Ukraine Rebel Leader Admits Fighters Did Have BUK Missile
DONETSK, Ukraine, July 23 (Reuters) - A powerful Ukrainian rebel leader has confirmed that pro-Russian separatists had an anti-aircraft missile of the type Washington says was used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and it could have originated in Russia.
In an interview with Reuters, Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the Vostok Battalion, acknowledged for the first time since the airliner was brought down in eastern Ukraine on Thursday that the rebels did possess the BUK missile system and said it could have been sent back subsequently to remove proof of its presence.
Before the Malaysian plane was shot down, rebels had boasted of obtaining the BUK missiles, which can shoot down airliners at cruising height. But since the disaster the separatists' main group, the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk, has repeatedly denied ever having possessed such weapons.
Since the airliner crashed with the loss of all 298 on board, the most contentious issue has been who fired the missile that brought the jet down in an area where government forces are fighting pro-Russian rebels.
Khodakovsky accused the Kiev authorities for provoking what may have been the missile strike that destroyed the doomed airliner, saying Kiev had deliberately launched air strikes in the area, knowing the missiles were in place.
"I knew that a BUK came from Luhansk. At the time I was told that a BUK from Luhansk was coming under the flag of the LNR," he said, referring to the Luhansk People's Republic, the main rebel group operating in Luhansk, one of two rebel provinces along with Donetsk, the province where the crash took place.
No red lines, no YouTube clips, no "satellite images" of WMD this time: just more "straight to propaganda" speculation by the Pentagon. From Reuters:
The Pentagon said on Friday the transfer of heavy-caliber multiple-launch rocket systems from Russia to Ukrainian separatists appeared to be imminent with the arms close enough to the border they could be handed over "potentially today."
"We have indications that the Russians intend to supply heavier and more sophisticated multiple-launch rocket systems in the very near future," said Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, adding that the weapons were in the over-200mm range.
Warren indicated the weapons had been seen getting closer to the border and the Pentagon believed a transfer was imminent and could happen "potentially today."
"We believe that they are able to transfer this equipment at any time, at any moment," he said.
So Russia "could", "potentially today" transfer rocket launchers to Ukraine. But wait, wasn't the same Pentagon reporting hours ago that Russia is now, with the entire world clearly watching, no longer even pretending to be not engaged and is firing at Ukraine forces directly from its own territory? Why would they stop now? And surely with every US spy satellite trained at east Ukraine, the moment this happens it will be blasted to every media outlet. Right?
More:
A multiple-launch rocket system is a wheeled or tracked vehicle mounted with multiple tubes capable of firing a half dozen or more guided or unguided rockets in quick succession at targets scores of miles (km) away. The rockets are generally 100mm to 300mm, with those over 200mm in the heavier-caliber category.
"We're very concerned with the quantity and the capability of weapons flowing from Russia into the Ukrainian separatists' hands," Warren said.
"There has been a continuous flow over the last several weeks of weapons and equipment from Russia to Ukraine," he said, noting that the "most egregious example" was a column of more than 100 vehicles crossing the border.
The Pentagon's assessment that a transfer of heavy weaponry was imminent came as Russian authorities accused Ukraine of firing a volley of mortar rounds across the frontier into Russia on Friday while a group of investigators was in the area assessing reports of cross-border shooting.
A Russian security official said up to 40 mortar bombs fired by Ukrainian forces fell in the Russian province of Rostov near the border where Ukrainian government forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists. There were no reports of injuries.
Then there was this:
•EARNEST SAYS U.S. TALKING WITH EU ABOUT MORE RUSSIA SANCTIONS
And then, just to hammer home the message that crazy Putin, the "West's Public Enemy Number One" is about to invade Ukraine, we get this from Reuters:
•MORE THAN 15K RUSSIAN TROOPS ON UKRAINE BORDER
Ok, we get it: the former KGB spy is on full tilt and deserves every #hashtag the West can unleash. So please activate the sanctions already, those including Gazprom and not the purely theatrical ones to date, and let's all sit back and watch what happens to Europe's economy.
In the meantime, due to popular demand, here is some cover art courtesy of William Banzai.
With the news that Arseniy Yatsenyuk tendered his resignation as Ukraine’s Prime Minister, a once meteoric career has come to a crashing halt. In the U.S., Yatsenyuk gained widespread notoriety when a conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the U.S. Ambassador in Kiev was leaked by, presumably, Russian intelligence. On it, Ms. Nuland expressed her certainty, in positively breathy tones, that “Yats” would make an ideal Prime Minister. As so, once the coup transpired in February, it came to pass.
