Daily Archives: April 25, 2022

The elderly Ukrainian woman on the park bench bemoaning the criminal death and destruction around her could have been Vladimir Putins mother in Leningrad.

That was when the Nazis in World War II surrounded, bombarded and strangled Leningrad, the way the Russians are doing today to Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities.

By the time the Nazi siege ended, some 800,000 innocent men, women and children had been killed by Hitlers bombs or died from starvation and disease. Leningrad was rubble.

One of the dead was Viktor Putin, Vladimir Putins 2-year-old brother, whom he never met. (Vladimir Putin was born in 1952.)

Putins mother, Maria Ivanova Putin, who nearly died of starvation, had taken the boy to a childrens shelter for safety. Putins father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, was in a military hospital recovering from wounds suffered fighting the Nazis.

Viktor contracted diphtheria at the shelter and died in his mothers arms, like so many other Leningrad children.

To this day, Putin does not know where his brother is buried. Hitlers criminality made mass graves common in Leningrad, just as Putin is doing in Ukraine.

Nobody knows what Maria Ivanova Putin did or said upon Viktors death, or what the other mothers said about Hitler, the man who caused the deaths of so many of their children in Leningrad and elsewhere.

But you can imagine that it was like, what that grandmotherly looking woman crying on the park bench said to CNN as she viewed the dead bodies of innocent women and children killed by Putins bombs in Sloviansk in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

She said to reporter Clarissa Ward, Why cant they stop this one idiot? If they send me, I will shoot him.

What people said about Hitler back then is what they are saying about Putin today. Putin has become Hitler. He is doing to Ukraine killing innocent women and children what the Nazis did to the Russians in Leningrad.

No one shot Hitler. But the Allies the Americans, British, Russians and French did stop him. With the war lost, Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945.

No one will shoot Putin. But with help from NATO and the western democracies, Ukraine will stop him, if the Russian people do not rise up and stop him first.

Or he could end up hanging upside down from a lamppost in Milan after being riddled by bullets, like fellow World War II dictator Benito Mussolini of Italy.

Like Hitler and Mussolini, Putin has bitten off more than he can chew. Dictators do not last long once they begin to lose, and Putin is losing.

While Putin has no memory of World War II, he has nothing but praise for the hardships and perseverance of the Russian people who suffered greatly at the hands of the Nazis.

Ironically, he could have been talking about the heroic stand of the Ukrainian people fighting against him today.

In a prescient, haunting passage in an article by Putin commemorating the 75th anniversary of World War II that ran in the June 2020 edition of the National Interest, Putin sounds like something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will one day say.

Putin wrote that people his age need to get their children and grandchildren to understand the torment and hardship their ancestors had to endure.

They need to understand how their ancestors managed to persevere and win. Where did their sheer unbending willpower that amazed and fascinated the whole world come from?

Sure, they were defending their home, their children, loved ones and families. However, what they shared was the love of their homeland, their motherland.

That deep-seated, intimate feeling is fully reflected in the very essence of our nation and became one of the decisive factors in its heroic, sacrificial fight against the Nazis.

Substitute Russians for Nazis and Zelenskyy could give that speech to the Ukrainian people. Maybe he will.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.

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Lucas: Putin's atrocities in Ukraine akin to Nazi siege of ...

Despite throwing the full force of Russian might against Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin still hasnt toppled the country. His troops have run out of fuel, gone short on supplies, and some soldiers have even left the battlefield rather than kill their brother Slavs.Instead of dividing NATO and capturing Kyiv, Putin has united the world behind an unlikely Ukrainian hero, the former-comic-turned-president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Being caught in a checkmate is an unconscionable position for the judo-loving masterspy. Unable to change the dynamics on the battlefield or accept defeat, he is likely mulling his nuclear trump card option.

Indeed, on April 15, Zelensky announced that the world should be ready for the possibility that Putin will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine a concern shared by CIA Director William Burns. On Wednesday, Russia tested a new intercontinental missile, nicknamed Satan II, which, Putin said, should force all who are trying to threaten our country in the heat of frenzied, aggressive rhetoric to think twice.

Back during the Yugoslavian War, Putin and his Russian General Staff first developed a limited nuclear war plan called theescalate-to-de-escalate strategy. By crossing the nuclear threshold, the theory goes, Russia would shock the adversary into abandoning the fight and settling for peace.

If Putin were to deploy such a weapon in Ukraine, it would likely be a sub-kiloton warhead that would produce a blast roughly a third of the size of Hiroshima with a small atomic fall out. By detonating a small nuke in Ukraine rather than the kind of Armageddon-inflicting ICBMs that Russia and the United States continue to point at each other the Russian strongman believes he could stave off intervention from the West.

Russia would not dare target the American homeland with nuclear strikes, unless they assess that the United States plans to decapitate the Moscow regime.

And yet, Russia holds the trump card in that fight: the worlds most formidable arsenal of nuclear weapons, with a ten-to-one advantage over the US in tactical atomic stockpile.Scariest of all, Moscow has a Doomsday Device, calledPerimeter and dubbedDead Handby the West which reportedlycan destroy the US homeland in 30 minutes.

This highly complex system is designed for a retaliatory strike, following an initial attack on Russia by the US. Designed by the Soviets at the height of the Cold War, if switched on, it would launch Russias entire nuclear arsenal directly at this country. The system remains semi-dormant until activated by a high-ranking official in a crisis.

If activated, it can still launcheven if the Russian regime iswiped outand Putin or his alternates are unable to authorize a nuclear strike through a standard process.After the initial multi-step verification that communication links to Putins war room are not working, in about 15-60 minutes, the autonomous computerized system would send signals to nuclear weapons silos, directing all remaining Russian nuclear missiles to launch.

Now, Putin is ratcheting up his rhetoric, using the unspoken threat of Dead Hand against the US. When he first attacked Ukraineon Feb. 24, he warned that the countries who intervened would face consequences you have never seen. Three days later, he raised the status of Russias nuclear forces to special combat readiness, the nuclear posture that Moscow maintains today.

On March 22, after a CNN journalist asked Putins press secretary Dmitry Peskov whether Russia would resort to using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Peskov answered that Russias nuclear capability can be used in the event of an existential threat. Some analysts at the time understood that the probability of this happening was low because Ukraine is massively outmatched by Russias military.

But on March 28, two days after Joe Biden declared in Poland that Putin cannot remain in power, Peskov told PBS that Russia and the West have entered the phase of total war. He accused countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, of leading war against Russia in trade, in economy, in seizing properties, in seizing funds, in blocking financial relations. Whether a gaffe or a Freudian slip, Bidens call for a regime change in Russia, in the middle of an active armed conflict, checked off Moscows existential threat requirement for the use of nuclear weapons.

Now finding himself cornered in an unwinnable position, Putin is invoking the concepts of total war and an existential threat to keep the US and NATO out of the conflict. Meanwhile, the May 9 anniversary of Russias defeat of Nazi Germany approaches, a date that is driving Putin to launch an even greater offensive to declare victory in Ukraine.

All the while, he knows that Russias Dead Hand is what scares the West more than anything.

Rebekah Koffler is the president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting, a former DIA intelligence officer, and the author of Putins Playbook: Russias Secret Plan toDefeat America. She also wrote the foreword for Zelensky: The Unlikely Ukrainian Hero.

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What the West fears most about Putins nuclear weapons

In this image provided by the European Council, European Council President Charles Michel, center, looks at destroyed vehicles as he is given a tour of the region of Borodyanka, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 20, 2022. Dario Pignatelli/AP hide caption

In this image provided by the European Council, European Council President Charles Michel, center, looks at destroyed vehicles as he is given a tour of the region of Borodyanka, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 20, 2022.

KYIV, Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to claim victory in the strategic port of Mariupol on Thursday, even as he ordered his troops not to storm the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the war's iconic battleground.

Russian troops have besieged the southeastern city since the early days of the conflict and largely pulverized it and top officials have repeatedly indicated it was about to fall, but Ukrainian forces stubbornly held on. In recent weeks, they holed up in a sprawling steel plant, and Russian forces pounded the industrial site and repeatedly issued ultimatums ordering the defenders to surrender.

Putin said that, for now, he would not risk sending troops into the warren of tunnels under the giant Azovstal plant, instead preferring to isolate the holdouts who have captivated the world's attention "so that not even a fly comes through." His defense minster said the plant was blocked off, while giving yet another prediction that the site could be taken in days.

Putin's order may mean that Russian officials are hoping they can wait for the defenders to surrender after running out of food or ammunition. Bombings of the plant could well continue.

Even though Putin painted the mission to take Mariupol already a success and said the city had been "liberated," until the plant falls, he cannot declare a complete victory.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said about 2,000 Ukrainian troops remained in the plant, which has a labyrinth of tunnels and bunkers that spread out across about 11 square kilometers (4 square miles). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that about 1,000 civilians were also trapped there.

Russian-backed separatists in the area previously seemed bent on taking every last inch of the city, which has seen some of the most dramatic fighting of the war and whose capture has both strategic and symbolic importance.

The scale of suffering in the city on the Azov Sea has made it a worldwide focal point, and its definitive fall would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014, and free up Russian troops to move elsewhere in the Donbas.

Russian officials now say capturing the Donbas, Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, is the war's main goal. This week, Moscow's forces opened a new phase of the war, in a deadly drive along a front from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to the Azov Sea. Detaching the region from the rest of Ukraine would give Putin a badly needed victory two months into the war, after the botched attempt to storm the capital, Kyiv, and amid mounting Russian losses.

