Everything changed in 2014. At first we had a bloody massacre in Kyiv, during the Revolution of Dignity, when the power of pro-Russian President Yanukovych was overthrown.

a bloody coup of state, not a revolution. a bloody massacre was first, it wasn't escalating violence among the so called protesters? That changed nothing, police being fire bombed and snipered and shot at and blugeoned with rocks, all was legitimate and ok? Occupying buildings? Barricades and tractors?

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The Euromaidan in Ukraine: Geopolitics in Action

February 22, 2014

What’s going on in Ukraine? Valiant protesters fighting for ‘freedom’ and ‘rights’? Violent radicals causing mayhem on the U.S.’s dime? From the former boxer leading the opposition to the American ambassador’s embarrassing leaked phone calls, there hasn’t been a more colorful and exciting event in Europe since the 2008 torching of the United States embassy in Belgrade.

This is what news looks like. Source: Guardian

As of writing, more than 100 people have been killed in ‘protests’ (read: urban warfare), including 16 police officers. Yet, the most exciting thing about Euromaidan is not the burning cars or suspiciously armored ‘protesters,’ but the stunning emergent lessons in geopolitics and demography that come out of it. I must first, however, dispel the dominant myth promulgated by our Western Cathedralite overlords. (For the purposes of this essay, ‘the West’ will signify the cabal of cosmopolitan universalists who run the governments of the United States and the European Union.)

Euromaidan is not a ‘freedom fight’.

Despite what overzealous Ukrainian patriots and chronically misinformed U.S. television viewers may claim, the Euromaidan ‘protests’ are not a ‘freedom fight,’ a ‘fight for rights’ a ‘fight against tyranny’ or any other laughable ‘noble’ cause in action. First of all, take a look at these ‘protesters’:

Source: BBC

Source: RT

Source: NY Daily News

Source: AFP via Channel News Asia

Source: Fox News

These guys are ‘protesters’ in the same way I’m a woman i.e. they’re not. Note I used many different images showing different people from different news sources. Between the dozen or so gentlemen depicted above there are precisely zero protest signs, flags, placards or other indications of their opinion on whatever they’re ‘protesting’. On the other hand, I count a curiously high number of masks, helmets, riot shields, camouflage, military formations, Molotov cocktails, catapults, and—they said these guys were protesters!?

I don’t mean to condemn Ukraine’s street warriors at all, mind you, but the point needs to be made that what is going on in Ukraine is not a ‘protest’ the way Occupy Wall Street or the Tea Party rallies were ‘protests’. This is open combat between armed, armored and organized men on both sides. One side just happens to have POLICE stamped across their equipment, and the other doesn’t.

Furthermore, one shouldn’t forget that the beleaguered President Yanukovych didn’t come into office after a military coup or foreign intervention. He was elected. You know, through an election. Democracy. He is no Gaddafi, Mubarak, Assad, or even Putin or Lukashenko. There is no bloodthirsty tyrant in Ukraine and there are no innocent protesters. It’s easy to forget this when the Western media juxtaposes riots in Egypt and Ukraine and uses the same copy-pasted taglines for each. Yanukovych was elected with 48.95% of the popular vote, corresponding to the support of some 12 million Ukrainians, in no dishonest elections. So is Euromaidan a Washington-instigated revolution? At least Washington-funded, partly. There’s a bigger reason for the extreme violence though.

The Ukraine is a region, and there are two nations inhabiting it.

There is a ‘Ukrainian people’ in the same sense there is an ‘American people’. Take a look at this map of the 2004 elections in Ukraine, which roughly mirrors the 2010 election, as well as the locations of protests now in 2014.

Notice anything? Although the 2004 election was 51-44 to Yushchenko (for our purposes, the pro-West guy) and the 2010 election was 49-45 to Yanukovych (pro-East), the electoral breakdown by provinces reveals anything but a rough 50-50 split among the population. Only three out of more than 25 regions showed anything close to a 50-50 split. On the contrary, we see a very pronounced geographical split. The Far West around the city of Lviv returned support for Yushchenko (and later Tymushenko) at rates of more than 90%. The far East showed precisely the opposite, with an insane 96.2% share of the vote for Yanukovych in Donetsk oblast in 2004. The oblasts show a striking split in the middle as well, hardly registering a geographical gradation of support. Poor Kirovohrad oblast in the center there had no majority candidate (only a plurality for Yushchenko with 47%), and is surrounded on the North by >60% Yushchenko oblasts and on the South by >60% Yanukovych oblasts.

For comparison, only a handful of U.S. states were >60% for either Romney or Obama in the 2012 Presidential election. Heavily Mormon Utah only managed 72% for Romney, and even Obama’s extremely liberal birth state of Hawaii only just barely managed to break the 70% barrier. Those were the only two states with >70% returns for either candidate. Take a look at that map of Ukraine again.

I’ll simplify by saying that the reality in Ukraine is that there are two nations: East Ukrainians and West Ukrainians. In the East, Ukrainians speak Russian, feel a sense of camaraderie with Russia, vote Yanukovych and don’t ‘protest’. In the West, Ukrainians speak Ukrainian, feel a sense of camaraderie with Europe, hate Russia and thus become prone to violently clashing with the pro-Russian government’s police when it drops a European trade agreement. It’s telling that both ‘liberals’ and ‘nationalists’ are listed on Wikipedia as being anti-government, i.e. anti-Yanukovych, while the Russian bloc and the Communist (i.e. former Soviet) Party are listed as both anti-protest and anti-government. In the Euromaidan conflict, one can make out the liberal vs. nationalist politics characteristic of European nation-states as well as the conservative-authoritarian vs. Communist-authoritarian politics characteristic of Russia and other post-Soviet states. Again, this is no coincidence—Ukraine is two nations in one state.

More interesting than the demo-political reality on the ground are the responses of the two powers involved—the West and Russia. First some geopolitical background:

Russia is a land-power based in the Eastern third of Europe. Russia’s geopolitical goals are, and have always been, to expand its borders as far out as possible in every possible direction to put as much space as possible between its heartland and potential invaders. Not a bad strategy either—Napoleon and Hitler were defeated primarily by distance. Russia has pursued this strategy in recent years as well, although more reticently than before since it’s still working on securing its heartland and its immediate periphery in the wake of the collapse of the USSR. See: 2008 war with Georgia, Putin’s suppression of insurgencies in South Russia. Russia’s geopolitical strategy can be summed up a few words: Dagestan first, Kazakhstan later, Afghanistan sometime far in the future.

Russia is one of only two countries on the planet that pose any military (or other) threat to the hegemony of the United States, alongside China. Russia is thus a natural enemy of the United States, history aside. If Russia’s goals are to expand its sphere and borders at any cost, Washington’s goals are to suppress Russia’s sphere and borders at any cost. And they have been pursuing this goal feverishly. Just Google ‘US military bases’ and take a gander at how many have popped up around Russia.

Back to Ukraine. The country is practically split in half between the sphere of the West, backed by United States naval power, and the Russian East, backed by Russian land power, and the fault line runs right through Kirovohrad oblast and, of course, Kiev.

Geopolitics! Source: Guardian

The United States has already been shamelessly interfering in Ukraine at the expense of Russian interests (see: John McCain’s visit, Nuland phone call, alleged funding of ‘protesters,’ etc.), to no one’s surprise. Russia, on the other hand, has remained curiously dormant. The battle for Ukraine is happening on Russia’s doorstep, and in Russia’s historical birthplace: the plains of the Kievan Rus. Yet Putin’s face shows up in the news only next to the words “Sochi Olympics.”

Is Russia ignoring its interests?

Though it may seem like it, I would say not. If the violence at these protests reveals anything to Russian strategists (and to us), it is that Western Ukraine is anything but prepared to follow Moscow’s lead. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Western Ukraine is one more powder keg of ethnic violence that Moscow can’t afford to control. The aforementioned Caucasian region is causing enough trouble already. The Sochi Olympics are an extravagant, but still tentative, declaration of victory over the Islamic troublemakers if the recent bombings in Volgograd are any indication.

As of writing, ‘protesters’ in Lviv have seized a regional military base. The death toll in Kiev is rising. Ukraine is lurching toward all-out civil war. And, if actual war breaks out, Russia will have no interest in seizing the angry West. On the contrary, the severed pro-Russian East will be more than happy to join Russia’s sphere of influence, if not Russia itself, with the legal demands imposed by union with the West removed. By allowing Ukraine to flare, Russia is increasing its chances of expanding its borders Westwards. But isn’t it also allowing its enemies to move the geopolitical front straight to Russia’s borders? Simply put, no. For this to happen, Western Ukraine would have to be legally drawn into the European Union or some other major agreement with it or the United States. Even an independent West Ukraine would be too large, backwards, troubled and scarily right-wing to quickly integrate into the EU. Agreements with the West could be made, but no conceivable Ukrainian treaty with the West would be bad enough to make Russia reconsider a shot at reclaiming direct control over the Crimea and the Black Sea.

