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Since even before the start of the Ukraine War, we have been warning that European countries will be facing an immigration crisis as poorer nations fall deeper into poverty. (See “IMMIGRATION AT EU BORDER SOARING – NOT INCLUDING UKRAINIANS.”)
But as the war continues to drag on, putting new economic pressures on Ukrainians, European leaders are considering how many will flee the war-torn country in search for a new life in Europe.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, noted last week that Russia is beginning to target vital infrastructure—including energy facilities. He said the targeting is an effort by Moscow to create as many problems as possible for Ukrainians before the fall and winter. It is Moscow’s goal to get as many Ukrainians as possible out of the country, he said.
The result of these strikes have resulted in rolling blackouts in major cities along with inconsistent water supplies. Ukrainian officials report that nearly 1.5 million households had been left without electricity.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that there are already about 7.7 million Ukrainian refugees spread out across Europe. About 1 million are believed to be in Germany and 1.4 million in Poland.
Omer Karasapan, who worked for the World Bank for 30 years, wrote for the Brookings Institution that European countries have been far more welcoming to Ukrainians than Middle Easterners and Africans, who were met with “violent pushbacks from Poland to Italy to Greece and beyond—often with the participation of the EU border agency Frontex.”
But he said that “refugee fatigue” is slowly beginning to emerge in Poland and Germany, “not at a crisis stage yet but a cautionary sign as a tough winter on the economic and energy fronts looms.”
The European Commission said that the bloc is prepared to absorb these refugees by stepping up its “humanitarian response, in particular for winter preparedness.”
TREND FORECAST: The Trends Journal has long forecast that the surge in migrants into countries that are also struggling will lead to major wins for populist candidates who focus on the health of their own countries. We’ve seen the first example in Italy with the election of Giorgia Meloni for prime minister. (See “PRO-PUTIN SPEAKER IS ELECTED IN ITALY JUST WEEKS AFTER MELONI ELECTION WIN.”)
In 2020, Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin warned that the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdowns could lead to an increase in interest of populist parties across Europe.
Marin told the Financial Times that lockdowns could create a “breeding ground for populist movements across Europe.”
“When you’re closing an economy and people’s workplaces, it will cause political instability. Populists come with easy answers to difficult problems, but their solutions are rarely the right ones,” she said.
We are looking at the same kind of pressures due to the Ukraine War. Energy prices in Europe are surging and protests have already broken out in Romania, France, Czech Republic, and Germany over soaring prices. European leaders have tried to spend their way out of the crisis and allocated over $566 billion in energy relief to households since September 2021, The Associated Press reported, citing the Bruegel, a think tank in Brussels.
“There’s no quick fix to the energy crisis,” Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, told The AP. “And if anything, inflation looks like it might be worse next year than it has been this year.”
He said he believes the economic pressure will test the support of the war in the continent. There have already been reports that European leaders are concerned that populist groups will have even more to gain politically.
Russia’s New Approach?
Moscow has indicated that it will use air attacks more regularly in Ukraine to save its ground forces from having to go toe-to-toe with NATO-supplied Ukrainian troops.
Gen. Sergei Surovikin was tapped by Russian President Vladimir Putin to take over Moscow’s forces in the country after what Western military officials have called a blundering ground effort thus far. Surovikin has reportedly indicated that it is his intention to prevent his forces from having to endure a “guerrilla war against hordes of fanatics armed by NATO.”
The Associated Press, citing Russian bloggers, quoted Surovikin saying, “We have enough technical means to force Ukraine to surrender.”
Surovikin, widely seen as the top commander in the Russian army, is also Commander of the Aerospace Forces—an indicator that Moscow will take a new focus on its air campaign.
Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, said in a phone call Sunday with French and Turkish counterparts that there is a risk of “further, uncontrolled escalation” in the war. Last week, Shoigu held two phone calls with Lloyd Austin, the U.S. secretary of defense. Radio Free Europe reported that it was the first time in months that the two have spoken.
TRENDPOST: The U.S. seems to be positioning itself for a hot war with Russia and, like we have been reporting, there has been no mention of peace in the media.
OccupyPeace.com held a July rally in Kingston, N.Y., that featured some of the top names in the pro-peace movement including Gerald Celente, Judge Andrew Napolitano and Scott Ritter.
Despite sending out thousands of press releases over the course of three weeks, the event was not picked up by one media outlet—not even the local paper called The Daily Freeman.
In America, Peace is both a dirty word, and a banned word.
The Presstitutes that are providing the public with the government-approved propaganda are too dumb to realize the consequences of their ignorance.
The Biden administration consists of nothing more than recycled failures from the Obama administration that are in The Club, and we’re paying for it.