The Biden administration is spewing ridiculous fearmongering propaganda:
Wow. Biden at a Dem fundraiser tonight: “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis.” He says Putin is “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical,” nuclear or biological weapons because his military is underperforming.
A copy of the pool report can be seen here. It quotes Biden as saying:
Putin is not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is you might say is significantly underperforming.
Fact is that Putin has not talked about the “potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons.” Not. At. All. On Sep 21, Putin announced a partial mobilization of reservists. In his TV speech he mentioned nuclear weapons only with regards to ‘Western’ threats of using them:
They have even resorted to the nuclear blackmail. I am referring not only to the Western-encouraged shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which poses a threat of a nuclear disaster, but also to the statements made by some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO countries on the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, against Russia. I would like to remind those who make such statements regarding Russia that our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff. The citizens of Russia can rest assured that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be defended, I repeat, by all the systems available to us. Those who are using nuclear blackmail against us should know that the wind rose can turn around.
Note that Putin does not mention Russia’s nuclear weapons. He instead emphasizes that Russia has new ‘different’ weapons that are ‘more modern’ than those of the ‘West.’ He means hypersonic missiles which can avoid ‘western’ air defenses and hit decision centers in Brussels, London and Washington even without nuclear warheads. Also for the record: Russia has signed and ratified the Biological Weapons Convention which prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological weapons. Russia has also signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. In Nov 2017 it destroyed its last (Soviet) chemical weapons as mandated by the convention. It is the US that still has not destroyed its chemicial weapons. After Putin’s speech some warmongering noise that distorted Putin’s speech was made by the White House. A few days later the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dimitry Medevedev, set the record straight. There are only two distinct conditions under which Russia would ever use nuclear weapons. Medvedev said in a post on Telegram:
Let’s imagine that Russia is forced to use the most fearsome weapon against the Ukrainian regime, which had committed a large-scale act of aggression that is dangerous for the very existence of our state, “in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy.” I have to remind you again, for those deaf ears who hear only themselves. Russia has the right to use nuclear weapons if necessary, in predetermined cases and in strict compliance with state policy.
Scott Ritter, who knows a bit about nuclear deterrence, has explained Russia’s nuclear doctrine:
NATO and Ukraine both believe that the Russian forces, even after receiving the 300k mobilized troops, will not be able to defeat Ukraine. This inability to achieve the desired objectives, they believe, will compel Russia to resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons on Ukrainian targets in order to break the will to resist on the part of the Zelensky government. The reality, however, is that Russian nuclear doctrine does not allow for such a scenario. The 2020 Russian Nuclear Posture document states that there are only two conditions where Russian nuclear doctrine permits the employment of nuclear weapons: “In response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies, or in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy.” US nuclear posture, however, does allow it.
All the warmongering talk and reports about Russia’s alleged threat of nuclear weapon use in Ukraine is totally unfounded. That ‘western’mediasuddenlyengageinit shows that it is part of a well-directed propaganda campaign.
Meanwhile the Ukrainian comedian has called for ‘preemptive’ nuclear strikes on Russia. He said on Thursday, speaking via video link at Australia’s Lowy Institute:
NATO should make it impossible for Russia to use nuclear weapons. Preemptive strikes are needed so that they know what awaits them if they use nuclear weapons. Not the other way around, waiting for Russia’s nuclear strikes and then saying, ‘oh, you’ve done that, then get this.’
‘Western’ media know that such a call is a big faux pas and lie about Zelenski’s request:
Hill publishes fake translation of #Zelenskyy speech: "Zelensky calls for ‘preventive action’ to deter Russian nuclear strikes." In fact, he referred in Ukrainian to "preventive strikes" and not "preventive action." https://t.co/ThlFR2mxB5
One must ask what this propaganda campaign about a non existing threat is really about. Could it be in preparation of a false flag incident in which a US or British nuclear device is used in Ukraine to then blame it on Russia as the pretext of an all out military engagement in Ukraine?
Setting off a tactical nuclear weapon as a pretext for a direct US and Polish military incursion into Western Ukraine, perhaps to preserve a Ukrainian rump state there, in the event that Kiev looks likely to fall somewhere down the line in the conflict. False flags and/or WMDs are after all the indisputable standard US MO and playbook for pretexts for military action, from the Spanish American War to Vietnam to Iraq to Syria. The Pentagon has been openly and proudly developing and deploying what they call “more usable” battlefield nuclear weapons, specifically for use against Russia and China. And the US is the only country in history to have used nuclear weapons in war on another state, on entire Japanese cities full of people, actually. Or possibly, could this be dog-whistle signaling to the Zelenskiy regime or neo-Nazi forces in Ukraine about just how to generate the extremis conditions to allow the US to jump directly into the conflict, much like how the US did the same with jihadi forces and chemical weapons “red lines” in Syria.
With Zelenski becoming increasingly unhinged, the ‘west’ should be careful what it wishes for.
Near Svatovo and Kreminnaya, the AFRF continue to hold defense against the background of the enemy’s accumulation of forces for strikes to the north and south of Svatovo. The frontal assault on Svatovo and Kremennaya is unlikely. It is also unlikely that the AFRF will attack Krasny Liman at the current stage. Near Artemovsk, our troops made progress in Otradovka and Zaitsevo. They took Odradivka, Zaitsevo will be taken tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. After that, the direct assault of Artemovsk will become relevant. In the Nikopol direction, the enemy is probing a new line of defense in order to continue the offensive on Berislav. We can expect the continuation of active offensive actions of the AFU in the next few days plus auxiliary strikes in the Posad-Pokrovsky direction. The enemy is building up the group in the Zaporozhye direction. Potential directions of blows – Vasilyevka, Tokmak, Pologs. There is a recurrence of river landing attempts at the ZNPP. In the Donetsk direction, it is reported that our troops were progressed in the area of Pervomaysk. In Avdiivka, Maryinka, Ugledar, the situation is unchanged. Also without significant changes in Soledar and in the ruins of Spirne. I remind you that the main coverage of the fighting is in Telegram https://t.me/boris_rozhin, not in LiveJournal. Who is interested in following, subscribe. There are more than enough materials on the SMO there. Some particularly gifted characters are not able to realize this, so we said goodbye to them. Nothing will change in this approach until the end of the war. Once again, I remind you that it’s not a restaurant in the style of what you want, but a Soviet dining room. More systematic output of summary reports will resume after I return to Sevastopol.
Zelensky Called On Nato To Launch Preemptive Nuclear Strikes Against Russia South Front, Oct 7 2022
On Oct 7, Zelensky demanded NATO to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against Russia and not to wait until Russian nuclear strikes. Zelensky said:
What should NATO do? Exclude the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons… Preemptive strikes so that they know what will happen to them if they do use them. That’s what NATO should do: review the order of use.
Moscow assessed his demands as call for the outbreak of World War, making Kiev’s Western patrol liable for the escalation. The West is inflaming a nuclear war, and the unstable puppet Zelensky has turned into a monster whose hands can destroy the planet, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign ministry responded. Here is the response by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov:
After the four former regions of Ukraine entered the Russian Federation, Moscow clarified that it can use all means to protect its territories, including the nuclear weapons. At the same time, it was noted that their deployment is only possible in accordance to the Russian military doctrine and the fundamental laws of state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence. Thus, their deployment is possible in the case of aggression against Russia or its allies with the use of weapons of mass destruction, or aggression with the use of conventional weapons, when the existence of the state itself is threatened. Blaming Russia, the Kiev regime called on NATO to launch preemptive strikes, inflaming the global war.
The Kiev regime’s pleas to get long-range munitions from the US seem to have been answered. Although neither side has yet confirmed which type of munitions have been delivered, sources from the Pentagon are suggesting the Neo-Nazi junta is already in possession of weapons that can target Crimea. DASD for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs Laura Cooper confirmed this during a press briefing. However, it seems the Kiev regime forces still haven’t received the Army Tactical Missile Systems, but an updated version of the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System. Intelligence sources suggest these are not the standard M30 and M31 munitions, but that the US has secretly transferred the new ER-GMLRS rockets. The exact number of these rockets is very difficult to determine, considering that production began only in the spring of this year. The ATACMS missile which the Kiev regime has been asking for months can hit targets up to 300 km away, while the regular GMLRS rockets (the aforementioned M30 and M31) used by the Kiev regime forces have a maximum effective range of approximately 80 km. On the other hand, ER-GMLRS rockets have an extended range of up to 150 km. The first successful test flight of an ER-GMLRS occurred in Mar 2021. At the time, Lockheed Martin anticipated it would be able to start production in 2023, but it seems the plans have been accelerated earlier this year. In recent months, there have been several reports that the Kiev regime forces are using some kind of long-range munitions for the US-supplied M142 HIMARS MLRS, the range of which exceeds the capabilities of M30 and M31 rockets. Cooper’s statement is the first confirmation by a US official that such munitions are being used.
The Russian government has warned that such actions will not be tolerated and will be seen as a direct hostile act by anyone supplying such weapons. However, the Kiev regime decided to go a step further. According to multiple sources who have been interviewed by CNN, the neo-Nazi junta wants to give the US control over which Russian assets would be targeted. The proposal was made in an attempt to receive longer-range missiles, most likely the ATACMS. And while the mainstream propaganda machine claims this is being done to supposedly “avoid escalation,” it would accomplish the exact opposite and cause swift retribution from Moscow. To make matters worse, says CNN:
Zelensky wants to provide a full list of possible targets while allowing the White House to veto any of the potential sites. Zelensky is hoping the increased transparency will pave the path to Biden authorizing more weapons transfers.
The troubled Biden administration is claiming it wants the Kiev regime to “refrain from targeting Russian territory.” However, the US and Russia currently have very different views on what “proper” Russian territory is. After the political West staged the 2014 neo-Nazi coup, the people of Crimea held a referendum and voted to join Russia. Last week, four additional regions (DNR, LNR, Zaporozhye and Kherson oblasts) followed suit. Although the US, UK, EU and the Kiev regime refused to accept the will of the people in these areas, Moscow isn’t interested in the opinions of the political West and will continue with the integration process. The Russian government already confirmed that it views the four regions as its own and that it will respond to any attack on the country’s territory, regardless of who might be the perpetrator. The US claims it has provided at least 16 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to the Kiev regime forces and is planning to send approximately a dozen more. The neo-Nazi junta has already used these to target residential areas in Donbass and elsewhere in Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, causing dozens if not hundreds of civilian casualties. Moscow gave multiple warnings that this will not be tolerated anymore, while Lavrov repeatedly stated that if the political West provides the Kiev regime with longer-range weapons, the Russian military will be forced to “expand the scope” of its special military operation. In July, Lavrov authored a piece in which he claimed that NATO was essentially already a party to the conflict and that it was coordinating attacks on Russian units. Lavrov said:
NATO instructors and MLRS aimers are apparently already directing the actions of the AFU and nationalist battalions on the ground.
