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Category: Russia

  • Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott join CND and STWC in calling out Starmer over Ukraine

    On Tuesday 26 November, MPs and peace campaigners handed in a letter to Keir Starmer and the Labour Party government at Downing Street, calling on Britain to end its reckless role in intensifying the war in Ukraine.

    Starmer: stop fuelling war in Ukraine and Russia

    The hand-in took place as the emergency Ukraine-NATO council meets in Brussels, and follows a week of terrifying escalation:

    The decisions by the US and Britain, to allow Ukraine to use long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Storm Shadow missiles on Russian territory has seen Russia lower the threshold for nuclear use and its launching of a new hypersonic ballistic missile for the first time on the battlefield.

    The letter, signed by MPs Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn, Ayoub Khan, Shockat Adam, and Iqbal Mohamed, also expresses shock at recent statements by Britain’s Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Magowan, who recently said that ‘If the British Army was asked to fight tonight, it would fight tonight.’ These comments only serve to further increase tensions with Russia.

    These developments and Britain’s role in fuelling the crisis increases the risk of this conflict lurching into an all-out war between nuclear-armed NATO and Russia.

    The letter calls on the British government to end this reckless escalation, withdraw the use of its Storm Shadow missiles, and use its influence in support of a ceasefire and peace negotiations.

    Recent polling has found that over half of Ukrainians are now in favour of a negotiated settlement to end this war as soon as possible, while large majorities across Europe want an end to this suffering with a negotiated settlement.

    Deescalate now

    Diane Abbott MP said:

    Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives in this conflict. Instead of risking an all-out confrontation between NATO and Ukraine, Starmer should act on the wishes of the Ukrainian people, a majority of whom want an urgent end to the conflict through peace talks.

    Jeremy Corbyn MP said:

    As we edge closer and closer to catastrophe, we should be doing everything in our power to bring about de-escalation and peace. Instead, our political leaders are adding fuel to the fire and gambling with people’s lives for political gain. Presidents and Prime Ministers must know that in the event of nuclear war, nobody wins.

    Stop the War Coalition convenor Lindsey German said:

    The firing of US and UK missiles into Russia is a terrifying development which escalates the Ukraine war and demonstrates our own government’s direct involvement in the conflict. We face a greater threat of nuclear war than for more than 50 years. This war is being lost by Ukraine and it will end in negotiations. The real question is how many will die in the meantime.

    CND general secretary Sophie Bolt said:

    Political leaders need to step back from the nuclear brink. The actions of the British government are deeply reckless and are dragging Britain further towards an all-out confrontation with Russia. Starmer needs to withdraw the use of the Storm Shadow missiles as a matter of urgency. A nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.

    CND and Stop the War Coalition have called an emergency day of action for Saturday 7 December, to show the strength of opposition to this dangerous escalation, and to call on political leaders to step back from the nuclear brink.

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • North Korea sent 100 ballistic missiles to Russia: Ukraine

    TAIPEI, Taiwan – North Korea has sent more than 100 KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles to Russia, along with military specialists, to support its war with Ukraine, said a Ukrainian defense intelligence unit, about a week after South Korean confirmed that the North had exported additional artillery systems to Russia.

    North Korea has been suspected of sending weapons to Russia to support its invasion of Ukraine. The South said last month that North Korea had sent about 7,000 containers of suspected weapons to Russia over the last two months, bringing the total number of containers to 20,000.

    “The aggressor state of Russia has received more than 100 such missiles from the DPRK. The enemy first used these weapons in the war against Ukraine at the end of 2023,” said the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.

    The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.

    “Along with the missiles, Pyongyang then sent its military specialists to Russia to service the launchers and participate in war crimes against Ukraine,” the institution said.

    The KN-23 and KN-24 are North Korean short-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, known as Hwasong-11 variants.

    The intelligence unit reported that the missiles, responsible for numerous civilian casualties, were discovered to contain components manufactured by foreign companies, including from Britain, China, Japan, Switzerland and the United States.

    One missile was found to include a voltage converter produced in February last year, bearing the label of the British company XP Power.

    The unit urged stricter controls on the export of such components.

    Part of an unidentified missile, which Ukrainian authorities believe to be made in North Korea and was used in a strike in Kharkiv, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Jan. 6, 2024.
    Part of an unidentified missile, which Ukrainian authorities believe to be made in North Korea and was used in a strike in Kharkiv, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Jan. 6, 2024.

    The British arms watchdog Conflict Arms Research said in April it had analyzed 290 parts from a North Korean missile used by Russia against Ukraine and concluded that the missile was believed to be a North Korean short-range ballistic missile, either the KN-23 or KN-24.

    At that time, the watchdog said it identified parts from companies based in the U.S., China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan.

    In response to the report, a representative of a Japanese company, whose name and identification number were engraved on one of the missiles, told media that the item was “counterfeit,” noting that the engraving style differed from that of the authentic product.

    The Ukraine intelligence unit’s report came about a week after South Korea’s spy agency confirmed that North Korea had exported additional artillery ammunition and launchers to Russia.

    “In addition to artillery missiles, North Korea has also exported 170mm self-propelled artillery and 240mm howitzers,” said the National Intelligence Service, or NIS.

    RELATED STORIES

    Seoul confirms casualties among North Korean troops in Russia

    Seoul confirms North Korea’s additional export of artillery to Russia

    Biden adding ‘fuel to fire’ with Ukraine missile decision: Kremlin

    North Korean casualties

    Ukraine’s report also followed confirmation from South Korea’s main security agency that it had “specific intelligence” that North Korean forces in Russia had suffered casualties.

    The U.S. and South Korea have said that North Korean troops had been fighting against Ukrainian forces in Kursk. The U.S. has estimated more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to Kursk and they had begun combat operations alongside Russian forces.

    Neither Russia nor North Korea have confirmed the presence of North Korean troops.

    Separately, media reported that 500 North Koreans and one high-level North Korean official had been killed in a Ukrainian attack with British missiles last week.

    The U.S. Department of Defense said on Tuesday it couldn’t independently confirm the reports.

    “What we’ve said, you know, before is that they’re in that region and certainly poised to engage the Ukrainians in combat,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told a briefing.

    “But I can’t confirm those reports that there have been casualties yet.”

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Zelenskyy’s Backing of Iran Sanctions May Have Cost Iranian People’s Solidarity

    Of the many countries of the Global South that maintain cordial ties with Russia, Iran happens to be one of the few outliers where the public doesn’t hold predominantly positive views of the Eurasian heavyweight. Anti-Russia sentiments have snowballed in Iran since the start of the Ukraine war, and as reflected in an October 2022 Cambridge University study, unfavorable perceptions of Russia are…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Ukraine War after the Penny Has Dropped Make that the Oreshnik

    President Vladimir Putin has announced that serial production of the new Oreshnik hypersonic, intermediate range, 36-warhead missile has commenced. He made this announcement at a special public meeting with Defense Ministry officials in the Kremlin on Friday, November 22.

    “There are no means of countering such a missile; no means of intercepting it exist in the world today,” Putin said. “We need to launch its serial production. Let us assume that the decision on the serial production of this system has been made. As a matter of fact, it has already been essentially organised.”

    This means there are already, or will shortly be deployed, dozens of Oreshniki missiles for firing at targets in the Ukraine west of the Dnieper River and as far west as the Polish and Hungarian borders.

    This also means that no American, no NATO staff group, no Anglo-American target intelligence unit in bunkers in Kiev or Lvov are safe any longer. Nor are Vladimir Zelensky and his advisors. To escape Israeli-precedent decapitation, they must all decamp to the Ukrainian war operations  mock-up already prepared on the Polish side of the border.

    Ukrainian military intelligence head, Kirill Budanov, has claimed that the Oreshnik strike on the Yuzhmash (Pivdenmash) plant in Dniepropetrovsk  is “just a cipher…We know for sure that as of October they were supposed to make two research samples, maybe they made a little bit more, but believe me, this is a research sample, but not yet serial production, thank God.”

    “Wishful thinking,” a NATO military source comments. “He’ll get the chance to find out first- hand.”

    Russian military sources add that, following disclosure of the Kremlin’s back-channel talks with Donald Trump and his advisors on terms for an end-of-war settlement, the Oreshnik is the signal that the “General Staff are  talking directly to Trump & Co.”  Putin was explicit in his first announcement of the Oreshnik firing: “We believe that the United States [President Trump] made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the INF Treaty in 2019 under a far-fetched pretext.”

    Dmitry Rogozin — formerly Russian NATO ambassador, then deputy prime minister in charge of the Russian military industrial complex,  now senator for Zaporozhye  – carefully identified the credit for the Oreshnik: “Today, everyone who fought for the creation of this missile system, who overcame what we may call scepticism,  should congratulate each other. And I join those congratulations. Good for you!…Thank you to the Supreme [Command, Верховному] for supporting the work! Thank you to the Academy for not backing away!”

    A Russian source, who does not believe Putin ordered the General Staff to suspend its electric war campaign between August and this month, believes Russian strategy now is “a thousand cuts. The Oreshnik is a particularly deep one but I don’t believe that the Kremlin and General Staff have decided to use it to hit Bankova [street address in Kiev of the presidential offices and living quarters ]. The decapitation threat is real enough though to impel Zelensky to exit, or maybe for the Ukrainian military to get rid of him on their own initiative.”

    “Just as important,” the source says, “the Russian ground offensive in the east will remain slow, patient, maybe for two years more. The priority is on preventing Russian casualties, conserving Russian lives. This is essential once you realize that the [Putin] presidential succession also depends, not only on winning the war on Russian terms, but ensuring the protection of Russian lives.”

