Civil War in Ukraine: Western Empire vs Russia

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1068288327055536128

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has endorsed the key indicators of the country's national budget for 2019 to facilitate further cooperation.

"The Head of State informed Madame Lagarde about the adoption and the key parameters of the state budget of Ukraine for the year 2019. Madame Lagarde noted that, according to the IMF's preliminary estimates, the key indicators of the state budget of Ukraine are in line with the parameters agreed with the Fund," Poroshenko's press service said in a follow-up of a telephone conversation between the Ukrainian President and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Madame Lagarde also confirmed the IMF's readiness to continue the good cooperation with Ukraine and to support the country in the implementation of its reforms. It was noted that the IMF stands ready to provide Ukraine with appropriate technical assistance to help improve Ukraine's fiscal policies and tax administration.

During the conversation, it was particularly underlined that the introduction of the martial law does not influence the interaction with the IMF. (Oh OK...)

They also highlighted further steps to be taken in the context of a meeting of the IMF Executive Board in December to discuss the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for

Read more on UNIAN: Ukraine's president: IMF endorses key indicators of 2019 budget for further cooperation

https://twitter.com/x/status/1068216804391165952

 

[goyacobol]

During the conversation, it was particularly underlined that the introduction of the martial law does not influence the interaction with the IMF. (Oh OK...)

My reaction as well, c.a....

 

[Ca.]

US Military Contractor Is Hiring Personnel To Support Classified 'Contingency Operations' In Ukraine
29.11.2018 -
A US contractor accidentally revealed a US military specialist deployment in the combat zones in Ukraine via an Job Advertisement on LinkedIn.

Similarly to the Atlantic Council’s report on independence of Eastern European countries, as well as the meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, the posting comes days before the escalation in the Sea of Azov.

Mission Essential is a government contractor, which primarily serves intelligence and military clients. It began as the US government’s leading provider of translation and interpretation services.

The preemptive job advert was posted on November 16th and seeks “linguist candidates who speak Ukrainian to provide foreign language interpretation and translation services to support classified Contingency Operations in support of the U.S. Military in Ukraine.”

The formal place of work is Mykolayiv, Ukraine. The port city is also significant, because that is where the US “logistical” naval facility is currently under construction.

The advert also requires candidates to be able to fit in the local culture and customs, in addition to “the ability to deal inconspicuously with local populace if necessary.” Which simply means that the interpreter needs to be able to hide the fact that he is not a Ukrainian citizen, at least partly.

Unsurprisingly, the individual needs to be able to serve in a combat zone “if necessary,” in addition to being able to “live, work, and travel in harsh environments, to include living and working in temporary facilities as mission dictates.”

Considering repeated claims by the US leadership that the US is not involved in the Ukraine conflict, the vacancy posting is an operational security failure by Mission Essential. Most other vacancies posted by the company are for analysts and various linguistical and project management positions, almost predominantly in different military facilities in the US.

It is quite possible that these specialists would assist US military personnel deployed in or near the “combat zones” in Ukraine – i.e. Eastern Ukraine, and as it was expected since as early as November 16th – the Sea of Azov.

This is another piece that reinforces the notion that the “provocation by Russia” in the Sea of Azov was somehow premeditated. However, it also appears that, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s plans appeared to, at least partially, backfire. “Partially,” because he managed to instate martial law and make another step in his attempts to postpone elections in 2019, thus “democratically” holding on to power and not allowing the Ukrainian citizens to vote and most likely elect his rival and favored presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko.

 

[Voyageur]

I noted this article from The New Cold War: Ukraine and Beyond that is an interview with Vasiliy Volga (not mentioned on the forum) from back in May and I did not know who he was. There is noting here that sounds promising...essentially, if Trump can not get together with Putin (which as people know is being prevented by NATO/Western meddlers), which Volga states, one can only imagine where this will lead and Vasiliy is painting the picture. Those Westerners responsible from the outside (McCain, Nuland, Pifer, Freeland, Clinton, Obama - and the rest of the neocons and their agencies) are getting away with murder and destruction of an entire peoples with their rhetoric and Russophobia.

This May interview is now a first time publication in English:

Interview with Vasiliy Volga, the leader of the Ukrainian Union of Left Forces

November 26, 2018


Wikipedia – Участник: Serge focus
Published for the first time in English on our website, this interview with Vasiliy Volga, leader of the Ukrainian Union of Left Forces, was conducted in May 2018 by Halyna Mokrushyna, independent researcher and writer.
By Halyna Mokrushyna
__________________________________________________________________________
Introduction by Halyna Mokrushyna
Vasiliy Volga is a veteran of Ukrainian politics and the leader of the Ukrainian party Union of Left Forces. He founded the Union in 2007 after leaving the Socialist Party of Ukraine which, because of internal squabbles, was not able to secure seats in the Verkhovna Rada in the 2007 parliamentary elections. Volga’s position as an active critic of the current Ukrainian political regime based on right-wing nationalism places him under the close surveillance by security services. Very recently, on November 6, his home was searched and he himself was summoned for an interrogation to the office of the Security Service of Ukraine where he was presented with phony, groundless accusations. Vasiliy Volga also receives threats from the extreme right ‘patriots’ of Ukraine. It takes courage to take a leftist, anti-nationalist stance in the stiffing political atmosphere of the post-Euromaidan Ukraine where hundreds of political opponents of the Poroshenko regime have been imprisoned or intimidated. Vasiliy Volga certainly has this courage.

The program of the party that he founded, the Union of Left Forces, is based on principles of modern democratic socialism, that is, overcoming the domination of capital in society through the full democratization and socialization of private ownership. The goal of the party is the development of Ukraine as a social, people’s state, in which the principles of social justice are implemented and the interests of citizens take priority over the interests of political parties, industrial-financial groups and foreign powers. The development of Ukraine as a social, people’s state is impossible without dismantling the existing clan-oligarchic economy and system of governance and replacing it with mechanisms of real democracy and active protection of the interests of citizens
( http://www.sls.org.ua/party/party-programme/ ).

Internationally, Ukraine should restore the policy of ‘multiple vectors’, that is to remain neutral and develop good relations with all neighboring countries. Multilateral, friendly ties with Russia should be restored. Ukraine should become an active participant in the creation of a new space of security and cooperation between the countries of the European Union and those of the Eurasian Economic Union. Due to its geographic location, Ukraine could become an important bridge of cooperation between Europe and Asia.

Domestically, the party advocates the restoration of peace in Ukraine on the basis of modern values of cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity. Any ideology that propagates interethnic or interfaith dissension should be opposed, and any form of discrimination based on ethnic, cultural or language preference should be eliminated. All peoples living on the territory of Ukraine should be able to freely maintain and develop their cultural traditions. That is why communities, where ethnic minorities are concentrated geographically, should be granted broader cultural independence and local people’s councils should be given more rights in determining the national-cultural policy within the territories of their jurisdiction.

This program reflects the political views of its founder – Vasiliy Volga. His views are not popular in the governing circles of post-Euromaidan Ukraine, where right-wing nationalism has gained significant strength and where the president has declared a ‘one language-one faith- one state’ policy. Following the adoption of anti-democratic laws on ‘decommunization’ and the outlawing of the Communist Party of Ukraine, leftist movements in Ukraine have been driven out of the public space and official politics by extreme-right thugs, who regularly intimidate leftist activists by threats and direct physical assault. Government and police authorities have turned a blind eye to the thuggery, or actively encouraged it. Courts have been intimidated and threatened from upholding laws that protect citizens from threats, intimidation and violence. In the case of the Union of Left Forces, their attempts to organize public meetings in various cities in post-Euromaidan Ukraine have been aggressively disrupted by extreme-right paramilitaries (read about one such instance here). The work of the party is blocked for now, but Vasiliy Volga remains active. He appears on various talk shows on Russian television (he is not welcomed on mainstream Ukrainian television) and he comments regularly on social media on the current situation in Ukraine.

Interview highlights
On Ukrainian nationalism:

‘I learned in Galicia [western Ukraine] how solid is the foundation of Ukrainian nationalism. I had my own financial services company and we had offices in Western Ukraine. I never spoke Ukrainian, growing up in a military town and being schooled in Russian. I discovered and was fascinated by the traditional religiosity of people. I liked the fact that people have this clear, strong tradition on which one can educate children and the nation. I became interested in what was, in reality, the Ukrainian ‘national liberation’ movement https://cassiopaea.org/forum/applewebdata://135DFDDE-F5B8-4C79-B7BB-CAC08DE3BB49#_edn1. I started learning Ukrainian and in half a year I was speaking it quite fluently.

I was really interested in finding the truth. In all the streams of information unleashed by pro-liberal intelligentsia, it was very difficult to discern truth from lies [ii]. At the beginning of the 1990s, I met local deputies from the Ukrainian Republican Party [iii].They were working on uncovering the hide-outs of the OUN-UPA in the Carpathian Mountains and wanted to open a museum of the “national liberation movement”. I went with these deputies and I also gave them money to open a museum in Ivano-Frankivsk [a regional center in Western Ukraine] – to tell the historical truth as it was. But when I arrived at the opening ceremony, I saw that there was not a single document in the museum that would show the terrorist methods of Bandera and his guerillas – for instance, orders to dress up as an NKVD officer and kill a local Communist Party member or a teacher. There was a huge scandal. I was ready to recognize the struggle of small nations for independence, such as Ireland against the British or the Basques and Catalans against the central government in Spain. I cannot approve of terrorist means, but I can understand. But, let’s tell the truth, I urged. The deputies responded: “You don’t understand. This is the beginning of a powerful ideological fight.”

And then I met Levko Lukianenko [a prominent Ukrainian dissident, one of the leaders of the anti-Soviet movement, founder of the Ukrainian Republican Party – HM]. I had several long evenings of discussions with him. He told me that while Ukraine was under moskali’ [a pejorative term for Russians in Ukrainian language – HM], there was a goal – to fight. When this independence suddenly fell on the dissidents, they did not know what to do. They saw that the nationalism did not enter into people’s hearts. ‘And I understood why’, Lukianenko told me. There is no nation without blood. And Lukianenko was rejoicing when after Euromaidan the civil war started in Ukraine, because all these deaths are a purification, the birth of Ukrainian nation.’

Volga broke up with Ukrainian nationalists and in 2000 founded ‘Hromadsky Kontrol’ (Public Control), a non-governmental organization that would monitor the activities of all the branches of power, similar to People’s Control in the Soviet Union. According to Volga, Hromadsky Kontrol was the largest and most powerful civil society organization in Ukraine until 2004. They had offices in all regions of Ukraine. There were around 44 thousand active members in the organization. These members were mostly younger retirees who accumulated knowledge and expertise and wanted an active social engagement. They worked for free. They would follow a short course on the relevant Ukrainian legislation (Constitution of Ukraine, a law governing their specific industry, a law on how to address the authorities about the information, a law on corruption) and upon the successful graduation were given an insignia of membership. Hromadsky Kontrol members worked in all regions of Ukraine. They undertook a lot of work on preventing drugs trafficking; four people were killed. According to Volga, from 2000 to 2004 it was the largest and the most powerful civil society organization in Ukraine. And then the Orange Revolution of 2004 came.

Volga:
‘The organization started boiling. In Western Ukraine people were of one opinion – in Eastern Ukraine of another – all according to the map of political preferences. I insisted that we are a civil society organization, we do not do politics. Our task is to control the power holders that people will elect and we have to work within the law, within the Constitution, exercising civil control over the authorities. If we take one side or another, we become participants in building a power structure. This is inadmissible.

Maidan is in full swing [iv]. I walk on the Maidan, talking with people, telling them not to break the Constitution. I was walking with the Bible and the Constitution, citing Saint Peter – that any power is from God, and that which opposes the authority opposes God’s will. It was all hopeless. Several times I had to run away, or the police helped me. And then one day Pifer called me, the American ambassador [v]. He called me, Zakharov [Yevhen Zakharov is the head of the well-known Kharkiv Human Rights group and a long-time human rights activist – HM] and several other human rights advocates. We met in a restaurant. And it was for the first time that I was offered a bribe of one million dollars – as a grant to develop my organization. I applied for various grants before, including to Renaissance without success [vi]. Pifer offers me one million dollars, only if my organization would participate in Maidan, that is for Yushchenko, against Yanukovych. I refused. One day I would like to see that this bribery is investigated. There were people there – embassy workers, it was on the first floor of restaurant Pervak in Kyiv. Later I learned that some public figures who attended the meeting took the money and went to Maidan. It was then when I glimpsed the true nature of the so-called people’s revolt.’

Vasiliy Volga founded his own party – the Union of Left forces – on the basis of Hromadski Kontrol. After Viktor Yanukovych was elected president of Ukraine in 2010, Volga, as an experienced politician and manager, was appointed the head of the State Commission for Regulation of Financial Services Markets. In July of 2011 he was arrested on the suspicion of intent to accept a bribe. He was tried and sentenced to five years in prison but was released before the end of his term, in January of 2015. Shortly after this, during an interview he gave to the Ukrainian website RBK, Volga explained that there were several reasons for his arrest: as the head of the state commission he uncovered billions of fraud, as well as fraud in the country’s insurance market; as the leader of the party Union of Left Forces he refused to merge his party into the ruling Party of Regions, a fraudulent practice in which the Party of Regions was engaged to boost its membership and increase its political influence. But the main reason, Volga believes, is his constant outspoken criticism of the kleptocratic regime of total corruption, forgery, and stealing that developed in Ukraine following the fall of the Soviet Union. Because of the weakness of the Ukrainian political system, one in which the President controls all the branches of power, all Presidents, with no exception, participated in this comprehensive, all-consuming, all-inclusive theft.

This is what Volga thinks about the current political Ukrainian elite:
‘I know all these Ukrainian politicians – Turchynov [Oleskandr Turchynov is the current Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine – HM], Poroshenko, Yulia Tymoshenko – very well. I worked closely with Poroshenko for two and a half years. They all pursue their own gains. I saw how Tymoshenko acts. She is a very strong, cruel person. She acted cruelly in business. She will kill anybody for money. All they want is money. They do not want money as we want – as a means to satisfy vital needs. No, they perceive money as a way of “seizing the space” in the widest sense of the word. They need money as a form of power. Money for them is an obsession, a paranoia, a drug, a way to consolidate and increase power. They are terribly afraid of losing money because they compete with each other not for life, but for death, and if one of them shows a weakness, others will eat them alive. These are paranoiac people’.

