Blog: Meanwhile in Ukraine [ENG]

Meanwhile in Ukraine

Poroshenko along with the EU, want to prolong the already stillborn ceasefire by another 3 days. The problem is that there isn’t a truce on the ground and absolutely no negotiations on the table either. The DPR leadership want a truce, “stop shelling and move Kiev troops back away by 10 kms”. This is falling on deaf ears both in Kiev, Brussels & Washington. Instead Kiev is continuing to prepare for a bigger military offensive against the regions of Donetsk & Lugansk. They will probably use exactly the same tactics as the Croatians did with the “Krajina Serbs" during Operation Storm in 1995,  supported by the US.   150,000–200,000 Serbs  fled their homes,  a figure that represented nearly the enitre Serb population of the region.

Meanwhile, the lunatic “non-existent” ultra-Ukrainian nationalists are at work again. Here is a shot of security camera footage of Right Sector elements entering Volyn Ministerial building where they demanded a letter of resignation & threatened to burn the place. This is your new EU winnable country.  Right Sector went one better this week, as a large group of them took over a refinery in Kirovograd. The Dolynsky Oil refinery just happens to be
owned by a friend and business associate of the deposed former President Yanukovich.  This is the Kiev version of events at the Tourist Hotel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pdO-OoIL34.  Contrast this with this version.


 The recent activities of Right Sector isnt just a series of "isolated cases" of intimidation and destruction. "Pravy Sektor" attacked a hotel a few days ago, which was the location for a congress of the professional unions in Kiev.

 Still in Ukraine, but this time in Odessa. A young woman,  Inna Andreeva, from Odessa has been arrested & threatened by the state security service, (SBU) with 12 years in prison on charges of terrorism. Why? Because they obtain screen shots of her VK page where she had written " Novorossiya - yes!".

In Mariupol, a young independent journalist, Vlad Aleksandrovych , was grabbed off the street and was detained by the National Guard.  Luckily for him, this triggered an intense online campaign to get him freed, which did happen yesterday. Here is a link to a video where he describes his ordeal at the hands of the militia & SBU, (in Russian only) http://youtu.be/4_Hr8Jz-C_c This was another example of routine kidnappings in the new post Maidan state of Ukraine.   It is starting to get frighteningly like the activities of the Argentine / Chilean militaries of the 1970s.  Not a squeak of disgust from the EU, not a voice of concern from Amnesty International, (who really should be renamed Amnesia International), not a hint of concern from HRW nor the OSCE.

In Zhitomir, mothers and wives of military conscripts sent east as part of the ATO, (Anti-Terrorist Operations), are blocking roads in protest.   http://t.co/xm6IIJ530l. Here is a behind the scenes of the ATO, aka punitive operations in the East  http://t.co/RhGboiTI76. It remains to be seen for how long these protests will be tolerated by Kiev and how soon they will get a visit from Right Sector.
Photos of the MI-8 helicopter that was just shot down earlier on in the week, near Slavyansk at Bylbasovka:



Lastly, the ANNA news agency provides video news, subtitled in English: "HERE.