Zelensky, Putin Equally Responsible For the War: Lula; U.S. Intel Used to Kill Russian Generals?
Ukrainian leader has benefited from Western adulation since war started
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Stop the presses! There’s a former world leader who blames St. Volodymyr of Kyiv for his role in the Ukraine War.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former embattled president of Brazil who is preparing for another run in October, made waves in an interview published Wednesday when he mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a camera hog who failed to negotiate for peace.
“I see the president of Ukraine, speaking on television, being applauded, getting a standing ovation by all the parliamentarians. This guy is as responsible as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin for the war,” he told Time magazine.
Lula’s comments would normally not elicit it much news coverage, but it has become sacrilege in the West to do anything but praise Zelensky.
The former Brazilian president, a front-runner in the polls, told the magazine that Zelensky should have ignored Western officials and acknowledged Russia's security concerns when it came to NATO expansion.
“We should be having a serious conversation. OK, you were a nice comedian. But let us not make war for you to show up on TV,” Lula said.
Lula’s interview was wide ranging and he pointed to diplomatic shortcomings in the lead up to the war. He said the United States had the political clout to avoid the war, but instead incited it.
“Biden could have taken a plane to Moscow to talk to Putin. This is the kind of attitude you expect from a leader,” he said.
He continued, “In the same way the Americans persuaded the Russians not to put missiles in Cuba in 1961, Biden could have said, ‘We’re going to speak a bit more. We don't want Ukraine in NATO, full stop.’ That's not a concession.”
Lula said politicians “reap what we sow.”
Moronic Visit
We reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her “Delegation of Doom,” visited Zelensky in Kyiv last weekend and promised him the world. Rep. Jason Crow said they discussed three main topics: Weapons! Weapons! Weapons!
Rep. Adam Schiff, who was also part of the delegation, tweeted that he was in “awe of the courage of President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people. In the face of extreme Russian brutality, Zelenskyy has inspired his people, and freedom-loving individuals across the world.” (This is the bullshit that the American public loves.)
TRENDPOST: It should be noted that The Trends Journal reported prior to the war that Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general, was vague on what kind of response the alliance would have in the event of a Russian invasion and clarified that Ukraine is a NATO partner and not a member. (SEE: “UKRAINE CONFLICT HEATS UP: PUTIN RECOGNIZES DONETSK, LUHANSK AS INDEPENDENT FROM UKRAINE.”)
Lula brought up Zelensky’s desire to be on camera and said it seems as though “he's part of the spectacle.”
“He’s on television morning, noon, and night. He is in the UK parliament, the German parliament, the French parliament, the Italian parliament, as if he were waging a political campaign. He should be at the negotiating table,” Lula said.
U.S. INTEL HELPED UKRAINE KILL RUSSIAN GENERALS, SINK FLAGSHIP
The U.S. was instrumental in providing the Ukrainian army with intelligence that allowed it to kill top Russian generals and sink the Moskva, its flagship missile cruiser in the Black Sea, sources told The New York Times.
The Biden administration has been and outspoken supporter of the Ukrainian government in its fight against Russia and has provided an historic amount of weapons and funding since the war broke out on 24 February. But The Times’ report shed new light on the behind-the-scenes cooperation between Washington and Kyiv.
“This is not a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia,” Gerald Celente, the publisher of The Trends Journal, said. “This is a war between the U.S. and Russia.”
Fearful of Russian retaliation, the U.S. downplayed its role in the ship’s sinking and what information it provided that may have led to the deaths of top officers.
For example, the paper, citing two senior American officials, reported that Kyiv had already obtained the Moskva’s targeting data on its own, and Washington only confirmed the data. Others told the paper that the sinking was based primarily on U.S. information.
NBC News, citing U.S. officials, reported that the U.S. did not know in advance that Ukraine was going to target the Moskva “and was not involved in the decision to strike.” The officials said the intelligence was used to help Ukraine defend against Russian attacks.
Generals
The paper reported that the U.S. provided Ukraine information about Russian troop locations that may have helped Ukraine target top officers. Kyiv claimed that its military killed a dozen Russian generals, which the paper said “astonished military analysts.”
The United States has focused on providing the location and other details about the Russian military’s mobile headquarters, which relocate frequently. Ukrainian officials have combined that geographic information with their own intelligence — including intercepted communications that alert the Ukrainian military to the presence of senior Russian officers — to conduct artillery strikes and other attacks that have killed Russian officers.
But the Pentagon denied the report. John Kirby, a spokesman, said American agencies “do not provide intelligence on the location of senior military leaders on the battlefield or participate in the targeting decisions of the Ukrainian military,” according to the Associated Press.
PUTIN ONCE WATNED TO JOIN NATO, HERE’S WHY HE DIDN’T
“Ukraine combines information that we and other partners provide with the intel that they themselves are gathering and then they make their own decisions and they take their own actions,” Kirby said.
The Times later updated its original story on Russian generals and posted: “After this article published, Adrienne Watson, a National Security Council spokeswoman, said in a statement that the battlefield intelligence was not provided to the Ukrainians “with the intent to kill Russian generals.”
The Trends Journal has reported how the U.S. seemed to adjust its objective as the war continues. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, who was a board member for Raytheon before taking the top defense job, said last month that “we want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”
ICYMI