Being from the Donetsk region and involved in high level Ukrainian politics, Volga had close contacts with Yanukovych. Here is what Volga thinks about the former president, who was ousted from power in a coup d’état:
‘Yanukovych was inevitably moving towards Maidan. I have to say that both Yanukovych and Nikolai Azarov [prime-minister of Ukraine under Yanukovych – HM] had demonstrated exceptional work capacity. What we did in two and a half years [spring 2010 – fall 2013], when I was a minister in the government, nobody achieved anything like this. Roads, bridges, airports, stadiums, two new plants…the Ukrainian economy has not seen anything like this since Soviet times when something new was built instead of something old being plundered. Tribute should be paid to Azarov’s genius, to Yanukovych as an organizer of a very, very high level. He consolidated people around him to reach a goal. Principles of consolidation varied, and we can dispute the morality of some of them, but he found the motivation to unite people, not only did it unite these very complicated persons [Ukrainian oligarchs – HM], it structured them and forced them to work as one mechanism, in the same direction. It was clear even then that if Yanulovych disappeared, it would all crumble and nothing would remain. He was a very powerful, God-gifted organizer. But a series of his people started wringing out from Kyiv businessmen land, profitable businesses, large communal enterprises, such as cemeteries, funeral business, servicing cemeteries. Sons of some high-ranking politicians in the Yanukovych team – you could see them in the Kyiv restaurants; how they behaved. And the rumors multiplied, photos were taken, it was reported in media. And I haven’t mentioned how they threw people out of their offices. It is all true. All of this happened. There was ground for discontent, and it was used with efficiency and mastery by the Americans to stir up Maidan. People went out to protest against the Yanukovych way of doing business. There was the potential for protest, protest that was absolutely legitimate but it was used by certain forces – to organize a coup d’état with the goal of setting Russia on fire – who became too assertive. Geopolitical games began. Ukrainian neo-Nazis rode on the wave of these processes’.

On the split within Ukrainian society:
‘Nation is a spirit, according to Hegel, a certain community living on common territory and having a common aspiration and identifying themselves as such. So Ukrainians do exist. And to deny this is a folly. There was no intense Ukrainization until the first blood was spilled. When the blood was spilled, when the first dead bodies of young soldiers who died in the East started coming in, not after Crimea… I live in a small town in Kyiv region. In the last four years they raised utility prices fourteen times. People do not have the money for it. Salaries are miserable, jobs are being reduced. People are leaving…The discontent with the policies of raising utility charges is growing…But when a young soldier dies, and his body is displayed near the House of Culture, they bring in children from school, all dressed in embroidered shirts, and everybody is standing and crying, the chaplain is saying the mass, and they tell everybody: ‘This Mykola died for you, so that the Russian bear does not come and eat your children’. They come home, turn on the TV and they see how Russian occupiers eat their children, fry them on a spit…This is a complex phenomenon. Propaganda, multiplied by blood, makes Ukrainization very solid.

And this will last many years, and the process is irreversible. My family is split in two – I do not talk to my sister. She declared herself a “banderite” [a follower of Bandera, the leader of the OUN-UPA]. And what happens to children? What happen to a child who was 14 when the war started? He was young, he thought about girls, and now he is 18. They explained to him that for four years Ukraine had been at war with Russia. They do not tell you that Ukrainians are fighting with their brothers, with insurgents. Hromadsky Kontrol had biggest structures in Donetsk and Lugansk. Do you know how many people from our ranks died in the insurgency? Before, we could sit at the same table after a working day at Hromadsky Kontrol, and a Lviv person would drink together with a person from Donetsk. It all ended. And how does a child at school feel when they bring a coffin once a month?

I do not see any other solution than by force. From one side or another. Otherwise it will be impossible to reunite the two sides. If there is no big deal between Putin and Trump on spheres of influence, whether Americans leave Ukraine or Russia stops supporting rebel republics with the humanitarian aid and say: OK, Ukraine, do whatever you want, and Ukrainian army will enter Donbass and kill half the population – a Croatian version – I do not see a peaceful resolution of this conflict. Already two nations are being formed – for one, the heroes are those who killed the heroes of the another. For one people, the Great Patriotic war is sacred and we defeated Hitler, for another…You cannot imagine what is happening in mass-media here, in Ukraine, on the eve of May 9th. The main idea that is imposed on people’s mind is that Western Ukraine greeted Hitler with bread and salt just because Hitler was better than Stalin. Blood that is being spilled in the East, accelerated all these processes on both sides. Polarization’.

On the current situation in the Donetsk’ People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic and the protest movement in Ukraine:
‘After the excitement phase comes the depression phase. The protest movement was crushed. Some people were arrested and intimidated, the rest were dispersed. The SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] came to them with papers, which they signed that the law on decommunization was adopted and if they violated it, they would be arrested. And that’s it. A person is scared. He is not going anywhere. The work is paralyzed. These may be the reasons, but a fact remains a fact: we, Ukrainians, accepted the reality that we are being destroyed. So I do not see any reason, any pretext to see resistance rising from within, I cannot see [it].

What happened in Crimea was annexation, supported by the population. Crimea was crucial for Russia’s national security. And to be honest, in the last fourteen years the Ukrainian power did everything they could to alienate Crimea – absence of broadcasting in Russian, of Russian language higher education and so on. Donbass, Kharkov, Odessa also rose up in the hope that they would not be part of Bandera’s Ukraine, that they always were at one with the Russians. Their opinion was ignored and a coup d’état was organized to throw out a President they had voted for. It does not matter whether by that time they liked him or not. They felt very strongly that he was their president. They remember very well Tymoshenko’s statement on Maidan in 2004 that Donetsk and Lugansk should be fenced in with a barbed wire and destroyed with atomic bombs. That nonsense she was talking…

