Vital for global security to revive & prioritise Aotearoa’s nuclear-free & independent foreign policy — support UN Charter and international law
Submission on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy Assessment 2022, from Kay Weir, the Pacific Institute of Resource Management (PIRM)
PO Box 12125, Wellington — pirmeditor@gmail.com
To Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand
12 October 2022
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Ministry’s Foreign Policy Strategic Assessment for the coming years.
The Pacific Institute of Resource Management Inc, (PIRM), based in Wellington was founded in 1984 to promote principles of ecology, equity, peace and justice. We have published a journal, Pacific Ecologist, and made submissions to government on various issues, including to Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade. In 2013 we published Pacific Ecologist Issue 22, WHY IT’S VITAL TO RID THE WORLD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS & WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.
We congratulate the Ministry for this initiative. It could help create a more tolerant, diverse, inclusive welcoming society, as Minister Mahuta suggests, rooted in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, our founding document. Principles of partnership and mutual respect are key values for the whole world. Perhaps there’s an analogy in the struggles for justice which Maori faced and still do as a result of Britain’s uninvited colonization of Aotearoa, and the polarized conflicts and wars today, now threatening all life on Earth with nuclear annihilation. Russia’s existential security concerns have been recklessly denied by US and NATO countries. Below we address some aspects the Ministry defines for comments on Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Foreign Policy, in particular:
“What do you consider Aotearoa New Zealand’s foreign policy needs to do, or do differently: — to promote the kind of world we want to see, and — protect and advance our interests in the world?”
“What are Aotearoa/ New Zealand’s greatest assets in our international engagement?”
Nuclear annihilation danges from Ukraine war: What Aotearoa can do: non-partisan, accurate information vital
Awareness of the existential dangers of nuclear weapons for life on Earth has diminished amongst Western governments and populations. Covid-19 with its health and economic impacts diverted attention. Even Aotearoa/New Zealand’s government with its decades-long, life-protecting, nuclear-free policy and history has been distracted. In the past, Aotearoa/New Zealand has withstood negative responses from our allies over our opposition to nuclear-testing in the Pacific, and when we rejected having America’s nuclear ships in our ports. Our French “allies” who experimented with nuclear-weapons testing in French Polynesia, criminally bombed the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing a photographer on board at the time.
Our country has a wonderful history, appreciated by millions worldwide for opposing the destructive, unethical American, British and French nuclear testing experiments in the Pacific which killed thousands of Pacific Islanders, bringing long-lasting dangerous pollution to reefs in French Polynesia. Studies on the effects of America’s nuclear-weapons experiments on the Marshall Islands have also shown that 60 years after the tests, the soil was still contaminated with cesium, so unable to produce healthy food (see Dr Nancy Pollock’s article Nuclear Contamination of Food in the Pacific: Lifting the Veil of Secrecy in Pacific Ecologist issue 22) . Our country is a rare country with nuclear-free legislation and a Disarmament Minister.
Today the world faces clear and present dangers of nuclear annihilation arising from the Ukraine war. When it comes to conflict and wars, it’s vital to have accurate information, untainted by bias or a partisan approach, especially as this conflict involves the major nuclear weapons-possessing countries clashing, it can easily result in obliteration of life on Earth as we know it. To prevent catastrophe, objective, careful analysis with the reason and clarity of the due processes of law approach is essential.
An example of lack of balance and honesty is the US/UK/EU allies’ strident condemnations and sanctioning of Russia for its 8 months intervention in Ukraine as being the greatest act of invasive violence the world has seen. The historic record shows the US-led Western allies, are undeniably the greatest violators of human rights and international law this century in their 20 years of attacks and invasions of several countries since 2001. Our Western allies have refused to acknowledge their war crimes even threatening the International Criminal Court in its efforts to investigate their war crimes. Several countries destroyed by US-led NATO attacks and invasions are ignoring the West’s condemnations of Russia and the sanctions which are rebounding on Western countries themselves. SEE BELOW — WEST’S 20 YEARS OF ILLEGAL WARS BASED ON FALSE PRETEXTS KILL MILLIONS & FOLLOWING SECTIONS
Another example of Western countries’ deceit is that Ukraine and its Western allies rush to judgement with much publicized war crimes allegations against Russia, devoid of any tested evidence or due lawful process. SEE BELOW FALSE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST RUSSIA & TORTURE OF JULIAN ASSANGE This dangerously stokes the war, promoting racist, Russophobic sentiments with no basis in reality. It obscures the truth about the origins of the war and ensures there’s no diplomatic solution to ending the conflict. SEE BELOW: ORIGINS OF UKRAINE CONFLICT ERASED IN WESTERN NARRATIVE — also WEST’S CENSORING MEDIA OMITS ORIGINS OF UKRAINE CRISIS.
Our allies continually supply Kiev with advisers and enormous amounts of long-range weapons that can now reach Russia. This is a boon for the Pentagon’s weapons manufacturers, but not for peace and security. Western populations are also being taught by Western propaganda to hate Russians. All this prevents rational discussion and peaceful settlement of the war and increases risks of nuclear exchanges by accident or deliberately. The current conflict could have been resolved months ago if reason had been applied. Aotearoa/New Zealand with its nuclear-free policy, history and Disarmament and Arms Control Minister has a unique mandate from our Parliament to raise these issues and their threat to global security in international forums.
Sadly, the present Government pushed through a Sanctions bill in two hours with no historical analysis or informed debate, condemning Russia for its “unprovoked aggression” on Ukraine. Former Disarmament Minister and international lawyer Matt Robson pointed this out in the NZ Herald on 9 March, 2022 — “No debate on the issues of war and peace — a rush to judgement”.
Accidental nuclear releases can even occur during the frequent military exercises of Western allies aimed at Russia * * * * * * *. Our Disarmament Minister could draw attention to these dangers but needs to be informed on the dangers of American/NATO nuclear weapons catalyzing a nuclear conflict. “At no time, including the Cuban missile crisis, have we been closer to the abyss of nuclear war”, says Dr Helen Caldicott, medical doctor and renowned -nuclear disarmament campaigner. Raising our country’s respected voice in international forums to draw attention to the ever present potential for nuclear war in Europe because of US-led NATO’s aggressive activities is now a vital priority for the security of the entire world.
America’s culture of continual wars of agression undermines its credibility
China is also threatened by the West’s nuclear weapons with America’s provocative military exercises. Aircraft and ships regularly buzz Taiwan which is officially part of China. It only takes one mistake for a nuclear exchange to happen even accidentally.
Although our government looks to America for advice as an ally, the fact is America is the most war-mongering country in the world. Professor David Vine documents this in a recent book The United States of War: “The United States has been fighting wars constantly since invading Afghanistan in 2001. This non-stop warfare is far less exceptional than it might seem: the United States has been at war or invaded other countries almost every year since independence.”
In this book, Professor Vine traces the pattern of bloody conflict from Columbus’s 1494 arrival in Guantanamo Bay through the 250-year expansion of a global U.S. empire. Drawing on historical and first-hand anthropological research in fourteen countries and territories, he shows how U.S. leaders across generations have locked the United States in a self-perpetuating system of permanent war by constructing the world’s largest-ever collection of foreign military bases, a global matrix that makes offensive interventionist wars more likely. Beyond exposing the profit-making desires, political interests, racism, and toxic masculinity underlying the country’s relationship to war and empire. The long history of U.S. the military from today’s multi-trillion–dollar wars to the pervasive violence and militarism in everyday U.S. life. The book concludes by confronting the catastrophic toll of American wars, which have left millions dead, wounded, and displaced, and offers proposals for how we can end the fighting.
New U.S. ‘Mini-nukes’ latest threat to world security
Right now, America’s new so-called “useable Mini-nukes,” which they have been developing since 2015, are being deployed to Britain and European countries, including in Poland and Romania on Russia’s border. (SEE BELOW: NEW RISKS WITH US ‘MINI-NUKES IN EUROPE FOR NUCLEAR FIRST STRIKE) These are increasingly dangerous violations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. More than ever before Aotearoa’s voice against nuclear catastrophe should be being heard. Threats to both Russia and China with aggressive strategies of the US/UK-NATO allies don’t just threaten Russia and China’s security they threaten the entire world.
Non-expansino of NATO & implementing Minsk agreement would legally have averted Ukraine war: instead West foments wars
Dr Jeffrey Sachs, President of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, says Western political leaders have failed to be honest about the causes of escalating global conflicts. The overwrought fear of Russia and China is sold to a Western public through manipulation of the facts. “The relentless Western narrative that the West is noble while Russia and China are evil, is simple-minded and extraordinarily dangerous. It is an attempt to manipulate public opinion, not to deal with very real and pressing diplomacy. Europe should reflect on the fact that non-enlargement of NATO and implementation of the Minsk II agreements would have averted this awful war in Ukraine.” Dr Sachs says the world is on the edge of nuclear catastrophe with both Russia over Ukraine, and China over Taiwan. NATO has been threatening Russia for decades expanding nuclear weapons to countries bordering Russia against Russia’s security and sovereignty concerns.
