February 26, 2023 11:34 am
CIA: “China is considering sending weapons to Moscow, but they haven’t decided yet”
In an exclusive interview with CBS News, CIA Director Bill Burns acknowledged the possibility that China could send deadly aid to Russia in its war against Ukraine, though Beijing has yet to make a decision. “We don’t see that a final decision has been made yet, and we don’t see any evidence of actual shipments of lethal equipment,” Burns said, confirming that the US government’s goal — which shares that of the CIA intelligence agencies — is to target China from making the decision to transfer aid to Moscow. And he pointed out that if that were decided, it would be “a very risky and unwise bet” for President Xi. Burns then noted that the Russian invasion and the ensuing global response were of particular interest to Xi: “There is no foreign leader who has delved more deeply into Vladimir Putin’s experience in Ukraine and the evolution of warfare than Xi Jinping,” said he. “I think in a lot of ways he was disturbed by what he saw,” she added. Three months ago, Biden sent Burns to a meeting with Russian intelligence director Sergei Naryshkin to warn against the use of nuclear weapons: Burns described the meeting as “quite discouraging”. “There was also a very defiant attitude from Naryshkin. A sense of arrogance that I think reflects Putin’s point of view, his own belief today that he can make time work for him, that he believes he can wear down Ukrainians, that he can wear down our European allies, that political fatigue will prevail,” Burns said.
February 26, 2023 10:54 am
Putin: “The START treaty suspended, we must guarantee our security”
Russia must ensure its security and strategic stability, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented in an interview with Rossiya-1 on the decision to suspend Russia’s participation in the Start Treaty (nuclear weapons treaty). This is reported by Ria Novosti. When asked what the US should understand after the suspension, Putin replied: “It’s up to them what they understand. We understand what we have to do. And we must preserve our country, guarantee security, strategic stability.”
February 26, 2023 10:54 am
Putin: “NATO is taking part in the conflict in Kiev with arms”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused NATO of de facto involvement in the war and supplying arms to the Ukrainian armed forces. In an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel, the Kremlin chief reiterated: “They (NATO) are sending weapons worth tens of billions to Ukraine. This is indeed a participation in the conflict”
February 26, 2023 10:53 am
Putin: “We are against a world that only favors the US”
As Russia, “we reject the construction of a new world that only takes into account the interests of the United States of America,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 channel. Putin said he has never opposed the idea that the world needs to change and that the potential of the Russian Federation today is different from that of the Soviet Union in the past. “We understand that and agree that the world should change,” said the Kremlin boss. Moscow never rejects such changes, not even at the United Nations, and is considering how to reform them. But another thing, according to Putin, is a world subservient to “only American interests.”
February 26, 2023 10:52 am
Zelenskyi: “Counteroffensive in the spring, we will also recapture Crimea”
The Ukrainian army will be ready for a counteroffensive in the spring: the goal is to liberate all occupied territories, including Crimea: “We will stop only when we restore the country within the 1991 borders,” said the deputy chief of intelligence of the Kiev Ministry of Defense (GUR) Vadym Skibitskyi quoted by UNIAN. One of the goals will be an attempt to “drive a wedge in the Russian front in the south, between Crimea and mainland Russia,” Skibitsky explained, “Ukraine will hit ammunition depots on Russian territory, including the Belgorod region, from which attacks going out there”. The exact timing of the offensive, according to Skibitsky, depends on a number of factors, including the supply of Western weapons. Two days ago, after the meeting in Ramstein, the Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov clarified that “the supply of equipment to Ukraine depends mainly on the army’s training period”. “In a few months, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be fully ready: then, according to the decision of the General Staff, certain events will occur”.
February 26, 2023 10:51 am
Putin: “The Russian people would not survive a fragmentation of the federation”
According to Vladimir Putin, the Russian people could not survive the dissolution of the Russian Federation if its individual parts were placed under Western control. This is what the Russian President said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel.
February 26, 2023 10:50 am
Putin: ‘Western goal is to liquidate Russia’
“The West has only one goal: to liquidate the Russian Federation.” This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with the Russian TV channel Rossiya-1. According to Putin, the unity of the Russian nation is the key to its successes. The Russian people are unsurpassed when they stick together and are united,” he added. The West, according to the Kremlin chief, “could only include Russia in the ‘family of civilized nations’ by splitting it into separate parts. (…) And why that? To be able to command and control them as he pleases,” Putin added.
February 26, 2023 10:49 am
Zelenskyy: “Even if we make peace, Ukraine will have to defend itself for at least 10 years”
Even if Ukraine were to sign the toughest of all peace treaties, the threat of Russian aggression could resurface. It is therefore necessary to build a Ukrainian state that will be able to defend itself in the future: the words of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, excerpted from an interview he gave to Ukrainian media and downloaded from the website of the Ukrainian President was reported. “We need guarantees.” Italy among the friendly countries of Kiev. According to Zelenskyy, during the Istanbul negotiation process with Russia last spring, in the early phase of the war, his country rejected not only the non-existent application for ‘denazification’ but also the demilitarization demanded by Moscow: “We said that our army must agree with what we have to defend our state.” In fact, the Kiev leader continues, “we think that Russia could try again in a few years, even if we sign the strictest agreements”. However, Zelenskyy added that his country cannot constantly fight while other countries are developing: Ukraine needs precise guarantees for this. There must be a list of guarantee countries that must ensure that certain points are implemented. “All of this will be discussed at an advisory level and with the leaders of France, the US, Turkey, the UK, Poland, Italy, Israel and many other friends who wish to attend. But so far – added Zelensky – we have not received a precise list of guarantees and a list of countries ready to follow us 100%”. “We don’t need 40 countries of the world ready to unite and fight for Ukraine on the basis of an agreement. We need serious actors but willing to do anything. We need a group of states willing to deliver any weapon within 24 hours. We need individual countries on which a sanctions policy depends, so that the sanctions can be worked out in depth in advance. So as soon as we suspect a threat from the Russian Federation, these countries unite and implement all (retaliatory measures) in three days, block everything. “If they offer us to join NATO starting tomorrow and they don’t play with our lives again but they make a serious offer to join, we will join. But unfortunately that will not happen and has not happened so far. To do this, we must build up those guarantees that protect us, protect people’s lives. We are still able to protect ourselves (…), but protecting all people is a more difficult task,” said Zelenskyy, repeating that both Crimea and Donbass are “Ukrainian territories”. “I believe that all our people will be our great army,” added the Ukrainian leader, after whom his country may not become the “Switzerland of the future,” but certainly a “big Israel” with members of Ukraine and the National Guard in all institutional offices, in supermarkets and cinemas, that there will be armed people. I’m sure the security issue will be number one for the next ten years,” concludes Zelensky.