Earlier today I posted on the Ukrainian situation and the need to sanction the Russian leadership for its interference in Ukraine. To support my position, one only has to read this article. Apparently all the parties except some protesters (for good reasons because of past experience where President Yanukovich reneged on his deals and the thousands of wounded and hundreds of colleagues killed by Yanukovich) and Russia refuse to go along. Why in the world is Russia objecting to a settlement that will avoid enormous bloodshed? One word: Putin, as I explained in today’s article.
The reason I post now is to call your attention to the comments made by Elmer who has sources inside Ukraine with whom he has been in contact and also has a sound grasp of the situation there. We can only hope for peace and no more loss of life for these courageous people, young and old, who dare hold their ground in the face of brutal people anxious to crush them. They only ask their freedom not be taken from them. We should as a nation that values freedom do all in our power to peacefully respond to their desires.
Pshonka was the “prosecutor-general” of Ukraine and a Yanukonvikt loyalist. He has been removed from office.
He is the one who, together with Rinat Kuzmin, engineered the stalinist show trial against Yulia Tymoshenko
Pictures of his garish lavish mansion here:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/02/23/7016005/
http://4ubuk.blogspot.se/2014/02/blog-post_23.html
Elmer:
Tomorrow I’m going to post about what I think evidence shows Obama has given Putin the OK for taking over Ukraine. Russia’s reversal on Syria in the UN after and hour long Obama/Putin talk is an ominous development. I don’t understand why the Administration doesn’t see that getting Russia involved in anything to do with Ukraine is a recipe for disaster.
some personal experience from Ukraine:
Thank you, everybody, for your well wishes. I’m out of the hospital and with good friends for another 5 days of getting well, then back to my Company No. 27 of the Self Defense. Wish to share some insights on what has transpired these days. The Maidan is absolutely right in rejecting the political solution arrived in the Verkhovna Rada, to great fanfare and even Volodymyr Oliynyk singing ‘Shche ne vmerla” with hand over his heart. How many times can the political opposition leadership sit down for negotiations, in good faith, to reach fair compromises and concessions with a gang and their leader who in their lives never showed a sliver of evidence that they understand, subscribe to and are able to adhere to these concepts? It’s an impossibility. It will never happen. I have never heard Yanukovych or his spokespeople from his Party of REgions say one worf of truth on press conferences, in the VRon any of the many talk shows I watched They are lying again in the matter of today’s ‘groundbreaking” votes in the VR.
The regime lied before the massacre of Feb. 18, assuring opposition politicians that the people would be able to voice their grievances before the Parliament. Self DEfense Companies were sent to various key points around the barricades. Mine was one ofseveral sent to the MAriinsky PARK, where the civilians were gathered. We were faced by a line of the Interior Troops, cadets really, 17-18 year-old boys, whose main purpose there was to be injured, so that the regime could say, ‘See, those Maidan terrorists are killing our children.’ Being in the front row, right across from their metal barriers and shields, I tried to use that opportunity to try to get some to cross to our side. It didn’t happen, as some hotheads on our side broke through and the Interior Troops line quickly rolled up. They quickly retreated, with little damage done on either side. Further back, ‘Berkut’ troops deployed, about 5 rows deep. We were vastly outnumbered, as were, we later found out, were the companies at every other point, another example of how the regime has used ‘ceasefires’ to reinforces their positions and keep on killing activists. The defenders tried to hold Berkut at bay by showering them with rocks (older men and women helping break up and bring up paving stones) and Molotov cocktails. Very few exploded; as my 17-year-old hospital room mate told me, ‘Nobody showed us how to do it right.’ Berkut also tossed rocks, but, more damagingly, gas canisters and concussion grenades.
Our side had built a wall, using the metal barriers the Internal Troops left and the home-made shields many of our boys had. Then Berkut suddenly and massively attacked, big, aggressive, body armor head to toe. They quickly broke through and pushed on running, leaving no chance for resistance, only to cover our bodies from the blows raining upon us and fleeing. We ran into a fence, then a wall and a narrow gate with no place to go. Obviously, they had a plan; we did not. five and six Berkuts would pound one surrounded defendant. There was no mercy for those on the ground; not one Berkut passed a fallen opponent without adding his blow or a kick to the head. For BERKUT, this, clearly, was a labor of love (no exaggeration, as their rules forbid striking an opponent that is prostrate on the ground). As their waved passed, searched over the ground for the motorcycle helmet that had perhaps saved my life. Small bits and pieces of it lay around, evidence of the power of the blows delivered. We were rounded up with the worse injured of us attended to by medical personnel and waiting for ambulances. Two of the Berkuts standing to the side, sawing me bleeding profusely from a deep gnash in the back of the head, could not resist. “So you wanted your Ukraine, eh?” said one, so proud of himself “So, you going to the Maidan again?” said the other, equally cynical.. have never met such gratuitous brutality and undisguised hatred. These could not have been Ukrainian law=and=order personnel, no matter have depraved by service to a criminal regime. The Russians are not coming. They are already here.
Elmer:
As the writer notes, the Russians are already in Ukraine. Putin may be looking for an excuse to keep those 45,000 gangsters who paraded around in Sochi busy. Let’s hope the brave Ukrainian people can freely decide for themselves how they will move into the future.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/02/22/to-get-why-so-many-people-hate-viktor-yanukovych-take-a-tour-of-his-ridiculously-luxurious-mansion/
Elmer:
Thanks for the “on the spot” reportage. You’re doing a great job.
The revolutionists must use their momentum to push aside the major opposition political parties. At present, all the political power is in the street. That power can’t be allowed to dissipate. Don’t trust the politicians, they’ll just deliver you into bondage to West. Why trade one set of greedy oligarchs, for another? Ukraine must defend its soil from the greedy wolves of both the East, and, the West. A people, united, can never be defeated.
Are there any Makhnists manning the barricades?
the comments under this article at Ukrainian Pravda show that people were tracking the flight
I was tracking the very last part of it also
It looks like the idiot landed in the United Arab Emirates – I could see the plane slow down to about 122 kts for landing speed, and then at 0 fpm, taxiing at about 22 kts.
One could also see the flight track going over Georgia south, over Iran and then Dubai and UAE.
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/02/21/7015619/view_comments/
son of a gun – reports are that the lumbering lummox lunkhead moron imbecile “president” of Ukraine, yanukonvikt, has taken his airplane and vamoosed
live tracking here:
http://www.flightradar24.com/AOJ92C/2c1d69f
got this from here:
http://foreignnotes.blogspot.com/2014/02/yanuk-doing-runner.html