in his own country he had blocked its way to Europe and that therefore Germany can rightly be regarded as a bulwark against Bolshevism.”
The West, though not itself fascist, admired Hitler’s hatred of the USSR and hoped he might attack and destroy it, thus eliminating any nasty socialist threat. It demonstrated this by supporting Hitler, Mussolini and Franco in Spain, uttering hardly a whisper of disapproval of the Nazi takeover of Austria, agreeing to the sacrifice of Czechoslovakia which brought Germany to the Russian border, and rejecting calls by Soviet Foreign Minister Litvinov in the League of Nations for “collective security” against German expansion. Litvinov’s hopes for unity against fascism died with the West’s speedy recognition of Franco’s victory on April 1 1939. Within a week Stalin drew the consequential conclusion, ousted Litvinov and set his successor, Molotov, to making a deal with Germany.
As Litvinov commented: British and French leaders…
had done everything they could to goad Hitler’s Germany against the Soviet Union by secret deals and provocative moves… The Soviet Government, in order to avoid an armed conflict with Germany in unfavorable circumstances and in a setting of complete isolation, was compelled to make the difficult choice and conclude a non–aggression treaty with Germany.
The two years it gained made the Red Army’s liberation of Berlin possible, but only after the death of over 50 million people, about 27 million of them Soviet citizens. The events following the West’s rejection of Litvinov’s “collective security” were bloody and devastating. So too are the events of 2022. Of course the world is very different and neither NATO, Putin nor Ukraine are Nazi Germany. But has it not been USA policy to push its NATO closer and closer to Russia, building up its neighbors militarily, with annually threatening border maneuvers, organizing provocations like the putsch against an elected Ukrainian president in 2014 for wanting trade with both Russia and the West? Has it not been trying to totally surround Russia, weaken it economically, aiming at a final goal of “regime change” with a pawn like Yeltsin providing full access to a giant region and a ramp for an attack on the last big barrier to world hegemony, China? Doesn’t current U.S. (hence NATO) policy recall eastward pressures of the past–called “cordon sanitaire,” “containment“ or “rollback”?
That ugly agreement of Stalin with Hitler was necessitated by an overwhelmingly existential threat. Did Putin view the present scene similarly? We cannot tell. Of course he saw how Ukraine was being steadily armed with Javelin antitank missiles, modern artillery, drones and howitzers that fire deadly Excalibur shells “with pinpoint accuracy”. He most certainly knew of deadly, joint U.S.–Ukrainian “biological research facilities,” as admitted by Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland (the same official who guided the 2014 putsch in Kyiv). And we needn’t simply guess at what steps Washington would take if China conducted heavily–armed maneuvers in Tijuana or Baja California; we can look up the Bay of Pigs invasion or the attacks against Guatemala, Grenada, Panama, Dominican Republic, not to mention Korea, Vietnam, Iraq , Libya, Afghanistan, all of them far distant from Washington or New York. Luckily, the toll in lives and damage in Ukraine has not approached that in some of those invasions. Of burning necessity today; those numbers must never be approached!
But even the most valid comparisons with past or present dangers cannot minimize the Putin government’s share in the guilt for present horror! Nor can they overcome worries that Putin may indeed be dreaming of Czar Peter, of a Greater Russia, denying Ukrainian rights to independence and sovereignty. Nor do accusations of Nazi rule justify the violation of international law, the wrecking of so many towns, cities and families, despite a very real Bandera cult and the strength of Azov thugs. It is more than likely that a massive attack against the Russian–speaking Donbas republics was planned and Putin moved to prevent it. But was invasion the only method of prevention? I cannot say.
There is much we do not know. But there can be only one answer to current escalation, with growing election–related American belligerency, ever more powerful weaponry which will cost ever more lives, mostly Ukrainian ones–and the constant menace of atomic war. The answer must be to pressure Biden and Johnson, Baerbock and Scholz to support negotiations and peace. Difficult as such a response may be, I think it must top the agenda, worldwide, of every progressive! And it also means welcoming similar conclusions by a very mixed crowd including Erdogan in Turkey, the Pope in Rome, courageous Lutheran leaders in Germany and even that old war hawk Kissinger.
The call for peace is also heard from inside Russia, despite attempts to silence it. I hope it bears fruit–but not for those Russians who yearn for a NATO victory–and one more regime take–over!
In Germany, weak attempts to avoid total confrontation and work for peace were heard from Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, who dared briefly to look to the future, when a Europe deprived of its Russian component, unalterably aligned against it, should be unthinkable. But timid words in this direction were soon shushed by his coalition partners: the right–wing Free Democrats, ready to spend billions for war and weapons but not tax the billionaires one more euro, and the Greens, once seen as progressive, now nicknamed “Olive–Greens”, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock loudest in the ravenous pack, outdoing even European Union Commission boss Ursula von der Layen. Scholz knows that resisting either partner could sink his coalition ship and end his captaincy. Both of them (and his own party) have happily joined in many state–level coalitions with the rightist Christian Democrats and could try it again nationally. His fears of their desertion could explain his loud support for the €100 billion package for the military. But the trend is strong all over Europe, as seen in the efforts of Sweden and Finland to break long–held traditions and apply to join NATO. The bellicose “Atlanticists” have used the Ukraine war to please the Pentagon and the Raytheons and defeat the pragmatic, business–minded advocates of trade and rapprochement with Russia and China.
