Russian Invasion Of Ukraine (Formerly: Democratic Malaise Draws Ukraine Eastwards)

[Avvakum]

Some 'ceasefire' ;

Kiev claims 'intensive' movements of troops crossing from Russia

1 hour ago

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Ukrainian soldiers loads his weapon in the village of Bugas, in the eastern Ukranian Donetsk region on October 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/Alexander Khudoteply)



Kiev (AFP) - The Ukrainian military on Sunday reported "intensive" movement of troops and equipment from Russia into the separatist controlled parts of eastern Ukraine.

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1. Ukraine separatists vote in controversial election AFP
2. Shelling in east Ukraine's Donetsk kills four civilians Reuters
3. Blast rocks Donetsk in east Ukraine, no deaths reported Reuters
4. Rebel chief, Lenin fan set to win separatist Ukraine votes AFP
5. Pro-Russian rebels vote for leaders in eastern Ukraine Reuters

"There is intensive deployment of military equipment and personnel of the enemy from the territory of the Russian Federation onto territory temporarily controlled by insurgents," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a briefing in Kiev.
In Donetsk, the main rebel-held city in Ukraine's industrial south-east, AFP reporters saw about 20 trucks, some carrying anti-aircraft guns, heading towards the government-held airport, although it was not clear whether these were new forces.
Several Western news outlets reported witnessing heavy movement of troops near Donetsk.
Among them, reporters for the news sites buzzfeed.com and mashable.com tweeted that they had seen a large military column. Buzzfeed's Max Seddon wrote: "31 unmarked Kamazes (military trucks) just drove past towards Donetsk. Anti-aircraft weapons, ammunition boxes, radar systems, a bus of gunmen."
Mashable's reporter Christopher Miller tweeted having seen more than 40 trucks headed toward Donetsk "with anti-aircraft guns, fighters".
Video footage that appeared on YouTube and was rebroadcast on Ukraine's Channel 5 -- but which could not be independently authenticated -- showed a huge column of green trucks snaking slowly through an unidentified city.
Russia has repeatedly denied accusations from Kiev, Western governments and the NATO alliance that it is fighting on the side of pro-Russian separatists who have taken over a swathe of Ukraine's industrial south-east.
However, Moscow openly supports the two self-declared rebel statelets politically and said it would recognise the validity of elections being held there Sunday.
The rebels, who also deny receiving help from Russia, have large amounts of sophisticated, heavy weaponry and no apparent problem in procuring ammunition. They have told journalists that some of their weapons are captured from Ukrainian forces.
A ceasefire was declared on September 5 in Ukraine but is violated daily in the conflict zone which runs along the Russian border. Rebel leaders say they intend to expand their territory as far as the Azoz Sea port of Mariupol.
Russian troops already occupy Ukraine's southern province of Crimea, which has been declared a part of Russia.
The province was taken over almost without a fight when large numbers of heavily armed men in unmarked uniforms quickly surrounded demoralised Ukrainian troops in March. The troops, widely dubbed "little green men", were later confirmed to have been Russian regular troops.

[Avvakum]

Round Two?;

Russian troops moving closer to Ukraine border: NATO chief





BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia has moved troops closer to the border with Ukraine and continues to support rebels in the country's east, NATO's chief said on Tuesday, after an election held by the pro-Russian separatists and condemned by Kiev and Western leaders.
Ukraine's president said Sunday's vote flouted terms of a plan to end a war that has killed more than 4,000 people, and that newly formed army units would be sent to defend a string of eastern cities against a possible new rebel offensive.
"Recently we are seeing Russian troops moving closer to the border with Ukraine," Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of NATO, told a news conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
"Russia continues to support separatists by training them, by providing equipment and support them by also having Russian special forces inside eastern parts of Ukraine."
Russia has denied military involvement in eastern Ukraine despite what Western officials have cited as overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
"We call on Russia to make genuine efforts towards a peaceful solution," Stoltenberg said, "and to use all their influence on the separatists to make them respect the Minsk agreements and to respect the ceasefire which is a precondition for a political solution to the difficult situation in Ukraine."
Stoltenberg said Russia was also trying to show strength by increasing military flights close to NATO air space in Europe.
"We (NATO) are intercepting the Russian planes whether it is in the Atlantic Sea or in the Baltic Sea or in the Black Sea. The numbers of intercepts have so far this year been over 100, which is about three times as much as the total number of intercepts the whole of last year," he said.
The pro-Russian separatists staged swearing in ceremonies for their leaders in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.
Moscow says the election of Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky as leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics", which jointly call themselves "new Russia", means that Kiev should now negotiate with them directly.
EU TO MULL CHANGES TO SANCTIONS
Kiev has rejected this, describing the rebels as Russian-backed "terrorists" or "bandits", with no legitimacy.
Mogherini said the EU would assess whether to strengthen or ease sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in Ukraine depending on the situation on the ground.
"This is a process that is going to go on in the coming weeks," she said, when asked if Russia's response to Sunday's rebel ballot could trigger stiffer sanctions against Moscow.
The situation in Ukraine will be addressed at the next EU foreign ministers' meeting on Nov. 17, she said.
"...I would say the main topic of discussion today should be ... how do we make sure that we find a solution to the conflict?" the former Italian foreign minister said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on Monday that the newly elected leaders in eastern Ukrainian separatist regions have a "mandate" to negotiate with Kiev, Interfax news agency reported.
Mogherini said the "so-called elections" in eastern Ukraine were illegal and illegitimate and would not be recognized by the EU. There was a risk they could end chances for rebel dialogue with Kiev and dialogue between Kiev and Moscow, she said.
The EU has gradually tightened sanctions against Russia in response to its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in March, after the overthrow of Kiev's pro-Russian president by protesters, and its support for the rebel cause.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

[Avvakum]

This story was from an Iranian news source quoting an Ukrainian MP on Ukrainian News TV, so it may not be too reliable, but still...

