Brothers and sisters!
Here’s the Summary for August 11, 2014
The bad news:
1. Putin will not take one step back from his politics of permanent cynical provocations. Clinging to the idea of “humanitarian convoys” for Donbas, like a widow to a cucumber, he will not part with it anymore.
According to today’s announcement by the Kremlin, “the Russian side, in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC], is sending its humanitarian convoy to Ukraine.”
[There are] very big doubts about the phrase “in collaboration with the ICRC.” Putin is [once] again lying without even blushing–it is still unclear how his own flock believes him, for any other sheep would have seen the light long time ago. And the position of the Red Cross is even more incomprehensible–the Kremlin keeps using it as a cover, like a young exhibitionist hides under his grandfather’s cloak who continues to sniff peacefully through his two holes.
Whereas both the UN Security Council and the EU, and in fact, [the authorities in] Kyiv, have demonstrated their position regarding “humanitarian convoys” from Russia–well, the aggressor cannot broadcast about “humanitarian assistance” to the victims of his own aggression. All in all, we are waiting for an official commentary from the ICRC.
2. About the aggressor…today, the NSDC [National Security and Defense Council] provided details about the shelling of not only the positions of the ATO forces, but also of Ukrainian settlements, carried out by Russian servicemen from the territory of the Russian Federation. (However, the Russian militaries themselves gladly provide incriminating evidence against them on the Internet, bragging about the shellings and killings of peaceful civilians.) On the territory of Donbas, it’s Russian soldiers [that are] being captured once again. On the border with Ukraine, Putin gathered his 45,000-person armada, ready to invade Ukraine at any moment.
Looking at all this, the question inevitably arises: what kind of “humanitarian aid” from Russia could we possibly talk about? The Kremlin might only need this “aid” for two purposes–to “legalize” the provision of assistance to terrorists, as well as to create a pretext for an open military invasion at any time, via his subversives or the same pro-Russian insurgents, by staging armed provocations against their own “humanitarian convoys.”
3. Today, the Russian media (by the way, the Ukrainian [media] followed immediately) began to escalate the panic, saying that shellings carried out by Ukrainian servicemen at the chemical plant of Concern Stirol in Horlivka threaten Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation with a catastrophe! Not even a cockroach will survive over 300 km in the vicinity! We are all going to die because of the ATO forces! The reason [behind this] is a statement by the press secretary of Concern Stirol, who began having a seizure entirely on his own initiative (and where? On Youtube…).
Here, we must consider two things. Firstly, the terrorists in close cooperation with Russian media have long been trying to bring the issue of the use of “chemical weapons” by the Ukrainian army (remember Mariupol or Semenivka) to the masses. Now they have invented a new and–in their opinion–a more reliable type of “chemical threat” from the ATO forces.
Secondly, the Ostchem group that owns “Stirol,” stated that it has eliminated the danger of the chemical plant for residents of Horlivka and the region. For a simple reason: due to the fighting in the district, for safety reasons, the production of ammonia and urea has been discontinued, the ammonia storage facility has been fully emptied, and the company finished producing all of the ammonia. Therefore, even if a chemical surprise does appear in the ATO zone, it will be in the form of a “gift” from Putin to the terrorists.
The good news:
1. The ATO forces are conducting offensive operations in the areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Torez (thus solving the issue of the notorious “N21 highway problem”), and others. Raids are regularly conducted during which command centers, live forces and terrorist equipment get destroyed.
Today we talked about the fact that the successes of these raids get partially offset by the constant [flow] of new deliveries of Russian cannon fodder and weapons from Putin. But it is difficult to argue that nonetheless such actions by our army have a powerful demoralizing effect on the insurgents, and [the fact that] their losses significantly exceed the replacements from Russia.
The NSDC also reports citing intelligence reports that desertion is becoming an epidemic in the “LNR” and “DNR” [Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics]. Not every fool is ready, for any amount of Moscow money, to play Putin’s game called “To the last drop of blood.”
2. The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, in a telephone conversation with Putin warned Moscow, as the report says, from “any unilateral military action in Ukraine, on any grounds, including humanitarian.”
I don’t know what Europe is prepared to do if the Kremlin sent it packing with its own warnings. But if the Europeans have, after all, decided on a third round of economic sanctions, then there is hope that they are prepared to go even further if the situation continues to develop in a negative manner.
Our primary victory is in the fact that Brussels fully realized–the bright future of Europe is being decided today in Donbas. If Putin crosses over Ukraine, this is the end of European carelessness. “If Wichita falls, then Wichita Falls will fall.”
3. The government of Ukraine is establishing the State Service of Ukraine for Veteran and ATO Participant Affairs.
This is a very correct initiative. I just sincerely hope that ATO participants won’t repeat the fate of veterans when they are only remembered on major holidays, [and people] give them flowers with tears in their eyes while forgetting about their problems the next day. On the other hand, today’s heroes, [who are] protecting Ukraine from Raschism, give us another reason to re-evaluate the great feat of our grandfathers, who defended our land from Nazism.
