Deputy Prime Minister Yarema Says Several Hundred Russian Troops In Ukraine

[big_dog]

Source: The Kiev Post

Yarema: Russia's 45th Airborne Regiment operating in eastern Ukraine

5:54 p.m. – While attending the funeral of a slain SBU captain in Poltava today, First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema said several hundred armed Russian military soldiers are in Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv oblasts who were covertly and gradually sent there over a long period of time, reported local online news source Poltavashchyna.

“Right now, they’ve concentrated their strength in Krasniy Lyman, Horlivka, Kramatorsk and Slovyansk (all in Donetsk Oblast); the terrorists are committing violent acts against police officers and are taking over government buildings,” said Yarema.

According to the minister, it has been determined that some are from the 45th Airborne Regiment of the Russian army based near Moscow.

The Kremlin still maintains that none of its troops are in Ukraine and that it isn’t behind the terrorist acts in eastern Ukraine that have left government buildings in 10 cities occupied and at least one SBU officer dead, including nine injured, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. – Mark Rachkevych

Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/turchynov-anti-terrorist-operation-has-begun-in-northern-donetsk-343563.html

[chillfactor]

1. Putin bound and determined....

to start a war....................

[big_dog]

5. Putins showing his hand finally

If Russian troops are entering Ukraine, 45th VDV Recon makes sense. Elite of the Russia Airborne Troops

[Bosonic]

2. Tweet from UK reporter inside Sloviansk SBU compound

From inside the occupied SBU compound I can say this - those guys are carrying serious, I mean serious arms, expecting war at any moment.

https://twitter.com/GrahamWP_UK/status/456091209434664960

[big_dog]

10. live report

http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-57-on-the-edge-of-war/

[TwilightGardener]

3. Ukraine knows it's being invaded, no matter how much leeway is given

to "protesters", no matter how many concessions it makes. They might as well make it bloody and costly and make Russia look like the aggressor it is.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Headline needs to match the link.

Ukrainian troops in control of Donetsk Oblast's Kramatorsk airfield, surround Sloviansk; Ukrainian deputy prime minister says several hundred Russian troops in Ukraine (LIVE UPDATES)

[big_dog]

7. fixed, thanks

n/t

[dipsydoodle]

11. You're welcome

Its possible that Kiev Post will keep changing the headline on the same link. If they do then maybe add a note to the OP to that effect.

[freshwest]

14. Yes, that was confusing. I thought the Russians admitted to it. The only way to verify the claim...

is to capture and identify the people in question. It doesn't look as if that's going to happen.

And having a BBC reporter chiming in does bolster the veracity slightly. I hope the reporter doesn't end up a casualty during whatever is coming.

It's going to be very hard to resist them splitting Ukraine as it's been part of Russia longer than it was separate from them, AFAIK.

I do not approve (as if that made any difference) of the tactics employed. They are not the actions of a popular protest or even asking for local control. This could wait until May 25th, but it appears the native born Russia supporters in Ukraine and the Russian nationals who embedded themselves, intend to weigh the scales irreparably against national Ukrainian rule.

Americans have our brand of such who would employ such tactics, and are using any opportunity to do so. All funded by oligarches like the Koches, carrying the banner of the GOP, Tea Party and Libertarians, wanting secession, cheered on by conservative media.

It's why they love Putin, he's doing what they want to do to the USA. Same economic strategy, same messaging. It's not Communism in either place, that's a canard to appeal to those living in Fauxland. Glennbeckistan is clearer to the real values that they loves about Russia, capitalism and oligarchy and theocratic influence.

In all parts of the world, including the USA, the method is the same and works like clockwork. Find an enemy or list of enemies that you really don't care about to galvanize the willfully ignorant, attack civil society first by plunder and then by weaponry.

Dark days are ahead here if people don't wake up and stop fighting ourselves. Taking the bait over the contrived enemies without looking where the nihilism leads to in the future. The good do not always prevail, and some think they can get by through not choosing anything or the lesser of the two evils, as they say. When people have not chosen, they have made a choice to let others run the country, and the status quo reaps the benefit. Just because some parts of the status quo now favor the many, clearly not all of them do:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024806298

They are close to getting this done now, the public mind is split in B&W thinking and letting them do it.

As far as what is happening in Ukraine, we don't want the power of the military set loose in this country the way it's going down there, but after a while, with so many armed fanatics about, that's the only thing that will maintain order. The oligarchs are working to provoke a civil war here, as a defunded government will not risk it, and if they get their civil war, they will swoon in and take it all. In the meantime, they continue their war of attrition by starvation of the people's government, and many on both sides of the political divide cheer them on as they have been taught to be fearful and scream they may lose their freedom. They unwittingly support the oligarchy and theocrats, the fall back rulers in any civil war if government does not win the conflict.

