Ukraine Plan B

NATO arms, trains and funds the insurgency against Putin’s puppet regime.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told House lawmakers the Biden administration is considering ways to train Ukrainian forces remotely if the Russians seize control of Ukraine. – – AXIOS

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

41 thoughts on “Ukraine Plan B”

  2. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy says 137 civilians and military personnel have been killed so far in the Russian invasion of his country. The president said all border guards on Zmiinyi island in were killed as Russia took the island. Zelenskiy also said he and his family have become targets as he vowed to remain in Ukraine

  4. EU condemns Russian invasion of Ukraine, announces additional sanctions | TheHill

    […]
    “The European Council condemns in the strongest possible terms the Russian Federation’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine,” read a set of conclusions adopted by the council during a special meeting on Thursday. “Russia bears full responsibility for this act of aggression and all the destruction and loss of life it will cause. It will be held accountable for its actions.”
    The council asserted that Russia’s invasion violated international law and the principles of the United Nations charter and that the country was “undermining European and global security and stability.”
    It also condemned the involvement of Belarus in Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine, asking the country to “abide by its international obligations” and refrain from further military action.
    The council announced it had agreed to additional sanctions against Russia due to the invasion.
    The sanctions, the council said, “will impose massive and severe consequences on Russia for its action.” They cover the financial sector, energy and transport sectors, dual-use goods, export control and export financings, visa policy, additional listings of Russian individuals and new listing criteria.
    In its conclusions, the council also called for the “urgent preparation and adoption” of further sanctions that would cover Belarus.
    The council demanded that Russia cease its military actions by withdrawing its forces and weapons from Ukraine. In addition, it urged Russia to stop its “disinformation campaign and cyber-attacks.”
    “The package of massive and targeted sanctions approved tonight shows how united the EU is,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in Twitter post on Thursday.
    “First, this package includes financial sanctions, targeting 70% of the Russian banking market and key state owned companies, including in defence,” she wrote. “Second, we target the energy sector, a key economic area which especially benefits the Russian state. Our export ban will hit the oil sector by making it impossible for Russia to upgrade its refineries.”
    “Third: we ban the sale of aircrafts and equipment to Russian airlines,” she continued. “Fourth, we are limiting Russia’s access to crucial technology, such as semiconductors or cutting-edge software.”
    “Finally: visas. Diplomats and related groups and business people will no longer have privileged access to the European Union,” she concluded.
    This comes after the council on Wednesday approved sanctions against key members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle as well as a number of other figures involved in Russian politics and media.

  5. As Ukraine defends itself against a Russian military invasion, our thoughts are with the citizens of Ukraine who are caught in an unimaginable reality.

  6. from other late night comics last night according to yahoo:

    Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert both ripped former President Trump Thursday for his remarks regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine. On multiple occasions, Trump has praised Putin, calling him a genius, and even went so far as to blame the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the “rigged election” of 2020, continuing his lie about his election loss.
    “It takes a special kind of son of a bitch to see innocent people fleeing their homes and think, ‘How can I make this about me?’” Kimmel said. “But nobody does that better than Donald Trump.”
    Kimmel later continued, “There are hundreds of casualties in Ukraine, images of families running for their lives, and not only hasn’t Trump condemned Putin, ‘Sar-a-Lago’ has been praising his KGBFF. He called him a genius. He called what he’s doing wonderful. He keeps defending Putin, which is embarrassing. He’s never gonna date you, dude, give it up. There’s nothing good you can say about Vladimir Putin.”
    Over on The Late Show, Colbert had a similar message, but used a different approach. Since Trump left office, Colbert has refused to say his name on the show, choosing instead to go with a different nickname each time he talks about the former president.
    “Amidst all this horror, it’s important to keep our eyes on the unhinged fascist lunatic,” Colbert said. “I’m talking about former ‘President Stonewall Jackass.’ He has been out there pushing a pro-Putin agenda, forever.”
    Colbert also called out Fox News for its coverage of Putin leading up to the invasion. Many at the network actually defended the dictator’s orders to amass Russian troops along its border with Ukraine. Colbert was referencing a phone interview Trump did with Fox opinion host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday.
    “The ex-prez took to Russian state media — I’m sorry, I misread that — Fox News, and he had a lot of opinions,” Colbert said. “He had a lot of opinions, just not a lot of information.”
    […]
    STEPHEN COLBERT: Yeah, sometimes he has trouble telling the difference between America and Russia. He– he knows he worked for one of them.

