Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

Great clickbait anyway. Try and seize more toys owned by Russian Oligarchs deemed to have cordial relations with the Russian President. I mean, how devastatingly important in the scheme of things.

Originally Posted by sabang

Great clickbait anyway. Try and seize more toys owned by Russian Oligarchs deemed to have cordial relations with the Russian President. I mean, how devastatingly important in the scheme of things.

So in sabang's mind, helping Puffy Putin plunder the nation's assets and hide the money he's stealing is "having cordial relations".

Bodies Of 210 Ukrainian Soldiers Who Died In Mariupol Now Repatriated

According to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, 210 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers have been repatriated by the military as of Tuesday.

According to the statement, the POW Treatment Coordinating Staff is working on returning the remains of fallen Mariupol defenders.


Many of the bodies returned to Ukraine were those of the “heroic defenders of Azovstal,” so Ukrainian soldiers at the massive Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol, the last bastion of Ukraine’s defense in that southern port city before it fell to Russian forces.


Ukraine’s Coordination Staff is working on behalf of President Volodymyr Zelensky to get the bodies of the deceased returned, along with the bodies of some 2500 prisoners of war believed to be in Russian or Russian-backed custody.


Ukrainian territory must be the final resting place for all fallen soldiers. “Each will be led to the last journey as heroes deserve,” the statement said.


The statement adds that work continues to bring back “all captured Ukrainian defenders.”


CNN’s Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman reported this week that workers at Kyiv’s central morgue examined scores of body bags containing the remains of those Ukrainian soldiers killed in the two-month siege of Mariupol.

As part of the agreement that ended that siege, Ukraine and Russia exchanged bodies.

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/ukrai...w-repatriated/

Ukrainian forces could pull back from embattled eastern city



BAKHMUT, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces battling Russian troops in a key eastern city appeared on the cusp of retreat Wednesday, though the regional governor insisted they are still fighting “for every centimeter” of the city.


The urban battle for Sievierodonetsk testified to the painstaking, inch-by-inch advance by Russian forces as they close in on control of the entire Luhansk region, one of two that make up the industrial heartland known as the Donbas.


After a bungled attempt to overrun Kyiv in the early days of the war, Russia shifted its focus to the region of coal mines and factories. The Donbas has been partly controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014, making supply lines shorter and allowing Moscow to tap those separatist forces in its offensive there.


But Russia also faces Ukraine’s most battle-hardened troops, who have been fighting the separatists for eight years there.


The result is a slow slog in which both sides exchange artillery barrages that seemingly inflict heavy losses, but neither appears to have the clear momentum.


The grinding war has left thousands dead and driven millions from their homes — and its consequences are felt in many countries where it is driving up the price of food since critical shipments of Ukrainian grain are trapped inside the country.

MORE Ukrainian forces could pull back from embattled eastern city | AP News

With Vladimir Putin’s bloody war in Ukraine crossing the 100-day mark, the Kremlin seems to be abandoning any pretense of diplomacy. There are several reasons Moscow aborted its initial half-hearted attempts to negotiate with Ukraine, including tangible gains on the battlefront and Western media’s waning attention span. But if Russian state TV is any indication, another reason Putin’s regime is now rejecting the idea of a diplomatic resolution has to do with the approaching midterm elections in the United States.

During the latest broadcast of state TV show Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, participants discussed the price Russia would ultimately have to pay for its intended conquest of Ukraine. Across various state media outlets, the U.S. midterm elections have been mentioned as a potential saving grace that could halt American support of Ukraine and loosen the screws of sanctions against Russia.
During Solovyov’s show, Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at Moscow State University, asked: “Are we going to count on their electoral issues? Will anything change if Republicans prevail in November in the United States?”

The host, Vladimir Solovyov, responded enthusiastically. “Yes, yes, a lot will change. They will calmly say, ‘Why do we need to be involved and send so much of our own money?’” Russian state media has been frequently airing statements showing dissent within the Republican party with respect to U.S. support for Ukraine, often featuring clips from Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News, as well as comments made during public hearings and media appearances by former U.S. President Donald Trump, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Senator Rand Paul, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Congressman Matt Gaetz.

Echoing popular Republican talking points on Ukraine, Solovyov predicted: “Republicans will come and say, why the hell do we need a corrupt, Nazi Ukraine? They will ask: whom are we supporting? Yes, Russia is bad and the sanctions will stay, but why do we need to keep throwing so much money over there? Our schools lack funding, we have plenty of our own problems. Instead of fortifying the border with Mexico, helping our small businesses, we’ve given that money to corrupt Ukraine and no one knows where it went.”

So far, Western appeals for diplomacy seem to have only encouraged Russia to escalate its military offensive, since they’re perceived as a sign of desperation. During Sunday’s broadcast of Solovyov’s show, Sidorov explained: “In my opinion, the talks about negotiations are designed to keep this conflict going. A ceasefire is needed to secure the transition from Soviet-type weapons of the Ukrainian forces—which they’ve already run out of—to Western types of arms. They need time. They need corridors through which to move them. Under no circumstances should we agree to negotiate.”

Solovyov concurred. “We don’t need any kind of negotiations, because time is on our side and the tempo is working in our favor... They’re arming [Ukrainians] with NATO systems... if they get some howitzers from here, some howitzers from over there, who is going to repair them?” he said. “If you train artillery specialists, but then you find out that you need not only ammunition, but spare parts and repairmen, you need power supply, you need to maintain the whole system… it’s a headache... They need years to deal with this and not just a ceasefire.”

FULL- https://www.yahoo.com/news/team-puti...193337296.html

^
Solovyov also thinks Russia should nuke most of Europe. Do you think he's right there too?

Originally Posted by sabang

A ceasefire is needed to secure the transition from Soviet-type weapons of the Ukrainian forces—which they’ve already run out of—to Western types of arms. They need time. They need corridors through which to move them. Under no circumstances should we agree to negotiate.”

I don't think it was soviet weapons the Ukrainians used to knock out 100's of Russian tanks, that was NLAWs etc that take 20 minutes of instruction - there is so much wrong with that "Article" its difficult to know where to start apart from laughing at Sabang taking the time to read it and think its worth posting.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

Sabang taking the time to read it and think its worth posting.

It's fairly evident the title is usually enough for him to get all excited. He rarely reads what he posts, much like the other wanketeers.

Wikipedia fights Russian order to remove Ukraine war information


LONDON (Reuters) – The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, has filed an appeal against a Moscow court decision demanding that it remove information related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, arguing that people have a right to know the facts of the war.


A Moscow court fined the Wikimedia Foundation 5 million roubles ($88,000) for refusing to remove what it termed disinformation from Russian-language Wikipedia articles on the war including “The Russian Invasion of Ukraine“, “War Crimes during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine” and “Massacre in Bucha”.


“This decision implies that well-sourced, verified knowledge on Wikipedia that is inconsistent with Russian government accounts constitutes disinformation,” Stephen LaPorte, Associate General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement.


Wikipedia, which says it offers “the second draft of history”, is one of the few remaining major fact-checked Russian-language sources of information for Russians after a crackdown on media in Moscow.


“The government is targeting information that is vital to people’s lives in a time of crisis,” LaPorte said. “We urge the court to reconsider in favor of everyone’s rights to knowledge access and free expression.”


The Moscow court argued that what it cast as the disinformation on Wikipedia posed a risk to public order in Russia and that the Foundation, which is headquartered in San Francisco, California, was operating inside Russia.


The Foundation was prosecuted under a law about the failure to delete banned information. The case was brought by Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wikipedia.


The Wikipedia appeal, which was filed on June 6 with details released on Monday, argues that removing information is a violation of human rights. It said Russia had no jurisdiction over the Wikimedia Foundation, which was globally available in over 300 languages.


Wikipedia entries are written and edited by volunteers.


Narratives of the war, Europe’s biggest ground invasion since World War Two, vary drastically — and have become highly politicised with journalists in both Moscow and the West routinely accused of misreporting the war.


Ukraine says it is the victim of an unprovoked imperial-style land grab by Russia and that it will fight to the end to reclaim the territory that Russian forces have occupied. Kyiv has repeatedly asked the West for more help to fight Russia.


President Vladimir Putin and Russian officials do not use the words “war” or “invasion”. They cast it a “special military operation” aimed at preventing the persecution of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.


Putin also says the conflict is a turning point in Russian history: a revolt by Moscow against the United States, which he says has humiliated Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and pushed to enlarge the NATO military alliance.


Ukraine and its Western backers deny Moscow’s claims that Russian speakers were persecuted. Kyiv says Russian forces have committed war crimes, including killings, torture and rape in places such as Bucha.


Russia says the alleged evidence of war crimes consists of carefully constructed fakes and that Ukraine and its Western backers have spread disinformation about Russian forces.

Wikipedia fights Russian order to remove Ukraine war information | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

No misskit, you've got it all wrong. Russia or the chinkies wouldn't censor anything, ask sabang or hoohoo.

Russia likely to seize control of eastern Ukrainian region within weeks, US official says


As fighting continues in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, causing heavy casualties and leaving Ukrainian forces with dwindling ammunition, a senior U.S. defense official said Russia is likely to seize control of the entire region within a few weeks.


The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, in Luhansk, are increasingly under duress and could fall to Russia within a week, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.


Ukrainian officials said Russia is bombarding a chemical plant sheltering hundreds of soldiers and civilians in Severodonetsk, a strategic city that is mostly under Russian control after weeks of intense battles. Russia “will throw all their reserves in order to capture the city” within a day or two to take control of the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway, a vital supply route, predicted Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region.


NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday that the alliance remains hopeful about progress on the membership applications of Finland and Sweden, despite opposition from Turkey.


China’s defense minister appeared to play down his country’s support of Moscow and said it has not supplied weapons to Russia for its war on Ukraine.


Local authorities in western Ukraine said 22 people were injured in a missile strike Saturday evening near Chortkiv. Russia claimed it targeted a warehouse containing missiles.


MORE Russia likely to seize control of eastern Ukrainian region within weeks, US official says | Stars and Stripes

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Ukraine has already sentenced several Russian soldiers to long prison terms for war crimes and Russia may seek to trade the prisoners to get them back.

A big mistake on Ukraine's part which for certain would be followed by Russia doing same. Ukraine should have just locked them up as POWs.

Originally Posted by Norton

A big mistake on Ukraine's part which for certain would be followed by Russia doing same.

Russia's proxy government in Donbass region already has sentenced some so called foreign fighters to a death sentence.

Originally Posted by DrWilly

Russia's proxy government in Donbass region already has sentenced some so called foreign fighters to a death sentence.

Notably, not for war crimes. They say it's because they're mercenaries. Regardless that they have lived in Ukraine for some time now, and were regulars in the UAF. Yet Russia employs the Wagner Group.

Ukraine doesn't have the death penalty.

The death sentences handed out by Donbass are likely to be commuted to life imprisonment. They will end up being traded, no doubt.

Russia destroys last bridge out of key east Ukraine city


Russian forces have destroyed last bridge to the city of Severodonetsk which has seen a pitched battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian officials were quoted by Reuters to report the destruction of the bridge that could have possibly served as an evacuation route for civilians.


Regional governor Sergei Gaidai said that with the last bridge to the city destroyed, remaining civilians are trapped in the city and it has now become impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies.

Gaidai said some 70 per cent of the city was under Russian control.




Ukraine has repeatedly given urgent calls for more Western heavy weapons to defend Severodonetsk. Moscow has criticised Western help to Ukraine.


The city is a key to control Donetsk region where Russia has concentrated its firepower on after getting repelled from Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The war is in its fourth month.


Late on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the battle for the eastern Donbas would go down as one of the most brutal in European history. The region, comprising the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, is claimed by Russian separatists.


"For us, the price of this battle is very high. It is just scary," he said.


"We draw the attention of our partners daily to the fact that only a sufficient number of modern artillery for Ukraine will ensure our advantage."


Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Pescov said on Monday that Russia's main goal was to protect Donetsk and Luhank. These regions are part of Donbas region. These regions have territory held by pro-Russian proxy forces.

