Tag: Eastern Ukraine

Media Support ‘Self-Determination’ for US Allies, Not Enemies

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Disclaimer: The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site.

Article 1 of the UN Charter says that one of the purposes of the UN is “to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.” However, what “self-determination” means in specific international legal cases is far from a settled debate. Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute explains that:

contemporary notions of self-determination usually distinguish between “internal” and “external” self-determination, suggesting that “self-determination” exists on a spectrum. Internal self-determinationmay refer to various political and social rights; by contrast, external self-determination refers to full legal independence/secession for the given “people” from the larger politico-legal state.

Media Support ‘Self-Determination’ for US Allies, Not Enemies

Related:

Euromaidan 2014 – Orange Revolution – Donbass

The Rational Destruction of Yugoslavia

Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say

As Russian troops press ahead with a grinding campaign to seize eastern Ukraine, the nation’s ability to resist the onslaught depends more than ever on help from the United States and its allies — including a stealthy network of commandos and spies rushing to provide weapons, intelligence and training, according to U.S. and European officials.

Much of this work happens outside Ukraine, at bases in Germany, France and Britain, for example. But even as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the vast amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces, according to current and former officials.

At the same time, a few dozen commandos from other NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, also have been working inside Ukraine. The United States withdrew its own 150 military instructors before the war began in February, but commandos from these allies either remained or have gone in and out of the country since then, training and advising Ukrainian troops and providing an on-the-ground conduit for weapons and other aid, three U.S. officials said.

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But the agency’s [CIA] expertise in training is in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations*, former intelligence officials say. What Ukrainians need right now is classic military training in how to use rocket artillery, like the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, and other sophisticated weaponry, said Douglas H. Wise, a former deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and retired senior C.I.A. officer.

H/T: Western Officials Admit Ukraine Is Crawling With CIA Personnel

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A Conversation with Christelle Neant of Donbass Insider on the War in Ukraine

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

By Christelle Néant and Dr. Leon Tressell

They say that the first casualty of war is the truth. Nevermore so was this the case in the current war in Ukraine. The mainstream media in the West have become stenographers for the new Cold War being pursued by American imperialism.

They refuse to critically examine the massive supplies of weapons by the West to Ukraine and refuse to acknowledge the many war crimes being committed by the Ukrainian armed forces on a daily basis. If you want to find out what is really going on in the war zone that is Eastern Ukraine then you have to talk to journalists with integrity who are actually based in the Donbass.

I have spoken with French journalist Christelle Neant who is co-founder of Donbass Insider and is based in Donetsk. She gives her views on many of the key issues regarding the current conflict in Ukraine.

“The First Casualty of War is the Truth”. What is Really Happening in Donbass

Biden: U.S. will provide precision rockets to Ukraine

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Biden: U.S. will provide precision rockets to Ukraine

The U.S. will provide Ukraine with more advanced rocket systems and precision-guided munitions that will give them an edge on the battlefield, President Joe Biden wrote in an opinion article in the New York Times published Tuesday.

But Kyiv has given the United States assurances that the new weapons will be used in Ukraine and not against targets in Russia, senior administration officials told reporters after Biden’s op-ed was published.

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The HIMARS and its munitions are part of a new $700 million aid package for Ukraine, which will be announced on Wednesday, the officials said. The package also includes counterfire radars, a number of air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles, anti-armor weapons, additional artillery rounds, helicopters, additional tactical vehicles and spare parts, the second official said.

Related:

Kremlin does not trust Zelensky’s promises not to attack Russia with US-made rockets

Russia warns West against providing Ukraine long-range weaponry

Ukraine war is depleting America’s arsenal of democracy

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Ukraine war is depleting America’s arsenal of democracy

They’re being destroyed as they come in!

America is following an “arsenal of democracy” strategy in Ukraine: It has avoided direct intervention against the Russian invaders, while working with allies and partners to provide the Kyiv government with money and guns. That strategy, reminiscent of U.S. support for Britain in 1940-41, has worked wonders. Yet as the war reaches a critical stage, with the Russians preparing to consolidate their grip on eastern Ukraine, the arsenal of democracy is being depleted.

That could cause a fatal shortfall for Ukrainian forces in this conflict, and it is revealing American weaknesses that could be laid bare in the next great-power fight.

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Pentagon officials say that Kyiv is blowing through a week’s worth of deliveries of antitank munitions every day. It is also running short of usable aircraft as Russian airstrikes and combat losses take their toll. Ammunition has become scarce in Mariupol and other areas.

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Germany has declined to transfer tanks to Ukraine on grounds that it simply cannot spare them. Canada quickly ran short on rocket launchers and other equipment that the Ukrainians desperately need. The U.S. has provided one-third of its overall stockpile of Javelin anti-tank missiles. It cannot easily deliver more without leaving its own armories badly depleted — and it may take months or years to significantly ramp up production.

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For the same reason, the war in Ukraine is a sobering preview of the problems the U.S. itself would face in a conflict against Russia or China. If forced to go to war in Eastern Europe or the Western Pacific, Washington would spend down its stockpiles of missiles, precision-guided munitions and other critical capabilities in days or weeks. It would probably suffer severe losses of tanks, planes, ships and other assets that are sophisticated, costly and hard to replace.

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American economic leadership is no longer based primarily on manufacturing. Shortages of machine tools, skilled labor and spare production capacity could slow a wartime rearmament effort. The U.S. can’t quickly scale up production of Stinger missiles for Ukraine, for example, because the workforce needed to do so no longer exists.

Donbass. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Donbass. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (the documentary that the west doesn’t want you to see / all credits go to RT)

Donbass. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow takes a look back at events that unfolded before the start of the crisis in 2014. Historians and journalists share their views on the conflict, players and motives, while ordinary citizens from the Donetsk and Lugansk regions describe the horrors of war.

NATO Set Precedents for Russia’s Attack on Ukraine

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

NATO Set Precedents for Russia’s Attack on Ukraine

With all of those offenses on the U.S.-NATO ledger, it is a bit much to watch US and European leaders act as though Russia’s assault on Ukraine is utterly outside the norm. Indeed, the Western track record demonstrates that the concept of a U.S.-led, rules-based international order is little more than a self-serving fiction. The United States and its allies have abided by those “rules” only when it has been in their interest to do it. Whenever it served their purposes to ignore or even flagrantly violate those rules, they never hesitated to do so. The brutal truth is that the Western powers set m