Olaf Scholz now plans to forget past insults from Kyiv and pay a visit, together with Emmanuel Macron and Italian premier Mario Draghi, all of them somewhat hesitant till now but all fearful of media accusations of being slouchers, the threesome will be listening favorably to Zelenskyy’s insistent demands for heavy weapons. They will undoubtedly be spared embarrassing encounters with the Nazi–like flags, insignia and tattoos of the Azov battalions or visits to giant Bandera statues.
Scholz has already paid a first–time state visit to Vilnius, where he assured the heads of state of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that Germany was thinking of them and would send more troops to their countries, near Russian St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad. No mention was made of Hitler’s use of this Baltic area when attacking the USSR in 1941 and laying deathly siege to Leningrad for 2½ years, nor the eager participation of Baltic volunteers in SS units fighting for Hitler. During the visit none of the traditional, police–protected marches of SS veterans and supporters were held; their current accent has switched to support of Ukraine.
(more...)
https://mronline.org/2022/06/14/berlin- ... e-13-2022/
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Europe’s Gas Prices Surge 13% As Russia Reduces Nord Stream Flow
By Tsvetana Paraskova - Jun 14, 2022, 11:00 AM CDT
>Gazprom limits natural gas supply via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany by 40 percent.
>Gazprom: delay in equipment repairs and technical issues prevent the company from shipping more gas.
>Gas prices at the Dutch TTF hub rose by 13 percent on Tuesday.
Russia’s Gazprom said on Tuesday that it would limit natural gas supply via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany by 40 percent compared to planned flows because of a delay in equipment repairs, sending European gas prices surging by 13 percent.
Gazprom said today on its Telegram channel that Siemens had delayed the return of gas compressor units from repair, and technical issues prevented it from sending the planned volumes of natural gas to the biggest gas link to Europe. Only three compressor units can currently be used to ship gas westwards from the Portovaya compressor station in the Baltic Sea, Gazprom says.
Gas supplies to the Nord Stream gas pipeline can currently be provided in the amount of up to 100 million cubic meters per day, compared with a planned volume of 167 million cubic meters per day, the Russian gas giant said.
The lower supply of gas via Nord Stream to the biggest European economy, Germany, sent Europe’s gas prices surging by double digits on Tuesday, with the gas price at the Dutch TTF hub, the benchmark gas price for Europe, up by 13 percent and the UK gas prices rising by 11 percent around noon in Europe.
Russian gas deliveries to Europe—not counting the countries already cut off from Russian gas—have already been down after Ukraine stopped last month flows from Russia to Europe at the Sokhranivka point due to “the interference of the occupying forces in the technical processes.” Sokhranivka is one of the two transit points of Russian gas via Ukraine to Europe, and thus supply was cut off for a third of the gas transiting Ukraine onto Europe.
Separately, Nord Stream, which bypasses Ukraine, is expected to undergo planned regular maintenance for two weeks in July, when there will be no flows to Germany, Klaus Mueller, the president of Germany’s network regulator Bundesnetzagentur said on Monday.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas ... -Flow.html
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Ukraine is Blackmailing the Global South by Officially Demanding Weapons for Wheat
JUNE 14, 2022
By Andrew Korybko – Jun 8, 2022
The so-called “deadlock” over resolving the global food crisis is just as artificially manufactured as its origins since Kiev has now officially declared that it won’t resume wheat exports by sea to the Global South unless it receives anti-ship missiles first.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar officially demanded weapons in exchange for resuming wheat exports by sea in what amounts to the blatant blackmailing of the Global South in the midst of the artificially manufactured food crisis. He said that “Effective security guarantees are required for maritime shipments to resume. These guarantees must be provided through the supply of appropriate weapons to Ukraine to protect its coasts from maritime threats and the involvement of the navies of third countries in protecting the relevant part of the Black Sea.” This comprehensively debunks the US-led Western Mainstream Media’s (MSM) fake news that Russia is the one that’s supposedly holding the Global South hostage by allegedly blockading Ukrainian ports.
The background context is that Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya already explained the artificially manufactured origins of the global food crisis late last month. In short, he blamed it on the economic consequences caused by the West’s response to COVID (particularly with respect to spiking inflation and influencing food demand); Ukraine’s mining of its own ports; and the anti-Russian sanctions. President Putin later reiterated these causes in a TV interview that he gave a little over a week later on the same day that he met with Macky Sall, the Chairman of the African Union. His guest extended credence to the Kremlin’s explanation by declaring that “Anti-Russia sanctions have made this situation worse and now we do not have access to grain from Russia, primarily to wheat.”
