Ukraine's faux ceasefire

It is difficult to follow events -but it is amazing to see Russian media pushing the line of the Ukrainian 'ceasefire' 'holding' when clearly it isn't.  It is amazing to see the Guardian to acknowledge, where a few short weeks ago they didn't even acknowledge a civil war was being fought, that not only is the DNR real, but they are winning!

There is no doubt that the real revolution occured, not on the Maidan in Kiev, but in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Putin is a deep conservative and upholder of the status quo and so is viscerally opposed to any revolution. It is said that the Kremlin insisted on the sacking of Strelkov. So Putin is negotiating a peace that gives wiggle room to the Kiev regime at a time when the rebels are winning.

It gives one pause to think.

In the meantime, Washington and NATO have their own agenda to promote chaos and mayhem and prevent peace and Kiev pretends that Russian has invaded to hide the disastrous military defeat.

Ukraine ceasefire holds for shaky peace to last

The ceasefire between the Ukrainian army and self-defense forces is “still shaky, but holds,” the OSCE stated. The fighters are still skeptical of the peace process, but they are hoping for the war to end.

RT,

8 August, 2014

“People who have never seen this think war is like TV. You watch and forget because there’s some entertainment show later. Here, everything is reality. Here, people are dying in front of your eyes,” one of the fighters nicknamed Gvozd told RT.

RT’s Paula Slier caught up with fighters in military barracks in eastern Ukraine. Many came to fight for the anti-government forces as volunteers, leaving their wives and children behind.

“Yesterday we buried a friend. He was killed when a tank fired from a hundred-meter distance. His nickname was electron, and the night before the battle, we sat together and smoked in the trench. In the morning, he died,” fighter Gvozd said.

War is a brutal reality facing all the fighters, and they don’t see a quick end to the violence and deaths – there have been too many.

“The Ukrainian army… I am ashamed of their actions. We didn’t come to western Ukraine and begin destroying what they built. They came to our land,” another fighter, nicknamed Svarnoy, said.

Not everyone, however, is desperate. A militiaman nicknamed Antonio said that he believes the truce will hold.

For more watch Paula Slier’s report

As the truce holds shakily, the Kiev government accused the self-defense forces of sporadic fighting in Mariupol overnight.

The ceasefire came into effect on Friday evening, and is part of a peace roadmap aimed at ending the bloody conflict, which has killed over 3,000 people during the last five months.

Part of the peace plan calls for an exchange of prisoners of war and the self-defense forces maintain the “all-for-all” exchange is going to happen.

"Overall the ceasefire held even though it is still shaky," Ambassador Thomas Greminger of Switzerland, the current chair of the OSCE told Reuters, adding the next days would be crucial

Putin, Poroshenko Discuss Ukrainian Crisis, Agree on Further Dialogue

RIA Novosti,

8 September, 2014

MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko discussed on Monday in a phone call measures that could lead to a peaceful resolution of the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko continued the discussion of steps towards a peaceful settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine," the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

"The dialogue will continue," the statement said.

Kiev has been carrying out a military operation against independence supporters in the country’s South-East since mid-April. According to the United Nations, the armed conflict has killed over 2,500 and injured around 6,000 civilians.

On September 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined a seven-point plan for the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, calling on Kiev to withdraw troops from the southeastern regions of the country and the militia to cease military advances. The plan also included proposals for an international monitoring force, the establishment of a humanitarian corridor, a ban on the use of combat aircraft over urban areas, an exchange of prisoners in an "all for all" formula and direct repair-crew access to destroyed infrastructure in the war-ravaged areas.

On September 5, representatives of Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk agreed to a ceasefire at the meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation in Minsk.

Isn't it amazing! A few short weeks ago the DNR didn't exist and the bombing were not occuring, according to western MSM. Now, the rebels not exist – they are winning!

Donetsk's pro-Russia rebels celebrate expelling 'fascist Ukrainian junta'

Amid second world war commemoration, regions say they still plan to declare independence despite ceasefire deal

the Guardian,

8 Setember, 2014

With jaunty pop numbers about "expelling the fascist junta", rousing war poetry and – somewhat incongruously – a parade of performing dogs, the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic celebrated on Monday what they see as victory over Kiev.