“The essential narrative of the West is built into US national security strategy. The core U.S. idea is that China and Russia are implacable foes, “attempting to erode American security and prosperity.” These countries are, according to the US, “determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence.” The irony is that since 1980 the U.S. has initiated 15 overseas wars of choice (including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Panama, Serbia, Syria, and Yemen), while China has been in none, and Russia only in one (Syria), beyond the former Soviet Union. The US has military bases in 85 countries, China in 3, and Russia in 1 (Syria) beyond the former Soviet Union.
See The West’s Dangerously Simple-Minded Narrative About Russia and China by Jeffrey Sachs
Prime Minister admonishes Russia: Unware of U.S. first strike policy & other US threats to Russia
Prime Minister Ardern recently admonished the Russia Federation and President Putin at the United Nations General Assembly conference, accusing Russia’s President of threatening to use nuclear weapons. This is not what other people heard him say. Russian President Vladimir Putin has only ever stated that Moscow would respond in the event of aggression against Russia or its allies using weapons of mass destruction or when the existence of the country’s survival is threatened. Russia does not have a nuclear first-strike policy. However, America does.
It’s clear our Prime Minister is not informed about America’s actual, real nuclear threats against Russia. For example, Roger Wicker, member of America’s Armed Services Committee, interviewed on Fox News in December, 2021, said he did not rule-out a direct military intervention, that is, using nuclear weapons first. America’s policy of preventative nuclear war has been threatening Russia and the world for decades.
Another worrying factor for the Prime Minister and our Disarmament Minister to consider is that in 2019, David Swanson, an American author who works with World Beyond War, revealed that America officially considers so called “low-yield” nuclear weapons as “useable.” “This week 74 years ago, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were each hit with a single nuclear bomb that had the power of a third to a half of what America’s Nuclear Posture Review calls a low-yield or “usable” nuclear weapon. These so called “usable” nukes are for firing from submarines based nearby.
The new “Mini’s Nukes” are now about to be deployed to the UK and several countries in Europe. This development doubtless alarms Russia, and violates the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But few people know about it. The objectives are to threaten Russia with a nuclear first-strike, which is blatantly inhuman and threatens not just Russia but the entire world. FOR MORE ON THIS SEE BELOW — NEW RISKS WITH US ‘MINI-NUKES IN EUROPE FOR NUCLEAR ‘FIRST STRIKE’
Considering these new “useable mini-nukes” are being deployed to the UK, it’s concerning that Liz Truss, new UK Prime Minister, said this year that she would be prepared to use nuclear weapons. This is concerning especially as America has been practising staging nuclear attacks on Russia. In February 2020 the US staged a “limited” nuclear battle against Russia in a war game!* It’s no wonder that Russia presented security treaties to the US and NATO in December 2021, though they were rejected.
President Putin expresses alarm at U.S. weapons in Poland & Romania – 5 minutes to Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the annual expanded meeting of Russia’s Defence Ministry Board at the National Defence Control Centre 21/12/2021. He said: “It is extremely alarming that elements of the US global defence system are being deployed near Russia. The Mk 41 launchers, which are located in Romania and are to be deployed in Poland, are adapted for launching Tomahawk strike missiles. If this infrastructure continues to move forward, and if US and NATO missile systems are deployed in Ukraine, their flight time to Moscow will be only 7–10 minutes, or even five minutes for hypersonic systems. This is a huge challenge for us, for our security. In this context, as you are aware, I invited the US President to start talks on the drafting of concrete agreements. Incidentally, during our conversation he actually proposed appointing senior officials to oversee this sphere. It was in response to his proposal that we drafted our proposals on precluding the further eastward expansion of NATO and deployment of offensive strike systems in countries bordering Russia.
As you are aware, we have sent the drafts of relevant agreements to our American colleagues and the NATO leadership. “We need long-term legally binding guarantees. Well, we know very well, even legal guarantees cannot be completely fail-safe, because the United States easily pulls out of any international treaty that ceases to be interesting to them as was the case with the ABM and Open Skies treaties. However, we need at least something, at least a legally binding agreement rather than just verbal assurances.”
US AND NATO REJECT RUSSIA’S EXISTENTIAL SECURITY CONCERNS
On 17 December 2021 Russia presented two draft security agreements, one to America, the other to NATO.
1. Treaty Between United States of America and the Russian Federation on security guarantees 17/12/2021
2. Agreement on measures to ensure the security of The Russian Federation & member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 17/12/2021.
Had America and NATO given serious consideration to these treaties, the world would be a much safer place now. But they didn’t respond for weeks, and then rejected Russia’s genuine existential concerns as if there was nothing to be concerned about. There’s a cultivated, arrogant blindness in US/UK/NATO countries which for decades disrespected and disregarded Russia’s legitimate concerns, threatening both Russian and global security. The good advice from the Christian gospel: “Do unto others as you would want them to do to unto you”, is certainly not the script Western countries follow as there many wars of aggression this century and last century show. Aotearoa/New Zealand has a mandate, with its renowned history of supporting nuclear disarmament in the Pacific, to challenge America and NATO’s continuing threats to Russia, world peace and security in their violation of international law and the NPT in Europe. — SEE TREATY ON NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION AND FOLLOWING SECTIONS
US dismantles key security treaties
America has also created an unstable security environment in the world by withdrawing from key nuclear treaties that helped keep the world safe. In 2002, causing consternation for Russia and China
*the U.S. unilaterally walked out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which it negotiated with Russia in 1972.
*the US repeatedly rejected offers from Russia and China for a UN Treaty to keep weapons out of space and withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty.
*The US rejected Russia’s 2009 proposal for a treaty to ban cyberwarfare, after America boasted it destroyed Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity with Israel using the Stuxnet virus.
*In 2020, the US withdrew from the Intermediate Nuclear Force agreement made with Russia in 1987, which limits nuclear warheads and missiles
* In 2020, the US left the nuclear deal it had negotiated with Iran, and announced it would not meet with Russia to discuss renewal of the Strategic Arms Control Treaty (START). This is now in the process of being restored but obstructed by US sanctions against Russia which prevent the treaties objectives being met by both parties. All these security treaties and plans undermined by America were to enable fulfilling the disarmament promise of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear weapons.
America only country in world to deliberately unleash nuclear weapons on civilians–twice!
It should not be forgotten than America is the only country in the world to deliberately, calculatedly unleash nuclear weapons on civilians in cities, not once, but twice, days apart. This happened at the end of World War 2 when Japan had been extensively bombed by America and was already defeated. The 14 kiloton atomic bomb “Little Boy”, dropped by America on 6 August, 1945, on the city of Hiroshima, killed 140 thousand people instantly. Countless tens of thousands more died in agony during the weeks and months after the explosion. The bomb that destroyed Nagasaki with similar devastation was dropped three days later.
“To put this into perspective, writes Matthew Ehret, “one modern U.S. Ohio Class Submarine travelling in the waters of China’s back yard carries 24 Trident missiles. Each Trident missile can carry up to 8 nuclear warheads and each warhead utilizing thermonuclear technology packs the equivalent of 475 kilotons of TNT. When all warheads contained on one Trident II missile are added together, a force 253 times more powerful than the bomb that annihilated Hiroshima is unleashed.” Humanity at Crossroads: Cooperation or Extinction by Matthew Ehret
Peace & Reconciliation Commission to reveal causes of US/Russia conflict — atomic bomb could have been under UN supevision
Alice Slater, distinguished adviser to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and on the Committee of World Beyond War, wrote in 2017: “if at the catastrophic end of World War 2, US President Truman had agreed with the proposal of Stalin, the Soviet Union leader, to turn the atomic bomb over to the UN under international supervision, the whole nuclear arms race might have been avoided. But Truman insisted on the US retaining control of the technology so Stalin proceeded to develop the Soviet bomb.”
Slater suggests a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is needed to reveal the causes and provocation of tensions between the US and Russia. “Russia which lost 27 million people to the Nazi onslaught, may have a better understanding of the horrors of war. …”The war on terror is a recipe for more terrorism…The US sows death and destruction around the world. US arms manufacturers with billions of dollars at stake have corrupted our politics, our media, academia, Congress. US public opinion is manipulated to support war and ‘blame it on Russia.’ Time for Truth & Reconciliation for the US & Russia by Alice Slater
Origins of Ukraine conflict erased in Western narrative: importance of accurate information — Kiev kills civilians for 8 years – now uses US/NATO/NZ weapons for this
Our allies, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and NATO countries, are ramping up the Ukraine conflict, extensively condemning and sanctioning Russia for its Ukraine intervention on February 24. Yet Russia’s Special Military Operation was in response to a request for help from civilians in the long-suffering south-east Donbass regions who were confronted with a large force of Kiev’s military assembled by mid-February 2022 ready to attack the region and its people. Instead of finding lgitimate, available ways to end the conflict, our allies are providing more and more long-range weapons which can even reach into Russia, and they train new recruits to fight in the war.
Even Aotearoa/New Zealand has sent weapons and our military to the U.K. to train recruits to fight for Kiev. There appears to be no understanding in our government or military that by sending arms to the Kiev regime, our country is effectively aiding Kiev to kill civilians in the Donbass region which it has been doing since 2014, an appalling state supported conflict killing civilians for 8 years, against civilized human rights norms.
