#ukrain

[landschaftsmalerei]

Sunset over a Ukrainian Hamlet, 1915 by Juli Julievich Klever

[cosmonautroger]

Аэросъёмка Харьков, Kiev, Ukrain

[odinsblog]

[pangeen]

“ Ukrainian sunflower fields “ // Diana Serbichenko

[chelseajackarmy]

[lasseling]

The bottom pic is being a bit optimistic

[shamballalin]

THE PEACEFUL PATH of TRANSFORMATION ~ PEACE TRAIN by CAT STEVENS

I pray for peace for the Jews. I pray for peace for the Palestinians. I pray for Ukraine. I pray for Russia. I pray for peace for Ethiopia. I pray for peace for Yemen. I pray for peace for Syria. I pray for peace for Libya. I pray for peace for Myanmar. I pray for peace for Colombia. I pray for peace for Nigeria. I pray for peace for Sudan. I pray for peace for Afghanastan. I pray…

[russian-aesthetic]

[cheezewhis]

If 1968 was the year on fire, then this is the fucking decade on fire.

[stygiy]

Animefest Brno 2023 1st day 🎏

[russianhackersblog]

1)Russia has committed an UNPROVOKED aggression against Ukraine

Western propaganda is trying to convince its listeners that Putin has gone mad, and like a comic book villain decided to take over the world, and Russians obey their dark lord like zombies :) Maybe people who read comics instead of full-fledged books believed this, but for others such a primitive explanation should have raised questions. And these questions are justified. Putin is not going to take over the world, and Russia has a rational reason for invading Ukraine. This reason has a long history. And it is called the problem of NATO's expansion to the east and Ukraine's accession to NATO.

People who think that this reason is not good enough should present something. Imagine that the United States, not the USSR, lost in the Cold War. That NATO collapsed, not the Warsaw Pact Organization. That the Warsaw Pact Organization has been expanding since 1990. That the whole of Europe was accepted into this organization. And then Cuba was accepted into it, and Mexico and Canada are planning to be accepted in the near future. Introduced? This is the situation Russia found itself in after the collapse of the USSR.

Canada in this example is Ukraine. A country that shares thousands of kilometers of common border with the European part of Russia. The majority of the Russian population lives in the European part of Russia. Almost the entire infrastructure of the country is concentrated there. Among other things, there is an important military infrastructure located there. From the territory of Ukraine, aircraft, drones and missiles can be launched throughout the European part of Russia. NATO's capabilities to launch a disarming nuclear strike against Russia will increase dramatically. If Russia had lost the base of the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, it would have lost control of the Black Sea.

You will say: Wait, NATO has never threatened Russia and had no plans to attack Russia.

I'll answer it this way. NATO was created specifically against the USSR. It was being prepared for war with the USSR during the Cold War. Why do we need NATO at all, if the Cold War is over and the USSR is no more?

The Warsaw Pact Organization, which was created against NATO and the United States, was dissolved. And the NATO organization, which was created against the USSR, remained. Against whom is it now intended? Let me remind you that Russia is the legal successor of the USSR. And is it any wonder that the organization that was created against the USSR is now so ready to rally against Russia?

And all these years, NATO's policy has been at odds with Russia's policy. For example, Russia was against the destruction of Yugoslavia. Against the fact that the NATO invasion of Libya led to the assassination of Gaddafi and the civil war. NATO has also not supported Russia in any Russian military conflict. NATO countries sided with Russia's opponents in Transnistria, Chechnya, South Ossetia, and Syria. Thus, NATO's policy towards Russia cannot be called friendly. And in any conflict with the United States, NATO's military might would be used against Russia as a means of pressure and influence. As it is happening now, for example. Therefore, NATO and its expansion into Ukraine pose a serious threat to Russia's security.

