Jun 10: E-Stories

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Catching up…

EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.

Stories we’re following…

Russia targets 103 settlements over 1 day, civilians killed and injured. In total, Russia attacked 10 oblasts in the south, east, and north of Ukraine.

Russian attacks across Ukraine kill 1, injure 9 over past day. Russia targeted a total of 12 Ukrainian oblasts – Sumy, Luhansk, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Kherson. Casualties were reported in the latter three regions.

Oleksandr Scherba: This house in Poltava oblast was hit by russians yesterday. A civilian lady was critically wounded, her leg was torn off. Doctors did what they could. But by the morning, she died.

Russia reportedly hit 2 Ukrainian oil depots overnight. Russia has already attacked 10 oil storage facilities in 2024, according to Kuyun. He said that such attacks would not affect the availability of fuel in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s government has ordered all ministries and regional authorities to stop using air conditioning and switch off external lighting as Russian bombardments forced long blackouts across the country. Reducing power consumption and saving as much electricity as possible was vital following Russian strikes on the Ukrainian power system, which now had a “significant deficit”, said the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal. Ukraine temperatures are hovering around 25C (77F) and could rise up to 35C (95F) in July and August.

Russia claims Ukrainian missile strike on occupied Luhansk, partisans say oil depot hit. An oil depot was hit in a strike against Russian-occupied Luhansk on June 7, and a fire broke out in the southern part of the city, Atesh partisans reported.

The SBU detained an FSB agent who was preparing a Russian missile attack on military educational institutions and hospitals in Zhytomyr and Odesa.

Military intelligence: Collaborant ex-mayor of Kupiansk in 'critical condition' after assassination attempt in Russia. The life of Hennadii Matsehora, the former mayor of the city of Kupiansk in the country's northeast, was targeted on June 7 in the city of Stary Oskol in Belgorod Oblast, HUR reported in a Telegram post. It did not disclose further details about the incident.

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Combat Situation Update

Governor: Russia reduces offensive operations in Kharkiv Oblast. The statement comes nearly a month after Russia opened a new front in Kharkiv Oblast’s border areas. Heavy fighting rages on for Vovchansk, a town occupied by Russian troops in 2022 – and now largely reduced to ruins by intense glide bomb attacks.

Most of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region is under the control of Ukrainian Defense Forces, with efforts to fully liberate the city underway, according to Nazar Voloshyn, spokesman for the Khortytsia Operational Group of Troops.

A Ukrainian warplane has for the first time fired a weapon that struck a target inside Russia, a Ukrainian military source said to Sky News. He added that a "Russian command node" was hit today in the area of Bilhorod.

Noel Report: Three days into an operation to liberate Hlybove in the Kharkiv border region. Sources confirm to me that Ukrainian forces have entered the settlement and control a significant part, while remaining Russian units in the settlement itself and its outskirts are being taken care of.

ISW: Putin articulated a theory of victory in Ukraine that assumes that Russian forces will be able to continue gradual advances indefinitely, prevent Ukraine from conducting successful operationally significant counteroffensive operations, and win a war of attrition.

• Putin's theory of victory rests on Russia's ability to outlast and overcome pledged Western security assistance to Ukraine and Ukrainian efforts to mobilize more of its economy and population for the war effort.

• Putin likely assesses that Russian forces will be able to leverage their advantages in manpower and materiel to overwhelm on Ukrainian forces.

• Putin's theory of victory hinges on a critical assumption that the West will abandon Ukraine to Russian victory, either on its own accord or in response to Russian efforts to persuade the West to do so, and it is far from clear that the West will do so.

• Russian forces recently advanced near Kupyansk, near Chasiv Yar, and northwest of Avdiivka.

Russian assault on Kharkiv 'stalled out' as Ukrainians fire across border, Sullivan says. "The United States will continue to support Ukraine in holding the line and pushing back against the aggressing Russian forces," U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.

Zelensky commented on the recent news surrounding Ryzhivka, a border town in the Sumy region.

"Sumy region: our forces are in full control of the situation. Russian subversive groups continue to be active. They are being destroyed. And they will continue to be destroyed. As for the village of Ryzhivka, the occupier tried to implement a propaganda operation there. As of this morning, the Russian flag in the village has been destroyed, and there is no occupant presence."

Local reports claiming an ammunition storage was hit in Belgorod. Secondary detonations were heard. There have been continues strikes against targets in Belgorod over the past week.

