Continuing the discussion from Russia invades Ukraine - 6 - from 7 August 2024 - #10037 by barry_day.
Previous discussions:
Wow. A new thread. Thank you and well done to all posters for keeping us well-informed.
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Great job to all the regular posters!
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Pretty sad that this thread is still going, but well done to all that contribute.
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Like you l look forward to the day when this thread can be permanently locked, for all the right reasons. Slava Ukraina!
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Peace is just 24 hours away.
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I didn’t say what it was 24 hours away from.
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Germany is no longer blocking Ukraine’s NATO membership. Now there’s only one major country left that opposes Ukraine in NATO — the United States.
Today, the coalition agreement of Germany’s incoming government was made public.
Here are the key points regarding Ukraine :
Ukraine’s sovereignty and democratic future is defined as “central to Germany’s security.”
Berlin will significantly increase and prolong its military, humanitarian and political support.
Germany pledges to support Ukraine “as long as it takes.”
The government aims to ensure a “just and lasting peace,” with Ukraine negotiating from a position of strength.
Germany will participate in rebuilding Ukraine.
It will explore ways to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukrainian defense and reconstruction.
Germany supports Ukraine’s path to NATO membership.
EU membership for Ukraine is officially supported as a strategic interest for both Ukraine and Germany.
Germany backs the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression.
The NATO point is crucial. For years, Berlin and Washington were the two main obstacles on Ukraine’s path to NATO. Now, it’s just Washington.
So let’s be clear: with the current U.S. administration, NATO membership remains only a theoretical possibility. But this shift in Berlin is historic — and a warning shot.
America is the last one holding the door shut. They have already betrayed the security guarantees given to Ukraine once, and this time they don’t even want to give security guarantees and, in fact, are opening the door to World War III. The Biden administration did this, the Trump administration is doing this.
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What a time to be alive. Especially as a politician.
The Krauts aren’t sour.
The mettle of a man.
The wording coming from this Assembly is not going to humour President Orange-A-Tan.
I can’t say where Russia will strike next - so Sumy.
russia is likely planning a buffer zone in Sumy region and an offensive on Sumy - ISW
The EU supporting Ukrainian Nazis according to Slutsky. (Slutsky? I wonder if he’s got any daughters)
Who do ya reckon would be more pi$$ed off at this news, DisPutin or Trump?
Jeez, those Czechs are tanking their time.
These Chinese will copy anything.
Those who haven’t been kidnapped have a dislike of the aggressor.
Uproar over Russia podium protest as 13yo Ukrainian athlete walks off
It could be worse, it could be raining.
Wet snow, rain and ice are expected throughout Ukraine: Weather forecasters warn of worsening weather on April 10
Everything to keep the peace.
Zelensky just roboting on.
Norway says “ammo good”? Yes you are.
It’s not very neighbourly I know, but, fark I hope the price of oil drops.
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Drill baby drill… that oil price down.
Who killed k0ck Rotten?
I said the Pharaoh, with Russian bow and arrow.
I killed k0ck Rotten.
The bomb has gone from a little boy to a big boy. The infantile in charge, he’s barely a little boy… And that is farken scary.
As World War III fears rise, why is the US building a Gravity N-bomb 24 times stronger than Hiroshima’s ‘Little Boy’?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.economictimes.com/news/international/global-trends/as-world-war-iii-fears-rise-why-is-the-us-building-a-gravity-n-bomb-24-times-stronger-than-hiroshimas-little-boy/amp_articleshow/120146522.cms
The view from an Airbus.
A Leopard can change his barrel - in spots.
It’ll likely be needed.
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Apologies if already posted.
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Bad day to be a Russian vehicle.
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Hidden behind a paywall so unable to read 
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Hope this works
China relations
NATO is wooing Australia and China is not happy about it
The alliance’s increased focus on the Indo-Pacific region is irritating China, whose view of the Russia-Ukraine war aligns more with Moscow’s.
Brussels: China’s economic support for Russia during the war in Ukraine brought the security of the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic closer than ever before, NATO boss Mark Rutte says, warning the two regions must co-operate to address the threat Beijing poses.
But NATO’s increased focus on the Indo-Pacific region is irritating China, which has warned that the alliance formed to defend Europe and the North Atlantic risks conflict by turning its gaze to the south.
“It’s absolutely clear that we cannot be naive about China,” says Rutte, secretary-general of the North Atlantic alliance, which comprises 30 European states as well as the US and Canada.
“We know that [China] helps and supports the Russians’ warfare through war effort, through sanction circumvention, through delivery of dual-use goods. They are an integral part of the war effort.
“And now North Korea [is] sending its soldiers to Europe to fight a war here,” Rutte added. “We know that the Russians are repaying them, not only with money, but also with technology, which, in the end, is also posing a threat to the United States, and to the whole of NATO territory and to the Indo-Pacific.”
