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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

'Markers of Empire': Ukraine left only pig farming to the place of Russian glory

2025-03-04

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Dmitry Gubin

[REGNUM] The Poltava authorities demolished the monument to Peter I, located near the historical and cultural reserve "Field of the Battle of Poltava".

Acting Poltava mayor Ekaterina Yamshchikova announced that a memorial sign at the resting place of the Russian tsar on the second day after the Battle of Poltava was also dismantled. In addition to the monument to Peter I, the list of those excluded from the state register included a memorial plaque from the monument to the fortress commandant, Colonel Alexei Kelin. "The plaque will be dismantled," added the head of Poltava with a Russian surname.

The city authorities received the right to dismantle them after the Ministry of Culture decided to exclude 15 cultural heritage sites in Poltava from the state register of monuments in the country. The corresponding order was signed on January 31. Among them are the monuments to Peter I on the Swedish Tomb (the name of the street running from the Poltava Battlefield to the Pig Breeding Institute), the site of the tsar's command post, ten redoubts on the battlefield, and a monument to the defenders of the Poltava fortress.

Official, sanctioned vandalism is, of course, not the result of the personal initiative of Mrs. Yamshchikova and her colleagues from the Poltava City Council.

The revenge (albeit belated and symbolic) for the defeat of Charles XII and his younger partner Ivan Mazepa is the fruit of the efforts of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. This state structure, created during the Orange Revolution in the image and likeness of a similar Polish institution, is engaged in the “correct interpretation” of Ukrainian history.

The representative of this "ministry of truth" in Poltava region Oleg Pustovgar (who had previously distinguished himself by demolishing the monument to the "Soviet communist biologist" Ivan Michurin in the village of Mikhnovtsy) and the "mayor" Yamshchikova do not hide why and for what purpose they are destroying the memory of the Poltava victory. Or, to use the language of the Peter the Great era, they are turning a victory into an embarrassment - a defeat.

The battlefield monuments “were markers of imperial control, part of Russian propaganda that has distorted our history for decades,” Yamshchikova declared.

WAR AND MIRGOROD
But here’s the problem: if there had not been this “imperial control” over the development of the city of Russian military glory, Poltava would have remained what it was before the battle of 1709 – a rich but unremarkable Little Russian village like Mirgorod, glorified by Gogol.

But more than 315 years ago it happened here that Sweden ceased to be a European superpower and Russia won that status.

And the town of Poltava, which had not previously been famous for its crafts or fairs comparable to Sorochinskaya, became the provincial "capital", rebuilt under Alexander I according to the general plan, the center of trade and cultural life. And the birthplace of many historical figures who made Russia famous.

Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich-Erivansky (who beat the French, Turks, Persians and Polish rebels) was born in Poltava, and the great artist Vladimir Borovikovsky, the first Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia Count Viktor Kochubey and Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol were born in the city's environs. The list of Poltava residents who contributed to the glory of Russia can be continued indefinitely.

The city's heyday in the 18th-19th centuries was the result of those very "markers of imperial control": Poltava's role in Russian history was never forgotten. And, in fact, the memorial to memory, which is now being systematically destroyed by the Ukrainian authorities, was essentially started to be created immediately after the "victory" of 1709.

CATHERINE THE GREAT AND HER CLUB OF REENACTORS
After the battle, a funeral for the dead took place near the village of Yakovtsy, and Tsar Peter himself erected a wooden cross on the mound.

And in June 1787, perhaps the first large-scale battle reconstruction in Russian history took place on the Poltava field.

Empress Catherine, honoring her great predecessor (remember the Latin inscription on the Bronze Horseman: Petro Primo - Catharina Secunda, "To Peter the Great - Catherine the Second"), ordered that the course of the battle be reproduced as accurately as possible and personally honored this performance with her presence.

The following were involved: 70 cavalry squadrons, four grenadier infantry battalions and four jaeger battalions. “The entire army, with 40 field artillery guns, attacked the enemy presented before them, and in all movements demonstrated perfect organization and commendable efficiency,” it was recorded in the Chamberlain’s Journal.

"The Battle of Poltava appeared before us," wrote Count Segur in his diary, "in a living, moving, animated picture, close to reality. The Russian army was divided into two halves, one of which occupied the Russian trenches, the other the Swedish redoubts. By order of Potemkin, all these maneuvers were carried out in an extremely harmonious, clear and quick manner before the eyes of the Tsarina, which could depict to us a semblance of this decisive battle."

Prince de Ligne wrote down the phrase of the Empress Mother, which is still relevant today: "Look at what the fate of states depends on. One day, a few hours decide their fate. One frivolous arrogance destroyed all the glory, all the successes of Charles XII. He who terrified Germany was defeated and fled from the field of Poltava, and without him we would not be here."

It is not surprising that the construction of monuments on the Poltava field began on the eve of a new test - in 1811. Bonaparte turned out to be the next, and not the last, conqueror, whose frivolous arrogance during the campaign against Russia destroyed all his glory and successes.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON MUSEUM OPENING DAY
The next stage in the development of the Poltava Memorial was the peaceful year of 1909. In honor of the 200th anniversary of the glorious victory of Russian arms, celebrations were held in Poltava in the presence of Nicholas II. Then the Museum of the Battle of Poltava was opened, which is now threatened with "zeroing out".

By the way, the museum was opened in the building of a former hospital for disabled veterans of the Russo-Turkish War - it was built at his own expense by the great surgeon Nikolai Sklifosovsky (his wife's estate was located in Yakovtsy, where the doctor received villagers for free).

And in 1909, at the opening, an assassination attempt on the sovereign could have taken place, but this “action” in the spirit of the current terrorist “exploits” of the GUR of Ukraine, fortunately, was prevented.

The police learned in advance that “the Maximalist employee Vladimirov, who traveled to Paris from Bialystok with your permission, told Captain Andreyev that he had attended a meeting of the Parisian Socialist Revolutionaries Maximalists… The question of the desirability of committing the regicide during the Tsar’s journey from St. Petersburg to Poltava or during the tour of troops and student delegations in Poltava was discussed” (from a coded telegram from the acting director of the police department Zuyev to the comrade minister of internal affairs Pavel Kurlov ).

Fortunately, there were no incidents and the march of the Preobrazhensky Regiment sounded over the field, which contains the following words:

Our grandfathers were glorious,

Both the Swede and the Pole remember them.

