United Churches Agains the No Tolerance Policy
CIA Director Burns subsequently went to Moscow to try and intimidate Putin into revoking troop buildup on Ukrainian border
[Russell Bentley, a Texan and author of this article, served in the Donbass ground forces. His motivation was to fight fascism; he envisioned himself equally an heir to members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who volunteered to fight fascism in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
In office i, Bentley's provides an assessment of the current tensions in the Ukraine and the graphic symbol of the government. Ranked as one of the most decadent governments in the world, information technology is a monstrous creation of the U.S. empire guilty of big-calibration war crimes.
In part ii, Bentley discusses three potential military machine options for Russian federation. CAM's position on this conflict is to endorse the Minsk protocol, which focuses on a diplomatic settlement that offers the Eastern Ukrainian provinces considerable autonomy and could help defuse tensions in the region.
The tertiary military pick discussed by Bentley—the Kyiv plan which would entail a Russian march on Kyiv—has 3 main dangers: a) Ukrainian rightists and nationalists would mobilize against the Russians and pro-Russian forces, prompting a prolonged and devastating war that could be a quagmire for Russian federation (rather than a cakewalk, every bit Bentley suggests); b) a Russian invasion would potentially ignite Globe War III past drawing in the U.S. and NATO; and c) it could even lead to the advent of nuclear war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be conscious of these dangers and intent on restraining hawkish elements inside the Russian military—a good thing. At the same time, he has made it clear that Russia will defend its interests and not be pushed around.—Editors]
Part one
On October 18th, U.S. Secretary of Defence force Lloyd Austin Three met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to assert U.Southward. support for Ukraine's war confronting its eastern provinces.
Since the outset of the disharmonize in 2014, the U.s. has provided more than $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including $275 1000000 in military assistance that has been announced in the last 10 months under President Joe Biden, a staunch champion of the war from its inception.
In early on November, President Biden dispatched CIA Managing director William F. Burns to Moscow to warn the Kremlin nearly its troop buildup on the Ukraine edge and to endeavor and strength it to back off. Secretary of Land Antony Blinken followed upwards this past week by threatening Russia further in a joint press conference in Washington with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Ukraine, however, started the war post-obit the February 2014 U.S. backed coup and carried out sustained war crimes.
These crimes include: a) the recent kidnapping and torture of a Russian armistice monitor in Lugansk; b) a contempo set on on Staromaryevka, a settlement of 180 civilians in the de-militarized "Grey Zone," which included the kidnapping of eight more unarmed civilians (who were too Russian citizens) by neo-Nazi terrorists; and c) the use of a Turkish Bayraktar assail drone confronting Donbass defense forces.
All this is in add-on to the repeated shelling of civilian areas and infrastructure forth with a hardening of state of war rhetoric by the Kyiv authorities—with U.S. backing.
Readying for War
The main promise for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine lies with the Minsk peace accords—which includes a provision that would let for considerable autonomy for the eastern provinces. Predictably, the U.S. and Ukraine take shown little interest in adhering to the Minsk accords.
A no-wing zone is currently existence enforced by Russia in the airspace over the Donbass Democracy. Russian federation cannot recognize the Donetsk Republic because it would invite further U.Southward. sanctions and efforts at political isolation; the Donetsk Republic is considered to be a renegade and the U.Due south. wants Russia to stay out of the war.
All military units of the DPR are currently on full combat warning. News reports and videos have appeared with Russian armor, including "hundreds" of heavy combat vehicles, and fourscore,000 to xc,000 troops, moving toward the Ukrainian border from the Bryansk, Voronezh and Rostov military districts. They are stationed at Novy Yerkovich—a iv-hr (250 km) drive to Kyiv—and forth the border near Kharkov, which lies a scant 30 kilometers from Russia's border.
The troop buildup indicates that Russian federation is prepared to defend the Donbass region, which consists of virtually a million Russian citizens, and to potentially become further and liberate the part of Ukraine populated primarily past ethnic and Russian-speaking Russians.
The U.S./European union/NATO and Ukraine have all been pretending since 2014 that "Russia invaded Ukraine"—which it never did, though Ukrainian provocations make it more likely that it presently will.
