HEAD OF LUGANS REPUBLIC TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
The Unhived Mind
Head of Lugansk republic taken to hospital after assassination attempt
Several more people got injures in the blast, which damaged facades of several houses nearby. The police are working at the crime scene
LUGANSK, August 6. /TASS/. Head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) Igor Plotnitsky is taken to hospital after an assassination attempt, the LuganskInformCenter reported on Saturday.
“Plotnitsky this morning got injured in a blast near his car,” the agency said.
The republic’s head was taken to a Lugansk hospital. Several more people got injures in the blast, which damaged facades of several houses nearby. The police are working at the crime scene.
uhm
U.S PROPAGANDA ARTICLES :
Militants launch 42 attacks on ATO troops in eastern Ukraine
05.08.2016 09:25440
Russian-backed militants launched 42 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbas over the past day.
This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.
In Donetsk area, the enemy used mortars and machine guns to shell Avdiyivka (18km north of Donetsk). Anti-tank missile system was used to fire at Opytne (11.5km north-west of Donetsk).
In Mariupol area, Ukrainian servicemen in Avdiyivka (18km north of Donetsk) came under mortar, heavy machine and grenade launcher fire. Militants also used grenade launchers to shell ATO troops in Krasnohorivka (29 km west of Donetsk), Hranitne (57km south of Donetsk) and Taramchuk (30km south-west of Donetsk)
Russian Troop Buildup Along Ukraine Border Raises War Fears
August 04, 2016 4:30 PM
http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-troop-buildup-ukraine-border-raises-war-fears/3450445.html
MOSCOW—
Russia’s steady buildup of military forces along its border with Ukraine is raising concerns that Moscow, which annexed Crimea in 2014 and then began backing separatists in eastern Ukraine militarily — including with Russian troops — may be considering an overt military campaign against its southwestern neighbor.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in televised remarks last week that the military had created four new divisions, nine brigades and 22 regiments since 2013 and deployed them in the Southern Military District, adjacent to southern Ukraine, as well as in Russia’s restive North Caucasus region.
“In recent years, the military-political situation on the southwestern strategic direction has become more acute,” Shoigu said in citing the rationale for Moscow’s military buildup in the region. “Mainly, this is due to the growing military presence of NATO in eastern Europe, the situation in Ukraine and the activities of international terrorist groups, including in the North Caucasus.”
In an interview with the newspaper Vedomosti, Russian military expert Ruslan Pukhov noted that along with reactivating the 1st Guards Tank Army in Russia’s Western Military District, near its border with northern Ukraine, Moscow plans to form two other armored groups for deployment near the Ukrainian border.
According to Pukhov, along Russia’s border with northern Ukraine “where three years ago there were absolutely no troops,” Moscow seeks to deploy three major groups for forces “capable of, if the need arises, mounting a rapid attack in the direction of Kyiv, which is only 270 kilometers from the border through [the northern Ukrainian city of] Chernigov.”
Further south, wrote Pukhov, Moscow wants to “create two powerful pincers to flank and strategically encircle the main group of the Ukrainian army in Left-bank Ukraine.” That is the historic name of the part of Ukraine on the east bank of the Dnieper River.
‘Enemy’ seen as easy target
An article that appeared last week in the Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye — a publication which frequently features material reflecting the official position of the Russian authorities — was headlined: “Ukraine has become Russia’s strategic adversary: Moscow does not exclude the possibility of a major war.”
Alexander Golts, an independent Russian military analyst who is a visiting researcher at Sweden’s University of Uppsala, says it is not surprising that Ukraine is now openly being referred to in Russia as an “enemy.”
“It is clear that Ukraine now is anything but a state friendly to Russia,” he told VOA’s Russian service. “In and of itself, the Ukrainian army, of course, is not a strategic problem for Russia. In Moscow, however, they are guided by phantom scenarios, in which Ukraine will eventually become part of NATO. One of Russia’s excuses for its actions in Crimea and the Donbas is that it was acting to prevent Ukraine’s possible entry into the North Atlantic alliance.”
According to Golts, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu already considers Ukraine part of NATO.
