Non daude euskal cantamañanas eta NATO zale amorratuak diren Mr. Caballo loco (sic),
eta super kazetaria omen bide den Mr. Mikel A.?
Hasiera:
Urgent!
In two weeks Zelenskyy will close the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
40 monks will be arrested.
At the same time there will be gay pride in Kharkov.
Zelenskyy has chosen the side.
Please share
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1821632471643124050
Segida:
“With the start of the war, the European Commission under von der Leyen acted as an extended European arm of NATO and the United States, putting its resources at their service while working to unite its member states behind the Western war effort”.
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How the EU became a subdepartment of NATO
Wolfgang Streeck on how the European Commission used the proxy war in Ukraine as a way of surreptitiously achieving further supranational integration at the cost of greater vassalisation
Aug 09, 2024
Regular readers will know that one of the topics that I keep returning to is the evidently self-abusive behaviour exhibited by European nations since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.
As I wrote a while back, the unwavering deference of European countries to US strategy in the management of the conflict — placing heavy sanctions on Russia and joining NATO’s proxy war by providing ever-growing levels of military aid to Ukraine, while ruling out any possible diplomatic solution — is almost inexplicable from rational, self-interested perspective, given how it clearly runs contrary to, and has already heavily jeopardised, Europe’s strategic interests from an economic, security and geopolitical perspective.
In that article, I put forward several explanations for this apparently irrational course of action — first and foremost the massive influence still wielded over Western Europe by the US almost 80 years after the end of the World War II, particularly via the European Union.
In a recent paper the role of the European Union in the war in Ukraine, however, Wolfgang Streeck makes a compelling argument that I hadn’t really considered, namely that, from the perspective of the EU establishment, subordination to the US-NATO strategy in Ukraine, and the pursuit of the proxy war against Russia, was a way of surreptitiously achieving the age-old goal of further supranational integration and centralisation (while simultaneously boosting the EU’s role as an auxiliary of the US and NATO).
The paper begins with an account of the condition of the EU before the war, which it describes as overextended and stagnant with respect to the EU’s proclaimed finalité, the “ever closer union of the peoples of Europe”:
The EU in the run-up to the war
By the time the war over Ukraine broke out, the European Union (EU) was a disorderly assortment of the remnants of various incomplete attempts at what had been called “European integration” — a vast supranational would-be state that had become practically ungovernable due to overextension and the extreme internal heterogeneity that had come with it.
Already before 2022, hopes for an integrated Europe superseding Europe’s historical nation-states — the EU’s much-vaunted finalité of an ever closer union of the peoples of Europe — had almost disappeared, reflecting not least the growth of the Union, mostly for geopolitical purposes, from six to 27 members (even 28, until one of its three biggest member states, the United Kingdom, seceded), including countries as different as Denmark and Romania, or Portugal and Poland. Tensions between member states such as Germany, France, Italy, and Poland had risen on a growing number of issues.
[Meanwhile, the various crises of the 2000s had] laid bare the EU’s lack of technocratic problem-solving and political governing capacity, which made its member states and governments even more conscious of their national interests and the differences between them.
By the early 2020s, it was obvious that this could not continue forever, the EU living from hand to mouth politically, consuming its dwindling supply of legitimacy without being able to replenish it. One symptom was fast-rising electoral support for so-called right-wing populist political parties and movements in several member states that are sharply critical of the EU.
As far as the Ukraine crisis is concerned, in the decade leading up to Russia’s 2022 invasion, the EU certainly played a role in sowing the seeds of the conflict, especially in the lead-up to the 2014 US-led coup — first by insisting that Ukraine cut its economic and political connectivity with Russia in exchange for access to the EU market (and one day, potentially, EU membership), then by challenging the legitimacy of the Yanukovych government.
Yet the EU’s role, especially, especially in the months leading up to Russia’s invasion, remained marginal vis-à-vis that of the US. In the critical months during the fall and winter of 2021/2022, there was, as far as is known, no consultation by the United States of European governments or, for that matter, the EU. The US’s approach to the EU was well summed up by Victoria Nuland in a 2014 leaked phone conversation: “Fuck the EU”. As Streeck notes, “the EU and its members seem to have been confined to the sidelines” throughout the entire crisis.
After Russia’s invasion: the EU eyes an opportunity for greater centralisation
Following Russia’s invasion, however, the EU, through the European Commission, adopted a much more activist role — albeit not to achieve greater “strategic autonomy” for the EU in dealing with the Ukraine crisis, but rather to use the crisis to push for further supranational unification and centralisation:
With the start of the war, the European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen acted as an extended European arm of NATO and the United States, putting its resources at their service while working to unite its member states behind the Western war effort.
Lacking jurisdiction under the European treaties on military and defense matters, the Commission sought to identify gaps in the capacities of EU member states and NATO that it could offer to fill, hoping thereby to enhance, or restore, its governing capabilities as an international institution.
Among its first steps was to work out, in close cooperation with the United States, a wide range of European sanctions on Russia and countries supporting it, with the aim of decisively weakening Russian economic and, as a result, military power. In effect, this moved the EU into the position of an economic policy subdepartment of NATO, assisting it on its special area of expertise. Sanctions included asset freezes and travel bans, banking and central banking restrictions like exclusion from the SWIFT system, export controls and import bans, and embargoes on Russian energy.
In von der Leyen’s own words, the sanctions were meant to “systematically degrade Russia’s industrial and economic base”. We know how that worked out: two years later, the Russian economy was growing, including Russian oil exports, while large parts of Western Europe had moved into a recession.
Another way in which the EU was and is supporting the Western war effort is by helping sustain the morale of the Ukrainian people.
For this, von der Leyen untiringly kept declaring the firm determination of the EU and its member states not to let up short of a full military victory of Ukraine over Russia, whatever it would take, using rhetoric often more militant than that of the United States. In the same vein, von der Leyen continued to hold out the prospect of full EU membership for Ukraine, in line with the association agreement of 2014.
Promises of accelerated accession came with long-term commitments to economic support for the recovery of Ukraine after and indeed already during the war. In her 14 September 2022 State of the Union Address, von der Leyen announced that the rebuilding of Ukraine would begin immediately, noting that it would require “a comprehensive Marshall Plan” for which the EU would “present a new Ukraine reconstruction platform”. Almost two years later, she repeated her promise, stating that, “We will completely rebuild Ukraine once the war is won. The European Union stands firmly by Ukraine, financially, economically, militarily, and most of all, morally, until [Ukraine] is finally free”.
In making these long-term, and very costly, military-financial commitments to Ukraine, von der Leyen wasn’t just “locking in” the EU’s participation in NATO’s proxy war against Russia, but was also using the crisis to claim for the Commission powers and competences unforeseen by the EU treaties, not only on military and defense matters — over which it has no jurisdiction — but on fiscal issues as well, by committing member states to future expenses that will likely be used to justify the taking on of more EU-level (“federal”) debt, despite the fact that the European treaties explicitly prohibit fiscal risk-sharing across countries. As Streeck notes:
More than two years after the war began, there has been no discussion on the problems that admission into EU membership of a country like Ukraine, with its needs for long- term financial support, first military then economic, would cause for the EU’s internal politics and finances.
oooooo
CN Condemns FBI Raid on CN Columnist’s Home https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/09/cn-condemns-fbi-raid-on-cn-columnists-home/
Consortium News strongly condemns the raid on the home of its columnist #ScottRitter by the F.B.l. on Thursday as a serious threat to press freedom.
ooo
CN Condemns FBI Raid on CN Columnist’s Home
August 9, 2024
Consortium News strongly condemns the raid on the home of its columnist Scott Ritter by the F.B.l. on Thursday as a serious threat to press freedom.
Scott Ritter speaking with the media outside his home after the F.B.I. left with boxes of documents and electronics. (CBS 6 Albany/YouTube screenshot)
By Consortium News
Consortium News condemns in the strongest terms the F.B.I. raid on the home of CN columnist Scott Ritter.
Federal agents removed Ritter’s electronic equipment and numerous boxes of paper files from his Albany, N.Y. area home Thursday on suspicion that the former U.N. weapons inspector is violating the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act.
In a video posted to his Substack page, Ritter said that normally in alleged FARA violation cases the authorities send a letter to the subject of the inquiry informing them of the investigation. They do not send numerous F.B.I. agents to the door with a warrant to search and remove potential evidence.
The warrant, a copy of which Ritter posted, only called for electronic devices to be removed, but the agents, whom Ritter said acted professionally, also removed boxes of paper United Nations files from his days as a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s. As Ritter says in the video, U.N. documents are never classified and could have nothing to do with the alleged FARA case against him.
“So the idea that, this is normal procedure is absurd in the extreme. I’m not a foreign agent. What I am is a journalist. And this is how we need to couch this entire thing. What the F.B.I. did yesterday, what the United States government did yesterday, was a frontal assault not only on free speech, but a free press,” Ritter said in the video.
Ritter says he’s being targeted because of his freelance work for Russian media. In the wake of Russiagate, the U.S. Department of Justice in 2017 forced Russian-government financed media companies to register as foreign agents. But only the principal executives of RT and Sputnik need to register, not employees or freelancers such as Ritter.
“They are seeking to intimidate a journalist with a long record of journalism, to intimidate this journalist, me, from engaging in activities such as the research and publication of articles and materials critical of U.S. policy in Ukraine, supportive of Russian objectives,” he said.
“Just a quick reminder. The U.S. courts have determined that under FARA, coincidence of ideas between an individual such as myself and a foreign government, Russia, does not weigh in on FARA,” Ritter said.
“So the fact that the Russian government and I happen to have coinciding viewpoints on critical issues of the day might reflect that we’re both on the right side of history as opposed to me being an agent of the Russian government. In fact, it does reflect that we’re both on the right side of history,” he said.
Because of his views, Ritter has been placed on a “kill list” by the Ukrainian government. The local CBS News affiliate in Albany, N.Y., apparently tipped off by the F.B.I., filmed agents removing boxes from Ritter’s home. In the process they revealed his home address and license plate numbers.
Ritter said in the video (published on CN) that a police SWAT team was also sent to his home Thursday evening and left without incident.
Ritter said:
“I’m a journalist. I have a constitutional right of free speech associated with a free press to do what I’m doing. And to shut up means I’ve allowed the United States government to intimidate a journalist into silence. That simply isn’t going to happen.
Why would the F.B.I. do this? I think we can’t ask that question without bringing up the obvious. What I’m saying and doing strikes fear in the hearts of some people in Washington, D.C., whether it be the State Department, the C.I.A, the White House, Department of Justice; it strikes fear in the hearts of the Ukrainian government.”
