US blames Russia when Kyiv unleashes armored vehicles against civilians in eastern Ukraine

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Interfax Ukraine

The United States has voiced condemnation of the bloody crackdown on anti-coup activists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, blaming Russia for inciting the violence there, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has said.

"We condemn the outbreak of violence caused by pro-Russia separatists this morning in Mariupol, which has resulted in multiple deaths," she said. "We continue to call for groups who have jeopardized public order by taking up arms and seizing public buildings in violation of Ukrainian law to disarm and leave the buildings they have seized."

Psaki said that the US is watching very closely over the developments in Mariupol.

"Any steps Russia would be willing to take to defuse tensions in accordance with its Geneva commitments," the spokeswoman added.



Read more: http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/204249.html

[Duckhunter935]

1. where did they blame Russia?

another lie by a biased source

quote "pro-Russia separatists" not Russia but that the truth does not seem to matter.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Since when has Interfax Ukraine been a biased source.

or come to that Kiev Post which is where I got the link from. http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/us-blames-russia-when-kyiv-unleashes-armored-vehicles-against-civilians-in-eastern-ukraine-347199.html

[Duckhunter935]

8. I stand corrested on that

but the headline is still wrong as they never blamed Russia but the Pro-Russian activists.

They are nice people
Ukrainian Orthodox Church confirms priest murdered in Donetsk region
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukrainian-orthodox-church-confirms-priest-murdered-in-donetsk-region-347180.html

Pro-Russian rebels released nine abducted Red Cross workers on Saturday in Donetsk. The nine - 8 Ukrainians and a Swiss - had been detained on Friday evening.

"Now they will take up their humanitarian work and prepare a medical evaluation," said David Pierre Marquet, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A spokesman for the self-styled "Donetsk People's Republic," whose proponents plan an internationally-rejected separatist referendum on Sunday, said the Red Cross workers had been accused of espionage by rebels.

The internet site Novosti Donbassa said the hostage-takers had also seized large stocks of medicine that the Red Cross had recently sent to the Donetsk region amid fighting between pro-Russian militants and Ukrainian security forces.

A local Red Cross official in Donetsk said one of the hostages freed had been severely beaten.

http://www.dw.de/red-cross-hostages-freed-in-donetsk-eastern-ukraine/a-17626580

[Jesus Malverde]

10. The Kiev Post is as biased as they come.

It's crap.

[dipsydoodle]

11. I just use it for the links.

Fuck donating to them.

[Jesus Malverde]

14. Yeah I hear ya...

[go west young man]

59. The US just gave them a huge donation for their media through the USAID program....

even as they posted an article that said the people in Odessa "accidentally set themselves on fire causing their own deaths"....

The new Kiev government and media blamed the deaths of the people who were killed inside the building on....get this....themselves.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/cia-front-usaid-spreading-democracy-gearing-up-in-ukraine-suharto-ii/5381174

And here's what Washington is paying that media money for. The Kiev post is reporting that the people burned themselves alive instead of blaming the pro nazi's that the new coup government is made up of.

https://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/sbu-russia-behind-kidnapping-of-osce-military-observers-updates-videos-346066.html
Headline at link: Police say pro-Russians accidentally set fatal Odessa fire with Molotov cocktails (LIVE UPDATES, VIDEO)

Now take a look at the people who died and tell me how they killed themselves accidentally. Warning graphic images:

Pictures of elderly women and men burned alive in Odessa government building fire. For those not wanting to look I'll describe some....one is a picture of a woman who is clearly pregnant...she has been strangled....she was the cleaner of the building who happened be in the wrong place at the wrong time.....another is the corpse of a woman who is nakedly missing her pants....due to her pose it is very likely she died while being raped....others are elderly women and men in various poses of death....many highly burned. The violent youth who threw the molotov cocktails at them are supported fully by the United States.

http://ucmopuockon.livejournal.com/5885397.html

This next link is a video of the nationalist far right rally that takes place after the murders. They raise the Ukrainian flag and give speeches while these corpses are still inside the building in these poses (the pictures of corpses were taken the next day, after the sun came up).....
notice that these killers perform nazi fist pumps and do coordinated yells. This was a massacre folks...by neo-nazi's...paid for by our government....covered up in the press and our government even gave their press outlet additional money the day it happened. This is fucking sick and no true humanitarian should stand for it. This is what Maidan has wrought and DU still stays relatively quiet on the issue. Unbelievable.

[karynnj]

36. The headline and lead paragraph are not unbiased reporting.

The article is based on the US reaction - and that reaction is Psaki's well measured statement. It does not matter where the article is written. (I can't read the Kiev Post because I do not want to pay for it)

The problem is the journalist reporting precisely on a statement that anyone can read has written a headline and lead paragraph that really are at odds with what was said.

[go west young man]

53. Psaki's well measured statement?

You've got to be joking.....she is quite possibly the worst person we could have representing the State department. She is regularly rude, obtuse and aggressively contorted in the face (showing her cards) to the rest of the world. When I watch her, I say to myself....."no wonder they hate us". She shows not an ounce of honesty or humility.

[Cha]

63. No answer on "Where did they Blame Russia".. the Hate everything US bunch is too busy blaming them

for everything.

[jakeXT]

2. I wish the resolving by civilians thing would come into focus again

Obama Warns Ukraine Against Military Action on Protesters

President Barack Obama warned Ukraine’s military against intervening to halt anti-government protests as the U.S. and European Union moved toward imposing sanctions on Ukrainian officials.

“We hold the Ukrainian government primarily responsible in making sure it is dealing with peaceful protesters in an appropriate way,” Obama told reporters before a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at a North American leaders summit in Toluca, Mexico. “That includes making sure the Ukrainian military does not step in to resolve issues that could be resolved by civilians.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-19/obama-warns-ukraine-against-military-action-on-protesters.html

[Jesus Malverde]

13. Good one.

My how things change in a couple months.

[go west young man]

56. Excellent post Jake...

sums it all up quite well. The amazingly sad part of all this is that the young violent radical groups we backed are, by the majority, soccer hooligan types....whereas the Pro Russian people are primarily older and more mature working class people. We chose the hooligans for our own nefarious reasons and now look at what it has wrought.

[go west young man]

3. These elderly people, veterans and children on this bus.....

must be the Pro Russian separatists Jen Psaki is talking about.

Go to the 2:51 mark to see what the US is paying fascists to do. These are buses in Lyiv on their way to a WW2 dedication being attacked by Ukranian nationalists that have been receiving money and support from the United States. Take a look at the terrified faces of that little girl and those elderly women and veterans and tell me that Jen Psaki is telling the truth to the American people.

What's been going on in Ukraine is disgusting....incident's in Kiev....then Odessa.....then Mariupal.....all against anyone who may be pro Russian.....The US and the Obama administration has jumped the shark on the Ukraine crisis and the wheels are coming off the bus.

I consider this move by the United States to be, possibly, the greatest geo-political blunder in the history of the United States....even worse than the Iraq War....and I am one DU'er who will not stand by and be silent.

The silence at DU in regards to what's going on in Ukraine and our involvement is fucking deafening!!!!!!!

[ballyhoo]

4. I don't know, buddy, some seem to be

backing off a little. What the US is doing is very stark. Did you hear that comment on the video yesterday where the Russian dude said the New York Times was getting more like Pravda every day? That's true; I used to subscribe to it out here in Caliunusual, but no more. Thanks for the videos. Tomorrow a big day. I predict a big Russian win and a Putin refusal to acknowledge.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017191023

[karynnj]

37. Gee, I am really sorry that an anonymous Russian dude doesn't like the NYT

and thinks it is becoming more like Pravada. Note that ALL the Russian sources are far more like Pravada. The fact is the NYT has - no matter who is President - had articles and opeds taking issue with the President.

[geek tragedy]

5. Cool story, bro.

Congrats on being more over the top than Putin's official propaganda organs like rt.com. Didn't think that was possible.

[go west young man]

6. Thanks for the personal attack...

that means I'm being effective. What say you of the faces of those people on that bus? Peace.

[Jesus Malverde]

9. Its standard now to hurl insults and derision when the official narrative

is not being followed. Don't get baited.

[go west young man]

19. They already had me banned once.

Hounded by a small group. Ironic, as I was part of the highly aggressive front here at DU that helped fight against the Iraq War back in 2004...posting linked info everyday I could. I never had a post hidden until this past February. Between February and April I was hounded and constantly alerted on by the same small group of posters and silenced on this board for a month.... One of them goes by the name of the lead nefarious character in Pink Floyd's song "Fearless" and adds super superfluous bullshit to his posts while constantly saying sir, sir, sir. Anyway I'm freed up to post for now.

[Jesus Malverde]

18. This must eat you up...

In 2011 RT was the second most-watched foreign news channel in the U.S. after BBC World News, and the number one foreign station in five major U.S. urban areas in 2012. It is also very popular among younger American people, U.S. college students, and in U.S. inner city neighborhoods.

[OilemFirchen]

29. Ya know, I read that Fox News is the number one cable news channel in the U.S.

In fact, not a day goes by that I'm not reminded so. It is thus that they are given legitimacy... or, I daresay, preeminence.

Congrats to RT! The (almost) Fox News of the WORLD!

[totodeinhere]

31. LOL. Good point. n/t

[geek tragedy]

34. Fox gets much higher ratings.

Both are crap propaganda outlets.

[Jesus Malverde]

54. But fox doesn't appeal to

younger American people, U.S. college students, and in U.S. inner city neighborhoods.

Fox appeals to those living in fear, not people starting out their lives and looking forward to the future. It's people who look backward, living in fear, fear of everything.

I would bet these young people don't sit there yelling at the TV about how wrong the world is. That demographic doesn't even watch TV. They get their programming on the internet. Instead of yelling they click on the next link.

[geek tragedy]

58. If Pooty Poot wants to flush away his money

trying to make Russia popular in the United States, I'm sure somebody is glad to take that cash off his hands. Maybe they can have 1/1000th the influence that Yackov Smirnoff had in influencing views towards Russia. (Of course, he was Ukrainian, which may explain in part why the Putin & Co have behaved like such thugs towards Ukraine).

Rt.com and Fox News both appeal to idiots who think they know everything.

Fox viewers think that Bush was right to invade Iraq, and rt.com viewers think that Putin was right to invade Ukraine.

Same shit, different pile.

[Cha]

64. So the fuck what? The assholes at fox have high ratings. DU's LBN does Not consider them a

reputable source. So you can push your freaking putin propaganda station all you want but that's not going to fly with those who are into reality other than putin's fucking reality.

[Jesus Malverde]

68. You sound upset.

Have a better day.

[Cha]

69. Your distractions are obvious.. because you don't want to address your RT propaganda push.

[Duckhunter935]

72. they change the subject when

called out as they have no answer

[Cha]

74. I noticed. nt

[Jesus Malverde]

76. Changing the subject?

By creating a subthread about a RT.com when its not used as a source in the OP, nor in the post you originally replied to?

Nice threadjack.

[Duckhunter935]

77. so where did the US blame Russia in this statement?

"We condemn the outbreak of violence caused by pro-Russia separatists this morning in Mariupol, which has resulted in multiple deaths," she said. "We continue to call for groups who have jeopardized public order by taking up arms and seizing public buildings in violation of Ukrainian law to disarm and leave the buildings they have seized."

[Jesus Malverde]

78. Hey we're back on topic.

That was explained upthread, the title comes from the OP's source.

What the Department of State did do, was blame "the outbreak of violence caused by pro-Russia separatists".

Everything seems to indicate the military junta of Kiev sent its troops to attack the police station because they were loyal to the town they police, not the Interim junta in Kiev. In appears to me the orgy of violence and killings were started by the Military, who attacked the police station with heavy weapons.

At least three people were killed as Ukrainian government forces attacked the occupied police headquarters in the south-eastern port city of Mariupol, according to medical authorities.

Government troops were attempting to drive out pro-Russia militants who had seized the building, the interior minister said.

Arsen Avakov said 20 "terrorists" had been killed and four captured in fighting around the building, which caught fire during the clashes. One policeman was killed and five wounded, he said in a Facebook post.

Medical authorities in Donetsk, however, said three people had been killed and 25 wounded.

A Guardian reporter in Mariupol saw two dead bodies, one a policeman and the other unidentifiable. A police station was completely destroyed, and had clearly been attacked with heavy calibre weapons, but it was not immediately clear who had fought with whom.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/09/ukraine-crisis-mariupol-police-station

Seems pretty clear that the police station was destroyed by the kiev interim government. At issue is were the "separatists" in fact the local policemen.

[ctsnowman]

30. I don't hear silence

I hear mostly neocon BS. I don't know if this will be "worse" than Iraq but it sure as heck doesn't look good. Funny how the "bad" guy that got overthrown didn't use troops on the protesters but the "good" guys didn't hesitate.

PEACE... it's a choice.

[go west young man]

32. That's mostly because the US narrative on these events

is marred in our own politics and far removed from what is really happening there. In the US right now, people have been getting two views on Ukraine, and their both wrong. I highly recommend using British sources although some of them have even jumped the shark on this one....look at the Guardian UK whose comments section is running 7 to 1 against the US and their reporting on the Ukraine issue....they even ran a story on how their comment section is completely against what they have been writing. That is due to video's (like the one I posted above) not fitting the "official" narrative. The Independent UK has started telling people the real story. It is 2014 and video's are popping up left and right debunking the "official" Western narrative. Truth.....it's a choice.

[ctsnowman]

33. It reminds

me of the lead up to the Iraq war.

Peace.

[go west young man]

40. It's certainly similar....

the difference this time around is that the government is run by Democrats and DU is near fucking silent on the atrocities. What happened to this board I have no idea but their silence is deafening. You'd figure that after all that has come out in the past decade they would realize flag waving and party/candidate loving is getting us nowhere. Instead they choose to believe what the MSM is telling them even though the lie is twice as big and obvious than Iraq....it's amazing what political party devotion can lead to....and I say that as a person who voted for the President myself.

He let us all down with this shit....it's a great big turd sandwich and it was absolutely downright idiotic to destabilize that country. With this act I believe the democratic party may have lost the entire anti-war left wing who led the charge to get him elected. I certainly won't be voting for Hillary after this. If anything I'm going Bernie Sanders. If they suppress Bernie I will not be voting.

[davidpdx]

79. "it's a great big turn sandwich"

Stop implying that Obama and the majority of DU are for war because it isn't true.

People screamed that we were going to invade Syria and now I've heard nothing but screaming that Obama (and DU) support killing people in Ukraine.

By the way I wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton either if she ran.

[another_liberal]

50. That is heavy, powerful imagery . . .

We and our EU allies have truly managed to divide a once whole nation, and do it in such a way that it may be irreversible.

Another black mark in the book of 21'st Century American history.

[EmilyAnne]

67. "Go to the 2:51 mark to see what the US is paying fascists to do."

The US paid a blonde women to pull on a bus door?
Do you really think that mob has been paid?
The US paid some angry punks to call some women "bitches?"
That they are answering to any higher authority?
This is a classic mob scene.
I've been in a few.
They are erratic and very difficult to wrangle.

The idea that the United States is supporting a Victory Day mob is just ridiculous.

[pampango]

12. "The United States has voiced condemnation of the bloody crackdown on anti-coup activists in the

eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol."

Not quite as one-sided a statement as the UA headline portrayed. Sounds to me like the State Department is condemning both the violence from the Kiev government and from the pro-Russia 'rebels'.

"Any steps Russia would be willing to take to defuse tensions in accordance with its Geneva commitments," the spokeswoman added.

Hardly sounds like "blaming Russia" to me. One can be a player in defusing a situation even if the crisis is not their fault.

[freshwest]

42. Appreciate the logic of your post. Crickets so far. Thanks, anyway. n/t

[joshcryer]

43. Wow! They even called them "anti-coup."

Which is how they self-identify. I'd call them terrorists or rebels.

You would never get that balance from Russia.

[go west young man]

57. Link to my post on the murders in Mariupol...

graphic warning: Thread contains video of people with their hands in the air kiiled in the street by Right Sector unit of the Ukranian military. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024935090

[ballyhoo]

17. I don't know that it matters now. The

world knows well wherein the fault of the present situation lies.

[iamthebandfanman]

16. As someone

who doesn't cheer for either side in this (because the left doesn't have a person in this fight)...

technically, Russia does share blame for inciting people to revolt.

both sides are corrupt.

im not sure why anyone on DU is deciding the pick sides.

pretty sad watching people go at each others throats trying to place blame in a conflict that involves corporate corruption versus a different form of corporate corruption. the only people anyone on DU should be praying/thinking/hoping/cheering for are the average Ukrainian people...

[Duckhunter935]

20. very true

Seems like quite few people think it can be only one side or the other. Both sides have no clean hands here as I have stated many times.

[go west young man]

23. Personally I believe there's a cause and effect for everything....

the side one must pick is the side of truth. The truth is that the people being massacred in Odessa, Mariupol and other cities never asked for the overthrow of their government by violent radicals. They are now being killed in their streets and the US government who aided that overthrow is financing the people doing the killing. Those people you see in video like the one I have put up here http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024935090 are the regular citizens of Ukraine that you are talking about.

Encouraging US citizens to stand by while that is happening is not going to help the situation and frankly to me is like standing by like many Germans did in WW2(no personal offense meant-just making a larger point). I understand why you may feel like you do as the US media has been pushing a different narrative than the one on the ground. That is why I am posting these videos....so people can see for themselves. The media's ignoring the truth also points towards complicity on their part (of course we all know that our media is lying sacks of shit from even before the Iraq War).

The people of East Ukraine are fighting back with cameras. There are hundreds of videos going up on You Tube showing that the US is backing fascists. That is the truth.

[another_liberal]

21. The United States can stop the violence in a matter of hours, if not minutes . . .

All we need to do is tell our flunkies in Kiev that they have to cease their attacks on the civilians of eastern Ukraine, or no more Western aid money will be forthcoming. Russia isn't attacking anyone. We are, however, through our dupes who control Ukraine's coup-installed, "interim government."

[firesalesman]

22. +1. nt

[go west young man]

24. + 1,000,000,000,000

[dipsydoodle]

26. Yes

Any more of that then no more sweets and we will decline to own you.

[Scootaloo]

27. You assume the US wants the violence to stop

Sorry, "condemnation of the violence" is almost always a social fig leaf, designed to make us look like we care, while we continue funding and exacerbating the violence. Just like we did in Southeast Asia for so long. Just as we were doing in Latin America until the early 90's. Just like we've been doing in the Middle East since the 60's.

[joshcryer]

47. All Putin has to do is disavow it.

Instead he keeps invasion on the table.

[go west young man]

60. Quit blaming Putin for shit we instigated and financed...

it's the US's problem now...own it. The US broke it and they should accept responsibility and clean it up. This is quite possibly the greatest geo-political blunder in the history of the United States and the video's are coming out left and right proving we made a fucked up decision. Are you even seeing what these fascists are doing to people? Are you watching the videos? Take off the blinders....they are murdering people in public...it's 2014...the video evidence is everywhere.

[joshcryer]

71. The US hands out cupcakes = big bad.

Putin invades, arms groups, sets an example for armed takeover of military bases and government buildings, and the rebels are all upset when the Ukrainian government bites back.

My favorite most recent video:

[Duckhunter935]

73. OOPs

but those tracks are just steel with no rubber track pads. Can be very slick on pavement.

[Cha]

62. Leave putin Alone!

[Obnoxious_One]

81. curious do you know what that lapel stands for?

So people that wore the 'live strong' bracelet were saying that Lance Armstrong was their boss, right?

[Obnoxious_One]

82. It takes courage to speak the truth.eom

[firesalesman]

25. Donetsk cops were attacked by Ukrainian servicemen for refusing orders from Kiev

From the article:

As reported, on May 9, the Ukrainian servicemen tried to storm the police department building in the town of Mariupol of Donetsk region where policemen, who had refused to obey orders from Kyiv, had barricaded themselves in.

A fire broke out and the department building burned to the ground.

In all, seven people died and 39 sustained injuries in the army operation in Mariupol, the regional administration's health department said.

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/204249.html

[karynnj]

35. The biased editorializing of this source is ridiculous

The direct quotes from Psaki mention Russia in asking them to help DEFUSE the situation. The condemnation is for the Pro Russians who have illegally taken over buildings.

They COULD have reported just the facts and then argued that Kiev did not have the right to send armored vehicles to remove the separatists. (That would ignore that Russia has in fact blamed Ukraine also for not being in control of everyone in its country.) However, here they absolutely distort the US comments. (It is likely very true that the US has no problem with Ukraine trying to end these situations.)

[The Magistrate]

38. That, Ma'am, Would Get In The Way Of 'Catapulting The Propaganda' For Putin

[Obnoxious_One]

46. Taking over government building will get you murdered now a days

Shoot in the head
Burned Alive
Raped and strangled

I wonder if it would of been acceptable to do that to the Unions in Wisconsin?
Or the Occupy protestors?

[joshcryer]

48. If Cliven Bundy killed 8 people and took a government building...

...I assure you, he would not make it out alive.

[joshcryer]

84. I was talking about heavily armed separatists.

Who shoot at police. OWS nor the Wisconsin union did that.

[The Magistrate]

87. It Does Not Work, Sir

You have not set up anything which is either analogous, or follows logically.

The U.S, government would have been, and still would be, well within its rights to have enaged Bundy and his crew with not just police but military force. The man stands in open, armed insurrection, and that is a flat fact. That the government has chosen not to deal with the matter in that way is a decision it has made, and it could rightfully have made a different choice.

What is going on the east of Ukraine is an armed secessionist insurrection. One may oppose this, or one may support it, but in either case anyone commenting on it should accept that fact, that an armed insurrection is underway. Any government has the right to attempt suppression of armed insurrection, and again, this has to be acknowledged as true whether one supports a particular government or opposes it. It is quite possible for a government to botch an attempt to suppress insurrection, and someone who opposes that government can certainly hope for it to do so, but that is a separate matter.

Neither case has the slightest overlap with peaceable assembly in protest, which is certainly what the various Occupy centers were, and what the various demonstration in the Wisconsin state capitol, and other state capitols, were and are. Put bluntly, police power has no place whatever where such peaceable protests go on, save perhaps to direct traffic, and it is a disgrace that police here routinely hound such exercises of a citizen's right to assemble peaceably for redress of grievances.

It is certainly possible for exercise of police power in an instance of peaceable assembly to bring about a violent response from demonstrators; in fact, that is what happened to Ukraine's previous head of state. He turned police on peaceable crowds to break them by violence, the eventual result being violence in response from the crowds which defeated his police and forced him to flee....

[joshcryer]

88. They're waiting for summer to cook him out.

115 degrees for a couple of weeks should do it.

[The Magistrate]

90. I Expect A Number Will Find Agents Waiting When They Go Home, Too, Sir

[joshcryer]

91. One can hope.

[The Magistrate]

94. A Government In Being Is A Government, Sir, And That Whether You like It Or Not

Your 'CIA puppet' screech is mere boiler-plate propaganda, you cannot point to one scrap of actual evidence for the charge, merely various expressions of opinion, which are no more qualified or authoritative than your own.

The rest of this is similarly flawed, and simply demonstrates you can neither refute a substantive argument made by someone else, nor make one of your own.

[The Magistrate]

97. I Suppose If You Really Tried, Sir, You Could Be An Even Better Match For Your Moniker

Hang in there! We're all pulling for you!

[joshcryer]

89. Every violent actor in OWS was arrested and jailed.

Particularly the rapists (which was a dark secret of the OWS crowd).

The separatists roam free, protected by "human shields."

[karynnj]

66. I did not say that, nor did I imply it

[Cha]

65. But the anti-USA pro Putin suckers eat it up with a shovel.

[bemildred]

39. In eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, law and order crumble on eve of secession vote

MARIUPOL, Ukraine — Drunken mobs roamed the otherwise deserted center of this eastern port city Saturday a day after clashes between pro-Russian militants and Ukrainian security forces left at least seven people dead and the region as a whole continued to seethe on the eve of referendum to secede.

A deadly firefight Friday broke the calm of a patriotic holiday and heightened tensions ahead of Sunday’s hastily organized plebiscite to break with the interim government in Kiev. Late Friday, a group of unidentified assailants attacked and briefly detained several Red Cross volunteers, including a French citizen, at an office in Donetsk.

Iryna Tsaryuk, an employee of the Ukrainian office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kiev, told the Interfax news service Saturday that the seven employees who had been taken captive were released about 2 a.m. and that one had been hospitalized after a severe beating. Roman Lyagin, the head of the rebel election commission, denied that rebels were involved in the incident.

In another sign of the collapsing morale of Ukraine’s security forces, the national guard evacuated its barracks in Mariupol on Saturday morning, apparently hastily. In the city center, meanwhile, activists set fire to a broken-down infantry fighting vehicle that the army had abandoned the previous day, causing a string of explosions and an upsurge of panic, according to witnesses.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/tensions-roil-on-eve-of-eve-of-secession-referendum-in-eastern-ukraine/2014/05/10/8703c1be-d823-11e3-8a78-8fe50322a72c_story.html

[go west young man]

41. It was absolutely stupid of the "new military"

and I use that term loosely as the video's I've seen look like the squirmy Right Sector types with guns....they are too nervous and squirrely acting to be trained soldiers, plus many are under weight and perform incorrect tactics in combat situations, leading me to believe these are definitely soccer hooligan types who have been given guns. What horror it must be for the people of East Ukraine.... anyway I digress, it was stupid to attack Russian speakers in their city on the day of commemoration for WW2 veterans. It doesn't surprise me though....look at this video...they attack buses of aged pensioners and WW2 veterans on the way to the victory Day parade...note the looks of horror on the faces of the old people and little girl. This is what the US has wrought....we have financed this shit.

People scared to death (little girl crying) at the 4 minute mark.

[independentpiney]

44. 'Right Sector types with guns' are what the Kiev government calls 'Special Forces'

and the disrespect for the remaining WWII vets, and the memory of the millions who died to defeat the Nazis is disgusting.

[go west young man]

55. Thank you and well stated.

It's good to see that some DU'er are looking past the constant barrage of anti-Russia propaganda and seeing this for what it simply is....it's the face of fascism.

[Obnoxious_One]

45. It's worse than that the massacre in Odessa was truly a crime against humanity.

http://nsnbc.me/2014/05/10/odessa-massacre-detail-investigation/

The details of the massacre tells me that the people in charge of Kiev are perhaps the worse CIA regime ever put in place.

[polly7]

49. That's pretty damn horrific.

[Obnoxious_One]

75. It's horrific and SHOCKING that the western media has largely buried this story.

What have we become?

[Duckhunter935]

51. and where did the US spokesperson say this?

Can you give me the quote on what the headline states? seems to be just the opposite but what do I know.

[dipsydoodle]

52. LBN rules dictate that the headline be used from the source.

I'd have it was obvious that "when" should in fact be "while".

Interfax Ukraine have an error in translation from their original cyrillic - I doubt that its malicious.

Kiev shut down all Russian news channels in March and if they felt that Interfax Ukraine , which is based in Kiev , was pro-Russian they'd have shut that down too.

Re. "US spokesperson" - she was dumb enough on a past televised press conference to admit that the state dept. gets its news from Kiev and nowhere else.

[firesalesman]

61. "Anti-coup activists"

The article equates "anti-coup activists" with opponents of the pro-Russia separatists. So now the State Department has appropriated the word "coup," not to refer to the recent ethnic Ukrainian putsch that overthrew the previous government, but to the ethnic Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. This should confuse everyone.

[EmilyAnne]

70. This article was not written by the State Department.

"Anti-coup activists" is not a term that was used by the State Department.

[bemildred]

80. It's kind of funny that somebody got that phrase "anti-coup activists" snuck in there.

I don't think it's an accident, and it seems to mean the pro-Russians, since they were clearly the object of the "crackdown". But the language being used has become so entangled that you never are quite sure what is meant.

[joshcryer]

85. That's precisely how I read it.

They believe the legitimate impeachment and overthrow of the government was a "coup." When no buildings were taken over with heavily armed forces (ie, guns), where the vast majority of the casualties were civilians, where you had everyone from Jews to Arabs to bloggers to journalists participating. From academics to mothers.

[bemildred]

92. Yeah, the legitimacy of the interim government seems to be in dispute.

That's always a problem with these transitional governments, Jerry Ford didn't get much respect either. Still doesn't.