Month: November 2023

Is the IAEA ignoring AFU attacks on Kursk NPP?

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From Strategic Stability

Report # 297. Kiev continues its nuclear terrorism in Russia

29 October 2023 

On October 28, 2023 Russian MFA issued a comment on the Kiev regime’s terrorist attack on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant or KuNPP located in Russia. It has been stated that in the evening of October 26, 2023 the Ukrainian Armed Forces intentionally attacked the KKuNPP with three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) loaded with high explosives (HE).

One of the UAVs crashed into a nuclear waste warehouse and damaged its walls. The other two fell on the plant’s administrative building complex. The UAVs used to attack the nuclear power plant had components supplied by Western countries.

This incident clearly showed that the criminal Kiev regime will stop at nothing, including acts of nuclear terrorism. They could not but realize that the UAV attack could have resulted in a full-scale nuclear disaster that would have affected many countries. There could have been no other objectives set for attacking a nuclear power plant, a purely peaceful infrastructure facility.

By attacking the Kursk NPP, the Kiev regime put itself on a par with the most odious terrorist organizations. The fact that this crime could not have been committed without the permission and, possibly, a direct order of its Western curators is of particular concern.

Russian Foreign Ministry called on all Governments to strongly condemn Kiev’s barbaric actions, which are extremely dangerous and can lead to irreparable consequences. The ministry expressed hope that relevant international organizations, environmental NGOs and civil society could also give an appropriate assessment of this act of nuclear terrorism.

It was not the first case when AFU tried to destroy some Russian NPP by UAV attacks and other arms. There have dozens of such incidents arranged by Kiev military junta against Zaporozhye NPP not controlled by AFU for more than a year. It used artillery shells and MRLS with the aim to destroy it. Three times AFU sent their commandos’ teams across the adjacent Kakhovka Rezervoir to capture ZNPP. All attempts have been disrupted.

Unfortunately, in all such cases the IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi responded in the way like three monkeys sitting in an ancient statuette: “I do not see anything, I do not hear anything and I do not tell anybody”.

In his written statement # 191 issued after the attack on October 27th, 2023 only a simple information appeared:

“… the IAEA is aware of Russian reports of three drones identified in an area near the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (KuNPP) in the south of the Russian Federation, one of which exploded causing minor damage to the façade of the building where spent nuclear fuel is stored. It is reported there were no casualties and the radiation levels at the site of the KuNPP do not exceed the established norms”.

And a minor revelation:

“This week’s events show that nuclear safety and security remains potentially precarious, not only at the Zaporizhzhya [Ukrainian spelling] Nuclear Power Plant. The IAEA will remain present at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities to monitor and inform the world about developments. We will continue to do everything in our power to help prevent a nuclear accident during the military conflict”.

That is all. It means: The IAEA does not care if the KuNPP is attacked by AFU.

Because it is located not in Ukraine.

DU, military bio agents and radioactive waste in Ukraine

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From Strategic Stability

Report # 302. DEPLETED URANIUM IN UKRAINE: SELF-POISONING

November 17,2023

1. The West poisons the West

Radiation safety threats associated with the use of depleted uranium (DU) shells by Ukrainian formations have significantly increased. This was stated by Secretary of the Russian national Security Council Nikolay Patrushev at a meeting on national security held in Voronezh city on 16 November, 2023.

According to him, Moscow has repeatedly warned about the disastrous consequences of the West’s supplies of DU shells to Ukraine. “We have emphasized that their use will harm human health and nature for many decades, both in Ukraine and in Europe. Our warnings were not heeded,” Patrushev stated.

As a result of the destruction of warehouses with DU shells supplied by the Anglo-Saxons in order to prevent their use against Russia, Europeans have been recording increased radiation in their countries for several months, he said,

“Last week, the European Committee on Radiation Risk noted an increase in the number of uranium particles in the air in southeastern England as a consequence of the movement of air masses from western Ukraine,” the secretary of the Russian Security Council added.

In his opinion, this eloquently shows that the political elites of the Western countries supplying weapons to the Ukrainian regime are completely unconcerned about the safety and health of their own population.

2. Kiev may lose control over bioagents

According to Nikolay Patrushev, there is a high probability that the Ukrainian side will completely lose control over the biological agents that are still located on Ukrainian territory.

“Unauthorized access to collections of dangerous pathogens, destruction and looting of laboratory premises, as well as loss of biological samples cannot be ruled out. The probability of committing terrorist acts and sabotage with the use of biological agents has increased,” the secretary of the Russian Security Council stated.

He also warned that under the conditions of continuing significant migration flows, including refugees and internally displaced persons from Ukraine, the risks of infectious diseases entering the territory of Russia are increasing.

Patrushev also drew attention to the fact that the United States continues to work actively within the framework of military biological programs to create artificial pathogens and microorganisms resistant to antibiotics, standard vaccines and traditional therapies.