  7. Vlad won’t stop with Ukraine.  The West needs to face facts.  

    The US hasn’t imposed sanctions on Rushun gas/oil coming to the US.
    US oil producers don’t want to ramp up production here, because that’s bad for profits. They love Rusher. They don’t care about democracy, just profits.

  9. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/business/swift-russia-putin/index.html

    “The United States and the European Union held back from cutting Russia off from SWIFT, a high security messaging network that connects thousands of financial institutions around the world, after failing to agree on a step that some have called the “nuclear option.” It would damage Russia but also big economies in Europe.”

    I guess Vlad will have to head toward Poland before the West does anything meaningful to stop him.

    “Ukraine appealed for Russia to be removed from SWIFT after President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion on Thursday. The call from Kyiv was backed by Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and the United Kingdom but other European countries resisted.”

    “A suspension of SWIFT would … have a massive impact on payments in Germany and for German companies doing business with Russia but also to settle energy supply payments — that all would have to be well prepared…”

    Well, you’d best start preparing.

  10. China state media claim Putin has told Xi he’s ready to negotiate with Ukraine’s Zelensky (msn.com)

    BEIJING — Chinese state TV says Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, that Moscow is willing to negotiate with Ukraine, even as Moscow’s forces expand the ongoing invasion of Russia’s western neighbor

    The report Friday followed a Kremlin announcement that Putin’s government was considering an offer by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate nonaligned status for his country.

    Putin said Moscow “is willing to conduct high-level negotiations with the Ukrainian side,” China Central Television reported on its website.

    It gave no indication whether Putin said he was responding to Zelensky’s offer or gave any details of what the two sides might negotiate.

    […]

    Xi said China, for which it is purportedly axiomatic that one sovereign country does not involve itself in the internal affairs of another, “supports Russia and Ukraine resolving the problem through negotiations,” CCTV said.

    [continues]

    Putin responded to Zelensky’s call ABC.AZ

     “Russia is ready to negotiate with Ukraine at a high level.”

    ABC.AZ reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin made the above-mentioned statement during a telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

    It should be noted that a few hours ago, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, offered Putin to hold talks.

  11. SWIFT is as I understand it a European system originated in Belgium that we do not control access to. As a bit of an explanation about how access to SWIFT has been handled in the past, from Wiki:

    Similarly, in August 2014 the UK planned to press the EU to block Russian use of SWIFT as a sanction due to Russian military intervention in Ukraine. However, SWIFT refused to do so. SPFS, a Russia-based SWIFT equivalent, was created by the Central Bank of Russia as a backup measure. During the2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis, the United States developed preliminary possible sanctions against Russia, but excluded banning Russia from SWIFT. Following the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the foreign ministers of the Baltic states called for Russia to be cut off from SWIFT. However, other EU member states were reluctant, both because European lenders held most of the nearly $30 billion in foreign banks’ exposure to Russia and because Russia had developed the SPFS alternative.

    So there you have it.

  12. And let’s stop the hand wringing about crude oil and gas prices. They are high, but they’ve been high before. 

    Gas is not at the highest price in the past 30 years as has been broadcast widely on MSM.  Gas prices (average, all grades) has been at or above the current average ($3.51) in 2008 ($4.41) and for a 3 1/2 year period from March, 2008 until September 2014 was at or above today’s prices, ranging from 3.615 at the beginning of that stretch and staying at or above 3.50 until September, 2014 when it dropped to 3.484. Are prices today high?  Sure.  Is this a historical high?  Not yet. 

    And crude prices have been much higher per barrel, in 2008 they were at $179.90 briefly, although not for extended periods except back at the end of the 70s, beginning of the 80s when they were at $100/bbl from August 1979 – January, 1982. 

    IMHO this should not be driving the consideration of what sanctions to impose on Rusha.

  13. Pope went to Russian Embassy in Rome to express concerns over Ukraine conflict | TheHill

    Francis also met with the Russian ambassador to the Vatican while at the embassy, speaking with the ambassador for more than an hour and a half. These are all considered to be unusual actions for a pontiff, outside of normal papal protocol, CNN reported. 

    Typically, popes host ambassadors and heads of state in the Vatican and usually the pope would summon the ambassador to the Vatican to speak to them, ABC News noted. 

  14. Kremlin says Russia agrees to talks with Ukraine | TheHill

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to send a delegation to Belarus to meet with Ukrainian officials.

    Peskov made the comments after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is willing to negotiate Ukraine’s stance on NATO membership as Russian forces closed in on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, The Associated Press reported.

    Ukraine has been firm in wanting to join the NATO alliance, but after the invasion broke out, the president said the country would consider a nonaligned status.

  16. From those brave souls at FB –

    *** From ADMIN ***

    Due to the current situation in Ukraine, we cannot allow posts on Ukraine, Russia and also any historical accounts (i.e., Winter War). We realize this is a highly sensitive and hurtful time and need to protect the entire group from any hostilities and/or triggers.

     
    Winter War is when Stalins Soviet army invaded Finland 1939.  The Finns beat back the Soviets.  The Finns recently got rid of a Russia (Putin) friend and is considering joining NATO.

  18. Russia threatens ‘military and political consequences’ if Finland, Sweden try joining NATO | TheHill

    Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned against other countries attempting to join NATO after Russia started a war with Ukraine Thursday.

    “Finland and Sweden should not base their security on damaging the security of other countries and their accession to NATO can have detrimental consequences and face some military and political consequences,” Zakharova said in a viral clip of a press conference.

    The ministry later posted the same threat on its Twitter. Finland and Sweden have given significant military and humanitarian support to Ukraine since Russia invaded.

    One pretext Russia has given for attacking Ukraine is that NATO would not give any assurance that Ukraine would not be allowed to join the intergovernmental military alliance.

    Ukraine has been adamant about joining but is now willing to discuss a different status with NATO after hundreds were killed in the first day of fighting the Russians. 

  20. from mothership:

    Zelensky said in a video on Friday, Feb. 25 (Ukrainian time) that he and his team were still in Kyiv as the capital came under assault by the Russian military invaders and could fall into their hands in a matter of hours.

    “We are here. We are in Kyiv,” said Zelensky in the video, which was posted on Twitter.

    It effectively ended rumours he had left the country leaderless.

    He added: “We are here. We are defending Ukraine.”

    The four other people with the president are his cabinet members, whom Zelensky names one by one.

    They are all on Bankova Street, standing right outside the Ukrainian Presidential Administration Building.

    He closed the brief statement with the traditional “Slava Ukraini”, which means “Glory to the Ukraine”.

    Earlier in the day, in a national address, Zelensky vowed to stay in the capital to defend it till the end.

    Zelensky’s mood on camera appeared less dire than his prognosis just hours before when he reportedly conveyed to European Union leaders during a video call on Thursday night that “this might be the last time you see me alive”.

    The video comes as there was uncertainty over Zelensky’s whereabouts on the second day of Russia’s invasion.

