Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV
Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2022 10:53 pm
Russia prevents attack on Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
The situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the third largest in the world, worries Russia due to constant attacks by Ukraine. | Photo: @producersUY
Published 3 November 2022
From Russia they denounced that the attacks against the nuclear power plant have not stopped despite the presence of an IAEA delegation.
Russia announced Thursday that it managed to prevent a suspected terrorist attack at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
The statement was made by the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, during a meeting with his counterparts from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
According to Nikolai Patrushev, the attack on the nuclear power plant was prevented by special service forces charged with monitoring and protecting the power plant.
He added that the visit to the plant by the IAEA delegation did not mean the end of the Ukrainian attacks on the nuclear power plant in the Donbas region.
"Ukrainian neo-Nazi forces continue to fire Western weapons at the nuclear power plant, which could lead to a global catastrophe," the Russian military official said.
The situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the third largest in the world, worries Russia due to constant attacks by Ukraine.
The plant's facilities have suffered attacks since the beginning of Russia's special military operation in the south of Ukrainian territory on February 24, of which Ukrainians and Russians accuse each other.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/rusia-im ... -0005.html
Türkiye confirms departure of six ships with grains from Ukraine
Russia announced on Wednesday the revival of the grain export agreement from Ukrainian ports. | Photo: cover_up8d
Published 3 November 2022 (1 hour 54 minutes ago)
The Turkish Defense Minister said that the six ships will sail through an established maritime corridor in the Black Sea.
The Defense Minister of Türkiye confirmed on Thursday the departure of several ships loaded with grain from Ukrainian ports when the corridor that had been agreed between Russia and Ukraine was restarted last July.
According to Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, he confirmed to Turkish media that at least six ships set sail from Ukraine, a day after Russia announced that it had received sufficient guarantees that kyiv would not use the sea corridor to launch attacks.
The Turkish minister commented that the ships will sail through the Black Sea, which has already allowed the export of 9.7 million tons of grain and other Ukrainian agricultural products.
Upon confirming the departure of the group of ships loaded with grain from Ukrainian ports, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, thanked the United Nations and Türkiye for their role in reactivating the grain export agreement from Ukraine by the Black Sea.
“Food should never be used as a weapon of war. Cereal exports are crucial to address the global food crisis exacerbated by Russia," Borrell said in a message on Twitter.
Russia announced on Wednesday the reactivation of the grain export agreement from Ukraine, after it was suspended last Saturday alleging that kyiv had launched an attack on its ships in Crimea.
To return to the agreement, Moscow announced that it has received guarantees through the UN and Turkey that kyiv will not use the grain export corridor for military purposes.
The agreement mediated by the United Nations and Türkiye allows food exports from Ukraine to the rest of the world to resume despite the war.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/turkiye- ... -0007.html
Google Translator
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Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, speaks at a gathering of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in a Winnipeg Delta Hotel, on October 28, 2022. (Image Credit: CBC/Google Images)
Canada prepares war bonds for Nazi-infested Ukrainian government
Originally published: Canada prepares war bonds for Nazi-infested Ukrainian government on October 31, 2022 by Daniel Xie (more by Canada prepares war bonds for Nazi-infested Ukrainian government) (Posted Nov 03, 2022)
During the Second World War, the Canadian government appealed for Canadians to buy war bonds to fight fascism in Europe. This came only after Hitler came into conflict with Britain before the Soviet Union, with Canada’s government previously being an enthusiastic supporter of fascism in the 1930s. Canada would almost instantly go back to working with fascists after the end of World War II, importing many from Europe. In 2022, the Canadian government has once again reintroduced war bonds, this time for a Nazi-infested Ukrainian government used by NATO to wages a proxy war against Russia.Appeals for war bonds during the Second World War manifested through calls for Canadians to buy “Victory loans” funding Canada’s war effort. From 1941 to 1945, there were nine victory loans with total cash sales totaling almost $12 billion. The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that “about 52% of these bonds were bought by corporations and the rest by individuals.”
On October 28 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a plan to raise further money for Ukraine as the eight year NATO-led proxy war against Russia rages on. This plan involves Canada selling a government backed 5-year bond for Ukraine, NATO’s primary means used to target Russia. Canada calls it a “Ukrainian Sovereignty Bond”. Trudeau’s plan would also in turn make Canada the first country to provide war bonds to Ukraine.
This time around, the war bonds are meant to help the Ukrainian government “continue operations”, while targets of this money would include “providing essential services to Ukrainians, like pensions, and purchasing fuel before winter.” The Canada Files reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to ask: “Can you guarantee that none of the funds raised from these bonds will go to the Ukrainian military or police?” We have not received a response. Regardless, a Canadian government bond has been created to support a Nazi-infested government in Ukraine.
In a meeting with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Trudeau discussed how Canadians can now “go to major banks to purchase their sovereignty bonds which will mature after five years with interest”. These bonds will support the government of Ukraine in fighting NATO’s proxy war against Russia and allow it to continue further operations targeting the Russian Special Military Operation in the Donbass.
In addition to a war bonds for the Ukrainian government, the Canadian government also announced a new round of sanctions targeting various senior Russian officials. These senior Russian officials were tied to the Russian energy sector, including Gazprom and its subsidiaries. Furthermore, Canada plans to impose even further sanctions on Russian justice and security sectors building off of the sanctions for Gazprom. Canada’s announcement of these sanctions signifies further commitment to NATO’s strategy of economically strangling Russia by isolating Russia from the global market. This is to be carried regardless of the effectiveness of these sanctions or the imminent consequences for Europe as the winter commences.
A Very Canadian history of working with Ukrainian Nazi Collaborators
Canada’s preparation of war bonds for the Nazi-Infested Ukrainian government is yet another instance of Canada’s collaboration with pro-fascist elements of the Ukrainian diaspora in establishing an anti-Russian foreign policy. This collaboration with fascist elements of the Ukrainian diaspora goes back to the end of the Second World War. Following the end of the Second World War and the start of the Cold War, Canada provided refuge to Ukrainian Nazi collaborators fleeing the Soviet Union. These Nazi collaborators belong to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, specifically the OUN-B faction of the movement. The OUN-B, headed by Stephan Bandera, sought to create an ‘ethnically pure’ Ukraine, purged of all Jews, Russians, and Poles. During the Second World War, they enthusiastically collaborated with the Nazis to exterminate both Communists along with Ukraine’s Jewish, Polish, and Slavic populations. Some members of the OUN collaborated with the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier division. The 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier division was responsible for the massacre of more than 1,000 Polish civilians in Huta Peniatska in 1944.
These fascist groups would find a new home in Canada as anti-Communism became an integral part of Canadian foreign policy in the Cold War. According to investigative historian Peter Vronsky, U.S.-financed groups such as the Canadian Christian Council for the Resettlement of Refugees lobbied the Canadian government to take in former SS collaborators in the war against Communism.
The Canadian government would admit more than 2,000 members of the Galician Waffen SS Division in order to crush the left wing of the Ukrainian-Canadian diaspora. In many cases, simply showing an SS tattoo to officials was enough to be admitted in Canada. These Nazi collaborators worked with the Canadian government and Canadian corporations to suppress leftist movements in Canada. The RCMP paid suspected war criminals such as Radislav Grujicic to provide intelligence reports on left-wing immigrants. Canadian mining companies such as INCO would use Ukrainian Nazi collaborators to purge unions of leftist militants.
The Ukrainian Nazi collaborators settling in Canada would set up various organizations to spread their ideology. These organizations included the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and the League of Ukranian Canadians (LUC), both of which glorify Nazi collaborators such as Bandera and his right-hand man, Yaroslav Stetsko. The UCC would even go as far to consider Bandera one of Ukraine’s national heroes. In addition to setting up organizations promoting Ukrainian ultranationalism, the ultranationalist elements of the Ukrainian diaspora wouldalso erect memorials to various Nazi collaborators. These memorials include a monument commemorating the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division in Oakville, as well as a statue of Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych in Edmonton.
