The Situation in the Ukraine. #18

Khepesh wrote:Good report by Graham Phillips from the front at Marinka. We all know he is highly regarded in Donbass but has no profile at all in the west, so I wonder that if he survives to the end of the war, and is not then arrested and imprissoned on return to UK for "glorifying terrorism", that he will eventually get the recognition he deserves. Still odd that he very rarely makes any report in English, because surely it is the Anglophone audience he needs to convince of what really happens, and his audience at the moment is people who already know and agree with him. I sense a lost opportunity by Phillips.

Ruthenius wrote:Just in case if someone didn't notice. Since previous Monday it's become very popular (among some bloggers) to speculate that recent claims made by Zakharchenko\Lavrov\Putin and others regarding Minsk agreements in particular and regarding political-economic trends btw Russia and West in general mean that Russia is going to somehow lay down its hands and force Donbas back to Ukraine.
From the other hand we have reports stating that Kiev continues to increase military presence in rebellious regiouns, intensifies hostilities and obviously tryhards to present itself as totaly complying with The Minsk despite serious internal problems that are happening outside conflict zone.

The main point - some people noted that all these actions and trends (increase of political pressure on Russia + muster of military forces) look very, very similar to actions and trends that we were observing during Autumn-2014 - Winter-2015, right before the major esacaltion began and the Battle for Debaltsevo happened.

I don't want to be a downer, but considering that notorious "announcement" of the results of MH17 inмestigation has been postponed till next February, voentorg is "reported" to be working as usual, Ukraine economics isn't going to cheer up,  what are the chanсes that we will see the Heat in a short perspective?
I should remind that scenario used by Croatia to deal with Serbian Krajina still seems fancy for the Ukrainian hot-heads and their fanboys.

P.S.

I sincerely trust that we are able to make discussions civil. I doubt that it is possible to have Hollis sorting out wackos and woosies as it used to be in the previous place, so tryhard to be disciplined.

Khepesh wrote:Good report by Graham Phillips from the front at Marinka. We all know he is highly regarded in Donbass but has no profile at all in the west, so I wonder that if he survives to the end of the war, and is not then arrested and imprissoned on return to UK for "glorifying terrorism", that he will eventually get the recognition he deserves. Still odd that he very rarely makes any report in English, because surely it is the Anglophone audience he needs to convince of what really happens, and his audience at the moment is people who already know and agree with him. I sense a lost opportunity by Phillips.

flamming_python wrote:

Graham Phillips has been back to the UK a number of times since he started reporting from the Donbass; last time I think wasn't too long ago, maybe 4-5 months back.

As mentioned, he got detained/questioned briefly by British police or intelligence at least once, but they got nuthin' on him, so he can't be held.

You know, as bad as the UK is in terms of following Washington's directives, and supporting coups and so on around the world - I lived long enough in the UK to know that it has a strong foundation of civil rights and a predictable justice system (if for no other reason than that the British government/intelligence know that there are certain things that they'll never get away with if they try to pull it off at home).

Imprisoning Graham Phillips, or any other journalist, is one of those things - the outcry would be absolutely enormous, this man is pretty well known as a journalist and I'm sure has more than enough connections; the UK journalistic community will undoubtedly close ranks with him and declare support for him too. RT will constantly run material about him, and RT has huge viewship in the UK.
Such a move by the British government will do more to publisice him than anything else.
Once that happens, I'm pretty sure he'll get some support from various MPs in the houses of parliament, some political parties too.

Therefore imprisoning him or charging him on some phony pretense is just something that they can never get away with, and will never try because it's just not worth it for them.
They can't do the same as the US tried against Manning or Snowden either; accusing someone of being a traitor is just not something that will fly in British society unless the man really was a traitor and brought harm to his countrymen by aiding an enemy at war; which is certainly not the case for Graham Phillips. The UK is not the US and accusing someone of being unpatriotic or whatever is something that will raise nothing more than a few eyebrows.

"В разрушенном луганском аэропорту обнаружен склад американского оружия. Об этом сообщил сегодня на бриффинге сообщил начальник следственного отдела Генпрокуратуры ЛНР Леонид Ткаченко. "Суть всего происходящего было в следующем. При разборе завалов в Луганском аэропорту рабочими был обнаружен склад с боеприпасами, стрелковым и тяжелым вооружением, в том числе производства США. Доступ в данное помещение до этого дня был физически невозможен, поскольку вход в складское помещение был завален обломками", - пояснил Ткаченко. Он указал, что среди найденного вооружения были найдены переносные зенитные ракетные комплексы (ПЗРК). "В частности, предположительно, ПЗРК "Стингер". Все указанные предметы имеют специальную маркировку и обозначения принадлежности к "департаменту обороны США", - уточнил руководитель ведомства. Сотрудники МВД ЛНР произвели изъятие и фиксацию оружия и боеприпасов. Ведется следствие, цель которого - точное установление страны производства каждой из единиц. В Луганске намерены выяснить, как в аэропорту, где велись военные действия летом прошлого года, оказалось иностранное оружие."

