Ukraine peace talks conclude for night in Minsk

Ukraine peace talks conclude for night in Minsk | Русская весна

From Russkaya Vesna
December 25, 2014

Talks aimed at reaching a stable cease-fire in Ukraine between its government forces and representatives of Novorossiya ended Wednesday after more than five hours, with no indication of progress and questions about when the next round might take place.

The opening session occurred in the Belarusian capital, one day after Ukraine’s decision to drop its non-aligned status, which added a new element of tension to the attempts to resolve the violent crisis in the country. The talks were to discuss how to improve an often-violated cease-fire that was declared in September, to pull back heavy weapons and to exchange of war prisoners.

The negotiators included representatives of Ukraine, Russia, Novorossiya and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

News media were not allowed access to the meeting and the participants left the session without comment. Another round had been tentatively set for Friday, but the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said after the session’s conclusion that it was unclear if that would take place.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces, volunteer battalions and Novorossiya militia has claimed more than 4,700 lives since it began this spring.

Previous rounds of talks in September produced a cease-fire and an agreement to pull back heavy weapons, but both sides have failed to agree on a line of division and fighting continued.

Source:
http://rusvesna.su/english/1419479846

In Lugansk region lies “dead load” of 122 thousand tons of coal

From Ukrainian Pravda, December 5, 2014

In stock: “LisichanskUgol” and “Pervomayskugol” have more than 122 thousand tons of coal.

On Friday the chairman of the Lugansk Regional State Administration Gennady Moskal writes on its website .

“Today in the associations’ warehouses ‘LisichanskUgol’ and ‘Pervomayskugol’ on the territory controlled by Ukraine is 122,000 tons of coal,” – said the governor.

According to him, the coal “is dead load, because the Donetsk Railway (central office which, despite a decision of the National Security Council and the Cabinet of Ministers and remained in the occupied Donetsk) has no rail cars for shipment of coal to thermal power plants.

“There is a paradoxical situation – coal is purchased only in South Africa, imported to Ukraine and hits the thermal power plants, and what is produced in the Lugansk region on the territory controlled by Ukraine cannot be sent to the thermal power plants due to a lack of cars and locomotives for diesel fuel,” – said Moskal.

It is known that on Friday at the Ministry of Energy and Coal (Minenergouglya) an emergency meeting takes place with the new Minister Vladimir Demchishin in which trying to find a way out of the catastrophic situation with the lack of coal at thermal power plants.

According to one of the directors of thermal power plants, if in the near future are not started oil-gas units, the plants will stop, and many cities will be left without light and heat, including Kiev.

Source:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2014/12/5/7046539/

Russian power will keep Lugansk lights on for the holidays

DNR-LNR.ru
December 6, 2014

A creation of alternative energy systems of Lugansk Peoples Republic has been  completed. Lugansk is no longer dependent on TPP [thermal power plants] in the town of Schastye, said the head of the Center of Management of the Restoration of the Lugansk Republic (CUV LNR), Alexander Drobot -reported a correspondent of IA “Novorossia”.

According to the head of Center, now, in the event of a power outage at Lugansk TPP, which is located in the town of Schastye, controlled by Ukrainian troops, the power grid of the Republic will switch to direct power supply from Russia.

Consequently, the Ukrainian punishers will not be able to inflict significant damage to the power grid of the Republic. The head of CUV LNR assured that the citizens of the Republic are soundly protected in the energy department.

“Now residents of LPR are not afraid that they might be left without lights. The Republic cares for a stable future for its citizens”, – said the head of the CUV. Recall that the press service of DTEK announced that Lugansk TPP has three days of coal reserves left.

Translated by Kristina Rus

Posted on
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2014/12/russian-power-will-keep-lugansk-lights.html

Original article:
http://dnr-lnr.ru/novosti-lnr/969-lugansk-bolshe-ne-zavisit-ot-tes-goroda-schaste.html

 

Rolling blackouts began December 2 in Ukraine

Across the country began shutdown of light
Posted on Ukrainian Pravda, December 2, 2014

In Ukraine, from December 2 began rolling blackouts.

This was at a press briefing on Tuesday announced…Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan.

The minister said that the situation should return to normal until 6 December.

As explained, “Ukrainian Pravda”, the press service of the Ministry, shutdown caused by a lack of electricity.

“Disabling takes place in an approved schedule” Ukrenergo “. December 2, these graphs were used in the amount of 2,800 MW / h”, – explained the Ministry of Energy.

Electricity shortage caused by the fact that the repair of the third unit of Zaporizhzhya NPP and the shortage of coal in the power station warehouses .

“In addition,” Ukrenergo “reported that there are still 19 blocks at thermal power plants in Ukraine to be repaired. Moreover, the temperature dropped. And had to enter the graphics shutdown” – added in the press-service.

As reported by the readers of the “Ukrainian Pravda” Facebook page, the light for several hours in the evening and the morning was turned off all over Ukraine: in Kiev and towns around it, Lviv, Khmelnytsky, Odessa, Sumy, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Vinnitsa and other cities. Electricity is turned off for 2-3 hours in the morning and in the evening on different schedules in different regions.

To avoid inconvenience, people are advised to carefully use elevators and disable appliances.

As you know, earlier Prime Minister Yatsenyuk promised that “heads will fly ” of officials in the case of disconnection the grid by the end of the inventory at the stations.

Source:

http://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2014/12/2/7046158/

December 24, 15:00 — Meeting in Minsk for peaceful settlement on Donbass conflict

Please consider praying for this very important meeting as well as the one on December 26. Prayer is heart action and doesn’t require a religion. Pray for protection of the meetings and the participants, and the resolution of these issues.

The meetings are planned for Minsk, Belarus 15:00 (3 pm) December 24

Equivalent time:
GMT/UT          12 noon
New York, USA 7 am ET
California, USA   4 am PT
Hong Kong           8 pm

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html for when the meeting will be held relative to your time zone.

Posted at vz.ru
December 24, 2014

Contact group meeting in Minsk for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Donbass “is scheduled for 15.00 on December 24,” said a representative of the People’s Republic of Donetsk, Vice-Speaker of the People’s Council DNR Dennis Pushilin.

“The meeting is confirmed, at least for the moment. The beginning is scheduled for 15:00. The previous agenda. It is four points: removal of artillery and multiple rocket launchers facilities to a safe distance from the line of contact, exchange of prisoners, the lifting of the economic blockade of Donbas and the introduction of the by Ukraine of the law on the special status of Donbass “, – he said, reports” the Donetsk news agency. ”

Precisely because of the agenda, for a long time were unable to agree on a date for the negotiations, reports Tass.

As the representative of December 17 LC at Minsk negotiations Vladislav Dane, the republic is ready to negotiate only under the condition that the agenda will include questions on the abolition of the decrees of Petro Poroshenko on the socio-economic blockade of Donbas, on the enactment of laws on the special status of the region and of amnesty .

On Tuesday, the Ukraine Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin said that the trilateral meeting of the contact group to resolve the conflict in the east of Ukraine is scheduled for Wednesday.

It was reported that Lugansk People’s Republic is not officially invited to the talks in Minsk on December 24th, but its representative went there, “not to disrupt the meeting.”

Dane stated before that not a single document which could be signed at a meeting of the contact group in Ukraine has yet been prepared.

…Recall that on Monday evening, the press office of the Ukrainian president reported that leaders of Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia have agreed to hold new meetings of the contact group in Minsk on Wednesday and Friday (24 and 26 December).

Source:
http://www.vz.ru/news/2014/12/24/721949.html
Пушилин: Встреча контактной группы в Минске запланирована на 15.00

From google translation

From Ruvesna.su

Belarus to host a new round of Ukraine peace talks
December 23, 2014

Belarus is set to host a new round of Ukrainian peace talks this week.

Envoys from Kiev, Russia, and OSCE reps will attend the talks, which will be held on Wednesday and Friday.

The Ukrainian president has issued a statement saying that the dates were discussed in a phone conversation between the French, Russian, and German heads of state. Petro Poroshenko added that the leaders highlighted the need to implement the next steps of a ceasefire plan approved by Kiev and pro-Russian fighters in September.

The first round of talks in Minsk produced no concrete results, with the two sides accusing each other of violating the terms of the accord. Ukraine and its Western allies blame Russia for stoking the deadly conflict. But Russia has time and again denied that it is involved in the crisis.

Source:
http://rusvesna.su/english/1419304089

Oleg Tsarev: Five conclusions on Ukraine as the plunder continues

End of the life cycle of the project “Ukraine is not Russia”
Конец жизненного цикла проекта «Украина не Россия»

by Oleg Tsarev, Chairman of Novorossiya Parliament, for vz.ru
December 19, 2014

——————————————————————————

It has been a year since many Ukrainians came out on the Maidan, wishing to “improve life” in their own understanding, namely by integrating Ukraine into Europe. One can already make an assessment of the consequences but, to put it mildly, they are not encouraging.

First Conclusion: Maidan was very well prepared

The preparations did not begin with Victoria Nuland’s cookies but much earlier, with Kravchuk and Kuchma who generously handed out national properties to “their own people”, with Yushchenko who delivered the coup de grace both to the economy and the military, and with Yanukovych, who placed his “overseers” in all regions of the country.

Only in the last 15 years infrastructure wear and tear increased from 40% to over 80%. As a result by early 2014 Ukraine reached a pre-default stage. Gold and hard currency reserves shrank to 15 billion dollars, the country’s inability to fulfill its financial obligations increased to 65%, reaching an almost absolute record.

