There is always been a lot of discussion about the lazy or even biassed reporting of Western media on Ukraine. And the BBC has been one of those:
@AlexPanchenko2 Yes, BBC is totally pro-Kremlin. Their reports are biased and avoid mentioning #Russia's leading role in the war on Ukraine.
— Wild Dill, 乌克兰 (@WildMcDill) February 13, 2015
Here's the deal. The BBC is biased on just about everything (climate change, Ukraine, Syria, etc) b/c they support official narratives.
— Scotbot (@scotbot) February 25, 2015
Recently even Kasparov complained:
Was on BBC & they also invited Putin's spokesman Peskov. Why invite propagandists to spread more lies? Why treat them like normal people?
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 1, 2015
Another tweep explains:
@Kasparov63@DajeyPetros The BBC has policy of interviewing the raped and the rapist. Fair. Balanced. Lazy.
— expatua.com (@expatua) March 1, 2015
Yet... lately it seems the BBC is taking a different stance on the (Russian instigated) conflict in Ukraine.
The most recent report even has the title "How Russian TV misleads viewers about Ukraine" and that even makes people wonder:
Just two weeks ago there was this report about a fake 10-year-old-child-was-killed-story:
Fascinating BBC report: attempting to confirm a Russian claim of child killed by shelling in Donetsk http://t.co/a1Gw8ld1XQ
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) April 9, 2015
These stories are unheard of in the BBC reporting so far.
On february 16th this year Russian( proxie)s tried to kill a BBC-crew that was filming at Donetsk Airport with mortar shells:
After ambushing and defeating the Ukrainian volunteer units that were retreating from Ilovaisk with the promise of a safe corridor, many Russian units retreat back to Russia under cover of heavy smoke screens on September 3rd, taking the same route that they came in.
Satellite images are kindly provided by @finriswolf.
Click to enlarge images.
To understand the level of destruction that the Russian Army created we can have a look at www.lostarmour.info. It is a Russian Propaganda site that mostly keeps track of Ukrainian losses. It also has some Russian units in its database, but only the ones that are obvious and undeniable. Also when in doubt, they label them as Ukrainian.
Nevertheless, since Ilovaisk was an ambushed retreat. most of the wrecks would be Ukrainian anyways.
Some labels appear as one, but when zoomed in, we see this (it is the most southern one in the image above):
In total 55 Ukrainian wrecks can be counted. And it is sure that not all of them are in this database.
For instance, at this (famous/notorious) location in Novokaterynivka at least 5 wrecks can be counted:
While Lostarmour only shows two. This was where a body was hanging in electrical wires.
North of Novokaterynivka this scene can be seen:
In the red circle two wrecks can be seen on the road (also not on Lostarmour). It seems like an actual Ukrainian column is passing those wrecks, trying to get home.
Lostarmour does show further down the road 7 wrecks:
Red rectangle = previous area with two wrecks
So it is very well possible that this small Ukrainian convoy was caught just a little further down the road after the satellite took the image.
A little bit more north of these positions there had been a Ukrainian camp in between the trees (image from July 17th 2014):
By the end of August/beginning of September it looked like this:
the camp has been abandoned, as well as an other camp nearby and a lot of 'debris' is in front of the trees. It is unclear (to me) whether these are (destroyed) vehicles or other items.
What IS clear is that the road between those two locations has been intensively used, indicating it was as well a supply route towards Ilovaisk as a flee route from there.
After creating this destruction the Russian Army quickly retreated to Russia again, leaving the are for the criminals they had armed to pretend as if THOSE had killed the Ukrainians.
Translation of Interview/interrogation with POW Cyborgs.
I'm filming video. If I get permission from the command after approving the video, it will be published, that is, I shall be permitted to publish it. You have an opportunity to make it known to your family that you're alive. Because you [the Ukrainian commanders] never admit casualties, you [soldiers] just disappear, as the phrase goes, if there is no body - there is no case. Where you went, tell me?
- I went for the guys at the airport to pick up the dead and bring them to Konstantinovka, and I did not know where to go next.
Which terminal at the airport?
- The new one, where our guys were.
So, how many stiffs there?
