17-07-2014, 08:06 PM
1 – 12:00 – July 16, 2014 – Briefing from the LPR Militia for the First Half of July 16, 2014
The past evening and night in the Lugansk region were relatively calm. Suffering substantial losses, the enemy continued its retreat from Provalye and Marinovka, heading toward Biryukovo, where it was also met by LPR units and sustained losses. Near Lugansk, the aggressor, on the one hand, continued to retreat from its positions near the settlements of Aleksandrovka, Yubileyniy and Ekaterinovka and, on the other hand, started to grow its grouping in the vicinity of Shchastye. In particular, at about 08:00, an enemy column, noted to include 6 Grad installations, passed through the Shchastye checkpoint. At night and in the morning, enemy fighter aircrafts ascended into the sky on several occasions. They flew at a substantial elevation, no less than 6,000 metres. The previous evening a Su-25 ground attack craft conducted an airstrike at the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency base nominally controlled by Kiev, in the process destroying special equipment necessary in the event if a chemical leak were to affect the territory. At about 11:00, a saboteur group, operating from the territory of the Milam enterprise, conducted mortar strikes, presumably at the location where Battalion Zarya is quartered. However, the shells fell on the territory of a trolley depot.
Graphic: Marinovka has been taken by the Militia. The punitive forces have been totally encircled. The southern cauldron has been firmly sealed (courtesy of The Saker at The Vineyard of the Saker)
MAP
Graphic: Junta Defeat on LPR Territory - by Colonel Cassad @ Colonel Cassad in English
#2 – 15:06 – July 16, 2014 - Information from the Militia
Local resident of Avdeevka observed a small group of scruffy men in green camouflage in the Vinogradniki district. The men were inquiring about safe passage out of DPR. Clearly, they were the inmates of the airport and yet another group of deserters. Regarding how they manage to make it out, allow me to explain: the perimeter of the airport is fairly large and the boundaries of the airport area are directly adjacent to a wilderness area that contains a nearby forested zone. With respect to the destruction of the radio-location station – indeed, we conducted an operation to destroy communications on the tower (the tower itself will still be useful to us after victory), rather than to destroy the construction itself. Electrical power cables were taken out of commission. Ukies will not be able to restore them because the territory in the area, and not only there, is wide open to easy shelling. To ensure the safety of the Militia personnel, we are implementing preventive measures aimed at upsetting the enemy’s state of combat and psychological readiness.
#3 – 15:50 – July 16, 2014 – Briefing from the Militia
Marinovka has been taken by the Militia. The punitive forces have been totally encircled. The southern cauldron has been firmly sealed. The Ukrainian forces have only one chance to survive – to surrender to the Militia or to be interned on the territory of Russia.
On other areas of the southern front, the Militia also continues an active offensive. Artillery attacks on the Junta columns are being conducted. The Militia periodically uses Grad systems.
#4 - 17:05 – July 16, 2014 - Briefing from the Militia
We did a bit of damage to a Su jet over Gorlovka. It left in the direction of Mirgorod garnished with a thick black tail of smoke. Don’t think it will make it to the airfield with damage like that.
Near the Marinovka border checkpoint on the former Russian-Ukrainian border, a battle clash between the punitive forces and our assault group is ongoing.
The border checkpoint, controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was attacked with 10 tanks, 5 BTRs and 200 militiamen. Two Ukies soldiers were killed in the very first minutes of the battle.
#5 – 17:16 – July 16, 2014 – Infromation from Militiaman Prokhorov
I would like to inform you that the retreat of Ukie 72nd and 79th aeromobile and the 24th mechanized brigades from the Izvarino area is gradually turning into a flight. Officers and soldiers alike are spreading panic over their telephones and other means of communication. You should be soon expecting a tsunami of calls from their relatives to the mass media.
Thus, the Ukie “air force offensive” is simply a loud fart into a puddle.
On the Ukrainian side of the Izvarino border checkpoint, the word “Ukraine” has been refashioned into “Ruin”. LPR and USSR flags are flying over the buildings.
14:40 (MSK) – Fighting has commenced in the Metallist area (the suburb of Lugansk).
The Nazi bastards withdrew out most of their armoured vehicles from Shchastye, transferring them to Noviy Aidar.
A new wave is coming at Saur-Mogila. When will Ukies will finally exhaust their supply of Su-24s? PZRKs (Personal Anti-Aircraft Complex) in Snezhnoye already have already fired off their salvos at the Ukrainian aircraft. At least one Su gained serious health problems during the previous air assaults.
The claim that an assassination attempt was made on the life of Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov is disinformation. He is Slavyansk, healthy as ever. Pure disinfo to distract the citizens from the Khokhlo-army’s defeats in the southern “intestine”.
#6 – 17:49 – July 16, 2014 – Briefing From the Militia
The DPR Militia claim two more Ukrainian jets near Saur-Mogila. The head of the DPR Militia Press-Service, Vladislav Brig, posted on his Facebook account:
“Two more Su jets were shot down. They were engaged in airstrikes at Saur-Mogila.”
#7 – 19:17 – July 16, 2014 – Information from Eyewitnesses
On the hottest parts of the front, Ukies have been observed throwing away their weapons, taking off their military markings, with some even removing their uniforms and changing into civilian clothes, and running toward the Russian border. Those who have no civilian clothes with them run with peeled-off epaulets. Some, and, in particular, members of the punitive battalions and Praviy Sector militants, have been seen stripping to their underwear.
#8 - 19:42 – July 16, 2014 - Briefing from Igor Strelkov
Heavy fighting continues near Marinovka. The village was twice bombed from high elevation. The enemy is concentrating its artillery and tanks against our grouping from the south and from the west. Battles are also continuing in the area south of Dmitrievka, where the enemy has concentrated an artillery grouping near Kozhevnya.
We lost 1 BTR (destroyed with a shot from an ATGM); the enemy suffered losses of 1 BTR and 1 BMP destroyed and 1 BMP-2 captured in working condition.
#9 – 19:34 – July 16, 2014 – Briefing from the Militia HQ
The enemy has been continuing its retreat from Provalye Marinovka (LPR), suffering substantial losses, heading in the direction of Biryukovo, where it was ambushed by LPR militiamen.
In the first half of the day, the enemy continued to increase its grouping on the approaches to Shchastye. MLRS Grad were pulled up to the location. Right now there is a withdrawal of Ukie forces to Novoaidar.
#10 – Good News from Donbass – Blog Entry by Colonel Cassad @ Colonel Cassad in English
From reliable sources in the DPR:
The junta military today rolled back from Izvarino and Krasnodon (a bit earlier the information arrived that the enemy is retreating from Alexandrovka and Schastye), without solving the main problem of blockading the former state border of Ukraine with the Russian Federation. After suffering large losses and having problems with supplies, on the 15-th day of the offensive the junta military retreated by about 30-40 km from Izvarino, south of which lies the self-styled “road of life”. This way, together with the growing defeat of the South punitive group and the failed attempt to unblock the Luhansk airport, the LPR militia won the strategic defensive operation which continued for more than two weeks, and the junta suffered its largest defeat since the start of the war. In essence, the charge of the mechanized forces to the rescue of the airport was a gamble by which they were trying to turn the failing operation around. In order to renew the offensive operation the junta urgently needs an operational pause, because the situation continues to get worse for it, which is why requests of cease-fire cannot be excluded in the nearest time, which of course will be rejected by the militia.
The story with Mr. Khodakovsky continues. Somewhat earlier he was stripped of the direct command of the “Vostok” battalion (which was reformed into a brigade, so it has to be called now the “Vostok” brigade), which was operationally reassigned to Strelkov and his headquarters that rely on the conceal of the commanders. Over Khodakovsky, who used to be the minister of the state security of the DPR, a representative of the “Bloody Gebnya” (i.e., KGB) emerged, lieutenant-general Antyufeev who is currently cleansing the consequences of the work of those who were involved with the attempts to surrender Donetsk. A few days ago Mr. Khodakovsky was explicitly offered to determine with whom he is – either with Akhmetov or with the DPR. Because no agreement in good faith was apparently reached, then according to the data of the source, Mr. Khodakovsky today scribbled a paper about resigning from all positions in the security block of the DPR, which was dropped on the table of the political leadership of the DPR. Will it be given motion is not yet clear, but it is quite probable that in the nearest time Mr. Khodakovsky may depart from the deck of the military and political leaders of the DPR, similarly to how recently the former Mayor of Donetsk Mr. Lukyanchenko fell out of it and ran into Kiev.
UPD: Mr. Strelkov already confirmed the fact of the resignation of Mr. Khodakovsky from the position of the Minister of State Security of the DPR, so the source once again confirmed its high degree of privity.
Strelkov: Indeed, Mr. Khodakovsky resigned from the position of the minister. But he continues to command “Vostok” and nobody is going to remove him.
This way Mr. Khodakovsky now remains just a field commander and dropped out of the political deck of the top of the DPR. One more consequence of the retreat from Slavyansk.
Restrained optimism reigns in the military leadership of the DPR and the LPR after the successes of the recent days. So things are moving.
#11 - Junta Defeat on LPR Territory - by Colonel Cassad @ Colonel Cassad in English
Continue Reading: Junta Defeat on LPR Territory - by Colonel Cassad @ Colonel Cassad in English
#12 – July 16, 2014 – Information from LifeNews
Sixteen wounded Ukrainian executioners were delivered across the border into Russia. The border guards and Junta servicemen wounded in the fighting are being treated at hospital of the Gukovo village in the Rostov region.
The number of Ukrainian soldier being attended to by Russian doctors has grown to 16 men. Three Ukrainian border guards are in intensive care; the all received wounds of various degrees of severity. The character of wounds varies – caused by shells, frags and shrapnel, as well as fractures and burns.
A source in the Militia provided information that the battle on the LPR territory is occurring only 10 kilometres away from the Russian village of Gukovo.
July 16, 2014 – Situation Report from the Militia
An accumulation of disparate parts of Ukie forces can be observed in the area of Amvrosievka – this is the outcome of our morning liberation of Marinovka (DPR). In the corse of a haphazard retreat in the direction of Mariupol, significant numbers of armoured vehicles in disrepair is being abandoned “on the march” (in quotations, as it is difficult to equate this flight to a march). The evacuation of non-military personnel has been substantially hampered.
We have information that separate units of the Junta forces, in an attempt to breakout from the Saurovsk cauldron, are running, stripping of their camouflage and dropping personal arms, almost naked to their underwear. Those who have civilian clothes are hastily changing, hoping to get lost among the civilian population. In Lugansk, the situation remains tense. We have radio located and now are tracking an enemy fire corrector.
20:00 (MSK) – We have received and now are confirming information about the shooting down of a transport aircraft (An-26) over Lugansk. An intensive battle has ensued at the Lugansk airport. A KPVT can be heard working, there are explosions. Near the square adjacent to the airport terminal there is thick black smoke.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/military-br...es/5391665
Today, not only the Russian mass media has raised the issue of the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine, but delegates of European media as well. Journalistic investigation led me to the Russian refugee camp, located not far from the place of military events. There is another world, though the planet is the same – the Earth. Water, food, light, absence of firing, a manifestation of humanity in everyday life allow people to feel safe again and with gratitude to accept the help and care in the neighboring state. All that they have lost overnight, continuing to remain citizens of Ukraine.
Before me there are those, who saw the war in the XXI century with their own eyes. I’m listening to them and internally I shudder at the thought that all this is experienced by the people whom 23 years ago we were unified with.
- For three days the relatives who remained in Lugansk haven’t slept. Happily you can still sleep at night as the sleep is impossible. Now there is a tank battle and a grenade attack. My mother called, crying.
Correspondent: Tell me, please, if the civilians tried to hang out any identification marks – the red cross flag or any flags so that they were not being bombed or shot.
- It`s useless! We tried it many times. The grandfather took a white flag when he went with children. They were all shot. They do not respond to any signs. The most terrible thing for those whose homes are near the mines is that they are destroyed. In settlements and in the city there are tipper-offs who orient mercenaries of the Kiev junta to bomb certain objects – shops, mines, hospitals. Snitches deliberately spread the rumors that the Chechens are located elsewhere. Since June 16, at 8 pm there have been bombed a military sports camp “Forest Dawns”, where there were only two watchmen and a granddaughter of one of the guards. I saw it with my own eyes how the aircraft dropped cluster bombs.
Correspondent: How did the armistice announced by Poroshenko go? Did the representatives of the National Guard suggest to hand over the weapon?
- There was armistice those days, they were shooting us as well. The weapon was never suggested to be handed over. Informants were waiting at places for the representatives of the National Guard and when they arrived, they only pointed the finger at those who had a different opinion and who participated in the defense of the territory. At schools at the Farewell Bell the children of such informers threatened our children: “I`ll shoot you and I`ll kill you”. It was the feeling that this was a zombie uttering. In the village Novoukrainka, of Luhansk region my acquaintances were talking in the company of neighbors and one of them said that they are leaving to Russia with the family the following morning. At night they were found dead. Only a 5-year-old child got to the intensive care, but I don’t know at all, whether he survived. After canceling the truce the bombing became more fierce. In the village Makarovo the locals asked the volunteers to remove a checkpoint to pass up. As soon as militants departed, the civilians were opened fire at. They rushed back crying “militants, help.” They were fleeing with children. But the soldiers of the National Guard were shooting them ruthlessly. The houses of my relatives from the settlement were completely destroyed. Now, being here, I don’t know what happened to my house at all.
Correspondent: How often do you communicate with your relatives who remain in Ukraine?
- Often, every day. But our calls are suppressed, the talk is permanently interrupted. When I call my relatives, they ask: “Don’t tell anything superfluous, talks are being monitored”. We try to communicate very quickly.
Correspondent: Tell me, what the relations between you, who are in favour of the declaration of the independence and those who are for the present Ukrainian power are?
- When we come across each other and have to communicate, everyone expresses their opinion. We treat them normally and quietly. They’ve got a completely different reaction. They are ready, figuratively speaking, “to scratch our eyes” and avoid any communication.
Correspondent: What do you think causes such aggression?
- First and foremost, they are defiantly against communicating in Russian. And second, after the referendum, when Poroshenko refused to recognize our voluntary decision.
Correspondent: Hasn’t the Ukrainian language become the national language for you during the years of independence of the republic?
- No. As many years as we have lived in our land for so many years we have been speaking only Russian. Someone on the outskirts of villages knows and can speak Ukrainian too, but it doesn’t cause any anger in us or desire to kill. Earlier the Ukrainian language was taught as a subject in schools, and now Russian is established as a separate subject, and all the lessons should be conducted in Ukrainian. It`s hard for children to study, they didn’t get used to it, many of them don’t understand the language. English is taught through Ukrainian. Children have to translate from English into Russian at first, and then into Ukrainian. Why is there such a complexity?
Correspondent: How is the higher education organised?
– The same. Students must address the professors only in Ukrainian. All the subjects are taught only in Ukrainian. The Russian groups of training aren’t present. Though it is more convenient to many professors to teach in Russian, they are obliged to teach in Ukrainian.
Correspondent: Does the majority of people run to Russia?
- Yes. Where else can we go? Those who have relatives in other regions of Ukraine, go there. We have no one there. But our children can’t go, for example, to Western Ukraine even to study. The daughter of my sister after leaving school wanted to enter a Medical Academy to study to study to be a pharmacist. In Lugansk, it was also possible to study, but it`s considered that this specialization is better taught in Lviv university. The girl called Lviv to find out what documents were necessary for the admission. She was immediately asked where she was from. As soon as they heard that she was from Lugansk region, they responded: “Prepare coffins.” And one more my acquaintance took out his wife to Ternopol to live at her aunt’s. At first, the wife was going shopping all by herself, but now she is afraid. Our dialect is different. You can hear the way we speak now.
Correspondent: It turns out, once defining your specific dialect, a feeling of hatred towards you is immediately erupted?
– It turns out so. Therefore, we have nowhere to run. I used to have friends earlier in Lviv and Lviv region. Now none of them keeps in touch with me.
Correspondent: Do you think you will be able to return to the territory of Ukraine soon?
– Where to return now when the power station and the railroad are blown up? There is no light, no gas, no food. Children are deprived of lives to sell their organs. The Russian journalists and television operators are killed to get rid of the proofs of the criminal actions. It`s awfully to see the torn bodies and guts. If the National Guard want to take away the corpses of the soldiers, the militants always give them such an opportunity. As soon as the militants try to carry away the soldiers from the battlefield, the National Guard open fire straightaway. They even shot the grandfather Ostap who asked to take away the perished militants: “Sonny, in fact you are the same people as we are. Give them away. I will bury the guys”. He was walking with a stick, he had his hair and beard all gray, whom could he do any harm? For what? Do they want to starve us because of the slate gas? It is necessary to America to have it by the means of such bloodshed?
