Ukrainian Catholic leader meets with Canadian PM, decries Russian actions [CWN]

[josie_L]

Why would I accept the numbers in an article that was taken down? Why are these numbers more compelling than the public ones? A computer geek could’ve hacked the page, doctored the numbers, and saved a cached version. No, the only public numbers are a vote in favour of joining Russia by 97% of the Crimean population: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_status_referendum,_2014

Because it was written by the President of Russia’s Civil Safety and Human Rights Council, that’s why!!! Yes, the computer geek, aka, the lawyers mentioned at the bottom of the article:

The report was prepared by Council member Yevgeny Bobrov; together with prominent human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina and lawyer Olga Tsetlina, following a visit to Simferopol and Sevastopol from April 15-18.

And just letting you know that Svetlana Gannushkina appeared on t.v. with her findings, and here is some of what she wrote concerning Crimea (April 25 2014):

hro.rightsinrussia.info/archive/ukraine/crimea/gannushkina

Do you mean the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group? The one that feigns objectivity while being connected by the wallet to the American “National Endowment for Democracy”? No, I don’t accept their rabidly Russophobic reports.

That’s quite hilarious, really, i.e., they are condemned by virtue of being connected to the American “National Endowment For Democracy”, as if this is evidence of their villainy, i.e., Russophobia.

Try Al Jazeera instead for more objective reporting, since they don’t have much of a stake in this fight.

Well, Halya Coynash is a journalist and does from time to time write for Al Jazeera, here’s such an article:

aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/05/russia-improbable-human-rights-2014510101243766114.html

Notice halfway through the article she writes:

With pseudo-referendums now planned in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on May 11, it is worth noting that even Putin’s own Human Rights Council inadvertently debunked the claims about an overwhelming majority in the Crimea having voted to join Russia. The Council reported a turnout of 30-50 percent, of whom only 50-60 percent supported union.

And that’s on Al Jazeera, so what do you think of them now??

 

[josie_L]

Furthermore, I have yet to hear reports of gross human rights violations in Crimea. By all accounts, Crimea is fairly peaceful now, unlike in Slaviansk where the (unelected, US-appointed) Kiev junta encourages its soldiers to kill their fellow Ukrainians.

Yes, things are relatively peaceful because soldiers are still walking around with guns, i.e., patrolling, as is indicated in the link earlier:

hro.rightsinrussia.info/archive/ukraine/crimea/gannushkina

And yes, there are major human rights violations taking place in Crimea, if you would bother to google it.

Generally, sane and democratic countries don’t do this kind of thing, but hold free and fair elections, encouraging everyone’s voice to be heard and issues to be openly discussed, thereby gaining the trust and recognition of legitimacy from everyone. Ukraine’s governing junta absolutely has not done that.

Right, like the way the puppet government in Crimea (installed by Russia) listened to and discussed the issues with the Ethnic Ukrainians and Tartars who make up 42% of the population, while imposing a referendum under Russian occupation and giving them no option to remain in the Ukraine and/or keep the status quo.

 

[josie_L]

But then I must ask, is this any worse than what the current government in Kiev is doing?

In answer to your question I will post what I put in another forum:

These people (separatists) don’t consider themselves Ukrainian, hence, the hostile takeovers and the subsequent intervention of the army, moreover, the Ukraine has a right to protect those whom the Separatists are harming, i.e., these are not innocent protestors but armed and dangerous men who are kidnapping, torturing and killing people with the approval of Mother Russia. Here’s a list of those people that they have harmed (many of which occurred before the army intervened):

Seven killed:

May 9 – (Two killed, one wounded) – Two cars with bodies of two adults, a wife and a husband, were found on the outskirts of Luhansk. According to the Luhansk Prosecutor’s Office, they were gunned by Kremlin-backed insurgents because they did not stop their cars on the militant’s request. Killed couple’s 10-year old daughter was found in one of the cars injured and taken to the hospital.

May 8 – (Killed) – The head of Prosvita society branch in Krasny Lyman, Valeriy Salo, was found burnt in his car. Salo was captured on May 7 by the militants of the Donetsk People’s Republic, according to the Luhansk police press service.

May 8 – (One killed) – Pavlo Zhuchenko, a 44-year-old priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy, was shot near a block post near the eastern Ukrainian town Druzhivka, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office press service. Editor-in-chief of the local news website Ostov, Serhiy Harmash, reports that the slain priest lived next to the block post and urged Kyiv’s opponents to surrender arms. The law enforcement authorities have started an investigation of the case.

April 28 – (Dead) – In Sloviansk, the body was found at the same site near the river Torets, where the bodies of Horlivka Town Council deputy Volodymyr Rybak and Kyiv Polytechnic Institute student Yuriy Popravko were found earlier. The body has been identified as Yuriy Diadkovsky, a 25-year-old student from Stryi in Lviv Oblast. Diadkovsky had been an active Euromaidan participant since December 3, 2013. According to the Gazeta.ua website, citing Diadkovsky’s brother Oleh, Yuriy went to Donetsk Oblast on April 16 with his friend in order to see what was going on there. His was kidnapped April 17His body was found 11 days later with the signs of torture.

