Thursday, April 21, 2022

Protest Northrop Grumman weapons contracts on Earth Day/Ukrainian Officials Call for Humanitarian Corridor in Last Mariupol Holdout

Friends,

  As part of the call by the War Industries Resistance Network, about 30 of us protested on April 21 against Lockheed Martin and its tax-payer funded weapons contracts.  For example, one of its bombs was used by Saudi Arabia to kill at least 40 Yemeni children traveling on a bus.  More details of the protest in Bethesda, Maryland will be forthcoming.

  Members of Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland and Maryland Peace Action will join a demonstration at Northrop Grumman at 793 Elkridge Landing Road, Linthicum, Maryland on Earth Day, April 22, at 3 PM. Let me know if you can join us in a protest against this military contractor, which has received the largest amount of tax dollars to work on nuclear weapons.

  President Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons in its invasion of Ukraine has created the most tense nuclear weapons crisis since 1962 when Russia installed nuclear weapons in Cuba.  Unfortunately, President Biden is using the invasion of Ukraine to release an outrageous military budget. And the figure for the nuclear weapons arsenal is $50.9 billion, This is a $7.7 billion increase from last year’s proposed budget. 

  Biden’s budget includes $5 billion for the B 21 long range strike bomber made by Northrop Grumman, which is also capable of deploying nuclear and conventional weapons. The budget includes $3.6 billion for a Ground Based Strategic Deterrent. That system is a replacement for aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) that are located in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming. The ICBM is the land component of the nuclear triad the Biden budget proposal referenced. The GBSD would ensure that these missiles remain deployed in U.S. states for another 50 years.

In 2020, Northrop Grumman was awarded a $13.3 billion engineering and manufacturing development contract for the U.S. military’s next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile system for  the Air Force. That program is projected to be worth up to $85 billion. The ICBMs increase the chances of a catastrophic accident or miscalculation because they are kept on high alert at all times, and hundreds of them would be launched with a single order. Once launched, they cannot be recalled.

If you are interested in joining Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland on April 22, contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.  We will be doing carpooling to meet at a fast food restaurant across form the Northrop Grumman site.   Kagiso, Max

https://truthout.org/articles/ukrainian-officials-call-for-humanitarian-corridor-in-last-mariupol-holdout/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=d650aeac-9b0f-49d5-88dc-36cb2290f970

NEWS

WAR & PEACE

Ukrainian Officials Call for Humanitarian Corridor in Last Mariupol Holdout

Civilians walk through a destroyed neighborhood in Eastern Mariupol that has recently come under control of Russian / pro-Russian forces on April 14, 2022.

 

Civilians walk through a destroyed neighborhood in Eastern Mariupol that has recently come under control of Russian / pro-Russian forces on April 14, 2022.MAXIMILIAN CLARKE / SOPA IMAGES / LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

 

April 21, 2022

  Ukrainian officials made urgent appeals Thursday for a humanitarian corridor to allow around 1,000 trapped civilians, including children, to safely escape Mariupol as Russian forces surrounded a steel plant that is believed to be Ukraine’s final holdout in the strategic port city.

Declaring that his forces have secured the “liberation” of Mariupol — where Ukrainian officials say at least 20,000 people have been killed — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops not to storm the steel plant but to “block it off so that a fly can’t get in.”

Around 2,000 Ukrainian fighters remain holed up in the Azovstal metallurgical plant along with civilians, and the fighters have rejected Russia’s calls for a complete surrender. Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko, has accused Russia of committing “war crimes” and “genocide” in its efforts to seize control of the city.

Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, called on Russian forces to allow the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to let civilians and wounded soldiers escape the plant.

“There are now about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers. They all need to be removed from Azovstal today,” said Vereshchuk. “I call on world leaders and the international community to focus their efforts on Azovstal now… This is a key point and a key moment for the humanitarian effort.”

Late Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be willing to negotiate the exchange of Russian prisoners of war for Ukrainian civilians trapped in Mariupol, much of which has been reduced to rubble by near-constant Russian bombardment. Attempts to establish ceasefires in Mariupol have repeatedly collapsed, making it difficult to evacuate civilians and deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged city.

Zelenskyy said the Russian side has not agreed to the proposed exchange.

“The situation in Mariupol is deteriorating,” Zelenskyy warned. “As far as I know, there are about a thousand civilians behind our guys in Mariupol, including children and women.”

“We are ready for the sake of our people — both military and civilian — for any format of exchange,” Zelenskyy added. “And whether I like it or not, in the course of the remaining three years that the people have given me, I am ready to hold a dialogue with the president of Russia on the end of the war.”

As the Associated Press noted Thursday, the “scale of suffering” in Mariupol “has made it a worldwide focal point, and its definitive fall would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, and free up Russian troops to move elsewhere in the Donbas.”

Diplomatic talks to end Russia’s weeks-long war have been ongoing for weeks but have yet to produce a breakthrough as Moscow ramps up its assault on eastern Ukraine. Russia’s delegation has reportedly sent its Ukrainian counterpart a new “draft document” outlining Moscow’s demands, but it’s not clear how the document differs from previous proposals or whether Ukraine will find it acceptable.

Earlier this week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres sent separate letters to Zelenskyy and Putin requesting meetings with the two leaders in their respective capitals, an effort aimed at advancing peace talks. Zelenskyy has also offered to meet with Putin directly, but the Russian president has not accepted.

More than 5 million people have fled Ukraine in the nearly two months since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, according to the U.N., and millions more have been internally displaced.

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Guterres, said Wednesday that “at this time of great peril and consequence,” the secretary-general “would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine and the future of multilateralism based on the charter of the United Nations and international law.”

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Follow him on Twitter: @johnsonjakep.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

 

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