Sooo....no talk on Kiev's gradual descent into Mad Max beyond Thunderdome status??

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

http://www.channel4.com/news/russia-nato-ukraine-military-satellite-images-border?12

Russia at Ukraine's border: Nato releases satellite images
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Russia says images of its military hardware at the Ukrainian border are from last year, and accuses Nato of using the Ukraine crisis to "rally the troops."

On Wednesday, Nato's top military commander in Europe, General Philip Breedlove, said the Russian military presence at the border continues - and released satellite images of tanks, attack helicopters and war planes.

Today, according to the state-run newsagency RIA, an official in the Russian military general staff said the satellite shots were taken in August 2013.

According to General Breedlove, countermoves to the Russian military threat against Ukraine could include sending American troops to alliance nations in eastern Europe feeling at risk.

If Russia is serious about a dialogue, the first step should be to pull back its troopsNato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

But the Russian foreign ministry has said Nato's comments have been a bid to boost the appeal of the alliance.

"The constant accusations against us by the secretary general convince us that the alliance is trying to use the crisis in Ukraine to rally its ranks in the face of an imaginary external threat to Nato members and to strengthen demand for the alliance ... in the 21st century," a statement said.

Russia has denied that it has any plans to invade Ukraine.

Speaking in Prague on Thursday, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "I have this message to Russia: you have a choice to stop blaming others for your own actions, to stop massing your troops, to stop escalating this crisis and start engaging in a genuine dialogue." He added: "If Russia is serious about a dialogue, the first step should be to pull back its troops."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was reported by the newsagency Interfax to have warned on Thursday that a deployment of Nato troops in regions bordering Russia would violate a previous agreement between Nato and Russia.

Satellite images
The images released by General Breedlove are said by Nato to have been taken on 22 March, nearly a month after the unrest in Crimea began that led to Russia's annexation of the area. The photographs were taken by commercial satellite imaging company Digital Globe.

You can see the images below.

Above: Purported to be Russian military Su-27/30 "Flankers" aircraft at the Primorko-Akhtarsk Air Base in southern Russia, on the Sea of Azov which borders Ukraine. (Image: Digital Globe).

Above: purported to be Russian military tanks and infantry fighting vehicles at a military base near Kuzminka, east of the Sea of Azov in southern Russia (picture: Digital Glob)

Above: purported to be a Russian military airborne or Spetznaz (special forces) brigade at Yeysk, near the Sea of Azov in southern Russia (picture: Digital Globe).

Above: purported to be a Russian artillery battalion at a military base near Novocherkassk, east of the Sea of Azov in southern Russia (picture: Digital Globe).

Above: purported to be Russian Mil Mi-8 "Hips" and Mil Mi-24 "Hinds" aircraft in Belgorod, north of the Russian border with eastern Ukraine (picture: Digital Globe).

'48 hours'
Meanwhile, Ukraine's interior minister has warned pro-Russian protesters who have seized regional government buildings in eastern Uktrainian cities that a political solution is needed, or they will face "force".

Arsen Avakov, said that "either way, the stituation will be resolved in 48 hours".

Kiev has already conducted an "anti-terrorist" campaign against pro-Russian protesters in Kharkiv, and 70 "separatists" who seized a regional government administrative building have been arrested. Protesters in the city of Donetsk have declared independence from Kiev.

Article Tags

Channel 4 News, Nato, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine/Russia crisis: special report, World

 

[jalamanta]

Putin to US: It’s bad to read other people’s letters

President Vladimir Putin says it was “strange” to learn of the US reaction on a Russian letter to the leaders of EU’s top gas-consuming nations, as it was in no way designed for Washington’s eyes.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has accused Russia of reneging on an agreement that offered reduced gas prices to Kiev and using “energy as a tool of coercion against Ukraine.”

The price Ukraine is currently paying is “clearly not set by market forces and well above the average price paid by EU members,” she added.

“It’s a bit strange,” Putin said after Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov informed him of the US comments during a Russian Security Council meeting. “It’s strange, at any rate, as it’s bad to read other people’s letters. It wasn’t addressed to them, but the consumers of gas in Europe.”

“Everybody is used to the fact that our American friends are eavesdropping, but turning to peeping is shabby altogether,” he said.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

World
US Energy Department Restricts Scientific Cooperation with Russia
Topic: Sanctions Against Russia

US Energy Department Restricts Scientific Cooperation with Russia

© RIA Novosti. Igor Russak
12:12 11/04/2014


Tags: sanctions, US Department of Energy, United States, Russia
MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti) – The US Department of Energy has banned American scientists working for the agency from traveling to Russia as well as blocking access for Russian scientists to its major physics research centers, the Russian Kommersant newspaper reported Friday.

“The visits by Russian citizens to Energy Department facilities, including the Brookhaven National Laboratory, have been postponed indefinitely,” the newspaper reported, citing a letter sent out April 7 to scientists collaborating with Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The quoted letter states that exceptions will be made only if the trip pertains to nuclear security, weapons of mass destruction or is in the national interest of the US.

The letter also states the sanctions will not affect those Russians who have already arrived in the laboratory or “are on their way to the United States upon receipt of this message,” Kommersant reported. According to the newspaper, similar letters were sent out to the rest of the agency’s research centers.

The Russian Ministry of Education told the newspaper no official information from the US has been received yet, and said that any sanctions would “have a negative impact on research groups in the US and joint projects between the two countries could be jeopardized."

“We are surprised by such initiatives and cannot yet comment on the sanctions applied to us unilaterally,” the press service of the Russian Education Ministry told Kommersant.

Earlier this year, the US and the EU imposed a number of targeted sanctions, including visa bans and asset freezes, on several Russian officials over the reunification of Crimea with Russia. Leaders of the G7 countries have threatened broad economic sanctions against Russia in case of further escalation of the situation around Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the threat of sanctions against Russia is both inappropriate and counterproductive.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

 

[Grams]

@Napoleon give it a rest breh

 

[Cuban Pete]

they finally shooting

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Palestinian university students' trip to Auschwitz causes uproar

• Ukraine moves against pro-Russian gunmen in East, triggering bloody gun battle

• Cost of fighting warming 'modest,' says UN panel

• U.S. remains a wild card in Scottish independence vote

• Missing plane's black box batteries may have died

Ukraine to launch anti-terror operation
By Associated Press, Published: April 12 | Updated: Sunday, April 13, 12:21 PM
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — Ukraine is launching a “large-scale anti-terrorist operation” to resist attacks of armed pro-Russian forces, Ukraine’s President Oleksandr Turchynov said on Sunday in a televised address.

The authorities in Kiev will use the army in order to prevent Russian forces from moving in, as they did in Crimea, Turchynov said, pledging amnesty to anyone laying down arms by Monday morning.

“The Security Council has made a decision to begin a large-scale anti-terrorist operation with participation of army forces,” he said. “We’re not going to allow Russia to repeat the Crimean scenario in Ukraine’s east.”

Ukrainian special forces exchanged gunfire with a pro-Russia militia in an eastern city Sunday morning, with at least one security officer killed and five others wounded. It was the first reported gunbattle in eastern Ukraine, where armed pro-Russia men have seized a number of government buildings in recent days.

Turchynov said a Security Service captain was killed and two colonels wounded in a gunbattle outside Slovyansk, where the police station and the Security Service office were seized a day earlier.

An Associated Press reporter found a bullet-ridden SUV on the side of the road and a pool of blood on the passenger seat where the gunbattle was supposed to have taken place.

Vladimir Kolodchenko, a lawmaker from the area who witnessed the attack, said a car with four gunmen pulled up on the road in a wooden area outside Slovyansk and open fire on Ukrainian soldiers who were standing beside their vehicles. Both attackers and the Ukrainian servicemen left soon after the shooting.

Unrest has spread to several municipalities in eastern Ukraine, including the major industrial city of Donetsk, which has a large Russian-speaking population.

Donetsk was also the support base for Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in February following months of protests in Kiev, the capital, that were ignited by his decision to back away from closer relations with the European Union and turn toward Russia. Ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s east widely fear that the new pro-Western Ukrainian government will suppress them.

The regional administration in Donetsk issued a statement, confirming one dead and saying nine were wounded. It did not identify them, but said one person was shot outside Slovyansk.

Avakov has described the unrest as “Russian aggression.”

Ukraine’s foreign ministry issued a statement late Sunday afternoon accusing “the Russian special service and saboteurs” of fomenting unrest and pledged to present “concrete evidence” of Russia’s involvement at next week’s Ukraine summit in Geneva.

In an earlier post, he said the separatists who had seized the buildings in Slovyansk had opened fire on Ukrainian special forces sent to the city on Sunday. He called on residents to remain calm and stay at home.

An Associated Press reporter saw no signs of any shots fired at the police station, which was surrounded by a reinforced line of barricades. Unlike on Saturday, the men patrolling the barricades were largely unarmed. One of the guards who asked not to be identified denied reports of fighting at the police station.

Armed camouflaged men were guarding a checkpoint at the main entrance into the city.

Ukrainian lawmaker Oleh Lyashko said Sunday afternoon that Ukrainian forces managed to take control of the city hall, the Security Service’s branch and the police station in Slovyansk. This could not be immediately verified.

In a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry “expressed strong concern” that the attacks “were orchestrated and synchronized, similar to previous attacks in eastern Ukraine and Crimea,” according the State Department. Kerry “made clear that if Russia didn’t take steps to de-escalate in eastern Ukraine and move its troops back from Ukraine’s border, there would be additional consequences,” the department said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry denied Kerry’s claims, while Lavrov blamed the crisis in Ukraine on the failure of the Ukrainian government “to take into account the legitimate needs and interests of the Russian and Russian-speaking population,” the ministry said. Lavrov also warned that Russia may pull out of next week’s Ukraine summit if Kiev uses force against “residents of the southeast who were driven to despair.”

Two rival rallies in another regional capital in eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv, turned violent. At the end of both rallies, a group of pro-Russian protesters followed several pro-Ukrainian activists, beating them with bats and sticks, Interfax Ukraine reported. A video on Espresso TV showed one activist with blood on his head and hands waiting for paramedics on the steps of the underground passage. Several men and women came up to him and started kicking him.

Interfax quoted Kharkiv authorities saying that 10 people were injured at the rallies.

In Slovyansk, the mayor said Saturday the men who seized the police station were demanding a referendum on autonomy and possible annexation by Russia. Protesters in other eastern cities have made similar demands after a referendum in Crimea last month in which voters opted to split off from Ukraine, leading to annexation by Russia.

Overnight, the interior minister reported an attack on a police station in the nearby city of Kramatorsk. A video from local news website Kramatorsk.info showed a group of camouflaged men armed with automatic weapons storming the building. The news website also reported that supporters of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic have occupied the administration building, built a barricade with tires around it and put a Russian flag nearby.

Regional news website OstroV said three key administrative buildings have been seized in another city in the area, Enakiyeve. In Mariupol, a city south of Donetesk on the Azov Sea and just 50 kilometers (30 miles) away from the Russian border, the city hall was seized by armed masked men. Local news website 0629.com.ua said 1,000 protesters were building a barricade around it while unknown armed men raised the Russian flag over the building.

On Saturday in Donetsk, the regional capital, witnesses said the men who entered the police building were wearing the uniforms of the Berkut, the feared riot police squad that was disbanded in February after Yanukovych’s ouster. Berkut officers’ violent dispersal of a demonstration in Kiev in November set off the mass protests that culminated in bloodshed in February when more than 100 people died in sniper fire. The acting government says the snipers were police.

___

Nataliya Vasilyeva in Kiev, Lynn Berry in Moscow and Thomas Strong in Washington, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© The Washington Post Company[DOUBLEPOST=1397410478][/DOUBLEPOST]

they finally shooting

yep. people have died on both sides.

its only a matter of time now.

This may as well be a civil war

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

Round 2.....

 

[Sinnerman]

seriously heating up now

 

[raff]

But then again, how do you guys see it as a potential civil war if all the goons rounded up themselves in small,
closed spaces? There isn't enough numbers of separatists on their own really, there is a large contingent of Specnaz and FSB
(former KGB) officers there but thats it.

Head of CIA been in Ukraine recently, wonder what are the deals being made behind closed doors .

 

[Sinnerman]

lol

 

[Type Username Here]

 

[Digga38]

well well well what are the odds of a war now.....

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

well well well what are the odds of a war now.....

shyt goes down...alphabet boys find out where putin is getting his arms from and fukk up his supply.

chess.

this may just be a test to see what the Reds have in their artillery.
they will probably throw the best they have into this situation and it will be a great opportunity to learn?

just my 2 cents.

 

[Digga38]

Ill say one thing the USA can start a civil war in another country real good