Monthly Archives: May 2022

Ukraines president and foreign minister have pleaded with the west to send more weapons to their military in the face of Russias intensifying assault on the eastern Donbas region. We need the help of our partners above all, weapons for Ukraine. Full help, without exceptions, without limits, enough to win, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Dmytro Kuleba told the World Economic Forum in Davos that Nato was doing virtually nothing to help Ukraine.

Russias deputy foreign minister, Andrei Rudenko, said Moscow is ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food to leave Ukraine in return for the lifting of some sanctions. Ukraines Black Sea ports have been blocked since Russia invaded, with more than 20m tonnes of grain stuck in silos in the country. Kuleba, poured scorn on Moscows claim and accused Russia of trying to blackmail the world.

Zelenskiy rejected the notion that his country should cede territory to make peace with Russia. Symptomatic editorials began to appear in some western media stating that Ukraine must allegedly accept so-called difficult compromises by giving up territory in exchange for peace, he said in his latest nightly address. Those who advise Ukraine to give up territory fail to see the ordinary people, he said, who actually live in the territory they propose to exchange for the illusion of peace. Oleksiy Arestovych, a presidential adviser, added: No one is going to trade a gram of our sovereignty or a millimetre of our territory. Our children are dying, soldiers are being blown apart by shells, and they tell us to sacrifice territory. Get lost. Its never going to happen.

There are about 8,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war held in the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics, Luhansk official Rodion Miroshnik was quoted by Tass news agency as saying.

Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed breakaway Donetsk Peoples Republic, has said they cannot yet be 100% sure they have flushed every last Ukrainian fighter out of the Azovstal steel plant.

The deputy prime minister of the Russian-appointed Crimean government, Georgy Muradov, has said The Sea of Azov is forever lost to Ukraine. He is reported to have said Ports in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions will never again be Ukrainian. I am sure that after the reunification of our regions with Russia, the Sea of Azov will again, as it was before, become exclusively an inland sea of the Russian Federation.

Russias Ministry of Defence claims that as a result of their operations in the last 24 hours, more than 350 Ukrainian fighters were killed and 96 units of weapons and military equipment were disabled.

Russian forces shelled more than 40 other towns in Donbas on Wednesday, Ukraines military said, threatening to shut off the last main escape route for civilians trapped in the path of their invasion.

Russias failure to anticipate Ukrainian resistance and the subsequent complacency of Russian commanders has led to significant losses across many of Russias more elite units, according to Britains Ministry of Defence in its latest intelligence update on the war.

Russian forces have launched fresh assaults on towns in eastern Ukraine, with the city of Sievierodonetsk increasingly in danger of being totally encircled. The governor of Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said the area was now without gas supplies and had limited water and electricity after the last gas supply station was hit.

Ukraines governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synyehubov, has said fighting is most intense in the Izyum region. He claimed The Russians are trying to improve the tactical situation in the area of the city of Izyum and resume the offensive on Slovyansk.

Police in Lysychansk are collecting bodies of people killed in order to bury them in mass graves, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said. Some 150 people have been buried in a mass grave in one Lysychansk district, he added, Reuters reports.

Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of Lviv, said that for the first time since Lviv started accepting displaced people from elsewhere in Ukraine, there was not a single person who registered for temporary accommodation yesterday.

Russian lawmakers have voted to approve a new law that would eliminate age limits for military contract soldiers. Military experts say Russia is facing unsustainable troop and equipment losses in Ukraine after a series of military setbacks that have forced Moscow to reduce its war aims. Zelenskiy responded: (They) no longer have enough young men, but they still have the will to fight.

A senior United Nations official is due to visit Moscow in the coming days to discuss reviving fertiliser exports, Russias UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said, stressing that the talks were not linked to a resumption of Ukrainian grain shipments, Reuters reported.

Two alleged Wagner Group fighters from Belarus have been accused of murdering civilians near Kyiv, making them the first international mercenaries to face war crimes charges in Ukraine. Ukrainian prosecutors have released the names and photographs of eight men wanted for alleged war crimes including murder and torture in the village of Motyzhyn. Several are believed to have fought in Syria.

Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas said it would be much more dangerous giving in to Putin than provoking him during a speech in Stockholm and warned: All these seemingly small concessions to the aggressor lead to big wars. We have done this mistake already three times: Georgia, Crimea and Donbas.

Russias foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said an Italian peace plan for Ukraine was a fantasy. Zakharova said at her weekly briefing: You cant supply Ukraine with weapons with one hand and come up with plans for a peaceful resolution of the situation with the other.

Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, has told the World Economic Forum in Davos that he believes Russia still hopes to take control of the Ukrainian capital. He said everyone in the world understands it is not a special operation, but that it is a genocide against the Ukrainian people.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has told the World Economic Forum that Russias invasion of Ukraine was a thunderbolt, and that Russian president Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to win or to dictate peace terms.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 92 of the invasion - The Guardian

Last Saturday, Joe Biden signed a bill that provides $40.1 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine, including $24.6 billion for military programs and $15.5 billion for nonmilitary ones. By Washingtons standards, the legislation moved through Congress in the blink of an eye. Congress received the funding request from the White House on April 28, and just three weeks later after easily passing the House (368 to 57) and the Senate (86 to 11) the bill was ready for Bidens signature.

But whats in the bill? Who is the main beneficiary? And will it bring the conflict closer to an end?

While its difficult to tell how much of the $40.1 billion Ukraine aid bill will end up as direct aid to Ukraine, it is clear that private contractors will receive a significant amount to provide the weapons and military-related services whether theyre for Ukraine or another country impacted by the situation in Ukraine, as the bill puts it. In fact, the domestic arms industry may turn out to be the bills main financial winner.

The legislation, according to my estimates, will produce at least $17.3 billion in revenue for US military contractors more than the total amount of nonmilitary funding ($15.5 billion). This estimate a conservative one is based on the bills language, accompanying documents from the White House and House Appropriations Committee, and overall trends in military contracting.

Some of that $17.3 billion in projected private sector revenue is under the direct aid umbrella. For example, an estimated $1.5 billion of the $6 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (a bill provision that provides Ukraine with weapons, training, intelligence, logistical support, and salaries and stipends for enlisted personnel in Ukraines army) will be used to buy weapons from contractors.

On a fundamental level, this bill is a massive redistribution of wealth from the public coffers to the pockets of private military contractors. It allows the Biden administration to continue escalating the United States military involvement in the war as the administration appears increasingly disinterested in bringing it to an end through diplomacy. It does not provide nearly enough oversight to mitigate the inherent risks of dumping so many weapons into a country so quickly. It earmarks money for the Department of Defense to buy weapons for its own stockpiles. Moreover, the emergency funding for the US pandemic response that Biden originally requested was stripped from the bill.

Despite all of this, Democrats decided unanimously in both the House and Senate to approve the bill. All the opposing votes came from Republicans. Not even Bernie Sanders opposed the measure.

Until congressional progressives can mobilize sufficient pushback, the Biden administration will continue on a dangerous path of prioritizing military escalation over conflict resolution and investing in weapons instead of public well-being.

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The Ukraine Aid Bill Is a Massive Windfall for US Military Contractors - Jacobin magazine

WASHINGTON (AP) Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday the Biden administration aims to lead the international bloc opposed to Russias invasion of Ukraine into a broader coalition to counter what it sees as a more serious, long-term threat to global order from China.

In a speech outlining the administrations China policy, Blinken laid out a three-pillar approach to competing with Beijing in a race to define the 21st centurys economic and military balance.

While the U.S. sees Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine as the most acute and immediate threat to international stability, Blinken said the administration believes China poses a greater danger.

Even as President Putins war continues, we will remain focused on the most serious long-term challenge to the international order and that is the one posed by the Peoples Republic of China, Blinken said.

China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it, he said. Beijings vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the worlds progress over the past 75 years.

Thus, Blinken laid out principles for the administration to marshal its resources, friends and allies to push back on increasing Chinese assertiveness around the world. Although he made clear that the U.S. does not seek to change Chinas political system, rather it wants to offer a tested alternative.

This is not about forcing countries to choose, its about giving them a choice, he said.

However, he also acknowledged that the U.S. has limited ability to directly influence Chinas intentions and ambitions and will instead focus on shaping the strategic environment around China.

We cant rely on Beijing to change its trajectory, Blinken said in the speech, delivered at George Washington University. So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision for an open and inclusive international system.

Blinkens address was delivered overnight in China, and there was no immediate reaction to the speech from the Chinese embassy in Washington.

The speech followed President Joe Bidens just-concluded visits to South Korea and Japan, where China loomed large in discussions. Biden raised eyebrows during that trip when he said that the United States would act militarily to help Taiwan defend itself in the event of an invasion by China, which regards the island as a renegade province.

The administration scrambled to insist that Biden was not changing American policy, and Blinken restated that the U.S. has not changed its position. Blinken said Washington still holds to its One China policy, which recognizes Beijing but allows for unofficial links with and arms sales to Taipei.

Our approach has been consistent across decades and administrations. The United States remains committed to our One China policy. We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side, he said, adding that we do not support Taiwan independence.

Blinken said that while U.S. policy on Taiwan has remained consistent, Chinas had become increasingly belligerent.

