The harrowing truth of the 'forgotten' children caught in Putin's war with Ukraine?
You can read and trust the Daily Mail, or you can learn and accept the truth.
So you want to know the truth? Can you handle it?
Here's an inconvenient truth from a Ukrainian-Russian-American lawyer and former police officer who spent May and June of 2014 in Lugansk, East Ukraine with his family:
1. The vast majority of he people of East Ukraine's Donetsk Coal Basin (Donbass), have a strong ethnic, linguistic and religious connection with Russia.
Donbass became a part of Ukraine in 1922 only because Lenin and his Bolsheviks needed additional regions in Ukraine in ordere to have enough votes for Ukraine to "voluntarily" join the Soviet Union.
The people of Donbass have never supported radical West Ukrainian nationalists, such as the Svoboda party, who despise Russians and who consider Ukrainian Nazi war criminals and collaborators, like Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian heroes and patriots.
Donbass' residents have been told by their grandparents of the atrocities committed by radical Ukrainian nationalist Nazi collaborators during WW II not just in Western and Central Ukraine, but also in Eastern Ukraine where Ukrainian Nazi collaborators where brought in by the Nazis as local police ("polizei" in German) to maintain order and help neutralize anti-Nazi insurgents.
The Donbass region has very strong economic connections with Russia, including a substantial share of industrial goods being exported to Russia.
2. The people of Donbass were appalled by the violence unleashed by Ukrainian radicals during the Euromaidan protests at mostly unarmed Ukrainian police who were simply defending government buildings.
If these US-supported violent Ukrainian nationalist radicals were not afraid to attack Ukrainian police officers with chains, metal spikes, Molotov Cocktails, bleach, acid, pistols and rifles, then what would these people do to ordinary pro-Russian Donbass residents when they came to power?
The answer came soon enough:
Around February 22, 2014 the time that Ukrainian President Yanukovich, a resident and supporter of Donbass, was being illegally ousted from office, busloads of Yanukovich supporters (Anti-EuroMaydan activists) returning to Crimea were stopped and ambushed by Ukrainian nationalists. many passengers were beaten, tortured and killed while local police stood by, watched and even participated.
When Crimeans held their referendum in March of 2014 (under the protection of Russian troops) and overwhelmingly voted to return to Russia (Crimea was "administratively transferred" from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 by Soviet Union's leader Nikita Khruschyev), many residents of Donbass preferred to be in Putin's Russia that in Ukraine ruled by pro-US/NATO Ukrainian Nationalists.
In the beginning of April 2014, Anti-EuroMaydan and pro-Russian supporters seized government buildings and authority in Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
In April of 2014 government authority was seized in Slavyansk, a 100K+ city in Donetsk region, by pro-Russian activists with the military support of Russian "volunteers" including former Russian FSB officer Igor Girkin (Strelkov).
Instead of negotiating, the new interim Yatsenyuk-Turchinov Ukrainian government sent in the Ukrainian Army, newly created National Guard and volunteer battalions staffed with Ukrainian Nationalists, who began a scorched earth siege of the city with disregard for civilian casualties.
The residents of Donbass watched in horror and began to create armed self-defense units.
On May 2, 2014 dozens of Anti-EuroMaydan activists were burned alive, beaten, choked and shot to death in Odessa's House of Unions by radical Ukrainian Nationalists -- while the local police stood by and did nothing.
With all this mind, on May 11, 2014 the residents of Donetsk and Lugansk voted overwhelmingly for "governmental autonomy" from the new Yatsenyuk-Turchinov government in Kyiv, a government that the residents of Donbass considered illegitimate and dominated by Ukrainian nationalists who, if necessary, would turn any town that refused to recognize their authority, into a Slavyansk or Odessa.
Unlike what we read in Western government and Corporate Establishment Media, the referendum was democratic, had a > 80% voter turn out and those who voted against governmental autonomy (no more than 10% of voters) did so openly and without fear of retribution. These are my honest personal observations.
Many residents of Donbass mistakenly thought that Russian would offer them voluntary annexation like Crimea or would bring in Russian peace-keeping troops to protect them like the Trans-Dniester Region of Moldavia. When neither of these things happened, the local population in Donbass became afraid of what would come next.
