Terror-stricken Russians anticipate the delivery of foreign arms to the Armed Forces of Ukraine – conversation intercepted by the Security Service of Ukraine
Iryna Balachuk – May 17, 2022
The Security Service of Ukraine has published another intercepted conversation between Russian soldiers. In that conversation, the aggressors express their envy that Ukrainians have Bayraktars (medium-altitude long-range unmanned combat aerial vehicles), and they are terror-stricken at the prospect of the delivery of foreign weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Source: Security Service of Ukraine on Telegram
Quote from a Russian soldier fighting in Zaporizhzhia: “I wish we had the f*cking drones, like their Bayraktars. The situation would be f*cking awesome. They [Bayraktars] don’t work in the daytime, they work at night. The birds take off, get our coordinates and we’re f*cked.”
Details: He [the Russian soldier] himself ridicules talk about Russia’s “glory”, since Russia “itself stirred up this special operation” but didn’t arm its soldiers properly. At present, according to the aggressor, they [Russian soldiers] are forced to beg for everything from their sponsors – farmers and children collect money for quadcopters (drones with four rotors) for Russian soldiers.
The invaders are also following with alarm news of new deliveries of foreign weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They are particularly frightened by reports that “the Poles have delivered 2,000 – or 200 – tanks to Ukraine.”
The Security Service of Ukraine has pointed out that Ukraine has news of “new guns and lend-lease”, so that the aggressors will have “a lot of discoveries – not only in the news but also on the battlefield.”
With help of Lviv-born doctor, KC hospital, nonprofit partner to ship supplies to Ukraine
Anna Spoerre – May 17, 2022
Anna Grodzinsky watched anxiously from Kansas City when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Her aunt and 96-year-old grandmother were hunkered down in their central Lviv home.
Many sleepless nights followed as Grodzinsky, a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, watched how war affected access to fresh food, affordable medications and preventative healthcare services in the country where she was born.
It’s why she’s volunteering Saturday with Project C.U.R.E., a non-profit partnered with Saint Luke’s Health System, to send more advanced medical supplies to the people of Ukraine.
“They’re obviously scared. They’re concerned. They can’t wait for things to normalize,” she said. “But they are not optimistic that that will happen anytime soon. So they’re trying to move on pragmatically.”
When war broke out, Grodzinsky sent her grandmother small items like arthritis cream.
With Project C.U.R.E. she’ll help send more than 200 kits donated by the hospital and packed with medical supplies such as dressings, syringes and wound care materials all valued at more than $200,000.
Grodzinsky was born in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. She emigrated with her parents to the United States in 1990 at the age of six.
They landed in Columbia as refugees where a community organization based out of the University of Missouri helped support her family’s resettlement. Her father became a nurse and her mother completed a master’s in health administration at Mizzou before they relocated to Kansas City in 1997.
Grodzinsky has been back to Ukraine four times since she was a child, most recently in April 2019, when Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine. Her quiet hometown city of Lviv was gaining ground as a tourist destination in eastern Europe.
“At that time, the Ukraine was becoming a bit more Western-leaning, it was becoming a bit more tech savvy, and there were advances that we saw as positives,” she said.
When Russian forces invaded on February 24, she held her breath as the city was turned upside down.
Grodzinsky, whose research includes helping pregnant patients with heart conditions, watched as women in labor ran for cover as bombs tore through Ukrainian hospitals.
She followed news coverage as one of the bombs that struck Lviv landed just a mile from the apartment where she was born and read a New York Times story about a gravely ill boy named Arthur who was fleeing to the border with his mother. He shares a name with Grodzinsky’s own son.
“It hits a nerve when you see the area where you were born under attack,” she said. “I just can’t.”
Grodzinsky got to work fundraising in preparation for a drawn-out crisis both for those fleeing and those staying. She also took in a family friend who fled Lviv.
She said it’s been incredible to see her colleagues contribute monetarily to support not only her immediate family there, which is “extremely touching,” but also the greater refugee crisis at large. She’s written thank yous to everyone she knows who’s lent support. They total 35 so far.
It’s a sign that while Ukrainian lives have been in limbo for nearly three months, fatigue from those eager to help in Kansas City hasn’t set in.
