[roxunreal]

Remember the commander of the airport "Cyborgs" that got paraded through Donetsk and beaten by Mikhail Tolstykh and residents?



He was set free a few days ago.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine ... 89307.html

After nearly six months in captivity, a Ukrainian commander has been released from the custody of Donetsk rebels.


President Petro Poroshenko announced the news late on May 22, stressing that “Our warrior has been released, not exchanged,” in comments on Twitter.

Thirty-eight-year-old Oleg Kuzminykh fell into the hands of rebel fighters on Jan. 20, while he and other Ukrainian soldiers defended the Donetsk Airport from separatist forces. A video quickly went viral of Kuzminykh being paraded through the center of Donetsk and beaten by pro-Russian fighters, causing many to fear the worst.

His capture came at a time of heightened tensions, as the rebels blamed Kuzminykh and his men for a recent shelling of Donetsk that killed several civilians.

Earlier, the separatist side had repeatedly refused to release Kuzminykh as part of the ongoing prisoner swap.

Four other Ukrainian prisoners were initially set to be released along with Kuzminykh, though volunteers involved in the negotiations said on May 22 that those men likely stayed behind.

“Most likely, these four people will be shown on camera saying they want to stay in Donetsk,” volunteer Viktor Maistrenko said.

Maistrenko said he had no further details on the fate of the four men or why they likely stayed behind.

Third time's the charm?

[Conscript]

Too bad he wasn't shot as a nationalist invader of areas completely unlike the western parts of Ukraine, the ones the Kiev regime is trying to force everyone to be. All in order to better deliver Eastern Europe as a political arm of the Atlantic powers and a means to encircle post-cold war Russia, yet we are to believe the latter is the problem (and the imperialist, somehow) in an era defined by voluntary surrender of the Soviet geopolitical position and Western hegemony.

[Far-Right Sage]

They have installed none other than Saakashvili as Governor of Odessa while Tbilisi still has a warrant for his arrest.

I'm speechless. This has surpassed the realm of farce. Everyone has lowered their masks so far down they lie atop the pavement. I cannot imagine what could happen next or how far they will push things before there is the "Eureka" moment on the part of the resistance-minded and massive violence erupts everywhere.

[Rich]

This is a strange dispute. The Liberals back Ukraine, Europe's nationalists back Russia. Yet it is in Ukraine that the Black and Red flag flies again. I could be wrong but I think the astonishingly rapid rehabilitation of the UPA could prove important. Will things go the same way as the Croatian nationalist revival, where Croatia returned to the bosom of European liberalism or will it trigger more profound change?

[Azure Angel]

This is a strange dispute. The Liberals back Ukraine, Europe's nationalists back Russia.

Indeed, interesting thing to observe.

Will things go the same way as the Croatian nationalist revival, where Croatia returned to the bosom of European liberalism or will it trigger more profound change?

Croatia returned to European liberalism?

You do know that nationalism was never stronger here than it is now?

[annatar1914]

They have installed none other than Saakashvili as Governor of Odessa while Tbilisi still has a warrant for his arrest.

I'm speechless. This has surpassed the realm of farce. Everyone has lowered their masks so far down they lie atop the pavement. I cannot imagine what could happen next or how far they will push things before there is the "Eureka" moment on the part of the resistance-minded and massive violence erupts everywhere.

Good to see you, FRS!

Indeed, the mask of the Enemy is showing, but the effects of decades if not centuries of 'dumbing down' has had it's effect, and people are looking at the serpent upon their bosom fangs in flesh, and are as if hynotized, waiting for the poison to kick in.

Only in certain lands do people know the snakes as snakes, and fight them.

[JohnRawls]

This is pretty simply, Poroshenko is afraid of Kolomoiski so he had to appoint somebody who had protection beyond himself, somebody Kolomoiski couldn't challenge. Since Sakaashvili is protected by the US, Kolomoiski can't do a thing about it. Does show how much of a US puppet Ukraine has become though...

[Potemkin]

I've just read Kolomoisky's Wiki page....

Kolomoysky has a triple Ukrainian-Israeli-Cyprus citizenship because dual citizenship is not recognized by Ukraine. Kolomoyskyi explained that: "The constitution prohibits double citizenship but triple citizenship is not forbidden."

[JohnRawls]

The man has balls though, shows he would make a good leader which he already is in a limited context, for all the shit Kolomoyski did, he was effective at it. People just don't like that he fights for the other side (Oligarchs vs Ukraine, Ukraine vs The Rebels etc)

[annatar1914]

This is pretty simply, Poroshenko is afraid of Kolomoiski so he had to appoint somebody who had protection beyond himself, somebody Kolomoiski couldn't challenge. Since Sakaashvili is protected by the US, Kolomoiski can't do a thing about it. Does show how much of a US puppet Ukraine has become though...

Anybody who thinks they have the protection of the United States should consider the fates of Anastasio Somoza and the Shah of Iran, and numerous others. Sakaashvili should recall the fate too of Hannibal mirroring his own, as Hannibal was exiled from Carthage to satisfy the Romans, and he fought for the Roman's enemies until they too, decided to no longer protect him. Hannibal died a 'guest' of the King of Bithynia, until he was asked to commit suicide when the Romans came in a delegation.

[JohnRawls]

Anybody who thinks they have the protection of the United States should consider the fates of Anastasio Somoza and the Shah of Iran, and numerous others. Sakaashvili should recall the fate too of Hannibal mirroring his own, as Hannibal was exiled from Carthage to satisfy the Romans, and he fought for the Roman's enemies until they too, decided to no longer protect him. Hannibal died a 'guest' of the King of Bithynia, until he was asked to commit suicide when the Romans came in a delegation.

Time will tell.

[Rei Murasame]

Kolomoyskyi explained that: "The constitution prohibits double citizenship but triple citizenship is not forbidden."

Holy fuck. Wow. Just wow.

Respect. I have to respect that.

[Azure Angel]

Kolomoyskyi explained that: "The constitution prohibits double citizenship but triple citizenship is not forbidden."

I love people like that, they make the best of their situation and laugh in the face of entire world.

[Frollein]

Who is so dumb to formulate a law such that it prohibits only double, but not multiple citizenships? It would have been sufficient to write "multiple citizenships are prohibited", which would have included double, triple, etc. ones. Are there only amateurs at work in this pretense of a state?

[Rich]

Well arguable triple is a special case of double, it inherits from double it subsumes double, it includes double within it. In fact a triple includes three doubles. He merely parades his criminal nature. We can only hope that Putin will one day put an end to his arrogance and subject him to the rule of law.

[Conscript]

I'm not sure if Putin or any slavic oligarch will ever care about rule of law. That's one thing the Western liberals have to be credited for...mostly.

[Azure Angel]

I'm not sure if Putin or any slavic oligarch will ever care about rule of law. That's one thing the Western liberals have to be credited for...mostly.

There is no difference between oligarchs elite and Western liberal elite, they both steal and ruin their own people, only the way they accomplish this is different.

[annatar1914]

There is no difference between oligarchs elite and Western liberal elite, they both steal and ruin their own people, only the way they accomplish this is different.

And sometimes not even that; Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy....

Basic human nature does not change often but it can and should.

[Il Duce]

Here they come! Looks like things are going to heat up.

[youtube]VwHdc1U9RKg[/youtube]

Also some heavy fighting in Shyrokyne

[youtube]8uNVm_n5m4A[/youtube]

[Frollein]

Ukraine at risk of return to full war after major battle in Donetsk

A major battle has erupted on the western edge of the main separatist rebel stronghold in eastern Ukraine, leaving more than a dozen people dead and threatening to tip the country back into full-blown war.

Rebels in the city of Donetsk reported 15 dead on Wednesday, some civilians and some combatants, in territory under their control.

The Ukrainian interior ministry said at least one person was killed in Marinka, the government-held town where fighting was centred. Ukrainian presidential adviser Yury Biryukov cited the Ukrainian general staff as saying two Ukrainian soldiers died in combat and that another 30 were wounded.

Each side is blaming the other for sparking this round of unrest. The general staff said in a statement that rebels deployed around 1,000 fighters and dozens of tanks and self-propelled artillery systems in a major offensive that started before dawn.

The statement said the attack was a flagrant violation of a February ceasefire agreement.

The head of the separatist armed forces, Vladimir Kononov, said his fighters had engaged only in defence measures after an assault by the Ukrainian army. “At around 3:45am the Ukrainian side carried out a provocation by shelling our positions practically along our entire front,” Kononov said.

Kononov listed several positions far apart from one another along the 280-mile (450km) front.

The Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, accused Russia of inciting the fighting. Ukraine and the west assert that Moscow supplies rebels with manpower and powerful weapons. Russia rejects those claims as unfounded.

Yatsenyuk urged the leaders’ meeting at the G7 summit in Germany this weekend to condemn Russia. “The international community must come up with a correct and appropriate response to Russian aggression,” Yatsenyuk said.

Ukrainian security services spokesman Markian Lubkivskyi said his agency had information that four troops with Russian military intelligence agency GRU had been killed in Marinka. Lubkivskyi did not explain how that information was acquired.

Implementation of the ceasefire sealed in Belarus in February has foundered amid a proliferation of low-intensity battles that have now been overshadowed by developments in Marinka.

Negotiators from the warring sides met for new talks in Belarus on Tuesday, but the session concluded without obvious progress. Another meeting is planned for the weekend.

Russia has said it is unnerved by the violence, which it is blaming on Ukraine. “We here in Moscow are closely watching it and feel extreme concern about the provocative actions by the Ukrainian armed forces,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Regular reports of casualties among government and separatist fighters have continued unabated since February, but deaths among noncombatants had almost ceased. That trend has been disrupted in recent days in an indication that the warring sides are again increasingly resorting to indiscriminate shelling.

The head of the government-controlled part of the Luhansk region, Hennadiy Moskal, said on his website that an elderly couple died when their car was struck by a mortar on Wednesday morning, 20km inside government-held territory.

Russia’s Interfax news agency cited a rebel representative as saying that one resident in the town of Yenakiieve was killed near a waste treatment plant during a 20-minute barrage. Ukraine’s military denies it attacked Yenakiieve.

An array of social media postings showed the aftermath of shelling on Wednesday in locations deep within the rebel citadel of Donetsk. The war has killed more than 6,400 people since April 2014.

The armistice signed in February requires both sides to pull back heavy weapons from the front line, but international observers vetting that process regularly note violations across the board.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in its most recent status report that its monitors heard 126 explosions on Tuesday from their observation point inside Donetsk. The report did not specify if the blasts indicated incoming or outgoing fire.

Well, nobody expected the ceasefire to hold indefinitely. Question is, is this the overture to a new offensive? If yes, what's changed that they'd start now?