Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
PAGE 336 of 1104
EU will pay billions to explode Russians into bloody chunks
EU countries to sign agreement to buy shells for Ukraine
By Andrew Gray
BRUSSELS, March 17 (Reuters) - Several European Union countries will sign an agreement on Monday to team up to buy artillery rounds for Ukraine as part of an effort to speed up and increase the supply of shells that Kyiv says it urgently needs to fight Russia's invasion.
A senior EU official said many of the bloc's 27 countries were expected to sign the so-called project arrangement, which sets out the terms of reference for the plan, but the precise number was unclear as some were still examining the proposal.
The pact to jointly procure 155 mm artillery shells will be signed on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers in Brussels on Monday, officials said. First orders under the plan could be placed by the end of May.
"This arrangement has been set up very, very quickly," the senior EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told a news briefing on Friday. "All (EU) member states and Norway can participate."
Ukraine has identified the supply of 155 mm shells as a critical need as it engages in a fierce war of attrition with invading Russian forces, in which both sides are firing thousands of artillery rounds every day.
Ukrainian and Western leaders have warned in recent weeks that Kyiv is burning through the shells more quickly than its allies can produce them, leading to a renewed push to send supplies and find ways to ramp up production.
A big joint munitions-buying initiative would mark a significant step in EU integration, as defence procurement has largely been the preserve of the bloc's national governments.
The project to be initiated on Monday would be spearheaded by the EU's European Defence Agency.
EU officials say the move should result in larger single orders for arms firms, thereby encouraging them to invest in increasing capacity, and reduce competition between governments that are driving up prices by trying to place similar orders.
The initiative is part of a plan presented by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to earmark 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) to reimburse EU countries for sending shells from their own stocks to Ukraine and a further 1 billion euros for joint procurement.
Diplomats said EU governments were still wrangling over key details on Friday, due to disagreements over how the plan should work and a lack of clarity on the current levels of ammunition in EU members' stockpiles, which is kept secret.
Ambassadors to the EU from member countries will meet on Sunday to try to finalise details of the overall plan so that it can be approved by foreign ministers on Monday, diplomats said.
EU officials say it will be months, at least, before any shells ordered as part of joint procurement reach Ukraine.
But they argue that knowing a major joint procurement effort is under way should encourage member countries to send more of their current stockpiles to Ukraine.
The money would come from the European Peace Facility, an EU-run fund that has financed 3.6 billion euros of military aid to Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022.
Many Western governments' ammunition stockpiles have been badly depleted by supplying shells to Ukraine. EU joint procurement would also aim to replenish them.
($1 = 0.9376 euros)
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/eu-move-towards-joi
nt-buying-shells-ukraine-says-official-2023-03-17/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Why are Russians anxious to control Ukraine? Famine. Russia starved while Ukraine had abundant food. Why not take the food? This is illustrated by the story of "Nikolai Vavilov: the Tragic Hero of Science Who Set Out to End Humanity’s Suffering".
While the physicist Sergei Vavilov was presiding over Stalin’s Academy of Sciences and spearheading the Soviet atomic bomb project, his idealistic older brother was laboring at something of orthogonal impact on humanity — a way to end an elemental form of suffering that has haunted our species since its dawn.
The botanist, geneticist, and explorer Nikolai Vavilov was still a boy when he arrived at his dream of ending famine. He had heard his father’s stories of growing up in poverty and constant hunger due to crop failures. When Nikolai himself was four, the early arrival of winter decimated crops all over the country, sending millions into starvation. All the tsar could do was offer his subjects “famine bread” — loaves made of milled husks, bark, weeds, and moss, rationed out in the freezing cold. Vavilov’s father had spent his life rising from poverty and now had a comfortable life as a merchant, so the family was protected from the worst of the famine — but from his precarious island of comfort, the boy watched the ocean of suffering and sorrowed. Half a million peasants perished that winter as the aristocracy feasted on imported delicacies from Europe — grim structural inequality that became the ignition spark for the long-seething people’s revolution a quarter century later.
Much more at "Nikolai Vavilov: the Tragic Hero of Science Who Set Out to End Humanity’s Suffering" https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/03/08/nikolai-vavilov/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Signym, Russian state TV hosts and guests have encouraged and rationalized violence against Ukraine. Some have even suggested using nuclear weapons against Western countries. Pro-Kremlin media pundits should be concerned about the possibility of facing war crime charges.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
We'll never have to worry about SECOND posting truth, tho. If he hits on a real fact once in a while it's totally accidental.
