Any attempt to send Polish troops into Ukraine could end in a long-term occupation, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned in an extensive interview with journalist Dmitry Kiselyov, set to be aired by the Russia 1 TV broadcaster and RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
“If Polish troops enter the territory of Ukraine in order to, as they say, secure the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, for example, or in some other places to free up Ukrainian rear military units to participate in hostilities on the front line, then I think that Polish troops will never leave,” Putin said, according to excerpts from the interview.
The deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia is “not unthinkable,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski claimed last week. He was commenting on a statement by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said late last month that he “cannot exclude” the possibility of soldiers from the US-led military bloc being sent to aid Kiev.
Putin believes that Polish officials dream of returning “those lands that they consider historically their own, and which were taken from them by… Joseph Stalin, and transferred to Ukraine.”
“They certainly want them back. So if official Polish units enter there, they are unlikely to leave,” he claimed.
Macron ‘panicked’ over leaked Ukraine reports – Marianne
French President Emmanuel Macron’s talk about maybe sending troops to aid Kiev may have been spurred by three assessments produced by the French military that painted a dire picture of the Ukraine conflict, according to the magazine Marianne
The reports, which have somehow found their way into the weekly’s possession, argued that Ukraine wrecked its Western-trained force in the failed 2023 offensive, has run out of men to mobilize, and that its recent loss in Avdeevka shows it can’t even hold the line against Russia.
“Ukraine cannot win this war militarily,” concludes the first report, written in the fall of 2023, following Kiev’s disastrous ground offensive. It praises the Russian forces as the new “tactical and technical” standard of how to run defensive operations and debunks the media myth of “meat assaults.”
For the West to continue pursuing a military solution in Ukraine would be “the most serious error of analysis and judgment,” the classified document said, according to Marianne.
Sending French troops to Ukraine would be “unreasonable,” one senior officer wrote. “Make no mistake, up against the Russians we are an army of cheerleaders!” he added.
The second report, outlining the prospects for 2024, says that Kiev needs 35,000 men per month but is “recruiting less than half” of that number, while Russia enlists 30,000 volunteers monthly. Meanwhile, the 2023 offensive “tactically destroyed” half of Kiev’s 12 combat brigades.
“The West can provide 3D printers to manufacture drones or loitering munitions, but will never be able to print men,” the report said.
One solution it advised was sending Western troops to Ukraine to carry out support tasks in the rear, freeing the Ukrainians for frontline duty.
The report also acknowledged the Western special forces and “soldiers in civilian clothes” had a far greater presence in Ukraine than officially acknowledged, including “quite a few British,” as well as French naval commandos training the Ukrainians.
The third and latest report, which had the French observers “in cold sweat,” described the Battle of Avdeevka as a possible “rout” of Ukrainian forces. It described how Russia created “hell” for the Ukrainian troops by using massive glide bombs to inflict more than 1,000 casualties per day. The French document also described the Ukrainian retreat on February 17 as “sudden and unprepared.”
At the end of February, Macron made an argument to NATO members that all options for helping Ukraine should be “on the table,” implying the possibility of sending ground troops. The idea was publicly repudiated by most members of the US-led bloc, however.
Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky looks like a clown, a brute, and a loser when he attacks Pope Francis for urging a negotiated peace with Russia, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said during a television program on Monday.
The Latin American leader was rebuking his Ukrainian counterpart’s rejection of the Pope’s call last week for Kiev to consider making concessions for the sake of peace negotiations.
Pope Francis is a great man who has high moral authority and Zelensky is in no position to speak poorly about him, Maduro said. The Ukrainian leader’s attitude makes him similar to Juan Guaido, he added, referring to the former Venezuelan MP who attempted to usurp power in the country with US backing several years ago.
“Zelensky looks more and more like Guaido, the clown, the brute, the loser Guaido, and is as harmful for the people as Guaido was,” he said. Venezuela – and Maduro as a man of faith – supports Pope Francis’ message of peace for Ukraine, he stressed.
In an interview with the Swiss broadcaster RSI, the head of the Catholic Church was asked what he thought about people who are “calling for the courage of surrender and the white flag” in the context of the Ukraine conflict. He said that agreeing to talks in the face of defeat was not “about surrendering, but the courage of not leading the country to suicide.”
“You may be ashamed, but how many deaths will there be in the end? Negotiate in time, look for countries to mediate,” the Pope said.
