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Russia Continues Aggressive Stance, Demands Removal of American Nuclear Weapons from Europe

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VPBy Newsmax. Russia called for a ban on American nuclear weapons in parts of Europe, saying the U.S. is breaking an international agreement by holding joint nuclear training missions with NATO allies that don’t possess such weapons.

Using ships and airfields as well as training crews from non-nuclear states from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in such exercises is “in direct contradiction to the letter and spirit” of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement on its website. (Read more from “Russia: US Must Remove Its Nuclear Weapons from Europe” HERE)

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Vladimir Putin’s ‘Night Wolves’ Biker Gang Storms Ukraine

By Mary Chastain. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s biker gang, the Night Wolves, is causing a ruckus in east Ukraine as it lends a hand to the pro-Russian rebels and Russian soldiers.

“My love for my homeland, for my territory, is my life,” announced Vitali, the leader of the east Ukraine branch.

The Night Wolves originated in Russia in 1983 and is very close to Putin, who even rode with them during a bike festival in August 2011.

“I’m a Night Wolf, not a rebel,” claimed Vitali. “I’m just defending my homeland.”

Vitali, who also goes by “Prosecutor,” is based in Lugansk. The headquarters includes “two charred Ukrainian tank turrets” as decoration items at the entrance. He said his men destroyed the tanks “during a battle with government troops” and calls them their “trophies.” The majority of the members in Lugansk are from Ukraine, but some members from Russia leaked in. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Reports of Massive Explosion in Ukraine, Likely not Tactical Nuke, but Obama Shaken [+videos]

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Ukraine: Artillery Fire, Not ‘Tactical Nuke’ Attack, Sets Off Large Donetsk Explosion

[Editor’s note: A number of sites, such as Alex Jones’ Info Wars, suggested that the explosion was nuclear, but that seems to be a stretch. Nuclear detonations create significant EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) that would almost certainly have destroyed the electronic cameras recording the events.]

On Sunday night, a series of YouTube videos appear to show a large explosion in Donetsk, Ukraine (several can be watched here). However, it wasn’t a “tactical nuclear weapon,” as some social media users claimed, but just a big blast–reportedly Ukrainian army artillery fire hitting an ammunition depot held by the rebel Donetsk People’s Republic.

Videos that were uploaded Feb. 8 show a massive explosion going off in the distance, with an orange-red fireball lighting up the night sky.

While many details remain unclear, preliminary reports say it was a an artillery attack on a weapons depot owned by the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic. According to Ukrainian news site TSN.ua, right-wing politician Dmitry Yarosh said the blast killed about “200 terrorists,” destroyed 20 Grad rockets, and trucks filled with ammunition. (Read more from about the reports of a tactical nuke in Ukraine HERE)

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New York Times Warn About Russia “Nuclear Saber Rattling” in Ukraine

By JOHN J. MEARSHEIMERFEB. The possibility that Mr. Putin might end up making nuclear threats may seem remote, but if the goal of arming Ukraine is to drive up the costs of Russian interference and eventually put Moscow in an acute situation, it cannot be ruled out. If Western pressure succeeded and Mr. Putin felt desperate, he would have a powerful incentive to try to rescue the situation by rattling the nuclear saber.

Our understanding of the mechanisms of escalation in crises and war is limited at best, although we know the risks are considerable. Pushing a nuclear-armed Russia into a corner would be playing with fire.

Advocates of arming Ukraine recognize the escalation problem, which is why they stress giving Kiev “defensive,” not “offensive,” weapons. Unfortunately, there is no useful distinction between these categories: All weapons can be used for attacking and defending. The West can be sure, though, that Moscow will not see those American weapons as “defensive,” given that Washington is determined to reverse the status quo in eastern Ukraine.

The only way to solve the Ukraine crisis is diplomatically, not militarily. Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, seems to recognize that fact, as she has said Germany will not ship arms to Kiev. Her problem, however, is that she does not know how to bring the crisis to an end. (Read more from this story HERE)

See also Putin Threatens to Use Nukes in Ukraine

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Matt Drudge Warns that “Obama Knows Something Terrible is Coming”

In a tweet yesterday, Matt Drudge said this about Obama’s Grammy appearance:

Machine Gun Granny Ready to Fight Russian Backed Rebels (+video)

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This Ukrainian grandma packs a punch!

