European households are among victims of American-led actions that led to the military conflict in Ukraine. They are suffering from the ever-increasing inflation driven by the record costs of gas and oil.
In addition to the rent and mortgages for the roof over their heads, Europeans are also paying more for grocery, clothing, education, health and many other services. This would explain why protests have erupted across the continent in opposition to the U.S.-led NATO military alliance that triggered the devastating crisis in Eastern Europe.

But frustration is also growing that Ukrainian refugees are receiving financial help, free accommodation and many other benefits while ordinary Europeans must pay more.

For example, according to the British government, Ukrainian refugees can access Universal Credit (cash handouts) and jobs support immediately. They are also eligible for Housing Benefit, Pension Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Child Disability Living Allowance and an Allowance for carers, and Attendance Allowance. Contributions-based Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker’s Allowance, free translation services are also available.

The hypocrisy of course is that the wars on Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan – led by the U.S., the UK and EU countries – triggered a flood of refugees who were entitled to little or zero services. They were barred food and accommodation to the extent that many of the refugees complained the situation was better in war zones at home. Ukrainian refugees can expect to receive upwards of €400 per month of cash handouts whereas Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees complained of receiving some €30 per month in financial assistance.
The growing social resilience towards Ukrainian immigrants among the middle class of European societies can be reflected in Germany where the country’s opposition leader Friedrich Merz recently accused Ukrainian refugees of taking advantage of the social welfare system by seeking protection in the country.

“What we’re seeing is welfare tourism on the part of these refugees to Germany, back to Ukraine, to Germany, back to Ukraine,” Merz, the leader of the center-right Christian Democrats, told Bild TV in an interview, adding that “a large number” of the more than 1.1 million Ukrainian refugees registered in Germany were milking the state. “We have a problem here that’s getting worse.”

Merz pointed out that it was “unfair” for Berlin to pay for the heat in the homes of Ukrainian refugees while at the same time many working-class Germans simply cannot afford their energy bills. “It is unfair and the population is right to consider it unfair,” he said.
Germans are becoming more and more concerned about the impact of the Ukraine war on their country’s economy, in particular, the skyrocketing prices of gas. The Covid crisis and the West’s sanctions on the Russian energy sector means the price of oil and gas has in some European countries more than doubled, if not tripled.

Merz’s comments are a shift with his previous comments that backed the government’s support for Ukrainian refugees. His party, the Christian Democratic Union, has seen a growing lead in the polls.

Many municipalities in Germany have reportedly become completely overwhelmed with the accommodation and care for refugees from Ukraine, which hosts around one million. Two-thirds of these refugees are housed in private accommodation or have rented their own apartments, making it a heavy burden.

The cost of railway tickets for instance have also seen incredible hikes in some European countries. That has been met with the utmost anger of commuters. This is while train operators across Europe have been offering free rail transport to Ukrainians. Passengers with a Ukrainian passport or ID card are exempt from rail ticket charges in Poland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, France, Belgium, and Denmark.

After Russia, Poland is widely believed to host the most Ukrainian refugees, but the prolonging of the war with the fluid supply of Western weapons has taken a heavy toll on Warsaw. Poles say they no longer want to support Ukrainian refugees for free. Authorities who had helped the refugees free of charge by providing them with accommodation are now increasingly refusing such help.

Polish media have cited human rights ombudsman Marcin Vincek as warning that many refugees could end up homeless. Poles cannot continue to help because of the costs. Recently, their financial situation has often worsened due to high inflation and rising prices, as well as a significant increase in the cost of maintaining an apartment or residential building.

Since the outbreak of violence at the end of February, around seven million Ukrainians have arrived in Poland, of which 1.7 million are still residing there.

Now reports have emerged that frustration is growing among the Dutch who see Ukrainian refugees heating their homes free of charge while inflation in the Netherlands jumped in September to its highest in decades, driven by skyrocketing energy prices. That’s according to the statistics agency (CBS).

Holland’s consumer prices rose to 17.1% this month after August’s jump to 13.7% and energy prices in the euro zone’s fifth largest economy were 114% higher than in September 2021, while food prices jumped 10.5%.

