The trucks had delivered emergency survival supplies to the people in Lugansk, eastern Ukraine. Lugansk is resisting a military onslaught from the Kiev junta regime and the fascist groups active in that regime. The Kiev junta is the product of a coup against the elected government last Feb. 22.
U.S. officials, who support Israel’s slaughter of Gaza’s children, expressed outrage, shock and alarm at the truck convoy and threatened heavier sanctions against Russia, accusing that country of flagrant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
The head of Ukraine’s security service, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, called the Russian convoy a “direct invasion.” (cnn.com, Aug. 23)
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen issued a statement accusing Moscow of a “blatant breach of Russia’s international commitments.” (Washington Post, Aug. 22)
U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden asserted, “Russian vehicles violate Ukraine’s sovereignty.” (whitehouse.gov, Aug. 22)
Vice President Joseph Biden denounced “Russia’s blatant provocation and disregard of Ukraine’s sovereignty.” (Associated Press, Aug. 23)
The level of hypocrisy and cynicism from the world’s biggest warmakers knew no bounds.
Britain fully supported and participated in the U.S. massive bombing, invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. However, British ambassador to the U.N. Mark Lyall Grant denounced the Russian food trucks delivering supplies and withdrawing the following day as “an undeniable and blatant violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and clear breach of international law and the U.N. charter.” (abcnews.go.com, Aug. 22)
In the interests of Wall Street’s profits, the U.S. military has invaded 74 countries in the past century. There were U.S. military operations and major troop movements in 14 countries in the past 15 years. These involved tens of thousands of troops, tanks, jet aircraft, armored personnel carriers and predator drones.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued its own strongly worded warning against an attack on the aid convoy: “We are warning against any attempts to thwart this purely humanitarian mission which took a long time to prepare in conditions of complete transparency and cooperation with the Ukrainian side and the [International Committee of the Red Cross]. Those who are ready to continue sacrificing human lives to their own ambitions and geopolitical designs and who are rudely trampling on the norms and principles of international humanitarian law will assume complete responsibility for the possible consequences of provocations against the humanitarian relief convoy.
“All the excuses to delay the delivery of aid to people in the area of a humanitarian catastrophe are exhausted. The Russian side has made a decision to act. Our column with humanitarian cargo starts moving toward Luhansk.” (globalresearch.ca, Aug. 22)
The bold distribution of supplies in east Ukraine took place just before the Aug. 24 event in Kiev where the pro-West regime celebrated Ukraine’s 23rd Independence Day. The coup leaders planned to use the occasion to call for increased defense spending.
In the lead up to this right-wing celebration and desperate for a decisive victory against the popular insurrection, the Kiev troops, led by fascist forces, had stepped up attacks on Luhansk and Donetsk with military aircraft, tanks and armored vehicles targeting residential areas and civilian facilities.
On the same day and in another type of stinging response to the fascist celebration in Kiev, rebel forces in Donetsk put two destroyed Ukrainian armored personnel carriers on display in Donetsk’s central Lenin Square and marched captured fascist thugs through the streets.
In Donetsk, an estimated one-third of the city’s population of 1 million has been evacuated, especially children. Many who remain have lived for weeks without electricity or running water and spent days hunkered down in bomb shelters.
U.N. officials estimate that more than 2,000 people have died and nearly 5,000 have been wounded in eastern Ukraine since mid-April.
