All things Russia Vs. Ukraine for May 3, 2022

1. Tucker Carlson segment. The war is a US proxy war against Russia to punish them for among other things, allegedly helping Trump win in 2016

Please check comments in this post and we will try and update it when anything that even seems reasonable comes in.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

22 Replies to “All things Russia Vs. Ukraine for May 3, 2022”

  1. EU to kick more Russian banks out of SWIFT

    The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says that the bloc’s sixth package of sanctions against Russia will include the removal of more Russian banks from the international SWIFT transaction system.

    He made the comments during a press conference in Panama.

    • GERMANY – DZ Bank is once again processing payment transactions in Russia

      Frankfurt – The cooperative DZ Bank has resumed payment transactions with Russian banks after a break of several weeks – with extra control of all transactions. That’s what Thomas Ullrich, the DZ Bank board member responsible for payment transactions, told the Handelsblatt.

      […] DZ Bank also accepts payments from the Russian state for Russian pensioners living in Germany.

      […]DZ Bank is the leading institute and central payment service provider for around 770 Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks as well as other cooperative banks – they own DZ Bank. The cooperative financial institutions make up around a third of the German banking sector.

      https://newstextarea.com/dz-bank-is-once-again-processing-payment-transactions-in-russia/

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      Handelsblatt: German DZ Bank Group resumed operations with Russian banks

      “WE HAVE SUSPENDED PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS WITH RUSSIAN BANKS FOR THREE WEEKS,” MEMBERS OF THE COMPANY’S BOARD SAID IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PUBLICATION.

      “HOWEVER, FOR ABOUT SEVEN WEEKS NOW WE HAVE BEEN ACCEPTING PAYMENTS FROM RUSSIA AGAIN, BUT ON THE CONDITION THAT THEY DO NOT INVOLVE COMPANIES OR PERSONS UNDER SANCTIONS. EACH PAYMENT IS INDIVIDUALLY VERIFIED WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, AMONG OTHER THINGS,” DZ BANK ADDED.

      https://oopstop.com/handelsblatt-german-dz-bank-group-resumed-operations-with-russian-banks/

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    • The only two countries that seem intensively involved are the USA and Britain. A few weeks ago, I read that Zelensky’s PR campaign is led by British PR firms. So, other than that, what does Boris have to gain by eulogizing Zelensky?

      BORIS: “… and nobody should impose anything on Ukrainians.” – Well, what is the USA doing? Imposing Afghan refugees.

    • ctv – associated press – Ukrainian fighters: Russian forces storming Mariupol plant

      Russian forces Tuesday began storming the steel mill that represented the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, Ukrainian defenders said, just as a convoy carrying scores of civilians evacuated from the plant over the weekend reached the relative safety of a Ukrainian-controlled city.

      Osnat Lubrani, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said that thanks to the evacuation effort, “101 women, men, children and older persons could finally leave the bunkers below the Azovstal steelworks and see the daylight after two months.”

      The news for those left behind was more grim. Ukrainian fighters said Russian forces started storming the sprawling plant, which includes a maze of tunnels and bunkers.

      Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, said the Russians were mounting a heavy assault with “the support of armored vehicles and tanks, with attempts to land troops from boats and a large number of infantry.”

      The number of Ukrainian fighters holed up inside was unclear, but the Russians estimated the number at 2,000 weeks ago, and there were reports that 500 were wounded. A few hundred civilians also remained there, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

      “We’ll do everything that’s possible to repel the assault, but we’re calling for urgent measures to evacuate the civilians that remain inside the plant and to bring them safely,” Palamar said on the messaging app Telegram.

      He added that throughout the night, the plant was hit with naval artillery fire and airstrikes. Two civilian women were killed and 10 civilians were wounded, he said.

      The assault began almost two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military not to storm the plant to finish off the defenders but to seal it off.

      It came as the first convoy of evacuees from the plant arrived in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, some 140 miles (230 kilometres) northwest of Mariupol. They were allowed to leave the steel mill during a brief cease-fire over the weekend, in an operation overseen by the UN and the Red Cross.

      At a reception center in Zaporizhzhia, stretchers and wheelchairs were lined up, tiny children’s shoes dangled from a shopping cart and a pile of toys waited for the convoy. Medical and psychological teams were on standby.

      The arrival of buses and ambulances was a rare glimmer of good news in the nearly 10-week conflict that has killed thousands, forced millions to flee the country, laid waste to towns and cities, and shifted the post-Cold War balance of power in Eastern Europe.

      “Over the past days, traveling with the evacuees, I have heard mothers, children and frail grandparents speak about the trauma of living day after day under unrelenting heavy shelling and the fear of death, and with extreme lack of water, food and sanitation,” the UN’s Lubrani said. “They spoke of the hell they have experienced since this war started, seeking refuge in the Azovstal plant.”

