It’s been over a month since my last Ukraine SITREP.
and the Saker’s Ukraine SITREP covering the latest “democratic” elections in Ukraine.

Nothing has changed since then. It seems that Ukraine experiences Groundhog Day over and over again. Even worse, since Russia has commenced its fight against ISIS in the Middle East, since the beginning of the Middle Eastern and African refugee crisis in Europe, since the Paris terror attack and since the closing of the EU borders and the establishment of the European Union army, Ukraine has been all but forgotten in the Western media. Unfairly so, because everything that’s going on in Ukraine, starting with the fascist putsch in February 2014, is a horrifying sick farce, but a very European farce nevertheless, with its brutal anti-culture, anti-history, and anti-Russian nature.

I must say here that I have never blamed the Ukrainians for wanting to have better lives. Their desire to be a part of a prosperous, peaceful and law abiding community is fully understandable. Things get murky, though, when it comes to the question of who would be paying for Ukraine’s European prosperity. Never ever, not even once a Ukrainian has said that they were going to work hard, and to sacrifice everything to build their own Ukrainian dream. No.

Since the American occupation of Soviet Union in 1990s, Russian economy and society lived under the Constitution and laws written by the US State Department organization USAID. Somewhere there was a provision that Russia had to sponsor Ukraine, and Russia had been supporting Ukraine to the extent of $100bln annually in direct money infusion, payments for Sevastopol ports, deep gas and oil discounts, cheap electricity, free markets for Ukrainian goods, visa free regime for Ukraine migrant workers, and who knows how else. When the Russian people would express their outrage towards this enormous draw on the Russian economy and consequently on their own livelihoods, the Russian government would explain that it was a price to pay for keeping Ukraine neutral and not joining the EU and NATO. It was easier to pay the Ukrainian government and support Ukrainian society, the Russians were told, than to fight NATO on our borders. “Don’t you forget,” the Russian government was saying since Gorbachev. “They’re our people, we can’t abandon them.”

This strategy of paying for friendship worked for twenty some years, until the financial crisis of 2008 started the biggest wealth transfer from the people of the Western and not so Western nations to the private Central banks. As a consequence, consumption dropped, commodity prices dropped, petrodollar died, and $700 trillion in toxic derivative debt issued by the Western “developed” countries rose up over the world economies seeking redemption. In comparison, the entire globe’s annual GDP is $70 trillion.

That’s why in 2013, the NATO countries decided that they wanted Russia to support them fully via Ukraine. Washington and Brussels in their eternal political wisdom decided that they would take over the Ukrainian government, and make Ukraine’s economy that was fully sponsored by Russia to be a part of the European Union economy. The free trade agreement with Ukraine would let them to dump cheap low quality European goods and produce on the Russia’s market and get back trillion dollars from Russia to support and grow their own economies and workforce. Meanwhile, the Washington people in the Russian government and the Russia’s Central Bank would do everything to keep Ukraine awash with Russian monetary infusions and to continue pumping cheap gas to the EU via Ukraine, being a “gas station masquerading as a country” (John McCain) and all. Meanwhile, NATO military basis and fleet located in Crimea and along the Russia borders would guarantee the Russians compliance with this brilliant scheme.

Something went terribly wrong, though.

Washington and Brussels, and the Western nations en mass, underestimated the horrible trauma that Russian society has been enduring since the Great Patriotic War against fascist Europe, when all the European countries came to Russia (or USSR) to “kill all the Russians.” Since the victory of the Soviet Union, the Europeans and the Americans insulted, belittled, and mocked the superhuman efforts and losses the Russian people endured to push the murderous European hordes back to Europe.

The Western nations underestimated the horrible trauma that the Russian society experienced in 1990s when the Russians peacefully surrendered their society, their lands, their economy to the West, hoping to be accepted and treated as equals by the “world” community. Instead, the West dealt with the Russian skillfully, decisively, and mercilessly, just like the American Indians were dealt with by the colonizers. The Russia was gutted, scalped, and hanged on a cross to die slow and painful death. Some say that Russia like a cat has nine lives. Others say that Russia died and resurrected like Phoenix or Jesus. Open wounds have not healed yet, when after the February 22nd 2014 putsch in Kiev, and publication of the US Department of Defense tenders on the constructions of facilities in Sevastopol for the US fleet and NAVY everyone in Russia, including its government, understood that it was a declaration of war, and stood up in arms.

