Heading towards World War III?

Ján Čarnogurský is one of the few politicians of the former Czechoslovakia, in which he also experienced crime for activities in the democratic opposition and ended up as a top politician, about whom we can talk with great respect. In addition to the Christian value base, his attitudes combine a deep knowledge of the problems he expresses, the ability to analyze facts and draw conclusions. These days he published on the social network "vkontakte" ten points concerning Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine is still going on and the West is plunging into anti-Russian hysteria. He reiterates arguments that deny the historical advantage of the West, logical coherence. I will therefore give a brief overview of the arguments that the West does not want to hear and cannot answer.

1 Majdan. In February 2014, protests by the people of Kiev against the government and President Viktor Yanukovych culminated. I will not mention their cause here, it would be for a long time. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Germany and France, Radoslaw Sikorski, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Eric Fournier, came to mediate. The protesters from whom the current power in Kiev and the Kiev government and President Yanukovych signed the agreement on February 21. According to the agreement, the government will withdraw the Berkut police from parliament and government buildings, and in the autumn of 2014 there will be new presidential elections in Ukraine, and anti-government demonstrations will cease until then. The ministers of the three EU countries signed the agreement as guarantors. The government withdrew Berkut from parliament, but protesters immediately stormed parliament. Television broadcast footage of protesters walking around parliament with Kalashnikovs. They put open pressure on deputies. Parliament was one of the first laws to pass a law practically banning the use of Russian in official communication, restricting the teaching of Russian in schools. President Yanukovych had to flee Kiev first to eastern Ukraine otherwise the insurgents would have killed him. The Russian paratroopers eventually helped him escape to Russia. The Western guarantors did not find the political and moral strength to admit that the Kiev protesters, from whom the current power in Kiev comes, violated the agreement they guaranteed. Maidan was a violation of the Ukrainian constitution - the overthrow of a validly elected president, armed pressure on parliament. US diplomat Victoria Nuland later admitted in the US Congress that the US had spent $ 5 billion "so that the Ukrainian people could freely choose their leadership." Among the demonstrators, Andrij Bilyj was the most publishable in front of the cameras with the Kalashnikov in parliament. He didn't even fit in the skin until his own had him shot. An anti-constitutional coup called the Majdan triggered a chain of events leading up to the current crisis.

2 Korsuňský pogrom. On the night of February 20-21, 2014, demonstrators in favor of Yanukovych were returning from Kiev to the Crimea. Maidan activists stopped by buses near the town of Korsun. They forced passengers to take air shots. They beat and injured several of them. Three buses poured gasoline and set them on fire. They also poured petrol on some passengers and threatened to set them on fire. About 300 passengers originally traveled on the buses. 30 remained missing, 7 people were to be killed. No one was tried for the incident. They made a documentary about the event "Corsican Pogrom". The event greatly contributed to Crimea's decision to secede from Ukraine.

3 Terror in Odessa. On May 2, 2014, in Odessa, people demonstrated against the injustice that prevailed in Ukraine. Supporters of Kiev power attacked them and drove them into the House of Trade Unions. The police just stared. Protesters barricaded themselves in the House of Trade Unions. Proponents of power set fire to the House of Trade Unions and beat the protesters who ran out of the building or jumped out of the windows to death. They killed 48 people. Everything was filmed on television. The perpetrators are identifiable on video footage. No one has been prosecuted.

4 Snipers on Maidan. On February 20 and 21, 2014, snipers shot at people on the Maidan, protesters and police officers from three surrounding buildings on Maidan. They shot 102 people. They were shooting from buildings controlled by protesters. Later, Western journalists exposed the snipers. They came from Georgia. There was a documentary on Western television about the Maidan shooting, with some snipers testifying to the camera. According to the statements of the snipers, they were ordered by a man from the leading circles of Maidan, it is directed to Turchinov, later the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament. The Kiev power does not say very convincingly that the snipers were ordered by Yanukovych. The investigation into Maidan did not take place.

