April 2022 – Page 32 – The Tarbabys Blog

Putin’s Minions Demand Grotesque ‘Rewards’ for Mass Killers in Ukraine

Daily Beast

Putin’s Minions Demand Grotesque ‘Rewards’ for Mass Killers in Ukraine

Julia Davis – April 4, 2022

This story contains graphic descriptions and images.

While most of the world gasped at the latest round of atrocities perpetrated by invading Russian troops in Ukraine, Kremlin propagandists and government officials are only doubling down. The shocking footage of the massacre that took place in the Ukrainian city of Bucha was repeatedly broadcast on Russian state television this week with the label “Fake” slapped across the screen.

During Monday’s broadcast of state TV show 60 Minutes, host Olga Skabeeva speculated that the town was chosen for an elaborate fabrication because of its name. “Biden said that Putin is a butcher. Bucha sounds like “butcher.” How could they not take advantage of such a town?” She later added: “President Putin described them all as “the Empire of lies,” and here is our confirmation.”

The so-called “lies” Skabeeva is referring to are the scenes of indescribable horror that were discovered by Ukrainian troops who arrived in Bucha this weekend after the Russian Army withdrew from the city. Scores of bodies, including those of women and children, were littered on roads and in yards, many of them found with their hands bound behind their backs and signs of rape or torture.

<div class="inline-image__title">UKRAINE-CRISIS/</div> <div class="inline-image__caption"><p>Dead bodies of five men are pictured, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, April 4, 2022. </p></div> <div class="inline-image__credit">REUTERS/Marko Djurica </div> — UKRAINE-CRISIS/Dead bodies of five men are pictured, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, April 4, 2022.REUTERS/Marko Djurica

Russian state media churned out ridiculous assertions, claiming in part that the corpses of women and children depicted in the footage from Bucha—some of which were charred beyond recognition—were “moving their arms,” “getting their limbs out of the way to avoid the wheels of military vehicles” or even “getting up and walking away.”

While scenes from Bucha made headlines around the world, Interfax published a report on a ceremony conducted by the Russian military on April 2, in which several awards were presented to the Airborne Forces (VDV) of the Russian Federation in the Kyiv region. According to state TV outlet Zvezda, that unit had been involved in “holding back the actions of the enemy forces” and “performing the cleaning of settlements” in Bucha.

“In the Kyiv region, in the area where the tasks of the formation of the Airborne Forces were performed, the awarding of Russian paratroopers took place.The commander of the formation presented state awards to servicemen who distinguished themselves in combat missions during this special military operation,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement about the awards.

Horrific New Details of Carnage in Ukraine Town Emerge

The same day, the media outlet Ria Fan published the names of seven Russian soldiers to its listing of “Z Heroes.” The state TV program Vesti Nedeli, hosted by Dmitry Kiselyov, showcased the medals awarded to the invading troops: “For Courage”, “Suvorov” and “Zhukov.”

Immediately, participants of the state TV show Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev jumped to heap praise upon the Russian troops and called for various rewards and bonuses, from debt forgiveness to pay raises. Instead of shaming the killers of Ukrainian civilians, Mikheyev loudly asserted: “We need to support them!” He added: “We need to raise their salaries, because they’re risking their lives! Their consumer debts should be written off… During war, we need to support the Russian warrior.”

Despite overwhelming evidence of the massacre, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed that “not a single local in Bucha” suffered any harm while the town was under control of the Russian Armed Forces. During his meeting with UN Deputy Secretary General Martin Griffiths on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the extensive evidence of Russia’s war crimes “a staged production, organized on the streets,” which is being used “for anti-Russian purposes.”

The same day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asserted: “From what we have seen, the video materials cannot be trusted in many respects, because our specialists from the Ministry of Defense have identified signs of video fraud and all sorts of fakes.” Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that the videos from Bucha “were fabricated and are a provocation,” claiming that Russian troops left Bucha on March 30. Despite Russia’s denials, satellite images obtained by The New York Times confirmed that bodies of massacred civilians lay in the streets of Bucha for weeks, while the town was in full control of the Russian troops.

Meanwhile, on his Sunday show, host Vladimir Soloviev angrily yelled that the goal of the West is a total destruction of Russia. He demanded: “Don’t get in the way of our Army’s work, on all levels! Free their hands!” Political scientist Sergey Mikheyev then chimed in with his own take on Bucha: “Maybe it’s a production, or maybe they brought the corpses from elsewhere. There is no shortage of dead bodies over there. There are no problems with [getting] corpses.”

‘Tortured, executed civilians’: Reaction to Ukraine war dead

Associated Press

‘Tortured, executed civilians’: Reaction to Ukraine war dead

The Associated Press – April 4, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy examines the site of a recent battle, in Bucha close to Kyiv, Ukraine. Russia is facing a fresh wave of condemnation after evidence emerged of what appeared to be deliberate killings of civilians in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
BidenPresident Joe Biden speaks to members of the media at Fort Lesley J. McNair, as he returns to Washington and the White House after spending the weekend in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
The Kremlin says there was no breakthrough in the latest round of talks with Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday it was a “positive factor” that Ukraine submitted its written proposals, but added that “we can’t say there has been something promising or any breakthroughs.” He emphasized in a call with reporters that there is still a lot of work ahead following Tuesday’s talks in Istanbul. (AP Photo)
French President Emmanuel Macron and centrist candidate for reelection delivers his speech during a meeting in Paris, France’s first round of the presidential election will take place on April 10, with a presidential runoff on April 24 if no candidate wins outright. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday, April 4, 2022, described reports of rape and other atrocities by Russian troops in Ukraine as “reprehensible.” (Mark Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi attends a news conference with his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy examines the site of a recent battle in Bucha, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Apr. 4, 2022. Russia is facing a fresh wave of condemnation after evidence emerged of what appeared to be deliberate killings of civilians in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy examines the site of a recent battle in Bucha close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Apr. 4, 2022. Russia is facing a fresh wave of condemnation after evidence emerged of what appeared to be deliberate killings of civilians in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola during her meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 1, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

BRUSSELS (AP) — Global reaction Monday to what appears to be deliberate killings of civilians in Ukraine in areas north of Kyiv, the capital, where Russian soldiers have either retreated or been pushed back:

“Hundreds of people killed. Tortured, executed civilians. Bodies on the streets. Boobytrapped area. Even the bodies of the dead are boobytrapped. Widespread aftermath of looting. Concentrated evil has visited our land. The killers, executioners, rapists, marauders who call themselves an army … The world has already seen many war crimes. At different times. On different continents. But it is time to do everything so that the war crimes of the Russian military become the last manifestation of such evil on earth.” ___ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video address.

