On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki ruled out the idea of the US imposing a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine since it would put the US directly in a war with Russia.
What that would require is implementation by the US military — it would essentially mean the US military would be shooting down planes, Russian planes,” Psaki told MSNBC. “That is definitely escalatory, that would potentially put us in a place where we are in a military conflict with Russia. That is not something the president wants to do.”
US planes shooting at Russian ones could quickly escalate into a nuclear war. But that hasn’t stopped some hawks in Washington from calling for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, most notably Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also urging the US and NATO to implement a no-fly zone.
In a statement to Axios, Zelensky said the Western powers should “impose a no-fly zone over significant parts of Ukraine.” He said if the US and NATO do “their part” then Ukraine can “beat the aggressor.”
It’s unlikely that Zelensky will get his wish as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also ruled out the idea of a no-fly zone over Ukraine. “We have no intentions of moving into Ukraine neither on the ground or in the airspace,” he said.
Yeah, right. But they DO want to send old Soviet Era jets to Poland to do “drive-by” attacks on Russian planes, thereby tempting Russia to hit Polish air field hosting those planes, enabling Poland to scream “Article 5” of the NATO Charter.
And to do this after already invoking Article 4, resolutions in the UNSC, and invoking a General Assembly meeting to develop a “consensus” that “something must be done” for “humanitarian” reasons – and then going it alone as in the Serbia war.
Do not believe Biden. The neocons want an actual war between NATO and Russia.
They want it both ways, maybe, eh?
How will NATO deliver the promised military aid? … isn’t this an occasion for direct conflict?
Apparently they want to send the jets to Poland, then fly them into Ukraine from the hosted airfields in Poland, like the Ukrainian Air Force is doing.
As for the rest of the hardware, they probably want to truck it across the border – the Ukrainians drive over to Poland, then truck it back. Apparently Russia isn’t paying much attention to the border, probably because they don’t actually care that much because none of this is going to stop them from defeating Ukraine.
Go here and read The Saker’s “Open letter to TV watching western armchair generals” before you watch any more US TV about this war:
http://thesaker.is/open-letter-to-tv-watching-western-armchair-generals/
One of the very few websites with news not manufactured by Western MSM.
Very powerful, thanks.
Very good article.
How well the USA has learned from the British; sow discord in the World and try to (hopefully) benefit from the chaos. India/Pakistan, The Levant, Palestine, Saudi Arabia vs the Ottomans, China, Hong Kong–an endless list.
Lies and broken promises masquerading as noble intention.
Now the USA has embraced the same to irk what it perceives as even
minor challengers to its role as suzerain to all.
Too many to mention, but here most recently using Ukraine to cause harm to Russia
and primarily Russian economy. Sow discord between Russia and Germany (EU)
To some a “Great Game” to others death, misery, poverty and mayhem.
Let them try!! As if they are not already at war, insisting that Russia attacked Ukraine “unprovoked”, neglecting the months of goading and the thirty years of NATO expansion which Russia has protested against from the beginning.
yeah, keep drinking the Tass kool aid that NATO was going to use Ukraine as a staging ground for an invasion into Russia
Troll. Yet again.
socalled liberty. Even NATO is not that stupid, though you seems to be.
Well said Anaisanesse.
epe Escobar Retweeted
Scott Ritter
@RealScottRitter
·
47m
I had a front-row seat during the strategic air campaign during Desert Storm (I was a battle damage assessment officer at CENTCOM HQ in Riyad). We bombed Baghdad non-stop for 40 days straight. Never once did we provide advance notice of a strike, even when IHL required.
At present Russia controls the entire Ukranian airspace. While US Embassy in Lvov has a land conection to Poland, there is no way any arms can be brought in by land, as transit links are blocked, either physiically by military or are not passable.
Much damage was done also by Ukrainian Azov or Right Sector militants that have blown up some bridges in order to slow down Russian advance. Unfortunately for Western ideas for resupply, these miilitants were destroying transport infrastructure leading to the Western Ukraine, as militants are focused on protecting their heartland.
It is actually hard to see that Ukranian forces are present in a formation at any particular frint, or defending any areas. Where is the friont that the army is holding. They are not having military formations around cities, key infrastructure, or transit corridors.
They may show up yet, just do not see where.
It is easy for Zelenski to put his acting skills in use, playing victim with defiance. With West turning on the volume of its megaphone , it does look impressive,
But at some point they will have to deal with reality.
