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Obama, Merkel and war criminal Poroshenko want an immediate ceasefire. Imagine that! Why should anyone respond to such an offer when the past ones were ignored by these three Musketeers and were used by Kiev to regroup, rearm, and redeploy to launch the next bigger offensive.
Kiev has 8000 troops cut off in the Debatsevo salient, and the militias have ambushed two ammunition, fuel and food supply convoys trying to get in, while letting three with wounded leave. On Saturday when Kiev was a no show for the Minsk talks, the Ukies lost 50 KIAs, five tanks, seven armored combat vehicles (APVs), 12 artillery weapons and two munition supply depots. They can kill no more civilians.
In their anger over their failed offensive, the Ukrainian Army has been shelling villages that the Republic militias have been capturing. Unfortunately, confusion over which troops are where, or just incompetence, has Ukie artillery and GRAD units shelling their own troops, killing some in a house who were trying to surrender when hit by a GRAD.
The disastrous counter attack on the airport, with the armored brigade and too little infantry, resulted in its virtual destruction. I watched a sad combat report video taken before and as this armored attack was going in.
The troops showed lots of bravado on camera, even bragging to their girlfriends about killing some Russian terrorists. Some of these who were fortunate to have been captured were driven around Donetsk to see the result of the civilian area shelling and were in tears. From January 18th to the 24th during the attempt to retake the Donetsk airport, Kiev lost 61 tanks, 52 APVs, 781 dead and 1500 wounded that went into Republic field hospitals.
Kiev continues to lie about its true loses. Non-profit organizations have carried out the gruesome task of collecting abandoned Ukie dead on the battlegrounds. The Ukraine military command is so inept it prefers to list them as missing versus coordinating joint body recovery with the Republics. Western media reports none of this.
At Veterans Today we were expecting some false flag move to take attention away from Kiev’s huge airport attack disaster and for smearing the Republics. When the report of the shelling of Mariupol came in, we also were expecting reports of “fired from rebel controlled territory”.
That means nothing of course, as such incidents are easy to stage with highly-trained special operations people. Kiev does not have any, so we suspect a foreign unit did this, a Western one. We have yet to have one eyewitness come forward who saw militia units even in the area of the firing, or any photographs or video footage… at a time when any military unit movements are constantly recorded with citizen cell phone cameras.
Corporate media in the West gave more coverage to this Mariupol shelling than a month’s worth of Kiev’s shelling of Donetsk’s civilian areas, shaming itself yet one more time in the selective focus on one side’s civilian dead. This attack was also perfectly timed for the EU meetings that came up soon afterward on the renewing on Russian sanctions, which it did.
The UN Security Council added insult to injury with its Britain-sponsored condemnation that mentioned Russia as connected to the attack — an off the charts cheap shot with not one iota of proof. The British government has no shame, like many others. Russia vetoed that resolution and the British Pressitutes published their expected Russian bashing headline that “Moscow blocks Mariupol condemnation resolution”.
I have been checking with my handful of Russian speaking sources in Ukraine, who keep me up to date on the different Ukrainian positions on all the craziness. The hillbilly areas seem to be most supportive of the Kiev government and believe virtually everything it says. They really think the Ukie army is fighting Russian army formations, and that explains their losses. In the more developed areas with higher education, more people see through the endless lies and slow destruction of their country… by hoodlums inside and out.
Oligarch Igor Kolomoisky hates Poroshenko, as does Yatsenyuk, and there is a lot of talk of plots to dispose of him while blaming him for the military disasters. Kolomoisky has formed a 80-member swing voting block that can control most legislation. Yatsenyuk wants the top post.
But there is some sad comedy in all this, such as the top military spokesman who stated during an interview show on Poroshenko’s TV station that the Ukrainian army has never fought any Russian units in Ukraine. They had only stated that there were about 5000 Russian “nationals” inside the Republics. They have mentioned Russian “professional military people”, which I translate to be veterans working as contractors to do training. But the West has a small army of those working for Kiev, so that is not big deal.
So dear Mr. Obama and Hollande and Ms. Merkel, forgive me for not crying a river over your “regret over the failure of the Minsk meeting”. You never stated any regret over Kiev’s ignoring the commitments of all the other past ceasefires, and I know American Intel and NATO were briefing you daily on Kiev’s preparations for the next offensive.
To all three of you, please share with us your public admonitions to Poroshenko to stop shelling Republic civilian areas as an Israeli-style group punishment or no more aid would be forthcoming. Don’t worry, I will not be holding my breath.
And Mr. President, surprise us all by releasing the satellite photos showing who really shot down MH-17. Yes, we know you know it was not the Russians or anyone they set up to do it. And please add to that all the high tech intel we must have on all the Russian armor and infantry units, thousands of them, regular units mind you, not volunteers and contractors like those the West has flooded Kiev with. Please, let’s have a show and tell.
And when sir are you going to replace General Breedlove as the head of NATO, who has become a laughing stock… the “Baghdad Bob” of NATO? And please release the secret Russian plans to recapture Eastern Europe. I know you would not just sit by while such silly claims were bandied about by your top administration people and not have the hard evidence.
And if you were to ask me why reveal them, at the top of my list would be to restore some badly needed faith in the integrity of government, and that goes for Merkel and Hollande and Mr. Cameron, too, although I think it’s too late for the Brits. The child sex crimes are going to be the end of their ruling class.
No, we don’t trust you, none of you. You have lied too many times on too many issues, and there is not one head of state resignation out of shame to show for it. But I will cut you some slack for what I know you are about to say… your phone lines are not clogged with citizen calls complaining about our disastrous foreign policy. Sadly that is true.
But although their ignorance and laziness might provide you all some political cover, there is no moral cover at all. That used to be a concern once upon a time, in a faraway place.
If you stop the Ukraine war now, it is still a long shot that Ukraine can avoid going bankrupt and taking down the EU banking system with it. And if you think you can blame this slow-motion disaster on the Russians, you can forget that. We know where all those really responsible live and work.
You stopped the Syrian air attack Mr. Obama, in the nick of time. Our Iranian and Syrian sources informed us that would have set off a regional war with some unpleasant surprises. You need to man up on the Ukraine mess, or you are going to “George Bush” your presidency, and I would prefer that he, Cheney and Rumsfeld wear that dishonor alone.
Jim W. Dean, managing editor for Veterans Today, producer/host of Heritage TV Atlanta, specially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
