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US Announces $1.1 Billion More in Military Aid for Ukraine

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The U.S. will provide an additional $1.1 billion in aid to Ukraine, with funding for about 18 more advanced rocket systems and other weapons to counter drones that Russia has been using against Ukrainian troops

The latest package is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds contracts to purchase weapons and equipment. And it brings the total of U.S. aid to Ukraine to nearly $17 billion since the Biden administration took office.

The aid announcement comes as Russia moves to annex parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine that held Kremlin-orchestrated referendums on living under Moscow’s rule. The votes were denounced by Kyiv and the West as illegal and rigged. (Read more from “US Announces $1.1 Billion More in Military Aid for Ukraine” HERE)

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Putin Shows His Cards: Ukraine’s Zelensky Says Nuclear War ‘Could Be a Reality’

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday nuclear war “could be a reality” as Russia ramps up increasingly ominous saber-rattling threats.

“He wants to scare the whole world,” Zelensky said of Russian President Vladimir Putin during an interview on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”

“Look, maybe yesterday it was bluff. Now, it could be a reality,” he said of a possible nuclear strike seven months into the war — accusing the Kremlin of “nuclear blackmail.”

“He targeted and occupied our nuclear power plant and the city of Enerhodar. This nuclear station has six blocks. And… he continues his blackmail related to us exporting electricity to Europe.” . . .

“I don’t think he’s bluffing,” he said. “I think the world is deterring it and containing this threat. We need to keep putting pressure on him and not allow him to continue.” (Read more from “Putin Shows His Cards: Ukraine’s Zelensky Says Nuclear War ‘Could Be a Reality'” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Vladimir Putin’s Guru Says ‘Nuclear Apocalypse Likely’ if Russia Faces Ukraine Defeat

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[One of President Putin’s closest advisers, Alexander] Dugin tweeted: “A very important decision has been taken and, it seems, not easily made. All our – unbearable, outrageous – sacrifices are not in vain. The state and the people are on the same side of the barricades.”

Dugin, who lost his daughter, Darya Dugina, 29, last month in a car bomb attack [sources in Ukraine and the United States have tried to blame Putin for the murder of Dugin’s daughter], tried to rally Russians to get behind Putin and the war effort.

He said: “After all, we are fighting on the side of God and heaven, on the side of earth and soul. That is why our native blood is donated, flowing directly from Russian hearts.”

While he said that the Ukraine conflict was turning into a world war he said that there were only three outcomes.

Looking at the possibility of defeat for Russia, he said: “It would mean not only the end of the regime, but the end of everything and everyone. It is essentially a scenario for the end of Russia, Finis Rossiae. If our retreat begins, everything will fall, for both external and internal causes.”

His second outcome was the “nuclear apocalypse”.

Dugin wrote: “The second scenario is a nuclear apocalypse. It is possible that Moscow, which is beginning to lose seriously, will decide to use nuclear weapons.

“Likely? Yes, probably. Is anyone in Russia considering this possibility? Undoubtedly. Russia could resort to nuclear weapons in other situations, since for Russia, both state and people, losing a war would mean total annihilation, and not just a severe but still tolerable defeat, which could be overcome, the nuclear scenario cannot be discarded.

“The West clearly underestimates this probability, considering it a bluff.”

Then his final outcome was for a Russian victory which would see the building of a “religious and spiritual” empire and the end of Western society.

He said: “The third scenario is the most important. In Russia, a revolution is taking place from above. Putin, who has already broken with the West, turns this total and irreversible rupture into an ideology, a course, a strategy and the sole guideline of existence.

“All compromises are abolished, Russia is openly becoming a people’s empire with a marked religious and social ethos. Liberalism and Westernism are banned.