Zelensky, who considers a military victory over Moscow as the only acceptable outcome for Kiev, rejected the message. Ukraine is facing “Russian evil,” he declared, and enjoys the support of priests who are “on the frontline, protecting life and humanity, supporting with prayer, conversation, and deeds.” He contrasted them with people, who are “2,500 km away somewhere, virtually mediating between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”
Guaido was an opposition lawmaker who accused Maduro of rigging the 2018 presidential election and declared himself acting president in January 2019. His claim to power was supported by Washington and some of its allies, but his several attempts to stage a popular uprising or military coup in Venezuela failed. Guaido currently lives in Miami, Florida, according to media reports.
Pope Francis Urges Zelensky to Save Lives, Find 'Courage of the White Flag' to End Conflict
The Catholic leader said Ukraine’s president should resume negotiations with Russia with the help of international mediators.
Pope Francis added his name to the long list of international critics of Volodymyr Zelensky recently in comments urging the Ukrainian president to find the “courage” to negotiate with Russia for an end to the Donbass conflict.
The interview, filmed last month by Swiss public broadcaster RSI, took place before recent mediation proposals, including Friday’s from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan offered to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia, a prospect that’s undermined by a decree issued by Zelensky in late 2022 forbidding negotiations with Russia while the country is led by President Vladimir Putin.
The development took place after at least two attempts by Putin to negotiate an end to hostilities early in the conflict. Both rounds of negotiations were scuttled by the United States, which intervened to end separate diplomatic efforts involving then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in 2022. The US role came to light in media reports emerging shortly after.
Pope Francis made clear he believes the best option for Zelensky as well as the Russian and Ukrainian people is for the embattled leader to admit defeat. The Pope made the comment in response to a question by the interviewer, who discussed the possibility of Ukraine raising the “white flag.”
“I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates,” the cleric insisted. “Today, for example, in the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to mediate.”
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, perhaps perceiving the potential controversy of Pope Francis’ blunt language, noted the Pope picked up on the interviewer’s use of the term “white flag.” Bruni explained the cleric intended “to indicate a stop to hostilities [and] a truce achieved with the courage of negotiations.”
“One may feel shame, but how many dead will it [the conflict in the Donbass] end up with?” the Pope asked. “[Zelensky should] negotiate in time, find a country that can be a mediator. Do not be ashamed of negotiating, before things get worse.”
The interview likely represents the first time Pope Francis has so openly acknowledged Zelensky’s defeat after 2023’s vaunted Ukrainian counter offensive failed to turn the tide of the conflict. In recent weeks Russian forces have made gains on the battlefield as Zelensky mulls conscripting more Ukrainians to fight, recently liberating the city of Avdeyevka from the Kiev regime.
In response to the interviewer’s question if Pope Francis himself would be willing to help mediate negotiations, the Pope reiterated, “I am here.”
The cleric also expressed hope for an end to Israel’s military operation in the besieged Gaza Strip, where the official death toll is nearly 31,000. Gazans have begun to die of starvation in recent weeks as Israel strictly limits the amount of food allowed to enter the enclave and Zionist civil society organizations form a blockade of aid delivery.
Social media users were horrified this week as photos of 10-year-old Yazan Kafarneh circulated online showing the Palestinian child emaciated and near death. By Monday Kafarneh had passed away, one of many in Gaza who have fallen victim to Israel’s genocidal campaign.
“Negotiating is never a surrender,” Pope Francis said, urging an end to the Zionist brutality.
Russia’s Mi-28, also known as the Night Hunter, is a modern attack helicopter designed for various combat missions, including reconnaissance, escort, and engaging ground targets. It features advanced avionics, powerful armament, and stealth capabilities, making it a potent asset for the Russian military.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released footage of Mi-28 helicopters carrying out strikes on enemy positions and personnel in the area of Severodonetsk. According to the ministry, all targets were destroyed as a result of the combat operation.
The Russian Mi-28 attack helicopter's primary role is to provide close air support, engage enemy ground targets, and conduct reconnaissance missions. It is armed with a 30 mm cannon and can carry a variety of air-to-ground missiles, rocket pods, and guided bombs, enabling it to engage a wide range of targets.
