Belbek Airfield, which was Sevastopol International Airport before it was turned into military base when Crimea was annexed is burning after loud explosions. Russians claim a plane rolled off a runway and caught on fire. Russians sure have lots of terrible luck with accidents.
‐----- Russia Demands Recount After UN’s Civil Aviation Organization Boots it From 36-Member Council The Russian Federation has been booted from a 36-member council of the UN’s civil aviation agency known as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). In an unprecedented move, Russian representatives threw proceedings into chaos after they demanded a recount of Saturday’s vote. ICAO is comprised of 193 member states but the organization’s governing council is made up of just 36 premier states. Every three years all member states meet at ICAO’s headquarters in Montreal where the governing council is elected. For the first time ever, Russia was not reelected to the governing council after it failed to secure enough votes. The ballot is just one of many ways that countries have demonstrated their disapproval at Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. The ten countries that made it to the premier group of the council are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Russia needed 86 votes to remain in the Part 1 group but only secured 80 votes. The second group of countries selected in Saturday’s vote were: Argentina, Austria, Egypt, Iceland, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain and Venezuela. The remaining countries to win a spot on the council will be chosen on Tuesday.
@basso So was Biden correct in only providing military aid to Ukraine in dollars and weapons? You had some criticism of our efforts earlier. What do you think now that Russia is losing?
If we had provided the help in March that we're providing now, how many lives could have been saved, how many rapes prevented, how much destruction would never have happened? Eastern Ukraine was wrecked and obliterated by Russia, taken over, its people tormented and many sent to Russia, and now Ukraine is slowly getting that destroyed land back. The US is trying to walk a fine line, but the incrementalism caused tons of damage to Ukraine. And we're still in the same place of Russia threatening nukes. If they end up using tactical nukes on the battlefield, our attempts to walk that line are going to look pretty stupid and be more costly. I'll just say again what I said months ago - if Russia decides to use nukes, it's not going to be based on any particular logic or red lines we crossed. It will be because they simply decided to use them. We should stop trying to play by the arbitrary rules they set.
This is a podcast done by the American Council and University of Texas. In it General Hodges is discussing the war with the senior fellow for the Estonian defense center and is moderated by an Atlantic Council military analyst. It is long but it is good. www.powervertical.org/…
It would have been different if Ukraine had mobilized their military and manpower six months prior to the invasion and NATO had provided the hardware.
One clever reply on The Tweeter was that "more favorable frontiers" was a rough translation for "Russian coffin".