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 Apr 09, 2021 3:08 pm

Ukraine, U.S. drum up war threats against Donbass and Russia
April 2, 2021 Greg Butterfield

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Aftermath of Ukrainian rocket-launcher attack in Donetsk, March 4. Photo: Donetsk International
“The USA has the unique condition of being a flagrant violator of human rights within its own borders and in practically every region of the world. No other nation has such a systematic record. Its massive control of media and communications hides this truth from its own people.”
I thought of this tweet from Carlos F. de Cassio, the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s director for U.S. affairs, while reading the latest corporate news reports about the conflict between Ukraine and the independent Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in the Donbass region of eastern Europe.

A series of alarmist articles appeared in late March and early April warning of an escalation in the seven-year war in the region and a buildup of Russian military forces in Crimea and near the border with Ukraine. Fanning the flames of these reports are recent statements by Biden administration officials.

“U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a phone call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday, affirmed Washington’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity ‘in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression,’ the State Department said in a statement,” Reuters reported March 31.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported March 30 that U.S. European Command (EUCOM) had changed Ukraine’s status on an internal watch list from “possible crisis” to “potential imminent crisis.”

Completely missing from these reports, however, is the fact that Ukraine has been building up its troops and military hardware on the “line of contact,” the front line of the conflict, since mid-January.

At the same time, Ukrainian military forces have stepped up unprovoked attacks on frontline settlements in Donetsk and Lugansk, killing and injuring residents and targeting homes, schools and other civilian targets.

Ukraine attacks civilians, violates ceasefire

The city of Gorlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) was one of several that came under increased fire from Ukrainian forces starting in February.

On Feb. 20 “the mayor of Gorlovka denounced the increase in Ukrainian shelling on the outskirts of the city. According to the population of the area, the bombardments, with the use of heavy artillery, had started in the early morning and lasted throughout the night. At least one DPR soldier was killed in the shelling, after which, as a precaution, shelters in the city were reopened,” reported Slavyangrad.es.

Then on the night of Feb. 21-22, a big attack on Gorlovka resulted in the deaths of several troops of the Donetsk People’s Militia.

Another settlement under frequent attack in February was Staromikhaylovka, where teacher Nadezhda Vasilievna’s house was destroyed by Ukrainian shelling on Feb. 17. Fortunately, she had gone out for coal and wasn’t home when the bomb hit.

It was only after weeks of these escalating attacks that the Donetsk People’s Militia was authorized to respond with defensive fire on March 3.

On March 4 Ukrainian forces launched a missile attack on Donetsk, capital of the DPR. The Donetsk People’s Republic Foreign Ministry said that “the strike at Donetsk with multiple rocket launchers on Thursday morning was terror against the civilian population.” It was the first time Ukraine had used these prohibited weapons since 2018, it said.

“Earlier, the Joint Center for Control and Coordination reported that Kiev forces used a Grad-P rocket system to fire at the northern suburbs of Donetsk on Thursday morning. The strike was delivered from Ukrainian forces positions in the Opytnoye village area,” reported the Donetsk News Agency.

The Donetsk Foreign Ministry repeatedly appealed for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to send monitors to investigate the increased attacks, and for Ukraine’s patrons in the U.S. and European Union to rein in Kiev’s provocations.

Pensioner killed

A 71-year-old pensioner was killed March 22 after Ukrainian troops opened fire on Alexandrovka, a suburb of the Donetsk capital. Emergency personnel were unable to provide medical aid or even remove the person’s body for some time while the shooting continued.

The DPR People’s Militia reported: “Punishers of the Ukrainian 28th Brigade, deployed to Maryinka, opened sniper fire on Alexandrovka in an attempt to provoke retaliatory fire, following the command of their commander Maxim Marchenko.”

On the night of March 26, in the frontline settlement of Zolote-5 in the Lugansk People’s Republic, a school and residential buildings were damaged after shelling by the Ukrainian military. During an earlier shelling, in the daytime on March 11, children had to be evacuated from the school.

“Residents of Zolote say that the shelling has become more frequent. There is no truce for Ukrainian militants. They use various weapons, including large-caliber ones,” Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.

These and numerous other acts are violations, not only of the current ceasefire agreement negotiated by the OSCE last July, but also of the 2015 Minsk Agreement between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, which bars Ukraine from deploying and using heavy weaponry in the region.

DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said: “Donbass has repeatedly seen that it makes no difference to Ukrainian armed formations who their targets are: soldiers, pensioners, women or children. While Ukraine reports at international venues the successful observation of tighter ceasefire control measures, civilians continue to get killed.”

Trump, Biden and Ukrainian fascists

On March 1, “The Pentagon announced a $125 million military aid package for Ukraine, the first of its kind under the Biden administration,” wrote Defense News. “The U.S. State Department has [also] cleared a potential sale to Ukraine of 16 Mark VI patrol boats and other gear worth $600 million.”

While these amounts are small potatoes by Pentagon standards, they sent a clear message of encouragement to Kiev. (It was Donald Trump who first authorized direct weapons sales to Ukraine. The Obama administration preferred to arm Ukraine through third parties in NATO, including Poland and Turkey, and the Persian/Arabian Gulf monarchies. These are still the country’s main sources for offensive weaponry.)

On March 15, Ukrainian media quoted sources in the military that they were at “readiness level one” awaiting orders for a military offensive against Donbass.

The Russian government restated its commitment to defend the Donbass in the event of a full-scale Ukrainian assault. This was the context for Biden’s subsequent provocative declaration calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “killer” during an ABC interview March 17.

As Struggle-La Lucha has reported, President Joe Biden has a longtime relationship with the right-wing regime in Kiev.

After the U.S.-backed coup of February 2014, Biden — then vice president — became the official in charge of overseeing the new regime to ensure the interests of U.S. big business and NATO military goals. This included austerity measures, repression, privatization and the war in Donbass.

U.S. imperialism has had a longstanding plan to dismantle the neighboring Russian Federation since the early 1990s, which includes the expansion of NATO military power to Russia’s border.

A key component of the U.S. takeover of Ukraine was the use of ultra-right nationalist and neo-Nazi groups. These groups provided the shock troops for the 2014 coup, took violent measures against opposition groups in Ukraine, and were unleashed as “volunteer battalions” against Donetsk and Lugansk after their people voted overwhelmingly for independence. The fascist gangs were then integrated into the Ukrainian army and police.

Today Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is relying on these same forces to increase pressure on the Donbass republics and Russia. For example, journalist Dmitry Rodionov noted that large numbers of troops affiliated with the fascist group Right Sector are being transferred to the region near Gorlovka.

“According to sources, the militants were spotted in Konstantinovka and Dzerzhinsk. The Rightists do not hide their presence, openly wear their symbols, intimidating the local population. The militants are occupying houses, driving out the owners from them. At the same time, the local authorities are not doing anything — no one wants to challenge them,” Rodionov explained.

The Ukrainian neo-Nazis regard the Russian-speaking residents of the Donbass region as sub-humans who should be “cleansed.” They have the same opinion of other national minorities and any ethnic Ukrainians with leftist and anti-fascist views.

Besides the war in Donbass, which has claimed 14,000 lives according to the U.N., the clearest expression of their intentions was the massacre of 48 anti-fascists and labor activists in the Ukrainian city of Odessa on May 2, 2014.

Fascists rallied for Trump at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. But in Ukraine fascists were emboldened by Biden’s taking office. Ironically, Ukrainian nazis also helped to train some of the Trump-supporting white supremacists who took part in the deadly 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally that ended in the death of anti-racist activist Heather Heyer.

This is why it’s important for workers in the United States to understand that both capitalist parties represent the interests of imperialism and its exploitation of people abroad and at home. Today Democratic Party leaders may posture as opponents of fascist and white supremacist groups in the U.S. But they are only too willing to make use of them abroad when it suits the interests of Wall Street.

Workers in the U.S., like those fighting for a union in Bessemer, Ala., have more in common with the workers in Donbass threatened by bombs and blockade and workers in Ukraine fighting austerity than they do with the occupants of the White House, whatever their differences of geography, language and culture.

And we have a responsibility to demand: No war in Donbass! U.S. out of Ukraine!