When President Poroshenko was voted into office on May 25, 2014, instead of trying to negotiate a peaceful political settlement, he escalated the anti-autonomy/federalist/separatist military operation (the so-called "Anti-Terrorist Operation", a/k/a "ATO").
On May 26, 2014 the Donetsk International Airport was heavily damaged by Ukrainian Air Force strikes.
After President Poroshenko's inauguration, many leading political, cultural, public and business leaders of Donbass asked him to hold negotiations withe the political leaders of the Donestk and Lugansk autonomy/federalism movements, but instead he labeled them separatist terrorists and escalated the ATO.
Villages, towns and cities of Lugansk and Donetsk regions were indiscriminately shelled and bombed by the Ukranian Armed Forces (UAF).
War crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the UAF when civilian areas were shelled and bombed (even those residential areas where there were no insurgents) without prior warning and without any organized evacuation of local residents.
The ATO used infamous anti-insurgency tactics against the local population -- tactics espoused and perfected not only by dictators and authoritarian regimes throughout the 20th century but also by the U.S. military and intelligence communities -- meant to shell, bomb, starve and scare the local population into submission and abandonment of the insurgents.
The Ukrainian government did not care apparently that the local population included the innocent and vulnerable segments, such as the elderly, women and children.
Why? Because Ukrainian President Poroshenko and his government received approval from their foreign supporters & allies (U.S. first and foremost) for the ATO and assurances that the US/EU political establishment would turn a blind eye on the collateral damage (i.e. war crimes against civilians and crime against humanity) necessary to contain and/or defeat the pro-Russian federalist/autonomy menace that would threaten the new pro-US/EU/NATO Ukrainian government.
The Ukrainian and Western government and corporate media supporting US/EU/NATO policies and objectives in Ukraine also turned a blind eye on the UAF atrocities and engaged in blatant propaganda designed to falsely show the world that instead of the Ukrainian Army fighting local insurgents (who constitute at least 90% of the insurgent forces in Donetsk and Lugansk) and killing local civilians in the process, the Ukrainian people are battling a Russian invasion of East Ukraine.
This Daily Mail article on the consequences of war for East Ukraine's children has the same propaganda spin.
Instead of putting blame for war crimes and crimes against humanity on the Ukrainian government and armed forces -- the side that, thanks to superior government firepower, undeniably has committed the vast majority of such crimes against the local population -- the Daily Mail, attempts to place blame for such crimes against children on Russia and its President Putin.
How? For supporting and providing assistance to the DNR/LNR self-proclaimed republics and their populations after they were literally left to fend for themselves by the Ukrainian government without food, water, electricity, natural gas, heat, sewage, medical care, education, transportation, other vital government services and jobs.
If you think that I'm making up the ruthless & criminal approach of the Ukrainian government and President Poroshenko, then take a look at President Poroshenko's own words below .
So who's to blame for the death and suffering of Donbass' children, Daily Mail?
How about the hundreds of thousands of children of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria?
Russia and Putin?
I don't think so.
Gregory Krasovsky
******************************
"Poroshenko: "Their children will hole up in the basements - this is how we win the war!"
Published on Nov 14, 2014
Petro Poroshenko announced another cynical approach of the Ukrainian government to the recalcitrant residents of Donbass during his speech in Odessa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHWHqj8g7Bk
Ukraine’s Tragicomedy
Made in the USA
by Justin Raimondo, June 05, 2015
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/06/04/ukraines-tragicomedy/
"Unlike tranquil Crimea, east Ukraine is in blood-stained turmoil, with the inhabitants refusing to buckle under to rule from Kiev.
This may have something to do with the merciless pounding they have taken from the Ukrainian military, which has murdered thousands of civilians in aerial bombardments of cities and towns. Kiev’s attitude toward its citizens in the eastern part of the country was succinctly summed up by Poroshenko, who famously declared:
“Our children will go to school, to kindergarten, while theirs’ will hole up in basements. This is how we will win this war!”
His statement has got to be the first time in recorded history that a government leader has boasted about targeting children in wartime."
Showing posts with label Anti-Terrorism Operation (ATO). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-Terrorism Operation (ATO). Show all posts
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Can the West afford to ignore Russia's offer to resolve the current Ukrainian conflict through the Minsk-2 Agreements?
"West 'ignored Russian offer in 2012 to have Syria's Assad step aside'."
Why?
Because the goal of the U.S. and its allies was regime change -- getting rid of Bashar al-Assad, who was considered an ally of Iran, another U.S. target for regime change in the Middle East.
The U.S. and its allies did not want to risk a negotiated political settlement that could have resulted in a new Syrian government with supporters of Assad or Iran at the helm -- so the U.S. & Co. funded, trained and equipped Syrian opposition rebels with the expectation that they would topple Assad's government -- Syria's lawful government -- fairly quickly.
What do we have now in 2015?
A country devastated by war, over 200 thousand killed and ten million plus Syrians abroad seeking refuge in other countries.
Plus we have ISIS and other Islamic fundamentalist (extremist) rebels whose international ranks (now trained, experienced and full of blood-lust) constitute a clear and present danger -- including from terrorism -- worldwide and especially to their countries of origin and previous residence.
Was it moral, just or legal for the U.S. to try to oust Syria's president Assad? Had Syria declared war on the United States?
Had Syria been proven guilty in terrorist attacks on Americans?
Could the fact that Syria's president opposed U.S. foreign policy and refused to obey Washington's orders ever justify military, political and economic interference in another country's internal affairs?
Can it be argued that America's regime change project in Ukraine, which includes
- U.S. support (political, financial and military) of extreme right nationalist Ukrainian political movements (Svoboda party, UNA-UNSO, Right Sector and etc.),
- the Euromaydan protests, including aggravated assault and murder of Ukrainian police officers lawfully assigned to protect government buildings and officials,
- the unlawful ouster of President Yanukovich in February of 2014,
- the approval and support (political, financial and military) of the so called "Ant-Terrorist Operation" (ATO) in East Ukraine against political movements and civilian populations who refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new pro-American government and voted for governmental autonomy from it in local referendums in May of 2014, a military and police operation that has devastated East Ukraine and includes the commission of numerous and grievous war crimes and crimes against humanity,
could produce the same results in Ukraine, the geographic center of Europe, as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and/or Syria?
After all, the Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk government does not seem to be interested in resolving this civil conflict (war) through a political compromise by holding direct negotiations with the political leadership of the Donetsk and Lugansk Self-Proclaimed Republics (DNR/LNR).
Instead, the U.S. backed Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk government continues to believe that that DNR/LNR can be subdued eventually with an economic blockade and military action (as long as Russia does not provided direct military assistance to them!).
Let's think about it. If Russia is willing to provide direct military assistance to its ally, the Syrian government at a distance of 1200+ KM from Russia's borders (just like the U.S. has provided assistance to its allies across the globe, including Vietnam and etc.), does anyone really think that Russia won't provide direct military assistance to local rebels in DNR/LNR who are fighting a U.S. backed government in Kyiv that presents a clear and present danger (political, economic and military) to Putin's Russia?
So can the Ukrainian people and Europeans afford to have the same scenario unfold in East Ukraine and beyond as in the Middle East? After all, Europe is lucky that over a million of Ukrainian refugees have chosen to flee to Russia unlike their middle-eastern counterparts who are now storming European shores and borders while they seek refuge from the flames of war that the U.S. and its European allies have ignited and fed in Syria?
Sadly, the Poroshenko-Yastenyuk regime in Ukraine and its supporters in Washington understand that if DNR/LNR are reintegrated into Ukraine with political & economic autonomy and protection from political prosecution, then these regions with a population of over 7 million are likely to topple their governments in the next elections.
Why? Because the resident of DNR/LNR haven't forgotten how the Ukrainian government forces tried to bomb their cities, villages, industry and infrastructure into the stone age and how the Poroshenko-Yastenyuk government tried to starve them into submission with a complete blockade blockade on the delivery of foodstuffs, medicine, goods, pensions and anything else of material value into their rebellious regions.
Once, again, we have a choice in America and Ukraine. We can step on the same rake twice -- by trying to resolve the East Ukrainian conflict with military means and the facing the same consequences as in Syria -- or we can try to resolve it with a negotiated political settlement.
But we must be ready to accept the strong possibility that such a political settlement includes the risk of having a U.S. supported regime eventually be replaced by an independent Ukrainian government that's likely to select a non-aligned course to maintain the peace and productive economic relations both with the U.S., the EU and Russia.