Donetsk people remember all of this. And when the cup overflowed, the people rose up. Moreover, Russia took several steps to support the insurgency. These steps were decisive and bold and confirmed that Donetsk chose the right direction and that they would receive the same thing that Crimea did. But they did not receive it. Now the mood in Donetsk and Lugansk is difficult. I think, around 30% are ready to go back to Ukraine, at least to return somewhere. Everybody understands that enterprises in Donetsk and Lugansk do not work because of one simple reason – American sanctions. Anybody who buys products from them, any billionaire, will be cut off from using SWIFT [the international banking network – HM]. He will go bankrupt. So it’s impossible to launch the system. Consequently, there is unemployment, there is poverty. People are tired. They are tired of not being either here or there. Corruption is rampant, equal to the corruption in Kyiv. People are afraid to talk about it; they talk in whispers. Wives of the republics’ leaders manage holdings on the distribution of the humanitarian aid or commerce. It is all true. And the unwanted disappear, this is also true. In this stagnant swamp where people have lost faith and nobody sees clearly the direction in which to go, everybody acts according to the principle of after me, the deluge. We will see. The mood is very gloomy’.
*****
https://cassiopaea.org/forum/applewebdata://135DFDDE-F5B8-4C79-B7BB-CAC08DE3BB49#_ednref1 Volga refers to the guerillas of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), under the leadership of Stepan Bandera, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), who collaborated with the German Nazis occupation of Ukraine during World War Two and fought against the Soviet Army in Western Ukraine during and after the war.
[ii] Volga is referring to the publication during the perestroika years of the 1980s of massive quantities of articles about the crimes and repressions of the Stalin regime
[iii] The Ukrainian Republican Party was founded in April 1990 by several Ukrainian dissidents on the basis of the Ukrainian ‘Helsinki group’ and under the leadership of Levko Lukianenko. Several other dissidents dissociated from the Lukianenko group, stating that the party was based on authoritarian principles
[iv] Maidan, or the so called Orange Revolution, is a series of mass protests in Kyiv in November 2004 – January 2005, sparked by the alleged fraud of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. In the second tour of the election Viktor Yanukovych, representative of the ‘pro-Russian’ Ukraine won by a small margin of 3% against the pro-Western opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Yushchenko supporters and western observers of the elections publicized evidence of many incidents of electoral fraud by the pro-Yanukovych side. Under the intense pressure from the West another run-off was held in Ukraine, although such a provision does not exist in the Ukrainian legislation, and Viktor Yushchenko won
[v] Steven Pifer served as the United States Ambassador to Ukraine from November 1997 to October 2000; at the time of the Maidan he was serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, in charge of Russia and Ukrainedossiers
[vi] International Renaissance Foundation in Ukraine is part of the wider Open Society Foundation, a network of NGO, financed by George Soros

 

[thorbiorn]

From Voltaire network there are two article with a number of interesting claims and observations: Confirmation of our version of the incident at Kertch

Confirmation of our version of the incident at Kertch
VOLTAIRE NETWORK | 30 NOVEMBER 2018
Russia has made public three interrogations of Ukrainian marines taken prisoner during the Kertch incident on 25 November 2018 and a document (photo) seized on board one of the ships.
According to this document and these videos, the incident had been planned by Ukraine collaborating with foreign powers. Two officers from Ukraine’s military intelligence service were on board the ships to coordinate operations. They were the ones that forbade the marines from responding to messages from the Russians when the war ships entered Russian territorial waters, waters that Ukraine was claiming to belong to it.
Our collaborator Valentin Vasilescu thinks that prior to the incident, some US and Israeli electromagnetic reconnaissance planes flew over the area to detect Russian defences [1].
While Israel is still not a member of Nato, it does have a bureau of liaison within Nato headquarters in Brussels. During the coup d’etat in Kiev, in the context of Nato’s stay behind secret service, thirty Israeli officers and thirty one Israeli soldiers participated in the fighting that broke out in Maidan Square… yet they were fighting on the side of the former Nazi party Svoboda.

The operation at Kertch seems to have been sponsored by Nato. Any why? To create a “Russian threat” which would serve to justify Ukraine becoming a member of the Alliance. This operation was supervised by Ambassador Kurt Volker. The CIA recruited him when he was still a student at Georgetown University. After working at the Agency’s headquarters in Langley, he entered the diplomatic service and became “adviser” to Richard Hoolbroke during the wars in Yugoslavia. He became Victoria Nuland’s assistant when she was the ambassador to Nato and following her departure, stepped into this post. Today he is the ambassador to Kiev.
Translation
Anoosha Boralessa
[1] « À qui profite l’incident du détroit de Kertch ? », par Valentin Vasilescu, Traduction Avic, Réseau Voltaire, 29 novembre 2018.
Anoosha Boralessa [Voltaire Network]

Anoosha Boralessa [Voltaire Network]
I looked op the link [1] and it has the following article which I for the sake of saving in a visible accessible way avoided to put in quote marks:
À qui profite l’incident du détroit de Kertch ?, par Valentin Vasilescu
Who benefits from the incident in the strait of Kerch ?
by Valentin Vasilescu
Valentin Vasilescu summarizes the role of reconnaissance aircraft from the US and israel in the incident of Kerch. These data were confirmed by the FSB Russian (which depend on the coast Guard) who have released videos of the interrogation of the sailors ukrainians and a seized document to board one of their ships. November 29 2018

The international media are poorly informed about the incident in the strait of Kerch, trying to make believe that it was a limitation of the international maritime traffic through Russia. My opinion is that this incident can have serious military consequences for Russia that might result in the loss of the Crimea.

The ground troops do not always have enough information on the enemy and use a process of "recognition" that provide additional data. For example, a group of recognition embedded in vehicles very mobile, committed to the fight for a few minutes against the enemy then, if it is not captured, and withdraws very quickly.

During the incident in the strait of Kerch, on 25 November 2018, the two small battleships ukrainians (Berdyansk and Nikopol), class Gyurza-M, carried out a reconnaissance mission. Their goal was not to cross the strait of Kerch, and to trigger a response from the device Russian combat, charged with defending the bridge over the strait. The two ships were ideally suited to this type of mission, because they are faster and more maneuverable than the ships of the coast Guard and the navy are very well armed.



It was the visible part of the incident. There was another aspect, invisible, far more important than what the media has presented.

In fact, the information resulting from "operation recognition" are not collected by the recognition group, which is in contact with the enemy, that is to say, in the present case, the small vessels Berdyansk and Nikopol of the navy of ukraine, but a different pattern of recognition which is in secret. It is specially developed to monitor the reaction of the enemy (that is to say, the defence posture of the bridge the Russian and the strait of Kerch) through observation points on land, air, naval resources, of interception systems programming radio frequencies, detection systems, radar, infrared, etc., The army, the Ukrainian has not deployed a device recognition complex, near the strait of Kerch, because it does not have the means to.But, as we have shown in a previous article, a little before the incident, the United States and Israel had been very active in the region.

On 5 November, a Russian aircraft Su-27 intercepted a plane a us-based ELINT EP-3E series 157316 code, AS17, who had departed from the base of Souda in the island of Crete, flying to close to the territorial waters of the Crimea. On 19 November, a reconnaissance aircraft of the israeli Gulfstream G-550 Nachshon Aitam (indicative of the flight 537) flew over the Black sea around the strait of Kerch.

The incident occurred in the strait of Kerch has been monitored throughout the day by reconnaissance aircraft from the united states SIGINT. One of them, type RC-135V series 64-14841, indicative JONAS 21, based in the bay of Souda, on the island of Crete, has evolved on the shore of the Black sea, near Crimea. A second aircraft, a drone of high-altitude type RQ-4B, series 11-2047, with the indicative FORTE10, flew to the east of Ukraine near the sea of Azov. The RQ-4B is operated from the united states naval base at Sigonella, on the island of Sicily.

The incident occurred in the strait of Kerch has been monitored throughout the day by reconnaissance aircraft from the united states SIGINT. One of them, type RC-135V series 64-14841, indicative JONAS 21, based in the bay of Souda, on the island of Crete, has evolved on the shore of the Black sea, near Crimea. A second aircraft, a drone of high-altitude type RQ-4B, series 11-2047, with the indicative FORTE10, flew to the east of Ukraine near the sea of Azov. The RQ-4B is operated from the united states naval base at Sigonella, on the island of Sicily.

