John Pilger’s 2014 Warning About Ukraine

Originally published by The Guardian, May 13, 2014
In Ukraine, the US is dragging us towards war with Russia
Washington’s role in Ukraine, and its backing for the regime’s neo-Nazis, has huge implications for the rest of the world
By John Pilger

Republished by Consortium News, September 24, 2022

In an article on May 13, 2014 in The Guardian, republished here, John Pilger warned the “U.S. is threatening to take the world to war” over Ukraine, words that have taken on new meaning.

Why do we tolerate the threat of another world war in our name? Why do we allow lies that justify this risk? The scale of our indoctrination, wrote Harold Pinter, is a “brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis”, as if the truth “never happened even while it was happening”.

Every year the American historian William Blum publishes his “updated summary of the record of U.S. foreign policy” which shows that, since 1945, the U.S. has tried to overthrow more than 50 governments, many of them democratically elected; grossly interfered in elections in 30 countries; bombed the civilian populations of 30 countries; used chemical and biological weapons; and attempted to assassinate foreign leaders.

In many cases Britain has been a collaborator. The degree of human suffering, let alone criminality, is little acknowledged in the west, despite the presence of the world’s most advanced communications and nominally most free journalism. That the most numerous victims of terrorism – “our” terrorism – are Muslims, is unsayable. That extreme jihadism, which led to 9/11, was nurtured as a weapon of Anglo-American policy (Operation Cyclone in Afghanistan) is suppressed. In April the U.S. state department noted that, following Nato’s campaign in 2011, “Libya has become a terrorist safe haven“.

The name of “our” enemy has changed over the years, from communism to Islamism, but generally it is any society independent of western power and occupying strategically useful or resource-rich territory, or merely offering an alternative to U.S. domination.

The leaders of these obstructive nations are usually violently shoved aside, such as the democrats Muhammad Mossedeq in Iran, Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala and Salvador Allende in Chile, or they are murdered like Patrice Lumumba in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All are subjected to a western media campaign of vilification – think Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, now Vladimir Putin.

“If Putin can be provoked into coming to their aid, his pre-ordained ‘pariah’ role will justify a Nato-run guerrilla war that is likely to spill into Russia itself.”

Washington’s role in Ukraine is different only in its implications for the rest of us. For the first time since the Reagan years, the U.S. is threatening to take the world to war. With eastern Europe and the Balkans now military outposts of Nato, the last “buffer state” bordering Russia – Ukraine – is being torn apart by fascist forces unleashed by the U.S. and the EU. We in the west are now backing neo-Nazis in a country where Ukrainian Nazis backed Hitler.

Having masterminded the coup in February against the democratically elected government in Kiev, Washington’s planned seizure of Russia’s historic, legitimate warm-water naval base in Crimea failed. The Russians defended themselves, as they have done against every threat and invasion from the west for almost a century.

But Nato’s military encirclement has accelerated, along with U.S.-orchestrated attacks on ethnic Russians in Ukraine. If Putin can be provoked into coming to their aid, his pre-ordained “pariah” role will justify a Nato-run guerrilla war that is likely to spill into Russia itself.

Instead, Putin has confounded the war party by seeking an accommodation with Washington and the EU, by withdrawing Russian troops from the Ukrainian border and urging ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine to abandon the weekend’s provocative referendum.

These Russian-speaking and bilingual people – a third of Ukraine’s population – have long sought a democratic federation that reflects the country’s ethnic diversity and is both autonomous of Kiev and independent of Moscow. Most are neither “separatists” nor “rebels”, as the western media calls them, but citizens who want to live securely in their homeland.

Like the ruins of Iraq and Afghanistan, Ukraine has been turned into a C.I.A. theme park – run personally by C.I.A. director John Brennan in Kiev, with dozens of “special units” from the C.I.A. and F.B.I. setting up a “security structure” that oversees savage attacks on those who opposed the February coup. Watch the videos, read the eye-witness reports from the massacre in Odessa this month. Bussed fascist thugs burned the trade union headquarters, killing 41 people trapped inside. Watch the police standing by.

