On the 5th anniversary of his death, we republish one of Parry’s many prescient articles on Ukraine, this one on the risks of ignoring the 2014 coup, the neo-Nazis’s role and the war against coup resisters in the east.
By Robert Parry
Special to Consortium News
April 16, 2014
The acting president of the coup regime in Kiev announces that he is ordering an “anti-terrorist” operation against pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine, while his national security chief says he has dispatched right-wing ultranationalist fighters who spearheaded the Feb. 22, [2014] coup that ousted elected President Viktor Yanukovych.
On Tuesday, Andriy Parubiy, head of the Ukrainian National Security Council, went on Twitter to declare, “Reserve unit of National Guard formed #Maidan Self-defense volunteers was sent to the front line this morning.” Parubiy was referring to the neo-Nazi militias that provided the organized muscle that overthrew Yanukovych, forcing him to flee for his life. Some of these militias have since been incorporated into security forces as “National Guard.”
Ukrainian Secretary for National Security Andriy Parubiy. (Sasha Maksymenko/Wikimedia Commons)
Parubiy himself is a well-known neo-Nazi, who founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991. The party blended radical Ukrainian nationalism with neo-Nazi symbols. Parubiy also formed a paramilitary spinoff, the Patriots of Ukraine, and defended the awarding of the title, “Hero of Ukraine,” to World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, whose own paramilitary forces exterminated thousands of Jews and Poles in pursuit of a racially pure Ukraine.
During the months of protests aimed at overthrowing Yanukovych, Parubiy became the commandant of “Euromaidan,” the name for the Kiev uprising, and after the Feb. 22 coup Parubiy was one of four far-right Ukrainian nationalists given control of a ministry, i.e. national security.
But the U.S. press has played down his role because his neo-Nazism conflicts with Official Washington’s narrative that the neo-Nazis played little or no role in the “revolution.” References to neo-Nazis in the “interim government” are dismissed as “Russian propaganda.”
Yet there Parubiy was on Tuesday bragging that some of his neo-Nazi storm troopers renamed “National Guard” were now being sicced on rebellious eastern Ukraine as part of the Kiev government’s “anti-terrorist” operation.
The post-coup President Oleksandr Turchynov also warned that Ukraine was confronting a “colossal danger,” but he insisted that the suppression of the pro-Russian protesters would be treated as an “anti-terrorist” operation and not as a “civil war.” Everyone should understand by now that “anti-terror” suggests extrajudicial killings, torture and “counter-terror.”
Yet, with much of the Ukrainian military of dubious loyalty to the coup regime, the dispatch of the neo-Nazi militias from western Ukraine’s Right Sektor and Svoboda parties represents a significant development. Not only do the Ukrainian neo-Nazis consider the ethnic Russians an alien presence, but these right-wing militias are organized to wage street fighting as they did in the February uprising.
Historically, right-wing paramilitaries have played crucial roles in “counter-terror” campaigns around the world. In Central America in the 1980s, for instance, right-wing “death squads” did much of the dirty work for U.S.-backed military regimes as they crushed social protests and guerrilla movements.
The merging of the concept of “anti-terrorism” with right-wing paramilitaries represents a potentially frightening development for the people of eastern Ukraine. And much of this information about Turchynov’s comments and Parubiy’s tweet can be found in a New York Times dispatch from Ukraine.
Whose Propaganda?
Entrance to The New York Times. (Niall Kennedy, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)
However, on the Times‘ front page on Wednesday was a bizarre story by David M. Herszenhorn accusing the Russian government of engaging in a propaganda war by making many of the same points that you could find albeit without the useful context about Parubiy’s neo-Nazi background in the same newspaper.
In the article entitled “Russia Is Quick To Bend Truth About Ukraine,” Herszenhorn mocked Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev for making a Facebook posting that “was bleak and full of dread,” including noting that “blood has been spilled in Ukraine again” and adding that “the threat of civil war looms.”