Britain's Defense Ministry said that Russia likely wants to demonstrate significant successes ahead of Victory Day on May 9, the proudest moment on the annual calendar marking its critical role in winning World War II.

"This could affect how quickly and forcefully they attempt to conduct operations in the run-up to this date," the ministry said.

Retired British Rear Admiral Chris Parry described Putin's remarks as reflecting a change in "operational approach" as Russia tries to learn from its failures in the eight-week conflict, which turned from initial hopes of a lightning fast invasion of a neighbor into a war of attrition with ever mounting casualties and costs.

"It seems to me that the Russian agenda now is not to capture these really difficult places where the Ukrainians can hold out in the urban centers, but to try and capture territory and also to encircle the Ukrainian forces and declare a huge victory," Parry said.

In the meantime, Western powers are doubling down on their support of Ukraine, moving to push more military hardware in, heightening geopolitical stakes.

The latest in a long line of Western leaders venturing to Kyiv, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Thursday: "One of the most important messages today is that Denmark is considering sending more weapons. That is what is needed."

Several Western officials have promised similar in recent days.

With global tensions running high, Russia reported the first successful test launch of a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile, the Sarmat, on Wednesday. Putin boasted that it can overcome any missile defense system and make those who threaten Russia "think twice." The head of the Russian state aerospace agency called the launch out of northern Russia "a present to NATO."

The Pentagon described the test as "routine" and said it wasn't considered a threat.

On the battlefield, Ukraine said Moscow continued to mount assaults across the east, probing for weak points in Ukrainian defensive lines. Russia said it launched hundreds of missile and air attacks on targets that included concentrations of troops and vehicles.

The Kremlin's stated goal is the capture of the Donbas, the mostly Russian-speaking eastern region that is home to coal mines, metal plants and heavy-equipment factories.

In a video address, Zelenskyy said the Russians were not "abandoning their attempts to score at least some victory by launching a new, large-scale offensive."

The Luhansk governor said Russian forces control 80% of his region, which is one of two that make up the Donbas. Before Russia invaded on Feb. 24, the Kyiv government controlled 60% of the Luhansk region.

Analysts have said the offensive in the east could become a war of attrition as Russia faces Ukraine's most experienced, battle-hardened troops, who have fought pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas for eight years.

Russia said it presented Ukraine with a draft document outlining its demands for ending the conflict days after Putin said the talks were at a "dead end."

Moscow has long demanded Ukraine drop any bid to join NATO. Ukraine has said it would agree to that in return for security guarantees from other countries. Other sources of tension include the status of both the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Moscow in 2014, and eastern Ukraine, where the separatists have declared independent republics recognized by Russia.

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Putin tries to claim Mariupol win but won't storm holdout ...

LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Monday accused the West of trying to destroy Russia, demanding prosecutors take a tough line with what he cast as plots hatched by foreign spies to divide the country and discredit its armed forces.

Speaking to Russia's top prosecutors and watched by his defence minister, Putin accused the West of inciting Ukraine to plan attacks on Russian journalists - an allegation denied by Kyiv.

Putin said the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, the Federal Security Service (FSB), had on Monday prevented a murder attempt by a "terrorist group" on Russian TV journalist Vladimir Solovyev.

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"They have moved to terror - to preparing the murder of our journalists," Putin said of the West.

Putin, a former KGB spy who has ruled Russia as paramount leader since the last day of 1999, did not immediately provide evidence to support his statements and Reuters was unable to immediately verify the accusations.

FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said a group of six neo-nationalist Russian citizens had plotted to kill Solovyev - one of Russia's most high-profile TV and radio journalists - at the behest of Ukraine's State Security Service (SBU).

The SBU denied the allegations, which it said were fantasies cooked up by Moscow. "The SBU has no plans to assassinate V. Solovyev," it said in a statement.

Solovyev, a host of talk shows whose guests often denigrate Ukraine and justify Moscow's actions there, thanked the FSB.

Putin said the West had realised that Ukraine could not beat Russia in war so had moved to a different plan - the destruction of Russia itself.

"Another task has come to the fore: to split Russian society and destroy Russia from within," Putin said. "It is not working."

Putin said foreign media organisations and social media had been used by the West's spies to confect provocations against Russia's armed forces.

Prosecutors should react swiftly to fake news and reports that undermined order, Putin said, without giving any specific examples.

"They are often mainly organised from abroad, organised in different ways - either the information comes from there or the money," Putin said. Prosecutors should fight extremism "more actively", Putin said.

Just days after ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Putin signed a law that imposes a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally "fake" news about the military.

Russia says the Western media have provided an excessively partial narrative of the war in Ukraine that largely ignores Moscow's concerns about the enlargement of NATO and what it says is the persecution of Russian speakers in Ukraine.

Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States - by far the world's two biggest nuclear powers.

Putin says the "special military operation" in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Ukraine was guilty of the genocide of Russian-speaking people.

Ukraine says it is fighting a land grab by Russia and that Putin's accusations of genocide are nonsense.

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Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Alex Richardson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Putin accuses West of 'terror', tells prosecutors to be tough - Reuters

New footageof Vladimir Putin appearing unsteady, fidgeting and biting his lips during an Orthodox Easter service in Moscow on Sunday has added to suspicions that the Russian leader is seriously ill.

The frail-looking strongman is seen swaying during the Mass conducted by the Russian Orthodox Church, which has strongly backed its leaders so-called special military operation in Ukraine.

Putin, 69 dressed in a dark blue suit, a white shirt and dark purple tie holds a red candle as he stands in Moscows Christ the Savior Cathedral alongside Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

The warmongering president shifts uncomfortably, sticks out his tongue and bites his lips as Patriarch Kirill announces that Christ has risen joining other members of the congregation with the reply, Truly he is risen.

Putin, who crossed himself several times, otherwise did not speak.

Last week,he was seen looking bloatedand awkwardly gripping a table for supportin a clip released by the Kremlin from a meetingwith his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu,to discuss the fate of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

The video showed Putin and his key adviser both depressed & seemingly in bad health,tweeted Anders Aslund,a Swedish economist who was previously an adviser to Russia.

Putin's meeting with Shoigu today shows both depressed & seemingly in bad health. Shoigu has to read his comments to Putin & slurs badly, suggesting that the rumors of his heart attack are likely. He sits badly. Poor performance. Worth watching.https://t.co/SHRRxZxbJf

Asked if the White House had any assessment on the Russian Presidents apparent ailments, Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to answer.

I do not have any assessment to offer from here, Psaki said during a pressbriefing Monday.

Former UK politicianLouise Mensch saidlast weeksfootageappeared to back earlier reports that Vladimir Putin has Parkinsons disease.

Other reports have suggested that Putin has recently had 35 secret meetings with a cancer doctor and has become so paranoid about his health that he has turned to unconventional therapies.

The Russian leader is said tobathe in blood extracted from deer antlers, which are hacked off while they are growing and stillfull of fresh blood, according to Russian investigative outletThe Project.

Believers say the baths improve the cardiovascular system and rejuvenate the skin, the outlet explained.

The Kremlin has denied any allegations that Putin is in poor health.

With Post wires

Excerpt from:

Putin appears unsteady during church service as illness rumors mount - New York Post

Vladimir Putins Russia is driven by conspiracy theories.

For two decades, journalists and officials, in concert with the Kremlin, have merrily spread disinformation. However far-fetched or fantastical that the C.I.A. was plotting to oust Mr. Putin from power, for example these tales served an obvious purpose: to bolster the regime and guarantee public support for its actions. Whatever the personal views of members of the political establishment, it seemed clear that the theories played no role in political calculations. They were stories designed to make sense of what the regime, for its own purposes, was doing.

Not anymore. Since the beginning of Russias invasion of Ukraine two months ago, the gap between conspiracy theory and state policy has closed to a vanishing point. Conspiratorial thinking has taken complete hold of the country, from top to bottom, and now seems to be the motivating force behind the Kremlins decisions. And Mr. Putin who previously kept his distance from conspiracy theories, leaving their circulation to state media and second-rank politicians is their chief promoter.

It is impossible to know what is inside Mr. Putins head, of course. But to judge from his bellicose and impassioned speeches before the invasion and since then, he may believe the conspiracy theories he repeats. Here are five of the most prevalent theories that the president has endorsed, with increasing fervor, over the past decade. Together, they tell a story of a regime disintegrating into a morass of misinformation, paranoia and mendacity, at a terrible cost to Ukraine and the rest of the world.

In 2007, at his annual national news conference, Mr. Putin was asked a strange question. What did he think about the former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albrights comment that Russias natural riches should be redistributed and controlled by America? Mr. Putin replied that such ideas were shared by certain politicians but he didnt know about the remark.

Thats because it was entirely made up. Journalists at Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a state-owned newspaper, had invented the quote on the grounds that Russian intelligence was able to read Ms. Albrights mind. For years, there appeared to be no mention of it. Then in 2015, the secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, repeated it. He reported serenely that she had said Russia should not control Siberia or its Far East and thats why America was involved in Ukraine, where Russia was busy fomenting a conflict in the eastern part of the country. At the time it felt as though Mr. Putins colleague had lost the plot.

But in May 2021, Mr. Putin showed that the theory hadnt been forgotten. Everyone, the president declared, wants to bite us or bite off a piece of Russia because it is unjust for Russia alone to possess the riches of a region like Siberia. An invented quote had become fact, legitimizing Mr. Putins ever more hostile approach to the West.

