Category: Neklasifikuota

Facebook protests against Mistral deal

Just like it was with the Facebook page of the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, thousands of Facebook users began expressing their opinion about France selling Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to Russia. People expressed mocking gratitude on Facebook posts made by the President of France, François Hollande. They “thanked” France for arming an aggressor and helping it to shed blood.

Interestingly enough, it seems that admins of Hollande’s Facebook page decided that censorship is the best way to deal with legitimate criticism and according to some of the participants of this Facebook-based protests, many of these critical comments were deleted. So much for democracy and freedom of speech.

Facebook page of Francois Hollande was flooded by protests.

Facebook page of Francois Hollande was flooded by protests.

Thousands criticize Merkel’s position on her Facebook page

The page of the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, is now one of the most commented politician pages on Facebook. People from all over the world post comments with their opinions about the relationship between the German leader and Vladimir Putin. This appears to have been ispired by the meeting between them in Brasil a couple of days ago, when they seemed to find a common opinion that the situation in Eastern Ukraine is worsening due to the Ukrainian anti-terrorist operation. People on Facebook call Angela Merkel “Frau Ribbentrop”, an allusion to the infamous treaty signed in 1939 by the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact drawn the lines of division of Central and Eastern Europe between two totalitarian regimes, Nazi and Soviet. Tens of thousands of comments were left on Merkel’s page.

Thousands protesting comments sparked after Angela Merkel published photo with thanks her followers in Facebook.

Thousands protesting comments sparked after Angela Merkel published photo with thanks her followers in Facebook.

The administrators of Merkel’s Facebook page have recently published an announcement where people freely expressing their opinion have been called spammers and admins reminded that they have a “netiquette” and may delete racist, extremist, libelous or similar comments. Apparently, criticism is frowned upon and may not be tolerated there.

Typical comments in Angela Merkel Facebook page.

Typical comments in Angela Merkel Facebook page.

What happened to Donbas business? The story of Russian Bezler gang.

Yury Butusov, 29-06-2014. Translated by Arminas Rasickas.

I met a friend in Dnipropetrovsk – he is a businessman from Konstantinovka, he has a retail shop network and trades spare parts for cars. Two weeks ago he fled his town. Reasons for that are explained below.

What happened to Donbas business? The story of Russian Bezler gang.

I had to flee when after ten days of captivity I was ransomed for 300.000 USD from the Russian special forces that are based in Gorlovka, in the building of Ukraine Security Service.

Igor Bezler (in the middle of picture, in green uniform) is an infamous GRU colonel that took over the control of corrupt Police forces in Gorlovka ar the start of events in Donbas

Igor Bezler (in the middle of picture, in green uniform) is an infamous GRU colonel that took over the control of corrupt Police forces in Gorlovka ar the start of events in Donbas

In April many people from our town were welcoming the creation of People’s Republic of Donetsk. Reasons for that are clear – many factories in Donetsk work only for the Russian market and have only Russian orders. I was in agriculture, we also sell the majority of our production to Russia. However I understand that Donbas is integrated into Ukrainian economy and infrastructure and Russia simply has no money to support Crimea and Donbas – if you separate those regions from Ukraine, you would have 9 million people at the time of crisis. I was trying to explain this to other people, but they did not want to hear. They wanted to be in Russia, hoping to secure their workplaces, get better pensions and naively expected that the rest of their lives will not change. Nobody thought that it will not be “polite people”, (“polite people” is a cliché used by Russian propaganda to describe Russian special forces that occupied Crimea) but real bandits that will come from Russia.

Information spread through town that “polite people” with Georgian stripes are collecting money from businessmen for the needs of the Donetsk Republic. I was not into politics and somehow thought this would not affect me, as my company is quite small. But everything happened very simply – when I got out of my car to go to my office, three men with machine guns, bullet-proof vests and “PRD” flashes came up to me and offered to get into their car. They took me to Gorlovka, where they had a base established in the building of Ukrainian Security Service.

They took me to a room, to a person in camouflage uniform. He was calm and kind, gave me a list and told me to find my surname. I looked through and saw that every businessman of our town was  on that list, and each surname was accompanied with a number. What was odd that some numbers were un USD, others in Grivnas. The sums varied from 1 to 15 million Grivnas. The number that was assigned to my surname was 250 thousand dollars. The military man asked:

– Is everything clear? Call your family, tell them to bring the money.
– But I don’t have that kind of money. Who would keep 250 thousand dollars at home, especially during such events?
– Listen, I am here not to persuade you, I have a plan which I have to fulfill. It is your duty to come up with the solution. Sorry lad, nothing personal, just business. Here’s a phone, call, start collecting money, meanwhile you will spend a night in the cell, think about everything. And you will stay there until I get the money. If you like the cell, you can stay there, if not – better get the money. Don’t be a problem to us. The only problem for us is “Right sector”, they would not be a good company for you. Is everything clear? See you in the morning.