Consortium News calls on the Justice Department to immediately cease its intimidation of one of our columnists as it constitutes state interference in the operation of the media and a threat to press freedom.
oooooo
Excellent, compelling piece of journalism & reality in Ukraine 
(Something you’ll never see from western media’s ‘stenographers to power’ MSM)
Aipamena
Thomas Fazi@battleforeurope
abu. 9
“Far from the beacon of democracy it is purported to be in the West, Ukraine is in fact a quasi-totalitarian state where any criticism of the government — and especially of the war — is fiercely repressed”. Ukrainian dissident speaks out:
Ukrainian dissident speaks out:
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Ukrainian dissident reveals brutal censorship and repression by the Kyiv regime
“There is no freedom of speech whatsoever in Ukraine”, says dissident journalist Vasyl Muravytskyi
Aug 08, 2024
Pascal Lottaz, Associate Professor for Neutrality Studies at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Law and Hakubi Center, whose YouTube channel I strongly recommend you follow, has published a fascinating video interview with a Ukrainian dissident journalist in exile, Vasyl Muravytskyi.
Muravytskyi, who had written several critical reports of the post-Euromaidan Ukrainian regime and its handling of the civil war in Ukraine, was arrested in August 2017 by Ukrainian law enforcement and charged with high treason, threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine, inciting hatred, and even participating in a terrorist organisation. He spent 11 months in prison.
During that time, he received support from several international human rights and journalist organisations. The Swiss human rights organisation Solidarity Network recognised him as a prisoner of conscience, while the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders in France demanded his release. Amnesty International also recognised him as a prisoner of conscience. In a December 2017 report, the organisation noted:
The very serious allegations against Vasyl Muravytskyi stem from a number of publications, which were published as incriminating evidence against him on 11 September by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on its Facebook page. After analyzing the evidence listed therein, Amnesty International is concerned that all the charges against Vasyl Muravytskyi arise from him peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression, which is essential for his professional activities as a journalist. In the articles authored by Vasyl Muravytskyi, and cited by the SBU as incriminating evidence, he offers sharp criticism of the current Ukrainian authorities and individual officials, and does so without using a pseudonym or otherwise concealing his name. In particular, he criticises public statements and the policy approach of the government in Kyiv towards the conflict in eastern Ukraine and Russian-occupied Crimea. While this criticism might sound very unpleasant to those it is addressed to, it is important to note that Muravytskyi does not resort to inciting violence or otherwise provoking hatred towards any ethnic or religious groups.
Thanks to Amnesty International, Muravytskyi was able to obtain political asylum in Finland on grounds that he was being politically persecuted by the Ukrainian authorities. He still lives there today.
In his eye-opening interview with Lottaz, Muravytskyi sheds light on the brutal reality faced by dissidents under the current Ukrainian regime. Far from the shining example of democracy that it is purported to be in the West, Ukraine is in fact a quasi-totalitarian state where any criticism of the government — and especially of the war — is fiercely repressed. This was already the case before 2022 — as Muravytskyi’s own experience shows — but things have gotten infinitely worse since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Given how bad the situation is even the West, where any dissenting opinion on the war tends to be characterised and treated as dangerous “disinformation” or even worse as “foreign interference” (i.e., potential treason), it’s not entirely surprising to learn that the same is happening in Ukraine, just on much bigger and more intense scale. Yet, the reality described by Muravytskyi is likely to surprise even the most hardened cynic. Here I’ve selected the main highlights from the talk (edited for clarity):
On repression in Ukraine
Muravytskyi: One the biggest misconceptions about Ukraine [in the West] is that freedom of speech is still alive in the country. There is no freedom of speech whatsoever in Ukraine. Everything is being censored. I was persecuted and then sent to prison because I [publicly] criticised the actions of the current Ukrainian regime. But there are cases, today, of people being sent to prison not for their public statements but even just for their personal, intimate discussions. I know of the case of a man who simply had a group chat on Telegram with his wife and son where he discussed the current war, and where he shared some links from Russian media that were critical about the war. For this he was sent to prison for ten years. The situation in Ukraine is far, far worse than people in the West might think.
Lottaz: How is it possible that although inside Ukraine there is so much heavy-handed censorship and repression going on, the narrative in the West continues to be that Ukraine is actually a well-functioning democracy? Why is it that news of what’s actually happening in Ukraine is not getting out in the West?
Muravytskyi: The reason is simple: Ukraine is simply a tool in this global war against Russia and the tool needs to be sharp.
In other words, Muravytskyi is implying that Western governments are perfectly aware of the repression going on in Ukraine and are perfectly fine with it because it serves the goal of the continuation of the proxy war against Russia; indeed, one may reasonably presume that Western governments themselves are actually encouraging the repression behind closed doors.
Most Ukrainians want peace — but they aren’t allowed to say so
Lottaz: What is the mood in Ukraine with regard to the war?
Muravytskyi: The vast majority of people in Ukraine want to end the war as soon as possible. People are fleeing en masse, trying to not get mobilised. Even in the westernmost part of Ukraine, after speaking to many people, I’ve concluded that only about two percent of the people who were mobilised did so out of their own free will.
Lottaz: So almost everybody in Ukraine wants the war to end. But the question is how to end it. Do you think that a big number of Ukrainians would be willing to change the borders of Ukraine in order to end the war — i.e., to give up the regions in the east?
Muravytskyi: I’m not able to answer to this question because people are simply
afraid to even talk about that. If you’re having a personal conversation, a phone call
with a close friend, and you say stuff like that, there have been cases where people have been sent to prison for five years simply for sharing such thoughts. On one occasion, one man was talking to his fellow employees on a smoke break and he
shared a similar thought about changing Ukraine’s borders [in order to achieve peace]; apparently one of his co-workers had a recording device placed on him by the secret service and that man was persecuted simply for sharing his thoughts
on a small break with his his colleagues.