Russia is doing what it does best: waiting. And if Putin’s recent anti-U.S. pronouncements are any indication, he knows Russia won’t need to wait long before its invaders run out of money and go home to deal with their own overdue ethnic conflicts. And when that happens glory to Russia!!

By Mark Yuray

http://web.archive.org/web/20140223194654/http://theden.tv/2014/02/22/the-euromaidan-in-ukraine-geopolitics-in-action/#sthash.dNps7lHT.dNps7lHT.dpbs

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All this gradually grew into the annexation of Crimea, and then into the war in eastern Ukraine. During these seven years of war, which has been shyly called the anti-terrorist operation, thousands of Ukrainians have been killed. And it began to seem that it is, a bloody victim, which was paid by us for the possibility of an independent Ukraine, but it was all an illusion.

Bullshit. ALMOST ALL CIVILIAN DEATHS ARE IN THE REBEL CONTROLLED AREAS, NOT IN THE ARE OF DONBASS OCCUPIED (THEN) BY THE MILITANT NAZI, WHO WERE SENT IN AFTER THE UKRAINIAN ARMY WAS TURNED AROUND OR STARTED FLYING RUSSIAN FLAGS WHEN THE LOCALS IN DONBASS CONFRONTED THEM AND BLOCKED THEM!

Now to go to before the Ukrainian soldiers started flying Russian flags:

Why do we need to bring justice to the victims of 8 years ago and to understand how this started so we can resolve the War in Donbass, which started 8 years ago?

Because even with Russian Soldiers, even with Russian infiltration, even with Putin behind everyone, it was the people of those areas that in overwhelming support, aided, and empowered the subversion, at the same time, the rightful rebellion against the fascist led Coup isn't a paper tiger, it was the Babushkas that stood in front of the tanks, to which Kiev responded by sending in Nazi Militants responsible for the violent sniper massacre!

An under noticed yet defining characteristic of the Donbas conflict is that it is waged in substantial part, not by Ukrainian armed forces, but by private militias under loose to no government command. When Ukraine’s regular armed forces repeatedly proved ineffective and unprepared, into the breach stepped the so-called “volunteer battalions,” with their independent funding and training capabilities.

Following Russia’s February 2014 Crimea intervention, the Ukrainian parliament in March authorized the re-formation (it had been disbanded in 2000) of the Natsionalʹna hvardiya Ukrayiny (“National Guard of Ukraine”) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The following month, acting Minister Arsen Avakov authorized the formation of batalʹyony operatyvnoho pryznachennya or “special purpose battalions” attached to National Guard units. It was intended to bring the private militias under some governmental command structure. The Defense Ministry followed in May with the formation of “territorial defense battalions,” which were mobilized the following month by presidential order.

The Ukrainian government’s employment of special purpose and territorial defense battalions is understandable given the exigencies in the country’s east, and Russia’s annexation and occupation of Crimea. It had the unintended effect, however, of “certifying” (read: legitimizing) far right and ultra-nationalist private militias of dubious provenance.[80] Events led Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council to declare “right-wing civic movements are not perceived by Ukrainian society as a threat.” Its director, Oleksandr Turchynov, went further:

“That’s why all patriots, particularly from the Right Sector, who are ready to defend Ukraine in arms, decided to join our Armed Forces and the National Guard.”[81]

Anton Shekhovtsov and Andreas Umland raise “the paradox of ultranationalist parties becoming involved in a protest movement whose thrust is toward greater integration between Ukraine and the European Union.”[82]

While it is a point of debate whether the volunteer brigades express larger political or social trends afoot in Ukraine, they have unquestionably morphed into a de facto fourth branch of Ukrainian civil society. Among the fifty-odd pro-Kyev volunteer battalions active at one time or another in the Donbas conflict, six battalions predominate.

Azov Battalion. The Batalʹyon Azov was founded in March 2014 and takes its name from the coastal region where it is based in the city of Mariupol. It evolved out of Patriót Ukrayíny (“Patriots of Ukraine”), the paramilitary arm of the neo-Nazi Sotsial-Natsionalʹna Asambleya (“Social-National Assembly”), which was a founding organization of Praviy Sektor (see below). Its commander is a Ukrainian Parliament member, Andrei Biletsky, who also directs the Patriots of Ukraine and the Social-National Assembly. The Azov Battalion was a so-called “special purpose battalion” under the Ministry of Internal Affairs until October 2014, when it was made part of the National Guard, which battalion members serve under contract.