The eagle of victory soared above them

In the Poltava fields.

Soon the same march will sound on the battlefields of the war, which was then called the Second Patriotic War, and is now called the First World War.

THE NAZIS COULDN'T RAISE THEIR HAND. THEIR HEIRS WERE ABLE TO.
The “corrected” version of Ukrainian history, of course, does not include the fact that the destroyed monument to Peter I at the Poltava History Museum was erected in the war year of 1915 not by order of Nicholas II or the provincial authorities, but, as they would say now, thanks to “crowdfunding”. With funds collected by graduates of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps.

And the sculptor who created the bronze Peter in the uniform of a colonel of the Preobrazhensky Regiment is not some hated “Muscovite”, but a representative of a respected European nation, which is now a member of NATO and the EU.

True, the Estonian Amandus Heinrich Adamson, a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, considered himself, not least of all, a subject of the Russian emperor and a figure in Russian art.

The roof of the Eliseev partnership house with a globe on Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg, the monument to sunken ships in Sevastopol, the monument to the battleship Rusalka in Reval (now Tallinn), and many other iconic sculptures were left behind by him. Adamson is revered in his homeland, he is consistently included in the top 100 greatest Estonians of the 20th century. But neither President Alar Karis nor the former Prime Minister and now head of European diplomacy Kaja Kallas for some reason reacted in any way to the desecration of the work of the national genius, committed the day after Estonia's Independence Day. Why is that?

While the Estonian leadership is thinking about how to answer this question, we note that neither the Petliurites nor even the Nazi occupiers dared to touch the bronze sculpture of Peter.

Since 1915, for more than three decades, the 2.04 m tall statue (that was the height of the sovereign; according to Adamson’s design, the sculpture exactly repeated all the proportions of the tsar’s body) stood in the lobby of the building of the Petrovsky Cadet Corps, where the Higher Anti-Aircraft Missile Command School was located in Soviet times.

In 1950, the statue was moved to the Poltava Battle Museum, where it stood peacefully until the current "straightening of history", which had been "distorted" due to "imperial control". But it will no longer be possible to replay the Poltava victory.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Putin says the tragedy of Ukraine began with a coup d'etat

2024-06-06

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
The guy they dumped was a Russian puppet. I think that was the "Orange Revolution." Then they held (kinda honest) elections. Zelensky was a comedian before becoming president.
[Regnum] In the West they often say that Russia started the conflict in Ukraine, but no one in the West likes to remember how the tragedy of this country began, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 5 in St. Petersburg at a meeting with the heads of international news agencies.

The conflict began with the anti-constitutional coup that took place in Ukraine in 2014, the president emphasized. The United States provoked the seizure of power in Ukraine through unconstitutional means, he noted.

“Everyone believes that Russia started a war on Ukraine. But no one - I want to emphasize this - no one in the West, in Europe, wants to remember how this tragedy began. It began with a coup d'etat in Ukraine - an unconstitutional coup d'etat. This is the beginning of the war,” Putin noted.

After 2014, Russia made every possible attempt to resolve the conflict peacefully, but, as Western politicians later confirmed, they did not intend to implement the Minsk peace agreements, the president recalled. Russia was “simply led by the nose,” Putin said.
Like a bullying husband standing over his beaten bloody wife: "Look what you made me do!"
The meeting of the president with agency heads took place on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which takes place from June 5 to 8, 2024. The main topic will be “The basis of a multipolar world—the formation of new growth points.” Advisor to the President, Executive Secretary of the SPIEF Organizing Committee Anton Kobyakov reported on May 31 that 136 countries and territories have confirmed their participation in SPIEF.

Russia notes a significant change in global conditions and stands for business cooperation based on law and on mutually beneficial conditions, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on June 5, answering the question about the ideology of the forum in 2024.

More from regnum.ru
The US must stop supplying Ukraine with weapons, the conflict will end - Putin

The US authorities must stop supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime, and in this case the conflict will end in 2-3 months. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering a corresponding question from the editor-in-chief of the news service for Europe and Africa of the AR (USA) James Jordan on June 5 during a meeting with the heads of international news agencies.

The Russian leader said that in response to a letter from American President Joe Biden, he wrote some time ago that if the United States wants to stop hostilities in Ukraine, they should stop supplying weapons.

“The actions will cease within two, maximum three, months. That’s all,” Putin explained, adding that his opinion on this issue has not changed.

As Regnum reported, the Russian military destroyed a truck carrying Western missiles for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in early June in the Nikolaev region, reported Sergei Lebedev, a representative of the pro-Russian underground, on June 5.

Russia's losses during the conflict in Ukraine are several times less than the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin said on June 5 at a meeting with the heads of world news agencies.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian troops destroyed warehouses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces group “Khortitsa” and militants of the “Foreign Legion”, and also hit a storage site for unmanned boats, said the official representative of the department, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

The road is not going there. Five myths about the 'Holy Maidan'

2023-11-22

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Denis Davydov

[REGNUM] The “Revolution of Dignity”, which, by an interesting coincidence, began in 2013 on the same day as the “Orange Revolution” of 2004, was carefully constructed as a myth from the first days. Going down in history as “Euromaidan”, it is presented by Ukrainian propagandists as the pure will of the people who have chosen the European path of development and joining Western civilization.

Ten years later, the Ukrainian people joined the European Union only individually or in groups, leaving the territory of the country, and the main success of the Maidan was the return of Crimea to Russia, the emergence of the DPR and LPR, and then the entry into the Russian Federation of four new territories at once. Having launched an internal and then an external war under the slogans of freedom and democracy, the “Eurorevolution” turned Ukraine into a huge space of unfreedom. In fact, all the public goals of the Maidan were achieved exactly the opposite.

However, the story about “the struggle of Ukrainians for the values inherent in our genetics - will, freedom, historical and cultural memory, life without a yoke” continues to be told according to standard templates. Which are easily broken by facts.

1. Maidan began spontaneously as a peaceful protest
The pumping up of society has been systematically carried out almost since the change of the “orange” government to the “blue and white” one. Thus, from November to December 2010, mass rallies and demonstrations of the “Tax Maidan” were held in the largest cities of Ukraine with the installation of tent cities. On August 5, 2011 , tents were also erected on Khreshchatyk as a sign of protest against the arrest of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko , which stood for almost two years.

