With
Ukraine rolling out a murderous ethnic cleansing campaign in its
Donbass region on the Russian border, the Russian government has
responded with restraint. The new provision of arms to Ukraine by the
U.S. will likely change that — and start a proxy war more dangerous
than Syria’.
by
Whitney Webb
Part
2 - U.S., as it faces off with Russia in Ukraine, wading into
ethnic-cleansing waters
Mattis’
visit comes amid an uptick in violence in Ukraine’s internal
conflict, which dates back to the U.S.-backed coup of 2014 that saw
the right-wing billionaire Petro Poroshenko installed as President
along with the ascendancy of Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi and
ultra-nationalist parties — Right Sector and Svoboda, respectively
– to political prominence.
Since the
coup, the new ruling powers of Ukraine have engaged in a campaign to
target Ukraine’s eastern regions, where Russian culture and
language are strong, as they do not conform to the ultra-nationalism
espoused by the post-coup government in Kiev.
The region
at the heart of the current conflict, the Donbass, falls completely
within Poroshenko’s counter-terrorism zone, despite the fact that
it is home to more than 5 million people who are now branded
terrorists by the government in Kiev. Poroshenko’s government has
been supported in this counter-terrorism operation by the U.S., which
has given non-lethal aid and military training to the Ukrainian
military over the last few years. However, this is now set to change
with the Pentagon’s push to deliver “lethal weaponry” —
including anti-aircraft weapons and Javelin missiles — to the
Ukrainian government.
The
government campaign to quell the civilian uprising in the Donbass
region has been brutal, claiming over 10,000 lives according to UN
estimates cited by the Wall Street Journal. The Ukrainian government
has been rather frank regarding the intentions of this operation,
stating that it specifically targets civilians in order “to
clean the cities.”
Clean the
cities of what exactly? According to an interview aired by the
U.S.-funded, pro-government Ukrainian news channel Hromadske TV, the
Donbass is home to around 1.5 million people “who are superfluous”
and “must be exterminated.” These “superfluous” Ukrainian
citizens were called “subhumans” in 2016 by then-Prime Minister
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, also dubbed “Washington’s man in Ukraine.”
Given the
stated intention to literally “exterminate” over a million of its
people, it is hardly surprising that there has been an uprising in
Donbass seeking to stop the planned genocide against them. The forces
battling the ethnic cleansing of their people are mostly from the
local population, bolstered by Cossack forces as well as volunteers
from Russia. The Russian government’s influence is minimal, despite
Western and Ukrainian media narratives, as Russian President Vladimir
Putin has publicly stated that the Donbass must remain part of
Ukraine and has rejected requests from separatists in the region to
become part of Russia.
Yet now,
with the U.S. seeking to arm the Ukrainian government in their ethnic
cleansing campaign, the violence is undoubtedly set to escalate, with
civilian deaths certain to result. Though the Pentagon claims that
the lethal weaponry it plans to provide is “defensive” in nature,
Mattis’ plan to visit — and its stated purpose of reassuring
Ukraine of the U.S. commitment to restoring Ukraine’s “territorial
integrity” — makes it clear this is not the case. Instead, it
shows that the U.S. seeks to enable the Ukrainian government to bring
not only the Donbass, but also Crimea, into the fold of the
government in Kiev. This, after all, is Poroshenko’s stated goal.
Source,
links:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/frustrated-syria-us-turns-ukraine-next-russian-proxy-war-gambit/231181/
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