quote:

House advances $95B foreign aid package covering Ukraine, Israel

Aw, isn't that quaint... they pretend we have the money just sitting around in the Treasury:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums are appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes, namely:

https://twitter.com/Rep_Clyde/.../1781713868990853579

Unhinged rhetoric.

Unlike the rest of us, Russia appeared utterly unfazed by the news of the approved Ukraine aid package. Business Insider ran a narrative-crafting story yesterday headlined, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signals Putin's plan to seize Kharkiv and create a 'sanitary zone’. The way you know corporate media journalists are lying is because their digital lips are moving.

Kharkiv oil refinery goes up in fiery smoke

As the headline stated, with 1.5 million residents, Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-largest city, after its capital Kiev. Unlike Kiev, Kharkiv is home to mostly Russian-speaking citizens. Business Insider’s article was partially consistent with the warbloggers, who all reported Russia accelerated attacks in multiple areas along the eastern front, including the invasion-preparing infrastructure attacks on Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s version of Chicago or Detroit:
image 5.png

Until just recently, most of the discussion around a potential attack on Kharkiv focused on the question of whether Ukraine could possibly survive as an independent country without the city — a city you probably never heard of. If Kiev is the country’s head, Kharkiv is the arms and legs of Ukraine’s manufacturing industry. Ukraine can survive the loss of Kharkiv, but only as a quadriplegic.

Here’s Business Insider’s big lie, using another one of the media’s favorite narrative tricks:

Putin has wanted to take Kharkiv since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The lie they want us to believe is that the Kharkiv siege is nothing new, and therefore insignificant. In fact, Ukraine has courageously stopped Russia from collecting the city for years! But read skeptically. First, if Kharkiv is in fact the plum of Putin’s eye, and always has been, why are we only hearing about it now? Second, Business Insider’s claim that Putin always wanted Kharkiv was an unsourced assertion. The source for that outsized claim was only BI’s reporter.

Russia has surely followed the U.S. debate over Ukraine aid more closely than anyone. I’m no military strategist, but it isn’t hard to imagine that Russia will now push even harder to quickly maximize its gains before new weapons arrive. The doomed Ukrainians will be the collateral damage of America’s Ukraine addiction.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com...rue&utm_medium=email

EU politician lambasts Republicans who voted ‘nay’ on Ukraine bill and labels them ‘traitors’
By Olivia Murray

Call me crazy, but I’d say that the American lawmakers who voted against handing billions of dollars to a corrupt foreign regime so its politicians could ostensibly wage war were doing what was in the best interest of the American people, but apparently Guy Verhofstadt, a Belgian Eurocart has a different take; here are the details, from a Breitbart News report out yesterday:

A leading Eurocrat in Brussels branded Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives who voted against President Joe Biden’s demands to send billions more of American taxpayer dollars to fund the war in Ukraine as ‘traitors’.

One of the most ardent supporters of the war in Ukraine, former Belgian Prime Minister and current member of the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt beamed: ‘America is back where it should be: Supporting Freedom.’

However, the cantankerous Eurocrat added: ‘But I will for my life never forget that in the Republican group – the party of Reagan – a majority of 112 traitors voted against!’

I get it that leftist politicians certainly aren’t the epitome of intellect—Guam is “apparently” at-risk for capsizing, the moon is “apparently” gaseous, and “apparently” it’s almost impossible for humans to get near the sun—but seriously, how can they continue to attach the “traitor” label to political figures who, when in the rarest of instances, act in accordance with their national oaths of loyalty and allegiance?

Do any of these dopes understand the definition of “treason”? Because it sure doesn’t seem like it. Now, Cornell Law School isn’t the most reliable source—the institution completely bungled explaining the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution—but nonetheless, this is at least a decent working definition for “treason”:

Treason refers to the betrayal of one’s own country by attempting to overthrow the government through waging war against the state or materially aiding its enemies.

Again, call me crazy, but out-of-control debt-spending is an act of war, not just against the American people footing the bill and taking the financial hits that trillions in the hole brings, but against every sovereign nation forced to trade in Federal Reserve dollars; D.C. politicians voting “yea” on any spending bill are complicit in bankrupting not only the world, but the nation they’re supposed to be serving too.

