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46

For Your Information / British Intelligence Operative's Involvement in Ukraine Crisis Signals False Fla

« on: March 25, 2022, 06:56:13 PM »

   British Intelligence Operative's Involvement in Ukraine Crisis Signals False Flag Attacks Ahead
Internationalist 360, Kit Klarenberg

March24, 2022


   Shadowy UK intel figure Hamish de Bretton-Gordon was at the forefront of chemical weapons deceptions in Syria. Now in Ukraine, he's up to his old tricks again.

With Washington and its NATO allies forced to watch from the sidelines as Russia's military advances across Eastern Ukraine and encircles Kiev, US and British officials have resorted to a troubling tactic that could trigger a massive escalation. Following similar claims by his Secretary of State and ambassador the United Nations, US President Joseph Biden has declared that Russia will pay a "severe price" if it uses chemical weapons in Ukraine.

The warnings emanating from the Biden administration contain chilling echoes of those issued by the administration of President Barack Obama throughout the US-led dirty war on Syria.

Almost as soon as Obama implemented his ill-fated "red line" policy vowing an American military response if the Syrian army attacked the Western-backed opposition with chemical weapons, Al Qaeda-aligned opposition factions came forth with claims of mass casualty sarin and chlorine bombings of civilians. The result was a series of US-UK missile strikes on Damascus and a prolonged crisis that nearly triggered the kind of disastrous regime change war that had destabilized Iraq and Libya.

In each major chemical weapons event, signs of staging and deception by the armed Syrian opposition were present. As a former US ambassador in the Middle East told journalist Charles Glass, "The ‘red line' was an open invitation to a false-­flag operation."

Elements of deception were especially clear in the April 7, 2018 incident in the city of Douma, when an anti-government militia on the brink of defeat claimed civilians had been massacred in a chlorine attack by the Syrian army.

Veteran inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found no evidence that the Syrian army had carried out any such attack, however, suggesting the entire incident had been staged to trigger Western intervention. Their report was subsequently censored by organization management, and the inspectors were subjected to a campaign of smears and intimidation.

Throughout the Syrian conflict, a self-proclaimed "chemical warrior" named Hamish de Bretton-Gordon was intimately involved in numerous chemical weapons deceptions that sustained the war and ratcheted up pressure for Western military intervention.

This February 24, just moments after Russia's military entered Ukraine, de Bretton-Gordon surfaced again in British media to claim that Russia was preparing a chemical attack on Ukrainian civilians. He has since demanded that Ukrainians be provided with a guide he wrote called, "How To Survive A Chemical Attack."

How to Survive a Chemical or Biological Attack – this is Free – please disseminate as widely as possible to civilians in #Ukraine & surrounding countries https://t.co/tkV4Nb3PaO

— Hamish DBG (@HamishDBG) March 22, 2022

So who is de Bretton-Gordon, and does his sudden reappearance as an expert voice on the Russia-Ukraine war signal a return to the dangerous US-UK red line policy?

Hours after war erupts, a "chemical warrior" demands Western escalation

Following months of fevered speculation about an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine, when it finally came to pass on the early morning of February 24th, most were caught entirely by surprise. Media outlets and pundits scrambled to get their stories straight, while Western leaders rushed to construct a cohesive ‘response'.

By contrast, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a British army veteran identified by UK media as a "former spy," was in no such muddle. Within just three hours, he had a fiery op-ed prepared for The Guardian, demanding the US and Europe "show their steel in the face of Putin's aggression." Warning that Vladimir Putin was "much more willing to face off with NATO" than before, de Bretton-Gordon charged that the West "stood back and watched in Syria," and "it must not do the same in Ukraine."

"Syria shows what happens when you turn a blind eye and are too heavily influenced by peaceniks," de Bretton-Gordon fulminated. "Those of us involved in interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 30 years we look at Syria and know we should have done better. That knowledge should inform our response to Putin's aggression now."

In reality, Washington and its allies did not stand back and watch in Syria; it waged a decade-long proxy war employing jihadist paramilitaries and airstrikes on Damascus, then occupied oil-producing portions of the country and subjected its citizens to crippling sanctions, which to this day deprive them of food, electricity and vital medical supplies.

Of all people, de Bretton-Gordon – whose Twitter profile once identified him as a member of 77th Brigade, the British Army's official psychological warfare division – is uniquely placed to know of these horrors. After all, he played a pivotal role in promoting and extending the dirty war through the management of information surrounding chemical weapons incidents.

Manipulation, absurdities and obvious fraud

As The Grayzone has revealed, the involvement of de Bretton-Gordon in the Syrian conflict dates back to at least 2013, when by his own admission he was engaged in a covert effort to smuggle soil samples out of the opposition-occupied areas. This work would have inevitably placed him in extremely close quarters with jihadist elements raking in Western funding while benefiting from NATO training and weapons.

Contemporary media reports reveal the UK's MI6 was engaged in a sample-gathering effort in the country at the very time time de Bretton-Gordon was inside Syria, strongly suggesting his linkage to the foreign intelligence agency. One article makes abundantly clear the purpose of the soil-sample exercise was to push the US into intervening by proving government culpability for alleged chemical weapons attacks.

Other forms of evidence were also collected on-the-ground by de Bretton-Gordon, and provided to a number of official investigations into chemical attacks. In at least one instance – an OPCW/UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) probe into a purported chemical strike in Talmenes, April 2014 – videos submitted by CBRN Taskforce, a shady organization he founded in Aleppo, were found to show clear signs of falsification.

De Bretton-Gordon threw his chemical weapons expertise into further doubt when he told British media that any common refrigerator could be transformed into a chemical weapon, falsely claiming that R22 refrigerant cylinders contained material for improvised chlorine bombs. "Somebody could go to a waste site where people chuck away fridges [in the UK] and get a whole bunch of those things and blow them up," the supposed arms specialist claimed.

Hamish made the follow claims regarding household fridges and chlorine bombs: https://t.co/VJUOyW1UAR he is still regularly used by UK media @haynesdeborah @bbclysedoucet @F1onaHill pic.twitter.com/ytgQqdbjIp

— Piers Robinson (@PiersRobinson1) August 9, 2019

De Bretton Gordon has gone as far as claiming to a British tabloid that Russia could deploy missiles and hand grenades containing the highly deadly Soviet-era chemical agent Novichok "in any future war with the West."

Such absurd commentary and subterfuge has done nothing to dent de Bretton-Gordon's credibility, however. His mainstream profile has only grown over time, with outlets invariably presenting him as a courageous human rights defender risking his life to train local doctors and rescue workers.

On more than one occasion, however, de Bretton-Gordon has directly involved Western journalists in MI6's soil gathering efforts. For instance, during a 2014 podcast interview with Wilton Park, an NGO funded by the UK Foreign Office, de Bretton-Gordon boasted of his responsibility for a story in the Times of London alleging a Syrian chemical attack in the town of Sheikh al-Maqsood.

"In March last year there was a reported sarin attack in Sheikh al-Maqsood and I helped the Times – chap called Anthony Lloyd who very sadly got shot two weeks ago – to cover this story and tried to get samples to the UK for analysis I won't go into the details of that," he recalled.

Then-Prime Minister David Cameron invoked the Sheikh al-Maqsood incident to increase pressure on Damascus, citing "the picture as described to me by the Joint Intelligence Committee" as the basis for his assertion of a chemical attack against the town by the Syrian army.

Throughout the dirty war on Syria, de Bretton-Gordon routinely cropped up in the media attributing gas attacks and war crimes to Syrian and Russian forces, and fear-mongered about their implications for future conflicts with the West.

The latter role is one de Bretton-Gordon has enthusiastically resumed throughout the war in Ukraine, aggressively hyping the threat to Western countries. His messaging has tracked seamlessly with that of the US government, which initiated a program months before Russia's military operation to prepare Ukraine's security sector for an impending weapons of mass destruction attack.

Months before war, US trains Ukrainians in the threat of "targeted weapons of mass destruction attacks"

Back in May 2021, the State Department announced that Washington had conducted a "virtual training exercise" with "partners" in Kiev, including domestic security services, law enforcement, and first responders, to "identify, respond to, and investigate assassinations involving weapons of mass destruction," due to "recent events in Europe" highlighting "the real threat of government-sanctioned, targeted weapons of mass destruction attacks."

Along the way, Ukrainians were tutored in "[identifying] the medical symptoms that indicate WMD material use, the attack cycle involved in WMD assassination attempts, and the specific measures that enable safe and secure detection and response to WMD incidents."

Quite why this instruction was given at this particular time is unclear, as was the "recent events in Europe" to which the press release referred. Perhaps the State Department was alluding to the alleged novichok poisoning of the Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in August 2020. On what grounds that failed assassination necessitated a grand, multi-agency training exercise in dealing with "targeted WMD attacks" is anyone's guess.

Whatever the purpose of the US training program was, Ukrainian security personnel can now claim they have the training to identify the precise "medical symptoms that indicate WMD material."

This is significant, because ever since the conflict began, Kiev has exhibited an endless enthusiasm for lying, having distorted or even outright concocted events and facts whole-cloth to advance its objectives on countless occasions.

The most dangerous claims advanced by Ukrainian propagandists have been reinforced by the supposed authority of de Bretton-Gordon, who has argued that Russian chemical strikes were absolutely inevitable, based his prediction on his opinion that Moscow "has no morals or scruples."

