Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 17, 2021 3:01 pm

"Far Ukrainian territories": the SBU general spoke about Kiev's plans to annex the Kuban and Voronezh

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According to Viktor Yagun, the scenario of declaring the regions of the Russian Federation as Ukrainian was seriously considered by the Ukrainian authorities.

In 2018, Kiev seriously considered the issue of the possible annexation of the Kuban and some other regions of Russia to Ukraine. General Viktor Yagun, the former deputy head of the SBU, spoke about this on the air of Chernomorskaya TRK.

According to him, the regime of President Petro Poroshenko then considered France, which has "overseas territories", as an example. In the case of Ukraine, it was not about overseas, but about "distant Ukrainian territories," Yagun emphasized.

The general noted that the Poroshenko regime included not only the Kuban, but also the Voronezh and Astrakhan regions, and even the Primorsky Territory, among the "Ukrainian" territories.

https://novorosinform.org/dalnie-ukrain ... 85521.html

Google Translator

"There are no Nazis in Ukraine."

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Ukraine will become an outpost in case of war between NATO and Russia - Zelensky
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The Ukrainian leader expressed understanding that the North Atlantic Alliance does not owe Kiev anything.




Ukrainian politician Aleksey Zhuravko published a statement by Volodymyr Zelensky on NATO on his personal telegram channel. The President noted that the alliance should think about military assistance to Ukraine out of a sense of responsibility towards other countries - members of the military-political bloc.
"NATO, if the Ukrainian army does not survive, owes all its countries, because NATO protects precisely the NATO member states. And the outpost today is Ukraine, which is not a NATO member," the Ukrainian leader noted.
Zelensky stated that Ukraine takes on the role of a "NATO outpost" in front of Russia in the event of an armed conflict. Also, the Ukrainian leader expressed his understanding that as a result of hostilities, many Ukrainians could suffer and enormous destruction of the Ukrainian state could be caused.

"The shield of Europe, the super-continental army, they are the mother's cyborgs and the last support of Europe from the Russian" aggression, " Zhuravko commented ironically.
Alexey Zhuravko
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Zelensky: NATO owes nothing to Ukraine, but Ukraine will be an outpost in the event of a full-scale war with the Russian Federation.

“If there is a full-scale war, then we understand the number of victims, millions of victims, because we do not want this, like any civilized country. then it looks provocative and unsafe. What does NATO owe us? NATO owes nothing to Ukraine. NATO, if the Ukrainian army does not survive, owes all its countries, because NATO is protecting the NATO member states. And the outpost today is Ukraine, which is not a member NATO, "Zelensky said.

The shield of Europe, the supercontinental army, they are also the mother's cyborgs and the last support of Europe from the Russian "aggression".
t.me/AlexeyZhuravko
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Dec 17 at 03:41
https://novorosinform.org/ukraina-stane ... 85579.html

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'Defending Western Civilization against the Asiatic hordes', where have we heard this before?
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 23, 2021 3:10 pm

Ukraine: Extreme Claims That Russia Plans a Nuclear Attack

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Ukraine has alleged without proof that Russia has plans to intervene with a nuclear attack. Dec. 22, 2021. | Photo: Twitter/@LinkeviciusL

Published 22 December 2021 (10 hours 32 minutes ago)

Allegations that Moscow might be planning a nuclear attack against its Eastern European neighbor, have been made by one of Ukraine’s top politicians in a display that has raised eyebrows.


One of Ukraine's top politicians has claimed that there are signals that Moscow might be planning a full-blown nuclear attack in an intervention movement.

"As of 1991, Ukraine had the third-largest nuclear capability in the world," decreed Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, referring to the arsenal of warheads from the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"Kiev voluntarily gave this up to become a non-nuclear state just a few years later," he highlighted. He also declared that Russia "Was the guarantor of such disarmament, hints that if we continue our democratic development, it may even launch a nuclear strike against us."

Even after the repeated denials by the Kremlin, the statements by Stefanchuk come on the heels of Western leaders and Kiev's intelligence service's concerns about Moscow's supposed plans for an offensive against Ukraine.


Moscow stated that Western countries encourage Kiev’s officials to be involved in provocations that could end in an all-out conflict.

“More and more forces and equipment are being accumulated on the line of contact in the Donbass, supported by an increasing number of Western instructors.” He warned that if these states cannot hold back Kiev, and are instead actually spurring it on, Moscow will “take all necessary steps to ensure our security,” said last month Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ukr ... -0022.html

With Ukraine it can be hard to separate the delusional from the chutzpah. Why should Russia hunt fleas with a shotgun when it's tanks could be in Kiev in 48 hours max? Makes good press in the West though...

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Tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine bombard a village near Debaltseve at night - an insider

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Volodymyr, a local resident of the village of Kommuna, said that shelling by the armed formations of Ukraine is ongoing, reports the Donbass Solves Telegram channel.

Currently, the village has a few inhabitants - about a couple of hundred people. Although active hostilities have already passed, people are not left alone and continue to fire at the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"They grumble at night. As much as the window opens. And 120 shells, and the tank fires. Once a week, and then every other day," - said Vladimir.

A local resident added that people are tired of hiding from shelling.

"We are not hiding in basements. We have already forgotten the basements," laughs Vladimir.

https://novorosinform.org/tanki-vsu-po- ... 86041.html

Google Translator

This has been going on for seven years but the West never takes notice.
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Sat Dec 25, 2021 4:23 pm

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Protecting the Nazis: The extraordinary vote of Ukraine and the USA
Posted Dec 24, 2021 by Craig Murray

Originally published: Craig Murray Blog (December 21, 2021 )

This is verbatim from the official report of the U.N. General Assembly plenary of Dec. 16:

The Assembly next took up the report on ‘Elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance,’ containing two draft resolutions.

“By a recorded vote of 130 in favour to 2 against (Ukraine, United States), with 49 abstentions, the Assembly then adopted draft resolution I, ‘Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance’.” It goes on:

By its terms, the Assembly expressed deep concern about the glorification of the Nazi movement, neo?Nazism and former members of the Waffen SS organization, including by erecting monuments and memorials, holding public demonstrations in the name of the glorification of the Nazi past, the Nazi movement and neo-Nazism, and declaring or attempting to declare such members and those who fought against the anti-Hitler coalition, collaborated with the Nazi movement and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity ‘participants in national liberation movements’.

Further, the Assembly urged States to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination by all appropriate means, including through legislation, urging them to address new and emerging threats posed by the rise in terrorist attacks incited by racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, or in the name of religion or belief. It would call on States to ensure that education systems develop the necessary content to provide accurate accounts of history, as well as promote tolerance and other international human rights principles. It likewise would condemn without reservation any denial of or attempt to deny the Holocaust, as well as any manifestation of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities on the basis of ethnic origin or religious belief.


In Ukraine, support for the Ukrainian nationalist divisions who fought alongside the Nazis has become, over the last eight years, the founding ideology of the modern post-2013 Ukrainian state (which is very different from the diverse Ukrainian state which briefly existed 1991-2013). The full resolution on Nazism and racism passed by the General Assembly is lengthy, but these provisions in particular were voted against by the United States and by the Ukraine:

Emphasizes the recommendation of the Special Rapporteur that ‘any commemorative celebration of the Nazi regime, its allies and related organizations, whether official or unofficial, should be prohibited by States’, also emphasizes that such manifestations do injustice to the memory of the countless victims of the Second World War and negatively influence children and young people, and stresses in this regard that it is important that States take measures, in accordance with international human rights law, to counteract any celebration of the Nazi SS organization and all its integral parts, including the Waffen SS;

Expresses concern about recurring attempts to desecrate or demolish monuments erected in remembrance of those who fought against Nazism during the Second World War, as well as to unlawfully exhume or remove the remains of such persons, and in this regard urges States to fully comply with their relevant obligations, inter alia, under article 34 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949;

Condemns without reservation any denial or attempt to deny the Holocaust;

Welcomes the call of the Special Rapporteur for the active preservation of those Holocaust sites that served as Nazi death camps, concentration and forced labour camps and prisons, as well as his encouragement of States to take measures, including legislative, law enforcement and educational measures, to put an end to all forms of Holocaust denial.


As reported in The Times of Israel, hundreds took part in a demonstration in Kiev in May and others throughout Ukraine, in honor of a specific division of the SS. That is but one march and one division–glorification of its Nazi past is a mainstream part of Ukrainian political culture.

In 2018 a bipartisan letter by 50 U.S. representatives condemned multiple events commemorating Nazi allies held in Ukraine with official Ukrainian government backing.

There are no two ways about it. The Ukrainian vote against the U.N. resolution against Nazism was motivated by sympathy for the ideology of historic, genocidal active Nazis. It is as simple as that.

The United States claims that its vote against was motivated by concern for freedom of speech. We have the Explanation of Vote that the United States gave at the committee stage:

The United States Supreme Court has consistently affirmed the constitutional right to freedom of speech and the rights of peaceful assembly and association, including by avowed Nazis

That sounds good and noble. But consider this–why does the United States government believe that avowed Nazis have freedom of speech, but that Julian Assange does not? You can have freedom of speech to advocate the murder of Jews and immigrants, but not to reveal U.S. war crimes?

