The billions of dollars in weapons America is sending to Ukraine are ending up in Mexico. Nice. https://t.co/bvj899XaBM
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 1, 2023
Military
18 years ago I witnessed holographic technology that has still never been seen by either regular military echelons or any civilian sector.
If I explained it – which I will not – people would decry that it is science fiction; yet, it is simply advancing technology that the U.S. possesses and has kept away from the perception and knowledge of its citizenry, for decades. The Beings say that they themselves use holographic tech to conceal ‘entrances’ to their own facilities, to prevent humanity from visually detecting them. I’ve mentioned this in interviews: They say, ‘There is a frequency that is emitted that makes humans feel uncomfortable, encourages humanity away from the area.’
Russia just proved that its hypersonic missiles can pierce NATO’s defenses with ease, thus representing a military game-changer and possibly even soon a diplomatic one too if the West realizes that it’s better to agree to a ceasefire after the end of Kiev’s upcoming counteroffensive than escalate their proxy war on Russia to a conventional one in pursuit of that targeted Great Power’s “Balkanization”.
The fake news that circulated earlier this month alleging that Kiev’s Patriots shot down one of Russia’s Kinzhal hypersonic missiles has become even more ridiculous in the days after since they’re now claiming that another six were supposedly downed during a recent strike. The Mainstream Media’s (MSM) laundering of these lies isn’t just due to them taking everything their Ukrainian proxies say at face value, but even includes their own military experts actively contributing to this disinformation campaign.
The US’ Patriots lack the technical capabilities to track and intercept hypersonic projectiles, but that isn’t anything for them to be embarrassed about since there doesn’t presently exist any air defense system in the world that could do this. The West’s problem is therefore one of perceptions, however, since the MSM hyped up their deployment to Ukraine to the point where the public expected that former Soviet Republic to become invulnerable to any Russian strikes.
The Kremlin was aware of the West’s soft power interests in transferring this equipment there, hence why it cleverly decided to include several hypersonic missiles in its latest spree of strikes against military targets, knowing that there was no way that they’d be intercepted and thus discrediting their opponents. Not only that, but they even managed to destroy five launchers and a multifunctional radar on 16 May according to the Russian Ministry of Defense’s report that was shared the day after.
Footage of that night’s strikes subsequently appeared on social media, after which those who shared such were detained by the Ukrainian secret police on the pretext that this could have helped Russia’s military-intelligence services. In reality, Kiev was left flustered after that same footage showed how many millions of dollars’ worth of air defense missiles were wasted in trying to shoot down the Kinzhals. The US also confirmed that the Patriots were indeed damaged but denied that any of them were destroyed.
Nevertheless, the public was able to see for themselves just how desperate Kiev was to intercept those hypersonic projectiles, and many interpreted America’s confirmation that the Patriots were damaged as a limited hangout to deflect from their suspicions that they were actually destroyed. 16 May will therefore be seen in hindsight as a pivotal turning point in popular perceptions since Russia’s claim that its Kinzhals smashed the Patriots is believed by a growing number of people after watching that footage.
Continue:
Dear generous, gullible, enslaved EU taxpayer: In the last week, over 2 billion dollars of weapons and ammunition were destroyed in Ukraine. Ammunition depot in Khmelnitsky. +500 Million dollars Patriot system : 1.1 billion dollars 30 Patriot missiles launched in 2 minutes. . 150 million dollars. and…more.
Dear EU voter, keep supporting your politicians that are working for who funds them. The Pharma, the military-industrial complex, Wall Street… they are laughing at you while they are getting richer and you are getting poorer with curent hyperinflation. Salava Ukraine flag bearer / EU-NATO clown supporter.
In the meantime, keep being lobotomised by porn, Netflix, football, drugs, beer, junk food. And keep believing you have freedom and that you are in control of your life. You are either guilty because you know all this and stay silent or a victim because of your ignorance, making you a useful idiot.
BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2023
On Tuesday Russia’s military announced it destroyed US-supplied Patriot anti-air battery in Ukraine during a hypersonic missile strike on Kiev. Widely circulating video appeared to confirm the destruction of a Patriot battery, but still there was much speculation over the event, given it was a significant first on the Ukrainian battlefield.
US defense officials are now confirming that US Patriots were hit by Russia, however, they downplayed the degree of devastation of the strike. CNN reports:
The damage to a Patriot air defense system following a Russian missile attack near Kyiv on Tuesday morning is minimal, three US officials tell CNN, with one official describing it as “minor” damage.
The US sent inspectors to examine the system on Tuesday after being told by Ukrainian forces that the system appeared to have been damaged, one official said.
CNN writes further based on the statement from US officials: “It is not clear what part of the Patriot was damaged or if it was damaged by an actual missile strike or falling debris. The Ukrainians said they successfully intercepted all six Russian Kinzhal missiles on Tuesday morning.”
Despite claiming the Patriot wasn’t utterly “destroyed” in the attack, CNN’s reporting seems to confirm the narrative from the Russian Defense Ministry, which said in a Tuesday Telegram post: “a high-precision strike by the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system in the city of Kyiv hit a US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system.” Ukraine had publicly denied Moscow’s assertion.
The Pentagon on Wednesday said that Russia is currently attempting to overwhelm Ukraine’s anti-air system with large-scale barrages in various places, including with missiles and drones. Previously The National Interest described how the Patriots are vulnerable:
Patriot systems are limited to pinpoint defense of major assets and are designed to operate in tandem with air defenses engaging targets at higher and lower altitudes. Without these additions, Patriot will have too many threats to engage and the result will either be porous coverage that doesn’t protect its defended assets, or coverage that quickly subsides when Patriot runs out of interceptors.
Moreover, Patriot systems are themselves vulnerable. Operating a Patriot radar system gives away its location, making it an open target for Russian attacks. This means that Patriot is not a one-stop-shop for defending Ukraine’s military assets or its people.
Confirmation of the strike on one or more Patriot systems is not something the Ukrainians or Americans want to own up to, given it would show them to be deficient.
The White House when asked refused to confirm, but Kirby’s words suggested the accuracy of the CNN report:
“First of all, I can’t confirm these reports,” said Kirby.
“It would depend on the scope of the damage if it could be repaired by Ukrainians on site. Obviously, if there was damage done to a Patriot system that needed to be repaired outside Ukraine, we would certainly assist with that.”
Earlier, CNN reported that a U.S.-made Patriot missile defense system was likely damaged, but not destroyed, during a Russian missile attack on Kyiv on May 16. Two Patriot systems are currently located in Ukraine, one provided by the United States and the other by Germany and the Netherlands.
Commenting on the video of the purported Russian direct hit on the Patriot battery, Kim Dotcom wrote on Twitter, “30 US Patriot PAC-3 MSE launch at a cost of $5 million per missile. That’s $150 million gone within 2 mins. At the end the Patriot launch platforms were destroyed by Russian missiles. Why would any military still want to buy Patriot after this failure?”
https://tass.com/politics/1618735
UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced on May 11 the transfer of Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles to the Kiev regime
VIENNA, May 17. /TASS/.
The UK government is just as guilty as the Kiev regime for the civilians who died in Ukraine’s shelling of Donbass, something that could not have happened had London not transferred Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Kiev, Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, said.
“By supplying Kiev with Storm Shadow long-range air-launched cruise missiles, the British government has significantly increased military tension in the region. <…> London simply trampled on its international export-control obligations, rushing to test ‘the red lines’ in this conflict. That is exactly why the British side shares responsibility with Kiev for the civilian casualties in Donbass and will be held accountable for its actions sooner or later,” Gavrilov said on Wednesday at the 825th plenary meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation.
UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced on May 11 the transfer of Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles to the Kiev regime. He said that the missiles had an operational range of 250-300 km. Over the past week, the Ukrainian military shelled the Lugansk People’s Republic with these missiles. As a result of the shelling, several civilian facilities were damaged, and civilians were injured, including six children.
https://tass.com/politics/1616847
May 13, 2023
“He emphasized this means a considerable escalation of the conflict and an expansion of the military operations area,” the embassy said in the statement, referring to Andrey Kelin
LONDON, May 12. /TASS/. The UK gave Kiev long-range Storm Shadow missiles for strike on Russian cities including in Crimea, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin has said.
