USA and Canada

Russia Battles Its Own Weapon Systems in Ukraine — As US Provides Over A $Billion in Arms

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — Perhaps one of the biggest ironies of the current military conflict is that Ukraine may be using mostly Soviet-era weapons against the Russians, including combat helicopters, T-64 battle tanks and AT-6 anti-tank missiles acquired from the former USSR.

But that military scenario is expected to change significantly with increased security assistance and fresh arms supplies both from Europe, and most importantly, from the US, amounting to over a staggering $1.0 billion dollars.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 03 March 2022

Image: Nuclear warheads shot outside the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CC BY Flickr: Megan Eaves

A Conflict Over Ukraine Embroils Four of the World’s Major Nuclear Powers

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The spiraling crisis in Ukraine has an ominous underlying fact: it is a conflict that involves four of the world’s major nuclear powers: the US, Russia, UK and France, with the remaining five, namely China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel on the sidelines as spectators—at least so far.

Mercifully, the nuclear option is not on the negotiating table—but it is still very much in the air.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 27 February 2022

Photo: A US Navy P-2H Neptune of VP-18 flying over a Soviet cargo ship with crated Il-28s on deck during the Cuban Crisis. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Ukraine-Russia: Understanding the Concern of The Other

Viewpoint by Dr Chandra Muzaffar

The writer is the president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) in Malaysia. This article was issued by CounterCurrents.

SELANGOR, Malaysia (IDN) — The mainstream Western media is almost unanimous in demanding that Russia and Vladimir Putin stop their military operation in Ukraine immediately. This in their opinion is the only solution to the current conflict. However, if one attempts to understand how the current conflict had evolved, one would ask not Russia but the US led Western alliance to bring down the political temperature as a first step.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Russia; 26 February 2022

Photo: Airmen load security assistance cargo for Ukraine aboard a C-17 Globemaster III at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., Feb. 14, 2022. Photo By: Air Force Senior Airman Karla Parra

Ukraine-Russia: With Activation of NATO Response Force, U.S. Military Ready to Provide Forces

By C. Todd Lopez

This article was issued by U.S. Department of Defense.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on February 25 activation of the alliance's defense plans, which means also that it can deploy the NATO Defense Force. The U.S. Defense Department now stands ready to provide capabilities to help fill that defense force, if asked to do so, said Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby.

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 26 February 2022

Photo: Former US National Security Advisor, late Zbigniew Brzezinski, at the 50th Munich Security Conference in 2014. Credit: CC BY 3.0

Ukraine Should Have a Policy Of 'Non-Involvement With NATO', Opined Zbigniew Brzezinski

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The truth is this whole Russian-Ukrainian-Western confrontation could be largely solved if the Ukrainian and Western sides wrote on paper that they don’t want to see Ukraine in NATO. This is the key issue for Russia. But it must be written down. Moscow no longer trusts verbal understandings that can be broken, as when the Reagan and Bush (Senior) Administrations gave President Mikhail Gorbachev the distinct impression that the US would not take advantage of the Soviet Union now that the Cold War was over, but it did.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 26 February 2022

“They”, The Blob, Are Pushing for War Over Ukraine

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — You can insult them, call them the “Blob”, “group thinkers”, or even worse. You can challenge their scholarship and their prejudices. You can demonstrate that the policies they advocated for former wars were dead wrong and met failure. You can prove they don’t know their history and that they are prone to over-simplification. But nothing appears to reduce their influence, as the simmering conflict over Ukraine shows.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 21 February 2022

Image credit: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)

Ukraine Conflict: Need to Re-Evaluate NATO's Role

Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies*

NEW YORK (IDN) — Every day brings new noise and fury in the crisis over Ukraine, mostly from Washington. But what is really likely to happen? There are three possible scenarios:

The first is that Russia will suddenly launch an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 18 February 2022

Photo: The Chinese naval amphibious dock landing ship Wuzhishan is seen berthing in the Nuku'alofa Port, Tonga on February 15, 2022. Credit: CCTV-7 official WeChat account.

South Pacific: US Announce New South Pacific Strategy to Counter China

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Marking the first visit by a US Secretary of State in 37 years to South Pacific’s major power Fiji, Antony Blinken during his 8-hour stay on February 13 insisted that the US is a Pacific nation and unveiled a raft of new strategies to better engage with the nations across the vast South Pacific Ocean.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 17 February 2022

Photo: People walk past a residential building destroyed by shelling in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Credit: Ashley Gilbertson | UNICEF

Ukraine: UN Chief Keen to Help Defuse Tensions Between Russia and the Western Countries of NATO

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has made his "good offices" available for a peaceful solution to the looming "disastrous confrontation over Ukraine between Russia and Western countries of the NATO alliance", pledging he "will remain fully engaged in the hours and days to come" and will "leave no stone unturned" in the search for ways to defuse tensions.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 15 February 2022

Photo: A general view of the UN Security Council. Credit: UN

India Trapped on A Tightrope in Big Power Games

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran *

This article was issued by WION and DNA, and is being re-published with the writer's permission.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — India’s diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing this week was another balancing act of a piece with its position on Ukraine in the UN Security Council meeting last week. In both cases, the Government of India made a virtue of not taking a stand by appearing to take a stand.