EU-DIGEST: War

Showing posts with label War. Show all posts

7/2/23

Ukraine war: Framce supplies Ukraine with armoured vehicles

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked French counterpart Emmanuel Macron for the shipment of light combat tanks to Kyiv, though some Ukrainian military officials have challenged their practicality.

Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov was filmed riding in a highly mobile AMX-10 RC infantry fighting vehicle.

However, a Ukrainian battalion commander strongly criticized the tanks, describing them to the French AFP news agency as "impractical" due to their "thin armor."

The commander told AFP at one instance, a crew of four were killed when a shell exploded near the vehicle, piercing the armor due to its thin quality.

6/3/23

Russia - Ukraine war: "Blessed are the peacemqkers for they will be called sons of God"

Isn't it high time for BOTH Russia and Ukraine to "swallow their pride" and stop having more and more innocent people on both sides of this conflict getting killed every day, and start negotiating instead, under the auspices of the EU, which is not only bordering the warring parties, but also the best qualified to do so.

This, instead of having war mongers, corrupt politicians, and the weapons industry "laugh all the way to the bank".

Who knows, maybe these negotiations could eventually result in both Ukraine and Russia both becoming members of the EU, and another benefit, no more need for NATO or Russian Millitary Alliances.

Sounds crazy ? Not at all - it's called PEACE. And if you do not believe that, check out Mathew 5, verse 9

https://www.eu-digest.blogspot.com

5/19/23

G7` shadow of war and gloom hang over Japan's G7 meeting

The shadows of two previous, brutal wars — and the potential consequences of one raging in eastern Europe — hung over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he arrived Thursday in Japan for the opening of the G7 leaders summit.

2/1/23

Ukraine war: F16 jets could be next to be delivered to Ukraine after Leopard tanks

Fast jets could be on the table next time Joe Biden speaks to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian president has made repeated requests for help in protecting the skies above his country.

Just as main battle tanks were considered a step too far until recent weeks, the idea of sending F16 fighter jets is currently dividing NATO allies.

Britain and the US have so far said no, but on Tuesday, President Biden made a strong hint that fast jets could be up for discussion next.

"We're going to talk," Biden told reporters when asked what he made of President Zelenskyy’s latest requests.

11/22/22

Ukraine War: Kiyiv orthodox monastery raided by Ukraine security forces

The 11th century Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, located in the south of the Ukrainian capital, cut its ties with the Kremlin soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine in February. The seat of a branch of Ukraine's Orthodox Church was formerly under Moscow's jurisdiction.

In a statement, the SBU said "counter-intelligence measures" had been conducted as in order to "counter the subversive activities of the Russian security services in Ukraine."

10/8/22

UKRAINE: NATO must do more to counter Putin's threats

The NATO military alliance must "do more" to protect itself from Russia, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Saturday.

9/27/22

Nucleair war: the return of the Nucleair war

"Our country also has various means of destruction, and, in some cases, they are more modern than those of NATO countries," President Vladimir Putin told Russians on Wednesday. "If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will, of course, use all means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people," he said.

8/14/22

USA: Kissinger believes US at the edge of war with Russia and China

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger believes that Washington is currently on the brink of war with Moscow and Beijing, he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

"We are at the edge of war with Russia and China on issues which we partly created, without any concept of how this is going to end or what it’s supposed to lead to," he said.

"You can’t just now say we’re going to split them off and turn them against each other. All you can do is not to accelerate the tensions and to create options, and for that you have to have some purpose," Kissinger added.

6/8/22

Ukraine Russian Invasion: Chad declares food emergency as grain supplies fall

Last week, Chad declared a food emergency due to a lack of grain supplies. The landlocked African nation on Thursday urged the international community to help its population cope with rising food insecurity.

Cereal prices across Africa surged because of the slump in exports from Ukraine — a consequence of the war in Ukraine and a raft of international sanctions on Russia which have disrupted supplies of fertilizer, wheat and other commodities from both Russia and Ukraine.