I was allowed to make a call, then they took the phone away and I was taken to the cellar of the building. All premises there were turned to cells, each one filled with people. I was put in one, together with 3 other civilians, but we were strictly forbidden to talk.

The next morning I talked to the military men who did not introduce themselves. They were polite, for 10 minutes they calmly persuaded me to change my mind, and then sent me to the cell again. By the way, I have to admit, the food they gave to prisoners was good, and there were no threats. My “supervisor” was behaving like a military man, he was strict, correct, talked like a man who is used to give orders, had an official style. I remembered a scene from “Master and Margarita” by M. Bulgakov, when people in the theater were asked to give their gold and jewelry. Each day I was given a list, and I saw that more and more surnames had pluses added to them, it meant that the businessman had paid and was allowed to leave. I was allowed to talk on the phone. My family collected money from friends and acquaintances in all the district. No connections or good relations would have worked. What was interesting is that the man called the ransom “a donation”.

I was shocked when I found out that he had all the information about my financial state and activities. He justified the amount he was asking with exact data – what my income was, in which bank I was keeping my money, how much money I had in my checking account. I drew a conclusion that the amount of ransom was calculated using some unclear algorithm, but the initial data was taken from the databases of Economical police and Tax inspectorate. I tried to convince that after giving away this amount I would not be able to produce or trade in my shops.

After about a week we got accustomed with the man, he started talking to me for longer. He did not hide that he is not Ukrainian, some names of our towns were very funny to him – for example, Berdyansk. A day before my release when my family collected the necessary amount of money, he raised it to 300.000. He said that my captivity caused a lot of problems to them, there were talks, so I have to compensate for the inconveniences. Although I am sure he kept those 50.000 for himself.

An hour before my release he gave me a cigarette, we started talking, and I asked him a couple of questions:

– Judging from your age you must be a major?
– Good guess.
– Aren’t you afraid?

He laughed.

– Understand, this is my fourth war. It’s my job. Nothing personal. I’ll be here for one more month, then I will be replaced. I’m here for too long already, I was in Crimea only once, did not even swim in the sea, had to come here. And you don’t have a sea here.
– But what am I supposed to do? I can’t stay here with my family, if I get kidnapped again, I won’t be able to collect the ransom.
– I will be here for one more week. If they will take you again, I will release you, but after that… We have order here, we are military men, but from different groups. We have Cossacs, but we don’t control them, they are separate “firm”. We have Chechens, they are controlled by Ramzan. You don’t want to get caught by them. I would have never thought that one day I would have to bring order together with the chechens…
– So how am I supposed to work here? My company is ruined. I will leave, nobody will make contracts with me, the business will stop, I won’t have money to pay taxes.
– That’s temporary. Understand, that it is either us or the “Right sector” that will take away your money. When it will be Russia here, things will get better. As for the taxes, you don’t have to pay them to Ukraine, we exempt you. We don’t want your money financing Kiev, so they could by weapons and kill us. So consider that you made a donation and got a tax exemption and also attributed to our victory.
– Will Russia be here? Will they help?
– Definitely. As soon as the Ukraine is gone. We are here for it.

When they released me, I got home and we fled at once. My parents did not want to go. I found out that all our businessmen from Gorlovka, Kramatorsk, Konstantinovka, Makeyevka, Artyomovsk are paying to Igor Bezler. The insurgents do not limit themselves to money, they take payments in gemstones, jewelry.

All businessmen, including grannies in the marketplaces are paying to PRD. Everybody is paying and nobody is resisting. The cops tell you the amount, and you have to pay it, or close your shop. Almost everybody went bankrupt. There are constant robberies, so it is not possible to trade valuable goods, only something that is cheap. Today you won’t find a businessman who would support PRD. Everybody understands that the war will destroy Donbas, and PRD are not the government, they are just troopers who imitate government but don’t solve any problems.

