News from the Ukraine war – 26 April, 2022
The United States, seeing all its efforts in Ukraine as now futile, has said the following:
The United States will accept a peace agreement between Kiev and Moscow, after which Ukraine will be a neutral country.
This statement was made by the American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
“Washington will respect Ukraine’s decision if it enters into an agreement with Russia to renounce NATO membership to end the conflict,” Blinken said.
Now the general public is being spoon-fed the bad news:
The Moskva Riddle
Get ready: something lethally “asymmetrical” may be about to pop up
By Pepe Escobar
Neither NATO nor Russia is telling us what really happened with the Moskva, the legendary admiral ship of the Black Sea fleet.
NATO because in theory, they know. Moscow, for its part, made it clear they are not saying anything until they can be sure what happened.
One thing is certain. If the Russian Ministry of Defense finds out that NATO did it, they will let loose all the dogs from Hell on NATO, as in “asymmetrical, lethal and fast”.
US will move ‘heaven and earth’ for Ukraine – Pentagon
The US will move “heaven and earth” to supply Ukraine with what it says it needs to fight Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. The announcement came on Tuesday at a 40-country meeting aimed at getting Washington’s allies on board the mission to prop up Kiev’s defenses.
Convened by the US at its German airbase Ramstein, the meeting’s official purpose was “to help Ukraine win the fight against Russia’s unjust invasion and to build up Ukraine’s defenses for tomorrow’s challenges,” in Austin’s words. “Ukraine clearly believes that it can win and so does everyone here,” he continued, speaking for the many US-allied nations present.
While saying that Washington, as the top-dollar donor to Kiev, will “keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet” the needs of the Ukrainian government, Austin made it clear other countries would be expected to pony up.
Germany, which had previously pleaded scarcity, insisting its own army lacked sufficient weapons to send the surplus to Ukraine, has had a change of heart, according to Defense Minister Christine Lamprecht, who revealed Berlin would send used Gepard anti-aircraft tanks and purchase new equipment from German arms manufacturers to be shipped directly to the Ukrainian military.
“Ukraine orders and Germany pays,” she pledged.
France will provide Caesar cannons, which have a range of up to 40km, while the UK has supplied Starstreak missiles and tanks. The US has stepped up its own heavy weapons deliveries, showering Kiev with howitzers and armored vehicles.
Austin nevertheless insisted the countries present do more to help. “Ukraine needs our help to win today and they will still need our help when the war is over,” he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed his country needs $7 billion per month to compensate for “economic losses” allegedly caused by the Russian offensive. He has also asked for a whopping $50 billion from G7 countries, citing escalating financial demands on his government. The US has already sent over $3 billion in military aid this year alone.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
Attacks Begin in New Country as Russia Warns Nuclear Threat Is ‘Real’
Russia’s foreign minister has warned Western powers not to underestimate the “real” risk of nuclear conflict if they continue to funnel weapons to Ukraine in what he says is an undeclared proxy war.
Within hours of his remarks, explosions were heard inside the sovereign borders of Moldova. Ukrainian officials believe Russia is launching “false flag” operations in the pro-Russian rebel-controlled enclave of Transnistria in order to justify widening their imperial assault into a second nation.
The warning from Sergei Lavrov, in a state TV interview late on Monday night, represents a dramatic rhetorical escalation from the Kremlin in the face of an increasingly assertive international response to the Ukraine crisis.
His comments drew a sharp reply from Lavrov’s counterpart in Kyiv, Dmytro Kuleba, who said Russia had lost its “last hope to to scare the world off supporting Ukraine… This only means Moscow senses defeat in Ukraine.”
Biden says alternative to sanctions against Russia would be Third World War
NEW YORK, February 26. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden said an alternative to tough sanctions that Washington has slapped on Russia would be the Third World War.
“You have two options. Start a Third World War, go to war with Russia, physically. Or two, make sure that the country that acts so contrary to international law ends up paying a price for having done it,” Biden said in an interview with blogger Brian Tyler Cohen. The video was posted on his YouTube page on Saturday.
The US president noted that no sanctions are immediate. “But I think these sanctions, I know these sanctions are the broadest sanctions in history, and economic sanctions and political sanctions,” Biden said.
“Russia will pay a serious price for this short term and long term, particularly long term,” the US leader stressed.
Ruble hits near 2-year high against euro
The Russian ruble strengthened against both the euro and the US dollar on Tuesday, trading data from the Moscow Exchange shows.
As of 10:07 GMT the Russian currency had jumped roughly 0.96% compared to the end of the previous day’s trading to 76.42 rubles against the euro, its highest in nearly two years, and gained around 0.92% against the greenback to trade at 72.45 per dollar, reaching a five-month high.