Trudeau continues Canada’s history anti-Russia collaboration with Ukrainian Ultranationalists
The Canadian government’s collaboration with the Ukrainian-Canadian far right would continue under Justin Trudeau. As prime minister, Trudeau would appoint Ukrainian ultranationalist Chrystia Freeland as foreign minister and later as deputy prime minister and minister of finance. Freeland was the granddaughter of Michael Chomiak, who ran a Nazi propaganda newspaper in Ukraine. Freeland has both defended the U.S.-instigated Maidan coup and whitewashed her grandfather’s willing complicity in the Holocaust, along with his efforts to spread far-right ideas within the Canadian Ukrainian diaspora.
In addition to the appointment of Freeland, the Trudeau government both permitted the sale of light arms to Ukraine and continued Operation UNIFIER. Operation UNIFIER was the Canadian Armed Forces’ mission providing military training for the Neo Nazi-infiltrated Ukrainian army as they waged war on the Russian population of Ukraine. While Operation UNIFIER was started under the Harper government, it would be extended twice by the Trudeau government. The first extension of Operation UNIFIER occurred in March 2019, when it was extended to March 2022, and the second extension occurred in January of 2022, when the mission was extended to March of 2025. As tensions worsened between Russia and Ukraine, the Trudeau government prepared the further expansion of sanctions in February of 2022 targeting Russia.
With the commencing of Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine, the Canadian government would push for immediate escalation of the conflict. On March 3, 2022 the Canadian government would place sanctions on Russian companies Rosneft and Gazprom. This would be followed by the removal of Russia and Belarus from favored nation status, thereby imposing a mandatory 35 per cent tariff on all imports from the two countries. In addition to increasing sanctions, Canada would provide artillery and light armored vehicles for Ukraine. On April 7, 2022, the Canadian parliament would also echo trumped-up claims from the Ukrainian government that Russian actions in Ukraine constituted an act of genocide.
Canada’s attempts to escalate the Ukrainian conflict drives world closer to Nuclear War
The Canadian government’s decision to provide war bonds for Ukraine is yet another indication of its willingness to work with Ukrainian ultra-nationalists in fermenting an anti-Russia foreign policy. For decades since they were offered refuge in Canada, pro-Nazi elements of the Ukrainian diaspora have worked with the Canadian government and Canadian corporations against first the Canadian left and the USSR, and now the Russian government. In the years following the Maidan coup, Canada has escalated tensions further with both sanctions on Russia and military support for Ukraine both before and after the Russian Special Military operation.
As the NATO-instigated proxy war in Ukraine against Russia drives the world closer to nuclear war, an anti-imperialist movement in Canada is needed more than ever to oppose further escalation of the war in Ukraine by the Canadian government.
https://mronline.org/2022/11/03/canada- ... overnment/
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‘Let’s get out of NATO’: Protests across Europe
November 3, 2022 Gary Wilson
Dresden, Germany, October 30, 2022.
Mass demonstrations continued across Europe in October. Primarily they were protests against skyrocketing energy prices and soaring inflation. They were also against war and the sanctions on Russia that are seen to be directly responsible for the cost of living crisis across Europe.
Tens of thousands of people have marched in cities in France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany. Most are fed up with sanctions on Russia that have sparked economic ruin. Also, support for the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine is falling.
Here are some of the protests in Europe:
Another massive protest against NATO and the EU on the streets of Paris, France today.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1584029180219777025
Thousands of Germans fill the streets of Dresden, protesting against sanctions on Russia and the rise in the cost of living caused by the war in Ukraine. https://twitter.com/i/status/1586717229546184706
TODAY: Thousands of protesters in Prague call for early elections and talks with Russia to address the energy crisis ahead of the winter.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1586086945197002753
Mass protests continue in #Moldova calling for the removal of the pro-EU regime of Maya Sandu.
The Western media has completely blacked out these mass protests in Moldova. They are peddling the CIA nonsense instead blaming Russia for this.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1586080828622503936
On October 28, local time, Czech people took to the streets to protest and demonstrate, advocating to withdraw from the European Union and #NATO: "Russia is not our enemy, the belligerent Czech government is" slogan! https://twitter.com/i/status/1586382062902448129
Mass protest in Prague, for Peace, elections and the right not to freeze for NATO. https://twitter.com/i/status/1586086945197002753
Thread of protests that are erupting all over Europe against EU, NATO, inflation, politicians, governmental control, arm sales, etc about which mainstream media is completely silent https://twitter.com/i/status/1585173830913310720
Post by Juan Sinmiedo on telegram. Rome, Italian's protest Nato and their sanctions on Russia https://twitter.com/i/status/1586699559694131200
Germany HAMBURG Peace and Freedom Demonstration in Protest against the Governments Restrictions, Mandates, Anti-NATO, Inflations cost of Living and Energy (29/10/2022) https://twitter.com/i/status/1586499141055950848
https://struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/11/0 ... ss-europe/
Edited, more at link.
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German Trade Balance
November 3, 16:38
German trade balance. Just recovered from covid and here you are. Merkel's entire legacy is safely fucked up.
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7951765.html
Google Translator
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THIEVES’ PARADISE IN KIEV — IMF ADMITS IT DOESN’T KNOW HOW MUCH UKRAINE HAS RECEIVED OF $35 BILLION IN PROMISED FOREIGN CASH, OR WHERE THE MONEY WAS SPENT
By John Helmer, Moscow @bears_with
A new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reveals that the Ukraine has become a thieves’ paradise in which corporate loan defaults are written off; embezzlement from banks is not traced; the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) no longer audits the country’s bank liabilities and reserves; and the IMF admits it cannot tell how much of the $35 billion in foreign cash grants and loans promised to Kiev has been disbursed, or to whom.
“Disbursements of all committed funds over the remaining months of the year is urgently needed and will make a difference,” declares Kristalina Georgieva (lead image), the IMF Managing director since 2019, “especially in light of the recent horrific damage to energy infrastructure.” Georgieva was speaking in Berlin on October 25.
“In a best-case scenario,” she added, “we estimate that Ukraine’s financing needs would be about $3 billion per month. When we incorporate some additional financing for higher gas imports and some repair of critical infrastructure, we quickly reach $4 billion per month. The recent missile attacks, which have clearly caused much more damage, not only confirms the validity of these estimates but leads us to consider $5 billion upper range.”
However, in a 32-page IMF staff report on the state of Ukrainian budget finance and the risk of system-wide financial collapse, the Fund experts have concluded that “large-scale forbearance with a delayed recognition of NPLs [commercial bank non-performing loans] and the suspension of NBU enforcement actions and audits of financial statements make a comprehensive assessment of the impact of the war difficult and uncertain.” The report has been released at this link on the IMF website.
“Uncertainty” is IMF officialspeak for black hole. “The balance of probabilities,” according to the staff paper dated October 3, “would suggest that Ukraine has an unsustainable level of debt.” According to the Fund rules, this should suspend or stop IMF and all other foreign government cashflows.
Georgieva and the IMF board, dominated by the US, say otherwise. The black hole, the staff report goes on to say, is “unique to the extreme circumstances now prevailing in Ukraine, [so] very high uncertainty makes it difficult, at present, to estimate with sufficient precision the impact of the war on the debt outlook, and what would be required to restore sustainability.”
Instead, they have accepted a promise issued in a letter to the Fund dated October 1 from the Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko and NBU Governor Kirill Shevchenko. “We commit to undergoing a new safeguards assessment of the National Bank of Ukraine and will continue providing IMF staff with the NBU’s audit reports and authorize its external auditors to hold discussions with staff.”
