Some background, opinions, truth, and Agitprop

‘Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that Russia's "playbook" for an invasion of Ukraine is moving forward, though he said there still is a chance for diplomacy to avert a war, CNN.com, Feb.20

“Still, Blinken said the US would continue to try to find a last-ditch diplomatic path. He said that President Joe Biden is willing to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin "at any time, in any format" if it will help prevent a war, saying the Biden administration will continue to take whatever steps it can to try to convince Moscow not to invade Ukraine.

‘Ukraine appears to have staged a “kindergarden attack” to cover its crimes & fuel anti Donbass propaganda’, [the exceptional] Eva Bartlett, ingaza.wordpress.com Feb. 18

Given her extensive coverage of the White Helmets, stars of stage and screen, it’s small wonder that she equates them:

How White Helmets of Ukraine…

“An urgent statement by the official representative of the NM of the LPR, Senior Lieutenant Filiponenko I.M. ‼️
Today, the headquarters of the joint forces operation filed a trumped-up charge against the People’s Militia of the LPR in alleged shelling of a kindergarten in the village of Stanitsa Luganskaya.

This, so to speak, news was picked up by the Ukrainian propaganda media and used to divert public attention from the regular violations of the Minsk agreements of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the destruction of civilian facilities in the Luhansk Republic.
>The public was presented with photos with the results of the shelling of the kindergarten. It was they who became indisputable evidence of the involvement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this crime.

>Our experts studied the photographic materials in detail and carried out their thorough analysis.
> The location of the kindergarten building, the angle at which the wall was hit, made it possible to calculate the exact trajectory of the projectile. As can be seen in the diagram presented, the shooting could only be carried out from the east direction. At the same time, the position of the alleged weapon from which the fire was fired is located on the territory controlled by the 79th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

>Any sane person will determine that there cannot be units of the People’s Militia in that direction by definition. All this proves that the farce with the destruction of the kindergarten is a provocation by Kiev in order to destabilize the situation in the Donbass.” [...]

“Based on the newly discovered circumstances of the investigation of the staged shelling of a kindergarten in the settlement of NOVAYA KONDRASHEVKA, it was established that a group of a separate special purpose center of the special operations forces “West” was involved in the shelling, which fired a shot from an American M141 bunker-type grenade launcher from a water tower in the area of ul.Depovskaya 12. [...]

“A white Land Cruiser car without license plates, with armed men without identification marks, was seen in a residential courtyard at the time of the shell explosion, 5 minutes before the arrival of foreign and national media film crews, accompanied by IPSO officers, emergency services and representatives of the JCCC.

We were sure that American weapons would be used in the Donbas, but the fact that they were used against civilians in the territory controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the coordinated actions of propagandists led by Zelensky leaves no doubt about the bloodthirstiness and unscrupulousness of the Ukrainian junta.”

Putin warned the West, but the West didn't listen
Like it or not, the Russian president is doubling down on his crusade against American hegemony; Paul Robinson, professor at the University of Ottawa. He writes about Russian and Soviet history, military history and military ethics, and is author of the Irrussianality blog. via RT, Feb. 18, 2022 (a few passages of his worthy column)

“Roughly at the mid-point between the end of the Cold War and today, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin gave a speech which provides an explanation, and which historians may well look back to as something of a turning point. Delivered to the Munich Conference on Security Policy on February 10, 2007, that’s 15 years ago last week, the speech was interpreted by many as a declaration of war on the West. This was a misinterpretation. Putin didn’t threaten the West with anything. Instead, he simply gave it a warning – if it continued along the same path, it would sow the seeds of its own destruction. Time has perhaps proven him right.”

In his speech, Putin made a number of specific complaints. First, he objected to the idea of a unipolar order in which one country, the US, has dominated all others. This model, he said, “is not only unacceptable but also impossible in today’s world.” On the one hand, power was shifting; on the other hand, the unipolar model provided “no moral foundations for modern civilization.” [...]

“As for the West, looking back at its self-destructive errors in recent years, one might consider Putin something of a prophet. But if so, it’s a prophet in the guise of the Trojan princess Cassandra who was fated to be always right but never believed. Rather than taking heed of Putin’s warning, Western leaders have bludgeoned onwards, toppling Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, aiding rebels in Syria, attempting (and failing at) regime change in Venezuela, fighting and losing against the Taliban, sanctioning Iran, supporting revolution in Ukraine, and so on. It has not turned out well. We can’t say we weren’t warned.”

