Dos nuevos frentes

Se acaban de reactivar dos nuevos frentes en el mundo: uno en Medio Oriente (sirios contra kurdos) y el otro en Europa Oriental (los fascistas de Kiev contra Rusia via Crimea y la región del Donbass). En el primero ya hay fuego cruzado; en el segundo, por ahora preparativos. Esto se pone demasiado feo, chicos. Las dos notas que siguen son del sitio web southfront.org:



Título: Military escalations in Ukraine

Texto: The situation is escalating in Ukraine after the failed attempt of terror attacks in Crimea planned by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On August 10, the Russian Federal Security Service announced that it thwarted terrorist acts in the Republic of Crimea. On August 11, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered all military units on borders with Crimea and at the contact line in Donbass to be at the highest level of combat readiness. On August 12, reports appeared that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were forming shock troops at the borders with the Donbass People’s Republics and Crimea. A notable concentration of troops, self-propelled artillery platforms, main battle tanks, BM-21 Grads and infantry combat vehicles occurred right near the Crimean isthmus.

On August 16, the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DPR) intelligence reported that 58 units of Ukrainian military equipment, including main battle tanks, self-propelled artillery platforms and infantry combat vehicles have arrived to the area of Novotroitskoye near Volnovaha.

Another concentration of battle tanks, Grad multiple rocket launchers and MSTRA self-propelled artillery units from the 128th separate mountain infantry brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been found in the village of Petrovka. Two units of the Gvozdika 122 mm self-propelled howitzers and two Rapira antitank cannons have been reported in Belaya Kamenka, two Akatsiya howitzers have been spotted in Granitnyy, and two Grad multiple rocket launchers, three battle tanks and three Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers in Obilniy. Such a concentration of military equipment does not look as a prelude for progress in the political settlement of Donbass conflict.

The number of artillery duels and firefight has increased along the contact line. Donbass people militias and Kiev forces massively blame each other for violations of the Minsk ceasefire. The total number of ceasefire violations over the last week reportedly reached few thousands.

In turn, Russia has strengthened security at the peninsula’s border and started large-scale drills in the Southern Military District, which includes Crimea and the Rostov Region. Over 2,500 soldiers and 350 units of military and special equipment will take part in the exercises, which will last until August 20. On August 11, the Russian Black Sea Fleet launched three-day anti-sabotage drills and on August 12, sophisticated S-400 surface-to-air missile system was deployed to Crimea.

The developments in Ukraine indicate that US-backed Kiev regime is actively seeking to find a cause to escalate the situation in the region and has already prepared a significant military force for this. Amid the military and diplomatic setbacks in Syria under the pressure of Russian-Syrian-Iranian alliance, the United States, mostly the so-called “Hillary block” of military and diplomatic establishment, is now need to create a hot point in Europe in order to draw the Russian attention from the Middle East and unite again the dispersed allies under own rule. Pursuing the political goals of its foreign sponsors, Kiev will continue to provoke the militia forces in the Donbass region and if this fails to elicit a full-scale military response, will probably attempt further terror attacks on Russian soil.


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Título: Clashes in Hasakah leading to Kurdish-Arab war in Syria?

Texto: The Kurdish police, Asayish, loyal to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the National Defense Forces (NDF) loyal to the Syrian government are engaged in intense clashes for control of Hasakah city in eastern Syria. A series of street clashes with usage of small arms, that started on Wednesday has turned into full-scale clashes, with usage of heavy military equipment and artillery. The People’s Protection Units (YPG), which are also linked with the PYD and the core of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces), are supporting the Asayish attempts to advance on the pro-government forces. In turn, the Syrian Arab Forces have launched a series of air strikes on YPG and Asayish military sites and HQs over the province. By August 19 morning, all attempts to implement a ceasefire agreement has failed.

The pro-PYD forces have been implementing a long-standing strategy of putting pressure on the predominantly Arab NDF in order to push pro-government militias from Hasakah province. However, the situation has gone out of control this week when the pressure turned into firefights and then into intense clashes. Furthermore, a significant part of Arab, Christian, Assyrian and other fighters defected from the US-backed SDF to the NDF as result of this escalation, expanding the breach between PYD-linked Kurdish fighters and the non-Kurds in the area.

The main reason of these tensions is the PYD’s will to set an independent state in the whole northern Syria. The move is not supported by majority of Syrian population. Furthermore, the ethnic composition in northern Syria, that includes major non-Kurdish populated areas, sets the ground for constant conflicts between the PYD and other local groups of influence. The proclamation of the “Northern Syria Federation” by the PYD (without any consideration with the Syrian government) has not contributed to stability of the situation.

It’s clear that the solution of the so-called “Kurdish issue” with peaceful means can be found only via diplomatic negotiations on the international level. BUT the PYD main sponsor, the United States, along with Turkey is blocking the involvement of the Kurds in the international negotiations on the Syrian crisis. An important fact is that the statements of Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs that the PYD should be involved in the negotiations remain ignored in Washington.

Such a situation paves the way for further escalations between the Syrian government forces and the US-backed PYD. This contributes to the US interests in the region because will allow Washington to turn its public image from “the state that supports terrorists against the Assad government” to “the state that supports the ‘democratic’ Kurdish forces against the Assad government.” The problem is that such developments will not contribute to the long-awaited peace in Syria, for sure.