Nov 20 The Sunday Edition
Day 270: Zaporizhzhia NPP, Moscow explosions, Halushka, Austin on RU & CH, Gerashchenko, Zelensky peace plan, Eckel, Tavkhelidze, Prigohzin, Dettmer, LaFrance, Troy, Amelina
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…
IAEA: Over a dozen explosions reported near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts stationed at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant reported “powerful explosions” overnight on Nov. 19 and on the morning of Nov. 20.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has condemned an attack on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Its director general said that those responsible for “powerful explosions” in the area on Saturday night and Sunday morning were “playing with fire”.
Shmyhal: Ukraine imports 8,500 generators per day. PM Denys Shmyhal announced the temporary suspension of customs duties and VAT on generators and charging stations to allow Ukrainians to buy them at an affordable price and survive the winter despite Russia’s attacks.
On November 19, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said China and Russia are seeking a world where force is used to resolve disputes and he vowed the United States will continue to defend humanitarian principles and international law. Austin told the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada:
Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where might makes right, where disputes are resolved by force, and where autocrats can stamp out the flame of freedom.
There are still rules in war. And if a big power can flaunt those rules, it encourages others to defy international law and international norms.
We are determined to defend those rules - and especially the bedrock principle of noncombatant immunity.”
Austin said Moscow’s efforts to gain support from countries such as Iran and North Korea create new security challenges for the United States and its allies.
Russia has turned to Iran and North Korea to help its assault on Ukraine, including using Iranian drones to kill Ukrainian civilians,” he said.
The New Voice of Ukraine- President Zelensky’s 10-pt peace plan
Ukrainian President Zelensky presented a 10-point peace plan to the G20 overnight on Nov. 15 in Bali, taking the diplomatic initiative to match the battlefield initiative Ukrainian forces took with their counter-offensives in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy’s 10-Point Peace Formula
1. Radiation and nuclear security
2. Food security
3. Energy security
4. Release of all POWs and deportees
5. Restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, respect for UN Charter.
6. Total withdrawal of all Russian troops from all of Ukraine
7. Punishment for war crimes
8. Protection for the environment, stopping Russia's ecocide in Ukraine
9. New security architecture and security guarantees for Ukraine
10. Signing of peace treaty.
Here is the full text of President Zelensky’s speech in English, from the President’s Office website.
George Tavkhelidze- published November 19, 2022
Several days ago I visited my grandfather, who served in compulsory Soviet army. We were talking about the state of RU army, and here’s what he told me:
It always used to be like that. The soldiers slept on hay mattresses. The food was “disgusting”, prepared in a large casserole which wasn’t properly washed between meals.
The floor of their barracks was made of asphalt. Like, real asphalt indoors.
He told me that he weighed around 70kgs when he left and lost 20kgs before returning, as he couldn’t “physically eat” the food that was prepared there.
Uniforms were terrible. Cold in winter, hot in summer, making you itch as you put them on.
He told me that he weighed around 70kgs when he left and lost 20kgs before returning, as he couldn’t “physically eat” the food that was prepared there.
Uniforms were terrible. Cold in winter, hot in summer, making you itch as you put them on.
This wasn’t an active combat, just a training part of army service.
It’s not only the corruption that impoverished the army, but the general disregard of human life soviet system had.
This must be a good example for western apologists of Soviet “multipolar” world.
There are people in my country, who lived in Soviet-occupied Georgia all their lives and have a firsthand experience in the pure evil that empire represented.
Not to mention the occupation itself.
They changed the flag, starting carrying iPhones and travel in Europe. However the imperialistic ambition of bringing everyone back to darkness & poverty remains unchanged.
This is the world they try build with guided missiles.
This is why this war is not only against Ukraine, but our very way of life.
Pertsev & Razumnaya, ‘He grasps things very quickly’ Evgeny Prigozhin’s covert bid for power in an unstable Russia — and what he has learned from Alexey Navalny- Meduza
As Russia pivots towards regime change, the Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin is more and more often heard flattering Russia’s frustrated nationalists. In recent weeks, Prigozhin has repeatedly encouraged the people he calls “regular plowmen” in resenting the super-privileged “elites” in Russia’s high offices. Meduza’s special correspondent Andrey Pertsev spoke with Kremlin insiders and political experts about Prigozhin’s recent public attacks on key Russian political figures — and the large-scale political ambitious that might lurk behind Prigozhin’s words.
Jamie Dettmer, Cold, dark confusion grips Ukraine after Putin’s missile barrage-Politico
Russia is trying to wear down resistance by targeting civilian infrastructure as winter draws in.
LVIV, Ukraine — Inna missed her father’s funeral.
The grieving 36-year-old Ukrainian lawyer learned of his death as she and her two young daughters — one aged seven, the other five — boarded a flight from Heathrow Airport in London to Poland.
Toronto businessman allegedly focus of Chinese interference probes: source- Global News
Prominent businessman in Toronto’s Chinese community is the subject of two separate investigations involving foreign interference, sources tell Global News, both related to a series of briefings and memos that Canadian security officials allegedly gave to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau beginning in January.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has investigated Wei Chengyi for his alleged role in a covert scheme that facilitated large-fund transfers meant to advance Beijing’s interests in Canada’s 2019 federal election, sources said.
According to RCMP sources, national security investigators are also probing Wei for possible links to several properties in Toronto and Vancouver allegedly used as so-called Chinese government “police stations,” which are believed to secretly host agents from China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS.)
Dave Troy, Musk’s Twitter Buy Makes No Sense – Unless It’s Part of Something Bigger- Byline Times
Of course, this strategy is also one favoured by Vladimir Putin. His disastrous war in Ukraine is about more than territorial gains — it’s also a challenge to the West and what he perceives as unreasonable Western hegemony. He intends to organise the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and others) into a unified economic bloc rooted in asset-backed currencies such as metals-backed crypto tokens, with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a bridge. This may be accelerated if the United States defaults on its debt in January, sparking a global financial crisis — an increasingly likely possibility.
Instead of looking at Musk as a “businessman” who’s trying to make money in the old system of fiat currency, advertising, and revenues, perhaps he’s actually an ideologue looking to drag the whole world through a transition into a new economy. Then, his actions begin to make more sense.
