President Joe Biden met with the four Congressional leaders on Wednesday to discuss ways to secure a bipartisan national security deal that would fund border enforcement efforts and unlock military aid for Ukraine.
While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are united in their support for Ukraine, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who leads the Republican-controlled lower chamber, has been noncommittal regarding continued aid to the embattled European country, insisting the border must be dealt with first.
However, Johnson recently criticized a prospective bipartisan Senate border deal, which Schumer said could receive a Senate vote next week. He argued that the solution to the ongoing wave of migrant crossings is the GOP’s border and immigration, H.R. 2, a measure that would restrict immigration and fund border security efforts, which passed the House without a single Democratic vote. On Wednesday, he showed some signs of softening his firm position.
“I told the president what I have been saying for many months and that is that we must have change at the border, substantive policy change,” Johnson said in an address following the meeting. “We’re not insistent on a particular name of a piece of legislation, but we are insistent that the elements have to be meaningful.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appear together at the U.S. Capitol Building on December 12, 2023, in Washington, D.C. President Joe Biden met with the four leaders today to discuss U.S. national security priorities. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Johnson’s comments come during a tenuous time amid his newfound leadership where some conservative members of his party voiced the threat of removing him from the speakership due to disputes over funding levels.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, escalated the situation, after telling an Axios reporter she would introduce a motion to vacate — the procedure used to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — if Johnson supports a Ukraine aid package.
With such threats looming, Johnson has displayed some hesitancy on taking firm public positions.
Punchbowl News, a Congress-focused digital news outlet, reported earlier this week that Johnson told Republicans during a Sunday call that he believes the border would be best handled under a future Trump presidency, casting doubt whether he’d bring a Senate deal to vote.
Senate Republican whip John Thune, a potential McConnell successor, pushed back on that idea, telling reporters “there’s absolutely no way that we would get the kind of border policy that’s being talked about right now” because Democrats would not agree to such enforcement provisions under Trump. If Johnson were to reject such a deal and avoid a Ukraine vote, some believe he could be defying the wishes of the majority of his party.
“If you strip the Ukraine portion out of the larger bill and just put Ukraine on the floor as a standalone vote in the House, it gets over 300 votes,” Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington told Newsweek. “It’s just a matter of being willing to stand up to the MAGA Republicans who don’t support Ukraine.”
Smith has unique insight on the issue given that he serves as the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, which is known for its unique level of bipartisanship due to its role overseeing national security matters. Smith’s Republican counterpart Congressman Mike Rogers of Alabama has notably spoken in favor Ukraine.
With Congress divided among 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats, it would take less than half of the Republican Conference to support Ukraine to exceed the 300-vote total Smith predicted, given that all Democrats appear united on the issue. A vote in September 2023 on aid for Ukraine also showed that most Republican House members still supported continued funding.
Ultimately though, Johnson’s decision will be one influenced by politics, politics around whether his party can afford to reject a bipartisan border deal and whether his party’s base align more closely with McConnell and the GOP senators who support Ukraine or Marjorie Taylor Greene and the conservative lawmakers, most of whom serve in the House, who oppose the effort.
Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming has served in both chambers of Congress. When it comes to which body she believes better represents the desires of GOP voters, who will ultimately guide the party’s longer-term national security decisions, she gives the edge to House.
“Most [House] members, because they’re up for reelection every two years, I think have a very close connection to their constituents,” Lummis told Newsweek. “So, they’re more current, I think, than senators.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday he plans to sign a bilateral security agreement with Kyiv during a visit to Ukraine next month.
Macron said France would “continue to help Ukraine to hold the front line and protect its skies,” and that the two countries “were finalizing a deal.” Speaking at a Paris press conference, Macron also announced the delivery of 40 Scalp long-range missiles and “several hundred” bombs to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
France has been working on a deal for several months, aiming to shore up Ukraine’s defenses and finances in the long term. Macron’s statement comes in the wake of last week’s visit to Kyiv by British PM Rishi Sunak, during which he signed a bilateral security deal and pledged €3 billion in military aid to Ukraine over the next two years.
European partners are under pressure to up their military support for Ukraine as Russia continues its relentless air strikes and U.S. aid seems stalled in Congress.
Earlier this month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz issued an unusually stark call to other EU countries to deliver more weapons to Ukraine. The arms deliveries planned so far are “too small,” he said, despite Berlin’s pledge to double its military aid to Kyiv to €8 billion this year.
According to the Kiel Institute, which tallied military aid to Ukraine in the public domain, Germany was the second-highest donor last year after the U.S., with €17.1 billion, followed by the U.K. with €6.6 billion, and then Nordic and Eastern European countries. France, in comparison, has only contributed €0.54 billion, Italy €0.69 billion and Spain €0.34 billion.
Macron also said France and Europe would have to take “new decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” likely a reference to talks in Brussels to resolve a dispute over a €50 billion aid package to Ukraine.
DAVOS, Switzerland — Ukrainian leaders made no secret of wanting to meet with Chinese officials in Switzerland this week but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has headed home without the desired encounter in a blow to Kyiv.
In the end, Ukraine made no headway on getting China to commit to negotiations, and Zelenskyy and Li failed to speak.
It’s the latest sign China has no intention of pushing for an end to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale war on Ukraine. It has instead sided with Russia, providing its forces with materials for military use which have sustained Moscow’s war effort despite Western pressure and sanctions. Ukraine and its supporters argue halting that pipeline would further derail the Kremlin’s plans.
China’s decision not to meet with Ukrainians appeared intentional and not the result of a scheduling problem. One senior U.S. official said Beijing rejected Kyiv’s request for a meeting at some point during their mutual Swiss visits. Another senior U.S. official said China has refused any gatherings after Russia urged it to cease diplomatic encounters with Ukraine. Both officials, like others referred to in this story, were granted anonymity to detail a sensitive dynamic.
A Ukrainian official disputed the characterization, saying there was no meeting with Chinese officials on the delegation’s schedule and that Kyiv never requested one. Chinese officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A senior European Union official said the bloc has urged China to renew direct contact with Zelenskyy, noting a meeting with Li in Switzerland would have been a positive step.
Both countries have engaged in some diplomacy since Russia’s renewed and expanded invasion. Zelenskyy and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke on the phone last April and China’s Ukraine envoy traveled to Kyiv the following month. Relations have gotten far less personal since, though Ukraine maintains hope both sides can restart talks.
Zelenskyy and Li, a close confidant of Xi, were in Davos to meet with foreign counterparts and address the forum’s well-heeled audience.
They delivered very different messages: Li presented China as a safe place to invest despite its economic woes — throwing in a few digs at the United States along the way — while Zelenskyy bashed Putin and rallied allies to Ukraine’s cause.
“Anyone thinks this is only about us, this is only about Ukraine, they are fundamentally mistaken,” he said on WEF’s main stage Tuesday.
