If the West is opposed to bombing schools, clinics and peoples’ homes why
is it that Palestine Action activists are on bail for trying to stop Elbit
Systems making killer drones for use in Gaza and Yemen?
John Mersheimer and Ray
McGovern
Last year
I was one of 6 Palestine Action activists who were detained by Police on the
way to Elbit’s Shenstone Factory which produces drones, missiles and cluster
ammunition (although they deny it). The Jewish Chronicle gleefully reported
that ‘Greenstein charged with 'possessing
an article with the intent to destroy property'.
Elbit funded a book which claims that Bulgaria’s army saved the country’s Jews from deportation.
In fact Bulgaria’s army deported 11,000 Jews from Thrace & Macedonia to
Auschwitz. It was the strength of the Left and the Church which prevented the
deportation of Bulgaria's 50,000 Jews. But Elbit is more concerned about arms
contracts with Bulgaria. Who cares if it falsifies the history of the Holocaust.
There was
of course no mention as to whether I was about to vandalise a car or a door to
someone’s home. No mention was made of the target being Israel’s Elbit arms
factory. It was left to readers to speculate. All that mattered was that I had intended
to destroy property, which in the Jewish Chronicle’s eyes is far more reprehensible
than killing a few Palestinian children. Given that the article was written by ‘Liar’
Lee Harpin it’s surprising that he even managed to spell my name right!
Of course
the JC could have reported why the van that I was driving contained red paint
to symbolise the blood of those whose lives have been taken by Elbit Systems
but given the psychopathic politics of Editor Stephen Pollard that was never
very likely.
That ordinary
people are horrified by what is happening is in Ukraine is understandable. The
destruction and loss of life is horrific.
Putin has
fallen into the trap that Biden and the architects of the United States’s
policy towards Ukraine laid for him. No one is likely to be happier at how
events have turned out than Biden, Blinken and the rest of the Masters of War
in Washington. Not that Putin is any angel. His horrific war in Chechniya and
his merciless bombing of civilian populations in Syria (which of course the US
was also doing) demonstrates that he is no progressive.
Russia should
withdraw its forces immediately from Ukraine before there is even worse
carnage. Russia had the right to defend the two breakaway republics of Donetsk
and Luhansk. It had no right to invade and try to take over the rest of
Ukraine. Unfortunately the result of Putin’s actions is that NATO will be
strengthened.
Those who
want a background to Russia’s invasion should watch John Mearsheimer’s lecture to King’s
College students.
He
predicted that Russia would not invade Ukraine based on what is rationale, because
Mearsheimer comes from the ‘realist’ school of political science. However our
leaders are rarely rational.
The anger
of Russia against the encroachment of NATO is understandable and the double
dealing of the West, including the arming of neo-Nazi militias and their
integration into the Ukrainian military, should be a wake up call for everyone.
Ukraine on Fire
The
overthrow, in what was a fascist coup, in 2014 of the democratically elected
President, Viktor Yanukovych (See Oliver Stone’s Ukraine on Fire provides
the background.
The
hypocrisy surrounding Russia’s invasion is nauseating. NATO has condemned
Russia’s use of cluster munitions. But here’s a strange thing. Neither the United
States nor Ukraine (Israel and Russia) have signed the Convention on
Cluster Munitions. Clearly NATO has no principled objection to their use.
Ilan
Pappe has written an excellent article on what he terms the Four Lessons from Ukraine. They can be
summed up as:
i.White Refugees are Welcome; Others Less So.
In Israel this is not true. They
are doing their best to deter Ukrainian Jews from even coming to Israel but its
not going according to plan. Too many of the ‘wrong sort’ i.e. non-Jews have
continued coming, probably unaware that in a ‘Jewish’ racial state they are not
welcome.
Israel’s Interior Minister Ayelet
Shaked, who Moshe Machover in another excellent article Hypocrisy
all round describes as ‘Israel’s
double-plus version of Priti Patel’ has been wailing
that ‘90% of Ukrainian Refugees Arriving Are non-Jews, Situation 'Cannot Go On'.
You can see Ayelet’s point. The whole point of Israel that it
is a state for Jews, not non-Jews. Israel’s
Immigration Policy Center likened
the current situation to the case of infiltrators [this was a term originally
deployed for Palestinian refugees in the 50s who were trying to return by
sneaking over the border. Today it is used to refer to asylum seekers from
Africa].
The center warned
of a "ticking demographic time bomb".
It is important for the Jewish ethnic state to maintain a healthy majority over
non-Jews. If 90% of Ukrainian refugees are non-Jews then we might end up with a
non-Jewish state. God forbid! Concern for demography is integral to all Zionist
parties. That is why a Jewish State is inherently racist. Israeli politicians’ worst
nightmare is that one day Israel has a non-Jewish majority (which if Palestinians
under occupation were allowed to vote would already exist).
It is therefore perfectly understandable
that Israel should balk at taking non-Jewish refugees and diluting the racial
gene pool. Shaked therefore came up with a brilliant idea. Those entering with
the wrong bloodline would have to pay a 10,000 shekel deposit (£2,500) to
guarantee that they wouldn’t outstay their welcome (1 month). Zelensky, despite
being a Zionist (he is an Israeli citizen), objected.
ii.The second lesson is that ‘You Can Invade Iraq but not the Ukraine’.
This should be obvious. Only the United States has the right to invade
countries to engage in regime change. What the hell does Putin think he is
doing in challenging Biden’s monopoly on this kind of thing?
iii.Lesson 3 is particularly important for you to
understand. Although none of us like neo-Nazis there are times when Neo-Nazism
Can Be Tolerated. In 2014 neo-Nazi militia such as the Azov
Battalion were essential to overthrowing a pro-Russian President Yanukovych. That is why the United States,
Britain and Israel
have been arming them and training them.
The CIA
has been secretly
training forces for Ukraine since 2015. According to Nation
magazine in July 2015 Congressmen John Conyers and Ted Yoho drew up
an amendment to the House Defense Appropriations bill that “limits arms,
training, and other assistance to the neo-Nazi Ukrainian militia, the Azov
Battalion.” Yet by the end of 2015, under pressure from the Pentagon, Congress
removed a ban on funding the Azov Battalion from its spending bill.
It’s like Al Qaeda. They are our enemy but if they
are also the enemy of our enemy they can become our friend. So in the battle to
overthrow Assad in Syria Israel under the ‘Good Neighbour’ programme began funding
and arming the Al Qaeda front, al Nusra. Israel even provided hospital
facilities for their wounded fighters.
