• Will American people fall for government’s phony war propaganda?
By Pete Papaherakles —
Top Ukrainian General Viktor Muzhenko admitted on Ukrainian television that the Ukrainian army is not fighting Russian troops in Ukraine, thereby proving that the reason given by the Obama administration for imposing sanctions against Russia is a complete lie.
During a January 29 briefing for foreign military attaches aired on Ukraine’s Channel 5 television, Muzhenko, the chief of the armed forces of Ukraine, officially acknowledged, “the Ukrainian army is not engaged in combat operations against Russian units.”
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov pointed out in a news conference that Muzhenko directly supervises military operations in the southeast and that “his statement is a legal fact, which thwarts numerous accusations made by NATO and Western states” concerning Russia’s alleged “military invasion” in Ukraine. Muzhenko’s statement carries even more weight considering Ukraine’s Channel 5 television is ironically owned by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Muzhenko added that he had information about Russian individuals fighting in the country’s east, but that has nothing to do with the Russian military being involved. The vast majority of eastern Ukraine is Russian speaking and volunteers have come to support the ethnic Russian Ukrainian rebels not only from Russia but also from other countries, bringing humanitarian aid as well as fighting alongside them. American mercenaries have already been identified fighting on the Ukrainian government’s side.
After overthrowing Ukraine’s democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, the illegal Kiev government began a military assault on eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions in April 2014, after they refused to recognize the country’s new, Western-backed authorities.
Since the start of Kiev’s military operation, Ukraine and Western states have repeatedly alleged that Russia has a military presence in the country’s east. Moscow has refuted those claims on multiple occasions. On Janauary 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on those making these claims to prove them.
“I say it every time: If you are so sure in stating that, confirm it with facts,” said Lavrov. “But no one can or wants to provide them.”
The next day the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) also confirmed it had not registered any movement of military vehicles at the Russia-Ukraine border checkpoints it observes.
The good news is that not all in Europe want war with Russia.
On February 5, French President Francois Hollande announced at a news conference, “Together with [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel we have decided to take a new initiative.”
Without informing Washington, the two European leaders met with Poroshenko on that day, declaring that a ceasefire was possible in Eastern Ukraine.
On February 6, Hollande and Merkel then flew to Moscow to meet with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, where after late-night talks they agreed on the blueprint for a peace plan.
Merkel then flew to Washington on February 9 to propose the peace plan to President Barack Obama, who chose to remain undecided on the issue until after further high-stakes talks. For the moment, Obama favored maintaining the sanctions against Russia and proposing an ultimatum to Putin, who already stated he refuses to accept ultimatums.
Muzhenko’s statement seems to have fallen on deaf ears in Washington.
While Hollande and Merkel were busy brokering a peace deal, Secretary of State John Kerry was in Kiev pitching an arms sale deal. Kerry maintains “Russian aggression” is the greatest threat to Ukraine and told journalists it was impossible to ignore “tanks crossing the border from Russia.”
Regardless of the complete lack of evidence, Washington and the mainstream media insist that Putin invaded and annexed Crimea, although 97% of Crimeans had voted to secede in a referendum. They also claim that Putin had Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down, although an overwhelming abundance of evidence indicates that Kiev did it, and that Russia is now invading Ukraine, although Ukraine’s army chief says it’s not. For this, Washington seeks to impose tougher sanctions and supply more weapons to Ukraine to help fend off a non-existent Russian invasion.
Adding insult to injury, the illegal coup that overthrew the legitimate Ukrainian government and started the current civil war was mostly financed by Washington.
In December, the United States Senate and House unanimously passed legislation that authorized sending arms to Kiev. Obama signed the measure into law but it gave him leeway over when to implement it.
War hawks on the left and right continue to push Obama to escalate the conflict and sell more arms.
“The Ukrainians are being slaughtered and we’re sending them blankets and meals,” said Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) recently. “Blankets don’t do well against Russian tanks.”
Pete Papaherakles is a writer and political cartoonist for AFP and is also AFP’s outreach director. Pete is interested in getting AFP writers and editors on the podium at patriotic events. Call him at 202-544-5977 if you know of an event you think AFP should attend.
Does it matter to you that the current Kiev government overthrew the democratically-elected Yanukovitch government in a coup and illegally took control of the country and then waged war on all those who refused to bow down to its tyranny?
Does it matter to you that Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland admitted that the U.S. gave $5 billion to those criminals to overthrow the Yanukovitch government?
Are you aware that it was Kiev who shot down Flight 17 and not Putin? That Crimea voted in a referendum (97%) to become part of Russia?
Are you aware that Ukraine has historically been a Russian territory, so closely related to Russia that Kiev used to be Russia’s capital before Moscow?
If Mexico stages a Moscow-financed coup in Texas, would we just let the Mexicans take Texas without a fight?
Maybe you meant to go to The New York Times website instead and ended up here by mistake.
“Sure man, but just because they did it before, doesn’t mean they’re in Eastern Ukraine.”
Fine. But they’d be there for the same strategic reasons, and the amount of equipment only used by the Russian armed forces, the number of well-uniformed (in full Russian garb) soldiers—some of whom don’t even take off their divisional and national military patches, as they did in Crimea—is getting pretty overwhelming. This stuff’s all pictured on their own propaganda channels, incidentally.
P.S. Given the fact that Ukraine’s technically fighting an ‘Anti-Terrorist Operation’ at the minute, for the very reason that it doesn’t want to declare war on Russia, it’s not too surprising that a Ukrainian official might pretend the soldiers his forces are killing scores of aren’t Russian military forces.