By comparison, the media is reporting that Russia is considered to be at 17% risk of default. Yet Ukraine’s total debt to all creditors is, by Ukrainian standards, astronomically high at $65 billion.

What did Ukrainians receive in return? The budget started delaying even the most important payments to the regions and to the population, the hryvnia already lost almost half of its value against the dollar and 42% against the euro.

The fall of Ukrainian currency is accompanied by growth of retail prices. Inflation already reached 20%.

Second Conclusion: Ukraine was subsidized by Russia during its entire independence period

This took mainly the form of lowering the price of energy.

The total level of subsidies exceeded $100 billion, and when Tymoshenko signed her “prison contract” forcing Ukraine to genuinely pay for gas, Ukraine’s budget instantly developed a “black hole” under the name of “Naftogaz” which amounts to 4-5% of the country’s GDP.

Of course, the national treasury did not empty itself out overnight, Yanukovych also made a contribution to that. However, right now the treasury is being filled by a massive currency emission by the National Bank of Ukraine which, according to Tymoshenko itself, is nearly equivalent to the entire national budget, exceeding $300 billion. Which spells a financial doom for the country.

Third Conclusion: The Plunder Continues

And it is continued by the followers of the kolomoyskiys, the poroshenkos, the yatsenyuks who came to power in the aftermath of the Maidan.

It all began with the transferring out of the country of Ukrainian gold reserves, and is continuing through profiteering on supplies to the combat zone, pumping out of petroleum needed to maintain the “Ukrnafta” oil pumping machinery, and by theft of 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas belonging to Firtash (originally purchased by a $1.4 billion credit from Gazprombank in order to preserve Ukraine’s chemical industry).

They do not shy away from direct seizure of factories belonging to their competitors. The most recent major seizure took place in Odessa, at an oil refinery.

Fourth Conclusion: “Western partners” are strenuously pretending that everything is all right

Unlimited currency emission and the de-facto freeze of hard currency markets, the banks’ inability to return deposits, the inability to fulfill budget obligations, all of that is being ignored. The International Monetary Fund does not even have, by its own mandate, the right to give money to a country in the middle of a war.

But the markets cannot be fooled. The interest rates on Ukraine’s Credit Default Swaps (CDS), Eurobond interest rates and internal currency obligations are beating all records, indicating that a default is inevitable. Business publications (The Economist, Der Welt, and others) are beginning to prepare investors for the inevitable: if Ukraine is not given, say, another 20-25 billion dollars in the nearest future (and this in addition to the IMF and EU assistance to the tune of $37 billion), Ukraine will declare bankruptcy.

The interest of a one-year Ukrainian bond increased from 10% at the beginning of 2014 to the unheard of 27% today. Analysts cannot recall another such massive jump.

The same is true for Ukraine’s default risk assessments. At the beginning it was rated at 49%, which is high enough, but during the period of greatest tensions with Russia the indicator jumped to 60%.

Fifth Conclusion: Ukraine has no money

The currency reserves of the National Bank of Ukraine are microscopic, and almost entirely consist of securities which nobody else wants (there are rumors that $6 billion of currency reserves were traded for shares in Lehman Brothers which went bankrupt in 2008), the exporters are not selling their hard currency since they themselves are struggling, and importers cannot obtain hard currency even for critical purchases.

At the same time Kolomoyskiy is supplying substandard body armor at their weight in gold and is increasing the capital of his own Privat Bank, while at the same time reducing tax obligations to the state.

Ukraine is bragging that it increased exports this year, forgetting to add that it accomplished that feat by exporting the last of its grain reserves. As to what will happen in the spring and how the people of Ukraine will be fed, it does not seem to concern the government.

No Coal for Power Plants and None in Sight

The Donbass coal cannot be purchased for ideological reasons since, according to Yatsenyuk himself, that would be “financing terrorists.” The entire energy sector of Ukraine is sustained by supplies of nuclear fuel from Russian Rosatom (which represents nearly 50% of energy production in Ukraine).

The winter is coming, yet ‘the provision of heating of the population’ (as Klitchko famously said before) is still under question.

The efforts of the new Ukrainian ruling elite include not only the attempts to hurt Russia and the owners of Ukrainian Eurobonds (half of the total of $17.5 billion is owned by the US-based Templeton Fund), but also their own citizens, otherwise the Ukrainian “bust-out” might fail.

They are even attempting to cut off the untamed Donbass from the Ukrainian financial system and close government offices and banks in the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics. That is to say, to abandon to their fate more than 4 million of our citizens by claiming that Donbass is not making budget contributions. And those are the policies which, in their view, are supposed to revive Ukraine’s economy.

