Why Azerbaijan should join NATO Geopoliticalmonitor.com
Day: October 17, 2023
Russia has likely launched a coordinated offensive on several fronts in eastern Ukraine, including on the heavily defended town of Avdiivka, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
In its daily update on the war in Ukraine, the ministry described the offensive as likely “the most significant offensive operation undertaken by Russia since at least January 2023.”
“Russia’s attack is likely being carried out with multiple armored battalions, which are attempting to envelope the town,” the Ministry of Defence statement read.
It added that Avdiivka has been “on the frontline since 2014.”
“The town is a major obstacle in preventing Russian forces from their wider objective of taking control of Donetsk Oblast.”
The ministry suggested that Ukrainian forces were so far holding back the Russian advance. It added that Russian forces have sustained heavy equipment and personnel losses.
“Slow progress and high casualties have likely triggered a change in messaging from Russia, from an offensive to ‘active defense,’ as successfully clearing Avdiivka looks increasingly unlikely in the short term.”
Russia has significantly intensified its attacks on Avdiivka in recent days.
By CBS Baltimore Staff
Updated on: June 14, 2023 / 6:20 PM / CBS Baltimore
BALTIMORE — A retrial for Anna Gabrielian, a Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist, and her husband Jamie Lee Henry, an active duty major in the Army, has been scheduled for November 27, 2023.
The two doctors have been accused of sharing the private medical records of their patients with Russia. They claimed they were entrapped, according to court records.
Earlier this month, jurors announced that they could not unanimously agree on the guilt or innocence of two doctors.
There was a single holdout juror who believed the government entrapped the defendants and that lead Judge Stephanie Gallagher to declare a mistrial.
The entrapment issue came up because jurors were presented with five hours of video recorded by an undercover FBI agent. The videos were the basis of the government’s case. The agent posed as a Russian government official and first confronted Gabrielian in a Johns Hopkins Hospital parking garage as she headed to work.
Gabrielian told the jury she feared for her life and the lives of her family both in Maryland and Russia if she refused to share confidential medical files with an undercover FBI agent who she thought was a member of Russian intelligence.
A letter to Judge Stephanie Gallagher from U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek Barron dated June 1 states that the U.S. government “is prepared to proceed to retrial against both defendants as soon as the court’s schedule permits.”
First published on June 2, 2023 / 6:44 PM
© 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time since the deadly Hamas attack, and briefed him on several talks with leaders from the region and the Palestinian Authority.
“The Israeli side was in particular informed of the essential points of telephone correspondences that took place today with the leaders of Palestine, Egypt, Iran and Syria,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
According to Moscow, the discussion focused on “the crisis situation resulting from the brutal escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Putin expressed “his sincere condolences to the families and friends of the deceased Israelis,” the Kremlin said.
He also told the Israeli president of the steps Russia has taken to “promote the normalization of the situation, prevent a further escalation of violence and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.”
Putin spoke in telephone calls with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
The Russian leader also told Netanyahu that Russia had a “fundamental desire to continue its targeted action aimed at ending” the conflict and finding “a peaceful settlement through political and diplomatic means,” according to the government’s statement.
Moscow has traditionally maintained good relations with both Israeli and Palestinian authorities, as well as several regional players such as Syria, Egypt and Iran.
The former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko told Euractiv he was “absolutely sure” that instructors from the Russian mercenary group Wagner were transferred from Syria to Gaza to help prepare the terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October.
Poroshenko, president from 2014 to 2019 and now heads the European Solidarity party, was visiting Brussels ahead of an expected decision by the EU Commission on 8 November to greenlight the start of Ukraine’s accession talks.
In an exclusive interview on Wednesday (11 October), he warned that “not everybody should think the decision is in our pocket”.
Asked about what appears to be sabotage on the Balticconnector pipeline and telecommunications cable linking Finland to Estonia, qualified by the authorities in Helsinki as damage caused by “outside activity”, he said:
“I’m absolutely convinced that this is a terrorist attack, the aim of which is to destabilise the energy situation in Europe, in the same way Russia attacks with missiles the energy system of Ukraine.”
He said the same Russian signature was seen in the assault the Islamist militant group Hamas launched on Israel last weekend.
“I’m absolutely convinced that there is Russian interest, Russian hands, in the preparation of the Hamas terror attack on Israel.”
Though without concrete proof, he said he knew very well how Wagner mercenaries operate.
“I have known it since 2014 when the first Wagner group appeared in the east of my country. I know the signature of Wagner from their attacks in Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Soledar, Bakhmut. This is exactly Wagner tactics.”
“I’m absolutely sure that the Russian Wagner instructors in Syria were transferred to Hamas in Gaza and participated in the training of terrorists to prepare the absolutely barbaric attack on Israel from the Gaza strip.”
How to deal with Putin
Asked about his personal impressions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he met many times, including for the negotiation of the now defunct Minsk agreement following Russia’s occupation of Donbas, he said:
“I have several conclusions. Conclusion number one: never trust Putin. Putin is a KGB officer who especially learned how to lie. Number two: never ever be afraid of Putin. Because if you are afraid, you lose. Number three, keep in mind that Putin understands only one language: strength. This is why he will go only as far as we allow him to.”
Poroshenko said the best negotiator with Russia was the armed forces Ukraine has built.
The security of Europe, he said, resided in the “blue and yellow shield of Ukraine”, which he said was strengthened under his presidency.
The strongest army in Europe
“I’m proud that I created with the people of Ukraine the strongest, the most efficient armed forces of Europe,” he said.
He said that as a leader of the second largest political party force, his mission was to be “a watchdog” for the progress of reforms and civil society’s power.
Challenged with the question about a pessimistic scenario, in which the war in the Middle East would eclipse the war in his country while the prospects for NATO and EU enlargement would fade, he said such doubts only fueled Putin’s narrative.
“Stop talking about fatigue. If you feel fatigue from Ukraine, it means you feel fatigue from freedom, you feel fatigue from democracy, you feel fatigue from the EU, from NATO, in favour of Putin”.
“And please stop thinking that you are helping Ukraine. You are also helping yourself, you are investing in your own security”, he said.
“For us, NATO is life, it’s survival, for Ukraine, NATO means life”, he repeated.
Nuclear arsenal again?
Asked if Ukraine made a mistake back in 1994 when it gave up the nuclear weapons on its soil under the Budapest memorandum, he said:
“That happened almost 30 years ago. But I agree that the positions of the Ukrainian negotiator would be much stronger if we had nuclear weapons. Even more: if Ukraine had had nuclear weapons, Putin would have never attacked us.”
Asked if Ukraine should develop a new nuclear arsenal again, given its experience and potential, especially if the NATO candidacy fails, he gave an answer suggesting that plan A was NATO accession.
“Ukraine will fight for our independence. Ukraine will fight for our existence. No matter if or without any assistance. But it would be much more efficient than nuclear weapons to have NATO membership. Without Ukrainian membership in NATO, war will be never-ending.”
Poroshenko leads a foundation which he said has gathered from the companies he previously created as a businessman $100 million for the armed forces of Ukraine since the start of the Russian aggression.
Due to the sensitivity of the issues discussed, the transcript of the interview was double-checked by his cabinet.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]