Swedish prosecutors said Wednesday they would drop their investigation into the September 2022 explosions on the underwater Nord Stream pipelines.
The cause of the blasts in the pipelines built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany is unknown, but it is widely believed that they were the result of an attack.
Public prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said there was no Swedish jurisdiction in the case.
Isn’t that convenient!
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks a big game on Ukraine but is not meeting the needs of a country at war, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says.
“Justin Trudeau is a big talker and a little doer when it comes to Ukraine,” Poilievre said during a press conference in Montreal, Que., on Tuesday. “He’s made all these announcements of hundreds of millions of dollars of different equipment that he’s never actually delivered.”
“I don’t want to overemphasize it … but what is burgeoning, what is starting to sort of grow from out of the weeds into a fairly healthy seedling here, is this almost the Trump-esque, ‘Canada First’ mentality,” she said.
Growing number of Conservative voters think Canada gives ‘too much support’ to Ukraine, poll suggests
A survey released Tuesday morning by the Angus Reid Institute says a quarter of Canadians believe Canada is offering “too much support” to Ukraine in its fight, up from 13 per cent who said the same thing in May 2022.
Conservative supporters are a driving force behind that result, according to the poll.
The percentage of Canadians who voted for the Conservative Party in the last election, and who now say Canada is doing too much to assist Ukraine, has more than doubled — from 19 per cent in May 2022 to 43 per cent now — according to the public opinion research group’s findings.
Whole lot of spin goin on. Funny how CBC missed the part about how Liberal and NDP voters must make up the remaining 57% of of the 25% of Canadians who think we give too much to Ukraine. Are we to assume that Liberal and NDP voters do not wish to put Canada 1st?
A Ukrainian military leader is asking Canada to hand over tens of thousands of rockets that are awaiting demolition at a Saskatchewan military base.
In an exclusive interview with Global News, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov urged the government to let Ukraine have the decommissioned CRV7 rockets.
Doing so would help Ukraine fend off Russian forces and save taxpayers the cost of destroying them, said Lt. Gen. Budanov, chief of the Ukrainian defence ministry’s intelligence directorate.
Tucker Carlson appears to have been photographed in Moscow, triggering speculation of an interview with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
Russian media published a picture that is said to show Carlson attending a performance of Spartacus at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre.
The image – alongside another of him allegedly at Istanbul airport on a layover – reignited rumours that the political commentator and former Fox News host may be the first Western journalist to interview Putin since the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Already some displaced families that came to Canada are living in tents. And another 90,000 people are expected in the next 60 days
What’s the plan?
Feb. 24 marks the second anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Gen. Rick Hillier, irrepressible even in quasi-retirement, is sounding the alarm on Canada’s lack of preparedness to absorb yet more displaced Ukrainians. He’s particularly galled by stories of newcomers — at-risk families we invited to our country — living in tents in downtown Toronto.
Canada has been sitting on a request from Ukraine to take more than 83,000 missiles off our hands that was sent last year.
It questions the claim by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada will be there to support Ukraine with whatever they need.
Confusion over the sacking of a general has revealed Zelenskyy’s falling popularity
The warfare in Ukraine dominating headlines over the past week has taken on a fratricidal flavour. Largely political in nature, it has been, if not literally fatal, arguably more poisonous. On Monday, scraps of a rumour made it online: Volodymyr Zelenskyy was about to fire his Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Apparently the two had a meeting at which the Ukrainian President told him the news personally.
The $130 billion sent to Ukraine so far for its war against Russia is apparently not actually going to Ukraine, but is really “benefiting American interests,” a spokesperson for Ukraine told Breitbart News.
The shock claim was in response to a request for information by Breitbart News on whether or not any American tax dollars had gone specifically to Uman, a city in the war-torn Eastern European nation that is currently seeing a condo built on a Jewish mass grave, as previously reported, in violation of a bilateral agreement with the U.S., and in violation of international law.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Employees from a Ukrainian arms firm conspired with defense ministry officials to embezzle almost $40 million earmarked to buy 100,000 mortar shells for the war with Russia, Ukraine’s security service reported.
The SBU said late Saturday that five people have been charged, with one person detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border. If found guilty, they face up to 12 years in prison.
The German army’s new assault rifle is not accurate enough and cannot be relied upon to work properly in battle, according to a classified report.
The Bundeswehr was forced to lower testing standards for its G95A1 after it failed to pass trials using military-standard ammunition, said the report, which was sent to the Bundestag by Germany’s national audit office.
“Current testing by the army in laboratory conditions shows that the weapon doesn’t meet army standards when loaded with combat ammunition,” said the review, which was first revealed by Der Spiegel news magazine.
Oh Oh!
How Russia is arming itself faster than Nato
Once upon a time, the Itlamas shopping mall in Izhevsk represented the arrival of the modest middle-class dream in Russia’s provinces.
Its steel and glass facade advertised H&M, McDonalds, and Destsky Mir, Russia’s most famous chain of toy shops – symbols of the social contract Vladimir Putin cut with the Russian public more than 20 years ago.
Today, both Western and Russian brands have vanished. The Italmas Mall is now the Italmas Scientific Research Centre, producing Lancet attack drones for the war in Ukraine.
Employees at Ukraine’s well-known investigative outlet Bihus.Info have been covertly wiretapped and filmed. A video leaked online, purportedly showing team members consuming illegal substances at a New Year’s party, has caused a scandal.
The video was released on January 16 on a little-known YouTube channel called Narodna Pravda (Ukrainian for “national truth”). It ostensibly also contained snippets of private conversations between Bihus.Info employees as they discussed buying drugs. The video has since been removed.
A group of journalists founded the investigative outlet in 2013 under the aegis of editor-in-chief Denys Bihus. One of its reports uncovered the financing schemes of Ukrainian power plants located in Russian-held territories and owned by the brother of Rostyslav Shurma, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Canada is contributing another $35 million worth of military equipment to Ukraine as the embattled Eastern European country’s allies meet to discuss its future needs, and as Russia’s full invasion edges toward the two-year mark.
Defence Minister Bill Blair, who participated in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting via video link, said Canada is providing 10 Multirole Boats from Zodiac Hurricane Technologies, valued at approximately $20 million.
The rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) are a favourite of Canadian Special Forces for commando operations. The Department of National Defence (DND) says they also can be used for search and rescue, troop and cargo transport, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Ukrainian first lady considers Hunka matter ‘resolved’
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska believes Ukraine and Canada have put the Yaroslav Hunka affair behind them, she said in her first public comments on the matter since her visit to Canada last fall.
In a Canadian exclusive interview, Zelenska said it was unfortunate the vetting process allowed for a standing ovation in the House of Commons for Hunka — a Ukrainian Canadian who fought with a Nazi unit during the Second World War — during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit in September.
Russia says 74 dead, no survivors, in crash of plane carrying Ukrainian PoWs
A military transport plane that Russia said was carrying 74 people, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war to be swapped, crashed Wednesday in a border area near Ukraine.
All aboard were killed, according to Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash, which occurred around 11 a.m in Belgorod region. A special military commission was on the way to the crash site, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
Russian Air Force Ilyushin-76 has crashed in the southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/T097m9shj9
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) January 24, 2024
The Kremlin has been threatening to use its warheads since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, and now a British think tank believes recent military setbacks could push it to move away from conventional weaponry
Russia would feel emboldened to use nuclear weapons during clashes with Nato troops because it believes the United States would lack the resolve to respond, a British think tank has warned.
Military setbacks in Ukraine have shaken Moscow’s confidence in its conventional forces and the Kremlin would place an increased importance on its nuclear arsenal during a confrontation with Nato, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.
There are few places from where you can see Russian-occupied territory with the naked eye in Ukraine.
The western bank of the Dnipro river in the city of Kherson is one of them.
You can’t see the Russian troops on the other low, marshy riverbank, but you know they’re there.
Incoming artillery fire as we arrive at an abandoned building serves as a sharp reminder.
