Fight for Freedom – US vs Donbass

By Xavier Lerma

US foreign policy is choking the whole earth and at the same time has caused America to implode. They panic when they see the rise of Russia’s economy and almost limitless resources that give cheap gas to Europe and the world. The CIA pays off some and brainwash the weak to overthrow the government in Kiev then causing a civil war. They manage to call civilians “terrorists”, so it’s easier to murder their own people in SE Ukraine. This has forced the people of Donbass to fight like a pack of wolves backed into a corner.

It’s a mad upside down world where the US brainwashed its people to believe that Putin had invaded Ukraine while people from Donbass want Putin to intervene militarily to stop the US backed Kiev forces. They are begging Putin to stop the war. SE Ukraine begs Russia to help. Millions have fled to Russia from Ukraine including Kiev soldiers who were disillusioned with the war. Russia is a safe haven of peace. When Hitler invaded Poland the refugees that escaped did not go to Germany. People of Donbass do not flee to the US.

Many feel betrayed by Putin for saving Crimea and not Donbass. Putin asked Poroshenko for peace and organized the Minsk peace talks. Even though Putin sends food, water and medical supplies by truck convoys, many are still unhappy more is not done. Even Putin’s childhood friend, Venzin Vladimir Alexandrovich has changed his view about Putin.

In a video Alexandrovich said, “Now people are cursing him (in Gorlvoka, town near Donetsk)… a year ago we all would turn our TV’s every morning waiting to hear that Russia has started sending its troops. Now, people simply spit when hearing the word “Russia” because Russia has betrayed Donbass.” Venzin would laugh if he saw the media mantras on US TV stating that Putin invaded Ukraine with Russian troops. If Russian troops were in Ukraine he wouldn’t be upset with Putin and Donbass would be safe and sound like Crimea.

The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) had gone on the offensive last February and created a Debaltsevo Cauldron. Anna News reported 8,000 Kiev troops were surrounded and their destroyed equipment was put on display. According to ITAR-TASS , militia headquarters reported “Around five thousand servicemen with weapons and around 50 tanks, more than 200 combat armored vehicles… were blocked in the trap,”. The US forced Poroshenko to scream for a ceasefire while the US soldiers train his military. It was a great victory when the Debaltsevo pocket was closed.

Unfortunately, the recent Minsk ceasefire agreement that was agreed to by both sides of the Ukrainian civil war lasted about an hour. It comes as no surprise as the first one was broken as well. The puppet president who was placed there by Obama never had any intention for peace. Genocide is their goal and the people of SE Ukraine in Donbass know it. When the devil tells you he wants peace you better prepare for war.

I have no idea why they even try to bargain with this monster Poroshenko. He is backed by another monster, Obama from the US who is a puppet himself doing the bidding of Soros, Rothschild, Rockefeller and other elites in the West. America is where paleface speaks with fork tongue. How many treaties did the US break with the natives?

Alexander Dugin in his “Letter to the American People on Ukraine” writes, “The American political elite has stolen, perverted and counterfeited the American identity. And they make us hate you and they make you hate us… – the global oligarchy who rules the world using you and smashing us. Let us revolt. Let us resist. Together, Russians and Americans. We are the people. We are not their puppets.”

Donbass is not happy with President Putin but he does his best to secure stability in the world with economic success while the US creates wars and discord like pyromaniacs. Obama smiles and laughs to his worshippers while elusively avoiding any blame. After all, he’s trying his best. His best to oust Assad and fulfill his masters plan of conquest in the Middle East. “Assad must go!” and “What difference does it make!, Clinton shouted. Pure madness displayed for all to see that extended to Ukraine.

A former member of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev, Oleg Tsarov, warned us all, “American instructors presented examples of successful use of social networks used to organize protests in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Recent conference took place Nov 14-15, 2013, in the heart of Kiev in the Embassy of the United States of America! Is it conceivable that the representatives of the US Embassy which organized the ‘Tech Camp’ conferences, misuse their diplomatic mission?”

Yes! The US certainly does misuse their diplomatic mission. That is why many in Kiev this year protest the US Embassy like mad dogs. Even Kiev officers are defecting. Almost every week angry mobs come by the hundreds and the thousands. They protest America standing in the rain mooing like cows with a sign, We are not cattle!. They thank the weasel Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt for bringing war and poverty. He’s lucky they haven’t dragged him in the street like the US ambassador in Libya. On June 25, in this video, they made demonstrations with raw meat.

