Category Archives: European Union

European Union, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, United States

Russian troops continue to amass on the Ukrainian border…

UKRAINE

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said there are ‘record number’ of Russian troops on his country’s borders with Russia.

Speaking this week, Poroshenko said that the information came from NATO, US and EU sources as well as Ukrainian intelligence.

Reports of an increasing Russian presence on the border have been recurring since NATO commander Philip Breedlove warned last month of the risk of a return to heavy fighting in Eastern Ukraine. Kiev has repeatedly reported snap surges in violence by Russian backed rebels in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions during this time.

Most recently Ukraine’s defence forces complained of 540 violations of the ceasefire signed between Moscow, Kiev and the rebels in February, all in the space of just a week at the end of June.

As early as May, intelligence was portraying a mass build-up of troops and heavy weapons on the Russian side of the Ukraine-Russian border including tanks, rocket launchers and artillery.

Speaking about the current situation, Poroshenko said: ‘We have information that a record number of Russian armed forces have been stationed on the Ukrainian border.’

‘The evidence we have is not solely from our own intelligence sources, but we have confirmation from NATO and US lines as well as from EU states.’

Poroshenko recently visited some of the easternmost positions held by pro-Kiev forces in Donetsk region, including the port city Mariupol, the outskirts of which have sustained some of the most persistent attacks from pro-Russian separatists since February.

‘We have information about possible key targets of attacks and we regularly perform staff exercises,’ Poroshenko said. ‘We will defend our country. Today we have a completely different army compared with a year ago.’

The Ukrainian president did not give a precise number for how many Russian soldiers he believes are now on Ukraine’s border, but last month defence minister Stepan Poltorak estimated that there were 55,000.

Irrefutable evidence

The Prime Minister of Ukraine has claimed that Vladimir Putin is trying to ‘eliminate Ukraine’ as conflict continues between government-backed troops and rebels.

Russia has persistently denied supporting separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine with money and weaponry but Arseniy Yatsenyuk said there was irrefutable evidence of the presence of Russian fighters and equipment.

He has claimed ‘tens of thousands’ of soldiers and guerrillas were in Donetsk and Luhansk with Russian-supplied tanks and missiles.

‘Putin’s aim is to kill the Ukrainian project, just to eliminate Ukraine — I have no doubt,’ he said. ‘For Putin, Ukraine is the battlefield against the free world.’

Mr Yatsenyuk, who rose to his post after the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych in February last year, said he was ‘absolutely sure’ that MH17 was shot down by ‘Russian-led terrorists’, possibly with the help of Russian soldiers.

Ukraine is among countries including the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Malaysia calling for an international tribunal on the disaster that killed 298 people exactly a year ago.

The Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond supported the calls while offering his condolences to everyone affected by the disaster and promising the Government’s support for families of the 10 Britons who also died.

‘Justice must be delivered for the 298 innocent people who lost their lives,’ Mr Hammond said.

‘That requires an international tribunal, backed by a resolution binding all UN member states, to prosecute those responsible.

‘Any attempt to undermine this process would deprive the victims of justice and cannot be tolerated.’

A UN resolution would bind all member states to bring charges against whoever shot down MH17 but Russia is expected to use its veto on the Security Council to prevent the tribunal.

Speaking with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Mr Putin said it would be ‘premature and counterproductive’ before initial investigations were completed, according to a Kremlin statement.

Mr Rutte had said the move would give ‘the best guarantee of cooperation from all countries’ in seeking justice for the families of the victims.

On the day the Boeing 777 went down, a post attributed to a rebel leader claimed separatists had shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane in Donetsk.

The swiftly-deleted post, accompanied by a video of rising smoke, said: ‘We warned them – don’t fly in our sky.’

Separatist forces operating around the crash site in Hrabove have since denied any involvement but Russian rebel leader Igor Girkin has been named in a lawsuit seeking $900 million (£575 million) in damages for the families of 18 passengers – six of them British.

The Netherlands is leading the criminal investigation into the downing of MH17 as most of the passengers were Dutch and a final report on the cause of the crash is due to be released in October by the Dutch Safety Board.

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European Union, Government, National Security, NATO, Politics, Russia, United States

The Pentagon says Putin is ‘Playing with fire’ over nuclear threats…

NUCLEAR THREATS

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, addresses his military.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, addresses his military.