  21. as Mr. Grant would say:

    “you know, Volodymyr, you’ve got spunk”

    and as vlad p would say:
    “I hate spunk”

  22. daily beast:

    Liz Wahl, a former correspondent for the Kremlin-controlled RT network, repeatedly clashed with NewsNation anchor Dan Abrams over her assertion that Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s pro-Putin rhetoric is “indistinguishable” from Russian state media.
    Appearing on Thursday night’s broadcast of Dan Abrams Live, Wahl—who famously quit RT live on-air in 2014 over Russia’s annexation of Crimea—spent much of her interview discussing Russia’s use of RT broadcasts to peddle state propaganda to Americans about its invasion of Ukraine.
    Eventually, Wahl observed that RT’s American branch has recently recruited a number of Trump supporters to fill out its ranks, noting that “the narratives have essentially become indistinguishable” from pro-Trump media. Abrams, meanwhile, pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be devoting “real money” to state-run media like RT.
    Things quickly grew tense, however, when Wahl pointed out that Carlson and far-right Trump allies such as Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn “mimic RT now” and “are indistinguishable” from the propaganda network. Flynn, former President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, released a statement this week defending Putin’s “legitimate ethnic problems” with Ukraine.
    [continues]

  26. An unheralded foreign-policy “win” would be Biden getting us out of Afghanistan BEFORE the invasion of Ukraine by Putin, intelligence concerning which the President likely had, last summer, considering all of the intelligence his administration has shared with the American public regarding Russia, in the past few weeks, has been 100% accurate.
     
    Good job, Biden Admin

  28. yes ….  russian warship…. Go fuck yourself.

    Persian envoy to King Leonidas at battle of Thermopylae (from memory) Our archers will put so many arrows in the sky they will block out the sun.
    King Leonidas…….Good, then we can fight in the shade.

  29. The Biden gang are holding a LOT of cards to play yet.   I really think they’re going to extract some fangs.

  31. Sturg – I hope you’re right.

    Vlad is definitely trying to divide and conquer. He’s afraid of NATO. He’s afraid of democracy. He’s afraid, as are most, so-called strongmen.

    I hope someone is trying to uncover where Vlad’s personal wealth is squirreled away. Make it known.

  33. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/politics/putin-russia-ukraine-international-law-what-matters/index.html

    “Afraid of one organization, NATO, Putin ignored the principles of another organization, the United Nations, as well as an agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum, signed by Russia and specifically meant to protect Ukraine from invasion.”

    “Putin’s actions are a textbook example of the crime of aggression, which was considered the supreme international crime by the Nuremberg Tribunal following World War II.”

    “It is a bizarre irony that at this moment when it goes to war on a neighbor, Russia is serving as president of the UN Security Council.
    It’s a matter of some coincidence, since the presidency rotates monthly.
    But Russia’s status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council with veto power over all substantive measures means there will be no sanctions against Russia from the UN, although member countries have imposed their own punishments.”

    “Indeed, Russia vetoed a draft resolution condemning its invasion of Ukraine Friday night. Eleven countries supported the resolution, and three — China, India and the United Arab Emirates — abstained.”

    “Plans should be made now to hold the alliance together as long as necessary—for years, and perhaps decades.”
    “This could be one reason Biden has held some sanctions in reserve and been careful not to criticize Europe for not moving as swiftly against Russia as many American lawmakers would have liked.”

    “Among the plans Hathaway and Shapiro suggest are ways to erase Russia’s leverage over Europe and protect smaller countries, like those in the Baltics who are not NATO members and now fear Russia could move against them next.”

  35. warning: combat footage, also shows Russian tank deliberately running over a civilian car (occupant was rescued and survived)

  40. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/business/wheat-russia-china-intl-hnk/index.html

    “China has relaxed restrictions on imports of Russian wheat, a move that could address food security concerns in the world’s second largest economy and ease the impact of Western sanctions on Russia.”

    Well, I guess we know what Vlad and Xi discussed during the Olympics. Two bad actors who have each other’s backs.

    “Previously, China had restricted wheat imports from Russia due to concerns about the presence of dwarf bunt fungus — a disease that can cause severe loss of yield for wheat and other crops — in some parts of the country.”

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