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2021/ ... nd-russia/

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Why Ukraine’s borders are back at the center of geopolitics
As tensions heat up on the Ukraine-Russia border, Vijay Prashad takes a look at the factors and interests behind what is happening

April 06, 2021 by Vijay Prashad

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Photo: Twitter/Zelensky

On March 11, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter that his government has “approved the Strategy for Deoccupation & Reintegration of Crimea.” What he referred to is a new strategy driven by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to retake Crimea—including the Black Sea port of Sevastopol. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council passed Decree no. 117/2021 on March 24 that laid out the government’s decision to contest Russia’s control over Crimea. On Twitter, President Zelensky used the hashtag #CrimeaIsUkraine to send a clear signal that he is prepared to escalate conflict with Russia over Crimea. The Ukrainian government set up a Crimean Platform Initiative to coordinate strategy alongside the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to pressure Russia over both Crimea and the conflict in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.

Zelensky, an actor, was thrust into politics when he played the role of Ukraine’s president in a television show called “Servant of the People.” Fiction became reality when his television show became a political party, which ran on a decidedly vague platform to bring decency back to politics. He won the presidency in 2019 with 73 percent of the vote. There was a general sense that Zelensky’s blank slate, and advocacy for Russian actors in Ukraine, would translate into a peace process for eastern Ukraine and with Russia. Instead, Zelensky—egged on by his NATO allies—has become far more aggressive against Russia than his predecessor Petro Poroshenko.

In March 2014, after Russian troops entered Crimea, the population voted to join Russia; eight days later, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution asking Russian troops to withdraw. The stalemate set up by the vote in Crimea and the UN resolution persists.

NATO’s March Eastward
Current tensions should not masquerade as ancient animosities. This is the case with the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. For seven decades, both countries were part of the USSR, and for over a decade after 1991, relations between the two countries remained cordial. On February 9, 1990, US Secretary of State James Baker told the last leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move “one inch to the east” from the Oder-Neisse line that divides Germany from Poland. “NATO expansion is unacceptable,” Gorbachev told Baker. Baker agreed: “Not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction.” In a letter to the German chancellor Helmut Kohl the next day, Baker recounted this conversation, emphasizing the “extension of the zone of NATO would be unacceptable.” “By implication,” Baker wrote, “NATO in its current zone might be acceptable.”

The Western powers broke their commitment immediately. In 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO, while in 2004, the alliance drew in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. A line of states that comprise Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova—all of which border Russia—remain outside NATO. In 2002, the NATO-Ukraine Action Plan opened up a framework for Ukraine’s possible entry into NATO. This process has raised serious questions not only about the eastward expansion of NATO, but also—more significantly—about the deeper cultural relationship that Ukraine has had with Russia to its east and with Europe to its west; in what direction should Ukraine orient itself (a fifth of the Ukrainian population is Russian speaking, with the largest numbers in Ukraine’s urban areas and in the Donbass region)?

NATO has aggressively courted Ukraine and Belarus, with NATO’s various plans deeply focused on putting pressure on Russia. The most recent “NATO 2030” report highlights its strategic focus around Russia, which is seen as “destabilizing” and “provocative.” In the interest of putting pressure on Russia at its border with Ukraine, the NATO-Ukraine Commission met throughout 2020 to advance the NATO-Ukraine Distinctive Partnership (set up in 1997). In June 2020, NATO recognized Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner, the closest form to full NATO membership. Ukraine’s armed forces, now substantially trained with NATO, joined NATO forces for three major military exercises last year (Saber Junction, Sea Breeze and Combined Resolve).

At a meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers on March 24, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “Russia has increased its pattern of repressive behavior at home and aggressive behavior abroad.” To this end, NATO’s approach to Russia will be, Stoltenberg said, “deterrence and defense,” with an “openness to dialogue.” Dialogue seems to have been downgraded between the Western alliance and Russia, with a green light to Ukraine to make provocative statements and actions.

Europe’s Need for Russian Gas
Beneath the tension lies Europe’s appetite for energy. As a result of US actions over the past two decades, Europe lost three major sources of energy: Iran, Libya, and Russia. Because Ukraine has become a hotspot, Russian energy investors—mainly the state energy firm Gazprom—moved to build a pipeline under the Baltic Sea to connect Russian oil fields with Germany. The two pipeline projects (Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2) began in 2011-12, before the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Ukraine and before Russia formally took Crimea (both in 2014).

Germany welcomed the pipelines, since these would resume gas delivery to Europe on a regular basis. US President Joe Biden’s administration has sharpened the attack on Nord Stream 2; Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned “that any entity involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline risks US sanctions and should immediately abandon work on the pipeline.” Poland’s anti-monopoly regulator—UOKiK—has fined Polish subcontractors to the tune of about $7.6 billion for participation in the project. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s close ally Peter Beyer, who is Germany’s coordinator for transatlantic affairs—called for a suspension of the pipeline.

Nord Stream 2’s Andrei Minin said that his project’s fleet have been targets of “regular provocations on the part of foreign civilian as well as military vessels.” This could only refer to the military exercises that NATO and its allies—including Ukraine—have conducted in the Baltic Sea; Minin directly pointed to Polish aircraft flying low over the project in Danish waters.

Nord Stream 2 is 95 percent complete and is projected to be ready to go by September 2021. Failure of the US to properly return to the Iran deal and the continued crisis in Libya make Nord Stream 2 fundamental to Europe’s energy planning. But Nord Stream 2 is trapped in the attempt by NATO to isolate Russia.

Ukraine’s Minority Problem
No country is truly culturally homogenous. Ukraine has substantial populations with cultural roots in neighboring states. This applies mainly to the Russian-speaking population, which has close ties to Russia both culturally and politically. One in five Ukrainians speaks Russian, while about one in 10 Ukrainians identify with a range of cultural worlds that emerge from Belarus to Gagauz (a Turkish community from Budjak).

NATO’s pressure against Russia exacerbated and joined with extreme Ukrainian nationalists—including fascists such as the Azov Battalion—to drive an anti-Russian cultural and political movement in the country. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who benefited from Western backing, put forward a language law in 2017 that hampers the teaching of the minority languages in the country’s schools. The target for the law was to de-Russianize the population, but it had an impact on the country’s smaller minorities. For that reason, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary and Romania filed complaints with the Council of Europe.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook in late 2020 that his government would “stand up for Transcarpathian Hungarians in every international forum.” Ukraine, he said, “not a member of NATO, has launched an attack against a minority group originating from a NATO member country.” The contradictions of Ukraine-NATO’s anti-Russian agenda run afoul of other NATO members for reasons that were not calibrated carefully.

Firing across the Ukraine-Russia border has stepped up, egged on by Biden’s full-throated support of Zelensky’s newly found anti-Russian ambitions. A senior United Nations official at the Department of Political and Peacekeeping Affairs tells me that they want military forces to withdraw from the border. All the main platforms for negotiation—the Normandy Format and the Arria Formula meetings at the UN—are in a stalemate. “We need cool heads to prevail,” said the UN official. “Anything other than that could lead to a catastrophic war.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/04/06/ ... opolitics/
"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 » Sun Apr 11, 2021 2:16 pm

The Armed Forces ruled out the use of force to "liberate" Donbass
16:36 04/09/2021 (updated: 19:01 04/09/2021)

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Ukrainian military in the Luhansk region - RIA Novosti, 1920, 04/09/2021
© REUTERS / Oleksandr Klymenko

KIEV, April 9 - RIA Novosti. "Liberation" of Donbass by force will lead to mass deaths of civilians and servicemen, and this is unacceptable for Kiev, said Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ruslan Khomchak .
"Being committed to universal human values ​​and norms of international humanitarian law, our state puts the lives of its citizens in the first place," the General Staff press center quoted him as saying.