The Times article continued,
“He [Medvedev] pleaded with Ukrainians to decide their own future ‘without usurpers, nationalists and bandits, without tanks or armored vehicles and without secret visits by the C.I.A. director.’ And so began another day of bluster and hyperbole, of the misinformation, exaggerations, conspiracy theories, overheated rhetoric and, occasionally, outright lies about the political crisis in Ukraine that have emanated from the highest echelons of the Kremlin and reverberated on state-controlled Russian television, hour after hour, day after day, week after week.”
This argumentative “news” story spilled from the front page to the top half of an inside page, but Herszenhorn never managed to mention that there was nothing false in what Medvedev said. Indeed, it was the much-maligned Russian press that first reported the secret visit of C.I.A. Director John Brennan to Kiev.
Though the White House has since confirmed that report, Herszenhorn cites Medvedev’s reference to it in the context of “misinformation” and “conspiracy theories.”
Nowhere in the long article does the Times inform its readers that, yes, the C.I.A. director did make a secret visit to Ukraine last weekend. Presumably, that reality has now disappeared into the great memory hole along with the on-ground reporting from Feb. 22 about the key role of the neo-Nazi militias.
The neo-Nazis themselves have pretty much disappeared from Official Washington’s narrative, which now usually recounts the coup as simply a case of months of protests followed by Yanukovych’s decision to flee. Only occasionally, often buried deep in news articles with the context removed, can you find admissions of how the neo-Nazis spearheaded the coup.
A Wounded Extremist
Protestors occupied Kiev’s City Hall, replete with Confederate flag and portrait of Stepan Bandera. (YouTube)
For instance, on April 6, The New York Times published a human-interest profile of a Ukrainian named Yuri Marchuk who was wounded in clashes around Kiev’s Maidan square in February. You have to read far into the story to learn that Marchuk was a Svoboda leader from Lviv, which if you did your own research you would discover is a neo-Nazi stronghold where Ukrainian nationalists hold torch-light parades in honor of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.
Without providing that context, the Times does mention that Lviv militants plundered a government weapons depot and dispatched 600 militants a day to do battle in Kiev. Marchuk also described how these well-organized militants, consisting of paramilitary brigades of 100 fighters each, launched the fateful attack against the police on Feb. 20, the battle where Marchuk was wounded and where the death toll suddenly spiked into scores of protesters and about a dozen police.
Marchuk later said he visited his comrades at the occupied City Hall. What the Times doesn’t mention is that City Hall was festooned with Nazi banners and even a Confederate battle flag as a tribute to white supremacy.
The Times touched on the inconvenient truth of the neo-Nazis again on April 12 in an article about the mysterious death of neo-Nazi leader Oleksandr Muzychko, who was killed during a shootout with police on March 24. The article quoted a local Right Sektor leader, Roman Koval, explaining the crucial role of his organization in carrying out the anti-Yanukovych coup.
“Ukraine’s February revolution, said Mr. Koval, would never have happened without Right Sector and other militant groups,” the Times wrote. Yet, that reality though actually reported in The New York Times has now become “Russian propaganda,” according to The New York Times.
This upside-down American narrative also ignores the well-documented interference of prominent U.S. officials in stirring up the protesters in Kiev, which is located in the western part of Ukraine and is thus more anti-Russian than eastern Ukraine where many ethnic Russians live and where Yanukovych had his political base.
Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland was a cheerleader for the uprising, reminding Ukrainian business leaders that the United States had invested $5 billion in their “European aspirations,” discussing who should replace Yanukovych (her choice, Arseniy Yatsenyuk became the new prime minister), and literally passing out cookies to the protesters in the Maidan. (Nuland is married to neoconservative superstar Robert Kagan, a founder of the Project for the New American Century.)
Extreme Media Bias
John McCain addressing crowd in Kiev, Dec. 15, 2013. (U.S. Senate/Office of Chris Murphy/Wikimedia Commons)
During the protests, neocon Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took the stage with leaders of Svoboda surrounded by banners honoring Stepan Bandera and urged on the protesters. Even before the demonstrations began, prominent neocon Carl Gershman, president of the U.S.-funded National Endowment for Democracy, had dubbed Ukraine “the biggest prize.”
[Related: ROBERT PARRY: “What’s the Matter with John Kerry?”]
Indeed, in my four-plus decades in journalism, I have never seen a more thoroughly biased and misleading performance by the major U.S. news media.
Even during the days of Ronald Reagan when much of the government’s modern propaganda structure was created there was more independence in major news outlets. There were media stampedes off the reality cliff during George H.W. Bush’s Persian Gulf War and George W. Bush’s Iraq War, both of which were marked by demonstrably false claims that were readily swallowed by the big U.S. news outlets.
But there is something utterly Orwellian in the current coverage of the Ukraine crisis, including accusing others of “propaganda” when their accounts though surely not perfect are much more honest and more accurate than what the U.S. press corps has been producing.
There’s also the added risk that this latest failure by the U.S. press corps is occurring on the border of Russia, a nuclear-armed state that along with the United States could exterminate all life on the planet. The biased U.S. news coverage is now feeding into political demands to send U.S. military aid to Ukraine’s coup regime.
The casualness of this propaganda as it spreads across the U.S. media spectrum from Fox News to MSNBC, from The Washington Post to The New York Times is not just wretched journalism but it is reckless malfeasance jeopardizing the lives of many Ukrainians and the future of the planet.
The late investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. He founded Consortium News in 1995.
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How is it possible that the USA/NATO democracies could end up with the kind of insane governments the USA, Germany, and the UK now have? They are not just incompetent, they are totally corrupt and insane. Rigged elections are the only explanation for so many characterless people in government, not just now, we can go way back. The USA and Germany, and the UK have administrations with totally incompetent people, they were picked by sexual orientation and skin color, and party color. How could the Greens in Germany become a party of fanatic warmongers, the same goes for the FDP, to have an immature, uneducated woman like Baerbock as FM, a Harbeck, and v.d. Leyen, the US has Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland, Kagan, Harris and on and on. How can that be possible unless behind the curtain the deep state pulled the strings and picked the candidates we were allowed to elect, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden just to name the last four? How is it possible, no adult in the room? It is unbelievably insane. Not to forget Zelensky, the corrupt clown, and his gang in Kiev.
WESTERN UKRAINE, (Neo)NAZIS, TRUTH IN REPORTING
For decades, I’ve been interested in Slavic and Russian history. I watched the PBS Frontline program “The Battle for Ukraine” when broadcast 5/26/2014. In which was a large section containing interviews and documentation of people participating in the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Waffen SS Galicia division. Celebrated in Kyiv and which drew especially large crowds in Lviv. Elderly participants congratulated by young people waving swastika flags, wearing white power shirts and death’s head insignias. So really nothing “neo” about it–there’s a long history in the region of fascist sympathies; no wonder the Azov Battalion.
A couple of years ago, when the current mess began to include massive media conformity and people who know little about the area assumed the Ukie good and Russky evil narrative must be true, I tried to refute it. I would cite the “Frontline” program, among other sources. To write this comment, I looked up what I found then. To my surprise, I see that the description of this episode has been changed by PBS. Two years ago, it emphasized the fascist connections; now it says: “…deep seeded (sic) hatreds between right-wing Ukrainian nationalists with historic ties to the Nazis, and violent pro-Russian separatists vying for control of the country.”
As evidence of who’s telling the truth, these items from my on-line search: 1.) From the UPI, 8/15/1993. “Reunion of Waffen SS Unit Causes Controversy in Ukraine.” About how 700+ vets, many living in the US, Canada, and Britain, came to Lviv to celebrate the 50th anniversary of, as the news agency reporter put it, “one of history’s most feared and ruthless police organizations.” 2.) From the Kyiv Post (!) 4/30/2018. “Lviv citizens march commemorating the 75th anniversary of Galicia SS division.” Includes a photo of skinheads and other young people wearing Totenkopf tee shirts with slogan in Gothic German doing Nazi salutes. 3.) spzh news (Ukrainian Orthodox) 4/14/2021. “A march to be held in honor of SS Galician division in Kyiv.” This traditionalist and conservative religious source called the organizers “ultra-right” and said that “The Nuremberg Tribunal recognized the SS Galizien Division as a criminal organization that committed war crimes. In 2016, the Polish parliament qualified the crimes of the division’s soldiers against the Polish population as genocide.” Also accompanied by a photo of people wearing camo or traditional embroidered Ukrainian shirts along with red and black armbands doing a Nazi salute with closed fists.
