First and second, Associated Press and Reuters reports. Next, analyses of Israel’s change in Russia policy and oil companies profiteering from the war, both via Consortium News. Then, from Global Research, several perspectives of an apparent massacre of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, this month that run counter to the Ukrainian government’s accounts and news coverage of it. — MCM
– – –
Ukraine pleads for weapons as fight looms on eastern front, by Adam Schreck and Andrea Rosa | The Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine told residents of its industrial heartland to leave while they still can and urged Western nations to send “weapons, weapons and weapons” Thursday after Russian forces withdrew from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup for an offensive in the country’s east. Russia’s six-week-old invasion failed to take Ukraine’s capital quickly and achieve what Western countries say was President Vladimir Putin’s initial aim of ousting the Ukrainian government. Russia’s focus is now on the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region in eastern Ukraine. In Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons and help his war-torn country prevent further alleged atrocities. Ukrainian authorities are working to identify hundreds of bodies found in Kyiv’s northern outskirts after Russian troops withdrew and to document evidence of possible war crimes. ”My agenda is very simple. … it’s weapons, weapons and weapons,” Kuleba said as he arrived at NATO headquarters for . . . READ MORE . . .
– – –
Thousands of goods railcars stuck at Ukraine’s border as war hits exports, by Silvia Aloisi and Pavel Polityuk | Reuters LVIV, Ukraine — In western Ukraine, some 1,100 train wagons carrying grain are stuck near the main rail border crossing with Poland, unable to transport their cargo abroad. They are just some of the 24,190 wagons carrying various goods for export, including vegetable oil, iron ore, metals, chemicals and coal, that were waiting to cross Ukraine’s Western border as of Tuesday, according to data from the state-run railway company that hasn’t previously been reported. With war raging along the country’s southern coast, and its main ports blocked off by Russia’s invasion, Ukraine is struggling to export its grain and other goods, according to . . . READ MORE . . .
– – –
Israel, Russia Clash over Ukraine, by Joe Lauria | Consortium News From the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Israel has refused to join the West’s economic war against Moscow, maintaining a neutral stance that as positioned it as a possible broker to end the conflict. But all that appears to have changed with remarks by Israel’s foreign minister in a Twitter post on Sunday, the day the massacre at Bucha was revealed and before any investigation could be conducted. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid wrote . . . READ MORE . . .
– – –
U.S. Oil Giants Said Profiteering From Ukraine Crisis. By Jessica Corbett | Common Dreams An analysis released Tuesday by a trio of groups highlights how Big Oil has cashed in on various crises over the past year — including the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the global climate emergency —while enriching wealthy shareholders. The new report from BailoutWatch, Friends of the Earth, and Public Citizen explains that there are two main tactics that fossil fuel giants use to benefit investors: “First, they repurchase shares of their own stock and retire them, reducing the number of shares outstanding and driving up the value of each share remaining in investors’ hands. , , , Second, they increase dividends, the quarterly payments investors receive for owning shares,” the report continues. “Oil and gas dividends, historically bigger than other sectors’, have spiked in recent months, outstripping every other industry group. Amid high gas prices and war in recent months . . . “ READ MORE . . .
– – –
U.S.-NATO False Flags? Ukraine April 2022 vs. Kosovo January 1999, by Michel Chossudovsky | Global Research What is a false flag? “A false flag is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it. Nations have often done this by staging a real or simulated attack on their own side and saying the enemy did it, as a pretext for going to war,” according to a BBC definition. [Chossudovsky’s introduction summarizes his views of two massacres more than 23 years apart in two countries, including the role of the Office for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in investigating both, and then links to several articles about the massacre this month in Bucha, Ukraine. READ MORE . . .
– – –
TO BE CONTINUED