War Fatigue In Ukraine As The Israel - Palestine Conflict Intensifies
Will military aid to Ukraine suffer?
External factors are affecting the war in Ukraine—namely the war in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine, and the political elections in the allied countries. Each has an impact on Ukraine, mainly in the level of support and amount of military aid to be supplied. Both factors benefit Russia, but what can Ukraine do except push for more support and aid, and show the world that they are stamping out corruption.
A brief look at some Ukrainian media shows arrests of more pro-Kremlin supporters in Ukraine who helped launch attacks in their home towns, more corrupt officials who either made a profit from the war or have been paid by the Russians to assist them. I can see why they publish the stories, in order to show the world that corruption is being dealt with, but at the same time the world is witnessing corruption on a mass scale that led to the war.
Putin, in the meantime seems to be having meetings with North Korea and China and doesn’t care who knows, with Russia even admitting most of their drones came from China. It will be hard for China to deny now that Russia has stated the origin of their drones.
Watching this war is difficult, and it’s hard not to get frustrated when action is needed but no one dares take action apart from Putin. With the Polish elections, there might be a shift in the government again, and one with a pro-EU stance (with all the rules not to be bent), that might not favour Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and Zelenskyy should focus on Ukraine and not worry about being a world ambassador (Zelenskyy wanted to visit Israel, and now is not the time), and Kuleba has been making statements that he is working to get companies like IKEA and Zara to return to Ukraine. That is not important when Russia may launch another attack and all the stores will be destroyed. It’s also an insult to the many people who have donated to Ukraine to help people for Ukraine to think business. While it is needed in terms of industry, Ukraine needs to learn not to take advantage of the aid and support given and to expect it to continue.
The US has stated it can support both Israel and Ukraine, but how will the Americans react to this? With changes the Slovakian and Polish governments, will Ukraine benefit or suffer? We should also remember that the US and UK election will be within a year or so, and the war in Ukraine is likely to continue for another year at least, so another leadership change may or may not benefit Ukraine.
Day 598 (14 Oct)
China will host the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (on 17-18 October) which is a political and economic forum initiated by China. Putin is likely to attend as in Orban of Hungary, and it is reported a member of the Afghan Taliban will also attend. Most of the African countries are also expected to attend as well as Belarus. Orban’s attendance should be enough for the EU to have words with him, but they are pretty weak as the alliance fails to enforce those who flout the rules.
A woman has received a life sentence for treason for providing Russia with photographs of strategic targets in Ukraine
Day 599 (15 Oct)
The IMF has launched the Ukraine Capacity Development fund, and has received $14 million already and has a target of $65 million.
The SBU has stated they launched an attack in Belgorod, Krasnaya Yaruga, which is an electrical substation that services military facilities.
Day 600 (16 Oct)
In occupied Kherson, schools have been forced to close as teachers will no cooperate with the Russian occupiers.
The OSCE chief, Bujar Osmani, meets with Foreign Minister Kuleba. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has stated that it will ‘continue to support a just peace for Ukraine while upholding its sovereignty and territorial integrity’ yet they failed to prevent the invasion, and ran off during the invasion leaving Ukrainian staff to fend for themselves. Another alliance that failed to uphold what it said it would do.
Zelenskyy meets with the US Special Representative for Economic Recovery in Ukraine, Penny, Pritzker in Kyiv. Discussions included how to reinforce Ukraine's energy system during winter, where it is vulnerable to Russian attacks like last year.
Lavrov will visit North Korea this week on 18 October, while Putin will visit China. It’s pretty clear that China and North Korea support Russia, yet what are the UN doing about it?
Russia has admitted that most of its drones were imported from China. The Russian finance minister, Anton Siluanov acknowledged this at a meeting of the State Duma's budget and taxes committee.
Today, our trains are mostly or from the People's Republic of China.