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Putin Orders Russian Nuclear Deterrence Forces to Be on High Alert
Zelensky announces talks will be held in Belarus
By Jack Phillips
February 27, 2022
Epoch Times
President Vladimir Putin put his country’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert on Sunday, announcing the move in a televised meeting with top ministers, coming as Russian troops and tanks continue to wage a conflict in Ukraine.
“Western countries are not only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic area. I’m speaking about the illegitimate sanctions that everyone is well aware of. However, the top officials of the leading NATO countries also make aggressive statements against our country as well,” Putin said on Sunday, according to state-run media.
As a result, Putin said that he has ordered “the minister of Defense and the chief of the general staff [of the Russian armed forces] to transfer the deterrence forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty,” according to televised comments he made. The deterrence forces include command of Russia’s vast arsenal of nuclear weapons.
It is not immediately clear what the “special mode of combat duty” means. Previously, when Putin announced the Russian invasion earlier this week, he warned that if other countries get involved, they will face “consequences they have never seen.”
Later on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said via social media that he will send a delegation to the Ukraine-Belarus border to hold talks with Russian officials “without preconditions” about the ongoing conflict. Zelensky said he spoke with Belarus’s leadership and said they would allow the negotiations.
But Putin’s order means Russia’s nuclear weapons prepared for increased readiness to launch, raising the threat that the tensions between Moscow and NATO could boil over into nuclear strikes.
Ukrainian service members look for unexploded shells after fighting with Russian forces in Kyiv,
Ukraine, on Feb. 26, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)
During a CBS News appearance, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, responded to Putin’s statement on Sunday.
“President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a manner that is totally unacceptable,” Thomas-Greenfield said on Sunday morning. “And we have to continue to condemn his actions in the most strong, strongest possible way.”
Also Sunday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, warned the West against imposing tough sanctions on Russia and Belarus, claiming that the measures could push Russia into a “third world war.”
Ukrainian troops inspect a site following a Russian airstrike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 26, 2022.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
“Now there is a lot of talk against the banking sector. Gas, oil, SWIFT. It’s worse than war. This is pushing Russia into a third world war,” Lukashenko told local state media, referring to sanctions.
The alarming step came as street fighting broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city and Russian troops squeezed strategic ports in the country’s south, advances that appeared to mark a new phase of Russia’s invasion following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere in the country.
The capital, Kyiv, was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets. Terrified residents instead hunkered down in homes, underground garages, and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault.
“The past night was tough–more shelling, more bombing of residential areas and civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky remarked. “There is not a single facility in the country that the occupiers wouldn’t consider as admissible targets.”
Videos posted on Ukrainian media and social networks showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv and Russian troops roaming the city in small groups. One showed Ukrainian troops firing at the Russians and damaged Russian light utility vehicles abandoned nearby.
Russia blames UK FM for elevated nuclear alert
The British foreign secretary made “unacceptable” statements on “clashes”
between NATO and Russia, Putin’s spokesman said
Liz Truss during a panel discussion at the 58th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, February 19, 2022 © Getty Images / Ronald Wittek
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin placed Russia’s deterrence forces – including nuclear weapons – on high alert in response to statements by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on potential conflict between NATO and Moscow.
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Truss said that “if we don't stop Putin in Ukraine, we are going to see others under threat: the Baltics, Poland, Moldova, and it could end up in a conflict with NATO. We do not want to go there.” Truss did not specify how the UK could “stop” Russia in Ukraine, although the British government has already sent anti-tank weapons and other “lethal aid” to Kiev.
When she made that statement I immediately thought it to be unwise, if not colossally stupid. And then I remembered, 'Oh, it's Liz Truss!'
However, a Foreign Office source told the BBC on Monday: “I don't think anything Liz has said warrants that sort of rhetoric or escalation,” adding that Truss has always spoken of NATO – which was formed with the explicit goal of opposing the Soviet Union – as a “defensive alliance.”
While Putin’s announcement does not signal any intent to use nuclear weapons, it has been received in the West as a reminder of the importance Moscow places on Ukraine, and its determination to keep the country out of NATO. Since the end of the Cold War, successive Russian leaders have consistently opposed the eastward expansion of the alliance, and Moscow considers the idea of a NATO-armed Ukraine on its borders an existential security threat.
In Washington, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki condemned Putin’s decision to raise the alert level, accusing the Russian president of “manufacturing threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression.”
Someone forgot to tell Liz Truss that these threats don't exist.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russia’s operation is still underway, and fighting has taken place in the cities of Kharkov, Mariupol, and on the outskirts of Kiev. Tentative negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian officials took place in Belarus on Monday.
