Tag: arms

France will not send military, arms to Kiev

France has no plans of sending military instructors or delivering equipment to Ukraine as opposed to Great Britain, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that Britain would send instructors to Ukraine to train the country’s military, Sputniknews reported.

“Great Britain has taken a hardline to the situation and is considering a number of measures that you have said [sending military instructors], which Prime Minister David Cameron announced. We have also taken a firm position, but are still pushing for the de-escalation of the conflict,” Fabius said on France Info radio station.

France is party to the Normandy format talks on Ukrainian reconciliation, which also includes Russia, Germany and Ukraine. The most recent Normandy-quartet meeting between foreign ministers took place in Paris on Tuesday.

Kiev authorities repeatedly asked foreign partners for lethal assistance. On Tuesday, Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko said that the United Arab Emirates had agreed to send weapons and military hardware to Ukraine.

A number of European states, including Germany, refused to arm Kiev. The United States, where according to a recent poll by Pew Research Center more than half of the respondents oppose sending weapons to Ukraine, is yet to make a decision on the matter.

Putin says US is already arming Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the US is supplying Kiev with lethal weapons, telling reporters that the conflict in Ukraine will not be resolved through military escalation.

“According to our intelligence, [US] weapons are already being delivered,” Putin was shown on state television Channel One as telling a press conference on Tuesday, when asked if a shipment of lethal hardware from Washington to Kiev would fan the flames of war in eastern Ukraine.

Putin, speaking in Budapest during a presidential visit to Hungary, added that arms deliveries would only contribute to the loss of lives in the war-torn region.

“I am deeply convinced that whoever and whatever weapons are delivered to the conflict zone, the [outcome] will always be bad … the number of victims could increase,” he said in comments widely published by Russian media.

Kiev and Western nations, in turn, have for months accused Moscow of arming pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine — a charge the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

In December the US Congress passed legislation authorizing the sending of arms to Kiev. But while US President Barack Obama signed the measure into law, he has been hesitant to use the option, amid widespread warnings arming Kiev would be seen as a declaration of war.

China slams US weapons to Ukraine

China is against Washington’s plans to provide Ukraine with weapons, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday.

“China calls for the political settlement of the crisis in Ukraine as this meets the interests of all the sides. People in eastern Ukraine now are more in need of peace rather than weapons,” the diplomat stressed, commenting on the US plans.

Beijing welcomes and supports the active mediation efforts, which have been recently taken by the parties to ease tensions in eastern Ukraine and resolve the crisis by political means, she said.

China urges all the sides to refrain from any actions that could lead to an increase in confrontation or affect the negotiation process, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said.

“China will continue playing a constructive role in the political settlement of the crisis in Ukraine,” the diplomat said.

Last Sunday, the New York Times newspaper reported that the Unites States considered supplying arms to Ukrainian forces.

Source: Itar-TASS

NATO fractures on Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has announced that each member of the alliance must make an independent decision on the supply of weapons to the Kiev government, which continues to fight independence supporters in southeastern Ukraine, the DPA news agency reports.

Speaking at the Conference of the Social and Democratic Party in Berlin on Sunday, Stoltenberg also said that he supports the reconciliation efforts of the Normandy Quartet, which includes Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.

Normandy format talks have not led to any significant breakthroughs in Ukraine peace efforts. Kiev forces that launched a military operation against independence supporters in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions last spring, continue to clash with local militia, which leads to heavy civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, the US Congress has recently called for the provision of lethal assistance to Kiev-led forces.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked US Congress for lethal weapon supplies during his September visit to the United States, however, Washington did not grant his request.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out any possibility of weapon supplies to Ukraine, stating that this would not help solve the crisis. Other European states, including Finland, France and Italy have also rejected the idea.

Source: Sputnik News

Ukraine: War drums beat louder

As the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, prepared to brief Barack Obama in Washington on Monday about the state of peace negotiations in Ukraine, the Atlanticists were preparing for war.