Held in the shadow of an austere second world war monument in central Donetsk, the event was officially a celebration of the 71st anniversary of the liberation of the Donbass region from Nazi occupation. But the parallels with the current Ukrainian conflict, where local leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin have compared the Ukrainian government to the Nazis, were not hard to find.

The self-proclaimed prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, signed a peace deal in Minsk last Friday with Ukraine's representative, former president Leonid Kuchma. The deal included a ceasefire, an "all-for-all" prisoner exchange, and increased autonomy for Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with the implicit assumption that they would remain part of Ukraine.

After the talks, however, Zakharchenko said the regions were still planning to declare full independence, suggesting the region could become a kind of "breakaway state" with Russian backing. In Donetsk, which had come under heavy shelling in recent weeks as both the rebels and the government forces fired into residential areas, the rebels see the agreement as a victory, "freezing" the conflict and forcing the Ukrainian government to negotiate with the rebel leaders, whom it had previously dismissed as "terrorists".

Since the ceasefire was signed, each side has accused the other of breaking the truce, most notably in the port city of Mariupol, where Ukrainian checkpoints have come under heavy artillery fire from the pro-Russian side.

Zakharchenko, speaking at the rally in Donetsk, said all Ukrainian forces must leave the eastern regions, "or we will throw them out". Kiev's forces lost a lot of ground in the two weeks before the ceasefire, with evidence suggesting Russia sent reinforcements of armour and soldiers over the border, something Moscow has vehemently denied. But Ukrainian troops still control Donetsk airport and many other key sites, leading to fears the fighting could resume at any moment.

Alexander Khryakov, a minister in the Donetsk government, told the Guardian that a "real ceasefire" would only happen when Kiev was fully defeated.

"Today we are celebrating the liberation of the Donbass from fascism," he said. "And that is a battle that is still going on. The ceasefire will come when there are no more fascists. And not just in the Donbass but in Kiev as well."

Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko made a surprise visit on Monday to the southern port city of Mariupol, which has come under heavy artillery fire, after separatist fighters allegedly backed by Russian support took the town of Novoazovsk, further along the coast and near the border with Russia, a fortnight ago.

On Saturday night, a day into the ceasefire, the edge of the city came under fire and the Donetsk rebels wrote on their Twitter account that they were "taking Mariupol", although they later said they were reacting to provocations from the Ukrainian side and were keeping the ceasefire. On Sunday, Ukrainian fighters claimed the rebels had again shelled their positions on the outskirts of Mariupol, leading to casualties, and that they had began to return fire, although Monday was largely quiet.

Poroshenko, who spoke to a crowd of steel workers in Mariupol, promised that the pro-Russians would face a "crushing defeat" if they tried to take the city, which would give the Donetsk rebels an outlet to the sea.

"I have ordered (the military) to secure the defence of Mariupol with howitzers, multiple rocket launchers, tanks, anti-tank weapons and air cover," said the Ukrainian president, dressed in military-style fatigues. "Mariupol was, is and will be Ukrainian."

A number of fighters on the Ukrainian side have said in recent days that Kiev needs the ceasefire to regroup, but will resume military operations against the "occupying forces" at the first possible opportunity.

In Donetsk, there was anger and resolution among the 1,500-strong crowd who had gathered at the rally.

"We loved Ukraine until they started bombing us, now we can never go back there," said Zinaida, a 58-year-old local. "They are fascists and they have your support. We read that you have Scotland wanting to secede there. Why don't you send your tanks there and destroy them instead of sending them here? We will be part of Russia now and will never go back to those fascists."

Donetsk, a city of 1 million in peacetime, has come to resemble a ghost town in recent weeks as more than half of the population have left, and those who remain stay indoors. While the mood at the rally was unanimous, many of those who want to remain part of Ukraine have left the city. Last month, a rare pro-Ukrainian activist was captured by rebel fighters and made to stand draped in a Ukrainian flag in a central street while passers by threw insults and projectiles at her. She was later released.

Poroshenko, from Mariupol, said the rebels had agreed to release around 1,200 Ukrainian prisoners from captivity under the terms of the Minsk agreement. There was no immediate confirmation of this from the rebel side, nor any information about whether Kiev had freed the estimated 200 prisoners it had taken among rebel fighters.

And for the Kiev propaganda version of events

President Poroshenko Visits Mariupol: Ukrainian leader defies Russian army in port city