Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin has submitted a request to the upper house of parliament asking approval for the use of Russian troops in Ukraine, the Kremlin said this afternoon.
The Kremlin quoted Putin as saying in the document:
“In connection with the extraordinary situation in Ukraine and the threat to the lives of Russian citizens… I submit to the Federation Council a request to use the armed forces of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory until the normalisation of the political situation in that country.”
He sent the request to the Russian legislature’s upper house, which has to approve the motion, according to the constitution.
In Crimea, the pro-Russian regional prime minister had earlier claimed control of the military and police there and asked Putin for help in keeping peace, sharpening the discord between the two Slavic neighbour countries.
Escalations
It was the latest escalation following the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president last week by a protest movement aimed at turning Ukraine toward the European Union and away from Russia.
Armed men described as Russian troops took control of key airports and a communications center in Crimea on Friday. Ukraine has accused Russia of a “military invasion and occupation” — a claim that brought an alarming new dimension to the crisis, and raised fears that Moscow is moving to intervene on the strategic peninsula where Russia’s Black Sea fleet is based.
Ukraine’s population is divided in loyalties between Russia and Europe, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the European Union while eastern and southern regions look to Russia for support. Crimea is mainly Russian-speaking.
Crimean’s prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, declared that the armed forces, the police, the national security service and border guards in the region will answer only to his orders.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk opened a Cabinet meeting in the capital, Kiev, by calling on Russia not to provoke discord in Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea.
“We call on the government and authorities of Russia to recall their forces, and to return them to their stations,” Yatsenyuk was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “Russian partners, stop provoking civil and military resistance in Ukraine.”
Additional reporting Associated Press
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Meaningless debate between a bunch of No Hopers clogging up the field.
The Real Discussion is happening right now over on Twitter.
@Tommy Haze: You mean it’s not a bunch of lunatics shouting at each other like it is here?
@Tommy Haze: trump is home and hosed
Wrongly claim ‘climate change is a hoax’ according to the author! Only her opinion!!!
@Eugene Kelly: Well, her and ~97% of the global scientific community.
@Eugene Kelly: One’s entitlement to an opinion should be predicated on it being well-supported by evidence, logic and argument. In the author’s case, it is.
@Eugene Kelly: Here is the deal. Ramaswamy fully understands the reality of climate change. He chose words carefully, not calling climate change a hoax ,but calling the “climate agenda” a hoax.
Vaswamy is extremely smart, and his objective is to become president, so you should not expect anything he says to reflect his actual opinion. He is modelling himself on his perception of what the republican base wants, and giving soundbites that are provocation enough to stay in headlines, with just semantic ambiguity to be able to spin it back to a general voter if he becomes the nominee.
Look on the bright side. They are all at least 40 years younger than biden.biden needs an old folks home at this stage
@reg morrisey: “at this stage” – you weirdos have been saying that for years while he’s been demonstrating himself to be a lot sharper, smoother, and infinitely more competent, than you. :)
@Joe Philips: Thankfully Biden has been there to support Ukraine.
russia might well be at the borders of Poland and Romania by now, with another people condemned to russian oppression. Probably Moldova too.
And he has gone a long way to recover the US economy, and straighten out the corruption of the Trump “administration”.
Although I would have preferred another to Biden, he has done better that I expected. But his administration has been far too soft on US Republican corruption, in my opinion.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Biden (and I agree with you that he wouldn’t be my choice either – and definitely is too old for 2024) has managed to surprise people with the amount of legislation his administration have been able to negotiate passage through Congress. Meanwhile Trump was ranked 43rd worst president by the Siena College Research Institute. This means Trump has ‘broken through’ the Civil War era bottom 3 of Pierce, Johnson and Buchanan for the first time (previously C-Span ranked him 42nd). Bide was given a ranking of 19th by the Siena College Research Institute.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I fully agree with you there. And I don’t think there’s anyone else that would’ve done as well as he has.
I should’ve said “but” rather than “and” there, and probably shouldn’t have said “fully”
@Numinous20111: Who would be your choice?
@Joe Philips: I think Biden was a good pragmatic choice in 2020, but he should always have been a one term president. I understand it is tricky having a serving president and a new candidate at the same time (who speaks for the party’s policy platform and general attitude?, does the president catch criticism for anything the candidate does or says & vice versa?)…….probably Warren, but there isn’t a Democratic candidate who is in a really strong position either. Buttigieg would appear to be the front-runner after Biden’s era.
@Numinous20111: Buttigieg or Jeffries, I reckon. I disagree about the one-term thing, though, and I think his shortcomings/mishaps are grossly, purposely, and often ridiculously exaggerated.
That lot make all of ours look good.
@Steve O’Hara Smith.: no they don’t.
@Lorne Malvo: They do Lorne, bot Democrats and Republicans make ours look “better”, I wouldn’t say “good”. But that’s like saying “oh yeah, I rather get the flu than breaking my leg”.
@J Ven: Nonsense.
In my opinion any man that thinks its OK to interfere in a womans reproduction, is a frightened little boy
@Robert Halvey: Its a complicated and nuanced topic.
Excellent report and analysis.
Viewership for the RNC debate on Fox was 23.9m. That was very good. Apparently it was a record for an RNC debate.
On ‘X’ Trump’s chat with Tucker had 74m views.
However, I’d imagine a lot of those could be foreign viewers.
I’d have a question for the author of this piece.
Apparently the 1st question put to the debaters was in relation to the song ‘Richmen north of Richmond’.
Why was that deemed not worthy of inclusion in this piece?
@Monetpenny: If you scroll on ‘X’ and go past that video and the video plays for tenth of a second it counts as a view… Imagine the push for this “interview” on ‘X’ feeds and how many people scrolled past it in their feed… Makey up numbers to suit an agenda.
OMB gonna break X tonight
@Oh Mammy: Its Trump v Biden and God help America.
Nikki haley probably spoke the best out of a bad bunch. Although the line about chatgpt was fairly funny. Bit of an excercise in pointlessnesss all the same as it looks like the cowardly auld lad afraid to speak is a shoe in for the nomination.
Its like I line up of pedophiles trying to prove who is the lesser pedo.
@: We speak proper English in Ireland. All this talk of ‘pedo…’ highlights the red white and blue in you. Personally, I’ve always found it weird and creepy when people throw those words around. It smacks of projection.
@Lorne Malvo: ‘I’ll air my opinion on that if and when that issue is raised anywhere.’ It was raised.. and so that discussion begins. it’s not rocket science. You initiated the discussion. Stop hiding behind ‘but it isn’t in the article’ malarkey.
You’re advocating a barter system involving childcare.. but you don’t want to talk about the children who are central to this barter system. it’s a tangent apparently.. Christ.
You don’t see any problems with childminding being included in a barter system? Like none.. zip.. nada..?
Also, I’ve addressed the student side of this twice now and you’ve conveniently ignored that one.
have your say