A doctor described trying to rescue people, “but I was stopped by pro-Ukrainian Nazi radicals. One of them pushed me away rudely, promising that soon me and other Jews of Odessa are going to meet the same fate. What occurred yesterday didn’t even take place during the fascist occupation in my town in world war two. I wonder, why the whole world is keeping silent.” [see footnote]

Russian-speaking Ukrainians are fighting for survival. When Putin announced the withdrawal of Russian troops from the border, the Kiev junta’s defence secretary, Andriy Parubiy – a founding member of the fascist Svoboda party – boasted that attacks on “insurgents” would continue. In Orwellian style, propaganda in the west has inverted this to Moscow “trying to orchestrate conflict and provocation“, according to William Hague. His cynicism is matched by Obama’s grotesque congratulations to the coup junta on its “remarkable restraint” after the Odessa massacre. The junta, says Obama, is “duly elected”. As Henry Kissinger once said: “It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but what is perceived to be true.”

In the U.S. media the Odessa atrocity has been played down as “murky” and a “tragedy” in which “nationalists” (neo-Nazis) attacked “separatists” (people collecting signatures for a referendum on a federal Ukraine). Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal damned the victims – “Deadly Ukraine Fire Likely Sparked by Rebels, Government Says“. Propaganda in Germany has been pure cold war, with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung warning its readers of Russia’s “undeclared war”. For the Germans, it is a poignant irony that Putin is the only leader to condemn the rise of fascism in 21st-century Europe.

A popular truism is that “the world changed” following 9/11. But what has changed? According to the great whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, a silent coup has taken place in Washington and rampant militarism now rules. The Pentagon currently runs “special operations” – secret wars – in 124 countries. At home, rising poverty and a loss of liberty are the historic corollary of a perpetual war state. Add the risk of nuclear war, and the question is: why do we tolerate this?_______________

FOOTNOTE: The Guardian attached the following footnote to Pilger’s story, which Pilger says suggests “that a quote of a witness to the Odessa atrocity is unverified. This appeared only in the last edition. In fact, the quote didn’t come from a Facebook entry, but from a Voice of America broadcast and was verified.” This is The Guardian‘s footnote: ” The following footnote was appended on 16 May 2014: The quotation from a doctor who says he was ‘stopped by pro-Ukrainian Nazi radicals’ was from an account on a Facebook page that has subsequently been removed.”

John Pilger has twice won Britain’s highest award for journalism and has been International Reporter of the Year, News Reporter of the Year and Descriptive Writer of the Year. He has made 61 documentary films and has won an Emmy, a BAFTA and the Royal Television Society prize. His ‘Cambodia Year Zero’ is named as one of the ten most important films of the 20th century. He can be contacted at www.johnpilger.com

[John Pilger died December 30, 2023]

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/09/24/john-pilgers-2014-warning-about-ukraine/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/13/ukraine-us-war-russia-john-pilger

Russia accuses U.S. of genocide denial

From RT
February 18, 2022

US is ignoring the targeting of Russian speakers in Ukraine, Moscow’s envoy in Washington said

By Alexey Viryasov

America’s willful ignorance of atrocities being committed against Russian-speaking people in Ukraine is causing “outrage and indignation” in Moscow and is an example of Washington’s “double standards,” Russia’s ambassador to the US claimed on Thursday.

Anatoly Antonov’s statement came in response to a comment made by US State Department spokesman Ned Price, who accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of spreading allegations with “no basis of truth.” On Tuesday, Putin claimed that Kiev was committing “genocide” in Donbass, in east Ukraine.

In a statement published on Facebook, Antonov listed the shelling of residential areas and the 2014 Trade Unions House fire in Odessa as examples of Kiev targeting Russian speakers.

He also claimed that mass graves with almost 300 people had been found in the Donbass, and asserted that they had been killed because of their native language. Similar claims have been slammed by the US of being “false narratives.” [Editor: The US denies the genocide and forced assimilation their ancestors did as they advanced across and claimed land on the American continent.]

“Washington’s beautiful slogans about the supreme value of human rights are not worth a penny. The main geopolitical goal of the United States is to push Russia back to the East as far as possible,” the envoy said. “To that end, a policy to force the Russian-speaking population out of their current places of residence is needed.”

“Americans prefer not only to ignore the attempts of forced assimilation of Russians in Ukraine but also strongly condone them with political and military support,” he continued, adding that the interests of millions of Russians living in Ukraine must be protected, which he called “a guarantee of Ukraine’s statehood and territorial integrity.”

The armed conflict in Ukraine began in 2014, following the events of the Maidan, when violent street protests toppled the democratically elected government in Kiev. Shortly after, two regions declared themselves independent states, named the Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) People’s Republics.

