Russia Prepares for Nuclear War
FILE PHOTO © AP / Lee Jin-man
Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
If news reports from the past few days are accurate, it appears that the conflict in Ukraine is about to go nuclear, as Russia prepares itself for nuclear attacks from NATO.
EU sets up ‘nuclear’ stockpile on Russian border
Finland will be home to a “strategic reserve” for atomic and chemical emergency response
by RT.com
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it will set up the first strategic reserve of equipment and supplies, available to any EU member in response to potential chemical or nuclear incidents. The stockpile will be located in Finland, within easy reach of the Baltic states.
European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said the conflict in Ukraine “confirmed the need” to set up the stockpile, which “will provide the EU with a significant safety net enabling a quick and coordinated response at EU level.”
The hoard will include “critical medical countermeasures,” according to EuroNews, including “vaccines and antidotes, medical devices and field response equipment” needed to respond to “biological, radiological and nuclear accidents.”
Read the full article at RT.com.
‘Extremely Dangerous’: Russia Reacts to US Plans to Help Attack Crimea
The State Department appeared to confirm that the US is in discussions with Ukrainian officials on a potential offensive against the peninsula
by Dave DeCamp
AntiWar.com
Russian officials on Thursday reacted to a report from The New York Times that said the US was warming to the idea of helping Ukraine strike Crimea despite the risk of a Russian escalation.
When asked about the report on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price didn’t deny its contents and said, “Crimea is Ukraine,” as the US hasn’t recognized Crimea as Russian since Russia took control of it in 2014.
Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the US, responded to Price’s comments and the reports, likening the plans to potential “terrorist attacks” and warning of escalation.
“The State Department, through out-of-touch assertions that ‘Crimea is Ukraine’ and that the Armed Forces of Ukraine can use American weapons to protect their territory, is essentially pushing the Kiev regime to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia,” Antonov said, according to a press release from the Russian Embassy in the US.
“Hearing such remarks from Washington, the criminals in Kiev will once again feel complete permissiveness. The risks of conflict escalation will only increase,” he added.
Over in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the US delivering weapons for attacks on “Russian soil” was “extremely dangerous.” The Times report said that the Biden administration previously avoided supporting strikes on Crimea due to the risk of escalation, but that concern of Russia resorting to nuclear weapons has waned in Washington even though the risk clearly still exists.
“Naturally, the very discussion of the acceptability of supplying Ukraine with arms which would allow strikes to be delivered on Russian soil … is potentially extremely dangerous,” Peskov said. “This will mean taking the conflict to a whole new level which certainly will not bode well in terms of global European security.”
The US reasoning for being less concerned about escalation is based on the fact that Russia hasn’t used a nuclear weapon up to this point. But Moscow has shown a willingness to massively escalate the war in response to attacks on Crimea.
Russia didn’t start large-scale missile strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure until October, after the truck bombing of the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea to the Russian mainland. Since then, the bombardments have become routine, and millions of Ukrainians are struggling to power and heat their homes.
Read the full article at AntiWar.com.
Russian Orthodox Church Issues “End Of The World” Warning
by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News
ZeroHedge News
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has warned that any attempt to “destroy Russia” by “madmen” trying to impose their values will lead to “the end of the world.”
The comments were made by Patriarch Kirill after a religious service marking the Orthodox Christian holiday of Epiphany.
According to Patriarch Kirill, “madmen” are stupid enough to believe that Russia, which “has powerful weapons and is populated by extremely strong people,” can be defeated despite the fact that it has “never given in to an enemy and had always emerged victorious.”
The church leader also decried how such “madmen” were trying to “impose on them certain values that cannot even be called values, so that they would be like everyone else and obey those who have the power to control most of the world.”
“We pray to the Lord so that he enlightens those madmen and helps them understand that any desire to destroy Russia will mean the end of the world,” said Patriarch Kirill.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev made similar remarks when he asserted that Russia had “never lost a major conflict on which their fate depended” and that the result of defeat in a conventional war would be the triggering of nuclear war.
Read the full article at ZeroHedge News.
Pantsir Air Defense Systems Erected On Several Moscow Rooftops
Viral videos and photographs show that Russia has stationed missile defense systems on several Moscow building rooftops.
Taking note of some of the photos, The Drive writes that the “Russian military appears to have emplaced Pantsir air defense systems on top of at least two different government buildings in Moscow, including the Ministry of Defense’s headquarters.”
One video showed very large cranes lifting the entire surface-to-air battery from ground level to the top corner of a sprawling building. The Pantsir system can defend against everything from aircraft missiles to cruise missiles or drones.
The Drive continues, “The official reason for the apparent deployments is unclear, but Ukrainian forces have demonstrated their ability to conduct strikes at extended ranges using various types of drones. There could be other explanations, including this just being part of an ostensible exercise of some kind.”
Recent months have seen Ukraine send deadly drones an impressive 600km deep into Russia to attack the Engels military airfield. This suggests that other cities far from the Ukraine border could be vulnerable to attack.
The Moscow Times observed that “On Friday, reports emerged that another likely Pantsir-S1 system had been spotted 10 kilometers from President Vladimir Putin’s official residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow this month.”
The report added, “They follow sightings of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems at a national park and a testing ground in north and northeastern Moscow.”
The Kremlin has remained mum when asked about the anti-air systems being placed on buildings in Moscow on Friday.
Read the full article at ZeroHedge News.
Medvedev Warns Russia’s Defeat In Ukraine Would Mean Nuclear War
Outspoken former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the security council Dmitry Medvedev has issued his latest stark warning to the West on Thursday, saying that if Russia is on the brink of defeat, nuclear war is likely to follow. He made the comments in a post on the Telegram messaging app. “The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war,” he began.
“Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends,” the former president, who in prior years had actually been seen as more dovish when compared to Putin, added. Medvedev’s comments came in reaction to news of a major meeting of Western defense leaders set for Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
“Tomorrow, at NATO’s Ramstein base, the great military leaders will discuss new tactics and strategies, as well as the supply of new heavy weapons and strike systems to Ukraine,” he wrote.
The meeting in Germany is expected to involve military commanders and officials from some 50 countries, the bulk of them being from NATO, and will seek to gain consensus on moving forward in terms of military and strategic support for Ukraine.
Central to the discussion will be whether or not to provide heavy tanks and longer range missile systems, and there’s also the question of aircraft, given Zelensky’s persistent request to help “close the skies”.
According to at least one prominent international outlet, the Kremlin has backed Medvedev’s ultra-provocative nuclear remarks as Western allies gear up for the Friday meeting:
The Kremlin was quick to endorse Medvedev’s remarks, saying they were in full accordance with Moscow’s principles.
Moscow’s doctrine allows for a nuclear attack after “aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened”.
Medvedev hasn’t been shy about raising the specter of nuclear Armageddon throughout much of the 11-month conflict. He typically gives voice to the Kremlin’s ‘worst case’ – or most escalatory – way of thinking in response to the West escalation. His words often represent the ‘big stick’ approach from Moscow’s point of view.
Read the full article at ZeroHedge News.