Kiev is accelerating its own collapse

Donetsk alone fulfilled 89.2% of its budget contributions in 10 months. Yet now the retirees are being told that their pensions are not being paid by Kiev since June because allegedly Donbass has not been making transfers to the national budget. This despite the fact that since January Donetsk alone transferred 5.519 billion hryvnia, of which 4.746 billion went into the national pension fund.

One should also add that Donbass represents almost a third of Ukraine’s industry, nearly all of its coal, and a fourth of its exports.

Only one conclusion can be made on the basis of the above: a crisis is coming, and it will take many forms.

  1. The paralysis of the budget and the banking system. Default before individual depositors (which already took place as far as the inhabitants of Crimea and Donbass are concerned). Multi-month delays in the payment of salaries, pensions, benefits. The seizure of industries belonging to the competition (mainly Firtash, Akhmetov, the Yanukovych group). Plunder of the remnants of state property. The ultimate bankruptcy of Naftogaz.

But the key element of the process of the collapse of the economy is the default by the state before its own people, which can take place not only in the form of direct failure to fulfill social obligations but also through hyperinflation. This would represent a total war, aimed against one’s own country.

  1. Possibly (in parallel or slightly later) a chaotic external default, which may be triggered by the collapse of the IMF program (the next tranche was delayed until Kiev satisfies at least some of IMF’s conditions). Once that happens, Ukraine’s Gas Transit System will be snapped up for pennies (that system is only needed as long as an agreement with Gazprom exists), alongside other remaining “gems”.
  2. A total war against Novorossia (or Russia) is possible as a consequence, or an attempt to delay a complete economic collapse and chaos. After all, one can never blame the Maidan for anything. But will the people fall for it?

***

Right now Ukraine needs an injection of at least 100-120 billion dollars, which could prevent a sharp economic collapse. In the absence of such an injection the country’s GDP is likely to drop by 50%, implying the collapse of the country’s whole economy.

The final destination on this path is a catastrophe and complete bankruptcy, which would be an unprecedented trial not only for the people of Ukraine, but also for Russia, Europe, and the entire world. But the crisis can no longer be stopped; one could still try to switch course to a pro-Russian, Anti-Maidan one, but that is out of the question for those who have inspired the Maidan.

And therefore a collapse is not to be avoided.

 

Translated for FortRuss.blogspot.com

http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2014/12/ukraine-plunder-continues.html — translation — Ukraine: The Plunder Continues
http://www.vz.ru/opinions/2014/12/19/721135.html?google_editors_picks=true

 

NAF Intel: Kiev is preparing false flag terrorist attacks on strategic facilities

From Rusvesna
http://rusvesna.su/news/1418742084
Translated on Fort Russ
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2014/12/naf-intel-kiev-is-preparing-false-flag.html

NAF intelligence is reporting about impending terrorist attacks on Ukrainian strategic [facilities], which will justify an attack on Donbass.

Also there is information that foreigners and relatives of senior officials are being evacuated from Ukrainian border towns and cities.

Also recently on the occupied by UAF territory of Donbass soldiers and armored vehicles with symbols and flags of Russia and DPR were repeatedly spotted. This clearly indicates a preparation of provocations to justify a large-scale war.

At the same time the information was confirmed about the arrival of large numbers of mercenaries, equipment and machinery from NATO countries.

Today, the General staff of Ukraine started talking about a possible resumption of hostilities in the area known as ATO.

The head of the press service of the General staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladislav Seleznev announced about a possible resumption of hostilities in the area of the ATO and possible terrorist attacks by the militia on the objects of strategic importance.

According to him, because of the artillery strikes, the social-political and humanitarian situation in the zone of the ATO and the areas bordering it remains tense.

“There is also the risk of a resumption of active hostilities. However, we do not eliminate the risk of terrorist and sabotage acts in these areas, at government and military facilities, as well as mass protests and civil disobedience”, – he pointed out.

Recall that earlier Poroshenko announced that the army is prepared to take part of Crimea back from Russia.

Translated by Kristina Rus for FortRuss.blogspot.com

 

Kiev regime is forcing death by starvation, freezing, and relocation in East Ukraine. Will we stand by and do nothing?

By George Eliason, December 17, 2014
Posted on Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/kiev-regime-is-forcing-death-by-starvation-and-relocation-in-east-ukraine/5420460

Can the murder of 3 million people go unnoticed by the entire world? Yes it can and unfortunately it has before. More than likely you have never even heard about it. By the end of 1941 the German and Ukrainian nazis killed over 1 million Jews. This was the beginning of the Holocaust. We all know this.

By the end of 1941 the German and Ukrainian nazis killed 3 million Slavic and Soviet prisoners by using the method Ukrainian nationalists describe as Holomodor or starvation death.

