Category: Conflict

Sudan: Russian diplomat calls for cooperation

Blog, Conflict

Brussels 28.04.2023 Russia calls for national consensus in Sudan — deputy foreign minister.
The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also leads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the top commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo widely known as Hemedti, who used to be al-Burhan’s deputy on the Council. (Image: Nile, sunset)

Russia is calling on the belligerent sides of the conflict in Sudan to reach a national consensus and cooperate, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on RT television on Thursday, April 27.

Bogdanov, who is also the presidential Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa, added that Russia and Sudan always had friendly relations.

“Our minister [Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov] was on a visit to Khartoum. There were very good communication, meetings and negotiations with both the Foreign Minister and the military authorities. We have always been in favor of national consensus and cooperation between the forces in Sudan – the military and civilian ones,” Bogdanov clarified.

The conflict in Sudan occurred as a result of disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, named Hemedti, who is al-Burhan’s deputy on the council.

On April 15, armed clashes between the rival military factions erupted near a military base in Merowe and in the capital, Khartoum. According to the country’s Health Ministry, more than 600 people have been killed since the conflict broke out. The World Health Organization reported that the conflict had claimed more than 450 lives with more than 4,000 people suffering injuries.

Thousands of foreign nationals have been evacuated from Sudan in recent days. Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and France closed their Embassies in Khartoum. Many other countries are reducing their diplomatic presence or relocating diplomatic missions to nearby states.

Ukraine: Zaporozhye activates emergency diesel

Blog, Conflict, Europe

Brussels 09.03.2023 Ukraine has cut off power to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Energodar, Chairman of the “We Stand With Russia” movement Vladimir Rogov told TASS on Thursday, March 8.

“…[Ukraine] cut off the supply through the last remaining power line to the Zaporozhye NPP at 4:53 a.m. The nuclear power plant is currently disconnected from external power sources,” Rogov explained.

“It has nothing to do with shelling attacks, nothing happened in the area that could have led to the power cutoff. It is just an act of pure spite on the part of Kiev,” he continued noted. He added that the nuclear power plant had been switched to diesel generators.

The Zaporozhye nuclear plant, located in the city of Energodar, is the largest in Europe and has a capacity of about 6,000 MW. Russian troops took control of the facility in late February 2022. Since then, the Ukrainian military has been shelling both Energodar’s residential areas and the premises of the Zaporozhye nuclear station, using drones, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers.

An IAEA mission led by Grossi visited the facility in early September 2022 and two of its members remained at the site as observers. The IAEA later published a report calling for the creation of a safety zone around the plant to prevent any calamities from the ongoing military activities.

“It has nothing to do with shelling attacks, nothing happened in the area that could have led to the power cutoff. It is just an act of pure spite on the part of Kiev,” Vladimir Rogov noted

EU-Russia: X package of “arsenic”

Blog, Conflict, EU

Brussels 20.02.2023 “We are approaching one year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine” said the EU top diplomat Josep Borrell, while addressing the Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg (pictured).

“Until today, Putin is escalating this illegal aggression, weaponising winter, food and hunger. Russia continues to show its inhuman face with brutal missile terror against civilian targets.

“The European Union has so far reacted with unprecedented support to Ukraine and nine sanctions packages. They are taking a heavy toll on the Russian economy and on the Kremlin’s ability to finance its aggression.

“Today, as the President of the [European] Commission [Ursula von der Leyen] has announced, we are putting forward a 10th package of sanctions against those who are instrumental in the continuation of this brutal war. Taking more measures, tackling the banking sector, access to dual-use technology and targeting, also, advanced technologies.

“Additionally, I am submitting to the Council a list of proposals to sanction almost 100 additional individuals and entities for their role in undermining sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

“This includes those responsible for military activities, for political decisions, propaganda, and disinformation.

“We are targeting those involved in inhumane kidnappings, deportations and forced adoption of Ukrainian children to Russia and also those enabling the looting of Ukrainian resources.

“We will again hit hard at the Russian military and defence sector, at the organisations related to them, [and] those responsible for the development of drones that are targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.

“And these [sanctions] are not [confined] to Russia. Today’s proposal includes a full exports-ban of several Iranian entities involved in the manufacture and provision of unmanned aerial vehicles. Yesterday, at the NATO [Ministerial] meeting, we got clear evidence that this is happening.

“So, we are proposing to sanction more key decision-makers, senior government officials and parliamentarians.

“I am proposing to the Member States to extend our sanctions to the proxy authorities and the so-called judges in the four illegally annexed Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia –who are providing fake legitimacy to the Russian rulers and their illegal decisions.

“We are imposing restrictive measures on media organisations, on persons and organisations who are polluting the public space with disinformation and malicious narratives, adding to the military warfare also through information warfare.