Ukraine battalions ‘ready for attacks inside Russia’
Yuri Bereza, a Ukrainian lawmaker and leader of volunteer battalion Dnepr-1 (file photo)
Mon Nov 3, 2014 7:9AM
Related Interviews:

• US ‘supporting fascist gov't in Kiev’
• ‘US media smokescreen on Kiev’

Related Viewpoints:

• Death of Western media looming

A Ukrainian lawmaker, who is also the leader of a volunteer battalion, says brigades like his are ready to “intrude” into Russia to carry out attacks on Russian territory.

Yuri Bereza, the leader of the Dnepr-1 battalion, made the remarks during a televised interview with a Ukrainian broadcaster.
“Today, we are ready not just to defend [Ukraine], but to invade the Russian Federation, break into it with reconnaissance detachments and sabotage groups,” said Bereza.
The Ukrainian MP also spoke about conducting bomb attacks inside Russia before he was cut off by the host of the program.
Bereza’s volunteer battalion is one of the dozens of brigades set up this year by pro-EU protesters and members of right-wing party Right Sector following the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych.
The battalions have been fighting along with Kiev’s government forces against the pro-Russia forces in the country’s restive eastern regions and have been accused of using fierce tactics.
The United Nations (UN) recently released a report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, accusing the volunteer battalions of violating international humanitarian laws.
Ukraine, along with Western powers, accuses Russia of having a hand in the Ukrainian crisis, but Moscow denies the allegation.
Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking eastern regions have witnessed deadly clashes between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia protesters after the Kiev government launched military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush protests.
According to latest figures by the UN, more than 4,000 people have been killed and around 10,000 others injured in the fighting.
CAH/HJL/HRB

[Avvakum]

From Bill Gertz in 'Business Insider';

http://www.businessinsider.com/russi...efield-2014-11

[Ryan Ruck]

Good info. I'm posting the whole piece here.

Russia Is Moving Short-Range Ballistic Missiles Towards Eastern Ukraine

November 6, 2014

Russia is sending additional military forces toward the border with eastern Ukraine, including units equipped with ballistic missiles, as part of Moscow’s ongoing destabilization effort in support of pro-Russian rebels.

US officials with access to intelligence reports said one Russian military unit equipped with short-range ballistic missiles was detected this week near eastern Ukraine, where Russia has launched a destabilization program following its military annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in March.

The military movements coincided with the an unusual number of flights last week by Russian strategic nuclear bombers and aircraft along Europe’s northern coasts in a what NATO’s military commander called strategic “messaging” toward the West.

“My opinion is that they’re messaging us,” Gen. Phillip Breedlove, the commander, told reporters at the Pentagon this week. “They’re messaging us that they are a great power and that they have the ability to exert these kinds of influences in our thinking.”

The bomber flights included three days of paired Tu-95 bomber flights that were to have circumnavigated Europe from the north but instead were halted near Portugal.

US officials said Russia deployed several Il-78 refueling tankers in Egypt that were to resupply the bombers during flights over the Mediterranean, but those flights were scrapped for unknown reasons.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed concerns about Russian military moves in Ukraine during remarks to reporters Tuesday in Brussels.

“Recently we are also seeing Russian troops moving closer to the border with Ukraine, and Russia continues to support the separatists by training them, by providing equipment, and supporting them also by having special forces, Russian special forces, inside the eastern parts of Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.

Other officials said both intelligence and social media reports in recent days revealed an increase in Russian deployments.

The missile systems being deployed were described as conventionally armed, short-range ballistic missiles, multiple launch rocket systems, and BM-21 Grad multiple rocker launchers.

Additionally, Russian military forces are moving towed artillery pieces closer to the border.

One official said the display of military power is part of Moscow’s effort to reinforce “separatists” seeking to carve out a pro-Russian enclave in Eastern Ukraine.

The Russian “Spetsnaz” or special forces commandos are already inside the country, but the ground forces as of Wednesday appeared to be staging at the border.

Russian military forces in Ukraine number around 300 commandos. “These are not fighting formations. These are formations and specialists that are in there doing training and equipping of the separatist forces,” Breedlove said.

The buildup is either part of a plan for military escalation, or a coordinated pressure tactic by Moscow to force Ukraine to make concessions to the rebels, officials said.

Rebel groups in the region have made repeated threats to take control of the key southeastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol and other territory unless the Ukrainian government agrees to make changes in the current separation line.

“The build up may just be a pressure tactic to force such concessions, or it may presage further escalation,” one official said.

Rebels in eastern Ukraine recently held elections that Ukraine and NATO dismissed as illegal. New charges were raised in Kiev Wednesday about violations of a peace agreement reached in Belarus in September.

Breedlove said Monday there was no “huge change” in Russian deployments. Currently about seven battalion task groups are stationed near the border with Ukraine.

