April 25, 2024. Posted by Periscope - Hellas
Canada will
donate more than 800 SkyRanger R70 multi-mission Unmanned Aerial
Systems to Ukraine to help in its war with Russia, Canada's Defence Minister
Bill Blair said on Monday.
Feb 19, 2024. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
The
Ukrainian armed forces poisoned the head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo,
with phenolic compounds.
Berlin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed
a bilateral security agreement with Germany and planned to sign another with
France on Friday, securing a strong signal of long-term backing as Kyiv works
to shore up Western support nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale
war.
Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron will sign a
bilateral security agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on
Friday in Paris as part of a trip that will also go through Germany, the French
presidency said in a statement.
EU High
Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, who is on a
two-day visit to Ukraine, announced that he spent the morning in a shelter.
The Speaker of Bulgaria’s Parliament, Rosen Zhelyazkov, arrived on an official visit to Ukraine on February 6.
Matthew Saltmarsh, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), confirmed on Tuesday that about 16.9 million people in Ukraine urgently need humanitarian support.
The White
House has said North Korea provided Russia with ballistic missiles and
launchers for its invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Putin sped up the Russian
citizenship process for foreign fighters. DW has the latest.
Dec 29, 2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
A Russian missile passed through Polish airspace Friday, entering from and then back into Ukraine, the Polish army said, as Russia pummelled Ukraine with one of the biggest missile attacks of the war.
It's
dragging on too long. It's too much of a drain on our resources. It's not our
fight. These are some of the arguments - although to call them that gives them
too much credit - being pushed in Western capitals at the moment.
By STEPHEN
POLLARD
When
historians look back at our century from the vantage point of 2123, it’s
possible they will regard this month as being as disastrous for future peace
and prosperity – and freedom – as we now look back at the Munich Agreement of
September 1938, or Hitler’s invasion of the Rhineland in March 1936.
Our failure
to act against him then set the path which led to the Second World War.
Disastrously, at the very time when Ukraine needs our support – in money and
weapons – there are ever-louder calls for an accommodation to be reached with
Vladimir Putin: which means in reality rewarding him for invading Ukraine.
It’s
dragging on too long. It’s too much of a drain on our resources. It’s not our
fight. These are some of the arguments – although to call them that gives them
too much credit – being pushed in Western capitals at the moment.
Should they
hold sway, they will mark a devastating defeat for the forces of freedom. They
will show that the West is as weak as our enemies believe.
In February
2022 the West was near-unanimous in seeing Russia’s invasion as a
black-and-white issue. We stood solidly by Ukraine’s side, supplying weapons
and money, with eloquent speeches made pledging that the West would do whatever
it took to help repel the invaders.
This was
not altruism. It was – is – in all our interests that Russia is defeated. Had
we simply stood back and shrugged our shoulders, offering nothing except
solidarity, we would have been signing, if not our own, then the death warrant
of any notion of international order, let alone international law.
We would
have been signalling to Vladimir Putin and any other would-be aggressor that
while we might talk a good game of defence and security, when push came to
shove we would fold.
We would be
sending a clear message that violence and force pay – a terrible, disastrous
and ruinous message to send.
We know
this is true because history has shown it time and time again. In 1936, for
example, Hitler saw that he could break the terms of the Versailles Treaty by
invading the Rhineland and the rest of Europe would simply stand and watch.
Similarly,
when the German army entered Czechoslovakia in September 1939, we threw a hissy
fit but then walked away from confrontation when Hitler signed the Munich
Agreement – a meaningless piece of paper in which he said with a straight face
that he had no more territorial ambitions. No wonder he then invaded Poland.
More
recently, having spent a fortune in money and lives in Afghanistan fighting the
Taliban, in 2021 we simply cut and ran, with US soldiers fleeing Kabul in much
the same way as they left Saigon when it fell to the Viet Cong in 1975.
Vladimir
Putin will have drawn the same conclusion as everyone else: that the West is
spineless. He saw the same thing in 2014 when he invaded Crimea. We passed lots
of resolutions and issued full-throated condemnations but what we actually did
was: nothing. Which is why, eight years later, he invaded the rest of Ukraine.
Yes, we
leapt to its aid and gave it weapons and money. But there is a Taliban phrase
which is just as relevant for Ukraine: You have the watches, we have the time.
In other words, at some point you will run out of patience – and we will be
waiting when that happens. Which brings us to December 2023.
A fortnight
ago Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington to beg for help.
Last year he was serenaded with a joint session of Congress and a $50billion
aid package. But that aid runs out at the end of this month.
And, as
things stand, that’s it. There is no more money.
President
Biden understands why it is essential we do whatever it takes to defeat Russia,
but his Republican opponents have taken leave of their senses and are refusing
to consider more aid until Biden changes policy on illegal immigration.
I say they
have taken leave of their senses, but they are in reality pre-empting a return
to the White House by Donald Trump. The former president would stop all aid to
Ukraine, handing Putin a terrible victory.
It is
difficult to overstate how awful this is. Allowing Putin to walk away with land
gained from aggression would mark the end of international law and destroy the
next century.
The likes
of China, Iran and North Korea would see that the West remains as weak and
unreliable an ally as they have always believed. This is a disaster, and it is
one of the West’s shameful making
Express
(british)
--
Dec 27, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
The Prime Minister of the German state of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, said that Ukraine should come to terms with the occupation of its territories by Russia. This, in his opinion, will ensure a truce and a cease-fire.
On Tuesday, December 19, the Italian government approved the decision to extend military assistance to Ukraine, and it will be continued until the end of 2024. Now, it requires confirmation by the parliament.
Dec 16,
2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
The programme board of public broadcaster Bulgarian National Radio (BNR)
voted on December 16 to cancel the broadcast of a pre-recorded interview with
Russian ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova, a few hours before the broadcast was
scheduled.
Dec 8,
2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted on December 8 overwhelmingly in favour
of additional military aid for Ukraine, the possibility of use of Bulgarian air
space for F-16 training for Ukrainian pilots, and for a limited number of
Ukrainian military personnel to be authorised to transit or stay in Bulgaria
for training.
Dec 5,
2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
Ukraine
President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and top aides to US President Joe Biden will make
their case to US senators on Tuesday (5 December) about why a fresh infusion of
military assistance is needed to help Ukraine repel Russian invaders.
“Everything went wrong,” evaluated the American newspaper ‘The Washington Post’ in a comprehensive analysis on Monday, dedicated to the Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Russian army that began in June this year.
Dec 4,
2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
NATO
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that the Western military alliance
should be ready for bad news from the Ukrainian front as Kyiv continues to
defend against Russia's all-out invasion.
Ukrenergo,
Ukraine’s energy operator, announced on Thursday that the Ukrainian electricity
grid is in a ‘difficult’ situation since Wednesday and has requested emergency
supplies from Romania, Slovakia, and Poland, according to AFP.
Ukraine
needs more air defenses to protect its grain export routes as well regions
bordering Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday, as he
addressed an international summit on food security in Kyiv. The Swiss President
during the summit also pledged to provide additional support to Kyiv.