Ukraine makes biggest breakthrough in south since war with Russia began
Video of Russian recruits reveals reality on the frontlines
Total Airstrike: 3 Russian S-300 defense systems ELIMINATED by Ukrainian air forces!
Pope Francis Appeals to Putin: ‘Stop This Spiral of Violence and Death’
(CNSNews.com) - At a moment of grave peril in Europe, Pope Francis on Sunday issued a direct appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since he invaded Ukraine last February, “imploring him to stop this spiral of violence and death, also for the sake of his own people.”
In an address to thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Francis appealed also to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “to be open to serious proposals for peace,” and urged world leaders to “do everything possible to bring an end to the war, without allowing themselves to be drawn into dangerous escalations, and to promote and support initiatives for dialogue.”
The Pope was speaking two days after Putin upped the ante in his standoff against the West by annexing four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine – and warned that Russia would now defend those areas, using “all available means.”
The annexation was widely denounced, although Russia hours later vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning it. Zelenskyy responded by announcing that Kyiv was applying for “accelerated accession to NATO” and ruling out any further negotiations with Putin. (“We are ready for dialogue, but with another president of Russia.”)
In his address on Sunday, Francis spoke out against Russia’s decision to annex the Ukrainian regions, a move that has been accompanied by veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in the conflict.
“I deeply deplore the grave situation that has arisen in recent days, with further actions contrary to the principles of international law,” he said. “It increases the risk of nuclear escalation, giving rise to fears of uncontrollable and catastrophic consequences worldwide.”
The Pope called the war, now in its eighth month, “an error and a horror.”
“I am saddened by the rivers of blood and tears spilled in these months. I am saddened by the thousands of victims, especially children, and the destruction which has left many people and families homeless and threaten vast territories with cold and hunger. Certain actions can never be justified, never! It is disturbing that the world is learning the geography of Ukraine through names such as Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Izyum, Zaporizhzhia and other areas, which have become places of indescribable suffering and fear. And what about the fact that humanity is once again faced with the atomic threat? It is absurd.
What is to happen next? How much blood must still flow for us to realize that war is never a solution, only destruction? In the name of God and in the name of the sense of humanity that dwells in every heart, I renew my call for an immediate ceasefire. Let there be a halt to arms, and let us seek the conditions for negotiations that will lead to solutions that are not imposed by force, but consensual, just and stable. And they will be so if they are based on respect for the sacrosanct value of human life, as well as the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each country, and the rights of minorities and legitimate concerns.”
The Pope has spoken out against the war before now, but has never publicly appealed directly to the Russian and Ukrainian presidents in this way.
In May, Francis in an interview with an Italian newspaper offered to meet with Putin in a bid to broker a ceasefire, disclosing that he had first made the offer – via Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin – just 20 days after the war began, but had not received any response.
At the time he suggested that NATO’s expansion into countries near Russia – or what he called “NATO’s barking at Russia’s door” – had perhaps “facilitated” the invasion.
Weeks later the Pope raised concern publicly about food price hikes and shortages arising from the conflict, urging the parties not to “use wheat, a staple food, as a weapon of war.”
“Of great concern is the blockade of grain exports from Ukraine, on which the lives of millions of people depend, especially in the poorest countries,” he said.
A U.N.- and Turkish-brokered deal reached in July providing for the shipping of Ukrainian grain that had been blocked in port as a result of the war, has helped to ease the crisis.
How much influence the leader of the Roman Catholic Church may be able to bear on the Russian leadership is unclear.
The Russian Orthodox Church has thrown its significant weight behind Putin’s war, to the extent that it sent high-ranking representatives, including the head of the Moscow Patriarchate, to Friday’s ornate annexation ceremony at the Kremlin.
Last week the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow Kirill, sent a senior church official, Vakhtang Kipshidze, to a “multireligious peace roundtable” in Tokyo, where he again laid out the church’s position.
According to Department for External Church Relations, Kipshidze “said that the Russian Orthodox Church has been praying for peace in Ukraine since 2014 with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus, and considers the NATO members, which reckon Russia as an enemy, guilty of escalation of the conflict rather than the peoples of Russia and Ukraine.”
He denied reports the Kirill had given his “blessing” to the war, calling them part of a disinformation campaign spread by media outlets because they want the Patriarch to take “the side of NATO in this conflict,” and side against the Russian government.
Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis held a virtual meeting in mid-March, just weeks after the invasion began. In a statement afterwards the Vatican said the conversation had focused “on the war in Ukraine and on the role of Christians and their pastors in doing everything to ensure that peace prevails.”
It added that the Pope, in agreement with the Patriarch, said that “The church must not use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus.”
Biden, Democrats approve spending bill with no funds for pandemic, $12 billion for Ukraine war
The Democratic-controlled Congress completed voting on a bill to authorize federal spending through December 16 and President Joe Biden signed it into law. The measure provides an additional $12.3 billion for the war against Russia in Ukraine, but nothing for public health measures against an impending fall and winter surge of the coronavirus pandemic.
