How much of the aid Europeans are "giving" is really a regifting of U.S. dollars gifted to them ?

Ukraine’s Gold & Currency Reserves Swell to Highest Level in History, Central Bank Reveals

https://slaynews.com/news/ukra...ign=daily-newsletter

Ukraine is now holding more in gold and currency reserves than at any other time in the history of the country, the nation’s central bank has revealed.

The Ukrainian national bank says it now holds a whopping $39 billion in foreign reserves.

The figure is a record high for the country as an independent nation.

The huge stash was revealed as Ukraine continues to receive never-ending large deliveries of cash from allied nations, especially from American taxpayers.

As of July 1, there was a $38.99 billion reserve held by the Ukrainian government, the National Bank of Ukraine said in its latest figures.

The number is a significant increase from $37.3 billion in June.

The size of the reserve is the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union.

It also beats the previous 2011 record of $38 billion.

According to the National Bank, this reserve was achieved “thanks to sustained and regular inflows from international partners.”

The receipts of these “inflows” exceeded the central bank’s outgoings of paying down foreign-held debt and selling currency reserves to balance the economy.

The bank cited some of the June incomings given to Ukraine from foreign allies.

The June inflows included:

$1.6 billion from the European Union

$1.2 billion from the United States

$886 million from the World Bank.

According to a report from the Polish financial newspaper Rzeczpospolita, the reserve is held in foreign currencies and gold.

https://www.rp.pl/finanse/art3...ajwieksze-w-historii

Reuters also reports that Ukraine has received $23.6 billion in cash from Western partners this year so far.

https://www.reuters.com/market...y-39-bln-2023-07-06/

Bank governor Andriy Pyshnyi thanked Western partners for the cash injections in a statement on the figures on Friday morning.

“This is a record for the entire independent history of Ukraine,” Pyshnyi said.

“An incredible achievement for a country at war…

“The involvement of international partners is extremely powerful, and the volume of external financing is historic.

“This support is not charity…

“Thanks to our partners!”

Senile, clueless, doddering old assclown deluxe.

Biden lets American military info slip during live interview

quote:

"This is a war relating to munitions. And they’re running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it," Biden told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. "And so, what I finally did, I took the recommendation of the Defense Department to – not permanently – but to allow for this transition period while we get more 155 weapons, these shells, for the Ukrainians."

The senile old fool wouldn’t know about OPSEC if it smacked him in the face, but then again this clown has had zero filter on his mouth for 50 years now.

Serbia just cut off all ammo and arms exports

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
Ukraine is now holding more in gold and currency reserves than at any other time in the history of the country, the nation’s central bank has revealed.

It's not enough. We need to send them a few more billion, plus a fleet of F16's. We should just give them all our Abram's tanks since we're not fighting a war to preserve democracy right now, we don't need all that. They need ammo and artillery and we're not using that shit either right now, and after all, it's all just like .000000001% of our total defense budget and that's only .00000000000000001% of the total US budget and that's practically nothing. Fuck it, let's give them some nukes while we're at it. Oh! I forgot! They need troops, let's send a few dozen divisions. Those divisions will need supply lines, and we can't forget air support, so I guess that means we should give them our whole Airforce. They'll need more money, too, so we should send a few more billion just because. Then we should give them several billion more to make sure, because Putler. And Orcs.

Cluster bombs opinion piece from The Wall Street Journal.

I’m often reminded of the 1899 Hague Declaration that (tried) to ban the use of expanding bullets in warfare. It’s okay to burn our enemies alive by various means, shred their bodies with ever-more effective fragmentation weapons, and continually seek ways of making our small arms bullets more destructive and lethal, but Don’t you dare shoot them with bullets that expand.

Land mines are far more dangerous to civilians after a conflict and in places they’re still killing people. They’re also far harder to avoid because they’re designed to be undetectable and remain ready to explode as designed rather than being “duds” that might explode if disturbed. When I was a kid in France it was still possible to encounter unexploded ordnance from both world wars lying on the ground, and we were taught to avoid it—and we did. Is unexploded ordnance bad? Yes. And so is waging an aggressive war—one of the many war crimes that Germans were accused of at the Nürnberg trials, and as the expression goes, “Don’t start none, and there won’t be none.”

Saying that a nation should not use cluster bombs to defend itself against an assault that is in itself a war crime is like saying we shouldn’t use hollow point bullets against a home invader because they might hurt him too much.

================================

Cluster Bombs for Ukraine

No sooner had the Biden Administration announced that cluster bombs will be included as part of its $800 million package of military aid to Ukraine than President Biden was attacked by members of his own party and even some allies. Our only criticism is that the decision could have done more good earlier.

Mr. Biden says it was a “very difficult decision.” Cluster bombs are anti-personnel weapons that eject multiple smaller bomblets over a large area. They can be very effective, and Russia has used them against Ukrainians from the start of the war. But 123 countries—not including the U.S., Ukraine or Russia—have signed a treaty banning their use because the unexploded bomblets can harm civilians years after the fighting has ceased.