He made the statement when addressing members of the Russian Club of Oxford, which was established in 1906, and the Russian embassy sent a statement about his remarks to TASS on Friday.
“He emphasized this means a considerable escalation of the conflict and an expansion of the military operations area,” the embassy said in the statement, referring to Kelin. “It has been noted that Western countries used to be cautious enough to avoid sending Kiev weapons like this.”
“It’s obvious for us that London made this step to enable Kiev to strike Russian cities and villages, including the territory of Crimea,” the statement went on to say. “We regret that the UK, which has nothing to do with this conflict, nevertheless plays a leading role in extending and escalating it.”
The full U.S. military budget is much more than the $514 billion spent by the rest of the world’s 144 nations combined. That’s a difference of $363 billion, which would be enough to fund solar power for nearly every household in the U.S. for 10 years.
May 09, 2023
World military spending has reached a new record high of $2.24 trillion in 2022, according to new data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). That’s up 3.7% since the previous year, including the steepest increase among European nations since the end of the Cold War over 30 years ago.
The United States remains the world’s largest military spender by far, with its $877 billion representing 39% of global military spending. That’s three times as much as the second largest spender, China, which spent $292 billion in 2022. And it’s about ten times as much as the next largest spender, Russia, which spent about $86 billion in the same year.
U.S. spending is more than the next ten countries combined, more than last year when it was larger than the next nine. Many of these next ten countries are geopolitically aligned with the U.S. — including Ukraine, which had the highest single-year increase in military spending SIPRI has ever recorded, rising 640% to $44 billion since Russia invaded.
U.S. military aid to Ukraine amounted to $19.9 billion in 2022, but this was only 2.3% of total U.S. military spending. Military spending by NATO members, including the U.S., totalled $1.232 trillion in 2022, up 0.9% since 2021. Many analysts have predicted a long-term war of attrition, with no victory in sight for either side – it remains unclear how continuously increasing militarization can end this war.
Meanwhile, basic needs continue to go unmet for hundreds of millions of people around the world. The climate crisis continues to wreak havoc, and the U.S. has barely begun to address its historical responsibility in contributing to global fossil fuel emissions. The nations of the world are dangerously unprepared to secure our collective planetary future.
The full U.S. military budget is much more than the $514 billion spent by the rest of the world’s 144 nations combined. That’s a difference of $363 billion, which would be enough to fund solar power for nearly every household in the U.S. for 10 years.
$363 billion would be enough to fund 43 million public housing units – more than the 38 million people displaced as refugees in the post-9/11 wars waged by the U.S. over the past two decades.
Just 10% of the U.S. military budget would go a long way toward meeting any number of societal needs.
It’s worth noting that it’s not inevitable for countries to keep perpetually increasing their military budgets – a number of large nations, like Nigeria and Turkey, have significantly decreased military spending in the past year.
Over-investment in the military is a major cause of the crises we face today. But it’s possible to reinvest in real solutions and begin to repair the harm caused by many decades of war.
Kennedy called for an end to the “corrupt merger of corporate and state power,” also known as an embedded administrative state within the Federal government which controls implementation of almost every Federal program at will as they use their influence to create outcomes on behalf of their corporate entities. Kennedy identified the “corporate kleptocracy as a‘cushy socialism for the rich’ and a ‘brutal merciless capitalism for the poor.’
“It keeps us in a state of war, it bails out banks. Last month the Federal government told 30 million Americans they were cutting their food stamp checks by 90%. It took fifteen million people off Medicare, the same month it gave $300 million to the Silicon Valley Bank and tapped up the cost of the Ukraine war to $113 billion. The entire budget of EPA is $12 billion, and the CDC budget is $11 billion. The way we do this is printing money; we printed ten centuries of money in the last fourteen years.”
Global Research, May 03, 2023
Region: USA
Theme: Militarization and WMD
***
It is not surprising that Deep State President Joe Biden, who is the oldest living American President ever, has the audacity to announce that he will be a candidate in the 2024 Presidential campaign even though 70% of Americans believe he should not make a second run.
That percentage includes 51% of Democrats as 67% of voters believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. With Kamala Harris as his vice president, 37% of Americans approve of Biden’s job performance and even the pathetic Sen. Bernie Sanders has endorsed Biden’s re-election.
In a pre-packaged three minute video rather than a real live recitation, Biden’s claim to ‘let’s finish the job’ as he continues to spread a fabricated reality with false assertions while encouraging divisiveness in today’s political landscape with an attack on former President Trump and MAGA supporters.
There was no mention of his fiasco presiding over an unnecessary $113 Billion proxy war in Ukraine that began with the 2014 coup, Seventh Fleet invasion of China’s territorial waters in the South China Sea and most recently, challenges to North Korea’s ‘aggression’ with deployment of a nuclear-armed submarine as well as a series of severe economic sanctions against recalcitrant nations (which have boomeranged against the US economy) and the Nord Stream pipeline bombing which is categorized as an ‘act of war.’
Since Biden is little more than a frontman for a highly motivated team of political operatives led by former President Barack Obama or the diabolic WEF Klaus Schwab or some equally malevolent dark political entity, the country has been seized by the totalitarian clique as his administration targets the First Amendment as if free speech is tyrannical permitting government to criminalize political dissent. At the same time, the Biden Administration has allowed an invasion of titanic proportions at the southern border as UN-funded NGO’s threaten US sovereignty with an expected infiltration of up to one million illegal immigrants awaiting the potential lifting of Title 42 on May 11th.
All Biden policies display an utter contempt for the rule of law as the result of a deliberate strategy to collapse the US and its Constitution from within as the US rules-based order has replaced international law, dictating its imperialist foreign policy based on an interventionism-at-will strategy with a bankrupt Country able to only print Monopoly paper money of no real value.
While the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has a forbidding reputation for engineering favorable election result for their choice of candidate; legitimacy, ethics and public opinion notwithstanding, they have “with no plan to sponsor primary debates.” With Biden as its favored candidate, partisan politics has morphed into spiritual warfare, as a diabolic contest of wicked proportions contrary to the country’s divinely inspired beginnings and yet the Dems remain the odds-on-favorite to win via ballot harvesting and other election day trickery.
It is, however, a fitting response to the discredited Democrats and its handlers that an exceptional Presidential primary challenger has emerged who is genetically opposed to the malicious agenda espoused by Biden and its authoritarian elite. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., of the prestigious political Kennedy clan, is the most superior and influential Democrat who could have entered the campaign; not because of his last name but rather because he is a gifted orator, an incisive thinker with a penetrating analytical mind and fortunate enough to be imbued with integrity and a strength of character.
Having viewed RFK’s speech at Hillsdale College on “Anthony Fauci and the Public Health Establishment,” at Dartmouth University on “College Covid 19 Mandates” and his interview as one of Tucker’s last guests, the American public would be wise to pay attention and listen closely to the most knowledgeable and talented extemporaneous Presidential candidate on the American political scene since….1963.
Author of The Real Anthony Fauci as well as a history of voluminous lawsuits all predicated on science have established Kennedy’s bona fides as a professional advocate on Covid 19 and the methodical study of the material world known as ‘science.’ He is more knowledgeable than any other candidate with regard to all the implications of the pandemic and its mandated minutiae of masks, distance, shutdowns, vaccinations, and impacts on American culture and the health of its children.
Kennedy’s accomplishments are extensive and remarkable as Founder, Chair and General Counsel of the Children’s Health Defense, Founder of the Waterkeepers Alliance, legal counsel at Morgan and Morgan personal injury law firm with a BA from Harvard, a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, an LLM from Pace University School of Law and studied at the London School of Economics. He is the recipient of numerous awards with a forthcoming book entitled “The Wuhan Coverup: How US officials Conspired with Chinese Military to Hide the Origins of Covid 19”.
RFK’s appearance at Hillsdale, the only college in the country that did not shutdown during the Covid Pandemic, occurred in early March just prior to his formal announcement as a candidate. An appreciative and receptive audience, Kennedy’s provided a wide-ranging extraordinary presentation on a variety of formidable topics beginning with his efforts on behalf of the Hudson River Riverkeepers to clean up industrial pollution.