The self-styled chemical weapons expert has even cautioned that Putin could deploy nuclear weapons or create a pandemic "more deadly than Covid" with an Ebola weapon. He has further speculated that Russian forces may unleash a deadly virus seized from one of several Pentagon-funded biolabs in Ukraine, then blame it on the US. From a September 05 2020 Times of London profile of Hamish de Bretton-Gordon

From Syria to Ukraine, it is happening again

In a typical media appearance, on March 10th, de Bretton Gordon told London's LBC radio show that "nothing is off the table at this stage." Among the horrors he forecast was the use of white phosphorous "to set towns and cities on fire."

Justifying his certainty, de Bretton-Gordon forcefully asserted, "the only way to take a large city or town ultimately is to use chemical weapons." He pointed to Syria to prove his point – but without referencing his own pivotal role in escalating that conflict through the manipulation of evidence and scientifically bereft fear-mongering in the media.

Now, de Bretton-Gordon has resurfaced at the center of the aggressive push for escalation with a nuclear armed Russia. If his role in Syria is any guide, a series of cynical deceptions could be on the way.

Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.

47

For Your Information / The Bidens Funded the Activities of Secret US Biolabs Internationalist 360

« on: March 25, 2022, 06:54:42 PM »

The Bidens Funded the Activities of Secret US Biolabs Internationalist 360, ladimir Platov
March 24, 2022

A growing number of independent media and civil society organizations are joining the investigation of hundreds of secret US biological laboratories around the world, including around Russia and China, rightfully suspected of developing and testing internationally banned biological weapons, to prevent Washington from launching a new, this time biological war in the world. The New Eastern Outlook has been involved in this investigation for a number of years, and its sources have repeatedly uncovered US criminal activity in Ukraine, Georgia and the Central Asian countries.

   It is noteworthy that the more justified and documented such criminal activity by the United States becomes, the louder the "objections" from Washington resound. And on March 22, in a meeting with business representatives, even US President Joe Biden tried to assure that the United States allegedly has no biological or chemical weapons in Europe. "It's just not true, I guarantee it," Biden said. At the same time, the "wise" American leader decided to deflect the blame onto Russia, in yet another fake way, accusing it of developing biological weapons in Ukraine and clearly in US secret biological laboratories.

But as is well known, the loudest shout of "Catch the thief" is from the thief himself!

As everyone is well aware, the US has not yet destroyed its stockpiles of chemical weapons, Washington is artificially delaying the process, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on March 22. "The US, unlike Russia, has not yet destroyed its stockpiles of chemical weapons. It has been said that there are no such weapons in Europe, but in America they remain, and the rate of their destruction is extremely low," Ryabkov said.

As for US involvement in biological weapons development, in confirmation of yet another lie by Washington and Joseph Biden personally, there is evidence in internet investigations that Britain and the US are jointly developing biological weapons, and that the Biden family has been involved for years in funding US biological laboratories around Russia, where under a veil of secrecy Washington has been creating biological weapons.

According to alternative media outlets independent of Washington, particularly in France, Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP) is directly involved in the funding of a number of US biological laboratories. This company, based in Washington, is named after the Rosemont farm of the Biden family's estate near Pittsburgh. It became an offshoot of Rosemont Capital and an investment fund founded by Hunter Biden and John Kerry's stepson Christopher Heinz in 2009, with Hunter as managing director.

The companies listed as closely related to RSTP in the archived versions of the firm's portfolio include Metabiota, a San Francisco-based company that detects, traces and analyzes emerging infectious diseases, as well as conducts biological weapons research. Financial reports show that the RSTP led the first round of US biological laboratories funding in Ukraine in 2014, which amounted to $30 million. In June 2021, The National Pulse detailed Biden's funding of Metabiota, based in San Francisco.

In 2014, Metabiota signed a federal contract worth $18.4 million for a program linked to DTRA (US Defense Threat Reduction Agency) biological weapons development in Georgia and Ukraine, according to the international scientific community. The contractor was Black & Veatch. And then some incomprehensible outbreaks of long forgotten diseases that the local authorities did away with a long time ago start in Ukraine: measles, diphtheria, tuberculosis, polio, cases of Ukrainian soldiers dying of some mysterious infection. Similar events took place in Georgia, where 24 people died in December 2015 and 49 more later in a Lugar laboratory when a drug manufactured by former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's company was tested on Georgian citizens.

Black & Veatch Special Project Corp and Metabiota even shared an office in the heart of Kiev. At the 2016 meeting in Lviv, representatives from Black & Veatch and Metabiota discussed US biological laboratories with representatives from Ukraine, Poland and the US.

Metabiota unveiled its relationship with Black & Veach in 2018: "Today, Metabiota, the pioneer in epidemic risk modeling, announced it has been awarded a subcontract from Black & Veatch (B&V) to support the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency's (DTRA) Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) in Iraq under the Biological Threat Reduction Integrating Contract (BTRIC). Metabiota has also partnered with B&V on DTRA's recently awarded Cooperative Threat Reduction Integrating Contract (CTRIC) III with an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract ceiling of $970M."

In 2015, Infowars reported on Black & Veatch's involvement in US biological laboratories in an article entitled "Why does the Pentagon need laboratories in Ukraine?" In particular, it disclosed that the biological laboratories operating under the Pentagon's DTRA program from 2008 to 2017 were built and operated by Black & Veatch with $215.6 million in funding from that firm. That is, by the Biden family through RSTP-Metabiota-Black & Veatch.

Moreover, the American company Black & Veatch claims to have worked with the Pentagon since 2003. The Black & Veatch project has been building laboratories in Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Thailand, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Armenia.

So today there is actual confirmation that there are US biological laboratories in Ukraine and that Hunter Biden's company Rosemont Seneca has invested in the firms which built these laboratories.

Under these circumstances, it is completely incomprehensible why Joe Biden is trying to deny that there are US-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine. Could it be because his son's company financed the building of these laboratories in Ukraine and a number of other countries and he does not want the American people and the international public to know about it?

In earlier times, perpetrators used to be impeached for such activities. Time will tell whether the impeachment will catch up with Joe Biden and, by the same token, all the current US authorities.

US Company Metabiota Links Biolabs in Africa and Ukraine to the Pentagon's DTRA Made in the USA: Military Biolabs in Ukraine and the Spread of Disaster Pentagon Contractors Worked in Ukrainian Biolabs Under $80 Million Program

48

For Your Information / Donetsk News Agency reports

« on: March 22, 2022, 11:44:30 AM »

Donetsk News Agency reports
Donetsk News Agency

March 21, 2022

   DPR SEIZURE OF SPANISH GREANDE LAUNCHERS Donetsk, Mar 21 – DAN. DPR service members have seized Spanish grenade launchers abandoned by retreating Ukrainian forces, the deputy Chief-of-staff of the Republican Defense Eduard Basurin said.

"We keep seizing foreign weapons. As the members of the 54th brigade hurried to retreat they left a large bunch of Instalaza C-90 grenade launchers behind in Novomikhailovka, shipped from Spain in March," he said.

The People's Militia has also seized four IFVs and two armored vehicles, which will be used to defend Donbass.

MARCH 21 - ATILERY DEPOT AND GRAD system destroyed The servicemen of the DPR People's Militia have liquidated 36 Ukrainian militants and 11 of their fire positions on Monday, the deputy Chief-of-Staff of the DPR Defence Eduard Basurin said.

"Since the beginning of the day, our servicemen have destroyed 36 Ukrainian occupants, 11 fire points, one infantry fighting vehicle, one BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system, two armoured personnel carriers and a field artillery depot," Basurin said.

He said that over the past day six servicemen of the DPR People's Militia have been killed, and another 22 were injured.

EMERGENCY SERVICE WORKERS IN LIBERATED AREAS More than 140 members of Ukrainian State Emergencies Service agreed to continue working with the DPR, the DPR Emergencies Ministry said.

"As of today, 142 former members of the Ukrainian State Emergencies Service expressed willingness to continue their work within the DPR Emergencies Ministry," the report said.

Earlier emergency services workers in Volodarskoye, Mangush, Yalta decided to work in the DPR

DEFECTIONS TO DPR PEOPLE"S MILITIA DPR People's Militia has liquidated 44 members of Ukrainian armed formations over the last day, DPR Defence's deputy chief of staff Eduard Basurin said.

"Over the last day, DPR service members liquidated 44 Ukrainian occupants, destroyed one tank, two IFVs, three fire positions of MT-12 Rapira anti-tank guns," he said.

Two self-propelled Gvozdika howitzers, one IFV, two armoured vehicles and three trucks have been captured.

Nineteen service members of the 25th and 54th Ukrainian brigades have laid down arms and defected to the DPR

49

For Your Information / Bits Of Interest From The War In Ukraine

« on: March 22, 2022, 11:41:59 AM »

Bits Of Interest From The War In Ukraine
Moon of Alabama

March 21, 2022


   Below are various bits of interest from the war in Ukraine.