The Estonian President, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, compared Western inaction against Russia with the appeasement of Adolf Hilter in 1938, when Nazi Germany was alllowed to seize parts of the former Czechoslovakia.

“We know from history that appeasement will never satisfy those that are being appeased,” he said. “Munich ’38 I think should be a lesson to all of us even today.”

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond accused Mr Putin of “acting like some mid-20th century tyrant”, while the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said he would “fear the worst” if peace talks this week failed.

The US wants to send weapons to Ukraine, but Germany and France oppose arming Kiev’s forces, saying this could lead to an escalation of the conflict.

Lord Ashdown, the former UK Liberal Democrat leader, urged the West to use “military diplomacy” however, to hide their intent.

“The right reaction to the Russian arming of the Ukrainian rebels is to make it clear we are prepared to do the same for the Ukrainian government,” he writes. “Start small, slow and unaggressively – with communications and intelligence equipment for example.”

Carl Bildt, former Swedish foreign minister, said war “between Russia and the West” was now conceivable.

Ukrainian military transport aircraft have, for the past year since the putschists overthrew the government of President Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev, been flying around the world, including the United States, collecting everything from weapons and military helicopters to armored vehicles and ammunition for Ukraine’s army and neo-Nazi militia units.

The respected German daily, the Süddeutsche Zeitung featured a Russian military expert Yevgeny Buchinsky warning that if Kiev receives hard military aid, “Russia will have to intervene, and then, bluntly speaking, take Kiev. Then NATO would be in a difficult situation. Then you would have to start World War III, which no one wants.”

The Atlanticist representative in Kiev, president Poroshencko, meanwhile has promised Ukrainians US military aid: “I don’t have any doubt that the US and other partners will provide help with lethal weapons.”

EU bureaucrats have admitted – off the record – that even sanctions are ridiculous, sanctioning in fact the EU for least 15% of exports to Russia. The British have whipped up the pro-sanction lobby into a frenzy about “Russian aggression”, hoping to gain from their efforts later.

Russian president Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande are all due to take part in the Minsk peace summit. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia expected “important decisions” to be made at the meeting.

Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported today that German intelligence estimated up to 50,000 soldiers and civilians had been killed during the conflict, nearly 10 times higher than Kiev’s estimate. “The official figures are clearly too low and not credible,” a source said.

Insiders say Merkel and Hollande came to Moscow but with the purpose of having what diplomats call “a full and frank discussion” in private with Putin in the Kremlin, where they can be confident the Americans are not spying on them.

Poroshenko’s officials are insisting that the question of federalisation was not discussed during a meeting with Hollande and Merkel.

Hollande has however now come out publicly to support “autonomy” for the eastern regions, making a discussion of federalisation a virtual certainty.

Russian student Alexander Mercouris says the reason Hollande is there and appears to be taking the lead is to provide Merkel with cover.

The one thing Merkel cannot afford politically is the appearance of a Moscow-Berlin stitch-up that the hardliners in Washington, Kiev, London, Warsaw and the Baltic States will claim is a new Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to divide Europe into German and Russian spheres of influence. Whether we like it or not in Germany the shadow of Hitler still hangs heavy and exposes Berlin to endless moral blackmail.

European arms manufacturers seek cooperation with Russia

Europe’s weapons manufacturers are interested in closely cooperating with Russia, including in the naval defense sphere, a senior Rosoboronexport official said on Monday ahead of the opening of the Euronaval 2014 international exhibition in Paris.

Deputy Director General Sergey Ladygin, who leads the delegation from Russia’s main weapons exporter Rosoboronexport, said meetings with both traditional and potential partners from Western Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East are due to be held.

Special focus will be made on “discussing further cooperation with the leading European manufacturers, including the projects in the interests of the third countries,” the official said.

“Many European arms producers are interested in closer cooperation with Russia, including in naval defense. In current situation, such cooperation is of course hampered by political agenda, however we remain open for our partners and are set for a mutually beneficial dialogue,” he said.