April 22 – (Two killed) – In Sloviansk, the bodies of two men were found near the river Torets with signs of torture, according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. One of them has been identified as Volodymyr Rybak, a Horlivka city councilman believed to have been kidnapped on April 17. He was found with a sandbag tied around his body and a slash across his stomach. He is believed to have drowned in the river while unconscious. According to the ministry’s reports, members of the pro-Russian separatist group who seized the city’s security services building were involved in the alleged torture and murder of the two men. The second men has been identified as a 19-year-old Kyiv Polytechnic Institute student Yuriy Popravko. According to Popravko’s mother, Yaroslava Popravko, cited by Liga.net, on April 16 her son visited his girlfriend in Kharkiv. There was no further contact with him after that.

kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/donetsk-peoples-republic-separatists-mark-victory-day-weekend-with-new-round-of-killings-abductions-347225.html

 

[josie_L]

Nineteen are still being held

May 9 – (One kidnapped) – Valeriy Andruschuk, head of Mariupol police, was kidnapped by the separatist insurgents the same day as the city police headquarters was stormed and burned down. According to the lawmaker and presidential candidate Oleh Lyashko, Andruschuk was abducted as a retiree tried to take him out of the burning building. The information was confirmed by the Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. A retiree, whose name is unknown, was injured with a knife. Andruschuk’s whereabouts are unknown.

May 8 – (One being held) – Oleh Demko, the representative of presidential candidate and Svoboda Part leader Oleh Tiahnybok in Donetsk region’s Makiyivka, was kidnapped by armed men and taken to the premises of Donetsk regional state administration, according to his party colleague Pavlo Derkachenko. Demko had been receiving threats during a whole week before the abduction.

May 7 – (One kidnapped) – Valeriy Harchuk, member of the local city council in Rubizhne, Luhansk Oblast, was kidnapped by four masked men, according to the Luhansk police press office. His whereabouts are unknown.

May 2 – (One held) – Georgian citizen and pro-Ukrainian activist Basile d’Budik was kidnapped by unknown masked and armed men in the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlivka, according to the member of right-wing Svoboda party Maja Karlash. According to the Council to Georgia Irakli Advadze, d’Budik was reached by phone and denied the fact of kidnapping, while his relatives say they do not know activist’s whereabouts. Karlash confirms d’Budik is being held by pro-Russian militants. The head of the territorial defense battalion “Donbas” Semen Senchenko offered separatists’ leaders to exchange nine detained militants for d’Budik and abducted on the same day Mykola Yakubovych.

May 2 (One held) – Mykola Yakubovysch, a Donetsk activist and one of the leaders of the local pro-Ukrainian self-defense, was kidnapped in the center of the city of Donetsk, according to Novosti Donbassa. He is held hostage by pro-Russian militants.

May 2 (One held) – Ihor Otrya, 18-year old student from Krasnyi Lyman, was kidnapped in Sloviansk on his way home from Kyiv, Gazeta.ua reported. According to Otrya’s parents, their son was detained on suspicion of having connection to nationalist Right Sector organization. He is currently being held by pro-Russian insurgents in the seized SBU building.

April 29 – (Two still held) – Four police officers, including head of the criminal investigation department Vitaliy Benko, Head of the department for combating drug trafficking Oleg Zaitsev, two operational servicemen Andriy Redko and Volodymyr Mischenko, were kidnapped in Kramatorsk by pro-Russian militants after they refused to take separatist’s side, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s press office. They were transported to the regional SBU headquarters in Sloviansk. On May 2, two of them, Redko and Mischenko, were released.

April 29 – (Two still held) – Two members of district election commissions were kidnapped in the Donetsk region. Yaroslav Malanchuk, a member of a district election commission Krasnoarmiysk from the right-wing Svoboda party, and Artem Popyk, head of the local Svoboda organization, were kidnapped in Kostiantynivka.

April 26 – (Still being held) – A Lviv journalist and freelance correspondent for the local ZiK TV-channel Yuriy Leliavsky was captured by pro-Russian militants in Sloviansk during a shooting, according to program director of Telekritika website Viktor Galkin. Leliavsky was taken to the building of the local city council.

April 26 – (One held) – Serhiy Shapoval, a journalist for the Volyn Post, has being missing since April 26 when he decided to head to Sloviansk from Kharkiv, where he was reporting on the local protests. A communication with him was lost at 3 p.m. April 26 and at 9 p.m. same day telephone connection was lost, according to the Telekritika website. He is held hostage by pro-Russian militants.

April 25 – (Two still held) – Recognized theatre director Pavlo Yurov and art curator Denys Gryschuk were kidnapped in Sloviansk. According to the LB.ua website, citing the friends of the kidnapped men, they were on their way from Donetsk to Kyiv via Sloviansk when they stopped answering phone calls. A self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk Viacheslav Ponomaryov later confirmed holding them hostage.

April 23 – (Still being held) – Sloviansk City Council member Vadym Sukhonos was abducted by Kremlin-backed militants, reports TSN television channel, citing local media in the Donetsk Oblast. Sukhonos apparently was kidnapped for ideological reasons. In February, he quit the Party of Regions, the dominant party in eastern Ukraine, and is now a local independent lawmaker.

kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/donetsk-peoples-republic-separatists-mark-victory-day-weekend-with-new-round-of-killings-abductions-347225.html

 

[josie_L]

April 21 – (Still being held) – Kramatorsk chief of police, Interior Ministry Colonel Vitaliy Kolupai was kidnapped by Kremlin-backed terrorists, the Interior Ministry reported. The masked pro-Russian militants have apparently demanded weapons and arms in exchange for the police colonel’s release. The Interior Ministry accuses Russian military intelligence Colonel Igor Strelkov for commandeering the kidnapping. Ukraine Security Service has identified the Russian colonel as the chief coordinator in the slow- motion Russian invasion of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts by using a combination of Russian special forces and black operatives, a deeply-rooted network of spies and agent saboteurs who are Russians and Ukrainians, and the cooperation of local elements of law enforcement and government officials.