Zelensky says 'western' leaders said no to Ukrainian NATO membership, but rejected to do so publicly. U.S. supported 'activist' commits publicly to war crimes. CNN promotes leader of neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. Arch Zionists are pissed off by Zelensky's holocaust revisionism. Destroyed Kiev shopping mall was used as weapon and ammunition depot. Despite a hopeless situation the government in Kiev rejects to end war in Mariupol. Unconfirmed: Zelensky rejects Ukrainian military request for retreat from the Donbas front.

---

In two draft treaties, which Russia had sent to the U.S. and EU in December, it demanded written declarations that the Ukraine would never join NATO. The U.S. and the EU publicly rejected that demand. It was a major reason for Russia to start its intervention.

Consider the above in light of this interview Zelensky gave yesterday to CNN. He said:

I requested them personally to say directly that we are going to accept you into NATO in a year or two or five. Just say it directly and clearly or just say no, and the response was very clear, you are not going to be a NATO or E.U. member, but publicly the doors will remain open.

The cowards just didn't want to say it publicly, even as it could have avoided a war. ---

White Swan @SDyorin - 10:32 UTC · Mar 21, 2022

Head of #Ukrainian "1st volunteer mobile hospital" operating in #Donbass, political activist Gennady Druzenko claimed on '#Ukraine 24' channel that he 'ordered to ? captive #Russian soldiers, because they are cockroaches, not humans'. #neonazis - Video

Dan Cohen @dancohen3000 - 9:21 UTC · Mar 20, 2022

Druzenko is closely tied to the US government. He's had stints at USAID/Chemonics and the Wilson Center. - Image

---

Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled - 12:47 UTC · Mar 21, 2022

Incredible. neo-Nazi Azov promoting Azov Regiment commander Denis Prokopenko's appearance on @CNN. Everything is upside-down. - Video

Oleksiy Kuzmenko @kooleksiy - 21:24 UTC · Mar 18, 2020

Azov Regiment never de-politicized. The current commander Denys "Redis" Prokopenko, has been with Azov since 2014, came, per "Redis" himself, from the milieu of Dynamo Kyiv soccer hooligans. The photos are from a 2014 rally. The cover is of Azov's own zine "The Black Sun". - Images

---

Israeli lawmakers tear into Zelensky for Holocaust comparisons in Knesset speech - Times of Israel

Caroline Glick @CarolineGlick - 15:37 UTC · Mar 20, 2022

Zelensky's claim that the Ukrainians were righteous gentiles who saved Jews in the Holocaust is sick historical revisionism. The Ukrainians were active, enthusiastic Nazis. Ukrainian Jewry wasn't annihilated in Poland, but in Ukraine, by their neighbors

---

Large explosion partially destroys Kyiv shopping mall, killing at least 8, officials say - Washington Post

> Early Monday, photographers documented several bodies laid outside an entrance to the mall. A Washington Post reporter who visited the site after the bodies were removed saw puddles of blood and olive green blood-soaked jackets on the ground. Abandoned surgical gloves were scattered about — apparently left over from medics who tried to save the victims. <

Aladin @aldin_ww - 9:41 UTC · Mar 21, 2022

Now that all is done and there is more light on that situation I will say that strike on Retroville Mall in Kyiv was not just a strike on a shopping mall. ... New images have been posted online showing military vehicles parked at the shopping mall. - Image

I don't like to do this stuff, I have promised to be as objective as possible and there it is.

Harry Boone @Harry_Boone - 11:54 UTC · Mar 21, 2022

looks like "Retroville" shopping center was used as military storage - Image

Secondary explosion after Russian missile strike on Kyiv's "Retroville" shopping center ... Ammo storage ? - Video

Yuri Lyamin @imp_navigator - 14:45 UTC · 21 Mar 2022

Fottages from Russian recc UAV (looks like Orlan-10) that tracked postion of the Ukrainian "Grad" MLRS that covered in parking of the Retroville Mall in Kiev. After that, a missile strike was carried out, that was also filmed from recc UAV. - Video

Bill Roggio @billroggio - 11:53 UTC · Mar 21, 2022 1) This map, from @BBC, dated March 20, shows the situation in Mariupol. Ukrainian forces, led by the Azov Battalion, are bottled up in an area approximately 6 square miles. There is no relief. - Map 2) A Russian general called for Ukrainian troops to surrender. "There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms" in the city, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk responded. Reuters: Ukraine defies Russian demand to lay down arms in Mariupol 3) The neo-Nazi Azov Battalion is unlikely to lay down its arms, so the fight for Mariupol will only get bloodier.

Gleb Bazov @gbazov - 12:34 UTC · Mar 21, 2022

Command of #UA Joint Forces Operation in #Donbass has urgently requested a full-scale withdrawal from around #Donetsk to escape a forming cauldron. JFO command has asked to retreat from positions at #Kurakhovo, #Dachnoye, #Avdeedvka. 1/4 - Map

#Russia|n forces have already reached the rear of #Ukrainian forces in this area, west of #Donetsk. The complete elimination of #UA units here is a matter of several days according to #JFO command. 2/4 - Map

According to #UA #JFO command, withdrawal from these positions could enable #Ukraine|ian troops to salvage the desperate situation and continue defensive operations in the area of #Dzerzhinsk and #Kramatorsk. 3/4

#Zelensky is refusing to allow the retreat for fear that it would be used by #Russia as a weapon in the information war against #Ukraine, as it would mean deblockading #Donetsk and abandoning defensive fortifications. 4/4

Posted by b on March 21, 2022 at 16:51 UTC | Permalink

50

For Your Information / Italian union protests against sending weapons to Ukraine in humanitarian cargo

« on: March 22, 2022, 11:33:52 AM »

Italian union protests against sending weapons to Ukraine in humanitarian cargo – ‘We risk WWIII'
Global Times, Zhao Yusha

March 21, 2022


   "We don't think sending weapons solves the situation [conflict between Russia and Ukraine] because we risk a third world war," said a representative of an Italian workers union that blocked arms shipments to Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian aid.

Nearly 2,000 people participated in a protest in Pisa, Italy on Saturday against the government's sending of weapons to Ukraine. Airport workers at Galileo Galilei Airport in Pisa revealed that under the guise of a humanitarian cargo, boxes with weapons and ammunition were sent to Ukraine. They refused to unload them, local media reported.

"The airport workers said the goods inside the aircraft weren't food or clothes. There were weapons. So they said it isn't their work. And they didn't prepare the cargo," Cinzia Della Porta, a representative of the Tuscan branch of the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), one of Italy's biggest trade unions, who initiated the protest, said.

The union pointed out that, according to safety standards, such cargo cannot be sent from a civilian airport, which is dangerous for workers. "There is also a military airport nearby, but this simply could not have happened by mistake," Cinzia told the Global Times on Monday.

She said the protest was also held in support of peace and against NATO. "We don't agree to send weapons because we risk a third world war," Cinzia noted.

The incident is also an example of how "humanitarianism" can be abused. According to a USB statement: "We strongly condemn this blatant deception, which cynically uses the guise of 'humanitarian aid' to further fuel the war in Ukraine." Humanitarian measures, such as sending aid supplies and accepting refugees are not enough to end the war — and in this case they even served as a cover for militarism.

Mario Carrai, chairman of Tuscany airports [Toscana Aeroporti], who manages the Pisa airport, has since assured that there will be no more arms shipments through Pisa airport. Toscana Aeroporti failed to reply to an interview request from the Global Times as of press time.

51

For Your Information / Putin on Ukraine and the West: Key takeaways from latest speech

« on: March 17, 2022, 11:05:44 AM »

Putin on Ukraine and the West: Key takeaways from latest speech

RT

The collective West clinging on its “crumbling dominance” has been the ultimate driver of the crisis, Russian president says
Putin on Ukraine and the West: Key takeaways from latest speech
©  The Kremlin

President Vladimir Putin gave an extensive speech on the Ukrainian crisis on Wednesday, as he met with regional heads to discuss measures of socioeconomic support to counter the wave of anti-Russian sanctions. Putin provided his take on the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, its causes, and the goals Russia pursues.
Conflict was inevitable

Launching the “special military operation” was the only option Russia had left to end the years-long bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, Putin stressed. At the same time, limiting its scope to the breakaway Donbass republics only would only push the “frontline” westwards, rather than defuse the situation, he noted.

While waging the war against the breakaway regions of Donbass, Kiev has been preparing for a broad offensive to re-capture them, Putin said, adding that “almost 14,000 civilians, including children, have been killed” in the conflict. Ukrainian authorities also sought to attack Crimea, which split from the country back in 2014 and joined Russia via a referendum.

“Encouraged by the United States and other Western countries, Ukraine was purposefully preparing for a scenario of force, a massacre and an ethnic cleansing in Donbass. A massive onslaught on Donbass and later Crimea was just a matter of time. However, our Armed Forces have shattered these plans,” Putin said.
Kiev actively sought weapons of mass destruction

Ukrainian authorities have openly stated their goal to obtain weapons of mass destruction, namely nuclear bombs and means of their delivery, Russia’s president has said. Given the extremely hostile attitude of Kiev, such systems would have been used to target Russia once they were ready.
WHO advised Kiev to destroy disease-causing pathogens – media READ MORE: WHO advised Kiev to destroy disease-causing pathogens – media

Putin also touched upon the Ukrainian biolab network allegations, raised by the Russian military amid the offensive. The facilities scattered across the country have allegedly been engaged in biological weapons development with direct support of Washington. The allegations, backed by documents published by the Russian military, have been met with varying degrees of denial from the top US officials.

“There was a network of dozens of laboratories in Ukraine, where military biological programs were conducted under the guidance and with the financial support of the Pentagon, including experiments with coronavirus strains, anthrax, cholera, African swine fever and other deadly diseases,” Putin said, adding that now “frantic attempts” are underway to conceal the “traces of these secret programs.”
Ukraine established as ‘anti-Russia’

Over the past few years, under the close guidance of their Western handlers, the Kiev authorities have morphed Ukraine into “anti-Russia”, Putin suggested. The only goal of the incumbent Kiev “regime” is to drag the conflict on for as long as possible, with little regard to the fate of the civilians or destruction that ensues.

“We are seeing again and again that the Kiev regime, for which its Western masters have set the task of creating an aggressive ‘anti-Russia’, is indifferent to the fate of the people of Ukraine themselves,” Putin said.

“It is also obvious that the Western handlers are simply pushing the Kiev authorities to continue the bloodshed. They are supplied with more and more weaponry batches, they are provided with intelligence, they also receive other assistance, including military advisers and mercenaries.”
Kiev & West exhibit ‘shocking cynicism’

Both Ukrainian authorities and the collective West have exhibited “shocking cynicism” amid the conflict, Putin said, offering the ballistic missile strike on the center of Donetsk that occurred on Monday as an example of such behavior. The strike killed at least 20 civilians.
Kremlin responds to Biden calling Putin ‘war criminal’ READ MORE: Kremlin responds to Biden calling Putin ‘war criminal’

“They are striking randomly at squares with the fervor of fanatics and the exasperation of the doomed. They are acting like the Nazis did when they tried to drag as many innocent victims as they could to their graves,” Putin said, adding that Kiev had tried to blame the strike on Russia through “blatant lies.”

The attitude of “the so-called civilized world” to the missile strike turned to be “shocking in its extreme cynicism” as well, the president went on.

“The European and American press did not even notice this tragedy in Donetsk, as if nothing happened,” Putin said. “Just like they have been hypocritically looking the other way over the past eight years as mothers buried their children in Donbass, as elderly people were killed. This is simply moral degradation, complete de-humanization.”
Crumbling dominance of the West behind global turmoil

Ultimately, the West’s desire to maintain its global dominance is the root of the ongoing Ukrainian turmoil, as well as crises in the other parts of the globe, Putin believes.
West’s global political and economic dominance ends – Putin READ MORE: West’s global political and economic dominance ends – Putin

“Today, the entire planet has to pay the price for the ambitions of the West, for its attempts by any means to maintain its crumbling dominance,” he said.

Concerned only with their “vested interests and super profits,” the Western elites led the world into the current situation through “years of mistakes and short-sited decisions.”

For instance, the impact of the anti-Russian sanctions, imposed over the Ukrainian conflict, is already being felt by the common people in the West – while the elites have been bizarrely trying to blame it on Moscow, Putin noted.

    I want ordinary Western people to hear me as well. You are being persistently told that your current difficulties are the result of Russia’s hostile actions and that you have to pay from your own pockets for the efforts to counter the alleged Russian threat. All of that is a lie.

52

For Your Information / US dismissal of concerns over biomilitary activities shows irresponsible attitud

« on: March 11, 2022, 03:58:05 PM »

US dismissal of concerns over biomilitary activities shows irresponsible attitude: Chinese FM
Global Times

March 10, 2022


   The international community has expressed grave concern over US biomilitary activities and for the US to dismiss this as "fake news" shows an irresponsible attitude, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday when asked to comment on the US' denial that it operates biowarfare labs in the Ukraine.

The international community has no idea what the US has done in its domestic Fort Detrick lab and the 336 biolabs it has abroad, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.

"We appeal to all parties to ensure the safety of the biological laboratories in Ukraine under the current circumstances, for the sake of people in Ukraine and in the surrounding regions," said Zhao. The Russian Ministry of Defense said on the same day that documents showed experiments on coronavirus samples from bats have been conducted in the biolabs founded and financed by the US in Ukraine.

Zhao also expressed concerns over US opposition to the founding of a multilateral inspections mechanism, and whether it complies with the Chemical Weapons Convention.

"Despite being a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the US remains the only country in the world that still possesses chemical weapons. It has twice exceeded the time limit to destroy all its chemical weapons stockpiles despite repeated requests by the international community," Zhao noted.

Zhao added that the data he mentioned about US biomilitary activities came from the US itself.

Zhao emphasized that China firmly opposes any country developing, possessing or using biological or chemical weapons, urging the US again to offer full clarification on its biological military activities at home and abroad, while also calling for it to accept multilateral inspections and finish the elimination of its chemical weapons stockpile as soon as possible.

According to the Arms Control Association, as part of its treaty obligations to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the US must finish destroying all of its declared chemical weapons stockpiles by September 2023, and as of May 2021, the US has not yet destroyed part of its Category 1 chemical weapons stockpile.

53

For Your Information / Russian Communist Party Statement

« on: March 11, 2022, 03:55:06 PM »

Fascists from Europe and Terrorists from the Middle East Support the Bandera Nazis: Russian Communist Party Statement
Communist Party of the Russian Federation

March 8, 2022


   The CPRF resolutely condemns the attempt to internationalize the military conflict in Ukraine and the involvement in the hostilities of outright Nazis and terrorists from Europe and the Middle East.

The CPRF initially assessed the military conflict in Ukraine as a struggle against the neo-Nazis who seized power in a coup d'état in February 2014. We have repeatedly informed the Russian and international public that the Banderites, who are really in charge in Kiev, are direct descendants of Hitler's punishers, who committed monstrous atrocities against the residents of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia during World War II.

Now we have new confirmation of this fact. For this purpose it is enough to look at the composition of those who rushed to Ukraine to support their Nazi accomplices. These are, first of all, the Croatian "volunteers". And we remember very well that in the war of Germany against the USSR, including in Ukraine, two divisions of Croats, "famous" for bloody crimes against civilians, took part.

Thus in Croatian concentration camps on the Balkans in 1941-1944 about one million brothers-Serbs who were fighting with Germans on the side of the USSR in the partisan detachments were slaughtered. And now hundreds of Croats are back in Ukraine on the side of the Banderites. And the Serb brothers are again, as in 1941, on our side. On March 4, more than 15,000 Serbs took to the streets of Belgrade for a powerful demonstration in support of Russia.

Meanwhile, the Croats are not the only Europeans who want revenge. Other countries of the European Union also intend to send "volunteers" again. And that is not surprising. We remember that in that war Europe stood against the USSR with its regular troops and SS legions. The armies of Austria, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Slovakia and Finland fought on Hitler's side, in addition to Croats. Fascists from the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France and Spain vandalized the territory of the USSR, including Ukraine, as part of the SS legions. And today the descendants of unscathed Hitlerites are again eager to fight together with the Nazis and Banderaites.

There are alarming reports of fighters from terrorist organizations from the Middle East being recruited and transported to Ukraine to help the local neo-Nazis. These are those who have become famous for the terrible massacres of civilians in Syria, Libya, Iraq and other Arab countries.

The CPRF resolutely condemns the attempt to internationalize the military conflict in Ukraine and the involvement in the hostilities of outright Nazis and terrorists from Europe and the Middle East. The same fate awaits them as that of their ancestors from the SS legions during the Great Patriotic War. Russians and Ukrainians are brotherly peoples. Together we have shown the world an example of a victorious struggle against German fascism. We shall do everything to prevent this disgusting plague from spreading again over our planet.

Chairman of the CPRF Central Committee G.A. Zyuganov

54

For Your Information / Never again will we rely on the West: Lavrov says Russia will solve its economic

« on: March 11, 2022, 03:50:49 PM »

Never again will we rely on the West: Lavrov says Russia will solve its economic issues
TASS

Mar 10, 2022


   Russia will be able to solve its economic problems in such a way that it will not depend on Western governments and companies ever again, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks with his Ukrainian and Turkish counterparts Dmitry Kuleba and Mevlut Cavusoglu.

"We will solve this problem in such a way that never again will we depend on [our] Western partners, be it governments or companies that are not guided by the interests of their business, but have become a tool of political aggression, Russia is now experiencing from the West," he said.

"We will make sure that we never find ourselves in a similar situation again and that no ‘Uncle Sam' or anyone else can make decisions that are aimed at destroying our economy," he vowed.

We will find a way to no longer depend on it, and it should have been done a long time ago," Lavrov added.

Oil and gas are not weaponized

Touching upon claims that Russia ‘weaponizes' its oil and gas supplies, Lavrov preferred to leave such accusations "to the discretion and conscience of Western colleagues."

"As for oil and gas: we leave it all to the discretion and conscience of our Western colleagues," he said, adding "We have never used oil and gas as a weapon, although they (Western colleagues - TASS) regularly accuse us of doing so."

In this regard, the minister recalled how more than ten years ago, Ukraine provoked a crisis by getting into the habit of stealing natural gas, which was supplied through its territory via transit from Russia to Europe.

"We regularly shipped transit gas to Europe in full compliance with our obligations regarding volumes and prices, but they siphoned it off," he said.

"Do you think Europe somehow tried to manage them? Not at all: they started to claim that it was Russia, which was weaponizing this gas, although they knew perfectly well what was really going on."

