The upcoming war in Ukraine

Evan Richards, writes about the rising hostilities within Ukraine – fulled by both Nato imperialism and far-right nationalism

The UK is scrambling Typhoons over Romania, and the US has sent two warships to the black sea. NATO and US troops in Ukraine are on high-alert and fears of a full-scale war in Ukraine are mounting. Why is this happening? And why at this time?

The election of Joe Biden has had many predicted consequences, from a continued militarised presence on the southern border to furthering the Jihadist sponsored regime change operation in Syria to the continued use of illegal pipelines through native American land to increasing the Pentagon budget (to $753 billion!). However, one major consequence that has gone largely unnoticed are the events in Ukraine.

Ukraine has been in conflict since 2014. This conflict is directly between the Ukrainian government and the Russian-speaking Ukrainian people in the Donbass region and indirectly between NATO and Russia. Biden took a key role in the conflict and the Ukrainian coup in 2014. He was the architect, director and commander of the Donbass war. He first arrived in Ukraine in 2009 to promise aid and support. Along with Victoria Nuland, John Kerry and Ash Carter the US spent five billion dollars supporting Ukrainian nationalists to destabilise the country and obtain a US military presence. This, coupled with Georgian snipers that massacred over 100 people when they indiscriminately shot protestors, paid for by the USA, culminated in the Euromaidan; an anti-democratic uprising against the Ukrainian government that secured a US military presence on Russia’s border and also unleashed a wave of neo-Nazi forces.

Biden’s close collaboration with the Ukrainian government post-Maidan speaks to the involvement the US has had in their neo-Nazi pet project on the Russian border. It is not without historical precedence either as this had already taken place in Chechnya in the 90s where both Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, Al Qaeda members responsible for the “planes operation” which later became 9/11, had fought with US funding and training from Bosnia and Afghanistan. It also has precedence in Georgia where the US, through imperial NGOs such as the Open Society and National Endowment for Democracy plus private media organised a coup to overthrow Eduard Shevardnadze and institute Mikhail Saakashvili. Again with a backlash of Georgian nationalists who adhere to the time-honored fascist slogans of “blood and soil”. Just one year after the Georgian coup, Saakashvili, with US funding and training, invaded Russian territory in South Ossetia, launching US rockets into civilian homes unexpectedly. One event on an embarrassing moment for Fox News showed a young girl who witnessed the events in South Ossetia but did not go along with the narrative that was being pushed. The event was a bloody war blamed on Russia when in reality it was a Georgian attack instigated by Washington.

This inter-imperialist conflict, spearheaded by the US revolves mainly around oil and gas. The US-Georgian invasion of Russia in 2008 was mainly a result of US interests in securing the $3.6 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. A project backed by companies such as BP whose chairman in 2007 was Lord Browne, a close advisor to Tony Blair.

“In oil Baku is incomparable. . . . Baku is greater than any other oil city in the world. If oil is king, Baku is its throne!” – The British Business Journal The Near East.

Ukraine’s situation post-coup unleashed a wave of reactionary nationalism, groups of neo-Nazis emerged who engaged in the suppression and cleansing of Russian-speaking people and Jewish people. Organisations such as Svoboda and the Azov battalion proudly follow in the steps of the Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. This led to a spark in resistance from Ukrainians in the South and East, the consequences were the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). Rebels flooded from all around Ukraine and international volunteers joined from abroad, they called for a federal republic, they receieved artillery shells, the calls changed quickly towards independence. Ukraine was also noted for “brain drain” as millions of civilians fled to both Russia and Poland.

Compare this with the rebels of Donbass, “EU-USA stop supporting Nazi coup in Ukraine”.

The roots of fascism go deep in Ukraine. One of the most significant crimes that took place after the coup were the events in Odessa in 2014 where far-right Ukrainian nationalists massacred up to fifty people who were burnt and beaten to death in public. Anti-fascists, separatists, communists, bystanders and anyone that opposed the policies of the US backed Kiev junta made up the victims with the event culminating in the burning of a trade union building whilst police turned a blind eye.

There was of course hardly any mention of these crimes in the Western press. Biden could have made efforts to prevent this. He could have motivated talks and discussions with the Ukrainians who opposed the Euromaidan coup and encouraged the Ukrainian government to meet the needs of the people of Donbass, Luhansk and Odessa by providing democratic rights, constitutional reform, an amnesty of rebel militias, and an election of MPs to the Ukrainian parliament to represents residents of the breakaway regions, but he did not. No doubt a similar view that permeated Biden’s outlook on Serbia exists with Russia. Joe Biden was the main political figure behind backing the fascist KLA forces in Kosovo, he allegedly deemed Serbs “illiterate degenerates”, “baby killers” and “butchers” on CNN’s Larry King Show. There has never been a doubt among genuine progressives that Joe Biden is a racist, it is also unquestionable that slavophobia takes a strong hold in Washington and the EU as the Irish MEP Clare Daly pointed out. 

