Voices of Ukraine

Dmitry Tymchuk, Coordinator, Information Resistance.
05.23.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine.

Brothers and sisters!

Here’s the Summary for May 23, 2014 (for the previous summary, please see Summary for May 22).

The bad news:

1. The volunteer “Donbas Battalion” [DB] was ambushed near the village of Karlivka in Donetsk Oblast.

The terrorists were armed to the teeth, and had an APC at their disposal. The majority of the [DB] fighters managed to break through the ambush, some of them remained surrounded. Later, the insurgent commander Bezler told the Donbas Battalion commander S. Semenchenko that the captured fighters had been killed.

Since the very morning, we’ve been trying to do everything in our power to get help to these guys who spent long hours in fight. We pulled everyone we could. But nothing was achieved. I haven’t heard a single intelligible word explaning why our guys were betrayed.

If this is not betrayal, then I don’t know what a betrayal is.

We realize that our crowd of great military commanders at the rank of generals dislike “Donbas” for its independence. The generals consider it to be “uncontrollable.”

I agree with the logic of the generals: in a single operation, all forces and means should be subordinate to a single leadership and a unified plan. But this is in those cases where there is a unified leadership. In the ATO [anti-terrorist operation], we just don’t see it.

Instead, we see that a handful of “uncontrollable” volunteers operate more efficiently than our famous “strategists,” who wear generals’ stripes and have troops under their command.

We, the IR group, don’t intend to put a dot over the “i.” Too much blood is being spilled by our children, and too often it “appears” that it’s not anyone’s personal fault. This is not right.

2. The head of the terrorist organization “Luhansk People’s Republic” V. Bolotov promised terrorist acts during the [Presidential] elections. In this regard, he urged the people in the region not to go to the polls.

Although, according to Bolotov, the National Guard will be the one organizing the terrorist acts. He added, so as to blame it on terrorists later.

This Kremlin’s snitch that arrived recently from Russia after the briefing in the Kremlin, doesn’t have enough brains to explain the simplest fact: why on earth would Kyiv undermine the elections with terrorist acts, since getting a legitimate President is its main goal today?

At the same time, Bolotov’s announcement means that he and his accomplices are ready to kill anything and anyone to reach their criminal goals.

3. Today the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces announced that Russian troops deployed at Ukrainian borders are being withdrawn. But this process will be fully completed no earlier than June 8. What prevents them from moving the tanks earlier? The Russian agressors don’t offer any explanations.

This morning, we recorded a decrease in the number of Russian troops by 3,000-4,000 people (compared to May 8). This is a drop in the ocean.

This means that the Presidential elections in Ukraine will be held in the same mode, under the threat of Russian invasion. We shouldn’t expect that we will be able to free up our troops from the defense line along the eastern border and reinforce the security forces during elections in Donbas.

The good news:

1. Russia will respect the results of the Presidential elections in Ukraine and will cooperate with government authorities formed after the elections.

Obviously this is all a game. On the one hand, Russian troops are on the borner, on the other hand–[Russia’s] readiness to acknowledge the elections. The Kremlin appears more to be playing to the West rather than to be seeking dialogue with Kyiv.

But these glimpses of sound mind from the mouths of those who only yesterday expounded great nonsense–it’s something.

2. Today, the Last Bell Holiday [to commemorate the end of the school year] in Lesya Ukrayinka gymnasium [high school] #5 took place in Sevastopol. Graduates and their teachers, in protest against the occupation of the [Crimean] peninsula by Russia, came to school wearing vyshyvanky [traditional embroidered shirts].

This is a lesson in courage from the kids and teachers that would be useful and instructive for many of our military leaders

3. The Russian Minister of Transport M. Sokolov announced that the capacity of Crimean ports doesn’t allow for talking about their large-scale application and development.

The real reasons, he of course has kept mum about. Namely–that Crimean ports were previously seriously geared towards the flow of goods from Turkey, as well as from other countries in the region. Since the occupation, Halva is no longer available. Russia is unable to provide the loading ports in the occupied peninsula. As a result, [it means] the closure of ports as revenue-generating enterprises in the region and thousands of unemployed.

There’s obviously little good in this process, since ordinary people suffer in Crimea. But this is one of the hundreds of reasons for Ukraine to start working on winning back the ARC [Autonomous Republic of Crimea]. To work in a way Russia worked for many years–explain, persuade, and eventually hold a brilliant special op.

The difference is that Russia stole someone else’s [territory]. We have to reclaim ours.

Source: Dmitry Tymchuk FB
Images source: censor.NET.ua