2014 Ukrainian Maidan Revolt: News, Views, Photos & Videos

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Okay If ever there was proof that the Rabble in Eastern Ukraine are not the Russian troops of Crimea I think it's here.

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the author makes a very good case. but most convincing to me is two videos he posts.
This is how the Russians In Crimea entered a police station.
[video=youtube;Sr1wxqt_3So]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr1wxqt_3So[/video]
It's loud yes but not a single shot fired. they blew through the locks and moved in at based on the time index on the video must have been 4 in the morning.
Now what about Eastern Ukraine?
under cover of Broad daylight with camera's and video everywhere
[video=youtube_share;oQfK36byhJ4]http://youtu.be/oQfK36byhJ4[/video]
They charged the stations and were Quick on the Trigger, First sign of resistence was responded to with bullets in the air. and then look at what they do they take post but it's all wrong. When the Russians did it they posted aiming out the entry point well others cleared inside the building, These guys seemed oblivious to the potential that there might have been more Police on the way.

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as subtle as a moose.
All I can think is. The Cop Car gag form American Graffiti

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But look again from the second video in east Ukraine at the way those resistant groups take security control and pointing their weapons and seems to be more discipline on their movements. Again I believe these are Russian troops, maybe not as good as the Spetsnaz in Crimea earlier but never the less more organized than your average militia. To me their body language and firing in the air (to cause noise, fear, and chaos) are just their tactics. What the video didn't show is another force probably are looking out for any police reinforcements and such. These are the assault units of the platoon you can bet their's a sniper team looking out for them and the security team does not has to be visible.

Equation said:

But look again from the second video in east Ukraine at the way those resistant groups take security control and pointing their weapons and seems to be more discipline on their movements. Again I believe these are Russian troops, maybe not as good as the Spetsnaz in Crimea earlier but never the less more organized than your average militia. To me their body language and firing in the air (to cause noise, fear, and chaos) are just their tactics. What the video didn't show is another force probably are looking out for any police reinforcements and such.

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I saw TV a group of these "pro-Russian" guys linking arms and chanting "berkut, berkut". so they are probably the policemen fired by the new Kiev regime. can't remember exactly who, someone posted in this thread that the decision to disband Berkut was a bad idea. looks like that's exactly what's happening.

I disagree, First with the Russian build up in the Crimea following the Annexation, The Professional "Green men" likely elements of GRU Spetsnaz would have been freed up to operate in Eastern Ukraine. However Putin is no fool He and the FSB and GRU would have recignized that if those same "Green men" showed up they would be ID'ed like they were when they took Crimea.
Two The Quality of gear and equipment. In Crimea they were armed with modern stuff and a mix of it to. These new Green men are raiding Police and military armories as such there stuff is Ukrainian vintage. they have a low quality mix made up of left overs, there weapons mix is no based on a modern Russian Rifle Squad but rather a AK dominate mix.
Next look at there Reactions. They are Quick to shoot, And when one of the policemen tried to talk them down they were quick to aim. There way more Aggressive, Even Cocky.
I do believe there may have been a Russian Embed or two advising and equipping the groups in the group, however there reactions are more like a gang. There discipline could be routed from the fact that Military training was until recently a requirement in the Ukraine. but overall the quality is wrong all around. My belief is that after the Crimea was secured the Russians Contacted a number of Sympathetic groups in the East of Ukrain. The Russians then selected a number of Officers to be embeded and raided the Ukrainain Army Depots now under there control in the Crimea as well as Wear housed in Russia to arm these gangs. They got them together and Organized the Pro Russian Militias.

Miragedriver said:

Ukraine crisis: Pro-Russian separatists reject Geneva deal

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Pragmatic move. Turchynov has proven thus far to be untrustworthy, not in control, and undecisive. Can't blame them really.

If this is really happening. It makes me sick to my stomach. How can this ever happen again?

Ukrainian rabbi denounces anti-semitic leaflet

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Members of the Jewish community in the pro-Russian protest hub of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine were left shaken by the distribution on Friday of tracts demanding the registration of Jews.

Concerns were evident, despite scepticism from Jewish leaders in the region and a US group fighting anti-Semitism, the Anti-Defamation League, that the pamphlets handed out in front of the synagogue on Tuesday were anything more than calculated "provocation" by unknown parties.

Bearing the stamp of the pro-Russian insurgency and signature of one its leaders, they contained a demand for every Jew to gather at the seized local administration building on May 3 to pay a fee of €36 to register or face the threat of being expelled from the region.