Of course Israel is not overkeen on neo-Nazis, despite
having a few in the Knesset, but in the world of realpolitik one can’t be too choosy. And they are certainly preferable
to communists since these days their main target is Arabs and Muslims (and now
Russians) not Jews. Neo-Nazis are now integrated
into the Ukrainian National Guard and armed forces, all courtesy of ‘Jewish’
President Zelensky.
iv.The fourth and most
important lesson is that Hitting High-rise flats is only a War Crime in Europe.
So we had the ludicrous situation that clips and images circulating about
Russian missile strikes were shown by USA Today and others to have been Israeli
attacks in Gaza! As Pappe wrote:
USA Today reported that a photo that
went viral about a high-rise in the Ukraine being hit by Russian bombing turned
out to be a high-rise from the Gaza Strip, demolished
by the Israeli Air Force in May 2021. A few days before that, the Ukrainian
Foreign Minister complained to the Israeli ambassador in Kiev that “you’re treating us like Gaza” (Haaretz,
February 17, 2022)
‘While the photo in the post
is real, it wasn't taken in Ukraine. Agence-France Presse photographer Mahmud
Hamsimage took the photo May 10, 2021, in the Gaza Strip.
It is an understandable mistake because
the Western media has never had a problem with Israeli air strikes on Gaza’s
high rise flats. Even scenes from video games have been passed off as being
from Ukraine (see here).
The reaction to Russian excuses for their actions are in
themselves noteworthy. Last year Israeli airstrikes in Gaza damaged six
hospitals, nine primary health care centres, and a desalination plant that
supplies clean water to 250 000 people according to the British
Medical Journal, quoting the United Nations. Israel justified this by claiming
that Hamas was operating there. Naturally the BBC treats this explanation deferentially.
When Israel announces that Hamas is using civilians as ‘human
shields’ Western leaders parrot this nonsense. Presumably this was why Israel used
White Phosphorous on schools and civilian targets. And The Hill, which boasts that it is ‘read by the White House and more lawmakers
than any other site’ carried an article,
not on Israel’s targeting of Palestinian civilians but on How Congress can fight Hamas's use of human shields’ thus buying
into Israel’s lying propaganda 100%.
When Russia uses the same excuses then
the BBC treats his explanation with the derision they deserve. Double standards
are normal BBC fare.
It shouldn’t need repeating but I
will for the benefit of those fools who believe that criticism of NATO means
that one is a ‘Putin’ supporter. These are the arguments of McCarthyists
through the ages. If you criticise any facet of American capitalism then you
are a communist or a Russian agent.
There are those who have imbibed
this logic with their mother’s milk. They stay glued to the BBC and in case
their minds should wander Boris Johnson, at the urging of Starmer, has ensured
that there is no alternative news outlet such as RT. Although we are in favour
of competition economically, it must never be though that this competition
extends to different narratives at the time of war.
We should be grateful to Israel, which
at least has had the decency not to condemn Russia too strongly. As Ha’aretz explained
there are Three
Reasons Why Israel Is Hesitant to Condemn Putin Over Ukraine most notably Israel’s
co-ordination with Russia over the bombing of Syria. I imagine that condemning
Russia’s attacks on civilians might seem a little like chutzpah, even for Israel’s cynical leaders.
There is also another irony as Pappe
pointed
out ‘The Ukrainian establishment does
not only have a connection with these neo-Nazi groups and armies, it is also
disturbingly and embarrassingly pro-Israeli.’
One of Zelensky’s first acts as
President was to withdraw Ukraine from the UN Committee on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People – the only international tribunal
that makes sure the Nakba is not forgotten.
Zelensky had no sympathy for the Palestinian
refugees, nor did he consider them to be victims of any crime. In interviews
after the last Israeli bombardment of Gaza in May 2021, he stated that
the only tragedy in Gaza was the one suffered by the Israelis.
As Pappe commented, if what
Zelensky says is true then ‘it is only
the Russians who suffer in the Ukraine.’ But this too is out of Israel’s
playbook of ‘shooting and crying’. Even when Israel murders Palestinians they
are the real victims. As Golda Meir said:
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive
them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the
Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us”
I decided to send a letter to the
Guardian. Given its letters page is Freedlandised (after Jonathan Freedland,
its Zionist gatekeeper) it won’t appear but it’s good to give it the
opportunity to print the truth occasionally.
The stench of hypocrisy
surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is overpowering.
Over two dozen of us are
presently on bail for the ‘crime’ of trying to prevent Elbit Systems Ltd., an
Israeli arms manufacturer, from producing drones and missiles that are then
used by Israel, Saudi Arabia and other regimes to murder civilians.
Indeed one of Elbit’s proud
boasts to potential buyers is that its weapons are ‘battle tested’ against
civilians.
Since we are all now agreed that
bombing civilians, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure is a war crime
perhaps I could ask whether this only applies in Europe? Are non-European
peoples excepted from the protection of international law?
When Israel ‘mows the lawn’ in
Gaza, it has no hesitation in attacking health facilities and high rise tower
blocks. The excuse given is that Hamas is located in the facility or that
civilians are being used as human shields. The BBC takes these explanations
seriously but when it comes to Russia these same excuses are treated with
derision. Why?
USA Today revealed
on February 24 that a widely circulated image on social media of the bombing of
Kharkhiv was in fact the bombing of Gaza. USA Today also revealed
that a Facebook post that went viral showing a brave Ukrainian girl confronting
armed Russiansoldiers was in fact a
Palestinian girl, Ahed Tamimi, who in 2017 was gaoled for 8 months for slapping
a heavily armed soldier who had just shot her cousin in the head.
And isn’t the continued
incarceration of Julian Assange for exposing United States attacks on Iraqi
civilians an outrage too far?Or is
there something I have missed?
The fact that Putin is trying to justify the unjustifiable in
Ukraine does not mean we must ignore the U.S. actions that fuel his narrative.
In recent
days, U.S. and NATO officials have highlighted Russia’s use of banned weapons,
including cluster munitions, and have said their use constitutes violations of
international law. This is indisputably true. What goes virtually unmentioned
in much of the reporting on this topic is that the U.S., like both Russia and
Ukraine, refuses
to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The U.S.
has repeatedly used cluster bombs, going back to the war in Vietnam and the “secret”
bombings of Cambodia. In the modern era, both Presidents Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush used them. President Barack Obama used
cluster bombs in a 2009
attack in Yemen that killed some 55 people, the majority of them women and
children. Despite the ban,
which was finalized in 2008 and went into effect in 2010, the U.S. continued
to sell cluster bombs to nations like Saudi Arabia, which regularly used
them in its attacks in Yemen. In 2017, President Donald Trump reversed an
internal U.S. policy
aimed at limiting the use of certain types of cluster munitions, a move which a
Human Rights Watch expert warned
“could embolden others to use cluster
munitions that have caused so much human suffering.”