Another example of SECOND posting lies.
We DEFINITELY don't have to worry about SECOND accidentally colliding with the truth!
Julia Davis, a top news analyst who runs the Russian Media Monitor project, wrote an essay this week for the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) online journal about a growing unease among Russian propagandists. The essay title is ‘Morality Shouldn’t Get in the Way’ — Russia’s Genocidal State Media https://cepa.org/article/morality-shouldnt-get-in-the-way-russias-geno
cidal-state-media/
Davis wrote that while pro-Kremlin pundits reacted with joy when Putin launched his war more than a year ago, now "the euphoria has been replaced by a lingering sense of dread, with Putin's mouthpieces routinely fretting about the possibility of war crimes tribunals. The issue is playing on their minds."
An example of the extreme talk spouted by Russian-state controlled media was a discussion led in the fall by Anton Krasovsky, who also works for RT. During an October interview, Krasovsky spoke of drowning Ukrainian children while setting homes on fire before he turned to talk of rape, according to Davis.
Russian talking heads have not only justified violence against Ukraine, but they've also suggested using nuclear weapons against the United States and other Western nations over their support for Ukraine.
"The Kremlin's propagandists have plenty of reasons to be concerned ... The state-controlled media has played a central part in prompting, encouraging, rationalizing, and normalizing the Kremlin's massacre of its next-door neighbors," Davis wrote.
More at https://www.newsweek.com/putins-allies-fears-come-true-1788649
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
They only get away with writing these articles because people are stupid enough to buy them.
--------------------------------------------------
Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Fixed it for you.
Originally posted by second:
Signym,Russian statewestern TV hosts and guests AND I have encouraged and rationalized violence againstUkraine.Russia, for years. Some have even suggested using nuclear weapons againstWestern countries.Russia as a first strike. Pro-Kremlinwestern media pundits should be concerned about the possibility of facing war crime charges.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Signym, you got true and false mixed up. For a real-life example, there is Lysenko and Vavilov. The famous one was a pseudo-scientist who caused mass starvation. The other was a geneticist who starved to death in prison. Peculiar things tend to happen in Russia because they can’t tell who is a fake hero and who is a real hero.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Fixed it for you.
Fake Hero: Trofim Lysenko
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim_Lysenko#Consequences_of_Lysenkois
m
True Hero: Nikolai Vavilov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Another example of SECOND posting lies.
Originally posted by second:Quote:Signym, you are a Russian troll working for Putin.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
If Putin said "The sky is blue and water is wet" and Tucker Carlson said "The sky is blue and water is wet" I'm sure SECOND would bray that Tucker is parroting Putin.
Occasionally different people say the same thing because they're talking real-world truth.
We'll never have to worry about SECOND posting truth, tho. If he hits on a real fact once in a while it's totally accidental.
We DEFINITELY don't have to worry about SECOND accidentally colliding with the truth!
Signym is Russian. She lies constantly. Here is another Russian explaining where she gets it from. Too funny and so true.
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I remember the days when the human drones in America were Republicans and backed GWB.
Funny watching this come from equally stupid people on the other side 20 years later.
--------------------------------------------------
Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Saturday introducing lengthy prison terms for “discrediting” and spreading “fake” information about any force, including the notorious Wagner Group mercenary unit, fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
Spreading what the authorities deem to be “false information” about military volunteers will be punishable with up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 1.5 million rubles ($20,000).
“Army fakes” that are deemed to lead to “grave consequences” could land a violator a prison sentence of up to 15 years under the new legislation.
“Anyone who is risking their life today to guarantee the security of the country and its citizens is protected from lies and provocations,” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/18/putin-signs-law-punishing-cr
iticism-of-mercenaries-with-jail-a80534
Any Russian who said that the Army was NOT really protecting Russia, but was actually only stealing Ukrainian land, could be jailed. Any Russian mentioning Russians committing War Crimes? That Russian goes to jail. Any Russian saying Putin should be in jail because of Putin's arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court will get thrown in jail, instead.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:For once, SECOND told the truth.
Signym, western TV hosts and guests AND I have encouraged and rationalized violence against Russia for years. Some have even suggested using nuclear weapons against Russia as a first strike. Western media pundits should be concerned about the possibility of facing war crime charges.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME