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  1. #1826
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    I wonder what the Iraqi's and Afganis and Syrians and Libyans and Vietnamese said? They have swear words too. Like me, I doubt they care what you say. Again, all preventable. A colossal failure of Diplomacy, from dickhead hubristic assholes that have failed us yet again. Get rid of them.
    More whataboutism from the snivelling Putin sycophant.

  2. #1827
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    Russia Loses More Ground in Donetsk After Missing Putin's Hard Deadline

    Ukrainian troops have retaken control of a settlement in the eastern Donetsk region, chipping away further at Russian-held territory after President Vladimir Putin's army failed to meet his deadline to take more ground in the region, Ukraine said Friday.

    Oleksiy Gromov, deputy chief of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces, said at a briefing that Ukrainian troops had recaptured the settlement of Yatskivka east of the Oskil River, according to the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda.

    "Our forces are improving their tactical position[s]," Ukrainska Pravda quoted him as saying. "Thanks to timely regrouping of the units of one of the mechanized brigades and high level of combat organization, we managed to retake the lost position and take the positions to the south of Bakhmut under our control."

    The city of Bakhmut is the administrative center of the Bakhmut district within the Donetsk region. In the briefing, Hromov said that the situation on the Bakhmut front was complicated but controlled, despite continued attacks from Russian forces, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

    In a briefing earlier this month, Gromov said that Putin had given his troops a September 15 deadline to push to the administrative borders of the Donetsk region, though Newsweek was not able to independently verify the deadline. He added that Russian forces were adjusting their plans and actions to fulfill the order.

    But more than a week after the deadline came and went, Russia has yet to establish full control over the region.

    In June, the Associated Press, citing Ukrainian officials and military analysts, reported that it appeared Russia occupied roughly half of the Donetsk region. This week, Al Jazeera reported that only about 60 percent of the region was Russian-controlled.

    Newsweek reached out to Russia's Defense Ministry for confirmation on how much of the Donetsk region it controls, as well as comment on Ukraine's recapture of Yatskivka.

    While Russia was unable to meet the September 15 deadline, its efforts to do so might have paved the way for Ukrainian success in other parts of the country.

    In its September 7 campaign assessment, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Ukrainian forces in the eastern Kharkiv region might have taken advantage of the absence of Russian forces to carry out an "opportunistic" counteroffensive in the area.

    The think tank said that "the Russian grouping in this area was likely understrength due to previous Russian deployments to support ongoing efforts to capture the remainder of Donetsk Oblast and support the southern axis."

    Ukraine has now retaken considerable ground in the Kharkiv region. General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander of Ukraine's military, said on September 11 that his troops had pushed to within 50 kilometers—or roughly 30 miles—of the border with Russia in Kharkiv.

    https://www.newsweek.com/russia-lose...adline-1745864

  3. #1828
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    Russia announces exemptions from Ukraine war mobilisation

    IT workers, bankers and journalists are among the professionals to be excluded from the draft, says the defence ministry.

    Russia has said it is exempting some bankers, IT workers and journalists from being drafted into the army to serve in Ukraine under the “partial mobilisation” announced by President Vladimir Putin, as men fled in droves across the border to avoid conscription.

    Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday that Russia would seek to call up 300,000 additional soldiers to bolster its military in Ukraine.

    FULL- Russia announces exemptions from Ukraine war mobilisation | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera


  4. #1829
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Luhansk, Donetsk, Zapo & Kherson are about to be annexed, and declared Russian sovereign territory.
    "declared Russian sovereign territory" ... by whom?

    If the population declare their allegiance to Russia, that doesn't mean the land on which their Houses/Farms naturally follow.

    The Sovereignty of Ukraine remains intact.

    The Ruskies, who desire to be part of the old Motherland, simply walk across the Internationally recognised Border and you are home.
    Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago ...


  5. #1830
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    no surprise here....

    Undercover with Russia’s fake arms dealers

    Russian state TV claims Ukrainians are selling US-donated weapons on the dark web. The BBC investigated one such marketplace, spoke undercover to those apparently selling weapons, and gathered evidence that suggests the adverts for weapons are fake.

    "Ukrops [a derogatory Russian slang term used to refer to Ukrainians] are selling Javelins on the darknet. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine resells equipment and weapons supplied by Nato." This message about anti-tank weapons was posted on Twitter and Telegram on 2 June by pro-Kremlin English-language account ASB Military News.

