Bipartisan China panel issues a blueprint to address Taiwan and Uyghur mistreatment [_link] via @nbcnews

— Bahtiyar Bora (@bahtiyabora) May 25, 2023

Uyghur Freedom Fighters and Kunduz Shia Mosque Attack - 100 people killed | Oct 10th, 2021

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A Uyghur scholar disappeared after traveling to Hong Kong from Seoul this month, a human-rights group said, raising fears he may have been sent to mainland China [_link]

— WSJ China Real Time (@ChinaRealTime) May 28, 2023

Rights group says Uyghur student it reported to be missing in Hong Kong did not travel to city

Related reading ...

Democracy Now Provides Progressive Cover to State Department Propaganda Campaign Against China

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The VP of the @NEDemocracy reached out to dispute our description of her org as a CIA cutout

Listen to @RealAlexRubi & @MaxBlumenthal give her a lesson on the CIA's role in founding NED and the group's support for violent coup leaders

Full audio here: [_link] pic.twitter.com/pKEGzwNv0J

— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) May 29, 2023

British police detain journalist @KitKlarenberg, interrogate him about The Grayzone

Counter-terror police detained journalist Kit Klarenberg upon his arrival in London and subjected him to a 5 hour interrogation about his political views and reporting [_link] pic.twitter.com/YftxSR1Cl0

— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) May 31, 2023

Revealed: the day Guardian destroyed Snowden hard drives under watchful eye of GCHQ - video

Officials from the British intelligence agency GCHQ raided The Guardian's offices to destroy hard drives related to the newspaper's stories about National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden -- despite the fact that the information had already been disseminated to other sites around the world. In a chilling post today, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said the British government has put increasing pressure on editors to surrender all of the information that Snowden provided to the newspaper and its chief reporter on the stories, Glenn Greenwald. Prior to the destruction, an official reportedly told the paper, "You've had your fun. Now we want the stuff back." News of the raid comes a day after Greenwald's partner Miranda was detained for nine hours and questioned under terrorism statutes at Heathrow Airport. [Source: The Verge]

1005 GMT - Addressing Russia, Blinken says only strong Ukraine can bring peace

America's top diplomat insisted that a strong Ukraine in control of its own territory was a prerequisite for talks with Russia, warning against a "Potemkin" or fake peace through a ceasefire.

In a speech in Finland, which after Russia's attack on Ukraine shed its historic prudence and joined NATO, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the war launched by president Putin was a "case study in failure".

Personally I see the 24th of February 2022 as a Doomsday scenario ... don't understand the failure of European leaders ... who is running the place ... the Breedloves and more crap from US Intelligence and the Pentagon. Real people are dying and suffering for no purpose whatsoever. Morons.

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Supplemental appropriations also include funds for U.S. European Command operations and related support for the U.S. military. For more, see CRS Insight IN12107, Department of Defense Supplemental Funding for Ukraine: A Summary.

Of the $113 billion in FY2022 [enacted 2021] and FY2023 [enacted 2022] emergency supplemental funding that Congress has appropriated to date in response to Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine, more than half--$62 billion (55%)--was provided to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). The DOD funding is intended in part to build the capacity of Ukraine's armed forces, provide U.S. military weapons and equipment to Ukraine, and replenish items transferred from department stocks.

This Insight summarizes such funding by supplemental appropriations act and by major appropriation category, also known as title [USC Section num]. It also provides information about related funding transfers [!] and reprogramming actions, Office of Inspector General (DOD OIG) reports, and additional CRS resources on this topic.
[...]
Selected DOD Funding Transfers and Reprograming Actions

Congress also provided authority for DOD to transfer nearly half--up to $26.5 billion (43%)--of the supplemental emergency funding between certain accounts for various purposes. For example, Congress provided [comptroller.defence.gov] authority to transfer certain funding from the [Operation & Maintenance] O&M, Defense-Wide[ and Other] account to other O&M accounts and procurement accounts to replenish DOD stocks of weapons, munitions, and other equipment, as well as to reimburse the department for services, military education, and training provided to Ukraine or foreign countries that have supported Ukraine
[...]

How Watchdogs Are Silenced

Amnesty's partnership with a 'Palantir-powered' think tank

In 2006 when Christopher Darby was announced as the new CEO of the primary venture capital arm of the U.S. Intelligence Community -- In-Q-Tel, Inc. -- he was both a Vice President at chip manufacturer Intel and a senior fellow at then-obscure national security think-tank Center for Advanced Defense Studies. CADS, as it was then known, would later switch its acronym to C4ADS and become a collaborator with Bellingcat and the go-to source for high-profile coverage relating to sanctions on official U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. (According to an ostensible copy of the center's "Inside the Tank" newsletter", Darby was also the vice chairman of the think tank under founder Newton Howard.)

