Putin recognizes rebel territories in Ukraine as indepent !

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Trump had been using all that criticism of NATO to end the alliance - - as Putin wanted. Trump never wanted the alliance to survive; just to dissolve for Russia's advantage.
By the way, we all should remember how Trump henchman Manafort had been Putin's American fixer for Russia in Ukraine. Trump had been a pawn in Putin's game all along. Conservatives need to own up to the fact that they had been played by Russia.

Does the Polish government plan to help Ukraine?

Hello Everyone, Please keep Ukraine in your thoughts and prayers. Ukraine is a big hub for many companies in the plastic model business like Avis, Mikro-Mir, Riich Models, Unimodel, Roden, ICM, Masterbox, ACE, Miniart and many others. This is the most difficult situation they ever had to deal with. Ukraine needs the worlds help, they are fighting for their lives and sovereignty.

... but I'd like to learn to shoot.

Russian troops have reportedly entered Ukraine’s second-largest city — Kharkiv in the northeast of the country.

According to the BBC, the move has been confirmed by the local governor.

Videos circulating on social media appear to show a number of Russian light military vehicles on the streets of the city, with some footage showing vehicles on fire.

Hours earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline in Kharkiv, prompting the government to warn people to protect themselves from the smoke by covering their windows with damp cloth or gauze.

A decision by Western allies on Saturday to block "selected" Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system will inflict a crippling economic blow, but also cause much pain to their own companies and banks. And the allies still have room to do more.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is a secure messaging system to ensure rapid cross-border payments which has become the principal mechanism to finance international trade.

Russian banks denied access to SWIFT will find it harder to communicate with peers internationally, even in friendly countries such as China, slowing trade and making transactions costlier. read more

But the allies, who also vowed curbs on Russian's central bank to limit its ability to support the rouble, have not yet said which banks would be targeted. That would be crucial to the measure's impact, said sanctions and banking experts.

"The devil will be in the details," said Edward Fishman, an expert on economic sanctions at the Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council think tank. "Let's see which banks they select."

The decision to kick some banks off SWIFT, though not all, could encourage "nesting", in which Russian entities turn to non-sanctioned banks and large multinationals instead in a bid to access the global financial system, one expert said.

Such a workaround for the Russians would create compliance headaches for global banks.

"It really is a dagger into the heart of Russian banks,” said Kim Manchester, whose firm provides financial intelligence training programs to institutions.

The impact is likely to be devastating for the Russian economy and markets.

The sanctions are likely to hit the rouble hard when markets open on Monday, said Sergey Aleksashenko, a former deputy chairman of the Russian central bank who now lives in the United States, leading to the disappearance of many imports to Russia.

"This is the end of a significant part of the economy," Aleksashenko added. "Half the consumer market is going to disappear. These goods will disappear if payments can't be made for them."

But the impact could be blunted if the listed banks were limited to those already sanctioned and Russia's central bank was given time to transfer assets elsewhere, said one former senior Russian banker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

As an alternative to SWIFT, Russia has set up its own network, the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS).

It sent about 2 million messages in 2020, or about a fifth of Russian internal traffic, says the central bank, which aims to up this share to 30% in 2023.

But SPFS, which limits the size of messages and operates only on weekdays, has found it hard to add foreign members. read more.

The decision to block Russian banks from SWIFT has been fraught.

Over the past few days, even as Ukraine urged Western nations to kick Russia off the payments system and was backed by countries such as Britain, others, such as Germany, worried about the possible impact on their economies and companies.

The SWIFT ban was a "financial nuclear weapon," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday. "When you have a nuclear weapon in your hands, you think before using it," he told reporters.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine agreed on Sunday to talks with Russia “without preconditions,” even as President Vladimir V. Putin further escalated tensions by placing his nuclear forces on alert.

“We agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River,” Mr. Zelensky announced on his official Telegram channel, describing a phone call Sunday with President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus.

Mr. Lukashenko “has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation’s travel, talks and return,” Mr. Zelensky continued.

Details about the meeting at the border were not yet clear, including who would participate. Mr. Zelensky earlier on Sunday had rejected holding talks in Belarus — as Russia has been demanding — because Russia staged part of its invasion from Belarus after amassing troops in the country. But Mr. Zelensky’s stance shifted after he spoke by phone with Mr. Lukashenko, the Belarusian leader, Mr. Putin’s closest international ally.

Mr. Zelensky said he received “assurances” from his Belarusian counterpart that “missiles, planes and helicopters” would not fly to Ukraine from Belarus ahead of negotiations that will take place on the border between the two countries.

“I will say frankly that I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try to make sure that no citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as a president, did not try to stop the war,” Mr. Zelensky said.

The Russian delegation, led by a former Russian culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, is already in Belarus.

Mr. Lukashenko “has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation’s travel, talks and return,” Mr. Zelensky continued.

Not just plan. They're - together with other Eastern Europe members - the ones pushing EU for more sanctions and NATO for more presence on Eastern flank; sending aid and military gear to Ukraine and organizing help for refugees.

I guess you don't nearly realize what it all means from the prespective of Poland and other East Europeans.