“I’m hopeful that it’s a sign of much-needed solidarity,” Grodzinsky said, later adding: “It’s important for us to do all we can to support Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty, because it’s such an important channel and such an important buffer.”
Saint Luke’s Health System partnered with Project C.U.R.E. to provide more than 200 kits donated by the hospital and packed with medical supplies such as dressings, syringes and wound care materials all valued at more than $200,000 to send to Ukraine.
How to help Project C.U.R.E
Project C.U.R.E. is a nonprofit that ships medical supplies and equipment to more than 135 developing countries around the world, said Kristin Robinson, Executive Director for the Kansas City location.
The organization has worked in Ukraine with partners for more than a decade. Since the war began, those partners have helped shi Project C.U.R.E.’s shipments to Poland, before crossing the border into Ukraine.
The Kansas City distribution location, which opened in June 2020, is always in need of volunteers to help prepare shipments out of their KC warehouse facility, Robinson said.
“People feel like they want to do something but they don’t know what they can do that makes a difference,” Robinson said. “And so we love just being an option to to really make a difference on the ground.”
She said they’re excited Grodzinsky will be among those lending a hand.
De-Arching: McDonald’s to sell Russia business, exit country
David Koenig and Ann Durbin – May 16, 2022
McDonald’s restaurant is seen in the center of Dmitrov, a Russian town 75 km., (47 miles) north from Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 6, 2014. McDonald’s says it’s started the process of selling its Russian business, which includes 850 restaurants that employ 62,000 people. The fast food giant pointed to the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, saying holding on to its business in Russia “is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values.” The Chicago-based company had temporarily closed its stores in Russia but was still paying employees. (AP Photo/FILE) ASSOCIATED PRESSThe oldest of Moscow’s McDonald’s outlets, which was opened on Jan. 31, 1990, is closed on Aug. 21, 2014. McDonald’s says it’s started the process of selling its Russian business, which includes 850 restaurants that employ 62,000 people. The fast food giant pointed to the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, saying holding on to its business in Russia “is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values.” The Chicago-based company had temporarily closed its stores in Russia but was still paying employees. (AP Photo/FILE) ASSOCIATED PRESS
McDonald’s is closing its doors in Russia, ending an era of optimism and increasing the country’s isolation over its war in Ukraine.
The Chicago burger giant confirmed Monday that it is selling its 850 restaurants in Russia. McDonald’s said it will seek a buyer who will employ its 62,000 workers in Russia, and will continue to pay those workers until the deal closes.
“Some might argue that providing access to food and continuing to employ tens of thousands of ordinary citizens, is surely the right thing to do,” McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a letter to employees. “But it is impossible to ignore the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.”
McDonald’s said it’s the first time the company has ever “de-arched,” or exited a major market. It plans to start removing golden arches and other symbols and signs with the company’s name. McDonald’s said it will also will keep its trademarks in Russia and take steps to enforce them if necessary.
McDonald’s said in early March that it was temporarily closing its stores in Russia but would continue to pay its employees. It was a costly decision. Late last month, the company said it was losing $55 million each month due to the restaurant closures. It also lost $100 million worth of inventory.
McDonald’s has also closed 108 restaurants in Ukraine and continues to pay its employees there.
Western companies have wrestled with extricating themselves from Russia, enduring the hit to their bottom lines from pausing or closing operations in the face of sanctions. Others have stayed in Russia at least partially, with some facing blowback.
French carmaker Renault said Monday that it would sell its majority stake in Russian car company Avtovaz and a factory in Moscow to the state — the first major nationalization of a foreign business since the war began.
Maxim Sytch, a professor of management and organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, said McDonald’s and others also face pressure from customers, employees and investors over their Russian operations.
“The era where companies could avoid taking a stance is over,” Sytch said. “People want to be associated with companies that do the right thing. There’s much more to business __ and life __ than maximizing profit margins.”
McDonald’s first restaurant in Russia opened in the middle of Moscow more than three decades ago, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a powerful symbol of the easing of Cold War tensions between the United States and Soviet Union, which would collapse in 1991.
Now, the company’s exit is proving symbolic of a new era, analysts say. Sytch, who lived in Russia when McDonald’s entered the market and remembers the excitement surrounding the opening, said the closing signifies a reversal to the Soviet era of isolation.
