Russian officials warned of a possible escalation in its war on Ukraine as Germany agreed to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine following weeks of pressure from Kyiv and its allies.
“This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation,” Russia’s Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechayev said in a statement Wednesday.
Nechayev claimed that the transfer will inevitably lead to “the death of not only Russian soldiers, but also the civilian population.”
“Once again, we are convinced that Germany, like its closest allies, is not interested in a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis,” Nechayev said, adding that by supplying heavier weapons to Ukraine, Berlin “destroys the remnants of mutual trust and causes irreparable damage to the already deplorable state of Russian-German relations.”
Berlin said it will provide a company of 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from the Bundeswehr stocks and is also granting approval for other European countries to send tanks from their own stocks to Ukraine.
Continue reading at www.themoscowtimes.com
Germany’s pacifism sacrificed to US political ambitions – experts
MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. The United States has forced Germany to make a decision to supply tanks to Ukraine, thus finally sacrificing German pacifism to the interests of the US economy and its political ambitions, polled experts told TASS on Wednesday.
According to Fyodor Lukyanov, the research director of the Valdai Discussion Club, Berlin’s consent to send Leopard tanks to Kiev was a consequence of Europe’s general militarization. He pointed out that Germany turned out to be unable to resist this process, and now the military dimension was gradually taking center stage in its policy again.
“From the very beginning, it was clear that in the warmongering environment that has now taken shape in the West, the Germans actually cannot refuse to make these shipments. Germany, by virtue of the tradition established after World War II, had gone quite far in the direction of pacifism, but ever since the end of the Cold War, this trend has gone in the opposite direction. This process has now entered its final phase. We can see that step by step Germany is agreeing that the military dimension is coming back as the basis of its policy,” Lukyanov said.
Continue reading at tass.com
NATO to send over 100 heavy tanks against Russia
In the most dangerous escalation of the war between NATO and Russia to date, the United States will provide 50 M1 Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine, as part of a deployment of NATO tanks that could number in the hundreds, according to reports in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Germany also plans to announce that it will send over a dozen Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, paving the way for multiple NATO countries, including Poland and the Baltic states, to send their own German-made main battle tanks into combat. Ukrainian officials have suggested that over 100 Leopard 2 tanks will be sent by the NATO countries.
These measures make it clear that the war is not merely a proxy war, but an open conflict between NATO and Russia, threatening incalculable consequences for humanity.
The Abrams and Leopard 2, which are twice the weight of the Sherman and T34 battle tanks of World War II, are the successor to Nazi Germany’s Tiger heavy tanks that were thrown against the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa.
Continue reading at www.wsws.org
What does it mean to be on the right side of history?
Anyone who corners a nuclear power is acting irresponsibly. US President John F. Kennedy already knew that
by Oskar Lafontaine
23 December 2022
In his government statement to the German Bundestag on 27 February 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “In Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa and Mariupol, people are not only defending their homeland. They are fighting for freedom and their democracy, for values that we share with them. As democrats, as Europeans, we stand by their side, on the right side of history.”
So whoever stands on the side of the Ukrainians is on the right side of history. But who stands for Ukraine, and what do Ukrainians want? For sure, the vast majority wants the killing and destruction of their homeland to end immediately through a ceasefire and peace negotiations. When journalists and politicians claim otherwise and talk, for example, about Ukrainians willingly sacrificing their lives for freedom and democracy, this is nothing more than the clumsy war propaganda of those who do not risk their own lives and send others to the battlefields from their desks. Needless to say, the Russian soldiers also want nothing more than an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations. Why is it always so difficult for warmongers all over the world to imagine how the families feel whose fathers and sons have to die on the battlefields?
Continue reading at www.defenddemocracy.press
Sanctions against Russia or war against Europe?
Trotsky’s visionary text, Kautsky’s Ultra-Imperialism, the struggles of De Gaule and Brand and Europe’s current fight for survival in face of American domination
By Dimitris Konstantakopoulos
Most serious observers agree that the sanctions regarding Russian oil decided upon recently by the EU, will not only not hurt Russia’s revenues, but will probably boost them by raising the price of oil. These sanctions will at the same time damage a European Union that is badly needing to import energy and which seems well heading into a process of becoming a “third world zone” inside the so called “first world”.
The EU and its allies in the G7 do not, nor can control the global oil market. The price ceiling and the embargo on Russian oil will probably end up in practice with an increase in the general oil price and cheaper prices for the Russia’s remaining clients. It will represent a gift to Russia, India, China, Iran, Venezuela, all enemies or potential enemies of the West, including Türkiye, which is making fantastic profits by maneuvering economically and geopolitically between Moscow and Washington. Simultaneously, Washington is now obliged to turn a blind eye to the abhorrent Saudi regime because it does not dare to alienate Riyadh in what is developing into an energy war provoked (or at least intensified) by the sanctions.
Continue reading at www.defenddemocracy.press
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