Looking Back On The Road To The Ukraine -Russia War
I had written a bit about Ukraine and Russia in 2022. Might be time to brush up on the history. Couple of posts from 3 years ago
Detailed History
Post -Soviet Timeline
Here is an abbreviated Timeline. I tend to take the side Russia was provoked. Following the Maidan coup in 2014 Ukraine has mostly been a US/NATO puppet state, and while much of the provocation preceded Zelensky he went along with Biden/Nuland and provided the spark that led to the invasions.
While some might think we have no responsibility and can walk away from it we are responsible for the devastation of a country that had 40 million people, most of whom are innocent victims (and 150,000 displaced Ukrainians within our own borders).
Trump is not innocent either as you can see from the timeline.
Timeline
1990, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker promised Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would expand "not one inch eastward" after the reunification of Germany and German diplomat Jürgen Chrobog assured the Russians"that we would not expand NATO beyond the Elbe.
1994-United States and Russia reached an agreement in 1994, known as the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, by which Ukraine would turn over its nukes in exchange for those security assurances,”
The Washington Post reported. “The agreement is not an official treaty. It is neither legally binding nor does it carry an enforcement mechanism. And while it provides security assurances, they do not include specific promises with regard to a potential invasion.”
2004 color revolution replaced Yanukovych with Viktor Yushchenko, who favored admitting Ukraine to NATO and adopted an International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustment program that benefitted U.S. investors while cutting social programs.
2007- at the Munich Security Conference Putin said ‘We will not allow the expansion of NATO to a point where NATO is touching our border, specifically, Ukraine and Georgia. We see these as Trojan Horses for NATO’s military power and US influence...”
2008 NATO Bucharest Summit the NATO Council issued a statement where Clause 23 read:
NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.
2010-Russia openly declared its support for Yanukovich in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election. Its access to the Ukrainian pipelines and retention of its Sevastopol naval base were crucial to its and, to a large extent, the EU’s interests. In exchange for below market, subsidised Russian gas, the Yanukovich government extended Russia’s Sevastopol lease until 2042, resulting in physical fights breaking out in the Verkhovna Rada.
2011 Russia and Germany opened the Nord Stream gas pipeline which runs under the Baltic Sea supplying Russian Gas to Germany. Nord Stream 1 runs from Vyborg to Greifswald and the proposed Nordstream 2 from Ust-Luga. The purpose of Nord Stream was to enable Russia to sell much cheaper gas to the EU, via Germany, while eliminating both the EU’s and Russia’s 80% reliance upon the precarious Ukrainian pipelines. For obvious reasons, this had wide support among other EU members states.
https://in-this-together.com/ukraine-war-part-2/
2012 the U.S. enacted the so-called Magnitsky Act. This was based upon the unverifiable and highly suspicious claims of just one man: the American born British financier Bill Browder.
The Act, which enables the U.S. to seize Russian assets, ban Russians from entry to the U.S. and sanction Russian business as it chooses, is a clear signal to the Russian government that the U.S. represents a distinctly hostile state, committed to undermining its interests.
2013-DecemberAssistant Secretary of State for European Affairs “Toria” Nuland’s address to an International Business Conference, sponsored by U.S. oil and gas companies, where she claimed that the U.S. had invested $5 billion over two decades to help Ukraine achieve it’s dream of joining the EU
Its not clear where the money came from but the Pentagon, the home of the U.S. Department of Defense, has never completed a successful audit.
In 2020 the black hole in its accounts amounted to $35 trillion. This is more than five times the total “official” amount spent by the federal government in 2021.
2013-the U.S. had established so-called TechCamps in Ukraine. Speaking in the Rada on November 20th 2013, the day before the Euromaidan protests began, the pro-Russian MP Oleg Tsaryov alleged that the U.S. TechCamps had been established to ferment revolution.
