Soviet Spetnaz, er, "Russian Patriots" Sieze Ukrainian Police Station

[Nickdfresh]

Armed men seize eastern Ukraine police station
Associated Press
By PETER LEONARD 42 minutes ago
http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/0lVojigWg.G3.RMItZRRzw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTYzNDtweW9mZj0wO3E9Nz U7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/bf98cb705f6a230e510f6a706700a1d5.jpg
Armed pro-Russian activists occupy the police station carrying riot shields as people watch on, in the eastern Ukraine town of Slovyansk on Saturday, April 12, 2014. Pro-Moscow protesters have seized a number of government buildings in the east over the past week, undermining the authority of the interim government in the capital, Kiev. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Several dozen armed men seized a police station in a city in eastern Ukraine and hoisted the Russian flag above the building Saturday as tensions in the country's Russian-speaking regions intensify.

The city of Slovyansk is about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of the regional center, Donetsk, where pro-Russian protesters have occupied a government building for nearly a week.

About 20 men in balaclavas armed with automatic rifles and pistols were guarding the entrance to the police station in the city of about 120,000 people, and another 20 were believed to be inside. They wore St. George's ribbons, which have become a symbol of pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine. The ribbons were originally associated with the Soviet Union's victory in World War II.

Eastern Ukraine, which has a large Russian-speaking population, has seen waves of protests since Kremlin-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in late February. The protesters allege that the authorities who took over are nationalists and "fascists" who aim to suppress the ethnic Russians in Ukraine.

The predominantly ethnic Russian region of Crimea voted in a referendum last month to split off from Ukraine and was subsequently annexed by Russia in moves that West has denounced as illegitimate.

A masked guard in Slovyansk, who gave his name only as Sergei, told The Associated Press they have "only one demand: a referendum and joining Russia."

The man said they seized the building because they wanted to protect it from radical nationalists from western Ukraine and "the junta who seized power in Kiev."

"We don't want to be slaves of America and the West," he said. "We want to live with Russia."

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the attackers' goal was to seize arms from the police station. They said there were about 40 automatic rifles and 400 pistols as well as ammunition inside.

A video from the scene saw one man carrying a sniper rifle. An AP reporter saw another man loading the magazine of a pistol at the police station.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov pledged a "very tough response" to the seizure while local media reported special forces dispatched to the area.

Local sympathizers brought tires to the police station to start building barricades.

Gunshots rang out in the background in a video from the scene after an armed man shouted to a cameraman to stop recording. No casualties were immediately reported.

An Associated Press crew saw about 10 men wearing camouflage and carrying automatic rifles at the entrance to the town late Saturday afternoon. The men were building a barricade with tires.

The Kiev authorities and the United States have accused Russia of fomenting the unrest in the east and seeking to use it as a pretext for sending in troops. Russia has massed forces in areas near the Ukrainian border.

But Mayor Nelya Shtepa told the AP that she held talks with the protesters and said they were local residents, not Russians.
View gallery
Armed pro-Russian activists occupy the police station …
Armed pro-Russian activists occupy the police station in the eastern Ukrainian town of Slovyansk car …

"They told me: 'We don't have anything against you,' " she said, adding that the men said they "want to be heard, want a dialogue with authorities in Kiev."

Protesters, who have held the administration building in Donetsk since Sunday, initially called for a referendum on secession but later reduced the demand to a vote on autonomy within Ukraine with the possibility of holding another later on whether to join Russia.

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday warned the Ukrainian government against using force against protesters, saying that such action would derail the talks on settling the crisis between the United States, the European Union, Russia and Ukraine set for next week, as well as any other diplomatic efforts. It lashed out at the U.S. warning to slap more sanctions on Russia in case of an escalation of the conflict, saying that "an escalation is only and exclusively possible if Kiev dares to do so, relying on massive support of the U.S. and the EU."

___

Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this report from Kiev.

LINK (http://news.yahoo.com/armed-men-seize-eastern-ukraine-police-station-094705540.html)

[vandeleur]

Been reading on this on the bbc news and I know the rhetoric and its the modern sudetenland is calming down in europe this is still one headcase with a rifle away from going tits up ( a technical term)

[katina]

Armed, pro-Russian separatists lay siege to Donetsk Oblast; at least two dead

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/armed-pro-russian-separatists-lay-siege-to-donetsk-oblast-as-ukrainian-government-struggles-to-combat-343288.html

DONETSK, Ukraine -- Amid reports of casualties on both sides as Ukrainian forces battle pro-Russian militias in Sloviansk, other heavily armed separatists in military uniforms continued to seize or attempt to take over other Ukrainian government buildings or strategic locations in Donetsk Oblast, home to ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and 10 percent of Ukraine's population.

At least two men were killed in clashes between Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists with several reportedly injured, although details were scant.

Here's what we know about each city on April 13:

Donetsk

Pro-Russian separatists control the oblast government center and the oblast Interior Ministry. There was little visible presence of Ukrainian police or military in Donetsk and repeated attempts to reach people working for Donetsk Oblast governor Serhiy Taruta today were unsuccessful.

Mariupol

In Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast's second largest city, Novosti Donbassa reported that several hundred separatists seized the local city administration building, citing eyewitnesses. The seizure occurred during a rally of demonstrators who favor secession from Ukraine and formation of the independent People's Republic of Donetsk.

According to http://www.0629.com.ua, Mariupol city news website, and Novost.dn.ua, a regional news website, around 1,000 local separatists have seized the city council building in Mariupol. Here are their combined reports:

As separatists stormed the building, Ukrainian flags were taken down and the Russian flag and the flag of so-called Donetsk Republic were put up instead. A police cordon had to step back afar getting pushed backed by the crowd. Unidentified people in masks stormed the building, broke the windows and got inside.

A huge barricade is being built in front of the building. Protesters use everything they can find to build the barricade – men take concrete slabs from the sidewalk, others bring furniture from the administration building.

Police forces did not do anything. As the barricade was being finished, women protected the entrance. Meanwhile, new people’s deputies were being selected from the crowd. A huge poster over the building’s central entrance reads “People’s Republic of Donetsk.” Rally participants want help from Russia.

Later in the afternoon, unidentified people approached the building and said "fascism won't make it through" and broke out windows. While protesters moved away from city administration building in Mariupol, only some 100 stayed.

Sloviansk

Armed pro-Russian separatists still held the police headquarters and local Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) headquarters in Sloviansk. They also controlled the city's entrances through roadside checkpoints on roads leading from major cities. Separatists burn trees and tires on the roads to make the smoke curtain designed to make the city more difficult to attack.

Separatists inside were talking with journalists, and one claimed to the Kyiv Post that numerous casualties took place in a battle between Ukrainian police and pro-Russian separatists outside the city, possibly at one of the roadside checkpoints. But that information could not be confirmed.

Interior Ministry Arsen Avakov said that one Ukrainian state security officer was killed and five others were wounded on the side of government forces in an "anti-terrorist" operation in Sloviansk, but the separatists told the Kyiv Post that the confrontation did not take place in the city or at the police station.

Ukrainian military helicopters were flying over the area. The separatists are protected by some 1,000 pro-Russian demonstrators and roadside checkpoints.

Yenakievo

Pro-Russian separatists were holding rallies, but thus far only the local city administration building has been seized, according to the Kyiv Post journalist on the scene. The mayor of Yenakievo came to the city council building and wavered on which side that he is on when questioned by the Kyiv Post. The Donetsk Republic separatist flag is flying over the administration headquarters.

Kramatorsk

After a shootout, pro-Russian armed separatists seized the police station and reportedly also have control for the local city administration building and the local airport.

To some, video in Kramatorsk proves involvement of Russian military

People are closely studying the video of the pro-Russian raid on the Kramatorsk police station, looking for clues of Russian military or special forces involvement -- and finding it.

Adrian Karatnycky, a Ukrainian analyst who writes frequent commentaries on events in Ukraine, reached these conclusions after watching the video: "First, organized (Russian) spetsnaz teams enter-- guns blazing. They are followed by organized bands of less well armed 'titushky' and these are followed by local protesters -- mainly poor, some ideological-- (many of whom are reportedly encouraged with payments of $50 for participation in protests. Phase one and two of such a takeover is chillingly recorded in this video. This is a planned, military and paramilitary operation. In the video, it is clear that they were transported into Kramatorsk from outside."

Here's some of the dialogue that creates suspicion of Russian involvement:

Police and other men ask the unformed soldiers: "Where are you from guys?"

The answer came: "The headquarters is taken over by Afghan veterans! By the Afghan Veterans of Kramatorsk city. Guys, we are for the Donetsk Republic! We want it, just as u do guys, we are Afghan veterans. We control the situation here. Come on!" Then shooting in the air begins as the group advances, enters and armed militants guard the entrance.

Militants shout "step back!" and someone replies, "Hey we are with you, we've come with Slava (a with very Russian pronunciation).

The militants reply: "Fine but step back now!! Stay behind the curb." The world "curb" is very Russian, observers have noted, not used often in Ukraine.

Zaporyzhia

According to Hromadske TV's live stream camera operator Taras Bilka: Ukrainian authorities are trying to set up checkpoints to stop the travel of pro-Russian separatist groups in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia oblasts. Thousands of pro-Ukrainians gathered on Zaporizhia's central square to support Ukraine. A rival rally of pro-Russian activists was also being held there. Ukrainian supporters surrounded the smaller group of pro-Russian protesters. The two sides were being separated by police. Buses were expected to take the pro-Russian protesters away. More people from the pro-Ukrainian side came and shouted "shame on you" and "glory to Ukraine."

Editor’s Note: This article has been produced with support from the project www.mymedia.org.ua, financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and implemented by a joint venture between NIRAS and BBC Media Action.The content in this article may not necessarily reflect the views of the Danish government, NIRAS and BBC Action Media.

[Nickdfresh]

It's heating up. Things were calming down, so Vlad Putin decided to send in the commandos to murder people...

[vandeleur]

Its cool, there is a meeting on Thursday at the UN security council about the problem .... 11th meeting is the charm.

[kwame k]

Phew.....good to know cause the UN knows how to handle matters like these :lie:

[vandeleur]

Have a meeting seemingly :D

[kwame k]

A meeting to talk about having a meeting, more likely!

[Nitro Express]

It's heating up. Things were calming down, so Vlad Putin decided to send in the commandos to murder people...

Putin is more interested in destroying the petro dollar so NATO loses it's financing. Without the petro dollar there won't be any financing to keep 1,000 US military bases open and US meddling in the world ends. Nobody in the defense industry wants to get paid in funny money.

[Nitro Express]

Been reading on this on the bbc news and I know the rhetoric and its the modern sudetenland is calming down in europe this is still one headcase with a rifle away from going tits up ( a technical term)

Everyone is involved but the Ukrainians. There's Israeli meddling. US meddling. EU meddling. Russian meddling. I'm not cheering the west on because the west is corrupt. All the Ukrainians will get is austerity and robbed blind. Look at what NATO did to Yugoslavia. Spreading democracy is the biggest fucking lie. It's about getting nations into funny money debt and taking the real assets. Since the money is created from nothing they get the agricultural land and whatever else is of value for free. Quite the scam. Of course the US taxpayer will get the bill for the military operations.

Ah when the smoke clears Russia will get the eastern Ukraine.

[jacksmar]

Who cares?
This isn't 1954.

http://www.kyivpost.com/media/images/2012/09/08/p176ivfhir1plv1lddi1mo9j10od4/content.jpg

[Kristy]

You're so right. It's permanently 1985 around here.

[DrMaddVibe]

There are No Neo-Nazis in Ukraine. And the Obama Administration does not support Fascists

"We are putting our hopes in a new generation of politicians"

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky


Svoboda is a Neo-Nazi Party, Ukraine’s fourth biggest party holding 36 seats out of 450 in parliament.