Imperial Interests

Why was the U.S. government targeting journalists in the invasion of Iraq? The U.S. believes in freedom of speech when it serves its imperial interests. It does not do so otherwise. This is the very worst kind of high-sounding hypocrisy, in aid of defending the Nazis in Ukraine.

The second reason the United States gives is that Russia is making the whole thing up:

a document most notable for its thinly veiled attempts to legitimize Russian disinformation campaigns denigrating neighboring nations and promoting the distorted Soviet narrative of much of contemporary European history, using the cynical guise of halting Nazi glorification.

The problem here is that it is very difficult to portray The Times of Israel or 50 bipartisan U.S. congressional representatives as a Russian disinformation campaign. There is no historical doubt whatsoever of Ukrainian nationalist forces’ active support of Nazism and participation in genocide, not just of Jews and Roma but of Poles and religious minorities. There is no doubt whatsoever of the modern glorification in Ukraine of these evil people.

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It is of course not just Ukraine. In Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania the record of collaboration with Nazis, of active participation in fighting for Nazis, and in active participation in genocide is extremely shaming. Throughout Eastern Europe there is a failure in these “victim nations” to look history squarely in the eye and to admit what happened–a failure the United States in actually promoting as “a campaign against Russian disinformation”.

I recommend to you the website Defending History, run by the admirable David Katz, which is a large and valuable resource on this website from a Lithuanian Jewish perspective that cannot remotely be dismissed as Russian or left-wing propaganda. The front page currently features the December 2021 naming of a square in the capital after Lithuanian “freedom fighter” Juokas Luksa “Daumantas,” a man who commenced the massacre of Jews in Vilnius ahead of the arrival of German forces.

These are precisely the kind of commemorations the resolution is against. There has been a rash of destruction of Soviet war memorials and even war graves, and erection of commemorations, in various form, of Nazis throughout the Baltic states. That is what paras 6 and 7 of the resolution refer to, and there is no doubt whatsoever of the truth of these events. It is not “Russian disinformation”.

However the European Union, in support of its Baltic states members and their desire to forget or deny historical truth and to build a new national myth expunging their active role in the genocide of their Jewish and Roma populations, would not support the UN Resolution on Nazism. The EU countries abstained, as did the UK. The truth of course is that NATO intends to use the descendants of Eastern European racists against Russia much as Hitler did, at least in a cold war context.

You won’t find that in the Explanation of Vote.

https://mronline.org/2021/12/24/protect ... d-the-usa/
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 28, 2021 3:29 pm

Declassified Documents Reveal How the US Lied to Russia about NATO Expansion in the 1990s
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on DECEMBER 25, 2021
Kit Klarenberg

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In April 2014, President Vladimir Putin addressed Russia’s Federal Assembly in the wake of Moscow’s reabsorption of Crimea. Over the course of his speech, he laid the blame for an increase in tensions on the West, which he insisted had “lied to us many times, made decisions behind our backs, placed us before an accomplished fact.” At the heart of this apparent duplicity was NATO’s expansion to the East, “as well as deployment of military infrastructure at our borders,” contrary, he said, to its promises.


Ever since, disproving the idea that Western leaders had assured Moscow the bloc wouldn’t encroach on its borders has become an obsession for think tanks and lobby groups. For example, UK policy institute Chatham House brands the suggestion that any pledge was made not to enlarge the controversial military bloc one of the key “myths and misconceptions in the debate on Russia,” whileNATO’s own website likewise claims it is wholly manufactured.

Significant evidence to the contrary has long-been easily accessible, but now the National Security Archive has published a tranche of never-before-seen, highly revealing documents detailing how then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin was consistently manipulated by his US counterpart Bill Clinton on the question during the mid-1990s, while bold, false promises of a “strategic partnership” of the countries faded into nothingness.

Take for instance the transcript of a cordial July 5 1994 telephone conversation between the pair, at which time the US president was preparing to depart for Poland – which had been pushing for rapid absorption by NATO – and the Baltic states, before meeting with Yeltsin at the G7 summit in Italy.

Yeltsin urged Clinton to raise the plight of Russophones in Estonia and Latvia, because “a public statement from you that the US will not support any infringement on the rights of the Russian-speaking people” would mean these countries “will act differently.” He noted Lithuania’s quick granting of citizenship to its Russian minority had prompted Moscow to withdraw its troops from Vilnius, and the same could happen by August in Tallinn and Riga if assurances were made. Yeltsin also wished to discuss NATO expansion.

In response, Clinton swore he’d “raise the issue of the Russian minorities,” and reassured Yeltsin that while NATO might “eventually expand,” he’d set out “no timetable and no requirements.” Instead, he indicated that he’d “like us to concentrate” on Partnership for Peace, a US-led initiative seeking to “achieve a united Europe where people respect each other’s borders and work together.” Yeltsin could be entirely forgiven for thinking the Partnership was Washington’s primary focus, and the military alliance an afterthought, by the conclusion of the chat.

The Russian president’s optimism about “a mutually beneficial partnership with the US on the basis of equality” is writ large in a letter he sent to Clinton in November that year. He speaks of this prospective coalition as “the central factor in world politics,” pledges to cooperate constructively with the US on issues related to Bosnia, Iraq, North Korea, and Ukraine, and eagerly awaits their meeting at the December 5 Conference on Security and Cooperation in Budapest, where “we have much to talk about … first of all, transforming European stability.”

As it was, the Hungary summit was a disaster, with Clinton’s speech at the event focusing on NATO as “the bedrock of security in Europe,” and declaring “no country outside will be allowed to veto expansion” – a clear reference to Russia. In response, Yeltsin fulminated, “it is a dangerous delusion to suppose the destinies of continents and the world … can somehow be managed from one single capital,” and adding that “[moving] the responsibilities of NATO up to Russia’s borders” would be a grave error.

An internal US diplomatic cable from the next day shows lessons were quickly learned from this episode. Namely, the urgent need to keep quiet publicly about US plans for extending the military alliance, while offering bogus private assurances to Moscow any enlargement would only occur after consultation between the two countries, and that Russia was still in the running for bloc membership.

Fast-forward to May 1995, Clinton visits Moscow to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Allied victory in World War II, and these lies are enthusiastically maintained in a one-on-one meeting with Yeltsin. The pair’s rapport is clearly chummy, referring to each other as friends, although serious matters are very much on the table too.

“How do you think it looks to us if one bloc continues to exist while the Warsaw Pact has been abolished? It’s a new form of encirclement if the one surviving Cold War bloc expands,” the Russian president pleaded. “Many Russians have a sense of fear. What do you want to achieve with this if Russia is your partner? We need a new structure for Pan-European security, not old ones! Perhaps the solution is to postpone NATO expansion until the year 2000 so that later we can come up with some new ideas.”

Ever suave and calculating, Clinton sought to allay his fears, somewhat amazingly suggesting Moscow should view his approach to NATO “in the context of greater integration of Russia into other international institutions,” dangling the prospect of various sweeteners, including membership of the G7, if Yeltsin quietened his anti-NATO rhetoric, and kept his opinions on the bloc’s expansion to himself. Clinton knew well that such compliance was easily bought – as his Russian “friend” himself acknowledged, his position heading into the 1996 presidential runoff was “not exactly brilliant.”

Indeed, his polling stood in the single digits, and Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov was widely forecast to win via landslide. Yeltsin spoke of needing “positive reports” in the press, and to “head off even the smallest wrong moves,” proposing any discussion of NATO enlargement be kept theoretical until the year 2000, and urging the White House resident not to do anything to “rile the situation up before the elections.”

“I’ve made it clear I’ll do nothing to accelerate NATO [expansion]. I’m trying to give you now, in this conversation, the reassurance you need. But we need to be careful that neither of us appears to capitulate,” Clinton slickly pledged. “For you, that means you’re not going to embrace expansion. For me, it means no talk about slowing the process down or putting it on hold or anything like that.”

So it was that Yeltsin agreed to maintain an omerta on the military bloc, and enlist in the Partnership for Peace. Despite plans for NATO expansion already being well-laid by that point, and very much in motion, the Kremlin remained silent about developments – the president’s acquiescence was further ensured by extensive covert and overt US assistance in his election campaign, which was fundamental to transforming an initial 6% standing in the polls to an extremely comfortable victory.

Less than three years later, NATO’s engulfing of the former Soviet sphere finally began, with the incorporation of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. This push was opposed stateside by, among others, George Kennan – formerly a committed ‘cold warrior’, and key figure in the creation of the alliance.

“I think it is the beginning of a new Cold War … The Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else,” he said in May 1998, after the US Senate ratified enlargement. “Of course, there is going to be a bad reaction from Russia, and then [the NATO expanders] will say that we always told you that is how the Russians are – but this is just wrong.”

With tensions between Kiev and Moscow at an all-time high, with the question of Ukraine’s NATO membership at the heart of the dangerous dispute, Kennan’s words give every appearance today of a prophet’s warning coming terrifyingly true.