Tsaryov claimed that the TechCamps schooled activists on how to use information warfare techniques to undermine government institutions. His allegations could perhaps be dismissed as uncorroborated and partisan were it not for the fact that the revolution he predicted happened a couple of months after he delivered his warning.
2013-December Nuland and Pyatt bugged conversation which was leaked on 4th February 2014, more than two weeks before the Maidan square massacre and the formal transition of power.
Pyatt acknowledges that the U.S. had already decided that Vitali Klitschko wouldn’t “be in the government” despite him being a prominent Maidan leader and the proposed Deputy Prime Minister.
Nuland stated, “I think Yats is the guy.” She was referring to Arseniy Yatsenyuk who, following the coup, was appointed as the Prime Minister of the Maidan government as planned.
Pyatt advised Nuland “the problem is gonna be with Tyahnybok and his guys.” This was a reference to Svoboda, the Right Sector, White Hammer, C14 and the other neo-Nazis.
While Nuland didn’t want Tyahnybok to be in the government, she clearly envisioned the neo-Nazis remaining a powerful political force in Ukraine. In order for the Maidan government to operate as required, Nuland advised Pyatt that the chosen Prime Minister, Yatsenyuk, needed:
Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week.
Nulands husband (and arch-neocon) Robert Kagan had co-founded the Project for the New American Century in 1998 around a demand for “regime change” in Iraq, a project that was accomplished in 2003 with President George W. Bush’s invasion.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/26/robert-parry-the-mess-that-nuland-made/
2013-Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona met with a well-known right-wing nationalist party in Ukraine in
The senator took a trip to Kiev, Ukraine, where he spoke to thousands of protesters gathered in the city’s main square to protest former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to cut trade relations with Europe and instead engage with Russia.
His visit was reportedly to show U.S. support for the protesters, but his trip to Ukraine was notable for another reason. McCain was repeatedly photographed standing next to and meeting with Oleh Tyahnybok, the leader of the right-wing nationalist Svoboda Party, Business Insider reported.
2014-Nazis and far-right-wing groups supported by the US and then-Vice President Biden and Victoria Nuland were active as violent stormtroopers during the Maidan coup in Kiev which in 2014 toppled Ukraine’s democratically elected president Yanukovych.
In subsequent “free” elections the political parties which represented eastern Ukraine’s mainly Russian speaking population were banned or criminalized.
Immediately after this, Russian-speaking Ukrainians were targeted by the new government in Kyiv, and Russian-speaking insurgents rose in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region.
2014-Maidan controlled Verkhovna Rada repealed the 2012 language law that permitted Russian to be an officially recognised language of Ukraine. Fearing what the coup would mean for them and encouraged by the apparent success of the Crimean Self-Defence Force(SDF), a popular uprising followed.
Russia reacted by taking-over Crimea with a subsequent referendum.
“2014-On May 2nd the streets of Odessa saw pitched battles between the anti-Maidan and pro-Maidan activists and militias. The violence was escalating and the security forces were, at best, unable to cope but some also appeared to collaborate with the Right Sector. Overwhelmed, many of the anti-Maidan protesters, sought refuge in the Trade Unions Building.
Video footage analysis unequivocally shows that the the massacre that ensued was again led by Parubiy’s Right Sector. At least an estimated 40 people were either burned alive, died of smoke inhalation or jumped to their deaths from the Building. The Right Sector torched the building knowing anti-Maidan activists were trapped inside.
https://in-this-together.com/ukraine-war-part-1/
Witness testimony records other murders committed in and around the building. The disgusting beatings to death of those who briefly survived the plunge from the inferno were accompanied with Right Sector cries of “Colorado Beetle,” used to suggest the victims were subhuman and should be crushed underfoot.
Another, practically identical slaughter was carried out in Mariupol just a few days later. The news of which was met with gloating jubilation in Kyiv. TV studio audiences in Kyiv also applauded the news of the Odessa massacre. Though they probably did not fully appreciate what actually happened.