    Oreshnik in Russian means, literally, hazel nut or the wood of the hazelnut tree. In Siberia, the cognate expression “to give nuts” has the metaphorical meaning of inflicting punishment.


    Watch and listen to this video recording of the sequence of warhead strikes on November 21.  In this second videoclip,  the unique funnel of light is displayed six times as the warheads land on target.

    As Putin pointed out in his national address on the evening after the Oreshnik strike, it had been then-President Trump’s “mistake” in 2019 to unilaterally withdraw from the 1987 Soviet-American treaty on intermediate range nuclear forces (INF). Oreshnik is both the Russian reply  and also a warning to Trump to correct his mistake.

    For the time being, the Financial Times, a Japanese propaganda outlet in London, reported a Norwegian graduate student as claiming “there certainly was no military value to it.”

    In Moscow, Izvestia, on which the BBC has relied for republication, reported “it is likely that we are dealing with a new generation of Russian intermediate-range missiles [with a range of] 2,500-3,000km (1,550-1,860 miles) and potentially extending to 5,000km (3,100 miles), but not intercontinental. It is obviously equipped with a separating warhead with individual guidance units.”

    This means the missile is MIRV, comprising multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles. Close observation of the strike videoclips shows six of these releasing six munitions capable of penetrating deep underground bunkers. A salvo of thirty-six warhead detonations, altogether.

    Missile speed is reported to be between Mach 10 and Mach 11.


    The Militarist military blog of Moscow reports this image of the  predecessor RSD-10 Pioneer missile “can give a definite idea of the appearance of the Oreshnik.”

    Although satellite images of the plant after Thursday’s attack have not been declassified or published in the open, what is likely is that the bunker stocks of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles being prepared at the plant for launching against Russia were destroyed, along with the factory-floor and machine capacities of the plant to service HIMARS, other rocket and missile firing equipment delivered by the US and NATO states to the Zelensky regime.

    Russian military sources have been discussing Ukrainian target options since the Putin Pause ended on November 17,  and the electric war recommenced with the General Staff’s 120-missile, 90-drone raid against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure across the country. For more on the Putin Pause, click to read this  and this.


    Source: https://johnhelmer.net/

    The sources differ on whether the military initiative has now been delegated by Putin to the General Staff without the autumn restrictions, and whether the President has decided the Biden Administration’s escalation has Trump’s tacit endorsement in a calculated “escalate-to-deescalate” plan.

    A Russian military source cautions against confusing Russia’s operational priorities now that Oreshnik has been unleashed, and the strategic priorities which haven’t changed. “Will the generals go for Zelensky and take out the whole illegitimate regime if another ATAMCS hits deep Russia? You bet. The Israelis have made it very easy for Putin. But I do not think the generals or the Security Council or all of the Duma care so much at the moment. Zelensky isn’t a priority because his own soldiers will do him in.”

    “I also see there is no pause for Trump. No deference, no hidden messages, and no respite irrespective of what talks might or not be going on behind the scenes. This is a signal that the trust in Trump is near zero, and even less so for [Elon] Musk and the love fest the two of them have been displaying. There’s only one message Trump can give now to show his intention for an end of the war, and that’s to get Zelensky to announce elections by next March. That would signal the end of the neo-Nazi regime, and of course, the end of Zelensky too.”

    The military sources also emphasize the warnings to the US, its European and Asian allies in the small print of the new nuclear doctrine signed by Putin on November 19.


    Source: https://rg.ru/documents/
    Sputnik has published this “unofficial” translation into English.

    The sources note that Paragraph 9   warns that nuclear deterrence is “directed against states that provide their controlled territory, airspace and/or maritime space and resources for the preparation and implementation of aggression against the Russian Federation.” Paragraph 11 then goes on to link nuclear with non-nuclear states in the NATO treaty, as well as the AUKUS  and G7 blocs; in Asia these include Japan and Australia. “Aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies by any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack.”

    This is once again Putin’s cross-hairs warning to Poland and Romania for their US nuclear-capable Tomahawk missile bases at Redzikowo and Deveselu.  The cross-hairs warning was first given by Putin in Greece in 2016.  Now that the Greek government itself has agreed to secretly hosting US nuclear weapons at the Souda Bay base in Crete, the warning applies to Greece itself.

    “Nuclear deterrence,” as Paragraph 12 of the Doctrine says, “is aimed at ensuring that a potential adversary understands the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies.” Greece, Spain,  and Germany are also now targeted according to Paragraph 15(e) because they allow “the deployment of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery on the territories of non-nuclear states”; and according to Paragraph 15(g) because of the “actions of a potential enemy aimed at isolating part of the territory of the Russian Federation, including blocking access to vital transport communications”. In Europe this expands Russia’s targets to the Baltic states around Kaliningrad, as well as to the North Sea states  Sweden, Norway  and Denmark which participated in the Nord Stream-2 sabotage and now threaten Russian maritime movement through the Danish Straits.

    Map of European Capitals within Range of  Oreshnik (Kalingrad launch)


    Source: https://t.me/readovkanews/89690
    With an estimated 1,500 kgs of combat payload, lifting to a maximum height of 12 km and moving at a speed of Mach 10,  the Oreshnik launched from Kaliningrad  would strike Warsaw in 1 minute 21 seconds; Berlin, 2 min 35 sec; Paris, 6 min 52 sec; London, 6 min 56 sec.

    Of direct impact for Russian strategy on the Ukrainian battlefield, the Doctrine provisions mean that Odessa will, in the words of a Moscow source, “never again be allowed to be a base against Russia.”

    The Oreshnik strike of November 21, the military sources in Moscow believe, demonstrates the military capacity to strike with either conventional or nuclear warheads at targets throughout Europe which none of the available US Patriot or other western air defence systems can defend against. It creates a conventional alternative to nuclear retaliation if, as Paragraph 19(d) of the Doctrine says, there is “aggression against the Russian Federation and/or the Republic of Belarus as members of the Union State with the use of conventional weapons, creating a critical threat to their sovereignty and/or territorial integrity” (emphasis added).

    Before Oreshnik, the Russians point out, Washington was saying there was nothing new in Putin’s nuclear doctrine paper. “Observing no changes to Russia’s nuclear posture, we have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture or doctrine in response to Russia’s statements today,” Reuters reported the National Security Council as saying on November 19.

    After Oreshnik, in presentations at a Washington think tank on November 21, Pentagon officials announced: “adjustments to the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review may be required to sustain the ability to achieve nuclear deterrence, in light of enhanced nuclear capabilities of China and Russia and possible lack of nuclear arms control agreements after February.”


    The President with the Defense Minister and other officials at the Kremlin on November 22.
    Source: http://en.kremlin.ru/

    Look carefully again at what Putin has announced for Oreshnik. By saying on November 21 “we also carried out tests of one of Russia’s latest medium-range missile systems,” he implied that the Yuzhmash strike may be a one-off. That depends, he added: “our decision on further deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles will depend on the actions of the United States and its satellites. We will determine the targets during further tests of our advanced missile systems based on the threats to the security of the Russian Federation.”

    If the US adds to or refills the Kiev regime’s stocks of ATACMS; if the Starmer Government authorizes a new Storm Shadow firing across the border; likewise for President Emmanuel Macron for the SCALP missile, and for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the supply of Taurus missiles, then Putin’s warning on November 22 of serial production of Oreshniki has confirmed “inevitable retaliation”.

    “As I have already said, we will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats posed to Russia. All the more so as we have a stockpile of such products, a reserve of such systems ready for use.”

    The post The Ukraine War after the Penny Has Dropped Make that the Oreshnik first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • The Ukraine War after the Penny Has Dropped Make that the Oreshnik

    President Vladimir Putin has announced that serial production of the new Oreshnik hypersonic, intermediate range, 36-warhead missile has commenced. He made this announcement at a special public meeting with Defense Ministry officials in the Kremlin on Friday, November 22.

    “There are no means of countering such a missile; no means of intercepting it exist in the world today,” Putin said. “We need to launch its serial production. Let us assume that the decision on the serial production of this system has been made. As a matter of fact, it has already been essentially organised.”

    This means there are already, or will shortly be deployed, dozens of Oreshniki missiles for firing at targets in the Ukraine west of the Dnieper River and as far west as the Polish and Hungarian borders.

    This also means that no American, no NATO staff group, no Anglo-American target intelligence unit in bunkers in Kiev or Lvov are safe any longer. Nor are Vladimir Zelensky and his advisors. To escape Israeli-precedent decapitation, they must all decamp to the Ukrainian war operations  mock-up already prepared on the Polish side of the border.

    Ukrainian military intelligence head, Kirill Budanov, has claimed that the Oreshnik strike on the Yuzhmash (Pivdenmash) plant in Dniepropetrovsk  is “just a cipher…We know for sure that as of October they were supposed to make two research samples, maybe they made a little bit more, but believe me, this is a research sample, but not yet serial production, thank God.”

    “Wishful thinking,” a NATO military source comments. “He’ll get the chance to find out first- hand.”

    Russian military sources add that, following disclosure of the Kremlin’s back-channel talks with Donald Trump and his advisors on terms for an end-of-war settlement, the Oreshnik is the signal that the “General Staff are  talking directly to Trump & Co.”  Putin was explicit in his first announcement of the Oreshnik firing: “We believe that the United States [President Trump] made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the INF Treaty in 2019 under a far-fetched pretext.”

    Dmitry Rogozin — formerly Russian NATO ambassador, then deputy prime minister in charge of the Russian military industrial complex,  now senator for Zaporozhye  – carefully identified the credit for the Oreshnik: “Today, everyone who fought for the creation of this missile system, who overcame what we may call scepticism,  should congratulate each other. And I join those congratulations. Good for you!…Thank you to the Supreme [Command, Верховному] for supporting the work! Thank you to the Academy for not backing away!”