I suspect part of the reason Putin is supported at home. People get sick of being hemmed in by robber barons and not have any redress or unity. We can go down that road, too. And some here want that. as they think it won't affect them.

Just sayin'

[another_liberal]

6. Why are building takeovers by anti-Yanukovich government protesters called "Free Speech" . . .

But building takeovers by anti-interim government protesters are called "Terrorism?"

[dipsydoodle]

8. Inconsistency / spin.

[cosmicone]

9. Armed "protesters" occupying government buildings overthrowing

the incumbent government ... where did I hear this before?

<scratches head> ... Please refresh my recollection ... was that in Kiev just a few weeks ago?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. Maidan at its very worst still pales in comparision to the Russian "protesters."

Maidan:

http://www.dw.de/image/0,,17287018_401,00.jpg

Yes. Those are sticks and construction helmets.

Russian "protests":

:medium

[TwilightGardener]

13. Just your everyday slob, just mad at the gubmint, right there...

[warrprayer]

21. looks a lot

like those assholes at the Bundy ranch, come to think of it! Thanks!

{sarcasm}

[cosmicone]

15. The concept remains the same

although choice of arms may be different

Also, one can cherry-pick photos to show that the Kiev protesters were all girl scouts on the way home after a cookie sale.

Speaking of cookies ... never mind.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

16. To the contrary.

I actually looked through photos of the Maidan protests at their most violent.

None of them matched the paramilitary feel of what you are seeing in the Eastern Ukrainian cities.

They are simply different animals.

Occupying Maidan square is a far cry from occupying an airbase.

[arewenotdemo]

20. You're right.

No posters of Bandera, no Nazi symbols.

[EX500rider]

18. Native Ukrainians protesting not quite the same as Russian troops pretending to be locals. n/t

[LanternWaste]

22. Seems to me the degree of arms allows a most relevant change to the concept, upping it to coercion.

Seems to me the degree of arms allows a most relevant change to the concept, upping protestations to an actual and invasive coercion directed from Moscow.

However, I'm fully confident you will supply us with pictures of Russian girl scouts protesting in eastern Ukraine to better validate your allegation...

[Benton D Struckcheon]

17. If you're military, that's what you do,

occupy airbases, and if the goal is occupation and annexation, get at the government buildings.
Demonstrators, OTOH, occupy public squares, which is what happened in Kiev.
As happened when the first attempt to annex Hawaii, on the exact same pretense, in a case that was firmly rejected by Grover Cleveland (a decision that was later reversed by Mckinley):

There is as little basis for the pretense that such forces were landed for the security of American life and property. If so, they would have been stationed in the vicinity of such property and so as to protect it, instead of at a distance and so as to command the Hawaiian Government building and palace.

http://www.hawaii-nation.org/cleveland.html

It's not like the world hasn't seen this sort of total BS before. The only difference here is that we have folks on DU who actually think this is a good thing, which I find both amazing and incomprehensible.

[EX500rider]

19. Don't ya know the locals are all "fascist CIA stooges" while the Russian Spetnaz...

.....are all Democracy loving liberals...somehow...lol

[Catherina]

23. And no pics of these "several hundred troops". As usual.

Meanwhile all the videos out are of little old women, men, women and teenagers stopping tanks sent from Kiev with their bare hands.

First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema should invest in a cheap cellphone with a camera in it and Photoshop.

Reports from Slavyansk say that the army troops sent to the eastern Ukrainian city for an “anti-terrorist operation” are leaving en masse. Some troops are openly voicing support for the eastern Ukrainians, while others are speaking out against a war.

According to Interfax, citing local self-defense activists, some 300 Ukrainian troops agreed to lay down their weapons and “go home” following negotiations in Slavyansk.

Ольга Ившина @oivshina

Ukrainian soldiers,who's APCs were taken by protesters earlier today, leave Slovyansk. Some soldiers genuinely support protesters
7:52 AM - 16 Apr 2014 Ukraine, Ukraine

...

The people cheered the troops as they started leaving Slavyansk.

...

Meanwhile, the anti-government activists guarding the armored vehicles have said that they did not “seize” them as the media claimed, and that the troops “switched sides” peacefully.

“They were not seized by the self-defense forces. In fact, the Ukrainian troops arrived here flying a Russian flag. In this way, they have taken the side of the people,” a Slavyansk activist told Russia-24 TV.

Photos from the scene now show women and children climbing onto the APCs and taking photos with the armed men in camouflage with St. George ribbons.


...

http://rt.com/news/ukraine-troops-withdraw-slavyansk-940/

Do the mullet heads who launched the neofascist coup in Kiev seriously think working class Ukranians are going to fight other working class Ukranians for 50% pensions cuts and other such disgusting Austerity prizes the US/EU IMF is trying to force down their throats?