Israeli PM Worries Weapons Supplied to Ukraine Could Be Used Against Israel in Syria
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post on June 22, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is in a different situation in providing military aid to Ukraine compared to Western nations because his nation’s air force operates near Russian combat aircraft and they fear a potential Iranian military presence across the border in Syria. “Israel is in a peculiar situation, different from say, Poland or Germany or France or any of the Western countries that are assisting Ukraine,” Netanyahu said...
In blistering critique, Ukraine accuses Israel of ‘close cooperation’ with Russia
After an ostensible warming of ties under the Netanyahu government, Kyiv on Sunday infuriated Israel by blasting Jerusalem’s recent policies toward Moscow, saying it has chosen the “path of close cooperation” with Russia. In a post to its Facebook page, Ukraine’s Embassy in Israel wrote that “the so called ‘neutrality’ of Israel[‘s] government is considered as a clear pro-Russian position”...
Germany opposes plan to give profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine
Germany has spoken out against the European Commission's plan to give Ukraine profits from Russia's frozen assets, saying that a hasty step could entail legal or financial risks... The newspaper writes that the European Commission is working on a plan that could raise billions of euros by requiring financial institutions holding frozen Russian assets to transfer part of their profits to rebuild Ukraine. However, after concerns were expressed by the European Central Bank, Berlin and other capitals called for further reflection on these ideas...
Neutral EU states object to giving Ukraine outright security assurances
EU countries with a neutral stance object to giving Ukraine outright security assurances, Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Thursday. “For us as neutral states it is clear we can’t give security guarantees like that. Austria, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus have made it clear they have objections,” Nehammer said before a meeting with other EU government leaders in Brussels...
Macron says NATO needs to ‘give shape’ to Ukraine’s prospect of joining alliance
French President Emmanuel Macron seemingly endorsed Ukraine’s and Eastern NATO members’ call to put Ukraine on a ‘concrete’ path to a post-war alliance membership on Wednesday (28 June)... “We will have to define a path to give shape to Ukraine’s prospect to join NATO, which we opened up in 2008 in Bucharest,” Macron said, speaking alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the Elysée Palace in Paris...
‘Don’t see why not’: China envoy on backing Ukraine’s ’91 borders
In a recent interview with Al Jazeera and two other media outlets, when Fu Cong was asked about supporting Kyiv’s goals, which includes reclaiming other Ukrainian regions now occupied by Russia, the senior Chinese diplomat said: “I don’t see why not. “We respect the territorial integrity of all countries. So when China established relations with the former Soviet Union, that’s what we agreed. But as I said, these are historical issues that need to be negotiated and resolved by Russia and Ukraine and that is what we stand for”...
In a push to persuade SA towards changing its neutral stance in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine to a more firm stance, Moscow has warned Pretoria that secondary sanctions may be imposed by the West as a punishment for SA’s nonaligned stance on the conflict. This echoes similar warnings by the SA Reserve Bank, which has warned that SA’s perceived closeness to Russia will make it impossible to finance any trade or investment flows or to make or receive any payments from correspondent banks in the US dollar...
Ukraine to hold elections after war ends, says Zelenskyy
Elections in Ukraine will be held in 2024 only if martial law is ended by then, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with the BBC on June 22. Zelenskyy emphasized that according to the Ukrainian constitution, no elections could be held in the country while martial law remains in effect...
The best thing we could do is be more independent when it comes to energy, steel, chips (tech) and aluminum. And get off chemical fertilizers. As starters.
Then we would not be in this constant state of friction.
Trump says US should broker peace between Russia and Ukraine now that Putin is 'somewhat weakened'
Former President Trump said Thursday the U.S. should mediate peace between Russia and Ukraine now that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been "somewhat weakened" by the Wagner Group's defiance...
"You could say that he's (Putin) still there, he's still strong, but he certainly has been I would say somewhat weakened at least in the minds of a lot of people," he said...
The role for the president, Trump said, is to play peacemaker.
"I think the biggest thing that the U.S. should be doing right now is making peace — getting Russia and Ukraine together and making peace. You can do it," Trump said. "This is the time to do it, to get the two parties together to force peace"...