“Some of those formations have moved closer to the border,” he said. “We believe that was probably to bring some pressure on and make sure that the elections went according to the separatist plans; we’ll look now to see if they pull back from the border into their previous border locations.”

“We have now realistically entered the phase of a ‘frozen conflict,’” Yury Yakimenko, a political analyst at Ukraine’s Razumkov political research center told Reuters. The term frozen conflict has been applied to other former Soviet Republics where separatists are being backed by Russian forces.

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is part of a program by Russian President Vladimir Putin to gain control or hegemony over former Soviet bloc states described as the “near abroad.”

Putin is seeking to restore Russian power with territorial seizures, along with a large-scale nuclear and conventional forces buildup.

Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen M. Lainez said Russian forces and equipment remain on Ukraine’s border and on Ukrainian territory in violation of international law. “We again call on Russian authorities and the separatists they back to abide by their commitments under the Sept. 5 ceasefire agreement and the Sept. 19 implementing agreement,” she said.

Breedlove said the Russians in the past have conducted small-scale bomber flights.

“And what you saw this past week was a larger, more complex formation of aircraft carrying out a little deeper and, I would say, a little bit more provocative flight path,” he said. “And so it is a concern.”

The flights are destabilizing and “problematic,” Breedlove said.

Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, also voiced concerns about the Russian bomber flights.

“When it comes to the increased Russian military activity, both in the air but also along the borders of Ukraine, I think that what we see is, especially when it comes to increased air activity of Russian planes, is that they are showing strength, and what we are doing is what we are supposed to do: we are intercepting the Russian planes, whether it is in the Atlantic Sea or the Baltic Sea or in the Black Sea,” he said.

Breedlove said he has discussed with US military chiefs the idea of moving additional troops and supplies closer to Russia as a result of “increased pressure that we feel in Eastern Europe now and because of the assurance measures that we are taking in the Baltics, in Poland, in Romania.”

“I believe there is a requirement for rotational forces in the future until we see the current situation begin to normalize,” he said.

Breedlove said the halt in the conflict in Ukraine has been “pretty much a cease-fire in name only.”

“There continue to be sporadic engagements in and around the cease-fire zone,” he said. “And the second thing that I would say that has changed is we have seen a general trend towards a hardening of this line of demarcation and much more softening of the actual Ukraine-Russia border.”

Russia’s border with Ukraine in the east is open and completely porous. As a result, Russian military equipment is flowing back and forth the border

“Russia continues to resupply the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine,” Breedlove said.

[American Patriot]

Preparations for World War Three.

[Malsua]

Yeah, 2015, the year the Russian Titor nukes fall.

[American Patriot]

My thinking too, lol.

I think, if that crap happens I'll be a Titor-Believor.

[Malsua]

Yes, a Russian nuke vs an American city in 2015 and I'm all in on team Titor.

Of course, 2012 he was in his Shotgun Infantry, or as I like to call a shotgun infantry, walking dead meat, running up and down in Florida selling oranges.

[American Patriot]

Yes, a Russian nuke vs an American city in 2015 and I'm all in on team Titor.

Of course, 2012 he was in his Shotgun Infantry, or as I like to call a shotgun infantry, walking dead meat, running up and down in Florida selling oranges.

He was wrong.


Or, he's missed the boat methinks.

lol

[Avvakum]

Preparations for World War Three.

I have a theory about this, but i'm going to have to do some research on it first. Consider the location of the conflict and the range of these nukes, plus recent Saudi moves....

[American Patriot]

12 November 2014 Last updated at 13:57 ET Share this page

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Ukraine crisis: Russian troops crossed border, Nato says

A column of unidentified tanks was seen on a road near the rebel-held town of Shakhtarsk on Monday
Continue reading the main story Ukraine crisis

• Will war return?
• Crisis mapped
• Chaos and courage
• Tense time

Nato officials have seen Russian military equipment and Russian combat troops entering Ukraine this week, its top commander says.
"Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defence systems and Russian combat troops" were sighted, US Gen Philip Breedlove said.
Russia's defence ministry denied that its troops were in eastern Ukraine to help pro-Russian separatists there.
However, the rebels have admitted being helped by "volunteers" from Russia.
The United Nations Security Council is convening an emergency session on Wednesday to discuss the reported sightings.
Heavy artillery fire rocked the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the industrial hub held by pro-Russian separatist rebels, on Wednesday morning.
There were also reports of fighting near the rebel-held city of Luhansk, with one Ukrainian soldier killed and another injured, according to Ukrainian security forces.

Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent Events in Ukraine seem to be turning full circle.
Back in August, Nato was warning about the deployment of Russian artillery batteries inside Ukraine, the supply of Russian military equipment to the rebel forces and the build-up of further Russian combat units at the Ukrainian frontier.
Since then many of these units have been withdrawn.
But now with tensions renewed, Nato's Supreme Commander in Europe General Philip Breedlove has confirmed that over the past two days, Nato has seen columns of Russian armour, artillery and crucially - combat troops - entering Ukraine.
The question now is whether this is just a re-run of events in the summer or does a more significant clash beckon, perhaps one where the Kremlin may decide - in its terms - to teach the Ukrainians a military lesson.
General Breedlove also confirmed that Nato believes Russia is deploying nuclear-capable weapons to Crimea - a reference to reports that Russia is deploying short-range Iskander ballistic missiles there that could potentially be equipped with nuclear warheads.