Ukraine as a tool against Russia

"Everything that is happening with regards to Ukraine is measured by a lone standard, how to harm Russia through this country, and how to contain Russia," the top diplomat said.

"This containment began long ago, before it was officially announced," he added.

Lavrov highlighted the fact that in the West they "called Russia every name in the book, imposed sanctions, banned their companies from staying in the country, everyone fled, but at the same time they say that they will buy oil and gas, because otherwise they will freeze from the cold." According to him, such behavior perfectly demonstrated Europe's so-called values.

The minister also spoke about the threats being echoed in the West to impose an embargo on the purchase of Russian energy resources. "Go ahead! If they stop buying oil and gas, our Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who oversees the energy sector, spoke in detail that we will not persuade them to buy our oil and gas," he stressed.

"If they want to substitute it, they are welcome to do so. "We will have markets for sales, we already have them," he added.

55

For Your Information / Ukraine's Kuleba: No cease-fire agreement reached at Turkey meeting DW

« on: March 11, 2022, 03:32:23 PM »

Ukraine's Kuleba: No cease-fire agreement reached at Turkey meeting
DW

Mar 10, 2022


   Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said no progress on a cease-fire was made at talks with his Russian counterpart. The meeting in Turkey was the first at this level since Russia's attack on Ukraine began.

It is the first time Lavrov and Kuleba have met since Russia invaded Ukraine last month

A face-to-face meeting in Turkey between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov failed to make progress on ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Kuleba said on Thursday.

It was the first time the top diplomats have met since Russia invaded its neighbor on February 24.

In comments carried by Reuters news agency, Kuleba said at a news conference that the "broad narrative" from Lavrov was that Russia would continue its invasion until Ukraine met its demands.

"Russia is not in a position at this point to establish a cease-fire. They seek a surrender from Ukraine. This is not what they're going to get. Ukraine is strong, Ukraine is fighting," Kuleba said. Watch video 01:01 Dmytro Kuleba: 'We are ready to seek balanced diplomatic solutions'

Kyiv has always rejected Moscow's calls for it to demilitarize, recognize Crimea as part of Russia and recognize two separatist regions in the Donbas regions as autonomous states, among other things.

Kuleba also said that it seemed Lavrov had a different idea than him about what foreign ministers do in such a crisis. What did Lavrov say?

For his part, Lavrov reiterated the Kremlin's allegations that the West has caused the conflict by forcing Ukraine to choose between close ties with Moscow and integration into Western Europe.

He said the West was creating a long-lasting danger in the region and that those who supplied weapons to Ukraine should be aware of how dangerous this was.

He added that Russia had presented its proposals to Ukraine at the meeting and wants a reply.

Lavrov said Russia wanted a "friendly, demilitarized Ukraine" without any threat to Moscow or Russian culture.

He also said President Vladimir Putin would not refuse a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss "specific" issues.

When asked about the bombing of a children's hospital in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Lavrov said Western media had not given "both sides" on this topic.

He said there had long been no women or children at the hospital, only "armed radicals."

Earlier, other Russian officials had claimed the reports were fake.

And when questioned on the possibility that the current conflict could lead to a nuclear war, Lavrov said, "I don't want to believe, and I do not believe, that a nuclear war could start,"

Kuleba tempered expectations ahead of the meeting, saying the prospects for a cease-fire agreement were "limited" as Russia continues its bombardment, as well as siege, of major cities.

He said the success of the meeting would depend on "what instructions and directives Lavrov is under" from the Kremlin.

"I am not pinning any great hopes on them, but we will try and get the most out of" the talks, he added.

Moscow has said it is ready for talks but that all of its demands, including that Kyiv takes a neutral position and drops aspirations of joining the NATO alliance, must be met to end its assault.

Turkey as mediator

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pushed for his country to play a mediation role between the two sides.

DW Russian affairs analyst Konstantin Eggert said ahead of the talks that Turkey's mediation was an important factor, as "Turkey, and specifically Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ... belong to the very few entities in the world that Putin respects."

He said that any prospect of an agreement being reached "essentially lies with Putin."

Eggert added that chances for the talks depended on Lavrov presenting a modified set of demands differing from those made by Moscow at the start of the invasion, as Ukraine would not be prepared to accept those given its current successes in the conflict.

56

For Your Information / Kiev's International Legion: Former elite soldiers from NATO countries

« on: March 03, 2022, 11:21:17 AM »

   Kiev's International Legion: Former elite soldiers from NATO countries – including Germany – participate in the war against Russia in Ukraine. This is considered a substitute for regular NATO deployment.
German Foreign Policy

Mar 2, 0222

   BERLIN/WASHINGTON/KIEV (Own report) – Former NATO special forces – including Germans – are in combat in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine on Ukraine's side. This was reported by a US news portal. According to this information, over the weekend several western ex-elite soldiers experienced in close combat and counterterrorism are preparing to leave from Poland to join the war in Ukraine. Numerous others are reported to be standing by. The government in Kiev has meanwhile created the legal prerequisites by establishing an "international legion," to ensure that soldiers of foreign nationalities entering the country will have regular combatant status. Observers consider that the voluntary engagement of former soldiers from the West will substitute, to a certain extent, for the deployment of regular NATO troops, which the military alliance does not want to send, to avoid an official engagement in a war with the nuclear power Russia. These methods are known, for example, from the 1980s Afghanistan war, also involving Bundeswehr soldiers. The "Georgian Legion" is currently a point of contact in Ukraine.

The Georgian Legion

The Georgian Legion was originally one of the various irregular militias formed in the course of 2014, to fight in eastern Ukraine against the pro-Russian People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. They had seceded from Ukraine following the coup in Kiev, of course, without being internationally recognized as full-fledged nations. In the militias, many irregulars from other countries of the former Soviet Union were fighting alongside Ukrainians. For example, one militia was comprised of exiled Chechens, who were continuing their fight in Ukraine, after their own uprising had been defeated (the "Dzhokhar Dudayev" Battalion).[1] Another unit formed in 2014, is the Georgian Legion, with a strong presence of former soldiers from Georgia's military, including veterans of the Russia-Georgian war of August 2008. In 2017, the unit made international headlines, when three Georgians testified to Italian TV journalists that they had been recruited in Tbilisi in January 2014, for a mission in Kiev on the side of the Maidan opposition and, on February 20, 2014, took part in firing the fatal shots at the Maidan. They testified that they had been recruited and commanded by the Georgian Mamuka Mamulashvilli, today's commander of the Georgian Legion.[2]

"To Foster Exchange"

The Georgian Legion had caught the attention of observers already years ago, because the US citizen Craig Lang had been one of its members, for a short period. Lang, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, had gone to Ukraine as an irregular, in 2015. He had been under investigation by judicial authorities in the USA, suspected of having committed war crimes in eastern Ukraine. After having returned to the USA, he, along with another former irregular, had committed a murder and robbery, to raise money for his trip to Venezuela, where he sought to join the struggle against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. He was able to flee, however, he landed in jail in Kiev pending extradition.[3] In eastern Ukraine, Lang had mainly fought in the Right Sector militia, which along with the Asov Battalion, is one of the best-known extreme right-wing militias in Ukraine. Recent research indicates that extreme right-wing Ukrainians, who feel close to the Asov Battalion, but aspire to a career in the armed forces, have participated in training programs abroad – according to research, even in Germany. For example, a Ukrainian soldier, with extreme right-wing views, is said to have attended the "30th International Week" of the Army Officers Academy (OSH) in Dresden. This event is deemed to foster not only an "exchange among military personnel" but "partnerships" as well. [4]

"We are recruiting professionals"

As was reported by the US portal BuzzFeed News, the Georgian Legion has integrated more than 300 western irregulars since 2014, giving them the possibility of participating in the civil war raging in eastern Ukraine. Over the past few weeks, it has been accelerating its efforts to recruit more foreign volunteers from the West. Already at the end of January, Mamulashvilli reported that his unit had received "more than 30 requests" – most from the United States and Great Britain, but also "one from Germany."[5] "We are recruiting professionals," explained Mamulashvilli, to BuzzFeed News, noting that the Georgian Legion makes military capabilities a condition for joining, and added, in late January, "We have the green light." Following publication of that article, the US online portal reported having received emails from "dozens of men in the USA, the United Kingdom and countries in the European Union," saying they were interested in fighting in Ukraine against Russian units, if they should really invade the country. On Sunday, BuzzFeed News announced that ten elite soldiers experienced in close combat and counterterrorism are preparing to cross the Polish border to Ukraine, to go to war. The group is composed of six US citizens, three Brits, and a German.[6]

In the Chain of Command

Kiev has now established the legal prerequisites for the militias' combat volunteers to be treated not as irregular combatants, but as regular soldiers, enjoying the full protection of humanitarian international law. As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on the weekend, the armed forces have now created an "International Legion," allowing citizens of foreign countries to join. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba confirmed that now these people have the "legal framework, to fight under the chain of command of the armed forces of Ukraine," without being a Ukrainian citizen.[7] The chain of command also includes the Georgian Legion which, in 2016, had been integrated into the armed forces. On the side of the West, Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, gave the "green light," when she declared on Sunday that she "definitely" supports British nationals who might go to Ukraine to fight against Russia. As official policy, the latter is new. In 2014, the British Crown Prosecution Service explicitly warned, British citizens, traveling to Syria, to join the war, would be committing a crime, if they joined the Syrian insurgents, seeking to overthrow President Bashar al Assad. Overthrowing Assad was one of the British government's political objectives, at the time. Like Afghanistan