There is a phenomenon which sociology cannot explain; it’s similar to schizophrenia, where you give two different answers to two very similar questions. If the question is “Do you want to end the war as soon as possible?” people say “yes”, but if the next question is “Are you willing to redraw Ukraine’s map?”, people will say “absolutely not”, because if they say “yes” that would be potentially socially very dangerous, it would be tantamount to social suicide. So we really have no way of knowing what the real preferences of people in Ukraine actually are today about how to end the war because they’re not able to express their opinions freely. It’s very dangerous to do so. However, people are very tired of the war, of the consequences of the war, there are areas now where people get electricity only for two hours a day.
So much for the “agency” argument that is constantly thrown around in the West: i.e., that we should continue militarily supporting Ukraine in its government’s maximalist victory-at-all-costs strategy because this is what Ukrainians want.
Lottaz: Would you want Ukraine to surrender? If that was an option, would you say “Yes, surrender is better than this”?
Muravytskyi: Even though I am in Finland now I am still a Ukrainian citizen so I am not able to answer that question otherwise there will be a case opened against me and this is a perfect example of how freedom of speech does not exist in Ukraine at the moment. But there is a Chinese saying that goes: “Sometimes to lose a war is to win a war and to win a war is to lose”.
Lottaz: Are you relieved that you are now living in a society where you can do your job as a journalist without being persecuted?
Muravytskyi: It’s more than just relief because if I were in Ukraine now I would have been killed or assassinated or put back into prison.
Why Ukraine can’t win this war
Lottaz: What is the biggest obstacle to peace in Ukraine today? Is it the presence of ultra-right-wing forces that makes it impossible for politicians in Ukraine to pursue a diplomatic solution or is it the pervasive corruption inside the government that prevents a solution of this kind?
Muravytskyi: The main factor stopping Ukraine from moving in this direction is the false belief that that victory is inevitable, as Zelenskyy said. However, this is a lie. Russia has bigger military and human resources. There is another saying that goes: “When the rich man loses his riches, the poor man dies”. This is also very true. I don’t want uh Ukraine to fall, I want Ukraine to to remain itself, I want its people and culture to remain themselves. However, the country has lost so much power — last year Ukraine registered its all-time lowest birth rate in 300 years — that unless there is a break of some kind or unless Russia collapses, there is now way to change this situation. Even if the war stops right away, it will take decades to bring Ukraine back to the level of 2022.
Muravytskyi’s bleak but entirely realistic assessment is yet another reminder that those in the West who pose as Ukraine’s friends while pushing for never-ending war are in fact its worse enemies. For NATO, Ukraine is little more than a pawn in a deadly geopolitical game — one that is quite literally destroying Ukraine and robbing it of any meaningful future.
Peace is the only way forward
Lottaz: Finally, is there anything else that you would like the world to know, especially in the West, after two and a half years of war?
Muravytskyi: If you want Ukraine to survive, if you want the Ukrainian people to survive, then you need to stop the war — right here, right now.
Powerful words, with which I couldn’t agree more. Indeed, this is exactly the case we made in our letter in support of peace negotiations in Ukraine that was recently published in the Financial Times.
Several other topics are covered in the interview as well. I strongly recommend you watch the full conversation on Lottaz’s channel:
Also be sure to follow Pascal Lottaz on YouTube, X and Substack.
Breaking: Ukrainian Journalist REVEALS Horrible Truths About Kiev-Regime | Vasyl Muravytskyi
Bideoa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo7OyrXLms4
The lie that Ukraine is defending democracy or standing up for “western values” has never been weaker. But now we are getting reports that not just journalistic publications critical of the Kiev-Regime are getting purged, ANYONE who dares to utter opinions not in line with the regime is getting persecuted, even for private conversations. Society is under total surveillance.
I’m talking to Vasyl Muravytskyi, a Ukrainian journalist who has been publishing highly critical reports about his government before and after the Euromaidan events back in 2014, for which he got in a lot of trouble. On 1 August 2017, he was arrested by Ukrainian law enforcement charged with high treason and spent 11 months in prison.
Vasyl now lives in Finland from where he is talking to us, assisted by a translator to help with the English.