- I was told there were about 80 people there.
Eighty dead?
- No, I was told there were 80 people there.
How many dead?
- More than 60%, I was told.
Sixty percent?
- Yes.
That is, more than a half?
- Yes.
More than 50, then? Of 80 people?
- I did not even know who there actually fought. I was told that there were our guys from the 90th battalion, that they were being shelled, that the airport floors were already occupied, that moskals began to occupy the floors, and that at night they [the guys from the 90th battalion] were going to yield up the airport.
At night we were going to occupy the airport?
- Rather, in the morning, as it was night when we were told this. Then, in the morning, we were lined up and were told to go to pick up the guys, the dead, because there <...> had been killed...
Speak, speak.
- We seated <...> [...into three MT-LB armoured tracked vehicles?], there were nine of us. Everyone just had to come down, bring [the dead] to the car, load them into the ML-LB's, there were also special <...> [devices?] for the dead, the wounded, to pick up them all. We drove, that's what I remember, then the shelling begun, closer, closer, then bullets started to strike at the car armor, then the driver abruptly stopped the car, screamed "Knocked out, all get off!" We jumped down, it was fog, there were some broken frames at the left side. We all rushed into some room, no one knew where were they, where was the terminal, where were those floors, whom to pick up, whom to load.
Now the question to you solely for this recording. Can I call myself a good cop? Well, you see, you're quite shabby, I did not... or it was I who?..
- I've said what I knew <...>
No, I mean did I beat you?
- No.
How am I talking to you?
- Humanly.
Humanly. You see, my goal is not to make fun of a captured ukrop (I've always differentiated you [the Ukrainians] into Bandera's followers, ukrops and Ukrainians), I'm not an invited guest, my mother was from Shakhtersk, my father was of the Dnieper region, and then they went to the Crimea, their parents. I'm here, I know what I'm doing. And you hear my accent, don't you?
- Yes, of course.
Well, I see.
- <...> me too <...> the first time we were brought <...> I do not know where <...> I've never seen the first emplacement, the guys said "Here is your Ukrainian passport". Then they started talking...
I do not conceal anything. I yell at each corner that I'm a volunteer from Russia, it's no secret. I'm explaining to everybody that I have come to defend my historic homeland. My mother asks me, "If you're going to pass by my village, under Shakhtersk, make a picture of my home, I just wonder what happened to him." I'm not on a visit here, and I assure you that a large part, if not the largest, of those who came here from Russia, have their grandparents here. In Russia, for example, according to opinion polls, a third part of Russian citizens - not immigrants, but citizens - claim that they have their grandparents in Ukraine. It means - what? How do you think?
- It's kinda one country ...
Can this mean that a third part of the citizens of Russia are -
- ...the Ukrainians?
Yes.
- Sure it can.
How can a country...
- If you even take the Ukrainians, how many of them are all over Europe, that is the same thing here, more than half, well, a third part for sure.
So, I'll make a pause, I do not want to lose the video track, it does not download well in HD quality.
* * *
INTERROGATORS:
- ...We'll publish it [video], your family will take a look at it.
- You'll be a hero...
- You'll be a hero, known all over the country...
- Well, wait, now in a serious way. From jokes to business. You will be a hero. You're one of the military officers - in my opinion, the only one, the first one - in the history of Ukraine, who has military honor. Every officer, of any army, would consider it an honour when the enemy show mercy to him and allow him to shoot himself. Any country. And the Japanese, how they called it?
- Harakiri?
- Bushido? no, I don't remember.
- Seppuku? it's when he jump...
- Let's go back 70 years ago. Any German officer would take the gun. Yes, it's the Nazism, it's a lousy fascist, but he would take the gun. Any Soviet officer would take the gun. That's time when people had a notion of the officer's honor. And now ...
- Well, give the gun?
POW:
- My country won't appreciate it.
INTERROGATOR:
- But you're at war for it!
POW:
- It sent me to slaughter.
INTERROGATORS:
- But you denied it...
- And what, it's the family who will appreciate. Everybody will admire you, tell to your mom: "Look, what a son you had, a true hero!"
- There will be a street named after you.