He especially focused on collusion between regulatory ‘captured’ state-federal agencies and powerful corporations like big Pharma, detailing the impacts of mercury and DPT vaccines on children and his experiences with Dr. Fauci. Kennedy outlined Covid related attacks on the Constitution including government imposed ‘arbitrary and capricious’ censorship to limit conversation about the truth of Covid including violations of freedom of assembly, enforced social distance w/no due process, compulsory closing of churches with no supporting science and reiterated that ‘the Constitution is the heart and soul of this country.”
Adding that President Reagan’s agreement to provide full vaccine immunity as a liability shield (due to “unavoidable adverse side effects”) allowed that vaccines are the only medical product never required to conduct pre-licensing safety studies as Big Pharma has paid $35 billion in criminal penalties in last ten years. In addition, Kennedy cited a 1989 explosion in chronic health issues for children related to mandated vaccines.
As a lifelong student of the CIA, Kennedy identified the role of his grandfather, Joseph P. Kennedy, former US Ambassador to the UK, who served on the Hoover Commission and voted to disband the CIA; thus beginning a sixty year Kennedy family fight with the CIA which led RFK to write “American Values: Lessons Learned from my Family.” He identified the CIA in developing bioweapons at Ft. Detrick including the anthrax attack during Patriot Act consideration in 2001. On JFK’s assassination, RFK shared that evil doer Allen Dulles who had been fired from the CIA, was quoted “I’m glad the little shit is dead. He thought he was a God.”
Kennedy’s Hillsdale appearance was followed by formal announcement of his candidacy in Boston which added current foreign policy and economic crisis to his agenda questioning whether pushing Russia and China together is in US national interest and what is objective of the war. Suggesting the US is in Ukraine ‘for the right reasons” although he questioned a nuclear exchange with a country that has more nukes and US prolonging the war is not a good idea. Like the majority of Congress including Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Kennedy would benefit from an in depth briefing by Scott Ritter and/or Colonel Doug MacGregor for a total understanding of the CIA initiated 2014 coup, Russia’s Special Military Operation and NATOs presence threatening Russian sovereignty.
RFK told the audience that after the Soviet Union collapse in 1990, the US never activated its peace dividend which was expected to decrease defense spending from $6 billion to $2 billion as the US made more foreign enemies around the world while increasing its military budget to $8.8 billion. Citing the economy as a source of American strength, ‘not bullets and weapons’ and that while the US spent $8 Trillion in Iraq, China built bridges, ports and infrastructure as it is displacing the US as a trading partner. “While China is earning good will, the US spends $800 Billion on the military.” Having lost Saudi Arabia as “our number one ally in the Shia Crescent”, which has been a key foreign policy objective in the Mideast, RFK suggested that “US foreign policy has collapsed and is no longer a coherent strategy.”
With de-dollarization, lowered oil production, Iraq now a proxy state of Iran, the entire US strategy in the Middle East has disintegrated. RFK suggested we need to do something FAST and committed to “close 800 US overseas bases and bring American troops home immediately in order to make the US an exemplary democracy again” as the Democratic party has lost its identity.
“The worse thing Trump did was the lockdown. In fairness, the bureaucrats rolled him on it; he did not want to do it. But that it not a good enough excuse. He was President of the United States. In May 2020, six hundred doctors sent a letter to Trump asking him to not do the lockdowns.” He said “bureaucrats were coming after him; he had the right instincts. He knew he shouldn’t close down the country but he didn’t; he got rolled by his bureaucracy. At this time in history, you need a President who can stand up to his bureaucracy.”
Kennedy pointed to Trump’s appointment of Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a well-known physician with ties to the pharmaceutical industry as an FDA Commissioner in March, 2017 to eliminate some of the agency’s “regulatory burdens”. Two years later, on June 27, 2019, Gottlieb was elected to Pfizer’s Board of Directors to serve on its Regulatory and Compliance Committee. According to US Federal Election Commission documents (page 163), Pfizer, Inc. donated $1 million to Trump’s Presidential Inauguration Committee on December 22, 2016 and received four tickets to the Leadership Luncheon with Cabinet appointees and House and Senate Leadership.
Only a political neophyte might not recognize the ‘coincidence’ that within days after RFK’s appearance as a Presidential candidate on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Tucker was unceremoniously removed from his Fox program.
Kennedy called for an end to the “corrupt merger of corporate and state power,” also known as an embedded administrative state within the Federal government which controls implementation of almost every Federal program at will as they use their influence to create outcomes on behalf of their corporate entities. Kennedy identified the “corporate kleptocracy as a‘cushy socialism for the rich’ and a ‘brutal merciless capitalism for the poor.’
He continued
“It keeps us in a state of war, it bails out banks. Last month the Federal government told 30 million Americans they were cutting their food stamp checks by 90%. It took fifteen million people off Medicare, the same month it gave $300 million to the Silicon Valley Bank and tapped up the cost of the Ukraine war to $113 billion. The entire budget of EPA is $12 billion, and the CDC budget is $11 billion. The way we do this is printing money; we printed ten centuries of money in the last fourteen years.” We have raised food prices for basic foods like chicken, dairy, milk by 76% in the last two years and now we’re cutting food stamps and bailing out banks in the same month. We need to get rid of this corporate control of our government.”
RFK’s appearance at Dartmouth was nothing short of a brilliant analysis as, given that the topic was part of a larger conference, he focused exclusively on health issues as related to government-industry collusion, the perversion of the science by government regulators, the explosion of chronic childhood diseases and that ‘vaccine effects are impervious to the facts or reality.”
RFK provided shocking and disturbing numbers as he is adamant that the lockdown was not a success but an economic catastrophe that cost the US $16 Trillion according to a Harvard Study with a massive GDP drop for the next ten years. With 4.2% of the world population, the US had 16% of covid deaths shifting $4 Trillion from the American middle class to billionaires as 41% black businesses shut down permanently. Toddlers lost 22 IQ points during the lockdown and many in need of remedial attention. The CDC revised its milestones that a toddler no longer walk at one year but now walk at 1.5 years.
Most impressive has been the quality of Kennedy’s scholarship, the level of his ability to identify essential data to his audience with no slipping and sliding around the unpleasant facts; never hesitating to be straight, true and factual in the belief that all citizens needed to have access to the same information he is familiar with.
In conclusion, RFK:
“Any power that government takes will never be returned voluntarily, every power government will abuse to the max possible and no one ever complied their way out of totalitarianism = the only way is to resist.”
*
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Renee Parsons served on the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and as president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, staff in the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, an environmental lobbyist for Friends of the Earth and a staff member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC. She is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Renee Parsons, Global Research, 2023
The former president responded to Seoul’s suggestion that it could send lethal aid to Kiev
https://www.rt.com/russia/575002-medvedev-korea-ukraine-weapons/
April 19, 2023
FILE PHOTO: A military parade in Pyongyang marking the anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birth. © Sputnik / Ilya Pitalev
Moscow could offer advanced weapons to North Korea if South Korea begins to supply military aid to Ukraine, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol indicated a possible policy shift regarding the Ukraine conflict in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, ahead of a state visit to the US next week.
“If there is a situation the international community cannot condone, such as any large-scale attack on civilians, massacre or serious violation of the laws of war, it might be difficult for us to insist only on humanitarian or financial support,” Yoon said.
“Considering our relationship with the parties engaged in the war and developments in the battlefield, we will take the most appropriate measures,” he added.
Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chair of the Russian National Security Council, noted that Seoul had thus far refused to supply lethal aid to Kiev.
Asian ally to loan artillery shells to US – media
“I wonder what the residents of this nation would say when they see the newest example of Russian weapons in possession of their closest neighbors, our partners from the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea]?” Medvedev wrote on social media.
Yoon told Reuters that he plans to discuss with US President Joe Biden how the two nations can achieve “tangible outcomes” in deterring North Korea.
He added that Seoul is developing “ultra-high-performance, high-power weapons” to fend off perceived threats from its neighbor. Last week, Pyongyang reported testing its first solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile.
South Korea, which is a major arms producer, has refrained from sending lethal aid to Ukraine, citing its policy against supplying weapons to war zones. President Yoon’s office said his remarks to Reuters did not signal a policy change by the government, according to the Yonhap news agency.
READ MORE: North Korea boasts about new type of weapon
South Korean media claimed last week that the country had considered “loaning” the US some 500,000 rounds for 155mm artillery guns. Ukraine is reportedly in desperate need of this type of munition for the conflict with Russia.
