CND Press Digest: Tuesday 21st February 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• Vladimir Putin is delivering a delayed marathon state of the nation address to the federal assembly. It coincides with US president Joe Biden arriving in Warsaw. Follow all the latest here.
• Italy’s Georgia Meloni is the latest European leader to visit Ukraine. It comes amid growing tensions within her right wing coalition government, with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi previously blaming Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s invasion.
• The Guardian looks at the environmental damages caused by the war in Ukraine.
• The Observer’s editorial on the Russo-Ukraine war after one year. On ending the conflict it notes:  The wider debate concerns how this war ends. What, exactly, is the western democracies’ endgame? There is as yet no agreement. Future scenarios include a Ukrainian victory and/or 1917-style Russian collapse, total defeat for Ukraine, escalation leading to direct Nato-Russia conflict in Europe, expanding warfare across the country, or a frozen conflict – in effect, a stalemate – similar to the situation after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea and the Donbas. Only the latter outcome could lead, hypothetically, to the negotiated settlement many western politicians and analysts believe must eventually be attained. Any such future “peace” deal would necessarily involve painful Ukrainian concessions. It would be seen by many, in Kyiv and Europe, as a betrayal, and by Putin as a vindication. That is a dreadful thought. But we are not there yet, and may never be. Right now, both sides are intent on strengthening their positions through military successes. So the war goes on.
• The FT asks, why did Russia invade Ukraine?

AUKUS/China

• AUKUS pact.
• China has reportedly conducted a successful test of a new “phantom space strike” technology that can trick missile defence systems by emitting fake target signals from space in a nuclear attack.

UK Defence

• Simon Fletcher in the New Statesman (paywalled but you can sign up for three free articles a month) on Ben Wallace’s call for more defence spending at the expense of public services. A familiar campaign slogan mentioned in the final paragraph: “The public is very capable of seeing through an argument that claims there is no more money for NHS workers or teachers, but that there is money for military expenditure. Economists have often discussed the “guns or butter” tensions faced by economies: the choice between defence spending and the requirements of the wider population. That may be summed up at present as a question of wages, not weapons.”

Nuclear Energy

• European Union countries failed to adopt conclusions on climate diplomacy that had been planned for Monday, owing to a deepening spat over the role of nuclear energy in the green transition, EU officials said.
• The Sunday Times on a new film documenting the sexual assault and court ordeal of a whistle blower who exposed a murky deal involving the transfer of nuclear technology from French nuclear engineering firm Areva to China.

North Korea

• AP on the fears surrounding North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal.
• A South Korean human rights group has called for hundreds of escapees from North Korea to be tested for radiation exposure, who lived near the country’s nuclear testing site. It comes following a study by the Transitional Justice Working Group which said that radioactive materials could have spread across eight cities and counties near the site, where more than 1 million North Koreans live. It also said that neighbouring South Korea, China and Japan might be at risk due partly to agricultural and fisheries products smuggled from the North.
• Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the North Korean leader has threatened to turn the Pacific into a “firing range” amid growing tensions over US-South Korean drills and missile tests by Pyongyang.  
• That’s as the leader of South Korean’s leading political party suggested Seoul would need to “seriously consider” getting its own nuclear weapons as a deterrent against its northern neighbour.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• The IAEA said its in discussions with Iran following its report that found Tehran has uranium that’s close to weapons grade. 
• Germany’s foreign minister told the Munich Security Conference at the weekend that nuclear escalation with Iran must be avoided.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament