What about Russia declaring it so in the 90's?

That's partially fair, though I think Ronald Reagan put in some serious effort to learn/engage in politics/statecraft before jumping to the Presidency, and bedtime for bonzo was hardly the profane drag BS Z engaged in. He also never took piles of cash from commies and…well anyway.

More are catching on that China has…'outwitted' the west in this conflict (it helps to have a Manchurian White House):

Quote:

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There is only one winner from Vladimir Putin's monstrous war on Ukraine, and that is the Chinese Communist Party. To our eternal shame, Xi Jinping has spectacularly outwitted the West, drastically expanded his global influence, and turned Russia into a Chinese protectorate in all but name.

Russia was meant to have collapsed by now. Britain, America and Europe's gambit was that drastic trade, financial and technological sanctions, a cap on the price of Russian seaborne oil, and substantial help to Ukraine would be enough to defeat Moscow. It hasn't worked. For all of the sacrifices of the Ukrainian people, the war has reached a stalemate, at least until Kyiv's counter-offensive.

The reason? China has quietly stepped in, bailing out Putin's shattered economy on a transformational scale, swapping energy and raw materials for goods and technology. The sanctions are a joke. Russian-Chinese trade rose 41.3 per cent in the first four months of the year to $73 billion, financing Putin's war. China's exports to Russia were up 153 per cent in April 2023 alone; their rise more than cancels out the decline in German and French trade, as Robin Brooks, of the Institute for International Finance, points out. China's trade has also shot up with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey, all with easy, porous access to Russia.

No wonder Russian society hasn't imploded. There may no longer be any McDonald's in Moscow, but sales of Chinese cars are buoyant. We were told Russia couldn't survive without Western technology, but it is switching instead to China's rival systems.

The quid pro quo is that Russia is now dependent on the CCP for its survival, and Moscow's new paymasters will pitilessly flex their muscles. This is a triumph for Beijing's mercantilists: they have permanently absorbed Russia into their orbit. If Putin, a nasty megalomaniac, survives his disastrous war, it will be as a vassal of Xi, the final humiliation. The only upside for the rest of us is that Russia is now less likely to use tactical nuclear weapons, an insane policy China would surely veto.

---

Quote:

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Confident countries that believe their ascent will continue for the foreseeable future don't usually choose to precipitate a major war for example by invading Taiwan. As Robert Tombs, the historian, has pointed out, it is when nations feel that they are running out of time or that they are being cornered that they lash out.

So what next? Can we avoid a calamitous, global conflict that will set humanity back 50 years, at best? Will China's elites see sense and bank their takeover of Putin's Russia? Or will they worry that their own window of opportunity is closing, and decide to gamble on an invasion of Taiwan, especially if the unfathomably weak Biden is reelected? Britain must hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

---

The real conflict is over what is left of our once sovereign country/statehood, and wealth. Nothing is safe with China's man/clan in the White House.

Quote:

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Ukraine's parliament declared independence Saturday in the wake of the failed Soviet coup. With 52 million people, Ukraine is the second biggest Soviet republic, after Russia, and is both the nation's breadbasket and the home of much of its heavy industry.

Russia and the Soviet government already had accepted the idea of independence for such small states as the three Baltic republics. But there had been serious doubts that the Russian government of President Boris Yeltsin would let Ukraine go.

The Russian statements set off an excited anti-Russian reaction among Ukrainians, who believe they have lived under the Russian thumb for the last 330 years. In the wake of this, Yeltsin sent a three-man delegation, accompanied by another three men from the Soviet government, to negotiate with the Ukrainian government.

---

Not surprised that a thread citing Dave Smith has managed to gain so much traction on here.

Teslag said:

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Russian bot: "All of this is a grift to funnel money to a comedian"

Also Russian bot: "none of this would be happening if our reality tv show star were still president"

---

Outstanding!

Aggieair said:

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Not surprised that a thread citing Dave Smith has managed to gain so much traction on here.