Transkripzioa:
0:00
people get persecuted simply for having
0:02
personal conversations it’s uh far
0:04
beyond what we uh might think about now
0:06
what How the West sees it uh
0:08
unfortunately there are people now being
0:10
persecuted not for just Publications but
0:13
for their personal conversations
0:15
personal
0:17
[Music]
0:23
discussions so last week I interviewed a
0:26
Ukrainian dissident journalist in Exile
0:29
although he does understand English he
0:30
spoke to me via his translator friend
0:33
Daria we also had some Zoom issues
0:36
probably because we recorded this only
0:38
days after the crowd strike server
0:39
Fallout hence this time I had to cut the
0:43
video quite a bit to take outs the
0:46
repetitions and overlay Daria’s
0:48
translations with Basil’s answers
0:51
content wise I also checked with another
0:53
colleague from the Don buas who told me
0:55
that vasil’s description of the
0:57
situation in Ukraine were what she knows
0:59
from home as well and she commends him
1:02
for his courage of speaking out with
1:04
this out of the way here we
1:08
go hello everybody this is Pascal from
1:11
neutrality studies and tonight I have a
1:13
special guest with me I’m talking to Vil
1:15
muritz a Ukrainian journalist who has
1:18
been publishing highly critical reports
1:20
about his government before and after
1:23
the eurom midan events back in 2014 for
1:26
which he got into a lot of trouble on
1:29
first of all August 2017 he was arrested
1:32
by Ukrainian law enforcement and charged
1:35
with high treason and then he spent 11
1:38
months in a prison in Ukraine he
1:40
received support from several
1:42
international human rights and
1:43
journalism organizations the
1:45
international human rights organization
1:47
solidarity Network in Switzerland
1:49
recognized him as a prisoner of
1:50
conscience while the us-based committee
1:53
to protect journalists and reporters
1:55
Without Borders in France demanded his
1:57
release Amnesty International too
2:00
recognized him as a prisoner of
2:03
conscience and the oce mission
2:05
facilitated his request for political
2:07
asylum in Finland because of PR
2:10
persecution by the Ukrainian authorities
2:13
basil still lives in Finland now from
2:15
where he’s talking to us uh he’s
2:18
assisted assisted by his translator um
2:21
Daria who is helping with the English um
2:25
both of you welcome and thank you for
2:26
taking the
2:28
time thank you for your time Pascal um
2:32
vasil you reached out to me and you are
2:35
a very special case because it doesn’t
2:37
often happen that I’m I’m getting emails
2:39
from somebody who actually was in a
2:42
Ukrainian prison and who went through a
2:45
lot of this direct hardship could you
2:48
tell us first what happened to you and
2:51
why were you accused of high
2:56
treason unfortunately the situation in
2:59
Ukraine is that uh people there is no
3:02
freedom in speech there whatsoever uh
3:04
everything is being censored and uh
3:07
vasil was persecuted and then uh put to
3:10
prison because of his criticizing the
3:14
actions of the uh current Ukrainian
3:22
regime says that the reason why he asked
3:26
for this talk that we’re having now is
3:28
that uh he personally is familiar with
3:30
situations where
3:33
people get sent to prison and people get
3:36
persecuted simply for having personal
3:37
conversations it’s uh far beyond what we
3:41
might think about now what How the West
3:43
sees it uh unfortunately there are
3:45
people now being persecuted not for just
3:47
Publications but for their personal
3:49
conversations personal discussions
3:59
told us now is that uh one of the men
4:02
he’s talking about um simply had a group
4:06
chat on telegram with his wife and his
4:08
son where he was discussing the current
4:11
War he was sharing some links from Uh
4:14
Russian uh media uh perhaps yes they
4:18
were critical about the war but the idea
4:21
is that this chat was personal uh it
4:24
wasn’t publicated anywhere and even for
4:27
that the the the man was uh put in sent
4:31
into prison for 10
4:33
years and there are tens and tens of
4:35
such cases and the the the the West is
4:40
hailing Ukraine as a grand uh uh example
4:45
of democracy I mean the whole rhetoric
4:48
the West is that uh we need to defend
4:52
democracy and and human rights in
4:55
Ukraine um what do you say to SL like
5:00
these when you hear
5:03
[Music]
5:07
them Vil says that one of the biggest
5:10
misconceptions about Ukraine is that the
5:14
uh freedom of speech is still alive
5:16
there uh he’s talking about the uh law
5:19
which is about to be enforced where um
5:22
they are about to Simply cancel the uh
5:26
even idea of traditional Rel
5:30
the U orthod Orthodox um religion and
5:34
people are about to be
5:37
uh people are about to be stopped from
5:40
even they will not be allowed
5:43
to uh to be religious in their own
5:46
houses in their own buildings uh so I’m
5:49
afraid there is he says uh there is no
5:52
talk of freedom of speech in Ukraine
5:55
unfortunately it’s one step away from uh
5:58
complete
6:00
uh even during the Soviet time Stalin
6:03
did uh persecute people who uh were
6:07
religious and yes he even killed priests
6:10
but the religion was never forbidden uh
6:13
it there were never any laws
6:16
um which could forbid being religious
6:19
and have this religion but zin’s regime
6:21
is doing exactly that zelen’s regime and
6:24
his party are doing
6:26
that how do you think is it possible
6:30
that although inside Ukraine there is so
6:34
much heavy-handed censorship and
6:37
repression going on that despite this
6:41
happening it is still possible that
6:43
outside of Ukraine in the west uh this
6:47
this narrative is is uh out that Ukraine
6:54
is actually a good democracy why is it
6:57
possible that the new of what’s actually
7:00
happening in Ukraine is not getting out
7:03
into the
7:08
[Music]
7:14
West reason is simple uh Ukraine is
7:17
simply a tool in this global war against
7:20
Russia and like Vil says uh the tool
7:24
needs to be sharp which is exactly why
7:27
uh Ukraine is being used as a tool in
7:29
this global
7:31
war I’m not saying that I agree with all
7:35
of the actions that Russia is doing but
7:38
uh thinking of Ukraine as a democratic
7:41
uh as a democratic country is a big Mig
7:44
mistake and the longer we think that way
7:47
the worse the consequences are going to
7:51
