Ukraine War discussion - Threat to Public Health

[sharon sanders]

snip

The leaders of the Group of Seven of the world’s most developed economies will hold an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine, following coordinated Russian missile strikes on civilian targets in cities across the country. Zelenskyy is also expected to speak at the meeting via videolink.

Top officials in the United States, European Union and at the United Nations expressed shock and horror Monday over the strikes. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “shocked” by the attacks, saying through a spokesperson that they represented an escalation of the war.

The strikes have damaged significant parts of Ukraine’s energy grid, prompting the nation’s energy ministry to announce it would halt exports of electricity to the EU starting Tuesday.

more....

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/11/russ...e-updates.html

[Pathfinder]

...
Oct 11, 10:49 AM EDT

Russia open to Biden-Putin meeting at upcoming G-20 summit

Ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, next month, Russia indicated it may be open to a meeting between President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with news agency Interfax.

"We have repeatedly said that we never refuse meetings," Lavrov said, according to Interfax. "If a proposal is made, it will be considered by us."

The White House National Security Council pointed to a comment made by Biden on Thursday outside the White House.

When asked by a reporter if he would meet with Putin, Biden responded, "That remains to be seen."

-ABC News' Anastasia Bagaeva and Ben Gittleson

...
https://abcnews.go.com/International...e/?id=88905005

[Emily]

My bolding. Author is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism.

https://sonar21.com/there-is-no-sing...is-in-trouble/
There is No Single War In Ukraine and NATO Is In Trouble

11 October 2022 by Larry Johnson
....
Tank battles on rolling plains is great grist for a Hollywood blockbuster, but the real peril for Ukraine has been on display over the last two days–Russia’s hypersonic missiles, cruise missiles and air launched rockets mangling power nodes and military headquarters throughout Ukraine. The Russian strikes in the last two days significantly degraded Ukraine’s ability to supply electricity and critical heat to its major cities. The attacks also are disrupting Ukraine’s cell phone network and its ability to move troops and equipment from the west to the frontlines in the east.

Ukraine does not have a comparable capability to counter the Russian attacks. Moreover, the Russian missile barrage has highlighter the weakness, if not absence, of Ukraine’s anti-missile defense system. It is neither a mistake nor a coincidence that Russia’s strikes in major Ukrainian cities–more than 100 missiles– caused very few human casualties, especially on the civilian side of the ledger. Despite Ukrainian claims that Russia’s strikes killed civilians, the evidence suggests otherwise–Ukraine’s own anti-missile system failed to intercept the Russian targets and then fell to earth and hit apartments and schools...

[Pathfinder]

Putin describes India and China as 'close allies and partners; says they always talked about resolving Ukraine conflict peacefully

PTIASTANAOCTOBER 15, 2022 01:58 IST
UPDATED: OCTOBER 15, 2022 11:53 IST

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday described India and China as "close allies and partners" and said that the two Asian giants always talked about the need to initiate a dialogue and resolve the Ukraine conflict peacefully, nearly a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him during a summit that today's era is not of war.
...
"We know their position. These are our close allies and partners and we respect their position,” Putin stressed.

India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

In a bilateral meeting with President Putin on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Samarkand last month, Prime Minister Modi underlined the importance of "democracy, dialogue and diplomacy" while calling for an early cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.

"I know today's era is not of war. We discussed this issue with you on phone several times, that democracy, diplomacy and dialogue touch the entire world. We will have the opportunity to talk today about how we can move forward on the road of peace in the coming days," Modi said in his first in-person meeting with Putin since the Ukraine conflict began in February.

On the sidelines of the SCO Summit, Putin also met Chinese President Xi Jinping, who raised "questions and concerns" over the Ukraine conflict.

This was perhaps for the first time in over six months of Russia's Ukraine war, China, which remained a steadfast ally of Moscow and declined to condemn the invasion, aired its concerns over Putin’s move.

"We highly value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukraine crisis. We understand your questions and concerns about this,” Putin was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong based South China Morning Post.
...
https://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...le66012153.ece

[Emily]

https://sonar21.com/what-is-russia-planning-to-do-next/
What Is Russia Planning To Do Next In Ukraine?

16 October 2022 by Larry Johnson

In the face of Western reports that Russia is on its heels and retreating, the facts on the ground tell a different story. For starters, Russian allies with embassies still operating in Kiev are shutting down and ordering their personnel to leave Ukraine. This includes China, Tajikistan, Krygyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkenistan,Serbia, Belarus, India and Egypt. Note that these embassies have remained open during the last seven months of the war with Russia. The decisions to cutback or cease operations is one indicator that these countries expect a major escalation in the war on the part of Russia in the near future.