Ukraine needs 1,000 howitzers, 500 tanks and 1,000 drones among other heavy weapons, Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Monday.


Moscow issued the latest of several recent reports saying it had destroyed US and European arms and equipment.


Russia's defence ministry said high-precision air-based missiles had struck near the railway station in Udachne northwest of Donetsk, hitting equipment that had been delivered to Ukrainian forces.


Ukraine's interior ministry on Telegram said that Udachne had been hit by a Russian strike overnight Sunday into Monday, without mentioning whether weapons had been targeted.

Russia destroys last bridge out of key east Ukraine city - World News

Ukraine hits back at Biden’s ‘absurd’ remark that Zelensky ‘didn’t want to hear’ US intel on Russia



Stuti Mishra
Mon, 13 June 2022, 2:35 pm·3-min read

• 
  

Volodymyr Zelensky’s aides have hit back at Joe Biden’s remarks that the Ukrainian president “didn't want to hear it” when US intelligence alerted him that Russia was preparing an invasion and had called it “absurd”.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak criticised Mr Biden for putting the blame on Ukraine while Mr Zelensky’s spokesperson Sergei Nikiforov said the remark “probably needs to be clarified” as it was their partners who had paid no heed to Ukraine’s concerns.

Mr Nikiforov told Russian-language Ukrainian news outlet Liga that Mr Zelensky had “three or four telephone conversations” with Mr Biden before the war started, during which they exchanged “detailed” assessments of the situation.

He also said it was Ukraine that demanded preventative measures to put Russia on that backfoot but “our partners...did not want to hear us”.

“Therefore, the phrase ‘didn’t want to hear’ probably needs to be clarified,” he told the outlet.

“In addition, if you remember, the president of Ukraine called on partners to introduce a package of preventive sanctions in order to encourage Russia to withdraw troops and de-escalate the situation.”

“Here we can already say that our partners ‘did not want to hear us,’” Mr Nikiforov said.

Mr Podoliak told the same news outlet that Mr Zelensky was consistently in talks over Russia’s intentions and said Mr Biden’s comments were not “not entirely true”.

Mr Podoliak said Kyiv had been “well aware that Russia was developing various expansion scenarios”.

“Volodymyr Zelensky constantly had an analyst on the table based on high-quality intelligence. The president also responded carefully to all the words and warnings of our partners. The question was always: what will be the scope of the invasion?”

“And finally, the key, I think it is pointless to blame the country, which is more than 100 days [into] a full-fledged war against a much more resourceful opponent, if key countries have failed to prevent the militaristic appetites of the Russian Federation, knowing them well,” Mr Podoliak said, according to independent Russian outlet Interfax.

FULL- https://au.news.yahoo.com/ukraine-hi...073545844.html

Pontiff condemns ‘cruelty’ of Russian troops while warning against perception of conflict as good v evil


Pope Francis has said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was “perhaps somehow provoked” as he recalled a conversation in the run-up to the war in which he was warned Nato was “barking at the gates of Russia”.

In an interview with the Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica, conducted last month and published on Tuesday, the pontiff condemned the “ferocity and cruelty of the Russian troops” while warning against what he said was a fairytale perception of the conflict as good versus evil.

“We need to move away from the usual Little Red Riding Hood pattern, in that Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad one,” he said. “Something global is emerging and the elements are very much entwined.”

Francis added that a couple of months before the war he met a head of state, who he did not identify but described as “a wise man who speaks little, a very wise man indeed … He told me that he was very worried about how Nato was moving. I asked him why, and he replied: ‘They are barking at the gates of Russia. They don’t understand that the Russians are imperial and can’t have any foreign power getting close to them.’”

He added: “We do not see the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was, perhaps, somehow either provoked or not prevented.”

Shortly before the invasion, Vladimir Putin had demanded Nato rule out allowing Ukraine, which borders Russia, into the military alliance.

The pope said he was not “pro-Putin” and that it would be “simplistic and wrong to say such a thing”. He also said Russia had “miscalculated” the war. “It is also true that the Russians thought it would all be over in a week. They encountered a brave people, a people who are struggling to survive and who have a history of struggle.”