The epithet “neo-Nazi” is used somewhat indiscriminately in Ukrainian political discourse today, so some substantiation is in order. The section of Biletsky’s 2010 manifesto Ukrayinsʹkyy Sotsial-Natsionalizm (“Ukrainian National Socialism”)[83] titled Rasovistʹ—the literal translation is “Racism” but a more nuanced one extends to the idea of racial or ethnic purity. Biletsky wrote:

“Our nationalism amounts to nothing—a mere castle built of sand—if it is not built on a foundation of blood, a foundation of race. The error common to traditional views of nationalism is to put the cart before the horse by claiming ‘the nation’ is a linguistic, cultural, territorial or socio-economic phenomenon. We certainly do not reject the importance of spiritual, cultural and linguistic factors, nor pride of place. But our deepest held conviction is that all this derives from our race, our racial identity. If the Ukrainian spirit, culture and language are unique, it is only because our racial identity is unique. If Ukraine is a paradise on earth, it is only because our race turned her into one.”

“Accordingly, healing the nation’s body begins with racial purification. And then, with its racial body healed, the nation’s spirit will regenerate along with its culture, its language, and everything else. In addition to the matter of racial purity, we must be mindful of the relative value of other races. Ukrainians are part (and one of the largest and purest) of the European White race. The one that created a great civilization, that achieved mankind’s greatest accomplishments. The historic mission of our nation in this watershed century is to lead the White peoples of the world in the last crusade for their existence. To lead the crusade against the Semite-led subhumans.”[84]

Lest anyone miss the point, Biletsky writes later “Thus, National Socialism raises the aegis of all the ancient Ukrainian Aryan values that have been forgotten in today’s society. Only their revival and embodiment in the struggle of a group of fanatical champions can lead to the final victory of European civilization in the world.”

From Wikipedia:

Reports published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have connected the Azov Battalion to war crimes such as mass looting, unlawful detention, and torture.[86][87] An OHCHR report from March 2016 stated that the organisation had "collected detailed information about the conduct of hostilities by Ukrainian armed forces and the Azov regiment in and around Shyrokyne (31km east of Mariupol), from the summer of 2014 to date. Mass looting of civilian homes was documented, as well as targeting of civilian areas between September 2014 and February 2015."[86]

Another OHCHR report documented an instance of rape and torture, writing: "A man with a mental disability was subject to cruel treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence by 8 to 10 members of the 'Azov' and 'Donbas' (another Ukrainian battalion) battalions in August–September 2014. The victim's health subsequently deteriorated and he was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital."[87] A report from January 2015 stated that a Donetsk Republic supporter was detained and tortured with electricity and waterboarding, which resulted in his confessing to spying for pro-Russian militants.[87]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion/

Next..

Dnipro Battalion. Batalʹyon «Dnipro» was founded in April 2014 by Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi.[85] It is also known as “Dniepro-1” for the charitable organization (Fund Dnipro-1) Kolomoyskyi uses to fund the unit. The battalion commander, Yuriy Bereza, is a Ukrainian Parliament member (he sits with Prime Minister Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front) as is fellow battalion member and company commander, Volodymyr Parasyuk, who sits as an independent. It is based in Dnipropetrovsk and subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The battalion operates as an assault and a policing unit, with a reported force of 2000-4000 combatants and an additional 20,000 in reserve. Better equipped than Ukraine’s regular army, the Dnipro Battalion claims to have Romanian and Georgian military advisers.

From the reports (2016) published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): "OHCHR recalls that parties to the conflict have the obligation to take all feasible measures to protect the population under their control from the effects of hostilities. Residents told OHCHR that they fear that the presence of Ukrainian military positioned near their homes endangers them and puts them at risk of attack. OHCHR has also documented a worrying case of punitive damage to property in Donetsk by members of the armed groups targeting the house of a member of the Government-affiliated 'Dnipro-1' battalion."; "OHCHR also continued to document human rights violations committed by members of Ukrainian voluntary battalions in 2014, as well as continuing cases in early 2016. On 20 January, a group of ‘Dnipro-1’ battalion members raided a house in Avdiivka, severely beating a man, subjecting him to asphyxiation with a plastic bag and mock execution."[15]