According to Khomchak, the Ukrainian authorities consider the political and diplomatic way to resolve the situation in Donbass a priority. At the same time, he added that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are ready for an adequate response both to the escalation of the conflict and to "the complication of the military-political and military-strategic situation around the country."
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy - RIA Novosti, 1920, 09.04.2021
April 9, 08:00
"Forty deaths a day." Kiev took desperate measures
Situation in Donbass

In April 2014, the Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed LPR and DPR , which declared independence after a coup d'etat. Since February, the situation began to deteriorate: there was an attempt on the life of the battalion commander of the People's Militia of the DPR, Ukrainian security forces fired mortars at Gorlovka and the outskirts of Donetsk , and the fighting intensified. The self-proclaimed republics believe that Kiev is preparing a large-scale offensive.
Khomchak last week accused Russia of building up troops near the Ukrainian border, which he said poses a threat to military security. In response, Kiev intends to strengthen the grouping of troops in the Donbass and in the Crimean direction. As the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov answered him , no one should care about the movement of Russian troops within the country. He added that Moscow is taking measures to ensure the security of its borders, along which NATO activity is recorded .
In turn, US President Joe Biden assured his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the States will continue to support Ukraine "in the face of Russian aggression in the Donbass and Crimea." The Russian Foreign Ministry called talks about a potential conflict between Russia and Ukraine as another fiction of Kiev .

https://ria.ru/20210409/donbass-1727582107.html

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Because we know that humanitarian considerations have always been foremost in the priorities of the Ukrainian Nazis...That NATO is in no position to support these Nazis on the ground and that the Russian army could easily push them back to the Carpathians got nothing to do with it...The 'chess masters' in DC will save that pawn for another day.
"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 » Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:56 pm

Information sheets of the Workers' Front of Ukraine
04/11/2021

On behalf of the 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the ROT FRONT Viktor Tyulkin, we acquaint our readers with the materials that came from Kharkov. In general, various materials about the situation in Ukraine are often published on our sites (especially on the site of the RCWP). In Russia, this topic is not ignored by the official media either; it is enough to mention various talk shows on central channels. However, the question often arises: what are our comrades in Ukraine, how do they fight?

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Leaflet "Spark"

Frankly, the situation in the country under an openly fascist nationalist government is extremely difficult, there are strict prohibitive laws, many progressive political and public figures were not only repressed, but also simply killed (for example, Oles Buzina and Olga Moroz burned down in the House of Trade Unions of Odessa in 2014 g.).

But the struggle does not stop even in such conditions. By available means, our comrades from the Workers' Front of Ukraine are campaigning, holding pickets, and issuing Iskra newsletters ( Iskra No. 65 , Iskra No. 66 ). We express our solidarity to the comrades in the struggle and bring to the attention of the readers samples of the comrades' materials.

https://www.rotfront.su/informatsionnye ... hego-fron/

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

Post by blindpig » Tue Apr 13, 2021 1:39 pm

Brest Fortress of Donbass: the first heroes of the LDNR showed themselves in Slavyansk
April 12, 2021 12:15 pm

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Photo: Pixabay

Today marks the 7th anniversary of one of the crucial events of the Russian Spring - the arrival of a militia detachment in Slavyansk. For more than two months, a group of thousands of Ukrainian troops could not take control of a relatively small city defended by several hundred volunteers. It was in Slavyansk that the advanced units of the future DPR army were formed and were truly battle-hardened. It is no coincidence that many residents of Donbass say: "Individual militias came to Slavyansk, but a real army, hardened in battles, came out of Slavyansk!"

The war began before Slavyansk

There is a widespread point of view that the “capture of Slavyansk” became the “trigger” of the war in Donbass. They say that the regime that had come to power in Kiev after the coup d'état had no intention of using troops inside the country. More advanced propagandists represent the Slavyansk militias almost as accomplices of the Kiev junta, without which the Ukrainian leadership allegedly had no formal reason to start hostilities.

But all this is far from the truth. The acting president of Ukraine "bloody pastor" Turchynov announced the beginning of the "anti-terrorist operation" against Donbass on April 7th. The reason for declaring war against their own people was the seizure of a number of administrative buildings in the Russian cities of the South-East - regional administrations in Kharkov and Donetsk and the building of the regional administration of the SBU in Lugansk.



At the same time, few people in Ukraine now remember that Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkiv simply repeated what the inhabitants of the western regions of Ukraine began to do during the coup - the seizure of the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service of Ukraine, the disarmament of the police, etc. Only unlike the Galicians, who staged a riot against the legitimate government, Donbass did not agree to submit to outright criminals who illegally seized power in Kiev.

By April 12, when a detachment of militias entered Slavyansk, Ukraine had been preparing for a full-fledged war for several days. Troops were hastily deployed to the southeast of the country, the propagandists received new introductions, the situation was controlled by curators from outside.

It was under such conditions that a detachment of volunteers entered Slavyansk, which consisted mostly of citizens of Ukraine from the cities of Novorossiya and Crimea.

Eyewitness accounts

This is how Trifon describes the events of those days - one of the members of the Slavic militia, a former lieutenant colonel of the reserve of the power structures of Ukraine, now a citizen of the Russian Federation and a lieutenant colonel of the DPR reserve.

“Our detachment was assembled spontaneously and very quickly. The detachment even included a sixteen-year-old guy from Kiev with the call sign "Vandal". Roughly speaking, those who wanted to take part in this operation from the Crimean militia became part of the detachment.
... Initially, our detachment consisted of 54 people. Two already on the way refused to take part in this for various personal reasons, and there were 52 of us left. There were no more than 1/3 of Russians in the detachment, the rest were citizens of the former Ukraine from Crimea, Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov and even Zhitomir, ”he said in an interview with Daniil Bezsonov.

Separately, "Trifon" sends greetings to the adherents of the postulate "Donbass did not stand up like that."

“Some Crimean friends still tell me that I am a fool, that I have agreed to participate in this. I always answer that they do not understand anything and the Crimeans won the victory “on the ball,” and people in Donbass still pay in blood for the right to be Russian, ”he stressed.

Another member of the "Slavic group" from Kiev, Dmitry Zhukov, in an interview with Ukraina.Ru, described well the mood that reigned in Slavyansk on April 12, 2014 after the appearance of armed militias. According to him, some residents thought that it was "Right Sector has arrived", and others that the Russian special forces. "

“There was already a local militia in the city, headed by Vyacheslav Ponomarev (who later became“ people's mayor of Slavyansk ”- ed.). The militias, seeing us, were frightened, they just realized that now they have to fight. We captured the SBU and the city police department that day. The militiamen resisted languidly, at first they closed, but we broke the grate and smoked them with the help of smoke grenades. The captured militiamen sat for two hours, and then they were released by us. Ukrainian flags were removed from the administrative buildings. The day is over. We, tired, passed out, ”Zhukov said.

The first clashes

The very next day, April 13, there was a clash between the militia detachment and the soldiers of the Ukrainian special forces "Alpha".

“We put them all down. A company of paratroopers stood 100 meters away, but they did not intervene. They drove off in an APC, passing between us and the Alpha, ”Zhukov recalls.

The publication "Military Chronicle" writes that in that first battle, the militias almost completely destroyed the Sumy "Alpha".

“Out of 25 people, 23 were killed and 2 were wounded, two armored personnel carriers were knocked out. A total of 130 deaths from Ukraine. This was the first difficult battle, while many did not know how to work with ATGMs - they studied it on the Internet. The second battle was also on Semyonovka, when the ATO headquarters, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed

One of the most important episodes of the beginning of the Slavic campaign was the disarmament of the 25th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was sent to suppress the Donbas rebellion by the illegal Ukrainian authorities.

On April 16, the combat column of the 25th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was blocked by local residents in Kramatorsk. The unarmed residents of Donbass held the paratroopers in place for several hours, who were clearly not ready for such a "warm welcome" from those whom they were supposed to "release".

“We saw that one man in military uniform communicates with the locals. He turned out to be the commander of the paratroopers. Our main task was to prevent this column from entering Slavyansk. At that time, we were not ready for such a turn. In this confusion, we decided to try to take this commander prisoner ...

A neutral decision was made around 20:00. The paratroopers had to hand over the strikers from their weapons to us, but keep the weapons with them. It was already dark, the BMD turned on the lights. Each of their cars drove up to the radar station, which was under our control, and handed over to us firing points from machine guns, firing points from PKT and gun locks. The agreement was such that they hand it over to us, turn around, form a column and return to Dnepropetrovsk. Somewhere around 21:00, we were in suspense to carry out these activities. Colonel Shvets was left without personnel, and we take him prisoner, the liaison officer of the radar vehicle and the driver (contractor). I jump into the car to the driver, reloaded the machine. Somewhere at 22:00, these three comrades and I, with a full car of all sorts of garbage, arrive at the base ", - describes that episode" Trifon ".

