Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’

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Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis has floated the idea that he wants to take a trip to Kyiv to try to broker a ceasefire. But now he says he would prefer to go to Moscow to try to talk some sense into Vladimir Putin, who he has not outwardly condemned in the now nearly three-month-old war and only did so lightly in a lengthy interview with an Italian newspaper.

“I feel that before going to Kyiv, I must go to Moscow,” he told Corriere Della Sera in an interview that ran Tuesday. But the meeting would not exactly be to condemn Putin, based on what he told the paper. He said that the real “scandal” of Putin’s war is “NATO barking at Russia’s door,” which he said caused the Kremlin to “react badly and unleash the conflict.” . . .

“I don’t know how to answer—I’m too far away—the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians,” he told the paper. “The clear thing is that weapons are being tested there. The Russians now know that tanks are of little use and are thinking of other things. This is why wars are waged: to test the weapons we have produced. Few people are fighting this trade, but more should be done.” . . .

Francis veered toward conspiracy theory as he blamed the international community for instigating the war. “You cannot think that a free state can make war on another free state,” he said. “In Ukraine, it seems that it was others who created the conflict. I am pessimistic but we must do everything possible to stop the war.” The pope then said that in a state visit to Rome by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, he was told “the Russians have a plan, that everything will end on May 9” without giving any further explanation. May 9 is the day Russia celebrates its liberation and the end of World War II. (Read more from “Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’” HERE)

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Pentagon Officials Haven’t Contacted Russian Counterparts in ‘Several Weeks’

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Top U.S. military leaders have not attempted to reach their Russian counterparts in “several weeks” after their previous efforts were rebuffed.

The United States had repeatedly tried to arrange conversations between Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and his Russian counterpart, Chief of Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, as well as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his counterpart, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, but they have not spoken since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

Milley’s spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that the Joint Chiefs haven’t reached out to set up a call between Milley and Gerasimov in “several weeks.”

“It’s been quite some time — certainly, many weeks — since we’ve attempted another communication with Minister Shoigu,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday. “And there has not been much interest shown by the Russians in having that conversation.”

Milley’s last conversation with Gerasimov took place Feb. 11, and Joint Staff spokesman Col. Dave Butler said at the time, “The military leaders discussed several security-related issues of concern. In accordance with past practice, both have agreed to keep the specific details of their conversation private.” (Read more from “Pentagon Officials Haven’t Contacted Russian Counterparts in ‘Several Weeks'” HERE)

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Massive Chinese Fleet Seen Barreling Toward U.S. Naval Base

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The largest Chinese aircraft carrier group reportedly ever assembled is conducting combat training near a U.S. naval base in Japan, according to multiple Chinese media sources on Tuesday.

China’s aircraft carrier “Liaoning,” as well as seven other vessels, are reportedly performing a naval expedition in close proximity to Nagasaki, Japan, and the U.S. Navy base at Sasebo, according to a Tuesday report from China’s Observer News translated by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is also in the vicinity, according to the report.

The U.S. Naval Institute fleet tracker placed both the USS Abraham Lincoln, as well as the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier in the waters near Sasebo on May 2.

China’s naval expedition comes a week after its military reportedly shadowed a U.S. Navy destroyer conducting a freedom of navigation exercise in the Taiwan Strait last Tuesday.

China’s military news outlet confirmed its nation’s aircraft carrier group was operating in the western Pacific Ocean in a Tuesday bulletin translated by the DCNF, but stated the “routine training operation” was “not directed against any party.” (Read more from “Massive Chinese Fleet Seen Barreling Toward U.S. Naval Base” HERE)

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COVID Vax Now Mandatory in This Country; Elected Reps Cannot Vote Without Proof of Vax

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Around 600,000 Italians over the age of 50 are set to receive a fine for being unvaccinated despite the Italian government reviewing a loosening of various Wuhan virus restrictions.

In January, the Italian government decided to make vaccination mandatory for all residents over the age of 50, with the mandate coming into effect in February. At least 600,000 Italians have been referred to the Italian tax agency and are expected to receive a 100 euro (£84/$110) fine. . .

Fines are also set to increase for those over 50 who continue to refuse to get the vaccine, and could go as high as between 600 euros (£499/$668) and 1,500 euros (£1,248/$1,671) for those who go to work without the “super green pass” health passport — a variation of the green pass that is only given to those fully vaccinated or those recovered from the virus. . .

Even Italian lawmakers over the age of 50 are not exempt from the vaccination rules, and several parliamentarians expressed their frustration with them last month, with one senator comparing the policy to the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. (Read more from “COVID Vax Now Mandatory in This Country; Elected Reps Cannot Vote Without Proof of Vax” HERE)

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Putin to Undergo Cancer Surgery, Transfer Power to Ex-FSB Chief: Report

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to undergo cancer surgery and temporarily hand over power to a hardline former federal police chief, according to a new report.

Putin will transfer control of Russia’s government to Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Russian federal police’s Security Council, while he is incapacitated during and after the procedure, according to a video from the mysterious Telegram channel “General SVR” on Saturday.

The channel — which is purportedly run by a former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service lieutenant general known by the pseudonym “Viktor Mikhailovich” — reported that Putin has been told by doctors that he must undergo an operation.

The anticipated surgery and recovery are expected to incapacitate Putin for “a short time,” according to the unconfirmed report. (Read more from “Putin to Undergo Cancer Surgery, Transfer Power to Ex-FSB Chief: Report” HERE)

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Heroic ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ Fighter Doesn’t Actually Exist

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The “Ghost of Kyiv” is a myth, Ukrainian officials admitted over the weekend.

After several news outlets last week identified the legendary, mysterious, hero fighter pilot as a 29-year-old dad recently killed in battle with the Russians, military officials acknowledged Saturday that there was no such person.

“The ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend, whose character was created by Ukrainians!” Ukraine’s Air Force Command wrote on Facebook.

The reputed hero had been credited with taking out as many as 40 Russian aircraft until he was shot down March 13 while battling an “overwhelming” number of enemy forces, the Times of London had reported. (Read more from “Heroic ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ Fighter Doesn’t Actually Exist” HERE)

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Big Tech Censoring of Ukraine War Goes Into Hyperdrive

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Google has sent a warning shot across the world, ominously informing media outlets, bloggers, and content creators that it will no longer tolerate certain opinions when it comes to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

[In April], Google AdSense sent a message to a myriad of publishers, including [this article’s original publisher,] MintPress News, informing us that, “Due to the war in Ukraine, we will pause monetization of content that exploits, dismisses, or condones the war.” This content, it went on to say, “includes, but is not limited to, claims that imply victims are responsible for their own tragedy or similar instances of victim-blaming, such as claims that Ukraine is committing genocide or deliberately attacking its own citizens.”

This builds on a similar message Google’s subsidiary YouTube released [in March], stating, “Our Community Guidelines prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events. We are now removing content about Russia’s invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy.” YouTube went on to say that it had already permanently banned more than a thousand channels and 15,000 videos on these grounds. . .

Journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin was deeply troubled by the news. “It is really disturbing that this is the trend that we are on” . . .

[And journalist Chris Hedges wrote,] “Censorship is the last resort of desperate and unpopular regimes. It magically appears to make a crisis go away. It comforts the powerful with the narrative they want to hear, one fed back to them by courtiers in the media, government agencies, think tanks, and academia.” (Read more from “Big Tech Censoring of Ukraine War Goes Into Hyperdrive” HERE)

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Ex-U.S. Marine Killed in Ukraine Was Hired by Private Company to Fight There; Two Army Vets Wounded

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By New York Post. A former US Marine who was hired to fight alongside Ukrainian soldiers against Russian invaders was killed this week.

Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was being paid by a private military contracting company to fight in Ukraine when he died on Monday, family members told CNN.

“He wanted to go over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of it to contain it there so it didn’t come here, and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn’t have to be involved in it,” Cancel’s mother, Rebecca Cabrera told the network.

Cancel flew to Poland on March 12 and arrived in Ukraine the next day to fight alongside men from “all different countries,” Cabrera reportedly said.

