Thank you for doing the job that western so-called journalists should be doing! The late John Pilger was a giant among journalists but his voice, along with many other truth-tellers like Jeffrey Sachs, Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Col. Richard Black, Col. Douglas MacGregor, George Galloway etc. do not get heard in the western media although those smearing them are! There was very unbalanced reporting before the general election which is actually unlawful. The suppression of the truth by the establishment controlled media is anti-democratic and needs to be challenged.
This is an important and accurate recap by Kit as back in 2014 too many failed to pay attention to the sleazy warmongering amerika's 'deep state' was indulging in.
Too few were aware of exactly how perfidious & deceitful the amerikan empire is.
Many more have since become aware of much more than "at least 13,000 civilians were killed in Donbass between 2014 and 2022", but they know little of the horrible details.
Mr Klarenburg lays out the depth of NATO's deceit and makes the perfidy plain for all to see.
This information is hard to find in the western media, certainly not found in he Legacy media of the US. Amazingly (maybe not so amazingly) when directed to posts such as this, people easily dismiss it as misinformation etc. I'm sharing this post and spreading the word about you Klarenberg, good job and thanks for the info.
Great summary. How do we get the MOCKINGBIRD media to acknowledge these facts.
Also - don't forget the December 2021 attempt by Russia, to organize a new European security framework - rebuffed and mocked by the west, with no counter-offers made.
I even heard that in the February 2022 period - that Ukrainian troops were also firing across the borders, into areas that are undeniably Russia.
Dear Kit, I am Russian-Ukrainian, living in the US, we were targets of wild Russophobia and Ukrainian troll/bullying attacks, on social media and in our cultural community, because of the false narrative that was installed in Ukrainians ans in liberal Americans, and non-liberal Americans already hated Russia and Putin because they think that Russia is communist. I still cannot talk about the truth to any of my jazz colleagues. I translated several Donbass articles on my Medium blog and again was attacked as a "Putin stooge" (like today as "Hamas supporter"). It was incredible for me how seemingly civilized people can support rabid Ukrainian racism and extermination of Donbass civilians, but today I am seeing how they, in the same sentiment, support Israeli racism and extermination of the indigenous population in Palestine. It is all the same mentality of being Ubermenschen and seeing certain group of people as subhuman and not worthy of inhibiting the coveted land.
Citizen journalist from Ireland, Brendan Deveney, has compiled the timeline of February 2022 events that led to direct Russian interference in Donbass slaughter.
February 8, 2022:
"Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday refused direct negotiations with rebels in the east of the country.
Speaking during a news briefing with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Kuleba said the direct talks with representatives of rebel-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk are not included in the Minsk agreements brokered by France, Germany and Russia in 2015.
Kuleba added that any conversations with these rebels would allow Russia to transform itself from the party of the conflict to the mediator by insisting on the direct talks.
Earlier on Tuesday Kuleba said that Ukraine has received more than 1,000 tons of military aid worth around 1.5 billion US dollars."
But the day *before*, on the 16th of February, the artillery shelling of the population of Donbas increased dramatically, as the daily reports of the OSCE observers show. From a few dozen shells to around 300 on the 16th, over 600 on the 17th, 1400 on the 18th, and an average of 1200 per day until the 22nd. Two days before Russia moved in.
On 23 February, the two Republics finally asked for military assistance from Russia.
These barrages were an invitation for war.
“If he decided to intervene, Putin could invoke the international obligation of “Responsibility To Protect” (R2P). But he knew that whatever its nature or scale, the intervention would trigger a storm of sanctions. Therefore, whether Russian intervention were limited to the Donbas or went further to put pressure on the West for the status of the Ukraine, the price to pay would be the same. This is what he explained in his speech on February 21.
On that day, he agreed to the request of the Duma and recognized the independence of the two Donbas Republics and, at the same time, he signed friendship and assistance treaties with them.”
“On 24 February, Putin invoked Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which provides for mutual military assistance in the framework of a defensive alliance.
In order to make the Russian intervention totally illegal in the eyes of the public we deliberately hid the fact that the war actually started on February 16.”
On February 27, the Ukrainian government agreed to enter into negotiations with Russia.
From then on, the Ukrainians felt that they did not need to reach an agreement. The resistance of the Azov militia in Mariupol even led to a boost of 500 million euros for weapons (March).
“Western ministers who seek to collapse the Russian economy and make the Russian people suffer, or even call for the assassination of Putin, show (even if they have partially reversed the form of their words, but not the substance!) that our leaders are no better than those we hate—for sanctioning Russian athletes in the Para-Olympic Games or Russian artists has nothing to do with fighting Putin.”
A week after the assassination calls, the New York Times also allowed a sinister opinion piece “How do we deal with a Superpower led by a war criminal?” (NYT, Thomas Friedman, 10/04/22)
Let us remember that collective punishment is forbidden by the Geneva Conventions."
---------------
He then also added a map that you added, a list of Kiev' ceasefire violations February 15 - 22, more and more bombs. On February 22, Russian forces intervened.
It is a diabolical set-up, and for 10 years, Donbass people have been called "terrorists" and denied any right to life or even self-defense. Palestine blueprint.
What is staggering in America & in the UK, there are many political figures in each country. That whole heartily believe the propaganda & outright lies given to them by CIA & MI6. Despite any amount of factual evidence proving who caused all of this & who are the instigators of this conflict. How these people are so lazy so uneducated & ignorant is beyond belief. I suppose its much easier to believe the lies. Than to believe the uncomfortable truth & war crimes committed & paid for by their superiors.
Of course the West in its wilful and increasingly dangerous myopia only sees - or at least portrays - Putin as an absolute dictator, not someone having to deal with hawks, moderates and doves (presumably) in the Duma.
You forgot the part where Liz Truss went to Moscow and was the victim of a trick question by Lavrov. She thought a part of Russia was in Ukraine and said Britain would never recognize Russian sovereignty there. Everyone had a laugh. Then Ben Wallace told the Daily Mail that Britain had kicked Russia's backside before "and we can do it again." All this happened before the SMO. Britain's role in all this deserves its own entry.
Excellent article, Kit - thank you. With regard to my own experiences of talking to Ukrainian 'nationalists', their view in essence is that the entire Rusian-speaking population of Eastern Ukraine was 'planted' there by (yes, you guessed it) Stalin as part of his 'evil' attempts to destroy Ukrainian 'identity'.
This is a deep-rooted distorted view of history which has been spread amongst Ukrainians for the last 33 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Let's not forget that 'Ukraine' as a 'modern' state was created by Imperial Germany with the same aim as today's collective West - to weaken Russia and prise away one of the richest parts of the Russian Empire. Based entirely on distorted historical propaganda, the 'Holodomor' formed a key part of Hitler's anti-Soviet propaganda: I've talked to Ukrainians here in the UK and in Ukraine and their hatred of Russia is indeed visceral as a result of this nationalist brainwashing. We laugh when they say: 'Without Russia's evil influence, Ukraine would be as rich as Switzerland!'; however, while the objective facts with regard to Ukraine's economy show the exact opposite of this view, many Ukrainians actually believe it...and, what is worse, these views alongside praise for Holocaust perpetrators like Bandera, Shukhevitch and Stestko, are taught to their children. This did not begin in 2014 with the Miadan - Yuschenko established Bandera as a 'national hero' in 2004.
The conflict is clearly related most obviously to the collapse of the USSR, the scramble for riches and power by nationalists in the former Soviet states and the many problems that have plagued Russia since, but it is a problem that also undermined the USSR when it was in existence: at a dinner party attended by well-educated physicists, engineers and mathematicians who had left the collapsing Soviet Union to find well-paid jobs here in the UK, one Ukrainian physicist loudly proclaimed that his father had told him that: "life was better under the Nazis than under the Communists" (!) As we know, 7 million Ukrainians died in that conflict; this gives some understanding of the depth of some Ukrainians' hatred for Russia. Other people at the party were horrified by this and the atmosphere was rather tense.
Of course, such a distorted view of history is very easy to manipulate and it is extremely difficult to reconcile people with such diametrically opposed views.
Inundated only with US-NATO Propaganda about the Russian Military buildup along their border with Ukraine in 2021, without mentioning the Ukraine Military buildup looking like it was going to launch a major invasion of the Donbass, I knew the US was DETERMINED to have a War with Russia over Ukraine in NATO.
In the week before the Russian SMO February 24, I went to the OSCE website daily, setup as a condition of Minsk to monitor and record All TRUCE violations in the Civil War between the majority Russian speaking Ukrainians in the East bordering Russia, and the US installed anti-Russian Ukraine government.
