News of missile strikes at Lugansk with video's. Obama pledges more troops and equipment in Eastern Europe in support of NATO while Russia watches her Borders.
Confirmed: Ukrainian air force fired over 150 missiles at Lugansk, bombed admin HQ
_http://rt.com/news/163352-ukraine-airstrike-lugansk-missiles/ (video)
Tuesday June 3, 2014 - Kiev has admitted showering the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk with dozens of missiles from the air, saying that its Air Force helicopters and jets “fired more than 150 missiles” in Monday’s military action.
DEATH TOLL: 181 people killed, 293 injured in Kiev military op
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also confirmed on Tuesday that the deadly explosion at the city’s administrative building was indeed an airstrike. Kiev has so far denied the responsibility for the incident, saying its forces “do not target” civilian areas.
The OSCE Ukrainian mission’s daily report stated that “on June 2, around 15:00 local time missiles hit the building of the regional government administration. According to the observers’ data, the strike was carried out with non-guided missiles launched from an aircraft.”
According to an earlier statement by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the intense bombing in Lugansk area was meant to “support the Ukrainian Border Guards,” which the local militia have been trying to take under control.
“All in all, for fulfilling the combat support of the Ukrainian border guards the army aviators fired more than 150 missiles, carried out three jet sorties and five helicopter sorties,” the statement says.
The air support was backed by fighter jets launching decoy flares to prevent the attacking aircraft from being targeted from the ground.
According to the ministry, two self-defense checkpoints were destroyed in the attack.
Not all the Monday fighting was on the outskirts of Lugansk, apparently, as one Ukrainian missile hit the occupied Lugansk administration building, killing at least eight civilians inside and nearby. Some Kiev politicians have laid the blame on the self-defense forces for the “blast,” which has undoubtedly been confirmed as an airstrike by the accounts of witnesses and the CCTV footage from the scene.
Deadly Ukraine Fighter Jet Bombing Caught On Tape
_http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-02/deadly-ukraine-figher-jet-bombing-caught-tape (video's)
Tuesday June, 3, 2014 - Earlier today we reported that even as the western media blackout of events in Ukraine gets more black, the ongoing civil war is getting ever more uncivil, following a Ukraine fighter jet attack on the east Ukraine town of Lugansk, in which it struck not only the local administration building, but a neighboring area, resulting in numerous civilian casualties and injuries. Kiev was quick to deny that it was using its airforce on its own people, claiming instead that the explosion quite clearly caught on tape was merely locals trying to unsuccessfully shoot at the fighter jet.
So for your viewing displeasure, because the reality of yet another fratricidal war is hardly enjoyable, and so readers can make up their own minds, here is the moment of the fighter jet bombing caught on tape, as well as the tragic consequences.
The first clip shows CCTV footage as the rocket explosion is spread out across a park neighboring the administration building.
The next clip captures moment the Kiev fighter fired at fellow Ukrainians – something the west vocally condemned when it was allegedly conducted under former president Yanukovich, and is all too quiet this time.
From a different angle:
And the aftermath.....
Obama pledges $1bn for more troops, military drills in E. Europe
_http://rt.com/news/163320-obama-poland-troops-europe/
Tuesday June 3, 2014 - President Obama has announced a plan to invest $1 billion in stepping up its military presence in Eastern Europe amid the Ukrainian crisis. The White House will send more troops and equipment to the region to “reaffirm” its commitment to NATO allies.
Speaking at a news conference in Warsaw, Obama said America was stepping up its partnership with countries in Eastern Europe with a view to bolstering security. The moves are aimed at upping the pressure on Russia, which Washington has accused of inciting unrest in Ukraine.
In line with the plans, Obama will ask Congress to provide up to $1 billion to finance the deployment of more troops and equipment.
“Under this effort, and with the support of Congress, the United States will preposition more equipment in Europe,” Obama said at the Polish capital’s Belweder Palace.
Earlier in the day Obama met with US and Polish air personnel in Warsaw and said the US had already begun rotating additional soldiers in the region.
“Given the situation in Ukraine right now, we have also increased our American presence. We’ve begun rotating additional ground troops and F-16 aircraft into Poland… to help our forces support NATO air missions,” said Obama, calling the commitment to NATO allies in Europe “the cornerstone of our own security.”
Obama called on Moscow to refrain from further provocation in Ukraine and said it has a responsibility to work constructively with the new government in Kiev. He added that the troop buildup in Eastern Europe was not meant to threaten Russia, but “rebuilding trust may take some time.”
The American president will meet with newly-elected Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during his two-day stay in Poland.
Russia to take necessary measures if NATO military potential comes closer to its borders – envoy
_ http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_02/Russia-to-take-necessary-measures-if-NATO-military-potential-comes-closer-to-its-borders-envoy-0363/
Tuesday June 3, 2014 -NATO was and is a leading military organization in the European-Atlantic region – that is why, while developing cooperation with it in spheres of common interest, Russia paid special attention to ensuring appropriate defense levels amid any scenarios, Russia’s Permanent Representative to NATO Alexander Grushko told Interfax.
“It is known that in military affairs potentials, not intentions – which, as the latest events have shown, can change – and are taken into account. That is why if we see that new NATO arrangements regarding Russia are implemented in relevant actions of military construction and are manifested in shifting NATO’s military potential towards the ‘eastern wing,’ we will take measures necessary so that Russia’s security is not affected by this,” Grushko said in an interview ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers on June 3-4 and due to NATO-Russia Council meeting, first one since March 5.
“Having suspended cooperation with Russia, NATO inflicted damage firstly to international efforts to neutralize security risks and threats common for everyone, and thus, to its own security,” Grushko said.
Russia’s possible withdrawal from the Founding Act on its relations with NATO is just one of the options Moscow is considering as a reaction to NATO’s planned permanent deployment of large military forces in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia’s permanent envoy to NATO said on Monday.
“We’ll just see and study what the ministers decide,” Alexander Grushko told Interfax in reference to a planned meeting in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday of NATO defense ministers.
“But if it is additional deployment of substantial NATO combat forces in Central and Eastern Europe that is on the agenda – we can hear appeals to that effect, – such deployments, even if they are based on rotation, will hardly be qualifiable as a direct departure from commitments under fundamental Russia-NATO documents, including the Founding Act,” Grushko said.
He said rotation is not the key criterion in the assessment of a combat potential. It is the permanent presence or absence of armed forces in a region that matters, he argued.
Why there is no Russian military intervention in the Ukraine
_http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/06/translation-of-must-read-article-of.html?m=1
The Vineyard of the Saker
Posted on worldcrisis.ru 30 Май 22:19
опубликовал Сухов боец красной армии [suho]
Let’s return to problems directly related to Ukraine and note that even the implementation of all the important foreign policy projects will not help in carrying out the denazification of Kiev and make it so that Russian troops or rebel army of Novorossia would by greeted with bread and salt even in the central region. If the army of Novorossia has problems with mobilization in Lugansk and Donetsk, then work within the zombified regions will be very, very difficult. However, it seems that on the side of the Russian Federation on the field of battle will soon appear Colonel Hunger and the Special Forces Giperok (“Hyperinflation”), which will dramatically change the balance of power.
The Ukrainian economy is finished. Given the disastrous spring sowings, the crops of vegetables destroyed (frozen), lack of credit, problems with gas, the jump in fuel prices, we can safely say that the economy will come as a northern beast, which will be full and fluffy. No one will give money to the junta, not even from the IMF, which promised something around $17 billion (exactly 50% of what Ukraine needs for this year), but built into the contract an “escape clause”: if Kiev does not control all the regions, then Kiev is not to receive a cent. Hunger, cold and hyperinflation (caused by the collapse of the hryvnia) will actively work to weaken the junta and correct the minds of the “generous” (shchirykh) Ukrainians: they will surely not come to love Russia, but this is hardly necessary. It is necessary that they begin to remember the Yanukovych period as sweet, unattainable dream. The inevitable chaos and total collapse of social structures, coupled with low intensity civil war guarantees that NATO will not accept Ukraine since Europe will then itself “be on the rails”, and even in the U.S., more or less moderate politicians will not make a move, which obviously would not lead to U.S. victory, but to the dragging of the country into a nuclear war.