Correspondent: What TV channels are broadcast at your place? Which of the things you have told about above are shown on the Ukrainian television?
– The Ukrainian channels didn’t show the truth, the actual state of things. We stopped watching them. We watch Russia 24 and Lifenews.
Correspondent: How are you accepted in Russia?
– Oh, in Russia we were met very well. Here in the camp for refugees the staff is remarkable and the volunteers help us absolutely free of charge. They provide us with the humanitarian assistance. Each time they are carrying heavy packets, we see how their hands almost come off, they come every day. We have meals here three times a day. The food is nutritious. We were starving back in Ukraine, we really had nothing to eat. We shared a meal among all in small piece. Here a sponsor who would not give his name, gave the gifts to 217 people last week, not only some delicious surprises for children, but also for all the adults. You know, we are given everything: washing powder, clothes pegs, blankets, and clothes. People come and ask: “Tell us what is it exactly that you need? We will go and will buy everything! Just tell what is necessary for you.” I never expected that there would be such a warm attitude at the moment of grief in my life.
Correspondent: So do you really feel that you have met brothers and sisters here?
– Yes, that’s this very feeling! My car broke down on the way here. It was impossible to be towed by a bus, so the volunteers have towed it here. Now they’re helping with the repair. You can’t imagine how greatly I have been dressed here, I wasn’t wearing such things back at home. I was walking around in one shirt and a pair of trousers which already 5-6 years old, and here I was presented with everything new. I strongly ask to forgive us if we happen to be a little slow or if we say something wrong. Don’t take offense to us. Do understand that we are the same people as you are, we have children. We didn’t “horde”, we haven`t got anywhere to run!
” We haven`t got anywhere to run! ” This is the phrase I heard most often when, interrupting each other, people were sharing their pain with me. I could hardly fight back tears. There was a huge desire to embrace them. When the people have suffered such a severe psychological shock, you are afraid to show a lot of emotions, you are trying to be calm and to hand a feeling of peace over to them. I think I managed to do it a bit. I was delighted with the professional work of psychologists in Voronezh who for a short period of time managed to help the people recover from the shock. If upon arrival, they feared the drone of the aircraft and hunched their shoulders, the children cried, ran to parents and hid themselves, on day of my conversation, little three-year-old Ksyusha was not at all scared of an aircraft flying over us. I asked the beautiful blue-eyed girl: “Ksyusha, are you afraid of the airplane?” The child looked up in the sky and said: “No. The plane is big and Ksyusha is already big.”
Looking round at a small group of people passing Ksyusha and me, I was surprised to know that the camp was visited by Zelmira Sinclair, Senior Legal Adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. It turned out that Zelmira Sinclair was not invited but given a task of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to visit the border regions of Ukraine and to look at the conditions of the placement of the refugees. I managed to ask the Senior Adviser a few questions. Despite the fact that the massive influx of the refugees from South-Eastern Ukraine in Russia has increased significantly during the exacerbation of fighting between the supporters of pro-independence Donbass and Kiev`s security officers, Zelmira Sinclair calmly reacted to this piece of news. She believes that it won`t lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, as Russia is quite successfully coping with this problem. The Russian authorities take appropriate measures to ensure good conditions for the citizens of Ukraine, so no humanitarian catastrophe is expected in her opinion. Answering the question what measures the top management is going to take to reduce the number of the refugees in need the Senior Adviser responded that the assistance can only be provided in case of the official appeal of the Russian authorities. The issue of political matter – what other evidence of war crimes has still to be submitted to start an immediate investigation – appeared not to be in the competence of the UN representative. I heard hackneyed phrases: it is necessary to sit down at a negotiating table and to decide.
How long is it possible to carry on negotiations, solving nothing and taking no steps?
In Donbass region there is obviously a humanitarian catastrophe: medicines, essentials and food are not enough. Refugees en masse have begun to arrive in Voronezh region which borders Lugansk region of Ukraine, since June, 8. According only to data of July, 3, the day Zelmira Sinclair was visiting the refugee camps, in the region of Voronezh there came 1369 people. Generally they are inhabitants of Lugansk and Donetsk areas. On July, 1 there arrived over 150,000 refugees from Ukraine, who were adopted by 48 regions. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, there are almost 18,000 Ukrainian refugees in 252 centers of temporary accommodation in the Russian Federation. FMS reports that more than 14 thousand Ukrainians asked for a temporary shelter and a refugee status.
I don`t know what Zelmira Sinclair has reported to the top management after the completing her task. Perhaps communicating with the citizens of Ukraine, being in camp, she took them for tourists. On the day of the meeting with the adviser people were looking rested. It`s a pity that a Senior Legal Adviser did not visit the camp on the first day of their settlement and didn`t see the frightened, screaming, half-naked children whose parents didn`t have time to dress them when there started the bombing of their homes.
I want to believe that the mission of the UN representative is fundamentally different from the aims of the employees of the U.S. Department of State. America persistently continues to call the people running to Russia tourists, allegedly without knowing they were all threatened so much, that the people are afraid to ask for a status of refugees as they still have relatives as hostages. Their nearest and dearest were promised to be repressed if the people ask the status of refugees – this is the fact the USA doesn’t wish to notice and take into consideration. All this clearly demonstrates how the actions of the present authorities and power structures of Ukraine are coordinated by the intelligence services of the USA which gave them a task at any cost to achieve the state when the international organizations wouldn’t get to know the real number of people – namely of refugees, while tourists don’t need to be taken into consideration at all. After all, if the person is too intimidated to seek shelter in Russia, then the statistics of the war crimes won’t be challenged…
I express special gratitude to all the staff of Voronezh Children’s Health Camp “Bonfire”, on the basis of which the camp for refugees has been formed. The Russian children who were to spend their holiday there, refused to have rest there so that the brothers and sisters from relative Ukraine could be rescued. I’m proud of the people of Voronezh, among which there are also my parents. Here, in Voronezh land, I’ve met amazing sympathy, nobleness and true patriotism.
Lana Zoricheva is a Correspondent for Radio Bergen in Russia and the CIS
http://www.globalresearch.ca/extensive-w...un/5391652
As the Western-backed regime in Kiev assaults pro-Russian militias in the major cities of eastern Ukraine, mass graves are coming to light in Slavyansk, the former opposition stronghold recently captured by Kiev. The government offensive is unfolding with the support of Washington and the European Union (EU), which yesterday imposed more sanctions to compel Moscow to abandon any support for opposition militias in Ukraine.
Andriy Lysenko, the spokesman for the Kiev regime’s Defense and Security Council, said yesterday that “hundreds of bodies of rebel fighters” had been found in shallow graves. Lysenko claimed some of the graves “have been mined by the terrorists”—apparently implying that some of the dead were killed during the siege of Slavyansk and buried by fellow opposition fighters before Kiev’s forces captured the town. Lysenko refused to give further details.
While the Kiev regime’s bombardment of Slavyansk doubtless caused hundreds of casualties, its own accounts show that the far-right Ukrainian nationalist militias it has mobilized are carrying out a campaign of political terror and murder in Slavyansk. Upon capturing the city, they detained all men between the ages of 25 and 35 on suspicion of supporting or giving aid, including medical aid, to the opposition militias.
On Tuesday, Interior Ministry official Anton Gerashchenko confirmed that two Slavyansk priests had been murdered for supporting opposition forces. “We found a grave of two priests from Slavyansk, who were tortured and killed by the Ukrainian nationalists,” Gerashchenko said. The bodies of two sons of one of the priests were discovered in the same grave as the priests’ mutilated remains.
The Odessa diocese confirmed that Ukrainian nationalists have threatened, beaten or kidnapped several Orthodox priests, many of whom they consider too close to Moscow. The Odessa diocese secretary, Archpriest Andrei Novikov, who has fled to Moscow fearing arrest by Ukrainian nationalist groups, said, “I’m sure if the government keeps its position, it will handle the physical liquidation of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine.”
Statements by top Kiev officials during the siege of Slavyansk amounted to a blank check for its far-right forces—including fascist militias such as the Right Sector and Azov Battalion and the newly formed National Guard—to murder civilians.
