I thought we needed at least ONE example of the nonsense from western media.
Putin said "If he wanted....
'It reminds me of a quip from Kim Dotcom the other day - you can take any quote from the Bible and make it look bad' - especially if you only quote one half of the sentence!
'If
I want to I can take Kiev in a fortnight': Putin's threat to Europe
revealed by EU boss as Ukraine loses control of key airport
- Putin made an incendiary remark to the European Commission President
- He said that his forces could march to the Ukrainian capital in two weeks
- Two seamen are missing after a rebel artillery attack on a patrol boat
- Sergei Lavrov said negotiations on Monday should seek a ceasefire
- Putin says rebel-held areas should be granted 'statehood', splitting Ukraine
- Analysts say Putin wants to establish a 'frozen conflict' to solidify his gains
- 'There are no limits to the unpredictability of Putin' - Angela Merkel
1
September, 2014
Russian
President Vladimir Putin made a bellicose statement to the European
Commission President, telling him that his armed forces could 'take
Kiev in a fortnight'.
The
warning was made to Jose Manual Barroso over the phone, according to
an Italian newspaper and came as Ukraine lost control of a key
airport in the east of the country.
Mr
Barroso relayed what the Russian leader said to a European council
meeting at the weekend in Brussels.
.
Warning: Mr Putin (right) made a bellicose statement to the European Commission President, Jose Manual Barroso (left), telling him that his armed forces could 'take Kiev in a fortnight'. The pair are pictured here on August 20
He
told the assembled leaders from 28 European nations that when he
asked Mr Putin about Russian soldiers being on the ground in Ukraine,
he issued a stark threat.
'Tsarist expansionism'
Russia
'practically' at war with Europe, says Lithuanian president as
Ukraine accuses Putin¿s tanks of flattening border town
Mr
Barroso told the meeting that Putin said: 'This is not the problem,
but that, if I want to, I can take Kiev in two weeks,’ according to
La Repubblica.
Earlier
in the meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that 'there are
no limits to the unpredictability of Putin', the paper reported.
David
Cameron, in grave tones, warned the heads of state that Putin must
not be permitted to take the whole country ‘or we risk repeating
the errors of 1938 in Munich’.
‘We
don’t know what he could do next,’ he added.
Military
spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Ukrainian forces had pulled back from
the airport near Luhansk.
However,
they had destroyed seven Russian tanks and identified a major
build-up of Russian forces to the north and south of the city.
'According
to our operational data, there are no fewer than four (Russian)
battalion-tactical groups in Ukraine,' he told reporters, adding that
each one comprised 400 men.
Earlier,
Russia faced claims from Ukraine that the rebels it backs had fired
on a naval vessel with artillery.
Two
seamen are missing after the attack, which came as the Kremlin
increased pressure for an immediate ceasefire, at the same time as
calling for rebel-held areas to become a separate state
Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said negotiations taking place on Monday should seek an immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. Pictured are pro-Russian rebels preparing arms for an assault on Ukrainian army positions in Donetsk airport
Russian President Vladimir Putin, center right, poses for a photo with athletes while attending the Judo World Cup in the city of Chelyabinsk in Siberia, Russia, on Sunday. Analysts said Putin wants to establish a 'frozen conflict' to consolidate his gains in Ukraine
A man shoots at targets depicting a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a shooting range in Lviv
Figure of hate: A target depicting a portrait of Putin that's riddled with bullet holes
Ending
hostilities now would consolidate gains for pro-Moscow forces, which
the Kiev government say are simply a front for Vladimir Putin.
Russia
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukrainian forces must pull back
from positions from which they can hit civilian targets, and
negotiations taking place on Monday should seek an immediate
ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.
'They
must leave positions from which they can harm the civilian
population,' Lavrov told students in Moscow. 'I very much count on
today's negotiations being devoted above all to the task of agreeing
an immediate ceasefire, without conditions.'
He
also said that from Russia 'there will be no military intervention
(in Ukraine), we are for an exclusively peaceful resolution of that
most serious crisis, that tragedy'.
Russia
Today filmed the BBC's John Sweeney confronting Mr Putin directly
about the crisis. He asked him if he regretted the deaths in Ukraine.