Ukrainian far-right movements and neo-Nazis organized private oligarch-financed armies to fight the Russian-speaking insurgents in Donbass, and Russia responded by militarily supporting the Russian-speaking insurgents.
Over the next 8 years shelling of the Donbass by Ukraine killed about 14,000 civilians (estimates vary)
2014-April 17, Novorossiya was mention by Putin during a long Q&A session on Russian TV. The question was about federalization of Ukraine before new government elections in the just regime changed Ukraine.
I would like to remind you that what was called Novorossiya (New Russia) back in the tsarist days – Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Nikolayev and Odessa – were not part of Ukraine back then. These territories were given to Ukraine in the 1920s by the Soviet government. Why? Who knows. They were won by Potyomkin and Catherine the Great in a series of well-known wars. The centre of that territory was Novorossiysk, so the region is called Novorossiya.
Russia lost these territories for various reasons, but the people remained.
2014 May 22, Novorossiya was declared ,and one month later spokespeople of both republics declared their merger into a confederal "Union of People's Republics". Within a year, the project was suspended: on 1 January 2015, founding leadership announced the project has been put on hold, and on 20 May the constituent members announced the freezing of the political project and both republics remained separate.
Dark Green = claimed territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's RepublicsLight Green = the extent of Novorossiyan historical claims.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiya_(confederation)
2014, July -downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) on July 17, 2014 in Ukraine. International investigators concluded that a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile supplied by Russian separatists in Kursk were responsible for the downing of MH17.
Russia's defense ministry claims it has evidence that the missile that downed Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) in 2014 was fired by Ukrainian forces.According to the Defense Ministry, the serial number found on debris from the Buk missile was cross-referenced with a log book purporting to show it was produced in 1986. The missile was then delivered by rail to a military unit in Western Ukraine and to their knowledge had since not left Ukraine
Ukraine would seem to have more to gain from the shooting than Russia but perhaps it was accidental (either side).
2015 -Operation (Op) UNIFIER is the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) military training, professionalization, and capacity building mission in support of Ukraine
The CAF is also working alongside over 20 other nations as part of the U.S.-led Security Assistance Group-Ukraine (SAG-U) which coordinates and prioritizes the provision of equipment and training support for the SFU.
In addition to SAG-U, the CAF contributes to NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU). Co-located in Wiesbaden, Germany, NSATU and SAG-U are complementary organizations that operate in concert under the same Commander, U.S. Lieutenant General Curtis A. Buzzard, to ensure efficient and effective international support to Ukraine
As of January 31, 2022, 33,346 Security Forces of Ukraine (SFU) candidates have participated in the training provided via 726 course serials spanning all lines of effort since the start of the mission in September 2015. This number includes members of the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU).
To date, the CAF has provided training to 1,951 members of the NGU.
2016 Amnesty International accused the Azov battalion of "Enforced Disappearances, Arbitrary Detentions, and Torture".
Since at least 2015 Ukrainians have been trained by the CIA:
As the battle lines hardened in Donbas, a small, select group of veteran CIA paramilitaries made their first secret trips to the frontlines to meet with Ukrainian counterparts there, according to former U.S. officials.
Until now, however, the details of the CIA’s paramilitary training program on Ukraine’s eastern frontlines have never been revealed. This initiative, say former agency officials, has helped battle-hardened Ukrainian special operations forces for the current Russian assault, which has plunged Europe into its worst conflict in decades.
2016, Texas-based AirTronic company announced a contract to deliver $5.5 million dollars worth of PSRL-1 rocket propelled grenade launchers to “an Allied European military customer.”
In June 2017, photos turned up on Azov’s website showing its fighters testing PSRL-1 grenade launchers in the field. The images raised questions about whether Ukraine was AirTronic’s unnamed “customer.” (Delivery 2017)
Two months later, the pro-Russian military analysis site Southfront published a leaked contract indicating that 100 PSRL-1 Launchers worth $554,575 — about 1/10th of the total deal — had been produced in partnership with a Ukrainian arms company for distribution to the country’s fighting units. (Delivery date April 8, 2017)
In with the US-backed Voice of America, AirTronic Chief Operating Officer Richard Vandiver emphasized that the sale of grenade launchers was authorized through “very close coordination with the U.S. Embassy, with the U.S. State Department, with the U.S. Pentagon and with the Ukrainian government.”