Ukraine says no negotiations unless Russia retreats from Crimea
Ukraine will only negotiate a peace deal with Russia once the Kremlin’s armies have fully retreated from Donbas and Crimea, Volodymyr Zelensky has said. His comments scotched suggestions that Ukraine may look for peace talks if its counteroffensive pushes Russian forces back to the border of occupied Crimea. “The borders of February 24 2022 are not our borders. That was the contact line between us and the occupiers,” Mr Zelensky said in comments made as Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s prime minister, visited Kyiv...
The article goes on to say: "But Mr Zelensky has always insisted that he aims to recapture Crimea..." That's not actually the case. If you look back in this thread, Zelensky was willing to compromise on the issue of Crimea in March.
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan Sidestep Russia With New Trade Partnership
Kazakhstan has in a fresh effort to ease bottlenecks in a transportation corridor bypassing Russia reached an understanding with Azerbaijan and Georgia to set up a jointly run and owned logistics company. The agreement was signed last week at the culmination of a trip to the South Caucasus nations by Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov. The goal behind establishing the company will be to simplify the process of handling cargo transportation between China and Europe and to streamline the tariff process...
Russia sees no basis to renew Black Sea grain deal
Russia sees no basis for renewing the Black Sea grain deal, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday, less than two weeks before the expiration of the agreement which has allowed Ukraine to ship grain out of its Black Sea ports despite the war. The ministry said in a statement Russia was doing everything so that all ships covered by the deal could leave the Black Sea before it expires on July 17...
EU, Latin American Envoys Clash Over Ukraine Mention at Summit
Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and other Latin American leaders will try to avoid any mention of Russia’s war in Ukraine when they meet their European Union counterparts this month, setting up a clash that risks undermining efforts to reboot relations between the blocs. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is seeking to remove any reference to the conflict from the summit conclusions, according to people familiar with the matter. The gathering will take place in Brussels on July 17-18...
Latin American countries push back on Ukraine, EU agenda ahead of joint summit
Central and Latin American countries threw cold water on the EU’s efforts to rally the continent’s support for Ukraine and called for colonial reparations in a counter-proposal of an upcoming EU summit draft declaration, seen by EURACTIV... Ahead of the landmark summit, however, the countries sent a 21-page counter-proposal to the draft text EU member states had sent them last month, dated 4 July and seen by EURACTIV...
Former U.S. officials have held secret Ukraine talks with prominent Russians
A group of former senior U.S. national security officials have held secret talks with prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin — and, in at least one case, with the country’s top diplomat — with the aim of laying the groundwork for potential negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, half a dozen people briefed on the discussions told NBC News. In a high-level example of the back-channel diplomacy taking place behind the scenes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with members of the group for several hours in April in New York, four former officials and two current officials told NBC News... Sitting down with Lavrov were Richard Haass, a former diplomat and the outgoing president of the Council on Foreign Relations, current and former officials said. The group was joined by Europe expert Charles Kupchan and Russia expert Thomas Graham, both former White House and State Department officials who are Council on Foreign Relations fellows...
^ Haven't seen anything on Hungary yet, because all the focus has been on Turkey; they had an objection too (though they also had one re: Finland too and voted in favor).
Zelenskiy accuses Nato of lack of respect over Ukraine membership
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Nato leaders of showing disrespect to Ukraine by refusing to offer it a timetable for when it will be invited to join the military alliance, in a last-ditch effort to win a concession on membership at the start of a two-day summit in Lithuania. The Ukrainian president complained there was “no readiness” to invite Ukraine to join, giving Russia the opportunity “to continue its terror” by leaving open the possibility for it to bargain over Ukraine’s future Nato membership in any peace deal...
Zelensky calls NATO plan for Ukraine membership ‘absurd’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday blasted as “absurd” the absence of a timetable for his country’s membership in NATO, injecting harsh criticism into a gathering of the alliance’s leaders that was intended to showcase solidarity in the face of Russian aggression. The broadside from Zelenskyy could renew tensions at the summit shortly after it saw a burst of goodwill after Turkey agreed to advance Sweden’s bid to join NATO. Allies hope to resolve the seesawing negotiations and leave Vilnius with a clear path forward for the alliance and its support for Ukraine...
