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(CNN)A twenty-year veteran of Russia's diplomatic service announced his resignation Monday in protest against his country's war on Ukraine, in a rare public protest by a Russian official, multiple media outlets reported.
Boris Bondarev, a diplomat posted to Russia's mission to the United Nations in Geneva, posted a statement on a LinkedIn account condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and criticizing the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for complicity in what he described as an an "aggressive war" -- language that is proscribed in Russia under wartime censorship laws.
"For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on February 24 of this year," Bondarev wrote, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine.
"The aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine, and in fact against the entire Western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society in our country," Bondarev wrote.
Veteran US statesman Henry Kissinger has urged the West to stop trying to inflict a crushing defeat on Russian forces in Ukraine, warning that it would have disastrous consequences for the long term stability of Europe.
The former US secretary of state and architect of the Cold War rapprochement between the US and China told a gathering in Davos that it would be fatal for the West to get swept up in the mood of the moment and forget the proper place of Russia in the European balance of power.
Dr Kissinger said the war must not be allowed to drag on for much longer, and came close to calling on the West to bully Ukraine into accepting negotiations on terms that fall very far short of its current war aims.
“Negotiations need to begin in the next two months before it creates upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome. Ideally, the dividing line should be a return to the status quo ante. Pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself,” he said.
Russia keeps Crimea and withdraws to the 2014 borders. After what they have experienced I don't think the Ukrainians will accept anything less. For sake if international security...Putin must not be allowed a victory. Russia will only invade again. What Kissinger seems to be calling for is similar to the annexation of the Sudetenland in 1939. How did that work out?? Exactly what is more dangerous to world security here?? Also....we need to accept Ukraine's Free Agency here regardless of what they choose....this is their call....not anybody else's.
The Prime Minister of Estonia made this very clear in a NY Times Op Ed
I’m the Prime Minister of Estonia. Putin Can’t Think He’s Won This War.
Thanks for posting this, but I don't see any way to avoid chaos in the near future. Russia and Ukraine are important grain sources for a lot of the world - places like Egypt, who need a constant supply, every year. And they provided significant energy, too.
But Russia chose to go the route of war (OK. "Special Operation"). It is their own paranoia and greed that will destroy them. They simply could not force themselves to believe that no one was ever going to invade.
It will be several seasons before farmers in those countries are able to plant, harvest and export as usual. There will be hunger and even starvation in those areas which have always been dependent on imported food. And the onus is entirely on Russia.
Just how long is the USA expected to fund this War? It is now 4 months into this Invasion. There seems to be no effort at all in ending the War. Maybe some thoughts on it but no action to end it. Billions of dollars have been sent to Ukraine and there is no end in sight. More and more billions will be asked for and sent over. While the COL here in the USA has skyrocketed, and the shortages of supplies for this that and everything is so out of control. I just don't see how its possible to keep this up, because its obvious far to many Americans are not making it. Americans can't afford outrageous increases in thier rents, gas, food, insurance, taxes. Virtually everything is so out of control in price. Something is going to collapse I can feel it. Yet there is a very noticeable complacency to the seriousness of the situation by the Gov't, as well as some Americans.
I would love the seriously messed up Federal Gov't to explain to Americans now and answer my question. How the Hell long are we suppose to sit back, and tolerate Billions of dollars from the taxes we are paying to fund yet another War? With no accountability from the US Gov't. While Americans themselves are struggling and nothing at all is being done about it. I have never seen in all my years how seriously messed up life in America has become. Yes most definitely something is going to give this can't go on.
Just how long is the USA expected to fund this War? It is now 4 months into this Invasion. There seems to be no effort at all in ending the War. Maybe some thoughts on it but no action to end it. Billions of dollars have been sent to Ukraine and there is no end in sight. More and more billions will be asked for and sent over. While the COL here in the USA has skyrocketed, and the shortages of supplies for this that and everything is so out of control. I just don't see how its possible to keep this up, because its obvious far to many Americans are not making it. Americans can't afford outrageous increases in thier rents, gas, food, insurance, taxes. Virtually everything is so out of control in price. Something is going to collapse I can feel it. Yet there is a very noticeable complacency to the seriousness of the situation by the Gov't, as well as some Americans.
I would love the seriously messed up Federal Gov't to explain to Americans now and answer my question. How the Hell long are we suppose to sit back, and tolerate Billions of dollars from the taxes we are paying to fund yet another War? With no accountability from the US Gov't. While Americans themselves are struggling and nothing at all is being done about it. I have never seen in all my years how seriously messed up life in America has become. Yes most definitely something is going to give this can't go on.