April 20 – (Still being held) – Irma Krat, 29, the editor-in-chief of Hidden Truth TV and the leader of an all-female self-defense unit during the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted the former government and President Viktor Yanukovych, was captured around 8 p.m. on Easter Sunday, Krat’s lawyer, Oleg Veremiyenko, told the Kyiv Post. Krat was “taken hostage,” Veremiyenko said, on suspicion of torturing and killing a Berkut riot police officer. She is reportedly being held in the Ukrainian State Security Service building in Sloviansk. The day after her capture, the pro-Russian separatist group holding her paraded her to meet the press, during which time she confirmed she was being held but said that she had not been harmed.

April 19 – (Whereabouts unknown) – Local media has reported that Kremlin-backed separatists kidnapped the chief of police in Sloviansk, Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg Prokhorov, but officials are yet to officially confirm the abduction. Prokhorov’s whereabouts are unknown.

Released hostages:

May 9 – (Seven released) – Kremlin-backed militants stormed into the Red Cross office in Donetsk and captured seven people, including one citizen of France and six Ukrainians from Kyiv and Donetsk. All of them were freed after several hours of detention, as was confirmed by the local Red Cross official. According to the spokesman of the separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic”, Red Cross volunteers were detained on suspicion of espionage. Iryna Tsariuk from the Ukrainian Red Cross said one of the released hostages has been severely beaten. It is also reported that insurgents seized medicine, which was delivered to Donetsk Red Cross office for distribution in the region.

May 7 – (One released) – Armed militants kidnapped a man, who took part into the motor rally for the united Ukraine, according to journalist Ekaterina Sergatskova. The abduction took place in Stahaniv, Luhansk Oblast. He was kept in the seized SBU building, tortured and interrogated, and released May 8.

May 4 – (Released) – Pro-Russian militants broke into the house of the member of Novogorodenka (Donetsk Oblast) city council and kidnapped him and five men visiting him, according to the SBU press office. Three of them, a coal miner Oleksandr Vovk, a member of the local city council from the Communist party of Ukraine Oleg Bubich and a member of the local city council from the Party of Regions Valeriy Pavlyk , were released on May 5. Each of them has the signs of torture, according to the press service of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine. Three other, including a coal miner Oleksandr Gurov, a member of the local city council from the Defenders of the Motherland Party Kostyantyn Musiyenko and an unknown man, were released on May 6. While being detained coal miners were constantly beaten and tortured. For instance, militants tried to cut of the words “Glory to Ukraine”, which were tattooed on Gurov’s arm. Gurov claims he was abducted for his strong pro-Ukrainian position.

May 3 – (Released) – Five servicemen of the Armed Forced of Ukraine were kidnapped by masked pro-Russian militants in Melekino village, Donetsk Oblast. They had being detained at the seized Mariupol city council building for several hours and released May 4 at 1 a.m., says SBU press office’s statement.

May 3 – (Released) – Armed men in camouflage kidnapped two persons,Oleksiy Bida and Anna Mokrousova, in Luhansk, kept them in seized regional SBU headquarters for several hours and released afterwards, according to the activists of community Euromaidan SOS.

May 2 (Released) – Three groups of Western journalists from a number of news outlets were briefly detained by pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine, according to Novosti Donbassa. Mike Giglio from American BuzzFeed and his translator Olena Glazunova were taken from a checkpoint en route to Sloviansk by pro-Russian militants, blindfolded, held at seized police building for three hours and released, says Mike Giglio’s on his Twitter. Americans reporters for CBS Clarissa Ward, Erin Lyall, Andy Srevenson, Geoff Mabberley and a team with Britain’s SkyNews Stuart Ramsay, Barnaby Green and their translators Oleg Malko and Oleksandr Pustovit were detained at rebel-held check-points and released after couple hours.

April 29 – (Released) – Five activists were briefly detained by separatists after a pro-Ukrainian rally in Donetsk, reports Novosti Donbassa website citing the organizer of the rally Diana Berg. They were freed later that day, which was confirmed by the local militia’s press office.

kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/donetsk-peoples-republic-separatists-mark-victory-day-weekend-with-new-round-of-killings-abductions-347225.html

 

[josie_L]

April 26 – (Released) – Major Serhiy Potiomsky, Captain Eugeniy Verinsky, Lieutenant Colonel Rostyslav Kyjashko from SBU’s high-ranking Alpha Group were kidnapped in Kramatorsk, while they were on their way to Horlivka. Kremlin-backed militants took hostages to Sloviansk, where they were interviewed by Russian journalists. On the video, immediately published on the Internet, SBU officers were answering questions while seating with their pants off, hands tied, blindfolded and showing signs of having been beaten. According to the SBU’s statement, the group was kidnapped while performing a task to arrest a Russian citizen suspected of killing Horlivka city council member Volodymyr Rybak. Rybak was kidnapped on April 17, five days later his body was found near the river Torets in Sloviansk with signs of torture. All three were released on May 7. According to representatives of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” they were exchanged for the Donetsk region’s “people’s governor” Pavlo Gubarev. SBU press service says it would not be correctly to say that an act exchange had occurred although confirms that all three servicemen were freed.

April 25 – (Released) – Eight members of a military monitoring mission were abducted on April 25 and held hostage in Sloviansk by pro-Russian separatist forces. The group of OSCE monitors, including four Germans, a Swede, a Pole, a Dane, and a Czech, were traveling by bus from Kramatorsk to Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast and were accompanied by five Ukrainian soldiers, includingIhor Turansky, Oleksandr Matvijenko, Valeriy Udod, Oleksij Pluschev andAndriy Kolodka. Pro-Russian militants showed the documents of some of them, including John Christensen (Denmark), Krzysztof Kobelski (Poland), Axel Schneider (Germany). On April 27 a Swede OSCE officer, major Thomas Johannson, who suffers from diabetes, was freed. On May 3 all the other members of the mission and Ukrainians, who were accompanying them, were freed.