Mass demonstrations and protests are now taking place in European countries, especially in Germany, France and the Czech Republic, in which people are demanding politicians to withdraw from NATO and end the war in Ukraine. Just days ago, thousands of protesters gathered in central Paris to call for an end to France’s membership of NATO.

Last month, an estimated 70,000 people demonstrated in the Czech capital Prague against their government, calling on the ruling coalition to do more to control soaring energy prices and voicing strong opposition to the European Union and NATO, while chanting slogans in support of Russia.

Protests are also growing against the shipments of arms to the warzones. They call for resumption of peace talks which were held temporarily in March between Russian and Ukrainian delegations. However, Western governments do not appear to be interested in ending this conflict, despite the massive toll it is taking on the public.

Experts say this will backfire against the position of these Western governments as they are beginning to lose power one by one with voters angry at the record inflation levels.

At the end of the day, Ukrainians and ethnic Russians have suffered the human costs of the war and the damage to their homes and infrastructure. However, as the war drags out, the mood is changing in Europe from one of sympathy towards Ukrainian refugees to what is turning out to be growing annoyance.

There is little the Europeans can afford in terms of living costs. The number of people falling into poverty is rising dramatically and the war in Ukraine is raging on.

As the European middle-class see Ukrainian refugees enjoying the benefits that they are deprived of, there is fear that anti-refugee sentiment emerge across the continent, and as history has shown the far right political parties use the issue for political gains.

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One Type 45 destroyer armed with anti-aircraft missiles and an anti-submarine Type 23 frigate will peel off from the Royal Navy’s carrier task group in the Mediterranean and head through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea, said the report.

RAF F-35B Lightning stealth jets and Merlin submarine-hunting helicopters are to stand ready on the task group’s flag ship, the carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, to back up the warships in the Black Sea, the report added.

The paper noted that the move was meant to demonstrate solidarity with Kiev and NATO allies in the region.

The move comes after US President Joe Biden decided to cancel the deployment of two American warships to the Black Sea last week for fear of escalating the crisis, according to the report.

Tensions have been on the rise in and over the Russian-speaking Donbass region of Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia forces have been fighting since 2014, when the then Ukrainian territory of Crimea voted in a referendum to join Russia.

Kiev and its Western allies believe the reunification amounts to an annexation of the territory. They accuse Moscow of having a hand in the crisis. Russia denies the allegation.

Kiev and Moscow have since traded blame for a spike in violence in the Donbass region.

Meanwhile, a UK Ministry of Defense spokesman told the newspaper that the British government was working closely with Ukraine to monitor the situation.

“The UK and our international allies are unwavering in our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying.

The UK also sent a British spy aircraft to the Black Sea region to monitor Russian forces on the Ukrainian border. The so-called Airseeker was deployed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) to the region to gather intelligence, although the RAF claimed that it had made the aircraft visible on commercial tracking services.

That also followed the deployment of the British RC-135 Rivet Joint on a similar mission along the Ukrainian border.

Macron urges ‘clear red lines’ with Russia amid buildup near Ukraine

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said the international community has to “define clear red lines with Russia,” calling for sanctions on Moscow in case of what he referred to as “unacceptable behavior.”

Speaking in an interview with the US network CBS, he added, “I think that sanctions are not sufficient in itself, in themselves, but sanctions are part of the package. I do prefer constructive dialogue, but to have a constructive and efficient dialogue, you need credibility.”

On Friday, Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced their support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling on Russia to rapidly withdraw its troops from the border region.

The United States and NATO have recently warned of Russia amassing military forces near the Ukrainian border and have dispatched military personnel and equipment to Ukraine, which is not a NATO member.Russia says it is using its own territory for defensive activity amid increased NATO presence near its borders.

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According To Iran News, A high-ranking delegation from Ukraine attended a meeting with Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani about various issues, including the crash of a Ukrainian jetliner near Tehran last month.

During the meeting in Tehran on Sunday, Shamkhani and the Ukrainian delegation, headed by Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleksiy Danilov, exchanged views about a host of topics, including ways to boost bilateral relations.

The two sides also discussed the Ukraine airliner that was mistakenly shot down by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) near Tehran in January.

