Civil War in Ukraine: Western Empire vs Russia

[thorbiorn]

More videos about children in the Donbass area:

[...]

Thank you, thorbiorn. Those videos are all heart-breaking. The Russian SOTT article is ready (not sure if you speak Russian, but if so, you might wish to read it). I also added there the info from the UN, the Russian Child Ombudsman, the UNICEF and from newspapers: Russian Vzglyad and British The Sunday Times.

It probably also worth making another similar article on this subject later using these other videos that you provided above: it worth reminding people of the most bitter sufferings of any war.

Thank you Siberia, great job. Though I'm not at all perfect in Russian, I read it and hope many will read and watch the article.

 

[Aeneas]

Thank you, thorbiorn. Those videos are all heart-breaking. The Russian SOTT article is ready (not sure if you speak Russian, but if so, you might wish to read it). I also added there the info from the UN, the Russian Child Ombudsman, the UNICEF and from newspapers: Russian Vzglyad and British The Sunday Times.

It probably also worth making another similar article on this subject later using these other videos that you provided above: it worth reminding people of the most bitter sufferings of any war.

Great article! As you say the suffering and consequences of war are wideranging and those children impacted by it will never recognise Ukraine, but instead hold the junta responsible for their stolen childhood.

An English Sott article about it is on the way.

 

[thorbiorn]

The following analyst may have a point:

A former NATO intelligence analyst has said that the crisis in Ukraine stems from as far back as 30 years when the United States "deliberately sabotaged" relations between Europe and Russia.

The current crisis in Ukraine stems from as far back as 1986, when the United States saw an opportunity to model itself as the new single world superpower at the close of the Cold War and saw friendly Russian overtures to Western Europe as a threat.

Lieutenant Commander (Retd.) Martin Packard, a former NATO intelligence analyst said: "The real ending of the Cold War was in 1986, when the USSR's leadership resolved on a five-year programme to move to a parliamentary democracy and market economy. The intention in Moscow was to use that period to achieve a progressive convergence with the EU."
[...]

In an earlier post I mentioned the United Arab Emirates as a suplier of weapons to Ukraine, and today I found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IqB2LAkdA according to which Tony Blair will become an advisor to the head of the Serbian Governement and the bill will be paid by .... UAE. My point is that the UAE seems to be aligned with the US-UK interests to quite a strong degree.

For those who get dismembered in the war in Ukraine perhaps the following video could be an inspiration, it is a woman, Brazilian probably, who manages her daily life with her feet https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=952511478109608&fref=nf

 

[Jeremy F Kreuz]

Update on the planned march 1st demonstration in Moscow - the city council has approved it - location will be in the southeastern district of Moscow, not in the center as first was requested.

Moscow City Hall and representatives of the opposition coalition Solidarity agreed to hold the rally named ‘Spring Anti-Crisis March’ on March 1 in the district of Maryino in the southeast of the city, the head of the Moscow Directorate for Regional Security, Aleksey Mayorov, told reporters.

Navalny will not be present:

The Spring March will take place without the key opposition figure – founder of the Party of Progress and renowned anti-corruption blogger Aleksey Navalny. On February 19, a district court in Moscow ordered the activist be placed under administrative arrest for 15 days over repeated violations of the law on public political events.

This seems sound policy - allow the demonstration to take place but install measures to avoid manipulation of the event into a Maidan.

Quotes from RT : http://rt.com/politics/235315-russian-opposition-rally-moscow/

 

[Jeremy F Kreuz]

great analogy made by Nikolai Starikov: ukraine as a soccerball in a geopolitical football game

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AvwzQ53NtrXQCgYwBO4myVibvZx4?fr=yfp-t-901-s&toggle=1&fp=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&p=nikolai%20starikov%20nikolay

 

[thorbiorn]

It is almost a year since Crimea decided to leave Ukraine.

Recently someone found an old clip from 1993 about the sentiments in Crimea, because already at that time radical Ukrainian nationalism was being promoted.

