British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace appreciates the opportunity sending troops to help Ukraine in the event of Russian aggression as “very unlikely”. His words are quoted by Spectator.
Wallace noted that Ukraine is not a member of NATO and therefore has no guarantees of military support in the event of aggression against it. Wallace added that Kiev understands.
A similar statement was made earlier by US President Joe Biden. He said the US military and NATO had no obligation to defend Ukraine.
The New York The Times reports that the Pentagon has underestimated the number of Syrian civilians killed in the raids. The newspaper came to this conclusion after examining more than a thousand US Department of Defense documents.
At the same time, the newspaper cannot state the exact number of victims. According to official US statistics, 1,417 Syrian civilians were killed in the raids. Another 188 people fell victim to attacks in Afghanistan.
Newspapers point to errors in counting victims. It is also said that this was often done by the parties involved who allowed the raids.
Reuters writes, that British Brexit Secretary David Frost resigned because of Boris Johnson's administration.
Earlier, the Daily Mail had written about Frost's possible departure due to disappointment with the Conservatives' vision. The publication said he announced his decision to Johnson a week ago, but persuaded him to stay.
It is clarified that Frost is specifically dissatisfied with “Plan B” for coronavirus. This strategy includes the introduction of vaccine passports in the country. The politician also opposed tax increases and decarbonisation plans by 2050.
The Ukrainian Foreign The ministry demanded that Western countries reveal the nature of the sanctions that would be applied if a military conflict broke out between Moscow and Kiev. The head of the resort, Dmitry Kuleba, believes that the lack of specifics in the statements of Washington, London and Brussels forces the Russian authorities to question the seriousness of the West's intentions. The Ukrainian diplomat said this in an interview with the Washington Post.
Kuleba himself believes that disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT system would be a “grand” step. Despite the fact that the West considers this step problematic. And in Russia, they have already managed to develop and implement their own financial messaging system.
The Ukrainian diplomat also called on the United States and Great Britain not to look back in the European Union when deciding on sanctions. According to Kuleba, the EU has too close trade and energy ties with Russia and will offer “too soft sanctions” there.
If the West rejects the proposals Russia to security, then Moscow will go into a counter-threatening regime. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko spoke about this.
According to him, Moscow is now making it clear that it is ready to talk about “turning the military scenario or the military-technical scenario of confrontation into a political process.” p>
But if the Russian Federation has to switch to “this way of creating threats,” then it will be too late to ask Moscow, “why we made such and such decisions, why we deployed such systems there, why and why.”
“Soloviev Live” Grushko noted that the Russian Federation is based on the fact that NATO will not be able to discard Moscow's security guarantees in Europe. At the same time, Russia has enough technical capabilities to ensure its own military security.
Previously, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements between Russia, the United States and NATO on security guarantees. Russia has also called on NATO to abandon all military activities in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Russia's Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova said Russia expects to lead serious talks with the United States on proposed security projects … She recalled that the American side had received draft agreements between the Russian Fed and the United States on security guarantees. According to a foreign ministry spokesman, Washington explained the logic of the Russian approach and provided arguments in detail.
The US authorities have promised to respond to Russia's proposals on security guarantees next week. At the same time, some of the proposals were declared unacceptable.
Photo: Website of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
Ukrainian security forces fired on the territory of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic. It happened after 15 days of silence. As a result, one militia was killed. Another was injured.
In response, the LPR People's Militia opened fire on the positions of the Ukrainian security forces in Donbas, said Ivan Filiponenko, an official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic. According to preliminary data, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed as a result of the renewed fire. Another was injured.
In addition, he accused Kiev of deliberately destabilizing the situation in Donbas. Filiponenko claims that the escalation of the conflict is directly related to the further negotiations of the subgroups as well as the contact group for the settlement of the conflict in Donbas. They are scheduled for December 21-22.
Earlier, LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said that the military conflict in eastern Ukraine could begin in February next year, during the Winter Olympics.
December in Brussels during a trilateral meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikola Pašinjan, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and European Council President Charles Michel. Armenia has confirmed its commitment to build a railway on its territory. We recall that the railway with Azerbaijan and Turkey was terminated during the first war in Karabakh in the 1990s.
Photo: president.az
Today, the current level crossing in Armenia is maintained only with Georgia. However, direct rail communication with Russia through Georgia is also impossible, as the Yerevan-Tbilisi-Sukhum-Adler branch is blocked in Abkhazia due to the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Communication between the Russian Federation and Armenia takes place through the territory of Georgia and from there ferries across the Black Sea. This is, of course, inconvenient for both Russia and Armenia, but unblocking this railway line is only possible with Abkhazia's consent.
