Ukraine Can Hold Out Against Russians for Years: Former Ukrainian Soldier

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As Victor Kovalenko, a former Ukrainian soldier and journalist, has watched the war in his home country unfold he says the daily reports he receives from his former comrades gives him hope Ukraine can fend off Russian aggression for years.

From his home in Michigan, Kovalenko told Newsweek that he’s in regular contact with friends, family and former fellow soldiers who provide him with videos and other first-hand information about the conflict. While he receives images of the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities and the accompanying rubble, Kovalenko said other messages from back home leave him heartened about his country’s resolve.

“We can beat Russia. We stopped them in 2014 and 2015, it was a success,” he said. “Everyone watches Ukraine and everyone realizes that Ukraine is actually stopping Russia, and for the last two or three days the Russian army had no major advances. They just stopped.”

Kovalenko said he’s made a routine of staying up all night verifying and translating videos and other information from Russian or Ukraine and posting them to his Twitter feed. He said he’s in daily contact with people he served with in the military. (Read more from “Ukraine Can Hold Out Against Russians for Years: Former Ukrainian Soldier” HERE)

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What Happens if Putin Nukes Ukraine?

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Russia has repeatedly pointed to its nuclear arsenal while waging war on Ukraine, seemingly alluding that nukes could be on the table to counter what it perceives as “Western aggression.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be placed on a “special regime of combat duty” while speaking with top military officials Feb. 27, in response to Western economic sanctions and “aggressive statements” from NATO countries. A few days prior, Putin said that the West would face consequences “such as you have never seen in your entire history” if it intervened in Ukraine. Belarus, Russia’s neighbor that has served as a launchpad for Russian soldiers, voted to abandon its non-nuclear status Feb. 28. . .

Peter Rough, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told the Daily Caller that there is one unlikely scenario in which Russia may resolve to use nuclear weapons.

“I think it’s highly unlikely that Putin uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The scenario in which I see that decision being taken and executed is in the event of a defeat of the Russian army in a conventional war. By this, I don’t mean a quagmire in Ukraine but a force marching on Moscow or St. Petersburg. I don’t see that on the horizon,” he said.

“If Russia were to launch nuclear weapons against Ukraine, it’s not extremely likely that a nuclear war would begin, but we can’t rule out that possibility,” Alexis Mrachek, Research Associate for Russia and Eurasia, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy, told the Daily Caller. (Read more from “What Happens if Putin Nukes Ukraine?” HERE)

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Facebook And Instagram Will Allow Calls For Violence — As Long As They’re Against Russians

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Facebook and Instagram have relaxed their community standards in one very specific arena — in some countries, the platforms will allow posts that call for violence against Russia, Russian soldiers, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Reuters reported Thursday that the Meta platforms would relax their hate speech restrictions in some instances while Russia continued to invade Ukraine.

“Meta Platforms (FB.O) will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy,” Reuters reported. . .

According to the report, the temporary changes applied to the nearby former Soviet bloc nations of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. (Read more from “Facebook and Instagram Will Allow Calls for Violence — As Long as They’re Against Russians” HERE)

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Ukrainians Develop Drone That Drops Molotov Cocktails

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. . .Ukraine’s army developed a drone to drop Molotov cocktails on its enemies, and one of the beer bottle-turned-weapons was unleashed Thursday.

The small flying drone was developed by the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces and appears to have four blades. Its center console has a spot to hold the Molotov cocktail horizontally before it is remotely deployed.

Photos on Thursday captured the drone dropping a bottle of Chernihivske beer in Kyiv. (Read more from “Ukrainians Develop Drone That Drops Molotov Cocktails” HERE)

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Russia, Silent on Wuhan, Claims American Labs Were Making Biological Weapons in Ukraine; White House: ‘Be on Lookout’ for Russia to Use Chemical, Bioweapons in Ukraine

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By Breitbart. The Foreign Ministry of Russia claimed on Tuesday that the nation’s military had “confirmed” the existence of American-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine used for developing “biological weapons.”

Russian troops reportedly found “documentation” showing Ukrainian scientists destroying evidence of “plague, anthrax, rabbit-fever, cholera and other lethal diseases” studied in the country’s laboratories on February 24, according to a statement from Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova, as part of their ongoing assault on the country. Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February that he claimed was necessary to “de-Nazify” the country. Russia initially invaded Ukraine in 2014 and has been illegally occupying its Crimean Peninsula since.

The government of communist China rapidly began publicizing the alleged Russian findings, demanding that Washington reveal all classified information on its biological military research. The official stance of the Chinese government is that the Chinese coronavirus pandemic – which began in Wuhan, China, in 2019, was triggered by a laboratory leak in Maryland and covered up using cases of e-cigarette injuries. Beijing has yet to explain how the virus began spreading in Wuhan before it spread in the United States if this theory is accurate, or how non-contagious injuries could secretly be cases of highly infectious Chinese coronavirus transmission.

Wuhan is home to one of China’s top biological facilities, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which itself has been the subject of much speculation as it had reportedly been studying bat coronaviruses shortly before the pandemic began. World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus demanded further investigation into the WIV last year after an official W.H.O. study declared a laboratory leak as highly unlikely to have caused the pandemic. Tedros described his own agency’s report as not “extensive enough.” (Read more from “Russia, Silent on Wuhan, Claims American Labs Were Making Biological Weapons in Ukraine” HERE)

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White House: ‘Be on Lookout’ for Russia to Use Chemical, Bioweapons in Ukraine

By New York Post. White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops may be preparing to use chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine.

Psaki said in a statement that Russia’s “false claims” that the US conducted WMD research in Ukraine could be a deliberate smokescreen to deploy the dreaded weapons.

“Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating. In December, Russia falsely accused the U.S. of deploying contractors with chemical weapons in Ukraine,” Psaki said.

“This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine.”

Psaki added: “Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern.” (Read more from “White House: ‘Be on Lookout’ for Russia to Use Chemical, Bioweapons in Ukraine” HERE)

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Putin Sinks to a New Low: Outrage as Maternity Hospital Is Bombed

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A maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been decimated in a ‘direct hit’ by Russian rockets leaving children buried in the rubble, President Zelensky has said, in what he described as an ‘atrocity’ and ‘the ultimate proof of genocide against Ukrainians.’

Footage has emerged of badly wounded patients and nurses being evacuated from decimated buildings, while pregnant women were carried out on stretchers into a courtyard covered in rubble and littered with huge craters. At least 17 people, including women in labour, were injured in the attack, officials said.

Zelensky himself posted a video showing the badly damaged hospital buildings, filmed inside a destroyed ward room with its windows blown out and ceiling partially collapsed. More footage showed a car park covered in rubble and the smouldering wrecks of vehicles as injured families staggered into the freezing air while snow fell.

‘Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity,’ the President tweeted, before announcing on his Telegram channel that the hospital strike ‘is the ultimate proof that what is happening is the genocide of Ukrainians’.

‘Europeans, you can’t say you didn’t see what is happening. You have to tighten the sanctions until Russia can’t continue their savage war,’ he said. (Read more from “Putin Sinks to a New Low: Outrage as Maternity Hospital Is Bombed” HERE)

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‘No Effect’: Country Suspends National Vaccine Mandate

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Last month, Austria became the first country in the world to make it illegal to be without proof of COVID vaccination, but the European nation has suspended its law after protests and reports the measure had no effect.

The government said Wednesday the law was “not proportionate to the threat” of the omicron variant of the virus that caused COVID-19, which while more contagious presents with mild symptoms.

The Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung reported the announcement was made only days before the government was set to impose fines of up to 3,600 euros, about $4,000, for the unvaccinated. . .

The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported the Austrian law had “practically no effect” on increasing vaccination, with about 1 million people, or 13% of the population, remaining unvaccinated. (Read more from “‘No Effect’: Country Suspends National Vaccine Mandate” HERE)

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How Much Oil Does US Import From Russia? Here’s What Biden’s Ban Actually Means; West Hits Russia With Oil Bans

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By New York Post. The US has banned imports of Russian oil and natural gas in retaliation for the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine – a move that will further complicate the Biden administration’s effort to tamp down energy costs for American households.

President Biden announced the ban following days of bipartisan pressure to take action against Russia’s energy sector, which went largely untouched in previous rounds of sanctions. Europe remains heavily reliant on Russian oil, even as it attempts to isolate the Kremlin in response to the invasion.

Biden and other proponents say the ban is necessary to limit Russia’s sources of income – though the president acknowledged US motorists will be paying even more at the pump. . .

While far less reliant on Russian oil and gas than its European counterparts, the US did import some supply prior to the ban. The US imported about 672,000 barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia in 2021, according to data from the Energy Information Agency. That total accounted for roughly 8% of all US imports.

Most of the oil and related products the US imports come from Canada, which supplies more than 51%. Mexico and Saudi Arabia are also key suppliers. (Read more from “How Much Oil Does US Import From Russia? Here’s What Biden’s Ban Actually Means” HERE)

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War in Ukraine: West Hits Russia With Oil Bans and Gas Curbs

By BBC. The US and UK are banning Russian oil and the EU is ending its reliance on Russian gas, stepping up the economic response to the invasion of Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden said the move targeted “the main artery of Russia’s economy”.

Energy exports are a vital source of revenue for Russia but the move is also likely to impact Western consumers.

Major brands have meanwhile continued to pull out of Russia, with McDonald’s and Coca-Cola the latest to leave.

Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on energy. It is the world’s third-biggest oil producer, behind Saudi Arabia and the US. (Read more from “War in Ukraine: West Hits Russia With Oil Bans and Gas Curbs” HERE)

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Putin Plots His Next Move After Russian Oil Ban

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Russian President Vladimir Putin will ban certain commodity and raw material exports, according to a decree from Moscow on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Russian cabinet will determine what specific commodities will be included in the ban, with Putin giving it two days to formulate a list, the WSJ reported. The ban will be in effect until Dec. 31, according to the decree.

The goal of the ban is to ensure “the security of the Russian Federation and the uninterrupted functioning of industry,” according to the decree, the WSJ reported. The Biden administration announced earlier on Tuesday it would ban U.S. imports of Russian energy in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. (Read more from “Putin Plots His Next Move After Russian Oil Ban” HERE)

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Russian Ship That Fired on ‘F–k Yourself’ Ukrainians Destroyed: Report

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A Russian warship that fired on a group of Ukrainian border guards after being told to “go f–k yourself” was destroyed in battle, according to a report Tuesday.

“We f–king hit them,” a man is heard saying on a recording of the conflict, the Times of London said.

Another man reportedly echoed the famous words of the Ukrainian soldier who defiantly resisted a Russian order to surrender a military outpost on Snake Island in the Black Sea during Day One of the invasion. . .

The Vasily Bykov was then hit during an exchange of rockets early Monday, possibly by a missile fired by land-based Ukrainian forces defending the port city of Odessa, which for days has been bracing for a Russian attack, the Times said.

“Ship was destroyed, it is confirmed,” a Ukrainian military source told the British paper. (Read more from “Russian Ship That Fired on ‘F–k Yourself’ Ukrainians Destroyed: Report” HERE)

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