The incident happened as around 20 Jews were leaving the synagogue after marking the second day of the Jewish Passover festival. The three hooded men handing out the pamphlets were carrying a Russian flag and the symbol of the separatist Republic of Donetsk.

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Piotr said:

I don't know about clarification from Washington but there are rumors that Brennan was in Kiev to try to rescue US mercenaries:
"Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov revealed that CIA director John Brennan was in Kiev last weekend. One of his advisors told the newspaper Vzgliad that Brennan had not come to oversee the "anti-terrorist" operations conducted by the Ukrainian authorities, but to seek information and rescue twenty Greystone Ltd mercenaries of whom there has been no news.

The coup government in Kiev and its Western allies refer to the democratic political opposition as "terrorists".

Hundreds of mercenaries working for Greystone Ltd (a subsidiary of Academi, formerly Blackwater) have been present in the country since at least March 4 [1], operating within the regular Ukraine special forces.

After initially denying it, the White House acknowledged that Mr. Brennan had in fact visited Kiev over the weekend."
Source:

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Maybe US mercenaries defected to Donetsk People's Republic

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As I covered Before Greystone is not BlackWater, and they have denied operating in the Ukraine.

April 8, 2014, 2:29 PM CET
Security Firm Denies Involvement in Ukraine
ByLukas I. Alpert

MOSCOW—When Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned on Tuesday that Ukraine runs the risk of civil war if it uses force to disperse pro-Kremlin protesters controlling government offices, it made the curious claim that the authorities in Kiev had brought in American mercenaries to help quell the unrest.

However, the private-security service they named, Greystone Ltd., says it isn’t true.

“We do not have anyone working in Ukraine nor do we have any plans to deploy anyone to the region,” said Coreena Taylor, a Greystone representative at the company’s headquarters in Chesapeake, Va.

Russian officials have long charged Western powers with meddling in Ukraine’s affairs, but had stopped short of accusing them of playing any direct military role on the ground. There had been speculation in more conspiratorial corners of the Internet that the new pro-Western government in Kiev had brought in foreign soldiers to help consolidate control, but the Russian government had never officially leveled such a charge.

In its statement Tuesday, the ministry said it was particularly concerned that operations by Ukraine’s central government to regain control of government buildings in three eastern cities included “about 150 American experts from the private military organization ‘Greystone’ disguised as special operations soldiers from the Falcon unit (of the Ukrainian military).”

Greystone split off in 2010 from XE Services LLC, which had previously been known as Blackwater, a controversial military contracting firm that received hundreds of millions of dollars to protect U.S. officials in Iraq following the 2003 Iraq war.

In 2007, a group of contractors working for Blackwater fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 20 others in a square in Baghdad where they were providing security to U.S. State Department officials on their way to a meeting. Five of the men were charged with manslaughter and other charges in 2008 in the U.S., but the charges were later dropped on a technicality.

The incident severely strained relations between the U.S. and the Iraqi government and resulted in Blackwater’s right to work in the country being revoked. Blackwater changed its name to XE Services the following year as part of a restructuring. The firm was later sold and was renamed Academi.

Academi issued a statement in mid-March denying Internet reports that any of its employees were working in Ukraine.

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Miragedriver said:

If this is really happening. It makes me sick to my stomach. How can this ever happen again?

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Looks like a classic false flag operation to me.

If this was really an official move by the pro-Russian opposition, you would have a lot more than 3 masked guys handing out leaflets outside one synagogue.

What more, there has never even been any hint that the pro-Russian groups have any anti-Semitic ideology or tendencies. Not something one can claim about the new regime in Kiev however.

plawolf said:

Looks like a classic false flag operation to me.

If this was really an official move by the pro-Russian opposition, you would have a lot more than 3 masked guys handing out leaflets outside one synagogue.

What more, there has never even been any hint that the pro-Russian groups have any anti-Semitic ideology or tendencies. Not something one can claim about the new regime in Kiev however.

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while that's the most likely explanation, it could also be some local crazies. going back to the French Revolution, whenever you get "people power" involved, unpleasant elements also pop up.

shen said:

I saw TV a group of these "pro-Russian" guys linking arms and chanting "berkut, berkut". so they are probably the policemen fired by the new Kiev regime. can't remember exactly who, someone posted in this thread that the decision to disband Berkut was a bad idea. looks like that's exactly what's happening.