In the summer of 2012, thousands of people protested against the law “On the Fundamentals of State Language Policy,” which gave the Russian language regional status in 13 regions. And in November, the United Opposition demanded the resignation of the government at rallies of many thousands against the falsification of the parliamentary election results. In April 2013, in Kyiv, at the monument to Taras Shevchenko, opposition forces gathered a crowd for the “Get Up, Ukraine!” action, also demanding the resignation of the government.

In July–August, “actions of popular disobedience” swept across Ukraine in connection with the events in Vradievka, Nikolaev region, where police officers raped a woman. The “Vradievsky March” went to Kyiv and was covered by almost all major television channels in the country.

After Mustafa Nayem’s famous post on November 21 about “umbrellas and good mood,” the protest was instantly organized everywhere. That same evening, residents of Lvov, Lutsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Uzhgorod, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnitsa came out to the squares of their cities. On the night of November 22 and in the afternoon of November 22, protests began in a dozen more regional centers.

And the first clash between demonstrators and the police happened in Kiev on November 24, 2013. After the opposition rally “For a European Ukraine,” representatives of the Western Ukrainian VO “Svoboda” tried to break through to the Cabinet of Ministers building, attacked the police cordon, throwing stones and explosives. The police responded with tear gas.

On November 26–27, activists from four right-wing radical organizations and associations of football fans formed the Right Sector* association. Under this brand, all national-radical forces that took on forceful actions were subsequently united.

On November 30, on Mikhailovskaya Square, the “Pravoseki” already organized training for everyone in the tactics of street combat with law enforcement officers. The formation of “Maidan self-defense” units began. On December 1, the radicals went to seize the building of the Kyiv City State Administration and the House of Trade Unions, and began to attack the police.

On December 2, 2013, the first attempts were made to seize the Ivano-Frankivsk and Volyn regional state administrations by force. On December 8, on Kiev’s Shevchenko Boulevard, a group of “activists” demonstratively demolished and smashed a monument to Lenin.

On December 10, Euromaidan supporters offered fierce resistance to law enforcement officers who tried to unblock government buildings by court order. Having barricaded themselves in the premises of the Kyiv City State Administration, they entered into battle, forcing the police to retreat.

On December 11, 2013, “Maidanovites” erected barricades in the center of Kyiv and also announced the resumption of picketing in the government quarter.

Thus, whatever the motives of beautiful people, the right-wing opposition initially worked to seize power.

2. Maidan stood for the European choice
At the end of November, in the center of Kyiv there were actually two Maidans - one political, the second went “for Europe” and did not want to unite with the first.

The refusal to sign the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine and the resumption of dialogue on cooperation within the Customs Union is considered the main motive for the protest. However, the majority of those who took to the streets in different cities of Ukraine did so for their own reasons. First of all, in continuation of the long-term attack of the nationalist opposition on the government.

Slogans of social justice were also heard very loudly, activists claimed that they were not for the EU and Bandera, but for “medicines for pensioners,” all the world’s media circulated photos of banners stretched on the barricades in Kiev: “Understand, we’re fed up!”

The term “Euromaidan” was first used on social networks on November 21, 2013 and immediately entered the message box for covering protests. In fact, a form of censorship was established in the media, where political vocabulary came into use through key media outlets covering the events in Kyiv.

The protesting activists should have been called “peaceful protesters”, the event as a whole - “Euromaidan”, after clashes with the Berkut and internal troops, “heroes” appeared, and then the “Heavenly Hundred”. Accordingly, the opponents were certainly “titushki” who received money for their position, “gang” is a negative characteristic of the authorities, and they were defended by vague “siloviki”. The slogan of the Maidan was Bandera’s “Glory to Ukraine!” Glory to heroes!".

Already on December 8, 2013, the term “Revolution of Hydnost” appeared, voiced from the stage of the Maidan at the “meeting” by the head of the VO “Svoboda” Oleg Tyagnibok . The informal slogan that united the protesters was “the main thing is to overthrow Yanyk, and then we’ll see.” And on November 27–28, a collection of signatures was announced for petitions to the US government on the White House website: to impose personal sanctions against Viktor Yanukovych and members of the Cabinet of Ministers and to support the people of Ukraine “in the peaceful overthrow of the current government.”

3. Maidan - a space of freedom
From beginning to end, the events in the center of Kyiv, which gave rise to the general revolution, were staged, and were not a manifestation of the free will of people. It has long been known and described in detail that the “beating of children”, which became the catalyst for the protest, was organized by the former head of the Presidential Administration, then MP from the “Opposition Bloc” Sergei Lyovochkin . The central TV channel Inter, which belonged to him, was on duty in the square and showed the “brutal beating” in as much detail as possible.

Levochkin’s direct participation, in particular, was confirmed by the ex-head of the Kiev police Valery Koryak , and in general, the organization of protests, which many agree, was the idea of the oligarchs who wanted to curb Yanukovych’s appetites. Therefore, the main media of Ukraine, which did not cover the problem with the “European course” in any way, actively fanned popular anger precisely from November 30, when Berkut dispersed the “students”. Moreover, it is still unpopular to admit that most of the “students” were older people who came from other regions, and there were few actual students.

The main information resources of the Maidan, in addition to the 5th channel of the oligarch Petro Poroshenko , were the online publication “Ukrainian Pravda” and the network television channel “Hromadske TV,” which were funded by the United States. By an amazing coincidence, Hromadske began broadcasting on November 22, 2013, funds for its maintenance were allocated as a grant by the American Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt , and the Soros Foundation and the Dutch Embassy in Kiev contributed their shares. Another mouthpiece of the Maidan was the Espresso TV channel, which began test broadcasting on November 24, 2013, right after the opposition rally.

A feature of the “revolution of dignity” was the widespread use of social networks, primarily Facebook**, which performed not only informational, but also propaganda, mobilization and emotional functions. 48% of respondents decided to take part in the Maidan after seeing it on TV.

Meanwhile, control of the disaster was almost immediately taken over by the nationalist opposition, which had been rocking power for three years. Its leaders stood on stage, made calls, led “hundreds of self-defense forces,” were responsible for supplies and led people in military actions. They were not interested in any “medicines for pensioners” or association with the EU at all.