C4ADS's conflicts of interest resulting from close funding and leadership relationships to U.S. intelligence and special operations are generally omitted when the organization is cited for its expertise on U.S. sanctions or the human rights abuses of U.S. adversaries. But a public audit reveals that roughly 89% of C4ADS's 2021 revenue came directly from the U.S. federal government, including a grant from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Security explicitly for "Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act Section 231".

Auschwitz museum slams use of death camp in Polish ruling party's political ad [_link]

— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) May 31, 2023

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is alarmed by the growing trend of attacks on Holocaust scholarship in Poland, which started with threats to historian Barbara Engelking, spread to include her defenders, and recently escalated into a violent assault on historian Jan Grabowski by a parliamentarian as Professor Grabowski attempted to deliver a lecture at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. The physical attack follows threats to scholars' ability to conduct free and open inquiry into Holocaust history and the weaponization of the Holocaust for political purposes. The Museum calls on all segments of Polish society to support academic freedom and free speech and to condemn all violence related to these pursuits.
[...]
Through the power of Holocaust history, the Museum challenges leaders and individuals worldwide to think critically about their role in society and to confront antisemitism and other forms of hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.

Is it not true that the government of Poland enacted laws 2006-2018 that criminalizd speech implicatng Polish collaboration with the "Third Reich" of Germany? And this same Institute of National Remembrance condemned Ukrainian nationalists collaboration "extermination" of jews and gentiles, 1925-1950? Surely the correct answer would justify contemporary Polish aid to Ukraine and demand for reparation from the BDR, while allaying anxiety of survivors who fled to Poland's Allied nations.

Kyiv Says Negotiations With Russia Akin To Capitulation As Ukraine Begins Evacuations From Liberated Areas | RFERL - Nov. 20, 2022 |

Attempts by Western countries to convince Ukraine to negotiate with Moscow after a series of major military victories over invading Russian forces are "bizarre" and effectively ask that Kyiv capitulate to the losing side, according to a key adviser to the Ukrainian president.

"When you have the initiative on the battlefield, it's a little strange to receive proposals like: 'You will not be able to do everything by military means anyway, you need to negotiate,'" AFP on November 20 quoted adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak as saying.

Such talks would mean that the country "that recovers its territories, must capitulate to the country that is losing."

Why Zelensky and Klitschko are Having a Public Falling Out | Kyiv Post - Nov. 28, 2022 |

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I'm thankful to everyone in the world who understands how crucial it is that we prevail over ruscism right now and right on 🇺🇦 land. It's crucial for every nation neighboring a 🇷🇺 terrorist state. I'm sure we will provide this security - so necessary, we will provide victory over... pic.twitter.com/BwbgaCIHCX

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 2, 2023

What Is Ruscism? (Ruscism -- Brand New Russian Totalitarianism)

The Verkhovna Rada has adopted a resolution in which it defined the political regime in Russia as ruscist. The term "ruscism" was previously actively used by politicians, scientists, and publicists. It has been in most active use since 2014. The resolution of the Ukrainian Parliament was the world's first regulatory act featuring this term and its definition.

'Ruscism' defined and condemned in Ukraine's official language

The parliament intends to address the Prosecutor General, the Justice Ministry, and other government offices on taking immediate measures against "manifestations of Ruscist ideology and revanchist politics on Ukrainian territory." Its plans also include encouraging the international community to embrace the term "Ruscism" in connection with the current regime in the Kremlin.

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Found a single match in diaries archive ...

Neocon Years and NATO Expansion of 2008

Simply more voodoo rhetoric of neoconservatives and the Goldwater girl Hillary Rodham when she took over Foreign Affairs at State.

The United States and the European Union in post-war Kosovo 1999-2012

an analysis of transatlantic peacebuilding approaches

To a unipolar great power like the US at the time, multilateral agreements and institutions were means, not ends. Still, she dismissed the distinction between power politics and policy based on values, stating that this was fine for academic debate, but made disastrous policy.