They’re also part of the Alliance of European National Movements along with the BNP and Jobbik.

Svoboda is supported directly by Washington.

This is Svoboda and the “Right Sector”: the Neo-Nazi group which led the “protest movement” in Ukraine. These Neo-Nazis are armed gunmen.

The BBC headlines read: “We are putting our hopes in a new generation of politicians” amidst reports that an arrest warrant has been issued for the democratically elected president.

Speaker of the Parliament Oleksandr Turchynov who issued the arrest warrant directed against President Viktor Yanukovych stated “We must move towards a national government by Tuesday”. That government, were it to be formed, would be integrated by Svoboda.

Update:

That coalition government has now been formed with Neo-Nazis of the Svoboda and Right Sector parties in control of the Armed Forces, National security, Justice and Education.

While Obama is accusing Russia of interventionism, the US and the EU are supportive of both the terrorist Neo-Nazi militia as well as the Svoboda party. Meanwhile, the media is mum: discussion of EU-US support to Neo-Nazi political formation is a taboo.

The existence of a Neo-Nazi party working in tandem with Brown shirts militia is casually denied. Those who dare raise the issue are accused of propagandizing

Who is Lying? Who is Telling the Truth?

Scroll down to meet the “new generation of politicians” supported and financed by the Obama administration. Six major portfolios are controlled by the Neo-Nazis.

http://i44.tinypic.com/2ez1m3k.jpg
Svoboda’s Oleh Tyahnybok doing their party salute when re-elected their leader.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1444332-Ukraine/page3

http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mccain-meets-oleh-tyahnybok-in-ukraine-2013-12

http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/52af483beab8ea070b43dd72-1200-858/ap91999496228.jpg
John McCain with leader of the Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party (right)

John McCain Oleh Tyahnybok

Ukraine protests - links to the far right? (Reuters)
http://www.channel4.com/media/images/Channel4/c4-news/2013/Dec/16/cain-replace_LRG.jpg
John McCain with leader of the Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party Oleh Tyahnybok. McCain on a “Business Trip” to Kiev (Source Business Insider)


http://www.dojorat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/nuland-in-ukraine.jpg
US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland together Neo Nazi Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok (left)



Neo-Nazis and far-right protesters in Ukraine

“The far-right in Ukraine are acting as the vanguard of a protest movement that is being reported as pro-democracy.


https://libcom.org/files/imagecache/article/images/news/Ukraine.jpg
The situation on the ground is not as simple as pro-EU and trade versus pro-Putin and Russian hegemony in the region.”

Neo-Nazi thugs at the forefront of Ukrainian protests


http://rt.com/files/opinionpost/21/e8/80/00/2.jpg
Russia Today. Ukrainian Neo-Nazi skinheads


http://02varvara.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/reunion-of-ss-and-upa-in-2006-e1269254788460.jpg?w=1000&h=783
Reunion of SS and UPA Nazi collaborators and their supporters in 2006 in the Ukraine. Civilisation Ukrainian-Style: Vandalising the Memorials to the Soldiers of the Anti-Hitler Coalition




http://www.sott.net/image/image/s8/167243/large/Rm4yrSO.jpg
“Here protesters clash with riot police, one carries a homemade shield painted with a white power symbol and the numbers 14 and 88.

These numbers are common neo-Nazi slogans;with 14 standing for David Lane’s slogan (We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children) and 88 as code for HH, or Heil Hitler.”

ukraine flag burning
http://www.sott.net/image/image/s8/167244/large/ihsZio2.jpg
Patriots burn flags, while white power flags are flown throughout the crowd

http://www.sott.net/article/272680-Ukraines-fascist-Neo-Nazi-color-revolution-backed-by-US

Ukrainian Skinheads, The Times, 2006 Rally
http://tundratabloids.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ukraine-nazis-prepare-for-london-olympics.jpg


Neonazis in Kyiv are ready for the battle.

http://orientalreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/60X9Z1r3eqg-300x199.jpg
http://theredphoenix.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/1453385_563265287074825_1492756770_n.jpg/img]
Neo-Nazi thugs at the forefront of Ukrainian protests


Activists in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv wearing uniforms of the former Ukrainian Insurgent Army (known as UPA, from its Ukrainian language initials) marched in a large scale event in the city center today.

http://revolution-news.com/ukrainian-euromaidan-solution-putin-just-another-fascist-political-coup/


[img]http://defendinghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/march_111015_2-2.jpg
http://defendinghistory.com/24818/24818#more-24818


http://gatesofvienna.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/eurosquare2.jpg
http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/12/things-are-not-what-they-seem/

The Svoboda leader also refers to the Nazi Stephan Bandera in the interview: “You must, as Stephan Bandera once said, “reach every Ukrainian” (see below to understand the significance of this statement).

Svoboda’s Oleh Tyahnybok at a ceremony in 2009, celebrating Stephan Bandera, Nazi ally during the WWII, whose organization massacred Jews and Poles, now rehabilitated in Ukraine as “a patriot” and “national hero”.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/svoboda-1-1024x682.jpg
People holding UPA (horizontal red and black) and Svoboda (3 yellow fingers on blue) flags march through Kyiv to the honor of the Nazi ally, Bandera.


http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/svoboda-freedom-ukrainian-nationalist-party.jpg
Svoboda march together with UPA and other nationalists to the memory of Nazi ally, Stepan Bandera, Kyiv 2011.

http://revolution-news.com/ukrainian-euromaidan-solution-putin-just-another-fascist-political-coup/


http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/svoboda2.jpg
October 2011, torchlight procession in Kyiv, devoted to birthday of Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, and also to all OUN-UPA fighters. The march was organised by the ‘Svoboda’ Pan-Ukrainian Association.


http://www.globalresearch.ca/there-are-no-neo-nazis-in-the-ukraine-and-the-obama-administration-does-not-support-fascists/5370269

[ELVIS]

WWIII here we come...


:(

[Nickdfresh]

There are No Neo-Nazis in Ukraine. And the Obama Administration does not support Fascists

...]

Complete horseshit argument spouted directly by the Russian government that belies any actual facts on the ground. Firstly, "Obama" or the United States doesn't really support the Ukraine in general. We done virtually nothing for them other than to try to pressure the Russians through sanctions, and send a few troops and fighters to neighboring NATO nations like Latvia and Poland.

The idea that the Ukrainians are all neo-Nazis is complete bullshit, because NOT ONE SEAT in the Ukrainian government is held by far rightests. If your looking for people acting like Nazis, one might wanna check Hitler's reasons for invading Poland, namely to "save the Volksdeutch" or the German speakers, just Like Vladdy wants to save all the Russian speakers from the nonexistent persecutions. Never mind that it is the Russian separatists of Donetsk that seem to be committing the vast majority or intimidation of the opposition, torture-murders, and abductions, NOT the Ukrainian government...

I find it rather humorous how American "libertarian" news sites are now adopting a completely fascist strongman in Vlad Putin as their cause celeb against the "evil" Obama Administration. Really?

[DrMaddVibe]

Complete horseshit argument spouted directly by the Russian government that belies any actual facts on the ground. Firstly, "Obama" or the United States doesn't really support the Ukraine in general. We done virtually nothing for them other than to try to pressure the Russians through sanctions, and send a few troops and fighters to neighboring NATO nations like Latvia and Poland.

The idea that the Ukrainians are all neo-Nazis is complete bullshit, because NOT ONE SEAT in the Ukrainian government is held by far rightests. If your looking for people acting like Nazis, one might wanna check Hitler's reasons for invading Poland, namely to "save the Volksdeutch" or the German speakers, just Like Vladdy wants to save all the Russian speakers from the nonexistent persecutions. Never mind that it is the Russian separatists of Donetsk that seem to be committing the vast majority or intimidation of the opposition, torture-murders, and abductions, NOT the Ukrainian government...

I find it rather humorous how American "libertarian" news sites are now adopting a completely fascist strongman in Vlad Putin as their cause celeb against the "evil" Obama Administration. Really?

We have meddled and thanks to our wonderful "free" press here in the US...nobody knows about it. Now, I wonder who said... "National socialist ideas are popular here. …We want a clean nation, not like under Hitler, but a little bit like that."

Here...We're meddling and it's the Obama Administration and the CIA under his watch!

http://www.hangthebankers.com/us-spent-5-billion-to-destabilize-ukraine/

Nobody is saying that they're ALL neo-nazis...you didn't read the article though obviously and see the pictures. The symbol on their shirt is what then? All you need to know is that they are there on the ground and just like in Germany they're gaining traction. Traction that the US backed with its centralized banking. When '29 hit...they wanted Germany to pay their margain call for WWI. WWII was all but a certainty after that. The Nazi party rise through the German political landscape after their failed coup was an effort on multiple fronts. The most important one...the media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y0y-JUsPTU
That's OUR State department doing the speaking.

We sent Lurch McDroopy there and what a job he did!
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2014/03/Caption%20Contest%20Kerry%20Lavrov%202_0.jpg
KIEV, Ukraine — In a demonstration of support for Ukraine’s fledgling government and a new swipe at Russia, Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kiev on Tuesday with an offer of $1 billion in an American loan guarantee and pledges of technical assistance.

Trudging through a damp mist, Mr. Kerry stopped first for an emotional visit to improvised memorials where protesters were gunned down last month as they voiced opposition to what was then Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin government.

Mr. Kerry placed a lighted candle at one of the shrines, which were draped with flowers and photographs of some of the victims; met with religious leaders; and listened to Ukrainians who beseeched him for help.

“We hope Russian troops will leave Crimea, and we also hope for your assistance,” a Ukrainian woman told Mr. Kerry as he walked along Instytutska Street.

“We are trying very hard,” Mr. Kerry responded. “We hope Russia will respect the election that you have.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/world/europe/secretary-of-state-john-kerry-arriving-in-kiev-offers-1-billion-in-loan-guarantees-to-ukraine.html?_r=0


Wasn't aware that a Canadian website...would be dared called "American" or even "Libertarian"!

As for the links in this post? I guess if you're opposed to them then they're made up, not true or they misspoke.

[ELVIS]

Disgusting...

And the stupid sheeple think we're still the good guys...

It's laughable but to sad...

[Nickdfresh]

We have meddled and thanks to our wonderful "free" press here in the US...nobody knows about it. Now, I wonder who said... "National socialist ideas are popular here. …We want a clean nation, not like under Hitler, but a little bit like that."

Oh right! Of course, the "free press" that reports on NSA spying and other U.S. scandals is giving the evil Obama Admin a free pass on this one? Eh?


Here...We're meddling and it's the Obama Administration and the CIA under his watch!

http://www.hangthebankers.com/us-spent-5-billion-to-destabilize-ukraine/

"hang the bankers.com" is your source? I question their calculations and most of it is absurd. The Ukrainians have struggled for independence against a Russian gov't that merely sees them as another province for decades. We meddle? Do you have any idea how many Ukrainian politicians end up dying under mysterious circumstances?

THe Ukraine gave up their Soviet era nuclear weapons and transferred them to Russia on Western assurances that we would guarentee their security. We have every right to "meddle" on their behalf rather than watch them get steam rolled by an oil-funded Russian Army...


Nobody is saying that they're ALL neo-nazis...you didn't read the article though obviously and see the pictures. The symbol on their shirt is what then? All you need to know is that they are there on the ground and just like in Germany they're gaining traction. Traction that the US backed with its centralized banking. When '29 hit...they wanted Germany to pay their margain call for WWI. WWII was all but a certainty after that. The Nazi party rise through the German political landscape after their failed coup was an effort on multiple fronts. The most important one...the media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y0y-JUsPTU
That's OUR State department doing the speaking.