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Thank you for joining this thread. Who is Dave Smith?

https://instagr.am/p/CsJhDg_p-vY

nortex97 said:

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Aggieair said:

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Not surprised that a thread citing Dave Smith has managed to gain so much traction on here.

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Thank you for joining this thread. Who is Dave Smith?

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He is the "comedian" being interviewed by Joe Rogan in the OP. He is part of the Mises Caucus of the Libertarian Party, which has been doing a lot of pro-Russian shilling in the past year.

This is one of Dave Smith's best gems: trying to claim that NATO is involuntary because the US military is funded by tax dollars which makes it incompatible with his "libertarian" philosophy.





He's not educated on Ukraine at all, and simply repeats false Kremlin talking points- take for example the first point in the OP, that NATO had made a pledge to not expand, which was debunked by none other than Mikhail Gorbachev himself. Putin made that claim in a speech once in "trust me, bro" style with absolutely no evidence, and people have taken his word as the gospel.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2014/11/06/did-nato-promise-not-to-enlarge-gorbachev-says-no/amp/

J. Walter Weatherman said:

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javajaws said:

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oh no said:

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why are there so many WW3 fanbois posting on the one thread for non-WW3 fanbois?

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So you just want a safe space?

Oddly enough that's what Ukrainians want too!

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This is now basically just the equivalent of the Q thread. Staff lets obvious Russian propaganda and lies get posted here so that it stays off of the rest of the threads.

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Anything I dont agree with should be deleted. What a wonderful contribution.

texagbeliever said:

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J. Walter Weatherman said:

---

javajaws said:

---

oh no said:

---

why are there so many WW3 fanbois posting on the one thread for non-WW3 fanbois?

---

So you just want a safe space?

Oddly enough that's what Ukrainians want too!

---

This is now basically just the equivalent of the Q thread. Staff lets obvious Russian propaganda and lies get posted here so that it stays off of the rest of the threads.

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Anything I dont agree with should be deleted. What a wonderful contribution.

---

Is that what I said?

Pretty significant shifts being communicated in outlook by the Polish military leadership:

Quote:

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During a strategic debate at the presidential National Security Office, General Rajmund Andrzejczak, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, made clear his pessimistic assessment of the effects of Western efforts aimed at strengthening Ukraine's hand on the battlefield. After pointing out that, "war was, is, and there is no indication that it will be otherwise, a policy, and it has an essential number of economic factors in its determinants: finance, infrastructure issues, social issues, technology, food production, and a whole set of issues that need to be put into this box to understand this war, he stressed", Andrzejczak went on to observe that Russia will not be running out of resources to prosecute the Special Military Operation anytime soon. "Those financial instruments it [Russia] had before the war, the dynamics of spending and the effectiveness of sanctions or the whole complex economic situation indicate that Russia will have the money for the war" Andrzejczak stated.

Ukraine, on the other hand, according to the General, "has huge financial problems." He noted that there is no indication in the near future that Ukrainians who fled the war will return home and begin the process of rebuilding their country. Andrzejczak states that as a soldier he considers it his duty to tell it like it is. "We simply don't have the ammunition. The industry is not ready not only to send equipment to Ukraine, but also to replenish our stocks, which are melting. This awareness is not the same as it is here on the Vistula, and this absolutely must be communicated, without anesthesia, to everyone and in all forums where it is possible, which I am doing" Andrzejczak pointed out.

Of course, Andrzejczak, while making these observations, still wants NATO's proxy war against Russia to continue and he obviously prefers to see a Ukrainian victory, but as a report in Zububrothers points out: "Nobody should therefore doubt Andrzejczak's intentions or suspect that he's a so-called 'Russian agent' since he sincerely wants the West to win its proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, but he's also very worried that it might lose unless his side acknowledges the unpopular truths that he just shared."

This is a welcome development, such obvious and yet unpopular truths up until a few weeks back were, in the current Polish media atmosphere, considered to be Russian propaganda.