Crimean residents protest against forced Ukranization in lost footage from 1993 (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pCT7DwPUlbk
February 24, 2015
Russia 1
Translated by Kristina Rus

Now you will see unique footage filmed 21 years ago. The program was called "The Russian World" and talked about the struggle of Sevastopol residents against the forced ukranization for the right to speak and think in the native language.

Summer 1993, one of the first rallies in Sevastopol next to the Nakhimov monument. The city residents are outraged by the attempts of the official Kiev to impose new heroes, like Stephan Bandera and to root out any reminder of Russia and Russian history in Crimea. Then there were also tears, but tears of despair.

- Sevastopol is a historically Russian city. I cannot talk about it without tears, HOW can Sevastopol be Ukrainian? This is our RUSSIAN city! Let Ukrainians, Tatars, anyone live here, but as long as the world exists - it has been a Russian city!

- I have lived in Sevastopol since 1979. I served 27 years in the Navy, and we will not give up our fleet and Sevastopol to the Bandera thugs!

- The government and the people are on their own. The wishes of the people are not taken into account at all. Now they want to impose this Trident on us. Why to they want to force something on us that we do not want? We just want peace! Of course we have nothing to argue about with the Ukrainian people, it is all - the government. And we are suffering.

A real shock for the Sevastopol residents was the unwritten order from the Ukrainian authorities to remove the word "Russian" from the daily life. By orders from Kiev even the packaging of the popular pelmeni was turned inside out to hide the Russian name of the product "Russian Pelmeni". Russian vodka was only allowed to be sold with the label in Ukrainian language "Rossijska Gorilka"

Families of Black Sea fleet officers were receiving letters from Ukrainian nationalists with threats and demands to get out of Crimea:

"Crimea will be Ukrainian or deserted. And all of you will be khokhlonized [Khokhol means "Ukrainian"] until the last of you! So you should forget about your Moskal habits! Remember, creepers, and tell your children, that we, the Ukrainians will fight until the last drop of blood of our enemies! RUH!"

Official publication of the Ukrainian Navy was overwhelmed by a wave of insults addressed to those officers who wanted to serve Russia. Here is a fragment from the official article from the newspaper "Ukrainian Horizons":

"For 200 year the Andreev flag has covered the rot of the Russian empire, now they want to cover with it the cretinism of the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States]. Enough!"

The commander of the Ukrainian Navy Boris Kozhin has shocked the city residents with his first speech in Sevastopol:

"The education of Ukrainian navy men should incorporate the emerging Ukrainian nationalism. Ukrainian nationalism is an expression of patriotism, a bright and kind concept!"

The multi-national Sevastopol took these words as some kind of cave barbarity. Although back then in 1993 Sevastopol residents could not imagine in their worst nightmare that in some 20 years, nurtured on the kind and bright concepts of Ukrainian nationalism, Nazis from the Right Sector and Svoboda party will openly call for butchering the residents of Crimea as separatists and representatives of the enemy diaspora.

- I am Russian by nationality, my mother is Russian, my dad is Ukrainian. We have Jewish, Russian and Tatar friends. We never knew about this nationalism, which is being imposed on us. We were always friends, and sang Ukrainian and Russian songs at the table. And never pointed a finger at people of other nationalities.

An apotheosis of nationalistic stupor was a special conference of Kiev and Western Ukrainian historians dedicated to the history of the Black Sea fleet. One of the reports stated that the first submarine was invented not by the Dutch or the French, but by Zaporozhian cossacks. As if back in the 18th century they carried out raids to Crimea in under-water canoes covered with leather and soaked in resin. Therefore the Ukrainian fleet is older then Russian, and there should not be any Russian navy base in Sevastopol.