So what's it gonna be? Another Syria, but in the center of Europe, or a political settlement like in Northern Ireland?
*****************
West 'ignored Russian offer in 2012 to have Syria's Assad step aside'.
"Exclusive: Senior negotiator describes rejection of alleged proposal – since which time tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced.
...
Russia proposed more than three years ago that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, could step down as part of a peace deal, according to a senior negotiator involved in back-channel discussions at the time.
...
Former Finnish president and Nobel peace prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari said western powers failed to seize on the proposal. Since it was made, in 2012, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions uprooted, causing the world’s gravest refugee crisis since the second world war.
...
Ahtisaari won the Nobel prize in 2008 “for his efforts on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts”, including in Namibia, Aceh in Indonesia, Kosovo and Iraq.
...
Ahtisaari held talks with envoys from the five permanent members of the UN security council in February 2012. He said that during those discussions, the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, laid out a three-point plan, which included a proposal for Assad to cede power at some point after peace talks had started between the regime and the opposition.
...
On 22 February 2012 he was sent to meet the missions of the permanent five nations (the US, Russia, UK, France and China) at UN headquarters in New York by The Elders, a group of former world leaders advocating peace and human rights that has included Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
...
But he said that the US, Britain and France were so convinced that the Syrian dictator was about to fall, they ignored the proposal.
...
“It was an opportunity lost in 2012,” Ahtisaari said in an interview.
...
“Nothing happened because I think all these, and many others, were convinced that Assad would be thrown out of office in a few weeks so there was no need to do anything.”
...
At the time of Ahtisaari’s visit to New York, the death toll from the Syrian conflict was estimated to be about 7,500. The UN believes that toll passed 220,000 at the beginning of this year, and continues to climb. The chaos has led to the rise of Islamic State. Over 11 million Syrians have been forced out of their homes.
...
“We should have prevented this from happening because this is a self-made disaster, this flow of refugees to our countries in Europe,” Ahtisaari said. “I don’t see any other option but to take good care of these poor people … We are paying the bills we have caused ourselves.”"
Read the rest at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/west-ignored-russian-offer-in-2012-to-have-syrias-assad-step-aside
Why?
Because the goal of the U.S. and its allies was regime change -- getting rid of Bashar al-Assad, who was considered an ally of Iran, another U.S. target for regime change in the Middle East.
The U.S. and its allies did not want to risk a negotiated political settlement that could have resulted in a new Syrian government with supporters of Assad or Iran at the helm -- so the U.S. & Co. funded, trained and equipped Syrian opposition rebels with the expectation that they would topple Assad's government -- Syria's lawful government -- fairly quickly.
What do we have now in 2015?
A country devastated by war, over 200 thousand killed and ten million plus Syrians abroad seeking refuge in other countries.
Plus we have ISIS and other Islamic fundamentalist (extremist) rebels whose international ranks (now trained, experienced and full of blood-lust) constitute a clear and present danger -- including from terrorism -- worldwide and especially to their countries of origin and previous residence.
Was it moral, just or legal for the U.S. to try to oust Syria's president Assad? Had Syria declared war on the United States?
Had Syria been proven guilty in terrorist attacks on Americans?
Could the fact that Syria's president opposed U.S. foreign policy and refused to obey Washington's orders ever justify military, political and economic interference in another country's internal affairs?
Can it be argued that America's regime change project in Ukraine, which includes
- U.S. support (political, financial and military) of extreme right nationalist Ukrainian political movements (Svoboda party, UNA-UNSO, Right Sector and etc.),
- the Euromaydan protests, including aggravated assault and murder of Ukrainian police officers lawfully assigned to protect government buildings and officials,
- the unlawful ouster of President Yanukovich in February of 2014,
- the approval and support (political, financial and military) of the so called "Ant-Terrorist Operation" (ATO) in East Ukraine against political movements and civilian populations who refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new pro-American government and voted for governmental autonomy from it in local referendums in May of 2014, a military and police operation that has devastated East Ukraine and includes the commission of numerous and grievous war crimes and crimes against humanity,
could produce the same results in Ukraine, the geographic center of Europe, as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and/or Syria?
After all, the Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk government does not seem to be interested in resolving this civil conflict (war) through a political compromise by holding direct negotiations with the political leadership of the Donetsk and Lugansk Self-Proclaimed Republics (DNR/LNR).
Instead, the U.S. backed Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk government continues to believe that that DNR/LNR can be subdued eventually with an economic blockade and military action (as long as Russia does not provided direct military assistance to them!).
Let's think about it. If Russia is willing to provide direct military assistance to its ally, the Syrian government at a distance of 1200+ KM from Russia's borders (just like the U.S. has provided assistance to its allies across the globe, including Vietnam and etc.), does anyone really think that Russia won't provide direct military assistance to local rebels in DNR/LNR who are fighting a U.S. backed government in Kyiv that presents a clear and present danger (political, economic and military) to Putin's Russia?
So can the Ukrainian people and Europeans afford to have the same scenario unfold in East Ukraine and beyond as in the Middle East? After all, Europe is lucky that over a million of Ukrainian refugees have chosen to flee to Russia unlike their middle-eastern counterparts who are now storming European shores and borders while they seek refuge from the flames of war that the U.S. and its European allies have ignited and fed in Syria?
Sadly, the Poroshenko-Yastenyuk regime in Ukraine and its supporters in Washington understand that if DNR/LNR are reintegrated into Ukraine with political & economic autonomy and protection from political prosecution, then these regions with a population of over 7 million are likely to topple their governments in the next elections.
Why? Because the resident of DNR/LNR haven't forgotten how the Ukrainian government forces tried to bomb their cities, villages, industry and infrastructure into the stone age and how the Poroshenko-Yastenyuk government tried to starve them into submission with a complete blockade blockade on the delivery of foodstuffs, medicine, goods, pensions and anything else of material value into their rebellious regions.
Once, again, we have a choice in America and Ukraine. We can step on the same rake twice -- by trying to resolve the East Ukrainian conflict with military means and the facing the same consequences as in Syria -- or we can try to resolve it with a negotiated political settlement.
But we must be ready to accept the strong possibility that such a political settlement includes the risk of having a U.S. supported regime eventually be replaced by an independent Ukrainian government that's likely to select a non-aligned course to maintain the peace and productive economic relations both with the U.S., the EU and Russia.
So what's it gonna be? Another Syria, but in the center of Europe, or a political settlement like in Northern Ireland?
*****************
West 'ignored Russian offer in 2012 to have Syria's Assad step aside'.
"Exclusive: Senior negotiator describes rejection of alleged proposal – since which time tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced.
...
Russia proposed more than three years ago that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, could step down as part of a peace deal, according to a senior negotiator involved in back-channel discussions at the time.
...
Former Finnish president and Nobel peace prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari said western powers failed to seize on the proposal. Since it was made, in 2012, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions uprooted, causing the world’s gravest refugee crisis since the second world war.
...
Ahtisaari won the Nobel prize in 2008 “for his efforts on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts”, including in Namibia, Aceh in Indonesia, Kosovo and Iraq.
...
Ahtisaari held talks with envoys from the five permanent members of the UN security council in February 2012. He said that during those discussions, the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, laid out a three-point plan, which included a proposal for Assad to cede power at some point after peace talks had started between the regime and the opposition.
...
On 22 February 2012 he was sent to meet the missions of the permanent five nations (the US, Russia, UK, France and China) at UN headquarters in New York by The Elders, a group of former world leaders advocating peace and human rights that has included Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
...
But he said that the US, Britain and France were so convinced that the Syrian dictator was about to fall, they ignored the proposal.
...
“It was an opportunity lost in 2012,” Ahtisaari said in an interview.
...
“Nothing happened because I think all these, and many others, were convinced that Assad would be thrown out of office in a few weeks so there was no need to do anything.”
...
At the time of Ahtisaari’s visit to New York, the death toll from the Syrian conflict was estimated to be about 7,500. The UN believes that toll passed 220,000 at the beginning of this year, and continues to climb. The chaos has led to the rise of Islamic State. Over 11 million Syrians have been forced out of their homes.
...
“We should have prevented this from happening because this is a self-made disaster, this flow of refugees to our countries in Europe,” Ahtisaari said. “I don’t see any other option but to take good care of these poor people … We are paying the bills we have caused ourselves.”"
Read the rest at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/west-ignored-russian-offer-in-2012-to-have-syrias-assad-step-aside
Friday, August 7, 2015
Listing of URA Observer's Prior Posts on Facebook.
For those of you who may not follow or have missed this blog's prior posts on Facebook, here's a list:
The Ukrainian-Russian-American Observer
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer
Report: Global War On Terror Has Killed Over 4 Million Muslims.
August 5, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1165102920170512
You can lose your U.S. passport without a court order or a contested court proceeding if you're suspected of helping terrorists or not paying your taxes!
August 5, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1165029146844556
Dumping Debt and Seizing Assets - Ukrainian Countermeasures for Russian Aggression?
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161466413867496
Ukraine agribusiness firms in 'quiet land grab' with development finance.
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161461493867988
What is happening to civilians trapped in eastern Ukraine’s war zone?
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161458573868280
When Ukraine is no longer Ukraine.
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161390380541766
Ukraine faces mass starvation and the exodus of millions, says bishop
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161388253875312
Pentagon Plans More Support for Ukraine as Buffer Zone Mooted
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161384840542320
Special Report: Ukraine struggles to control maverick battalions
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160846030596201
Ukraine: World’s unseen refugee crisis
July 28, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160339223980215
OSCE Delegation Confirms That It Came Under Fire in Donbass
July 28, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160332987314172
The White House Should Resist Calls to Arm Ukraine
July 28, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160329397314531
Ukrainian Jew who transported 137 faceless corpses starts over in Israel
July 28, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160323293981808
In America, mass incarceration has caused more crime than it’s prevented
July 25, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1158445637502907
New Sandy Bland Dash Cam Footage Released - The Young Turks
July 25, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1158416917505779
IMF Violates IMF Rules, to Continue Ukraine Bailouts
July 13, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1150285758318895
The IMF Has Made €2.5 Billion Profit Out of Greece Loans
July 6, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1146490755365062
Churches introduce FACIAL RECOGNITION to keep track of members' attendance
July 2, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1143869662293838
XKEYSCORE: NSA's Google for the World's Private Communications
July 2, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1143842275629910
What Borders Mean to Europe
The Muslim refugee crisis, Greece's economic quagmire and the situation in Ukraine all stem from Europe's understanding of borders.
July 2, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1143739658973505
Operation Barbarossa
June 23, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1138237539523717
The Ukrainian-Russian-American Observer
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer
Report: Global War On Terror Has Killed Over 4 Million Muslims.
August 5, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1165102920170512
You can lose your U.S. passport without a court order or a contested court proceeding if you're suspected of helping terrorists or not paying your taxes!
August 5, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1165029146844556
Dumping Debt and Seizing Assets - Ukrainian Countermeasures for Russian Aggression?
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161466413867496
Ukraine agribusiness firms in 'quiet land grab' with development finance.
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161461493867988
What is happening to civilians trapped in eastern Ukraine’s war zone?
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161458573868280
When Ukraine is no longer Ukraine.
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161390380541766
Ukraine faces mass starvation and the exodus of millions, says bishop
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161388253875312
Pentagon Plans More Support for Ukraine as Buffer Zone Mooted
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1161384840542320
Special Report: Ukraine struggles to control maverick battalions
July 30, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160846030596201
Ukraine: World’s unseen refugee crisis
July 28, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160339223980215
OSCE Delegation Confirms That It Came Under Fire in Donbass
July 28, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160332987314172
The White House Should Resist Calls to Arm Ukraine
July 28, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160329397314531
Ukrainian Jew who transported 137 faceless corpses starts over in Israel
July 28, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1160323293981808
In America, mass incarceration has caused more crime than it’s prevented
July 25, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1158445637502907
New Sandy Bland Dash Cam Footage Released - The Young Turks
July 25, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1158416917505779
IMF Violates IMF Rules, to Continue Ukraine Bailouts
July 13, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1150285758318895
The IMF Has Made €2.5 Billion Profit Out of Greece Loans
July 6, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1146490755365062
Churches introduce FACIAL RECOGNITION to keep track of members' attendance
July 2, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1143869662293838
XKEYSCORE: NSA's Google for the World's Private Communications
July 2, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1143842275629910
What Borders Mean to Europe
The Muslim refugee crisis, Greece's economic quagmire and the situation in Ukraine all stem from Europe's understanding of borders.