What has that spelled for Ukraine? The country turned into an economic wasteland, with an openly fascist, ultra-nationalist government, endless civil war, tortures, kidnappings, murders of the opposition to the Kiev junta, the systemic shutdown of the whole manufacturing sector, transfer of the state owned arable lands to new owners like Monsanto, Dupont, Saudis, and Germany; discontinuance of the free trade with Russia from January 2016; discontinuance of the visa free regime with Russia starting with December 2015; deportation of about 1.3 million migrant workers back to Ukraine; discontinuance of the free electric power, free coal from Russia plus $800 million in subsidies to keep Crimea on the Ukrainian power grid; discontinuance of the supplies of maintenance parts, and fuel for the Ukraine’s failing nuclear power stations. Ukraine has turned into a hub for the ISIS Jihadists to travel in and out Europe, for illegal weapon trade, hub for slave trafficking and human organs trafficking, List goes on, and on, and on. Instead of Russia supporting Ukraine and Europe as planed, the US and EU have Ukraine on their financial life support. The full scale of this support is not known, but most likely it’s in hundreds of billions per year.

As for the Ukrainians, they declared that they wanted to get rid of the Russian market, because they don’t need Russia due to being an integral part of the European Union. Who cares about some Asian country of mongoloids, when you are part of the pure blood white Arian Europe? Turns out the EU cares, because they wanted an open door to Russia and China, and instead got a trapdoor to the Ukrainian outhouse, booby-trapped and filled with rotten corpses.

Ukraine SITREP

In preparation of this report, I used the generous assistance of thesaker’s research assistant Baaz.

1. 2016 budget of Ukraine was prepared by the foreign company. [source]

According to the Rada member Sergey Taruta, the state budget for 2015 was prepared by two unnamed persons one of them is dead now, and the second one was fired. In his resent interview for a TV program 112 Ukraine, Taruta said that the Ministry of Economy doesn’t seem to know who prepared the budget for 2016. He also said that the Ministry is more interested in creating zones of complete economic desolation, rather then prosperity.

The budget proposal is here:

TASS reported in November that the budget of Ukraine is completely oriented to financed the war on Donbass. IMF required Ukraine to cut at least 25% of spending. Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko earlier said “difficult decisions” were required to cut 2016 budget expenditures by at least 60 billion hryvnia or possibly by 200 billion hryvnia ($8.7 billion), i.e. by 25% The Ukrainian finance minister also proposed cutting budget expenditures at the expense of health care and education.

Now, in mid December there are some voices in Ukraine government that talking about serous pension cuts or even elimination pensions altogether.

2. Ukraine political cleansing continues.

Something weird is happening right now:

SBU claims that it has arrested “Russian spies/diversionists” in a “special operation”, says – two dead, one is “Russian” the other is from SBU’s Alpha assault unit. [source]

Then it says that the leader of the group was a Ukrainian citizen (surprise, surprise): [source]

And just after that there is another operation in Krasnogorovka (Donetsk oblast, under govt. control), 85 arrested: [source]

Killed” Russian” was Right Sector member and buddhist monk, but anyway “FSB agent for 100%” [source]

This gets even more surreal:

Killed leader of the group of “Russian spies” comprised of 3 Ukrainians and two Russians was a “former” member of Right Sector Oleg Muzhyl (not sure how credible is that former part), aka Sergey Amirov, aka Dorzhe-Jambo-lama, a buddhist monk (sic!).
Other members of Right Sector claim that he was kicked out because “he was 100% FSB agent”.
Russia confirms that there are Russian citizens among detained 5, but they don’t know anything specific on the matter: [source]

It seems he was senior RS member [source]

That article claims that in summer of 2014 his unit “destroyed columns of Russian vehicles” and “committed raids in Rostov oblast.” Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

That’s also a nice reading from summer 2014 – [source]

Especially the part of his cooperation with SBU and now being killed by SBU.

3. December 11 – Yatsenyuk denies responsibility for corruption, gets attacked by lawmaker (VIDEO)

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, giving his annual report in Verkhovna Rada on Dec. 11, said government is not responsible for corruption, much to the annoyance of lawmakers. Minutes later, he got attacked by one of them – Oleg Barna of the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko — and in a way that was exceptional even for the often misbehaving Ukrainian legislators. [source]

The pro-Poroshenko lawmakers lifts Yastsenyuk up like a little doll and almost slammed him on the floor. A brawl ensued afterwards. Hilarious video.