What I saw with my own eyes was TRUCE VIOLATIONS were reaching up to 2000 a DAY and US NATO MSM weren't reporting it as Propagandists for The Power, like the 5th Horseman of the Apocalypse. Reporting it, would have undermined the US NATO mantra the Russian SMO was unprovoked.
We shouldn't forget the US committed the 1st Act Of War during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis with the Illegal blockade of Cuba. They were so offended by Russian missiles that close to the US, the Pentagon called for a 1st strike on Russian forces in Cuba setting up the missiles. That would have started NUCLEAR WWIII.
Americans ARE DELUSIONAL in their self-proclaimed indispensable exceptionalism, to think Russians are less human than Americans and have drawn the Line like the US did in 1962. NO US boots and missiles on the ground on Russia's Border in Ukraine as the US NATO escalates Brinkmanship.
I can only imagine President Kennedy resisting the Generals and Admirals as if they couldn't understand what the US Military proposed could be the End of the World and Civilization as we knew it. Seeing that up close and personal, moved Kennedy to find a new Detente and Peace with the Russians. That got him KILLED a year later.
Biden and NATO does not have the Common Sense and Sanity of a President Kennedy Today!
In June 1963, Kennedy uttered the essential truth that can keep us alive today: “Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.”
Remember. The “Cuban Missile Crisis” should be renamed the Turkish Missile Crisis.
Russias response to the illegal placement of Jupiter Nuclear Short Range non ballistic nuclear missiles into northern Turkey & Italy was to respond in kind by sending a similar counter threat to be positioned into their ally Cuba.
It’s a lie (I’m not accusing you of it BTW) but a lie nonetheless that billions of people in the West still believe to this day that the USSR created that global crisis.
JFK had his eye off the ball.
The USA had to stage manage the events whilst quietly climbing down.
I am aware of the NATO Turkey dimension of the 1962 Cuba Missile Crisis.
The Soviet Russians were not pleased with the US deploying their missiles in Turkey aimed at Russia. How much more-so if the US uses Ukraine to have them right on Russia's Border? The US already got the green light from new NATO member Finland to allow US Troops in 15 of their Military bases.
Cuba was worried the US could attempt another invasion after the failed 1961 CIA Bay of Pigs invasion, and wanted a deterrent only the Soviets could provide.
US Foreign Policy created the circumstances for Cuba and Russia to identify their common interests that brought the Cuban Missile Crisis to be.
The US had to plead with the Russians not to publicize the US removing it's missiles from Turkey as part of the Resolution, but to give the US 6 months to remove the missiles discretely, so the US neocons would not see it as a Quid Pro Quo and demonize Kennedy like they demonize Putin..
The true devil in the Ukraine war is Victoria Nuland, the war monger who led the coup against Ukraine in 2012. Of course, Zelensky (in his zeal to build up a fortune in a Miami bank for when he is finally put in exile) declared martial law before the scheduled May, 2024 elections, effectively turning Ukraine into a rogue state and a dictatorship.
The (d)evils in the Ukrainian situation (like in Georgia and other parts of the world) are also the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and other “NGO’s” (NED is a GO, not an NGO) who “sponsored” and influenced numerous local media to spread russofobe propaganda years, if not decades prior to 2014.
Subject of my most recent post, with grateful attribution as source. I can't believe I never read a hint of that report's existence, but the example of the US government being warned of the likely consequences of its actions is a duplicate of Dominique de Villepin's warning delivered before the UN Security Council in 2003, before the US invaded Iraq.
Really appreciate you citing my work! The ICG report is quite an extraordinary document, isn't it? I chanced across it at the time and was awed. Here was a Western-funded NGO spelling out in forensic detail *everything* anti-imperialists (and indeed anyone who actually knows anything about Russia/Eastern Europe) had been saying about the Donbass conflict for five years. That feeling was short-lived. My attempts to interest pretty much anyone bar academics and journalists who were already 'on board' so to speak were futile, and it got memoryholed and forgotten about promptly. I am glad I am now in a position to alert a much larger audience to its contents.