The General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces said the country’s air defense unintentionally shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane on January 8 amid the highest level of readiness because of a possible military attack by the US.

All 176 people on board the plane were killed.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei ordered the Iranian Armed Forces to hold an inquiry about the faults and shortcomings that resulted in the unintentional downing of the plane.

Expressing his deepest sympathy to the families of the victims of the incident, the Leader urged the relevant officials to take the necessary cautionary measures in order to prevent a recurrence of such incidents.

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In an unprecedented incident, Russia used weapons against the Ukranian ships which it claims illegally entered its waters before boarding and searching them, the country’s FSB security service confirmed.

The crisis unfolded on Sunday as two Ukrainian small warships and a tugboat were heading through the Kerch Strait, a narrow waterway that gives access to the Sea of Azov that is used by Ukraine and Russia.

Ukraine said a Russian border guard vessel rammed the tugboat in “openly aggressive actions” and then fired on the ships, immobilizing all three.

It said the Kerch Strait was blocked by a tanker and that Russian military aircraft were flying over the area.

The confrontation at sea is a dangerous development in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed rebels in the east of the country.

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the escalation, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said. The meeting was requested by both Russia and Ukraine, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has asked parliament to vote Monday on whether to impose martial law on the country for 60 days, after his Military Cabinet recommended the move in a late-night meeting.

Throwing his weight behind the measure, which is not guaranteed to pass, he said it “in no way means that Ukraine will carry out any offensive actions”.

“I want to emphasize separately that we have all irrefutable evidence that this aggression, this attack on the Ukrainian Navy’s warships was not a mistake, not an accident, but a deliberate action,” he said in a statement.

Ukraine said six of its soldiers were injured, two seriously, but Russia’s FSB reported only three had suffered non-life threatening injuries and were given medical treatment.

Protesters, some armed with flares, rallied outside the Russian embassy in Kiev on Sunday night in response to the latest development.

The seizure has sparked alarm among Kiev’s Western allies.

“We expect Russia to restore freedom of passage at the Kerch strait and urge all to act with utmost restraint to de-escalate the situation immediately,” the European Union said in a statement.

NATO also urged “restraint and de-escalation”, and called on Russia “to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea, in accordance with international law”.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the “aggressive actions” were a violation of international law that would be met with “an international and diplomatic legal response”.

Russia claims the waters off Crimea after annexing the peninsula in 2014.

“Having breached this morning the Russian border, the three Ukrainian ships — the Berdyansk, the Nikopol and the Yani Kapu — tried again on November 25 at 19:00 (Moscow time) to conduct illegal actions in Russian territorial waters,” the FSB said on Sunday.

The FSB, which oversees the border guard service, also said the Ukrainian ships had failed to respond to the “legal demands” of the Russian authorities.

Russian politicians accused Ukraine of acting at the behest of its Western allies and deliberately attempting to escalate the conflict.

Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov wrote on Facebook that he “was sure the Western masters of the Kiev regime are behind this act of provocation”.

Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy speaker of the Russian parliament, warned on Facebook that “the Ukrainian puppet authorities… are risking unleashing a large military conflict”.

“One thing is clear: Russia won’t allow military provocations in its territorial waters.”

Ukraine said it gave Russia advance warning of its ships’ route, which its vessels are obliged to take to reach the Sea of Azov.

In September, the Ukrainian navy complained about “acts of provocation” by Russian border guards against its ships taking the same route.

Ukraine has increased the number of navy ships and border guard patrols in the Sea of Azov after Russia deployed five more warships.

Kiev says its naval buildup is due to Russia stepping up controls in the area this year and carrying out lengthy checks on commercial shipping that were very costly for freight and port companies.

Kiev and the West have accused Moscow of deliberately blocking ships from accessing Mariupol, which has vital access to heavy industry in the region.

Mariupol is close to the region of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists in a conflict that has caused at least 10,000 deaths since 2014.

The United States, a key ally of Ukraine, is opposed to Russia’s takeover of Crimea and is looking to reduce Ukraine’s dependency on Russian gas pipelines.

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A Director from Ukraine’s the International Chamber of Commerce ICC said that Ukraine has had about $ 550 million worth of exports to Iran between 2011 and 2017.

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