Donbass

Jean-Claude Junker, EC president, hands over 600 million Euros to Kiev regime

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February 12, 2017 – Fort Russ News –

Blog de soutien aux Républiques de Donetsk et Lougansk, translated by Tom Winter –

During the Ukrainian Prime Minister’s visit to Brussels on February 10, Juncker, the president of the European Commission, not elected by the people of the EU, granted 600 million to the Kiev regime [*]. Even though less than a week before, the Ukrainian army carried out the worst bombardments against the Donbass and the civilian population, this technocratic entity gives money to a corrupt regime [**].

In December, “Europe” sanctioned Greece because it paid a thirteenth salary to people receiving a small pension, two months later, this same “Europe” gives money to a regime that bombards civilians and cheerfully robs the Ukrainian people by selling Ukraine to the multinationals [***]. The last sentence of the communiqué in the last link cited says a lot about the betrayal of a president born of a putsch supported by the US / Canada and the EU.

Last year, Poroshenko, the butcher of the Donbass, in the scandal of the Panama papers was cited by name, for like any corrupt oligarch (pleonasm!), this war criminal had an account in this tax haven to hide his pelf stolen from the Ukrainian people [****].

While he promised to sell his businesses to avoid conflicts of interest, he has never done it, and he would continue to raise the millions while applying the reforms imposed by international bodies to demand loans that the Ukrainian people would have to pay by a steady decline in their standard of living (declining wages, rising cost of living).

Good news for the Ukrainians despoiled by the corrupt junta of the Maïdan: they will be able to come on holiday without visas in the EU before this summer! [*****] The only problem is that given the level of wages in Ukraine, apart from the oligarchs, their families and post-Maïdan enthusiasts, you will not encounter many Ukrainians on the beaches of southern France!

For the rest of the article:
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/02/jean-claude-junker-ec-president-hands.html

Fort Russ exclusive: Cossack Media Group on the frontline of Donbass journalism

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Fort Russ Exclusive –
February 8, 2017 –
By Alexey Degtyarev for Fort Russ – copy edited by J. Arnoldski – 
 
 
 
Alexey Degtyarev is the editor in chief ofCossack Media Group‘s Cossack Radio based out of the town of Stakhanov in the Lugansk People’s Republic. In this exclusive piece for Fort Russ, Degtyarev introduces the origins, mission, and operations of Cossack Media Group, and summarizes the situation on the frontline in Donbass over the past week. – J. Arnoldski 
 
***
 
The History, Founding, and Activity of Cossack Media Group
Cossack Media Group began to form back in 2014, the year that the war began, when events in Donbass began to take a cardinal change and the residents of Lugansk and Donetsk started to fight back against the Ukrainian army. Whereas they lacked a sufficient number of small arms and possessed no heavy military equipment at all, the Ukrainian military had a sufficient number of both. However, the militia forces, which have now evolved into the DPR and LPR Army, were able to repel the superior enemy.
The idea of creating Cossack Media Group appeared quite simply. It was based on the realization that we, the republics of Donbass, were winning in combat but at the same time we were suffering defeat in the information war. In August 2014, it was decided to start Cossack Radio to broadcast and communicate to people the truth of the situation on the front – truth that is distorted by the Ukrainian media. In 2014, a particularly acute shortage of truthful information spread among people in Donbass. We tried to correct this deficiency. Thus, after the start of the broadcast of Cossack Radio, soldiers started bringing video materials to the studio which confirmed the shelling of residential areas in the Lugansk region (for the Ukrainians themselves, “their homeland”) by UAF forces. More and more video material appeared, so we decided to create a channel on Youtube, New Channel of Novorossiya, and start broadcasting it in the city of Stakhanov and nearby towns. 
 
The Youtube channel, in addition to information problems stemming from the situation facing cable and landline TV, was designed for security purposes in order to inform the local population about the shelling by the Ukrainian army. The Youtube channel reported the true situation in the cities, towns and villages of Donbass to the international community. At the beginning, there were also objective reasons that led to the creation of a Youtube channel such as the lack of technical equipment and specialists, etc needed for a real TV channel. The correspondent network of our television was just beginning to unfold. This is an expensive task, so things are going slower than we would like.
Continue reading →

U.S. reconnaissance drone flies along Donbass contact line for 10 hours; able to observe Russia’s border regions

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From Fort Russ

February 6, 2017

– Sputnik France, translated by Tom Winter –

“Donbas contact line surveyed by a US reconnaissance drone”

An American reconnaissance drone overflew the contact line in the Donbass for 10 hours. It was able to observe all the territory of the two self-proclaimed republics, plus the border regions of Russia.

