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Showing posts with label MH17. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MH17. Show all posts

Saturday, August 2, 2014

The V4 Must Help Ukraine Win its Struggle for a Democratic Future



In the near future I will be having guest posts from contacts I have globally. The first of these guest posts is below.

By Volodomyr Valkov


In November 2013 Ukraine was peacefully preparing to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union at the Vilnius summit. Back then it would have probably been considered an absolute hallucinating nonsense to say that in just several months Ukraine would be swallowed by the murder of civilians, outright annexation, terrorism, military conflict, missile fire, and crashing planes.

In a matter of a few months Russia has stolen a huge part of Ukraine’s territory, forever introduced the reality of terrorism into the hearts of many Ukrainians, orchestrated a separatist movement in eastern Ukraine, and started the process of creating two grotesque breakaway republics known as the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic. The most recent and most somber consequence of this political whirlwind is the tragic loss of lives in the downing of flight MH17.

There are important conclusions that we need to draw from the crisis in Ukraine. First, Russia (as in Vladimir Putin and his circle) has zero tolerance for the democratization of the post-Soviet space, especially in neighboring Ukraine. After all, Ukraine transports 80% of Russian gas to Europe, is the second largest buyer of Russian gas after Germany, has over 1,800 defense enterprises – some of which have unique capabilities in the indigenous production of ships, submarines, missiles, and other armaments – and possesses valuable human capital and large reserves of fertile land, important minerals, and natural resources.

All of Ukraine’s assets would be easy to control if Viktor Yanukovych had stayed in power. Yanukovych and his pro-Russian successors were supposed to oversee Ukraine’s accession to the Eurasian Union. Yanukovych almost completely eroded Ukraine’s defense potential, maintained Ukraine’s astronomic energy inefficiency, increased the presence of Russia’s military base in Crimea, amended the Constitution to usurp power, limited civil liberties, and was about to sell Russia control over the Ukrainian gas transport system.

The second lesson is that international security is a fragile concept. A difficult conflict can develop very quickly, affecting many more states that the warring parties themselves. The shocking way in which the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 has rapidly affected many different countries is a demonstration of the unpredictable, gruesome nature of conflict in a globalized, interconnected world. In a matter of days, the supposedly limited conflict has instantaneously spilled over to the Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Great Britain, South Africa, the United States, Canada, and Germany.

Most likely, even the Russian side did not anticipate that the MH17 disaster could have ever been produced by terrorists under its control. Nevertheless, Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, and the ideological and material sponsorship of the military fighting in eastern parts of Ukraine, including the supply of sophisticated weaponry to these terrorists, has irresponsibly claimed the lives of too many innocent people.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has been given different names, including hybrid war and proxy war. The main point is that it is, in fact, a war. Currently, the war is limited, but the fate of MH17 demonstrates the susceptibility of this war to expansion.

The countries of the V4 must take important lessons from this tragedy. Their own experience of Soviet rule and thus a deeper understanding of Putin’s actions, must serve as a constant reminder that only a democratic, united, and independent Ukraine can be a reliable, secure, and beneficial neighbor and partner. The V4 need to pass this knowledge along with foreign and security policy recommendations over to the rest of Europe and their allies in order to help Ukraine win its struggle for a democratic future.


Volodymyr Valkov is a human rights activist, researcher, and political analyst, as well as a project manager at the American Jewish Ukrainian Bureau for Human Rights “UCSJ” in Lviv, Ukraine. He holds an MA in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.


This piece originally appeared at: Visegrad/Insight


I hope you enjoyed reading this guest's post and look forward to having more of his material in the future.

Vasyl Pawlowsky Independent Consultant

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Day of International Criminal Justice and Putin Continues Committing Crimes


July 17 marks the day that the Rome Statute was signed and thus chosen as the Day of International Criminal Justice. The Rome Statute established the International Criminal Court on this day in 1998, and by July 1, 2002 it had entered into force. Somehow after the terrible atrocities of the early and mid -twentieth century the world had forgotten about things like genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. As a result of such crimes in Rwanda and in the Balkans eventually 122 states have signed and ratified this Statute.

As off 2012 Ukraine had signed but still not ratified the Rome Statute, and with no doubt in my mind this gerrymandering of the part of the Yanukovych criminal regime for: On 4 April 2012, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine told the President of the International Criminal Court that "Ukraine intends to join the Rome Statute once the necessary legal preconditions have been created in the context of the upcoming review of the country’s constitution. No doubt it didn't because of Yanukovych diddling with Ukraine's constitution. I hope President Poroshenko and the current government ratify this document for at this point it could play in their favour.

Russia, is also a signatory of the Statute and probably never want to ratify it, as it is one of the largest perpetrators of crimes against neighbouring states, ethnic groups and much since the demise of the Soviet Union, which was just as fictional and deceitful as the Romanov Dynasty! And the murders of countless more people than Hitler, Pol Pot, and the scums in Rwanda and Srebrenica.