The state of war in Ukraine is not a Ukrainian ceremonious war, nor is it a war between Russians and Ukrainians.
It is a war by resurgent international neo-Nazism, led by the U.s.a. against a people fighting for their autonomy backed by a reinvigorated Slap-up Power, Russia, which wants to aggrandize its regional influence and annul a legitimate security threat on its border.
Earth Wink Point
The fight in Donbass is one of the major world'south flash points alongside Syria and Taiwan—where U.S. provocations threaten a major war with Red china.
If the West forces a military confrontation with Russia in Ukraine, it can be sure it volition face one with Mainland china over Taiwan simultaneously, neither of which it has whatsoever gamble of winning. The Russians and Chinese have forged a partnership against Western, primarily U.S. assailment in the political, economical, and military spheres.
In Syria, the Turks (a NATO member) have in recent days direct threatened Russian military installations and troops; Should they actually carry out attacks on Russians in Syrian arab republic, Russian federation has made clear it will fire dorsum. Turkish troops are now also on the ground in Ukraine, involved in gainsay operations confronting Donbass Defense Forces. This likewise, is a major and contempo escalation.
Russian federation Prepares Its Saddle
But it is in Donbass that the situation is the most incendiary. In response to recent Ukrainian provocations and acts of terrorism, Russia is once more sending a military task strength to its border with Ukraine, as it did in the spring of this yr, which stopped the planned U.S./Ukrainian offensive in its tracks.
Subsequently the offensive was scrubbed and the state of affairs de-escalated, the Russian troops withdrew from the edge, only now again have returned. This time, indications are that the Russian formations are preparing to, at minimum, come into Donbass as peacekeepers, and perchance go as far every bit Kharkov and Odessa equally Liberators. Maybe even to Kyiv.
As the recent words of Putin, Lavrov, Medvedev and others accept fabricated clear, the Russians have now decided that the fourth dimension for talking is over. At that place is an quondam saying nearly Russians that applies perfectly well to the current situation—"The Russians are slow to saddle their horses, but when they do, they ride very, very fast."
Those horses take now been saddled.
Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
If the Russians were to deepen their interest in the Ukraine, they would not be doing anything the U.S. and NATO accept non washed themselves on more than one occasion.
Russian federation not only has therightto protect its citizens, information technology has the responsibility to do and then, under international law.
The "R2P" or "Responsibility to Protect" concept is based on three "pillars" –
Pillar I—Each individual land has the responsibility to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, indigenous cleansing, and crimes against humanity.
Colonnade 2—"States pledge to assist each other in their protection responsibilities."
Pillar 3—If any state is "manifestly failing" in its protection responsibilities, then states should take collective activity to protect the population" in a "timely and decisive response."
The Un Security Council has recognized and reaffirmed its commitment to the R2P in more than than 80 resolutions. R2P as such has the force of international police.
The flip side of R2P is that it has been used every bit an excuse by the most powerful countries for international war crimes and has resulted in the trampling of state sovereignty.
One of the requirements of R2P is a UN Security Council resolution blessing its implementation. Though this volition never happen in the case of Ukraine, at that place can be no doubtfulness that Ukraine is, in fact, guilty of all the crimes that R2P was created to foreclose, including a) war crimes, b) ethnic cleansing, and c) crimes against humanity, all of which have been, and go on to exist, committed by the Kyiv regime and its military on a daily ground.
Russian intervention equally such could be justified under the R2P doctrine–though it is unlikely any NATO countries would acknowledge this.
Who Will Finish the Crimes Against Humanity?
The list of Kyiv'due south war crimes under international police force include: a) denial of water to virtually two.5 million civilians in Crimea, b) the intentional targeting of civilians, journalists and medical personnel by arms and snipers, c) random terror attacks on civilian areas, d) kidnapping, east) rape, f) torture and 1000) murder.
The Russians have over 2,000 specific war crimes cases open up against the Kyiv regime and its proxies, and more are existence opened daily. Fifty-fifty the United states of america has opened state of war crimes investigations into at least seven U.Due south. citizens who fought on the Kyiv side in the war.
These investigations into kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder are based on eyewitness, and video and forensic evidence. It volition be the get-go time the U.South. has prosecuted anyone nether the War Crimes Act since its passage into police force in 1996, a quarter century ago.
The Ukrainian military has as of this writing massacred at to the lowest degree x,000 ethnic Russian civilians. Some were killed in house-to-house searches of noncombatant homes by paramilitary units wearing Nazi insignia on their uniforms. The Gestapo-like forces were searching for DPR and Russian passports and kidnapped those who had them.
The Russians cannot simply stand past and allow this to happen. And neither should Americans.
Western intellectuals accept been quick to invoke R2P to support the bombing of Libya and Syria and a host of other Middle East countries equally a cover for U.Due south. aggression. But how many will invoke the same doctrine when it can be applied to really save people from large-calibration ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity—if Russia is the i doing the saving? Likely none.
Function 2: 3 Options for Russia
The way I encounter information technology, Russia currently has three main options:
one) The Donbass Plan—The Russian Army tin gyre into Donbass as peacekeepers, along the electric current contact line from Northward of Lugansk to Mariupol, after publicly announcing information technology to the world a few hours alee of time, in order to warn the Ukrainian military against resistance, and to explain and justify its humanitarian intervention to the "international community." They would denote that they come up in peace to stop the war crimes and the war, but that any military resistance from whatsoever source will be instantly eliminated, with the alert, "If you lot shoot at usa, you die."
This ultimatum would exist non-negotiable and backed upwards past Russia's total military machine power, including air and missile forces, and practical not only to Ukrainian military units, merely to U.Southward. and NATO troops in Ukraine and U.S. and NATO ships in the Blackness Ocean, equally well as anywhere else. It can and should also include a reminder of Putin'southward previous quote that"Russian federation will respond to any set on by the destruction not only of the source of the attack, only also the source of the orders for the set on."
This option would finish all terrorist attacks against Donbass, permanently and completely, and would hopefully give time for a diplomatic solution based on new political realities to be constitute. It would also non entail the taking of whatsoever territory under Ukraine control, only that which has long been alleged under "Russian occupation".
Once information technology is seen that the Russians reallyare coming, and they actuallydo mean business organisation, information technology is unlikely that the Americans, NATO, or the Ukrainians will burn down a shot. This is the to the lowest degree confrontational and least risky approach, as it could be accomplished in a matter of 24 hours, with minimal bloodshed.
This may seem to be a pragmatic solution, but it has the least risk of finding a political compromise or permanent solution, in either the short or long terms. And while it would stop state of war crimes and protect Russian citizens, it would fail to resolve the overriding geopolitical problems Russian federation faces in Ukraine—belligerent war criminals on Russian federation'south borders, the critical Crimean h2o security consequence, foreign enemies in command of a neighboring state, etc. Ane advantage to this plan, however, is that could be used every bit a beginning phase of the Novorussia Plan.
two) The second option is The Novorussia Programme. Nether this plan, the Russians tin can liberate the surface area known as Novorussia, well-nigh one tertiary of electric current Ukraine, with majority ethnic Russian populations, running along a line from Kharkov to Odessa (inclusive). This not only protects the vast majority of ethnic Russians (not just those in Donbass) from Ukrainian depredations, information technology solves the critical humanitarian water crisis in Crimea, and cuts Ukraine completely off from the Black Bounding main. This will also eviscerate all that is left of the Ukrainian economic system and brainstorm the process of the dismantling of Ukraine along ethnic lines while eliminating it as a state and as a threat to Russian federation in one case and for all.
It will as well serve equally an example to the globe of the new political reality that Russian federation reserves the correct to defend itself, unilaterally, if need exist, and that the nation with the about powerful military in the world also has the political volition to use it, if information technology has no other choice and if it is forced to defend itself. This scenario has the best hope of long-term stability for the region, and fifty-fifty the possibility of a future re-integration of some parts of fundamental Ukraine with Novorussia.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of war criminals would probably escape to the West, at least for a while.
three) The 3rd plan, the Kyiv Program, would exist to become to Kyiv, which may or may not involve engaging in a major war. In the best case scenario for Russia, the U.S. and NATO would desert Ukraine in the face of a real fight and leave them on their own. Even if Ukraine did not capitulate in the first few hours, any bodily conflict could exist finished in a few days, and the procedure of de-Nazification and war crime trials could brainstorm. In an alternative scenario, the U.South. and NATO would launch air strikes and the state of war could devolve into a quagmire for Russia, with the risk of nuclear war intensifying.