Kit Klarenberg, an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions. Follow him on Twitter @KitKlarenberg

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2021/12/ ... -in-1990s/

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Putin hints at military options in Ukraine
Posted Dec 28, 2021 by M. K. Bhadrakumar

Originally published: Indian Punchline (December 26, 2021 ) |

The Rossiya 1 state television in Moscow broadcast today President Vladimir Putin’s annual press conference on Friday. It conveys a much fuller picture of the grave crisis brewing in the Russian-American relations than what the excerpts in the Russian media sought to convey over the weekend.

Putin has, for the first time, explicitly warned that if the U.S. and NATO decline to provide the security guarantees Moscow has sought, his future course of action will be solely guided by “the proposals that our military experts will make to me.” Clearly, there is no more wriggle room left.

This is anything but the White House cliche that “all options are on the table” when Washington intervened in Venezuela or Syria. Putin implies that since core issues of Russia’s national defence are involved here, military considerations will reign supreme.

That is to say, Russia cannot accept NATO’s eastward expansion and the U.S. deployments in Ukraine and elsewhere in East Europe or the creation of anti-Russian states along its borders. And Russia expects “to reach a legally binding outcome of diplomatic talks on the documents.”

Unsurprisingly, Putin also said Russia will seek to achieve a positive outcome in the talks on security guarantees. Moscow is demanding an early meeting. Interestingly, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has underlined that Moscow is not seeking a presidential meeting between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden.

The probability is low that the U.S. will agree to give a security guarantee to Russia in legally binding terms. There are obstacles on the way. For a start, Biden simply doesn’t have the political capital to carry the Congress along on a conciliatory path towards normalisation with Russia. A consensus is hard to reach among the U.S’. European allies, too, over the tricky issue of NATO expansion–that is, assuming that Washington is amenable to Russia’s demands (which it is not.)

The Russian Foreign Ministry warned yesterday that not only Ukraine and Georgia, but a possible inclusion of Sweden and Finland in NATO also will have “serious” military and political consequences that won’t be left unanswered by Moscow. Simply put, Russia expects the U.S. and its allies to fulfil the assurance given to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 that the NATO would not expand “an inch” further. (The Kremlin-funded RT publicised on Saturday the relevant declassified documents.)

Yet, the heart of the matter is that so soon after the debacle in Afghanistan, NATO’s withdrawal from Ukraine will irreparably dent its credibility. In fact, NATO may wither away if it stops expanding. Unless NATO can focus on an “enemy”, it loses its mooring and lacks a raison d’etre for its very existence. The transatlantic system will be in disarray if NATO starts drifting. And NATO happens to be the anchor sheet of the U.S.’ global strategies. It is as simple as that.

As regards Ukraine, the West bit more than it could chew when the CIA staged a coup in 2014 in Kiev to overthrow the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovich and had it replaced by a pro-U.S. set-up. The regime change agenda was pushed with no real understanding that present-day Ukraine is a country but not a nation.

Ukraine was the creation of Josef Stalin. In a brilliant essay last week, titled Ukraine: Tragedy of a Nation Divided, Ambassador Jack Matlock, the American envoy to Moscow who played a seminal role as the confidante of Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev in negotiating the end of the Cold War, has forewarned that Ukraine has no future without Russia’s helping hand.

On the other hand, the Deep State in the U.S. and large sections of the foreign and security policy establishment in the Beltway have been harbouring fantasies that the CIA can entrap Russia in a quagmire in Ukraine. Last week, David Ignatius at the Washington Post penned a column threatening Moscow that it will face a full-blown guerrilla war backed by the U.S. if it dared to intervene in Ukraine militarily. Matlock’s essay will come as a cold shower to these daydreamers.

The main problem here is that Biden finds himself in a fix personally. Biden had a hands-on role in the regime change project in Ukraine. Whether President Obama delegated the dirty job to Biden or the latter asked fro it, we will never know. Suffice to say, Biden must take the responsibility today for the mess in Ukraine, which has turned into a kleptocracy, a bastion of neo-Nazis, a basket case, and a cesspool of venality and depravity.

One false step and Europe will have a refugee flow from that country (population: 45 million) of such massive proportions right on its doorstep that will make Syria seem a picnic–and this, at a time when the ghost of Yugoslavia is stalking the Balkans.

Equally, given his past record of being an ardent votary of Obama’s containment strategy against Russia, it will be a bitter pill to swallow for Biden if he were to be the Western leader chosen by destiny to underwrite Russia’s national security. And that too, with Vladimir Putin at the helm of affairs in the Kremlin, a leader towards whom Obama and Hillary Clinton harboured visceral hatred.

Biden himself has barely concealed his dislike of the Russian leader. Biden brought into his presidency as his foreign policy team people who are known to be Russophobes. The incumbent Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland was personally involved in the regime change in Kiev in 2014 and is today in charge of the policies on Ukraine.

The protagonists in Washington have been delusional. Fundamentally, they fancied that Russia is a declining power–a broken, sulking, petulant country nostalgic for its superpower pedestal. Dire prophesies of Russian collapse have belatedly given way lately to a grudging acceptance that Russia is a persistent power. Russia’s resurgence–its soft and has power as well as its smart power–has taken the West by surprise.

The upgrading of Russia’s nuclear and conventional forces under Putin has produced staggeringly impressive results. Putin restored the nation’s pride that it is the “heir to an old and enduring identity–forged during the time of Peter the Great and persisting through the Soviet era–as a major player on the international stage”–to quote from a commentary by Andrew Latham, American professor in international relations, titled Reports of Russia’s decline are greatly exaggerated.

Why such a crisis at this point in time? The crux of the matter is that the U.S. has decided that it must first clip Russia’s wings before taking on China. Although there is no formal military alliance between Moscow and Beijing, Russia provides “strategic depth” to China simply by being a great power pursuing independent foreign policies and sharing an alternate vision to the so-called liberal international order in terms of a democratised world order based on UN Charter and multipolarity. The Russia-China relations are at their highest level in history today.

The pragmatism of the Russian elite is legion. The Americans apparently thought that the Kremlin can be placated somehow. Putin’s statements must have come as a rude shock. The point is, Russia’s maximalist demands and minimalist stance are one and the same. That leaves no leeway for wheeling-dealing for even a consummate politician like Biden.

“We have nowhere to retreat,” Putin said, adding that NATO could deploy missiles in Ukraine that would take just four or five minutes to reach Moscow.

They have pushed us to a line that we can’t cross. They have taken it to the point where we simply must tell them: ‘Stop!’

https://mronline.org/2021/12/28/putin-h ... n-ukraine/

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Russia has the right to use the army to protect its citizens in Donbass - Kosachev

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The vice-speaker of the Federation Council in an interview with Interfax said that Moscow is not developing plans for a military invasion of any states, but this does not concern national security issues.

Kosachev commented on the situation with the escalation of tension in the east of Ukraine, noting the country's right to use the Armed Forces to protect its citizens in Donbass in the event of a danger to their lives.

The representative of the Federation Council stressed that Russia is monitoring how the situation around Donbass is developing. According to Kosachev, Ukraine is not the sole initiator in this matter - Western patrons are pushing it to take radical steps.
“Moreover, the provocateurs both inside and outside Ukraine understand exactly what will happen in this case. Without prejudging the development of events, I will simply remind these provocateurs that after the tragedy of Tskhinvali, serious amendments were made in Russia in November 2009 into the current federal law "On Defense", - he said.
Kosachev stressed that there is the tenth article of the law, which allows the prompt use of Russian troops to protect their citizens abroad in the event of an attack on them.

https://novorosinform.org/rossiya-imeet ... 86389.html
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 29, 2021 2:31 pm

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Protecting the Nazis: The Extraordinary Vote of Ukraine and the USA 327
December 28, 2021
By Craig Murray – Dec 21, 2021

This is verbatim from the official report of the UN General Assembly plenary of 16 December 2021:

The Assembly next took up the report on “Elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”, containing two draft resolutions.

By a recorded vote of 130 in favour to 2 against (Ukraine, United States), with 49 abstentions, the Assembly then adopted draft resolution I, “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo‑Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”.

By its terms, the Assembly expressed deep concern about the glorification of the Nazi movement, neo‑Nazism and former members of the Waffen SS organization, including by erecting monuments and memorials, holding public demonstrations in the name of the glorification of the Nazi past, the Nazi movement and neo‑Nazism, and declaring or attempting to declare such members and those who fought against the anti‑Hitler coalition, collaborated with the Nazi movement and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity “participants in national liberation movements”.

Further, the Assembly urged States to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination by all appropriate means, including through legislation, urging them to address new and emerging threats posed by the rise in terrorist attacks incited by racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, or in the name of religion or belief. It would call on States to ensure that education systems develop the necessary content to provide accurate accounts of history, as well as promote tolerance and other international human rights principles. It likewise would condemn without reservation any denial of or attempt to deny the Holocaust, as well as any manifestation of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities on the basis of ethnic origin or religious belief.


In Ukraine, support for the Ukrainian nationalist divisions who fought alongside the Nazis has become, over the last eight years, the founding ideology of the modern post 2013 Ukrainian state (which is very different from the diverse Ukrainian state which briefly existed 1991-2013). The full resolution on nazism and racism passed by the General Assembly is lengthy, unnzaires but these provisions in particular were voted against by the United States and by the Ukraine:

6. Emphasizes the recommendation of the Special Rapporteur that “any commemorative celebration of the Nazi regime, its allies and related organizations, whether official or unofficial, should be prohibited by States”, also emphasizes that such manifestations do injustice to the memory of the countless victims of the Second World War and negatively influence children and young people, and stresses in this regard that it is important that States take measures, in accordance with international human rights law, to counteract any celebration of the Nazi SS organization and all its integral parts, including the Waffen SS;

7. Expresses concern about recurring attempts to desecrate or demolish monuments erected in remembrance of those who fought against Nazism during the Second World War, as well as to unlawfully exhume or remove the remains of such persons, and in this regard urges States to fully comply with their relevant obligations, inter alia, under article 34 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949;



10. Condemns without reservation any denial or attempt to deny the Holocaust;

11. Welcomes the call of the Special Rapporteur for the active preservation of those Holocaust sites that served as Nazi death camps, concentration and forced labour camps and prisons, as well as his encouragement of States to take measures, including legislative, law enforcement and educational measures, to put an end to all forms of Holocaust denial


As reported in the Times of Israel, hundreds took part in a demonstration in Kiev in May 2021, and others throughout Ukraine, in honour of a specific division of the SS. That is but one march and one division – glorification of its Nazi past is a mainstream part of Ukrainian political culture.

In 2018 a bipartisan letter by 50 US Congressmen condemned multiple events commemorating Nazi allies held in Ukraine with official Ukrainian government backing.

There are no two ways about it. The Ukrainian vote against the UN resolution against Nazism was motivated by sympathy for the ideology of historic, genocide active Nazis. It is as simple as that.

The United States claims that its vote against was motivated by concern for freedom of speech. We have the Explanation of Vote that the United States gave at the committee stage:

The United States Supreme Court has consistently affirmed the constitutional right to freedom of speech and the rights of peaceful assembly and association, including by avowed Nazis

That sounds good and noble. But consider this – why does the United States Government believe that avowed Nazis have freedom of speech, but that Julian Assange does not? You can have freedom of speech to advocate the murder of Jews and immigrants, but not to reveal US war crimes?

Why was the United States government targeting journalists in the invasion of Iraq? The United States believes in freedom of speech when it serves its imperial interests. It does not do so otherwise. This is the very worst kind of high sounding hypocrisy, in aid of defending the Nazis in Ukraine.

The second reason the United States gives is that Russia is making the whole thing up:

a document most notable for its thinly veiled attempts to legitimize Russian disinformation campaigns denigrating neighboring nations and promoting the distorted Soviet narrative of much of contemporary European history, using the cynical guise of halting Nazi glorification

The problem here is that it is very difficult to portray the Times of Israel or 50 bipartisan US congressmen as a Russian disinformation campaign. There is no historical doubt whatsoever of Ukrainian nationalist forces active support of Nazism and participation in genocide, not just of Jews and Roma but of Poles and religious minorities. There is no doubt whatsoever of the modern glorification in Ukraine of these evil people.

It is of course not just Ukraine. In Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania the record of collaboration with Nazis, of active participation in fighting for Nazis, and in active participation in genocide is extremely shaming. Throughout Eastern Europe there is a failure in these “victim nations” to look history squarely in the eye and to admit what happened – a failure the United States in actually promoting as “a campaign against Russian disinformation”.

I recommend to you the website www.defendinghistory.com, run by the admirable David Katz, which is a large and valuable resource on this website from a Lithuanian Jewish perspective that cannot remotely be dismissed as Russian or left wing propaganda. The front page currently features the December 2021 naming of a square in the capital after Lithuanian “freedom fighter” Juokas Luksa “Daumantas”, a man who commenced the massacre of Jews in Vilnius ahead of the arrival of German forces.

Image

These are precisely the kind of commemorations the resolution is against. There has been a rash of destruction of Soviet war memorials and even war graves, and erection of commemorations, in various form, of Nazis throughout the Baltic states. That is what paras 6 and 7 of the resolution refer to, and there is no doubt whatsoever of the truth of these events. It is not “Russian disinformation”.

However the European Union, in support of its Baltic states members and their desire to forget or deny historical truth and to build a new national myth expunging their active role in the genocide of their Jewish and Roma populations, would not support the UN Resolution on Nazism. The EU countries abstained, as did the UK. The truth of course is that NATO intends to use the descendants of Eastern European racists against Russia much as Hitler did, at least in a cold war context.

You won’t find that in the Explanation of Vote.



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(Craig Murray)

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:41 pm

Ukrainian Armed Forces deployed anti-aircraft missile system and armored vehicles in residential areas - NM LPR

Ukrainian armed formations have deployed the Osa anti-aircraft missile system and combat vehicles in the Kiev-occupied village of Vrubovka in the Donbass.

According to the press service of the People's Militia of the LPR, air defense missile systems and armored vehicles were installed in residential areas of the village, the Lugansk information center reports.
“In the area of ​​responsibility of the 24th brigade (of the Ukrainian security forces. - Ed.), The location of the 9K33 Osa anti-aircraft missile system, four armored combat vehicles near the village of Vrubovka was noted,” the LPR NM said.
It is also reported that armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were spotted near Podlesny, and in the area of ​​Mirnaya Dolina - an anti-aircraft gun ZU-23. These settlements are under the occupation of the Kiev security forces.

"Behind the withdrawal lines, but outside the designated storage sites for weapons, on the territory of the facility at the airfield near the settlement of Sirotino (also under the occupation of Kiev. - Ed.), The deployment of two 2K22 Tunguska self-propelled anti-aircraft missile systems is noted," the department specified.

https://novorosinform.org/vsu-razmestil ... 86589.html

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Kiev refused to recognize the "Sputnik" vaccination of Donbass residents

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According to Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk, LDNR citizens who will cross the border with Ukraine can get vaccinated at checkpoints.

Vereshchuk stressed that they "have such an opportunity." The Russian vaccine, she said, in Ukraine "is not and will not be recognized."

"The question of whether to recognize the" Satellite "or" Satellite Light ", it is not worth" - said Ukrainian bureaucrat.

Lieutenant Colonel of the People's Militia of the LPR Andriy Marochko commented in his telegram channel that this position of the Kiev authorities is "another proof, to put it mildly, of Ukraine's negative attitude towards the inhabitants of the people's republics."

Earlier, the authorities of the LPR and DPR appealed to the Ukrainian side with a proposal to open all checkpoints for the New Year holidays from December 30 to January 10 on the condition that the vaccination of residents of the republics with Russian vaccines, as well as documents on their immunization, will be recognized by Kiev.

https://novorosinform.org/kiev-otkazals ... 86552.html

This from the 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' department...Because I'm sure that the Ukes got all the Western approved vaccines that they need...

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The political scientist explained why Kiev can attack the Donbass

Bohdan Bezpalko believes that the start of the war in Donbass is a provocation against Russia, the purpose of which is to receive a powerful retaliatory strike from Moscow against Ukraine. The customers of this action, the political scientist points out, are in Europe and the United States. It is reported by "Donbass Solves".

Bezpalko also states that Russia's retaliatory strike will in any case cease the existence of the current Ukrainian state. However, the actions of the Kremlin will be interpreted by Western countries as aggression and this will lead to a new sanctions strike on Moscow and give NATO a reason to abandon security guarantees.

https://novorosinform.org/politolog-oby ... 86612.html

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The DPR named the number of victims of the armed aggression of Ukraine

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Roman Savchenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the Ombudsman for Human Rights in the DPR, said that this year the number of deaths from shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces is 46% more than in 2020.

In Donetsk, a round table was held on the topic "Summing up the results of the implementation of the program" Assistance in the work of the Public Commission for the Assessment of Economic Damage ".

"In 2021, as a result of hostilities in the republic, 76 people died, which is 46% more than in the previous year, 2020. The number of injured increased by 21% and is 128 people. In 2021, for the first time since 2018, a child died," said Savchenko.
During the round table, Roman Savchenko noted that, according to official data, since the beginning of hostilities on the territory of the DPR, 5037 people have died, including 91 children, the official website of the republic informs. In addition, about 8000 residents of the republic were injured, more than 1600 people became disabled.

https://novorosinform.org/v-dnr-nazvali ... 86350.html

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Outbreak of tuberculosis in the brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - under threat Svetlodarsk

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The JFO command sent a special commission to the brigades to localize the disease.


Immediately 15 servicemen of the 30th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, participating in a military operation against the residents of Donbass, fell ill with tuberculosis. The press service officer of the People's Militia of the LPR, Alexander Mazeikin, told reporters today.

According to him, 15 servicemen of the 2nd battalion of the 30th brigade, who were diagnosed with miliary pulmonary tuberculosis, went to the hospital with complaints about the poor condition on December 25-28.