Just how long is the USA expected to fund this War? It is now 4 months into this Invasion. There seems to be no effort at all in ending the War...............
How does one end an invasion? Surrender?
Many people believe that's what the Russians expected, but what then? Russia has demonstrated there is no end to their greed. Being rich in oil/gas as well as food and being a part of the world economy was not enough for them. They wanted complete control of the Black Sea ports. Russian actions in the past - and even now - show their willingness to use food and fuel as a weapon, and now they want to arm themselves further by acquiring more of what they have.
There is no intelligent way to stop them except by defeating them. The most intelligent way to defeat them is economically. They will be permanently weakened by this war and the world will never have to kowtow to Russian demands again.
The US budget is 6,000 Billion dollars. 40 Billion isn't going to hurt us.
There have been ironies during the course of Russia's special military operation. One of them, of course, was how quickly supporters of Ukraine believed and propagated outright lies ("ghost of Kiev") because those mendacious claims reflected what they wanted to be true.
Another irony is that some posters on C-D like a chorus condemn Russia while boldly promulgating the righteousness of the current Ukrainian government while ignoring the thorough corruption and filth and rot that many who hold significant positions in Ukraine today embody.
Yet another irony is that claim, likewise by certain C-D posters, that Russian statements are propaganda and that by default, posters like myself who have steadfastly stuck by the facts and supported Russia's special military operation are "Russian propagandists" and even "communists" and "Russian bots." Yet these very C-D posters fail to grasp that the recent Azovstal victory by Russia, where hundreds of Azov fighters surrendered (after having sworn to fight to the last drop of blood of the last combatant) is not a "defeat" but an "evacuation."
The irony here is that in the days of the Soviet Union, the publication "Pravda" was notorious for distorting facts with curious headlines. Yet here, Americans who were born and raised in the Land Of The Free and The Home Of The Brave are accepting the most shamelessly Pravda-esque lies about the Russian victory at the Azovstal steel works plant with the eagerness of the most fanatically sincere and convicted "true believers" among the old cadre of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
I have debated with, jousted with, and shown fact after fact after fact to other posters here, and yet again in my long years, I see that people will oftentimes simply not be moved by facts.
I can accept that. No one wants to admit to being wrong.
I do wonder though. If people could have been wrong - and they were - about Azovstal, might they be wrong on other things?
Posters here keep writing that Russia is losing and that Russia will lose, that Russia's military is a "laughingstock," that Russia will suffer losses, that the Ukrainians will win.
But if the ostensibly mighty and powerful and able Ukrainians got encircled and lost at Azovstal, then how will they beat back a larger and stronger and better-equipped army?
How will the Ukrainians expel the Russians given the latter have already achieved and are on their way to achieving further encirclements of Ukrainians en route to the total and thorough liberation of Donbass?
Just days ago, the former campaign manager of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign admitted under oath in a courtroom that Hillary personally authorized the Russia-Trump collusion narrative. For more than half a decade, I debated with people (and lost friends and severed relationships with relatives in the process) who with every fiber of their beings were convinced Trump/Russia was truth, not fiction.
Now, they are nowhere to be seen, as no only did the Mueller probe reveal no collusion, but people from the Hillary camp are admitting Hillary was aware and on it from the start.
In the same way, is there any chance any of you pro-Ukraine posters will see one day that you were deceived?
As it is.
That which was hidden will be revealed, and the corruption, lies, deceptions, and crimes of the Maidan usurpers and their Nazi-like minions will come to light. Already, YouTube has footage of Azov's Mariupol quarters, with images of Hitler, with swastikas, with paraphernalia praising and glorifying Nazi Germany. Yet the MSM and by extension, C-D posters who follow it claim the Russian claim that there are Nazi elements in Ukraine is a lie (in part because Zelensky is a Jew).
Oh well.
Time will reveal all, as was the case with Clinton and Russiagate.
Russia is on its way to victory, and victory will be Russia's.
...........Another irony is that some posters on C-D like a chorus condemn Russia while boldly promulgating the righteousness of the current Ukrainian government.....
I have actually not noticed that.
Most people are more like me and simply condemn Russia, with no real feelings one way or the other about Ukraine.
So you made it up, just so your pro-Russian stand had more legs.
Nice try.
Just how long is the USA expected to fund this War? It is now 4 months into this Invasion. There seems to be no effort at all in ending the War.
As long as the vast majority of Americans support it.....which they do....and it shows no signs of abating.....both...left and right.
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