Rastaramsey:
Putin is always making empty threats.....

Shebi he said the war won't last 2 days

He also said he will use chemical weapons on Ukraine

The last time I checked Man is seriously battling cancer...

Jashub:
America is just selfish . Don't they know that the people of Ukraine will be on the receiving end of this decision? Another point for Putin sha

jimyjames:


Russians are just gentle with Ukraine, cause everything is fair in war, Ukrainian soldiers are using civilians as human shields, plus right from the beginning every Ukrainian was advised to carry weapons to fight the Russian's, they were all rejoicing and displaying their bravery, cause if a comedian president it's at the war front then every civilian should be at the war front, Russians are coming hard of them now they are crying about civilians

topcatking:


Don't be daft!

Are those villages of strategic importance?

If they were, You think Russia would leave?

My grouse with people like you is that you can not phrase an objection or a counter argument without being insultive.

Courtesy is a thing

After the United States brought 40 countries to a US base in Germany last week to discuss aid for Ukraine's war with Russia, Putin on Wednesday threatened a "lightning fast" response if there is any direct intervention by outsiders on Kyiv's behalf.

After the United States brought 40 countries to a US base in Germany last week to discuss aid for Ukraine's war with Russia, Putin on Wednesday threatened a "lightning fast" response if there is any direct intervention by outsiders on Kyiv's behalf.

After the United States brought 40 countries to a US base in Germany last week to discuss aid for Ukraine's war with Russia, Putin on Wednesday threatened a "lightning fast" response if there is any direct intervention by outsiders on Kyiv's behalf.

"We have all the tools for this, that no one else can boast of having. We won't boast about it: we'll use them, if needed," Putin said.

It was a thinly veiled reference to Russia's tactical nuclear weapons, which Russian military doctrine holds can be used to force an adversary to retreat.

Rather than pull back at that threat to unleash Moscow's nuclear bombs, US President Joe Biden doubled down on US support for Ukraine.

The $33 billion he requested includes $20 billion for arms and munitions, nearly seven times the amount sent to the country since the Russians invaded on February 24.

- No longer hiding support -

Early in the war Washington worried that aggressively equipping Ukraine's army with anything but "defensive" weaponry risked embroiling the US and NATO in a direct conflict with Russia.

Now, the Pentagon has shed those earlier inhibitions and is shipping offensive weapons like heavy artillery, helicopters and attack drones.

Rather than hiding it, the Pentagon also began openly talking this week about how it is training Ukrainian troops, including inside Germany, to use the weapons they are receiving.

And instead of saying, as it did in February, that it wants only to help Ukraine survive, Washington now says its goal in the war is to debilitate Russia for the long term.

"We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine," US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said after a visit to Kyiv last week.

- Shrugging off Moscow's threat -

Inside the US government, Putin's nuclear threat is being shrugged off.

Biden and his top officials have labeled Moscow's nuclear threats "irresponsible."

"It shows the desperation that Russia is feeling about their abject failure in being able to do what they set out to do" in Ukraine, Biden said Wednesday.

On Friday, a senior US defense official said that even as the Pentagon constantly monitor's Russia's nuclear force, "We do not assess that there is a threat of the use of nuclear weapons and no threat to NATO territory."

Lawrence Freedman, professor emeritus at King's College in London, said there are no signs that Russia is preparing to use its nuclear or chemical weapons in the Ukraine conflict.

"Its threats are taken less seriously than before and it has nothing positive to offer. It is already a diminished power," Freedman wrote on his blog.

That view was echoed by Gideon Rose of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

"Moscow will not use nuclear weapons during the conflict," said Rose.

Putin "knows that extraordinary retaliation and universal opprobrium would follow, with no remotely comparable strategic upsides to justify them," he said.

Even if Biden has repeatedly said that US troops will not get directly involved in Ukraine, the surge in support has turned the conflict into a proxy war, Sam Winter-Levy, a warfare specialist at Princeton University, wrote on the website "War on the Rocks."

"The West needs to be clear-eyed about the situation it confronts. It is currently waging a proxy war with Russia -- one that poses very real risks of escalation," he wrote.

Nevertheless, he said the current path "may still be the best option."

"Ultimately, the only options worse than a proxy war are a cheap Russian victory in Ukraine — or a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States," he said.

topcatking:
Take back? Lets be realistic. They were never held by Russians, they were only occupied in transit.

Who will hold something that is of no strategic importance?

But well... Ukraine and Ukrainians also need some "feel good news" , so...

baralatie:

It was this type of careless behaviour that landed zelensky in trouble

joyandfaith:


Putards are pathetic

ojun50:
Useless visit

baralatie:

I just feel sorry for zelensky
It is his country that politicians are using to catch electoral votes in their own country
While he sees his country under lock of Nazis and his Ukrainians in refugee status also getting to see everything blown to pieces

baralatie:

Well Zelensky has himself to blame.should have walked away with Minsk 2 and he would have EU but here we are

The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are conducting a "safe passage operation" for civilians from the Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Sunday.