On 27 November, a reconnaissance aircraft P-8A series 168859, carried out a reconnaissance flight in the strait of Kerch and the Crimea, from the base of Sigonella.

The SIGINT (Signals intelligence) is a system of monitoring involving the interception of communications (radio, mobile telephony, data line, Internet), that is to say, the COMINT (Communications intelligence), and the interception of the signals radars and other navigation devices, detection, or interference (infrared, laser, etc) called ELINT (Electronic intelligence).

Thanks to this equipment mounted on reconnaissance aircraft, the incident caused by vessels ukrainians in the strait of Kerch has allowed us to know in detail : – The composition and the location of the device on land and sea Russian intended to protect the strait. – the management structure, the radio frequencies used, – the steps of the intervention procedure and the responsibilities of the various sub-units of Russian air, land and naval, according to the cooperation plan. – directions and sectors are poorly defended and vulnerable.

Thus, even if the small vessels ukrainians and their crews have been detained by the Russian forces, they have done their work. A mission that could only come to the United States.

On the same subject :

" Strait of Kerch : the incident seems to have been prepared and planned by the United States and Israel ", by Valentin Vasilescu, Translation Avic, Voltaire Network, 27 November 2018.

" Confirmation of our version of the incident Kerch ", Voltaire Network, 29 November 2018.​

Valentin Vasilescu

 

[thorbiorn]

There was from Sputnik News: Kerch Strait Incident: Ex-German FM Says Kiev Seeking to Drag Berlin Into War

Last Sunday, Russia detained three Ukrainian Navy vessels and their 24 crewmembers after they violated Russia's maritime borders and were engaged in dangerous manoeuvres in and around the Kerch Strait, an entrance to the Sea of Azov.
Former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has described the Kerch Strait incidentas an attempt by Kiev to draw Germany into a war over Ukraine.

"I think that we by no means should allow Ukraine to drag us into the war. [Earlier], Ukraine tried to do so," Gabriel underscored during his interview with the German news channel N-TV.

He expressed hope that German Chancellor Angela Merkel would succeed in encouraging Ukraine and Russia to normalize bilateral relations, given that it was Merkel who along with former French President Francois Hollande, prevented the conflict in eastern Ukraine from further flaring up several years ago.

Gabriel also urged US President Donald Trump not to distance himself from the Kerch Strait row, saying it wouldn't deter further escalation.

In addition, Gabriel criticized Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for calling for NATO ships to be sent to the Black Sea, as well as the closure of international ports for Russian ships coming from the Sea of Azov.

"The only way out of this completely hopeless conflict is to establish a truce, achieve heavy weapons withdrawal from both sides and then take the first step towards lifting the sanctions," the ex-German President concluded.

On Thursday, a diplomatic source in Brussels told Sputnik that France, Germany and several other EU members had rejected calls to toughen sanctions against Russia over the Kerch Strait incident despite Poland's push to slap Russia with new restrictive measures.

On November 25, three Ukrainian Navy vessels, the Berdyansk, Nikopol, and Yany Kapu — entered Russian territorial waters that were temporarily closed and began moving toward the Kerch Strait, which serves as an entrance to the sea. The Ukrainian vessels and their 24 crew members were detained by Russia after failing to respond to a lawful demand that they stop.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident a pre-planned provocation, saying that it seemed to be connected to Ukrainian President Poroshenko's low approval ratings ahead of next spring's presidential elections.

In response to the incident, Ukrainian authorities introduced martial law in certain regions of Ukraine along the border with Russia as well as along the coast of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov for 30 days.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region started in 2014, when Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, which refused to recognize the new government in Kiev that came to power after what they considered to be a coup.

In February 2015, the conflicting sides signed the Minsk peace accords to end the fighting in the region, but the situation has remained tense, with both parties accusing each other of ceasefire violations.

Since 2014, EU members and the US have imposed several rounds of anti-Russian sanctions over Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Russia has repeatedly refuted the allegations of interference in Ukraine's affairs, warning that the Western sanctions are counterproductive and undermine global stability.

 

[angelburst29]

12.02.2018 - Putin says he is not against meeting with Ukrainian president
Putin says he is not against meeting with Ukrainian president

Russian President Vladimir Putin said bilateral talks with Ukraine are not currently held but "this doesn't mean that we ceased all contacts"

Russian President Vladimir Putin © Mikhail Klimentyev/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that he is not against meeting with Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko but noted that it is difficult to communicate with him.

"As for top level contacts, I am not against them. Yes, indeed, the talks haven’t taken place, but this doesn’t mean that we ceased all contacts," the Russian leader stressed during the press conference. "However, it is difficult to communicate, because it is unclear what to talk about."

According to Putin, the agreements between Russia and Ukraine are not being observed.

"It’s been a year or more since we’ve agreed to disengage the conflicting sides in Stanitsa Luganskaya. The OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] has informed about 50 times, I think, that the conditions for this disengagement have been created and formulated by the Ukrainian side," Putin reminded. "But the Ukrainian partners keep saying: 'No, well, you haven’t heard, but we’ve heard someone shoot'. Everything stalls; it is unclear what to agree on."


The Russian leader assured that Russia will maintain relations with Ukraine in any case. "We maintain working contact, of course. I hope it will be so," the Russian leader concluded.


12.02.2018 - European countries heard Russia’s stance on Kerch Strait incident - Lavrov
European countries heard Russia’s stance on Kerch Strait incident - Lavrov

He noted that unfortunately provocateurs of the Ukrainian Security Service "did everything to fulfill an order, the text of which was found when our border guards boarded these gunboats".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov © AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin

Germany and France heard Russia’s position on Kiev’s provocation in the Kerch Strait at talks with Vladimir Putin in Buenos Aires, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the program "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" on Rossiya 1 TV channel on Sunday.

"I think they could not but hear it [Russia’s stance] because Russian President Vladimir Putin at the meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel personally showed in hand-waving terms how all this happened, how this provocation was plotted and how they tried to carry it out and how responsibly our border guards fulfilled their duty, attempting to avoid any undesirable incidents," Lavrov said.

Lavrov noted that unfortunately provocateurs of the Ukrainian Security Service "did everything to fulfill an order, the text of which was found when our border guards boarded these gunboats." "It clearly said: to secretly enter the neutral waters without any pilots and notifications and break under the Crimean Bridge through the Kerch Strait to Azov," he said.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin personally told his interlocutors about this," Lavrov said. "I haven’t heard from them any reaction, which is based on other facts."

 

[Voyageur]

{Putin}"As for top level contacts, I am not against them. Yes, indeed, the talks haven’t taken place, but this doesn’t mean that we ceased all contacts," the Russian leader stressed during the press conference. "However, it is difficult to communicate, because it is unclear what to talk about."

{Lavrov}He noted that unfortunately provocateurs of the Ukrainian Security Service "did everything to fulfill an order, the text of which was found when our border guards boarded these gunboats".
[...]
"I think they could not but hear it [Russia’s stance] because Russian President Vladimir Putin at the meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel personally showed in hand-waving terms how all this happened, how this provocation was plotted and how they tried to carry it out and how responsibly our border guards fulfilled their duty, attempting to avoid any undesirable incidents," Lavrov said.

