Ukraine Update.

Back in 2011 the Gulf Monarchies led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar decided that they were going to overthrow the government of Syria. Despite the international pressure Russia decided to stand by Syria and support it as it fought the invading army made up of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front (ANF) who are considered the moderates because they are merely allied with Al-Qaeda.

Towards the end of 2013 the United States decided to punish Russia for this by orchestrating violent street protests in Russia's neighbour Ukraine. In February 2014 the US went even further by overthrowing the democratically elected government of Ukraine. In its place the US installed an unelected junta made up of a coalition of extreme right wing and Nazi groups including Svoboda, Right Sector and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) alongside the aggressively anti-Russian Fatherland Party headed by Yulia Tymoshenko who has lost every election she has stood in.

Almost immediately the junta set about purging ethnic Russians from Ukrainian public life by banning the use of the Russian language, tearing down buildings and monuments that included symbols of Ukraine's Soviet past and carrying out violent attacks against ethnic Russians and the political leaders that spoke on their behalf. Quite quickly this prompted Ukraine's ethnic Russian minority that is predominately based in the eastern Donbass region to form self-defence militias and once attempts at engaging the junta in negotiation had failed declaring an autonomous region.

In May 2014 Ukraine held its first Presidential election since the overthrow of the government. This election was strictly limited to the office of the President and therefore gave the Ukrainian people no say in the make up or policies of the junta. In fact you could say that it was intended to allow the junta to remain in power by providing a veil of democratic legitimacy to its activities.

Despite this the election actually only served to further discredit the junta who were pretty much wiped out in the poll. Right Sector received just 0.7% of the vote while Svoboda who also represented the UIA received just 1.16% of the vote. The Fatherland Party did best but still only managed to poll 12.82%. The election was very clearly won by Petro Poroshenko with 54.7% of the vote. This was particularly embarrassing for the junta because Poroshenko had been one of the main supporters of Viktor Yanukoyvch the President who was overthrown in what was supposedly a popular uprising.

Stung by this result the junta responded by launching a military offensive against the eastern regions just two weeks later. The junta labelled this as an "Anti-Terrorist Operation" however with the eastern militias showing no evidence of employing terrorist tactics this seems to be an example of them using the old Nazi tactic of labelling anyone who expresses an opinion different to theirs as "Terrorists." This offensive quickly grew into a full scale war against the east with the junta employing tanks, heavy artillery and ground attack aircraft against its citizens. So far this offensive has killed in at least 2,500 people and forced in excess of 1,000,000 ethnic Russians to flee Ukraine and seek sanctuary in Russia.

As such it seems that the junta is on a mission to cleanse Ukraine of ethnic Russians and it is tying to complete that mission before it calls an election in order to ensure that the only people left to vote will vote for the junta.

Under these circumstances I'm actually quite surprised that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has so far failed to authorise a military intervention in order to prevent what is considered a crime against humanity.

(Originally Posted) 14:30 on 28/8/14 (UK date).