Aram Sargsyan, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Armenia, comments on the situation :
– Negotiations to unblock communication have been going on for a long time. But they could not agree, because the interests of the parties are the opposite. It is very advantageous for Armenia to unblock the railway via Georgia and Abkhazia to Russia. We need access to Russia. Then it would be possible to open the second road from Turkey: Kars-Gyumri, then Nachichevan and Azerbaijan.
But if we are talking about the fact that only the road connecting Turkey, Nachichevan and Azerbaijan is open, then this raises some concerns, as we find ourselves in a “Turkish sack”. The Turks on both sides will have the situation under control.
– In Soviet times, trains ran on the Yerevan-Baku and Yerevan-Tbilisi routes. The Russian Federation could be reached via both Georgia and Azerbaijan. Before Turkey announced the blockade of Armenia, the old road from Kars to Gyumri was in operation. Then the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku branch was built, which bypassed Armenia. But that is clearly not enough for them. The Turks are therefore working hard to open a corridor through the Armenian region of Syunik to connect Azerbaijan with Nachichevan. It is now being considered to open a road from Turkey, from Kars via Gyumri to Nakhichevan and then again through Armenian territory – the Syunik area – to Azerbaijan. In this case, Armenia has the opportunity to enter Iran.
In 1998, when I was an adviser to the President of Armenia, my group worked on a direct railway project that would transport European cargo through Ukraine, Russia, Abkhazia and Georgia, Armenia, Nachichevan to Iran and from there to the Gulf port. When Armenia submitted such a proposal, the project aroused great interest from all partners, including China. Because via Tehran it would be possible to go to Ashgabat and from there – the road to China. Then during the week, 14 foreign ambassadors came to my reception. Everyone was in favor, except Britain. At a meeting with me, the British ambassador asked if we would agree that this route would not lead through Russia, but through Istanbul. I said that we would agree if the railways in the direction of Russia operated in parallel. The program was stopped. The British managed to slow down this project.
– Because it does not want Russia's presence in the region.
– About the partial unblocking of the railway. At the same time, Armenia will have access to the Russian Federation via Azerbaijan. Today, it is impossible to imagine that a passenger train from Yerevan will be able to travel through the territory of Azerbaijan to Russia. This means that this is not the solution to our problem. Only the part of the road that must pass through Nakhichevan towards Iran remains. I don't know how safe it will be for us. We can say that this project is only beneficial for Turkey and Azerbaijan, because it allows them to implement their Panture plans. You know that the Treaty establishing the Union of Turkish States was signed in Istanbul, which includes 6 countries, including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. They need geographical unification and only Armenia stands in their way. This means opening a railway from Turkey to Azerbaijan. A new geopolitical pole is forming before our eyes – the Turkish world, which can destabilize the situation in a very large region.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev lamented that the European Union would allocate $ 2.6 billion to help Armenia, while Azerbaijan would receive only $ 140 million.
“The difference is about 20 times. Is it fair? No. Does it reflect the real needs of both countries? No. Even if we put aside the terrible destruction committed by the Armenian side in the liberated territories and look at the population of the countries, you can see a difference of more than five times, “Aliyev said during an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole. 24 Hours.
He called this distribution amazing. Aliyev also said he counted on an approach based on “common standards” and wanted the money to be allocated to Azerbaijan on the same terms and at the same rate as Armenia.
Earlier, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pasinjan and Aliyev, at the initiative of the French side, held a second meeting in Brussels.
& quot; The North Stream-2 “proved to be a geopolitical mistake for Berlin,” said Robert Habek, Germany's vice chancellor and minister for economics and climate protection. He said all EU countries had always opposed the construction of the pipeline. With the exception of Germany and Austria. > Now that the pipeline is under construction, but it is not yet clear whether it will be able to start working, Habek said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that this issue must be decided in accordance with European and national legislation.
According to the German Minister Nord Stream 2 must comply with the so-called unbundling rule, which means that resource companies are not allowed to transport them, but this rule has not been followed for the Russian oil pipeline.
Habek claims that under the old German government political pressure to resolve Nord Stream 2. However, it has not yet been put into operation.
Habek himself is a representative of the Soyuz-90/Green Party and has always been against the project.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has said before to delay the start-up of the Nord Stream pipeline. He called it not a political but a legal problem.
The German Federal Network Agency had previously announced that the decision on Joint Undertaking-2 would not be made until mid-next year. Agency chief Jozen Homann noted that the ministry had not yet received documents needed to continue motorway certification, which will continue once the channel operator provides them.
German Minister of Finance Christian Lindner commented on the delay in the launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
“The Federal Network Agency is studying the possibility of putting the pipeline into operation in accordance with European law,” Lindner said.
He noted that it was not known what the results of the research would be.
The German Federal Network Agency has previously announced that the decision on Joint Undertaking-2 will take place in the middle of next year at the earliest. Agency chief Jozen Homann noted that the ministry had not yet received the documents needed to continue highway certification. The process will continue after it is provided by the channel operator.
