Tag: nato

‘Not a bluff’: Putin threatens nuclear war, calls up thousands of reserve troops

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, holds a microphone

Micaela Burrow – September 21, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin doubled down on the credibility of his threats to use nuclear weapons for Russia’s self-defense in a speech Wednesday morning, in addition to calling up hundreds of thousands of additional troops for battle.

In the largest escalation since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in February, Putin made good on a partial mobilization for 300,000 reserve and special operations personnel in an executive order signed Wednesday. He issued veiled threats of nuclear strikes in response to the “aggressive policy of Western elites” to continue provoking Russia on the 1000-km line of contact in Ukraine and providing the Ukrainian army with weapons and supplies.

“In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff,” he said.

Putin’s speech aired less than 24 hours after the Russian-installed leaders in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in Ukraine’s south, as well as the two sympathetic presidents in the eastern Donbas region, announced plans to hold referendums on acceding to the Russian Federation later in September.

Russia at present does not exercise full control over the territories. Russia’s deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, said Tuesday that annexation of the regions would expand the list of possible military options amid Ukraine’s burgeoning counteroffensive in the east and south, Reuters reported.

Putin added that North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces were conducting reconnaissance operations over Russian territory and had openly discussed launching nuclear weapons against the federation, despite lack of evidence for the latter, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In the speech, Putin also accused the West of committing “nuclear blackmail” over the Zaporizhzhia power plant, after Zelenskyy said Putin was engaged in “nuclear terrorism” for its dangerous shelling in the area.

https://www.wnd.com

Russia Says Security Guarantees For Ukraine Are A “Prologue To Third World War”

– September 14, 2022

There has been a lot of chatter about a third world war. In fact, Pope Francis has said twice now that the world is already in WW3 and Russia is now saying that security guarantees from NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) are a “prologue to a third world war.”

The Kremlin made the comments in response to requests from Ukraine to supply it with a “NATO-esque” bloc that can be called upon to immediately defend borders with Russia. This was proposed by a working group established by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Kremlin’s reaction to Ukraine’s demand has been swift and fierce, with Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev warning that it is “really a prologue to the Third World War” if it gets enacted. He described a nuclear holocaust that would be the end result, according to the Odessa Journal. 

“Everything will flare up around them. Their people will seize grief to the fullest. Their earth will literally burn, and concrete will melt. We will also get a lot. It will be very bad for everyone,” Medvedev added.

Medvedev also warned the West against continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons. “If the pumping of the Kyiv regime with the most dangerous types of weapons continues, the military campaign will move to another level sooner or later. Visible boundaries and potential predictability of the parties’ actions to the conflict will disappear. It will follow its own military scenario, attracting new participants to it,” writes Medvedev.

Russia continues to punish the West, more specifically the European Union for the sanctions placed on it over the Ukraine “invasion.” Almost everything right now can be seen as instigation and ramping up of rhetoric. If it continues, it will explode in the third world war the ruling classes seem intent upon igniting.

https://www.shtfplan.com

Globalists Try to Sell ‘European Unity’

Bruce Thornton – June 9, 2022

The sponsors of “moralizing internationalism,” as historian Corelli Barnett called it, are busy trying to spin the Russo-Ukrainian war as a crisis that has renewed European unity. For globalists, Russia’s return of Europe to its benighted past of invasions, destruction, and slaughters––horrors that the “rules-based international order” supposedly ended––has instead strengthened and highlighted two show-case institutions of that order, the European Union and NATO. Globalists claim that rather than an indictment of globalism’s failures, the war is restoring both institutions and confirming the superiority of supranational institutions in keeping order and creating prosperity.

But all the spin can’t hide the real lesson of the war: that the centrifugal, conflicting nationalist self-interests that wrecked the League of Nations and reduced the UN to an arena for maximizing those interests, remains the critical factor in interstate relations.

A good example of this dubious happy-talk about “unity” appears in a recent column by Thomas Freidman, a long-time Davos man and cheerleader for technocratic, antinationalist globalism. Take this sentence: Russia’s brutal invasion “explains why practically overnight, Germany’s government dispensed with nearly 80 years of aversion to conflict and maintaining the smallest defense budget possible, and announced instead a huge increase in military spending and plans to send arms to Ukraine.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com

Finland, Sweden could join NATO as soon as this summer: report

– April 11, 2022

Finland and Sweden are poised to join NATO as early as this summer, a move that a US official said stemmed from Russia’s “massive strategic blunder” of invading Ukraine, according to a report published Monday. ​​

Membership of the two Nordic countries in the Atlantic alliance was a “topic of conversation and multiple sessions” last week during meetings of NATO foreign ministers that were attended by representatives from Stockholm and Helsinki, the Times of London reported.

