Eurasia note #34 - WMD Talk Is Hot Air, For Now

'Debunked' weaponizing of birds was a CIA project since the 1960s, records show

‘Humanitarian catastrophe’ looms on Day 17 of the Russia-Ukraine war.
No mass evacuation of Mariupol so far, with over 1,500 civilians dead.
Russian missiles hit international military training base, 35 dead.
UN estimates almost 2.6 million people have fled Ukraine, most to Poland.
Russian column 20 km from Kyiv, Ukrainian army braced, east and west.

No consultation between U.S. and Russia, though France, Germany mediate.
U.S. authorizes up to $200 million on Mar 12, including new weapons.
Ukraine says about 1,300 Ukraine troops have died since invasion began Feb 24.
UN condemns Meta for allowing calls for violence against Russians on Facebook.
Smithsonian worked with Pentagon in 1960s on migratory bird project.

The “bike man” of Mariupol, featured in various locations, photo by Evgeniy Maloletka

Tbilisi, Mar 13, 2022

Food and fuel shortages are ravaging the civilian population in parts of Ukraine, according to the head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre, Mikhail Mizintsev.

An aid convoy was due to reach the southern port city of Mariupol on Sunday after it was delayed by fighting. Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) units are dug in on the city’s eastern outskirts, with Russian forces surrounding much of the city. Azov Battalion is resisting encirclement, but Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have not sent reinforcements, or are unable, according a comparison of reports.

Inside, 200,000 citizens are short of supplies, with utilities cut off. The Interior Minstry reports as of yesterday, more than 1,500 residents had been killled.

A Russian column is 20 km from Kyiv. Russian troops are already to the north of the city, troops of the AFU concentrated east and west. The south remains the only exit from the capital.

There is stalemate in Kharkiv, in the east on Russia’s border. Russian forces struggle to flush out neighbouring towns like Chuhuiv and Rohan, and AFU obstructed Russian troops traveling south by Izium.

In the west, Russian airstrikes hit a military base today where international advisors train Ukrainian troops. Thirty five people were reported killed at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center (IPSC) in Yavoriv, a garrison city just 12km from the Polish border.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said weapons supplies by third parties to Ukraine might be regarded as legitimate targets.

Also in the west of Ukraine, near the Polish border, there was a third attack on Ivano-Frankivsk airport, the city’s mayor told local radio. No-one was killed. The objective appeared to be to completely destroy the airport, he said.

In the south, Russian troops are approaching the port of Odesa but local press reports that the Russian navy is no longer within sight.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said about 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since Feb 24.

Negotiations

There is no consultation between Moscow and Washington on the Ukrainian issue, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Channel One.

French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz, spoke by phone urging Russian counterpart president Vladimir Putin to accept new terms from Ukraine, calling for a ceasefire. The Kremlin’s account of the conversation did not mention ceasefire, but accused Ukraine of using civilians as human shields.

Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a diplomatic forum in Antalya on Sunday that his country would not participate in sanctions against Russia. Nor would the country break legal obligations to provide its airspace.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck says his country will eend its dependence on Russian energy by the end of this year.

It will end coal imports from Russia and almost eradicate its use of crude. Russia is currently its biggest coal supplier, accounting for half its imports, along with a third of its oil. As its major gas supplier, too, Russia was Germany’s lever in its bid for independence from the U.S..

But when Russia entered Donbas on Feb 24, Germany suspended certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia. It may compensate with gas from Norway and the Netherlands. But it can hardly escape price controls and rationing.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he would build terminals for liquefied natural gas in Brunsbuttel and Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany. This is a victory for U.S. policy to end Germany’s overwhelming reliance on Russian energy.

See Moneycircus, Feb 24 — Eurasia note #23 - Russia Intervenes in Ukraine: The first war of The Great Reset dovetails with globalist objectives

Weapons of mass destruction

Polish President Andrzej Duda and NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg talked up the possibility of Russia using “weapons of mass destruction” or chemical munitions.

Russia called for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss claims of a US-backed biological weapons programs in Ukraine, specifically a plot to use migrating birds and bats to spread pathogens. The request was made on Mar 11.

While U.S. media tore into Russia’s “Crazy Claim That U.S. Is Training Birds To Spread A Ukrainian Bioweapon” the Pentagon does have some prior history. One project, said to have stopped in 1970, shows how the U.S. Department of Defense has investigated the use of animals to spread disease since at least the 1960s.