As far as I know, only one man from our district refused to pay, he is a very rich man, lives in Artyomovsk. I was once in his place – he has a big house, a garage with racecars, motorcycles. He was visited right after my release. He owns the biggest agriculture company and has security. There was a real battle, troopers came from Gorlovka, but they were fired at, three were killed. Then Igor Bezler sent a whole squad with armored vehicle, they bombarded the businessman’s house from grenade launchers and big caliber machineguns. The battle was fierce. Businessman, his family and security men managed to escape, although some of them died. Now he joined the “Artyomovsk” battalion of MIA (Ministry of internal affairs), he wants to return home with a gun in his hands. It seems that there is no other way to save Donbas. None of the residents will come out to block the Ukrainian troops, on the contrary – everybody wants the army to come as soon as possible, so that the looting would stop. If we don’t do that, we will lose agriculture, there will be a lot of fugitives and it will take years to rebuild.

Addition from Yury Butusov: if you have doubts regarding the authenticity of this story, talk to any fugitive from Donbas or its residents that are still there. Then talk to the members of Donbas, Shaktyorsk and Artyomovsk battalion. They are locals. And when you will be in Dnipropetrovsk, I will introduce you (off the record) to some fugitives, including this businessman.

Goebelsship

Arkadyi Babchenko, translated by Arminas Rasickas

The main military aid that Russia is supplying to Donetsk and Luhansk is Goebbelsship*. If Russia would not have exported so much lies and hatred, there would be no war in the East. Militia and weapons are certainly an important part, but not the most important.

The main is Goebelsship. Strelkov and Bes were able to rise and take over the administrative buildings only because the television was flooded with “Right Sector” which, after Maidan, was supposed to come and slaughter all russians. No “green men” would have been possible without this.

If it were not for this flow, would the people of Donetsk have done that? Would they have started creating military groups, taken over administrative buildings with machine guns in their hands, raided police and army, taken weapons from there and then storm the border crossings and airports?

The answer is obvious – no. Airports and border crossings do not even fit the pattern of logic of defense from the “Right sector”. Obviously, this is very distorted.

Yes, fear and discontent with the West has sprung in the East, and it was quite strong, however chanting “Russia, Russia” and waving a flag is one thing, but taking a grenade launcher, setting a BTR on fire and dying amid is quire the other.

This war is caused exclusively by the Russian Goebbelsship, nothing else. And it would be possible to cut it, the war would wind itself down. By the way, the war did not even start in those places where the Goebbelsship was successfully blocked. Dnipropetrovsk is the most russian-speaking city in Ukraine. Almost nobody speaks Ukrainian there, hearing it two or three times a day is a notable event. It is a completely Russian region. And how they were screaming about the damned “Banderovtsy”, how they beat the activists, dispersed the Maidan supporters.

And now?

Now you will hardly find a more patriotic region in Ukraine that the one of Dnipropetrovsk. Every second car there drives with a Ukrainian flag. Why is that so? Because they did not allow the russian propaganda and military groups.

At the end of April it was scary to go to Izyum. It was on the death row, everybody was supporting Russia and Igor Strelkov. I spent two hours there and understood that I have to run. And at the end of May, only one month after, it was completely different city. I was walking there safely at night. And it is only 40 km away from Slovyansk. The same is Barbenkov (20 km from Slovyansk), Krestishche (it is very near Slovyansk).

The same goes for other places.

Where Russia had no access, everything is peaceful.

The shitstorm only started and is ARTIFICIALLY MAINTAINED only where Russia managed to get its hands on.

That is all.

* – title assigned by the translator
** – Joseph Goebbels – propaganda minister of the Nazi Germany. This name is a synonym for the most brutal, inhumane, yet the most efficient propaganda.

Aidar batallion’s statement regarding the ambush

Via Batallion Aidar FB and Reddit (translation by Samarras).

The two fronts of Aidar

You have to know how to fight a war. Especially when the war takes place on two fronts. “Aidar” batallion can handle that too. We consciously took a break in the information space, waiting for official commentary concerning the events of 17-06-2014. Our prediction came true. The commentary is as far from the truth as the leadership’s wish to complete the ATO quickly. Let’s start.

First front

With great pomp and noise the generals were going to take over Metallist (a village adjacent to Lugansk). Into which as recently as three days ago entered our paratroopers and found nothing. Separatists, tortured by Aidar’s activity in Schastie, just ran away. Instead of the order to “gain foothold, dig in, defend, wait for reinforcement” they got a rude order to retreat. Paratroopers’ commander looked like… when he was telling me about it. And now the uniformed eggheads(i.e. generals) were going to earn great bonuses and fame for their considerable military talents in wasting a sizable amount of ammunition and their skills of shooting at hummingbirds (spoiler: it worked really well).