___

“The bloody massacres committed by the Russians, by the Russian soldiers, deserve to be called by their name. It is genocide and this crime must be tried as the crime of genocide … When we look at the terrible crimes against women, children and entire families, our scream should be even louder. Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, Motyzhyn: (these) are the names of the places that each of us will probably remember for the rest of our lives. The Russians committed the crime of genocide.” ___ Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

___

“This information should be seriously doubted. From what we have seen, the video material can’t be trusted, as our specialists from the Defense Ministry detected signs of video forgery and various fakes. The facts, the chronology of events also doesn’t speak in favor of the credibility of these claims … We would require many world leaders not to rush with statements, groundless accusations.” ___ Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

___

“You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal. Well, the truth of the matter is we saw what happened in Bucha. This warrants him … he is a war criminal. … We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight. And we have to gather all the detail, so this can be an actual, have a war crimes trial. This guy is brutal. And what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous.” U.S. President Joe Biden talking to reporters.

___

“We are all extremely shocked and we have condemned it with the utmost strength. Secondly, it is clear that there is clear evidence of war crimes. It was the Russian army that was in Bucha. We have told Ukrainian authorities that we were at their disposal to help with the investigation they’re carrying out. International justice must prevail. Those who committed these crimes will have to answer for them … What just happened in Bucha calls for a new round of sanctions and very clear measures” ___ French President Emmanuel Macron on France-Inter.

___

“The reports of Ukrainian civilians who have been killed, raped and severely wounded by Russian troops is beyond reprehensible. Russia must answer to the world for what they’ve done.” ___ New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

___

“I hope that everything possible can be done so that those behind these war crimes don’t go unpunished, and that they can appear before the courts, in this case the International Criminal Court, to answer these alleged cases of crimes against humanity, war crimes and, why not say it, of genocide, too.” __ Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at the “Wake Up, Spain” forum.

—-

“The atrocities committed by the Russian army in Ukraine are horrific, they are disgraceful and they are shameful. The reality is that the images from Bucha and Irpin are the same as other reports from other cities in Ukraine. They underlined the level of threat facing Ukraine and the global rules-based world order. In Kiev, I was clear. These are war crimes that are perpetrated by war criminals, and these coordinated acts of inhumanity cannot remain unanswered and that we will hold all those responsible to account.” European Union Parliament President Roberta Metsola.

___

“This is scary, this is genocide, this is fascism. This is the extermination of people, innocent people, children, women and the elderly.” ___ Olena Kolesnik, a refugee from Kharkiv, Ukraine.

___

“I was strongly shocked that a brutal act of violence was conducted on civilians in the outskirts of Kyiv. Murdering innocent civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law and it’s absolutely unacceptable.” ___ Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at a government briefing.

Flurry of New Laws Move Blue and Red States Further Apart

The New York Times

Flurry of New Laws Move Blue and Red States Further Apart

Shawn Hubler and Jill Cowan – April 4, 2022

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After the governor of Texas ordered state agencies to investigate parents for child abuse if they provide certain medical treatments to their transgender children, California lawmakers proposed a law making the state a refuge for transgender youths and their families.

When Idaho proposed a ban on abortions that empowers relatives to sue anyone who helps terminate a pregnancy after six weeks, nearby Oregon approved $15 million to help cover the abortion expenses of patients from out of state.

As Republican activists aggressively pursue conservative social policies in state legislatures across the country, liberal states are taking defensive actions. Spurred by a U.S. Supreme Court that is expected to soon upend an array of long-standing rights, including the constitutional right to abortion, left-leaning lawmakers from Washington to Vermont have begun to expand access to abortion, bolster voting rights and denounce laws in conservative states targeting LGBTQ minors.

The flurry of action, particularly in the West, is intensifying already marked differences between life in liberal- and conservative-led parts of the country. And it’s a sign of the consequences when state governments are controlled increasingly by single parties. Control of legislative chambers is split between parties now in only two states — Minnesota and Virginia — compared with 15 states 30 years ago.

“We’re further and further polarizing and fragmenting, so that blue states and red states are becoming not only a little different but radically different,” said Jon Michaels, a law professor who studies government at UCLA.

Americans have been sorting into opposing partisan camps for at least a generation, choosing more and more to live among like-minded neighbors, while legislatures, through gerrymandering, are reinforcing their states’ political identities by solidifying one-party rule.

“As states become more red or blue, it’s politically easier for them to pass legislation,” said Ryan D. Enos, a Harvard political scientist who studies partisan segregation. “Does that create a feedback loop where more sorting happens? That’s the part we don’t know yet.”

With some 30 legislatures in Republican hands, conservative lawmakers, working in many cases with shared legislative language, have begun to enact a tsunami of restrictions that for years were blocked by Democrats and moderate Republicans at the federal level. A recent wave of anti-abortion bills, for instance, has been the largest since the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.

Similar moves have recently been aimed at LGBTQ protections and voting rights. In Florida and Texas, teams of “election police” have been created to crack down on the rare crime of voter fraud, fallout from former President Donald Trump’s specious claims after he lost the 2020 presidential election.

Carrying concealed guns without a permit is now legal in nearly half of the country. “Bounty” laws — enforced not by governments, which can be sued in federal court, but by rewards to private citizens for filing lawsuits — have proliferated on issues from classroom speech to vaccination since the U.S. Supreme Court declined to strike down the legal tactic in Texas.

The moves, in an election year, have raised questions about the extent to which they are performative, as opposed to substantial. Some Republican bills are bold at first glance but vaguely worded. Some appear designed largely to energize base voters.

Many, however, send a strong cultural message. And divisions will widen further, said Peverill Squire, an expert on state legislatures at the University of Missouri, if the Supreme Court hands more power over to the states on issues like abortion and voting, as it did when it said in 2019 that partisan gerrymandering was beyond federal jurisdiction.

Some legal analysts also say the anticipated rollback of abortion rights could throw a host of other privacy rights into state-level turmoil, from contraception to health care. Meanwhile, entrenched partisanship, which has already hobbled federal decision-making, could block attempts to impose strong national standards in Congress.

“We’re potentially entering a new era of state-centered policymaking,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of public policy and political science at the University of California, Riverside. “We may be heading into a future where you could have conservative states and progressive states deciding they are better off pushing their own visions of what government should be.”

In recent weeks, several states including Colorado and Vermont have moved to codify a right to abortion. More — Maryland and Washington, for example — have expanded access or legal protection in anticipation of out-of-state patients.

But no state has been as aggressive as California in shoring up alternatives to the Republican legislation.

One package of pending California bills would expand access to California abortions and protect abortion providers from out-of-state legal action. Another proposal would thwart enforcement of out-of-state court judgments removing children from the custody of parents who get them gender-affirming health services.

Yet another would enforce a ban on ghost guns and assault weapons with a California version of Texas’ recent six-week ban on abortion, featuring $10,000 bounties to encourage lawsuits from private citizens against anyone who sells, distributes or manufactures those types of firearms.

In a “State of the State” address last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom took more than a half-dozen swipes at Florida and Texas, comparing California’s expanded sick leave, family leave and Medicaid coverage during the pandemic with the higher COVID-19 death rates in the two Republican-led states, and alluding to states “where they’re banning books” and “where you can sue your history teacher for teaching history.”

After Disney World employees protested the corporation’s initial reluctance to condemn the Florida bill that opponents call “Don’t Say Gay,” Newsom suggested Disney cancel the relocation of some 2,000 West Coast positions to a new Florida campus, saying on Twitter that “the door is open to bring those jobs back to California — the state that actually represents the values of your workers.”

Dan Schnur, a former Republican strategist who teaches political science now at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, said that without strong Republican opposition, Newsom has been using the governors of Texas and Florida as straw men.

“It’s an effective way of strengthening himself at home and elevating his name in Democratic presidential conversations,” Schnur said.

Conservatives in and outside California have criticized the governor for stoking division.

A spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is a Republican presidential contender, noted in an email that Disneyland was closed three times longer than Disney World during the pandemic, and that hundreds of thousands of Americans moved to Florida between April 2020 and July 2021 while hundreds of thousands left California. Newsom, she wrote, “is doing a better job as a U-Haul salesman.”

“Politicians in California do not have veto power over legislation passed in Florida,” the spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, added. “Gov. Newsom should focus on solving the problems in his own state.”

The office of Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas — who, in 2018, ran on the slogan “Don’t California My Texas” — did not respond to emails and calls requesting comment.

Newsom noted that California has been grappling for decades with the cultural and demographic changes that are only now hitting other parts of the country, including early battles over such issues as gay rights and immigration. “I’m very concerned broadly about what’s happening and whether or not it’s fully understood by the majority, not just of the American people but people within my own party,” he said.

“We are not going to sit back and neutrally watch the progress of the 20th century get erased,” he added, decrying the “zest for demonization” and an “anti-democratic” tilt in recent policies to restrict voting and LGBTQ protections.

“If you say nothing, you’re complicit,” Newsom said. “You have to take these guys on and push back.”

California’s stance has broad implications. Although U.S. census figures showed stalled growth in the state in 2020, its population of nearly 40 million is the nation’s largest, encompassing 1 in 9 U.S. residents.

“In a world in which the federal government has abdicated some of its core responsibility, states like California have to figure out what their responsibilities are,” said Michaels, the UCLA professor. “The hard question is: Where does it end?”

For example, he noted, the fallout could mean that federal rights that generations have taken for granted could become available only to those who can afford to uproot their lives and move to the states that guarantee them.

“It’s easy for Gov. Newsom to tell struggling Alabamians, ‘I feel your pain,’ but then what? ‘Come rent a studio apartment in San Francisco for $4,000 a month?’ ”

Violet Augustine, 37, an artist, art teacher and single parent in Dallas, worries about the limits of interstate refuge. For months, she said, she considered moving away from Texas with her transgender daughter, a kindergartner, to a state where she doesn’t constantly fear for their safety. When Abbott and Texas’ attorney general directed the state to investigate parents with transgender children for possible child abuse, her plan solidified.

An appeal on GoFundMe has raised some $23,000, and she recently made a visit to Los Angeles, staying at a hotel in the heart of the city’s Koreatown and meeting with leaders of a community group that describes itself as “radically inclusive” of LGBTQ families.

“The city itself just felt like a safe haven,” Augustine said. But, she added, her $60,000 salary, which allows her to rent a house in Texas, would scarcely cover a California apartment: “We’re going to have to downsize.”

Conscripts sent to fight by pro-Russia Donbas get little training, old rifles, poor supplies

Reuters

INSIGHT -Conscripts sent to fight by pro-Russia Donbas get little training, old rifles, poor supplies – sources

April 4, 2022

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) – Military conscripts in the Russian-backed Donbas region have been sent into front-line combat against Ukrainian troops with no training, little food and water, and inadequate weapons, six people in the separatist province told Reuters.

The new accounts of untrained and ill-equipped conscripts being deployed are a fresh indication of how stretched the military resources at the Kremlin’s disposal are, over a month into a war that has seen Moscow’s forces hobbled by logistical problems and held up by fierce Ukrainian resistance.

One of the people, a student conscripted in late February, said a fellow fighter told him to prepare to repel a close-quarter attack by Ukrainian forces in southwest Donbas but “I don’t even know how to fire an automatic weapon.”

The student and his unit fired back and evaded capture, but he was injured in a later battle. He did not say when the fighting took place.

While some information indicating poor conditions and morale among Donbas conscripts has emerged in social media and some local media outlets, Reuters was able to assemble one of the most comprehensive pictures to date.

Besides the student draftee, Reuters spoke to three wives of conscripts who have mobile phone contact with their partners, one acquaintance of a draftee, and one source close to the pro-Russian separatist leadership who is helping to organize supplies for the Donbas armed forces.

Reuters verified the identity of the student, as well as the other sources and the draftees they are associated with. The news agency was unable to confirm independently the accounts of what happened to the men once they were drafted.

The six sources all asked that their full names not be published, saying that they feared reprisals for speaking to foreign media.