Another piece of evidence that implies Russia is beefing up for a new offensive comes via Belarus. Russia is moving a large number of trucks, armored personnel carriers and tanks to Belarus. Take a look at these two videos...

[Emily]

Russia has been evacuating Kherson. Now that Ukraine has destroyed bridges and the ferry, those remaining will be trapped in the floods, no matter who destroys the dam.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine...ee-11666351776

Ukraine Strikes Occupied Kherson as More Civilians Flee
Russian forces target Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv with strikes, causing several injuries

By Yaroslav Trofimov
Updated Oct. 21, 2022 2:51 pm ET
Ukrainian artillery struck the ferry crossing in the southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Moscow since the February invasion, as Russian forces pounded the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv with renewed strikes.

The Russian military had set up ferry crossings after repeated Ukrainian strikes on the Antonivsky bridge, a crucial link with other occupied areas that Russia used to resupply forces in Kherson, made it unusable. The only alternative bridge, over...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...on/ar-AA13e78r

UPI
Zelensky: Russia to target dam in southern Ukraine to flood Kherson
Clyde Hughes - Yesterday 9:16 AM

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Thursday that Russia was plotting to blow up a large hydroelectric dam in southern Ukraine, which would cause devastating flooding to Kherson along with 80 other towns and villages.
...

A week ago, Moscow-installed officials in Kherson, which Russia has occupied since early in the war, called for the evacuation of civilians in the area. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree claiming his country has annexed Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions.

Russian Gen. Sergei Surovikin, Moscow's new military commander in Ukraine, said it is Kyiv that is actually planning "banned methods of warfare" in Kherson city and the hydroelectric dam. He said the rumor justified the "evacuation" of the civilian population...

[Pathfinder]

Why Now Is the Time for Russia and Ukraine to Talk | Opinion

MICHAEL GFOELLER AND DAVID H. RUNDELL
ON 11/3/22 AT 6:38 AM EDT
...
Ukraine has had historically flexible borders. Until 1918 the city of Lviv, (then Limburg) was Austrian. Between the two world wars, western Ukraine was Polish. Crimea was transferred from the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian one only in 1954 primarily to increase the number of Russian speakers in Ukraine. Not counting Crimea, post-Soviet Ukraine has now lost nearly 20 percent of its prewar territory and become almost entirely dependent on foreign arms and financial assistance, three quarters of which is American. Millions have been made homeless or fled the country. As manpower reserves and the tax base collapse, inflation has soared, and infrastructure been systemically destroyed. Despite recent gains, it is not at all clear that Ukraine is winning the war. Yet Ukraine remains a difficult country to help. Its post-Soviet governments have been profoundly corrupt, and one cannot give money endlessly to a man with a hole in his pocket.

Russia on the other hand is largely self-sufficient in food, energy, and armaments. The ruble is stronger today than it was a year ago. Western sanctions have caused more economic havoc in Europe than Russia. It is perhaps worth remembering that Putin's parents lived through the Siege of Leningrad where 600,000 Russians chose to starve to death rather than surrender. It seems unlikely that he will now capitulate because he can no longer buy a Big Mac.

We do, in fact, live in a rules-based world order, and one of the cardinal rules of international relations is that large powers expect to control a sphere of influence that they will fight to defend, as we are prepared to do in Taiwan. One of the principal functions of diplomacy is avoiding or ending the carnage of military conflicts. Most often, that involves talking to people with opposing views whom you neither like nor trust.

What would a negotiated solution look like? It should begin with an honest appreciation of what the local populations want. Support for self-determination has been a central plank of American foreign policy since President Woodrow Wilson went to Versailles. We remain confident that the consent of the governed is the most fundamental form of legitimacy. The Czechs and Slovaks peacefully went their separate ways. Citizens of Quebec were allowed to vote on remaining Canadian. The people of Scotland were given a chance to leave the United Kingdom. The British even got to vote on staying in the European Union. Don't the people of Crimea and the Donbas deserve as much? If we trusted the U.N. to monitor Iran's nuclear activities, surely it can also be trusted to organize and monitor a fair election.