On December 28, the command of the operational-tactical group "Sever" sent a medical service commission to the units of the 2nd battalion to localize the focus of tuberculosis among military personnel.
"The commission's fears are caused by numerous facts of communication between servicemen and local residents, in connection with which there is a high probability of the spread of infection among residents of the village of Svetlodarsk," said a representative of the LPR defense department.
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Villagers are systematically killed as a class: Ukrainian agrarian - about the first "fruits" of the land sale market

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The Ukrainian village, which was in a deplorable state even before the adoption of the land law, began to degrade rapidly with the opening of the land market.

After the collapse of the domestic industry, today's Ukraine has finally become an agrarian country, for which small and medium-sized producers-farmers, in fact, are a kind of locomotive. Now in the country, almost all production of vegetables and fruits (about 90%), as well as milk (about 80%) falls on farms. But, despite the importance of this type of activity, all Ukrainian agrarians constantly faced serious problems - open and cynical raiding by the authorities, predatory tax policy, unavailability of loans, etc.

The global problem of Ukrainian farmers and vegetable growers was the adoption of the law widely advertised by the local media on the opening of the land sale market, which came into force on July 1, 2021.

What is the fate of small and medium-sized farms now, what problems have agrarians already faced after the Verkhovna Rada lifted the moratorium on land and began selling black soil? This IA "New Russia," said a resident of Hope K. Ukraine, the representative of the public organization "All-Ukrainian Council of Women Farmers " in the Cherkassy region.

According to her, the Ukrainian authorities are not at all interested in local farmers and their problems.

“If by country we mean power, then we, agrarians, it certainly doesn’t need. From officials you constantly hear that we shouldn’t worry and that the market will supposedly regulate everything itself. It’s not clear only how this will happen. the systematic plundering of Ukraine from top to bottom, and the officials who are entirely Westerners are interested in one thing - how to snatch more from the money that is supposedly allocated to support the farmers. ”This year only one person received about 5 million that he was in Kiev for six months. And I don’t know how many bribes he gave there. The rest can even beat their heads in the wall, they won’t knock anything. But I know one thing for sure: Ukrainians need us, agrarians. Because when a person goes to the market , he chooses our products among the mass of offers, and not from Poland or Turkey.Because it is of high quality and affordable, "Nadezhda said.

She also noted that after several months of the work of the so-called land market, many farmers realized that their native land had been stolen from the people of Ukraine.

“This so-called market, it doesn’t work at all,” Nadezhda explained. “They (the pro-presidential Servant of the People party) are not public servants, but are in the service of the oligarchs, they serve capital.

Most of the farms go broke. Our family has 50 hectares, and the state forced us to take a lease for five years, after which the land will have to be redeemed. But this requires a lot of money, and there is nowhere to take it. Because bank loans are not available, in the form in which they are, this is bondage. There is no land bank in Ukraine, and it will not be created. I think that by the beginning of next year the price of land will be sharply lowered, and then people will come with money and buy it out as unclaimed for a penny, "she added.

Nadezhda said that those residents of Ukraine who initially leased land to large latifundists also won nothing, since they receive a penny or in kind in the third grade at a price of 1 hryvnia per kilogram. At the same time, it is impossible to make claims against the latifundists, "the contracts are enslaving, taxes are not paid."

“Zelensky promised two hectares to each Ukrainian. This is such a brazen deception! At least they thought that people would bring them out into the open after simple calculations. ? .. How was it supposed to be enough for 2 hectares for each resident of Ukraine? " - asks a rhetorical question Nadezhda.

In her opinion, the Ukrainian village, which was in a deplorable state even before the adoption of the land law, began to rapidly degrade with the opening of the land market.

"Now in most of the villages of the Cherkasy region, where I live, where there are no farms, people go to the market to buy milk, lard, bread. They no longer keep cows - it is unprofitable, because the purchase price of a liter of milk is 7 hryvnia (about It’s easier to pour it out than to sell it for such ridiculous money. They even buy vegetables. They just kill the village. And this is real Ukraine, the newspapers will tell something else, "Nadezhda explains.

According to her, the villages used to have their own infrastructure, people worked on the land or in livestock complexes, there were jobs for young people. But with the sale of land, the destruction of rural infrastructure and the actual destruction of the villagers as a class takes place, since holdings or foreigners began to buy land through dummies.

“Immediately after the sale of land in our region was allowed, on the second day, 100 hectares were purchased by an Indian through a fictitious marriage with a local resident. This is what the real policy of the authorities led to. they sit, you can't argue with them. They shout about patriotism, and they themselves are ready to sell our entire land, and then at least they’ll run away to America, even though they’ll get a good job here with money. Here the Mafia is ruled by the Novo Bandera, more cunning and subtle than the Donetsk one, "she said Hope.

A resident of Ukraine does not know whether the Ukrainians will wake up from propaganda hypnosis or will work in the landowner, as their ancestors once did, when they sold all of the Ukrainian land.

She stressed that most farmers believe that the main goal of the land law is simple - the complete subordination of Ukraine to the West and the transformation of Ukrainians into slaves. Since, having land and growing food, Ukrainian agrarians could somehow provide themselves with food and feed the city at the same time.

“Therefore, the land from us, Ukrainians, needs to be withdrawn. The Western farmer is really more productive. But the prices for these products will not be available to ordinary people in Ukraine, since they will be European with non-European salaries,” Nadezhda emphasized.

According to a resident of Ukraine, if someone offered to sell land in Israel, this person would be immediately arrested as a state criminal and a traitor. And that would be correct.

https://novorosinform.org/planomerno-ub ... 86212.html

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Mon Jan 03, 2022 2:30 pm

Ukraine has suspended the supply of water to the LPR

Several cities of the republic are partially or completely dehydrated at once.

The interruption of the water supply from the Western Filtration Station (ZFS) was reported at the enterprise.

"The reason was the damage to the main water conduit D = 1200 mm from the pumping station ZFS-3 on the territory of Ukraine," the message says.

It is noted that at the moment water supply in Alchevsk is limited (by 30%); in Slavyanoserbsk and Perevalsk region (by 50%); in Stakhanov, Kirovsk and Bryanka (by 60%); in Pervomaisk (100%).

According to the press service of the enterprise, it is possible to restore the water supply in the planned volume after the resumption of water supply from the ZFS-3 pumping station from Ukraine.

We add that the Ukrainian side supplies water to the LPR from two main water intakes located in the territories controlled by Kiev: from the FSF in the Lisichansk region and the Petrovsky water intake in the Stanichno-Lugansk region.

https://novorosinform.org/ukraina-prios ... 86747.html

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Zelensky promised Ukrainians a photo of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Crimea and Donbass in 2022

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According to the President of Ukraine, these will be pictures from "peaceful Donetsk, Lugansk and Crimea."

Vladimir Zelensky made such a statement during the New Year's address to the nation.

According to the head of state, this year Kiev will provide veterans of hostilities in the Donbass with apartments, the walls of which they will decorate with photographs "with their brothers, together with whom they defended their land."
“And right behind them are all our military men. I believe it will be a photo from peaceful Donetsk, Lugansk, Crimea,” Zelensky said.
In the same speech, the President of Ukraine called the end of the war in Donbass the main goal of 2022. He also said that he was expecting guests from Russia "with jellied meat and a bottle, and not with weapons and without knocking."

At the same time, relatives of residents of Ukraine from Donbass and Crimea, according to Zelensky, can come to Ukraine, "but not to visit, but to their home."

Meanwhile, under the "peaceful" speeches of the Ukrainian leader, the Ukrainian Armed Forces captured a school in Donbass . They equipped the headquarters of a combat unit and a field fire control point for Ukrainian artillery there.

https://novorosinform.org/zelenskij-poo ... 86748.html

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Ukrainian Armed Forces seized a school in Donbass and made a headquarters with a firing position - NM LPR

Image

The nationalists of the armed formations of Ukraine deployed a fire control point at the educational institution of the village of Valuyskoye, which is in the former Luhansk region controlled by Kiev. This was announced by the official representative of the People's Militia of the LPR Ivan Filiponenko.

According to him, Ukrainian militants seized a village school on December 27. Since then, they have begun the systematic equipping of firing positions in the educational institution, added a representative of the People's Militia of the LPR. His statement is quoted by the Lugansk Information Center.

Referring to reports from local residents, Filiponenko noted that now a tactical unit of Ukrainian nationalists is functioning at the school, a large number of armed people are observed in the area of ​​the building, and the presence of artillery reconnaissance and tactical observation equipment is recorded in the building itself.
"The use by Kiev of the building of a secondary school in the village of Valuyskoye for the deployment of the headquarters of a combat unit and a field fire control point for Ukrainian artillery is a flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law," Filiponenko said.
https://novorosinform.org/vsu-zahvatili ... 86743.html

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The NSDC denied data on the accumulation of Russian troops near the border

Information from foreign media about Russia's buildup of weapons and equipment near the Ukrainian border does not correspond to reality, said the head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov.

