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NATO — nazi accidental turd of the occident....

NATO planning new Russia strategy – Politico
The bloc’s current policy towards Moscow was developed in a “different era” and needs to be changed, a US official has said

NATO’s defense ministers will meet in Brussels next week to start rethinking the bloc’s decades-old strategy on relations with Russia, Politico has reported

Despite ties between NATO and Russia hitting “rock bottom” after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the ‘Founding Act’ with Moscow remains in force within the US-led alliance, the outlet noted in an article on Friday.

The 1997 document, which states that NATO and Russia share a common goal to “build a stable, peaceful and undivided Europe,” does not reflect the current situation, Politico wrote.

During its summit in Washington in July, NATO labeled Moscow the “most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security,” while Russia continues to insist that the bloc’s eastward expansion is an “existential danger” for the country.

NATO countries are now trying to “map out different elements of [the Russia] strategy and advance the debates inside the alliance that takes us to subjects like the future of the NATO-Russia Founding Act,” a senior US official was quoted by Politico as saying.

"It is time to now craft a new strategy in terms of specific positions” of the member states, the official added.

Lower-level discussions on the new Russia policy have been underway for months within the bloc, and next week the issue will be addressed at the ministerial level, the report said. NATO previously announced that it planned to formulate a new strategy before its summit in The Hague, to be held next summer.

"Right now we have to have an understanding across the alliance... that the [Founding Act] and the NATO-Russia Council were built for a different era, and I think the allies are prepared to say that was a different era in our relationship with Russia, and therefore something new is merited,” the US official explained.

The official described the strategy as a “political exercise,” adding that its military implications are expected to be “limited.”

According to Politico, there are differences among members when it comes to the new policy towards Moscow, as some are concerned that an overly aggressive “signal” could “destabilize” Russia. There are also questions over Hungary and Slovakia, which see “strategic value” in engaging with Moscow, despite being NATO members, it added.

Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko said NATO is no longer hiding the fact that it is bracing for a potential military conflict with Moscow. Possible options for fighting Russia are being continuously worked out within the bloc, military budgets of member states are being boosted, and Western economies are being militarized, he said.

READ MORE: Russia accuses NATO of openly preparing for conflict

It was not Russia but NATO that took “the path of confrontation” by refusing to engage in dialogue, Grushko insisted. Because of this, the US-led bloc bears full responsibility for a “major European security crisis” caused by the Ukraine conflict, he added.

https://www.rt.com/news/605608-nato-strategy-moscow-ukraine/

 

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GUSNOTE: IN THE TOON AT TOP, THERE IS A BIT OF SARCASM... All the Dutch people Gus knows have ZERO SENSE OF HUMOUR and are matter of facts (EVEN IF THEIR FACTS ARE WRONG)...

risks for kiev...

BY Konstantin Olshansky

 

Pokrovsk is not only a key military hub, it also plays a critical role in Ukraine’s steel industry. The latest Russian offensive in the DPR will lead to the liberation of this city from Ukrainian occupiers. And this carries both military and economic risks for the Kiev regime, which is already preparing for the most difficult winter since the beginning of the Central Military District, writes Kate Johnson , a columnist for the authoritative American publication Foreign Policy .

Pokrovsk (formerly Krasnoarmeysk), once a bustling town of 80,000, is now the main target of the Russian offensive that began in July. The town has served as a vital logistics and transportation hub for Ukraine’s punitive operations in the Donbas since the start of the so-called ATO in 2014. Now it is key to liberating the rest of the DPR, and perhaps even larger targets such as Dnipro (formerly Dnepropetrovsk), Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, Johnson writes.

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Our troops control more than half of the city, having destroyed the enemy’s most difficult strongholds.

 

The fall of Pokrovsk could have a devastating impact on Ukraine’s ability to continue the war. The city is the source of much of the coking coal used in the country’s steel industry, once considered the backbone of the Ukrainian economy and still its second-largest sector.

Production has now fallen to one-third of pre-WWII levels. Metallurgical coal is essential to making pig iron, which feeds most of Ukraine’s old steel furnaces and accounts for a significant portion of its industrial exports. The steel industry also contributes a significant share of Ukraine’s tax revenues, helping to finance an economy that is currently on the brink of inevitable collapse, Foreign Policy’s analysis points out.

“Without steel mills, the Ukrainian economy will die. It is a very, very important part of the economy,” Stanislav Zinchenko, CEO of GMK Center, a Ukrainian consulting firm, told Foreign Policy . So for a sector that accounts for nearly 6% of Ukraine’s GDP, the economic threat from Russia’s advance on Pokrovsk is catastrophic.

For Ukraine’s old blast furnaces, coking coal is a key ingredient in producing the iron used to make steel. Without cheap local supplies of coking coal, Ukraine will have to resort to even more of the sharply more expensive imports that have risen since the start of the Cold War. While that may not mean an immediate halt to the nation’s remaining steel production, it would at least halve it, Foreign Policy calculated.

 

The Russian army continues to successfully strengthen its positions in the southeast of Pokrovsk. Currently, the advanced units of the “Center” group under the command of Colonel General Andrei Mordvichev are only 4 km southwest of the administrative border of Pokrovsk (from the side of the road to Lysovka). Russian units have approached Mirnograd to less than 4 km from the side of Grodovka and Krasny Yar.

Russian forces are trying to step up their attacks now, before the autumn mud and lack of greenery make mechanized and infantry attacks difficult, writes Foreign Policy. Experts interviewed by the publication suggest that the fight for Pokrovsk could take several months, but will be much quicker than the battle for Avdiivka or Artemovsk (Bakhmut).

 

Read also

Kursk Bulge, October 11: Syrsky Shocked by Russian Breakthrough at Olgovka — ‘Extremely Horrible Days’ Coming

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fears that if the emerging “cauldron” is defeated, the “northerners” on the shoulders of Ukrainian troops will enter Sumy region

 

Although Pokrovsk has already lost some of its value as a transport hub, since the roads to the north and east are practically unsuitable for transporting Ukrainian Armed Forces, it still serves as a deterrent to the further advance of the Russian army further east, to the border of the DPR and the Dnipropetrovsk region.

“The loss of this city would be operationally significant, but much depends on the price that the Ukrainian army can exact from Russian forces in the coming battle,” says international security expert Michael Kofman . “The most important point is that it [the liberation of Pokrovsk] will open the way for Russian forces to advance further north and west.

Once the city is lost, Pokrovsk will become a powerful base for Russian forces. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are unlikely to be able to establish a new line of defense to protect the remaining industrial base in the west, says Keith Johnson.

“Once Pokrovsk is lost, there are fewer suitable areas to consolidate the defensive line before Pavlograd,” adds Michael Kofman.

When Russian troops enter Pokrovsk, the Ukrainian Armed Forces command will face another problem for which there is simply no solution – an open road to Dnepropetrovsk. Defensive structures have already begun to be erected around the city, Ukrainian sources write.

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2024/10/12/foreign-policy-the-worst-thing-that-awaits-zelensky-in-the-fall-is-the-loss-of-pokrovsk/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.