Lukašenko je naveo da su Ukrajinci pokušali da izvrši udar na vojne objekte na teritoriji Belorusije, ali da su sve rakete presretnute.
"Provociraju nas. Moram da kažem: pre tri dana, nešto više, pokušali su da udare na vojne ciljeve na teritoriji Belorusije sa teritorije Ukrajine", rekao je Lukašenko na svečanom sastanku uoči Dana nezavisnosti Belorusije, prenela je agencija RIA Novosti.
Mór Thököly wrote:Bila bi fora da mu se razbezi vojska, a neka ukrajinska TO krene na Minsk.
Bleeding Blitva wrote:Nemam pojma što je faz, meni je zanimljiv njegov (Snyderov) tekst.Notxo wrote:
@blitva
faz? šta je sledeće daily wire?
BREAKING: Three people killed in attack on Belgorod, Russia, along the border with Ukraine.
— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) July 3, 2022
Российский Белгород Украина обстреляла из нового, полученного от НАТО дальнобойного оружия
США, Германия, Франция, Великобритания и другие союзники Киева должны быть признаны пособниками международного терроризма
...
Практически нет сомнений, что в этих обстрелах Белгорода и Курска виноват Запад. Тот самый, что предоставил новые вооружения Украине. Нет практически никаких сомнений, что удар был нанесен из предоставленного США и их союзниками оружия. Специалисты разберутся по осколкам, что это было – американские РСЗО, французские "Цезарь" или американские дальнобойные гаубицы М777 или те же немецкие САУ Panzerhaubitze 2000. Скорее всего, были применены все же американские РСЗО HIMARS, дальность которых позволяет накрыть оба из подвергшихся обстрелу городов.
Но в этом разберутся эксперты. Однако, главное в том, что этот обстрел стал возможным только после поставок этих вооружений. Раньше ничего подобного не происходило. Артобстрел из украинских наземных вооружений доставал только до пограничных сел на территории России, а что касается городов, то их редкие бомбардировки проводили вертолеты и беспилотники.
Все разговоры и первоначальные заверения Вашингтона, что эти вооружения предоставляются Киеву для оборонительных действий, что, дескать, руководство Украины дало гарантии о неприменении этих вооружений по территории России, все рассыпалось, как карточный домик. Украина применила поставленные вооружения не просто по территории России, а по обычным городам с мирными жителями. По городам, в которых, в отличие от украинских, не находится военные и их техника, а уж, тем более, они не рассредоточены во дворах жилых домов. В США не могли не понимать, что они дают оружие психически неуравновешенным нацистам, для которых нет ни голоса разума, ни морали, которые поглощены лишь стремлением как можно больше разрушить все, до чего смогут дотянуться.
...
Читайте на WWW.KP.RU: https://www.kp.ru/daily/27413.5/4611984/
Ukrainian soldiers abusing a Russian POW, withholding medical aid until he pronounces a Ukrainian word 'correctly' pic.twitter.com/MlhFT1Z1lu
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) July 2, 2022
Mór Thököly wrote:Ko zna dal je istina. No, svejedno, cisto sumnjam da su Belorusi nesto raspolozeni da ratuju protiv Ukrajinaca.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/02/ukraine-russia-us-assessments/
As Ukraine war bogs down, U.S. assessments face scrutiny
The growing conjecture is fueled by U.S. assessments of other wars, notably Afghanistan, where officials habitually sidestepped questions of whether success was sustainable
- Spoiler:
By Dan Lamothe and Karoun Demirjian
July 2, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
The shifting nature of the war in Ukraine has prompted a split among analysts and U.S. lawmakers, with some questioning whether American officials have portrayed the crisis in overly rosy terms while others say the government in Kyiv can win with more help from the West.
The growing conjecture comes more than four months after Russia’s invasion and its failure to seize the capital. Russian President Vladimir Putin has since narrowed its objectives, focusing on capturing eastern Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region while launching thousands of artillery rounds per day at outgunned Ukrainian forces.
President Biden, speaking Thursday at a summit of NATO leaders, said the United States is “rallying the world to stand with Ukraine” and pledged to support the cause “as long as it takes.”
“I don’t know … how it’s going to end,” the president said, “but it will not end with a Russian defeat of Ukraine in Ukraine.”
U.S. officials acknowledge that as Russian forces have massed firepower, they have gradually seized territory in the east. That includes capturing the strategically important city of Severodonetsk in June and threatening to do the same in its nearby sister city, Lysychansk.
U.S. officials have downplayed the gains, calling them halting and incremental, while highlighting the significant number of Russian military fatalities that have come as a result.