According to the NSDC secretary, in Ukraine they do not see the accumulation of Russian troops near the state border. Danilov said this on the air of the Nash TV channel, RIA Novosti reports .
"If we talk about a large crowd on which the media abroad insist, then we do not see this ... we monitor everything and are aware of what is happening," said the head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
He added that at the moment Ukraine does not see the prerequisites for "open aggression" by Russia. Danilov also promised that Kiev will monitor this situation.

https://novorosinform.org/v-snbo-oprove ... 86732.html

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Amnesty? Did not hear. Ukraine is preparing a law on collaborators for residents of Donbass

Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister for the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, spoke about the development of a new bill.

Ukrainian authorities are preparing a collaboration law for Donbass residents. This was stated in an interview with NV by the Minister for Reintegration of the "temporarily occupied territories" of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk.

According to her, it is high time for Ukraine to decide what a collaboration is, who will be considered collaborators, which category of Donbass residents will never be amnesty.
"Society in Ukraine must clearly know who will never fall under the amnesty, which people will be responsible for taking up arms against Ukraine; who and how will be responsible after the de-occupation," Vereshchuk emphasized.
The minister added that the Council of Europe and other Western partners will help Ukraine in preparing the bill.

https://novorosinform.org/amnistiya-ne- ... 86715.html

Who could expect or trust amnesty from Nazis anyway? No doubt a 'hoped for' mechanism of ethnic cleansing.

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Ukraine will arrange provocations in Donbass until it is curbed - political scientist
Political scientist and journalist Armen Gasparyan doubts that negotiations in the Normandy format will bring peace to Donbass, but a major war there is also unlikely.

In a comment to the Donbass Resolves telegram channel, the journalist noted that the situation could change, but this depends on negotiations between Russia and the United States.

He stressed that the issue of human security from a military point of view or health in the context of a coronavirus pandemic is the main one.

Earlier, Russian State Duma deputy Anatoly Wasserman said that Ukraine can commit "any dirty trick at any time." According to him, the war in Donbass may begin in July - August 2022.

In the republics of Donbass, they calculated how many times the Ukrainian Armed Forces violated the ceasefire this year. Total: 1923 times - in the DPR , a little less in the LPR - 534 times. But, according to the leadership of the LPR in the JCCC, this is twice as much as it was in 2020.

https://novorosinform.org/ukraina-budet ... 86645.html

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Mon Jan 10, 2022 2:20 pm

Ukrainian Armed Forces deployed weapons and military equipment in eight settlements of Donbass

The official representative of the UNM DNR Eduard Basurin said that the armed formations of Ukraine continue to build up their technical potential in the cities and villages of the occupied Donbass.

He spoke about this during a briefing, according to the official website of the People's Militia of the DPR.

According to him, the Ukrainian military has recently deployed 16 pieces of weapons and military equipment in eight settlements.

In particular, he said that from the 95th brigade, three BTR-70 armored personnel carriers were deployed in a residential area of ​​the Novobakhmutovka settlement and one BTR-80 armored personnel carrier in a residential area of ​​Mayorsk. In addition, two BMP-2 AFU deployed on the northern outskirts of the village of Nelepovka and one anti-aircraft gun ZU-23 in a residential area of ​​the village of Ozaryanovka.

Also from the 25th airborne brigade in the residential area of ​​the village of Vesyoloye, one BMP-1 was deployed.

Another BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle was installed near residential buildings in the village of Pervomayskoye, and one BTR-70 armored personnel carrier was installed in a residential area of ​​the village of Bogdanovka.

According to the DPR NM, six 82-mm towed 2B9 Vasilyok mortars were recorded at the railway station in Druzhkovka.

https://novorosinform.org/vsu-razmestil ... 86842.html

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Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to drown out drones OSCE - DPR

The Ukrainian security forces once again violated the existing conditions for a general truce in the area of ​​the village of Zarya.

The press service of the People's Militia of the DPR reported on the established fact of the use of electronic warfare by Kiev against drones of the monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), RIA Novosti reports .

"For electronic suppression of control and navigation channels during flights of the OSCE SMM UAV in the area of ​​the village of Zarya, the enemy used an electronic warfare station" Bukovel-AD "from the mobile group of the 502nd separate battalion of electronic warfare (Armed Forces of Ukraine - ed.)," the report of the People's Militia.

Thus, Ukrainian troops are trying to hide from observers the deployment of weapons, which are prohibited in accordance with the Minsk agreements.

https://novorosinform.org/vsu-pytalis-z ... 86856.html

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Victims of Ukrainian aggression in DPR paid almost a billion rubles

We are talking about the amount of one-time compensation for harm to the life and health of residents of the republic since the beginning of hostilities.

This information is provided by DAN with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of the Republic.

"The total amount of one-time compensations paid to residents of the DPR who suffered from the Ukrainian aggression has amounted to 985.7 million rubles since 2014. There were 14 stages of partial payments," it was reported.

It is noted that last year alone, 301.2 million rubles were allocated for these purposes.

Earlier it was also reported that since the beginning of the new year, some social payments in the DPR will increase by 5-140%, depending on the type of benefit and the category of recipients .

https://novorosinform.org/postradavshim ... 86904.html

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The OSCE does not even record the shelling of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which they themselves attend - military correspondent

Observers of the OSCE mission again kept silent about the shelling of the village by Ukrainian armed formations, despite the fact that at the time of the shelling they were present in the village, war correspondent Dmitry Astrakhan said.

Astrakhan wrote about this in his telegram channel, according to the publication "Donetsk brake".

"The OSCE patrol left the checkpoint at 13:39 Kiev time, that is, 14:39 Moscow time. The shelling ended, was counted and" carried out "on the JCCC at 15:17. LNG and ACS. Both the civilians and the military heard that the fire was being fired, and understood that it was not in vain that they stopped them. And only the OSCE this time decided to show deafness instead of blindness and could not record anything, although it was nearby, "the military correspondent said.

At the same time, Astrakhan believes that the next time the military of the republics should not interfere with the movement of the OSCE patrol, but show them a short way under fire, and if the mission representatives do not hear the shelling, then at least they will see.

https://novorosinform.org/obse-ne-fiksi ... 84947.html

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Ukrainian ambassador threatened Germany with serious consequences for refusing to sell weapons

Kiev has the right to "massive military support," says Andriy Melnik.

He shared this opinion in an interview with Funke, reports TASS .

He called on Berlin to abandon its position and begin supplying weapons to Ukraine, following the example of the United States. The Ukrainian ambassador to the FRG reminded the German government of its historical responsibility to the "Independent" and Kiev's demands to provide it with "massive military support."

"Germany's refusal to supply defensive weapons causes great discontent in Ukrainian society and may have serious consequences for bilateral relations," says Andriy Melnyk.

We add that this is not the first attempt by the ambassador to "reason" the German authorities and force them to supply weapons. Earlier, Melnik called the position of the FRG leadership "disfigured pacifism" due to the unwillingness of a hot conflict in the Donbass, which could inflame the whole of Europe.

https://novorosinform.org/posol-ukrainy ... 86895.html

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One suspects that other than not wishing to push it's luck with Russia that the Germans might like to get paid for these weapons. Ukraine's economy is in shambles and would collapse in a New York minute without US imperial largess. If the Ukes are gonna pay for something then it better be stamped, 'Made In USA'.
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Thu Jan 13, 2022 2:45 pm

Wasserman said that he is holding back Ukraine from an offensive in the Donbass

In formulating the Minsk Agreements, Moscow realized that their implementation meant reformatting the Ukrainian state. This was stated by the publicist Anatoly Wasserman in an interview with the publication "Ukraine.ru". “Therefore, it seems to me that it is precisely the existence of these agreements that to some extent keeps Kiev from itself

In formulating the Minsk Agreements, Moscow realized that their implementation meant reformatting the Ukrainian state. This was stated by the publicist Anatoly Wasserman in an interview with the publication "Ukraine.ru".

“Therefore, it seems to me that it is precisely the existence of these agreements that to some extent keeps Kiev from the most striking manifestations of the terrorist essence of power,” he said.

According to him, there can be no confrontation between Kiev and Moscow, since Ukraine is part of Russia.

"[...] the vast majority of Ukrainian citizens are Russians, and precisely because they are Russians, any leader who wants to be at least formally independent is forced to act against the interests of the vast majority of his citizens, since these interests require the unity of Ukraine with the rest of Russia."

Wasserman called an elementary way to destroy this unity - to provoke conflicts between Ukraine and Russia.

Recall that today a member of the Council for Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation Bogdan Bezpalko said that if Ukraine starts an offensive in the Donbass, then its army will quickly collapse, since Russia is behind the LPR. According to him, the Ukrainian authorities fear the expansion of the Donetsk People's Republic to Zaporozhye or Dnepropetrovsk.

https://novorosinform.org/vasserman-ras ... 13483.html

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The US Embassy in Kiev recommended that Americans refrain from traveling to Ukraine

In a statement published by the US Embassy in Ukraine, it is said that the Americans should reconsider their plans to visit this state in connection with the "military threat" from Russia.

"The State Department continues to advise US citizens to reconsider their travel plans to Ukraine due to increased threats from Russia," the statement said, cited by TASS .

The text of the document also states that due to Russian activity near the Ukrainian borders and in Crimea, "security conditions can change practically without warning." According to representatives of the diplomatic service, this may complicate the provision of consular services, including those related to evacuation.