Without a Chinese meeting on his schedule, Zelenskyy spent time coordinating with key partners, namely U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Without a Chinese meeting on his schedule, Zelenskyy spent time coordinating with key partners, namely U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken | Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
The meetings came at a crucial moment for Zelenskyy and his country, especially as the ground battle had come to a near halt, leaving both sides locked in attritional artillery bombardments along the massive front line.
The U.S. Congress is struggling to pass $61 billion in military aid for Ukraine as Republicans recoil further from sustaining a war with no end in sight, preferring instead to funnel resources toward securing the southern border with Mexico as migrants arrive in large numbers. President Joe Biden has called lawmakers to the White House to break the deadlock.
Despite Western sanctions pressure, Russia’s defense-manufacturing operation continues to hum, allowing Putin’s forces to keep fighting despite hundreds of thousands of troops being killed or injured.
China’s cold shoulder notwithstanding, the Ukrainian leader was greeted by the forum’s attendees with rock-star feverishness.
A large crowd gathered outside a meeting room just to catch a glimpse of Zelenskyy heading to his next session. He ignored questions from the press, including one on Ukraine’s relationship with China, walking away as if he hadn’t heard it.
Stuart Lau and Veronika Melkozerova contributed reporting.
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Suzanne Lynch, Nahal Toosi, John F. Harris and Alexander Ward
An increasingly belligerent Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack the NATO military alliance in less than a decade, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned.
“We hear threats from the Kremlin almost every day … so we have to take into account that Vladimir Putin might even attack a NATO country one day,” Pistorius told German outlet Der Tagesspiegel in an interview published Friday.
While a Russian attack is not likely “for now,” the minister added: “Our experts expect a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible.”
Following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has upped its aggressive rhetoric against some of its neighbors — including the Baltic countries and Poland, which are all members of NATO, and Moldova — prompting top European defense officials to warn of the risk of a major conflict.
On Wednesday, the chair of NATO’s military committee of national chiefs Admiral Rob Bauer said the military alliance faced “the most dangerous world in decades” and called for a “warfighting transformation of NATO.”
Earlier this month, Sweden’s commander-in-chief General Micael Bydén similarly called on Swedes to “prepare themselves mentally” for war.
The same day, Sweden’s Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin also warned that “war could come to Sweden.”
In his interview with Der Tagesspiegel, Pistorius said the Swedish warnings were “understandable from a Scandinavian perspective,” adding that Sweden faced “an even more serious situation,” given its proximity to Russia. It is also not yet a member of the NATO alliance, waiting for approval from Turkey and Hungary to join.
“But we also have to learn to live with danger again and prepare ourselves — militarily, socially and in terms of civil defense,” Pistorius warned.
Poland, which is spending more than 4 percent of its GDP on defense this year, is also worried about Russia’s unpredictability following the unexpected attack on Ukraine in 2022.
“Russia is defying logic. What happened in 2022 seemed impossible. We must be ready for any scenario,” Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said in a television interview earlier this week.
Late last year, Germany revamped its military and strategic doctrine for the first time since 2011, aiming to turn the Bundeswehr into a war-capable military.
“War has returned to Europe. Germany and its allies once again have to deal with a military threat. The international order is under attack in Europe and around the globe. We are living in a turning point,” said the first paragraph of the new doctrine.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, an outspoken Putin critic who has been one of the loudest voices in support of Ukraine in the EU, on Thursday called on Europe to speed up preparations for more Russian aggression.
“There’s a chance that Russia might not be contained in Ukraine,” Landsbergis told French newswire AFP at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “There is no scenario in this that if Ukraine doesn’t win, that could end well for Europe,” he warned.
TWO of Vladimir Putin’s most crucial warplanes worth £290million have been shot down in the most recent blow to the despot’s failing war in Ukraine.
One of the Russian dictator’s £260million spy planes disappeared and a vital bomber jet was set on fire after Ukrainian forces shot them out of the sky above the Azov Sea.
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Putin’s IL-22M command plane – one of two key aircraft hit on Sunday
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A £260m Russian A-50 spy plane (pictured) disappeared after the hit on SundayCredit: EAST2WEST
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The Sunday attack came on the one-year anniversary of the Dnipro bombings in Ukraine which left over 45 deadCredit: AP
They were blasted out of the air in one of Moscow’s worst days for its air force since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
The IL-22M bomber, worth around £28million, just managed to make its way back to Anapa airport on fire after being hit, with a number of casualties.
But the £260million A-50 spy plane disappeared soon after going on patrol near Zaporizhzhia at 9:10pm on Sunday.
For now it is unclear if the aircraft were definitely hit by Ukrainian missiles possibly using a new NATO “miracle weapon” – or in a friendly fire ambush by the Russians.
After the IL-22M command plane was hit, air traffic control at Russian Anapa airport heard: “It’s been hit, landing in Anapa.
“Urgently need an ambulance and fire engine.”
At least one senior Russian war commander was likely on board at the time.
Russian Telegram channel Colonelcassad admitted there had been casualties on the aircraft.
Ukraine initially claimed to have downed the planes close to Putin’s beloved £3million Crimean Bridge.
But it was reported that the command plane was shot over Strilkove, Kherson, miles away from the key bridge.
Reports say the planes have been flying the same routes for months.
The spy plane, now missing, recently underwent a £3million modernisation and refit.
It is a key Soviet-era aircraft which uses radar to detect missiles and enemy planes.
Ukraine’s RBK outlet reported Ukrainian Air Force General Mykola Oleshchuk as saying: “This is for Dnipro! Burn in hell, you inhumans! PS No details yet”.
“It is finally clear that the Russian IL-22 in the Sea of Azov area was hit by the Russian air defence that defended the Crimean Bridge,” stated the VChK OGPU Telegram channel, which has links to the security services.
“When the plane was hit, the bridge had an alarm, and traffic was blocked.
“The pilot was able to land the plane, and at least two people were injured.”
Russian Telegram channel Military Informant also said: “The damaged IL-22 reached the airfield and landed, as evidenced by leaked intercepted conversations on an open frequency, but with the A-50, apparently, everything is much sadder.
“If the loss of the aircraft is confirmed, it will be a huge setback for domestic aviation since there are only a few such AWACS aircraft in service and are constantly in short supply at the front.”
The channel described the aircraft hits as “another dark day for the Russian air forces”.
The loss of the AWACS plane was “approximately equal to [the demise of] an aircraft carrier”.
The same channel discussed unnamed “miracle weapons” provided by NATO and Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergey Markov also speculated on “use of a new type of weapon by the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
Russian Telegram channel FlightBomber – with close military contacts – today appeared to admit the catastrophic blow.
“Tragedy is always tragedy. Especially when it’s on this scale,” said a post.
“Who is to blame for the deaths of the pilots, we probably won’t know.”
The channel called for the Russian Defence Ministry – which did not initially comment on the Air Force blow – to come clean about what happened.
Russia has suffered repeated losses from friendly fire, indicating faulty weaponry as well as poor command and control.
Pro-war military channel Rybar admitted the possibility of friendly fire.
“Sadly there were enough similar cases during the past two years, and there is no sign of improvement,” reported the channel.