    A Russian source, who does not believe Putin ordered the General Staff to suspend its electric war campaign between August and this month, believes Russian strategy now is “a thousand cuts. The Oreshnik is a particularly deep one but I don’t believe that the Kremlin and General Staff have decided to use it to hit Bankova [street address in Kiev of the presidential offices and living quarters ]. The decapitation threat is real enough though to impel Zelensky to exit, or maybe for the Ukrainian military to get rid of him on their own initiative.”

    “Just as important,” the source says, “the Russian ground offensive in the east will remain slow, patient, maybe for two years more. The priority is on preventing Russian casualties, conserving Russian lives. This is essential once you realize that the [Putin] presidential succession also depends, not only on winning the war on Russian terms, but ensuring the protection of Russian lives.”

    Oreshnik in Russian means, literally, hazel nut or the wood of the hazelnut tree. In Siberia, the cognate expression “to give nuts” has the metaphorical meaning of inflicting punishment.


    Watch and listen to this video recording of the sequence of warhead strikes on November 21.  In this second videoclip,  the unique funnel of light is displayed six times as the warheads land on target.

    As Putin pointed out in his national address on the evening after the Oreshnik strike, it had been then-President Trump’s “mistake” in 2019 to unilaterally withdraw from the 1987 Soviet-American treaty on intermediate range nuclear forces (INF). Oreshnik is both the Russian reply  and also a warning to Trump to correct his mistake.

    For the time being, the Financial Times, a Japanese propaganda outlet in London, reported a Norwegian graduate student as claiming “there certainly was no military value to it.”

    In Moscow, Izvestia, on which the BBC has relied for republication, reported “it is likely that we are dealing with a new generation of Russian intermediate-range missiles [with a range of] 2,500-3,000km (1,550-1,860 miles) and potentially extending to 5,000km (3,100 miles), but not intercontinental. It is obviously equipped with a separating warhead with individual guidance units.”

    This means the missile is MIRV, comprising multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles. Close observation of the strike videoclips shows six of these releasing six munitions capable of penetrating deep underground bunkers. A salvo of thirty-six warhead detonations, altogether.

    Missile speed is reported to be between Mach 10 and Mach 11.


    The Militarist military blog of Moscow reports this image of the  predecessor RSD-10 Pioneer missile “can give a definite idea of the appearance of the Oreshnik.”

    Although satellite images of the plant after Thursday’s attack have not been declassified or published in the open, what is likely is that the bunker stocks of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles being prepared at the plant for launching against Russia were destroyed, along with the factory-floor and machine capacities of the plant to service HIMARS, other rocket and missile firing equipment delivered by the US and NATO states to the Zelensky regime.

    Russian military sources have been discussing Ukrainian target options since the Putin Pause ended on November 17,  and the electric war recommenced with the General Staff’s 120-missile, 90-drone raid against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure across the country. For more on the Putin Pause, click to read this  and this.


    Source: https://johnhelmer.net/

    The sources differ on whether the military initiative has now been delegated by Putin to the General Staff without the autumn restrictions, and whether the President has decided the Biden Administration’s escalation has Trump’s tacit endorsement in a calculated “escalate-to-deescalate” plan.

    A Russian military source cautions against confusing Russia’s operational priorities now that Oreshnik has been unleashed, and the strategic priorities which haven’t changed. “Will the generals go for Zelensky and take out the whole illegitimate regime if another ATAMCS hits deep Russia? You bet. The Israelis have made it very easy for Putin. But I do not think the generals or the Security Council or all of the Duma care so much at the moment. Zelensky isn’t a priority because his own soldiers will do him in.”

    “I also see there is no pause for Trump. No deference, no hidden messages, and no respite irrespective of what talks might or not be going on behind the scenes. This is a signal that the trust in Trump is near zero, and even less so for [Elon] Musk and the love fest the two of them have been displaying. There’s only one message Trump can give now to show his intention for an end of the war, and that’s to get Zelensky to announce elections by next March. That would signal the end of the neo-Nazi regime, and of course, the end of Zelensky too.”

    The military sources also emphasize the warnings to the US, its European and Asian allies in the small print of the new nuclear doctrine signed by Putin on November 19.


    Source: https://rg.ru/documents/
    Sputnik has published this “unofficial” translation into English.

    The sources note that Paragraph 9   warns that nuclear deterrence is “directed against states that provide their controlled territory, airspace and/or maritime space and resources for the preparation and implementation of aggression against the Russian Federation.” Paragraph 11 then goes on to link nuclear with non-nuclear states in the NATO treaty, as well as the AUKUS  and G7 blocs; in Asia these include Japan and Australia. “Aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies by any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack.”

    This is once again Putin’s cross-hairs warning to Poland and Romania for their US nuclear-capable Tomahawk missile bases at Redzikowo and Deveselu.  The cross-hairs warning was first given by Putin in Greece in 2016.  Now that the Greek government itself has agreed to secretly hosting US nuclear weapons at the Souda Bay base in Crete, the warning applies to Greece itself.

    “Nuclear deterrence,” as Paragraph 12 of the Doctrine says, “is aimed at ensuring that a potential adversary understands the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies.” Greece, Spain,  and Germany are also now targeted according to Paragraph 15(e) because they allow “the deployment of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery on the territories of non-nuclear states”; and according to Paragraph 15(g) because of the “actions of a potential enemy aimed at isolating part of the territory of the Russian Federation, including blocking access to vital transport communications”. In Europe this expands Russia’s targets to the Baltic states around Kaliningrad, as well as to the North Sea states  Sweden, Norway  and Denmark which participated in the Nord Stream-2 sabotage and now threaten Russian maritime movement through the Danish Straits.

    Map of European Capitals within Range of  Oreshnik (Kalingrad launch)


    Source: https://t.me/readovkanews/89690
    With an estimated 1,500 kgs of combat payload, lifting to a maximum height of 12 km and moving at a speed of Mach 10,  the Oreshnik launched from Kaliningrad  would strike Warsaw in 1 minute 21 seconds; Berlin, 2 min 35 sec; Paris, 6 min 52 sec; London, 6 min 56 sec.

    Of direct impact for Russian strategy on the Ukrainian battlefield, the Doctrine provisions mean that Odessa will, in the words of a Moscow source, “never again be allowed to be a base against Russia.”

    The Oreshnik strike of November 21, the military sources in Moscow believe, demonstrates the military capacity to strike with either conventional or nuclear warheads at targets throughout Europe which none of the available US Patriot or other western air defence systems can defend against. It creates a conventional alternative to nuclear retaliation if, as Paragraph 19(d) of the Doctrine says, there is “aggression against the Russian Federation and/or the Republic of Belarus as members of the Union State with the use of conventional weapons, creating a critical threat to their sovereignty and/or territorial integrity” (emphasis added).

    Before Oreshnik, the Russians point out, Washington was saying there was nothing new in Putin’s nuclear doctrine paper. “Observing no changes to Russia’s nuclear posture, we have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture or doctrine in response to Russia’s statements today,” Reuters reported the National Security Council as saying on November 19.

    After Oreshnik, in presentations at a Washington think tank on November 21, Pentagon officials announced: “adjustments to the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review may be required to sustain the ability to achieve nuclear deterrence, in light of enhanced nuclear capabilities of China and Russia and possible lack of nuclear arms control agreements after February.”


    The President with the Defense Minister and other officials at the Kremlin on November 22.
    Source: http://en.kremlin.ru/

    Look carefully again at what Putin has announced for Oreshnik. By saying on November 21 “we also carried out tests of one of Russia’s latest medium-range missile systems,” he implied that the Yuzhmash strike may be a one-off. That depends, he added: “our decision on further deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles will depend on the actions of the United States and its satellites. We will determine the targets during further tests of our advanced missile systems based on the threats to the security of the Russian Federation.”

    If the US adds to or refills the Kiev regime’s stocks of ATACMS; if the Starmer Government authorizes a new Storm Shadow firing across the border; likewise for President Emmanuel Macron for the SCALP missile, and for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the supply of Taurus missiles, then Putin’s warning on November 22 of serial production of Oreshniki has confirmed “inevitable retaliation”.

    “As I have already said, we will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats posed to Russia. All the more so as we have a stockpile of such products, a reserve of such systems ready for use.”

    The post The Ukraine War after the Penny Has Dropped Make that the Oreshnik first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Russia gifts North Korea a lion, bears, cockatoos and ducks


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Indonesia requests more weapons from Russia: media

    Indonesia has officially asked Russia if it could buy more of its weapons, Russian media reported, signaling what an analyst said was an aim to diversify its sources of arms while retaining its non-aligned status.

    Vladimir Bulavin, head of the Russian Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, who is also a senator, was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying that Indonesia’s request for weapons and military equipment from Russia over the 2025-2030 period was “under review.”

    The official did not disclose details of the request but Indonesian security analyst Khairul Fahmi said Jakarta “is likely to focus on less politically sensitive purchases, such as armored vehicles and short-range defense systems, while deferring high-profile acquisitions like fighter jets or advanced missile systems to minimize geopolitical fallout.”

    Indonesia began receiving arms and military equipment from the Soviet Union in the late 1950s but relations between the two countries cooled during the Cold War.

    According to Bulavin, Indonesia’s arms acquisition resumed in the 2000s, marked by significant contracts, including the delivery of Su-27 and Su-30 fighters and BMP-3F armored vehicles.

    The first arms delivery from Moscow to Jakarta was in 1958, of 100 GAZ-69 military cross-country vehicles.

