Dr. Ganser speaks on Ukraine-conflict: The other side of truth

16.04.2022 | www.kla.tv/22282

Without US President Obama's breach of international law eight years ago, Putin's illegal military invasion would probably not have taken place. This is what Daniele Ganser, Doctor of Philosophy, writes on the internet platform Rubikon News. Dr. Ganser is a Swiss historian specialized on contemporary history since 1945 and international politics. His work focuses on peace research, geostrategy, covert warfare, resource struggles and economic policy. He heads the Swiss Institute for Peace and Energy Research in Basel. Here comes his full assessment of the Ukraine conflict. “On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to invade Ukraine — in violation of the UN ban on the use of force, and therefore illegally. Almost exactly eight years earlier, on February 20, 2014, US President Barack Obama overthrew the government in Ukraine in order to draw the country into NATO. This coup is the root of today’s Ukraine war. Like Putin's invasion Obama's behaviour violated the UN's ban on the use of force and was therefore illegal. It is time to stop being content with half-truths from one side or the other and tell the story of the conflict in a complete and balanced way. We only hear half the story At the moment there is a lot of reading and hearing in the media about Putin's invasion which has rightly been criticized. But you read and hear practically nothing about Obama's coup. Why are we only told half the story? Did the US really overthrow the government in Ukraine? Why didn't almost anyone notice that at the time? And what historical evidence is there for this? I get these and similar questions a lot these days. As a historian and peace researcher I have been researching the open and covert wars of the USA for years and also described the coup in Ukraine in my book "Illegal Wars". "It was a Western-sponsored coup, there is little doubt about it", said former CIA official Ray McGovern already at the time (1). In Berlin, one year after the coup on May 10, 2015, I gave a lecture on the events in Ukraine and showed that President Obama actually overthrew the government in Ukraine. If you like, you can watch the lecture here (2). Confrontation of the nuclear powers The Ukraine war is a particularly delicate international conflict because it confronts the United States and Russi,a both of which are in possession of nuclear weapons. As was the case during the Cuban Missile Crisis both sides have been playing hidden cards and trying to draw Ukraine into their sphere of influence. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Moscow's weakness gave Washington its first opportunity to expand US influence into Eastern Europe and to draw the former Moscow-controlled Warsaw Pact members into NATO. NATO's eastward expansion and the Bucharest Summit Although the US had promised Russia that NATO would not expand, that is exactly what it did. Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary became NATO members in 1999. And at the NATO Summit in the Romanian capital Bucharest in April 2008, US President George Bush declared that Ukraine would also be admitted to NATO. Russia was enraged because Ukraine borders directly on Russia. And there were warning voices in the USA, as well. "Imagine the outrage in Washington, if China forged a powerful military alliance and tried to win Canada and Mexico over to it", warned University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer. According to Mearsheimer, the West unnecessarily provoked the Russians and is therefore to blame for the crisis in Ukraine (3). Senator John McCain on the Maidan At the end of the year 2013 more and more people demonstrated against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov on the Maidan, the central square of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The well-known ex-boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko led the demonstrations and held passionate speeches in close consultation with the USA. In this tense situation the influential US Senator John McCain flew to Ukraine and visited Klitschko and the protest camp on the Maidan on December 15, 2013. The US senator encouraged the demonstrators to overthrow the Ukrainian government (4). Imagine the outrage in Washington if a well-known Russian MP flew to Canada to support protesters in the capital Ottawa to overthrow the Canadian government. That is exactly what the US did in Ukraine. The US Embassy in Kyiv coordinated the protests The leaders of the Maidan protests walked in and out the US embassy to receive their orders. Some demonstrators were armed and used violence against the police. "The Americans clearly pushed the confrontational development", remembers Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov who was overthrown (5). At the US Embassy in Kyiv it was US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt who supported the protesters and thereby destabilized Ukraine. Ambassador Pyatt was in direct contact with ex-boxer Klitschko. The well-organized Maidan demonstration grew in size and tensions in Kyiv increased. Today's US President Joe Biden was also directly involved in the coup since he supported the demonstration on the Maidan, as well. In December 2013 Biden, then Vice President under Obama, called President Yanukovych during the night and threatened him with penalties if he allowed the police to clear the Maidan. Yanukovych then withdrew the planned evacuation (6). Victoria Nuland's $5 billion Within the US State Department Victoria Nuland was responsible for the coup. Under US Secretary of State John Kerry, Nuland was a senior associate of President Obama as Deputy Secretary of State. Nuland lost influence under President Donald Trump but was reappointed as Deputy Secretary of State by President Joe Biden. In Ukraine Nuland wanted to overthrow Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov and President Viktor Yanukovych in order to draw the country into NATO as decided at the Bucharest summit. The leaders of the Maidan demonstration did not only receive their orders from the US embassy but also their payment. In December 2013, two months before the coup, Nuland declared in a lecture: "We have invested more than five billion dollars to help Ukraine secure prosperity, security and democracy" (7). This also led to criticism in the USA. Former US Congressman Ron Paul publicly asked: “We heard US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland boast that the US spent $5 billion on regime change in Ukraine. Why is that