NATO is Mr. Putins worst nightmare: Its military operations in Serbia, Iraq and Libya have planted the fear that Russia will be the military alliances next target. Its also a convenient boogeyman that animates the anti-Western element of Mr. Putins electorate. In his rhetoric, NATO is synonymous with the United States, the military hand of the collective West that will suffocate Russia whenever it becomes weak.

So it makes sense that NATO is the subject of some of the regimes most persistent conspiracy theories, which see the organizations hand behind popular uprisings around the world. Since 2014, they have focused on Ukraine. Since Ukraines Maidan revolution that year, in which Ukrainians forced the ouster of the Russia-friendly Viktor Yanukovych, Mr. Putin and his subordinates propagated the notion that Ukraine was turning into a puppet state under the control of the United States. In a long essay published in July 2021, Mr. Putin gave fullest expression to this theory, claiming that Ukraine was fully controlled by the West and that NATO was militarizing the country.

His speech on Feb. 21, just days before the invasion, confirmed that NATOs activities in Ukraine dragging the country into the Wests orbit were, for Mr. Putin, the chief reason for Russias aggression. Crucially, NATO was what divided Russians and Ukrainians, who otherwise, in his view, were one people. It was Western military activity that had turned Ukraine into an anti-Russia, harboring enemies aiming at Russian humiliation.

NATO and the West menace Russia not just externally. They also cause trouble within. Since at least 2004, Mr. Putin has been suspicious of domestic opposition, fearing a Ukrainian-style revolution. Fortress Russia, forever undermined by foreign enemies, became a feature of Kremlin propaganda. But it was the Maidan revolution that brought about a confluence in the Kremlins messaging: Not only were dissidents bringing discord to Russia, but they were also doing so under orders from the West. The aim was to turn Russia into a mess like Ukraine.

In this line of thinking, opposition forces were a fifth column infiltrating the otherwise pure motherland and it led to the branding of activists, journalists and organizations as foreign agents. Though Mr. Putin could never bring himself to utter the name of his fiercest critic, Alexei Navalny, Mr. Putin stated that Mr. Navalny was a C.I.A. agent whose investigative work used materials from the U.S. special services. Even Mr. Navalnys poisoning in August 2020 was, according to the president, a plot perpetrated to blacken Mr. Putins reputation.

The clearing away of domestic opposition ruthlessly undertaken by the Kremlin in recent years can now be seen as a prerequisite for the invasion of Ukraine. Since the war began, the last vestiges of independent media have been closed down, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled Russia. Any criticism of the war can land Russians in prison for 15 years and earn them the title of traitor, working nefariously in the service of Russias Western enemies. In a sign that the association of dissent with foreign enemies is now complete, Mr. Putins supporters have taken to marking the doors of opposition activists.

This claim starkly captured by Mr. Putins statement that in the West, children can play five or six gender roles, threatening Russias core population has been brewing for a decade. A criminal case in 2012 against Pussy Riot, an anarchic punk band critical of the regime, was the tipping point. The Kremlin sought to portray the band and its followers as a set of sexually subversive provocateurs whose aim was to destroy the Russian Orthodox Church and traditional values. The complaints spread to foreign nongovernmental organizations and L.G.B.T.Q. activists, accused of corrupting Russians from infancy. Soon, anti-L.G.B.T.Q. scaremongering became a major plank of Kremlin policy.

It was remarkably effective: By 2020, one-fifth of Russians surveyed said they wanted to eliminate lesbian and gay people from Russian society. They were responding to a propaganda campaign, undertaken by state media, claiming that L.G.B.T.Q. rights were an invention of the West, with the potential to shatter Russian social stability. Mr. Putin, unveiling his partys manifesto ahead of 2021s parliamentary elections, took things a step further claiming that when people in the West werent trying to outright abolish the concept of gender, they were allowing teachers in schools to decide on a childs gender, irrespective of parental wishes. It was, he said, a crime against humanity.

The Wests progressive attitudes to sexual diversity eventually played into the Ukrainian war effort. In March, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, claimed the invasion was necessary to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine from a West that insists any entrant to its club of nations host a gay pride march. The supposed predations of L.G.B.T.Q. rights had to be met with righteous force.

The newest of the Kremlins major hoaxes, this conspiracy theory has flourished since the start of the war though it echoes Mr. Putins remarks in 2017, when he accused Western experts of collecting biological material from Russians for scientific experiments.

In the second week of the war, regime-friendly bloggers and then top-ranking politicians, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, claimed that Russian intelligence had obtained evidence that America and Ukraine were developing biological weapons in the form of disease-ridden bats and birds to spread viruses in Russia. The Ministry of Defense suggested it had unearthed documents that confirmed the collaboration.

To add ballast to the claim, state media repeated a remark made by Tucker Carlson, a Fox News host, that the White House was involved in biowarfare against Russia in Ukraine. There was, of course, no credible evidence for anything of the sort. But the story spread across Russia, and the Kremlin even convened a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss it. After all, Hunter Biden was probably financing it.

All five of these conspiracy theories, and many more, have found their place in wartime Russia. They are used to justify the war in Ukraine, both by ordinary citizens and by the Kremlin. Whats more, conspiracy theories have become a way to reject mounting evidence of Russian atrocities which are recast instead as foreign skulduggery. The crimes at Bucha, for example, were immediately blamed on the Ukrainians, who apparently either staged the photos or killed innocent people to set up the Russian Army. Hollywood, meanwhile, is believed to be working hard to produce scenes of mass poisoning to further discredit Russia. The C.I.A. is spinning its web.

From battles of words on talk shows and online, conspiracy theories have effectively turned into a weapon that kills real people. Thats scary enough. But the most frightening thing is that Mr. Putin, waging war without restraint, seems to believe them.

Ilya Yablokov (@ilya_yablokov) is a lecturer in journalism and digital media at the University of Sheffield in England, the author of Fortress Russia: Conspiracy Theories in the Post-Soviet World and a co-author of Russia Today and Conspiracy Theories: People, Power, Politics on RT.

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Opinion | Russias Putin Now Seems to Believe Conspiracy Theories - The New York Times

President Biden is doubling down on U.S. commitments to Ukraine while digging in for a long-term fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The proof is in the high-stakes visit to Kyiv on Sunday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The risky trip, the details of which were kept closely guarded by the White House until both officials were out of the country, underscored the administrations dedication to giving Ukraine political and military support as its war with Russia moves into its third month.

We had an opportunity to demonstrate directly our strong ongoing support for the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people, Blinken said Monday in Poland after returning from Kyiv. This was, in our judgment, an important moment to be there to have face-to-face conversations in detail.

Biden is looking to increase military assistance to Ukraine, building on the more than $3.4 billion delivered since Feb. 24, when Russia invaded its neighbor.

Blinken and Austin said the administration has approved a $165 million sale to Ukraine for non-U.S. made ammunition and is preparing more than $322 million in foreign military financing money that will allow Kyiv to buy weapons directly from manufacturers.

Those commitments would driveU.S. security assistance to Ukraine since the invasion beganto more than $3.8 billion.

Biden also is expected to ask Congress to approve another supplemental aid package to Ukraine, building on $13.6 billion in emergency spending for Ukraine included in a more than $1 trillion government spending bill that Biden signed in March.

The president also appointed retired Army Lt. Gen. Terry Wolff as the lead coordinator of security assistance for Ukraine,a role that streamlines communications between U.S. defense firms, the administration and allies and partners to make sure weapons get to the war-torn country.

The president also announced the nomination of a U.S. ambassador to Ukraine a position that has been empty for three years and Blinken said embassy staff are preparing to return to Kyiv.

He understands the big picture right now, Leon Panetta, who served as secretary of Defense under former President Obama, said of Biden in an interview earlier this month. The United States and our allies have drawn a line on Russia and we have to make sure that they pay a price. We cannot afford to back off at this point, and he really understands that.

The U.S. has steadily poured weapons into Ukraine, sending thousands of missiles and bullets, hundreds of drones and armored vehicles and, more recently, numerous helicopters and howitzer artillery systems.

Earlier this month, Biden drew down $1.6 billion in lethal aid in the span of seven days $800 million for 72 howitzers and more than 121 Phoenix Ghost drones and another $800 million for weapons including 200 M113armored personnel carriers and300 Switchblade drones.

The lingering question has been how long the support can last. Concerns range from whether the U.S. will have the funds to ensure that it can resupply its own weapons stocks, whether defense companies can keep up with the demand and how much help other allies can offer.

Moving aid through Congress could also be complicated if Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) ties the latest aid to legislation to provide increased funding to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Doing so could help in passing the COVID-19 relief bill but also turn into a partisan fight.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters on a briefing call from Pristina, Kosovo, last week that there is robust bipartisan support for giving Ukraine arms but warned against pairing it with COVID-19 relief.

Another possible congressional logjam is how quickly the Senate can move to confirm Bidens nominee for ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, who is now ambassador to Slovakia.

The ambassador confirmation process is generally slow and bureaucratic, but Bidens nominees have faced increased hurdles from Senate Republicans, particularly Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), who have exercised their power to block confirmation votes in opposition to Bidens policies in general.

At least 41 State Department nominees are under consideration in the Senate, according to data from the Political Appointee Tracker administered bythe Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post.