In gaining the Premiership, Yatsenyuk made a deal with the devil, doing nothing to quell the violence that engulfed the Maidan after the Western and Russian-backed settlement agreement of February 21 was announced. Here we might pause to note that pronouncements from pro-democracy activists like Freedom House’s David Kramer and pop-philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy that Putin is entirely to blame for the violence in Ukraine, should be greeted with a healthy dose of skepticism.
After the February coup Yatsenyuk quickly threw in his lot in with the gang around the far-right Svoboda and became, quite illegitimately, prime minister. The far-right was compensated handsomely. Svoboda, whose leader Oleh Tyahnybok once voiced dissatisfaction that Ukraine was being run by a “Muscovite-Jewish mafia,” was amply rewarded, gaining the defense ministry and the prosecutor general’s office, along with two non-power ministries like Agriculture and Environment. The government promptly removed the governors of the pro-Russian eastern provinces and put a number of oligarchs in their stead. The reaction to all of this by the citizens of these provinces, and that of their rather large, influential, and, yes, bare-knuckled, neighbor to the east is now all too plain to see.
Having captured the top prize, Yatsenyuk did what any self-respecting free-riding Atlanticist would do: he dashed off to Washington for meetings with President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. The President, for his part, authorized a $1 billion loan guarantee (about $14 billion shy of what Vladimir Putin put on offer the previous November) and urged Russia and Ukraine to turn to diplomacy to settle their differences. That was not to be, yet the new Premier’s strenuous efforts to drag the U.S. into a war his government bears a good deal of responsibility for starting have, for the most part, come to naught.
Yatsenyuk’s economic record mirrors his diplomatic one. The month he took office the Hryvnia lost a fifth of its value, and Yatsenyuk recently announced he expects the Ukrainian economy to shrink by 3 percent in 2014. It is said that the signing of the EU-Ukraine association agreement along with the conditions of the IMF’s $17 billion loan will launch Ukraine on its predestined European trajectory. Yet, if the experiences of Russia and Argentina, (to say nothing of non-IMF mandated austerity measures in the United Kingdom) are anything to go by, Ukrainians can look forward to many years of mass unemployment, the gutting of their manufacturing and export sectors, the hollowing out of government assistance programs, higher energy bills, higher taxes, and wage freezes.
Following Petro Poroshenko’s election to the presidency in May, Yatsenyuk’s government launched an “anti-terrorist operation” which the Washington Post earnestly hoped would “finish off” the rebels. With Russia sending hardware across the border, that goal has proved elusive. So too have efforts to keep Kiev at the negotiating table: on July 1 they put an end to a 10-day ceasefire after two days of French and German-sponsored negotiations. And so the war in the east has only intensified: under Yatsenyuk’s premiership Kiev has unleashed a furious offensive, bombing, and flattening civilian centers to such an extent that last week Human Rights Watch called on Poroshenko to investigate instances where civilians may have been deliberately targeted. All of this is not endearing the regime in Kiev to its citizens in the east. As of this writing, nearly 500 civilians have been killed, scores wounded, and well over 100,000 refugees have fled to Russia in anticipation of further violence. Indeed, the government in Kiev is said to be planning a siege of Donetsk, which has a population of roughly a million people, in the coming days and weeks ahead.
And so, with Yatsenyuk’s resignation, another chapter of the Obama administration’s meddling in Ukraine has come to a close. But shed no tears for Yats. I’m fairly convinced we’ll be seeing him around town soon enough; I hear AEI is hiring.
Recall what we said earlier today: the proxy Ukraine war just like that in Syria preceding it, "is all about energy."
Recall also the following chart showing Ukraine's shale gas deposits, keeping in mind that the Dnieper-Donets basin which lies in the hotly contested eastern part of the nation and where as everyone knows by now a bloody civil war is raging, is the major oil and gas producing region of Ukraine accounting for approximately 90 per cent of Ukrainian production and according to EIA may have 42 tcf of shale gas resources technically recoverable from 197 tcf of risked shale gas in place.
Finally, recall our story from May that Joe Biden's son, Hunter, just joined the board of the largest Ukraine gas producer Burisma Holdings. From the press release:
R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”
R. Hunter Biden is also a well-known public figure. He is chairman of the Board of the World Food Programme U.S.A., together with the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the United Nations World Food Programme. In this capacity he offers assistance to the poor in developing countries, fighting hunger and poverty, and helping to provide food and education to 300 million malnourished children around the world.
