I’v been watching the news, waiting for some decisive action, but wonder how much worse must things get before NATO and the UN actually act? The illegal annexation of territories in Ukraine by Russia, and then an unprovoked missile attack across the country is escalation, yet the West, the UN, and NATO sit and issue statements and plan discussions while people die and buildings collapse.
Buildings can be rebuilt, but people can’t be brought back from the dead.
Day 230 (11 October)
The UN held an emergency session last night to discuss the illegal annexation of partly occupied Ukrainian regions by Russia. This is because when there was a vote in the UN Security Council, obviously Russia vetoed the resolution. Thus, it is now up to the 193 member body to vote on a draft resolution. The session began to decide whether or not this would be a recorded vote or a secret ballot, which is what Russia wanted. This is to allow countries to oppose the draft resolution or abstain without the rest of the world knowing. 170 members voted in favour of a recorded vote.
The draft resolution comes on the day when Ukraine was attacked by 85 missiles in an act of revenge for allegedly damaging the Kerch Bridge which the Russians had built.
Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia have come under further Russian missile attacks. The Ukrainians have repaired damaged areas in many regions which speaks to their resilience, but they can’t keep doing this. Lviv was attacked by 15 missiles, and although it has been attacked before, there are no military targets in the area. The Russians are attacking civilian infrastructures. Perhaps it is being attacked as it is a supply hub from Poland for aid and weapons?
Many regions have power outages and no water supply as Ukraine urges people to minimise their energy consumption so that repairs to the infrastructure can be carried out, and for the power grids to be stabilised. As a result, Ukraine cannot export energy to the EU at present, perhaps a tactic by the Russians to prevent Ukraine from having a revenue that would help them fund the war. The energy crisis was already predicted, and as winter is upon us in a a few weeks time, there will be energy shortages and the prices will increase and will affect everyone across the world
The US have issued a statement to Saudi Arabia, that if they go ahead and reduced oil production by 1-2 million barrels a day as OPEC has said, the US would view that as support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
This would not help relations between the nations that is pretty fragile.
The Deputy Director General of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Valeriy Martyniuk, was kidnapped by the Russians, and has been taken to an undisclosed location. It is thought that he will be tortured for information and details of staff, as the Russians need them to operate the power plant, and want them to work for Rosatom. Energatom have requested assistance again from the IAEA to intervene to secure his release.
To date, at least 19 people have been killed and 105 have been injured from the attacks on 10/10/22. 301 settlements in 5 regions have no electricity. Lviv was plunged into darkness with blackouts, as people in other cities took shelter underground. 3,900 town and villages had lost power yesterday, and power has ben restored to all but 100 at present.
The US has pledged to send two air defence systems as soon as possible in light of the recent attack. While the US has been the largest provider of weapons, it has been when they decided to deliver them and also what they were willing to give. Surely they knew that Putin would retaliate in such a manner, so why weren’t they prepared?
The G7 held an emergency meeting at 15:00 that lasted for 2 hours. In the statement they have said:
We will hold President Putin and those responsible to account.
This is in response to them condemning the Russian missile attacks on Ukraine. Quite how they will hold Putin to account, they have not said. As stated before, an special international tribunal needs to be set up, and perhaps there are plans in the background, but there is no point keeping them secret if it doesn’t act as a deterrent.
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Zelenskyy has stated during the G7 meeting that Ukraine has never planned to attack Belarus, and has no plans to attack Belarus. However, as Belarus has announced they are allowing Russian troops into Belarus, where Belarus troops will join them as a joint task force, Zelenskyy has requested UN monitors and peacekeepers along the border to protect Ukraine. He is also ruled out negotiations with Russia while Putin is in charge.
During the G7 meeting, all have reaffirmed their support for Ukraine until the war is over, and have discussed stronger sanctions against Russia. Discussions also included how to cope with the energy prices that are bound to rise, plus where the energy is to come from. It was also agreed that since Belarus is supporting Russia, then that action must lead to consequences, such as sanctions and limitations on travel visas.