So, one quiet Ukrainian night, a mortar battery dug in for dealing a decisive morning blow to Metallist. Nobody bothered to set up guards(“Why?”). From the golf club’s direction, a group of about 30 “colorados” started to move closer in order to take over the battery(“How did they find out about it?”). The adjacent checkpoint, housing Aidar’s patrol unit, decided to check the movements in the neutral area inside its responsibility zone. It met resistance, and the situation ended up as Aidar fighting while surrounded. They had 3 times more people than us and the battle lasted for 2.5 hours till sunrise, until the armored infantry unit (regular army) started to execute the generals’ plan and moved towards Metallist. The terrorists retreated and the mortar battery was saved. Armored infantry continued its victorious march until strengthened block-post of the separatists and got into a well-prepared ambush (“Who told them the plans?”).

ATO bottom line (from the generals)

One tank burned and deserted. One APC burned, second APC with a jammed clutch. Two BMPs deserted under battle circumstances.

The ATO HQ summoned an Aidar sotnya(century) for help, as it was the only nearby reserve force. Quick march by crawling (literally) under sniper and machine gun fire on an open terrain (all our losses came from this) was completed in a shortest time, and the batallion engaged the enemy as soon as it could take positions in the wheat fields and the forest.

Thanks for help to the helicopter pilots, tank and artillery personnel. Everything worked well. They didn’t let them to hit us from mobile mortars. We don’t know whom to “thank” for the lack of communication equipment and the lack of coordination with other units. Special thanks to L’vov paratroopers, that had arrived when we already on the edge of exhaustion, to precise anti-aircraft gunners and RPG men and all brothers in arms, who helped to finally repeal the bandits. And also thanks to the population, that has been texting us all night about the enemy locations and movements.

ATO bottom line (from Aidar).

Mortar battery saved. Both APCs and both BMPs, “lost” by the generals, were taken back (separatists managed to take away the tank). AGS, recoilless gun, anti-aircraft gun, a variety of RPGs, small arms and ammunition: taken. (Photos will be published. After all we are in a battle, not in a studio). Under 30 terrorists were terminated. Metallist was taken. Our batallion lost 4 dead and twelve wounded (three of them are heavily wounded, life not threatened), a few people taken prisoners. Aidar has won again. Despite…

The price of one Aidar fighter for one armored unit we consider too high. Our fallen ones are worth more. And we will charge this price!

Second front

Aidar suffered no losses, until called into battle by the generals… (To be continued)

P.S. This post was written by a man who participated in this battle. On the various videos it’s not Aidar. Aidar still has no armored cars of its own.

Donbass is founded by Europeans. Russian roots are only separatist tales

Considering the Donbas history, current actions look absurd, as the present East Ukraine never in its history was undeveloped or abandoned region, quite the opposite – Donbas, like other regions of Ukraine, is historically closely related to Europe. It would be understandable if the fanatic anti-Europe actions were taking place in some purely Russian regions, in Valday district or in some ancient Siberian villages, but when such thoughts occupy the minds of people living in the region which was practically settled and built by the emigrants from Western Europe, that is the real irony of history. Sadly, citizens of miners’ villages that are standing at the barricades erected from tires, logs and iron spikes are barely able to understand the scope of thins historical anecdote due to their lack of historical knowledge. They consider Donbas a soviet region, Russian territory, which must be saved from so much hated “Gay-rope”. But just a hundred years ago Donbas was practically a European enclave within the Russian Empire.

More facts, pictures and names here: http://golosukraine.blogspot.com/2014/05/blog-post_75.html

Lisicansk is fully controlled by persons of Caucasian appearance

Source: inforesist.org

Town Lisicansk in the Luhansk region is fully occupied by terrorists and insurgents, all the administrative building and the police headquarters are seized. This is reported by employees of the Town Hall.

“To this day the town is completely taken over by terrorists. Militants are occupying the town and seized all admin buildings. All entrances to town are blocked. Public transport is not functioning, all petrol stations apart from one are not working. The one, which is working is open for ambulances and militants’ cars. Armed militants are walking around town. Among the terrorists there are persons of Caucasian nationality. According to the police, there are no locals amongst them.

The gunmen announced that town is controlled by them and it is in a “war time” regime.

During seizure of the admin buildings the militants worked professionally, communicated with gestures “as in a movie about special forces”, armed with grenade launchers and mortars. There are many snipers. They brought in a lot of explosives and ammunition into the admin buildings. People are ordered to “sit at home”, – said the employee of the Lisicansk Town Hall.

According to sources of InfoResist, the traffic in town is not paralyzed, there are taxis. The Town Hall and the boat station, which is situated under the bridge on Severodonetsk are seized. There are many armed people of Caucasian nationality.