He made the case that the global response to Putins invasion of Ukraine can serve as a template for dealing with Chinas efforts to mold a new and unpredictable world order to replace the rules and institutions that have guided relations between states since the end of World War II.

China, Blinken said, has benefited greatly from that international order but is now trying to subvert it under the leadership of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.

Rather than using its power to reinforce and revitalize the laws, agreements, principles, and institutions that enabled its success, so other countries can benefit from them, too, Beijing is undermining it, Blinken said. Under President Xi, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad.

Yet, Blinken also decried the rise in anti-Chinese and anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States, saying Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans have the same claim to the U.S. as any other immigrants or their descendants.

Investment in domestic U.S. infrastructure and technology along with stepping up diplomatic outreach to potentially vulnerable countries are other elements of the policy and are key to the U.S. approach, Blinken said.

In the latest manifestation of Chinas push to expand its reach that has drawn concern from the U.S. and other democracies, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday began an eight-nation tour of Pacific islands during which Beijing hopes to strike a sweeping agreement that covers everything from security to fisheries.

Wang opened his tour in the Solomon Islands, which last month signed a security cooperation pact with China that some fear could lead to a Chinese military presence there. The agreement was finalized shortly after the Biden administration announced it would open a U.S. embassy in the Solomons as part of its efforts to engage in the greater Indo-Pacific region.

The Biden administration has largely kept in place confrontational policies toward China adopted by its predecessor in response to Chinese actions in its western Xinjiang region, Hong Kong, Tibet and the South China Sea.

And, while the administration sees areas for working with Beijing, such as combatting climate change, it will not trade cooperation for compromising on its principles regarding human rights and rule of law, Blinken said.

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Blinken: US to leverage Russia-Ukraine bloc against China - The Associated Press

Rhee Keun, a former member of South Korean naval special forces who is also known as Ken Rhee, arrives at Incheon international airport, after returning from Ukraine where he served as a volunteer fighter, in Incheon, South Korea, May 27, 2022. Yonhap via REUTERS

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SEOUL, May 27 (Reuters) - A South Korean volunteer fighter returned home from Ukraine on Friday saying he had to recover from injuries and was ready to face a police investigation on suspicion of breaking the law by defying a government ban on travel to Ukraine.

Volunteers from around the world have flocked to Ukraine to help it fight Russian forces that invaded on Feb. 24. Russia calls its action in Ukraine a "special operation".

Rhee Keun, a former member of South Korean naval special forces who is also known as Ken Rhee, flew back to South Korea with media broadcasting his return live on television.

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"I haven't left the battlefield completely but came to recover from injuries. I want to go back ... because the war has not ended, there's still a lot to do," Rhee said at the airport.

Rhee said he was suffering from cruciate ligament injury in both legs. He was able to walk.

He said about 10 policemen had been waiting for him as he stepped off the plane and they had told him to quarantine for a week as a COVID-19 precaution, and he would then be summoned for questioning.

"I will cooperate in the investigation," he said.

A police spokesman was not immediately available for comment. A military spokesman confirmed that Rhee had served in navy special forces.

Rhee posted pictures and video of his experience in Ukraine on social media.

South Korea's foreign ministry filed a police complaint against him in mid-March, shortly after he went to Ukraine, on charges of violating a passport act.

South Korea banned its nationals from travelling to Ukraine in February for safety reasons. Under the law, those who defy a ban can be jailed for up to a year or fined 10 million won ($8,000).

Rhee said Ukraine had offered him citizenship and even land but he had declined.

"I don't think it's right to take citizenship to avoid a fine or trial," he said.

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Reporting by Joori Roh;Editing by Robert Birsel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Injured South Korean fighter back from Ukraine faces investigation - Reuters

Western allies are considering allowing Russian oligarchs to buy their way out of sanctions. (Photo: AP/File)

Western allies are considering whether to allow Russian oligarchs to buy their way out of sanctions and use the money to rebuild Ukraine, according to government officials familiar with the matter.

Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proposed the idea at a G-7 finance ministers' meeting in Germany last week.

Freeland raised the issue after oligarchs spoke to her about it, one official said. The Canadian minister knows some Russian oligarchs from her time as a journalist in Moscow.

READ | Ukraine should give up territory to reach peace deal with Russia, says former US secretary of state

The official said the Ukrainians were aware of the discussions. The official said it's also in the West's interests to have prominent oligarchs dissociate themselves with Russian President Vladimir Putin while at the same time providing funding for Ukraine.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal G-7 discussions.

READ | Russian soldier handed life sentence in first war crimes trial of Ukraine conflict

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Russia-Ukraine war: West likely to allow Russian oligarchs to buy way out of sanctions - India Today