Former UN Human Rights Rapporteur and Professor of Law in Geneva Alfred de Zayas reported in January 2022: ”There would be no conflict in Ukraine today if Barack Obama, Victoria Nuland and several European leaders had not destabilized the democratically elected government of Viktor Yanukovych and organized a vulgar coup d’état to install Western puppets. Bottom line: Western interference in the internal affairs of other States can backfire, and the culture of cheating and deceit, we continue to practice renders it impossible to reach sustainable solutions. The UN Charter, the only existing “rules-based international order,” has the necessary mechanisms to resolve our differences on the basis of principles of sovereign equality of States and self-determination of peoples….Until the deliberately anti- Russian coup d’état of February 2014, Ukrainians and Russian-Ukrainians lived side by side in relative harmony. The Maidan 2014 coup brought with it Russophobic elements, exacerbated by systematic war propaganda and incitement to hatred against Russians, both prohibited by article 20 of the ICCPR.”
A Culture of Cheating: On the Origins of the Crisis in Ukraine by Alfred De Zayas.
Is Ukraine’s government legitimate?
Jacques Baud, distinguished geopolitical analyst, former Swiss intelligence expert, wrote in August 2022: “The way we understand crises determines the way we solve them. Cheating with the facts leads to disaster. That is what is happening in Ukraine.”
Hidden Truth about the War in Ukraine by Jacques Baud
Baud documents the history: “Russians still see the regime change that occurred in 2014 as illegitimate, as it was not done through constitutional processes and had no support from a large part of Ukraine’s population. Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon’s National Security Advisor, noted that the European Union “helped turn a negotiation into a crisis. What happened later involved ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazis groups coming from the Western part of the country. Violence erupted and the government withdrew, after signing an agreement with the rioters for new elections. But this was quickly forgotten. “It was nothing less than a coup d’état, led by the United States with support of the European Union, and carried out without any legal basis, against a government whose election had been qualified by the Organisation for Security in Europe as ‘transparent and honest,’ having “offered an impressive demonstration of democracy.”
Baud quotes George Friedman, president of the American geopolitical intelligence platform STRATFOR, as saying in an interview:” Russia defines the event that took place at the beginning of this year [ February 2014] as a coup organized by the US. And as a matter of fact, it was the most blatant [coup] in history.”
A telephone conversation between Victoria Nuland, then Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, and Geoffrey Pyatt, then U.S. ambassador to Kiev, revealed by the BBC, shows the Americans themselves selected the members of the future Ukrainian government, in defiance of the Ukrainians and the Europeans. This conversation is famous thanks to Nuland’s recorded comment: “F*** the EU!”
Kiev regime bans speaking the Russian language
Jacques Baud goes on to state “The Atlantic Council, despite being strongly in favor of NATO, was quick to note that the Maidan revolution had been hijacked by certain oligarchs and ultra-nationalists. It noted that reforms promised by Ukraine had not been carried out and Western media stuck to a ‘black and white’ narrative. The coup d’état was not unanimously supported by Ukraine’s people, either in substance or form. It was the work of a minority of ultra-nationalists from Western Ukraine (Galicia), who did not represent the whole Ukrainian people. Their first legislative act, on 23 February 2014, was to abrogate the 2012 Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law, which established the Russian language as an official language along with Ukrainian. This prompted the Russian-speaking population to start massive protests in the southern part of the country, against authorities they had not elected.”
Kiev’s military & economic war on civilians who opposed the US-imposed regime
“To make things worse,” Baud, continues: “Ukraine didn’t gain legitimacy in the way it handled the rebellion. In 2014–2015, poorly advised by NATO military, Ukraine waged a war that could only lead to its defeat: it considered the populations of Donbass and Crimea as enemy foreign forces and made no attempt to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the autonomists. Instead, its strategy has been to punish the people even further. Bank services were stopped, economic relations with the autonomous regions were cut, and Crimea didn’t receive drinking water anymore. This is why there are so many civilian victims in the Donbass, and why the Russian population still stands in majority behind its government today. The 14,000 victims of the conflict tend to be attributed to the “Russian invaders” and the so-called “separatists. Yet according to the United Nations, more than 80% of civilian casualties are the result of Ukrainian shelling.“
“As we can see, the Ukrainian government is massacring its own people with the help, funding and advice of the military of NATO, the countries of the European Union, which ‘defends its values.’ In May 2014, the violent repression of protests prompted the population of some areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine to hold referendums for Self-Determination in the Donetsk People’s Republic (approved by 89%) and in the Lugansk People’s Republic (approved by 96%). Although Western media keep calling them referendums of “independence,” they were referendums of “self-determination” or “autonomy” (самостоятельность). Until February 2022, media consistently talked about ‘separatists’ and ‘separatist republics.’ In reality, as stated in the Minsk Agreements, the self-proclaimed republics didn’t seek ‘independence,’ but ‘autonomy’ within Ukraine, with the ability to use their own language and their own customs.”
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s top diplomat and Foreign Minister addressed the UN Security Council in September: “For eight years, the Kiev regime (waged aggression) against peaceful Donbass civilians.” Hypocritically declaring their commitment to Minsk (I and II conflict resolution) agreements, Kiev openly subverted the(ir) implementation..with impunity.” Lavrov added: “A financial, transport and energy blockade was imposed on Donbass. Its residents were cut off from their social benefits, pensions, salaries, banking services, communications, education, healthcare. They were deprived of elementary civil rights that were guaranteed, in particular, by the 1966 international covenants on economic, social and cultural rights, as well as on civil and political rights. Puppets Poroshenko and Zelensky made clear their intention to spurn Minsk I and II, pretending otherwise for time to receive weapons from Western (regimes) for war on the Russian Federation.” Sergey Lavrov’s Straight-Talk Truth-Telling at the UN Security Council — The Stephen Lendman Blog
Ukraine’s current President Zelensky was elected in 2019 on a peace and reconciliation mandate. But within a few weeks, he reneged on his election promises and continued with the war on ethnic Russians in the Donbass regions, now even outlawing publication of Russian newspapers, and other publications. Zelensky has also outlawed Opposition parties, politicians and mayors, who have been imprisoned even on suspicion of having Russian sympathies. There is also an assassination list to kill people in Ukraine and outside the country who are critical of the government.
Russophobia — West’s blind racism & aggression drives conflict
Russophobic comments and articles constantly appear in Western and New Zealand media, stirring up hatred of Russia and Russians. Internationally, Russian singers and conductors have been fired from their employment. Russians are excluded from Western events. Yet its intervention in Ukraine was legal and understandable, to stop Kiev mass killing its long-suffering ethnic Russian civilians. Ukraine’s appalling state-sanctioned war on civilians was the result of well documented, illegal, violent, US-orchestrated coup in February 2014 which deposed a democratically elected government, and replaced it with an anti-Russia regime, leaders chosen by US diplomats. This was an outrageous assault on democracy and Ukraine’s sovereignty, not denounced by Aotearoa/New Zealand or other Western countries, nor have we heard our media condemning the Ukraine regime’s eight years of war on civilians who understandably opposed the unelected regime, which once in power immediately banned the speaking of the Russian language, then started attacking the Donbass region opposed to this and the regime.
Strident denunciations and continual sanctions on Russia by Western allies for its 8 months justified intervention in Ukraine on 24 February, which many senior Western statesman had warned of, is hypocritical and duplicitous. Our Western allies are the very countries which for 20 recent years perpetrated several devastating, illegal wars of aggression on many countries with impunity, so they have no moral or intellectual authority to condemn Russia.
West’s illegal wars based on false pretexts kill millions
Our allies. the US/UK and NATO countries, have initiated several devastating, illegal wars of aggression with impunity over the last quarter century. They have used false pretexts, like the “weapons of mass destruction” that experts advised didn’t exist in Iraq. Below are links to some reports:
Iraq invasion violated international law: Hans Blix (former chief UN weapons inspector)
Chilcot’s Verdict: the Iraq War was a Failure of Oversight & Planning, The Conversation
The Iraq War: Story of Deceit By Vijay Prashad
Chilcot report: MI6, a Hollywood movie and Faulty Intelligence by Gordon Corera
U.K. Parliament report details how NATO’s 2011 war in Libya was based on lies. By Ben Norton
Why the attack on Libya is illegal by Dr Curtis F.J. Doebbler
Origins of the Syrian War by Richard H. Black, US Senator for Virginia
Many millions of people have been ruthlessly slaughtered in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, in these appalling illegal US/NATO wars, violating international law and the UN Charter. Yet Western countries “forget” these real holocausts as if they had never happened. Thousands of reports, unread by most people in Western countries, attest to the terrible damage done to these countries, their human rights denied, and atrocities inflicted by our Western allies over two decades with impunity on several mainly Muslim countries. Extracts from 3 reports follow.
In November 2001, international law Professor Marjorie Cohn, pointed out the illegality of the US and UK bombing of Afghanistan: The Bombing of Afghanistan is Illegal and Must be Stopped.