    From 1992 to 2018, Russia delivered weapons worth more than US$2.5 billion to Indonesia. They included BTR-80A armored personnel carriers and BMP-3F infantry fighting vehicles, 100th series Kalashnikov assault rifles, Su-27SK and Su-27SKM, Su-30MK and Su-30MK2 planes, Mi-35 and Mi-17 helicopters, and other weapon systems and military hardware, according to Alexander Mikheyev, CEO of the state arms exporter Rosoboronexport.

    Indonesia reportedly wanted to buy 10 Su-35 multirole fighters to replace outdated U.S. F-5 Tiger aircraft that had been in operation with its air force since 1980 but it is unclear whether there has been any progress on the purchase.

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    ‘Cost-effective solution’

    Fahmi, co-founder of the Institute for Security and Strategic Studies, told BenarNews, an affiliate of Radio Free Asia, that Indonesia’s decision to procure military equipment from Russia reflected a strategic effort to diversify its defense procurement while maintaining a non-aligned foreign policy.

    Fahmi pointed to practical and strategic factors driving the purchase, noting that Russia’s military technology was known for its reliability and affordability compared with Western alternatives.

    “Russia offers a cost-effective solution that allows Indonesia to maximize its defense budget. Additionally, their flexible payment terms, including commodity barter deals involving palm oil and rubber, make these acquisitions more feasible,” he said.

    The analyst dismissed suggestions that deepening defense ties with Russia signal a shift in Indonesia’s foreign policy.

    “Indonesia’s non-aligned stance remains firm. Partnerships with Russia or any other nation are driven purely by strategic needs and are not indicative of bloc alignment,” he said.

    Indonesia’s military modernization priorities include fighter jets, submarines, air defense systems, and attack helicopters but it is believed to be seeking other suppliers for big-ticket items.

    Yet the Russia-Indonesia military ties seem likely to grow, especially in the maritime domain. This month, the two countries conducted their first joint naval exercises, titled “Orruda-2024,” in Surabaya.

    Pizaro Gozali Idrus in Jakarta contributed to this report.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA and BenarNews Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • CPJ details Kyrgyzstan’s media crackdown ahead of UN human rights review

    The Committee to Protect Journalists has submitted a report on the state of press freedom and journalist safety in Kyrgyzstan to the United Nations Human Rights Council ahead of its 2025 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session.

    CPJ’s submission, together with Austria-based human rights group Freedom for Eurasia and the Free Russia Foundation, highlights the sharp deterioration in media freedom in Kyrgyzstan, once vaunted as a relative Central Asian safe haven for free press, since the country’s 2020 UPR review.

    Following current President Sadyr Japarov’s rise to power, Kyrgyz authorities have launched an unprecedented assault on independent reporting, imprisoning journalists on retaliatory charges, blocking and shuttering key media, and introducing a Russian-style “foreign agents” law.

    Read the full report here.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • CND slams Biden’s Ukraine weapons decision as ‘dangerous’ and ‘reckless’

    The following article is a comment piece from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

    The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) strongly condemns the decision by the Biden administration to allow Ukraine to use its Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

    CND: Biden’s weapons decision over Ukraine

    This move, which escalates the ongoing conflict, is a dangerous and reckless decision by the outgoing US President that risks drawing NATO into an all-out confrontation with Russia, increasing the likelihood of catastrophic nuclear use.

    Reports indicate that Keir Starmer is considering giving permission for Ukraine to use British long-range Storm Shadow missiles. We urge the British government not to follow the US down this dangerous path.

    In September, following lobbying by Starmer to secure Biden’s support for Ukraine’s use of its Storm Shadow missiles, Vladimir Putin announced changes to the conditions in which Russia would use nuclear weapons, to include conventional strikes by non-nuclear states that have the backing of nuclear powers.

    Diplomacy and dialogue, not military escalation, are the only viable paths to peace in the region. President Biden needs to reconsider this reckless decision, using his final months in office to de-escalate the conflict.

    CND general secretary Sophie Bolt said:

    This is an incredibly dangerous and reckless decision by Biden. The use of these long-range missiles risks drawing nuclear-armed NATO into an all-out confrontation with Russia. We urge the British government not to follow Biden down this dangerous path. De-escalation is the only way to end this conflict.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Russia Wins the Cold War


    This content originally appeared on Gaslit Nation and was authored by Andrea Chalupa.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Landmines: new use by countries such as Russia and Myanmar


    This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Experts Fear Russian Escalation After Ukraine Fires First Long-Range Missiles

    Fresh fears of escalation were expressed Tuesday after Ukraine struck territory deep inside of Russia using long-range missiles for the first time within hours of the Kremlin announcing changes to its nuclear weapons posture. In the pre-dawn hours, Ukraine reportedly used U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles to attack an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of Russia, located less than 200 miles…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Ukrainian Experts React To Biden Allowing Kyiv To Strike Inside Russia With U.S. Weapons


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Washington allows Ukraine to use long-range U.S. missiles to hit Russia | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Washington allows Ukraine to use long-range U.S. missiles to hit Russia | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Biden Allows Ukraine to Use Long-Range Missiles for Deep Strikes Inside Russia

    While neocons from both sides of the proverbial political aisle welcomed what some described as President Joe Biden’s “long overdue” decision Sunday to allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep inside Russia with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles, antiwar voices sounded the alarm on what one senior Kremlin official called “a very big step towards the start of World War III.” “Biden has for the…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Yulia Skripal Reveals the Biggest Secret of All at Novichok Show Trial

    Yulia Skripal communicated from her bedside at Salisbury District Hospital on March 8, 2018, four days after she and her father Sergei Skripal collapsed from a poison attack, that the attacker used a spray; and that the attack took place when she and her father were eating at a restaurant just minutes before their collapse on a bench outside.

    The implication of the Skripal evidence, revealed for the first time on Thursday, is that the attack on the Skripals was not perpetrated by Russian military agents who were photographed elsewhere in Salisbury town at the time; that the attacker or attackers were British agents; and that if their weapon was a nerve agent called Novichok, it came, not from Moscow, but from the UK Ministry of Defence chemical warfare laboratory at Porton Down.

    Porton Down’s subsequent evidence of Novichok contamination in blood samples, clothing, car, and home of the Skripals may therefore be interpreted as British in source, not Russian.

    This evidence was revealed by a police witness testifying at the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry in London on November 14. The police officer, retired Detective Inspector Keith Asman was in 2018, and he remains today  the chief of forensics for the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTPSE) group which combines the Metropolitan and regional police forces with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Security Service (MI5).

    According to Asman’s new disclosure, Yulia Skripal had woken from a coma and confirmed to the doctor at her bedside that she remembered the circumstances of the attack on March 4. What she remembered, she signalled,  was not (repeat not) the official British Government narrative that Russian agents had tried to kill them by poisoning the front door-handle of the family home.

    The new evidence was immediately dismissed by the Sturgess Inquiry lawyer assisting Anthony Hughes (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley), the judge directing the Inquiry. “We see there,” the lawyer put to Asman as a leading question, “the suggestion, which we now know not to be right, of course”.   — page 72.

    Hughes then interrupted to tell the witness to disregard what Skripal had communicated. “If the record that you were given there is right, someone suggested to her ‘Had you been sprayed’. She didn’t come up with it herself.” — page 73. Hughes continued to direct the forensics chief to disregard the hearsay of Skripal. “Anyway the suggestion that she had been sprayed in the restaurant didn’t fit with your investigations?  A. [Asman] No, sir. LORD HUGHES:  Thank you.”

    So far in in the Inquiry which began public sessions on October 14, this is the first direct sign of suppression of evidence by Hughes.

    Hearsay, he indicates, should be disregarded if it comes from the target of attack, Yulia Skripal. However, hearsay from British Government officials, policemen, and chemical warfare agents at Porton Down must be accepted instead. Hughes has also banned Yulia and Sergei Skripal from testifying at the Inquiry.

    The lawyer appointed and paid by the Government to represent the Skripals in the inquiry hearings said nothing to acknowledge the new disclosure nor to challenge Hughes’s efforts to suppress it.

    Asman described his career and credentials in his witness statement to the Inquiry, dated October 23, 2024. His rank when he retired from the regular police forces in 2009 was detective inspector. He was then promoted to higher ranking posts at the operations coordinating group known as Counter Terrorism Policing for the Southeast Region (CTPSE). By 2018 Asman says he was “head of the National Counter Terrorism Forensics Working Group since 2012, and was the UK Counter Terrorism Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) forensic lead.” In June 2015 Asman was awarded the Order of the British Empire (MBE) “for services to Policing.”

    At page 19 of his recent witness statement, this is what Asman has recorded for the evening of March 8, 2018:

    Source: Dawn Sturgess Inquiry — page 19.

    Asman’s went on to claim in this statement: “At this point Yulia Skripal was described as being emotional and fell unconscious. I made notes of my conversation with DI [Detective Inspector] VN104 in one of my notebooks, and in addition this information was confirmed to me in writing the next morning. The information she provided about being sprayed at the restaurant [Zizzi] was seemingly inconsistent with the presence of novichok at the Mill public house and 47 Christie Miller Road. On hearing this, I personally wondered whether Yulia Skripal knew more about it than she had alluded to and therefore whilst being fully cognisant of the SIO’s [Senior Investigative Officer] hypothesis and the need to be open-minded continued to prioritise her property.”

    The Scene of the Novichol Crime

    Source: Dailymail.co.uk

    The Evidence the Crime Was British

    Left: Yulia Skripal in May 2018, the scar of forced intubation still visible; read more here. Centre; Dr Stephen Cockroft who recorded the exchange with Skripal at her bedside on March 8, 2018; that was followed, Cockroft has also testified, by forced sedation and tracheostomy – read more. Right: read the only book on the case evidence.  