The circumstances of Cancel’s death were not immediately clear, and officials that notified his family of the death had not recovered him, his mom explained. (Read more from “Ex-U.S. Marine Killed in Ukraine Was Hired by Private Company to Fight There” HERE)

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Two Americans, Both Former Army, Wounded by Artillery in Ukraine Combat

By Coffee Ordie. Two Americans volunteering in Ukraine’s armed forces were wounded by artillery fire during combat in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, April 27.

US Army veterans Paul Gray and Manus McCaffery were on a mission to destroy a Russian tank near Orikhiv, a small city in the path of Russia’s ongoing military offensive in the south and east of Ukraine. The pair were waiting for a Russian tank to appear on a road when an artillery round struck nearby at roughly 2:35 p.m., Gray told Coffee or Die Magazine via text message. McCaffery suffered serious shrapnel wounds to his face, head, shoulders, and torso. A concrete wall fell onto Gray, momentarily trapping him and injuring his left foot.

“Manus is really bad…I’m sick about it,” Gray said, adding that he was about five feet from McCaffery when the artillery struck. “I couldn’t help him because a concrete wall fell on my legs. He remained talking the whole time. Extremely hard young man.”

A native of Ohio, McCaffery, 20, served in the US Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment and deployed to Afghanistan. Gray, who is originally from Texas, deployed to Iraq three times as a soldier in the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division. Both men are no longer in the US armed forces and were civilians when they volunteered to join Ukraine’s armed forces via legal pathways. The two American volunteers served within a Ukrainian special operations unit and worked together as a team targeting Russian tanks and vehicles with US-made Javelin anti-tank missiles. (Read more from “Two Americans, Both Former Army, Wounded by Artillery in Ukraine Combat” HERE)

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Mounting Evidence Canada Trained Ukrainian Extremists, Gov’t Needs to Be Held to Accountable: Experts

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With mounting evidence pointing to the Canadian Armed Forces having trained members of Ukraine’s military who are also reported to be part of extremist groups, experts say Ottawa needs to strongly bolster its investigation and vetting of the soldiers it trains and arms in the embattled country.

The Department of National Defence promised a thorough review of Canada’s mission in Ukraine after CTVNews.ca approached them for comment in October 2021, regarding a report from George Washington University that found extremists in the Ukrainian military were bragging about being trained by Canadians as part of Operation UNIFIER.

The group in question – which calls itself Military Order Centuria, or simply Centuria, has links to the far-right Azov movement.

The Canadian military said they were alarmed by the report and denied any knowledge that extremists had taken part in training, adding that it does not have the mandate to screen the soldiers they train from other countries.

In the month that followed, an investigation by the Ottawa Citizen found that not only did Canadian officials meet and get briefed by leaders from the Azov Battalion in 2018, they did not denounce the unit’s neo-Nazi beliefs – despite being warned about their views by their colleagues– and their main concern was that media would expose that the meeting had taken place. Officers and diplomats allowed themselves to be photographed with battalion officials which was then used online by Azov as propaganda. (Read more from “Mounting Evidence Canada Trained Ukrainian Extremists, Gov’t Needs to Be Held to Accountable: Experts” HERE)

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Russian Spy Chief Says U.S., Poland Plotting Division of Ukraine

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Russia’s foreign spy chief accused the United States and Poland on Thursday of plotting to gain a sphere of influence in Ukraine, a claim denied by Warsaw as disinformation aimed at sowing distrust among Kyiv’s supporters.

Sergei Naryshkin, the chief of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), cited unpublished intelligence that he said showed the United States and Poland, NATO allies, were plotting to restore Polish control over part of western Ukraine.

“According to the intelligence received by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Washington and Warsaw are working on plans to establish Poland’s tight military and political control over its historical possessions in Ukraine,” Naryshkin said in a rare statement released by the SVR. . .

Poland has ruled some territories that are now part of Ukraine at different times in the past, most recently between the two world wars. Western Ukraine, including the city of Lviv, were absorbed into the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two.Russian Spy Chief Says U.S., Poland Plotting Division of Ukraine. (Read more from “Russian Spy Chief Says U.S., Poland Plotting Division of Ukraine” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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