The European Parliament has passed by a majority a legally non-binding resolution recognising Russia as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’.
The European Parliament thus recognised Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and a state that uses terrorist means. The resolution was voted in a plenary session in Strasbourg, calling for the complete international isolation of Russia.
According to Latvian journalist, Baltic and European expert, Vadim Avva, in a conversation with channel ‘360’, explained that Russia in all European countries deals with officials who have fallen under the influence of the American secret services. Hence all these European ‘conclusions’. “In all major European countries we are dealing with so-called Atlanticists. Some call them ‘new Europeans’. These are officials who in one way or another have been educated or have come under the control of the US intelligence services. Either because of their origins – especially the Baltics who are revanchists, descendants of former SS. Either they are making careers within this Atlanticist narrative, or they are engaged in their erotic dream of destroying Russia. They do not reflect national interests. The conflict between Atlanticists and national capital exists, in Germany, in tiny Latvia, in Britain, but everywhere it is suppressed at the level of leading politicians. Rishi Sunak studied in the US, Annalena Baerbok is a typical Atlanticist creature’. The Latvian journalist concludes.
The resolutions of the European Parliament, we recall, are advisory in nature. Prompt was the Russian response in the voice of the deputy chairman of the State Duma’s Defence Committee Yuri Shvytkin: ‘The European Parliament’s decision to recognise Russia as a terrorist state carries no weight with the Russian Federation, but shows the European Parliament’s own lack of common sense. “The decision carries no weight. At the same time, we realise that the Russophobic politics present in the European Parliament further underlines the lack of common sense in making any decision on their part. Speaking of consequences, there will be preconditions on their side. But there will be no consequences for us. According to the policy that the EU pursues, it is literally a terrorist organisation that encourages the actions of the pro-fascist Ukrainian regime’.
And still on the subject of statements, former French Foreign Secretary General and advisor to President Jacques Chirac from 2002 to 2007, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, on Radio Eura 1, spoke of how the seriousness of the Ukrainian issue has long been understood by European governments.
In 2006, on behalf of Chirac, the former French foreign secretary general met with Sergei Prikhodko, an aide to the Russian president, in Moscow, who proposed a plan for a joint protectorate over Ukraine by Russia and NATO countries to guarantee the country’s neutral status. Russia was interested in the plan because it eliminated the issue of Crimea and the Russian navy. Chirac also liked the plan. He instructed Gourdeau-Montagne to discuss it with the US. He then met with Condoleezza Rice and briefed her on the project. According to Gourdeau-Montagne, the answer was: ‘France has disintegrated. You have already blocked the first wave of accession of central European countries to NATO for many years. And we will not allow you to block the second one’. “From this we have understood that the ultimate goal of the Americans is the accession of Ukraine to NATO,” said Maurice Gourdault-Montagne.
Meanwhile, on the Ukrainian side, officials continue to assert that there is no intention to enter into negotiations with Moscow under these conditions.
And now a look at the fronts: a ’35-to-35′ prisoner exchange took place between Russia and Ukraine, DNR chief Denis Pushilin said: ‘Among our released prisoners are four from the Donetsk People’s Republic and two from the Luhansk People’s Republic’.
The day of 23 November saw yet another shelling of Ukrainian infrastructure. By 4pm, 14 regions were in the dark and many of them were without water service and Internet connection, Moldova also remained in the dark. As of 15-45, there was complete or partial darkness in the cities: Kiev, Kharkov, Dnipropetrovsk, Leiopoli, Kryvyj Rih, Rivne, Lutsk, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Sumy, Poltava, Myrhorod, Chmel’nyc’kyj
Zhytomyr, Žytomyr. It is learnt from social sources that the Ukrainian defence, with an anti-aircraft missile, hit a residential complex.
Among the Ukrainian energy infrastructure blocked yesterday were power units of the Southern Ukrainian nuclear power plant. The power units of the Khmelnitsky NPP were disconnected from the power grid.
At 11.20pm on 22 November, the situation at the front was as follows:
Crimea: Russian air defence assets shot down two Ukrainian UAVs as they approached the Balaklava OPT (Balaclava), Sevastopol and three more drones over the area of the Black Sea waters.
Belgorod region: Ukrainian units shelled the town of Šebekino, damaging residential buildings. One woman was killed. Ukrainian formations hit a veterans’ hospital in the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka. Bullets damaged the façade of the building and the gas pipe. There were no casualties or injuries.
Starobil’s’k direction: in the Svatove sector, assault units of the 92 Shadow AFU launched an attack against Russian Armed Forces positions near Kuzemivka. The troops fired to press, forcing the Ukrainian troops to retreat to their original lines. In Stel’makhivka, Russian artillery hit the 14th AFU detachment reinforced by foreign mercenaries. Several pieces of equipment were destroyed.
Soledar direction: significant changes in the situation on the front. There are clashes in Opytne and in the south-eastern suburbs of Bachmut. On the 23rd, videos posted online show the advance of the Wagn PMC.
Donetsk direction. Clashes between motorised units of the Russian Armed Forces the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the centre of Marinka (Mar “ïnka). Russian missile and artillery forces hit concentrations of armoured vehicles and Ukrainian personnel on the western outskirts of the city. On 23 November, School 2 came under Russian control. According to social sources, two-thirds of the city is under Russian control. The key to taking Marinka is to establish control over the complex of administrative buildings (municipality, court, church, etc.).
Ukrainian formations again shelled populated areas of the Donetsk agglomeration: residential buildings and civil infrastructure were hit in Donetsk, Makiivka, Mineralnye, Yasynuvata, Zaitseve and Kashtanove.
Donetsk South direction: Ukrainian units made several counter-attack attempts against Russian positions in Pavlivka. The advancing Ukrainian groups were detected by a UAV formation and retreated with losses to their original positions under artillery fire from the Russian armed forces.
Zaporizhzhya direction. The Ukrainian command continues to send reserves and armoured vehicles towards the line of contact, preparing for an offensive along the entire front. The artillery clash along the contact line continues: Russian troops hit the concentrations of the 65th Mechanised Brigade in Huliaipil, Zaliznichne and Orekhove. According to social sources, in the last 24 hours, about 250 men with 30 equipment and five tanks have arrived from the direction of Kherson and are preparing for an offensive in the Orikhivs’ke area
Southern front: Kherson direction: National police officers conduct filtering activities in Kherson and check all buildings in the city in search of Russian Armed Forces personnel and pro-Russian citizens. Ukrainian units of the 9th TRO composite battalion struck the village of Kairy using a helicopter with a grenade launching system. The reconnaissance team of the 73rd SDF centre of the AFU carried out patrols with small boats off the coast of the Dniprovsky estuary. Russian forces hit Ukrainian targets in Kherson and fired on gatherings of Ukrainian personnel and armoured vehicles in Muzykivka, Sadovoye and Tokarevka.
Graziella Giangiulio