For example, the head of all self-defense and the commandant of the Maidan became the Bandera member Andrei Parubiy , the future speaker of parliament, and from February 27, 2014 - the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. It was he who became one of the initiators of the creation of the National Guard of Ukraine, which included self-defense units and the Right Sector, which were then aimed at suppressing the rebel Donbass. And the “victory of Maidan” was eventually privatized by Petro Poroshenko, who became president.

4. Heavenly hundred
One of the main images of the Maidan myth, to which pathetic memorials are now dedicated, is the “Heavenly Hundred,” the best people who gave their lives for Ukraine. It was officially stated that all these people were killed by the criminal regime and its faithful dogs in police camouflage, 80% died from gunshot wounds.

“We call them the “great hundred”, “heavenly hundred”. They are true national heroes. We are grateful to them for their heroism,” Petro Poroshenko said in 2014 at a meeting of the US Congress. Then he received a standing ovation, and the deceased gentlemen became part of the state ideology: 105 Heroes of Ukraine and two holders of the Order of the Heavenly Hundred.

In 2019, ex-Minister of Justice Elena Lukash published from this list a selection of people whose deaths cannot be attributed to mysterious snipers: there are more than a quarter of them. 24 people died in any way possible, but not as a result of shootings in the center of Kyiv. A mentally retarded woman cut her finger and could not bear the injection of lidocaine. Many citizens died from heart failure and disease, and also committed suicide. Someone was killed in a drunken brawl or under unclear circumstances far from the Maidan. One Maidanist was run over by a truck by another Maidanist.

Four more died in other regions of the country and why they were included in the list of “heroes” is unknown. Eight people died from various types of injuries and were burned in fires. The strangest of them is Vladimir Zakharov , who is called the “elderly programmer” at the headquarters of the Party of Regions. He was actually a security officer sent to remove the hard drives from the computers. And he suffocated when the “activists” set fire to the room.

The largest group of “celestials” - 69 people - were those who died from gunshot wounds. Only from very different ones, the first victim, Sergei Nigoyan, was shot in the back with buckshot. But in general, there is enough evidence that the murder of people was one of many planned actions launched at moments when it seemed that everything was about to be decided peacefully.

5. Maidan set us on the path of development
The results of the “Revolution of Dignity” are formulated in an official document of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, the government agency responsible for the basic ideology. The first number is, of course, “dismantling the regime of V. Yanukovych,” and the seventh is the civilizational break with Russia. In addition, the abolition of Ukraine’s non-aligned status and “the beginning of reforms of the Armed Forces in order to resist Russian armed aggression” are highlighted. Far enough from social justice, isn't it?

But this, as we have already said , was the actual goal of the coup d’etat, which determined the fate of the country and its people.

The rest of the list shines with bright colors: democratization of society, ensuring the free activity of opposition forces (which have become a monopoly power); development of civil society and volunteer movement; affirmation of the irreversibility of the European vector of development of Ukraine and, of course, sweet visa-free travel.

The country launched large-scale reforms in all areas, the renewal of the political elite began, the fight against corruption, ensuring the process of European integration, de-oligarchization, decommunization. Gradual integration into the European political, legal and economic space has begun. In general, Maidan is an example of the success and sustainability of democratic transformations “for a number of countries striving for a democratic path of development.”

But all these are empty words. The bottom line is that the “victory of the Maidan” brought only war, the death of tens of thousands of people, the destruction of the economy, and Ukraine did not advance a single step in the matter of European integration. “Massive reforms” have finished off the remnants of what was created during the Soviet period, corruption has become a national way of life, and “civil society” copies the atmosphere of Berlin in 1939.

And those who stood on the Maidan have long been trying not to mention this in public.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

'End Point of Rot'. Did the Ukrainians deserve this war?

2023-08-02

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Denis Davydov

[REGNUM] The piercing post “Ukrainians deserve this war” is spreading on social networks according to all the laws of the Internet sensation. The author of these words, a public figure, a political activist, a fighter for the preservation of cultural heritage and the head of the Omriyana Ukraina (Ukraine of Dreams) foundation, Oleksiy Tolkachev, immediately stated that he was ready for anything and, in principle, his life could now turn in any direction. However, he nevertheless decided to speak out about the sore point: to characterize Ukrainian society, which, obviously, he considers from top to bottom, as was always the case with the intelligentsia.

Removal of the Soviet coat of arms from the Motherland monument in Kyiv
And this characterization is extremely unattractive.

“We have a cult of hate. Each nonentity willingly asserts itself, humiliating and insulting others. <…> We have a toxic social environment. They won't support it, they'll trample it. Propose an idea - 80% will say that the idea is crap, and they know better. War is the result of our collective moral degradation. The end point of our rot,” Tolkachov mercilessly whips the reader and pours out examples.

As a truck driver who transported metal to restore a historic estate, he stole up to 20% of the cargo. As at a confidence seminar for activists of the future "Orange Revolution", young fighters against Kuchmism stole money from each other. How representatives of the European Association of Ukrainians stifled a bribe so as not to interfere with the project of dressing Manneken Pis in Brussels in vyshyvanka in honor of Ukraine's Independence Day.

Finally, our dreamer complains about a family that suffered from the war, who had a house built in the Kyiv region, and they spat on the benefactors and accused them of profiting from them.

As a result, Alexei says, the war became a kick for a society that does not want to think about how it lives. And basically it is not going to even with an eye to the new circumstances, which are the natural result of "our 30 years of mismanagement, negligence, selfishness, thieving, moral degradation and rot" .

“We asked for a country that in 1991, at the level of GDP, was only five to seven times inferior to China. All pierced, all lowered, plundered, destroyed. Nothing and no one was appreciated. Why is it so? Because “grab yourself”, selfishness, cunning @ post, “us @ t for all” have become the moral creed of our people,” concludes Tolkachev.

He is echoed by the penultimate intellectual Aleksey Arestovich, who also always liked to ride through cultural and linguistic politics and the political myth of dividing and destroying. “We just did everything to start the war. We acted like food in the outer arena, and we eat each other in the inner. Now we are taught war. We will not learn, they will eat up. And we will finish it - with a full spoon.

The conclusions from all this, of course, are wrong.

Like, the best people of the country will take out the war, the country will be cleansed of all kinds of rot, and we will live like in Europe. In general, a very widespread opinion among the very creative intelligentsia and part of the business, counting on the fact that a deep crisis is a breeding ground for the beautiful and the right.