Anyhow Saakashvili who has harshly criticized Yats his nomination as Odessa’s governor in May, is going to replace him soon. Then there will be a open war (the underground one is already going on) between Poroshenko and Saakashvili on one side and Yatsenyuk and his crew on the other.

4. Crimea Blackout: Ukraine Was Just Inches Away From a New Chernobyl

Cutting power to ‘occupied’ Crimea might not be such a good idea when you simultaneously cut power to your own nuclear power stations [source]

As Vasily Volga explains, nuclear power plants require regular preventive maintenance to prevent accidents on a Chernobyl scale.

“We can’t tell the core of the reactor and its ancillary systems “We don’t have money, so continue working and we’ll do preventive maintenance later”. When operating instructions say the gasket in the main centrifugal pump has to be changed every year, it should be changed every year”.

The systems used in the Ukrainian nuclear reactors are produced in the Ukraine or in Russia. Currently, due to poor relations, scheduled preventive maintenance at nuclear power plants is not being done. Kiev knows this, but doesn’t talk about it because to fix it would require a call to Moscow. Or maybe they just don’t understand how dangerous it is to run the nuclear power industry with whatever funds they can scrape together.

5. Dec 6: Kiev junta celebrates Nuland’s visit to Ukraine by increasing the shelling of Donetsk, because the US Democracy feeds on human sacrifice.

6. Poroshenko, Yastsenyuk and Co. failed everything including the EU visa-free regime. [source]

Порошенко, Яценюк и Ко провалили все, в том числе – безвизовый режим
Суббота, 12 Декабрь 2015 Николай Азаров

7. NATO Ukrainian armed forces started advancing and taking over the villages and towns inside the Minsk outlined neutral zone. In following ethnic cleansing, 10% of population is being arrested. [source]

СБУ зачистила донбасскую Красногоровку: арестовано 10 % населения

7. Dec 10th, Rada ratified the New EU dictated law for the Ukraine’s government making the Ukrainian language the only state language, the Russian language status is not even mentioned by this law.
Dec 10

Everyone in the government of Ukraine is obligated to use only Ukrainian language, for the exception of the President, the Head of the President Administration, all the Ministers and their teams, the members of the Parliament of Ukraine, and their local deputies.

8. Ukraine’s infrastructure minister resigns, says the ministry can’t rely on volunteers

“This is my personal decision,” the minister said. “It’s really difficult to work for Hr 6,000, very difficult to ask people to work for Hr 4,000-5,000. This is the average salary in the ministry. It can’t just be based off of volunteers,” the minister said during the press briefing.

His two deputy ministers, Volodymyr Shulmeister and Volodymyr Omelyan, will also resign,

An average salary in the ministry is less then 200 euros a month. It’s impossible to keep the highly professional staff with salaries that low, only incompetent to find new job and corrupt will stay in state institutions. [source]

Novorossia

1. A commander of the “sixth separate motorized rifle Cossack regiment of People’s Militia,” Pavel Dryomov, has been assassinated, the LPR media report with reference to the so-called “prosecutor general of the LPR.”

The online resources claim that he was allegedly killed near the town of Stakhanov.
“On December 11, Dremov married a St. Petersburg resident, and today (December 12) he was killed after wedding celebrations at Nika restaurant… On the way out of the city of Pervomaisk to Stakhanov his car got blown up near the gas station, his driver was seriously wounded and died without regaining consciousness,” the report reads.

All the killed ones (Bednov, Mozgovoy, Dremov) were:
1) high-profile LPR commanders;
2) first-wave self-defender Novorossia idealists;
3) in conflict with the head of the LPR Plotnitsky at some point .

2. The only military hospital of the Donetsk People’s Republic is closed [source]

The only military hospital in Donetsk with 150 doctors who for free for a year treated 11000 wounded defenders of Donetsk, now closed. The doctors with the unique experience in treatment of war wounds are being let go. The hospital itself is being transferred to the ownership of the Ukraine citizens with the connection to Kiev junta.

3. Kiev’s military open fire on Donetsk north-western suburbs – media
World
December 12, 13:22 UTC+3
Once again under fire were the Spartak settlement near the Donetsk airport and Staromikhailovka in the west
Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. Over the past night, the Ukrainian military shelled the northern and western suburbs of Donetsk from an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), a source at the military authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Saturday.

In conclusion:

Here is an interesting pro-Ukrainian rant that summarizes the major misconceptions and lies that the Western society construed about Ukraine and Russia relations.