Russia considers its participation in the Euronaval 2014, the world leader of exhibitions specializing in naval defense, maritime safety and security, as a “good opportunity to ‘synchronize watches’ and elaborate further steps,” Ladygin stressed.

The participants are expected to discuss the development of production cooperation, projects on joint design of new vessels and their entry to the global market. “Certainly, we will be actively promoting a whole range of the Russian-made naval vessels and equipment,” Ladygin said.

The company expects that foreigners will be interested in the Mirazh, Sobol and Mangust class patrol boats, the Project 11356 class frigates, the Project 20382 corvettes, Murena-E assault boats as well as the Varshavyanka-class and Amur 1650 submarines.

Rosoboronexport’s stand will feature the Club missile system, artillery cannons A-190 and A-220M with a 100 and 57 mm caliber, the Palma anti-aircraft artillery missile system and Gibka anti-aircraft missile launching systems for Igla missiles.

Euronaval 2014, held since 1968, is one of the world’s largest naval defense exhibitions. This year, the event takes place from October 27-31 at the Le Bourget exhibition center.

The exhibition brings together over 350 companies from around 30 countries. More than 90 delegations from 65 countries are expected to attend the event.

Source: Russia Insider

NATO a threat to the security of its members, the world

NATO lives in some weird fantasy world. It reminds me of the Warsaw Pact

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization poses a threat to its members by involving them in interventions based on pretty flimsy evidence, Patrick Armstrong, former political counselor at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow told RT.

The new NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has made his first policy speech.

RT: The face of NATO has changed. Is this a chance for the politics to change?

Patrick Armstrong: Let me suggest what Stoltenberg should have said if he wanted to show that NATO was seriously discussing events. He might have said, and this should have been on the agenda at the recent meeting: “Mr. Kerry, a year ago you were telling us that you were absolutely certain that the Syrian government was using chemical weapons and that we had go bomb it. Today you are now telling us that we should go bomb the people that last year we would have been supporting. Please explain, discuss.” We all saw the photos of the militia cavorting in the US embassy swimming-pool in Tripoli. “Was armed NATO’s intervention in Libya a good idea or bad idea? Discuss.” A month ago we learned that the Kosovo Liberation Army that we supported -indeed we gave the entire country to it 15 years ago – was in fact a pretty nasty, criminal organization. Discuss. In conclusion, Mr. Stoltenberg, that would seem to me that based on past practice, NATO’s interventions appears to have made things worse, have detracted from the security of its members, and were based on pretty flimsy evidence. Discuss that, Mr. General Secretary, rather than blithering on about how wonderful NATO is.

RT: Why exactly does NATO see Russia as a threat? And how is that possible when at the same time the alliance is announcing such a buildup?

PA: The latest sentiment coming out of NATO is that Russia is doing terrible things on NATO’s doorstep. And NATO’s doorstep keeps moving… Speaking as a member of the country that had a great deal to do with the creation of NATO, NATO is in fact a very great threat to the security of Canada let alone its other members and the rest of the world. It keeps getting us involved in these wars for reasons that turn out to be not as solid as we were told. Why Russia? I don’t know. Maybe NATO is about being anti-Russia.

RT: The new alliance leader claimed that NATO troops are leaving Afghanistan a more stable a secure place when statistic shows the exact opposite. Is this conscious denial of the situation?

PA: NATO lives in some weird fantasy world. It reminds me of the Warsaw Pact. At some level they must know that every word they say is a lie and yet they keep on saying that. I honestly don’t know what is going on. I supported NATO back in the days of the Cold War. But at the moment it is just this destructive like a juggernaut, this huge vehicle rolls on crushing, and smashing, and destroying.

Polish arms flood into Ukraine with media looking the other way

Western governments have flooded the media with false reports of Russian troops in Ukraine. By contrast, reports of Polish troops and mercenaries in Ukraine’s civil war have been ignored.