[...]
Two Bush administrations later in 2008, Rice wrote a Foreign Affairs piece titled 'Rethinking the National Interests: American Realism for a New World'. Because of 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan and what she described as the destabilizing spill-over effects of globalization, policy shifted to "recognize that democratic state building is now an urgent component of our national interest". The supposed dangers to national security posed by failed, failing or collapsed states allowed for this shift. Running with the characterisation of the US as a reluctant superpower, the US was said to engage in foreign policy "because we have to, not because we want to".

This newfound affinity for democratic statebuilding involved the need to build civilian capacity and an inter-agency `whole of government approach', such as through the State Department creation of S/CRS (Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization). In meetings, S/CRS chief John Herbst used peacebuilding, stabilization and reconstruction interchangeably, pointing to Kosovo's transition to independent government as a good example of stabilization work. Again, Rice talked about the American history of trying to combine "power and principle - realism and idealism", calling it a "uniquely American realism".

Towards the end of the piece, she situates the uniqueness of this approach in the American "imagination", and their way of thinking, arguing how this accounts for American's uniquely powerful role in the world. In a 2010 Foreign Affairs article, her successor US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [name can be used interchangeably with John D. Negroponte] also professed the importance of elevating "diplomacy and development alongside defense - a 'smart power' approach". Regardless, self-proclaimed realists such as Stephen M. Walt or John Mearsheimer have been adamant in their criticism of the process of `liberal internationalism', arguing it has had disadvantageous consequences for the US national interest.

The name Johannes "John" Herbst surfaced more often @MofA as early as 2005-6 -- Herbst False Flag Offer - Feb. 9, 2015 |.

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Russia, Ukraine, Oil, US Diplomacy - All in One | b @MofA - Jan. 20, 2005 |

The Asian Times then quotes Zbigniew Brzezinski at length. Brzezinski has long been an anti-Russian hawk, and he has always said the prying Ukraine and Russia apart was the best way to permanently weaken Russia, which for him is a worthy strategic goal. The fact that he was an influential player and that he is still part of the establishment does not mean that his advice has been followed.

There is a distinct pattern of US covert actions in changing regimes in Eastern Europe, in the context of this Eurasian strategy of the US, in which Ukraine fits the pattern. The Belgrade vote in 2000 to topple Serbian Slobodan Milosevic was organized and run by US ambassador Richard Miles. This has been well documented by Balkan sources and others. Significantly, the same Miles was then sent to Georgia, where he engineered the toppling of Eduard Shevardnadze in favor of the US-groomed Mikhail Saakashvili last year, another pro-NATO man on Moscow's fringe. James Baker III played a key role as well, as some noted at the time. Now Miles was reportedly involved in Kiev, with the US ambassador there, John Herbst, former ambassador in Uzbekistan. Curious coincidence?

The Ukraine "democratic youth" organization, Pora ("High Time") is a slick, US-created entity. It is modeled on the Belgrade youth group, Otpor, which Miles also set up with help of NED and George Soros' Open Society, USAID and similar friends. Pora was given a brand image, for selling to the Western media, a slick logo of a black-white clenched fist. It even got a nifty name, the "chestnut revolution", as in "chestnuts roasting on an open fire". Before he came to power, Saakashvili was brought by Miles to Belgrade to study the model there. In Ukraine, according to British media and other accounts, Soros' Open Society, the US government's NED and the Carnegie Endowment, along with the State Department's USAID, were all involved in fostering Ukraine regime change. Little wonder Moscow is a bit concerned with Washington's actions in Ukraine.

It was an honour to present my friend President @ZelenskyyUa with the Winston Churchill Leadership Award today.

Volodymyr's courage, defiance and dignity - all Churchillian qualities - have moved the hearts of millions and stirred a global wave of solidarity. pic.twitter.com/BGZDFenIzU

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 26, 2022

Dude ... comparison with Winston Churchill quite commonplace in the 21sr Century of Pax Americana

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Thanks to President @ZelenskyyUA and all in Ukraine for your kind welcome. A deeply moving and informative trip. Ukraine will win and Putin must fail. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦 [_link]

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 23, 2023

In Moscow to meet Foreign Minister Lavrov and make clear that Russia must immediately withdraw its forces and respect Ukraine's sovereignty or face severe consequences.

Any incursion would be a huge mistake. Diplomacy is the only way forward and Russia must pursue that path. pic.twitter.com/weIAnr60Nh

— Liz Truss (@trussliz) February 9, 2022

• Blinken and NATO in Latvia for Pow-Wow | Dec. 1, 2021 |
• United States Ups Tension with Russia | Jan. 27, 2022 |

Offers Russia no off ramp as Washington gives military action a chance

No good options open to the Kremlin. The White House has handed Moscow building blocks for a new "Berlin Wall", further isolation, harsher sanctions and putting Russia in the corner of a pariah state. This would not have happened under a Trump presidency as the Ukraine was not a priority.