Read more at: Chad declares food emergency as grain supplies fall | Africa | DW | 06.06.2022

5/2/22

Russia - Ukraine invasion: Putin Preparing Russians for War With NATO

Recent threats made by Russian officials about retaliation against countries interfering in Ukraine may serve a dual purpose of warning off Western powers while also building favor among Russian citizens should a full conflict with NATO break out, according to experts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a Wednesday address that any countries who "create a strategic threat to Russia" during its war in Ukraine can expect "retaliatory strikes" that would be "lightning-fast." Days before, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview that "NATO is essentially going to war with Russia through a proxy and arming that proxy."

Various experts who spoke with Newsweek recently said Russian officials have increased the amount of threatening rhetoric as a way of stoking fear in NATO allies. Some experts also feel it's an effort to win over the hearts and minds of the Russian public.

Read more at: Putin Preparing Russians for War With NATO

3/23/22

RUSSIA: Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine War can end in only two ways: Genocide or defeat - By Peter Dickinson

Despite detailed advance warnings of Vladimir Putin’s plans for a major war in Ukraine, many observers remained in denial until the very last minute over the possibility of a full-scale Russian invasion. With the war now entering its second month, this sense of disbelief lingers on and is now preventing the international community from grasping the full gravity of the situation in Ukraine.

While Western politicians and commentators continue to discuss off-ramps and compromise settlements, few in Moscow are under any such illusions. Those close to Putin understand that he views the current conflict as a holy war and has long since passed the point of no return. The Russian ruler will settle for nothing less than the complete subjugation of Ukraine or the country’s destruction.

The terrifying scale of Putin’s war aims in Ukraine may seem unthinkable to most rational outside observers, but they make perfect sense when viewed through the prism of his toxic worldview.

READ MORE AT: Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine War can end in only two ways: Genocide or defeat - Atlantic Council

1/25/22

China - Russia - USA: Soros sees risk of another world war - by Greg Robb -

Billionaire investor George Soros said flatly that he’s concerned about the possibility of another world war

Much depends on the health of the Chinese economy, Soros said in remarks at a Bretton Woods conference at the World Bank.

If China’s efforts to transition to a domestic-demand led economy from an export engine falter, there is a “likelihood” that China’s rulers would foster an external conflict to keep the country together and hold on to power.

“If there is conflict between China and a military ally of the United States, like Japan, then it is not an exaggeration to say that we are on the threshold of a third world war,” Soros said.

To avoid this scenario, Soros called on the U.S. to make a “major concession” and allow China’s currency to join the International Monetary Fund’s basket of currencies. This would make the yuan a potential rival to the dollar as a global reserve currency.

Allowing China’s yuan to be a market currency would create “a binding connection” between the two systems.

An agreement along these lines will be difficult to achieve, Soros said, but the alternative is so unpleasant

“Without it, there is a real danger that China will align itself with Russia politically and militarily, and then the threat of third world war becomes real, so it is worth trying.”

Read more at: Soros sees risk of another world war - MarketWatch

10/11/21

China - US Relations: The China Sleepwalking Syndrome by. - by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

As US President Joe Biden’s administration implements its strategy of great power competition with China, analysts seek historical metaphors to explain the deepening rivalry. But while many invoke the onset of the Cold War, a more worrisome historical metaphor is the start of World War I. In 1914, all the great powers expected a short third Balkan War. Instead, as the British historian Christopher Clark has shown, they sleepwalked into a conflagration that lasted four years, destroyed four empires, and killed millions.

Back then, leaders paid insufficient attention to the changes in the international order that had once been called the “concert of Europe.” An important change was the growing strength of nationalism. In Eastern Europe, pan-Slavism threatened both the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, which had large Slavic populations. German authors wrote about the inevitability of Teutonic-Slavic battles, and schoolbooks inflamed nationalist passions. Nationalism proved to be a stronger bond than socialism for Europe’s working classes, and a stronger bond than capitalism for Europe’s bankers.