We sent Lurch McDroopy there and what a job he did!
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2014/03/Caption%20Contest%20Kerry%20Lavrov%202_0.jpg
KIEV, Ukraine — In a demonstration of support for Ukraine’s fledgling government and a new swipe at Russia, Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kiev on Tuesday with an offer of $1 billion in an American loan guarantee and pledges of technical assistance.

Trudging through a damp mist, Mr. Kerry stopped first for an emotional visit to improvised memorials where protesters were gunned down last month as they voiced opposition to what was then Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin government.

Mr. Kerry placed a lighted candle at one of the shrines, which were draped with flowers and photographs of some of the victims; met with religious leaders; and listened to Ukrainians who beseeched him for help.

“We hope Russian troops will leave Crimea, and we also hope for your assistance,” a Ukrainian woman told Mr. Kerry as he walked along Instytutska Street.

“We are trying very hard,” Mr. Kerry responded. “We hope Russia will respect the election that you have.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/world/europe/secretary-of-state-john-kerry-arriving-in-kiev-offers-1-billion-in-loan-guarantees-to-ukraine.html?_r=0


Wasn't aware that a Canadian website...would be dared called "American" or even "Libertarian"!

As for the links in this post? I guess if you're opposed to them then they're made up, not true or they misspoke.

Oh God? That bastard John Kerry is loaning a democratic gov't money? Ukrainians deposed their shithead, Putin-puppet leader who had a 10% popularity rating and want to look more to the West and that's somehow a sin. The Russian gov't sent in snipers to assist him Kiev and open fire on unarmed people, they shot about 200 of those "Nazis"!


You wanna read on the Ukraine bud, try reading about the "Holomador". The whole thing here is like Germany telling Israel they need to secure Israeli territory with German-speaking Jews!

[Dr. Love]

Anyone remember the presidential debates where Romney was saying that Russia was the big threat and Obama ridiculed him? Everyone accused him of cold war mentality and being stuck in the 80s.

[Satan]

Well, it's not like Mittens was a prophet or anything (despite what some in Utah might one day say about him).

More like Mittens was on the Sheldon Adelson payroll, and the Russian ultra-zionists have made Russia the ultimate goal of their PNAC agenda from the beginning. Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith... all those guys still have a big grudge for what the Soviets did to the "refuseniks" decades ago, and they absolutely hated it when the cold war ended, because they thought Russia got off far too easy. They don't just want the Cold War back, they want to go back to that moment in 1944 when old George Patton - having just defeated old Adolf- wanted to keep the tanks rolling all the way to Moscow.

Obviously that would have been a shitty thing to do, given that Hitler never would have been defeated without the USSR's help. But had Patton got his way, there likely would be no nuclear missiles any where on the planet today, because the arms race(s) that built most of them would have never happened.

The cold war was probably exaggerated as far as any actual danger, apart from a few obvious incidents like the Cuban Missile Crisis. But at least you could look at a map and say, yes there was a real place called the USSR, and yeah, they actually had weapons. As opposed to that mostly fictional set of CIA puppets and phantoms the US has been chasing around the other side of the planet since 9-11-2001.

[Nickdfresh]

Anyone remember the presidential debates where Romney was saying that Russia was the big threat and Obama ridiculed him? Everyone accused him of cold war mentality and being stuck in the 80s.

They're not a big threat to us. Although they still have a lot of nukes hanging around. But when the economy over there flushes down the toilet, a lot of people are gonna be WTF just happened...

The Russians have a front line rapid deployment force of about 80,000 or so of sorts in their Army, then the rest are sodomized conscripts. They'd get their ass handed to them by virtually any NATO nation bigger than Luxemburg...

[DrMaddVibe]

Anyone remember the presidential debates where Romney was saying that Russia was the big threat and Obama ridiculed him? Everyone accused him of cold war mentality and being stuck in the 80s.

Or that Chrysler and GM would open plants in China as well? Yeah. Not so much as him being clairvoyant. Obama is just that dumb. Those that are still carrying the water for him have it worse!

http://www.toledoblade.com/Automotive/2014/01/30/Jeep-plans-to-build-version-of-Cherokee-at-China-plant.html

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/05/08/gm-build-cadillac-plant-china/

He reminded me of that lying kid running for class president. Stood on the stage and told us all how if he'd get the job we'd have pizza every day, balloons in the hallways and longer recesses. Won in a landslide and the next week told everyone that would listen how the lunch lady said pizza every day isn't nutritious, teachers said balloons cost money and the principal told him that school was for learning not for playing. Everyone already knew the kid was a big fat liar, still he got the job. Just like Obama. Had zero qualifications for the job. Just told people what they wanted to hear so they could project whatever they wanted on him. He's a liar too.

[DrMaddVibe]

Oh right! Of course, the "free press" that reports on NSA spying and other U.S. scandals is giving the evil Obama Admin a free pass on this one? Eh?



"hang the bankers.com" is your source? I question their calculations and most of it is absurd. The Ukrainians have struggled for independence against a Russian gov't that merely sees them as another province for decades. We meddle? Do you have any idea how many Ukrainian politicians end up dying under mysterious circumstances?

THe Ukraine gave up their Soviet era nuclear weapons and transferred them to Russia on Western assurances that we would guarentee their security. We have every right to "meddle" on their behalf rather than watch them get steam rolled by an oil-funded Russian Army...



Oh God? That bastard John Kerry is loaning a democratic gov't money? Ukrainians deposed their shithead, Putin-puppet leader who had a 10% popularity rating and want to look more to the West and that's somehow a sin. The Russian gov't sent in snipers to assist him Kiev and open fire on unarmed people, they shot about 200 of those "Nazis"!


You wanna read on the Ukraine bud, try reading about the "Holomador". The whole thing here is like Germany telling Israel they need to secure Israeli territory with German-speaking Jews!


Blah blah blah blah...you're so twisted up you forgot what you said posts ago. Which one is it? Are we or are we not supporting the crapfest over there?

As for "reading up on Ukraine"...you don't even know what's going on.

[Dr. Love]

Well, it's not like Mittens was a prophet or anything (despite what some in Utah might one day say about him).

More like Mittens was on the Sheldon Adelson payroll, and the Russian ultra-zionists have made Russia the ultimate goal of their PNAC agenda from the beginning. Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith... all those guys still have a big grudge for what the Soviets did to the "refuseniks" decades ago, and they absolutely hated it when the cold war ended, because they thought Russia got off far too easy. They don't just want the Cold War back, they want to go back to that moment in 1944 when old George Patton - having just defeated old Adolf- wanted to keep the tanks rolling all the way to Moscow.

Obviously that would have been a shitty thing to do, given that Hitler never would have been defeated without the USSR's help. But had Patton got his way, there likely would be no nuclear missiles any where on the planet today, because the arms race(s) that built most of them would have never happened.

The cold war was probably exaggerated as far as any actual danger, apart from a few obvious incidents like the Cuban Missile Crisis. But at least you could look at a map and say, yes there was a real place called the USSR, and yeah, they actually had weapons. As opposed to that mostly fictional set of CIA puppets and phantoms the US has been chasing around the other side of the planet since 9-11-2001.

Oh, my point only was to how dismissive the President was of the Russians. I still think Romney is a turd.

[Dr. Love]

They're not a big threat to us. Although they still have a lot of nukes hanging around. But when the economy over there flushes down the toilet, a lot of people are gonna be WTF just happened...

The Russians have a front line rapid deployment force of about 80,000 or so of sorts in their Army, then the rest are sodomized conscripts. They'd get their ass handed to them by virtually any NATO nation bigger than Luxemburg...

Well, as far as it looks, Putin isn't much worried about the pressure from the US and the west with regard to the Ukraine. Every time he's taken a step it seems like a lot of people believed that Putin wasn't crazy enough to go any further. Seems like he is more emboldened day after day with his approval numbers soaring. You'd think the economic sanctions would hurt, but unless europe stops buying all that gas, I don't know where it will stop. I think he's banking on a lack of appetite in the US and the west for an actual confrontation over it and will push the envelope as far as he can get away with.

That may not be a direct threat to us but it is a threat to stability and our interests around the world.

[DrMaddVibe]

What's REALLY Going On In Odessa, Ukraine
Ukrainian War Crimes Whitewashed by Western Press

After more than 30 people died in a fire in the Ukrainian seaside resort town of Odessa, most of the Western press pretended that no one knows what happened or whose fault it was. For example, see these stories from the Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/ukraine-dead-odessa-building-fire) and BBC (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27259620).
But USA Today reports (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/05/02/ukraine-odessa-fire/8620829/):




Witnesses and journalists reported that as the building burned with people inside, a crowd shouted, “Glory to Ukraine!” and “Death to enemies!” [These are neo-Nazi slogans (http://rt.com/news/155364-ukraine-nazi-division-march/).]

***

[T]he Associated Press reported that the Russian sympathizers took refuge in the trade union hall on Kulikovo Field Square after government supporters rousted their encampment outside and then burned their tents. Police said the building was set on fire with Molotov cocktails.

At 5 seconds into this 15-second video, you can see a Molotov cocktail being thrown at the building in which the Russian sympathizers:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_atKvJX1y4w
<center>
</center>Former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter Robert Parry (http://consortiumnews.com/2014/05/03/will-ukraine-be-nyts-waterloo/) points out how bad New York Times coverage (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/world/europe/ukraine.html?_r=0) of the Odessa attack has been:




On Saturday, for instance, the dominant story from Ukraine was the killing of more than 30 ethnic Russian protesters by fire and smoke inhalation in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odessa. They had taken refuge in a union building after a clash with a pro-Kiev mob which reportedly included right-wing thugs.

Even the neocon-dominated Washington Post led its Saturday editions with the story of “Dozens killed in Ukraine fighting” and described the fatal incident this way: “Friday evening, a pro-Ukrainian mob attacked a camp where the pro-Russian supporters had pitched tents, forcing them to flee to a nearby government building, a witness said. The mob then threw gasoline bombs into the building. Police said 31 people were killed when they choked on smoke or jumped out of windows.

“Asked who had thrown the Molotov cocktails, pro-Ukrainian activist Diana Berg said, ‘Our people – but now they are helping them [the survivors] escape the building.’” [Here's the Post story (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ukraine-army-launches-assault-on-rebel-stronghold/2014/05/02/b1c589e8-be8f-43a1-9927-13310c24b653_story.html).]

By contrast, here is how the New York Times reported the event in its Saturday editions as part of a story by C.J. Chivers and Noah Sneider focused on the successes of the pro-coup armed forces in overrunning some eastern Ukrainian rebel positions.

“Violence also erupted Friday in the previously calmer port city of Odessa, on the Black Sea, where dozens of people died in a fire related to clashes that broke out between protesters holding a march for Ukrainian unity and pro-Russian activists. The fighting itself left four dead and 12 wounded, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said. Ukrainian and Russian news media showed images of buildings and debris burning, fire bombs being thrown and men armed with pistols.”

Note how the Times evades placing any responsibility on the pro-coup mob for trying to burn the “pro-Russian activists” out of a building, an act that resulted in the highest single-day death toll since the actual coup which left more than 80 people dead from Feb. 20-22. From reading the Times, you wouldn’t know who had died in the building and who had set the fire.

Billmon comments (https://twitter.com/billmon1/status/462422859353448448):




Not even “atrocities were commited,” just a fire “related” to clashes that “broke out.” Immaculate conception theory of war crimes.

Postscript: While the Western press tries to paint the percentage of neo Nazis within the new Ukrainian government as small, the leader of the “protests” which ousted the previous president of Ukraine is a neo Nazi and follower of WWII Nazi sympathizer Stepan Bandera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andriy_Parubiy), and neo Nazis are largely in control (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/us-backing-neo-nazis-ukraine) of the new government.
Whatever You Think of Putin, You Should Understand How Russia Thinks

Even if you think Putin is a tyrant with ambitions to build an imperial Russia, you can’t understand the war in Ukraine (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-03/we-are-essentially-war-ukraine-admits-after-dozens-killed) unless you understand how Russians think.
20 million (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties_of_the_Soviet_Union) Russians died fighting the Nazis in World War II.
Neo Nazis just killed at least 42 Russians when they firebombed a building in Odessa, Ukraine (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/05/americas-immaculate-conception-theory-war-crimes.html) that the Russians had taken shelter in.
Agence France-Presse reports (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/news.yahoo.com/russia-adopts-war-time-rhetoric-showdown-ukraine-202115424.html;_ylt=AwrTWf2Oh2VTzQ0AAsTQtDMD):




Russian official rhetoric has increasingly compared events in Ukraine to the darkest crimes of Nazi Germany, ahead of next week’s anniversary of Soviet victory in World War II.

***

The fire in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa that claimed at least 42 lives on Friday has been swiftly dubbed a new “reprisal raid” and even the “new Khatyn,” a reference to the Belarussian village where 149 residents were burned alive by the Nazis in 1943.

***

The Khatyn massacre went down in Russian history books as one of the Nazis’ most brutal “reprisal raids,” a term the Kremlin has now adopted to describe the offensive Kiev authorities have launched against pro-Moscow rebels in the flashpoint town of Slavyansk.

***

“What has happened, especially in the Trade Unions House, brings to mind the crimes of the Nazis during World War II,” pro-Kremlin lawmaker Leonid Slutsky told reporters in Moscow, referring to the Odessa fire.

“These are the new Khatyn and Auschwitz.”

A senior official in the pro-Kremlin government of Crimea, Ukraine’s peninsula taken over by Russia in March, chimed in.

“The last time people were burned alive in Ukraine was by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War,” Rustam Temirgaliyev said on Facebook, referring to the Russian name for World War II.

***

Russia’s losses and sacrifice during World War II remain a hugely sensitive subject in the country ….

To the extent that the U.S. and Nato are backing the right-wing Ukrainians, we are creating conditions that the Russian leadership – rightly or wrongly – considers an existential threat.

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-05-04/whats-really-going-odessa-ukraine

[Nitro Express]

The bullshit going on in the Ukraine is for one reason and one reason only. To pull Russia into a war with NATO. Russia is too smart to take the bait. Meanwhile a lot of good people in the Ukraine suffer the bullshit. Good going Victoria Nuland. Also for you dual Israeli citizens from the US and Canada in Right Sector. It ain't working. Go back to Israel. I suggest you zionist nazis tear that wall down there. Walls never work.

[DrMaddVibe]

CIA, FBI agents 'advising Ukraine government' report

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Berlin (AFP) - Dozens of specialists from the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are advising the Ukrainian government, a German newspaper reported Sunday.
Citing unnamed German security sources, Bild am Sonntag said the CIA and FBI agents were helping Kiev end the rebellion in the east of Ukraine and set up a functioning security structure.
It said the agents were not directly involved in fighting with pro-Russian militants. "Their activity is limited to the capital Kiev," the paper said.
The FBI agents are also helping the Kiev government fight organised crime, it added.
A group specialised in financial matters is to help trace the wealth of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, according to the report.
The interim Kiev government took charge in late February after months of street protests forced the ouster of Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych.
Fierce battles between Ukrainian soldiers and pro-Russian separatists in the country's east have left more than 50 people dead in recent days.
Last month the White House confirmed that CIA director John Brennan had visited Kiev as part of a routine trip to Europe, in a move condemned by Moscow.

[Nickdfresh]

Blah blah blah blah...you're so twisted up you forgot what you said posts ago. Which one is it? Are we or are we not supporting the crapfest over there?

I would have to know which fucking crapfest you're talking about. The one where you blow Putin out of your mindless Obama hatred after sucking Bush's dick on this board for nearly a decade? The one where you're implying everything is an evil CIA plot? Fuck dude, I'M THE ONE TALKING OUT OF TWO SIDES OF MY MOUTH???? FFS!!! I know, Amerika is evil now we have a black Demo"rat" as a president, right?


As for "reading up on Ukraine"...you don't even know what's going on.

Right! Let me get on the mindless bankerhate.com site and catchup!

Why don't you and Elvis play smooshie cookie to the sounds of Alex Jones grunting overnight?

[Nickdfresh]

Well, as far as it looks, Putin isn't much worried about the pressure from the US and the west with regard to the Ukraine.

Actually, you're wrong. They're going after his secret bank accounts now and his Nuremberg Rally popularity with the unwashed Russian masses is beginning to fade with the economy...


Every time he's taken a step it seems like a lot of people believed that Putin wasn't crazy enough to go any further. Seems like he is more emboldened day after day with his approval numbers soaring. You'd think the economic sanctions would hurt, but unless europe stops buying all that gas, I don't know where it will stop. I think he's banking on a lack of appetite in the US and the west for an actual confrontation over it and will push the envelope as far as he can get away with.

That may not be a direct threat to us but it is a threat to stability and our interests around the world.


His approval numbers are declining. Putin got away with Crimea because the majority there actually did support him and he infiltrated the nation with Spetsnaz to augment the already large Russian military presence to gradually marginalize the Ukrainian military there in a relatively bloodless coup. It's different now, Kiev is fighting back. And a Russian invasion would mean a prolonged, bloody war with NATO ultimately arming the Ukrainians...

[Nickdfresh]

What's REALLY Going On In Odessa, Ukraine
Ukrainian War Crimes Whitewashed by Western Press

After more than 30 people died in a fire in the Ukrainian seaside resort town of Odessa, most of the Western press pretended that no one knows what happened or whose fault it was. For example, see these stories from the Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/ukraine-dead-odessa-building-fire) and BBC (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27259620).
But USA Today reports (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/05/02/ukraine-odessa-fire/8620829/):[INDENT]

...


Oh look, Dr. Assclown is painting the Ukrainians as evil "Nazis" again based on selectively cherry-picked information and a riot in which both sides were asshole antagonists and purposefully ignoring how the "pro-Russian" armed militias (sometimes called terrorists in other parts of the world) have abducted Ukrainian journalists and torture-murdered them in Eastern Ukraine, and abducted mostly German Euro military observers and have generally acted as a lawless rabble intimidating any opposition...

[Dr. Love]

Actually, you're wrong. They're going after his secret bank accounts now and his Nuremberg Rally popularity with the unwashed Russian masses is beginning to fade with the economy...




His approval numbers are declining. Putin got away with Crimea because the majority there actually did support him and he infiltrated the nation with Spetsnaz to augment the already large Russian military presence to gradually marginalize the Ukrainian military there in a relatively bloodless coup. It's different now, Kiev is fighting back. And a Russian invasion would mean a prolonged, bloody war with NATO ultimately arming the Ukrainians...

We'll see what happens

[DrMaddVibe]

Oh look, Dr. Assclown is painting the Ukrainians as evil "Nazis" again based on selectively cherry-picked information and a riot in which both sides were asshole antagonists and purposefully ignoring how the "pro-Russian" armed militias (sometimes called terrorists in other parts of the world) have abducted Ukrainian journalists and torture-murdered them in Eastern Ukraine, and abducted mostly German Euro military observers and have generally acted as a lawless rabble intimidating any opposition...At least the CIA and FBI on the ground now will no doubt get to the bottom of it and satisfy the media.

[ELVIS]

And Dr. Assclown should be DrAssClown, Dickforbreath...

[Nickdfresh]

And Dr. Assclown should be DrAssClown, Dickforbreath...

Thanks for the correction, you superstitious and gullible swamp-dwelling mongoloid...

[katina]

Donetsk People's Republic separatists mark Victory Day weekend with new round of killings, abductions

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/donetsk-peoples-republic-separatists-mark-victory-day-weekend-with-new-round-of-killings-abductions-347225.html

The Donetsk People’s Republic marked the May 9 Victory Day with a new wave of violence, terrorism and kidnapping while the self-proclaimed people’s mayor of Sloviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomariov, reportedly vowed to kill Ukrainian soldiers rather than simply take them hostage.

During the celebration of the Victory Day, Ponomaryov said that from now on his militants would “mercilessly kill” Ukrainian soldiers, shedding what he said had been a tacit agreement to not to shoot to kill them. “There will be no talks anymore. The harsher we will treat them, the sooner they start to respect us,” he said.

By the Kyiv Post’s count, at least 19 people are still being held hostages by the Kremlin-backed insurgents in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, out of at least 92 persons captured since April 13.

The number of killed rose to seven in the last week alone, not counting the more than 20 deaths in clashes in Mariupol on May 9 between the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russian insurgents. Mariupol's police chief, Valeriy Andruschuk, was kidnapped by separatists during this conflict.

Most of the abductions took place in Sloviansk, a city of 150,000 people, which became one of the strongest separatist’s centers, although Luhansk Oblast is no less dangerous now after three civilians were killed there.

This Kyiv Post update relies on news reports, primarily from the Donetsk-based news website Novosti Donbassa, Ukraine’s Security Service, the Prosecutor General’s Office and regional police departments for reports.

The following is the list of 92 persons and the details of their cases.

Seven killed:

May 9 – (Two killed, one wounded) – Two cars with bodies of two adults, a wife and a husband, were found on the outskirts of Luhansk. According to the Luhansk Prosecutor’s Office, they were gunned by Kremlin-backed insurgents because they did not stop their cars on the militant’s request. Killed couple’s 10-year old daughter was found in one of the cars injured and taken to the hospital.

May 8 – (Killed) -- The head of Prosvita society branch in Krasny Lyman, Valeriy Salo, was found burnt in his car. Salo was captured on May 7 by the militants of the Donetsk People’s Republic, according to the Luhansk police press service.

May 8 – (One killed) -- Pavlo Zhuchenko, a 44-year-old priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy, was shot near a block post near the eastern Ukrainian town Druzhivka, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office press service. Editor-in-chief of the local news website Ostov, Serhiy Harmash, reports that the slain priest lived next to the block post and urged Kyiv’s opponents to surrender arms. The law enforcement authorities have started an investigation of the case.

April 28 – (Dead) -- In Sloviansk, the body was found at the same site near the river Torets, where the bodies of Horlivka Town Council deputy Volodymyr Rybak and Kyiv Polytechnic Institute student Yuriy Popravko were found earlier. The body has been identified as Yuriy Diadkovsky, a 25-year-old student from Stryi in Lviv Oblast. Diadkovsky had been an active Euromaidan participant since December 3, 2013. According to the Gazeta.ua website, citing Diadkovsky’s brother Oleh, Yuriy went to Donetsk Oblast on April 16 with his friend in order to see what was going on there. His was kidnapped April 17. His body was found 11 days later with the signs of torture.

April 22 – (Two killed) -- In Sloviansk, the bodies of two men were found near the river Torets with signs of torture, according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. One of them has been identified as Volodymyr Rybak, a Horlivka city councilman believed to have been kidnapped on April 17. He was found with a sandbag tied around his body and a slash across his stomach. He is believed to have drowned in the river while unconscious. According to the ministry’s reports, members of the pro-Russian separatist group who seized the city’s security services building were involved in the alleged torture and murder of the two men. The second men has been identified as a 19-year-old Kyiv Polytechnic Institute student Yuriy Popravko. According to Popravko’s mother, Yaroslava Popravko, cited by Liga.net, on April 16 her son visited his girlfriend in Kharkiv. There was no further contact with him after that.

Nineteen are still being held

May 9 – (One kidnapped) -- Valeriy Andruschuk, head of Mariupol police, was kidnapped by the separatist insurgents the same day as the city police headquarters was stormed and burned down. According to the lawmaker and presidential candidate Oleh Lyashko, Andruschuk was abducted as a retiree tried to take him out of the burning building. The information was confirmed by the Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. A retiree, whose name is unknown, was injured with a knife. Andruschuk’s whereabouts are unknown.

May 8 – (One being held) – Oleh Demko, the representative of presidential candidate and Svoboda Part leader Oleh Tiahnybok in Donetsk region’s Makiyivka, was kidnapped by armed men and taken to the premises of Donetsk regional state administration, according to his party colleague Pavlo Derkachenko. Demko had been receiving threats during a whole week before the abduction.

May 7 – (One kidnapped) -- Valeriy Harchuk, member of the local city council in Rubizhne, Luhansk Oblast, was kidnapped by four masked men, according to the Luhansk police press office. His whereabouts are unknown.

May 2 – (One held) -- Georgian citizen and pro-Ukrainian activist Basile d’Budik was kidnapped by unknown masked and armed men in the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlivka, according to the member of right-wing Svoboda party Maja Karlash. According to the Council to Georgia Irakli Advadze, d’Budik was reached by phone and denied the fact of kidnapping, while his relatives say they do not know activist’s whereabouts. Karlash confirms d’Budik is being held by pro-Russian militants. The head of the territorial defense battalion “Donbas” Semen Senchenko offered separatists’ leaders to exchange nine detained militants for d’Budik and abducted on the same day Mykola Yakubovych.

May 2 (One held) -- Mykola Yakubovysch, a Donetsk activist and one of the leaders of the local pro-Ukrainian self-defense, was kidnapped in the center of the city of Donetsk, according to Novosti Donbassa. He is held hostage by pro-Russian militants.

May 2 (One held) – Ihor Otrya, 18-year old student from Krasnyi Lyman, was kidnapped in Sloviansk on his way home from Kyiv, Gazeta.ua reported. According to Otrya’s parents, their son was detained on suspicion of having connection to nationalist Right Sector organization. He is currently being held by pro-Russian insurgents in the seized SBU building.

April 29 – (Two still held) -- Four police officers, including head of the criminal investigation department Vitaliy Benko, Head of the department for combating drug trafficking Oleg Zaitsev, two operational servicemen Andriy Redko and Volodymyr Mischenko, were kidnapped in Kramatorsk by pro-Russian militants after they refused to take separatist’s side, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s press office. They were transported to the regional SBU headquarters in Sloviansk. On May 2, two of them, Redko and Mischenko, were released.

April 29 – (Two still held) -- Two members of district election commissions were kidnapped in the Donetsk region. Yaroslav Malanchuk, a member of a district election commission Krasnoarmiysk from the right-wing Svoboda party, and Artem Popyk, head of the local Svoboda organization, were kidnapped in Kostiantynivka.

April 26 – (Still being held) -- A Lviv journalist and freelance correspondent for the local ZiK TV-channel Yuriy Leliavsky was captured by pro-Russian militants in Sloviansk during a shooting, according to program director of Telekritika website Viktor Galkin. Leliavsky was taken to the building of the local city council.

April 26 – (One held) -- Serhiy Shapoval, a journalist for the Volyn Post, has being missing since April 26 when he decided to head to Sloviansk from Kharkiv, where he was reporting on the local protests. A communication with him was lost at 3 p.m. April 26 and at 9 p.m. same day telephone connection was lost, according to the Telekritika website. He is held hostage by pro-Russian militants.

April 25 – (Two still held) -- Recognized theatre director Pavlo Yurov and art curator Denys Gryschuk were kidnapped in Sloviansk. According to the LB.ua website, citing the friends of the kidnapped men, they were on their way from Donetsk to Kyiv via Sloviansk when they stopped answering phone calls. A self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk Viacheslav Ponomaryov later confirmed holding them hostage.

April 23 – (Still being held) -- Sloviansk City Council member Vadym Sukhonos was abducted by Kremlin-backed militants, reports TSN television channel, citing local media in the Donetsk Oblast. Sukhonos apparently was kidnapped for ideological reasons. In February, he quit the Party of Regions, the dominant party in eastern Ukraine, and is now a local independent lawmaker.

April 21 – (Still being held) -- Kramatorsk chief of police, Interior Ministry Colonel Vitaliy Kolupai was kidnapped by Kremlin-backed terrorists, the Interior Ministry reported. The masked pro-Russian militants have apparently demanded weapons and arms in exchange for the police colonel's release. The Interior Ministry accuses Russian military intelligence Colonel Igor Strelkov for commandeering the kidnapping. Ukraine Security Service has identified the Russian colonel as the chief coordinator in the slow-motion Russian invasion of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts by using a combination of Russian special forces and black operatives, a deeply-rooted network of spies and agent saboteurs who are Russians and Ukrainians, and the cooperation of local elements of law enforcement and government officials.

April 20 – (Still being held) -- Irma Krat, 29, the editor-in-chief of Hidden Truth TV and the leader of an all-female self-defense unit during the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted the former government and President Viktor Yanukovych, was captured around 8 p.m. on Easter Sunday, Krat’s lawyer, Oleg Veremiyenko, told the Kyiv Post. Krat was “taken hostage,” Veremiyenko said, on suspicion of torturing and killing a Berkut riot police officer. She is reportedly being held in the Ukrainian State Security Service building in Sloviansk. The day after her capture, the pro-Russian separatist group holding her paraded her to meet the press, during which time she confirmed she was being held but said that she had not been harmed.

April 19 – (Whereabouts unknown) -- Local media has reported that Kremlin-backed separatists kidnapped the chief of police in Sloviansk, Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg Prokhorov, but officials are yet to officially confirm the abduction. Prokhorov's whereabouts are unknown.

Released hostages:

May 9 – (Seven released) -- Kremlin-backed militants stormed into the Red Cross office in Donetsk and captured seven people, including one citizen of France and six Ukrainians from Kyiv and Donetsk. All of them were freed after several hours of detention, as was confirmed by the local Red Cross official. According to the spokesman of the separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic”, Red Cross volunteers were detained on suspicion of espionage. Iryna Tsariuk from the Ukrainian Red Cross said one of the released hostages has been severely beaten. It is also reported that insurgents seized medicine, which was delivered to Donetsk Red Cross office for distribution in the region.

May 7 – (One released) – Armed militants kidnapped a man, who took part into the motor rally for the united Ukraine, according to journalist Ekaterina Sergatskova. The abduction took place in Stahaniv, Luhansk Oblast. He was kept in the seized SBU building, tortured and interrogated, and released May 8.

May 4 – (Released) -- Pro-Russian militants broke into the house of the member of Novogorodenka (Donetsk Oblast) city council and kidnapped him and five men visiting him, according to the SBU press office. Three of them, a coal miner Oleksandr Vovk, a member of the local city council from the Communist party of Ukraine Oleg Bubich and a member of the local city council from the Party of Regions Valeriy Pavlyk , were released on May 5. Each of them has the signs of torture, according to the press service of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine. Three other, including a coal miner Oleksandr Gurov, a member of the local city council from the Defenders of the Motherland Party Kostyantyn Musiyenko and an unknown man, were released on May 6. While being detained coal miners were constantly beaten and tortured. For instance, militants tried to cut of the words “Glory to Ukraine”, which were tattooed on Gurov’s arm. Gurov claims he was abducted for his strong pro-Ukrainian position.

May 3 – (Released) -- Five servicemen of the Armed Forced of Ukraine were kidnapped by masked pro-Russian militants in Melekino village, Donetsk Oblast. They had being detained at the seized Mariupol city council building for several hours and released May 4 at 1 a.m., says SBU press office’s statement.

May 3 – (Released) -- Armed men in camouflage kidnapped two persons,Oleksiy Bida and Anna Mokrousova, in Luhansk, kept them in seized regional SBU headquarters for several hours and released afterwards, according to the activists of community Euromaidan SOS.

May 2 (Released) – Three groups of Western journalists from a number of news outlets were briefly detained by pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine, according to Novosti Donbassa. Mike Giglio from American BuzzFeed and his translator Olena Glazunova were taken from a checkpoint en route to Sloviansk by pro-Russian militants, blindfolded, held at seized police building for three hours and released, says Mike Giglio’s on his Twitter. Americans reporters for CBS Clarissa Ward, Erin Lyall, Andy Srevenson, Geoff Mabberley and a team with Britain’s SkyNews Stuart Ramsay, Barnaby Green and their translators Oleg Malko and Oleksandr Pustovit were detained at rebel-held check-points and released after couple hours.

April 29 – (Released) -- Five activists were briefly detained by separatists after a pro-Ukrainian rally in Donetsk, reports Novosti Donbassa website citing the organizer of the rally Diana Berg. They were freed later that day, which was confirmed by the local militia’s press office.

April 26 – (Released) -- Major Serhiy Potiomsky, Captain Eugeniy Verinsky, Lieutenant Colonel Rostyslav Kyjashko from SBU’s high-ranking Alpha Group were kidnapped in Kramatorsk, while they were on their way to Horlivka. Kremlin-backed militants took hostages to Sloviansk, where they were interviewed by Russian journalists. On the video, immediately published on the Internet, SBU officers were answering questions while seating with their pants off, hands tied, blindfolded and showing signs of having been beaten. According to the SBU’s statement, the group was kidnapped while performing a task to arrest a Russian citizen suspected of killing Horlivka city council member Volodymyr Rybak. Rybak was kidnapped on April 17, five days later his body was found near the river Torets in Sloviansk with signs of torture. All three were released on May 7. According to representatives of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” they were exchanged for the Donetsk region's "people's governor" Pavlo Gubarev. SBU press service says it would not be correctly to say that an act exchange had occurred although confirms that all three servicemen were freed.

April 25 – (Released) -- Eight members of a military monitoring mission were abducted on April 25 and held hostage in Sloviansk by pro-Russian separatist forces. The group of OSCE monitors, including four Germans, a Swede, a Pole, a Dane, and a Czech, were traveling by bus from Kramatorsk to Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast and were accompanied by five Ukrainian soldiers, includingIhor Turansky, Oleksandr Matvijenko, Valeriy Udod, Oleksij Pluschev andAndriy Kolodka. Pro-Russian militants showed the documents of some of them, including John Christensen (Denmark), Krzysztof Kobelski (Poland), Axel Schneider (Germany). On April 27 a Swede OSCE officer, major Thomas Johannson, who suffers from diabetes, was freed. On May 3 all the other members of the mission and Ukrainians, who were accompanying them, were freed.

April 25 – (Released) -- Yevhen Hapych, a journalist from the Ivano Frankivsk Oblast town of Kolomyia in western Ukraine, who on April 22 was kidnapped with his brother Hennadiy in Donetsk Oblast, were released and made it home on April 25. Hapych had received a travel grant from Telekritika, a Kyiv-based media watchdog organization, to report in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. His work was to be published in various media.

April 22 – (Released) -- Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk in northern Donetsk Oblast confirmed that unidentified people in uniform had captured Vice News journalist Simon Ostrovsky, an American, who was last seen early morning on April 22. Ostrovsky was released three days later.

April 22 – (Released) -- Yuriy Zahrebelny, prosecutor of Sloviansk, was reportedly kidnapped in his office at about 5:50 p.m. by a group of three armed and masked men, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said on April 23. They brought him by car in an unknown direction and released in some 40 minutes later. Zahrebelny refused to disclose the details of his interrogation, the police said.

April 22 – (Released) -- At about 11 a.m. several people in masks came into the office of Sloviansk medical forensics service and captured its head, Mr. Yakymov, Ukraine's Interior Ministry reported. The ministry did not disclose his first name. Yakymov was taken to the local SBU headquarters now occupied by pro-Russian separatists. At about 2 p.m.Yakymov was released and refused to comment on the details of his captivity. “He is very scared after that,” Stanislav Rechynsky, an Interior Ministry adviser said during a news briefing on April 23. “Apparently it was related to (Volodymyr) Rybak’s murder.

April 21 – (Released) -- Italian journalists Paul Gogo and Kossimo Attanasio, and Belarusian journalist Dmitry Galko were kidnapped by separatists in Sloviansk while filming events in the city. Later the journalists were released, but their reporting equipment, money and personal documents were confiscated.

April 18 – (Released) -- Sloviansk Mayor Nelya Shtepa disappeared after she attempted to meet with separatist leader Vyacheslav Ponomarev. Initially, Shtepa appeared to support separatists before changing course and confirming her support for authorities in Kyiv. On April 22, she appeared on pro-Kremlin TV Life News saying that she is thankful to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She is believed to be held inside one of the buildings occupied by the separatists in Sloviansk. They have said that she is fine and being fed well. On April 30, Shtepa resigned.

April 16 – (Released) -- Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Lefter was kidnapped while reporting on events in Sloviansk. He had being held in the basement of the Ukrainian State Security Service building in Sloviansk until May 2, when he was released together with another hostage, Sloviansk resident Artem Deynega. Deynega was abducted by pro-Russian insurgents on April 13 after he was observed filming from the balcony of his family’s apartement. The apartment is across the street from the Ukrainian Security Service building in Sloviansk. Lefter was working with the non-governmental organization Open Dialog Foundation when he was captured. Despite been freed on late night May 2 Lefter arrived in Kyiv only five days later as they were hiding in SLoviansk fearing pursuit. During press-conference on May 8 Lefter said that he was treated not that bad during detention and was occasionally questioned, whether he had any connections to nationalist Right Sector organization.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Mamchenkova can be reached at oksanamamchenkova@gmail.com.

[Nitro Express]

Ah the Ukraine is a mess. While the big boys play their geopolitical game it's the people in the Ukraine who are going to pay the highest price. Germany might be the possible peace keeper in this mess. I say the solution is to make the Ukraine a neutral country. NATO needs to stay out of there. Someone needs to get the US State Department on a short leash. It's out of control.

[Nitro Express]

What's a Ukrainian? A russian? a cossack? a tartar? a jew? Yeah there are nazi thugs in the Ukraine stirring up trouble. Do they represent all of the ukrainians? No. Ah all this business reads eerily like Zibignew Brzenski's book The Grand Chessboard. That's a man who could care less about who he pummels to reach his overall objective which would be to have a color revolution in Moscow.

The ukrainians had their country stolen form them. Now they are cannon fodder being used to try and bait russia into a conflict. They want russia to invade. They want to esculate things. That's why Putin is pulling troops back. He's doing just the opposite of what his opposition wants. He's going to play mind games and buy time until Saudi Arabia can be persuaded to break ties with the US. Russia-China want to break the US Dollar hold on oil. If they can do that NATO loses it's financing. The Ukraine business just expedites the need to do this. This is also why the US is moving military assets around China and trying to turn China's neighbors against China. This is a whole east vs west thing. The western paper pushers against the real asset east. Trying to take over the whole middle east using the US military failed. The neocons and their democratic supporters fucked the elephant in the ass. Sadly Americans are going to take it on the chin when the dollar fails. Taking down the US dollar is the target of russia/china and their allies. Kill the dollar you kill the US military. The only way we could finance all the bases and everything was to go into huge deficit spending. Now the objective was clear. Some smug assholes, like Hitler wanted to take over the world using banking means followed up with the US military. As always such grand schemes always fail. It's just that financial warfare is more stealthy than running panzer tanks through.

Not to sound like Ford but one group involved in this stupid scheme obviously is named Bush. They are still at their old game. Let's just call this one Blitzkrieg II. Still supporting nazis after all these years. I'm sure Rayethon is poised to make a fortune off the conflict if it escalates according to plan.

[Nitro Express]

Washington stepping back from its gameplan is very unlikely because it has not much to lose. It is the European Union that must assess the costs of its participation in the US gameplan. If Europe doesn’t reverse its course on Ukraine it could plunge the continent in an unenviable situation. The burden is not on Brussels, which in fact is responsible for creating this dangerous mess.

The burden of pulling the Europe from quagmire is on its national leaders — most fundamentally on the Chancellor Angela Merkel who the US has entrusted with the leadership role on behalf of Europe in this crisis. She holds the key to how far Ukrainian crisis can develop.

In a world where alternate and social media have made it increasingly difficult for Governments to hide their dirty linen with official narratives or mold public opinion through brazen lies and false flags, can Chancellor Merkel be convincing:

Well Germany. Looks like you might decide a third time whether we are going to have a world war or not.

[ELVIS]

http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article3525330.ece/alternates/s615/Conchita-Wurst-and-Vladimir-Putin.jpg


:biggrin:

[DrMaddVibe]

Why is Jesus wearing a dress?

[ELVIS]

I give up...

Why ??

[FORD]

Jesus wouldn't be singing that Eurodisco crap. He would be playing guitar.......

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5226/5581513740_201fb6a003.jpg

[vandeleur]

Jesus is a tele man ???

[FORD]

Well, if it's good enough for Keef, The Boss, and Buck Owens, why wouldn't it be good enough for JC?

[vandeleur]

Think he is trying volume swells in that pic :) ............

[vandeleur]

100.63% of the population of Donetsk voted as Donetsk votes for independence from the Ukraine .
Seems genuine :)


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-crisis-a-country-is-born--after-a-vote-by-10063-per-cent-of-its-population-9359411.html

[katina]

http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article3525330.ece/alternates/s615/Conchita-Wurst-and-Vladimir-Putin.jpg


:biggrin:



http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/05/12/why_this_austrian_drag_queen_is_the_new_bete_noire _of_putin_cronies

Russia's leading politicians have a stark warning for Ukraine and it involves a bearded lady who just took home top honors in Europe's annual tribute to kitschy stage acts, Eurovision.
Over the weekend, Conchita Wurst, an Austrian drag queen, won the annual competition with her song "Rise Like a Phoenix." That turn of events has two Russian politicians warning countries seeking closer relations with Europe that their future holds nothing but moral decay and decadence. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted that Wurst's victory "showed supporters of European integration their European future: a bearded girl."
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nationalist legislator, did him one better by speculating aloud whether perhaps the Red Army should have remained in Austria and fought to prevent such a breakdown in morals. "Fifty years ago, the Soviet Army occupied Austria.... We should have stayed there," Zhirinovsky said. "It's the end of Europe. It has turned wild."
But nevermind those outbursts: Wurst's victory is being hailed as a symbol of growing acceptance in Europe for gays and lesbians. "This night is dedicated to everyone who believes in peace and freedom," Wurst said, trophy in hand. "You know who you are. We are unity, and we are unstoppable." (Her name, Wurst, literally translates as "sausage" but is also a reference to a German slang term meaning roughly "who cares?")

But why are two Putin cronies concerning themselves with a trashy European singing contest? In his attempt to build a new ideological foundation for the Russian state, Russian President Vladimir Putin has rushed headlong into the embrace of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was harshly oppressed during Soviet times. By casting himself as a defender of traditional Russian values, the church has played a bit part in Putin's attempt to define his country against the West. Russia, Putin frequently argues, stands opposed to the moral decadence of the West.
It's a clever ploy. By playing on widespread homophobia in Russia, Putin has stumbled upon a group upon which he can project all his country's fears. It's an old tactic, and Putin plays the role of enforcer well, for example passing a law outlawing homosexual "propaganda." It is no accident that the performance that landed the punk band Pussy Riot in jail occurred in an Orthodox church.
The leadership of the church has described growing acceptance of homosexuality and gay marriage as a sign of the coming apocalypse and has strongly endorsed Moscow's crackdown on gays, lesbians and transgendered Russians.
So when a moment like this weekend's Eurovision win comes along, Putin's cronies of course jump at the opportunity to join in on some state-sanctioned homophobia. Moreover, the comments have an obvious target: eastern Ukraine. While their true motives may lie elsewhere, Putin and his allies have attempted to describe their annexation of Crimea and efforts to foment unrest in eastern Ukraine as an effort to stop the spread of Western values and decadence. More broadly, Putin's expansionist doctrine can be seen as part of a project to restore a greater Russia rooted in the country's Orthodox history.
Either way, the West, on this reading, is collapsing in on itself amid moral decay. Putin and a culturally conservative Russia, meanwhile, stand ready to defend a more old-fashioned set of values, one which don't particularly like the notion of a sequined drag queen being feted on televisions across Europe.
But controversy wasn't limited to Wurst, as this year's Eurovision contest was among the most politicized in recent memory. Against the backdrop of the crisis in Ukraine, Russia's act, the twin Tolmachevy Sisters, were booed by the crowd in Copenhagen. That wholesome-looking pair finished close behind the Ukrainian submission, one of the more hyped geopolitical subplots of this year's contest. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan and Armenia put on a good show of mutual distaste, ranking each other's acts last.

[ELVIS]

Well, Putin certainly is right about the moral decadence of the West...

[vandeleur]

Well, Putin certainly is right about the moral decadence of the West...

Yip it's so shocking were just gonna stash all our ill gotten gains there .
There are more Russian millionaires in the city of London than in Moscow .
Putin and the rest are a kick in the arse off wall street bankers ....... Sorry I meant thieves .

[FORD]

Old Vlad Zhirinovsky is still around??

I remember back in the 1990s, there was speculation that he was going to be the guy taking over Russia once Boris Yeltsin's liver finally gave out on him, and he was supposed to be the scary ultra fascist wackjob guy.

Now he's just a Pooty Poot lackey? Wonder what happened there?

[Nickdfresh]

Well, Putin certainly is right about the moral decadence of the West...

Funny how an inordinate amount of internet pornography emanates from Russia...

[ELVIS]

I wouldn't know...

I try not to pollute my soul...

[vandeleur]

Funny how an inordinate amount of internet pornography emanates from Russia...

I think you might be on to something here . If we put sanctions in place and they turn the gas off it will be bad but if they turn off the porn and the adverts for Russian wife's .
They will have caught us with our pants down :)

[Nitro Express]

I think you mean the Ukraine. The Ukraine is the hotbed of white sex trafficking. Tends to happen in places with beautiful women and shitty economies.

[Nitro Express]

I wouldn't know...

I try not to pollute my soul...

You don't want to pollute. It's causes climate change.

[vandeleur]

You don't want to pollute. It's causes climate change.

Only if you rub to fast :biggrin:

[ELVIS]

I wouldn't exclude the non-beautiful women...

[Nickdfresh]

I wouldn't know...

I try not to pollute my soul...

Right. I it just happens that every other comment you make is homophobic, misogynist, and seemingly obsessed with the gay. But pray to little white Jesus, bumpkin...

[Nickdfresh]

I think you mean the Ukraine. The Ukraine is the hotbed of white sex trafficking. Tends to happen in places with beautiful women and shitty economies.

How the fuck would you know, Nitrous Oxide? The notion that Ukraine economy in nothing is a myth. One of the big reasons for all this is that the Ukraine is a large contractor for the Russian military making engines and ICBM guidance systems. Not surprisingly, most of those industries are in the east of the country. And there's plenty of Russian girls coming to the West to get a man, become a stripper, ladies of the evening, etc. I've met some that were teachers, waitresses/bartenders, and strippers - and that's mostly in my parochial city of Buffalo...

[ELVIS]

bumpkin...

Faggot...

[Nickdfresh]

Faggot...

http://forums.joerogan.net/images/smilies/ymca.gif

[katina]

Ice Cream, Corpses, and the Big Bear: Repatriating Dead Russians From Ukraine

By Harriet Salem

May 30, 2014 | 4:15 pm
https://news.vice.com/article/ice-cream-corpses-and-the-big-bear-repatriating-dead-russians-from-ukraine

“The factory is closed! No one is here,” shouted a large, peroxide-blond in military fatigues, to anyone who approaches the firmly closed metal gate.

Sheets of rain cascaded down, but the crashing storm did not manage to clear the stench of death from the afternoon air.

Inside the rebel-commandeered ice cream refrigeration complex in Donetsk, behind a stack of wooden crates, young men and medics in green scrubs were at work preparing disfigured corpses for their final journey home. Some had to be pieced back together.

The gruesome task took several hours to complete.

Against a garish backdrop of brightly-colored vans and cartoon ads, the workers neatly stacked their precious cargo onto the back of a truck. A last journey will be made in this makeshift ambulance put together by the rebels, hastily whitewashed and painted over with a red cross and “200”— Soviet-era military code for their dead.

Each casket is marked with the red, black, and blue flag of the DPR — Donetsk People’s Republic. But the 30 men stretched out in these coffins are not from the fledgling rebel-state they laid down their lives for; they travelled here from Russia.

Most are believed to have been killed in the fierce battle between rebels and Ukrainian military for control of Donetsk airport after a Kamaz military truck transporting the wounded was hit by sniper fire, scattering body parts on the highway.

These deaths, and the repatriation of the bodies back to their motherland across Ukraine’s eastern border, mark a significant turning point in the spreading crisis that has gripped the country.

Despite Moscow’s persistent rejection of Russian men fighting in Ukraine’s east, it is now undeniable they are here.

Paperwork shown to VICE News confirmed that at least some of the dead being transported across the border were, as claimed by the rebels, Russians.

In March, Crimea was annexed by Moscow after a Putin-backed putsch overseen by the so-called “green men” — Russian Spetsnaz (special forces) operating without insignia.

But the swift and efficient departure of the southern peninsula from Ukraine to Russia could not stand in starker contrast to events in the east, which, while already bloody and protracted, are still far from resolved.

Instead of direct military support, the Kremlin’s solution to Ukraine’s eastern crisis has been a porous border: a blind eye to the movements of fighters and rebel leaders in the shadows of its territory, and a safe passage for the flow of illegal arms to its eastern neighbors.

The resulting free-for-all has encouraged paramilitary groups, some likely backed by warlords and oligarchs, to flood into the region.

Sayid, a Chechen fighter being treated at the Donetsk trauma unit for a gunshot wound in his ankle, told VICE News how he had travelled to Rostov in Russia for construction work. Once there, he was offered the opportunity to fight in Ukraine and headed with his unit for the border.

Aslan, a nervous gunman in a black tracksuit who patrols the ice cream factory, told VICE News a similar story. The 33-year-old Ossetian says that his group traveled to Donetsk to provide humanitarian aid, but then decided to join the fight.

Others from the Caucasus and other post-Soviet states are also thought to be among the swirling mix of paramilitaries descending on the region.

“The more the Ukrainian army attack us, the more fighters we have,” says Varan, Head of Security for the DPR.

Varan, whose name means “monitor lizard” in Russian, is a Chechen, but claimed that men are coming from all around the region. “All the neighboring countries have offered to send fighters,” he tells VICE News. “They come legally into the country in civilian clothes, and then form units once they arrive,” he adds.

Some may well be volunteers fighting for a patriotic belief in “Novorossiya.” The expansionist concept, which echoes from the Soviet Union and even Russian Empire past, also resonates with the contemporary neo-nationalist groups that emerged at the beginning of Putin’s second term in the early 2000s.

Yet while some may be fighting for the idea, others are likely paid mercenaries, or bandits looking for their slice of power and money when the spoils of revolution are divvied up.

Guarding his wounded comrades outside the hospital, 30-year-old Chechen fighter Magomed said he came to Donetsk for “personal interests” and would “like to be a boss.”

There are plenty of opportunities here for the aspiring rebel fighter. Yesterday, in a seeming coup, the infamous Vostok Battalion cleared out the men of the self-styled people’s leader Pavel Gubarev from the city’s occupied administration building.

The heavily armed Vostok Battalion, whose name is a hat tip to a defunct Russian special military unit, said they were just dealing with looters. But it is suspected that the operation was in fact a takeover that concludes, at least temporarily, a simmering power struggle between competing rebel factions.

Locals are still hoping Putin will give a little more support than bandits and humanitarian aid — the latter was pledged yesterday by the Russian president — but the pleas for military reinforcements, or at least peacekeeping troops, have gone unanswered.

Indeed, as the truck lumbered away from the ice cream factory with its cargo of corpses, the distance between the powers in Moscow and the rebel-run Donetsk could not be clearer.

On the road to the border with Russia, a sign featuring a Soviet solider boldly proclaims: “Heroic actions are immortal.” But the bodies in the back of the truck are not Russia’s heroes; they are its dirty secret.

For these dead men there was no safe passage, no final salute, and no solemn celebration of a soldier’s final return home.

Slava, the truck’s stocky driver, was visibly agitated. He was asked only that morning “by people I couldn’t say no to” to undertake the dangerous journey through contested land, and said he has no idea what will happen on the other side of the border, other than “people will come to meet [him]."

Local militia groups don’t want to travel with their fallen comrades either; they are too afraid their presence will provoke an attack. Instead, they send an envoy of strangers to accompany the load: two plainclothes police officers, and one car of journalists as a human shield.

The Russian press, which enjoy exclusive access to the rebels’ world thanks to the influence of the Kremlin, was notably absent. The snub is a telling sign of Moscow’s position.

The rebels’ nervousness about the journey is not misplaced; the road to the border is treacherous for them. Rolling fields and dilapidated villages normally make for a scenic countryside drive, but now the litter of burned-out barricades and abandoned checkpoints testify to the encroaching war, and stretches of forest are ideal territory for snipers.

At the border, a tense search of the truck and its cargo was interrupted by the shouts and gunfire of an unannounced unit of Ukrainian soldiers. Finally, it was permitted to trundle across the border, to the relief of all involved.

The Big Dipper, known in Russia as the Big Bear, twinkled overhead. The truck headed towards whatever waits on the other side, the noise of its engine replaced by the buzz of mosquitos. Border guards peered into the clear night, guns slung over shoulders.

Even amid the chaos of war, one thing is now clear to everyone: Russia is here, but she doesn’t want to claim her men.

Follow Harriet on Twitter @HarrietSalem


All photos by Harriet Salem

[Nitro Express]

Everyone is in the Ukraine. Academy (Blackwater), Dual Israeli citizens in Right Sector (Admitted by a dual Canadian/Israeli citizen on the way over to the Ukraine), probably the CIA. I'm sure Spetznaz as well. All I know is the people (clearly oligarchs) behind the coupe in Kiev who took a legitimate protest and destroyed a nation should be water boarded with hot crankcase oil.

[Nitro Express]

How the fuck would you know, Nitrous Oxide? The notion that Ukraine economy in nothing is a myth. One of the big reasons for all this is that the Ukraine is a large contractor for the Russian military making engines and ICBM guidance systems. Not surprisingly, most of those industries are in the east of the country. And there's plenty of Russian girls coming to the West to get a man, become a stripper, ladies of the evening, etc. I've met some that were teachers, waitresses/bartenders, and strippers - and that's mostly in my parochial city of Buffalo...


Ever been to Kiev Alfred? I have. Let's see I buy my health food from a guy from Odessa. A good family friend is from Kiev and still has family there. I have friends in Russia who have relatives in the Ukraine. I hear both sides of the story. The ones in the western Ukraine don't trust the Russians and the Russians are worried about the anti-russian government and thugs.

The Ukraine used to be a large contractor for Russia. Putin had to grab Crimea to keep NATO from getting their Black Sea naval port in Sevestopol. Russia had a long term lease but when the US and EU break their promise not to move NATO east and the legal government you were dealing with falls apart. You kind of have to guard your assets. Just be glad Putin did it in a manner that didn't set off a major war.

As far as the government in KIev goes, it's nice to have a government that kills it's own soldiers when they refuse orders to fire on their own civilians. The way I see it. The US and the EU and whoever else destroyed a country to try and bait Russia into a war. Russia did not take the bait. It just drove China and Russia together and now they are working to take the petrodollar down to kill NATO's financing. All they have to do is draw Saudi Arabia over to their side and it's done.

Fine with me. It will destroy the Federal Reserve Bank. All we have to do is issue US Treasury Notes through the US Treasury again and we will be done paying interest to a bunch of private bankers to use our own money. The US just won't have the big reserve currency anymore and the world will be more evenly skewed. If that avoids a lot of carnage and a no win war. Fine with me. Maybe we can be an exporter again and people can have a real economy again instead of this debt/welfare system we are thrashing in.

[Nickdfresh]

Ever been to Kiev Alfred?...

Oh FFS! Was that before the CIA chopper pilot job or around the time you were and Astronaut-Indian Chief?

[Nickdfresh]

Ever been to Kiev Alfred? I have. Let's see I buy my health food from a guy from Odessa. A good family friend is from Kiev and still has family there. I have friends in Russia who have relatives in the Ukraine. I hear both sides of the story. The ones in the western Ukraine don't trust the Russians and the Russians are worried about the anti-russian government and thugs.

The Ukraine used to be a large contractor for Russia. Putin had to grab Crimea to keep NATO from getting their Black Sea naval port in Sevestopol. Russia had a long term lease but when the US and EU break their promise not to move NATO east and the legal government you were dealing with falls apart. You kind of have to guard your assets. Just be glad Putin did it in a manner that didn't set off a major war.

As far as the government in KIev goes, it's nice to have a government that kills it's own soldiers when they refuse orders to fire on their own civilians. The way I see it. The US and the EU and whoever else destroyed a country to try and bait Russia into a war. Russia did not take the bait. It just drove China and Russia together and now they are working to take the petrodollar down to kill NATO's financing. All they have to do is draw Saudi Arabia over to their side and it's done.

Fine with me. It will destroy the Federal Reserve Bank. All we have to do is issue US Treasury Notes through the US Treasury again and we will be done paying interest to a bunch of private bankers to use our own money. The US just won't have the big reserve currency anymore and the world will be more evenly skewed. If that avoids a lot of carnage and a no win war. Fine with me. Maybe we can be an exporter again and people can have a real economy again instead of this debt/welfare system we are thrashing in.


LMFAO, you have no fucking idea what you are talking about. The Kiev regime has shown complete restraint. You have Russian citizens walking around Ukrainian territory heavily armed and terrorising people from voting and preventing the rule of law and allowing crime and looting. Most people the the Ukraine speak Russian and feel some affinity for them. But the whole "shoooting their own people" is so patently ignorant, stupid, and offensive as it was the Russian-crony Ukrainian president that ordered his police to open fire on civilian demonstrations killing upwards of over 100 of them before he fled for Mother Russia. Do I need to post sources for this, Nitrous?...

[katina]

Mustafa Dzhemilev's battle for Crimea
The former leader of the Crimean Tatar community, Mustafa Dzhemilev, is receiving the Polish government's first Solidarity Award. It comes 70 years after he successfully fought for the right to return to his homeland.

http://www.dw.de/mustafa-dzhemilevs-battle-for-crimea/a-17678056

A grey-haired man in a suit and tie is walking along a rural street, surrounded by bodyguards who make him seem small and helpless. He doesn't make it far. Dozens of police officers in combat gear with two military vehicles have blocked the streets. One of the officers says he can't continue.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the blockade, thousands of mostly young men have come to receive the older gentleman. Some of them even break through the barricade and cry, "Mustafa!", but they can't help him.
This scene played out on May 3 near the city of Armyansk, along the new border between Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in March. The older man's name is Mustafa Dzhemilev. For decades, he was a leader of Crimea's Tatars, and on that particular day, he wanted to go home. Authorities in Crimea continue to deny him entry to this day.