Mr
Putin said: 'The current government in Ukraine does not want to
conduct political negotiations with the eastern regions of the
country. Political and essential negotiations.
'What
was the purpose of the military actions in the east of the country?
What provoked the reactions in the eastern regions?
'The
Ukrainian military encircled the big cities and villages. They were
shelling houses directly. The purpose of people in eastern regions is
to take them away from the villages and stop them shelling the
villages. This is what is being neglected in the Western countries.'
Analysts
said that Putin wants to establish a 'frozen conflict', which would
consolidate his gains in the region, giving him permanent strong
influence in Ukraine.
The
talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk will bring together
representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE security forum and
separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov's
call for a ceasefire came after Ukraine accused rebels of shelling a
Navy patrol boat.
Two
seamen are missing after Sunday's separatist rebel artillery attack
on a patrol boat in the Sea of Azov, and eight seamen were rescued, a
Ukrainian border guard official said on Monday.
'The
cutter has sunk. We managed to save eight sailors, thanks to other
cutters coming to their rescue. Seven of them are injured or burned.
Two sailors have gone missing. We are continuing rescue operations,'
the official, Serhiy Astakhov, told Reuters.
'After
analysing the situation, we believe that this attack was from an
artillery system but we don't know yet where it was fired from,' he
said.
Conflict: A map showing the military state of play in eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia on Monday of launching
'direct and open aggression' which he said had radically changed the
balance on the battlefield against Kiev in its fight against
pro-Russian separatists.
'Direct
and open aggression has been launched against Ukraine from a
neighbouring state. This has changed the situation in the zone of
conflict in a radical way,' he said in a speech at a military academy
in Kiev.
Ukrainian
troops and local residents were reinforcing the port of Mariupol on
Sunday, the next big city in the path of pro-Russian fighters who
pushed back government forces along the Azov Sea this past week in an
offensive on a new front.
Following
events last week in Ukraine there would be high-level personnel
changes in the Ukrainian armed forces, Poroshenko said.
Moscow
denies the presence of Russian tanks and troops in Ukraine, despite
what Nato and Western governments have said is overwhelming evidence
to the contrary.
A volunteer helps dig trenches near a block post of the Ukrainian army to defend Mariupol from pro-Russian rebels
Lavrov
added that any new sanctions from the European Union or the United
States would force Russia to protect its economy, citizens and
businesses.
In
the case of new sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, he said, 'we will
first of all start from our own interests - protect our economy,
protect our social sphere, protect our businesses and at the same
time draw conclusions from the actions of our partners'.
Lavrov
played down Russia's exclusion from the Group of Eight over its
annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, saying the forum had lost much of its
significance since the formation of the wider G20.
Meanwhile,
lights went off temporarily overnight in most cities on the Crimean
peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in March, with local
leaders accusing Kiev of sabotage.
Ukrainian army servicemen repair an armoured vehicle at their position near Debaltseve, Donetsk region
Some
two-thirds of the normal electricity supply from Ukraine went off
around 1900GMT, Russian news agency Itar-Tass cited the local
electricity distributor as saying, plunging into darkness major
cities as Yalta and Sevastopol, the home of the Russian Black Sea
Fleet.
Supplies
to the peninsula, which is dependent upon Ukraine for 80 per cent of
its electricity, were eventually restored, said energy distribution
company Crimenergo, but there was no explanation from Ukraine as to
the reason for the outage.
But
Crimea's acting governor accused Kiev of using electricity as a
weapon against the peninsula.
'It
is the latest act of sabotage by the Ukrainian authorities, this time
aimed at disrupting preparations for the schools' reopening for the
beginning of the school year,' Sergei Aksyonov was quoted as saying
by RIA-Novosti news agency.
No
comment was immediately available from the Ukrainian authorities.
Ukraine
says its military is riddled with Russian spies
With
pro-Russian forces making significant gains in Ukraine, Kiev's
defence minister has vowed to set up a SMERSH-style
counter-intelligence agency to stop Moscow's infiltration weakening
his armed forces.
Amid
fears that the conflict could descend into full-scale war between the
two former Soviet states, Valeriy Heletey claimed that his army is
now engaged with Russian servicemen in both Donetsk and Lugansk
regions.