President Petro Poroshenko pledged that his forces would “liquidate” opposition fighters. Adopting the tactics the Nazis used against resistance fighters in occupied Europe during World War II, Poroshenko called for disproportionate killings in retaliation for losses suffered by his regime, saying: “For every soldier’s life, the militants will pay with dozens and hundreds of their own.”
A BBC report on the Azov Battalion makes clear the type of fascist trash the Ukrainian regime and its backers in Washington and the European Union are unleashing on the population of eastern Ukraine. It interviewed Mikael Skillt, a white supremacist and former Swedish Army sniper now fighting with the Azov Battalion. Skillt said the unit includes “national socialists” who wear swastikas, but there is “even one liberal, though I don’t know how he got there.”
The Azov Battalion, which is financed by billionaire oligarch Igor Kolomoisky and has recruiters traveling internationally, is led by Andriy Biletsky, the head of the Social National Assembly (SNA). The SNA’s online mission statement specifies that its goals are to “punish severely” interracial sexual relations and “to prepare Ukraine for further expansion and to struggle for the liberation of the entire White Race from the domination of the internationalist speculative capital.”
Contacted by the BBC, the Kiev regime defended the Azov Battalion. Gerashchenko said, “The Social National Assembly is not a neo-Nazi organization.” He claimed the only non-Ukrainians in the Azov Battalion were “journalists from Sweden, Spain and Italy who have come to report on the heroic achievements of the fighters in their struggle against terrorism.”
The fascist atrocities in Ukraine are an indictment of Washington and the European powers, which publicly encouraged pro-EU demonstrations in Kiev led by far-right forces in order to topple pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Having built up the Right Sector and other fascist militias to crush Yanukovych’s riot police and install a pro-Western regime in the February 22 putsch, the Western governments and media are now concealing the fascists’ crimes.
The atrocities in Slavyansk further expose the hypocrisy of the advocates of “human rights” imperialism who praised Western intervention in support of the Kiev protests and the February 22 putsch, portraying the right-wing, pro-EU opposition to Yanukovych as a movement for democracy (see: “In the service of imperialism: Right-wing “intellectuals” gather in Kiev”). Their silence on the crimes of the Kiev regime highlights their role as agents of imperialism and fascist reaction.
The Western imperialist powers are stepping up their support for the Kiev regime as it intensifies its civil war and political terror in eastern Ukraine. Yesterday, US President Barack Obama announced new sanctions against Russia at a White House press conference.
The measures target firms including Rosneft, the world’s largest oil company; Gazprombank, the banking subsidiary of natural gas giant Gazprom; independent natural gas producer Novatek; and development lender Vnesheconombank. They are also directed against separatist groups in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. The sanctions restrict these entities’ access to US lending and the American financial system.
Obama said, “These sanctions are significant, but they are also targeted,” adding that they were designed to limit “spillover” effects for US companies.
Although Ukrainian government forces have repeatedly and provocatively shelled Russian border areas, Obama cynically placed responsibility for the crisis in Ukraine on Moscow. “We have to see concrete actions, and not just words that Russia in fact is committed to trying to end this conflict along the Russia-Ukraine border,” he said (see: “Moscow threatens response after Ukraine forces shell Russian border town”).
Meeting in Brussels yesterday, EU authorities imposed sanctions on “individuals or entities who actively provide material or financial support to the Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of eastern Ukraine.” These sanctions include travel bans and asset freezes affecting 72 Russian persons and entities.
“The situation in Ukraine is unacceptable,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said. “The territorial integrity of that country is not being properly respected by Russia.”
EU authorities proceeded with the new sanctions against Russia even though the economies of the EU and Russia are closely linked. With the two economies doing over $300 billion in yearly trade, broader sanctions risk triggering an economic collapse across the region.
The Ukraine crisis has already had a serious impact on the European economy, according to figures released by the European statistics agency Eurostat, which found that EU exports to Russia have fallen 11 percent and Russian exports to the EU have declined by 9 percent.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/fascist-atr...ne/5391739
A Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing-777 with over 280 passengers on board has crashed in Ukraine, close to the border with Russia. Both Kiev and the opposition deny involvement in the incident.
LIVE UPDATES:Malaysian Airlines MH17 plane crash in Ukraine
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Geraschenko said the plane carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members fell.
Malaysian Airlines has confirmed that it has lost contact with the plane when it was flying over Ukrainian soil.
Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow.
The passenger plane was expected to enter Russian airspace at 5:20pm local time, but never did, a Russian aviation industry source was cited by Reuters.
“The plane crashed 60km away from the border, the plane had an emergency beacon,” ITAR-TASS cited its source.
A man works at putting out a fire at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014.(Reuters / Maxim Zmeyev )
A man works at putting out a fire at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014.(Reuters / Maxim Zmeyev )
Residents have reported finding debris from a plane, which they say could belong to the Malaysian Boeing. They said that several dozen dead passengers have been found, RIA Novosti reports.
Groups that are fighting Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine have rejected any involvement in the incident, as there are reports that the plane was shot down.
The Donetsk People’s Republic claims its self-defense forces simply don’t have such military equipment.
Donetsk People’s Republic PM Aleksandr Boroday has called the incident a “provocation by the Ukrainian military”.
“We confirm that the plane crashed not far from Donetsk,” Boroday said. “Representatives of Donetsk People’s Republic have headed to the scene of the plane search.”
“Self-defense forces have no air-defense, which could target transport aircraft at that height,” he told Interfax.
“We have only MANPADs (portable anti-aircraft missile complex) which hit targets at 3-4 kilometers,” Sergey Kavtaradze, representative for Donetsk People’s Republic PM, also told journalists.
Russia’s military also says none of its military planes have been flying close to the Russia-Ukraine border on Thursday, RIA Novosti reported citing a military official.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has not ruled out that a Malaysian plane has been shot down.
“We don’t rule out that this plane was shot down and stress that Ukrainian forces did not fulfill any actions targeting in the air,” Poroshenko said. He added that an investigation commission will be launched.
At the same time, Anton Geraschenko said on his Facebook page that the plane was targeted from the air defense missile complex “Buk”.
RIA Novosti is citing its source who said that Kiev indeed deployed “Buk” in the Donetsk region.
“According to the system of objective control, “Buk” division of the armed forces of Ukraine was relocated to Donetsk region on Wednesday. Now in Kharkov another division is being prepared,” the source said.
The sources stressed that aircraft flying at an altitude of over 10 kilometers can only be targeted by C-300 class weapons or ‘Buk”.
A source in Russia’s federal air traffic agency Rosaviatsia has said that three days ago Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council closed the airspace over eastern Ukraine because of the so-called “anti-terrorist operation” that Kiev conducts in the region.
Earlier a representative of Donetsk People’s Republic said that civil aviation planes could not fly over Donetsk and Lugansk regions. He added that all necessary traffic control and navigation equipment was damaged.
“Dispatching support of all passenger flights is being conducted from Kiev. How this plane could be there – is not clear,” a representative of Donetsk People’s Republic said.
The Boeing-777, whose maiden commercial flight was almost exactly two decades ago, had previously suffered ten serious incidents, according to the Aviation Safety Database.
The most notorious of these involved another route performed by the same company, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, during which the US-made aircraft disappeared off the radars between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, in March this year. Despite an international search effort costing tens of millions of dollars, the plane, the reasons for whose disappearance have still not been definitively established, has not yet been recovered.
Another widely-covered incident occurred last year, when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 pilot crashed into the seawall just short of the landing strip at San Fransisco International Airport, prompting the fuselage to drag across the runway as it disintegrated in a fire. Three people died as a result of the incident – the first fatalities in the history of the model, which is regarded as very safe in the industry.
Currently, about 1200 modifications of Boeing-777 are operated worldwide.
“A Boeing-777 is an extremely reliable piece of machinery. Modern planes don’t just crash with no reason,” pilot and aviation expert Yury Karash told RT. “Let us recall how a Ukrainian missile downed a Russian TU-154 aircraft ten years ago. I can’t completely exclude the possibility the Boeing-777 was also hit by a missile.”
