The UN has reported that more than 100,000 refugees are fleeing eastern Ukraine (mostly into Russia) as the regime in Kiev continues to shell civilian targets. In the video below the US denies the refugee number.
Here are some words from the refugees:
Woman:
The situation in the cauldrons of Kramtorsk and Slavyansk is deteriorating by the hour. The reports of chlorine gas being used starting yesterday are confirmed. The nazis will do the same with gas they did with bombardments. First one single mortar shell, then 5, then 50 as the world ignored the shooting at civilian targets. Missiles. First one, then 5, then salvos. Gas. Yesterday a single attack using 'non lethal' amount on a block post. Today more. What of tomorrow?
We are working hard on getting more women and children out. We have two who should be here shortly. More will come later this week. We/they waited too long. It is difficult now to get them out of some areas, impossible for some areas. T
The silence from The West is deafening.
Woman:
I worked in a bank office. I have been there for some years. I have not been paid since March. Every week we were promised we would be paid next week. 3 weeks ago masked and armed men came to the office with manager. They ordered us to leave. We stood outside and watched as the men loaded all the computers, machines and records in to two large cars (trucks) and last they brought all the money in large black metal boxes. We asked them about our money and they pointed their automats at us and told us to shut up. They left. That night the bank office was burned. Our самообороны (defense forces) was blamed for the fire. It was not our men, it was the men who took all the money.
Militsiya (police) are useless. They don't work, they are cowards, they are waiting to see who wins this war. When there is trouble we send children running to get самообороны to us.
Shooting started. They shoot from the radio tower on the hill at us every day and every night. Many shops have been damaged. Almost all shops have stopped working now. No one could get their money from banks. All banks are closed. Every day someone is killed near us. We do not have any самообороны post in our area. The guns are very big. We can hear them when they shoot. We have nowhere to hide.
The factory where my husband worked was hit. It burned and there was some kind of white powder on the ground when we went to see the factory. самообороны told us not to touch the powder, it was phosphor and would burn our hand. There are no fire cars to put water on the fire. There is no water for them to use. My husband was not paid from May. His owner ran to Kiev long ago.
My husband went to самообороны. He told me I have to take the children and leave. We could not leave, there is no way out for us. We have no money to pay someone to help us. Our city is blocked by the enemy. No one can come in or out. We have no water, no electric, almost no food, no milk for the children, just porridge I make with water I get from a water car самообороны brings sometimes.
4 days ago my husband told me to pack very few things and be ready to leave. I do not question my husband. 2 days ago my husband in the night told me to wake the children, it was time to leave. He took us down the stairs to a car waiting for us. The house (flats building) across the street was burning at the top. I kissed my husband goodbye, he kissed our children and we left. He told me there was a way he will let me know every day he is alive. He said I would understand when I got to safety. He gave me 50 griven (4$), that is all he had. I did not know where we were going, he did not tell me.
(She began to weep) I thank God my children are safe. I am worried of my husband.
The US State Department does whatever it pleases. 100,000 refugees does not support the narrative that a successful election and change for the better happened in Kiev. If people in America learn what is happening to ordinary people in Ukraine, they will demand that the US foreign policy changes course. If the US changes course on Ukraine the parties that plan to loot Ukraine will be stopped. That can't/won't happen.
ReplyDeleteA few months or years down the road, the refugee figures will be confirmed to some ballpark number. Then they will issue statements like "It was a war zone. Atrocities happen in war on both sides" By then the lives of the people pushed off their homeland will be altered forever. Those who survive will live permanently in other lands and assimilated there with help from diaspora communities.
If we observe enough communities this has happened to, we eventually figure out that few "officials" care about the people of either "side" of the "conflict". They care about their own objectives, like privatization, control of foreign governments, banks and geo resources and therefore future decisions for hegemony perpetuation, and ever more new forward bases to maintain their menacing presence.
I object to what the people of east Ukraine are being made to go through. I object to the censorship of the same. I object to US Congressmen who rubberstamp these decisions like they are owned robots and not people with souls, people with families, people with churches. I object to the United Nations, who long ago should have staged a mass walkout and started their own independent organization. I object to the silence of criminal courts who overlook war crimes. white phosphorus? napalm? shelling schools, hospitals, very modest villager homes? Its a no brainer that it is not man to man combat but cowardly war crimes. The "west" is mute. Whatever benefits them goes, no more nation states, no more rule of law, whatever benefits the "world order" replaces all.