Inspired By Hollywood, Ukrainian Servicemen Filmed Their Deaths In Bakhmut (18+)
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Source: Declassified UK
British Warmongering Is Driving Europe Towards Catastrophe in Ukraine
From lobbying for fighter jets to supplying depleted uranium, the UK is making sure escalation is the only way forward.
BY JONATHAN COOK | 24 MAY 2023
Rishi Sunak and Volodymyr Zelensky on 8 February 2023 (Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street)
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky made an unexpected trip to Britain last week on a whistle-stop tour of European capitals, pleading for more powerful and longer-range weapons to use in his war against Russia.
What was hard to ignore once again was the extent to which the UK is playing an outsize role in Ukraine.
Last year, shortly after the start of the war, the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson, hurried to Kyiv – presumably on Washington’s instructions – apparently to warn Zelensky off fledgling peace talks with Moscow.
At around the same time, the Biden administration made clear it favoured an escalation in fighting, not an end to it, as an opportunity to "weaken" Russia, a geo-strategic rival along with China.
Since then, the UK has been at the forefront of European efforts to entrench the conflict, helping to lobby for the supply of weapons, training and military intelligence to Ukrainian forces.
British tanks and thousands of tank shells – including, controversially, some made from depleted uranium – are being shipped out. Last week, the UK added hundreds of long-range attack drones to the inventory.
And an unspecified number of £2m-a-blast Storm Shadow cruise missiles, with a range of nearly 300km, have started arriving. Last week Ben Wallace, Britain's defence secretary, said the missiles were already in use, adding that Kyiv alone was deciding on the targets.
Storm Shadow allows the Ukrainian military to strike deep into Russian-annexed parts of Ukraine – and potentially at Russian cities too.
A recent leak revealed that the Pentagon had learnt through electronic eavesdropping of Zelensky's eagerness for longer-range missiles so that his forces were "capable of reaching Russian troop deployments in Russia".
What was hard to ignore once again was the extent to which the UK is playing an outsize role in Ukraine.
Last year, shortly after the start of the war, the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson, hurried to Kyiv – presumably on Washington’s instructions – apparently to warn Zelensky off fledgling peace talks with Moscow.
At around the same time, the Biden administration made clear it favoured an escalation in fighting, not an end to it, as an opportunity to "weaken" Russia, a geo-strategic rival along with China.
Since then, the UK has been at the forefront of European efforts to entrench the conflict, helping to lobby for the supply of weapons, training and military intelligence to Ukrainian forces.
British tanks and thousands of tank shells – including, controversially, some made from depleted uranium – are being shipped out. Last week, the UK added hundreds of long-range attack drones to the inventory.
And an unspecified number of £2m-a-blast Storm Shadow cruise missiles, with a range of nearly 300km, have started arriving. Last week Ben Wallace, Britain's defence secretary, said the missiles were already in use, adding that Kyiv alone was deciding on the targets.
Storm Shadow allows the Ukrainian military to strike deep into Russian-annexed parts of Ukraine – and potentially at Russian cities too.
A recent leak revealed that the Pentagon had learnt through electronic eavesdropping of Zelensky's eagerness for longer-range missiles so that his forces were "capable of reaching Russian troop deployments in Russia".
Lip service
Britain now pays little more than lip service to the West's claim that its role is only to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian aggression. The supply of increasingly offensive weapons has turned Ukraine into what amounts to a proxy battleground on which the Cold War can be revived.
During Zelensky's visit to the UK last week, Johnson's successor, Rishi Sunak, effectively acted as an arms broker for Ukraine, joining with the Netherlands in what was grandly dubbed an "international coalition" to pressure the Biden administration and other European states to supply Kiev with F-16 fighter jets.
Washington appeared not to need much cajoling. Three days later, Biden dramatically changed tack at a G7 summit in Japan. He effectively gave a green light for US allies to supply Ukraine not only with US-made F-16s but similar fourth-generation fighter jets, including Britain's Eurofighter Typhoon and France’s Mirage 2000.
Administration officials surprised European leaders by suggesting the US would be directly involved in the training of pilots outside Ukraine.
After a highly staged "surprise" visit by Zelensky to the summit at the weekend, Biden said he had been given a "flat reassurance" that the jets would not attack Russian territory.
British officials, meanwhile, indicated that the UK would start training Ukrainian pilots within weeks.
'Rightful place is in Nato'
No 10 has made clear that Sunak's purpose is to build "a new Ukrainian air force with Nato-standard F-16 jets" and that the prime minister believes "Ukraine's rightful place is in Nato".
These statements seem intended once again to block any potential path towards peace. President Vladimir Putin repeatedly spoke out against Nato's growing, covert involvement in neighbouring Ukraine before Russia launched its invasion 15 months ago.
Please go to Declassified UK to continue reading.
Britain now pays little more than lip service to the West's claim that its role is only to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian aggression. The supply of increasingly offensive weapons has turned Ukraine into what amounts to a proxy battleground on which the Cold War can be revived.
During Zelensky's visit to the UK last week, Johnson's successor, Rishi Sunak, effectively acted as an arms broker for Ukraine, joining with the Netherlands in what was grandly dubbed an "international coalition" to pressure the Biden administration and other European states to supply Kiev with F-16 fighter jets.
Washington appeared not to need much cajoling. Three days later, Biden dramatically changed tack at a G7 summit in Japan. He effectively gave a green light for US allies to supply Ukraine not only with US-made F-16s but similar fourth-generation fighter jets, including Britain's Eurofighter Typhoon and France’s Mirage 2000.
Administration officials surprised European leaders by suggesting the US would be directly involved in the training of pilots outside Ukraine.
After a highly staged "surprise" visit by Zelensky to the summit at the weekend, Biden said he had been given a "flat reassurance" that the jets would not attack Russian territory.
British officials, meanwhile, indicated that the UK would start training Ukrainian pilots within weeks.
'Rightful place is in Nato'
No 10 has made clear that Sunak's purpose is to build "a new Ukrainian air force with Nato-standard F-16 jets" and that the prime minister believes "Ukraine's rightful place is in Nato".
These statements seem intended once again to block any potential path towards peace. President Vladimir Putin repeatedly spoke out against Nato's growing, covert involvement in neighbouring Ukraine before Russia launched its invasion 15 months ago.
Please go to Declassified UK to continue reading.
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The US leadership should ditch the British on Ukraine and let them take on Russia themselves. Of course, that would be impossible because US weapon manufacturers are profitting too much, but...
The US leadership should ditch the British on Ukraine and let them take on Russia themselves. Of course, that would be impossible because US weapon manufacturers are profitting too much, but...
This was a PR stunt pulled off by these lunatics costing them 70 lives when their stunt was preempted by the Russian military.
Are people now beginning to understand how insane and irrational these people are in Kiev? Kiev's US overlords and sycophantic backers in the US and in the UK are driving these people in Kiev to self-destruction.
Considering Hitler was a creation of the British, it makes sense Russia's Sergey Lavrov would state this:
This Newsweek story is a complete fabrication propelling US "defense" (war) contractors onto an entirely new level of greed:
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