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Danish Reporter Says Ukrainian Intelligence Tried to Coerce Her Into Working as a Propagandist

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By The Intercept. Denmark’s leading chronicler of the war in Ukraine, Matilde Kimer, who has reported for Danish television from the front lines of the conflict since the Russian aggression began in 2014, revealed last week that Ukraine’s intelligence service had canceled her work permit and would only return it if she agreed to let the spy agency direct her reporting.

According to Kimer, an award-winning Moscow correspondent for Denmark’s public service broadcaster, DR, the proposal was presented to her by an officer from the Security Service of Ukraine, the intelligence agency known as the SBU, during a meeting this month in Kyiv that was also attended by two diplomats from the Danish Embassy.

The diplomats had brokered the meeting as part of an effort to help Kimer find out why Ukraine had suddenly canceled her accreditation in August, shortly after she made a reporting trip to the front lines around Mykolaiv, a strategically important Black Sea port where a Ukrainian counteroffensive had been playing out. (Read more from “Danish Reporter Says Ukrainian Intelligence Tried to Coerce Her Into Working as a Propagandist” HERE)

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Russia rejects Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’: Lavrov

By Aljazeera. Russia has rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “peace formula” as a basis for negotiations and believes Kyiv is still not ready for real peace talks, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-run RIA news agency.

Lavrov also said Kyiv’s hopes of driving Russia out of eastern Ukraine and Crimea with Western help were “an illusion”, the agency reported on Thursday. The veteran Russian diplomat’s comments represent the latest evidence of the gulf in positions between Moscow and Kyiv, and how far the two governments are from any realistic chance of talks aimed at ending the war, now in its eleventh month.

Hours after Lavrov’s rejection of Zelenskyy’s proposal, Ukrainian officials said the country came under heavy Russian missile attack, with explosions in big cities, including capital Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Zelenskyy has been vigorously pushing a 10-point peace plan that envisages Russia respecting and restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity and pulling out all its troops.

But Moscow has insisted Kyiv must first accept Russia’s annexation of Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south. There can be no peace plan “that does not take into account today’s realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. (Read more from “Russia rejects Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’: Lavrov” HERE)

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Zelensky’s Groveling PR Offensive Hits the DC Uniparty’s Sweet Spot

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been repeatedly compared to Winston Churchill. The comedian-turned-politician is not the avatar of democracy that his legion of American admirers think he is, let alone this generation’s savior of Western civilization. But it’s doubtful that Churchill’s star addresses to joint sessions of Congress during the Second World War were received with any less adulation than Zelensky’s speech in the week before Christmas.

The question of whether it was appropriate for Zelensky to appear on the podium of the House in a variant of the GI Joe costume he’s been sporting on Zoom appearances throughout the year misses the point. He may have been the first foreign leader to behave this way since Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorist Yasser Arafat showed up in 1993 at the White House in a military uniform to sign a peace deal with Israel that he never intended to keep. But it was par for the course for a man who knows that his role is to play the hero at any and all times.

What was fascinating about the orgy of praise and support for the massive amount of U.S. aid heading to Kyiv is the way most of the Republican congressional leadership seemed just as eager to fawn at the Ukrainian leader as the Democrats.

Most Americans sympathize with opposing a blatantly illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the notion that “Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians is the number one priority for the United States,” as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell put it, is quite another thing. The same can be said for doubling the amount of money the United States was spending on Afghanistan in its last years for this war’s first year. (Read more from “Zelensky’s Groveling PR Offensive Hits the DC Uniparty’s Sweet Spot” HERE)

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The Mozart Group Mercenary Firm: Ukraine Is a “Corrupt, F***ed-Up Society”

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By Max Blumenthal. After months in Ukraine training soldiers, Ret Col Andrew Milburn of @TheMozartGroup mercenary firm gets sauced on camera & spills the beans:

Ukraine is a “corrupt, f**ked-up society” run by “fucked-up people”

Ukrainian soldiers “kill dudes who surrendered,” commit “atrocities”

[Warning: video contains explicit content]

(Read more from “The Mozart Group Mercenary Firm: Ukraine Is a “Corrupt, F***ed-Up Society” HERE)

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Kremlin Says Any Ukraine Peace Plan Must Include Annexed Regions

By Reuters. The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 10-point peace plan, saying that proposals to end the conflict in Ukraine must take into account what it calls “today’s realities” of four Ukrainian regions having joined Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today’s realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia. Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful.”

Russia declared Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as part of its territory in September after referendums condemned by Ukraine and Western countries. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions. (Read more from “Kremlin Says Any Ukraine Peace Plan Must Include Annexed Regions” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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‘Santa Putin’ Swaps Child’s Same-Sex Parents for a Mother and Father and Gives a Football, Toy Cars and a Drum Kit to Boy Being Raised as a Girl in Anti-West Video

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By Daily Caller. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been portrayed as Santa in an anti-Western propaganda video released on the country’s social media.

The film – made by a production company called Signal – depicts ‘Santa Putin’ swapping a photograph of a child’s same-sex parents for one of a mother and father, and gifting the boy being raised as a girl a football, toy cars and a drum kit.