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Ex-SAS soldier testifies to atrocities committed in Afghanistan
Soldier kicked unarmed Afghan man off cliff before ordering him shot - witness
An Australian special forces soldier has testified to atrocities committed by his comrade as part of an unfolding defamation lawsuit against several Australian media outlets. Ben Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked an unarmed, handcuffed man off a cliff before ordering his subordinates to finish him off, a former colleague listed in court records as “Person 4” revealed in court on Monday.
‘We were fighting & in danger. To now say that’s a war crime makes me really angry’ – is Aussie SAS killer a hero or a villain?
“I saw the individual’s face strike a large rock and sustain a serious injury. It knocked out a number of his teeth including his front teeth,” the unnamed SAS fighter told a federal court after describing how Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked the unarmed man off a cliff. He ultimately ordered his underlings to drag the “severely injured” man under a tree and shoot him dead, the man testified.
The grisly execution allegedly took place in the village of Darwan on September 11, 2012 following a failed attempt to hunt down a “rogue Afghan soldier” named Hekmatullah who had supposedly killed three Australians. As the SAS came up empty-handed, they found the alleged victim, a visiting farmer named Ali Jan, and arrested him. Roberts-Smith and another servicemember manhandled him down a cliff, where he fell and hit a “large rock,” sustaining “serious facial injury,” according to Person 4.
Person 4 heard shooting and turned around to see the Afghan farmer had been killed; Roberts-Smith then allegedly asked the witness for his camera in order to photograph the dead man with a type of radio used by Afghan insurgents to communicate - a radio Person 4 claimed the farmer had not been carrying “to [his] knowledge” but had come from another man killed by Roberts-Smith previously.
The narrative emerged as Roberts-Smith has sued multiple Australian media outlets, including the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Canberra Times. The former soldier accused the media of defaming him with wrongful accusations of war crimes and other acts of wrongdoing - from bullying and domestic violence to murder.
Roberts-Smith has denied all charges. “There was no cliff…there was no kick,” he told the court last July, insisting the dead man had been an enemy “spotter” killed for legitimate reasons. Person 4, who has been challenged regarding his refusal to testify about another incident in which he was seen “standing over a dead Afghan prisoner” after another witness heard shots fired, will be cross-examined on Tuesday.
An ongoing investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, based on the Brereton report, which found enough “credible information” to implicate 25 Australian Defense Force members in the illegal killing of 39 Afghan individuals, has been delayed following the collapse of the Afghan government. While the Taliban could be reasonably expected to cooperate with such an inquiry, the reluctance of other countries to recognize the Islamic militant group as a legitimate governing body is expected to hinder the proceedings.
Sanders-linked US group blasts NATO’s ‘imperialist expansion’
The Democratic Socialists of America claimed the US and NATO
“set the stage for this conflict”
© NATO / POOL / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
In a statement released on Saturday, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) blamed actions by the US and NATO for having helped to spark the Russian invasion of Ukraine, sparking condemnation from other Democrats.
“DSA reaffirms our call for the US to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict,” the group said in a press release.
“While the failures of neoliberal order are clear to everyone, the ruling class is trying to build a new world, through a dystopic transition grounded in militarism, imperialism, and war. Socialists have a duty to build an alternative,” DSA added, ending their statement by declaring “no war but class war.”
Condemning “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” and calling for “immediate diplomacy and de-escalation to resolve this crisis,” DSA warned the working classes “will undoubtedly bear the brunt of this war.”
DSA is the largest socialist organization in the United States, with over 92,000 members, including high-profile Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders. With chapters in all 50 states, it has previously endorsed Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Kerry, notably choosing not to endorse current President Joe Biden.
The DSA’s position faced immediate condemnation from other Democrats from different wings of the party, who sought to reaffirm their commitment to America’s current alliances.
And, not to mention, Deep State!
The DSA’s position faced immediate condemnation from fellow Democrats from the main party, who sought to reaffirm their commitment to America’s current alliances.
The White House Rapid Response Director, Mike Gwin, swiftly responded with a one-word statement, describing DSA's remarks as "shameful," calling on the group to re-evaluate why it "referred to the deaths of dozens of Ukrainians seeking democracy and basic freedoms in 2014 as a ‘coup’."
Military veteran and current congressional candidate Max Rose stated that he was “deeply concerned” by DSA’s statement, adding that it’s “time to double down on our alliances” and “punish Russia with crippling and unprecedented sanctions.”
Responding to Rose’s remarks, Tom Suozzi, a Democratic candidate for Governor of New York, declared “I adamantly oppose the DSA's statement calling on the US to leave NATO.”
NATO's actions toward Russia are very aggressive, pressuring them into this war. NATO is no longer a defensive force but the cause of much anxiety and destruction in Europe. Everyone should leave NATO.
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