“In a patently illegal use of armed force, United States and British bombs are falling on the people of Afghanistan. There are already reports of thousands of dead and wounded civilians from the same kind of American ‘smart bombs’ used in Vietnam and Yugoslavia, with a promise of myriad casualties from unexploded cluster bombs. Yet while the media bombards us with details about the tragic but few deaths from Anthrax, we are shielded from photographs of the dead and injured in Afghanistan…Relief agencies left Afghanistan in the wake of the bombing. The arrival of winter is imminent, when up to 7.5 million Afghans internally displaced by the bombing will be beyond the reach of humanitarian aid…. The bombing of Afghanistan is not legitimate self-defense under article 51 of the Charter because: 1) the attacks in New York and Washington D.C. were criminal attacks, not “armed attacks” by another state, and 2) there was not an imminent threat of an armed attack on the U.S. after September 11, or the U.S. would not have waited three weeks before initiating its bombing campaign. The necessity for self-defense must be “instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation.”
Dr Curtis Doebbler, international law expert wrote in March 2014: American Hypocrisy on International Law. “In using force against first Afghanistan, then Iraq in a period of less than three years, the United States acted in violation of Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter of the United Nations. This provision of the Charter prohibits use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another sovereign State. The bombing of Afghanistan can be seen from photos taken from above the Earth as having changed the topography of the country. The United States and its allies literally bombed parts of Afghanistan off the map. They also imposed their own proxy occupiers.
In short, without a doubt, the terrible bombing of these two countries that killed millions of Afghanis and Iraqis was a use of force against both the territorial integrity and political independence of these two countries. Moreover, article 103 of the Charter says that in the event of a conflict between obligations of States under the Charter and any other treaty, the Charter prevails. As virtually every State is a Member of the United Nations, virtually all States are bound by the Charter.”
Kate Clark, expert of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, in 2018 reported that then US President Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton, made a ferocious attack on the International Criminal Court, threatening prosecutions against personnel and retaliation against any country cooperating with the Court if it ‘goes after’ America. Ferocious Attack on International Criminal Court: Washington Threatens Court if it Investigates US War Crimes in Afghanistan.
“Bolton’s tirade comes as judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber are weighing up whether or not to launch a full investigation into war crimes allegedly perpetrated in Afghanistan since May 2003 when the Rome Statute setting up the Court came into force in Afghanistan. It is almost one year (November 2017) since ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda requested that full investigation. Her preliminary examination indicated war crimes and crimes against humanity had taken place, were grave enough and of a scale to merit the Court’s attention, and that domestic courts were either unwilling or unable to take action. In February 2018, victims of war crimes, asked for their views and experiences, “overwhelmingly” backed an investigation. The court received 1.7 million victim’s representations on a range of crimes.
US/UK efforts to stop armed forces’ war crimes investigation: Julian Assange faces 175 years in prison for exposing them
UK Bill a License for Military Crimes? Law Would Stymie Prosecution of Armed Forces for Abuses by Clive Baldwin
Trump Order Treats International Prosecutors Like War Criminals by R Gramer and J Detch
Pardoning Alleged War Criminals: Bad for United States, Bad for World by Amy K. Lehr
Trump Administration Throws Down Gauntlet to ICC. The Court Should Decline by John Bellinge
Assange Faces Extradition for Exposing US War Crimes by Professor Marjorie Cohn
US to deny visas for ICC members investigating alleged war crimes
US to Penalize War Crimes Investigators looking into American Troops by New York Times
US Foreign Policy is a Cruel Sport by Diana Johnstone
For Washington, War Never Ends by Diana Johnstone
Australian scientist Gideon Polya has meticulously documented the 20 years of this Muslim genocide-holocaust by Western wars in this century. This is summarized in a 2015 report Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable Deaths from Violence & Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9–11. In another report he explains how so many civilians came to die over two decades — under-funded health care during the occupation. See also Afghan Genocide Exposed: WHO (2010) Occupiers only allow annual per capita total health expenditure of $29 in Occupied Afghanistan.
False Western narrative on Russia manipulates public opinion
People in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, etc, are trying to live with little help from their brutal Western assailants in countries destroyed with impunity for 20 years by US/NATO bombardments and invasions. These illegal wars of aggression were not covered day by day, year by year over 20 years by Western media, nor were they condemned by Western governments or their media. But the conflict in Ukraine is being covered by Western media, day by day, with many false, staged allegations and stories of war crimes made against Russia without reliable evidence, while totally ignoring Ukraine’s crimes against its ethnic Russian population over 8 years; the banning of the Russian language, the shelling of civilians in the Donetsk region over 8 years.
Reports with links below show the shelling of civilians by Ukraine has continued this year:
Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Guillemain: “Ukrainian soldiers are entrenched in the cities”
Kiev’s Forces Attack Civilians in Donbass Using Long-range Artillery
Donetsk Has Deadliest Day of Ukrainian Attacks Since 2015
Ukrainian Army Shelling Donbass Civilians: A Day in Hell Without End
Falsehoods of Ukraine War: Multiplied Lies. Children Murdered by Ukrainian Missiles by Konrad Rękas
Ukraine Forces Continuous Shelling of Donbass Residential Areas Results in 24 Casualties in a Single Day By Drago Bosnic
Torture reports & assassination list
Reports on the shocking torture of Russians by Kiev’s armed forces and security forces are not reported in Western media, but credible reports have been made public in the last eight years.
For example, Amnesty International in September 2014, called on the Ukrainian authorities to bring Aidar and other volunteer battalions under effective lines of command and control, promptly investigate all allegations of abuses, and hold those responsible to account, with their report “Ukraine: Abuses and war crimes by the Aidar Volunteer Battalion in the north Luhansk region”.
Appalling atrocities have also been graphically described in a 74 page report on “War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: second report” in 2015 based on interviews with over 200 victims and presented by the Foundation for the Study of Democracy to the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting in April 2016. Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, was assassinated in a bomb explosion, along with associates, in Donetsk on August 31, 2018. See also The Battle for Mariupol is Coming to an End & Civilian Testimonies on Crimes of Azov are Multiplying — Christelle Néant, and Morozova calls on ICRC and UN to prevent torture of captives by Kiev forces.
Recently Scott Ritter, former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, found he was on the Ukraine government’s black list for speaking critically and factually about the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The list included 72 other intellectuals, journalists, and activists from several countries. That list was taken down but Ritter then found he was on another Ukraine list, the “Myrotvorets” (Peacemaker) Center list, which includes names previously on the black list of the ”Center for Countering Disinformation.” The “Myrotvorets” list has existed since 2014 and is described as “effectively a death list for politicians, journalists, and other public figures cleared for putting on the kill list.” Ritter says he’s taking appropriate precautions to keep his family and himself safe. Several other Westerners, including Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett and British rock musician Roger Waters are also on the list.
Darya Dugina, a young Russian journalist was on that list, and assassinated near Moscow by a car bomb recently. The kill list also includes Faina Savenkova, a 13-year-old girl in the Lugansk People’s Republic who called for the United Nations to end the fighting that has dragged on in her region since 2014.
Award-winning journalist Max Blumenthal and Esha Krishnaswamy in April 2022 reported that President Zelensky has given up on democracy, and oversees a campaign of kidnapping imprisoning, hideous torture and murder of mayors, politicians, members of the Opposition, anyone who may be critical of his regime or supports doing a deal with Russia. In fact Ukraine’s Opposition is now banned. So much for democracy. See “One less traitor”: Zelensky oversees campaign of assassination, kidnapping and torture of political opposition .
The US-led Western countries, who refuse to acknowledge their own real war crimes in 20 years of wars on many countries, have become masters of alleging war crimes against Russia without real evidence. They have become judge, jury and executioner, defying the norms of due process of law, objective, careful analysis of evidence. And it must be recalled that it was false pretexts that were used in the US-led illegal “wars on “terror” which led to the destruction of countries and murder of millions of people. Millions of people have been killed because of lies.
Most of world outside western block not deceived by US/NATO campaign against Russia
Western countries affect self-righteous, moral indignation about Russia’s 8-month provoked intervention in Ukraine. Consider the suffering and starvation in Asian/African regions caused by US/NATO’s two decades of illegal wars of aggression, and America’s additional brutality, eg. unlawfully seizing Afghanistan’s financial assets. Consider also the increasing hunger in Afghanistan, and African countries with US-imposed comprehensive economic sanctions against Russia, which prevent Russian fertilizers from reaching Africa and other developing countries. Russia is the largest source of fertilizer in the world. Can Aotearoa/New Zealand with integrity rely on our allies’ “intelligence” or wise counsel? Do our allies demonstrate good values? Outside the small but militarily powerful Western block of countries with induced amnesia about their truly appalling 20 years of war crimes, most people and countries in the world are not deceived by the appalling Western charade.
NATO/US expansion threatens Russia & world over decades
For decades, America and NATO have threatened Russia’s security and sovereignty by expanding nuclear weapons and military bases in Europe and on Russia’s borders. This not only violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. NATO’s expansion eastwards for decades, adding 14 countries, violated explicit promises made to former Soviet Leader Gorbachev in 1991 that NATO would “not move an inch eastward.” American, Britain and several European countries leaders promised this when the Soviet Union agreed to reunify Germany by leaving its occupation of East Germany. Then US Secretary of State James Baker personally and repeatedly made assurances to then Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not be further expanded toward Russian borders.