But the Ukrainians have sustained heavy casualties, too. Independent estimates indicate each side has seen tens of thousands of soldiers killed and wounded. The Pentagon has largely refused to publicly discuss its assessments of killed and wounded.
The Defense Department’s overriding concern about discussing the Ukrainian military is balancing what can be said at an unclassified level and not providing an “unintended assessment” that Putin can use to his advantage, Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale said.
“We’re simply not going to do Russia’s BDA or intel work for them,” Breasseale said, using a military acronym for battle damage assessment. “However, I think we have discussed what we can, when it is knowable, demonstrable and objective.”
The scrutiny is fueled by U.S. government assessments of other wars, notably in Afghanistan, where U.S. officials habitually glossed over widespread dysfunction and corruption and sidestepped questions of whether battlefield successes were not only achievable but sustainable. Successive administrations insisted Afghan forces were “in the lead” even as their performance was often deeply flawed — and their survival depended on U.S. logistical support and air power.
The Biden administration has committed more than $6.9 billion in weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, while encouraging other Western allies to provide similar help. The weapons have become increasingly sophisticated, with recent packages including the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, surface-to-air missile defense systems and launchers for Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Several observers said what the Biden administration says about the war in Ukraine appears to be accurate but that the Pentagon sometimes withholds information that would be unflattering to Ukrainian partners or highlight limitations on U.S. support.
Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said that with Ukraine as opposed to Afghanistan, the Pentagon lacks the incentive to “perennially” say the army that it is supporting is turning a corner. There are no known U.S. troops involved in the conflict, limiting the administration’s interest in making such pronouncements, she said.
But Schake criticized what she characterized as Pentagon officials “congratulating themselves” about the type and amount of weapons they are providing while leaving out that the United States could send more, faster.
“Our sense of self-satisfaction and complacency and confidence is actually a disservice to Ukraine,” she said, calling such complacency “practically and morally suspect.”
Schake assessed that Ukrainian forces are able to win the war and probably in the process of accumulating arms ahead of a major counteroffensive that cannot begin until they have enough to repel the Russians.
“We just need to slam the gas pedal on the floor and help them succeed as fast as possible,” she said.
A Ukrainian lawmaker, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, shared similar concerns. The flow of American weapons often is not fast enough, the official said, noting that the rate of howitzer artillery fire, in particular, could soon outpace supply.
“We need a lot of this for yesterday, not even tomorrow,” he said. “We are losing the most valuable thing: our soldiers and officers. That’s why we need heavy weapons faster, and as much as possible.”
Others more wary of U.S. involvement in Ukraine see Washington’s assessments as incomplete for different reasons.
Benjamin Friedman, a policy director at Defense Priorities, said that Ukraine’s stated objective to push Russian forces out seems “increasingly unrealistic” and that the Biden administration must do more to press Ukraine to negotiate with Russia and strive for a political settlement.
“Nobody wants them to cede territory, or hardly anyone wants them to cede territory,” Friedman said. “But you have to assess the situation honestly and say that you’re trading peace for territory. I think we should be doing more to pressure them, and I think we’re sort of doing a disservice not just to regular Ukrainians, but to a lesser extent Americans and everyone else who is suffering economic problems because of the war.”
Friedman said the U.S. government is “spinning for Ukraine for the obvious reason that we are rooting for them” and because a more blunt assessment of Ukrainian losses or liabilities might assist Russia.
“It’s natural," he said, “not to criticize the people you’re fighting with, and certainly not in public.”
Feelings are similarly split on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said he does not think the administration is spinning what is happening in Ukraine. Overselling success against Russia could undermine future support from Congress, he said, when there has been “a remarkably trusting and congenial dialogue” about the war since it began.
Moulton, a former Marine Corps officer and combat veteran, said that “the story of this conflict” is the degree to which the administration is disclosing large amounts of detail about what is happening in Ukraine, and that it has been “remarkably open and candid in what is going on.”
“We didn’t tell the American public what ISIS was going to do next,” Moulton said, referring to the Islamic State terrorist group, “or what the insurgents in Afghanistan were going to do next. But that’s exactly what we’ve done with Putin.”
While U.S. support for Ukraine has engendered a degree of bipartisanship seldom seen in Washington, Republicans still see challenges for the administration.
Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) said the fighting now has a well-defined line of conflict, with territory changing hands slowly. It can be difficult, he said, to understand the nuance of what is coming next as a result.
“I think that’s the fundamental challenge, is we don’t really know,” he said. “But we know it probably is not going to be quick.”
The Pentagon’s role is to communicate what the Defense Department is doing and why, Meijer said. The administration doesn’t “have the greatest track record of communicating accurate analytical statements to the American public that don’t quickly collapse when events change,” he said, alluding in part to early predictions from top U.S. officials that Putin’s military would quickly topple the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Think of the prognosis on how long the Afghan government would hold after the August 31 withdrawal date,” Meijer said. “Think of the initial estimates of how quickly Kyiv would fall in the wake of a Russian invasion.”
Meijer, who served in Army intelligence units, said the truth can be “watered down, so it’s as inoffensive as possible” when intelligence is shared with senior U.S. officials and presidential appointees.
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) also pointed to last summer’s evacuation of Afghanistan, saying that while administration officials highlighted how many planes of evacuees they were able to move per day, they often downplayed “the overall strategic debacle.” In the end, thousands of Afghan interpreters and other allies in the war were left behind.
“I think in Ukraine, they’re very much focused on the amount of stuff that they’re moving and the speed with which they’re moving it — once it’s approved by the White House — and I think losing sight of the fact that Russian is grinding the Ukrainian military down,” he said.
Waltz said that while the Pentagon is looking through “the very narrow parameters of the mission” it has received from the White House, it also has a responsibility to the American people “to see the forest through the trees.”
“They’re describing their success and their very narrow mission set, but what they’re not explaining is: Does that mission set meet American interests?” Waltz said.
Waltz said the United States is good at seeing where the front lines of the war are and assessing where tanks, ships and planes are on the battlefield. It is more difficult, he said, to assess the accuracy of what the Ukrainian Defense Ministry tells the U.S. military, how well the equipment the United States provides is being used, how quickly ammunition is being launched and whether any is disappearing onto the black market because of corruption.
As Biden faces criticism from Republicans, he also is vulnerable to pressure from the left flank of his party, which already is looking for an exit strategy.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said that while he applauds the administration’s objective in stopping Russia from seizing Kyiv, the United States cannot resign itself to a “prolonged, never-ending conflict that is wreaking havoc on the American economy and the global economy.”
“I believe we should declare victory for the president’s efforts in standing up for a sovereign Ukraine. We should say we won. The Russians lost. They did not achieve their fundamental objective,” he said.
Democrats, he said, are not resigned to support Ukraine at all costs.
“People don’t want to see a resigned attitude that this is just going to go on as long as it’s going to go on,” Khanna said. “What is the plan on the diplomatic front?”
Moskva je optužila zapadne zemlje da sprječavaju mirovne pregovore s Ukrajinom i tako odugovlače rat.
"U ovom trenutku zapadne zemlje stavile su sve uloge na nastavak rata", kazao je glasnogovornik Kremlja Dmitrij Peskov za državnu televiziju.
Pod vodstvom Sjedinjenih Američkih Država, Zapad Ukrajini nije dozvolio da „razmišlja o miru, niti priča da o njemu, niti da o njemu raspravlja“, kazao je Peskov referirajući se na izjave zapadnih političara koji su kazali kako ne žele prisiljavati Ukrajinu na pregovore.
Bez obzira na to, trenutak za pregovore će doći, kazao je Peskov. Doduše, za sklapanje mira Ukrajina će morati prihvatiti ruske zahtjeve, među kojima je priznanje crnomorskog poluotoka Krima kao ruskog teritorija i ustupanje pokrajina Donjeck i Luhansk, dodao je.
Leaders gather to work out ‘Marshall Plan’ to rebuild Ukraine
Leaders from dozens of countries, international organisations and the private sector are set to gather in Switzerland today to hash out a ‘Marshall Plan’ to rebuild war-ravaged Ukraine.
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, who will take part virtually, earlier warned that the work ahead in the areas that have been liberated alone was “really colossal”.
“And we will have to free over 2,000 villages and towns in the east and south of Ukraine,” he said.
It is estimated that more than 120,000 homes in Ukraine have been destroyed during the Russian invasion, creating the need for billions in income to restore the country economically and make it a Europe-faced economy.
Lingering concerns about widespread corruption in Ukraine mean far-reaching reforms remain in focus and will be a condition for any recovery plan.
Lugano is not a pledging conference, but will instead attempt to lay out the principles and priorities for a rebuilding process aimed to begin even as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to rage, according to AFP.
In practice, the scale of the reconstruction will depend on the outcome and length of the war, and whether eastern Ukraine – where there has been the worst devastation – is returned to Kyiv or remains in Russian hands.
The cost of the war is estimated at $1tn if it lasts until the end of the year. The International Monetary Fund has estimated Ukraine’s balance of payments gap until June to be roughly €14.3bn ($15bn).
One of the goals of the conference will be to sketch out a vision of a Ukrainian economy that dovetails with Europe, providing specialisms in agriculture, renewable energy and technology sectors.
One of the most sensitive issues will be a programme of de-oligarchisation and how to entrench powerful anti-corruption institutions at a time when large flows of money from the US and Europe are likely.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Switzerland, Artem Rybchenko, said ahead of the conference that it would help create “the roadmap” to his country’s recovery.
In all, around 1,000 people are scheduled to participate in the conference, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, several government chiefs and numerous ministers, according to AFP.
Rebuilding Ukraine is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) has estimated the damage done so far to buildings and infrastructure at nearly $104bn.
It estimated that at least 45m square metres of housing, 256 enterprises, 656 medical institutions, and 1,177 educational institutions had been damaged, destroyed or seized, while Ukraine’s economy had already suffered losses of up to $600bn.
Ceasefire. Z-troops withdrawal. Returning of kidnapped citizens. Extradition of war criminals. Reparations mechanism.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) July 3, 2022sovereign rights recognition...The Russian side knows our conditions well. #Peskov’s boss may not worry: the time will come and we will record them on paper.
The Russian military is conducting exercises using smoke generating equipment near the Kerch Bridge, in Crimea. I'm not sure what effect this would have at preventing an attack...pic.twitter.com/MYxTBX82TO
— Jimmy (@JimmySecUK) July 1, 2022
LOL! Remember the “smoke screen exercises” on the Crimean bridge?
— Special Kherson Cat
But seriously, none of the Russian officers had the brains to understand that zero visibility for drivers can lead to serious consequences ...#Ukraine #Crimea pic.twitter.com/p52RRJr0ZZ
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-donetsk-government-and-politics-f9f2b30b90a10b31f16aca18dae4eb65
‘Hell on earth’: Ukrainian soldiers describe eastern front
By FRANCESCA EBEL
2 hours ago
BAKHMUT, Ukraine (AP) — Torched forests and cities burned to the ground. Colleagues with severed limbs. Bombardments so relentless the only option is to lie in a trench, wait and pray.
Ukrainian soldiers returning from the front lines in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region — where Russia is waging a fierce offensive — describe life during what has turned into a grueling war of attrition as apocalyptic.
In interviews with The Associated Press, some complained of chaotic organization, desertions and mental health problems caused by relentless shelling. Others spoke of high morale, their colleagues’ heroism, and a commitment to keep fighting, even as the better-equipped Russians control more of the combat zone.
Lt. Volodymyr Nazarenko, 30, second-in-command of the Ukrainian National Guard’s Svoboda Battalion, was with troops who retreated from Sievierodonetsk under orders from military leaders. During a month-long battle, Russian tanks obliterated any potential defensive positions and turned a city with a prewar population of 101,000 into “a burnt-down desert,” he said.
“They shelled us every day. I do not want to lie about it. But these were barrages of ammunition at every building,” Nazarenko said. “The city was methodically leveled out.”
At the time, Sievierodonetsk was one of two major cities under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province, where pro-Russia separatists declared an unrecognized republic eight years ago. By the time the order to withdraw came on June 24, the Ukrainians were surrounded on three sides and mounting a defense from a chemical plant also sheltering civilians.
“If there was a hell on Earth somewhere, it was in Sievierodonetsk,” Artem Ruban, a soldier in Nazarenko’s battalion, said from the comparative safety of Bakhmut, 64 kilometers (40 miles) to the southwest of the since-captured city. “The inner strength of our boys allowed them to hold the city until the last moment.”
“Those were not human conditions they had to fight in. It is difficult to explain this to you here, what they feel like now or what it was like there,” Ruban said, blinking in the sunlight. “They were fighting until the end there. The task was to destroy the enemy, no matter what.”
Nazarenko, who also fought in Kyiv and elsewhere in the east after Russia invaded Ukraine, considers the Ukrainian operation in Sievierodonetsk “a victory” despite the outcome. He said the defenders managed to limit casualties while stalling the Russian advance for much longer than expected, depleting Russia’s resources.
“Their army incurred huge losses, and their attack potential was obliterated,” he said.
Both the lieutenant and the soldier under his command expressed confidence that Ukraine would take back all occupied territories and defeat Russia. They insisted morale remained high. Other soldiers, most with no combat experience before the invasion, shared more pessimistic accounts while insisting on anonymity or using only their first names to discuss their experiences.