    Open-minded was not what the judge and his lawyers wanted from Asman when he appeared in public for the first time on Thursday, November 14. Referring precisely to the excerpt of Skripal’s hospital evidence, Francesca Whitelaw KC for the Inquiry asked Asman: “We can take that [witness statement excerpt] down, but this information as well, was it consistent or inconsistent with what you  had found out in terms of forensic about the presence of  Novichok at The Mill and 47 Christie Miller Road?  A. [Asman] It, I would say, was inconsistent on the basis that she said she was sprayed in the restaurant.” — page 73.

    Asman was then asked by Whitelaw to comment on Yulia Skripal’s exchange with Cockroft. “My question for you is: how, if at all, this impacted on your investigations?  A. It only very slightly impacted on it…It was information to have but not necessarily going to change my approach on anything.” — page 73.

    In the Inquiry record  of hearings and exhibits since the commencement of the open sessions on October 14, there have been eleven separate exhibits of documents purporting to record what Yulia and Sergei Skripal have said; they include interviews with police and witness statements for the Inquiry; they are dated from April 2018 through October 2024. Most of them have been heavily redacted. None of them is signed by either Skripal.

    Neither Yulia nor Sergei Skripal has been asked by the police, by the Inquiry lawyers, or by Hughes to confirm or deny whether Yulia’s recollection of March 8, 2018, of the spray attack in Zizzi’s Restaurant is still their evidence of what happened to them.

    The post Yulia Skripal Reveals the Biggest Secret of All at Novichok Show Trial first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Gaza genocide wasn’t enough. Biden wants WW3 with Russia too.

    War criminal Joe Biden hasn’t just backed Israel’s genocide in Gaza to the hilt. He’s also overseen the disastrous escalation in hostilities between Ukraine and Russia. And now, he’s reportedly taken “an unprecedented step towards WW3 (World War Three)”.

    Biden WW3: “provocative” and potentially “catastrophic”

    Two US officials say Biden has finally given Ukraine permission to use long-range US weapons to hit targets inside Russia. Vladimir Putin had previously warned that such strikes could push him to use nuclear weapons, and that he would consider them ‘a joint attack’. A Biden-created WW3 if you like.

    Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reacted to Biden’s apparent decision by saying “it means a whole new spiral of tension” that will add “fuel to the fire”. A Russian newspaper, meanwhile, insisted that it was “one of the most provocative, uncalculated decisions of [Biden’s] administration, which risks catastrophic consequences”. And one Russian senator called it “an unprecedented step towards World War Three”.

    It was always clear that Ukraine had no chance of winning militarily without dragging the West into the war or receiving even more Western money and weapons. And it looks like Biden’s team might be choosing those options, in a possible attempt to make a Russian deal with incoming president Donald Trump harder to achieve.

    Many in Ukraine know the war needs to end soon, as Russia advances further into its territory and shows no signs of backing down. In fact, some in Ukraine even suspect that a Trump presidency, which many expect will end the war, could be a good thing for the country.

    Stepping up a proxy war that has devastated Ukraine but filled the pockets of the war machine

    Ukraine has suffered tens of thousands of deaths and immense destruction as a result of Washington’s proxy war against Russia. It has also affected poor people elsewhere in the world as it has disrupted food and energy supplies and contributed to inflation. The US always had the power to either end or perpetuate the war, much as it does with Israel.

    US warhawks have cynically called the conflict “the best money we’ve ever spent”, as a way of fighting against Russia without losing US lives. In the first Donald Trump presidency, Washington was already funnelling weapons to fighters in the Ukrainian civil war, ignoring threats of consequences from Russia. Biden kept that going, and gave arms companies the special gift of doubling down when Russia finally invaded.

    There is significant evidence that Joe Biden and Boris Johnson pushed Ukraine away from signing a peace deal just months after Russia’s invasion. They preferred to take the opportunity to fight a proxy war with Russia. And up to August this year, the Kiel Institute records that $61.1bn in weapons and equipment has gone from the US to Ukraine. Germany and Britain, meanwhile, have sent $11.4bn and $10.1bn respectively.

    Biden’s legacy: running towards apocalypse in Gaza – and WW3?

    Joe Biden’s legacy is one of an almost-complete collapse of US credibility as a result of his willing participation in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. People around the world now understand more clearly than ever before that, whenever the US has preached about democracy, freedom, human rights, or the rule of law, it was lying. It simply uses those concepts as tools to criticise its opponents, as it did when Russia invaded Ukraine.

    While US warhawks will feed happily on the mess Trump is likely to cause elsewhere, they’re not ready to stop profiting from the war in Ukraine quite yet. And it seems they have Biden’s ear. Because he appears to be preempting a possible Ukraine deal between Trump and Putin (after the former assumes power in January) by taking a big, provocative step now.

    We may not see WW3 as a result. But we’re certainly closer to that prospect than we have been for a very long time – thanks once more to Biden.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The Dying — and Constantly Lying — U.S. Empire

    On 25 July 1945, U.S. President Harry Truman accepted the advices from both his personal hero General Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill, to 100% reverse his predecessor Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s carefully designed plan to prevent a WW3 by creating a fully armed democratic federal government of the world to create adjudicate and enforce international laws and NO national laws, and to outlaw and end the cause that had produced both World Wars, which was imperialism and the contests between them, and so he created the basis for what he named “the United Nations” to do that, but his immediate successor Truman’s version of the U.N. was/is instead a mere talking forum, with no such powers. This would allow him and Eisenhower to create the military-industrial complex to take over the entire world starting with Russia and all of its neighbors. His plan failed, but nonetheless then the Soviet Union itself failed, because of its Marxian economics and dictatorship; and, on 24 February 1990, Truman’s successor President GHW Bush started secretly to inform America’s European colonies that though the Soviet Union and its communism and its military alliance against America’s NATO, the Warsaw Pact, would likely all soon end, the U.S. side of the Cold War would secretly continue on until Russia itself will be defeated, because, as Bush said to Helmut Kohl, “We prevailed, they didn’t!” In other words, he was telling them to continue on until Russia itself becomes just another U.S. colony like they were, because “we” can do it. He was telling them that “we” will do it, because we can. And none of them objected, because they all would be cut in on the take. But all of this was in blatant violation of repeatedly made verbal promises that the U.S. regime and its agents had made to the Soviet leader Gorbachev that NATO wouldn’t be expanded and take in Warsaw Pact nations if the Soviet Union would break up.

    Fast-forward a few more decades, and the U.S. regime invaded a nation that was friendly toward Russia, Iraq, on 20 March 2003, and destroyed it.

    On 5 January 2020, Iraq’s Government ordered the U.S. out of Iraq. The Trump regime refused. A reporter for CNN, Manu Raju, tweeted from the Air Force 1 press pool, “Trump … tells pool he will slap Iraq with ‘very big sanctions’ if they force US troops to leave. ‘We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build. Long before my time. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it.’ Trump added: ‘If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.’”

    The next day, on January 6, Sajad Jiyad of The Century Foundation blogged from Baghdad, “On the issue of US bases, Iraqi sovereignty and sanctions” and reported and presented the legal documents proving that (quoting now from the contract that both Iraq and U.S. had signed) “Iraq owns all the buildings and installations, the nontransferable structures on the ground that are located in the areas and installations agreed upon, including those the U.S. utilizes, constructs, changes or improves.” Furthermore, he noted that, “The US troops that are currently in Iraq are part of a request for assistance to combat ISIS that was sent in 2014. These troops are meant to advise, train and assist Iraqi troops. This request was sent by the Iraqi government and can be revoked at any time.”

    On 7 January 2020, Time magazine headlined “Iraq’s Outgoing Prime Minister Says U.S. Troops Must Leave.” Trump responded that only the U.S. Government will decide when to leave Iraq.

    On January 24, “The Chief of Police in Baghdad just estimated the number of Iraqis protesting against the US’ presence in Iraq today to be in excess of one million people.” The march in Baghdad was 5 miles long.

    On 17 February 2020, I headlined “Trump plans to keep US troops permanently in Iraq under NATO command.” On 24 November 2020, NATO headlined “Denmark assumes command of NATO Mission Iraq.” But Iraqis don’t want any alien military force occupying their country. On 24 February 2021, NATO headlined “NATO Mission in Iraq” and reported, based only upon Iraq’s having requested and received in October 2018 additional training so as to defeat ISIS — that temporary request for training became NATO’s excuse to extend permanently America’s occupation. That NATO report ignored the demand by Iraq’s parliament in January 2020 for all U.S. troops to leave Iraq immediately and ignored the millions of Iraqis who subsequently demonstrated against the U.S. and who demanded the U.S. to leave immediately. (Trump responded to that Iraqi demand by threatening to destroy Iraq if Iraq’s Government would continue its demand.)

    And, of course, America’s invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2023 was based totally on lies which the U.S.-and-allied press refused to expose at the time — or even now — to be lies, but instead trumpeted those lies to the public stenographically from the regime’s mouthpieces as being ‘news’. And, likewise, the U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media hide from their public that the overthrow of Ukraine’s Government during 20-27 February 2014 was a U.S. coup intead of the ‘democratic’ ‘revolution’ they all trumpeted it as being. On 3 July 2023, I headlined “Comparing Two U.S.-Government Catastrophes: Bush’s 2003 Invasion of Iraq, and Obama’s 2014 Coup in Ukraine.”

    So: all of this is old news, which is never reported in the U.S.-and-allied press, which instead starts from assumptions that are false about both the Iraq and the Ukraine matters. And the U.S.-and-allied media never apologize to the public about their having lied, because they say that they make only mistakes, no lies. That’s a lie about their lying.

