by Arnaud Develay
We has just received the news that another shelling had taken place.
To be sure, the school we had just left had been hit for the umpteenth time with a 155 mn caliber NATO-made missile during the morning hours. The quasi-totality of the windows frames were covered with wood-panels which bore witness to the almost frantic desire of the NATO-supported Kiev regime to not only target the most vulnerable but also impede the transmission of remembrance in an attempt to eradicate the future.
In what has become a grim reminder of the daily ordeal suffered by the population of Donetsk these past nine years, we drove to the site of the bombardment only to discover that this time the target had been the football stadium.
Known as the DONBASS ARENA, this state-of-the-art stadium had been home to the SHAKHTAR Donetsk (the Donetsk Coal Miners) local football team since its inauguration in 2009.
It embodied the vibrant economy of the region and its then attractiveness to foreign investors. (The structure had been built and completed ahead of schedule by a Turkish consortium and its architectural style was conceived by a famed British designer.) The DONBASS ARENA was selected to host a few games of the 2012 European Football Championships, including a semi-final game featuring future champion Spain.
What immediately struck me upon arriving on the site was that it was built right next to the city’s war memorial in Lenin’s Komsovol Park.
Known as the Monument dedicated to the DONBASS Liberators, the site features a towering 18-meter high sculpture depicting a soldier and a miner (Donetsk’s name during the Soviet Era was Stalino and as the symbol of the city’s then vibrant mining industry, “Stalino” had been named as twin city to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) jointly holding a sword with its edge planted firmly in the ground.
At the foot of the statue stands the entrance of a museum with an ever burning flame.
The Monument was dedicated to “the memory of all military units and formations that liberated DONBASS during the Great Patriotic War”.
The contrast between the gravitas oozes from this place in opposition to the consumerism, almost pagan rituals symbolized by the stadium situated a stone-throw away highlights the struggle currently taking place in this part of the world between the materialistic and unhinged forces of materialism.
The cult of money and ephemera-like gratification of supporting football teams stands in stark contrast with the timeless sobriety and dignified undertones emanating from the site where the names of thousands of martyrs are forever etched in dark granite.
In the background, the thundering of artillery resonated sporadically in the grim grey sky as if to remind the visitor that the war is ongoing and that its outcome is still uncertain.
This dichotomy plays out throughout all of the DONBASS.
We then drove to a place where the current war might very well have turned out completely different had it not been for a few soldiers turning the tide of fate against incredible odds back in 2014.
As a place where the forces of nihilism also attempted to eradicate the memory of those who had given their lives in liberating the region, SAUR-MOGILA was “the focal point of intense fighting, when Soviet troops managed to retake control of the height from German forces in August 1943. In 1963, a memorial complex was unveiled at the top of the hill to honor fallen soldiers, comprising an obelisk with a steel-and-concrete statue of a Soviet soldier, four steel-and-concrete sculptures built along the slope leading up to the obelisk (each memorializing infantrymen, tank men, artillerymen and airmen involved in the battle), and walls inscribed with the names of fallen soldiers in the battle.” (1)
In May 2014, the Kiev junta launched a massive military attack on this highly strategic hill. They started by bombing World War II war memorials. A few DPR volunteers managed to contain the offensive by calling their artillery gunners to target their own coordinates with the intention of inflicting huge casualties on the enemy. This tactic succeeded in allowing the Republic of Donetsk time to mobilize in a way conducive to survival in order to prolong the struggle. “Alec”, one of these heroes was with us and told us about the ferocity of the fighting. He joined the ranks of the volunteers at 48 years old. He is now 57. He testifies that in the heat of the moment, he called on his commanders “to bomb the Germans”.
Former SBU operative Vassili PROSOROV perfectly captured the war for the control of the narrative going in Ukraine for at least 20 years. In his documentary “Culturocide”, he recalls in detail how the school manuals throughout the cities of the Lougansk and Donetsk Republic were aimed at brainwashing children with crude russophobic propaganda and an invented history of Ukraine predicated on an ideology known as “integral nationalism”. (2)
Oleksii Arestovych, a former intelligence officer now serving as an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, once stated that “Ukraine’s national narrative is predicated on a lie that we tell ourselves and others for if the truth was to come out, the country would cease to exist.” (3)
These are the stakes of the Special military operation.
Arnaud Develay is an international lawyer. He participated to the defense of former President Saddam Hussein along with Former US Attorney General Ramsey CLARK; he has documented the illegal sanction regime imposed on Syria while living in Damascus in the wake of the Caesar Act.
(1) Donbas strategic offensive (August 1943) – Wikipedia
(3) Ukraine and Lugansk 2014-2022. Interview with witness. Facts and revelations.
Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank. As bad as that sounds, it falls pale in comparison to the brutality of the Israeli regime s track record. Those incidents follow months of tensions that have deepened since Israeli forces began a crackdown in the occupied West Bank in March in response to a series of attacks by Palestinians in Israel. In this edition of the Spotlight, we will look at why Israel has ramped up its spree of killings, and whether we are on the cusp of another intifada.
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror.
He is the host of TRUTH JIHAD RADIO; a hard-driving weekly radio show funded by listener subscriptions at Substack and the weekly news roundup FALSE FLAG WEEKLY NEWS (FFWN).
He also has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS, and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications.
Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin; where he ran for Congress in 2008. He currently works as a nonprofit organizer, author, and talk radio host.
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The US and NATO launched a bloody War against Yugoslavia to split it up along nationalities/territories, it is accepted as a move towards PEACE in Europe! Ukraine is a very similar entity; Russians, Polish, Rumanian, Hungarian, Moldovan, Byelorussian nationalities make up the Ukraine. Why not have PEACE in Europe and do the same JUSTICE? Give the Territories, Populations back to their respective Homelands and Presto, we will have Peace in Europe! What is holding that Just outcome back? that IS the Question! Who are against JUSTICE and Why?
If the brain is off, reason is off, and without reason (or logos) there is only the parrot to reason.
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