In addition to regular CIA presence on the ground in Ukraine, special forces from Lithuania, Canada, the UK, France and several other NATO member states are also present. Many former US special operators are also present on the ground near the contact line, embedded within various mercenary and “volunteer” groups, training the Kiev regime forces and working on tactical battle plans. It is impossible to imagine their presence is accidental or unknown in the US. What’s more, the Biden administration has repeatedly stated it wants to see Russia “defeated.” Blinken declared that the goal was to “see Russia suffer a strategic defeat in Ukraine,” while Austin gave a similar statement about “the necessity of seeing a weakened Russia.” Other Western officials such as Truss have also said that “diplomacy should not be considered until Moscow is defeated.”
On the morning of Oct 7, the AFU hit the city of Kherson with foreign high-precision weapons, killing civilians. Ukrainian forces launched a strike from the US-made HIMARS MLRS on the Daryevsky Bridge area in the Kherson region. One of the missiles hit a bus with civilians. As a result, five civilians were killed and five others were wounded. Deputy head of the regional administration Kirill Stremousov clarified that Ukrainian forces did not target the Daryevsky Bridge but they deliberately hit the bus with civilians. Stremousov said:
They targeted the bus, because the strike hit literally 1.5 meters from the bus and somewhere about 800 meters from the ferry crossing. That is, the ferry is located almost a kilometer from the place where the rocket arrived. They deliberately hit the bus. It was not an accident and we did not hit our own citizens. This is of course absurd.
The US insists on escalating the situation in Ukraine and deteriorating the global security crisis. On Oct 4, the US government announced another package of military aid to Kiev valued at more than $625m. Despite the country being under a serious political, social and economic crisis with the public debt exceeding $30t, supporting Kiev’s neo-Nazi regime is the #1 priority of the unpopular Biden administration. However, more serious than the mere act of helping Ukraine is the type of assistance that has been provided. A few months ago, the US began sending M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to Ukraine, ignoring several Russian requests that such weapons not be supplied to Kiev. At the time, American officials stated that such weapons would be used by their partners only within Ukrainian territorial limits, not hitting targets in Russia.
The problem is that the US does not recognize Russian sovereignty over the recently reintegrated regions and not even over Crimea, which in 2014 was admitted as part of Russia after the popular will in this sense was attested by referendum. With that, the impasse remains: for the US, weapons can be used within the entire territorial limit that Kiev claims to have, which includes Russian areas. Shortly after the announcement of the latest aid package by the Biden government, DASD for Russian, Ukrainian and European Affairs Laura Cooper commented on the case and emphasized the ability of the weapons provided to reach Russian Crimea. She said:
It’s our assessment that with the existing GMLRS capability that they have on the HIMARS and that we’re providing more of, with this package, that they can reach the vast majority of targets on the battlefield, including Crimea. This package is valued at up to $625m and will contribute to meeting Ukraine’s critical defense needs.
It is well known that such weapons, depending on where they are located, could reach Crimea. What was expected was the American willingness to demand from its Ukrainian proxies a rational posture, limiting the use of lethal equipment to zones within the disputed territory. Crimea is not even a conflict zone, as Russian sovereignty in the region has been pacified since 2014. Hitting Crimea, as Ukrainian forces have already done several times and Russia ignored in order to avoid escalation, is an offensive upon Russian territory. And Cooper’s words at this point sound like a kind of authorization by Washington for this type of conduct to be carried out by Kiev. In fact, the situation is more serious than that. The justification for this recent package was the US perceived need to react to the Russian referenda, considered by the West as an illegal maneuver. This was confirmed by Blinken himself, who commented on the package stating:
Recent developments, from Russia’s sham referenda and attempted annexation to new revelations of brutality against civilians in Ukrainian territory formerly controlled by Russia, only strengthen our resolve.
In practice, the statements by Cooper and Blinken only confirm that the US will not respect the popular decision of the peoples of those regions to be part of Russia, and therefore there is no requirement on the part of Washington for Kiev to limit its attack capacity. Bombings against Kherson, Zaparozhye, Donetsk, Lugansk and even Crimea are authorized and are even encouraged by the West as a way of ending what is considered an illegal Russian occupation. A more flexible stance on the part of the West could be achieved if there was a diplomatic disposition. Not having recognition does not mean allowing bombings and encouraging destabilization. It would be absolutely possible for Washington, even not recognizing the legitimacy of Russian sovereignty in these regions, to prevent Kiev from bombing them, just in order to avoid an even greater military escalation. However, for the US and NATO decelerating the conflict and seeking peace was never a priority. The West seems really ready to take the fighting to its ultimate consequences, as long as Russia continues to be confronted and attacked in every possible way. The conflict radically changes its nature from the moment the Russian Federation becomes the target of attacks. The special military operation for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine now coexists with an operation for the territorial defense of regions that are part of Russia. Protecting territorial integrity is a top priority for any national state. Moscow will certainly take all necessary measures to prevent its reintegrated regions from being bombed by foreign regimes.
Eight months into its disastrous war in Ukraine, the Putin regime is facing a severe political crisis. The mobilization of 300k reservists in response to a massive military debacle in northeastern Ukraine in September has aggravated an already far-reaching socioeconomic crisis while escalating frictions within the ruling elites and state apparatus. To avoid being mobilized, more privileged layers of the middle class have left the country in a panic, with reports suggesting that as many as 400k men have fled to neighboring countries. In an indication of the social layer involved, Der Spiegel ran a portrait of two young men involved in a bitcoin company who made it to Georgia, under the headline “Latte Macchiato in Tiflis.” Prior to their flight, they had each been earning $5k a month in Russia, more than many workers make in an entire year. The vast majority of the Russian working population, by contrast, is left to face the devastating economic fallout from both the economic warfare by the imperialist powers and the mobilization drive. Those drafted have to pay for their own uniforms, which can cost up to $3k, and first-aid kits. The mobilization of thousands of working-age men will also leave their families without the main income earners of the household.
The ongoing military route of Russian forces in Ukraine is a result both of the imperialist build-up of the Ukrainian army into a formidable modern fighting force, and the disastrous miscalculations of the Kremlin, which launched the invasion of Ukraine in February believing that it could force the imperialist powers to the negotiating table. Instead, NATO has used the provoked invasion as the welcome pretext to launch a full-scale war against Russia, in which the Ukrainian armed forces are but a proxy. Already, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers are estimated to have been killed and wounded. Media reports indicate that in the North Caucasian republic of Dagestan, where a particularly large number of men had signed up as contractors with the Russian army to escape poverty, virtually every single village has reported battlefield dead. As one military debacle has followed another, with Russia losing more territory over the past week in the very regions it now seeks to annex, the Ministry of Defense and general staff have come under almost constant fire from military figures and politicians, including Putin himself.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov openly attacked the Ministry of Defense in the aftermath of the fall of Lyman this weekend. Kadyrov declared that he could not understand “what the Ministry of Defense is reporting to the commander-in-chief,” adding that “more radical measures, including the deployment of low-yield nuclear wepaons” should be taken. Shortly after these statements, Putin promoted Kadyrov to the rank of colonel general, his second promotion in the military ranks this year. On Wednesday, General Andrei Kartapolov, who is the current head of the State Duma’s Committee for Defense and the former deputy defense minister, demanded that the Ministry of Defense “stop lying” about the state of the war. He warned that their ongoing “lies” would make the population lose confidence in the Kremlin. He then compared the severity of the situation to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in WW2, stating:
Today the enemy is on our soil as well. And I’m not even talking about the newly-acquired subjects of the Russian Federation. Practically all the border villages of the Belgorod region have been destroyed. Our city of Valuiki, about 15 km from the Ukrainian border, is under constant fire.
On Thursday, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy governor of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, which Russia is now annexing, attacked Shoigu, declaring:
Many people are saying that as an officer, the defense minister could simply shoot himself for being the one who let things get to this state.
On Wednesday, Putin joined the public attacks on the Ministry of Defense, blaming the military leadership for “mistakes” made during the mobilization drive. Contrary to Putin’s initial announcement that only those who have combat experience would be mobilized, thousands of Russians, including many who are elderly, sick or fathers of many children, received draft notices even though they had been promised to be exempted. Thousands are now reportedly being sent home after having received draft notices “by mistake.” Media reports on Thursday indicate that regional governors have initiated a purge of lower-ranking military personnel responsible for overseeing mobilization in the provinces. Since the beginning of the war, Russian generals and top officials of the Ministry of Defense have barely appeared in public. The Russian press now speculates that the public criticism of the Ministry of Defense by the Kremlin could be the precursor to a significant reshuffle of the military leadership. As frictions within the Russian elites and state apparatus are emerging into the open, Washington and its allies in the Russian and Ukrainian oligarchy have clearly stepped up their efforts at a regime change in Moscow. Zelensky notably responded to Putin’s move to annex the four regions in East Ukraine by insisting that there would be no more negotiations with Russia as long as Putin was president. The Ukrainian government has since issued a decree, formally banning any negotiations by Kiev with the Kremlin under Putin.
On Sep 30, the day of Putin’s annexation speech, the WaPo published a lengthy op-ed by the imprisoned Alexei Navalny, the figurehead of the pro-NATO so-called liberal opposition to the Putin regime. In the piece, Navalny effectively called for NATO to adopt regime change in Russia as the official strategic goal of this war. Navalny’s calls for the institution of a “parliamentary democracy” in Russia as the outcome of such a regime change are of course no less a fraud than the “bombing for democracy” narrative that served as the basis for virtually every US war in the MENA in the past decades. The result of this imperialist operation would be even more disastrous, leading to the carve-up and a series of civil wars in the largest country in the world, with a large, multiethnic population of over 140m and the world’s second largest nuclear arsenal. With his usual bluntness, John Bolton, a leading figure in the US national security establishment under Bush 43 and Trump 45, spelled out the critical role of the Russian military in what he openly described as a coup. In a piece this week, Bolton wrote:
It is from the colonels and one-star generals, and their civilian-agency equivalents, where the most-likely co-conspirators to take matters into their own hands. These are the decision-makers whom the dissidents must identify, persuade and support to facilitate regime change.