There was bipartisan support for the bill, which passed the Senate by 72–25, well over the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. However, it passed the House by a much narrower margin of 230–201, with only 10 Republicans joining all the Democrats in approving it.
Biden signed the bill into law late Friday night, just before the midnight deadline when federal government spending authority would have ended with the ending of the old fiscal year. Federal agencies had already begun activating plans for limited weekend shutdowns and then a full-scale shutdown on Monday, October 3, affecting all agencies except the vast military-intelligence apparatus.
The bill was the last piece of legislation required to pass Congress before the November 8 midterm elections, and both the House and Senate then adjourned for 38 days of uninterrupted campaigning. Some 435 House seats are at stake, as well as one-third of the Senate seats, some 34 in all. Both houses are now under narrow Democratic Party control, the House by only four seats, the Senate by the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The bill was in the form of a “continuing resolution,” authorizing all federal agencies to continue spending at their current rate through December 16, when Congress will again have a deadline to approve 12 separate appropriations bills—or, more likely, an “omnibus” package—or face a federal shutdown.
There were only a handful of significant additions to spending, mainly a further escalation of the US military intervention in the war against Russia in Ukraine. The resolution approves an additional $12.3 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine, as well as direct Pentagon outlays.
This adds to the $54 billion already approved this year. As the New York Times reported, “Congress has now committed more military aid to Ukraine than it has to any country in a single year since the Vietnam War, reflecting a remarkable bipartisan consensus in favor of pouring huge amounts of American resources” into the war with Russia.
The latest $12.3 billion includes $5.2 billion for the Pentagon, of which $1.5 billion is to replenish weapons supplies already shipped to Ukraine, and $3.7 billion for future transfers of weapons and equipment. There is another $3 billion to Ukraine to spend on military purchases, and $4.5 billion “to maintain the operation of Ukraine’s national government,” according to a Biden administration fact sheet.
In effect, the Ukrainian regime exists as a wholly American-funded extension of the NATO imperialist military alliance. It is an independent government in name only.
To obtain enough Republican support to quash a filibuster and gain passage through the Senate, the Biden administration and congressional Democratic leaders agreed to drop their proposal for another $22.4 billion in emergency spending on the coronavirus pandemic, expected to explode again in the colder weather of the fall and winter, as well as the spreading monkeypox infection.
Republicans have demanded that any additional funding for COVID-19 vaccines and mitigation measures be clawed back from funds already sent to the various states for COVID-19 relief but not yet expended.
The proposal from the Biden White House was for $22.4 billion for the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly for development of vaccines for future mutations of SARS-CoV-2, as well as $4.5 billion for improved vaccines and treatment for monkeypox. But neither the administration nor congressional Democrats mounted any type of public campaign for the spending on the twin pandemics, in keeping with their electioneering posture that COVID-19 has become “endemic” and that the American people must learn to “live with the virus.”
Meanwhile, the daily death toll from COVID-19 remains well over 300, daily new infections are averaging over 50,000, and both figures are expected to skyrocket as colder weather drives people indoors into more confined and dangerous settings. According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 25,000 Americans have contracted monkeypox, a highly infectious and dangerous disease which can be life-threatening, especially for children, and with no known cure.
Congressional leaders of both parties praised the bipartisan consensus on more billions for the war against Russia in Ukraine. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed, “This package comes at a critical moment,” citing Biden’s public promise to do whatever it takes to defeat Russia. “With this supplemental, we take another strong step toward honoring that pledge, our country’s pledge,” she said.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the aid to Ukraine was “literally an investment in our own national security.” He claimed that the aid would not only hinder Putin’s “capacity to threaten other targets throughout the free world… it will help deter other authoritarian regimes like China.”
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican whip, praised the Ukrainian armed forces, saying, “if you look at what they’ve been able to accomplish, how they’ve degraded Russia’s conventional war-making capabilities, this is all in our, NATO’s and, I would argue, in the world’s best interest.”
As part of the agreement with the Republicans to pass the continuing resolution, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia agreed to drop his bid to include a measure to make it easier to obtain permits for energy infrastructure, as well as authorizing the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline to bring shale energy from his state through Virginia to the coast.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed to the Manchin bill as part of a deal to get Manchin’s vote on the “Inflation Reduction Act” passed by Congress during the summer. Republicans wanted to punish Manchin for making that deal by blocking his reward, even though they generally support anything that favors fossil fuel energy development.
In a demonstration of the real priorities of both capitalist parties, the bill provides an insulting $20 million in new funding for the water system in Jackson, Mississippi, which collapsed under the impact of a sudden storm deluge in August. It would also add $1 billion to the LIHEAP program, which aids low-income households to pay their heating bills during the winter months. These bills will skyrocket under the impact of rising costs for heating oil, fueled by the war in Ukraine and more general inflationary pressures.