The Hail of Terror

Since Poroshenko's election on May 25, 2014 some serious inroads have been made in liberating territories held by Moscovy backed and its citizen terrorists in the East of the country. Ukraine's crowd funded and primarily volunteer military forces together with what remains of Ukraine's regular forces have been taking on heavily Moscow operatives in the East of Ukraine and they are doing an incredible job.

Many can't understand why, because they have been so suckled at the teat of living in a democracy they will never understand what it is to fight for your nation and its freedom. The patriot volunteers and many who have died are young, they have experienced the non-Soviet ideology and its freedom. This in itself is one of the crowning factors of which represented the Euromaidan over the Orange (R)evolution. While I have not been a proponent of Ukrainians dying to defend their country against foreigners, I have definitely stated in the past that Ukraine would not become a nation without a bloody revolution!

As many of these young heroes pushed the Moscovite citizen shit-disturbers out of their strongholds of Slovyansk, those same scum decided to run towards to Donetsk! Though let's remember who these people running from Slovyansk to Donetsk are... and sorry brother where to hell did they get their armour?

However, for some time now these so called Russian Separatists who are in fact led by a Russian citizen by the name of Strelkov, he is a Russian Intelligence Operative who has caused a hell of a lot of fucking problems in Ukraine. I don't apologize for cursing.... I like every single citizen of the world has the reason to be totally pissed off with the international community for being a little more than “gravely concerned about the situation in Ukraine!”

With the flight of so-called Russian-Separatists by lazy-arsed Western media from Slovyansk, most forgot about one critical little element that these Russian/Mosovite citizens had in their possession? Let me remind you all! It's known as Grad, which means “hail”!

As the Moscovite forces began their retreat from various cities they decided that it was time to really show their masculine potential as fighters! So they used what is know as an Multiple Launch Rocket System - also known in that part of the world as “Grad”. Consequently this weapon system has been known for some time in the international arena as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. It even stems back to the Sino-Russian War from what friends of mine in the Former Soviet Union tell me. It would have been one thing to use such weapons against military targets, but as all good “terrorists” do they decided to aim their rockets against civilian residential areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. So just what is it like to have the their wonderful “hail” beseech you? This what rockets fired from such a MRLS do:


The result of Grad Fire in the Marynka district of Donetsk. Image from  The Day. http://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=wGwlqv6F13DNMM&tbnid=nQsYqvsfJaVaGM:&ved=0CAQQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.day.kiev.ua%2Fru%2Fnews%2F120714-v-marinke-i-donecke-terroristy-obstrelivayut-zhilye-kvartaly&ei=yM7KU8SlHs6WyATl64DgCw&bvm=bv.71198958,d.aWwpsig=AFQjCNHoQOmbv2 GR7uPdlq5YFtNo-9QxYA&ust=1405886533871830The Day.
The result of Grad Fire in the Marynka district of Donetsk. Image from The Day.


Crimes of Sexual Aggression


Though this has not been the first of their heroic good deeds. They have constantly used women and children as human shields. And more recently they have been capturing young women and holding them captive as sex slaves. “To help their soldiers relax!” While this may have been acceptable during the times of Genghis Khan, and other so called states derived from such an ideology, this is not accepted international practice. Don't forget Moscovia never was pillaged as Kyiv was. Because its leaders became prostitutes of the Khan.

In short they licked and sucked anything to not be punished by the Mongol Golden Horde! While their older brother in Kyiv bore the brunt of aggression.

The idea of having someone subservient to you became a tradition of the little Mongol cock suckers who became, due to identity theft – Russians, from the word Rus'. Let's simply look at the Russian word for marriage... Brak.. where to hell in a Slavic world would that word exist. Look up the word Brak in Wikipedia.. and tell me what does it give you: Moscovite bullshit. And then look up the Ukrainian word Shliub (Шлюб) and you will very quickly understand the difference in value systems between Moscovy and Ukraine.

It is really time for the West to look at the lies that Moscovy has been feeding to the West over the last 400 plus years. It seems that in Moscovite history it has always been OK in treating women like dirt. The scum bags who believe this history continue to do so.

World wake up! Putin is directly responsible for the illegal anexxation of Crimea, and the criminal destabilization in the East of Ukraine and a totally crazy propaganda war that has to be understood by the West and its journalists.

I am sure it can not be proven at the moment, but if the criminal Putin has anything to do with this behaviour, and he and all those who controls it have to be tried at the ICC! There is no doubt in my mind! And there should not be in any humane individual's mind either.

Those who are holding these young women along with their commander in chief Vladimir Putin must be tried at International Criminal Court for these crimes. Justice must be served and Putin's proxy Russian Army including traitors of Ukraine like Oleh Tsariov must be arrested for crimes against women in particular and humanity in general.