After the disarmament of the Ukrainian paratroopers, acting. Ukrainian President Turchynov was furious. From the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada, he accused the military of cowardice and threatened to disband the 25th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.



Slavic fortress

The events in Slavyansk will forever go down in the history of the Russian Spring and the Donbass uprising. Historians have yet to figure out all the details of the battle for Slavyansk. In the meantime, the most complete study on the history of the defense of Slavyansk is the book of a direct participant in those events, militia Alexander Zhuchkovsky "85 days of Slavyansk", published in 2018. Also worth noting is the book by the youngest member of the Slavic militia, Andrei Savelyev, "War at 16".

"Hold on, Slavyansk, you will become the new Brest!" - sung in the song "Get Up, Donbass", which has become the unofficial anthem of the Donbass uprising.



Indeed, Slavyansk has become for Donbass a semblance of the Brest Fortress. It was there that the first serious battle was fought against the Bandera regime, where the first heroes of Donbass appeared, who later became legendary militia commanders. The Slavic operation, which lasted more than two months, drew on itself significant forces of the Ukrainian security forces, which made it possible to hold referendums on the independence of the DPR and LPR and contributed to the process of forming a governing structure for the Donbass republics.

Author: Tikhon Goncharov

https://novorosinform.org/855607

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

Post by blindpig » Wed May 05, 2021 2:03 pm

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As We Remember May 1, 2021, We Must Never Forget May 2, 2014
May 4, 2021
By Fra Hughes, Belfast – May 1, 2021

While workers, trade unionists, socialists and communists all over the world celebrate May 1st as International Workers Day we should pause and reflect on the tragic events that unfolded in Odessa on 2 May 2014.

A day many will never forget. The loss of life. The viciousness of an unprovoked attack and the tragic loss of life will live on the hearts and memories of their loved ones, friends family and comrades of those who perished in a blazing inferno.

This was no tragic accident. It was a premeditated assault, culminating in mass murder.

As yet the biggest crime of all, No one has been held to account.

The dead suffered injustice in life and this continues in death.

Dramatic footage on social media captured the events surrounding the burning down of the Trade Union headquarters building in Odessa where many trade unionists, socialists, communists and Russian speaking Ukrainians were murdered by people who were no trade unionists, not socialists, not communists, not Russian speaking Ukrainians, they were Ukrainian fascists.

The background is simple enough to understand.

From the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 America, the EU and NATI have been involved in the various colour revolutions and democracy movements to promote EU and western-style dominance in the Balkans and countries bordering on the Russian Federation.

Like the domino effect in Latin America, Estonia Latvia Lithuania alongside many other former Soviet Republics have joined NATO and the EU. Many of these pro-democracy movements were nothing more than funded arms of American foreign regime-change programmes.

The Soros Foundation, the State Department, the CIA among others promote support and finance many of the groups which are seen to spearhead calls for regime change.

Ukraine was no different.

In 2014 Ukraine had a democratic leader. This was no dictatorship. There were no claims of voter fraud. The people had spoken. They had elected a pro-Russian President.

America and Victoria Nuland wanted a different outcome.

The vehicle to destabilise the elected government would become the Maidan Square protests.

While the President and the government reflecting the will of the people were seen to favour ties with Russia, its former political ally, the protestors favoured a closer alliance with the EU. The American position was to further support these protests and destabilise the elected government.

It did this by financing the protestors and giving them political cover. The propaganda machine in western media was unleashed.

The protestors attacked the police who were unarmed with petrol bombs and guns. When the police responded they were accused of beating peaceful protests thus demonising the regime.

Some protestors were shot dead and some injured.

There are credible reports that these individuals were targeted and killed by some of the pro-western elements involved in the protest in order to indict the government.

These murders had the desired effect. The manipulation of public opinion in the west to call for the removal of the elected Ukrainian government.

Victoria Nuland claimed in an interview with CNN , the US had invested $5 billion in promoting democracy in the Ukraine. since 1991. Many claim this money helped birth the Maidan movement and financed it.

The Maidan Square had outcomes.

It emboldened, financed and encouraged the extreme right in Ukraine to oust the pro-Russian government through street violence and intimidation. reminiscent of the tactics the Nazis used before coming to power in 1936.

It also mobilized the forces in support of the elected government and called for federalisation to protect Russian speaking Ukrainians in the various oblasts of Ukraine.

The resulting fall of the government led to the breakaway secessionist Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk and saw the Crimea return to mother Russia.

The two breakaway republics had first asked for federalisation within Ukraine. They did not seek independence but a place within Ukraine. They did not support what they viewed correctly as an external state-funded fascist coup sponsored by America and the EU.

The people asked for federalisation what they got was occupation with tanks and fascist volunteers.

The people fought back; they won and gained the independence that had not been sought but was forced upon them in order to protect their homes, families and communities.

In Odessa, on May 2 2014 the scene was set for violence and death,

Around 300 people had gathered at a protest camp near the trade union building in the centre of Odessa.

The people there were protesting in favour of the elected government and against the suspected coup.

That day a march by fascists would see 1200 right-wing thugs including right sector activists and 600 hundred ultra football fans, a violent section of football supporters, descend on central Odessa with the intent of holding a pro-unity march

The people at the camp had been collecting signatures calling for respect towards the Russian speaking Ukrainians and tolerance of communist history and the traditions of pro Russian Ukrainians.

There was violence on the march, two pro-Maidan and four pro federation protestors were shot dead in the skirmishes that followed.

The result of all this violence was a determination by those on the march to attack those at the camp.

After a street confrontations many of the people under attack took refuge in the adjacent Trade Union building.

The camp was burnt down and those taking shelter in the building were first attacked and then cruelly burned to death.

Some it is reported, tried to defend the building from the rooftop.

Online social media shows men with stacks and batons enter the building and systematically attack and beat men and women of all ages severely reportedly going from room to room. Women were reportedly raped and others severely beaten.

They then exited the building and reports followed suggesting the exits were barricaded and the building torched.

As the building burned some appeared on the window ledges in an attempt to escape the flames.

They were reportedly derided and jeered. Some who jumped from the burning inferno it is claimed were savagely beaten as they lay on the ground.

No one has ever been prosecuted with these brutal assaults inside and outside of the building nor indeed the fire itself.

42 people died in the fire.

32 from carbon monoxide poisoning and 10 from jumping from the fire. Some it was claimed were beaten to death.

On the day 48 people died in total 172 were injured 25 critically.

The movement against the coup in Kiev folded after these brutal deaths. The fascists won. They had their coup and now Ukraine is a failed state with two breakaway republics.

Featured image: File Photo

(North Belfast Journal)

https://orinocotribune.com/as-we-rememb ... ay-2-2014/
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Sat May 08, 2021 1:23 pm

May Day in Donetsk
05/08/2021
In the same class system with all proletarians

In the city of Donetsk on these days in May, as well as last year, all public events were banned, allegedly due to the epidemiological situation. However, last year, about 60 thousand people gathered at the Leps concert. This year a concert of the Lyube group was organized. I think there were no less people. So the epidemic for the authorities is basically just an excuse to prevent protests.

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May Day-2021 in Donetsk

On May 1, the Workers' Front of Donbass and the "International Union of Soviet Officers" agreed and held a joint event to celebrate the International Day of Solidarity. In the morning at 9:30, we jointly laid flowers at the monument to the leader of the proletariat. We held a small meeting. Then the flowers were laid by representatives of the Communist Party of the DPR.

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May Day-2021 in Donetsk

After the rally, the Workers' Front of Donbass and the "International Union of Soviet Officers" organized a convoy and drove twice with banners along the central streets of Donetsk. After the race, we visited the Novorossiya Museum, organized in a private house by Gennady Borisovich Lebedev. On the way, we congratulated the organizer of the "International Union of Soviet Officers" Eduard Borisovich Lyubimy on his 90th birthday.