5 Crimea. In 1954, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, donated Crimea to Ukraine. Until then, he was part of the Russian Federal Socialist Republic, formerly the Russian Empire. During the Soviet Union, it was only an administrative decision. During the disintegration of the Soviet Union, they held a referendum in Crimea on January 20, 1991 declaring Crimean sovereignty, on the basis of which the Crimean parliament passed the law "On Restoration of the Crimean Autonomous Government" on February 12, 1991. On 16 March 2014, the Crimean Parliament called a referendum on Crimean sovereignty and withdrawal from Ukraine. More than 90% of voters voted in favor and Crimea withdrew from Ukraine and applied for admission to the Russian Federation. The Russian State Duma accepted Crimea and so Crimea became part of the Russian Federation. According to the 2007 census, Russians made up 58% of the population, Ukrainians 24%, the Crimean Tatars 12%, and the rest others. Satisfaction with the current integration reigns on the peninsula.

6 Donetsk and Lugansk. Following the events in Kiev after Maidan and in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, they called a referendum to withdraw from Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on both regions not to vote in a referendum. The leadership of the Russian Federation probably already decided at that time not to accept both areas into the Russian Federation, unlike in the Crimea. However, referendums in both areas took place despite Putin's call, and more than 90% of voters voted to withdraw from the Ukrainian state. Before the October Revolution, both areas belonged to the Russian Empire under the name Novorossiysk. However, the entry into the Russian Federation did not take place and both areas began to face the attack of the Ukrainian army. With the help of Russian soldiers outside the official union of the Russian army and international volunteers, including Slovaks, they defended themselves, but not to the full extent. Despite the commitments contained in the Minsk agreements, the areas have so far faced artillery and other attacks by the Ukrainian army. About 13,000 people have died in the areas since 2014.

7 Minsk agreement. The Ukrainian army tried militarily to prevent the Donetsk and Lugansk regions from separating from Ukraine. During the fighting in autumn 2014 and early 2015, the Ukrainian army came under siege near the town of Debaltsevo (between Donetsk and Lugansk). At first, the attempt was made to resolve the situation diplomatically. On September 5, 2014, the so-called 1. Minsk Agreement Ukraine, Russia and both regions that have declared themselves independent People's Republics. The agreement did not lead to a ceasefire. On 15 February 2015, its participants concluded the Second Minsk Agreement, specifying the obligations of the parties to the agreement. Subsequently, on February 18, 2015, the besieged Ukrainian army withdrew from the Debalec cauldron, from which it would not otherwise have escaped. Both parties have been accused of violating the agreement. Ukraine apparently did not comply with e.g. the provision that it was to adopt a constitutional law on extensive autonomy in at least both areas later pushed heavy weapons back to the line of contact.

8 Očakovo base. Under President Yushchenko and then again after Maidan, Ukraine and the United States, on the other hand, wanted to achieve Ukraine's accession to NATO. In 2008, Germany and France prevented this only at the cost of a compromise sentence in the final communiqué from the NATO summit in Bucharest that Ukraine (and Georgia) would become members of NATO in the future. Even without NATO membership, the United States began building its Ochakovo military base near Odessa in 2021, without limiting the type of weapons that could be placed on it. Upon completion, the US military could launch nuclear missiles at Moscow (and other Russian targets) with a flight time of 6-7 minutes to the target. Russia would become blackmailed in every matter. At the beginning of the military operation in February 2022, the Russian Air Force bombed the Ochakovo construction site.

9 Neutrality offer. Before the start of the military operation, President Putin offered Ukraine to become neutral. Ukraine refused. After that, Russia could only achieve its security through a military operation.

10 Missile terror of Ukraine. On March 14, 2022, Ukraine fired a Tocka-U rocket at the city of Donetsk at noon. The missile defense shot down the missile, but relatively late. The remnants of the rocket landed in the city center. 21 victims were killed and others were injured. On April 8, Ukraine also fired a Toka-U on the city of Kramatorsk. About 50 victims were killed, another injured. Ukraine has denied that its army fired a rocket and that it was Točka-U. From the remains of the rocket at the site of the explosion, it is clear that it was Točka-U. The registration number of the missile Š (in Cyrillic) 91579, which belonged to the Ukrainian army, has been preserved. So the Ukrainian army fired rockets designed to kill people against the cities to which Ukraine claims.