From the reports (2016) by Global Rights Compliance LLP: "For example, has documented specific allegations of enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment by the members of volunteer battalions such as "Aydar", "Dnipro-1", "Kyiv-1" and "Kyiv-2"; "The Volodymyr Kulmatytsky case gives rise to similar questions concerning the absence of war crimes charges. The accused persons in this case were charged with illegal confinement (Article 146(2)) and illegally handling arms (Article 263(1)). It is alleged that Mr Kulmatytsky, former deputy mayor of Sloviansk, was kidnapped by three soldiers and one commander (Mr. A) of the Battalion Dnipro-1 (Ukrainian police) and murdered later that day by Mr. A. Mr. A was informed that Mr. Kulmatytsky was involved in financing DPR formations".[16]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnipro-1_Regiment/

Donbas Battalion. Semen Semenchenko[86] founded Batalʹyon “Donbass” in April 2014 as a territorial defense battalion. It was absorbed into the National Guard as a reserve battalion tactical group in June 2014 and fields a reported force of 400-600 combatants.[87] This number is said to include a significant number of Georgians.[88] Its commander, Taras Konstanchuk, declared in November 2014 interview, “Should a single city be surrendered, the president will fly off his chair, there will be a military coup and the soldiers will take power into their own hands.”[89] The battalion, known as the “Little Black Men” for its all-black uniform—a deliberate play on the term “little green men” used for Russian forces in Crimea who wore uniforms with no insignia—in late August was deployed to the second line of defense around Mariupol.

According to many reports and testimonies, the soldiers of the Donbas Battalion took part in crimes and human rights abuses of the civil population of Ukraine, enjoying general impunity. A most outrageous incident happened in August–September 2014 when eight or ten members of the Donbas and Azov battalions sexually assaulted a person with mental disability.[83][84] After the different forms of violence (including cruel treatment and rape), the victim's health significantly deteriorated and he was taken to psychiatric clinic. The issue raised awareness of Ukrainian Parliamentary Association "Forbidden to Forbid".[85][86]

At least five fighters of the battalion have been taken to court and accused of different criminal activities committed against civilian population: banditry, abduction, armed robbery, extortion, hooliganism and illegal possession of weapons. However, after a political pressure put on the judges by the former commander of the Donbas battalion, they were released.[87][88]

A UN monitoring mission in Ukraine reported that during the Battle of Ilovaisk, the Donbas battalion took part in ill-treatment and torture of male population of the city, aged 30 to 66. From 18 to 28 August 2014, the majority of victims were locked in school No. 14 by members of Donbas battalion. The conditions of the incarceration may amount to ill-treatment, some victims were subjected to beatings, regarding thirteen of them the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented cases of torture. All detained ones who were interviewed by the UN officers told they were beaten with intention to extract confessions that they were affiliated with rebel forces. After the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Ilovaisk, a mass grave with three bodies was exhumed in the backyard of Ilovaisk school No. 14 where the Donbas battalion had been stationed. The UN monitoring mission identified the victims as local civilians. According to the forensic reports, two of them had signs of firearm wounds on their bodies, and third had likely died as a result of shelling.[89][90]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donbas_Battalion

Right Sector. Praviy Sektor emerged in November 2013 as an umbrella formed by several far-right and ultra-nationalist political groups, including:

• Vseukrayinsʹka orhanizatsiya «Tryzub» imeni Stepana Bandery (“The Stepan Bandera All-Ukrainian Organization Trident”), usually referred to as simply Tryzub (“Trident”),[90] which at the time was led (since 2005) by Dmytro Yarosh.
• Ukrayinsʹka Natsionalʹna Asambleya-Ukrayinsʹka Narodna Samooborona also known by its acronym UNA-UNSO (“Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense Bloc”). It split in May 2014 when its UNA political wing merged into Right Sector. UNA-UNSO combatants fought Russian forces in Transnistria and in the Georgian civil war in the early 1990s.
• Belyy Molot (“White Hammer”) led by Vladislav Horanyn,[91] who commands the Aidar Battalion (known formally after its forced reorganization by the Defense Ministry as the 24-y batalʹyon terytorialʹnoyi oborony «Aydar» or “24th Territorial Defense Battalion ‘Aydar'”).[92] Right Sector expelled White Hammer in March 2014 for “lack of discipline” shortly after Horanyn was arrested on suspicion of killing three police officers (he was later released).
• Sotsial-Natsionalʹna Asambleya (“Social-National Assembly”) and its paramilitary arm, Patriót Ukrayíny (“The Patriot of Ukraine”). Discussed above under “Azov Battalion”.
• C-14 aka “Sich,”[93] led by Yevhen Karas, and closely associated with the political party Svoboda (“Freedom”) where Karas was a deputy. While C-14 tends to focus of constabulary activities in Kyev and other cities, combatants fight with the Kyev-2 battalion commanded by Bogdan Voytsekhovsky.