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Motor rally on May Day 2021 in Donetsk
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Museum "Novorossiya" in Donetsk

Residents of Donetsk could be convinced that the Worker May Day is alive!

Nikolay "Old"
Workers Front of Donbass

**************************

Is it possible for Donbass to return to Ukraine?
28.08.2020

From the editor. People continue to die in the Donbass, which means that in assessing the events taking place there, it is difficult to turn away from emotions. This is especially true of situations when the assessments are given by the residents of Donbass themselves. Today we publish one of such assessments - the notes of the Donbass militia, in which he is trying to take stock of the events since 2014. Along with very apt remarks on the current situation, this text also contains some prejudices and extremes inherent in those who went through the crucible of this fratricidal war.

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Commentary of the 1st Secretary of the ROT FRONT Central Committee Viktor Tyulkin.We write a lot and often about the events in Donbass. They talked about the struggle of miners and tractor drivers with the Kiev punishers. We are talking about the work of the Communists and the Workers' Front of Donbass in the people's republics. We welcome the victory of the people over fascism with enthusiasm, at the same time we note with concern the negative phenomena in the DPR and LPR themselves. After high-profile events, referendums and the adoption of constitutions of the republics, after the fighting in 2014, the strange and incomprehensible Minsk agreements followed. Few believe in the prospect of reconciliation and the return of Donbass to Ukraine, since it is practically about reconciliation with the current fascist authorities and the real Bandera. At the same time, changes are taking place in the life of the people's republics. Somehow those volunteers and militias who in 2014 entered into a battle with the Nazis, many people's commanders died from terrorist attacks, more and more officials appear in the leadership of the republics and cities, who spent difficult days not only far from the front, but sometimes on the side of Kiev. Figuratively speaking, there are fewer and fewer nationalities in the republics, and more and more bourgeois arrogance and nomenclature. More and more often, the classic formula is recalled - the proletariat is fighting, and the bourgeoisie is sneaking into power.

Could it be otherwise? What the militias of 2014 fought for and what they can count on. Was their fight in vain? A participant in the hostilities, a representative of the Workers' Front of Donbass with the call sign Nikolai Stary , is thinking about this .
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I recently met an old friend. We worked with him at the same mine, he was a good miner. So to speak, with a miner's character. I came to Donbass when I was young from Ukraine. He built a house here, got married, earned a good pension. Well, when they started shooting in 2014, I packed up and left to stay with my relatives. After a while, I came to visit the house, see how people live here, think about returning to Donbass. He spoke about the fierce hatred of the inhabitants of Ukraine towards the inhabitants of Donbass. (The communists know that there is no universal hatred, but there is vile chauvinistic propaganda, which is pumped into people through the media both in Ukraine and in Russia. - Ed. )He said that in their area half of the male population had been driven out - in every house in the village someone had been lost. Maybe it is so, but I would like to ask: who invited these "lads from the polonini" with weapons in their hands in the Donbass steppe? And from our side, according to official data, about 13 thousand people died, among them more than 200 children. There is blood between us, and it's oh, how long. How to reconcile and with whom, when in Kiev Bandera are still heroes, monuments to Soviet soldiers are demolished and desecrated, none of the punishers who distinguished themselves in Odessa or Donbass are called to account, the law on languages ​​is in effect, and all the participants in the resistance are called terrorists and promise to prosecute?

What happened in Donbass after the Kiev "Maidan"?

After the flight of Pan Yanukovych and his government, the Maidan did not disperse. Broadcast on television throughout the country: in the crowd there is such a well-fed "lad with a polonini" with a gun, a correspondent comes up and asks the question: "Yanukovych fled, your victory, why don't you hand over your weapons?" And in response: "No, we will slit to Donetsk poidemo" . Donbass was on guard.

Self-defense detachments began to be created, weapons, of course, simply did not exist. All the corrupt evil spirits, feeling their guilt before the people, quickly fled, led by the governor, mayors and other pages. Ukraine tried to impose its power, with the same oligarch-governor and corrupt officials. Donbass did not accept them.

Pavel Gubarev was elected the people's governor at the people's gathering-meeting. On April 7, 2014, the Declaration of Sovereignty and the Constitution of the DPR were adopted, which in principle is quite proletarian. And on April 14, 2014, Turchinov signed an order to start the ATO, i.e. armed to the teeth with the Ukrainian oligarchy, the national battalions and the armed forces of Ukraine moved to the unarmed Donbass. To the town of Slavyansk and with. Karlovka "ukry" reached without much resistance. The 25th Airborne Assault Brigade of Ukraine surrendered in front of the city of Slavic people of Donbass without a fight. Some kind of weaponry appeared. By that time, Strelkov entered the town of Slavyansk with 54 armed associates. Things were worse on Karlovka. Armed with small arms taken from the "dill", they tried to stop the Ukrainian army, but self-defense was suppressed with artillery fire and pushed back to the village. Sands. In with. The Sands went through uneven battles due to lack of weapons and food. The defenders retreated to the outskirts of Donetsk. Many volunteers came from Ukraine, Crimea, Russia, etc. Formed battalions "Vostok", "Somalia", hundreds of Cossacks (large formations under the leadership of Bezler). They gave out some kind of field uniform and chevrons "Russian Orthodox Army". "Ukry" began to shout to the whole world that they were fighting the Russian army. Immediately received an order - urgently remove! And they sewed "Battalion Berkut", which they took off after the battles near Ilovaisk. Then - Makeevskaya Don hundred. A series of victories: the Izvarinsky cauldron, where “the ukry fled, abandoning their weapons, to Russia. And there they were ... fed, treated and handed over to Ukraine. Then the battles for Saur-Mogila, the Ilovaiskiy cauldron. After Ilovaisk, the "ukry" fled, leaving behind their weapons. They caught and finished them off near Novoekaterinovka. They fled from Mariupol. Then the movement "Novorossiya" was born, which aimed at the liberation of the entire southeast from the Bandera-fascist scum. With slogans"Novorossia without oligarchs and corruption" , and at that time it was possible with little blood. The movement grew like a snowball, turning into an avalanche, on the shoulders of "ukrov" with the support of the local population. The entire southeast would have been freed. But the Donetsk militia was stopped on September 18, 2014 by the Minsk agreements. And how now to look into the eyes of Kharkiv, Mariupol and Odessans? And many more militias who fought on the side of the DPR, who today do not have the opportunity to return home, do not have the opportunity to get a job and eke out a miserable existence on benefits in hostels.

And after that, the press secretary of the military command of the DPR, Eduard Basurin, in a local TV show, states that the militias went out to protect their families and their homes and the republic has nothing to do with them. The republic, they say, owes them nothing. What does it mean? And who is involved then? Corrupt officials who, besides their own well-being, do not care about anything?

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What's going on in the Donetsk Republic now? Corrupt officials returned from Crimea and Ukraine, who, feeling guilty, fled Donbass in March-April 2014. They saw neither shelling from large-caliber weapons, nor air raids, nor dropping of phosphorus bombs, nor torn children.

I came back from the war in May 2015, I remember the speech of A. Zakharchenko, which said that the returning officials would repent before the people of Donbass. We now feel their "repentance" on our skins. They are taking over. Corruption and lawlessness exceed pre-war levels. They don't want to give deserved status to the militia. How to live? After all, legally, people who take up arms of their own free will are "terrorists." Once Akhmetov, speaking in front of a camera on television, said: who are the militias? Let us drive them away with a filthy broom! And a republic would have taken place without a militia, what would have happened? I think they would arrange the Odessa House of Trade Unions in every city and teach them to sing the anthem of Ukraine at gunpoint (who does not know, they would give them half an hour to learn the words).

Please understand the situation correctly. I, like many others, do not need free travel. But to the wounded and especially the families of the victims, be so kind as to ensure a decent standard of living. And we have an official status so that no one dares to call me and my comrades "terrorists".

I hear people say that during the Great Patriotic War people stood in line to join the militia, and no one demanded money. We also did not go for money and did not even think about it until we introduced contracts in November 2014. Before that, no one even remembered payment. During the Great Patriotic War, they went into battle under the flag "For our Soviet Motherland." What can you write on the flag in 2020, leading people into battle? Or as it was "Everything for the front, everything for the victory." Or is it now more relevant to "Who is the war, and to whom is the mother dear?" As they say, a fish is well caught in troubled waters.

