Russia: It’s Too Late for Sanctions

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Russia is not worried about U.S. and European sanctions as punishment for invading Ukraine because Russia long ago gamed out every possible sanctions move and fortified its economy to withstand them.

“The emotional reaction of the markets and in the financial sector was predicted. All necessary measures have been taken to ensure this period is over as quickly as possible,” Peskov said at a press conference.

The Kremlin spokesman scoffed at the notion of Western diplomatic and economic sanctions isolating Russia from the rest of the world in retaliation for invading Ukraine.

“It’s simply impossible to cut off a country like Russia with an iron curtain,” Peskov said, referring to the famed Iron Curtain metaphor for the Cold War.

“Of course, we may have problems with a number of states, but we had problems with these states even before that,” he said. (Read more from “Russia: It’s Too Late for Sanctions” HERE)

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Huh? Biden Sanctions Russia — But Not Vladimir Putin or Russian Oil

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President Joe Biden announced Thursday he would level economic sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, but not on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“For weeks, we have been warning that this would happen, and now, it’s unfolding largely as we predicted,” Biden said during a speech at the White House. . .

Biden’s administration finally leveled sanctions on Russian banks after over a month of threatening severe economic pain if he attacked Ukraine. But the president admitted he did not expect Putin to change his mind soon as a result.

“It’s not going to occur — he’s going to say ‘oh my god, these sanctions are coming, I’m going to stand down,’” Biden continued.

The Biden administration also indicated earlier Thursday they would not sanction Russian oil, at a time when prices were already high. (Read more from “Huh? Biden Sanctions Russia — But Not Vladimir Putin or Russian Oil” HERE)

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Taiwan Reports Chinese Aircraft in Its Air Defense Zone After Russia Invaded Ukraine

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Nine Chinese aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, Taiwan’s defense ministry said Thursday, on the same day that Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Tawian reported eight J-16 sorties and one Y-8 reconnaissance aircraft flying over an area to the northeast of the Pratas Islands, at the top end of the South China Sea, which prompted the island nation to scramble its air force. According to Reuters, the number of aircraft involved in the incursion is smaller than the last large-scale incident, when 39 Chinese aircraft flew into Taiwanese territory on Jan. 23.

China claims Taiwan, the seat of the exiled Republic of China government, as its own territory, and over the past two years it has regularly conducted fly-over missions in Taiwanese air space.

Taiwanese fighters were deployed to warn the Chinese aircraft to back off and air defense missiles were set up to “monitor the activities,” the defense ministry said, according to Reuters.

The government in Taipei is paying close attention to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the response from Western governments over concerns that China may use the situation to move against the island. (Read more from “Taiwan Reports Chinese Aircraft in Its Air Defense Zone After Russia Invaded Ukraine” HERE)

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Has Putin Miscalculated His Ability to Take Ukraine Swiftly?

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The invasion of Ukraine by the armed forces of Russia at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s orders marks the first time since 1945 that Russia has engaged in a conventional war with a near-peer nation. . .

Putin, by choosing to reach beyond the ethnic-Russian majority separatist provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas Basin, has decided to end the independent, Western-looking Ukrainian government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and install a pro-Putin quisling.

And while the fog of war, some deliberate mis-and disinformation operations by the combatants, and the far-from-perfect filter of Western media leaves much unknown at this time, what is known is that Zelenskyy is still in power a day after the Russian offensive. Further, the Ukrainian military appears to be taking a toll on the Russians invading from three sides: south across the Pripyat Marshes from Russian satellite Belarus; west from Russia, including Donbas; and north from the Black Sea in the region of Odessa and Transnistria, a Russian client breakaway state in Moldavia.

Modern conventional war is extremely difficult to do well. Imagine being a conductor of an orchestra, all while the audience was lobbing soccer balls at you and your musicians as you perform J.S. Bach’s Chaconne in D — that’s modern warfare. Putin is attempting a highly complicated operation over large distances in the face of a determined foe. Further, he’s doing so with an army largely composed of conscripts serving for only one year.

Since Putin has decided to oust the Ukrainian government, this means that every day Zelenskyy remains in office is another day that adds to Ukrainian national confidence to resist — and another day that Putin looks to have miscalculated. (Read more from “Has Putin Miscalculated His Ability to Take Ukraine Swiftly?” HERE)

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Children’s Hospital Fires Unvaxxed Nurses After Questioning And Rejecting Their Religious Beliefs

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“Ijust love it. I love my job. I love what I do, and this has been really hard. Sorry.”

The pediatric nurse, who had been working at Children’s Wisconsin for 12 years, choked back tears as she stressed her passion for treating sick children to the chaplain and human resources representative tasked with questioning whether her religious beliefs were sincere enough to earn her an exemption from the Milwaukee hospital’s vaccine mandate, which took effect in November.

This nurse, whose religious exemption appeal interview was shared with The Federalist on the condition of anonymity, was finally granted an exemption after first being denied, then appealing, then being grilled by the two hospital representatives about her religious convictions. Some of her colleagues weren’t so fortunate.

