April 3rd, 2022
1. Polish Deputy PM wishes to deploy NW in Eastern Europe
Polish Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the National Security and Defence Committee Jaroslaw Kaczynski said in an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag April 2nd, 2022 that his country is open to the deployment of the U.S. nuclear weapons (NW) in the eastern flank. Additionally, he called for an increase in the number of U.S. troops in Europe.
The politician also brings a permanent storage of U.S. nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe into play: "In principle, it makes sense to extend nuclear participation to the eastern flank," says Kaczynski. However, the initiative must come from Washington. Poland's deputy Prime Minister is also calling for a new NATO command center for his country: "We would like to have a large operational NATO command in Poland, such as in Brunssum [the Netherlands], from where joint NATO operations are planned and conducted. That would be a clear signal to Moscow, which is: the NATO leadership is now also present in the East.“
Minsk has already warned that it would address Russa with a request to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus, if the United States deploys them in Poland and Lithuania, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said February 27th.
In the NATO “Baltic Air Policing” operation conducted by the Alliance since March 2004 in the airspace of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Estonia four types of dual-capable aircraft are already involved.
2. Humanitarian law is still violated by Kiev
Eleven civilians were wounded as a result of Mariupol’s districts controlled by the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) being shelled by the Ukrainian army, the DPR’s mission at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of ceasefire (JCCC) reported on April 2nd. It was announced that four men and seven women were wounded.
The situation at the Donbass engagement line flared up on February 17th, 2022 when Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) reported the most massive bombardments of their territory identified by the Minsk accord by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF). Since that time UAF never interrupted its shelling of these two independent republics that became as such due to referenda arranged separately in them in 2014. Actually, UAF shell them each day by heavy weapons: 122 mm artillery guns, 120 mm mortars, MRLS Grad and Uragan, and ballistic missile Tochka-U fitted with 15.000 shrapnel pieces.
A Ukrainian POW confessed that Ukrainian nationalist battalions are systematically receiving instructions from the Kiev authorities to prepare staged videos about outrages and mass killings of civilians, looting and destruction of social infrastructure allegedly committed by Russian servicemen. E.g. April 3rd in Butcha, Kiev Region, Kiev filmed a number of “victims of the Russian attack” scattered on the main road. But, Russian troops left this village on March 30th. It is strange to see that after “victims” have been filmed some of them moved their hands and legs, and began to stand up.
3. The LPR filed 689 criminal cases vs Ukraine
Over the past eight years the LPR has filed 689 criminal complaints with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) accusing Ukraine of war crimes, LPR ombudswoman Victoria Serdyukova said April 1st, 2022. All of them have been ignored by it, she clarified, by adding that the republic has prepared 950 complaints and filed 689 of them to that Court.
22 highly ranked Ukrainian military officials have been indirectly convicted in killings of civilians in Donbass, by using prohibited methods of warfare and prohibited substances, and by resorting to genocide policy towards Russian-speaking people.
The Lugansk People's Republic plans to inform international rights campaigns of war crimes committed in the territory by Ukrainian troops during eight years of war, its ombudswoman noted. In her words, "Everything recorded by the ombudsperson's office will be sent to the [republic's] prosecutor general's office and to all international organizations".
She said the trove of evidence against Ukraine included both witness statements and materials of criminal investigations opened into Ukraine's war crimes after it launched a military operation against Lugansk militias in 2014. Lugansk authorities welcome the proposal to set up an international criminal tribunal to look into the Ukrainian offensive, Serdyukova said, adding that many neutral countries would agree to take part in it.
She blamed Ukrainian nationalist battalions for taking forcibly humanitarian aid away from civilians in Donbass. "Sometimes cars with this humanitarian aid arrive from the territory of Ukraine. Under shelling, people come to the part of the city where the humanitarian convoy will be located. Members of nationalist battalions arrive there with weapons in their hands, and they forbid them to receive this humanitarian aid. They take it for themselves. This is not an isolated case", Serdyukova claimed.
She added that nationalists and Ukrainian security forces have been driving people out of basements and bomb shelters in cities across Donbass that are still under the control of Kiev's forces.
4. Developments on the battlefields
Units of the Lugansk People's Republic are advancing against the positions of the Ukrainian 57th Infantry Brigade and blockading Borovskoe from the east and south. 5 armoured combat vehicles (ACV) were destroyed.
On April 2nd, high-precision air-based missiles near the railway Lozovaya and Pavlograd stations destroyed ACVs, ammunition and fuel tanks sent to reinforce the Ukrainian troops in Donbass.
The Mirgorod military airfield in Poltava Region has also been taken out of action and several Ukrainian combat helicopters and aircraft found in its camouflaged hangars, as well as fuel and aviation weapons depots have been destroyed.
Iskander precision strike on the defence headquarters in Kharkov city on March 31st, confirmed the killing of more than 100 nationalists and mercenaries from Western countries.
During the day, operational-tactical aviation hit 28 military assets of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Among them: 2 depots of missile and artillery weapons and ammunition, as well as 23 areas of concentration of Ukrainian weapons and military equipment.
In total, from February 24th, 2022, since the beginning of the special military operation, 125 aircraft and 88 helicopters, 383 unmanned aerial vehicles, 221 anti-aircraft missile systems, 1903 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 207 multiple rocket launchers, 805 field artillery and mortars, as well as 1781 special military vehicles have been destroyed.
5. Joseph Biden pours fuel into the flame
The U.S. Department of Defense [DoD] will allocate extra $300 million in military aid to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. "Through USAI [Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative], DoD will provide up to $300 million in security assistance to bolster Ukraine's capacity to defend itself," the spokesman said in a statement.
In his words, by now the United States has committed more than $2.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, since the beginning of the Biden Administration (since January 2021), including more than $1.6 billion in security assistance since the start of the Russian special military operation.
According to the spokesman, the new U.S. aid package includes laser-guided rocket systems, Switchblade tactical unmanned aerial systems, Puma unmanned aerial systems, counter-unmanned aerial systems, armored vehicles, machine guns, ammunition, night vision devices and communications systems.
6. Public rallies took place in Europe and the USA
Several public demonstrations are taking place in Europe and the USA, demanding to end war versus Donbass and criticizing soaring prices on major goods due to harmful policies pursued by the leaders of NATO member-states, and the USA in particular. The slogans were: “No war on Russia and Donbas”, “Roll back gas & food prices”, etc. (see PPT slide).
One of the activist of the NGO “Solidarity with Donbas and antifascists in Ukraine” said that Americans are fed up with fakes and disinformation. In his words, nobody has told about the eight years-long war against the people in Donbass that has been waged by Ukraine with the help of the USA and NATO weapons; nobody has told that Russia interfered into the developments in Ukraine after Donbass’s request in order to stop the war of Kiev, rather than to unleash a new war.
Straightforward questions:
1. What will be a comment by anti-nuclear NGOs on the latest Polish NW demand?
2. Why the European Court of Human Rights ignored the LPR complaints on violations of the humanitarian laws by Ukrainian neo-fascist authorities? Because they nourished ultra-nationalist neo-fascist ideology in Europe aimed at Donbass and Russia?
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