Ultimately, the social layers that the imperialist powers base themselves on in their regime change operation are the same social layers that the oligarchic Putin regime is based on as well: the oligarchy, the state and military apparatus and layers of the upper middle class. Like the Putin regime itself, its opponents in the ruling class and state have emerged out of the Stalinist reaction against the October revolution which culminated in the restoration of capitalism and destruction of the Soviet Union in 1991. While the liberal opposition is advocating a direct alignment with US imperialism, they share with the Putin regime a deep-rooted fear and hatred of the working class. Workers must respond to this immense crisis and the war by developing their own, independent opposition to the Putin regime. This requires unequivocal opposition to the machinations of the imperialist powers and their proxies in the Russian oligarchy and state apparatus, and the building of a socialist leadership in the working class, that is, a Russian section of the International Committee of the Fourth International.
Congressional leaders of both parties welcome members of neo-Nazi Azov Battalion to Washington Jacob Crosse, WSWS, Oct 7 2022
Last month leading members of both US political parties met with high-ranking soldiers of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion at the Capitol in Washington. The week-long meetings in Washington by the fascist delegations, who were warmly greeted by Republican and Democratic politicians alike, have gone virtually unreported in the press. In their posts first exposing the visit, journalist Moss Robeson revealed:
One of the Azov soldiers that visited the Capitol was Giorgi Kuparashvili, a co-founder of the Azov Regiment and the leader of its Yevhen Konovalets Military School, named for the founder of the fascistic Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.
The Azov Battalion was founded in 2014 by white supremacist Andrei Biletsky. The organization is teeming with fascists and racists who idolize Stepan Bandera, a fascist who as a member of the OUN-B collaborated with the Waffen SS during WW2 in carrying out the Holocaust in Ukraine. The embrace of neo-Nazis in the Capitol by both big-business parties obliterates any pretense that the US government is fighting for democracy or human rights in Ukraine or anywhere else. In publicly available Telegram posts the Association of Families of Azovstal Defenders, an organization comprised of family members of Azov soldiers, boasted that Kateryna Prokopenko, Yuliya Fedosyuk and Alla Somilenko joined Azov soldiers, Kupraashvili, Vladyslav Zhaivoronka and Artur Lypka in holding face-to-face meetings with Democratic and Republican legislators alike. Kateryna Prokopenko is the leader of the Association of Families of Azovstal Defenders and is the wife of Denys Prokopenko, an Azov commander. Yuliya Fedosyuk is the leader of an anti-feminist group linked to Azov, according to Bellingcat journalist Alexei Kuzmenko.
The meetings are part of a US and global tour that is being conducted by the groups to build support in Washington, and abroad, for more direct military funding to the Ukrainian military, including the Azov Battalion. Since 2018, Azov has been nominally barred from receiving direct funding and training from the US military. However, since the reactionary Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, the US government, with media partners, has embarked on a historical whitewash of the organization’s neo-Nazi past in order to reverse this ban in name only. Beginning in a Sep 20 Telegram post and continuing throughout the week, the Association of Families of Azovstal Defenders wrote their delegation and Azov soldiers met with “a number of American congressmen.” In a Sep 20 photo, the fascists boast that they were met “at the Capitol” by Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy along with over 20 other representatives, Republican and Democratic alike.
Several US representatives meeting with Azov soldiers and supporters in the Capitol, Sep 20 2022
In addition to McCarthy, other Republican congressmen who met with Azov fascists last month include Texas Republicans Dan Crenshaw, Pete Sessions, Tony Gonzales and Michael McCaul. McCaul is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs committee.
Rep Dan Crenshaw hosting neo-Nazis in his congressional office, Sep 23 2022
Describing the warm reception they received on Capitol Hill, the Association of Families of Defenders of Azovstal said:
The congressmen, in particular veterans of the US Army, expressed their admiration for the victory of the Azov regiment and declared full support for our Azovstal defenders, They were especially interested in the topic of the defense of Mariupol. In general, American representatives expressed their sincere support to our delegation and Ukraine as a whole and assured that they have no doubts about the victory of our country in this war, and also repeatedly emphasized their admiration for the heroic Azov regiment.
On Sep 21, Senator Rick Scott was photographed meeting with the delegation.
Sen Rick Scott meets with members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, Sep 21 2022
While she did not meet with Azov members in Washington, “CIA Democrat” Mikie Sherrill was photographed with members of Azov in her home district last month.
Rep Mikie Sherrill meeting with a delegation of Azov soldiers in New Jersey, Sep 26 2022
In Washington, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff was photographed with members of Azov and the Ukrainian military in the Capitol.
Rep Adam Schiff meets with members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battallion at the Capitol
Michigan Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin, another CIA Democrat, was not photographed with members of Azov, but did meet separately with another contingent of Ukrainian soldiers whose visit, not coincidentally, overlapped with the fascists.
It is always a great pleasure to meet with a big friend of Ukraine @RepSlotkin! These women talked ofcourse about modern tanks & armored infantry vehicles. Ukrainian army dreams about Bradleys and Abrams tanks. Armored evacuation vehicles for our combat medics could save wounded pic.twitter.com/NJZA8rVFlx
This separate Ukrainian military contingent, as revealed in a Twitter thread by Daria Kaleniuk, an executive director at an “anti-corruption” national government organization in Kyiv, met with several US senators over the exact same week members of Azov were in Washington. The female Ukrainian soldiers were photographed with Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Joni Ernst (R-IA).
Ukrainian women soldiers just finished a very intense 1-week visit to Washington DC. It was an honor for me & @MarushevskaY to assist the delegation sent by the order of General Zaluzhnyi upon the invitation of @IRIglobal. Below is a quick report from the visit👇 pic.twitter.com/BP8R0KUaMT
This same delegation also met with Robin Dunnigan, DASS for European and Eurasian affairs. A government profile of her notes:
Dunnigan is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. She has served overseas in Vietnam, Chile, Turkey, Cuba and El Salvador.
Dunnigan has been a long-time opponent of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, arguing in a 2015 conference:
Nord Stream 2 actually threatens not only Ukraine’s survivability and their resources, but it is a risk to fuel diversification in Europe, especially south-eastern Europe.
After meeting in Washington with politicians, the Azov soldiers and the defenders of Avozstal group have embarked on a multi-city tour to gin up support for Azov. Speaking at a Ukrainian church in Detroit on Sep 24, Robeson reported that Azov commander Kuparshavili recalled the reception the neo-Nazis received:
We went to the Senators, Congressmen, from both parties. Honestly, the majority we met, there were like over fifty of them, and head of their fractions, they all gave 100% support. They started to work from their office right in front of us, picked up the phone and started calling to different organizations which can influence, right now.
The open embrace of Azov by US politicians in both parties shows that the only “unity” that can be forged in Washington is based on war abroad with the most reactionary and genocidal forces in world history. It is a further confirmation that there exists no constituency within the US ruling class for the defense of basic democratic rights and underscores that capitalism has nothing to offer humanity except war and fascism.
Biden warns of nuclear “Armageddon” as Zelensky calls for “preventive strikes” on Russia Andre Damon, WSWS, Oct 7 2022
Frigate Bird, a 1962 test of an 600 kT warhead deployed from a ballistic missile, as seen from a US submarine periscope.
Biden said Thursday that the world is at risk of nuclear “Armageddon,” implying that the rapid escalation of the war in Ukraine could lead to nuclear war between the US and Russia. He said that Putin was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons.” Biden said:
We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming. I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.
In February, Biden denied that the war could escalate to a nuclear conflict, saying:
Well, I don’t think he is remotely contemplating using nuclear weapons.
In March, Biden said that the United States would not “send in offensive equipment” to Ukraine because it would “lead to WW3.” But since making these statements, Biden has massively expanded US involvement in the war, sending so many high-end weapons to Ukraine that US armories are running low. US generals have directed Ukrainian missile strikes, including attacks on Russian territory, assassinations of Russian generals, and the attack on the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. And US paramilitary forces are directly operating on the ground in Ukraine. The US has sent Ukraine hundreds of armored vehicles, as well as the country’s most advanced anti-aircraft system, anti-ship system and medium-range ground-based missile launcher, the HIMARS. In an article published in September entitled “Why the US is becoming more brazen with its Ukraine support,” The Hill concluded:
The Biden administration is arming Ukraine with weapons that can do serious damage to Russian forces and, unlike early in the war, US officials don’t appear worried about Moscow’s reaction.
Over the past week, Putin, Medvedev and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov have all warned that Russia could use nuclear weapons in the conflict. Earlier this week, The Times of London reported that a train operated by the division of the Russian military that handles nuclear weapons was making its way toward the front line. When asked about the report, a US Defense Department spokesperson replied:
I’m aware of those press reports. I don’t have anything on that.
The Times of London also reported that NATO members have been secretly advised that Putin intends to carry out a nuclear test near Russia’s borders or over the Black Sea. On Thursday, before Biden’s comments, Zelensky at a meeting of an Australian think tank called for NATO to carry out preemptive strikes on Russia to prevent the “possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons.” Zelensky said:
What should NATO do? Eliminate the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons. We need preventive strikes, so they know what will happen to them if they use nukes, and not the other way around.
As has become standard practice any time a NATO-aligned leader blurts out what is being discussed behind the scenes, Zelensky’s office claimed that the Ukrainian president was referring to “preemptive sanctions” and that the actual words that came out of the president’s mouth should be ignored. Against the backdrop of these events, the extent of direct US involvement in the war is becoming clear. On Wednesday, the Intercept, in an article by veteran National Security journalist James Risen, reported that Biden has authorized clandestine CIA operations inside Ukraine, likely meaning that American special forces are actually deployed in the country. Risen reports:
The clandestine American operations inside Ukraine are now far more extensive than they were early in the war. There is a much larger presence of both CIA and US special operations personnel and resources in Ukraine than there were at the time of the Russian invasion in February. Secret US operations inside Ukraine are being conducted under a presidential covert action finding, current and former officials said. The finding indicates that the president has quietly notified certain congressional leaders about the administration’s decision to conduct a broad program of clandestine operations inside the country.
Meanwhile, sections of the US political establishment are calling for an even more aggressive US intervention, providing Ukraine with missiles that would be able to strike into the heart of Russian territory. Lt-Gen (Retd) Ben Hodges, the former commander of US Army Europe, told the WSJ:
Army Tactical Missile Systems would give the Ukrainians the capability to make Crimea untenable for the Russian Black Sea Fleet and for the Russian Air Force and logistics in Crimea. That would be a significant step in the eventual liberation of Crimea. ATACMS would accelerate the collapse of Russian forces.
