La guerre à Donetsk, trois ans après!

La guerre à Donetsk, trois ans après!

Christelle Néant 

Ex: https://metamag.fr 

L’Ukraine poursuit l’escalade dans le Donbass et enlise le processus diplomatique

En ce triste anniversaire du 26 mai, les nouvelles du Donbass sur le front militaire comme sur le front diplomatique, sont loin d’être positives. Trois ans après l’arrivée de la guerre à Donetsk (le 26 mai 2014 avaient lieu les premiers combats touchant la capitale), l’Ukraine poursuit dans sa logique de résoudre le conflit avec la population du Donbass par la force.

Le bilan de la semaine énoncé par Edouard Bassourine, le commandant en second du commandement opérationnel de l’armée de la République Populaire de Donetsk (RPD), n’est pas pour rassurer sur l’évolution du conflit dans un futur proche.

Si le nombre de violations totales du cessez-le-feu hebdomadaires a augmenté de seulement 16 % pour atteindre 374 violations (dont 58 durant les dernières 24 heures), le nombre de bombardements quant à lui a plus que doublé par rapport à la semaine précédente avec 4 456 obus d’artillerie, de mortier, de char d’assaut, et de roquettes de lance-roquettes multiples tirés par l’armée ukrainienne sur le territoire de la RPD. Ce chiffre n’inclut pas toutes les roquettes de petit calibre, les munitions de lance-grenade, et autres tirs d’armes légères, dont le nombre est au moins équivalent à celui des armes lourdes (et plus souvent égal au double du nombre de tirs lourds).

Ces chiffres atteignent le même niveau que les pics qui avaient été observés en décembre 2016, un mois à peine avant l’escalade brutale qui avait eu lieu entre fin janvier et début février 2017, et qui avait vu le nombre de bombardements lourds hebdomadaire dépasser les 8 000 tirs.

Ces bombardements qui ont touché 31 localités de la république ont tué quatre soldats et blessé 12 personnes dont huit civils et endommagé 61 habitations dont 16 rien que durant les dernières 24 heures. Des tirs corrigés à l’aide de drones (pourtant interdits par les accords de Minsk), dont certains de fabrication américaine, qui sont venus s’écraser sur les positions de l’armée de la RPD.

Les provocations se multiplient aussi, après le tir du 13 mai 2017 dirigé contre Avdeyevka et mené de manière évidente depuis la localité de Vodyanoye aux mains de Secteur Droit, d’autres tirs semblables ont frappé Avdeyevka, toujours dans le même but : accuser la RPD d’avoir tiré délibérément sur des civils innocents.

Et pendant que l’OTAN conditionne l’amélioration des relations avec la Russie à l’arrêt de son soutien au Donbass (autant dire qu’il gèlera en enfer avant que ça arrive), Kiev continue de saboter la mise en œuvre des accords de Minsk tout en clamant sur tous les toits (surtout ceux des médias occidentaux) vouloir que ces accords soient appliqués.

Car à regarder la liste des dernières exigences en date côté ukrainien pour que ces accords soient appliqués, il faut vraiment être stupide ou de mauvaise foi pour croire qu’ils vont l’être :

– la révocation du décret du président russe sur la reconnaissance des documents d’identité produits par les républiques de Donetsk et Lougansk (cette mesure étant valable jusqu’à la résolution pacifique du conflit pour des raisons humanitaires il n’y a aucune chance ou presque pour que cela arrive),

– la révocation des décisions sur l’établissement des frontières d’état par les deux républiques (ça aussi l’Ukraine peut toujours rêver),

– l’abolition de la mise sous tutelle d’état des usines qui étaient sous juridiction ukrainienne (tant que le blocus commercial total du Donbass est appliqué, l’Ukraine peut faire une croix dessus),

– la renonciation de l’utilisation du rouble russe comme monnaie légale (là aussi tant que le blocus économique total du Donbass est appliqué, cela n’arrivera pas, car il n’y a plus assez de hryvnias en circulation ici),

– le retour du contrôle des portions de frontières commune entre les républiques et la fédération de Russie à l’Ukraine (ce point est prévu à la fin des accords de Minsk quand TOUT LE RESTE aura été mis en œuvre).

Rien qu’en regardant le dernier point on se rend bien compte que cette histoire c’est le serpent qui se mord la queue, l’Ukraine demandant d’appliquer avant tout le reste un point qui est prévu à la fin du processus de Minsk quand tout le reste aura été mis en œuvre… Autant dire que cela ne sera jamais mis en œuvre.

Pendant ce temps, un des points des accords de Minsk, l’échange des prisonniers au format « tous contre tous » piétine lui aussi. Sur ce point là aussi l’Ukraine traîne des pieds et sabote le processus, essayant de ne pas rendre certains prisonniers sous des prétextes plus ou moins bidons. Et surtout, ce qui inquiète les autorités de la RPD, c’est qu’aucune information n’est disponible pour 77 des noms que la RPD a réclamés. Daria Morozova, la médiatrice aux droits de l’homme de la RPD s’inquiète de leur sort et craint qu’ils ne soient tout simplement morts.