The Donbas armed forces are fighting alongside Russian soldiers but are not part of the Russian armed forces, which have different rules about which troops they send into combat.

Several Donbas draftees have been issued with a rifle called a Mosin, which was developed in the late 19th century and went out of production decades ago, according to three people who saw conscripts from the separatist region using the weapon. Images shared on social media, that Reuters has not been able to verify independently, also showed Donbas fighters with Mosin rifles.

The student said he was forced to drink water from a fetid pond because of lack of supplies. Two other sources in contact with draftees also told Reuters the men had to drink untreated water.

Some Donbas conscripts were given the highly dangerous mission of drawing enemy fire onto themselves so other units could identify the Ukrainian positions and bomb them, according to one of the sources and video testimony from a prisoner of war published by Ukrainian forces.

Asked to comment about the treatment and low morale of the Donbass draftees, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a question for the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), the self-proclaimed separatist entity in Donbas. The Russian defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for the DNR administration, after viewing Reuters questions, said there would be no response on Friday. She did not say when the administration would reply. Messages left with a spokesman for the separatist military went unanswered.

After being pushed to the front line near the port of Mariupol — scene of the heaviest fighting in the war — a group of about 135 Donbas conscripts laid down their arms and refused to fight on, according to Veronika, the partner of a conscript, who said her husband was among them. Marina, partner of another conscript, said she had been in contact with a friend who was part of the same group.

“We’re refusing (to fight),” the friend wrote in a text message to Marina, seen by Reuters.

The men were kept in a basement by military commanders as punishment, Veronika and Marina said. Commanders verbally threatened them with reprisals but subsequently allowed the group out of the basement, pulled them back from the front line and billeted them in abandoned homes, Veronika said.

Neither the Kremlin nor separatist authorities answered Reuters questions about the incident.

CALL-UP

All sides in the Ukraine war have systems of conscription, where young men are required by law to do military service.

Ukraine’s government has declared a general mobilisation, meaning that conscripts and reservists have been deployed to fight.

Russia says it is not deploying conscripts in Ukraine, though it has acknowledged a small number were mistakenly sent to fight.

The Donetsk separatist authorities announced in late February they were drafting all fighting age men for immediate deployment.

Military recruitment officers appeared at workplaces around the Donetsk region and told employees to report for duty, while police ordered people in the streets to report to their local draft office, according to a Reuters reporter who was there in late February. Anyone not complying risks prosecution.

Reuters could not determine how many people have been called up, nor what proportion of Donbas forces is comprised of draftees.

None of the five draftees had prior military experience or training, and four of the five were given no training before they were sent into combat, according to the injured draftee, the three wives of conscripted men, and the acquaintance.

“He never served in the army,” said one of the partners, who gave her name as Olga and lives in the town of Makeevka. “He doesn’t even really know how to hold an automatic weapon.”

Two of the wives said their partners were deployed to the front line, where they saw heavy fighting.

“I’m in the war,” read a text message, seen by Reuters, that Marina, also from Makeevka, said came from her drafted husband.

Marina said she learned from messages from her husband that his unit, fighting in the Donbas region, was ordered to draw enemy fire on to themselves.

Ukrainian forces on March 12 published a video showing a prisoner of war. He said his name was Ruslan Khalilov, that he was a civil servant from Donbas and that he was sent with zero training to Mariupol where his role was to draw enemy fire to facilitate the bombing of Ukrainian targets.

A person in Donbas who knows Khalilov confirmed to Reuters his identity, that he was drafted and has no military training. Reuters established that the person knows Khalilov.

“SLAUGHTERHOUSE”

The student draftee who spoke to Reuters said that a day after reporting for duty he was put in a mortar unit then sent towards the fighting. “We were taught nothing,” he wrote to Reuters via messenger app.

“Up to that point I had only seen mortars in movies. Obviously, I didn’t know how to do anything with them.”

He said that before he left, his unit had been under repeated attack by Ukrainian troops. “There were lots of casualties,” he wrote. “I hate the war. I don’t want it, curse it. Why are they sending me into a slaughterhouse?”

All the accounts gathered by Reuters mentioned an acute shortage of supplies. The sources described little or no safe drinking water, field rations for one man being shared among several, and units having to scavenge food.

“We drank water with dead frogs in it,” said the student conscript.

“Supplies for the soldiers right now are a disaster,” said the source close to the Donetsk separatist leadership, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Neither the Kremlin nor the separatist authorities replied to Reuters’ questions about supplies and equipment for the draftees from Donbas.

WORLD WAR TWO RIFLE

The same source said some conscripts were issued with the Mosin rifle from reserve stocks that date back to the Second World War.

The student conscript said he has seen fellow fighters using the rifle: “It’s like we’re fighting with World War Two muskets.”

A soldier in the Russian armed forces who is fighting near Mariupol told Reuters he had seen soldiers from the Donetsk separatist military carrying Mosin rifles. A video posted on social media on Tuesday by Russian military journalist Semyon Pegov showed a man who said he was a Donbas draftee brandishing a Mosin rifle.

Soon after the men were drafted in late February, many of their wives, mothers, and sisters started writing petitions to the separatist leadership, to Donbas draft offices, and to the Kremlin, describing their treatment and seeking help.

“Bring us back our men,” said one petition addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, seen by Reuters.

The three wives of draftees who spoke to Reuters said they received no definitive answers.

On March 11, about 100 women gathered outside the separatist administration’s offices in Donetsk to demand answers, in a rare public show of dissent.

Two women who took part in the gathering said Alexander Malkovsky, the head of the DNR draft office, came out and told them that men aged 18 to 27 would be exempted from the draft. Reuters couldn’t determine if this has been implemented, and was unable to reach Malkovsky.

Two of the conscripts’ wives said that since the gathering they learned from their partners that conditions had improved: some units were pulled back from the front line and allowed to sleep in abandoned homes, instead of in trenches. (Editing by Daniel Flynn)

Republican-controlled states have higher murder rates than Democratic ones: study

Yahoo! News

Republican-controlled states have higher murder rates than Democratic ones: study

Ben Adler, Senior Editor – April 4, 2022

Republican politicians routinely claim that cities run by Democrats have been experiencing crime waves caused by failed governance, but a new study shows murder rates are actually higher in states and cities controlled by Republicans.

“We’re seeing murders in our cities, all Democrat-run,” former President Donald Trump asserted at a March 26 rally in Georgia. “People are afraid to go out.”

In February, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., blamed Democrats for a 2018 law that reduced some federal prison sentences — even though it was signed by Trump after passing a GOP-controlled Congress. “It’s your party who voted in lockstep for the First Step Act that let thousands of violent felons on the street who have now committed innumerable violent crimes,” Cotton said during a speech in the Senate.

Last December, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, told Fox News viewers, “America’s most beautiful cities are indeed being ruined by liberal policies: There’s a direct line between death and decay and liberal policies.”

Former President Donald Trump at a rally at a rally on March 26 in Commerce, Georgia, in front of a sign reading — Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at a rally on March 26 in Commerce, Ga. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

But a comparison of violent crime rates in jurisdictions controlled by Democrats and Republicans tells a very different story. In fact, a new study from the center-left think tank Third Way shows that states won by Trump in the 2020 election have higher murder rates than those carried by Joe Biden. The highest murder rates, the study found, are often in conservative, rural states.

The study found that murder rates in the 25 states Trump carried in 2020 are 40% higher overall than in the states Biden won. (The report used 2020 data because 2021 data is not yet fully available.) The five states with the highest per capita murder rate — Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Alabama and Missouri — all lean Republican and voted for Trump.

There are some examples of states Biden won in 2020 that also have high per capita murder rates, including New Mexico and Georgia, which have the seventh- and eighth-highest murder rates, respectively. And there are Trump-supporting states with low murder rates, such as Idaho and Utah. Broadly speaking, the South, and to a lesser extent the Midwest, has more murders per capita than the Northeast, interior West and West Coast, the study found.

Those findings are consistent with a pattern that has existed for decades, in which the South has had higher rates of violent crime than the nation as a whole.

Demonstrators march in Atlanta in 2021 to protest the shooting death of Daunte Wright. — Demonstrators march in Atlanta on April 14, 2021, to protest the shooting death of Daunte Wright three days earlier. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

“We as criminologists have known this for quite some time,” Jennifer Ortiz, a professor of criminology at Indiana University Southeast, told Yahoo News. “States like Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama have historically had high crime rates.”

Criminologists say research shows higher rates of violent crime are found in areas that have low average education levels, high rates of poverty and relatively modest access to government assistance. Those conditions characterize some portions of the American South.

“They are among the poorest states in our union,” Ortiz said of the Deep South. “They have among the highest rates of child poverty. They are among the least-educated states. They are among the states with the highest levels of substance abuse. All of those factors contribute to people engaging in criminal behavior.”

“I thought that was a very good study,” Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and former president of the American Society of Criminology, told Yahoo News about the Third Way report. “In Republican states, states with Republican governors, crime rates tend to be higher. I’m not certain that’s related to the fact that the governor is a Republican, but it’s a fact nonetheless.”

Police and emergency personnel work on a crime scene in November 21 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. — Police and emergency personnel work on a crime scene in Waukesha, Wis., in November 2021. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

(While the Third Way study divided states by presidential vote in 2020, using gubernatorial party affiliation leads to similar results because most states have recently chosen the same party for governor and for president. Based on presidential vote, eight of the 10 states with the highest murder rates lean Republican, versus seven of the top 10 if one uses the governor’s party.)

Although murder rates tend to be highest in the South, the biggest increases in 2020 were found in the Great Plains and Midwest, according to Third Way. The largest jumps were in Wyoming (91.7% higher than in 2019), South Dakota (69%), Wisconsin (63.2%), Nebraska (59.1%) and Minnesota (58.1%). Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska all voted for Trump and have Republican governors. Wisconsin and Minnesota voted for Biden and are led by Democrats.

Few large cities are governed by Republicans — only 26 of the 100 largest U.S. cities have Republican mayors — making apples-to-apples comparisons difficult. But cities that do have Republican mayors do not have lower murder rates than similarly sized Democratic-led cities, the study found.

Some experts warn against the impulse to use crime data to score quick political points.

“Being a Republican or Democratic state or city is correlated with many other issues,” David Weisburd, a professor of criminology and executive director of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University, wrote in an email to Yahoo News. “That means that the murder rate may be due to the state being Republican, or it may be due to the fact that Republican states have many other risk factors related to crime or murder rates. Even with a very comprehensive modeling of all of these factors, it is very difficult to get a valid causal result for explaining crime rates.”

Police tape blocks a street where a person was shot in a drug-related incident in Philadelphia in 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

That argument cuts both ways, however. Weisburd also thinks the claims of Trump and other Republicans who say Democrats have caused a crime wave in the cities and states they govern are unfounded. “I don’t think this argument can be supported no matter which way you go,” Weisburd said.

Murder rates in the U.S. rose dramatically in 2020 from record lows, and the increases are similar across states — regardless of partisan preference. For homicides in 2020, Third Way found a 32.2% uptick in Trump-backing states versus a 30.8% rise in those that voted for Biden. Some states with large cities, such as New York and Pennsylvania, saw larger-than-average increases: New York went up 47% and Pennsylvania is up 39%. But the largest increases were in rural, Republican-led states, including Montana (+84%) and South Dakota (+81%).

The higher national murder rate is naturally causing public concern, although violent crime does remain far below its early 1990s high point. “Using the FBI data, the violent crime rate fell 49% between 1993 and 2019,” from 757 incidents per 100,000 people to 379 per 100,000, the Pew Research Center noted last November. Between 2019 and 2020, the murder rate jumped from 6 homicides per 100,000 people to 7.8 homicides per 100,000, but that was still 22% below the rate in 1991 of 10 homicides per 100,000.

Stridsvagn 122: The Powerful Tank From Sweden That Russia Hates

1945

Stridsvagn 122: The Powerful Tank From Sweden That Russia Hates

By Brent Eastwood – April 4, 2022

Swedish soldiers with the Wartofta Tank Company, Skaraborg Regiment in a Stridsvagn 122 main battle tank conduct the defensive operations lane during the Strong Europe Tank Challenge, June 7, 2018. U.S. Army Europe and the German Army co-host the third Strong Europe Tank Challenge at Grafenwoehr Training Area, June 3 – 8, 2018. The Strong Europe Tank Challenge is an annual training event designed to give participating nations a dynamic, productive and fun environment in which to foster military partnerships, form Soldier-level relationships, and share tactics, techniques and procedures. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach)

Sweden’s Stridsvagn 122 Main Battle Tank Comes to Focus After the Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Sweden is not the first country you think of when it comes to armored maneuver warfare. But they do have a main battle tank, based on a German Leopard import, that serves the Swedish army well. The Stridsvagn 122 has some enviable characteristics for the Scandinavian country that is now taking the possibility of joining NATO seriously since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. New Swedish conscripted troops are being trained on the Stridsvagn 122, which shows the Swedes are executing home defense in a more earnest fashion.

Ukraine Jumpstarts Swedish Stridsvagn 122 Readiness

The Swedes began planning their own combat training activities late last year as the Russians increased their military build-up on the Ukrainian border. They started removing some of the rust from their armored maneuver battalions that hadn’t trained on the Stridsvagn 122 in years.

Get Those New Soldiers Trained on the Tank

For example, the Swedish Gotland Regiment had not trained in a live-fire exercise with the Stridsvagn 122 since 2000. That’s an astonishing lack of training and shows that the Swedes have been neglecting realistic military maneuvers for new troops. So, it took the War in Ukraine to wake up the Swedish army.

The Swedish Army also began supplementing the Stridsvagn 122 with new ammunition recently. In a $27 million deal, the Swedes just ordered new Israeli M339 tank projectiles that are manufactured by Elbit Systems. It’s a step up for the Stridsvagn 122 that needed to happen.

According to Yehuda Vered, the general manager of Elbit Systems, “The M339 not only meets the requirements of the Swedish army but will significantly improve the accuracy and firepower of the Swedish main battle tank Stridsvagn 122 when operating on the battlefield and hit different types enemy targets,” he told Boyko Nikolov of BulgarianMilitary.com on March 21 of this year.

Good Thing It’s Based on German Technology

The Stridsvagn 122 entered the Swedish military in 1996 and by 1998 there were 180 tanks. It’s based on the Leopard 2A5 Main Battle Tank. That was a good move by the Swedes to pick such a tried-and-true platform. The significant benefit of the Leopard 2A5 is that it provided the Stridsvagn 122 with modern armor on the hull and turret. It also borrowed from the French a top-notch survivability system that can sense an infrared anti-tank missile and fire infrared decoys to spoof the incoming missile.

Internal Controls Have Been Modernized

The 68-ton Stridsvagn 122 is known for digital fire controls and an encrypted radio and internal comms system. The tank commander has his own computer terminal. The driver has a video monitor and there is a state-of-the-art navigation system.

Top of the Turret Armor Is Improved

The Swedish main battle tank has improved armor along the top of the turret which is a weakness for many tanks when anti-tank guided missiles use a deadly downward trajectory attack angle. The fire control system has been modernized as well over the original Leopard platform.

Stridsvagn 122 – Nothing Wrong With Its Engine or Firepower

It retains the twin-turbo diesel engine from the Leopard with a hefty 1,500 horsepower. There is a 120mm smoothbore main gun. A 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and a 7.62mm anti-aircraft machine gun is included.

The tank is made for the frontlines and to excel in tank-on-tank warfare, plus it is able to survive against improvised explosive devices and anti-tank mines.

Bottom Line

There is much to admire about the Stridsvagn 122. Leopard tanks are known for reliability and survivability. There is ample firepower. The fire controls, navigation, and internal and external comms are up to date. The new Israeli projectiles will help even more.

A Swedish leopard 2 tank (Strv 122) on exercises, taken in Sweden, February 16th 2006. Taken with a canon 350D.

But the Swedes need to beef up the numbers of troops who are qualified to operate their main battle tank. They must increase the operational tempo and practice realistic training in all weather and in night and day conditions. They will need to show they can complete live fire and maneuverability exercises, ideally against “red team” opposing forces that can be comparable to the rehearsals that tank forces in NATO countries execute.

If they can conduct this type of training, the Stridsvagn 122 will be the main battle tank that can better accomplish home defense missions for the Swedes.

Now serving as 1945’s Defense and National Security Editor, Brent M. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer.

Now serving as 1945s New Defense and National Security Editor, Brent M. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer.

Zelenskyy accuses Putin of ‘genocide’ in Ukraine, says Russia wants the ‘elimination of the whole nation and the people’

Business Insider

Zelenskyy accuses Putin of ‘genocide’ in Ukraine, says Russia wants the ‘elimination of the whole nation and the people’

Katie Balevic – April 3, 2022

In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, late Saturday, April 2, 2022. — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, late Saturday, April 2, 2022. Zelenskyy accuses Putin of ‘genocide’ in Ukraine, says Russia wants the ‘elimination of the whole nation and the people’ Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is committing “genocide” in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy called Russian soldiers “murderers, looters, butchers.”
He made the comments to Margaret Brennan on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said Russia is seeking the “elimination” of Ukrainians.

“Indeed, this is genocide,” Zelenskyy said. “The elimination of the whole nation and the people. We are the citizens of Ukraine we have over 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities.”

The Ukrainian president made the comments to Margaret Brennan during an interview on “Face the Nation” on CBS News.

“We are the citizens of Ukraine, and we don’t want to be subdued to the policies of the Russian Federation, and this is the reason we are being destroyed and eliminated,” Zelenskyy said. “This is happening in the Europe of the 21st century, so this is the torture of the whole nation.”

In Bucha, just outside the capital of Kyiv, nearly 300 people have been buried in mass graves. The town’s mayor said the streets were “littered with corpses.”

Zelenskyy posted a series of photos of Ukrainian deaths in Bucha on Telegram Sunday morning.

“Mothers of Russian soldiers should see that. See what bastards you’ve raised. Murderers, looters, butchers,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no signs that he would slow his invasion of the country, even as reports of low morale among Russian soldiers emerge and the Ukrainian military continues to resist the incursion.

A top Russia expert last week warned that Putin will not abandon his goal of dominating Ukraine as long as he remains in power, Insider previously reported.

“So as long as Putin’s in the Kremlin, he’s not going to give up on Ukraine,” Angela Stent, who served in the Office of Policy Planning at the State Department from 1999 to 2001 and as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council from 2004 to 2006, told Insider.

“He is not going to give up on his goal of subordinating Ukraine” and “having a government there that’s pro-Russian,” Stent said.

Zelenskyy on Sunday said that in the besieged city of Mariupol, the city is dealing with a “humanitarian disaster” brought on by blocked humanitarian corridors and failed ceasefires.

“There have been lots of people and all the corridors have been blocked, including humanitarian corridors, the supply of food and water,” Zelenskyy said. “The evacuation happens only when the Russian side agrees to a Ukrainian proposal to open a corridor. So the corridor for the food or water simply do not exist in those cities that are occupied by Russia.”

He added that in Mariupol, there are “lots of dead bodies in the street. Lots of wounded people among the military and civilians.”

As for evacuations, some people have had to whether the deadly conditions and go on foot, Zelenskyy said.

“Some of them are walking by foot, dozens of kilometers to reach the place where we are,” he said. “Many of them have died on their way. Some of them had to be picked up by other people and taken out from these blocked cities… So many people were shot at and killed.”

He added that the war must end “if we don’t want hundreds of thousands, millions to die.”

Colwell: Things would surely be different in Ukraine if Trump were president

South Bend Tribune

Colwell: Things would surely be different in Ukraine if Trump were president

Jack Colwell – April 3, 2022

Donald Trump is right. If he were still president, the situation would be far different in Ukraine.

If Mike Pence had ignored his Hoosier values of truth, justice and the Constitution and cooperated in overturning the election results, Trump could now be president.

There would be no danger of armed conflict between Russia and NATO over Ukraine.

There would be no NATO. Trump contended throughout his first term that NATO was outdated. He belittled and insulted leaders of European nations in the alliance. He was reluctant to support the collective-defense agreement known as Article 5. By now in a second term, he would have pulled out of the alliance and scuttled it.

There would be no suggestion from a President Trump that Vladimir Putin is a butcher and must go after Russia invaded Ukraine. Trump praised the “genius” of Putin as Russia amassed troops for the invasion. And he wouldn’t let a little thing like Russia seeking to dominate its neighbor ruin his bromance with Putin. Hey, he pulled out of Syria and let Russia dominate there.

There would be no long, heroic stand by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He would have been dead a month ago. Trump holds a grudge. Zelenskyy didn’t announce an investigation of Joe Biden before the election, even when Trump held up needed defensive weapons for Ukraine to force it. Fervent Trump supporters like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn haven’t forgotten. They call Zelenskyy a “thug” and “corrupt.” Trump, if still president, wouldn’t forget and wouldn’t coordinate massive arms shipments and sanctions to save Zelenskyy and thwart friend Putin.

There would be no Ukraine. Without the United States and a unified NATO providing the help to stall the invasion, Russia would have smashed into Kyiv and disposed of Zelenskyy, still with a terrible toll in Ukraine civilian deaths but with less delay against an outgunned Ukrainian military left without needed weapons.

Trump, though no longer president, still speaks out, claiming that he really won re-election and demonstrating how he would be responding to Putin if still in the White House.

Trump calls for Putin to do something now, something very important.

It wasn’t a call for Putin to halt the massacres in Ukraine. It was a call for Putin to release possible dirt on President Biden’s black-sheep son Hunter.

Trump resurrected and embellished a controversial, last-minute 2020 campaign contention that Hunter Biden might have (or might not have) received money through funding of a firm by the wife of Moscow’s mayor.

“She gave him $3.5 million,” Trump stated as fact. Why? “I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it,” Trump said. “I think we should know that answer.”

Putin would of course be believed if he announced, “Yes, the Bidens accepted millions in bribes along with that thug Zelenskyy to set up a Nazi government and germ warfare labs in Ukraine.”

Well, U.S. intelligence agencies didn’t believe Putin’s claims that troops on Ukraine’s border weren’t going to invade. They wouldn’t believe he had turned truthful now after a life of lies.

But Trump would believe. He famously declared at a meeting with the Russian leader that he believed the word of Putin over findings of his own intelligence agencies.

If Putin did provide dirt helpful for Trump’s election in 2024, it would pretty much cinch that Trump, if president again, would approve Putin’s conquest of Ukraine and signal no concern over Putin’s desire to return other countries, Poland, Hungary and the Baltics, to their status in the old Soviet Union.

While investigations continue into what Hunter Biden and Donald Trump Jr. might have done wrong, the possible transgressions of either child of a president, proven or not, shouldn’t hinder the efforts to save all those children in Ukraine.

Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email at jcolwell@comcast.net.

Does war in Ukraine justify an even bigger U.S. military budget?

Yahoo! News – 360

Does war in Ukraine justify an even bigger U.S. military budget?

Mike Bebernes, Senior Editor – April 3, 2022

Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

What’s happening

The Biden administration asked Congress to approve $813 billion in defense spending in its budget for next year, $30 billion more than lawmakers allocated for 2022. The request came as part of President Biden’s sprawling $5.8 trillion budget proposal for 2023 that was released earlier this week.

“This will be among the largest investments in our national security in history,” Biden said in a speech outlining the proposal, pointedly mentioning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Some people don’t like the increase, but we’re in a different world today.”

For the most part, presidential budgets are a political messaging document, since Congress has sole authority to approve government spending. Key measures in a president’s proposal are trimmed or cut out entirely by the time a final bill emerges. When it comes to defense spending, though, Congress typically meets or exceeds the presidential request. This year’s budget, for example, provided about $30 billion above what Biden requested last year.

America’s defense budget dwarfs that of any other nation and accounts for roughly 35% to 40% of all defense spending worldwide. In 2020, the U.S. spent more on defense than the next 11 highest-spending countries combined.

Why there’s debate

Defense spending proposals can be something of a no-win situation for presidents. Whatever number they put forward, it will be criticized as both wildly inflated and woefully insufficient. Biden’s budget inspired that familiar dynamic this week, but the war in Ukraine has added a new wrinkle into this well-worn debate.

Many Republicans in Washington made the case that Biden’s request is far too small to meet the challenges currently facing the U.S. around the world. They argue that competitiveness with Russia and China requires an even greater investment to ensure the U.S. has a modern military capable of winning a major war. Biden’s critics also say that his numbers are a lot less significant once last year’s inflation is taken into account.

