The Russian Invasion of Ukraine-The Real Nazis

[The Natural]

Ready made replies for all eventualities? And this you dug up and linked in just 10 minutes? You might be some kind of a superwoman but there's a limit to even that, haha.

I can't keep on With this tonight, I'M not paid to Write stuff on the internet. Besides, soon Movie time With the wife, so.......

[Boethius]

Just need to know where lies are reported.  I read that stuff so that I am informed.  The site is neutral.  It isn't restricted to RT, btw.  It includes other Russian, and Ukrainian newspapers.

[lordtiberius]

Ready made replies for all eventualities? And this you dug up and linked in just 10 minutes? You might be some kind of a superwoman but there's a limit to even that, haha.

I can't keep on With this tonight, I'M not paid to Write stuff on the internet. Besides, soon Movie time With the wife, so.......

Lol

[fathertime]

Must have the last Word, right? So yes, RT is splendid and it's very popular With many westerners as well, who's tired of the constant one-sided Washington propaganda about Russia. Sorry, but facts do occasionally hurt!

I don't get RT at home, but when I'm in hotels it is often one of the offered channels.  When I watch it, I certainly see an entirely different (non USA ) perspective. Most Americans aren't aware it exists.

Fathertime!

[Boethius]

Russian activists find graves of Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine.  Of course, they weren't there, right apologists?

Opposition activists in Moscow say they have discovered fresh graves of several Russian Special Forces officers. The accusation comes as Russia's Defense Ministry continues to deny that Russian
soldiers are fighting in Ukraine -- despite the recent capture in Luhansk of a pair who identified themselves as Russian officers.

Activists Ruslan Leviev and Vadim Korovin say they decided to launch their own investigation into the deaths of Russian servicemen in Ukraine. To back their accusations, they released photographs and video from a graveyard in Tambov Oblast, where a soldier identified as Anton Savelyev was recently
buried.

 “This is our response to Russian propaganda that says there are no troops in Ukraine,” Leviev told the Kyiv Post by phone. “We want to show society that our Defense Ministry is literally abandoning its own troops by disavowing them like this. … We are showing society the consequences of this
war.”

A video of the grave shows a photograph of a young man in full military uniform, the mound of dirt over the grave adorned with flowers and a large wreath.

 


“To the defender of the Fatherland, from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation,” the wreath reads.

An information request sent to the Russian Defense Ministry on the graves in Tambov wasn’t immediately answered.

Leviev said two other graves had been discovered so far: one in Tatarstan and one in the Kurgansk region. Apart from Savelyev, officers Timur Mamayusupov and Ivan Kardapolov were also identified as recently deceased.


The three servicemen were allegedly from the 16th special operations brigade of the Russian military intelligence, and “served together, were friends, and they all died together on May 5, 2015 in Ukraine,” Leviev said.

According to him and Korovin, the three men were all buried on May 10 and they had likely died in fighting that took place from May 4-5 in eastern Ukraine.

That fact was partly backed up by Ukrainian journalist Andriy Tsaplienko, who posted photographs on Facebook of Russian weapons discovered after a battle in Novotroyitske, not far from Volnovakha in Donetsk Oblast.

“Russian diversionists tried to come towards Ukrainian soldiers. There were about eight in the group… A battle broke out, spetznaz-style, quick. Six of the eight Russians were left lying in the grass.  Two fled,” he wrote, noting that the battle occurred on May 4.

Tsaplienko also published several photos of Russian weapons said to have been found at the scene, including a Kizlyar combat knife “so beloved by members of Russia’s GRU (military intelligence).”


According to activist Korovin, there are likely many other fresh graves throughout Russia that the public is not yet aware of.

“We can assume, since the fighting was very intense, that if we have information of three people dying in the same place, three people who were friends and died at the same time, the losses might actually be much more substantial,” Korovin said in a video of the gravesite posted on YouTube.


“Only by attracting the public’s attention to these freshly dug graves can we stop the war, or at least influence it,” he said.