Moreover, in the context of total economic collapse, for the miners, metal workers and other comrades who are now firmly glued to their jobs for fear of losing them and hoping to “ride it all in their huts on the edge (of the precipice)”, there will no longer be such a possibility. They will have to participate in one form or another, in the political and economic problems of New Russia. And likely they will have to participate in arms.
At the same time, the-junta-named-Poroshenko, foisted (on the country) by the European Union, will have a strong incentive to negotiate with Moscow to make concessions, to offer compromises. Already, the new European Commission, which needs peace in the east and stable gas transit, will be pushing Poroshenko in this direction. Poroshenko will also be pushed in the same direction by social upheavals caused by Colonel Hunger and Hyperinflation the Saboteur.
All these factors, in sum, open up great opportunities for the Kremlin to reformat the former Ukraine into something appropriate to the interests of the Russian Federation. It is precisely this scenario that the United States is attempting to avoid, and it is because of this that the United States has serious reasons to accelerate the translation of the conflict into a hot phase with the use of troops and massive bloodshed.
If you add up the time that is needed for the action of Hunger and the time required to resolve foreign policy problems in terms of establishing work with China, Iran, untethering from the dollar, import substitution, etc. (very roughly) can come to the conclusion that you need somewhere 5-9 months (that same December, for which Yanukovych tried to negotiate) to provide solutions to Ukrainian and other issues to the maximum advantage of Russia. During this period, you must provide at least for the preservation of Ukraine in a state of civil war (i.e., support for the DNR, LNR, but it is not necessary to take Kiev too fast in order not to create unnecessary additional problems) and ideally, combined with the civil war, prolonged and sticky negotiations within Ukraine, with the participation of international observers, something like 2 +4 format, i.e., Poroshenko + Tsarev + Russia, EU, OSCE, USA.
The final touch. In recent months, the U.S. has slowed down the work of its printing press, reducing the “pump-priming” (this especially simplifies the formulation) from 85 to 55 billion dollars a month. Very many expect (e.g. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/27/us-usa-fed-idUSBREA3Q08920140427), that the machine will turn off completely by the end of this year. Again, in that same December. This is due to the fact that the dollar, though it is the main international currency, cannot be printed endlessly – it is impossible. According to various estimates, the United States has almost entirely used up the “resource strength” of the dollar which allowed them to do the naughty with the (financial) machine. Moreover, the corollary and inevitable effect of such tricks is reducing rates on U.S. bonds, which, on the one hand, helps Washington to pay less for its debts, but, on the other hand, is actually choking the entire U.S. pension and insurance system that is built on the expectation of very different returns from their portfolios bonds. Roughly speaking, by the end of the year, the U.S. will have a choice between to blowing up their social system in order to keep on printing, or greatly reducing their appetites in order to preserve any chance of stability at home. Judging by the reduction in the amount of dollars being thrown into the system, Washington has decided that preventing an explosion is more important than its foreign policy ambitions.
Now to complete the puzzle finally, let’s make our predictions:
- America will try by all means to aggravate the crisis in Ukraine, in order to weaken Russia and put the whole European market under its sway before it needs to shut down its printing presses.
- The Kremlin will try to translate the crisis in Ukraine from the acute to the chronic phase – civil war plus sluggish negotiations amid the economic collapse of Ukraine. At the same time, the Kremlin will use the time to create favorable conditions for the transition to the sharp confrontation with the United States – from the work on untethering from the dollar with China, Iran, Qatar, creating the EEC etc.
- Complete end to the crisis in December 2014, possibly earlier if U.S. desists from trying to exacerbate the hostilities.
- And if it does not desist? - Then … a big war … a war for resources, because shale “boom” was an ordinary bubble.
On this subject in detail in the article by William Engdahl “Washington shale boom – bust”. Original Washington’s Shale Boom Going Bust http://journal-neo.org/2014/05/12/washington-s-shale-boom-going-bust/
