As it’s been reported by Russian media sources, on the night of August 8, two Ukrainian special forces squads attempted to breach Russia’s national border in the Crimea. This operation was organized by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, using armored vehicles to provided fire support to its operatives. Two Russian soldiers were killed in the firefight that followed, but Russian border guards managed to capture seven Ukrainian operatives alive. Those operatives have already given incriminating testimonies, revealing that the goal of their operation was to carry out acts sabotage and terrorist attacks that were aimed at destabilizing the situation in the region during the pre-election period. To achieve this goal they were instructed to lay land mines on the Simferopol – Yalta highway to assassinate local elected officials who travel on this road often. The Ukrainian special forces squad carried a large number of weapons and explosives, media sources say.
Two days later, in anofficial statement, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced that Kiev would be better off seeking a peaceful solution to the situation in the Donbass region instead of trying to launch terrorist attacks in Russia.
This incident was preceded by an assassination attempt committed by a similar special ops group that tried to kill the head of the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic, Igor Plotnitsky who barely survived the attack. Kiev has repeatedly used fascist elements to commit acts of violence against the Crimean people and cutting off power. Such groups have also been operating on a regular basis in the Donbass region, which results in heavy civilian casualties. These fact show that we’re not witnessing an isolated act of aggression, but a continuous state of terrorism which Ukraine has been using against Russia and the ethnic Russian population in the Donbass region.
According to Putin, both the EU and the US must take practical steps to hold Kiev authorities accountable, since the sponsors of the sitting Ukrainian government are to decide whether they want Kiev to commit criminal acts of aggression or engage in peaceful dialogue with the people of Donbass.
It’s hardly a secret that Ukraine has long become a center for illegal arms trade, while various terrorist groups from various region of the world have been finding safe heavens in this deteriorating state. This fact has been openly admitted by Reuters. The publication would claim that small arms are being sold both in the territory controlled by militias and the territory occupied by Ukrainian security forces. Those guns are then being smuggled to the North Caucasus, the Middle East and Europe. Illegal deliveries are being shipped through the port of Odessa, then to the Balkans and the North Caucasus. Similar reports have been published by the Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger.
It is noteworthy that it was the United States that became the largest arms supplier to Ukraine, notes the UAWire, adding the military equipment shipped to Kiev was worth 117.5 million dollars. This information has been confirmed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence. It should be noted that back in November, when Barack Obama signed the US defense budget for 2016, he allowed for the shipment of up to 300 million dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine, if the administration deems it necessary. The list of possible deliveries included small weapons, munitions, drones, anti-tank weapons and mortars.
It’s been officially confirmed that 18 other states, most of which are NATO members, handed over 164.1 million dollars worth of weapons. Moreover, there’s reports that Washington used military contractors to ship even more weapons to Ukraine secretly, to avoid the criticism of those states that refused to send lethal weapons to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s strengthening ties with various terrorist groups, including even ISIS, isn’t much of a secret to anyone, since Ukrainian security services openly admitted at the end of last year that they were providing safe heavens for ISIS militants when they need rest, medical assistance or documents to cross borders.
Looking at the mild reaction in Washington to these events, one can’t help having the impression that the US decided to transform Ukraine in a sort of Afghanistan, while replacing Al-Qaeda it officially supported back in the Cold War days, with Nazi fighters today. Therefore, Kiev is actively encouraged to embark on various campaigns of state-sponsored terrorism which can possibly lead to more disastrous consequences. We all remember how well US support for Al-Qaeda ended for Washington, with thousands of Americans dying during the 9/11 attacks. But the damage that the fascists in Ukraine can inflict on Europe is yet to be witnessed, yet it’s unlikely that it would be any less damage than has already been done by Al-Qaeda or ISIS, especially if we are to take into consideration the dire economic situation in Ukraine which may push certain members of the local population toward smuggling weapons or launching terrorist attacks in exchange for even a moderate financial reward.
Martin Berger is a freelance journalist and geopolitical analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”