“I don’t know who could’ve shot it down. But I can allege that it most likely was the Ukrainian armed forces: simply because its military – anti-aircraft defense, in particular – are, unfortunately, unqualified. As judging by the overall state of the Ukrainian armed forces, insufficient attention has been paid to their training,” he added.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/malaysian-a...rd/5391825
http://www.infowars.com/malaysian-passen...n-ukraine/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...order.html
The past evening and night in the Lugansk region were relatively calm. Suffering substantial losses, the enemy continued its retreat from Provalye and Marinovka, heading toward Biryukovo, where it was also met by LPR units and sustained losses. Near Lugansk, the aggressor, on the one hand, continued to retreat from its positions near the settlements of Aleksandrovka, Yubileyniy and Ekaterinovka and, on the other hand, started to grow its grouping in the vicinity of Shchastye. In particular, at about 08:00, an enemy column, noted to include 6 Grad installations, passed through the Shchastye checkpoint. At night and in the morning, enemy fighter aircrafts ascended into the sky on several occasions. They flew at a substantial elevation, no less than 6,000 metres. The previous evening a Su-25 ground attack craft conducted an airstrike at the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency base nominally controlled by Kiev, in the process destroying special equipment necessary in the event if a chemical leak were to affect the territory. At about 11:00, a saboteur group, operating from the territory of the Milam enterprise, conducted mortar strikes, presumably at the location where Battalion Zarya is quartered. However, the shells fell on the territory of a trolley depot.
Graphic: Marinovka has been taken by the Militia. The punitive forces have been totally encircled. The southern cauldron has been firmly sealed (courtesy of The Saker at The Vineyard of the Saker)
MAP
Graphic: Junta Defeat on LPR Territory - by Colonel Cassad @ Colonel Cassad in English
#2 – 15:06 – July 16, 2014 - Information from the Militia
Local resident of Avdeevka observed a small group of scruffy men in green camouflage in the Vinogradniki district. The men were inquiring about safe passage out of DPR. Clearly, they were the inmates of the airport and yet another group of deserters. Regarding how they manage to make it out, allow me to explain: the perimeter of the airport is fairly large and the boundaries of the airport area are directly adjacent to a wilderness area that contains a nearby forested zone. With respect to the destruction of the radio-location station – indeed, we conducted an operation to destroy communications on the tower (the tower itself will still be useful to us after victory), rather than to destroy the construction itself. Electrical power cables were taken out of commission. Ukies will not be able to restore them because the territory in the area, and not only there, is wide open to easy shelling. To ensure the safety of the Militia personnel, we are implementing preventive measures aimed at upsetting the enemy’s state of combat and psychological readiness.
#3 – 15:50 – July 16, 2014 – Briefing from the Militia
Marinovka has been taken by the Militia. The punitive forces have been totally encircled. The southern cauldron has been firmly sealed. The Ukrainian forces have only one chance to survive – to surrender to the Militia or to be interned on the territory of Russia.
On other areas of the southern front, the Militia also continues an active offensive. Artillery attacks on the Junta columns are being conducted. The Militia periodically uses Grad systems.
#4 - 17:05 – July 16, 2014 - Briefing from the Militia
We did a bit of damage to a Su jet over Gorlovka. It left in the direction of Mirgorod garnished with a thick black tail of smoke. Don’t think it will make it to the airfield with damage like that.
Near the Marinovka border checkpoint on the former Russian-Ukrainian border, a battle clash between the punitive forces and our assault group is ongoing.
The border checkpoint, controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was attacked with 10 tanks, 5 BTRs and 200 militiamen. Two Ukies soldiers were killed in the very first minutes of the battle.
#5 – 17:16 – July 16, 2014 – Infromation from Militiaman Prokhorov
I would like to inform you that the retreat of Ukie 72nd and 79th aeromobile and the 24th mechanized brigades from the Izvarino area is gradually turning into a flight. Officers and soldiers alike are spreading panic over their telephones and other means of communication. You should be soon expecting a tsunami of calls from their relatives to the mass media.
Thus, the Ukie “air force offensive” is simply a loud fart into a puddle.
On the Ukrainian side of the Izvarino border checkpoint, the word “Ukraine” has been refashioned into “Ruin”. LPR and USSR flags are flying over the buildings.
14:40 (MSK) – Fighting has commenced in the Metallist area (the suburb of Lugansk).
The Nazi bastards withdrew out most of their armoured vehicles from Shchastye, transferring them to Noviy Aidar.
A new wave is coming at Saur-Mogila. When will Ukies will finally exhaust their supply of Su-24s? PZRKs (Personal Anti-Aircraft Complex) in Snezhnoye already have already fired off their salvos at the Ukrainian aircraft. At least one Su gained serious health problems during the previous air assaults.
The claim that an assassination attempt was made on the life of Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov is disinformation. He is Slavyansk, healthy as ever. Pure disinfo to distract the citizens from the Khokhlo-army’s defeats in the southern “intestine”.
#6 – 17:49 – July 16, 2014 – Briefing From the Militia
The DPR Militia claim two more Ukrainian jets near Saur-Mogila. The head of the DPR Militia Press-Service, Vladislav Brig, posted on his Facebook account:
“Two more Su jets were shot down. They were engaged in airstrikes at Saur-Mogila.”
#7 – 19:17 – July 16, 2014 – Information from Eyewitnesses
On the hottest parts of the front, Ukies have been observed throwing away their weapons, taking off their military markings, with some even removing their uniforms and changing into civilian clothes, and running toward the Russian border. Those who have no civilian clothes with them run with peeled-off epaulets. Some, and, in particular, members of the punitive battalions and Praviy Sector militants, have been seen stripping to their underwear.
#8 - 19:42 – July 16, 2014 - Briefing from Igor Strelkov
Heavy fighting continues near Marinovka. The village was twice bombed from high elevation. The enemy is concentrating its artillery and tanks against our grouping from the south and from the west. Battles are also continuing in the area south of Dmitrievka, where the enemy has concentrated an artillery grouping near Kozhevnya.
We lost 1 BTR (destroyed with a shot from an ATGM); the enemy suffered losses of 1 BTR and 1 BMP destroyed and 1 BMP-2 captured in working condition.
#9 – 19:34 – July 16, 2014 – Briefing from the Militia HQ
The enemy has been continuing its retreat from Provalye Marinovka (LPR), suffering substantial losses, heading in the direction of Biryukovo, where it was ambushed by LPR militiamen.
In the first half of the day, the enemy continued to increase its grouping on the approaches to Shchastye. MLRS Grad were pulled up to the location. Right now there is a withdrawal of Ukie forces to Novoaidar.
#10 – Good News from Donbass – Blog Entry by Colonel Cassad @ Colonel Cassad in English
From reliable sources in the DPR:
The junta military today rolled back from Izvarino and Krasnodon (a bit earlier the information arrived that the enemy is retreating from Alexandrovka and Schastye), without solving the main problem of blockading the former state border of Ukraine with the Russian Federation. After suffering large losses and having problems with supplies, on the 15-th day of the offensive the junta military retreated by about 30-40 km from Izvarino, south of which lies the self-styled “road of life”. This way, together with the growing defeat of the South punitive group and the failed attempt to unblock the Luhansk airport, the LPR militia won the strategic defensive operation which continued for more than two weeks, and the junta suffered its largest defeat since the start of the war. In essence, the charge of the mechanized forces to the rescue of the airport was a gamble by which they were trying to turn the failing operation around. In order to renew the offensive operation the junta urgently needs an operational pause, because the situation continues to get worse for it, which is why requests of cease-fire cannot be excluded in the nearest time, which of course will be rejected by the militia.
The story with Mr. Khodakovsky continues. Somewhat earlier he was stripped of the direct command of the “Vostok” battalion (which was reformed into a brigade, so it has to be called now the “Vostok” brigade), which was operationally reassigned to Strelkov and his headquarters that rely on the conceal of the commanders. Over Khodakovsky, who used to be the minister of the state security of the DPR, a representative of the “Bloody Gebnya” (i.e., KGB) emerged, lieutenant-general Antyufeev who is currently cleansing the consequences of the work of those who were involved with the attempts to surrender Donetsk. A few days ago Mr. Khodakovsky was explicitly offered to determine with whom he is – either with Akhmetov or with the DPR. Because no agreement in good faith was apparently reached, then according to the data of the source, Mr. Khodakovsky today scribbled a paper about resigning from all positions in the security block of the DPR, which was dropped on the table of the political leadership of the DPR. Will it be given motion is not yet clear, but it is quite probable that in the nearest time Mr. Khodakovsky may depart from the deck of the military and political leaders of the DPR, similarly to how recently the former Mayor of Donetsk Mr. Lukyanchenko fell out of it and ran into Kiev.