Ukrainian channel Crimean Wind reported: “As we are informed, a Russian A-50 AWACS aircraft was shot down over the Sea of Azov near Berdyansk and an IL-22 was shot down.…
“The IL-22, falling, pulled towards Kerch – that is why the bridge was closed.”
The channel said that all ships in the vicinity of the Crimeans Bridge had their transponders turned off today.
Initially, Ukrainian sources had claimed responsibility for the attack – despite the Sea of Azov being hard to reach.
Senior politician Yuri Mysyagin said: “At about 21:00, Ukrainian units fired at two aircraft of the Russian Air Force, namely an A-50 AWACS aircraft and an IL-22, located over the Sea of Azov.
“The A-50 was shot down, and the IL-22 was shot down, but was in the air and trying to get to the nearest airfield, but disappeared from the radar, after the descent began, in the Kerch area.”
Commanders have been careful not to use the intelligence-gathering planes too close to the active war zone.
According to reports Russia had just nine of the A50 planes in service and 30 IL-22Ms.
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A Russian IL-22 command and control spy planeCredit: EAST2WEST
A Russian A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) jet and an Il-22M airborne command post were successfully engaged by Ukrainian air defense over the Sea of Azov Sunday, according to a Ukrainian legislator who heads a prominent defense committee, as well as Ukrainian media.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not officially commented on this claim, which The War Zone cannot independently verify. If true, losing these two command and control aircraft would be a major blow for Russia because only a handful of each exists. Beyond that, it will make flying within the same proximity of Ukrainian lines highly dangerous, effectively pushing these assets back. This would follow an anti-access counter-air campaign that Ukraine has been waging against Russian military aircraft in recent weeks using long-range Patriot air defense systems.
“Around 9:00 p.m., Ukrainian units fired at two Russian air force aircraft, namely the A-50 DRLO aircraft and the IL-22 bomber [inaccurate description], which were over the waters of the Sea of Azov,” Deputy Chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence in the Verkhovna Rada, Yuriy Mysiagin, stated on Telegram.
The A-50 was shot down, and the IL-22 “was in the air and tried to reach the nearest airfield, but it disappeared from the radar after the descent began, in the Kerch area,” Mysiagin said, later updating his post to say the second aircraft was an IL-22M.
“According to information from sources within the Ukrainian Defense Forces, it has been revealed that a military aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, A-50, was shot down, and an IL-22M11 with registration number 75106 was damaged,” the Ukrainian RBC media outlet reported on Sunday.
An Il-22M Coot-B, with spurious markings suggesting it is an Il-18 transport., Anna Zvereva/Wikimedia Commons
The incidents took place in the western part of the Azov Sea, according to RBC.
The A-50 “was downed immediately upon entering the patrol zone near Kyrylivka around 9:10 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. on January 14, RBC reported.
“The A-50 disappeared from radars and ceased responding to tactical aviation requests. Subsequently, the pilot of a Russian Su-30 aircraft detected a fire and the descent of an unidentified airborne vehicle.”
The IL-22M11 was on patrol in the Strilkove area and was eventually shot down along the coast of the Azov Sea at around 9 p.m. on Jan. 14, according to RBC.
“After being hit, the aircraft intended to make an emergency landing in Anapa, requesting evacuation and calling for ambulance and firefighting services.”
The outlet published what it said were communications between the stricken IL-22M and the Anapa airport dispatcher. The aircraft planned to land in Anapa and requested evacuation, calling an “ambulance” and a fire truck
The Russian Defense Ministry has yet to comment on the claims that two of its rare airborne command platforms were hit, but well-connected Russian milbloggers bemoaned the losses.
“For the Il-18/22, the situation has already become clear, the plane has landed, but there are casualties (the nature of the damage and their cause are not entirely clear),” the Colonelcassad Telegram channel wrote.
“The enemy declares the defeat of A-50 and Il-22 of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the skies over the Sea of Azov,” the Military Informant Telegram channel wrote. “The damaged Il-22 was able to reach the airfield and land, as evidenced by leaked intercepted conversations on an open frequency, but with the A-50, apparently, everything is much sadder.”
“If the loss of the aircraft is confirmed, it will be a huge loss for domestic aviation, since there are only a few such AWACS aircraft in service and are constantly in short supply at the front,” Military Informant complained. “By the way, after the loss of three Su-34s at once from Patriot fire, also in the Azov Sea area, very little time passed.”
If these aircraft were lost at all, and beyond the very real possibility that this was a case of friendly fire, which has happened before, Ukraine shooting down aircraft in the western portion of the Sea of Azov would be a major development. It’s worth noting that the Sea of Azov sits between Crimea to the west, Russia to the east, and eastern Ukraine to the north. The Kerch Bridge and the entrance into the greater Black Sea is to the south.
Google Earth
A shoot down would also fit with the aforementioned highly targeted campaign the Ukrainian Air Force has been waging against Russian combat aviation that has included multiple long-range downings of tactical aircraft. These anti-access tactics have resulted in effectively pushing back Russian airpower and degrading its ability to launch direct attacks and even those using standoff glide bombs, which have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian towns.
The first use of these tactics — pushing forward Patriot batteries to reach deep into Russian-controlled airspace — occurred last May, with the downing of multiple Russian aircraft over Russian territory that borders northeastern Ukraine. Last December, similar tactics were used against tactical jets flying over the northwestern Black Sea. But taking down Flankers and Fencers is one thing, swatting down an A-50 is another.
The A-50s are extremely low-density, high-demand assets. From there perch high-up in the flight levels, they provide a look-down air picture that reaches deep into Ukrainian-controlled territory. They can play a key role in spotting incoming cruise missile and drone attacks, as well as low-flying fighter sorties. They also provide command and control and situational awareness for Russian fighters and SAM batteries. There are only around ten of these aircraft in existence and it is thought that significantly fewer — around half that number — are operational at any given time and their replacement has been slow to materialize. These aircraft have been targeted by forces allied with Ukraine before. So downing one would be a big score, as would taking out an IL-22M, which are also limited in number and provide critical radio relay and command and control functions.
But above single counter-air victories, this would be a much bigger deal if it indeed occurred, as it would deny reconnaissance aircraft access to critical areas of operation. In essence, the threat of being shot down would push them farther back, away from Ukrainian territory. This could drastically degrade the quality of intelligence and command and control they provide. Even fighters, which are harder targets than lumbering surveillance aircraft, may now also be at risk far from the front lines in this area.
From Robotyne, which is really the closest Ukraine operates to the Sea of Azov, it is roughly 55 miles to that body of water. Other towns along the bank of the Dnipro River that is Ukrainian-held territory are slight a bit farther, but it all depends on exactly where the targeted aircraft were at the time of the engagement. Considering risking a Patriot system right at the front is unlikely, and these airborne assets were likely orbiting at least some ways out over the water, this shot was more likely to have been around 100 miles, give or take a couple dozen miles.
So, if indeed this did occur, the status quo for the air war over Ukraine may have made a significant shift in Kyiv’s favor.
