Kerry privately urges Poroshenko to provide evidence of Kremlin involvement with separatists in Ukra

[Tommy_Carcetti]

88. If you bothered to read my posts upthread....

....I expressed my opinion that I did not believe Putin's claim that Russian forces were not involved in the unrest in Eastern Ukraine. That opinion was based on my observations of the facts as I know them, including the fact that Putin had made the exact same claim about Crimea and was ultimately revealed to be a liar. It was also based on my observation about Russian nationals known to be currently fighting in Eastern Ukraine, and to the sophistication and extent these individuals appear to be trained and equipped not usually associated with freelance volunteers.

So all I've really done is put forth my opinion and to state the facts which I believe support my opinion. Take it as you will.

I do sense that you are attempting to falsely recreate the dynamic of the situation in Eastern Ukraine as a "massacre" of ethnic Russians. As if following the change in power in Ukraine back in February, the Ukrainian army set out upon Eastern Ukraine to specifically target peace ethnic Russian people living in Ukraine and impacted great unprovoked violence upon them. However, this is anything but the case. What you see in Eastern Ukraine now is and has always been a military operation against armed militants. It was the separatists who seized Ukrainian government buildings by force and declared themselves sovereign powers. While the Ukrainian government did offer amnesty to these individuals and did signal they were open to the possibility of further decentralization in favor of regional government, the militants expressed no interest in leaving. They then engaged in a campaign of intimidation where individuals (including journalists and deemed as threats to these self-proclaimed "People's governments" were beaten, kidnapped or even murdered. The militants grew continuously better equipped and better armed. Notably, the majority of citizens in Eastern Ukraine did not actually want to separate from Ukraine or join Russia, but the well-armed minority of militant separatists that were sitting in these government buildings was not making life easy for the majority. And at some point, enough became enough and the military operation began to root out these people. Unfortunately, with the flow of both weaponry and manpower over the Russian border, it hasn't been a simple operation.