“It’s really painful to see the many years of gains on the democratic front being wiped out with this atrocious war in Ukraine,” he said.
Kempczinski left open the possibility that McDonald’s could someday return to the Russian market.
“It’s impossible to predict what the future may hold, but I choose to end my message with the same spirit that brought McDonald’s to Russia in the first place: hope,” he wrote in his employee letter. “Thus, let us not end by saying, ‘goodbye.’ Instead, let us say as they do in Russian: Until we meet again.”
McDonald’s owns 84% of its restaurants in Russia; the rest are operated by franchisees. Because it won’t license its brand, the sale price likely won’t be close to the value of the business before the invasion, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, a corporate analytics company.
McDonald’s said it expects to record a charge against earnings of between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion over leaving Russia.
McDonald’s has more than 39,000 locations across more than 100 countries. Most are owned by franchisees — only about 5% are owned and operated by the company.
McDonald’s said exiting Russia will not change its forecast of adding a net 1,300 restaurants this year, which will contribute about 1.5% to companywide sales growth.
Last month, McDonald’s Corp. reported that it earned $1.1 billion in the first quarter, down from more than $1.5 billion a year earlier. Revenue was nearly $5.7 billion.
In afternoon trading, shares of McDonald’s shed 21 cents to $244.83.
McDonald’s is quitting Russia after 32 years in the country, citing the ‘humanitarian crisis’ caused by the Ukraine war
Kate Duffy and Grace Dean – May 16, 2022
A McDonald’s restaurant in Tver, Russia.FotograFFF/Shutterstock McDonald’s is quitting Russia after 32 years in the country, citing the ‘humanitarian crisis’ caused by the Ukraine war
McDonald’s said Monday it’s quitting Russia after more than 30 years in the country.
The fast-food giant paused operations in Russia in March, shortly after the Ukraine invasion began.
McDonald’s said it would sell to a local buyer and “de-arch” all its restaurants in Russia.
McDonald’s announced Monday it’s quitting Russia after 32 years in the country because its business there is “no longer tenable.”
The fast food giant said: “The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald’s to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values.”
McDonald’s said Monday it will sell its Russian business to a local buyer and will “de-arch” all its restaurants in the country, meaning that the company’s name, branding, menu, and logo can’t be used.
Today, most McDonald’s restaurants in Russia are company-operated, but more than 100 are owned by franchisees, and some have refused to close. It’s a similar story with other Western fast-food chains, including Burger King, which said the operator of its 800 Russian restaurants “refused” to close them.
McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said Monday: “We have a long history of establishing deep, local roots wherever the arches shine. We’re exceptionally proud of the 62,000 employees who work in our restaurants, along with the hundreds of Russian suppliers who support our business, and our local franchisees. Their dedication and loyalty to McDonald’s make today’s announcement extremely difficult.”
He added: “However, we have a commitment to our global community and must remain steadfast in our values. And our commitment to our values means that we can no longer keep the arches shining there.”
McDonald’s said it expected to record a non-cash charge of between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion as a result of its Russia exit. It reaffirmed its prior 2022 financial outlook.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and on March 8, McDonald’s announced it was temporarily closing restaurants and pausing operations in Russia.
The company said Monday it had initiated the process to sell its Russian operations and was “pursuing the sale of its entire portfolio of McDonald’s restaurants in Russia to a local buyer.”
The company added it was “seeking to ensure the employees of McDonald’s Russia continue to be paid until the close of any transaction” and that “employees have future employment with any potential buyer.”
In a message to Russian franchisees, seen by The New York Times, Kempczinski said leaving the country was “a complicated issue that’s without precedent and with profound consequences.”
McDonald’s said in April it had lost around $100 million in wasted inventory after shutting its restaurants in Russia and Ukraine.
Russian news outlet RIA Novosti previously reported that a number of McDonald’s restaurants that were owned by franchisees remained open despite the Ukraine war.
The Senate on Monday overwhelmingly advanced a $40 billion Ukraine aid package that easily passed the House last week but had stalled in the upper chamber because of an objection from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
Senators voted 81 to 11 to end debate on a motion to proceed to the legislation, setting up a final vote on the bill for later in the week.