“The state and the people regroup and the special military operation is transformed into a popular holy war. To be or not to be. That moment has arrived”. (Read more from “Vladimir Putin’s Guru Says ‘Nuclear Apocalypse Likely’ if Russia Faces Ukraine Defeat” HERE)

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Putin Confidant’s Son Pranked, Caught Trying to Get Out of Military Service in Ukraine

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The son of a top Kremlin aide was duped by a Russian rabble-rouser into revealing that he would “obviously not” serve if drafted into Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Nikolay Peskov, the 32-year-old son of longtime Kremlin flack and Putin confidant Dmitry Peskov, refused the call of duty when he was prank-called by the hosts of Russian YouTube channel Popular Politics, according to Russian independent news site Insider.

Dmitry Nizovtsev, pretending to be a Russian recruitment officer, told Peskov he’d been drafted and needed to show up at a medical examination the next day.

“Obviously not,” the younger Peskov exclaimed.

“You must understand, if you know that I am Mr. Peskov, how wrong it is for me to be there,” he continued. “In short, I will deal with it on another level.” (Read more from “Putin Confidant’s Son Pranked, Caught Trying to Get Out of Military Service in Ukraine” HERE)

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Putin Bluster Is All Bluff — He’s Losing at Home and in Ukraine

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Make no mistake: Vladimir Putin is losing the war in Ukraine. The menacing speech, broadcasted mysteriously on Wednesday morning instead of the originally scheduled Tuesday night, might be the closest the Russian dictator will ever get to admitting defeat before his hold begins to crumble.

The address had several audiences. For one, it aimed to deter the West from supporting Ukraine by raising the specter of nuclear escalation in defense of annexed territories that will soon become part of the “Motherland.” At home, Putin tried to keep hardline nationalist critics of the conduct of Russia’s military operation at bay by showing that the Kremlin is doubling down on its efforts in the Donbas — while also scrupulously seeking to avoid alienating wider swathes of Russia’s population by pursuing only a “partial” mobilization. . .

If the special military operation was going according to plan, as the Russian officialdom was assuring Russians until today, why has it suddenly become “necessary to support the proposal of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff” to mobilize?

Mobilizing the wider population carries political risks, which is why the Kremlin hesitated until now and why only around 300,000 men will be called to serve, according to the government. Already on Wednesday night, Russian cities saw sizeable protests — at least as measured by standards of a country where public expressions of discontent with the war may land one in jail for 10 or more years. Meanwhile, prices of one-way tickets out of Russia skyrocketed (until 18- to 34-year-old men were banned from leaving the country) and “how to break an arm at home” became a top search term on Russian search engines.

Militarily, calling on the reservists is a desperate move, though congruent with reports of extraordinarily high attrition that Russia is suffering in Ukraine. Normally, months of specialized training would be needed for reservists to fight effectively. Even then, an army needs weapons, equipment, and supplies — all of which are in short supply in Russia. Inevitably, thousands of the undertrained, undermotivated, and undersupplied reservists are bound to die tragic deaths at their first contact with Ukraine’s experienced and well-equipped fighting force — a fact that is a matter of indifference to Putin and his circle, as long as the elite’s children remain exempt from service. (Read more from “Putin Bluster Is All Bluff — He’s Losing at Home and in Ukraine” HERE)

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Joe Biden Threatened to Withhold $1 Billion From Ukraine to Protect Company Hunter Was Working With

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My Son Hunter, the new movie from Breitbart News, is a fact-based dramatization of the life of debauchery and corruption lived by the first son Hunter Biden. Although the movie takes certain artistic liberties, many scenes portray true accounts of the Biden scion’s life; this “True Fact” series will detail those accuracies.

True Fact: Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion from Ukraine to protect Ukrainian energy company Burisma, while Hunter was on the board.

Then-Vice President Biden pressed the Ukrainian government in 2015 to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was probing Burisma Holdings while Hunter was being paid over $80,000 a month to sit on the board. Biden threatened to withhold U.S. aid over the prosecutor’s firing and boasted about the move during a 2018 appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations.

“I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours,” Biden told the audience.

“I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a b**ch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” he continued. (Read more from “Joe Biden Threatened to Withhold $1 Billion From Ukraine to Protect Company Hunter Was Working With” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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Double Trouble: Xi-Putin Summit Produces Pledge of a United Front on World Stage

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Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to forge closer ties during a summit in Central Asia on Thursday that included a discussion of Chinese support for Russia’s troubled invasion of Ukraine and Russian support for Beijing’s claims to Taiwan.

