Odessa Massacre Pushes Ukraine to the Edge
TWO ANALYSES
Western headlines have attempted to spin into ambiguity the death of over 30 anti-fascist Ukrainian protesters cornered and burned to death in the Trade Unions House in the southern port city of Odessa. The arson was carried out by Neo-Nazi mobs loyal to the unelected regime now occupying Kiev.
Both the London Guardian and the BBC attempted in their coverage to make the perpetrators and circumstances as ambiguous as possible before revealing paragraphs down that pro-regime mobs had indeed torched the building. And even still, the Western press has attempted to omit the presence of Right Sector, the militant wing of the current regime charged with carrying out political intimidation and violence against Kiev’s opponents.
Odessa, north of pro-Russian Crimea, and far west of where clashes are now taking place in eastern Ukraine, has also been a point of contention between Kiev and Ukrainians who refuse to recognize the unelected regime’s authority.
Right Sector, a Neo-Nazi militant group who spearheaded the so-called “Euromaidan” protests, has been visibly operating in Odessa in recent weeks. It’s primary role has been to attack and intimidate political opponents planning to run in upcoming elections. It was therefore already present an well established in Odessa ahead of the attack on the Trade Unions House resulting in dozens of deaths in a single day, and as part of a wider campaign to put down multiplying unrest erupting across the country.
Right Sector can be identified by its members openly wearing Nazi insignia, as well as carrying crimson and black banners. Mobs supporting the Svoboda party are also present among recent clashes, wearing yellow armbands with the Nazi wolfangel symbol upon them.
The video below gives a sense of what these clashes were like.
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For NATO – War or Nothing?
The clashes in Odessa in the south and Slavyansk in the east, appear to some to be part of an escalating conflict meant to lure neighboring Russia into a direct conflict with the NATO-backed regime in Kiev. While this is possible, a repeat of the 2008 Georgia-South Ossetia War would most likely take place, with superior Russian forces quickly overwhelming Ukrainian troops and leaving Kiev vulnerable to inevitable regime change.
Immensely unpopular and wholly illegitimate, the regime in Kiev stands little chance in any upcoming election. It is also faced with the self-imposed economic ruination of Ukraine, after willfully accepting IMF conditions which include crippling austerity measures that will only further diminish the regime’s support and stability.
With a socioeconomically hobbled Ukraine still reeling from the loss of Crimea, the “Ukraine” the US and EU had invested in through their “Euromaidan” putsch, no longer exists. With anti-fascist, pro-Russian sentiment running high across what remains of Ukraine (and around the world), and an unpopular regime teetering precariously in Kiev, the West appears instead, intent on burning the country rather than leave it a stable and beneficial neighbor for Russia.
World Affairs Journal has recently lamented in an article titled, “Beyond Crimea: What Vladimir Putin Really Wants,” that:
Ukraine is lost. At least lost as many of us had once imagined it—as a potential member of the European Union and, perhaps one day, of NATO.
This sentiment has been repeated across NATO’s corporate-funded think-tank, the Atlantic Council which recently hosted its “Europe Whole and Free” forum – where the expansion of both the European Union and NATO were the focus. The disruption of this expansion, and perhaps even the threat of its reversal appears to weigh foremost on the minds of Western policy makers.
Creating a disaster along Russia’s borders in Ukraine, while attempting to make progress elsewhere, and thus alleviating itself from the promises it made the regime in Kiev upon its accession to power to “rebuild” Ukraine’s troubled economy, appears to be the current agenda.
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Responsibility to Protect?
The United States had used the “responsibility to protect” doctrine as cover for regime change in Libya, and attempted regime change in Syria. All the while it was fabricating atrocities to sway public opinion, it was in reality fueling sectarian extremists who were in reality carrying out the crimes against humanity the West was accusing Libya and Syria of perpetrating in fiction. This formula has been spun around in Ukraine.
Now the West is expending resources to cover up atrocities to prevent the “responsibility to protect” from being invoked against them. The massacre in Odessa would have been marked as a turning point by the West for military intervention had it not been their own proxies who carried it out. Instead, the US has claimed, according to the BBC, that ongoing violence carried out by the regime in Kiev is “proportionate and reasonable.”
With the West not only covering up the atrocities being carried out by the regime in Kiev, but in fact aiding and abetting them, the violence will only escalate further. Beyond Odessa, helicopter gunships, armored columns, and special forces have been sent by Kiev into eastern Ukraine and are attempting to overrun and occupy towns and cities that refuse to recognize the unelected regime. This includes the city of Slavyansk where deaths have been reported on both sides and military aircraft have been shot down.