UPD: Mr. Strelkov already confirmed the fact of the resignation of Mr. Khodakovsky from the position of the Minister of State Security of the DPR, so the source once again confirmed its high degree of privity.
Strelkov: Indeed, Mr. Khodakovsky resigned from the position of the minister. But he continues to command “Vostok” and nobody is going to remove him.
This way Mr. Khodakovsky now remains just a field commander and dropped out of the political deck of the top of the DPR. One more consequence of the retreat from Slavyansk.
Restrained optimism reigns in the military leadership of the DPR and the LPR after the successes of the recent days. So things are moving.
#11 - Junta Defeat on LPR Territory - by Colonel Cassad @ Colonel Cassad in English
Continue Reading: Junta Defeat on LPR Territory - by Colonel Cassad @ Colonel Cassad in English
#12 – July 16, 2014 – Information from LifeNews
Sixteen wounded Ukrainian executioners were delivered across the border into Russia. The border guards and Junta servicemen wounded in the fighting are being treated at hospital of the Gukovo village in the Rostov region.
The number of Ukrainian soldier being attended to by Russian doctors has grown to 16 men. Three Ukrainian border guards are in intensive care; the all received wounds of various degrees of severity. The character of wounds varies – caused by shells, frags and shrapnel, as well as fractures and burns.
A source in the Militia provided information that the battle on the LPR territory is occurring only 10 kilometres away from the Russian village of Gukovo.
July 16, 2014 – Situation Report from the Militia
An accumulation of disparate parts of Ukie forces can be observed in the area of Amvrosievka – this is the outcome of our morning liberation of Marinovka (DPR). In the corse of a haphazard retreat in the direction of Mariupol, significant numbers of armoured vehicles in disrepair is being abandoned “on the march” (in quotations, as it is difficult to equate this flight to a march). The evacuation of non-military personnel has been substantially hampered.
We have information that separate units of the Junta forces, in an attempt to breakout from the Saurovsk cauldron, are running, stripping of their camouflage and dropping personal arms, almost naked to their underwear. Those who have civilian clothes are hastily changing, hoping to get lost among the civilian population. In Lugansk, the situation remains tense. We have radio located and now are tracking an enemy fire corrector.
20:00 (MSK) – We have received and now are confirming information about the shooting down of a transport aircraft (An-26) over Lugansk. An intensive battle has ensued at the Lugansk airport. A KPVT can be heard working, there are explosions. Near the square adjacent to the airport terminal there is thick black smoke.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/military-br...es/5391665
Today, not only the Russian mass media has raised the issue of the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine, but delegates of European media as well. Journalistic investigation led me to the Russian refugee camp, located not far from the place of military events. There is another world, though the planet is the same – the Earth. Water, food, light, absence of firing, a manifestation of humanity in everyday life allow people to feel safe again and with gratitude to accept the help and care in the neighboring state. All that they have lost overnight, continuing to remain citizens of Ukraine.
Before me there are those, who saw the war in the XXI century with their own eyes. I’m listening to them and internally I shudder at the thought that all this is experienced by the people whom 23 years ago we were unified with.
- For three days the relatives who remained in Lugansk haven’t slept. Happily you can still sleep at night as the sleep is impossible. Now there is a tank battle and a grenade attack. My mother called, crying.
Correspondent: Tell me, please, if the civilians tried to hang out any identification marks – the red cross flag or any flags so that they were not being bombed or shot.
- It`s useless! We tried it many times. The grandfather took a white flag when he went with children. They were all shot. They do not respond to any signs. The most terrible thing for those whose homes are near the mines is that they are destroyed. In settlements and in the city there are tipper-offs who orient mercenaries of the Kiev junta to bomb certain objects – shops, mines, hospitals. Snitches deliberately spread the rumors that the Chechens are located elsewhere. Since June 16, at 8 pm there have been bombed a military sports camp “Forest Dawns”, where there were only two watchmen and a granddaughter of one of the guards. I saw it with my own eyes how the aircraft dropped cluster bombs.
Correspondent: How did the armistice announced by Poroshenko go? Did the representatives of the National Guard suggest to hand over the weapon?
- There was armistice those days, they were shooting us as well. The weapon was never suggested to be handed over. Informants were waiting at places for the representatives of the National Guard and when they arrived, they only pointed the finger at those who had a different opinion and who participated in the defense of the territory. At schools at the Farewell Bell the children of such informers threatened our children: “I`ll shoot you and I`ll kill you”. It was the feeling that this was a zombie uttering. In the village Novoukrainka, of Luhansk region my acquaintances were talking in the company of neighbors and one of them said that they are leaving to Russia with the family the following morning. At night they were found dead. Only a 5-year-old child got to the intensive care, but I don’t know at all, whether he survived. After canceling the truce the bombing became more fierce. In the village Makarovo the locals asked the volunteers to remove a checkpoint to pass up. As soon as militants departed, the civilians were opened fire at. They rushed back crying “militants, help.” They were fleeing with children. But the soldiers of the National Guard were shooting them ruthlessly. The houses of my relatives from the settlement were completely destroyed. Now, being here, I don’t know what happened to my house at all.
Correspondent: How often do you communicate with your relatives who remain in Ukraine?
- Often, every day. But our calls are suppressed, the talk is permanently interrupted. When I call my relatives, they ask: “Don’t tell anything superfluous, talks are being monitored”. We try to communicate very quickly.
Correspondent: Tell me, what the relations between you, who are in favour of the declaration of the independence and those who are for the present Ukrainian power are?
- When we come across each other and have to communicate, everyone expresses their opinion. We treat them normally and quietly. They’ve got a completely different reaction. They are ready, figuratively speaking, “to scratch our eyes” and avoid any communication.
Correspondent: What do you think causes such aggression?
- First and foremost, they are defiantly against communicating in Russian. And second, after the referendum, when Poroshenko refused to recognize our voluntary decision.
Correspondent: Hasn’t the Ukrainian language become the national language for you during the years of independence of the republic?
- No. As many years as we have lived in our land for so many years we have been speaking only Russian. Someone on the outskirts of villages knows and can speak Ukrainian too, but it doesn’t cause any anger in us or desire to kill. Earlier the Ukrainian language was taught as a subject in schools, and now Russian is established as a separate subject, and all the lessons should be conducted in Ukrainian. It`s hard for children to study, they didn’t get used to it, many of them don’t understand the language. English is taught through Ukrainian. Children have to translate from English into Russian at first, and then into Ukrainian. Why is there such a complexity?
Correspondent: How is the higher education organised?
– The same. Students must address the professors only in Ukrainian. All the subjects are taught only in Ukrainian. The Russian groups of training aren’t present. Though it is more convenient to many professors to teach in Russian, they are obliged to teach in Ukrainian.
Correspondent: Does the majority of people run to Russia?
- Yes. Where else can we go? Those who have relatives in other regions of Ukraine, go there. We have no one there. But our children can’t go, for example, to Western Ukraine even to study. The daughter of my sister after leaving school wanted to enter a Medical Academy to study to study to be a pharmacist. In Lugansk, it was also possible to study, but it`s considered that this specialization is better taught in Lviv university. The girl called Lviv to find out what documents were necessary for the admission. She was immediately asked where she was from. As soon as they heard that she was from Lugansk region, they responded: “Prepare coffins.” And one more my acquaintance took out his wife to Ternopol to live at her aunt’s. At first, the wife was going shopping all by herself, but now she is afraid. Our dialect is different. You can hear the way we speak now.
Correspondent: It turns out, once defining your specific dialect, a feeling of hatred towards you is immediately erupted?
– It turns out so. Therefore, we have nowhere to run. I used to have friends earlier in Lviv and Lviv region. Now none of them keeps in touch with me.
Correspondent: Do you think you will be able to return to the territory of Ukraine soon?
– Where to return now when the power station and the railroad are blown up? There is no light, no gas, no food. Children are deprived of lives to sell their organs. The Russian journalists and television operators are killed to get rid of the proofs of the criminal actions. It`s awfully to see the torn bodies and guts. If the National Guard want to take away the corpses of the soldiers, the militants always give them such an opportunity. As soon as the militants try to carry away the soldiers from the battlefield, the National Guard open fire straightaway. They even shot the grandfather Ostap who asked to take away the perished militants: “Sonny, in fact you are the same people as we are. Give them away. I will bury the guys”. He was walking with a stick, he had his hair and beard all gray, whom could he do any harm? For what? Do they want to starve us because of the slate gas? It is necessary to America to have it by the means of such bloodshed?