U.S. at Odds With NATO Allies Over Ukraine’s Membership
President Biden remained at odds with other NATO leaders over Ukraine’s membership, as the military alliance’s annual summit kicked off just hours after gaining a boost from Sweden’s prospective accession... “I don’t think it’s ready for membership in NATO,” Biden said in an interview with CNN that aired on Sunday, warning that bringing Ukraine into the alliance while it is at war with Russia would draw the U.S. and Europe into the conflict. He said that NATO should lay out a path for Ukraine’s eventual entry into the alliance but that Kyiv still has work to do to meet the alliance’s standards for membership in areas such as democratization...
NATO Says It Will Invite Ukraine Some Day, Resisting Calls to Act Soon
NATO declared on Tuesday that Ukraine would be invited to join the alliance, but did not say how or when, disappointing its president but reflecting the resolve by President Biden and other leaders not to be drawn directly into Ukraine’s war with Russia. In a communiqué agreed to by all 31 NATO nations, the alliance said that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” and it will be allowed to join when the member countries agree that conditions are ripe — but it did not offer specifics or a timetable...
Ukraine Leaves NATO Summit Without Clear Path to Membership
Ukraine’s leaders came to Vilnius seeking hard security guarantees, more weapons and a clear road map to membership in NATO. Instead, they got mostly reassuring words and loose pledges to help Kyiv defend itself. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization wrapped up two days of meetings Wednesday having reaffirmed political commitments to Ukraine and promised to restock its arsenal, but without agreeing to a timeline for its admission to the alliance...
NATO allies offer security assurances for Ukraine on path to membership
The United States and global allies unveiled new security assurances for Ukraine at a NATO summit on Wednesday, designed to bolster the country's defences against Russia over the long haul while Kyiv strives for membership in the alliance... Instead, a declaration by the G7 group of the world's most industrialised countries launched a framework for bilateral negotiations to provide military and financial support, intelligence sharing and a promise of immediate steps if Russia should attack again...
Russia halts wartime deal allowing Ukraine to ship grain in a blow to global food security
Russia halted an unprecedented wartime deal Monday that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced Russia would suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative until its demands to get its own agricultural shipments to the world are met — even though the country has been shipping record amounts of wheat and its fertilizers also have been flowing...
Russia killed off the Black Sea grain deal. What happens now?
Russia on Monday pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a U.N.-brokered accord that has made it possible for Ukraine to export tens of millions of tons of grains and oilseeds over the past year even as the war rages on. The deal was vital to keeping food flowing from Ukraine — a major breadbasket — to the wider world. But Russia, claiming that its own food and fertilizer exports were being hurt by “hidden” Western sanctions, had already effectively strangled the deal before finally killing it off...
Erdoğan says believes Putin wants continuation of Ukraine grain deal
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday said he believed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin still wants to maintain the key wartime Black Sea grain deal. Erdoğan's remarks came shortly after the Kremlin announced that the grain deal had "de facto ended" hours before it was due to expire, and that Moscow would return to the landmark agreement if its conditions were met...
Ukraine’s NATO Push Hit a Bump. Joining the EU Will Also Be Tough.
Ukraine’s bid for quick NATO membership faced a setback last week. Its path to membership of the European Union looks equally bumpy, despite encouragement from Brussels. The EU last summer granted Ukraine official candidate status, opening the way for eventual membership of the bloc, one of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s biggest goals for his country. Many EU officials and leaders describe the prospect of Ukraine joining the bloc as a necessity, vital to anchoring Kyiv in Western institutions, whatever its future relationship with NATO...
Grain deal backlash and one other thing (also Global South related):
Russia's grain deal exit is a stab in the back - Kenya
Russia's withdrawal from the deal allowing Ukraine to safely export grain through the Black Sea is a "stab on the back" for those in drought-hit countries, Kenya's government has said. The country is in a region experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades...
Poland and Slovakia Push to Further Extend Ban on Ukraine Grains
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary justified their intention to extend local sales bans on Ukraine grain until the end of the year, even amid concerns that Russia’s decision to end a grain-export deal with Kyiv may disrupt food supplies...
G20 meeting in India to forgo communique as Ukraine divides bloc
Two days of talks between economic and finance policymakers from the Group of 20 nations will wrap up on Tuesday without a joint statement due to differences between major powers over the war in Ukraine, according to Indian officials hosting the meeting...
Why Latin America still won’t condemn Putin’s war in Ukraine
The ghosts of colonial history returned to haunt European and Latin American leaders at their summit in Brussels. For the guests, four hundred years of European colonial rule, economic exploitation and slavery was front of mind. For the hosts, it was Russia’s war on Ukraine in the here and now. The divergence in views was so profound that the two sides struggled to align their thinking at their first summit in eight years — especially to find words to condemn Russia’s war of aggression in their closing communiqué...
Biden: US ready to provide Israel-model security support to Ukraine
US President Joe Biden has suggested that the US could offer an Israel-model security framework for Ukraine until the country joins NATO. In an interview with CNN on Friday, Biden indicated that Ukraine's accession to NATO is premature. He said, "I don't think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war." However, Biden said that the US is ready to provide weaponry and extend other security support for Ukraine as it does for Israel until Kyiv gains NATO membership...
Biden: US ready to provide Israel-model security support to Ukraine
US President Joe Biden has suggested that the US could offer an Israel-model security framework for Ukraine until the country joins NATO. In an interview with CNN on Friday, Biden indicated that Ukraine's accession to NATO is premature. He said, "I don't think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war." However, Biden said that the US is ready to provide weaponry and extend other security support for Ukraine as it does for Israel until Kyiv gains NATO membership...
As a brief aside here, I honestly do not see the hesitancy to admitting Ukraine into NATO. "The West" will never have as much influence on the development of Ukraine's political culture as they will with Ukraine as a NATO member being rebuilt by NATO allies just like after World War 2 that turned Germany and Japan into economic powerhouses, ostensible democracies and valuable allies.
If Russia is so desperate it can be a bargaining position which contains Russia. We could save tens of thousands of lives by simply letting the Russian people of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea be a part of their cultural heritage. Russia takes accepting a check and balance on any attempts to return to Imperial Russia. "You can have the oil .. the energy of yesterday Vlad ... but good luck finding customers and now you've got NATO surrounding you on every border. Cash you outside how bow da?"
And the culture of Ukraine that is so proud and strong begins to flourish and turns it's neighbor ... Russia ... into a democracy ten years down the road through the cultural and familial ties influencing political development in the post Putin era.
But no. That oil is simply too too good. It's worth every single one of those lives being sacrificed for Western power, influence and profit. And without it ... Ukraine isn't useful anymore.
As a brief aside here, I honestly do not see the hesitancy to admitting Ukraine into NATO.
I think the hesitancy has always been, 'do we want to go to war with Russia over Ukraine?' And the answer has always been no, because they've been willing to go there and we're not.
"The West" will never have as much influence on the development of Ukraine's political culture as they will with Ukraine as a NATO member being rebuilt by NATO allies just like after World War 2 that turned Germany and Japan into economic powerhouses, ostensible democracies and valuable allies.
Alternatively, you have the example of Austria (and until recently Sweden) which is neutral, though a member of the EU. That model was thrown out a possibility early on during negotiations last year.
Now some people are talking about Ukraine being a failed state when this is over.
If Russia is so desperate it can be a bargaining position which contains Russia. We could save tens of thousands of lives by simply letting the Russian people of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea be a part of their cultural heritage. Russia takes accepting a check and balance on any attempts to return to Imperial Russia. "You can have the oil .. the energy of yesterday Vlad ... but good luck finding customers and now you've got NATO surrounding you on every border. Cash you outside how bow da?"
Just based on what I've been reading over the past year, Ukraine (as a whole) is something Russia is fundamentally opposed to being part of any Western military alliance. Even liberal Russians have been opposed to "losing" Ukraine (Navalny supported the invasion of Crimea). Not sure this is something they're willing to compromise on.
Just based on what I've been reading over the past year, Ukraine (as a whole) is something Russia is fundamentally opposed to being part of any Western military alliance. Even liberal Russians have been opposed to "losing" Ukraine (Navalny supported the invasion of Crimea). Not sure this is something they're willing to compromise on.
And this is exactly what drives my skepticism of the official narrative.
Either Russia is in dire straits ... Putin's hold on power is tenuous ... soldiers are being slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands ... their economy is collapsing ... and mothers are gnashing their teeth and weeping in the streets ...
And if they are, there's nothing they can do about Ukraine joining NATO. And not just the liberal Russians will have no choice but to accept what can be easily spun into a tremendous victory against the entire West and the destruction of Ukraine's military.