Only $2 billion is added to federal programs to provide financial assistance to communities hit by natural disasters, including wildfires in the west and flooding that preceded September’s hurricane disasters in Puerto Rico and Florida.
Retreating Russians leave their comrades' bodies behind
LYMAN, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops abandoned a key Ukrainian city so rapidly that they left the bodies of their comrades in the streets, offering more evidence Tuesday of Moscow's latest military defeat as it struggles to hang on to four regions of Ukraine that it illegally annexed last week.
Meanwhile, Russia’s upper house of parliament rubber-stamped the annexations following “referendums” that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed as fraudulent.
Responding to the move, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy formally ruled out talks with Russia, declaring that negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin are impossible after his decision to take over the regions.
The Kremlin replied by saying that it will wait for Ukraine to agree to sit down for talks, noting that it may not happen until a new Ukrainian president takes office.
“We will wait for the incumbent president to change his position or wait for a future Ukrainian president who would revise his stand in the interests of the Ukrainian people,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Despite the Kremlin's apparent political bravado, the picture on the ground underscored the disarray Putin faces in his response to Ukrainian advances and attempts to establish new Russian borders.
Over the weekend, Russian troops pulled back from Lyman, a strategic eastern city that the Russians had used as a logistics and transport hub, to avoid being encircled by Ukrainian forces. The city's liberation gave Ukraine a key vantage point for pressing its offensive deeper into Russian-held territories.
Two days later, an Associated Press team reporting from the town saw at least 18 bodies of Russian soldiers still on the ground. The Ukrainian military appeared to have collected the bodies of their comrades after fierce battles for control of Lyman, but they did not immediately remove those of the Russians.
“We fight for our land, for our children, so that our people can live better, but all this comes at a very high price,” said a Ukrainian soldier who goes by the nom de guerre Rud.
Lyman residents emerged from basements where they had hidden during the battle and built bonfires for cooking. The city has had no water, electricity or gas since May. Residential buildings were burned. A few residents emerged on bicycles.
An 85-year-old woman, who identified herself by her name and patronymic, Valentyna Kuzmivna, recalled a recent explosion nearby.
“I was standing in the hall, about five meters away, when it boomed," she said. "God forbid, now I can’t hear well.”
The Russian forces launched more missile strikes at Ukrainian cities Tuesday as Kyiv's forces pressed their counteroffensives in the east and the south.
Several missiles hit Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, damaging its infrastructure and causing power cuts. Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said one person was killed and at least two others, including a 9-year-old girl, were wounded.
In the south, four civilians were wounded when Russian missiles struck the city of Nikopol.
After reclaiming control of Lyman in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces pushed further east and may have gone as far as the border of the neighboring Luhansk region as they advance toward Kreminna, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in its latest analysis of the combat situation.
On Monday, Ukrainian forces also scored significant gains in the south, raising flags over the villages of Arkhanhelske, Myroliubivka, Khreshchenivka, Mykhalivka and Novovorontsovka.
Despite the latest military gains, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Perebyinis called for the deployment of more weapons to Ukraine following the partial mobilization announcement by Russia last month.
In a video address to a conference in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Russia’s war against Ukraine on Tuesday, Perebyinis said the additional weapons wouldn't lead to an escalation but instead would help to end the war sooner.
“We need additional long-range artillery and ammunition, combat aircraft and armed vehicles to continue the liberation of the occupied territories,” the deputy minister said. “We need anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems to secure our civilians and critical infrastructure from the terrorist attacks on the Russian forces.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the military has recruited more than 200,000 reservists as part of a partial mobilization launched two weeks ago. He said that the recruits were undergoing training at 80 firing ranges before being deployed to the front lines in Ukraine.
Putin's mobilization order said that up to 300,000 reservists were to be called up, but it held the door open for an even bigger activation. It sparked protests in many areas across Russia and drove tens of thousands of men to flee Russia in a challenge to the Kremlin.
The Ukrainian successes in the east and the south came even as Russia moved to absorb four Ukrainian regions amid the fighting there.
The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, voted Tuesday to ratify treaties to make the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions part of Russia. The lower house did so on Monday.
Putin is expected to quickly endorse the annexation treaties.
Russia’s moves to incorporate the Ukrainian regions have been done so hastily that even the exact borders of the territories being absorbed were unclear.
In other developments, the head of the company operating Europe’s largest nuclear plant said Ukraine is considering restarting the Russian-occupied facility to ensure its safety as winter approaches.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Energoatom President Petro Kotin said the company could restart two of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’s reactors in a matter of days.
“If you have low temperature, you will just freeze everything inside. The safety equipment will be damaged,” he said.
Fears that the war in Ukraine could cause a radiation leak at the Zaporizhzhia plant prompted the shutdown of its remaining reactors. The plant has been damaged by shelling, prompting international alarm over the potential for a disaster.
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Adam Schreck reported from Kyiv.
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