Putin Sends Russian Troops Into Ukraine As "Peacekeepers"
By Dark Politricks
Late on Monday night 21st February 2022, Russia's leader Vladimir Putin, after pressure from both the heads of the breakaway Ukrainian Republics, and the Russian parliament, recognised the two breakaway Republics in Eastern Ukraine, Donetsk, and Luhansk, as independent sovereign nations, saying that it was an act that was overdue.
The leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, had both asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize the republics’ independence from Ukraine.
"On behalf of all of the people of the DPR, we are asking you to recognize the Donetsk People’s Republic as an independent, democratic and social state based on the rule of law," Denis Pushilin said.Leonid Pasechnik added: "With the goal of preventing mass deaths among the republic’s civilian population, some 300,000 of whom are Russian citizens, I’m asking you to recognize the sovereignty and independence of the Lugansk People’s Republic."
Both leaders also suggested signing a treaty on friendship and cooperation with Russia, which included military cooperation.
This came as the 8-year civil war in Eastern Ukraine between the breakaway Republics and Western Ukrainians continued with heavy shelling along the contact line between Ukrainian soldiers and Russia-backed separatists, whilst thousands of people were being evacuated from eastern Ukraine to Russia, some of whom had apparently been paid $130 worth of Rubles to do so.
The shelling occurred despite the massive build-up of around 150,000 Russian soldiers along the border, and with warnings from NATO, the USA, and the EU, about heavy sanctions and dire consequences if they dared to invade Ukraine.
The civil war has seen over 14,000 people killed and many atrocities committed by both sides. This has included the downing of the Malaysia MH17 flight, which saw 283 people killed including 80 children, and 15 crew members, and the burning down of the Odessa Trade Unions Building, where at least 36 separatists were burned to death by far-right nationalists.
Frequent heavy shelling by the western forces and far-right militias have seen many towns in the breakaway republics reduced to rubble, with schools and even kindergartens struck by rockets, sometimes deliberately, such as this one in the settlement of Stanytsia Luhanska.
Speaking as part of a televised address to the nation on Monday evening, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, signed the decree recognising the republics as independent states. He said that:
“I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago to immediately recognize the Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) People’s Republics.”
This came in a speech he gave in which he listed multiple reasons why the republics in the Donbass region of Ukraine should gain independence. These are the regions that have been fighting a war with the far-right Ukrainian government forces, that the USA helped install in the Maidan coup, during 2014.
Putin spoke about the regime now in control of Ukraine in which he slammed them for "extreme nationalism", "Nazism" and "Russophobia" pointing to the shutting down of Russian-language news outlets and laws he said that discriminated against Russian speakers in Ukraine..
The head of state also alleged that Kiev is sending saboteurs to target Russian infrastructure and attempting to "drag foreign states into conflict with our country". He also said that Ukraine's ambitions to join NATO would mean an "immediate threat of attack against our country."
This decision was met with massive celebrations across the Donbass region of Ukraine with firework displays and Russian flag waving which you can watch on this link.
This comes after a period in which Russia had been trying to negotiate security terms with NATO over their constant expansion despite being a Cold War alliance, which both Russia and China have noted, is a war that is long over. Russia wanted assurances that NATO would deny membership to Ukraine and any other former Soviet countries, as well as to roll back the alliance's military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.
This was not something NATO agreed to, and it set off the latest in a long line of developments which saw a massive build-up of Russian forces on the border of Ukraine, western nations removing diplomats and warning citizens to leave the country, and then yesterday the events that led to the UN Security Council meeting held late Monday night.
The day started off with news from Russia that FSB agents had stopped and killed five members of a Ukrainian sabotage group by FSB border guard forces for attempting to illegally cross the Russian border. This was either a ruse by NATO to goad Russia into attacking Ukraine, or the "false flag" attack that the US/UK Axis of War had been talking about for weeks. Either way, it has seemed to create the excuse that Russia has used for its actions.
Earlier in the day Putin reportedly told his security council it was "necessary to consider an appeal from the leaders of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine for Russia to recognize them as independent.", Putin had called the situation in Eastern Ukraine where fighting continues, a genocide and he considered the people of Ukraine part of Russia's heart and soul.
"I would like to reiterate that Ukraine is just not our neighboring country. It’s an integral part of our history, culture, and spiritual space...they are comrades, dear ones, not just colleagues, not just those who used to serve in the army but also relatives. Those who tied up with us in family and blood ties."He went on to criticize the US-led coup that has started this whole situation on his border: "Those who seized the power and keep the power in Kiev we demand to stop hostilities immediately. Otherwise, all responsibility for the possible continuation of the bloodbath will be on the consciences of the regime that is ruling in Kiev."