- They will meet your coffin on your knees.
- "Right Sector" will...
- Kiss your ass.
- ...set up a monument to you, as a hero of Ukraine.
- Well, give the gun?
POW:
- No.
INTERROGATOR:
- I promise: no one will interfere. OK?
POW:
- No.
INTERROGATORS:
- Why no? Afeared?
- Tell us the reason, why.
POW:
- I don't want to die.
INTERROGATOR:
- "Don't want to die"? or "Don't want to die for..."?
POW:
- Don't want to die for the country that betrayed me.
INTERROGATOR:
- Do you really think you still have the homeland? We all were betrayed in the Maidan Square - both you all and we. When Maidan was taking place, we were working hard at the mines, factories. You were probably also doing something?
POW:
- Yes.
INTERROGATOR:
- Worked, right?
POW:
- Yes.
INTERROGATOR:
- And guys who stood there [in the Maidan square], "Berkut", were burned and beaten with chains, did you see that?
POW:
- In the news.
INTERROGATOR:
- Did see it in the news?
POW:
- Yes.
INTERROGATOR:
- Well, and how? There were guys like you, officers like you. They stood and did not fire a shot. And were beaten. Did not it offend you for the army?
POW:
- It offended me that the authorities allowed them to do so, allowed to do so to them. <...>
INTERROGATOR:
- Well, why you then went to serve to this country? The country that had trampled into mud the officers, the soldiers. They are like you.
POW:
- I had been mobilized.
INTERROGATOR:
- Mobilized... you coward ass. Coward ass, hear? You're a shit, not an officer.
Conclusion
Not very spectacular, but still this gives some insight in the mindset of the Russian proxies. Basically: we can take (parts of) Ukraine, because our parents lived there.
If you see errors or have additions to this translation, please let me know.
Shyrokyne has been a hot zone ever since Debaltseve had been fallen in February. But strangely enough the Russians had not been able to take it. The area looks more like a LIVE training camp for graduates in Russias Hybrid Army after they successfully finished the regular training. Like it was on Donetsk airport: send in untrained batches of cannon fodder to let them get real battle experience.
Russian general Lentsov is regularly visiting Shyrokyne:
Why? He has a free ticket to roam the area! The Russian militias won't shoot at him, because he is their boss! The Ukrainians won't shoot at him, because they INVITED him as a peacekeeper!
So where the Russian militias can't do battle damage assessment, or observe from closeby, Lentsov and his entourage CAN do this!
IF... OSCE would not guard and guide Lentsov through the area, he would be a target! I mean they are RUSSIANS walking through a frontline area!
So OSCE, whether they like it or not, are Lentsovs guarantee that he won't get killed. They are his protection.
It means OSCE-observers function as human shields/bodyguards/protection for Lentsov & co. Whether they know or not. pic.twitter.com/SWDRlBO9DN
— Ukraine@war (@DajeyPetros) April 16, 2015
When there is some incident they immediately make calls to both sides to let it stop:
But that is all part of the show, the deception:
Thanks to OSCE Lentsov can freely walk around on Ukrainian territory and on the Ukrainian side of the front line.
OSCE responds to this with saying that they don't pass information:
OSCE SMM head Bociurkiw: "Observers do not give away positions of Ukrainian army" http://t.co/chfp2byla0 Is he controlling each SMM member?)
— English Lugansk (@loogunda) April 16, 2015
But that is not even necessary:
They guide, guard and protect the Russians gathering the info. That's bad enough!
It's stupid & naive from Poroshenko/MoD/UA Army to think that info gathered by Lentsov &co is NOT passed to Russia. pic.twitter.com/Avvwgy2OSe
— Ukraine@war (@DajeyPetros) April 16, 2015
Russia is waging war against Ukraine and Ukraine allows a Russian general to walk around on its territory. Really? pic.twitter.com/CeYGNqod8u
— Ukraine@war (@DajeyPetros) April 16, 2015
NOBODY from the Ukrainian army, nor Poroschenko, or anybody from the government has given a ever given a good excuse why Lentsov is on Ukrainian ground or even why JCCC exists.