It’s an important test of Republican support for continued U.S. humanitarian and military assistance for Ukraine after several prominent Republican voices, including former President Trump, questioned the size of the $40 billion package.
Some Republicans, including Sen. Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), announced before the vote that they would not support it.
“I certainly don’t have anything against the Ukrainians. We want to see them win, but pumping more aid into that country when we’re not taking care of our own country — the best thing that [President] Biden could do is stop the war that he’s waged on American industry,” Hagerty told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” over the weekend.
Hagerty said, “I know that there are other senators that are thinking very hard about this right now.”
Trump issued a statement Friday criticizing Congress for moving an aid package for Ukraine at a time when parents in the U.S. are having trouble finding baby formula on store shelves due to a shortage of supplies.
“The Democrats are sending another $40 billion to Ukraine, yet America’s parents are struggling to even feed their children,” Trump said in a statement through his Save America PAC.
The assistance package passed with a large majority in the House by a vote of 368 to 57. Republicans made up all of the “no” votes.
The legislation had been somewhat delayed by debate among Democrats over whether to attach $10 billion in additional COVID-19 funding.
Democratic leaders, however, eventually decided to move the Ukrainian money separately to prevent it from getting held up by a partisan battle to attach an amendment to limit asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border to the coronavirus relief money.
In a conference call with reporters Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the assistance package could pass the Senate by Wednesday. But there are several procedural hurdles remaining, and getting it done in the next few days will depend on getting cooperation from all 100 senators.
Paul, a frequent critic of foreign aid, delayed the package last week by insisting on adding language to expand the role of the Afghanistan inspector general to have oversight of Ukrainian assistance spending.
11 Republican Senators Vote Against $40 Billion In Security Assistance For Ukraine
Igor Bobic – May 16, 2022
Eleven Republican senators bucked their leadership and voted against a motion advancing a $40 billion security assistance package for Ukraine on Monday, a sign of growing GOP opposition to U.S. efforts aimed at countering Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody three-month-old invasion there.
The security package isn’t expected to pass until later this week because a single Republican senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, is objecting to a quick vote on the measure.
Paul has demanded the legislation give an inspector general authority to oversee spending, which he called unprecedented and fiscally unsound. But Democrats said that would require a re-vote in the House and burn precious time given Russia’s daily bombing of Ukrainian cities that is causing horrifying scenes of death and devastation.
In his floor speech earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) slammed Paul’s efforts to delay passage of the bill as “totally unacceptable,” saying that it “only serves to strengthen Putin’s hand in the long run.”
Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, lamented that the delay would cost lives in a message posted on Twitter:
Ten other Republican senators joined Paul in voting against the motion to advance the security package on Monday; many of these senators made supportive statements about Ukraine’s plight following Russia’s invasion:
Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) John Boozman (Ark.) Mike Braun (Ind.) Mike Crapo (Idaho) Bill Hagerty (Tenn.) Josh Hawley (Mo.) Mike Lee (Utah) Roger Marshall (Kan.) Tommy Tuberville (Ala.)
The list of lawmakers hindering aid to Ukraine has been steadily rising over the past month. Last week, 57 Republicans voted against the Ukraine assistance bill in the House. Two months ago, only three GOP House members voted against a separate security package.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump and right-wing pundits, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have ramped up rhetoric against U.S. support for Ukraine aid. Trump also called into question the spending measure last week, linking it to the shortage of baby formula that has been attributed to a safety recall and supply chain issues.
“The Democrats are sending another $40 billion to Ukraine, yet America’s parents are struggling to even feed their children,” Trump said in a statement released by his super PAC.
Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) argued that spending $40 billion on Ukraine is “not in America’s interests,” adding on Twitter that it “allows Europe to freeload, neglects priorities at home (the border), allows Europe to freeload, short changes critical interests abroad and comes w/ no meaningful oversight.”
But Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), a deficit hawk and, like Hawley, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, voted in support of the bill. The top Trump ally called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “a threat to our national security and the security of our democratic allies.” He added: “America must always protect our interests and support democracy over tyranny.”
Monday’s vote to advance the Ukraine package came on the heels of a trip to Kyiv by Senate Republican leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). After meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, McConnell told reporters he assured him “that support for Ukraine and this war against the Russians is bipartisan,” including from “an overwhelming majority of Republicans.”
McConnell also addressed the opposition to Ukraine aid from the Trump wing of his party in a statement released after the trip.
“Ukraine is not asking anybody else to fight their fight,” he said. “They only ask for the tools they need for self-defense.”
“America’s support for Ukraine’s self-defense is not mere philanthropy,” he added. “Defending the principle of sovereignty, promoting stability in Europe, and imposing costs on Russia’s naked aggression have a direct and vital bearing on America’s national security and vital interests.”
Christopher Steele, the spy behind the discredited ‘pee tape’ Trump dossier, says sources tell him Putin is seriously ill
Mia Jankowicz – May 16, 2022
The former British spy Christopher Steele told Sky News that his sources say Putin is very ill.
“It’s part of the equation” in Putin’s decision-making in Ukraine, Steele said.
Steele compiled the infamous Trump-Russia dossier, much of which has been discredited.
The former British spy who wrote an infamous dossier about Donald Trump’s dealings in Russia told Sky News on Sunday that sources had told him that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seriously ill.
Christopher Steele, who led MI6’s Russia desk and worked as a spy in Moscow for years, told Sky News: “Certainly, from what we’re hearing from sources in Russia and elsewhere, is that Putin is, in fact, quite seriously ill.”
Claims about the 69-year-old leader’s health have circulated for months. On Saturday, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, told Sky that Putin is in a “very bad psychological and physical condition and he is very sick.”
In his interview with Sky, Steele suggested that Putin’s health is “an element” of his decision-making in Ukraine.
“It’s not clear exactly what this illness is — whether it’s incurable or terminal, or whatever,” he said. “But certainly, I think it’s part of the equation.”
In early May, a former KGB agent, Boris Karpichkov, told The Sun, without citing sources, that “there is a serious concern that Putin is suffering from” ailments including dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
The Sun’s report followed weeks of tabloidspeculation over the leader’s appearance, including images of him appearing to steady himself while seated in a meeting with his defense minister.
Putin at a meeting with Russia’s defense minister in April.Russian Presidential Press Service/Kremlin/Handout via Reuters
Steele is the author of an intelligence dossier that made multiple claims about Trump, including that there exists a so-called pee tape of obscene material involving Trump in Russia before his political career.
No evidence of the tape has been found, and other aspects of the dossier’s credibility have been questioned, CNN reported.
Steele worked under diplomatic cover as a spy in Moscow for three years in the ’90s, and he was the chief of MI6’s Russia desk from 2006 to 2009.
Ukrainian forces completed a ‘combat mission’ in Mariupol after hundreds were evacuated
Hannah Getahun – May 16, 2022
A wounded service member of Ukrainian forces from the besieged Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol is transported on a stretcher out of a bus, which arrived under escort of the pro-Russian military in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in Novoazovsk, Ukraine May 16, 2022Alexander Ermochenko/REUTERS Ukrainian forces completed a ‘combat mission’ in Mariupol after hundreds were evacuated
Ukrainian forces said they “fulfilled their combat mission” in Mariupol on Tuesday.
They have begun to evacuate to “save the lives of their personnel.”
53 soldiers were transported to a hospital and another 211 were evacuated via humanitarian corridor.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Tuesday that a garrison stationed in Mariupol has “fulfilled its combat mission” and began to evacuate.
This likely signals the end of a mission to defend the Azovstal steel plant, which served as a stronghold for Ukrainian troops in the besieged city of Mariupol.
“The Supreme Military Command ordered the commanders of the units stationed at Azovstal to save the lives of their personnel,” according to a statement.
According to defense officials, 53 wounded troops were transported to a hospital in Novoazovsk, while another 211 were evacuated through a humanitarian corridor to Olenivka. They may be subject to a prisoner exchange between Russian troops, the statement said.
Ukrainian forces had recently begun evacuations of civilians at the Azovstal steel plant, where hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and troops bunkered down for months.
“Defenders of Mariupol are the heroes of our time,” the statement said. “They are forever in history.”
