Global Times:

A fleet of six Y-20 cargo planes of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force was reportedly spotted in Serbia on Saturday, with observers saying on Sunday that it could be the largest overseas operation by the Chinese domestically developed large transport plane yet, displaying the country’s strategic transport capabilities.

Citing commercial flight trackers, US news website thedrive.com reported on Saturday that the six Y-20 aircraft were first spotted heading west in Turkish airspace late Friday night, and later local residents took photos of the Y-20s, which allegedly landed in Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, Serbia. The aircraft later flew over the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey again on their way back to China.

China has not made an official announcement about the mission as of press time, but the Global Times learned that the Y-20s indeed have carried out such a flight.

A whopping six Y-20 large transport aircraft could mark an unprecedented overseas operation, Chinese military observers said.”

The PLA planes were carrying HQ 22 surface-to-air missile systems for the Serbian military, as agreed upon 3 years ago, the Serbs confirmed. The delivery was made through the airspace of at least two other NATO states, Bulgaria and Turkey. The US has warned Serbia against using any military equipment not aligned with the West, as long as it wants to be a part of any Western alliance. There are fears in the West that armed with Chinese and Russian equipment, Serbia may reclaim Kosovo, whose statehood is not recognized by Serbia, China, or Russia.

From Global News, Canada:

“There will be an offensive … not only on Mariupol, but also on other places, cities and villages,” [Lila: Ramzan] Kadyrov said in a video posted on his Telegram channel.

“Luhansk and Donetsk – we will fully liberate in the first place … and then take Kyiv and all other cities.”

24/7 News Bulletin.com

The Telegram channel “Operational reports” reported that the catacombs under Azovstal are located at a depth of up to 35 meters and last 24 kilometers.

There is a secret NATO facility PIT-404- and a secret bio-laboratory of the military bloc with biological weapons. Alliance officers are blocked in these armored tunnels.

According to the channel, there are about 240 foreigners in the catacombs. Among them are NATO and French Foreign Legion officers, biolaboratory personnel and about 300 other guards.

This biolab is known to have been built and operated by Metabiota. She [sic] is associated with Hunter Biden, Rinat Akhmetov and Vladimir Zelensky.

“In the laboratories of this facility, tests were conducted to create a bioweapon. Thousands of residents of Mariupol became “guinea pigs” in these terrible trials. And in these inhuman experiments, mainly Western “specialists” took part, the channel reported.

Apparently, not all French intelligence and special operations officers managed to leave Mariupol. That is why President Emmanuel Macron calls the Kremlin so often.”

I saw a Pepe Escobar tweet from April 4, claiming that the biolabs were down in the 8th level in Azovstal and people were threatened with being sent there.  He claims the Russians are frantically collecting all the evidence for war crimes/genocide trials.

TASS.com has a list of the people associated with the biolabs. No idea where they are at present.

ROBERT POPE

Director, US DoD Cooperative Threat Reduction Program aka Nunn-Lugar Program [under Defense Threat Reduction Agency]

JOANNA WINTRAL Head of DTRA in Ukraine

LANCE LIPPENCOTT Chief, Ukrainian branch, Black & Veatch [contractor with Pentagon since 2008; main contact for Ukrainian government officials]

DAVID MUSTRA Coordinator of N-L program in E Europe and Ukraine, biomonitoring and information transfer, worked with Metabiota

MARY GUTTIEREZ  Vice President of Metabiota, disease modeling and forecasting company

SCOTT THORNTON  Lab upgrade

UPDATE

India did add an explanation that does make her abstention less than an endorsement of the expulsion of Russia.

For its part, India in its Explanation of Vote expressed dissatisfaction with the process followed for suspension even as it condemned civilian killings in Bucha. Interestingly India’s statement on Thursday had no mention of the issue of territorial integrity and sovereignty. This is the first time in the last two months that India has omitted this part.
Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com//news/international/world-news/united-nations-suspends-russia-from-human-rights-body-over-ukraine/articleshow/90712858.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

ORIGINAL POST

Too bad that India has failed to differentiate between abstaining from voting in a move to condemn Russia, which can be seen as neutral to both parties and abstaining from voting when there is a morally and legally wrong action being taken by the vote. That was the expulsion of Russia from the UNHRC, where, before an impartial investigation of the atrocity claims had been made, the Russians were expelled, a gross and flagrant abuse of procedure.