The corruption of Biden in Ukraine also extends to his own son, Hunter Biden, who, even though never having stepped a foot in Ukraine, was appointed to the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian privately owned energy company from which he made millions. This was all denied by Joe Biden, along with the rumours that his son was a drug-addict. However he was proven wrong when a computer seized by the FBI contained emails between them both proving Biden’s corruption. It also revealed various videos of Hunter smoking crack.

The war in Donbass that ensued in 2015-16 had horrific consequences, from the downing of the civilian aircraft MH17 which was allegedly shot down by separatists in Donbass (backed by the West and controversial Dutch report with organisations such as Bellingcat, responsible for also pushing false flag narratives in Syria) to the ensuing ethnic cleansing of Jews and Russians in Donbass and the constant barrage of artillery from the Ukrainian military. In the words of one Ukrainian couple, “the Ukrainian [government] side shoots whenever they want; no one holds them accountable.”

As one article writes, “the mainstream media has been so effective in its misinformation that every aspect of this crisis has been turned upside down for the Donbass people. They are defended by people who have given up their former lives only to be called terrorists. They are represented by journalists who reject the western narrative only to be called propagandists. They receive humanitarian aid and political support from Russia who in turn is called the aggressor.”

Another article entitled “The Fourth Reich? Why Ukraine coup should worry us all” goes into great detail on the fears that the neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine have instilled and goes on to name several of the groups. These include “Svoboda” (Freedom) Party, “Patriots of Ukraine”, “Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian National Self Defense” (UNA-UNSO), and “Trizub”.

Many members of Svoboda, formerly known as the ‘Social-National Party of Ukraine’ and the Azov Battalion are also unsurprisingly pro-NATO.

With the election of Donald Trump in 2016, foreign policy shifted and consequently the war in Ukraine died down. Throughout Trump’s presidency there was progress towards cooperation, the election of Zelensky also saw talks between Ukraine and Russia ensue. Now, with the return of Biden there has recently been a surge of media reports of fear mongering about Russia’s actions in Ukraine (see below). Even in 2020, the fighting in the Donbass started to pick up again with 300 soldiers killed. With a clown like Zelensky in charge, Ukraine is at the mercy of the US and their pet neo-Nazi project. The last time neo-Nazis had any power on the Russian border 27 million people died. Putin shares this concern and worries about the nationalist presence stating “we have seen the way Zelensky talks to the nationalists, and it’s not clear who has the upper hand there”.

Whilst the UK is scrambling Typhoons over Romania, article after article is producing fear about the “threat” of Russia (see “Recent Tensions” section below). The western media is constantly blaming Russia for escalating tensions. What for exactly? Apparently for moving troops. Their own troops. In their own borders. What the media will not tell you, is that this is in direct response to a mobilisation of Ukrainian troops on Russia’s border. Despite this so-called “threat”, which is really just a propaganda campaign to mask the Ukrainian goals of crushing the rebels, the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov replied to this surge of reporting by stating, “many ask what the Russian Army is doing on the border with Ukraine. The answer is simple: we live there, that’s our country. But what the US is doing thousands of kilometers from its own territory, this question remains unanswered”. Indeed in complete hypocrisy the US has “In total, 40 thousand military personnel and 15 thousand units of weapons and military equipment, including strategic aviation” in the region.

To understand why this is happening at this time there are two main points. One, as explained before, is the return of Joe Biden and the imperialist vulture cabinet that made-up Obama’s administration. Two, is that Russia seeks to abandon the dollar and western payment systems and has been trying for some time now.

We must also never forget the sheer value Russia holds for the imperialists abroad, in Albert Kahn and Michael Sayer’s book “The Great Conspiracy: The Secret War against Soviet Russia”, they describe how as “Anglo-French troops and munitions poured into Siberia, the Bulletin of the British Federation of Industries, the most powerful association of British industrialists, exclaimed in print: – “Siberia, the most gigantic prize offered to the civilized world since the discovery of the Americas!”. It also details an account of a Japanese salesman who stated, “Russia, with her 180,000,000 of people, with her fertile soil stretching from Central Europe across Asia to the shores of the Pacific and from the Arctic down to the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea . . . market possibilities such as even the most optimistic dared not dream of. . . . Russia, potentially and actually – the granary, the fishery, the lumber-yard, the coal, gold, silver and platinum mine of the world!”. Of course Russia is much different now from a hundred years ago, however it still holds a lot of value that capital seeks to dominate.