“It was a very difficult process” to track down the graves, Leviev said, adding that it all started when he received a message on social media saying a Russian soldier had recently been killed.

“Then we spoke to friends and acquaintances and found out he was from Tambov, so we came here not even knowing where to look for the grave,” he said, noting that these three soldiers were in no way connected to the two officers recently detained in Ukraine.

The social media pages of Mamyusupov’s mother confirmed that her son had been killed, with numerous photographs of the young man in military attire captioned with mournful messages such as, “Timur, we will never forget you” or “Never forget.”

In response to a question on her page about what had happened to Timur, one of his relatives replied: “He died on a military assignment.”

This is not the first time during the conflict that Russian activists have uncovered the graves of servicemen killed in mysterious circumstances.

In August, journalists in Russia flocked to a cemetery in Pskov Oblast, where a local newspaper reported a secret burial of several paratroopers likely killed in Ukraine.

Several journalists were threatened or attacked while trying to get to the bottom of the secret burials, and Lev Shlosberg, a local politician and publisher who first spoke out about the mystery of the killed
paratroopers, was badly beaten in late August, shortly after publishing an investigation into the funerals. 

The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly denied sending actively serving troops to Ukraine, saying those who have been captured or killed on Ukrainian territory were either retired, discharged or had gone to fight as volunteers.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/moscow-activists-say-they-found-fresh-graves-of-russian-soldiers-389037.html

[Boethius]

International Red Cross visits the Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine, now hospitalized in Kyiv.  This should lay to rest the outright lies on torture written in propaganda rag "media source" Russia Today.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/20/us-ukraine-crisis-redcross-idUSKBN0O522920150520
 

[Boethius]

Two Russian soldiers killed near Debaltseve buried in Togliatti.  This is according to a Russian blogger.

http://tltpravda.ru/blog/main/9420.html
 
My BIL's family is from a village just outside Debaltseve.  Has lived there for centuries.  Always considered themselves Ukrainians, and speak Ukrainian in their daily lives.  The local mood is, they never wanted to be part of Russia, they don't want to be part of the so called "DNR", they have never supported the terrorists, and they view the latter as "criminals and low lifes". 
 
So much for local support.

[mendeleyev]

Neville, RT does indeed offer a different perspective to most Western news--one of the reasons I no longer do any contract jobs with them. It is a full on propaganda tool, 98% lies with just enough facts stirred in to make it seem credible.

I still have friends there, but those relationships are now strained and are sadly fading. To them, if one does not blindly accept the Kremlin mandates on coverage, then that person is at least a borderline traitor.

I refuse to take the side of any government, Russian or American, and the best journalism at least tries to communicate truth. That is why a host of RT staffers have left, or been forced out, over the past couple of years.

[Faux Pas]

I don't get RT at home, but when I'm in hotels it is often one of the offered channels.  When I watch it, I certainly see an entirely different (non USA ) perspective. Most Americans aren't aware it exists.

Fathertime!

We have a Russian package on our cable service and RT is included. My wife has never watched it in fact, she refuses to watch it. She will only watch selected talk shows on the other Russian news channel. Russia One I think it's called. Her reasoning is it is all government propaganda with one purpose. She hates that her mother watches and believes it

[lordtiberius]

Neville, RT does indeed offer a different perspective to most Western news--one of the reasons I no longer do any contract jobs with them. It is a full on propaganda tool, 98% lies with just enough facts stirred in to make it seem credible.

I still have friends there, but those relationships are now strained and are sadly fading. To them, if one does not blindly accept the Kremlin mandates on coverage, then that person is at least a borderline traitor.

I refuse to take the side of any government, Russian or American, and the best journalism at least tries to communicate truth. That is why a host of RT staffers have left, or been forced out, over the past couple of years.

What about Syria?

