Writing on Facebook, Conte, who leads the Five Star Movement party, noted that the year and a half of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev had shown that it was time to “put aside the optimistic assessments… fueled by a superficial as well as deafening war propaganda” in the West.  

The strategy of the US-led military block, which has so far hinged on massive military aid to Kiev and the “logic of escalation,” has failed to bring about the much-hoped-for demise of the Russian military, Conte said. He recalled that Ukraine never managed to push Russian forces back from Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), a key Donbass stronghold that Russia captured in May after months of fierce fighting.  

“There has been no disintegration of [Russia’s] military and paramilitary departments, there has been no retreat due to the Ukrainian counteroffensive,” the ex-prime minister stressed, adding that Western hopes for domestic political turmoil in the country also failed to materialize.

Meanwhile, the harsh sanctions imposed by the West on Russia “have not bankrupted it or crippled its economy,” Conte continued, noting that the long-stated goal of isolating Moscow “has by no means been achieved.”  

In addition to this, Conte claimed that the Ukraine conflict “has exposed the EU’s inability to develop an effective common strategy and to express autonomous political and economic leadership.” Instead, it has become yet another indicator of the bloc’s kowtowing to the US.

Conte’s comments come as the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed to gain any significant ground despite more than two months of fighting. According to Moscow, Kiev has lost more than 43,000 service members and nearly 5,000 pieces of military equipment since the start of the push.

The former Italian prime minister, who held the office from 2018 to 2021, has in the past repeatedly called for peace talks between the belligerents in Ukraine while opposing further arms deliveries to Kiev, warning of a potential escalation. RT.COM

US Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has touted Washington’s strategy of trying to weaken Russia by providing massive military aid to Kiev, allegedly degrading Moscow’s forces while only Ukrainian troops are put in harm’s way.

Romney, who as the Republican Party’s nominee, lost the 2012 presidential election to Barack Obama, made his comments during a visit on Tuesday to Utah-based defense contractor Strider Technologies. He argued that the best way for the US to mitigate the security threat posed by China is to ensure that Russia is defeated in Ukraine.

“Russia being weakened weakens their ally China,” Romney said. “And by the way, being able to take an amount that equals about 5% of our military budget… to help the Ukrainians is about the best national defense spending I think we’ve ever done.”

We’re losing no lives in Ukraine. And the Ukrainians are fighting heroically against Russia, that has 1,500 nuclear weapons aimed at us. So, we are diminishing and devastating the Russian military for a very small amount of money.”

While American forces have been spared bloodshed – at least officially – Ukrainian troops haven’t been as fortunate. An estimated 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Kiev began a counteroffensive operation in early June, according to an August 4 estimate by the Russian Defense Ministry. Since the conflict began in February 2022, Ukraine has lost 400,000 troops, former Pentagon senior advisor Douglas Macgregor, a retired US Army colonel, said last week in an interview with Tucker Carlson.

Nevertheless, Romney claimed that the US effort to hurt Moscow through a proxy combatant has been successful, sending a message to Chinese leaders and to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has previously argued that Russia is a “geopolitical adversary” and is the “only real ally” of China.

“A weakened Russia is a good thing,” Romney said. “It tells China to rethink their territorial ambition. It tells Russia, perhaps most importantly, that the Putin vision of re-establishing the Russian empire and grabbing the old former Soviet Republics that that’s not something that’s going to work.”

During his unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2012, Romney called Russia “America’s No. 1 geopolitical foe.” Obama responded by quipping that “the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”

Romney claimed to have been vindicated when Russia began its military offensive against Ukraine last year. During his visit to Strider, he said, “It is very much in America’s national interest, in our national interest, to help Ukraine, and the best thing we can do for America is to see people who have nuclear weapons aimed at us getting weaker.” RT.COM

North Korea blasts ‘sinister’ US plan for Ukraine

Pyongyang has claimed that donations of F-16 jets to Kiev risk nuclear war with Russia

Dutch Air Force F-16 fighters fly over the North Sea during an April 2018 press event. © Getty Images / Horacio Villalobos

The plan to transfer US-made F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine brings the world closer to nuclear war between Washington and Moscow, North Korea said on Monday.

“Their decision to supply even fighters is an anti-peace act inciting a long war and totally destroying the regional peace and stability,” Pyongyang’s Institute of International Studies warned in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The institute went on to criticize Washington’s “sinister intention to bring a strategic defeat to Russia at any cost.” 

“The reality clearly proves that the US is the arch-criminal blocking the peaceful settlement of disputes and pushing the whole of Europe into the crucible of a horrible nuclear war by inciting its followers to provide Ukraine with various kinds of lethal weapons,” the statement read. 

Last week, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway agreed to donate F-16s to Ukraine, where the military hopes to salvage its ongoing offensive, which has so far failed to yield any significant territory.

READ MORE: North Korea issues nuclear warning over Ukraine

Although the US refused to donate any planes of its own, the Pentagon said that Ukrainians would begin training to fly the F-16 in Arizona in October. The planes have long been on Kiev’s wish list, together with long-range missiles and advanced air defense systems.

Russia has repeatedly stressed that deliveries of Western weapons to Ukraine were drawing NATO members close to open confrontation with Moscow.

North Korea has refused to condemn Russia for its military operation in Ukraine and consistently accused the US of instigating the crisis. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu made a surprise trip to Pyongyang last month, where he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. RT.COM

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