---

In a huge setback, Zelensky's request to speak at the Eurovision contest was rejected;

Quote:

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Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, has expressed disappointment at a decision to block Volodymyr Zelenskiy's request to speak via video at Saturday's Eurovision grand final. The European Broadcasting Union, which produces the event, said the Ukrainian president had "laudable" intentions but rejected the request over fears it could politicise the event.

---

Quote:

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In a huge setback, Zelensky's request to speak at the Eurovision contest was rejected;

---

Eurovision is huge.

Really says something they don't want him taking dump in punchbowl.

Germany announced a 2.7 billion euro aid package for Ukraine to include 30 tanks and 100 armored personnel carriers.


Krauts looking to stack some Russian bodies of their own

Teslag said:

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Germany announced a 2.7 billion euro aid package for Ukraine to include 30 tanks and 100 armored personnel carriers.


Krauts looking to stack some Russian bodies of their own

---

Here says $3 billion.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/13/europe/germany-aid-package-ukraine-intl-ukr/index.html

Pumpkinhead said:

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Teslag said:

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Germany announced a 2.7 billion euro aid package for Ukraine to include 30 tanks and 100 armored personnel carriers.


Krauts looking to stack some Russian bodies of their own

---

Here says $3 billion.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/13/europe/germany-aid-package-ukraine-intl-ukr/index.html

---

1 Euro = 1.09 United States Dollar

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Quote:

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In a huge setback, Zelensky's request to speak at the Eurovision contest was rejected;

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Eurovision is huge.

Really says something they don't want him taking dump in punchbowl.

---

It does. He's lost some of his media popularity/stardom.

Pumpkinhead said:

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Teslag said:

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Germany announced a 2.7 billion euro aid package for Ukraine to include 30 tanks and 100 armored personnel carriers.

---

Here says $3 billion.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/13/europe/germany-aid-package-ukraine-intl-ukr/index.html

---

Rheinmetall is looking to set up production in Ukraine post-war of armored vehicles (cheaper labor/aid from the US and China probably). There's definitely a self-interested economic/graft/kickback to this package in particular.

And Russian oil sales are going strong. https://t.co/eYlRl2gOHR

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 14, 2023

And, Zelensky the grifter whining about ending the war in a day. He is again owned/operated by the CIA/swamp/CCP…who once promised/conveyed certain other attitudes, before he started using a translator for Russian for the cameras.

Yes and Zelenskyy promised a lot before he became president about what he stood for… https://t.co/vC6YeUFTbQ

— Luke de Waay (@Darth_Mystery) May 14, 2023

LOL, that Ukrainian ammo depot was apparently fresh depleted uranium ammunition from the UK:

Quote:

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A clear spike in gamma radiation was detected in Khmelnitsky on or about May 12th, with emission continuing to rise the following day and remaining at the elevated level thereafter.

Considering how little gamma radiation comes from depleted uranium, this clear spike in gamma radiation in Khmelnitsky indicates that there was very large stockpile of the DU munitions that was destroyed, raising the uranium dust into the air.

By comparison, the towns of Ternopol, Khmilnik, and Novaya U****sa (images 3, 4, and 5) remained at their apparent regular, base levels. This indicates that the Khmelnitsky anomaly is indeed a spike and corroborates the claim that the stockpile in Khmelnitsky contained DU munitions.

---

Zelensky's now 11-days running Europe tour, from Sweden to London, Berlin etc., to Rome will next head back to Paris. Apparently he was very inappropriate/rude to the pope (sitting first etc.).

He also somehow got into a pissy whining fest with the Washington Post reporter who I guess didn't demonstrate enough fealty toward his majesty:

Quote:

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WaPo: The documents indicate that GUR, your intelligence directorate, has back-channel contact with Evgeny Prigozhin that you were aware of, including meeting with Evgeny Prigozhin and GUR officers. Is that true?

