'Unlawful and Unhelpful’ for Britons to Fight in Ukraine: UK Military Chief
The UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff has urged Britons not to head to
Ukraine to fight against Russia, delivering a clear rebuke to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss after she expressed support for those joining the fight.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “We’ve been very clear that it’s unlawful as well as unhelpful for UK military and for the UK population to start going towards Ukraine in that sense.
“Support from the UK, support in whatever way you can. But this isn’t really something that you want to rush to in terms of the sound of gunfire. This is about sensible support based in the UK.”
Last week, Truss said she would “absolutely” support anyone who wanted to fight, with a number of Britons keen to help Ukraine defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Asked if the Foreign Secretary should not have made the suggestion, Sir Tony said: “I think she was reflecting (that) she could and that we can all understand that sentiment, and that sentiment needs to be channelled into support for Ukraine.
“But we’re saying as professional military people that actually that is not necessarily the sensible thing to be doing.”
Truss’s comments run contrary to the Foreign Office advice against all travel to Ukraine, and she has also been contradicted by Prime Minister
Boris Johnson and several other Cabinet colleagues who have warned Britons away.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the formation of an “international legion” to help defend his country and appealed to foreign volunteers to come forward, promising them arms to fight against Russian troops.
No-Fly Zone Would Not Help Ukraine: UK Armed Forces Chief
A no-fly zone “would not help” to defend
Ukraine, the head of the UK’s armed forces has said.
Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said the invasion in Ukraine “is not going well” for the Kremlin, with Russia’s military might not proving as strong as expected in the face of the Ukrainian resistance.
However, he said the key call of Kyiv—a no-fly zone—would not help those on the ground.
On Sunday, Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent reported the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had reiterated his demand as he said: “The world has the power to close our skies for Russian rockets and aircraft.”
Sir Tony told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “The advice that we as senior military professionals are giving our politicians is to avoid doing things that are tactically ineffective and definitely to avoid doing things that tactically might lead to miscalculation or escalation.
“The no-fly zone would not help.
“Most of the shelling is coming from artillery, most of the destruction is coming from artillery, it’s not coming from Russian aircraft.
“If we were to police a no-fly zone, it means that we probably have to take out Russian defence systems and we would have
NATO aircraft in the air alongside Russian aircraft, and then the potential of shooting them down and then that leads to an escalation.”
The view was echoed by Deputy Prime Minister
Dominic Raab, who said it would be “very difficult, very challenging”, but added “we will do everything short of that to support Ukrainians”.
“We’re not going to get ourselves into a direct military conflict with Putin because that would be a massive escalation, but also that feeds Putin’s narrative,” he told Trevor Phillips On Sunday on Sky News.
“Putin wants to say that he’s actually in a struggle with the West—he’s not.”
Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey also said the implementation of a no-fly zone would give the Russian president a “get-out-of-jail-free card”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told ITV News: “Everybody understands why we can’t have a no-fly zone, why direct military assistance is not possible. That means sanctions have to be the strongest we have ever seen, the most effective we’ve ever seen.”
Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly called for a no-fly zone but Vladimir Putin warned that imposing one would be considered “participation in the armed conflict”.
NATO has ruled it out as the alliance fears it would spark a wider conflict.
General Philip Breedlove, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told Times Radio allies should enforce a humanitarian no-fly zone, with different rules of engagement than a military one “whereby we talk to our enemy, and we say, we are not going to fire on you unless you fire on us”.
But Raab said he did not think Putin would agree to such a move.
He told Times Radio: “I think it’s interesting, I just can’t see why Russia would agree to that and what we’ve been clear on is we’re not going to get into direct military conflict between the UK or NATO and Russia.”
He added: “We’ve had ongoing discussions with all of our allies and, indeed, with the Russians, and if we thought that there was an easier or credible route to provide that humanitarian support, of course, we’d want to look at it more seriously.”
Australia Defence Minister Warns of Nuclear Danger in Imposing No Fly-Zone Over Ukraine
Australian Defence Minister
Peter Dutton has warned against imposing a no fly-zone over Ukraine, saying such a move would only help “if it didn’t lead to a nuclear conflict.”
It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised NATO for refusing to create a no-fly zone to stop Russia’s escalating attacks from the air, which he said would give “the green light to the bombing of Ukrainian cities and villages.”
Speaking in an interview with the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Dutton argued that a no fly-zone, which would ban unauthorised aircraft from flying over Ukraine, “would bring catastrophic results not only to Europe but to the whole world.”
“The difficulty here is if you provide more support and surge with troops … or you allow planes to be staged out of Poland or somewhere else, what is the next step and what is Putin’s next play?” Dutton said.
