Russian tank units conducted exercises in the aftermath of the fascist coup in neighboring Ukraine. The coup in Kiev was engineered by the United States., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Russian troops ordered home from surprise war games
March 04, 2014 06:06
Rt.com
President Putin has ordered troops sent last week to a surprise military exercise in western and central Russia to return to their bases.
Putin ordered the return after a Defense Ministry report, which said the exercises have been conducted successfully, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media.
The surprise military drills in Russia’s central and western territorial commands were launched last Wednesday.
They involved 150,000 troops, 90 aircraft, 880 armor, 80 warships and other hardware.
On Monday the last phase of the drill was witnessed by Putin, who visited the Kirillovsk military range in Leningrad region in north-western Russia.
During the phase the 138th Mechanized Brigade of the Sixth Army of the Western Military District and the 104th Guards Airborne Regiment of the 76th Guards Airborne Division engaged in tactical war games. They demonstrated in the field their capabilities to maneuver and cripple enemy logistics, communication and control before a direct offensive.
The finale was somewhat spoilt by a heavy snow storm, which made a planned deployment of airborne troops too risky.
The exercises, which came amid a political crisis in Ukraine, were taken as a sign of a possible massive military incursion by some Russia watchers in the West.
Such drills, however, are called on a regular basis in Russia, with the previous one conducted in July in the east of the country.
Russia is currently under criticism from Western powers after the senate approved the sending of troops to Ukraine if needed to protect civilians from possible violence.
Moscow is concerned that radical extremists, who helped oust President Yanukovich and put in power the current self-proclaimed government in Kiev, may target regions in eastern and southern Ukraine, which refused to take orders from the new central authorities.
Western powers see the stance as aggressive and violating international law. Moscow denies the allegations, saying it is only concerned with protection of human rights in an unstable Ukraine and with the fate of ethnic Russians living there.
Kiev snipers hired by Maidan leaders - leaked EU's Ashton phone tape
March 05, 2014 12:41
Rt.com
The snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were allegedly hired by Maidan leaders, according to a leaked phone conversation between the EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian foreign affairs minister, which has emerged online.
“There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition,” Urmas Paet said during the conversation.
“I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh,” Ashton answered.
The call took place after Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet visited Kiev on February 25, following the peak of clashes between the pro-EU protesters and security forces in the Ukrainian capital.
Paet also recalled his conversation with a doctor who treated those shot by snipers in Kiev. She said that both protesters and police were shot at by the same people.
“And second, what was quite disturbing, this same Olga [Bogomolets] told as well that all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and then people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides,” the Estonian FM stressed.
Ashton reacted to the information by saying: “Well, yeah…that’s, that’s terrible.”
“So that she then also showed me some photos she said that as a medical doctor she can say that it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it’s really disturbing that now the new coalition, that they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened,” Paet said.
Olga Bogomolets was the main doctor for the Maidan mobile clinic when protests turned violent in Kiev. She treated the gravely injured and helped organized their transportation to neighboring countries, who had expressed a willingness to treat those with severe wounds. From the outset, Olga blamed the injuries and deaths on snipers. She turned down the position of Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for Humanitarian Affairs offered by the coup-appointed regime.
The Estonian FM has described the whole sniper issue as “disturbing” and added, “it already discredits from the very beginning” the new Ukrainian power.
His overall impressions of what he saw during his one-day trip to Kiev are “sad,” Paet said during the conversation.
He stressed that the Ukrainian people don’t trust the Maidan leaders, with all the opposition politicians slated to join the new government “having dirty past.”
The file was reportedly uploaded to the web by officers of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to ousted President Viktor Yanukovich who hacked Paet’s and Ashton’s phones.
94 people were killed and another 900 injured during the standoff between police and protesters at Maidan Saquare in Kiev last month.
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