A Russian ship was likely attacked in the Sea of Azov. On June 8, around 4:00 p.m., several non-civilian vessels were spotted off the coast between Berdyansk and Primorsk. Around midnight, a Ukrainian naval drone may have attacked a Russian ship near Yeysk. Initially, it was thought to be a large amphibious assault ship, but later reports clarified it was another type (unclear which yet) of vessel.

After the night attack on occupied Crimea, several fires can be observed on the FIRMS monitoring system. Looking at the exact locations, these are mostly open fields which could indicate positions of air defense complexes. Rybar commented on the attacks during the night on June 10.

“After midnight, Ukrainian forces launched a missile strike on northwestern Crimea, firing at least 12 ATACMS missiles from the Mykolaiv region. The targeted areas included Chornomorske, Yevpatoriya, and Dzhankoii, where air defense systems were activated, and explosions were heard. The exact targets of the attack are unknown, but they likely included positions of the 31st Air Force and Air Defense Divisions. It is unclear if the attack hit its targets, but the absence of fires and secondary explosions suggests that either the attack was repelled or caused minimal damage.”

Yusov: Ukrainian operation may have hit 2 Su-57s in Russia. "There is preliminary information that there could have been two downed Su-57 aircraft," military intelligence spokesperson Andrii Yusov said on June 9. This airfield is located 589 kilometers away from the contact line.

Photo: Noel Report

UK Defence Intelligence: Analysis of imagery has identified the installation of eight barges on the southern side of the Kerch Bridge. Installation had begun by 10 May 2024 and was completed by 22 May 2024.

• These barges were place by Russian forces in an attempt to defend the bridge and shipping channel, reducing the angles of approach for Ukrainian Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV).

• Previously installed barriers have been damaged by storms, reducing their effectiveness.

Russian Defense Ministry claims Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's North Ossetia. North Ossetia-Alania is a republic in Russia's North Caucasus region, bordering Georgia to the south and Chechnya to the east.

F-16 fighters and their airfields outside Ukraine will become a legal target for the Russian Armed Forces if they participate in combat missions, said the head of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov.

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Behind the Lines

Ukraine charges Russian general over Kakhovka dam destruction. Russian Colonel General Oleg Makarevich, the former commander of the Dnieper group of forces, is suspected of ordering the destruction of the occupied Kakhovka dam last year, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on June 6.

Estonia proposes new rules preventing non-citizens from buying property near military facilities. The measure is reportedly largely directed toward Russian and Belarusian citizens.

A man has been arrested after attacking Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen in central Copenhagen on Friday. “Prime minister Mette Frederiksen was hit by a man Friday evening on Kultorvet in Copenhagen. The man was subsequently arrested,” the statement said. Police in the Danish capital said the incident had taken place at Kultorvet, a pedestrianised square in the centre of the city. Investigations are on-going.

Moldovan citizens detained over graffiti warning against sending French soldiers to Ukraine. They are suspected of spraying a stencil of a red coffin at the foot of a building in central Paris with the words “Soldats français en Ukraine” ("French soldier in Ukraine").

Dutch political parties' websites attacked on EU election day, Russian hacking group claims responsibility. The websites of three Dutch political parties came under attack by a Russian hacking group as the Netherlands kicked off voting for the European elections, Dutch media reported on June 6.

UN secretary general won't attend Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland. "He (UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres) will not go. I think we have said that the UN will be represented at the appropriate level and all the parties organizing the summit have been informed," the UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Media: Hungary obstructs decision on Ukraine accession talks among EU members. Hungary is preventing consensus among EU members on the start of Ukraine's accession talks, Interfax Ukraine reported on June 7, citing undisclosed diplomatic sources.

BBC: China says MI6 recruited Chinese couple as spies

China has accused the UK’s intelligence agency of recruiting a couple as spies - the latest in a string of tit-for-tat allegations between Beijing and the West in recent months.

According to the Ministry of State Security, the two Chinese government employees were successfully recruited after MI6 operatives exploited the man’s “strong desire for money”.

The man, named as Wang, then convinced his partner, named only as Zhou, to join him as a British spy, the ministry said.

The Chinese delegation visited the Russia-occupied Tskhinvali region twice in the past months, the Ossetian leader, Konstantine Jusoev told Russian state media. According to the interview, Chinese investors are interested in opening an automobile assembly plant in the occupied territory of Georgia as well as in the Kwaisi zinc mines. In addition, Jusoev also said that the Iranian delegation also visited the Russia-occupied Tskhinvali, where they signed a cooperation agreement. Georgia signed a controversial strategic partnership with China earlier in 2023.