Unmarked convoys The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has reported seeing unmarked convoys in the region in recent days.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said any significant military build-up would be "a severe threat to the ceasefire", which was agreed in Minsk on 5 September.
In a statement, Mr Stoltenberg urged Russia "to pull back back its forces and equipment from Ukraine, and to fully respect the Minsk agreements".
Gen Breedlove, talking to reporters on a visit to Bulgaria, said the alleged Russian troop deployment may be intended to reinforce "pockets" under separatist control in eastern Ukraine.
This could, he said, help them to form "a more contiguous, more whole and capable pocket of land in order to then hold on to it long term".
He did not specify how many troops, vehicles or weapons were seen. A Nato official confirmed to the BBC that Nato had "assessed" that the equipment and troops were Russian in origin.
The main city in Ukraine's east, Donetsk, has seen its heaviest shelling in weeks
Russian defence official Maj-Gen Igor Konashenkov said "there was and is no evidence" to support Gen Breedlove's claims.
Russia has consistently denied sending troops and equipment to support the rebels fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Preparations Separately, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the country's long-range aircraft would go on patrol flights over the Arctic Ocean to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
He said that the current situation required Russia to restart the flights, which were cut at the end of the Cold War.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's defence minister has said that government forces are redeploying in preparation for a possible new offensive by pro-Russian separatist rebels.
A Reuters reporter captured armed men and military vehicles near a checkpoint in Donetsk on Wednesday
"The main task I see is to prepare for combat operations. We are doing this, we are readying our reserves," Stepan Poltorak told a government meeting.
More than 4,000 people have died since government forces moved in April to put down an armed insurrection by the rebels in the two regions, which border Russia.
Hundreds of people have been killed since a fragile truce was agreed three months ago.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday her government was "not satisfied" with the progress in implementing the Minsk agreement, but added that there were no plans at present for further economic sanctions against Russia over its involvement in Ukraine.
"Further economic sanctions are not planned at the moment, we are focusing on the winter and the humanitarian situation there and how to get a real ceasefire," she said.
The OSCE said earlier that the conflict could get worse.
"The level of violence in eastern Ukraine and the risk of further escalation remain high and are rising," OSCE representative Michael Bociurkiw told reporters in Kiev.


More on This Story

[Avvakum]

From 'Euromaidan Press' in Ukraine;

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Four days at the front with the Right Sector battalion

2014/11/25 • Featured, Stories from the Front


Article by: Alya Shandra

Demonized by the Kremlin’s disinformation machine, the Right Sector is perhaps Ukraine’s most legend-shrouded organization since the times of the Euromaidan revolution that started on November 21, 2013. Putin’s virtual reality propagated by Russian medias goes as far as to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by protecting the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine from mythical “fascists from the Right Sector.” We traveled to the forefront of Ukraine’s battle against the Russian army and Russian-backed separatists in Donbas to see for ourselves who are the people that Putin so much fears and why.
Why are they here?

Friend Instructor (left) and Leopard (right)

“I had no choice,” says one of the fighters, Friend Instructor from Kyiv. “I am a man, my country is being attacked. It’s my responsibility to defend it.” Another, Friend Leopard, said: “I was woken up by Maidan. My soul told me it’s time to do something for this country. You know, we’re a body, but the soul tells us what to do.” He is 45 years of age and half-Romanian, half-Russian by origin. Friend Leopard left his wife in a Romanian-leaning district of Chernivtsi Oblast in Western Ukraine to become a deputy commander of the 5th separate division of Right Sector’s Volunteer battalion. His division has been stationed on the Ukrainian-Russian front in the village of Pisky near Donetsk for over 3 months.
Friend Leopard tells that he is fed up with life in Ukraine. “I wanted to do something for this country, and live freely in it. If I commit a crime, I want myself to be judged, and not to have the possibility to bribe myself out of responsibility. Not like it is now, when you can pay UAH 60 000 and get away with killing a woman and child. Corruption. I don’t even understand how that’s possible.” Like other battalion members, he is radically determined to change Ukraine no matter what, after the border is protected and invaders are kicked out. How Ukraine is to be changed exactly is not yet clear, but one thing is for sure: corruption must be eliminated, as well as irresponsible politicians and the rule of oligarchs.
Friend Moses

Friend Moses, who is a bishop of the protestant church “Glorification” in Kryvyi Rih (central Ukraine), says that after Maidan he felt a mission from God to help his country. “We came here so Ukraine would live a new life. It’s our obligation to protect our land if it’s attacked. Right now there is a war of light with darkness. God’s hand is in this war, and He is on the side of those that are attacked. My mission here is to speak about God and that there is salvation: even if a soldier is killed, his soul will go home. Some people from our church say that we shouldn’t take up arms, but I think it’s our obligation to protect this land if it’s attacked.” Like many other Right Sector battalion members, he is one of the legendary Cyborgs that are responsible for the Donetsk airport still being under Ukrainian control after over 5 months.
“War happened to start in my lifetime, and I couldn’t miss it. The war is a continuation of events at the Maidan. At that time, Russia attempted to return Ukraine to the Soviet empire, and it’s doing that now, but more intensively. So I’m here – because there are no absurd orders in the Right Sector. People decide for themselves how they should carry out tasks. The Right Sector goes and does what the army can’t. There was a call on the Maidan to change the format of governance. There power must go to the people. That’s what we’re aiming at,” tells Friend Japanese of his reasons for coming to the front.
Right Sector battalion member receives a token from schoolchildren