WaPo columnist George Will called Wednesday on the US to provide armed drones to Ukraine, including the Gray Eagle (the successor to the Predator) and Reaper drones. Will effectively declares that Ukraine is a de facto member of NATO, writing:
The immediate imperative is to supply Ukraine with the most sophisticated and dangerous US UAVs, aka drones, which can be force-multipliers for Ukraine’s hard pounding of the Russians. Ukraine must be given weapons that will help it produce battlefield results commensurate with its future status as a member of the EU and, formally or not, of NATO.
The rapid escalation of the war confirms the warnings of the World Socialist Web Site of the immense dangers posed by the desperation and recklessness gripping both Moscow and Washington. As we wrote earlier this week, the reckless actions of governments that are leading the world to disaster must be countered by a global mass anti-war movement of the working class and youth. The working class must demand the immediate end to this reactionary war. It is necessary to unify the struggle by workers in defense of their social and democratic rights with the struggle against war. The building of a new anti-war movement must be based on the perspective of international socialism, rejecting all forms of nationalism and xenophobia and fighting for the unity of workers in every country.
A segment on Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored Program” yesterday provided its mass audience with a rare and unvarnished demonstration of the two sides in the case of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who is imprisoned in Britain and faces extradition to the US for exposing American war crimes. On the one hand, Assange’s wife Stella Moris outlined the dire precedent that the US is seeking to establish by prosecuting a journalist for publishing true information. She spoke eloquently in defence of the democratic rights of Assange and the population at large, as well as on the importance of upholding international legal norms. On the other hand, John Bolton, a lifelong Republican politician and state apparatchik, ranted and raved as he asserted the “right” of the American government to ruin the life of anyone who gets in the way of its “national interests.” The program was broadcast on British television’s TalkTV station, and has already been watched hundreds of thousands of times on social media. The response demonstrates the true public opinion of Assange, which is generally buried by the official media. Moris has received widespread praise for her thoughtful and principled comments, including her statements on Bolton’s own relationship to war crimes. Bolton’s remarks have been condemned as dangerous and frightening. Morgan began by noting that Assange has been locked up in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison, a “very high security” and “grim” facility, for almost four years, following seven years of arbitrary detention at Ecuador’s British embassy. Where did Moris think the case would go, and what did she hope to achieve, he asked. Moris, who is herself a widely-respected human rights lawyer, explained:
Julian faces a potential sentence in the US of 175 years for doing journalistic work. For receiving information from a source and publishing it, and it was in the public interest. It was about US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he revealed tens of thousands of civilian deaths that had not been acknowledged before.
Morgan said that he would play “devil’s advocate,” repeating the oft-repeated claim that while the Guardian and the NYT had redacted the material from whistleblower Chelsea Manning, WikiLeaks had dumped it online, placing individuals at risk. Asked if she accepted this argument, Moris replied forcefully:
I don’t accept it, because it’s not true. WikiLeaks did actually redact all of those documents that Manning gave to WikiLeaks, and in fact it was in cooperation with those newspapers.
WikiLeaks, Moris noted, had withheld 15k documents from the US army’s Afghan war logs, and had been criticised by some for extensive redactions of the Iraq war logs. The publication of 250k leaked diplomatic cables in full had not been the doing of WikiLeaks. Instead it was the outcome of Guardian journalists recklessly publishing the password to the tranche in a book. Morgan then introduced Bolton, asking him why the US was so determined to bring Assange to “unbelievably draconian justice,” in the form of the 175-year sentence that would await him in an American supermax jail. Bolton, unbelievably, responded:
Well, I think that’s a small amount of the sentence he deserves.
Bolton then spouted a series of false generalities, which he made no attempt to substantiate. Assange had committed “criminal activities,” he was “no more a journalist than the chair I’m sitting on,” had “placed individuals at risk,” etc. etc. The only note of truth came when Bolton bitterly complained that Assange had obstructed the pursuit of the US “national interest.” That is, Assange’s lawful, journalistic activities had cut across the criminal militarist policies of the US government. The US politician blithely stated that Assange would receive “due process” and a “fair trial” in America, before proclaiming:
I hope he gets 176 years!
Bolton was apparently oblivious to the stark contradiction between those assertions, but the audience undoubtedly was not. Assange will receive “due process,” says the US state operative, as he proclaims his hope that the journalist is locked in a cell with the key effectively thrown away. Moris proceeded to demolish Bolton’s threadbare arguments. She said:
Ambassador Bolton is a kind of ideological nemesis of Julian. During his time in the Bush administration and later the Trump administration he sought to undermine the international legal system, sought to ensure that the US is not under the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction. And if it was, Mr Bolton might in fact be prosecuted under the ICC. He was one of the chief cheerleaders of the Iraq war, which Julian then exposed through these leaks, so he has a conflict of interest.
Bolton cackled maniacally and described Moris’s statement as “ridiculous.” In fact, Bolton has supported every criminal US-led war since Vietnam. He was the Bush administration’s ambassador to the UN, as it continued the illegal occupation of Iraq, a war based on lies that claimed over a million lives. As Wikipedia notes:
Bolton is widely considered a foreign policy hawk who has variously advocated military action and regime change by the US in Iran, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, Yemen and North Korea.
In other words, he is a representative of the militarist, state apparatus that Assange has exposed. Bolton sought to retort, by demanding to know whether Moris accepted that Assange would receive a fair trial in the US. Moris explained that he would not. Assange was the first journalist to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. It contains no public interest defence, and even corporate publications have warned that the case is a body blow to freedom of the press. Moris again warned of Assange’s deteriorating health, which threatens his life. He was like a “caged animal,” deprived from regular contact with his family, friends and collaborators. Moris called on viewers to participate in a human chain protest for Assange’s freedom around the British parliament this Saturday Oct 8 at 1 pm UK time. Rallies are also being held in other cities around the world.
The segment underscored what is at stake in the fight for Assange’s freedom. Bolton gave a particularly blunt and unvarnished expression to the line of all of the governments involved in the persecution of Assange, including the Biden administration in the US, which is pursuing extradition, the British government, which is detaining Assange in a maximum-security prison, and the Labor government in Australia, which refuses to defend the WikiLeaks publisher, despite the fact that he is an Australian citizen. All of them are using the pursuit of Assange to set a precedent for far broader victimisations, especially targeting widespread opposition to war. This occurs as the imperialist powers, led by the US, are waging a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, which threatens a nuclear catastrophe, and as they are confronting China. As the WSWS has insisted, the fight for Assange’s freedom must be a central component of a new, international movement of the working class, aimed at halting the catastrophic descent into a world war and the related onslaught on fundamental democratic rights.
Canada leads calls for Ukraine’s NATO membership, joins US in recklessly downplaying nuclear war threat Matthew Richter, WSWS, Oct 7 2022
Joly and Blinken at Sep 30 press conference
Canada has responded to Zelensky’s filing last week of a formal application for his country’s admission to NATO by urging Kiev’s prompt incorporation into the aggressive US-led military alliance. Ottawa has been joined in this by a cabal of the most belligerent Eastern European states, including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Speaking in Washington alongside Blinken on Sep 30, just hours after the Ukraine application was announced, Canadian Foreign Minster Mélanie Joly declared:
We believe that Ukraine should be part of NATO. It has been our position for now more than a decade, and we believe in the ‘Open Door’ policy.
Blinken was somewhat more circumspect. He emphasized that there is an admission “process” for would-be NATO states to follow, while adding “NATO’s door will remain open, including for Ukraine.” The reality is Ukraine is already functioning as an arm of NATO and above all of Washington. The US and its NATO allies, Canada included, have poured tens of billions of dollars in advanced weaponry into Ukraine since the outbreak of the war last February; and the Pentagon, as has been publicly admitted, is providing Ukrainian forces with strategic and tactical support, including the intelligence and weapons to target Russian generals. That said, Joly’s remarks underscore the utter recklessness of Canadian imperialism and its NATO allies. Even as they are forced to concede there is a growing danger the Ukraine war will escalate into a nuclear conflict, they are ratcheting up pressure on Russia and threatening a wider war. Ukraine’s integration into NATO would immediately transform the war into a direct military conflict between the Western imperialist powers and Russia. Not only would Ukraine invariably invoke NATO’s Article 5, under which all member states are obliged to defend any NATO member under attack. Biden has repeatedly vowed that the US will defend “every inch” of NATO territory.
Joly’s blithe indifference to the danger that an all-out NATO-Russia conflict would pose for the peoples of Europe, North America and the world is very much in keeping with the NATO powers’ insistence that the threat of the war turning nuclear must not be allowed to interfere with their plans to inflict a decisive defeat on Russia. The reactionary nationalist Putin regime has responded to Russia’s mounting military debacle in Ukraine by making repeated threats that if needed it will use nuclear weapons to counter what it considers an existential threat. To this, government and military officials in Washington, Berlin, London, Paris and Ottawa have uniformly responded by vowing that the war with Russia must be intensified. Underscoring that discussions are well advanced among the imperialist powers on how they would respond if the Putin regime deployed nuclear weapons, Joly responded to a CBC interviewer’s question on what Canada would do by saying ominously:
This is a decision we will take amongst the G7. Canada is preparing for all eventualities.
In declaring her support for Ukraine’s admission into NATO, Joly praised the rapid steps taken to make Sweden and Finland full NATO members after the two Scandinavian countries filed formal applications in May. She noted that they are both Arctic powers and sit on the Arctic Council. The Canadian government clearly sees an opportunity to exploit NATO’s expansion to more aggressively pursue its territorial and geostrategic interests in the Arctic, yet another critical theater in the developing great power conflict. The opening up of the Far North sea lanes due to climate change and the imminent prospect of the disappearance of sea ice is creating new opportunities for the major powers to exploit new trade routes and the Arctic’s large deposits of oil, gas and rare earth elements. Canada’s primary rival in the region is Russia. Joly’s unvarnished support for Ukraine’s accession to NATO reveals Canadian imperialism’s true colours.
From the time of the 1956 Suez Crisis up until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Canada’s ruling elite for self-serving, pragmatic reasons cast itself as a “peacekeeping” nation. This position, which was made possible by the postwar restabilization of capitalism, became untenable after the Stalinist bureaucracy’s dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, which opened up a new period of unrestrained imperialist military violence. US imperialism embarked on three decades of uninterrupted wars in the Middle East and Central Asia as it desperately sought to offset its economic decline through military force. Canada joined these bloody interventions as one of Washington’s closest allies, while staunchly supporting the expansion of NATO to Russia’s borders. Ottawa played an important role in triggering the current conflict with Russia, as shown by the Canadian military’s extensive involvement in restructuring the Ukrainian army and integrating fascist paramilitaries into its regular fighting force between 2014 and 2022. The aggressive role that Canada is playing in Ukraine was driven home in a caucus meeting of the governing Liberals last week. Echoing the war hysteria that has gripped the ruling elites in every imperialist country, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland crowed:
What we must do is double down on our support for Ukraine.
