Magda Hassan Wrote:There has been an announcement of an agreed ceasefire in the Eastern Ukraine. The catch is it comes from the press office of Kiev and Putin is in Mongolia and there is no confirmation from the Kremlin.

Quote:Ukraine crisis: Poroshenko agrees 'permanent ceasefire' as Russia gears up for tests of long-range nuclear arsenal



Cameron has told EU leaders not to appease' Putin as Britain and France did Hitler

LOULLA-MAE ELEFTHERIOU-SMITH

Wednesday 03 September 2014

The Ukrainian President's office says it has agreed a "permanent ceasefire" with Russia over eastern Ukraine.

"Their conversation resulted in agreement on a permanent ceasefire in the Donbass region," his office said, referring to the regions of Donestsk and Luhansk, where fighting has been ongoing since April. The death toll has reached more than 2,600 since the fighting began, according to the UN.
The agreement comes on the day that Russia announced it will conduct major exercises in September of the strategic missile forces responsible for its long-range nuclear arsenal.
The exercises will involve more than 4,000 servicemen and will practice countering irregular units and high-precision weapons, the RIA news agency reported Russia's Defence ministry as saying, with the tests making extensive use of air power.
Russia's defence ministry announced the plans amid rising tensions between the country and Nato over the crisis in Ukraine, just days after Vladimir Putin boasted to European leaders that he could "take Kiev in two weeks", after telling a youth summer camp that "Russia is one of the leading nuclear powers" and that "Russia's partners should understand it's best not to mess with us".
Cameron has warned the West against making the same mistakes as Neville ChamberlainBut despite the Russian leader's aggressive comments, a spokesperson for President Putin said he had had discussions with President Poroshenko regarding a peace settlement in eastern Ukraine, finding that they "largely share views" on a way out of the crisis. The spokesperson did not give an indication of when this conversation took place.
On Saturday David Cameron warned European leaders that the West is at risk of appeasing President Putin in the same way that Britain and France appeased Adolf Hitler before the start of the Second World War.
In a debate about the crisis in Ukraine that took place behind closed doors, the Prime Minister told leaders that President Putin had to be stopped from seizing all of Ukriane, the Guardian reported, according to details of the conversation obtained by La Repubblica.
President Obama has arrived in EstoniaHe the dealings of European leaders with Putin to the failed methods of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in the lead up to the war, when he continued to negotiate with Hitler.
"We run the risk of repeating the mistakes made in Munich in '38. We cannot know what will happen next," Mr Cameron is understood to have said. "This time we cannot meet Putin's demands. He has already taken Crimea and we cannot allow him to take the whole country," La Repubblica reported.
VIDEO: HALF A MILLION DISPLACED IN UKRAINE


President Barack Obama has since arrived in Estonia, making a show of solidarity in Eastern Europe ahead of a Nato summit in Wales on Thursday. He is due to hold a news conference with Eastonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, and is expected to reassure the Baltics that the US would come to their defence if tensions escalated that far.
Under the Nato charter, an attack on one member is considered an attack on the entire alliance.

The Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation proposed to include the United States as the main enemy

Quote:

Nato Summit 2014: Arms Industry to Profit From More Aggressive Stance

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  By Finbarr Bermingham
  September 4, 2014 15:02 BST
  
  
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Leaders watch their flags as they participate in a Nato Summit Session One(Reuters)

World leaders are to use the Nato Summit in Newport, South Wales, to urge their counterparts to increase defence spending to better arm Nato members and their allies.
At a press conference to open the summit, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "On defence investment, we will turn the corner and reverse the trend of declining defence projects."
It's a sentiment that has already been obvious in conversations with delegates and the unilateral actions of governments, especially those of the United Kingdom.
Already, the UK has announced the sale of 123 surplus combat reconnaissance armoured vehicles to Latvia, as the Baltic State seeks to fortify, amid fears over the territorial ambitions of neighbouring Russia.
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• Nato Summit 2014: Estonia Welcomes Nato Base Near Russian Border
  