      In addition to the 101 people evacuated from the steelworks, 58 joined the convoy in a town on the outskirts of Mariupol, Lubrani said. Some decided not to travel all the way to Zaporizhzhia, where a total of 127 arrived Tuesday, he said.

      The Russian military said earlier that some evacuees chose to stay in separatist areas. In the past, Ukraine has accused Moscow of taking civilians against their will to Russia or Russian-controlled areas — something the Kremlin has denied.

      Mariupol has come to symbolize the human misery inflicted by the war. The Russians’ two-month siege of the strategic southern port has trapped civilians with little or to food, water, medicine or heat, as Moscow’s forces pounded the city into rubble. The plant has particularly transfixed the outside world.

      The pummeling of the steelworks resumed after the weekend evacuation. Vadim Astafyev, a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, said that Ukrainian fighters used the cease-fire to come up from underground and take up new firing positions at the plant.

      Russian troops along with the Moscow-backed separatist forces used artillery and aircraft “to destroy these firing positions,” he said.

      After failing to take Kyiv in the early weeks of the war, Russia withdrew some of its forces and said its chief objective was the capture of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, known as the Donbas.

      Mariupol lies in the region, and its fall would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, allow Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and free up troops for fighting elsewhere in the Donbas.

      Michael Carpenter, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said Monday that the U.S. believes the Kremlin plans to annex much of eastern Ukraine and recognize the southern city of Kherson as an independent republic. Neither move would be recognized by the U.S. or its allies, he said.

      Russia is planning to hold sham referendums in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the Donbas that would “try to add a veneer of democratic or electoral legitimacy” and attach the entities to Russia, Carpenter said. He also said there were signs that Russia would engineer an independence vote in Kherson.

      Getting a full picture of the unfolding battle in the east has been difficult because airstrikes and artillery barrages have made it extremely dangerous for reporters to move around. Both Ukraine and the Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east have introduced tight restrictions on reporting.

      But so far, Russia’s troops and their allied separatist forces appear to have made only minor gains, taking several small towns as they try to advance in relatively small groups against staunch Ukrainian resistance.

      In its daily Twitter statement on the war, the British military said it believes the Russian military is now “significantly weaker” after suffering losses in its war on Ukraine.

      “Recovery from this will be exacerbated by sanctions,” the ministry said. “Failures both in strategic planning and operational execution have left it unable to translate numerical strength into decisive advantage.”

      Ukraine’s resistance has been significantly bolstered by Western arms, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday announced a 300 million pounds (US$375 million) in new military aid, including radar, drones and armored vehicles.

      In a speech delivered remotely to Ukraine’s parliament, he pronounced Ukraine’s battle to hold off the Russians as the country’s “finest hour,” echoing the words of Winston Churchill during World War II.

      “Your children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor counts for nothing against the moral force of a people determined to be free,” he said.

      Zelensky said at least 220 Ukrainian children have been killed by Russian forces since the war began.

      https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/ukrainian-fighters-russian-forces-storming-mariupol-plant-1.5885992

  2. reuters – EU to unveil plan to replace two-thirds of Russian gas this year

    The European Commission will present a plan later this month for how the European Union can replace two thirds of its Russian gas use by the end of 2022, the bloc’s energy policy chief Kadri Simson said on Tuesday.

    Speaking in European Parliament, Simson said the EU had reached out to all major gas suppliers to help replace Russian gas with alternatives, and its plan would also replace gas use with renewable energy or through energy savings, where possible.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-unveil-plan-replace-two-thirds-russian-gas-this-year-2022-05-03/

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    reuters – Former policy chiefs warn EU over hunt for non-Russian fossil fuels

    The European Union must avoid locking itself into years of dependence on fossil fuels as it races to replace Russian oil and gas with supplies from other countries, 11 former EU policy chiefs have said in a letter to the bloc’s current leadership.

    The European Commission will this month unveil plans to end Europe’s reliance on Russian energy, which are expected to expand renewable energy faster while encouraging the urgent replacement of Russian gas with alternative supplies.

    “Simply diversifying the import of fossil fuels will only serve to maintain EU energy dependence on other countries, many of which do not respect EU values,” the former officials said in a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans, dated Tuesday and seen by Reuters.

    Rather than locking in long-term oil and gas reliance, Brussels needs an emergency plan for a drastic reduction in fossil fuel use in line with climate goals, the letter said, urging energy savings, massive expansion of wind and solar farms, incentives for businesses to switch to low-carbon technologies and training for workers in new, green jobs.

    The Commission should also provide analysis to support more ambitious targets to expand renewable energy, renovate buildings and phase out polluting cars, which EU countries are currently negotiating, it said. The Commission has said it is analysing a higher renewables target. read more

    “Where we can replace natural gas with renewables, especially in power generation, we should do so,” EU energy policy chief Kadri Simson told European Parliament on Tuesday, adding that renewables and energy efficiency would form the “core” of its plan.