Newly trained Kateryna Bilyk, 68, said she decided to take up arms after seeing the horrific carnage left behind when Russian-backed separatists clashed with pro-Ukraine fighters, Central European News reported.

“I wanted to set an example to show young people that no matter how old you are, you can make a difference, and that was why I decided to sign up,” said the mother of three and grandmother of five.

“I have lived here all my life and we survived the Nazi occupation and the Soviets, and I believe in standing up for what’s right and making sure we never see occupation again,” said Bilyk, of Zhidaev.

Nataliya Ishenko, an army spokeswoman, said the assault rifle-wielding grandma had received the same training as other young recruits and passed all the marksmanship tests. (Read more about the Ukraine grandma who is ready to fight Russian rebels HERE)

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Pro-Russia Separatists Destroy Airport, Massacre 12 in Bus Attack in Ukraine

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Pro-Russian separatists unleashed a series of bomb attacks Tuesday in eastern Ukraine, leveling a key airport in Donetsk, killing 12 in an attack on a passenger bus and almost certainly dooming a short-lived cease-fire, according to reports.

A senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News that the separatists destroyed the government-held airport in eastern Ukraine Tuesday afternoon.

The facility has been “flattened” and the air control tower was “decimated,” the official said. “They are now fighting over rubble.”

Maria Ivanovna, a local retiree, told The Associated Press she has become desensitized to the blasts and drew an arc with her arm to show how shells fly over her home toward the airport.

“We will survive the same way we did after World War II. Ration cards for bread; 11 ounces for children; 800 grams for factory workers and 1,200 grams for miners,” she said. (Read more from the story “Pro-Russia Separatists Destroy Airport” HERE)

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Obama: We Have No Strategy to Fight ISIS; Ukraine Wasn’t Invaded

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Speaking from the White House Briefing room on Thursday, President Obama touched on a whole host of foreign challenges facing the nation.

Most significantly, perhaps, he noted that Secretary of State John Kerry will soon be heading to the Middle East to “build a coalition” to help meet the growing threat of ISIL.

“I am confident that we can and we will,” he intoned.

He also noted that he had asked Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel — and his joint chiefs of staff — to furnish him with “a range of options” to finally deal with these violent and bloodthirsty terrorists.

“Clearly ISIL had come to represent the very worst elements in the region that we have to deal with collectively,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ukrainian Jews Consider Evacuations

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Ukrainian JewOdessa’s Jews are prepared to evacuate should the violence in the western Ukrainian city get significantly worse, several community leaders told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Odessa’s Jewish community numbers some 30,000, down from nearly 40 percent of the city’s population before the Holocaust.

Running street battles between pro-Russian and nationalist forces claimed dozens of lives in the Black Sea port this weekend, culminating in the burning of dozens of pro-Russian protesters in the city’s trade union building on Friday evening.

The Odessa bloodshed came on the same day that Kiev launched its biggest push yet to reassert its control over separatist areas in the east, hundreds of kilometers away, where armed pro-Russian rebels have proclaimed a “People’s Republic of Donetsk.”

While Jewish community leaders are unanimous in asserting that the violence is unconnected to the Jewish community and that they do not feel specially targeted, they agreed that, should the situation deteriorate, it would be easy for the spillover to affect their constituents. Read more from this story HERE.
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Why Ukraine Should Matter to All of Us

DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA. Next March was set to be the time to elect a new leader for Ukraine.

Since the corrupt presidency of Viktor Yanukovych was brought to an end by the Ukrainian people and Russia responded by forcibly reintegrating Crimea, the election had to be brought forward to three weeks from now. The success of these elections will have reverberations that echo not through just the rest of Europe but anywhere where democracy is prized over sheer might.

