Writer/Tiger Knife
The situation in Russia and Ukraine has entered its 16th day, and the situation on the battlefield is still glued.
The controversy over the humanitarian corridor on the Southern Front Mariupol remains the hottest focus of the situation. At the same time, as the weather in Ukraine cleared, the Russian side began bombing several cities on the western front.
The scramble over Kiev has led to conflicting claims.
Outside the battlefield, the first high-level talks between russia and Ukraine since the start of the war between the two countries ended in Turkey. Although the two sides have not made progress on the ceasefire, both Russia and Ukraine have recently shown some willingness to compromise, which has sent a positive signal to the situation.
However, when the signs of cooling first appeared, the peripheral front led by Washington began to tighten the stranglehold on Moscow in all aspects, and at the same time avoided the flames of war that burned on them. This casts another layer of gloom over an already uncertain situation.
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In the latest developments in the situation in Russia and Ukraine, the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol remains the focus of attention of all parties.
The controversy between Russia and Ukraine over the humanitarian corridor has not stopped.
On the 10th, Zelenskiy accused Russia of attacking the humanitarian corridor of the city of Mariupol as an "act of terrorism" in his latest speech.
In his speech, the Ukrainian army demonstrated the "bravery" of transporting relief supplies through humanitarian corridors to the people of Mariupol at all costs, while Russia is a "terrorist state" that "takes the entire city as a hostage" and "blocks communications".
On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian side will continue to implement a "state of silence" from 10 o'clock on the 11th, cease fire and open a humanitarian corridor to allow Ukrainian civilians to withdraw from Mariupol and other areas.
In response to the Accusations of the Ukrainian side, the Russian side revealed that during the humanitarian operation, the Ukrainian side sent security personnel pretending to be convoy drivers transporting supplies, taking the opportunity to collect intelligence, monitor information on Russian troops, and pass on intelligence.
At the same time, the Russian side also claimed that it was the Ukrainian side that repeatedly interrupted humanitarian operations, resulting in civilians and foreign citizens being forcibly detained by local Ukrainian nationalists in some settlements.
The Russian Defense Ministry warned that these actions will be considered provocative by the Russian side.
On the 9th, another explosion in Mariupol also triggered a wave of confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.
The Ukrainian side said that the Russian military launched missiles on the same day to attack a maternity hospital in Mariupol, causing at least 17 people to be injured, Zelenskiy called it "genocide against Ukrainians", and the White House also condemned the incident as a "barbaric act of using force against innocent civilians".
The Russian side denied this claim, accusing Ukraine of first carrying out a "premeditated provocation" there. But both Facebook and Twitter removed Russian clarification posts on the matter.
On the 11th, the situation on the Battlefield between Russia and Ukraine was glued. As the weather in Ukraine cleared, Russian targets began to focus on western cities. Beginning in the early hours of the morning, Russian warplanes bombed several major cities in western Ukraine, including Lviv, Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, where Lutsk airport near Poland was attacked three times, the first time since the war that Lutsk had been attacked. In addition, three explosions occurred in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, and the airport was also hit.
The war situation around Kiev, on the other hand, has been contradictory. According to satellite photos, U.S. company Maxar Technologies said the large Russian military convoy that last appeared in northwestern Kiev has been largely dispersed and redeployed. But a U.S. defense official said Thursday that despite the Ukrainians' "very, very good" counterattack, Russian troops were moving closer than 5 kilometers to the Ukrainian capital.
British intelligence suggests russian forces continue to make "limited progress" in advancing toward Kiev and may be preparing for new attacks on it in the coming days.
A spokesman for the French armed forces said that russia may attack Kiev in the next few days, but in fact controlling Kiev is another matter and will take a long time.