be one of the examples is the people who
7:54
currently live on the territories uh
7:57
occupied by Russia currently uh for
8:00
those people Ukraine has stopped uh
8:02
paying any any social payments any
8:04
social benefits and they also claimed
8:07
that people living there uh will not be
8:10
entitled to any payments whatsoever they
8:12
are forbidden to uh take part in any
8:15
official life of the government so the
8:18
idea is if the Ukraine gets their
8:20
territories back uh those people will
8:23
either go to jail or will have to Simply
8:27
uh move
8:30
to other
8:31
places so the idea is BAS forgot forgot
8:35
abandoned the people living
8:46
there uh V said that um a very similar
8:50
situation happened in 2014 uh with
8:53
Crimea people living there uh in his
8:56
post he said that uh we should not not
8:59
leave people with no gas no water no
9:01
social benefit otherwise when we come
9:03
people will just forget about us uh
9:06
people needed to stay connected to
9:07
Ukraine uh however for those costs for
9:12
for uh that mindset he was sent of
9:15
prison can I ask you um How would how
9:19
does that work or would that work now
9:21
the Russia occupies um parts of eastern
9:25
Ukraine um is are the banking
9:28
connections still working are there
9:30
still are these people who are living in
9:32
the occupied territories should are they
9:34
still able to access um services from
9:38
Ukraine even despite the
9:44
occupation currently there are only
9:47
Russian banking services uh working uh
9:50
on the occupied territories and this is
9:52
exactly what Vil is talking about um the
9:56
idea is uh people were declined uh in
10:00
all of their rights or all of the
10:02
Ukrainian banking services just stopped
10:04
working on the occupied territories uh
10:06
which is why uh over some time Russia
10:08
enforced the new law where people living
10:11
there had to become uh had to get the
10:14
Russian citizenship had to become
10:16
Russian citizens and um
10:20
Ukraine uh enforced a very similar law
10:24
which is uh if you use Russian banking
10:27
system if you become Russian citizen you
10:29
will uh not be able to remain a
10:32
Ukrainian Citizen and this is uh a
10:35
situation where people in those
10:37
territories are declined everywhere and
10:39
are refused
10:44
everywhere opinion is that uh we’re
10:46
talking about hundreds of thousands
10:48
people who are still able to Love
10:52
Ukraine and still do but unfortunately
10:54
if the war goes on uh after some time
10:58
people will lose this ability to love
11:02
their uh their country to Love Ukraine
11:04
and they will just they will stop
11:08
wanting uh for Ukraine to go
11:16
back uh for people living there the
11:18
situation is difficult because uh even
11:20
if they become even if they have any get
11:22
any position uh while being uh while
11:25
continue living on the occupied
11:27
territories even if they become an
11:28
assist into a Headmaster at school if
11:31
they become a nurse or a doctor uh while
11:34
on the territory while it’s still
11:35
occupied by Russia uh if the Ukraine
11:38
comes back if the Ukraine gets the
11:40
territory back they will be uh
11:43
prosecuted for one of the two laws it’s
11:47
either
11:52
collab yes hi treason or uh that and
11:57
um people really really have no choice
12:00
there because uh the punishment for for
12:03
that is uh starting at 20 years 12 I’m
12:06
sorry 12 years in prison up to uh a full
12:09
life
12:11
sentence that is that
12:17
is if the war doesn’t stop now in three
12:20
or four years uh the teries will never
12:24
go back and there will be no realistic
12:30
there will be no point in uh returning
12:33
them and you are from Western Ukraine as
12:37
far as I understand and how is the um
12:42
the mood in Ukraine between the West the
12:45
center and the East um do you see big
12:50
differences between how um how different
12:53
groups inside Ukraine currently look at
12:57
the War and what has to be done because
12:59
you wrote to me that you belong to the
13:01
people in you the ukrainians who want to
13:04
end the war as soon as possible
13:09
[Music]
13:14
Right the majority the vast majority of
13:16
people in Ukraine uh wants to end the
13:18
war as soon as possible uh people are
13:20
fleeting people are trying not to get
13:22
mobilized and uh the majority of people
13:26
wants for the war to end perception
13:31
which is in the very West part of the
13:33
Ukraine after talking to them Vil says
13:36
that only two% of people who were uh
13:39
mobilized uh came there uh out of their
13:42
free
13:45
will do you think that
13:48
um that everybody wants to end the war
13:53
but the question is how to end the war
13:55
um do you think that a big a bigou
13:58
number of ukrainians would be willing to
14:02
to change the borders of Ukraine in
14:04
order to end the war I mean give up uh
14:09
regions in the East and and and have an
14:12
a understanding with Russia that okay we
14:15
are going to redraw the
14:20
map I’m not able to answer to this
14:23
question because people are simply
14:25
afraid to talk about that even if you’re
14:27
having a personal con ation a phone call
14:30
with a close friend if you say stuff
14:32
like that uh there are cases Vil says
14:34
there are cases legal cases where people
14:37
uh got sent uh to prison for five years
14:40
uh for simply saying sharing such
14:43
thoughts during their personal
14:50
[Music]
14:52
conversations ninja in a city of Ukraine
14:56
uh one of the men just one of the
14:58
employees was talking to uh his fellow
15:02
employees on a uh smoke break and uh he
15:05
shared a similar thought uh about
15:08
redrawing the map changing the uh
15:10
borders of Ukraine and uh Apparently one
15:14
of uh his co-workers had a recording
15:17
device placed on him by allegedly by
15:20
secret service and um that man uh was
15:24
persecuted for uh sharing his thoughts
15:28
on a small bre with his
15:35
colleagues there is a phenomenon which
15:37
is uh which even sociology cannot
15:40
explain uh no social studies can explain
15:42
it’s uh similar to schizophrenia where
15:45
uh you give two different answers to two
15:48
very similar questions where if one
15:51
question is do you want to end or as
15:54
soon as possible people say yes and then
15:57
the next question is are are you willing
15:59
to give up the uh territories and redraw
16:03