This is a future promise. The NBU audit reports already received by the Fund in Washington ought to show exactly how much foreign cash has been received at the NBU, and what has happened to it in the disbursement throughout the Ukrainian public finance system. They don’t. In fact, the staff report tables show “disbursed and prospective official financing” conflating the two numbers together, and treating both as imprecise and unreliable because they are “2022 proj[ected].”
On October 7 the Fund’s Executive Board met to agree to the despatch of a fresh $1.29 billion in cash, and to accept the NBU’s promissory note for future accountability. The staff report says the new money is to be paid through the “food shock window of the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI)”. The black hole promise has been assigned an IMF acronym; it’s to be called the PMB – “Project Monitoring with Board involvement.”
Once PMB is put into operation, Marchenko and Shevchenko told the Board in their letter, “we expect [it to] help eventually pave the way for an Upper Credit Tranche arrangement in the near future”. This is Ukrainian officialspeak for turning “eventually” into the “near future”; and for throwing more good money after bad.
Since the present Ukrainian government was installed in Kiev in February 2014, the IMF has demonstrated a long record of failing to audit the NBU and commercial banks and of refusing to stop the multi-billion dollar diversion, fraud and embezzlement of the foreign funds by the oligarchs close to the regime and to Washington.
Read that archive here.
Source: http://johnhelmer.net/
Last March, shortly after the Russian special military operation had begun, Georgieva said at a press conference that “Ukraine has audited how the money was spent and has provided a very good account on the role this emergency financing played.”
Source: https://www.imf.org/
This wasn’t true at the time; the latest staff papers show it hasn’t been true over the interval of seven months and it isn’t true now.
“As the economy adapts to the now prolonged war, macroeconomic policies have forcefully adjusted to reduce non-priority expenditures, ease pressure on the hryvnia and FX reserves, and preserve financial stability. The authorities have also adopted wide-ranging emergency measures since Russia’s invasion including administrative FX and capital controls, a suspension of regulatory and supervisory enforcement actions, postponement of audits of banks’ financial statements, and forbearance with respect to restructured loans.”
“Asset quality is deteriorating, but large-scale forbearance with a delayed recognition of NPLs and the suspension of NBU enforcement actions and audits of financial statements make a comprehensive assessment of the impact of the war difficult and uncertain. Banks can access unsecured funding with a maturity of up to one year for an amount up to 30 percent of their late-January retail deposits. NBU enforcement actions have been suspended for breaches of prudential requirements regarding capital, liquidity, credit risk, net open positions in FX and for delays in prudential reporting. Audits of banks’ financial statements and regular bank stress testing have been postponed. Loans restructured during the martial law period are exempt from reclassification for credit risk, some regulatory risk weights have been decreased, and banks have been prohibited from related party lending, capital distributions (dividend payments and share buy-backs), and bonus payments.”
That last line is comprehensively contradicted by the preceding admissions. In plain language, Ukrainian corporate borrowers can default with impunity on their loans, and the banks are no longer required to report the sum of these defaults, set aside loan loss provisions, or increase their shareholders’ capital to compensate for actual or projected losses. These normal balance-sheet operations are no longer being audited by finance ministry regulators, the central bank, or the state’s prosecutors and financial police.
The IMF staff concede they are six months out of date on the sums. By calling them “official”, the IMF is admitting it doesn’t know if the sums they have been given by the NBU are a fraction of the truth.
“The official NPL ratio as of end-May was 16.5 percent. Banks have also granted payment holidays on retail [individual] and corporate loans for the duration of the Martial Law and cancelled fees and commissions on cashless payments as well as cash withdrawals. Prospects for banking system profitability are therefore significantly weakened. Although outstanding credit to GDP is relatively low at 14 percent, banks’ loan portfolios are also vulnerable to several adverse developments including rising interest rates; a declining exchange rate (a third of bank lending is denominated in foreign currency); and damage to real collateral used for credit enhancement. The banking sector recorded US$1.1 billion (UAH 33 billion) of loan loss provisions for credit losses between March and May, a four-fold increase over the previous year. Banks’ retail loan portfolios shrank by around 10 percent and mortgage lending came to a halt, but corporate lending has grown slightly due to various government support schemes.”
The state budget coffers, filled with foreign cash, are being emptied to “support” the defaulting banks as their cash disappears. This, the IMF accountants say, is their budget deficit red line. “The fiscal deficit is projected to reach close to 20 percent of GDP at end-2022, subject to a high degree of uncertainty.” After recording that this year $530.1 million is projected to be “non-tax revenue” – that is , US and other foreign cash to pay for the military – an increase of $364.2 million over 2021, it appears this money isn’t enough to cover the projected expenditure on “compensation of employees”, which should increase by $418.1 million over a year ago. The deficit must be covered by more US and foreign cash, the report recommends.
The uncertainties are tabulated in the staff report this way:
Source: Staff Report, “Request for Purchase under the Rapid Financing Instrument”, -- page 17.
Source: Staff Report -- page 12.
The operative term in these tables is “proj.”
Georgieva has admitted publicly this “uncertainty” and “proj.” On October 25 she told the press “the international community has acted decisively — it came together to commit $35 billion in grant and loan financing in 2022 for the people of Ukraine. Building on the laudable efforts of the Ukrainian authorities, this has put a floor under the Ukrainian economy. Disbursements of all committed funds over the remaining months of the year is urgently needed and will make a difference, especially in light of the recent horrific damage to energy infrastructure. From our side, we are acting—the IMF has disbursed $2.7 billion of own resources to Ukraine this year through emergency financing, and channeled an additional $2.2 billion through our Administered Account. But we also need to plan ahead. Ukraine’s financing needs in 2023 are enormous. The country will do its part, but it also needs a strong effort from its partners.”
Georgieva is admitting the only disbursements to the Ukraine she is sure of are the ones the IMF has paid itself. Georgieva’s use of the future tense camouflages the gap between commitments and disbursements on the part of the US, the European Union and Canada. When she urges a “strong effort from [Ukraine’s] partners”, the IMF chief is warning that US and NATO promises to deliver money have not materialised on time.
The staff report uses the euphemisms “assuming” and “timely” to concede the same point. “The fiscal financing gap for 2022 has narrowed thanks to sizeable support from international partners and coordinated suspension of debt service due by Ukraine. The deferral of debt service obtained from private bondholders, the G7 and Paris Club members is estimated to save about US$6 billion in debt service through end-2023. Assuming [sic] the authorities continue to tap limited purchases of war-bonds by the NBU (allowed under the Martial Law) and [assuming] timely [sic] disbursement of the US$31.5 billion of committed external loans and grants (including the proposed purchase under the RFI and about US$ 2.2 billion in loans and grants already disbursed through the Administered Account established by the Fund in April), the residual financing gap would be about US$4 billion (2.8 percent of GDP). This gap is primarily driven by needs to support the energy sector and additional defense spending.”
The following tabulation by the IMF experts of the Kiev regime’s “financing gap” of $4 billion is pure guesswork
Source: Staff Report -- page 11.
The western press coverage of the Ukraine has almost totally ignored the IMF staff reports and data tables. The Financial Times of London, for example, lists 74 publications on the IMF in Ukraine; not one of them reveals this year’s IMF staff reports.
The Wall Street Journal has attempted to portray itself as doing better than its rival by publishing a front-page interview on August 12 – ahead of the arrival in Kiev of the IMF staff – with Finance Minister Marchenko. However, Marchenko wasn’t asked to clarify how much of this year’s foreign commitments had been received in Kiev, nor how he and his government are accounting for their outlays to creditors, lenders, state employees, and the troops. Like the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times has been promoting Kiev’s demands for more money, portraying its financial management “since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24 [as] meeting its obligations in full in order to maintain the confidence of international investors.” The IMF staff reporting indicates this is false.
Source: https://www.wsj.com
The Financial Times has published two interviews with Marchenko -- in April and July of this year.