“We will continue to increase pressure on Russia – and we will do it for as long as needed, until Ukraine is liberated from the brutal Russian aggression”.

A new portion of “arsenic” for Russians include the following measures:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the EU top diplomat Josep Borrell have already announced details of the EU’s proposed 10th package of Russia sanctions. The X-th package of sanctions will include:

Export bans on critical technology and industrial goods, such as electronics, specialised vehicles, machine parts, spare parts for trucks and jet engines, as well as goods used in the construction sector, such as antennas or cranes.
Further restrictions on the export of dual use goods and advanced technology goods, including 47 new electronic components that can be used in Russian weapons systems, including drones, missiles and helicopters.
Export restrictions on specific rare earth materials and thermal cameras.

The addition of VII Iranian entities to the EU’s Russia dual use sanctions. This responds to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards alleged provision of Shahed drones to attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
The designation of nearly 100 people and entities, including:

– those involved in kidnappings, deportations and forced adoption of Ukrainian children to Russia;
– those enabling the looting of Ukrainian resources;
– organisations involved in the Russian military and defence sector, including those responsible for the development of drones that are targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure;
– key decision-makers, senior government officials and parliamentarians;
– proxy authorities and judges in non-government-controlled Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia; and
– media organisations, people and entities responsible for disinformation.

Measures to prevent circumvention, including the creation of an “overview” of all frozen assets of the Russian central bank held in the EU alongside Member States. President von der Leyen said that this is crucial in view of the possible use of public Russian assets to fund reconstruction in Ukraine.

President von der Leyen also said that the Commission is organising a Sanctions Coordinators Forum. Subsequently she called on Member States to adopt this package swiftly with the aim of having significant sanctions in place by 24 February 2023, the 1-year anniversary of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Ukraine top executives killed in crash

Blog, Conflict, Europe, Uncategorized

Strasbourg 18.01.2023 The three leading figures in Ukraine’s interior Ministry have been killed in a helicopter crash next to a nursery in an eastern suburb of the capital Kyiv – Brovary.

Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, 42, died alongside his first deputy Minister and State secretary.

Nine people were killed when the helicopter came down in Brovary and another nine died on the ground, including three children.

Minister Monastyrsky is the highest profile Ukrainian casualty since the war broke out on February 24, 2022.

The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said the Minister had been on errand to a war “hot spot” when his helicopter went down.

There is no indication the crash was anything other than an accident, although witnesses said Russia’s war was to blame for the disaster.

“It was very foggy and there was no electricity, and when there’s no electricity there are no lights on the buildings,” local resident Volodymyr told the BBC.

The 42-year-old Interior minister was a prominent member of President Volodymy Zelensky’s cabinet. The top executive played a key role in updating the public on casualties caused by Russian missile strikes since Ukraine was invaded in February 2022.

Gen.Clark: Ukraine can regain control over Crimea

Blog, Conflict, Europe, Russia

Brussels 12.01.2023 Since August, Ukraine has conducted successful counteroffensives in the north and south, taking back over 50 percent of the territory that Moscow seized after the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Ukraine has also conducted successful strikes on Russian military bases in Crimea and on Black Sea Fleet near Sevastopol (pictured).

Some experts have argued that now is the time for Ukraine to retake Crimea, nine years after Vladimir Putin’s annexation in 2014. Were Ukraine to move in the south and break the land Kerch bridge running from Russia to Crimea, Moscow’s hold on the peninsula would be in danger.

Ukraine can regain control over Crimea, said Gen.Wes Clark, on condition it would be given the offensive weapons. The retired general expressed his opinion of a strong possibility of such a scenario on condition of the U.S. military support in the various fields, including intelligence.

Image: social media.

Putin announces Xmas cease-fire

Blog, Conflict, Europe, Russia, Uncategorized

Brussels 05.01.2023 Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered a 36-hour cease-fire in Ukraine over Orthodox Christmas, the first major truce of the more than 10-month war that has killed tens of thousands and devastated swaths of Ukraine.

Putin ordered the cease-fire to begin on January 6, the Kremlin said. Many Orthodox Christians, including those living in Russia and Ukraine, celebrate Christmas on January 6-7.

Putin did not appear to make his conditional on Ukrainian agreement to follow suit.

But it wasn’t clear whether hostilities would actually halt on the 684-mile front line. Ukrainian officials have previously dismissed Russian peace moves as playing for time to regroup their forces and prepare for additional attacks. A senior Ukrainian official quickly dismissed the proposal.

“The Russian Federation must leave the occupied territories — only then will it have a ‘temporary truce.’ Keep hypocrisy to yourself,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called earlier Thursday for both sides of the war in Ukraine to observe a Christmas truce.