A government official described the arrangement to the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper as “indirect aid to Ukraine” which would supposedly show that Seoul was a responsible member of the international community “without provoking Russia.”
The president told troops at a navy base that their mission is to defend the country’s “territorial sovereignty”
https://www.rt.com/news/574599-china-xi-military-prepare-real-combat/
April 13, 2023
This photo taken on April 7, 2023 shows the rocket force of the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) transferring a missile before the combat readiness patrol and military exercises around the Taiwan Island. © Liu Mingsong/Xinhua
President Xi Jinping has urged the Chinese military to prepare for real combat, national media reported on Wednesday. The remarks came days after Beijing held massive military drills around Taiwan which reportedly involved the simulation of precision strikes on the self-governing island.
Addressing military personnel at a navy base in Southern China on Tuesday, Xi called for the strengthening of “military training oriented toward actual combat,” as quoted by the state-run CCTV channel.
The Chinese leader is reported to have named the defense of Beijing’s “territorial sovereignty and maritime interests” as well as the protection of “overall peripheral stability” as the navy’s core mission.
On Saturday, China launched three-day military exercises codenamed ‘United Sharp Sword’ in the vicinity of Taiwan.
According to Taipei’s military, it detected nine warships and some 71 warplanes in the area the following day.
READ MORE: US and ally hold biggest joint drill amid China tensions
Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesman for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command, described the vessels and aircraft as “encircling” the island. He clarified that the drills were meant as a warning “against the collusion between separatist forces seeking ‘Taiwan independence’ and external forces, and against their provocative activities.”
The military maneuvers came on the back of a visit by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to the US last week, when she met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The meeting was the second time Tsai had sat down with a US House speaker in less than a year. A visit by McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan in August infuriated Beijing, which responded with its largest-ever drills in the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan has been de facto independent since 1949, when the losing side in the Chinese civil war fled to the island and established its own administration. While only a handful of nations have recognized Taiwan as a sovereign state, the US has long maintained close, unofficial ties with Taipei, both militarily and economically. Formally, Washington still professes to adhere to the ‘One-China’ principle.
Beijing considers the island to be an inalienable part of its territory that has been seized by separatists, and accuses the US of meddling in its domestic affairs and encouraging “secessionist” politicians.
While the Chinese leadership says it prioritizes a peaceful ‘reunification’, it has not ruled out military options.
The Pentagon and Justice Department say they are investigating the alleged unauthorized disclosures
https://www.rt.com/news/574385-us-secret-documents-leak/
April 8, 2023
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian soldiers fire a mortar on the frontline near the city of Artyomovsk, Donetsk region, March 26, 2023. © AP / Libkos
Scores of secret US national security files have appeared online after another major leak, the New York Times has reported, noting that the new documents include “sensitive” material related to Ukraine, China, the Middle East and terrorism.
The breach comes just one day after other “top secret” papers showing US and NATO war plans in Ukraine made the rounds on social media.
The new trove of documents was spotted on Twitter and other platforms on Friday afternoon, in what one senior US intelligence official described as a “nightmare” for Western security services, according to the NYT. While the full scope of the leak has yet to be determined and the authenticity of the files remains unverified, the outlet suggested the latest breach could include “more than 100 documents” in total.
Similar to another classified disclosure first reported on Thursday, some of the files detail intelligence related to the conflict in Ukraine. One “top secret” document shows a US assessment of the situation in the city of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), which has largely come under Moscow’s control after months of bitter fighting.
READ MORE: ‘Secret’ NATO war plan leak triggers Pentagon probe – NYT
However, the new leak does not stop with Ukraine and covers a variety of other subjects, including “sensitive briefing slides on China, the Indo-Pacific military theater, the Middle East and terrorism,” the NYT added, stating that the scale of the breach appears to have caught the White House “off guard.”
The Pentagon said on Thursday that it would investigate the matter, while the Justice Department later announced its own separate probe. It said it was in communication with military officials, but neither have shared any additional details.
Following the prior leak earlier this week, officials said they were working to remove the material from the internet, though those efforts appear to have been unsuccessful so far, as many of the documents remain accessible on social media.
