In the next few days, but in a very short time, US Secretary of State Blinki and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov should hold a new meeting in an effort to calm the atmosphere on the Eastern Front.
Moscow withdraws other forces
For its part, Russia announced today the withdrawal of other tanks deployed near the Ukrainian border and grenade launchers in the Crimea, which it annexed. “Another military train carrying personnel and equipment of tank units in the Western Military District has returned to its permanent base,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
At the same time, a spokesman for the Russian fleet, citing Interfax, announced the withdrawal of ten Su-24 bombers from the Crimea. Military units and vehicles, which the ministry specified in the memo, arrived at their “permanent bases in the Nizhny Novgorod region after completing the planned exercises.”
Pope Francis Quotes Benedict XVI: “War is a pointless massacre”
War is “a pointless massacre”. Pope Francis, in his meeting with the Eastern Churches, recalled the words of Pope Benedict XVI to comment on the Ukrainian crisis. “We wished that there would be no need to repeat similar words – as Francis said – in the third millennium; Yet humanity still appears to be groping in the dark: we have witnessed the carnage of conflicts in the Middle East, Syria and Iraq. For those who live in the Ethiopian Tigray region; And the winds still blow across the plains of Eastern Europe, igniting wicks and gunfire and leaving the hearts of the poor and the innocent cold. This does not count. Meanwhile, the drama of Lebanon that now leaves many people without bread continues. Young people and adults lost hope and left these lands.”
Black Thursday
The Pope’s words come after yesterday, Thursday, the 17th, tensions in the east escalated again, with NATO accusing Russia of amassing new forces on the border with Ukraine and satellite imagery that would attest to a possible escalation of the crisis.
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