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Defence Minister Michael Fallon said: "I am delighted that Latvia will soon benefit from these proven and life-saving battlefield capabilities, including ambulances and command centres.
"This is just one way we are supporting our Baltic Nato allies. As a leading member of Nato, the UK is keen to restate publicly our support for the collective security of its members and enable our partners to contribute to international peacekeeping and security operations."
The deal was struck a day after David Cameron signed a £3.5bn deal with General Dynamics Specialist Vehicles for the purchase of 600 new armoured vehicles the biggest single order in more than 30 years.
That Nato is an organisation that inspires armaments should not surprise anyone: it was founded solely as a defence mechanism. But the presence of heavy weaponry on site here at the Celtic Manor is startling.
There are tanks on the golf course, aeroplanes ornamenting the driveways, the constant buzz of low-flying helicopters overhead and soldiers in full combat gear and laden with enormous guns patrolling the grounds.
On the afternoon of September 4, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI, a government export support function) led tours of displays of weaponry from some of the world's largest defence companies, including Raytheon and Airbus Defence and Space.
Other governments are at it too, of course. On September 3, a senior Nato official told reporters gathered at Celtic Manor the plan was for the organisation to greatly increase its financial and technical support for the armed forces in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya.
As he arrived at the summit, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told IBTimes UK he hoped one of the outcomes would be the establishment of a "trust fund" for Ukraine. Rather than arming them directly, this fund could then be used "strategically" in order to improve Ukraine's armed forces.
While Rasmussen spoke of a trend of declining military projects, military spend has only been going one way for many years: up.
Between 2002 and 2011, the world's military expenditure rose by 43%, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. US military spend increased by 59%, while it was up by 18% in the UK. In Germany and France there were marginal decreases but the overall trend across the world is for spending to escalate exponentially.
Defence is one of the UK's most prominent export industries but the blurred line between the state and the private sector has long since drawn the ire of campaigners.
"They're the ones who really determine the outcome of the summit," one protester told IBTimes UK, in reference to arms companies. "If they're represented so heavily on site, then surely the peace activists should have their place at the table too?"
Defence is a self-perpetuating industry: to stop people blowing stuff up, you almost always have to blow them up instead. Looked at through this lens, the Nato Summit, with its tough rhetoric on Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya, is certainly going to be a boon for the armaments industry.

Lauren Johnson Wrote:There strong reports that there is a cease fire in the works to be started at 15:00 GMT. Lots of speculation of why the NAF would agree to a cease fire when they have been so dominant.

Lauren Johnson Wrote:There strong reports that there is a cease fire in the works to be started at 15:00 GMT. Lots of speculation of why the NAF would agree to a cease fire when they have been so dominant.

Quote:RT affirms the ceasefire. Fighting still going on.

Quote:I hear that there is still fighting. Not everyone on the Ukrainian army got the memo apparently. Some places shortly before the ceasefire they bombed the shit out of too as if in spite.

Estimated Numbers of Tactical Nuclear Weapons as of 2010

Russia: Estimates of the size of Russia's tactical nuclear arsenal differ. According to one open source estimate, Russia retains approximately 5,390 tactical nuclear warheads, approximately 2,000 of which are deployed, while the rest are in inactive storage or retired. Russia is alleged to deploy some of these forces in areas adjacent to Europe such as Kaliningrad and the Kola Peninsula.

i.e. despite being a formidable ground force, Russia outnumbers NATO with tactical nuclear weapons [the only kind one can use without destroying the entire Planet in a few minutes - only incinerate cities and armies, etc.] 10:1 ready, 5:1 total. Most persons do not know this fact, trust me the US and NATO military does! Russia also has slightly more long-range and super-duper 'Armageddon' nukes than the West. So, there can be no conflict between West and Russia, unless one want to kiss the human race and most of the Planet goodbye. At least it will be quick for all but those in remote places. :hock::