The reality is that in the pursuits of war from the bloodthirsty nature of capital, the United States will let all of Ukraine be bombed back to the stone age in order to regain what they lost under Yeltsin. They will fight Russia to the last Ukrainian for the profits of Wall Street. After the resistance to the Euromaidan coup, Joe Biden in the words of one New York Times article, “pressed President Barack Obama to take decisive action, and fast, to make Moscow “pay in blood and money” for its aggression.” The rhetoric is deliberate. The Russian-speaking people that live in Ukraine are deemed “invaders” against the “blood and soil” Ukrainians. The actions of the US and Ukraine would be the equivalent of claiming Hispanic Americans in the US are “invaders” against the “real” – likely white – “Americans”. One does not even need to make-up comparisons, for this is exactly what the US did in Croatia and Bosnia, where the former became a crypto-fascist state “for Croats” (consequently expelling hundreds of thousands of Serbs from Krajina) led by the Holocaust denying Franjo Tuđman and the latter would be proclaimed to be a far-right Islamic State by the former-SS officer Alija Izetbegovic. The same fascistic forces floodes of blood and soil nationalism currently flood Ukraine with funding and weapons from the US to Israel.

For the same reason Iraq was invaded, Yugoslavia dismantled, and Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Korea, Indonesia and so many more bombed, Ukraine will be next. The DPR leaders and people of Donbass know the war is coming back, the leaders of Russia are also preparing, the fears of Ukraine being another Rwanda or Bosnia where fascistic figures like Naser Oric slaughtered fifty Serb villages spring to mind given the current atmosphere of anti-Semitism and Russophobia from Ukrainian nationalists.

The threats loom large. Solidarity with the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic against neo-Nazis is paramount. The security of anyone who does not bear the “blood and soil” of Ukrainian nationalists and who does not uphold the banner of Bandera is at risk.

The US currently occupies Ukraine. US army generals (which are often the ones to spill the truth on US war crimes; Yugoslavia; Iraq; Yemen, etc.) expose just how prepared they are. The US also has biological warfare labs in Ukraine, any one of which can release toxins that can commit war crimes and create falseflags for which the US will never be held to account.

Whilst NATO pushes for war against Russia through its colonisation of Ukraine and Operation Barbarossa 2.0, the Ukrainian people, the majority of which want peace, are left as pawns in a geopolitical game of the US Empire. This inter-imperialist conflict is not in the interest of any worker. As Lenin said “war cannot be abolished unless classes are abolished and Socialism is created”. Whilst this is the primary aim of revolutionaries Lenin also said “if tomorrow, Morocco were to declare war on France, India on England, Persia or China on Russia, and so forth, those would be “just” “defensive” wars, irrespective of who attacked first; and every Socialist would sympathise with the victory of the oppressed, dependent, unequal states against the oppressing, slave-owning, predatory “great” powers.” It is the duty therefore to stand in solidarity with those vulnerable in Donbass and against US imperialism and Banderite fascism, not only because Lenin deemed it as “just”, but because of the genuine threats the situation in Ukraine poses to millions of people.

Evan Richards, is a member of the YCL’s South Yorkshire Branch

Sources:
Forces escalating in Ukraine

• –  ‘RAF Typhoons scramble in response to Russian aircraft activity close to Romania’. Retrieved from: https://www.raf.mod.uk/news/articles/raf-typhoons-scramble-in-response-to-russian-aircraft-activity-close-to-romania/
• –  ‘US considering sending warships to Black Sea amid Russia-Ukraine tensions’. CNN. Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/08/politics/ukraine-us-black-sea/index.html
  Important quote from the article notes that, ‘The US is required to give 14 days notice of its intention to enter the Black Sea under a 1936 treaty giving Turkey control of the straits to enter the sea. It is unclear if a notice has yet been sent’.

The predicted mess of Joe Biden’s presidency

• –  ‘Child migrants: First photos emerge of Biden-era detention centres’. BBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56491941
• –  ‘Tough migration enforcement south of border key to Biden plans’. Reuters. Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-military-insight-idUSKBN2AC16U
• –  ‘The border emergency is canceled, but thousands of troops there aren’t scheduled to go home’. Military Times. Retrieved from: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/01/22/the-border-emergency-is-c anceled-but-thousands-of-troops-there-arent-scheduled-to-go-home/
• –  ‘In Mexico, Biden team asks for more help stopping irregular migration’. Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexico-biden-immigration-surge-b order/2021/03/23/2b993ec8-8bde-11eb-9423-04079921c915_story.html
• –  ‘Biden Delivers Disappointment on the Dakota Access Pipeline’. EarthJustice. Retrieved from: https://earthjustice.org/brief/2021/biden-delivers-disappointment-on-the-dakota-access-pipeline
• –  ‘Months After Biden Promised to End Support for Yemen War, Congress Still Has No Details’. The Intercept. Retrieved from: https://theintercept.com/2021/04/07/biden-yemen-war-congress-end/
• –  ‘BREAKING: Biden Proposes $715 Billion Pentagon Budget for 2022’. National Defense Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/4/9/breaking-biden-proposes-71 5-billion-pentagon-budget-for-2022
• –  ‘Airstrikes in Syria kill 22 in Joe Biden’s first military act as president’. The Guardian. Retrieved from:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/25/us-airstrike-syria-iran-militia

Ukrainian coup

• –  ‘The hidden truth about Ukraine – Part 1’. Italian documentary on the US paid Georgian snipers. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/wR1NFI6TBH0
• –  ‘Марионетки Майдана’. Phone call between Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt on the $5 billion and US involvement in the Ukrainian coup. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/MSxaa-67yGM
• –  ‘The Fourth Reich? Why Ukraine coup should worry us all’. Retrieved from: https://akashictimes.co.uk/the-fourth-reich-why-ukraine-coup-should-worry-us-all/
• –  ‘How Maidan Protesters Were Shot from Maidan-Controlled Buildings: Video Appendix H’. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/video/1qXx3j

• –  ‘Ukrainian Communists: Defend constitution vs. ultra-right, privatizers’. People’s World. Retrieved from: https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/ukrainian-communists-defend-constitution-vs-ultra-ri ght-privatizers/
• –  ‘NATO’s colonization of Ukraine under guise of partnership’. Retrieved from: https://www.rt.com/op-ed/491730-ukraine-nato-partnership-colonization/
• –  ‘The 2014 Kiev Massacres Were a US False Flag – Ukraine’s New Government Will Have to Face This’. Retrieved from: https://en.news-front.info/2019/04/25/the-2014-kiev-massacres-were-a-us-false-flag-ukra ine-s-new-government-will-have-to-face-this/

The anti-Communism of Ukraine

• –  ‘Ukrainian student sentenced for ‘propaganda of communism’ on Facebook’. Retrieved from: http://khpg.org/en/1494505913
• –  ‘Ukraine’s Communist Party Outlawed’. Retrieved from: http://khpg.org/en/1450310911
• –  ‘SBU raids Communist Party on suspicion of treason & planning a coup’. Retrieved from:http://khpg.org/en/1525826025
• –  ‘5 years for a red flag? Controversial decommunization law used against Ukrainian veterans’. Retrieved from: http://khpg.org/en/1462905029
• –  ‘Kiev has a nasty case of anti-communist hysteria’. The Guardian. Retrieved from:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/18/ukraine-communist-party-ban-hysteria
• –  ‘Goodbye, Lenin: Ukraine moves to ban communist symbols’. BBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32267075
• –  ‘Standing up to anti-communism in Poland and worldwide’. Morning Star. Retrieved from: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/standing-up-to-anti-communism-in-poland-and-worldwide

Georgia & Chechnya

• –  For resources concerning the two Al-Qaeda members who fought in Chechnya see Max Blumenthal’s book, “The Management of Savagery”, chapter “Waves Flanked by Arrogance”.
• –  A Georgian nationalist group leader can be found here on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/MamukaLegion
• –  In July 15-31 2008, the US and Georgia held War Games under the codename Operation “Immediate Response”. One thousand US servicemen participate in the military exercise. And the US spent $8 million training Georgian troops. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immediate_Response_2008
• –  ‘Olympic Games Make US Regime Paranoid and Unpredictable’. Off Guardian. Retrieved from: https://off-guardian.org/2018/02/16/olympic-games-make-us-regime-paranoid-and-unpre dictable/
• –  ‘Army document: US strategy to ‘dethrone’ Putin for oil pipelines might provoke WW3’. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/army-study-us-strategy-to-dethrone-putin-for-oil- pipelines-might-provoke-ww3-9b1d9dbe6be9