The higher the percentage of unexploded bomblets, or dud rate, the greater the menace. The Pentagon says the cluster bombs they are sending to Ukraine have a dud rate of 2.35%. That compares with dud rates of up to 40% for Russian cluster bombs.

The U.K., Canada, Spain and New Zealand criticized Mr. Biden’s decision. And in the Washington Post, former Sen. Patrick Leahy and current Sen. Jeff Merkley called cluster bombs ”a weapon that the United States should be leading the global effort to prohibit.”

Pennsylvania Democrat Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran who co-chairs a bipartisan congressional caucus on unexploded ordinance, said the decision is “ blurring the lines of moral high ground.”

Ukraine isn’t seeking to use these bombs against civilians. It wants them because they are running out of other munitions and figures they can compensate for some of the advantage Russia still holds. The greater risk to Ukrainian civilians is from Russia’s invading army and indiscriminate weapons targeting.

If you can’t see a moral distinction between Russia’s aggression and Ukraine’s use of cluster bombs for defense, then you have the blurred vision. Those best suited to make the tradeoff between risks are the Ukrainians whose lives are on the line every day.

[Emphasis added in places.]

LINK

Well, that is one way to get rid of them

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:

quote:

“An incredible achievement for a country at war…
“The involvement of international partners is extremely powerful, and the volume of external financing is historic.

And who benefits from the huge stash of gold and cash in Ukraine? Cui bono?

Do the Ukrainians benefit?
No, they are just caught in the cross-fire.

The beneficiaries are largely corrupt politicians in both Ukraine and in the US who benefit from the military-industrial complex.

But even Zelenskyy's wife can only take so many French shopping trips before even she gets tired of it.

Ukraine is where East meets West. It's where Russia bumps up against Europe. It shouldn't be a member of NATO, and it shouldn't be part of Russia. Is it a buffer zone? Is it a free country? Nope, it's just a corrupt place for laundering money.

Whatever it takes.

Whatever it takes, for how ever long it takes. As long as the "Big Guy" gets his 10%.

The "correction" you're going to get will be from the Ministry of Truth, and it will be painful.

I posted this yesterday and it was a black box this morning, no video, so I am reposting.



https://twitter.com/Breaking91...wgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_

This sack of shit. And I'm talking about Zelensky, not Biden. I actually agree with Biden on this in regards to NATO. This Zelensky clown is dangerous and reckless. Frankly, I find him more dangerous than Putin at this point since it's now perfectly clear that Zelensky would gladly drag the entire world into War without a second of hesitation. Piece of shit. Go away.

************************************

Zelensky slams Biden’s ‘unprecedented and absurd’ stance on NATO membership

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tore into NATO leaders including President Biden on Tuesday for not extending membership to his war-torn country — introducing fresh diplomatic drama into the annual gathering of the military alliance’s leaders.

Zelensky slammed the reticence as “weakness” and “absurd” just moments after Biden referred to the development of new language regarding his country’s potential NATO ascension.

“Now, on the way to Vilnius, we received signals that certain wording is being discussed without Ukraine. And I would like to emphasize that this wordxfing is about the invitation to become NATO member, not about Ukraine’s membership,” Zelensky tweeted.

“It’s unprecedented and absurd when a time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership. While at the same time vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine.”

Zelensky added: “It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance. This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine’s membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. And for Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror. Uncertainty is weakness. And I will openly discuss this at the summit.”

https://nypost.com/2023/07/11/...iden-stance-on-nato/

A vote for President Trump a rejection of the Military Industrial Complex in D.C. and beyond
By Rajan Laad

Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to President Trump’s proposal for ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours when reelected.

Zelensky told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week” that “the sole desire to bring the war to an end is beautiful.”

But he added that “if we are talking about ending the war at the cost of Ukraine, in other words, to make us give up our territories. Biden could have brought it to an end even in five minutes.”

With his slamming of Trump without knowing the details of his peace plan and his slobbering over Biden, Zelensky sounded like a Democrat politician.

Zelensky has good reason to fawn.

The war in Ukraine is one of the rare occasions where there was consensus between both parties. So far the US has dispatched over $75 billion of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine.

For every bill that funded the war, Congress gave their unanimous approval in a matter of days and without any debate. Such promptness is seldom witnessed in D.C.

Everyone from Joe Biden to Lindsey Graham proclaimed that they would support the war in Ukraine unconditionally.

Supporting the war is the new groupthink in D.C. and those who asked questions were slammed as stooges of the Kremlin.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’s request to add tracking measures to the funds being dispatched was rejected. Paul was dismissed as an isolationist.

The lack of accountability has led to allegations of corruption surrounding illicit payments to deputy ministers and over-inflated military contracts.

Recently the Pentagon admitted that an accounting error provided an extra $6bn in arms to Ukraine.