On the 10th, the russian- Turkish-Ukrainian three-way foreign ministers talks did not make progress on the issue of ceasefire, but observers believe that both Russia and Ukraine have recently shown some willingness to compromise, and the situation has released a positive signal. Zelenskiy's deputy said he wanted direct dialogue with Putin, saying Zelenskiy was ready to talk and once again stressing that "Ukraine is willing to remain neutral."
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On the 10th, the Russian side threw out heavy evidence, pushing the confrontation between the United States and Russia on the biological laboratory to a white-hot high point.
The Russian military provided more details of U.S. biomilitary activities in Ukraine and made the materials publicly available online.
According to the data, the purpose of the US Pentagon-funded biological experiments in Ukraine is to establish a mechanism for the secret transmission of deadly pathogens. One of the most interesting projects is the laboratory's study of how viruses can be transmitted through wild animals, including birds, bats and reptiles.
The Russian Defense Ministry stressed that in the 1940s, members of Japan's Unit 731, which specialized in biological and chemical weapons research, fled to the United States after the war.
And the Russian side also disclosed a piece of information: on February 24, the day of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, at the request of the Pentagon, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health immediately instructed the U.S.-funded laboratory to "urgently destroy" pathogens of plague, anthrax, Trala fever, cholera and other deadly diseases.
All kinds of signs and doubts have aroused widespread concern and speculation in the international community.
Yang Zhanqiu, a professor at the Institute of Virology of the School of Basic Medical Sciences of Wuhan University Medical College, explained to Tongyi dao that the biological laboratory is mainly a place to study highly pathogenic pathogens, and will be divided into 4 levels according to the harm of pathogens.
Yang Zhanqiu said that the reason why everyone is concerned is, first, the new crown epidemic has caused global panic, and some people say that the new crown virus is caused by a laboratory leak, which has led to the world's attention to biological laboratories. Second, if the virus that causes high pathogenicity because of war and other reasons leaks from the laboratory, because this virus may never have been epidemic before, or after artificial transformation and reorganization, the virus leakage will cause widespread spread and cause unexpected harm to people, third, the biological laboratory is also a place for graduate weapons, which plays a role in killing and injuring each other in war and determining the outcome of the war, of course, it can also cause a large number of civilian casualties, and the harm is very large. So there's a reason for people to be worried.
In the face of international doubts, U.S. State Department spokesman Price denied that the United States did not operate biological laboratories in Ukraine, but he also said that U.S. experts had assisted Ukraine on laboratory safety issues, but the scope of activities was limited to that.
Earlier, US Deputy Secretary of State Newland had an intriguing answer at the Senate hearing in congress on the 8th. Republican Senator Rubio asked whether there are "biological or chemical weapons" in Ukraine. Nuland did not use the term "biological weapons", but said: "Ukraine has biological research facilities." ”
The World Health Organization said that it has worked with public health laboratories in Ukraine for many years and has strongly recommended that the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and relevant responsible departments destroy highly threatened pathogens and avoid any leakage.
Sandwiched between the United States and Russia, Zelenskiy came out and righteously stated that Ukraine had not developed any chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction.
According to information disclosed by the Russian side, the United States has formed a network of more than 30 biological laboratories in Ukraine, which is tasked by the U.S. Department of Defense's Office for The Reduction of Military Threats. These laboratories are primarily engaged in three tasks: monitoring the biological status of areas where NATO armed forces are likely to be deployed; collecting and transporting dangerous microbial strains to the United States; and studying potential biological weapons agents in specific areas that have natural lesions and can be transmitted to humans.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, U.S. funding for Ukrainian biology labs has exceeded $200 million.
The Russian side said that more information materials will be released in the future.
In the face of these facts, White House press secretary Psaki angrily sent 8 tweets in a row, not only accusing Russia of engaging in "disinformation operations", but also claiming that China "echoed conspiracy theories".
Some experts have analyzed that in the face of doubts now, the easiest way for the United States is to answer two questions clearly. First, why on the day of the outbreak of the conflict on the 24th, Ukraine instructed the relevant personnel to destroy the relevant materials, and the second is that the United States admitted that there are biological research laboratories in Ukraine, so what research projects do these laboratories have, the content is public, and scientists around the world have their own evaluations.
