Pope Francis has suggested a ceasefire amid the Ukraine-Russia war after three years of destruction and tens of thousands of lives lost. “Ukraine must have the courage to raise the white flag,” the Pope said during a recent interview. The Catholic Church, the pope, and the idea of peace have received harsh backlash in response.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said that Ukraine would never waive a white flag to surrender. “Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Kuleba said. Kuleba related the battle to one of good vs evil, a concept that Russian President Putin has vehemently denied.
These sentiments were reiterated by Western leaders who support this endless war. Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said, “One must not capitulate in [the] face of evil. One must fight it and defeat it, so that the evil raises the white flag and capitulates.” Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski also took to social media to condemn the Pope’s comments, asking him to instead encourage Putin to withdraw his army. “Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations,” Sikorski wrote. That is simply untrue and impossible. The West has put so much money into Ukraine that they fully expect a return on their investment beyond any reparations Russia could provide. The West, in all actuality, wants to take over Russia.
"Fundamentally wrong."
The leader of Germany's opposition Conservative party, Friedrich Merz, has rejected Pope Francis' suggestion that Ukraine should raise the "white flag." pic.twitter.com/MOBKOo4WXU
German Democrat MEP Dennis Radtke called the pope’s words “shameful.” “His stance on Ukraine reflects poorly on his pontificate. It is incomprehensible,” Radtke said on X. Peace is truly an incompressible solution for the West, who know that Ukraine cannot win but will keep the war raging on for their own self-interests.
Putin has been asking for a peace agreement. Tens of thousands are dead over a land dispute. The Minsk Agreement was a lie and everything promised on the basis of peace and diplomatic relations has vanished. Had we permitted historic Russian territories to vote, all of this could have been avoided. There is a reason that NATO is fiercely supporting a non-member nation in this battle because they need to use Ukraine as their battleground to defeat Russia. No one considers the actual Ukrainian people who are being used as cannon fodder.
Zelensky was naturally enraged over the prospects of ending the war, saying that although prayers were appreciated, but reiterated Ukraine needs reinforcement in the form of money and military power. “ Not 2,500 km away, somewhere, virtual mediation between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you,” Zelensky stated. Russia had no intentions of destroying Ukraine. Putin said he believes that the people of Ukraine and Russia will one day be united as they are blood. There was never even a plan to take over Ukraine as the aim was to liberate specific territories.
The Catholic Church is under fire for suggesting that Ukraine turn the other cheek. Russia cannot end this war for they are battling the entire West; Ukraine is merely the battleground. How could Ukraine win this war? There is no possibility of that happening and it is no longer Ukraine’s war. There has been no progress in three years.
“Negotiations are never a surrender. It is the courage not to carry a country to suicide,” Pope Francis accurately stated. Pope Francis continued to encourage peace and calls for a truce. He urged nations not aligned with the neocon agenda to continue offering options for peace. “Today, for example with the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to act as mediators. Turkey, for example. Don’t be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse,” he stated.
Peace has never been an option. Ukraine will continue to send men to die in battle, and those men will soon be replaced with men from other nations as the replenishment rate is unsustainable. Ukraine would NOT cease to exist if it surrendered, and Russia has no intention of empire-building. Russia has said it would be open to allowing a quiet peace negotiation and would like Ukraine to find a way to end the war “with dignity.” Only one side would like this war to come to an end, but they are in no position to surrender, for they risk their entire nation.
Posted originally on Jan 30, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Ukraine hosts one of the most corrupt governments in the world. The West and NATO have provided Ukraine with billions in funding but have been unable to track where the money is spent. They do not investigate where the money is spent because they also lack ethics and are only concerned that the war wages on. It comes as no surprise that Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has uncovered a major arms corruption scheme.
An arms dealer by the name of Lviv Arsenal and five senior members of the defense ministry are being questioned for a secret deal worth around $40 million. Defense officials expensed a purchase for 100,000 mortar shells in August 2022 but never received a single shipment. “According to the investigation, former and current high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defence [sic] and heads of affiliated companies are involved in the embezzlement,” it said.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general claims that all stolen funds have magically returned to the military’s budget.