This is where even such utopian initiatives as the "Revival of Mariupol", presented with the support of American funds and the business of the oligarch Akhmetov last year, appear. Or the futuristic project of turning the village of Posad-Pokrovsky in the Kherson region into a "garden city", created at the initiative of government agencies by a private architectural bureau. Who interfered with doing this before is a rhetorical question.

It's just that in the "civilizational, ideological conflict" Ukraine always appears to be the exact opposite of Russia. The territory of goodness, love, freedom and the desire for prosperity in the most correct, European style, which is what such movements are intended to demonstrate.

The fact that this does not correspond to reality at all and contradicts life itself, where antonyms are in the indicated list, is no longer important. Because if you go to the end in speaking the truth, then quite naturally the very meaning of any struggle, suffering and sacrifice is lost. Because it is clear who to fight against, but it is completely incomprehensible - for what.

The most obvious and most common answer is “for their land” and their home, which needs to be protected.

But is there any point in suffering like this if the land no longer belongs to you, and the house stands in the middle of a poisoned desert? When there is an awareness that you are suffering here and losing friends, and someone is making money on this. And at the same time he sells your belongings, because you have already been written off as a consumable like toilet paper. That the war does not lead to any "purification" and to any "justice", since even the division into a titular nation and all sorts of trash does not go anywhere. How does the external administration, which has turned Ukraine into a kamikaze drone, not disappear. How do those habits that irritate Tolkachev so much stay in their place.

It's just that the whole essence of "freedom", which is declared in Ukraine, is only two basic conditions.

The first is a return to that point of development, to the natural form, from which the people were pulled out by force and forced to live differently: to wash, wear a tie and build spaceships. The Ukrainians, having got rid of the horrors of the “scoop”, fell into the 17th century with relief. The quasi-power of Bogdan Khmelnytsky is the peak of state development, which Ukrainians reached on their own. Consequently, the further creation of the nation without compulsion to industrialization and new technological structures should come from this point. Otherwise, real evolution is simply impossible.

Therefore, in the socio-political sphere, in interpersonal relations, with some amendments, now are the glorious times of the Ruin, where the Cossacks are at war, the buckwheat growers are moaning, and the elders and noblemen are rushing about in search of a kinder owner.

And for a territory where there has never been any kind of understandable stability (with the exception of the Soviet period), stealing and escaping is a completely normal life strategy. Man is an enemy to man, and you need to live right now, no one knows tomorrow. A neighbor is a competitor, you need to have time to steal before him and spit in his well. "Don't live well, don't make people angry."

By the way, the chilling cruelty of the Ukrainian army is also explained by the level of development of consciousness. It is for a modern person that the perverted torture of prisoners and the looting of houses look terrible. For a person of the 17th century, this is the norm.

The second basic state is the historical revenge of Galicia, built on old grievances and the desire to take revenge, to win retroactively.

Since the whole political life fluctuated between the Soviet and Bandera ideology, after the disappearance of the former, everyone is paying for the complexes of the Galicians. This surge of passions, as the scientist Lev Gumilyov argued, is, in principle, a common thing in the history of peoples who suddenly began to hyperactively change the landscape around them, the sphere of activity, and the old foundations.

Only in the Ukrainian case, the passionites-Galicians forced everyone else to destroy the foundations and give their lives for their ideal of Ukraine, who were not actually going to give it up. That is why a warm, lamp totalitarianism has been established in the country, in which one can criticize laziness and the vices of society a little, but only in a positive way: we are moving in the right direction anyway. It is already categorically forbidden to criticize this direction, from where the "unity of the nation" so admiring some exalted Russians comes from. Although it is still simple: if you are not united, they will crush you like a bug.

And war is not really "the highest point of our rot", but a completely natural state for a society that simply does not see other goals and is unable to formulate them.

In Ukraine, there were enough intelligent people who offered reasonable and profitable scenarios in which the country would earn and develop. But these were people of the 20th century, a product of Soviet upbringing: internationalism, technical thinking, the priority of the public over the personal. They were never heard of, always voting for the loud-mouthed and handsome buckwheat-handlers who were cursed for cheating and stealing almost the day after the election.

Now these people are not seen and not heard. And the daily destruction of the Soviet heritage does not really bother the rest. After all, this only brings Ukraine closer to the ideal, sung by Taras Shevchenko :

"A garden of cherry kolo hati,
Khrushchi hum over cherries,
Ploughmen go with plows ... "

This is the true "Ukraine of the Dream", the unspoken dream. So in the end, the right end to a difficult period will be to bring the Ukrainian reality in line with the dream.

Everyone must decide on a large, open referendum or through suffering: who goes to Europe (personally or together with their territory), who goes to Russia, and who will remain on the historical Ukrainian lands of the 17th century without electricity, running water, asphalt and "stinking soviet factories" . Develop start-ups, cherish the language, build your own, truly Ukrainian, without the instructions of neighbors.

I hope this simple and effective formula will find its grateful reader who is looking for answers to complex questions of life.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Russian Perspective: Operation to denazify Ukraine: operational summary July 21 (updated)

2023-07-22

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Kindly note that several entries in this article may have been removed because they included discussions of the grand strategic level.
[NewsFrontInfo] 21:43 Artillery finished off APU tank blown up by a mine

20:03 Personnel destruction of the assault group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with precision-guided munitions

A high-precision munition was aimed at the identified group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, secretly advancing towards the positions of Russian military personnel. As a result of the blow, the enemy was destroyed.

18:59 An air raid alert was announced in the evening in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine. This is evidenced by the data of the official resource for alerting the population.

17:44 The RF Armed Forces killed more than 30 people and nine pickup trucks in the Zaporozhye direction. This was reported to TASS by the commander of the Storm Z battalion with the call sign Ali.

“As a result of well-coordinated work <...> in the Vasilyevsky district, a reconnaissance group of 30 people of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and 9 enemy pickups was discovered and destroyed,” the fighter said.

17:43 Airborne assault units captured enemy fortifications in the forest

17:00 MLRS inflicted powerful strikes against Ukrainian militants in the Kupyansk direction

Crews of "Tornado-G" day after day strike at the equipment and positions of the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

16:59 RF Armed Forces worked out positions of Ukrainian militants with rockets from the Grad MLRS

15:46 Loitering ammunition "Lancet" says hello to the Ukrainian air defense system "Osa"

15:46 Personnel18+!