A senior Pentagon official has warned that Russia is ‘playing with fire’ when it suggested that it could use nuclear weapons to settle international disputes, and accused Moscow and Vladimir Putin of trying to intimidate NATO through such threats.

‘Anyone who thinks they can control escalation through the use of nuclear weapons is literally playing with fire,’ U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defence Robert Work told a House Armed Services subcommittee. ‘Escalation is escalation, and nuclear use would be the ultimate escalation.’

While Moscow has not issued any direct nuclear threats, Kremlin officials have made several references to their nuclear arsenal and announced the construction of 40 new nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, a move that Washington has denounced as ‘sabre-rattling.’

Leaked documents from a meeting between U.S. and Russian officials revealed that Russian officials discussed a ‘spectrum of responses from nuclear to non-military’ if NATO went ahead with its plans to enhance its military presence in the Baltic States.

Russia has also threatened several Baltic nations that they would be considered potential nuclear targets if they joined NATO’s missile defence program. In March, the Russian ambassador to Denmark warned that ‘Danish warships would be targets for Russia’s nuclear weapons,’ if the country joined the military alliance.

The Baltic States have seen a growing number of incursions and flyovers from Russian bombers and ships. Russian planes were intercepted over the Baltic Sea 10 times in the last week alone.

Mr Putin, in a March documentary on the annexation of Crimea, said he was prepared to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert.

Moscow’s recent military overtures were also condemned by the US: ‘Senior Russian officials continue to make irresponsible statements regarding its nuclear forces, and we assess that they are doing it to intimidate our allies and us,’ Mr Work said. ‘These have failed. If anything, they have really strengthened the NATO alliance solidarity.’

The statement from Russia comes shortly after NATO announced a major escalation of its own military presence in Eastern Europe, which would see thousands of vehicles and troops deployed across Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.

 

 

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Economic, Europe, European Parliament, European Union, Government, Politics, United States

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is proving controversial…

TTIP

Simmering tensions have surfaced within the European Parliament over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Simmering tensions have surfaced within the European Parliament over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Tensions have surfaced in the European Parliament over what could become the world’s biggest trade deal between Europe and the United States.

Jeering, booing and slow clapping were heard in the Strasbourg chamber after the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was suspended.

Members of the public have also been protesting against the deal, fearing it will hand more power to large corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a free trade deal between the United States and Europe that has been under negotiation for almost two years. An agreement would see the dawn of the world’s biggest free trade zone, shaping the rules governing a quarter of all global trade.

It aims to cut red tape, making it easier to import and export goods, as well as to invest and set up new businesses abroad. The European Commission predicts that it would boost the size of the EU economy by €120bn and the US economy by €95bn by 2027. Supporters of the deal say these savings would filter back to individuals, who would also benefit from cheaper goods and greater choice.

Critics fear, however, that it will undermine democracy in Europe and the US by favouring the rights of large corporations and preventing governments from regulating in the public interest. The Corporate Europe Observatory, a research and campaign group, claims that 92 per cent of 560 lobby encounters with the commission have come from private sector companies, while just four per cent have come from public interest groups.

Campaigners in Europe think EU regulations on areas such as food safety, employment rights and the environment could be watered down. ‘TTIP is a huge threat to hard-fought-for standards for the quality and safety of our food, the sources of our energy, workers’ rights and our privacy,’ says a Green Party spokesperson. For example, it fears that by harmonising food standards, the UK would be forced to allow chemically washed poultry, livestock treated with growth hormones, and genetically modified crops – which are all allowed in the US. More than two million people have signed an online petition against the deal, describing it as a ‘threat to democracy, the environment, consumers and labour standards’.

Opponents say the guarantee of market access effectively outlaws state monopolies, which could pose a risk to government-run services such as the NHS. Critics have serious concerns about transparency and a clause called the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), which they claim would allow corporations to sue governments in private. 38 Degrees, an activist group campaigning against the deal, says its details are being ‘worked out in secret’ and will allow big corporations to take governments to court behind closed doors.

EU officials behind the negotiations insist TTIP would uphold current EU standards and leave governments free to run public services as they wish. Negotiators are being ‘as transparent as possible’ and have published fact sheets explaining every chapter of the TTIP, they say. Negotiators also want to tighten up existing ISDS regulation for settling disputes between foreign firms and governments, with public access to hearings. But judging by the ongoing campaigns against TTIP, it appears many don’t entirely trust the EU’s claims.

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