Correspondent: What TV channels are broadcast at your place? Which of the things you have told about above are shown on the Ukrainian television?
– The Ukrainian channels didn’t show the truth, the actual state of things. We stopped watching them. We watch Russia 24 and Lifenews.
Correspondent: How are you accepted in Russia?
– Oh, in Russia we were met very well. Here in the camp for refugees the staff is remarkable and the volunteers help us absolutely free of charge. They provide us with the humanitarian assistance. Each time they are carrying heavy packets, we see how their hands almost come off, they come every day. We have meals here three times a day. The food is nutritious. We were starving back in Ukraine, we really had nothing to eat. We shared a meal among all in small piece. Here a sponsor who would not give his name, gave the gifts to 217 people last week, not only some delicious surprises for children, but also for all the adults. You know, we are given everything: washing powder, clothes pegs, blankets, and clothes. People come and ask: “Tell us what is it exactly that you need? We will go and will buy everything! Just tell what is necessary for you.” I never expected that there would be such a warm attitude at the moment of grief in my life.
Correspondent: So do you really feel that you have met brothers and sisters here?
– Yes, that’s this very feeling! My car broke down on the way here. It was impossible to be towed by a bus, so the volunteers have towed it here. Now they’re helping with the repair. You can’t imagine how greatly I have been dressed here, I wasn’t wearing such things back at home. I was walking around in one shirt and a pair of trousers which already 5-6 years old, and here I was presented with everything new. I strongly ask to forgive us if we happen to be a little slow or if we say something wrong. Don’t take offense to us. Do understand that we are the same people as you are, we have children. We didn’t “horde”, we haven`t got anywhere to run!
” We haven`t got anywhere to run! ” This is the phrase I heard most often when, interrupting each other, people were sharing their pain with me. I could hardly fight back tears. There was a huge desire to embrace them. When the people have suffered such a severe psychological shock, you are afraid to show a lot of emotions, you are trying to be calm and to hand a feeling of peace over to them. I think I managed to do it a bit. I was delighted with the professional work of psychologists in Voronezh who for a short period of time managed to help the people recover from the shock. If upon arrival, they feared the drone of the aircraft and hunched their shoulders, the children cried, ran to parents and hid themselves, on day of my conversation, little three-year-old Ksyusha was not at all scared of an aircraft flying over us. I asked the beautiful blue-eyed girl: “Ksyusha, are you afraid of the airplane?” The child looked up in the sky and said: “No. The plane is big and Ksyusha is already big.”
Looking round at a small group of people passing Ksyusha and me, I was surprised to know that the camp was visited by Zelmira Sinclair, Senior Legal Adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. It turned out that Zelmira Sinclair was not invited but given a task of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to visit the border regions of Ukraine and to look at the conditions of the placement of the refugees. I managed to ask the Senior Adviser a few questions. Despite the fact that the massive influx of the refugees from South-Eastern Ukraine in Russia has increased significantly during the exacerbation of fighting between the supporters of pro-independence Donbass and Kiev`s security officers, Zelmira Sinclair calmly reacted to this piece of news. She believes that it won`t lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, as Russia is quite successfully coping with this problem. The Russian authorities take appropriate measures to ensure good conditions for the citizens of Ukraine, so no humanitarian catastrophe is expected in her opinion. Answering the question what measures the top management is going to take to reduce the number of the refugees in need the Senior Adviser responded that the assistance can only be provided in case of the official appeal of the Russian authorities. The issue of political matter – what other evidence of war crimes has still to be submitted to start an immediate investigation – appeared not to be in the competence of the UN representative. I heard hackneyed phrases: it is necessary to sit down at a negotiating table and to decide.
How long is it possible to carry on negotiations, solving nothing and taking no steps?
In Donbass region there is obviously a humanitarian catastrophe: medicines, essentials and food are not enough. Refugees en masse have begun to arrive in Voronezh region which borders Lugansk region of Ukraine, since June, 8. According only to data of July, 3, the day Zelmira Sinclair was visiting the refugee camps, in the region of Voronezh there came 1369 people. Generally they are inhabitants of Lugansk and Donetsk areas. On July, 1 there arrived over 150,000 refugees from Ukraine, who were adopted by 48 regions. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, there are almost 18,000 Ukrainian refugees in 252 centers of temporary accommodation in the Russian Federation. FMS reports that more than 14 thousand Ukrainians asked for a temporary shelter and a refugee status.
I don`t know what Zelmira Sinclair has reported to the top management after the completing her task. Perhaps communicating with the citizens of Ukraine, being in camp, she took them for tourists. On the day of the meeting with the adviser people were looking rested. It`s a pity that a Senior Legal Adviser did not visit the camp on the first day of their settlement and didn`t see the frightened, screaming, half-naked children whose parents didn`t have time to dress them when there started the bombing of their homes.
I want to believe that the mission of the UN representative is fundamentally different from the aims of the employees of the U.S. Department of State. America persistently continues to call the people running to Russia tourists, allegedly without knowing they were all threatened so much, that the people are afraid to ask for a status of refugees as they still have relatives as hostages. Their nearest and dearest were promised to be repressed if the people ask the status of refugees – this is the fact the USA doesn’t wish to notice and take into consideration. All this clearly demonstrates how the actions of the present authorities and power structures of Ukraine are coordinated by the intelligence services of the USA which gave them a task at any cost to achieve the state when the international organizations wouldn’t get to know the real number of people – namely of refugees, while tourists don’t need to be taken into consideration at all. After all, if the person is too intimidated to seek shelter in Russia, then the statistics of the war crimes won’t be challenged…
I express special gratitude to all the staff of Voronezh Children’s Health Camp “Bonfire”, on the basis of which the camp for refugees has been formed. The Russian children who were to spend their holiday there, refused to have rest there so that the brothers and sisters from relative Ukraine could be rescued. I’m proud of the people of Voronezh, among which there are also my parents. Here, in Voronezh land, I’ve met amazing sympathy, nobleness and true patriotism.
Lana Zoricheva is a Correspondent for Radio Bergen in Russia and the CIS
http://www.globalresearch.ca/extensive-w...un/5391652
As the Western-backed regime in Kiev assaults pro-Russian militias in the major cities of eastern Ukraine, mass graves are coming to light in Slavyansk, the former opposition stronghold recently captured by Kiev. The government offensive is unfolding with the support of Washington and the European Union (EU), which yesterday imposed more sanctions to compel Moscow to abandon any support for opposition militias in Ukraine.
Andriy Lysenko, the spokesman for the Kiev regime’s Defense and Security Council, said yesterday that “hundreds of bodies of rebel fighters” had been found in shallow graves. Lysenko claimed some of the graves “have been mined by the terrorists”—apparently implying that some of the dead were killed during the siege of Slavyansk and buried by fellow opposition fighters before Kiev’s forces captured the town. Lysenko refused to give further details.
While the Kiev regime’s bombardment of Slavyansk doubtless caused hundreds of casualties, its own accounts show that the far-right Ukrainian nationalist militias it has mobilized are carrying out a campaign of political terror and murder in Slavyansk. Upon capturing the city, they detained all men between the ages of 25 and 35 on suspicion of supporting or giving aid, including medical aid, to the opposition militias.
On Tuesday, Interior Ministry official Anton Gerashchenko confirmed that two Slavyansk priests had been murdered for supporting opposition forces. “We found a grave of two priests from Slavyansk, who were tortured and killed by the Ukrainian nationalists,” Gerashchenko said. The bodies of two sons of one of the priests were discovered in the same grave as the priests’ mutilated remains.
The Odessa diocese confirmed that Ukrainian nationalists have threatened, beaten or kidnapped several Orthodox priests, many of whom they consider too close to Moscow. The Odessa diocese secretary, Archpriest Andrei Novikov, who has fled to Moscow fearing arrest by Ukrainian nationalist groups, said, “I’m sure if the government keeps its position, it will handle the physical liquidation of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine.”
Statements by top Kiev officials during the siege of Slavyansk amounted to a blank check for its far-right forces—including fascist militias such as the Right Sector and Azov Battalion and the newly formed National Guard—to murder civilians.