Ukrainian troops evacuate from Mariupol, ceding control to Russia
Natalia Zinets – May 16, 2022
Buses carrying Ukrainian Azovstal servicemen arrive in NovoazovskService members of pro-Russian troops stand guard in MariupolLocal residents gather outside a damaged apartment building in MariupolA view shows a destroyed residential building in MariupolBuses carrying Ukrainian Azovstal servicemen arrive in NovoazovskBuses carrying Ukrainian Azovstal servicemen arrive in NovoazovskEmergency and recovery work underway in KharkivEmergency and recovery work underway in Kharkiv
KYIV/NOVOAZOVSK, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday it was working to evacuate all remaining troops from their last stronghold in the besieged port of Mariupol, ceding control of the city to Russia after months of bombardment.
The evacuation of hundreds of fighters, many wounded, to Russian-held towns, likely marked the end of the longest and bloodiest battle of the Ukraine war and a significant defeat for Ukraine. Mariupol is now in ruins after a Russian siege that Ukraine says killed tens of thousands of people in the city.
With the rest of Mariupol firmly in Russian hands, hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians had holed up beneath the city’s Azovstal steelworks. Civilians inside were evacuated in recent weeks, and more than 260 troops, some of them wounded, left the plant for Russian-controlled areas late on Monday.
“The ‘Mariupol’ garrison has fulfilled its combat mission,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a statement.
“The supreme military command ordered the commanders of the units stationed at Azovstal to save the lives of the personnel… Defenders of Mariupol are the heroes of our time,” it added.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Anna Malyar said 53 injured troops from steelworks were taken to a hospital in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk, some 32 km (20 miles) to the east, while another 211 people were taken to the town of Olenivka, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
All of the evacuees will be subject to a potential prisoner exchange with Russia, she added.
Some 600 troops were believed to have been inside the steel plant. Ukraine’s military said efforts were under way to evacuate those still inside.
“We hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an early morning address. “There are severely wounded ones among them. They’re receiving care. Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive.”
Reuters saw five buses carrying troops from Azovstal arrive in Novoazovsk late on Monday. In one, marked with Z – a symbol for Russia’s invasion – men were stacked on stretchers on three levels. One man was wheeled out, his head tightly wrapped in thick bandages.
LVIV EXPLOSIONS, KHARKIV FIGHTING
Moscow calls its nearly three-month-old invasion a “special military operation” to rid Ukraine of fascists, an assertion Kyiv and its Western allies say is a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war.
Russia’s invading forces have run into apparent setbacks, with troops forced out of the north and the environs of Kyiv in late March. A Ukrainian counterattack in recent days has driven Russian forces out of the area near Kharkiv, the biggest city in the east.
Areas around Kyiv and the western city of Lviv, near the Polish border, have continued to come under Russian attack. A series of explosions struck Lviv early on Tuesday, a Reuters witness said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
On Monday, Ukraine’s defence ministry said troops had advanced all the way to the Russian border, about 40 km north of Kharkiv.
The successes near Kharkiv could let Ukraine attack supply lines for Russia’s main offensive, grinding on further south in the Donbas region, where Moscow has been launching mass assaults for a month yet achieving only small gains.
PUTIN CLIMBDOWN OVER NATO
Russia has faced massive sanctions for its actions in Ukraine, but EU foreign ministers failed to pressure Hungary to lift its veto of a proposed oil embargo.
McDonald’s Corp on Monday became one of the biggest global brands to exit Russia, laying out plans to sell all its restaurants after operating in the country for more than 30 years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared on Monday to climb down from threats to retaliate against Sweden and Finland for announcing plans to join the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.
“As far as expansion goes, including new members Finland and Sweden, Russia has no problems with these states – none. And so in this sense there is no immediate threat to Russia from an expansion to include these countries,” Putin said.
The comments appeared to mark a major shift in rhetoric, after years of casting NATO enlargement as a direct threat to Russia’s security, including citing it as a justification for the invasion of Ukraine itself.
Putin said NATO enlargement was being used by the United States in an “aggressive” way to aggravate an already difficult global security situation, and that Russia would respond if the alliance moves weapons or troops forward.
“The expansion of military infrastructure into this territory would certainly provoke our response. What that (response) will be – we will see what threats are created for us,” Putin said.
Finland and Sweden, both non-aligned throughout the Cold War, say they now want the protection offered by NATO’s treaty, under which an attack on any member is an attack on all.