Media Response
Finally, the death of innocent civilians has brought some interest to the conflict, clearly instigated by Moscovia. So World what are you going to do now? I hope you do not play the Neville Chamberlain;s role. For the most part the West has sat on the bench at the side of the field. “It's not my problem!”

“Oh goodness we are gravely troubled by the situation in Ukraine!”

A typical lame and political response. Every single politician who was just then gravely concerned should now feel for the loss of innocent lives. Most politicians in most parts of the world still remain full of shit.
Such responses unfortunately are widespread.
Media response to this tragic event is dependent on local communities understating the bigger picture. This is a terrible abrogation of law, and procedure.

The first media outline who was on the murder scene was no doubt, one of Moscovy's Monkeys. LiesNews which is officially known as LifeNews. Though this outlet together with Moscovy's major propaganda machine in the West known as Russia Today, which should be re-branded as Rarely Truthful TV, and other Prostitutes of Putin reported the strangest theory of why flight MH 17 crashed and who was at fault.

It really was from the world of Alice in Wonderland, and as if poisoned like the Mad Hatter himself, who made the following claim: “It was the Ukrainian Army which had tried to down the Moscovite equivalent of “Air force One” in order to kill Putin.” Who was after all on a flight from Warsaw to Moscow.

The reaction of the majority of Western media in the firsts hours was extremely cautious. Particularly small media outlets without the staff in the know of current events in Ukraine. Though what they have to stop doing is calling this group of Russian terrorists led by Strelkov a Russian citizen and Military Operative in Ukraine, pro-Russian separatists; when the majority of these individuals are citizens not of Ukraine but of Russia. I know, they stopped teaching logic in North America sometime in the early 1960s so it is not my fault that many journos in Canada or the USA can't put two and two together, particularly those working mainstream media.

Sweep up operations


Two days have passed since this horrific event. Plenty of people have asked the question why fly over a war zone. The fact is that it happens every day! I'm not an aviation specialist but worked in the aerospace sector during the 1990s and it was pretty common for commercial airliners to be cruising at an altitude of 10 km or somewhere between 33,000 and 34,000 ft, and it is no different today. The real question they should be asking is who gave a so called rag-tag team of pro-Russian Separatists in the East of Ukraine the armaments capable of striking a target at 33,000 feet? Again I will say this for Western journos, these are not pro-Russian operatives with Russian citizenship sent to Ukraine to destabilize Ukraine. In short take a lead from your fellow Ukrainian journos who have been calling them what they are for a few months now. I guess as long as it is not in your back yard you will go with what Moscovy feeds out to you.

Journalists in the west have to stop listening to the overly cautious individuals in the field and on the ground. In addition they have to stop regurgitating anything coming from official sources in Moscow. The very Russophile journalists in France are doing this continuously, take the example of the journos who's country is under attack by a war mongering neighbour, known as the Russian Federation but to me it is Moscovy. If yo don't know why take a look here a some of the lies Moscow has made up over the last 400 years.

Let's not forget that Putin is and sill is a KGB officer. Any operation he undertakes requires some sweeping up. It is tragic that the world has forgotten his operations in Beslan, the Nord-Ost theatre, destruction of apartments in Moscow to justify more war in Chechnya, and the invasion of Georgia “to protect fellow Russians” while the world focused on the Beijing Olympics. In providing the advance weapons system to his operatives in the east of Ukraine, he very well knew that he would have to also hide or destroy as much of the evidence as possible. Once KGB, always KGB.

As the first of OSCE teams arrived on site of the crash they were given a bit more than cooperation by Putin's backed terrorists in accessing the crash site. One of the scum-lords from the terrorists known as “Grumpy” did not let the OSCE team approach the site, and according to reports after a warning shot was fired the team departed. However, the sweep up operations of the actually incident happened a lot earlier. It started happening on social media very shortly after the terrorists realized they had shot down a civilian plane.


There was an immediate attempt on social media to destroy any evidence that a civilian plane had been downed. This is very well covered in an article in the Guardian and I am not going to cover this here. But the facts do speak for themselves.


My good friend and former Ukrainian journalist on his site notes that right now only “192 bodies have been recovered so far (19:00 GMT, July 19) and they are being transported to Kharkiv for identification.” However there are reports that terrorists took 39 corpses to destroy evidence (wounds from the missile attack).”


In such sweep up operations it is clear that Putin will do everything in his evil power to ensure that no one in the international community will have access to the “black boxes”. This should not surprise anyone at all, but it should be a rallying cry for the civilized world to do everything possible to do as much damage as possible to this cretin who operates along the lines of the Golden Horde which his ancient predecessors so love to kiss ass in order to be in favour with them.


It is due time that all evidence of this manical miscreant be gathered and that he and of of his Monkeys of Moscow face their day before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, and face international criminal justice.


Vasyl Pawlowsky Independent Consultant
The commentary of this was first published on the WPawlowsky.com site.