Moscow’s
argument is that the U.S. and NATO, under the “pretext” of “humanitarian
intervention,” and with no United Nations authorization, unilaterally bombed
Serbia for more than two months in 1999 followed by a ground incursion into
Kosovo. In February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested, in
remarks at the U.N., that the U.S. had set a precedent with the Kosovo war and
that this negated the value of Western critiques of Russia’s plans to
attack Ukraine. “I have to recall these facts, because some Western
colleagues prefer to forget them,” Putin said
in his February 24 speech. “When we
mentioned the [Kosovo war], they prefer to avoid speaking about
international law.”
On
March 24, 1999, ignoring opposition from the U.N. and a sizable number of U.S.
lawmakers, the U.S. began what would become a 78-day NATO bombing campaign
against Serbia and Montenegro that saw civilian targets regularly struck, 16
media workers killed when a TV station was bombed, and internationally
banned cluster bombs used, including on a crowded market, in attacks
that killed between 90 and 150 civilians. The U.S. also bombed the Chinese
Embassy in Belgrade, killing three journalists.
While
Biden and his allies claimed that the war was necessary to prevent ethnic
cleansing and mass killing operations, the overwhelming
majority of Kosovo Albanians killed by Serbian forces were killed after the
NATO bombing began. Milošević responded to the airstrikes by unleashing his
forces and deploying great numbers of both conventional and special units as
well as vicious paramilitaries in a “systematic
and deliberately organized” mass killing and forced displacement operation.
During the bombing, an estimated 700,000 Kosovo Albanians were forcibly
displaced. “The NATO air campaign did not
provoke the attacks on the civilian Kosovar population but the bombing created
an environment that made such an operation feasible,” a U.N. commission on
the war concluded.
It
should also be pointed out that the condemnation of Russia for its use of
horrific thermobaric weapons and cluster bombs would be a tad more convincing
if Britain and the United States hadn’t used them in Syria and Afghanistan.
It
never ceases to amaze me how many fools are taken in by Western propaganda like
for example the detestable Kay
Burley.
Why has the Holocaust
Denying Azov Battalion been funded by the United States, armed by Israel and
trained by the British army?
Jimmy Dore Show – He’s a NATO Puppet – Fox Business Guest Tells Truth
About Ukraine President
We are
living in the most dangerous times that I have ever known. Even more dangerous
than the Cuban
missile crisis 60 years ago
when the Soviet Union stationed nuclear missiles in Cuba.
It is possible that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could become transformed into a war
between Russia and NATO with incalculable consequences. This is especially true
if Poland’s lunatic scheme to invite Ukrainian pilots into the country to fly
their Soviet-era planes into the conflict had gone ahead. This would have led the
Russians to retaliate, thus invoking of Article 5 of the
NATO charter, which treats an attack on one as an attack on all.
Let me make
my own position is clear.I am opposed
to Putin’s invasion.I believe he fell
into America’s trap. Certainly the attempt to take over the whole of Ukraine as
opposed to defending the two breakaway republics is crazy.However I also
understand why this has taken place.
The
propaganda media in the West, which puts the old Soviet media to shame, are refusing
to analyse the causes of what has happened. Instead they portray this all as
the actions of a madman, the ‘new Hitler’ Vladimir Putin.
On one
thing we should be clear.If anyone is
the madman it is the senile Joe Biden, who can hardly stutter a coherent
sentence without a teleprompt and the pathetic Boris Johnson, who imagines that
he is playing the role of Winston Churchill even to the point of imitating his ‘we will fight them on the beaches’
speech.
In the video below,
Putin answers questions from his own citizens and provides an extremely
coherent and persuasive account of the factors that led the Russian state, not
Putin, to invade Ukraine. Would that our own rulers were equally candid and
coherent.
In the Jimmy Dore Show above, there is an
interview with retired US Army Colonel Douglas
MacGregor who describes Zelensky,
Ukraine’s President Zelensky as a ‘puppet’
who is endangering his own people.
All that
was necessary, MacGregor explained, to prevent the Russian invasion was an
agreement by Ukraine that it would not join NATO, which is an offensive not
defensive alliance. Instead it could have agreed to become a neutral state,
like Switzerland and Austria. What possible objection could there be to this?
Thosewho talk about the ‘right’ of Ukraine to join
whatever alliance it wants are really talking about the right of Ukraine to
station nuclear missiles on its soil pointed at Russia.There is no right to threaten your
neighbours. Where in international law is such a ‘right’ written down?
The
hypocrisy of our media is staggering. Where was the equivalent hysteria over
the United States invasion of Iraq which killed up to one million Iraqis? Or
the protests at the use of uranium
tipped missiles in Iraq, the effect of which is to cause cancer?
Where were
the protests at Israel’s bombing of high rise flats in Gaza last May?
Ludicrously we had videos of such attacks going viral on social
media attributing these attacks to Russia today! We even had video games war
scenarios being attributed to Russia! Of course Biden and Johnson said nothing
when it was only Palestinians who were being bombed. Because they are not like
us.
A section
of the left, such as the pro-imperialist AWL and Paul Mason, have given full
support to the war mongers. Others, such as the SWP, have retreated behind the
comforting fiction that it is an inter-imperialist war and that both sides are
as bad as each other.
So let us
be clear. Russia is not waging a war of imperialist plunder. It has not gone
into Ukraine in order to pillage it (though of course that could happen). It
has gone into Ukraine in order to prevent it joining NATO. Unlike Iraq this is
actually a defensive war.
But the
question of NATO and Ukraine is the elephant in the room. No one on the BBC or
even Al Jazeera dares to mention it.It
as if NATO were an international version of the Women’s Institute. A club for
geriatric leaders, to get together for a chat over a cup of tea rather than a
military alliance which bombed Serbia and Libya, invaded Afghanistan and today
threatens to encircle Russia.
The
one station that could have challenged this narrative is RT which has been shut
down. Sir Keith Stürmer demanded this even before Johnson conceded it. The Labour Party under Stürmer is not so much
an opposition as an Establishment Lapdog. The
social media giants – Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, have been doing their
best to suppress dissent even as Western leaders attack Putin for his
authoritarian ways.
Belowis an
interesting interview with the former Democratic Senator for Hawai and former
US Colonel, Tulsi Gabbard, with Fox News Tucker
Carlson. Carlson is a maverick right-winger much like Peter Hitchens in this
country. Because his show is so popular he has remained the one dissenting voice
in the mainstream media in America.In
this country, under the BBC, there are no such voices.
Tulsi Gabbard and Tucker Carlson
Meanwhile Julian Assange remains incarcerated in
Belmarsh for daring to have revealed US war crimes in Iraq. This is the
breathtaking hypocrisy of our leaders. They don’t prosecute war criminals, they
prosecute those who expose them.
What should we be demanding? An end to the invasion
and the withdrawal of Russian troops to the breakaway republics and Crimea. Coupled
with an end to NATO. A firm guarantee in the meantime that Ukraine, whether it
likes it or not, will never be part of NATO.
If you want to understand the background to the
present crisis you cannot do better than watch
this lecture, by Professor John
Mearsheimer of Chicago University. He is of the realist (for which read honest)
school of Political Science. Mearsheimer is not of the left, but he rails at
the insanity of the political system we live in without ever understanding that
war is just an extension of competition under capitalism. This is why what he
says is so compelling when compared with the endless talking heads on the BBC
with their war porn.
Another
lecturefrom Mearsheimer is Why is Ukraine the West's Fault? Given in
2014, shortly after the West’s coup which removed Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s democratically
elected President, is well worth watching.Both are eye opening. That is why he won’t be one of the ‘experts’ that the
BBC interview.
I am copying below an article by Alexander
Rubinstein
and Max Blumenthal on the truth behind
Russian allegations that they are taking out Ukraine’s neo-Nazis. These
allegations have been dismissed by pointing to Zelensky, an ardent Zionist and
Israeli citizen, being Jewish.
In fact Zelensky’s Jewishness has until recently
barely been mentioned. In a
2019 interview with Bernard-Henri Levy, a French-Jewish
philosopher, Zelensky declined to explore his Jewish identity at any length,
responding to a question about it by saying: “The fact that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults.”
The decision to use Zelensky’s Jewishness is what
Philadelphia’s Jewish Exponentcalled ‘a
strategic decision at a perilous time for Ukraine.’
What could be better than a Jew who provides a cover for Ukraine’s neo-Nazi
militia?
Zelensky has used his
Jewishness to whitewash the role of the Azov Battalion and the other Ukrainian
neo-Nazis. Prior to the present crisis they had threatened to assassinate him
if he continued to talk to the Russians and talk of peace. It is no
exaggeration to say that Zelensky is a puppet of forces far stronger than him.
Today he is a mouthpiece for Ukrainian neo-Nazis and nationalist forces. That
is where his fervent Zionism has led him.
While Western media deploys Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish heritage to refute
accusations of Nazi influence in Ukraine, the president has ceded to neo-Nazi
forces and now depends on them as front line fighters.
Back in
October 2019, as the war in eastern Ukraine dragged on, Zelensky traveled to
Zolote, a town situated firmly in the “gray zone” of Donbas, where over 14,000
had been killed, mostly
on the pro-Russian side. There, the president encountered the
hardened veterans of extreme right paramilitary units keeping up the fight
against separatists just a few miles away.
Elected
on a platform of de-escalation of hostilities with Russia, Zelensky was
determined to enforce the so-called Steinmeier Formula conceived by then-German
Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier which called for elections in the
Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
In a
face-to-face confrontation with militants from the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who
had launched a campaign to sabotage the peace initiative called “No to
Capitulation,” Zelensky encountered a wall of obstinacy.
With appeals
for disengagement from the frontlines firmly rejected, Zelensky melted
down on camera. “I’m the
president of this country. I’m 41 years old. I’m not a loser. I came to you and
told you: remove the weapons,” Zelensky implored the fighters.
Zelensky’s Humiliation When Visiting the Azov Battalion in
Zolote
Once
video of the stormy confrontation spread across Ukrainian social media
channels, Zelensky became the target of an angry
backlash.
Andriy
Biletsky, the proudly fascist Azov Battalion leader who once pledged
to “lead the white races of the world in
a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen”, vowed to bring thousands
of fighters to Zolote if Zelensky pressed any further. Meanwhile, a
parliamentarian from the party of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
openly fantasized about Zelensky being blown to bits by a militant’s grenade.
Though
Zelensky achieved a minor disengagement, the neo-Nazi paramilitaries escalated
their “No Capitulation” campaign. And within months, fighting began to heat up
again in Zolote, sparking a new cycle of violations of the Minsk
Agreement.
By this
point, Azov had been formally incorporated into the Ukrainian military and its
street vigilante wing, known as the National Corps, was deployed across the
country under the watch of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, and alongside the National
Police. In December 2021, Zelensky would be seen delivering a “Hero
of Ukraine” award to a leader of the fascistic Right Sector in a ceremony in
Ukraine’s parliament.
A
full-scale conflict with Russia was approaching, and the distance between
Zelensky and the extremist paramilitaries was closing fast.
This
February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukrainian
territory on a stated mission to “demilitarize and denazify” the country, US
media embarked on a mission of its own: to deny the power of neo-Nazi
paramilitaries over the country’s military and political sphere. As the US
government-funded National
Public Radio insisted, “Putin’s
language [about denazification] is offensive and factually wrong.”
In its
bid to deflect from the influence of Nazism in contemporary Ukraine, US media
has found its most effective PR tool in the figure of Zelensky, a former TV
star and comedian from a Jewish background. It is a role the
actor-turned-politician has eagerly assumed.
But as we
will see, Zelensky has not only ceded ground to the neo-Nazis in his midst, he
has entrusted them with a front line role in his country’s war against
pro-Russian and Russian forces.
The
president’s Jewishness as Western media PR device
Hours
before President Putin’s February 24 speech declaring denazification as the
goal of Russian operations, Zelensky “asked
how a people who lost eight million of its citizens fighting Nazis could
support Nazism,” according to the BBC.
Raised in
a non-religious Jewish family in the Soviet Union during the 1980’s, Zelensky
has downplayed his heritage in the past. “The
fact that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults,” he joked
during a 2019
interview in which he declined to go into further detail about his
religious background.
Today, as
Russian troops bear down on cities like Mariupol, which is effectively under
the control of the Azov Battalion, Zelensky is no longer ashamed to broadcast
his Jewishness. “How could I be a Nazi?”
he wondered aloud during a public address. For a US media engaged in an all-out
information war against Russia, the president’s Jewish background has become an
essential public relations tool.
A few
examples of the US media’s deployment of Zelensky as a shield against
allegations of rampant Nazism in Ukraine are below (see mash-up above for
video):
·PBS News Hour
noted Putin’s comments on denazification with a qualifier: “even though President Volodymyr Zelensky is
Jewish and his great uncles died in the Holocaust.”
·On Fox &
Friends, former CIA officer Dan Hoffman declared that “it’s the height of hypocrisy to call the Ukrainian nation to denazify
— their president is Jewish after all.”
·On MSNBC,
Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Putin’s “terminology, outrageous and obnoxious as it is — ‘denazify’ where
you’ve got frankly a Jewish president in Mr. Zelensky. This guy [Putin] is on
his own kind of personal jihad to restore greater Russia.”
·Republican Sen.
Marsha Blackburn said on Fox Business she’s “been impressed with President Zelensky and how he has stood up. And for
Putin to go out there and say ‘we’re going to denazify’ and Zelensky is
Jewish.”
·In an interview
with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Gen. John Allen denounced Putin’s use of the term,
“de-Nazify” while the newsman and former Israel lobbyist shook his head in
disgust. In a separate interview with Blitzer, the so-called “Ukraine
whistleblower” and Ukraine-born Alexander Vindman grumbled that the claim is “patently absurd, there’s really no merit…
you pointed out that Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish… the Jewish community [is]
embraced. It’s central to the country and there is nothing to this Nazi
narrative, this fascist narrative. It’s fabricated as a pretext.”
Behind
the corporate media spin lies the complex and increasingly close relationship
Zelensky’s administration has enjoyed with the neo-Nazi forces invested with
key military and political posts by the Ukrainian state, and the power these
open fascists have enjoyed since Washington installed a Western-aligned regime
through a coup in 2014.
NATO pilot climbs into his plane
In fact,
Zelensky’s top financial backer, the Ukrainian Jewish oligarch Igor Kolomoisky,
has been a key benefactor of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and other extremists
militias.
Backed by Zelensky’s top financier, neo-Nazi militants unleash a
wave of intimidation
Incorporated
into the Ukrainian National Guard, the Azov Battalion is considered the most
ideologically zealous and militarily motivated unit fighting pro-Russian
separatists in the eastern Donbass region.
With
Nazi-inspired Wolfsangel insignia on the uniforms of its fighters, who have
been photographed with Nazi SS symbols on their helmets, Azov
“is known for
its association with neo-Nazi ideology…[and] is believed to have participated
in training and radicalizing US-based white supremacy organizations,”
according
to an FBI indictment of several US white nationalists that traveled to Kiev to
train with Azov.
Igor
Kolomoisky has also bankrolled
private militias like the Dnipro and Aidar Battalions, and has deployed
them as a personal thug squad to protect his financial interests.
In 2019,
Kolomoisky emerged as the top backer of Zelensky’s presidential bid. Though
Zelensky made anti-corruption the signature issue of his campaign, the Pandora
Papers exposed
him and members of his inner circle stashing large payments from Kolomoisky in
a shadowy web of offshore accounts.
President Zelensky (C) meets with billionaire
oligarch and business associate Ihor Kolomoisky on September 10, 2019
When
Zelensky took office in May 2019, the Azov Battalion maintained de facto
control of the strategic southeastern port city of Mariupol and its surrounding
villages. As Open Democracy noted,
Azov has
certainly established political control of the streets in Mariupol. To maintain
this control, they have to react violently, even if not officially, to any
public event which diverges sufficiently from their political agenda.
Attacks
by Azov in Mariupol have included assaults on “feminists and liberals” marching
on International Women’s Day among other incidents.
In March
2019, members of the Azov Battalion’s National Corps attacked the home
of Viktor Medvedchuk, the leading opposition figure in Ukraine, accusing him of
treason for his friendly relations with Vladimir Putin, the godfather of
Medvedchuk’s daughter.
Zelensky’s
administration escalated the attack on Medvedchuk, shuttering
several media outlets he controlled in February 2021 with the open approval of
the US State Department, and jailing
the opposition leader for treason three months later. Zelensky
justified his actions on the grounds that he needed to “fight against the danger of Russian aggression in the information
arena.”
Next, in
August 2020, Azov’s National Corps opened
fire on a bus containing members of Medvedchuk’s party, Patriots for
Life, wounding several with rubber-coated steel bullets.
Zelensky having failed to rein in neo-Nazis, wound up collaborating
with them
Following
his failed attempt to demobilize neo-Nazi militants in the town of Zolote in
October 2019, Zelensky called the fighters to the table, telling
reporters “I met with veterans yesterday.
Everyone was there – the National Corps, Azov, and everyone else.”
A few seats
away from the Jewish president was Yehven Karas, the leader of the neo-Nazi C14
gang.
Zelensky meets with “veterans” including Yehven
Karas (far right) and Dmytro Shatrovsky, an Azov Battalion leader (bottom
left).
During
the Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” that ousted Ukraine’s elected president in
2014, C14 activists took over Kiev’s city hall and plastered its walls with
neo-Nazi insignia before taking
shelter in the Canadian embassy.
As the
former youth wing of the ultra-nationalist Svoboda Party, C14 appears to draw
its name from the infamous 14 words of US neo-Nazi leader David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people
and a future for white children.”
By offering to
carry out acts of spectacular violence on behalf of anyone willing to pay, the
hooligans have fostered a cozy relationship with various governing bodies and
powerful elites across Ukraine.
C14 neo-Nazi gang offers to carry out
violence-for-hire: “C14 works for you. Help us keep afloat, and we will help
you. For regular donors, we are opening a box for wishes. Which of your enemies
would you like to make life difficult for? We’ll try to do that.”
A March
2018 report
by Reuters stated that “C14 and Kiev’s
city government recently signed an agreement allowing C14 to establish a
‘municipal guard’ to patrol the streets,” effectively giving them the
sanction of the state to carry out pogroms.
As The
Grayzone reported,
C14 led raid to “purge” Romani from Kiev’s railway station in collaboration
with the Kiev police.
Not only
was this activity sanctioned by the Kiev city government, the US government
itself saw little problem with it, hosting
Bondar at an official US government institution in Kiev where he
bragged about the pogroms. C14 continued to receive
state funding throughout 2018 for “national-patriotic education.”
Karas has
claimed
that the Ukrainian Security Serves would “pass on” information regarding
pro-separatist rallies “not only [to] us,
but also Azov, the Right Sector and so on.”
“In general, deputies of all
factions, the National Guard, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry
of Internal Affairs work for us. You can joke like that,” Karas said.
Throughout
2019, Zelensky and his administration deepened their ties with
ultra-nationalist elements across Ukraine.
Then-Prime
Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk onstage at the neo-Nazi “Veterans Strong” concert
After Prime Minister attends neo-Nazi concert, Zelensky honors Right Sector
leader
Just days
after Zelensky’s meeting with Karas and other neo-Nazi leaders in November
2019, Oleksiy Honcharuk – then the Prime Minister and deputy head of Zelensky’s
presidential office – appeared
on stage at a neo-Nazi concert organized by C14 figure and accused
murderer Andriy Medvedko.
Zelensky’s
Minister for Veterans Affairs not only attended the concert, which featured
several antisemitic metal bands, she promoted the concert on Facebook.
Also in
2019, Zelensky defended Ukrainian footballer Roman Zolzulya against Spanish
fans taunting him as a “Nazi.” Zolzulya had posed
beside photos of the World War II-era Nazi collaborator Stepan
Bandera and openly
supported the Azov Battalion. Zelensky responded to the controversy
by proclaiming that all of Ukraine backed Zolzulya, describing him as “not only a cool football player but a true
patriot.”
In
November 2021, one of Ukraine’s most prominent ultra-nationalist militiamen,
Dmytro Yarosh, announced
that he had been appointed as an advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces of Ukraine. Yarosh is an avowed follower of the Nazi collaborator
Bandera who led Right Sector from 2013 to 2015, vowing
to lead the “de-Russification” of Ukraine.
Dmytro Yarosh poses with Ukraine’s
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
A month
later, as war with Russia drew closer, Zelensky awarded
Right Sector commander Dmytro Kotsyubaylo the “Hero of Ukraine” commendation.
Known as “Da Vinci,” Kosyubaylo keeps a pet wolf in his frontline base, and
likes to joke
to visiting reporters that his fighters “feed
it the bones of Russian-speaking children.”
Zelensky awards Right Sector commander Dmytro
Kotsyubaylo the “Hero of Ukraine” award
Ukrainian state-backed neo-Nazi leader flaunts influence on the eve
of war with Russia
On
February 5, 2022, only days before full-scale war with Russia erupted, Yevhen
Karas of the neo-Nazi C14 delivered a stem-winding public address in Kiev
intended to highlight the influence his organization and others like it enjoyed
over Ukrainian politics.
LGBT and
foreign embassies say ‘there were not
many Nazis at Maidan, maybe about 10 percent of real ideological ones,’ Karas remarked. “If not for those eight percent [of neo-Nazis] the effectiveness [of
the Maidan coup] would have dropped by 90 percent.’
The 2014
Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” would have been a “gay parade” if not for the
instrumental role of neo-Nazis, he proclaimed.
Karas
went on to opine that the West armed Ukrainian ultra-nationalists because “we have fun killing.” He also fantasized
about the balkanization of Russia, declaring that it should be broken up into
“five different” countries.
Yevhen Karas delivering the Nazi
salute.
“If we get killed…we died fighting a holy war”
When
Russian forces entered Ukraine this February 24, encircling the Ukrainian
military in the east and driving towards Kiev, Zelensky announced a national
mobilization that included the release
of criminals from prison, among them accused murderers wanted in
Russia. He also blessed the distribution of arms to average citizens, and their
training by battle-hardened paramilitaries like the Azov Battalion.
With
fighting underway, Azov’s National Corps gathered hundreds of ordinary
civilians, including grandmothers and children, to train in public squares and
warehouses from Kharkiv to Kiev to Lviv.
On
February 27, the official Twitter account of the National Guard of Ukraine posted
video of “Azov Fighters” greasing their bullets with pig fat to humiliate
Russian Muslim fighters from Chechnya.
A day
later, the Azov Battalion’s National Corps announced
that the Azov Battalion’s Kharkiv Regional Police would begin using the city’s
Regional State Administration building as a defense headquarters. Footage posted to Telegram the
following day shows the Azov-occupied building being hit by a Russian airstrike.
Besides
authorizing the release of hardcore criminals to join the battle against
Russia, Zelensky has ordered all males of fighting age to remain in the
country. Azov militants have proceeded to enforce the policy by brutalizing
civilians attempting to flee from the fighting around Mariupol.
According
to one Greek resident in Mariupol recently interviewed
by a Greek news station, “When you try to
leave you run the risk of running into a patrol of the Ukrainian fascists, the
Azov Battalion,” he said, adding “they
would kill me and are responsible for everything.”
Footage
posted online appears to show
uniformed members of a fascist Ukrainian militia in Mariupol violently pulling
fleeing residents out of their vehicles at gunpoint.
Other
video filmed at checkpoints around Mariupol showed Azov fighters shooting
and killing civilians attempting to flee.
On March
1, Zelensky replaced
the regional administrator of Odessa with Maksym Marchenko, a former commander
of the extreme right Aidar Battalion, which has been accused
of an array of war crimes in the Donbass region.
Meanwhile,
as a massive convoy of Russian armored vehicles bore down on Kiev, Yehven Karas
of the neo-Nazi C14 posted a video
on YouTube from inside a vehicle presumably transporting fighters.
“If we get killed, it’s fucking great
because it means we died fighting a holy war,” Karas exclaimed. ”If we survive, it’s going to be even
fucking better! That’s why I don’t see a downside to this, only upside!”
Alex Rubinstein is an independent reporter on
Substack. You can subscribe to get free articles from him delivered to your
inbox here.
If you want to support his journalism, which is never put behind a paywall, you
can give a one-time donation to him through PayPal here or
sustain his reporting through Patreon here.
The editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, Max
Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books,
including best-selling Republican
Gomorrah, Goliath,
The
Fifty One Day War, and The
Management of Savagery. He has produced print articles for an array
of publications, many video reports, and several documentaries, including Killing Gaza. Blumenthal
founded The Grayzone in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America's state
of perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.
My question concerns the current situation in
Ukraine. We all support your actions and the special operation that is underway
there. Naturally, the most important question, which, one way or another, all
of us have asked ourselves, is why this special operation has started. Could it
not have been avoided? Rationally, we do understand and support your actions,
but as women we cannot help but worry: for our family, relatives, for those who
are in Ukraine. We know that the civilians are not impacted. But nevertheless,
tell us, reassure us: what are we to expect at the end of this road? What will
be the end result of the military operation in Ukraine?