Une crainte justifiée, quand on regarde la dérive continue de l’Ukraine vers une dictature sauce néo-nazie. Pendant que les activistes anti-Maïdan sont condamnés à six ans de prison fermes pour avoir simplement participé à des manifestations contre les nouvelles autorités ukrainiennes, comme Iouri Apoukhtine, certains députés ukrainiens proposent de s’inspirer de la politique linguistique de l’Allemagne Nazie pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (on a les références qu’on peut hein), alors que d’autres proposent très sérieusement de frapper les élèves qui parleraient russe à l’école…

Les accords de Minsk sont cliniquement morts, le Donbass ne pourra jamais retourner sous le giron d’un état ukrainien où ce genre de dérives graves n’est pas l’exception mais la règle.

Trois ans après que la guerre soit arrivée à Donetsk, il est temps que les dirigeants américains et européens cessent la ventilation artificielle qui maintient l’Ukraine en vie sur le papier, et lui permet de continuer à faire des morts dans le Donbass…

Source

The Kiev-ISIS Alliance

Militants with links to ISIS fight for Kiev in East Ukraine as part of 'Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion'

Justin Raimondo

 

Ex: http://russia-insider.com

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com

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While we’re fighting the Islamic State, a.k.a. ISIS, in Iraq and Syria, and American officials tout the alleged danger of an attack on the US homeland, in Ukraine Washington and the Caliphate are fighting on the same side. A remarkable series of articles by Marcin Mamon in The Intercept has documented an aspect of the Ukraine conflict that no one else has paid any attention to: the role played by the "Dudayev Battalion," a fighting force of radical Islamists consisting of Chechens, but also including fighters from throughout the Caucasus as well as some Ukrainains.

The keys to Ukranie’s Islamist underground were handed to Mamon by a contact in Istanbul, "Khalid," who commands the ISIS branch there. "Our brothers are there," he told Mamon, and the reporter traveled to Ukraine where he was put in touch with a contact named Ruslan, who led him to Munayev’s clandestine camp.

Named after the first "president" of breakaway Chechnya, Dzhokhar Dudaev, the Dudayev Battalion was commanded by Isa Munayev, recently killed in a east Ukraine. Imbued with a fanatical hatred of the Russians, who are backing the rebels in the east, Munayev’s men also feel they are paying back a debt, since the ultra-nationalist Right Sector battalions now fighting for Kiev apparently helped the Chechens in the past. Right Sector is an openly neo-fascist paramilitary group which provided much of the muscle that made the coup against Viktor Yanukovych, former Ukrainian president, possible. Organized into various battalions, including the notorious Azov Brigade, they idolize the World War II collaborators with the Nazis, who fought Soviet troops: the ultra-nationalists have been accused of carrying out atrocities in the Donbass, as well as terrorizing their political opponents on the home front. According to Mamon, they also have been involved in fighting the Russians in far-off Chechnya, where former Right Sector bigwig Oleksandr Muzychko fought alongside Munayev and "the brothers" against the Russians. As Ruslan told Mamon:

"I am here today because my brother, Isa, called us and said, ‘It’s time to repay your debt. There was a time when the brothers from Ukraine came [to Chechnya] and fought against the common enemy, the aggressor, the occupier."

Aside from this solemn warrior ethic, another likely reason for ISIS support to Kiev is the access this gives the terrorists to Western targets. As Mamon puts it:

"Ukraine is now becoming an important stop-off point for the brothers, like Ruslan. In Ukraine, you can buy a passport and a new identity. For $15,000, a fighter receives a new name and a legal document attesting to Ukrainian citizenship. Ukraine doesn’t belong to the European Union, but it’s an easy pathway for immigration to the West. Ukrainians have few difficulties obtaining visas to neighboring Poland, where they can work on construction sites and in restaurants, filling the gap left by the millions of Poles who have left in search of work in the United Kingdom and Germany."

We are told that ISIS is planning terrorist attacks in Europe, and security forces are busy rounding up suspects all across the continent – and yet here is this gaping hole in the West’s defenses, where "the brothers" are quietly infiltrating without much notice in the Western media. In cooperation with ultra-nationalist groups like Right Sector, which have also formed their semiautonomous battalions, the Islamists of Ukraine, brandishing Ukrainian passports, have opened a gateway to the West.

Demands that Washington start giving lethal aid to the Ukrainian regime are now part of the foreign policy debate in Washington, with the usual suspects urging the administration to open the weapons spigot. Yet the Ukrainians are saying they’re already getting lethal aid from countries they refuse to identify, according to Ukrainian national security council official Oleg Gladovsky:

"[The aid is coming from] places where we have no influence and where there’s no public uproar about it (which we ourselves have helped created in some places, unfortunately). It’s from these countries that we’re now receiving lethal aid."

So where is this aid coming from?