    The post The Dying — and Constantly Lying — U.S. Empire first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Russia claims first Su-57 fighter jet export contracts

    Russia’s arms exporter Rosoboronexport said it has signed contracts to provide the fifth-generation combat aircraft Sukhoi Su-57 to foreign buyers. However, some Western analysts have doubted the capabilities of the advanced combat jet.

    Alexander Mikheev, Rosoboronexport’s director general, told journalists at the Zhuhai Airshow in China last week that the company had secured

    “first contracts” with some “friendly” foreign countries without giving further details.

    Mikheev was quoted in an interview with the Rossyia-1 TV channel as saying “our partners want to buy reliable, proven Russian weapons.”

    The Su-57 is a multirole fighter aircraft developed by the Russian Sukhoi company and the first designed with stealth technology. It is known by the NATO reporting name Felon and first entered service with the Russian air force in 2022.

    The manufacturer says that this fifth generation stealth multirole fighter is capable of aerial combat as well as ground and maritime strikes. It has a supersonic cruising speed, internal weapons, a radio-absorbing coating, and the latest onboard equipment, according to Mikheev

    Rosoboronexport brought two Su-57s to the Zhuhai Airshow, one flown in by the company’s top test pilot, Sergey Bogdan, who showcased the aircraft’s claimed “super maneuverabilities” at the event.

    Andreas Rupprecht, an aviation blogger, told RFA that he was not impressed: “The Russians brought one flying old prototype and one static test specimen for the display, nothing special in fact.”

    “It seems there was a lot of exaggeration,” he said, referring to the aircraft’s capabilities.

    Some social media users in China also seemed to question the Su-57, with posts exposing its obvious design flaws.

    Potential buyers

    Peter Suciu, a U.S.-based writer specializing in military matters, said he questioned just how advanced the aircraft was.

    “From the open sources I’ve read, it isn’t likely as advanced as the hype suggests,” Suciu said.

    “The U.S. and its allies have used the F-35 in combat, and the U.S. has sent the F-22 in a warzone. Russia hasn’t really done the same with the Su-57. That says a lot about the aircraft.”

    Mikheev was quoted in Russian media as saying that his company was “holding technical consultations with a number of Russia’s strategic partners.”

    “We are discussing both deliveries of final products from Russia and cooperation within joint development and production projects,” Mikheev said.

    Suciu told RFA that he questioned the level of outside interest.

    “My opinion is that Rosoboronexport wants the world to believe there is more interest than there really is – in part to save face, but also to entice other potential buyers,” Suciu said.

    “In the past, India, Egypt, Turkey, Vietnam and Indonesia were mentioned as potential buyers, but we don’t know how far talks progressed,” he added.

    Vietnamese sources with knowledge of the matter told RFA they could not confirm news of a deal.

    Due to Western sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, not many countries could be expected to publicly express an interest in buying Russian weapons.

    Analysts say Algeria is the most likely buyer of the Su-57 and may already be operating an aircraft. The Algerian air force has already bought nearly 60 heavyweight twin engine fighter Su-30MKA from Russia.

    China, which is also developing its fifth-generation fighter jet, the Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon, thought to be inspired by the American F-35 JSF, is clearly not interested in buying the Su-57.

    The biggest customer of the fighter jets remains the Russian air force, with 22 aircraft being supplied by the end of 2024 and 76 more expected by 2028, according to Russia’s Center for Arms Trade Analyses.

    RELATED STORIES

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    Russia urges South Korea to avoid provocations amid drone dispute with North

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Biden lets Ukraine use long-range US missiles to hit Russia, North Korea troops

    TAIPEI, Taiwan – The United States authorized the first use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes into Russia, media reported, in a response to Russia’s decision to bring North Korean troops into its war on Ukraine.

    The U.S. and South Korea said last week that North Korean troops had been fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region. The U.S. estimated more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to Kursk and they had begun combat operations alongside Russian forces.

    The U.S. weapons are likely to be initially used against Russian and North Korean troops, in defense of Ukrainian forces in Kursk, The New York Times reported on Sunday, citing unidentified American officials.

    The newspaper said the decision to allow Ukraine to deploy long-range missiles, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems, was made in response to Russia’s decision to involve North Korean troops in the fight.

    The officials noted that although they didn’t believe the permission for Ukraine to use the weapons would significantly impact the direction of the war, one aim was to warn North Korea that their troops are at risk and discourage them from sending more.

    Both Moscow and Pyongyang had not responded to the report by the time of publication, but some senior Russian officials warned that Russia’s response would be immediate.

    “Strikes with U.S. missiles deep into Russian regions will inevitably entail a serious escalation, which threatens to lead to much more serious consequences,” said Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma lower house’s foreign affairs committee, as cited by TASS state news agency.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday more important than lifting the restriction would be the number of missiles used to strike the Russians, without confirming the reports about the U.S. decision.

    “Today, many in the media are talking about the fact that we have received permission to take appropriate actions,” said Zelenskyy. “But blows are not inflicted with words. Such things are not announced. The rockets will speak for themselves.”

    Biden-Xi talks

    The reports about the U.S. decision to let Kyiv strike deep into Russia with long-range U.S. missiles came after U.S. President Joe Biden, during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Peru, on Saturday, condemned North Korea’s decision to send its troops to Russia to assist in the war against Ukraine.

    “President Biden condemned the deployment of thousands of DPRK troops to Russia, a dangerous expansion of Russia’s unlawful war against Ukraine with serious consequences for both European and Indo-Pacific peace and security,” said the White House in a statement on Monday.

    The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.

    China, one of North Korea’s few allies, faces pressure to act responsibly as the U.S. and its allies fear North Korean troop deployments could dangerously escalate the Ukraine conflict.

    Biden also “expressed deep concern over (China’s) continued support for Russia’s defense industrial base,” according to the White House.

    U.S. President Joe Biden meets with China's President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Lima, Peru, Nov. 16, 2024.
    U.S. President Joe Biden meets with China’s President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Lima, Peru, Nov. 16, 2024.

    During the meeting, Xi said that China’s position regarding the war had “always been fair and square,” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

    Xi also said China would “not allow conflict and turmoil to happen on the Korean Peninsula” and that it would “not sit idly by” while its strategic interests are endangered, Xinhua added.

    North Korean leader’s message

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blamed the U.S. for “staging” a war against Russia using Ukraine as “shock troops”, but did not comment on reports about his country’s deployment of troops to Russia.

    “The U.S. and the West have been staging a war against Russia using Ukraine as shock troops in a bid to expand the scope of Washington’s military intervention into the world,” said Kim, as cited by the North’s state-run Korea Central News Agency, or KCNA, on Monday.

    Kim made the remark during the 4th Conference of Battalion Commanders and Political Instructors of the Korean People’s Army on Friday.

    Kim also said trilateral cooperation by the U.S, South Korea, and Japan was a “critical factor” that threatens peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, calling for bolstering his nuclear forces “without limitation” and completing war preparations.

    “U.S.-led military alliance has been expanding into more larger areas encompassing Europe and the Asia-Pacific region,” Kim said.

    “We will strengthen our self-defense power, centered on nuclear forces, without limitation, not being content [with our current level] and ceaselessly,” he added.

    RELATED STORIES

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    Japan on Moscow, Pyongyang

    Japan is considering tightening sanctions against North Korea and Russia in response to their military co-operation, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday.

    Japan is considering measures such as expanding a freeze on North Korean and Russian assets, as it believes that their military co-operation had “seriously affected” peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region and violated international law.

    Japan already imposes various sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and missile development, and Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including import and export restrictions and asset freezes.

    Tokyo had also decided to coordinate with the G7 countries to strengthen sanctions against Moscow and Pyongyang, the broadcaster added.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • North Koreans in Russia in place but not in combat: Ukraine official

    TAIPEI, Taiwan – North Korean forces deployed to Russia’s Kursk have not yet been involved in Moscow’s attempts to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the region, said a senior official at Ukraine’s national security agency, contradicting reports from the United States and South Korea.

    Both Washington and Seoul said early this week that North Korean troops had been fighting against Ukrainian forces in Kursk. The U.S. estimated more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to the region, and they had begun engaging in combat operations alongside Russian forces.

    “The North Korean military has not yet been involved in assault operations, but they are positioned in place,” said Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, or NSDC, as cited by RBC Ukraine news agency.

    The NSDC is a state agency tasked with developing and coordinating security policy on domestic and international matters and advising the president.

    A recent probe by Russian forces against Ukrainian positions in Kursk was unsuccessful and they had lost equipment and troops, said Kovalenko.

    He added, however, that the Russian army still had the capacity for further assaults in Kursk.

    The contradictory accounts have emerged against a backdrop of silence from both Russia and North Korea about the North Korean deployment.

    The Kremlin has not commented on the presence of North Korean troops. At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council last week, Russia declined to answer questions from the U.S about its deployment of North Koreans.

    North Korea’s state media reported in October that its vice foreign minister in charge of Russian affairs, Kim Jong Gyu, said he had heard a “rumor” spread by foreign media that troops had been sent to Russia, but declined to confirm it.

    South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, which oversees inter-Korean relations, said on Thursday that the North has not informed its citizens about the deployment of troops to Russia.

    RELATED STORIES

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    North Korean artillery system in Russia

    Photos showing what appeared to be a North Korean artillery system on a rail car have been posted in Russian media, and are circulating on social media, alongside a claim they were spotted in Russia.

    The photos show equipment that resembles a North Korean long-range 170 mm M1989 Koksan self-propelled artillery system.

    Screenshot of a photo posted on X that reportedly shows a North Korean artillery system spotted in Russia.
    Screenshot of a photo posted on X that reportedly shows a North Korean artillery system spotted in Russia.

