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A Reckless Policy of ‘Bleeding Russia’ Risks Getting the United States Into a Foolish Foreign War

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The New York Times on Wednesday published an op-ed by Tom Stevenson arguing what some of us have been arguing for a while now: the Biden administration is openly — and recklessly — pursuing a policy of escalation in Ukraine that represents a new and very dangerous phase in the war.

Stevenson, a journalist who reported from Ukraine in the opening weeks of the war, argues that initially the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rather straightforwardly, with supplies of arms to the Ukrainians and economic sanctions on Russia. But things have changed over the past month.

Now, instead of simply helping Ukraine stave off invasion and conquest, U.S. policy seems to have shifted into something else entirely: the permanent weakening of Russia at any cost. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said so explicitly after a clandestine visit to Ukraine with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken last month. After her own recent visit to Kyiv, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi characterized the war as a global struggle for democracy.

To back up these outlandish claims, the Biden administration has now proposed a $40 billion military aid package to Ukraine, quadruple what the United States has thus far given Ukraine since the outbreak of the war in late February. On top of that, it appears the U.S. military may be providing real-time battlefield targeting intelligence to the Ukrainians, arguably making the United States an active belligerent in the conflict.

All of this amounts to a major policy shift on the part of the United States, writes Stevenson: “Whereas once the primary Western objective was to defend against the invasion, it has become the permanent strategic attrition of Russia.” This shift, he adds, has “coincided with the abandonment of diplomatic efforts.” (Read more from “A Reckless Policy of ‘Bleeding Russia’ Risks Getting the United States Into a Foolish Foreign War” HERE)

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Russia’s Senior Commanders Are Headed to the Front Lines in Ukraine: UK

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Several senior Russian commanders are joining the fighting in Ukraine after their predecessors died in battle, according to the United Kingdom.

After more than two months of fighting and thousands of Russian soldiers killed, including an estimated 12 generals, Russian military leadership is poised to become more intimately involved in the war in Ukraine. The U.K. Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that “difficulties in command and control” are drawing senior officials to the front lines of the war effort.

“Russian commanders rarely delegate operational authority to their subordinates,” the ministry said, “who in turn do not gain vital leadership experience.”

Without that “vital leadership experience,” Russian forces have failed to make much headway in their “special operation” to conquer Ukraine. (Read more from “Russia’s Senior Commanders Are Headed to the Front Lines in Ukraine: UK” HERE)

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Jill Biden Visits Ukraine, Meets First Lady

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Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine on Sunday, holding a surprise Mother’s Day meeting with first lady Olena Zelenska to show U.S. support for the embattled nation as Russia presses its punishing war in the eastern regions.

She became the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during the war, while Zalenska’s public appearance was her first since since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24

“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day,” the U.S. first lady told Zelenska. “I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine.” (Read more from “Jill Biden Visits Ukraine, Meets First Lady” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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Graphic Image Appears to Show Bodies of Russian Soldiers in ‘Z’ Shape After Ukraine Recaptures Village

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A grisly image has emerged purportedly showing bodies of Russian soldiers arranged in the letter “Z” after Ukraine’s military recaptured a village in the country’s east.

The photo was taken Monday outside the city of Kharkiv and shows four corpses lined up to form the letter that has become a sign of support for Russia’s military and its invasion of Ukraine.

[Warning: graphic content.]

The Associated Press described the area where its photographer took the image as having “the feel of an open-air morgue, where the dead lie unclaimed and unexplained, sometimes for weeks on end, as Ukrainian and Russian forces fight for control of slivers of land.” (Read more from “Graphic Image Appears to Show Bodies of Russian Soldiers in ‘Z’ Shape After Ukraine Recaptures Village” HERE)

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Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’

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Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis has floated the idea that he wants to take a trip to Kyiv to try to broker a ceasefire. But now he says he would prefer to go to Moscow to try to talk some sense into Vladimir Putin, who he has not outwardly condemned in the now nearly three-month-old war and only did so lightly in a lengthy interview with an Italian newspaper.

“I feel that before going to Kyiv, I must go to Moscow,” he told Corriere Della Sera in an interview that ran Tuesday. But the meeting would not exactly be to condemn Putin, based on what he told the paper. He said that the real “scandal” of Putin’s war is “NATO barking at Russia’s door,” which he said caused the Kremlin to “react badly and unleash the conflict.” . . .