All the while and in spite of the artificially manufactured origins of the food crisis that lie entirely beyond Russia’s control, Moscow has been doing its utmost to encourage Kiev to at the very least resume its wheat exports to the Global South. To that end, it proposed four potential corridors: the Azov Sea; the Black Sea; overland through Belarus en route to Baltic ports; and across Western Europe. Suffice to say, Kiev has flat-out refused to employ any of these means, though it’s also worth noting that Nebenzya mentioned in his speech late last month that Russia has “reasonable suspicions” to believe that Kiev is exporting wheat to those Western European countries that already have copious reserves of this commodity in exchange for arms exactly as happened with the Central Powers near the end of WWI.
This suggests that the EU is stockpiling wheat that it doesn’t even need in order to keep it off the global market, perhaps in order to later “reward” compliant governments across the Global South with a few scraps in exchange for them offering it privileged access to their natural resources that the bloc is scrambling to replace from Russia after the US coerced it into unilaterally “decoupling” from that country. Be that as it may, Kiev could still in theory simply export its wheat via the newly Russian-controlled Azov Sea but refuses to do so unless it receives anti-ship missiles. The reason why it’s making that demand at this particular moment in time is because talks between Russia and Turkey on creating a so-called “grain corridor” in the Black Sea seem to be making progress.
The reported plan that hasn’t yet been officially confirmed is for Turkey to help Kiev demine the waters near Odessa and will then escort its vessels with grain to international waters, after which Russian warships will escort them to the Bosporus. In fact, many believe that it was precisely this plan that prompted Foreign Minister Lavrov to visit Turkey on Wednesday in order to more intimately discuss its most sensitive details. After their talks concluded, he said that Russia agreed to ensure the security of Ukrainian grain vessels but expressed pessimism about Kiev’s willingness to go through with this proposal. Nevertheless, it’s intriguing to point out that the Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister announced just the day prior that Kiev agreed to give his country a 25% discount on wheat.
This hints that Kiev might indeed be seriously countenancing this proposal, though its unexpected public demand for weapons in exchange for resuming the export of wheat by sea could mean that it believes that the deal is close enough for someone in the US-led West to give it what it wants in order to make that happen. It should be said, however, that there’s no objective connection between anti-ship missiles and resuming the export of wheat by sea since the proposed plan calls for NATO-member Turkey to escort Kiev’s ships to international waters, after which they’ll be escorted by Russian warships to the Bosporus. There’s no credible scenario wherein Russia would attack Turkey, especially not after cooperating with it to reach this deal, so Kiev doesn’t actually need anti-ship missiles for its security.
The takeaway is that the so-called “deadlock” over resolving the global food crisis is just as artificially manufactured as its origins since Kiev has now openly declared that it won’t resume wheat exports by sea to the Global South unless it receives anti-ship missiles first. Everything that the US-led Western MSM had claimed about Russia holding developing countries hostage is actually true for its proxies in Kiev, which African Union Chairman Sall had already realized, hence why he extended credence to the Kremlin’s claims that it isn’t responsible for this crisis. Now that Kiev is officially holding the Global South hostage, those countries have no reason to ever trust its Western patrons again after they approved their proxy weaponizing food exports to developing countries.
https://orinocotribune.com/ukraine-is-b ... for-wheat/
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France supplies Ukraine with banned cluster munitions it is supposed to have destroyed
Originally published: Donbass Insider on June 12, 2022 by Christelle Néant (more by Donbass Insider) | (Posted Jun 14, 2022)
Not only does France provide Ukraine with Caesar guns that it uses to bomb civilians in Donbass, but we learn via Ukrainian documents, which were hacked and published at the end of May 2022, that it also provided it with OGR F1 cluster munitions, prohibited by international treaties signed by Paris, and which the country announced as destroyed several years ago! Clearly, not only is France complicit in the Ukrainian army’s war crimes in the Donbass, but it is also supplying it with shells that will cause a real bloodbath among civilians, in violation of its international commitments.
In 2008, the Oslo Convention on Cluster Munitions was adopted. This is an international treaty that totally prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions, and provides for their outright destruction. France signed and then ratified this convention in 2009, and was therefore obliged to destroy the stocks of cluster munitions it possessed and not to transfer them to other countries!
https://core.telegram.org/widgets
At the end of 2015, France reported that it had destroyed 12,963 155mm OGR-type shells, each containing 63 submunitions, and had only three left!
Five years later, in June 2020, France officially announced that it had completely destroyed its stockpiles of cluster munitions.
Problem: official Ukrainian documents obtained by hackers concerning Western arms deliveries to Ukraine, which were published on 20 May 2022, via the Telegram channel Joker DNR (a channel that has reliable information often obtained by hacking), indicate that France supplied 155mm OGR F1 shells to Kiev! The famous cluster munitions that France is supposed to have totally destroyed, and that it is forbidden to transfer to third countries!