Company Background:
Burisma Holdings is a privately owned oil and gas company with assets in Ukraine and operating in the energy market since 2002. To date, the company holds a portfolio with permits to develop fields in the Dnieper-Donets, the Carpathian and the Azov-Kuban basins. In 2013, the daily gas production grew steadily and at year-end amounted to 11.6 thousand BOE (barrels of oil equivalent – incl. gas, condensate and crude oil), or 1.8 million m3 of natural gas. The company sells these volumes in the domestic market through traders, as well as directly to final consumers.
Now put it all together and you will like figure out what will happen next.
* * *
Still confused? It's very simple, really.
In a nutshell Ukraine has decided to let no crisis, or rather civil war, go to waste, and while the fighting rages all around, Ukrainian troopers are helping to install shale gas production equipment near the east Ukrainian town of Slavyansk, which was bombed and shelled for the three preceding months, according to local residents cited by Itar Tass.
“Civilians protected by Ukrainian army are getting ready to install drilling rigs. More equipment is being brought in,” they said, adding that the military are encircling the future extraction area.
The people of Slavyansk, which is located in the heart of the Yzovka shale gas field, staged numerous protest actions in the past against its development. They even wanted to call in a referendum on that subject. Environmentalists are particularly concerned with the consequences of hydrofracing, a method used for shale gas extraction, because it implies the use of extremely toxic chemical agents which can poison not only subsoil waters but also the atmosphere. Experts claim that not a single country in the world has invented a method of utilization of harmful toxic agents in the process of development of shale gas deposits.
Countries like the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and France have given up plans to develop shale gas deposits in their territories.
Not only them but also all-important Germany, which two weeks ago announced it would halt shale-gas drilling for the next seven years over groundwater pollution concerns.
Which clearly makes Ukraine, potentially the last place with massive shale gas deposits and no drilling ban, quite valuable to those who want to develop a major source of shale gas, one which reduces Europe's reliance on Russian gas even more, yet one whose future depends on one simple question: who controls East Ukraine?
Because what better way to accelerate "next steps" than to start drilling for gas in the middle of the Donetsk republic as a civil war is waging in all directions, and where public mood has shifted decidedly against the local "separatists" in the aftermath of the MH-17 tragedy.
The punchline: who will develop the gas field in conjunction with Shell (jointly owned by the Netherlands and the UK: the two countries that loathe Putin the most in the aftermath of the MH-17 disaster) which in May 2012 announced a tender for the right to develop the Yuzovka shale gas deposit?
Burisma, Ukraine’s oil and gas production holdings, also has the right to develop the shale gas fields in the Dnieper-Donetsk basin of Eastern Ukraine. The same Burisma where R. Hunter Biden, Joseph's son, was appointed a direct two months ago.
Q.E.D.
The Dutch Shell and US Chevron agreements with Ukraine were signed in January and November 2013 - before the 2014 'Crimean Crisis' and current civil war...
That's just my speculation though.
at last, a nugget of truth...
of course, the whole banking system is down in eastern Ukrain, power is off water is off, but internet shopping per credit card is still all the rage apparently, lmao. the atms are all empty people, it's a war zone, a credit card won't buy you shit if the money transfer system is not operating. this is obviously someone making duty free purchases on the plane or at the airport.
can we see just one pic of all the Russian material heading to Ukraine. i mean damn, it sounds like the rebels should be the best equipped rebels in the world. with all the columns of tanks and artillery they are getting there must be pics of rebels using this stuff. the only pics i ever saw months ago was some tanks that it ended up were filmed inside Russia. there is no proof Russia is really helping these rebels, i said it before if they were you'd be seeing a repeat of Crimea, not the slaughtering of the civilians in the east.
like i said before Russia is well aware of the precarious situation the Kiev regime is in. the government collapsed in part because they were un able to pass any of the laws they needed to pass to be eligible for the IMF loans. they have to double the price of gas and reduce pensions by a third as well as privatize much of the left over national resources, privatization will lead to hefty price increases. they said in their own words that they also don't know how any more salaries can be paid as of next month. Russia really has no need to do much other then wait for it to win this proxy war by default, in fact supplying the rebels with hi tec weapons would be exactly the one way they could lose. you have to give Putin his due, he is not an idiot, reports making him out to be an imbecile tend to be bs. he is ruthless and i'm sure is capable of a lot, but it has to bring him something. i've read and listened to enough of his speeches to know that he'd never order something so blatantly idiotic like firing on Ukraine. to me these reports which are probably from the Ukrainian gov, are made in desperation, now that the plane is not blamed on Putin they need other shit to sling his way.
Russia has reported numerous occasions when it's been shelled by Ukraine, in fact 2 Russians have been killed in Russia, by shelling from across the border, it has said recently that they reserve the right to return fire if this keeps happening.