“I don’t want to wait until the Russians are at my doors,” is a reason that is shared by all battalion members that don’t come from the occupied territories. “My three-year-old son in Mariupol tells my wife ‘Mommy, run to the bomb shelter!’ when he hears distant shelling. What sort of a life is that? That’s why I’m here,” says friend Dolphin. He is one of the lucky 30% of the Donbas battalion that came out of the Ilovaisk battle free and alive, and joined the Right Sector battalion while the Donbas battalion trains and regroups. There are members from Donbas and Luhansk whose families live in the occupied territories. Like Friend Dolphin, they request that their photos not be shared, fearing for their family’s safety.
Taking into account the Right Sector’s role in Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution, there is little doubt that they will continue to act to carry out their plans. It was the Right Sector that on January 19 initiated Maidan’s departure from months of peaceful protests into a phase of active and violent resistance that eventually lead to the toppling of the Yanukovych regime.
How do you get in and how does it work?

The way DUK members address each other is “Friend” plus callsign. One would address the Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh as Friend Yastrub [hawk in Ukrainian] or Friend Providnyk [leader]. You either make up the callsign yourself or it finds you. “Pan [the Ukrainian analogue to Sir] is too hierarchical; we are all equals and friends here,” explains Friend Leopard: “we are closer than brothers here, more than brothers. Under danger, we are all the same, because bullets do not choose, we have to hold and support each other.” The Ukrainian word pobratym nails it pretty well: a pobratym is your named brother, one that you share a mission and a life adventure with. This feeling of brotherhood is one that attracts most in the DUK, according to Friend Monakh [Monk]. “We are here like in a monastery. We forget about money, live in a brotherhood, try to help each other.”
Friend Monakh

The Right Sector battalion is one of the most well-disciplined formations in Ukraine’s armed forces. Drinking is severely punished, which sets them apart from the regular army. So is negligence of duties. The worst punishment a Right Sector battalion member can face is expulsion from the team. One becomes part of the battalion by signing up at the regional Right Sector branches and undergoing a three-week training near Kyiv where fighters learn the essentials. More experienced members train new members.
The leadership is elected based on achievements; decisions are made at a lower level. Friend Leopard says that he would observe the fighters for some time and then make a proposal to assign some of them to a post at the morning assembly. The community would then have a chance to voice their opinion. Hearing about this leadership selection method sends me back four centuries to the time of the Zaporizhzhia Kozaks, a military formation in Ukraine’s steppes that battled the Poles and eventually made the fateful decision to unite with Moscow in 1654. With a legacy boasting to have the first Constitution in the world, the Kozaks were famous for their democratic and community-based methods of governance, at least at early stages of the existence of the Zaporizhzhia Sich.
What do they do and how are they supplied?

“If it wasn’t for the volunteers, the Russian invaders would be at Poland’s borders”
Friend Hunter, Donetsk Airport Cyborg

“Volunteer battalion” means that fighters sign up voluntarily and do not get pay: hence, a division of motivated patriots willing to give their lives to defend their country. Furthermore, the battalion receives no help from the state. Some volunteer battalions in Ukraine (like Azov and Donbas) have become part of the structure of the Ministry of the Interior or Ministry of Defense, which is why the fighters receive at least some kind of pay and provision (recently, Azov was made a regiment and now receives heavy ammunition). However, the Army is too corrupt for the Right Sector battalion to go under its command, tells Friend Leopard: there have been too many betrayals, and it is rumored that the Russian agents in Ukraine’s army sell out their division’s location to the enemy. Nevertheless, Right Sector works closely with the regular Ukrainian Army units stationed in Pisky, and performs the most dangerous and risky operations: for instance, more than half of the last rotation’s Cyborgs defending the encircled Donetsk airport from Russian attacks were from Right Sector. However, on November 12 the Right Sector command decided to withdraw their forces from the airport, as they saw their mission accomplished: “volunteer battalion” also means independence from central army command.
But the mere existence of volunteer battalions is made possible thanks to another army of volunteers – the ones crowd-sourcing funds and providing everything from thermal underwear to first aid kits to food for the troops, both from volunteer battalions and the regular army. For many of them, helping the army has become their lives, and they place themselves in danger when going up to the frontline under enemy shellings. The volunteers are doing so much that they are even getting criticized for taking the load that should be the government’s on their shoulders, and thus allowing for it to remain inefficient and inactive.
How do they get weapons?

Battalion members learning to operate a grenade launcher

“Volunteer battalion” in Right Sector’s case also means they don’t get weapons and ammunition from the Army. Their rifles are mostly won in battle; ammunition is bartered from the regular army units in exchange for supplies brought by volunteers. Sometimes the “barter” is purely symbolic: it’s in the Army’s interests for the Right Sector to be armed and protect their backs. The Right Sector has access to the Army’s heavy artillery for the same reason: they want to fight so it’s best to give them the opportunity to do so.
What do they think about the government?

The Army is not the only organization whose corruption is despised. Friend Leopard says that the Euromaidan revolution did not succeed, and this is only the start. “Our government right now is led by traitors. Not one person responsible for the Maidan shootings has been prosecuted, and neither have the army generals responsible for all the soldiers killed in the battle of Ilovaisk. Corruption still thrives; the people in power have been replaced by others but they are going down the old rotten road. What we all want to do is march on Kyiv and make them either work for the people or leave. But we understand that if we do that, the Russian army will be in Kyiv the next day. So first we will protect the border and then go to change the system. It will take not one year and not two, but we will change it.”
The Right Sector is famed by its radical actions and a refusal to compromise with corruption. For example, when Ukraine’s corrupt border service demanded their regular bribe to clear customs for vehicles designated to the battalion as aid in fighting the war, a phone call from the Right Sector’s leadership promising that if their vehicles weren’t cleared the customs officers’ cars would be taken instead managed to solve the problem in a matter of minutes. Amid growing dissatisfaction with slow reforms in post-Maidan Ukrainian society, many here see radical action to be the only way to advance justice and change the dysfunctional societal system rotted away by corruption over many years. “How else can you deal with these people…
How far-right is the Right Sector battalion?

Wedding in the Right Sector battalion

The members of the battalion are so diverse it’s almost headspinning. There is a charismatic church pastor who is always jolly, no matter the situation, and a neopaganist. An anarchist that joined the battalion because he saw they were doing the “right thing” and a young man fed up with low salaries and the general state of affairs. People from West Ukraine fighting for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and from East Ukraine because they want to return home and kick out invaders from their land. A buryat (one of Siberia’s ethnic groups) from occupied Crimea says he will only stop when Crimea is returned to Ukraine. A city mayor and first-year university students sneaking away from studies to become soldiers. There are young and old, men and women. Some are even wed in camouflage uniforms right at the front.
Not all are part of the Right Sector movement or support the political party, some just joined the battalion because of its reputation as a motivated combat group with good commanders (those that “keep to the oath given to the Ukrainian people” and care about their soldiers – don’t treat them as cannon fodder). The political party itself proclaims as its goal the creation of a “Ukrainian national state governed by the people,” its struggle is to “establish a power of the people instead of a power over the people,” and “imperialism, chauvinism, communism, nazism, xenophobia, cosmopolitism, globalism, pseudonationalism” as enemies in that struggle.
I tried to find out who exactly a Ukrainian is. “In order to be a Ukrainian you don’t have to be born as one, you have to feel yourself as one. You have to be one in your heart and soul. A nation is made up of the people around us that say “yes, I am a Ukrainian, and I want to live here and I will not leave.” Another answer: “Ukrainian isn’t a nationality, it’s a state of mind.” All those asked cared little about nationality or ethnicity, but cared greatly about removing corruption and oligarchy.
So, it’s hard to say how much this is far-right in the classical meaning. The Right Sector’s nationalism is mostly about liberating Ukraine from remnants of Russian imperialism which has been the centerpoint of the struggles of Ukrainian nationalism in the 20th century, as well as liberating Ukraine from the “internal occupation” of traitors and oligarchs. The varied ethnic backgrounds of Right Sector members suggest that “nationalism” in this case is more about patriotism than anything else.
Chances are, a Ukraine without corruption is becoming the new national idea of the nation that, according to some, is being reborn. However, Right Sector’s radical determination to eliminate corrupt officials and traitors doesn’t seem to address the reasons for their existing in the first place. Further from the frontline, the sheer heroism of Right Sector members becomes diluted with actions somewhat less brilliant. Friend Leopard told me that if we were to fundraise for the battalion, we should make sure we send the supplies directly through volunteers to Pisky; if it goes through the central base, the chances are that the Pisky division will not see them. On Right Sector checkpoints, people can be arrested for ideological support of separatism. The ones arrested can be thrown into the Right Sector dungeon. The ones in the dungeon may be tortured and beaten. The Right Sector’s arguments are that the separatists are much worse, and that they tortured our guys. War is ugly, and it permeates a cycle of hate. But one thing remains certain: it is the Right Sector that is defending their land from an invasion, and not the other way around.

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Alya Shandra

Tags: donbas, right sector, war

[Avvakum]

NATO sees Russia ready for Ukraine incursion

By PETER LEONARD 13 hours ago

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KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia still has enough troops along Ukraine's border to mount a major incursion, NATO's top commander said Wednesday, and Moscow is using its military might to affect political developments inside Ukraine.

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U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove said a large number of Russian troops are also active inside Ukraine, training and advising separatist rebels.
Moscow has routinely denied it played any direct role in the conflict in Ukraine, which has claimed more than 4,000 lives.
Breedlove spoke during a brief visit to Kiev, where he met with top officials to discuss continued NATO assistance for Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed separatists in the east.
"We are going to help Ukraine's military to increase its capacities and capabilities through interaction with U.S. and European command," he said, adding that it "will make them ever more interoperable with our forces."
Ukraine has received multiple pledges of military support from Western nations, but has been frustrated by Washington's reluctance to promise any lethal equipment. But a senior aide to President Barack Obama said last week that he believes the U.S. should consider giving lethal defensive equipment to Ukraine.
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, left, greets U.S. European Command Commander, North Atlantic T …

Tony Blinken, deputy U.S. national security adviser, said he believed Washington ought to consider strengthening Ukrainian forces as a message to Moscow. Providing defensive military equipment to Ukraine has broad support in the U.S. Congress.
The Ukrainian armed advance against rebel forces ground to a halt and was substantially reversed over the summer as government troops found themselves faced by a well-equipped and determined foe.
"This international border is completely wide open and maintained open by Russian forces, so that forces, supplies, money, fighters can move across at will," Breedlove said.
A truce was agreed in early September but fighting continues daily in several areas of eastern Ukraine.