Meanwhile one of Lentsovs subordinates, warcriminal Zacharchenko announces more war to come:
5-8 kms means about everything up to the border of Mariupol!!! No more armed forces there...
This is what regiment Azov thinks about this whole plan (it's worth reading it):
So while Zacharchenko, a Russian proxy, talks about taking Mariupol, Lentsov, a Russian general talks about 'demilitarization', what de facto means Ukraine has to pull its troops back.
And when Ukraine would fall for that, is OSCE going to hold the Russian tanks back when they roll in? Or even just some squads of 'militants' could do the job, because OSCE is unarmed.
Here is a video from regiment Azov at Shyrokyne:
These are the defenders of their homeland!!! Of their own Ukrainian territory against the Russian invasion. And OSCE wants them to pull back!!! On my word...
But it might even get worse!
OSCE is planning to have a patrol in Shyrokyne overnight:
Earlier OSCE had been 'shot at' at Shyrokyne, which Lentsov talked about, they themselves denied it and on the video gunshots could be heard after which their cars returned.
Also a Russian 'journalist' had triggered a tripwire and got heavily wounded in Shyrokyne. See this video.
He can be seen here (on his knees) filming a dead Ukrainian soldier being returned to Ukraine:
So... the stage is set for a lot more drama...
Too bad there are so many (good-willing but ignorant) sheep out there...
Two 'soldiers' that where fighting for the so called LPR (a cloak for the Russian Hybrid Army) defected and surrendered to the Ukrainian army. They turned out to have a criminal past.
A 26 year old man from Bryanka had been in prison twice for robbery:
A 40 year old man from Sverdlovsk spent eleven years in jail for murder:
Lugansk News Today writes: "The older terrorist confessed that he was trained by Russian instructors in Yeysk city of Russian Federation. During 10 days he became operator-commander of surface-to-air missile system “Strela-10″.
This Strela-10 had been seen in Bryanka before according to this report:
It could very well have been the one being operated by this commander.
The commander happens to have a Nazi Reichs Eagle tattooed on his chest:
So Russia, who has been making a big fuzz about fighting against Fascist-Nazi Ukraine has no problem to use Nazis for this...
It is not the first time that criminals have been discovered fighting in the Russian Hybrid Army.
In this blog we reported about a drunk driver, who was a car mechanic from Adygea - Russia who was a tank driver for 'LPR':
In this blog we argued how Russia is systematically planning to use Russian inmates to fight in Ukraine.
In this blog we argued how Russia was introducing new batches of inmates to the battlefield at Debaltseve.
So the fact that two more real criminals are found within the ranks of the Russian Hybrid Army in Ukraine proofs even more how using criminals and inmates is a systematic practice.
The Strela-10 commander talked about being tortured and humiliated for two days in a row, while keeping him in an iron cage.
This also is a confirmation of the things argued and discussed in the other blogs.
UPDATE
Translation of the video:
(Unintellegible parts are in angle brackets, guesses and clarifications are in square brackets.)
1st Soldier:
- I'm a native of Lugansk region and the city of Sverdlovsk. In 2003 [I] was convicted of wilful murder, served the term of 11 years, was released in 2013.
Tell us how did you enter the military of the so-called People's Republic of Luhansk?
- <...> [On a way?] home to my mom I met at a battle station my friend Zhoga, with whom I had <...> parted. He was on duty.
When it was?
- It was in mid-summer 2014. He offered me to join the LPR.
How many people did you go to Yeysk and by what transport?
- To Yeysk we went in number of 40 people on two Ural trucks, crossed the border at the checkpoint Nulevoi, then, when we were in the Russian Federation, we were met by the FSB, or I do not know whom - the cars with flashers accompanied us to the military unit of the city of Yeysk. We were taught by Russian military men, career officers. There we were divided into groups - MPADS, Strela-10, and the mechanics-drivers.
Where you were sent to then after the training?
- After the training we were sent to Krasnyi Luch', our military deployment.
Explain your reasons why you've left the air defence forces and what did you do next?