Another critical aspect of Bidens strategy against Russia is maintaining unity among allies to isolate Putin.This includes commitments from the United Kingdom, Europe and democratic nations like Japan and Australia to ensure delivery to Ukraine of needed weapons and economic and humanitarian assistance.

To bolster that effort, Austin on Tuesday is set to meet with his counterparts from more than 20 nations at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to discuss defense needs for Ukraine.

Holding allies together on sanctions against Moscow is also key to isolating Russia economically.

The sustained and coordinated support of the international community, led and facilitated by the United States, is a significant reason why Ukraine is able to stop Russia from taking over their country thus far, Biden said last week.

That unity was strengthened on Sunday with the reelection of French President Emmanuel Macron, who beat out far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, a Putin sympathizer who has advocated for more independence from the European Union.

A Macron victory would mean that the three Group of Seven (G7) members of the EU France, Germany, and Italy are governed by unabashedly pro-EU leaders, Matthias Matthijs, senior fellow for Europe at the Council of Foreign Relations, wrote in an article last week.

The U.S. has relied heavily on close unity among the Group of Seven industrialized nations to coordinate sanctions on Russia.

The strategy that weve put in place massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure against Russia, solidarity with more than 30 countries engaged in these efforts is having real results, Blinken told reporters in Poland on Monday.

The bottom line is this: We dont know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign, independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene. And our support for Ukraine going forward will continue. It will continue until we see final success.

Morgan Chalfant contributed.

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Biden doubles down on commitment to Ukraine in fight with Putin - The Hill

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday is accusing the United States and its allies of trying to "split Russian society" following its invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at a meeting with top officials at the Prosecutor Generals office, Putin said Russia has come under "unprecedented Western sanctions" for its military campaign in Ukraine, which is now in its 61st day.

He charged that the U.S, and its allies have sought to "split the Russian society and to destroy Russia from within," adding that their plans have failed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting of the executive board of the General Procurator's Office in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, April 25. (Sputnik/Sergey Guneev/Kremlin via Reuters)

RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE: LIVE UPDATES

Putin urged Russian prosecutors to act more quickly to block unsanctioned demonstrations organized from abroad.

He also noted that they should focus on exposing "open provocations" against the Russian military allegedly involving international media and social platforms.

At one pointduring the meeting, Putin claimed Russia foiled a plot by a "terrorist group" to kill state TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyev, according to Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on economic issues via a video link in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, April 25. (Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via Reuters)

The news outlet quoted Russian Federal Security Service leader Alexander Bortnikov as saying that a group of six neo-nationalist Russian citizens were trying to murder Solovyev on behalf of Ukraine's State Security Service.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends Orthodox Easter mass led by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill at the Christ The Saviour Cathedral on Sunday, April 24 in Moscow, Russia. (Getty Images)

But Ukraine said in a statement that it has "no plans to assassinate V. Solovyev," Reuters reported.

The meeting Monday comes hours ahead of U.N. Secretary-General Antnio Guterres planned visit Tuesday with Putin in Moscow.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Putin: US, allies are trying to 'split Russian society' with war in Ukraine - Fox News

V

ladimir Putin risks sending thousands of young Russians to their death if he seeks to grab some form of significant victory in Ukraine by May 9, a senior MP warned on Monday.

The day is a key date in the Russian military calendar as it marks the Nazis surrender in the Second World War and an annual parade is held through Moscows Red Square.

Military experts believe the Russian President will have to start within days to make preparations for a major offensive in the Donbas if he is to snatch a meaningful victory.

However, if he continues to deploy troops piecemeal into the eastern region against well-trained Ukrainian forces it is expected to lead to more casualties compared to if it gave them more time to properly regroup and re-equip, following a series of defeats and setbacks at the start of the invasion.

Former army officer Tom Tugendhat MP, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told The Standard: Moscows timetable is writing promises its generals cant keep. Theyre pushing a unified campaign now but without the logistics to support it.

Putin will have to start making major preparations if hes not going to just send thousands of young Russians to their deaths.

Defence chiefs in London stressed on Monday morning that Mr Putins forces are yet to make a significant breakthrough in the Donbas.

They emphasised that Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol, still ongoing after the war entered its third month, was preventing Russian generals from redeploying troops surrounding the last stronghold of local fighters within the city.

The defence of Mariupol had left many Russian units exhausted and had hit their combat effectiveness, they added.

In addition, they accused defence chiefs in Moscow of putting military personnel rather than civilian officials in charge of payments to the families of soldiers killed in Ukraine in what is thought to be an attempt to hide the scale of losses from the Russian people.

Estimates of the number of Russian soldiers killed ranges from around 10,000 to more than 20,000.

Three or four times as many Russian troops are believed to have been injured or incapacitated.