April 25 – (Released) – Yevhen Hapych, a journalist from the Ivano Frankivsk Oblast town of Kolomyia in western Ukraine, who on April 22 was kidnapped with his brother Hennadiy in Donetsk Oblast, were released and made it home on April 25. Hapych had received a travel grant from Telekritika, a Kyiv-based media watchdog organization, to report in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. His work was to be published in various media.

April 22 – (Released) – Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk in northern Donetsk Oblast confirmed that unidentified people in uniform had captured Vice News journalist Simon Ostrovsky, an American, who was last seen early morning on April 22. Ostrovsky was released three days later.

April 22 – (Released) – Yuriy Zahrebelny, prosecutor of Sloviansk, was reportedly kidnapped in his office at about 5:50 p.m. by a group of three armed and masked men, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on April 23. They brought him by car in an unknown direction and released in some 40 minutes later. Zahrebelny refused to disclose the details of his interrogation, the police said.

April 22 – (Released) – At about 11 a.m. several people in masks came into the office of Sloviansk medical forensics service and captured its head, Mr. Yakymov, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry reported. The ministry did not disclose his first name. Yakymov was taken to the local SBU headquarters now occupied by pro-Russian separatists. At about 2 p.m.Yakymov was released and refused to comment on the details of his captivity. “He is very scared after that,” Stanislav Rechynsky, an Interior Ministry adviser said during a news briefing on April 23. “Apparently it was related to (Volodymyr) Rybak’s murder.

April 21 – (Released) – Italian journalists Paul Gogo and Kossimo Attanasio, and Belarusian journalist Dmitry Galko were kidnapped by separatists in Sloviansk while filming events in the city. Later the journalists were released, but their reporting equipment, money and personal documents were confiscated.

kyivpost.com/content/ukra…ns-347225.html

 

[josie_L]

April 18 – (Released) – Sloviansk Mayor Nelya Shtepa disappeared after she attempted to meet with separatist leader Vyacheslav Ponomarev. Initially, Shtepa appeared to support separatists before changing course and confirming her support for authorities in Kyiv. On April 22, she appeared on pro-Kremlin TV Life News saying that she is thankful to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She is believed to be held inside one of the buildings occupied by the separatists in Sloviansk. They have said that she is fine and being fed well. On April 30, Shtepa resigned.

April 16 – (Released) – Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Lefter was kidnapped while reporting on events in Sloviansk. He had being held in the basement of the Ukrainian State Security Service building in Sloviansk until May 2, when he was released together with another hostage, Sloviansk resident Artem Deynega. Deynega was abducted by pro-Russian insurgents on April 13 after he was observed filming from the balcony of his family’s apartement. The apartment is across the street from the Ukrainian Security Service building in Sloviansk. Lefter was working with the non-governmental organization Open Dialog Foundation when he was captured. Despite been freed on late night May 2 Lefter arrived in Kyiv only five days later as they were hiding in SLoviansk fearing pursuit. During press-conference on May 8 Lefter said that he was treated not that bad during detention and was occasionally questioned, whether he had any connections to nationalist Right Sector organization.

kyivpost.com/content/ukra…ns-347225.html

 

[josie_L]

And what about the constant posts from the Euro-Maidan Twitter feed, where people are talking about killing/burning ‘colorado beetles?’ Should we support the killing of anybody in Ukraine found wearing a St. George ribbon?

Many who wear the St. George ribbon are terrorists/separatists, and they are taking over Ukrainian territory in order to cede it to Russia, and that is pretty much why the military has to intervene. The mentality of the separatists is that of a traitor, i.e., they are doing what they are doing for Mother Russia, and they believe that the land that they are taking over belongs to Russia:

The incidents on Friday, particularly in Odessa where 31 pro-Russian protesters were burnt to death inside a public building, could provide the pretext for a Russian advance into eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin would argue that its soldiers are needed to restore peace and to protect ethnic Russians.

In Donetsk, the pro-Moscow leaders of a self-proclaimed “People’s Republic” have already urged the deployment of Russian troops as “peacekeepers”.

**On Saturday, they voiced outrage over the bloodshed in Odessa. Denis Pushilin, the self-styled “prime minister”, said it was unimaginable that such killings could have occurred on “our land, on Russian land”. **

telegraph.co.uk/news/worl…ates-Kiev.html

Moreover, I think I can find equally da*ning material from the separatist side, if one cared to look.

What about the recent remarks of the Kherson Oblast’s governor made on Victory Day calling Hitler a liberator? Should we support rising Neo-Nazi sentiment amongst elected officials in Ukraine?

There is no rising neo-Nazi sentiments in the Ukraine, i.e., whatever this official said is in the minority. Moreover, there is ample evidence of neo-Nazi connections with regard to the separatists, i.e., the self styled governor of Donetsk, Pavel Gubaronov: Putin’s Neo-Nazi Helpers.

khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1394442656

I do not claim know what the solution to the problems in Ukraine is, but I can certainly tell you without a doubt, that the US and the current government in Kiev are part of the problem, not the solution, nor is Russia, contrary to the claims made by Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, very clearly at fault for the current insurrection and ethnic tensions in Eastern Ukraine (indeed, several notable men in the field of diplomacy including Kissinger have cautioned us that we should believe Putin’s statement that he cannot control what is happening in Eastern Ukraine). These ethnic tensions run deep into history (think of issues like Bandera’s cooperation with the Nazis, the Holodmor, etc.), and simply blaming them all on Russia’s annexation of Crimea does not help.

Russia is very clearly at fault for what is happening in the Ukraine, i.e., he is purposely destabilizing the situation in the Ukraine by aiding and abetting the separatists because he cannot abide the thought of a free and independent Ukraine when he doesn’t even recognize that it is a country in it’s own right, i.e., he believes Ukraine belongs with Russia.