For this edition of “The Takeout,” Major Garrett speaks to Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey. A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Casey discusses the importance of transparency on Capitol Hill among lawmakers and the funding fight for Ukraine and Israel aid.
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VLADIMIR Putin has been accused of turning off the heating in Russian prisons to force convicts into fighting in Ukraine.
A human rights expert has called out Putin for allegedly making the conditions in prison “unbearable” as temperatures plunge to below minus 55C.
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Russia has turned off the heating in prisons to force inmates to sign up for Putin’s war, says a head of a human rights organisationCredit: East2West
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Olga Romanova, from Russian Behind Bars, has called out Russia for allegedly making the conditions ‘unbearable’ in prison as temperatures plungeCredit: East2West
Olga Romanova, director of the Russia Behind Bars human rights organisation, has said Putin is looking to recruit more people to help with the horror fighting in Ukraine.
She told German newspaper BILD: “For this reason, they simply turned off their heating at sub-zero temperatures.
“The conditions in prisons should become unbearable so that the men there go to Ukraine.”
Olga also described the Russian tyrant’s sickening methods to find more “cannon fodder” fighters by turning down the heating a form of “torture”.
And Olga thinks the number is likely to be higher at 120,000 and rising with many being drafted into the notorious Wagner mercenary army.
The chilling number of thugs being given lethal weapons comes as a huge shock especially when compared with just the 83,000 male convicts in the entire UK prison system.
The director continued: “The prisoners are simply sent en masse to the Ukrainian defence line and are sacrificed in the process.”
Olga has also claimed that the people of Russia don’t care about Putin’s horror tactics to recruit more fighters to go to the frontline as they feel no compassion towards guilty prisoners.
But the constant flow of new criminal recruits has dried up recently as Putin’s regime has turned to female inmates.
A Kyiv official said the dead bodies of these women – trained to be Russian fighters – are increasingly being found in trenches.
Ukraine alleges that female convicts are being recruited from prisons and are trained to use precision weapons.
And they are now dying fighting Putin’s illegal war amid the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian Government advisor Anton Gerashchenko said: “In the trenches, among the dead occupiers, Russian women from women’s (penal) colonies are increasingly being found.
“There are fewer and fewer (male) prisoners left in Russia who want to die in war – young ladies are thrown into ‘meat assaults’.”
He also claims women are coerced into signing up with the same deal as the men.
Reports have suggested that tens of thousands of Russian convicts were offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be freed from jail despite them being locked up for heinous crimes.
The agreed contract stated that the thugs would serve in the bloody war for six months before being pardoned by Putin when they returned home.
Olga Romanova has also had her say on the rise in female fighters being deployed in Russia saying that some are actually volunteers.
Others come from a separate unit called She-Wolf, which included female snipers, she said.
Before she added that recruiters from the Russian Defence Ministry visited a women’s colony in Sablino, Leningrad Region and offered women £1,400 to leave jail and train for the frontlines as snipers and other roles.
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Convicts are allegedly being offered a chance to be pardoned by the president if they serve six months in the warCredit: East2West
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Ukraine has also claimed that Russia is now deploying female criminals to fight on the frontlinesCredit: East2West
House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing pressure from some conservative legislators over agreements made with Democrats on government spending. Siobhan Hughes, a congressional reporter for the Wall Street Journal, joins CBS News from Capitol Hill.
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Additional funding for Ukraine has stalled in Congress and that’s sparking great concern in Kyiv, which is still holding its ground against Russia largely thanks to American aid. CBS News foreign correspondent Chris Livesay has more.
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It’s that time of year again: Leaders, business titans, philanthropists and celebs descend on the Swiss ski town of Davos to discuss the fate of the world and do deals/shots with the global elite at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
This year’s theme: “Rebuilding trust.” Prescient, given the dumpster fire the world seems to be turning into lately, both literally (climate change) and figuratively (where to even begin?).
As always, the Davos great and good will be rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s absolute top-drawer dirtbags. While there’s been a distinct dearth of Russian oligarchs in attendance at the WEF since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Donald Trump will be tied up with the Iowa caucus, there are still plenty of would-be autocrats, dictators, thugs, extortionists, misery merchants, spoilers and political pariahs on the Davos guest list.
1. Argentine President Javier Milei
Known as the Donald Trump of Argentina — and also as “The Madman” and “The Wig” — the chainsaw-wielding Javier Milei has it all: a fanatical supporter base, background as a TV shock jock, libertarian anarcho-capitalist policies (except when it comes to abortion), and a … memorable … hairdo.
A long-time Davos devotee (he’s been attending the WEF for years), Milei’s libertarian policies have turned from kooky thought bubbles to concerning reality after he was elected president of South America’s second-largest economy, riding a wave of discontent with the political establishment (sound familiar?). The question now is how far Milei will go in delivering on his campaign promises to hack back public service and state spending, close the Argentine central bank and drop the peso.
If you do get stuck talking to Milei in the congress center or on the slopes, here are some conversation starters …
Rumor has it that Mohammed bin Salman will make his first in-person WEF appearance at this year’s event, accompanied by a giant posse of top Saudi officials.
It’s the ultimate redemption arc for the repressive authoritarian ruler of a country with an appalling human rights record — who, according to United States intelligence, personally ordered the brutal assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Rumor has it that Mohammed bin Salman will make his first in-person WEF appearance at this year’s event | Leon Neal/Getty Images
Perhaps MBS would still be a WEF pariah — consigned to rubbing shoulders with mere B-listers at his own Davos in the desert — if it were not for that other one-time Davos-darling-turned-persona-non-grata: Russian President Vladimir Putin. By launching his invasion of Ukraine, which killed thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of troops, Putin managed to push the West back into MBS’ embrace. Guess it’s all just oil under the bridge now.
Here’s a piece of free advice: Try to avoid being caught getting a signature MBS fist-bump. Unless, of course, you’re the next person on our list …
3. Jared Kushner, founder of Affinity Partners
Jared Kushner is the closest anyone on the mountain is likely to come to Trump, the former — and possibly future — billionaire baron-cum-anti-elitist president of the United States of America.
On the one hand, a chat with The Donald’s son-in-law in the days just after the Iowa caucus would probably be quite a get for the Davos devotee. On other hand … it’s Jared Kushner.
The 43-year-old, who is married to Ivanka Trump and served as a senior adviser to the former president during his time in office, leveraged his stint in the White House to build up a lucrative consulting career, focused mainly on the Middle East.
Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, is largely funded through Gulf countries. That includes a $2 billion investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, led by bin Salman — which was, coincidentally, pushed through despite objections by the crown prince’s own advisers.
Kushner struck up a friendship and alliance with MBS during his father-in-law’s term in office, raising major conflict-of-interest suspicions for the Trump administration — especially when the then-U.S. president refused to condemn the Saudi leader in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, despite the CIA concluding he was directly involved.
Running Azerbaijan is something of a family business for the Aliyevs — Ilham assumed power after the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev, an ex-Soviet KGB officer who ruled the country for decades. And the junior Aliyev changed Azerbaijan’s constitution to pave the path to power for the next generation of his family — and appointed his own wife as vice president to boot.
