While insisting they remain committed to “diplomacy” in their ongoing dispute over possession of the Crimean Republic, Ukraine’s interim government today announced a full military mobilization, preparing for war.
Many in the newly installed Ukraine government see war with Russia as inevitable, and the military is digging defensive trenches along their eastern border with Russia, while officials pledge harsh crackdowns against ethnic Russians in Donetsk, who supported the ousted elected government and have protested the new one.
Interim Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh insisted that Crimea “will be our territory,” and that the troops still deployed in Crimea will not withdraw. Russian and Ukrainian officials announced a “truce” over those bases until Friday, hoping cooler heads would prevail.
Yet protest leader Vitali “Dr. Ironfist” Klitschko insisted that Friday won’t change anything, and the troops will remain beyond the date to control the bases.
Interim Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko insisted that between now and Friday the Army needs to be “ready for combat” and that the interim government’s goal is “to restore the military might of Ukraine.”
Despite the bellicose talk, Sen. John Barrasso (R – WY) says interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk told him a quite different story of a military where “nothing flies, nothing shoots and nothing works,” and urged major US military aid for his country. Though President Obama has pledged support for Ukraine’s new government regaining control of Ukraine, so far they have stopped short of pledging military backing for a war against Russia.
pledge harsh crackdowns against ethnic Russians in Donetsk
There's yer 'democracy.'
pledge harsh crackdowns against ethnic Russians in Donetsk
There's yer 'democracy.'
March 18 ~2:07 am midwestern time: appears RussiaToday's youtube account terminated in the middle of a vid. https://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday
"This account has been suspended due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube's policy against spam, gaming, misleading content, or other Terms of Service violations. "
Did you catch: "misleading content?" Hadn't noticed that one yet, and I'd have thought there was good reason for that. Youtube has just declared itself an expert on properly-leading content.
PressTV is apparently still up. https://www.youtube.com/user/PressTVBroadcast
First of all, the comment that the Ukrainian government "pledge harsh crackdowns against ethnic Russians in Donetsk" is false. Half the Ukrainian government, including the Speaker of the Parliament and acting President are ethnic Russians. There are also Jews in the national government and Jews have been recently appointed as heads of some provinces. The crackdown is against 'separatists" regardless of their ethnicity. And rightfully so. No country can allow separatism. Furthermore, this separatism in Ukraine is being instigated and lead by Kremlin agents. It is no longer a secret that Russia has been shipping in bus loads of its own citizens from Russia to take part in these protests to "join Russia". No country can allow that and this why there is a crackdown. Most of these people are being rounded up and deported back to Russia. I repeat, they are NOT citizens of Ukraine. Yes, there are also some Ukrainians citizens taking part in the protests. However, it is quite telling that for the last 3 months, with all the protests going on in Ukraine, no one saw a single Russian flag. And then all of a sudden once Russian invaded Ukraine, there are all these protests in eastern Ukraine about joining Russia. The Kremlin is working overtime right now!
I live in Ukraine and can tell you that Russia Today, along with all the other Russian TV channels and news sources are in overdrive with their Kremlin propaganda and lies. It is not a coincidence that one of their anchorpersons quite in protest over the Kremlin lies and another also – live on TV – criticised Putin's invasion and occupation of Ukraine. Russia is doing everything to convince everyone that there are "fascists", "nazis" and "anti-Semites" in power in Ukraine right now. They are lying through their teeth and don't even admit that it is their army that has invaded and is occupying Crimea. It really is unbelievable!
As for what the Jewish community in Ukraine thinks about Putin's lies, here is a link from Jewish community leaders in Ukraine. It's a letter to Putin denying anti-Semitism in Ukraine and criticizing him for his lies and invasion of Ukraine: http://eajc.org/page32/news43672.html
And here is a link to the Israeli embassy in Kiev with a report about the "neo-Nazi" Right Sector leader – Dmytro Yarosh – and his meeting with the Israeli Ambassador. Yarosh ensures the Ambassador that his groups is not anti-Semitic and is tolerant among other things. It's in Russian and Ukrainian but you can use Google Translate to translate it: http://embassies.gov.il/kiev/NewsAndEvents/Pages/…
Can you imagine any real "neo-nazis" meeting with the Israeli ambassador? No, and that's because they are not neo-Nazis!