Freeland embodies the decades-long alliance between the Canadian state and the Ukrainian far right. The Trudeau government responded to Putin’s announcement last week of the annexation of territories in eastern and southern Ukraine by repeating its vow that Canada will assist Ukraine in “liberating” all its territories, including Crimea, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It also imposed another round of sanctions, including on 43 “oligarchs” and 35 Russian-backed officials in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts. This brings the number of Russian affiliated individuals and entities targeted by Canadian sanctions to over 1,400 since the beginning of the war. On the military front, Canada continues to ship vast amounts of equipment to Ukraine. In a recent interview with the CBC, Defence Minister Anita Anand revealed that Canada has shipped more than 4m lbs of cargo to Ukraine since the spring. Much of the equipment has been funneled through a Canadian Armed Forces hub in Prestwick, Scotland, an airport that was once a transfer point for victims of CIA “extraordinary rendition.” According to Anand, at least three Canadian CC-130 Hercules transport aircraft are running weapons and supplies to Ukraine. Sources told the CBC that Ukraine has written to the Canadian government with requests for significantly more military aid.
Canada’s military contribution alone has surpassed $626m since January, including millions of rounds of ammunition, anti-tank weapons like the Carl Gustav, 39 General Dynamics Super Bison light armoured vehicles, four M777 howitzers with 10 replacement barrels and tens of thousands of rounds of 155mm ammunition. The government has been tight-lipped about much of the aid. In one example of this, a defence source told the CBC earlier this year that GPS precision-guided M982 Excalibur shells have been quietly provided to Ukraine. In addition to materiel support, Canada has secretively dispatched SOF to coordinate the fighting on the ground in Ukraine, a fact only revealed months later in a Jul NYT article. Operation Unifier, the operation to train Ukrainian military personnel, recommenced on Aug 25 in Britain. Over 33k have been trained by the mission since Sep 2019, with only a brief pause during the initial stages of the war. Late last year, it was revealed that Canadian forces had trained members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and deliberately sought to cover it up. The political establishment, from the “left” New Democrats and pro-Quebec independence Bloc Québécois to the Conservatives, all support continuing to pour gasoline on the fire by increasing weapons deliveries still further. Bob Rae, the erstwhile NDP premier of Ontario, interim leader of the federal Liberals (2011-13) and current Canadian Ambassador to the UN, urged the Trudeau government to give Ukraine anything it asks for. Commenting on the Ukrainian government’s letter asking for more weapons, Rae said in an interview with CBC radio:
We have to keep on pushing because the test of our success is, are we meeting the needs that will allow Ukraine to achieve the objectives which it has, and frankly which we share?
With the full support of its trade union allies, the New Democratic Party responded to the outbreak of the US-NATO proxy war over Ukraine by negotiating a “confidence-and-supply” agreement with the Trudeau Liberals in March to guarantee “stability.” That is, the suppression of the class struggle on behalf of Canadian imperialism. Under the agreement, the NDP has pledged to provide the minority Liberal government a parliamentary majority through Jun 2025. The Liberals and NDP have used this majority to vastly expand the financial resources flowing to the military. The 2022 budget provided an additional $8b in defence spending on top of the huge hikes already introduced as part of the Liberals’ 2017 defence policy review. In addition, the Trudeau government has announced plans to spend $40b over the next two decades on upgrading the North American Aerospace Defence (NORAD) bilateral command with the US, which is seen as critical for waging war with Russia and China. The modernization plans will facilitate Canada’s participation in the US ballistic missile defence shield, which in spite of its name is aimed at making a nuclear war waged by US imperialism “winnable.” The corporate-controlled media is wholeheartedly supporting the escalation of the war with Russia by producing an uninterrupted stream of warmongering anti-Russian bile. Andrew Coyne, a leading Globe and Mail columnist, blurted out the imperialists’ determination to bring about “regime change” in Russia as part of their push to dismember the country and seize control of its natural resources. Coyne’s column revived the false Manichean Cold War narrative of a world divided between the “rational” and “democratic” West and the vainglorious, deceitful Russians. He wrote:
There can be no end to this war that leaves Putin in power. The West’s war aims at the start were limited to raising the cost of Russian aggression, or perhaps containing its advance. Our aim must now be, not just victory in Ukraine, but regime change in Russia.
The test launch of a Hwasŏng-12 IRBM in Pyongyang, Aug 29 2017
Over the past two weeks, NK has conducted a spate of missile launches, the first major weapons tests since June. Rather than attempt to deescalate the situation, the US and its allies in Northeast Asia are exploiting the issue, combining increased militarization of the region with the ongoing isolation of Pyongyang, all aimed at preparing for war with China. Pyongyang’s most recent launch took place Thursday morning, with two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) landing in the Sea of Japan. This followed a Tuesday morning firing of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), from Mupyŏng-ri, Jagang Province in the northern part of the country. This missile, identified in the media as a Hwasŏng-12, reportedly traveled some 4,600 km and reached a maximum altitude of 1,000 km. The missile flew over Japan’s Aomori Prefecture, in the north of Honshu, the first time Pyongyang has fired a missile over Japan since 2017. It landed in the Pacific Ocean, some 3,200 km east of the country.
In total, Pyongyang has conducted six tests, launching ten total missiles since Sep 25, which corresponded with the arrival of the US aircraft carrier Reagan at SK’s port city of Busan on Sep 23, as well as the arrival on Sep 26 of US VP Harris in Japan for the state funeral of former PM Shinzo Abe. Harris also made a one-day visit to SK on Sep 29, meeting with SK President Yoon Suk-yeol and provocatively visiting the DMZ separating SK from NK. The US aircraft carrier strike group held multiple exercises in the Sea of Japan with both the SK and Japanese navies for the first time in five years. This broke a tacit agreement in 2018 between the previous Trump administration and Pyongyang to halt large-scale US drills with South Korea in the region in exchange for a moratorium on the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and nuclear tests. Furthermore, during the summit between Biden and SK’s Yoon in May, the two sides agreed to deploy US strategic assets to the region while also agreeing to restart the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group for the first time since Jan 2018. The group provides Washington and Seoul the opportunity to hold discussions on strategic and policy issues regarding so-called extended deterrence, including the use of nuclear weapons.
Since agreeing to the moratorium in 2018, NK has conducted only two apparent ICBM tests, one in March and another in May, following the Biden-Yoon summit. The Biden government has allowed NK to languish under brutal US-led sanctions while the country faces a major economic crisis and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Washington has refused to offer any genuine relief as Pyongyang had hoped after halting its weapons tests. Pyongyang’s missile launches represent a desperate attempt to bring Washington back to the bargaining table. They are also the result of Washington’s goading as it abandons the 2018 agreement with Pyongyang by staging large-scale drills with SK, which included the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills in August, forcing NK to respond. NK’s state media has remained silent about Tuesday’s test. However, China’s Foreign Ministry responded by calling on all governments involved to maintain “the policy of seeking a political settlement of issues on the Korean Peninsula and address each other’s concerns in a balanced way through dialogue.” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning also stated during a press conference on Sep 30 that Pyongyang had “legitimate and reasonable security concerns,” while criticizing the numerous military drills the US has staged with SK and Japan in recent weeks. Conscious of the US’s history of violent regime-change operations around the world, including the one currently being conducted against Russia, Pyongyang is looking for security guarantees while using its weapons program as its only real bargaining chip short of complete capitulation.
Washington and Seoul are also seizing on Pyongyang’s missile launches, as well as claims that an ICBM or nuclear test are imminent, to increase military drills in the region, close to China, the primary target of US imperialism. This includes the announcement Wednesday that the US aircraft carrier Reagan would return to the Sea of Japan after leaving last week. The SK Joint Chiefs of Staff called the return so soon “very unusual.” The US and South Korea fired four ATACM (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday. The previous day, the two militaries also conducted a bombing run on a range on Jikdo, an island in the Yellow Sea. Consisting of four South Korean F-15K fighter jets and four US F-16 fighters, an SK jet dropped two JDAM bombs on the island on Tuesday. The SK Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that the air strike demonstrated the two allies “capabilities to conduct a precision strike at the origin of provocations based on the alliance’s overwhelming forces.” SK’s military also attempted to fire a short-range Hyunmoo-2C ballistic missile, but it failed shortly after launch. While its warhead did not explode, it reportedly landed just 700 m from the nearest residential area. In addition, following Tuesday’s missile launch, Biden spoke to Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, with the White House stating afterwards that both condemned NK’s test “in the strongest terms.” Kishida called the launch “barbaric” and told reporters after the call with Biden:
We will always have to consider unique sanctions on NK. We are in close communication with SK on various security issues, while bringing the US into the dialogue. We would like to have close communications with SK.
Kishida called for the setting up of a meeting between himself and President Yoon. The two have already scheduled a phone call for Thursday. Long-standing tensions between Tokyo and Seoul have cut across Washington’s plans for war against China, which includes incorporating its two allies into a regional ballistic missile system designed to prevent China or Russia from launching a counter-attack against US forces. This requires high-level and bilateral intelligence sharing between Japan and SK. Trade disputes and historical issues have prevented this from taking place. SK’s Yoon, however, has made clear his administration will pursue closer relations with Tokyo.
The family of Alaa Zaghal mourn over the body of the young man, killed earlier in the day by the Israeli military
during an arrest raid at a hospital in Deir al-Hatab village, Oct 5. Photo: Stringer/APA
A UN human rights expert said on Thursday that she was “extremely alarmed by the escalation of violence” in the West Bank, where IOF have killed five Palestinians since the beginning of October. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, added that “settlers’ incursions and attacks, from Jerusalem to Hebron and Nablus, are heightening the tension at a sensitive moment.” Settlers blocked roads and threw stones at Palestinian drivers attempting to drive in and out of Nablus and Ramallah, major West Bank cities under nominal Palestinian Authority control, in the lead-up to Yom Kippur.
