World at War

NATO Chief Admits: “War Didn’t Start In February Last Year, The War Started In 2014”

Published

1 month ago

17 February, 2023

Zero Hedge

Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

With the one-year anniversary of Russia’s Feb.24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine just around the corner, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg this week issued some surprising words regarding the history and origin of the conflict. In essence he finally admitted an important truth, which is of course extremely rare among top Western officials these days.

Whereas prior to these fresh remarks by Stoltenberg, US and NATO officials including major media, have framed the invasion exclusively as merely one man’s (Putin) ‘unprovoked’ naked aggression bent on enlarging an ‘expansionist Russia’, Stoltenberg now much belatedly admits “the war didn’t start in February last year. The war started in 2014.“

🇺🇸🇪🇺🇺🇦🇷🇺"NATO has been training the Ukrainian military since 2014, NATO partners have been supplying the Ukrainian armed forces with the necessary weapons and training since 2014" — Jens Stoltenbergs admits again

"Unprovoked invasion"… pic.twitter.com/Qa8shKSWXx
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) February 14, 2023

Here’s what the NATO chief said during a briefing to reporters, and in front of cameras, as also transcribed and published to NATO’s official website…

“The other thing I will say is that the war didn’t start in February last year. The war started in 2014. And since 2014, NATO Allies have provided support to Ukraine, with training, with equipment, so the Ukrainian Armed Forces were much stronger in 2022, than they were in 2020, and 2014. And of course, that made a huge difference when President Putin decided to attack Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.

And of course, a central reason for the war articulated by President Putin both in the lead-up to the invasion and after has consistently been that the West was waging an anti-Russia proxy war right at its doorstep, namely in the war-torn Donbass.

It also bears recalling that throughout last year, and especially in the opening months of the major Russian invasion, any independent voice daring to point out that the conflict in fact originated in 2014 – and that the current fighting is an extension and escalation of the ‘long war’ – was denounced as somehow ‘pro-Kremlin’ or else a ‘Putin puppet’ in mainstream discourse.

Below are some essential facts and a much-needed trip down memory lane concerning the lead-up to Feb 2022 to understand what we and other independent voices have been saying for years, and what Stoltenberg has just now very belatedly and reluctantly admitted:

The current Ukrainian government was created in 2014 after a violent, American-backed coup against the elected President Viktor Yanukovich. The so-called “Maidan Revolution” painted itself as pro-EU and liberal, but relied on ultranationalist terror militias such as Right Sector for its muscle.
- Profile: Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist Right Sector – BBC News
Ukraine’s new government has banned the Russian language in schools and businesses, even though it is spoken by most of the residents in the Donbas region as their first language (and throughout other parts of the country as well):
- New law stokes Ukraine language tensions – France 24
Pre-February 2022, Ukraine had already lost about 14,000 lives fighting to prevent the ethnically Russian provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk from permanently seceding (the 14,000 figure includes deaths from both sides of the civil war in eastern Ukraine). The unpopular war has been going on since 2014.
- The Russia-Ukraine conflict: a look back at the human toll of fighting since 2014 – The Washington Post
Few Western journalists are willing to show the misery this conflict has brought to the residents of the Donbas, or the war crimes that have been inflicted upon them. Patrick Lancaster has been one of the few reporting on this:
- Patrick Lancaster – YouTube
The Ukrainian government has frequently shut off water to the disputed territories, including Crimea, even while they claim sovereignty over them.
It’s now ok to praise Nazis on Facebook– as long as they’re “our Nazis”:
- Facebook Allows Praise of Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion (theintercept.com)
Ukrainian President Zelensky suggested last year that if the country could not join NATO, he would pursue re-arming the country with nuclear weapons.
- UAWire – Zelensky: Ukraine may reconsider its nuclear status
- The New York Times calls this “Putin’s conspiracy theory”, as if the words didn’t come straight from the Ukrainian President’s mouth on multiple occasions.

In the Russian view, the United States has the ability and willingness to unilaterally destroy or overthrow any government that does not do its bidding. The experience of Serbia (1999), Iraq (2003), Syria (2011), Libya (2011), and most recently Ukraine (2014) and the attempt in Belarus (2021) seem to support their perspective.

Those who are going on about Russia’s “imperial ambitions” under “Communist dictator Vladimir Putin” have little knowledge about any of this, or why the Russians might feel legitimately threatened by having a US-sponsored and NATO-aligned regime for a neighbor.

Below: a rare past instance of what real journalism looks like, often completely missing in the administration’s press briefing rooms…

Pentagon bullshitter John Kirby confronted with persistent journalist….. pic.twitter.com/Q69lglv43y
— Richard (@ricwe123) February 16, 2023

Consider: for over two hundred years, the American “Monroe Doctrine” has stated that no foreign power will be allowed to form a military alliance with any nation in the entire Western Hemisphere. This is the bedrock principle of American foreign policy.

Compare this to Europe. Kiev and Moscow are separated by a mere 470 miles of flat land. What Russian leader in their right mind would allow an “anti-Russia” to be created and then armed in its own back yard?

It’s not like any of this is a new concern. The Russians have been straight forward about this concern for thirty years, right up to the last ditch public appeal they delivered in December. Recall that ideological fanatics occupying our foreign service responded by sending massive shipments full of weapons into Ukraine, and then tweeted out photos of the cargo aircraft flying them in.

Well, as the last year of horrific death and destruction in Ukraine has shown, the necons and wokesters finally got their war. Now they’re making sure it gets fought down to the last Ukrainian, resulting in very sad and tragic spectacles like the following…

I find this video particularly morbid. An American asking a Ukrainian teenager what it will be like, going to the front to fight in an American proxy war… pic.twitter.com/mmG05UriwQ
— Johnny miller (@johnnyjmils) February 16, 2023

This post was originally published at Zero Hedge

World at War

Seymour Hersh makes new Nord Stream sabotage claim

The Pulitzer Prize winner has alleged the US blew up the pipelines because it was unhappy with a lack of German support for Ukraine

Published

2 days ago

25 March, 2023

ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images

US President Joe Biden ordered the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines because he was unhappy with the level of support provided by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed.

Hersh first accused Washington of destroying the key European energy route in an article released in February, and made more allegations in an interview with the China Daily newspaper published on Friday.

“The [US] president was afraid of Chancellor Scholz not wanting to put more guns and more arms [forward for Kiev]. That’s all. I don’t know whether that it was anger or punishment, but the net effect is that it cut off a major power source through Western Europe,” Hersh claimed.

“I’m Telling You, He Did It”: Seymour Hersh Blames Biden For Nord Stream Attack

Despite attempts by the US to deny its involvement in the Nord Stream attack, “Europe is in crisis now” and Biden will receive “a lot of criticism for what he did” in the coming months, the journalist argued.

The Pulitzer Prize winner alleged that “the people that were initially asked to do the job” of destroying the pipelines were contacted by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan towards the end of 2021.

The initial purpose of mining Nord Stream 1 and 2, built to deliver Russian gas to Europe through Germany, was “to give the [US] president an option to say to [Russian] President Putin, ‘If you go to war [in Ukraine], we’re going to destroy the pipelines,’” Hersh claimed.

Biden himself publicly confirmed that stance but “unfortunately, those people in the Western press seemed to have forgotten,” the journalist stated.

Just under three weeks before the launch of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, Biden warned during a press conference on February 7 that “if Russia invades… there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

According to Hersh, the US leader decided to order the detonation of mines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea last September because the conflict “wasn’t going great in Ukraine” from a US perspective. There was “at best a stalemate”during that period, in what Hersh described as “the American war that President Biden was so eager to support.”

This post was originally published at RT

World at War

Russian Military Warns Uranium Shells Will Cause Irreversible Harm To All Ukrainians

Published

2 days ago

25 March, 2023

Zero Hedge

Getty Images / Peter Zelei Images

The Russian military has weighed in on the UK’s plans to supply depleted uranium tank rounds to Ukrainian forces, which was announced by UK’s junior Defense Minister Annabel Goldie in a Tuesday parliament briefing.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense troops of the Russian armed forces, told a press briefing Friday that the weaponry will cause irreparable harm to all Ukrainians, whether civilian or military.