Earlier, the press secretary of the head of the Russian state Dmitry Peskov said that statements about Russia's invasion of Ukraine have no basis, their purpose is to aggravate the situation. He assured that the Russian side is doing everything possible to resolve the conflict in Donbass within the framework of the "Normandy format" and the Minsk agreements.

https://novorosinform.org/posolstvo-ssh ... 87167.html

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American advisers began work at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense

Foreign specialists will carry out their activities as part of the Directorate of Defense Policy.

According to Klymenko Time, overseas specialists began their activities as advisers in the Ukrainian defense department. Chris Rizzo and Todd Brown will provide theoretical support and implement Western experience in the troops of Ukraine.

American specialists will work to help ensure the success of Ukraine's defense reform. They will also be involved in ensuring the Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukrainian army standards and the quality of officer training.

https://novorosinform.org/amerikanskie- ... 87129.html

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Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed an OSCE drone that spotted a mortar crew in the courtyard of a residential building

The incident took place in the area of ​​the village of Peski.

Soldiers of the Ukrainian army continue to obstruct the work of the OSCE international observer mission, the People's Militia of the DPR said.

So, on January 11, in the Pesok area, militants of the 21st battalion of the 56th brigade, in cooperation with the 305th separate electronic warfare battalion, intercepted the control channels and forcibly landed the mission's unmanned aerial vehicle, which recorded the fact of the deployment of mortar crew personnel in the courtyard of a residential building on the street. Chistyakov.

“The commander of the brigade Sirchenko ordered the commander of the 21st battalion, Major Makukha, to“ cover up ”all traces of the crime, destroying the planted UAV,” the message says.

Recall that the OSCE special monitoring mission recorded a sharp increase in tension in Donbass in the second half of the New Year holidays. At the moment, the number of attacks on the republics by the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues to grow.

https://novorosinform.org/vsu-unichtozh ... 87176.html

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Poland reveals US and NATO plan against Russia

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The West intends to disrupt negotiations with Moscow in order to provoke a war between Russia and Ukraine.

The Polish edition of Myśl Polska published an article, the authors of which are sure that the United States, together with the NATO leadership, wants to disrupt negotiations with Russia on security guarantees, which could push Moscow to unleash a war with Kiev.

In view of this, the authors of the material express doubts as to how justified the continuation of negotiations between the Kremlin and the West is considered.

"I believe that nothing will come of the negotiations, because the United States and its creature, NATO, clearly strive to escalate the conflict," the newspaper writes.

The authors note that for the United States, such a prospect seems to be quite acceptable, since, in the event of hostilities, American citizens will not be harmed, but a different fate concerns the same Poles.

"A truly diabolical plan involves the creation of a situation in which representatives of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, who have common religious, cultural and largely ethnic roots, will kill each other in a full-scale conflict," the newspaper concludes.

https://novorosinform.org/v-polshe-rask ... 87174.html

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About 80% of the total wheat stock in Ukraine was exported from the country - Rosenko

The country runs the risk of being left without bread, and at the same time without coal, said the former vice-minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rosenko.

Coal reserves have also hit historic lows, the former official said. He spoke about this on the air of Channel 5.

"According to official data, traders exported from Ukraine 80% of the new crop of grocery wheat. Wheat, which we use in the form of various goods. 20% that remained," Rosenko said.

He noted that such a situation did not exist even "during the 2014-2016 war." For example, the coal stock never fell below 1.5 million tons. And at the moment, its reserves in Ukrainian warehouses are about 300 thousand tons of coal.

The difficult situation with coal was recently announced by the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine. They reported that the minimum allowable level of coal reserves at thermal power plants (TPPs) of "Centrenergo" is almost two times lower than necessary.

The heads of the regional centers and rows of the country's cities began to warn the population about rolling power outages. At the moment, most of the power units have been shut down at Ukrainian state-owned thermal power plants due to a lack of coal.

https://novorosinform.org/poryadka-80-v ... 85125.html

all above Google Translator

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Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Policies of the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination in Ukraine
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist 12 Jan 2022

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U.S. and Russian Officials Meet in Geneva to Discuss Ukraine

The Ukraine crisis began in Washington, not in Moscow. The Obama/Biden regime change plot against an elected Ukrainian president reverberates to this day. International law must be followed if a dangerous situation is to be averted.

This statement was originally published in Black Alliance for Peace .
January 12, 2022, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) concludes that the full responsibility for the dangerous crisis unfolding in Ukraine has its genesis in the illegal policies of the U.S./EU/NATO “Axis of Domination” beginning in 2014. As the corporate press presents a one-sided presentation of event in Ukraine as part of a massive propaganda effort to mobilize public opinion to support the reckless positions of the Biden administration, BAP believes that the public must be presented with a counternarrative of the chronology of events in Ukraine. BAP National Organizer; Ajamu Baraka summarizes some of those events:

“During the latter part of 2013 until February 2014, the Obama/Biden administration gave material support and encouragement to anti-democratic right-wing elements in Ukraine to execute “regime change” against the democratically elected government of Victor Yanukovych. This plunged Ukraine into crisis because substantial sectors of Ukrainian society did not support the coup, especially sections of predominantly Russian speaking Ukrainian citizens in the Eastern portions of the nation. Those Ukrainian citizens rejected the legitimacy of the coup government and began to voice support for independence from the neo-Nazi government that took power. And what was the response from the illegal coup regime? It attacked their citizens in the East. In other words, they attacked their own citizens – a crime that the Obama administration pretended was the excuse for U.S. subversion in Syria. “

The conflict that ensued as a result of the invasion of Eastern Ukraine by the Ukrainian government with the full support of right-wing paramilitary forces like the neo-Nazi Azon battalions, did not succeed in forcing the republics that subsequently referred to themselves as the Donbas Peoples’ Republic to submit to the coup government. An agreement between Donbas and the coup government was arrived at that became known as the Minsk II agreement. Terms of the agreement included a commitment to a ceasefire along with relative autonomy for Donbas. The agreement avoided all-out war and provided some degree of “stability” until the Biden administration came back to power.

Back in power, Biden and the democrats who have now become the party of war, begin to encourage Ukraine authorities to ignore Minsk and to forcefully take back control of Donbas. Even more dangerously, the U.S. and some European powers began to indicate that Ukraine might be invited to become a member of NATO. That could allow NATO with its nuclear weapons to be positioned right on the borders of Russia and with its nuclear arsenal.

BAP regards NATO as an illegitimate offensive force in the service of Western imperialism. Therefore, we call on all social forces committed to peace to join us in demanding that NATO be dismantled. In the meantime, and specifically on Ukraine, BAP is calling on the international Anti-war movement to demand that the U.S. and NATO deescalate the situation. Concretely this means demanding that:

All parties to the conflict adhere to the provisions reflected in the Minsk II agreement
And that the Ukrainian situation is taken up by the United Nations Security Council, the only body by international law tasked with the responsibility to address international threats to peace – not the arbitrary and illegal activities of the United States and its allies.
The undermining of international law by the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination committed to maintaining Western imperialist hegemony by operating outside the framework of international law, is now seen by much of the non-European world as the primary threat to international peace, security, and human rights.

BAP shares that assessment and pledges to continue to oppose U.S. policies, understanding that today as it was more than fifty years ago when Dr. King first uttered these words – “the U.S. is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.”
https://www.blackagendareport.com/black ... on-ukraine
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Wed Jan 19, 2022 4:07 pm

Hawkish Pundits Downplay Threat of War, Ukraine’s Nazi Ties
GREGORY SHUPAK

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NYT: How the United States Can Break Putin’s Hold on Ukraine
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Alexander Vindman (New York Times, 12/10/21): “A prosperous Ukraine buttressed by American support” could persuade Russians “to eventually demand their own framework for democratic transition”—i.e., regime change.
With the United States and Russia in a standoff over NATO expansion and Russian troop deployments along the Ukrainian border, US corporate media outlets are demanding that Washington escalate the risk of a broader war while misleading their audiences about important aspects of the conflict.

Many in the commentariat called on the US to take steps that would increase the likelihood of war. In the New York Times (12/10/21), retired US Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman wrote that “the United States must support Ukraine by providing more extensive military assistance.” He argued that “the United States should consider an out-of-cycle, division-level military deployment to Eastern Europe to reassure allies and bolster the defenses of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” even while calling for a strategy that “avoids crossing into military adventurism.” He went on to say that “the United States has to be more assertive in the region.”

Yet the US has been plenty “assertive in the region,” where, incidentally, America is not located. In 2014, the US supported anti-government protests in Ukraine that led to the ouster of democratically elected, Russia-aligned Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych (Foreign Policy, 3/4/14). Russia sent its armed forces into the Crimea, annexed the territory, and backed armed groups in eastern Ukraine.

Since then, the US has given Ukraine $2.5 billion in military aid, including Javelin anti-tank missiles (Politico, 6/18/21). The US government has applied sanctions to Russia that, according to an International Monetary Fund estimate, cost Russia about 0.2 percentage points of GDP every year between 2014 and 2018 (Reuters, 4/16/21).