And Russia has been making unprecedented diplomatic efforts since 1991 to prevent NATO from expanding to its borders and the entry of former Soviet republics into NATO. President Yeltsin and President Putin even tried to join NATO, but it was not successful. Western leaders have not shown serious interest in this. But they have shown interest in expanding the expansion of NATO and the United States to the whole of eastern Europe. In 2008, at the NATO summit in Bucharest, plans were announced for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO. In 2013, President Yanukovych, loyal to Russia, was overthrown in Ukraine with the support of the United States. Instead, pro-NATO forces came to power, which announced a course towards joining NATO. In the current situation, Russia has exhausted all diplomatic possibilities to stop the expansion of NATO and the United States to its borders. And President Putin has decided to annex the strategic peninsula of Crimea.

This eventually led to the events of 2022. If there had been no NATO expansion to Russia's borders, then there would have been no war in 2022.

So what do we have? Imagine that the huge military bloc that your former enemy created to fight with you is expanding to the borders of your country and trying to encircle it. Your attempts to join this block lead to nothing. This block is pursuing a policy that is unfriendly to you. No amount of diplomatic efforts are helping to stop its expansion.

Imagine that in a neighboring country, suddenly, as a result of a coup, a regime with a negative attitude towards your country comes, which plans to join this bloc. You are going to extreme measures to stop the expansion of this block. And you are being declared a terrorist country that has committed an UNPROVOKED attack. How do you like it? And this is the story that Russia got into. And how fair is that in your opinion?

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Gary Wilson and Lallan Schoenstein

An international peace seminar held in Guantánamo, Cuba, brought together delegates from 30 countries demanding a world free of U.S. imperialist intervention and military bases.

During the VIII International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Military Bases, participants echoed the international condemnation of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, demanded the return of Cuban territory occupied by the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo, and repudiated the wars organized by NATO under U.S. leadership.

[minarachelle]

Goa, the Netherlands - 2022

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dana Summers

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 11, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 12, 2024

When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed a joint meeting of Congress today, he tried to remind lawmakers of who Americans are. “The U.S. shaped the international order in the postwar world through economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power,” he reminded them. “It championed freedom and democracy. It encouraged the stability and prosperity of nations, including Japan. And, when necessary, it made noble sacrifices to fulfill its commitment to a better world.”

He explained the bigger picture. “The United States policy was based on the premise that humanity does not want to live oppressed by an authoritarian state, where you are tracked and surveilled and denied from expressing what is in your heart and on your mind,” he said. “You believed that freedom is the oxygen of humanity.” 

Keenly aware that MAGA Republicans have rejected the nation’s role in protecting freedom and democracy and are standing between Ukraine and U.S. aid, Kishida said: “The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations.”

“Freedom and democracy are currently under threat around the globe,” he said. “Climate change has caused natural disasters, poverty, and displacement on a global scale. In the COVID-19 pandemic, all humanity suffered. Rapid advances in AI technology have resulted in a battle over the soul of AI that is raging between its promise and its perils. The balance of economic power is shifting. The Global South plays a greater role in responding to challenges and opportunities and calls for a larger voice…. China's current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan but to the peace and stability of the international community at large.”

In the midst of all this dramatic change, Kishida said, “the leadership of the United States is indispensable. Without U.S. support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow?” he asked. “Without the presence of the United States, how long before the Indo-Pacific would face even harsher realities?”

He noted that Japan has pledged $12 billion to Ukraine and “will continue to stand with” the vulnerable country. In this fraught hour, he said, “[t]he democratic nations of the world must have all hands on deck. I am here to say that Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States. You are not alone. We are with you.”

As Kishida gently warned lawmakers that the United States is abdicating its role in world affairs by its apparent abandonment of Ukraine, Russian forces last night destroyed the largest power plant in the Kyiv region. U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A. Brink reported that “Russia last night launched more than 40 drones and 40 missiles into Ukraine…. The situation in Ukraine is dire; there is not a moment to lose,” she wrote. 

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) surely knows the situation in Ukraine is dire; he has held up U.S. aid for six months. The Senate passed a national security supplemental bill that would provide aid to Ukraine back in February, but while Johnson has said he would bring the supplemental bill to the House floor, where it will certainly pass, somehow it has never been the right time.