The 20th century was shaped by America’s response to two totalitarian ideologies that came from Europe and which saw democracy as their sworn enemy. First there came Adolf Hitler who took authoritarianism to new heights with his Nazi party ideology of racial purity, Lebensraum – “living space” for his Third Reich, and the systematic extermination of target groups, Jews, Catholics, homosexuals or the disabled.

Then there came the very similar, albeit class-based, ideological threat of the Soviet Union and her satraps. With an ideology that saw the perfection of mankind as occurring through creation of the Communist state, the USSR was at its core committed to the direct or indirect destruction and subversion of all democratic systems.

But then, after forty years of ‘Cold War’ on November 9th 1989 came the breach of the Berlin Wall and on Christmas Day two years later, the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union. Thus was declared the End of History and the victory of the West. Read more from this story HERE.

Pro-Russian Protesters Storm Prosecutor’s Office in Ukraine’s Donetsk

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Photo Credit: AP / Emilio Morenatti

Photo Credit: AP / Emilio Morenatti

Pro-Russian protesters stormed the prosecutor’s office in the separatist-held city of Donetsk on Thursday, lobbing stones and smashing windows after accusing the office of working for the Western-backed government in Kiev.

Donetsk, a city of about 1 million people in Ukraine’s industrial east, is at the center of an armed uprising across the steel and coal belt by mainly Russian-speakers threatening to secede from Ukraine.

The violence, in a city already largely under the control of separatists, underscored the shifting security situation and suspicions in the region.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ukraine Falls Further into Chaos…

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Photo Credit: Interdependent

Photo Credit: Interdependent

The day began with the police station and administration building in Kostiantynivka being overrun; next the airport at Kramatorsk was attacked with rocket propelled grenades and then the mayor of Kharkiv was shot in the back. While America and the European Union impose new sanctions on Russia, violence and turmoil continues unabated in eastern Ukraine.

The attempted murder of Gennady Kernes, the mayor of the country’s second-largest city, raised fears that prominent public figures were being targeted for assassination. On Monday night he was “fighting for his life” after surgery, said his spokesman. The blame was levelled at both the Kremlin and extreme right-wing groups.

Mr Kernes was gunned down while he was out cycling, jogging, or swimming, according to differing accounts. Valeriy Boyko, the director of the Institute of Surgery in Kiev, said the mayor had “suffered a very serious wound with a number of organs damaged”.

The 64-year-old billionaire businessman had been a fervent supporter of Viktor Yanukovych, the overthrown President, and a fierce critic of Kiev’s Maidan protest, banning similar protests in Kharkiv. Since then he had spoken out against those who want to take the region under Moscow’s rule.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Troops Arrive in Poland for Exercises Across Eastern Europe Amid Ukraine Crisis

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Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

U.S. Army paratroopers are arriving in Poland to begin a series of military exercises in four countries across Eastern Europe to bolster allies in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula last month.

Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday that the exercises will last about a month, and initially involve about 600 troops.

An Army company of about 150 soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team based in Vicenza, Italy, will start the exercises Wednesday in Poland. Additional Army companies will head to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and are expected to arrive by Monday for similar land-based exercises in those countries.

Under the current plan, U.S. troops would rotate in and out of the four countries for additional exercises on a recurring basis.

Read more from this story HERE.

Anti-Semitic Fliers in Eastern Ukraine Denounced

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Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

U.S. officials Thursday denounced what one called a “grotesque” leaflet ordering Jews in one eastern Ukrainian city to register with a government office, but the Jewish community there dismissed it as a “provocation.”

The fliers were handed out by masked men in front the main synagogue in Donetsk, where pro-Russian protesters have declared a “People’s Republic,” Jewish leaders there said. The document warned the city’s Jews to register and document their property or face deportation, according to a CNN translation of one of the leaflets.

Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that a respected Jewish leader in Ukraine showed him a photograph of one of the leaflets. He called the document “chilling.”
And in Geneva, where diplomats held emergency talks on the Ukrainian crisis, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the leaflets “grotesque” and “beyond unacceptable.”

But the Jewish community statement said relations between the Jews of Donetsk and their neighbors were amicable, and the self-proclaimed head of the “People’s Republic,” Denis Pushilin, denied any connection to the fliers.

Read more from this story HERE.