RT News - November 25th 2022 Late

Six civilians have been killed in Kherson in the latest round of shelling by Ukraine forces. In Donetsk Ukraine shelling of a cotton factory has left one dead and at least three others wounded. Kiev has bombed the region 39 times in the past 24 hours.

Kiev urges Ukrainians to snitch on alleged collaborators through a newly launched chat-bot which is now being used to target potentially innocent civilians. Citizens are living in fear of their lives, irrespective of their affiliations.

Israeli forces demolish a Palestinian elementary school in the occupied West Bank after a court rules it was built illegally. The move forced children to flee just before the building was flattened.

The peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda is at risk as the M23 rebel group does not recognize the deal and refuses to leave the occupied areas.

Pres. Ruto of Kenya Pres. Museveni of Uganda and have arrived in Seoul, South Korea and Vietnam to boost cooperation, trade and investment opportunities. The Tanzanian President, Samia Suluhu Hassan visited China earlier this month to negotiate 15 new agreements with China, including the provision of a US$13.7 million grant, under the title of ‘Economic & Technical Cooperation’. It wrote off, as a grant, an earlier loan China had made to Tanzania. (QS: That is wonderful! No idea why it didn't make the approved press.)

Zimbabwe is to have returned the skulls which were stolen by Britain during the colonial era.

The European Union says U.S. is making a fortune out of the Ukraine conflict as Europe suffers. (QS: I can't begin to explain &*%^^!* how angry I am and have never felt so helpless as I watch my friends savings go down the drain and all the completely unnecessary deaths at least since April, or at all. Why didn't our "leaders" just insist that the UN mandated Minsk protocols were implemented?)

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via RT website 25 Nov, 2022 15:15

---- UK urges Ukraine to ‘maintain momentum’ through winter ----

According to the British defence secretary, Kiev has received “300,000 pieces of arctic warfare kit” from its backers

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has called on Ukraine to “keep up the pressure” on Russian forces in the coming months, arguing that Kiev is well-prepared to fight in freezing conditions. Wallace made the remarks in an interview with The Daily Beast on Thursday.

Wallace suggested that Kiev’s forces had the advantage “in equipment, training and [the] quality of their personnel” over Russian troops.

With this in mind, “it would be in Ukraine’s interest to maintain momentum through the winter,” he said, adding that “the international community” has provided Kiev with “300,000 pieces of arctic warfare kit.”

Wallace’s comments come after US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin warned that Ukraine might be about to face a “harsh winter,” as the country is reeling under Russian strikes on its infrastructure. Moscow has been targeting Ukrainian energy facilities since October 10, after accusing Kiev of attacking Russian structures, including the strategic Crimean Bridge.

Due to these strikes, Ukraine has been experiencing rolling blackouts, with Ukrainian authorities saying that these attacks knocked out about 40% of the nation’s energy infrastructure.

However, by urging Ukraine to push on, the British defence secretary is contradicting earlier statements made by General Mark Milley, who heads the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, as he warned that Ukraine’s chances of “kicking the Russians out of all” of the country were low.

The US general also indicated that the upcoming winter provides a diplomatic opportunity for Kiev. “When there’s an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it. Seize the moment,” he said.

At the same time, US President Joe Biden said last week that he expected the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to “slow down” in winter due to the “inability to move as easily around the country” while vowing to continue supporting Kiev.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that it is open to negotiations with Kiev. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, however, has listed several conditions for any dialogue with Russia, including the “restoration of [Ukraine’s] territorial integrity,” “compensation for all war damage,” and the “punishment of every war criminal.”
https://www.rt.com/news/567177-wallace-offensive-ukraine-winter/
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via RT website 25 Nov, 2022 18:15

---- Putin expresses regret over Donbass ----

Reunification with Russia should probably have happened earlier, the president told the mothers of soldiers

The Donbass republics should probably have rejoined Russia sooner, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the mothers of troops involved in the military operation in Ukraine on Friday. In such a case, fewer lives might have been lost, the president stressed.

“There might not have been so many casualties among civilians, there would not be so many children killed,” the Russian leader suggested. He maintained, however, that back in 2014, Russia did not have a full understanding of the situation in Donbass or of the true sentiments of the locals.

“[We] believed that we might still be able to reach an agreement and … reunify Donetsk and Lugansk with Ukraine within … the Minsk Agreements,” Putin noted, adding that Russia was “genuinely working towards that.”

Commenting on the matter further, the president blamed the 2014 coup in Kiev for the subsequent crisis in Donbass and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “If not for the coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014, none [of this] would have happened,” he said.

Brokered by Germany and France, the Minsk Agreements were first signed in 2014 in the wake of the ousting of then-President Viktor Yanukovich, which plunged Ukraine into a conflict between the post-coup government in Kiev and the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Having subsequently become the respective people's republics, the territories declared their independence from Ukraine the same year.