Zelensky: This is a matter of [military] intelligence. Do you want me to be convicted of state treason? And so, it's very interesting, if someone is saying that you have documents, or if someone from our government is speaking about the activities of our intelligence, I would also like to ask you a question: With which sources from Ukraine do you have contact? Who is talking about the activities of our intelligence? Because this is the most severe felony in our country. Which Ukrainians are you talking to?

WaPo: I talked to officials in government, but these documents are not from Ukraine, they are from…

Zelensky: It doesn't matter where the documents are from. The question is with which Ukrainian official did you talk? Because if they say something about our intelligence, that's treason. If they say something about a specific offensive plan of one general or another, this is also treason. That's why I asked you, which Ukrainians are you talking to?

WaPo: About these specific documents? You are the first person I am talking to about them.
Zelensky: Okay.

WaPo: And I can read you what information exactly there is about Prigozhin and the GUR. On February 13, Kirill Budanov, chief of Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence, informed you about a Russian plan to destabilize Moldova with two former Wagner associates. Budanov informed you that he viewed the Russian scheme as a way to incriminate Prigozhin because "we have dealings" with him. You instructed Budanov to inform Moldovan President Maia Sandu, and Budanov told you that the GUR had informed Prigozhin that he would be labeled a traitor who has been working with Ukraine. The document also says that Budanov expected the Russians to use details of Prigozhin's secret talks with the GUR and meetings with GUR officers in Africa…

Zelensky: Listen, to be honest, well, you just read something, you say something. I just don't understand where you get it, whom you talk to and so on. You talk about how I met with Budanov. This suggests that you how do you put it? It looks like you have people who have some records or you have some evidence or you have something, because that's what it looks like. You are again doing, I apologize, what you were doing before. You are releasing some sort of information that does not help our state to attack and does not help us to defend our state. So, I don't quite understand what you are talking about. I don't quite understand your goal. Is your goal to help Russia? I mean, that means we have different goals. If I'm not sitting at the same table with them, I don't quite understand what we're talking about. Each of these inquiries simply demotivates Ukraine, demotivates certain partners to help Ukraine. Well, one way or another, I just don't understand your goal.

WaPo: Our goal is not to help Russia.
Zelensky: Well, it looks different.

---

More interestingly, the Ukrainian role in the WEF's 2030 objectives ("Great Reset") are interesting to me to continue to study/learn about. There have unquestionably been a lot of planning around their use of digital currency and public-private partnerships in a 'reconstruction' phase.

Quote:

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But Ukraine's search for elite and corporate assistance is the end of the little sovereignty it has left. After all, a common denominator in these wartime and reconstruction efforts is the emphasis on public-private collaboration, especially through anti-democratic public-private partnerships, where public accountability mechanisms are diffused or disarmed through an obfuscation of long-standing power structures as private entities, which are largely unanswerable to the public, usurp responsibilities, resources, and roles that once belonged to governments. As of late 2022, Ukraine was even reforming its legal framework in order to better facilitate and encourage such relationships.

Indeed, Ukraine's war effort is infested with public-private partnerships and corporate relationships that the besieged country ultimately has little agency over. In response to the war, investors and benefactors of questionable stripes are lining up through Ukrainian fundraising and assistance programs like the USAID-backed Advantage Ukraine and United24.

Furthermore, corporate giants including multi-national investment company BlackRock and mega-bank JP Morgan are all but buying Ukraine's future. Zelensky and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink agreed in December 2022 to focus "on coordinating the efforts of all potential investors and participants in the reconstruction [of Ukraine], channeling investment into the most relevant and impactful sectors of the Ukrainian economy." A Memorandum of Understanding between BlackRock Financial Markets Advisory (BlackRock FMA) and Ukraine's Ministry of Economy formalized these agreements with "a goal of creating opportunities for both public and private investors to participate in the future reconstruction and recovery of the Ukrainian economy."

