Månad: juni 2022

The war in Ukraine is a multi-dimensional disaster, which is likely to get much worse in the foreseeable future. When a war is successful, little attention is paid to its causes, but when the outcome is disastrous, understanding how it happened becomes paramount. People want to know: how did we get into this terrible situation? […]

Simply put, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is a colossal disaster, which as I noted at the start of my talk, will lead people all around the world to search for its causes. Those who believe in facts and logic will quickly discover that the United States and its allies are mainly responsible for this train wreck. The April 2008 decision to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO was destined to lead to conflict with Russia. The Bush administration was the principal architect of that fateful choice, but the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations have doubled down on that policy at every turn and America’s allies have dutifully followed Washington’s lead. Even though Russian leaders made it perfectly clear that bringing Ukraine into NATO would be crossing “the brightest of red lines,” the United States refused to accommodate Russia’s deepest security concerns and instead moved relentlessly to make Ukraine a Western bulwark on Russia’s border. Läs artikel

Läs också historik om Ukraina-Nato.

– Russland brukte plattformene som en militær installasjon for å lagre utstyr til luftforsvar, radarkrigføring og rekognosering, sier talsperson Sergij Bratsjuk fra militæradministrasjonen i Odesa tirsdag.

Det skulle bidra til at Russland skulle klare å oppnå full kontroll over den nordvestlige delen av Svartehavet, ifølge Bratsjuk. Krim-halvøya er folkerettslig en del av Ukraina, men ble annektert av Russland i 2014. Russland meldte om angrepet mandag og sa at det var boreplattformene til Tsjernomorneftegaz, et olje- og gasselskap som opererer på Krim-halvøya, som ble angrepet. Det var tidligere eid og driftet av det ukrainske gasselskapet Naftogaz.

Den prorussiske lederen for myndighetene på Krim-halvøya sa mandag at sju personer er savnet etter angrepet. Läs artikel

Viktor Vorobyev has been arrested for his participation in an anti-war rally and repeatedly bashed Putin’s regional establishment. In May, the member of the State Council in the Komi Republic became the first Russian regional legislator to be put on the country’s list of so-called Foreign Agents.

“This is an unjust and immoral war that will bring Russia and Ukraine nothing but blood, tears and poverty,” Vorobyev underlined in an address recorded only few days after the massive Russian onslaught on the neighbouring country.

“There can be found no justification for this war in international law, and the Russian political and military leadership’s violation of the UN Charter is evident for the whole Free World,” he stressed, and added that he “without conditions condemns the attack on Ukraine and calls for immediate end to war actions.” Läs artikel

The secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, assured that Moscow will adopt measures that would have a “serious negative impact” on Lithuania if the partial blockade of some products to the enclave of Kaliningrad is not lifted. Vilnius defends that it is only applying the sanctions imposed by the European Union. […]

Visiting the area, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, warned that Russia “will undoubtedly react to these hostile actions” and anticipated that the possible measures would cause a “serious negative impact” on the Lithuanian population, although he did not specify what they would be. These would represent a response to the blockade imposed by the EU on products such as steel and other ferrous metals, cement, alcohol and fertilizers.

The Russian authorities assure that traffic has been affected by both highways and railways and that the blockade reaches other basic products, accusations that were denied by Vilnius.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte stated that the restrictions affect only products included in the latest EU punishment package and that “the transport of all other goods that are not sanctioned or not yet subject to sanctions continues, while just like passenger traffic.

The president pointed out that the Russian complaints are part of her propaganda campaign and ironized about Moscow’s complaints about the alleged violation of the agreement for Kaliningrad, signed between Russia and the EU when Lithuania joined the bloc in 2002. “I don’t know if Is there any international treaty that Russia has not yet violated,” Simonyte questioned. […]

According to the Russian Government, the EU measures violate the 1994 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement and the 2002 Joint Declaration on transit between Kaliningrad and the rest of the territory of the Russian Federation. Läs artikel

– Et av de viktigste spørsmålene har vært om vårt svar på de litauiske tiltakene vil være bare diplomatiske. Svaret på dette er nei.

Det sa pressetalskvinne Maria Zakharova i det russiske utenriksdepartementet onsdag.

Samtidig advarte den russiske viseutenriksministeren Sergej Rjabkov Nato og USA mot å bruke trusselen om artikkel 5 i Nato-pakten i forbindelse med det som nå skjer. […]

Pressetalsmann i det amerikanske utenriksdepartementet Ned Price sa på en orientering tirsdag at Nato-paktens artikkel 5 om gjensidig forsvar står fast, også når det gjelder mulige tiltak fra Russland overfor Litauen.