I will be brief but still will have to start, as they say,
from “the center of the field”. I said about this at the start of the operation
and also spoke about this before this decision has been made, a hard decision,
without a doubt.
What is this about? The fact of the matter is that after the
anti-constitutional coup in Ukraine, which, unfortunately, was strongly
supported by the Western countries – let us face it. They do not even hide the
fact that they have spent $5 billion on it, not to mention cookies given away
on Maidan, and so on. And after that, instead of bringing the situation back on
track, even if it had spiraled out of control, even if it had been the act of
the overzealous locals – there is such legal term, i.e. planned one thing, but
the result turned out to be something else – they still could have, and should
have, returned the situation back onto the political track.
Later, or, rather, in parallel, the events in Donbass were
taking place. What have these events led to? People resisting the results of
the coup were persecuted. Eventually, the new Kiev authorities initiated a
military operation on that territory. They have conducted two large-scale
punitive operations using of heavy weapons and combat aviation. They directly
attacked Donetsk destroying the city squares with aviation, using tanks and
artillery. Both these military campaigns failed. The Ukrainian army suffered
defeat. After that, so-called Minsk agreements, or the Package of Measures, to
use the official term, have been concluded. The agreements offered a path for a
peaceful settlement of the conflict.
We did everything we could to direct the events along this
path, to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine as well as to protects
the interests of the people living in these territories. What did these people
demand? Nothing but the basic things: the right to speak their mother tongue,
i.e. the Russian, and maintain their traditions and culture. These were by no
means extraordinary demands. But no. These territories were put under economic
blockade; disconnected from the banking system; the supplies of food were
stopped; the payments of the pensions and social assistance were suspended.
Sometimes, some handouts were given, but in order to get those pensions and
benefits a person had to cross the separation line.
Now listen. I will now say something that may sound rough but
the situation compels me to say it. You know that occasionally in some regions
packs of stray dogs attack people, injure or even kill them (this is a separate
problem, and it is for the local authorities to deal with). But then these
animals are poisoned or shot dead. But people of Donbass are not stray dogs.
Approximately 13,000-14,000 people have been killed during these years. Over
500 children have been killed or injured. But what is particularly intolerable
is that the so-called “civilized” West has preferred all these years to look the
other way. All these years – 8 years! Eight years!
Moreover, lately the Kiev authorities started to say openly
and publicly that they are not going to fulfill the Minsk agreements. They are
saying this from the TV screens and online. They are saying this everywhere on
the record: We don’t like them; we will not do it. And all this time, Russia
has been accused of not fulfilling the agreements. This is simply nonsense; the
theater of the absurd; white is called black and black is called white. Lately,
things got even worse. Actually, the talk has started long ago, but intensified
of late. More and more often we hear that Ukraine would be admitted into NATO.
Do you understand what this could lead to? Or can lead to still?
If Ukraine is a NATO member, then according to the North
Atlantic Treaty, all other members must support the country in case of a
military conflict. No one besides us has recognized Crimea as a Russian
territory. The yare conducting military operations in Donbas but also could
move onto Crimea, and in such case we would have to fight with the whole of
NATO. What is that? Do you understand the consequences? I think everyone
understands.
Now they (Ukraine) are talking about acquiring the nuclear
status, i.e. developing nuclear weapons. We cannot possibly ignore such things,
particularly considering that we know how the so-called West behaves with
regard to Russia. First, Ukraine has some nuclear competence left from the
Soviet time. As far as enrichment and nuclear material are concerned, they would
be able to organize that work. They have missile abilities: suffice is to
mention Yuzhmush. This company used to build intercontinental ballistic missile
equipment for the Soviet Union. They could recover that ability and do it. And
those from across the ocean would even help them do it. And after that would
say: “Well, we do not recognize the nuclear status; they have done everything
themselves”. And then they would put these complexes under control, and from
that moment on, from that very second, the fate of Russia will be completely
different. Because in that case, our strategic adversaries would not even need
intercontinental ballistic missiles. They would keep us right here at the
nuclear gunpoint, that is all. How could we disregard such a thing? These are
absolutely real threats, not some far-fetched silly fantasy.
Our boys who are now fighting and risking their lives, they
are fighting and giving their lives for our future, for the future of our
children. This is something perfectly obvious. And the people who do not want
to understand that, particularly those among today’s leaders (of Ukraine), have
to understand that if they keep doing what the have been doing – I have spoken
about this before – they put at risk the very future of the Ukrainian statehood.
If this happens, that will be entirely their fault.
What is going on now? I have already mentioned our objectives
in this operation. First, of course, is to protect the people living in
Donbass. How? By demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine as well as establishing
its neutral status. Why? Because the neutral status means Ukraine will not be
joining NATO. They have it written in the Constitution that the country will be
joining NATO. You understand – they have included that into the Constitution!
Denazification – what does this mean? I have spoken with my
Western colleagues about this. They say:” What is the problem? You also have
the radical nationalists”. Yes, we do. But we do not have them in the
government, but everybody agrees that they (the Ukrainians) do. Perhaps, we
have some idiots running around with swastika, but do we support that at the
government level? Do thousands of people march with torches and swastikas on
the streets of our capital or other cities in Russia, like it happened in 1930s
in Nazi Germany? Is something like that happening in Russia? But it happens in
Ukraine, and it is supported. Do we support those who killed the Russians,
Jews, or the Poles during the war? Do we hail them as heroes? But in Ukraine,
they do.
The current events are also very important. Look, the foreign
citizens have been taken hostages in Sumy and Kharkov – over 6,000 young
people, students. They have been driven together into a railway station and
kept there for 3 days. Listen, they have been held there for the third day. We
have told everybody about this and informed the current Ukrainian authorities.
They said: “Yes, yes, of course, we will deal this this right now”. We have
informed the leaders of the major European countries, I personally talked to
them. “Yes, yes, we will put pressure on Ukraine right now”. We informed the UN
Secretary-General: “Yes, yes, we will solve the problem right away”. Nobody is
doing anything.
People who are considered the citizens of Ukraine are treated
even worse. They are simply used as a human shield. Right now, in this very
moment, this is happening in Mariupol. The Kiev government called our military:
”Provide humanitarian corridors so people could leave”. Naturally, our people
instantly responded, even suspended the military activities, and were observing
what was happening. But no one was allowed to leave. You understand, no one was
allowed out. They do not anybody leave but instead use the people as a human
shield. Who are they? The neo-Nazis, of course.