They said at the protest, “We, the youth of Ukraine… gather near the USA embassy in order to tell them: Americans, enough with interference  into internal affairs of Ukraine! Enough with killing our people! Enough with financing the war in Donbass! Enough with terrorizing our Motherland and all other Slavic states! This protest is called “Give your heart to United States”. Symbolic countries you see here are Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, where paid USA so-called revolutions took place. People believed this nation! And look, what they have done to them! They drowned them in blood, they destroyed the infrastructure!

Another protester said, “Two years ago, when I was watching videos from Syria I couldn’t imagine that the same could happen in my country. That people will be dying, that cities will be destroyed. But unfortunately, after the coup d’etat on Maidan our country burst into fire of the civil war.”

Donbass has had no choice but to fight. Oleg Tsarov wrote about another victory, “We won because God is with us and the truth, but we are not gloating. As a Ukrainian people we wish a speedy liberation from the occupying regime. After using Poroshenko, America occupied the Ukraine and tried to occupy us. Our common duty is to free Ukraine from Nazi power and give back to the people their country and to punish those responsible for inciting fratricidal war. We will win – no doubt about it.”

The spirit of this struggle has been captured in a video by News-Front called “Donbass Defenders – “My palm clenched into a fist”.  Great music, powerful, mixed with the truth. It is an expression of their defiant struggle sung by Polina Gagarina. “Oh sun of mine – break through the darkness…My open hand has turned into a fist. And if I have gunpowder – then give me a spark…Like this. Who will now follow the lonely trail? The strong and the brave stood firm in the field – and died…Few still remember,  of firm body and mind – few stand in our line… Oh Sun of mine, break through the darkness… My open hand now turned into a fist. If I have gunpowder – just give me a spark…. Like this. Freedom… – where are you now? Whose sunrise do you shine on? Answer me!!”

The song was not translated in the original so we found one video with the lyrics in English called “Open Hand Now a Fist” to Kiev,USA”. One day the world as one fist will defy the US. On that day the world will know freedom. The country that claimed to give freedom to the world will have its yoke over humanity broken by those nations it murdered. It has begun at Donbass and will make history.

“Open Hand Now a Fist” to Kiev,USA (English subtitles)

– See more at: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/01-07-2015/131167-fight_fore_freedom_usa_donbass-0/#sthash.ZayEld6V.dpuf

– See more at: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/01-07-2015/131167-fight_fore_freedom_usa_donbass-0/#sthash.ZayEld6V.dpuf

THE NEW COLD WAR: UKRAINE AND BEYOND

THE SECOND SUMMER OF WAR IN DONBASS

 

A Pro-Russian separatist sits at his position at Savur-Mohyla, a hill east of the city of Donetsk, August 28, 2014.

The second summer of war on the Donbas is in full swing. A year ago, Kiev regime’s armored columns were engaged in bitter fights against local militias which decided to defend their right to live, weapons in hand. But everything has changed in the course of last year: the front, the people, the economy, and hopes.

 

 

 

 

The war

The frontline has long been stable, more or less along the line drawn up in Minsk in September 2014, corrected in February 2015 after the winter campaign. The strategy, tactics, and forces are different now. First of all, initiative is held by a different side. That’s very important in a situation where the front is 400km long and it’s defended by only 40,000 troops on either side. A year ago, armored columns could pass between opposing positions, covering dozens of kilometers every day which placed the opposing side in a difficult situation. The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ (UAF) raid from Saur-Mogila to Lutugino was a prime example.

Now the war has a positional character, which is wearing both sides as much (if not more) than its active phase. It’s enough to read official news releases by both sides to understand the situation at the front: the bombardments are aimed at the Junta’s checkpoints and “separatists’” cities. Which means the Junta’s army is on the defense and…is afraid to leave those positions which have to be held somehow. Right now nobody is even trying to take those positions even when opportunities present themselves. As happened in Maryinka in early June.

Why? The war strategy of the people’s republics is not aimed at occupying territory but wearing down enemy forces by constant harassment fire, which causes not so much physical harm as psychological. The extended front line which cannot be held by available forces and the impossibility of carrying out a mobilization as planned preclude Kiev rotating its forces on the front lines, which only worsens their moral state. Moreover, they don’t understand whom they are there to defend, and from whom.

This is a different tactic than high-intensity contact warfare. Nevertheless, it brings benefits, invisible at first glance, by forcing enemy soldiers and populations to jump at the slightest noise and be afraid of their own shadow and forcing enemy HQs to wonder who will cover the 400km front line in six months, by which time not only the tanks will be out of commission but the ideology as well.

That’s what Ukraine’s “hurrah-patriots” are afraid of when commenting on the possibility of establishing a 30km buffer zone. They are certain that they’d lose those 30km quickly and forever.

The soldiers

The Junta: The presence of the Junta’s army on territory which it was not able to make its own in one year is killing its soldiers more than the Ilovaysk [August 2014] and Debaltsevo [February 2015] defeats. When interacting with the most motivated Kiev regime troops at company commander level–the volunteers–one can often hear their commonsensical comments that the war on the Donbas is lost and the army must be withdrawn to the border of the regions (and possibly behind the Dnepr River) to avert its total disintegration. And then hope to force the enemy to “fight for Ukraine” with some chance of success.

The army is disintegration as a result of interaction with the local population which views the soldiers as enemies and who cannot be trusted. Soldiers don’t understand for what and for whom they are fighting.

Novorossiya Armed Forces (NAF): At the same time, we never hear that the NAF is holding those or other positions. Their front line consists of well prepared positions occupied only by screening forces. The majority of forces are de-facto resting in the near-frontline zone or are perfecting their combat skills at training areas.

Tank company exercises aren’t even a secret anymore, but rather a PR tool (eg. the exercises by the LPR Corps 2nd Brigade trained motorized rifle offensive operations with tank support).

Just recently, all the armed forces were subordinated to a unified military structure, the “CORPS”. Its inclusion into the DPR Republican Guard deprives the republic’s civilian leadership of the ability to lead its “private” war. Now everything depends on the “corps” command and nobody else. Which means the war has become far less unpredictable and more thought-through.

The leaders of the republics: When the uprising began, the republics obtained a new “elite”. Since the republics were formed in wartime, the elite was military. One had to have not only organization skills but also charisma to become a commander at that time. That charisma played a bad joke on the new leaders. When the new system was in place, they had to learn to work together. Few of them knew how; therefore, everyone who didn’t know disappeared from the republics’ political map. Only those capable of conducting a flexible hybrid war, even playing passive roles, remained. Nearly ALL who started the Russian Spring have been sidelined and are not influencing the republics’ politics.

Moscow is de-facto attempting to channel the new local elites’ energy toward internal creative work (especially ideological). It’s partly successful. I haven’t mentioned the one “exception” which, I think, everyone has noticed. It’s [Alexander] Khodakovskiy [Vostok Battalion]. He fits into the Kremlin’s new strategy of slow and quiet strangulation of the Kiev regime using the rope of its own errors (one can see Khodakovskiy’s SBU education here, where systemic thinking is taught). So I am not surprised by the rumors he is being pushed to become Zakharchenko’s replacement, even as he is resisting the prospect with all his power.

Kiev: The team which lost everything in 2014 is still in power. Due to procedural issues. The U.S. wants to have its own, controllable, but legitimate (as far as the “world” is concerned) government. They are not concerned whether it’s legitimate in Ukraine itself. That’s why Poroshenko cannot be replaced.

This is why the U.S. has chosen the most flawed but, I think, unavoidable plan to marry the Junta and the pro-U.S. wing of the Party of Regions (which, logically, includes the entirety of the party’s oligarchs) as the least painful and conflict-prone option.

Any radical attempt to change Ukraine’s top authorities will turn the country into a mess of irreconcilable differences which might affect territorial control. The U.S. doesn’t need it so far therefore they are working with the people who are on the spot even though these people are a bunch of losers who screwed up EVERYTHING.

The economy

The biggest headache for all sides in the conflict is the social tension caused by a rapid decline in individual welfare. The West has cultivated the concept of the consumer for decades. Both at home and in the colonies. Largely successfully. Those who adopted the ideology became its faithful adherents. The ideal consumer is not worried about what’s happening around him, which makes him valuable to the U.S. But he has to be constantly fed (as the Strugatskiy Brothers, science fiction writers, perceptively noted). The consumer must consume in order to remain loyal, controllable, and predictable.

On this score, the Junta is doing very badly. The consumer noticed his “ration” has shrunk, he has “lost weight”, and his practically atrophied brains have come back to life. And he started to ask questions. That’s a very dangerous thing for the West, it’s what it fears the most. It is losing support and therefore it is coming up with all manner of devices to keep the starving consumer under control. Here are the reasons for the blockade of the republics, which has been pursued through a variety of strategies.