There is an obvious parallel between the participation of non-active-duty soldiers from western armed forces entering combat against the Russian Army in Afghanistan during the 1980s and today's war in Ukraine. Back then, West German soldiers, and others, were officially granted a leave of absence to go fight at the Hindu Kush.[8] In addition, like today, the uprising against Soviet troops was supported with weaponry. The most prominent parallel is, that back then, like today, western countries provided portable "Stinger" air defense missiles. In Afghanistan, these proved also decisive for the Soviet defeat.[9]

NOTES [1] Mark MacKinnon: Chechens and Georgians in Ukraine preparing to continue fight against Putin on a new front. theglobeandmail.com 13.02.2022. [2] Guerra in Ucraina, le verità nascoste. Canale 5, 15.11.2017. Gian Micalessin: La versione dei cecchini sulla strage di Kiev: "Ordini dall'opposizione". ilgiornale.it 15.11.2017. S. auch Chaos säen (II). [3] Christopher Miller: NATO Won't Put Troops Into Ukraine, But Western Foreigners Are Volunteering To Join The Fight Against Russia. buzzfeednews.com 28.01.2022. [4] Nicholas Potter: Wie rechtsextreme Soldaten in der Ukraine vom Westen ausgebildet werden. belltower.news 19.01.2022. [5] Christopher Miller: NATO Won't Put Troops Into Ukraine, But Western Foreigners Are Volunteering To Join The Fight Against Russia. buzzfeednews.com 28.01.2022. [6] Christopher Miller: A Team Of American And British Special Forces Veterans Are Preparing To Join Ukraine's Fight Against Russia. buzzfeednews.com 27.02.2022. Briten und Amerikaner schicken Spezialkommandos in die Ukraine. berliner-zeitung.de 28.02.2022. [7] Tom Sables: Ukraine invites foreign volunteers to combat invading Russian forces. forces.net 27.02.2022. [8] S. dazu Der Krieg kehrt heim (II). [9] S. dazu Die Zeitenwende.

57

For Your Information / What the Russian, Ukrainian delegations agreed on and Moldova rejects NATO

« on: March 02, 2022, 03:32:10 PM »

   What the Russian, Ukrainian delegations agreed on and Moldova rejects NATO
TASS

Mar 1, 2022


   On February 28, in Gomel, Belarus, Ukrainian and Russian delegations held their first round of talks on a ceasefire in Ukraine and agreed upon a new meeting. According to Adviser to the Ukrainian President's Chief of Staff Mikhail Podolyak, "the parties determined a number of priority subjects with certain solutions mapped out." In order for "the solutions to have any opportunities to be implemented, the sides left for their capitals for consultations." The next meeting will be held in the near future, according to Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky who led the Russian delegation.

The talks started around 14:00 Moscow time and lasted over five hours. Ukraine was represented by head of Ukraine's ruling party's parliamentary faction David Arakhamia, Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov and Podolyak. The Russian side was headed by Medinsky and included Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin.

The main result of the talks is that the parties are ready to continue them, according to Director of the Fund for Assistance to 21st Century Technologies Ivan Konovalov. That said, it is possible to presume that the discussion touched mostly on political issues, such as the status of Ukraine, rather than the situation "on the ground," the expert thinks. Since the sides agreed to continue consultations, it seems that they found some foothold to begin dialogue, however, it is absolutely not clear what concession on the part of Ukraine may be discussed, according to Coordinator of the European Dialogue Expert Group in Ukraine Georgy Chizhov. He suggested that the sides may have discussed the status of Russian language as Ukraine's second official one.

58

For Your Information / All Out to Oppose Warmongering, Lies and Disinformation

« on: March 02, 2022, 09:39:23 AM »

All Out to Oppose Warmongering, Lies and Disinformation

TML Monthly
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2022/MS5203.HTM#3

What Is Pertinent and What Is Not in Considering Unfolding Events in Ukraine

This supplement of TML is published to provide our readers with important information and context for what is taking place in Ukraine today. This includes some of the history of current developments, including the U.S.-organized coup in 2014; the effort by the people of Donetsk and Luhansk to establish the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR); the bombardments by the Ukraine government in the Donbass that have killed an estimated 15,000 people, and other relevant developments.

The aim of publishing this information from knowledgeable sources is to assist those seeking to verify the facts behind the conflict in Ukraine and demand solutions which settle the matter peacefully, beginning with opposing what the U.S. and NATO, including Canada, are doing.

The warmongering of the U.S., Canada and other NATO countries and their supporters is increasing in volume and intensity. It reeks of chauvinism and revanchism as it presents the U.S. and NATO countries as champions of freedom, democracy and peace while those who do not join them are portrayed as enemies, authoritarian, anti-people and the like. The first principle of any anti-war movement worthy of the name is to serve the cause of the peoples of the world, not pit one section against another in the name of high ideals. It is to favour solutions which will guarantee the peace, not foment the destruction of one country to serve the interests of others.

The jingoist war propaganda does not even make mention of the wars of aggression and occupation and crimes committed against the peoples of so many countries by the U.S. and NATO. This history shows without any shadow of doubt what the U.S. and NATO represent. It shows that their aims in Ukraine are not to defend freedom, democracy and peace. Their claim that this is a dangerous war because it is in Europe, covers up their crimes in Europe itself, as well as Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and within the United States itself so that excuses are made for what they are doing today.


Minneapolis, February 24, 2022.
Evidence shows that in today's situation, the U.S./NATO aims are to use Ukraine to destroy Russia, also a European nation, whose independent existence and right to be the U.S. and NATO countries will not accept. Their chauvinist mania about European values is such that they choose who is legitimate and who is not on the basis of who agrees with what they call peace, freedom and democracy, all evidence to the contrary be damned. Who they are and what they stand for is to be ignored. Also missing from the equation is the fact that it is the peoples of the world who are fighting against the so-called values the U.S. and NATO countries represent with their very lives; every day they oppose their exploitation, oppression and humiliation.

The propagandists for the U.S. and its aggressive NATO alliance say this is the first war in Europe since World War II, conveniently forgetting to mention that they themselves bombed Yugoslavia to depose then President Slobodan Milosevic and dismember that country. Their 78-day bombardment killed thousands, caused terrible trauma, destroyed infrastructure, cultural patrimony of humanity, and gave status to drug traffickers and criminal elements as freedom fighters, subsequently used as private contractors in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other countries.

In the name of the imperialist doctrine "responsibility to protect," they instigated civil wars in Yugoslavia, blamed this or that religious or ethnic peoples and caused the first massive refugee crisis under their so-called New World Order which they also blamed on those resisting the U.S. and NATO dictate. In that war they claimed to be the liberators of Kosovars, just as today they claim to be the liberators of a self-servingly defined Ukranian people.

According to their chauvinist warmongering what is happening in Ukraine is unique because Ukraine is European and thus somehow worth more than if such a thing takes place in Asia, Africa, Latin America or the Caribbean. Attempts to portray the U.S., NATO and its "coalitions of the willing" as liberators will not erase the facts of what they are doing today or what they have done and continue to do in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and what is being done by them in Yemen, Syria and many other places. It will not erase the memory of the freedom-loving Europeans who grew up in the shadow of crimes committed against them during World War II, despite the takeover of their countries by self-serving private interests who have usurped the decision-making powers to seek their fortunes in wars of destruction and the sales of arms and munitions.

Canadians have to seriously ask themselves pertinent questions of which there are many. Why does the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, which makes up one-third of the population, not count in the eyes of the U.S. and NATO, including Canada? Why are they not defended as an integral part of the Ukrainian people but isolated and attacked in the name of high ideals? Why does Russia also not fight for the entire Ukrainian people but just identify those who it says make up its own kith and kin? Why is Russia isolated, not treated with respect but made the target of personalist anti-Putin defamation as if the use of police powers by his regime is substantially any different to what is taking place in the U.S., Canada and NATO countries? Why is Russia not treated as a European country -- not only the country with the largest landmass in Europe but in the entire world, the country which suffered 27 million losses during World War II whose peoples deserve respect? Why is converting Ukraine into a forward base to isolate Russia seen as heroic? It does not honour the heroic people of Ukraine who stood second to none in World War II and made the supreme sacrifice, as one with the Soviet Red Army, to liberate their country and all of Europe from the Nazi fascists.

Remember the history of the anti-war movement since the bombing of Yugoslavia. At each war, the movement had to oppose disinformation which sought to make sure the peoples of the world would not have a say in determining the outcome. Milosevic was demonized to get the peoples of Europe and the world to remain passive and not oppose the NATO bombing. They were accused of being supporters of Milosevic to cover up the aims of the U.S., the contradictions between the big powers of Europe and to keep the peoples of Europe out of the equation. The anti-war movement stood its ground and prevailed. What Milosevic was or was not doing was spun to justify the takeover and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, to divert attention from what the U.S., France, Germany and NATO were doing there. So too, when Iraq was invaded not only was Saddam Hussein, the erstwhile friend of the U.S., British and others demonized, but lies were piled up on lies to justify the invasion and heinous crimes there. The same applies to all the other cases of U.S. and NATO operations and those of their so-called coalitions of the willing.