Emphasizing the scale of BlackRock's prospective involvement, Fink reportedly told Zelensky that "if you hire us…we're not going to be creating new oligarchs, but we're creating a new Ukraine." But as the creators of a "new Ukraine," BlackRock already manages tens of trillions of dollars in assets, thus "tower[ing] over the finance, insurance and real estate sectors" internationally, and is heavily involved in a number of major corporations and media organizations, perhaps making BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, as Joyce Nelson writes in CounterPunch, the world's most powerful person. BlackRock's interest in "creating a new Ukraine," therefore, is likely par for the company's predatory course.

---

Quote:

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Although Elon Musk's Starlink has provided internet to many Ukrainians affected by conflict, its coverage has been partially rescinded to prevent Starlink's use "for offensive purposes." But other corporations, like data firm and effective CIA-front Palantir, defense contractor Anduril, and facial recognition service Clearview AI companies funded, or in Palantir's case, co-founded, by early Facebook investor and "predictive policing" style surveillance enthusiast Peter Thiel are bringing the Fourth Industrial Revolution to war.

While Palantir helps Ukraine with its military targeting of war assets including tanks and artillery, new weapons and technologies, like defense contractor Anduril's autonomous Altius 600M drones, are being rolled-out on the battlefield. Further, Ukraine's Defense Ministry is using Clearview AI's facial recognition technology to "uncover Russian assailants, combat misinformation and identify the dead." Widely considered an invasive service, Clearview AI has been prevented from selling its services to most corporations and organizations in the US (save for the US police). However, the ethical concerns it has raised elsewhere are of little concern on Ukrainian battlefields. In other words, the fog of war has allowed companies to test and advance controversial, deadly and invasive technologies with little scrutiny.

---

China's Euroasian envoy begins a tour of the region today. Some of the above is clearly a threat to Chinese interests (using parallel technology) in Ukraine/the west, but I think there are some synergies as well (Peter Thiel/Palantir/Anduril/Clearview AI etc).

None of this is good long term for Americans (WEF/Blackrock, or China).

Well, whaddayaknow, EU/WEF favorite to dethrone Erdogan, a somewhat Russia-ally, is losing after all.

It is the color revolution playbook. First step is a rash of fake polls to influence the public. If that fails then they gin up street theater claiming the election was rigged.

Samantha Power is booking her flight to Istanbul. https://t.co/EPgwY4HoJc

— The Z Blog (@TheRealZBlog) May 15, 2023

And, sure enough, "Democracy is losing."

Back to Ukraine itself, it sounds like in fact the depleted uranium ammo the Brits shipped was targeted right off the tarmac;

Quote:

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The gamma measuring device is at the Khmelnytsky airport appears to be within yards of tarmac on south end. We already know they are using Antonov cargo planes to ship stuff even some vehicles. It would make alot of sense they would use this airport because its not too close to combat.

It is already known that Russia has some big fans in Europe watching what stuff is being sent on planes so it is not too far-fetched the DU was driven right past the gamma meter & Russia made good on their very serious threat regarding the Brits providing this stuff. So the higher readings starting a couple of days before the missile attack could indicate when the DU munitions arrived at the depot - which would make sense.

---

It wasn't old/Soviet munitions, at all.

$160 million in Patriot missiles…poof, gone in 2 minutes.

According to Fennec, this entire production cost north of $160 million US taxpayer dollars.https://t.co/7KjOSIPn7I

— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) May 16, 2023

"Ukraine is a great investment for America." LOL.

Russian troops remain on the offensive in Bakhmut proper and are on the verge of seizing the city outright, suggesting that they aren't real concerned about their flanks.

A Slovenian-donated M-55S was destroyed near Svatovo recently, so at least one of the Western-armed "counterattack brigades" is in action further north.

While all of this has been going on, the Russians have been launching nightly air, missile and drone raids into Ukraine with devastating results, including two massive ammunition depots destroyed in the last two days, including fresh depleted-Uranium UK-donated rounds, while depleting incompetently manned/trained/equipped/prepared air defense systems.