    Russia supplies 40% of EU gas and 26% of the bloc’s oil imports, which power home heating, transport and industries across Europe.

    The urgency surrounding efforts to replace those fuels was heightened after Moscow cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria last week, raising fears that other countries could be next.

    The former officials said new gas supply contracts should have time constraints to avoid locking in decades of emissions, and the Commission should withdraw its proposal to include gas-fuelled energy in the EU’s “taxonomy” system for labelling sustainable investments.

    The letter’s signatories included former EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard, former EU commissioner and Director-General of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy as well as former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, who was European Commission President in the early 2000s.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-warned-against-swapping-russian-gas-more-fossil-fuels-2022-05-03/

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    KADRI SIMSON – Brussels says difficult months ahead for Europe, after EU energy ministers meeting

    Brussels says it is preparing for difficult months ahead in the energy sector, following an extraordinary meeting of the bloc’s energy ministers on Monday to discuss its strategy

    Now, the EU is working to ensure that continent’s gas storage will be full by autumn. It’s currently at 32% and according to the bloc’s energy commissioner, Kadri Simson

    […]Some countries are calling for a punitive import tax on Russia energy instead of an embargo.

    […]To encourage skeptical nations to get rid of their dependency on fossil fuels from Moscow, Poland wants to propose a special carbon market-like mechanism on energy sources imported from Russia. Such a system would involve a quota of fossil fuels for each country, and those wanting to purchase more would have to buy permits from those using less than their limit. It’s not clear that the proposal has support from other member states.

  3. Kadri Simson: EU not aware of any companies paying roubles for Russian gas!

    The European Commission has no information that any European company has paid in roubles for Russian gas, after Moscow demanded foreign buyers comply with a mechanism to convert payments from euros or dollars to roubles, the European Union’s energy policy chief said on Monday.

    “The Commission doesn’t have information about any countries or private company who is willing to do so,” European energy commissioner Kadri Simson said on arrival at a meeting of European Union energy ministers in Brussels.

  4. I’ve always thought Zelensky is in this for the cash money, him and his Oligarch friends. He doesn’t give a hoot about his people. If he cared about his people, he would have entered talks with Putin, the latter having requested so early on. He’s a puppet, nothing more.

    My surprise would be the admittance of all Aghan (Islam) refugees that would change the composition of the Ukrainian (Christian) nation that is already fractured.

  5. Russia captures Commander of Canadian Army at Azovstal

    General Trevor Cadieu (Trevor John Cadieu), captured by Russian troops while trying to escape from the cellars of Azovstal, was the commander of the Canadian Ground Forces, APA reports citing Mailbd.

    Seated in the catacombs under the Mariupol steel plant “Azovstal” nationalists staged a provocation, trying to hide the Canadian general’s attempt to escape. After the capture of a high-ranking foreign soldier by units of the RF Armed Forces, it became clear why so many efforts were made to save him.

    A high-ranking mercenary tried to break out of the encirclement at Azovstal several times. It was for this that the West insisted on humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilians: among them, foreign specialists had to leave the catacombs.

    According to media reports, the general’s name is Trevor Kadieu. Seven months ago, he was appointed to the post of commander of the Canadian Army, but before the inauguration, he was involved in a sex scandal. In the harassment that occurred back in 1994, he was accused by a former colleague. The general called the accusations false, but in April 2022 he retired from military service.

    https://apa.az/en/america/russia-captures-commander-of-canadian-army-at-azovstal-375055

  6. DEUTSCHE PRAVDA – Meet the foreign fighters joining Ukraine’s battle with Russia

    In Ukraine, it’s not just Ukranians who fight. Thousands of people from abroad have joined the battle.

    Who are they? And why are they risking their lives?

    Our reporter meets two men from Latin America who are heading to Ukraine to serve in the armed forces.

    She accompanies them on their journey.

    Both men are fully aware that this might be a one-way trip, but they’re convinced it’s worth the risk.

  7. Biden delivers remarks on the security assistance we are providing to Ukraine

  8. PBS – U.S. acting ambassador to Ukraine on the return of diplomats and the state of the war

    In the western city of Lviv, the U.S. chargé d’affaires to Ukraine Kristina Kvien returned on Monday to the country for the first time since evacuating six weeks ago.

    Kvien joins Nick Schifrin to discuss new shipments of U.S. arms to Ukraine, sanctions against Russia and how the U.S. would define victory in the war.

  9. zero hedge – Barrage Of Cruise Missiles Rock Western Ukraine, Plunging Lviv Into Darkness

    On Tuesday multiple media correspondents reporting from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv said they heard several large blasts in the evening hours.

    It has since emerged that railway power substations are coming under attack, after the Kremlin last week indicated its military would ramp up efforts to thwart Western arms deliveries into Ukraine.

    […]

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/barrage-cruise-missiles-rock-western-city-lviv-sections-plunged-darkness

    Pelosi Enrolls the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022