Social media from the Ukrainian troops on the battlefield indicate that surviving soldiers are not being paid on time and in full, while dead, wounded or missing soldiers are having their pay and benefits diverted and stolen by unit commanders and paymasters. Theft of cash and military equipment is rife.
The Pentagon has recently announced that it will – future tense – send inspectors to check what is happening to US weapons deliveries and prevent the black market diversion. A leak this week to the Washington Post has revealed that at best only 10% of US arms deliveries to the Ukraine have been confirmed as in stock – 2,200 of a total of 22,000 weapons delivered.
The newspaper also reported State Department sources as blaming the Russian Army for the arms resale and black market smuggling. “Since late February’s invasion, which prompted the closing of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv for several months, U.S. officials have been able to conduct just two in-person inspections of items requiring enhanced oversight at weapons depots where U.S. arms had been brought in from Poland. ‘The conflict creates an imperfect condition for us to have to adjust quickly,’ a senior State Department official said. ‘We want to put some of those resources to working with our allies and partners to mitigate risk however, wherever we can.’ The scramble to adapt oversight rules designed for peacetime has taken on greater importance as the volume of American assistance reaches dizzying levels and congressional scrutiny intensifies. U.S. and Ukrainian officials say they have not documented any instances of illicit use or transfer of American arms in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion on Feb. 24. The State Department has acknowledged that Russian forces’ capture of Ukrainian arms could lead to those weapons being smuggled on to other countries. Other weapons have gone missing; a Swedish grenade launcher, apparently pilfered from a battlefield in Ukraine, exploded in the trunk of a car in Russia in May.”
The Pentagon and State Department have told reporters their new auditing effort “hope[s] to achieve a ‘reasonable’ level of compliance with U.S. oversight rules for those high-risk items [Stinger anti-air and Javelin anti-tank missiles] , but also acknowledge that they are unlikely to achieve 100 percent of normal checks and inventories as the country’s escalating war with Russia strains systems for ensuring weapons are not stolen or misused.”
The US Government terms “reasonable” and “normal” are the equivalent of the IMF’s “assuming”, “timely”, and “proj.”
Until now, however, the US Government’s official auditor, the independent General Accounting Office (GAO), has refused to audit Ukrainian expenditure of US military aid funds.
Source: https://www.gao.gov/
“Looking ahead,” the IMF staff declared last month, “it is crucial to implement policies that do not reverse hard-won gains from past Fund-supported programs to maintain donor confidence and pave the way for the eventual recovery. Effective transparency and accountability safeguards are critical to sustaining continued donor support, preventing misappropriation, and eventually ensuring high quality reconstruction efforts. Key measures should aim to promote procurement transparency in spending and investment, preserve key functions of the anticorruption enforcement framework, and maintain good corporate governance, including in state-owned enterprises and banks. More broadly, a successful reconstruction effort will require a timely and well-coordinated normalization of fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate policies, restoring financial sector health, gradually liberalizing capital flows, strengthening governance, and tackling key structural challenges, including restoring a well-functioning PFM-system which includes fiscal risk management.”
This is an admission that there are no accountability safeguards, no effective transparency audits, no prevention of misappropriation in the present Ukrainian government, banking system, and military operations. Promising there will be is a battery torch shining on a black hole – for as long as there is electricity to recharge the battery before the light goes out.
http://johnhelmer.net/thieves-paradise- ... more-70130
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From Cassad's Telegram account:
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Colonelcassad
Special operation, November 3rd. The main thing from RIA Novosti :
One hundred and seven Russian soldiers have been released from Ukrainian captivity, the Russian Defense Ministry said;
Over the past day, Russian air defense systems shot down 8 Ukrainian drones, as well as 13 HIMARS, Alder and Uragan MLRS shells;
Russian combat aviation shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter in the Kherson region;
In the Dzerzhinsk region (DPR), a US-made AN / TPQ-37 counter-battery radar was destroyed;
The Russian military defeated two companies of foreign mercenaries in the village of Novoselovskoye (LPR), 130 enemy people were killed;
In the Kharkiv region, the Russian Armed Forces in the course of a counter-battery fight defeated a Ukrainian platoon of Grad multiple launch rocket systems;
IAEA inspectors completed inspections at three sites in Ukraine and found no undeclared nuclear activities or materials there;
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed a strong protest to the British Ambassador to the Russian Federation in connection with the participation of British military specialists in the training and supply of units of the special operations forces of Ukraine.
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forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin on the main points during the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine at 21.00 Moscow time on 03.11.2022, specially for the Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok channel :
1. Avdiivka direction.
Fights for Vodyanoye , Pervomayskoye and Experienced . There are no significant promotions. The battles develop in a positional manner with small advances of the assault groups.
2. Carbon . The offensive of the RF Armed Forces gets bogged down in Pavlovka . It has not yet been possible to dislodge the enemy from the rest of the village. Also, it has not yet been possible to establish full-fledged fire control over the road to Ugledar . Fights for fortified areas continue
Novomikhailovka .
3. Artemovsk .
Fights for fortified areas near Experienced and in the area of the industrial zone on the eastern outskirts.
Promotion to Kurdyumovka has not yet brought any special dividends. The enemy is rotating the battered units in Artemovsk . Attempts to counterattack north of the city ended unsuccessfully for the APU.
4. Soledar / Seversk .
The situation has not changed much. Positional battles continue without much progress.
Street fighting in Soledar and positional fighting in the area of Disputed and Belogorovka.
5. Kremennaya .
Local battles near Terna andTorsky continue to tie down the enemy's initiative in the direction of Kremennaya . The Armed Forces of Ukraine are regrouping in the Svatovsky direction in order to try to break through the front in the direction of the Svatovo-Kremennaya highway , as well as repeat the attack on Tavolzhanka .
6. Kherson .
Situation without significant changes. The enemy continues to carry out small attacks and reconnaissance in combat, but without significant results. Our troops continue to stand in the same positions against the background of rumors about the withdrawal from Kherson . The enemy intensifies shelling of the Antonovsky bridge area and settlements on the Dnieper .
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forwarded from
Joker DNR
16:19
We continue to humiliate self-confident Ukrainians with the DELTA command and control program, which, as Yurochka Butusov correctly noted, was highly appreciated by NATO experts at their event on October 26. Especially NATO experts noted its reliability and security, yeah. It seems that NATO has the same specialists as the Ukrainian circus.
Yurochka sometimes tells the truth, and he correctly noted that my hackers hacked into DELTA in August. For the rest, he brazenly lies. For example, that phishing was used and, as Yura wrote: “two adults with titles and positions” simply opened a virus program. Yura also lies that they received access only for 13 minutes and only regarding the southern part of the former Ukraine. I just demonstrated the south because your bouncer, who humiliated "stupid Russians who are far from such technologies," also demonstrated the south. Thought you'd understand. But you are too dumb.
So, Yurochka, I want to upset you. We visited those adults through DELTA, and not vice versa. We also visited and left gifts with other “adults” who use such logins in DELTA: VadimFox, Santiago, Boris, Metodist, Balamut, Odessa, ofelia20 and some others. To all, in short. By the way, the American owners should conduct an investigation themselves, otherwise we often visit them through Ukrainian resources. By the way, remember the Sea Breeze 2021 joint exercises with NATO and the lists of all participants published by me, including those from NATO. Then my hackers hacked many websites of the Ukrainian security forces, and a cloud with all the lists and documents of all participants was attached to the website of the Ukrainian Navy . Everything turned out to be easier than we expected.
In short, here's another video from DELTA. It is short, 16 minutes and a half, and Kharkiv is considered there, and we ran through Donetsk. No, well, if Yura recognizes Kharkov and Donetsk as a legitimate historical part of Russian lands, then yes, they are also the South ... South of Moscow for sure.
