Free Republic

In the absence of effective military forces or law enforcement, Ukrainians are taking the defense of the nation in their own hands through loosely organized militias. One of them popped up in a YouTube video on May 2. Although the group was unidentified, the clip was posted by a pro-Ukrainian group of former military and law enforcement officers, calling themselves the Donbass Volunteer Battalion. The video shows men armed with Kalashnikov rifles and clad in black ninja outfits dismantling a Kremlin-backed roadblock near Krasnoarmiysk in western Donetsk Oblast. The national warriors also claim that 15 pro-Russian rebels were handed over...

Latvian MEP Tatjana Zdanoka urged her colleagues to support her motion to put the Ukranian radical group Right Sector on the terrorist organizations list, reports ITAR-TASS. ...

Fox News reported yesterday that Kiev is sending an "elite National Guard" to Odessa, and today the International Business Times reported that Kiev is sending an "elite National Guard" to Slavyansk. Who makes up the ranks of this elite National Guard when Vice News reported on March 19, 2014 - in their article "A look Inside Ukraine's Volunteer National Guard" - and in it said then that Ukraine had - by its own admission - only 6,000 combat-ready troops? Looks like Kiev didn't/doesn't have a pot to even... much less an "elite National Guard." BTW, Vice News was the news...

At least 38 anti-government activists died in fire at Odessa’s Trade Unions House after suffocating with smoke or jumping out of windows of the burning building, Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported. The building was set ablaze by the pro-Kiev radicals. [WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT INSIDE] Some 50 people, including 10 police officers, were also injured in the incident, the official statement said. It was not immediately clear whether those injured in Friday street clashes in Odessa were included in those numbers. According to the ministry, the Friday standoff on Odessa included “anti-Maidan” activists on one side and “football fans” from Odessa and...

At least 38 people have been killed in a fire in an official building amid clashes in Odessa, in south west Ukraine, local police say. ...

People in eastern Ukraine are not pro-Russian, they want a united and federalized Ukraine, a Finlandized Ukraine that is equally distant from the EU, NATO and Russia, and they are being confronted by guns, investigative journalist Pepe Escobar told RT. RT: We're now seeing Kiev deploying the military against its own people. Do you think the situation requires that? Pepe Escobar: No, of course not. Flashback, it’s very important. A few days ago John Brennan, head of the CIA, goes to Kiev, they launch an anti-terrorist operation. It’s a huge failure. A few days later US Vice-President Joe Biden goes...

<p>The Right Sector played a leading role in January's violent anti-Yanukovych protests in Kiev.</p> <p>The Right Sector is the most radical wing of Ukraine's Maidan protest movement that toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in February.</p> <p>Activists claiming to be Right Sector members were involved in Kiev's Maidan protests [link at URL] from late November but the group did not attract much attention until violent clashes with police in central Kiev on 19 January, in which it played a leading role.</p>

A collection of photographs that Ukraine says shows the presence of Russian forces in the eastern part of the country, and which the United States cited as evidence of Russian involvement, has come under scrutiny. The photographs were submitted by Ukraine last week to the Organization for Security and Cooperation, an organization in Vienna that has been monitoring the situation in Ukraine. Some of the photographs were also provided by American officials to Secretary of State John Kerry so he could show them when he met in Geneva last Thursday with his counterparts from the European Union, Russia, and Ukraine....

Published on Mar 8, 2014 This film is the first attempt to analyze the events of the past three months, which taking place in Ukraine. Famous people who unrelated to politics, tell about the events in the country. Speakers: Oksana Zabuzhko, writer Oleksandr Sydorenko ("Fozzi"), writer, musician Andriy Kurkov, writer Nina Matvienko, singer, Hero of Ukraine Olha Bohomolets, doctor, public activist Andriy Kuzmenko ("Skryabin"), writer, musician Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Head of Ukrainian Greco-Сatholic Church Filaret, Head of Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchy) Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, musician, public activist Myron Markevych, Football coach Oleksiy Mochanov, racer "Революція гідності", оригінальна версія українською мовою: http://youtu.be/qukYAlUHX6k...

In an interesting interview [link at URL] to the New York Review of Books, George Soros shared his ideas on many topics including Europe, Russia and the Ukranian crisis. He also presented his new book [link at URL] The tragedy of the European Union: Disintegration or Revival? Whether one agrees or disagrees with Soro's interpretations and arguments, it is hard to deny that the interview is extremely insightful and gives a lot of food for thought. I offer a discussion of the part of the interview devoted to Ukraine. George Soros emphasized the necessity of a large-scale technical and financial...

Obama waited too long to help the Syrian FSA against the monstrous Assad regime. When some sort of intervention was talked about: (bombing, indirect support, arms, etc) it was TOO late to help, and it would most likely have helped (either directly or indirectly) terroristic elements and possibly Al Qaeda elements which had taken the lead in Syria against Assad. NO WAY ON DOING THAT. PERIOD. And, once again, it is too late to help the Ukrainians against the thug Putin. (strike one against helping them). And as long as the Ukrainian gov't hasn't ran Svoboda and Right Sector and...

With tensions rising ever faster in eastern Ukraine, the anti-government (pro-Russia) movement in Donetsk has taken dramatic steps to bolster itself by creating a "people's army," or National Army of Donetsk. As RT reports, masked men, who are mostly civil volunteers, but also police and army defectors, say they “defend their motherland from the fascist army that’s going to kill them.” They also demand “a referendum to be independent from Kiev” and are in favor of “being with Russia.” The Ukraine forces are moving in on Donetsk...

(KIEV, Ukraine) — Crowds of pro-Russian demonstrators stormed government buildings Sunday in two major cities in eastern Ukraine, where secessionist sentiment has sparked frequent protests since Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president was ousted in February. In Luhansk, 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of the Russian border, hundreds of people surrounded the local headquarters of the security service and later scaled the facade to plant a Russian flag on the roof. In Donetsk, to the southwest, a large group of people surged into the provincial government building and smashed windows. A gathering of several hundred, many of them waving Russian flags, then listened...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against moving "overtly or covertly" into eastern Ukraine and said there was strong evidence that pro-Russian demonstrators in the region were being paid.

KIEV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian government dispatched its highest-level police and security officials to the eastern part of the country Monday in an effort to put down separatist violence described as inspired by Russia and following a script that played out in Crimea. “The plan is to destabilize the situation,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told an emergency cabinet meeting Monday morning. “The plan is for foreign troops to cross the border and seize the country’s territory, which we will not allow.” On Sunday, pro-Russian demonstrations in the eastern cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk that had been orderly the last...

The relative calm of the last two weeks as US talking-heads proclaim Ukraine 'fixed', Russia 'under control', and Europe 'recovering' is being obliterated this morning. The storming of various non-Crimean Ukrainian city government buildings suggest round two of the push is beginning and Russia is wasting no time explaining how this will go down. Russian Senator Viktor Ozerov stated that "Russia has no right to [send peacekeepers] unilaterally" to Eastern and Southern Ukraine (unless the UN agrees)... but... "Russia is interested in stability in Ukraine. At the same time, the will of the people must be documented. A referendum is...

Pro-Russian protesters who seized the regional government building in Donetsk, Ukraine are reported to have declared a "people's republic". Footage online showed a Russian speaker telling the assembly "I proclaim the creation of the sovereign state of the People's Republic of Donetsk." The rebels are reported to have called a referendum on forming a new republic. Earlier on Monday, protesters seized state security buildings in both Donetsk and Luhansk. SNIP From the Wall Street Journal:On Monday, the occupying protesters proclaimed the creation of the "Donetsk People's Republic," ruled by the self-declared "Supreme Soviet," the Interfax news agency reported. The protesters...

Law enforcement agencies have established individuals who participated in the seizure of administrative buildings of the Donetsk Regional State Administration and SBU in the Donetsk region. This was announced by Attorney Nicholas Frantovskyy Donetsk region, the press service of the Prosecutor's Office. "At present, law enforcement agencies established individuals who participated in the riots. Measures are all necessary steps to apprehend the offenders," - he said. "Action without exception all the participants in the events will provide a fundamental legal assessment" - added Frantovskyy . "I emphasize that each recorded a violation of the law and the investigators examined all...

<p>The U.S. and Europe have been emphatic in their support of the new Ukrainian government – but a significant number of Washington's new bedfellows are members of what some experts class as extreme right-wing parties.</p> <p>When Sen. John McCain traveled to Kiev in December, he told the crowd of 200,000 on Independence Square: "The free world is with you, America is with you, I am with you."</p>

Three people, including deputy head of the Kiev city state administration Bogdan Dubas, were wounded in a shooting incident in the Ukrainian capital’s center near the Mafia restaurant on Monday, Kiev police told Itar-Tass. The shooting was started by an activist of the Right Sector far-right group, Ukrainian parliament-appointed Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said Monday. “A Right Sector activist started shooting near the Mafia caf·. Three people were wounded, including two of them seriously. The wounded are two Maidan self-defense soldiers and Kiev city administration deputy head Bogdan Dubas,” Avakov said. “The reasons for the shooting are unknown. The wounded...