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Ukraine's New Interior Minister Promises To Retake Crimea From Russia
The civil war in east Ukraine - the self-proclaimed republic of Novorossiya - is back on and raging as violently as ever, with unconfirmed reports that even Russia has now gotten involved:
3 Russian military helicopters crossed Ukrainian air space in Luhansk at 8.20 am this morning. via @ukrpravda_news
— Ryskeldi Satke (@RyskeldiSatke) July 3, 2014
This follows what BBC reported was the death of at least nine civilians during an attack on a village in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. "The rebels have accused the Ukrainian army of shelling and bombing the village of Luhanska. But Ukrainian officials said their forces were not in the area, blaming the rebels themselves."
In other words more of the same, and certainly not helping any attempts at peace or even a ceasefire, as Russia and Ukraine are again stuck accusing each other of scuttling all attempts at ending hostilities. As Reuters noted, in a telephone conversation with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Poroshenko repeated a promise that Kiev could return to the ceasefire, on three conditions. "A statement on his website said he wanted assurances on a 'bilateral' truce, the release of hostages, and the deployment of international monitors to check Ukraine's porous border with Russia. Moscow denies Ukraine's charges that it is letting fighters and weapons cross into the east of the country."
Curiously, besides Putin benefiting from higher oil prices as a result of geopolitical instability, and a far better venue to achieve that nowadays would be Iraq anyway, one wonders who actually has more to gain from perpetuating the fighting.
Yet the most surprising news of the day comes not from the contested region, but from Kiev where Ukraine's president Poroshenko appointed a new Ukraine defense minister, Valeriy Heletey. His first promise? To not only re-engage Russia in Crimea, but to be victorious in doing so. From BBC:
New Ukrainian Defence Minister Valeriy Heletey has promised that the army would retake Crimea, restoring the country's territorial integrity.
Addressing parliament in Kiev, he said: "There will be a victory parade... in Ukraine's Sevastopol."
Lt Gen Heletey, 46, was approved by MPs in Kiev after being recommended by Mr Poroshenko as someone who would work day and night to restore the military capability of the country's armed forces. His remark about Sevastopol was applauded by the chamber.
We are confident Putin had a different, and far more amused reaction to the statement.
But while we applaud Ukraine's attempts at generating populist enthusiasm, a far bigger problem for the nation will be if, as we explained previously, Russia not only manages to finally conclude the South Stream, which despite Europe's attempts at sabotage, is proceeding according to schedule, but diverts all gas transit away from Ukraine. At that point, Ukraine will be completely irrelevant not only to Russia, which already has under its control, via separatist groups, the industrial regions in the east, but to Europe. It goes without saying that the second Russia makes Ukraine irrelevant as a core transit hub to Europe, all the promises from Europe, NATO, IMF and of course, America, will be gone with the wind. Only then will Ukraine discover just how credible its newly found allies are...
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That General has a bit of a problem.
The military is probably split, like the rest of the country, into Ukrainian and Russian speakers. To an outsider the country seems to be fracturing along those lines. This means that potentially half the army/air force/navy might not want to fight their fellows.
Then there is their equipment, all Russian or locally built from Russian designs. The Russians are not stupid so any advanced gear (like Command and Control and S300 air defence systems) is going to have 'back doors'. Resupply or upgrade may be a problem! Plus the Russians know where all the vulnerable points are and can cripple the system whilst appearing to do nothing.
Availability of better Western equipment probably depends on finances and ability to use, both in very short supply.
As to retaking Crimea, he must be delusional. The Russians must be well dug in by now, with superior equipment. Kiev's only option is probably by seige, turn off the electricity/gas/water but that wouldn't play too well on the world stage.
As to who gains from all this, it is he who no longer has the financial burden of Eastern Ukraine. Russia doesn't whilst Western Ukraine is trying to make them. Western Ukraine is where the gas/oil and grain is, the East is where the clapped out Soviet factories are.
Western Ukraine has not much resources. Forests and beets.
I have not seen anything about gas/oil in the west.
Poland optimism for fracking potential plummeted after test wells drilled.
As far as I know the probable reserves are in east and rich soils/grain areas are south and east.
You have no information about gas/oil in the west of Ukraine? It's your own problem.
link
P.S. Western Ukraine was main source of gas for whole USSR in 50th-70th - just for information.
double post
sorrie
"was" is important word.
Any from 50's thru 70's is long gone.
I was just stating from what I had seen. Not much there now.