These were Putin's words as he later signed a historical document to recognise the two breakaway regions as independent statelets, defying western warnings that such a step would be illegal and kill off long-running peace negotiations.
You can watch Putin signing the documents below.
⚡️⚡️Putin signs historic decree on recognizing two Donbass republics in the presence of their heads pic.twitter.com/FKaphoS3zZ
— RT (@RT_com) February 21, 2022
While the treaties of friendship and cooperation between Russia and the newly recognized republics of Donetsk and Lugansk are still in the draft stage, the Russian State Duma still released the proposed documents on Monday, showing that they will include common defense against external aggression and the right to use each other’s military infrastructure, among other things.
However after the treaties were signed, Putin ordered the Russian military to “secure the peace” in the newly recognized Donetsk and Lugansk republics, and Russian troops started pouring into the regions.
Now we don't know what is going to happen next apart from a few things but I do hope the West, especially here in Europe where we are facing, rising heating costs doesn't do something stupid like stopping the Nordstream2 pipeline that has been built to bring extra and much-needed gas to Germany and Europe, without going through Ukraine.
Their existing pipeline that runs through the country has been a constant source of grief between the two countries as Russia has constantly complained that Ukraine is not only stealing gas but owes them money for gas they have not paid for.
Russia cut off the gas for a few days back in 2006 and 2009, after Russia accused Ukraine of diverting £14.5 million worth of gas intended for other European countries, and we ALL felt it. We do not want that to happen again.
Gazprom, Russia's state energy group, cut natural gas deliveries to Ukraine on 1st January 2009 after a long dispute over unpaid bills and prices for this year's supplies, and their chief spokesman, Sergei Kupriyanov, said Kiev is now threatening deliveries.
"The Ukrainian side has openly admitted that it is stealing gas, and it is not even ashamed of this fact."
Last year, gas delivered to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines fell by 25% and fears of further disruptions have ramped up with the buildup of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border.
However, if Europe does not want Russia's gas, China certainly does and they have already signed a 30-year contract for Russia to supply China natural gas and will use euros instead of US Dollars for payment.
I think Russia would only be too happy to start delivering gas we could have had to China instead. Due to their close relationship and recent cutting down of transactions in US dollars from 90% to 51% in 2019, any financial sanctions put on Russia for this move will probably be negated by the fact that the world still needs their gas.
Not only does the US buy Russian gas and oil (12-26 million barrels per month in 2021), as well as Europe, but as retaliation to any sanctions, Russia could also close their airspace to Western planes, quit the International Space Station, and decrease their use of the dollar for financial transactions even more.
The BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have already announced that the new BRICS New Development Bank will move away from using US dollars in loans, and will introduce the BRICSPay system to allow nationals of their countries to make payments in their own currencies to also avoid the US dollar.
So why is Russia doing this?
Well if anybody remembers recent history it was the US-led coup in Ukraine that removed a Russian-friendly corrupt leader only to replace him with a Western-friendly corrupt leader during the Maidan uprising that ignited recent troubles.
The west helped to install a far-right government in Ukraine during 2014 and Ukraine's desire to leave the Russian sphere of influence, instead wanting to join both NATO and the EU, kicked the ball down the hill that has led to this point in time.
Anyone who knows World War II history doesn't need reminding that many Ukrainians, celebrated the German invasion of the USSR during Operation Barbarossa, and even joined up to fight the Soviets during their invasion into the USSR. Therefore the Russians rightly fear being invaded once more from Ukraine, and especially fear far-right NAZI's who killed 40 million+ men, women, and children during World War II.
The recent Ukrainian coup in 2014 was led by Victoria Nuland, US President Barack Obama's agent at least during the month of February when it climaxed. She was famously caught on a call saying "Fuck the EU", who were hoping for a democratic and less corrupt future government for Ukraine.
Instead, Nuland instructed America's Ambassador in Ukraine, Jeffrey Pyatt to choose the rabidly anti-Russian, and far-right, Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the new President to run the now clearly fascist country on Russia's border.
As you can see from this picture of some far-right Ukrainian soldiers during the coup who are openly proud of their NAZISM, they were only too happy to go off to the more Russian east to fight and kill the citizens that lived there.
Now to understand why Russia is so pissed off with NATO expansion and a future where Ukraine was a member of NATO, and why the US keeps pushing for NATO expansion, we need to go back to 1989 when the fall of the Berlin Wall occurred and then the fall of the Soviet Union.