    The account has been recently suspended by Twitter but still exists on Telegram, where it has more than 100,000 subscribers.

    On the same day, another pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, with 700,000 followers, posted in Russian: "Thanks to Biden and European friends of Ukraine, Javelins, machine guns and even tanks will pop up all over the world in the hands of terrorists and criminals."

    Pictures attached to the post showed an advert allegedly selling the FGM-148 Javelin, a US-made anti-tank missile system, for $30,000 (£26,000) and promising to deliver the weapons to the Ukraine-Poland border or abroad.

    These posts were quickly picked up by mainstream Russian state TV, which routinely runs stories claiming Ukraine is selling weapons supplied by the West.

    We decided to investigate these accusations ourselves using laptops that could not be linked back to the BBC. With a specialised web browser, we accessed the dark web where the level of anonymity attracts criminal activity.

    We found several sellers on the same marketplace mentioned by Russian state media outlets. They said they were selling Nato weapons, and their geolocation was Kyiv. However, the name of Ukraine's capital was misspelled in Ukrainian.

    This was not the only inconsistency.

    MORE https://www.bbc.com/news/world-62983444

  6. #1831
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    Quote Originally Posted by David48atTD View Post
    "declared Russian sovereign territory" ... by whom?

    .
    By the person backing it with the threat of nuclear weapons...

  7. #1832
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    I wonder what the Iraqi's and Afganis and Syrians and Libyans and Vietnamese said? They have swear words too. Like me, I doubt they care what you say. Again, all preventable. A colossal failure of Diplomacy, from dickhead hubristic assholes that have failed us yet again. Get rid of them.
    You need to be reminded about the thread topic yet again.
    THIS THREAD IS ABOUT PUTINS WAR. His entire world now reeks of childish desperation. I will tell you right now what will happen next!

    After he is shown to the world stamping his feet and crying, he will throw himself to floor screaming about how the world is so unfair to him.
    True leadership, is having people follow you, for reasons other than enforced curiosity!

  8. #1833
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    Quote Originally Posted by Switch View Post
    True leadership, is having people follow you, for reasons other than enforced curiosity!
    Or simply - force

  9. #1834
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    An ex-US Army general who witnessed Russia's basic training.

    An ex-US Army general who witnessed Russia's basic training of recruits says it was awful, and the 'newbies' being drafted face disaster on the front line


    A former US Army general said that Russia's announced mobilization of 300,000 reservists was a "jaw-dropping" sign of weakness.

    Mark Hertling, who commanded the US Army Europe, explained in a Twitter thread that he has personally witnessed how the Russian army is "poorly led and poorly trained."

    The poor training, coupled with the decision to draft in recruits with little experience, is likely to spell disaster for Russia, he said.

    "Mobilizing 300k "reservists" (after failing with depleted conventional forces, rag-tag militias.. recruiting prisoners & using paramilitaries like the Wagner group) will be extremely difficult," Hertling said.

    "And placing "newbies" on a front line that has been mauled, has low morale & who don't want to be portends more [Russian] disaster."

    Putin announced on Wednesday the partial mobilization of the country's military reservists, with Russian officials stating that 300,000 reservists will be drafted immediately.

    Only those with combat experience will be called up, and students and current conscripts will not be included, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

    Since the announcement was made, reports have emerged about Russians trying to flee to avoid deployment, and plane tickets out of country selling out.

    Insider reported that recruits being drafted this week were totally unsuitable and included a 63-year-old man with diabetes.

    Horrible leadership by "drill sergeants"

    Hertling, who for a time also commanded all basic and advanced soldier training for the US Army, said that during two visits to Russia he found the army's training to be "awful."

    He compared Russia's army training with the US', which typically involves new soldiers getting 10 weeks of basic training across several sites from "very professional drill sergeants," and many going on to get more specialized training.

    The former general cited a Moscow Times article from July, six months into the invasion of Ukraine, which said that soldiers were being sent to the front line with minimal basic training.

    Sergei Krivenko, the director of the human rights group Citizen. Army. Law. told the outlet: "I've been regularly approached by parents whose children signed a [military] contract and ended up in Ukraine just a week later."

    The article also quoted one Russian soldier who said he received just five days of training before being sent to combat in Ukraine.

