A cold November shadow hangs over a war weary East Ukraine. More signs of a new impending offensive by Kiev and the West, which is defacto proof that this new offensive was planned before the Minsk ceasefire was signed.
Kiev already had a track record of using the past ceasefire to prepare the logistics for a new attack, which it promptly delivered. Although the US and EU sat next to Poroshenko at Geneva when he agreed to begin negotiation with the East Ukraine separatists, when he did nothing, they said nothing. They were all co-conspirators in not only deceiving the East Ukrainians, but their respective countries and the world. This is not leadership… but the total absence of it.
We have had a replay of that first fraudulent ceasefire with the current one, with the added twist of Kiev’s forces never stopping their attacks on the separatists. In the beginning, the OSCE took weeks to get into place, so with no real monitoring we got a real taste of how much a promised ceasefire is worth from Western puppets knowing that their backers approve of their depredations.
What we had was a decrease in the level of combat. This had several purposes, in that it did not allow the smaller Republic forces to rest, as they were on alert all the time. Poison pills were written into the Minsk agreement that could be interpreted in a self-serving manner.
I remember one item that impressed me most was the agreement to create a buffer zone to remove the incentive of rogue units to shell the other side. But this was torpedoed by Kiev when they dragged their feet on agreeing where the buffer line should be. That gave them a thinly veiled cover to keep their artillery on the front line, and using it… with not a single reproach from the EU or US.
If the shelling had been targeted only on the Republic Defense Forces’ positions that would have been one thing, but Kiev’s tanks began shelling civilian areas as part of a collective punishment; we have seen the Israelis use this when trying to break the will of the Gazans.
That the US and EU would sit quietly by while simultaneously funding and rearming their new Kiev puppet government that was shelling civilians in a concerted campaign was a disgrace to any claim to honor they would make.
The new PR march to war began on Sunday, November 9, with Didier Burkhalter, the OSCE chairperson stating that he was concerned about the escalating violence, saying, “It is decisive that all sides strictly observe… the framework of the Minsk protocol… and stay away from acts that could lead to new escalation.” What Burkhalter did here was equate the separatists’ defensive military operation to combat the offensive shelling by Kiev as equal violations. I would have expected more from the Swiss, famous for their stated neutrality.
Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament and coup member Olexander Turchynov must have been given the standup comedy role. He actually stated on Sunday that the key task facing the Rada was to build Europe’s strongest army in Ukraine. You just can’t make this stuff up folks. Truth is stranger than fiction.
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini followed with the same cover-providing statement that ‘all parties should strictly observe the Minsk protocols’, with the inference that both sides were equally guilty in not observing them. So she joined Burkhalter in giving cover to Kiev’s shelling of civilian areas.
Neither pointed out Kiev’s massive number of violations — an obvious misrepresentation of what has been taking place there. But Mogherini had been assigned to play her “Russian card”. She called on Russia to force the Republic Defense Forces to honor their Minsk commitment. She was painting a bullseye on Moscow, setting the players to follow her.
The next day on November 11, it was the turn of the Pentagon, White House and NATO, who began a ping pong tournament of charging Moscow with moving Russian armor, troops and supplies into the East when Ukrainian border guards were back on station at all the crossings, and the big deal being made about the new border fence that was going up. I guess the border guards were all in the bathroom when the tank columns rolled by them.
Respect for NATO is going down all over the world, including American veterans who are cringing at the endless unsubstantiated charges against Russia, which General Breedlove feels do not require being validated with the very competent satellite surveillance that the US has had for decades, which can see armor and troop movements at night as during the day.
Breedlove began his Tuesday NATO attack with an almost childish rant about how Russia had moved “forces that are capable of being nuclear” into Crimea, …”But they do have the kind of equipment there that could support that mission if required… The ceasefire is in name only at this point.”
Yes General, the ceasefire was in name only from day one, and we know you knew that. You also know that all modern military formations are “nuclear capable”. All combat planes can be armed with tactical nuclear weapons, and all artillery battalions can fire nuclear shells. So your statement that there was any increased nuclear threat from Russia was fraudulent sir, and you dishonored your uniform and the servicemen and women in your command.
On Wednesday morning the 12th, with still no NATO satellite photos confirming the Russian invasion units, which any NATO G-2 Intel officer could tell you their exact composition if he wanted to, we have the New York Times reporting about Russian military “pouring over the border”. But those Ukrainian border guards must have to use the bathroom a lot.
The OSCE now steps in, the people who never seemed to be able to report all the Kiev troop movements encircling the Republic, even though the Kiev Defense Ministry was bragging in news conferences that that was what it was using the ceasefire for, and that they were benefiting from it more. OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw reports three separate sightings of large military convoys moving in separatists’ controlled areas.
He makes no mention of all the Ukrainian armories that were captured during the last stage of the war, plus the surrendered and abandoned Kiev armor and artillery that the Republics might want to be bringing up from rear areas where they have been getting maintained and crews trained. Signals are coming every day about Kiev’s encirclement strategy to attack from many directions simultaneously to prevent the Defense fighters from being able to shift forces around, which they had done so effectively using their interior lines.
Moscow has always admitted that Russian volunteers have been going in and out of East Ukraine, and no one is surprised to see East Ukrainian vets who were working in Russia, (there are many) returning to man the ramparts at home. Why would Russia sit by all these Western backed ceasefire violations, and then let Kiev prepare an envelopment attack on Lugansk and Donetsk, and just sit by and watch it all happen?
The West has already been caught invading Ukraine with its color revolution, with Victoria Nuland and her $5 billion of US taxpayer money, and the CIA Chechen terrorists brought down from their Georgian bases to do the Maidan sniper killings. Under the Nuremberg precedent of “waging an aggressive war”, all the Westerners involved in this covert offensive, including those in uniform, would find themselves the guest of a big necktie party, black hoods and all. They already have the blood of all these innocent people on their hands.
We deserve better leadership than we have, but I don’t see a military coup bringing us one any time soon. But if the West pushes forward with this next attack, more innocent blood will be spilled, maybe just enough to reach the tipping point were the aggressors’ diplomatic immunity will no longer be honored, and they will be treated as the enemy combatants that they are.
Jim W. Dean, managing editor for Veterans Today, producer/host of Heritage TV Atlanta, specially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.