1 Jun 2014
BELLA CIAO FOR DONBASS RESISTANCE
This video with the famous song is dedicated to Donbass (Donetsk, Lugansk) Resistance, and shows the continuity of anti-fascist struggle while featuring Italian and Soviet partisans during the WW2, as well as Cuban and Zapatista guerillas.
5 May 2014
Behind the Masks in Ukraine, Many Faces of Rebellion
New York Times
By C. J. CHIVERS and NOAH SNEIDER MAY 3, 2014
Pro-Russian militiamen in the backyard of their base in Slovyansk, in eastern Ukraine, last week. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — The rebel leader spread a topographic map in front of a closed grocery store here as a Ukrainian military helicopter flew past a nearby hill. Ukrainian troops had just seized positions along a river, about a mile and a half away. The commander thought they might advance.
He issued orders with the authority of a man who had seen many battles. “Go down to the bridge and set up the snipers,” the leader, who gave only a first name, Yuri, said to a former Ukrainian paratrooper, who jogged away.
Yuri commands the 12th Company, part of the self-proclaimed People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic, a previously unknown and often masked rebel force that since early April has seized government buildings in eastern Ukraine and, until Saturday, held prisoner a team of European military observers it accused of being NATO spies.
His is one of the faces behind the shadowy paramilitary takeover. But even with his mask off, much about his aims, motivations and connections remains murky, illustrating why this expanding conflict is still so complex.
Yuri, who appears to be in his mid-50s, is in many ways an ordinary eastern Ukrainian of his generation. A military veteran, he survived the Soviet collapse to own a small construction business in Druzhkovka, about 15 miles south of here. (Read more below the cut...)
By C. J. CHIVERS and NOAH SNEIDER MAY 3, 2014
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — The rebel leader spread a topographic map in front of a closed grocery store here as a Ukrainian military helicopter flew past a nearby hill. Ukrainian troops had just seized positions along a river, about a mile and a half away. The commander thought they might advance.
He issued orders with the authority of a man who had seen many battles. “Go down to the bridge and set up the snipers,” the leader, who gave only a first name, Yuri, said to a former Ukrainian paratrooper, who jogged away.
Yuri commands the 12th Company, part of the self-proclaimed People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic, a previously unknown and often masked rebel force that since early April has seized government buildings in eastern Ukraine and, until Saturday, held prisoner a team of European military observers it accused of being NATO spies.
His is one of the faces behind the shadowy paramilitary takeover. But even with his mask off, much about his aims, motivations and connections remains murky, illustrating why this expanding conflict is still so complex.
Yuri, who appears to be in his mid-50s, is in many ways an ordinary eastern Ukrainian of his generation. A military veteran, he survived the Soviet collapse to own a small construction business in Druzhkovka, about 15 miles south of here. (Read more below the cut...)
25 Feb 2014
Ukraine Defragmented: Sevastopol is Fighting Against the Coup
Historical Background: Sevastopol, having the status of the Russian Hero City (The Crimean War, The II World War)
In February 1954, Khrushchev transferred the Crimean Oblast to Ukraine, with Sevastopol retaining a special status as a Russian naval base - so with the transfer Sevastopol remained under Russia's protectorate. Over the past twenty years, in independent Ukraine, the city still retained its special status. Nevertheless, the new authorities in Kiev (better say, the "junta") who performed the February 2014 coup lead by Stefan Bandera ideas, are planning to include Sevastopol into the Ukrainian territory.
The people of Sevastopol started fighting against the Ukrainian Coup, they do not recognize the Kiev junta, and create their own city authorities and self-defense committee. In this way, Sevastopol recognized that its heroic traditions still live in people's memory.
A people's meeting in Sevastopol against the Ukrainian Coup
In February 1954, Khrushchev transferred the Crimean Oblast to Ukraine, with Sevastopol retaining a special status as a Russian naval base - so with the transfer Sevastopol remained under Russia's protectorate. Over the past twenty years, in independent Ukraine, the city still retained its special status. Nevertheless, the new authorities in Kiev (better say, the "junta") who performed the February 2014 coup lead by Stefan Bandera ideas, are planning to include Sevastopol into the Ukrainian territory.
The people of Sevastopol started fighting against the Ukrainian Coup, they do not recognize the Kiev junta, and create their own city authorities and self-defense committee. In this way, Sevastopol recognized that its heroic traditions still live in people's memory.
A people's meeting in Sevastopol against the Ukrainian Coup
(Translator note: “Bandera Followers” used in the article is
referred to the ultra radical far right organizations and parties, that
currently constitute the muscle of “Maidan”. Stephan Bandera was the notorious
head of UPA – a military arm of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which
collaborated closely with Nazis during the WWII and continued fighting against
the USSR until mid-fiftie). During that time UPA participated in numerous acts
of genocide against Jewish, Polish , Russian and even Ukrainian population).
Currently in the most countries of the post USSR - “bandera followers” is equal
to “fascist” much like “hitleryte”=”nazi”.)
Today, I attended the “anti-Bandera” meeting in Sevastopol.
Never expected it could be so great. Initially I estimated that there were
around 5-10 thousand people present, but later count showed that the meeting
was attended by 20-25 thousand. And this in the city where the average
political gathering has never been larger than a few dozen (or sometimes a few
hundred) people. Today, Sevastopol truly rose and showed the largest
“anti-Bandera” meeting in its own post-Soviet history, but the largest one on
the whole South-East of Ukraine.
The threat of fascism united us all. The meeting was
supported by almost all city’s political organizations, some of which had
completely opposite different views on other issues. There were flags of
Russia, Russian Empire, Communist Party, “Russian Block” and of other patriotic
organizations. There were also portraits of Stalin, Victory flags and flags of
Soviet Navy. Bandera’s followers (fascists) managed to distract various people
with different political beliefs from their usual bickering, and separate them
from their comfortable couches, and to come out and voice their opinion in the streets.
Hopefully it will be heard in Kiev. Those Bandera followers were awfully proud
that they managed to collect 20 thousand on Maidan in a multimillion Kiev and
claimed that they represented the will of the whole country. Sevastopol has now
shown how many people can really be gathered in a relatively small city, if the
final goal was clear and people were ready to fight for it.
READ MORE ABOUT THE DECISION OF THE MEETING
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