[mendeleyev]

I support the people of Syria, and especially the threatened Orthodox Christian community there. The fact that Mr. Putin seems to agree with me on Syria perhaps serves as proof that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[lordtiberius]

Assad is barrel bombing his people with chemical weapons.

[Brasscasing]

Exclusive: Russia masses heavy firepower on border with Ukraine - witness

..."
Russia's army is massing troops and hundreds of pieces of weaponry including mobile rocket launchers, tanks and artillery at a makeshift base near the border with Ukraine, a Reuters reporter saw this week.

Many of the vehicles have number plates and identifying marks removed while many of the servicemen had taken insignia off their fatigues. As such, they match the appearance of some of the forces spotted in eastern Ukraine, which Kiev and its Western allies allege are covert Russian detachments.

The scene at the base on the Kuzminsky firing range, around 50 km (30 miles) from the border, offers some of the clearest evidence to date of what appeared to be a concerted Russian military build-up in the area."...




The article contains a slide show, this is pic one of 10. They're well worth looking at.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/27/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-military-idUSKBN0OC2K820150527

Preparation for another Russian offensive could be underway.

Brass

[ML]

That is actually Ukrainian military equipment.

It was secretly driven across into Russia and then will be used to invade Ukraine.  Then Ukraine will blame Russia for this invasion.

[southernX]

interesting read here below

Top Russian economist: Moscow can’t maintain current levels of military spending for much longer
http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/05/24/top-russian-economist-moscow-cant-maintain-current-levels-of-military-spending-for-much-longer/

That military spending is eating up the reserve fund is the result of Russian decisions made four years ago, Guriev says. At that time, the government proposed increasing defense spending from three to more than four percent of GDP, something Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin suggested was impossible. He was summarily fired and that is what the Kremlin seeks.
 
According to Guriev, “the goal of the Kremlin turned out to be unbelievably ambitious both by Russian and by world standards.” Most European countries are not spending more than two percent of GDP on defense; the US spends 3.5 percent, and only nine countries in the entire world are now spending more than four percent.
 
Russia “simply is not in a position” to spend that way for long, the economist says. Moreover, its defense industry isn’t capable of modernizing that quickly. And that suggests that the Kremlin is less interested in that than in supplying its forces in Ukraine, something that could set the stage for a new attack in the coming months.
Or alternatively, Guriyev continues, it could simply be an indication that the Ukrainian war is costing Putin far more than he counted on and that he will have to find a way out.
 
Whatever proves to be the case, he concludes, “Kudrin’s economic logic today is even more just than it was on the day he was fired. If Russia in favorable times couldn’t allow itself to spend up to four percent of GDP on defense,” then it certainly can’t at a time when oil prices have collapsed and Western sanctions have been imposed.
 

[fathertime]

It appears the financial markets are pricing in some sort of new action. The ruble is suddenly weakening against the dollar, although the dollar has been strengthening in general against most currencies. 

Fathertime!

[Boethius]

More evidence of Russian arms in Ukraine.
 
Doll's continuous assertion that all weapons in Donbas were "Ukrainian" is proving false.

The Kremlin continues to claim that any Russians fighting in eastern Ukraine are there on their own volition, and that heavy weaponry used by the pro-Russian separatists was seized from Ukraine's military.
 
But the Atlantic Council's analysis shows that several types of Russian-built weaponry and ammunition that have never been used by Ukrainian government forces have appeared in the hands of the separatists.

One such weapon is a modernized version of Russia's main battle tank, which did not even enter service in Russia until 2013, the T-72B3. It is distinguished by an upgraded targeting and fire control system as well as other visible improvements on earlier models of the T-72 battle tank.

Other uniquely Russian weapons seen in eastern Ukraine are the Pantsir-S1 antiaircraft vehicle, known as the SA-22, and 2B26 Grad missile launchers mounted on the chassis of a Kamaz truck. Russia's military began using those vehicles in 2012.

The report also documents the presence in eastern Ukraine of Russian Dozor armored scout vehicles with advanced communications systems.

Lighter weaponry found in eastern Ukraine that has never been in the Ukrainian Army's arsenal includes shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, or MANPADS, several types of rocket launchers, antitank guided missiles, land mines, and various types of small arms.
 
The researchers' evidence includes a combination of satellite data and sophisticated crater analysis from territory in eastern Ukraine that had been battlefields during the summer of 2014, such as an area outside of the village of Panchenkove.

The crater analysis helped determine the trajectory and origins of artillery fire, with four of five different attacks said to have originated from Gukovo on the Russian side of the border.
Journalists who visited that launch site in Russia have quoted residents who confirmed barrages were fired from there. They also discovered clear signs of Russian military activity -- including a large number of red endcaps from 122 mm artillery rockets.

Satellite imagery also confirms the movement of Russian troops and camp buildups along the Ukrainian border.

The Kremlin has described those deployments as part of tactical and strategic training exercises.
But the Atlantic Council says the evidence proves that those camps have been used as "launching points for Russia's war in Ukraine," serving as “the staging ground” for Russian military equipment and troops to enter eastern Ukraine.

The report says that Russian military commanders have ordered Russian troops who are sent into Ukraine to remove any insignia or other markings that would be obvious evidence of a Russian military incursion.

It quotes military experts who estimate that Russia had at least 12,000 regular troops deployed in eastern Ukraine by March 2015, with about 50,000 at the staging areas on the Russian side of the border.

http://www.rferl.org/content/report-russia-military-intervention-ukraine/27041692.html
 
 

[calmissile]

For those that want to read the actual report in it's entirety......

http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/reports/hiding-in-plain-sight-putin-s-war-in-ukraine-and-boris-nemtsov-s-putin-war

PDF link is at the  bottom of the page.

[JayH]

Interesting different way to establish confirmation for those that persist in following the line of Putins lies !

Armed With Google and YouTube, Analysts Gauge Russia’s Presence in Ukraine
WASHINGTON — An unusual investigation using publicly available videos, smartphone photographs and satellite images shows that Russia is continuing to defy the West by conducting protracted military operations inside Ukraine, according to an independent report.

Russia has long dismissed Western allegations that its military has intervened in Ukraine as little more than computer-generated propaganda.

In an attempt to puncture the Russian denials, independent experts have operated like digital Sherlock Holmeses, using Google’s Street View, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, satellite photographs and Russia’s version of Facebook, including social media updates by Russian soldiers. That research was then supplemented by more traditional sources like court documents and local media reports.

“Independent researchers, using open sources and rigorous methodology, have demonstrated that Russian troops and Russian weapons have been an important part of the fight in Ukraine’s east,” said John E. Herbst, a former American ambassador to Ukraine and one of the authors of the report, Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine, which is to be released Thursday by the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research center.



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/world/europe/videos-and-google-help-researchers-gauge-russias-presence-in-ukraine.html?_r=1

[Boethius]

The recent law passed in Russia, making it illegal to mention Russian soldiers killed during "peacetime", suggests war in Ukraine will heat up -

In Russia, it is now forbidden to talk about Russian soldiers killed during peacetime. President Vladimir Putin, for whom the outcry over Russian boys dying in eastern Ukraine apparently got too loud, signed a decree to this effect.

That’s interesting, since according to Putin, there aren’t any Russian soldiers who could be killed there. One who leans toward being cynical could see in the edict – which bans discussion of something that, according to the government, doesn’t exist – a kind of advancement for the rule of law: Opposition leader Boris Nemzov paid with his life for his investigation into Russian soldiers killed in the Donbas; he was gunned down. Russian mothers who still dare to whisper the names of their dead sons, on the other hand, can count on only having to report to a prison camp.

Whoever passes such laws is fighting a war. And he is planning even more war. It’s as simple as that. The West is deceiving itself when it continues to describe the daily shootouts in the Donbas as “constant violations of the ceasefire,” as German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier again did in Kyiv. They’re part of Putin’s policy of war.