So not only has France supplied Ukraine with Caesar self-propelled guns, which Kiev has been using to massacre civilians in Donetsk, Gorlovka, Makeyevka and Yassinovataya for several days, but it has also supplied it, in violation of the Oslo Convention, with banned cluster munitions, which it is supposed to have destroyed, and which will cause a veritable bloodbath in the cities of Donbass.
Indeed, these 155mm cluster munitions do not explode on the ground, but in the air, dropping their 63 submunitions which then explode over a large area, killing everything in sight! Worse, the Ukrainian army uses detonators that explode at higher altitudes, further increasing the projection area of the submunitions, and thus the number of potential civilian casualties.
Clearly, Ukraine is deliberately trying to kill as many civilians as possible in the cities of Donbass and France is helping it in its genocidal operation, by providing not only the guns, but also the banned, extremely deadly cluster munitions that it is supposed to have destroyed! This makes France a willing accomplice to Ukraine’s war crimes!
https://mronline.org/2022/06/14/france- ... destroyed/
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Turkey Rains on NATO’s Parade
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 14, 2022
Scott Ritter
Letters of application to NATO from Finland and Sweden, presented to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on May 18. (NATO)
On May 18, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a Norwegian named Jen Stoltenberg, stood on a stage, flanked by the ambassadors to NATO of Finland and Sweden, Klaus Korhonen and Axel Wernhoff, respectively.
It was one of those made-for-television moments that politicians dream of — a time of high drama, where the ostensible forces of good are faced off against the relentless assault of evil, which necessitates the intervention of like-minded friends and allies to help tip the scales of geopolitical justice toward those who embrace liberty over tyranny.
“This is a good day,” Jen Stoltenberg announced, “at a critical moment for our security.”
Left unsaid was the harsh reality that hundreds of miles to the east the military forces of Russia and Ukraine were locked in deadly combat on Ukrainian soil. Also left unsaid was the role played by NATO in facilitating that conflict.
But the gathering had not been convened for the purpose of self-reflection on the part of the civilian head of NATO. Instead, it was to commemorate the furtherance of the very same policy of expansion of the alliance which had helped trigger the ongoing fighting between Ukraine and Russia.
“Thank you so much for handing over the applications for Finland’s and Sweden’s membership in NATO,” Stoltenberg continued. “Every nation has the right to choose its own path. You have both made your choice, after thorough democratic processes. And I warmly welcome the requests by Finland and Sweden to join NATO.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, center, after receiving letters of application from Klaus Korhonen, ambassador of Finland and Axel Wernhoff, ambassador of Sweden on May 18. (NATO)
The day prior, May 17, Finland’s parliament voted 188-8 to join NATO, breaking its multi-decade tenure as a neutral country. Finland’s actions followed a similar debate and vote on the part of the Swedish legislative body, the Riksdag.
Both nations cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as their respective motivation to transition from neutrality to membership in an alliance whose behavior has itself transitioned over the years. From an exclusively defensive identity, NATO has embraced expansion both in terms of its own size and in its scope — by undertaking military operations outside of the confines of Europe that were both offensive and designed to promote political change in the targeted countries.
Historical Ignorance
The historical ignorance captured in the actions of Finland and Sweden was astounding regarding the role played by NATO in triggering the very conflict political leaders cited as the reason to seek the protection of alliance membership. It was as if a family whose house had been set afire sought shelter in the home of the arsonist in order to shield itself from the services of the fire department.
There was also an absolute ignorance of their own respective histories. The idea that Finland would cite Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine as the trigger for breaking its decades-long pledge of neutrality is particularly troublesome. It is as if Finland forgot its own troubled past, in particular its role in the so-called War of Continuation in 1941-1944, where Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany in its war of subjugation against the Soviet Union, following the 1939 Soviet attack on Finland.
Finnish troops participated in the siege of Leningrad, where over a million Soviet civilians lost their lives. Only by pledging to become neutral in perpetuity did Finland avoid the logical consequences of its actions, namely dismemberment and elimination as a sovereign state. The Soviet Union and later Russia both were adamant in making sure Finnish soil would never again be used as a launching pad for foreign aggression against Russian territory. Finland appears to have forgotten both the pledge it had made, and the reasons behind that pledge.
NATO ambassadors Klaus Korhonen of Finland and Axel Wernhoff of Sweden, with letters of application on May 18. (NATO)
Sweden, too, cites the Russian military invasion of Ukraine as the reason for ending centuries of neutrality. But the Swedish politicians behind this decision have yet to explain what exactly it is about the Russian action that sets it apart from, say, the behavior of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
If the slaughter of tens of millions of civilians and the destruction of nations were not enough to push Sweden off its neutral perch between 1939-1945, it is hard to see how Russia’s actions, which did not take place in a vacuum, but rather in the context of eight years of conflict in the Donbass which killed over 14,000 people and the threat to Russian security posed by an expanding NATO, could be cited in good faith as a legitimate cause of action.