They pass the bill, and immediately whip out the Ukrainian flags in the “American” Congress; this scene below seems more treasonous than any “nay” vote:

https://twitter.com/americaliv...s_them_traitors.html





And, to top it all off, the cherry of hypocrisy:

Despite the tough talk from the top Eurocrat, the EU has been accused of failing to live up to its commitments in Ukraine, with President Volodymyr Zelensky claiming at the end of February that the European Union had only managed to deliver 30 per cent [sic] of its pledged artillery shells to Ukraine.

So…what does that make him?

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

https://twitter.com/paul_serra.../1782509761943982380




Russian Cruise Missile Destroys TV Tower in Ukraine’s Second Largest City Kharkov

In the last weeks, there has been increased chatter on the Ukrainian side about an imminent Russian attack on the large city of Kharkov, located near the border.

Sure enough, its power facilities have been heavily damaged by massive missile strikes.

Today, the attacks went a little further, as a cruise missile struck and broke in half a 240-meter television tower.

The attack would be part of a ‘deliberate effort by Moscow to make Ukraine’s second largest city uninhabitable,’ according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Footage going viral online shows the main mast of the television tower breaking off and falling to the ground.

Reuters reported:

“The Ukrainian leader said he told U.S. President Joe Biden about the airstrike that was carried out several minutes before they spoke by telephone.

‘It is Russia’s clear intention to make the city uninhabitable’, he said in a readout of the call published on the Telegram messaging app.

The northeastern city of Kharkov with a population of 1.3 million lies just 30 km (18 miles) from the Russian border, making it an easy target for ballistic missiles and other weapons as Ukraine’s air defenses have dwindled.”

There have been no reported casualties in what appeared to have been a strike with a Kh-59 cruise missile.

“[Ukrainian authorities] said there was “temporarily” no television signal and that they were working to restore it, urging residents of the city and region without digital television signal to use cable or online television or the radio.”

Moscow has recently stepped up its attacks, while Ukraine is suffering a shortage of air defense capabilities. Kharkov and the surrounding region have experienced the most intense strikes.

While Reuters is usually satisfied with Zelensky’s explanations of events, we can learn a lot by paying attention to Russian sources.

Slavyangrad reported on the possible objectives for the attack:

“Communication – powerful repeaters were installed on it. propaganda (television/radio) was broadcast from the tower to the territory of the Belgorod region. This includes cellular communications, internet, and TV broadcasting.

[…] ‘Eyes’ – it is possible that the ‘Sova (Owl)’ system (an optical reconnaissance device) could be installed – a complex consisting of several IP cameras. They are all connected to a neural network, which calculates where the artillery is flying. This means they receive data from the point of impact as quickly as possible.

From a military perspective, a full range of reconnaissance and guidance system repeater antennas could be installed there. These are used for drone attacks on Russian territory, artillery reconnaissance, and detection and tracking systems for attack UAVs, ballistic and cruise missiles.”

(Not responsible for spelling errors.)

Yay, more funding for 'Freedom & Democracy'!

Biden Looks To Prevent Future President From Ending Ukraine War With 10-Year Agreement

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...ar-10-year-agreement

Soon on the heels of President Biden last week signing into law a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine's defense, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday indicated that he's working with Washington on a bilateral security agreement which would last ten years.

"We are already working on a specific text," Zelensky said in his nightly video address. "Our goal is to make this agreement the strongest of all."

"We are discussing the specific foundations of our security and cooperation. We are also working on fixing specific levels of support for this year and the next 10 years."

He indicated it will likely include agreements on long-term support centering on military hardware and joint arms production, as well as continuing reconstruction aid. "The agreement should be truly exemplary and reflect the strength of American leadership," Zelensky added.

But ultimately a key purpose in locking such a long-term deal in would be to keep it immune from potential interference by a future Trump administration.

Below is what The Wall Street Journal spelled out last year:

The goal is to make sure Ukraine will be strong enough in the future to deter Russia from attacking it again. More immediately, Ukraine’s Western allies hope to discourage the Kremlin from thinking it can wait out the Biden administration for a potentially more sympathetic successor in the White House.

Western officials are looking for ways to lock in pledges of support and limit future governments’ abilities to backtrack, amid fears in European capitals that Donald Trump, if he recaptures the White House, would seek to scale back aid.

More at link


ALSO:

Ukraine Army Chief Admits 'Tactical' Retreat Underway

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...cal-retreat-underway

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi has just issued a new dire assessment confirming widespread international reports that Ukraine forces are getting beaten back from the frontlines.