Right Sector’s leader, Dmytro Yarosh, was elected to the Ukrainian parliament as a Right Sector candidate in a single-member district located in south-central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.[94] A July 2015 party congress demanded the legalization of all “volunteer battalions,” consistent with legislation introduced by Yarosh.[95] It also changed the group’s name to Natsionalʹno-vyzvolʹnyy rukh ‘Pravyy sektor’ (“Right Sector National Liberation Movement”).[96]

According to the report by UN Human Rights Council on 4 May 2016, Right Sector is one of "potentially violent militias that acted seemingly on their own authority, thanks to a high level of official toleration, and with almost complete impunity, both in the Donbass region and in wider Ukraine" that "use violence or threats of violence to exert pressure on persons holding dissenting views, the judicial system andother mechanisms of accountability": "The Special Rapporteur is concerned by cases of physical attacks on journalists, writers, defence lawyers and judges, including the cases of Oles Buzyna (who was killed in April 2015 in Kyiv) and Serhii Dolhov (who was arrested or disappeared on 18 June 2014 by masked armed men in civilian clothes in Mariupol and whose whereabouts continue to be undetermined despite indications that he might have been killed). The Special Rapporteur is also concerned at an apparent pattern of intimidation of lawyers and judges by civilian armed groups in connection with their defence or investigation work related to the violence of 2 May 2014."[143]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Sector

Saint Mary Battalion. Dmytro Korchynsky founded the Batalʹyon PSMOP “Svyata Mariya” in September 2014, having earlier co-founded UNA-UNSO. Based in Kyev, the battalion fields some 100 combatants and emerged out of the so-called “Jesus Christ Hundred,” which was part of a police battalion in the Donetsk city of Shakhtarsk. Its commander is Alexei Serdyuk, and its ranks include members of now-disbanded (for looting) Azov Battalion units. Korchynsky claims the battalion is funded through charitable donations although there are unsubstantiated rumors that it receives funding from the Radykalʹna Partiya Oleha Lyashka (“Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko”). The battalion’s political officer, Vitaly Chornly, described its mission in an April 2015 interview as “creating a Christian Taliban.”[97]

As a part of the company which is a part of the Mariupol military garrison in sector "M" of anti-terrorist operation, special forces of "St. Mary" took part in defense of Mariupol during the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2014. They adjusted the fire of the Ukrainian artillery and performed reconnaissance and sabotage functions

The People’s Front Military Council

“Yesterday’s marginals are today’s political mainstream.” –– Yevgeny Kiselyov[98]

This organization has received far too little attention relative to its significance. The Partiya «Narodnyy front» or “People’s Front” political party (sometimes translated as “Popular Front”) was formed in March 2014, and captured the largest share of the popular vote in parliamentary elections that year under the leadership of Arseniy Yatsenyuk. In September 2014, it established its own military council, the membership of which consists of senior party leaders, armed forces and National Guard senior commanders, as well as several “volunteer” battalion[99] commanders. The latter include:

• Yuriy Bereza, commander of Batalʹyon «Dnipro» (“Dnipro Battalion”) and a member of the Ukrainian parliament. The large (>2000 combatants) special purpose battalion was formed in April 2014 in Dnipropetrovsk and is subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
• Kostyantyn Mateychenko, commander of Batalʹyon «Artemivsʹk» (“Battalion Artem’evsk”) and a member of the Ukraine parliament. The small (<200) special purpose battalion was formed in May 2014 in Dnepropetrovsk and is subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
• Roman Pytskiv, commander of the Batalʹyon «Chernihiv» (“Chernihiv Battalion”), a small (<200 combatants) Ministry of Internal Affairs special purpose battalion named for the north central oblast in which it was formed in May 2014.
• Nikolai Shvalya, commander of the Batalʹyonu «Zoloti Vorota» (“Golden Gates Battalion”), a special purpose battalion.
• Mykhaylo Bondar, deputy commander of Batalʹyon Kulʹchytsʹkoho (“Kulchytsky Battalion”).
• Ihor Lapin, a brigade commander in the Aidar Battalion (formally, the “24th Territorial Defense Battalion “Aydar'”) and a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
• Mykhaylo Havrylyuk, commander of the 25th Batalʹyonu «Kyyivsʹka Rusʹ» (the “25th Territorial Defense Battalion ‘Kyivian Rus'”), a special purpose battalion formed in April 2014 in the Kyev Oblast.

