The Vineyard of the Saker: Ukraine SITREP May 20th, 16:28 UTC/Zulu: deliberate chaos

I think that we can all agree that the situation in the Ukraine is one of total chaos.

• Renat Akhmetov, the local oligarch-mobster, had declared that his companies will go on a "warning strike" for 3 hours per day because Akhmetov was angered that the authorities of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) had taken over the control of the railways which resulted in losses for his company.
• One of the officials of the DRP reacted to Akhmetov's threat by declaring that the DRP authorities have begun the process of nationalization of the companies located on the territory of the DRP, in other words, Akhmetov's holdings.
• The military forces of the neo-Nazi junta have begun shelling several cities in the eastern Ukraine destroying several buildings
• The military commander of the DRP forces, Igor Strelkov, has made a poignant and blunt appeal for a much bigger mobilization of men, especially officers, in the volunteer forces defending the DRP against the junta's military.
• Ukrainian death-squads have, yet again, kidnapped a team of Russian reporters, this time of the TV station LifeNews, accusing them of being the "information-component" of a terrorist movement.
• The Russian government has indicated that the military forces which had been on maneuvers had returned to their bases. NATO denied that.
• The Russian military has completed the building a network of pipelines which are now fully supplying Crimea with fresh water.
• The leader of the Ukie Nazis, Iarosh, has announced that if he is elected he would launched a guerrilla war in Crimea.

So what is really going on?

I think that while it is premature to make grand conclusions and predictions, we can begin by agreeing on a number of basic facts.

First, there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the junta in Kiev is clearly provoking Moscow in every possible way. If one could maybe see some marginal and far-fetched military rationale for the kind of random artillery strikes the Ukies are unleashing on Slavianks, Kramatorsk and other cities, the arrest of the LifeNews news-crew makes no sense at all. They were put on their knees, beat up, held with their faces to the ground - all on video which was then "leaked" to Youtube as if the death squads were provoking the Kremlin with a "what are you gonna do about it?" message/

Second, I believe that the appointment of Biden's son to the board of directors of the main Ukie energy company whose concessions are all in the eastern Ukraine is also a way of further provoking the Kremlin.

So why would the junta do all this?

First, I think that it is reasonable to accept as an axiom that the freaks in Kiev don't "decide" anything at all. They just take orders from the USA and execute them. We saw that clearly during Biden's recent trip to Kiev when he had a meeting with the junta's "government" which he - Biden - "chaired" sitting at the head of the table (yet another deliberate in-your-face provocation).

Second, the US knows that the eastern Ukraine is lost, and they are absolutely correct. Even if we fully believe what Strelkov says (more about that later), there is no doubt that the vast majority of the folks in the Donbass hate the neo-Nazi freaks in Kiev and that they do not want a common future with the rabid Galicians from the western Ukraine.

Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: Ukraine SITREP May 20th, 16:28 UTC/Zulu: deliberate chaos