One striking nugget I didn't include was in 2020, after Zelensky proposed creating a consulting group with representatives of the DPR/LPR during Minsk talks, a coalition of Western-funded NGOs and assets in Ukraine wrote an open letter effectively ordering the government not to do so (https://uacrisis.org/uk/75229-pryamij-dialog-ordlo). This amply reinforces that the West wanted war with Russia over Ukraine, and consistently overruled its citizens and government to achieve that goal. Minsk designating Russia a "mediator" to the conflict, rather than a "party" (ie peacemaker vs active belligerent) was a crucial legal distinction the US/Britain were very unhappy about and sought to undermine at every turn. This wasn't just a delaying tactic - as I write in this investigation, I am certain the purpose was to gain legal grounds for sparking all-out proxy war. The totally ignored ICJ ruling on cases brought by Kiev against Moscow amply confirms that view - https://www.mintpressnews.com/failed-icj-case-against-russia-backfires-paves-way-for-genocide-charges-against-ukraine/287028/.
Thanks, Kit! If you have no objections, I will cite that last paragraph in the comments section at my blog, so that those references go out to my readers as well. If not for the stubborn pursuit of what is really going on by investigative journalists like yourself, so much of the story would be buried by 'the narrative'.
Speaking of buried, I don't know if you have seen the story at Strategic Culture regarding the trial of Filip Siman, a Czech mercenary who is alleged to have fought against Russia in Ukraine with the Carpathian Sich battalion. He is on trial for participating in a military operation in a foreign country without the permission of the Czech government, and peripherally for looting and being in possession of stolen property.
He was allegedly operating in Irpen and Bucha in the Spring of 2022, and also allegedly admitted to participation in the killings which occurred there. The relevant part of his testimony is in Czech, which I don't speak and have not yet machine-translated.
I will never forget.
I have tried to explain the situation that existed then, to countless people since, each, to a person was totally unaware & in disbelief.
Many still are.
Thank You.
Thank you for doing the job that western so-called journalists should be doing! The late John Pilger was a giant among journalists but his voice, along with many other truth-tellers like Jeffrey Sachs, Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Col. Richard Black, Col. Douglas MacGregor, George Galloway etc. do not get heard in the western media although those smearing them are! There was very unbalanced reporting before the general election which is actually unlawful. The suppression of the truth by the establishment controlled media is anti-democratic and needs to be challenged.
This is an important and accurate recap by Kit as back in 2014 too many failed to pay attention to the sleazy warmongering amerika's 'deep state' was indulging in.
Too few were aware of exactly how perfidious & deceitful the amerikan empire is.
Many more have since become aware of much more than "at least 13,000 civilians were killed in Donbass between 2014 and 2022", but they know little of the horrible details.
Mr Klarenburg lays out the depth of NATO's deceit and makes the perfidy plain for all to see.
Thanks Kit.
My pleasure, and duty!
This information is hard to find in the western media, certainly not found in he Legacy media of the US. Amazingly (maybe not so amazingly) when directed to posts such as this, people easily dismiss it as misinformation etc. I'm sharing this post and spreading the word about you Klarenberg, good job and thanks for the info.
Great summary. How do we get the MOCKINGBIRD media to acknowledge these facts.
Also - don't forget the December 2021 attempt by Russia, to organize a new European security framework - rebuffed and mocked by the west, with no counter-offers made.
I even heard that in the February 2022 period - that Ukrainian troops were also firing across the borders, into areas that are undeniably Russia.
Thank you for explaining it all
Dear Kit, I am Russian-Ukrainian, living in the US, we were targets of wild Russophobia and Ukrainian troll/bullying attacks, on social media and in our cultural community, because of the false narrative that was installed in Ukrainians ans in liberal Americans, and non-liberal Americans already hated Russia and Putin because they think that Russia is communist. I still cannot talk about the truth to any of my jazz colleagues. I translated several Donbass articles on my Medium blog and again was attacked as a "Putin stooge" (like today as "Hamas supporter"). It was incredible for me how seemingly civilized people can support rabid Ukrainian racism and extermination of Donbass civilians, but today I am seeing how they, in the same sentiment, support Israeli racism and extermination of the indigenous population in Palestine. It is all the same mentality of being Ubermenschen and seeing certain group of people as subhuman and not worthy of inhibiting the coveted land.
Citizen journalist from Ireland, Brendan Deveney, has compiled the timeline of February 2022 events that led to direct Russian interference in Donbass slaughter.
February 8, 2022:
"Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday refused direct negotiations with rebels in the east of the country.
Speaking during a news briefing with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Kuleba said the direct talks with representatives of rebel-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk are not included in the Minsk agreements brokered by France, Germany and Russia in 2015.