The get-together in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the first meeting between the two leaders since Mr. Putin ordered the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, took place on the sidelines of a regional summit.

“China is ready to work with Russia in extending strong support to each other on issues concerning their respective core interests,” Mr. Xi said during the meeting, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Mr. Xi used the meeting, part of his first trip outside China’s borders since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in Wuhan in late 2019, to highlight the joint efforts of the authoritarian governments of China and Russia to become leading world powers and challenge what they say is the “unipolar” dominance of the United States.

“In the face of historical changes in the world and times, as major countries, China is willing to work together with Russia to play a leading role and to inject stability into the turbulent world,” Mr. Xi said. (Read more from “Double Trouble: Xi-Putin Summit Produces Pledge of a United Front on World Stage” HERE)

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Ukraine Accuses Russia of ‘Preparing for a Decisive Energy Attack on All Europeans’ This Winter

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of using energy as a weapon by keeping a critical pipeline to Germany shut down in recent days, exacerbating electricity and natural gas shortfalls ahead of the winter months.

“Russia wants to destroy the normal life of every European — in all countries of our continent,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Saturday.

“Where Russia cannot do it by force of conventional weapons, it does so by force of energy weapons. It is trying to attack with poverty and political chaos where it cannot yet attack with missiles. This winter, Russia is preparing for a decisive energy attack on all Europeans.”

Russian energy company Gazprom has blamed technical problems for this week’s shutdown of Nord Stream 1, saying that oil leaks in turbines must be fixed before natural gas flows resume. (Read more from “Ukraine Accuses Russia of ‘Preparing for a Decisive Energy Attack on All Europeans’ This Winter” HERE)

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Ukraine, COVID, and Monkeypox: Biden Asks Congress for Another $47 Billion to Address ‘Critical Needs for the American People’

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The White House asked Congress for another $47 billion Friday to address what it considers “immediate needs,” including the spread of monkeypox at home and abroad, the never-ending fight against COVID, and the defense of Ukraine.

President Joe Biden’s request to Congress is aimed at keeping the government open beyond the September 30 expiration of the 2022 fiscal year, according to administration officials, Politico reported. The requested $47 billion includes $6.5 billion to address the recent flooding in Kentucky and wildfires in California, but that’s just a little over half of the $11.7 billion Biden wants to send to Ukraine.

“This Administration will continue to work with members of both parties in Congress to meet these critical needs for the American people, and we look forward to reaching a bipartisan funding agreement that advances national priorities in the coming fiscal year,” Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget wrote Friday.

While the administration carved out some funding to address natural disasters at home, there was no mention of Biden wanting Congress to send money to address the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, that has now dragged on for five days. Instead, the president set his short-term priorities on throwing more money toward combatting the already slowing spread of viruses and aiding the war defense of a foreign nation. (Read more from “Ukraine, COVID, and Monkeypox: Biden Asks Congress for Another $47 Billion to Address ‘Critical Needs for the American People’” HERE)

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Biden Announces Additional $3 Billion Security Package to Ukraine

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The U.S. will ship Ukraine $3 billion worth of missiles, artillery rounds and drones in the latest military aid package intended to help Kyiv defend itself following Russia’s invasion six months ago.

The package includes six more National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and munitions; up to 245,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery ammunition; and up to 65,000 rounds of 120 mm mortar ammo, Pentagon officials told reporters on Wednesday.

Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy, said the latest Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) program represents a multiyear investment to help Kyiv fend off Russia.

“We will stick with Ukraine over the long haul,” Mr. Kahl said.

The latest plan represents a change in the way the Biden administration has helped supply Ukraine’s forces. In the past, the Pentagon pulled military equipment from its own stock to supply Ukraine with lethal hardware. Under USAI, the government will be able to procure Ukraine’s needs directly from private industry suppliers. (Read more from “Biden Announces Additional $3 Billion Security Package to Ukraine” HERE)

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