Then, the SCU announced that two lawmakers from the Opposition Platform – for Life Party orchestrated a heist involving 32 merchant ships to the tune of $2.1 million. The political party was banned from Ukraine for pro-Russian policies, and countless crimes are now being attributed to anyone affiliated with this party. The SBU claims that these two men illegally transferred these merchant ships through a shell company before removing them from Ukraine and stripping them for parts. The men then used the parts to assemble new ships to hide their source. The pro-Russian group later repurposed the vessels for their own business endeavors. Again, the SBU seized all stolen assets and announced to the public after doing so.
These are merely two examples of corruption in Ukraine revealed in a single week.
Zelensky routinely puts on a charade where he pretends to address the corruption and bribery. In August 2023, Zelensky fired all regional military commissars and replaced his defense minister. “This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery at a time of war is high treason,” the president stated.
According to a poll, Ukrainians consider corruption the country’s second most serious problem, behind only the Russian invasion. The country is still ranked as one of the most corrupt in Europe, and its Corruption Perception Index was 33/100 in 2022, ranking 116 out of 180 countries. If Zelensky were to “drain the swamp,” no one would be left in the US-funded Ukrainian government.
Posted originally on the CTH on January 25, 2024 | Sundance
On Wednesday, Russia claimed an IL-76 transport aircraft carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs was shot down en route to a POW exchange in the Belgorod region.
Western media, particularly those with a vested anti-Russia narrative, expressed skepticism of the Russian statement, including the claim that Ukraine had shot down the plane. However, the BBC has an outline [SEE HERE] based on a conversation with a Ukrainian intelligence official that seems to directly corroborate the Russian statements.
Oddly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, the BBC article is framed to retain the skepticism; however, if you read the article carefully, what you will notice is the details are generally confirmed.
Yes, there was a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine military that was supposed to take place in Belgorod on Wednesday, at the exact time the plane was shot down. Yes, for some unknown reason the prisoner exchange did not take place as the POWs never arrived. Yes, there was a previous POW exchange that took place in this exact same Belgorod location, and yes, a Russian IL-76 aircraft was previously used to transport the Ukraine POWs.
(Via BBC) – … [Ukraine Intelligence Officer] Andriy Yusov stressed that Russia had provided no proof to back its claims there were. “There is no clear information about prisoners of war. There are only statements by Russia, of a political and propagandist nature,” he said. “Who or what was on board needs to be clarified.”
Mr Yusov, who is the first Ukrainian official interviewed by the BBC since the incident on Wednesday, accused Moscow of “hiding” information, with limited images from the crash site – including of any dead.
Here’s where the article seems to confirm the Russian story:
“Russian air defence was working against them. Belgorod is also potentially within the range of Ukrainian air defence systems.” … “On the prisoner swap, he confirmed an exchange had been planned on Wednesday “around lunchtime”. But it was meant to take place in the Sumy region, west of Belgorod.” … “He said the two sides implemented a ceasefire in Sumy, as agreed. “Unfortunately, the exchange did not happen.” … “On 3 January, during the previous swap, he said Ukraine was informed that Russia would use a plane. On Thursday, Ukraine’s Air Forces chief stressed that the country had the right to defend itself against attack by Russia and would continue to do so.” (link)
If you take out all the narrative engineering from the article, then just take those excerpts from Ukraine intelligence in total, they seem to confirm everything Russia outlined about the transport of 65 Ukrainian POWs to Belgorod.
Why would Russia have to tell Ukraine again how the POWs would arrive, when they already told them the first time – and they were simply repeating the same process.
The plane never arrived, and the 65 POW exchange never happened, because Ukraine shot down the Russian transport plane.
Posted originally on Jan 24, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Why would anyone want to literally risk their lives to live in a war torn country?
When all Ukrainians join hands, they won't raise them to surrender. We all fight. And today, this is true not only for the Dnipro's two banks. Today, the unity of Ukrainians spans both hemispheres of the Earth. In every corner of which, on February 24, there were people… pic.twitter.com/ylDwWkOLyj
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 22, 2024
ANSWER: President Volodymyr Zelensky is offering ALL ethnic Ukrainians citizenship, unless they live in Russia. Zelensky is implementing legislation that will allow Ukrainians living abroad to obtain multiple citizenship.