I have only one question. Will the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine again deny the fact of the DELTA hack?
https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin
Google Translator
The situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the third largest in the world, worries Russia due to constant attacks by Ukraine. | Photo: @producersUY
Published 3 November 2022
From Russia they denounced that the attacks against the nuclear power plant have not stopped despite the presence of an IAEA delegation.
Russia announced Thursday that it managed to prevent a suspected terrorist attack at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
The statement was made by the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, during a meeting with his counterparts from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
According to Nikolai Patrushev, the attack on the nuclear power plant was prevented by special service forces charged with monitoring and protecting the power plant.
He added that the visit to the plant by the IAEA delegation did not mean the end of the Ukrainian attacks on the nuclear power plant in the Donbas region.
"Ukrainian neo-Nazi forces continue to fire Western weapons at the nuclear power plant, which could lead to a global catastrophe," the Russian military official said.
The situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the third largest in the world, worries Russia due to constant attacks by Ukraine.
The plant's facilities have suffered attacks since the beginning of Russia's special military operation in the south of Ukrainian territory on February 24, of which Ukrainians and Russians accuse each other.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/rusia-im ... -0005.html
Türkiye confirms departure of six ships with grains from Ukraine
Russia announced on Wednesday the revival of the grain export agreement from Ukrainian ports. | Photo: cover_up8d
Published 3 November 2022 (1 hour 54 minutes ago)
The Turkish Defense Minister said that the six ships will sail through an established maritime corridor in the Black Sea.
The Defense Minister of Türkiye confirmed on Thursday the departure of several ships loaded with grain from Ukrainian ports when the corridor that had been agreed between Russia and Ukraine was restarted last July.
According to Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, he confirmed to Turkish media that at least six ships set sail from Ukraine, a day after Russia announced that it had received sufficient guarantees that kyiv would not use the sea corridor to launch attacks.
The Turkish minister commented that the ships will sail through the Black Sea, which has already allowed the export of 9.7 million tons of grain and other Ukrainian agricultural products.
Upon confirming the departure of the group of ships loaded with grain from Ukrainian ports, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, thanked the United Nations and Türkiye for their role in reactivating the grain export agreement from Ukraine by the Black Sea.
“Food should never be used as a weapon of war. Cereal exports are crucial to address the global food crisis exacerbated by Russia," Borrell said in a message on Twitter.
Russia announced on Wednesday the reactivation of the grain export agreement from Ukraine, after it was suspended last Saturday alleging that kyiv had launched an attack on its ships in Crimea.
To return to the agreement, Moscow announced that it has received guarantees through the UN and Turkey that kyiv will not use the grain export corridor for military purposes.
The agreement mediated by the United Nations and Türkiye allows food exports from Ukraine to the rest of the world to resume despite the war.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/turkiye- ... -0007.html
Google Translator
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Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, speaks at a gathering of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in a Winnipeg Delta Hotel, on October 28, 2022. (Image Credit: CBC/Google Images)
Canada prepares war bonds for Nazi-infested Ukrainian government
Originally published: Canada prepares war bonds for Nazi-infested Ukrainian government on October 31, 2022 by Daniel Xie (more by Canada prepares war bonds for Nazi-infested Ukrainian government) (Posted Nov 03, 2022)
During the Second World War, the Canadian government appealed for Canadians to buy war bonds to fight fascism in Europe. This came only after Hitler came into conflict with Britain before the Soviet Union, with Canada’s government previously being an enthusiastic supporter of fascism in the 1930s. Canada would almost instantly go back to working with fascists after the end of World War II, importing many from Europe. In 2022, the Canadian government has once again reintroduced war bonds, this time for a Nazi-infested Ukrainian government used by NATO to wages a proxy war against Russia.Appeals for war bonds during the Second World War manifested through calls for Canadians to buy “Victory loans” funding Canada’s war effort. From 1941 to 1945, there were nine victory loans with total cash sales totaling almost $12 billion. The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that “about 52% of these bonds were bought by corporations and the rest by individuals.”
On October 28 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a plan to raise further money for Ukraine as the eight year NATO-led proxy war against Russia rages on. This plan involves Canada selling a government backed 5-year bond for Ukraine, NATO’s primary means used to target Russia. Canada calls it a “Ukrainian Sovereignty Bond”. Trudeau’s plan would also in turn make Canada the first country to provide war bonds to Ukraine.
This time around, the war bonds are meant to help the Ukrainian government “continue operations”, while targets of this money would include “providing essential services to Ukrainians, like pensions, and purchasing fuel before winter.” The Canada Files reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to ask: “Can you guarantee that none of the funds raised from these bonds will go to the Ukrainian military or police?” We have not received a response. Regardless, a Canadian government bond has been created to support a Nazi-infested government in Ukraine.
In a meeting with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Trudeau discussed how Canadians can now “go to major banks to purchase their sovereignty bonds which will mature after five years with interest”. These bonds will support the government of Ukraine in fighting NATO’s proxy war against Russia and allow it to continue further operations targeting the Russian Special Military Operation in the Donbass.
In addition to a war bonds for the Ukrainian government, the Canadian government also announced a new round of sanctions targeting various senior Russian officials. These senior Russian officials were tied to the Russian energy sector, including Gazprom and its subsidiaries. Furthermore, Canada plans to impose even further sanctions on Russian justice and security sectors building off of the sanctions for Gazprom. Canada’s announcement of these sanctions signifies further commitment to NATO’s strategy of economically strangling Russia by isolating Russia from the global market. This is to be carried regardless of the effectiveness of these sanctions or the imminent consequences for Europe as the winter commences.
A Very Canadian history of working with Ukrainian Nazi Collaborators
Canada’s preparation of war bonds for the Nazi-Infested Ukrainian government is yet another instance of Canada’s collaboration with pro-fascist elements of the Ukrainian diaspora in establishing an anti-Russian foreign policy. This collaboration with fascist elements of the Ukrainian diaspora goes back to the end of the Second World War. Following the end of the Second World War and the start of the Cold War, Canada provided refuge to Ukrainian Nazi collaborators fleeing the Soviet Union. These Nazi collaborators belong to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, specifically the OUN-B faction of the movement. The OUN-B, headed by Stephan Bandera, sought to create an ‘ethnically pure’ Ukraine, purged of all Jews, Russians, and Poles. During the Second World War, they enthusiastically collaborated with the Nazis to exterminate both Communists along with Ukraine’s Jewish, Polish, and Slavic populations. Some members of the OUN collaborated with the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier division. The 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier division was responsible for the massacre of more than 1,000 Polish civilians in Huta Peniatska in 1944.
These fascist groups would find a new home in Canada as anti-Communism became an integral part of Canadian foreign policy in the Cold War. According to investigative historian Peter Vronsky, U.S.-financed groups such as the Canadian Christian Council for the Resettlement of Refugees lobbied the Canadian government to take in former SS collaborators in the war against Communism.
The Canadian government would admit more than 2,000 members of the Galician Waffen SS Division in order to crush the left wing of the Ukrainian-Canadian diaspora. In many cases, simply showing an SS tattoo to officials was enough to be admitted in Canada. These Nazi collaborators worked with the Canadian government and Canadian corporations to suppress leftist movements in Canada. The RCMP paid suspected war criminals such as Radislav Grujicic to provide intelligence reports on left-wing immigrants. Canadian mining companies such as INCO would use Ukrainian Nazi collaborators to purge unions of leftist militants.
The Ukrainian Nazi collaborators settling in Canada would set up various organizations to spread their ideology. These organizations included the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and the League of Ukranian Canadians (LUC), both of which glorify Nazi collaborators such as Bandera and his right-hand man, Yaroslav Stetsko. The UCC would even go as far to consider Bandera one of Ukraine’s national heroes. In addition to setting up organizations promoting Ukrainian ultranationalism, the ultranationalist elements of the Ukrainian diaspora wouldalso erect memorials to various Nazi collaborators. These memorials include a monument commemorating the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division in Oakville, as well as a statue of Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych in Edmonton.