A US strategic drone RQ-4A Global Hawk, with the call sign UAVGH000, carried out a reconnaissance flight Sunday that lasted nearly 10 hours over the contact line in the Donbass conflict zone, announced Western sites following the flights of military aviation.

During the flight, the drone followed the line of contact between Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk without crossing it. The reconnaissance aircraft flew at an altitude of 15,500 m (51,000 feet).
As the drone can do reconnaissance with a radius of 300 km, it was able to observe all the territory of the self-proclaimed republics, plus the border regions of Russia.

According to open sources, the craft is capable of patrolling for 30 hours at an altitude of 15,000 to 18,000 m.

The American aircraft took off from the base of Sigonella, Sicily, and overflew Romania.

Overflights of the contact line were also recorded on October 15, November 14, and 16 December 2 and 16.
________________________________________________
Note: A BUK launched by the Ukrainian army landed in Makeevka January 31, apparently attempting to destroy such a reconnaissance drone: BUK.

Massive fire from MLRS through the night in Donetsk

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February 3, 2017 – Fort Russ News –
– Red Spring, translated by Tom Winter –

Last night the Kievskiy District of Donetsk Kiev suffered massive fire from the APU, the Red Spring correspondent reported from the scene February 3.

The APU used heavy artillery, MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) “Grad,” and “Uragan” in the shelling of the northern regions of Donetsk.
Two schools (№19 and №65), two kindergartens (№354 and №204), the Kievskiy District Administration building, as well as multi-storey houses on Artema, Mountain, Mironov and Kievskiy Prospect streets were damaged.

In total, according to the Operational Command of the People’s Militia of the DPR, in the past day the APU shelled DPR territory 3481 times. The enemy fired on settlements, launching 196 MLRS “Uragan” and “Grad” projectiles, 753 152-mm, and 122-mm shells, 1086 shots from mortars, 64 fired from tanks, 91 from BMPs , as well as the fire from grenade launchers and small arms.

In total 28 settlements were fired on, including the worst-affected region, Donetsk, Makiyivka, Yasinovataya, Zaytsevo village in the north of Horlivka and villages Lenin, Telmanovo, Saganka and Kominternovo, in the south of the Republic.

Recall that in the night of February 2-3, the Kievskiy District of Donetsk, was fired with the MLRS “Grad”. Also MLRS “Uragan” rockets exploded in the evening in the around gas stations in the vicinity of the “Motel” bus station in the Kalinin district of Donetsk. There are dead and wounded among the civilians.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/02/massive-fire-from-mlrs-through-night-in.html

Foreign Ministry statement on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Donbass — Jan. 31, 2017

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Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

31 January 2017

The situation in Donbass has deteriorated sharply in recent days. Ukrainian troops continue to conduct offensive operations to seize positions held by self-defence forces, including in the suburbs of Donetsk. Heavy weapons, including heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, are being actively used to shell residential areas. According to Minsk Package of Measures of February 12, 2015, such weapons should long since have been withdrawn from the contact line. There are casualties and wounded among the civilian population. As a result of the shelling by Ukrainian troops, the Donetsk Filtration Station and the Avdeyevka Coke Chemical Plant have lost power. The lives of miners working in the mines are under threat.

We see southeastern Ukraine, which is already suffering from the economic blockade imposed by Kiev, again on the verge of a real humanitarian and environmental disaster.

All of this is a direct outcome of ongoing violations by Ukraine of its obligations under the Minsk agreements, which no one in Kiev intends to act on. Instead of efforts to achieve sustainable peace, the Ukrainian authorities are trying hard to achieve a military solution to the conflict. Everyone should remember what kind of outcome this kind of reckless behaviour has led to on previous occasions.

Strangely enough, every escalation of the situation in Donbass comes at a time when the Ukrainian leadership is away on a foreign trip. Clearly, this is an attempt to keep the crisis provoked by Kiev on the international agenda.

We urge the Ukrainian authorities to immediately put an end to the armed provocations in Donbass, comply with existing ceasefire agreements and begin, at long last, to responsibly fulfil all the provisions of the Minsk Package of Measures, including those relating to the political aspects of the existing problems.