Of the five appeal interview recordings reviewed by The Federalist, only two of the employees were granted religious exemptions despite the same general questions being asked to each of the Children’s workers and similar themes in each of their answers. The other three were denied.

Staff was notified in July about the vaccine mandate, which required them to get the Covid-19 shot by mid-November. Employees had until Sept. 1 to request a religious exemption, according to a vaccine overview document that Children’s WI President and CEO Peggy Troy emailed to all hospital employees, and they were notified of the decisions later. (Read more from “Children’s Hospital Fires Unvaxxed Nurses After Questioning and Rejecting Their Religious Beliefs” HERE)

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Former Boxing Superstar Says He Will Take up Arms to Fight Against Russia (VIDEO)

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Former boxing superstar Vitali Klitschko is ready to kill and die for Ukraine.

At the moment, Russia has launched a massive invasion against Ukraine, and there has already been incredibly intense fighting on the ground.

In an attempt to slow down Russia’s progress and make the war as difficult as possible, Ukraine is prepared to arm anyone who needs a weapon. . .

What’s going on in Ukraine is nothing short of an absolute tragedy, and it can’t be looked at any other way. (Read more from “Former Boxing Superstar Says He Will Take up Arms to Fight Against Russia” HERE)

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Ukraine: Chernobyl Power Plant Has Been Captured by the Russians

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Russian forces have reportedly captured the Chernobyl power plant, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said Thursday.

The announcement coincides with a full Russian invasion of Ukraine that began early Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced “a special military operation in Donbas.”

Shortly after Putin’s announcement, the Russian military descended upon Ukraine via land, sea and air, The New York Times reported. U.S. officials have predicted that Putin’s goal is to fully dismantle the Ukrainian government and replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with someone controlled by Russia, the newspaper added.

Amid a continued Russian attack against Ukraine, the Ukrainian president has tweeted out updates. In one, he reported that “Russian occupation forces are trying to seize the” Chernobyl power plant, a highly radioactive zone with a nuclear reactor that melted in 1986 and sparked the worst nuclear reaction disaster in history.

(Read more from “Ukraine: Chernobyl Power Plant Has Been Captured by the Russians” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Dutch Air Force Deploys Storied ‘MiG Killer’ To Eastern Europe

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The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) is deploying two F-16AM Fighting Falcons and two armed F-35A Lightning II aircraft from Leeuwarden Air Base to further reinforce NATO’s presence across Eastern Europe.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense announced the plan to deploy the 5th generation jets to Graf Ignatievo Air Base in Bulgaria through March and April, according to the NATO Allied Air Command. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Thursday altered these plans. It is now unclear whether the aircraft will go to Bulgaria, as the official statement from the Ministry of Defense noted they have been moved “in the vicinity of Poland,” the Aviationist reported.

The F-16s and F-35s are part of a contingent of eight aircraft to be deployed to protect NATO airspace in Eastern Europe at a moment’s notice, the outlet described. (Read more from “NYC Underground: Hundreds of People Are Living in Subway Stations and Tunnels, Survey Shows” HERE)

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NYC Underground: Hundreds of People Are Living in Subway Stations and Tunnels, Survey Shows

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Some 350 homeless individuals were recently found living in encampments in subway stations and tunnels, transit officials said Thursday.

The individuals were spread between 29 encampments in tunnels and 89 in stations, according to an MTA survey conducted on Feb. 2 and 3 as part of a “track trespass” task force formed in December to address an uptick in track intrusions.

Taskforce leader Jamie Torres-Springer said the tunnel encampments “directly lead to track trespassing incidents,” which the MTA began tracking in detail in January.

MTA bean counters recorded 160 track intrusion incidents in the first month of record-keeping, 40 of which were attributed to mentally ill or emotionally disturbed individuals, Torres-Springer said. Other incidents involved slip-and-falls, intoxication or suicide or attempted suicide, and four more involved shove assaults. (Read more from “NYC Underground: Hundreds of People Are Living in Subway Stations and Tunnels, Survey Shows” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Why Is Russia Invading Ukraine? Explaining the Roots of a Long-Simmering Conflict

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. . .Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a massive escalation of a conflict that has been simmering since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

At issue are two separatist states — Donetsk and Luhansk — that have been in open, if muted, conflict with Kyiv since 2014, as well as larger questions about Russia’s sphere of influence and Ukraine’s place in greater Europe. . .

But the conflict as we know it began in 2013, when then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych backed out of an expected economic deal with the European Union, opting instead to strike a deal with Russia. . .

Putin simultaneously declared Crimea, which had been made a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during the Soviet era, to be part of Russia — and invaded the peninsula in late February and March 2014.

Putin’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea, was widely denounced by the international community, which still recognizes the territory as being part of Ukraine. (Read more from “Why Is Russia Invading Ukraine? Explaining the Roots of a Long-Simmering Conflict” HERE)

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