Trudeau continues Canada’s history anti-Russia collaboration with Ukrainian Ultranationalists
The Canadian government’s collaboration with the Ukrainian-Canadian far right would continue under Justin Trudeau. As prime minister, Trudeau would appoint Ukrainian ultranationalist Chrystia Freeland as foreign minister and later as deputy prime minister and minister of finance. Freeland was the granddaughter of Michael Chomiak, who ran a Nazi propaganda newspaper in Ukraine. Freeland has both defended the U.S.-instigated Maidan coup and whitewashed her grandfather’s willing complicity in the Holocaust, along with his efforts to spread far-right ideas within the Canadian Ukrainian diaspora.
In addition to the appointment of Freeland, the Trudeau government both permitted the sale of light arms to Ukraine and continued Operation UNIFIER. Operation UNIFIER was the Canadian Armed Forces’ mission providing military training for the Neo Nazi-infiltrated Ukrainian army as they waged war on the Russian population of Ukraine. While Operation UNIFIER was started under the Harper government, it would be extended twice by the Trudeau government. The first extension of Operation UNIFIER occurred in March 2019, when it was extended to March 2022, and the second extension occurred in January of 2022, when the mission was extended to March of 2025. As tensions worsened between Russia and Ukraine, the Trudeau government prepared the further expansion of sanctions in February of 2022 targeting Russia.
With the commencing of Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine, the Canadian government would push for immediate escalation of the conflict. On March 3, 2022 the Canadian government would place sanctions on Russian companies Rosneft and Gazprom. This would be followed by the removal of Russia and Belarus from favored nation status, thereby imposing a mandatory 35 per cent tariff on all imports from the two countries. In addition to increasing sanctions, Canada would provide artillery and light armored vehicles for Ukraine. On April 7, 2022, the Canadian parliament would also echo trumped-up claims from the Ukrainian government that Russian actions in Ukraine constituted an act of genocide.
Canada’s attempts to escalate the Ukrainian conflict drives world closer to Nuclear War
The Canadian government’s decision to provide war bonds for Ukraine is yet another indication of its willingness to work with Ukrainian ultra-nationalists in fermenting an anti-Russia foreign policy. For decades since they were offered refuge in Canada, pro-Nazi elements of the Ukrainian diaspora have worked with the Canadian government and Canadian corporations against first the Canadian left and the USSR, and now the Russian government. In the years following the Maidan coup, Canada has escalated tensions further with both sanctions on Russia and military support for Ukraine both before and after the Russian Special Military operation.
As the NATO-instigated proxy war in Ukraine against Russia drives the world closer to nuclear war, an anti-imperialist movement in Canada is needed more than ever to oppose further escalation of the war in Ukraine by the Canadian government.
https://mronline.org/2022/11/03/canada- ... overnment/
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‘Let’s get out of NATO’: Protests across Europe
November 3, 2022 Gary Wilson
Dresden, Germany, October 30, 2022.
Mass demonstrations continued across Europe in October. Primarily they were protests against skyrocketing energy prices and soaring inflation. They were also against war and the sanctions on Russia that are seen to be directly responsible for the cost of living crisis across Europe.
Tens of thousands of people have marched in cities in France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany. Most are fed up with sanctions on Russia that have sparked economic ruin. Also, support for the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine is falling.
Here are some of the protests in Europe:
Another massive protest against NATO and the EU on the streets of Paris, France today.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1584029180219777025
Thousands of Germans fill the streets of Dresden, protesting against sanctions on Russia and the rise in the cost of living caused by the war in Ukraine. https://twitter.com/i/status/1586717229546184706
TODAY: Thousands of protesters in Prague call for early elections and talks with Russia to address the energy crisis ahead of the winter.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1586086945197002753
Mass protests continue in #Moldova calling for the removal of the pro-EU regime of Maya Sandu.
The Western media has completely blacked out these mass protests in Moldova. They are peddling the CIA nonsense instead blaming Russia for this.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1586080828622503936
On October 28, local time, Czech people took to the streets to protest and demonstrate, advocating to withdraw from the European Union and #NATO: "Russia is not our enemy, the belligerent Czech government is" slogan! https://twitter.com/i/status/1586382062902448129
Mass protest in Prague, for Peace, elections and the right not to freeze for NATO. https://twitter.com/i/status/1586086945197002753
Thread of protests that are erupting all over Europe against EU, NATO, inflation, politicians, governmental control, arm sales, etc about which mainstream media is completely silent https://twitter.com/i/status/1585173830913310720
Post by Juan Sinmiedo on telegram. Rome, Italian's protest Nato and their sanctions on Russia https://twitter.com/i/status/1586699559694131200
Germany HAMBURG Peace and Freedom Demonstration in Protest against the Governments Restrictions, Mandates, Anti-NATO, Inflations cost of Living and Energy (29/10/2022) https://twitter.com/i/status/1586499141055950848
https://struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/11/0 ... ss-europe/
Edited, more at link.
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German Trade Balance
November 3, 16:38
German trade balance. Just recovered from covid and here you are. Merkel's entire legacy is safely fucked up.
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7951765.html
Google Translator
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THIEVES’ PARADISE IN KIEV — IMF ADMITS IT DOESN’T KNOW HOW MUCH UKRAINE HAS RECEIVED OF $35 BILLION IN PROMISED FOREIGN CASH, OR WHERE THE MONEY WAS SPENT
By John Helmer, Moscow @bears_with
A new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reveals that the Ukraine has become a thieves’ paradise in which corporate loan defaults are written off; embezzlement from banks is not traced; the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) no longer audits the country’s bank liabilities and reserves; and the IMF admits it cannot tell how much of the $35 billion in foreign cash grants and loans promised to Kiev has been disbursed, or to whom.
“Disbursements of all committed funds over the remaining months of the year is urgently needed and will make a difference,” declares Kristalina Georgieva (lead image), the IMF Managing director since 2019, “especially in light of the recent horrific damage to energy infrastructure.” Georgieva was speaking in Berlin on October 25.
“In a best-case scenario,” she added, “we estimate that Ukraine’s financing needs would be about $3 billion per month. When we incorporate some additional financing for higher gas imports and some repair of critical infrastructure, we quickly reach $4 billion per month. The recent missile attacks, which have clearly caused much more damage, not only confirms the validity of these estimates but leads us to consider $5 billion upper range.”
However, in a 32-page IMF staff report on the state of Ukrainian budget finance and the risk of system-wide financial collapse, the Fund experts have concluded that “large-scale forbearance with a delayed recognition of NPLs [commercial bank non-performing loans] and the suspension of NBU enforcement actions and audits of financial statements make a comprehensive assessment of the impact of the war difficult and uncertain.” The report has been released at this link on the IMF website.
“Uncertainty” is IMF officialspeak for black hole. “The balance of probabilities,” according to the staff paper dated October 3, “would suggest that Ukraine has an unsustainable level of debt.” According to the Fund rules, this should suspend or stop IMF and all other foreign government cashflows.
Georgieva and the IMF board, dominated by the US, say otherwise. The black hole, the staff report goes on to say, is “unique to the extreme circumstances now prevailing in Ukraine, [so] very high uncertainty makes it difficult, at present, to estimate with sufficient precision the impact of the war on the debt outlook, and what would be required to restore sustainability.”
Instead, they have accepted a promise issued in a letter to the Fund dated October 1 from the Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko and NBU Governor Kirill Shevchenko. “We commit to undergoing a new safeguards assessment of the National Bank of Ukraine and will continue providing IMF staff with the NBU’s audit reports and authorize its external auditors to hold discussions with staff.”