We expect Ukraine’s partners to exert the necessary influence on Kiev to put an end to these efforts to turn the tables in Donbass and sink the Minsk agreements.

We expect a quick response on the part of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine in order to de-escalate the situation as soon as possible.

http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2618179

Eduard Popov Donbass sitrep: Ukrainian losses “colossal,” shelling worse than 2014 level

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February 1, 2017 –
By Eduard Popov for Fort Russ – translated by J. Arnoldski –
On the morning of January 31st, I gave an interview to Radio Sputnik (part of which was later published by RIA Novosti under the title “Poroshenko uses the old tactic of ‘shedding tears'”) in which I expressed the following thought: Poroshenko probably went to Germany to talk with Merkel without a real agenda. Hence why he simply broke off the meeting and went back to Ukraine. The reason? If the UAF offensive from Avdeevka on Donetsk went successfully, then he would probably explain from Germany that this is the self-activism of patriots whom he doesn’t control. “I didn’t violate the Minsk Agreements, this was an initiative of patriot volunteers,” he would say.
But Poroshenko interrupted the visit and returned to Ukraine to prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Avdeevka. The reason is simple: things did not go according to Poroshenko and the Ukrainian General Staff’s plan. Thus, Poroshenko changed out the warrior’s sword for the mantle of peacemaker. He will play the role of the victim and cry to the whole world about how Ukraine has has been harmed by “evil” Russia, and call on the West to punish the “aggressor.” He is totally indifferent to the suffering of the civilians of Avdeevka (I’ve been there many times and even lived for a time in this small town of metallurgists), but he will use them to lend credibility to his complaints.
I’ve also concluded that the large losses that Ukraine is suffering and the fact of Poroshenko’s urgent return to Kiev speak in favor of this theory. Ukraine will soon once again turn to beg the world.
It appears like everything is going in this direction.
Last night, I talked with my friends in Donetsk. During our conversation, I could hear the explosions of artillery bombardments and Grad rocket fire. The Ukrainians were shooting right at the center of Donetsk. According to my friends, even 2014 didn’t see such intense fire. But the good news was that our responsive fire is just as powerful. 
In yesterday’s commentary for Fort Russ, I wrote that the casualty figures of the Ukrainian side that were contained in the intercepted confidential report by the Ukrainian General Staff for President Poroshenko, i..e, only 78 deaths, was probably an underestimation. It is most likely that the number of Ukrainians killed in the recent firefights is no less than 100. My friends close to military circles agreed with this assessment and added that the number is probably even higher. 
Here’s the information that I’ve just received from them. 
 
Information is constantly coming in from their associates in the cities of Ukrainian-occupied Donbass and Ukraine. All the morgues in the nearby towns of Donbass controlled by the Ukrainians (Konstantinovka, Kramatorsk, Bakhmut, etc.) are littered with the corpses of UAF soldiers. The bodies are being taken to the regional centers neighboring Donbass such as Dnepropetrovsk and others. The situation with wounded is similar. Hospitals are swamped and even civilian hospitals in neighboring Ukrainian cities are packed.
Back in autumn of last year, my friends from the Lugansk People’s Republic reported that the UAF had established field hospitals along the contact line. This explicitly suggests that Ukraine was preparing for an invasion of Donbass. 
According to my friends’ assessment, the Ukrainians’ losses are colossal. It is probable that the number of dead and wounded is rising to the hundreds. The political leadership and military command of Ukraine are incapable of managing to hide such huge losses like they did back in 2014. The truth will break out and Poroshenko and the Ukrainian General Staff will be faced with the question: for what sake were hundreds and hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and officers killed?
My friends also believe that Poroshenko deliberately spoke of the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Avdeevka in order to bring up the ceasefire. In fact, the Ukrainians fear a victorious counter-offensive by the army of the Donetsk People’s Republic and a new cauldron for the Ukrainian Nazi army. 

 

The end of the Ukrainian Nazi state and the criminal Ukrainian army is near. 
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/02/eduard-popov-donbass-sitrep-ukrainian.html

Blood bath at north front of Donbass — details; Ukrainian Army continually attacking, intending to relaunch larger war

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January 31, 2017 – Fort Russ News –

– Christelle NEANT in DØNiPRESS, translated by Tom Winter –

Following yesterday’s continuous firing on the northern periphery of Donetsk and Makeyevka, which resulted in several deaths and injuries among civilians and soldiers of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), negotiations took place last night in an attempt to re-establish the ceasefire.

After confirmation from the DPR side that it had ceased firing, the Ukrainian army traitorously bombarded the territory of the republic.

At 2000 hours, after an artillery preparation, the enemy sent two platoons attacking the positions of the DPR located between Yasinovataya and Avdeyevka, with covering fire from mortar and tanks. The attackers fell in the middle of a minefield, and had three dead and five wounded. Continuing their attack despite these losses, they lost a total of at least 15 dead and 30 wounded.

As the positions of the DPR army held up well despite these losses, the enemy attempted to make a diversion by starting to massively bomb the periphery of Donetsk and Makeyevka, with among other things, weapons prohibited by the Minsk accords, i.e. artillery of 122 mm and 152 mm and mortars of 82 mm and 120 mm.

According to the intelligence services of the DPR, in view of the demoralization of the Ukrainian soldiers following the heavy losses in the Ukrainian army in the last two days, the Ukrainian command has decided to use Right-Sektor units as cannon fodder. The soldiers of the RPD recorded a strange behavior on the part of these soldiers, most certainly under the influence of drugs or intoxicated.

Following this new failure, the Ukrainian army began firing farther north in front of Debaltsevo, where fighting is also taking place.

Following this disaster, and after receiving the report of the losses in the Ukrainian army during the last 48 hours, Poroshenko returned urgently from Germany.

The DPR’s intelligence services had access to the report of the Ukrainian Chief of Staff Muzhenko, which was forwarded to the so-called Ukrainian President, concerning the actual losses of the Ukrainian army for the days of January 29 and 30.

According to information obtained there are currently in Ukrainian military morgues and hospitals:
– Selydove Morgue – 29 corpses of Ukrainian soldiers;
– Krasnoarmeysk Morgue – 41 corpses Ukrainian soldiers;
– Chasov Yar Mobile Military Hospital No. 65 – 62 wounded soldiers;
– Mobile Mobile Hospital No. 66 mobile of Novyi Trud – 8 dead and 14 wounded soldiers
Total: 78 dead and 76 wounded

To this must be added the losses of Right Sektor last night in Adveyevka, ie more than 15 dead and 30 injured … A total current (which is still likely to be revised upwards), 93 deaths and 106 Injured on the Ukrainian side.

Despite this bloodbath, today from 4 am, after an artillery preparation, the enemy continued its attacks in the industrial zone of Avdeevka. With three platoons they tried to circumvent the positions of the army of the DPR by the flank. The DPR army returned fire to contain the enemy.

Following the bombing of Donetsk, Gorlovka, Yasinovataya and Makeyevka, six houses were damaged, as at 242 Kouibycheva Street, where the roof of a 9-storey building was hit by a 122 mm shell, and a gas pipeline was damaged in Yakolevka. There are two wounded among the civilians. Rails have also been damaged near the station, and several localities or districts of Donetsk are without electricity.

The actual losses of the Ukrainian army are kept hidden from the public in order to avoid causing panic among the Ukrainian armed forces and the population. To justify such losses, Poltorak said they had advanced 10 meters when in reality they lost.

On the side of the army of the DPR we had 4 dead and 7 wounded during the attacks on the positions located between Yasinovataya and Avdeyevka.

In order to allow the repair work, the DPR proposed to establish a ceasefire, which it already respects, to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. But this morning, new shots hit Donetsk, cutting off electricity from the Zasyadko mine and blocking 203 miners underground. The miners are being evacuated.

At the same time, the reconnaissance units of the DPR;; army saw right Sector units firing multiple Grad rocket launchers at positions of the regular Ukrainian army, causing panic in their ranks. The goal is of course to accuse the army of the RPD of being responsible for these shots.

And at 1120 hours the Ukrainian army fired 120 Grad rockets at Yasinovataya and its periphery, in addition to 120 mm mortars, and 152 mm artillery. And an hour earlier, the Ukrainian armed forces tried to break through the lines of the DPR in the South near Kominternovo. The units of the 36th Marine Brigade and Right Sector had 14 dead and dozens of wounded, and retired in disaster.