The
pro-Kremlin forces - which Kiev insists are spearheaded by Vladimir
Putin's troops - have now seized control of Lugansk airport and are
strengthening around Novoazovsk in Donetsk region, they claim.
The
claims come as Nato leaders prepare to meet in Wales for the
alliance's toughest summit since the end of the Cold War.
With
his army in retreat, defence minister Heletey said he was setting up
a new counter-intelligence service based on Stalin's feared SMERSH -
'death to spies' - system established in the Red Army during World
War Two.
'Today
like never before, it is important to get rid of the Russian 'fifth
column' within the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Defence Ministry, and
more importantly, in the units and regiments engaged in the
Anti-Terrorist Operation,' he said.
The
service 'will be somewhat similar to SMERSH and operate mainly on the
front-line and in the military command bodies'.
It
would 'identify and destroy enemy agents' and 'uncover instances of
the non-fulfilment of military orders by commanders as well as
instances of desertion'.
Ukrainian servicemen rest near their military equipment inside a military camp in the Donetsk region
The special service will be 'directly subordinated to me', said Heletey, a former policeman appointed by President Petro Poroshenko to crush rebels in the east of Ukraine.
'Russian troops appeared not only in Donetsk but also near Lugansk airport and in other towns,' he told Ukrainian TV, admitting the task facing his army - which is seeking military equipment from the US and EU countries -'has become more difficult'.
This was confirmed by both intelligence and other responsible services, including eyewitnesses who have seen them in Donetsk', he alleged.
'Right now we are already fighting not against the self-proclaimed republics - DPR, DLR [Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics].
'We are fighting against Russia. The Kremlin decides what happens in Donbass, what to do next.'
He warned: 'Everything is decided in the Kremlin. We are holding talks with representatives of the Kremlin.'
He claimed the Russian had plans to 'redraw the map' in the region, including in the unofficial statelet of Transistria, a region of Moldova bordering Ukraine to the west, which is entirely supported by Moscow.While
not acknowledging the presence of Russian troops, a rebel spokesman
in Lugansk said:
'We
have managed to take the airport under our control. It is a very
important strategic point, we have been fighting for it for a long
time and now we have taken it.'
Concern
was high today over the fate of both Ukrainian forces and their
Russian captives amid Kiev claims that separatist forces including
Russians opened fire on a convoy of evacuees, breaking an agreement.
Borys
Filatov, a senior official in the Dnipropetrovsk regional state
administration, said: 'The Russians gave their word to let the people
evacuate. However, they started to shoot.'
Sources
have put the number of dead at dozens or even hundreds, but there is
so far no confirmation.
'Our
convoy also had tens of wounded and captured Russian troopers. They
also were killed,' said Filatov.
Poroshenko
and his military commanders are seeking weapons and intelligence
support from the West.
However,
Ukraine is not a Nato member, and major Western countries have
indicated they will not deploy troops on the ground.
'Do
you regret the killings in Ukraine?': Putin answers journalist's
questions in unplanned interview
The
Russian President blamed Ukrainian forces for the current conflict in
Ukraine, accusing them of directly targetting homes in eastern cities
and villages.
He
said that the purpose of the Russian military operation in the
eastern regions was to remove civilians from the conflict-stricken
region.
He added that he thought the current conflict was due to the Ukrainian government's failure to conduct negotiations with the eastern regions of the country.
He gave his views during an unplanned interview the the BBC's John Sweeney, who questioned Mr Putin after the Russian leader attended a conference in the Belarus capital Minsk.
Putin initially refused to stop for the journalist, but later spoke to him, saying 'I will answer'.
He also offered his opinion on the hopes for peace in Ukraine during the interview, which took place in a corridor.
Mr Putin said the process of direct negotiations between Kiev and the eastern regions was 'the beginning of a very important process
HOW
PUTIN'S 'STATEHOOD' GAMBIT RAISE THE STATES IN UKRAINE FOR KIEV
A
shift in President Vladimir Putin's language on the conflict in
eastern Ukraine reflects a transformation in the situation on the
battlefield and sounds a warning to Kiev to negotiate sooner rather
than later.