So, was Biden’s son working for the Nazis when he was working in Ukraine… or was he working for Ukraine?
What did he get that $50,000 for anyway—just being related to Biden?
I grew up thinking that PUBLIC SERVICE was what led people to government work. But after seeing Victoria Nuland or Biden’s son, or Trump——what is the point of sending so much money to Ukraine when so many Americans are homeless, without healthcare, and lacking a government which does not seem to see these citizens at all?
You are one of the aware citizens. And you’re in a small minority unfortunately.
Mr. & Mrs. Kagan or Mr. Kagan and wife Victoria Nuland represent perfect a examples of well paid shills working for the elitist. The typical useful idiots pushing and agenda. All one needs to know about either is that Robert Kagan was one of the founders of The Project for the New American Century.
Not to say that Bob Parry never had the “Big Picture” in his view finder, what I will say that by reading his American Dispatches, especially in this instance “October Surprise X-Files (1995-96), starts on p163 must be read, I see he developed a second nature that allowed him to grasp complex events as though it was second nature to him!
By April 16, 2014 it had become evident, to me at least, he was a very special man with a very special gift.
Thank you Robert!
The monolithic press marching order term for today is ‘Game Changer.’
That is what every Western media company is parroting.
There has previously been the narrative that Ukraine has defended itself
successfully and driven Russia back on the defensive.
Ukraine is winning and about to turn the tide now with new tanks they all say.
But no one ever discusses the numbers.
Two significant metrics I finally heard today:
Ukraine started the war with 180K regular troops.
Ukraine has lost 300 tanks destroyed.
F24 reports:
180K Russians dead
100K Ukrainians dead
It seems doubtful to me that Russians are dying at a 2-1 ratio.
I suspect both numbers are off.
The US estimates:
150K Russians dead
100K Ukrainians dead (Most NATO countries agree with this number)
That is still 1.5 to 1 but OK.
I would expect that the 100K dead Ukrainians is probably the minimum.
The actual number could be as high as 120-130K
That would leave Ukraine with fewer than 80K regulars that they began the war with.
I have no idea how many reserves or conscripts have been added for Ukraine since the war began.
Russia started the war with
1M regular troops
2M reserves
That gave Russia a factor of 5-10 times the ability to take losses from the outset.
Ukraine has already lost more than 50% of regulars they began the war with.
With even greater losses, Russia would have lost less than 20% of their regulars they started with.
80K remaining versus 850K remaining.
Regarding the tanks, Ukraine has already lost 300 (destroyed).
New tanks committed:
France has not yet committed LeClercs (10 max.)
US is sending 31 Abrams
UK 14 Challenger
Total of German Leopard tanks (from all Euro countries) 88
Total new tanks committed 133
Russia has lost approx. 1000 tanks
Expected they still have over 2000 left
They are not going to re-enact the battle of Kursk, tank to tank.
My expectation is that most tanks are destroyed using
various anti-tank weapons, hand-held, missiles and bombs.
Though tanks probably do battle each other at times.
Both sides have done a formidable job of killing tanks.
Russia still vastly outweighs Ukraine in numbers of tanks though not all tanks are equal.
Where Russia really has the edge is in remaining troops.
They started with a 5-1 advantage in troops which has grown to 8-1 overall.
Not all of Russia’s remaining troops will be deployed at one time
whereas Ukraine’s deployed approach 100% or less.
One final consideration is that of the 133 new tanks,
time will be required for training. What is worse is having
to maintain at least 3 distinctly different types of models.
With all of the logistics involved in maintaining them.
It will be 3-4 times as difficult as if all of the tanks were the same make and model.
At least 3-4 separate different supply chains to manage.
Ukraine can certainly do damage and drag out the conflict.
But all time is on the side of Russia.
This conflict began as a mismatch.
After 1 year it is an even bigger mismatch now.
The problem for Ukraine has been the same one all along.
The manpower disadvantage from the start has grown and keeps growing.
Tanks do nothing solve that problem.
This AM the Biden Regime announced that it does not have 31 Abrams to send.
So this was just a ruse to draw Germany into the war.
Scholz must be thrilled.