Soldiers of the 291st Regiment defeated a detachment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine while trying to attack the Russian Armed Forces in the Zaporozhye direction.

14:38 The main thing from the new briefing of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation:

🔹At night, the RF Armed Forces delivered a strike with sea-based long-range high-precision weapons at facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared using strike unmanned aerial vehicles. The target has been reached. All assigned objects are hit.

🔹In the Donetsk direction, up to 185 Ukrainian soldiers, three armored combat vehicles, as well as 152mm D-20 and 122mm D-30 howitzers were destroyed in a day.

🔹In the Krasnolimansky direction, the enemy’s losses amounted to more than a hundred Ukrainian soldiers, one tank, four armored combat vehicles, and two howitzers: 152mm D-20 and 122mm D-30.

🔹More than 175 Ukrainian soldiers, three armored combat vehicles, two 152mm D-20 howitzers, as well as an AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery radar were destroyed in the South-Donetsk direction.

🔹More than 175 Ukrainian soldiers, three armored combat vehicles, two D-20 howitzers, as well as an AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery radar were liquidated in the Zaporozhye direction.

🔹Up to 30 Ukrainian soldiers, two armored combat vehicles, 152mm Msta-B and 152mm D-20 howitzers, two 122mm D-30 guns, and an AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar were destroyed in the Kupyansk direction.

🔹In the Kherson direction, up to 35 Ukrainian soldiers were destroyed, as well as an AN/TPQ-36 counterbattery radar.

🔹Air defense systems intercepted 16 HIMARS MLRS rockets and 14 UAVs.

13:13 Russian artillery covered launch point for Ukrainian drones

The enemy object was discovered by the operators of the reconnaissance drone of the Sparta battalion.

Artillerymen of the 1453rd Motorized Rifle Regiment were involved in hitting the target, hitting the launch point with well-aimed fire.

12:25 Alleged personnel consequences of a missile attack on Odessa

According to unconfirmed reports, the bridge in Zatoka, which is supplying the southern group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was hit. We are waiting for official comments.

12:24 Russian Armed Forces launched a missile attack on the object of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Chernihiv region

The missile flew at the location of the manpower of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Personnel objects are published on the web.

11:20 Onyx missile strike in Ukraine: explosions thundered in the Odessa, Nikolaev and Chernihiv regions.

Coastal missile systems have just hit Ukrainian targets. Before the explosions, launches of Onyx supersonic anti-ship missiles from Crimea were recorded, according to Ukrainian resources.

11:18 Soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine demonstrates destroyed armored car "Cossack"

11:17 Launches of Onyx supersonic anti-ship missiles have been recorded in the direction of the Odessa region, the Air Force of Ukraine reports.

11:16 Results of defeat of the position of a 120mm mortar of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near the village of Pervomayskoye in the Kherson region.

11:15 An air alert has been declared in the Odessa, Nikolaev and Cherkasy regions of Ukraine

Explosions are also reported in the Chernihiv region.

11:15 An air alert has been declared in Kyiv and the region. Missile alert

10:24 For the past day:

As a result of fire damage by formations of the Dnepr group of troops in the island zone, the following were destroyed:

- the point of temporary deployment of one of the subdivisions of the VFU in the area of the settlement was destroyed. Ochakov, the losses of the enemy amounted to: 12 militants were destroyed, eight were injured of varying severity.

- the warehouse with ammunition of the VFU unit in the village of Velitenskoye
- 120mm mortar crew and ammunition for it, losses: five VFU militants were destroyed, three were injured of varying severity in the area of the settlement. Velitenskoye.

As a result of fire damage by formations of the Dnepr group of troops in the Kherson direction, the following were destroyed:

- the position of the armed formations of Ukraine in the area of about. Alekseevsky, losses: 7 VFU militants destroyed; nine - received injuries of varying severity

- 120 mm mortar crew and ammunition for it, losses: four VFU militants were destroyed, three were injured of varying severity in the area of the settlement. Antonovka.

As a result of fire damage by formations of the Dnepr grouping of troops in the Kakhovka direction, the following were destroyed:

- the position of the armed formations of Ukraine in the areas of the settlement. Mikhailovka, losses: Six VFU militants destroyed; three - received injuries of varying severity.

09:30 Consequences one of the arrivals in the Odessa region. The destruction of Ukraine's port infrastructure continues.

09:24 In the Artyomovsky direction, a militant of the 3rd brigade "Azov" (recognized as terrorist and banned in the Russian Federation) Sergey Matvienko was eliminated. A Poltava Banderite from UNA-UNSO (a nationalist organization banned in Russia) participated in the Orange Revolution. After the SVO, he signed up as a volunteer in the territorial defense, from where he transferred to the Azov.

09:20 Soldiers of the 80th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade in the Kherson direction shot down over their positions Bayraktar from the Igla MANPADS.

09:15 During the NWO eliminated Deputy battalion commander of the 92nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Major Igor Polyakov. Veteran of the so-called ATO, participated in the punitive operation in Donbass since 2015.

09:05 Tankers of the 1st Slavic Brigade struck at enemy gathering place.

In the Avdievka direction, aerial reconnaissance of the tank battalion of the 1st Slavic Brigade of the 1st Donetsk Army Corps detected a concentration of personnel and vehicles in the Avdievka direction. With well-aimed tank fire from a closed position, the target was hit, the enemy suffered losses and hastily retreated.

08:42 Video hit by an artillery shell on an armored car with militants of the foreign legion, as a result of which the Scottish mercenary Adam Wilson was wounded.

08:20 In the Artyomovsk area eliminated commander of the national battalion "Carpathian Sich" Anatoly Tegza with the call sign Varvar.

07:50 Soldiers of the 1st MSB of the 429th Regiment are destroying the enemy from hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers on the southern outskirts of the village of Malye Shcherbaki of the Zaporozhye Front -video.

05:28 Another rocket arrival was recorded in the Odessa region.

04:01 An air raid alert sounds in five regions in eastern Ukraine, as well as in parts of the Zaporozhye region and the DPR controlled by Kyiv.

03:58 Missile attack on the Odessa region. Two explosions are reported, the air raid alarm went off late.