Det var i helgen den litauiske jernbanen gjorde det klart at den ikke lenger vil tillate transittrafikk til og fra Kaliningrad-enklaven av varer som er omfattet av EUs sanksjoner mot Russland. Dette gjelder blant annet bygningsmaterialer, kull, metaller og sement. Ifølge guvernøren i Kaliningrad, Anton Alikhanov, er dette varer som utgjør mellom 40 og 50 prosent av alle varer som fraktes med jernbane gjennom Litauen til og fra Kaliningrad. […]

Transporten med passasjerer og varer som ikke er omfattet av sanksjonene skal fortsatt få passere gjennom Litauen med tog. Dette ifølge en melding som det litauiske utenriksdepartementet sendte ut mandag. Litauen har forsvart tiltakene som nå innføres med at de er helt i tråd med de sanksjonene som EU har innført mot Russland. […]

Nato har etter det russiske angrepet på Ukraina, økt sin militære tilstedeværelse i både Polen og Litauen betydelig. Norske soldater er en del av en tyskledet styrke på rundt 1600 menn og kvinner plassert i Rukla, 140 kilometer nord for grensen mellom Polen og Litauen. […]

Russland er nå mer avhengig enn noen gang av luftrommet og sjøen for å forsyne Kaliningrad-enklaven. All transport må gå i det trange internasjonale farvannet over Finskebukten, mellom Finland og Estland. Läs artikel

Försvarsminister Peter Hultqvist (S):

Markus Wiechel har frågat mig om jag avser att vidta åtgärder i syfte att bistå Ukraina med att tillskansa sig mer ammunition, och vilka åtgärder han och andra i så fall kan förvänta sig.

Sverige har sedan den 28 februari 2022 vid flera tillfällen fattat beslut om att överföra försvarsmateriel till Ukrainas väpnade styrkor. Det rör bland annat pansarskott, fältarbetsmateriel inom området minröjning, hjälmar och skyddsvästar. Sverige har vidare skänkt 500 miljoner kronor till den ukrainska centralbanken för de väpnade styrkornas behov samt 50 miljoner kronor till en Natofond för Ukraina.

Den 17 juni 2022 fattade regeringen beslut om en proposition till riksdagen om ytterligare stöd till Ukrainas väpnade styrkor i form av sjömålsrobotar av typen sjömålsrobot 17, automatgevär med ammunition samt ytterligare pansarskott. I propositionen föreslås också ytterligare ekonomiskt bidrag till den ukrainska centralbankens fond till stöd för landets väpnade styrkor om ca 578 miljoner kronor, 60 miljoner kronor till den fond som Nato har inrättat i syfte att stödja Ukraina samt 100 miljoner kronor till stöd för Ukraina inom det civila området genom insatser via Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap.

Regeringen följer kontinuerligt situationen i Ukraina och bedömer därvid, i nära dialog och samordning med andra länder, möjligheten att lämna ytterligare stöd. Läs svaret

Till Valdis Dombrovskis vice president i EU-kommissionen.

[…] If we could accelerate our work to conclude and implement negotiated trade agreements, we would bolster our economic and trade interests and increase the EU’s overall credibility as a serious trade partner. This would ensure our access to key foreign markets, our long-term economic growth, and our geopolitical standing in the world.

Russia’s war on Ukraine shows that the EU’s strategic choices do not take place in a vacuum, but in a global context where different powers and economic blocks are vying for leadership and new partnerships. This year, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) between ASEAN and Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand enters into force. It is the world’s largest trade agreement and follows hot on the heels of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). This should be a wake-up call for Europe. With RCEP in place, Japan will have free trade agreements covering 80 per cent of its trade. The EU’s trade agreements cover only about a third of our external trade. With 85 per cent of the world’s future growth projected to occur outside the EU, we need to do better than this. […]

In conclusion, the EU needs to urgently continue to pursue an open and fair international trade policy. This forward-leaning trade agenda would be in the spirit of the EU Single Market – our greatest achievement. It would be the right response to the current security crisis and other global challenges. Läs brevet

U.S. policymakers often point to the Western sanctions levied on Russia as evidence of a unified international response to the war in Ukraine. For example, when asked by a reporter last week about whether French president Emmanuel Macron’s peace overtures raised concerns that transatlantic unity could hold up “under pressure,” U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Michael Carpenter responded by pointing to the European Union’s (EU) six sanctions packages as evidence that there is “tremendous unity” with only “[o]ccasional differences on tactics.”

Yet, upon close examination, the fissures and divides that existed in Europe prior to the Russo-Ukrainian War have not disappeared. Unless the Biden administration executes a sharp change in policy, divides within the transatlantic coalition assembled against Russia risk making the United States a spectator, rather than a participant, in the peace process. If U.S. policymakers hope to have a hand in crafting a settlement that will set the stage for a lasting peace—and an eventual thaw in U.S.-Russia relations—they must adopt a different strategy that looks beyond the next lethal aid package sent to Kyiv. Läs artikel