‘Ukrainian rebels mobilise as fighting escalates’, BBC News, Feb. 19, 2022

“Ukraine's Russian-backed breakaway eastern territories have ordered military mobilisations amid an escalation in fighting.

Men of fighting age in the self-declared people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk are being put on stand-by. Monitors report a "dramatic increase" in attacks along the line dividing rebel and government forces.

US President Joe Biden says he is convinced Russia will invade Ukraine, an allegation Moscow denies. Western nations have accused Russia of trying to stage a crisis in the breakaway regions to give it a reason to launch an offensive.

The US estimates there are 169,000-190,000 Russian personnel massed along Ukraine's borders, a figure that includes separatist fighters in Donetsk and Luhansk.”

‘Biden claims “Putin has made the decision” to invade Ukraine as mass evacuations begin in the Donbass’, Clara Weiss, wsws.org, Feb.19

“In a 10-minute speech, Biden warned that “such a decision” would mean that Russia will be “responsible” for a “catastrophic and needless war of choice.” Russia would have to pay a “steep price” for such a war, he threatened, as the US and NATO were prepared to “defend any inch of NATO territory.”

Biden blamed Russia for a “major uptick” in shelling in East Ukraine, the site of an eight-year long civil war that erupted in the wake of the US-funded 2014 far-right coup in Kiev. The US President went on to praise Ukraine’s military, which is riddled with fascists and has been armed and trained by the US, for their “great judgement” and “restraint” and insisted that the US would “continue to support the Ukrainian people.”

Biden claimed that Thursday’s shelling of a kindergarten on the separatist-controlled territory of Lugansk, was a “false-flag operation” by Russia “in line” with what the US had been warning about. As has been the case with all the lies and allegations of the past weeks and months, he did not even try to produce any evidence to back up his allegations.”

‘LIVE UPDATES: Kiev's Forces Fire Over 400 Shells Towards DPR, Situation Remains Acute, Donetsk Says’,

‘Ukraine makes nuclear status threat; The country’s president has requested talks on the implementation of the Budapest Memorandum’, RT.com, Feb. 19

White House: Biden to Convene National Security Council Meeting on Sunday to Discuss Latest on Ukraine, 18 hrs ago

“Speaking at the Munich security conference on Saturday, Zelensky pointed out that in 1994 Ukraine joined the Budapest Memorandum and gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees, suggesting the move could be reversed if it is threatened by neighboring Russia.

“Today we have neither weapons nor security. We have lost a part of our territory, which is larger by its area than Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium. And, most importantly, we’ve lost millions of our citizens. All this is absent,” Zelensky said.”

[...]

President Zelensky insists that the Minsk agreements, which are poised to serve as a road map for a peace process, have been “poorly written” and do not benefit Ukraine. Instead Zelensky would like to see a new document, to be signed by the “major powers,” including Russia and the US, which would contain several clauses on security guarantees for Ukraine.”

"Tensions are running high in the self-proclaimed Donbass republics, where thousands of people have had to leave their homes and are being evacuated to Russia due to constant shelling by Ukrainian forces.

Kiev has repeatedly used 120mm mortars banned by the Minsk accord, against the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR). Over the past hours, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) said it had registered 222 ceasefire violations in Ukraine's Donetsk region, and 648 breaches of the truce in the Lugansk region.

As of Saturday morning, around 25,000 people have crossed the border with Russia from the LPR side.

#GagMeWithASpoon:

[LIVE] Watch #NATO Secretary General @jensstoltenberg at the Munich Security Conference.@MunSecConf | #MSC2022 https://t.co/vEfS3Cub1i

— Oana Lungescu (@NATOpress) February 19, 2022

UK military shares map of ‘Putin's invasion’;
British intelligence fuels fears of a sudden Russian attack with an ominous chart', Feb 18, 2022

"The ministry’s map featured seven different arrows “invading” Ukraine from Russia and Belarus. DefenceHQ’s tweet came about an hour after UK foreign minister Liz Truss said she was “very concerned about reports today of increased Russian aggression.”

Truss followed that up by saying that reports of “alleged abnormal military activity by Ukraine in Donbas are a blatant attempt by the Russian government to fabricate pretexts for invasion.”

the floor is yours; i can't say when i'll be able to come back.

(to be cross-posted at Café Babylon)