Finally, in January 2018, the transfer of the lethal weapons to Azov was confirmed by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL). Aric Toler, a DFRL researcher, asserted that“the US Embassy did absolutely help facilitate this transfer, and I’m not sure if they were aware that Azov would be the first to train with them.”
2017-US sent a team of Army officers to meet in the field with Azov commanders in 2017.
2017-, the United States was one of just two countries (the other being Ukraine) to vote against a UN draft resolution “combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism.”
2017-The Trump administration approved a plan to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, a long-awaited move that deepens America's involvement in the military conflict and may further strain relations with Russia. Moscow responded angrily .
The new arms include American-made Javelin anti-tank missiles, U.S. officials said late Friday. Ukraine has long sought to boost its defenses against Russian-backed separatists armed with tanks that have rolled through eastern Ukraine during violence that has killed more than 10,000 since 2014.
Previously, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with support equipment and training, and has let private companies sell some small arms like rifles.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-trump-weapons-ukraine-20171222-story.html
2018-The first sale, which was completed in March 2018, included 210 Javelin missiles and 37 launch units and was intended to "help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements," according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
2018-Ukraine detained a fishing vessel from Crimea in March. In November, Ukraine sent two gunboats and a tug from the Black Sea port of Odessa to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov. Russia accused Ukraine of illegally entering its territorial waters. Russia said the Ukrainian ships were in its waters illegally because Moscow had temporarily closed an area of water for shipping.
Kiev called Russia's actions a flagrant violation of international law, because the Black Sea is free for shipping, and Crimea belongs to Ukraine.
Ukraine also cited a 2003 Russia-Ukraine treaty on unimpeded access to the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov.
The Ukrainian vessels approached a bridge over the Kerch Strait - the only access to the Sea of Azov. Ukraine said its vessels had been fired on and seized by the Russians. Six Ukrainian crew members were injured. Russia confirmed it had used weapons to force the Ukrainian vessels to stop, saying three Ukrainians were injured
US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, condemned Russian behaviour, after which the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, followed suit. Trump voiced concern but did not blame Moscow
The White House blocked the US state department from issuing a statement condemning Russia for seizing Ukrainian military vessels, according to a state department official
2018- Congress passed legislation ”forbidding military aid to Azov on the grounds of its white supremacist ideology, but the Trump administration’s authorization of $200 million in offensive weaponry and aid to the Ukrainian military makes it likely new stores of weapons will wind up the extremist regiment’s hands.
When queried by reporters about evidence of American military training of Azov personnel, multiple U.S. army spokespersons admitted there was no mechanism in place to prevent that from happening.
2018-January Azov rolled out its street patrol unit called National Druzhyna to “restore” order in the capital, Kyiv. Instead, the unit carried out pogroms against the Roma community and attacked members of the LGBTQ community.
While the group officially denies any neo-Nazi connections, Azov’s nature has been confirmed by multiple Western outlets: The New York Timescalled the battalion“openly neo-Nazi,” while USA Today, The Daily Beast, The Telegraph, and Haaretz documented group members’ proclivity for swastikas, salutes, and other Nazi symbols, and individual fighters have also acknowledged being neo-Nazis.
10 March 2018 NATO added Ukraine in the list of NATO aspiring members
20 September 2018 the Ukrainian parliament approved amendments to the constitution that would make the accession of the country to NATO and the EU a central goal and the main foreign policy objective.
7 February 2019 the Ukrainian parliament voted with a majority of 334 out of 385 to change the Ukrainian constitution to help Ukraine to join NATO and the European Union.