Coup d'état of February 2014 under Pyatt, Nuland and Biden made a military conflict inevitable. Don't name it a coup d'état, use Nazi phrase "Revolution of Dignity" ... no I will not! Not fighting for my freedom, to the contrary.

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Beating around the bush, UK Defense Minister visits Moscow for first time since 2013 | Sky News - Feb. 11, 2022 | ... timely.

Mr Wallace said he and Russian defence chiefs had discussed "confidence building measures" as well as the importance of implementing the Minsk Agreement, brokered by France and Germany, which was supposed to end the fighting between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatist rebels in the east of the country.

"I reiterated that, to its very core, NATO is defensive. We are not interested in dividing and ruling Russia. We are not seeking confrontation," he said.

He said that 2,000 anti-tank missile launchers supplied by the UK to the Ukrainian military were purely defensive.

He added: "They're not strategic, they're short range. They are designed really for the protection of infantry at short range from armour.

The talks on Friday marked a second round of British-Russian diplomacy following the foreign secretary Liz Truss' meeting with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who complained that the talks resembled a discussion of the "mute with the deaf".

having returned from Moscow early on Saturday morning and because we are concerned about the worsening situation in Ukraine i have cancelled a planned long weekend abroad with my family and will be returning.

— Rt. Hon Ben Wallace MP (@BWallaceMP) February 13, 2022

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov might have met his match in Annalena Baerbock -- his new German counterpart. [_link]

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) January 19, 2022

German Chancellor Olaf Schulz, just in new job, was occupied with firing his top naval commander over remarks in India ...

The Federal Ministry of Defense distances itself from Schönbach's statements

Vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach said during a visit to India on Friday that Ukraine would never regain the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014. He also questioned Western views over Vladimir Putin's intentions regarding Ukraine, adding that the Russian president deserved "respect".

Crimea As Endgame Before Going M.A.D.

'Sapere aude'

The war narrative of NATO has been in place for many years ... clear news-video-paper trail of making Russia a pariah state.

US Intelligence: Attack 'Imminent' Postponed To Next Week

WATCH LIVE: White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says "no indication Putin has made final decision on Ukraine" [_link] pic.twitter.com/9yd7p04VoY

— The Hill (@thehill) February 11, 2022

Ukraine Conflict 2014-2022

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Vorzeigeprojekt oder nur ein "Haufen Papier"?

Actually, the National Security Strategy should have been there long ago. Today the traffic light government wants to decide it in the cabinet. The paper has already been criticized.

Extended security concept

In December 2021 - weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine - the new government promised in the coalition agreement to present a "comprehensive national security strategy" "in the first year" - not a plan spelled out down to the last detail, but common guard rails. Diplomacy, development policy and obligations to NATO, i.e. military engagement, are deliberately mentioned in the same breath. The federal government has an expanded concept of security in mind, which also includes issues such as food security, climate protection and energy issues.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is in charge. The National Security Strategy is to become a flagship project. When the Green Minister spoke of the "longing for freedom" in a keynote speech in March 2022, the world had long since changed. Russian attack on Ukraine. The Chancellor's turning point speech. The Foreign Minister travels across the country to talk to people about their fears and expectations of security.

"Foreign policy from a single source"

But the longer the process lasts, the clearer it becomes that three partners who have different ideas are also negotiating with one another in foreign and security policy. There are also conflicts between individual ministries. The release keeps getting pushed back. From the beginning of 2023 to February. The plan to present the paper to the Munich Security Conference and discuss it internationally there fails.

Shameful ... gross negligence by the Ampel Koalition in Germany ... subservient to Washington DC.

Biden's Blitzkrieg Across Europe Shames Peace

... United States Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand. The pact was concluded outside the League of Nations and remains in effect. 
h/t fjallstrom

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Kritik an Uniform ist so typisch deutsch. Völlig richtig, daß GenInspBw in Uniform in 🇺🇦 war. Er ist dort im Dienst für Sicherheit 🇩🇪s, nicht als Privatperson. Das macht uns vr nicht zur Kriegspartei! Bitte nicht ständig auf mögliche Lesart 🇷🇺 fixieren. @SZhttps://t.co/0BdX3mFksx

— Roderich Kiesewetter🇪🇺🇩🇪🇺🇳🇺🇦 (@RKiesewetter) May 12, 2023

Fully committed to the end ...