Not only Nablus. This is the northern entrance to Ramallah now. Settlers blocked the road and hurled stones at Palestinians vehicles leaving Ramallah, on the eve of Yom Kippur.pic.twitter.com/9c7ZbCKdEx
For the 2nd day in a row, Zionist militias are blocking the entrances to the Palestinian city of Nablus. As you can see in this video, the Zionists are also bringing their children as human shields https://t.co/Q1dZVec6ph
In Bat Yam a mob attacked and overturned a vehicle carrying five Palestinians on Wednesday. The attackers claimed the men had arrived in the city with the deliberate aim of disturbing the peace during Yom Kippur. It was unclear how the motivation of the men had been ascertained by the crowd.
The incident was reminiscent of an attack on a Palestinian motorist in the city during a spasm of communal violence coinciding with Israel’s operation in Gaza in May 2021. At that time, Israeli Jewish mobs planned and coordinated widespread attacks on Palestinian citizens of Israel using messaging apps.
Israeli soldiers stand guard as Jewish settlers attempt to storm Nablus near Huwara checkpoint
in the northern West Bank, Oct 4. Photo: Nasser Ishayeh/SOPA
Meanwhile, a Palestinian man was killed during an Israeli raid in the northern West Bank on Wednesday. Alaa Zaghal, 21, died after he was shot in the head in Deir al-Hatab, a town near Nablus. IOF besieged a home in the village where they arrested Salman Omran after an hours-long standoff and firefight. In an audio clip apparently recorded while he was under siege, Omran said that he was engaged with the Israeli army and appealed to young people in the area to join the battle before praying to God to accept him as a martyr.
تغطية صحفية: "وصية المشـــتبك المحاصر من قوات الاحتلال سلــمان عمران لأهل نابلس وفلسطين". pic.twitter.com/Zrtpbx49lU
Omran’s son told media that Israeli soldiers came to arrest his father after he had returned home from school:
"أبوي أسد".. طفل المعتقل سلمان عمران يروي تفاصيل العملية العسكرية الإسرائيلية التي استهدفت والده في دير الحطب شرق نابلس.#فلسطينpic.twitter.com/oH1e2kphZr
The boy described Israeli soldiers shooting at his home, which was left badly damaged. The Israeli military reportedly accused Omran of carrying out a shooting attack on Sunday. An Israeli taxi driver was lightly wounded during that alleged shooting near Elon Moreh, a settlement in the Nablus area. The windshields of both the taxi and a bus were damaged in the shooting, an Israeli military spokesperson told media. Also on Sunday, an Israeli soldier was reportedly lightly wounded in a shooting attack during a protest by Jewish settlers demanding a military crackdown on Palestinian armed resistance, according to Haaretz. An alliance of Palestinian resistance fighters based in the Nablus area dubbed “the Lion’s Den” reportedly claimed responsibility for the shooting. Both Nablus and Jenin, another city in the northern West Bank, have re-emerged as centers of armed resistance to the Israeli military occupation. In recent months, Israel and the PA have stepped up their attacks in these areas amid concerns among Israeli leaders that they are slipping out of the occupation’s control. Two journalists from Palestine TV, Mahmoud Fawzi and Luai Samhan, were among the at least six others wounded by IOF during the fatal military operation in Deir al-Hatab on Wednesday. The journalists and their network accused Israel of deliberately targeting the reporters, who were wearing helmets and protective vests identifying them as press. In a video recorded during the attack on the journalists, one of the reporters said that they were under direct fire and that his colleague was shot in the arm, which is apparent in the clip:
The intentional targeting of journalists by Israeli Occupation Forces continues.
The Palestine TV crew came under Israeli fire, and are besieged as they cover the raid in Deir Al-Hattab, 2 of the crew were intentionally targeted, shot in torso by Israeli bullets. Main Correspondent isn't able to move or retrieve equipment as crew continue to come under fire. pic.twitter.com/ZcJ4A5ernr
Israel has come under unprecedented scrutiny after one of its sharpshooters shot and killed Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh while she was covering a military raid in Jenin during May. No soldier has been held accountable over what an independent forensic investigation concluded was a deliberate killing. Israeli leaders have rebuffed US calls to examine the military’s open fire policy. Some 100 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military and settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, so far this year amid “a massive increase in military raids,” as described by the BBC.
On Monday, IOF killed two Palestinians in Jalazone refugee camp in the central West Bank in what the military claimed was a car ramming attack. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights refuted the Israeli account and said that Salameh Rafat Shariah, 19, and Khaled Fadi Anbar, 19, posed no imminent danger when they were fatally injured and another passenger, Basel Kathem Basbous, 18, was wounded. The rights group said that Israeli soldiers ambushed the car carrying the three Palestinian men and that there were no confrontations taking place at the time. Soldiers prevented Palestine Red Crescent Society medics from accessing the injured men, who were left to bleed inside the car for more than half an hour, the rights group said. The slain Palestinians’ families told the rights group that the young men were on their way home after finishing work at a pizza restaurant. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights noted that the deadly ambush on Monday bore similarities to the killing of a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem on Saturday afternoon. Fayez Khaled Mahmoud Damdan, 17, was shot in the back by a border policeman while riding his motorcycle in the Jerusalem-area town of al-Eizariya. According to Defense for Children International-Palestine:
The teen, who was driving the motorcycle with a friend, attempted to slow down as the Israeli military vehicles in front of him slowed down, but the motorcycle slipped. He fell and was dragged by the motorcycle while his friend was able to jump off and run away. After Fayez got up and ran for a distance of less than one meter, Israeli forces shot and killed him from a distance of two to four meters. The single bullet settled in Fayez’s brain.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 23 Palestinian children in the West Bank so far this year, according to the rights group. That is in addition to 17 children killed during Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip in August.
Israeli authorities impose a general closure in Jerusalem ahead of Yom Kippur, Oct 4. Photo: Saeed Qaq/APA
On Wednesday, Arnaud Meffre, an ICRC official in the West Bank, said:
We are deeply concerned by the intensification of armed violence in parts of the West Bank leading to numerous civilian casualties. It is unacceptable that civilians are injured or killed in these episodes of violence. It is very worrying that children in schools nearby witness such levels of violence, and too often are victims of it.
Meffre was likely referring to an Israeli raid in Nablus last week that left four Palestinian fighters dead and nearly 60 more people injured. Videos showed children crying in terror during the daytime invasion. Adam Bouloukos, the West Bank director of UNRWA, said on Monday:
Students at our elementary school in Jenin refugee camp sheltered at the back of their classroom during the incursion. They huddled under their desks and stayed in a closed area for nearly three hours with no water and no food. The level of violence in Jenin camp and across the West Bank is the highest we have seen in years. We call on Israeli forces to limit the use of excessive force and spare the loss of civilian life in Jenin and across the West Bank.
The visit followed a large-scale military operation by the Israeli forces last Wednesday that left four people killed & nearly 60 others injured, among them #PalestineRefugees
The ICRC’s Meffre called for ensuring the safety of Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedics who “have been at the forefront of responding to urgent humanitarian needs.” The Palestine Red Crescent Society said:
IOF attacked two of our medics in Beit Furik, a village south of Nablus, on Sunday. The two medics were threatened at gunpoint, kicked and beaten. One of them was also hit on the head with a rifle, and both sustained injuries and were held by Israeli soldiers who also kicked the ambulance and struck it with their rifle butts.
Part of the assault was recorded on video:
PRCS takes with the greatest seriousness the attacks carried out by Israeli occupation forces and settlers against PRCS medics in the line of duty on October 2, 2022, at the Beit Fourik checkpoint to the South of Nablus#Am_not_atargetpic.twitter.com/S4iId6xmBw
Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a session of the UNGA in New York, Sep 23 2022. Photo: Wang Ying/Xinhua
Sharaka, a shadowy organization based in the UAE and Israel, is pushing forward with efforts to promote diplomatic ties between Pakistan and the Zionist state. Pakistan has always refused such ties, in solidarity with the Palestinian people. But while Islamabad has distanced itself from Sharaka’s normalization efforts, it has not clearly denounced or discouraged them, sending at the very least a mixed signal about its stance. Sharaka is bringing Pakistanis to Israel under the guise of promoting “interfaith” cooperation. But the real purpose of these visits, typically led by Muslim Zionists, is to open a path to formal diplomatic and even military relations between Islamabad and Tel Aviv. One such Pakistani delegation made a trip to Israel last month, and it included a former government official. Sharaka said in an email newsletter:
The goal was to create another stepping stone toward Israel-Pakistan relations.
The Washington-based American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council also helped arrange the junket. Previously, Nasim Ashraf served as a minister of state and chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board. He also holds US citizenship. Ashraf openly discussed the political motivations behind the “interfaith” charade in an interview with Israeli satellite channel i24 News while in Jerusalem. He said:
Pakistan wants to have relations. But at the same time, Pakistan has consistently supported the Palestinian issue and its position vis-à-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A special Pakistani delegation visits Israel through @sharakango
'People to people, we need to have these exchanges to be able to promote understanding and to promote peace,' Dr. Nasim Ashraf says, describing the 'very enriching and very happy experience' – with @GuyAzpic.twitter.com/736BVmJrFL
In response to a question about future Israeli “military cooperation” with Pakistan given the latter’s nuclear capabilities, Ashraf reassured the Israeli anchor. The former minister said:
Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and nuclear assets have absolutely nothing to do and are of no threat to Israel. Pakistan’s nuclear assets are a defensive deterrent against India. It’s not at all directed at anyone else, least of all Israel.
The delegation was taken to the Gaza-Israel boundary fence, according to tweets by a Texas-based reporter who went on the trip. The group visited the Muslim Quarter in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem. They explored “Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious sites to see how Israel provides freedom of religion for all,” Sharaka said, completely disregarding Israel’s systematic violations of the rights of Palestinian Muslims and Christians to practice their faiths. Sharaka added:
The purpose of the tour was to learn about the complexities of the conflict and Israel’s efforts to provide jobs, water, electricity and medicine to the Palestinians while fighting against terrorists.
All of this falls within Israel’s usual propaganda strategy typical of colonial rulers, of touting itself as a beacon of advancement and innovation even for the Indigenous people whose land and rights it is violently usurping. The organization omitted to mention Israel’s debilitating siege on the Gaza Strip, now in its 15th year, which has caused catastrophic consequences for the coastal enclave’s two million residents who are mostly refugees, while denying them life-saving medical care. Gaza has among the highest unemployment and poverty levels in the world due to the blockade and successive military attacks since 2007. The delegation also met with President Isaac Herzog, who “blessed the work Sharaka is doing,” according to the group.