A protest action against the participation of Polish soldiers and mercenaries in combat actions in Ukraine occurred on October 4 near the parliament building in Warsaw. Participants held flags of Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. They carried placards with slogans: “Stop Bandera, “Stop supporting Banderites. We remember Volyn!”, “No to Polish soldiers participation in NATO military operation in Ukraine”.

The participation of Poles in the Ukrainian crisis has many aspects, including the training of nationalist militants, the participation of mercenaries hired by Polish private contractors in the combat actions in Donbass, the weapons supplies to the Ukraine’s regime and the formation of a joint Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian brigade – LITPOLUKRBRIG.

Polish involvement in training Ukrainian militants is now admitted. For instance, in the spring 2014 Nie magazine published an article describing the training course of 86 Pravy Sector (an ultra-right radical organization in Ukraine) militants in Warsaw at the expense of the Polish government. The month-long course included the organization of mass protests, and the tactics of street fighting and sharp shooting, including a sniper course. “The terrorists trained in Poland killed people during the Maidan events,” according to Janusz Korwin-Mikke, a MEP from Silesia.

On June 16, the self-defence servicemen hit an IL-76 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force. They found in the wreckage many burnt Polish documents which belonged to about 40 mercenaries from Poland and Lithuania who were being hastefully transported to Luhansk. On June 26, a Polish female sniper was killed near Saur-Mogila (Savur-Mohyla). She used the newest American 12,5 mm caliber rifle. Late at night on July 12, a Ukrainian block post was eliminated near Ilovaisk; some of the dead wore Polish insignia. On September 2, acting Security Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic Leonid Baranov said the self-defence forces took a group of Polish mercenaries as prisoners. According to the same source, some Polish militants surrendered to self-defence forces as fighting was raging for the Donetsk airport on September 3. According to witnesses, American Poles have the reputation of being the most merciless among Polish mercenaries.

“From the start of the events that led to the coup in Ukraine, the role of Poland has been neglected for one very good reason: it has been murky”, wrote Deana Stryker in her page of OpEdNews in a June edition 2014 edition. She went on to write:

As the war in the southeast of Ukraine rages on, there is increasing proof of Poland’s involvement. Though indirect (i.e. no official Polish military units on the ground), it is no less lethal. Not only was Poland complicit in training urban terrorists in the run-up to the EuroMaidan chaos, it has also sent mercenaries to put down the anti-coup protesters in the east, and now there is photographic proof. Jerzy Dziewulski, security advisor to former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, was photographed last week with former interim Ukrainian president Alexander Turchynov in Slavyansk.

Dziewulski was a security adviser to then Polish President Alexander Kwaśniewski who is now a board member of Burisma Holding – the largest private gas producer in Ukraine. In April before the punitive operation in Donbass started Robert Hunter Biden, the son of US Vice President and Devon Archer, a close friend of the US State Secretary John Kerry’s family, joined the company’s board of directors. Burisma Holdings plans to launch energy supplies to Europe from the Dneprovsko-Donetsk basin, a region allegedly awash with shale gas reserves. For instance, the Yuzov shale gas field (total territory – 7885 square km) includes Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Krasny Luch, and Svyatogorsk of the Donetsk region, as well as Balaklea and Isyum of the Kharkiv region. The contract has gone to Royal Dutch Shell.

By the end of summer the Kiev regime formally asked Poland to start arms supplies, but the information on weapons deliveries taking place in practice had leaked out before. A secret operation conducted in Odessa on June 16 came into the open. Ships unloaded 12 self-propelled auto-loading 152 mm VZ-77 Dana guns produced in the Czech Republic and taken from the Polish inventory, as well as staff buses and trucks. Military equipment and soldier’s uniforms with Polish flags and insignia pointed to the 1-st Mazur Artillery Brigade from Poland. Howitzers, buses, and support vehicles were taken to the rail terminal Razdelnaya for loading. On September 13, people in West Ukraine saw with their own eyes 34 German Leopard tanks entering the territory of Ukraine from Poland and then moving east.