While China maintains its official position of neutrality towards the Ukraine conflict, its actions say otherwise. Ukraine’s capture on Tuesday of two Chinese citizens who, along with four others, were fighting as mercenaries in the country’s east grabbed global headlines, but it is the critical role of Beijing exports in Russia’s arms industry that has kept its war machine ticking.
Vehicles, machine tools and raw materials such as ball bearings and strategic minerals have become indispensable to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war efforts. Chinese cars and trucks have filled the void left by the sanctions-enforced departure of Western auto makers from Russia.
Official Chinese customs data shows a sharp increase in exports to Russia, with the total value of goods exceeding $US80 billion ($133 billion) last year – double what it was in 2021, the year before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This surge in trade, especially of “dual-use” goods that can serve both civilian and military purposes, has almost single-handedly kept Russia’s battle-stricken defence industry afloat. These items, including electronics, machinery and components for advanced weaponry, accounted for roughly two-thirds of all Chinese exports to Russia.
Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, as part of the so-called Indo-Pacific 4, have stood steadfast with NATO allies since Russia invaded Ukraine. The nations’ leaders have gathered at every major NATO summit and meeting since.
NATO officials stress it’s because of shared values, wider co-operation and sharing experiences while combating cyber threats, economic coercion and disinformation campaigns – and not because of deep-rooted concerns about the China challenge.
But Beijing has since attempted to link NATO’s increased interest in the Indo-Pacific with the growing likelihood of conflict so that it can blame its aggressive actions on NATO, just as Russia sought to pin responsibility for its invasion of Ukraine on the alliance.
China’s state-run media published an article in April last year that argued “where NATO goes, war is most likely”. Yet NATO officials stress that its role is largely defensive and aimed at maintaining peace and deterring aggression.
David Sacks, an Asia studies fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says there are two other potential flashpoints in the Indo-Pacific that are animating NATO’s focus on the region.
“NATO members are concerned that if China uses force against Taiwan and the US comes to its direct defence, Washington would have to make difficult trade-offs that would compel its NATO allies to shoulder more of the burden in deterring Russia,” he wrote recently.
“In addition, if deterrence in the Taiwan Strait fails, the economic consequences for Europe would be devastating.”
Despite Beijing borrowing oft-repeated lines of misinformation from the Kremlin, NATO cannot expand to include any countries from the Indo-Pacific as members. The NATO treaty states that mutual defence only applies to member states’ territories in Europe, North America, Turkey and islands in the Atlantic north of the Tropic of Cancer.
There is also no consensus within NATO that the alliance should even become more active in the Indo-Pacific.
Divisions remain on the extent to which China poses a fundamental challenge to European security. Many say with war raging on European soil and many NATO members struggling to build up their defences, now is not the time to take on additional obligations.
Sacks says NATO members and Indo-Pacific partners should pursue tailored co-operation, heavily focusing on industrial partnerships to improve so-called interoperability and interchangeability of weaponry.
The Australian government, too, believes this is a critical opportunity and has recently sent Angus Campbell, a retired general who served as chief of the Defence Force, to Brussels as Australia’s new ambassador. That appointment has not gone unnoticed among allied nations as a sign Australia is serious about working together more closely.
‘No interest’ in NATO reinvention
Veteran Labor figures such as former prime minister Paul Keating and one-time foreign minister Bob Carr have warned against any NATO presence or partnership in the region. The pair has been increasingly vocal about Australia’s reliance on the United States.
Keating has labelled Rutte’s predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg, a “supreme fool” for his push to increase the alliance’s ties with Asia in an attempt to contain China. Carr told a recent World Peace Summit that Australia should invest in diplomatic and economic efforts in Asia and not Europe.
“Australia has no interest in seeing NATO reinvented as some tool to contain China,” he said.
However, experts argue if war breaks out in the Indo-Pacific, the economic costs to NATO members would probably surpass those associated with the war in Ukraine; hence, NATO has an interest in contributing to deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and preventing China from providing even greater military assistance to Russia.
But Rutte, despite the misgivings of many and the continued annoyance of Beijing, is adamant the alliance must deepen ties with like-minded democratic nations in the Indo-Pacific.
“As global competition intensifies, we will continue to strengthen our Indo-Pacific partnerships,” he said at the meeting of NATO foreign ministers last week.
“We are getting more and more flesh on the bones now in terms of exchanging insights on innovation; the battlefield … we learn from what Japan and others are doing in the Pacific with their exercises.
“But the fact that we are here together, working together, in itself is the message.”
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Latest bite-sized news from Aleksey Yakov (Eastern Gazette guy)
(highlights are mine)
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The World of Cheap Oil Under Trump | Who Gets Hurt First (Eng subs) - Max Katz
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