Honored our peace delegation of Pakistani and Pakistani-American journalists, religious and social leaders was warmly welcomed by President @Isaac_Herzog – a true leader who envisions warm peace between Israel and its neighbors near and far. pic.twitter.com/slYJTaP1ql
In order to give a veneer of Palestinian consent and participation, the delegation met with Bassem Eid, a Palestinian who has for decades participated in Israel-backedanti-Palestinian propaganda campaigns. Qasim Khan Suri, an ex-deputy speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly tweeted about the visit, saying the group was “in Israel for secret talks.”
Pakistan delegation in Israel for secret talks,is headed by Pakistani-American Nasim Ashraf, former minister of state in Pervez Musharraf's govt. Delegation was given tours across Israel. They're also scheduled to meet with Israel's President Isaac Herzog.https://t.co/nI4l99xangpic.twitter.com/qg4tsfOLrq
This is not the first trip of its kind organized by Sharaka, whose stated goal is “realizing the tremendous potential of the Abraham Accords.” The Abraham Accords are a series of deals brokered by the US between Israel and several Arab states since 2020. They aim to consolidate military, economic and political cooperation between Israel and other local American client regimes while putting an end to the Palestinian national liberation struggle. A similar trip to Israel was organized earlier this year by the same two organizations. While the latest Pakistani delegation was in Israel, i24 News reported that a “senior official from Indonesia” was also in Israel on a secret visit. The Indonesian foreign ministry flatly denied the claim. Its Middle East Director told local news site Tempo:
As long as Palestine is under Israeli occupation, Indonesia will not open diplomatic relations with Israel. This never happened and Indonesia’s stance will always be the same.
A ministry spokesperson also told media “he did not know who senior officials the article was referring to” are, according to Tempo. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. The country has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel. The report in Israeli media may have been intended to probe the reaction it would produce in Indonesia, perhaps in advance of efforts to try to co-opt that country as well. As for Pakistan, it is difficult to say which direction it is headed. Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reaffirmed that the recent Sharaka delegation “has nothing to do with the government of Pakistan,” insisting that his country’s position on Palestine is “clear and always has been.” That echoed the position given earlier by the foreign ministry in Islamabad. But Bhutto, like the ministry, pointedly failed to denounce the recent delegations or discourage Pakistanis from participating in them, even though the organizers state clearly that their ultimate goal is to establish formal ties between Pakistan and Israel. After an effectively US-backed putsch led to Imran Khan’s removal as Pakistan’s prime minister in April, he was replaced by Shehbaz Sharif, who previously expressed enthusiasm for “deepening” Pakistan’s relationship with the US.
The Sharif family is notorious for its corruption. But even the Sharifs, regarded as reliable US allies, have begun to slip from Washington’s grip. Earlier this month, while speaking at the SCO summit in Uzbekistan, Sharif sounded consistent with his predecessor’s refusal of American pressure to cut ties with Russia following the latter’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. Sharif lavished praise on Russia and its president, promising “to build our relations with your great country with full commitment and full dedication, because you are a superpower.” Sharif told Vladimir Putin:
You are a man of action. You decide, and then you implement.
But this week, General Qamar Bajwa, the outgoing chief of Pakistan’s army, headed to Washington for meetings with top American officials. Nasim Zehra, an Islamabad-based analyst, told Al Jazeera:
We are seeing greater interaction between the political and military leadership of both countries. I wouldn’t rule out this trip involving discussions of greater military cooperation.
That is significant, as the Pakistani military has tended to have the final say over the country’s direction, having repeatedly overthrown civilian governments. The Pakistani military was a close ally of the US during its proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and again during the so-called War on Terror following the 9/11 attacks. Islamabad is now undoubtedly caught between its traditional role as a client of the US, a waning geopolitical power, and the impulse to align with rising Eurasian powers much closer to home, especially China and Russia. One indicator as to which way it is heading is whether Sharaka’s efforts to foster ties with Tel Aviv start to meet with success. In the meantime, the Sharif government’s failure to clearly denounce and discourage such normalization efforts is not a good sign.
The referenda set a dangerous precedent for the rulers of Western “democracies,” in addition to constituting a direct and serious non-military threat to the sustainability of their Ukrainian project. Yes, that is the unanimous refrain of Western opinion makers following the referenda conducted in the four regions of Eastern Ukraine. That the overwhelming majority of the population there, braving deadly Ukrainian artillery barrages, expressed their preference to be part of Russia, and not of the discriminatory Ukrainian state (or whatever is ultimately left of it) makes no difference to these opinion shapers and policy makers. The mechanical unanimity which prevails in the West concerning the major geopolitical shift that has just taken place in the East is a disturbing reminder of the single-mindedness which, in roughly the same part of the world but under a different ideological guise, used to characterise political and media discourse about a generation ago.
To anyone with a superficial knowledge of the historical and political context, the epilogue of popular consultation in the four regions, as well as in the Crimea eight years ago, should be an open and shut case. (Doubters will be edified, while being entertained, here.) Invocations of international law, not to mention human rights, in these situations work entirely in Russia’s favor. A fact-based and rational analysis, however, is unlikely to greatly impress the utterly ignorant and brain-washed Western public. The only version of events that they have heard is that Ukraine, allegedly a “sovereign” country, was invaded by a foreign aggressor and that sizable chunks of its territory are now being swallowed up by the invader. The notion that Ukraine is a sovereign state is, of course, laughable. Ukraine is in fact a subservient political vassal of the collective West, all traces of autonomy having been voluntarily renounced by its own corrupt and traitorous political elite after “independence” in 1991.
It goes without saying that the Western public, with few exceptions, are blissfully unaware of the demographic, historical, and cultural realities of present-day Ukraine. Political borders, however arbitrarily drawn, are in their minds the equivalent of ethnic frontiers which must be respected. That dimension of their ignorance was spectacularly illustrated, but on a much higher level, by the then US Sec State Warren Christopher during an international conference held in the midst of the Bosnian war. To the shock of the better-informed participants, he casually asked when did the Bosnian Serb population cross the Drina River to invade Bosnia, apparently unaware that in Bosnia they had been indigenous for at least the preceding thousand years. British foreign secretary (now prime minister, unfortunately) Liz Truss made a similarly embarrassing gaffe late last year at a meeting in Moscow, stunning her hosts when she expressed strong disapproval of Russian military manoeuvres on territory she thought was in the Ukraine, evidently unaware that it was part of the Russian Federation. The list could go on, but the point of it is that if high level political functionaries are ignorant of basic historical and geographical facts, how much can reasonably be expected from members of the zombified general public?
With regard to the allegedly egregious violation of international law committed by Russia by conducting a referendum to enable residents of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye to choose the country they wished to live in, a couple of hard data points are in order. The first and most fundamental data point (probably beyond the knowledge of most citizens of Western counties) is the fact that prior to the 1920s there was a geographical concept associated with Ukraine, mainly in the form of several provincial subdivisions of the Russian Empire, but that as a self-sufficient political entity with defined borders before then it had never existed. To the question, what lands constituted Ukraine as an internationally recognized entity prior to its emergence within the USSR in the 1920s, there is no answer. Just as the creation of Ukraine as a constituent republic of the USSR was an arbitrary political gesture, so was the determination of what fragments of the former Russian Empire it should eventually be made up of. Ukraine was fabricated by an act of revolutionary political will, for the ideological convenience of the USSR’s central authorities and certainly without any meaningful consultation with its inhabitants. As a decreed-from-on-high constituent republic of the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR was the precursor of the present-day Ukraine. Its separation from the USSR was similarly accomplished by agreement of three unelected and unauthorised Russian, Byelorussian, and Ukrainian functionaries. In terms of international law, and of the vaunted Western democratic values in particular, present-day Ukraine, and its borders, have therefore as much legitimacy as the entity created in the 1920s that it originated and evolved from.
The second hard data point has to do with precisely how the regions of Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk and others bordering on the Black Sea came to be incorporated into the newly-constituted Ukrainian Soviet Republic. It was done to augment the substance of the new soviet republic by expanding it to include huge swathes of territory populated by Russian speakers who had no relation to the new Ukrainian identity that was being created out of thin air. There was no referendum or even a political climate in which inhabitants could freely manifest their preference. About a hundred years ago certain decisions about the geographical and ethnic composition of Ukraine were made at the top and then administratively implemented at lower levels. Options of dissent and appeal were excluded. The third hard data point concerns the manner in which in 1954 the Crimea was incorporated into Ukraine. The method followed was exactly the same as described previously. The peninsula which during the preceding hundred fifty years, since before Ukraine had made its political appearance, was incontrovertibly a part of Russia populated by a Russian majority, suddenly, without explanation, and without consultation with its inhabitants, was transferred to Ukrainian control. The first opportunity that the people of Crimea had to manifest their will in regard to this was in 2014, just as the first such opportunity granted to the people of the four regions was a few days ago.
What is the principle of Western democratic governance that prohibits a review of decisions made behind the backs of those they impact? Why may such decisions not be tested for popular consent? If the inhabitants of former British colonies and Dominions have a legally recognised right to decide whether they still desire to be subject to the British monarchy, why should inhabitants of the four regions of Ukraine and Crimea be deprived of the inherent right to decide whether they wish to be subject to the government in Kiev? Especially since they became locked into the present-day Ukrainian state not by their own choice but by the imposition of arbitrarily drawn internal borders. Later, just as arbitrarily, those internal borders were declared to be international. What legal doctrine or moral principle obligates the inhabitants of those regions to treat as sacrosanct political decisions made at their expense by others, behind their backs and lacking their consent? The hysterical uproar in the collective West over the referenda, one suspects, has less to do with the results, which were foreseeable based on expectations of normal behaviour of threatened and abused human beings, than with the fact that someone had the audacity to organise them at all. In the West unmanipulated expressions of popular sentiment have become a relic of the past. The referendums set a dangerous precedent for the rulers of Western “democracies,” in addition to constituting a direct and serious non-military threat to the sustainability of their Ukrainian project. That is why a vicious propaganda campaign was immediately unleashed to smear, disqualify, and misrepresent them at any cost.
The film “The Best in Hell” about the war in Ukraine was posted on YouTube. This is the first film of its kind shot since the beginning of the SMO. Of course, there will be more films on this topic, but this one is the first. Cinema continues to develop the “Tourist” franchise. In the new film by Prigozhin and Nagin, one of the real battles is recreated with scrupulous accuracy: two hours of complete immersion in the war. The realism of the picture is truly frightening, especially on the big screen. All tactics are visible at a glance: what weapon, by whom and when it is used. The film is detailed. Highly. Most of all, it’s shocking that the events are shown simultaneously from two sides, without the slightest, even the smallest, attempts to belittle or dehumanize the enemy. From headquarters to ordinary performers. No “scouts” and “spies,” only brothers, “whites” against “yellows.” This is directly underlined. And that only makes it worse. More painful. The spectacle is very strong, it breaks the viewer to tears. Director: Andrey Batov. Starring: Georgy Bolonev, Dmitry Murashev, Georgy Marishin, Zakhar Cherezov, Yuri Evdokimov, Sergei Bespalov, Gleb Denisov, Alexei Kravchenko, Vladislav Demin and Anton Bagmet.