India ought to have sided with following the rules and voted AGAINST an illicit resolution. It did not. Neither did Pakistan.

But with China friendly with Pakistan, it was natural then that Russia decided that friendship with South-Asia at large rather than with India, which brings along with her the QUAD baggage, was a better idea for the new bipolar world in which Russia is a junior partner to China. Had India sided with Russia, there was the chance for a multipolar world, with Russia and India forming the third pole. There is still a chance for that and I hope Lavrov and Putin will work toward it, but the Israeli influence in India makes it a hard go.

Apparently, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov seems to think so too:

But what was America, has now become Russia,” said Gupta. Though Moscow and New Delhi have shared a “special” relationship with elements of “nostalgia”, the former has started to hyphenate India with Pakistan, he said. “This became obvious with Lavrov’s visit,” he added.

Lavrov first visited India and then Pakistan and his statements in both countries were markedly different, explained Gupta. While in Pakistan, Lavrov said Russia sees Pakistan as an “important friend”, seeks to continue exercises called ‘friendship druzhba’ and is willing to supply Pakistan high-tech or specialised military equipment to fight terrorism.

Asked about a potential security agreement between Russia and China at a press conference in India, earlier this week, Lavrov denied it but referred to alliances like the “Asia NATO” as disruptive, said Gupta. “That was a platitudinous statement… you know that he was turning the knife a little bit into India,” he added.

From India Today an interview with a Donetsk spokesman:

EB: If the goals adopted by the President of the Russian Federation [Vladimir Putin] are not implemented, that of demilitarisation and denazification, the situation will be similar to that of India and Pakistan and India and China.

This question should be solved right now. (On a lighter note) If even 5% of your (Indian) population comes to help us, we will win and this will be over.

There is an attempt by Western forces in Ukraine to destroy the Russian Federation. They will not stop at that. India will be next because it has similar problems — territorial, language, faiths, etc.

I am not asking India to blindly follow and help us. You can help in many ways. The neutral stance at the UN Security Council is helpful as well.

IT: There are accusations of war crimes by the Donetsk and Russian forces against civilians. What is your response?

EB: War crimes started in 2014. Everyone has heard about it. I am not just talking of the summer of 2014 when whole cities were shelled by Ukraine. Nobody from Ukraine called that a war crime — not the UN, not human rights, not even other international organisations or foreign journalists.

Suddenly in 2022, war crimes against civilians are making headlines.

Let’s go back to Indian history. Was anybody from the British Army charged for war crimes committed in India? Someone accused Japan of massacring 2,00,000 people. But nobody recalls that. They need pictures only to accuse Russia.

IT: We still need a direct answer on the accusations of war crimes committed by your forces and the Russian forces.

EB: I decline to respond. Why should I prove my innocence to someone when it is true. I am scared there will be more bloodshed in the future. There are accusations of using chemical and biological weapons. Should we keep explaining ourselves? It is simpler to go there and expose the lies.

We will go in and bring foreign journalists to show them the truth. We should respect ourselves.

IT: India has taken a neutral stand by abstaining from voting at the UN Security Council but has also added in its statement the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.

EB: Why do they think that the Russian Federation attacked and invaded Ukraine? I live here in this territory (Donetsk, Donbas) and everything happened in front of my eyes. The Ukrainian Army came here and started to kill my people. It is our war.

The situation was forcibly brought to the head and then they started saying that Russia is an invader and is only here to capture.

We don’t want to let go of our faith, language, our lifestyle and our history. It is not about Russian aggression. It was what the foreign media portrayed to destroy Russia.”

My great grand uncle fought in World War II. He was taken POW by the Japanese and managed to escape. Then he made the long walk back through Burma into India. Along the way he was forced to eat snakes and insects to survive. As a child, I heard from my mother, his grand-niece, tales about Japanese torture. About skulls piled up in the prison camps.  The Japanese ate many Indian soldiers.

The Indian contribution to both World Wars has also been erased.

In this post, however, it is the erasure of history and memory, not simply by states or elites, but by ourselves, voluntarily, that concerns me. So-called activists, self-styled truth-tellers, are so quick to condemn the state and the elites for what they do, when they do it everyday, all day long, themselves.