Since Belarus has been helping Russia to buy weapons and ammunition, it can easily become a place for Russians to slip through the net to infiltrate other NATO countries. Belarus has claimed that Ukraine has planned to attack them, and issues in this as propaganda and to suggest provocation. From the outset it is always looked as if Belarus were willing to use their troops to assist the Russian troops, but optics wise they couldn't be seen to physically supply troops as that would then justify trip some of the countries coming to the aid of Ukraine. Perhaps these are Putin’s desperate measures? As the mobilisation seems to have issues, then perhaps there was a plan is to use the Belarusians as cannon fodder. Lukushenko has justified the use of Belarusian troops stating:
There is a clear threat to Belarus from Kyiv and its backers in the West.
The UNHCR for working with Mission Proliska to deliver aid and support to the displaced Ukrainians especially in Donetsk and the Luhansk. They are providing food, non-food items shelter kits and bedding as well as support for those who have lost their homes. Their work is essential since the Red Cross has suspended their operations in Ukraine
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Nissan has made an announcement that they are going to exit Russia due to invasion of Ukraine, and will make a loss of $686 million.
Stoltenberg of NATO held a news conference today ahead of a meeting in Brussels tomorrow. There was the usual statement offering support for Ukraine so that they can defend themselves and to liberate territories that Russia has occupied. NATO seems to believe that they can just keep feeding Ukraine weapons until they defeat Russia, nobody wants to address the actual problem that there are insufficient Ukrainian troops to do this swiftly. Whilst we understand that NATO doesn't want to get involved by sending their own troops, we must then consider that Ukraine will lose more than one generation of men in this war to defend the freedom of Ukraine.
If we look back at recent conflicts in Kosovo, NATO eventually intervened with troops after a year as it was clear there was no other way that lives could be saved. It was deemed a justified action as there was a humanitarian catastrophe, and was considered an exceptional measure on 24 March 1999 by the Council. The war had begun in February 1998, and many lives had been lost already.
More on Elon Musk, who apparently turn down the request to use Starlink over Crimea. It is also been reported that musk spoke to Putin before he posted the strange peace plan tweet, and it is also coincidental that Ukraine appear to have problems with Starlink around the same time as the tweet.
There has been another prisoner swap, the Ukraine has returned 32 prisoners of war and a body of an Israeli soldier. It is estimated that Russia has detained 2500 Ukrainian prisoners of war still
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Erdogan and Putin will meet on the 13th of October in Kazakhstan, and will discuss the Ukrainian situation.
The OHCHR ( Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) has stated that Russia may have violated the laws of war when it attacked Ukraine with more than 80 missile strikes. The statement said it was concerned that the missiles had targeted civilian infrastructure that might be considered a war crime. No kidding Sherlock.
We urge the Russian Federation to refrain from further escalation, I just take coffees for measures to prevent civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure.
Honestly, these statements do nothing and they are pointless right now as Russia has ignored them for the last 7 months, so why does the UN even think that they would suddenly stop and do as they ask?
The G7 have proposed requirements for peace, which include respect for Ukraine's territorial integrity, that means any annexed regions will be returned to Ukraine, the safeguarding of Ukrainian defence, that means that neutrality is out of the question and that they will be allowed to join NATO or other alliances if they wish to, Russia to pay for the costs of Ukrainian reconstruction, and those responsible for war crimes to be held accountable for their actions.
These are all of course or reasonable proposals, however, Russia has only just illegally annexed four regions and they are hardly going to leave unless they have no choice.
Russia Proves They Cannot Defeat the Ukraian Military, Oct. 10, 2022. Revenge missile strikes 2 days after the explosion on Kerch Strait bridge. Over 20 cities targeted with 83 missiles. 55% shot down. 301 settlements in 5 regions remain without electricity a day or so. TARGETING CIVILIANS AND ELECTRICAL GRID ARE WAR CRIMES. Childrens' playground in Kyiev struck by missile. '...this time, the war crimes are in the full light of day for the world to see.' Russia wants to appease the hardliners admitting that it is genocide (the new strategy) because Putin's army losing on the battlefield. WE HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO KILL YOU, IF YOU SAY THIS LAND BELONG TO UKRAINE AND YOU'RE UKRAINIAN. Total cost of 83 long range missiles - $700 million. Before Russia claimed that it was a valid military target. 'Terror attacks'- hit civilians - to destroy the hope of the Ukrainian people.
Ex Libris, you are not the only person asking the question, 'How many civilians have to be killed before NATO decisively says to Putin enough! ' Australia is benefitting because an aggressive China is seeing how unified the West is.