Tag Archives: Ukraine war

Ukraine crisis: Russian gas pipelines leaking, sabotage suspected [Video]

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European countries rushed to probe unexplained leaks in two Russian gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea near Sweden and Denmark, at the heart of an energy crisis since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden’s Maritime Authority issued a warning about two leaks in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, the day after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 pipeline, restricting shipping and impose a small no fly zone by Denmark.

The country’s armed forces released a video showing bubbles boiling up to the surface of the sea, revealing it to be a major gas leak disturbing the surface of about 1 km (0.6 mile) in diameter, the armed forces said.

Russia, which built the gas pipeline network, said the possibility of sabotage could not be ruled out.

The gas pipelines leak on the Nord Stream pipelines that Russia with European partners spent billions of dollars building, comes close on the occasion of Dmitry Medvedev, a former president, who reiterated that Russia had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons if it is pushed beyond its limits and that this is “certainly not a bluff”.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is struggling to accommodate tens of thousands of Russians who have fled their homeland since Moscow announced a military mobilization recruiting the youth last week, officials say, but the Almaty government said it has no plans to close its border.

Snowden granted Russian citizenship

Another blow to the West is that Putin has granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency.

 

Bizarre mindset of Russian legislator bares open, says Queen’s funeral ideal time to nuke London

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Russian TV anchors, known for crossing the lines of journaistic ethics, have been vociferously seeking blood in the countries which are opposed to the Ukraine war since the beginning of this year.

In a remark on the program 60 Minutes, Olga Skabeyeva of the Russia-1 channel said that there is a clamour for raids on Western countries for their support to Ukraine in the war.

As the defeat in several border towns s looming large, the Russian TVs are now joined by legislators drawing their attention to global events including the Queen’s funeral where 2,000 world leaders congregated on Monday.

In a bizarre remark on Monday, a legislator too joined the bllitzkriez suggesting that Moscow should have taken advantage of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral to launch a nuclear missile strike on London, which did not invite the Russian Preesident Vladimir Putin for the event.

Queen Elizabeth II funeral

In a remark on during a discussion on Monday, Andrey Gurulyov, a Russian member of parliament and a former army commander, refuted US President Joe Biden’s appeal to Vladimir Putin not to use weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms.

Target UK, not Ukraine

“What made him think we would conduct a nuclear strike against Ukraine? We’ll still have to live over there, in Ukraine. We have plenty of targets…Why would we bomb Ukraine and Germany when there is Britain, the root of evil?” he said.

Then Skabeyeva interrupted with a remark: “We should have done it today. All the best people are there for the funeral.”

Taking it further, Gurulyov hovered around the aftermath the UK would face in the event of a nuclear strike. “Will they defend a Martian desert as per their 5th Article?” he told Skabeyeva, referring to NATO’s collective defense pledge, “there will be nothing left. What do they call it, an unshakeable island? We’ll shake it up.”

Targeting UK

Co-anchor of 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov, then joined the debate saying, “Let me remind you that Great Britain…also has nuclear weapons,” to which Gurulyov said the UK’s warheads could be “instantly decimated”. The legislator, already on sanctions list of the US, suggested last month that Putin should launch missile strikes on the UK which “would be the end of the British Crown.”

The Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on Monday was attended by leaders and state heads from around the world, including US President Joe Biden, Japanese Emperor Naruhito, French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian President Droupadi Murmu among others to pay their respects to the queen, after a week of national mourning in the UK which has seen an outpouring of grief and reverence over the death of the British monarch.

The ire against the British is apparently evident after TV news revealed several English-speaking foreigners are taking part in the Ukraine war, which helped Kyiv restore several bordering towns defeating the Russian forces.

UN General Assembly allows Zelensky to give pre-recorded speech

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The General Assembly has adopted a decision to exclusively allow the Ukrainian head of state to submit a pre-recorded speech to the General Debate next week, instead of physical presence.

Representatives of all other member states and observers will have to be physically present at the General Assembly Hall if they wish to make a statement at this year’s General Debate.

The decision on Friday said that Ukraine may submit a pre-recorded statement of its head of state, which will be played in the General Assembly Hall at the General Debate. The President of the General Assembly will circulate the pre-recorded statement as a document of the Assembly.

The decision says it will not set a precedent for future General Debates and mandated high-level meetings planned for future high-level weeks of the General Assembly, Xinhua news agency reported.