03:08 Russian fighters continue denazification. Roman Nikolaevich Pelyukh, born in 2002 A native of the village of Andreevka, Kharkov region.Liquidatedas a result of a mortar attack. He served as a rifleman of the 2nd operational platoon of the 3rd company of the 1st battalion.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Yulia Tymoshenko tests positive for coronavirus, ex-PM in ‘serious condition' as Ukraine struggles with big rise in infections

2020-08-24

[RT] Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is struggling with a fever after testing positive for coronavirus. The country has seen an upswing in new Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.

The news was confirmed by Tymoshenko’s spokesperson, Marina Soroka. "Yes, unfortunately, it is true. The test showed that Yulia has Covid-19. Her condition was identified as serious. Her temperature reached 39 Celsius," she wrote on social media.

Tymoshenko briefly served as prime minister in 2005 and later held the same office from 2007-2010, as well as running for president three times. She currently leads the opposition Fatherland (Batkivshchyna) party in Ukraine’s parliament.
[You may recall the "Orange Revolution".]
The news comes as officials are battling to contain a rise in coronavirus infections in the country. A total of 1,987 new cases and 27 deaths were reported on Sunday. They include 306 cases in Ukraine’s capital Kiev on Sunday, where 18 new patients were children.

[Former boxer] Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that the city has "never" seen such a big daily increase in Covid-19 patients in a single day. He also noted a surge of people requiring urgent treatment, as 56 patients were hospitalized.

President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Friday that if the tide is not turned soon, it could overwhelm the healthcare system."We already have a wave of 2000 [new cases] per day. It is very dangerous. We cannot repurpose all hospitals. So the increase of patients will just shut down the healthcare system completely, and the state will be unable to do anything," he said.

Nearly 105,000 people had been infected in Ukraine since the start of the outbreak, 2,271 have died.

Link

Europe

Ukraine's Tymoshenko in Berlin Hospital

2014-03-09

[An Nahar] Ukraine's former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, has arrived in Berlin for medical treatment, a hospital official said Saturday.

The face of the pro-Western Orange Revolution in 2004, who suffers from herniated discs, started medical examinations on Saturday morning, said Karl-Max Einhaupl, director of the Charite University Hospital, Berlin. No decision on whether she will need an operation has yet been taken, Einhaupl added.

"Tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday, we will continue our diagnosis to see what can be done," he said during a televised presser.

He stressed that it was impossible to predict how long Tymoshenko will remain in care, stressing that the hernias caused her "severe pain".

"We have confidence that she will be able to walk freely again," he said.

Tymoshenko, 53, was freed from prison on February 23, having served three years of a seven year sentence for abuse of power, charges she always denied. Immediately after her release, she appeared in a wheelchair in Kiev's Independence Square to address protesters in Ukraine's capital.

Tymoshenko's relationship with the Berlin hospital goes back several years. A team of its doctors were given permission to examine her in April 2012 while she was imprisoned, although their recommendation to treat her in Germany was never accepted by Kiev.

Link

Europe

Ukraine mobilizes army, loses part of its navy

2014-03-03

Long article at Yahoo that I edited heavily to the key bits.

Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine warned Sunday it was on the brink of disaster and called up military reservists after Russia's threat to invade its Western-leaning neighbour risked sparking the worst crisis since the Cold War.

Ukraine's new Western-backed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk -- in power for just a week following the overthrow of a pro-Russian regime -- also warned that any invasion "would mean war and the end of all relations between the two countries."

"We are on the brink of a disaster," Yatsenyuk told the nation of 46 million in a televised address.

Pro-Moscow gunmen who are widely believed to be acting under Kremlin orders intensified their control Sunday over large swathes of a strategic peninsula that has housed Russian navies since the 18th century. Witnesses said Russian soldiers had moved out of their bases and blocked about 400 Ukrainian marines in the eastern port city of Feodosiya. AFP reporters saw a similar presence of troops outside a Ukrainian military installation near the Crimean capital Simferopol and other locations.

But the biggest blow to the new Kiev leaders came when Ukrainian Navy Commander Denis Berezovsky announced a day after his appointment that he was switching allegiance to the pro-Russian authorities in Crimea after gunmen surrounded his building and cut off its electricity.

Crimea's pro-Kremlin government chief Sergiy Aksyonov -- installed in power Thursday after an armed raid on the region's government building and not recognised by Kiev -- immediately named Berezovsky as head of the peninsula's own independent navy.

Fears of Russia's first invasion of a neighbour since a brief 2008 confrontation with Georgia prompted the largely untested interim team in Kiev to put its military on full combat alert and announce the call-up of all reservists.

The vast country on the eastern edge of Europe would face a David-and-Goliath struggle should the conflict escalate. Russia's army of 845,000 soldiers could easily overwhelm Ukraine's force of 130,000 -- half of them conscripts.

Putin said it was his duty to protect ethnic Russians in Crimea and southeastern swathes of Ukraine that have ancient ties to Moscow and look on Kiev's new pro-EU leaders with disdain. Russian officials also argued they had no need to ask the UN Security Council for permission -- as Putin had demanded for any Western action in Syria -- because the wellbeing of their own citizens was at stake.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Russia during urgent talks in Brussels that its movement of troops "threatens peace and security in Europe."

German Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke ominously of preventing "a new division of Europe" while France and Britain called for negotiations between Moscow and Kiev -- either directly or through the United Nations.

What's to negotiate: "What's mine is mine, now let's talk about what you get to keep"?

Pro-Kremlin sentiments in Crimea remained in evidence Sunday amid a sea of Russian flags.

"Crimea is Russia," one elderly lady told AFP in front of a statue of Soviet founder Lenin that dominates a square next to the occupied parliament building in the regional capital Simferopol.

The mood in Kiev was radically different as about 50,000 people massed on Independence Square -- the crucible of both the latest wave of demonstrations and the 2004 Orange Revolution that first nudged Kiev on a westward path -- in protest at Putin's latest threat.

"We will not surrender," the huge crowd chanted under grey skies.

Ukraine's prime minister had assured the nation Saturday he was "convinced" Russia would not launch an offensive because Moscow realised it would put an end to relations between two neighbours with centuries of shared history.

Link

Europe

Ukraine Opposition Leader's Daughter Urges EU, U.S. Hardline

2014-02-02

[An Nahar] The daughter of jugged
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko on Saturday said attempts to negotiate with the authorities were doomed to failure, as she pressed for the West to take a harder line.

Yevgeniya Tymoshenko spoke to Agence La Belle France Presse in Kiev in a phone interview from the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany where she met with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele and Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino.

