Brothers and sisters!
Here’s the Summary for July 24, 2014
The bad news:
1. The RNBO [National Security and Defense Council] announced today that pro-Russian insurgents prepared attacks in Sloviansk schools. In only one local school, #4, four explosive devices have been found. Other educational establishments in the city were mined as well. A lab for the production of explosives was set up by insurgents on the premises of a kindergarten.
I don’t know how to characterize Putin’s mercenaries after this. I am deeply convinced that a human being is unable to prepare the murder of children–and a massive one at that. Such a creature should be referred to as something else, but not a human being.
And yet there are those who still do not consider these creatures terrorists…
2. With all our expectations, the situation in the border areas (along the Tarany–Dmytrivka–Dolzhansky–Chervonopartyzansk and near Izvaryno) is not changing for the better. The positions of our troops are still being shelled from both sides–by the terrorists and by Russia. The supply problems, which are of utmost importance, have not been resolved yet.
We are far from alarmist sentiments, but it really is a problem that cannot be silenced. On the contrary, it must be addressed first and urgently.
3. The parliamentary coalition fell apart–the “UDAR” [Vitaly Klitschko] and “Svoboda” [Oleh Tyahnybok] factions left [the coalition]. The government led by Prime Minister Yatsenyuk resigned. Changes to the budget in the context of the ATO have not been adopted, neither has the law on combating terrorism.
And this [happened] at a time when the Ministry of Finance reports that starting from August 1, there will be no money even for payments to the servicemen in the ATO zone, and that changes in the state budget are needed right now.
I understand that early elections are vital. It is hoped that the parliamentary games will not affect the ongoing ATO.
4. The State Border Service of Ukraine reported that due to the actions of Russian border guards towards people traveling to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea from mainland Ukraine, some kilometer-long queues have been formed on the administrative border of Crimea.
Here, we really must investigate what types of citizens are so eager to go to Crimea. If these are locals frequenting mainland Ukraine, who are then returning–it’s one thing. But if it comes down to Ukrainian citizens who want to relax in occupied Crimea, it’s another.
According to our estimates, in June about 100,000 Ukrainian citizens went for a vacation to Crimea, occupied by Russians. Compared to the vast influx in past summers, it seems like a miserly amount. But considering that in this same time period, because of these same Russians, our boys are dying daily in eastern Ukraine, I think this number is unacceptable. I don’t think that even a tiny trickle of Ukrainian tourists to the peninsula should be tolerated.
In any case, the line up from the mainland to Crimea is only positive in one case–if it is a queue of armored vehicles from the Ukrainian Liberation Army. I believe this day is not far off.
The good news:
1. ATO forces are already in Lysychansk. It is premature to talk about a complete extermination of a toxic pro-Russian mold from the city, but there are no doubts that the city will soon be ours.
This is a strategic success. With the liberation of Lysychansk, an “appendix” that is conditionally controlled by insurgents, is being eliminated. This will allow the ATO forces to regroup and begin the next step of their operation.
2. In the case of the downed “Boeing,” the terrorists continue to oscillate between bravado and the instinct for self-preservation. As a result, their lies and Moscow’s lies continue to surface.
The little leader of the so-called “Vostok” battalion Alexander Hodakovsky boasted in an interview with Reuters that the rebels did in fact have a “Buk” SAM [surface-to-air missile] system. Moscow immediately dispatched an order to the babbler, after which he immediately began to disavow [the aforementioned] as such, in an interview with Russia Today propaganda TV channel, vowing that he had not done such a thing.
But, thank God Reuters is not the Russian media. Here, journalists respect themselves, and don’t change their assertions to the contrary every second because of a signal “from above.” And now, Western journalists have become indignant, [since] the agency broadcast exactly what Khodakovsky had said.
It looks like after this mishap, the “DNR” [Donetsk People’s Republic] had an ulterior motive for suddenly prohibiting journalists from working in the conflict zone (presumably, this does not include propagandists from Russian media). We also send Mr. Khodakovsky our condolences. We shudder in anticipation of the sad news of an accident he will find himself in. The FSB does not like talkative fools, but what should [they] do if there is no one else at hand…
3. The Head of the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian Parliament] announced the dissolution of the Communist Party faction in Parliament. At the same time, it became known that the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Security Service of Ukraine had initiated 308 criminal proceedings against members of the Communist Party in connection with the support of the annexation of Crimea and for aiding and abetting the “DNR” and “LNR” [Luhansk People’s Republic] terrorists.
I don’t want to jinx it, but it looks as if we are finally breaking with the insane Communist past. That is the thing that would not allow the country to adequately develop for 23 years in a row.
We wish the European “left,” who are trying to stand up for the Ukrainian Communists, not to be such a “fifth column” in their own countries in an hour of sorrow, which is what the Communist Party is in Ukraine. No one likes traitors and collaborators anywhere. Even in peacetime, a normal political opposition should spur the government to move forward, and not to drag it back into the past tooth and nail, and in the direction of the neighboring Soviet empire at that.