The declaration was made in honor of the 105th anniversary of Ukrainian Unity Day:
“Everyone who has Ukrainian blood in their veins and a free heart beating in their chest. Ukrainians by origin, who have long proven that they are Ukrainians in spirit. And after many years of waiting, they should finally become Ukrainians by passport. At the legislative level. Today I am submitting to the Verkhovna Rada a key draft law that will allow the adoption of comprehensive legislative amendments and the introduction of multiple citizenship.”
Foreign volunteers who took up arms to defend Ukraine, all those who fight for Ukraine’s freedom as if it were their homeland. And Ukraine will become such for them. For everyone who can feel that “being in Ukraine” means “being at home.” Not as tourists, but as citizens. Citizens of a great, united, single Ukraine.”
So you can now IDENTIFY as Ukrainian to receive citizenship if you are willing to fight. You can pay taxes as a Ukrainian to support a government that is entirely dependent on US aid to stay afloat.
“I'm a 30-year-old guy living in Ukraine. Despite all of the shortcomings of this country, I still feel that this is my home, and for the past years, I've always wanted to live here. Life here had and still has many positives too.
Now the war is raging with absolutely no end in sight. The first year and a half I didn't feel the urge to fight, but I didn't want to run away either, thinking that if it does come to it and I get drafted, I'll just accept it. I didn't want to bribe to become unfit or even look for other ways to avoid the draft. Now, with the state the war is in, especially after my friend who went there willingly last year told me not to go, I decided that I should try to actively avoid it. However, bribes to become unfit are no longer an option and there are little to no ways that would allow me to be exempt legally.
The new draft law is on the way. It would oblige all men eligible for service to update their information in the military offices. In case you don't do that or in case you do, get a draft notice and don't show, you will have your driver's license revoked, bank accounts blocked, get prohibited from buying or selling property, and that's not even the full list.
The option to get a 'one-way ticket' is still on the table. A lot of people who have done this hope to return when the war is over. You leave the country legally but simply don't come back in time. At least at the moment, it's just an administrative offense, not a criminal one.
Even if I do decide to proceed with this option, I'd probably hope to come back as well, and what kind of life is that. I don't have any relatives abroad, just some friends, I'm single, so I will have to start on my own. A few years back I had been traveling abroad alone for 9 months, so I know how it feels being far away from home on your own. I work remotely and make decent enough money, I have savings, so it's definitely possible, but leaving everything behind for an undetermined period of time is still difficult. But planning any kind of future here is virtually impossible as well.
Also, as I said, this is my home, and terrible things will happen to it if everybody just runs away and there's no one left to defend it. But dying in a ditch because some soviet-era commander doesn't value human lives just seems so horrible. I know it's not the only scenario, but it's still a very plausible one.
But many of my friends have already left, many are planning to, so I'm slowly ending up more and more alone here.
It's such a tough decision to make and the more I wait, the harder this all gets.
EDIT
I'll post some additional thoughts here based on some replies since there are way to many comments for me to be able to respond to them. I'll try to be as honest as possible.
- First of all, thank you everyone for your replies and your sympathies. This is an impossible choice to make and I wish I'd never had to. Many of you have said that whatever I do, it will be a right choice. But in the same way any choice I make will also be the wrong one. And any choice I make with a high degree of certainty will be something I at least partially regret until the end of my life.
- There's no such thing as a conscientious objection here.
- Getting a 'support' role is highly unlikely. If we're talking about the military, you are first and foremost a resource and you'll be utilized where you're needed most. Vast majority of loses occur in the active roles, so these are the positions that need to be replenished the most. I even heard a story of a pediatric surgeon who was designated to be not a combat medic, but an infantry man, since those are in the highest demand. Right now we're only starting to see the development of the system to create a possibility to 'choose' your position and place of service (including the ones in the rear). But as of now military service is indefinite and even if that works, it's still a post-soviet army in a big way, and there's no guarantee you won't be transferred to an active role in the future when someone deems it necessary. Also, currently it's obvious that the state does not have much interest in or enough resources for caring about wounded soldiers. In a huge way, once something happens to you, in a big way you're on your own and your only hope is your own resources or volunteers. And that, of course, is not sufficient to help everybody.
- I personally do believe this war is morally justified and existential for us. Yes, this is a failure of politics and politicians: Russia with its imperialism, the West with their inability to act after giving Ukraine guarantees of safety in 1994 and their leniency towards Russia, us with our naivety and short-sightedness. The immaturity of Ukrainian nation has also played its role here. However, for Ukraine this is not a war for resources or Zelensky. It's a war for existence.