The operation began on April 29 as part of a deal between the UN, the ICRC, Russia and Ukraine, spokesman Saviano Abreu told AP.

He said the operation arrived at the steel works on Saturday morning, adding that no further details could be released so as not to jeopardise the safety of evacuees.

As many as 100,000 people are believed to be trapped in Mariupol, including up to 1,000 civilians and 2,000 Ukrainian fighters beneath the Azovstal steel plant.

More than 50 civilians were evacuated on Sunday from Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks, with many transferred in a convoy of vehicles bearing United Nations symbols, indicating that a deal had been struck to transfer civilians trapped in the besieged port city.

Reuters photographs showed around 40 civilians arriving in the village of Bezimenne in the Donetsk region, around 30km east of Mariupol. A Reuters photographer reported seeing a group of 14 more people arriving at a temporary accommodation centre after leaving the steel factory.

Russian state media earlier cited Russia's defense ministry as saying 46 people had been evacuated from areas near the Azovstal steel plant.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a Congressional delegation to Kyiv to meet Ukraine’s president in the latest show of support for the fight against Russia by a senior Western politician.

Pelosi, second in line to the presidency after the vice president, is the highest-ranking American leader to visit Ukraine since the start of the war, and her visit marks a major show of support for the country’s struggle against Moscow’s invasion.

“We believe that we are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom… Our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done,” Pelosi told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to a video from the Ukrainian presidency.

“Our delegation travelled to Kyiv to send an unmistakable and resounding message to the entire world: America stands firmly with Ukraine. We are here until victory is won.”

She also condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “diabolic invasion”.

Moscow calls its actions a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and the West say Russia has launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

Zelenskyy took to Twitter to thank the United States “for helping protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state”.

“The US is leading strong support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression,” he said. “We’ll win and we’ll win together.”

Schiff said the US legislators had a three-hour meeting with Zelenskyy and his administration, talking about sanctions, weapons and aid assistance. Schiff promised intelligence-sharing would continue between Ukraine and the United States.

“This is a struggle of freedom against tyranny,” Schiff said. “And in that struggle, Ukraine is on the front lines.”

McGovern said Russia’s war had repercussions far beyond Ukraine, saying it was exacerbating a food crisis that would be disastrous for poor people across the globe.

“Putin’s brutal war is no longer only a war against the people of Ukraine. It’s also a war against the world’s most vulnerable. I don’t think that Putin cares if he starves the world,” McGovern said.

OAM4J, Mynd44

chronique:


And I wonder how you think the Finns and Swedes would sleep peacefully every night knowing there are nuclear bombs deployed at their borders that could be set off at any time. It's not a win for any of them.

Ussycool:
NATO expansion agenda.
USA and Russia may likely go into war in future. Putin I don't care atittude is devastating while USA miscalculate future events before luring Ukraine to join NATO.
The both Sweden and Finland should think twice.

But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both nations have reconsidered their current position, and have seen an uptick in public support for joining NATO. The expansion of NATO, which requires unanimity among the 30 members, would mark the most significant geopolitical consequence of Russia’s incursion to date. Finland joining NATO would double Russia’s land border with members of the alliance.

The top U.S. diplomat’s remarks are likely to prompt an angry response from Moscow, which recently threatened to move nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles closer to the borders of Sweden and Finland should they choose to join the military alliance.

“The world has changed pretty dramatically and one of the ways it has changed is in the very strong interest of both countries to become members of NATO,” Blinken said. “We, of course, look to them to make that decision. If that’s what they decide, we will strongly support it.”

The United States has long made clear it supports an open-door policy for NATO that allows any nation to apply for membership. But it has been more careful about spelling out what comes next.

“They have been extremely cautious in what they say, always saying we have an open-door policy to decide and that’s where they stop,” said a Nordic diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

The diplomat said Blinken’s remarks constitute a stronger backing of NATO membership than he has heard from the United States in the past. “In the past, they don’t want to give the impression they are trying to lure Sweden and Finland into NATO. They don’t want to unnecessarily upset the Russians,” he said.

Sweden has refrained from joining military alliances for more than two centuries. Finland has fought dozens of wars with Russia but pursued a neutral status in the postwar period.

But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both nations have reconsidered their current position, and have seen an uptick in public support for joining NATO. The expansion of NATO, which requires unanimity among the 30 members, would mark the most significant geopolitical consequence of Russia’s incursion to date. Finland joining NATO would double Russia’s land border with members of the alliance.

Membership would involve the United States offering security guarantees to two more vulnerable countries in Europe at a time when it is seeking to rebalance its attention to East Asia. The goal would be to deter Russia from invading another one of its neighbors, though it could also risk further aggression by Moscow.

Before invading Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the far-reaching demand that NATO refrain from expanding eastward, and accused the military alliance of trying to “encircle” Russia. In December, he called any further enlargement of NATO would be “unacceptable.”

“Is there anything unclear about this? Are we deploying missiles near the U.S. border? No, we are not. It is the United States that has come to our home with its missiles and is already standing at our doorstep,” said Putin in his annual news conference. “Is it going too far to demand that no strike systems be placed near our home? What is so unusual about this?”

When asked about how soon the two countries could become members, Blinken said, “I can’t give you a timeline,” but pointed to an upcoming meeting of NATO countries in May where “we’ll hear more about that.”

“Decision on this issue will be taken very soon,” Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Thursday. Marin had said on April 13 that Finland would launch an immediate debate on joining NATO — a decision with “different perspectives” for and against applying that had to be “carefully analyzed,” she said. A poll in Finland found an unprecedented majority of Finns supporting joining NATO, in the opening days of Russia’s invasion.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson also said earlier this month that Sweden was examining its position outside of NATO. In early March, a majority Swedes for the first time supported NATO membership, one poll showed.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the two Nordic countries, which he called “our closest partners,” would be quickly welcomed into the alliance.

“It’s their decision,” Stoltenberg said. “But if they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be warmly welcomed, and I expect that process to go quickly.”

Mynd44, OAM4

"If they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be warmly welcomed and I expect the process to go quickly," Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels, adding he planned to speak with the Finnish president later in the day.

He said he was sure arrangements could be found for the interim period between an application by the two Scandinavian countries and the formal ratification in the parliaments of all 30 NATO members.

"I am confident that there are ways to bridge that interim period in a way which is good enough and works for both Finland and Sweden," Stoltenberg said.

Russia, with which Finland shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border, has said it will deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad if Finland and Sweden decide to join NATO.

Russia looks to have averted a historic sovereign default on Friday by tapping its domestic reserves and attempting to make overdue dollar payments on its international debt obligations.

Earlier Friday, Russia's Finance Ministry said that it had attempted the dollar payments — a dramatic U-turn after the country had previously sought to make the payments on its dollar-denominated bonds in Russian rubles.

The ministry said it had made a payment of $564.8 million on a 2022 eurobond and a payment of $84.4 million on a 2042 eurobond, according to Reuters, with both in dollars — which was originally stipulated in the debt agreements.

The funds have reportedly been channeled to the London branch of Citibank but it's unclear whether they will reach their intended recipients. The payments were due to be made in April and had entered a 30-day grace period before official default on May 4.

Russian government bonds rallied Friday afternoon following the news from the Finance Ministry. But close Moscow watchers like Timothy Ash, emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, were unsure whether it would still be able to avoid a default.

"CDS committee [credit derivatives determinations committee] already ruled default so this is pretty extraordinary ... bonds rallying hard ... insane," he said in a flash note Friday afternoon.

A senior U.S. official said later Friday that Russia had not mobilized money through the U.S. system and the payments involved fresh funds.

"The main concern was are they going to use funds that were immobilized in the U.S. or use the money they have been using to prop up the ruble and the war effort. It appears it came from that pile of money because we didn't authorize any transactions involving the immobilized funds in the U.S.," the official said, according to Reuters.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Assets frozen

Around half of Russia's vast foreign currency reserves have been frozen by punitive economic sanctions imposed by international powers in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

On April 4, Russia made a payment on the two sovereign bonds that are due to mature in 2022 and 2042 in the local currency rather than in dollars as mandated under the terms of its contract.

In a recent statement, ratings agency Moody's said this deviation from the payment terms relative to the original bond contracts may be considered a default if not remedied by the end of the monthlong grace period on May 4.

"The bond contracts have no provision for repayment in any other currency other than dollars. Although eurobonds issued after 2018 allow under certain conditions for repayments to be made in rubles, those issued before 2018 (including the 2022 and 2042 bonds) either do not contain this alternative currency clause or allow for repayments to be made only in other hard currencies (dollar, euro, pound sterling or Swiss franc)," analysts from the sovereign risk group at Moody's said.

The ratings agency said it did not believe investors obtained the foreign currency contractual promise on the due date for the payment.

S&P Global Ratings also downgraded Russia's foreign debt credit rating to selective default after its April 4 ruble payment.

The attempt to pay in rubles came after the U.S. Treasury Department refused in early April a waiver for Russian payments to foreign bondholders to go through despite U.S. sanctions, a special permission it had granted in March.

The move prevented the Kremlin from paying holders of its sovereign debt with the more than $600 million of dollar reserves held with U.S. financial institutions. The aim was to force Russia to either use up more of its own stockpile of dollar reserves or accept its first foreign debt default in more than a century.

While sanctions imposed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine had already frozen the Central Bank of Russia's foreign currency reserves held with U.S. banks, the Treasury had allowed Moscow to use those funds on a case-by-case basis to meet coupon payment obligations on its dollar-denominated debt.

Mynd44, OAM4