    Hertling said when he visited Russia, he noted that Russian army training faced many issues, including "horrible leadership by drill sergeants," and cited an article about hazing.

    He said that officers told him theirs was a "one year" force, with some, often the poorest, volunteering or being elected for leadership roles.

    By comparison, Hertling said that Ukraine's army more closely follows the US model after having received training from US personnel in both individual and unit training techniques since 2014.

    The issue of Russian army training, according to Hertling, starts "in basic training, and doesn't get better during the [Russian] soldier's time in uniform."

    https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-u...isaster-2022-9

  10. #1835
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    IT workers, bankers and journalists are among the professionals to be excluded from the draft, says the defence ministry.

    Russia has said it is exempting some bankers, IT workers and journalists from being drafted into the army to serve in Ukraine under the “partial mobilisation” announced by President Vladimir Putin, as men fled in droves across the border to avoid conscription.

    Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday that Russia would seek to call up 300,000 additional soldiers to bolster its military in Ukraine.

    FULL- Russia announces exemptions from Ukraine war mobilisation | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

    A war cannot be described as a special military operation, when 100,000 troops and associated specialist equipment fails to meet the target of a short term success.

    If the so called SMO has not failed, why are they conscripting a further 300,000 reservists with military experience?

    After 7 months and counting, I think it’s safe to call it WAR.

  11. #1836
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    A rose by any other name smells just as bad. Call it what you like, war is fine by me.

  12. #1837
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Over 700 Detained in Russian Anti-Mobilization Protests

    Russian authorities on Saturday detained more than 700 people at protests against the partial mobilization ordered by President Vladimir Putin this week, according to an independent monitoring group.


    Police monitoring group OVD-Info counted at least 726 people detained in 32 cities across Russia, nearly half of them in Moscow, at rallies following the partial mobilization designed to bolster Russia's operation in Ukraine.


    There was a large police presence in the central areas of Chistye Prudy in Moscow, an AFP journalist witnessed.


    Most protestors walked by or were standing still — individually or in small groups — to avoid being spotted and detained by the police.


    AFP saw police detaining about 20 people.


    "We are not cannon fodder!" a woman shouted, while police officers took her away.


    In Russia's second biggest city of St. Petersburg, AFP saw a police van with about 30 detainees.


    Protesters in St. Petersburg also tried to be discreet — police swept away anyone deemed suspect.


    Ilya Frolov, 22, was holding a sign saying "peace."


    "I want to voice my opposition to what is happening...I don't want to go to war for Putin," he said.


    "I'm against the war, and against mobilization. I'm afraid for young people," said 70-year-old Natalya Dubova.


    After Putin announced partial mobilization on Wednesday, Russian authorities detained over 1,300 people.


    AFP spoke to some of them, who said police gave them call-up papers in custody — ordering them to enlist in the very army they were denouncing.


    The Kremlin defended the procedure on Thursday, saying "it isn't against the law."


    Russian authorities have cracked down on criticism of the military operation in Ukraine, arresting thousands of protesters since the beginning of the conflict in February.


    At Saturday's protest in St. Petersburg, police officers said through megaphones that protesters were "infringing covid rules."


    But on Friday, hundreds of people gathered without being stopped in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, in a show of support for the offensive and the annexation of Russia-controlled areas.

    Over 700 Detained in Russian Anti-Mobilization Protests — NGO - The Moscow Times

  13. #1838
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    war is fine by me.
    You have changed your tune . . . was it the mass executions and burial by Russians of Ukrainian civilians that did it? Nah . . . don't sweat the small stuff, eh.

  14. #1839
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    You have changed your tune . . . was it the mass executions and burial by Russians of Ukrainian civilians that did it? Nah . . . don't sweat the small stuff, eh.
    I think he just talks about the terminology. Call it war now, not special operation. He is obviously ok with starving and freezing the Ukraine civilist population. He said as much.

  15. #1840
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    Ukraine receives NASAMS from United States – Zelensky

    The United States has sent two NASAMS air defense systems to Ukraine.

    President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said this in an interview with CBS, an Ukrinform correspondent reports

    “We absolutely need the United States to show leadership and give Ukraine, the air defense systems. I want to thank President Biden for a positive decision that has been already made. And to the US Congress, we received NASAMS,” Zelensky said.