American refusal to support Ukraine is causing global concern. When British foreign secretary David Cameron came to the U.S. this week, he not only met with lawmakers and State Department officials, but also traveled to Florida to meet with former president Trump at Mar-a-Lago in hopes of persuading him to support additional U.S. military aid to Ukraine. That Johnson refused to meet with Cameron when he returned to Washington, D.C., the next day suggests that Cameron’s effort achieved little. 

Johnson is facing pressure from extremists in his conference like Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene who oppose aid to Ukraine and who are threatening to challenge his speakership if he brings the bill to the floor of the House. Those extremists fired another shot across his bow today when they blocked a law to extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after Trump urged them to kill it. 

When the measure failed, security expert and former Trump administration official Miles Taylor wrote: “The House’s failure to renew FISA is *BAD.* If these powers lapse, it would be like blind-folding U.S. spies and tying their hands behind their backs as they try to protect Americans from China, Russia, terror groups & beyond. Get it together, Congress.”

To enable Johnson to ignore the extremists if it means getting aid to Ukraine, Democrats have thrown Johnson a lifeline, if only he will use it. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) suggested today that Democrats would vote against a challenge to Johnson’s speakership, keeping him in place. Jeffries said: “If the speaker were to do the right thing and allow the House to work its will with an up or down vote on the national security bill, then I believe there are a reasonable number of Democrats [who] would not want to see the speaker fall as a result of doing the right thing.” 

But instead of actually doing the people’s business and passing a measure the White House, Pentagon, and a majority of Congress think is vital to our national security, MAGA Republicans appear to be consumed by the effort to get Trump back into the presidency. 

Today the House Rules Committee got a new chair as Michael Burgess (R-TX) took the reins from Tom Cole (R-OK). Burgess will oversee his first hearing on Monday as the committee meets to examine six bills that appear to be designed to feed the Republicans’ culture wars by denying the secretary of energy’s power to establish new energy conservation standards. Those bills are the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act,” the “Liberty in Laundry Act,” the “Clothes Dryers Reliability Act,” the “Refrigerator Freedom Act,” the “Affordable Air Conditioning Act,” and the “Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act.” 

Johnson is also in on the act. He is scheduled to visit Mar-a-Lago tomorrow to promote a bill to prevent noncitizens from voting. This is purely political theater: it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Trump seems eager to push the idea of “election integrity” to bolster his lie that the 2020 election was stolen and the 2024 election will be too, evidently trying to chum up distrust of American elections.

Under its new co-chairs, Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Trump loyalist Michael Whatley, the Republican National Committee last week sent out a robocall to voters’ phones saying that Democrats committed “massive fraud” in the 2020 presidential election and that “If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled out by someone who isn’t even an American citizen.” This is a straight-up lie, of course—Trump and his loyalists have never produced any evidence for their accusations and lost more than 60 court cases over it—but Trump clearly intends to make it a centerpiece of his campaign. 

While Republicans are pushing the Big Lie, in The Bulwark today, conservative commentator Mona Charen noted that Ukraine president Volodomyr Zelensky this week warned the U.S. that Ukraine will lose the war against Russia’s aggression if it does not get U.S. aid. 

“Putin seems to have pulled off the most successful foreign influence operation in American history,” Charen wrote. “If Trump were being blackmailed by Putin it’s hard to imagine how he would behave any differently. And though it started with Trump, it has not ended there. Putin now wields more power over the [Republicans] than anyone other than Trump…. [T]hey mouth Russian disinformation without shame. Putin,” she said, “must be pinching himself.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[the-drunk-game-master]

Okay I have an idea about the Israel Gaza situation. Why don't we just take all the anti-tank and anti aircraft weapons that we were gonna send to Israel... and send it to Ukraine instead?

[chelseajackarmy]

Chelsea Football Club

Warm ups