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Ukraine ultranationalist leader rejects Minsk peace deal, vows 'to continue war'
RT,
13
February, 2015
Ukraine’s
Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh said his radical movement rejects
the Minsk peace deal and that their paramilitary units in eastern
Ukraine will continue “active fighting" according to their
"own plans."
The
notorious ultranationalist leader published a statement on
hisFacebook
page Friday,
saying that his radical Right Sector movement doesn’t recognize the
peace deal, signed by the so-called 'contact group' on Thursday and
agreed upon by Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia after epic 16-hour
talks.
Yarosh
claimed that any agreement with the eastern militia, whom he
calls “terrorists,” has
no legal force.
In
his statement, Yarosh claimed that that the Minsk deal is contrary to
Ukraine’s constitution, so Ukrainian citizens are not obliged to
abide by it. Thus if the army receives orders to cease military
activity and withdraw heavy weaponry from the eastern regions, the
Right Sector paramilitaries, who are also fighting there “reserve
the right” to
continue the war, he said.
The
Right Sector paramilitary organization continues to deploy its combat
and reserve units, to train and logistically support personnel, while
coordinating its activities with the military command of the
Ukrainian army, paramilitary units of the Defense Ministry and the
Interior Ministry, he said.
The
breakthrough Minsk agreement was reached on Thursday following
marathon overnight negotiations between Ukraine, France, Germany and
Russia, and offer hope the fighting in Eastern Ukraine may come to an
end. The talks were part of a Franco-German initiative. President
Francois Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Kiev and
Moscow before meeting the Russian and Ukrainian leaders at the
negotiating table in Minsk
Bluntly
rejecting the German and French initiative, Yarosh said President
Petro Poroshenko should have turned to the US or UK which “observe
a consistent anti-Kremlin policy.”
“This
could be devastating for the whole agreement,” Lode Vanoost, a
former OSCE security consultant, told RT. “It could destroy it
before it even starts. Now the fact that they announced it already
one day ahead could of course mean that they sort of tried to force
some kind of provocation so that the other side would react giving
them an excuse to go on. But nevertheless this is indeed a very
dangerous situation, yes.”
In
March 2014, Yarosh appealed to Doku Umarov, Moscow's most wanted
terrorist before he was reported dead, asking him “to
take a chance and win over Russia.”
He also later threatened to destroy Russian pipelines on Ukrainian
territory calling Moscow “an
enemy.”
The
Russian Investigative Committee started criminal cases against
several members of the radical Ukrainian groups over charges of
fighting against the Russian military in the Chechen wars of the
1990s. Right Sector’s Dmitry Yarosh also faced a separate criminal
case over public calls for extremist activities. Moscow charged
Yarosh in absentia, demanding his arrest.
In
July last year the Interpol put Right Sector leader Yarosh on its
wanted list. This January, Russia’s Supreme Court banned
the activitiesof
the Right Sector within the country..
The
radical movement was formed as a coalition of nationalist and
neo-Nazi organizations during the Maidan protests in Kiev at the end
of 2013.While wearing Nazi insignia, Right Sector fighters used
clubs, petrol bombs and firearms against Ukrainian police during the
EuroMaidan protests.
Last
year, Kiev organized the National Guard force comprising former and
current Ukrainian troops and volunteers from EuroMaidan
“self-defense” squads. The National Guard was enabled to carry
out the functions of any law enforcement agency by a decree signed by
then-acting President Aleksandr Turchinov.
However
Yarosh denies any of his fighters joined the National Guard. He
believes his own units are better organized.
A
number of volunteer pro-government battalions were also organized in
Kiev – among them Aidar, Azov and Donbass. Human rights group
Amnesty International reported in September that Aidar members
operating in the north of the Lugansk Region “have been involved in
widespread abuses, including abductions, unlawful detention,
ill-treatment, theft, extortion and possible executions.” Troops
from the Ukrainian Azov and Donbass battalions were reportedly seen
wearing Nazi paraphernalia such as swastikas and SS badges.
In
March 2014, the extremist Right Sector decided to become a political
party, nominating Yarosh for president. The same month over 1,500
nationalists from Right Sector circled the Ukrainian parliament in
Kiev, threatening to storm it and capture Interior Minister Arsen
Avakov.
In
May 2014, Right Sector radicals reportedly descended on Odessa, where
a standoff with anti-Kiev demonstrators resulted in dozens of people
being shot, burned alive and even butchered with axes in the city’s
Trade Unions House massacre.
Despite
his notoriety, Yarosh was elected to be a member of the Ukrainian
parliament (Verkhovnaya Rada) to head the Right Sector political
party.
The
radical movement has refused to acknowledge the authority of the Kiev
government and even threatened its top figures. In September 2014,
Yarosh said he could oust Poroshenko “like Yanukovich” while
Right Sector radicals staged a violent rally in front of the
presidential HQ in Kiev.