“He is holding out slightly veiled language, the threat of stepping up a nuclear conflict and that would be really catastrophic for Europe and the world.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously warned that Russian authorities consider any Western effort to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine as “participation in an armed conflict.”
Putin has also likened any economic sanctions on Russia to “an act of
war” and told Ukraine’s leaders that their nation will be blamed for risking “the future of Ukrainian statehood” if they continued to resist Russia’s demands.
Dutton noted that Australia’s intelligence analysts, Ukraine, NATO, and the rest of the world shared the same concern that Putin “has a view of erasing history and of conquering those countries around him and bringing back a re-unified USSR.”
“We need to be very clear about his intention, his capability. I think he has been significantly wounded out of this, both domestically and in terms of the international reputation that people have of Russia, and I think there will be internal discussions about the viability of his leadership going forward.”
He applauded Ukrainians for putting up a “magnificent resistance so far,” but added that there is a “sense of inevitability” for Putin to escalate his attacks in Ukraine.
“When you look at the sheer numbers and also the propensity for Putin to use chemical weapons or other weapons which would be used in a residential area, you just can’t imagine it, it would be a war crime,” he said.
The minister commented that if the Chinese Communist Party follows Russia’s behaviour and invades Taiwan, Australia does not rule out the possibility of going to the defence of Taiwan.
“We want peace to prevail in our region. But you don’t have that peace if you’re arguing from a position of weakness,” he said.
Gazprom Westbound Gas via Pipeline to Germany Hits a Snag
Russian natural gas heading westbound through the Yamal-Europe pipeline stopped on March 4, as
Gazprom’s bids for additional transit capacity via Ukraine stand at high levels, according to data from the Gascade pipeline operators.
The Yamal pipeline between Poland and Germany accounts for about 15 percent of Russian gas to Europe and Turkey.
The 2,000-km (1,242-mile) pipeline from Torzhok, Russia, to Frankfurt an der Oder in Germany, can carry around 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year or 100 million cubic meters (MCM) per day.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Gazprom has been intermittingly sending gas westward via the link in recent days amid high demand in Europe.
The conflict in Ukraine is increasing the risks of this route with each passing day.
Unstable Russian gas supplies and a high demand for energy amid an economic recovery from the pandemic have led to a spike in gas prices on the continent.
A cold snap in Europe is expected to last at least another week and is forcing consumers in the region to order more gas from Russia despite EU sanctions.
The steep drop in wind power generation this winter and the closure of nuclear power plants in Germany have been another hit to European energy supplies.
Another factor contributing to energy market tensions is uncertainty concerning Russian coal shipments to Europe.
Gazprom has also increased supplies to Europe via Ukraine, another key route in line with customers’ requests.
The German–Polish section of the pipeline since Dec. 21, has been operating in reverse, eastbound, as buyers in Poland drew on stored supplies from Germany rather than buying more Russian gas at high spot prices, driving European gas prices higher.
Gazprom on March 3 had resumed westbound natural gas supplies via the to Germany from Poland, after the flow had stopped on the pipeline earlier the same day and was expected to continue until the morning of March 4.
Flows from Poland to Germany on the pipeline had been at 5.9 million kilowatt-hours (kWh/h), while re-nominations, or preliminary bids, stood at 19.3 million kWh/h through March 4, after Gazprom booked daily capacity at auctions.
Gazprom then booked Yamal–Europe pipeline capacity for March 4 through March 5 to pump 0.8 million cubic meters of gas per hour or 7.8 million kWh/h of gas transit capacity via the pipeline.
Gas to Germany via the Mallnow metering point had stood at about 101,119 kWh/h on the morning of March 4. with about 13.5 million kWh/h overnight.
However, the reverse flow nomination from Germany to Poland was almost the same, causing the physical gas flow to come to a halt as a result of two almost identical nominations in opposite directions being fulfilled.
The Russian energy company booked an additional 1 MCM of capacity from 10:00 p.m. until the morning of March 4, according to overnight data from the GSA Platform.
The orders altogether amounted to 46 percent of all available Yamal–Europe pipeline capacity available for booking.
President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia would continue to supply gas to global markets, disregarding tightening European and American sanctions against Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia accounts for some 40 percent of European gas demand and is also a major supplier of oil.
Despite tensions with the Kremlin over Ukraine, there has been little effort from European states to sever energy ties, other than Germany’s cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Japanese Politicians Dispute Over Whether to Host Nuclear Weapons Amid Ukraine Crisis
Japan will likely revamp its military beyond its self-defense force, expert says
Japanese politicians from both ruling and opposition blocs have called for an active debate on its
nuclear weapons policy—in the wake of
Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine. Meanwhile, experts believe
Japan will likely revamp its military beyond its self-defense force, potentially changing the world security landscape.
