RT News - December 2nd 2022

An emergency worker has been killed and three more injured in Donetsk city as Ukraine forces used both home and US made artillery shells on civilian, residential only areas both in the city and around the Donetsk republic. 30 instances of shelling attacks on residential/civilian only areas were reported on Thursday.

RT gets exclusive access to the training base for the private military company Wagner, one of Russia's most successful units in the Donbass.

Russia and Ukraine conduct yet another exchange of prisoners of war, this time releasing 50 soldiers from each side.

South Africa's president faces spiralling corruption accusations, and the national parliament is soon to consider whether to begin an impeachment process against him.

Some of the western supplied weaponry which was supposed to be going to Ukraine has ended up in Nigeria. Previous investigations by RT have shown the availability of US and British supplied weapons on the "dark web". It was confirmed by Interpol. Politicians in the countries supplying weaponry are aware of the black markets. Weapons trafficking remains a serious issue and could end up in the hands of criminals or terrorists literally anywhere.

The US Congress overwhelmingly rejects demands by railway workers for extra days of sick leave, after unequivocally approving billions of dollars for Ukraine.

Annual drills in India (with USA) are causing problems for China. Report.

Elon Musk is under pressure from the EU to comply with "their rules". Report.

USA is applying pressure on the EU to stop selling high-tech equipment to China. European companies are not happy about it.
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via RT website 1 Dec, 2022 18:12

---- Ukraine claims all NATO members approve of its membership -----

Kiev’s Euro-Atlantic integrations minister insists the bloc will pressure Hungary on the matter

There is a consensus within NATO that Ukraine needs to become a member of the bloc, Ukrainian Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishina claimed on Thursday. Budapest’s objections to Kiev’s participation – due to a dispute over ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine – will be overcome by “political instruments,” she added.

A number of the US-led military bloc’s most prominent members, including France and Germany, are known to have reservations about allowing Ukraine to join. Furthermore, Kiev’s territorial disputes with Russia are thought to render it illegible under the Organization’s current rules.

“We have made progress on the question of getting closer to NATO,” Stefanishina said at a security forum in Kiev. “At the most recent ministerial summit in Bucharest, all 30 member states agreed on the need to offer Ukraine membership.”

Western media reports from the Bucharest event were broadly at variance with Stefanishina’s interpretation. Meanwhile, the bloc’s own website placed a larger emphasis on China in its wrap from the summit.

“NATO members confirmed that the alliance door is open to Ukraine,” she insisted, arguing that the alleged consensus was a “new powerful signal” that shows “no one fears pressure from Russia.”

Hungary continues to object to Ukraine’s participation in NATO’s official meetings, but this has “become a problem” for the bloc, the minister told her audience in Kiev. NATO is now using “all political instruments of pressure to convince Hungary to abandon the blockade,” the minister said.

She did not elaborate on the form that such pressure might take. On Wednesday, the EU announced it would withhold billions in funding to Hungary until it complies with 27 “essential milestones” laid out by Brussels. The money includes pandemic relief and “cohesion” funds intended to level social inequalities in the bloc.

Hungary certainly appeared skeptical towards Ukraine’s membership in NATO at the Bucharest summit, with Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto arguing that a country could only join the bloc if it “does not threaten but strengthens the security of existing members.”

Szijjarto has also reiterated that Budapest would “not agree to a formal meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission until the Hungarians of Transcarpathia have their rights restored.”

“We cannot and do not want to retreat from this position,” he added, explaining that while Budapest has not raised the issue since the conflict in Ukraine escalated in February, it has not forgotten about it either.