• –  ‘Russia, Georgia, and independence in the age of imperialism’. Liberation News. Retrieved from:https://www.liberationnews.org/russia-georgia-and-imperialism-ukraine-html/
• –  ‘US, British imperialists sabre rattle against Russia. Russian, Georgian workers: the main enemy is at home! US/NATO bases out of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Near East!’. Spartacist. Retrieved from: https://spartacist.org/english/wh/204/georgia.html
• –  ‘Caucasus: whose aggression?’. Retrieved from:https://www.antiimperialista.org/en/node/5771
• –  ‘Georgia is the graveyard of America’s unipolar world’. The Guardian. Retrieved from:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/aug/28/russia.usforeignpolicy
• –  ‘The truth about South Ossetia’. The Guardian. Retrieved from:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/31/russia-georgia

Nazis in Ukraine

• –  ‘Is USAID Still Using American Tax Payer Dollars to Support Glorification of Holocaust Collaborators in Ukraine?’. Defending History. Retrieved from: https://defendinghistory.com/is-usaid-still-using-american-tax-payer-dollars-to-support-gl orification-of-holocaust-collaborators-in-ukraine/104516
• –  ‘The roots of fascism in Ukraine: From Nazi collaboration to Maidan’. Retrieved from:https://liberationschool.org/the-roots-of-fascism-in-ukraine/
• –  ‘‘No to capitulation! Death to our enemies!’ Nationalists march in Kiev against roadmap to peace in Ukraine’. RT. Retrieved from: https://on.rt.com/a3dp
• –  ‘Commentary: Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem’. Retrieved from:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cohen-ukraine-commentary-idUSKBN1GV2TY
• –  ‘Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine’. Retrieved from:https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
• –  ‘Azov fighters are Ukraine’s greatest weapon and may be its greatest threat’. Retrieved from:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis
• –  ‘The other Ukraine scandal: US support for neo-Nazis fuels far-right terror at home’. Retrieved from:https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/25/ukraine-us-support-neo-nazis-ben-norton/
• –  ‘Democrats ‘Outraged’ by Charlottesville Convince Trump to Arm Neo-Nazis in Ukraine’. Retrieved from:https://off-guardian.org/2018/03/26/democrats-outraged-by-charlottesville-convince-trum p-to-arm-neo-nazis-in-ukraine/
• –  ‘How prevalent are far right nationalists in Ukraine?’. Retrieved from:https://medium.com/@mattflorence/how-prevalent-are-far-right-nationalists-in-ukraine-c04b9fb5b3d9
• –  ‘Who are the Nazis in the Ukrainian government?’. Retrieved from:https://www.voltairenet.org/article182428.html

Ethnic cleansing and genocide

• –  ‘The Mainstream Media Is Aiding Ethnic Cleansing In Ukraine’. Mintpress News. Retrieved from:https://www.mintpressnews.com/MyMPN/the-mainstream-media-is-aiding-ethnic-cleansi ng-in-ukraine/
• –  ‘The Tragedy of Uglegorsk: Exodus from the “City of the Dead”’. Retrieved from:https://slavyangrad.org/2015/02/16/the-tragedy-of-uglegorsk-exodus-from-the-city-of-the-dead/
• –  ‘Ethnic and cultural cleansing in Ukraine’. Retrieved from:https://www.voltairenet.org/article184430.html
• –  [Content Warning: Graphic Imagery]‘The Ukrainian Genocide.’. Retrieved from:https://rocksolidpolitics.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-ukrainian-genocide.html
• –  ‘The final solution to the issue: Ukrainian schools abandoned the Russian language’. Retrieved from:https://en.topwar.ru/174714-okonchatelnoe-reshenie-voprosa-shkoly-ukrainy-otkazalis-ot -russkogo-jazyka.html