Ukraine casualties 122,000 plus 35,000 missing in action.
Russia casualties 16 – 25,000 plus 25-40,000 wounded
100,000 US troops in Poland plus 160,000 Polish troops being mobilized
Source: Col. MacGregor approx at 17.52 mark
xttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_pEyTH_VfE
Number of Russian tanks: 12-13,000
Source: Gilbert Doctorow
xttps://gilbertdoctorow.com
General Mark Milley said today that from his assessment, it would be unrealistic to expect that Ukraine can drive all Russians out of the territories they now hold by the end of this year. That is the first signal by any major US or NATO official that Ukraine is not winning and certainly not advancing. It functions at least for now as a reversal of all previous US and NATO predictions and comments. Including from Biden and all other NATO heads of state. It may therefore also signal a corresponding change in policy. Early on, Milley was on record that the war would likely be over quickly. He was not actually wrong because the decision by Ukraine to fight at all was ultimately suicidal. He was not expecting the Ukraine army to commit suicide but that is exactly what they are doing. When Kiev did not fall and Russia withdrew from Kiev and Karkhiv, the media and NATO decided and communicated that it was a miracle owing to the fighting spirit of Ukraine. Russia actually withdrew for reasons that will be debated long after the war is over. So no one really knows except Russia why they did it and they have no reason to share any rationale. The narrative took off from there and Zelensky started his theatre troupe campaign to raise money and weapons. The media and those NATO leaders are responsible for perpetrating the fraud that vastly outnumbered and outgunned Ukraine could actually defeat Russia. All that it was ever possible for Ukraine to achieve was to delay the outcome.
The dead souls of Ukraine are paying and have paid for all of the Western media and NATO governments lies. If this war was a heavyweight boxing match it would have been stopped already. The solution is the same as it has been from the first day. A negotiated settlement between the actual belligerents, the U.S. and Russia. The problem is that we have zero leadership at the top. Joe Biden can barley walk without stumbling or talk without spouting gibberish. Even if he wanted peace he has no capacity to achieve any settlement discussions directly. He could leave it up to others to negotiate a deal but he is strictly only worried about running for office in 2024. All he cares about now is avoiding anything that could screw that up. But the DNC knives are out for Biden. With any luck, he may somehow be made to go sooner than later.
There are legitimate questions about the unprecedented use of mail-in ballots in the 2020 election. U.S. Courts are always very wary of having anything to do with changing an election result. It is certainly possible that Biden was never even actually elected President except through a flood of fraudulent mailed-in ballots combined with laws that were changed on the eve of the election, illegally. Nothing can change the 2020 election result now. There are, however a long list of questionable deeds by Biden and his family including possible influence peddling to foreign governments (including Ukraine, China and Russia) and possible criminal activities such as tax fraud presently held and concealed by the FBI and DOJ. Crimes for which he would have to resign or face impeachment. Kamala Harris would be second in line and Kevin McCarthy third to replace Biden as President. God help us, Harris could actually be a worse President than even Biden.
Finally, the battlefield numbers released vary quite a bit in any fog of war. It is possible nevertheless to look at the spectrum of them and get a reasonably good idea of the situation in Ukraine. The only thing that stands in the way of a settlement soon is the fact that all of the war mongers will lose face. That plus Zelensky may be addicted to the money and free weapons and global attention. The vanity of Biden, Zelensky and NATO heads of state is so precious that more Ukrainians must die before any of them will admit their errors in ever allowing this war to start and then to continue for a year already. It is hard to imagine a more cynical brand of politics that results in so many people dying needlessly so that so few can save face. The needless continuation of this war qualifies as a crime against humanity itself.
With Ukraine not capable of winning comes the question of what next, what expansion, for the face-saving West and its spin of “protecting Europe.” It seems the expansion possibility has been anticipated (mobilization and build-up) by Russia for this “next.” Possibly Biden is in the position of LBJ and widening the Vietnam War beyond advisors to massive troop deployments from US and NATO allies. This may lead to Biden’s withdrawal (additional to corruption exposure) and a roused US public (especially if re-instituting the draft is considered). But as you say all this is in “the fog.” We must try to keep informed and factual to aid clarity in thinking.
All of them are sociopathic war-criminals.
There was no fraud that helped Biden win in 2020. The fact is that more people voted for him than they did for Trump. In spite of all efforts to discover otherwise, there is no empirical evidence that the election was stolen.
Like you said, it doesn’t matter now anyways. Besides, both Biden and Trump are two of the worst people to have ever held that office, and the world is paying the price. Both administrations were/are full of neocons, neolibs, opportunistic scum who seemingly could not care less for most of our pressing domestic issues, much less the citizenry. Rich old folks are running the country, and running us all straight to hell.
The only chance of changing any of it, is for the citizenry to take matters into their own hands. I’m not sure what that might entail, but it most certainly includes massive protests, strikes, and resistance in any and all forms. They see it coming, which is why the police are preparing for the mass civil unrest that is right around the corner, and why the corporate media is working overtime to keep people distracted and divided with mostly frivolous nonsense or partisan-hack theater. As difficult as it may be, a left-right coalition is very much needed, for our greatest strength is our numbers.
“If this were a heavyweight fight, it would’ve been stopped” is absolutely true. Ukraine is being beaten to a bloody pulp and over 100,000 Ukrainian women are now widows. Victoria Nuland and her band of blood-thirsty dogs of war are directly to blame for allowing the fight to contiue.
Sources dated yesterday, January 26.
Polish troops being mobilized (for battle) should read 60-100,000.
That is an ominous development, but Poland has been spoiling to join the fight with Russia since the Ukraine war started. Zelensky continues to work the NATO members, one at a time to drag one of them into the war so that NATO will likewise be involved. The great war hero Zelensky has sacrificed his own people to the slaughterhouse. Why he wants to start WW3 is anyone’s guess. But he clearly has had that objective from the beginning. Surely he has enough billions by now, skimmed off of the years of U.S. taxpayer funding of corrupt Ukraine to retire somewhere. Perhaps a nuclear war seems like his only option to escape the long arm of future retribution from Putin.
Colonel Douglas MacGregor and many other independent journalists have stated Ukrianian dead – 160,000. Wounded and unable to return to active service – 340,000. Remaining troops – 150,000. Rusisan losses – 15,000 dead, 30,000 injured. Recent battlefield losses in Soledar and Artemovsk (Bakhmut) are 8 or 10 to one Unrianians for every one Russian. Consortium News, the Duran, Scott Ritter, John Helmer (Dances with Bears), Col MacGregor, Larry Johnson, Eva Bartlett, Andrey Martyanov, Brian Berletic, George Eliason, Patrick Lancaster, Graham Phillips and many other independent journalists are telling the truth. Abandon Western MSM as it’s a cesspool of lies.
According to the official western narrative the Russians ‘invaded’ Ukraine in 2014. In actual fact the invasion of the Donbass took place almost immediately after the 2014 coup in Kiev, and was spearheaded by the same neo-nazi units, principally the Azov brigade et al, who in the first instance invaded the costal town of Mariupol and stayed there for 8 years – before being rounded up by regular Russian units and local militias.
More generally the Ukrainian invasion of the East was to meet with stiff resistance from the local hastily formed militias. The leaders of these units included one, Alexander Vladimirovich Zakharchenko, who became the overall commander-in-chief in the Donbass. In the first instance the Russians were initially somewhat hesitant to become militarily involved – but I wonder who made the final decision to intervene: Medvedev? Putin? I guess that we will never find out – but the popular resistance in both Russia and the Don Bass republics was to move their hand; Russian volunteers began to cross the border from Russia into the Donetsk and Lugansk republics along with all sorts of war materiel and foodstuffs. More importantly the Ukrainian army was to meet with its denouement: firstly around the Donetsk airport, and then their complete rout in the two key battles of Ilovaisk and Debaltsevo in 2015. Such was the first Ukrainian invasion of the Don Bass.
However, the Ukrainian army was to lick its wounds and have another shot at the Don Bass in 2022 – the same outcome.
But this time they were confronted with the Russian war machine.
History seems to be shaped by narrative constructions of this genre.
Very well summarised, you have clearly been reading truthful sources and have digested the material thoroughly.