Tag: redlines

Ukraine Accuses NBC News of Illegal Filming in Crimea, Journalist Added to Notorious ‘Kill List’

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ukraine has accused NBC News of violating its law after the US broadcaster had its crew cross into the Crimea peninsula from mainland Russia.

“Attending Crimea from the territory of Russia is a violation of the legislation of Ukraine, for which responsibility is provided – in particular, foreigners are also prohibited from entering for such actions. We are very much concerned about the tv plot of @NBCNews,” Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko tweeted on Wednesday.

Moreover, Keir Simmons, the journalist behind the report, has been added to the notorious Ukrainian “kill list,” the Mirotvorets website. He was accused of entering the Crimean peninsula through mainland Russia and “participating in propaganda activities against Ukraine.”

On Tuesday, NBC News broadcast a report from Crimea where Simmons traveled on train from mainland Russia via the landmark bridge damaged by a deadly blast last October that was orchestrated by Ukrainian special services. The bridge has since been repaired. The reporter interviewed local people on camera who turned out overwhelmingly in support of their 2014 accession to Russia.

The spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said that Ukraine was investigating the circumstances of the NBC News reporter’s visit to Crimea and that he might end up prohibited from entering Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine Accuses NBC News of Illegal Filming in Crimea, Journalist Added to Notorious ‘Kill List’

Related:

A view from Crimea, the Russian-annexed territory Ukraine is hoping to seize back

Russia And China Draw ‘Red Lines’ On Their Borders; US Draws Them On The Other Side Of The Planet

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Reacting to China’s announcement that it will be putting forward a proposal for a political settlement to end the war in Ukraine, the US ambassador to the United Nations said that if China begins arming Russia in that conflict this will be a “red line” for the United States.

Russia And China Draw ‘Red Lines’ On Their Borders; US Draws Them On The Other Side Of The Planet

The Coming Existential Threat: Do We Act in Common or Is It Going To Be Every Man for Himself?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

The Coming Existential Threat: Do We Act in Common or Is It Going To Be Every Man for Himself?

One of the regular panelists on “Sixty Minutes” then faced the cameras directly and said that Russia’s nuclear doctrine is under revision in light of these aggressive plans being aired in the United States, so that Russia is headed towards a policy of ‘preventive’ tactical nuclear strikes, similar to what the United States has. Moreover, if Ukraine targets Crimea and heartland Russia, then Russia will respond according to plans now being laid down. These plans foresee counter strikes against US military installations in Europe and in the Continental United States using hypersonic missiles. The panelist calls for this threat of counter strikes in Europe and the US to be made public and explicit, so that no one is in doubt about what to expect from the Kremlin.

So here we are. The Russians are stripping away the fiction of a proxy war and revealing the co-belligerent status of the US and its NATO allies in preparation for a kinetic war with NATO. As our illustrious former President, a man of few words, would say: “Not good!”

Allow me also to share with my readership the bitter medicine that I just shared with our daughter: look for an escape hatch!

Either, as I fervently hope, there will be an antiwar movement in the USA, in Europe arising from the shock therapy news now developing with respect to the coming kinetic war between NATO and Russia, OR failing that, it will be every man for himself.

Meanwhile, certain people are trying to discredit the closest thing to an antiwar movement we have!

Opinion: Blinken ponders the post-Ukraine-war order

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Opinion: Blinken ponders the post-Ukraine-war order

Crimea is a particular point of discussion. There is a widespread view in Washington and Kyiv that regaining Crimea by military force may be impossible. Any Ukrainian military advances this year in Zaporizhzhia oblast, the land bridge that connects Crimea and Russia, could threaten Russian control. But an all-out Ukrainian campaign to seize the Crimean Peninsula is unrealistic, many U.S. and Ukrainian officials believe. That’s partly because Putin has indicated that an assault on Crimea would be a tripwire for nuclear escalation.

The administration shares Ukraine’s insistence that Crimea, which was seized by Russia in 2014, must eventually be returned. But in the short run, what’s crucial for Kyiv is that Crimea no longer serve as a base for attacks against Ukraine. One formula that interests me would be a demilitarized status, with questions of final political control deferred. Ukrainian officials told me last year that they had discussed such possibilities with the administration.

As Blinken weighs options in Ukraine, he has been less worried about escalation risks than some observers. That’s partly because he believes Russia is checked by NATO’s overwhelming power. “Putin continues to hold some things in reserve because of his misplaced fear that NATO might attack Russia,” explained the official familiar with Blinken’s thinking. This Russian reserve force includes strategic bombers, certain precision-guided weapons and, of course, tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.

Are they really this delusional?!

CIA director holds secret meeting with Zelensky on Russia’s next steps

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

CIA Director William J. Burns traveled in secret to Ukraine’s capital at the end of last week to brief President Volodymyr Zelensky on his expectations for what Russia is planning militarily in the coming weeks and months, said a U.S. official and other people familiar with the visit.

CIA director holds secret meeting with Zelensky on Russia’s next steps

Related:

Nyet means Nyet

Ukraine and Georgia’s NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region. Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia’s influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a
major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face.

Archived Links Inside WaPo Article:

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DIRTY BOMB, THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DAM OF THE KAKHOVKA – THE DANGEROUS GAMES OF THE UKRAINE

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment
Source

For several days the threat of the use of a dirty bomb or the destruction of the Kakhovka dam by Ukraine has caused an extremely dangerous rise in tension. By dint of letting Kyiv do whatever it wants, even the worst war crimes and terrorist acts, the West encourages Ukraine to continue playing with fire, at the risk of causing a disaster that would go beyond the country’s borders.

DIRTY BOMB, THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DAM OF THE KAKHOVKA – THE DANGEROUS GAMES OF THE UKRAINE (Original in French)