La festa è finita e nessuno vuole pagare il conto. Più di cento esponenti politici europei invieranno martedì una lettera congiunta alle loro controparti negli Stati Uniti, chiedendo al Congresso di sbloccare ulteriori aiuti militari all'Ucraina in un momento in cui i legislatori statunitensi hanno lottato per trovare un accordo.

La lettera aperta, esaminata da Reuters, è stata firmata dai politici di almeno 17 Paesi, tra cui Francia, Germania, Italia, Polonia e Irlanda, ed è un segno delle crescenti preoccupazioni in Europa per la continuità del sostegno statunitense all'Ucraina.

Il documento giunge proprio mentre il Presidente ucraino Volodymyr Zelenskiy si reca a Washington per esporre le proprie ragioni.

"Sentiamo le preoccupazioni espresse dai nostri amici americani. Per anni i leader americani, democratici e repubblicani, hanno chiesto agli europei di assumersi maggiori responsabilità per la propria sicurezza. Concordiamo con questa legittima richiesta", affermano nella lettera i legislatori, guidati da Benjamin Haddad, deputato francese del partito del Presidente Emmanuel Macron.

I legislatori europei, che comprendono anche il tedesco Michael Roth, presidente della commissione Affari esteri del Bundestag, e Giulio Tremonti, suo omologo italiano, hanno affermato che gli europei hanno contribuito quanto gli Stati Uniti all'Ucraina dall'invasione della Russia.

"Inoltre, le spese militari sono aumentate in tutta Europa", hanno dichiarato. "Gli aiuti militari americani, tuttavia, sono di importanza critica e urgenti". La prossima tranche di aiuti all'Ucraina è stata bloccata dalla richiesta del presidente della Camera dei Rappresentanti Mike Johnson e di altri repubblicani di non inviare altri fondi se prima non vengono prese misure per rafforzare il confine degli Stati Uniti con il Messico. (Fonte: Reuters) @LauraRuHK https://www.reuters.com/world/european-lawmakers-send-plea-congress-ukraine-aid-2023-12-11/

Biden's dementia is sooo convenient. They will blame his cognitive decline for US foreign policy disasters... no one will be held accountable. https://t.me/geopolitics_live/11342

The US is shopping for new figureheads. So many positions will soon become vacant in the West....

China and Saudi Arabia are betting on the development of bilateral cooperation, both in the political and economic spheres, and the scale of this partnership is difficult to overestimate. China is now Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner. In 2022, bilateral trade between the countries exceeded a record $106 billion. On Tuesday, the China-Saudi Investment Conference kicked off in Beijing, attended by a prominent Saudi delegation led by Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih. During the conference, the kingdom signed more than 60 agreements with the world’s second-largest economy in various key sectors such as energy, agriculture, tourism, mining, financial services, logistics, infrastructure, technology and healthcare. Chinese Deputy Minister of Commerce Li Fei announced that China aims to implement the Belt and Road Initiative together with Saudi Arabia, aimed at creating new trade routes with Africa and Europe.

This was the first such statement after talk that work on the project would be suspended due to the war in the Gaza Strip. This is also Chinese response to Biden's IMEC now derailed by the war in Gaza. @LauraRuHK https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2023/12/12/saudi-arabia-and-china-sign-deals-worth-25bn-to-boost-economic-ties/

#BREAKING| New footage surfaced showing Israeli soldiers in #Gaza using Palestinian civilians to advance into built-up areas.

Several survivors stated that they were used by the Israeli army as human shields to advance into areas in Jabalia. https://t.me/QudsNen

The destruction of schools and hospitals makes no sense from a military point of view.
It is clear that there are no "Hamas terrorists" hiding there as Hamas militants are much safer in the tunnels.
Israel is destroying all the infrastructure in Gaza to inflict as many civilian casualties as possible and make Gaza uninhabitable. https://t.me/QudsNen/90638

The Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, where the Ukrainian military took position for a long time, has been demined and some production lines have been relaunched while repairs are being carried out. 3.7 thousand people are already working there and in the future it will employ 24 thousand workers, Roman Solonar, the first deputy director of the plant, told RIA Novosti. He expressed gratitude to the "Akhmat" forces from Chechnya, whose fighters entered the plant in May 2022 and stood guard over it. "Thanks to them, the combine was not looted". The task of preserving the combine was set by Chechnya's head Ramzan Kadyrov. @LauraRuHK https://ria.ru/20231213/zavod-1915434821.html

We all know how delusional the Baltic chihuahuas are and if they didn't yap non-stop nobody would even know they existed. They have grown so attached to their mental disorder, pathological Russophobia, that their entire existence revolves around it. The French army, on the other hand, after being kicked out of the sandbox of post-colonial African countries, wants to play with snow and "pivot to Europe", whatever that means. Earlier this year, the French army created a land command for Europe.

"France recently sent additional military equipment for its troops in Estonia, including 18 Griffon armored multi-role vehicles, AMX-10 RC light armored vehicles, and a firing platoon of four Caesar self-propelled howitzers. French armies are settling in over the long term in Eastern European countries," said Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ponzoni, France’s senior national representative in the region, who’s also representing the land command for Europe. "It was completely unknown territory for everyone, for all countries, not just France," he added. “We’ve learned to hide and live in the snow” said Captain Florian. "The army's equipment is being adapted to the cold and soldiers have received new boots" he added. 😂 @LauraRuHK https://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-war-estonia-france-troops-invasion-nato/

POLSKI REWIND - Meet the "new/old" Minister of Foreign Affairs.▪️ It's Back to the Future in Poland, more precisely back to 2007 when Donald Tusk was elected Prime Minister and Radosław Sikorski appointed as Foreign Minister. He and his mate Carl Bildt are regarded as the ‘architects’ of the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP). At the inaugural summit of the EaP, Sikorski characterized the initiative as evidence of the EU’s soft power, the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion and payment. In other words, projecting an image, a ‘brand’, and shaping the perceptions of others in order to reduce the costs in carrots and sticks. Good luck trying that in 2023. Sikorski was handpicked to facilitate the integration of Ukraine into the EU framework and improve relations between Poland and Ukraine which have soured. Yes, i did write about Sikorski a year ago ;) https://medium.com/p/6726fa1014a1

Radoslaw Sikorski, the "new/old" Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, was handpicked to facilitate the integration of whatever will be left of Ukraine into the EU framework and improve relations between Warsaw and Kiev which have soured in recent months - Polish truck drivers are still blocking Ukrainian trucks at the border! The plan is for Poland to act as Kiev’s main advocate in the EU and NATO.

For example, Marcin Zaborowski, a Polish analyst who works for Atlanticist think tanks, in an article published yesterday by Politico argues that Poland’s banking sector could be encouraged to participate in the privatization of Ukrainian banks. He dreams of the conflict across the agricultural sector magically turning into an opportunity, allowing for Polish companies to invest in Ukraine and Ukrainian agricultural businesses to gain access to Poland’s modern processing and marketing technologies.

His fantasy extends to the reconstruction of Ukraine which he claims would benefit from being able to lease Polish building machinery and the engagement of Polish state-owned insurers. He also sees "great potential for the co-production of defense equipment and munitions, which could give an economic boost to the border regions of both countries." Though Ukraine doesn't qualify for EU membership, its main advocates are trying to bypass the veto of countries like Hungary, Slovakia and Austria. The "friends of Ukraine" argue that there was a historical precedent, in 1976 EU leaders overruled the Commission and decided to open the process of accession negotiations to Greece "to protect it from Soviet influence" after the end of military rule. Read more here https://medium.com/p/808fa925820e