[Avvakum]

Ukraine puts on parliamentary show of unity in message to Russia

By Natalia Zinets and Alessandra Prentice 32 minutes ago

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Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk (R) welcomes former Prime Minister and newly elected parliamentary …



By Natalia Zinets and Alessandra Prentice

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KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament approved Arseny Yatseniuk for a new term as prime minister on Thursday in a ceremony that countered reports of high-level disunity in a message to Russia over its backing of separatists in the country's east.
Pomp and emotion characterized the opening of Ukraine's first parliament since the February fall of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovich as his successor, Petro Poronshenko, declared in a keynote speech that there could be no future formula for Ukraine other than that of a single, unified state.
More than two thirds of the deputies in the 450-seat parliament voted for Yatseniuk to stay as head of government, a post he has held since protests toppled Yanukovich, prompting Russia to annex Ukraine's Crimea region and back pro-Russian rebels in the east.
In a gesture aimed at deflecting impressions of damaging rivalry between him and Poroshenko which have also alarmed Western governments, Yatseniuk raised his hand to the president and declared to cheers: "Here is my hand for carrying out all that you have just said from this tribune.
"This is our joint responsibility," he added before striding over to Poroshenko and warmly embracing the president.
The display of unity was scripted in part for the eyes of Russia, which is backing Russian-speaking separatists in Ukraine's industrial heartland in a conflagration that has killed more than 4,300 people.
Political parties in favor of closer links to the European Union scored a resounding victory in a Oct. 26 election, handing Poroshenko a mandate to end the conflict and steer the ex-Soviet republic further out of Russia's orbit toward Europe.
But there have been reports of disputes between Poroshenko and Yatseniuk over the share-out of portfolios in the new government which may emerge next Tuesday.
Poroshenko said 100 percent of Ukrainians favored a unitary state without federalization, a political model that has been pushed by Russia but is seen by Kiev as a recipe for the country's dismemberment.
"These are our warm wishes to those in the East or West who advise federalization," Poroshenko said sarcastically.
But he said the reality was that Ukraine would always have "to sleep with a revolver under the pillow", an allusion to the perceived threat from Russia, which in turn sees Kiev's tilt toward the EU and NATO fold as menacing.
Poroshenko said support among Ukrainians for joining NATO had grown 3-4 fold this year and Ukraine's current non-aligned status no longer worked.
(Writing by Alessandra Prentice and Richard Balmforth; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

[Avvakum]

War veterans steal limelight in Ukraine's new parliament

By Richard Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk 6 hours ago

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By Richard Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk



KIEV (Reuters) - War veterans and nationalist radicals brought a revolutionary air to the opening on Thursday of Ukraine's new parliament convened to name a government to hold the country together and set out a program of far-reaching reform.
Hundreds of riot police guarded the building as the parliament quickly formed a five-party coalition of support for the pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko and later elected Arseny Yatseniuk for a new term as prime minister.
But it was the men, and women, of force who stole the limelight from the besuited politicians when proceedings opened in the ornate parliament building a short walk from Kiev's Independence Square or Maidan, the center of last winter's Euromaidan revolution.
Several deputies in battle fatigues -- the sign of volunteer fighters from the war front against pro-Russian separatists -- stood out among the ranks of politicians who swore an oath of allegiance in the 450-seat assembly.
Outgoing speaker Oleksander Turchynov brought an air of triumph by announcing that one of the deputies, Nadia Savchenko, a Ukrainian military pilot, had managed to take the oath, with the help of her lawyer, despite being held in a Moscow psychiatric clinic.
Savchenko, 33, was captured by separatists and spirited into Russia where she is accused of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists in Ukraine. To cheers from the assembly, her signed oath was flashed up on a giant screen.
In a break with the old Soviet-style proceedings, many male deputies wore traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts under their jackets.
Outside the chamber, fighters from various volunteer battalions, as well as serving soldiers -- many of them who have become household names in the past year of revolution and war -- mingled with the media.
Yuli Mamchur, 43, a diminutive Ukrainian air force colonel, who became an overnight hero when he defied pro-Russian forces by refusing to leave his post in Crimea last March, seemed nonplussed in the hustle and bustle around him.
Asked if life was easier for him as a member of the Kiev parliament than when he was serving in Crimea, he replied: "No. It's harder here. I don't know a lot of people here. One has to define the atmosphere and work out the disposition of forces. But one must get down to battle. There's no other way."
NEW DEPUTIES
Other new deputies struck a truculent mood. Dmytro Yarosh, 43, who leads the far-right nationalist Right Sector, said he would work to reform the military to turn it into a better fighting force. "If we don't stop the enemy, then to try to build a state makes no sense," he said.
Right Sector was blamed last January for first using violent tactics against riot police, changing the face of what had been until then a peaceful demonstration against the Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich.
Volodymyr Parasiuk, a boyish 26-year-old from the western city of Lviv who is credited with giving an impromptu speech that turned the Maidan against an EU-brokered deal that would have allowed the now-ousted Yanukovich to stay in office, seemed disoriented away from the war front where he has been serving.
He had to check with journalists to find the right door for deputies to enter the parliament.
There were fighting words from Andriy Biletsky, an ultranationalist who leads the Azov battalion of volunteer fighters and who was elected deputy in the Oct. 26 election.
The emblem of the Azov battalion -- a black capital Z slicing across a black vertical -- is strikingly similar to the Nazi swastika and Biletski's presence in parliament will feed Russian accusations of "fascist" influence on Ukrainian policy.
Asked why he was not wearing combat fatigues, Biletski said: "Camouflage is a comedy in the town and in parliament."
But he said he would be going back to the front on Friday to Mariupol, a southern coastal town under threat from pro-Russian forces. "There are as many camouflage uniforms there as you want, but not here!"
Mikhailo Gavrilyuk, 35, won sympathy in Ukraine when he was forced to strip on a cold day in January by riot police who humiliated him in front of video cameras.
Sporting a Ukrainian cossack haircut of a single lock of hair on an otherwise shaven head, he said his main challenge was working out "what makes each person here tick."
Pro-Western parties won a mandate to end the separatist conflict and steer the country further out of Russia's orbit toward Europe, though a grouping called the Opposition bloc which includes allies of the now-discredited Yanukovich also won representation.
One Opposition Bloc deputy, billionaire Vadim Novinsky, said: "It does not embarrass me that we are so few. It is only the beginning. Without a good opposition, there is no good government."
(Writing by Richard Balmforth; editing by Giles Elgood)

