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Let’s step back for a moment from the awful human tragedy in Ukraine as the Russian army targets civilians. There is an even bigger issue here. And until we come up with an answer it’s going to continue to plague the world…
The bigger issue is that there is no way to stop a nuclear power from invading a non-nuclear power, as America did 18 years ago this month when it took down the dictatorship in Iraq…
Three years ago I spent a week in Ukraine. Every person to whom I spoke, whether in a formal interview or casual conversation, said that Putin was going to invade their country.
Many of them expected an invasion while Donald Trump was in office. That made sense because Trump repeatedly declared his trust in and fealty to Putin…
Putin, whose words I have carefully read for two decades, doesn’t plan to stop with Ukraine. He has called the collapse of the old Soviet Union the worst geopolitical disaster of the 20th century and has said he is determined to put it back together. His words:
“Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and co-patriots found themselves outside Russian territory.
“Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself.”
David Cay Johnston ain’t a beginner. He makes important points without trying to be a nice guy-nebbish. His sources are accurate, relevant, timely. As is this article, I believe. Unfortunately.
Eideard 
“With Russia at war in Ukraine, US ramps up nuclear-weapons mission at Los Alamos. Is it a ‘real necessity’?
A multi-billion-dollar project to make plutonium cores at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico may be unsafe and unnecessary. But proponents say national security is worth the risks.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/03/23/russia-ukraine-war-los-alamos-nuclear-pits/7132121001/
Aren’t the Russian’s targetting civilians since many Ukrainian civilians have taken up arms in defence of their cities? I’m sure many innocent people die in wars but are the Russians deliberately killing civilians just because they can? Seems unlikely and the trope ‘targetting civilians’ could well be propaganda. Are the Ukrainians positioning combat troops in places like hospitals and schools which the Russians then target? Who knows? The first casualty of war is truth.
How dare they defend themselves? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_bombing_of_cities
“Civilian Casualties in Modern Warfare: The Death of the Collateral Damage Rule” https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=gjicl
“Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! … I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s heaven to kill Indians. … Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice.” U.S. Army Colonel John Milton Chivington https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chivington#Sand_Creek_Massacre
Photos Chronicle the Devastation of Mariupol : Satellite imagery, maps, drone footage of Ukrainian city detail destruction of its Livoberezhnyi district and city-center sites https://www.wsj.com/articles/photos-chronicle-the-devastation-of-mariupol-11648373400
Russia Crisis Military Assessment: Moscow’s increased threat against NATO intervention (Atlantic Council 3/23/22) https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/russia-crisis-military-assessment-moscows-increased-threat-against-nato-intervention/
NATO, Putin, and Ukraine https://www.duckofminerva.com/2022/03/nato-putin-and-ukraine.html
“On average two per day: Russia’s war against Ukraine damaged and ruined at least 59 spiritual sites in at least 8 regions of Ukraine” https://mkip.gov.ua/news/6997.html See photographs
The Ministry of Information Policy and Culture of Ukraine also encourages witnesses with evidence to register for documenting Russia’s army war crimes against humanity and cultural heritage at https://culturecrimes.mkip.gov.ua. Click here to view recorded crimes on this platform: https://mkip.notion.site/mkip/e9a4dfe6aa284de38673efedbe147b51?v=f43ac8780f2543a18f5c8f45afdce5f7
Larry Fink, CEO and chairman of the world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended the world order that had been in place since the end of the Cold War.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalization we have experienced over the last three decades,” Fink said in his 2022 letter to shareholders. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/24/blackrocks-larry-fink-who-oversees-10-trillion-says-russia-ukraine-war-is-ending-globalization.html
“Russia Has Declared War on the West. Here’s How to Win.” By Zbigniew Rau, the foreign minister of Poland. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/24/russia-war-how-to-win-00020059
“…If we allow the return of wars of aggression into the foreign policy toolboxes of states, then interstate conflict will become the norm once more, and the rules-based international order will be lost, together with its institutions. That would be a loss that would extend far beyond Ukraine or Europe; it would impact the whole world.”
“Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a new war-within-a-war is unfolding.
This time, between countrymen: the Chechens sent by the republic’s pro-Russian leader, strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, and those fighting against him, on the side of Ukraine.” https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/chechens-fighting-chechens-in-ukraine/
“The Kadyrovites in Ukraine: War Crimes and the Whereabouts of the Chechen Occupiers” https://www.slidstvo.info/english-stories/the-kadyrovites-in-ukraine-war-crimes-and-the-whereabouts-of-the-chechen-occupiers/
“Moral degradation and proof of Russian atrocities in besieged Mariupol – this is what comes from multiple communication intercepts that are being partially made public by the Ukrainian security agency, the SBU.
…One of the invaders seems to enjoy telling his wife of a so-called “safari,” which is pretty much a brutal hunt for children in Mariupol. The soldier tells of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s men, colloquially referred to as “Kadyrovites,” chasing a little Ukrainian girl, shooting her in the legs – just for fun.” https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3446694-in-chilling-call-to-wife-russian-soldier-boasts-of-children-safari-in-mariupol-audio-intercept.html
Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramzan_Kadyrov
“Putin’s Dragon : Is the ruler of Chechnya out of control? (New Yorker Feb 2016) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/08/putins-dragon
“In Ramzan Kadyrov’s criticism, a window into Putin’s growing Ukraine crisis” (4/4/22) https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/in-ramzan-kadyrovs-criticism-a-window-into-putins-growing-ukraine-crisis
“How the $120 Billion Global Grain Trade is Being Redrawn by Russia’s War in Ukraine” https://gcaptain.com/global-grain-trade-redrawn-russia-ukraine-war/
The United Nations has warned food prices — already at an all-time high — could rise as much as 22% more. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-11/record-food-prices-could-leap-22-more-on-ukraine-war-un-warns
The Holodomor, also known as the Terror-Famine or the Great Famine, was a famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians.
Whether or not the Holodomor was genocide is still the subject of legal and academic debate. While historians universally agree that the cause of the famine was man-made, the intentionality of the deaths remains in question. Some historians conclude that the famine was planned and exacerbated by Joseph Stalin to eliminate a Ukrainian independence movement. Others suggest that the famine was a concomitant of rapid Soviet industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. Nevertheless, the famine’s widespread impact on Ukraine persists to this day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor#Etymology
Putin’s Other War Zone — Africa — Goes Barely Noticed https://www.dcreport.org/2022/04/10/putins-other-war-zone-africa-goes-barely-noticed/
The curious case of Russia in Central African Republic https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/5/20/the-curious-case-of-russias-romance-in-central-african-republic
Ukraine: The children’s camp that became an execution ground (BBC) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61442387
This is Natalia with her 11-year-old twins Yana and Yaroslav. The family survived after Russian cluster bomb struck Kramatorsk train station April 8, 2022. They are now in Lviv. https://i.redd.it/sdt7hl9te1z81.jpg
Kramatorsk railway station attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramatorsk_railway_station_attack
Андрющенко Time [Petro Andriushchenko, Adviser to the Mayor of Mariupol] https://t.me/andriyshTime/1135 May 29 at 01:06 [translation]:
“Mariupol. Another terrible discovery.
In the premises of the supermarket “Sincere Godfather” in the Left Bank district on Svobody Avenue, the Russians set up a cadaver. Literally. The Russians are bringing the bodies of the dead here, which they washed away when they tried to restore the water supply and partially exhumed them. They just dump it like garbage. There is a catastrophic shortage of people to bury and power even makeshift mortuaries. To such an extent that a separate recruitment campaign of pathologists was launched in Moscow.”
Photo fresh. Visual demonstration of inhumanity and threats of the epidemic.” [click photo to enlarge]
While the war in Ukraine has upended the global supply of grain, a new investigation by the Wall Street Journal reveals how Russia has quietly institutionalized the theft of hundreds of thousands of metric tons of food out of newly occupied areas of Ukraine and into Russian-allied countries in the Middle East.
The maritime logistics network used by Russia is detailed in the following video the Wall Street Journal posted to YouTube. https://gcaptain.com/watch-russias-secret-logistics-network-to-steal-ukrainian-grain/
Russia Seeks Buyers for Plundered Ukraine Grain, U.S. Warns
American diplomats have alerted 14 countries, most in Africa, that Russian ships filled with stolen Ukrainian grain could be headed their way, posing a dilemma to countries facing dire food shortages. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/05/world/africa/ukraine-grain-russia-sales.html
Russia and Ukraine normally supply about 40 percent of wheat needs in Africa, where prices for the grain have risen 23 percent in the past year, the United Nations says. In the Horn of Africa region, a devastating drought has left 17 million people hungry, mostly in parts of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to the United Nations. More than 200,000 people in Somalia are on the brink of famine.
7AM MDT, tomorrow morning, 12th
“The Race to Save Ukraine’s Sacred Art : The Bohorodchany Iconostasis has withstood religious persecution, revolutions and world wars. Can it survive Russia’s brutal assault?” (Smithsonian) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-race-to-save-ukraines-sacred-art-180980019/
“The War in Ukraine Is the True Culture War : With Russia trying to erase Ukraine’s national identity, the fight to preserve, and build upon, Ukraine’s artistic heritage has taken on new urgency.” (New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/arts/design/ukraine-war-culture-art-history.html
“Russia Accidentally Shoots Down Their Own $36M Su-34 Bomber, Ukraine Claims” https://www.newsweek.com/russia-shoots-su-34-bomber-luhansk-ukraine-claims-1725524
“Russia’s defense spending was up nearly 40% in the first four months of the year, according to preliminary data released by the finance ministry on Wednesday, almost three months into Moscow’s large-scale military campaign in Ukraine.
Russia spent 1.7 trillion roubles ($26.4 billion) on defense between January and April, almost half the 3.5 trillion roubles, or 2.6% of GDP, budgeted for all of 2022.
In April alone, Russia spent 628 billion roubles ($9.7 billion) on its military, up 128% on April 2021, helping to tip the monthly state budget into deficit for the first time this year.
The finance ministry declined to comment on the increase in defense spending.” https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-05-18/with-troops-in-ukraine-russias-defence-spending-leaps-40