“I don’t know how to answer—I’m too far away—the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians,” he told the paper. “The clear thing is that weapons are being tested there. The Russians now know that tanks are of little use and are thinking of other things. This is why wars are waged: to test the weapons we have produced. Few people are fighting this trade, but more should be done.” . . .

Francis veered toward conspiracy theory as he blamed the international community for instigating the war. “You cannot think that a free state can make war on another free state,” he said. “In Ukraine, it seems that it was others who created the conflict. I am pessimistic but we must do everything possible to stop the war.” The pope then said that in a state visit to Rome by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, he was told “the Russians have a plan, that everything will end on May 9” without giving any further explanation. May 9 is the day Russia celebrates its liberation and the end of World War II. (Read more from “Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’” HERE)

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Pentagon: United States Military Training Ukrainian Soldiers in Germany

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By Breitbart. American armed forces have begun training Ukrainian soldiers to use advanced weapons systems in Germany, the Pentagon revealed on Friday.

In a Washington press briefing, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said that the United States had come to an agreement with Germany to begin training programmes for Ukrainian soldiers.

The Florida National Guard has been tasked with the “bulk” of the training, which will show a group of Ukrainian troops how to use advanced weapons such as howitzers, radar systems, and armoured vehicles.

“Today, I can announce that the United States has commenced training with the Ukrainian Armed Forces on key systems at U.S. military installations in Germany. Now, these efforts build on the initial artillery training that Ukraine’s forces already have received elsewhere, and also includes training on the radar systems and armoured vehicles that have been recently announced as part of security assistance packages,” Kirby said.

“This new training effort in Germany and at other locations in Europe is in direct support of recent U.S. security assistance packages that are designed to help Ukraine win their battles today and build strength for tomorrow. These new systems and the associated training… will strengthen Ukraine’s ability to counter Russia’s renewed offensive in Eastern Ukraine,” the Pentagon spokesman continued. (Read more from “Pentagon: United States Military Training Ukrainian Soldiers in Germany” HERE)

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U.S. Restarts National Guard Training Mission for Ukrainian Soldiers

By U.S. Times. The Pentagon announced Friday that elements of the Florida National Guard had resumed their training mission with the Ukrainian military for the first time since Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered their withdrawal in the days before the Russian invasion in February.

Based now in Germany and at two other locations the Pentagon on Friday refused to specify, the trainers will continue the 8-year-old mission that previously took place at a base outside the western Ukrainian city of Lviv by other deployed Guard units along with soldiers from the militaries of the U.K., Canada, Latvia and other allied countries.

Though not a dramatic policy shift in itself – U.S. trainers as of this month were already working with their Ukrainian counterparts at facilities outside Ukraine to teach them on new weaponry the Biden administration is sending into the conflict zone – the move represents a symbolic evolution in the resurging U.S. support for Ukraine despite the omnipresent risk of provoking Russia into expanding its war.

Indeed, the Guardsmen and Ukrainian soldiers had an “emotional” reunion after the mission restarted, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday afternoon.

“We should not forget the importance of this long-term training relationship,” Kirby said. The training, formed in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and occupation of eastern Ukraine in 2014, “really helped transform them off of Soviet-era doctrine and Soviet-era formation.” (Read more from “U.S. Restarts National Guard Training Mission for Ukrainian Soldiers” HERE)

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Pelosi, Top House Democrats Take Secret Trip to Ukraine

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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi led a group of seven Democrats in a secret congressional delegation to Ukraine on Saturday, the first such official visit.

Pelosi is the highest-ranking U.S. government official to visit the country. The delegation also included Massachusetts Reps. Jim McGovern and Bill Keating, California Reps. Barbara Lee and Adam Schiff, New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, and Colorado Rep. Jason Crow. Two Republicans, Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz and Montana Sen. Steve Daines, visited the besieged European nation in April, although their trip was not officially organized.

The lawmakers met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for several hours, and also walked the streets of Kyiv, according to a video posted to Zelenskyy’s official Twitter account. During the meeting, Pelosi pledged to “be there for you until the fight is done.”

(Read more from “Pelosi, Top House Democrats Take Secret Trip to Ukraine” HERE)

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Heroic ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ Fighter Doesn’t Actually Exist

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The “Ghost of Kyiv” is a myth, Ukrainian officials admitted over the weekend.