What a reckless bunch these Ukrainian leaders and spy masters are taking their people to ruin for their overlords. The thing is, there seems to be no doubt that the EU leaders and other leaders know the exact reality of the situation, and yet they have no courage to say what needs to be said; they can't. It seems they can't because it is all too locked into their very internal systems at the behest of the external powers running the show. If five or ten of them were to say, enough is enough, they would likely bear the personal cost of blackmail or the anvil of economic persecution would come down on their countries - I don't know, is that how bad it is?

When you look at the G20 (all behind closed doors) they all 'act' with courtesy, pomp and political style with each other; knowing the realities, and yet turning to the lens of the media (whereby they are speaking to their own citizens) they stick to their scripts. Putin and Russia on one side and they, collectively, on the other behind NATO and its handlers.

Not remembering the exact sessions or words with the the C's, Laura asked something about the PTB being covert vs. overt, and the C's replied with something like they are currently covert, will soon be overt.

Yes, indeed we seem to be at the latter overt stages of the wold situation. Damn sad. Yet as has been prophetically spoken by Edgar Cayce, "Out of Russia Will Come Hope" - and we can all try and do what we can to help.

 

[goyacobol]

Not remembering the exact sessions or words with the the C's, Laura asked something about the PTB being covert vs. overt, and the C's replied with something like they are currently covert, will soon be overt.

Yes, indeed we seem to be at the latter overt stages of the wold situation. Damn sad. Yet as has been prophetically spoken by Edgar Cayce, "Out of Russia Will Come Hope" - and we can all try and do what we can to help.

Damn sad I think too.

Now, it seems more "overt" to me anyway.

Session 13 May 2017:

(L) So basically, some kind of cabal in the deep state of the US is at the bottom of some kind of One World Order plan to really basically bit by bit take the entire planet under its control. Is that it either overtly or covertly?

A: Covertly at present, but overtly eventually.

 

[angelburst29]

December 4, 2018 - Ukraine resumes Grain Shipments from Azov Sea
Ukraine resumes grain shipments from Azov Sea | Reuters

KIEV - Ukraine said on Tuesday it had resumed grain shipments from the Azov Sea, blocked for around 10 days after a military standoff with Russia in the Kerch Strait off Crimea.

[...] “The passage of vessels with agricultural products through ports in the Azov Sea has been unlocked,” Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said on Tuesday in a statement.

“The loading of grain to vessels through the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk is restored and carried out in regular mode,” it said.

Earlier, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Volodymyr Omelyan had said the two ports - vital for eastern Ukraine’s economy - had been “partially unlocked” with the restoration of some free movement through the Kerch Strait.


December 5, 2018 - Caught in Russia-Ukraine storm: a Cargo ship and tonnes of Grain
Caught in Russia-Ukraine storm: a cargo ship and tonnes of grain | Reuters

BERDYANSK, Ukraine - When the Island Bay cargo ship arrived from Beirut at the Kerch Strait, gateway to the Azov Sea, it sailed into a perfect storm of geopolitics and bad weather.

The following day, Russia opened fire on three Ukrainian naval ships, impounded them and detained their sailors, some of them wounded. It then blocked the strait by putting a tanker underneath a new bridge it has built linking the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

While the world digested the implications of the Nov. 25 incident, the most explosive clash in recent years, Russia said it had reopened the channel to the Azov Sea, which is shared by Russia and Ukraine.

But Island Bay remained at anchor outside the strait, lashed by gale force winds and sleet, its hull icing over while cargo ships amassed on either side.

On Monday, a week on, the captain reported seeing 20 vessels awaiting clearance to cross. Refinitiv data that day also showed 20 Ukraine-bound vessels held up at the strait since Nov. 25, with two others allowed through.

Meanwhile, Island Bay’s cargo of 5,500 tonnes of wheat, destined for flour mills in Libya, waited in the Ukrainian port of Berdyansk.

The saga of the ship is a window on the leverage Moscow has over Ukraine’s Azov seaboard, affecting dock workers, port operators, brokers and farmers who depend on the route.

Russia, whose coast guards began inspecting traffic in the Kerch Strait eight months ago, blamed inclement weather for the delay. But on Sunday, when the skies cleared, just a handful of ships passed through; by Monday evening, the Island Bay’s captain’s frustration was beginning to show.

“It is acceptable weather for transit. Coast guards have own opinion,” his log, seen by Reuters, said. That day, he reported seeing just two ships cross into the Azov Sea.

Ukraine says the hiatus is one of many since the Russian spot-checks began in May, when Russia opened the Kerch bridge, interrupting exports of grain and steel and imports of coal. Moscow denies any disruption.

THE STEVEDORES
In Berdyansk’s port, where icy winds had recently ripped off the roof of a nearby shed, staff of stevedore company Ascet Shipping were reading the daily reports from the Island Bay with growing concern.

Ascet loads almost a million tonnes of Ukrainian grain a year onto cargo ships in Berdyansk and was waiting to load the Island Bay; its size means each day of waiting time costs around $2,000-$2,500, Ascet’s chief executive, Denis Rusin, said.

This has made Berdyansk an unpopular port in recent months.

“Ship owners do not want to go to Berdyansk,” said Rusin, whose clients include U.S. firm Cargill [CARG.UL], one of the world’s largest dry bulk and tank shipping companies. “Buyers are refusing to bet on passage.”

Since Russia and Ukraine clashed in the strait, Ukraine has introduced martial law in 10 regions, including the Azov Sea coast - highlighting the risks of doing business with Berdyansk.

“For us this was the worst week in recent years,” Rusin said. “Clients have stopped considering the possibility of signing contracts for delivery in January, let alone February or spring,” he said.

THE PORT
Some Ukrainian politicians have accused Moscow of trying to strangle Ukraine’s Azov Sea ports in preparation for an invasion from the east, following on from Crimea’s annexation and the subsequent breakaway of Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

Moscow says that idea is a fantasy dreamt up by Ukraine’s pro-Western leaders ahead of elections next year. It says it has the right to patrol the strait.

But Berdyansk’s businesses say the patrols target ships bound for Ukraine, causing damaging delays.

The recent escalation in tensions has not affected ships coming to pick up grain from the Russian side of the Azov Sea, according to Sergei Filipov, director of trading firm QAM7 Dubai, which has operations there. He said inspections have delayed travel by the usual two or three days.

On its eleventh day at anchor in Kerch Strait, with skies finally clear, Island Bay reported to Berdyansk: “We called everywhere to make guards (come and) inspect the vessel, but their intentions cannot be explained.”

The situation has sent Rusin racing to further revise down his business forecasts.

Climbing out onto the windswept roof of his office on Friday, he pointed to a single truck of grain where multiple trucks used to line up along the dock.

“We had expected to load around 150,000 tonnes over the next three months... Maybe 200,000,” he said. Now the company is preparing for anything between 50,000 tonnes and no business at all, he said.

“This was a change of plan that happened this week.”

The Azov Sea grain supply chain makes up just 2 to 3 percent of Ukraine’s agricultural exports, deputy central bank chief Dmitry Sologub said. But for the southeastern Zaporozhye region, home to 1.8 million people, it is critical.

At the government Port Authority in Berdyansk, officials said they feared for the port’s future as clients look to other locations with direct access to the Black Sea.