Read more at: The China Sleepwalking Syndrome by Joseph S. Nye, Jr. - Project Syndicate

8/21/21

EU:Three lessons for Europe from the fall of Afghanistan - by Jean-Marie Guéhenno

Europe needs to take a hard look at what worked and what did not work in Afghanistan. Only then can it gradually and realistically build up its own capacities, rather than aim for grandiose schemes that lack public support.

Europeans were never serious about Afghanistan.

This is probably because, deep down, they knew that the buck did not stop with them. It now seems likely that the Taliban’s takeover of the country will make Europeans even more inward-looking and fearful of a world they do not understand. And the rapidly emerging consensus that state-building is impossible may heighten their anxiety about foreign engagements.

That mindset is an acid that destroys the bonds that should tie Europeans together, leading to the kinds of xenophobic attitudes that were in evidence during the migration crisis created by the Syrian war. As refugees fled the violence in Syria, Europeans were confronted with an unpalatable choice between building ever higher walls, cutting unsavoury deals with so-called buffer countries, or losing control of migration flows. Yet there is only a small distance between accepting that some people cannot be helped and thinking that they are not worth helping. The self-confidence of Europe – which is essential if it is to actively shape its own future – has been damaged by not just its weak operational capacities but, even more so, the ethical crisis of a continent that claims to be universalist but reserves that universalism for its privileged tribes.

Read more at: Three lessons for Europe from the fall of Afghanistan – European Council on Foreign Relations

4/13/21

Afghanistan: Biden says US to leave Afghanistan on September 11 after a 20 year war against the Taliban the US did not win

US President Joe Biden is set to announce the withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, an official told reporters on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.

The symbolic date, 20 years to the day of the historic terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, will end the longest war in the US history.

Read more at: Biden says US to leave Afghanistan on September 11 | News | DW | 13.04.2021

12/9/20

China-US Relations: Biden Very Weak President: Chinese Advisor Says Joe Biden Could Start Wars

China must drop its illusion that its relations with the United States will automatically improve under President-elect Joe Biden's administration, a Chinese government adviser has said, adding that Beijing should be prepared for a tough stance from Washington.

Zheng Yongnian, the Dean of the Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies, a Shenzhen-based think tank, has said that the Chinese government should utilise every opportunity to mend ties with the US, South China Morning Post has reported.

Read more at: Very Weak President: Chinese Advisor Says Joe Biden Could Start Wars

9/29/20

Azerbajan: The demise of diplomacy: Azerbaijan’s military offensive - by Richard Giragosian

For the past several years, the outlook for diplomacy in Russia’s self-proclaimed “near abroad” or sphere of influence has been particularly daunting. Ranging from Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 to its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and continuing aggression in eastern Ukraine,

Western diplomacy has been largely stalled and stalemated. More recently, it was Belarus that emerged as the obvious focal point for European engagement and diplomatic efforts, with a new challenge for security and stability along the EU’s “eastern neighborhood.”

But with a sudden and sweeping military offensive by Azerbaijan early on Sunday morning, the unresolved Nagorno Karabakh conflict has now surfaced as the more pressing and most urgent crisis for European diplomacy.

Read more:
The demise of diplomacy: Azerbaijan’s military offensive | New Europe

7/22/20

China-US relations: Are China-US relations drifting closer towards war?

When senior Chinese and American diplomats met in Hawaii last month, for the first time in nearly a year, the stakes were unusually high amid fears their acrimonious tensions are drifting imperceptibly towards war.

The secret meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Yang Jiechi, the top diplomatic aide to Chinese President Xi Jinping, took place – perhaps coincidentally – at Pearl Harbor, scene of a pivotal moment for the US and world history when it was bombed by the Japanese nearly 80 years ago.

