Musings From Abroad

Unrepentant Putin threatens ‘lightning-fast strikes’ on Western countries who intervene in the Ukraine war

Published

3 years ago

April 28, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin, has threatened to meet Western nations’ intervention in Ukraine with a ‘lightning-fast strikes” military response, warning that the Russian army is prepared to deliver these strikes with strategic weapons believed to be the much touted nuclear weapons.

Putin who was speaking to Russian parliamentarians in St. Petersburg said:

“If someone decides to intervene in current events in Ukraine from the outside and creates unacceptable strategic threats for Russia, then they must know that our response, our retaliatory strikes, will be lightning-fast, quick.

“We have all the tools for this – such that no one else can boast of right now. And we won’t brag – we’ll use them if needed! And everyone should know about it! All decisions in this regard have already been made,” the unrepentant Putin said.

The belligerent threat from Putin came on Wednesday as Russia claimed to have carried out a missile strike in southern Ukraine that destroyed a “large batch” ofweapons supplied by Western countries including the United Kingdom and the United States.

“We want countries aiding Ukraine to get it into their heads that to meddle in ongoing events from the side and create unacceptable strategic threats for Russia, they must know that our response to counterpunches will be lightning-quick”, said the Russian leader.

The Russian president is also convinced that his country will withstand the economic pressure from heavy sanctions and high military spending in the fight against Ukraine, adding that the West is “erroneous in its opinion that Russia as a country is unnecessary and poses a threat to the whole world.”

This is not the first time Putin has issued a dire threat to Western nations since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Shortly before the invasion, the Russian strongman had warned that any country that become involved with his invasion of Ukraine that they would face “consequences greater than any you have faced in history.”

He had made the remarks as part of his speech in which he announced the invasion and immediately after the speech, the Ukrainian foreign ministry reported attacks in numerous cities.

Putin has also used similar arguments to justify the attack, often saying his country was only acting in self-defense against the eastward expansion of NATO and as a means of protecting Ukrainians from “nazification” and a “genocide.”

Related Topics:Featured Nuclear Weapons Russia Ukraine

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Musings From Abroad

UN Security Council deliberates stance on Sudan war

Published

3 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The UN Security Council is discussing a British-drafted resolution calling on Sudan’s warring parties to stop hostilities and permit safe, quick, and unimpeded assistance supplies across borders and front lines.

The world’s largest relocation crisis began in April 2023 when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged in a power battle ahead of a planned transfer to civilian administration.

Waves of ethnically motivated violence have resulted, with the RSF mostly to blame. The RSF has blamed the action on rogue actors and denies causing harm to civilians in Sudan. Two RSF generals were named last week by a Security Council committee in the first U.N. sanctions levied during the ongoing conflict.

“Nineteen months into the war, both sides are committing egregious human rights violations, including the widespread rape of women and girls,” Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, told reporters at the start of this month as Britain assumed the Security Council’s presidency for November.

“More than half the Sudanese population are experiencing severe food insecurity,” she said. “Despite this, the SAF and the RSF remain focussed on fighting each other and not the famine and suffering facing their country.”

According to diplomats, Britain wants to vote on the draft resolution as soon as possible. A resolution must receive nine votes or more to pass and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

Nearly 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require aid, according to the U.N., since 11 million people have abandoned their homes and famine has spread to displacement camps. Of those, around 3 million have departed for other nations.

In its draft language, Britain “demands that the warring parties immediately cease hostilities” and “demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately halt its offensives” throughout Sudan.

It also “calls on the parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate the full, safe, rapid, and unhindered crossline and cross-border humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.”

Additionally, the draft urges that assistance deliveries continue to be made through the Adre border crossing with Chad “and stresses the need to sustain humanitarian access through all border crossings, while humanitarian needs persist, and without impediments.”

Sudanese authorities have permitted the U.N. and relief organisations to enter Darfur through the Adre border crossing for three months, ending in mid-November.

Musings From Abroad

South Africa worry Trump’s victory might affect climate fight

Published

6 days ago

November 10, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s environment minister has expressed concern about the potential effects of Donald Trump’s victory on climate change negotiations.

The demise of Germany’s coalition government this week and Trump’s election coincide with COP29 negotiations to address global warming, which experts credit for this year’s devastating hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves.

“We are concerned about America because we don’t know what they’re going to do … how (it) is going to approach COP,” South African Environment Minister Dion George told Reuters.

“Mr. Trump said that he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but we don’t know what will happen,” George added in a telephone interview on Friday.

International partners are concerned that the prospect of an administration led by Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, will de-motivate poor and middle-income countries who want rich nations to shoulder more of its financial burden.

South Africa, which is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas emitters and accounts for 30% of the continent’s emissions, has accepted $11.6 billion from rich nations, mainly in loans, for a switch from coal to renewable energy.

This is seen as a potential model for other ‘Global South’ countries who say financing pledges of $100 billion, which took years to come through, are insufficient.

“It’s certainly not enough. We need another target,” George said. “But then the question is: as the voter base is shifting in developed economies, are they actually going to pay it?”

The South African minister said he had been reassured by German officials that Europe’s stance at the COP29 climate talks will not be hurt by Berlin’s political crisis.

George said that Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s state secretary for international climate action, had contacted him to say it will be up to the European Union to maintain leadership.

“Their position is not changed and that is how they will approach COP,” George said, adding: “They’re on Team Europe. The European Union and German have clearly set out their objectives.”