5. Chinese Premier Li Qiang
Li Qiang is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ultra-loyal right-hand man, and will represent his boss and his country at the World Economic Forum this year.
Li’s claim to infamy: imposing a brutal lockdown on the entirety of Shanghai for weeks during the coronavirus pandemic, which trapped its 25 million-plus inhabitants at home while many struggled to get food, tend to their animals or seek medical help — and tanking the city’s economy in the process.
Li’s also the guy selling (and whitewashing) China’s Uyghur policy in the Islamic world. In case you need a refresher, China has detained Uyghurs, who are mostly Muslim, in internment camps in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where there have been allegations of torture, slavery, forced sterilization, sexual abuse and brainwashing. China’s actions have been branded genocide by the U.S. State Department, and as potential crimes against humanity by the United Nations.
Li Qiang will represent his boss and his country at the World Economic Forum this year | Johannes Simon/Getty Images
Nicknamed “the Napoleon of Africa” in a nod to his campaign to seize power in 1994, Paul Kagame has ruled over the land of a thousand hills since. He’s often praised for overseeing what is probably the greatest development success story of modern Africa; he’s also a dictator.
Forced from office in 2018 by mass protests following the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, Fico rose from the political ashes to become Slovakian prime minister for the fourth time late last year. His Smer party ran a Putin-friendly campaign, pledging to end all military support for Ukraine.
Slovakian courts are still working through multiple organized crime cases stemming from the last time Smer was in power, involving oligarchs alleged to have profited from state contracts; former top police brass and senior military intelligence officers; and parliamentarians from all three parties in Fico’s new coalition government.
8. President of Hungary Katalin Novák
Katalin Novák, elected Hungarian president in 2022, must’ve pulled the short straw: she’s been sent to Davos to fly the flag for the EU’s pariah state. Luckily, the 46-year-old is used to being the odd one out at a shindig: She’s both the first woman and the youngest-ever Hungarian president.
It’s her thoughts on the gender pay gap, though, that ought to get attention at the famously male-dominated World Economic Forum: In an infamous video posted back in late 2020, Novák told the sisterhood: “Do not believe that women have to constantly compete with men. Do not believe that every waking moment of our lives must be spent with comparing ourselves to men, and that we should work in at least the same position, for at least the same pay they do.” That’s us told.
9. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet
You may be surprised to see Hun Manet on this list: The new, Western-educated Cambodian prime minister has been touted in some circles as a potential modernizer and reformer.
But Hun Manet is less a breath of fresh air and a lot more continuation of the same stale story. Having inherited his position from his father, the longtime autocrat Hun Sen, Hun Manet has shown no signs of wanting to reform or modernize Cambodia. While some say it’s too early to tell where he’ll land (given his dad’s still on the scene, along with his Communist loyalists), the fact is: Many hallmarks of autocracy are still present in Cambodia. Repression of the opposition? Check. Dodgy “elections”? Check. Widespread graft and clientelism? Check and check.
10. Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani
How has a small kingdom of 2.6 million inhabitants in the Persian Gulf managed to play a starring role in so many explosive scandals?
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani is the prime minister of Qatar, a country that’s played a starring role in many explosive scandals | Chris J. Ratcliffe/AFP via Getty Images
You’d think that sort of record would see Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani shunned by the world’s top brass. Nah! Just this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Qatari leader and told him the U.S. was “deeply grateful for your ongoing leadership in this effort, for the tireless work which you undertook and that continues, to try to free the remaining hostages.”
See you on the slopes, Mohammed!
11. Polish President Andrzej Duda
When you compare Polish President Andrzej Duda to some of the others on this list, he doesn’t seem to measure up. He’s not a dictator running a violent petro-state, hasn’t invaded any neighbors or even wielded a chainsaw on stage.
But Duda is yesterday’s man. As the last one standing from Poland’s nationalist Law and Justice party that was swept out of office last year, Duda’s holding on for dear life to his own relevance, doing his best to act as a spoiler against the Donald Tusk-led government by wielding his veto powers and harboring convicted lawmakers. All of which is to say: When you catch up with President Duda at Davos, don’t assume he’s speaking for Poland.
12. Amin Nasser, CEO of Aramco
The Saudi Arabian state oil and gas company is Aramco — the world’s biggest energy firm — and Amin Nasser is its boss. If you read Aramco’s press releases, you’d be forgiven for assuming it is also the world’s biggest champion of the green energy transition. Spoiler alert: It’s far from it.
Exhibit A: Aramco is reportedly a top corporate polluter, with environment nongovernmental organization ClientEarth reporting that it accounts for more than 4 percent of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1965. Exhibit B: Bloomberg reported in 2021 that it understated its carbon footprint by as much as 50 percent.
Nasser, meanwhile, has criticized the idea that climate action should mean countries “either shut down or slow down big time” their fossil fuel production. Say that to Al Gore’s face!
This article has been updated to reflect the fact Shou Zi Chew is no longer going to attend the World Economic Forum.
Dionisios Sturis, Peter Snowdon, Suzanne Lynch and Paul de Villepin contributed reporting.
Europe’s leaders and top officials are descending on Kyiv with pledges of fresh support as Russia continues its relentless air attacks against Ukraine.
Newly appointed French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said on Saturday in Kyiv that Ukraine will remain “France’s priority” despite “the multiplying crises” during his first foreign trip after his appointment last week. Séjourné hailed a “new phase” in joint weapons production with Ukraine during a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.
Séjourné’s trip came on the heels of a visit Friday by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during which he announced a multi-year security pact with Ukraine. The British leader committed £2.5 billion (€2.9 billion) in military aid to Ukraine for 2024/2025, as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
France’s Séjourné pledged to boost joint cooperation with Ukraine and “reinforce Ukraine’s capacity to produce on its territory” with France’s top firms. France has also been negotiating a security pact with Ukraine but the details have yet to be announced.
Poland’s Donald Tusk is expected to visit Kyiv this week, possibly on Monday.
The visits by European leaders come in the wake of weeks of renewed Russian air strikes against Ukraine and amid fears that U.S. help has stalled due to a blocked Congress and this year’s American presidential election. On Saturday, Ukrainian air defenses recorded a total of 40 attacks.
Earlier this month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz issued an unusually stark call to other EU countries to deliver more weapons to Ukraine. The arms deliveries planned so far were “too small,” he said, despite Berlin’s pledge to double its military aid to Kyiv to €8 billion this year.
According to the Kiel Institute, which tallied up military aid to Ukraine in the public domain, Germany was the second-highest donor last year after the U.S., with €17.1 billion; it was followed by the U.K. with €6.6 billion and by Nordic and eastern EU countries. France, in comparison, has only contributed €0.54 billion, Italy €0.69 billion and Spain €0.34 billion.
The airline industry’s dramatic climb from the depths of the pandemic may be ending soon.
A review of multiple reports shows stabilization across several key metrics, as rapid growth ends and a new era of normalcy begins.
“2024 is expected to mark the end of the dramatic year-on-year increases that have been characteristic of the recovery in 2021-2023,” a December report by the International Air Transport Association said.
Global flight capacity is expected to be restored, with some 40 million flights (up from 38.9 million in 2019) projected to carry a record 4.7 billion people (up from 4.5 billion people in 2019), according to IATA.
As leisure travel demand softens and “revenge travel” ends, supply and demand in the commercial airline industry is hitting an equilibrium, which will help stabilize airfares in 2024, according to Amex GBT Consulting.
Global airfares are expected to rise between 3%-7% next year, as airlines grapple with high fuel costs, sustainability changes and fleet upgrades, according to the FCM Consulting’s “Global Trend Report” for the third quarter of 2023.
However, several other reports expect flight prices to soften.
The travel arrangements company BCD Travel expects global fares to drop next year, but just slightly — less than 1% compared to 2023 — with a more pronounced drop in airfares to and from Asia (3% for business class, nearly 4% for economy), according to its “Travel Market Report 2024 Outlook.”
“After recent rises in fares, we should expect a modest price correction in some markets in 2024, although underlying pricing should generally remain strong,” it said.
However, Amex GBT’s “Air Monitor 2024” is expecting only international airfares to drop in 2024 — notably for flights between North America and Asia. The report states regional fares will remain stable or slightly increase.
We should expect a modest price correction in some markets in 2024.
BCD Travel
Travel Market Report 2024 Outlook
Travelers in the U.S. may see some savings. The travel company Hopper expects fares in the U.S. to drop — at least for the first six months, according to its “2024 Travel Outlook” report.
Overall, passengers shouldn’t expect much change in 2024, says John Grant, chief analyst at the travel data company OAG.
“There will be a continuation of the status quo, with only minor fluctuations in fare prices,” he said. “Although we may see a slight shaving of fares as demand softens in the very low season, the fundamentals of a high operating costs base remain [plus] increased salaries, oil prices etc. suggest that we will not see much of a shift.”
Many airlines reported record earnings in 2023 but “the landscape could look less favorable in 2024,” according to Amex GBT’s Air Monitor 2024.
Global economic growth last year, in the face of high inflation and high interest rates, may have occurred due to a delay, rather than a lack, of market reaction, according to BCD Travel’s report.
“The transmission into the wider economy of the subduing effects of policy tightening has simply taken longer than economists had expected,” it states.
The report outlined other pressures facing the industry, including geopolitical problems, supply chain issues, staffing shortages, and rising fuel and labor costs.
However, several tailwinds may bolster the industry this year, including the long-awaited return of business travel, which is expected to pick up in 2024.
Projections by IATA show industry revenues and profits are expected to increase in 2024.
People love to travel and that has helped airlines to come roaring back to pre-pandemic levels of connectivity.
Willie Walsh
IATA’s Director General
The association expects global revenues to reach a record-making $964 billion dollars next year, with net profits of $25.7 billion, it said.
This would be a 2.7% net profit margin — a slight increase from the 2.6% profit margin expected for 2023, the report said.
However, IATA also stated that the industry faces considerable challenges, from customer competition and high operating costs to government regulations.
“People love to travel and that has helped airlines to come roaring back to pre-pandemic levels of connectivity,” IATA’s Director General Willie Walsh said in the report.
However, “industry profits must be put into proper perspective. While the recovery is impressive, a net profit margin of 2.7% is far below what investors in almost any other industry would accept.”
BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday urged other EU nations to deliver more military aid to Ukraine, saying Berlin has asked Brussels to check with countries on their planned support for Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters, Scholz warned that while his government is planning to double its military aid to Ukraine to €8 billion this year within a draft budget, “this alone will not be enough to guarantee Ukraine’s security in the long term.
“I therefore call on our allies in the European Union to also step up their efforts in support of Ukraine. The arms deliveries for Ukraine planned so far by the majority of EU member states are by all means too small,” he said. “We need higher contributions.”
The chancellor’s unusually frank remarks, delivered at a press conference with Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden, reflect the growing frustration and concern among German officials that other EU countries appear to be delivering insufficient military resources to Ukraine, about to enter its third year of full-scale invasion by Russia.
Scholz said other EU countries are “perhaps” planning further weapons deliveries, “but we are not aware of them” — and that, accordingly, Berlin has asked the EU to verify with member scountries what support they are planning. “At the latest” by the next summit of EU leaders on February 1, Scholz added, “we need an overview as precise as possible of what concrete contribution our European partners will make to support Ukraine this year.”
The chancellor also expressed optimism that EU countries can overcome Hungary’s objections to a €50 billion EU aid package for Ukraine, which is slated to be adopted during the February summit.
“I am confident that we will manage to get a decision by all 27 member states,” Scholz said. “That is what we are working on very intensively and where we are putting a lot of effort into actually making this possible.”
Maria Kartasheva, a Russian migrant in Canada may be denied citizenship and potentially be deported because she was convicted of a “crime” back in Russia. What was her heinous offense? She wrote blog posts condemning Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and war crimes committed by Russian troops there:
Federal officials are blocking a pro-democracy activist from Canadian citizenship because a Russian court convicted her for blog posts opposing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Maria Kartasheva is appealing the decision by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and says she fears being deported to a Russian prison.
Kartasheva left Russia in 2019 because of rising authoritarianism, and is now a tech worker in Ottawa who co-founded a grassroots activist group for democracy in Russia….
Kartasheva, 30, learned via her family that in late 2022 she was charged by Russian authorities with a wartime offence of disseminating “deliberately false information” about Russia forces. The charges related to two blog posts she wrote while living in Canada.
Kartasheva notified Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada about the charges and uploaded translated court documents last May. Days later the department gave her an invitation to her citizenship ceremony.
On June 7, 2023, she logged into the ceremony alongside her husband. In the pre-interview that takes place before someone is allowed into the ceremony room, they were asked if anyone had been criminally charged, as part of a list of standard questions.
When she explained what had happened, an official pulled her out of the ceremony, though her husband went ahead and was given his citizenship…..
Last month, the department sent her a letter, saying that her conviction in Russia aligns with a Criminal Code offence in Canada relating to false information.
Kartasheva’s blog posts condemning the invasion of Ukraine and atrocities committed by Russian forces ran afoul of new draconian Russian laws criminalizing dissent on the war. A Russian court convicted her in absentia, and sentenced her to an eight-year prison sentence. Ironically, the judge who sentenced Kartasheva is under sanctions by Canada, for her role in perpetrating human rights violations. Yet Canadian immigration authorities are relying on her decision in this case as a reason to deny citizenship.
There is much stupidity and downright evil in US immigration law and policy. But if Canadian authorities don’t reverse this decision, it would be up there with some of the worst of ours.
If anything, Kartasheva’s conviction for speaking out against the war should help her cause, not hurt it. Like the US, Canada has a law granting refugee or asylum status to people who have a “well-founded fear of persecution” for their political views. If anyone has such a “well-founded fear,” it’s a person who faces a lengthy prison sentence for speaking out against her government’s war of aggression and atrocities.
Last year, Canada granted refugee status to a young Russian fleeing conscription into Putin’s war. Kartasheva’s case is at least equally worthy. And the idea that her conviction is a crime meriting denial of citizenship in a liberal democratic society is absurd.
Since the start of the conflict, I have been making the case that Western nations should open their doors to Russians fleeing Putin’s regime, on both moral and strategic grounds. For some of my writings on this topic, see here, here, here, and here. But even those unwilling to go as far in this direction as I advocate should at least be open to accepting Russians who face persecution and imprisonment for speaking out against the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is under fire for allegedly attempting to avoid responsibility for his country’s plan to draft more soldiers.
During a press conference December 19, Zelensky expressed reluctance while announcing that the Ukrainian military was proposing to draft as many as 500,000 new troops to aid in the ongoing war effort against Russia.
“I would need more arguments to support this move,” Zelensky said, according to Reuters. “Because first of all, it’s a question of people, secondly, it’s a question of fairness, it’s a question of defense capability, and it’s a question of finances.”
Less than one week later, late on Christmas night, the text of a mobilization draft law that includes a provision to lower the age of conscription from 27 to 25 was posted to the website of the Ukrainian parliament.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pictured during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine on November 21, 2023. Zelensky has recently been accused of attempting to avoid “responsibility” for Ukraine’s plan to draft up to 500,000 more troops as the war against Russia continues. Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine
The law was reportedly submitted using the names of Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, while Zelensky’s name was conspicuously missing.
Lawyer and activist Hennadiy Druzenko said in a report published by the U.S.-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Wednesday that Zelensky was playing a game of “hot potato” to avoid responsibility for what could be an unpopular move.
“The president did not behave like a statesman,” Druzenko said. “[Zelensky] should come out and start taking responsibility for himself and explain why this [bill] is necessary.”
Ukrainian parliament member Solomia Bobrovska suggested during an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service that Zelensky’s government had adopted “Bolshevik” tactics by introducing the bill on Christmas so “no one would notice.”
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email on Wednesday.
During a televised address on December 26, Zelensky said that he was “waiting for the final text of the law.” He seemingly distanced himself from the proposal by arguing that it was “only right that the military, together with MPs, decide on the basis” of the bill.
The mobilization proposal has highlighted an escalating rift between Zelensky and General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a potential candidate in the country’s next presidential election, which is currently postponed.
Zaluzhnyi said during his own press conference on December 26 that the number of up to 500,000 requested conscripts “takes into account the coverage of the current shortfall that has arisen, the formation of new military units, as well as the projection of our losses that may occur next year.”
The general also reportedly said that more troops who are able to “carry out the assigned tasks” were needed in order for Ukraine “to continue military operations.”
In November, Zaluzhnyi said that Ukraine had reached a “stalemate” with Russia following a counteroffensive that many saw as a failure. The remarks were quickly rebuked by Zelensky, who has consistently painted a more positive picture of Ukraine’s war footing.
There have been some indications that Zelensky’s popularity is waning as the war nears its two-year anniversary. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko recently praised Zaluzhnyi for telling “the truth” while accusing Zelensky of “euphorically” lying about Ukraine’s standing in the war.
A poll released last month by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 62 percent of Ukrainians said they trusted Zelensky, down from 84 percent one year earlier. Only 26 percent said that they trusted the Ukrainian government, while 15 percent said they trusted Ukraine’s parliament.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Polish farmers ended a blockade of a Poland-Ukraine border crossing after reaching an agreement with Warsaw that met their demands, defusing a dispute that had become an early test of the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Newly appointed Polish Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekierski signed the deal with Polish farmers blockading the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing with Ukraine late Saturday. The protest — which started over a month ago — was called off on December 24 following an agreement with the government, but it resumed on Wednesday amid farmers’ mistrust over the deal.
Farmers accused the new Polish government of failing to defend them against Ukrainian grain imports, but also demanded a series of financial support measures. Saturday’s deal finally implemented those financial demands — which include launching corn production subsidies, maintaining agricultural taxes at 2023 levels and increasing preferential liquidity loans — but didn’t include restrictions on Ukraine imports.
The measures “will be implemented after the legislative process is completed and acceptance by the European Commission is obtained,” the Polish Agriculture Ministry said.
Despite calling off the blockade, protesting farmers said that the “most important” demand now is “to limit the inflow of goods from Ukraine.” EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski told Polish media on Friday that he would demand an EU-wide restriction on items like sugar, eggs and poultry from Ukraine.
“These imports are growing in a way that threatens the competitiveness of the EU sector, including Polish poultry and sugar production,” he said. The Polish commissioner has already clashed with other members of the European Commission over full trade liberalization with Ukraine, which the EU executive is expected to recommend as early as next week.
“Ukraine is such a country that they just want to take, take, take, and give nothing back,” Roman Kondrów, one of the protest leaders, told POLITICO by phone on Thursday, warning about the risks of allowing the country to join the EU without restrictions.
In the meantime, Polish truckers are continuing to protest as they want the government to end an EU-Ukraine agreement that liberalized road transport rules in an effort to help the Ukrainian economy, crippled by the Russian invasion.
Underpinning the narratives of both groups are doomsday scenarios about the impact on Poland of Ukraine one day becoming a member of the EU. At a summit in December, EU leaders agreed to open accession talks with Ukraine.
A RUSSIAN influencer who faced backlash for burning her passport has claimed it was not a protest against Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Yevgenia ‘Gipsy’ Hoffman, 22, received intense criticism from Russian war fanatics who claim she was “expressing support for Ukraine”.
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Influencer Yevgenia Hoffman faces jail after setting fire to her Russian passportCredit: East2West
5
She denied all accusations about her act being pro-UkraineCredit: East2West
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She has received intense backlash from Russian patriotsCredit: East2West
However, Hoffman claims her stunt was not to go against Putin, instead burnt her passport because she “did not like her picture” on it.
One alleged she was “expressing support for Ukrainian terrorists”.
Hoffman, who belongs from an area near the Russia-Ukraine border, said: “I burned the passport because the photo [of me] is ugly.
“I love Putin and Russia, and the act was not to show support towards Ukraine.”
The influencer, who has more than 5,000 followers online, has been vilified by online critics.
One said: “She should be stripped of her citizenship for this.”
Others called for her to be given a severe punishment to deter others from making anti-war protests.
The influencer’s late-night passport prank has reached to Kremlin’s top investigator Alexander Bastrykin, who also happens to be Putin’s university classmate.
Her alleged crime is burning the State Emblem – a two-headed eagle – which appears in the “internal passport”, used in Russia as a vital identity document.
The investigating committee said: “These actions are a gross insult and mockery of the civil and patriotic feelings of citizens of the Russian Federation.
“The Chairman of the Investigative Committee will be presented with a report on the investigation of the criminal case against a Moscow resident who committed desecration of the State Emblem of the Russian Federation.”
A criminal case has been opened against her, with a clear hint that she will be found guilty.
The influencer could now face upto a year in jail amid the intense backlash from the critics.
