https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMQupAwZnjg

1 The Russian economy. Putin and his entourage “are beginning to understand that the economic problems” Russia faces now are fundamentally different and much worse than those of 2008. They are “serious and long-term,” and consequently, the Kremlin wants to divert Russian attention from those to a foreign enemy lest protests against itself start up.

2 The European Union. It is now clear that “no one intends to lift the sanctions against the Russian Federation” anytime soon. As a result, Vorobyev says, “Putin decided to launch an asymmetrical military strike not only against Ukraine but also to ‘show his teeth’ to the entire West,” lest the West disconnect Russia from the SWIFT banking system or do something else.

3 The Minsk Agreements. Neither Moscow nor its clients in the Donetsk or Luhansk is going to observe the September 5 accords. “Putin needs a new Minsk and new accords that will be even more unfavorable for Ukraine. Therefore, his ‘force them to peace’ effort began earlier than planned.

4 The Donetsk airport. The airport had become “a symbol of the steadfast nature of Ukrainian forces” and at the same time a very public indication of the weakness of the Russian side. That was too much for Putin and those around him and consequently, Vorobyev says, Moscow decided to intervene more massively and publicly than before.

5 The United States. Not only is military assistance beginning to reach Ukraine, but the prospects are that there will be more of it now that the Republicans control Congress and Senator John McCain heads the defense committee. As a result, the situation for Russia in Ukraine is likely to worsen, and “the Kremlin decided to attack now.”

6 Financial Assistance to Ukraine. The IMF, the World Bank and the US are beginning to provide the level of assistance to Kyiv that may allow Ukraine to avoid a default. Given that “the main goal of the Kremlin today is to weaken the economy as much as possible” before that aid arrives, Putin decided to move.

Ex-dep head of Kiev Police, wanted for violent dispersal of #Maidan now clearing Moscow #manezhka protest @JuMistress pic.twitter.com/Fs7pT5ybw0

— AlekUA (@Alek_UA_) January 15, 2015

“Yarosh’s car was hit thrice. The fact that all people are alive is a miracle, the hand of God. As for the car, very little remained of it. Yarosh’s right arm is severely injured, he lost much blood, his head, face and neck also got injured.”

“It is nothing but a betrayal, and it is the main headquarters that have a hand in it. This is the fault of traitors among generals, top officials in ruling upper circles. President Poroshenko and Prime Minister are also traitors who are building their own happy future on the spilled blood. Poroshenko’s companies are still operating in Russia… Sorry, but it is the truth. This is the trade on Ukrainians’ blood. Here is Yarosh’s blood, my blood, our brothers’ blood,” ‘Anarchist’ stresses.

“Yarosh remained absolutely cool. The first thing he asked about after the incident was whether somebody else was injured. He also asked where his sub-machine gun was and whether he would be able to shoot. I was singing Ukrainian songs so that he didn’t lose consciousness and he was singing along as well,” the fighter said.

http://belsat.eu/en/articles/who-opened-fire-pravy-sector-leaders-car-donbas-belsats-exclusive-story/

What westerners don’t understand about Russia:

In Russia, there is no shame in lying. Words are just sound you make to distract people while destroying them.

Yes, westerns lie too, but they attempt to hide it or deny it. There is shame in it. In Russia, all the shame goes to the sucker who believed the lies — that person is perceived as weak and hopelessly naive.

This is why Russians are so bad at cooperating with each other, or with outsiders.

– So they have an honesty problem

me- a metaphysics problem

– metaphysical?

me- They seem to assume that the fundamental nature of the world is that everybody (and everything) is trying to cheat them.

Even their sciences often take the form of attempting to reveal things being hidden from them — that great bounty and possibility which is being unjustly hidden from them by malevolent nature. “Life is really easy and plentiful, but nature is cheating us.”

From the theologian Vladimir Solovyov, 1893:

“[The Russian] imagines dangers that do not exist, and builds upon them the most absurd propositions. It seems to him that all his neighbours offend him, that they insufficiently bow to his greatness and in every way want to harm him. He accuses everyone in his family of damaging and deserting him, of crossing over to the enemy camp. He imagines that his neighbours want to undermine his house and even to launch an armed attack. Therefore he will spend enormous sums on the purchase of arms, revolvers and iron locks. If he has any time left, he will turn against his family.”

We should not pretend that the truth is beyond our ability to discover it. We should attempt to understand the world and apply to it the principles we claim to believe it. Where an aggressor is identified, or where the desire for property rights and rule of law is identified, we should support it with words if deeds are too expensive/risky/impractical.

The case of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should be treated as one would treat a neighbor who is being assaulted. Let’s not adopt a policy of non-intervention for the sake of non-intervention.

“how could any man be justly commended if he be gentle towards the wicked?” ~Archidamidas

In this case, intervention is moral. The only reasonable case against it is a practical one — too expensive, too dangerous, too undermining of my neighbor’s self-reliance. That is the case to make.

But we should not shy away from trying to understand the conflict and provide words if in fact deeds are impractical. Give Ukraine an “atta-boy” for fighting tyranny, first during the Maidan protests, and now against Russian savagery.