In its latest intelligence briefing, the Ministry of Defence said: Russia has made minor advances in some areas since shifting its focus to fully occupying the Donbas. Without sufficient logistical and combat support enablers in place, Russia has yet to achieve a significant breakthrough.

Russias decision to besiege rather than attack Mariupols Azovstal steel plant means many Russian units remain fixed in the city and cannot be redeployed. Ukraines defence of Mariupol has also exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness.

It added: Russias Ministry of Defence has proposed compensation payments for the families of deceased service personnel be overseen by military rather than civilian officials. This likely reflects a desire to hide the true scale of Russias losses from the domestic population.

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Putin sending thousands of Russians to their death if he seeks victory by May 9 - Evening Standard

Maksym Kurochkin is a playwright. For almost three years, he and 20 other Ukrainian playwrights had been planning to build a new theatre in the heart of Old Kyiv. The group found a magnificent old structure that they were busy renovating in order to open the Playwrights theatre on 12 March. On 24 February, Maksym and his colleagues awoke to the horrific sound of bombs. 12 March came and went. Instead of planning a grand opening for a new theatre, Maksym is now examining military strategies to defeat the Russian invaders. Instead of a pen in his hand, he now carries a weapon.

It is two months since the Russian army illegally crossed our borders. They have been failing ever since in their attempts to invade Ukraine. Part of the reason for their failure is that they were not expecting to meet such fierce and heroic resistance, both from our sophisticated military and from territorial defenders like Maksym who, when faced with the reality of the Russian invasion, decided to take up arms and fight.

Many of these brave territorial defenders, including my own daughter, who immediately signed up once the war began, have never had any military training or been in any kind of conflict situation. Stories like that of the young couple who pushed their wedding day forward in order to join the territorial defence force, or the comedian who usually helps veterans get over their trauma but has decided to become a fighter himself, show you the unbreakable spirit of the Ukrainian people. Tragically, some of these defenders have fallen in battle. Others have been beaten and killed in cities such as Bucha, Kharkiv and Mariupol. We will not know how many of our citizens have died until we open the mass graves and clear the rubble of our razed cities.

As shocking as these stories are to hear, this is exactly what we should expect from the savage Russian army led by the dictator Vladimir Putin. My own history with Putin goes back to 2000, when we were both prime ministers of our respective countries. It was only when I ran to be president of Ukraine in 2004 that he actively campaigned against me. The extreme lengths he was willing to go to in order to get what he wanted became clear. I could not allow this to deter me; after I won, I realised that I needed to try to keep a workable relationship with him as the leader of our neighbour in the east. But the Putin I dealt with then no longer exists. He has since become a completely isolated and brutal despot who cannot stand any opposition.

One of the greatest weapons we now have against Putin is international solidarity and support. This is something that really bothers him. I know that, while news about our war made headlines all over the world and dominated the global conversation for several weeks, interest in stories of our territorial defenders is starting to wane. Fatigue towards the horrors of war is sadly common; we saw this with Syria, Yemen and our own Donbas. But those of us in Ukraine cannot afford to feel fatigued, or else we risk losing sight of victory. Our strength is now more important than ever. Although various Russian retreats are taking place, we hear stories that Russian troops are regrouping and planning to continue their attack. It is now that we must resolve to win this war.

We cannot do this without external support. This war is a defining moment, not just in Ukrainian history, but in defence of democracy. This is not just a regional conflict between Ukraine and Russia but a fight against tyranny and imperialism. Our army continues to need weapons and military assistance from all our allies. And we need monetary assistance to help us plug the holes that this war is blowing in our previously strong economy. Our leadership is not only at the forefront of the war with Russia, but is also fighting behind battle lines in the safety of international offices and institutions to secure the support from allies that we need in order to restore peace and freedom to Ukraine.

At the same time, we have an army of volunteers who must keep supplying our territorial defenders with the protective equipment they need in order to keep fighting on the frontlines. Thankfully, civil society organisations such as the Ukrainian World Congress have worked tirelessly to ensure a steady stream of non-lethal supplies to our defenders. They have also mounted a mammoth effort to advocate for our allies to send the weapons we desperately need, and impose the economic blockades and sanctions necessary to defeat Russian aggression. Our defenders will keep fighting until we finally achieve victory, and our supporters will keep doing everything they can to help them.

I strongly believe that victory for Ukraine is inevitable. When ordinary Ukrainians give everything up to fight for their freedom and dignity, victory is the only option. I cannot wait for the day when this war is finally over and Maksym and his colleagues will be able to open their theatre and stage new plays written by brave and defiant playwrights who will focus not on propaganda, but on their own voices and ideas. Today, we fight for freedom. Tomorrow, we will watch the plays of our authors who won this freedom, defining what it means to be Ukrainian.

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Ive dealt with Putin before: I know what it will take to defeat this brutal despot - The Guardian