On September 19, 2014 in Warsaw Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed an agreement to form a joint brigade. The LITPOLUKRBRIG will be headquartered in Poland’s eastern city of Lublin. Poland is to play the major role in forming the unit. Polish media call it a mini-NATO against Russia (Mini NATO przeciwko Rosji). The brigade is to serve as a cover to legalize the activities of Polish mercenaries fighting the armed forces of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics. At the same time it will prepare the ground for getting the people of Malorossiya (little Russia, an administrative-territorial region of the Russian Empire that encompasses most of modern North Eastern Ukraine) to return to Polish-Lithuanian rule.

Source: Russia Insider

Protesters shut down Israeli arms factory in Britain

A group of pro-Palestine activists have allegedly shut down operations in a Staffordshire factory that they say supplies arms to Israel.

Around 10 activists from the London Palestine Action Group have taken to the roof of Elbit systems, an Israeli company with a subsidiary based in Shenstone, near Birmingham.

According to the LPAG, Elbit systems is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of unmanned aerial drones, which many suspect the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have used in their ongoing offensive in Gaza.

According to the group’s Tumblr blog, the activists chained the doors of the factory shut, and are demanding the closure of the factory, along with‘all forms of military trade and cooperation with Israel.’

The blog goes on to say: “The factory that we are occupying produces engines for drones and is owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military company and the world’s largest drones producer. Drone engines manufactured at this factory have been [sic] exported to Israel in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and Elbit Systems drones are being used in Israel’s ongoing massacre. Any claims that components manufactured at this factory are not being used in Israel’s current attack on Gaza are not credible.”

The group also says that the factory is part of the ‘Watchkeeper program’ which “is leading the manufacture of a new generation of drones for the UK military.”

The protest began in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with protesters hanging a banner across the factory roof saying “UK: Stop arming Israel”.

Source: RT

Arms for rebels ‘very dangerous’: Syrian foreign minister

Walid-al-Moallem, Syria s foreing minister
Walid-al-Moallem, Syria
s foreing minister

The decision by the United States and its allies to arm rebel groups in Syria is “very dangerous” and will prolong the violence and killing on the ground, Syria’s foreign minister said Monday.

Walid al-Moallem said sending more weapons to the opposition will also hinder efforts to bring both sides to the table in a planned peace conference in Geneva. He said his country remains ready and willing to take part but added President Bashar Assad will not step down.

Al-Moallem’s comments came two days after an 11-nation group that includes the U.S. met in the Qatari capital of Doha and agreed to step up military and other assistance to the Syrian rebels. He said all those who met in Doha “have Syrian blood on their hands.”

U.S. Secretary of States John Kerry, who took part in the conference, would not disclose details of the aid, saying only that it would re-balance the fight between the rebels and the government. Assad’s better-equipped forces are increasingly backed by fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.

“We are not scared,” al-Moallem said of the decision. “If they dream or are delusional about achieving a balance with the Syrian Arab Army, I think they need to wait years and this won’t be achieved.”

“They will not be victorious no matter how much they conspire,” al-Moallem added. He said arming the rebels “is a dangerous decision because it aims at prolonging the crisis, prolonging the violence and killing and encouraging terrorism.”

The Friends of Syria gathering in Doha was Kerry’s first meeting with his counterparts on the practicalities of assisting the Syrian rebels since President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would send lethal aid to the opposition. The decision came despite concerns that the weapons could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists in the rebel coalition.

Obama’s change of policy was partly based on a U.S. intelligence assessment that Assad had used chemical weapons, but Kerry expressed deeper concern about Damascus’ foreign support. He said that Iranian as well as Hezbollah fighters had joined the war.

Al-Moallem denied categorically that any Iranian fighters were in Syria. Damascus admits that Hezbollah is assisting government troops.