Returning to the question of the heading "Is it possible for Donbass to return to Ukraine or Ukraine to Donbass?", We have to answer that this is from a series of unlikely, almost fabulous. Perhaps, if the Ukrainian proletarians drive out their Bandera scum, and we in Donbass will deal with our bourgeois bastard. Of course, this is almost a fantasy, but after all, dreaming is not harmful, but a common dream, so everything can be, you have to try.

Nikolay Stary, DPR

https://www.rotfront.su/vozmozhno-li-vo ... assa-na-u/

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

Post by blindpig » Thu May 13, 2021 1:54 pm

Not “supporters of federalization”, but Russian Donbass: on the main results of the LPR anniversary
13 May 2021, 7:00

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Photo: FACE

On May 12, the Lugansk People's Republic celebrated its 7th anniversary. In 2014, on this day, the results of the referendum on the independence of the LPR were announced. Many events have happened over the years: war, devastation, restoration of the infrastructure destroyed by shells, attempts to launch the once powerful economy, which was destroyed in the last 30 years, since the Ukrainian “independence” that fell on the heads of the Russian Donbass, restoration of the system of government normalization of the socio-economic situation, the departure of thousands of residents in 2014–2015. from the republic in search of a better life and the return of many in recent years.

How it all began

After the Crimean referendum, the events of the Russian Spring developed rapidly. The return of Tavrida to Russia prompted other Russian regions of Ukraine, and above all the Donbass, to take more active steps. On April 6, almost simultaneously in Lugansk, the protesters took the building of the regional administration of the SBU, in Donetsk - the building of the regional administration, as well as in Kharkov, by the way, too. A few days later, a detachment of militias entered Slavyansk ...

There is a lot in common between the situation in Donetsk and Lugansk, but there are also some peculiarities. If in Donetsk the next day the Donetsk People's Republic was proclaimed, then in Lugansk they have not yet heard of any own republic. Only a week or two after the seizure of the SBU building in the tent camp and on the streets of Lugansk, LPR flags and corresponding symbols began to appear. There is a logical explanation for this.

Firstly, the organization “Donetsk Republic” headed by Andrey Purgin has been operating in Donetsk for several years, which actively promoted the idea of ​​creating the Donetsk Republic long before the events of 2014, at least since the first “Maidan” in 2004. In addition, in recent years in the Donbass, the history of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Republic has been revived, which at one time was forcibly shoved into the Ukrainian SSR. And regional patriotism in Donetsk has always been special, more powerful than in Lugansk.

Secondly, Luhansk is more of an imperial city. He is older than Donetsk, and, accordingly, spent most of his history as part of the Russian Empire. Therefore, the Luhansk people are historically less inclined to independence. They are more focused on a single Russian space and a single large country.

If you look closely at the video and photo chronicles of the events in Donbass in March and early April 2014, you will notice that there was not a single LPR flag in Lugansk, unlike Donetsk, where the DPR flags were used together with Russian ones almost from the very beginning. the beginning of the events of the Donbass uprising.

I remember well how, around the second week of the existence of the tent camp, inscriptions, posters and even painted flags with the symbols of the "Luhansk People's Republic", which were still very different in their variability, began to appear near the building of the Luhansk SBU department seized by the protesters. The people perceived them with good humor, as well as the flags of the Zaporozhye, Kirovograd, Kherson and other "republics" developed by Internet warriors.

Then all this was perceived rather as trolling of the junta, which seized power in Kiev. The Luhansk residents, who massively supported the Russian Spring in Luhansk, were waiting for a return to Russia, following the example of the Crimea.

Referendum as an alternative to the "Crimean scenario"

“The decision to hold a referendum was made on May 5, when the People's Coordination Council of Communities of the Luhansk Region was held in Lugansk, the result of which was the decision to hold a popular referendum. In the evening of the same day, the governor of the Luhansk region, V.D. Bolotov, issued an order No. 6-05 / 05 of 05/05/2014 on holding a referendum and appointing me as the chairman of the CEC, "recalled the first head of the CEC of the LPR, Alexander Malykhin, in an interview with Novorossiya news agency .

Even on the day of this referendum, May 11, 2014, the majority of those who came to the vote were sure that a second referendum would be announced after it - on the LPR's joining Russia. It is no coincidence that there has never been such a turnout as at that referendum in any election before. And most likely it will not be in the future.

We can say that the declaration of independence of the LPR was a forced alternative to the “Crimean scenario”. After all, Crimea was already autonomous within Ukraine, but we were not. And for the "Crimean scenario" we needed the status of autonomy.

In those days, an incredible atmosphere of the holiday of returning to Russia reigned in Lugansk. Yes exactly. For the first time since the collapse of the USSR, people felt that they could decide something, that the voice of the people was not an empty phrase. The example of Crimea was before everyone's eyes, and most believed that Donbass would return to Russia in a similar way. But history, unfortunately, decreed otherwise, and the path to Russia stretched out for many years.

Seven years of statehood formation

Let's try to sum up the results of the seven-year period of the existence of the Lugansk People's Republic. On the one hand, the period is short, but on the other, it is sufficient to retrospectively look at the past years.

The standard of living in the LPR has grown significantly over the past seven years, and even inveterate “all-fledged” and pro-Ukrainian elements admit it. Raising salaries, pensions and social benefits really brought living standards closer to the neighboring Rostov region. And after the announced increase in payments from July 2021 in some areas, salaries may even exceed the average in many regions of Russia.

But there are still a lot of problems, especially in the regions of the republic: the ongoing process of closing mines, which are not only the basis of the life of entire villages and cities, but also directly affect the situation with water resources. It is no coincidence that in the last couple of years many rivers and reservoirs on the territory of the republic have become very shallow.

Incomprehensible gray schemes with working mines also led to big problems in the most important area of ​​the Donbass economy. The creation of the Vostokugol state-owned enterprise made some positive adjustments, but the barbaric use of coal enterprises by past businessmen put the industry on the brink of survival. The same can be said about the situation at the largest LPR enterprise - the Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works. It is no coincidence that information about the strikes in Alchevsk, despite all attempts to silence it, was leaked to the Russian media.

Adopting an economic development program, attracting Russian investments - this is what the economy of the Donbass republics needs first of all. But it all comes down to politics. The future of the republics depends on the political will of the Russian leadership.

The half-million voice of Donbass

On the eve of the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Andrei Turchak said that the new citizens of Russia from the LPR and DPR, whose number has already exceeded half a million, will be able to take part in the elections of the State Duma deputies. In fact, this is a very important decision, because participation in the elections will actually anchor Donbass in the Russian political system. The voice of the inhabitants of the LDNR will be heard at the highest level, and in the republics themselves, at last, the formation of a normal socio-political system will begin. This, in turn, will affect other areas of life, from economics and finance to education and culture.

The visit to Donbass of a high-ranking Russian delegation led by Andrei Turchak and a number of State Duma deputies not only testified to the support of Donbass from Russia at the highest level, but also gave confidence to the residents of the republics in the future.

Residents of Lugansk, like Donetsk, want to be involved in the fate of Russia. And full participation in the elections of deputies of the State Duma is the most important step in this direction.

The main result of the seven years of the republics

Even at the beginning of the formation of the LPR and DPR, it was not customary to talk about the direct participation of Russia in the life of Donbass. Residents of the republics were called either “supporters of the federalization of Ukraine”, then non-national or even Ukrainian “anti-fascists”, under an unspoken ban there was an open demonstration of Russian flags. All this was perceived inside Donbass, to put it mildly, with misunderstanding. Today the situation has changed dramatically.

Almost at all state institutions of the LPR and DPR, the Russian tricolor flies next to the republican flags. Educational programs, from schools to universities, have been fully translated into Russian standards, children are actively exploring their homeland - Russia. The Ukrainian language returned to its historical status as a Little Russian folklore dialect. And what about the adoption of the doctrine of "Russian Donbass", which not only finally determined the vector of development of the republics, but also became a precedent in the process of national revival on a national scale.