These arguments do not appear in the Slovak liberal press.

Google Translation from: vasevec.parlamentnilisty.cz/clanky/jan-carnogursky-argumenty-o-ukrajine

Almost 300 houses have been damaged in Russia’s Belgorod Region, which shares a border with Ukraine, over the last two and half months, the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, revealed on Monday.

Since the beginning of Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine on February 24, numerous settlements in the southwestern Russian regions of Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk have been struck from the Ukrainian side.

“Over the entire period of the special operation, 281 houses in the Belgorod region were damaged, we have already repaired 126,” the governor said during a Q&A session on social media.

Gladkov also revealed that in two villages – Zhuravlevka and Nekhoteevka – the reconstruction works have not started for a reason.

“Why? Because, unfortunately, the shelling continues,” the governor explained.

www.rt.com/russia/555590-hundreds-houses-damaged-belgorod

Ukraine’s shelling of the village of Tetkino in Kursk Region, Russia claimed the life of at least one civilian and left several more injured on Thursday morning, the region’s governor said in a Telegram post.

According to Roman Starovoyt, “the enemy’s attack on Tetkino” happened at dawn, and “sadly, ended up with a tragedy.” Local authorities confirmed there was “at least one dead among the civilian population.” The governor said that according to preliminary information, the sole victim of the Ukrainian attack was a truck driver delivering raw material to a distillery.

Starovoyt added that the Ukrainian military had struck the facility with several shells.

www.rt.com/russia/555724-civilian-killed-ukrainian-shelling-russian-territory

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said 53 injured fighters had been taken to a hospital in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk, while another 211 people had been transported to Olenivka, a town controlled by Russian-backed separatists. All of the evacuees, she said, would be subject to an “exchange procedure”.

www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61461805

Fighters evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol arrived in the nearby town of Novoazovsk.

Ukraine's defence ministry said 53 heavily injured fighters were taken there and another 211 were sent to Olenivka. Both areas were captured by Russian-backed separatists in 2014.

Ukraine said some fighters remain trapped at the steelworks, and efforts to rescue them are ongoing.

www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-61474497

A video of members of the nationalist Azov Battalion and Ukrainian troops surrendering to Russian forces after being holed up for weeks at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol has been released by the Russian Defense Ministry.

The clip, which was published on Tuesday, shows the Azov neo-Nazis and Ukrainian regular forces members being searched by the Russian servicemen and put on buses which were waiting for them outside the plant.

Many of those who laid down their arms appeared to be seriously wounded as they were carried out on stretchers. Some of the injured were filmed receiving medical assistance on site.

The government in Kiev gave the order to surrender to its fighters at Azovstal on Monday. Since then, 265 members of the nationalist Azov Battalion and Ukrainian troops have laid down their arms, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry, adding that 51 of them are seriously wounded. The injured were transported to a hospital in the town of Novoazovsk, controlled by the Donetsk People’s Republic.

www.rt.com/russia/555605-ukraine-mariupol-azovstal-surrender

Russian forces have claimed that more than 250 Ukrainian fighters who were holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have surrendered.

It comes after Ukraine's military said it was working to evacuate all remaining troops from their last stronghold in the besieged port city.

After 82 days of bombing, the city of Mariupol is completely under Russian control, this after Ukrainian soldiers who were holed up in the Azovstal steel plant were evacuated on Monday. The steel plant had been the last holdout of the troops defending the city of Mariupol, it had become a symbol of resistance with soldiers living in underground tunnels and bunkers.

Moscow says more than 900 Ukrainian fighters from the Mariupol steelworks have been taken to a former prison colony, in a Russian-controlled part of Donetsk.

www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61461805

Russia has declared victory in its months-long battle to conquer the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

The last fighters defending the city's Azovstal steel plant have now surrendered, Moscow officials said.

For months the troops had been holed up in the huge complex, preventing Russia from establishing complete control over the city.

Friday's evacuation marks the end of the most destructive siege of the war, with Mariupol now in complete ruins.