“You are our closest partners,” Stoltenberg continued. “And your membership in NATO would increase our shared security.” That he said this with no apparent recognition of the irony contained in those words, and that the ambassadors of Finland and Sweden were able to avoid shuffling in embarrassment, is a testimony to either hubris-driven self-delusion, collective ignorance of historical context, or both.
Stoltenberg moved on to the final scene in this one-act drama.
“The applications you have made today are an historic step,” he told the Nordic ambassadors.
“Allies will now consider the next steps on your path to NATO. The security interests of all Allies have to be taken into account. And we are determined to work through all issues and reach rapid conclusions. Over the past few days, we have seen numerous statements by Allies committing to Finland’s and Sweden’s security. NATO is already vigilant in the Baltic Sea region, and NATO and Allies’ forces will continue to adapt as necessary.”
Stoltenberg closed the made-for-television family special with words that would soon come back to haunt him. “All Allies agree on the importance of NATO enlargement. We all agree that we must stand together. And we all agree that this is an historic moment, which we must seize.”
Enter Erdogan
Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan addressing a North Atlantic Council meeting in 2019. (NATO)
A happy ending? Not so fast. Enter Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who decided he would crash Stoltenberg’s scripted moment. Not all NATO members were in accordance with the bid by Finland and Sweden to join the alliance. Since NATO is a consensus-driven organization, all it takes to ruin this made-for-TV moment was one disaffected member. That member was Turkey.
“As all NATO allies accept Turkey’s critical importance to the alliance,” Erdogan wrote in a guest essay he penned for The Economist on May 30,
“it is unfortunate that some members fail fully to appreciate certain threats to our country. Turkey maintains that the admission of Sweden and Finland entails risks for its own security and the organization’s future. We have every right to expect those countries, which will expect NATO’s second-largest army to come to their defense under Article 5, to prevent the recruitment, fundraising and propaganda activities of the PKK [the Kurdish People’s Party], which the European Union and America consider a terrorist entity.”
Erdogan called for the extradition from Sweden of “members of terrorist organizations” as a pre-condition for Turkey considering its application for NATO membership. Erdogan also demanded that both Sweden and Finland end their respective arms embargoes against Turkey, imposed in 2019 in response to Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria that targeted Kurdish groups affiliated with the PKK.
“Turkey stresses that all forms of arms embargoes — such as the one Sweden has imposed on my country — are incompatible with the spirit of military partnership under the NATO umbrella. Such restrictions not only undermine our national security but also damage NATO’s own identity.”
Kurdish PKK guerillas in Kirkuk, Iraq, April 24,2016. (Kurdishstruggle via Flickr)
As things stand, neither Finland nor Sweden appears prepared to accede to Erdogan’s demands. Despite high-level meetings between delegations from both Finland and Sweden with Turkish officials, no headway appears to have been made.
According to Fahrettin Altun, an adviser to Erdogan, neither Finland nor Sweden have put anything discernable on the table. Turkey, Altun told a Swedish newspaper, needs more than just words. “It is not right that Finland and Sweden waste NATO’s time at this critical moment,” Altun declared.
Complicating matters further is the fact that Turkey appears to be on the cusp of launching a major military operation into northern Syria specifically targeting the very Kurdish group — the People’s Protection Units, or YPG — that Erdogan accuses both Finland and Sweden of supporting.
A similar incursion in 2019 triggered the arms embargo against Turkey that Erdogan now demands be lifted. And the hue and cry that can be anticipated from human rights groups if Turkey follows through with its threat to invade northern Syria will not only make it virtually impossible for either Sweden or Finland to give Erdogan the concessions he is demanding, but also further strain Turkish relations with other NATO members, such as the United States, France and Great Britain, all of whom view Turkey’s presence in northern Syria as complicating their ongoing operations inside Syria targeting the Islamic State (IS). The fact that the U.S., France and the U.K. have allied themselves with the YPG in this effort only muddies the waters.
Stoltenberg will convene the annual NATO summit in Madrid on June 29. NATO has much on its plate, with trying to craft a viable response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine topping the list.
Stoltenberg had hoped that he could use the applications of Finland and Sweden as a foundation from which he could project an atmosphere of strength and optimism around which NATO could plot a path forward.
Instead, the NATO secretary general will preside over an organization at war with itself, unsure of its future and unable to provide a cohesive answer to the problems with Russia which originated from the very policies of expansion Stoltenberg was trying to continue through the now abortive membership applications of Finland and Sweden.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... os-parade/
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Donetsk Has Deadliest Day of Ukrainian Attacks Since 2015
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 14, 2022
Lucas Leiroz
Once again, Ukrainian forces are bombing civilian regions in Donbass and generating unnecessary casualties. This Monday, June 13, new attacks were reported in commercial areas of the People’s Republic of Donetsk. The brutal assaults leave dead and wounded in places outside the military occupation, which should not be targeted by Kiev’s forces. Facing the humanitarian catastrophe, UN shows concern about Ukrainian crimes, but Western countries remain silent.
In the early hours of Monday, the district of Kirovskyi, Donetsk, was bombed several times by Ukrainian troops, according to information provided by local authorities on official media channels of the Republic. About twenty BM-21 Grad rockets were launched by Kiev’s forces in the region, hitting civilian targets and bringing an uncertain number of dead and injured people.
A few hours later, another attack was reported, hitting Maisky’s central market. At least three people died in the episode, including a child. Also, eighteen injured people have been reported. Images are circulating on the internet showing bodies on the floor and market’s stalls in flames. According to local media, the attack has been made with 155-m artillery shells, typical NATO weapons, indicating that once again Kiev is using Western aid against civilian targets.
In another episode of needless brutality, a maternity hospital was bombed in Donetsk, causing women in labor to be quickly evacuated to the facility’s underground room. The immediate action of the hospital’s employees avoided casualties, but damage was inflicted to the buildings. As a result, there is instability about the future of care for pregnant women in Donetsk in the short term, which puts the lives of many women and children at risk.
Faced with such Ukrainian violence, the UN could not remain silent. In response to the attack on maternity, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called Monday’s events “troubling” and claimed that any military action against health facilities is a clear violation of international law.
“We’ve seen the media reports about a maternity hospital in Donetsk. This is extremely troubling. Any attack on civilian infrastructure, especially health facilities, is a clear violation of international law”, he said.
According to local reports, June 13 was the most violent day in Donetsk since 2015. Ukrainian hostility in the Republic appears to have reached historic records. This day, attacks were seen in the districts of Proletarsky, Kuibyshevsky, Petrovsky and Kievsky, which in practice means that almost the entire territory of the Republic was hit by Ukrainian artillery in less than twenty-four hours. In all locations, the victims targeted by Ukrainian forces were civilians.
As a consequence of the attacks, the DPR government asked for further Russian help in order to confront the Ukrainian armed forces. The leader of the Republic, Denis Pushilin, said that all help from allied forces is necessary at the moment, mainly from Russia.
“The enemy has literally crossed all boundaries, using prohibited methods of warfare, residential and central districts of Donetsk are being shelled, and other cities and towns of the DPR are also under fire. An understanding was reached that all the necessary additional allied forces will be involved, primarily from Russia”, he said.
Still, it is important to remember that Kiev decided to intensify its attacks against civilian targets precisely some days after it began to receive extra Western aid with long-range equipment and heavy artillery. There is still no concrete data on how much such new weapons were used in Monday’s events, but last week there were already attacks on civilian targets with these weapons, which raises concerns about what the next steps will be for Kiev’s forces. Russian and local officials fear that Western heavy artillery will be used to carry out large-scale massacres of civilians in Donetsk.
In fact, it seems that, with no chance of reversing the scenario of military defeat, Kiev simply wants to “postpone” the success of the Russian special operation by preventing life from returning to normal in the Donbass regions that have already been liberated from Ukrainian occupation. It is an unethical tactic that does not respect the norms of international law.
However, regardless of how international society reacts to Ukrainian crimes, Moscow is expected to follow the Donetsk government’s requests to send additional military aid, which will mean an increase in the intensity with which the Russians are conducting the special operation. So, as a consequence of Western-supported Kiev’s refusal to comply with the peace conditions, inevitably, the conflict will escalate in the coming days.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... ince-2015/
NATO Proposes Territorial Concessions to Kiev Regime as it Seeks ‘Exit Strategy’
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 14, 2022
Drago Bosnic
On 12 June, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated that the US-led “defensive alliance” wants to “strengthen Ukraine’s position at the negotiating table”, but also added that any peace deal would involve “tough negotiations and compromises”, apparently including territorial and sovereignty concessions.
“Peace is possible,” Stoltenberg said, adding, “The only question is what price are you willing to pay for peace? How much territory, how much independence, how much sovereignty… …are you willing to sacrifice for peace?” Stoltenberg did not specify what terms Ukraine should accept, noting that “it’s for those who are paying the highest price to make that judgment”, while NATO and the political West continue weapons shipments to the Kiev regime to “strengthen their hand” when a peace deal is eventually negotiated.
Although the NATO Secretary-General did not directly propose which territory under the control of the Kiev regime should be ceded, he still implied it. Stoltenberg brought up the example of Finland, stating that the country gave up Karelia to the Soviet Union as part of a peace settlement during the Second World War. He described the Finnish-Soviet peace deal as “one of the reasons Finland was able to come out of the Second World War as an independent sovereign nation”. This is quite obviously a euphemistic way to prepare the public in the political West for the “shocking” notion that Ukraine is losing. Of course, this was pretty obvious to the world, which wasn’t exposed to a media monolith of blatant lies and fake news about Ukraine supposedly “winning the war”.