    At the same time, Zelensky stressed that “it's not even nearly enough to cover the civilian infrastructure, schools, hospitals, universities, homes of Ukrainians.” “We need the security in order to attract our Ukrainians to come back home. If it's safe, they will come, settle, work here and will pay taxes and then we won't have a deficit of $5 billion in our budget. So it will be a positive for everybody,” the president said.

    As reported by Ukrinform, President Volodymyr Zelensky previously emphasized that the pace of providing international aid to Ukraine should correspond to the pace of movement of Ukrainian soldiers.
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  16. #1841
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Enlistment Officer Shot, Recruitment Offices Torched Across Russia

    A Siberian enlistment officer has been shot and seriousy wounded during Russia’s military call-up, regional authorities said Monday as discontent over President Vladimir Putin’s draft continues to spread into far-flung regions.


    Gruesome footage from an Irkutsk region military recruitment office showed a man in fatigues shooting another man point-blank and sending others scattering from the assembly hall.


    The shooting marks one of the most dramatic instances of outrage over Putin’s draft of around 300,000 reservists for battle in Ukraine.


    Since Putin made the surprise announcement Wednesday, at least 17 recruitment offices were torched across Russia’s 11 time zones, according to the independent news website Mediazona.


    Thousands of Russians have also taken to the streets in protest. The North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the region with the highest known number of troops killed in the Ukraine war, became a flashpoint of anti-draft protests over the weekend with more than 100 reported detentions.


    Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region 5,000 kilometers east of Moscow, said chief enlistment officer Alexander Yeliseyev was critically wounded and is now fighting for his life as a result of the shooting.

    The shooter, whom Kobzev has not identified, was detained at the recruitment office in the Irkutsk town of Ust-Ilim.


    Local media outlets with close links to the security services identified the shooter as local resident Ruslan Zinin, 25.


    Zinin’s mother, Marina Zinina, told the Astra independent news website that Zinin was “very upset” because his friend without military experience had allegedly received draft papers despite the authorities’ pledge to recruit strictly experienced reservists.


    “Ruslan himself did not receive a summons, but his best friend did yesterday,” Zinina was quoted as saying.


    An eyewitness who spoke with the Irkutsk-based Telegram channel “Bratchane” said he saw the shooter barge into the assembly hall with a sawn-off rifle and yell out “no one’s going anywhere” before going on a shooting rampage.


    Investigative authorities launched a criminal case into an attempt on the life of a law enforcement officer and the illegal acquisition of weapons.

    Russia Readies Border Closures for Military-Aged Men – Reports - The Moscow Times

  17. #1842
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Women in Dagestan and other regions protest mobilization ‘Our children are not fertilizer!’

    On September 25, residents of Dagestan carried out several actions protesting mobilization, the largest of which was in Makhachkala. Starting around 3:00pm Moscow time residents, mostly women, gathered in the center of the city. The Telegram channel “Morning Dagestan,” which had more than 30,000 subscribers before the action, published a call to come out to a demonstration. By 4:00pm about 100 people had come out, reports Dagestan outlet Chernovik: “mothers and children gathered, and representatives of older generations, and youth.” Judging by witnesses’ videos, a few hundred people were at the protest in Makhachkala. They chanted “No to war!” “No to mobilization” and “Our children are not fertilizer!”


    Protesting women clashed with police, arguing that Russia started the war. “Russia attacked Ukraine. We’re not blind,” they said. The women also asked that the police not disrupt their protest. An employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had to run away from protestors.

    The police carried out violent arrests in Makhachkala. Several men were beaten and brought to the internal affairs ministry. One officer beat a detainee in the face while others marched him by the arms. Women were also subject to violent arrest. Protestors tried to free arrested people, including people in police vehicles. They beat up police officers. By evening, additional police squads were brought in, and the National Guard arrived.


    Protestors say the police used stun guns and pepper spray, and “twisted people’s limbs and pushed women around with particular cruelty,” reports independent media project OVD-Info. The police fired shots into the air. Apart from that, a man in civilian clothes opened fire into the air with a pistol (it’s unknown whether he was a protester or a law enforcement officer in civilian clothes).


    According to human rights activists, among those arrested was the mother of a newborn. The phone of a journalist with Chernovik was confiscated twice, and Murad Muradov, a journalist with Kavkazsky Uzel, was arrested. An exact number of arrests is unknown. OVD-Info said that as of 8:30pm Moscow time five people had been arrested, but judging by video from the actions, the real number is higher.