Moscow has repeatedly refused to recognize the breakaway states as sovereign, instead calling for them to be integrated into Ukraine with a special status. However, earlier this week, the Russian State Duma adopted a resolution urging Putin to recognize their independence.

https://www.rt.com/russia/549870-accusing-us-genocide-denial/

Victory Day 2017: Expect more violence by Ukrainian Nationalists, but don’t expect to hear about it in Western mainstream news

May 3rd, 2017 – Fort Russ News –

Ukrainian nationalists, 1941, parading before the Nazi flag
While a repetition of “May 2nd” did not occur in Odessa, it may still occur in the Ukraine, on May 9th.
Three years ago, on May 2, 2014 the war in Ukraine began. Dozens of people were burnt alive in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa – local anti-fascists and people who happened to be in the building accidentally. Official data names 48 deaths. Residents say that among the dead were more than 200 people.
Even if the first figure is closer to the truth (we would like to think that this is so), burning people alive literally under the city center’s cameras, which calls itself Europe, is an event as horrible and as absurd in it is seemingly improbable. However, the whole history of Ukraine since EuroMaidan is a theater of the absurd, and a theater of horror.
Commenting on the events in Odessa three years ago, the ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, Elena Bondarenko, stated that only Odessa alone is enough to remove President Poroshenko from power. After all, this courageous woman added, after Odessa, there were still Mariupol and Donbass.
This would be the case if Ukraine was a European country, but Ukraine belongs to Europe only geographically. Mentally and culturally, Ukraine and Ukrainians are mired in the “Asiatic” of Genghis Khan’s time. Therefore, events like Odessa can occur here with ease.
Relatives of the victims of May 2nd 2014 called for an impeachment to President Poroshenko. Deputies of the opposition block demanded an investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy. Of course, neither the latter nor the former will happen: the Ukrainian government was an accomplice in the terrorist attack, and the Ukrainian Nazis – only performers. The aim of the burning of Odessa is to frighten and shock millions of residents of the “Southeast” of Ukraine (they call this region the lands of historical Russia). This goal has been achieved. Only the Donbass found the strength to resist this, but the Donbass always differed from the rest of Ukraine, much like Sevastopol.
On May 2nd 2017, Odessa was relatively calm. About five thousand people gathered yesterday at the Kulikovo Field (the traditional site for the Odessa anti-fascist activists, according to local police data) who came to honor the memory of the deceased. Any collision with Neo-Nazis was avoided. The authorities prepared in advance. Two thousand policemen from other regions of Ukraine were brought to the city. Servicemen of the national guard arrived in the Kulikovo Field in full arms. This prevented the re-occurrence of the slaughterhouse. At the same time, the SBU reported on the detention of several local residents who were preparing a terrorist attack in Odessa using explosives. No details have yet been reported.
So, a repetition of the tragedy of May 2nd did not occur. Poroshenko’s regime is not interested in airing out dirty laundry, especially on the eve of the Eurovision contest, which will be held in Kiev. Preventing large-scale clashes, the authorities able to demonstrate that they were capable of preventing the tragedy of three years ago, given the burning down of the House of Trade Unions took place for several long hours. Therefore, at the future Nuremberg-2 court in the former Ukraine, not only will there be leaders of Nazi groups, but also the then leaders of the Ukrainian state, Turchinov and Avakov in particular, will be on the dock (if they survive until then).
But until this time, new tragedies may occur.
A few days ago, commenting on Sputnik radio, I said that the repetition of the tragedy in Odessa on May 2nd is possible, but it is unlikely (for the above reason – not to spoil the European image of Ukraine). But, unfortunately, the probability of large-scale collisions increases many times on May 9th. A number of Ukrainian Nazis are in power (for example, Shkiryak, adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine; Abroskin, police chief of the Donetsk region) and in the opposition (the OUN – Organization of Ukrainian nationalists, an heir of the Bandera OUN, Kochanivsky, and the leader of Azov and the party if “National Corps” – Biletsky). These people have said that they will not allow such a “sabbath” to dominate Ukrainian streets. Kokhanivsky, for example, called on the “patriots”, that is, the Nazis, to take to the streets of Kiev and disrupt the procession of veterans of the Great Patriotic War.
In turn, the organizers of the Immortal Regiment stated that they will not be afraid to march along the streets of Kiev. A collision is virtually inevitable. The police, I believe, cannot prevent it – the scale and motive are completely different than in Odessa. Therefore, with great probability we will see bloodshed on the streets of Kiev on May 9th. It is my hope that the confrontation will be limited to a smaller number of anti-fascists – Neo-Nazis clearly will not come to the fight with bare hands. Our only hope is in the attention of journalists (especially foreign ones) and the professionalism of the Kiev policemen.