Pope Francis says Ukraine war was ‘perhaps somehow provoked’ | Pope Francis | The Guardian

• Zelensky: 287 children killed in Russian invasions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said 287 children have been killed since Russia invaded his country in late February.

Speaking in a video address at the American Jewish Committee Global Forum in New York City, Zelensky, who is Jewish, said he learned 24 children had died while he was recording the address alone.

“The Russian troops have occupied part of our country, and we do not have complete information about what is happening in the occupied areas,” the Ukrainian president said. “But gradually we learn about it. And that’s how the list of killed children became twenty-four points longer at once — these are the children who died because of Russian strikes at Mariupol, now we know about them.”

On June 1, Zelensky reported about 243 children had died, 446 had been wounded and 139 are missing, according to The Associated Press.

The United Nations Children’s Fund has spoken out against the war, reporting that at least 2 million children have been displaced from their homes.

Russia has been accused of bombing civilian shelters and hideouts indiscriminately. Over the spring, they were accused of bombing a maternity hospital in the battered port city of Mariupol and a theater where hundreds of people were hiding out.

Zelensky on Monday named some of the children who lost their lives in the war, including two infants named Maksym and Darya.

“Maksym and Darya did not live even three months,” Zelensky said. “They died with their parents when they were all buried in the basement of an ordinary apartment building on which a Russian aircraft dropped a bomb.”

Russian forces are continuing to assault Ukraine in a concentrated attack in the eastern region of the country.

Zelensky said Ukraine would continue to fight to defend their country and save their children.

“In the name of children killed by the Russian army,” the Ukrainian president said on Monday. “And for the future of millions of children in Ukraine and in various European countries who deserve to live in security and peace. To just live.”

_______________

• Russian Troops Sabotage Their Own Missile System to Sell as Scrap Metal, Says Ukrainian Intel

Ukrainian authorities say they have uncovered an alleged new scheme from fed-up Russian troops angling to get out of the war: They’re apparently now sabotaging their own weapons and trying to sell the parts as scrap metal.

That’s according to the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, which on Tuesday named and shamed the Russian forces they say failed spectacularly in a recent attempt to sell off parts of Russian missile systems in the Donetsk region.

“In order to avoid going to the frontline, the commanders of a squadron from the 933rd anti-aircraft missile regiment… decided to make their equipment unfit for active service,” the agency said in a statement. The troops “removed the control units from Tor-M2U [missile systems] and decided to sell them at a collection point for precious metals.”

The plan is said to have backfired when the troops demanded a higher payoff for the goods, prompting the local workers at the scrap metal point to alert law enforcement of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.

Ukrainian intelligence says the damaged Russian equipment was ultimately blamed on active fighting rather than sabotage, with the entrepreneurial troops sent back to the frontline despite their best efforts. They were identified as members of the 933rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment of the 150th Motorized Rifle Division, part of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District.

The intelligence arm of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not disclose how it learned of the apparent sabotage scheme. But the report adds to a long list of increasingly creative attempts by Russian troops to abandon the fight, from fake marriage to self-injury.

In response to the rock-bottom morale among troops, there have been reports of the Russian military sending in FSB officers and high-ranking brass to keep tabs on disloyal troops.

In audio of what Ukrainian intelligence described as an intercepted call released Tuesday, a man identified as a Russian soldier can be heard complaining to his wife about his struggles to bring those under his command in line.

After she tells him she heard about Ukrainian forces edging out Russian soldiers in several areas, the man responds that “it doesn’t matter” to him.

“My own fucking mules are driving me batshit crazy,” he said, before going on to tell her the situation with morale is worse than “critical” among his men.

“Well fucking shoot one of them demonstratively, and the others will maybe shut up,” she said. https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia...=home?ref=home

_______________

• Biden: U.S. to build silos on Poland border to export Ukrainian grain

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the U.S. will build temporary silos on Poland’s border with Ukraine to facilitate the export of grain out of the war-torn nation and address surging food prices amid Russia’s invasion.