Experts said that in the face of the russian side's constant release of material information, if the United States has been fighting a war of words to deny it, it is irresponsible to the people of the world. Even if the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is resolved, if there is no answer to the questions raised by Russia and the United States does not come up with convincing evidence, then this topic cannot be dismissed.
On the 11th, at the request of the Russian side, the United Nations Security Council will hold a meeting to discuss the military biological activities of the United States in Ukraine.
It is foreseeable that the storm surrounding the US biological laboratory is far from a calming end.
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The strangleholding of Russia by the United States and the West is still spreading at all levels of the international community.
New York-based JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs Group respectively announced that they would gradually close their operations in Russia, which is the first shot of sanctions fired by Wall Street in the United States since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
In addition, Disney also announced the suspension of all operations in Russia, including all content and product licensing, video channels, National Geographic magazine and so on. American fast-food brand Burger King said it would stop providing corporate support to more than 800 franchisees in Russia.
Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo has also decided to suspend operations in Russia.
On the other hand, social media is also making a huge change. In addition to banning Russian state media RT and Russian satellite news agencies from entering social platforms, Facebook's latest policy encourages hate and violence against Russia to help people vent their emotions.
According to internal documents, Facebook group will allow users in some countries to send posts on Facebook and Instagram calling for violent resistance to Russians, Russian troops, and also temporarily allow messages wishing for the deaths of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Lukashenko.
Internal documents will also allow posts praising Azov camp to be sent out.
The Facebook group said it made exceptions to violent and hateful content and did not remove posts hostile to the military and Russian leaders.
The explosive decision sparked a great deal of discussion in public opinion: "It would be disgusting if big tech companies could decide what you could and couldn't say." ”
"Can peace be achieved by stirring up hatred?"
We have seen that in the past two weeks, the West has increased its sanctions against Russia in various aspects: Russian state assets have been frozen, Russian companies have been expelled, and the assets of Russian citizens have been confiscated.
One of the most notable russian tycoons, Abramovich, according to the British sanctions against him, he will not only lose the Premier League giants Chelsea team, but also face the end of all assets being frozen.
Ironically, however, although Abu was a Russian businessman, he had long lived in England and had a large fortune in the West; and he was Jewish and had Israeli citizenship.
In his State of the Union address last week, Biden also said that as a sanctions move against Russia, the United States would deprive Russian billionaires associated with Putin of yachts, luxury apartments and private jets.
Of course, Russia also gave a tit-for-tat response. Putin has made it clear that he supports decisive action against foreign enterprises that have withdrawn from the Russian market, introduces "external management" of their assets in Russia, and avoids losses to Russian local suppliers.
In other words, the assets of foreign companies in Russia may also be "confiscated".
At the same time, the wrangling over Russia's financial sector continues.
According to US media reports, US President Joe Biden will call on G7 and EU countries to end normal trade relations with Russia on Friday.
The move will clear the way for higher tariffs on Russian imports, the analysis said. This is another blow to the Russian economy by Western countries after the United States and Britain announced the ban on the import of Russian oil and gas resources.
While the decision will still need to be approved by Congress, its passage will be a high probability event.
Macron said: I am very pessimistic, and in the next few days, I will not see any diplomatic solution.
War is raging across Europe, the number of refugees is exceeding 2 million, and Europe is facing the biggest wave of refugees and food crisis after World War II.
At the same time, oil prices are soaring, living expenses are rising, and wars are breaking all the norms and bottom lines that people take for granted in peacetime.
It can be expected that Europe will be completely changed after the war, but it is difficult for anyone to predict where it will go.
But the international community should be wary of washington, which is watching from across the world, not to be the one who laughs and reaps all the dividends after the war in Europe.
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