President Alexander Lukashenko said Ukraine attacked Belarus, but its air defenses foiled Kiev’s missile strike. He did not provide evidence for his assertion and indicated Belarus would not have a military response.
Speaking at an Independence Day event on Saturday, Lukashenko said, “They are provoking us. I have to tell you, three days ago, maybe a bit more, an attempt to strike military facilities on Belarusian territory was made from the territory of Ukraine.”
"But, thank God, the Pantsir anti-aircraft systems managed to intercept all the missiles that the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched," he added.
Lukashenko has not provided evidence to back his claims. He indicated Minsk hopes to avoid entering into conflict with Kiev. He noted, "We hold on, we understand that these are provocations and we keep holding on. A bad peace is better than a good war."
However, Belarus allowed its territory to be used by Russia to invade Ukraine. Throughout the war, Kiev has claimed that Moscow used Minsk’s airspace several times to carry out strikes in Ukraine. The US and its allies have sanctioned Belarus in its economic war against Russia.
Moscow also claims Kiev’s forces targeted Russian territory. On Sunday, Vyacheslav Gladkov, Regional Governor of Belgorod, announced that Ukrainian missile attacks on civilian targets killed three people. Belgorod is less than 50 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border.
The US and UK have recently transferred Ukraine rocket launchers with a range of 50 miles. Belarus or Russia did not disclose the type of Ukrainian munitions used in the alleged attacks. The White House says the transfer of long-range rockets is conditioned on Kiev agreeing not to use the rockets to attack Russia.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
A dangerous development if true, and it is difficult to distinguish fact from fiction in wartime, that’s why it’s important to see historical pattern. But it would be an escalation. Ukraine might be keeping its promise not to fire American-supplied missiles at Russia. But would Moscow see an attack on Belarus as an indirect attack on Russia?
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
Prior to the Russian SMO Ukraine had sent troops to train in Syria. ie invaded a sovereign nation, now that is ironic.
“SMO” (“Special Military Operation”) is sort of like “police action.” It’s something pro-war people call wars so they don’t have to admit they’re wars.
Once the Russians call for mobilisation then we will see what an actual war is. This is a SMO to disarm and denazify Ukraine. It of course may lead to a global war as the Nazified western powers have a choice……..Do they take us to WW3?
Russian estimates are 6,000 Ukraine troops dead in defense of Lysychansk. They are trained, equipped and funded by NATO. The Ukraine Banderites ran leaving their equipment behind them. Afghanistan anyone!
Not all of the people fighting are “Nazis.” People fight and die, and they can be good people. You can respect an enemy, never good to dehumanize the whole of an enemy.
Kaliningrad is open. Even Poland pushed for the opening. So, we won’t see wider war. War looks very unlikely.
We’ll just see Ukrainians being ground into meat. I hope the war ends. The US and Ukraine were perhaps also at war with Syria, maybe still are, as you say.
Why doesn’t Russia cut oil to Europe and end interest payments? Paul Craig Roberts sounds correct there, but what do I know?
The Maidan demonstrations in early 2014, which led to the overthrow of the legally elected Ukrainian government witnessed an estimated 15,000 people marching in celebration of Stepan Bandera’s 105th birthday. The neo-Nazi Svoboda Party along with the Fatherland Party of Yulia Tymoshenko both supported this commemoration of the former Nazi ally and war criminal. In the late 1930s Stepan Bandera became the leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was the name of the Ukrainian partisan paramilitary force that arose from the OUN and fought Soviet armies in the 1940s. During World War II the OUN worked with the German occupation and participated in the massacre of Jews, Poles, and Russians.
In 1943 Bandera’s followers massacred 70,000 Poles the majority of whom were unarmed men, women, and children. This mass killing took place in Volyn, Western Ukraine. In the spring and summer of 1943 peasants of Volyn under the leadership of the Galician intelligentsia using bullets, axes and other improvised means assassinated tens of thousands of Poles living in the villages and towns of the region. The political leadership of the OUN had suddenly realised that the Germans might lose the war. So because of the presence of the Polish population the political leadership had simply decided to get rid of that population to prevent Poland’s claim to Volyn. By 1945 the OUN had, in Eastern Galicia, killed 130,000. Many people had their eyes gouged out and were then hacked to death. After WWII the OUN kept fighting against the forces of the USSR and People’s Poland until 1949.
“To initiate a war of aggression,” said the Nuremberg Tribunal judges in 1946, “is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” From the historical reference in Volyn we can clearly see that Obama in Ukraine is using the supreme international crime as a means of preventing Russia’s claims to the Donbass. And Poroshenko as one of Obama’s missives gives a speech where for the first time in history a Western leader boasts about targeting woman and children. Poroshenko stated….“We (Kiev regime) will have our jobs, they (Donbass, ethnic Russian East) will not. We will have our pensions, they will not. We will have care for children, for people and retirees, they will not. Our children will go to schools and kindergartens… theirs will hole up in the basements. Because they are not able to do a thing. This is exactly how we will win this war!” Keep in mind he is talking about Ukrainians, his fellow countrymen. He openly flouts international law, his militia’s use cluster and phospherous munitions against all conventions. He terrorises civilian populations. This is Poroshenko’s strategy to win this civil war, ethnic cleansing.