It is obvious that in place of the political uncertainty of the future of Donbass, which was observed in the first years of the formation of the republics, today there has come an understanding of the inevitability of the return of Lugansk and Donetsk to Russia. This means that the choice of Donbass is not only not forgotten, but also reliably protected and will certainly be implemented. This is perhaps the main result of the seven years of the LPR and DPR.



Author: Tikhon Goncharov

https://novorosinform.org/859823

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

Post by blindpig » Tue Jun 01, 2021 4:59 pm

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BELARUS – WESTERN MEDIA, EVEN BELLINGCAT, FAILED TO SAVE THE REPUTATION OF NEO-NAZI SOLDIER PROTASEVICH
28/05/2021
Since the arrest of Roman Protasevich in Minsk after the emergency landing of the Ryanair flight he was on, a real battle for his reputation has been launched between Belarus and the West, among other things to know whether or not he fought for the neo-Nazi battalion “Azov” in the Donbass.

On the Russian and Belarusian side, some people quickly pointed out that Roman Protasevich had fought in the neo-Nazi Azov battalion at the beginning of the conflict in Donbass. This was denied by the Western media and even by some Ukrainians, such as Andrey Biletsky, the former commander of the Azov battalion.

On his blog hosted on the Ukraïnskaya Pravda website, Biletsky explains that Protasevich was indeed with the Azov battalion in the Donbass, but allegedly as a “journalist”.

“I will immediately dot all the ‘i’s’. Yes, Roman really fought with Azov and other military units against the occupation of Ukraine. He was with us near Shirokino, where he was wounded. But his weapon as a journalist was not a machine gun, but words,” wrote Biletski.

The problem is that no matter how hard you look on the Internet, you can’t find an article from him about the Donbass war. Rather strange.

Then the cover of the 15th issue of the magazine of the neo-Nazi battalion Azov appeared, on which Protasevich is clearly seen posing in uniform, weapon in hand!

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There was general panic on the Western side, it was absolutely necessary to save the soldier Protasevich by proving that he was not a neo-Nazi mercenary, and to avoid him ending up like Navalny, whose extreme right-wing political positions had caused him to lose his status of political prisoner with Amnesty International (before regaining it after an appropriate change of direction), and his reputation.

For such a difficult assignment, it was Bellingcat and its affiliates such as The Insider (based in Russia) that were put on the case.

It was first Michael Colborne, a Bellingcat ‘journalist’, who launched the ‘save soldier Protasevich’ operation by trying to prove that if he was indeed a member of the neo-Nazi battalion “Azov”, he was only a journalist.


Some speculated that the cover photo was doctored to add Protasevich’s face. But very quickly someone found an archive of the PDF file published on 8 July 2015 on a page of Azov hosted on the social network VK! There is no doubt that the cover is genuine!

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The next day, The Insider tried another approach and published an article claiming that the man in the cover photo was not Protasevich but another soldier, Andrey Snitko, who has since died.

But in the meantime a lot of other photos and videos have come out of the bag, including from Protasevich’s own phone, which prove undeniably that he fought in the neo-Nazi battalion “Azov”.

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We see Protasevich in uniform with the battalion’s chevron, the weapon in his hand and a bunch of magazines for his machine gun in the bullet-proof vest! What a strange outfit for a “journalist”! He can also be seen in a video and photos taken during a parade of the Azov battalion in Mariupol! Since when do journalists march in a military parade ???


At a pro-Belarus event, Protasevich’s own father admitted that his son had fought in the Donbass.


“Cases were filed against my son as early as 2014, when he was on the Donbass territory, fighting alongside the Ukrainian army,” said his father at the time, who of course retracted his statement once his son was arrested in Minsk.

Faced with the rapidly accumulating evidence, The Insider simply deleted the article, but too late. An archive was kept, showing the efforts of this Bellingcat-affiliated ‘media’ to try to whitewash Protasevich.

The final blow came from Protasevich himself. Indeed, in September 2015, he had given an interview to the media outlet Nasha Niva. His head is hidden in the photo illustrating the article but it is not difficult to recognise the photo of Protasevich found in his phone!


In the interview, Protassevitch is referred to as ‘Kim’. He says that he was wounded near Shirokino, which is consistent with other elements of Protasevich’s biography. He also says that he fights in Ukraine because he has Ukrainian ancestors, that he hates communists and Russia as the successor of the USSR, and to “stop Putin’s Russian horde” before they attack Belarus. He even recounts his first fight and his first shot! What a strange journalist he is.

Then comes the classic argument “yes, but they are not all neo-Nazis at Azov”.

Problem: another photo of Protasevich proves that he is indeed a neo-Nazi. In this photo he is clearly seen (on the left) wearing a Sva Stone t-shirt with four swastikas!

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This brand is an active supporter of the neo-Nazi battalions Azov and Right Sector, as can be seen in this poster.

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The brand sells T-shirts with explicit names like “pure blood” or ” perun sekira” (the name of a neo-Nazi music group), as well as “blitzkrieg” waistcoats, or “Romper Stomper” (the name of a film about a neo-Nazi skinhead gang in Melbourne), etc.

Clearly, Roman Protasevich is neither a nice guy who came to bring democracy to Belarus, nor a journalist, but a former fighter of the neo-Nazi battalion ‘Azov”, who adheres to the ideology of this battalion, and wanted to organise a violent Maidan-style coup in his home country. It seems that the West can only recruit neo-Nazis and Islamist terrorists to lead its colour revolutions.

https://www.donbass-insider.com/2021/05 ... otasevich/
"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 » Fri Jul 09, 2021 1:34 pm

Why are children suffering from hunger in Ukraine?

Originally published: Donbass-Insider by Pavel Volkov (July 8, 2021 ) | - Posted Jul 09, 2021

The UN has raised the alarm about the growing number of people (including children) suffering from hunger around the world due to the coronavirus and the economic crisis, while Ukraine exports agricultural products, depriving its already poor population of access to relatively cheap domestic food.

To which level are children suffering from hunger in Ukraine?

Experts from the UN’s World Food Programme say that by 2021, 250 million people on the planet could be suffering from hunger. And about one billion people do not have enough food for normal development. In 2020, 7 million people died of hunger.

It turns out that in the 21st century, when technology allows us to send tourists into space and use high-speed internet, one in seven or eight people on Earth cannot feed themselves properly. What is most interesting is that more people are suffering from hunger in the agriculturally developed countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, countries that could have enough food for everyone. So why don’t the people who produce the food have access to it?

Ukraine is not on the list of countries with the highest malnutrition rates. But the UN hunger map shows that Ukraine has 4.6 million people (about 10% of the population) with insufficient food intake. They are not as hungry as Somalia and Zimbabwe, but they do not have enough food to live a normal life and develop. Particularly appalling is the fact that among Ukrainian children under the age of 5, 22.9% are chronically malnourished and 8.2% are acutely malnourished. According to 2019 data, 21.3% of children under 5 were stunted due to malnutrition, 6.9% were exhausted and 5.6% were overweight, also due to poor nutrition. And this in the “agrarian superpower” with rich black soil and almost 80% of arable land.

Experts gathered with the participation of the Ukrainian Grain Association, the Ukrainian Chemists Association, the “Ukrmasloprom” Association, the Ukrainian Metallurgists Federation and the Economic Discussion Club (EDK), calculated that for 2019, the average daily diet of Ukrainian citizens has decreased to 2700 kcal, which is very close to the maximum permissible indicator of a healthy lifestyle of 2500 kcal.

Milk is consumed by only 52% of the population, fishery products by 59%, meat products by 66% and fruit by 64%. The caloric intake at the limit of the norm is mainly obtained from cultivated plants: bread, potatoes, vegetables, vegetable oil. Although, according to the results of a study conducted by the international research company Ipsos on the initiative of Danone, Ukrainian adults still consume almost half as many vegetables as the recommended norm, the amount of potatoes in the diet is increasing (135.7 kg per year in 2019 compared to 128.9 kg in 2010). Flour products are consumed in excess, but still less than before (97.6 kg in 2019 compared to 111.3 kg in 2010). The consumption of sugar, milk, eggs, fish and oil has decreased in recent years. The Ukrainian Livestock Breeders’ Association said that over the past five years, per capita meat consumption has fallen by more than 30%. Of the already scarce meat products, about 20% are sausages of dubious quality.