Finland is expected to submit an application in June, with Sweden following soon after, the report said.

The addition of Sweden and Finland would increase the alliance membership to 32 countries — and extend its border with Russia by hundreds of miles.

​​​“How can this be anything but a massive strategic blunder for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin?”​ a​ senior American official ​told the publication.

“Sweden and Finland would be real feathers in ​NATO’s cap as net contributors. They are real players,” a European diplomat ​told the Times, noting that adding both countries would help expand the alliance’s capabilities, including in intelligence gathering and in air power.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said it was time for her country to reconsider becoming a NATO member and urged the alliance to consider any potential application “thoroughly but quickly.”

“Russia is not the neighbor we thought it was,” ​Marin said earlier this month, adding: “I think we will have very careful discussions, but we are also not taking any more time than we have to in this process, because the situation is, of course, very severe​.”

Stockholm is following Helsinki’s timetable and is conducting a security policy review that is expected to be concluded by the end of May.

https://nypost.com

Top US general warns that the Potential for ‘significant international conflict’ is increasing, Urges more troops to be deployed

Ricky Scaparo – April 5, 2022

The top US military officer told lawmakers Tuesday that the world is becoming more unstable and the “potential for significant international conflict is increasing, not decreasing.” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appeared before the House Armed Services Committee in their first testimony before Congress since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The two Pentagon leaders said the threats from both Russia and China remain significant, while they defended the US approach to the war and the flow of arms the US is sending to Ukraine. Milley said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “the greatest threat to peace and security of Europe and perhaps the world” in his 42 years serving in the US military, but added it was “heartening” to see the world rally around Ukraine.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine is threatening to undermine not only European peace and stability but global peace and stability that my parents and a generation of Americans fought so hard to defend,” Milley said.

Milley was asked about the need to reallocate forces to Europe’s eastern flank, where NATO allies are worried that they may be Russia’s next target. “My advice would be to create permanent bases but don’t permanently station (forces), so you get the effect of permanence by rotational forces cycling through permanent bases,” he said.

“I believe that a lot of our European allies, especially those such as the Baltics or Poland and Romania, and elsewhere — they’re very, very willing to establish permanent bases. They’ll build them, they’ll pay for them.” Austin added that he recently visited and spoke with leaders in the Baltics, noting that they made it clear they value U.S. troops there.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Here Comes the Food Shortage!

Socialist takeovers always progress to the food shortage stage sooner or later. Remember reading in horror about how Venezuelans were gobbling up their zoo animals in an effort to remain alive? Seems like it was only yesterday. But since horsemen Pestilence and War have already galloped through, I guess Famine can’t be far behind.

Last fall, I wrote about a conversation I had with an escapee from a late-stage socialist country south of our border:

“Are you ready for the [something in Spanish]?” another socialism escapee asked me the other day.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“The great hunger,” he replied.

I asked him how he knew that was coming, and he said he had seen the same process unfurl decades earlier in his homeland.

Earlier today, the hapless president of the United States emerged from one of his NATO huddles to answer questions from the reporters he had been instructed to call upon, as per his SOP. One of them brought up the potential for food shortages, and Biden’s answer was serious bad-feeling-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach material:

“With regard to food shortages, yes, we did [random sounds] talk about food shortages. And, uh, and it’s gonna be real. The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well.”

Last I heard, sanctions were supposed to be a weapon one wields against one’s enemies. If you’re imposing sanctions and hurting yourself and your allies, you’re doing it wrong.

https://pjmedia.com

Russia to Stage Massive Nuclear Drills Amid Ukraine Standoff

Newsmax – February 18, 2022

The Russian military on Friday announced massive drills of its strategic forces, a stark reminder of the country’s nuclear might amid Western fears that Moscow might be preparing to invade Ukraine.

The Defense Ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee Saturday’s exercise, which will involve multiple practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

The ministry said it planned the maneuvers some time ago to check the readiness of Russia’s military command and personnel, as well as the reliability of its nuclear and conventional weapons.

The war games follow U.S. President Joe Biden’s warning on Thursday that Russia could invade Ukraine within days.

Western fears focus on an estimated 150,000 Russian troops — including about 60% of Russia’s overall ground forces — concentrated near Ukraine’s borders. The Kremlin insists it has no plans to invade.

But Moscow has demanded that the U.S. and its allies keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of NATO, not deploy weapons in Ukraine and pull back NATO forces from Eastern Europe.