The first strategy was the destruction of social institutions on territories not under Kiev’s control–the withdrawal of civil servants and banks in late 2014. It struck a serious blow against those local inhabitants who wintered over in LPR/DPR. These people were on the brink of survival, which was useful to the Ukrainian media as something with which to scare their own people. But the first “blockade wave” was overcome after retirees were paid pensions and the civil servants salaries.

Incidentally, one of the greatest taboos on Ukrainian TV, then and now, are not the local inhabitants’ praise for the self-defense militia, but reporting the price of bread in the republics: 2 hryvnya 80 kopeks. Inhabitants of Ukraine: did you know about that?

Kiev developed a new plan in the Spring of 2015. Ukrainian goods which were cheaper than Russian ones would no longer be supplied to LPR and DPR markets. The idea originated with the former MVD (Interior Ministry) general, volunteer battalion crime fighter, and comic Gennadiy Moskal. It was also his idea to turn off water supply to the rebellious regions. A sort of a fascist “gauleiter in an embroidered shirt”.

Kiev thought the idea good and proper and ordered it spread to Donetsk. It led to a conflict between Donetsk military administration head Kikhtenko and Poroshenko. Kikhtenko, also a retired MVD general, opted not to become a fascist like his colleague but retired instead. Zhebrinskiy, who came to replace him, is an old nationalist who adhered to Moskal’s guidelines, which only created a new problem for Kiev, namely smuggling at the frontline.

Everyone is participating in smuggling: LPR, DPR, SBU, National Guard, UAF, MVD. Everyone has their own channels, structures, markets. Every participant gets a cut.

But that’s not Kiev’s, and especially Washington’s, main problem. LPR/DPR and Junta officers are growing closer together. It’s a good thing for the republics: the delivery of cheap goods is accompanied by opportunities to recruit junta officers and establish communications channels. I have a great deal of assurance that the purge of SBU “moles” in the DPR occurred thanks to leaks of information directly from SBU archives. That’s why gauleiter Zhebrinskiy launched the idea of creating food markets on the line of contact and he’s making a show of fighting corruption on the border. Though it’s too early to talk about results.

The people

People have grown accustomed over the course of the year. Everyone is now used to the situation–the people of the Donbas, of the ATO zone, and the Junta’s rear areas. And everyone is adapting to it (which is characteristic of Ukrainian mentality).

People in Donetsk are almost ignoring the customary shelling. On the contrary, a calm day when nothing blows up is a major event which is discussed and around which theories are spun by local “experts.” There was one exception–when shells struck the capital’s new regions and the satellite city Makeyevka, which for the people of DPR also became an event.

On the one hand, it’s good (the internal mobilization precludes rebellions) but horrifying on the other. People who get used to war become asocial, cities used to war are dangerous to the country, a country used to war is dangerous to its neighbors. It’s axiomatic. That’s what the U.S. is trying to achieve. Everyone in the country ought to grow accustomed to conflict which the puppetmasters want to last for decades. Washington can use that conflict (if the Kiev regime is preserved) to influence EU and Russian actions. The victims will include the inhabitants of former Ukraine and neighboring countries which thoughtlessly threw themselves into the game.

That’s why I’m doing everything I can to bring down the Kiev regime and any of its mutations and call on my countrymen to do the same. The pro-U.S. regime in Ukraine spells RUIN for its ECONOMY, WAR for the POPULATION and, ultimately, the DESTRUCTION OF UKRAINE for the benefit of the U.S.

‘Yura Sumy’ is a blogger from the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine. He relocated to Russia after the outbreak of civil war in his country.

Read also:

Situation around Donetsk becoming tenser — OSCE report, TASS, Thursday, July 23, 2015

Excerpt:
VIENNA–The situation in the city of Donetsk and around it “was noticeably tenser than during the previous days,” the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine of the European security watchdog the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Thursday in its daily report.

