Fighting Rages in Eastern Ukraine Town; Residents Flee

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Ukrainian government forces battled separatists with artillery and automatic weapons on Wednesday in a second day of fighting in and around Slaviansk, forcing many residents to flee.

The Kiev government, trying to break rebellions by pro-Russia militias, said over 300 rebels had been killed in the past 24 hours in the "anti-terrorist operation" centred on the eastern town, a strategically located separatist stronghold.

Rebels denied this, saying losses among the Ukrainian forces during an offensive begun on Tuesday exceeded theirs.

At an army checkpoint on the edge of town, heavy artillery shelling could be heard while a plume of black smoke rose above the outskirts. Automatic gunfire rattled out from nearby fields.

<snip>


Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/06/04/ukraine-crisis-fighting-idINKBN0EF2GM20140604

---

Much more at the link.

The article says Poroshenko ordered the "anti-terrorist operation" continued on May 25. Now, he tells Obama he has a peace plan. Meanwhile, there's a bit of a war on.

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. The locals don't seem too happy about Kiev's military operations.

From the article:

The military operation has hardened antagonism against the present government that came to power when President Viktor Yanokovich was toppled in February after mass protests in Kiev.

"Our Ukrainian army is not protecting us, instead it is attacking us. Thanks to them I have to flee my own land," said Larissa Zhuratova, a Slaviansk resident piling onto a bus full of refugees bound for Moscow.

Men were mostly not being let through the army checkpoint.

---------

And with the Ukrainian air force strafing the center of Luhansk a couple of days ago and killing eight people, including a nice lady you can watch dying all over the Internet, I don't imagine folks over there are too happy with Kiev, either.

This thing is very close to the point of no return, if not past it already.

[joshcryer]

2. It's basically a civil war now with the border post captured.

That opens up a supply route from Russia.

Here's a good article on it: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/04/witness-to-a-ukraine-rebel-breakthrough.html

Give it a couple of days and we'll have all sorts of coverage over it. *sigh* Not looking forward to the continual Kiev Nazi BS.

[Billy Budd]

3. we need to strictly adhere

To the West' s BS because "Freedom" LOL oh yeah and "Democracy" LOL

[joshcryer]

4. People are dying.

We don't need to adhere to anyone's narrative. Fuck the oligarchs. Fuck the imperialist. Fuck the plutocrats.

[davidpdx]

9. +1

The media is already portraying it as Poroshenko versus Putin.

[Bosonic]

5. It's a civil war in the same way that Syria is a civil war

i.e. it will be mainly fought on Ukrainian soil, but the combatants will have a large foreign component; already do on the pro-Russian/actual-Russian side.

[joshcryer]

6. Can't disagree.

Especially with increasing Chechnian involvement.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Poroshenko is inconsistent with his ramblings.

Seems to depend on who he's talking to.

[davidpdx]

8. I'm not sure I buy the line that Poroshenko is calling the shots

So that means the interim president willingly stepped aside and let Poroshenko take control of the military? No one even questions that fact, it's just accepted as the word that he is running the military prior to even being sworn in as president.

Then you have the teahadist saying:

"Losses to the Ukrainian side were more than ours," said Aleksander Boroday, "prime minister" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. He said nine had died and 15 were injured among separatists forces in Slaviansk.

This jackass sounds like a Republican doing a victory dance. Sick, sick, sick.

[Bosonic]

10. BTW Aleksandr Borodai is a Russian citizen

and not the only actual Russian elevated to high office by the 'people'. Odd that.

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-separatists-whos-who/25408875.html

[davidpdx]

15. No Russian citizens in Ukraine

my ass.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. Especially given the fact he's not yet been inaugurated.

That happens Saturday. So technically Turchyov is still in charge of the armed forces until then.

[davidpdx]

14. They might as well claim he's got blood on his hands since they've called him

undemocratically elected.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

17. Nothing will ever be legitimate enough for them.

Because perceived illegitimacy is the fuel that burns the insurgency.

[geetarcrazy]

12. Can this be true? :-((

Hi Folks. I am a newbie, and arrived here this afternoon, as a result of the UK Guardian not allowing links to a 'Der Speigel' article ..

I live in Bulgaria, and my girlfriend is from Lugansk and staying with me here in BG. She was on the net this morning, terrified about the situation and her family, and found a blog stating that;

Separatist troops in Slavyansk say that they have found 180 bodies of young men in a mass grave, all with vital organs, livers, hearts, kidneys etc. removed..
They found a further grave with 300 bodies interred separately, and all were in the same condition. ie. with vital organs removed.


Witnesses in the area say that a Red Cross van was in the vicinity of the graves, and that mass harvesting of vital organs for sale, has taken place.

I did not believe that this could be true at all, (Dear God!) so I tried to do some research.

The original article in 'Der Speigel' is even more shocking, and details how Ukrainian body parts are routinely being harvested and sent to the USA and states the relevant prices, per organ/part.
It seems that a body is worth up to (or around) $250,000 USD. ( which is a lot of incentive to people like Ihor Kalomoyskyi the funding oligarch behind nazis Yarosh, Tyahnnybok, Sytch, Parubiy, etc. offering $10,000 per Russian corpse.)


http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/body-parts-trade-based-in-ukraine.html

The Guardian would not allow me to post any mention of the blog, nor to post any links to the 'Der Speigel' article. Why?

Does a respected German newspaper like Der Speigel' contain reports and facts that the UK 'Guardian' finds unprintable??

Is this another 'moneyspinner' for Tyahnnybok, Sytch, Parubiy, and Yarosh? the Kiev nazis who have sworn to clear Ukraine of Jews, Blacks, Russian-speakers, Gays, and other non-white 'scum' ?

Can the world get anymore obscene?

[Igel]

13. No rumor is too outrageous to be believed.

A few days ago it was the legions of female Latvian snipers that were brought in by the "fascists" to shoot at the brave separatist men's nether regions.

The soldiers are not likely to have the expertise to harvest organs and pack them in ways that don't render them compost long before they reach their "market." A lot of the reports are considered beyond the pale simply to avoid making the separatists look too silly.

Even Strelkov's on-the-record threats to continue to execute captives until there's an agreement to trade anybody that they take as captive for those held by the Ukr forces is muffled. The reason for the threat was edited out; what was left was "they were shot because they refused to swear allegiance to the DPR." That's why they were held captive; that's not the reason they were shot. But a blatant war crime would ruin the narrative.

[geetarcrazy]

18. and der spiegel article is untrue.??

And the article from Der Spiegel is complete fabrication, and the named company don't 'render' corpses in Ukraine, and the body parts are not sold on, to the USA at all? The original article created a storm, and there would have been libel suits if the repeorted facts were untrue.

There is factual and provable material there (in the Der Speigel article) which confirm that the above are true. (and also there was a putative court case, which has been recorded, although the prosecution failed)

I was not asserting that the soldiers removed organs, but think that the 'red cross' van ( presumably not a real Red Cross van) had something to do with it.

A compressor in a vehicle, and a freezer, and a few sealed containers of card-ice are not hard to rig up in a Transit-sized van at all. Neither is a refrigerated truck hard to move to any location, as required.

[happyslug]

19. Organs MUST be used within days, thus not harvested in combat operations

Now, the Chinese are known to harvest organs of prisoners they are executing, even to leaving the harvesters do the execution to best preserve the organs, but that takes surgery and means to preserve the organs till they are used. You rarely have EITHER is actual combat situation (Medical care in Combat centers on stopping injuries not detail careful surgery).

Now, the Ukraine has been the center of world wide pornography since the 1990s. Blond blue eyes 18 to 22 year old women are cheap in the Ukraine. It has put a severe harm to the California Porno industry. With modern computers dubbing is easy.

I bring this up for we may be seeing organ harvesting independent of this war, i.e. something that has been in long practice in the Ukraine. Such "harvesting" of organs from poor people has been accused of occurring in India and other eastern countries, but a lot of Ukrainians would be a better match to people in the Middle East. It is Middle Easterners who pay the most for organs. Thus, while I doubt these bodies (if this is true) is the product of the present fight, it may be evidence of a long term problem in the Ukraine.

[bemildred]

20. +1 to all of that. nt

[bemildred]

16. No, it's not true. nt

[Bosonic]

21. Interesting titbit from a currently dubious source

Everyone's favorite People's Mayor , Vyacheslav Ponomarev, has apparently been deposed and arrested by, errr, some other people.



<engage translation>
Former Mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev Sloviansk arrested
He was removed from the post of the city, replaced by Vladimir Pavlenko.

http://lifenews.ru/news/134778