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EU leader says conflict must end before discussion for Ukraine's accession

huaxia
Xinhua
Wed, 02 Mar 2022 09:58 UTC
von der Leden
© European Union/XinhuaEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a press conference after an extraordinary meeting of the European Union (EU) leaders to address the situation in Ukraine
"Today, the European Union and Ukraine are already closer than ever before. There is still a long path ahead. We have to end this war. And we should talk about the next steps."
Conflict should end before Ukraine's application to join the European Union (EU) is discussed, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said here on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday signed an official appeal for the EU, asking for an accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure.

During the plenary on Tuesday, Zelensky, who was invited to make a speech from Kiev via video link, expressed his gratitude that the EU countries were unified in supporting Ukraine but regretted that it came after a high price was paid.

European Council President Charles Michel responded by pledging to look at the "symbolic, political and legitimate request" seriously, while admitting the process will be difficult.

Members of the European Parliament on Tuesday adopted a resolution that called on the EU institutions to work toward granting Ukraine EU candidate status, and stated that such procedure should be in line with proper EU terms.

The resolution was approved by 637 votes in favour, 13 against with 26 abstentions.

Comment: The Ukraine stage is being set for a showdown to assure PTB a particular outcome. Given the behind-the-scenes manipulations and the parties involved, Kiev is a liability.

See also:
EU, US agree to expel "selected Russian banks" from SWIFT, sanction Russian Central Bank

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Calendar

Russia announces first International Anti-Fascist Congress


RT
Tue, 01 Mar 2022 23:15 UTC
Factions
© Getty images/NurPhoto
Moscow plans event to unite global efforts to fight fascism after launching offensive partly to 'denazify' Ukraine

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has announced plans to host the first International Anti-Fascist Congress.

Shoigu told reporters about the new event on Tuesday, saying it would be held in August, in conjunction with the "Army-22" international military technology forum near Moscow. The initiative is meant to "unite the efforts of the international community in the fight against the ideology of Nazism, neo-Nazism in any form of its manifestation in the modern world."

Russia is calling attention to its anti-fascism agenda at a time when it's attacking Ukraine, which it claims is partly down to a desire to "denazify" the former Soviet republic.

President Vladimir Putin last week, announcing the military operation against Kiev, said:
"Your fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers did not fight the Nazi occupiers and defend our common Motherland to allow today's neo-Nazis to seize power in Ukraine."
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Георгиевская ленточка

Ukraine war updates: Russia launches rocket attacks on Kharkov, bears down on Kiev

Dave DeCamp
Antiwar.com
Mon, 28 Feb 2022 20:58 UTC
kharkov building
© State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Fighting continued in Ukraine for a fifth day on Monday, with heavy Russian rocket fire reported in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Local Ukrainian authorities said Russian artillery hit residential districts of Kharkiv. Officials said at least 11 people were killed in Kharkiv, but at this point, nothing is confirmed. For their part, Russia denies that it is targeting residential areas.


Comment: So far, the only confirmed target was the regional administrative building in Kharkov, pictured above, which reportedly resulted in six injuries.


Russia hasn't confirmed its responsibility for the attack, however. As for residential areas:



Meanwhile, satellite images show a Russian military convoy north of Kyiv that is headed towards the city. Western media outlets are reporting that the convoy stretches 40 miles, but that number is not confirmed. Earlier reports said the convoy was only 3.25 miles long.

Comment: Russia sent out a general warning to residents of Kiev that they were planning attacks on Ukrainian intel services infrastructure, urging residents to leave those areas. Scott Ritter commented:


Russia apparently doesn't understand how war is supposed to work (at least according to the American playbook). One of the strikes targeted a TV communications tower in Kiev, resulting in several (apparently civilian) casualties.


Meanwhile, Ukrainian military continues to indiscriminately shell Donbass:



UPDATE (Mar. 2): Russia claimed responsibility for the strike on the TV tower in Kiev, the justification being to combat "information attacks." Military spokesman Konashenkov also claimed "the technological facilities of the Security Service of Ukraine and the 72nd Main Center for Psychological Operations were hit with high-precision weapons". For the first time they announced casualty figures, admitting to 498 killed in action and 1597 wounded. They claim 2,870 Ukrainian troops killed, 3,700 wounded, and 572 captured (no number of Russian soldiers captured was shared). For reference, the Ukrainians claim they have killed 6,000+ Russian troops, but it is expected for them to greatly exaggerate Russian losses.

Ukraine has confirmed a second round of talks with Russia, which will begin today. Meanwhile, Zelensky is demanding security guarantees from NATO, which is treating him like a hot potato - not their problem! Though Kiev claims that Turkey, for instance, has sent additional Turkish attack drones (the Turks haven't commented).

