2014 Ukraine coup/Civil war

This page lacks much of the history of the war. Additions are particularly welcome.

 2014 Ukraine coup/Civil war (War)

Location	Ukraine
Type	•  Proxy war •  Civil war
Interest of	Russel Bentley, DONi News Agency, Jacob Dreizin, George Eliason, Joaquin Flores, Patrick Lancaster, Graham Phillips, Anatoly Shariy, Igor Strelkov

The post-coup unrest in Eastern Ukraine escalated when anti-coup rebels took over civil administration buildings in a number of town and cities in the Donetsk and Lugansk Oblasts in early April 2014. The civil war proper effectively began when the Kiev junta announced what it termed an "Anti-terrorist-operation (ATO)" on 15 April 2014 and began to deploy military forces in and around these towns and cities. The conflict has drawn in ex-military/mercenary types and neo-nazis from all over the world.

Russian mobilization in early 2014

separatist territory in eastern Ukraine

Russia had mobilized an invasion force in early 2014 but choose not to move into the country at large. RUSI did an analysis of troop numbers/deployments and scenarios. It wrote at the time:

Troops of the Ministry of Interior
"There are also reports that troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs attached to the Central Regional Command of Internal Troops have been ordered to increase their readiness. This is a worrying sign, as the war-time task of troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is to pacify populations in occupied territory. The raised readiness of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs troops could therefore indicate the Kremlin’s preparations to actually invade Ukraine – and to take measures to establish and maintain control of the occupied Ukrainian territories." (page 12)

2015

Donetsk Airport

The new terminal building at Donetsk International Airport, which had been a site of fighting between Ukrainian and separatist troops since May 2014, was captured by the DPR forces on 15 January. One week later, the separatists had overrun the entre airport and Kiev forces had retreated in chaos.

Separatist forces also increased the pressure on the Kiev-controlled town of Debaltseve in north-eastern Donetsk Oblast, barraging it with artillery fire. In addition, the DPR launched an attack on Mariupol during the morning of 24 January. A hail of Grad rockets killed at least thirty people, and wounded another eighty-three.

French president François Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel put forth a new peace plan on 7 February. The Franco-German plan, drawn up after talks with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and Russian president Vladimir Putin, was seen as a revival of the Minsk Protocol. President Hollande said that the plan was the "last chance" for resolution of the conflict. The plan was put forth in response to American proposals to send armaments to the Ukrainian government, something that Chancellor Merkel said would only result in a worsening of the crisis.

A comment about the "Mariupol betrayal" early into the war from the separatists side.

February ceasefire: Minsk II

A summit at Minsk on 11 February resulted in the signing of a new package of peacemaking measures, called Minsk II, on 12 February which was similar in content to the failed Minsk Protocol, and called for an unconditional ceasefire, to begin on 15 February, amongst many other measures. Fighting continued around Debaltseve until 18 February, when Ukraine forces were forced to retreat, leaving separatist forces in control of the town.

US/NATO contributions

Full article: NATO

The day after Minsk II, James Mountain "Jim" Inhofe, the senior US senator from Oklahoma, was caught out trying to pass off fake photographs of Russian involvement in Ukraine to boost support for his bill, which would enable the US to provide lethal military aid to the Ukrainians.

The USAF announced that it would be sending 12 A-10 ground-attack aircraft to Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, by the end of February. This was described as being part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, set up following Russia's "intervention in Ukraine". Apart from operating in Germany, the A-10s will be forward deployed to other partner nations in Eastern Europe. US forces have operated out of bases in Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland, among others, in the past year.