As we can see in spite of the hecatomb, the Ukrainian authorities are determined to carry out to the end their suicidal logic with war to excuse their real problems. The specter of large-scale war, as the inhabitants of Donbass faced it in 2014, is back …

http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/01/blood-bath-at-north-front-of-donbass.html

“Stop Poroshenko” – Donbass parliaments appeal to Trump, Putin, Merkel

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From Fort Russ

January 31, 2017 – Fort Russ –
RIA Novosti – translated by J. Arnoldski –
Vladimir Degtyarenko and Denish Pushilin, the chairmen of the People’s Councils (parliaments) of the self-declared Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, have appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to “stop Prooshenko.” 
As the Lugansk Information Center reports, the DPR and LPR urge these leaders to “force Poroshenko to cease his criminal actions against the people of Donbass,” stop shelling civilians, and end the economic blockade. 
“This must be done before it is too late! Before ecological and humanitarian catastrophe grips our land, stop this big mess! Stop Poroshenko! Save the people of Donbass!,” the appeal reads.
Earlier today, Donbass militiamen and Ukrainian security forces announced that the situation in Donbass has worsened. Both sides of the conflict blame each other for the increasing intensity of attacks and offensive attempts. The situation is close to a humanitarian catastrophe. The residents of Avdeevka have been left without water, light, and heat due to shelling. 
On Tuesday, the Armed Forces of Ukraine twice attempted to break through the positions of the Donbass militia. As a result, the DPR’s Ministry of Defense reported, more than 25 Ukrainian soldiers were killed. 

 

The Kremlin has stated that Moscow is concerned by Kiev’s aggressive actions in Donbass which are undermining the Minsk Agreements. Russian Presidential Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, stated that Russia has reliable information that the attack near Avdeevka was started by “independent Ukrainian brigades” supported by the Ukrainian armed forces. 
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/01/stop-poroshenko-donbass-parliaments.html

Microwave weapons being used by U.S. military/Kiev against Donbass? LPR leader Plotnitsky slams OSCE and EU for appeasing Kiev war criminals

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Medics have reported a sharp increase in nerve and cardiovascular diseases in frontline cities and villages.

Certainly stress is a factor, but the electromagnetic and microwave weapons of the American military could be the main culprit. The U.S. government has even used them on American protesters, including at Standing Rock and Flint, Michigan.

From Fort Russ

January 28, 2017 – Fort Russ –
RusVesna – translated by J. Arnoldski –
The leader of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Igor Plotnitsky, has promised a harsh response to those guilty for shelling the republic. His statement has been issued by the LPR’s Ministry of Communications:
Unprovoked attacks on the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic by armed groups controlled by Kiev have recently intensified and become more frequent. In the majority of cases, they are carried out with the use of arms that should be, as agreed upon in the Minsk Agreements, withdrawn from the demarcation line and remain under the control of the Special Monitoring Mission of the OSCE.
 
Moreover, these attacks are carried out with targeted, live ammunitions. As a result, almost every day peaceful civilians are killed and injured and houses and infrastructure are destroyed. Medics have reported a sharp increase in nerve and cardiovascular diseases in frontline cities and villages. 
 
In connection with this, I declare the following with all liability: We will not succumb to provocations intended to give reason for accusing us of disrupting the Minsk peace agreements. But we will not let attacks go without consequences. 
 
I have given instructions to relevant security agencies to conduct an investigation on the deliberate attacks on the territory of the Republic between January 24th and 27th as instances of actions of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. [I have also] given instructions to carry out operations to identify the direct perpetrators of these criminal attacks, the commanders giving their orders, and their relatives and criminal ties. 
 
Our response will be carefully prepared, timely, asymmetrical, and undeniable. However, first and foremost, the Republic will take care of the victims of shellings by Kiev’s punitive forces.
I am confident that the responsibility for the bloodshed in Donbass lies with Poroshenko along with the OSCE and the leaders of Germany and France who are not taking advantage of opportunities to force the Kiev regime to make peace. The policy of appeasing the aggressor is an illusion that the flames of war can be deflected in only one direction. This already brought catastrophe to Europe once. I invite them to remember the lessons of the Second World War. 

http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/01/lpr-leader-plotnitsky-slams-osce-and-eu.html

From behind Ukrainian front lines – Part 2: Kiev’s Wasted Cannon Fodder

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January 11, 2017 – Fort Russ Exclusive –
Translated by Jafe Arnold (J. Arnoldski)

 