“We are leaving one era behind us and entering a new one,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets in Kyiv and a Reuters journalist in Novoazovsk; Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Rami Ayyub and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates)
Russian Allies Get Tongue-Lashing at Putin’s Ultimate Pity Party
Shannon Vavra – May 16, 2022
Twitter
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting of the Russian-led military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), on Monday on the 30th anniversary of its founding—but the meeting was anything but celebratory.
Instead, the heads of state from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, which make up the collective defense organization, akin to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, went to the Kremlin Monday in Moscow to lament the world’s response to Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, sitting in a massive room with sweeping high ceilings and ornate, gold-covered walls, whined about “hellish” sanctions from the West and efforts to isolate Russia and Belarus—which has been supporting Putin’s military moves in Ukraine—from the rest of the world.
“Belarus and Russia… are being defamed and excluded from international organizations at the whim of the West,” Lukashenko said.
In a joint statement, the CSTO also stated that it is concerned about “external borders of the CSTO,” noting that they maintain “readiness to ensure the security of the borders.”
But Lukashenko complained that the members of the alliance haven’t been banding behind Russia as much as they should, especially as Russia works to address NATO’s expansion, a common argument Russian officials and allies have been using to justify the war in Ukraine. In a likely reference to Finland and Sweden expressing interest in joining NATO, Lukashenko called for more support as NATO’s threats continue, from “NATO saber-rattling near our western borders to a full-scale hybrid war unleashed against us,” according to Interfax.
“Russia should not fight alone against the expansion of NATO,” he said.
Putin himself complained about a “surge in frenzied Russophobia in the so-called civilized and politically correct Western countries,” and promised the expansion of NATO would “certainly evoke a response on our part. We will see what it will be like based on the threats that are created for us.”
Putin also demanded that his counterparts do more for Russia in the future, citing what he claimed was “documentary evidence” found during the invasion in Ukraine that he said allegedly shows that “components of biological weapons were developed in close proximity to our borders.”
To respond to those alleged biological weapons threats—threats Putin has said Russia has faced for some time—Putin rallied CSTO members during the meeting to agree to demonstrate their combined military might by running joint CSTO exercises this fall in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
“Efforts to maintain biological security also require the most serious attention,” he said.
Putin also seemed to be pushing his counterparts to prop up his bogus justification for conducting the “special” military operation in Ukraine—to denazify the country.
“I would like to highlight our priority task of jointly defending the memory of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the feat of our peoples who saved the world from Nazism at the cost of enormous and irreparable sacrifices, and to counteract any attempts to whitewash the Nazis, their accomplices and modern followers,” Putin said, noting that he thinks Ukrainians are glorifying Nazis at the state level.
After the summit, the group noted in a statement that other countries have been critical of Russia’s false claim that it invaded Ukraine to try to denazify the country, insisting that it is indeed the aim of the war, rather than a false pretense to invade.
We “strongly condemn any attempts to falsify historical events related to our common contribution to countering Nazi aggression,” the CSTO said in a statement. “We express serious concern in connection with attempts to ban symbols associated with the Victory over Nazism.”
The Putin-centric pity party comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its 82nd day, with no end in sight—the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessed last week the war, which has shifted to the east of Ukraine, has nearly reached a “stalemate.”
Putin’s military continues to flounder in Ukraine. As of Monday, Russian forces have lost 27,700 troops, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in an analysis Monday.
But even though the fighting is reaching a protracted state, the Biden administration is still focused on providing security assistance to Ukraine to help thwart Russian attacks. The administration has already provided $300 million in security assistance to Ukraine just this fiscal year, with more expected soon.
Putin’s CSTO pity party bemoaned the west’s military assistance to Ukraine, which the U.S. Defense Department has assessed has helped the Ukrainians’ resistance to Russian advances in the war.
“So far, in the West, including in Washington, we see only a desire to prolong the conflict as much as possible,” Lukashenko said, referring to military aid. “The goals are clear: to weaken Russia as much as possible.”
Nonetheless, the aid is set to keep flowing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed other weapons and security assistance during a meeting this weekend in Berlin with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. And later this week, the Senate is expected to vote on $40 billion of aid to Ukraine, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Saturday.