    Radio Free Asia has not been able to independently verify the location of the photo or when it was taken but a reverse image search shows it was likely taken in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk, about 4,400 kilometers (2,700 miles) away from Kursk, where North Korean soldiers are reportedly amassed to assist Russian forces.

    The M1989 Koksan is a code name for a North Korean 40-ton self-propelled artillery system that was first seen at a parade in the North Korean city of Koksan in 1989. It is a development of the M1978 system, which was developed in the 1970s.

    Ukrainian partisans have previously said that Russian artillerymen were training on North Korean self-propelled artillery systems.

    It was also reported that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu discussed the purchase of ammunition and M-1989s from the North when he visited Pyongyang in July last year.

    Russian embassy to Pyongyang’s fundraiser

    The Russian Embassy in North Korea announced a fundraiser on Thursday to support forces fighting in Kursk.

    In a Facebook post titled “Koreans going to the Kursk region,” the embassy highlighted the efforts of a sports utility vehicle named “Varyag,” that the embassy funded this year, which has been used to deliver food and water to the front lines and evacuate casualties.

    Screenshot of a photo posted on the official Facebook page of the Russian Embassy in North Korea that shows a Russia sports utility vehicle named “Varyag”.
    Screenshot of a photo posted on the official Facebook page of the Russian Embassy in North Korea that shows a Russia sports utility vehicle named “Varyag”.

    The embassy did not explicitly say North Korean forces were going to Kursk but said it was fitting to associate the proud name of “Koreans” with the heroic “Varyag.”

    The embassy said the Russian military needed new vehicles, but South Korean media speculated it was possible that the vehicles or donations the embassy raises could support North Korean troops fighting in Russia.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Europe Can’t “Trump-Proof” Itself

    Following the U.S. election, European foreign policy experts are reviving ideas about strategic autonomy from 2016. They fail to understand how much has changed in the last eight years.

    This post was originally published on Dissent Magazine.

  • Gulag History Museum in Moscow temporarily closed ‘for safety reasons’

    Kremlin critics fear move is part of Russia’s efforts to whitewash Soviet past and shut independent cultural institutions

    Moscow’s award-winning Gulag History Museum announced its surprise closure on Thursday, a move critics attribute to the Kremlin’s ongoing efforts to whitewash Russia’s Soviet past.

    The closure was officially put down to alleged violations of fire safety regulations but comes amid an intense campaign by Russian officials against independent civil society and those who question the state’s interpretation of history.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • US vows ‘firm response’ to North Korea for sending troops to Russia

    TAIPEI, Taiwan – The United States will respond strongly to North Korea’s deployment of troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned after both the United States and South Korea confirmed that North Korean forces were engaged in combat against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region.

    America’s top diplomat made an emergency trip to Brussels for a meeting with his NATO and European Union counterparts to solidify U.S. President Joe Biden‘s foreign policy plans for Ukraine, days after former President Donald Trump won a second term in the White House.

    “We had a very productive discussion today about our ongoing support for Ukraine in the face of an ongoing Russian aggression, as well this added element now of North Korean forces injected into the battle and now quite literally in combat, which demands, and will get, a firm response,” Blinken told media on Wednesday.

    “We’re counting on European partners and others to strongly support Ukraine’s mobilization,” said Blinken, calling for Washington’s allies to step up.

    He added that NATO countries must focus their efforts on “ensuring that Ukraine has the money, munitions and mobilized forces to fight effectively in 2025, or to be able to negotiate a peace from a position of strength.”

    Blinken also said U.S. President Joe Biden was “committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and January 20,” when Trump, who has questioned U.S. support for Ukraine, takes office.

    “The U.S. will adapt and adjust with the latest equipment it is sending,” he added, without providing details.

    RELATED STORIES

    US confirms North Korean troops joining Russia in combat against Ukraine

    Ukraine ‘holds back’ 50,000-strong force including North Koreans: Zelenskyy

    Ukraine reveals ‘intercepted’ radio communications of North Korean soldiers in Russia

    Separately, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reiterated the crucial role played by China in helping Russia’s “war effort.”

    On Tuesday, he said Russia’s growing economic and military cooperation with China, North Korea and Iran was a threat to Europe, the Indo-Pacific and North America.

    China, one of North Korea’s few allies, faces pressure to act responsibly as the U.S. and its allies fear North Korean troop deployments could dangerously escalate the Ukraine conflict. The U.S. expressed concerns to China in October over North Korean and Russian “destabilizing” actions.

    China has not commented on North Korea’s deployment except to say the development of relations between Russia and North Korea was solely for them to decide.

    On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine was progressing “very rapidly and fully,” without addressing reports of North Korean involvement.

    Russia has not commented on the presence of North Korean troops on its territory. At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council last week, Russia declined to answer questions from the U.S. about its deployment of North Koreans.

    The U.S. confirmed on Tuesday that more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to eastern Russia, saying most of them have moved to far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces.

    South Korea’s main security agency also confirmed that the North Koreans were “already engaging in combat operations” against Ukraine in Kursk.

    Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Kursk on Aug. 6 and have captured more than two dozen settlements there.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Will Trump End or Escalate Biden’s Wars?


    A boy sits in rubble in Gaza. Photo Credit: UNICEF

    When Donald Trump takes office on January 20, all his campaign promises to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours and almost as quickly end Israel’s war on its neighbors will be put to the test. The choices he has made for his incoming administration so far, from Marco Rubio as Secretary of State to Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor, Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense and Elise Stefanik as UN Ambassador make for a rogues gallery of saber-rattlers.

    The only conflict where peace negotiations seem to be on the agenda is Ukraine. In April, both Vice President-elect JD Vance and Senator Marco Rubio voted against a $95 billion military aid bill that included $61 billion for Ukraine.

    Rubio recently appeared on NBC’s Today Show saying, “I think the Ukrainians have been incredibly brave and strong when standing up to Russia. But at the end of the day, what we’re funding here is a stalemate war, and it needs to be brought to a conclusion… I think there has to be some common sense here.”

    On the campaign trail, Vance made a controversial suggestion that the best way to end the war was for Ukraine to cede the land Russia has seized, for a demilitarized zone to be established, and for Ukraine to become neutral, i.e. not enter NATO. He was roundly criticized by both Republicans and Democrats who argue that backing Ukraine is vitally important to U.S. security since it weakens Russia, which is closely allied with China.

    Any attempt by Trump to stop U.S. military support for Ukraine will undoubtedly face fierce opposition from the pro-war forces in his own party, particularly in Congress, as well as perhaps the entirety of the Democratic party. Two years ago, 30 progressive Democrats in Congress wrote a letter to President Biden asking him to consider promoting negotiations. The party higher ups were so incensed by their lack of party discipline that they came down on the progressives like a ton of bricks. Within 24 hours, the group had cried uncle and rescinded the letter. They have since all voted for money for Ukraine and have not uttered another word about negotiations.

    So a Trump effort to cut funds to Ukraine could run up against a bipartisan congressional effort to keep the war going. And let’s not forget the efforts by European countries, and NATO, to keep the U.S. in the fight. Still, Trump could stand up to all these forces and push for a rational policy that would restart the talking and stop the killing.

    The Middle East, however, is a more difficult situation. In his first term, Trump showed his pro-Israel cards when he brokered the Abraham accords between several Arab countries and Israel; moved the U.S. embassy to a location in Jerusalem that is partly on occupied land outside Israel’s internationally recognized borders; and recognized the occupied Golan Heights in Syria as part of Israel. Such unprecedented signals of unconditional U.S. support for Israel’s illegal occupation and settlements helped set the stage for the current crisis.

    Trump seems as unlikely as Biden to cut U.S. weapons to Israel, despite public opinion polls favoring such a halt and a recent UN human rights report showing that 70% of the people killed by those U.S. weapons are women and children.

    Meanwhile, the wily Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is already busy getting ready for a second Trump presidency. On the very day of the U.S. election, Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who opposed a lasting Israeli military occupation of Gaza and had at times argued for prioritizing the lives of the Israeli hostages over killing more Palestinians.

    Israel Katz, the new defense minister and former foreign minister, is more hawkish than Gallant, and has led a campaign to falsely blame Iran for the smuggling of weapons from Jordan into the West Bank.

    Other powerful voices, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a “minister in the Defense Ministry,” represent extreme Zionist parties that are publicly committed to territorial expansion, annexation and ethnic cleansing. They both live in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

    So Netanyahu has deliberately surrounded himself with allies who back his ever-escalating war. They are surely developing a war plan to exploit Trump’s support for Israel, but will first use the unique opportunity of the U.S. transition of power to create facts on the ground that will limit Trump’s options when he takes office.

    The Israelis will doubtless redouble their efforts to drive Palestinians out of as much of Gaza as possible, confronting President Trump with a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in which Gaza’s surviving population is crammed into an impossibly small area, with next to no food, no shelter for many, disease running rampant, and no access to needed medical care for tens of thousands of horribly wounded and dying people.

    The Israelis will count on Trump to accept whatever final solution they propose, most likely to drive Palestinians out of Gaza, into the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt and farther afield.

    Israel threatened all along to do to Lebanon the same as they have done to Gaza. Israeli forces have met fierce resistance, taken heavy casualties, and have not advanced far into Lebanon. But, as in Gaza, they are using bombing and artillery to destroy villages and towns, kill or drive people north and hope to effectively annex the part of Lebanon south of the Litani river as a so-called “buffer zone.” When Trump takes office, they may ask for greater U.S. involvement to help them “finish the job.”