- Advocating for peace talks is very unlikely to bear any results in the foreseeable future. There's no way to negotiate with someone who doesn't want to negotiate. Putin believes he can outlast us and the West in the war of attrition, get more territory, and achieve more of his goals, he doesn't care about the lives lost, so there's no reason for him to stop. At the very best there can be a pause that he will use to rearm and attack again with a new force. The only way this can be stopped is with force and deterrence.
- That being said, I'm not trying to paint my desire to leave as anything but concern for my personal safety. A lot of people who have commented believe that's justifiable. And I partly agree. A lot of people on the other hand believe that this is cowardice. And I partly agree with that as well. It's either you believe that you have a right to live your life and that it is precious, or that you have a duty that you never willingly took to give that life for a country where you happened to be born a male.
- There's no need to judge the whole of the Ukrainian nation by my character. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have willingly taken arms and sacrificed their own health and lives. There are many more who are ready to do that when the time comes.”
It is hard to envy this man’s position. He must choose between a violent bloody war or abandoning his home. Sadly, he and most others were led to believe that peace was not an option. Putin has offered Zelensky countless opportunities to end the war but he consistently chooses to amplify tensions by involving his NATO neocons. He mentions that conscientious objection is not an option for Ukrainians.
The original poster sheds light on the dire situation at the frontlines. “I even heard a story of a pediatric surgeon who was designated to be not a combat medic, but an infantry man, since those are in the highest demand,” he wrote. There are simply not enough men to meet the replenishment rate due to the high number of casualties.
There are comments calling this man a coward, stating that it is his patriotic duty to stay and fight what he perceives to be “an endless war.” These are the people who will choose to leave their homelands and accept multiple citizenship in Ukraine. They believe they are fighting a war between good and evil, as Zelensky frequently deems it.
People living in horrid conditions in other countries can simply come to the US now, where the borders are open, and they’ll receive a tax-payer subsidized life. If the neocons want to prey on the desperate, close the borders to the US, Canada, and Europe. I do not know who would make a decision to enter a war on behalf of a foreign nation for any reason outside of desperation or insanity.
Posted originally on the CTH on January 17, 2024 | Sundance
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is so committed to the retention of war in Ukraine he seemingly implies if President Trump negotiates with Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop fighting, then Zelenskyy will fight both sides of the conflict. This guy is a little weird.
(VIA NEW YORK TIMES) – […] Zelensky used an expletive to describe a Trump claim about containing Vladimir Putin. At a Q. and A. with journalists that Andrew moderated, Zelensky dismissed the idea that Trump could stop the Russian president from going after other parts of Europe. Putin, he added, “will not stop — but the question is what will the U.S. and Trump do after this point, because in this case it will mean that Europe lost the most useful and most strong army in Europe because we lost Ukraine.”
Zelensky initially sought to tamp down worries about Trump, and whether his potential re-election would lead to a drop in support for Ukraine. But he also appeared somewhat fearful about the prospect. “One man cannot change the whole nation,” Zelensky said in the Q. and A., adding that deciding on the next president is “a choice for the American nation and only the American nation.”
The Ukrainian leader acknowledged that a win for Trump, who has opposed U.S. aid to Ukraine, could affect his country’s military campaign or settlement talks. “Radical voices from the Republican Party” have created tension and pain for the Ukrainian people, he said.
Zelensky isn’t the only leader at Davos worried about Trump.Multiple attendees have told DealBook that the outcome of the election is a potential risk for business, particularly after the former president thumped his Republican rivals in the Iowa caucuses.
The Ukrainian leader has sought to shore up global business support.He spoke at a private gathering of executives organized by JPMorgan Chase, which is advising Ukraine on its reconstruction efforts.
In the audience at the Congress Center for the talk were Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone, Ray Dalio of Bridgewater, David Rubenstein of Carlyle and Michael Dell of Dell, DealBook hears. (read more)
Did you ever wonder who is giving Zelensky the script?
We know the State Dept and CIA created the guy, but did you ever wonder who exactly is giving him the specific instructions on the words to keep using. Even when he sounds like a fool, Zelenskyy is so committed to the part he just keeps reading the script.
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