Black Thursday for Ukraine

[Doktor]

The violence is increasing. Kyiv hasn't seen anything like this since WWII.


The violence problem is twofold. On one pole are the über-nationalists who are trying to provoke the government into harsher crackdowns and thus greater rebellion. On the other pole are the 'titushki' which translates as thugs or provocateurs. They are paid young toughs from the Russian speaking parts of Ukraine who are bused into Kyiv by the government. Their purpose is to cause mayhem so the government can declare a state of emergency and impose ever harsher measures. The titushki usually wear black jackets. In the video above, it looks to me like titushki attacking the Berkut (riot police) with clubs.

This is already seen scenario in these neck of the woods. Frankly, I pity the police officers.

[zraver]

. On the other pole are the 'titushki' which translates as thugs or provocateurs. They are paid young toughs from the Russian speaking parts of Ukraine who are bused into Kyiv by the government. Their purpose is to cause mayhem so the government can declare a state of emergency and impose ever harsher measures. The titushki usually wear black jackets. In the video above, it looks to me like titushki attacking the Berkut (riot police) with clubs.

If you look close it looks like they have strings hanging out of their jackets.... strange they all seem to point towards Moscow.

[S2]

"...strange they all seem to point towards Moscow."

Not so strange at all and as a historian I understand you well know that already. Soviet divisions weren't hunting Ukrainian nationalists through the woods and swamps of the southern Prypet marshes until the early fifties if there wasn't a boatload of deeply-stored enmity already residing. This goes waaaaaay back.

Tsar Vlad has more fun. Only question is whether the next Tsaritsa is a hottie.

Me? Countin' on it.

[Minskaya]

Two have reportedly died of bullet wounds. It is not clear what type of bullets caused the fatalities. Many protesters report receiving a text message on their cellphones along the lines of "Subscriber: You have been identified as taking part in an unlawful demonstration." Yanukovych did not show up for a scheduled meeting with opposition leader Vitali Klitschko on Tuesday. A report in a Ukrainian daily says that there are now 80,000 Berkut in Kyiv and a major operation is immanent.

This goes waaaaaay back.

Yes it does. Animosity towards Russia is very strong in western Ukraine. An organization called the Right Sector (Patriot/Trident) is causing many problems in Kyiv. They are to the right of the Nazi-like Svoboda (Freedom) Party. Yanukovych is bad enough, but I would have to get my parents out of Ukraine if such highly anti-Semitic forces came to power.

[Doktor]

Whoever is burning the city should go to jail. For a long time. It is one thing to protest, it is totally another to turn the country into shambles.

In the other news, Ukraine bans foreigners over security situations.

EU bans Ukrainian politicians over crackdown.

I hope those of you who have friends and family there can contact them and that they are well and safe.

[S2]

"...I would have to get my parents out of Ukraine if such highly anti-Semitic forces came to power."

Just now I could imagine a number of contingencies that would trigger their departure. You are correct to point out the deep-seated anti-Semitism notorious to that region and I'm somewhat surprised that your parents are neither already in Israel or the states. I'm sure it's difficult for them to imagine leaving home.

My larger concern is a crisis acting as the basis for "fraternal allied forces" intervention. I'm certain that's lurking at the back of everybody's mind these days. It would likely blow up NATO. They'd go into full meltdown trying to decide how to respond.

[Doktor]

My larger concern is a crisis acting as the basis for "fraternal allied forces" intervention. I'm certain that's lurking at the back of everybody's mind these days. It would likely blow up NATO. They'd go into full meltdown trying to decide how to respond.

It's a police action. If it ever comes to army I believe UA has enough assets. Hope you are wrong and I am right.

[S2]

"It's a police action..."

On the surface? Yes.

There's more at play here, by far, than simply civil disobedience.

"...Hope you are wrong and I am right."

Of course. My thoughts regarding intervention border on sheer speculation and are at the far end of the crisis spectrum. Very unlikely for the immediate moment.

Russia, however, is no friend to an independent Ukraine. Nor, IMV, shall that change.

[snapper]

Today, on January 22, the Day of Unity of Ukraine, Yanukovych gave a command to use firearms against the euromaidaners. The first killed was Sergei Nihoyan that from the very beginning was on Maidan, then two more of Ukraine’s sons had fallen.

I ask everyone to pay their respects with a minute of silence.