BBC: South Korea to resume loudspeaker broadcasts over border in balloon row

South Korea has said it will resume propaganda broadcasts against North Korea for the first time in six years in response to Pyongyang's campaign of sending rubbish-filled balloons across the border.

Over 300 North Korean balloons were detected over Saturday and Sunday with around 80 landing in the South carrying scrap paper and plastic sheets.

North Korea is yet to respond to the announcement, but Pyongyang considers the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts an act of war and has threatened to blow them up in the past.

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Meanwhile in Russia

The BRICS conference has opened proceedings the Council of Foreign Ministers of the BRICS membership at Nizhny Novgorod: Foreign Ministers of Belarus, China, Egypt, Brazil, Cuba, Ethiopia, South Africa, UAE and Iran. The meeting started with a minute of silence in memory of Iranian dictator Raisi, who Lavrov called a "true friend of Russia", while Putin stressed his death an "irreparable loss". It is rumoured that Putin will visit North Korea and Vietnam in the coming weeks.

“Russia is ready for negotiations regarding Ukraine, but not on the basis of someone's fiction but on the basis of the Istanbul agreements and taking into account the new realities,” Putin said.

Putin claims Russia increased ammo production by more than 20 times. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin also said he had no plans for another wave of mobilization as Moscow had enough volunteers willing to fight in Ukraine. (Me: not quite 20 times, but 7-10 times, yes, according to data.)

Niger has announced its desire to host a Russian military base. Considering the numerous terrorist groups that the Niger authorities have to fight, the country is interested in hosting a full-fledged Russian Armed Forces base on its territory, Russian Honorary Consul in the Republic Addo Iro told Izvestia.

“We are ready to accept it. We cannot afford to say that the security situation has improved. Our state is doing everything possible to at least reduce the number of terrorist attacks,” he added.

Bloomberg: Russia sends students from Africa to fight in its war against Ukraine. According to the Bloomberg report, Russian officials have been threatening African students and young workers not to extend their visas unless "they agree to join the military." Such a tactic was first deployed by the Russian Wagner mercenary group, Bloomberg reported.

Russian authorities welcome Taliban leaders at SPIEF. They were classified as a terrorist organisation by the Kremlin, but it seems the leadership need them now.

Julia Davis: Meanwhile in Russia: Vladimir Solovyov insisted that Russia's "sanitary zone" should stretch all the way to the Atlantic. He compared Ukrainians to "bed bugs" that have to be eradicated, in order for Ukraine to be "cleansed."

This is the narrative fed to Russian audiences every night, and what the regime wants its citizens to believe, which is in contrast time and again to what they receive via Telegram and other information vectors. The role of the propagandist—who spreads hate, incites violence and distorts history—is the subject of many efforts that seek to bring Russian propagandists to justice.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) and the Kharkiv Human Rights Group presented a submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on hate crimes committed by Russians against Ukrainians. They have asked for arrest warrants Russian propagandists Kiselyov, Solovyov, Mardan, Simonyan, Medvedev and deputy head of the AP Alexei Gromov.

Moscow issues protest note to Yerevan after Armenian delegation visits Bucha. Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a note of protest to Yerevan after an Armenian delegation visited Bucha earlier in June, Russian state-controlled news agency Russian state-run media outlet TASS reported on June 9.

Steve Rosenberg for the BBC Moscow: “You can keep thinking that Russia is bluffing and then, one day, there is no more Great Britain,” state TV host Vladimir Soloviev tells me in St Petersburg. Charming. Our report on President Putin’s appearance at the economic forum.”

Merkel withheld information about Russia's intention to blackmail Europe with gas, German outlet reports. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was aware of Russia's intention to reduce gas supply to blackmail Europe to speed up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline launch but concealed the information, German media outlet Handelsblatt reported on June 6, citing classified documents.

Russia aimed to accelerate the introduction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline into service without German authorities' certification by causing a gas deficit in Europe, Handelsblatt said, referring to a 2021 document from the German Economy Ministry.

The document also described Russian actions as threatening to cause "dramatic consequences," while the filling of gas storage facilities was called "very slow." Gazprom filled its European gas storage only halfway by July 2021, according to the document.

Peter Altmaier, then-German economy minister, obtained the document and informed the cabinet of ministers, according to Handelsblatt. In October 2023, Merkel told the media that she did not see any signs of Russia cutting its gas supply to Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed Gazprom, the state-owned Russian energy giant, to start ramping up the volume of gas in European storage in October 2021.

The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was almost completed at that time, while Russia had been concentrating its forces near the border with Ukraine for the full-scale invasion.

The German government, headed by the newly appointed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, announced on Feb. 22, 2022, that it would suspend the Nord Stream 2 pipeline's certification after Russia recognized occupation proxy authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

"The gas price crisis took Germany by surprise. Even before Russia's offensive against Ukraine, Berlin suspected that the Kremlin was manipulating the gas market. However, the government did nothing about it," the article read.

The former president of Estonia, Toomas H Ilves, is referring to Austria in the post. The informal counterintelligence group’s members include: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and Germany.

Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party has turned Hungary into a safehaven for Russian and Chinese operations. It was acccomplished over time: Russia and China have undertaken measures to strategically subvert Hungary—lucrative financial, economic and industrial arrangements—and Orban has been more than happy to act as a proxy for both countries within the EU. During the EU parliamentary elections, Orban tried to increase his constituency by scare-mongering voters at a delicate moment by throwing around the themes of ‘World War III’ and ‘nuclear strikes’.

The scare-mongering worked to a certain extent: his party actually lost concensus in this EU election cycle but the invitation to vote for parties which will make it their aim to cut aid to Ukraine is unsettling for European security, and Ukraine’s chances of victory. It doesn’t bode well for Hungary’s up-coming presidency of the Council of Europe either.

Instead of ignoring Hungary’s continuous efforts to undermine the EU, fellow EU Commission members should be reviewing every single contract that the Hungarians have signed or intend to sign with the Russians, Chinese, and their proxies. Do they violate US, UK or EU sanctions against Russia and China? Do they comply with EU regulations and international standards? I, for one, would never take the Chinese constructed Budapest-Belgrade train line. Knowing full-well how the Chinese love to cut corners, and make sure some of the goodies end up in Hungarian and Serbian political pockets, would you?

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Allied Support

European Commission says Ukraine ready to start accession talks. "Now we expect our European partners to take the next step – to start the membership negotiations already this month," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

Netherlands to invest $436 million to make armored vehicles for Ukraine. The report did not specify the type of infantry fighting vehicle, but Ukraine and Sweden last year signed an agreement to start jointly producing the CV90, considered one of the best of its type in the world.

After facing resistance from several NATO members, a five year $100 billion aid plan for Ukraine is being sized down to a new proposal of at least $43 billion per year on lethal and non-lethal aid, which could get backing from NATO defense ministers.

Macron: France to finalize coalition to send military instructors to Ukraine. "We already know that we will not be alone, and we will use the next few days to organize a broader coalition to respond to Ukraine's request,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.

Producer of Caesar howitzers to set up branch in Ukraine. Representatives of Ukrainian and French companies signed an agreement to set up an ammunition production facility under a KNDS license during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Paris on June 6-7.

Macron lashed out at what he called a “camp of pacifists” and the “spirit of defeat” over Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion, vowing Ukrainian resistance would not end with capitulation. “We know this camp of pacifists. It is the one of capitulators. It’s the spirit of defeat. We are not like this,” the French president told reporters on Friday, in an apparent jab at critics including France’s far-right opposition. (Me: see my comments below)

Biden, Macron reach agreement on using profits from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden announced on June 9 that he had reached an agreement with French President Emmanuel Macron on using the profits from frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.

Zelensky held a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Paris. They discussed Ukraine's defense capabilities, the situation on the battlefield, and preparations for signing a bilateral security agreement.

Biden has apologised publicly to Volodymyr Zelensky for the months of delay in US military assistance that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield.

Meeting the Ukrainian president in Paris, Biden told him: “You haven’t bowed down, you haven’t yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is … just remarkable. We are not going to walk away from you.” The US president also said the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. “We’re still in – completely, thoroughly.”

Biden warns that Putin is 'not going to stop at Ukraine.' U.S. President Joe Biden reaffirmed his strong support for Kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on June 8: "The United States is standing strong with Ukraine. We will not — I say it again — walk away."