It is questionable in what form Ukrainian democracy can long survive a competing power center of the sort posed by the People’s Front military council.
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Whither Ukraine?

“Forgetting…is a crucial factor in the creation of a nation.”[128]–– Ernest Renan

The month of August ended with President Poroshenko presenting “irrefutable evidence of armed aggression against Ukraine” by, of course, Russia. “No longer is Ukraine’s armed forces opposed by mixed groups of Russians and terrorists, as was the case at the beginning of Russia’s aggression.” Instead, Ukraine now faces “full military units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” said to number some 33,000 troops. SBU head Vasyl Hrytsak “stressed the intensification of hostilities in eastern Ukraine.”

Poroshenko ended by analogizing Russia’s role in eastern Ukraine today to the Soviet one in Spain during its civil war of the late 1930s, “when Red Army generals used fictitious names.”[129] It is an appealing suggestion though perhaps an under informed one, since Michael Alpert, the historian perhaps best versed in the Republican army archives in the Servicio Histórico Militar, largely dismisses suggestions of “a powerful Russian influence”[130] as propaganda and exaggeration. According to him, “Soviet aid was primarily advisory, and these advisors do not appear to have exceeded this function, with the exception of very specialized assignments.”[131]

It would be easy to dismiss this as mere posturing in the context of the ongoing “Normandy Four” consultations, given German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s suggestion of a summit on Ukraine within the so-called “Normandy format”.[132] The symmetry between the claims of Ukraine, and Russian and the Donbas separatists, regarding the coming confrontation should give pause for thought, however.

Geary writes, “It is impossible to map linguistic or ethnic identities onto national territories.”[133] Not that it stops anyone from trying:

“What strikes us when we compare these two worlds—the European and the Russian? The grandeur, the magnificence of history as a whole…the primacy of law and logic, all in the West. And in Russia? Monotony, the dullness and torpor of individual protagonists, the trifling importance of historic events, the enormous influence of the populist element, and the disproportionate dominance of the role of the state apparatus.”[134]

Is this worldview congruent with the United States’ geopolitical interests? Henry Kissinger recently made the case against it:

“The United States has put forward no concept of its own except that Russia will one day join the world community by some automatic act of conversion. […O]ne should at least examine the possibility of some cooperation between the West and Russia in a militarily nonaligned Ukraine. The Ukraine crisis is turning into a tragedy because it is confusing the long-range interests of global order with the immediate need of restoring Ukrainian identity…It means that breaking Russia has become an objective; the long-range purpose should be to integrate it.”[135]

Nobody, least of all Dr. Kissinger, would argue the task is easy.

The illusion right now is that the volunteer battalions upon which the Ukrainian government is substantially reliant—comprised mostly of ultra-nationalists who espouse fascist, racist, often baldly neo-Nazi ideologies—will either radically transform their dogma, or recede after the fight and demand no role in the country’s governance. Underlying this illusion is gratuitous faith in their affinity for Western institutions, beyond their simplistic cant of a presumptive racial sodality. Consider this statement in June by Azov Brigade deputy commander Oleg Odnorozhenko:

“I can tell our European right-wing colleagues only one thing: we…have no illusions about the EU, NATO and other Euroatlantic international structures. Our attitude toward them is quite critical and negative. However, at the same time, we understand clearly enough what kind of a neighbor to the northeast we have, that is, the Russian Federation.”[136]

What Odnorozhenko is saying is that the United States and NATO represent a mere flag of convenience. Dmytro Yarosh once described Ukraine as “on the edge of two worlds,” a phrase he used as the title of a 2008 essay in which he drives the point home:

“Do we forget that one of the guarantors of Ukraine’s independence in exchange for [Ukraine’s] nuclear disarmament is once and again the same United States that is the foundation of NATO. And what’s really responsible for Ukrainian accession to this military-political bloc? Yes, all right—a new standard of living. Namely, the de-Christianization of society; full legalization and promotion of sexual perversions; radical feminism that will destroy the Ukrainian patriarchal family; the pacifism that thrives in NATO countries, turning men into mindless cattle; and so forth…”

“And how can NATO provide the most important thing—the security of the Ukrainian nation? By building their military bases on our land? By placing their garrisons in our cities? By putting their missiles on alert? I am convinced this is not about Ukrainians and their security, but about the wealth of the Ukrainian land…”[137]

If there is a simple answer to this dilemma, it eludes the author. What is clear, however, is the danger posed by our continued enabling of these violent and malevolent groups, elements of which are now morphing into criminal syndicates.