The Nazi Plan to Kill Slavic Peoples

The Nazi Plan for the East was first tried out on the Slavic and Soviet prisoners. This was their plan to destroy Slavic peoples which included central and southeast Ukraine. Prisoners suffered in the cold and famine conditions so harsh they wrote petitions for the nazis to be merciful and just kill them.

According to Professor Timothy Snyder- In the German POW camps in occupied Soviet Belarus, Soviet Ukraine and Poland, prisoners were not even registered by name. As the German quartermaster general of the German army indicated, prisoners who could not work “were to be starved”.

In Ukraine and Belarus Bandera’s Ukrainian SS nationalists ran the camps and starved millions of Ukrainians, Russians, and Belorussians to death. The world never even blinked.

It was wrong for the Ukrainian nationalists in the diaspora to develop the myth of the 1932-33 Holomodor famine their own families never suffered to become the centerpiece of Ukraine’s nation-building program under Yushchenko after using it so effectively in 1941 against Ukrainians and starving 3 million prisoners to death.

This makes even the idea that Ukrainian nationalists in Kiev would conceive using this weapon again on the families of the same population criminal. It has been proven clearly that the nationalists were not in the Soviet Union in 1931-32. It has been clearly proven that the Ukrainian nationalists in service to the 3rd Reich used starvation as part of their genocide program in Ukraine and Belarus in 1941.

The population that suffered under both famines were the families in central Ukraine and Donbass today.

Ukraine- Is the 3rd Time the Charm?

In Pervomaisk today conditions are so bad that people are given ¼ of a loaf of bread per day to live on. Many areas are not even getting this. Starvation deaths in different cities now number 20 or 30 weekly. Within 20 days deaths from starvation and exposure/ freezing in Donbass is going to jump exponentially. The most vulnerable which includes the children and chronically ill will be hit the hardest.

Within 40 days without decisive humanitarian action the winter weather will take its toll on people in the hardest hit areas by ultra-nationalist shelling and rockets. Many live in the ruins or root cellars at what used to be their homes. Disease will follow. The nationalists are counting on them dying or relocating.

Will the world stand by while the Ukrainian nationalists use the slow method of genocide they perfected in WW2? Will the world allow the US and Europe continue to try to push Donbass to its knees, calling the victim a criminal?

The war criminal Olexandr Turchynov formerly post coup- acting president stated bluntly in an interview on December 17th that even he does not think the world will sit by and watch the total blockade finish its work. He doesn’t say he is against it. He just states there will be objections to it.

Contrary to the lie Ukrainian nationalists tell about fighting for a free and independent Ukraine today or fighting Nazis and Communists after 1941; both then and now they rely on the fact that you won’t believe human beings will do these things to other people. They don’t think you will believe they are doing these things to people.

Bank runs and benefits cut in August

The blockade announced in mid November is a lie. The reality in Donbas is this blockade has been in place for almost 6 months now. The bank runs happened in the late spring through the mid summer. I was there as thousands of people stood in line literally for days in front of bank ATMs.

During this time a surcharge was added to every deposit in Donbass banks and the funds went to buy the bullets used to kill people here. When Kiev lost ground in the east mid summer they closed the banks altogether. The banks closed without warning all deposits were stolen and used to buy more bullets.

How is it possible to have a bank run in November when banks haven’t been open for 4 months?

The vulnerable, the dying, and the dead

Pensions and benefits to the elderly and disabled were also cut off in mid summer. State and oligarch owned businesses functioning and reaping profits stopped paying salaries. By early July retirees across the countryside were surviving on leftovers from the last harvest, unripened fruit, and help from their neighbors.

In August I started hearing about the starvation among the most vulnerable people which were the shut-ins. People that were bed ridden or because of disabilities could no longer leave their apartments died of starvation and thirst. Where were their neighbors?

In early summer the Ukrainian army started targeting apartment buildings and homes. Throughout the summer this never let up. At first Kiev denied it but later it didn’t matter anymore in the news. Kiev suspended the human rights of people in Southeast early in the spring.

The shelling of civilian homes had the effect Kiev was hoping for. It created a flood of terrified refugees that simply ran and almost overwhelmed the capacity to take care of them in Belarus and Russia.

I have watched people come to this decision. They don’t talk about it out of fear. They quietly slip away. The neighbors of the shut-ins thought someone else was staying and would look after them. In a lot of cases no one could. No one talked to anyone else, they ran.

Ukrainian nationalists popped up everywhere. In the cities groups like Pravy Sektor did random shootings. Paranoia ran wild. It didn’t help that until recently most people never understood what was really happening. How do you comprehend the country where your family has always lived in and you are a part of deciding you are less than human? How do you come to grips with your country wanting to kill you?