In a recent televised program, former
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) said Japan should break a long-standing taboo and discuss the idea of
“sharing” nuclear weapons with allies by letting them base some of the weapons on Japanese soil.
“Japan is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has its three non-nuclear principles, but it should not treat as taboo discussions on the reality of how the world is kept safe,” Abe
said, The Japan Times reported.
However, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of LDP swiftly rejected the idea of hosting U.S. nuclear weapons as a deterrent.
“It is unacceptable given our country’s stance of maintaining the three non-nuclear principles,”
Kishida said in parliament on Feb. 28, following Abe’s call for a debate.
After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the three non-nuclear principles called for the country not to produce or possess nuclear arms or allow them on its territory.
However, there are different voices within the ruling party. Some LDP officials believe a revision of the three non-nuclear principles should be discussed under the current crisis in Ukraine, according to
The Japan Times.
On March 1, LDP General Council Chairman Tatsuo Fukuda told reporters that “no debate [on nuclear deterrence] should be avoided.”
The same day, LDP policy chief Sanae Takaichi said, “You shouldn’t contain discussions on whether to make an exception to the three non-nuclear principles calling for not allowing [nuclear weapons to be] brought into the country.”
The head of the opposition Japan Innovation Party, Ichiro Matsui, has also called on discussions to be held.
China’s attitude toward Russian’s invasion of Ukraine has remained ambiguous. Beijing has continued to walked a cautious line on the conflict, seeking to maintain its relationship with Moscow but unwilling to openly back either side.
According to the readout of
a call on Feb. 25, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he’d “respect the reasonable security concerns of all countries” without directly mentioning Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian terrotories a day earlier.
The two leaders exchanged warm welcomes during the call and agreed to maintain close contact.
Military commentator and host of The Epoch Times’ “Military Affairs” column in its Chinese edition, Sia Luoshan believes that Japan’s post-war culture of anti-militarism has weakened its military over the decades. Meanwhile, China’s ruling communist party, the North Korean regime, and Russia’s military expansion over the years has become a threat to Japan’s security, causing many Japanese politicians to change their anti-militarism mentality.
Sia believes that Japan will start shifting its military policies beyond just self-defense in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s aggressive military expansion.
“Although the ‘three non-nuclear principles’ still represent the mainstream mentality of the Japanese people, the escalating nuclear threats from China, Russia, and North Korea will inevitably shake those principles. Especially when Putin’s threat of using nuclear weapons is so close to reality,” Sia said.
An annual report by Japan’s Defense Ministry, 2021 Defense of Japan (
pdf), highlights China’s unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas, with the Chinese Coast Guard vessels repeatedly intruding into Japan’s territorial water. It emphasizes the need to cooperate with the United States and its allies in response to the rising threat from China.
While both China and Japan have ongoing territorial disputes with Russia, the report underscores close military ties between China and Russia.
In December 2020, the Russian military deployed its new S-300V4 missile defense system for combat duty on a chain of Russian-held islands off Hokkaido. The same month, Russian Tu-95 bombers along with Chinese H-6 bombers carried out long-distance joint flights from the Sea of Japan to the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The joint flight was the second China-Russia exercise following one in July 2019.
Meanwhile, China and Russia’s defense ministers also agreed to extend their nation’s bilateral cooperation agreements on the launch notification for ballistic missiles and other missiles for ten years.
The report also noted China’s “intensified military activities around
Taiwan,” including the frequent incursion of Chinese aircraft into the island’s air defense identification zone amid the Chinese Communist Party’s growing threats to claim Taiwan.
“Stabilizing the situation surrounding Taiwan is important for Japan’s security and the stability of the international community,” the report reads.
According to Sia. “The unofficial military ties between China and Russia will cause instability in East Asia and inevitably threaten Japan’s regional security.
“Right now, any conflict in the Taiwan Strait, Senkaku Islands, and the Kuril Islands will attract international attention. All these factors would encourage Japan to bolster the offensive capabilities of its armed forces as a deterrent rather than simply being self-defense,” he added.
Like Japan,
Germany, following its defeat in World War II, has embraced decades of anti-militarism.
However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine marked a “turning point,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in the country’s parliament on Feb. 26, undoing decades of German foreign and defense policy. Scholz even proposed massive investments in Germany’s defense and security, reversing its reluctance to build up its military.
Last week, Berlin sent 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine and revoked its opposition to other European Union nations sending German-made equipment to Ukrainian forces in the conflict zones.
On Feb. 22, Germany halted its certification of Russia’s Baltic Sea gas pipeline project
Nord Stream 2, which would double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany. Germany has also declared that it will adjust its energy policy to rid its dependence on Russia.
US Is Funding Russia’s War in Ukraine by Continuing Imports of Russian Oil: Rep. Greg Murphy
The Biden administration has imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine. However, without cutting off the import of
Russian oil and gas, the United States is funding Russia’s invasion with about $75 million a day, said Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.).