July 2, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1143739658973505
Operation Barbarossa
June 23, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1138237539523717
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Whose Victory Did Ukrainians Celebrate on May 9th?
Whose Victory Will Ukrainians Celebrate on May 9?
Since WW II could have ended pretty much only in two ways in Europe --
(a) Nazi Germany's victory over the Soviet Union (the last European power that was able to defeat Hitler) and then probably over the United Kingdom (even with U.S. assistance) or
(b) The Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany with British, French and American (incl. Canada) assistance,
on May 8th and 9th the residents of the former Soviet Union can do several things:
Choice #1. Celebrate the defeat of Hitler's Nazi Germany by a lesser evil, Stalin's Soviet Union, and be grateful that from 1945 to 1991 they lived in the Soviet Union and not Nazi Germany's Lebensraum for Aryans and their sub-human non-Aryan servants & vassals.
Unfortunately, in human politics over the last 4 thousand years, when it comes to the goodness of political regimes, there is no black and white, just shades of grey, gradations of good and evil. So in our choices as citizens, tax-payers, voters, employees and even consumers, we are faced (and forced by lack of meaningful choice) with supporting the lesser evil.
Even when the modern self-professed cradle of democracy (the United States) was founded in 1776, the rights and privileges of democracy were denied to African-American slaves and the Native Americans.
So with all that in mind, the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany was a victory of relative good against clear evil.
Choice #2. Celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union and all its ethnicities (Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Kazakhs, Tatars and etc.) who fought and died side-by-side to destroy the Nazi Fascist menace while acknowledging that the Soviet victory in May of 1945 deprived many nationalities & countries in central and Eastern Europe of democracy and full political & economic independence.
Yes, the celebrations must be tempered by a remembrance that Stalin's victory brought with it another 45 years of Soviet socialist communism, a system which, although it gave Soviet peasants and the working poor free education, medical care and the opportunity to rise to the very top of its political, academic, social and industrial sectors, dealt with authoritarian and totalitarian ruthlessness with its political opponents.
Here we must note that Post-Stalin Soviet Union (1952 -1991) was matched, if not surpassed, by other non-communist regimes in imprisoning, kidnapping, torturing and disappearing political opponents -- including regimes that were supported by the United States (a country which incarcerates the highest percentage of its population today than any other country in the world!) such as Shah's Iran (’41-’79), Hussein’s Iraq (’79-’91), Pinochet's Chile (’73-’90), Argentina during its Dirty War (’69-’83), Franco's Spain (’39-’75) and etc.
Choice #3. Commiserate the defeat of Nazi Germany along with those Nazi collaborators who are still alive and/or their progeny.
After all, had Nazi Germany won, those non-Aryan collaborators (especially the non-Jewish and the "western" Slavic ones), could may have enjoyed a short-lived cozy place as the local overseers of Hitler's Final Solution and local laborers in Lebensraum.
The folks opting for #3 do need to understand that Nazi Germany never intended to give Eastern European non-Aryan nations any real independence, but only dangled it fraudulently in front of them to get their assistance in fighting the Soviet Union and those pesky Bolshevik sub-human Jews.
They must also understand that collaboration with the Nazis, no matter what their intentions (desire for independence, hate for Communist-Bolsheviks, hate for Jews, Gypsies and etc.), cannot be justified morally or excused, especially the collaboration in the Holocaust, the intentional ethnic/religious extermination of the Jews.
The vast majority of Germans – and Germany as a country in its state policies --have already gone through this necessary healing and rehabilitative process of acknowledging the evil of Nazism and their responsibility in supporting it and the horrors of war and death that it inflicted upon millions of people.
The vast majority of Soviet citizens – and Russia as a country in its policies of rehabilitating the victims of Soviet communist persecutions – has also understood the evil and wrongness of Soviet Stalinist-Bolshevik terror against all perceived political opponents.
So Choice #3, no matter how glibly it’s spun or presented – such as in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and now in Ukraine, where local SS veterans and other Nazi collaborators are now being promoted and glorified as freedom fighters whose Nazi collaboration is excused and justified by their hate and struggle against Soviet Communism – is a long-term moral and spiritual dead end, which will do nothing but bring more xenophobia, ethnic cleansing, authoritarianism, militarism and eventually the horrors of war.