Putin's
spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quick to tell journalists that the
Kremlin leader was not demanding independence for pro-Russian
separatists when he said on Sunday that talks should take place
immediately 'on the political organisation of society and statehood
in southeastern Ukraine'.
But
in the context of the separatist war in which the rebels have made
startling gains in the space of a week - with the help, Ukraine and
its Western allies say, of Russian tanks and troops - the formulation
had an ominous ring for Kiev.
It
was the first time that Putin had publicly talked about 'statehood'
in the eastern Russian-speaking regions where rebels are fighting to
break away from Ukraine, in a war that has killed some 2,600 people
since April.
The
implication was that if Ukraine fails to reach a quick settlement
with the rebels on 'federalisation', the term Moscow has previously
used for enhanced autonomy in the east, then it may find itself
facing demands for something much bigger.
'I
think it's a conscious or unconscious hint that the longer the
situation lasts, and the longer it takes Kiev to discuss it, the
worse the conditions will be,' said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief
of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.
After
the past week's rebel advances, he said, 'I think as a minimum,
Ukrainian leaders are being given to understand by Moscow: whatever
you do, you will not win this war. Therefore it will either go on
endlessly or, as (Putin) said yesterday, substantive negotiations are
needed.'
In
another significant shift in terminology, the name used by the rebels
for their eastern lands - Novorossiya, or New Russia - appears
increasingly to be part of Kremlin parlance.
Putin
first used the expression in April, calling it a Tsarist-era name for
territory that had historically been Russian but was incorporated,
'God knows why', into Ukraine in the early years of Soviet power in
the 1920s.
Ukrainians
consider the term deeply offensive and say it shows Moscow's imperial
ambition to wrest territory from their thousand-year-old state, which
has had shifting frontiers during centuries of dominance by Austria,
Poland, Lithuania and Russia.
Putin's
spokesman Peskov used the term again on Sunday, and the Kremlin
website on Aug. 29 published a message to the rebels entitled
'Russian President Vladimir Putin has appealed to the militia of
Novorossiya'.
GUESSING
GAME
The
language coming from the Kremlin appears calculated to increase
pressure on Kiev, while keeping Ukraine and the West guessing about
Moscow's ultimate objective.
Russia
denies intervening in Ukraine militarily despite the protestations of
Europe and the United States, and in the face of overwhelming
evidence including satellite imagery, eyewitness reports and the
capture of Russian soldiers on the territory of its former Soviet
neighbour.
What
is indisputable is that the separatists, in the space of a week, have
recovered from the brink of defeat, opening a new southern front and
breaking through to the coast of the Azov Sea, where they succeeded
in shelling a Ukrainian navy vessel from the shore on Sunday.
With
the rebels firmly back on the offensive, Putin may calculate he can
ease back on covert Russian military support and thereby avoid a
threatened new round of Western sanctions and a further escalation of
tension with NATO, which holds a summit in Wales this week.
As
if to emphasise that Russia can turn to powerful alternative partners
if further sanctions materialise, he presided on Monday over a
ceremony to mark the start of work on Gazprom's 4,000 km (2,500 mile)
'Power of Siberia' pipeline, part of a $400 billion deal to supply
Russian gas to China for the next three decades.
Against
such an uncertain background - military, political and economic -
Putin himself has said in the past week there is no knowing how and
when the Ukraine crisis will be resolved.
Russia
has several models for the outcomes of 'frozen conflicts' that have
allowed it to keep leverage over neighbours since the Soviet Union
broke up.
Moscow
annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March. In other parts of the
former Soviet Union, Russian troops defend a breakaway region of
Moldova without recognising its independence, and safeguard two rebel
regions of Georgia that Moscow recognised after a brief war in 2008.
Some
analysts speculate Putin might settle for a solution in eastern
Ukraine that resembles Bosnia's Serb Republic - an entity formally
within Ukraine with sufficient power and autonomy to block Kiev from
adopting any course of action that Moscow opposes, in particular any
attempt to join NATO.
Lukyanov
said Putin himself may not know the final objective.
'I
don't think there is any clear model, and the target is moving,' he
said. 'He doesn't have a strategic plan, but at each step he
understands what needs to be done.'
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