I mourn all civilians along with their parents, along with everyone who feels this pain. Blood of these Heroes of Ukraine are on the hands of Yanukovych. He personally shot them while hes was reading out the greeting on the Day of Unity.

From that moment, when Yanukovych killed Sergei Nihoyan and our two boys, whose names we still do not know, he ceased to be president of Ukraine and became a murderer. After this he has no more right to occupy the presidency!

If we, ukrainians, forgive him this, then we deserve all that he will do to us next.

Ukrainian children of our own land, rise up for your children, your parents, for yourself! Do not let yourself continue to be killed! We no longer have any choice!

The question is hard: either they, or a free Ukraine. Either our murdered children, or the immediate death of a political dictatorship and its headers!

I appeal to all people of any Ukrainain uniform: do not take the blood of Ukrainians on your conscience. Neither work nor salary or straps are worth the death of your soul. I urge you to retire from the ranks of Yanukovich’s hired killers and take the side of the country. I know that your mothers pray for you and Ukraine, just like the mothers of daughters and sons that you kill and cripple.

Lay down your arms! Do not shoot at anyone who reads the poems of Shevchenko. As Sergey Nihoyan .

I appeal to the leaders of the democratic world with a request to open a second front against the dictatorship in Ukraine. The longer you postpone it , the more peaceful Ukrainians die on the battlefield for freedom.

Every minute lost you is paid by Ukrainian blood.

Ukrainian children of our holy land, rise up!

Do not permit free Ukraine to be killed, she will not stand without you today!

My heart is with you!

Yulia Tymoshenko
Kachanivska colony
Kharkiv
January 22nd, 2013

http://euromaidanpr.wordpress.com/20...vskogo-street/

[Minskaya]

So far, five dead and over 300 wounded. In a separate incident, an activist who was kidnapped from a Kyiv hospital last week has been found shot to death in a forest. The opposition has given Yanukovych 24 hours to meet their demands.

Ukraine is sliding towards the unthinkable... dictatorship and civil war.

[Minskaya]

You are correct to point out the deep-seated anti-Semitism notorious to that region and I'm somewhat surprised that your parents are neither already in Israel or the states.

They are safe where they are for now. Zaporozhye is in the relatively calm southeast and is a Russian speaking city where the far right is marginalized.

[S2]

Certainly I write as a complete outsider, lacking the nuanced understanding of players, political parties and ephemeral news of the moment. That mea culpa offered, it's clear we're witnessing Russia exercising to the extent feasible their will in both Belarus and Ukraine. Fair to say both are viewed as strategic imperatives anchoring Russian external security as physical buffers to the west.

International socialist solidarity may be a faux ideal relegated to the past, even in the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately in Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine it's been increasingly replaced by the more mundane neo-right repressive autocrats. No high-minded words erected as some façade offered to a brighter future. Nope. Just good old-fashioned fascism by any other name.

Preparedness to act decisively (if perhaps impulsively, brutally and crudely) regarding these core interests, therefore, would conform with a very classic and, evidently, enduring Russian worldview. I'm confident any Russian government that can choose interventions on Chechnya and Georgia would easily, if rashly, reach the same regarding Ukraine-with or without invitation.

Chechnya was a clear miscalculation. Georgia not so much. There's evidence to support either side within any internal Russian debate. Choosing intervention would be an irrevocable rejection of all (any?) democratic progress made in the former Soviet Republics since 1990.

The marriage to western values and interests has long been teetering and tenuous. Intervention would topple it altogether. Seems a tad closer than this morning.

[Mihais]

It's a police action. If it ever comes to army I believe UA has enough assets. Hope you are wrong and I am right.

UA is as divided as the rest.Any movement could well resemble what the JNA did in Slovenia.It's lack of readiness nothwithstanding.
Also,much depends on what the merry boys from Poland,Germany and Russia will do.

[NUS]

So far, five dead and over 300 wounded. Ukraine is sliding towards the unthinkable...

Oh, come on, why the drama?
It was easy to predict.
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/eur...tml#post941652

Though it is funny to see you being pro-Maidan and hiding your parents in safe pro-Russian parts of country.

[Minskaya]

Though it is funny to see you being ero-Maidan and hiding your parents in safe pro-Russian parts of country.

Hiding my parents? You're an asshole NUS. My mother was born there and has lived in Zaporozhye all her life.