Who instigated the violence during the protests? It appears more than likely that Victor Yanukovych was going to be voted out of office shortly so why the violence? Who stands to gain? Why don't you refer to what happened in the Ukraine a coup, because thats exactly what it was regardless of Yanukovychs' checkered past. I am really finding it hard to swallow your rhetoric.
@Dave: "Dmytro Yarosh"
«Banderastan is the Ukraine which Dmitry Iarosh, Andrei Parubii or Oleg Tiagnibok want to create: a "socialist national" state whose founding principle would be "Бий жидів та москалів – Україна для українців" ("beat the Jews and the Russians – the Ukraine for the Ukrainians"). Simple and clear. This state would have one language (Ukrainian), one ethnicity (Ukrainian), one leader (Iarosh) and one founding father (Bandera). The long term political goal of this regime would be to "return" the "rest" of the "Ukrainian land" which now is under Polish or Russian "occupation" and to "punish" the "traitors to the Fatherland".
You can think of the "Banderites" are the Ukie version of the Taliban, but far more evil and infinitely more stupid. Something like a Ukrainian version of the Interahamwe maybe?»
[Me: Copy'n paste, with thnx.]
You mean half of the illegitimate govt. of Ukraine? They illegally and violently overthrew the prior elected govt. that is a fact. Also, the tapped phone conversation between asst. sec of state Victoria Nuland and Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt of Ukraine conspiring to install who they think should lead Ukraine is all very telling. I see you left out the Svoboda party. Check out who these characters are. And as for your comment about the protesters only waving Ukraine flags is true but they are only representative of the western section of the country while the eastern half is for Russia that is why the violent protesters had to violently over throw the prior govt because they couldn't win at the ballot box. In any case, the bottom line. Ukraine is Ukraine's problem not the U.S. problem.
There's yer 'democracy.' You nailed it on both counts.Sure enough I check myself and yes RT is down.RT America is still up and running. (https://www.youtube.com/user/RTAmerica) If you like RT as I do -enjoy it while it lasts because Russia has decided to pull the contract of the current broadcast company and give it to another who will be more inline with Russia's political views and of course that means not critical which RT has been on many occasions which is what a decent press is supposed to do.Ill miss them when they go.
If anyone doubted that youtube is part of the same structure that the NSA, et al, is, it's a bit easier to see now.
That's the same youtube that refuses to take down copyright protected material but that is happy to engage in a bogus campaign against an innocent party in order to further US Foreign policy.
The RT channel, /www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday , is back up as of noon 18 March. And as per MIchael, another one, http://www.youtube.com/user/RTAmerica apparently never went down. I guess from PressTV's experience we may not get an explanation why one suspended in the middle of this Russia/Ukraine/Crimea thing –I believe PressTV's experience forced them to just make a new account….
Let them mobilize their "military". Russia is going to tear them a new one. They are not going to last even as long as Georgia did. It will be over in 3 days. They'll find that it's one thing to shoot at unsuspecting policemen, and quite another to fight a ready and prepared military force.
Sounds like they're making an excuse to install martial law.
Giving any kind of aid is illegal, since it's a coup government and any kind of aid, as the law says, frees up resources for the illegal group to use on whatever else it wants, which in this case is the forceful domination of Crimea.
If the US didn't stage the coup with a Svoboda and Right Sector backbone, none of this would be happening.
If the EU didn't demand that Ukraine go with the EU or Russia, but not both, none of this would be happening.
If the US would not consider the entire world its sphere of interest, none of this would be happening.
@arius1071: "If the US didn't stage the coup with a Svoboda and Right Sector backbone, none of this would be happening."
Me: Yes, and agree with your other two points too.
The ultimate proof of the US-inspired coup (as if any more was needed), was the Nuland boast: '$5bio in subversion!' As an extra flourish, we got the 'phone-tapped "Fuck the EU!" – duly done, as proven by the Merkel-grovel (that only the latest of many), and now Ukraine gets Nuland's preferred 'Yats' instead of 'Klitsch' or Tyahnybok, say.
The ultimate proof of the coup's ineluctable wickedness, was the next 'phone-tapped "Gosh!" from Ashton – as if she didn't already know, re the snipers being revealed as 'opposition employed.'
Now, it's interesting to do a track-back, "Killing his own people!" has been a *very* successful (US, 'the West') propaganda ploy, going back via Syria, Libya, Iraq (both pre-2003 and pre-1991), say.
