Probably the only county with an excuse not to send any weapons, etc. They've got to deal with Kim...though it's not like they don't get their stuff from the US and unlike Ukraine, they've got US troops there. "Volodymyr Zelensky asks South Korea for weapons From CNN's Yoonjung Seo and Gawon Bae in Seoul, South Korea Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has used his address to South Korea's parliament on Monday to ask for weapons to aid his country's defense against Russia -- even though South Korea's Defence Ministry has denied the request earlier. "Ukraine needs support for its military, including planes and tanks," Zelensky told lawmakers"
Cnn live "Russian shelling continues in Donetsk and Luhansk, UK Ministry of Defense says From CNN's From Sarah Diab in London Shelling by Russian armed forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine continued on Monday, according to a report by the UK Ministry of Defense. Ukrainian forces have repulsed several assaults resulting in the destruction of Russian tanks, vehicles, and artillery equipment, according to the assessment. The UK report has also said that Russia's prior use of phosphorous munitions in Donetsk "raises the possibility of their future employment in Mariupol as fighting for the city intensifies.” According to Human Rights Watch, "white phosphorus can burn people to the bone, smolder inside the body, and reignite when bandages are removed." The munitions are either banned or circumscribed under international law in populated areas."
High school kids being brats & snitches, turned their teacher in. Better details in the article. Cnn live "Russian teacher says students reported her for making anti-war comments in class room From CNN’s Maija Ehlinger, Susanna Capelouto, and Josh Pennington In an audio recording published on Telegram on March 31, a student is heard asking Gen why Russia had been banned from the upcoming multi-sport European Championships. "So long as Russia doesn’t behave itself in a civilized manner, this will go on forever," Gen replied in the recording. "They began to bomb Western Ukraine ... They wanted to get to Kyiv, to overthrow Zelensky and the government. This is, by the way, a sovereign state. There’s a sovereign government there." "Well, we don’t know all the particulars," a female student said. "Exactly! You (plural) don’t know anything. In fact, you don’t know anything at all," Gen replied. "We've got a totalitarian regime here in place. Any kind of dissidence is regarded a thought crime. We all will be sent away for 15 years." The conversation was recorded on March 18, according to Gen's interview with Radio Liberty. She believes her students' parents "persuaded the children to make a recording, which would be handed over to the authorities." Authorities alerted: Gen said a Russian Federal Security officer came to the school on March 23, and told her she "had made a big mistake" by telling the students about Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure including the bombings in Mariupol — which Russian authorities have denied."
I wonder if they did, would we still just sit here and do nothing? Would Jake Sullivan offer platitudes and suggest that Finland and Sweden just negotiate away some territory? Would he just want to turn the page as quickly as possible so we can get back to the “real” threats to national security of climate change and white supremacy?
I also feel Russia May be waiting to really unleash its attacks en masse ala 1943-45. It could also depend on whether the Russians care about rebuilding what they destroy.
But this approach runs contrary to Putin’s statement that he expects to reach his full objective by May 9. He has put his army on a tight time-frame which does not bode well for this approach. Also, if this is implemented, you might see Western countries giving in and proving jets and the War will turn to the skies. Ukraine will do everything positive to win the air and blow the artillery away.
Russia being Russia "9 volunteer drivers on rescue mission to Mariupol detained by Russian forces, aid group says From CNN's Jake Tapper Nine drivers working for "Help People," a Ukrainian volunteer group that provides food and medicine for those in need and assists in evacuations, were detained by the Russian military and remain missing, a group official told CNN. A total of 10 minibus drivers had driven into the Donbas region to help evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol, operating private vehicles in a low-profile rescue mission. Russian soldiers stopped them and tried to get them to drive the buses into Russia. When the drivers refused, they were taken prisoner, said Alex Voronin, the head of the non-government organization. "All of them carried out the evacuation of people in the direction of Mariupol-Zaporizhzhia, they were sent on their trips on different dates — March 26, 27 and 31," Voronin told CNN. "Communication with them broke off the next day after departure. According to the people they managed to evacuate, the Russian military took the vehicles with people in Mariupol from the drivers, the evacuees were taken to the village of Nikolske, the drivers themselves were taken away for identification. Some of them are being held in pre-trial detention centers in Donetsk." One of the 10 drivers was released, Voronin told CNN, and from him "we know that three of the missing are in Donetsk. They were interrogated with brute force, fed poorly and kept in appalling conditions. All the rest were told they have the right to keep [in detention] up to 30 days.""
(Meeting actually already ended...rather short one) "Meeting between Putin and Austria's chancellor is underway From CNN's Nadine Schmidt A top Austrian official said Nehammer intends to tell Putin “the truth” about the war during their face to face meeting. Some background: Nehammer's trip to Moscow is significant given his country's neutral status, which is enshrined in its constitution. Austria is not part of NATO and does not supply weapons to Ukraine. It has, however, provided Ukraine with humanitarian aid and helmets and protection vests for civilian use, according to a statement from the Austrian Chancellery. Nehammer said Saturday that while his country is militarily neutral, "we understand we have to help where injustice and war crimes take place.""
Nothing would please me more than to see Putin and his generals have learned nothing from this debacle and execute an operational design centered around deep armor penetration where time has priority. The Ukrainians will have to bring in engineers to clear the stacks of Russian dead. But I won’t bet that way. As I’ve said, the Russians do learn. I hope our government adjusts its approach before Putin does. We need to get Ukraine the weapons, including the fighter aircraft, now … not after Russia figures out how to leverage its advantages. And we need to build up U.S. air, land, and naval power in Eastern Europe now. Even if there really are no circumstances in which we would intervene, let’s make Putin less certain of it. If he thinks he only has certain amount of time before the U.S. says enough is enough, then he might just keep making dumb, impatient decisions that allow Ukraine an opportunity to win by themselves.
They've already found mass graves of Russian soldiers. Won't even take their boys home to their families!
Many more signals come from Russia itself: The state Duma, the lower house of parliament, said it was considering legislation that would declare all Russian speakers “compatriots” of the state and worthy of Russia’s protection, and former President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said last week that the goal of the Ukraine war is for “the opportunity to finally build an open Eurasia — from Lisbon to Vladivostok.” That is what we are dealing with here.....
You know your military is doing a poor job of attacking a country when the British PM feels safe enough to visit the country under attack.
I posted on this the end of last week. They haven’t defaulted yet because they have 30 days, but it’s a likely default. Their currency assets are busy propping up the ruble, so they can either default, or pull money from their ruble support to pay in dollars and watch the ruble tank again, which would make the payment amounts skyrocket in the conversion, as well as anything else imported or denominated outside of the ruble. They will choose default almost certainly (if for no other reason than to stick it to western financial firms who will be out the money), but will basically be shut off from the credit market for the rest of Putin’s tenure. China would be their only hope for credit, but they don’t want sanctions either. So good luck.
Putin has stepped into a huge pile of dog poo and doesn’t have a way to clean off his shoes before tracking it into his own home. I’m really concerned how this ends.
I think the fear was the US would be seen as going right at Russia with that move, and would force Russia to do something stupid.