We only advance as humanity when we acknowledge our mistakes and those of our ancestors (even the generations of our parents & grandparents who are still alive!), repent, make amends and commit to making sure that such wrongs stop and are never repeated again.
[As side note, despite living in greater Washington DC for 5+ years, I could never root for the Washington Redskins – an American Football team whose name is a living perpetual insult to all the Native Americans that were killed, displaced and disenfranchised by the seizure of their land by colonists and the U.S.]
Otherwise, the cancer of ethnic, racial, gender, religious, linguistic or cultural superiority will slowly and surreptitiously reappear, grow and spread -- leading inevitably to more conflicts, wars and human death & suffering.
Personally, as you may have guessed, I’m opting for #1 and #2 – so on May 9th I’ll be at the Victory Parade in Moscow, Russia, where I can pay respects to the memories of my maternal grandfather, who went MIA and maternal great uncle who fought since 1941, was captured by the Nazis, escaped a POW camp, rejoined the fight and eventually died only two weeks before the end of the war from shrapnel near Koenigsberg in Eastern Prussia (now Kaliningrad in Russia).
I’m not going to boycott Russia’s 70th anniversary victory celebrations because of the current Civil War in Eastern Ukraine. Why? Because I spent last May and June in Lugansk in Eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Coal Basin.
There, I saw with my own eyes how the residents of Lugansk voted freely and overwhelmingly on May 11, 2014 in a referendum for governmental autonomy from the new U.S.-backed Turchinov-Yatsenyuk regime.
For better or for worse, despite what you hear from Western Media, the residents of Lugansk voted freely and somewhat naively without Putin Russia’s secret meddling for autonomy from a new government that they believed was headed by extreme Ukrainian Nationalists, including supporters and progeny of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, who would discriminate against ethnic Russians, Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Eastern Orthodox Christians loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate.
The residents of Lugansk were also afraid that the new Kyiv government, which illegitimately overthrew Ukrainian President Yanukovich, a corrupt, but democratically elected president, would eventually pit Ukraine against Russia at the behest of their American and NATO backers (their words & logic).
So they voted for governmental autonomy, many naively believing that Lugansk would be absorbed (annexed) by Russia just like Crimea, another region (formally part of Ukraine since 1954) and they preferred to live in Russia that in Ukraine run by Yatsenyuk, Turchinov, Tyagnybok (head of Svoboda Party), Yarosh (head of Right Sector) and Poroshenko.
BTW, the residents of Crimea also voted overwhelmingly and freely for independence and joining Russia pretty much for the same reasons – and today do not regret their choice despite Western and Ukrainian sanctions against Crimea. It’s an inconvenient truth, but a valid example where a people’s right to self-determination trumped (with “neighborly” Russian assistance) the territorial integrity argument that every state likes to use to prevent loss of territory to separatist movements of aggrieved local populations.
Afterwards, instead of negotiating with these regions over autonomy and/or federalization, the Poroshenko government decided to restore its control over Donetsk and Lugansk just like the North over the South in the American Civil War (1861-1865) and Russia over Chechnya in 1995 by trying to take over the separatist regions with brute military force and punitive military and economic measures against the civilian population.
Here, Ukraine’s President Poroshenko did what corrupt President Yanukovich did not dare – began to use military force against civilians and local militias, including aerial bombardments, cluster bombs, incendiary white phosphor munitions and surface-to-surface missiles against military and civilian targets in civilian residential areas.
We – Americans, Ukrainians and Russians -- are lucky that Putin’s Russia has not responded to the installation of a pro-US/EU/NATO regime in Ukraine on February 22, 2014 the same way the U.S. has responded to “similar challenges” (a) over the last 70 years in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lybia, and now Syria or (b) enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Instead, Russia’s support of the Donetsk Separatists (military and financial) has been minimal in comparison to the U.S. doctrine and interventions in the above conflicts.
Despite what you may hear from pro-Poroshenko Ukrainian and Western corporate media, the vast majority (>= 95%) of the separatist forces are composed of local men who took up arms to defend their region against what they perceived to be an illegitimate regime that would not respect their region’s right to self-determination and would discriminate against them. But that’s how civil wars generally start.
Based on these factors, I could not apply double-standards to Russia and boycott the 70th anniversary Victory Day celebrations because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea support for the Donetsk and Lugansk.
What do you think?
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