“Everything will turn out right; the world is built on that.”[138] So wrote Mikhail Bulgakov in his satire on Soviet life. It is a warning against wishful thinking. In its struggle against an irredentist Russia, Ukraine must not lose sight of it and another truism: the border separating Ukraine and Russia is not ethnic, nor is it language. Rather, it is moral and geopolitical. The Ukrainian government would be wise to ponder the historic record of democratic regimes seeking accommodation with more muscular, anti-democratic elements, on the false assumption they can be shaken loose once the peace is restored.

https://www.fpri.org/article/2015/10/ukraine-the-squandered-renaissance/

Now

Wikipedia:

Human rights in Ukraine is a highly contested topic and in 2018 Ukraine was labeled as "Partly Free" by organizations such as Freedom House.[1]

According to Freedom House the human rights situation significantly improved in the aftermath of the Euromaidan revolution in 2014. The country received better ratings for political pluralism, parliamentary elections, and government transparency. As of 2015 the country was labelled "Partly Free".[2] According to the OSCE, as of 2015 the elections in Ukraine generally respect democratic process, but additional efforts were needed to enhance public confidence.[3][4]

According to the Human Rights Watch report for 2014, both sides violated the laws of war during the ongoing war in Donbas. The government imposed excessive restrictions on freedom of media and sexual diversity is not fully respected.[5] On 21 May 2015 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has passed a resolution declaring the suspension of conventions for Human Rights in the eastern Donbas region.[6][7]
..
A May 2014 report from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) stated that there were approximately 300 instances of violent attacks on the media in Ukraine since November 2013.[44] A crackdown on what authorities describe as "pro-separatist" points of view has triggered dismay among Western human rights monitors. For example, the 11 September 2014 shutdown of Vesti [Wikidata] newspaper by the Ukrainian Security Service for "violating Ukraine's territorial integrity" brought swift condemnation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.[45][nb 2]

Ukraine has also shut down several television stations operated by Russia on the grounds that they purvey propaganda.[45] In February 2017 the Ukrainian government banned the commercial importation of books from Russia, which had accounted for up to 60% of all titles so
..
Reports of torture and ill-treatment by police persisted during 2007 year, as did unduly long periods of pretrial custody. Of major concern were the inhumane conditions in detention with overcrowded cells, appalling sanitary conditions and the lack of appropriate medical care. During the year numerous group suicide attempts took place in some penal colonies.[16][55]

On 6 August 2014, Amnesty International has published a report on the abduction and detention of civilians and torture them in eastern Ukraine in unaccountably. Furthermore, the organization condemned what is happening to weak and poor people at the hands of corrupt officials, and the failure of the Ukrainian authorities to conduct the necessary investigations into human rights violations.[56]

New evidence of torture was published since May 2016. According to Ivan Šimonović, UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, as published by The Times, both Ukrainian authorities and the authorities of separatist Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics allow torture and run secret jails, and "disregard for human rights" had become entrenched and systemic. The New York Times reports that, after an exchange of prisoners, some detainees have left Ukrainian jails with visible injuries. On 25 May 2016, the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) suspended its visit to Ukraine after the government had denied it access to places in several parts of the country where it suspects these secret jails were located.[57][58][59][60]

O yeah, everything is Russia, even the coup of 14 was Russia and especially all opposition to the coup.

So then lets caricature your ilk to the Max:

Listen to the blatant admission in the beginning about starting the war, Quote here:

https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/europe/how-ukraines-jewish-president-volodymyr-zelensky-made-peace-with-neo-nazi-paramilitaries-on-front-lines-of-war-with-russia/

Now go Fight, for independence you say!
Go fight! Support your 8 year war!

You're Welcome, https://peakd.com/hive-122315/@baah/exposed-yet-again-this-time-by-the-new-york-times

@tipu curate 2

До перемоги разом!