Watch Russian Forces Unleash Grad MLRS on South Donetsk Front
The Grad Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) is a powerful and versatile weapons system used by the Russian military. Designed to launch a diverse array of rockets carrying various payloads, it is capable of engaging ground targets, fortifications, and providing crucial support for troops in the field.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has released footage of its Grad MLRS in action in South Donetsk, decimating enemy manpower and military hardware.
Depending on the rocket type, the Grad MLRS can engage targets at varying distances, with some rockets reaching up to 20 kilometers. As an indirect fire weapon system, the rocket complex relies on calculations and data provided by a separate command and control unit to accurately target enemy positions. The MLRS can launch multiple missiles in a short period of time, allowing it to saturate a target area quickly and effectively.
Russia Foils Attempt by Ukrainian Armed Formations to Break Into Belgorod and Kursk Regions
Russian military, together with units of the border service of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), thwarted Ukraine's attempt to break into the Russian border territory in the Belgorod and Kursk regions overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
"This morning, units of the Russian armed forces, together with units of the border service of the FSB of Russia, thwarted an attempt by the Kiev regime to break into the border territory of Russia in the Belgorod and Kursk regions," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Ukrainian forces tried to invade Russia with the support of tanks and armored fighting vehicles in three directions.
The Russian forces prevented the violation of the state border by Ukrainian armed forces in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, the ministry added.
"From 8:00 to 8:25 [local time, from 05:00 to 05:25 GMT], four attacks by Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups trying to break into the border territory near the village of Tetkino in the Kursk region were repulsed. Having suffered significant losses, the enemy was driven back," the ministry said.
Russian soldiers repelled all Ukraine attacks, the ministry said, adding that "the enemy came under fire from aviation, missile forces and artillery."
Russian soldiers and border guards destroyed up to 60 Ukrainian soldiers that tried to infiltrate Russia's Belgorod Region, the ministry said.
"Up to 60 Ukrainian terrorists were destroyed on the border territory from Ukraine in the area of Odnorobivka, three tanks and an armored personnel carrier in the area of Nehoteevka, and two tanks in the area of Spodariushino," the statement said.
The Ukrainian forces suffered significant losses and were driven back from the Russian border, the ministry added.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) on Tuesday denied information that Ukrainian armed formations entered Russia's border regions of Belgorod and Kursk.
Since Sunday, the security forces have prevented the violation of the state border in the two regions, destroying over 100 people, six tanks and 20 armored vehicles, the FSB said.
"Strikes against [Ukrainian] armed formations in the Ukrainian border area continue," the statement read.
Setelah muncul penampakan hilal oleh panitia penampakan bulan, Arab Saudi mengumumkan bahwa hari pertama puasa akan jatuh pada hari Senin, 11 Maret, Indonesia jatuh pada hari Selasa, 12 Maret 2024.
Kurang lebih sekitar 1,9 miliar umat Islam di seluruh dunia, atau sekitar 25 persen dari populasi dunia sedang dan akan menuaikan Ibadah Puasa bulan Ramadhan. Indonesia memiliki populasi Muslim tertinggi di dunia, dengan sekitar 240 juta Muslim tinggal di negara ini. Pakistan berada di urutan kedua dengan sekitar 225 juta Muslim, diikuti oleh India (211 juta), Bangladesh (155 juta), dan Nigeria (111 juta).
Banyak umat Islam di seluruh dunia sedang mempersiapkan bulan puasa dan perayaan yang menyertainya. Selama bulan tersebut, umat Islam yang menjalankan puasa bangun sebelum matahari terbit untuk makan sebelum puasa atau sahur, dan berbuka puasa saat matahari terbenam dengan berbuka puasa.
Mengapa Ramadhan itu bulan suci?
Umat Muslim percaya bahwa Ramadhan adalah bulan ketika ayat pertama Al-Quran diturunkan kepada Nabi Muhammad lebih dari 1.400 tahun yang lalu.
Puasa adalah salah satu dari lima rukun Islam, bersama dengan pernyataan iman, doa harian, amal, dan menunaikan ibadah haji ke Mekah jika mampu secara fisik dan finansial.
Ucapan Ramadhan dalam berbagai bahasa
Bulan puasa diawali dengan terlihatnya hilal dan biasanya disusul dengan serbuan ucapan menyambut bulan baru. Berbagai negara mayoritas Muslim memiliki ucapan selamat yang dipersonalisasi dalam bahasa ibu mereka.