the map and people say absolutely not uh
16:06
because if they say yes if they do uh
16:09
then that would be social suicide it
16:11
would be socially uh a um potentially
16:14
soci socially um dangerous
16:20
answer so what you’re saying is also we
16:22
have no way of knowing what actually the
16:25
real preferences of people in Ukraine
16:28
today are about how to F how to end the
16:32
war because they wouldn’t be able to
16:34
express these opinions uh
16:38
honestly
16:39
absolutely I want to say that it is
16:42
dangerous simply
16:46
[Music]
16:48
dangerous however people all people are
16:51
very tired of War very tired of the
16:53
consequences uh in uh there are areas
16:56
now where people get uh electricity get
16:59
the power only for two hours a
17:02
day you’re living now in Finland are you
17:05
feeling relieved that you are living in
17:08
a society where you can uh where you can
17:11
do your job as a journalist and where
17:13
you’re not uh
17:16
persecuted um and are you still able to
17:20
access people in Ukraine digitally can
17:24
can you still have honest conversations
17:26
with your colleagues friends and family
17:29
back
17:33
home answering the first question uh
17:36
it’s more than just relief because if I
17:38
were in Ukraine now I would have been
17:40
killed or assassinated or uh put into
17:43
prison back into prison and uh answering
17:46
the second question yes uh hundreds and
17:48
hundreds of people uh write to me uh on
17:51
social media so uh I do connect I do
17:54
have a way to connect to
17:57
them Europe
18:00
there are more and more talks in Europe
18:02
now uh about how the war should end as
18:04
soon as possible more and more people
18:05
realize that it should be ended
18:07
peacefully and perhaps the reason for
18:09
that is uh the change of the president
18:12
of the United States uh Donald Trump who
18:16
uh is one of the candidates uh was
18:18
talking about how uh he was going to
18:21
shift uh or at least put a part of the
18:24
responsibility for the war on Europe uh
18:28
which is why people are starting to
18:30
change their mindset but people in
18:32
Europe are very welcoming to all of the
18:34
refugees and there is there is an
18:37
opinion uh in more and more people about
18:40
how the war should be Ended as soon as
18:49
possible was recently invited to a
18:52
conference uh where there will be a lot
18:54
of people people from Slovakia as well
18:57
uh talking about uh in discussing uh the
19:00
ways to end the war in a peaceful way
19:03
and as quickly as possible and what in
19:06
your opinion what would be the best way
19:10
to do that um what what is the most
19:13
realistic way today to end the war
19:27
diplomatically uh
19:31
uh there is one thought that I want to
19:33
share and is that uh in Europe there are
19:36
uh no people no Governors who uh have
19:40
the who have
19:42
experienced uh the situation which
19:45
happens to Ukraine now so uh the way to
19:49
end this as soon as possible is start
19:51
talking about it start talking about the
19:54
postwar Ukraine how it would work uh
19:57
what it would look like
20:04
there are no people qualified no people
20:06
with uh the experience to solve uh such
20:11
crisis that Ukraine has faced so the
20:14
first step is to start talking about
20:20
it no one no one in Europe knows how to
20:23
do that um we also have the problem that
20:26
uh currently the political process in
20:28
Ukraine seems blocked as well because
20:31
there’s no there was no presidential
20:33
election uh the term of Mr zsky has has
20:38
uh ended officially the the country is
20:41
still under emergency law there is 11
20:44
parties are forbidden I mean Ukraine
20:47
itself as a political entity is is um is
20:52
not working the way it is supposed to um
20:56
do you think that there is
20:59
that there’s a way for ukrainians
21:02
themselves to change this now even while
21:05
the fighting is still going on in the
21:09
East the ukrainians are peaceful people
21:13
and they realize
21:15
that it’s uh it it will be the same for
21:18
at least five years uh but realistically
21:21
even 10 so uh they will not uh deal with
21:25
it they will not try to change it
21:27
themselves
21:30
moreover people are less worried about
21:32
politics but uh all they’re thinking
21:35
about now is how to survive and uh one
21:38
of the example is an acquaintance of
21:40
mine um his aunt recently died in KF and
21:46
uh when they tried to bury her they
21:48
couldn’t because there were power uh
21:50
power outage and uh no mors worked they
21:54
couldn’t simply bury her there were no
21:56
uh places on the Cemetery because she
21:59
wasn’t a um she wasn’t in the military
22:03
so uh they were offered to um cremate
22:06
her body but uh that went against their
22:10
U religious uh their Rel their religion
22:13
so this is the kind of things people
22:16
have to think about but not the
22:23
politics this is how it is in the real
22:26
life and this is exactly why Uh Russian
22:30
American and perhaps Chinese leaders
22:32
maybe some leaders in Europe uh must
22:34
start talking about it would you
22:38
want Ukraine to surrender would if that
22:42
was an option would you say like yes
22:44
surrender is better than
22:49
this even though I am in Finland now I
22:52
am a Ukrainian citizen so I am not able
22:54
to answer that question otherwise uh
22:57
there will be uh
22:59
uh a law oh sorry a a case opened
23:02
against me uh and this is exactly uh an
23:05
example of uh how freedom of speech does
23:08
not exist in Ukraine at the
23:17
moment uh but I will say a Chinese
23:20
saying which is sometimes to lose a war
23:22
is to win and to win a war is to lose uh
23:26
as an example Soviet Union won in the
23:29
second world war but uh the cost of that
23:35
is still up to this date uh keep finding
23:39
uh graveyards of unknown soldiers and uh
23:42
the country uh on which territory on
23:45
whose territory the war is going is
23:49
losing yes and you know I I was asking
23:52
this question not because I want to
23:54
create problems for you but because I am
23:56
here in Japan in a country that did
23:59
surrender in the second world war and
24:01
that surrender was the beginning of a
24:04
very very good development forward right
24:11
so but it’s another question sorry my
24:14
question would be um in the political
24:17
process in Ukraine who is the biggest
24:20