Things that make one go "Hmmm."
Digging trenches? Are they planning on re-fighting WWI?
Ukraine has been a major supplier of weaponry to the US. The US passes on this former-Soviet design stuff to a wide variety of people. A whole Mechanized Brigade from Ukraine was sent to South Sudan via Kenya, according to Wikileaks. The US armed both Iraq and Afghan armies with former Soviet weapons obtained from Ukraine and Poland and a couple of other former Warsaw Pact countries.
Ukraine also markets with modest success improve versions of the old Soviet designs, with things like better gun sights for the tanks.
Ukraine has kept its old Soviet heavy industry, and that included a good deal of such weaponry.
It's true that the Soviet military frequently didn't work either. However, it worked well enough. I suspect Ukraine is a match.
These people are maniacs, totally out of control – not just in Kiev, but Berlin, London and of course, Washington. One can hardly trust the MSM to bring us the whole unvarnished truth on a garden show, let alone the games of our psychopathic tyrants … err, I mean democratic leaders. The afore mentioned morons appear to be sidling up to a serious confrontation with Russia – a nuclear power, which when offered the option of 'use it or lose it' may very well chose 'use' (when all other perceived options = lose, looping.) Warnings don't help, of course, but some sanity might.
Q: Where are the adults? Where's an (honest!) cop when you need one?
Hmmm, Barrasso (R – WY) – another warmonger. As it is pointed out above, what happened in Kiev was actually a coup and illegal for the US to provide any kind of aid. Since the Republicans in the US Congress are so concerned that Obama isn't enforcing all the laws as required by law, seemingly picking and choosing which laws the Executive will enforce, I wonder how the Repugs will square this round hole? Unless what the Repugs really mean is they want him to enforce the laws THEY want him to enforce – or not.
You know, looking back I don't remember every time there was a dust-up somewhere in the world that the US was indirectly or directly involved in seeing US Senators running around making promises they are not authorized to make. They obviously don't understand their role in the US government. It's no wonder US foreign policy is so phugged up…
In every country in the world, the young generation of today will not fight for governments or ideologies. That applies to young Ukrainians, young Russians, young Americans or any other country you'd care to name. That's why countries like the US and most European countries have opted for all-volunteer, high tech armies. At least the generals know that the troops they have are willing to fight! There are in fact very few "ethnic Russians" in Ukraine outside of Crimea. Most people in the east are Russian-speaking ethnic Ukrainians, who have no wish to be part of Russia. I was talking to my friend in Kharkov last night and she says tension is high there, with people afraid of a Russian invasion and annexation, which nobody wants. Also, reports eleswhere now speak of Putin wanting only "constitutional reform" in Ukraine, a massive climbdown on his part if true.
If most people in the east are Russian-speaking ethnic Ukrainians why has the current government in Kyiv "outlawed" the Russian language? Please explain.
What makes the Ukrainian nationalists believe that "The West" will come to its rescue? Perhaps because it has happened twice before: in 1918 and in 1941.
"Full mobilization" by a government that stares bankruptcy into the face?
The Nazi Fascists currently posing as Ukraine's "government" may be even more deluded than Shakashvili was in 2008. That "war" lasted about four hours. Russia mustered about 1% of it's military and quickly abolished Georgia's military infrastructure. With minimal civilian casualties no less.
They may have to go up to 2% to do the same to Ukraine. It's absurd.
It should be clear to anyone with half a brain that Russia will not tolerate NATO or it's stooge pretenders on their doorstep. The very idea of taking on Russia on their own turf – NATO and USA combined even – is laughable.
If push comes to shove Russia will simply park a few Borey class subs off the US coast and annihilate anything in striking distance. And NO, the US will not have the same strike capability as Russia has BY FAR the best air defense and anti-missile systems already in place.
But i doubt it will come to that.
More likely is that eastern and southern Ukraine will join the Russian Federation or declare independence within a month or two. Hell, even Moldova is talking about it now – but that won't happen until June when they elect – by a huge majority – a government that is espousing exactly that.
That leaves western Ukraine land-locked, deprived of it's whole industrial and agricultural base in the east, and basically worthless to the erstwhile IMF/EU/US/Soros rapists who had hoped to buy the Ukraine's state assets for pennies, like they did Greece. Then the REAL Ukrainians will also likely join the RF.
Game, set, match, Putin.