Kuleba added that any conversations with these rebels would allow Russia to transform itself from the party of the conflict to the mediator by insisting on the direct talks.
Earlier on Tuesday Kuleba said that Ukraine has received more than 1,000 tons of military aid worth around 1.5 billion US dollars."
https://www.republicworld.com/ (they deleted the report)
"On 17 February, President Joe Biden announced that Russia would attack Ukraine in the next few days.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/17/politics/joe-biden-russia/index.html
--------
But the day *before*, on the 16th of February, the artillery shelling of the population of Donbas increased dramatically, as the daily reports of the OSCE observers show. From a few dozen shells to around 300 on the 16th, over 600 on the 17th, 1400 on the 18th, and an average of 1200 per day until the 22nd. Two days before Russia moved in.
On 23 February, the two Republics finally asked for military assistance from Russia.
These barrages were an invitation for war.
“If he decided to intervene, Putin could invoke the international obligation of “Responsibility To Protect” (R2P). But he knew that whatever its nature or scale, the intervention would trigger a storm of sanctions. Therefore, whether Russian intervention were limited to the Donbas or went further to put pressure on the West for the status of the Ukraine, the price to pay would be the same. This is what he explained in his speech on February 21.
On that day, he agreed to the request of the Duma and recognized the independence of the two Donbas Republics and, at the same time, he signed friendship and assistance treaties with them.”
https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/
-----------
“On 24 February, Putin invoked Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which provides for mutual military assistance in the framework of a defensive alliance.
In order to make the Russian intervention totally illegal in the eyes of the public we deliberately hid the fact that the war actually started on February 16.”
On February 27, the Ukrainian government agreed to enter into negotiations with Russia.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ukraine-president-kyiv-kharkiv-foreign-fighters-join-russia-putin-rcna17844
-------------
But a few hours later, the European Union voted a budget of 450 million euros to supply arms to the Ukraine, adding fuel to the fire.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-27/eu-approves-450-million-euros-in-lethal-military-aid-for-ukraine
----------------------
From then on, the Ukrainians felt that they did not need to reach an agreement. The resistance of the Azov militia in Mariupol even led to a boost of 500 million euros for weapons (March).
https://www.rferl.org/a/european-union-sanctions-russia-ukraine-borrell/31748462.html
-------------------
“Western ministers who seek to collapse the Russian economy and make the Russian people suffer, or even call for the assassination of Putin, show (even if they have partially reversed the form of their words, but not the substance!) that our leaders are no better than those we hate—for sanctioning Russian athletes in the Para-Olympic Games or Russian artists has nothing to do with fighting Putin.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9BGOE_eVQc
https://lequotidien.lu/politique-societe/jean-asselborn-eliminer-physiquement-vladimir-poutine/
-------------------
A week after the assassination calls, the New York Times also allowed a sinister opinion piece “How do we deal with a Superpower led by a war criminal?” (NYT, Thomas Friedman, 10/04/22)
Let us remember that collective punishment is forbidden by the Geneva Conventions."
---------------
He then also added a map that you added, a list of Kiev' ceasefire violations February 15 - 22, more and more bombs. On February 22, Russian forces intervened.
It is a diabolical set-up, and for 10 years, Donbass people have been called "terrorists" and denied any right to life or even self-defense. Palestine blueprint.
Incredibly timely, thanks. I know too many like Per Terram describes "totally unaware & in disbelief." Sharing.
What is staggering in America & in the UK, there are many political figures in each country. That whole heartily believe the propaganda & outright lies given to them by CIA & MI6. Despite any amount of factual evidence proving who caused all of this & who are the instigators of this conflict. How these people are so lazy so uneducated & ignorant is beyond belief. I suppose its much easier to believe the lies. Than to believe the uncomfortable truth & war crimes committed & paid for by their superiors.
Of course the West in its wilful and increasingly dangerous myopia only sees - or at least portrays - Putin as an absolute dictator, not someone having to deal with hawks, moderates and doves (presumably) in the Duma.
You forgot the part where Liz Truss went to Moscow and was the victim of a trick question by Lavrov. She thought a part of Russia was in Ukraine and said Britain would never recognize Russian sovereignty there. Everyone had a laugh. Then Ben Wallace told the Daily Mail that Britain had kicked Russia's backside before "and we can do it again." All this happened before the SMO. Britain's role in all this deserves its own entry.
