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Ben & Jerry’s Co-Founder Gave $1M to Group Opposed to US Arms for Ukraine: Report

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A co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has donated more than $1 million to a group that is urging an end to US military support for Ukraine as the country tries to stave off a Russian invasion.

Ben Cohen — who with Jerry Greenfield started the ice cream behemoth in 1978 — told the Daily Beast: “I think the US should use its power to negotiate an end to the war, not prolong the death and destruction by supplying more weapons.”

Cohen is head of the People Power Initiatives — one of whose projects is Eisenhower Media Network, which bills itself as “an organization of expert former military, intelligence, and civilian national security officials … [which] seeks to reach broad, cross-partisan audiences in diverse media outlets and among the American people.”

The former national security officials promoted by EMN, including retired US Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, have argued that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was provoked by NATO expansion eastward.

Dennis Fritz, the director of EMN, told the Daily Beast: “We gave Putin just cause [to invade Ukraine].” (Read more from “Ben & Jerry’s Co-Founder Gave $1M to Group Opposed to US Arms for Ukraine: Report” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Putin Visits Russian-Occupied Mariupol (VIDEO)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise trip on Saturday to Mariupol, a Ukrainian city his forces captured last year.

Reports say Putin flew in by helicopter. Video from Russian media showed Putin driving a car through after dark, visiting buildings, and meeting with residents.

Russian state news service TASS said it was Putin’s first-ever visit to Donbass, a region in eastern Ukraine, and while there, he received a report from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin about efforts to rebuild the port city within the eastern region. (Read more from “Putin Visits Russian-Occupied Mariupol (VIDEO)” HERE)

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Why Putin Will Probably Have to Cancel Most Travel Outside of Russia for Now; Arrest Warrant Issued

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By Townhall. Vladimir Putin will probably have to cancel all travel plans, at least to nations that are signatories of the International Criminal Court. Today, that body issued an arrest warrant on allegations that Russia has committed heinous war crimes in Ukraine. The announcement was met with strong denials from the Kremlin, which was predictable, claiming that these moves at placing pressure on Moscow are done only to discredit Russian Federation (via NBC News):

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Friday for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes in Ukraine.

Putin committed the “war crime” of overseeing the unlawful abduction and deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia, the court said in a news release.

. . .Now, let’s be honest: this is a mostly symbolic gesture. The ICC has no police force, and even if they did, they wouldn’t barge into the Grand Kremlin Palace, slap cuffs on Putin, and airlift him to The Hauge. They rely on signatory states’ police forces to execute the warrants, which is most of Europe. The United States doesn’t recognize ICC jurisdiction. Still, it could cause a headache for Joe Biden or whoever is the next president should Putin defy international norms, as he’s done often, and travel here—because the pressure to do something could be mind-splitting—or any nation that recognizes the ICC for something like a significant international summit. (Read more from “Why Putin Will Probably Have to Cancel Most Travel Outside of Russia for Now” HERE)

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How an International Arrest Warrant for Putin Puts a New Spin on Xi Visit to Russia

By PBS News Hour. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week highlighted China’s aspirations for a greater role on the world stage. But they also revealed the perils of global diplomacy: Hours after Friday’s announcement of the trip, an international arrest warrant was issued for Putin on war crimes charges, taking at least some wind out of the sails of China’s big reveal.

The flurry of developments — which followed China’s brokering of an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic relations and its release of what it calls a “peace plan” for Ukraine — came as the Biden administration watches warily Beijing’s moves to assert itself more forcefully in international affairs.

U.S. officials had no immediate public comment on the arrest warrant issued for Putin by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but privately they expressed satisfaction that an international body had agreed with Washington’s assessment that Russia has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

The Biden administration believes China’s desire to be seen as a broker for peace between Russia and Ukraine may be viewed more critically now that Putin is officially a war crime suspect, according to two U.S. officials. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the matter publicly, said the administration hopes the warrants will help mobilize heretofore neutral countries to weigh in on the conflict. (Read more from “How an International Arrest Warrant for Putin Puts a New Spin on Xi Visit to Russia” HERE)

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Ukrainian Commander Reveals True Scale of Losses – And Pays the Price

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Ukraine has demoted a top battlefield commander after he admitted his unit had been decimated in fighting around the city of Bakhmut.

The battalion commander, known by his call sign Kupol, gave an unusually frank assessment of Ukrainian losses in an interview from the front lines earlier this week.

He revealed that all of the original 500 soldiers in his unit had either been killed or injured, a rare acknowledgement from inside the Ukrainian ranks, where losses are kept strictly confidential. . .

Kupol told the Washington Post this week that the Ukrainian army training was often poor and that some of the rookie replacements didn’t know how to throw a hand grenade or fire a rifle. . .