The two superpowers have been embroiled in an economic and technological decoupling amid an unfolding new Cold War. Beijing and Washington have engaged in a global blame-game over the deadly coronavirus and are at odds on almost every front, from

trade tensions to the South China Sea Taiwan,Xinjian and Huawei

3/5/20

Turkey: Looming coronavirus threat adds to Turkey’s economic woes

The fast-spreading coronavirus has dampened global economic prospects for 2020, a year that many had hoped would see a revival in the fragile world economy. For Turkey, the threat comes atop existing economic woes, coupled with its deepening military involvement in the war in neighboring Syria. Though the deadly virus is not yet officially present in Turkey, it has badly affected another neighbor, Iran, forcing the closure of border crossings in a blow to bilateral trade and tourism.

Of the nearly 89,000 cases reported globally as of March 2, 90% are in China, the epicenter of the outbreak, where the death toll is nearing 3,000. The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned March 2 that the virus was now spreading faster outside China, singling out South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy as “our greatest concern.” In Iran, Turkey’s eastern neighbor, the official death toll stood at 66 as of March 2, with more than 1,500 people infected since Tehran announced the first deaths Feb. 19. According to WHO, infection cases have been exported from Iran to at least 11 countries.

The outbreak threatens to further cripple the sanction-hit Iranian economy, which shrank some 9.5% last year, atop a nearly 5% contraction in 2018, according to figures by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). With its oil and gas revenues plunging, Iran’s current account deficit hit $12 billion — or 3.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP) — in 2019, a far cry from the $15 billion surplus in 2017. The country’s unemployment rate has shot up to 17% and its annual consumer inflation to about 30%, while the budget deficit has reached more than 5% of the GDP.

With the coronavirus closing in on Turkey, the Turkish health minister warned March 2 there might already be infected individuals in the country, although no case has been officially confirmed thus far. According to the head of the Turkish Medical Association, “Turkey could weather the disease without any human loss if the necessary measures are enforced.”

2/29/20

Afghanistan: After 18 bloody years, U.S. signs deal to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. It's not over yet

With the exception of the wars with American Indians from 1788-1890, the Afghan war has been America’s longest. For the Afghans, the war stretches back four decades to the Soviet invasion and the internecine fighting that followed Moscow’s withdrawal in 1988. Estimates of the U.S. cost of the war range widely because there is no uniform way the White House or Congress tallies or allocates the money. One estimate puts it at about $1 trillion while another puts it at $2 trillion. But neither of those numbers include future interest on debt incurred to pay for the wars, estimated by one researcher at an additional $7.9 trillion by the 2050s. Nor does it cover the cost to the Department of Veterans Affairs for caring for injured U.S. veterans, including tens of thousands who have suffered traumatic brain injuries.

Said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Doha for the ceremony: “The future of Afghanistan is for Afghans to determine. The U.S.-Taliban deal creates the conditions for Afghans to do just that.” On Friday, Donald Trump said, “If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home.”

Just getting the Taliban to the table with the nation’s leaders was a difficult step. The Taliban have rejected the legitimacy of the Kabul government, calling it a “puppet regime” that they would not negotiate with. On Friday, however, Taliban leaders were taking a victory lap over the certainty of the signing in Doha. The Taliban has agreed to break off all ties to international terror groups, including al Queda, whose attacks on the United States in 2001 spurred the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, which, at the time was controlled by the Taliban. But it has not agreed to any adjustment of its ultra-strict interpretation of Islam, profound oppression of women and girls, and harsh punishments of both women and men for the pettiest of offenses.

The United States had a choice in 2001. It could have gone into Afghanistan and done what was needed to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and kneecap al Qaeda, then bring the troops home. Instead, lives and treasure were poured into a fight that generals and neoconservative politicians said the U.S. could win and historians warned it couldn’t. Has the lesson been learned? Rather doubtful.

Read more at: After 18 bloody years, U.S. signs deal to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. It's not over yet

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