In particular, he recalled that Washington has deployed a network of biolaboratories on the territory of Ukraine and other states bordering Russia. Among other things, they conduct military-biological research and experiments using biomaterials, including those taken from representatives of Slavic peoples.

As Patrushev noted, the actions of the Americans in placing bio-laboratories in close proximity to Russia’s borders and expanding the range of military biological research undoubtedly create serious biological threats and require the development of effective measures to eliminate them.

“At the same time, under far-fetched pretexts, the Anglo-Saxons are hindering the creation of verification mechanisms within the framework of the Concept for the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons designed to bring under international control the biological activity of States Parties to the Convention,” Patrushev stated.

3. Additional menace: radioactive waste

The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that the situation with the storage of hazardous radioactive waste in Ukraine is taking a dramatic and uncontriolled turn.

Indeed, the total amount of waste generated from the processing of uranium ores at the Prydniprovsky Chemical Plant located in the city of Kamenskoye (formerly Dniprodzerzhinsk) amounts to 42 million tons. There are several storage facilities and workshops with a total area of about 600 hectares for their storage at the plant and beyond, the MFA stated.

These wastes are a significant and dangerous source of environmental pollution. There is a high probability of about 12 million tons of radioactive waste entering the Dnieper River and groundwater as a result of possible scouring of the dam of one of the storage facilities located 800 meters from the river and its tributary Konoplyanka.

About 14 tons of radioactive dust is spread annually in the surrounding area, including on agricultural land.

Kiev does not allocate funding to ensure the environmental safety of the facilities of the Prydniprovsky Chemical Plant, which may eventually lead to an environmental disaster not only in the territory controlled by the Kiev regime, but also beyond its borders.

4. Results on the battlefield on November 16, 2023

In total since the SMO began on February 24, 2022, 536 Ukrainian airplanes and 254 helicopters; 8,960 unmanned aerial vehicles; 441 air defence missile systems; 13,426 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles; 1,184 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS; 7,121 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 15,312 units of special military equipment have been destroyed.

Armistice Day and the Empire – a name change and the catastrophe that followed

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By Mathew Hoh
November 9, 2023

Veterans For Peace, London, Remembrance Sunday, 2016. Never Again was the banner carried by veterans following WWI. Photo: Ellen Davidson.

In 1954, the US Congress renamed Armistice Day to Veterans Day. The stated reason was to remember all generations of US veterans, not just veterans from the First World War. Congress advanced this rationale on the disingenuous notion that Armistice Day’s purpose was a celebration of veterans. It was not. Armistice Day’s purpose was to serve as a reminder of the horrors of the First World War and carry forward the declaration of those veterans of Never Again.

For a US government implementing a militarized Cold War foreign policy in 1954, a reconciliation-based holiday was inconvenient and problematic. A holiday celebrating veterans would present no critique of war or advocacy of peace; it would do the opposite. As we have seen repeatedly since 1954, Veterans Day and other aspects of “support the troops” rhetoric have been used to shout down dissent towards American wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq and suppress criticism of America’s massive overseas military empire and gargantuan Pentagon budgets. The veneration of veterans, almost always obligatorily referred to as heroes, became quasi-deification. In my life, I have seen my military service elevated to near clerical levels, reflecting a pseudo-religious treatment of America’s military caste, best exemplified by the reflexive and ritual-like statements of “thank you for your service.” The political calculus behind the name change was correct.

The militarized foreign policy of the Cold War did not just remain when the Cold War ended but became turbo-charged. The results of that militarized foreign policy have been disastrous for US national security and worldwide stability. The tremendous suffering of entire nations of people, as well as American veterans and their families, cannot be overstated.

Harry Patch was the last living veteran of the trenches of WWI. Photo: Matthew Hoh

Our celebration of war that accompanies each annual Veterans Day is reflected yearlong through our politics, news media, Hollywood, and education system. The consequences of this militarization do not stop with the death and destruction from the instability and wars but include the growth of a ravenous military-industrial complex, a Leviathan, at the expense of our economy and society. With 60% of the federal discretionary budget going to the Pentagon, military contractors and to pay the costs of past wars, the opportunity costs to American communities who are told there is not enough money for healthcare, education, environmental protection and other needs are severe.

That change from Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954 signaled a conversion of the American government and its purposes. While the US was an empire before the Second World War, the victory in 1945 created an America that was The Empire. We have been reaping the consequences of that transformation ever since.

Imagine what would be now if, rather than policies derived from a jingoistic narrative of good wars and honorable slaughters, we had preceded with the wisdom of those men from 1918 and followed their admonition of Never Again. Returning to Armistice Day would not simply restore the holiday’s original name but would signal a commitment to peace, stability, prosperity, and hope for future generations. As we endure veteran suicide epidemics, bear a hollow economy and fragile communities, witness our government direct and contribute to the great and unholy carnage in Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, and recognize the twin existential catastrophes of nuclear war and climate change, what Armistice Day can represent does not sound simply aspirational but entirely necessary.

https://matthewhoh.substack.com/p/armistice-day-and-the-empire
Article with footnotes