How Russia was framed in Georgia, 2008 [Video]

August 13th, 2016 – Fort Russ News –

Various – by Inessa Sinchougova 

On the night of August 7, 2008 Georgian troops opened fire on the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, killing Russian peacekeepers and civilians in the area. Peacekeepers were permanently stationed in the region due to inter-ethnic tensions that exist over disputed territories (South, North Ossetia and Abkhazia.) 
Russian and South Ossetian forces entered the territory en masse, where heavy fighting against Georgian, US-funded forces lasted until August 12th.
The 5 day conflict played an important role for those who had orchestrated it, one which would guarantee the demonisation of Russia for the years to come. The footage of Russian tanks rolling in to Tskhinvali, in order to defend the territory from its attackers, was put on ‘repeat’ to play across mainstream media, never disclosing the cause of the narrative. 
Mr Saakashvili, then President of Georgia, was eventually held to account for his actions, but gave up his Georgian citizenship to escape prosecution. Georgian authorities inquired with Interpol to place Saakashvilli on the international criminal search list, however Interpol refused. Instead, the US puppeteers installed Saakashvilli, a wanted criminal in his own country, as Mayor of Odessa in the Ukraine. The laughing stock of the world has very little to do with the Ukraine, but the Columbia University graduate is too useful of a pawn for the US to cease working though him. 
A number of years after the Georgian conflict, a similar scenario was recreated in the Donbass region, Eastern Ukraine. The Russian military had learnt some lessons in regard to how damaging distorted media attention can be. The “Russian invasion” that was so insatiably awaited by Western mainstream media vultures never took place. Instead, pro-Russian citizen militias formed within Eastern Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves to this day against the US-funded Kiev junta. 
In 2017, South Ossetia plans on holding a referendum to join the Russian Federation. Eastern Ukrainian regions also plan a referendum in 2017. Watch this space for externally-initiated unrest closer to the time.

Pro-Ukrainian journalist: Odessans massively share pro-Russian sentiment

From Fort Russ

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
5th June, 2016
 
The vast majority of Odessa residents share pro-Russian sentiment both in secret and explicitly. This conclusion was stated by Ukrainian journalist Roman Bochkala.
On Friday, the journalist published a post on his Facebook page where he, as a “true patriot”, is outraged by the mindset of his fellow citizens. He noted that he has recently met people sympathetic to Russia too often.
“Maybe it’s their terrible roads or their misery (quote from Ukrainian propaganda about Russia – O.R),  I don’t know exactly what pulls these people to the Russian Federation, but it is a fact: “Kiev is to blame for the war, we just need to pick off this gang (actual power – O.R). Why do they forbid Russian films”, wrote Bochkala on his page.
 
In addition, the journalist posted a photo of a man on a bicycle with the inscription “Russia” on his windbreaker, with two children on the trunk.
 
“I met this one on the bicycle in Kiliya district. Of course, if two kids were not on his bike, our conversation would have been different,” said Bochkala. However, later, under his same post, several people asked, What kind of conversation would it have been? Would you have burnt him like in Odessa tradition?”
Apparently, inhabitants of Odessa began to grow tired of the incessant clowning in government circles. In the end, we can continue to have propaganda, public relations, debates, and political clashes, but sometimes there is need to deal with the case. We can’t go very far only with promises and populism.
Recall how the Governor of Odessa region Mikhail Saakashvili almost brought a situation to the city that could have catalysed civil war, at the time when there were mass protests against the mayor Trukhanov. Then at this time he spoke about the future disintegration of the state.
Earlier, Pravda.Ru reported about the unwillingness of Saakashvili to at least identify himself with Odessa people’s aspirations and preferences. On the day of the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of Odessa from Nazi invaders, on April 10th, when citizens took to the streets to honor the memory of Soviet soldiers who returned the freedom of the hero-city at the cost of their lives, the Governor was pointedly taking care of “more important” business.
It is important to note that the current Ukrainian authorities certainly are aware of the real mood of the citizens, just like they were aware when they were discussing the situation about Crimea in 2014 at the Council meeting. Here’s another question: is the junta aware that their power can’t be held on the tip of the bayonets for a very long time?