Washington and its allies bluntly rejected the Russian demands, and Moscow threatened to take unspecified “military-technical measures” if the West continued to stonewall.

Russia holds massive drills of its strategic nuclear forces on an annual basis, but the maneuvers planned for Saturday pointedly involve the Black Sea Fleet. The fleet is based on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

https://www.newsmax.com

US Troops Prepare for Deployment to E. Europe From Fort Bragg

Newsmax – February 3, 2022

Paratroopers with the U.S. Army boarded aircraft on Thursday to leave for Eastern Europe amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

The soldiers were departing from Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Around 1,700 service members, mainly from the 82nd Airborne Division, are being deployed to Poland, while 300 others will move to Germany.

“What you’re seeing out here today… is a facility that we typically use for paratroopers before they load out to conduct their operation,” U.S. Army spokesman Matthew Visser said.

“Right now it’s being used for the pre-mobilization for soldiers from 18th Airborne Corps and 82nd Airborne Division who are fulfilling their order to deploy to Europe, both to Germany and to Poland, in support of assuring our NATO allies and our partners in deterring Russia,” he said.

The United States said  on Wednesday it will send a total of nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania to shield Eastern Europe from a potential spillover from the crisis over the massing of Russian troops near Ukraine.

Russia has denied plans to invade Ukraine. On Thursday, it accused Washington of ignoring its calls to ease the standoff.

https://www.newsmax.com

WAR DRUMS: Putin makes chilling warning that everyone will be turned to radioactive ash’ over Ukraine moves

ETH – December 23, 2021

Vladimir Putin primed Russia for war against Ukraine today, with his media mouthpiece warning NATO to back off or “everyone will be turned to ash”.

According to a report from Mirror, The Russian President told military chiefs and defense ministers Moscow will take “military measures” in response to tension with the West – as his troops amass close to Ukraine. Putin was referring to a Western bid to bolster Ukraine with weapons and military training.

He said: “In the event that the clearly aggressive line of our Western colleagues continues, we will take adequate retaliatory military-technical measures, and react toughly to unfriendly steps. “And, I want to emphasize, we have every right to do so, we have every right to take actions designed to ensure the security and sovereignty of Russia.”

Express stated that the Russian President, speaking during a meeting at the defense ministry on Tuesday, said Russia will “react toughly to unfriendly steps” and stressed, “that we have every right to do so.” On Monday, Dmitry Kiselyov, a Russian media mogul, threatened to “put a gun to America’s head” if NATO forces are stationed in Ukraine and warned the alliance to back off “otherwise, everyone will be turned into radioactive ash.”

America has been warning for weeks that Mr. Putin appears to be readying tens of thousands of troops, tanks, and artillery pieces to invade Ukraine, but Mr. Putin has insisted it is merely a defense force – until now.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

NATO Increases Military Flights Along Belarus Border As Putin Blames EU For Migrant Crisis

Tyler Durden – November 18, 2021

Previously we noted that despite tiny NATO-member Estonia not actually sharing a border with Belarus, its government ordered snap military drills and the erecting of additional barbed-wire along its border with Russia in a message of solidarity with Poland amid the migrant standoff.

Fresh EU sanctions on Minsk, coupled with persisting clashes at the Belarus-Poland border, mean that things could easily escalate to a military conflict between the two countries, and into a broader NATO-Russia-Belarus standoff, given Moscow is Lukashenko’s closest ally. Alarmingly, on Thursday the Belarusian government cited a noticeable uptick in NATO aircraft activity “along the state border of Belarus”.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry statement was translated by Russian media sources: “Our radio and radar reconnaissance means registered constant increase in the intensity of flights of reconnaissance and combat aviation of NATO member states along the state border of Belarus, including in the airspace of Ukraine,” it said.

More broadly, the defense ministry connected the heightened activity to a threatening NATO build-up at its border – something which was persistently emphasized during last year’s crackdown on anti-Lukashenko protests, for which Minsk was slapped with EU sanctions the first time around (with fresh EU sanctions being readied this week as Lukashenko stands accuses of orchestrating the migrant crisis).

According to further details of the allegation via TASS:

The total number of these flights had doubled recently, while flights by US aircraft increased by 50%, the ministry said. Unmanned surveillance aircraft continue to be used a lot, it said. The aircraft fly as close as 15-20 kilometers from the Belarusian border, according to the statement.

Belarus says the number of NATO flights has “almost doubled” in recent years. “These facts confirm the buildup of military activity near our borders and testify to the further escalation of the situation around Belarus,” the defense ministry said.

https://www.zerohedge.com