The Russians reporting/claims as to Ukrainian losses (20 tanks, many APCs destroyed, ~2k AFU casualties) indicate multi-brigade assaults have failed to take any meaningful territory for the losses incurred. The Ukrainians do have multiple brigades (10?) stacked up still, trained/equipped over the winter for just this moment, but apparently the EU tour of Saint Zelensky has failed. It did not achieve its primary goal, namely to convince the top EU countries and Britain to support at least paper guarantees of Ukraine's entry into NATO in the future or in exchange for peace agreements.

Zelensky wanted to sign a memorandum with NATO giving some PR for the upcoming offensive, which was most recently re-scheduled for July. In other words, the folks of the EU/Nato are tiring of the bit, and Brussels is well aware that taking Ukraine in means undermining their own now-hobbled economy.

Oh and shockingly, some actual news has leaked out as to Ukrainian perceptions; Corruption remains the most acute problem in Ukraine, and corrupt officials outstripped even the "Russian intelligence network" in the perception of "internal enemies". (Referencing a poll commissioned by Zerkalo Nedeli, conducted by the Razumkov Center). Corruption remains…everywhere/omnipresent in Ukraine.

84% of Ukrainians are convinced that it is "worthwhile to publish the facts about corruption, because because of corruption we will lose both unity, the support of partners, and victory." As to the question "who are your "internal enemies?" 53% of respondents clearly indicate that these are corrupt officials in power (for comparison: the option "Russia's agent network in the Ukrainian special services and authorities" was chosen by 47% of Ukrainians).

The Ukrainians also asserted that the number or size of bribes had changed since the war started;. only bribes to employees of military enlistment offices increased significantly (by 20.7%). Hint: those are the folks being given our tax $$$/munitions. Sigh…

LOL

so now Russia has ZERO allies in the world?!

if so, that shows how even more imbecilic they are

but in reality- if that meme had ANY intellectual honesty

it would show Iran standing with Russia, North Korea with Russia, China a bit, India a bit, Syria with Russia, Venezuela with Russia, Cuba with Russia, Belarus with Russia, South Africa just sent Russia a ship filled with ammunition..

LMCane said:

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it would show Iran standing with Russia, North Korea with Russia, China a bit, India a bit, Syria with Russia, Venezuela with Russia, Cuba with Russia, Belarus with Russia, South Africa just sent Russia a ship filled with ammunition..

---

I dunno if it is true, but they deny that. This is interesting, regardless:

Quote:

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The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said on Tuesday that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy had agreed to meet a group of African leaders to discuss a potential peace plan for the conflict.

Reuters reports that details of the plan have not been publicly divulged, although Ukraine's stated position for any peace deal is that all Russian troops must withdraw from its territory.

"My discussions with the two leaders demonstrated that they are both ready to receive the African leaders and to have discussion on how this conflict can be brought to an end," Ramaphosa told a joint press briefing with the Singaporean prime minister in Cape Town.

"Whether that will succeed or not is going to depend on the discussions that will be held," he said.

Putin and Zelenskiy had agreed to receive the mission in their respective capitals Moscow and Kyiv, a South African Presidency statement said. The peace plan is also backed by leaders of Senegal, Uganda, Egypt, the Republic of the Congo, and Zambia.

Ramaphosa said the US and Britain had expressed "cautious" support for the plan and the UN secretary general had also been briefed about the initiative.

In recent days South Africa has become embroiled in a row about whether it had allowed a Russian arms shipment to depart from Cape Town, which South Africa denies.

---

South Africa, as a BRICS member, is functionally a Chinese/Russian ally, so I am not sure how different their plan is vs. the Chinese one. I know the war cheerleaders won't like this but it certainly is sounding like a truce/reconstruction plan is closer to being reached than most thought.