problem are there like these um Ultra
24:25
right-wing forces that make it
24:27
impossible
24:29
for the politicians in Ukraine to
24:33
actually give up or to to find a
24:37
diplomatic solution or is it is it the
24:41
entire is it the the the corruption
24:44
inside the government that keeps the
24:46
solution from from coming up that keeps
24:48
the politicians from
24:53
negotiating sure um there is one thing
24:56
stopping Ukraine from making this
24:58
decision and it is that uh the belief
25:01
the false belief that Victory is
25:03
inevitable even zansky talked about that
25:06
uh that the victory is inevitable
25:08
however it is not uh Russia has bigger
25:10
resources uh Human Resources arms
25:13
resources uh so um there is another
25:16
saying which is when uh the rich man
25:19
loses his riches the poor man dies this
25:23
is this is very true
25:25
um so yeah yeah
25:36
uh I don’t want uh Ukraine to fall I
25:39
want Ukraine to uh uh to remain itself
25:43
and uh I want uh the culture and the
25:45
people to remain themselves uh however
25:48
uh it has lost so much power and uh uh
26:04
um last year in Ukraine uh it was the
26:07
all-time low of birth rate in uh 300
26:11
years in Ukraine uh so unless there is a
26:15
a genius break on on uh on the occupied
26:18
territories or unless Russia collapses
26:21
uh there is no way to change
26:25
that and even if the war stops right
26:27
here right now now uh it will take
26:29
decades and decades to bring uh Ukraine
26:33
back to the level of uh uh
26:36
2022 um who in your
26:39
opinion um inside
26:43
Ukraine has the most potential to to
26:47
lead the country into a better future I
26:51
mean it’s certainly not Mr selinski but
26:54
in in the current environment are there
26:57
any politicians in the or somewhere who
27:00
you think could serve as Future Leaders
27:05
to to bring Prosperity
27:08
[Music]
27:10
back it’s hard to say because so many
27:13
people left Ukraine uh if if we were to
27:16
count almost the population of Hungary
27:20
uh is the amount of people who left that
27:23
left Ukraine so uh it’s really hard to
27:25
say okay and
27:29
in order to finish the this interview is
27:31
there anything else that you would like
27:33
the world to know that you want
27:36
everybody especially in the west to
27:38
understand about how Ukraine today Works
27:42
after two and a half years of
27:45
war Ukraine to remain there if you want
27:48
the Ukrainian people to uh remain uh
27:52
there you need to stop the war right
27:55
here right
27:56
now okay those very strong words um the
28:00
war needs to stop as soon as possible I
28:02
absolutely agree this Bloodshed is is is
28:04
is is horrible absolutely horrible and
28:08
useless um vasil I am very glad that you
28:11
are um speaking out and that you are
28:14
that you’re still reporting um about
28:17
Ukraine even when you’re abroad uh Daria
28:20
thank you very much for your
28:21
translations and I hope we’ll sit
28:23
together again when we have a better
28:25
connection thank you both
28:28
thank you pascar thank you Dar thank you
oooooo
JANUSZ KORWIN-MIKKE:
“Bucha — this case was fabricated by the Ukrainians, who decided to hide the truth.
The truth is that in these areas, initially occupied, the Russians have already begun to build their administration—and the Ukrainians simply slaughtered those collaborators.
À la guerre comme à la guerre: when the Germans were expelled from Occupied France in 1944, the maquis executed 9,000 collaborators without trial—and probably not a single partisan was brought to court for that.
So why couldn’t the Ukrainians do the same? They did.
However, they decided (likely on American advice) that killing people is frowned upon nowadays, and it would be better to blame it on the Russians.
I uncovered this deceit—though with a significant delay this time, as at first, I myself believed the Russians were responsible.
Funny enough, the final piece of evidence that debunked this lie came from the Americans conducting their ‘own investigation—necessary because there were doubts to be clarified’ (thereby acknowledging that the issue has not been resolved…).
And they did this by showing… an actual execution by the Russians of unmarked thugs—a few months earlier!!
(The Hague Convention requires partisans to carry weapons openly and to have clear insignia. That’s why the Warsaw insurgents, who had ‘AK’ armbands, were recognized as a warring party—while those Ukrainians were considered bandits).
I continued to be smeared as a Russian bootlicker.
I remember how my colleague Krzysztof Bosak demanded that I remove images of the murdered in Bucha from Twitter (none of them had the blue Ukrainian armband—half had white, Russian ones…).
Unfortunately, I gave in and removed them; perhaps God will forgive me for this weakness of character.
The massacre of collaborators would have been forgiven to the Ukrainians back then.
Now, after initiating this action, the Ukrainians have no choice but to stick to their story.”
oooooo
Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil@ivan_8848
‘We are now seeing from all directions that there are a lot of French, a lot of Poles, that is, a lot of foreigners. Of course, it must be stated that this operation is being led by the NATO bloc’s headquarters command. This is a clear question, because the Ukrainians themselves would hardly be able to do this’ – Hero of Russia, commander of the special forces ‘Akhmat’ Apti Alaudinov (https://t.me/AptiAlaudinovAKHMAT)
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1822180855416033507
oooooo
“Bringing Ukraine into NATO – or, NATO into Ukraine – was a 30-year project”
- Prof. Jeffrey Sachs
He starts with Zbig Brzezinski’s article in CFR’s Foreign Affairs magazine in 1997:
“A Geostrategy for Eurasia”
Full video: https://youtu.be/i7jpYaXlE0I
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1821994848058015906
oooooo
Ukraine violated the Italian constitution by attacking Russian territory – il Fatto Quotidiano.
The article states that the Kiev regime used Italian weapons during the invasion of the Kursk region without the permission of the country’s parliament.
In doing so, zelensky crossed all the red lines and effectively drew Rome into a direct military conflict with Moscow.
“The government is throwing Italy into a situation of maximum danger and is threatening world peace itself,” the publication warns. – FRWL reports
oooooo