In one document titled, “Memorandum of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and James Baker in Moscow,” Baker states in regard to reunification of Germany: “We fought a war [World War 2] together to bring peace to Europe. We didn’t do so well handling the peace in the Cold War. And now we are faced with rapid and fundamental change. And we are in a better position to cooperate in preserving peace.”*
America and NATO’s betrayal of this agreement with Russia brought continued expansion of NATO to Russia’s borders, greatly threatening its security for decades. This deliberate threatening of Russia with existential nuclear threats shows a contempt for Russia, global security, international law, and the Non-Proliferation Treaty. All countries are in reality threatened by US/NATO’s aggressive and illegal expansion. Russia’s “Red Line” on NATO expansion finally came in 2021 with Ukraine. America and NATO could have stopped Russia launching its Special Military Operation in Ukraine by announcing they would honour promises made to General Secretary Gorbachev 31 years ago, and never admit Ukraine into NATO, nor seek to put US troops, weapons or nuclear arms in Ukraine.
Russia’s special military operation provoked by US/NATO
If the US and leading NATO countries like France and Germany were seriously committed to supporting the Minsk II Agreements endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2022 of February 12, 2015*, they would have persuaded President Zelensky not to proceed with the build-up of Ukraine’s National Army troops in February, threatening ethnic Russian communities in the Donbass region. Benjamin and Davies in their Memo to Congress: Diplomacy for Ukraine Is Spelled M-i-n-s-k, report this. After eight years of patient diplomacy Russia was compelled to intervene to prevent the mass killing of civilians by a large force of Kiev’s military and neo-Nazi, extreme nationalist militias.
What else could Russia do? Just let Kiev’s military slaughter ethnic Russians? All efforts at peaceful resolution over 8 years had distressingly come to nothing. The Russian Federation first recognized the two Donbass autonomous regions, then answered their request for assistance to fend off a large-scale military attack, leading to its Special Military Operation on 24 February, 2022.*
President Putin declared that Russia’s Special Military Operation was to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine to stop Ukraine killing its Russian civilians. When he ordered “the special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, President Putin said that after receiving requests for help from leaders of the Donbass Republics, Russia had no choice but to defend the Russian-speaking people of the Donbass who had endured eight years of a deadly offensive by the NATO-backed Kiev regime forces. The Russia people were by a large majority supportive of the intervention.
Award-winning Italian author Dr Manlio Dinnuci, who has covered the Ukraine crisis for years, reported in early February 2022: “The situation in Donbass is increasingly critical: 150 thousand soldiers of the Ukrainian Army and National Guard are deployed in front of Donetsk and Lugansk, which is inhabited by Russian populations. In the front line there is the neo-Nazi battalion Azov, promoted to regiment of special forces, distinguished for its ferocity in attacks on the Russian populations of Ukraine, and commanded by Andrey Biletsky who educates young people to hatred against the Russians with his book ‘The Words of the White Führer’.” See also Dr Dinucci’s videos: The Powder Keg of Donbass and The Blackwater Is in Donbass with the Azov Battalion
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ceasefire monitors provided daily reports for the four days leading up to Russia’s intervention, documenting over 4,000 explosions, mostly on the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic side of the contact line. This is consistent with heavy shelling by Ukraine government forces.* This was the last day before Russia’s intervention. According to UN figures, from 2018 to 2021, 81.4% of civilian casualties in the Donbas war were in rebel-held territory. 16.3% were in Ukrainian government-controlled territory. This is a key reality of the war that US media doesn’t report.*
US bombed more in one day in Iraq than Russia did in 24 days in Ukraine
Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine was quite unlike US/NATO’s 20 years of wars of aggression, which illegally and with impunity targeted cities, towns and civilians in their bombing of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan. Western media and governments supporting US/NATO’s genocidal wars seem to have forgotten this.
However, in March, 2022, a Newsweek article by William Arkin, U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, reported: “in 24 days of conflict, Russia has carried out some 1400 strikes and launched nearly 1,000 missiles. By way of comparison, the United States carried out more strikes and launched more missiles on the first day of the Iraq war in 2003.” In this first day of the U.S./UK barbaric aerial bombing of Iraq’s capital city, Baghdad, thousands of civilians including children in apartment buildings were slaughtered. President Bush admiringly described the atrocity as “Shock and Awe.”
The Newsweek article continues: “The vast majority of airstrikes are over the battlefield, with Russian aircraft providing ‘close air support’ to ground forces. The remainder, less than 20 percent, according to U.S. experts, has been aimed at military airfields, barracks and supporting depots. A proportion of those strikes have damaged and destroyed civilian structures and killed and injured innocent civilians, but the level of death and destruction is low compared to Russia’s capacity… the carnage and destruction could be much worse. Putin is not intentionally attacking civilians.” See Putin’s Bombers Could Devastate Ukraine but He’s Holding Back: Here’s Why .
Unlike US/NATO’s military attacks over 20 years on civilians in many destroyed countries this century, Russia’s military since March 2 has delivered over 37,770 tonnes of daily essentials, foodstuffs, medicines and medical products to Ukraine, and conducted 1,231 humanitarian actions.* Russian forces are also involved in extensive de-mining operations, removing thousands, perhaps millions of mines planted by Ukraine forces in ports and all over the Donbass region to kill civilians.
Attacks, massacres & toreture by Ukraine’s right sector facists/military & police forces
Although our government has followed the US/NATO line that Russia’s “brutal invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked,” it is simply not true, as recent history documented above and below show. This is also well documented in the Schiller Institute report.
Russia’s Special Military Operation has targeted Ukraine’s military installations and its military, which includes neo-Nazi battalions, in order to stop the killing of ethnic Russian civilians and destruction of their towns and cities in the Donbass region. Ukraine’s military has attacked civilians and civilian infrastructure in Donbass for 8 years with at least 14,000 people killed.
Nazi Atrocities at Odessa — 8 Years On — Global Research — Centre for Research on Globalization
This appalling murder of civilians by the Kiev regime, installed by the US after its gross interference in its 2014-orchestrated coup, has been largely unreported by Western mainstream media, and ignored by Western governments. This leaves Western populations badly informed. However, United Nations reports have covered some of the misery inflicted on ethnic Russian civilians in the Donbass region since the Maidan coup of February 2014.
Some of these reports from 2018 and 2019 are:
UN calls for protection of civilians after attacks on water facility workers — UN News
Ukraine: 200,000 children forced to learn in bullet-riddled classrooms — UN News
FROM THE FIELD: Enduring freezing winter in a war zone — UN News
Political solution ‘long overdue’ to protect children of eastern Ukraine — UN News
This notes 36 attacks on schools were reported in 2019, including one school hit 15 times, over 750 educational facilities either damaged or destroyed since 2014, vital water and sanitation infrastructure under attack 80 times in 2019 and more than 300 times over the last three years, 430,000 children live with psychological wounds and need ongoing emotional trauma support.
The Korsun Massacre, April 2014
There have been appalling atrocities in Ukraine after the US-orchestrated coup in Kiev in February 2014, not condemned or even reported in Western countries and their mainstream media. The first was the Korsun Massacre, which occurred on the day of the coup in Kiev. People from Crimea who took part in demonstrations against the coup were returning to Crimea in 8 buses. Near Korsun, the convoy was attacked with shootings and Molotov cocktails by armed thugs of the Right Sector, Kristina Khalova reports. “The captured buses were burnt, passengers were forced to kneel on broken glass and sing the national anthem, “Glory to the Heroes.” Those who were not murdered were held for 9 hours then released. The massacre became the catalyst that aroused Crimeans to defend themselves and begin the reunification process of Crimea with Russia.
See What Really Pushed Crimea Away from Ukraine by Kristina Khalova .
Atrocity in Odessa, May 2014: “Slava Ukraini” chanted as people burnt to death
May 2, 2022 was the 8th anniversary of the Odessa massacre. It’s interesting to note that this May 2, Odessa authorities banned their citizens from going outdoors for several hours so they could not attend memorial services for those so cruelly slaughtered in May 2014. Curfew for Anniversary of Odessa Massacre That Sparked Rebellion At least 46 people were murdered and many more unaccounted for when pro-Russian sympathisers were locked into the trade-union building by Right Sector nationalists, and neo-Nazi fascists before it was set on fire. Odessa Massacre Pushes Ukraine to the Edge The fascists were chanting “Slava Ukraini,” that is “Glory to Ukraine,” as people burnt to death. In May 2014 Human Rights Watch called for an investigation , but it has yet to happen. The perpetrators have expanded their influence, and fight today for Kiev.
At the start of the Russian Special Operation in February, in praise of the eight-year NATO-backed slaughter, the UK’s then Prime Minister Boris Johnson added his own cry of Slava Ukraini on behalf of the British People when he told Zelensky’s regime the UK stands with Ukraine and its people.
Neo-Nazis in Ukraine supported by US/NATO countries
The Soviet Union and Western allies fought to stop Nazi Germany’s invasions in World War 2. It’s horrifying that there’s now support from the US, UK/ NATO allies, for a racist, cruel fascist/neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine. Russia played the main role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War 2, with 27 million people dying as a consequence. The Soviet Union had faced two thirds of the forces of Nazi Germany’s military and suffered greatly as a result.
Jacques Baud, respected geopolitical analyst, reported in April 2022: “These militias, (in Ukraine) stemming from far-right groups that led the Euromaidan revolution in 2014, are made up of fanatical and brutal individuals. The best known of these is the Azov regiment, whose emblem is reminiscent of that of the 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division… the West supports and continues to arm militias that have been guilty of numerous crimes against civilian populations since 2014: rape, torture and massacres.”*
Zaporizhzie nuclear plant (ZNPP) attacked by Kiev
The western narrative that Russia is attacking Ukraine’s Zaporizhzia nuclear plant doesn’t make sense. Russian forces captured the plant to ensure its safe operation after the buildings were set ablaze by saboteurs. See Ukraine’s Dirty Nukes & Weapons of Mass Destruction by Nauman Sadiq .
Ukraine’s military and government are riddled with neo-Nazi forces which no one in their right mind would consider suitable influences around a nuclear power plant, especially as they hate Russians. Also President Zelensky has said Ukraine is firing at the ZNPP because Russian soldiers are there. Zelenskiy issues warning to Russian soldiers at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant–video.
Russia has no credible interest in the recent shelling of the ZNPP despite claims from Kiev and the West. The plant is under Russia’s control and provides useful electricity to areas under Russian control as well as the Ukraine side. Throughout August, Russia appealed to the IAEA nuclear authority to visit the plant, raising concern about dangers of continuing attacks on the plant noting the attackers used NATO ammunition. See Ukraine Uses NATO Ammunition on Nuclear Power plant Station. Dangers of Radioactive Leaks by Ana Luisa Brown.
Treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons states
Article 1: Each nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly; and not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce any non-nuclear-weapon State to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, or control over such weapons or explosive devices.
Article II
Each non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to receive the transfer from any transferor whatsoever of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or of control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly; not to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; and not to seek or receive any assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
On 27/1/2022 Tass reported that Russia proposes the US returns nuclear weapons from NATO countries. “Currently there are about 200 air bombs of the B61 family” in 5 non-nuclear countries. Director of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Dept for non-proliferation and Arms Control told TASS. “We insist NATO’s ‘joint nuclear missions’ should be stopped immediately, all American nuclear weapons be returned to US national territory and the infrastructure that allows their rapid deployment should be eliminated.”
This is sensible and understandable. Why should Russia and European countries be subjected to these uniquely dangerous activities? They undermine Russian and European security, as well as the NPT, especially now with added pressures of the Ukraine conflict. Aotearoa/ New Zealand could help promote the NPT and nuclear disarmament by speaking out against America using non-nuclear countries to host its nuclear weapons and other violations with aircrew and other related staff of European non-nuclear states regularly carrying out training drills for use of nuclear weapons (as above)
New risks with US ‘mini-nukes’ for nuclear ‘first strike’
New nuclear risks arise in America deploying their new B61–12 “mini-nuke,” replacing the previous B61 nuclear bombs, currently deployed by the US at Aviano and Ghedi airbases in Italy. In August 2022 Dr Manlio Dinucci explained that this new type of weapon “has a nuclear warhead with four power options, selectable depending on the target to be destroyed. It is not dropped vertically, but at a distance from the target on which it is directed, guided by a satellite system. It can penetrate underground, exploding deep to destroy command center bunkers in a nuclear first strike.” He goes on to say “The B61–12s are classified as “non-strategic nuclear weapons,” but are deployed in Europe, in Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Britain at distances close enough to strike Russia. They thus have offensive capabilities similar to those of strategic weapons.”
“These [B61–12 mini-nukes] can also be launched from “anti-missile shield” installations, deployed by the U.S. at bases in Deveselu in Romania and Redzikowo in Poland, and aboard five warships cruising in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Baltic Sea, close to Russia. That such installations have offensive capabilities is confirmed by Lockheed Martin itself. Outlining the characteristics of the Mk 41 vertical launch system, used in both land and naval installations, it specifies that it’s capable of launching “missiles for all missions, both defense and long-range attack, including Tomahawk cruise missiles.” They can also be armed with nuclear warheads. Europe, as Dr Dinucci reports, is thus being turned by the U.S. into the front line of a nuclear confrontation with Russia, and a greater risk than the Cold War.
Are US mini-nukes in EU more ‘useable, low yield, harmless’?
Professor Chossudovsky’s article: Pre-emptive Nuclear War & the Historic Battle for Peace & Democracy, reports that the B61–12 Mini-nukes are aimed at Russia and the Middle East. These bombs are portrayed by America as a ‘more usable, ‘low yield,’ ‘humanitarian bomb,’ ‘‘harmless to civilians.’ “The reality is Mutual Assured Destruction.” The new B61–12 has a maximum yield of 50 kilotons, more than three times that of the Hiroshima bomb (15 kilotons), 35 which resulted in over 100,000 deaths in a matter of minutes. If a preemptive attack using a so-called mini-nuke were to succeed, targeted against Russia or Iran, this could potentially lead humanity into a WW III scenario.
“When the characteristics of this “harmless” low-yield nuclear bomb are inserted into military manuals, ‘humanitarian warfare’ goes live: It’s ‘low yield and safe for civilians,’ let’s use it” [paraphrase]. The US arsenal of B61 nuclear bombs directed against the Middle East are currently located in military bases of 5 non-nuclear states (Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey). Command structure pertaining to the B61–12 is yet to be confirmed and the situation with regard to Turkey’s Incirlik base is unclear.”
In 2019, David Swanson American author, working with World Beyond War, published an article explaining more — The Myths, the Silence, and the Propaganda That Keep Nuclear Weapons in Existence — Let’s Try Democracy: “This week, 74 years ago, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were each hit with a single nuclear bomb that had the power of a third to a half of what America’s Nuclear Posture Review calls a low yield or “usable” nuclear weapon. These so called “usable” nukes are for firing from submarines based nearby here. They are two to three times the size of what destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the U.S. military’s plans involve using multiple nukes at once. But they really are tiny compared to other nuclear weapons the United States and other nations have ready just in case some unfortunate scenario makes completely annihilating our and other species the wisest course of action.
Some U.S. nukes are 1,000 times what was used to vaporize Japanese populations. Each submarine can launch 5,000 times what was dropped on Hiroshima. But the claim has been that the submarines are for so-called deterrence. Putting so-called small nukes on them and calling those “usable,” drops the pretense of deterrence in favor of openly embracing the madness of initiating an exchange of nukes likely to kill us all directly or through creation of a nuclear winter.”
These are increasingly alarming violations of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), with non-nuclear states, including Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Turkey. These hold America’s B61 nuclear bombs, soon to be replaced by the new B61–12 “mini-nuke” bombs. Aotearoa should condemn America and NATO countries serious violations of the NPT, especially America promoting the idea that “mini nukes” are “useable.” For America to be promoting the “new” nuclear bombs as “useable,” is shocking.
ANOTHER US/ NATO BREACH OF NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY
Another violation of the NTP occurs with the 5 non-nuclear states, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, holding America’s B61 nuclear bombs, (soon be replaced by the new B61–12 nuclear bombs). According to a report of the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation, there are more than 100 of the US B-61 nuclear gravity bombs stored in the five NATO member states. The bombs are planned for use by fighter planes of host nations when needed. According to reports, the aircrew and other related staff of these non-nuclear states regularly carry out training drills for the use of these weapons. Rick Rozoff reported 27 January: “This is a grave violation of international laws, including the NPT, which the international community, including Russia and China have pointed out. The NPT does not permit handling, storage and use of nuclear weapons by a non-Nuclear state. Host states including Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium have wanted the United States to remove nuclear weapons from their soil”. Russia Calls on US To Withdraw Nuclear Weapons From Europe, Cease Joint Nuclear Drills With Non-Nuclear Allies.
UNLAWFUL U.S. MISSILE SYSTEMS IN POLAND AND ROMANIA THREATEN RUSSIA & WORLD
Distinguished Swiss geopolitical analyst, former Swiss intelligence officer, Jacques Baud points out another nuclear danger. The AEGIS missile systems installed by the U.S. in Poland and Romania use Mk41 launchers. They can be used to launch either anti-ballistic missiles or nuclear missiles. The Radzikowo site in Poland, is 800 km from the Russian border and 1,300 km from Moscow.
In his discussion “The Hidden Truth about the War in Ukraine“ Baud says “Their presence in the immediate vicinity of Russia’s national territory can indeed lead to nuclear conflict. For in the event of a conflict, it would not be possible to know precisely the nature of the missiles loaded in the systems, should the Russians therefore wait for explosions before reacting? Having no early-warning time, the Russians would have practically no time to determine the nature of a fired missile and would thus be forced to respond pre-emptively with a nuclear strike. Not only does Vladimir Putin see this as a risk to Russia’s security, he also notes the United States is increasingly disregarding international law in order to pursue a unilateral policy. This is why Russia’s President says European countries could be dragged into a nuclear conflict without wanting it. This was the substance of his speech in Munich in 2007, and he came with the same argument early 2022, as Emmanuel Macron went to Moscow in February.”