“We’re going to build silos, temporary silos in the borders of Ukraine, including in Poland. So we can transfer [grain] from those cars into those silos into cars in Europe and get it out into the ocean, and get it out across the world. But it’s taking time,” Biden said in a speech at the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia, where he discussed potential solutions to rising food prices across the country.

U.S. and Western officials have been exploring efforts to build temporary silos in Ukraine and other nations as a means to quickly scale up grain storage capacity in Ukraine, where a Russian naval blockade is holding back more than 25 million tons of grain from the world food supply. Russia’s blockade in the Black Sea has upended global trade routes while threatening to financially strangle Ukraine and deepen hunger crises around the world. In the next month, Ukrainian farmers will start harvesting the summer wheat harvest, but won’t have anywhere to store it, Ukrainian officials have warned.

U.S. officials and lawmakers are also worried that food shortages, along with rising fuel and food prices, could spark mass starvation, political unrest and migration across parts of Africa, the Middle East and, possibly, Central America, in the coming months.

Biden said Tuesday that the grain can’t be shipped out through the Black Sea “because it’ll get blown out of the water” by Russia’s naval blockade. The U.S. for now has ruled out sending military ships into the region, which would risk Russian retaliation.

Biden noted the U.S. has been working on a plan to export the grain through other countries by rail but acknowledged the overland routes are rife with logistical problems. Rail routes can only move a fraction of the grain that Ukraine normally exports from its Black Sea ports and Ukrainian trains operate on a wider rail gauge than that used by the rest of the tracks in Europe. Biden suggested building silos is a better option for now and could help Ukraine buy some time.

Talks are ongoing between the United Nations and Russia, and separately with Turkey, which aims to broker a deal with Russia to allow Ukraine to restart grain exports via the Black Sea. But Biden administration officials and U.S. lawmakers are skeptical of Russia’s efforts, since Moscow is demanding sanctions relief in return.

“It’s hard to view the Russian offers in good faith considering how they are actively and intentionally destroying food products in Ukraine and exacerbating global food insecurity,” a U.S. official recently told POLITICO.

Russian forces are continuing to target Ukraine’s grain silos and agricultural infrastructure, while stealing grain from the country, U.S. and Ukrainian officials have said.

“Russia, we believe, has stolen several hundred thousand tons of grain from Ukraine and then sent it out on small ships from Russian ports,” Jim O’Brien, the State Department’s head of sanctions, recently told POLITICO and other reporters. “Now, that grain has ended up with Russia’s friends.”

____________

• Ukraine enlisted a White House alum to fight Russian propaganda

The Ukrainian government pressed major social media companies to crack down on Russian propaganda, records show.

Driving the news: Days after Russia's invasion, Ukraine's Digital Transformation Ministry enlisted a former White House official to press U.S. government officials and the companies themselves, according to newly released documents.

• Cameron Hardesty, who served in the White House press shop during the Obama administration, has contacted TikTok and Facebook parent company Meta on the Ministry's behalf regarding Russian-aligned content, according to foreign agent disclosures.
• She's also reached out to officials at the State Department regarding information operations surrounding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and to reporters at leading Washington news outlets.

Why it matters: Public perception is crucial to Ukraine's ability to continue securing international aid, and to Russia's efforts to control fallout from its costly and poorly managed invasion.

The details: Hardesty is working for the Ministry on a pro-bono basis, according to foreign agent disclosures filed with the Justice Department last week.

• She is "advising on messaging for communications with U.S. business representatives, U.S. media representatives, and U.S. government officials," according to her filing.
• Hardesty's "opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and compassion for the Ukrainian people motivated registrant to assist the Ukrainian government representatives on a volunteer basis."
• She did not respond to Axios' requests for comment on her work.

The big picture: Russian forces have used social media in attempts to spin their invasion as a success and sow disinformation about the conflict.

• Pro-Russian and Kremlin-affiliated accounts have leveled baseless claims about Ukrainian atrocities and U.S. involvement in the conflict.
• At home, the Russian government has severely restricted social media use in an attempt to stymie domestic opposition and shut down content about what is widely considered a dismal military campaign thus far.