It looks unknown what real will be from shale gas in Carpathian.
I just remember that the some of the huge Polish estimates destroyed after test wells drilled.
All this fracked is very fast depletion.
Very overated unless you are on the top of the oilfield food chain.
Yes, can and will take some production wealth, but the real Ukrainians won't see much.
Somebody needs to tell Mr. Valeriy Heletey that his time both in Kiev and on this earth is very short...
I see a slideshow presentation of these in his future after he is permanently cemented into his chair alonside his boss the "chocolate Jew"
http://investmentwatchblog.com/dramatic-video-entire-village-destroyed-by-shelling-near-lugansk-eastern-ukraine/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e8f_1404341730#0wIcl02AKZyTTBbJ.99 http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_07_03/US-considers-Ukrainian-military-operations-in-the-east-of-the-country-to-be-adequate-3178/Without borders there is no country. Look at the problems we are having on our southern border with all the illegals entering. What would happen if mexico annexed New Mexico . I'm sure that the united states would yell foul and take it right back. So the ukraine has every right to get it's land back. Very doubtful it can but i believe it has every right to it. The diminutive one will never give it back.
If New Mexico voted to secede and then did so without attacking the states around it, a lot of Americans would no care a lick nor should they.
If New Mexico voted to secede after Mexican troops came and attacked US Mil installations then yeah we would dust Mexico.
I agree, Crimea looks like the second example. However, the vast majority of the people there are no Ukrainian but Russian in backround and were actually Russians not that long ago. New Mexico is not comparable, yet. Even after the illegals become the majority it will not be the same. They invaded. The Russian in Crimea were there since before my ancestors turned ethnic name for them, slavs, into what we use to describe people in servitude, slaves. That was over 1,000 years ago.
Ukraine has never been a sovereign nation.
Crimea is Russia.
You need crack open history book for real learning.
Ukraine A History Orest Subtelny best for English readers. Author is Ukrainian heritage.
Russia has never been a sovereign nation.
It's all presents from Slavic Kyiv's Knyaz. The main russian cities were founded by princes from Kyiv.
Another problem is the size of the army 5000 in March!!!
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_26/Turchynov-admits-Ukraines-intel...
Thats funny. 10 times a month the alarms go off " imminent Russian attack" . I always thought that turchynov guy looked like he wasn't sleeping much.
another day in the village. this is normal nuts. fuck me.
Is he the devil Nuland knows, or the devil she doesn't know.
Another State Dept appointee?
By himself?...
I refuse to dignify this clown jester's bravado with a response. . . Oops
Cocaine's a hell of a drug. Did he say, "I'm Rick James, bitch!".
As for Ukraine taking Crimea, they will fail for two reasons. Number one, most of the population would fight to the death to avoid rule by Kiev's nazi lunatics backed by Washington DC, number two, the Russian forces in Crimea are better trained, better equipped and much better motivated to defend a friendly population.
Face it Kiev, the gift of Crimea the Soviet Communist Ukrainian Premier gave you in the 50's has returned home to Moscow. You will never get it back, you never owned it by anything but Soviet Communist law, and Soviet Communism is dead and gove forever.
Stop wasting your time, after all winter is coming, and you lot should be out chopping wood and canning vegitables for winter. Or do you expect the fucking EU and America to feed you and heat your homes over winter? Hugh! Do you think that the EU is going to feed, cloth, house and heat the Ukraine. How fucking much debt are you already in? Where are slaries and pensions going to come from? What industry and what taxes does Ukraine have coming in without it's Russian populated East. Please answer those simple questions, and I will take your posts seriously, otherwise they are just more rubbish talk.
Spot on, Jack.
I think the average Ukie is hoping to have an EU passport by then so they can go to Western Europe and live large on the welfare state. Little do they know the welfare state in the EU is crumbling. So their faustian bargain will end in tears. These arrangements usually do.
A work colleague that returned from holidays in Europe who say the number of homeless people in places such as Budapest, Genoa, Viena and Paris is staggering.
Jack
the voice of reason ...
but how reasonable are the rulers in Kiev?
How many believe in the "triumph of the will" over any triumph of reason?
How many there view themselves as the lords of chaos, the masters of violence, the scourge of god?
"The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters."
-Ghengis Khan
And how reasonable are the present leaders/rulers of the Empire & NATO?
The exceptionalist leaders of the West believe it is their destiny to full-spectrum rule the world, to rid all that they deem "evil", any terror, any threat, now and for any future imagined.
