Donbass protests demand justice for victims of U.S.-Ukraine war

With sorrow and rage, people in the Donbass region have ripped aside the veil of U.S. diplomatic maneuvering to reveal what is truly happening there: ongoing war crimes against children and other civilians by forces loyal to the extreme right-wing Ukrainian government backed by Washington.

In several mass outpourings in late May, residents of the primarily Russian-speaking region — formerly part of eastern Ukraine, now the independent people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk — honored their dead and demanded an end to Kiev’s constant violations of the Minsk-2 ceasefire signed by Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany in February.

On May 29, thousands of people attended the funeral of 11-year-old Katya Tuv and her father Yuriy in Gorlovka, Donetsk. The Tuv family home was destroyed during heavy shelling of the town by Ukrainian forces on the night of May 26. Katya’s mother, Yekaterina, lost her arm and her younger brother was also badly wounded.

"Once again, the Ukrainian side showed that it won’t carry out the peace agreement,” charged Donetsk leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko. "They prefer to violate it blatantly.” (Novorossiya Today, May 29)

In Donetsk’s capital city, some 7,000 people protested on May 28, two days after the slaughter of the Tuvs. A Requiem ceremony followed on June 1 for at least 69 children killed since the start of the Kiev regime’s "Anti-Terrorist Operation” against Donbass in April 2014.

Also on May 27, thousands of people braved pouring rain in Alchevsk, Lugansk, for the funeral of assassinated Commander Alexei Mozgovoi and four of his companions of the Ghost Brigade anti-fascist militia and two civilians, all killed in an attack on May 23.

Since early May, the Donetsk and Lugansk militias have recorded dozens of daily violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, fascist battalions and mercenaries — sometimes up to 50 in a single day with increasing casualties. Gorlovka is one of the hardest-hit cities.

Behind the crisis: Washington and Wall Street

Increasingly, people in the Donbass are looking beyond the immediate threat posed by the coalition of oligarchs, neoliberal politicians and neo-Nazis that seized power in Kiev last year, and working to draw the world’s attention to the force behind it: U.S. imperialism.

Direct talks in Sochi between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on May 12 had led to speculation that some deal might be in the works to tamp down the war in Donbass. Six days later, Republican neoconservative U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, one of the architects of the February 2014 coup that brought the Kiev junta to power, visited Moscow for talks about Minsk-2 (the cease-fire agreement signed last ­February).

After Washington’s latest round of diplomatic maneuvers, during a meeting in mid-May with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, President Barack Obama declared that "Russia occupies a more aggressive stance” on Ukraine, TASS News Agency reported. This signaled that the Democratic-Republican bloc backing Ukraine’s war in Donbass continues and will still try to shift blame for the crisis onto Russia.

An even clearer signal was the approval of a $17 billion U.S./International Monetary Fund emergency bailout, part of a $40 billion package including loans and other credits, to stave off default by the collapsing Ukrainian economy.

The integration of neo-Nazi "volunteer battalions” into the Ukrainian military structure also continues, as does the U.S. Army’s training of Kiev’s fascist National Guard.

Taking his cue from Washington, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko denounced the leaders of Donetsk and Lugansk, saying he would never negotiate with "homeless people, atheists and parasites who were given weapons, unable to feed themselves, [with an] irresponsible attitude towards children and the elderly.” (Gazeta.ru, May 29)

He conveniently left out the fact that Ukraine and its Western allies have imposed an economic blockade on the Donbass, and that he is responsible for the bombing of children and the cutoff of pensions to seniors.

The surprise appointment of fugitive ex-President of Georgia and noted U.S. puppet Mikhail Saakashvili as governor of Ukraine’s embattled Odessa region on May 29, and the concentration of junta military forces there, may signal increased repression not only for the multinational port city, but also for neighboring Moldova, whose oligarchic government is closely allied with Kiev. (Timer-Odessa.net)

‘Now is the time to stand up’

Citing intelligence reports, Donetsk Defense Ministry spokesperson Eduard Basurin warned that a team of U.S. chemical weapons specialists are traveling to Ukrainian-occupied Mariupol, where they may assist the Kiev junta’s forces in carrying out a provocation in order to charge the people’s republics with "crimes against humanity.” (News-Front.info, May 29)

How will the anti-war and other people’s movements in the U.S. respond to Washington’s role in these war crimes?

In a powerful video appeal, Russell Bonner Bentley, an anti-fascist Donbass militia volunteer known as "Texas,” took viewers on a tour of the bombed-out remains of the Tuv family home in Gorlovka.

Speaking directly to U.S. workers and activists, Bonner Bentley said: "This is what the United States is doing in Ukraine. All the people that have been killed, all the homes like this that have been destroyed, are only because this war was started by the U.S. government. …

"What kind of person are you? You see this video, you know what’s the truth. If you vote for Obama, you vote for Bush, you vote for Hillary Clinton, what kind of person are you to do that?” he asked.

"This is your responsibility. [U.S.] Americans are like the ‘good Germans’ who supported Hitler and said we don’t care what the Nazis do in other countries as long as we have our jobs, watch sports and drink beer. …

"Are you going to be on the side of the people who do this? If not, now is the time to make your move,” declared Bonner Bentley. "Now is the time to go to the street. Now is the time to stand up.”

The video (in English with Russian subtitles) can be viewed here (or click the screen below).

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The following is an excerpt from the daily report for June 10, 2015 of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organisation for Security and Coopertion in Europe:

The level of violence in areas in and around the destroyed "Donetsk People’s Republic” (”DPR”)-controlled Donetsk airport (12km north-west of Donetsk) remained high, with the SMM observing 299 explosions. Of those, the SMM – positioned at the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) observation post at "DPR”-controlled Donetsk railway station (8km north-west of Donetsk) between 7:10 and 11:30hrs – heard the sounds of 216 outgoing and incoming artillery rounds, and the exchange of small-arms (including heavy machinegun) and anti-aircraft fire at locations to its north-west, north-east, north and west. On two separate occasions in the afternoon – over a combined period of two hours – the SMM heard and/or saw 83 explosions, consistent with incoming and outgoing mortar and anti-aircraft fire, 1.8-3km north-north-west and north of its position . . .

In the "DPR”-controlled Budionivskyi district (7.4km south-east of Donetsk city centre), the SMM spoke to a man who said he was unemployed and that he and his family were mainly surviving on the produce of their garden. He added that prices in shops had greatly increased.

The head of the "district administration” in the "DPR”-controlled Leninskyi district (5.4km south of Donetsk city centre) told the SMM that 20,000 people – out of the approximately 100,000 inhabitants of the district – were receiving humanitarian assistance from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. He said the Russian Federation was, after the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, the second largest donor, supplying unspecified assistance to 3,600 people, mostly families with young and/or many children. He added that already on that day, he had received 100 new applications for aid.

The head of the local administration in Luhansk city ("LPR”-controlled) told the SMM that water shortage was the most pressing problem facing the city. He said the "LPR”, however, lacked the funds to re-build water infrastructure. He added that pension and social welfare payments were also problematic, with payments having only been made for two months in 2015.

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