Oleksiy, a member of the Ukrainian army who started fighting against the Moscow-backed separatists in 2016, had just returned from the front with a heavy limp. He said he was wounded on the battlefield in Zolote, a town the Russians also have since occupied.
“On the TV, they are showing beautiful pictures of the front lines, the solidarity, the army, but the reality is very different” he said, adding he does not think the delivery of more Western weapons would change the course of the war.
His battalion started running out of ammunition within a few weeks, Oleksiy said. At one point, the relentless shelling kept the soldiers from standing up in the trenches, he said, exhaustion visible on his lined face.
A senior presidential aide reported last month that 100 to 200 Ukrainian troops were dying every day, but the country has not provided the total number killed in action. Oleksiy claimed his unit lost 150 men during its first three days of fighting, many from a loss of blood.
Due to the relentless bombardments, wounded soldiers were only evacuated at night, and sometimes they had to wait up to two days, he said.
“The commanders don’t care if you are psychologically broken. If you have a working heart, if you have arms and legs, you have to go back in,” he added.
Mariia, a 41-year-old platoon commander who joined the Ukrainian army in 2018 after working as a lawyer and giving birth to a daughter, explained that the level of danger and discomfort can vary greatly depending on a unit’s location and access to supply lines.
Front lines that have existed since the conflict with pro-Russia separatists began in 2014 are more static and predictable, whereas places that became battlegrounds since Russia sent its troops in to invade are “a different world,” she said.
Mariia, who refused to share her surname for security reasons, said her husband is currently fighting in such a “hot spot.” Everyone misses and worries about their loved ones, and though this causes distress, her subordinates have kept their spirits high, she said.
“We are the descendants of Cossacks, we are free and brave. It is in our blood,” she said. “We are going to fight to the end.”
Two other soldiers the AP interviewed — former office-workers in Kyiv with no prior battle experience — said they were sent to the front lines in the east as soon as they completed their initial training. They said they observed “terrible organization” and “illogical decision-making,” and many people in their battalion refused to fight.
One of the soldiers said he smokes marijuana daily. “Otherwise, I would lose my mind, I would desert. It’s the only way I can cope” he said.
A 28-year-old former teacher in Sloviansk who “never imagined” he would fight for his country described Ukraine’s battlefields as a completely different life, with a different value system and emotional highs as well as lows.
“There is joy, there is sorrow. Everything is intertwined,” he said.
Friendship with his colleagues provide the bright spots. But he also saw fellow soldiers succumbing to extreme fatigue, both physical and mental, and displaying symptoms of PTSD.
“It’s hard to live under constant stress, sleep-deprived and malnourished. To see all those horrors with your own eyes — the dead, the torn-off limbs. It is unlikely that someone’s psyche can withstand that,” he said.
Yet he, too, insisted that the motivation to defend their country remains.
“We are ready to endure and fight with clenched teeth. No matter how hard and difficult it is,” the teacher said, speaking from a fishing store that was converted into a military distribution hub. “Who will defend my home and my family, if it is not me?”
The center in the city of Sloviansk provides local military units with equipment and provisions, and gives soldiers a place to go during brief respites from the physical grind and horrors of battle.
Tetiana Khimion, a 43-year-old dance choreographer, set up the center when the war started. All kinds of soldiers pass through, she says, from skilled special forces and war-hardened veterans to civilians-turned-fighters who signed up only recently.
“It can be like this: For the first time he comes, smiles widely, he can even be shy. The next time he comes, and there is emptiness in his eyes,” Khimion said. “He has been through something, and he is different.”
Behind her, a group of young Ukrainian soldiers on rotation from the front lines sit sharing jokes and a pizza. The thud of artillery can be heard a few miles away.
“Mostly they hope for the better. Yes, sometimes they come in a little sad, but we hope to raise their spirits here, too,” Khimion said. “We hug, we smile at each other and then they go back into the fields.”
On Sunday, Russian forces occupied the last Ukrainian stronghold in Luhansk province and stepped up rocket strikes on Donetsk, the Donbas province where the center is located.
Filipenko wrote:Putinov savetnik je izjavio da je prva meta u slucaju izbijanja WW3 - London. Inace me iritiraju ta talambasanja, ali najzad je precizno detektovano izvoriste vikinskog zla koje treba neutralisati.
паће wrote:Франкфуртер Алгемајне Цајтунг, наравно.
rumbeando wrote:паће wrote:Франкфуртер Алгемајне Цајтунг, наравно.
Frankfurter algemajne cajtung. Na reči transkribovane na srpski ne primenjuju se tuđa pravopisna pravila o upotrebi velikog slova.
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by Del Cap Sat Jul 02, 2022 10:55 pm