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Germany, Forsa poll:

CDU/CSU-EPP: 29% (-1)
AfD-ID: 19% (+2)
SPD-S&D: 18%
GRÜNE-G/EFA: 14%
FDP-RE: 7%
LINKE-LEFT: 4%

+- vs. 30 May-5 June 2023

Fieldwork: 6-12 June 2023
Sample size: 2,504

➤ [_link] #btw25 #Bundestag #Wahlen pic.twitter.com/MkZwCqCPDS

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) June 13, 2023

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons [_link]

— TRT World (@trtworld) June 14, 2023

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons.

"We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia," [which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency's Telegram channel [Source: CGTN].

Lukashenko on terms of use, storage of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus

'Nuclear weapons for all': Belarus leader invites others to join Russian alliance | TOI - May 29, 2023 |

Lukashenko and Putin recently announced deal to transfer Russian nuclear warheads to neighbor's territory

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted that Lukashenko's statements indicate that Russia is looking to end global nuclear deterrence and undermine the Global Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which forbids Russia from transferring nuclear weapons to other countries.

Last year, shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, a referendum was staged in Belarus that removed a constitutional prohibition that forbade the presence of nuclear warheads in Belarusian territory.

Already in March, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that nuclear weapons would be placed in Belarus, saying that "the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries."

In February, Putin suspended Russia's participation in the New START nuclear treaty.

U.S. Completes INF Treaty Withdrawal

Less than one year after President Donald Trump informally announced that the United States would withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the State Department announced on Aug. 2 that the move was officially complete. The treaty's death leaves just the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in place to limit U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons deployments, and that pact is due to expire in February 2021.

Russia and Arms Control: Are There Opportunities for the Obama Administration? | US Army War College - March 2009 |

Russo-American relations are generally acknowledged to be at an impasse. Arms control issues feature prominently in that conflicted agenda. Indeed, as of September 2008, the Bush administration was contemplating not just a break in arms talks but actual sanctions, and allowed the bilateral civil nuclear treaty with Russia to die in the Senate rather than go forward for confirmation. Russian spokesmen make clear their belief that American concessions on key elements of arms control issues like missile defenses in Europe are a touchstone for the relationship and a condition of any further progress towards genuine dialogue.

This impasse poses several risks beyond the obvious one of a breakdown in U.S.-Russian relations and the easily foreseeable bilateral consequences. Since the outbreak of the Russo-Georgian war in August 2008, both sides have further hardened positions and raised tensions apart from the war itself and Russia's quite evident refusal to abide by its own cease-fire terms. Nevertheless, for better or worse, arms control and its agenda will remain at the heart of the bilateral Russo-American relationship for a long time. For these reasons, neither the political nor the military aspect can be divorced from the other. And for these same reasons, we cannot refuse to participate in the bilateral effort to resolve those issues.

Mr.Grossi's visit to the #ZNPP and surrounding areas. pic.twitter.com/kWELuVk8ql

— Mikhail Ulyanov (@Amb_Ulyanov) June 15, 2023

Important bilateral visit to #China, one of IAEA's most important partners and a leader in #nuclear energy.

In the agenda
▶️ remarkable progress of 🇨🇳's nuclear energy program
▶️ cooperation in nuclear applications
▶️ indispensable exchanges on non-proliferation & nuclear safety pic.twitter.com/R8mVobVAIO

— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) May 21, 2023

IAEA DG Grossi in China: Nuclear Energy, Safety and Cooperation

'Sapere aude'

As many #nuclear power plants around the world are near the end of their life cycle, a new industry is starting to boom around #decommissioning nuclear facilities.

Hundreds of billions of dollars could be spent on decommissioning worldwide by 2050. 👉 [_link] pic.twitter.com/TL1eu8woYV

— IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) June 15, 2023

[link] #StandWithUkraine

— Kelvin Ashong (@Mawunya_) June 17, 2023

Putin warns NATO over being drawn into Ukraine war, says Russia has more nuclear weapons [_link]

— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) June 17, 2023

The Bradleys are being completely wasted.

— Triarius The Exile (@AdamWilday) June 22, 2023

"This is not a counteroffensive - this is a bloody crash test"

Cover of the German edition of Handelsblatt. pic.twitter.com/o0zJaiGlbV

— Sprinter (@Sprinter99880) June 22, 2023

The Ukrainian Counter-Offensive Had No Chance. NATO Failed To Explain That | MofA |

'Sapere aude'

Brilliant courage. Also, if the US thinks it will not fade in respect once this conversation finally gets going, it is childish.

