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Eastern Ukraine Had Good Reason to Join Russia, After Kyiv’s Aggression

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Once a Pittsburgh sister city also known for its steel industry, Donetsk, and the greater Donbas region in which it is located, has been at war since 2014. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 14,000 people died in this conflict, even before Russia began its military operations in February. I’ve just returned from there.

Before Russia’s intervention, the conflict had been between the people of that region and the government in Kiev, after an unconstitutional coup took 2014. This coup, known as “Maidan,” was — as then US Ambassador to Ukraine Victoria Nuland explained in a recorded telephone conversation — managed by the United States.

The coup brought to power a pro-Western, anti-Russian, government, which contained elements which were far-right and even Nazi. The best known element, as the Nation Magazine reported in 2019, is the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has been part of Ukraine’s National Guard since 2014. Its commander Andriy Biletsky once wrote that Ukraine’s mission is to “lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade…against the Semite-led Untermenschen.” . . .

However, the people of Donetsk, who have lived this reality now for almost nine years, are very clear that all of this is real. Indeed, I met people in Donetsk (some quite elderly) who volunteered back in 2014 to defend their land and their people from the Kiev government’s aggression.

Much of the government views the predominantly ethnic Russian people of the Donbas as inferior beings whose language and culture, including the Russian Orthodox Church, should be eradicated. I actually traveled to Donestk in a vehicle laden with clothes destined for a Russian Orthodox monastery in Donetsk that is constantly being shelled by the Kiev government. These monks now live in underground rooms beneath the increasingly-destroyed monastery. (Read more from “Eastern Ukraine Had Good Reason to Join Russia, After Kyiv’s Aggression” HERE)

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

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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)

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

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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)

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

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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)

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AP Fires Reporter Whose Story Could Have Pushed Us Closer to World War III

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The Russia-Ukraine war has raged for months, with enormous casualties on both sides. It’s become a bloody slog in the mud as Russian forces, exposed as exceptionally ill-supplied and inept, have started to retreat from crucial territory within Ukraine. Its officer corps has been said to be devastated entirely, which will take decades to replenish. Yet, the world entered a brief period of panic when the Associated Press reported that Russia had fired missiles against Poland. Two people were killed in the village of Przewodów near the Polish-Ukrainian border on November 15. Yet, it turned out this was fake news.

The missile was not Russian but Ukrainian, fired by its air defense forces. The AP report cited one anonymous source, which—shocker—turned out to be wrong. The news organization fired the reporter who wrote the story, citing a failure to adhere to editorial standards regarding sourcing (via WaPo):

The Associated Press on Monday fired a national security reporter who had provided erroneous information about a missile strike in Poland last week that resulted in a widely circulated but inaccurate news alert and story suggesting Russia was responsible for the incident.

James LaPorta, 35, was terminated after a brief investigation, people at the news organization confirmed to The Washington Post.

(Read more from “AP Fires Reporter Whose Story Could Have Pushed Us Closer to World War III” HERE)

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US ‘Tracking’ Clip May Show Ukrainians Executing Russian Troops

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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)

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

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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)

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

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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)

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Russian Colonel Tied to Mobilization Dies Mysteriously

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A high-ranking Russian army colonel with ties to Vladimir Putin’s mobilization efforts for the war in Ukraine died under mysterious circumstances this week.

Col. Vadim Boyko was found dead in his office at Makarov Pacific Higher Naval School on Wednesday, local news reported.

Early media coverage, including a Telegram post by the Far Eastern Gazette, described the incident as a suicide. “[Boyko] came to work and put a bullet in his temple,” the initial post read.

A similar post from BAZA — an outlet with ties to law enforcement — questioned the suicide scenario, noting that witnesses heard five shots coming from Boyko’s office.

“The duty officer, who heard the shooting, ran to the place and saw Boyko’s body — the colonel was dead,” BAZA recounted. “The man did not leave a suicide note. At the place of his death, criminalists found five cartridge cases and four Makarov pistols. (Read more from “Russian Colonel Tied to Mobilization Dies Mysteriously” HERE)

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White House Accuses GOP of Initiating Probes Into ‘Long-Debunked’ Hunter Biden ‘Conspiracy Theories’

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The White House blasted House Republicans on Thursday for vowing to investigate whether President Biden is “compromised” as a result of his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings.

“Instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans’ top priority is to go after President Biden with politically motivated attacks chock full of long-debunked conspiracy theories,” Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel’s office, told The Post.

“President Biden is not going to let these political attacks distract him from focusing on Americans’ priorities, and we hope congressional Republicans will join us in tackling them instead of wasting time and resources on political revenge,” he added.

Sams was responding to two top House Republicans, who said earlier Thursday that they would examine whether the 79-year-old president “is a security risk and whether he is compromised by foreign governments” in connection to his eldest son’s “shady” overseas business deals. (Read more from “White House Accuses GOP of Initiating Probes Into ‘Long-Debunked’ Hunter Biden ‘Conspiracy Theories’” HERE)

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