How impossible is it that separatist Kiev,
either before or after having joined NATO, in "Georgia-fashion" attempts to provoke a blaze for the imagined thrill, in the hopes of solidifying power, increasing western aid, quashing dissent, and even arising stronger through devastation?
Naah. It must be my over-active imagination.
No reasonable leader, not even a corrupt one, would deliberately sow such chaos.
@ JB
. . . . . more rubbish talk. aka Happy Talk.
Jackie boy, I applaud you, you seem to be the most talented Putin ghost-writer here, are you the team lead?
The way you deftly and elegantly use "nazi", "DC lunatics" in the same sentence is moving...you've elevated your soviet agitprop to a rarefied art form. Bravo, standing ovation.
Is your uncle an oligarch lackey? Did you get sent to a U.S. college like all the other ruskies rich enough to escape the motherland?
By the way, Kiev and Crimean history go back much further than Russia's existence. Russian traces its cultural origins to Kiev (not the other way around), as I imagine you know. The Norwegian Viking, Vladimir of Kiev, united Kiev and Novgorod. Previous to that, it was controlled by the Khazar empire (central Asian Tengrists, Jews, Muslims, Christens, & local pagans). Russian's christian tradition came from Vladimir's alliance with the Greek Byzantium royal family.
So, y'all do actually owe quite a bit of your history and culture to all those who came before you in Crimea and Ukraine.
Should we give Crimea back to Norway or Mongolia?
useless talkings
Heletey’s just ensured a brand new flow of Crimean men to help the Eastern Ukrainians. Evidence is increasing that it is Obama’s and Kerry’s goal to provoke Russia into a war with the United States and NATO in Ukraine.
Democracy is dead in America. The U.S. government no longer is accountable either to law, the international community or to the American people who want no more involvement in wars of aggression. Paul Craig Roberts now states, “The conclusion is inescapable that the U.S. is a gangster state. Indeed, the U.S. is worse than a mere gangster state. The U.S. is a shameless exploitative tyranny.”
Consortium summarizes Americans’ and the world’s plight as a preface to this exclusive article by ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern who warns: Pressured by neocons and the mainstream U.S. media, the Obama administration is charting a dangerous course by seeking a military solution to Ukraine’s political crisis and possibly provoking Moscow to intervene to protect ethnic Russians.
The Risk of a Ukraine Bloodbath | Consortiumnews.com | July 2, 2014
By Ray McGovern
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko – by thumbing his nose at the leaders of Russia, Germany and France as they repeatedly appealed to him to renew the fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine – has left himself and his U.S. patrons isolated, though that’s not the version of the story that you’ll read in the mainstream U.S. press.
But the reality is that an unusual flurry of high-level conference calls last weekend from key European capitals failed to dissuade Poroshenko from launching major attacks on opposition forces in eastern Ukraine. Washington was alone in voicing support for Poroshenko’s decision, with a State Department spokeswoman saying “he has a right to defend his country.”
As Ukrainian air and artillery strikes increased on Tuesday, so did diplomatic activity among the Europeans with the U.S. playing no discernible role in the peace efforts. There was no sign, for example, that Secretary of State John Kerry was invited to a hastily called meeting in Berlin on Wednesday involving the foreign ministers of Germany (Frank-Walter Steinmeier), France (Laurent Fabius), Russia (Sergey Lavrov), and newly appointed Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
This marginalization of the U.S. is a consequence of a well-founded suspicion that Poroshenko’s fateful decision to “attack” came with Washington’s encouragement. The continued provocative behavior of Secretary Kerry, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and other U.S. hardliners comes despite the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin still holds the high cards in this regional standoff…
While the focus over recent days has been on Poroshenko’s decision to end the ceasefire and go on the offensive, Putin has continued to rely on diplomacy as his primary tool, especially with European officials fearful of the economic consequences of a full-scale confrontation between Russia and the West. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has made considerable headway in getting at least Berlin and Paris to join Moscow in trying to restrain Washington in its apparent eagerness to stoke the fires in Ukraine.
Speaking on Russian TV on Saturday, Lavrov said, “Peace within the warring country [Ukraine] would be more likely if negotiations were left to Russia and Europe,” adding, “Our American colleagues … according to a lot of evidence, still favor pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards the path of confrontation.”
That evidence is increasingly evident to Europeans. What is new is their apparent willingness to slip softly out of their accustomed lockstep subservience to the U.S. in such matters…
http://consortiumnews.com/
Great article. What makes me curious though is who are those parties, with this much influence, interested in instigating conflict in Ukraine and drawing in Russia. I feel like Obama is just a messenger.
Obama is clearly a messenger, and by now, it appears that the messages are coming from the banking cartel.
He is only saying what his CIA handlers are telling him to say. Putin has been too smart to get sucked into the Ukraine, so the CIA needs to send the Ukies into Russian territory.
You Pro-Russian guys are simply not paying attention. Look for the trend.
Early on, the IMF & EU wanted Ukraine to fight for Ukraine. If they did not fight to maintain their borders, who was going to lend them money?
Fast forward to today and Ukraine is putting infrastructure in place to fight for Ukraine. You may think the IMF and EU are bluffing but I think that is the point... the game has changed.
Early on, board pieces were being placed in the diplomatic game. Now the pieces are beginning to move. I think it is a mistake to continue to think along the chess/checkers line as the game appears to be a poker/go fish game.
The EU is drawing Russia away from the Ukraine by waving the prize - potential to be a partner in running the ex USA/UK world. That age old concept is thoroughly French.
The Ukraine Mafia/Nazis who are behind the Ukrainian-Russian cabal are not Putin's people. I do not think Putin will spoil his hands by pulling these clowns out of the line of fire. There is more at stake for Putin. If he truly has a chance at leading the anti USA/UK world, he needs to see things in a greater light. Ukraine does not matter in that scheme of thinking. He needs to manage his resources and bide his time. You know relying on the double dealing Europeans is a lot like herding cats. Putin needs time to determine if he is being dealt from the bottom of the deck, or if he truly has a chance at global leadership.
Sounds exactly like what he has been doing - "biding his time" that is.
Juncker comes to power in October 2014. Time is definitely on Putin's side as Juncker is no great friend of the US/UK - Clearly!
In order to herd cats you need to get them hungry then provide food in the place you want them to be.
I'm sure cold works just as well.
Putin will move the herd this winter.
While the gas is off.
Which broke@ss EU country is gonna pay the Ukrainian gaz bill? The US can only pay with FRNs, which Russia will probably laugh at.
But... Vlad Bromance
it would have been better to have started fighting before Russia sealed the penisula off from the national government and held a referendum destroying the family connections that mattered
.
it will be a culture war similar to vietnam if they go whole hog
.
5 years will change everything bitchez
The idea of America getting involved or jumping into a war in Ukraine would have been hard to imagine a few years ago. As I write this we are engaged in a war of words but the potential for this to escalate into a shooting war is real. Allowing events to deteriorate into a major war or possibly into what some see as World War III is becoming a reality.
As insane as it appears this could become the final outcome. The location of this as a military confrontation is right in Putin's backyard and this is a strong advantage for Russia. It is silly to think Putin and Russia will back down. This means poking the bear is not a smart move. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/04/war-in-ukraine-bad-idea_26.html
The Ukrainian navy might be very helpfull in putting Russia and Putin in their plaqce but it seems Russia has taken it out. Ukraine is a failed State.
Ukraine has never been a sovereign nation.
Yes, Ukraine is a failed state.
"Ukraine A History" Orest Subtelny best book for English readers. Author is Ukrainian heritage.
Russia has never been a sovereign nation.
It's all presents from Slavic Kyiv Knyazes. The main russian cities were founded by princes from Kyiv.
this will end well
New Ukrainian Defence Minister Valeriy Heletey has promised that the army would retake Crimea, restoring the country's territorial integrity.
I guess if your first names Valery, you have probably had a tough upbringing and feel you have a point to prove.
"Ukraine's New Interior Minister Promises To Retake Crimea From Russia"
Oh goody...THAT'S going to improve the whole situation for sure...
What is this guy, the new "Iraqi Information Minister"?
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/07/in-banderastan-insanity-denial-and-lies.html
Da river of da-Nile runs deep, trolls are under every bridge, ( it's a job )( take this to your leader ) thats why this is the first 1 amendment day of Independence day July 4 2014 from blood of many generations before and after it was written In god ( higher power ) ( who's ever ) we ( the people ) trust ( truth ) puts renewed ( hope and peaceful ) resolve that current events ( the battle between good and evil ) to a sane end. ( pitch forkless ) the gig is up- more wars were averted on a golf course ( hey renegade ) remember don't poak the bear thanks gw for setting it straight,