- There I simply found the illegal actions by the command, so I decided to leave my service in the air defence forces. I was phoned by guys <...> from my village Suzhinskaya, [they] said 'We are now based in the city of Bryanka, come to us, [we] will find something fit for you, or will talk to your command and they will take you back.' I came to Bryanka to the battalion of artillery.
And what made you leave the service and go to the <...> [enemy?] territory?
- I was simply so unfairly treated, was beaten for <...> woman. It were the command and the drunken soldiers who beat [me]. In the LPR, by the way, drinking sprees are regular, systematic, every single day.
What happened after you were beaten?
- I was shut up in a cage - it's the selfsame cell, but like a cage. Then, on the first day [of the month] at 2 PM we bypassed the checkpoint Stakhanovskii, got to Pervomaiskaya, passed the checkpoint Pervomaiskii, and via the fields came to the Ukrainian army to be there in safety and security.
2nd Soldier:
Are there military persons who do not wish to serve in the so-called People's Republic of Lugansk, and [what are] the reasons?
- Yes, of course. Many of these I know. It's because they [= the LPR command] do not pay salary, nothing; for any <...> [misdeed?] [they] beat, humiliate. And the persons are afraid that their families are still there and they do not know how to come over to the Ukrainian army.
An even more extensive translation can be found here:
Here is ultimate proof that GRAD MLRS can fire WITHIN 5km range when used as 'direct fire':
In this video the Russians are peven PRACTICING how to fire on an ultimate short range. This means that firing MLRS on a very short range fits within the doctrine of the Russians. When they train on it, they use it too in battles. Or... in attacks on civilian areas!
One very common practice that we have noticed in the ongoing conflict is that the Russians fire GRAD from Ukrainian direction on occupied cities and villages, as to pretend as if the Ukrainian army shot the rockets.
Organisations like HRW or OSCE have easily fallen for this trick and blamed Ukraine for firing such attacks on civilians, because they apply the minimum ranges as absolute borders.
This footage shows how wrong they have been. The Russians fire in much shorter ranges and train it's hybrid army with this practice.
Next time the argument of minimum range can not be used anymore!
Because the Ukrainian 'cyborgs' defended Donetsk Airport for more than 240 days against the Russian invaders and caused hundreds of losses among them, they are especially hated.
On January 20th Donetsk Airport fell and remaining Ukrainian cyborgs were captured as well as some reinforcements arriving.
Many people have seen the disgusting video with 'Givi' and all main Russian media showing how they had captured a lot of them after collapsing the terminal with explosives upon the last defenders.
It was already argued right there that some of them had been tortured, shot and mutilated after being captured:
But since they tie hands of dead people too for easier transport and since the cause of death could not be established, it was difficult to prove.
Later a graphic video appeared where the corpses had clear headshots, which convinced me of them being executed:
18+ GRAPHIC Ukrainian cyborgs laying down together out in the open, hands tied up, shot throught the head = executed pic.twitter.com/ndHiuB3f50
— Ukraine@war (@DajeyPetros) February 24, 2015
Then we saw reports and photos of still living POW cyborgs forced to recover their dead comrades which as a war crime in itself.
On April 3rd a report came in where journalist Anastasia Birch and head of the main investigation department of the Security Service, Major-General Vasily Vovk said to have evidence that 'Motorola' had killed Igor Branovitskiy (seen alive as POW before).
He had been captured on January 20th and publicly shot dead after being tortured:
This video from Graham Phillips shows Igor being captured, but WITHOUT wounds in his face:
So it is clear that he got these wounds AFTER being captured, e.g. he has been tortured.
Kyiv Post has a detailed account of what happened. Cyborgs Yury Sova and sergeant Anatoly Svyryd witnessed Motorola killing Igor.
Also Kyiv Post had recorded Motorola saying: “I don’t give a shit about any accusations, believe it or not, I've shot 15 prisoners. I don’t give a shit. No comment. I kill whoever I want.”
Conclusion
It is confirmed now that the Russian occupants executed at least one cyborg POW from Donetsk airport in front of others. But this also confirms the suspicions we always had about all the other bodies that were found at Donetsk airport with the hands tied.
Moreover... Motorola/Arseny Pavlov can officially be considered a war criminal from now on.