On Wednesday, SMM monitors recorded 76 explosions of mortars and heavy artillery rounds in the area around the Donetsk central railway station, the document says. Also, they observed sporadic fire with the use of small arms, automatic grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.

posted by Ainhoa Aristizabal

Donbass and the “Big Game”: Reformatting Ukraine is on the Agenda. “Russia will not Remain on the Sidelines”

By Oriental Review
Global Research, June 04, 2015

Oriental Review (Expert Journal, translated from Russian)
Region: Russia and FSU
In-depth Report: UKRAINE REPORT

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Latest horrible ceasefire violations in Donbass by the Kiev’s regime are likely intended to demonstrate the “inefficiency” of the OSCE mission to its Western patrons and are evidence of Ukraine’s attempts to circumvent the jurisdiction of the Minsk truce co-brokered by Russia, Germany, and France.

Indeed, Minsk-2 is very inconvenient for Poroshenko, because it documents for the first time the need for direct dialog between Kiev and the Donbass. And they need to discuss more than just war and peace, because in fact there are a whole range of issues that must be resolved politically, such as the format for local elections, as well as constitutional reform and economic recovery in Ukraine. Minsk-2 undermines the power structure in Ukraine, which after Maidan has been built around nationalist and military mobilization and the persecution of political opponents.

There’s a good reason why President Poroshenko immediately tried to disavow the agreement as soon as he returned from Minsk. In March 2015 the Verkhovna Rada passed an amendment to the law on the special status of the districts controlled by Donetsk and Luhansk (in violation of the spirit of the Minsk agreement), rather than adopting a new law as Angela Merkel had asked Poroshenko to do. These actions, as well as others that undercut the foundations of the truce, are causing extreme irritation in Berlin and Paris.

It is already clear that Poroshenko’s regime in incapable of negotiating. The two Minsk agreements – dating from Sept. 5 and Feb. 12 – would never have been reached had Kiev not suffered military defeats. As soon as Petro Poroshenko won the election on May 25, 2014, Russia and the EU leaders offered to open a dialog with the Donbass militia. At that time there had been no mass casualties or widespread public acrimony. It seemed that Poroshenko, who had been elected to office (albeit without the voters of the Donbass), was capable of listening to the urgings of the leaders in Europe and Russia and begin a peace process. At least his campaign platform offered some hope of that. However, pressure from US officials forced Poroshenko to embrace a military solution. On May 26, 2014, for the first time since WWII, Donetsk was subjected to an air raid, the Donetsk airport was bombed, civilians were killed, and a real war began.

By late August, Ukraine had suffered a crushing defeat on all fronts and in all directions, and Poroshenko, finding himself trapped in a hopeless situation in which the militia threatened to advance further west, had to hastily sign the Minsk Protocol on Sept. 5, in which the parties agreed to pull back from the zone of engagement. That offered the hope that a political process of reconciliation could begin. But instead Kiev took an extremely harsh stance: a de facto economic blockade of the Donbass began; banks closed; public institutions, schools, and hospitals shut down; the payment of pensions and salaries to state employees was suspended; and later – entry to the Donbass was limited to holders of residential passes, in essence creating an internal border. Unable to win on the battlefield, Kiev declared war on the people of the Donbass in order to deprive the militia of popular support. That culminated in yet another fiasco: Ukraine lost Debaltsevo and other territories.

Autonomy or Independence? That Depends on Kiev.

The most important step in the establishment of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics was the election in November 2014. That election was not recognized by Kiev or the EU, but played a huge role in establishing a legitimate government in those republics.

In spite of Kiev’s economic blockade and the constant threat of renewed hostilities, it resulted in an undeniable improvement in the humanitarian situation. Even as hostilities raged, behind the front lines peaceful civilian life continued, infrastructure was restored, doctors were able to save lives, children attended school, and many businesses reopened.

Regular payment of pensions and public subsidies has begun again, but in order to accomplish this, a new system of social support had to be built from scratch. Due to the lack of cash in hryvnia (the Ukrainian currency) a multicurrency system was introduced, and pensions are already being paid in rubles. Direct economic ties between companies in Donetsk and Russia have been revived. Taxes have also been collected from those businesses, and the republics now have actual budgets, and although they have not been formally approved due to the uncertainty of the revenue base, those budgets serve as guidelines for estimating bare-bones expenditures.

A clear and transparent system has been put together for distributing humanitarian aid. Humanitarian convoys are arriving from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Management, and community organizations are also doing their bit, including Donbass Fraternity Fund, Dr. Elizaveta Glinka’s Fair Aid Foundation, and many others. Throughout the war some local charities in, such as Compassion (Dobrota), have continued their work in Donetsk. In every town, no matter how tiny, volunteers have been laboring selflessly.