"In eastern Ukraine," writes Mamon, "the green flag of jihad flies over some of the private battalions’ bases." But how "private" are these fighting groups?

The tatterdemalion Ukrainian army, consisting of poorly-motivated and poorly-armedconscripts, is a poor match for the separatists, who are fighting on their home turf against an invader. The Kiev regime is dependent on these "private" armies to provide the backbone of its fighting force, and there appears to be an uneasy symbiotic relationship between the regular Ukrainian army and these volunteers, with a hands-off approach taken by Kiev to the latter. If the Ukrainian regime is now openly acknowledging getting aid from unnamed countries, it’s fair to ask: is the Dudayev Battalion getting direct aid from the same sources supplying Syria’s radical Islamist rebels with arms – Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and the Saudis?

As the US-funded-and –supported Syrian "moderate" rebels defect to ISIS in droves, the international jihadist network is extending its tentacles into Ukraine to take up the fight on behalf of their "brothers."

One of the key links between the Ukrainian ultra-nationalist factions and the Islamists was Oleksandr Muzychko, who fought alongside Chechen terrorist leader Shamil Basayev – the mastermind behind the Beslan school massacre – in the Chechen wars. Last year Muzychko was killed in a shoot-out with Ukrainian police, but before he went down he was the very visible public face of Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist movement.

In a video that went viral, Muzychko and a group of his fellow Right Sector stormtroopers entered the state prosecutor’s office in the city of Rivne, in northwestern Ukraine, and slapped the prosecutor around for not doing his job to Muzychko’s satisfaction. He also broke into a meeting of the Rivne city council, brandishing a gun, and declaring Right Sector would never disarm. While the authorities no doubt found Muzychko’s antics annoying, this sort of thing is "normal" in the new Ukraine, and it’s likely his involvement with the ISIS underground, rather than his public antics, brought down the ire of the authorities, who ambushed and shot him down on March 24 of last year. Was his involvement with the ISIS cell in Ukraine was becoming increasingly obvious, even to those in the West who had been content to look the other way?

That the Kiev authorities are working with the ISIS outpost is implied throughout Mamon’s piece: as Mamon made his way Munayev’s encampment in the company of Ruslan, they had no trouble at Ukrainian army checkpoints, where the opportunity to collect bribes was foregone and they were waved right through. Throughout Mamon’s piece we hear Munayev’s complaints of poverty: the Dudayev Battalion, we are told, must depend on criminal activities to finance their jihad. Yet one minor oligarch, named "Dima," hands them $20,000, and there is talk of selling black market amber to "buyers in the Persian Gulf, including wealthy sheikhs" – perhaps the same wealthy donors who have so generously funded ISIS.

The links between the Kiev regime and the ISIS enclave in Ukraine are numerous, and only half-hidden. When Mamon arrived at Munayev’s camp, he was met by an armored car that, we are told, was donated by Ihor Kolomoisky, one of the richest men in Ukraine who was recently appointed governor of Dnipropetrovsk. Kolomoisky, despite his Jewish heritage, has no compunctions about allying himself with openly anti-Semitic groups like Right Sector, whose battalions he has financed: like the ISIS-affiliated jihadists he gifted with an armored car, all he cares about is the fight against Vladimir Putin, whom he despises.

Another indication of the ISIS-Kiev alliance is the escape of Adam Osmayev, deputy commander of the Dudayev Battalion, from a Ukrainian jail, where he had been serving a sentence for plotting Putin’s assassination. After the coup in Kiev, Munayev and his fellow fighters broke Osmayev out of prison: when they were confronted by Ukrainian police at a checkpoint, they were mysteriously allowed to pass. As Mamonreports:

"After a dramatic standoff, the Ukrainians allowed the Chechens to go free. (There is no way to confirm Ruslan’s account, but in the fall of 2014, the Odessa court suddenly declared that Osmayev had fulfilled enough of his sentence and had been set free). Osmayev and Munayev came back to Kiev, and the Dudayev battalion was created."

"From time to time," writes Mamon, "Munayev met with representatives of the Ukrainian Security Service, known as the SBU."

The Dudayev Battalion numbers around 500 fighters, but there are also other jihadist brigades in Ukraine, organized into "the Sheikh Mansour battalion, which broke off from the Dudayev battalion" and "is based close to Mariupol, in the southeast of Ukraine," as well as two other groups composed of Crimean Tatars, each consisting of about 500 jihadists.

As US aid flows into Ukraine, how much of it will trickle down to these allies of ISIS – and to what future use will it be put? If John McCain and Lindsey Graham have their way, US arms will soon find their way into the hands of these terrorists, whose jihad against the Russians is bound to turn westward and strike at the capitals of Europe.

This is blowback with a vengeance: we are creating our own enemies, and giving them the weapons to harm us, even as we claim the need for universal surveillance in order to fight them. The mad scientists formulating US foreign policy are raising an army of Frankenstein monsters – who are sure to come after their deluded creators.