The First Crimean War (1853-1856) ended in a negotiated compromise. In all probability, the Second Crimean War will end the same way. In 1962, when faced with the possibly of nuclear Armageddon during the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy did his utmost to defuse the situation through independent thinking, negotiations, and compromise. Today, we face a similar situation. There are numerous issues to negotiate, but a ceasefire and plebiscite would be a good place to start. This would be complicated, controversial, and expensive to administer, but so is continuing to support and fund a war. The suffering of the Ukrainian population is getting worse by the day and winter is coming. It is time for creative thinking and effective diplomacy to end this war before it spins further out of control.
...
https://www.newsweek.com/why-now-tim...pinion-1756438

[Emily]

They have taken away access to antibiotics from people just when they need them the most. Now they will die before bringing resistant bacteria to bother the rest of the world.

https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj.o2731.full

Melwani M. How war is spreading drug resistant superbugs across Ukraine and beyond BMJ 2022; 379 :o2731 doi:10.1136/bmj.o2731

The rush to transport patients to specialist aid is driving antimicrobial resistance in Ukraine—and beyond. Mihir Melwani reports

Fifteen year old Ana lost her family to a Russian rocket strike. She survived the attack, but ultimately lost her life to an invisible enemy: drug resistant bacteria.

When rockets fell from the sky on her home in eastern Ukraine—not far from the frontline—Ana was critically wounded and taken to a local hospital. Samples from her wounds were sent to the laboratory for culturing and an infection of a multidrug resistant strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria was found.

Ana, whose name has been changed for privacy, was suffering from severe bleeding and shrapnel injuries—penetrating pelvic injuries and extreme soft tissue damage to the right thigh. “You can’t imagine the trauma. It was like half of her thigh was just broken,” Denis Surkov, one of the doctors who treated her, describes. The infection spread and sepsis set in. Soon, Ana would experience multiple organ failure, and spend six weeks in an intensive care unit (ICU).

After finally stabilising, she was transferred across the country to Surkov’s western Ukraine paediatric hospital, but the infection was uncontrollable. Septic shock set in again, and four days later Ana became another statistic of the war.

“We collect the most severe paediatric patients from eastern hospitals,” says Surkov, who is deputy medical director for anaesthesiology and intensive care at St Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Lviv. “At least two thirds of patients already have hospital acquired, multidrug resistant strains of bacteria. It’s a huge problem because of high mortality.”

The infection that killed Ana was resistant to all the antibiotics that the hospital had on hand, including imiprenum and menoprenum, often seen as a last resort for the most resistant bacteria.

Hotbed for antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance is not a new problem, says Ostap Zubach, an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at Lviv’s Medical Union Hospital. “People have been fighting it for a while. But in the case of war, it becomes more dramatic.”
Chaotic scenes are now the norm in Ukraine, and proper hygiene has become a victim of the rush to transport the wounded away from battlefields and to specialist help.
Since the war began, Zubach’s patients have been facing major blast wounds—including soft tissue damage, compound fractures, and third degree burns. “Like many Ukrainian doctors, I dream about clear surgery. But war breeds special wounds. Contamination is a big problem,” he says.
Blast injuries from artillery shells and mines mean all sorts of dirt, dust, and metal shrapnel—known as explosive metabolites—are contaminating these wounds, causing infections that aren’t responding to first line antibiotics.
On top of this contamination, the migration of civilians and patients from Ukraine’s east to west has resulted in the spread of bacterial flora from one region to another, increasing the potential for the spread of drug resistant bacteria between patients in hospitals.
Military casualties go through a messy evacuation and hospital admission process, being passed from one ambulance to the next and stabilised by their comrades along the way. Once out of the red zone, they’re brought either to a field hospital or to a nearby regional hospital.
Life comes first on the frontline, and hygiene is not a priority when vehicles are often outrunning targeted Russian shelling and gunfire. A combat medic source reports sanitising his ambulance with a chlorhexidine detergent solution “according to the schedule, not specifically after each casualty.”
Those who require more complex procedures and care are often transported to central or western Ukraine—many to Zubach’s ward—but passing a patient between hospitals has consequences. Zubach receives many patients on medical evacuation trains coming from Ukraine’s east—and the sheer volume of patients carrying the bacterial flora of the emergency departments they’ve been admitted to is causing surges of drug resistant infections. “It’s a wartime traumatic epidemic,” he says.


Too easy to access

Historically, Ukraine has been relaxed in its control of antibiotics. Any patient could go to a pharmacy and buy them without a prescription.
As broad spectrum antibiotics are used for simple infections, sensitive microbes are killed, leaving behind bacteria that are resistant to the given drug.
In August 2022, the Ukrainian ministry of health implemented a new process where all patients are required to obtain a prescription from their doctor before buying antibiotics. This move was introduced to reduce abuse of antibiotics by patients, and is the first step to controlling the outbreak of drug resistant infections...