Ukraine is being pushed to the edge of a much larger and destructive conflict that if started, may be difficult to stop. If the West commits to a proxy war and has been able to mobilize enough militants to carry it out, it can leave Ukraine a destabilized failed state Russia may spend years managing. Russia’s attempts to deescalate the conflict have been met only by belligerence from the West. Its patience, and the patience of pro-Russian factions in Ukraine may be the only factor that helps push Ukraine back from that edge.
Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
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Massacre in Odessa
By Stephen Lendman
Ukraine is the epicenter of European fascist reemergence. Friday’s Odessa massacre revealed its ugly face writ large. Unrestrained brutality explains it. More of the same is likely. Perhaps much worse ahead. Maybe Friday’s incident was prelude for more planned slaughter.
On May 2, Itar Tass reported what happened in Odessa, saying:
“As many as 38 people died in a fire lit by Ukraine’s Right Sector and self-defence radicals at the building of trade union council in the Black Sea city of Odessa on Friday, a spokesman for the Ukrainian interior ministry said.”
“According to the ministry, thirty people died of carbon oxide intoxication, eight died having jumped out of windows. As many as 50 people sought medical assistance, including ten policemen.”
On May 3, Itar Tass reported Ukraine’s Interior Ministry saying:
“As a result of clashes and fire in the Trade Unions House in Odessa’s Kulikovo Pole square, 42 people have died and 125 have been injured and taken to hospital. There are 21 policemen among the injured.”
Itar Tass said survivors “were cruelly beaten by Kiev radicals with batons.”
An Odessa region police report said:
“Thirty-seven people were killed and some 200 injured, including 22 policemen.” Over 130 suspected perpetrators were detained. Ten criminal cases were initiated.”
Neo-Nazi Right Sector were responsible. Kiev putschists helicoptered them in. They came with orders to attack self-defense force activists violently. They took full advantage. Odessa regional council member/mayoral candidate Alexei Albu was attacked. He explained what happened, saying:
“When we came out of the burning building, a crowd of nationalists (Kiev regime supporters) attacked us. I can say that about a hundred people were hurt. People jumped out of windows. Everything was in smoke. People lying on the ground were kicked with feet.”
“I and one of our activists, Vlad, have serious head injuries. We are heading for a hospital. Earlier in the day, our activist Ivan received a bullet wound. Right Sector members who attacked the House of Trade Unions were fully equipped, armed and prepared beforehand.”
On May 3, Itar Tass headlined “Kerry’s refusal to discuss Ukraine is irresponsible approach.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said he asked to speak with Sergey Lavrov on Syria. When he knew “Russia proposed to include the Ukrainian issue, (he) postponed the talk…”
“Such an approach clearly indicates that the American colleagues are not interested to look for a way out of the explosive situation fraught with unpredictable consequences and actually play into the hands of the current leadership in Kiev.”
Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin expressed shock “at the placidity of Western countries over the illegitimate Kiev leadership’s actions with the use of force against residents in southeastern Ukraine.”
“Such an attitude of the West made Kiev sure of impunity for its actions,” he added. On May 2, Obama expressed support for violence against Eastern Ukrainian freedom fighters. He lied saying:
“(A)s as Ukrainian forces move to restore order in eastern Ukraine, it is obvious to the world that these Russian-backed groups are not peaceful protestors.”
“They are heavily armed militants who are receiving significant support from Russia. The Ukrainian government has the right and responsibility to uphold law and order within its territory, and Russia needs to use its influence over these paramilitary groups so they disarm and stop provoking violence.”
“(I)f the Russian leadership does not change course, it will face increasing costs as well as growing isolation – diplomatic and economic. (I)f Russia continues on its current course, we have a range of tools at our disposal, including sanctions that would target certain sectors of the Russian economy. (I) it continues to destabilize eastern Ukraine and disrupt this month’s presidential election, we will move quickly on additional steps, including further sanctions that will impose greater costs. But that is a choice facing the Russian leadership.”
“(T)he Ukrainian government has already shown itself more than willing to work through some of the issues that would ensure that the rights of all Ukrainians are respected, that you have a representative government. They’ve shown themselves willing to discuss amendments to their constitution that devolve power to a local level. The Ukrainian government in Kyiv has followed through on the commitments that it made in Geneva. We need Russians to do the same.”