“Of course we would prefer (to use other ports),” said Erdem Sekreter, fleet manager at Turkey’s Bayraktar shipping group, which has two ships waiting to cross the Kerch Strait to reach the Ukrainian coast.

“It is getting more expensive for ship-owners to go to the Azov Sea – the Ukrainian side of course,” he added. “We are paying out of our pocket now.”

FARMERS AND TRADERS
Bison Group owns 40,000 hectares of arable land in Zaporozhye region and exports much of its harvest via Berdyansk.

With ship-owners raising freight charges to factor in the new risks in the Azov Sea, the costs will be passed down to grain producers, Bison deputy director Igor Serov said. “It hits agricultural producers really hard.”

Prices will have to go down by at least $10 per tonne, a trader at Atria Brokers, which handles Berdyansk grain, said.

But producers may not have other options. The railway infrastructure is not in place to send exports via Black Sea ports instead, Serov said, and transferring grain by truck to Odessa, for example, would cost an extra $40 per tonne.

Buyers are also pulling back, afraid of the risks.

“Our sales have fallen,” the Atria trader said. “It has affected us in a fundamental way.”

Every day Island Bay’s cargo sits in port, it racks up costs for traders. Grain can spoil, and storage costs are steep.

“The market is suffering... everyone along the chain is paying the price for these war games,” a grain trader said, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said some grain shipments from the Azov Sea had resumed.

Five of the 14 ships headed to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, held up since the stand-off, were still waiting to cross on Wednesday, Refinitiv data showed. One had turned back to Istanbul.

In comparison, of the ships aiming for one of Russian city Rostov-on-Don’s ports, that had arrived to Kerch Strait since the stand-off began, none were still waiting for passage, the data showed the same day.

Only one out of the six boats headed to Berdyansk had crossed by Wednesday. After twelve days at anchor in the waters near the strait, Island Bay was still waiting.

Slideshow (7 Images)
Caught in Russia-Ukraine storm: a cargo ship and tonnes of grain | Reuters


December 4, 2018 - Russian threat highest since 2014: Ukraine Military chief
Russian threat highest since 2014: Ukraine military chief | Reuters

KIEV - Russia has been ramping up its forces near the border with Ukraine since August and now poses the greatest military threat since 2014, the year Moscow annexed Crimea, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

General Viktor Muzhenko gestured to a series of satellite images which he said showed the presence of Russian T-62 M tanks stationed 18 km (11 miles) from the Ukrainian border. (The images remind me of Israel's Netanyahu's Iran propaganda photos?)

They had more than doubled to 250 from 93 machines within the space of two weeks from mid September to Oct 1.

For Muzhenko this is evidence of a concerted build-up of Russian forces in the run-up to Nov. 25, when Russia fired on and captured three Ukrainian vessels at the Kerch Strait, an action Kiev’s leadership fears may be a precursor to a full-scale invasion.

Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over the clash. The Kremlin’s spokesman on Monday dismissed as “absurd” the notion that Russia wanted to forcibly take over Ukrainian ports.

Muzhenko said Russian troop levels were at “the highest” since 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea and then deployed forces to eastern Ukraine.

“In front of us is an aggressor who has no legal, moral or any other limits,” he said. “It is very difficult to predict when it will occur to him to begin active combat actions against Ukraine.”

“This (the Kerch Strait incident) was an act of aggression from regular forces, the border service (of the Russian Federation) in relation to the Ukrainian armed forces,” Muzhenko said.

The Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Muzhenko said Ukraine had deployed more land and air forces to the region in response, and intensified military exercises across the country, but declined to go into specifics.

He added that Ukraine expects to complete the building of a military base on the Azov Sea, which had been planned before the navy clash, by next year.

Ukraine was also expecting help from allies, mostly the United States, for equipment including air and naval reconnaissance, boats and weapons for ground troops, he said.

COLLAPSE OF RELATIONS
Relations between Ukraine and Russia collapsed following the 2014 Crimea annexation and Russia’s support for separatist rebels in the eastern Donbass region.

The Donbass conflict has killed more than 10,000 people despite a notional ceasefire. Russia strongly denies sending troops and heavy weapons to the area.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko introduced martial law last week for a period of 30 days in regions of the country thought most vulnerable to a Russian attack.

Asked whether the military would need an extension once the 30 days of martial law expired, he said an assessment would be made closer to the time. “The term of martial law depends on the Russian Federation,” he said.

“Based on how it will increase its capabilities, how it will react, how it will provoke and carry out such provocations - not like in the Kerch Strait but also on a larger scale - the legal regime that will be defined in Ukraine depends on it.”

From around August, Russia had ramped up its deployment of forces on the Ukrainian border, he said. Some units were transferred from Russia’s far east to the Ukrainian border in September during Vostok-2018, Russia’s biggest war games since the fall of the Soviet Union.

“We are seeing an increase in the intensity of operational and combat training measures, and all of them, as a rule, are offensive in nature,” he said.

He said there was a “serious increase” in the amount of troops and weapons in Crimea and Russia had also doubled its naval presence in the region in the past month.

“The combination of all these signs confirms the aggressiveness of the intentions and the threats of a military nature against Ukraine, which are constantly increasing,” he said.

Slideshow (2 Images)
Russian threat highest since 2014: Ukraine military chief | Reuters


December 5, 2018 - Russia holds Drills in Black Sea region amid Ukraine tensions
Russia holds drills in Black Sea region amid Ukraine tensions | Reuters

MOSCOW - Russia is holding naval and surface-to-air missile drills in the Black Sea region amid tensions with Ukraine and the West over the capture of three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews off the coast of Crimea last month.

Two submarines, the Rostov-on-Don B-237 and the Stary Oskol B-262, practiced emergency deployments for detecting, accompanying and destroying sea and coastal targets with rocket fire, the Defense Ministry said.

Submarine crews from the Black sea fleet were also due to practice deep dives and to work on techniques such as emergency surfacing, it said.

The statement did not give a start or end date for the drills or say if the submarine exercises were part of larger-scale drills in the Black Sea and on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

A navigation warning to shipping published by littoral state Turkey’s navy said that “firing exercises” were expected in the region from Dec. 3 to Dec. 9.

Separately, Pantsir medium-range surface-to-air missile systems in the east of Crimea practiced detecting, identifying and shooting down aerial targets, Interfax news agency cited a spokesman for the Black Sea Fleet as saying.

The exercises come at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West over Russia’s seizure on Nov. 25 of two small Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tug boat and their crews.

NATO foreign ministers discussed the Black Sea region with Ukraine and Georgia’s foreign ministers on Tuesday while NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the U.S.-led military alliance had boosted its presence there in response to what he said were Russia’s aggressive actions.

December 5, 2018 - Ukraine Council to meet on December 15 to form Independent Church: President
Ukraine council to meet on December 15 to form independent church: president | Reuters

KIEV - A Ukrainian church council will meet on December 15 in order to create an independent Orthodox church and elect its leader, President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday.

Under Poroshenko’s presidency, Ukraine has pushed to establish a national church and thereby sever centuries-old ties with the Russian clergy. The Kiev authorities say the step is essential to tackling Russian meddling on its soil.