In addition, some observers say there is a widespread belief among Russian military officials that Ukraine’s capital Kyiv could be “taken easily and with little bloodshed.”
Konstantin Sivkov, a Russian military reserve officer who heads the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, a Moscow-based research institution, told the newspaper Vzglyad back in April 2014 that the Russian army could be in Kyiv in “two or three days.” Later that year, then-European Union Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso was quoted as saying that President Vladimir Putin told him in a telephone call that he could “take Kyiv in two weeks.”
Russian officials later claimed Putin’s comments were taken out of context.
Golts said the comments about Russian forces easily taking the Ukrainian capital are not too far from the truth, but added, “The main problem is that a militaristic type of strategic thinking prevails in Russia today, unfortunately.”
Global ‘challenge, threat’
Observers say such comments explain why Russia is widely accused of being aggressive and unpredictable.
Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter named Russia first among five global strategic challenges facing the United States. Around the same time, then-British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Russia represented “a challenge and a threat” because it “ignores the norms of international conduct and breaks the rules of the international system.”
Russian liberal politician Leonid Gozman told VOA that bellicose Russian rhetoric should be taken “very seriously.”
“You can argue about the truth of the specific assessments made by our specific international opponents concerning the level of threat from Russia,” he said. “But, unfortunately, it is impossible [to ignore] that we annexed Crimea and support a hybrid war in the Donbas that has killed nearly 10,000 people, and who knows how many more will die.”
‘Spiral of hate’
Still, Gozman expressed hope that the Russian government would not embark on something “as stupid as a direct war with Ukraine and the capture of Kyiv” — which, he said, would lead sooner or later to a “world war.”
“We have treated Ukraine like an enemy, starting a war on its territory,” Gozman said. “Citizens of Ukraine were killed at the hands of our volunteers and vacationers,” he added, referring to Russian military personnel who have fought alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, ostensibly volunteering during their vacations.
“Of course, Ukraine treats us accordingly,” Gozman said. “It’s a vicious circle, a spiral of hate. If we don’t want that, we have to stop the war.”
Russia may start full-scale military aggression against Ukraine or continue hybrid tactics
05.08.2016
http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/362135.html
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov has said there are two possible scenarios of the continuation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine – a full-scale war or hybrid warfare.
“In the attempt to conquer Ukraine, one of two scenarios may be implemented both in short- and long-term,” Turchynov said during the presentation of the Security and Defense Sector Information Center at the NSDC in Kyiv on Friday.
According to the NSDC secretary of Ukraine, the first scenario is the most dangerous one – the military scenario, namely, a full-scale military aggression, which is actually dangerous for the Kremlin itself, but something Russia is preparing to do all the same.
As the proof of his words, Turchynov quoted the information about Russia’s drawing its armed units to the border with Ukraine and the militarization of Crimea.
“The second scenario is no less dangerous. This scenario is the so-called hybrid warfare, and it currently remains the most likely of the two. It involves the continuation of low-intensity hostilities in Donbas, but does not rule out the possibility of local offensives by Russian regular and irregular units, as well as subversive activities in the rest of country,” the NSDC secretary of Ukraine said.
The “hybrid” scenario, with the continued violation of the Minsk Agreements, the shelling and attempts to destabilize the domestic situation in Ukraine, is “a dangerous format and, to our great regret, one that today is being actively considered,” he said.
“So we must take into account today’s problems, but also be ready for large-scale ones,” the NSDC secretary said.
uhm
As it gets harder for NATO/US to cause problems in Syria then the next target will be the Ukraine. I believe the Syrian war is lost for NATO and now the focus is back to the Ukraine. Get ready for some real fireworks to start in Eastern Europe and quite possibly the flash point for overt nuclear conflict. All eyes must be guided to events in the Republics and Crimea. Get out of the U.S. dollar with immediate effect! Something big is coming down especially as Trump’s is the real front-runner. The Department of Defense cannot afford for better relations with Russia if the U.S. wants to continue its neoconservative PNAC stance of exceptionalism (Zionism). Events will kick off prior to Trump being elected! Just enjoy how quickly Promethean Russia destroys the weak Zeusian competition both militarily and economically.
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