China on Pace to Match U.S. Nuclear Stockpile by 2035, Pentagon Warns

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Chinese military’s rapid buildup is on pace to reach 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 — nearly the number of current U.S.-deployed warheads, the Pentagon said in a survey of Chinese military power revealed Tuesday.

Two years ago, the People’s Liberation Army’s nuclear arsenal was limited to about 200 warheads, a stockpile that has doubled to more than 400 today, the report said. China first tested a nuclear weapon in 1964, but it has long trailed far behind the U.S. and Russia in the number of warheads in its arsenal.

The nuclear buildup could serve as a backstop for Beijing’s long-range plan for a military takeover of Taiwan, the self-ruled democratic island that China claims as its territory, the report said. The buildup includes intercontinental ballistic missiles and increased warhead production because of the deployment of multiwarhead missiles.

In 2021, Beijing expanded work on three large fields in western China that will hold at least 300 new ICBMs.

China also has deployed an ultra-high-speed missile called the DF-17, designed to defeat missile defenses and able to deliver both nuclear and conventional warheads. (Read more from “China on Pace to Match U.S. Nuclear Stockpile by 2035, Pentagon Warns” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Finland Offers to Train Ukraine Soldiers in Winter Warfare Against Russia

/0 Comments/in , /by

Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö has said his country can give Ukrainian forces the training they need to take on Russian aggression.

After observing Finnish Army field exercises in North Karelia, Niinistö suggested that Finland can help Ukraine’s war effort, telling reporters that it would back up the military equipment it is sending to Kyiv with the training required to operate it.

“Of course, training on these could be very appropriate,” Niinistö said on Tuesday, Finnish media outlet YLE reported, “we know how to use them.” (Read more from “Finland Offers to Train Ukraine Soldiers in Winter Warfare Against Russia” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Build the Wall? Finland Plans Border Fence With Russia as NATO Membership Looms

/0 Comments/in , /by

As walls go, it’s shaping up to be far less imposing than the Berlin Wall and not nearly as politically divisive as former President Donald Trump’s coveted barrier between the U.S. and Mexico.

But Finland‘s planned border fence with Russia looks to be a major geopolitical statement, one that could fuel even greater tensions between the Kremlin and the West while signaling that Russia‘s war in Ukraine may have forever altered Europe’s attitude toward its hostile neighbor.

Finnish border guard officials announced recently that they will begin construction next spring on a nearly two-mile stretch of fence on the Finland-Russia border near the eastern town of Imatra, according to Euronews and other media outlets. Beyond that initial construction, Finnish leaders earlier this month proposed spending up to $143 million to build many more miles of border fence along the country’s boundary with Russia, with the fence eventually stretching well over 100 miles.

If completed, such a fence could cover between 10% and 20% of Finland‘s 833-mile border with Russia, the largest such boundary that any European nation shares with Russia. (Read more from “Build the Wall? Finland Plans Border Fence With Russia as NATO Membership Looms” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Russia Advances Law Banning LGBT, Pedophilia Propaganda

/0 Comments/in , /by

Lower-level Russian parliamentarians unanimously passed a law Thursday that would ban the distribution of materials promoting homosexuality, pedophilia, and gender reassignment.

More than 300 representatives of the State Duma, including the chairman, authored the new law, which imposes heavy fines of up to 10 million rubles ($165,000) for violating the ban by promoting such propaganda using online channels, media, or in public. Foreign citizens and stateless persons who violate the law would also face expulsion from the Russian Federation.

Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said the law would help protect the motherland’s traditions and values for her children and the future of Russia from the “darkness spread by the United States and European states.”

Volodin called the U.S. the “center of this sodom in the world” in response to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who had allegedly proposed Russian representatives withdraw the draft law.

“There is no need to impose alien values ​​on us,” Volodin said. “You destroyed yours — we’ll see how it all ends. But it’s definitely sad because this is sodom — there’s no other way to say it.” (Read more from “Russia Advances Law Banning LGBT, Pedophilia Propaganda” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

White House Accuses Russia of Tempting a Nuclear Accident With New Attacks on Ukraine’s Power Grid

/0 Comments/in , /by

The White House on Wednesday condemned Russia’s latest barrage of attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and warned that the Kremlin appears “willing to increase the risk of a nuclear safety incident” as it continues to pummel the country’s power grid.

Multiple regions throughout Ukraine have gone dark following Russia’s latest onslaught, forcing Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom to disconnect the country’s three fully functioning nuclear power plants from the power grid as part of an “emergency protection measure.”

Officials in Kyiv reported that three people were killed and nine wounded after a two-story building was hit in the capital city. Another four people were killed and 34 wounded in the surrounding region.

White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said the Kremlin is turning to “increasingly horrific attacks” as it struggles on the battlefield. (Read more from “White House Accuses Russia of Tempting a Nuclear Accident With New Attacks on Ukraine’s Power Grid” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Reported Ukrainian Attack on Russian Naval Base Could Be Crucial, UK Officials Say

/0 Comments/in , /by

Media reports that Ukraine used a drone to attack an oil terminal near a Russian naval base on the Black Sea could turn out to be a turning point in the nine-month-long war, British military officials said.

Russian and Ukrainian media outlets reported Friday that an attack took place in the port city of Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast. A major naval base of the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF) is near the oil terminal, British military intelligence officials said.