If this following is what you think about Russia and Ukraine, this message is for you.

For the true history of Ukraine as a part of Russia, read the Essential Saker book that you can buy here on Amazon

Saker tells the history of Ukraine and Russia in simple, concise, fact driven way that you cannot find anywhere else in the Western press.

The Western nations make up lies about Russian, and then act upon those lies with heavy weaponry, armies, and sanctions. Do yourself a huge favor; don’t exist in a blissful ignorance, educate yourself and read the Saker’s book. If we all die in the Western war on Russia, at the very least we will die knowing the true meaning behind this war.

Originally posted by Sephirote

“The biggest problem with Ukraine since their independence was that they had no history of their own, they have basically been a weak vassal state with nothing to talk about for hundreds of years, so to create an Ukrainian national identity Ukraine had to create fairy tale myths about the ”Glorious and pure Ukrainian nation and people” and that the evil Russians are the eternal enemy of Ukraine. Russia was simply used for a long time to create an Ukrainian identity, the sad truth for Ukraine and Ukrainians is that their country is an artificial state whose sole historic reason for existing has been to be a buffer for the Russian empire. Conflict is the only thing that can sustain Ukraine as an entity. Basically the sole reason for Ukraine to exist has been to be a worthless vassal, there is no glorious history of Ukraine and Ukrainians. It was not Ukraine who built one of the biggest empires in world history, it was not Ukraine which defeated the golden horde, nor defeated Napoleon, nor defeated Hitler. Ukraine is the artificial buffer state, Russia is the state with the glorious history. But the Russians have also told some lies, Ukraine is not and has never been a ”Fraternal country”. Russians have never cared at all about Ukraine, their only purpose has been to be a worthless vassal, nothing more, nothing less. The Ukrainians have always hated Russia out of a great jealously of their lack of achievements compared to Russia. Independent Ukraine has achieved nothing positive on any front. Instead of blaming themselves they took the easy way out and blamed their much superior neighbor for all their problems…

Think about it, even the borders of Ukraine was artificially created by Russia to best match the geopolitical goals of Russia. Ukraine was never meant to become an independent state, it was created to be a vassal and buffer and to serve Russian interests and this policy worked for a very long time. The case of Ukraine pretty much shows how resentment and jealousy are naturally created when a country is totally dominant over the other. Ukraine tired to be in Russia’s shadows and knew very well that if they went over to the US side they would be showered with love and affection by the Washington elite who loves a geopolitical gift such as Ukraine. That is one thing Americans are much better at than Russians, Americans know how to sweet talk you even if they have no respect at all for you as a country while Russia can’t bring themselves to sweet talk someone they have no respect for, Putin and the rest of the Russian elite has no respect for Ukraine, they see Ukraine as pretty much a weak vassal state. The US elite see Ukraine as a joke as well but gaining control over Ukraine and placing US bases all over the place is too good an opportunity for them to miss. In the end i have a hard time seeing a place such as Ukraine ever becoming a success story, specially not with the radical ethnic nationalism that is taught in every school in Ukraine. The main problem for Ukraine is that hatred against Russia has always been the sole driver for an Ukrainian identity, their raison d ́etre, thus Ukraine always needs to be in conflict with Russia to achieve internal legitimacy and stability. Without the hatred of everything Russian there is nothing to bind anyone in Ukraine together. Ukraine is pretty much Poland except even crazier in their total hatred of Russia, and yes this was a reality long before the current conflict started.

Ukrainian schools basically teach small children that they should hate Russians because Russians are ”Asiatic hordes, mongol barbarians” and the list just goes on and on. The Ukrainian mentality is not fit for modern day Europe, their thinking is mostly based on old ethno-nationalism ideology that was popular in the 1930s. Ukrainian identity is founded upon the old ideology of blood and soil and the idea of a pure bloodline. In the same vein they are thought that the Asiatic Russians have always been their eternal enemy. This is an ideology that needs conflict to thrive. They have no ability to achieve any sort of success in any field, their only ability will be to create hatred and be in an eternal struggle against their enemies. To even compare Ukraine to a civilized European state is ridiculous, this is a country whose official ideology actually talks about Ukrainians being superior to Russians solely because Russians are supposedly wicked mongols and other racist crap. The only future Ukraine as a state has is a paranoid ultra racist state serving as an US launch pad at the Russian border, they will never achieve a single economic objective or success.”
Thank you for your time,

Scott