— Ed Stanton (@Eddyoh5) June 22, 2023

Next month's #NATOSummit in Vilnius will be a crucial meeting. One that centres on the increased threat to the NATO Area and on our relationship with Ukraine. By way of preparation, the Netherlands and six other Allies gathered this evening at the Catshuis residence in The Hague,... pic.twitter.com/6A2JXADJLn

— Mark Rutte (@MinPres) June 27, 2023

Ukraine's Catch-22

Ukraine can get protection from Russia... if they beat Russia first

Today life is imitating fiction in Ukraine. Ukraine desperately wants to join NATO to chase out Russia. But in order to join NATO, they must chase out Russia. This is literally what NATO's quisling leader Jens Stoltenberg is saying

At the Vilnius summit and in preparation for the summit, we are not discussing sending an official invitation. We are discussing how to bring Ukraine closer to NATO. But most importantly, we all agree that the most urgent and important task now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic nation in Europe. Because unless we do that, unless Ukraine prevails, then there is no issue to be discussed at all related to membership. We all want this war to end. But a just peace cannot mean freezing the conflict and accepting the deal dictated by Russia.

People say Putin denies Ukraine's existence, but here's Stoltenberg denying it himself. He's saying that Ukraine right now does not qualify as an independent state, and unless it 'prevails' as one, then there's no question of joining NATO at all. And yet the very pussy-footing process of joining NATO is what got Ukraine in this mess in the first place.

Ukraine is in this trouble because Russian (ie, neighbor and citizen) friendly governments were couped by America (NATO's boss, which reserves the right to bomb and spy on even NATO members). Ukraine drew/was-dragged closer to NATO, which made Russia about as happy as having the USSR in Cuba. The USSR is gone and America's still mad at Cuba. Having NATO steppe'ing up to its border was well-telegraphed red-line for Russia, which used to be well understood by even imperial warmongers. That was still too much war for them to 'mong.

America's Generation Gap on Ukraine | Jan. 24, 2022 |<

In Washington today, if you oppose keeping NATO's doors open to Ukraine you're a bit of a freak. I'm aware of barely any members of Congress, in either party, who hold that view. A decade or two ago, however, it was a position espoused by pillars of the American establishment. What happened? In part, it's a story of generational change. US foreign policy is now dominated by people who came of age in a unipolar world. And that's a dangerous thing.

Kremlin announced grain deal termination | TASS |

The Black Sea agreements have been effectively terminated on Monday -the part of the deal concerning Russia has not been fulfilled, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

"The Black Sea agreements are no longer in effect. The deadline, as the Russian president said earlier, is July 17. Unfortunately, the part of the Black Sea agreement that concerns Russia has not yet been fulfilled. As a result, it has been terminated," he said.

"As soon as the Russian part [of the deal] is fulfilled, the Russian side will immediately return to the implementation of this deal," Peskov added.

He also noted that Russia's position on suspending its participation in the grain deal was announced before the most recent terrorist act on the Crimean Bridge and this attack does not influence Moscow's decision.

Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Centre hosted in Istanbul

Meanwhile in Ankara ...

Live blog: Erdogan to discuss grain deal, fertiliser with Putin | TRT World |

Not really, live blog is about attack on Kerch bridge across Azov Sea, connecting Crimea to mainland Russia.

'Sapere aude'

Prezydenci @AndrzejDuda i @ZelenskyyUa wspólnie upamiętniają ofiary rzezi wołyńskiej. Więcej 🔜@tvp_info pic.twitter.com/NAyGyW11Fw

— Żaklina Skowrońska (@zaklinaskowron) July 9, 2023

Presidents of Poland and Ukraine commemorate WW2 massacre of Poles by Ukrainians

In an important symbolic moment, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has joined his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda to mark the 80th anniversary of the Volhynia massacres, during which Ukrainian nationalists murdered up to 100,000 ethnic Poles during World War Two.

The perpetrators of the crimes were the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - Stepan Bandera's faction, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA), which was subordinate to it, and the Ukrainian population participating in the murders of their Polish neighbors. The OUN-UPA called its actions an "anti-Polish action." This term concealed the intention which was to murder and expel Poles.

The history of the massacres has regularly caused tension between two otherwise close allies. Poland regards them as a genocide, and has officially recognised them as such, but Ukraine rejects the use of that term.

• Battle for Babi Yar
• Poland, Holocaust and History Revisionism