The information about the aggressiveness of Russia’s designs is not so surprising to Ukrainians, who are already used to politically incorrect statements coming out of Moscow. In 2008, at the Bucharest NATO Summit, Putin said that “Ukraine is a historical misunderstanding which was created on the Russian territory.” So, in his mind, Russia needs to restore its territory at the expense of Ukraine. “They even don’t say “Ukraine” as a term, using instead the ‘Reunification of Russia’,” Illarionov says.

The described strategy is very similar to a populist Russian movement called the “Essence of Time,” which was founded in 2011 by Russian politician and scientist Sergey Kurginyan. The goal of the movement is the revival of the USSR on new principles and without the old mistakes. Kurginyan call it “USSR 2.0” and it seems that Ukraine may be the next step on the way to that Brave New World.

thedailybeast.com/article…nnexation.html

 

[Brendan]

Actually, the problems started when the Ukrainian (democratically elected) government was overthrown in a Western-backed coup d’etat, and the Russian speaking East (particularly in Crimea, where most of the people are Russian) didn’t trust the new, unknown, unelected regime. Furthermore, Russia doesn’t even want the broke, divided territories of eastern Ukraine! They’re happy with all the land and people and problems they’ve got.

He President was ousted by a democratically elected Parliament.

reuters.com/article/2014/02/22/us-ukraine-idUSBREA1G0OU20140222

In Canada, Parliament has the right to change the Prime Minister and\or the Secretary General. If they did so, it would not be a violation of democracy, but act of democracy. Why not in the Ukraine?

 

[Melchizedek89]

Because it was written by the President of Russia’s Civil Safety and Human Rights Council, that’s why!!! Yes, the computer geek, aka, the lawyers mentioned at the bottom of the article:

The report was prepared by Council member Yevgeny Bobrov; together with prominent human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina and lawyer Olga Tsetlina, following a visit to Simferopol and Sevastopol from April 15-18.

And just letting you know that Svetlana Gannushkina appeared on t.v. with her findings, and here is some of what she wrote concerning Crimea (April 25 2014):

hro.rightsinrussia.info/archive/ukraine/crimea/gannushkina

That’s quite hilarious, really, i.e., they are condemned by virtue of being connected to the American “National Endowment For Democracy”, as if this is evidence of their villainy, i.e., Russophobia.

Well, Halya Coynash is a journalist and does from time to time write for Al Jazeera, here’s such an article:

aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/05/russia-improbable-human-rights-2014510101243766114.html

Notice halfway through the article she writes:

And that’s on Al Jazeera, so what do you think of them now??

I asked you to prove the validity of your sources, not for a bunch of “may or may not” be true news flashes from Ukraine, that seem to paint the separatists in a very negative light, while making the Ukrainian junta’s actions seem saintly and magnanimous. If sources are biased one way or the other, and particularly if they’ve got a big stake in forming public opinion, then I have absolutely no reason to listen to them! Al Jazeera presents a range of viewpoints, so I can read what pro-separatists and pro-junta people have to say, and then sort out the facts for myself. I’ve sorted them out in favour of the separatists: they have no desire or need to be close to a government they don’t trust, which has been killing unarmed civilians.

Yes, following the “money trail” on sources is actually just good research, as is checking who’s involved in editorial work and oversight in these “human rights” groups. Personally, I get a sick feeling when US-connected sources play the “human rights and democracy” cards… from drone strikes to illegal invasions to illegal imprisonment to aiding/abetting genocidal groups, the US has a lot to answer for.

 

[josie_L]

I asked you to prove the validity of your sources, not for a bunch of “may or may not” be true news flashes from Ukraine, that seem to paint the separatists in a very negative light, while making the Ukrainian junta’s actions seem saintly and magnanimous.

You’re asking me to prove the validity of my sources when I have provided links and the like in all my posts, honestly, Melchizedek, you have not provided ONE source to validate your unsubstantiated claims, moreover, I can easily rebuff your claims as you did mine, by stating that it is all Russian propaganda, because really, the only basis you have for rebuffing my claims is the fact that it is provided by Ukrainian and/or Western sources.

If sources are biased one way or the other, and particularly if they’ve got a big stake in forming public opinion, then I have absolutely no reason to listen to them! Al Jazeera presents a range of viewpoints, so I can read what pro-separatists and pro-junta people have to say, and then sort out the facts for myself. I’ve sorted them out in favour of the separatists: they have no desire or need to be close to a government they don’t trust, which has been killing unarmed civilians.

Perhaps you are unaware of Russian operatives work hand in hand with the separatists, perhaps you have missed the fact that the insurgents/terrorists are taking Ukrainian territories and ceding it to Russia, perhaps you missed the countless acts of terror committed by the separatists . . . . . . etc. In fact, all this insurgency is rather odd considering there will be an election held on May 25th, that’s why the present government is called an interim government, i.e., it’s a temporary government.

Yes, following the “money trail” on sources is actually just good research, as is checking who’s involved in editorial work and oversight in these “human rights” groups. Personally, I get a sick feeling when US-connected sources play the “human rights and democracy” cards… from drone strikes to illegal invasions to illegal imprisonment to aiding/abetting genocidal groups, the US has a lot to answer for.

Oh yes, only the U.S. does such things, not Russia, never Russia, never.

 

[Cavaradossi]

No, the protestors were peacefully and rightfully demonstrating, i.e., they were not rioting, thus the use of Berkut was unnecessary and brutal:

So were the unarmed civilians in Eastern Ukraine who were shot in the head, unarmed civilians who have been declared in Kiev to be enemy combatants if they even so much as impede the Ukrainian military by standing in their path.