[Emily]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ar-2022-12-08/
'Burn everything': Poland chokes on the smog of war

By Marek Strzelecki and Kuba Stezycki

OLPINY, Poland, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Tkaczuk family moved from the Polish city of Krakow to the village of Olpiny in the Carpathian foothills in 2018 in search of cleaner country air.
Four years on, as the fallout from the Ukraine war halted Russian gas supplies to Poland, the local authorities postponed a ban on the dirtiest stoves for heating, and air pollution in Olpiny exceeded the norms by four-fold last month.
"I feel completely helpless and abandoned by the state," said Julia Tkaczuk, 38, whose five-year-old son has asthma. "Every sneeze is a warning sign for me."
It's even worse in Krakow, Poland's second-biggest city.
On the night of Nov. 20, as temperatures slipped below zero for the first time this year, the only city in the world with a higher concentration of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) in the air was New Delhi, according to Airly, an organisation based in California that monitors pollution.
While a number of European countries besides Poland, such as Germany and Hungary, are burning more polluting brown coal, or lignite, to keep the lights on, experts say it's the use of the fuel at home that will have the biggest impact on health.

In the municipality where the Tkaczuk's live, coal is the main heating source and 40% of households use outdated furnaces known as "smokers" because of the poisonous fumes they emit.
Piotr Kleczkowski, a professor at Krakow's AGH University specialising in environmental protection, estimates that the suspension of the ban in the Tkaczuk's province will result in up to 1,500 premature deaths this winter.
Lignite contains several times more sulphur and ash, and five times more mercury, than black coal, and provides three times less energy. Burning it at home spews out a deadly combination of sulphur and mercury, raising the risk of asthma, lung cancer, cardiac arrest and strokes.
"It gets worse: with more sulphur in the air, mercury finds it easier to get into our lungs," said Kleczkowski, referring to the way the two elements combine in polluted air...

[Mary Wilson]

VIDEO: https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/statu...79892229398528


Maria Avdeeva@maria_avdv
Kharkiv received body armor for children. I wish this news never existed.

7:22 AM · Dec 15, 2022


Maria Avdeeva@maria_avdv· 15h

Volunteers will use this body armor during the evacuation of children from the areas under Russian shelling.

[sharon sanders]

bump this

[Emily]

Full text at link.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...78875022011834
Justin K. Zhang, Kathleen S. Botterbush, Kazimir Bagdady, Chi Hou Lei, Philippe Mercier, Tobias A. Mattei,
Blast-Related Traumatic Brain Injuries Secondary to Thermobaric Explosives: Implications for the War in Ukraine,
World Neurosurgery,
Volume 167, 2022, Pages 176-183.e4,
ISSN 1878-8750,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2022.08.073.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...78875022011834)

Abstract: Blast-related traumatic brain injury (bTBI) is a significant cause of wartime morbidity and mortality. In recent decades, thermobaric explosives have emerged as particularly devastating weapons associated with bTBI. With recent documentation of the use of these weapons in the war in Ukraine, clinicians and laypersons alike could benefit from an improved understanding behind the dynamic interplay between explosive weaponry, its potential for bTBI, and the subsequent long-term consequences of these injuries. Therefore, we provide a general overview of the history and mechanism of action of thermobaric weapons and their potential to cause bTBI. In addition, we highlight the long-term cognitive and neuropsychiatric sequelae following bTBI and discuss diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitation strategies, with the aim of helping to guide mitigation strategies and humanitarian relief in Ukraine. Thermobaric weapons produce a powerful blast wave capable of causing bTBIs, which can be further classified from primary to quaternary injuries. When modeling the hypothetical use of thermobaric weapons in Odessa, Ukraine, we estimate that the detonation of a salvo of thermobaric rockets has the potential to affect approximately 272 persons with bTBIs. In addition to the short-term damage, patients with bTBIs can present with long-term symptoms (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder), which incur substantial financial costs and social consequences. Although these results are jarring, history has seen radical advancements in the understanding, diagnosis, and management of bTBI. Moving forward, a better understanding of the mechanism and long-term sequelae of bTBIs could help guide humanitarian relief to those affected by the war in Ukraine.