Kupol said that he had been motivated to speak out to try to improve training levels but furious Ukrainian generals instead demoted him. The Washington Post said he had consented to have his picture taken but admitted he could face “personal blowback” for his honest assessment. (Read more from “Ukrainian Commander Reveals True Scale of Losses – And Pays the Price” HERE)

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White House Rejects China-Brokered Ceasefire in Ukraine

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The Biden administration came out against China’s push for a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, saying Thursday that a pause in fighting would work to Russia’s advantage.

Chinese President Xi Jinping intends to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an effort to broker a peace deal between the two nations, which have been at war for over a year after Russia’s invasion. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters the administration believes a ceasefire would work against Ukraine.

“While that sounds perfectly reasonable and it sounds like a good thing, a ceasefire right now would basically ratify Russia’s conquest. Russia would basically be free to use that ceasefire to further entrench its positions in Ukraine, to rebuild their forces, refit them, re-man them, retrain them so that they can then restart attacks at a time of their choosing.”

Kirby said the White House supports talks between Xi and Zelensky, but warned Beijing against adopting a stance that favors Russia.

Xi is scheduled to visit Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Chinese leader has also reportedly reached out to Zelensky, although details on that were also unclear. Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in a Thursday phone call. (Read more from “White House Rejects China-Brokered Ceasefire in Ukraine” HERE)

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Escalation: Backed by U.S. And EU, Poland and Slovakia Sending Jets to Ukraine

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Russia has vowed to destroy all fighter jets donated to Ukraine by European nations after Poland and Slovakia, backed by new equipment and finance from the U.S. and the European Union, became the first countries to send warplanes to Kyiv.

Fighter jets have been a long-term demand for the Ukrainian government of Volodymyr Zelensky since the renewed Russian invasion at the start of 2022, but NATO leaders have shied away from what they considered a major escalation of their involvement in the conflict until now. Enabled by cash and replacement warbirds from the United States and the European Union, two European nations are sending fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days.

The first to announce it was sending jets was Poland, whose airforce operates many former-Soviet fighters. Warsaw announced Thursday it would be sending the first tranche of Mikoyan MIG-29 ‘Fulcrum’ fighter jets, a 1980s-era type roughly originally built as a parallel to the U.S. F-16. While that delivery will run to four jets, Poland has dozens and is reportedly preparing others for delivery. . .

As has been the case with other major escalations in levels of support to Ukraine — the provision of main battle tanks, for instance, where months of refusals from NATO nations ended with a rush of donations after the United Kingdom opened the floodgates by being the first to supply — Poland making the jets announcement has been closely followed. Slovakia has now said it will send its entire airforce’s stock of MIG-29s as well in an announcement on Friday just hours after Poland’s. . .

Slovakia is also receiving considerable support from Western powers to make the donation possible. The European Union is making a contribution of $200 million to the Slovakian government in “compensation” for them losing their jets, and the United States has agreed to supply $700 million of new military equipment — likely American-made fighters like the F-35 — to replace them. (Read more from “Escalation: Backed by U.S. And EU, Poland and Slovakia Sending Jets to Ukraine” HERE)

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Poland Plans to Grant Ukraine’s Request for Fighter Jets

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Poland’s president said Thursday that his country plans to give Ukraine around a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets, which would make it the first NATO member to fulfill the Ukrainian government’s increasingly urgent requests for warplanes.

President Andrzej Duda said Poland would hand over four of the Soviet-made warplanes “within the next few days” and that the rest needed servicing and would be supplied later. The Polish word he used to describe their number can mean between 11 and 19.

“They are in the last years of their functioning but they are in good working condition,” Duda said of the aircraft. (Read more from “Poland Plans to Grant Ukraine’s Request for Fighter Jets” HERE)

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The U.S. Is Supporting a Policy of Brutal Attrition in Ukraine Based on Incomplete and Skewed Western Coverage

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“Ukraine will win.” Some variation of this has become the unofficial mantra of U.S. policy toward the Ukraine war, asserted in countless columns, interviews and speeches, ones often pledging open-ended U.S. commitment to the Ukrainian war effort and chiding policymakers for not sending greater quantities and more escalatory types of weapons.

It was partly on this basis, in fact — that with enough support, Ukraine could militarily defeat a Russia weaker than many thought — that then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson [stupidly] urged against peace talks early in the war. . .

Yet this central claim of an almost certain Ukrainian military victory over chastened Russian forces is asserted in the absence of one key measure of the military situation: verifiable battlefield losses. From the beginning of the war until now, Ukraine has, like Russia, treated its casualties as a state secret, one so closely guarded that not even U.S. intelligence and officials, who advise the country’s leadership on military strategy and assist in war planning, know exactly how many Ukrainians have been killed and wounded over the past year. This is even though, as one Ukrainian officer told the Wall Street Journal in a recent piece about the grinding battle for the city of Bakhmut, “the war is won not by the party that gains territory, but by the party that destroys the armed forces of the adversary” . . .