The stunt comes amid a rise in protests – especially from women – against Putin’s war in Ukraine.
And the Russian authorities are now seeking to crush new cases of opposition to the dictator.
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Hoffman could face upto a year in jailCredit: East2West
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Alexander Bastrykin, on the right, is the head of Investigative Committee of Russia and also a long-time friend of PutinCredit: East2West
Office of the President of the United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Two years of grueling war in Ukraine has seen the world go from staunch support and adoration for the invaded eastern European nation to war weariness and suspicions of corruption. Funding for Ukraine has become harder to secure for the White House, and general support for unlimited taxpayer dollars and military aid has steadily decreased.
Publicly and officially, the Biden administration continues to toe the company line that support is unwavering and there will be no negotiating. However, privately and subversively, indications are that the White House would prefer to shift the goal towards a ceasefire negotiation, even at the expense of territory lost to Russia.
Will President Joe Biden convince President Volodymyr Zelensky to concede lost territory, and will he be able to spin the waste of funds for yet another failed foreign war as a leadership win? He certainly is doing his best to secure that narrative.
Read this thread. It confirms all along that Russia and Ukraine were on the verge of establishing a ceasefire and peace agreement but it was smashed to bits by the US and the UK’s Boris Johnson. Putin was telling the truth when he revealed the ten point peace plan recently. https://t.co/a5kg3y04kK
The Biden administration has the firm support of the mainstream media in crafting the new narrative that a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine, in which Russia keeps all of its conquered lands, spells victory for President Zelensky and, in turn, President Biden.
“Recovered territory is not the only measure of victory in this war.”
That is a very interesting and complete 180 from the existing narrative, wouldn’t you say?
President Zelensky has made no bones about his expectation that the only way a negotiated peace could occur is if Russia withdraws all its troops from every territory that was formerly Ukrainian, including Crimea.
The New York Times goes on to argue that President Zelensky merely lacks imagination, writing:
“…regaining territory is the wrong way to imagine the best outcome. True victory for Ukraine is to rise from the hell of war as a strong, independent, prosperous and secure state, firmly planted in the West.”
Infusing the poetic imagery of a battle-worn Ukraine rising from the ashes of war with the Goliath Russia like some flaming Phoenix, The New York Times alludes to the possibility that securing Ukraine’s membership in NATO is the ultimate victory regardless of land lost. This dream is hard to conceptualize, given that the threat of NATO on Russia’s front door instigated the invasion in the first place.
Ukraine is now accusing the New York Times of working for the Kremlin for their report on ongoing negotiations of a potential ceasefire in Ukraine between Moscow, the US and other international officials happening behind the scenes. I guess Ukraine wasn’t part of the…
The hard truth that President Zelensky understands deep down and that President Biden is forced to grapple with is that, as it stands, the war in Ukraine doesn’t have the same zeal of support among American voters that it had at the beginning of the conflict.
According to a recent Newsweek poll, 41% of Americans believe the United States should:
“…press for peace in the war in Ukraine, even if it means that Ukraine does not achieve a total victory and does not regain all of its pre-war territory.”
Of the remaining Americans polled, only 29% disagreed with the above statement, and 30% didn’t know what the United States should do with the war moving forward. Furthermore, only 23% of Americans think Ukraine should try to retake all the territory they have lost to Russia, including back to the takeover of Crimea in 2014.
Team Biden-Harris is reading the political tea leaves and shifting the narrative to align with public opinion. An unnamed White House official told Politico that the war was always going to end in a negotiated settlement, stating:
“That’s been our theory of the case throughout: The only way this war ends ultimately is through negotiation.”
And another anonymous source, this time a congressional official, told Politico:
“Those discussion about peace talks are starting, but the administration can’t back down publicly because of the political risk to Biden.”
Those who make a living tracking and studying political communications can see the familiar spin machine strategy in motion. First comes the anonymous insiders to smooth the way for the inevitable pivot in policy with the hopes the American people are sold that this was always the plan and, finally, a declared win for the home team.
Nobody is buying this. The rhetoric doesn’t match NATO’s actions. If they were really worried about a Russian invasion of Europe they’d be stockpiling weapons, building new factories, and ramping up recruitment instead of sending existing stuff to Ukraine without replacing any of… https://t.co/bSUJ2mO1lM
Republican Senator Ron Johnson declared the obvious, stating:
“Putin is not going to lose this war. This war has to end. We’re not gonna like the result, but every day that goes by, we’re gonna like the results less.”
President Vladimir Putin was never going to lose the war, mainly because the United States lacks a clear strategy on foreign policy and a track record to prove it. Russia is vastly more powerful than Ukraine in every respect.
This is why, as a senior unnamed international official who has met with top Russian officials told The New York Times:
“They say, ‘We are ready to have negotiations on a ceasefire.”
President Putin knows that as long as he can maintain the areas he has taken, he can sell this engagement as a victory to his people and the world because, for Mr. Putin, it is a victory. President Biden, on the other hand, is trying desperately to sew the thread that when this ceasefire occurs, it will be a victory for Ukraine:
“Ukraine has won an enormous victory already. Putin has failed.”
“Putin has failed. Failed in his effort to subjugate Ukraine. The brave people of Ukraine have defied Putin’s will at every turn, backed by the strong and unwavering support of the United States and our allies and partners in more than fifty nations. ” — @POTUSpic.twitter.com/qJUZHRhdZJ
Mr. Putin is still in power, the Russian economy, despite the West’s efforts, is still chugging along, Russia is still strongly aligned with other nefarious and hostile actors around the world, and all signs indicate he has expanded the borders of his country. It’s hard to see the failure in all that.
President Biden’s public comments have evolved to signal the shift in mindset at the White House from stating support for Ukraine will last “as long as it takes” to now “as long as we can.” It is a masterful way to pin any perceived failures on Republicans in Congress who have made it increasingly difficult to write blank checks to President Zelensky.
However, this strategy also allows the Biden administration to “put a pin” in the conflict, perhaps reigniting later when it may be of a more politically positive posture.
As The New York Times explains:
“…to explore an armistice is not to walk away. On the contrary, the fight must go on, even when talks begin, to maintain the military and economic pressure on Russia.”
This statement expertly points out the only foreign policy the United States has in play. The United States has become adept at feeding the flames of foreign conflict while never actually resolving anything.
A foreign policy built on advancing the political and financial goals of the DC Swamp at the expense of the American taxpayer, countless lives lost, and nations whose purpose is merely to facilitate said advancements at the expense of their own governance. So, while a ceasefire is clearly in Ukraine’s future with Russia, one can bet even money that this area of Eastern Europe will continue to be on the brink of destruction; it just needs to be either politically advantageous in the United States or strategically postured for Russia.
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USAF Retired, Bronze Star recipient, outspoken veteran advocate. Hot mess mom to two monsters and wife to equal parts Saint and Artist husband. Writer, lifelong conservative, lover of all things American History, and not-so-secret Ancient Aliens fanatic. Homeschool maven, Masters in Political Management, constitutionalist, and chock full of opinions.
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