Those calling for less military spending say the war in Ukraine is no reason to continue pumping more money into what they see as a bloated defense budget. They argue that huge portions of that money get wasted on technology that never reaches the battlefield, are diverted to private contractors or are used to fund misguided interventions abroad like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Nobody doubts, nobody, that there are tens of billions of dollars in waste and fraud and cost overruns,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on Wednesday.

Many progressive Democrats also say it’s dishonest for Congress to keep increasing military spending year after year while at the same time claiming that critical programs like COVID funding, the Child Tax Credit and climate initiatives are too expensive.

What’s next

Congress has made a habit in recent years of running right up to, sometimes past, the deadline to reach a budget deal. The most recent spending bill funds the government through September, so it will likely be several months before it becomes clear how closely next year’s military budget reflects Biden’s proposal.

Perspectives

More spending

The U.S. spends more on its military because it does more than any other nation

“In post-Cold War America, it’s simply a myth that the Pentagon has had a bottomless pit of funding from which it can buy new weapon systems and capabilities. The United States, unlike our adversaries or individual allies, has global commitments and interests in two hemispheres, in four oceans, and on six continents.” — Editorial, National Review

The war in Ukraine shows how critical a dominant military is

“The West’s response to Ukraine is a reminder that economic and financial sanctions can be powerful, and the same is true of soft power and moral umbrage. Yet what is happening on the ground this week is also a reminder that there is no substitute for hard power—for having the men and materiel to deter and, if it comes to that, defeat a foreign adversary.” — Rich Lowry, Politico

Our current military isn’t strong enough to win wars against China, Russia, or both

“The military scarcity we now face is most acute and consequential in our ability to fight major wars with China and Russia in anything like concurrent timeframes. As a practical matter, we lack enough of the key capabilities—such as penetrating bombers, attack submarines, advanced munitions, and the right reconnaissance platforms—to defeat them both at the same time.” — Elbridge A. Colby, Time

Operating a military is more expensive than it has ever been

“Inflation makes the military poorer overnight. Price increases are affecting military commodities like steel for weapons and building materials for base upgrades, fuel and electricity, and general maintenance and parts for equipment. … Similarly, military construction has seen a triple whammy of price hikes due to lingering national supply chain challenges, labor shortages affecting many industries, contracting uncertainties, and now inflation.” — Mackenzie Eaglen, Dispatch

Biden’s reluctance to emphasize military power makes U.S. less safe

“What the Biden administration has done with its policies, strategy, and budget is demonstrate that it doesn’t understand how to integrate all the elements of national power; it is so reluctant to use military force that both allies and adversaries will wonder whether there is anything the U.S. will actually fight for.” — Kori Schake, Atlantic

Less spending

The argument that Ukraine means we must spend more makes no sense

“Ask yourself: What precisely is the question the Ukraine war raises for which the answer is, ‘We have to spend more money’? What would we like to do that we don’t currently have the budget for? … Most of the time these days, there are no specific ‘gaps’ mentioned when we debate the military budget. The arguments we get are a series of grunts referring vaguely to threats to our dominance. China bad! Must be strong!” — Paul Waldman, Washington Post

The defense budget can’t get a rubber stamp when so many other programs go unfunded

“With Ukraine in turmoil thanks to a Russian war of aggression and the world’s stability threatened by an ascendant China, it makes sense that Biden would need a well-funded military. What makes less sense, though, is such robust military spending coupled with claims that the country can’t afford robust and necessary social welfare programs — a claim we often hear from Republicans and conservative Democrats alike.” — Jill Filipovic, CNN

A larger defense budget just means more profits for unaccountable military contractors

“The only winners are for-profit military contractors. It’s tempting to think — as many in Congress and the military brass would have us believe — that the more money we give to the Pentagon, the safer the world will be. But it was never that simple. Colossal military spending didn’t prevent the Russian invasion, and more money won’t stop it.” — Lindsay Koshgarian, Newsweek

No one wins, and plenty suffer, when nations compete to be the biggest military spender

“How this self-defeating feedback loop plays out is like this: If my adversary increases its military expenditure, then I must also increase mine or accept a security cost, which forces my adversary to increase its expenditure even more. In the end, costs increase for all parties without any of them gaining the slightest competitive advantage; at the same time, humanity as a whole suffers from underinvestment in the areas that are truly essential to its survival.” — Carlo Rovelli and Matteo Smerlak, Scientific American

It’s a myth that more defense spending automatically makes the U.S. safer

“Providing military defense is a valid function of the federal government. However, that doesn’t give license to Congress to simply pile on more spending, even when there are dangers out there. Nor does it mean that more spending will result in a completely safe world for us Americans. That’s in part because that world doesn’t exist. There’s only so much safety money can buy.” — Veronique de Rugy, Orange County Register

EU must discuss import ban on Russian gas, German defence minister says

Reuters

EU must discuss import ban on Russian gas, German defence minister says

April 3, 2022

FILE PHOTO: People flee the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s defence minister said on Sunday that the European Union must discuss banning the import of Russian gas after Ukrainian and European officials accused Russian forces of committing atrocities near Kyiv.

“There has to be a response. Such crimes must not remain unanswered,” the defence ministry quoted Christine Lambrecht as saying in an interview with the public broadcaster ARD.

Berlin has so far resisted calls to impose an embargo on energy imports from Russia, saying its economy and that of other European countries are too dependent on them. Russia supplies 40% of Europe’s gas needs.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck repeated the government stance on Sunday evening on the broadcaster ZDF, saying Germany was reducing its dependence on Russian energy but could not wean itself off entirely straight away.

Pressure is growing on and within the government to take more radical steps. Lambrecht said EU ministers would now have to discuss a ban, according to a Twitter post from her ministry.

The EU has been working on additional sanctions for some time but Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Saturday that any additional measures would not affect the energy sector.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said late on Sunday that Western allies would agree further sanctions on Russia in the coming days.

Ukraine said on Saturday it had taken complete control of the Kyiv region for the first time since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24. The mayor of Bucha, a liberated town 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, said 300 residents had been killed by the Russian army.

Russia’s defence ministry denied the allegation, saying footage and photographs showing dead bodies in Bucha were “yet another provocation” by Kyiv.

Scholz called in a statement for international organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to be allowed access to the affected areas to independently document what he described as atrocities.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Sarah Marsh and Kerstin Doerr; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Kevin Liffey and Daniel Wallis)