The lack of public awareness of Ukrainian casualty levels raises a number of thorny questions: Are frequent predictions of certain Ukrainian military victory more fanciful than grounded in reality? Is the American public being misled into backing an escalating military commitment on false pretenses? Has Ukrainian leadership itself, as a result, been incentivized to set unrealistic military objectives that have helped to prolong the death and destruction ordinary Ukrainians have suffered? And has it helped create a political climate in the United States opposed to diplomatic solutions?

We may soon find out. According to the Washington Post, even Ukrainian officials are now questioning their forces’ ability to launch a successful counteroffensive after the losses they’ve taken, with many of the most experienced fighters taken permanently off the battlefield. (Read more from “The U.S. Is Supporting a Policy of Brutal Attrition in Ukraine Based on Incomplete and Skewed Western Coverage” HERE)

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Hillary Clinton Hangs Out With Zelensky’s Wife, Says Climate Change Killing Women in Ukraine

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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that women and children are the “primary victims of conflict and climate change” and that the war in Ukraine “shows us that.” . . .

Clinton, sitting alongside MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, former Tennis star Billie Jean King and Gloria Steinem, added that “there are a lot of other conflicts, a lot of other challenges that we have to take into account.” . . .

“So I think the bottom line is we have a lot of work to do. And we can’t take any of the progress that has been made for granted, because as you said, Mika, with the Dobbs decision and other kinds of organized institutional pushback, we’re seeing a lot of what we did take for granted in terms of rights and opportunities at risk,” Clinton said.

Towards the end of the conversation, Clinton encouraged women to accept the fact that they have to be better “prepared” than anybody and to “practice communicating.” . . .

“That’s what Olena is doing, traveling around the world,” Clinton added in reference to the Ukrainian first lady. “She is standing up on behalf of her country and the people who are the most vulnerable and marginalized, you don’t have to be in the middle of a horrible war that is breaking every law there is and committing crimes against humanity to stand up and speak out and know that you’re doing it not just for yourself. Somehow that might make it easier.” (Read more from “Hillary Clinton Hangs Out With Zelensky’s Wife, Says Climate Change Killing Women in Ukraine” HERE)

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Trump, Desantis, and Others Answer Ukraine Questionnaire From Tucker Carlson — Here’s What They Said (VIDEO)

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By The Blaze. As the 2024 presidential election cycle gets underway, several Republican figures have responded to a questionnaire from Tucker Carlson on the issue of Ukraine. . .

Trump asserted that Russia would not have attacked Ukraine if he were still president.

“Start by telling Europe that they must pay at least equal to what the U.S. is paying to help Ukraine. They must also pay us, retroactively, the difference,” Trump said. “Next, tell Ukraine that there will be little more money coming from us, UNLESS RUSSIA CONTINUES TO PROSECUTE THE WAR. The President must meet with each side, then both sides together, and quickly work out a deal.” . . .

“While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said.

“The Biden administration’s virtual ‘blank check’ funding of this conflict for ‘as long as it takes,’ without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges,” the governor declared. “The U.S. should not provide assistance that could require the deployment of American troops or enable Ukraine to engage in offensive operations beyond its borders. F-16s and long-range missiles should therefore be off the table. These moves would risk explicitly drawing the United States into the conflict and drawing us closer to a hot war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. That risk is unacceptable.” (Read more from “Trump, DeSantis, and Others Answer Ukraine Questionnaire From Tucker Carlson — Here’s What They Said” HERE)

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Ron DeSantis Says Protecting Ukraine Is Not a Key U.S. Interest

By The New York Times. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has sharply broken with Republicans who are determined to defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, saying in a statement made public on Monday night that protecting the European nation’s borders is not a vital U.S. interest and that policymakers should instead focus attention at home.

The statement from Mr. DeSantis, who is seen as an all but declared presidential candidate for the 2024 campaign, puts him in line with the front-runner for the G.O.P. nomination, former President Donald J. Trump. . .

On Mr. Carlson’s show, Mr. DeSantis separated himself from Republicans who say the problem with Mr. Biden’s Ukraine policy is that he’s not doing enough. Mr. DeSantis made clear he thinks Mr. Biden is doing too much, without a clearly defined objective, and taking actions that risk provoking war between the U.S. and Russia.

Mr. Carlson is one of the most ardent opponents of U.S. involvement in Ukraine. He has called President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine a corrupt “antihero” and mocked him for dressing “like the manager of a strip club.” (Read more form “Ron DeSantis Says Protecting Ukraine Is Not a Key U.S. Interest” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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