Between the lines: Hardesty's work began in late February, and coincided with public pressure on leading tech companies to crack down on Russian information operations. Within weeks, a number had done so.

• Meta aggressively purged its top platforms, Facebook and Instagram, of Russian disinformation content.
• TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company Bytedance, removed tens of thousands of videos during the first week of the Russian invasion that it said violated its policy on "harmful misinformation."
• Other platforms such as Twitter and Google, which owns the YouTube, have also cracked down on Russian information operations.

The government's revenue is less than half of what it's spending

by Dave DeCamp Posted onJune 14, 2022CategoriesNewsTagsUkraine

The head of the Ukrainian parliament’s financial committee said Tuesday that Ukraine needs $5 billion in external financial assistance or it will be facing sharp budget cuts.


“We have to borrow $5 billion monthly. If we do not get it, we will have to cut spending,” Danylo Hetmantsev said, according to Reuters.


Hetmantsev said the Ukrainian government’s revenues cover less than half of its expenses due to the war. He said the government spent about 250 billion hryvnias ($8.46 billion) in May to finance the military and help people displaced by the fighting but only collected 101 billion hryvnias ($3.42 billion) in taxes.


The US and the EU have provided Ukraine with financial assistance through direct aid and loans, but it is far below the $5 billion each month that Hetmantsev said Kyiv needs. According to Ukraine’s Finance Ministry, the country received $5.12 billion in financial assistance from foreign countries between January and May.


So far, the US has authorized $54 billion in spending for Ukraine that is meant to last through the 2022 fiscal year, which ends on September 30 for the federal government. The majority will go towards military spending, but the $40 billion bill recently signed into law by President Biden includes $8.8 billion in economic support for Ukraine and other countries impacted by the war.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/06/14/...id-budget-cut/

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had taken off on separate flights from southeastern Poland after their risky, high-stakes visit to Kyiv when they were conferenced into a phone call from President Joe Biden.

During their whirlwind April trip, Austin appeared to expand the U.S. goals in Ukraine, saying publicly that the administration wanted the Ukrainians to win the war against Russia, not just defend themselves, and that the U.S. hoped to weaken Russia to the extent that it could not launch another unprovoked invasion. Blinken had publicly aligned himself with the remarks. Now Biden wanted to discuss the mounting headlines that resulted.

Biden thought the secretaries had gone too far, according to multiple administration officials familiar with the call. On the previously unreported conference call, as Austin flew to Germany and Blinken to Washington, the president expressed concern that the comments could set unrealistic expectations and increase the risk of the U.S. getting into a direct conflict with Russia. He told them to tone it down, said the officials.

“Biden was not happy when Blinken and Austin talked about winning in Ukraine,” one of them said. “He was not happy with the rhetoric.”

The secretaries explained that Austin’s comments had been misconstrued, another senior administration official said. But the displeasure Biden initially conveyed during that phone call, the officials said, reflected his administration’s belief that despite Ukrainian forces’ unexpected successes early on, the war would ultimately head in the direction it is now in two months later: a protracted conflict in which Russia continues to make small and steady advances.

U.S. officials are increasingly concerned that the trajectory of the war in Ukraine is untenable and are quietly discussing whether President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should temper his hard-line public position that no territory will ever be ceded to Russia as part of an agreement to end the war, according to seven current U.S. officials, former U.S. officials and European officials.

Some officials want Zelenskyy to “dial it back a little bit,” as one of them put it, when it comes to telegraphing his red lines on ending the war. But the issue is fraught given that Biden is adamant about the U.S. not pressuring the Ukrainians to take steps one way or another. His administration’s position has been that any decision about how and on what terms to end the war is for Ukraine to decide.

“We are not pressuring them to make concessions, as some Europeans are. We would never ask them to cede territory,” one U.S. official said. “We are planning for a long war. We intend to prepare the American people for that, and we are prepared to ask Congress for more money.”

Biden announced a new $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine on Wednesday after speaking with Zelenskyy. Congress last month authorized an additional $40 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, which is expected to last until October.

FULL- Two top officials said the U.S. wants Ukraine to win. Biden said tone it down.