Excellent article, Kit - thank you. With regard to my own experiences of talking to Ukrainian 'nationalists', their view in essence is that the entire Rusian-speaking population of Eastern Ukraine was 'planted' there by (yes, you guessed it) Stalin as part of his 'evil' attempts to destroy Ukrainian 'identity'.
This is a deep-rooted distorted view of history which has been spread amongst Ukrainians for the last 33 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Let's not forget that 'Ukraine' as a 'modern' state was created by Imperial Germany with the same aim as today's collective West - to weaken Russia and prise away one of the richest parts of the Russian Empire. Based entirely on distorted historical propaganda, the 'Holodomor' formed a key part of Hitler's anti-Soviet propaganda: I've talked to Ukrainians here in the UK and in Ukraine and their hatred of Russia is indeed visceral as a result of this nationalist brainwashing. We laugh when they say: 'Without Russia's evil influence, Ukraine would be as rich as Switzerland!'; however, while the objective facts with regard to Ukraine's economy show the exact opposite of this view, many Ukrainians actually believe it...and, what is worse, these views alongside praise for Holocaust perpetrators like Bandera, Shukhevitch and Stestko, are taught to their children. This did not begin in 2014 with the Miadan - Yuschenko established Bandera as a 'national hero' in 2004.
The conflict is clearly related most obviously to the collapse of the USSR, the scramble for riches and power by nationalists in the former Soviet states and the many problems that have plagued Russia since, but it is a problem that also undermined the USSR when it was in existence: at a dinner party attended by well-educated physicists, engineers and mathematicians who had left the collapsing Soviet Union to find well-paid jobs here in the UK, one Ukrainian physicist loudly proclaimed that his father had told him that: "life was better under the Nazis than under the Communists" (!) As we know, 7 million Ukrainians died in that conflict; this gives some understanding of the depth of some Ukrainians' hatred for Russia. Other people at the party were horrified by this and the atmosphere was rather tense.
Of course, such a distorted view of history is very easy to manipulate and it is extremely difficult to reconcile people with such diametrically opposed views.
Inundated only with US-NATO Propaganda about the Russian Military buildup along their border with Ukraine in 2021, without mentioning the Ukraine Military buildup looking like it was going to launch a major invasion of the Donbass, I knew the US was DETERMINED to have a War with Russia over Ukraine in NATO.
In the week before the Russian SMO February 24, I went to the OSCE website daily, setup as a condition of Minsk to monitor and record All TRUCE violations in the Civil War between the majority Russian speaking Ukrainians in the East bordering Russia, and the US installed anti-Russian Ukraine government.
What I saw with my own eyes was TRUCE VIOLATIONS were reaching up to 2000 a DAY and US NATO MSM weren't reporting it as Propagandists for The Power, like the 5th Horseman of the Apocalypse. Reporting it, would have undermined the US NATO mantra the Russian SMO was unprovoked.
We shouldn't forget the US committed the 1st Act Of War during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis with the Illegal blockade of Cuba. They were so offended by Russian missiles that close to the US, the Pentagon called for a 1st strike on Russian forces in Cuba setting up the missiles. That would have started NUCLEAR WWIII.
Americans ARE DELUSIONAL in their self-proclaimed indispensable exceptionalism, to think Russians are less human than Americans and have drawn the Line like the US did in 1962. NO US boots and missiles on the ground on Russia's Border in Ukraine as the US NATO escalates Brinkmanship.
I can only imagine President Kennedy resisting the Generals and Admirals as if they couldn't understand what the US Military proposed could be the End of the World and Civilization as we knew it. Seeing that up close and personal, moved Kennedy to find a new Detente and Peace with the Russians. That got him KILLED a year later.
Biden and NATO does not have the Common Sense and Sanity of a President Kennedy Today!
In June 1963, Kennedy uttered the essential truth that can keep us alive today: “Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.”
Kennedy's speech June 10, 1963: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vGH741Qmsg
Remember. The “Cuban Missile Crisis” should be renamed the Turkish Missile Crisis.
Russias response to the illegal placement of Jupiter Nuclear Short Range non ballistic nuclear missiles into northern Turkey & Italy was to respond in kind by sending a similar counter threat to be positioned into their ally Cuba.
It’s a lie (I’m not accusing you of it BTW) but a lie nonetheless that billions of people in the West still believe to this day that the USSR created that global crisis.
JFK had his eye off the ball.
