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Happy birthday, Uncle Volody!
by Cat on Wed Jan 25th, 2023 at 10:57:25 PM EST
Congress Approved $113 Billion of Aid to Ukraine in 2022, 5 Jan 2023
...The Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 omnibus appropriations package included an additional $47.3 billion of emergency funding to provide humanitarian, military, and economic assistance to Ukraine on top of the $65.8 billion of funding already approved in three other emergency funding packages enacted by Congress...
$226.1B to date, roughly 0.96% of estimated 2022 GDP ($23.315T), far short of NATO suggested annual hurdle to entry. No wonder Uncle Volody is such a nag.
by Cat on Thu Jan 26th, 2023 at 12:08:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
US State | Significant New U.S. Military Assistance to Ukraine, 19 Jan "lethal aid"
The United States is announcing a significant new security assistance package to help Ukraine continue to defend itself against Russia's brutal war. Pursuant to a delegation of authority from the President, I am authorizing our 30th ["]drawdown["] of U.S. arms and equipment for Ukraine since August 2021. This ["]assistance package["] will provide Ukraine with hundreds of additional armored vehicles, including Stryker armored personnel carriers, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, and High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled vehicles. ["]The package["] also includes critical additional air defense support for Ukraine, including more Avenger air defense systems, and surface to air missiles, as well as additional munitions for NASAMS that the United States has previously provided. The package also contains night vision devices, small arms ammunition, and other items to support Ukraine as it bravely defends its people, its sovereignty, and its territorial integrity.

This package, which totals $2.5 billion, will bring total [?] U.S. military assistance for Ukraine to an unprecedented approximately $27.5 billion since the beginning of the Administration [FALSE].
[...]

Pause here to recall the dismal performance of US press "accountability" and "transparency" bureaus in relating to consitutuents Congressional appropriations and procedural "obligation" thereby instituted at the discretion of the several executive agencies' secretaries in periodic debits. One cannot be too certain whether or not Blinken refers specifically to State Department's "unprecedented" budget or sum of a joint account even when one traces pulp fiction to the letter of the law. Here, organs of civility and militancy merge without fanfare.
I am grateful to Congress for continuing to provide this increased drawdown authority, most recently under the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023 that was [belated amendment to the tardy FY 2023 "omnibus" bill] signed into law by the President in December 2022.
The bill provides appropriations to several federal departments and agencies, including

the Department of Justice,
the Department of Defense,
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
the Department of Health and Human Services,
the Department of State,
the U.S. Agency for International Development,
the Department of Agriculture, and
the Department of the Treasury.

[...]
Russia alone could end this war today. Until it does so, we will stand United with Ukraine for as long as it takes.
Quick! FIGHT to increase federal credit limit and extort service fees from wayward "partners".
archived Thu Dec 22nd, 2022 4,155 pp draft, a delay in obligation in US Congress impeaches self
by Cat on Sun Jan 29th, 2023 at 01:40:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
C-SPAN | Hearing on Countering Russian Aggression, 26 Jan
CRUZ @01:35:56: Ms Nuland, as you know, in January of last year the senate voted on my legislation to impose sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and it did so before Russia had invade Ukraine. When the senate voted on those sanctions, President Zelensk* publicly urged, even begged, the United States senate to pass those sanctions. President Zelensk* said, passing those sanctions then were the last chance to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine, the last chance to prevent Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine. Was President Zelensk* wrong?
NULAND: Senator Cruz, like you, and I think, the administration is very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea. I, personally having been involved along with my boss, Secretary Blinken, and all of those negotiations with Russia to try to prevent this war in December, do not believe that had that Nord Stream 2 not been cut off in Jannuary, that would have been decisive for Putin. It was important that the day the war began the Germans cut the pipeline as did the rest of the Europeans, but he was bound and determined to go into Ukraine, as you know.
CRUZ: So you believe, Zelensk* was wrong when he said stopping Nord Stream 2 was the last and best way to stop this war?
NULAND: I don't think it would have stopped Putin and, you know, I ...
CRUZ: And when the government of Poland similarly said, begged to the United States senate, pass those sanctions and said, this is the last and best opportunity to stop Russia from invading Ukraine, you believe, Poland was wrong, too?
NULAND: I do not believe, we would have prevented this war had the Europeans acted faster on Nord Stream 2. I wish, it were the case, but I don't think it would have stopped him.
Nord Stream 1, 8 Nov 2011 - 26 Sep 2022
by Cat on Sat Jan 28th, 2023 at 02:54:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
hum... I suppose you have a clear idea as to what could have been done to stop Russia from invading Ukraine?

How about explaining it in a couple of succinct paragraphs in your own words?

[And if it's "implement Minsk", then consider the possibility that the non-cooperation or the separatist side may have been a deliberate tactic piloted by Putin]

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Mon Jan 30th, 2023 at 12:35:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
All your basic assumptions are FALSE ... bad start of any discussion. Much easier for you to reference clear quotes from either UK Liz Truss or Annalena Baerbock seeking meaningful dialogue in final 60 days before outbreak of hostilities.

Decision on war or a diplomatic solution was taken in Biden's war council [NSC] with advice fro the Pentagon. The rest, 2x Brussels, NATO members and EU Council, followed the war rhetoric of Joe and Jens .... Boris was just a nasty agent provocateur for war between NATO and Russia.

Naturally the Minsk agreements were torpedoed by Lviv Kyiv as per instructions from the White House. The U.S. were not participant in Minsk. Their vision on Minsk was quite aggressive equal to building Nord Stream

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Mon Jan 30th, 2023 at 04:40:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
My question wasn't addressed to you, but I have little hope that Cat will ever deign to respond, still less engage in honest discussion.

"engage in meaningful dialogue with Putin" : it's nice to think that might have made a difference to his plans, but can you suggest a list of concessions that any potential partners might have put on the table to avoid the invasion? Let's be specific. Given that he aimed (and failed) at regime change, before changing his mind and focusing on territorial gains, what might he have settled for instead?

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Tue Jan 31st, 2023 at 10:23:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Russia may not have invaded Ukraine but for BREXIT, says EU's [Guy] Verhofstadt, 31 Jan forensic "accountability"
Belgian MEP adds that 'a united Europe, certainly on defense matters, would make an enormous difference' in fight against Putin.
[...]
Verhofstadt told LBC that the "brutal invasion" by Russia "has nothing to do with the extension of NATO, it has nothing to do with ... the European Union. It's really an attempt by Putin to restore the old Soviet Union."
[...]
Verhofstadt was speaking on the third anniversary of the U.K. leaving the EU. He said he hoped that Britain will one day rejoin the bloc and that Ukraine can also join, "why not within five years?"
archived disorderly BREXIT, CAMPAIGN 2019, MEPs back Ukraine-style 'association' deal 2018, ALDE leadership 2017, etc
by Cat on Tue Jan 31st, 2023 at 04:27:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Nuts! As so many Atlanticists willfully indoctrinated in the goodness of unbridled wealth for the elite. Prefer to keep a disunited "Europe" together as it is falling apart. Foundation of the Four Freedoms and an economy build on a goal for peace taken apart by America's artificial war on terror. NATO is not a defense pact for Europe, but a pact for expansion US empire across the globe. Russia to the Urals is part of Europe. America wanted the EU destroyed ... Pax Americana ...

'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jan 31st, 2023 at 04:45:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Boris Johnson meets with lawmakers in Capitol, 31 Jan US Red Team-UK Blue Team
Johnson met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and is slated to speak to the Republican Study Committee on Wednesday. Johnson is making the rounds to Republican lawmakers as GOP support for the level of U.S. funding to Ukraine has started to falter.
Wall St Watchdogs USNews Reuters | Boris Johnson Meets U.S. Republicans, Pushes Ukraine Aid
by Cat on Wed Feb 1st, 2023 at 12:16:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
US approves $10B arms sale to Poland as Ukraine war rages on, 9 Feb
The State Department notified Congress that the sale comprises mid-range, mobile HIMARS artillery rocket systems, associated ammunition[,] and related equipment.
[...]
The department said the sale would support U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives by bolstering the defensive capabilities of a NATO ally. The department also said Poland is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe.

"The proposed sale will improve Poland's military goals of updating capability while further enhancing interoperability with the United States and other allies," it said.
[...]

by Cat on Thu Feb 9th, 2023 at 02:37:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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