Fact: Washington bears full responsibility for elevating fascist putschists to power.
Fact: It bears full responsibility for Kiev violence.
Fact: It does so for Eastern Ukrainian brutality.
Fact: CIA director John Brennan traveled to Kiev covertly.
Fact: He came with orders.
Fact: He directed America’s new friends to unleash violence against Eastern Ukrainian activists.
Fact: Vice President Joe Biden delivered the same message.
Fact: He green-lighted violence on his Kiev visit following Brennan’s.
Fact: Kiev putschists attacked as ordered.
Fact: They deployed military forces against peaceful Eastern Ukrainian activists.
Fact: They helicoptered in neo-Nazi Right Sector thugs to beat and murder them.
Fact: Eastern Ukrainians freedom fighters acted solely on their own volition.
Fact: No evidence whatever suggests Russian involvement or backing.
Fact: The illegitimate “Ukrainian government has (no) right” to subvert law and order.
Fact: Eastern Ukrainian activists aren’t militants. They’re not paramilitaries.
Fact: They’re ordinary people. They workers fighting for their legitimate rights.
Fact: Kiev putschists straightaway violated Geneva four-party agreement terms to resolve conflict diplomatically.
Fact: Russia supports them responsibly.
RT International interviewed Aleksei Albu. He escaped from the burning Trade Unions House. He was viciously attacked. He was brutally beaten.
“Militants from the Right Sector arrived from Kharkov to Odessa today,” he said. “They attacked the center of the city first and then they moved on to the anti-Kiev protesters camp. They attacked the camp with about 200 people there – 100 of whom were women and men over 50 and 60 years of age – with Molotov cocktails.”
“The people at the camp then barricaded themselves inside the Trade Unions House.” Right Sector thugs surrounded the building. They “began throwing stun grenades and tear gas” inside. I was there inside the building and took part in the defense. We tried to defend ourselves as much as we could.”
“When we were finally able to jump out of the window from the second floor, we were met by the Right Sector radicals. They beat us with their feet using bats and chains. My friend got an open head injury. I received a wound six centimeters long and am now in a hospital waiting to get stitches. We were all covered in blood, our legs were beaten by bats.”
A second unidentified activist told RT:
He was trapped on the Trade Unions House rooftop. So were about 50 others. “We tried to close all doors and windows that lead to the roof, got rid of all ladders,” he said.
Right Sector thugs blocked building entrances. Police did nothing to stop them. He was “waiting and hoping that someone (would) come here and help us get out alive. If police (didn’t defend them) against this angry mob, then (he didn’t) don’t know how (he and others would) find a way to leave.”
Vitaly Churkin called what happened “reminiscent of the crimes of the Nazis from whom the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists derive their ideological inspiration.”
RT video footage showed “disturbing scenes of dead bodies lying around the rooms with thick smoke in the air and blood stains on the floor.”
Most bodies “had St. George ribbons attached to their clothes, distinguishing them as anti-Kiev activists.” Odessa authorities declared May 3, 4 and 5 “mourning days.” Flags with black ribbons were lowered to half mast. A Russian Foreign Ministry statement was clear and unequivocal, saying:
“The tragic events in Odessa on May 2, in which, according to reports, 38 people died and 50 were injured, are viewed in Moscow as criminal irresponsibility of the Kiev leadership indulging insolent nationalist radicals, including the Right Sector, who are staging a campaign of physical terror against supporters of federalization and real constitutional changes in the Ukrainian society.”
“We categorically condemn it. Such intention to blame Russia for everything at any cost, even at the cost of cruelly killed people, is prompted by the attempt to remove the responsibility from the Kiev leadership for what is happening in Ukraine.”
Friday’s massacre revealed fascism’s ugly face. Unrestrained brutality explains it. Obama endorsed it. One fascist regime supports another. They share guilt. They promise more of the same. People of conscience everywhere condemn it.
Thousands of Eastern Ukrainian freedom fighters are its best and bravest. They vow continued resistance. They reject illegitimate Kiev putschists. They do so justifiably. They demand fundamental rights everyone deserves. They merit worldwide support. They’re an example for freedom lovers everywhere to follow.
Power yields nothing. Change never comes top down. Always bottom up. Sustained commitment is required to achieve it.
If societies fit to live in aren’t worth fighting for, what is?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