30-50% of the Ukrainian military is pinned in the east by the LDR advance, assisted by the Russians. They are about to be encircled by the Russians, at which time they either surrender or get annihilated.
Plus that force has most of the Ukrainian armor and heavy artillery. So when they’re taken out, that leaves the rest of the Ukraine military weakened.
Plus, most of Ukrainian command and control was taken out in the first 48 hours. They have to rely on commercial telecommunications – and that’s probably being interfered with on a local basis by Russian ECM. So the Ukrainian military have no idea what to do except on a relatively local basis.
Assuming Russia doesn’t annihilate the eastern Ukraine forces right away – they probably will not because they want to give them a chance to surrender and also influence the negotiations – once Kiev falls, the Ukraine forces will be demoralized and most will surrender on contact with Russian forces.
I am at the point that a direct war with Russia seems inevitable, given the circumstances…
Not quite there yet…but the US and NATO are working on it. They need a UN General Assembly “consensus” first – then they can ignore the lack of a UNSC Resolution.
I was thinking the same thing. Instead of having all these proxy wars in little countries where innocent people are caught in all the destruction, maybe the U.S. and Russia should duke it out with nukes.
John knows his neighbor is a bully who has attacked other people on his street.
John goes to a martial arts expert and asks for help.
The bully attacks John saying John seeking to learn self-defense was provocation.
Antiwar.com: The bully was right! The martial arts expert who agreed to train John is at fault!
Endless troll.
According to the Budapest Memorandum and other agreements, Ukraine has no borders. The state of Ukraine does not exist (and has never officially existed)
ITS STILL RUSSIA! it’s an internal matter not an international affair!
Graduates of the cheerleading schools are besides themselves as they report from Ukraine. I have seen several reports stating that the Ukrainians are not refugees like the Syrians and the horror of it all, the victims have blond hair and blue eyes. All profit crew don’t care bit as long their pagan god of Almighty Dollar is to be made. The China/Taiwan situation is not bearing fruit, the Arabs are varsity level and are no replacement for all you can eat buffet known as the War on Terror.
US/NATO only sets up no fly zones in third world nations that lack peer level military capabilities.
one would think that russia have already imposed a no-fly zone over ukraine.
and if not, then why not?
That’s a good question.
The answer is that Putin has a lot of troops f**king around all over Ukraine as a distraction while he secures his only real goal (LPR/DPR/land corridor to Crimea).
While the Russian reputation for military prowess may or may not be merited, the Russian military glories in a reputation for brutality. And yet the Ukrainian claims of civilian casualties for a week don’t come to six hours of US operations under similar circumstances, and Kiev isn’t largely rubble . In fact, earlier the Russians actually warned civilians away from several Kiev telecom targets before hitting them.
QED, Putin has no particular interest in taking Kiev and/or securing regime change in Ukraine. The “large” part of the military operation is entirely a distraction.
We’ll see.
I believe Putin intends to clean out the Kiev regime, set up conditions for a new government with new elections, under the conditions of no NATO, no strategic weapons for the military, no Nazis, and willing to host Russian strategic weapons.
This is what I’ve advocated for Russia since 2014. Other observers like Scott Ritter agree.
He is also likely to keep the already-annexed Crimea and add the ethnic Russian zones the Duma already voted to annex.
Whatever Ukraine remains will be a rump, and that is likely to be limited to less than Finland’s independence.
Ukraine’s best options are gone now that it opted for and lost a war instead of negotiations on the points that Putin said must be negotiated.
It is not negotiations to refuse to talk about what the other guy most wants — “off the table” means war.
Slight correction. Duma didn’t vote to “annex”, IIRC. They just voted tor recognize them as independent. I could be wrong about that, haven’t gone back to verify. As for Crimea, of course that stays.
Zelensky reads shit like this and figures why not.
” A Texas software developer and a cook in British Columbia are among dozens of Americans and Canadians answering Ukraine’s call for foreign volunteers to fight Russia’s invasion.”
“With their governments refusing to send troops to Ukraine out of fear of sparking a world war, Americans and Canadians told Reuters they were inspired by Ukrainians’ fierce resistance. Many believe their democratic rights at home may ultimately be jeopardized if they do nothing to defend Europe.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/americans-canadians-answer-ukraine-call-002203208.html
Fucking idiots.
you can go fight for Russia
Troll. Multiple times.
I would have had said the same thing about Putin. And I would have called anyone who went to fight for Russia a fucking idiot too.
What a dumb ass idea in the first place. Kinzinger’s brainstorm.
Good riddance to that little turd. And you know how much I dislike Trump.
