RT News - November 20th 2022 The Weekly

After publicly announcing that Russia had bombed Polish farmers, Kiev backtracks on its claims that Russia was responsible for a deadly missile strike on Poland, as it admits parts of the projectile actually appear to have been Ukrainian. That's after US, NATO and Polish officials say the missile was "probably launched" by a Ukrainian air defence system. (QueenStreet comment: NATO knew exactly who had fired that missile but still allowed the communications departments of the member state governments to brief the press with entirely LIES)

Nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been a result of media lies: (Julian Assange *) The western press are briefed by government communications departments.

German state TV has compared Elon Musk to Joseph Goebbels.

Life may not be so sweet for many, as India cuts sugar export quotas to ensure its own food security amid a world food crisis

Pakistan: The March to Islamabad continues (even after the assassination attempt on Imran Khan)

US Republicans pledge to count every cent of financial aid allocated to Kiev, as the party wins partial control of Congress. See (2) below, Sunak. (3) RUSI from 7th November

Moscow slams The Hague's ruling on the MH17 plane crash as biased and politically motivated, after a pair of Russian nationals are sentenced in absentia.
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* Julian Assange interview from May, 2011

Our No. 1 enemy is ignorance. And I believe that is the No. 1 enemy for everyone – it’s not understanding what actually is going on in the world. It's only when you start to understand that you can make effective decisions and effective plans.

Now, the question is, who is promoting ignorance? Well, those organizations that try to keep things secret, and those organizations which distort true information to make it false or misrepresentative.

In this latter category, it is bad media. It really is my opinion that media in general are so bad that we have to question whether the world wouldn't be better off without them altogether.

They are so distortive to how the world actually is that the result is… we see wars, and we see corrupt governments continue on.

One of the hopeful things that I’ve discovered is that nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been a result of media lies. The media could've stopped it if they had searched deep enough; if they hadn't reprinted government propaganda they could've stopped it. But what does that mean? Well, that means that basically populations don't like wars, and populations have to be fooled into wars. Populations don't willingly, with open eyes, go into a war. So if we have a good media environment, then we also have a peaceful environment.

1) via RT website 19 Nov, 2022 22:27

---- Outcome of Ukraine conflict will help define 21st century – Pentagon ----

Washington’s hegemony, which it calls the “rules-based international order,” is at stake, Lloyd Austin has declared

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin declared on Saturday that the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine will shape the geopolitical order of the 21st century. The West’s “stability and prosperity” is on the line, he stressed.

“The outcome of the war in Ukraine will help determine the course of global security in this young century,” Austin told an audience at the Halifax Security Forum in Canada. “And those of us in North America don’t have the option of sitting this one out.”

“Stability and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic are at stake,” he continued, asserting that Russia’s military operation “tears at the rules-based international order that keeps us all secure.”

“Rules-based international order” is a term often used interchangeably with “liberal world order.” It encompasses the web of Western-dominated institutions – such as the World Bank, World Trade Organization, UN, EU, and NATO – that have regulated global diplomacy, trade, and conflict since the end of World War II.

Commenting on this approach before, Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that, rather than benefiting the whole world, this order serves as an instrument of “unipolar hegemony,” used by the US to make the rest of the world its “vassals.”

“The West is insisting on a rules-based order,” he remarked in a speech in September. “Where did that come from anyway? Who has ever seen these rules? Who agreed or approved them?”

“Russia is a great thousand-year-old power, a whole civilisation, and it is not going to live by such makeshift, false rules,” he declared.

Putin has spoken on numerous occasions of building a competing “multipolar” world order, in which multiple superpowers balance and constrain each other, and disputes are settled in accordance with laws rather than Western-dictated “rules.” Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared that Beijing stands ready to work with Russia “and other like-minded countries to promote the development of a multipolar world.”
https://www.rt.com/news/566846-ukraine-outcome-world-order/
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2) Via RT website 19 Nov, 2022 21:49

---- Rishi Sunak visits Kiev, pledges more air defense for Ukraine ----

The new British Prime Minister has promised 125 anti-aircraft guns to President Vladimir Zelensky

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged a new £50 million ($60 million) aid package to Ukraine, which includes modern air-defense technology. He promised to provide extra military assistance for Kiev during his unannounced trip to the country’s capital on Saturday.

The package includes 125 anti-aircraft guns of unspecified type, as well as radars and some other military equipment.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who met Sunak in Kiev, called the UK the country’s “strongest ally.”

“Both of our nations know what it means to stand up for freedom,” Zelensky said on Twitter after meeting Sunak.

A week ago, in a statement for The Telegraph, the British PM praised Ukraine and its president, and outlined a five-part action plan intended to offer more support to Kiev.

London has been among Ukraine’s top Western backers, pouring assorted arms into the country shortly before and continuously into the ongoing Russian military operation that was launched in late February.

Another top Kiev’s supporter, Washington, has been providing Ukraine with heavy armaments, such as anti-tank weapons, missile defense systems, and drones since the conflict began. On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve an additional $37.7 billion in security assistance to Kiev, which would bring the total funds appropriated to Ukraine in less than a year to $104 billion, according to Defense News.

Moscow has repeatedly warned the collective West against “pumping” Ukraine with weaponry, warning that such support would only prolong the hostilities rather than change their ultimate outcome.
https://www.rt.com/russia/566843-sunak-ukraine-air-defense/
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3) via RUSI (Royal United Services Insitute) 7th November 2022

https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-resources/russian-air-war-and-ukrainian-requirements-air-defence

Further Western support is needed to ensure that Kyiv can counter Moscow's updated approach to the air war in Ukraine.

Executive Summary

Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) conducted significantly more extensive fixed-wing strike operations during the first days of the invasion than has been previously documented, while Ukrainian ground-based air-defence (GBAD) capabilities were suppressed by initial attacks.

During this period, Ukrainian fighter aircraft inflicted some losses on VKS aircraft but also took serious casualties due to being totally technologically outmatched and badly outnumbered.

Russian fighters have remained highly effective and lethal against Ukrainian aircraft near the frontlines throughout the war, especially the Su-35S with the R-77-1 long-range missile and, in recent months, the Mig-31BM with the R-37 very long-range missile.

From early March, the VKS lost the ability to operate in Ukrainian-controlled airspace except at very low altitudes due to its inability to reliably suppress or destroy increasingly effective, well-dispersed and mobile Ukrainian surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems.

Russian GBAD has also been highly effective since March, especially the long-range S-400 SAM system supported by the 48Ya6 ‘Podlet-K1’ all-altitude long-range surveillance radar system.

Numerous MANPADS provided to Ukrainian troops and later mobile air-defence teams meant that low-altitude Russian fixed-wing and rotary penetrating sorties beyond the frontlines proved to be prohibitively costly during March, and ceased by April 2022.

Throughout the war, most Russian airstrikes have been against pre-designated targets with unguided bombs and rockets. The Su-34 fleet has regularly also fired stand-off missiles such as the Kh-29 and Kh-59 against fixed targets, and Su-30SM and Su-35S fighters have regularly fired Kh-31P and Kh-58 anti-radiation missiles to suppress and target Ukrainian SAM radars.

Without air superiority, Russia’s attempts at strategic air attack have been limited to expensive cruise and ballistic missile barrages at a much more limited scale. These failed to achieve strategically decisive damage during the first seven months of the invasion. However, the latest iteration is a more focused and sustainable bombardment of the Ukrainian electricity grid, blending hundreds of cheap Iranian-supplied Shahed-136 loitering munitions against substations with continued use of cruise and ballistic missiles against larger targets.

The West must avoid complacency about the need to urgently bolster Ukrainian air-defence capacity. It is purely thanks to its failure to destroy Ukraine’s mobile SAM systems that Russia remains unable to effectively employ the potentially heavy and efficient aerial firepower of its fixed-wing bomber and multi-role fighter fleets to bombard Ukrainian strategic targets and frontline positions from medium altitude, as it did in Syria.
It follows that if Ukrainian SAMs are not resupplied with ammunition, and ultimately augmented and replaced with Western equivalents over time, the VKS will regain the ability to pose a major threat.

In the short term, Ukraine also needs large numbers of additional man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADS) and radar-guided anti-aircraft guns, such as the Gepard, to sustain and increase its ability to intercept the Shahed-136s and protect its remaining power infrastructure and repairs to damaged facilities.

In the medium term, Ukraine needs cost-effective ways to defend itself against the Shahed-136. One option could be compact radar and/or laser ranging and sighting systems to allow numerous existing anti-aircraft guns to be much more accurate and effective against them.

The Ukrainian Air Force fighter force needs modern Western fighters and missiles to sustainably counter the VKS. Russian pilots have been cautious throughout the war, so even a small number of Western fighters could have a major deterrent effect.