The USA had to stage manage the events whilst quietly climbing down.
I am aware of the NATO Turkey dimension of the 1962 Cuba Missile Crisis.
The Soviet Russians were not pleased with the US deploying their missiles in Turkey aimed at Russia. How much more-so if the US uses Ukraine to have them right on Russia's Border? The US already got the green light from new NATO member Finland to allow US Troops in 15 of their Military bases.
Cuba was worried the US could attempt another invasion after the failed 1961 CIA Bay of Pigs invasion, and wanted a deterrent only the Soviets could provide.
US Foreign Policy created the circumstances for Cuba and Russia to identify their common interests that brought the Cuban Missile Crisis to be.
The US had to plead with the Russians not to publicize the US removing it's missiles from Turkey as part of the Resolution, but to give the US 6 months to remove the missiles discretely, so the US neocons would not see it as a Quid Pro Quo and demonize Kennedy like they demonize Putin..
The true devil in the Ukraine war is Victoria Nuland, the war monger who led the coup against Ukraine in 2012. Of course, Zelensky (in his zeal to build up a fortune in a Miami bank for when he is finally put in exile) declared martial law before the scheduled May, 2024 elections, effectively turning Ukraine into a rogue state and a dictatorship.
The (d)evils in the Ukrainian situation (like in Georgia and other parts of the world) are also the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and other “NGO’s” (NED is a GO, not an NGO) who “sponsored” and influenced numerous local media to spread russofobe propaganda years, if not decades prior to 2014.
Subject of my most recent post, with grateful attribution as source. I can't believe I never read a hint of that report's existence, but the example of the US government being warned of the likely consequences of its actions is a duplicate of Dominique de Villepin's warning delivered before the UN Security Council in 2003, before the US invaded Iraq.
thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com/2024/07/20/but-if-you-try-sometimes-you-just-might-find-you-get-what-you-need-or-alternatively-what-you-deserve/
Hey Mark,
Really appreciate you citing my work! The ICG report is quite an extraordinary document, isn't it? I chanced across it at the time and was awed. Here was a Western-funded NGO spelling out in forensic detail *everything* anti-imperialists (and indeed anyone who actually knows anything about Russia/Eastern Europe) had been saying about the Donbass conflict for five years. That feeling was short-lived. My attempts to interest pretty much anyone bar academics and journalists who were already 'on board' so to speak were futile, and it got memoryholed and forgotten about promptly. I am glad I am now in a position to alert a much larger audience to its contents.
One striking nugget I didn't include was in 2020, after Zelensky proposed creating a consulting group with representatives of the DPR/LPR during Minsk talks, a coalition of Western-funded NGOs and assets in Ukraine wrote an open letter effectively ordering the government not to do so (https://uacrisis.org/uk/75229-pryamij-dialog-ordlo). This amply reinforces that the West wanted war with Russia over Ukraine, and consistently overruled its citizens and government to achieve that goal. Minsk designating Russia a "mediator" to the conflict, rather than a "party" (ie peacemaker vs active belligerent) was a crucial legal distinction the US/Britain were very unhappy about and sought to undermine at every turn. This wasn't just a delaying tactic - as I write in this investigation, I am certain the purpose was to gain legal grounds for sparking all-out proxy war. The totally ignored ICJ ruling on cases brought by Kiev against Moscow amply confirms that view - https://www.mintpressnews.com/failed-icj-case-against-russia-backfires-paves-way-for-genocide-charges-against-ukraine/287028/.
Thanks, Kit! If you have no objections, I will cite that last paragraph in the comments section at my blog, so that those references go out to my readers as well. If not for the stubborn pursuit of what is really going on by investigative journalists like yourself, so much of the story would be buried by 'the narrative'.
Speaking of buried, I don't know if you have seen the story at Strategic Culture regarding the trial of Filip Siman, a Czech mercenary who is alleged to have fought against Russia in Ukraine with the Carpathian Sich battalion. He is on trial for participating in a military operation in a foreign country without the permission of the Czech government, and peripherally for looting and being in possession of stolen property.
He was allegedly operating in Irpen and Bucha in the Spring of 2022, and also allegedly admitted to participation in the killings which occurred there. The relevant part of his testimony is in Czech, which I don't speak and have not yet machine-translated.
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/07/21/nato-foreign-mercenaries-carried-out-the-false-flag-bucha-massacre/
Good summary. Thanks.