After several news outlets last week identified the legendary, mysterious, hero fighter pilot as a 29-year-old dad recently killed in battle with the Russians, military officials acknowledged Saturday that there was no such person.

“The ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend, whose character was created by Ukrainians!” Ukraine’s Air Force Command wrote on Facebook.

The reputed hero had been credited with taking out as many as 40 Russian aircraft until he was shot down March 13 while battling an “overwhelming” number of enemy forces, the Times of London had reported. (Read more from “Heroic ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ Fighter Doesn’t Actually Exist” HERE)

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Big Tech Censoring of Ukraine War Goes Into Hyperdrive

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Google has sent a warning shot across the world, ominously informing media outlets, bloggers, and content creators that it will no longer tolerate certain opinions when it comes to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

[In April], Google AdSense sent a message to a myriad of publishers, including [this article’s original publisher,] MintPress News, informing us that, “Due to the war in Ukraine, we will pause monetization of content that exploits, dismisses, or condones the war.” This content, it went on to say, “includes, but is not limited to, claims that imply victims are responsible for their own tragedy or similar instances of victim-blaming, such as claims that Ukraine is committing genocide or deliberately attacking its own citizens.”

This builds on a similar message Google’s subsidiary YouTube released [in March], stating, “Our Community Guidelines prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events. We are now removing content about Russia’s invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy.” YouTube went on to say that it had already permanently banned more than a thousand channels and 15,000 videos on these grounds. . .

Journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin was deeply troubled by the news. “It is really disturbing that this is the trend that we are on” . . .

[And journalist Chris Hedges wrote,] “Censorship is the last resort of desperate and unpopular regimes. It magically appears to make a crisis go away. It comforts the powerful with the narrative they want to hear, one fed back to them by courtiers in the media, government agencies, think tanks, and academia.” (Read more from “Big Tech Censoring of Ukraine War Goes Into Hyperdrive” HERE)

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Ex-U.S. Marine Killed in Ukraine Was Hired by Private Company to Fight There; Two Army Vets Wounded

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By New York Post. A former US Marine who was hired to fight alongside Ukrainian soldiers against Russian invaders was killed this week.

Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was being paid by a private military contracting company to fight in Ukraine when he died on Monday, family members told CNN.

“He wanted to go over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of it to contain it there so it didn’t come here, and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn’t have to be involved in it,” Cancel’s mother, Rebecca Cabrera told the network.

Cancel flew to Poland on March 12 and arrived in Ukraine the next day to fight alongside men from “all different countries,” Cabrera reportedly said.

The circumstances of Cancel’s death were not immediately clear, and officials that notified his family of the death had not recovered him, his mom explained. (Read more from “Ex-U.S. Marine Killed in Ukraine Was Hired by Private Company to Fight There” HERE)

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Two Americans, Both Former Army, Wounded by Artillery in Ukraine Combat

By Coffee Ordie. Two Americans volunteering in Ukraine’s armed forces were wounded by artillery fire during combat in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, April 27.

US Army veterans Paul Gray and Manus McCaffery were on a mission to destroy a Russian tank near Orikhiv, a small city in the path of Russia’s ongoing military offensive in the south and east of Ukraine. The pair were waiting for a Russian tank to appear on a road when an artillery round struck nearby at roughly 2:35 p.m., Gray told Coffee or Die Magazine via text message. McCaffery suffered serious shrapnel wounds to his face, head, shoulders, and torso. A concrete wall fell onto Gray, momentarily trapping him and injuring his left foot.

“Manus is really bad…I’m sick about it,” Gray said, adding that he was about five feet from McCaffery when the artillery struck. “I couldn’t help him because a concrete wall fell on my legs. He remained talking the whole time. Extremely hard young man.”

A native of Ohio, McCaffery, 20, served in the US Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment and deployed to Afghanistan. Gray, who is originally from Texas, deployed to Iraq three times as a soldier in the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division. Both men are no longer in the US armed forces and were civilians when they volunteered to join Ukraine’s armed forces via legal pathways. The two American volunteers served within a Ukrainian special operations unit and worked together as a team targeting Russian tanks and vehicles with US-made Javelin anti-tank missiles. (Read more from “Two Americans, Both Former Army, Wounded by Artillery in Ukraine Combat” HERE)

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