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[American Patriot]

I think this might be the right place to put this:

US Army Plans to Send Abrams Tanks and Bradleys to Eastern Europe

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These U.S. Army M1A2 Abrams tanks are part of the European Activity Set, a combined-arms battalion-sized set of vehicles and equipment pre-positioned at Germany’s Grafenwoehr Training Area. Markus Ruachenberger/U.S. Army

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Dec 01, 2014 | by Richard Sisk
The new Army commander in Europe plans to bolster the U.S. armored presence in Poland and the Baltic states and keep rotations of U.S. troops there through next year and possibly beyond to counter Russia.
Lt. Gen. Frederick "Ben" Hodges, who replaced Lt. Gen. Donald M. Campbell earlier this month as commander of U.S. Army Europe, said the Army was looking to add about 100 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the forces in Eastern Europe.
"We are looking at courses of action for how we could pre-position equipment that we would definitely want to put inside a facility where it would be better maintained, that rotational units could then come and draw on it and use it to train, or for contingency purposes," Hodges said in a briefing from Vilnius, Lithuania.
Hodges visited a training site in Lithuania that could be used to store armor and said he would look at similar sites in Estonia and Poland.
"Certainly, I don't see a need to build infrastructure -- a FOB [Forward Operating Base] if you will -- or anything like that, that would be used for U.S. forces," Hodges said.

Since taking command, Hodges has made clear his concerns about Russia, which annexed Crimea last March and has supported the separatists in eastern Ukraine. U.S. Army Europe, which had 280,000 troops at the height of the Cold War, now has 31,000.
The rotations of U.S. troops on training missions in Eastern Europe would provide "deterrence against Russian aggression," Hodges said.
"I don't think that Russia has any intention of some sort of a conventional attack into NATO territory because they know that would generate an Article 5 response."
He referred to the NATO treaty article calling on all member states to respond to an attack on any member of the alliance. Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are all members of the 28-member NATO alliance.
"I think that what they [the Russians] do want to do is to create that ambiguity, plant the seeds of uncertainty so that the alliance members lose confidence that the rest of the alliance would come to their aid if they were, in fact, attacked," Hodges said.
Two days after Hodges spoke, Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, the NATO commander, visited Ukraine to discuss U.S. and NATO assistance in shoring up defenses against the separatists.
Moscow has repeatedly denied sending troops into eastern Ukraine and providing advanced arms and equipment to the separatists, but Breedlove said that Russian troops definitely were present in eastern Ukraine and were "giving backbone" to the rebels.
Breedlove said Russian forces were also training the rebels to "understand the advanced weaponry that is being brought across."
The central government in Kiev led by President Petro Poroshenko has been pleading with the U.S. for advanced weaponry to counter the Russian troops and rebels, but the U.S. has limited assistance to non-lethal aid.
Speaking on background, a senior administration official traveling with Vice President Joe Biden on his trip to Ukraine last week said the U.S. has provided more than $100 million in non-lethal assistance "to help the Ukrainians defend themselves."
The aid included night-vision goggles;protective vests; counter-mortar radars; blankets; vehicles; and Meals, Ready to Eat, the official said. The official said the U.S. had concluded that arming Ukraine would be counter-productive since "no matter how many weapons we provided to Ukraine, they were going to get outgunned by the Russians."
Since the pro-Russian rebels seized border regions last April, more than 4,300 combatants and civilians have been killed in eastern Ukraine and nearly a million people have fled the region, according to the United Nations.

[American Patriot]

Just want to say....

This is not looking too good here to me. Back to the essentials of the Cold War, if you ask me.

[Ryan Ruck]

These U.S. Army M1A2 Abrams tanks are part of the European Activity Set, a combined-arms battalion-sized set of vehicles and equipment pre-positioned at Germany’s Grafenwoehr Training Area. Markus Ruachenberger/U.S. Army

I thought we pulled out the last of the Abrams from Germany not too long ago?

[American Patriot]

We did. Except for some. At least that's my thinking.

When we decommission stuff, we don't decom it all. When we close down units, we generally move the equipment to other units. People too.

So a lot of the tanks should still be present, and people to drive them should be available still.