Ispan wrote:My contribution to the thread.

Slavyangrad.es published an interview with a Spanish young medicine doctor that went straight from university as a volunteer to Donbass to aid the suffering civilians.
The interview was taken in early July.

I will note down the interesting points:

- The food situation: People are not starving but there are shortages. It has improved but there is scarcity of fresh fruits and vegetables. This guy only ate canned food and ended up suffering heart problems because of that.

One of the causes that explains  the delay of a Novorussian offensive was the pressing need to plant crops and harvesting. I had read some news item about people in Donetsk and Lugansk managing to get fuel and fertilizer to run the machinery and grow and harvest crops for the coming winter, so hopefully the food situation will be not so dependent on aid convoys from Russia.

On the opposite side, Ukraine may face food shortages because the plummeting of the grivna will make harder for peasants to buy seed, fertilizer and fuel. Already people are cutting down on food consumption because they haven't money to purchase anything other than essentials.

- Medical and humanitarian situation: It is bad because many doctors and medical personnel have fled. It is difficult to maintain clean the hospitals because there's lack of cleaning and desinfection products. On the bright side, supplies of medicines are adequate, thanks to aid. But at the end he comments there are little shortages of everything. Antibiotics are scarce, and for one thing, he ran out of iodine tincture for disinfecting. People with chronic sickness are doomed to die as they can't get their meds.
Elderly people also have few chances of survival. There are lot of victims due to disease, exposure and malnutrition, particularly in the countryside.


No aid is coming from Europe or the Red Cross. The doctor is bitter about the Red Cross, nothing surprising, they don't do anything. The NGO Doctors without borders meets a hostile reception as the population sees them as Western spies. Probably they are right, as it makes a good cover.

- The situation at the front: doctor has been a month at the frontlines. in Alchevsk and near Debaltsevo. Says that bullets and bombs, he got used to it, but that the worst is hunger and cold. Unfortunately, it seems the Novorussian fighters had not enough food and clothing. Nor medical supplies, it was complicated to treat wounded because there was a lack of everything. This is not good as points to many casualties and lack of proper medical care. Situation is not as bad as on the other side, but victories haven't come cheap. Further on he said on one day of early july, the militia lost 10 killed in Spartak. Everyday there is a trickle of dead.

-Ceasefire and morale: Say there was never a real ceasefire, and shelling was daily. People he talks with say they don't believe Minsk accords are good for nothing and  believe war will last 2 or 3 years. I do agree with that assesment, unless there is a decisive summer campaign this year. When questioned if people can endure 2 or 3 years of wars, he says everybody is fed up, but that war is frozen, though he does believe the Novorussians do have the ability to attack and be victorious, but that for political reasons they are held back. He guesses the situation is the same in the junta side.

On a personal note he comments he really doesn't know how he can get out of this. His Russian visa expired, so doesn't know how he can cross the border and he is afraid of coming back to Spain and get arrested and face a politically motivated trial and charges of 10 years in prison, as a couple other volunteers were arrested. I guess he doesn't want to run risks until those on trial are acquited.


- More comments about the front:


He must dress in unfirom and do not draw attention as a medic as there are snipers that shoot the medical personal. He has seen foreign mercenaries: Poles, Americans and Europeans. He says Geneva Conventions are ignored and ambulances are shot up.

Lack of spares and materials lead to many improvised repairs.


- On Ukranian terror tactics: Says the main target is the civilian population. Ukrops ignore military targets  even when they could engage them, and prefer to shell the civilians.. The bright side is that though the attacks on infrastructures, power and water utilities continue, the problem is not as bad as before. Interruptions of water and electricity are temporary.

It says that the bombardments are actually turning the civilians against the junta, more people enlist in the militia and the hatred towards Ukraine grows.Perversely, that's what the nazi battallions want. They want the Novorussians to fight back, so that Ukraine can cry wolf and get more international support to fight "the Russians".

- On Ukranian army vs Nazi Guard:

He says there is a big difference between regular army and fascist battallions.

Briefly, regulars (conscripts) are reluctant to fight, and know they are not fighting Russians but their brothers.