Information released on June NATO exercise in Kherson

From Fort Russ

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
31st May, 2016
 
[Disclaimer: This information has not been confirmed by NATO or related persons or bodies]
During the intelligence activities by the “Odessa” brigade it became known that military exercises under the auspices of NATO will be held on the territory of the Kherson region in the first half of June. Such countries as Ukraine, USA, Turkey, and other contingents of NATO forces will take part.
Military equipment and heavy weapons involved in the above event will arrive and be unloaded at the deep-sea ports of Odessa and Nikolaev. With the above mentioned ports, it will spill over into the territory of Kherson region, namely the venue of military maneuvers.
One of the notable nuances is that the Western-controlled media is silent about these exercises. This occurs despite the fact that previously such plans were preceded any public statements or publication in the news.
In addition, another factor is that the accumulation of troops and military equipment will be in close proximity to the state border with the Russian Federation, namely the Crimean Peninsula.
Also, attention should be paid to the fact that over the past week Israeli vessels, in very small volumes and with an urgent speed, exported concentrated vegetable oil and grain through the Nikolaev seaport. It was very similar to the desire in short notice to remove liquid assets from certain territories. At the same time, given the agility of the Israelis, all this can have an ulterior motive.
The “Odessa” brigade focused on the fact that because of a combination of the information received in light of the aggressive policy of the West, the vassal government in Kiev, and also the created and supported armed groups, it looks quite alarming. Thus, there is a definite probability of a possible aggravation of the military-political situation in the southern regions of Ukraine in the form of armed aggression against the Russian Federation, namely Crimea.

Basurin: UAF soldiers awarded for Elenovka tragedy; Pyatt visit is no coincidence

From Fort Russ

May 1, 2016 –
Mikhail Ryabov, PolitNavigator – 
Translated by J. Arnoldski
Ukrainian soldiers have received awards for their shelling of the Elenovka checkpoint, as a result of which peaceful civilians were killed. This was stated by the representative of the Ministry of Defense of the DPR, Eduard Basurin. Basurin reported:
“On April 29th, the Chief of the General Staff of the UAF, General Muzhenko, arrived at the residential area of Volnovakha. He was transported by an armored AT-105 Saxon car. It should be noted that Muzhenko’s visit was associated with preparations for intensified military operations for the coming days. In addition, in order to maintain the morale of commanders forced to perform criminal orders, Muzhenko awarded the most distinguished soldiers of the 14 brigade for shelling peaceful civilians at Elenovka.
 
In addition, the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt has been in Mariupol since April 28th, where he has held meetings with the local administration and the commanders of nationalist groupings. In tandem with Pyatt’s visit, Ukrainian security forces evacuated children from a number of a residential areas, which, as we have stated earlier, is connected with the preparation of terror attacks and UAF shelling. The US Ambassador plans to visit Odessa, where he will meet with the leadership of security structures and the sponsors of nationalist units participating in the “Kulikovo Field Operation” planned by the Ukrainian leadership to last from April 30th to May 3rd.” 

300 Azov thugs will shoot to kill in Odessa

The important info is midway down the article.

From Fort Russ

April 28, 2016
Tamerlan Russov
Arkhano
Translated by Kristina Kharlova

‘Space’ Transcarpathian die-hard Zoryan Shkiryak kind of reminds me with his ‘spirituality’ of the former Kiev mayor Leonid Chernovitsky, commonly known as Lyonya Kosmos [“Space” – FR]. It seems to me that some ‘astral’  resemblance is obvious:

Изображение
Leonid Chernovitsky

 

Изображение
“Zoryan Shkiryak took his girlfriend to Nepal, and what have you done?”

In addition, Shkiryak also has some problems with biography. If Lenya Cosmos was a member of a religious sect and kissed the hands (perhaps not only) of a black American pastor, Shkiryak is also deeply esoterical and, it seems, is also connected with the cosmos. And his biography, although it is written perfectly in places where people usually look for incriminating evidence online, evokes clear suspicions of those who were not made yesterday.

Comments: Manufactured suspicious biography; Shkiryak was identified by drug rehab nurses

Overall the public has long agreed that Shkiryak is Avakov’s stooge, and was created just for filling certain positions in the government as a plug. The people of Ukraine could judge his performance by operation “SOS in Nepal” or, for example, fire liquidation at the oil depot near Kiev. To consider Shkiryak a politically autonomous figure does not make sense, despite his six pack and yoga hobby. This man has not yet achieved anything better. In four words about this person: Shkiryak, six pack, yoga, Avakov.

And when this man, formerly head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, and now adviser and sometimes the mouthpiece of Avakov, suddenly says that certain law enforcement officers in Odessa will open fire if they see a weapon in the hands of some provocateur, I would treat these words seriously, given the recent appearance in Odessa of 300 “Azov” fighters (nick-named “Manure” by the people).

