Geopolitics
ARTICLES
[ Al Mayadeen ] 450 Arab and foreign extremists from Idlib arrive in Ukraine
Close to 450 extremist Arab and foreign nationals have arrived in Ukraine from Idlib to fight against Russia’s forces, less than only three days after they left Syria, passing through Turkey. Relatives of extremists that have arrived in Ukraine told Sputnik that senior fighters from terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (the rebranded version of Jabhat Al-Nusra, i.e Al-Qaeda)…
Ukraine President Zelenskyy soften stance in interview with ABC
In an exclusive interview with David Muir of the ABC News, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked if he would go with the 3 conditions set by Russia to end the war: change constitution to give up joining NATO, recognise Crimea as part of Russia and recognise the independence of 2 separatist region in the east.…
New Russian Narratives: 3 New Justifications For War – in the middle of the war
In the past 24 to perhaps 48 hours, 3 major accusations or narrative had been thrown up by the Russian side – all of them can be good enough to be justification of war on top of the official reasons Putin had spelt out. The 3 new narratives are: Ukraine President Zelenskyy alluded in his…
We told you so: NATO rules out policing no-fly zone over war-hit Ukraine
“What is taking place now in Ukraine is horrific. It’s painful and we see human suffering, we see destruction at a scale we haven’t seen in Europe since the Second World War,” he said. But, he added: “We are not going to move into Ukraine, neither on the ground, nor in the Ukrainian airspace.” Under…
Summary of Russian’s perspective of the “Special Operation” in Ukraine so far
[ the article is MS Edge translated and is copied as-is in full from the original article’s translation ] Steps of victory: a summary of the special operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the demilitarization of Ukraine Published: 03 march 2022 20:58By Vasily VasikovRiafan.ru Exactly a week ago, on February 24,…
Georgia officially applies for EU membership
Upon seeing wartime Ukraine taking the advantage of hyper attention and “concern” for Ukraine by sending an application to join the European Union (EU), Georgia immediately hopped onto the bandwagon to follow suit. According to a tweet by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, they wrote that their Prime Minister, Irakli Garibashvili had signed…
Fighter jets donation deal off! Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia rejected request to give Ukraine their Russian-made planes
In a stunning reversal of what would be the most dramatic military aid to Ukraine from European Union, Ukrainian pilots that had arrived in Poland to take control of the donated fighter planes will leave empty handed as the 3 European countries that still fly Russian made planes similar to Ukraine had all rejected to…
[ Reuters ] Belarus referendum approves proposal to renounce non-nuclear status
A referendum in Belarus on Sunday approved a new constitution ditching the country’s non-nuclear status at a time when the former Soviet republic has become a launch pad for Russian troops invading Ukraine, Russian news agencies said. The agencies cited the Belarus central elections commission as saying 65.2% of those who took part voted in…
Summary of Military Aid to Ukraine in Feb 2022 as of 27 Feb
Germany1000 anti-tank weapon500 Stinger missiles Netherland400 rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers200 Stinger missiles100 sniper rifles30000 rounds of ammunition? x radar devices? x landmine detectors Poland ? x ammunition Estonia? x 122mm howitzers? x Javelin anti-tank missiles Latvia ? x Javelin anti-tank missiles Lithuania? x Stinger missiles? x ammunition Bulgariaannounced but unknown Belgium2000 machine guns3800 tonnes fuel…
Germany finally stop their military rot: promising to keep defense spending above NATO’s 2% GDP requirement
Germany, one of the country specifically called out by former US President Donald Trump, for failing to meet NATO requirement of annual defense spending of at least 2% of the GDP, has finally committed officially to keep it’s defense spending over 2% of GDP immediately. This is the most significant shift in Germany’s policy when…
Belarus to vote on constitutional changes to host nuclear weapons and effectively make Lukashenka a dictator – Russia pushed to the brink
Lukashenka, 67, has proposed amending the constitution, the third time he has done so since coming to power in 1994, that would allow him to rule to 2035, offer him a new lever of power, and abolish a section of the document defining Belarus as a “nuclear free zone,” possibly paving the way for the…
[ CNA ] Singapore and Vietnam sign 5 agreements, MOUs across defence, trade and social sectors
Singapore and Vietnam signed five agreements and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) on Friday (Feb 25), aimed at strengthening cooperation in defence, the digital economy and intellectual property among other areas. The signing by ministers and senior officials from both countries was witnessed by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.…
[ Civil.ge ] Georgia Won’t Join Russia Sanctions, PM Says
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced today Tbilisi will not join international sanctions on Russia over its full-scale attack on Ukraine. “I want to state clearly and unambiguously, considering our national interests and interests of the people, Georgia does not plan to participate in the financial and economic sanctions, as this would only damage our…
[ National Post ] Turkey cannot stop Russian warships accessing Black Sea, says foreign minister
Turkey cannot stop Russian warships accessing the Black Sea via its straits, as Ukraine has requested, due to a clause in an international pact that allows vessels to return to their home base, the Turkish foreign minister said on Friday. Ukraine has appealed to Turkey to block Russian warships from passing through the Dardanelles and…
Belarus denied claims that Belarus took part in the attack on Ukraine
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has denied claims that his nation is taking part in a Russian attack on Ukraine, Belarusian state media reported on Thursday. Ukrainian border guards had made the accusation against Minsk earlier in the day. The Ukrainian statement asserted that some of the Russian troops entering Ukraine came from the territory of neighboring Belarus,…
Biden reimposed sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline after lifting it 9 months prior
“Yesterday, after further close consultations between our two governments, Germany announced that it would halt certification of the pipeline. Today, I have directed my administration to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its corporate officers,” “These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. As…
Putin announces “Special Operation” – multiple Ukrainian cities reported explosions
Explosions were reported across multiple cities in Ukraine, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa and Mariupol. There are also unverified reports that amphibious assault on Mariupol and Odessa. Mariupol is in Donetsk oblast. But if Russian troops lands in Odessa (which is west of Crimea), it would invalidate our assessment that this would just be a limited…
Donbas is the final warning from Putin
As the world buzzes with the news of Putin recognizing the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic + the decreed to OFFICIALLY deploy the Russian military into the 2 regions as “peacekeepers” – the headline calling this an invasion is actually a bit of a misnomer. You can’t invade what you…
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