In answer to your question I will post what I put in another forum:

These people (separatists) don’t consider themselves Ukrainian, hence, the hostile takeovers and the subsequent intervention of the army, moreover, the Ukraine has a right to protect those whom the Separatists are harming, i.e., these are not innocent protestors but armed and dangerous men who are kidnapping, torturing and killing people with the approval of Mother Russia. Here’s a list of those people that they have harmed (many of which occurred before the army intervened):

I have seen the pictures coming out of Eastern Ukraine where the protestors were asked by Western journalists to show their Ukrainian identification papers, pictures filled with people of all ages and genders, who are all very clearly Ukrainian. Can one seriously argue that these 50 or 60 year old grannies taking to the streets are Russian militants? As for those who have turned to violence, is it really credible to believe that Russian-backed militants would be so poorly armed? The source you give has a clear agenda to brand the militants as “Kremlin backed,” but the reality is that this claim is so incredible that the Western media, which has certainly not been on Putin’s side throughout this affair, has not really advanced it very much. Henry Kissinger has even implicitly rejected the hypothesis that Putin is controlling the separatists by acknowledging that Putin cannot control the separatists, a hypothesis which is quite inconsistent with the recent referendums held in Luhansk and Donetsk, held against Vladimir Putin’s explicit call for the contrary.

Many who wear the St. George ribbon are terrorists/separatists, and they are taking over Ukrainian territory in order to cede it to Russia, and that is pretty much why the military has to intervene. The mentality of the separatists is that of a traitor, i.e., they are doing what they are doing for Mother Russia, and they believe that the land that they are taking over belongs to Russia:

That does not answer the question. If one in Ukraine wears a St. George ribbon in solidarity with Russia or in solidarity with the past should such a person be beaten in the streets or burned alive, as the Euromaidan Twitter feed implies? Why is it ok for Kiev and Euromaidan to abuse human rights by dictating what the boundaries of freedom of expression are?

Moreover, I think I can find equally da*ning material from the separatist side, if one cared to look.

Does that excuse the sentiment of “burn colorado, burn” which was commonly expressed in response to the Odessa Trade Union Building fire?

There is no rising neo-Nazi sentiments in the Ukraine, i.e., whatever this official said is in the minority. Moreover, there is ample evidence of neo-Nazi connections with regard to the separatists, i.e., the self styled governor of Donetsk, Pavel Gubaronov: Putin’s Neo-Nazi Helpers.

I have seen the videos of what Svoboda (which some clever Western sources describe as a “nationalist socialist party”, as if flipping the order around will pull the wool over our eyes) is doing in Ukraine: people gathering in rallies openly displaying the former symbol of Svoboda, the Wolfsangel (a symbol famously used by the SS, which is so offensive that it is outright banned in Germany if it can be construed as being used as a Nazi symbol), gangs of people roaming the streets beating Russian sympathizers. Is that really the mark of a free society? Can one really call the nationalist socialist Svoboda party “Putin’s Neo-Nazi Helpers”? We’re not all that naive that we think that all of Ukraine’s problems can be shoved off on Vladimir Putin like some bogeyman. The fact is that Nazi-sympathizing has become a major problem throughout all of Eastern Europe (just look at the debate right now on ‘double genocide’ as a form of Holocaust denial), and Ukraine is unfortunately no exception.

 

[Cavaradossi]

Russia is very clearly at fault for what is happening in the Ukraine, i.e., he is purposely destabilizing the situation in the Ukraine by aiding and abetting the separatists because he cannot abide the thought of a free and independent Ukraine when he doesn’t even recognize that it is a country in it’s own right, i.e., he believes Ukraine belongs with Russia.

Even If Russia is doing everything that it is alleged to be doing, why does Russia get to carry all of the blame when the US does similar things and gets a free pass? Is it not true that the day when Yanukovych struck a deal with the pro-EU movement, snipers began a particularly violent campaign of firing at and killing civilians and police alike? Why would Yanukovych do that when he had just brokered a deal, which would secure his term as PM until the elections? Is it also not true that the German state media has released a report claiming, contrary to the US’ claim, that Yanukovych was not responsible for the snipers?

And isn’t it convenient that after Yanukovych was ousted, Vicky “F the EU” Nuland’s preferred man, Yatsenyuk (or ‘Yats’ as Nuland calls him), was installed into office? And now isn’t it also convenient that Vice-President Biden’s son gets a nice position in the energy sector? I am not trying to exonerate Russia or Putin’s Crimean land grab, but the US is treating Ukraine like some sort of banana republic. Real dignity for Ukraine would be for the US to quit meddling in her internal affairs and for Ukraine to receive a real financial aid package instead of a $17 billion IMF loan, and a financial aid package which is not contingent on the country staying together, so as not to give the current government in Kiev seventeen billion reasons to shoot unarmed civilian protestors.

Now returning to the topic of this thread (that is, the article posted), can we not agree that Major Archbishop Sviatoslav’s claim that the Russians have caused and unleashed all of this ethnic tension in Ukraine is not realistic? Is it not true that there were already many underlying tensions because of the Holodmor or the controversy concerning Stepan Bandera (after all, did not the European Parliament, Russia and Poland all condemn Stepan Bandera being awarded posthumously “Hero of Ukraine”)?

 

[josie_L]

So were the unarmed civilians in Eastern Ukraine who were shot in the head, unarmed civilians who have been declared in Kiev to be enemy combatants if they even so much as impede the Ukrainian military by standing in their path.

Please provide a source, because I am not convinced that the things that you are saying of the military are true, especially in light of the fact that Ukrainian soldiers have been killed by separatists on several occasions, one of which, was perpetrated this Tuesday:

DONETSK, Ukraine — Pro-Russian separatists ambushed a convoy of Ukrainian troops Tuesday in the troubled eastern part of the country, as Germany’s foreign minister sought to jump-start talks between the Ukrainian government and the separatists as part of a European bid to head off their moves to join Russia.

Pro-Russian rebels killed six Ukrainian troops and wounded eight others in an attack Tuesday afternoon about 12 miles outside the city of Kramatorsk, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said. The ministry, in a statement on its Web site, said about 30 militants armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers struck a convoy carrying paratroopers as it was approaching a bridge near the village of Oktyabrsk.

A grenade struck one armored personnel carrier’s engine, and rebels opened fire as Ukrainian troops worked to move the crippled vehicle off the road, the ministry said.

The attack came a day after separatists announced the birth of two new pro-Russian republics and demanded that Ukraine security forces leave their “sovereign” territory. The separatists claimed landslide victories in disputed self-rule referendums held Sunday in two eastern Ukrainian regions.

Upon his arrival in the Ukrainian capital, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier immediately met with top Ukrainian officials.

At a news conference afterward, Steinmeier said the European Union supports Ukrainian efforts to “launch a national dialogue,” disarm illegal groups and end the occupation of government buildings by separatists.

It was not immediately clear who would be sitting down at any negotiating table, however.

In earlier remarks, Steinmeier expressed hope for a quick release of hostages held by the separatists, and he stressed the importance of Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election.

Pro-Russian separatists declared two new “sovereign” republics in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland Monday, including the “Donetsk People’s Republic,” after asserting runaway victories in controversial, vaguely-worded referendums Sunday.

One of the regions promptly asked to join Russia. The Kremlin issued a statement
following the vote, saying the referendums should be respected and further violence avoided. Kiev called the chaotic referendums a farce, and the West declared them illegal.

Ignoring the separatists’ declaration of sovereignty, Ukrainian government forces renewed military operations Tuesday against the rebel-controlled city of Slovyansk, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported. It quoted an unidentified rebel spokesman as saying that Ukrainian forces were attacking from several directions, using mortars and other heavy weapons, in an effort to retake the city.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov posted on his Facebook page late Monday a photo from inside a transport plane that he said was carrying troops and new equipment to Slovyansk for use against the militants. “It’s good when the prime minister helps and involves himself — the case at hand proceeds more quickly,” he said.

Steinmeier flew to Kiev after European foreign ministers met in Brussels on Monday to try to find a negotiated solution to the worst crisis between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War. Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi, who attended
the meeting, told the BBC on Tuesday morning that dialogue is needed with “urgency” and that there were “some signs” Moscow was ready to talk.

Russia swiftly annexed Crimea, an autonomous Ukrainian region with a majority ethnic
Russian population, in March after a similar, hastily called referendum.

Separatist leaders of the Donetsk People’s Republic asked Monday to join Russia, while militants in Luhansk said they wished to unite with Donetsk to form a new republic called “Novorossiya,” or New Russia.

Russia responded cautiously, repeating an earlier call for negotiations within Ukraine.

“We reaffirm the need for the immediate establishment of a broad discussion in Ukraine concerning its future state structure, involving all political forces and the country’s regions,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine’s government has denounced the referendums as a “criminal farce” arranged by a “gang of Russian terrorists,” but it says it is willing to talk with regional leaders about autonomy. . . . . . .

washingtonpost.com/world/…&tid=btm_rex_5

 

[josie_L]

I have seen the pictures coming out of Eastern Ukraine where the protestors were asked by Western journalists to show their Ukrainian identification papers, pictures filled with people of all ages and genders, who are all very clearly Ukrainian. Can one seriously argue that these 50 or 60 year old grannies taking to the streets are Russian militants?

Are these the self same pro-Russian separatists killing, torturing, and kidnapping Ukrainians who stand in their way, and/or are these the ones who are violently taking over parts of the Eastern Ukraine with the support and aid of Russia, i.e., I’ve seen pictures as well, Cavaradossi, and the fact of the matter is that Russian operatives are working in the Ukraine, just like they were in Crimea:

Andrei Soldatov is a well-respected Russian writer on intelligence services’ issues; he is also the co-author of the book The New Nobility about the resurrection of the KGB in modern day Russia and how the KGB/now FSB constitute the new nobility running Russia.

He writes about The True Role of the FSB in the Ukrainian Crisis:

The intrigue is growing over the Federal Security Service’s involvement in Ukraine…it is officially confirmed that FSB generals visited Kiev on Feb. 20 to 21. Recall that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent a note to Moscow on April 4 demanding to know why FSB Colonel General Sergei Beseda visited Kiev on Feb. 20 and 21, and that the very next day Interfax cited a source in Russian intelligence confirming that visit.

In 2004, FSB generals visited Sukhumi, Abkhazia to support the pro-Moscow candidates in their presidential race and, according to news reports from Chisinau, FSB generals personally worked with local Moldovan politicians in the mid-2000s. It also came to light four years ago that FSB intelligence services are actively involved in Ukraine. As an example, in 2010 a disaffected chekist published FSB documents on the Lubyanskayapravda.com website he created. That site was scuttled only two weeks later, but among the documents it revealed was a report on a Ukrainian document the FSB had forged with the intention of misleading the government of Turkmenistan and spoiling a gas deal between Kiev and Ashkhabad.

…all of the decision-makers in the Kremlin also share a background in the FSB… Putin’s inner circle of presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov, Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev and FSB head Alexander Bortnikov — all of whom, together with the president, worked in the KGB. That common “education” might help them all stay on the same page, but it does nothing to help them understand the world at large.

agentura.ru/english/dossier/truerole/

There of course are also armed Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) special forces like Igor Girkin in Ukraine.