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The current Europe Elects projection for the European Parliamentary Elections 2024 as of 10.10 AM CEST (vs. Europe Elects's pre-election projection on 4 June). This is temporary:

• Centre-right EPP: 189 (vs. 182)

• Centre-left S&D: 137 (vs. 136)

• Liberal RE: 84 (vs. 81)

• National-conservative ECR: 79 (vs. 79)

• Non-Inscrits: 77 (vs. 76)

• Right-wing ID: 62 (vs. 69)

• Greens/EFA: 52 (vs. 55)

• Left: 39 (vs. 38)

Initial projections suggest that the parties which have lost the most consensus are Renew (liberal) and the Greens, while ID has increased its seats by seven, which doesn’t really translate into the great ‘surge’ of the far-right everyone is yapping about. It’s also good to see that an opposition party in Hungary, Péter Magyar's TISZA, is beginning to make significant gains and could be quite promising in the next general Hungarian elections. TISZA was formed in February 2024 and received 30% of the vote yesterday.

AP: French President Macron calls a snap legislative election after defeat in EU vote. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he was dissolving the National Assembly and calling a snap legislative election after his party suffered a heavy defeat in elections for the European Parliament.

“The rise of nationalists and demagogues is a danger for our nation and for Europe,” Macron said. “After this day, I cannot go on as though nothing has happened.”

A cursory glance at some Russian-aligned Telegram channels provides a plethora of memes and messages seemingly inspired by Medvedev’s narrative. The message will be amplified across platforms in the coming days.

Politico: Three-time presidential contender Marine Le Pen used her address to direct a warning at the seat of EU institutions: “Tonight’s message, including the dissolution, is also addressed to the leaders of Brussels,” she said, flanked by Bardella. “This great victory for patriotic movements is in line with the direction of history … It closes this painful globalist interlude that has caused so much suffering to the world’s peoples.”

Me: I’m not going to analyse why Macron felt he had to call elections just yet. Most of my colleagues are screaming: “He’s crazy!” but I don’t know what to think. Getting the majority of 577 seats won’t be easy for Le Pen’s Rassemblement National: there are a lot of other parties involved and the debates will reflect domestic issues. Even in Italy, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy was predicted to sweep in a majority in the general election according to the foreign press, she got just shy of 30% of the vote, and her alliance partners—The League and Forza Italia—received 8% each.

I do hope our friends at the Cosmopolitan Globalist, Claire Berlinki et al, will be informing us on the ins and outs of the up-coming election.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo announces resignation. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo announced plans to resign after the defeat of his party, the liberal Open VLD, in the country's federal elections held June 9.

Leader of Germany’s CDU Party, Friedrick Merz, reiterating that the CDU had the strongest win out of the EU Parliamentary elections in Germany, and what is at stake in Ukraine. He also said that there will be no “German Chamberlain”, referring to the perception that Germany would not counter Russian aggression in Europe.

Me: Pay attention to the numbers…

Renew and the Greens have lost considerably on the whole, indicating that the centrist parties are failing to provide a viable option for voters, while the far-right surge across Europe has not happened, barring areas in Germany’s east. As Merz reminds us, they do not represent the whole of Germany.

Back in Italy, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy is projected to win 28% of the vote, reconfirming her party’s general election result, while the big losers are Salvini’s League and Conte’s 5 Star Movement. Salvini lost 400,000 votes compared to the general elections, 7,000,000 votes in the last European election, and the League was overtaken by Forza Italia, which is headed by a deceased candidate (Berlusconi). No matter: Salvini declared himself the big winner. Actually all blatant pro-Russian parties in Italy lost ground significantly, which means Italians are less inclined to stop aid to Ukraine or leave NATO.

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WaPo: News site editor’s ties to Iran, Russia show misinformation’s complexity

Experts say an overlap in funding underscores concern that the spread of falsehoods and propaganda online is entering a more complicated stage as the November election draws closer.

A top editor at an online news site aimed at Americans who has worked extensively for Russia’s Sputnik also has taken money from Iranian government-owned media, according to newly unearthed documents — a sign of how widening geopolitical alliances are making it harder to identify and trace foreign influence operations.

Hacked emails and other documents from the Iranian government-funded Press TV show payments of thousands of dollars to Wyatt Reed, a writer who is now a Washington-based editor for the online publication Grayzone. In addition, the site’s founder, Max Blumenthal, regularly appears on Russian television and once accepted a trip to Moscow for a celebration of Russian state-controlled video network RT that featured Vladimir Putin.

“What you are reporting is, I think, the most practical example of that convergence we’ve seen, where you have someone who has deep ties to Iranian state media working for an organization that we also know is a destination for narrative laundering from Russia,” said Emerson Brooking, co-director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab.

The Press TV files, much of them in Persian, were released on Telegram in 2022 by a self-proclaimed hacktivist group called Black Reward, but the files received little attention then. An activist disinformation researcher, Neal Rauhauser, converted them into a searchable format and provided them to The Washington Post.