Lavrov: Donbass “must be liberated”

Blog, Conflict, Europe, International, Russia

Brussels 29.12.2022 The Donetsk (DNR) and Lugansk People’s Republics (LPR), as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, which joined Russia following referendums, “need to be liberated”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said to Russian Channel One TV. (Image above: archive)

While answering a question about the borders of the regions that he was referring to, Lavrov said: “I am certainly talking about their borders as parts of the Russian Federation, based on the Russian Constitution.”

“It stems from the people’s will expressed in the four regions. It happened a while ago in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and this fall in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions,” Lavrov added.

The top diplomat underlined that Russia was determined to make sure that its special military operation would achieve its goals. The four regions “need to be liberated from the threat of Nazification that they have faced for years” he added.

From September 23 to September 27, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), as well as the Kherson Region and the Zaporozhye Region, held referendums where the majority of voters opted to join Russia. On September 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the DPR and the LPR, the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions signed treaties on their accession to Russia. On October 4, Putin signed laws ratifying the treaties.

Russia refuses gaz price dictatorship

Blog, Conflict, EU, International

Brussels 19.12.2022 “This is a violation of the market pricing process, an encroachment on market processes. Any references to the “ceiling” are unacceptable,” the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov (pictured) said to the reporters, reacting upon the EU Energy ministers decision to create a cartel of gas buyers to dictate price of Russian natural gas.

The EU countries have agreed on a dynamic gas price ceiling of €180 per MWh (approximately €1.85 thousand per thousand cubic meters), which will apply from February 15, 2023. This is stated in a statement issued by the EU Council on Monday, December 19.

Winter 2023/24: point of no return for the European Union?
“The gas price correction mechanism can be activated from February 15 under two conditions: if the gas price holds for three days at the level of €180 and if the difference between TTF (EU) prices and the average world price for liquefied natural gas is more than €35 “, the document says.

The corridor for setting prices for futures will be limited to the mark, which is equal to the average price of LNG on the world market plus €35. It will be impossible to place trading positions above this mark with the current price correction mechanism.

“Thus, this mechanism does not set a hard price ceiling, but it will prevent the occurrence of sharp jumps in gas prices,” European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said at a press conference in Brussels.

Lavrov: Russia resists sanctions

Blog, Conflict, Europe, Russia

Brussels 19.12.2022 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Aleinik discussed the Ukrainian crisis and ways to resist the West’s waves of sanctions pressure at a meeting on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, TASS news agency reports.

“The parties exchanged views on international and regional issues, including the situation around the Ukrainian crisis. They reaffirmed their determination to coordinate steps on international platforms and efforts to resist the political and illegal sanctions pressure that Russia and Belarus have been facing from unfriendly countries,” the statement reads.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the parties also discussed pressing bilateral issues, interaction within the Union State and other Eurasian organisations. “Special attention was paid to ensuring diplomatic support for the implementation of Union State programs concerning the economic integration of the two countries, cooperation within the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States], Russia’s upcoming chairmanship of the EAEU [Eurasian Economic Union] and Belarus’s chairmanship of the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization],” the statement added.

The diplomats also discussed upcoming foreign policy events, including preparations for a joint board meeting of the Russian and Belarusian foreign ministries.

NATO: Russia as “terrorist state”

Blog, Conflict

Strasbourg 22.11.2022 The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) on Monday 21 November supported the proposal of the Ukrainian delegation and adopted a unanimous resolution defining Russia as a “terrorist state” during its 68th Annual Session.

The PA passed a series of resolutions calling on the 30 NATO allies to intensify support to Ukraine’s resistance and assistance to the country’s integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions. The PA announced to the allies that the “Russian state under the current regime is a terrorist one.”

President of the PA Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam condemned Russia´s war on Ukraine and noted that “Western allies had failed to listen to the warnings of their Eastern partners before President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine.”

“Now, no doubt is possible, Russian leaders, are acting like real terrorists, showing unprecedent barbarism by attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure. We must act, and they must be judged as terrorists in front of international tribunals. As NATO parliamentarians, we must support Ukraine, we must support its people. People who are everyday showing courage and resilience in the service of our values of Freedom, democracy and sovereignity”, the president Garriaud-Maylam declared.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Assembly through video conferencing and called the NATO Allies to stand firm against Russian aggression and step up support to Ukraine.

“Ukrainians are sure we can defend ourselves in this war, we can reinstate our borders, European borders, along the full length of our southern and eastern flanks. The power of our democracy will be a guarantee that no tyranny to the east of us will be able to threaten Europe.

Other international bodies have also condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine.On October 13, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. (PACE) unanimously adopted a resolution calling the Russian Federation a terrorist regime. PACE became the first international organisation to recognise Russia as a terrorist state. PACE passed another resolution on November 16 to recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. On November 14, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Russia must be held accountable for international law violations during its war in Ukraine and must pay war reparations.