The shock that your own neighbor might want you dead for some incomprehensible reason caused this. That fear became justifiable when people turned their neighbors in to the punishers to be tortured and killed. I know one too many stories about a town drunk spinning tales for another bottle. Ukraine is a place where being a 2nd cousin to the militia back in June was enough for a death sentence for your entire family including your children even if you never spoke with them.

Every town has people from across the political spectrum just like yours does. People confused patriots with nationalists and vice versa.

The social net that Poroshenko cynically cut off in November has not existed since late spring. Kiev destroyed it with shells not democracy.

Medications

Medications for chronic life threatening illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and basic antibiotics became in short supply in late spring. Early on medication was transported by clearly marked vehicles with red cross insignia or ambulances. These became the favored targets of mercenaries and para military forces like Donbass battalion. In every major city hospitals have been prime targets the entire time.

Until then most medications were distributed through warehouses in Kiev. As early as June publications such as the Telegraph reported on the humanitarian efforts which was caused by Kiev’s humanitarian blockade.

The reality since summer is people dying because the medications they needed were kept out of their reach. No matter how how much effort is put into the humanitarian effort the population of over 7 million people are in a war zone that is constantly bombarded with rockets and shells.

Creating Famine Conditions

Beginning in the late spring the Ukrainian army set landmines across the grain fields needed to support the area for human and livestock consumption. The landmines set in grain fields aren’t in contested areas. They are not marked and the locals weren’t told to stay away by the Ukrainian army.

These are the fields where farmers make their living and produce the grain needed for bread. One of my neighbors hit a mine trying to harvest his wheat. It destroyed his tractor and he was lucky to be thrown clear. He woke to see his tractor burning. In early summer another neighbor on his tractor was used for sniper practice.

The Ukrainian army burnt grain and corn fields that were under their control. This continued throughout most of the summer as noted across many articles.

The scorched earth policy was geared at creating the current situation which will soon be mass starvation and the sicknesses associated with it. Tens of thousands of acres could not be harvested.

To make the point a few short weeks ago Kiev’s appointed Governor in the occupied Lugansk region stated bluntly that Kiev’s humanitarian blockade of Lugansk and Donetsk was geared to reproduce the effects of the Soviet Union’s 1932-33 famine in which millions across central and southeast Ukraine perished from starvation and sickness.

Camps

When the refugee problem started getting international attention in mid-summer president Poroshenko made a big deal about how Donbass refugees would be welcomed by the Ukrainians and how much money was set aside for them. It is Kiev of course and the money was stolen of like the donations for the families of Kiev’s heavenly hundred.

The refugees were set up in summer camps without utilities and for the most part no humanitarian aid. What humanitarian aid isn’t stolen goes to the soldiers. The men that ran from the war found themselves conscripted and sent back. The families sent to the summer camps still sit there in December with no heat. Many will perish from exposure.

Refugees that thought they were fortunate enough to make it to Kiev or other nationalist cities are denied jobs and benefits because they are from Donbass. They ran from the referendum, thought they were good Ukrainians, and yet are still Moskal. Kiev’s new laws take the children from their mothers so they can be raised in orphanages and become good Ukrainian nationalists.

Genocide by Conscription

When Kiev’s ATO started they were sure that the nationalists from Maidan and what became the core punisher groups would quickly pacify Donbass based on just enthusiasm. It took a while for them to realize the skills they learned at Maidan and the Odessa Trade Union Building wasn’t combat.

The nazi’s only succeeded in developing a taste for murder. In both well published cases as well as the rampant murder in smaller cities the victims were not combatants. They could not and did not fight back. At Maidan, the Berkut were unarmed and ordered to stand and take the punishment. The footage after the initial and controversial beginning says it all.

After this Kiev’s deployment policy to the ATO regions changed dramatically. Conscripts were questioned on their nationalist leanings and deployed according to their answers. People from cities like Odessa which suffered under mass murder in the spring and stood against nationalism were threatened, jailed, and sent into the ATO.

People that expressed Ukrainian nationalist leanings were sent in behind them or to areas where the there was no conflict.

This tactic was developed in the 1930′s by Stepan Bandera to make both his enemies and people that may eventually rise against Ukrainian nationalism fight and kill each other. This is happening today to the refugee conscripts from Donbass. It is the case today when the conscript is from the wrong city or gives the wrong answer when they enlist or get drafted.

The tactic is the same one used in WW2. The Ukrainian nationalists stood behind conscripts during WW2 and killed them when they refused to fight. The same then as is the case today, families were threatened so conscripts won’t refuse to fight.

The battle is truly brother to brother, cousin to cousin; with few ways out for the conscripts. The nationalist groups themselves get medals and positions for combat they never participate in.Kiev, Ukraine rewards are for the torture, murder, and sodomy they committed against civilians and conscripts.