Any Western fighter supplied in the short–medium term needs to be capable of dispersed operations using mobile maintenance equipment and small support teams, and flying from relatively rough runways, to avoid being neutralised by Russian long-range missile strikes.
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RUSI says it's a charity that funds itself

Here is a list of some of the donors and amounts : (2020/21)

Over £1,000,000

European Commission

£500,000 to £999,999

United States Department of State

£200,000 to £499,999

BAE Systems plc
British Army, Futures Directorate
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Global Affairs Canada
John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tetra Tech International Development Ltd
Verification Research, Training & Information Centre (VERTIC)
ZemiTek, LLC

£100,000 to £199,999

Alion (US DoD/EUCOM)
Alliance for Intellectual Property
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Goldman Sachs Gives
Google, Inc.
Lockheed Martin UK
Palantir Technologies Ltd
Philip Morris International Management SA (PMI Impact Fund)
Redacted, Inc

£50,000 to £99,999

Brenthurst Foundation
Caxton Europe Asset Management
Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
Ernst & Young LLP
Government of Japan
Home Office UK
Korea Foundation
Meridian International Center
National Endowment for Democracy
Pool Reinsurance Company Ltd
Taipei Representative Office in the UK

£25,000 to £49,999

Airbus Group
Alan Turing Institute
Foundation to Promote Open Society
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
Global Fund to End Modern Slavery
Landmarc Support Services Ltd
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co, US
Ministry of Defence UK
National Crime Agency
Royal Navy
Search for Common Ground
Smith Richardson Foundation, Inc
SWIFT Institute

£10,000 to £24,999

AIG Europe Ltd
AWE plc
Babcock International
British Council
ComplyAdvantage
CQS (UK) LLP
CRDF Global
Darktrace Ltd
Farallon Capital Europe Ltd
Leonardo UK Ltd
HP Defence and Security
ITERU Ltd
L3Harris TRL Technology
Latvian Ministry of Defence
Mass Consultants Ltd
McKinsey & Co
Northrop Grumman UK
Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Peters & Peters
Province of British Columbia
Raytheon Systems Ltd
Renaissance Strategic Advisors
Rolls Royce Plc
Trafigura Group Pte Ltd
Willis Towers Watson

£1,000 to £9,999

4C Strategies Europe UK Ltd
Academia de Guerra del Ejercito de Chile
Accenture Plc
Adarga Ltd
ADS Group Limited (UK Defence Solutions Centre)
AKO Capital LLP
Allied Rapid Reaction Corps
Altia-ABM
Asahi Shimbun
AUL Maxwell Air Force Base
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Avascent
Bell Flight
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Boeing Defence UK Ltd
Brazilian Army Attache Office
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
BT Group PLC
C5 Capital
Cabinet Office UK
Chevron Products UK Ltd
CISCO Systems Ltd
Credit Suisse
CT Solutions and Private Advisory
CTF Partners
Department of Culture, Media and Sport
Directorate General for Defence Policy of the Austrian MoD
DXC Technology
Ecole de Guerre France
Embassy of Austria
Embassy of China
Embassy of Denmark
Embassy of Egypt
Embassy of Finland
Embassy of France
Embassy of Germany
Embassy of Iraq
Embassy of Ireland
Embassy of Israel
Embassy of Italy
Embassy of Japan
Embassy of Korea
Embassy of Norway
Embassy of Oman
Embassy of Poland
Embassy of Slovenia
Embassy of Sweden
Embassy of the Czech Republic
Embassy of the Netherlands
Embassy of the USA
Embassy of Turkey
Embassy of Ukraine
Equinor
ESRI (UK) Ltd
Exxonmobil International
Financial Conduct Authority UK
Fujitsu Defence
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
General Dynamics UK
GKN Aerospace Ltd
Harmonic Ltd
High Commission of Australia
High Commission of Canada
High Commission of Cyprus
High Commission of India
High Commission of New Zealand
High Commission of Pakistan
HMRC (Strategic Intelligence Assessment Unit)
House of Commons Library
Huntswood CTC Ltd
Information Technology Science Center
ING Bank BV
Institution of Royal Engineers
International Committee of the Red Cross
ITSC Library (Ohio, Beavercreek)
Japan Bank for International Co-operation
Japan Tobacco International
King's College London
Kompli-Global Ltd
Korea Institute for Defense Analysis
Krull Corp
Land Intelligence Fusion Centre
Lloyds Banking Group - Chief Resilience & Security Office
MBDA UK Ltd
Metropolitan Police Service
Microsoft UK
Morgan Stanley & Co Intl plc
NAEA Propertymark
National Defence University of Malaysia
Nationwide Building Society
Newton Europe
NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation
Pedmore Advisors Ltd
Pew Charitable Trusts
Pfizer Inc
Prospect Foundation
Prospect Union
Public Safety Canada Information Centre
PwC
Qinetiq
Raytheon Missile Systems (US)
Rebellion Defence Limited
Roke Manor Research Ltd
Royal Air Force, Force Protection Centre
Royal College of Defence Studies
Sandia National Laboratories
Securecloud+ Ltd
Serco Ltd
Shell International
Standard Bank of South Africa
Thales UK
The Aligator Trust
Turner & Townsend Ltd
Ultra Maritime Sonar Systems
United Nations Development Programme
University of Southampton
US Army War College