But there is more:

The Wolves’ Hundred, a Russian paramilitary force with a dark history, is carrying on the fight in eastern Ukraine in the place of Russian soldiers. TIME interviewed its commander and his men about their motives and links to the Russian state

About a month ago, soon after arriving in eastern Ukraine, a group of Russian paramilitaries known as the Wolves’ Hundred seized an old truck from a local police station and used some spray paint to give it a makeover. They did not remove the blue siren from the roof, as it seemed to lend them an air of authority as they drove around the towns that they control. But on the hood of the black, Russian-made Hunter SUV, they drew their insignia — the snarling head of a wolf in profile.

For weeks, the central government in Kiev, along with its allies in the U.S. and Europe, have been trying to find solid evidence of Russian boots on the ground in eastern Ukraine. They need look no further than the men of the Wolves’ Hundred. In separate interviews with TIME over the past three weeks, four of its heavily armed fighters have admitted that they came from the southern Russian region of Kuban. They are part of the Cossack militias that have been in the service of Russian President Vladimir Putin for almost a decade, and they say they will not go home until they conquer Ukraine or die trying.

In eastern Ukraine, the men of the Wolves’ Hundred formed the original core of the militant fighters who took over several towns in April, and they claim to have killed numerous Ukrainian servicemen over the past few weeks. They say they got most of their weapons in April by storming Ukrainian police and security buildings and seizing their arsenals. For reinforcements, they have relied on the vast network of Cossack militias that operate in Russia and have managed to sneak across the border into Ukraine with relative ease.

“For every Cossack they kill, we will kill a hundred of their men,” says one of the militants from the Wolves’ Hundred, who goes by the nickname Vodolaz, or Diver. “We won’t just kill them. We will give their bodies back to their mothers in bags,” he told TIME on May 4 outside their base of operations in the town of Kramatorsk. Just behind him, the commandeered police truck stood parked, its snarling insignia bathed in the afternoon sun.

The commander of the Wolves’ Hundred in eastern Ukraine is a Russian citizen named Evgeny Evgenievich Ponomaryov, who goes by the nickname Batya, meaning Daddy or Papa. . . . . . . . .

 

[Cavaradossi]

Please provide a source, because I am not convinced that the things that you are saying of the military are true, especially in light of the fact that Ukrainian soldiers have been killed by separatists on several occasions, one of which, was perpetrated this Tuesday:

There are plenty of very graphic videos online (RT has posted quite a few, as one might imagine). By the way, the situation is more complex, as many of the protestors are in fact non-violent federalists, not separatists.

 

[josie_L]

Continuation of article from Time Magazine on the Wolves:

Just as in the days of the czars, the command structure of the modern-day Cossacks in Russia now leads directly to Russia’s Commander in Chief, who holds the exclusive right to award the rank of Cossack general. In March, during the Russian invasion of Crimea, thousands of Cossack fighters went with the Kremlin’s approval to aid the Russian military in the occupation of the peninsula. Some of them returned home after Crimea was annexed into Russia, while others moved on to eastern Ukraine to continue their campaign. “We decided to go conquer some more historically Russian lands,” says Alexander Mozhaev, one of the Wolves’ Hundred members now serving in eastern Ukraine.

Their aim, as professed by the fighters themselves, is to destroy the state of Ukraine and absorb most, if not all, of it into Russia. “Write this down: There is no such thing as Ukraine,” says Mozhaev, who goes by the nickname Babay, or Bogeyman. “There are only the Russian borderlands, and the fact they became known as Ukraine after the [Bolshevik] Revolution, well, we intend to correct that mistake.”

time.com/95898/wolves-hundred…ussia-cossack/

 

[josie_L]

There are plenty of very graphic videos online (RT has posted quite a few, as one might imagine). By the way, the situation is more complex, as many of the protestors are in fact non-violent federalists, not separatists.

That’s my issue, i.e., I fear that many of these videos have been edited, and I do not trust RT one bit, I’m sorry, Cavaradossi, but even CAF has stated that RT is not a reliable source (it’s a state-funded Russian propaganda machine, it’ll put what Putin wants it to put):

NOTICE

Please don’t post google search links and digg.com search links because they tend to be dynamic and would require repeated moderation over extended periods of time. Instead link directly to a valid news source.

Please do not start a thread using rt.com as a source. It is a tabloid and not a reliable news source.

Thank you for your cooperation

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=508814 (post # 8)

I’m sorry, but I got a run, it was nice “talking” to you, God bless!

p.s. I’ll come back to respond later.

 

[Cavaradossi]

Are these the self same pro-Russian separatists killing, torturing, and kidnapping Ukrainians who stand in their way, and/or are these the ones who are violently taking over parts of the Eastern Ukraine with the support and aid of Russia, i.e., I’ve seen pictures as well, Cavaradossi, and the fact of the matter is that Russian operatives are working in the Ukraine, just like they were in Crimea:

Better watch out for those Russian operative grannies!



Or maybe one should watch out for those Russian operative miners who help make the backbone of Ukrainian industry.
theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/12/east-ukraine-protesters-miners-donetsk-russia

 

[Cavaradossi]

That’s my issue, i.e., I fear that many of these videos have been edited, and I do not trust RT one bit, I’m sorry, Cavaradossi, but even CAF has stated that RT is not a reliable source (it’s a state-funded Russian propaganda machine, it’ll put what Putin wants it to put):

But there are even multiple videos up on Youtube of the slaying of an unarmed civilian in Mariupol, all taken from different angles (the wonder of camera phones, I guess). He was kneeling on the ground when he was shot in the head! This cannot just be passed off as RT being an unreliable source. And really, it is not as if the US mainstream media is any more reliable. CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox all operate within a similar spectrum of government-approved perspectives. Can we truly trust a news network, after all, which thinks Eastern Ukraine is in the middle of Pakistan?

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