The video feeds into Russian prejudices about Europe and the United States which have been fuelled by pro-Kremlin propagandists during the war in Ukraine to frame the conflict as a clash of values between Russia and Ukraine’s western allies.

(Read more from “‘Santa Putin’ Swaps Child’s Same-Sex Parents for a Mother and Father and Gives a Football, Toy Cars and a Drum Kit to Boy Being Raised as a Girl in Anti-West Video” HERE)

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Photo credit: Flickr

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America Last: US Aid to Ukraine Eclipses Most World Military Budgets

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The $113 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine has eclipsed the annual military budget of every country in the world except the United States and China.

The passage of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill grants Ukraine $45 billion in military and economic aid, making the total to date $113 billion.

The Quincy Institute’s Ben Freeman and William Hartung cataloged some of the ways that aid to Ukraine has exceeded many other of our own government’s expenditures and even other countries’ entire military budgets. . .

American aid to Ukraine also nearly matches the combined baseline spending for the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security combined.

It is almost as much as the $118 billion “the United States will spend on medical care for all U.S. military veterans.” (Read more from “America Last: US Aid to Ukraine Eclipses Most World Military Budgets” HERE)

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Russia’s Warning to US: Deescalate or Face ‘Consequences’

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The U.S. is risking a direct confrontation with Russia over the war in Ukraine, two top Russian officials have said.

Moscow’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, said in an interview with Tass published Friday that “the risk of a clash between the two great powers is high.”

Alexander Darchiyev, director of the Foreign Ministry’s North American Department, made similar remarks in an interview with the same Russian state news agency. . .

Darchiyev told Tass that he hoped, “Washington will heed the voice of reason” and not allow the situation “to escalate to the point of a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.” (Read more from “Russia’s Warning to US: Deescalate or Face ‘Consequences'” HERE)

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Billions Sent to Ukraine Could Build Seven 450-Mile Border Walls Along US-Mexico Border

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Republicans and Democrats in Congress have authorized more than $110 billion in American taxpayer money to be sent to Ukraine to support the nation’s fight against Russia since the war started. Meanwhile, most of the nearly 2,000-mile United States-Mexico border remains without any barrier.

As part of a year-end $1.7 trillion spending package, 18 Senate Republicans and nine House Republicans voted with Democrats to throw another $45 billion in taxpayer money at Ukraine — bringing the total amount of taxpayer money sent to Ukraine, authorized by Congress, to more than $110 billion.

For comparison, a Breitbart News analysis finds that all Ukraine funds could have built a complete wall along the entirety of the U.S.-Mexico border, multiple times over. (Read more from “Billions Sent to Ukraine Could Build Seven 450-Mile Border Walls Along US-Mexico Border” HERE)

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Ukraine War Could Drag On for Years, Former Ambassador Says

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Almost 10 months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine, a former ambassador to the U.S. is warning that the war could drag on for years.

Ukrainian diplomat Valeriy Chaly, who was Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States from 2015 to 2019, warned that the newly promised Patriot advanced missile system from the U.S. won’t be enough, and that Ukraine needs more weapons to win the war.

Ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s stop in Washington on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled a $1.85 billion military package for Kyiv that included a Patriot missile system.

The Ukrainian leader has for months been asking the U.S. for stronger weapons to shoot down Russian missiles, as Putin’s forces have been bombarding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing blackouts across the country. (Read more from “Ukraine War Could Drag On for Years, Former Ambassador Says” HERE)

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Biden Promises Zelensky US Backing for ‘as Long as It Takes’

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America will back Ukraine with military and financial aid until Russia‘s invasion ends in failure, President Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during their historic appearance together at the White House on Wednesday, with the leaders projecting unity and seeking to hold together an international coalition — and a fraying U.S. Congress — as the war nears the 10-month mark.

The White House meeting, which marked Mr. Zelenskyy‘s first trip outside of Ukraine since the war began on Feb. 24, offered the two men the chance for a rare face-to-face conversation. Mr. Biden said he looked deep into the Ukrainian president’s “soul” and saw that Mr. Zelenskyy “is who he says he is.”

“It’s clear who he is. He‘s willing to give his life for his country,” Mr. Biden said of Mr. Zelenskyy during their joint press conference, which followed a roughly two-hour conversation in the Oval Office. (Read more from “Biden Promises Zelensky US Backing for ‘as Long as It Takes’” HERE)

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Ukraine’s Zelensky in DC; Biden Meet, Congress Address

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to speak to Congress and President Joe Biden on Wednesday and claim the $45 billion worth of aid designated for Ukraine in the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill is not enough support.

Congress is weighing whether to pass the massive $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that designates $45 billion in military and economic aid for Ukraine. The $45 billion is in addition to the $66 billion lawmakers have already approved of taxpayers’ money for Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Zelensky released a video revealing he will tell Biden and Congress $45 billion is still not enough support. . .

Zelensky’s claim that $45 billion is not enough aid – on top of the already approved $66 billion – comes as the omnibus bill is expected to approve a military budget of about $858 billion, $45 billion more than Biden had requested from taxpayers. (Read more from “Ukraine’s Zelensky in DC; Biden Meet, Congress Address” HERE)

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