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Well it is certainly a point that I remember raising at the time, but I would not be surprised if others had mentioned it as well. In addition I did post a link to some pictures on the BBC last week, which showed Berkut officers in uniform going into the Donetsk government building.

They however are just a small number of what is being consistently reported as a constant stream of defections from all Military, Paramilitary and Police Services. Reading most of the Western media you would be forgiven for thinking they had at that point simply gone home and put their feet up.
Clearly, the reality is that these are the guys leading the main co-ordination of the revolt and will be the ones doing the heavy lifting if real fighting breaks out. A good example of what I mean was the video earlier this week of somebody doing driving tricks in one of the captured MICV's from Kramatorsk. Either the original driver had defected, or it had been surrendered to somebody who has a lot of previous experience, as I doubt any novice could go in and throw the thing about the way he did.

I think there is little argument that the guys seizing buildings in Donetsk region are mainly professional or ex professional military, but made up of local defectors or volunteers, rather than Russian Federation Regulars.
One of the big differences I can see, is that although these are professionals, they are not established formations, with a clear chain of command and officer/nco structure. These units will be cobbled together from a variety of services, with little chance of any group above squad level having served together previously. I also suspect a shortage of field officers.

What they lack in structure and proper order, they do however make up for in morale and in that sense, present the precise opposite of the Ukrainian forces which have been sent against them.

The synagogue letters are so obviously a set up, you need to be an accredited Western journalist to believe in it.

Thank you also to Piotr for your reply re Mr Brennon. It would be a tall order not to believe that the US has no private contractors operating in Ukraine, irrespective of whatever any corporate website may or may not claim. It would a jump though to claim that any such were involved in combat operations. Maybe they would just be there to act as advisor's. Maybe they are simply handing out leaflets.

Sapan to be blunt, This PMC line is at best Bogus. It's the Russian's trying to discredit the Ukrainians and The US like the Guest Roles of People who tell of being German spies sent to the Ukraine with 50 mercs and brief casses full of Euro's.
First Problem with this Story, Where are they?
Iraq and Afghanistan American and Western PMCs were Everywhere. And you can tell, They Don't dress like the local population and even when they do they would still stand out because of Tactical gear, They Don't dress like the local troops either as these guys are not beholden to the same regulations and if they did it would be a huge issue with the Geneva convention.
They should stick out. guys in modern Tactical armor not the surplus USSR stuff. So then where are photos of guys who are way out of the norm. I mean Russian Intelligence basically has a back door into Kiev's Military, Intelligence and security services ( I mean Five minutes after Brennon landed it was on the Voice of Russia website), Russian Press is all over the Ukraine right? So where are the photos? All we have is the word of The Russian Press. Now we know Brennon was there over the weekend, but for what? most likely the Obama Admin giving the Kiev government a heads up on what they planed to do in Geneva.

Next problem, Assuming they are there for What?
First Claim I heard was they were Disguised as Ukrainian Police, To intimidate and force the Pro Russian back into a corner.
That's highly Dubious And questionable in terms of Legality. second if it's true it's failed miserably. PMC's are cheap compared to standing armies, but that's because they don't maintain the same scale as a standing army nor do they do the same things A standing army does the Contractors they hire are normally Graded based on a Scale of Professionals and they are looking for people who have the skills. this makes there pay very high and means that the company is not willing to risk there lives recklessly. When they Come in They bring the Toys to do the Job. The Security we have seen around the police stations and government buildings in Eastern Ukraine thus far seems more a wet paper bag, And we have not seen any sudden Shock riots broken. so that version of events seems pretty well shot.

The Second version is that they were deployed to Train the locals The Voice of Russia Calls "Terrorist". meaning the Official Ukrainian defense and Security services.
Do you know How long it takes to properly train a combat soldier? You can pump out a basic trainee in about 6 months to a year but for combat troops? It takes years. The Ukrainian armed forces have shown little in the way of Capacity. That's a product not only of weak training but of poor Logistics. It could take years of Work to get a competent fighting force out of them, And that would require Real investment. The Story is intended to make it a real fear. that new Well trained forces would suddenly emerge and strike at the heart of Eastern and Southern Ukraine. It's dubious.

That is of course not dismissing Private contractors being in Ukraine out of hand. It's likely there are some.
Where You Ask would they be? Driving the Oligarchs cars, Escorting them in and out of there homes and buildings. Guarding there Property.