- My wife is Ukrainian. My mother is Ukrainian and my father is Russian. But I don't understand this Ukrainian nationalist policy.
Our Black Sea fleet officers don't understand this. We want peace, and we want to be with Russia! Because Sevastopol is a sacred land, and only Sevastopol residents can understand this. And I want to address all the Russian people: don't abandon us, and we will not betray you!!!

And they didn't, they persevered and won!

Alexey Denisov especially for the program "Vesti of the Week"


Kristina Rus:

Incidentally I was in Sevastopol and Crimea in 1993, I was very young and did not care for politics, but nothing led me to believe that it was Ukraine, to me it felt like Russia!

PS As one Russian analyst noted, when after the break up of the Soviet Union the Ukrainian and the so called neutral or pro-Russian elites were dividing the power, the most sought after spheres were business, natural resources and economy. In order to give pro-Ukrainians "something" to keep them satisfied, they were given education and culture at their disposal, which they had used to the fullest!

Naturally the Eastern Ukrainian elites (such as Yanukovich) could always rely on the Eastern Ukrainian population for support without giving much in return, as the alternative of Western Ukrainian nationalists was horrifying to the pro-Russian population. Likely this led to complacency on the part of the "pro-Russian" elites, since both pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian elites, were first of all "pro-profit", and just played on the antagonizing national issues to gain votes.

As the Galician ideology spread to Central Ukraine, the Central Ukrainian elites realized that they cannot capitalize on the shrinking pro-Russian sentiment, as it was firmly behind the Donbass elites, and sold themselves and the country for the Ukrainian nationalism, gaining support in the West and helping spread this ideology to Central Ukraine, therefore gaining more electorate.

With every Russian and Ukrainian who denounced their allegiance to Russia and embraced Ukrainian nationalism, the Central and Western Ukrainian elites took another vote away from the South-Eastern elites.

Since Western Ukraine has largely been more rural and agricultural, most Ukrainian oligarchs had emerged in the industrial East and Central Ukraine, and the battle of Ukrainian elites centered between Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk.

In 1993 I stayed some time in Simferopol and was told about the struggle for more independence from Kiev and the Ukrainian mainland.

Next fast forward to 2014. Buses from Crimea had gone to Kiev to protest against the Maidan, which they apparently felt were not to their benefit at all. On the way back the busses were stopped by people from Right Sector, passengers were ordered out, beaten, abused, some tortured, killed and the busses were burned. When they came backt to Crimea many more people realized that the situation was not promising at all. You can read the long version here http://fortruss.blogspot.dk/2015/02/korsun-massacre-anniversary-what-really.html , where there is a link to what understand is a documentary or film based on eyewitness accounts according to http://igcp.eu/novosti/crimea-state-council-holds-presentation-igcp-film-korsun-pogrom?language=en

 

[thorbiorn]

Here is another post about the history of Crimea. It is a lette from someone who was around in 1992 during the 1st Crimean referendum:
The earliest Russian version of the following translation is from http://denisov-vadim.livejournal.com/82471.html July 3, 2014 in which it begins with, (translated into English):

"Lyudmila Surikov
Repost"

Here is the translation of the remaining part:

Translated by Kristina Rus
"I, as a native of Feodosia will answer you:

I remember 1992 very well, 1st Crimean referendum, when Crimea revolted and wanted to sail to Russia and how a state of emergency was introduced, and Berkut was brought from Western Ukraine on armored personnel carriers. As they stood at each intersection with Kalashnikov's and put anyone face first in the dust, whom they didn't like. How they pulled over cars and threw on the pavement all the contents of the trunks, tore the covers from doors and ripped the seats. Why? Just because. For fun. How they dispersed the march to Simferopol in defense of the First President of Crimea, Meshkov, firing from automatic weapons above the heads. How the Russian officers left with tears in their eyes, who did not want to live under Ukraine. Remember how they forced to wear vyshyvanochki [Ukrainian national shirts] on the first day of school, and forced our children to learn mova [Ukrainian language]. How they shut off Russian TV channels and planted their corrupt appointees. How they cut a hundred year-old rosary in the Nikitsky Botanical garden and built villas for Kiev bozos, and made gates to the garden to walk their dogs.