According to one unnamed official cited by the NYT, determining the source of the breach would begin with “identifying which officials had access to them.” Staffers at several national security agencies described a “rush” to find the leaker, voicing concerns that this week’s disclosures would turn into a “steady drip of classified information” published online.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, China has supplied more than $12 million worth of drones to Moscow, demonstrating the two nations’ deepening cooperation despite threats from the US to take action against Chinese firms, reported The New York Times.
https://eurasiantimes.com/china-supplied-drones-worth-millions-to-russia-since-it-invaded/?amp
March 22, 2023
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, China has supplied more than $12 million worth of drones to Moscow, demonstrating the two nations’ deepening cooperation despite threats from the US to take action against Chinese firms, reported The New York Times.
The report noted that the shipments included DJI products—a well-known drone manufacturer worldwide—and products from various smaller businesses—often flowed through small-time middlemen and exporters.
The report cites official Russian customs data from a third-party data provider, noting that US measures established in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion have failed to block shipments of unmanned aerial vehicles.
It is also hard to establish whether there are US components in the Chinese products, which might represent a breach of the US export rules. This is primarily due to the complicated sales channels and ambiguous product descriptions within export data.
Furthermore, the official sales may be only a tiny portion of a larger flow of technologies through unofficial routes and other countries close to Russia, such as Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and Belarus.
As a result, Russia continues to receive new drones, which are then sent to the front lines of its conflict with Ukraine. Beijing has become a more crucial military, political, and economic partner for Russia in its war campaign.
The world continues to be largely dependent on China’s factories and clusters of specialist component makers despite recent attempts by the United States to undermine some Chinese enterprises through export prohibitions.
Thus, China’s stranglehold over the world’s electronics supply chain has made it more difficult for the United States to cut Russia from crucial technology and funding.
DJI Drones Still Flowing To Russia
The manufacturer of hovering quadcopter drones, DJI, has presented particular difficulties for the US government. The ability of DJI drones to be easily adapted to carry out various activities has led to their increasing use in the ongoing war. https://d-33999503011471230484.ampproject.net/2303151529000/frame.html
The corporation is already under export control from the US. In 2020, the Commerce Department added DJI to a list of companies prohibited from selling technology without specific approval in the United States.
According to the customs data, the measure did not impact DJI’s domination in the drone business. The company’s products accounted for almost half of all Chinese drone shipments to Russia.
Since the invasion, roughly 70 Chinese exporters have sold 26 different kinds of Chinese drones to Russia, The New York Times added. Autel, a Chinese drone manufacturer, was the second-largest brand sold; exporters sold about $2 million of its drones, with the most recent batch being delivered in February 2023.
Autel has subsidiaries in the US, Germany, and Italy. Meanwhile, DJI earlier asserted that it had ceased all operations and shipments to Russia and Ukraine since the start of the conflict and has “thorough protocols” to ensure that it does not breach American sanctions.
Since both sides are taking down drones with increasing efficiency, these consumer UAVs require regular replenishment. Due to Ukraine’s reliance on drone donations from third-party organizations and individuals, their soldiers also use DJI drones in combat.
Foreign drones, primarily DJIs, are believed to make up nearly half of the Ukrainian stockpiles. According to some experts, the proliferation of Chinese drones should be viewed in the same light as more lethal weapons.
Chinese enterprises that sell UAVs to Russia may use chains of proxy firms that include up to a dozen different firms for commercial or political reasons. In other instances, shipments’ descriptions may be purposefully ambiguous or underplay the overall amount of goods being sent.
Meanwhile, on March 21, Chinese President Xi Jinping posed as a mediator during a diplomatic visit to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin, promoting a peace plan to halt Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. The United States has denounced the plan as a biased effort to provide the Kremlin leader cover as he continues his invasion.
Putin supported Xi Jinping’s call for a “peaceful settlement in Ukraine” in a display of support for one another at the Kremlin that suggested the possibility of a strengthened anti-Western bulwark at the global level.
Nevertheless, western lawmakers argued that China’s offer, which calls for a truce and talks but makes no mention of Moscow withdrawing its soldiers from Ukrainian territory, was drafted without the assistance of Kyiv.
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