For additional updates, see: Ukraine Updates: Second round of peace talks conclude with agreement for civilian evacuation corridors, Russia says it won't stop fulfilling its military objectives

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Bad Guys

Doublespeak: EU diplomacy chief says Europe 'not at war with Russia'


RT
Wed, 02 Mar 2022 19:43 UTC
Eu foreign affairs Josep Borrell
© Getty Images / Thierry MonasseEU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy - Vice President Josep Borrell.
Brussels supports the attacked and will do everything possible to stop the aggression, Josep Borell says

The European Union is not at war with Russia but supported Ukraine, Josep Borell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, said on Tuesday night, while speaking to Spanish radio station Cadena SER.

"We are not at war with Russia, but we are on the side of the attacked. Between the attacked and the aggressor there cannot be a middle point of view, you have to take sides." He added that the progressive thing was "to condemn, repudiate and do everything possible to stop an armed aggression against a neighboring country."
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TV

Human Rights Watch charges Russia but not America with war-censorship

Eric Zuesse
The Duran
Mon, 28 Feb 2022 12:00 UTC
Human rights watch
© AFP 2019 / John MacDougall
On February 28th, Human Rights Watch (HRW) headlined "With War, Censorship Reaches New Heights", and reported only against this censorship as practiced in Russia, as-if it were not also being done in America. The only even just mention (far less discussion) of "its being practiced in America" was in the second — the subordinate — clause of their sentence "Roskomnadzor announced that it would partially restrict access to Facebook in Russia, in retaliation for Meta, Facebook's parent company, blocking four Russian state media accounts."

In other words: only implicitly — not at all explicitly — did HRW so much as even acknowledge — in that thousand-word-long article — that Russia's Government was acting in response to the (CIA-affiliated) U.S. company Meta's "blocking four Russian state media accounts," or to any of the many other U.S.-Government anti-Russia censorship operations. Furthermore, any keen reader of that lone sentence would also immediately recognize that for (the CIA-front firm) Meta to have been "blocking four Russian state media accounts" was more severe censorship than was for the Russian Government to have been "partially restrict[ing] access to Facebook in Russia" — in other words: Russia's response was actually milder than was the censorship that it was responding to. However, any regular fool who would be reading HRW's propaganda-piece would come away from it thinking that Russia is a dictatorship, and that America is not. (America certainly IS.)

Comment: See also: Reality & information warfare: Sixth day of Russian operation in Ukraine

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No Entry

Russia demands state regulator restrict liberal media outlets

Alexey Viryasov
RT
Wed, 02 Mar 2022 18:36 UTC
russia liberal radio host Alexey Venediktov
© AP Photo/Alexander ZemlianichenkoThe Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station's editor-in-chief, Alexey Venediktov
The move has been strongly criticized by the well-known Russian journalist Alexey Venediktov

Russia has demanded the country's media regulator pull two popular liberal press outlets off the air due to their coverage of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the General Prosecutor's office ordered Roskomnadzor to restrict access to the Echo of Moscow's Radio Station and TV-channel Rain for their alleged spread of false information in relation to the actions of Russia's armed forces in the Eastern European nation.

Television channel Rain, known as Dozhd in Russian, has been designated as a foreign agent due to its links to overseas funding. Echo of Moscow is indirectly state-owned by the Gazprom media conglomerate.
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Eye 1

Those 'western values': YouTube geoblocks Russia Today, Sputnik channels in Europe

Natasha Lomas
TechCrunch
Tue, 01 Mar 2022 18:10 UTC
RT Russia Today
Google has just announced that YouTube will geoblock the Kremlin-affiliated media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik in Europe, following pressure from regional lawmakers to choke off Russian war propaganda.

In a tweet announcing the geoblocks today, Google's Europe policy team writes: "Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we're blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately."

We've reached out to the Commission for a response to YouTube's announcement.

As TechCrunch reported earlier, the EU confirmed last night that the ban on RT, Sputink and their subsidiaries will cover all distribution channels, including online platforms.

Comment: Ah, heartening to see the latest virtue signal being taken up with such enthusiasm. Covid was so 10 minutes ago, don'tcha know? And YouTube is only the beginning.

Netflix is refusing to carry Russian television channels
The entertainment news website called the required package "propaganda channels," and stated that one of them was "Spa, a channel operated by the Russian Orthodox Church." The religious outlet it was referring to is called Spas, which means 'Savior' in Church Slavonic. The two packages comprising the obligatory set also include several entertainment channels, a children's cartoon channel, and a music channel.
Apple is suspending sales of its products in Russia, payment apps, and censors RT and Sputnik news outlets:
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Apple said it had already stopped all exports to Russia last week and "limited" Apple Pay and other services. As of March 1, "all product sales in Russia" have been stopped as well, and RT News and Sputnik News "are no longer available for download from the App Store outside Russia."

