Heading towards World War III?

Washington is seeking to prolong the conflict in Ukraine as much as possible in order to weaken Moscow, China’s ambassador to Russia has suggested.

In an interview with Russia’s TASS news agency published on Wednesday, Zhang Hanhui said, among other things, that it was the US that had initiated “five rounds of NATO’s eastward expansion, directed the ‘color revolution’ in Ukraine’ and ‘driven Russia into a corner’ in terms of security.” According to the diplomat, all these factors combined led to the current conflict in Ukraine.

He went on to describe the US as the “initiator and chief arsonist of the Ukraine crisis.”

Zhang claimed that by slapping Moscow with “unprecedented” sanctions and providing Kiev with yet more weapons, Washington is seeking to prolong the armed conflict for as long as possible. This strategy is aimed at “exhausting and crushing Russia” eventually.

The Chinese ambassador noted that he saw parallels between the conflict in Ukraine and the latest escalation around Taiwan. He alleged that the White House is deploying the kind of tools it previously used in the Eastern European country.

According to the diplomat, the fact that the US is “flexing its muscles” on China’s doorstep, arranging “various anti-China groups, and has now openly crossed all borders on the issue of Taiwan” just goes to prove his assessment. He dubbed this as nothing short of an “Asian-Pacific version of ‘NATO’s eastward expansion’.”

The envoy pointed out that the US is pursuing effectively the same goals with respect to China as it is vis-à-vis Russia – to “hinder the development and rise of China, interfere in its internal affairs” as well as to “exhaust and contain it with the help of war and sanctions.”

The official went on to argue that both the crisis in Ukraine and Nancy Pelosi’s latest visit to Taiwan indicate that Washington is intent on reviving the Cold War mentality.

Moreover, this new Cold War is already underway, the Chinese ambassador claimed.

Zhang described the US as a force which is destroying international rules and causing instability and uncertainty the world over. Washington’s hegemony and reliance on force are the “greatest challenge to progress and the peaceful development of human civilization,” he added.

www.rt.com/news/560611-chinese-ambassador-us-ukraine-conflict

Viewed from afar, the extent of Ukrainian corruption appears to go far deeper than the recent shift in the narrative might suggest, and it might come back to bite the West as weapons sent to Kiev's forces are disappearing with no account as to their whereabouts.

Just as it was with America’s support for the Mujahideen in the 1980s in fighting a proxy war against the Soviets, its backing of the Ukrainian government may one day reap a whirlwind. And just like its involvement in Afghanistan, decades ago, supporting the ‘enemy of my enemy’ involves dealing with shady characters and whitewashing their wrongdoings.

Following the onset of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, the media very abruptly ceased its coverage of Ukraine’s seedy political underbelly – with dirty dealings that go all the way to the top. Even America’s sweetheart, Vladimir Zelensky, did not come away unscathed in those reports.

Just months prior to the conflict, mainstream publications, such as The Guardian, were reporting on Zelensky’s offshore connections, as exposed by the Pandora Papers. As detailed in the report, Zelensky, who campaigned for office on an anti-corruption platform, failed to disclose the extent of his offshore assets and his connections to some of the very oligarchs he promised to strip of political influence – and continued to treat everything as ‘business as usual’ once he came to power.

www.rt.com/russia/560484-ukraine-corruption-weapon-trafficking

Ukrainians can stop dying tomorrow if the US sat down with Russia and made peace, Pink Floyd co-founder and British rock legend Roger Waters told RT in an interview on Friday. Waters said the West seems determined to fight “to the last Ukrainian” because there are fortunes to be made from weapons sales, while American elites wish to rule the world.

“It can be stopped, in my view, tomorrow,” Waters told RT’s Eunan O’Neill. “All it takes is for the Americans to come to the table and say ‘OK, let’s go with the Minsk agreements’. And then it would be over.”

Waters pointed out that the current president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, ran on the platform of upholding the Minsk agreements and ending the civil war that started after the illegal 2014 coup in Kiev, and that 73% of Ukrainians voted for him based on that, “so they didn’t have to have a war.”

“The minute he was elected, someone put a gun to his head, I assume, and he changed his mind and didn’t do any of that,” Waters noted.

Asked if the West wanted the conflict to end, Waters replied, “No, of course not.”

“No, they have no interest in ending it. They will fight to the last Ukrainian. Or if they do want it to end, why don’t they end it? Because it’s in their hands, always has been. It’s in NATO’s hands, it’s in Joe Biden’s hands – except it’s not, it’s his … whoever pulls his strings’ hands. And they don’t want it to end. There’s huge fortunes to be made,” he added, in reference to billions of dollars’ worth of weapons the US and NATO countries were sending to Kiev.


Pink Floyd's Waters explains why he called Biden a war criminal
Read more Pink Floyd's Waters explains why he called Biden a war criminal
Waters has been an outspoken human rights activist for years, saying that his platform is that “all our brothers and sisters, all over the world deserve equal rights irrespective of their ethnicity, religion or nationality,” as outlined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – no more, no less.

www.rt.com/news/560745-roger-waters-ukraine-america

Kiev’s “reckless” actions are pushing the world ever closer to a major nuclear disaster, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told the body's Security Council on Thursday.

The Zaporozhye power plant in southern Ukraine has been under the control of Russian forces since February and has since been shelled by Kiev's troops on several occasions.

“We have repeatedly warned our Western colleagues that, should they fail to talk sense into the Kiev regime, it would take the most heinous and reckless steps, which would have consequences far beyond Ukraine,” Nebenzia warned at a meeting focused on the issue.

“That is exactly what is happening,” he said, adding that the Western “sponsors” of Kiev would have to bear the responsibility for a potential nuclear catastrophe.

Kiev’s criminal attacks on the nuclear infrastructure facilities are pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear disaster that would rival a Chernobyl one.

If the Ukrainian forces continue their attacks on the power plant, a disaster can happen “at any moment,” Nebenzia warned. According to the Russian envoy to the UN, a catastrophe at the Zaporozhye power plant – the biggest one in Europe – could lead to radioactive pollution of vast swathes of territory, affecting at least eight Ukrainian regions, including its capital, Kiev, major cities like Kharkov or Odessa, and some territories of Russia and Belarus bordering Ukraine. The Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, as well as Moldova, Romania, and Bulgaria are likely to suffer as well, he warned.

“And these are the most optimistic expert forecasts,” Nebenzia said, adding that the potential scale of a nuclear disaster of such magnitude was “difficult to imagine.”

The Zaporozhye plant, which is located in the Russia-controlled Ukrainian city of Energodar, has been subjected to a series of attacks over the past few weeks. Moscow has accused Kiev of launching artillery and drone strikes on the facility, branding these moves as “nuclear terrorism.” Kiev has claimed that Russia was the one targeting the plant in an alleged plot to discredit Ukraine while stationing its troops at the facility.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, told the Security Council that the situation at the plant was under control and that there was “no immediate danger” to its safety as of yet. At the same time, he called reports his agency received from Russia and Ukraine “contradictory” and urged both sides to provide the IAEA access to the facility “as soon as possible.”

“I ask that both sides cooperate … and allow for a mission of the IAEA to proceed,” he said. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for any military activities around the plant to be stopped as the Security Council was holding its meeting.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Ivan Nechaev said that Moscow was in favor of an IAEA inspection of the Zaporozhye plant.

“The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, urgent agreement is needed at a technical level on a safe perimeter of demilitarization to ensure the safety of the area,” the UN chief said in a statement.

www.rt.com/news/560680-world-brink-nuclear-catastrophe-moscow

Members of the UN are blocking a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP) so they can avoid confirming Kiev shelled the Russian-controlled facility, local official Vladimir Rogov told RT in an interview on Monday.

Rogov, a member of the Zaporozhye military-civil administration, insisted that the ZNPP is always prepared to welcome the atomic energy watchdog, which has repeatedly expressed a desire to visit the facility, but noted that the UN has “directly started to block the possibility of an IAEA inspection.”

www.rt.com/russia/560858-un-blocking-iaea-zaporozhye-inspection

President Vladimir Zelensky on Monday fired the heads of three regional offices of the nation’s Security Service (SBU), Ukraine’s successor to the KGB. Earlier, he dismissed the top official in the agency, citing widespread treason among agents.

The top security officials in the Kiev, Lviv, and Ternopol regions were fired by presidential decree. A new leader was immediately appointed to the SBU’s Kiev office but replacements for the other two have yet to be revealed.

Zelensky’s move appears to be a continuation of the crackdown on the SBU that he launched in mid-July. At the time, he dismissed the head of the security agency, Ivan Bakanov, his deputy, and four regional SBU heads. He also sacked Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova. Zelensky claimed the shakeup was due to rampant “treason” under the leadership of the officials.

The move was reportedly not perceived positively by the US government, which publicly maintains unwavering support for the Ukrainian president. But according to US media, White House officials have said privately that there is growing mistrust in Washington over Zelensky’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

www.rt.com/russia/560860-zelensky-fires-sbu-chiefs

The Ukrainian military has fired multiple rockets directly at coolant systems and nuclear waste storage site inside the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Energodar, local government administration member Vladimir Rogov told Russian media on Tuesday. He warned that a successful strike may result in a radiation release equivalent to a “dirty bomb.”

“One of the guided missiles hit just ten meters” from the barrels with spent nuclear fuel,” Rogov told Soloviev Live. “Others hit a bit farther away, 50 to 200 meters.”

Since the storage site is out in the open, any hit will result in the release of nuclear waste ranging from dozens to hundreds of kilograms and contamination of the area, the official explained. “In plain language, that would be like a dirty bomb,” said Rogov.

While the reactor itself can only be destroyed with a tactical nuclear weapon, the coolant systems and waste storage are far more vulnerable and damage to them could easily cause a disaster, the official said. Ukrainian troops have already fired “several dozen” heavy projectiles at the cooling systems, Rogov added. If they succeed in disabling such a system, it could produce a meltdown bigger than the 1986 catastrophe at Chernobyl.

Russian troops established control of the Zaporozhye NPP, Europe’s largest facility of the kind, early on in the course of military operations in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine have been accusing each other of shelling the facility, warning that combat in the area could trigger a nuclear disaster. Russia accused Ukraine of launching artillery and drone strikes on the facility, denouncing the operations as “nuclear terrorism.” Ukrainian troops claimed that the Russians were shelling themselves to discredit Kiev.

Russian requests to the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the site firsthand have been met with excuses that inspectors can only access the station via Kiev, and Ukraine can’t guarantee their safe passage.

On Monday, Rogov accused the UN of blocking the IAEA visit because it was covering for Kiev. If the inspectors actually showed up, he said, they would be forced to conclude that Ukraine and not Russia was shelling the power plant.

www.rt.com/russia/560971-ukraine-bombs-waste-containers-zaporozhye