We already observe the presence of the militants from the
Middle East and some European countries. We know about them; we can hear them
speak on the radio. They are using so-called jihad-mobiles, i.e. cars stuffed
with explosives, which they drive towards the Russian troops. But they do not
achieve anything, and they will fail in the end. Who are they, then, if not
neo-Nazis? By such actions, they are destroying their own country and their own
statehood.
That is why one of our key demands is demilitarization. In
other words, we are helping people of Donbass by working towards the neutral
status of Ukraine and the demilitarization of the country. We have to know with
certainty what weapons are there, where they are deployed, and who controls
them. A number of options are on the table. We are discussing them now,
including with the Kiev government representatives in our talks in Belarus. We
are grateful to the President Lukashenko for organizing the meetings and
helping us to conduct these negotiations. Our proposals are on the table for
the groups of the negotiators from Kiev to study. We hope that Kiev will
respond positively to our proposals. This is pretty much all I wanted to say.
Please, let us continue.
Schvidko, Yulia, the second pilot of the Aeroflot
airline. Vladimir Vladimirovich, good afternoon. My question is about the
current situation. Many rumors are circulating about possible introduction of
the marshal law, drafting of volunteers and reservists, and that the draftees
will be sent to Ukraine. Could you clarify whether the marshal law will be
declared and whether the drafted soldiers will be deployed to Ukraine.
Many of what we now see and what is happening is undoubtedly
a technique to fight against Russia. By the way, the sanctions imposed today
are close to a declaration of a war. But fortunately, we are not there yet. I
believe that our so-called “partners” still retain some understanding of what a
war would mean and what danger it presents for everybody. That is despite that
irresponsible statements, such as made by the British Foreign Minister, when
she blurted that NATO could involve itself in the conflict. At that point, we
had to immediately make a decision to put our strategic forces on high alert.
They reacted by saying that they did not mean anything of the sort. However,
nobody put the Minister in her place, and nobody disavowed her statement. No
one said anything to us about that statement, like it was her personal opinion,
do not pay attention, or something like that. Nothing. What are we supposed to
think about that? That is why we reacted the way we did.
Now about your question. The marshal law is introduced by the
order of the President supported by the Federation Council in the case of the
external aggression, specifically in the regions where the military activity
takes place. We are not in that situation now, and I hope will not be. This is
first. The second point – there is also, in addition to the marshal law, a
special status. This status is also declared by the Federation Council in case of
a significant internal threat. The third regime is the state of emergency,
which is usually declared in particular regions, although could also be adopted
in the entire territory of the country. This regime is for technological and
natural disasters. Thanks God, this is also not happening. We are not planning
to declare any of these regimes on the territory of the Russian Federation.
There is no need for that today.
We can see that attempts are being made to stir up trouble in
our society, which is again a conformation of my words that we are dealing with
not just the radicals but with the neo-Nazis. Here people are expressing their
opinion about what they like or dislike in our action in Ukraine. But there, in
Ukraine, people that express the opinions similar to those expressed by the
so-called ‘liberal” part of our society, are being detained on the streets and
shot – we do have confirmation of that. Our special services are now collecting
this information and we will be presenting it soon. Our liberal intellectuals
are protesting, whereas in Ukraine people that say anything in favor of Russia
are been executed without trial.
I repeat, that the marshal law is declared in case of the
external aggression, which I hope will not happen despite irresponsible statements
of some officials. We hear that a no fly zone should be established over the
Ukrainian territory. This is impossible to do in the territory of Ukraine
itself; this is only possible to organize from the territories of the
neighboring countries. However, we will consider any movement in this direction
as active participation in the military conflict by a country, the territory of
which is used to create danger for our servicemen. We will in a second consider
them as a party to the military conflict. I hope this is also understood, and
it will not come to that.
Only professional military personnel are taking part in this
operation, officers and contract servicemen. Not a single drafted soldier is
participating, and we are not planning to send them to Ukraine, and we will
not. I repeat only men who have made a voluntary responsible decision in their
lives – to defend their country – are in Ukraine, and they are doing their duty
with honor. Why this is the case, why we have the right to say these words, I
have just explained to you. This also applied to reserve personnel undergoing
periodic military training – we are not planning to deploy them to Ukraine.
They are summoned to the military training on the regular basis – this happens
now and will be happening in the future – but we will not enlist these people
for the active military service, and they will not participate in this
conflict. We have sufficient resources to achieve our objectives employing only
our professional army.
I would like to comment on the military operation itself. I
know many rumors and stories are being circulating. I do not have much time to
learn about this, but I have been informed that people talk a lot about what is
happening and how the operation is proceeding. All analysts know what is going
on, so I am not going to reveal any secrets here. We could have acted in many
different ways. We could have helped the Donbass republics directly on the
separation line, i.e. on the front, using our Russian army to support them. But
in such case, considering the unconditional support by the West of the radical
nationalists, the Ukrainian side would have received constant support by
weapons, material, ammunition, and all.
That is why our General Staff and the Ministry of Defense
decided on a different strategy. First that was done is the elimination of the
military infrastructure. Not entirely, but largely. The weapon depots,
ammunition depots, aviation, air defense systems. The destruction of the air
defense systems requires certain time. You are civilians but you do work in
aviation. You understand that these systems need to be uncovered and then
destroyed; by now this work is largely done. That is what brings about the
demands for a no fly zone. However, an attempt to put this into effect would
lead to enormous and catastrophic consequences not only for Europe, but also
for the entire world. I do believe that the people on the other side do
understand that. That is why we have chosen this path, correctly, as it turned
out. Our military is working responsibly doing everything possible to protect
the civilians. Unfortunately, those neo-Nazi bandits do not have any
consideration for the people. They even shoot their own servicemen who do not
want to continue fighting – we do have evidence of that. Yes, those
nationalists, neo-Nazis shoot their own servicemen. The nationalists are
embedded in practically every Ukrainian military unit, several dozens of them
in each, and they act in such a cruel way.
I repeat one more time: we will not deploy draftees or
reservists to Ukraine to participate in this military operation. I am convinced
that our army will achieve all our objectives. I do not doubt that for a
second. This is evident from the way the operation is proceeding, which is
strictly according to the plan, to the schedule; all is happening the way it
had been planned by the General Staff. Oh, regarding volunteers, the young
people who come to the recruiting stations – we are grateful to them for their
patriotic sentiments, the desire to support their country and its army in this
time. The very fact that they come is significant. However, their help is not
required at this time. And I am convinced will not be needed. Now I am turning
towards the camera. They will see me and hear what I am saying – thank you.