okay?” (8). It was an open secret at the time that some of the demonstrators in Ukraine were being paid. “There are people like US billionaire George Soros who finance revolutions. Soros also supported the Maidan, he paid people there — they actually earned more in two weeks on the Maidan than they would in four weeks of work in Western Ukraine”, Ukraine expert Ina Kirsch told the Wiener Zeitung. "There is enough evidence that people were paid both at the Maidan and at the counter-event, the 'Anti-Maidan' ", said Ina Kirsch, who was on site in Kyiv. “There were prizes for every contribution. I know people who cashed in on the Anti-Maidan at the counter-demo in the morning, then went over to the Maidan and cashed in again there. Such things are actually not unusual in Ukraine” (9). Fuck the EU: The phone call before the coup The key evidence of US involvement in the Ukraine coup is a wiretapped telephone conversation between Victoria Nuland and Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt on February 7, 2014, just a few days before the coup. In a phone call Nuland explains who is supposed to form the new government in Ukraine after the coup. "I don't think Klitschko should be part of the new government, I don't think it's necessary and it's not a good idea", said Nuland. "I think Yatsenyuk is the right man, he has the necessary experience in business and politics. In fact, after the coup, Arseniy Yatsenyuk became Prime Minister of Ukraine. Ex-boxer Vitali Klitschko had to contend himself with the post of Mayor of Kyiv. This is proof that Victoria Nuland planned and successfully carried out the coup for the USA. ."He's now gotten Ban Ki-moon to agree […]. and, you know, fuck the EU”, Nuland said verbatim in the wiretapped conversation (Quelle: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957), which led to some outrage from Chancellor Angela Merkel (10). Snipers escalate the situation on February 20, 2014 At the end of February, the situation on the Maidan escalated. On February 20, 2014, a massacre occurred when unidentified snipers shot at police officers and protesters from different houses, killing more than 40 people. Chaos broke out. The incumbent government of President Viktor Yanukovych and his police unit Berkut were immediately blamed for the massacre, although they had had no interest in escalating the situation as they did not want to overthrow themselves. "The world must not watch as a dictator slaughters his people", commented boxer Vitali Klitschko in the German tabloid Bild who wanted to overthrow the government The regime change was successful: President Yanukovych was overthrown and fled to Russia. He was replaced by billionaire Petro Poroshenko who as president immediately declared that he wanted to lead Ukraine into NATO. Obama talks about the coup A year after the coup US President Obama spoke to CNN about the transfer of power in Ukraine but concealed the US role. "Putin was caught flat-footed by the Maidan protests", Obama said. "Yanukovich fled after we negotiated a deal to hand over power." CNN viewers did not learn that Obama had actually overthrown the government in Ukraine (11). Putin talks about the coup But the Russians knew that the US had orchestrated the coup and were very upset. "I believe this crisis was created on purpose", President Putin told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Putin was convinced that the NATO countries could have prevented the coup. "If America and Europe had said to those who committed these unconstitutional acts, 'If you come to power in such a way, under no circumstances will we support you. You have to hold elections and win them', then the situation would have developed completely differently" (12). Crimean secession President Vladimir Putin had no intention of giving up Ukraine without a fight. Immediately after the overthrow of Yanukovych, in the early morning hours of February 23, 2014, he gave the order to start “retrieving” Crimea. Russian soldiers in green uniforms without insignia occupied all strategic points in Simferopol, the largest city on the Crimean Peninsula, on February 27, 2014. On March 16, 2014, 97 percent of the Crimean population voted against Ukraine but for Russia. Since then the Crimean peninsula no longer belongs to Ukraine but to Russia. Neither the US nor Russia complied with international law in the Ukraine war. First Obama broke international law with the coup on February 20, 2014. As a reaction to this Putin also violated international law with the occupation of Crimea on February 23, 2014. The occupation of Crimea by Russia "was a breach of applicable international law (...) the sovereignty under international law and the territorial integrity of Ukraine were disregarded", explained Dieter Deiseroth, former judge at the Federal Administrative Court. The West is now sharply criticizing Putin although, the West himself “has repeatedly violated applicable international law in numerous cases (Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, drone warfare, Guantanamo et cetera) which has severely damaged its credibility” (13). The Donbas splits off After the coup in Kyiv and the secession of Crimea, Ukraine plunged into civil war. The new Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk tried to bring the whole country under his control with the army, the secret service and the police. But not all soldiers, police officers and secret service employees followed the instructions of the coup government. In the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine bordering Russia, the Donetsk and Lugansk regions said they would not accept the coup government in Kyiv. The separatists occupied police stations and government buildings, arguing that the new government had no legitimacy because it had come to power illegally. Prime Minister Yatsenyuk vehemently denied this, saying that all separatists were terrorists. CIA director John Brennan flew to Kyiv to advise the putschists. On April 15, 2014, the Ukrainian army, with the support of the United States, began its "anti-terrorist special operation" and attacked the city of Slavyansk in the Donetsk region with tanks and mechanized infantry combat vehicle. This started the Ukrainian civil war which claimed more than 13,000 lives in eight years and led to Putin's illegal invasion on February 24, 2022. The coup in Kyiv does not give Putin the right to invade Ukraine and thus break international law. But if we in the West ignore the 2014 coup, we will never be able to understand the Ukraine war.”

from hm

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