The more Kiev drags its feet on any political resolution or recognition of special rights for the areas under the control of the governments in the republics, the worse its chances to maintain its current borders. Ukraine will never be stable until she agrees to change. If Ukraine continues to insist on the status quo and persists in pursuing a military solution to the conflict, she will continue to lose ground.

A range of emotions are being experienced in the republics. It is clear that neither the militia nor the majority of the population can envision any sort of future life with Kiev: too much blood has been spilled and Kiev has brought too much suffering to the people of the Donbass – in addition to bombings, humiliation, and the economic blockade.

Nevertheless, Ukraine still has the potential to devise a more nuanced policy than just their extremely nationalistic current plan. This was clearly evident during the elections for the Verkhovna Rada on Oct. 26, 2014. Opposition Bloc even won in Dnepropetrovsk (where nationalist patrols are stationed on every street corner and government leverage coupled with street gangs worked to thwart any opposition movement), not to mention the cities of Zaporozhye and Kharkov. Certainly not all the credit for that success was due to Opposition Bloc itself – which barely waged any sort of political campaign at all – but could rather be chalked up to the public, who voted against the government and against the war. The turnout in Odessa (39.5%), the lowest seen since the end of the Soviet Union, was virtually an act of popular sabotage against “the outsiders’ elections.”

The potential for protest is huge, because Ukraine has no desire to be the country that the nationalists have envisioned. Every day of peace means new and difficult questions for the Ukrainian government: the population sees the results of the “reforms,” the economy is languishing, social payments are shrinking, prices are rising, political repression is everywhere, political opponents are being murdered, and the bodies of soldiers who died in the Donbass are being shipped home to every district in the country.

The law prohibiting Soviet symbols and the ban on the memory of the Great Patriotic War, the glorification of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army – therein lies the path to the further destruction of their own country. And that’s not coming from Russia, but from the Ukrainian people. Most Ukrainians will not tolerate such a policy or such a government.

The problem lies in the immaturity of the Ukrainian political elite. For over 23 years of the country’s independence, that elite has been fixated on dividing and redividing the country’s resources, in the end always shifting the political blame onto outside factions: sometimes pointing the finger at Moscow, and currently – at the West. They have not yet learned how to be responsible for their own state. Now they follow the lead of the US, crippling their own country.

The Big Game

A lasting peace in the Donbass is achievable only if Europe and Russia can reach an agreement. It is impossible to imagine Poroshenko – or even less Prime Minister Yatsenyuk – behaving in a constructive manner, if Europe and Russia do not coerce them into working for peace.

With all the problems of the past year, it is clear that France and Germany trust Russia far more than their Ukrainian protégés. They can recognize the issues on which “the Russians cannot be trusted” – and the matters on which they can. But those are fixed, clearly defined questions – because Russia does not change her position minute by minute. But all bets are off when it comes to the politicians in Kiev. They might promise to lay down their arms or adopt a law on special status, and then completely flip-flop after a telephone call with Washington.

Of course Europe has phobias and fears of “Russian expansion,” but those are more common among the talking heads and the press, while the leaders and diplomats understand that “expansion” is the very essence of international politics. The European Union itself pursues an active policy of “partnership,” and in recent decades has also been expanding, while Russia is doing no more than attempting to safeguard her room to maneuver economically. Europeans understand that Russia would not have taken steps to reunify with Crimea and support the Donbass if the West had not provoked the conflict. After many incidents of the most cynical violence aimed at seizing and retaining power over the last year, it is reasonable to assume that the shootings on Maidan were the responsibility of those forces that took power in Ukraine in February 2014. All this is an example of very dirty politics. No matter how indignant the Europeans might be in public, they understand that Russia could not remain on the sidelines.

And that would not be because of any imaginary “imperial ambitions” or in order to merely seize territory. Russia’s most important and closest neighbor had entered into a period of disintegration and civil war after a coup d’etat. Forces had assumed power that did not shy away from overt violence – ideological, cultural, repressive, and military – against their own people. The problem was not Ukraine’s “European” path, but the bluff – the West was never planning to spend its resources on the economic development of a foreign country, much less help her integrate into European organizations. The result of Maidan could mean nothing but chaos in Ukraine.

And until this chaos is overcome, Russia will not remain on the sidelines.

Publication is based on a frontpage article recently released by the Russian Expert journal. Text adapted and translated by ORIENTAL REVIEW.