In the name of all those victims of U.S. and NATO aggression and war, in the name of all the victims of sanctions and the heinous crimes the U.S. has committed and seeks to justify, and in the name of all those who are victims of the use of force today, let us demand that the U.S. withdraw its troops and weapons from Europe. Let us demand that NATO be dismantled, that the security of Russia and other countries being destabilized by the U.S., British, Canadian and NATO warships and provocations be guaranteed and that the cause of peace prevail by resolving conflicts without resorting to the use of force.

Pitting military might against military might can only escalate an already dangerous situation. It is necessary to draw warranted conclusions about what is going on in Ukraine so as to effectively organize the peoples of the world as a force for peace, democracy and freedom. The need to strengthen the anti-war movement must necessarily oppose warmongering, lies and disinformation on an ongoing basis. This task is as great today as ever, if not more so because of the grand-scale presentation of NATO and the U.S. as liberators.

All out to mobilize the people to get Canada out of NATO, dismantle NATO and make Canada a zone for peace. Canadians need an anti-war government, not a government that engages in wars to establish U.S. as "the indispensable nation" at the expense of the legitimate concerns of all other countries and peoples.

59

For Your Information / Thoughts on the Present Crisis in Ukraine

« on: March 02, 2022, 09:34:29 AM »

Thoughts on the Present Crisis in Ukraine
– Joe Lombardo –

Photo: Fascist rally in Odessa

Joe Lombardo is a well respected anti-war activist from Albany, New York.

The propaganda of the U.S. government and its media always looks at what is happening now and does not give us the whole picture. So, if the U.S. and its allies bully a country until it can take it no more and strikes back, you only hear about them striking back not what came before. It is especially important with the present crisis in Ukraine to look at what came before.

In 2013, the president of Ukraine was Viktor Yanukovych. He was a leader of the largest party in Ukraine called the Party of Regions, which generally wanted better relations with Russia. The U.S. and its European allies did not want Ukraine to have good relations with Russia and the U.S. poured $5 billion into Ukraine to support hundreds of NGOs to move the country more towards the U.S. and the West. Ukraine had been in a terrible economic crisis. The country, which once had about 53 million people shrank to about 41 million as people left to go mostly to European Union countries and to Russia to try and get a better life.

In 2014, Yanukovych was negotiating with both Russia and the EU for loans. The loan package from Russia seemed to be the best for Ukraine and he was leaning towards accepting it. The U.S. and the EU were opposed to Ukraine accepting the loan package from Russia.

In 2014 protesters took over Maidan Square in the center of Kiev to protest government corruption and the general circumstances of life in Ukraine.

Ukraine had been divided with a portion of the population having strong nationalist and right-wing, neo-Nazi politics. The right-wing was mainly organized into the Svoboda Party and the extreme right-wing Right Sector. People from these organizations came to Kiev from around the country and joined the protesters in Maidan Square. Many were armed and violent. The U.S. encouraged this. We may remember U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland coming to Maidan Square and offering the protesters treats. Also, Senator John McCain came to Maidan and spoke to the protesters encouraging them on. Imagine if Russian or Chinese officials came to Occupy Wall Street with treats and encourage us in our protests. The U.S. would have called this interfering in U.S. internal affairs and taken strong action.

Soon, the Maidan protest turned violent. The U.S. and its Western allies claimed it was caused by the police shooting at the demonstrators. The Ukrainian government and the police claimed they did not fire on the protesters. When I was in Kiev in 2019, I was escorted around by people who had opposed the Maidan protests. We went to Maidan Square, and they pointed out that the trees around Maidan Square were all newly planted.They told us all the trees were taken down in 2014 and an investigation of the violence was never carried out. They said the trees were taken down because they showed that the bullets were fired from a different angle than the U.S. and the protesters claimed, and that the bullets were not police bullets, but ones fired from high-powered rifles that the police did not have. Our Kiev hosts sent us videos that seemed to prove that the people were shot by snipers brought in from the country of Georgia. Most of those videos were eventually taken off of YouTube but this one has survived: click here.


Photo: Maidan protesters take over Kiev City Hall and put up racist and fascist flags
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The Maidan protesters attacked government buildings and Yanukovych, fearing for his life, fled to Russia. The democratically elected government of Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in a right-wing coup supported by the U.S. The question then arose of who would take his place. We may remember the hacked call between Victoria Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. In that call she named the person the U.S. chose to replace Yanukovych. It was Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a hard right member of Fatherland, which was a right-wing, ultra-nationalist, anti-Russian formation. It appeared that the Europeans, especially the Germans, wanted a more moderate figure to head Ukraine. They favoured Vitaly Klitschko, a boxer turned politician with more moderate views than Yatsenyuk. During the hacked call, we heard Nuland say, "F--- the EU," and, of course, the U.S. pick, Yatsenyuk became the first Prime Minister of Ukraine after the coup. The new finance minister in the coup government was Natalie Jeresko, from the U.S. and Joe Biden's son took a position on the board of the largest natural gas company in the country earning a salary of $50,000 per month.

At the time of this coup, UNAC [United National Antiwar Committee] wrote in a statement, "What are [the U.S.] objectives and why is Russia so alarmed? Could it be the U.S.-NATO campaign to militarily surround Russia and bring neighboring countries into the western military and financial orbit? It is clear that Russia will not passively sit by while the Western-backed coup, led by violent fascist forces ...overthrows a democratically elected government and installs a puppet regime on its border."

On the first day of the new coup government, they passed the Language Law. Although Russian had been one of the official languages in Ukraine and the primary language of about a third of the people in Ukraine, it was removed as an official language. So now, schools would be taught only in Ukrainian, street signs and all official documents would be in Ukrainian, even in the Russian speaking area. The Party of Regions, which had been the largest party in Ukraine, was banned along with what some believe to be the second largest party, the Communist Party. This is the "democracy" that the U.S. helped create.

Of course, Ukraine was not the first country that surrounds Russia that the U.S. and its NATO allies have moved into. Despite an agreement made by Secretary of State James Baker as the Soviet Union was dissolving that NATO would not move to any of the countries east of Germany, it is now in 14 of those countries. It has placed nuclear capable missiles near the Russian border (the Cuban missile crisis in reverse) and has held "war games" in these countries right at the Russian border. Now they want to move NATO into Ukraine, the country with the largest border with Russia of any of the other European countries. This will further surround Russia.

But it is not just that NATO will further surround Russia if Ukraine becomes part of NATO. It is also the fact that Ukraine has a vibrant neo-Nazi movement that is also part of the government. During World War II, there had been a Nazi movement in Ukraine. One of its central leaders was Stepan Bandera who was a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and a Nazi collaborator. The OUN was accredited with supporting and organizing massacres of Ukrainian Jews during WWII. Today, Bandera has been named a "hero of Ukraine." Groups such as the Svoboda Party and the Right Sector claim to be the heirs of Stepan Bandera.

The ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi movements are alive and well in Ukraine and in the Ukraine military. The Azov Brigade of the Ukrainian military openly uses fascist symbols like swastikas and uses fascist salutes. The Soviet Union including Russia lost more than 20 million people defeating the Nazis during World War II and are not happy to see fascism on their doorstep.

Members of the Azov Brigade showing their Nazi sympathies along side NATO banner.
Many areas in Ukraine did not go along with the 2014 coup and opposed it. This was especially true in the Eastern and Southern areas of the country where many of the Russian speakers live. In the city of Odessa, a largely Russian speaking city, people protested the Kiev coup and set up an on-going protest camp outside of the House of Trade Unions in the city. This was a big threat to the Kiev government. Not only was Odessa one of the largest cities in the country but it was their main port, located on the Black Sea. On May 2, 2014 there was a football game in Odessa that brought people from throughout the country to the city. The fascists mobilized for this football game. Before the game was over, the fascists got messages on their phones to leave the stadium and march to the House of Trade Unions to attack the anti-Maidan protesters there.

A huge crowd of fascists attacked the anti-Maidan protesters, beat them and shot at them. Many ran into the building for protection. The fascist mob used Molotov cocktails and set the building on fire -- some were killed by smoke and some jumped from windows to be beaten to death on the ground. The police stood by and did nothing. Though the fire station was only blocks away, the fire trucks did not arrive until an hour after the House of Trade Unions was burning. Forty-eight people were killed, and hundreds injured. Although there are many cell phone videos of the entire event, some even showing the people firing guns, and making and throwing Molotov cocktails, none were arrested. But several of the victims were arrested. The next morning when people saw what had happened at the House of Trade Unions and heard that the victims had been arrested, 30,000 Odessans marched to the police station and set them free.

Each year on May 2, the people of Odessa hold a memorial to the people who were killed. Each year on that date the fascist groups mobilize and come to Odessa to try and stop the memorial. So, the people of Odessa ask for international observers as protection. UNAC has sent delegations there on two occasions. I went to Odessa to be an observer in May, 2019. There, we witnessed thousands come to the burnt-out House of Trade Unions building to lay flowers and commemorate those killed by the fascist mob. Groups of fascists, some wearing swastikas and other fascist symbols came to try and intimidate the crowd. During the middle of the afternoon, the families of those killed arrived and tried to address the crowd. But the police would not allow them to use their sound equipment. That night hundreds of fascists marched through the streets of Odessa and held a torch-light rally in the center of the city. The police allowed them to use their sound equipment. As they marched, they chanted "hang the communists from the trees."