UN general Assembly/IANS

The draft resolution, tabled by Ukraine and some 50 other states, was adopted with 101 votes in favuor, 7 against and 19 abstentions.

Belarus tabled an amendment to the draft decision, which would have allowed leaders of other member states who cannot participate in person for reasons beyond their control to speak by pre-recorded statements. The amendment was rejected by the General Assembly in a vote.

United Nations headquarters in New York, the United States.IANS

Before and after the vote on the draft decision tabled by Ukraine, several member states voiced concern that such a decision would jeopardise sovereign equality among member states and politicise a procedural issue of the General Assembly.

Putin tells Modi: “Want Ukraine war to end”

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he is aware of India’s concerns over his country’s conflict with Ukraine, and wanted the war to end.

During the bilateral meeting between both the leaders on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Samarkand, Putin was quoted on Friday as saying, “I know about your position on the conflict in Ukraine, and I know about your concerns. We want all of this to end as soon as possible. We will keep you abreast of what is happening there.”The Russian President said this after Modi told him that “today’s time is not the time for war”. This was the first face-to-face meeting between Modi and Putin after Russia had attacked Ukraine in February this year.

Russian troops in Kharkiv surrender, says Ukraine

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Russian troops have surrendered en masse in view of a rapid Ukrainian counter-attack that is pinning them to ground, leading to a turning point in the year-long war, media reports said.

Kiev’s military intelligence said large numbers of Moscow’s soldiers had laid down their weapons rather than fight troops advancing east out of Kharkiv as “they understand the hopelessness of their situation”, said a report in Daily Mail.

Oleksiy Arestovich, advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the military has captured so many Russian soldiers over the last several days that it is running out of space to house them – with military intelligence spokesman Andrey Yusov adding that “significant” numbers of Russian officers are among them, Daily Mail reported.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.(photo: https://www.instagram.com/zelenskiy_official/)

Meanwhile, Russian troops fighting a second counter-attack in the southern Kherson region were said to be negotiating their own surrender having apparently run out of ammunition but the information from the frontline is sparse due an information blackout imposed by Kiev.

In a late-night address, Zelensky said Ukraine‘s armies had captured a total of 2,300 square miles in the east and south since the beginning of September – an area about four times the size of Greater London – as he called on Western allies to supply more weapons to help consolidate the gains.

Ukraine and the West must “strengthen cooperation to defeat Russian terror”, he said, while calling specifically for air defence systems to help protect civilian areas that Putin’s commanders have begun targeting as ‘revenge’ for their battlefield defeats – blowing up power stations in the city of Kharkiv on Monday.

Indian-origin volunteers in Ukraine help out refugees

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In a move to help out the refugees from Ukraine,  an international cadre of volunteers are working round the clock to help those who are in Poland and a handful of them are Indian-origin people who are focusing on providing vegetarian food for those needed most.

A volunteer Yogi Trivedi was one among them who is based in Rzeszow in Poland who is helping out refugees in welcoming them at the border and guiding them to settle in camps. He is one of those who can cook vegetarian food, which provides great relief for many.

The Indian-origin volunteers under the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) are about 25 who are drawn from nearby European nations such as Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria and Poland. In addition, some of them have reached from the US and UK as well.

They have helped the Indian students initially who are being evacuated by the Indian government and now they are serving those who need any help. So far, more than2.5 million Ukrain refugees are there in neighbouring countries.

The team wearing yellow vests with a sketch of the Akshardham temple in Gujarat are helping refugees of all nationalities at three border points, Budomierz, Korczowa and Medyka now.

Trivedi, a teacher at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, among the five from the US joined them via the BAPS Instagram page and they are providing the refugees with essentials like warm clothes, gloves, sanitary supplies and hot meals.

“If you’ve been travelling for seven to nine days, from across the country, you’ve been walking. Often the lines at the crossings can lead back to two to four kilometres at different checkpoints and they can take up several hours to cross,” he said explaining the trauma these refugees face while fleeing Ukraine.

“When you come over to the Polish side, if there’s someone there to smile, give you a helping hand, carry your luggage, help you carry your kids, help you get settled, even if it’s for the first five, seven minutes, you could see the immense sort of stress and trauma melting away from their face,” he noted.

Ukrainian refugees show resilience and humility. “Despite all the difficulties they had, they were willing to keep on going and do it all for their children’s sake, and for their country’s sake,” he said.