The city and its steel plant are now "completely liberated" after 531 Ukrainian troops left the site, the Russian defence ministry said.

"The underground facilities of the enterprise, where the militants were hiding, came under the full control of the Russian armed forces," it added in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the site's last remaining defenders had been given permission to leave.

"Today the boys received a clear signal from the military command that they can get out and save their lives," he told a Ukrainian television channel earlier on Friday.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61529877

The entire territory of the Azovstal factory complex in Mariupol has been liberated, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Friday. More than 2,400 people surrounded inside for almost a month, including Ukrainian servicemen and members of the neo-Nazi Azov unit, have laid down their arms and surrendered.

“The last group of 531 militants surrendered today,” the Russian military spokesman, Major-General Igor Konashenkov, said in a statement. He added that a total of “2,439 Azov Nazis” and Ukrainian servicemen had laid down their arms since May 16, and that the entire Azovstal complex is now under control of Russian armed forces.

Azov and remnants of Ukrainian regular troops retreated into the sprawling steel factory on the coast of Mariupol, where they were completely surrounded on April 21. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the military not to storm the complex but to blockade it “so a fly can’t get inside” and compel the militants to surrender.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu informed Putin on Friday of the successful completion of the operation, Konashenkov said. He also said that Azov commander had to be transported in an armored car for his safety.

www.rt.com/russia/555848-azovstal-surrender-liberated-military

Turkey “will not say yes” to Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership bids, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, adding that any attempts to persuade Ankara to change its position would be fruitless.

Both governments officially announced their intention to join the US-led military bloc this weekend. Turkey had previously warned that it might oppose the move, with Erdogan calling the two Nordic countries “guesthouses for terrorist organizations.” He was referring to the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP/C), which have been outlawed by Ankara.

“These countries do not have a clear unequivocal stance against terrorist organizations. Sweden is the incubation center of terrorist organizations. They bring terrorists to talk in their parliaments… We wouldn't say 'yes' to them joining NATO, a security organization… They were going to come on Monday to convince us. Sorry, they don’t have to bother,” Erdogan said.

www.rt.com/news/555584-turkey-no-to-finland-sweden-nato

Turkey opposed NATO's plan to admit Sweden and Finland as members of the military alliance. Is Erdogan using the opportunity to secure concessions from the West? What is the West willing to offer Turkey?

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic plans to instruct the country’s permanent representative to NATO to block the accession of Finland and Sweden to the US-led organization, he said on Wednesday.

Refusing consent would turn the international community’s attention to problems facing ethnic Croats in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milanovic told reporters. Under the current election laws, Croat representatives tend to get elected with the votes of Bosnian Muslims, known as Bosniaks. Zagreb is pushing to revise this.

“I have said before, Croats in Bosnia are more important to me than the entire Russian-Finnish border,” Milanovic said.

www.rt.com/news/555719-croatia-sweden-finland-nato

Andrew from Plymouth says he traveled to Ukraine to treat wounded civilians, but within weeks, he found himself shelled, shot, and captured. Recovering in a hospital, he told RT that he and his fellow volunteers were “manipulated” into the very duty they swore to avoid.

Andrew, a 35-year-old who worked as a scaffolder back home in Britain, was attached to a unit of Ukraine’s International Legion near Nikolayev when he came under a devastating Russian artillery barrage. Russian troops fired on his position, Andrew was hit in the arm with a bullet, and he surrendered.

“I wasn’t there to fight so I surrendered,” he told RT. As for his teammates who fought, “They were killed,” he explained.

Andrew said that he never intended to participate in, or even get close to, combat. Watching media reports about the conflict in Ukraine in March, he said he got the impression that “Ukraine was asking people for help,” and contacted the Ukrainian Embassy.

Leaving his children behind, he flew from the UK to Poland, and made his way to the Ukrainian border. After a brief stint “helping refugees” there, he said he was approached by a man named ‘Jacob’ from the International Legion, who told him that his basic medical experience – gained with the British military – could be put to use further inside Ukraine.

“I feel sad,” he told RT. “I do feel that I’ve been lied to, massively. Not just by the Foreign Legion, but I feel like I was lied to back in the UK through the Western media.” Andrew said that news reports of “people all coming over helping, going to Ukraine, helping Ukraine,” made the trip seem like an easy prospect.

Once inside Ukraine, Andrew recalls traveling to a building in Lviv, where he and a cohort of foreigners were kept indoors for several days, allegedly for their own safety. Although he served in the British Army, Andrew said that he had no combat experience, and that volunteers like him were kept separate from veterans who came to Ukraine to fight.

From there, the group was bussed to Yavoriv – where a training center for foreign recruits had been destroyed by a Russian missile – and then to Kiev, where a Ukrainian handler told them that the situation would be similar to that in Lviv: “‘You will be locked down, you can’t leave the building, you have to stay in, you will be fed, water will be provided to you, wait until further instruction.’”

Andrew’s first interaction with Ukrainian civilians came at the beginning of April in the town of Bucha, where he said that he cooked and distributed food. Although he arrived in Bucha after Russian troops had left, he said that he saw no signs of the war crimes that the Ukrainian government later attributed to the Russians there.

“I didn’t see any corpses myself, didn’t see anything, it looked untouched,” he recalled, adding that he remained on the outskirts of the town. “It all seemed normal. There weren't any signs of any fighting.”

After only a day in Bucha, another bus ride took Andrew and his companions to Nikolaev, which he said was “closer to the front than I was aware of.” Even after he was moved up to a combat unit of six other foreigners outside the city, Andrew said that things seemed quiet. However, the day after he was sent to the front, the position was attacked.

“I got shot in my arm, broke my bones,” he told RT. As Russian troops advanced, Andrew lay on the ground with his good hand above his head, until a Russian soldier dragged him into a foxhole and administered first aid. “I’m very lucky to survive,” he recalled. “The Russian soldier that gave me first aid saved my life. The bullet cut my artery and I was bleeding out.”

Andrew’s captor offered him a cigarette before he was moved back through Russian lines for surgery and questioning. Currently awaiting two further rounds of surgery in a hospital under the authority of the Donbass People’s Republic (DPR), he told RT that there were many volunteers like him who ended up “in a situation that you don’t want to be in.”

“Everyone seemed to be normal people that wanted to help,” he said of his fellow volunteers, a group that included British, Canadian, American, German, and Danish members. However, he said that many felt “the same way as me,” in that they felt like they were “manipulated” into helping soldiers rather than civilians.

Since his capture, Andrew told RT that he was being treated “very well” in the hospital. “Everyone’s being very friendly. I’m receiving medical aid every day, being fed three times a day, I get water, tea, coffee, everything I need,” he explained. He said that DPR authorities are currently seeking to return him to the UK, but need the cooperation of the British Home Office and Ukrainian embassy in London to arrange the transfer.

Neither London nor Kiev are cooperating with the DPR’s requests, . . .

www.rt.com/russia/555588-british-volunteer-captured-ukraine

The US has been “actively recruiting” terrorists to fight in Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed on Tuesday, saying that it illustrates Washington’s readiness “to use any means to achieve its geopolitical goals.”

The SVR revealed in a statement that, according to the intelligence it is receiving, “the United States is actively recruiting even members of international terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State (ISIS) group banned in the Russian Federation, as mercenaries to participate in hostilities in Ukraine.”

The Russian intelligence service points to the American military base in Syria called al-Tanf, which is located close to the borders with Jordan and Iraq. According to its sources, this base and the surrounding area have turned into a kind of terrorist “hub,” where up to 500 ISIS and other jihadists can be “retrained” simultaneously. SVR claimed that last month 60 ISIS militants, who had been released from prisons controlled by the Syrian Kurds, were transferred to al-Tanf “with a view to subsequent transfer to Ukrainian territory.”

The SVR specified that during a training course at al-Tanf the militants are instructed on how to use anti-tank missile systems, reconnaissance and strike drones, advanced communications and surveillance equipment.

www.rt.com/russia/555653-us-recruits-isis-terrorists