Author Archives: RomanInUkraine

DPR militant got disappointed in “Russian World” and surrendered to Ukrainian Army

My name is Maxim, I am resident of Mariupol. A friend of mine who is a resident of Russian Federation offered me to join militia of Donetsk People’s Republic and promised a salary of 1000 USD per month. He said that he spent a year as a militant in Motorolla’s group called “Sparta”… From Mariupol I came to Samara (Russia), from Samara to Rostov with a friend of mine. In Rostov at a bus station we met a person who was taking people to Donetsk (Ukraine). We got on a bus and there were also 2 Russian citizens with us. We had 850 Rubles, so we got to the border for 800 Rubles, at the border we were allowed to pass by and went to Donetsk to the bus station. At the bus station Russians took us to recruitment office by taxi. At the recruitment office in Donetsk we met with curators, they took us to military unit in Novoazovsk. At Novoazovsk we were just securing the territory of the military unit. Military commanders like Colonels from Russian Federation were coming there, Russians, and they were checking what is going on…

– Maxim, detained militant of DPR

http://lugansk-news.com/dpr-militant-got-disappointed-in-russian-world-and-surrendered-to-ukrainian-army/

A Look at Russian Civilization: Power, Truth, Trust, and War

The second of my two essays on Russia:

“Westerners must appreciate the abandon with which the Kremlin lies and stop being surprised by it. From the perspective of the Power Civilization, words are another weapon, and the tenancy to believe them and, even more so, act on them, is an exploitable weakness.”

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/a-look-at-russian-civilization-power-truth-trust-and-war

Sergey Karjakin’s Statement about Crimea

After winning the Candidates tournament and the chance to challenge Magnus Carlson for the World Championship in Chess, Sergey Karjakin said: “It’s a great honor to represent Russia in the world championship match. I will not only represent Russia but also the place where I’m from, Crimea.”

I hope Magnus destroys him.

I’d like to welcome into the world, Danylo Skaskiw Romanovych.

I’d like to welcome into the world, Danylo Skaskiw Romanovych.

Thanks for all the good wishes.

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Everybody is healthy and happy. Yulia and I are delighted.

After about two hours of contractions, delivery took just an hour, surprising the nurses who initially thought it was too early to call the doctor. Yulia said about delivery the same thing she said about pregnancy — much, much easier than expected.

Danylo seems calm and narrowly focused on his work of sleeping and eating. He doesn’t cry much, and has yet to do so for more than a couple minutes. He’s also able to sleep through conversations being held right beside him, which seems like a good life skill.

Random Observations:

Medicine, and especially prenatal medicine, is largely the practice of trading very small risks for even smaller ones. Mothers exercising their imagination can feel enormous stress. I found myself often reassuring my better half that it’s really hard to get many decisions wrong, because everything will almost certainly be fine either way.

I like when doctors demonstrate the limits of their understanding. You know it’s a good conversation when they don’t shy from explaining their level of certainly. In the US, I’m pretty good at getting doctors to talk to me this way, like scientists. In Ukraine, they are generally more authoritarian. For one thing, I’m less fluent, and worse at signalling my capacity for understanding. For another, there’s a lingering authoritarianism in post-Soviet societies. Certainty remains a popular way to signal authority.

We are quite pleased with Kyiv’s Isida Medical Clinic, where I encountered only a little bit of what I mention above. I can imagine American clinics being more refined, but Isida was very professional, clean, friendly, and deferent to our needs.

Today (day 5) Yulia trimmed Danylo’s nails and took off his mittens. Within an hour and a half we could see a remarkable improvement in his dexterity. It was really cool.

Yulia says he sleeps exactly like I do, and took a picture to prove it. I don’t see it.

We bought an array of chairs, bed, and strollers, but so far, the thing we use most often is a cardboard box that Yulia, fearing for his reputation, painted and sewed with cloth and lace.

From what I understand, getting US citizenship is a simple matter done through the US embassy. Should I wait until after the presidential election?

My Essay: Nine Lessons of Russian Propaganda

After visiting repeatedly, I moved to Ukraine from the United States in 2012. My parents had been born in Ukraine and taught me some of the language during my childhood in Queens, NY.

Being so close to Ukraine’s Maidan revolution and the subsequent Russian invasion gave me perspective on American perception of these events. The audacity and effectiveness of Russian propaganda has left me in utter awe. After two years of close observation, some strategies and motifs of Russian propaganda have become evident. Hopefully these lessons will lend some clarity on the information war which overlays the kinetic one. . . .

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/nine-lessons-of-russian-propaganda

Ukrainian parliament votes to seize Yanukovich’s offshore assets

Ukraine’s parliament provisionally approved on Thursday a law allowing the government to seize what it says are offshore assets of Kremlin-backed former president Viktor Yanukovich without the need for a court order.

. . . .

Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk’s party said the law would allow the government to seize as much as 50 billion hryvnia ($1.9 billion) worth of government bonds and use the money for social and defense spending.

The law is “essential for our country, army and pensioners”, lawmaker Serhiy Pashinsky told parliament.

Yatseniuk’s party says the bonds were bought with money the former president and his cronies had plundered from the state. Yatseniuk said Yanukovich holds the bonds through 42 offshore companies spread across Cyprus, the Seychelles, Britain, Panama and Belize.

“Restoring justice was and is one of the key demands of Maidan and the Ukrainian people. This is $1.5 billion – equivalent to the volume of aid (to Ukraine) from the U.S. government,” he told a government meeting on Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-parliament-votes-seize-yanukovichs-offshore-assets-155109211–business.html

Ukraine intel names Russian general heading ‘missile forces’ in Donbas

The Ukrainian intelligence has found out that Major General of the Russian Armed Forces Stepan Yaroshchuk is directly responsible for the combat use of the missile troops in the occupied territories of Donbas, as well as shelling of the Ukrainian troops and civilians, according to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

http://www.unian.stfi.re/war/1300357-ukraine-intel-names-russian-general-heading-missile-forces-in-donbas.html

Putin will never leave Ukraine alone — Russian analyst

In this interview with Espreso TV, Russian journalist and politician Alexander Nevzorov explains that Russia is at an impasse in the Donbas but will never retreat because of the damage to its image. In his view, Russia’s only “proof” of great power status is its ability to create corpses in the Donbas and in Syria for the benefit of the Russian public. It no longer has anything else to contribute to the world — no technologies, or scientific discoveries, or art, or design. He also argues that Ukraine has exhibited astounding tactical mediocrity in its response to Russian aggression and needs to bring in talented people willing to use unconventional means.

The first is the Donbas terrorists themselves. This entire criminal mass of people who keep fighting among themselves, who have stolen everything they could from each other. All these stolen goods have changed owners ten times. Everything that had the slightest value in the Donbas has been stolen, plundered, ruined.

They don’t have any military strength as such for one simple reason: they simply no longer have the primary motivation, which used to exist, even if it is was ideologically false. Nonetheless, it still served as inspiration of sorts and integrated all the criminals of the “Russian World” to it. I say “criminals” because mercenary activity according to the laws of the Russian Federation carries a fairly heavy sentence and is one of the articles of the Criminal Code.

Well they have worn themselves out, but if they were simply worn out there would be nothing very frightening about that. You would simply come in and retake Donbas, but, as I understand it, Ukraine is worn out as well for one simple reason: this rapid exhaustion is not technical and not military, it is ideological. Ukraine could probably capture the Donbas, but blood would inevitably be shed because it is impossible for it not to be shed in this situation and, of course, it would be magnified hundredfold by the media, and by the media from all sides.

Therefore, by recovering its own territories, by reestablishing normal Ukrainian constitutional order in its territories, Ukraine would appear cannibalistic, bloodthirsty, murderous, dictatorial and so on. Is Ukraine ready for this role? I don’t think so, and this is why the Ukrainian army does not want to take any drastic steps and will not take them.

Russia has exhausted itself as well. Exhausted in all the meanings of this word at the same time. The dreary supplying of the Donbas with military, equipment, weapons, ammunition, material resources may continue, but we need to understand there is no longer any enthusiasm. Moscow has understood that it has gotten involved in a very dirty business.

. . . .

No one can leave Ukraine alone since that would be associated with such huge image costs that even Russian propaganda couldn’t handle it. In other words, they understand how to explain aggressions — it is a very simple ideological process — but they absolutely do not understand and do not have the techniques to explain withdrawal. In the palette of Russian propaganda, there is simply no explanation for other motives and other actions. It simply has not been taught.

Therefore, they cannot leave Ukraine alone, but they cannot move ahead either for several significant reasons: first of all, this entire workforce they have confirmed in the Donbas turned out to consist simply of criminals. Russia sees this; it sees that all the material resources it invests in the Donbas are disappearing into the pockets of all these Luhandonites (pejorative term for members of the Luhansk and Donetsk “republics” — Ed.) and other speculators as if into a bottomless pit. Nothing reaches the population; everything is stolen simply because it can be stolen.

But the issue is not even what has been stolen. The issue is that the personnel that could have carried out this beautiful imperial policy, as it is seen in Russia and the Kremlin, simply does not exist. There are no generals Yermolov, no generals Miloradovich (Russian 19th cen. imperial generals — Ed.), no governors-general who, with all their clanging medals, could bring order to the conquered lands again. They do not exist, but there are thieves. And these thieves are poorly managed, both by themselves and by the Kremlin. And the personnel that could have been sent there has been completely exhausted.

http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/03/19/putin-will-never-leave-ukraine-alone-russian-analyst/