Post referencing info from “Colonel Cassad” (Boris Rozhin) over at The Saker…
Uncle Bob on March 01, 2022 · at 8:31 pm EST/EDT
From Col.C today:
Military expert Boris Rozhin especially for the Voenkor Kotenok@voenkorKotenok channel:
1.
Kyiv. There is no attack on the city itself yet. The RF Armed Forces are expanding their control zones around the city. The troops approached the settlement. Brovary. In the city itself – chaos, rampant Volkssturm. Destroyed hardware in the area of the Kiev TV tower. Television disappeared in Ukraine.
2.
Kharkov. Fighting on the outskirts. The city is under fire, especially from the MLRS of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as the locals themselves say. Looting and chaos continues. Kharkiv is plunging into a state of humanitarian catastrophe.
3.
Mariupol. The city is completely surrounded. The boiler is ready, it remains to weld it. Most of the adjacent villages, incl. n.p. Shirokino and Sartana are released. Humanitarian corridors are open until March 2. Then comes the cleanup. It is also worth noting that Volnovakha was almost cleared out.
4.
Donetsk-Gorlovka-Dokuchaevsk-Yasinovataya and a number of other cities were subjected to heavy artillery shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There are civilians killed and wounded. There is no military meaning in these attacks. They have not yet approached Slavyansk and Kramatorsk.
5.
LPR. Starobelsk and a number of settlements were liberated. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are gradually pressing on in the area of Severodonetsk and Rubizhne. Blocked Svatovo. Russian troops advancing from the border came to Izyum.
6.
Zaporozhye. Fighting is underway near Vasilievka, where the RF Armed Forces are breaking through an improvised fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which covers Zaporozhye.
7.
Kherson. In the morning, the cleansing began, which is still going on. The troops of the Russian Federation are already in the central regions of the city, incl. at the station. Detachment of the local Volkssturm was destroyed.
8.
Nikolaev. Instead of a direct assault, the RF Armed Forces cover the city. He’s already in a semicircle. The road Nikolaev – Krivoy Rog was cut.
9.
Odessa. Contrary to the landing mania, there were no landings near Odessa or so far. In the city – signs of chaos and hysteria.
10.
Transnistria. Despite numerous stories that the Russian Armed Forces will attack Ukraine from Transnistria, practically nothing is happening in this direction.
And here’s the next move in concert with the move to the UN General Assembly to get a “consensus” for the US and NATO to intervene in Ukraine…
Pepe Escobar
@RealPepeEscobar
THE 2022 NEO-NAZI JIHAD IS ON
A 20,000-strong mercenary army is being assembled in Poland.
Bulk comes from private military companies of the Blackwater/Academi kind.
CIA-supervised training.
Their cover: “return of Ukrainians from the French Foreign Legion.”
Afghan remix.
2:42 AM · Mar 1, 2022·Twitter Web App
OTOH, The WarZone has a post up scrutinizing the claim of Soviet Era jets being sent to Poland and rating it dubious.
Reports That Ukraine Is About To Get 70 Donated Fighter Jets Don’t Add Up
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44501/reports-that-ukraine-is-about-to-get-70-donated-fighter-jets-dont-add-up
So maybe Pepe’s “Neo-Nazi Army” is also dubious. I wish to hell Pepe would give references for this stuff.
Update: Ah wait, this appears to be his source – the caption under the picture says “Over 20,000 have reentered Ukraine to fight: ‘Only rats are running away'”
American citizen joins with Ukraine’s fight against Russia
https://www.foxnews.com/us/american-citzen-joins-ukraines-fight-russia
Still, given the degree to which Poland appears to want to be the
staging area of combat operations against Russia in Ukraine, it seems to me that the US is trying to use NATO or a proxy force supported by NATO to involve itself in Ukraine, and possibly tempt Russia to retaliate against a NATO country like Poland to justify an Article 5 intervention.
This is very dangerous.
From a report elsewhere…
“Russia is in isolation. ”
Here’s a list of countries that have already refused to associate with sanctions against Russia. Others are hesitating. Listings that are not exhaustive.
🔹 Moscow partners in the BRICS group (Brazil, India, China, South Africa). 41% of the world population.
🔹 The countries of OSC (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan).
🔹 Azerbaijan and Moldova have abandoned anti-Russian restrictions. But the most surprising thing is Georgia’s position.
🔹 Latin America (Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Chile).
🔹 The Middle East (Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Iran).
🔹 The Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
🔹 Hungary, yet a member of the European Union.