Very striking is that he comments that while he was in a town near the airport during a couple of weeks, he saw an abnormal number of enemy unexploded shells. Many Ukranian shells fail to explode, because artillerists do not place the fuses on.  

He confirms that the Nazi Guard battallions shell civilians, rob, pillage systematically every town they enter and rape women. That doesn't appear in Western media.

He says that while he was in Alchevsk he observed that the Ukranian troops are victims too. He feels sorry for Ukranian army. they do not want to fight and kill, but they have blocking battallions of Nazi Guards keeping them on line. He says that Aidar batallion and regular troops fought several days, they shell and shoot at each other.

He saw it with his own eyes how the Aidar goons blew up with a mortar a BTR of the regulars in the Kirovsk front. In the airport he saw Polish mercenaries at 400 meters, flying the Poland flag.

Finally, he saws he had a lot of difficulty with the language, but while he was sick he learned more Russian. He comments in passing he has been hanging with Spaniards in Donetsk, so there are quite a few fighting with the militia, only that they are very discreet.

Khepesh wrote:This should probably be in general news about Russia but I'm putting it here as it could have a serious effect on dissemination of news from Novorossiya. Due to copyright disputes Youtube may be blocked in Russia. This, if it happens, will be stupid and counterproductive. There will still be Rutube and VK, but both are not as convenient as Youtube as it is not possible, or at least very difficult, to embed the video in forums as Youtube

Odin of Ossetia wrote:

The "Polish" mercenaries are not real Poles, they are ethnic Ukrainians from Poland.

The "flying the Polish flag" is meant to set the real ethnic Poles and Russians against each other.

Sorry, but in this case you help in spreading disinformation and Ukrainian coup regime propaganda.

whir wrote:
Expect YouTube to purge some accounts and go back to business as soon as possible, in other countries Google has faced the same treatment with countless ISPs and every single time they've avoided it by implementing local regulations about copyright (as in theory they should be doing from the beginning). Why kill the cash cow when you can milk it ad infinitum.

Khepesh wrote:

whir wrote:
Expect YouTube to purge some accounts and go back to business as soon as possible, in other countries Google has faced the same treatment with countless ISPs and every single time they've avoided it by implementing local regulations about copyright (as in theory they should be doing from the beginning). Why kill the cash cow when you can milk it ad infinitum.

Oh but this is Russia blocking Youtube, not other way round, so it will be difficult for many to get around this. Most people cannot even do a simple ip number spoof let alone more complicated tricks. I don't think it will happen tho as it will hurt Russians far more than Youtube and will be very unpopular

lnr.today wrote:Airport Luhansk found "Stingers" (operational mode) / # LNRsegodnya

Regular wrote:
Idiotic beyond belief. I have plenty of Russian Youtubers among my favourites. Russian censorship is idiotic, why it became so strickt lalely IDK why. Russian movies and music of today are littery garbage so what kind of copyright they are talking about? People use torrents or hubs to download this stuff, not youtube. Sheesh

medo wrote:

"В разрушенном луганском аэропорту обнаружен склад американского оружия. Об этом сообщил сегодня на бриффинге сообщил начальник следственного отдела Генпрокуратуры ЛНР Леонид Ткаченко. "Суть всего происходящего было в следующем. При разборе завалов в Луганском аэропорту рабочими был обнаружен склад с боеприпасами, стрелковым и тяжелым вооружением, в том числе производства США. Доступ в данное помещение до этого дня был физически невозможен, поскольку вход в складское помещение был завален обломками", - пояснил Ткаченко. Он указал, что среди найденного вооружения были найдены переносные зенитные ракетные комплексы (ПЗРК). "В частности, предположительно, ПЗРК "Стингер". Все указанные предметы имеют специальную маркировку и обозначения принадлежности к "департаменту обороны США", - уточнил руководитель ведомства. Сотрудники МВД ЛНР произвели изъятие и фиксацию оружия и боеприпасов. Ведется следствие, цель которого - точное установление страны производства каждой из единиц. В Луганске намерены выяснить, как в аэропорту, где велись военные действия летом прошлого года, оказалось иностранное оружие."

Novorussian army find in Lugansk airport an Ukrainian cache of US made weapons, where they also got Stinger MANPADs from US Army.

Erk wrote:

medo wrote:

Novorussian army find in Lugansk airport an Ukrainian cache of US made weapons, where they also got Stinger MANPADs from US Army.

Which is pretty funny considering NAF have no aircraft, just goes to show how aware the US is sending them MANPADS.