Although many people have heard the broken promise of the then US Secretary of State James Baker who gave an assurance to Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “not one inch eastward” during a meeting on February 9, 1990. Many have not realised who else gave the Soviets the same promise so that they would roll out of Eastern Europe.
Declassified documents now reveal that Gorbachev only accepted German reunification, which the Soviet Union had a legal right to veto under treaty from not only James Baker but also President George H.W. Bush, West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the CIA Director Robert Gates, French President Francois Mitterrand, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, British foreign minister Douglas Hurd, British Prime Minister John Major, and NATO secretary-general Manfred Woerner.
So, one can imagine how angry the Russians must be with the current situation, having NATO bases all around them, with so many Western leaders breaking that promise not to expand, and facing the threat of Ukraine, the ex-Soviet Republic, joining NATO and having nuclear weapons on their border facing directly at them.
One must ask the obvious question. Why is it that the US thinks that it is so "exceptional", that it can impose its will through International bodies, banks, and its military on other countries?
It invades them under false pretences, with fake claims of "spreading democracy", or "Human Rights Abuses", and to those, it cannot invade, it imposes sanctions. Why does the US feel such a moral superiority when in fact they have spent the last 100+ years installing Right-Wing dictators and overthrowing left-wing governments all over the globe, and causing millions of deaths and executions from their US-trained death squads at the School of the Americas?
The USA would certainly not appreciate being surrounded by Russian or Chinese bases and having nuclear missiles faced at them as seen by the Cuba crisis in the '60s. However, they expect other countries that they constantly use as scapegoats for election losses, hack attempts, and Human Rights abuses to suffer the same indignation.
When only weeks ago Russia said that it was considering deploying troops in Venezuela and Cuba amid growing U.S.-Russia tensions over Ukraine, the US went almost ballistic. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that the United States would respond "decisively" if Russia were to actually send troops to those countries.
So it seems what is good for the goose is not good for the gander, and only the US and its NATO allies have the right to security, without worrying about countries they consider enemies, having troops, and possibly nuclear weapons near their own borders.
When you consider that Russia has been invaded 3 times from the west in the last 200+ years from Napolean, to World War 1 and 2, with the last invasion being NAZI's, with Ukrainian help, you can only realise why it is so important for Russia to feel secure in their borders and not have NATO pointing guns at them from their front door.
If Russia cannot get basic security guarantees from the west, and as history shows the only words they hear about NATO have been lies about not moving eastwards. Then you can only come to the conclusion that their latest actions of bringing troops into the newly independent statelets as peacekeepers, make perfect sense for them, whatever the cost that the US and its allies impose on them for them doing so.
Whether cool heads are used in this situation or hot-headed ones I can only hope for the former but fully expect the latter from recent western media reporting on the situation.
However, with Russia and China having such a close relationship, I would not be surprised if China also recognises these statelets at the UN meeting that has been called for by Ukraine, the United States, and six other countries. This meeting is currently being held, as the US and its allies talk about cutting Russia off from the US-controlled Swift International Banking system.
However, the SWIFT banking system, as earlier noted, is something that Russia and China have been using less and less lately, as well as the petrodollar. They have decided instead to conduct transactions in their own currencies rather than allow the US to export its inflation across the globe as it prints trillions of dollars and increases its debt to points that cannot ever be paid off.
We can only wait and see what the response from the US and NATO is, and then the response Russia replies with. When it comes to playing strategic chess, I think Putin would easily beat Biden, and he would have considered all these potential sanctions and threats before he made his move earlier yesterday.
You can read this article from last year in which Russia states that it is ready to be cut off from SWIFT, so I guess that they already have an alternative if that is part of the US response to Putin's actions. I only hope that it doesn't come at a too high cost for us in Europe as I am pretty sure the US doesn't care whether we spend the winter freezing if Russia cuts off our gas in retaliation. So I really hope they have a backup plan to keep Europe warm if Nord Stream 2 is not operational.
Update - Oct 1st 2022
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines have both been blown up causing a massive environmental disaster due to being full of gas. Of course, stupid fingers pointed at Russia who could have easily turned the taps off at Gazprom HQ but US ships were seen in the local area carrying out underwater exercises, and apparently, they wanted to de-industrialise their biggest partner in Europe, Germany, and stop their reliance on cheap Russian gas that made them a competitor to the US.
Plus it removed any Russian leverage over the EU who may have wanted to not have thousands of people freeze to death this winter by turning the taps back on as many protests have been occurring in Germany by angry citizens all demanding to turn Nord Stream 2 on so that businesses wouldn't close, rolling blackouts would not occur and people who were going into the woods to chop down trees for old fashioned wood burning fires could stop.
By Dark Politricks
© 2022 Dark Politricks