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I respect Vineyard Saker as a reliable daily commentator on Ukrainian events. He needs, like everyone, to be read with an appreciation of his assumptions and biases - which I presume to be right-wing orthodox and nationalist.
Ukraine
SITREP-update April 28, 1447 UTC/Zulu
28
April, 2014
The
city hall and the city council buildings of the eastern city of
Konstantinovka have been taken under control of Russian-speaking
insurgents who say that they are here to protect the local
authorities (who are opposed to the revolutionary regime in Kiev)
from any attack by the junta.
Probably
lured by the oligarch-galore in the Ukraine, the Jewish oligarch
Mikhail Khodorkovsky has showed up in the Dontesk region to show is
support for the new regime. According to him, “Donetsk is far from
being as pro-Russian as it could be".
The
Mayor of Kharkov, Gennadi Kermes, has been shot in the back and
critically wounded by an unknown gunman who used a rifle from long
range. The bullet passed through Kermes' body, damaging several
internal organs.
Six
more Right Sector gunmen have been arrested over the week-end when
they attempted to penetrate the Donetsk area under cover.
According
to The Guardian, the Jews of the Ukraine do not fear the neo-Nazi
Banderists, but Putin, Russia and Russian propaganda.
Obama
is about to announce new sanctions against Russia.
The
EU is about to announce new sanctions against Russia.
On
Sunday, pro-regime soccer hooligans clashed with pro-federation
Russian-speakers. There were injuries, but not fatalities.
A
number of fake snuff-videos purportedly made by the Right Sector
which show policemen being killed have emerged on the Internet. They
are almost certainly fake, but nobody knows who is behind this
action.
A
very interesting trend is beginning to emerge: the deepening of the
rift between the, shall we say, "official" leaders of the
eastern Ukraine and their own electorate. I am talking about folks
like Mikhail Dobkin, Gennadi Kermes (the one shot today) or the
various representatives of the Party of Regions in what is left of
the Ukrainian Parliament. The folks leading the anti-regime
insurgency are adamant that the Party of Regions and all its members
have already betrayed them many times and that the idea of
participating in the Presidential elections organized by the junta in
Kiev is yet another betrayal. Yesterday, in one of the most popular
talkshows on Russian TV ("Sunday Evening With Vladimir
Soloviev") one of the supposedly "pro-Russian"
representatives of the Party of regions ended up having an ugly
shouting match with about half of the guests on the show, including
three representatives of the pro-Russian insurgency in the eastern
Ukraine, and several well-known Russian analysts. At this point the
"least disliked" "official" political figure in
the eastern Ukraine might be Oleg Tsarev who was expelled from the
Party of Regions and who initially announced that he was running for
President, but who dropped out of the race when confronted about that
by the local people in Donetsk. He is also the politician who was
invited to the Ukie TV show "freedom of speech", who was
guaranteed protection and then who ended up several beaten and
partially stripped of his clothes by neo-Nazi thugs outside the TV
station.
Speaking
of TV stations, following the ban on the re-broadcast of Russian TV
in the Ukraine, a number of TV stations have been stormed and taken
under control of local insurgents who, interestingly, did restore the
broadcast of Russian TV stations alongside Kiev controlled TV
station. They did not get the Ukrainian stations off the air.
For
the time being the twice announced operation to put down the
Russian-speaking East has achieved nothing besides getting a few
people killed and radicalizing the local population. The current
strategy of laying siege to the rebellious cities is bound to fail as
time is most definitely not on the junta's side. Again, to me, the
eastern Ukraine has reached an escape velocity, a point of no return,
and I simply do not see any figure who could make the idea of a
federalized Ukraine work. I am not even sure if Putin could do that.
Finally,
there are pretty good signs that somebody is definitely trying to
make things worse by, for example, filming the fake snuff-video I
mentioned. Or the shooting of Kermes for that matter. The irony is
that the Right Sector and the Russian-speakers are both opposed to a
negotiated settlement and both equally hate the junta in power. The
shot which wounded Kermes today could have been fired by either side.
Note
about terminology:
I
employ a lot of expressions which I consider value-neutral. I there
speak of the "insurgents" in the East just as I spoke of
the "insurgents" on the Maidan. To me somebody who takes
arms against a regime is an insurgent, that does not imply that I
condone or condemn what he/she is doing. Same thing for the
expression "revolutionary regime". To me a revolutionary
regime is one which brings about a radical change, a change in order,
in regime. That can be good or that can be bad. Ditto for "rebels"
who are, in my opinion, those who openly disobey the orders of an
authority. Again, I don't believe that these expression imply
anything other than a factual situation.
Stay
tuned, kind regards,
The
Saker
I
have personaly found Stephen Cohen, as professor emeritus of Russian
history and biographer of Nikolai Bukharin one of the best American
commentators on Russia.
CrossTalk: Containment 2.0? (ft. Stephen Cohen & John Mearsheimer)
What
does Washington's "containment" policy mean? What threats
does it pose? Will it work against today's Russia? And does this mean
Washington has declared a new Cold War? CrossTalking with Stephen
Cohen and John Mearsheimer.
Blasts,
fierce fighting in Donetsk between pro- and anti-Kiev demos
RT,
28
April, 2014
There's
gunfire, explosions and brutal clashes in the city of Donetsk in
eastern Ukraine as fighting erupted between pro- and anti-govt
protesters, RT’s stringer reports from the scene.
Video in a minute, pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine demos have met, and it's ugly. #Donetsk
14
people have asked for medical assistance, with several hospitalized,
after clashes in Donetsk, the regional administration told
Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
According
to Novosti Donbassa (Donbas News), eight people have been taken to
the city’s Kalinin hospital after violence broke out.
The
website also reports of a policeman being shell-shocked due to
handmade grenade exploding near him.
Pro-
and-anti-Kiev protest rallies took place simultaneously in the city.
According
to RT’s stringer Graham Phillips, there were plenty of masked young
men on both sides, and they were clearly looking for a fight.
The
police failed to contain the crowd as protesters clashed with each
other, using firecrackers, smoke grenades, baseball bats and sticks.
A
group of about 1,000 “neo-Nazi thugs” has come to Donetsk from
Dnepropetrovsk on Monday to cause provocations, the press-service of
the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk told RT.
“We
were expecting an attack. We had objective information. Really, the
guys arrived with baseball bats, sticks and rods. Those were the
ultras from Dnepropetrovsk, FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk supporters.
According to our info, there were also people from FC Dynamo Kyiv fan
base. I have no information of any Right Sector involvement,”
Vitaly Ivanov, a press-service member, who was at the scene,
stressed.
Initially,
there were about 200 local anti-Kiev activists, who went out “to
meet them halfway in order to regain the initiative”, he said.
“More
and more people joined us at an incredible pace as we made our way…
When we reached them [pro-Kiev radicals], there were around 1,000 of
us,” Ivanov said.
According
to him, the ultras were “surrounded by the police, which was
brought, especially, for the occasion” as the officers on the scene
were from Kirovograd region, but not from the Donetsk force.
“We
were received with aggression. Smoke grenades were thrown at us.
Several people got injured. Then there were a couple of small
scuffles with the ultras. And then they just dispersed. They didn’t
expect such a rebuff; that there’ll be so many of us,” he said.
There
were around 2,000 pro-Kiev demonstrators, who were marching on one of
the main streets of the city, RT’s Paula Slier reports from
Donetsk.
When
they crossed paths with a smaller rally of anti-government
protesters, violent clashes erupted, she said.
“I
was among the group that is anti-Kiev. What I saw was both sides with
their faces covered. There were Molotov cocktails and stones being
thrown... Among the anti-Kiev crowd people were shouting: ‘Crimea!
Donbass! Russia!” Slier reported.
There are injuries, and scenes of absolute brutality as both sides clash with each other here in #Donetsk
Moscow
slams Kiev over 'political repressions'
Moscow
is “extremely concerned” by the Kiev regime’s “political
repression and persecution” against those who dare express
opposition, the Russian Foreign Ministry said calling for the release
all political prisoners.
RT,
28
April, 2014
“Mass
media reports give us reason to speak of the start of a ‘witch
hunt’, mass prosecution of dissidents and political repressions and
persecutions against those who dare disagree with the Maidan
[coup-imposed] authorities,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a
statement.
It
particularly recalled the case of recently arrested “people’s
governor” of Donetsk, Pavel Gubarev.
“We
are seriously concerned about the condition of Pavel Gubarev elected
‘a people’s governor’ of Donetsk,” the ministry said, adding
that he was abducted, charged with organizing mass unrests and
attempting to divide Ukraine, and tortured. He went on hunger strike
against Kiev’s crackdown on protesters in Slavyansk, eastern
Ukraine.
According
to the Ministry, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) and the Red Cross, managed to get access to Gubarev and
visit him in prison on April 26, following “insistent calls” by
Russia. The organizations confirmed the abovementioned situation.
“Pavel
Gubarev is not the only political prisoner of the Kiev regime,” the
statement stressed.
Citing
local mass media, the Ministry also said that Moscow is seriously
worried by reports about the construction of large temporary
detention centers for thousands of people in Ukraine, allegedly for
illegal migrants.
“There
is no such large number of illegal migrants in Ukraine, and buildings
that are being erected, according to media reports, are very
reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps. The question arises, whether
the Kiev regime plans to drive together dissenting citizens there
from the South-Eastern regions of the country,” the ministry said.
If
true, all that “does not accord” with the norms of the OSCE and
the European Council as well as obligations to amnesty political
prisoners and participants in the protests, which Kiev agreed to
during the four-party talks on Ukraine in Geneva on April 17.
“Russia
calls for the immediate release of [Donetsk Region people’s
governor] Pavel Gubarev and other political prisoners of the Kiev
regime,” the Ministry said.
It
has urged the European Council, OSCE and international rights
organizations to condemn in the strongest possible terms the
violations of human rights in Ukraine and to press for an end to
political repressions in the country.
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