Additionally, our host, a woman who arranged for our visit had her name put on a fascist web site just as we arrived and had to leave the country out of fear that she would be beaten or killed.

Crowds come to memorialize those murdered at the House of Trade Unions. Fascists come to intimidate.
For video of fascist rally in the centre of Odessa click here.

Protests of the coup in Kiev also occurred in many places in the country including Crimea and in the Donbass regions in the eastern part of the country. These are areas where there are predominantly Russian speaking people. In these regions there are many families that have members on both sides of the border with Russia. Crimea had actually been part of Russia for hundreds of years but in 1954, when Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier at the time, gave Crimea to Ukraine, since it was close to both countries. When the Soviet Union dissolved, Crimea was part of the independent Ukraine. After the coup the people of Crimea protested and called for a vote in which more than 95 per cent voted to return to Russia. In the U.S. news media, you will hear that Russia invaded Crimea and took it back. This did not happen. There was no invasion. There was a Russian military base in Crimea that had been there when it was part of the Soviet Union and remained there with the agreement of Ukraine. This was the only Russian warm water navy base and strategically important for the Russian military. These Russian military personnel were in Crimea, but there where fewer of them than their contract with Ukraine allowed. There was no invasion and no interference by the Russian military stationed there.

In the Donbass region there were protests against the Kiev coup especially in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk where the protesters took over government buildings. When the Ukrainian military came to stop them, they confronted the military. In most cases the military refused to fire on the people. Eventually, the People of Donetsk set up their own government called the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the people of Luhansk set up the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). These regions created militias to defend themselves from the Ukraine military and fighting persisted in the region. Russia, the Ukraine government and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) with mediation from France and Germany set up the Minsk Protocols, which were then signed by the DPR, the LPR and the Ukraine government. This was supposed to stop the fighting in the Donbass, but the agreement was continually broken by the Ukraine military and 14,000 people have been killed in the fighting in Donbass.

Over the past month or so we have heard that the Russians have been massing troops on their border with Donbass. But we have not heard that during this period the Ukrainian army had been massing troops in the area and had 150,000 troops there. The shelling of the independent regions in Donbass had greatly increased in the past month and on the day before the Russian troops entered Ukraine, it had reached an intolerable level and the leaders of these two independent republics asked Russia for help.

We hear in the U.S. media that there are civilians ready to fight the advancing Russian military, that many are leaving the country and perhaps there are civilian deaths in the hundreds. We have not heard the voices of people from Donbass, Crimea or the many who opposed the 2014 coup. We heard President Biden proclaim, "Who in god's name gave Putin the right to invade Ukraine?" The hypocrisy is amazing. Who gave the U.S. the right to invade Vietnam? Yugoslavia, Iraq? Afghanistan? Libya? Syria?[...] or support the Saudi invasion of Yemen or Israel's attacks on Palestine? Who gave them the right to sanction over 40 countries and create coups in one country after the next? The USA has its military all over the world. It has 20 times the number of foreign military bases as all other countries combined. The country with the second most foreign military bases is its NATO ally Britain and the country with the third most foreign bases is its NATO ally France. What about the 4 million Vietnamese who died or the million who died in Iraq or the 14,000 in Donbass? Who gave the U.S. or NATO the right to kill all these people?

The war in Ukraine may have been avoided simply if the U.S. had agreed to not admit Ukraine into NATO. But they refused to do this. The U.S. recognizes no legitimate security concerns of Russia.

The world is changing. The U.S. hegemony in political, economic, and military spheres is being challenged, mainly by China. Yet the U.S. refuses to recognize this and continues to bully the rest of the world. As the crisis in Ukraine is unfolding, the U.S. provocatively sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait near China. On the first day of the war in Ukraine, there was also a U.S. airstrike in Somalia, an Israeli airstrike in Damascus and 37 Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, but because the U.S. supports these, we hear nothing in our corporate media.

The only way to end the fighting and perhaps future conflicts is for the U.S. and its NATO allies to respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries; to respect the right of self determination of all people including those in Donbass and Crimea; to close U.S. foreign military bases and to bring the troops home and to end NATO.

(February 27, 2022)

60

For Your Information / Keir Starmer’s cynical embrace of Nato is a sad sight indeed

« on: February 12, 2022, 08:57:42 AM »

Keir Starmer’s cynical embrace of Nato is a sad sight indeed
Lindsey German
The Labour leader has directed his ire at anti-war campaigners, even though he knows we’ve been proved right again and again

Lindsey German is convenor of the Stop the War coalition
US troops line up to meet the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, at the military airbase of Mihail Kogalniceanu, Romania, 11 February 2022.
‘A war in Ukraine would be devastating.’ US troops line up to meet the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, at the military airbase of Mihail Kogalniceanu, Romania, 11 February 2022. Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA
Fri 11 Feb 2022 16.27 GMT

What has happened to Keir Starmer, the seasoned anti-war protester?

The Labour leader and I both marched on the Stop the War demonstration against the Iraq war in 2003. I remember reading with interest his Guardian article “Sorry, Mr Blair, but [UN resolution] 1441 does not authorise force”, questioning the legality of that war. Only two years ago, when he wanted to appear to be on the left of Labour as he sought election, I was happy to see him promise to bring forward a Prevention of Military Intervention Act.

Starmer’s recent outburst about the Stop the War coalition – he claimed that we were effectively on the side of Vladimir Putin for opposing the march towards war over Ukraine – seems to be a critique of his former self. Does he now think he was not a “benign voice for peace” but “at best naive; at worst actively giving succour to authoritarian leaders”? Partly it is sad because he in all likelihood believed what he said then but has now joined the ranks of those politicians who will say anything, no matter how flatly it contradicts their previous statements, if it serves their current ambitions.

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However, everything we and Starmer thought at the time has been proved correct by events, and every criticism he makes of the anti-war movement now has been made before – and revealed as false.

We were told more than 20 years ago that opposition to war in Afghanistan was the same as supporting the Taliban; then that we were aiding Saddam Hussein when we demonstrated against war with Iraq in 2003. When we opposed the Nato bombing of Libya in 2011, we were accused of backing Muammar Gaddafi.

It was a lie then, and it is now. We opposed those wars because we believed they would worsen the situation – increase not decrease terrorism, cause greater instability, and leave millions suffering from the consequences. On all those questions we have been proved decisively correct. Our opposition to war in Ukraine is not based on any support for Putin – he has his own record of militarism and war – but because we recognise that such a war would be devastating and that a peaceful resolution can be found.

The argument that we oppose war because we support the governments of those countries suggests that there can be no good reason for people to oppose war other than being beholden to another power. This is an insult to all those campaigning for peace, including in Russia, where no doubt pro-war elements claim their opponents are supporting Nato or the US.

In order to justify his argument, Starmer has to argue that Nato is purely defensive. “There is no equivalence between a defensive alliance that has never provoked conflict and those who would inflict the appalling cost of war on to others,” he writes.

Tell that to the people of Afghanistan and Libya, who have suffered so much as a result of the Nato wars. Stating that the organisation is a defensive alliance does not make it true. It has moved a very long way geographically from the North Atlantic, which was its original remit. Its origins were in the cold war; its role since the end of that war, in 1989, has been expansionist and interventionist, and it is now playing an active role in manoeuvres and arms provision in eastern Europe. It is increasingly looking towards the Indo-Pacific as another theatre of conflict.

This military organisation is also putting huge pressure on member states to increase their spending on “defence”. Nato demands at least 2% of GDP from each country, which encourages further militarism and conflict. Meanwhile, in Britain millions of people are facing a serious cost of living crisis, an NHS in permanent emergency mode and record levels of inequality.

The Boris Johnson government – whose foreign minister does not appear to know which provinces are in Russia and which in Ukraine – has been the most belligerent in its talk about war with Russia. No doubt this is a tactic to deflect from the prime minister’s own domestic crisis, but it could also lead to an extremely dangerous situation for people in Britain, as well as in Ukraine and Russia.

Starmer should be opposing this government, not trying to bang the drum for war even harder. His invocation of the Attlee government in his defence ignores the foreign policy record of that government, which supported wars in Korea and Malaya and introduced the nuclear bomb with “a bloody Union Jack on top of it”, in the words of Starmer’s hero, Ernest Bevin. Starmer sees Nato and the NHS as twinned achievements of Attlee’s government, but a much closer and more meaningful comparison with the creation of the health service is the founding of the United Nations in 1945, rather than the cold war military creation he celebrates.

Stop the War has been proved right over the previous wars, while those who mistakenly supported them seem to have learned no lessons from the terrible consequences of their errors. War over Ukraine, involving nuclear powers, could have much more damaging consequences. Diplomacy could lead to a way out, we believe, as even the French and German governments are trying to establish, in contrast to Starmer.

We have become all too familiar with Labour politicians promoting wars. Stop the War will continue its campaigning against this threat and the British government’s connivance in it – with Labour acquiescence. Our message is simple: don’t get fooled again.

Lindsey German is convenor of the Stop the War coalition
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