My conventionalities is that the outcome of the open combat phase of the war would exist along the lines of the Kickoff Iraq State of war, (with 80% – 90% of Ukrainian soldiers surrendering without firing a shot) but the subsequent "occupation" would actually be a real liberation. With the removal of neo-Nazis and corrupt oligarchs from positions of power, and the improvement of life quality and life chances for a vast majority of the population, virtually Ukrainians (with the exception of the rabid fascists in Galicia or Poland) volition see the Russian Ground forces as their grandparents saw the Scarlet Regular army, as heroes and liberators from foreign occupation—which is exactly what they would exist.
This may be the least viable and least attractive of the 3 scenarios, just it is an option, and information technology would have the required effect of stopping the war crimes against Russian citizens and eliminating Ukraine as an existential threat correct on Russia's doorstep. It would also have the do good of the capture a large percentage of war criminals (Ukrainian and otherwise) as well as documents and evidence that might be of nifty interest to history, Russia and the world—an option worthy of serious consideration.
Of all iii of these plans, the 2d, the Novorussia Plan has the nigh do good at the least cost. Only going to the contact line in Donbass is not sufficient to resolve the festering Ukrainian trouble, and going all the way to Kyiv may well price more than information technology is worth. The Novorussia Plan resolves all critical bug at an acceptable cost, and tin can be implemented, if need be, every bit a second stage of the Donbass Plan.
With the Voronezh troops coming in through (or around) Kharkov, Airborne and amphibious troops landing in (or around) Odessa, the Rostov Ground forces coming up through Donbass, and the Crimean Regular army and Black Body of water Fleet working forth the coast, forth with the Bryansk Regular army waiting in reserve and ready to take Kyiv if required, the 700 Km Forepart, running from Kharkov to Odessa could be formed and held in a matter of days.
Once Russian fuel and human help starting time to flow to liberated Novorussia, grateful citizens will non merely not oppose Russian "occupation," they will support it as 18-carat liberation, and even be ready to defend it themselves from the cold and hungry Ukrainians who will be begging to be allowed to immigrate to Novorussia.
Incorrigible Nazis and war criminals volition be rounded upward, tried, and sentenced to work battalions in Donbass, to repair every single thing destroyed or damaged in the war, including the monument at Saur Mogila and all monuments to the Ruddy Army Liberators in the newly liberated lands of Novorussia. The majority of Russian soldiers will quickly be free to return to Russia, and leave the administration and protection of the newly liberated lands to their inhabitants.
-
Russians visiting Saur Mogila memorial to crimson Regular army soldiers who liberated Donetsk from the Nazis in World War I. [Source: inthefray.org] -
Separatist flags wing over ruins. [Source: inthefray.org]
Vladimir Putin has more than once recounted a lesson that he learned equally a youth on the tough streets of Leningrad."If the fight is inevitable, it is best to strike first."
If war indeed breaks out, the chief responsibility would balance with the U.S. which triggered the current mess through its sponsorship of the February 2014 insurrection in Ukraine and gave a green-lite for Ukraine to attack its Eastern provinces.
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About the Author
Russell Bentley is a former Texan who holds passports from Russia, the U.s.a. and the Donetsk People's Commonwealth.
Russell came to Donbass in 2014 and served in the VOSTOK Battalion and XAH Spetsnaz Battalion through 2015.
He and so transitioned into the Information War, equally a writer and video reporter, countering Western propaganda about the situation in Ukraine and Donbass.
He currently works as an accredited war correspondent in the DPR, is married and lives in a small business firm with a big garden, v Km from the frontline in the ongoing Donbass War.
Russell tin can be reached at: russellbbentley@gmail.com.
Source: https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/11/12/is-biden-looking-to-reignite-a-dirty-war-in-ukraine-recent-visit-by-u-s-defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-raises-concerns/