Brothers and sisters!
Here’s the Summary for August 15, 2014 (for previous summary, please see Summary for August 14).
The bad news:
1. The dirty business with Russian “humanitarian aid” continues. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was too quick to declare that the preparation for delivery of the so-called humanitarian aid to the residents of Donbas “has entered its final stage.”
Then, suddenly, Moscow started claiming that attempts would be made [by Ukraine] to destroy the convoy. Allegedly, they were “receiving reports that the subversive group of the Aidar punitive battalion planned to lay mines on certain sections of roads in Luhansk Oblast, in order to destroy vehicles with humanitarian cargo and its accompanying personnel, and then accuse the local militia of terrorism.”
And this statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry unveils the whole Kremlin’s agenda.
Firstly, the territory that the M-04 highway lies across, is controlled by insurgents. There is a section, which has been taken under control by the ATO [anti-terrorist operation] forces, but that only means fire control. To “explain” this, the Kremlin states that the subversive groups will do the job! But Moscow made a mistake by claiming it would beAidar [Battalion of Territorial Defense]. Had it blurted out [the accusations] aimed at, for example, the special forces of the Chief Directorate of Intelligence with the Ministry of Defense [GUR], that would be halfway believable, since these guys go through subversive training. Soldiers of Aidar [Battalion] do not. Had the Ukrainian authorities wanted to stage such a dirty and intentionally high-profile provocation, they would have sent professional subversives to do it.
Secondly, if Moscow is so worried about its cargo and personnel, then it’s completely incomprehensible as to why it is sending the convoy to Ukraine through an insurgent-controlled territory. They could have handed over the cargo, as they originally announced, to the Red Cross at the border of Kharkiv Oblast, loaded it on board of the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] vehicles (as insisted upon by Kyiv), and slept peacefully. From then on, the cargo would be the headache of the ICRC and the Ukrainian government.
Thirdly, having the convoy travel through the terrorist-controlled territory makes any investigation impossible in the event of sabotage. We already witnessed that at the crash site of the [MH-17] Boeing. This means that the insurgents can blow up the convoy and then [Russia] can easily claim that this was done by the ATO forces, a group of Martians, or whoever else. And after the statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry, it is obvious who Moscow will try to blame.
To sum up, it is perfectly clear why Moscow started the whole malarkey with the “humanitarian aid.” [This is] very much true to form for Putin and the FSB. Quite cynical and treacherous–but clumsily done.
2. There was a strong reaction to the message by the British reporters from the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian newspapers, about the fact that last night, they had observed the Russian military equipment crossing the border into Ukraine. NATO went as far as to verify this information (and confirmed it successfully).
The degree of this reaction remains a mystery to me. We, the IR [Information Resistance] group, have confirmed facts of constant deployment of equipment and weapons from the Russian Federation to Donbas, since as early as April [of 2014]. Some time after that, our state authorities also began to talk about this repeatedly.
If the West had not trusted this information, that is exactly why the intelligence services of the Western countries employ high-brow, well-paid analysts. Over the past six months, they could have easily found out (even from publicly available sources), which military units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were deployed to Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. Based on that, [the analysts] would have concluded that the tanks, the cannons, the Grads [missile launchers], etc. that the terrorists have no shortage of, could not have been taken from the Ukrainian military. And there aren’t too many options left as to where the insurgents could have gotten this equipment from. It does not take an intelligence school to figure it out.
Based on this, I can hardly comprehend why our Western partners are so taken aback today.
3. It’s Christmas for the pro-Russian forces in Ukraine: the former Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council [NSDC] Andriy Parubiy lost the court case against Viktor Medvedchuk, the head of the pro-Russian “Ukrainian Choice” organization. If the followers of Medvedchuk are to be believed, the court ruled that Parubiy’s claims that Medvedchuk–is a criminal involved in organizing a separatist movement–are false and “discredit the honor and dignity” of Medvedchuk.
I am baffled. If the court proved that Medvedchuk organized no separatist movements, then what is Moscow paying him for? Simply because he is Putin’s kum? In that case, congratulations, Viktor Volodymyrovych [Medvedchuk], you’ve set yourself up very well. But I’ll be honest–if Parubiy lied about Medvedchuk, then I don’t know what the truth is.
By the way, Petro Symonenko, the leader of Ukrainian communists complained that the General Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal case against him. There is a God after all and, fortunately, he is not on the side of Orthodox communists.
Dmitry Tymchuk, Coordinator, Information Resistance
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine
