Hostage To A Long And Weary War
"Now we have a war that will continue to grow, regardless of whether Russia wants it to or not."
"I think some of Russia's special services [knew of the Slovyansk operation plan, but they] didn't provide any direct support."
[The escalation in fighting is] an attempt to move the front line to a more-or-less safe distance [from cities rebel-held]."
"Ukraine used the four months since Minsk [cease-fire agreement in September] to pump up the army to the maximum and solve the question by force."
"[It's now] impossible [to drive Ukrainian government forces out of all Donetsk]."
"The war we entered, whether we wanted it or not, will either bring about Russia's destruction or the resurrection of our national elite."
Igor Gurkin, aka Igor Strelkov[Shooter], former rebel commander and defence minister, 'Donetsk People's Republic'
 |
| A destroyed tank in the Donetsk International Airport |
As Mr. Strelkov would have it, his former KGB colleague Russian President Vladimir Putin blew it. As brazenly offensive as he was and remains, he was not and is not evidently, resolute enough, held back by opinions expressed and advised against by the oligarchs among other elite advisers who were too concerned, it would appear, with the sanctions that resulted from the Kremlin's bold imperialist moves for Western comfort in the fitness of the world order.
According to Mr. Strelkov, from his perspective as a former rebel commander with the inside story of everything that occurred largely because he was hugely instrumental in what had occurred until the disaster of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 brought his activities to an abrupt halt, Vladimir Putin had the courage and the rightful determination to take Crimea, but failed to carry on to annex the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The movement to restore southeastern Ukraine to its rightful place in Novorossiya as part of the Russian empire was abandoned by Mr. Putin who in the final analysis lacked the vision and the moral fibre to commit to the final dissolution of Ukraine's hold of a geography that belongs to greater Russia, the motherland.The impression of the West is that Vladimir Putin is aggressively resolute but here is the interpretation by one disappointed in his lack of commitment.
Igor Girkin had served until 2013 as a colonel in the Federal Security Service achieving a similar position to that of Mr. Putin. He saw action in Bosnia, Transnistria, and Chechnya. As far as Kyiv is concerned he is a terrorist, one whom the European Union has blacklisted. He volunteered to aid organizing the Crimean referendum and led a convoy of 51 fighters from Crimea to Slovyansk in the Donetsk region in support of rebel protests.
Russia's annexation following the result of the vote is regarded as a violation of international law, but in the opinion of the Russian population, it was an event celebrated for its timeliness in returning Russian heritage to Russian ownership.
It was Igor Girkin's triumphant voice that first crowed that the rebels had shot down a Ukrainian jet. When that Ukrainian warplane turned out to be a Malaysian civil flight killing 298 people, he insisted it was a Ukrainian strike that shot the plane down, not the rebels using a Russian missile system on July 17, 2014.
He affirmed that the first people who were killed in the Slovyansk operation were Ukrainian security agents attempting to halt his convoy. He was, he stated, "pulled out of the game" once it became evident that to have him stay on in his role with the rebels "would be destructive", since he would refuse to support the political settlement Russia was set on achieving.
Now, the September truce signed in Belarus has been well and truly abandoned. Insurgents are intent on expanding the area under their control. The campaign in Ukraine has become an embarrassing, "absurd" facsimile of the trench warfare of the First World War. Where the rebels should have been fully entrenched and impossible to dislodge, the situation has resulted instead with both sides digging in for the long haul.
Igor Girkin/Strelkov, is grimly disappointed in the outcome engineered fecklessly by his president lacking the courage of his convictions.
Labels: Aggression, Conflict, European Union, NATO, Russia, Secession, Ukraine
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, February 07, 2015
<< Home