Furthermore, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—a US-led military alliance hostile to Russia—has grown by 14 countries since the end of the Cold War. NATO expanded right up to Russia’s border in 2004, in violation of the promises made by the elder George Bush and Bill Clinton to Russian leaders Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin (Jacobin, 7/16/18).
WaPo: Ukraine stood with the West in 2014. Today we must stand with Ukraine.
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“Russia has shown its intent to violate its international commitments by demanding NATO cease expanding,” Rob Portman and Jeanne Shaheen argue in the Washington Post (12/24/21)—ignoring the US’s violated commitment to not expand NATO eastward.
In the Washington Post (12/24/21), Republican Sen. Rob Portman and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen jointly contended in Orwellian fashion that the Biden administration should take “military measures that would strengthen a diplomatic approach and give it greater credibility.” They wrote that “the United States must speed up the pace of assistance and provide antiaircraft, antitank and anti-ship systems, along with electronic warfare capabilities.” The authors claimed that these actions “will help ensure a free and stable Europe,” though it’s easy to imagine how such steps could instead lead to a war-ravaged Europe, or at least a tension-plagued one.

Indeed, US “military measures” have tended to increase, rather than decrease, the temperature. Last summer, the US and Ukraine led multinational naval maneuvers held in the Black Sea, an annual undertaking called Sea Breeze. The US-financed exercises were the largest in decades, involving 32 ships, 40 aircraft and helicopters, and 5,000 soldiers from 24 countries (Deutsche Welle, 6/29/21). These steps didn’t create a “stable Europe”: Russia conducted a series of parallel drills in the Black Sea and southwestern Russia (AP, 7/10/21), and would go on to amass troops along the Ukrainian border.

Afghan precedent

WaPo: To deter a Russian attack, Ukraine needs to prepare for guerrilla warfare
Max Boot (Washington Post, 12/15/21) suggests the US should point out to Russia “that Ukraine shares a lengthy border—nearly 900 miles in total—with NATO members Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.” Pretty sure they’re aware of that, Max.

Max Boot, also writing in the Post (12/15/21), argued:

Preventing Russia from attacking will require a more credible military deterrent. President Biden has ruled out unilaterally sending US combat troops to Ukraine, which would be the strongest deterrent. But he can still do more to help the Ukrainians defend themselves.

The United States has already delivered more than $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, with $450 million of that coming this year. There are also roughly 150 US troops in Ukraine training its armed forces.

But Ukraine is asking for more military aid, and we should deliver it. NBC News reports that “Ukraine has asked for air defense systems, anti-ship missiles, more Javelin antitank missiles, electronic jamming gear, radar systems, ammunition, upgraded artillery munitions and medical supplies.” The Defense Department could begin airlifting these defensive systems and supplies to Kyiv tomorrow.

Later in the article, Boot contended that the US should help prepare Ukraine to carry out an armed insurgency in case Russia intensifies its involvement in Ukraine. He said that “outside support” is “usually the key determinant of the success or failure of an insurgency”: Because of aid from the US and its allies, he noted, the mujahedeen in Afghanistan “were able to drive out the Red Army with heavy casualties.” Amazingly, Boot said nothing about the many alumni of the mujahedeen in Afghanistan who joined the Taliban and al-Qaeda (Jacobin, 9/11/21).

That it might be possible to reach an agreement in which Ukraine remains neutral between NATO and Russia (Responsible Statecraft, 1/3/22) is not the sort of possibility that Boot thinks is worth exploring. He apparently would prefer to dramatically increase the danger of armed conflict between two nuclear powers.

Whitewashing Nazis
Nation: Secretary Blinken Faces a Big Test in Ukraine, Where Nazis and Their Sympathizers Are Glorified
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The Nation (5/6/21): “Glorification of Nazi collaborators and Holocaust perpetrators isn’t a glitch but a feature of today’s Ukraine.”
US media should present Americans with a complete picture of Ukraine/Russia so that Americans can assess how much and what kind of support, if any, they want their government to continue providing to Ukraine’s. Such a comprehensive view would undoubtedly include an account of the Ukrainian state’s political orientation. Lev Golinkin in The Nation (5/6/21) outlined one of the Ukrainian government’s noteworthy tendencies:

Shortly after the Maidan uprising of 2013 to 2014 brought in a new government, Ukraine began whitewashing Nazi collaborators on a statewide level. In 2015, Kyiv passed legislation declaring two WWII-era paramilitaries—the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)—heroes and freedom fighters, and threatening legal action against anyone denying their status. The OUN was allied with the Nazis and participated in the Holocaust; the UPA murdered thousands of Jews and 70,000–100,000 Poles on their own accord.

Every January 1, Kyiv hosts a torchlight march in which thousands honor Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, who headed an OUN faction; in 2017, chants of “Jews Out!” rang out during the march. Such processions (often redolent with antisemitism) are a staple in Ukraine….

Ukraine’s total number of monuments to Third Reich collaborators who served in auxiliary police battalions and other units responsible for the Holocaust number in the several hundred. The whitewashing also extends to official book bans and citywide veneration of collaborators.

The typical reaction to this in the West is that Ukraine can’t be celebrating Nazi collaborators because it elected [Volodymyr] Zelensky, a Jewish president. Zelensky, however, has alternated between appeasing and ignoring the whitewashing: In 2018, he stated, “To some Ukrainians, [Nazi collaborator] Bandera is a hero, and that’s cool!”

Furthermore, according to a George Washington University study, members of the far-right group Centuria are in the Ukrainian military, and Centuria’s social media accounts show these soldiers giving Nazi salutes, encouraging white nationalism and praising members of Nazi SS units (Ottawa Citizen, 10/19/21). Centuria leaders have ties to the Azov movement, which “has attacked anti-fascist demonstrations, city council meetings, media outlets, art exhibitions, foreign students, the LGBTQ2S+ community and Roma people”: the Azov movement’s militia has been incorporated in the Ukrainian National Guard (CTV News, 10/20/21). Azov, the UN has documented, has carried out torture and rape.

Absent information

The fact that that Ukraine’s government and armed forces include a Nazi-sympathizing current surely would have an impact on US public opinion—if the public knew about it. However, this information has been entirely absent in recent editions of the New York Times and Washington Post.

From December 6, 2021, to January 6, 2022, the Times published 228 articles that refer to Ukraine, nine of which contain some variation on the word “Nazi.” Zero percent of these note Ukrainian government apologia for Nazis or the presence of pro-Nazi elements in Ukraine’s armed forces. One report (12/21/21) said:

On Russian state television, the narrative of a Ukraine controlled by neo-Nazis and used as a staging ground for Western aggression has been a common trope since the pro-Western revolution in Kyiv in 2014.

Nothing in the article indicates that while “controlled” may be a stretch, the Ukrainian government officially honors Nazi collaborators. That doesn’t mean Russia has the right attack Ukraine, but US media should inform Americans about whom their tax dollars are arming.

In the same period, the Post ran 201 pieces that mention the word “Ukraine.” Of these, six mention the word “Nazi,” none of them to point out that the Ukrainian state has venerated Holocaust participants, or that there are Nazis in the Ukrainian military. Max Boot (1/5/22) and Robyn Dixon (12/11/21), in fact, dismissed this fact as mere Russian propaganda. In Boot’s earlier Ukraine piece (12/15/21), he acknowledged that the UPA collaborated with the Nazis and killed thousands of Polish people, but his article nevertheless suggested that the UPA offer a useful model for how Ukrainians could resist a Russian invasion, asserting that “all is not lost” in case of a Russian invasion, because “Ukrainian patriots could fight as guerrillas against Russian occupiers”:

They have done it before. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was formed in 1942 to fight for that country’s independence. Initially, it cooperated with Nazi invaders but later fought against them. When the Red Army marched back into Ukraine in 1943, the UPA resisted. The guerrillas carried out thousands of attacks and inflicted thousands of casualties on Soviet forces while also massacring and ethnically cleansing the Polish population in western Ukraine. The UPA continued fighting until the 1950s, forcing Moscow to mobilize tens of thousands of troops and secret policemen to restore control.

“All is not lost,” for Boot, though the lives of thousands of Poles and Jews were, the latter of whom he didn’t bother to mention. Calling the perpetrators of such atrocities “Ukrainian patriots” is a grotesque euphemism that, first and foremost, spits on the victims, and also insults non-racist Ukrainians. After a two-paragraph interval, Boot wrote that

the Ukrainian government needs to start distributing weapons now and, with the help of US and other Western military advisers, training personnel to carry out guerrilla warfare. Volodymyr Zelensky’s government should even prepare supply depots, tunnels and bunkers in wooded areas, and in particular in the Carpathian Mountains, a UPA stronghold in the 1940s.

Evidently neither the UPA’s precedent of fascist massacres, nor the presence of similarly oriented groups in contemporary Ukraine’s armed forces and society, give Boot pause. He’d rather the US continue flooding the country with weapons; the consequences aren’t a concern of Boot’s.

Readers seeking riotous calls to violence in Eastern Europe should turn to the Times and the Post, but those who are interested in a thoroughgoing portrait will be disappointed.

https://fair.org/home/hawkish-pundits-d ... nazi-ties/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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