Russia wants to change the rules of the world order

Dusseldorf According to US Chief of Staff Mark Milley, the war in Ukraine could only be the first in a series of major international conflicts. “We are now dealing with two world powers, China and Russia, both of which possess significant military capabilities and intend to fundamentally change the rules of the current world order,” he told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

The world is becoming more and more unstable. “The potential for significant international conflicts between great powers is increasing, not decreasing,” he warned.

Milley described Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine as the “greatest threat to peace and security in Europe, perhaps even in the world” that he had faced in his 42 years of service in the military.

The invasion “undermines the global peace and stability that my parents and a generation of Americans fought so hard to defend,” Milley said. The chief of staff stressed that he assumed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had planned the attack on Ukraine for a long time.

The Russian military, meanwhile, appears to be changing its plans in Ukraine. NATO is observing a clear stairway movement away from the capital, said the Alliance’s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg. The troops are therefore regrouped and re-armed.

Against this background, an intensified Russian offensive in the east and south of Ukraine is to be expected, warned Stoltenberg. Russia will try to take the entire Donbass and create a land bridge to the already occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

Stoltenberg currently sees no chance for a “substantive dialogue” with Russia. Russia is a country that blatantly violates international law, that uses military force against an independent sovereign nation like Ukraine, and that is responsible for atrocities.

At the same time, Stoltenberg emphasized that NATO must remain in contact with Russia. Russia is a neighbor and the relationship is also about issues such as risk reduction, transparency, conflict mitigation and arms control issues.

Stoltenberg also reported progress in strengthening the eastern flank. “We now have 40,000 soldiers under direct NATO command in the eastern part of the alliance,” he said. There were also hundreds of thousands of troops on high alert and hundreds of ships and planes.

NATO recently began building new battlegroups in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. In view of the Russian war against Ukraine, these are intended to further increase deterrence and defense capabilities.

Zelensky before the UN Security Council

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has again accused the Russian army of serious crimes. The atrocities against residents of the city of Bucha are not isolated cases. “The world has now seen what Russia did in Bucha, but the world has not yet seen what they did in other occupied cities and regions of our country,” he told the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday via video link .

“Unfortunately, Bucha is just one of many examples of what the occupiers did,” the Ukrainian president said. It is nothing other than the actions of terrorists and is the worst war crimes since World War II. Russia must be held accountable for this, Zelensky demanded

After the withdrawal of Russian troops from the north-west of the Ukrainian capital, shots of corpses on the streets of Bucha caused international horror. Ukraine blames Russian troops for the atrocities. They had occupied the small town until recently. Moscow denies the allegations and speaks of a staging, but without proof or evidence.

At the Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebensya again spoke of “unfounded allegations” against the Russian military, which “were not confirmed by any eyewitnesses”. However, according to an analysis by the New York Times, videos and satellite images from Bucha refute Moscow’s claims.

The embattled Ukrainian port of Mariupol is currently a “centre of hell,” said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths at the Security Council meeting. “For more than five weeks, the people of Mariupol have been fighting. It is well documented that Mariupol is a center of hell.”

Selenski accused the panel of failure. “Where is the Security Council? It is evident that the world’s central institution for protecting peace cannot function effectively.”

However, decisions by the Security Council are necessary for peace in Ukraine. He therefore proposes three possible solutions: proof that reform or change is possible, the exclusion of Russia, which as a permanent member can block any decision, or the complete dissolution of the council.

The entire United Nations also needs change, said Selenski. Among other things, he suggested a large “global conference” in Kyiv for a reform. “We must do everything in our power to hand over an effective UN to the next generation,” said the Ukrainian president. “Ukraine needs peace, Europe needs peace and the world needs peace.”

EU Commission wants import ban on coal

The EU Commission does not want to leave the atrocities in Bucha unanswered and has presented a proposal for a comprehensive package of new sanctions against Russia. According to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, it includes, among other things, an import ban on coal from Russia, a port ban on Russian ships and other trade restrictions. The 27 EU countries must now decide whether the sanctions will be imposed as proposed.

It is the first time that the EU has targeted Russia’s lucrative fossil fuel business with its sanctions. The EU is already working on additional sanctions, including oil imports, said von der Leyen. She didn’t mention natural gas.

The EU imports around 40 percent of its natural gas requirements from Russia. Germany and other countries have spoken out against an import ban on Russian natural gas. The consensus among the 27 EU countries was that these imports are not as easy to replace as coal and oil.

Other recent reports on the war:

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock supported the EU plans in principle, but called for a joint roadmap to completely phase out all fossil energy imports from Russia. The answer to the war crimes seen in Ukraine must be the fifth sanctions package, said the Greens politician.

Your party colleague and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck said that he considered further sanctions against Russia to be “urgently necessary” and referred to the ongoing consultations between the EU Commission and the EU states. “The atrocities of Bucha must not go unpunished.”
Therefore, he expects and wants “a sharp package of sanctions,” said Habeck. It is right that there is also talk of including coal in this package.

Medvedev prepares Russians for longer fights

From Russia there are still no signs of an imminent end to the war. Former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev prepared his country for a prolonged fight against Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has declared the goal of “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine, Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. “These difficult tasks cannot be accomplished quickly.”

One of the reasons given by Russia for the attack on Ukraine on February 24 was “denazification” of the country — an untenable pretext from the point of view of most experts.

Even more sharply than Putin in his public statements, Medvedev equated Ukraine with the National Socialist Third Reich. It wouldn’t be surprising if Ukraine suffered the same fate as the Third Reich, he wrote: “This is the way for such a Ukraine.” But the collapse could open the way for “an open Eurasia from Lisbon to Vladivostok.”

Experts were concerned about the statements made by the former head of state. “Medvedev believes that Russia is taking the first step towards creating a free Eurasia from Lisbon to Vladivostok in Ukraine,” commented Martin Aust, a historian of Eastern Europe from Bonn, on Twitter. “We must do everything to ensure that Ukraine and Europe are spared this.”

Similar to Medvedev, a comment by the state news agency Ria Novosti on Sunday questioned the right of Ukraine and Ukrainians to exist as a people.

Under the heading “What Russia Should Do With Ukraine,” the author called for generational re-education under Russian control. “Denazification will inevitably mean de-Ukrainization,” it said.
With agency material
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