This is a future promise. The NBU audit reports already received by the Fund in Washington ought to show exactly how much foreign cash has been received at the NBU, and what has happened to it in the disbursement throughout the Ukrainian public finance system. They don’t. In fact, the staff report tables show “disbursed and prospective official financing” conflating the two numbers together, and treating both as imprecise and unreliable because they are “2022 proj[ected].”
On October 7 the Fund’s Executive Board met to agree to the despatch of a fresh $1.29 billion in cash, and to accept the NBU’s promissory note for future accountability. The staff report says the new money is to be paid through the “food shock window of the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI)”. The black hole promise has been assigned an IMF acronym; it’s to be called the PMB – “Project Monitoring with Board involvement.”
Once PMB is put into operation, Marchenko and Shevchenko told the Board in their letter, “we expect [it to] help eventually pave the way for an Upper Credit Tranche arrangement in the near future”. This is Ukrainian officialspeak for turning “eventually” into the “near future”; and for throwing more good money after bad.
Since the present Ukrainian government was installed in Kiev in February 2014, the IMF has demonstrated a long record of failing to audit the NBU and commercial banks and of refusing to stop the multi-billion dollar diversion, fraud and embezzlement of the foreign funds by the oligarchs close to the regime and to Washington.
Read that archive here.
Source: http://johnhelmer.net/
Last March, shortly after the Russian special military operation had begun, Georgieva said at a press conference that “Ukraine has audited how the money was spent and has provided a very good account on the role this emergency financing played.”
Source: https://www.imf.org/
This wasn’t true at the time; the latest staff papers show it hasn’t been true over the interval of seven months and it isn’t true now.
“As the economy adapts to the now prolonged war, macroeconomic policies have forcefully adjusted to reduce non-priority expenditures, ease pressure on the hryvnia and FX reserves, and preserve financial stability. The authorities have also adopted wide-ranging emergency measures since Russia’s invasion including administrative FX and capital controls, a suspension of regulatory and supervisory enforcement actions, postponement of audits of banks’ financial statements, and forbearance with respect to restructured loans.”
“Asset quality is deteriorating, but large-scale forbearance with a delayed recognition of NPLs and the suspension of NBU enforcement actions and audits of financial statements make a comprehensive assessment of the impact of the war difficult and uncertain. Banks can access unsecured funding with a maturity of up to one year for an amount up to 30 percent of their late-January retail deposits. NBU enforcement actions have been suspended for breaches of prudential requirements regarding capital, liquidity, credit risk, net open positions in FX and for delays in prudential reporting. Audits of banks’ financial statements and regular bank stress testing have been postponed. Loans restructured during the martial law period are exempt from reclassification for credit risk, some regulatory risk weights have been decreased, and banks have been prohibited from related party lending, capital distributions (dividend payments and share buy-backs), and bonus payments.”
That last line is comprehensively contradicted by the preceding admissions. In plain language, Ukrainian corporate borrowers can default with impunity on their loans, and the banks are no longer required to report the sum of these defaults, set aside loan loss provisions, or increase their shareholders’ capital to compensate for actual or projected losses. These normal balance-sheet operations are no longer being audited by finance ministry regulators, the central bank, or the state’s prosecutors and financial police.
The IMF staff concede they are six months out of date on the sums. By calling them “official”, the IMF is admitting it doesn’t know if the sums they have been given by the NBU are a fraction of the truth.
“The official NPL ratio as of end-May was 16.5 percent. Banks have also granted payment holidays on retail [individual] and corporate loans for the duration of the Martial Law and cancelled fees and commissions on cashless payments as well as cash withdrawals. Prospects for banking system profitability are therefore significantly weakened. Although outstanding credit to GDP is relatively low at 14 percent, banks’ loan portfolios are also vulnerable to several adverse developments including rising interest rates; a declining exchange rate (a third of bank lending is denominated in foreign currency); and damage to real collateral used for credit enhancement. The banking sector recorded US$1.1 billion (UAH 33 billion) of loan loss provisions for credit losses between March and May, a four-fold increase over the previous year. Banks’ retail loan portfolios shrank by around 10 percent and mortgage lending came to a halt, but corporate lending has grown slightly due to various government support schemes.”
The state budget coffers, filled with foreign cash, are being emptied to “support” the defaulting banks as their cash disappears. This, the IMF accountants say, is their budget deficit red line. “The fiscal deficit is projected to reach close to 20 percent of GDP at end-2022, subject to a high degree of uncertainty.” After recording that this year $530.1 million is projected to be “non-tax revenue” – that is , US and other foreign cash to pay for the military – an increase of $364.2 million over 2021, it appears this money isn’t enough to cover the projected expenditure on “compensation of employees”, which should increase by $418.1 million over a year ago. The deficit must be covered by more US and foreign cash, the report recommends.
The uncertainties are tabulated in the staff report this way:
Source: Staff Report, “Request for Purchase under the Rapid Financing Instrument”, -- page 17.
Source: Staff Report -- page 12.
The operative term in these tables is “proj.”
Georgieva has admitted publicly this “uncertainty” and “proj.” On October 25 she told the press “the international community has acted decisively — it came together to commit $35 billion in grant and loan financing in 2022 for the people of Ukraine. Building on the laudable efforts of the Ukrainian authorities, this has put a floor under the Ukrainian economy. Disbursements of all committed funds over the remaining months of the year is urgently needed and will make a difference, especially in light of the recent horrific damage to energy infrastructure. From our side, we are acting—the IMF has disbursed $2.7 billion of own resources to Ukraine this year through emergency financing, and channeled an additional $2.2 billion through our Administered Account. But we also need to plan ahead. Ukraine’s financing needs in 2023 are enormous. The country will do its part, but it also needs a strong effort from its partners.”
Georgieva is admitting the only disbursements to the Ukraine she is sure of are the ones the IMF has paid itself. Georgieva’s use of the future tense camouflages the gap between commitments and disbursements on the part of the US, the European Union and Canada. When she urges a “strong effort from [Ukraine’s] partners”, the IMF chief is warning that US and NATO promises to deliver money have not materialised on time.
The staff report uses the euphemisms “assuming” and “timely” to concede the same point. “The fiscal financing gap for 2022 has narrowed thanks to sizeable support from international partners and coordinated suspension of debt service due by Ukraine. The deferral of debt service obtained from private bondholders, the G7 and Paris Club members is estimated to save about US$6 billion in debt service through end-2023. Assuming [sic] the authorities continue to tap limited purchases of war-bonds by the NBU (allowed under the Martial Law) and [assuming] timely [sic] disbursement of the US$31.5 billion of committed external loans and grants (including the proposed purchase under the RFI and about US$ 2.2 billion in loans and grants already disbursed through the Administered Account established by the Fund in April), the residual financing gap would be about US$4 billion (2.8 percent of GDP). This gap is primarily driven by needs to support the energy sector and additional defense spending.”
The following tabulation by the IMF experts of the Kiev regime’s “financing gap” of $4 billion is pure guesswork
Source: Staff Report -- page 11.
The western press coverage of the Ukraine has almost totally ignored the IMF staff reports and data tables. The Financial Times of London, for example, lists 74 publications on the IMF in Ukraine; not one of them reveals this year’s IMF staff reports.
The Wall Street Journal has attempted to portray itself as doing better than its rival by publishing a front-page interview on August 12 – ahead of the arrival in Kiev of the IMF staff – with Finance Minister Marchenko. However, Marchenko wasn’t asked to clarify how much of this year’s foreign commitments had been received in Kiev, nor how he and his government are accounting for their outlays to creditors, lenders, state employees, and the troops. Like the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times has been promoting Kiev’s demands for more money, portraying its financial management “since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24 [as] meeting its obligations in full in order to maintain the confidence of international investors.” The IMF staff reporting indicates this is false.
Source: https://www.wsj.com
The Financial Times has published two interviews with Marchenko -- in April and July of this year.