What the World won’t Allow

The filtration or concentration camps at this point sit idle and more are under construction. The reason is Kiev forces don’t control enough of Donbass to make using them worthwhile. While the world sits by and cheers and jeers Kiev’s inept and thwarted attempts at mass genocide; having large scale bloody executions of normal people in anything called “a camp” broadcast worldwide would quickly dampen the enthusiasm in Europe and the US.

History has taught the nationalists what the world hasn’t learned. They know the world won’t stand by and allow the bloody or mass execution of millions without eventually demanding a price from someone. While the civilized nations will allow it to happen, the cost will be like the Nuremberg trials when the outrage that could have stopped it is belatedly expressed and acceptable.

Enough of the Double Talk Already

If the government in Kiev had any notion of reintegrating Donbass they would not have bombed, shelled, and murdered entire villages. They would not have allowed mass torture of civilians, or the rape and murder of women and children. These are not things a legitimate government allows for, never mind bestows medals on monsters that do these things to its own people.

If they were not nationalists, they would have stopped the ultras from the murders and calls for destroying every life in Donbass. Instead they rewarded it. Commanders guilty of mass murder and torture sit in the Ukrainian Senate and meet with the US Congress and the executive branch. Mass starvation in Donbass is a tactic to make people run, die slowly, or submit to the government that murders them.

The argument that the separatist rebels are getting what they deserve is intellectually retarded. Donbass wasn’t trying to separate, Kiev forced it through atrocity. The Ukrainian government made it impossible for Donbass and other areas to remain under their control.

The argument that there are no nazis in Kiev is a leap into the bizzarre. The people in Kiev’s government were educated in ultra-nationalist/nazi universities. Many had David Duke as a professor of history.

Ukrainian nazi ideology is so rigid it was easy to predict the brutality of the cleansing battalions before Maidan was over and the Coup leaders actually took government. It is so rigid it was easy to predict the turn it would take in Donbass which entails a regional cleansing of people. It was easy to predict how the conscription would be used to get rid of “others” that even remotely may be Moskal also.

It was easy to predict winter starvation would be used as a tactical weapon in June when I first wrote it would happen. Read Bandera’s ideological material. They follow it zealously and religiously. Ukrainian nazi’s are nothing if not predictable. They are also intractable liars. That’s part of the ideology too.

The nonstop shelling during the peace has done its work. Too many people’s homes are destroyed that were never involved in any fighting. Too many people cannot afford to purchase bread even it were available to them. The cold and snow of winter has set in.

The humanitarian effort needed is now monumental to stop mass death across the region. It will never come in fast enough or be enough. This time, which is the third time in less than 100 years the people of Donbass have suffered through forced starvation through callousness and as weapon of war- please consider helping.

 

Washington seeks an excuse to wage a nuclear war on Russia “We’re close to the precipice. Will the public remain silent?”

Posted on Global Research, December 17, 2014
By Eric Zuesse
http://www.globalresearch.ca/washington-seeks-an-excuse-to-wage-a-nuclear-war-on-russia-were-close-to-the-precipice-will-the-public-remain-silent/5420283

The world is more nervous about the drift toward nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia than at any time since 1962’s Cuban Missile Crisis. When French President Francois Hollande urgently side-tracked his return-flight from a diplomatic mission recently, in order to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, at a private room that had been scoured ahead of time to eliminate any possible bugging devices, there was speculation as to what had caused Hollande’s sudden detour, and there were even rumors of a possible cause being an American “false-flag” event in the works to be blamed on Russia as a pretext for going to war against Russia, just as Russia had been falsely blamed for the Ukrainian military’s downing of Malaysia’s airliner MH17 onJuly 17th. All that was publicly released about the two-hour meeting were platitudes, hardly anything that would have justified side-tracking Hollande’s flight so as to surprise intelligence agencies and be able to meet the Russian leader in an untapped room.

The level of fear is certainly rising on both sides. On the U.S. side, the CBS News Poll in summer 2007 found 6% of Americans calling Russia an “enemy”; seven years later, that same figure was 22%. However, what is not rumor nor fear, but proven fact, by Obama’s own actions as will be documented here, is that he wants a war against Russia and is trying hard to get Europe (including Hollande) onboard with this goal in order to win it; and that America’s Republican Party want this at least as much as he does, though the American public do not. Continue reading

Inside the “Ukraine Freedom Support Act”

From Sputnik, December 16, 2014
By Andrew Korybko

The latest anti-Russian bill to come out of Washington does a lot more than simply arm Ukraine, although that’s destabilizing enough as it is. Contained within the Act are powerful provisions that expand NATO’s influence in Russia’s backyard and continue the War on Syria.