2019- RAND brief “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia”
“Providing lethal aid to Ukraine would exploit Russia’s greatest point of external vulnerability. But any increase in U.S. military arms and advice to Ukraine would need to be carefully calibrated to increase the costs to Russia of sustaining its existing commitment without provoking a much wider conflict in which Russia, by reason of proximity, would have significant advantages.”
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html
2019- After Event 201 in late 2019 they did a Nuclear War Game simulating a Russia Invasion of Ukraine with NATO getting sucked in. 1 billion dead.
https://www.eutimes.net/2022/03/nato-nuclear-war-simulation-says-1-billion-would-die-total-irradiation-of-the-planet-forever/
2019-The day after the signature of NATO’s membership protocol with North Macedonia as its 30th member, Ukraine included in its Constitution the engagement to enter officially into NATO and the European Union at the same time.
On 7 February, on a proposition by President Petro Poroshenko – the oligarch who made himself rich by plundering public properties, and who is once again a candidate for the presidency – the Kiev parliament, approved these amendments to the Constitution.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-nato-constitution/5668435
2019-Ukrainians were sending some of the best Special Forces troops for training at the elite Israeli Military Industries Academy for Advanced Security and Anti-Terror Training
https://sofrep.com/specialoperations/ukrainian-special-forces-getting-western-help-training/
2019-August, Less than one year after President Donald Trump informally announced that the United States would withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the State Department announced on Aug. 2 that the move was officially complete.
Signed in 1987, the INF Treaty led to the elimination of 2,692 U.S. and Soviet nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2019-09/news/us-completes-inf-treaty-withdrawal
2020 June 12-the North Atlantic Council recognised Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner. This status is part of NATO’s Partnership Interoperability Initiative, which aims to maintain and deepen cooperation between Allies and partners that have made significant contributions to NATO-led operations and missions
As a NATO partner, Ukraine has provided troops to Allied operations, including in Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as to the NATO Response Force and NATO exercises. Allies highly value these significant contributions, which demonstrate Ukraine’s commitment to Euro-Atlantic security.
As an Enhanced Opportunities Partner, Ukraine will benefit from tailor-made opportunities to help sustain such contributions. This includes enhanced access to interoperability programmes and exercises, and more sharing of information, including lessons learned.
“This decision recognizes Ukraine’s strong contributions to NATO missions, and demonstrates the Alliance’s continued commitment to its partnerships despite the COVID-19 pandemic,” said NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu.
Ukraine is now one of six Enhanced Opportunities Partners, alongside Australia, Finland, Georgia, Jordan and Sweden. Each of the partners has a tailor-made relationship with NATO, based on areas of mutual interest.
https://archive.ph/aPv1w
2021 June,-Ukraine, the United States and other allies held a naval exercise, Sea Breeze, in the Black Sea and southern Ukraine, despite Russian calls for the drills to be cancelled.
Israels IDF military took part in the Sea Breeze-2021 exercises
2021 June-A Russian military ship and fighter jet fired warning shots at a British Royal Navy destroyer after it entered Russian waters in the Black Sea, Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
The HMS Defender was “warned in advance that weapons would be used” if it crossed Russia’s border, the statement said. “It disregarded the warning,” it added.
A border patrol ship “fired warning shots,” shortly after midday local time (7 a.m. ET), the statement said, adding that an Su-24M fighter jet “performed a warning bombing,” on the British ship’s course, dropping four high explosive fragmentation bombs.
The incident took place in the northwestern Black Sea.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-says-it-fired-warning-shots-british-warship-black-sea-n1272095
July, 2021-Ukraine, the United States, Poland and Lithuania held another drill involving more than 1,200 troops
July 2021-An undisclosed number of US forces are present in Ukraine as part of a training mission and routine special operations forces exercises, Defense Department spokesperson Anton Semelroth said on Tuesday.
“The Florida National Guard’s 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, known as Task Force Gator, took over the [Ukraine training] mission when it rotated with the Washington National Guard’s 81st Stryker Brigade Combat Team,” Semelroth said on Tuesday. “In addition, Special Operations Command Europe plays a large role in the development of Ukrainian Special Operations Forces… Due to operational security concerns, we cannot disclose the specific number of personnel.”
The training mission, known as the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine (JMTG-U), supports the long-term US policy of supporting the professional development and defensive capacity of Ukrainian forces, Semelroth said.
https://sputniknews.com/20211207/pentagon-confirms-presence-of-us-forces-in-ukraine-declines-to-disclose-number-1091333875.html
September, 2021 joint Ukrainian/NATO military exercises
The U.S. military said in a statement the drill involved a brigade combat team of the Washington National Guard, deployed in Ukraine since April as part of a multi-national training force. Troops from 12 countries in total would be involved, "to enhance interoperability among allied and partner nations" and demonstrate readiness.
The exercise comes on the heels of huge war games staged by Moscow near NATO and EU borders of Russia and Belarus in recent weeks, which Russia says involved 200,000 troops. Kyiv and NATO also accuse Russia of having deployed extra troops this year near Ukraine's frontiers.
20 Russian warships began large-scale live fire exercises in the Black Sea.
October 2021 it was revealed via the Pandora Papers that Zelenskyy, who constantly denied that he was a “puppet” of the oligarch, and his associates had received $40 million into offshore accounts from funds linked to Kolomoyskyi.
2021 -BRUSSELS, Oct 21 (Reuters) - NATO defence ministers agreed to a new master plan on Thursday to defend against any potential Russian attack on multiple fronts, reaffirming the alliance's core goal of deterring Moscow despite a growing focus on China.
The confidential strategy aims to prepare for any simultaneous attack in the Baltic and Black Sea regions that could include nuclear weapons, hacking of computer networks and assaults from space.
"We continue to strengthen our alliance with better and modernised plans," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after the meeting, which also agreed a $1 billion fund to provide seed financing to develop new digital technologies.
....diplomats say the "Concept for Deterrence and Defence in the Euro-Atlantic Area" - and its strategic implementation plan - is needed as Russia develops advanced weapon systems and deploys troops and equipment closer to the allies' borders.
In May, Russia amassed some 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, the highest number since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014, Western officials say. In September, Russia used new combat robots in large military drills with its ex-Soviet ally Belarus that have alarmed Baltic allies.
Russia is upgrading or replacing Soviet military space systems to potentially attack satellites in orbit, developing artificial intelligence-based technologies to disrupt allied command systems, and also developing "super weapons".
Unveiled in 2018, they include nuclear-capable hypersonic cruise missiles that could evade early-warning systems.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nato-agree-master-plan-deter-growing-russian-threat-diplomats-say-2021-10-21/
2021-Nov. 10, - the U.S. and Ukraine signed a Charter on Strategic Partnership, which asserted America’s support for Kyiv’s right to pursue membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization."
https://www.state.gov/u-s-ukraine-charter-on-strategic-partnership/
December 17,2021
Russia on Friday published draft security pacts demanding NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet countries and to roll back its military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe— bold demands that the United States and its allies already have rejected.
The documents, which were submitted to the U.S and its allies , also call for a ban on sending U.S. and Russian warships and aircraft to areas from where they can strike each other’s territory and demand a rollback on alliance drills near Russia.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-ukraine-putin-nato-invasion-demands-
December 2021, Zelensky would be seen delivering a “Hero of Ukraine” award to a leader of the fascistic Right Sector in a ceremony in Ukraine’s parliament.