Quote:

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China's special Ukraine envoy, Li Hui, will visit Warsaw on Friday after his two-day trip to Kyiv, Poland's ministry of foreign affairs said on Tuesday.

"That will be the case," ukasz Jasina, a spokesperson for the ministry, told AFP, confirming earlier reports in Polish media and adding that the envoy would meet a Polish deputy foreign minister in Warsaw.
Beijing had announced Li's visit last week, saying that apart from Ukraine and Poland he would also visit Russia, France and Germany.

China said the aim of the tour was to "communicate with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis".

---

We need to keep sending billions to these guys. Putin bad.

BREAKING: Vsevolod Kniaziev, the chief justice of Ukraine's Supreme Court, has been detained for allegedly accepting a $2.7 million bribe. pic.twitter.com/26jVkxzzL9

— Archangel (@deplora80055754) May 16, 2023

"Unmitigated Disaster". NYT Oped courtesy 'responsiblestatecraft.org'

Quote:

---

An open letter calling for a swift diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine was published on Tuesday in the New York Times. The letter's 14 signatories consisted mostly of former U.S. military officers and other national security officials, including Jack Matlock, Washington's former ambassador to the Soviet Union; Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat; Matthew Hoh, a former Marine Corps officer and State Department official; and Ret. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff.

Many are longtime critics of U.S. foreign policy and post-9/11 war policies.

The letter calls the war an "unmitigated disaster" and cautions that "future devastation could be exponentially greater as nuclear powers creep ever closer toward open war."

While condemning Vladimir Putin's "criminal invasion and occupation," the letter, which notes the serial invasions of Russia by foreign adversaries, encourages readers to understand the war "through Russia's eyes."

"In diplomacy, one must attempt to see with strategic empathy, seeking to understand one's adversaries," according to the letter. "This is not weakness: it is wisdom."

"Since 2007, Russia has repeatedly warned that NATO's armed forces on Russian borders were intolerable just as Russian forces in Mexico or Canada would be intolerable to the U.S. now, or as Soviet missiles in Cuba were in 1962," the letter reads. "Russia further singled out NATO expansion into Ukraine as especially provocative."

The missive, which appeared on page 5 of the Times' print edition, lays out the history of warnings by key U.S. national security officials, politicians, and others about the dangers of NATO expansion in the late 1990s, and again in 2008 when then-U.S. Ambassador to Russia and current CIA director William Burns cautioned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice against pushing for NATO membership for Ukraine.

Accompanying the text is a timeline of the deterioration in relations between Moscow and the West that begins in 1990, when Secretary of State James Baker assured Russia that NATO would not expand eastwards, until Russia's invasion in February of last year.

"NATO expansion, in sum, is a key feature of a militarized U.S. foreign policy characterized by unilateralism featuring regime change and preemptive wars," according to the letter, which suggests that Washington's "failed wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan have been two of the results.

President Joe Biden has vowed that Washington will continue to aid Kyiv "as long as it takes." The letter's signers fear that this is a recipe for escalation that could result in catastrophe.

"As Dan Ellsberg has warned courageously and unceasingly, we the world are at the nuclear brink again, perhaps closer to the edge than ever before. It only requires one step to go over and then our steps end forever," Wilkerson said in the statement released by the Eisenhower Media Network, which funded the full-page advertisement. "If that's not sufficient reason for a return to diplomacy, our extinction is at hand; the timing is all that is in question."

---

Nice, but probably too late. China will end Xiden's war on their own terms/timeline.

nortex97 said:

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While condemning Vladimir Putin's "criminal invasion and occupation," the letter, which notes the serial invasions of Russia by foreign adversaries, encourages readers to understand the war "through Russia's eyes."

---

Well, in Japan's eyes, attacking Pearl Harbor was necessary because we were an existential threat to their pursuit of asian economic resources due to our unjust trade embargo. Maybe we should have been more empathetic after Dec 7th?

False analogy is false. LOL. Try harder.