How would you treat a refugee who has risked his life to flee from North Korea to South Korea? Would you tell him that South Korea houses US military bases and is an American puppet? Would you draw a moral equivalence and tell him that South Korea is also a corrupt government and also engages in propaganda and oppression? This is exactly analogous to what many US libertarians are doing with regard to Ukraine.

The desire for rule of law, property rights and a better life is not a CIA / New World Order conspiracy. It is a concrete tangible quality of life. Ukraine sees a relatively law-abiding, relatively prosperous Poland to the west, and an impoverished, savage, corrupt, propaganda saturated Russia to the east. It really is that simple.

Regarding Russia’s propaganda, please see:

Email to a Putin Libertarian

When Your Former Libertarian Hero Calls You a Nazi

Putin’s Libertarians

A Ukrainian soldier in a hospital in government-controlled Konstantinovka (56km north of Donetsk) told the SMM that he was being treated for injuries sustained at the Donetsk airport on 19 January. He said 80 Ukrainian soldiers in total had suffered the same injuries, manifested in uncontrollable muscle spasms, vomiting and difficult breathing. Some, he said, had become unconscious. Eleven of the soldiers had been transferred to a hospital in Dnepropetrovsk, he said.

http://www.osce.org/node/135671

A man, woman, and three-year-old child drove through a blockpost on a motorcycle with a side car. Moments later, they were attacked by accurate mortar (artillery?) fire. (I’m not sure whether it was mortar or artillery.)

They were able to detain the motorcycle and discovered that they were artillery spotters and that the child wasn’t theirs. It seems they kidnapped a child, perhaps from an orphanage, to use as cover.

The young fighter telling me this (he just turned 19), said the baby looked like it had been drugged.

Journo: GRAD 'attending' 4yo Artyom's funeral (dead by Sunday shelling), was also SHOOTING from cemetery! pic.twitter.com/xQvqWmM3gl @Fredotchka

— Ukraine@war (@DajeyPetros) January 21, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ3b6OjX8Bk

https://en.informnapalm.org/russian-special-forces-mop-volunteers-lpr-dumping-novorossia-preparing-war/

Ukrainian guerilla Unit “Shadow” revenged Russians and terrorists for shelling the bus near Volnovakha. Major General of Russian Army and 2 policemen from self-proclaimed Donetsk “People” Republic (DPR) were excruciated – Crime.In.UA – January 20, 2014 (+18)

Major General begged about mercy and proposed $1 million to save his life. After reply of guerillas, “we are not selling our motherland” and interrogation major general was executed.

On January 18, 2015 guerilla Unit “Shadow” provoked fight between “policemen” of Luhansk People Republic (LNR) and Russian army servicemen. As a result 30 LPR “policemen” and 10 Kadyrov Chechens were killed. As reported by Crime.In.UA on January 14, 2015 guerillas blow up 2 Ural trucks with terrorists in Novoazov district, Donetsk region. 22 DPR terrorists and 4 Russian army servicemen were killed, 8 Russian army servicemen and 5 DPR “policemen” were wounded.

(waring Graphic!)

http://crime.in.ua/news/20150120/general

A must read.

““You can’t hide this information, secretly bury soldiers, secretly send people abroad to fight,” said Sergei Krivenko, a member of the Russian human rights group Memorial, who has been helping relatives of those killed in eastern Ukraine, as well as soldiers who are trying to resist being sent there. “What status do families of the wounded and dead have, what compensation and medical aid? Help from the government depends on this status.”

The “volunteer” service Putin referred to is often anything but, according to several rights advocates. They say soldiers have told them that they were pressured to sign documents to go on a “business trip” to eastern Ukraine or “volunteer” in other ways. Tumanov told his mother that his commanders offered a 400,000-rouble bonus to sign up to fight in Ukraine, then simply ordered them forward when volunteers weren’t forthcoming. Some captured Russian paratroopers recounted that they had gone on a supposed training mission in armoured carriers and only later realised they were in Ukraine.”They were never there: Russia’s silence for families of troops killed in Ukraine.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/19/russia-official-silence-for-families-troops-killed-in-ukraine?CMP=share_btn_tw

@Conflict_Report 1h1 hour ago

#Footage of tonight’s terror attack in #Kharkiv. 12 wounded

Followed by another one shortly later, killing a lawyer.

Some highlights from this interview with cyborg Mykola Voronin
1. “The best psychologist for a soldier returning from the front is that soldier’s wife.”
2. The interrogation of prisoners secures a wealth of information, but the military command is slow to capitalize on it.
3. Voronin can’t imagine why the government insists on honouring the ceasefire, given what we know about life in the occupied territories. We should be issuing ultimatums to the terrorists. Anyone who has stayed there has been a traitor to Ukraine.
4. We want them to leave before we attack because we don’t want them or their children to become civilian casualties when we do attack.
5. Those who do come to us seeking to leave and asking for our help, we help them in any way that we can. It takes them two or three days to realize that we are not the animals that the propaganda of the terrorists have made us out to be.
6. He says he is defending Ukraine because he does not want the DNR and LNR to spread to other parts of Ukraine.

Next #Mariupol ? What a #ceasefire indeed. RT @MarQs__: Anyone noticed that? ATO map from January 13 and today: pic.twitter.com/RsxLRpgHiB

— STRATMIL (@STRATMIL) January 18, 2015