    Actions against the war and mobilization also took place in the village of Endirey, in Dagestan, on September 25.


    Against the backdrop of protest in Dagestan, Sergey Melikov, the head of the region, announced that mistakes had been made at the beginning of the mobilization. “If it’s a fact that people were mobilized who were not on the list – including students, fathers with multiple young children, guys who’ve never held a rifle in their life – it should be corrected immediately. I know that such mistakes happened at the very beginning of the mobilization,” Melikov wrote on Telegram. The head of Dagestan urged residents whose rights have been violated during mobilization to contact the republic’s enlistment offices.


    Actions against mobilization also took place in other regions of Russia. In Yakutsk about 400 people, most women, protested by dancing a traditional Yakut circular dance called osuokhay. At one point, the dancing women encircled police, chanting “Let our children live!” When police started making arrests, the protest stopped. At least 24 people were arrested in Yakutsk, reports OVD-Info. The Civic Chamber of Yakutia announced that “an osuokhay, a blessing from mothers that their husbands and sons return alive” had taken place.

    In Nalchik, in Kabardino-Balkaria, a protest took place on the square in front of the government building. A few dozen people attended, judging by video recordings. On a recording, an elderly woman says “I won’t hand over my husband, I won’t hand him over, even if they shoot me!”


    In five days of protests against the mobilization, more than 2,000 people have been arrested. On September 21, when protests started, 1369 people in 43 cities were arrested, says OVD-Info. On September 24, 833 people in 36 cities. On September 25, as of 8:30pm, 32 people had been arrested.

    VIDEOS https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/09...t-mobilization

  18. #1843
    Thailand Expat HermantheGerman's Avatar
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    INTERVIEW

    ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE

    Note: As-aired
    QUESTION: How concerned should Americans be about the prospect of nuclear war?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: Scott, we’ve heard a lot of irresponsible rhetoric coming out of Vladmir Putin, but we’re focused on making sure that we’re all acting responsibly, especially when it comes to this kind of loose rhetoric. We’ve been very clear with the Russians publicly and as well as privately to stop the loose talk about nuclear weapons.

    QUESTION: Privately, the United States has been in communication with the Kremlin about these threats of nuclear war?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yes, it’s very important that Moscow hear from us and know from us that the consequences would be horrific, and we’ve made that very clear.
    QUESTION: You called the nuclear talk loose talk, but isn’t Vladimir Putin telling us what he’s going to do if he is backed any further into a corner?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: Vladimir Putin has a clear way out of the war he started, and that’s to end it. If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.
    QUESTION: Is there anyone in the Kremlin who can tell Vladimir Putin, “No,” if he decides to launch a battlefield nuclear weapon?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: They have a chain of command – whether it works or not, to be seen – but I think what you’re pointing to is a larger challenge, and that is the Achilles Heel of autocracies anywhere, there is usually not anyone who has the capacity or the will to speak truth to power. And part of the reason I think Russia has gotten itself into the mess that it’s in is because there is no one in the system to effectively tell Putin he is doing the wrong thing.

    QUESTION: In our interview last week, President Biden told us that he had a message for Vladimir Putin on the use of nuclear weapons.
    President Joe Biden, last week: Don’t, Don’t, Don’t.
    QUESTION: He went on to say the U.S. response would be “consequential.” What did he mean by that?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: I’m not going to get into what the consequences would be. Any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic effects for, of course, the country using them, but for many others as well.

    QUESTION: If you can’t give us specifics about a U.S. response, can you tell us that the administration has a plan?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: We do.
    QUESTION: Is it a plan that would prevent World War III?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: President Biden has been determined that as we are doing everything we can to help the Ukrainians to defend themselves, as we’re doing everything we can to rally other countries to put pressure on Russia, we’re also determined that this war not expand, not get broader.
    QUESTION: As we were speaking to Secretary Blinken, news broke that a U.N. investigative commission had found evidence of rape and torture of children in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
    The panel goes on to say, “Based on the evidence gathered by the Commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine.” What does justice look like for Ukraine?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: Justice looks like accountability – accountability for those who perpetrated these war crimes, these atrocities, as well as for those who ordered them. And it’s one of the reasons, Scott, why we’re doing everything we can to support those who are trying to compile the evidence and to investigate and, ultimately, to prosecute those responsible.

