Crimea’s declaration of independence and proclamation of sovereign statehood

Crimean people celebrate being accepted as part of the Russian Federation in Simferopol, the Republic of Crimea, March 18, 2014. 

In a referendum held on March 16, 2014, citizens of Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. According to official data, Russians constituted 58.32 per cent of the population of Crimea, 24.32 per cent were Ukrainians and 12.10 per cent were Crimean Tatars. TML Daily wrote at the time:

Control of the Black Sea basin is crucial to Russia’s economy and security

On March 18, 2014 Russia and Crimea signed a treaty which gave the Russian Federation control over the Black Sea as well as the Sea of Azov, the west coastline of which borders on Eastern Ukraine and the Donetsk region. The agreement was announced by Russian President Putin who said two “constituent regions” of Crimea were to join the Russian Federation: the “Republic of Crimea” and the “City of Sevastopol,” both with the status of autonomous regions.

Ukraine Update: Preparing for war to drop a new iron curtain

Could it be that under the Biden administration Kiev can easily be pushed to take the suicidal step of blocking the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and dropping a new iron curtain between the EU and Russia/China? | Dmitriy Kovalevich

© Facebook, Operation of the United Forces

Ukraine Update: The sound of war drums

Dmitriy Kovalevich reports on massive, multi-vectored air, land and sea exercises unleashed by the U.S. armed forces and NATO in and over Ukraine – and its relation to the US presidential election. Despite the global pandemic, the Canadian Forces is participating, showing the real face of the Trudeau-Freeland “multilateralism”

During September, many Ukrainians have been feeling anxious due to the increasing signs of an impending military escalation of the global conflict between Russia and the United States. Some have voiced the opinion that Ukraine could become a battlefield between the two nuclear superpowers. Naturally, this prospect is not making Ukrainians happy.

In early September, US strategic B-52 bombers, capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, flew over Ukraine for the first time[1]. Flying from the US military base in the UK, they proceeded via the Volyn region (western Ukraine) towards the Crimea, although they did not cross its borders. Nevertheless, the Russians raised the alarm and sent fighters out to intercept the “flying fortresses.”

Life in Crimea – a first person account

Sevastopol | copyright of photographer Yuriy Yuganson

By AUSLANDER

Well, we’ve got four years of fun under out belts now and to say it’s been interesting is like calling a 200 kilo rabbit mildly horizontally challenged.

Ukraine stops trains to Crimea

Crimean people celebrate being accepted as part of the Russian Federation in Simferopol, the Republic of Crimea, March 18, 2014.

Ukraine has stopped cargo and passenger train movements to Crimea, Crimean Railway head Andrei Karakulkin said on Saturday. “All Ukrainian trains have fully stopped traffic since today.”

“This is misunderstanding. People have to return tickets. Queues have formed at railway ticket offices. People are concerned over their families and relatives both in Crimea and Ukraine,” Karakulkin said.

Destabilization – US weapon in energy war in Ukraine and the Middle East

Is the USA fueling crises as negotiation tactics? The US is doing its best to estrange the EU from Russia to get the upper hand in a free trade deal, and also, to manipulate European countries into buying America’s relatively more expensive natural gas.

By MAHDI DARIUS NAZEMROAYA*

The TTIP and Ukraine

(Oct. 8) – The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a Euro-Atlantic free trade agreement that is the subject of ongoing negotiations between the US and the EU. The deadline for finalizing the TTIP free trade agreement is in 2015. Its goal is to create what is referred to as the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) and to cement the European Union with the United States as one supranational trading bloc.

New York Times, Chrystia Freeland, on Ukraine: ‘This is not a civil war.’

By ERIC ZUESSE

(September 7) – The New York Times  publishes many wildly false articles, and this will expose only one of them, as an example:

According to Christia Freeland, writing there, on September 5th, the conflict in which the Ukrainian Government has since May 9th been bombing the residents in southeastern Ukraine — which is the area that had declared its independence from Ukraine — this “is not a civil war.” Those residents had declared their independence; the Government then bombed them for months; but that’s “not a civil war.”

Obama and Putin barter over Crimea

Click to enlarge

Reality check: Windsor family – the admirers of fascism

Charles Windsor, the heir to the British throne, told an individual at the Canadian Immigration Museum in Halifax on Monday May 19th that, “Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler,” ostensibly relating to the accession of Crimea to Russia in March. The venue was a meeting with World War II veterans organized by the Harper government. His press entourage was quick to sensationalize the seeming “private” comment.

Word. UKRAINE – What is the endgame?

Oligarchic topography of Ukraine

Screenshot of Prof Andrei Fursov

For the information of readers, we are publishing extensive excerpts from a wide ranging analysis of the 2013-2014 situation in Ukraine, its antecedents and consequences from the perspective of a senior Russian academic, ANDREI FURSOV, director of the Centre of Russian Studies. This is an unofficial transcription of a recent video lecture published on Wikispooks, The Great Game. I recommend watching it first, to see for yourself the integrity and outlook of the analyst. It is one hour, in Russian, but with good English subtitles. Prof Fursov analyzes the different vested interests in combat, their tactics and strategy, in an international context with lots of facts. The section on the Ukrainian oligarchs is very informative. His outlook might be described as Russian chauvinistic. One of his main theses rings very true: “he who is reactive is doomed.” (Update May 12: The video of the discussion following the lecture was just published on Youtube on May 10th. It is 100 minutes in length in Russian with subtitles in English, and may be viewed here.