2021-The naval bases in Ochakov and Berdyansk are planned as modern infrastructure facilities capable of receiving ships of all types, equipped according to NATO standards and built with the money of the alliance countries,’ the Ukrainian press openly reported about them a year ago. ‘In three years we will be able to strike at Russian ships in the Black Sea with our mosquito fleet. And if we combine with Georgia and Turkey, the Russian Federation will be blocked,’ Ukrainian military experts have boasted.
http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO9Mar2022.php
January, 2022 unprecedented airlift of hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons and ammunition began arriving in Ukraine
January , 2022-The CIA’s Ground Branch paramilitaries began traveling to the front line in the east of the country to advise troops there from 2015, a handful of ex-officials said. One source familiar with the training scheme accused the US of “training an insurgency,” and that it has taught Ukrainian fighters how “to kill Russians.”
In the context of recent claims that Moscow could order an incursion of its neighbor, the former senior intelligence official hinted that the Ukrainians who participated in the course could play a key role. “We’ve been training these guys now for eight years. They’re really good fighters. That’s where the agency’s program could have a serious impact.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cia-trained-ukrainian-paramilitaries-may-take-central-role-if-russia-invades/ar-AASKKvF
2022-January-FEARS of a US invasion of Ukraine’s breakaway Donbass region have been raised amid allegations that the controversial Blackwater private security company — since renamed Academi — is training mercenaries for the task.
Deputy chief-of-staff of the Donetsk People’s Republic militia Eduard Basurin said US instructors had been spotted in a far-right training camp in the Sumy region of north-eastern Ukraine over the weekend.
“The Sumy branch of the National Corps radical organisation has embarked on training its mercenaries under the supervision of nationalists who have combat experience in the 2014 Donbass punitive operation.
“We also have information on US instructors of private military companies taking part in the training process, such as Forward Observations Group and Academi,” he said.
The National Corps party was formerly known as the Patriots of Ukraine. Its core base of support comes from the neonazi Azov battalion, which has since been integrated into the Ukrainian army.
Kiev has also mobilised a number of brigades to the contact line separating Ukraine from Donetsk — the eastern region declared independence in 2014 following the US and EU-backed fascist-led Maidan coup — including the 80th Airborne Assault Brigade and the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, according to Mr Basurin.
“The 80th brigade finalised refresher training at the Starichi training centre of the Lvov region, which functions under the guise of an international peacekeeping and security centre.
“British instructors of Operation Orbital [Britain’s deployment in Ukraine] were responsible for training this brigade,” he said.
The military leader said there is a high possibility these units would be used as part of assault teams targeting major cities in the Donbass region as tensions continue to escalate.
Mr Basurin said preparations are under way for an invasion under US supervision, with a date for the offensive yet to be approved.
Blackwater was rebranded Academi in 2011 after it was acquired by a group of private investors. In 2014 it merged with rival security company Triple Canopy to form Constellis Group.
Constellis was bought for $1 billion (about £750 million) by investment company Apollo Group in 2016.
In September 2020 Apollo Group entered a $5.5 billion real-estate investment partnership with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), one of the world’s largest oil companies and a major exporter of liquefied natural gas.
In December 2021 Adnoc was invited to enter a joint venture to create an oil and gas terminal in the Ukrainian port of Odessa for transportation to western countries.
The announcement came a month after chief executive of the Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz Yuriy Vitrenko told an Abu Dhabi energy conference that he hoped the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Europe, which bypasses Ukraine, would not be approved.
He said that Ukraine stood to lose $2 billion per year — about 1.5 per cent of its GDP — if the Russian pipeline was operational, claiming that Nord Stream 2 “is actually putting the whole continent and global security at risk.”
February 16, 2022
In spring 2021 Zelensky announced that the Ukraine would retake Crimea by force. Russia then held large military maneuvers and Zelensky backed down. By November 2021 the Ukraine again made noise and said it would be retaking Donbas by force. Russia again held military maneuvers as a show of force but this time the situation deteriorated further.
Starting February 16 the OSCE observers around Donbas noted in their daily reports a strong increase in ceasefire violation and explosions.