    QUESTION: To prosecute – you believe there should be war crime trials?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: I was in Ukraine a couple of weeks ago. One of the places I visited was a city called Irpin. And I saw residential buildings – building block after building block – totally bombed out. This was the totally indiscriminate use of force. Wherever the Russian tide recedes, what’s left in its wake is very clear evidence of atrocities and war crimes.
    QUESTION: Atrocities were laid before the U.N Security Council last Thursday, drawing from the Russian foreign minister a dubious defense.
    When Sergey Lavrov says that the atrocities have been staged and it is Russia that is the victim, Tony Blinken is sitting there thinking what?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: This is Alice in Wonderland. It’s the world upside down. Up is down, white is black, truth is false. But here’s the thing, Scott: All of these words, all of these words, ring totally hollow to every member on the Security Council so this spewing of words is not having an effect. On the contrary, I think it just shows the total disconnect between Russia and virtually the entirety of the rest of the world.

    QUESTION: At the moment we spoke to the secretary, Russia was hurrying through what it calls “elections” to force these areas of Ukraine’s occupied east and south into the Russian Federation.
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: These so-called elections are a sham, period. They go in. They put in puppet governments, local governments. And then they proceed with a vote, which they’ll manipulate in any event in order to try to declare the territory Russian territory. It is not. It will never be recognized as such. And the Ukrainians have every right to take it back.
    QUESTION: Blinken came to our interview after meeting China’s foreign minister. China has been raising pressure on the democratic island of Taiwan which, in our conversation last week, President Biden pledged to defend with force.
    Scott Pelley, last week: So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. Forces, U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?

    President Joe Biden, last week: Yes.
    But official U.S. policy is, and has been for decades, to remain ambiguous about defending the island.
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: China has acted increasingly aggressively when it comes to Taiwan. That poses a threat to peace and stability in the entire region.
    QUESTION: The Chinese foreign minister must have asked you to explain the President’s remarks.
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, we had a conversation about our different approaches to Taiwan, and I reiterated what the President has said and what he’s said clearly and consistently: our continued adherence to the “One China” policy; our determination that the differences be resolved peacefully; our insistence that peace and stability be maintained in the Taiwan Straits; and our deep concern that China was taking actions to try to change that status quo. That’s what the issue is.

    QUESTION: Blinken warns that turbulence in the Taiwan Strait would wash around the world.
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: Taiwan itself, were anything to happen, it is where virtually all the semiconductors are made. One of the reasons we’re now investing so heavily in our own capacity to produce semiconductors here in the United States – we design them, but the actual production is done in a handful of places, and Taiwan produces most of them. If that’s disrupted, the effects that that would have on the global economy could be devastating.
    QUESTION: Last week on 60 Minutes, the president of Iran told Lesley Stahl he would consider re-entering the deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The Trump administration had canceled it. Blinken doubts that Iran is serious.
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: Iran has continued to try to add extraneous issues to the negotiation that we’re simply not going to say yes to. We will not accept a bad deal. The response that they’ve given to the last proposals put forward by our European partners have been a very significant step backwards. And so, I don’t see any prospects in the very near term to– to bring this to a conclusion.

    QUESTION: Antony Blinken is 60. One of his grandparents was born in Ukraine, his stepfather survived the Holocaust. And his father was a U.S. ambassador. Blinken has spent 30 years in foreign policy for Democrats mostly in the Senate and the White House. That’s him in the back of the room during the strike on Osama Bin Laden. His philosophy on American diplomacy is robust engagement with what he calls, humility and confidence.
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: If we don’t engage, if we’re not leading, then one of two things: either someone else is and probably not in a way that’s going to advance our interests and values, or no one is, and then you tend to have chaos. You get a vacuum that’s filled by bad things before it’s filled with good things. Because the world does not organize itself. There’s not a single big problem that’s affecting the lives of our citizens that we can effectively solve alone. Whether it’s climate, whether it’s COVID, whether it’s the effect of all of these emerging technologies on our lives, we have to be working with others to try to shape all of this in a way that’s actually going to make our people, as well as other people, a little bit more secure, a little bit more prosperous, a little bit more full of opportunity.