And how did we suddenly become traitors? How can you betray the occupiers? From occupiers one can only be freed. And about God and Karma, this is what's happening now. My ancestors who shed blood for Crimea and Sevastopol, would not allow for the treacherous Ukry to sell my native Crimea to pindoses [Americans] for their base.
WE WILL STARVE, AS LONG AS WE ARE WITHOUT YOU!!!"

In the version from July 3 2014, the last line is in normal letters and without exclamtion marks. It seems to me this is a more credible layout. The reason for the last sentence is possibly that Crimea does not have a lot of water, and used to get a lot of foodstuffs from the mainland.

 

[Altair]

Here is another post about the history of Crimea. It is a lette from someone who was around in 1992 during the 1st Crimean referendum:
The earliest Russian version of the following translation is from http://denisov-vadim.livejournal.com/82471.html July 3, 2014 in which it begins with, (translated into English):

"Lyudmila Surikov
Repost"

Here is the translation of the remaining part:

Translated by Kristina Rus
"I, as a native of Feodosia will answer you:

I remember 1992 very well, 1st Crimean referendum, when Crimea revolted and wanted to sail to Russia and how a state of emergency was introduced, and Berkut was brought from Western Ukraine on armored personnel carriers. As they stood at each intersection with Kalashnikov's and put anyone face first in the dust, whom they didn't like. How they pulled over cars and threw on the pavement all the contents of the trunks, tore the covers from doors and ripped the seats. Why? Just because. For fun. How they dispersed the march to Simferopol in defense of the First President of Crimea, Meshkov, firing from automatic weapons above the heads. How the Russian officers left with tears in their eyes, who did not want to live under Ukraine. Remember how they forced to wear vyshyvanochki [Ukrainian national shirts] on the first day of school, and forced our children to learn mova [Ukrainian language]. How they shut off Russian TV channels and planted their corrupt appointees. How they cut a hundred year-old rosary in the Nikitsky Botanical garden and built villas for Kiev bozos, and made gates to the garden to walk their dogs.

And how did we suddenly become traitors? How can you betray the occupiers? From occupiers one can only be freed. And about God and Karma, this is what's happening now. My ancestors who shed blood for Crimea and Sevastopol, would not allow for the treacherous Ukry to sell my native Crimea to pindoses [Americans] for their base.
WE WILL STARVE, AS LONG AS WE ARE WITHOUT YOU!!!"

In the version from July 3 2014, the last line is in normal letters and without exclamtion marks. It seems to me this is a more credible layout. The reason for the last sentence is possibly that Crimea does not have a lot of water, and used to get a lot of foodstuffs from the mainland.

Сurrently Crimea is completely blocked from the mainland: no water from Dnjepr channel, no foodstuffs and no public transport between from the side of Ukraine.

 

[angelburst29]

great analogy made by Nikolai Starikov: ukraine as a soccerball in a geopolitical football game

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AvwzQ53NtrXQCgYwBO4myVibvZx4?fr=yfp-t-901-s&toggle=1&fp=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&p=nikolai%20starikov%20nikolay

The geopolitical mess in Ukraine was planned that way, as far back as 30 years ago, if not more.

http://sputniknews.com/world/20150225/1018728748.html

The current crisis in Ukraine stems from as far back as 1986, when the United States saw an opportunity to model itself as the new single world superpower at the close of the Cold War and saw friendly Russian overtures to Western Europe as a threat.

Lieutenant Commander (Retd.) Martin Packard, a former NATO intelligence analyst said: “The real ending of the Cold War was in 1986, when the USSR’s leadership resolved on a five-year programme to move to a parliamentary democracy and market economy. The intention in Moscow was to use that period to achieve a progressive convergence with the EU.”