President Petro Poroshenko pledged that his forces would “liquidate” opposition fighters. Adopting the tactics the Nazis used against resistance fighters in occupied Europe during World War II, Poroshenko called for disproportionate killings in retaliation for losses suffered by his regime, saying: “For every soldier’s life, the militants will pay with dozens and hundreds of their own.”
A BBC report on the Azov Battalion makes clear the type of fascist trash the Ukrainian regime and its backers in Washington and the European Union are unleashing on the population of eastern Ukraine. It interviewed Mikael Skillt, a white supremacist and former Swedish Army sniper now fighting with the Azov Battalion. Skillt said the unit includes “national socialists” who wear swastikas, but there is “even one liberal, though I don’t know how he got there.”
The Azov Battalion, which is financed by billionaire oligarch Igor Kolomoisky and has recruiters traveling internationally, is led by Andriy Biletsky, the head of the Social National Assembly (SNA). The SNA’s online mission statement specifies that its goals are to “punish severely” interracial sexual relations and “to prepare Ukraine for further expansion and to struggle for the liberation of the entire White Race from the domination of the internationalist speculative capital.”
Contacted by the BBC, the Kiev regime defended the Azov Battalion. Gerashchenko said, “The Social National Assembly is not a neo-Nazi organization.” He claimed the only non-Ukrainians in the Azov Battalion were “journalists from Sweden, Spain and Italy who have come to report on the heroic achievements of the fighters in their struggle against terrorism.”
The fascist atrocities in Ukraine are an indictment of Washington and the European powers, which publicly encouraged pro-EU demonstrations in Kiev led by far-right forces in order to topple pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Having built up the Right Sector and other fascist militias to crush Yanukovych’s riot police and install a pro-Western regime in the February 22 putsch, the Western governments and media are now concealing the fascists’ crimes.
The atrocities in Slavyansk further expose the hypocrisy of the advocates of “human rights” imperialism who praised Western intervention in support of the Kiev protests and the February 22 putsch, portraying the right-wing, pro-EU opposition to Yanukovych as a movement for democracy (see: “In the service of imperialism: Right-wing “intellectuals” gather in Kiev”). Their silence on the crimes of the Kiev regime highlights their role as agents of imperialism and fascist reaction.
The Western imperialist powers are stepping up their support for the Kiev regime as it intensifies its civil war and political terror in eastern Ukraine. Yesterday, US President Barack Obama announced new sanctions against Russia at a White House press conference.
The measures target firms including Rosneft, the world’s largest oil company; Gazprombank, the banking subsidiary of natural gas giant Gazprom; independent natural gas producer Novatek; and development lender Vnesheconombank. They are also directed against separatist groups in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. The sanctions restrict these entities’ access to US lending and the American financial system.
Obama said, “These sanctions are significant, but they are also targeted,” adding that they were designed to limit “spillover” effects for US companies.
Although Ukrainian government forces have repeatedly and provocatively shelled Russian border areas, Obama cynically placed responsibility for the crisis in Ukraine on Moscow. “We have to see concrete actions, and not just words that Russia in fact is committed to trying to end this conflict along the Russia-Ukraine border,” he said (see: “Moscow threatens response after Ukraine forces shell Russian border town”).
Meeting in Brussels yesterday, EU authorities imposed sanctions on “individuals or entities who actively provide material or financial support to the Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of eastern Ukraine.” These sanctions include travel bans and asset freezes affecting 72 Russian persons and entities.
“The situation in Ukraine is unacceptable,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said. “The territorial integrity of that country is not being properly respected by Russia.”
EU authorities proceeded with the new sanctions against Russia even though the economies of the EU and Russia are closely linked. With the two economies doing over $300 billion in yearly trade, broader sanctions risk triggering an economic collapse across the region.
The Ukraine crisis has already had a serious impact on the European economy, according to figures released by the European statistics agency Eurostat, which found that EU exports to Russia have fallen 11 percent and Russian exports to the EU have declined by 9 percent.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/fascist-atr...ne/5391739
A Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing-777 with over 280 passengers on board has crashed in Ukraine, close to the border with Russia. Both Kiev and the opposition deny involvement in the incident.
LIVE UPDATES:Malaysian Airlines MH17 plane crash in Ukraine
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Geraschenko said the plane carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members fell.
Malaysian Airlines has confirmed that it has lost contact with the plane when it was flying over Ukrainian soil.
Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow.
The passenger plane was expected to enter Russian airspace at 5:20pm local time, but never did, a Russian aviation industry source was cited by Reuters.
“The plane crashed 60km away from the border, the plane had an emergency beacon,” ITAR-TASS cited its source.
A man works at putting out a fire at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014.(Reuters / Maxim Zmeyev )
A man works at putting out a fire at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014.(Reuters / Maxim Zmeyev )
Residents have reported finding debris from a plane, which they say could belong to the Malaysian Boeing. They said that several dozen dead passengers have been found, RIA Novosti reports.
Groups that are fighting Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine have rejected any involvement in the incident, as there are reports that the plane was shot down.
The Donetsk People’s Republic claims its self-defense forces simply don’t have such military equipment.
Donetsk People’s Republic PM Aleksandr Boroday has called the incident a “provocation by the Ukrainian military”.
“We confirm that the plane crashed not far from Donetsk,” Boroday said. “Representatives of Donetsk People’s Republic have headed to the scene of the plane search.”
“Self-defense forces have no air-defense, which could target transport aircraft at that height,” he told Interfax.
“We have only MANPADs (portable anti-aircraft missile complex) which hit targets at 3-4 kilometers,” Sergey Kavtaradze, representative for Donetsk People’s Republic PM, also told journalists.
Russia’s military also says none of its military planes have been flying close to the Russia-Ukraine border on Thursday, RIA Novosti reported citing a military official.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has not ruled out that a Malaysian plane has been shot down.
“We don’t rule out that this plane was shot down and stress that Ukrainian forces did not fulfill any actions targeting in the air,” Poroshenko said. He added that an investigation commission will be launched.
At the same time, Anton Geraschenko said on his Facebook page that the plane was targeted from the air defense missile complex “Buk”.
RIA Novosti is citing its source who said that Kiev indeed deployed “Buk” in the Donetsk region.
“According to the system of objective control, “Buk” division of the armed forces of Ukraine was relocated to Donetsk region on Wednesday. Now in Kharkov another division is being prepared,” the source said.
The sources stressed that aircraft flying at an altitude of over 10 kilometers can only be targeted by C-300 class weapons or ‘Buk”.
A source in Russia’s federal air traffic agency Rosaviatsia has said that three days ago Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council closed the airspace over eastern Ukraine because of the so-called “anti-terrorist operation” that Kiev conducts in the region.
Earlier a representative of Donetsk People’s Republic said that civil aviation planes could not fly over Donetsk and Lugansk regions. He added that all necessary traffic control and navigation equipment was damaged.
“Dispatching support of all passenger flights is being conducted from Kiev. How this plane could be there – is not clear,” a representative of Donetsk People’s Republic said.
The Boeing-777, whose maiden commercial flight was almost exactly two decades ago, had previously suffered ten serious incidents, according to the Aviation Safety Database.
The most notorious of these involved another route performed by the same company, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, during which the US-made aircraft disappeared off the radars between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, in March this year. Despite an international search effort costing tens of millions of dollars, the plane, the reasons for whose disappearance have still not been definitively established, has not yet been recovered.
Another widely-covered incident occurred last year, when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 pilot crashed into the seawall just short of the landing strip at San Fransisco International Airport, prompting the fuselage to drag across the runway as it disintegrated in a fire. Three people died as a result of the incident – the first fatalities in the history of the model, which is regarded as very safe in the industry.
Currently, about 1200 modifications of Boeing-777 are operated worldwide.
“A Boeing-777 is an extremely reliable piece of machinery. Modern planes don’t just crash with no reason,” pilot and aviation expert Yury Karash told RT. “Let us recall how a Ukrainian missile downed a Russian TU-154 aircraft ten years ago. I can’t completely exclude the possibility the Boeing-777 was also hit by a missile.”
“I don’t know who could’ve shot it down. But I can allege that it most likely was the Ukrainian armed forces: simply because its military – anti-aircraft defense, in particular – are, unfortunately, unqualified. As judging by the overall state of the Ukrainian armed forces, insufficient attention has been paid to their training,” he added.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/malaysian-a...rd/5391825
http://www.infowars.com/malaysian-passen...n-ukraine/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...order.html