Sighting. Crimea in pictures

The Swallow’s Nest decorative castle in southern Crimea | © RIA Novosti. Alexander Vilf

The Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Yalta, southern Crimea | © RIA Novosti. Sergey Subbotin

Ukraine: Junta’s fascist attack on people

Crimea received 85% of fresh water through the North Crimean canal

KIEV, April 26 (Itar-Tass) – Ukraine has closed sluices of the North Crimean Canal, halting water supply from the Dnieper River to the peninsula, Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency reported on Saturday.

Sighting. Good things come to those who bait

People fish in front of the Ukrainian warship Slavutych moored in Sevastopol harbour, on Saturday, March 21, 2014 | AFP Viktor Drachev

Ukraine: Crimea declares its independence and proclaims a sovereign state

Crimean people celebrate being accepted as part of the Russian Federation in Simferopol, the Republic of Crimea, March 18, 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of Crimea signed a treaty on Tuesday accepting the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as part of Russian territory | Xinhua

TML Daily – IN A referendum held on Sunday, March 16, citizens of Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.

Despite western media hysteria that the non-Russian population of the Crimea – Crimean tartars and Ukrainian nationals, which constitute 41.7 per cent of the Crimean population – would either not vote or be bullied under military occupation, the election was said to be conducted with due respect for the expectations of a free election. Reports say that 83.1 per cent of eligible Crimean voters cast their ballot in the March 16th referendum. The final tally of the vote was 96.77 per cent in favour of joining the Russian Federation, and 2.51 per cent against. (According to official data, Russians constitute 58.32 per cent of the population of Crimea, 24.32 per cent are Ukrainians and 12.10 per cent are Crimean Tatars).

Ukraine: Strategic and geopolitical implications of Crimea’s decision

Prof Michel Chossudovsky explains the strategic and geopolitical significance of the referendum results. The union of Crimea with Russia redefines both the geography as well as the geopolitical chessboard in the Black Sea basin, Professor Chussudovsky writes. “It constitutes a major setback for US-NATO, whose longstanding objective has been to integrate Ukraine into NATO with a view to undermining Russia, while extending Western military presence in the Black Sea basin,” he adds. An excerpt of Professor Chussudovsky’s article follows.

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WITH the March 18, 2014 Treaty signed between Russia and Crimea, the Russian Federation will extend its control over the Black Sea as well over the Sea of Azov, the West coastline of which borders on Eastern Ukraine and the Donesk region. (see map below)

Ukraine: John Kerry and NATO must calm down and back off

Jonathan Steele, The Guardian (March 5) – BOTH John Kerry’s threats to expel Russia from the G8 and the Ukrainian government’s plea for Nato aid mark a dangerous escalation of a crisis that can easily be contained if cool heads prevail. Hysteria seems to be the mood in Washington and Kiev, with the new Ukrainian prime minister claiming, “We are on the brink of disaster” as he calls up army reserves in response to Russian military movements in Crimea.

Ukraine and NATO: the authorities v gangsters

Ukrainians including veterans protest “visit” of USS Vella Gulf, a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser, at the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in January 2012. Their slogans included “Yankee, go home!” and “No to NATO!” The protesters also burned a U.S. flag featuring Nazi swastika instead of stars. Yevhen Dubovik, a protest organizer, said the visit of a ship with offensive weapons was illegal because it had not been authorized by Ukraine’s parliament.

Following the overthrow of the government by an armed coup d’état, the goal of turning Ukraine into NATO territory complete with US military bases tops the agenda under the anti-Russian flag. This has been a consistent thrust of all governments since 1999, of both Yushchenko and Yanukovych, in the context of broad resistance by the people of Ukraine to the imperialist project.

In July 2008, anti-NATO protestors moved ten boats into positions blocking the exits from the port of Odessa, preventing NATO ships from participating in the Sea Breeze 2008 exercise. According to their statement, “The NATO drill in Odessa is being accompanied by numerous protests by local residents. This demonstrates the public mood in Ukraine over the government’s course toward early admission to the alliance.” A branch of the Ukrainian Communist Party in Donetsk said over 1,000 people had taken part in anti-NATO rallies in the Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine. In 2006, protests forced U.S. Marine reservists who came to prepare for the exercises to leave without carrying out their mission.

The extent of the anti-NATO resistance amongst Ukrainians was so broad that it could not be dismissed as something “ethnic” or “communistic.”

US begins navy drills in Black Sea near Crimea

During the Sochi Winter Olympics last month, TV coverage highlighted Russian warships and even a nuclear submarines stationed just off the coast of the resort city for security, but the passage of two U.S. warships – the USS Mount Whitney, the sophisticated command or flag ship of the US Sixth Fleet and the guided missile frigate USS Taylor with 600 U.S. Marines onboard – into the Black Sea was never mentioned. The US has for several years been staging, in conjunction with its NATO allies including Canada, annual large-scale naval war games called Sea Breeze. They are conducted in the Crimea dangerously close to where the Russian Black Sea fleet is stationed at Sevastopol. The objective: to convert the Black Sea into an American lake. However, if the latest exercise is something ordinary – Washington says that they are a regularly scheduled exercise – then why the extraordinary armament, i.e., guided missiles in the Black Sea? 

Ukraine: The untold story

BRIAN DENNY examines the far-right connections of Ukraine’s pro-EU faction

rtuc (Jan.23) –UKRAINE’s refusal to sign an EU association agreement, the ensuing protests and the attempt to oust the government in a failed no-confidence vote all have their origins in a grand geopolitical battle being waged between Germany and Russia.

Germany is using the European Union to bring pressure to bear to integrate Ukraine into Berlin’s political and economic sphere.