Ukraine is supplied with food, but citizens are not

Ukraine ranks 54th in the 2020 Global Food Security Index (GFSI), which assesses the availability, accessibility, quality and safety of food. It is stated that this poor ranking is due to the lack of government commitments to people’s access to food, whereas major European countries have such commitments and they are working.

This is true, but the truth is different from the Truth in that it is one-sided. The Ukrainian state does not really ensure food security for its citizens, who survive as best they can. However, access is not the same. There is a lot of food in the shops and it is not sold by coupons. So the problem is the lack of money to buy it. Indeed, according to a recent survey by the CMMS, the financial situation of the families of 54.4% of Ukrainian citizens has deteriorated over the past two years. This is due to rising utility rates (91.5% of respondents), rising food prices (90.6% of respondents), falling incomes (35.4%) and loss of employment (31.9%). The monthly food expenditure of Ukrainian households exceeds half of the family budget. And note that there is not enough food even for a full meal.

Furthermore, GFSI data indicates that Ukraine’s food security scored 98.4 out of 100.

So it is not a question of a shortage of food, but the fact that production is in the hands of individuals, including foreign companies, and is exported to the West. Ukrainians do not eat much food produced in Ukraine. They have to buy expensive foreign food. And as the standard of living decreases, they buy less and less.

We don’t have to go far to find examples. According to the State Statistics Service, in 2020, meat production in Ukraine decreased by 1.1%, and pork imports were 6 times higher than exports. Based on the results of 2019-2020. According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, Ukraine has become the world’s second largest exporter of barley, fourth largest of corn and fifth largest of wheat. Ukraine exported 21.1 million tonnes of wheat. And it imported (from July to January of the current season) 14.5 thousand tons–7 times more than last year. The question is why buy from abroad in foreign currency, when our own products are abundant. Because the one who sells it is not the one who buys it. Farm owners are interested in profits, not in the food security of Ukrainian citizens. They are not interested in selling grain on the domestic market in hryvnia, if it can be exported, say, to Europe for foreign currency and leave the profits in offshore accounts.

Despite the risks of the coronavirus, despite calls from the All-Ukrainian Bakers’ Association and the country’s Millers’ Association to limit grain exports, the government has not done so. We won’t eat it, but we will export it! At the same time, in the first half of 2020, Ukraine purchased $1.594 billion worth of agricultural products from the European Union alone. The main suppliers of agricultural products to Ukraine are Poland, Germany, Turkey, Italy and the USA. It is understandable why, in a country with a developed agrarian sector and a tradition of wheat cultivation, the cost of bread is constantly rising.

Ukraine is not Somalia, but it can dig without limit

The UN blames institutions, lack of democracy, poor corporate social responsibility in Ukraine, everything but the economic system itself, in which the direct producers of goods are alienated from the use of those goods, in which food is produced not so that children don’t starve, but so that someone makes a profit. Given that hunger does not exist in Western countries, one might indeed be tempted to think that this is about democracy, an ‘investment climate’ and ‘transparent rules’ for business. In reality, the food available to the majority of people in rich capitalist countries is the result of their plundering of poorer countries, the late entry into the capitalist system of former colonies or former members of the Soviet Union.

And agribusiness, which exports abroad what it produces at home, is directly involved in this theft. Logic and common sense can explain why Ukraine buys bananas and pineapples, but the reason why the world’s largest grain producer buys them abroad can only be explained by the fact that the grain grown by Ukrainian agribusinesses does not belong to them, but to the owners of the agribusinesses, many of whom have never seen a field in their lives.

The UN, on the other hand, tries to treat the symptoms without noticing the source of the disease. Last year, for example, the World Food Programme raised $1.6 billion to help the hungry. But that’s a microscopic amount of money when the Davos WEF reports that the richest 1% have more than the other 7 billion people, that the wealth of the world’s billionaires in 2021 is $13.08 trillion, and that’s $5.08 trillion, or 64%, more than in 2020. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, alone has $177 billion, Elon Musk $126.4 billion and Bernard Arnault (Louis Vuitton) $150 billion. Yes, there are Bezos and Musk, but half of Ukraine’s oligarchs own as much as the UN’s global collection. Akhmetov and Pinchuk, Poroshenko and Kolomoysky and their ilk could have easily solved the problem on a global scale, and it is ridiculous to even talk about it on the Ukrainian level.

Two conclusions follow from all this for Ukraine: one bad and one good. The bad conclusion is that the structure of the economy in Ukraine is that of a plundered colonial-type country where 30% of children under 5 years of age go hungry. The good conclusion is that, although the structure of the Ukrainian economy is very similar to that of the economies of Somali and Cote d’Ivoire, the looting (in the food sector) is still much less than in those wonderful countries. But the sale of agricultural land to foreign companies, which will be open from 2024, may well bring Ukraine gradually closer to the number of countries for which the UN collects humanitarian food aid. This is good business, because the aid collected is worth far less than the resources, food and money extracted from Ukraine for the benefit of the West.

It is clear that it is technically possible to feed everyone now, even without increasing the productivity of the agricultural sector. Technically, it is possible to feed everyone, even without democracy and without an investment climate. But in fact you can’t, because there is no power that would force the 1% of the population to share with the other 99%.

Translator’s note: What we are witnessing in Ukraine at the moment corresponds perfectly with the predictions I made in a 2019 article about the lifting of the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land in Ukraine. The agricultural economic model being promoted in Ukraine is favoring famines like those seen in some African countries, and unfortunately this will only get worse.

Source : Ukraina.ru

Translation by Donbass Insider

https://mronline.org/2021/07/09/why-are ... n-ukraine/#

The benefits of being the West's proxy and cannon-fodder just get better and better...
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:59 pm

Pensioners in Ukraine will have to rely only on themselves
09.09.2021
Soon we will start saving money for retirement
Already today Ukrainians should take care of their old age and save money, and not rely on a pension from the state. This idea was expressed on the air of the Ukraine 24 TV channel by ex-Minister of Economy, Adviser to the Head of the President's Office Tymofiy Mylovanov . In a tongue-tied and confused manner, the former minister drew attention to the fact that the pension reform, designed in the end to make life easier for Ukrainian pensioners, will drag on for "many years." The time is not far off when such an attitude towards the elderly will become the norm for Russia as well.
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“A person who does not want to deceive himself has understood over these 30 years that he must rely on himself. Also, the state of Ukraine should rely on itself. For every person and family, it is desirable that the state become better, it is desirable that the pension reform be done. And over time it will be done. But due to the demographic problem, this will not be done in a year or two - it will be in many years. Therefore, each person should rely on himself and save and store at least 3-5%, ”said Milovanov.

The official urged Ukrainians to "be responsible, if there is such an opportunity - to accumulate and rely on themselves."
In August, another prominent civil servant, the current Minister of Finance Sergei Marchenko , noted in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine that Ukrainians should not rely on a pension from the state at all. If a citizen does not save money in non-state pension funds, then after years he will not have any pension at all.
“I shouldn't expect to retire at forty under the current conditions. Then there are two options - either I myself am looking for opportunities and save them through NPFs, or conditions for such savings are created for all citizens. This will entail fiscal losses to the budget, and everyone should understand this, ”the minister said.

Fiscal budget losses are, of course, a good reason to deprive pensioners of a decent attitude.

“There is a lot of skepticism that, they say, we are going against the tide, the accumulation system has shown its ineffectiveness. This is not true. A solidary pension should be combined with a funded pension. If you do not have savings in NPFs, you should not count on a pension at all, ”Marchenko said.

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The fashionable system of non-state pension funds may become the main one in Russia as well. A number of experts believe that the pension reform is not enough, and the state will continue to cut spending on citizens who have completed their career.
“By 2030, the pension will turn into a begging benefit,” says economist and financial analyst Vitaly Kalugin .

Let's see if Russia will endure until 2030.

All links to Ukrainian resources in this article are available through VPN services.

https://www.rotfront.su/pensioneram-na- ... tsya-rass/

Google Translator

This a model being emulated by capitalist governments everywhere as well as they are able. It is their 'gold standard' that the state should not benefit the masses in any way, let them buy or suck wind.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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