Odessa Massacre

• –  ‘Odessa– the First Pogrom– The Obama Genocide’. Retrieved from:https://www.greanvillepost.com/2014/05/08/odessa-the-first-pogrom-the-obama-genocide/
• –  [Good Watch] ‘Odessa Massacre – What REALLY Happened’. Retrieved from:https://youtu.be/H4dJRnI-X8Q
• –  ‘Kiev’s Repression of Anti-Fascism in Odessa’. Retrieved from:https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/27/kievs-repression-of-anti-fascism-in-odessa/
• –  ‘What The Left Should Learn About Ukraine’. Retrieved from:http://newsjunkiepost.com/2015/07/20/what-the-left-should-learn-about-ukraine/
• –  ‘Reflections on Odessa. The Nazi Legacy of Mayhem and Massacres in Ukraine’. Retrieved from:https://www.globalresearch.ca/reflections-on-odessa-the-nazi-legacy-of-mayhem-and-ma ssacres-in-ukraine/5381697 (The author is a socialist professor from the US and I could not find the piece published anywhere else).
• –  ‘Mourning the Victims of Odessa Massacre, Ukraine’. Retrieved from:http://russiancongresscanada.org/events-en/mourning-the-victims-of-odessa-massacre-u kraine/
• MH17
• –  ‘Flight MH17, Ukraine and the new Cold War: Prism of disaster’. Retrieved from: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Flight_MH17_Ukraine_and_the_New_Cold_War.html?id=BXS5DwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y
• –  ‘The Downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 & the New Cold War with Russia’. Retrieved from: https://off-guardian.org/2018/05/08/the-downing-of-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17-and-the-new-cold-war-with-russia/

• –  ‘MH17: Dutch court rejects defence lawyer requests for further investigation’. Retrieved from:https://www.euronews.com/2020/11/25/mh17-dutch-court-rejects-defence-lawyer-requests-for-further-investigation
• –  ‘MH17 probe may not be fact-based: defence’. Retrieved from:https://www.youngwitness.com.au/story/6802383/mh17-probe-may-not-be-fact-based-defence/
• –  ‘Four men charged with murder based on bogus MH-17 investigation’. Retrieved from:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/06/24/mh17-j24.html
• –  ‘Dutch court refuses to consider alternative explanations for MH17 crash’. Retrieved from:https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/11/25/dutch-court-refuses-to-consider-alternative-explanations-for-mh17-crash
• –  The BBC documentary “The Conspiracy Files: Who Shot Down MH17?”. Fromhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2016/18/conspiracy-files explores some alternative views as well.

Recent tensions

• –  ‘CNBC: U.S. concerned about Russian troop movements near Ukraine, discussing regional tensions with NATO allies’. Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/08/us-concerned-about-russian-troop-movements-near-u kraine-discussing-with-nato.html
• –  ‘Is Russia going to war with Ukraine and other questions’. Retrieved from:https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56720589
• –  ‘Nato tells Russia to stop military buildup around Ukraine’. Retrieved from:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/13/nato-tells-russia-to-stop-military-buildup-around-ukraine
• –  ‘Russian troops on the Ukraine border should set alarm bells ringing across Europe’. Retrieved from:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/04/13/russian-troops-ukraine-border-should-se t-alarm-bells-ringing/amp/
• –  ‘Putin could spark war in Europe by invading Ukraine, says former US ambassador’. Retrieved from:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putin-russia-ukraine-michael-mcfaul-b 1830293.html
• –  ‘Russian armed forces are massing on Ukraine’s borders – America should act and set an example’. Retrieved from: https://inews.co.uk/opinion/russian-armed-forces-ukraine-borders-america-act-953788
• –  ‘Russia and Ukraine conflict: why have Putin’s troops gathered on the Ukrainan border – and will they invade?’. Retrieved from: https://www.scotsman.com/news/world/russia-and-ukraine-conflict-why-have-putins-troo ps-gathered-on-the-ukrainan-border-and-will-they-invade-3199167

• –  ‘Russia-Ukraine conflict: Fears of full-scale war show need for international talks – Angus Robertson’. Retrieved from: https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/russia-ukraine-confli ct-fears-of-full-scale-war-show-need-for-international-talks-angus-robertson-3197763
• –  ‘Ukraine urges Nato to hasten membership as Russian troops gather’. Retrieved from:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/06/ukraine-pressures-nato-for-membership-as-russia-amasses-troops-at-border
• –  ‘Secretary of State warns Moscow of consequences as Russian troops amass near Ukraine’. Retrieved from:https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/11/blinken-warns-moscow-of-consequences-amid-troop-b uildup-near-ukraine.html
• –  ‘Russia Piles Up the Pressure on Ukraine’. Retrieved from:https://rusi.org/commentary/russia-piles-pressure-ukraine
• –  ‘Why does Putin want a Ukraine crisis?’. Retrieved from:https://euobserver.com/world/151450
• –  ‘If Ukraine launches a full-scale war in Donbass, Russia will be forced to defend its citizens, says Putin’s deputy chief-of-staff’. Retrieved from: https://www.rt.com/russia/520490-zelensky-war-donbass-putin-aide/amp/