The EU approved the eighth package of sanctions against Russia, including the oil price ceiling – European Commission. At the same time, the ceiling of oil prices from the Russian Federation still allows EU countries to transport it to third countries. This loophole is reported by the European Commission itself. Officially, the import of Russian petroleum products is prohibited. The ban on sea transportation of oil from Russia at a price above the established ceiling will come into force on Dec 5, oil products from Feb 5. But only after an additional decision of the Council on this issue. What else is included in the new package:
a ban on the export of certain types of steel products, plastics and chemicals
a ban on the provision of IT and legal services to Russian organizations.
The spiral of the energy crisis will spin even stronger, as the decision to reduce production in the Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia will reduce the amount of available oil on the market and lead to an increase in its price, so interest in buying Russian oil bypassing European sanctions will only grow, and the Russian Federation, due to price growth, easily compensates for the reduction in production and the discount, In general, the EU has stated before that it can’t surprise Russia with anything serious anymore. The 8th package emphasizes this very vividly.
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies have escalated their attacks on the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib in an apparent response to recent ceasefire violations by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The escalation began on Oct 2, when the SAA targeted a key supply line of HTS that links the western countryside of Idlib with the northern Lattakia countryside. A series of rocket strikes targeted the villages of Halluz and Kafriden in the western countryside of Idlib. From the two villages, supplies are moved to the town of Kabani and nearby areas in the northern Lattakia countryside.
Two days after the SAA strikes, on Oct 4, warplanes of the Russian Air Force (VKS) carried out a series of airstrikes on Kobane and several nearby hilltops. Kabani is a stronghold of HTS and several other terrorist groups, including the Turkistan Islamic Party and Ajnad al-Kavkaz. Terrorists launched dozens of rocket and drone attacks on the Syrian coast from the town and its surroundings in the past. Most of the attacks targeted Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base. The recent strikes on Kabani and its supply line were likely a warning by the SAA and the VKS to HTS and its allies, who may be planning to launch a new attack from the town. The strikes failed to deter HTS, whose terrorists raided a position of the SAA near the 46th Regiment Base in the western countryside of Aleppo on Oct 5. The terrorist group claimed that five Syrian soldiers were killed or wounded as a result of the raid, which ended with the destruction of the position. However, these claims are yet to be verified.
Also on Oct 5, a primitive drone crashed near the town of Binnish in the eastern countryside of Idlib. The drone was similar to the types manufactured and operated by HTS. The terrorist group may have launched the drone to attack a civilian or military position near Greater Idlib. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (MI6 – RB) said that the drone was brought down by a Turkish electronic warfare system deployed in a post near Binnish. The Turkish military may have brought down the drone after failing to identify it, or because it flew too close to its post. These claims have not been confirmed yet. Despite the recent escalation, the ceasefire in Greater Idlib which was brokered by Russia and Turkey is still holding up. Greater Idlib may experience more escalation in the upcoming weeks, as the SAA and its allies will for sure respond to the recent attacks by HTS. However, a full-blown confrontation in the region remains highly-unlikely.
A serviceman of the People’s Militia of the DPR told about Ukrainian Nazi regiment “Azov” which he fought against in Mariupol. The interview is a good reminder of who the Ukrainian Nazi militants are and what crimes they committed against civilians. Today, all the Azov commanders who were taken hostage in Mariupol are resting in Turkish resorts. The DPR serviceman, who was probably interviewed during the battle for Mariupol, confirmed that the Azov servicemen were guided by Nazi ideology, but many of them did not understand the real essence of the ideals for which they fought. Many Ukrainian servicemen with swastikas on their chevrons claimed that they were not bothered by the ideas of the Nazi regiment and were glad that they were being paid and having fun with their brothers in arms. The DPP serviceman confirmed that there were many women in the Azov regiment. Most of them were responsible for spreading Nazi ideology among Ukrainian youth. The pro-Russian fighter also explained why the Ukrainian Nazis did not release civilians from the war-torn city when the Russian side provided humanitarian corridors for their withdrawal.
The situation on the front in Ukraine remains hot. Both sides are having successes in different directions. The Ukrainian military is actually crushing the Russian Armed Forces.
Donetsk direction: The Ukrainian Armed Forces are not retreating near Bakhmut, and heavy fighting is taking place in neighboring settlements. The front line runs in the vicinity of Mykolaivka and Otradivka. Ukrainian fortified areas are now under fire from all the firepower available to Russian troops. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are standing their ground to the death, and both manpower and heavy equipment are being brought in here. Tank carousels are operating. All reports of retreat are untrue. The enemy’s superior forces are fighting for every meter of land and every house. Over the past 24 hours, the Russian Air Force shot down one MiG-29 fighter jet and an Su-24 frontline bomber of the Ukrainian Air Force in the skies over the DNR.
Luhansk direction: Up to 10k people, including mercenaries, have been brought to Seversk and Torsk. There are reports of social and medical facilities being evacuated from Kremenna and Svatove in the north of the LNR. The Ukrainian armed forces occupying positions on the administrative border are preparing to launch strikes.
Kharkiv direction: In the Kharkiv region, which was recently taken under the control of the AFU by up to three battalion tactical groups made an unsuccessful attempt to resume the offensive in the directions of Pershotravenskoye, Kislovka and Berestovoye. All the attacks were repelled by Russian troops. Over 120 AFU servicemen, 5 tanks, 12 armored fighting vehicles and 14 vehicles were destroyed.
Dnipro direction: In Andreevo-Krivoy Rog direction the enemy with the help of four battalion tactical groups during the day made repeated attempts to break through the defenses of our troops in the direction of Dudchany, Sukhanovo, Sadok and Bruskinskoe settlements. In all directions the enemy was pushed back from the Russian defensive line. More than 100 Ukrainian servicemen, six tanks, eight armored fighting vehicles and nine vehicles were destroyed.
Kherson direction: The Ukrainian Armed Forces again struck the Antonov bridge in Kherson. At the same time, the front line has stabilized in this direction. The AFU, which is attempting a breakthrough, is not succeeding. The Russian army has taken up an echelon defense on these lines and continues to hold its positions in the newly acquired territories.
In general, the situation remains tense for the Russian army, despite the generally successful actions of the military. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are pressured by numbers, as well as by the amount of Western equipment that has been brought in. Who knows what the result will be when newly mobilized Russians organize their participation in the conflict.
At night, several precise strikes by the Russian military hit targets in different Ukrainian regions. In turn, Ukrainian forces shelled the regions that have recently entered the Russian Federation as well as the Russian border regions. Russian Geranium-2 UAVs were active over the Ukrainian territories last night. Attacks of the suicide drones were reported in the Kharkov region. According to preliminary data, several UAVs struck a military facility in the Osnovyansky district of the city. Some reports claim that the target was a fuel storage depot. Ukrainian sources shared photos of the wreckage of the UAVs after the attack. Eyewitnesses also shared videos confirming that at least two UAVs were heard over the city and the explosions were reported which confirms that the suicide drones reached their target. Fire was also seen in the area.
According to local reports, the Ukrainian air defence forces shot down two Geranium-2 UAVs in the Odessa region. However, several other UAVs reached their target which was the Headquarters of the operational command South in the center of Odessa. The locals also shared videos with explosions in the city. Any footage from the spot is yet to confirm the success of the attack.
The Ukrainian media are sharing photos from the city of Zaporozhie, showing a house reportedly destroyed by Russian missile. According to the Ukrainian side, two civilians were killed. Ukrainian propagandist Gerashchenko shared a photo of a woman which also raised suspicions. The pose of the woman and the colour of her skin suppose that the photo was staged.
So far, it is not clear who was behind the attack, the real number of casualties and what was the real target. Civilian houses are often used by the Ukrainian military. The Ukrainian media are always trying to show military facilities as civilian ones like it was the case in Kremenchug. The Kiev regime has already attempted to blame the Russian side in genocide staging the mass murders in Bucha ans Izyum, killing their civilians in the towns under Ukrainian control like for example in Kramatorsk, and trying to lump the blame on Russia after the Ukrainian missiles hit civilian targets by mistake, for example when air defence rockets fell on the populated areas like it was the case in Odessa. It should not be excluded that the attack was the result of a technical malfunction or a mistake. The Russian military is yet to comment on the incident.
In their turn, Ukrainian forces attempted to attack the Russian city of Belgorod. In the morning hours, Russian air defense systems intercepted targets in the air. No damage was reported. In the Donetsk region, Ukrainian units shelled residential and administrative buildings in Donetsk, Gorlovka, Makeyevka and Yasinovataya. At night, Ukrainian formations shelled Energodar in the Zaporozhie region. The AFU also struck the town of Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson region, as well as at the civil infrastructure in the city of Kherson, including an orphanage. At the same time, two Ukrainian drones were shot down near the Antonovsky Bridge near Kherson. However, on the morning of Oct 6, another Ukrainian attack hit the bridge.
ATACMS
HIMARS
Several US representatives meeting with Azov soldiers and supporters in the Capitol, Sep 20 2022
Rep Dan Crenshaw hosting neo-Nazis in his congressional office, Sep 23 2022
Sen Rick Scott meets with members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, Sep 21 2022
Rep Mikie Sherrill meeting with a delegation of Azov soldiers in New Jersey, Sep 26 2022
Rep Adam Schiff meets with members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battallion at the Capitol
Frigate Bird, a 1962 test of an 600 kT warhead deployed from a ballistic missile, as seen from a US submarine periscope.
Joly and Blinken at Sep 30 press conference
The test launch of a Hwasŏng-12 IRBM in Pyongyang, Aug 29 2017
The family of Alaa Zaghal mourn over the body of the young man, killed earlier in the day by the Israeli military
Israeli soldiers stand guard as Jewish settlers attempt to storm Nablus near Huwara checkpoint
Israeli authorities impose a general closure in Jerusalem ahead of Yom Kippur, Oct 4. Photo: Saeed Qaq/APA
Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a session of the UNGA in New York, Sep 23 2022. Photo: Wang Ying/Xinhua
Niqnaq 