“Despite the fact that the use of such ammunition [with depleted uranium] will cause irreparable harm to the health of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the civilian population, NATO countries, in particular the UK, express their readiness to supply this type of weapon to the Kiev regime,” Kirillov said.

“As a result of the impact of a depleted uranium munition, a mobile hot cloud of a finely dispersed aerosol of uranium-238 and its oxides is formed, which, when exposed to the body in the future, can provoke the development of serious diseases,” Kirillov said.

He described that when compounds in the advanced ammunition seeps into the soil or disperses across the environment, it will be “dangerous for people, animals and the environment for a long time.”

On Wednesday, Britain responded to Russian officials saying this constitutes escalation on the nuclear front, given that Kiev will be handed “nuclear components”…

James Cleverly, Britain’s foreign secretary, told reporters on Wednesday that there was “no nuclear escalation,” adding, “The only country in the world that is talking about nuclear issues is Russia.”

Depleted uranium has for decades been used by NATO, and was known for being used against Serbian forces in the late 1990’s, as well as in Iraq. It is two-and-a-half times denser than steel, and thus can penetrate armor, for example it can cut straight through tanks.

China has previously condemned the use of depleted uranium by the Western alliance:

June 2022
China's Zhao Lijian: NATO dropped 15 tons of depleted uranium bombs on Yugoslavia causing death and agony to linger for generations after the war. In Serbia after 1999, many children suffered from tumors & 366 participating NATO Italian military personnel died of cancer pic.twitter.com/rf2rfozl0P
— the Lemniscat (@theLemniscat) March 22, 2023

But it not only has radioactivity but is toxic to humans long after being dispersed on the battlefield. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova emphasized this in an initial Kremlin reaction on Tuesday…

“Yugoslav scenario. These shells not only kill, but infect the environment and cause oncology in people living on these lands,” she said, in reference to cancer and other deadly ailments.

“By the way, it is naive to believe that only those against whom all this will be used will become victims. In Yugoslavia, NATO soldiers, in particular the Italians, were the first to suffer. Then they tried for a long time to get compensation from NATO for lost health. But their claims were denied,” she said.

This post was originally published at Zero Hedge

World at War

Medvedev Warns Germany Arrest of Putin Will be Declaration of War on Russia

Says Moscow could bomb the International Criminal Court.

Published

4 days ago

23 March, 2023

Paul Joseph Watson

Sylvain Lefevre via Getty Images

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has warned Germany that any attempt to arrest President Vladimir Putin will represent a declaration of war on Russia and said Moscow could respond by bombing the International Criminal Court.

Medvedev made the threat after the the International Criminal Court at the Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of perpetrating war crimes by being involved in the forcible transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he supported the ruling and during a visit to Japan said “no one is above the law.”

Russia, which doesn’t recognize the authority of the ICC and is not a member of it, hasn’t reacted kindly.

“Some idiots, halfwits like the German justice minister, say, ‘Well, if he comes, we’ll arrest him.’.. Does he understand what that means? Let’s imagine… the incumbent head of a nuclear state arrives on the territory of, say, Germany and is arrested. What is this? A declaration of war on the Russian Federation!” Medvedev said in an interview Russian media outlets.

Medvedev said Moscow would respond by targeting “the Bundestag, the chancellor’s office, and so on.”

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. No need to explain WHERE this paper should be used🧻.

— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) March 17, 2023

The former president even suggested in a Telegram message sent to his followers that Russia could bomb the ICC headquarters.

“It is quite possible to imagine the targeted use of a hypersonic launch from the North Sea from a Russian ship at the Hague courthouse,” wrote Medvedev, describing the court as “shitty” and “useless”.

“The court is just a miserable international organization,” he added, noting that those working within it should “carefully look into the sky” to see if they can spot Russian missiles.

He went on to add that Russian relations with the west “have probably never been worse in history” and that NATO’s goal was to wipe out Russia altogether.

“They do not want to see the Russian Federation itself, they don’t need us. And this is their geopolitical, geostrategic idea of very old times. Why do they need such a country, which has a huge territory and the most serious nuclear shield, and which does not even obey the Americans?” said the former president.

Meanwhile, Russian law enforcement officials have opened up their own criminal investigation into the International Criminal Court, focusing on judges and prosecutors who made the decision to issue the arrest warrant for Putin.

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