The files appear to show that the Iranian broadcaster paid Reed for occasional contributions to its programming in 2020 and 2021 while he was working as a correspondent for Russia’s Sputnik news outlet. Reed had nine bylines in Grayzone in 2019 and 2020, followed by a gap of 2½ years. He has had 24 more Grayzone bylines since mid-2023, when he was identified as managing editor.

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Edward Hunter Christie: Macron has cracked the code.

When asked by a Ukrainian journalist on 7 June what he thought of statements by the Kremlin / Russian propagandists that France is becoming a co-belligerent and that it would escalate, he said this:

"You said so yourself, the statements you report are made by propagandists. Propagandists do propaganda. From day one, Russia's method has been: intimidate to neutralise. To intimidate our public opinions, all of us, so that we don't help Ukraine.

If we had followed the Russian intimidations from day one, we would to this day have supplied no battle tanks, no cannons, no aircraft for those who've started to do so, no long-range missiles, and I'm not sure Ukraine would be in the situation it is today without that. We have therefore been systematically correct not to give way to the intimidations of the propagandists.

What matters to me is to be coherent in the strategy that is ours and within the framework we've given ourselves: help Ukraine to resist, because this war is existential for us, and never be the source of escalation. I consider that all of the decisions made and the announcements made are strictly within that framework. It is Russia that has intensified its war effort and its strikes.

It is Russia that has systematically in these last few weeks attacked civilian infrastructure, which I remind everyone is a war crime. It is Russia that has now decided to strike from its territory these infrastructures and Ukrainian civilians.

We cannot leave Ukraine without a reaction and without help. And so I think that all this is a sign of nervousness and a pursuit of a strategy of intimidation which doesn't work towards Europeans and their allies."

Me: Russian-aligned propagandists in Italy have been beating the drum of faux ‘pacificism’ since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The principal vectors have been the League and the 5 Star Movement and their adherents as well as a plethora of micro-parties that clearly act as vectors for Russia.

However, the pacificist faction in the Democratic Party is also filled with the nostalgics of the old Communist Party, or their members. The main labour union in Italy also sides with Russia. While we’re at it, add the Vatican to the list.

It’s actually a miracle if Italy has sent anything to Ukraine at all, and if it has, we can thank the former PM, Mario Draghi, and to some degree, the current government. The aid was sent in a show of unity with the European Union and as part of our responsibilities as a security partner to NATO but I can’t help but think there must be some sort of arrangement afoot, like closing an eye to something which is a benefit for Russia.

I’m also concerned about how sanctions against against are being complied with in Italy: are they being respected? Is Italian law enforcement seizing Russian assets? What Italy is doing to curb Russian influence and power in Italy, including the Russian propaganda that seems to flood our platforms and media outlets? Has the leadership explained in no uncertain terms what the repercussions would be should Russia succeed to change the security architecture in Europe?

The government has failed to provide information on any of these questions and issues. This is the crux of our dilemma in Italy, and from information I receive, in Austria as well.

If you’re speaking to anyone who still falls for Russian narratives, I suggest using some of the points presented here by information specialist, Dietmar Pichler, who is an investigator and activist in Austria: NO, just No!

No, Maidan was not a coup.

No, Ukraine did not attack itself in 2014; it was Russian mercenaries, intelligence officers and army "on vacation".

No, Russia does not want to negotiate and find a "peaceful solution" because there is no problem except Russian imperialism.

No, the US did not pay $5 billion for Maidan; development money has been flowing into Ukraine since 1991.

No, Russia does not "denazify" Ukraine; it is itself a fascist country that sends radicals to its peaceful neighbor with a Jewish president.

No, Russia is not afraid of NATO; it is afraid of not being able to invade and subjugate its neighbors because of NATO.

No, Putin was not "different" back then; we just refused to see reality. He is a former KGB agent.

No, the Russian language is not banned in Ukraine and never was, but Russia wants to extinguish Ukrainian culture, to "de-Ukrainize" and Russify Ukraine.

No, the suffering in Ukraine will not end when the weapons are silent. People have been deported, raped, Russified, tortured, and killed in the Russian-occupied territories.

No, "Ukrainian neutrality" will not solve anything. Russia wants to annex, subjugate, and culturally destroy its neighbor completely.

No, the West did not push poor Russia to act this way; the long-running appeasement policy is quite likely the cause of the Kremlin's actions.

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