Veteran journalist Seymour Hersh reported that Zelensky and his generals may have embezzled$400M from US aid.

Last December, the Ukrainian Embassy in D.C. hosted a reception to commemorate the 31st anniversary of Ukraine's armed services. The invitation to the event had logos of arms dealers such as Lockheed Martin. Biden’s Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley attended the event.

Following the war in Ukraine, Lockheed Martin's stock rose by about 38 percent.

The Biden administration dispatched Lockheed's missile defense systems to Ukraine, which cost the American taxpayers around $1.1 billion. The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed a $521 million contract to refill its own supplies.

Lockheed has had deep ties with the CIA since the 1950s.

Lockheed is also adept at media management.

During the early phase of the war Politico, The Washington Post, and The New York Times carried pro-war articles sponsored by Lockheed.

Lockheed donates to both parties, which helps explain the unanimous support for the Ukraine war. Lockheed also has a record of bribing officials to peddle influence.

Ukraine is far from a democratic haven.

Zelensky banned adversarial Ukrainian media outlets, claiming they were carrying Russian propaganda.

Zelensky banned 11 of his political opponents, including "The Opposition Platform for Life", which has 44 seats in Ukraine's national parliament, accusing them of being pro-Kremlin.

In the US, Tucker Carlson, who was the only major voice in the US mainstream media who asked questions about the war in Ukraine, was unceremoniously sacked.

It is perfectly obvious that this is a joint operation between D.C. and Ukraine and they blocked all questions or accountability measures.

There are security concerns as well.

Earlier this March, Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch refused to say if the Department of Defense had complied with existing rules regarding the monitoring of weapons sent to Ukraine.

Recently the Biden administration sent controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine. The move was criticized by human rights groups as these weapons are banned by more than 100 countries.

The war in Ukraine has attracted thousands of foreign fighters. These unvetted fighters could easily pilfer advanced weaponry. Perhaps corrupt Ukrainian officials could sell the weapons on the black market. The buyers could be terrorists.

The Nigerian President said that weapons from Ukraine are ending up in Nigeria. The Finnish media reported that criminal organizations could be trafficking weapons from Ukraine to the US or various EU nations.

Biden's open borders could facilitate the entry of arms and terrorists onto US soil.

Biden recently said that he doesn’t think Ukraine is ready for NATO membership. If Biden had said this before, perhaps the war could have been averted. Russia cited Ukraine's potential NATO membership as a reason for the war.

Back to President Trump’s peace plan.

When Zelensky and others in D.C. scoff at Trump for pledging to end the war, it’s not because they care about the Ukrainian territory or its people, it is because the end of the war derails their gravy train

This is among the many reasons that the D.C. establishment not only wants to defeat Trump in 2024, but wants to send him to prison for the rest of his life.

Prior to Trump, D.C. managed to put on a show to deceive their voters about the two-party system. The parties and the media focused on social issues to keep the public occupied. The voting public thought they were voting for change. Hence power switched from Republican Bush to Democrat Clinton to Republican Bush to Democrat Obama.

But their policies made it amply clear that there is little difference between both parties. They were all for endless foreign wars, open borders, a bad economy that created a permanent underclass, surveillance of citizens, retraining the media, and misusing crises to expand their powers.

Trump is the only modern president who didn’t start a new war. He built a strong US economy that empowered citizens, stood for the strong US border, rebuilt the military, promoted the US on a global stage, and did so much more to empower the citizen. This was despite the obstacles placed in his way in the form of baseless probes.

Let’s remember the frequent videos of beheadings in ISIS-controlled Iraq during Obama’s presidency. The Obama administration had wasted billions of taxpayers dollars and the situation in Iraq was much worse.

Trump on the other hand defeated ISIS in the Middle-East by having the right strategy and hiring the right personnel for the job.

It has to be remembered that when Trump said he could defeat ISIS, everyone scoffed at him, just as they are scoffing at the idea of the peace plan in Ukraine.

Trump was a drastic departure from the D.C. culture. D.C. doesn’t like resolutions to issues. They prefer to keep the fire burning, which gives them reason to keep the funds flowing.

If you have to vote for change and for the resolution of issues, it must begin by voting for Trump in November 2024.

https://www.americanthinker.co...n_dc_and_beyond.html

Even though the headline is Babylon Bee, the photo was widely circulated on Twitter etc. of numerous people icing him out and ignoring him at a meet and greet. Evidently the petulant toddler dressed in his pajamas got a dressing down at the NATO Summit and was told to be a bit more grateful for all the money and arms the western world is throwing his direction. Good to see some folks are finally getting tired of his shit.

https://twitter.com/TheBabylon...133277058113536?s=20

Trump Blasts Cluster Bombs For Ukraine: 'Biden Dragging US Into WW3!'

https://www.zerohedge.com/poli...iden-dragging-us-ww3

quote:

dud rates of up to 40% for Russian cluster bombs.

Well, that's a cluster-something.