Posted on 01/23/2014 6:47:09 PM PST by annalex
Two significant recent developments are:
1. First fatalities, apparently from live ammunition, among the demonstrators.
Injuries, including serious injuries are in the hundreds if not in the thousands. The rubber bullet can gouge an eye and therefore, at a right angle can be itself fatal. The sun grenades reportedly rip through flesh if the explosion is next to it. Ironically, neither of the two confirmed fatalities are Ukrainian: one is an Armenian from Eastern Ukraine; the other is a Belorussian resident of Ukraine.
I suspect injuries among the military police. Watch, for example, how stoically they take Molotov cocktails; this has to leave marks.
This is a long series of photos showing the combat technology.
Much more on this topic, and in full resolution available, is in Zyalts blog
This Israeli blogger believes the fatalities were on order form the Kremlin. Yanukovich was ready to compromise with the protesters, so Putin made sure that, with mass shedding of blood, Yanukovich has no game left but toe the Kremlins line.
2. Other regions, naturally, in the West, are rising as well.
The country is divided, fuzzily, in two parts: ethnically Ukrainian West and mixed Russian-Ukrainian East. This blogger, Basmanov, writes in Russian and for Russians:
If you are a TV watcher, and think that the Russian Federation is your state and that the power structure of Putin pederasts [common swear in Russian] is for you, or if you are simply a fool, quit reading now. This is the material for them who understand that the Russians are an oppressed nation in the RF, its land is long since occupied and it is still to be re-conquered in the future. There is no other road for us: against the background of the Russians dying off, the mass foreign colonization policy conducted by the RF government is death to our people. So the question is stark: either the Russians throw out the power that be or the power that be slowly destroys out people. It is not important if you support Yanukovich or not. The technology is important. Learn carefully. When it is time to give a fight to the anti-Russian regime that seized power in RF and is oppressing our nation, you will approximately know what to do.
A news roundup follows with links:
We live in interesting times, folks.
It is though a fight that very much involves the strategy game to avoid a direct involvement of NATO air force. So, yeah, McCain is a player, -- the one both sides want to stay out.
They don't have live ammunition, and are trained to withstand getting torched: observe the men with fire extinguishers nearby. The dynamics is, I think, dictated by adopting the Intifada model in order not to get into a Libya model. Violence is intentionally moderated on both sides.
I would be worried too, but the rise of national consciousness is encouraging in any nation. It would be encouraging in ours.
Not entirely true...
That is not really a problem. Ukraine, at least the western part, wants to inoculate itself against any re-unification with Russia and generally and pull into Asia. That they already have accomplished.
Do you realize that the Western part is the least productive and practically the welfare state paid by the East?
I was also puzzled by the intensity of the protest against what amounted to a bad trade deal with the European Union, so I started looking into it. The so-called revolution which is being presented as 'spontaneous' and 'pro-democracy', was in fact planned well in advance as a pre-election tactic and is being carried out by militant National Socialists from western Ukraine.
Now rather than compete in upcoming elections against an incumbent President who has lowered gas prices, restructured the government balance sheet, and raised the country's bond rating to attract investors, the divided 'pro-democracy' crowd has decided to attempt a putsch.
The real irony is that if this type of civil disruption (rocks, clubs, fire bombs, etc.) were to take place in any western democratic nation, the government crackdown would be swift and harsh.
Link at #47: Protestors are piling up car tires in the neutral zone.
The Soviets heavily invested in the Eastern part of Ukraine.
Much of Western Ukraine was Polish before the war, the Poles were evicted and replaced with Tartars and others the Soviets deemed unworthy to live in the more prosperous Eastern part.
Well, Soviets annexed rather huge part of Germany into Poland to compensate, moving the Poles in. I think the majority of Poles involved has clearly benefited from this deal (Germans not so much).
Ah right. I’m slowly learning, over many years, how much planning goes into these spontaneous revolts. Wish I could remember which one was centered on a bulldozer.
And yes, part of my puzzlement comes from wondering why the first person to set a cop on fire wasn’t shot dead in seconds.
The Germans were beneficiaries of The Marshall Plan.
Poles got "The Marshall Stalin Plan"
BFL
I have friends in Ukraine too, and that is how they describe the situation also. Very dangerous and volatile situation. They say the government has 1000s of hired mercenaries stirring up trouble. Also that the government has tracked the cell phone numbers of all who congregated in the square and warned them (via text) that they are known to have been in the square and are subject to arrest at any time. There has been much violence by the government and secret arrests of people. Very Stalinist actions.
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