Most of the violations came from the Ukrainian site and the explosions of the fired shells and missile happened on Donbas held grounds
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/zelensky-and-the-fascists-he-will-hang-on-some-tree-on-khreshchatyk.html#more
Feb 19,2022--Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to suggest late last week that his country could pursue nuclear weapons as a way to defend itself from Russian aggression
When the Cold War ended, Ukraine took possession of approximately 5,000 nuclear weapons from the collapsed Soviet Union
Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday:
“I want to believe that the North Atlantic Treaty and Article 5 will be more effective than the Budapest Memorandum.
Ukraine has received security guarantees for abandoning the world’s third nuclear capability. We don’t have that weapon. We also have no security. We also do not have part of the territory of our state that is larger in area than Switzerland, the Netherlands or Belgium. And most importantly – we don’t have millions of our citizens. We don’t have all this.
Therefore, we have something. The right to demand a shift from a policy of appeasement to ensuring security and peace guarantees.
Since 2014, Ukraine has tried three times to convene consultations with the guarantor states of the Budapest Memorandum. Three times without success. Today Ukraine will do it for the fourth time. I, as President, will do this for the first time. But both Ukraine and I are doing this for the last time.
I am initiating consultations in the framework of the Budapest Memorandum. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was commissioned to convene them. If they do not happen again or their results do not guarantee security for our country, Ukraine will have every right to believe that the Budapest Memorandum is not working and all the package decisions of 1994 are in doubt.
Putin responded to the suggestion that Ukraine could pursue nuclear weapons by saying that “this is not just bragging.”
“Ukraine has the nuclear technologies created back in the Soviet times and delivery vehicles for such weapons, including aircraft, as well as the Soviet-designed Tochka-U precision tactical missiles with a range of over 100 kilometers. But they can do more; it is only a matter of time. They have had the groundwork for this since the Soviet era,” Putin said. “In other words, acquiring tactical nuclear weapons will be much easier for Ukraine than for some other states I am not going to mention here, which are conducting such research, especially if Kiev receives foreign technological support. We cannot rule this out either.”
“If Ukraine acquires weapons of mass destruction, the situation in the world and in Europe will drastically change, especially for us, for Russia,” Putin continued.
“We cannot but react to this real danger, all the more so since, let me repeat, Ukraine’s Western patrons may help it acquire these weapons to create yet another threat to our country”
https://clarion.causeaction.com/2022/02/23/president-zelensky-suggests-ukraine-may-pursue-nuclear-weapons-to-counter-russia-putin-responds/
https://kyivindependent.com/national/zelenskys-full-speech-at-munich-security-conference/
Feb 21, 2022-Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that Moscow will recognize the two self-declared breakaway Donbass republics in Ukraine’s east as sovereign nations, as a military standoff across the contact line continues to escalate.
Speaking as part of a televised address to the nation on Monday evening, Putin signed the decree, saying that “I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago to immediately recognize the Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) People’s Republics.” Lawmakers will now be asked to consider statements of friendship and support with the two regions.
He explicitly referenced Zelenskyy’s Munich nuclear weapons pledge: “This is not empty bravado,” Putin stressed in his speech.
Moscow state news agency, RAI Novosti, quoted a senior Russian SVR foreign intelligence source with details on a secret Ukraine project, reportedly with vital covert Western support, to build a Ukrainian nuclear missile capability and a Ukrainian atom bomb in brazen violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
According to the report, Ukrainian nuclear scientists were disguising the developments by locating them near the high-radiation levels of Chernobyl nuclear reactor site, an explanation for the swift Russian moves to secure Chernobyl. “It was there, judging by the available information, that work was underway both on the manufacture of a “dirty” bomb and on the separation of plutonium,” RIA Novosti quotes the source.
The primary bomb research facility was located at the National Scientific Center, “Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology.” As of this writing reports of fierce fighting underway between Russian forces and neo-nazi Ukrainian Azov fighters who reportedly are planning to blow up the research reactor site and blame it on Russia.
http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO9Mar2022.php
24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine
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