Naturally, it isn’t the first time something like this is happening. In fact, it was only last year, in September, that the “defensive alliance” fled Afghanistan after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Taliban, which even decided to give NATO some leeway and didn’t interfere as NATO personnel and former puppet government employees were desperately trying to cling on to the last departing aircraft. At the time, both the United States and NATO also tried shifting the blame to the embattled Afghan puppet government and the former president Ashraf Ghani, all in order to avoid responsibility for the complete collapse of the 300,000-strong NATO-led Afghan military which, despite being trained and supported by the “defensive alliance”, collapsed in mere weeks after losing to barely 70,000 under-equipped Taliban.
The situation in Ukraine now seems to be heading in the same direction for the political West. With the Kiev regime forces suffering hundreds of casualties on a daily basis, a fact which even president Zelensky himself admitted, a complete defeat of what’s left of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbass seems all the more likely. The Russian military and the DNR/LNR People’s Militia forces are making steady gains all across the frontlines, with most successes happening in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, and the surrounding areas. In addition, the allied troops have been making headway towards Slavyansk, after which comes Kramatorsk, with both cities being of crucial strategic importance to controlling not just the Donetsk People’s Republic (former Donetsk Oblast), but the entire region of Donbass itself.
The leadership in the political West is well aware of the negative implications of a complete military defeat for the Kiev regime forces, so they’re desperate to try and convince its puppets in Kiev to effectively capitulate and somewhat alleviate yet another strategic defeat and an even bigger embarrassment for the “defensive alliance”. Naturally, the Kiev regime realizes this could mean political suicide, not to mention that it could also lead to a coup, as the Neo-Nazi elements of the regime are too galvanized and Russophobic to accept anything but a “complete defeat of Russia”. Sadly (for them), this is only a fantasy. But it is a fantasy they were fed for nearly a decade, precisely by the “defensive alliance” which installed them to run Ukraine after it was hijacked in 2014.
However, NATO is not concerned that this could lead to another coup, as it believes it still controls the strategic aspect of political processes in Kiev. Even in the case that the Neo-Nazi elements directly take power, the “defensive alliance” believes it would still possess the crucial leverage to dictate what any new regime in Kiev would do.
Yet, the reason why NATO wants Zelensky to stay in power is his public image, which is an entirely artificial creation of the mainstream media of the political West. The alliance believes that Zelensky could offer concessions now and lose as little as possible. Having Neo-Nazis directly in power would make that incredibly difficult, if not impossible, as they would most likely fight longer, causing even more strategic losses and making NATO look worse. The only problem with this reasoning is that it doesn’t count on Russia’s determination to remove NATO’s negative influence from Ukraine, once and for all.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... -strategy/
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NATO Assessing Issues Regarding Finland and Sweden’s Bids
NATO Secretary-General said Monday that there is no way to know when Sweden and Finland will join the Bloc. Jun. 14, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@g_mastropavlos
Published 14 June 2022 (12 hours 35 minutes ago)
On Monday, NATO's Secretary-General said there is no way to say precisely when Finland and Sweden will complete their membership.
Jens Stoltenberg, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General, referring to the accession of Finland and Sweeden to the bloc, said that, contrary to the previous prediction, which indicated that the membership would be a quick process, "there is no way to say exactly when" this will happen.
Several NATO member countries have granted their approval for both countries' membership. Yet, Türkye is one of those who has not green-lighted the process, using as a pretext the existing ties of both countries with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and other groups Türkye labels as terrorists. The Türkish also commented on its disappointment regarding Sweden's arms embargo on Türkye.
"We are working to find the solution as soon as possible. But when many countries or several countries are involved, there is no way to say exactly when these countries are going to be able to agree," said Stoltenberg. NATO Secretary-General described as "legitimate" Türkye's concerns during Sunday's meeting with Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, which was replayed by Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
Stoltenberg said that he hopes the latest moves regarding Sweden and Finland would take them closer to the membership. "We're working hard and actively on these issues in close consultation with Stockholm, with Helsinki, and of course, our NATO ally Türkye. And in that context, those signals from Sweden on terrorism and arms exports are important."
The statements regarding Sweden and Finland's accession to North Atlantic Organization were made during a press conference celebrated on Monday attended by the Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/NAT ... -0019.html
Serbia Is Not To Receive Russian Gas Supply by November
Serbian President announced that by November 1, the country will not receive Russian gas. Jun. 14, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@MehmetCelebiUA
Published 14 June 2022 (14 hours 1 minutes ago)
On Tuesday, the Serbian President announced that the country would not be able to receive Russian gas due to EU sanctions.
In the scenario of the EU sanctions against Russia, the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, announced Tuesday that by November 1, the country would not receive a Russian gas supply.
"Dozens of new problems emerge every day <...> We consume 350 tonnes of fuel oil daily, and in winter we will spend seven times more. We need to find fuel oil; there is not enough fuel oil in the Naftna Industria Srbije (NIS)," said the Serbian President.
"On November 1, we will no longer be able to import Russian oil under the current sanctions, and God knows what sanctions will be introduced by then," Vucic said. Previously, the head of state said that resulting from the EU sanctions against Russian oil; the country has disbursed 600 mln dollars out of Serbia's pocket.