    The big wild card is Iran. Trump’s first term in office was marked by a policy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran. He unilaterally withdrew America from the Iran nuclear deal, imposed severe sanctions that devastated the economy, and ordered the killing of the country’s top general. Trump did not support a war on Iran in his first term, but had to be talked out of attacking Iran in his final days in office by General Mark Milley and the Pentagon.

    Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, recently described to Chris Hedges just how catastrophic a war with Iran would be, based on U.S.military wargames he was involved in.

    Wilkerson predicts that a U.S. war on Iran could last for ten years, cost $10 trillion and still fail to conquer Iran. Airstrikes alone would not destroy all of Iran’s civilian nuclear program and ballistic missile stockpiles. So, once unleashed, the war would very likely escalate into a regime change war involving U.S. ground forces, in a country with three or four times the territory and population of Iraq, more mountainous terrain and a thousand mile long coastline bristling with missiles that can sink U.S. warships.

    But Netanyahu and his extreme Zionist allies believe that they must sooner or later fight an existential war with Iran if they are to realize their vision of a dominant Greater Israel. And they believe that the destruction they have wreaked on the Palestinians in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, including the assassination of their senior leaders, has given them a military advantage and a favorable opportunity for a showdown with Iran.

    By November 10, Trump and Netanyahu had reportedly spoken on the phone three times since the election, and Netanyahu said that they see “eye to eye on the Iranian threat.” Trump has already hired Iran hawk Brian Hook, who helped him sabotage the JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018, to coordinate the formation of his foreign policy team.

    So far, the team that Trump and Hook have assembled seems to offer hope for peace in Ukraine, but little to none for peace in the Middle East and a rising danger of a U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

    Trump’s expected National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is best known as a China hawk. He has voted against military aid to Ukraine in Congress, but he recently tweeted that Israel should bomb Iran’s nuclear and oil facilities, the most certain path to a full-scale war.

    Trump’s new UN ambassador, Elise Stefanik, has led moves in Congress to equate criticism of Israel with anti-semitism, and she led the aggressive questioning of American university presidents at an anti-semitism hearing in Congress, after which the presidents of Harvard and Penn resigned.

    So, while Trump will have some advisors who support his desire to end the war in Ukraine, there will be few voices in his inner circle urging caution over Netanyahu’s genocidal ambitions in Palestine and his determination to cripple Iran.

    If he wanted to, President Biden could use his final two months in office to de-escalate the conflicts in the Middle East. He could impose an embargo on offensive weapons for Israel, push for serious ceasefire negotiations in both Gaza and Lebanon, and work through U.S. partners in the Gulf to de-escalate tensions with Iran.

    But Biden is unlikely to do any of that. When his own administration sent a letter to Israel last month, threatening a cut in military aid if Israel did not allow a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza in the next 30 days, Israel responded by doing just the opposite–actually cutting the number of trucks allowed in. The State Department claimed Israel was taking “steps in the right direction” and Biden refused to take any action.

    We will soon see if Trump is able to make progress in moving the Ukraine war towards negotiations, potentially saving the lives of many thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. But between the catastrophe that Trump will inherit and the warhawks he is picking for his cabinet, peace in the Middle East seems more distant than ever.

    The post Will Trump End or Escalate Biden’s Wars? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • US confirms North Korean troops joining Russia in combat against Ukraine

    TAIPEI, Taiwan – The United States confirmed that North Korean troops have been in combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, as China declined to comment on military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang saying it was their affair.

    The confirmation that the North Koreans were in combat, by Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, will compound concerns that their deployment to help Russia fight its war against Ukraine risks ramping up the dangers from Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.

    “Today, I can confirm that over 10,000 DPRK soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia, and most of them have moved to far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces,” Patel told a press briefing on Tuesday.

    The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.

    “Some of the challenges they would need to overcome are interoperability, the language barrier, command and control and communications,” Patel said, adding that Russian forces have been training North Korean troops in artillery, unmanned aerial vehicle and basic infantry operations, including trench clearing operations.

    “The United States is consulting closely with our allies and partners in other countries in the region on the implications of this, on these developments,” he added.

    Separately, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Russia’s growing economic and military cooperation with China, North Korea and Iran was threatening Europe, the Indo-Pacific and North America, stressing the importance of transatlantic unity and continued support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

    “We need to raise the cost for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his enabling authoritarian threats by providing Ukraine with the support it needs to change the trajectory of the conflict,” said Rutte.

    “We must recommit to stay the course of the war and we must do more than just keep Ukraine in the fight.”

    Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Ukrainian forces were holding off nearly 50,000 troops, including 11,000 North Koreans, in Kursk.

    Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region on Aug. 6 and have captured more than two dozen settlements there, according to Ukraine. While Russia has managed to reclaim some settlements, the front line has seen little change in recent months.

    The Kremlin has not commented on the presence of North Korean troops on its territory. At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council last week, Russia declined to answer questions from the United States about its deployment of North Koreans.

    ‘Matter for themselves’

    China’s foreign ministry, asked to comment on a military cooperation pact between Russia and North Korea, reaffirmed Beijing’s stance that the development of their relations was solely a matter for them to decide.

    “The DPRK and Russia are two independent sovereign states. How to develop their bilateral relations is a matter for themselves,” said the ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Tuesday, without commenting on reports about North Koreans troops in Russia.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a landmark treaty on a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” on June 19 in Pyongyang after summit talks, which includes a mutual defense assistance clause that applies in the case of “aggression” against either of the signatories.

    RELATED STORIES

    Ukraine ‘holds back’ 50,000-strong force including North Koreans: Zelenskyy

    Ukraine reveals ‘intercepted’ radio communications of North Korean soldiers in Russia

    North Korean troops to battle Ukraine within days, US says

    China, one of North Korea’s few traditional allies, has recently been under growing pressure to serve as a responsible stakeholder as the U.S. and its allies worry that the deployment of said North Korean troops will dangerously escalate the Ukrainian war.

    The U.S. said in October that it had voiced concern to China over “destabilizing” actions by North Korea and Russia.

    “We have been making clear to China for some time that they have an influential voice in the region, and they should be concerned about steps that Russia has taken to undermine stability. They should be concerned about steps that North Korea has taken to undermine stability and security,” said the U.S. State Department’s spokesperson Matthew Miller at that time.

    Miller’s remarks came about a week after the Chinese foreign ministry said it did not have information on the North’s troop deployment to Russia and called for a multilateral solution to the conflict.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • US confirms North Korean troops joining Russia in combat against Ukraine

    TAIPEI, Taiwan – The United States confirmed that North Korean troops have been in combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, as China declined to comment on military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang saying it was their affair.

    The confirmation that the North Koreans were in combat, by Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, will compound concerns that their deployment to help Russia fight its war against Ukraine risks ramping up the dangers from Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.

    “Today, I can confirm that over 10,000 DPRK soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia, and most of them have moved to far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces,” Patel told a press briefing on Tuesday.

    The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.

    “Some of the challenges they would need to overcome are interoperability, the language barrier, command and control and communications,” Patel said, adding that Russian forces have been training North Korean troops in artillery, unmanned aerial vehicle and basic infantry operations, including trench clearing operations.

    “The United States is consulting closely with our allies and partners in other countries in the region on the implications of this, on these developments,” he added.

    Separately, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Russia’s growing economic and military cooperation with China, North Korea and Iran was threatening Europe, the Indo-Pacific and North America, stressing the importance of transatlantic unity and continued support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

    “We need to raise the cost for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his enabling authoritarian threats by providing Ukraine with the support it needs to change the trajectory of the conflict,” said Rutte.

    “We must recommit to stay the course of the war and we must do more than just keep Ukraine in the fight.”

    Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Ukrainian forces were holding off nearly 50,000 troops, including 11,000 North Koreans, in Kursk.

    Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region on Aug. 6 and have captured more than two dozen settlements there, according to Ukraine. While Russia has managed to reclaim some settlements, the front line has seen little change in recent months.

    The Kremlin has not commented on the presence of North Korean troops on its territory. At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council last week, Russia declined to answer questions from the United States about its deployment of North Koreans.

    ‘Matter for themselves’

    China’s foreign ministry, asked to comment on a military cooperation pact between Russia and North Korea, reaffirmed Beijing’s stance that the development of their relations was solely a matter for them to decide.

    “The DPRK and Russia are two independent sovereign states. How to develop their bilateral relations is a matter for themselves,” said the ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Tuesday, without commenting on reports about North Koreans troops in Russia.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a landmark treaty on a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” on June 19 in Pyongyang after summit talks, which includes a mutual defense assistance clause that applies in the case of “aggression” against either of the signatories.

    RELATED STORIES

    Ukraine ‘holds back’ 50,000-strong force including North Koreans: Zelenskyy

    Ukraine reveals ‘intercepted’ radio communications of North Korean soldiers in Russia

    North Korean troops to battle Ukraine within days, US says

    China, one of North Korea’s few traditional allies, has recently been under growing pressure to serve as a responsible stakeholder as the U.S. and its allies worry that the deployment of said North Korean troops will dangerously escalate the Ukrainian war.

    The U.S. said in October that it had voiced concern to China over “destabilizing” actions by North Korea and Russia.

    “We have been making clear to China for some time that they have an influential voice in the region, and they should be concerned about steps that Russia has taken to undermine stability. They should be concerned about steps that North Korea has taken to undermine stability and security,” said the U.S. State Department’s spokesperson Matthew Miller at that time.

    Miller’s remarks came about a week after the Chinese foreign ministry said it did not have information on the North’s troop deployment to Russia and called for a multilateral solution to the conflict.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kim Jong Un ratifies defense treaty with Putin | Radio Free Asia (RFA) #northkorea #russia #ukraine


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • North Korea ratifies mutual defense treaty with Russia | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.