Sept. 8, 2015

NOTE:  The Khazarian Zionist Bolsheviks will fight against peace at all costs.  Satan never gives up easily!  ---PHB

    The question still in Ukraine: will peace be allowed?

hen the Ukrainian parliament voted overwhelmingly, but almost a year late, to amend the Ukrainian constitution to allow greater autonomy to the eastern, separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, Ukraine’s right-wing nationalists immediately unleashed violence in the streets. The August 31 preliminary vote on the first reading of the constitutional amendment was 265-185 in favor, and changed nothing for now – except for the willingness of hundreds of right-wing protestors to amplify the democratic process with smoke bomb and hand grenade attacks on national guards and police.

Eventually the reform bill will pass or fail in the vote on the second reading, which is expected in the next few months. To pass then it will need a two-thirds majority of 450 legislators, or 300 votes. Presumably street violence by the opponents now will make it harder for supporters to reach the 300-vote majority.

By contrast, there were no public outbursts earlier this year, after the parliament formally recognized and granted pensions to members of the World War II fascist army, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), that collaborated with the Nazi occupation in killing Jews and Poles.

The attacks killed three national guards and blew the leg off a fourth. A Kiev police spokeswoman reported the day after the rioting that 141 people remained in hospitals, 131 of them national guards or police, ten of them in serious condition. The Kiev government deployed some 2,000 police and national guards to control the violence. They have arrested about 30 people, including a Svoboda party member of parliament accused of throwing a grenade.

According to the BBC: “The protest was organised by the populist Radical Party and ultra-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party – who oppose any concession to the separatists.” [emphasis added] Police say they plan to question top Svoboda party leaders about their role, if any, in the organized violence. Svoboda has six seats in parliament. Svoboda officially claimed the violence was triggered by national guard and police attacks on the protestors (an account at odds with those of reporters on the scene, a number of whom were themselves injured). The paramilitary organization Right Sector, with extreme nationalist views, also appeared to be involved as its symbols and flags dotted the protest. 

Peace requires implementation of the Minsk Protocols

Over a year ago, the first Minsk Protocol was signed by four entities: Ukraine, Russia, and the self-declared People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The resulting cease-fire didn’t hold and other conditions went unachieved. This led to a summit convened by France and Germany that produced a second Minsk Protocol signed on February 11, 2015, by Ukraine, Russia, the two people’s republics, and the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). The OSCE’s role is to monitor compliance.

The Minsk Protocol is not designed to settle all Ukraine’s conflicts, only the relentless fighting in the Donbass region along the Russian border, where the Ukraine government and Ukrainian separatists have spent a year and a half fighting to a stalemate. The Minsk Protocol ignores the issue of Crimea, taken over by the Russians in 2014. And the Minsk Protocol does not include other parties interested in Ukrainian instability or separation from Russian influence – including NATO, the US, and other hostile countries ringing Ukraine and Belarus. These non-signatories have contributed little to achieving peace in Ukraine, and some have acted to prevent it.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, faced with seemingly intractable resistance to peace in Ukraine on all sides, characterized the right-wing violence in Kiev as “a stab in the back.” On September 5, Poroshenko, apparently looking for good straws in an ill wind, made much of the fact that the week just ended was the first in which no Ukrainian soldier died in combat (some died from landmines and car accidents). The conflict in Donbass has killed more than 6,800 people since late spring 2014. Despite tensions and contradictions inherent in the Ukrainian situation, on September 5, Poroshenko focused on a glimmer of hope:

    Alternatives to the Minsk agreement do not exist. Also if we want to return Ukraine’s territory, if we want to stop the occupation, if we want to regain control of all Ukrainian borders and if we want to release Ukrainian hostages illegally detained in the occupied territories and in Russia, then the OSCE’s role is very important.

The same day, German chancellor Angela Merkel expressed a similar, supportive view: “We are in the process of very subtle, detailed work trying to make progress. Unfortunately progress has been slower than we thought but we are very committed to this process.”

Endless fighting in the Donbass is only the most violent of the problems Ukraine faces. Much more pervasive and perhaps intransigent is the country’s longstanding, pervasive culture of corruption. Even the Ukrainian justice system, with extensive control of many sectors of the economy, has been the target of reform, but “still looks more like a crime syndicate than a law enforcement agency,” according to EU Observor.

US and NATO lead anti-peace and anti-stability activities

Were it not for twenty years of US/NATO aggressive encroachment on Russia, Ukraine would not be in its present parlous state (although it might be in some other crisis, as has been true for much of its history). Even now, US/NATO forces seem to have no idea that backing off, even a little, might be good for Ukraine, Europe, and most of the rest of the world. Whatever the Obama administration might say, its officials continue to keep the imperial pressure on Russia, at little cost to the US, but little good for Ukraine or Europe.

The deeper mystery is why the US, under whatever president happens to be in office, remains relentless in its endless belligerence that, in a worst-case scenario, could end in nuclear war. Deepening the mystery further is the scarcity of reliable information from any side. American propaganda points haven’t changed substantively in decades. Russian propaganda has intensified, especially aimed at Russian-speaking Ukrainians. In response, Ukraine has started Ukraine Tomorrow, a state-owned foreign broadcasting operation to be run by the Ukraine Ministry of Information Policy. Forced through parliament in December 2014 as an anti-Russian government organ, the ministry is referred to by critics as the Ministry of Truth, a reference to the totalitarian control of information in George Orwell’s “1984.” One of the ministry’s first acts was to start banning books that were “insulting a nation and its people.” Ukraine has seen its freedom of speech wither before.

The fog of propaganda obscures reality, often deliberately, as in this Newsweek summary of the same events discussed above, by a fellow at the Cato Institute:

    Unfortunately, the eruption of violent protests in Kiev last week, in response to the Ukrainian parliament’s consideration of a decentralization bill granting greater autonomy to Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, seems to suggest that a permanent resolution is still a long way off. Yet the United States can certainly bring pressure to bear on both Ukraine and Russia to reach a permanent settlement.

This assessment is literally nuts, divorced from reality. Violent protests didn’t just “erupt,” they were carried out by right-wing nationalists that Newsweek doesn’t mention. The US used those right-wing nationalists and the violence they provided to topple the elected Ukraine government in the Maidan of 2014. The idea that the US would bring pressure for a peaceful settlement is a pure fantasy, contrary to twenty years of past and present destabilization of Ukraine. But even this Cato Institute fellow hints at the efficacy of US/NATO forces backing off from their endless confrontation with Russia, as he grudgingly writes:

    In essence, the United States must be willing to grant Putin something he will surely portray as a victory. Unpalatable as that may be, it is certainly preferable to an indefinite continuation of the Ukrainian conflict.

Sadly, this perpetuates the Cold War framing that has distorted US policy for far too long. What the US still refuses to consider is that Ukrainians, perhaps a majority of them, would prefer to be an independent, democratic state and not anybody’s pawn. But the inherent divisions of Ukraine from east to west must be addressed and resolved honestly and respectfully for anything like peaceful independence to come to Ukraine. The Minsk Protocol addresses some of the legitimate concerns of the Donbass. Until the illegitimate violence of the western nationalists can be contained, it serves as a potential veto on any peace process short of military victory and de facto occupation.

So is the key that Ukraine conflict is good for weapons sellers?

The eastern European panic touched off by the Russian taking of Crimea seems to have abated little, partly because the Russians, under US pressure, have chosen not to take the lead in relaxing tensions. There seems little flexibility in the larger context of Ukraine, where everyone seems to be thinking military first, democratic cooperation maybe never. Some items:

    NATO is opening new offices in eastern European countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria) adding to the perception that NATO is intent on encircling Russia. Ukraine feeds this perception by participating in NATO war games.

    Poland, Norway, and the Netherlands (all NATO members) are expanding their submarine fleets, continuing the militarization reaction to Crimea.

    The US Navy has increased its presence in the Black Sea as an anti-Russian move. On September 1, the US Navy started operation Sea Breeze, joint operations with the Ukraine Navy (which lost more than half its ships in Crimea) and nine other countries. Roughly two thirds of Ukraine’s sailors defected to Russia. Ukraine, with about a dozen ships and 5,000 sailors, is seeking to rebuild its navy.

    Ukraine has used internationally-banned cluster bombs against the separatists in the Donbass, one of five countries in the world where they have been used this year (the others are Yemen, Syria, Sudan, and Libya). The US, which has not signed the treaty banning cluster bombs, continues to make and distribute these anti-personnel weapons that take a heavy toll on civilians. With cluster bombs, as with much else, the US continues to be a rogue state in defiance of the international community. 

    Ukraine has renewed its bid to join NATO, which will take awhile. Meanwhile NATO’s secretary general plans to make his first visit to Ukraine in September.

    On September 11, President Poroshenko address the opening session of the 12th annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy Forum (YES), where the agenda is: “At Risk: How the New Ukraine’s Fate Affects Europe and the World.” The goal of YES, posted on the YES website, was clearly articulated by a member in 2012: “I firmly believe that by strengthening its democracy, Ukraine can reach the point of no return on its path to the European Union.” The YES Forum is essentially a neo-Cold War gathering where the others speakers include: Gen. Stanley McChrystal (U.S. Army, Retired); Victoria Nuland, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State (famous for saying “f*ck the EU”); Gen. David A. Petraeus (U.S. Army, Retired, and Director, Central Intelligence Agency, 2011-2012); Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of NATO (2009-2014); and Strobe Talbott, President, Brookings Institution, and Chair, Foreign Affairs Policy Board, U.S. Department of State. These are not people known for their determination to seek accommodation.

The official US state of mind is committed to military response and little else.

Republican congressman from Arkansas Steve Womack is one of those busy promoting hostility for its own sake. His recent blog post warns spookily about “the question of the balance of power in Europe,” without even attempting to explain what he means. He mentions neither the recent week without casualties in eastern Ukraine nor the Ukraine parliament’s first step toward implementing peace accords. He does get the geography right: “For the sake of review, Ukraine shares its eastern border with Russia and its western border with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.”

American policy makers, like Womack, seem to have no clue that that is exactly the heart of the problem.

Meanwhile in Europe, France is proposing a meeting with Ukraine, Russia, and Germany to advance the peace process in Ukraine. That is one indication of growing differences between the US and Europe on maintaining a divisive Ukraine policy.

As this is written, Ukraine Today is reporting that three Ukrainian service men have been kidnapped and are being held in Crimea by Russian forces.

William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

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