Packard was writing in response to the publication of a new book, ‘Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands’ by Richard Sakwa, in which the author argues that Mikhail Gorbachev saw the end of the Cold War as a shared victory which might lead to the building of a “common European home”.

However, Sakwa says the US promulgated the idea within Europe that Russia was a defeated nation that could be left isolated from Europe and the rest of the world if it did not accept the US as the single world superpower. He says it was the eastward expansion of NATO that lies at the root of the current crisis in Ukraine.

NATO’s Eastward March

Historically, NATO — heavily backed by the United States — has sought to spread its influence further eastward, despite an agreement after the reunification of Germany, that it would not encroach on the former Warsaw Pact nations. At the time, former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev was assured by (then) US Secretary of State James Baker there would be “no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction one inch to the east”.

Since then, the onward march of NATO eastward has continued unabashed with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Albania, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia all joining the Washington-led military coalition.

Deliberate Sabotage

Lieutenant Commander Packard, in a letter to The Guardian newspaper, said the failure to allow a Russian-European convergence in the late 1980s and the spread of NATO are at the centre of the crisis in Ukraine.

“There could have been huge benefits to Europe in such convergence, but the process was deliberately sabotaged by US intelligence agencies, working from the hypothesis that a tie-up between the EU and a democratic Russia would pose a major threat to American long-term economic interests.

“The chaos that we now have, and the distrust of America which motivates Russian policy, stems primarily from decisions taken in Washington 30 years ago.”

 

[thorbiorn]

[...]
Сurrently Crimea is completely blocked from the mainland: no water from Dnjepr channel, no foodstuffs and no public transport between from the side of Ukraine.

Thanks for the clarification, Altair.

Below is a video, in which students from Lugansk present the impressions and invite people to come and see for themselves.

https://youtu.be/f41x_S74cqA?feature=player_detailpageLugansk students invite everybody from around the world to visit and see everything for themselves

While it is true that the Minsk 2 has had some effect there is still a long way to go. According to the reports posted in Russian on https://vk.com/strelkov_info (Report from February 26: https://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_48846) there are still artillery duels here and there.

 

[Jeremy F Kreuz]

Installation of S300 ABMs around Odessa? One of the signs that the water is heating up and the frog is about to be boiled?

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/ukraine-prepares-attack-russia.html

Ukraine Prepares for an Attack Against Russia
Posted on February 27, 2015 by Eric Zuesse.

Eric Zuesse

The post-coup leaders of Ukraine have routinely said that Ukraine should destroy Russia; and, now, starting on February 24th, they are placing into position the key prerequisite for doing so, which is the advanced Anti-Ballistic-Missile, or ABM, system, S-300, which is described as follows by wikipedia:

“The S-300 is regarded as one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems currently fielded.[3] Its radars have the ability to simultaneously track up to 100 targets while engaging up to 12/24/36 targets. The S-300 deployment time is five minutes.[3] The S-300 missiles are sealed rounds and require no maintenance over their lifetime. An evolved version of the S-300 system is the S-400 (NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler), which entered limited service in 2004.”

The S-300 (otherwise called “SAM C-300”) is designed to protect against retaliation. The entire purpose of ABMs is to disable retaliation. In that sense, ABMs are the most aggressive weapons of all. They are specifically designed to prevent retaliation from a nation that has been attacked and that is responding by sending in its own bombers to retaliate.

Here is one report, February 24th, of installation of these ABMs, from the region near Odessa, including a photo of these weapons on a truck:

http://trassae95.com/all/news/2015/02/24/ot-chetyreh-do-shesti-kompleksov-raket-s-300-proehali-po-odesse-foto-20927.html

Here is another such report, with videos of the missile-systems being put into place, during the 24th and 25th of February:

http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/02/ukrainian-army-deploys-s-300s-in-odessa.html

The likeliest explanation of this would be that the new (ever since the February 2014 coup) anti-Russian Ukrainian Government intends to bring NATO in to invade Russia and to do this by provoking a limited attack from Russia that will then be repelled by these S-300s. After surviving Russia’s response, NATO would then claim Ukraine must be defended from Russia’s aggression; and, then, NATO would take over the task of eliminating Russia — which the present leaders of Ukraine (and their followers) have been very clear that they want to happen.