Perhaps Skiryak was talking about them when referring to “law enforcement”, and not the local ball-less militsia-police, which entirely discredited itself on May 2, 2014, and will be a disgrace of Odessa for a long time, no matter how they justify themselves.

“I want to cool the hot heads of those, who possibly want to use this situation and this anniversary to destabilize the domestic situation, that our units, which will be and already are in full combat readiness in the event of such attempts, will act harshly and uncompromisingly. Moreover, God forbid, if such provocateurs possess weapons, the reaction of law enforcement will be adequate, that is they will shoot to kill, – he said”

Against the background of the upcoming anniversary of the tragedy on May 2nd, traditional victory celebration of May 9, the confrontation between the governor and the mayor, which recently ended a temporary victory for mayor, but was the excuse to deploy 300 armed Avakov’s thugs to Odessa, subordinate to the rabid Georgian [Saakashvili – FR] with orders to shoot to kill, May in Odessa promises to be very ‘hot’. Perhaps, for the mayor and his team, which many still consider old school pro-Russian, this May will become the last in every sense. Radicals, Kiev residents and their curators from the CIA have long proven that they are versed in the art of arranging provocations with a bloody finale aimed to overthrow someone and crush resistance. And no wonder they already write in social networks that “The Trade Unions building was burned down, and now it’s time to burn the city hall”. I have long been accustomed to believe such promises of the Nazis:

Изображение

Odessans, you’ve already lost your city when I for the first time on April 16, 2014 declared the Odessa People’s Republic online and called for you to block roads. You lost your city the second time on May 2, 2014. Now issues are resolved not as then, with bats and stones, but automatic weapons and heavy machine guns on armored cars. The stakes have increased and if you have nothing to resist the arms of “Manure”, I would recommend all of you to go away for “shahliki” [traditional Russian weekend getaway at a dacha (summer house) in grandma’s village with kebab (shashliki) as a featured dish – FR] for the entire May holidays or stock up on popcorn for those who stay in the city and watch the events. Any civil disobedience actions in Odessa without a serious cover today will be just shot by the Nazis. Remember Odessa on May 2, Mariupol on May 9 and how the same “Manure” killed Russians in Donbass.

You NEED to BELIEVE the Nazis who promise to shoot you!

http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/300-azov-thugs-will-shoot-to-kill-in.html

Court refuses to ban mass rallies on Kulikovo Field in Odessa

From Fort Russ

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
27th April, 2016
 
The Odessa district administrative court rejected the claim of the Executive Committee of the Odessa City Council for a ban on holding mass rallies on Kulikovo field in the period from 1st to 10th May. This was stated by the press service of the court, reported 112 Ukraineon April 27th.
It was noted that the Executive Committee demanded to forbid meetings, demonstrations, and other peaceful actions, as well as other activities dedicated to the memory of those killed on May 2nd from taking place during this time on Kulikovo field.
The Executive Committee argued that the holding of such events is unsafe, as they will “attract the attention of a large number of radical individuals who have a contrary civil position”.
However, the court did not consider these arguments to be persuasive enough since the public organization had not notified the Executive Committee of the intention to hold events on Kulikovo field during this period.
A lone organization (“Automaidan-Odessa”) announced that it plans to spend these days on Kulikovo field for the military-patriotic education of the youth, during which they wish to use replica guns and fireworks, but the court did not grant the organization permission.

Military equipment brought to Kulikovo Field in Odessa to stop Victory Day celebrations

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
30th April, 2016
 
Order in Odessa will be protected by up to 5,000 National Guard.
On Saturday morning, April 30th, security forces and military equipment lined up on Kulikovo field in Odessa, reported  the local media.
As a reminder, from 30th April to 10th May, the entire staff of the police of the Odessa garrison was converted to enhanced mode. The police will be deployed for the protection of public order in all parts of the city.
Earlier, the acting chief of national police region, Giorgi Lortkipanidze said that entrance to Kulikovo field in Odessa on May 2nd will only be possible through metal detectors.
According to Saakashvili, President Petro Poroshenko instructed the head of the National police and the chief of the National guard in Odessa to bring in additional units of up to 1,000 people.
As a reminder, the Odessa district administrative court satisfied the claim of the Executive Committee of the Odessa City Council for a ban on holding mass events on Kulikovo field in the period from 1st to 10th May.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/military-equipment-brought-to-kulikovo.html