“The synod will be held on December 15, 2018 in St. Sophia (Cathedral), which for centuries has been the center of the Orthodox Ukrainian religious life,” Poroshenko said.

 

[Hi_Henry]

As Western readers are digesting the information in this thread please considr this information. Note who wanted to help !!!!

After more than two hours of unremitting assault, the Israelis finally halted their attack. One of the torpedo boats approached the Liberty. An officer asked in English over a bullhorn: “Do you need any help?”

The wounded commander of the Liberty, Lt. William McGonagle, instructed the quartermaster to respond emphatically: “Fuck you.”

The Israeli boat turned and left.

A Soviet destroyer responded before the US Navy, even though a US submarine, on a covert mission, was apparently in the area and had monitored the attack. The Soviet ship reached the Liberty six hours before the USS Davis. The captain of the Soviet ship offered his aid, but the Liberty’s conning officer refused.

Finally, 16 hours after the attack two US destroyers reached the Liberty. By that time, 34 US sailors were dead and 174 injured, many seriously. As the wounded were being evacuated, an officer with the Office of Naval Intelligence instructed the men not to talk about their ordeal with the press.

USS Liberty offered help by ....

 

[goyacobol]

As Western readers are digesting the information in this thread please considr this information. Note who wanted to help !!!!

[The link below did not work for me.]

USS Liberty offered help by ....

If you mean the Russians offer to help, I am sure some "Western" readers would not have expected that to have happened.

I am not quite sure why you placed this in this particular thread but it is an interesting incident involving a Russian naval vessel and a U.S. ship. We might not get such a generous offer these days and I think it would be completely understandable why we would not.

 

[Hi_Henry]

If you mean the Russians offer to help, I am sure some "Western" readers would not have expected that to have happened.

I am not quite sure why you placed this in this particular thread but it is an interesting incident involving a Russian naval vessel and a U.S. ship. We might not get such a generous offer these days and I think it would be completely understandable why we would not.

What prompted me was "Western Empire vs Russia" and this " while NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the U.S.-led military alliance had boosted its presence there in response to what he said were Russia’s aggressive actions. "

I wanted to demonstrate how aggressive in the Past Russia has been. The Russians are such aggressive people that when USS Liberty was attacked by a US Democratic Allie called Israel the people who wanted to help the ship were no other than the Russians. Not even US 6th Fleet would come when called during the attack. Now that is something to chew on AND REMEMBER.

I realize that Today most people in the EU and the US will not be able to extract the lesson from the incident. Why? Because it is so deeply "buried" that few even know about it. And if they knew I strongly doubt they would see it for what it is. It was no accident.

Once in a discussion with some friends I brought up this topic. The reaction I got was that I was making it all up. I never bothered to ask any of them if they took the time to later check it out. Why you may ask ? Because you can take the horse to the water but you can't make him drink.

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1068909075503738881

Translated from Russian by Microsoft
In Mariupol, CNN tried to remove Russophoque cinema, but something went wrong in the wake of the recent provocation of the VMSU in the Kerch Strait, the filming group CNN came to Mariupol to remove the propaganda story in the city of "aggression of Russia", but something went... В Мариуполе CNN пыталось снять русофобское кино, но что-то пошло не так (видео) – Новости РуАН …
Two Video's
In the wake of a recent provocation of the Ukrainian Navy in the Kerch Strait, the CNN film crew arrived in Mariupol to shoot a propaganda story about “Russia's aggression” in the city, but something went wrong.

In a conversation with the correspondent Nick Peyton Walsh, local residents refused to scold Moscow. Instead, they talked about a good attitude towards Russia and Russians, and stressed that Ukraine needed a “new, good president.”

“For several years now, the economy of Mariupol has been in decline, because this city almost all the time has to live under the threat of a Russian invasion,” Walsh began cheerfully, but then zrada crept up.

“What do you think, if we had a normal president, would a woman work in such a job?”; “I have relatives in Russia. We are Russians. I do not understand this conflict ";

“I have many Russian acquaintances with whom we communicate very well, who care for us just as we do for them”; “We need another, good president!” - local residents were shocked by the American.

“Putin’s name made them smile! This is strange, because thousands of people died here because of the pressure of Moscow! ”- the CNN correspondent breaks the templates with a crash.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1070610748274028544

https://twitter.com/x/status/1070612272031195137

https://twitter.com/x/status/1070654670560026624

Washington (CNN)
US makes preparations to sail warship into Black Sea amid Russia-Ukraine tensions
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/05/politics/us-navy-black-sea-russia-ukraine/index.html
Updated 2217 GMT (0617 HKT) December 5, 2018 Video

US Navy sends ship to Russia’s Far East, reportedly prepares to enter Black Sea
Edited time: 6 Dec, 2018 10:55
An American destroyer sailed off the Russian coast, near the Pacific Fleet base in Vladivostok, in a first such stunt since the Cold War. Another US ship is expected in the Black Sea soon, amid tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

The USS MCCampbell (DDG-85) went into the vicinity of Peter the Great Bay to “challenge Russia's excessive maritime claims and uphold the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea” enjoyed by the US and others, Lieutenant Rachel McMarr, a spokesperson for the US Pacific Fleet, said in a statement.

The US Navy calls such stunts “Freedom of Navigation Operations” (FONOP). The last time a FONOP was conducted in this area was 1987, at the peak of Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union.

“These operations demonstrate the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” McMarr said. “That is true in the Sea of Japan, as in other places around the globe.”

Peter the Great Bay was named after the first emperor of Russia, and is dotted with bases of the Russian Pacific Fleet. The presence of a US destroyer in the area is comparable to a Russian sail-by of San Diego, California or Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.


Peter the Great Bay © Google Maps

Washington does not recognize Russia’s territorial claims in the Sea of Japan, with a Navy official telling CNN they far exceed the 12 nautical mile limit guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). While Russia has ratified the convention, the US has not.

That is not all, however. The US Navy could also be planning to send a warship into the Black Sea in the near future. CNN reported that the State Department has notified Turkey of the intent to send a warship through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, which requires a 15-day notice under the terms of the 1936 Montreux Convention.

The 1936 treaty also limits the presence of ships from nations that don’t border the Black Sea to a maximum of 21 days. The US last had a ship in the area back in October.

Anonymous US officials told CNN the move was a response to last month’s incident between Russian coast guard ships and three Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.

“We routinely conduct operations to advance security and stability throughout the US 6th Fleet area of operations to include the international waters and airspace of the Black Sea,” fleet spokesman Commander Kyle Raines told CNN.

The US has also repeatedly sent ships to the parts of East China Sea claimed by Beijing, drawing repeated protests from China - most recently last week, when the guided missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG-62) sailed through the area.
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Published on Dec 2, 2018

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1071315499655577602

Translated from Russian by Microsoft
#ПРЯМАЯТРАНСЛЯЦИЯ briefing on the situation with the ships of Ukraine in the Kerch Strait

https://twitter.com/x/status/1071167009650487296

https://twitter.com/x/status/1071318587942584320

https://twitter.com/x/status/1071028020356546560

Published on Dec 6, 2018 / 8:06
On the Day of the Ukrainian Army, let's take a look at some of what they've done in Donbass.