Meanwhile, both traffic and live incidents features in Apple Maps in Ukraine have been disabled "as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens," the company said. This follows a similar action by Google in their Android operating system on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Odysee media platform stands up for free speech:





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Cloud Lightning

SOTT Focus: Ukraine: The Country Where History Died

David Stockman
Contra Corner
Thu, 24 Feb 2022 00:00 UTC
Oleh Tyahnybok
In light of the grotesquely one-sided Ukrainian war news on the MSM, it can be well and truly said that America circa February 2022 has become the land where history died.

From the sophomoric coverage of CNN and NBC, for instance, you would think that Ukraine's borders have been universally agreed upon by one and all for eons; that the government in Kiev has done absolutely nothing to provoke Russian suspicion and anger; and that Uncle Sam, NATO and the European Union have flitted around the neighborhoods on Russia's borders merely cheer-leading for democracy and selflessly passing out economic aid and cookies to the long-suffering Ukrainian peoples.

Well, no. Today's hot war eruption in Ukraine would absolutely not be happening save for the violent coup of February 2014 that overthrew Ukraine's democratically elected pro-Russian President; and which coup was funded, organized and choreographed by Washington-based neocons, busy-bodies and arms merchants who otherwise had no reason for even existing in the post-Soviet world.

Moreover, by reviewing the voting patterns of the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election we can see exactly how Washington's blunderbuss intervention in support of the Maidan putsch put the kibosh on stable governance in Kiev and friendly relations with Ukraine's historic neighbor and suzerain, Russia. That's because while the 2010 election reflected the stark divisions of the Ukrainian electorate (see map below) it still produced a government that was reasonably acceptable to most of the electorate, and one which proceeded to work toward new arrangements with both Ukraine's EU neighbors to the west and Russia to the east.
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Magnify

Reality & information warfare: Sixth day of Russian operation in Ukraine


South Front
Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:54 UTC
ukraine vehicle burnt out soldier russia
© AP / Andrew MarienkoA Ukrainian soldier inspects a damaged military vehicle after fighting in Kharkov, Ukraine on February 27, 2022.
The situation inside Ukraine began to take on the shapes of chaos close to what was happening in Libya. The confusion on all sides, the mass distribution of weapons to the population, and the release of criminals from prisons took place amidst the bitterness of various groups in Ukraine against each other. Marauders unite in gangs and attack any facilities, equipment, and people, whenever they have an opportunity to do so.

Against the background of the objective successes of Russian, LPR and DPR forces on the fronts, the Kiev administration has focused on informational warfare. In this arena, with the total support of NATO countries, Kiev is gaining an unqualified victory. These successes fuel the impunity of radical formations against civilians that are literally being used as human shields against the advancing forces. The most striking examples of such activity can be seen in Kharkiv, Mariupol, and Volnovakha. It seems that Moscow ignored that for at least eight years the inhabitants of Ukraine have been under massive informational anti-Russian pressure.
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Wolf

Czech judiciary threatens to punish public support for Russian op in Ukraine with 3 years in prison, police recording online comments


Balkan Insight
Tue, 01 Mar 2022 17:55 UTC
Igor Striz
Czechia's Supreme State Attorney Igor Striz
Publicly backing the Russian invasion of Ukraine might be subject to custodial sentences of up to three years, Czechia's Supreme State Attorney Igor Striz said in a statement on Saturday.

By the following day, Czech police were already investigating dozens of cases, local news site TN Nova reported. Czech police spokesman Ondrej Moravcik said: "We will carefully evaluate such actions and thoroughly analyse whether they represent such crimes."


Comment: The establishment were relatively successful in censoring and sowing discord against those who questioned the contrived coronavirus narrative, now they're going for those who question the Russia-Ukraine narrative.


The Public Prosecutor's Office appealed for Czech citizens to stay within the confines of the country's constitutional and legal restrictions. Although freedom of expression is stipulated in the Czech constitution, meaning everyone has the right to express their views, it also has its limits just as in any democratic state.


Comment: Indeed it does have its limits, however it seems those limits are expanding at a apace.


Comment: It's become pretty clear that the opinion of the attorney is not representative of the government nor the people as a whole. For example President Zaman has repeatedly spoken out against the West's anti-Russian agenda for many years now, and has instead called for reason and debate, and, in a likely attempt to silence him, some senators threatened him with a high treason lawsuit. Now it seems that these same people are now going for Czech citizens: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: The Truth About The Russia-Ukraine War



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