***
The following exclusive material was sent to Fort Russ by a self-declared representative of the anti-fascist movement in Ukraine from Kharkov, whom for safety reasons we have agreed to call “Andrey Anon.” Andrey has been living and working behind Ukrainian lines since the war began and has come into close contact with numerous personalities ranging from Poroshenko’s former business associates to Ukrainian officers and conscripts. In this astonishing tell-all, Andrey shares his knowledge of the dirty underbelly of the Poroshenko regime, the seething sentiments of conscript soldiers and civilians in occupied Donbass, and his impressions of the future of the Kiev junta and the war. Fort Russ is gratified to have been confided in with this material which the author wishes to have spread as far and wide as possible to reveal the truth of the horrific corruption and war that have gripped his country since February 2014. Andrey and Fort Russ have left out and changed certain names to protect sources and the people involved. – J. Arnoldski 
 
***
Continued from Part 1
In December 2016, by way of work affairs, for a lengthy period of time I was in close contact with a large group of servicemen, sergeants and soldiers, from the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone, as the punitive operation against the Donbass republics is called in Ukraine.
Since Kharkov is a border town, I’ve also had many opportunities to observe the lives of Ukrainian soldiers up close. What I heard and saw in December only enriched my familiarity. I’ve repeatedly visited my relatives who live in Ukrainian Donbass immediately adjacent to the ATO zone. There I managed to observe the lives of UAF soldiers, officers and National Guardsmen in units that are deployed literally an arm’s length from the city.
The majority of Kharkovians’ attitude towards Ukrainian troops is sharply negative. What I saw in Donbass is something very particular. In Kharkov, they are treated like people serving a criminal regime. There is also some kind of pity or sympathy in this attitude. Ukrainian troops are literally hated in Donbass. Even in towns where people can’t find work, only very few people sign up for the Ukrainian Army as volunteers, literally only a handful.
Ukrainian troops’ behavior in the ATO zone is distinguished by an extremely low level of discipline. Drunkenness prevails among them. Near units of the UAF and National Guard (militia fighters who were joined by many Ukrainian neo-Nazis and Maidan volunteers after the coup) are round-the-clock alcohol sale points, where they even sell samogon (the vodka equivalent of moonshine). Many times I observed cases in which Ukrainian troops bought bottles of samogon and drunk it right on the spot while they held loaded military weapons in their hands. Some soldiers were lying unconscious nearby. I don’t know just how many cases of murder or theft of weapons have happened to drunk Ukrainian soldiers, but I think these and other cases have indeed taken place. In the least, buying a Kalashnikov or another weapon from Ukrainian units on the black market is no difficulty at all and is cheap even by Ukrainian money standards. It’s no surprise that Ukraine has become Europe’s main source of weapons deliveries onto black markets. 
This behavior differs from that of the militiamen whom my family living in one of the cities of Ukrainian Donbass told me about. In the spring and early summer of 2014, the militia controlled the northern part of the Donestk and Lugansk regions. In literally a few days, the Donbass militias managed to completely eradicate the drug trade that was virtually legally managed by the city and police officials. They also liquidated 24/7 liquor stores. Despite the complete absence of a police force in the city, there was strict order, even on the roads. The number of accidents was minimal despite the frontal location of the city. 
 
But after the Ukrainians took control of the city, everything changed instantly. Drug and alcohol trafficking was restored and in other Donbass cities that came under Ukrainian control, road accidents became more frequent. The main violators of traffic laws are UAF servicemen and the National Guard. The most egregious case occurred in the town of Konstantinovka, where in March 2015 an armored transport vehicle of the National Guard driven by drunk soldiers drove on the sidewalk at high speed and killed a child (a young girl who was 7 or 8) and hit a woman pushing a baby in a stroller. As a result, the girl was killed and the mother and infant ended up in the hospital with sever trauma. This sparked unrest and a rebellion in the city which was quickly put down by Ukrainian troops. The protesters went after soldiers with their bare hands. Several dozen protesters were seized and thrown in jail under the terrorism article. It’s hardly likely that Western media covered this. Cases of fast drunk driving on city streets happen regularly in all the cities of Ukrainian Donbass. What’s shocking is that not only has President Poroshenko never punished the guilty troops (usually contract soldiers), but the soldier who drove the armored vehicle in Konstantinovka was even awarded a medal for service by Poroshenko!
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