USING LONG-RANGE FOREIGN WEAPONS THAT CAN REACH RUSSIA, KIEV SHELLS, MURDERS CIVILIANS IN THE DONBASS
Added to these threats to Russia, largely unknown by Western populations, huge numbers of weapons continue to be sent to Ukraine by the US-led NATO countries and sympathizers. Even our country has sent weapons. This ensures the war continues, preventing cessation of the conflict. Newly introduced weapons sent by America at the end of June, such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and others, raise danger levels. They can hit targets in Crimea, the traditional home of Russia’s Black Sea naval base. Deliveries of these weapons draws the United States into direct conflict with Russia, widening the scope of the war.
Kiev’s military is now attacking civilians in Donbass using HIMARS artillery. The Biden Administration is also providing Ukraine with another $700 million to acquire long-range Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) with a range of 186 miles, well within reach of the Russian Federation. Reports in July show the new American weapons in Ukraine are being used to shell civilians in towns in the Donbass region and southern Ukraine. Ukraine’s authorities are indiscriminately attacking and shelling the very population they consider to be their own people, Uriel Araujo reports. City districts have been leveled, with civilian infrastructure destroyed. In a single day of Kiev’s continuous shelling of Donbass residential areas, 24 people were killed and over 20 injured on 29 May 2022. For more instances see references 48 to 53. These facts are not reported in our press nor condemned by our government. Using long-range weapons continues an appalling eight-year war on civilians in the Donbass region, that started in 2014 after the illegal US-orchestrated coup in Kiev, instated an anti-Russia regime, in order to undermine Russia.
Ukraine’s military are now killing and injuring civilians in towns and cities in the Donbass regularly with America’s weapons and weapons from other Western countries. Aotearoa’s has sent weapons to Kiev, and our military advisers went to Britain to train new recruits, this helps the racist Kiev regime continue to kill ethnic Russian civilians in the Donbass region.
Is our government aware that by sending weapons and training recruits for Kiev that they will be used to kill ethnic Russian civilians in the Donbass region? This is contrary to our espoused humanitarian values and human rights conventions. Kiev has been attacking civilians since 2014, after the illegal US-orchestrated violent coup in Kiev imposed an anti-Russian regime in Kiev in order to undermine Russia. Mainstream Western media and Western governments, present “news” on Ukraine from the perspective of the oppressive, racist Kiev regime. This misinforms the public about the reality of life in Ukraine, leading to mainstream media blaming Russia for shelling civilians, when Russia is in Ukraine to stop Kiev killing ethnic Russian civilians. Kiev continues its 8-year-long policy, denying Russian-speaking citizens the right to publicly use their own language, shelling their towns and cities, killing civilians and destroying their lives and infrastructure.
Former UN Human Rights Rapporteur and Professor of Law in Geneva Alfred de Zayas reported in January 2022: ”Until the deliberately anti- Russian coup d’état of February 2014, Ukrainians and Russian-Ukrainians lived side by side in relative harmony. The Maidan 2014 coup brought with it Russophobic elements, exacerbated by systematic war propaganda and incitement to hatred against Russians, both prohibited by article 20 of the ICCPR.”
Our current support for our allies in the Ukraine conflict doesn’t sit well with our values of today’s Aotearoa/New Zealand. Denying Maori the right to speak their own language is part of our past, as Tame Iti recently reminded us. Surely we should be encouraging Kiev to stop denying ethnic Russians their language and culture.
WHY IS THE WEST SILENT ABOUT UKRAINE’S NEO-NAZI MOVEMENTS?
“LEADING THE WHITE RACES …IN A FINAL CRUSADE”
Aotearoa/NZ is silent or dismissive as are other Western countries about Russia’s military operation to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine. Since our forebears fought valiantly to stop the advance of Nazi Germany in World War 2, surely its resurgence in Ukraine today should concern our government, especially when it’s sending Kiev weapons? Are these neo-Nazi, ultra nationalist forces embedded in Kiev’s military and government to be trusted with lethal, far-reaching weapons? “Mini-nukes” may fall into their hands, a nightmare scenario to be considered. Western media and political leaders today downplay or deny there’s any neo-Nazi problem in Ukraine.
Yet in 2014 a US-orchestrated coup in Kiev deposed a democratically elected leader with the help of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi battalions and ultra-nationalists. Their culture was recently exposed after the successful mission to dislodge them from the Azovstel complex in Mariupol, where they took civilians hostage and used them as human shields. Witness From Mariupol: Azov Neo-Nazis Took Civilians Hostage -Used Them as Human Shields — Video
CNN reported in March 2014: “Far-right, anti-Semitic, anti-Russian, and openly fascist groups have existed and do exist as a blight on modern Ukraine.“ It quoted a 2012 European Parliament resolution raising 18 points of concern over policies embedded in laws of the nation’s parliament, and denounced the rising nationalistic sentiment in Ukraine. CNN also admitted that Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist parties and groups, including Svoboda and the Right Sector ultra-nationalists, played a significant role in Kiev’s 2014 regime change, and later assumed positions in the National Security and Defence Council, the office of the Prosecutor General, and other ministries in the interim government.
Ekaterina Blinova recently reviewed the rise of the far-right in Ukraine following the 2014 coup. “Ukraine formed volunteer nationalist battalions that carried out attacks against the breakaway Donbass republics and terrorised Eastern Ukrainian civilians. One of them, Azov, was led by Andriy Biletsky, former leader of the Kharkov branch of ‘the Stepan Bandera All-Ukrainian Organisation Tryzub’ and co-founder of the ultra-nationalist movement, the Social-National Assembly. Biletsky is quoted as saying in 2010 that Ukraine’s mission was to;” lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans”]* Biletsky was a member of the post-coup Ukrainian Parliament between 2014 and 2019. Azov formally joined the Ukrainian National Guard in 2014.
The Azov regiment still proudly wear the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel insignia. They are notorious for attacking and displacing residents in eastern Ukraine, looting civilian property, as well as raping and torturing detainees, according to a 2016 report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHA). Ukrainian nationalist organisations and political movements have been disseminating their ideology among young people with Kiev’s backing and funding. In 2020, Ukraine’s government allocated money for nationalist projects, including the ‘Cyborg Igor Branovitsky Charity Run,’ ‘Young Banderite Course,’ and ‘Banderstadt Festival of Ukrainian Spirit.’
Blinova’s report is titled Why is the West Silent About Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Movements, Azov Battalion, and the Bandera Legacy? She noted that in recent times several hundred monuments and statues have been erected and streets named after former Nazi collaborators in Ukraine.
On 16 December 2021, the UN General Assembly discussed a resolution to combat the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism, and other practices that fuel racism and xenophobia. The only two countries that voted against this were the US and Ukraine.”
Conclusion–Independent foreign policy supporting UN charter & international law vital for global security
“What the West promotes is an international order based on the ‘law of the strongest’.” * Jacques Baud, distinguished geopolitical analyst, former Swiss Army intelligence officer and UN expert said this in May 2022. In other words, the “rules-based order” our allies refer to is in reality their rule of “might makes right”.
Professor of Law in Geneva, Alfred de Zayas, former UN Human Rights Rapporteur, reported in January 2022: “The United Nation Charter, the only existing “rules-based’ international order, has the necessary mechanisms to resolve our differences on the basis of principles of the sovereign equality of States and the self-determination of peoples… Until the US-orchestrated deliberately anti-Russian coup d’état of February 2014, Ukrainians and Russian-Ukrainians lived side by side in relative harmony. The Maidan 2014 coup brought with it Russophobic elements, exacerbated by systematic war propaganda and incitement to hatred against Russians, both prohibited by article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
The more than 100 sources reviewed for this submission, with their breadth of experience, depth and integrity, offer a more coherent and consistent explanation of the history of the Ukraine conflict than the reports we receive from Western mainstream media, including with rare exceptions the media of Aotearoa-New Zealand.
We are especially concerned that our Five Eyes allies are in fact not a source of reliable, factual intelligence, supporting peace and good will on Earth. Rather they deliver a stream of propaganda and weaponry that sustains the conflict in a way that is more damaging for Ukraine and Europe.
The US-led NATO has a track record over the last two decades of destroying several countries, under false pretexts, refusing to be held accountable to the International Criminal Court for killing many millions of people, and violating international law. The documented devastation of US/NATO wars on several countries for 20 years has never been acknowledged. Yet our allies condemn and sanction Russia for their own failure to engage in a mutually advantageous discussion that recognized Russia’s right to security as well as their own. Such a one-eyed perspective in the modern world of unlimited opportunity is hard to fathom. What is even more remarkable is the success they’ve had in sustaining two decades of war at a time when life systems on the Earth itself are reaching or exceeding their sustainable limits.
Fortunately, the West accounts for only about 15% of the global population, and most other countries and people in China, India, and African, Asian, and Latin American countries have seen and suffered enough from US-led NATO wars.
The US has over the last 20 years ignored the advice of its most experienced statesmen eg George Keenan, Henry Kissinger, John Mearsheimer, in not recognizing the expansion of NATO to Russia’s borders as an existential threat. By refusing to demand that Ukraine implement the UN-endorsed Minsk Agreement 2202 of 2014/15 and allowing the Kiev government to continue military action against the autonomous Donbass regions, the US has a greater responsibility for the conflict than Russia in that it was not under existential threat. Had Ukraine agreed to be a neutral state and respect the rights of its Russian-speaking citizens, then Russia would not have felt bound to intervene in February to stop the genocidal rhetoric and behavior of the neo-Nazi elements in its military.
