If Congress doesn’t back Ukraine aid, that is going to “open a Pandora’s box of aggression” around the world, Blinken says. During the “direct line”, 21 per cent of Russians want to ask Putin when war will end. Ukrainian troops hold back Russian forces near Maryinka, repel 18 attacks.
If Congress doesn’t back Ukraine aid, that is going to “open a Pandora’s box of aggression” around the world, Blinken says
U.S. President Joe Biden called the prospect of allowing Ukraine aid to lapse “just wrong”.
“The failure to support Ukraine is just absolutely crazy. It’s against U.S. interests. It’s against the interests of the world. It’s just wrong. We’re going to get that in,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday night.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that the U.S. would be “responsible for Ukraine’s defeat” if Congress failed to approve the Biden administration’s multibillion-dollar funding request for Ukraine.
Speaking at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition 2023 Tribute Celebration, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underlined the importance of support for Ukraine to ensure that Russia “continues to fail in its aggression.”
“We need to ensure that Ukraine continues to succeed. We need to ensure that Russia continues to fail in its aggression against Ukraine. If we don’t, we know that if Putin is allowed to proceed with impunity, that is going to open a Pandora’s box of aggression around the world, Blinken said.
Additional funding is important so that the U.S. can also back Israel and more aid can reach civilians in Gaza, he added.
Ukraine aid is in peril as U.S. lawmakers disagree on border security that is part of the same package.
Republicans are demanding to implement hardline changes to immigration policy. Democrats say they are willing to make significant progress, changing the law and resources to reduce the number of people being led into the interior.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, the lead democratic negotiator on border policy changes, told reporters that Republicans refuse to abandon their hardline demands.
Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a roughly USD 111 billion national security package to provide aid to Ukraine and Israel, along with measures targeting the southern border.
During “direct line”, 21 per cent of Russians want to ask Putin when war will end
The most pressing questions the Russians have for President Putin during the “direct line”, his call-in show next week are about Russia’s war in Ukraine, a survey conducted by the Levada Center between November 23 and 29 found.
Twenty-one per cent wanted to ask about the war. Levada found people wanted to ask: “When will there be peace? When will the SVO [special military operation] end? When will we win? What will be done to end the operation? When will mobilization end?”
They are nearly three times as many as those whose most pressing matters were pensions and social programs.
Eight percent of Russians wanted to know when pensioners “will live normally” and ask about raising pensions and access to social services, a lack of affordable housing, poor-quality healthcare and education. Seven per cent want to ask about higher salaries and better living standards.
On December 14, Putin will hold the Direct Line event in which people from around the country ask questions. The event was cancelled last year amid the war he started in Ukraine. A group will filter incoming questions for the direct line, censoring the ones that “sow panic and have little to do with reality,” reports said.
Ukrainian troops hold back Russian forces near Maryinka, repel 18 attacks
On December 5, Ukrainian troops engaged in combat 97 times, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a morning report on Wednesday. Russian forces launched four missile and 104 air strikes at Ukrainian troops’ positions and civilian sites. They also carried out 101 attacks from multiple launch rocket systems.
The Ukrainian Air Force launched 15 air strikes on areas where the Russians had amassed troops, weapons and materiel. Four more air strikes hit Russian command posts and three more strikes struck air defense systems. Ukrainian troops also destroyed a Russian Su-24M (Fencer) bomber.
In the past day, Ukraine’s missile forces hit six areas of concentration of troops, weapons and materiel, a command post, an ammunition depot, two electronic warfare systems, and 11 artillery systems, the report said.
Why we should remember Holodomor in today’s context? Ukraine in Flames #542
For more than half a century, Ukrainians were forbidden to remember the terrible events of 1932-33 – the Soviet authorities did everything to destroy any evidence and brutally punished those who remembered. The memory of the Holodomor was preserved in a neurotic attitude towards food and food supplies, in secret conversations with older relatives, whose stories sounded like very scary tales. But in the end, eyewitnesses and survivors of the Holodomor lived to see Ukrainian Independence, leaving us their testimonies. Watch Ukraine in flames #542 to find out about the importance of preserving and passing on the memory of historical crimes to prevent the repetition of such mistakes.
Guests:
- Volodymyr Viatrovych, Historian, People’s Deputy of Ukraine
- Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, People’s Deputy of Ukraine, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the European Union
- Ihor Stokoz, Public Activist