Other reasons for Ukraine’s positioning these ABMs ready for launch wouldn’t make sense, because the missiles won’t be usable except to block retaliation.

These missiles are purely ‘defensive’ weapons; but the Ukrainian Government isn’t waiting for U.S. President Obama to approve supplying other ‘defensive’ weapons to Ukraine; they’re moving forward with what they’ve already got.

It should also be noted, however, that Russia had set up S-300s in Crimea immediately prior to the 16 March 2014 referendum in Crimea on whether Crimea should return to Russia (of which Crimea had been a part during 1783-1954), or whether it should instead be ruled by the newly installed Ukrainian Government in Kiev. Russia said that this was being done then in order to deter the Ukrainian Air Force from bombing Crimea during the referendum — a referendum that Ukraine was trying to prevent and was threatening to block. Ukraine today might similarly be able to say that their new ABM installations are being done in order to prevent an imminent Russian air invasion into Ukraine.

Whether any ABM-installation can be said to be authentically defensive is thus a judgment that only each individual will make, based on that person’s estimation of the realistic likelihood that the country setting it up is authentically under threat of invasion at that particular moment in time. ABMs are against retaliatory weapons, but when is a threat real, against which are needed ABMs so as to justify the installation of such anti-weapons? If the threat of weapons from the other side is not real, then the threat of the anti-weapons against them is very real: it is then clearly preparation for launching an aggressive attack.

Consequently, whether a ‘defensive weapon’ is actually the most aggressive type of weapon — the preliminary to launching an attack — depends upon whether it is the preliminary to launching an attack, and only each individual observer can judge that question. Ukraine says that the referendum in Crimea was itself an attack against Ukraine. However, Ukraine did not set up ABMs at that time. They now are. Do they really believe that Russia is about to invade Ukraine? They have been saying, since the coup, that Russia is invading. The U.S. Government and its allies have seconded those allegations. But not until now is Ukraine actually preparing for such an invasion from Russia — or else preparing for its allies to launch an invasion of Russia.

 

[Altair]

The likeliest explanation of this would be that the new (ever since the February 2014 coup) anti-Russian Ukrainian Government intends to bring NATO in to invade Russia and to do this by provoking a limited attack from Russia that will then be repelled by these S-300s. After surviving Russia’s response, NATO would then claim Ukraine must be defended from Russia’s aggression; and, then, NATO would take over the task of eliminating Russia — which the present leaders of Ukraine (and their followers) have been very clear that they want to happen.

Other reasons for Ukraine’s positioning these ABMs ready for launch wouldn’t make sense, because the missiles won’t be usable except to block retaliation.

Technically it's possible to reprogramm S-300 missiles to hit ground targets (_http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20130514/181146715.html). Placing S-300 around Odessa to provoke an attack from Russia doesn't make much sense, IMO. Look at the map: where is Odessa and where is Russia. What is possible though is that PTBs are going to unfreeze the conflict in Transnistria (_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria#War_of_Transnistria) where many ethnic Russians live who decided to be separated from Moldova in 1990 as the people of Donbass decided to be separated from Ukraine in 2014. After the accession of Crimea in 2014 the head of the Transnistrian parliament asked to join the Russian Federation.

 

[Jeremy F Kreuz]

Technically it's possible to reprogramm S-300 missiles to hit ground targets (_http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20130514/181146715.html). Placing S-300 around Odessa to provoke an attack from Russia doesn't make much sense, IMO. Look at the map: where is Odessa and where is Russia. What is possible though is that PTBs are going to unfreeze the conflict in Transnistria (_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria#War_of_Transnistria) where many ethnic Russians live who decided to be separated from Moldova in 1990 as the people of Donbass decided to be separated from Ukraine in 2014. After the accession of Crimea in 2014 the head of the Transnistrian parliament asked to join the Russian Federation.

Maybe the placement of S300 AMB close to transniestre is some answer/threat to the Russian plan of selling the S300 to Iran? And then there is this news: Saudi Arabia to allow Israel use of its airspace to strike Iranµ.

http://rt.com/news/235923-saudis-airspace-israel-iran/

Elections in Israel are coming up soon - always a time for that regime to secure the popular vote by some slaughter/sacrifice.

 

[thorbiorn]

Installation of S300 ABMs around Odessa? One of the signs that the water is heating up and the frog is about to be boiled?

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/ukraine-prepares-attack-russia.html

Ukraine Prepares for an Attack Against Russia
Posted on February 27, 2015 by Eric Zuesse.

Eric Zuesse

The post-coup leaders of Ukraine have routinely said that Ukraine should destroy Russia; and, now, starting on February 24th, they are placing into position the key prerequisite for doing so, which is the advanced Anti-Ballistic-Missile, or ABM, system, S-300, which is described as follows by wikipedia:

“The S-300 is regarded as one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems currently fielded.[3] Its radars have the ability to simultaneously track up to 100 targets while engaging up to 12/24/36 targets. The S-300 deployment time is five minutes.[3] The S-300 missiles are sealed rounds and require no maintenance over their lifetime. An evolved version of the S-300 system is the S-400 (NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler), which entered limited service in 2004.”
[...]
Here is one report, February 24th, of installation of these ABMs, from the region near Odessa, including a photo of these weapons on a truck:

http://trassae95.com/all/news/2015/02/24/ot-chetyreh-do-shesti-kompleksov-raket-s-300-proehali-po-odesse-foto-20927.html
[...]

While the artcle mentions S-400, I do not understand what that has got to do with Ukraine as Ukraine does not appear to have them, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-400_%28missile%29 which is reasonable as they only were produced from 2004.

I'm not convinced that placing S-300s in Odessa could be taken to imply the possibility of an attack on Russia directly. The reason is that the S-300 series have a range in km for aerodynamic targets of up to 200(250)/400 while the range for ballistic targets is max 40 km according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-300_%28missile%29 And I would add that the description 200(250)/400 did not make too much sense to me, so I checked other languages for the same missile: On the Ukrainian wiki http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1-300 the max is listed as 200 (250) and on the Russian the max effective range for destroying a plane is 150 km https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1-300 The most likely effective range does not exceed 200 km.

Why would someone show off with S-300 in Odessa, when Russia is out of range when fired from Odessa? There could be various reasons including that they are to be shipped to another destination, or sold in exchange for hard currency or weapons which are more needed for the present situation. However it is also true that Odessa is very close to Transdniester in the Eastern part of Moldova and bordering Ukraine.

In Transdniester Russia has a huges stock of ammunition, and about 1500 soldiers. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/ogrv-moldova.htm
The OSCE is active in the area according to http://www.osce.org/moldova/ and http://www.osce.org/cio/139981
Edit: this post was made without reading all the new replies, but I leave as there is also some new angles

 

[Jeremy F Kreuz]

In Transdniester Russia has a huges stock of ammunition, and about 1500 soldiers. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/ogrv-moldova.htm

The huge stocks seem to be old soviet stocks. From the article from globalsecurity.

As of early 2010 Russia had 1,500 troops on Transnistrian territory. Most patrol peace jointly with Moldovan and Transnistrian soldiers and Ukrainian military observers. The rest stand guard around Soviet-era ammunition dumps.

But as there are real Russian soldiers, to target them would provoke Russia into a reaction, something that was not achieved by attacking the Donbass. Having a incident in Transniestre could be a next step, short of attacking directly the Russan territory.