“We are actually importing approximately $75 million worth of dirty Russian gas every day. We’re doing this right now. And the sanctions that were put in have now excluded a Russian energy program. And so we as Americans right now, to the tune of $75 million a day, are funding the Russian war effort,” Murphy said in a Mar. 2
interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report” program.
“I think this is horrible. It’s disastrous,” Murphy said.
When President Joe Biden announced sanctions against Russia, he specifically said the carve-outs of Russian energy were to protect American families and businesses from higher prices.
“In our sanctions package, we specifically designed to allow energy payments to continue,” Biden
said on Feb. 24.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration data, the average monthly crude oil and gas imported from Russia in 2021 were 20.4 million barrels. That’s roughly 680,000 barrels a day.
There have been bipartisan calls for energy sanctions against Russia in the last few days.
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) on March 3
unveiled a proposal that would ban the U.S. importation of Russian oil. A House version was introduced by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.).
Manchin has accused Biden of being “hypocritical” for continuing to import Russian oil while limiting domestic energy production.
Biden has paused construction of the Keystone XL pipeline since he took office. He also placed a moratorium on leasing federal lands to oil and natural gas producers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also supports banning Russian oil imports.
“I’m all for that. Ban it,” she said at Thursday’s weekly news conference.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that “we don’t have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy.”
“Our objective and the President’s objective has been to maximize impact on President Putin and Russia while minimizing impact to us and our allies and partners,” Psaki said, adding banning Russian oil imports would raise prices at the gas pump.
Murphy noted how the United States was energy independent under former President Donald Trump. But Biden’s policies changed that.
“We have the ability in this country to energize ourselves, and Biden administration, again, as usual, has been tone-deaf to really what is important in this world and the right way to act upon it,” said Murphy.
Earlier Wednesday, when reporters pressed Biden on sanctioning Russian oil imports, he said, “nothing is off the table.”
On Friday, Psaki
said, “we are looking at options we could take right now to cut U.S. consumption of Russian energy, but we are very focused on minimizing the impact to families. If you reduce supply in the global marketplace, you are going to raise gas prices.”
Zelensky Urges US Lawmakers to Ban Russian Oil, Provide Fighter Jets
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky on March 5 urged U.S. lawmakers to step up support for his country by banning oil from Russia, helping secure fighter jets for the Ukrainian military, and imposing additional sanctions on Russian officials.
Zelensky held a virtual meeting with a bipartisan, bicameral group that was said to have numbered over 280 members of Congress.
Banning Russian oil and gas imports would be “even more powerful than SWIFT,” Zelensky told members, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, said on social media.
SWIFT is a banking system from which European Union countries have agreed to exclude Russian banks.
Zelensky also asked for anti-tank weapons and other military aid and assistance getting fighter jets from nearby countries transferred to
Ukraine so Ukrainian pilots can use them to battle Russian fighters in the sky, according to members on the call.
“His main ask was for the U.S. to allow Poland and Romania to transfer Soviet era jets to Ukraine, and for the U.S. to compensate by giving more advanced planes to those two NATO allies,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) wrote on social media.
The plan, an adjustment from repeated calls for the United States or other NATO members to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, drew support as it was seen as a less confrontational move. Officials have warned that a no-fly zone would mean U.S. planes engaging directly with Russian ones, and Russian President Vladimir Putin
said earlier Saturday that any outside countries that impose such a zone would be considered by Russia as a participant in the conflict.
“There is widespread agreement that providing direct air support puts us at war with Russia, but we can provide aircraft as Zelensky has asked,” Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), a former U.S. Air Force officer, wrote on Twitter.
Zelensky was said to have outlined how many of Ukraine’s aircraft have been destroyed before requesting aircraft.
“We need planes,” Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a military veteran, recounted Zelensky saying. The Ukrainian president was also reported to have said that “we are all one big army now” that “the Ukrainian people are the embodiment of unity for democracy for the whole world now,” and “Please help us and please don’t allow our brave and strong people, many times smaller than Russia, to be exterminated.”
NATO should “immediately facilitate the transfer of fighter aircraft from Poland, Romania, and Slovakia to Ukraine,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said after the meeting.
The meeting may spur action from Congress. Some members said they support quickly approving $10 billion in additional aid for Ukraine, passing a bill to cut off Russian oil purchases, and exploring turning off MasterCard and Visa payment services for Russians.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the latter move would cause pain for Russian people, but that doing so is necessary for an effective response.
“Even though Putin’s our enemy, the Russian people need to feel this for our response to be effective,” he said in a video message.
Police van with arrested anti-war protesters inside it crashed in Moscow, Russia"