The rally comes as the market expects companies to make a record 3 trillion rubles ($40.25 billion) worth of tax payments due this week. Analysts say the tax boost may propel the Russian currency further, as some export-oriented firms will have to sell foreign currency to make the payments.
‘Not possible’ to dump gas for green energy – official
Europe cannot completely phase-out using natural gas in favor of greener energy sources at this stage, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said at the Raisina Dialogue international conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.
“Gas is a transitional source. It should be used just when we intend to turn to renewable energy. It is not possible to reduce the work of the gas industry immediately, especially in Europe, where demand for Norwegian gas is now high. We will continue to supply gas to the European market for another several years,” she said.
Her statements come amid calls from many European nations to reduce reliance on Russian energy, with some suggesting that turning to green energy could be an alternative. However, analysts say it is impossible to substitute Russian energy imports with green energy at short notice.
According to Huitfeldt, her country is moving towards reducing emissions under the EU green deal but views a complete and immediate transition to renewable energy sources unlikely, as there is currently a large demand for fossil fuels in the region. Oslo relies heavily on its oil and gas sector, being the EU’s second largest supplier of energy after Russia. Huitfeldt stressed that Norway considers it wrong to liquidate its oil and gas industry for the sake of a full transition to renewable energy.
Загадочные приключения русской нефти
“The Western press, with some bewilderment , reports that the supply of Russian oil and oil products is confidently winning back the fall over the past month, while what is happening more and more resembles a fairy tale plot…The bottom line is that crude oil of Russian origin at a certain stage of transportation simply disappears in order to inexplicably reappear off the coast of Britain or America…There is no embargo against Russian oil, and it is not clear whether there will be, but the market preemptively got a magic wand, and thanks to it, strings of tankers disappear from maps and locators, and the necessary raw materials and fuel come to Europe and Asia…This is good, because the Russian treasury is filling up along the way”.
Ukraine doesn’t have an existing infrastructure of undamaged roads and intact bridges to transport any kind of armored vehicles on, thus leaving railways as the only means to transfer them—and is why the Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported this morning: “Russian troops have destroyed six traction substations, – units that power the railways – which are being used for delivery of foreign weapons and military hardware to the Ukrainian forces in the Donbass”.
Western supply lines in Ukraine destroyed – Russia
Russian troops have destroyed six traction substations, – units that power the railways – which are being used for delivery of “foreign weapons and military hardware to the Ukrainian forces in the Donbass,” Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov announced on Monday.
He added that the stations were located at the Krasnoye, Zdolbunov, Zhmerinka, Berdichev, Kovel, and Korosten railway hubs, all in western Ukraine.
According to Konashenkov, 27 military targets were also destroyed by airstrikes, including four command centers.
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said last month that pushing Ukrainian troops from the territory of the Donbass republics had become Moscow’s top priority at this stage of the campaign.
Ukraine’s Western backers have not disclosed the exact routes they use to ship weapons to Kiev, but reports said that many of them are being delivered through neighboring Poland.
NATO member states supply various anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems, armored vehicles, howitzers, and other weapons to Kiev. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ukraine on Sunday, where they promised additional military aid to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
Wait, Russia Might WIN in Ukraine?
In an unexpected shift from the unified Western narrative that Russia is losing badly and will soon be driven out, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week became the first Western leader to concede Vladimir Putin could ‘win the war’ in Ukraine, and that it could last until the end of next year.
This revelation is shocking to those who believe the Western media’s war propaganda, but unsurprising to skeptics. This week on NewsReal, Joe and Niall contrast shifting British and Western expectations with the unchanged Russian ones, noting the recent capture of Mariupol and the Russian military’s ‘land bridge’ to Crimea.
Meanwhile, in a development that was blacked out by Western media, Russian envoys reported to the UN last week details about a global complex of American bio-labs that ring Russia and China for the purpose of unleashing ethnic-specific weapons – something that perhaps explains China’s extreme lockdowns in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
‘Back home’, EUrocrats continue threatening to place embargoes on Russian oil and gas by year’s end, a development that will effectively de-industrialize Europe and impoverish tens of millions of people, while in the US major food distribution facilities are mysteriously burning to the ground.
Is this all to ‘get Putin’? To ‘save the planet’? Is this the result of feckless ideology run amuck, or is there an element of wilfull destruction behind it all?
NewsReal on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewsReal-With-Joe-Niall-100490478966978
Joe Quinn on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoeQuinnSOTT
Niall Bradley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Niall_Diarmuid
Show Notes:https://www.sott.net/article/467087-NewsReal-UK-Govt-Now-Says-Russia-Might-Win-in-Ukraine-After-All
