Le Guardian progresse, ses lecteurs l’encouragent

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Le Guardian progresse, ses lecteurs l’encouragent

Un long article de Alec Luhn, à Donetsk, fait une analyse de l'activité du “bataillon Vostok”, qui semble être la première unité très efficace, très structurée, opérationnellement engagée dans les rangs des fédéralistes anti-Kiev. L’intérêt de l’article, qui apporte de nombreuses précisions tant sur les mouvements opérationnels du bataillon que sur son armement, l’identité et l’origine de nombre de ses membres, voire des hypothèses sur ses sources de financement (qui pourraient être aussi bien des oligarques russes que des oligarques ukrainiens), c'est qu’il donne une image extrêmement contrastée, et absolument pas conforme à la narrative du bloc BAO sur l’“occupation” de l’Ukraine orientale par l’armée russe. Il y a des Russes dans cette unité, mais en petit nombre par rapport aux Ukrainiens, et l’on voit bien qu’il s’agit d’initiatives individuelles ou de groupes de vétérans sans implication officielle russe. Une intervention d’un universitaire de New York, le professeur Mark Galeotti, indique que les Russes devraient suivre prudemment l’évolution du bataillon Vostok, pour éventuellement voir s’ils peuvent s’engager un peu plus par l’intermédiaire d’une structure solide, – ce qui implique évidemment qu’ils ne sont guère engagés et ne contrôlent nullement une situation marquée surtout par le désordre. («“Moscow needs an instrument,” Galeotti said. "But also insofar that they're going to try to assert their authority through the Donetsk People's Republic hierarchy, they need to make sure those guys have credible force at their disposable, not just a collection of thugs.”»)

«As the possibility recedes of a “Crimean scenario” – Russian troops intervening in eastern Ukraine – the pro-Moscow Vostok Battalion has emerged as the leading force in the fight against Kiev's attempts to retake control of the east. Along with the Army of the Southeast in Luhansk and a militia in Slavyansk led by Russian citizen and alleged intelligence agent Igor Girkin, better known by his nom de guerre “Strelkov,” it is Vostok that will define the course of the mostly low-level war with Kiev forces.

»The militia has about 500 men, according to its leader, Alexander Khodakovsky, who was regional head of the elite Alfa special forces unit under former president Viktor Yanukovych, and handfuls of new recruits have been joining each day. Since it was formed in April, some analysts have worried that Vostok is an incipient private army directed by – or at least linked to – Russian intelligence. But locals welcomed the fighters with cheers when they fired into the air at an anti-Kiev rally during the recent presidential election.

»Khodakovsky and his commanders are vague about their goals, saying their immediate task is to drive pro-Kiev forces from their region. But they are vehemently opposed to the new pro-western government brought to power following the Euromaidan protests in Kiev this winter – during which Khodakovsky and his special forces unit participated in violent clashes with the demonstrators... [...]

»The Vostok Battalion does include Russian fighters, and the bodies of 31 members were sent back to Russia last week after a battle at Donetsk airport. But more than a dozen interviews over several visits by the Guardian suggested Vostok is largely comprised of Ukrainian volunteers with nicknames like “Forest Lord,” “Psycho,” “Wild Man” and “Beaver”. Although its sources of funding and weapons are not entirely clear, it does not seem to enjoy large-scale Russian military support, with kit that ranges from sophisticated surface-to-air missiles to battered hunting rifles.

»On a recent afternoon, members of the battalion's mechanical section were welding an anti-aircraft gun to the back of a lorry to create a vehicle straight out of Mad Max. “If we had Russian military hardware, you would see it,” said “Mamai,” a garrulous Vostok member from Russia's republic of North Ossetia. Vostok commanders said they had taken their weapons mostly from captured Ukrainian military facilities.

»Some members of the battalion look like professional soldiers, but Mamai said he doesn't receive money to fight. Another Russian member named “Varan” (“Monitor Lizard”) said he received $100 (£70) a week for living expenses but maintained that the men were volunteers, not mercenaries on Moscow's payroll. Yet Russian authorities have at least tacitly encouraged volunteers to go to Ukraine. Varan said a military enlistment office tipped him off about a group of fighters forming in Rostov-on-Don who then walked through a border crossing as civilians, receiving arms in Donetsk.»

La conclusion qu’on peut tirer de cet article, quand l’on connaît le reste de la situation ukrainienne et les $5 milliards d’aide donnés par les USA à différents centres d’agitation ukrainiens depuis les années 1990, c’est que l’engagement essentiellement anglo-saxon (USA et UK) du bloc BAO est si largement supérieur à celui de la Russie qu’il ne peut lui être comparé en aucune façon, et d’une nature complètement différente avec la pénétration de la plupart des organes de sécurité ukrainiens. L’article est ainsi salué par plusieurs commentaires de lecteurs du Guardian, qui semblent être largement opposés au côté Kiev-BAO.

... Le lecteur Grimpeur écrit ainsi : «What is encouraging is that this article by Alec Luhn is one of the few ‘even-handed’ and relatively impartial analyses that I have seen in the Guardian, which has generally acted as a propaganda arm for the USA State Department. I have criticised the Guardian in the past for their abandonment of impartial investigative journalism so credit where it is due. Congratulations Mr Luhn for a fine article!»


Mis en ligne le 7 juin 2014 à 18H07

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