Canada, which had been helping the the government of Ukraine for ten years, was called on by Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, to start supplying lethal weapons and training on how to use them. Prystaiko, whose father was once the vice-chairman of the SBU (Security service of Ukraine), said that Kiev is preparing for "full-scale war" against Russia and that "the world must not be afraid of joining Ukraine in the fight against a nuclear power." In 2007, Prystaiko was part of Ukraine’s NATO negotiating team, and was made Deputy Director General for NATO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Financial contributions

The Ukrainian currency has lost about 50% in value since the start of the civil war. The IMF agreed, on 12 Feb 2015, to throw a $17.5 billion, four-year lifeline to Ukraine. Combined with the $4.6 billion from the previous package, this brings the total (so far) to over $22 billion, which won't be enough. The EU is also to provide $2 billion in loans, while the US has pledged $2 billion in loan guarantees. Altogether, the package from the west is estimated at $40 billion over four years. But, as the NYT puts it "While the fund had demanded that Ukraine begin major changes and undertake some tough austerity measures in exchange for last April’s rescue, the country’s economic problems have outpaced the prescriptions." Ukraine’s new finance minister, Natalie Jaresko, has been negotiating with the I.M.F. and urging international creditors to view Ukraine as a long-term investment. Jaresko is a US citizen, ex-Harvard, ex-US State Dept and ex US Embassy in Kiev. She was granted Ukrainian citizenship on 2 December 2014. According to Robert Parry, she was once at the center of insider deals and other questionable activities when she ran a $150 million US-taxpayer-financed investment fund.

2018

An American advisor to the Ukrainian military remarked that: "Since the latter end of 2018, [...] the West seems to be paying more attention to the Ukrainian conflict."

Civilian casualties

A UN count of civilian casualties found that civilians on the side of the separatists areas are much more likely to get killed by 'hostilities' (most of the times by mortar/howitzer shelling).

The overall death-toll was estimated to be 13,000 in 2019, other sources write of 14,000 in 2021.

External links

• Crimes against Humanity: Ukraine President Poroshenko Keeps his Word
• My Encounter with Ukrainian-American Nazi Mark Paslawsky

 

An example

Page name	Description
"2014 Ukraine coup/Anti-Terrorist-Operation"	Olexander Turchynov, as acting President of Ukraine, announced the start of "anti-terrorist operation" against Donbas protestors in 2014.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Aleksey Mozgovoy	“I'd like to appeal to everyone who is fighting—on both sides. People on both sides are fighting against the oligarchy. But somehow we only kill each other, ourselves. So we’re committing a slow suicide of sorts. The “gladiators” need to break out from the “Colosseum”. Instead, a new Colosseum is being organized. We’re burying ourselves. Do we need it all? War for the sake of war? It’s stupid. Does anyone remember why we have rebelled? Isn’t it clear that the ones we rose up against are ruling us now? For both sides. Isn’t it time for us to come to our senses, military gentlemen? Otherwise, there won’t be a single one of us left. And the ones we should be fighting against…they will be living on. Without problems. And everything’s going to be as it was before. So I appeal one more time: start thinking. Your brain should be working, not your grenade launcher. That’s when there will be order. While the guns are working, there will only be deaths.”	Aleksey Mozgovoy	2015
Petro Poroshenko	“we [in Ukraine] will have work they – [in the Donbas] won’t. We will have pensions – they won’t. We will care for our children and pensioners – they won’t. Our children will go to school, to kindergartens – their children will sit in cellars*. They don’t know how to organize or do anything. This, ultimately, is how we will win this war.”	Petro Poroshenko	October 2014

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Address by Igor Strelkov 11 September 2014	address	11 September 2014	Igor Strelkov	Igor Strelkov breaks his silence: A brutally honest, MUSt-READ address by the former commander of the NAF, about Russia, the civil war and the influence of traitorous elements of the Russian establishment in betraying the Novorussian rebellion
Document:An appeal to the mothers of Ukraine	appeal	30 August 2014	Many people	An appeal by women of the Russian diaspora to the mothers of Ukrainian solders
Document:Arsen Avakov interview 5 September 2014	article	6 September 2014	Vladimir Suchan	Commentary on a Ukraine TV Interview with Oligarch and Ukraine Junta Interior Minister Arsen Avakov just after his government had agreed to a cease-fire in the civil war.
Document:Forgive us for not dying in Slavyansk	statement	6 July 2014	Igor Druz	A statement by Igor Druze, Advisor to Igor Strelkov, following the DPR militia withdrawal from Slavyansk and their arrival in Donetsk
Document:French volunteer fighters for DPR	interview	30 November 2014	Andrey Borodulin	An interview with two French volunteers with the Donbass Militia in Eastern Ukraine. The interview was conducted in Moscow.
Document:How can you tell whether Russia has invaded Ukraine?	article	30 August 2014	Dmitry Orlov	A list of the top tell-tale signs that will enable you to determine whether or not Western claims that "Russia has invaded Ukraine" are accurate.
Document:Igor Strelkov interview	interview	26 April 2014	Komsomolskaya Pravda	Commander Igor Strelkov of the Eastern Ukrainian Peoples' Militia in Slavyansk gives his first open interview to Komsomolskaya Pravda
Document:Interview with Donbas militia-man Artem	interview transcript	23 August 2014	Victor Shapinov	Interview with a wounded and hospitalised Donbas militia-man conducted in August 2014
Document:Interview with Donetsk militia-man	interview transcript	18 August 2014	Ilja Degtjarov	Interview with a native Donetsk militia-man fighting against the Ukrainian army in Eastern Ukraine + video of captured Ukrainian soldier. More organ trafficking corroboration
Document:Interview with Igor Strelkov - 8 July 2014	interview transcript	8 July 2014	First Republic TV channel	Transcript of video interview with DPR Militia commander Igor Strelkov following the militia breakout and evacuation from Slavansk, Eastern Ukraine
Document:Russian Foreign Ministry statement on the start of the delivery of humanitarian relief aid to Southeastern Ukraine	statement	22 August 2014	Russian Foreign Ministry	Russian Foreign Ministry statement on the start of the delivery of humanitarian relief aid to Southeastern Ukraine
Document:These Clowns Are Dragging Us Into War	article	1 September 2014	Raúl Ilargi Meijer	Summarises the outcome of the meeting in Minsk, Belorussia between Kiev Junta, DPR-LPR representatives on 31 August 2014. The prognosis remains depressingly pessimistic with the Westerm MSM consistently hawkish about "Confronting Russia"
Document:Ukrainian Ballistic Missiles Shot Down by Russian Missile Defence System	article	23 August 2014	VoS Editorial	Evidence and argument that Ukraine army ballistic missiles launched against the Donbas have been shot down by Russian missile defense systems and that the launches are in reality a US directed ploy to test the effectiveness of the Russian systems.
Document:Ukrainian soldiers' organs traded	correspondence	6 July 2014	Sergey Vlasenko Olga Wieber Semyon Semyonchenko	An apparent hoax about hacked correspondence between Donbass Battalion commander, Yulia Tymoshenko's lawyer and a German medical practitioner evidencing a burgeoning trade in the organs of Ukrainian soldiers
Document:Vladimir Putin address to the Novorossiya militia	address	29 August 2014	Vladimir Putin	Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the Novorossiya Militia about their successes against the military forces of the Kiev Junta
Document:WE are Untermenschen	appeal	3 June 2014	Juan	Heartfelt anger from a Russian speaking anti-Kiev Junta soldier in face of escalating military attacks on the civilian population of Eastern Ukraine by the Junta military and the blatant double-standards indifference of western politicians to the sufferings of people who identify with Russia.
Document:Washington's "Pivot" hits a Brick Wall	article	29 August 2014	Mike Whitney	A scathing polemic on US support and promotion of the civil war in Ukraine
File:My Encounter with Ukrainian-American Nazi Mark Paslawsky.pdf	article	2 September 2014	George Eliason	The encounter that G. Eliason had with Mark Paslawsky and what it means for him.
File:US Psychological Warfare in Ukraine Targeting Online Independent Media Coverage.pdf	article	20 March 2015	George Eliason	Cyberwarfare operations are getting targeted at anyone.
File:White Book-2.pdf	report	June 2014	Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs	White Book update - on violations of human rights and the rule of law in Ukraine between April and mid-June 2014
File:White Book.pdf	report	5 May 2014	Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs	A White Book on violations of human rights and the rule of law in Ukraine since November 2013, released by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 5 May 2014

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