Di antara ucapan yang paling umum adalah “Ramadhan Mubarak” dan “Ramadhan Kareem”. Ini adalah pepatah Arab yang diterjemahkan menjadi “Ramadhan yang diberkati” dan “Ramadhan yang murah hati”.
Salam tidak terbatas pada bahasa lisan. Mereka juga meluas ke bahasa isyarat dan Braille. Beberapa negara memiliki versi bahasa isyaratnya masing-masing, namun menempatkan satu tangan secara horizontal di atas mulut adalah hal yang umum di sebagian besar negara untuk melambangkan puasa.
Di bawah ini adalah kumpulan kartu ucapan Ramadhan yang dapat Anda unduh dan bagikan.
Following the February 29 Israeli slaughter of at least 115 starving Palestinians lined up for food aid, there was little or no outrage by the same Western media which would have howled if the perpetrator were Russia or Syria.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, early morning on Thursday, February 29, Israeli forces opened fire on unarmed Palestinians waiting just southwest of Gaza City for desperately needed food aid. As a result, 115 civilians were killed and over 750 wounded.
Popular US commenter Judge Andrew Napolitano said in a recent interview with award-winning analyst Professor Jeffery Sachs, “Innocent Gaza civilians were lined up to receive flour and water from an aid truck, and more than 100 were slaughtered, mowed down, by Israeli troops. This has got to be one of the most reprehensible and public slaughterings that they’ve engaged in.”
The official Israeli version of events, unsurprisingly, puts the blame on the Palestinians themselves. The deaths and injuries were supposedly caused by a stampede, and the Israeli soldiers only fired when they felt they were endangered by the crowd. The BBC even cited one army lieutenant as saying that troops had “cautiously [tried] to disperse the mob with a few warning shots.” Mark Regev, a special adviser to the Israeli prime minister, went as far as to tell CNN that Israeli troops had not been involved directly in any way and that the gunfire had come from “Palestinian armed groups.”
Testimonies from survivors and doctors tell a different story, though, saying the majority of those treated after the incident had been shot by Israeli forces. Legacy media reports, however, use characteristically neutral wording when evidence starts to stack up against Israel. “112 dead in chaotic scenes as Israeli troops open fire near aid trucks, say Gaza officials,” a Guardian headline reads. Palestinians always seem to just “die,” not get killed, and Israeli troops seem to have just “opened fire” nearby. The skewed wording conventions persist even despite the attribution to Palestinian officials present in that same headline – officials like the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, which was quite clear in accusing Israel of perpetrating a ”massacre” as part of a “genocidal war.”
The article does eventually cite the acting Director of al-Awda hospital as saying most of the 161 casualties treated appeared to have been shot. The confusing headline was likely intentional, counting on most people not bothering to read the article in full.
In a report published on March 3, Euro-Med stated members of its field team were present at the time of the incident and “documented Israeli tanks firing heavily towards Palestinian civilians while trying to receive humanitarian aid.” The report goes on to cite Dr Jadallah Al-Shafi’i, head of nursing at Shifa, Gaza’s main hospital, saying, “paramedics and rescue workers were among the victims,” and that at Shifa “they observed dozens of dead and injured, hit by Israeli gunfire.”
The report also cites Dr Amjad Aliwa, an emergency specialist at Shifa who was also on site when Israel opened fire. According to Aliwa, the Israeli fire began, “as soon as the trucks arrived on Thursday at 4 am”
But the February 29 massacre, tragic as it is, is only a part of the current stage of Israel’s war on Gaza: the deliberate starvation of Palestinians. And like the massacre itself, the whole issue is being subjected to the hands-off wording treatment by establishment media.
On February 29, the New York Times published an article whose headline, “Starvation Is Stalking Gaza’s Children,” suggests starvation is a mysterious malicious force with a will of its own, skirting the mention of the Israeli siege as its obvious cause.
Again, as with the Guardian article, a few paragraphs in, the NYT piece does state that the “hunger is a man-made catastrophe,” describing how Israeli forces prevent food delivery and how Israeli bombardments make aid distribution dangerous.
As Professor Sachs stated, ”...Israel has deliberately starved the people of Gaza. Starved! I’m not using an exaggeration, I’m talking literally starving a population. Israel is a criminal, is in non-stop, war crime, status now. I believe in genocidal status.”
Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that the February 29 massacre was not the first such incident, and likely not the last. A thread on Twitter/X outlines this, noting, ”Before yesterday’s “Flour Massacre”, the IDF has been shooting indiscriminately for WEEKS at starved Gazans awaiting aid trucks at the exact same spot, virtually every single day!”
The thread (warning: graphic images!), compiled by Gazan analyst and Euro-Med chief of communications Muhammad Shehada, gives examples of Israeli soldiers firing on Palestinians every single day in the week prior to February 29.
You can bet that, were these Syrian or Russian soldiers firing on starving civilians, the outrage would be front page, 24/7, for weeks. Scratch that, they wouldn’t even have to do it – just a hint of an accusation would have been enough to get the presses going.
Starvation in Syria was another matter
The NYT article mentioned above notes that “Reports of death by starvation are difficult to verify from a distance.” But ‘verifying from a distance’ is precisely what the NYT and other Western media did repeatedly in Syria over the years.
In areas occupied by (then) al-Nusra, Jaysh al-Islam, and the other extremist terrorist gangs which the West and corporate media dubbed “rebels,” food aid was always taken by the respective terrorists and withheld from the civilian population, causing starvation in some districts. Madaya, to the west of Damascus, eastern Aleppo, and later eastern Ghouta were districts most loudly campaigned over in legacy media, providing covering fire for the broader US-led campaign to overthrow the Syrian government.
Backing the claims that the government was starving civilians were mostly “unnamed activists” or activists whose allegiance to Nusra, or even ISIS, was very overt.
As I would see and hear whenever one of these regions was liberated, ample food and medicine had been sent in, but civilians never saw it. Time and again, in eastern Aleppo, Madaya, al-Waer, eastern Ghouta, to name key areas, civilians complained that terrorist factions hoarded food and medicine, and if they sold it to the population, it was at extortionist prices people couldn’t afford.
In the old city of Homs in 2014, back then dubbed by legacy media as the “capital of the revolution,” starved residents I met told me the West’s precious “rebels” had stolen every morsel of food from them, stealing anything of value as well.
Yet, media headlines about these regions screamed about starvation, outright blaming the Syrian government, and were accompanied by disturbing images of emaciated civilians (some of which were not even from Syria) meant to evoke strong emotions among readers and viewers. The same media largely opts not to show you gaunt, starving,
Tellingly, Syrian towns surrounded by terrorist forces, besieged, bombed, sniped and starved, got virtually no media coverage. It didn’t fit NATO’s narrative of “rebels”=good, Assad=bad.
But in Gaza the world watches in real time as Palestinians die from the ongoing, preventable, starvation.
Open the borders
Some days ago, the CEO of Medical aid for Palestinians, Melanie Ward, in an interview with CNN, named Israel as the cause of starvation in Gaza.
“It’s very simple: it’s because the Israeli military won’t let it in. We could end this starvation tomorrow very simply if they would just let us have access to people there. But it’s not being allowed. This is what they said [on October 9], ‘Nothing will go in’,” Ward said.
She described the starvation as “the fastest decline in a population’s nutrition status ever recorded. What that means is that children are being starved at the fastest rate the world has ever seen. And we could finish it tomorrow, we could save them all. But we’re not being able to.”
This is echoed by UNICEF. The press-release for its February 2024 report notes that 15.6 % (one in six children) under two years of age are “acutely malnourished” in Gaza’s north. “Of these, almost 3% suffer from severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, which puts young children at highest risk of medical complications and death unless they receive urgent treatment,” UNICEF notes.
Even worse, “since the data were collected in January, the situation is likely to be even graver today,” UNICEF warns, likewise noting the rapid increase of malnutrition is “dangerous and entirely preventable.”
Professor Sachs made an important point: “This will stop when the United States stops providing the munitions to Israel. It will not stop by any self control in Israel, there is none...They believe in ethnic cleansing or worse. And it is the United States which is the sole support...that is not stopping this slaughter.”
Air-dropping paltry amounts of food aid into Gaza is not the answer. It both legitimizes Israel’s deliberate starvation of Gaza and also makes those Palestinians who run toward the aid sitting ducks for the Israeli army to maim or kill. The only solution is to immediately open the borders and allow in the hundreds of aid trucks parked in Egypt. And end the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
An unprecedented phenomenon when one group of civil society is seen as a prisoner to be exterminated. Israel's vile attitude must lead to a unanimous conclusion, that the state of Israel must be wiped out from the face of this earth