    QUESTION: Given January 6th, given the fabricated controversy over the election results, do you find that countries around the world are worried about the stability of the United States?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: It’s no secret that we have challenges within our own democracy. They’re playing out before the entire world. We don’t sweep them under the rug, even when it’s painful. So I’m able to say to other countries that bring these up: Yes, we’ve got our problems, but we’re confronting them. We’re dealing with them. You might do the same thing.
    QUESTION: Your father was U.S. ambassador to Hungary. And as we sit here on Friday afternoon, he passed away last night. And I wonder why you decided to keep such a busy schedule the day after that tragedy in your family.

    SECRETARY BLINKEN: My dad was 96 years old. He was in so many ways my role model. He built a remarkable business, one of the leading investment banks in this country over many years, He led a life of dignity, of decency, of modesty, that is something I’ve very much aspired to. And so I– I guess I thought that — honoring everything that he shared with me, the best way to do that was to continue doing my job.

    QUESTION: That job, for the foreseeable future, will be consumed with a question that has defeated generations of diplomats—how to keep a small war in Europe from igniting the world.

    Are there any talks currently that we may not have heard about?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: There are no talks because Russia has not demonstrated any willingness in this moment to engage in meaningful discussions. If and when that changes, we will do everything we can to support a diplomatic process.

    QUESTION: Is Vladimir Putin losing this war?
    SECRETARY BLINKEN: He’s already lost in terms of what he was trying to achieve. Because keep in mind, what he said very clearly from the start is, his objective was to erase Ukraine’s identity as an independent country, that has already failed. Ukrainians are fighting for their own land. They’re fighting for their own country. The Russians are not. And these Russian soldiers who are being thrown into this conflict, often not knowing where they’re going or what they’re doing– this is not something that they want to be fighting for. The Ukrainians are fighting for their own future. They’re fighting for their own land. They’re fighting for their own lives.

    https://ge.usembassy.gov/secretary-a...-scott-pelley/



  19. #1844
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    The United States has sent two NASAMS air defense systems to Ukraine.

  20. #1845
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Dagestan Anti-Mobilization Protests Rage for Second Day

    Hundreds of people in the republic of Dagestan protested against President Vladimir Putin’s “partial” mobilization for the war in Ukraine for the second day in a row, local media reported on Monday.


    Police officers detained around 20 protesters in the North Caucasus region’s capital of Makhachkala after a mass brawl between protesters and police, according to the Kavkaz.Realii news website.


    The latest detentions come after Russian police arrested more than 100 people at a mass protest in Makhachkala on Sunday, according to OVD-Info, an independent police monitoring group.


    “Obviously, the protests in Makhachkala were prepared and controlled from abroad,” regional leader Sergei Melikov claimed Monday without giving evidence.

    “We already saw this in the 90s. Unfortunately, many have forgotten what this could lead to, not everyone remembers the explosions of residential buildings in Kaspiysk and Buynaksk, at railway stations and subways,” Melikov said in a Telegram post, referring to terror attacks in the region in 1990s.


    In a bid to calm residents, Dagestan's military commissioner Daitbeg Mustafayev said this weekend that only men "with special military skills”' would be called up in the first round of the draft and that no conscripts would be sent to Ukraine.

    Dagestan — a poor, Muslim-majority republic in the North Caucasus — has seen more men killed in the Kremlin's military offensive in Ukraine than any other part of Russia, according to a tally made by independent Russian media of death notices published online.


    Kremlin critics say Moscow focuses its military call-up drives on Russia's poorest, most remote regions.

    Dagestan Anti-Mobilization Protests Rage for Second Day - The Moscow Times

  21. #1846
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Dagestan's military commissioner Daitbeg Mustafayev said this weekend that ... no conscripts would be sent to Ukraine.
    And I, for one, believe absolutely everything that military commissioner Daitbeg says.

    Although it is my impression that his nose is getting longer.

  22. #1847
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    ^^ Much like the US then.

  23. #1848
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Much like the US then.
    What are you blathering on about now? The US does not have a mobilization.

  24. #1849
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    Not recently, but jarheads and the like don't tend to be from Beverley Hills. They usually come from the ghettos and hillbilly country, and other such disadvantaged places.

  25. #1850
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    I think you are missing the point, thicko. Russia is drafting the people from the minority groups and rural areas where they are more isolated and thus easier to control compared to the folks in Saint Petersburg and Moscow.

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