“The BSF relocated many of its submarine operations to Novorossiysk after its Sevastopol base in occupied Crimea was struck by Ukraine over the summer,” the British Defense Ministry tweeted Tuesday. (Read more from “Reported Ukrainian Attack on Russian Naval Base Could Be Crucial, UK Officials Say” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Warns Iran Approaching Weapons Grade Uranium Enrichment Levels

/0 Comments/in , /by

The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), announced Tuesday that Iran is currently enriching uranium up to “60 percent purity” at its underground Fordox nuclear facility.

Although a 90 percent enrichment level is needed to convert uranium into weapons-grade material, the move brings Iran well above the 3.67 percent benchmark outlined in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“We had said that Iran will seriously react to any resolution and political pressure…that is why Iran has started enriching uranium to 60% purity from Monday at the Fordow site,” Iran’s chief nuclear officer Mohammad Eslami said Tuesday, Reuters reports.

The move comes in response to the IAEA passing a resolution last Thursday insisting Iran cooperate with an ongoing investigation into traces of uranium across three undeclared sites in the country. (Read more from “U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Warns Iran Approaching Weapons Grade Uranium Enrichment Levels” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

US ‘Tracking’ Clip May Show Ukrainians Executing Russian Troops

/0 Comments/in , /by

The United States is monitoring allegations that Ukrainian soldiers allegedly executed Russian troops in a video posted on social media that has both sides accusing the other of war crimes.

Four videos posted on social media last week appear to show the killing of 11 Russian soldiers as Ukrainian forces recaptured the village of Makiivka in the Luhansk region in mid-November, according to the New York Times. There are gaps missing in the videos, and it’s unclear why, though the New York Times used other videos to understand what occurred.

In one of the videos, a Ukrainian soldier is filming, and he quickly flashes the camera to himself and another soldier lying on his stomach pointing a rifle, while a third armed soldier can be seen walking backward with his rifle pointed at a destroyed outhouse where Russian soldiers appeared to be hiding. Gunfire can be heard, but it’s unclear who is firing at whom. The clip cuts, and in the same area where the soldier backtracked, six Russian soldiers are laying on their stomachs, while four more come out with their hands up. . .

An aerial video the New York Times viewed showed the aftermath of the surprise attack. The gunman appeared to be dead near the spot he opened fire, while the soldiers who had been laying on their stomachs also appeared to be dead, shot in the head. . .

“We are obviously tracking that quite closely. It’s really important to emphasize that the laws of war apply to all parties equally, both the aggressor state and the defender state, and this is in equal measure,” Beth Van Schaack, U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, told reporters on Monday. “But when it comes to the war in Ukraine, that’s really where the equivalency ends. When we’re looking at the sheer scale of criminality exhibited by Russian forces, it’s enormous compared to the allegations that we have seen against Ukrainian forces.” (Read more from “US ‘Tracking’ Clip May Show Ukrainians Executing Russian Troops” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Russia and Ukraine Face Showdown for Europe’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station has enormous value as an energy asset in a war marked by the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The strategic significance of the district only has grown since September, when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree claiming the plant a “federal property” of the Russian government. Ukraine’s reclamation of Kherson further south has raised the specter of fighting to cut the “land bridge” linking Russian forces in annexed Crimea to the troops-occupied Donbas and Russia proper.

“They might try to challenge Russia in Zaporizhzhia Oblast,” a second senior European official surmised in a conversation with the Washington Examiner in a recent discussion of Ukrainian military options following the Russian retreat from Kherson. “They might cut the Russians into two parts, so you have Donbas on the one hand with Mariupol. On the other hand, you have part of Zaporizhzhia, part of Kherson oblast, and the Crimea.”

Russian and Ukrainian officials throughout the conflict have accused each other of shelling near the plant or taking other steps to jeopardize the security of the facility. An eruption of strikes in recent days represented the latest “close call,” according to the United Nations’s nuclear watchdog.

“One Russian milblogger claimed that the shelling came from Russian-controlled territory south of the plant, but most Russian sources accused Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War noted Sunday.

A team of monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which described the plant as “Europe’s largest nuclear power plant,” certified that “key equipment remained intact and there were no immediate nuclear safety or security concerns,” while Russia’s lead nuclear agency called for a “security zone” to be created around the plant. (Read more from “Russia and Ukraine Face Showdown for Europe’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Russia Denies It Is Demanding Zelenskyy’s Ouster as Part of Peace Deal

/0 Comments/in , /by

Even as Russia continues a relentless missile attack on Ukraine’s power system as winter approaches, the Kremlin is apparently walking back its earlier goals to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.

On Monday, a Kremlin official said the “special operation” in Ukraine ordered by President Vladimir Putin nine months ago is not demanding regime change in Kyiv.

“No, the president has spoken about this already,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to TASS, the official Russian news agency.

Shortly after Russian tanks rolled across the border in February 2022, Mr. Putin called on the Ukrainian military to oust Mr. Zelenskyy, calling the leadership in Kyiv corrupt and essentially denying that Ukraine, once a key part of the Soviet Union, had a right to exist as a country independent of Russia.

“Take power into your own hands. It will be easier for us to agree with you than this gang of junkies and neo-Nazis,” Mr. Putin told a meeting of the Russian Security Council in Moscow then. (Read more from “Russia Denies It Is Demanding Zelenskyy’s Ouster as Part of Peace Deal” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.