Keywords: Blast-related traumatic brain injury; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Thermobaric weapons; Traumatic brain injury; Ukraine

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[Emily]

https://www.agcnews.eu/ukrainerussia...on-in-ukraine/

The 30-year-old Hungarian citizen is a wanted fraudster in Australia and Portugal. She repeatedly falsified bank statements and managed to carry out several scams totalling more than USD 4 million. In Portugal, she hid under a false name and passed herself off as a former employee of the United Nations and Apple. With this false assignment, she travelled to Ukraine, where she joined the International Legion on 8 April. According to the mercenary herself, her monthly salary is $10,000.

https://www.rt.com/russia/569796-ukr...rity-conwoman/

Corruption scandal in Ukraine's 'International Legion:' Why an Australian TV star is accused of stealing millions

The organization's celebrity ‘conwoman’ has come under investigation for fraud
Few Russians or Ukrainians will likely have heard of ‘The Block’. It's an Australian reality show in which couples compete against each other to renovate homes and sell them at auction for the highest possible price. This may have provided the perfect cover for Emese Fajk, a participant who fled the land Down Under after she attempted to buy a renovated property at great expense using fake bank slips, to join Kiev’s International Legion as its official spokesperson.

Fajk was first publicly linked to the group in July 2022. To the extent the mainstream media has acknowledged its spokesperson’s criminal past before, it is in the context of her work for the armed forces offering her a chance at “redemption.” That opportunity, if it ever existed in the first place, seems well and truly spent, given that she – known in Kiev under the callsign ‘Mockingjay’ – is now being investigated for fraud by authorities in the East European city.

The essence of the accusations

Fajk is accused by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of stealing millions of dollars worth of medical supplies intended for Ukrainian soldiers, and Legion funds, which she denies. She was reportedly involved in the disappearance of a “massive” $2.5 million US shipment of medical supplies, and siphoning international donations intended for Kiev’s war effort.

The medical supplies – which included painkillers, such as the deadly opioid fentanyl – arrived in late October, but never made it to the frontline. “Considerable efforts” to locate the missing shipment were conducted, to no avail. Fajk claimed to know nothing of the shipment’s existence in the first place, but testimony by the individuals who delivered it places her at the scene where it arrived.

The lack of supplies meant countless injured Ukrainian soldiers on the frontlines were left in agony for hours or even days while awaiting help. The SBU’s report on the incident notes that when further questions were asked of Fajk, and it became obvious to her she was under suspicion, some of the supplies miraculously turned up at long last.

The same cannot be said for the “large amounts” of money donated to the Legion, which were “confiscated by Mockingjay and sent to places unknown.” Since Fajk joined in April 2022, the group has relied on two fundraising organizations, both set up and solely controlled by her, including the Civil Front, which is based in Norway.

The SBU has documented how many legionnaires complained of a lack of transparency regarding these entities. Fajk is also said to have been caught on a secret recording admitting she “routinely utilized the funds in this account for personal profit.” ...

[Emily]

Large number of Ukrainian soldiers suffering from Tuberculosis

Jan 13, 2023
Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor (25) - Your home for analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United states and the world. Geopolitics. No ego descriptions. No small talk. Straight to the point. Calls with the relevant analysis only. Listen to all Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...a38houieHUYT9e

In another video Macgregor said the TB epidemic in Ukrainian forces is being ignored by the West. It's a horrible disease.

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukra...mb-for-europe/

Ukraine’s TB problem is ticking time bomb for Europe

By Lily Hyde
August 22, 2017


Tuberculosis was largely wiped out in Western Europe in the early 20th century through treatment, improved health monitoring and awareness, and higher living standards. Since the Soviet Union collapsed the disease has returned with a vengeance in former Soviet states. Ukraine declared a TB epidemic in 1995.

Since then, the country has received huge amounts of international aid to tackle TB and its twin epidemic, HIV. But weak political will and chronic distrust of the country’s corrupt health system has held back progress. While overall TB rates are gradually falling, in places like Odessa they continue to rise. More worryingly, Ukraine is one of the leading countries in the world for multi-drug resistant (MDR) forms of TB, which do not respond to traditional treatment.

A quarter of newly diagnosed cases of TB in Ukraine in 2016 were MDR-TB, according to WHO. Cure rates for resistant forms are the lowest among all MDR-TB burden countries: 38 percent. In Odessa, where TB-HIV co-infection is rife, the overall TB cure rate last year was just 43 percent. “That basically shows you how effective the health system is here, which is a shame for a European country,” Bobrik said...

[Emily]

There are reports of chemical weapons use by Ukrainian forces or militias against Russians. In one of the videos a Russian soldier said affected troops are getting a flu-like illness. Russia is investigating but haven't confirmed. There is a psychological terror aspect to this that might discourage their soldiers.

https://sonar21.com/bidens-back-to-t...ine-narrative/

Jonathan Mills says

8 February 2023 at 00:44

Hi Larry,
What have you heard re the Ukrainians using nerve gas? Seen some horrific vids on telegram.


Reply

• Larry Johnson says
  
  8 February 2023 at 01:07
  
  I’ve seen the reports. Appear to be legit. Ukies have crossed a dangerous line.