May 10 Buonsera up-date
Latest from Ukraine, Macron, Scholz, Belarus, Sanctions, The Philippines, Patron
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.
Here are some other stories we’re following…
The Ukrainian armed forces: the port of Odesa hit by missile strikes. One person was killed and five injured when a shopping centre and a depot were hit.
Pentagon: Sanctions begin to erode Russia’s industrial base capabilities. At a briefing on May 9, A senior U.S. defense official said that Russia “has blown through a lot of their precision-guided munition”.
Russian forces backed by tanks are conducting "storming operations" at Mariupol's Azovstal plant, according to Ukraine's defence ministry.
US intelligence chief says Putin “likely” to impose martial law in Russia to support war effort in Ukraine as he plans for long war and counting on US and Europe to lose resolve and that the US anticipates a spillover of the conflict into Transnistria.
Belarus state-controlled news agency Belta reported that “to respond to the threat from the Armed Forces of Ukraine” the country is sending special operation forces to its border with Ukraine.
Anders Aslund: “The great mystery from Putin's Victory Parade is why the traditional & promised air show did not take place. Was paranoid Putin afraid that somebody would kill him with a missile? Or was he afraid that Ukraine would shoot a plane down with a manpad?”
German FM Baerbock has said Ukraine should become a full member of the European Union at some point, but also says there could be no shortcut to membership, mimicking president Macron’s closing statements at the Conference on the Future of Europe.
The BBC: A huge cyber-attack against a satellite internet network Viasat's KA-SAT, which took thousands of modems offline, was caused by Russia, the EU has said.
UN: as per the latest Organisation for Migration figures, there are more than 8 million civilians displaced in Ukraine.
Reuters reports that Chinese state media say Xi warned Macron that confrontation between blocs resulting from the Ukraine crisis could become a bigger and more lasting threat to global peace than the crisis itself.
PM Draghi is to receive the ‘Distinguished Leadership’ Award from the Atlantic Council May 11 along with Jamala, Claudio Descalzi and the People of Ukraine.
Interesting tid-bit from Francesco Bechis’s article, “Rileggere Biden per scoprire che conosce (bene) i filorussi italiani”: president Biden is well-aware of the pro-Kremlin alignments inside the Italian government. He had previously written about it and Russian influence in Foreign Affairs in January 2018.
Speech: French President Macron’s Closing of the Conference on the future of Europe
World peace cannot be safeguarded without creative efforts commensurate with the dangers that threaten them. These words, those of Robert SCHUMAN, on May 9, 1950, on the contribution that a living Europe must make to civilization, are more essential than ever. These creative efforts correspond to the moment in which we live and are undoubtedly even more necessary today than yesterday.
Julia Davis, Putin’s Puppets Admit their army has been a total embarassment
During Friday’s broadcast of state TV show The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, military analyst Konstantin Sivkov argued that Russia’s “current economic market system is unfit to meet the needs of our Armed Forces and of the entire country under these conditions.”
Emil Avdaliani, Revolution in the South Caucasus- CEPA
Overshadowed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the South Caucasus is witnessing huge developments which could potentially decrease tensions between Armenia on the one hand and Turkey and Azerbaijan on the other. The process might also critically affect Russia’s position in the region and may even give some momentum to the West’s ambivalent policy.
Irene Kenyon, Russia Adjusting
Sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine that is entering its third month are at a fever pitch. OFAC yesterday added 124 entities, individuals, and vessels to the SDN list. On a Sunday, no less.
Andrew Rittman, EU to clean house of Russia lobbyists
Brussels is to wave goodbye to Russian lobbyists under new sanctions, ending a 20-year era of influence peddling in Europe. The Russia PR ban is included in the small print of more drastic EU measures, including an oil embargo, due to enter into force later this month.
Jan Kallberg, Ph.D, A Potemkin Military? Russia’s Over-Estimated Legions- CEPA
As the burnished ranks of goosestepping Russian soldiers march across Red Square and lines of repainted high-tech munitions trundle across the cobblestones, we have to ask a question that probably would not have occurred to us last year — how for so many decades could we have overestimated the Russian armed forces? Is this, as some now say, a Potemkin military, better at polishing buttons that fighting wars?
Read on to find out.
On voting in the Philippines…
Elections have concluded in the Philippines and Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator, has been proclaimed as the next president.
Standing ovation for our friends…
They deserve it. As pointed out by Isobel Koshiw in “I had to act”, Ukrainian journalists became war-correspondents overnight.
Patron…to the rescue…
A mine-sniffing dog credited with detecting more than 200 explosives since the start of the war in Ukraine has been given a medal for his services to the country. Patron, a two-and-a-half-year-old jack russell whose name means “ammo” in Ukrainian, was presented with the award by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, at a ceremony in Kyiv.
On the lighter side…
The Eurovision Song Contest is set to kick off tonight at 8:30 pm CET in Torino. The first 17 countries will be presenting their songs, while the other half will be singing on May 12 for the grand finale evening on Saturday night. I may start a spaces with our silly comments.
WTF News…
Livia and I will be hosting Paul Niland and Yaryna Grusha Possamai on our LiberiOltre YT show on Tuesday night at 9:35 pm CET.
Yaryna Grusha Possamai, Lo Zaino dei Ricordi- Linkiesta
Armare Kiev, ma non troppo: per i due politici è tattica elettorale, per me è l’unica speranza di resistere, di salvare il mio Paese, di rivedere amici, parenti, persone care e mantenere vivo un bagaglio di memoria che può sparire da un giorno all’altro sotto le bombe
We’ll be taking you from Paul and Yaryna’s experiences of Maidan in 2014 and the roots of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. It’ll be a mix of English and Italian.
We’re signing off…thanks for reading…
Scott & Mo