People’s right to self determination lawful in UN Charter
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Our US/NATO allies also showed lack of good intelligence by ignoring Russia’s legitimate, existential security concerns expressed in its treaties to American and NATO of December 2021. They also ignored the 8 years suffering of ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s war on its civilians. No wonder the republics voted to accede to Russia in the referendums. Why would anyone want to continue to be persecuted and killed by Ukraine’s regime with its neo-Nazi, extreme nationalist-infused military and police and security forces? These are compelling reasons why the Donbass republics voted overwhelmingly for accession to Russia. While Western countries assert that they will not recognize the referendums, they might gain some credibility by supporting UN-mandated referenda to provide a safe path for resolving the situation without further conflict.
Independent journalist, Eva Bartlett, visited Crimea in 2019 to find out about the Referendum held in Crimea after the US-orchestrated coup in February 2014. See Return to Russia: Crimeans Tell the Real Story of the 2014 Referendum and Their Lives
In September 2022, International Law Professor Alfred de Zayas, at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, reported that the US, UK, EU and NATO sanctions policies against Russia and China are incompatible with principles laid down in the Atlantic Charter, namely:
1. “Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned (e.g. by referendum in Nagorno Karabakh, Crimea and Donbass). If the ideological leaders of the Western powers refuse to recognize the fact that the vast majority of the Crimean population does NOT want to live in Ukraine after the unconstitutional 2014 putsch, they should invite the UN to organize and monitor a new referendum. Back in March and June 1994 I was the UN representative for the parliamentary and presidential elections in Ukraine. Without a doubt, the population in Crimea and Donbass speaks and feels Russian).
2. All people have a right of self-determination (e.g. in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo — but similarly in Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria). This right of self-determination was incorporated into the UN Charter and countless Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions. It is also common article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.“
More than 100 observers from 28 countries were engaged over the five voting days within the framework of the referendum,” Tass reported on 27 September. International observers from Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herzegovina Germany, Serbia, Mozambique, France, and the Central African Republic reported no violations, except for threats and shelling from Ukraine, and noted the enthusiasm of voters. One observer, Khulekani Mondli Skosana, head of the International Liaison office of the African National Congress Youth League said Ukraine’s President Zelensky pursues policies similar to those that underpinned apartheid, a system of racial discrimination in South Africa, “they have the same tactics and sponsors. They want to divide people based on their ethnicity,” Skosana said. The people of Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions have an unimpeachable right for self-determination, Skosana stressed, adding, “human rights are not for Americans only.”
It’s time for Aotearoa/New Zealand to realize again that our nuclear-free and disarmament values are not the same as the Five Eyes values. Our nuclear-free legislation and inspiring past history of speaking against nuclear weapons experimentation in the Pacific came through our own independent analysis, not through advice from our Five Eyes allies. For our own and for global security we must exercise again an independent foreign policy and speak out against the decades of US/NATO’s dangerous and inhuman threatening of Russia with increasing expansion of nuclear weapons and military bases in Europe, and on Russia’s borders in Poland and Romania.
Aggressive, frequent US/NATO military exercises against Russia in Europe and the Black Sea are fraught with danger. It only takes a miscalculation for nuclear exchanges to occur. All this violates promises made to Russia in 1991 not to expand NATO eastward and violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
America’s ‘useable mini’ nukes
America’s promotion of the insane idea that new US “mini-nukes” now being deployed to the UK and Europe are “useable,” is alarming. Yet our government is unaware and few people know about it in Aotearoa/New Zealand, in America or around the world. Our mainstream media is oblivious, acting as loudspeakers for the latest allegation about Russia’s “atrocities” coming from the white supremacist Kiev regime and its Western allies. They have become lawless, anti-democratic judge/jury and executioners, heedlessly promoting nuclear war. Absence of the due process of law is shameful, in the Western world’s allegations against Russia of atrocities in Ukraine, with ‘sentence before evidence’ becoming the norm. Let’s not forget that the US/NATO devastating wars, destroying many countries this century, were based on false pretexts. Will US/NATO/Kiev deceptions bring nuclear annihilation to the entire world?
False allegations against Russia & Torture of journalist Assange
An example of false allegations against Russia is the “Bucha massacre,” loudly blamed on Russian forces by Kiev and its allies without real evidence. Journalist, Finian Cunningham, wrote in April 2022: “It was reported that the Azov Battalion entered Bucha and locations quickly after Russian forces pulled out. Azov fighters were openly vowing to carry out ‘cleansing operations,’ a grim reference to dealing with people deemed to have collaborated with the Russian military during their brief occupation. The big difference now, however, is that Western propaganda has near-total dominance as critical, independent sources have been silenced or blackballed. The criminalization of independent journalism, as the persecution of Julian Assange prefigured, is now bearing evil fruit.“
Here are several reports recognising ‘false flag’ atrocities at Bucha and elsewhere:
It’s Obvious Who Gains from the Bucha Massacre But There’s Hardly Any Media Left to Say It
Staged Massacre in Bucha by Misión Verdad
Ukraine: The Fakes of Anti-Russian Propaganda by Manlio Dinucci
Bucha: Lavrov Says False-Flag Op Conducted in Town Outside Kiev After Russian Withdrawal
Official Behind Media Reports of Russian Atrocities Fired By Ukrainian Parliament — C Johnstone
UK Refusal to Hold UNSC Meeting on Bucha Allegations ‘Unprecedented’ — Russian Envoy
Western media’s lengthy silence about Julian Assange’s tortuous, unlawful imprisonment in solitary confinement in Britain for 10 years for exposing US war crimes, shows they are intimidated. They refuse even to condemn the US and UK governments when Assange is threatened with imminent deportation to America which wants to imprison him beyond death for 175 years.
But human rights experts, for example, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Professor Nils Melzer, are clear about the appalling treatment of Julian Assange by US and UK governments, and threat of a growing tyranny in Western countries, where a journalist is punished for exposing crimes against humanity, while perpetrators of the crimes go free
West’s censoring media omits origins of Ukraine crisis
Because our unquestioning mainstream Western media tell the story the US/NATO block wants told, most people in Western countries are ignorant of the dangers of mini-nukes on Russia’s border as well as Kiev’s 8-year-long persecution and atrocities against ethnic Russia civilians in the Donbass and other regions. UN reports cover some of the killing and misery inflicted by the Kiev regime since 2014, reported in the section on Ukraine’s Right sector on p 15 and refs 66–68.
Other authorities have documented horrifying reports on the torture of Russians by Ukraine authorities. See War Crimes Of The Armed Forces And Security Forces Of Ukraine: Torture And Inhuman Treatment. So President Zelensky’s regime, without critical comment in our Western media, continues to outlaw the speaking of the Russian language that followed the coup of February 2014. Zelensky went a step further this year, banning publishing in the Russian language, unreported in Western newspapers, radio or TV. These draconian attempts to stifle Russian culture would elsewhere in the West be a human rights issue, as indeed we have recognized it here in Aotearoa New Zealand for our indigenous people.
Kiev continues the horrifying killing of ethnic Russians and destruction of their towns in the Donbass regions, even after the regions voted overwhelmingly in referendums for accession to Russia. But all we hear from our media is that Russia is killing civilians, destroying towns, cities. The continuing war is aided and fomented by US/NATO long-range weapons that are now shelling cities in Russia. As a result, Russia has recently increased the range of its attacks and is targeting infrastructure in Kiev and other areas in western Ukraine, responding to Kiev’s sabotage of major infrastructure including the Kersch bridge to Crimea and the Nordstream 2 pipeline. Yet this war could have been ended though negotiations in April but for the intervention of the US and NATO.*
In the meantime, people in the West are unaware of rising threats to global security with America’s unlawful, dangerous missile systems in Europe, along with the transfer of America’s so-called “useable, mini-nukes” to the UK and European countries, including to Poland and Romania, on Russia’s border. The horrifying “useable, ’mini-nukes” have 3 times the force of the atomic bomb with which America destroyed Hiroshima in 1945, killing 140, 000 people instantly. They went on to destroy Nagasaki two days later, why? Nuclear annihilation of life on earth by design or accident is the ever-growing threat in the US/NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. For global security, Aotearoa/New Zealand must call out the real culprits and stop supporting the war in Ukraine.
Hugh Steadman argued this convincingly in his book A Country Like New Zealand Could Save the World. He came to live in Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1985 after concluding from his years of service in the British army that war and the philosophy of “might is right” couldn’t solve the existential threats of climate change and nuclear war. These problems can only be resolved through the respect for international treaties, legal systems, and the sovereignty of nations in the international multipolar world that was envisioned in establishing the United Nations.
Te Aroha Te Whakapono Me Te Rangimarie Tatou Tatou E
Kay Weir pirmeditor@gmail.com
The Pacific Institute of Resource Management
PO Box 12125, Wellington. www.pirm.org.nz Phone 04) 939 4553