He has confirmed that his outnumbered troops have fallen back to new positions on the eastern front, west of the villages of Berdychi and Semenivka, outside of Avdiivka - and near Novomykhailivka. Gen. Syrskyi has essentially admitted for the first time that a 'tactical' retreat is underway.

"The situation at the front has worsened," Syrskii wrote on Telegram, ironically coming just days after President Biden signed into effect a $61 billion defense aid package for Ukraine. The Pentagon has vowed to ship new weapons as fast as possible, while some Ukrainian officials have been warning that it is too little, too late.

More at link

quote:

Western officials are looking for ways to lock in pledges of support and limit future governments’ abilities to backtrack, amid fears in European capitals that Donald Trump, if he recaptures the White House, would seek to scale back aid.

So much for democracy...
I'm not surprised. These people are evil.
The above Tucker interview of Bob Amsterdam makes that clear.

quote:

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday indicated that he's working with Washington on a bilateral security agreement which would last ten years.

"We are already working on a specific text," Zelensky said in his nightly video address. "Our goal is to make this agreement the strongest of all."

"We are discussing the specific foundations of our security and cooperation. We are also working on fixing specific levels of support for this year and the next 10 years."

He indicated it will likely include agreements on long-term support centering on military hardware and joint arms production, as well as continuing reconstruction aid. "The agreement should be truly exemplary and reflect the strength of American leadership," Zelensky added.

But ultimately a key purpose in locking such a long-term deal in would be to keep it immune from potential interference by a future Trump administration.

Barring an 'Act of Congress' or a ratified Treaty, anything that the Biden Administration can do 'with a pen and a phone' can be undone post haste by any succeeding administration, and at their discretion!

$3.5 Billion Slipped Into Ukraine-Israel Aid Bill To 'Supercharge Mass Migration From The Middle East'

https://www.zerohedge.com/poli...igration-middle-east

Tucked away in the $95 billion military aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan is a $3.5 billion slush fund to open new processing centers for Muslim migrants, in what Sen. Eric Schmitt described as a bid to "supercharge mass migration from the Middle East."



And as Breitbart points out, the $95 billion package does not include any funds to help rebuild America's border defenses against illegal migration - but it does contain $481 million to settle migrants in US cities, and of course, the $3.5 billion to expand migration programs worldwide.

The $3.5 billion was granted to the Department of State, which works with many international groups that feed and transport migrants on their way to the United States.

Biden’s deputies are now using the refugee programs as an adjunct to their diversity-expanding “equity” migration policy. For example, Biden’s deputies used the program in March to import 3,009 migrants from the safe and democratic countries of El Salvador and Guatemala.

They are also using the refugee funds to expand migration routes from many African and Muslim countries. In March, they pulled in 12,018 people from the Congo, plus 16,732 migrants from the Muslim countries of Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, and Eritrea, according to a report by Stacker.com. -Breitbart

According to an April 23 release from the Biden DHS visa-granting agency, "The Biden-Harris administration set the refugee admissions ceiling for fiscal year 2024 at 125,000 refugees," adding "With the opening of the Doha Field Office on May 7, 2024, and the Ankara Field Office on May 9, 2024, USCIS will have 11 international field offices. Other international field offices include Beijing; Guangzhou, China; Guatemala City; Havana; Mexico City; Nairobi, Kenya; New Delhi; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Tegucigalpa, Honduras."

So - we have the US government encouraging migration, both legal and illegal - which hurts low-income Americans the most, while neglecting to the borders. Seems we've learned nothing from Europe.

The front line today;
https://kyivindependent.com/ba...-drone-infested-sky/

France Sends Troops to Ukraine

Will the Deployment Trigger a Bigger War?

https://weapons.substack.com/p...rue&utm_medium=email

France has sent its first troops officially to Ukraine. They have been deployed in support of the Ukrainian 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade in Slavyansk. The French soldiers are drawn from France’s 3rd Infantry Regiment, which is one of the main elements of France’s Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère).

In 2022 France had a number of Ukrainians and Russians in the Foreign Legion. They were allowed to leave the Legion and, in the case of the Ukrainians, return to Ukraine to join Ukrainian forces. It isn’t clear if the Russians returned home.

The Legion today is run by French officers but the rank and file are all foreigners. Volunteers that join the Legion have the option to adopt a new name under the rule of anonymat (being anonymous). That original requirement has been modified in recent years so a volunteer can decide whether to keep his given name or adopt a new one. Legionnaires serve for a term of 3 years after which they can ask for French citizenship. If a Legionnaire is wounded, he is entitled to gain French citizenship without any waiting period. There are no women in the Foreign Legion.

The initial group of French troops numbers around 100. This is just the first tranche of around 1,500 French Foreign Legionnaires scheduled to arrive in Ukraine.

These troops are being posted directly in a hot combat area and are intended to help the Ukrainians resist Russian advances in Donbas. The first 100 are artillery and surveillance specialists.

French President Emanuel Macron has been threatening to send French troops to Ukraine for months. He has found little or no support from NATO countries outside of support from Poland and the Baltic States. Allegedly the US opposes sending NATO soldiers to Ukraine (other than as advisors).

One of the questions to immediately arise from France’s decision to send soldiers from its 3rd Infantry Regiment is whether this crosses the Russian red line on NATO involvement in Ukraine? Will the Russians see this as initiating a wider war beyond Ukraine’s borders?

France itself does not have many troops to put on Ukraine’s battlelines, should the French government want to do so. According to reports, today France cannot support an overseas deployment of a full division and won’t have this capability until 2027 at the earliest.

The decision to send Foreign Legionnaires is, itself, a peculiar French compromise. France is not deploying its home army and, besides the few number of officers, all the other men sent are not French citizens.

France’s decision has two meanings, beyond the obvious one of potentially triggering a pan-European war.

First of all, it allows Macron to send troops to Ukraine and act like a tough guy without encountering much home opposition. That’s because no French army soldiers are being sent and there is no consequent conscription or other measures in the offing. This clearly reduces the potential fury of Macron’s political opponents.

The second reason is Macron’s anger at having French troops, almost all from the Legion, getting kicked out of Sahelian Africa and replaced by Russians. Control of Francophone Africa, and the riches it provides to French politicians, has been broken by the revolt and revolution in Africa and a decisive tilt to Russia, either directly or through PMC Wagner (the Wagner Group) now clearly under Putin’s direct control. This “humiliation” is felt in the Élysée Palace and particularly by Macron who, his opponents says, has lost France’s influence and harmed France’s overseas mining and business interests.

A particular blow is in Niger, an important supplier of uranium to France. France gets 70 percent of its electrical power from nuclear power generators. Global uranium supplies are tightening and prices rising. With Russia and Kazakhstan, along with Niger, on the top of the heap in terms of supplying uranium for nuclear reactors, France has a home economic security problem. The US decision to ban Russian uranium (but probably not realistically in the next few years), the Russians could deal a serious blow to France and the United States by cutting off supplies.

Given the risk of losing access to uranium, or at least enough of it to supply France’s reactors, Macron has to hope that his troop deployments to Ukraine won’t trigger a Russian embargo on sales to France.

It isn’t clear how the Legionnaires can help the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians know how to operate artillery, and they have sophisticated intelligence support, some of it generated by their own FPV drones and spies, and some of it thanks to US and other NATO intelligence and surveillance assets supporting Ukraine.

Anyway, the Ukrainian issue is not about how to use artillery but where the ammunition is supposed to come from. Ukraine continues to complain it lacks adequate supplies for 155mm howitzers.

The decision to put the Legion soldiers in Slavyansk is extremely provocative and goes against statements from the French side, including Macron, to the effect that if France sent troops they would replace Ukrainian army units in western Ukraine who could, therefore, be moved eastward to fight the Russians. As Slavyansk is on the front line, this French image of a soft deployment is turning into a war with Russia directly.

A key question is how NATO will react to the French decision to deploy. As France is acting on its own without NATO’s backing, the French cannot claim support from NATO under its famous Article 5, the collective security component of the NATO Treaty. Should the Russians attack French troops outside of Ukraine, this would be justified because France decided to be a combatant, and forcing an Article 5 vote would seem to be difficult if not impossible. Of course, NATO members individually could support the French, either by sending their own forces or by backstopping the French logistically and in communications. For example, there is no way a single Foreign Legion soldiers can go to Ukraine without passing through Poland. Will the Russians see this as evidence they are at war both with France and Poland?

Right now no one can answer any of these questions with any degree of certainty. It is unlikely the Russians will long tolerate a buildup of French army troops, even if they are Foreign Legion soldiers. What Russia will do in response is not certain.

Ukraine's Biggest Problem Isn't Weapons, It's Lack Of Fighting Men

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Now that Congress rammed through a huge weapons package for Ukraine, what will Ukraine do with the weapons and how long will they last?

Ukraine’s Real Bottleneck

Ukraine touts Russian casualties, no doubt exaggerated, while Russian published accounts of Russian losses are no doubt understated.

But what about Ukraine’s losses? Those are a military secret.

Despite a full understanding of how bad the situation is in Ukraine, we do know that it’s not a pretty setup. Please consider Ukraine’s Bottleneck.

The main reason why opinion in Washington has shifted over Ukraine is the assessment that the country will lose the war because it does not have enough troops on the ground.

We saw a story in Bild yesterday that would confirm this story line. Of all German newspapers, Bild has been the strongest supporter of Ukraine, so we don’t think we are dealing with a case of news selection bias. We know about shortages. This story goes further. Ukrainian commanders are saying that the bottleneck is no longer western weapons, but people who can use them.

We should not extrapolate that information. They may overstate their case to force a change in policy. For all we know, Russia may have the exact same problems, or worse.

Many young Ukrainian men have left the country to avoid the draft. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been hesitant to order a general draft of all Ukrainians. His government recently suspended consular services for Ukrainian males aged 18 to 60 years old, and reduced the age for the draft from 27 to 25 years. There is clearly more they can do. Only 15% of its male population is in active service.

But what made us listen up is the assertion about bottlenecks. It quoted one brigadier general as saying that he used to think that the lack of artillery shells was the biggest problem, but now it was the lack of human resources. The question is whether the general mobilization has been delayed for too long. The problem is not only the headline numbers. If you started a general mobilization today, you would still not have the numbers of people trained to use the weapons.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...ts-lack-fighting-men

A few articles that reveal the state of the Ukrainian army.


The War-Weary 47th Mechanized Is Ukraine’s ‘Emergency Brigade.’ The Pentagon Is Rushing Replacement Vehicles To Keep The Exhausted Unit In The Fight.

The 47th Mechanized Brigade has been fighting non-stop for nearly a year.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/d...ght/?sh=3fb926027002


American Aid Alone Won’t Save Ukraine

To Survive, Kyiv Must Build New Brigades—and Force Moscow to Negotiate

https://www.foreignaffairs.com...ne-wont-save-ukraine


A fresh Russian push will test Ukraine severely, says a senior general

An interview with Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence

https://archive.ph/wxEDp


Zelensky is in a predicament in the war against Russia - opinion

Zelensky has failed to achieve any of his goals and is leading his country into an abyss after losing many parts of Ukraine.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-799802


No safety in retreat: Ukrainian soldiers say rear defensive lines barely exist amid Russian advance

https://apnews.com/article/rus...55de6f8011b13f4d062e

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wcb6092,

An article that explains why Russia is not focused on mainly territorial gains at the present time.

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is the world’s oldest and the UK’s leading defence and security think tank.


The Attritional Art of War: Lessons from the Russian War on Ukraine

https://rusi.org/explore-our-r...-russian-war-ukraine

This is just the one they are admitting to.


Ukraine says close to $500,000 in reconstruction funds for Borodianka 'disappeared'

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukr...0-000-071017421.html

Around Hr 19.8 million ($498,000) in reconstruction funds allocated to the heavily damaged Kyiv suburb of Borodianka "disappeared," Ukraine's State Audit Service said on May 3.

Borodianka, once a town of 12,000 people 40 kilometers (~25 miles) northwest of Kyiv, suffered widespread destruction in the first weeks of Russia's all-out war against Ukraine.

Significant funding has been directed to the town and other places that bore the brunt of the initial Russian onslaught.

After an audit of the Borodianka town council, auditors determined that there was a discrepancy of Hr 14 million (around $353,000) related to plastic-metal windows, which were earmarked for installation but never actually put in.

The auditors also found that purchasing and installing materials at prices above their market price resulted in a loss of Hr 5.2 million ($131,000).

The State Audit Service said that local governments should "ensure more thorough control" over reconstruction funding and added that the case had been referred to the Prosecutor General's Office to determine whether there had been criminal wrongdoing.