It's against this background that Dzhemilev will receive the Polish government's first Solidarity Award, which grants the honoree one million euros ($1.36 million). The name of the prize derives from Poland's Solidarnosc (Solidarity) trade union, whose fight against the communist regime contributed to the first somewhat free elections and a change of power in Warsaw in 1989.
Dzhemilev is being honored for his "service to democracy and respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens in Ukraine, particularly with respect to the Tatars," the Polish government said of its decision.
Forced resettlement
For the 70-year-old, the denial of entry to Crimea is particularly bitter. For the first time in decades, Dzhemilev could not take part in a May 18 ceremony memorializing the forced relocation of Crimean Tatars. Now, he must once again fight for a home that he already won once.
Mustafa Dzhemilev was born on November 13, 1943, in a Soviet village in Crimea that was then occupied by Nazi Germany. Around six months later, his family, along with more than 180,000 other Crimean Tatars, was deported to Central Asia. As a justification, the government in Moscow claimed the Crimean Tatars had collaborated with the Nazis. Dzhemilev's family was sent thousands of kilometers east of Crimea to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, like most other Crimean Tatars.
15 years behind bars
Even as a youth, Dzhemilev harbored a deep interest in the history of his people in Crimea. He founded a union for Crimean Tatar youth before he was even 20 years old - an organization that fought for Tatars to return to their homeland, which led the Soviet Union to ban it. Dzhemilev lost his job as a laborer in an aircraft factory, but was permitted to study at an agricultural institute. That also proved short-lived. In 1965, he was removed from school on formal grounds.

One year later, in May 1966, Dzhemilev was convicted by a court for refusing military service. But he accused the Soviet security agency, the KGB, of wanting to punish him for his activism in support of Crimean Tatars' rights.
Later, Dzhemilev was convicted five times and spent a total of around 15 years in prison. He was friends with famous Soviet dissidents, including the Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov. Human rights activist Petro Grigorenko described Dzhemilev in a magazine as "a person with an unbelievably strong will."
In 1975, Dzhemilev embarked on a ten-month hunger strike and was force-fed.
From dissident to politician
During the perestroika period under Mikhail Gorbachev, Dzhemilev was released from jail. He returned with his family to Crimea in 1989 and was voted head of the traditional Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, a group he led through 2013. He worked in favor of bringing back Crimean Tatars from Central Asia - a time full of tense conflicts. That's because houses in which Crimean Tatars once lived had been handed over to Russians during the Soviet era. Dzhemilev managed to de-escalate the tensions.
In the 1990s, Dzhemilev got involved in politics and was elected to parliament in Kyiv in 1998 for the party Narodny Ruch Ukrainy (Ukrainian People's Movement). He remains a member of parliament today, although he is now without a party. During the Orange Revolution in 2004, Dzhemilev and the Crimean Tatars on the side of pro-Western presidential candidate Viktor Yushenko.

Possible minister post?
As pro-Russian sentiment grew stronger in Crimea at the end of February 2014, thousands of Tatars protested against a break-up of Ukraine. Shortly before the annexation of the peninsula, Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to win Dzhemilev over to his side. "He apparently wanted us to maintain neutrality, although that word was never used," Dzhemilev said in a televised interview about his half-hour phone call with the head of the Kremlin. The approximately 300,000 Crimean Tatars did not take part in the March 16 referendum on Crimea joining Russia. They also opted not to engage in armed conflict against the vote.
Today, Dzhemilev resides in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Petro Poroshenko, who was elected president on May 25, announced he would establish a ministry to deal with Crimean affairs. Dzhemilev is being discussed as a potential head of the institution.

[katina]

Ode to Poo-poo-poo-Putin


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBGsLhDrKjw

I´m glad I could get a translation into english.

[Dr. Love]

Actually, you're wrong. They're going after his secret bank accounts now and his Nuremberg Rally popularity with the unwashed Russian masses is beginning to fade with the economy...




His approval numbers are declining. Putin got away with Crimea because the majority there actually did support him and he infiltrated the nation with Spetsnaz to augment the already large Russian military presence to gradually marginalize the Ukrainian military there in a relatively bloodless coup. It's different now, Kiev is fighting back. And a Russian invasion would mean a prolonged, bloody war with NATO ultimately arming the Ukrainians...


Guess we'll see if that happens now.


U.S. official says 1,000 Russian troops enter Ukraine
By Victoria Butenko, Laura Smith-Spark and Diana Magnay, CNN
updated 10:17 AM EDT, Thu August 28, 2014

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- A top Ukrainian army officer said a "full-scale invasion" of his country was under way Thursday, as a U.S. official said up to 1,000 Russian troops had crossed Ukraine's southern border to fight alongside pro-Russian rebels.

U.S. officials said Russian troops were directly involved in the latest fighting, despite Moscow's denials.

Rebels backed by Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers fought Ukrainian forces on two fronts Thursday: southeast of rebel-held Donetsk, and along the nation's southern coast in the town of Novoazovsk, about 12 miles (20 km) from the Russian border, according to Mykhailo Lysenko, the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Donbas battalion.

"This is a full-scale invasion," Lysenko said, referring to the fighting in the south.

Ukraine: Russians captured in east

Intelligence now indicates that up to 1,000 Russian troops have moved into southern Ukraine with heavy weapons and are fighting there, a U.S. official told CNN Thursday.
Ukraine's National Defense and Security Council said that Russian forces were in full control of Novoazovsk as of Wednesday afternoon.

Russia's military fired Grad rockets into the town and its suburbs before sending in two convoys of tanks and armored personnel carriers from Russia's Rostov region, it said in a statement
"Ukrainian troops were ordered to pull out to save their lives. By late afternoon both Russian convoys had entered the town. Ukraine is now fortifying nearby Mariupol to the west," the NDSC said.
A number of villages in the Novoazovsk, Starobeshiv and Amvrosiiv districts were also seized, it said.

The NDSC also warned that a rebel counterattack is expected in the area where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in July. Ukrainian and Western officials believe it was downed by rebels armed with Russian-made weapons.
Novoazovsk is strategically important because it lies on the main road leading from the Russian border to Ukraine's Crimea region, which Russia annexed in March. Separatist leaders in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions then declared independence from Kiev.

U.N. Security Council to meet

As international concern mounted over the apparent escalation in fighting, Lithuania requested an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine.
UK ambassador to the United Nations Mark Lyall Grant said Russia would be asked to explain why its soldiers are in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had earlier called for the U.N. meeting, as well as action by Europe.
The latest flare-up comes despite a meeting between Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Belarus on Tuesday at which some progress appeared to have been made toward finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Ukrainians fight to survive amid siege Questions return with Russian convoy

Poroshenko canceled a planned trip to Turkey on Thursday "due to sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk region ... as Russian troops were brought into Ukraine," a statement from his office said.
In a Cabinet meeting, Yatsenyuk said Russia "has very much increased its military presence in Ukraine" and that tougher measures may be needed to curb Russia's support for the rebels.

"Unfortunately, the sanctions were unhelpful as to de-escalating the situation in Ukraine," he said, referring to the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union against Russian individuals and companies.
Yatsenyuk suggested one way to halt "Russian aggression" could be to freeze all assets and ban all Russian bank transactions until Russia "pulls out all its military, equipment and agents" from Ukraine.

"Vladimir Putin has purposely started a war in Europe. It is impossible to hide from the fact," he said.

U.S. ambassador: Russia is directly involved

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt also said Thursday that Russian soldiers were directly involved in the fighting, alongside the pro-Russia rebels.

"Russian-supplied tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and multiple rocket launchers have been insufficient to defeat Ukraine's armed forces, so now an increasing number of Russian troops are intervening directly in the fighting on Ukrainian territory," he said on Twitter.

"Russia has also sent its newest air defense systems including the SA-22 into eastern Ukraine and is now directly involved in the fighting."

Moscow denies supporting and arming the pro-Russia rebels. It has also repeatedly denied allegations by Kiev that it has sent troops over the border.

A Russian senator and the deputy head of the Committee on Defense and Security in Russia's upper house of Parliament, Evgeny Serebrennikov, dismissed the latest reports of a Russian incursion as untrue.
"We've heard many statements from the government of Ukraine, which turned out to be a lie. What we can see now is just another lie," he said to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky also accused Kiev of lies, in comments to RIA Novosti.

"I can only say that there's no ground for claims like this, and the junta tries to lay its own fault at someone else's door," he said, referring to the Kiev government.
Moscow regards it as illegitimate because it took charge after Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February.

Russian soldiers detained in Ukraine; leaders meet in Minsk

Rebel leader: 3,000 to 4,000 Russians in our ranks

However, the Prime Minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, acknowledged Thursday that there are current Russian servicemen fighting in the rebels' ranks in eastern Ukraine.
In his statement, televised on state-run Russia 24, Zakharchenko said the rebels have never concealed that many Russians are fighting with them. He said up until now there were 3,000 to 4,000 volunteers, some of whom are retired Russian servicemen.

Zakharchenko went on to reveal that the Russian servicemen currently fighting in their ranks are active, "as they came to us to struggle for our freedom instead of their vacations."

On Tuesday, Ukraine's Security Service said it had detained 10 Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

Russian state media cited a source in the Russian Defense Ministry as saying the soldiers had been patrolling the border and "most likely crossed by accident" at an unmarked point.
The NDSC said Thursday that Ukraine's Security Service detained another Russian serviceman who testified that his unit was supplying heavy military equipment to militants.

Pro-Kiev forces apparently already have engaged with rebel forces between Novoazovsk and Mariupol, the Sea of Azov port city 35 kilometers to the west that the country's security council said was being fortified.

A CNN crew north of Mariupol saw a ragged convoy of about 25 vehicles, some with their windows smashed out, belonging to pro-Kiev volunteer fighters heading away from the city Thursday afternoon.
The volunteers, including two from the country of Georgia, said they'd been involved in fighting in the Mariupol area but didn't provide details.

Earlier Thursday and further north, the CNN crew was near Donetsk city, which Ukrainian forces have been trying to wrest from rebels for weeks. Heavy Ukrainian artillery fire targeted areas near Donetsk's southern suburbs amid a heavy downpour of rain.

The main highway 15 kilometers south of Donetsk was deserted. With return fire coming from Donetsk, villagers in the area said they'd been taking shelter indoors or underground, coming out only for an hour or two a day to get supplies.
Ukraine's secret weapon: Funding from the country's millionaires

'Russian-directed counteroffensive'

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Wednesday highlighted the latest reports of heavy fighting around Novoazovsk and Donetsk airport, as well as of "additional columns of Russian tanks, multiple rocket launchers and armored vehicles" heading for communities in southeastern Ukraine.

"These incursions indicate a Russian-directed counteroffensive is likely underway in Donetsk and Luhansk," she said. "Clearly that is of deep concern to us."

She accused Moscow of not acting in a transparent manner when it came to the Russian people, as well as Ukraine and the rest of the world.

"We're also concerned by the Russian government's unwillingness to tell the truth even as its soldiers are found 30 miles inside Ukraine," she said. "Russia is sending its young men into Ukraine but are not telling them where they're going or telling their parents what they're doing."

On Wednesday, NDSC also claimed that members of a Russian tactical battalion were present in the village of Pobeda, in Ukraine's Luhansk region.

"If these troops got lost and accidentally found themselves in Ukraine as well, they should go back East," the update said.

The city of Luhansk, a rebel stronghold, has been at the center of fighting for days, prompting a humanitarian crisis. The NDSC said it remained without water, power or phone connections Thursday.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/28/world/europe/ukraine-crisis/index.html

Looks like those sanctions and bank accounts really but the brakes on this whole thing after all. ;)