A ceasefire that is constantly broken is not a ceasefire. And the dead who may not be spoken about are still dead.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/ukraine-trotzdem-tot-1.2498863

[PBRstreetg]

sorry to offend my UA 'affiliated' friends but this just pisses me off now. MH-17 nobody still knows, the clusterfuck in eastern Ukraine and now we still argue about what Russia describes as 'losses?'
Too many cheesedics in the mix again, and nobody can deny that. Try. Let dead dogs lie my great grandma said.

[Boethius]

I'm not really certain what you are saying.


MH17 is still under official investigation.  A European group of reporters with access to the official investigation of alleged the BUK missile used to bring down MH17 was supplied by Russia, shot by Russians, and spirited back over the Russian border.


The site of the tragedy is within terrorist controlled territory, and it is still unstable, so not all evidence has been uncovered.


Can you imagine an American president stating no one can report on the deaths of American soldiers in war time, let alone, when the country is not officially at war?

[PBRstreetg]

I'm just despaired and sick of a lot of events that have transpired since the conflict began.
Looking at what I posted I'm sorry (embarrassed too) for the language I used.
It's created a rift among so many people involved with anything FSU related, and on another site (not this one) even produced what I consider 'hate speech'.

I enjoy this forum and most of the people so will continue to use it regardless.

[Boethius]

No need to apologize.


The reason for my post is, I think it is a sign of, potentially, a new offensive.  The representatives of the DNR/LNR refuse to meet with Ukraine and the EU to implement Minsk II.  Ukrainian soldiers continue to be shelled, injured, and killed.  Russia has sent more weaponry and soldiers to the region.  And now, it wishes to create some "plausible deniability" by making it a crime to report on a dead soldier. 


Were I a Russian mother with military aged sons, I would be looking to emigrate.  Anywhere.

[mendeleyev]

In the week prior to the downing of MH-17, a Russian reporter embedded with the rebels reported the downing of a helicopter by a "new" air defense weapon. A few days later the same reporter had news that the "rebels" had just downed a Ukrainian fighter jet (confirmed by the Ukrainians), and then the following week I watched, on live TV, as that same reporter was overjoyed in being the first to report that supposedly, the rebels had just shot down what they thought at the time was a Ukrainian military cargo plane.

I watched him interview a rebel commander who was equally ecstatic, with smoke rising in the distance. That same commander was soon thereafter recalled back to Russia and replaced.

I took a screen shot of the Russian TV Network's webpage which posted broad headlines and uploaded a YouTube link of the event. Then in less than an hour, a frantic media "recall" of the story came across my email. As a credentialed member of the media, I and anyone else who had access was thus put on notice that LifeNews was recalling the story. That means that permission to retransmit or rebroadcast anything related to that news feed was prohibited.

LifeNews quickly changed their home page to a generic version resembling "somebody shot down a plane but we're not sure of who the hell it was," and the YouTube feed of their previously celebratory reporter and his rebel commander interview mysteriously disappeared. A few weeks later that reporter was awarded a medal at the Kremlin, along with several other reporters from LifeNews, for "heroic" reporting, although no details were given for what made him a hero other than he had been embedded in a war zone.

The Dutch investigation has concluded that it was downed by a surface to air missile (not by an air to air strike), and of course the Russian media and paid trolls promptly sprung into action to denounce the report. The report, using both local eyewitnesses and aviation and weapons experts, have determined the type of missile used, and pinpointed the area where the missile was launched (inside rebel territory). It doesn't help the Russians that the Dutch have several photos of the BUK system being transported back across the border into Russia.

The Russian version of what happened has changed more than a certain Russian defense minister probably changes his boxers, and even independent observers have found gaping holes in the Russian theories.

I was not there, but had a front row seat thanks to LifeNews. Thankfully, I was not the only one who did, and the Dutch commission has in their possession what I and others saw.

The only mystery about MH-17 is why the Russians continue to make themselves look dumb in the denials.