The foreign minister said his regime was willing to take part in any peace conference, but will go to Geneva not to hand over power to the other side but rather to establish “a real partnership” and a national unity government that includes representatives of all Syrian society.

“President Bashar Assad will not step down,” he said. “If anyone has such illusions on the other side, my advice to them is not to go to Geneva,” he said. He nonetheless called the conference an “opportunity that should not be missed.”

He defiantly said Syria will not accept any solutions or even ideas dictates from the outside.

More than 93,000 people have been killed in Syrian conflict that started in March 2011 as largely peaceful protest against Assad’s rule. The uprising turned into a bloody insurgency in response to a military crackdown by regime forces on the protest movement. In the past year, the war has taken on increasingly sectarian overtones. – AP

Free shotguns in major US cities?

In an experimental bid to determine whether wider gun ownership could lead to a decline in crime, a University of Houston graduate student and the Armed Citizens Project is looking to give away shotguns to residents of fifteen cities.

Kyle Coplen, 29, is the founder of the Armed Citizens Project, a group which announced that it will seek to expand its program into the Chicago Metropolitan Area at a recent National Rifle Association convention in Houston, Texas.

According to Coplen, the idea is to give out free, 20-gauge single-barrel shotguns to residents living in mid- to high-crime neighborhoods to see whether the presence of armed homes would cause a drop in crime.

“Gun-control advocates often argue that an increase in guns in an area will lead to an increase in crime, while gun-rights advocates often believe that fewer guns result in more crime. While both sides often argue that their opponents’ policies will result in more crime, gun-control proponents have largely been the victors when it comes to policy implementation,” explains the Armed Citizens Project’s website.

New measures in Congress to enact federal background checks for gun owners and the defeat of various other gun control measures indicate that in reality, gun control supporters do not have the upper hand in policy implementation.

While states such such as Connecticut and Colorado have recently passed new controls on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, elsewhere, such as in Texas and South Carolina, state legislatures are lobbying to attract gun industry investment and working on legislation to further bolster access to guns.

One Texas bill that would ban state and local police from working with federal authorities on new gun control regulations was recently passed by the state House.

As for the Armed Citizens Project, according to Coplen the group intends to both screen participants for its shotgun give-away project and provide training for those selected.

“We’re not just tossing a bunch of shotguns into a community and walking away,” Coplen told Fox 26.

“What we’re doing is finding residents who are interested in protecting themselves. we’re not forcing guns on anyone,” he added.

In addition to offering free guns, the Armed Citizens Project is setting its sights on local gun buyback programs. The group hopes to dissuade those looking to hand over their guns with training sessions, or even have those weapons traded in for 20-gauge shotguns.

City and county-sponsored gun buybacks have recently become a point of contention for gun rights advocates. In Arizona, for example, Governor Jan Brewer recently signed a bill prohibiting cities and counties in that state from destroying guns collected through such programs, instead mandating that they be sold to licensed dealers.

The Armed Citizens Project hopes to distribute guns to hundreds of people living in major American cities by the end of the year. The program is already active in Houston and Tucson, Arizona, and in addition to Chicago they are also setting their sights on New York and Detroit. In Houston, local news channel WGN reports that 100 people have already signed up for the project.

Despite early success, Copley anticipates that getting his project started in a city such as New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a staunch proponent of gun regulation, will be a hurdle.

“I really don’t care what [Bloomberg] thinks. I can’t think of one thing he’s ever done besides being a successful businessman that I can agree with,” said Coplen to the NY Daily News.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has already shown skepticism of Copley’s project.

“You need a permit … so obviously you won’t be able to do it here,” Kelly told the Daily News on Monday.

In addition to broad discretion over gun permits, the New York Police Department requires a $140.00 shotgun permit fee, in addition to a fingerprinting charge of $91.50.

Coplen intends to request donations to help low-income city applicants secure the necessary permits.

“I guess the Bloomberg administration doesn’t want poor people to be able to defend themselves. I guess that right is left to the elites,” Coplen told Daily News.