In
January, Poroshenko’s aide told national TV that Right Sector
paramilitary units had refused to come under the command of Ukraine’s
Defense Ministry. Yury Biryukov said that he “personally proposed a
full legal clearance scheme to Right Sector,” but they “turned
down this service,” expressing a wish to remain autonomous and
report to nobody.
Meanwhile,
the US military has recently announced it would deploy soldiers to
Ukraine this spring to train the country’s National Guard.
Busted: Kiev MPs try to fool US senator with ‘proof’ of Russian tanks in Ukraine
RT,
13 February, 2015
MPs
in Kiev hoodwinked a US senator, presenting his office with photos of
columns of Russian military hardware allegedly roaming Ukrainian
territory. The photos turned out to have been taken during the
conflict in South Ossetia back in 2008.
The
photos were “presented to the
Armed Services Committee from a delegation from Ukraine in
December,” told The
Washington Free Beacon Senator
Jim Inhofe’s communications director Donelle Harder
The
Americans planned to publish the photos with credits to the Ukrainian
MPs, and “they were
fine with that,” the
spokesperson said
Yet,
after thorough checking, images of the Russian convoys turned to be
taken years ago, in 2008 during Georgia
- South Ossetia war.
Exclusive Photos Show Russian Military in Ukraine Arming Separatists
“We
are currently making calls to our sources,” Harder said.
“The
Ukrainian parliament members who gave us these photos in print form
as if it came directly from a camera really did themselves a
disservice,” Senator Inhofe said in a statement.
“I
was furious to learn one of the photos provided now appears to be
falsified from an AP photo taken in 2008,” the lawmaker wrote.
At
the same time the revealed forgery “doesn’t change the fact that
there is plenty of evidence Russia has made advances into the country
with T-72 tanks and that pro-Russian separatists have been killing
Ukrainians in cold blood,” the US senator maintains.
The
list of members of the Ukrainian delegation that attempted to fool
Senator Jim Inhofe does not include high-ranking Ukrainian officials,
with probably the sole exception of the commander of the Donbass
volunteer battalion Semyon Semenchenko, who visited Washington
demanding arms and training for his servicemen.
READ
MORE: 'Secure West Point training': Ukrainian battalion leader lists
US tour plans
The
Washington Free Beacon said it “regrets the error,” and claims it
has obtained new “exclusive” photos of “Russian military forces
have been more involved in the arming and training” of the eastern
Ukraine self-defense militia. The new photos, allegedly “taken
between August 24 and September 5 in the midst of a Russian-backed
incursion into Eastern Ukraine … clearly display Russian troops
entering Ukraine with advanced military hardware and weapons.”
Senator
Inhofe expressed the hope that the new, particularly graphic images,
could “act as a wake-up call to the Obama administration and
American people” and push the US Congress to back up Senator
Inhofe’s bill to supply the Ukrainians with American lethal aid.
Having
compared Russians with Islamic State (also known as ISIS, or ISIL),
Senator Inhofe said that Ukrainian troops “don’t have anything to
defend themselves against these [Russian] tanks,” and called on
Congress to give “them the equipment and the weaponry they need.”
“The
Obama admin is so slow to recognize” and identify the problems
“taking place around the world,”Inhofe said. “They just don’t
want people to believe these things are happening,” he
acknowledged, adding: “There’s no better way to do that and draw
attention to it than letting people see these pictures.”
Writer
and journalist John Wight has told RT that the West has to ramp up
the demonization of Russia to influence public opinion.
"There
is a policy agenda with regard to Russia, with regard to NATO
expansion, with regard to the expansion of the EU, with regard to
isolating Russia – and everything is tailored to fit that policy
agenda, including the truth. So anything that can be done to enlist
support, the key determining factor of course is public opinion both
in the UK and the US in particular, which has just had a decade of
war. The public is war weary. So they have to ramp up the
demonization of Russia. They have to fabricate Russia’s intentions
and Russia’s actions in order to enlist that support of public
opinion when it comes to possibly intensifying the conflict, which I
fear we are in danger of seeing happen."
In the Now with Anissa Nauoai
Minsk Marathon
The
'Big Four' of the Minsk Marathon spend 16 hours on finding a
solution, talks are over but is there real chance for peace in
Ukraine? Plus "We should help Kiev with weapons" Obama
pushes Congress to give him personally more military might to fight
ISIS. And we'll tell you how one touching social experiment raises
awareness about Islamaphobia by asking people to hug a so-called
“terrorist” on the street.
CrossTalk: Peace Over War?
On Sunday at zero-hundred hours the negotiated ceasefire halting Ukraine’s civil war comes into effect. Is this a major diplomatic breakthrough that all parties involved in can be proud of? Or is the ceasefire merely a lull for the Kiev government to regroup? And what about Washington’s reaction? CrossTalking with Jonathan Steele, Marcus Papadopoulos and Jeffrey Tayler.
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