"We are calling for more radical action on the part of leaders of the democratic world," she said.

"Negotiations with (President Viktor) Yanukovych cannot be successful. We are still calling for Yanukovych's resignation and early elections."

Tymoshenko said she had explained to Western officials that protesters were not "faceless myrmidons or provocateurs" and "democratic countries should defend our struggle".

"We need to speak to the authorities from a position of power instead of trying to seek a compromise that Yanukovych will never accept," she said, in an apparent criticism of other opposition leaders who have conducted negotiations with Yanukovych.

"I will continue to fight for my mother because she is the main political prisoner of this regime.... She is now considered a more dangerous enemy than ever."

Tymoshenko was one of the leaders of the pro-democracy "Orange Revolution" in 2004 and then served as prime minister. She is in prison for abuse of power but she has dismissed this as political Dire Revenge™ by Yanukovych.

Link

Europe

Ukraine Opposition Says Ready to Pursue Talks and Tymoshenko Urges Rejecting 'Humiliating' Deal

2014-01-28

[An Nahar] Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was on Monday holding a new and previously unannounced meeting with the three main opposition leaders aimed at resolving the country's crisis, the presidency said.

Along with senior aides, Yanukovych was meeting UDAR (Punch) party leader and world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, Fatherland leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party leader Oleg Tyagnybok.

The meeting came after the country's main opposition parties said they were ready to continue talks with Yanukovych's government but warned that the patience of protesters in the streets could "snap" at any moment.

Opposition leaders said in a joint statement that they were ready to negotiate "despite an attempt by the authorities to abandon the negotiations and declare a state of emergency".

However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
Jailed Ukrainian former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko urged the opposition not to accept the "humiliating" terms of Yanukovych's deal.

"I ask the opposition leaders to categorically not accept the humiliating conditions," said the 2004 Orange Revolution co-leader, whose plight has only been raised on occasion during the current protests. "I ask all Ukrainians to go forward, not to stop and not to weaken the force of their blow on the authorities," she said in a statement on her website.

Earlier on Monday, Ukraine said the introduction of a state of emergency was not yet on the agenda after turbans seized the justice ministry in Kiev in an attack that raised concerns of a derailing of talks to ease the crisis.

The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday was due to meet to discuss concessions proposed by Yanukovych, in a highly anticipated extraordinary session that could be a make-or-break moment to resolve the standoff.

Link

Europe

Pitched Battle Turns Kiev Street into Virtual Warzone

2014-01-21

[An Nahar] In normal times, Grushevsky Street is one of the nicest avenues in Ukraine's capital Kiev. But now its cobble stones have been ripped out by demonstrators to use as weapons in their standoff with police.

Separated by twenty meters (yards) of no-man's land and protected by meters-high barricades, protesters and the Ukranian security forces are engaged in a pitched battle that has turned an area in the center of Kiev into a virtual warzone.

The protesters protect themselves behind barricades built around the burned-out wrecks of police buses torched on Sunday night.

Police stand on the upper part of Grushevsky street, forming several lines and covering themselves with their riot shields.

The festivities of the last two days have devastated a central area of the city, with one of the streets littered with used stun grenades and the wreckage of buses burned by the protesters.

The violence has shredded the years of peace that the wide boulevards of the capital had known following Ukraine's momentous 2004 Orange Revolution.

Near the recent battle scene is one of the most famous landmarks of Kiev: the stadium of the Dynamo Kiev football side named after the great Soviet and Ukrainian football coach Valeriy Lobanovsky.

On Monday some protesters managed to climb atop the stadium gate, pelting the police below with Molotov cocktails.

"We are going to stay here until our demands are met on the annulment of the laws" restricting rallies, said one demonstrator, Yaroslav Putilin, 46.

Protesters equipped themselves with ad hoc shields made of metal sheeting and wooden sticks in anticipation of further festivities with police.

Some even built a giant catapult to allow them to fling heavier rocks at the security forces.

The area echoed with the thud of stun grenades and the deafening drumming of groups of mostly elderly protesters with sticks on metal.

At one point, heavily armed riot police entered the no man's land area between the barricades to hurl the stones thrown by demonstrators back up them.

They also hurled stun grenades and on occasion used tear gas and rubber bullets against the protesters.

Police also used water cannon. With temperatures at minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), the water froze on the street, further complicating movement.

But this did not discourage the most radical Ukranians who hid right behind the barricades and emerged occasionally to lob projectiles at the security forces.

Dozens of police buses appeared behind the main contingent of the riot police Monday evening, raising the prospect they could try and boost their numbers and oust the protesters.

In a stark warning, prosecutor general Viktor Pshonka declared that the mass riots were a "crime against the state".

The main protest hub remains on Independence Square some five minutes walk away from the scene of the festivities.

The square and the adjacent Khreshchatyk street are now covered in tents erected by protesters. The smell of the smoke from the wood used to heat them hangs heavy in the air.

Link

Europe

Ukraine ruling party demands government reshuffle

2013-12-17

[Pak Daily Times] Ukraine's ruling party on Monday demanded a sweeping cabinet reshuffle, as politicians seek to defuse the country's biggest political crisis in a decade.

President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to scrap key agreements with the EU last month and then use police force against protesters sparked the largest demonstrations in the ex-Soviet country since the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution.

Yanukovych has offered a number of concessions, sacking bigwigs over police violence and announcing an amnesty for tossed in the slammer
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
protesters, in a bid to defuse the tension.

But the pro-EU opposition has dismissed these moves as half-measures. It is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, and early presidential and parliamentary elections.

"We have put forward a demand before Azarov to reformat the government by 90 percent," Anna German, a politician with Yanukovych's Regions Party, told news hounds after talks with Azarov.

"Azarov said that he will today let the position of the faction be known to the president and conclusions will certainly be made," she told news hounds after the closed-door meeting attended by the entire cabinet.

German, a former Yanukovych aide, said the resignation of Azarov was not discussed. The president's parliamentary representative, Yuriy Miroshnychenko, told news hounds "decisive steps" were needed.

"An emotional conversation based on principals was held. We have to take the decisive steps necessary to solve the problems," he said. Azarov proposed creating a working group, but the details and timing of any reshuffle had yet to be hammered out, Miroshnychenko added.

The announcement comes after the first direct talks between Yanukovych and the opposition collapsed on Friday.

Link

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