Social media from the Ukrainian troops on the battlefield indicate that surviving soldiers are not being paid on time and in full, while dead, wounded or missing soldiers are having their pay and benefits diverted and stolen by unit commanders and paymasters. Theft of cash and military equipment is rife.
The Pentagon has recently announced that it will – future tense – send inspectors to check what is happening to US weapons deliveries and prevent the black market diversion. A leak this week to the Washington Post has revealed that at best only 10% of US arms deliveries to the Ukraine have been confirmed as in stock – 2,200 of a total of 22,000 weapons delivered.
The newspaper also reported State Department sources as blaming the Russian Army for the arms resale and black market smuggling. “Since late February’s invasion, which prompted the closing of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv for several months, U.S. officials have been able to conduct just two in-person inspections of items requiring enhanced oversight at weapons depots where U.S. arms had been brought in from Poland. ‘The conflict creates an imperfect condition for us to have to adjust quickly,’ a senior State Department official said. ‘We want to put some of those resources to working with our allies and partners to mitigate risk however, wherever we can.’ The scramble to adapt oversight rules designed for peacetime has taken on greater importance as the volume of American assistance reaches dizzying levels and congressional scrutiny intensifies. U.S. and Ukrainian officials say they have not documented any instances of illicit use or transfer of American arms in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion on Feb. 24. The State Department has acknowledged that Russian forces’ capture of Ukrainian arms could lead to those weapons being smuggled on to other countries. Other weapons have gone missing; a Swedish grenade launcher, apparently pilfered from a battlefield in Ukraine, exploded in the trunk of a car in Russia in May.”
The Pentagon and State Department have told reporters their new auditing effort “hope[s] to achieve a ‘reasonable’ level of compliance with U.S. oversight rules for those high-risk items [Stinger anti-air and Javelin anti-tank missiles] , but also acknowledge that they are unlikely to achieve 100 percent of normal checks and inventories as the country’s escalating war with Russia strains systems for ensuring weapons are not stolen or misused.”
The US Government terms “reasonable” and “normal” are the equivalent of the IMF’s “assuming”, “timely”, and “proj.”
Until now, however, the US Government’s official auditor, the independent General Accounting Office (GAO), has refused to audit Ukrainian expenditure of US military aid funds.
Source: https://www.gao.gov/
“Looking ahead,” the IMF staff declared last month, “it is crucial to implement policies that do not reverse hard-won gains from past Fund-supported programs to maintain donor confidence and pave the way for the eventual recovery. Effective transparency and accountability safeguards are critical to sustaining continued donor support, preventing misappropriation, and eventually ensuring high quality reconstruction efforts. Key measures should aim to promote procurement transparency in spending and investment, preserve key functions of the anticorruption enforcement framework, and maintain good corporate governance, including in state-owned enterprises and banks. More broadly, a successful reconstruction effort will require a timely and well-coordinated normalization of fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate policies, restoring financial sector health, gradually liberalizing capital flows, strengthening governance, and tackling key structural challenges, including restoring a well-functioning PFM-system which includes fiscal risk management.”
This is an admission that there are no accountability safeguards, no effective transparency audits, no prevention of misappropriation in the present Ukrainian government, banking system, and military operations. Promising there will be is a battery torch shining on a black hole – for as long as there is electricity to recharge the battery before the light goes out.
http://johnhelmer.net/thieves-paradise- ... more-70130
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From Cassad's Telegram account:
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Colonelcassad
Special operation, November 3rd. The main thing from RIA Novosti :
One hundred and seven Russian soldiers have been released from Ukrainian captivity, the Russian Defense Ministry said;
Over the past day, Russian air defense systems shot down 8 Ukrainian drones, as well as 13 HIMARS, Alder and Uragan MLRS shells;
Russian combat aviation shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter in the Kherson region;
In the Dzerzhinsk region (DPR), a US-made AN / TPQ-37 counter-battery radar was destroyed;
The Russian military defeated two companies of foreign mercenaries in the village of Novoselovskoye (LPR), 130 enemy people were killed;
In the Kharkiv region, the Russian Armed Forces in the course of a counter-battery fight defeated a Ukrainian platoon of Grad multiple launch rocket systems;
IAEA inspectors completed inspections at three sites in Ukraine and found no undeclared nuclear activities or materials there;
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed a strong protest to the British Ambassador to the Russian Federation in connection with the participation of British military specialists in the training and supply of units of the special operations forces of Ukraine.
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forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin on the main points during the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine at 21.00 Moscow time on 03.11.2022, specially for the Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok channel :
1. Avdiivka direction.
Fights for Vodyanoye , Pervomayskoye and Experienced . There are no significant promotions. The battles develop in a positional manner with small advances of the assault groups.
2. Carbon . The offensive of the RF Armed Forces gets bogged down in Pavlovka . It has not yet been possible to dislodge the enemy from the rest of the village. Also, it has not yet been possible to establish full-fledged fire control over the road to Ugledar . Fights for fortified areas continue
Novomikhailovka .
3. Artemovsk .
Fights for fortified areas near Experienced and in the area of the industrial zone on the eastern outskirts.
Promotion to Kurdyumovka has not yet brought any special dividends. The enemy is rotating the battered units in Artemovsk . Attempts to counterattack north of the city ended unsuccessfully for the APU.
4. Soledar / Seversk .
The situation has not changed much. Positional battles continue without much progress.
Street fighting in Soledar and positional fighting in the area of Disputed and Belogorovka.
5. Kremennaya .
Local battles near Terna andTorsky continue to tie down the enemy's initiative in the direction of Kremennaya . The Armed Forces of Ukraine are regrouping in the Svatovsky direction in order to try to break through the front in the direction of the Svatovo-Kremennaya highway , as well as repeat the attack on Tavolzhanka .
6. Kherson .
Situation without significant changes. The enemy continues to carry out small attacks and reconnaissance in combat, but without significant results. Our troops continue to stand in the same positions against the background of rumors about the withdrawal from Kherson . The enemy intensifies shelling of the Antonovsky bridge area and settlements on the Dnieper .
***
forwarded from
Joker DNR
16:19
We continue to humiliate self-confident Ukrainians with the DELTA command and control program, which, as Yurochka Butusov correctly noted, was highly appreciated by NATO experts at their event on October 26. Especially NATO experts noted its reliability and security, yeah. It seems that NATO has the same specialists as the Ukrainian circus.
Yurochka sometimes tells the truth, and he correctly noted that my hackers hacked into DELTA in August. For the rest, he brazenly lies. For example, that phishing was used and, as Yura wrote: “two adults with titles and positions” simply opened a virus program. Yura also lies that they received access only for 13 minutes and only regarding the southern part of the former Ukraine. I just demonstrated the south because your bouncer, who humiliated "stupid Russians who are far from such technologies," also demonstrated the south. Thought you'd understand. But you are too dumb.
So, Yurochka, I want to upset you. We visited those adults through DELTA, and not vice versa. We also visited and left gifts with other “adults” who use such logins in DELTA: VadimFox, Santiago, Boris, Metodist, Balamut, Odessa, ofelia20 and some others. To all, in short. By the way, the American owners should conduct an investigation themselves, otherwise we often visit them through Ukrainian resources. By the way, remember the Sea Breeze 2021 joint exercises with NATO and the lists of all participants published by me, including those from NATO. Then my hackers hacked many websites of the Ukrainian security forces, and a cloud with all the lists and documents of all participants was attached to the website of the Ukrainian Navy . Everything turned out to be easier than we expected.
In short, here's another video from DELTA. It is short, 16 minutes and a half, and Kharkiv is considered there, and we ran through Donetsk. No, well, if Yura recognizes Kharkov and Donetsk as a legitimate historical part of Russian lands, then yes, they are also the South ... South of Moscow for sure.
I have only one question. Will the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine again deny the fact of the DELTA hack?
https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin
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