Russia Ukraine war: New Zealand Government condemns ‘illegal annexations’
The New Zealand Government has “unequivocally” condemned Russia’s attempts to illegally annex the regions in Ukraine it currently occupies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia’s annexation of a swathe of Ukrainein a pomp-filled Kremlin ceremony overnight NZ time, promising Moscow would triumph in its “special military operation” against Kyiv.
His proclamation of Russian rule over 15 per cent of Ukraine has been roundly rejected by other Western countries and the United States and Britain have announced new sanctions.
To the shock of everyone, a desperate Putin has called up 300 000 reservists in his brutal and illegal war in the Ukraine.
I was one of the few pundits who at the beginning of the year said Putin would invade after the failed coup in Kazakhstan because Putin was thinking about legacy against the other great Russian leaders and overlaid with his own complex relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church and his personal Christianity alongside hard right nationalists who view the Ukraine as a historic buffer zone.
The West’s distribution of next generation weaponry with state of the art intelligence has given the Ukrainians an upper hand to not only stall the Russian invasion, but to also push back on previously occupied territory.
Trapped, desperate and needing to save face, Russia has annexed parts of the Eastern Ukraine using sham referendums and now placed that territory under its nuclear umbrella claiming an attack on any newly annexed Ukrainian land is an attack on Russia proper.
The economic damage he intends to wreck upon Europe is clear, his intentions however are still blurry.
Will this set back panic a desperate Putin?
Will he launch some terrible weapon to regain dominance?
We just don’t know because this whole legacy based aggression has been emotional rather than strategic.
The fear is that Putin might snap before a Palace coup can take him out.
Putin has been pushing for a new nuclear bunker since 2016.
He saw Dr Strangelove for the first time ever in 2017.
He had his new doomsday bunker finished last year.
His deep Orthodox Christian Faith makes him the kind of lunatic who would see baptism of nuclear fire as a way to purge the world of sin.
These are very dangerous games Putin is playing here.
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7 years of the Ukranian occupational government trying to murder Russian-speakers in those regions, hundreds of international observers who observed that the elections were far more legitimate than those held in s**thole countries like the USA, and the results are a ‘sham’?
That’s a pretty big cope
Putin is at his most dangerous right now.
I was watching the doco Icarus last night about the massive Russian doping programme in sport. And it echoed the situation with the apartment building bombings entirely. Support was waning, he and his ministers engineer a cohort wide testing scam before the Sochi Olympics. His domestic popularity was in the toilet and had been trending way down for ages. Russia wins hugely at Sochi and his popularity soars. He immediately invades Crimea on the back of that popularity.
So now we really have to worry because someone took out the pipeline (I was almost convinced it was the US backed lot) and we can see how that would benefit Putin in building the victim narrative to go alongside the pseudo referendum results. (Also effectively screws and weakens Europe) Combine this with the call up of 300,000 as nothing more than fodder to stop the Ukrainean advance until Winter sets in and I think we have to be prepared for things to get much worse.
Over the last 20 years, Putin has got his way over the West every time. He believes that the West are appeasers and it is only a case of coming up with a credible enough threat, alongside energy/economic pain to make the West stop supporting Ukraine. His popularity is in the toilet so we need to expect the worse from him.
Well said fantail.
The Putinists are pissed off because Ukraine is winning. Lyman is a huge victory. Putin’s days are numbered.
It was interesting to watch the reactions of Stoltenberg and Sullivan to Ukraine’s application for fast track entry into NATO. I do hope Zelensky took notice. The message is clear. Neither Nato as a block or Us independently are going to make a move that would commit them to directly confront Russia just to help Ukraine. In fact i expect that Zelensky’s application was specifically to test this out.
Once the protocol of legalising the absorption of the new territories into Russia ( under Russian law) the conduct of the special military operation is going to change considerably. I would expect that attacks on these territories from Nato armed Ukraine forces will be dealt with much more aggressively now, using methods that no longer attempt to avoid damage to infrastructure any more. Rail lines will be taken out and power where it helps the military objectives. though they will not endanger nuclear facilities. But I expect they will do far more to stop the supply of weapons coming into Ukraine from Europe and the US. Possibly taking out transport planes bringing it into Poland from US etc. And the air fields being used for this purpose. Also shipping where it is relevant . At least I expect an announcement from Russia to that effect in the next few days leaving NATO to decide whether to stop the supply or decide later what to do when a ship is sunk a transport plane is taken out of the air or an airfield in Poland is take out of commission .I guess that for diplomacy such a warning would best be conveyed privately to allow for an acquiescence without too much public humiliation.
D J S
You really are a wild fantasist David Stone. Do you really think that Russia would risk shooting down NATO transport aircraft? Anyway the Russian military is a rump of its former self and its capability much diminished.
If you read the submissions Putin made publicly to the US and Nato in December (20th I think) it is clear that they intend to secure their position in relation to the encroaching threats that Nato’s missile installations closer and closer to Moscow have been imposing.
I’m quite sure Putin and his country have the balls to do whatever it takes to regain the security that they once had before the NATO encroachment since the fall of the Berlin wall , and the steady abandonment of all the non proliferation and arms control treaties by the US over the last few years.
Anyone in a position of decision making who thinks Putin is bluffing about anything is a liability to the future of the planet.
D J S
Even if Putin is defeated. Ukraine is in ruins – Winning.
True but for Russia to be reintegrated in to world affairs will involve payment of reparations and trials and punishment for war crimes. Currently frozen Russian assets could be confiscated and passed on to Ukraine to help with rebuilding. If/when Russia is defeated on the battle field a percentage of their future oil and gas revenues would likely go to Ukraine until reparations were fulfilled. “No winners” except those countries that Russia is now too weak to invade. A depleted Russian military and Russian economy plus a strong enlarged Nato on Russia’s border plus a democratic free Ukraine still in existence surely will look like a loss to Russians. How much if any of the illegally occupied Ukranian territory Russia manages to hold on to remains to be seen but it is downhill for Russia from here until this war ends.
Great. Not only is this ad-hoc plan to control Russia wonderful, we still have to limit Chinese expansion for this truly well thought out and precise plan to work.
Need more cope-ium/sarcasm?
How do we claim Gazprom profits when Putin’s stated goal is to turn it off?
You can’t control someone like that who has the power to switch off all of Europes energy!!!
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