What’s the source of your last paragraph? Russian State TV?
Do you realize the Russians don’t even know what the term Neo Nazi means? To them is just Ukrainians that don’t want to be friendly to Russia anymore.
Do you know how many Neo Nazis are in Ukraine? Better yet, do you know Russia has exponentially more Neo Nazis than Ukraine?
And how do you de-nazify a country with estimated 300-900 Neo Nazis? Is it by leveling every city your army comes across?
Again, Russia is not de-nazifying anything, they are taking seaports and the grain/natural gas regions of Ukraine. The rest is just BS excuses.
Every day I read about the terrible things that happen to Russians fighting in Ukraine. But Russians still occupy Mariupol.
That reminds me of the famous phrase of Clemenceau (in translation) “but the Krauts are still at Soissons”.
They might refer to the large amount of casualties the Russian Army has suffered. Those soldiers died fighting for Putin’s personal agenda which is different than dying defending your country.
Special Military Operation to Disarm and Denazify Ukraine. Russia lost 30 million people fighting the Nazi’s in WW2.
It’s a war. And there’s zero chance that Ukraine will be disarmed or de-Nazified.
Even if you knew everything about a person, would “denazify” mean killing some 16 yr or 18 yr old boy who once wrote 14 words or whatever?
It’s a terrible concept. If looking at it like religion, the chance for conversion to whatever alternative the “denazify” means should be given, at the least.
Agriculture is the foundation culture even in plastic fantastic tv pumped consumerism.
Denazify must somehow be related to the people of Europe’s breadbasket nations being the poorest. A similar starting point in the US would be illegals feeding educated elites.
The trend, or a trend anyway, is towards at least some agriculture being taken over by stacked indoor hydroponic systems, run by large companies. The positive is they can be local. The negative is food could be centrally controlled. A few could control the food supply.
Additionally, as you point out, the agricultural virtues would be lost.
There’s a great classic movie in America called “The Southerner” which has nothing to do with race. It’s about a farmer gambling on a harvest, gambling with the weather. His family really struggles. I believe it is free on youtube.
If you like Agrarianism, the Distributists from Britain praised it, and the Southern Agrarians praised it. The latter made a small mention of slavery but are otherwise relatable to modern readers.
LOL Are you gonna be butt-hurt…
No, I’m not going to be “butt-hurt.” Unlike you, I have no emotional investment at all in which side wins the war. Living in the real world may be boring, but it limits disappointment versus trying to live in an orgiastic fantasy bubble like yours.
Personal agenda? What does that even mean?
It means that the reason Russians invaded was to satisfy Putin’s personal ambitions. Putin wants the mineral rich lands of Ukraine. He wants the grains and more importantly all the natural gas reserves Ukraine possesses (mainly in the Donbas and Crimea regions. Add the seaports for imports/exports and now you have profitable business and gas monopoly established. He cannot achieve that without Ukraine being fully enslaved like Belarus. Nothing to do with Neo Nazis nor NATO/EU aspirations and even Russian population in Donbas.
Whatever his motives, there’s no way he’d have given up Crimea. Russia had that military base before 2014. And Americans have written for years that Russia would never give up Ukraine. It’s not as cut and dry as you claim.
But there’s an easy solution that solves all problems and grants the US victory in every single arena: Complete neutrality. If the US brings all troops home, there are no enemies. We win. We win everything, all the things, everything. We just need to come home.
There’s a joke that goes “Two Russian soldiers are in Berlin at the end of WWII. One of them says, ‘I guess we lost the PR war.'” That’s what the Cossacks and Chechnyans are saying in Lysychansk today. If you haven’t seen the huge list of armaments the Russians captured there, it’s enormous: hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles, hundreds of artillery and mortars, all abandoned when the Ukrainians fled.
This statement from Lukashenko tells me he is preparing to commit forces into Ukraine in support of Putin. These are just pretexts to justify the war to his people however, Belorussians know better, they just cannot speak out.
I wish Polish would speak out against Poland’s role in this mess. Sadly, they may not speak out either, nor read opposing views.
The Polish people are the one who asked their government to assist Ukraine and it was the Polish who decided to accept millions of refugees to come through their borders and many to stay.
Poland has freedom of press so Polish are free to watch different war views.
They do not have freedom of the press. They may not read RT. They may not deny the Holocaust. I imagine they mayn’t praise Ukraine’s beloved Bandera also… You speak of a fantasy free world that doesn’t exist, has never existed.
I still think at some point Belarus and Russia will send forces down from Belarus. This is probably occur at the point where Lviv and Kiev are in play for capture. There is a small possibility that it might occur once Russia is at Dneiper; having forces come down from Belarus to outflank the river might be valuable. Just a thought.
What are the Russians going to do about Finland joining NATO and Lithuania partially blockading Kaliningrad?
Not much. For Kaliningrad, they can retaliate economically but also bypass the rail lines using ships. For Finland and Sweden, they won’t do anything unless NATO puts strategic weapons in those countries. If NATO does, they become the new Ukraine or at least Russia will place strategic weapons immediately opposite what weapons NATO puts there. I think that’s what they intend to do with Ukraine – put strategic weapons bases in Ukraine to counter the Aegis Ashore installations in Poland and Romania.