The accords were designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. Yet, their implementation was stalled – something Moscow repeatedly blamed on Kiev. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the deal to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. On February 24, Russia sent troops into Ukraine, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements. Putin spoke at that time of the need to protect the Russian-speaking population of Donbass.

This autumn, four formerly Ukrainian territories, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, were incorporated into Russia following referendums.
https://www.rt.com/russia/567195-putin-regret-donbass-ukraine/
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via RT website 25 Nov, 2022 17:15

---- Merkel explains why she wasn’t surprised by Russia’s offensive in Ukraine ----

The Minsk Agreements became “eroded” and the EU was reluctant to talk to Moscow, the former German chancellor told Der Spiegel

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she was not surprised when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out in late February, she told Der Spiegel in a lengthy interview published on Thursday.

“It did not come as a surprise,” Merkel told the outlet. By then, “the Minsk Agreements were eroded,” the former chancellor stated, referring to the 2014 ceasefire deal brokered by Germany and France, which were designed to give the eastern regions special status within Ukraine.

She also said her efforts to establish another dialogue platform for Russia and the EU in 2021 had come to nothing.

“I wanted, together with [French President] Emmanuel Macron, to create an independent European discussion format with Putin through the European Council,” Merkel said, explaining that she faced opposition from other members of the EU’s top body.

“I no longer had the strength to assert myself,” she noted, as everyone knew she was about to step down. She faced the same problem on her farewell visit to Moscow, sensing she no longer had the ability to influence Putin, for whom she said “only power counts.”

The former German leader said she “wished for a more peaceful time” after her departure and would have “pushed for [her initiative] further” had she decided to lead her party into the 2021 parliamentary elections and won.

The former chancellor also acknowledged that she had not moved forward “even a millimetre” in resolving not only the Ukraine crisis, but the tensions between “Transnistria and Moldova, Georgia and Abkhazia,” as well as the crises in Syria and Libya. “It was time for a new approach,” she said.

Merkel, however, defended her opposition to admitting Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, arguing that she “bought time” for Kiev to better prepare for the Russian offensive.
However, Merkel still believes that Berlin should not be “the first nation to send state-of-the-art tanks” to Kiev, warning that it would only damage Berlin’s relations with Moscow. “Russia would then be only further set against Germany,” she said.

Merkel faced criticism at home over the conflict for supposedly making the German economy too reliant on Russian gas. The ex-chancellor defended her decisions, saying that buying gas from Moscow was the best way towards a green future and the move away from coal.
https://www.rt.com/news/567189-merkel-ukraine-russia-conflict-surprise/
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via RT website 25 Nov, 2022 15:45

---- Zelensky’s Crimea threat proves Ukraine isn’t seeking peace – Kremlin ----

The Ukrainian president has spoken of harboring the intention to seize the Russian peninsula

Recent comments by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on “returning” the Russian region of Crimea show that Kiev has no desire to seek a peaceful settlement to the ongoing conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Peskov claimed that Western media outlets have sugar-coated Zelensky’s words.

On Thursday, speaking to the Financial Times, Zelensky claimed that “if someone is ready to offer us a way regarding the de-occupation of Crimea by non-military means, I will only be in favour.” He added, however, that if any potential peace deal with Russia does not involve “de-occupation” of the peninsula, it would not even be worth talking about.

Peskov described Zelensky’s statement as “nothing more than a discussion on the dispossession territory of the Russian Federation.” “There is no other way to interpret it, this is out of the question,” he declared.

According to the spokesman, such statements by Kiev once again show that “the Ukrainian side is unprepared, unwilling and unable to be ready to resolve the problem by non-military means."

Peskov went on to rebuke how some in the media covered Zelensky’s remarks. Without being specific, he said that a number of outlets “conveyed the essence of the statement absolutely incorrectly," portraying it “almost as if President Zelensky were ready to deal with this issue not using military means, but via peace negotiations.”

“This is an absolutely wrong interpretation,” the Kremlin spokesman stated, noting that Ukraine’s constitution stipulated that the Crimean peninsula “must be returned to Ukraine by force. And de facto Ukraine has not given up on this.”

Crimea overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in 2014 following violent riots in Kiev that ousted democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovich. This autumn, the two Donbass republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, also voted to become part of Russia.

In late September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow would defend its new territories “with full force and all means at our disposal.”

Peskov’s comments come after last week Vladimir Gavrilov, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, claimed that Kiev could capture Crimea as early as the end of this year, although he associated the possibility with the occurrence of a ‘black swan,’ meaning an improbable and unexpected event.
https://www.rt.com/russia/567179-kremlin-zelensky-crimea-seize/
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