The President added that "only by imposing sanctions on Russian oil, they directly took $600 million from our pocket! $600 million was taken directly from the pockets of Serbian citizens; this is within a year. People in Serbia should know this. Kirkuk, Iraqi oil, is $31 per barrel more expensive. They took $600 million from us, and we still have to invest additional money for gas."
Last June 3, the sixth package of sanctions was approved by the EU against Russia, where the embargo on maritime supplies of oil and petroleum products from Russia was postponed.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ser ... -0016.html
Let's move on to the situation on the fronts
Kharkov Front :
Arrivals :
Calibrations : Near Nikolaev, ours bombed the Voznesensk
In the world :
The situation in the Kharkiv region at 22.00 June 15, 2022
Over the past day, fighting intensified in the north of the region . After prolonged fighting near the Great Passages , the RF Armed Forces went on the offensive against Dementyevka and Russkaya Lozovaya . The liberation of these villages will allow attacking the enemy grouping in Prudyanka and Slatino from the flank .
Poland: LMP-2017 mortars (100), AHS Krab self-propelled howitzers (18), T-72 tanks (240)
Germany: APCs (14), Strela SAMs (2,000), Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank grenade launchers (900), Stinger MANPADS (500)
Canada: M777 howitzers (4), M72 anti-tank grenade launchers (4,500) and Carl Gustaf M2 (100), Roshel Senator APC (8)
Norway: M109 howitzers (22), M72 anti-tank grenade launchers (4,000), Mistral air defense system (100)
Estonia: D-30 122mm howitzers, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Mamba Mk2 EE armored vehicles (7)
Greece: Czech-made RM-70 MLRS (122), RPG-18 anti-tank systems (815), Soviet BMP-1 (122), American FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS (60), 73-mm shells (15,000); AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles (20,000), 7.62 mm cartridges (3.2 million), 155 mm artillery shells (17,000)
Czech Republic: DANA howitzers (20), RM-70 MLRS (20), BVP-1 infantry fighting vehicles (5), grenade launchers (160), Mi-24 helicopters (160), T-72 tanks (12)
Latvia: American Stinger MANPADS and helicopters
Denmark: M10 mortars, M113 armored personnel carriers (50), Harpoon anti-ship missile system (1), M72 anti-tank grenade launchers (2,700), Stinger MANPADS (300), Skywatch automated drones (25)
Australia: M777 howitzers (6), Bushmaster armored personnel carrier (20), M113 (14)
Sweden: AT4 anti-tank grenade launchers (10,000).
France: Caesar howitzers (12)
Spain: Uro Vamtac armored vehicles (20), anti-tank grenade launchers (1,370), rifle and machine gun cartridges (700,000), light machine guns, medical supplies, helmets, body armor
Portugal: M114 155mm howitzers (5), M113 armored personnel carriers (15), G3 automatic rifles, grenades and ammunition
Netherlands: armored personnel carriers (probably YPR-765), Stinger SAMs (200), combat helmets (3,000) and fragmentation vests (2,000), sniper rifles (100) with 30,000 rounds of ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades (400)
Slovakia: S-300 air defense systems
Slovenia: T-72 tanks, Kalashnikovs, helmets
Finland : assault rifles (2,500) and 150,000 rounds for them, single-shot anti-tank rifles (1,500) and combat rations
Turkey: joint production of combat drones Bakar Bayraktar TB2 with Ukraine
Luxembourg: anti-tank weapons (100), Jeep Wranglers, military tents (15)
Belgium: anti-tank weapons (200) and automatic rifles and machine guns (5,000)
North Macedonia: unspecified military supplies.
Austria ,
Bulgaria ,
Romania and 
Ireland: fuel, bulletproof vests, helmets and medicines
Hungary and
Malta: medicines
There are fights in the area of Russkaya Lozovaya and Dementievka : a threat has arisen to the grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Slatino and Prudyanka . At the same time, fighting continues at Rubizhne and Ternova . The purpose of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is to occupy the Upper and Stary Saltov and prevent a crossing from being established on the eastern bank of the river.
The American news portal Axios , citing the head of the Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia, reports that the total daily losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbass reach 1,000 people, of which 200 to 500 were killed.
Ukrainian bombing of Donetsk renewed just before 6 pm, hitting residential areas across the city for the next two hours.
. It's just some kind of metaphysical process. You can watch from morning to evening. Two videos - before and after. Soldier 95 ODSHb APU. Recognized by family. Relatives on the phone ask him: "How can we help you?" . He, crying, replies: “Nothing. Just wait for all this garbage to end. Nobody beats me. They feed us, water us and look after us. Everything is fine. They took us the day before yesterday. There were four of us. . Destroyed everything " . Relatives cry and say: "Thanks to the Russians for saving us. Thank you for treating our people so well."
Terror. A powerful explosion occurred in the center of Kherson , an attempt was made on the life of the head of the USIN in the Kherson region, Yevgeny Sobolev, by unknown persons - he is alive, but hospitalized with leg injuries.