The Ukrainian Freedom Support Act (UFSA) is essentially the actionable successor to the recently passed House Resolution 758, which itself has been referred to as the declaration of the New Cold War. It’s exceptionally noteworthy for fulfilling John McCain’s threat to arm Ukraine, but it’s the other decrees within it that have gone unnoticed by the mainstream media, although they’re just as troubling, if not more so. And unsurprisingly, Congress somehow found a way to group its War on Syria into the UFSA, showing that it truly exploits any opportunity to push through its agenda of regime change there even if it has absolutely nothing to do with the bill at hand.

The Three Amigos
The UFSA is just as much about Moldova and Georgia as it is about Ukraine, as all three countries are collectively grouped together except for when it comes to assisting with internally displaced persons. For example, when it comes to ‘the three amigos’, UFSA says that sanctions will be imposed if:

  • Russia (or any actor affiliated with it) sends “defense articles” to those countries without the consent of its government’
  • And Russia “withholds significant natural gas supplies from countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, or Moldova” and NATO members.

And that the three are to be ‘rewarded’ with:

  • Major non-NATO ally status (which allows them to purchase weapons only reserved for NATO allies);
  • And a prioritized information campaign run by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, where these countries are given a greater focus than the other former Soviet states.

Putting it all together, it is clear that the US has strategically incorporated Moldova and Georgia into its legislation about Ukraine, providing proof that it is Washington and not Moscow which is ‘widening the battlefield’ of the New Cold War. This isn’t the first time either, as all the amigos were first lumped together in May when the so-called Russian Aggression Prevention Act of 2014 was unveiled, which served as the predecessor of House Resolution 758.

The reasoning for this is rather simple, actually. The US wants to coordinate its push against the former Soviet periphery and is pulling out all the stops along the way. The primary objective is NATO expansion all the way to the Russian border, as well as the destabilization of Russian interests in or near these countries. Russia has a military base in the de-facto independent Transnistrian region of Moldova, while the historic reunification of Crimea and Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia’s independence from Georgia are well known. It is these precise interests and territories that the US wants to threaten with the Act.

The Big Tent
Another observation that’s lost on the mainstream media is that the Act creates a ‘big tent’ of American interests in Eurasia. When addressing the non-consented transfer of Russian defense articles to “specified countries”, other than the three amigos, it describes these as being “any other country of significant concern for purposes of this Act, such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the Central Asia republics.” It’s obvious that the US would place its NATO allies under this designation, but to spread the umbrella over the Central Asian republics is a strategy that has more to it than originally meets the eye.

Russia in no way supports separatism in Central Asia, and aside from neutral Turkmenistan, it actually has constructive military and anti-terror relations with all of the regional states as a result of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). This group has explicitly stated its opposition to terrorism, separatism, and extremism, and all of its members are now watching the violent situation in Afghanistan with the trepidation that it may move northward next year.

Within this context, the US is sending smoke signals to those governments that it is open for cooperating with them, but with the implicit understanding that they have to abandon their alliance with Russia and accuse it of the fantasy-driven treachery of arming separatist groups. The purpose here is to expand the reach of NATO’s 12,000 or so troops that will stay behind in Afghanistan and use them to push Russian influence (no matter how beneficial to anti-terrorist operations and regional stability) out of Central Asia.

Slick Talking About Syria
Congress understood that the current anti-Russian climate meant that the UFSA was surely bound to pass, so it added a completely irrelevant clause relating to Syria in order to strengthen the war effort against it. Specifically, the Act mandates that sanctions be imposed against any Russian company or related individual that sells defense articles to Syria. This is the complete opposite standard that it is applying to the ‘big tent’ countries. Congress says that Russia can’t transfer such units to the ‘big tent’ without the consent of their governments, but such transfers are prohibited to Syria when its government consents to it.

So what’s going on here?
The US and its allies don’t recognize the legitimacy of the Syrian government, despite President Assad having been democratically re-elected with 88.7% of the vote back in June, and the fact that they support regime change within the country. They’d rather give weapons to the insurgents fighting to overthrow the government (even if such arms sometimes end up in the hands of terrorists) than approve of Russia’s continued support for the government’s anti-terrorist war. The Syrian Arab Army is once more on the upswing (backed by Russian support), so it’s not coincidental that such a provision was made at this time. Nonetheless, such bullying by the US will never result in Russia abandoning its support for Syria, especially at this critical time, and should be seen as nothing more than the naked intimidation tactic that it is.

Andrew Korybko is the political analyst and journalist for Sputnik who currently lives and studies in Moscow.

Posted at

http://us.sputniknews.com/opinion/20141215/1013320024.html

http://orientalreview.org/2014/12/16/the-devils-in-the-details-inside-the-ukrainian-freedom-support-act/

http://www.globalresearch.ca/more-legislation-in-support-of-war-with-russia-inside-the-ukrainian-freedom-support-act/5420287