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Though article's link looks like australian wild life.

Hi guys,

Wanted to share a couple memoirs I translated.
Full disclosure: Yes I online journalism is my hobby, no I am not paid by any entity, nor am I working in the interests of Russian or American governments (which are both corrupt powers working towards their geopolitical goals... the more I study this, the less extreme my views get).

To avoid walls of text and show the pictures, I put a couple intros here, the rest can be found on my LL account. It's not monetized or anything, but I know how to embed pics and video on there. Read on.

1) Confessions of a Combatant: "God will not forgive anyone here"

Izvarino Checkpoint. Second half of July, 2014.

For two days now, fighting rages somewhere over the horizon. Or rather, beyond the constantly burning dry steppe grass. At night, endless ribbons of fire are visible particularly clearly.

But there is almost no fighting right here. We have trouble sleeping in this uncomfortable quiet.
Our reflexes have been conditioned to perceive silence only as a pause between volleys. And this lengthy pause is alarming, inadvertently causing our muscles to wind up, in preparation for an instant dash toward the safety of our foxholes.

Still no volleys... Still no sleep.

The Krasnodon-Lugansk highway has already been cleared. And already a flood of refugees flows to Russia. Endless, as the steppe, and just as limitless in its grief.

And Izvarino is flooded with human suffering ...

Our platoon was tasked with checking passports, inspecting vehicles, keeping order in the queue and forming the queue as such.
So, we fixed up the gate, repaired the entrance booth, organized into pairs. Started to work.

Two-hour shifts only. No one could work for more than that. No way.

We could not stand it for any longer.

We stopped joking and laughing. We were ashamed to look each other in the eyes. Some went on severe benders.

No one blamed them. They were just taken off the schedule.

Some days, the queue stretched up to seven kilometers. Russia only let people in during the day, so those refugees who were not lucky enough to get in during one shift had to prolong the agony for another day. Or two.

Depends.

Maybe at the far end of that line, there were some raging passions. The outbursts of people who managed to escape the hell that was Lugansk in July.

Probably. We did not see it.

By the time people got to our gate, they were already a funeral procession. Cavalcade of the living dead. Only the eyes were moving. But dead, as well.

What can I tell you about the eyes of a mother who spent over a month in the basement of a house in Lugansk, wincing at each nearby explosion?

After each of those, mechanically dusting off the head of her child from dust, pieces of plaster, cobwebs and other filth falling off the basement ceiling. And mechanically rocking her four year old, wearily clutching him to her tired body.

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Pics and the rest of the article at liveleak.com/view?i=ccd_1428114907

2) “Debaltsevo operation: inside view” or “System-wide errors in reorganizing the NAF”

When I see phrases like "NAF command did not even have to commit reserves" in online articles about Debaltsevo, I remember one night near there, in a grove by railroad tracks.

Two BMPs standing by, our own "duo", the last running IFV left in the battalion at the time, and a “penny” attached from a neighboring brigade. We were unloaded from trucks, which more or less implied enemy arty was still active past that point.

There were less than a company of us. Thirty dismounted tankmen from our battalion and three dozen volunteers - just arrived from Lugansk recruiting office, and given rifles in front of me, less than a day before.

Shooting range? Training Sessions? What are you talking about? People that raised their hands in response to "Who here has served in the army?" were made squad and section leaders. That’s it.

The officer that accompanied us showed us which way to go, told us the callsign of the commander of the group we were supposed to replace at the frontline, and added: "Signal "We’re Friendy" - green flare. But I have no flares or flare guns to give you" .

Not one PKM in our entire gang. Not a single underbarrel grenade launcher. RPG-18s, about my age, which misfire two out of three times, and a pair of RPG-7s, which the gunners were taught to use literally on the way.

When the next day, after passing through "Prizrak" lines, we got to the Ukie positions, we found corpses from a "reinforcement company" just like ours. Only they were "dismounted" artillerymen. They weren’t killed by terrible Polish mercenaries and US Marines. They were killed by UAF soldiers under command of a conscripted botanist.

Tell me more about “untouched reserves”...

=

The rest (and pics) here:
liveleak.com/view?i=631_1428091477
And yeah, this isn't spam BTW :) I read GoG forums before, just never posted

A year passed since the seizure of Crimea and the fighting in Eastern Ukraine and the shooting of an civilian airplane. All in all several thousands of people including many civilians have been killed - for a rather small bit of land.

Not comparable at all to the deaths but also the trade between Russia and its western neighbours has been cutted dramatically by about two thirds over the year.

There is not much connection between Russia and the West anymore, neither political, nor economic or cultural. Congratulations to Putin for cutting very efficiently all ties. And without good relations everyone invests in weapons. The military budgets here have been increased now after two decades of demilitarization. It's not fully back to cold war, but with the opposing geographical claims it's not friendship either. Something in between and a great deal of speechlessness which can easily worsen the whole situation.

Ukraine will continue to suffer. I think they have to give up claims on Crimea, there is no chance for it. But I also hope they will be member of NATO and EU one day. What they need is to stay on the democratic way and fight corruption efficiently. I hope they can manage that with help from the other European countries. Then there might be a better future.

Russian economy will continue to suffer and grow below average too. Russia is pretty isolated politically now. Where will it turn to? China is the only obvious partner left but it would not be an equal partnership. I hope that with time Putin will be gone and the Russians will get another (in my opinion better) government. One that can reconcile with the rest of Europe and that can concentrate on peaceful development of the country. All that billions of dollars from the selling of natural resources are only invested into war or get lost in corruption. I guess average Russians would rather get all this riches for themselves but then there is no independent justice, the opposition is suppressed (or shoot) and the press is under control of the mighty, not to speak of other very undemocratic laws, corruption, (voting) fraud and rampant nationalism. All in all rather slim chances for a change soon I would guess.

Eastern Ukraine will either be annexed by Russia soon or will continue to be a waste. It's an unsolved problem and basically there is no real good solution for it. I still think rightly it belongs to Ukraine with some autonomy but clearly to Ukraine. But then there is no way of enforcing that, rather the opposite.

Crimea is lost to Ukraine - no other chance. Surely it was an annexion and the referendum a farce with two times Yes as the question and under pressure and rushed and with voting fraud. Ukrainians as well as Tartars living there have suffered a loss, but nevertheless Crimea is lost to them. The only thing you can do is bargaining the official recognition of Crimea against a better deal for Eastern Ukraine but that's all.

All in all: I think that Russia went on the warpath and exploited the weakness of a neighbour to gain territory. Thereby they gained an advantage but also (probably unintentional) brought their western neighbours much, much closer together. The short term gains might be offset by long run loses due to the bad relations to their neighbours. The aggressive course is backed by a considerable part of the Russian population due to nationalism and dependent media and suppressed opposition. So a relaxation of the situation soon seems to be unlikely.

All in all the best action for now for everyone is to keep calm and consolidate what you have. Russia could build nice bridges to Crimea. The EU could financially and politically help the rest of Ukraine to not become a failed state. And Eastern Ukraine - because there is no easy solution everyone should just stay away from it. This is no place where anyone would want to be now.

But of course nobody knows what the summer will bring. Maybe Ukrainians feel like they can get Donetzk back or Russians think like they can get Mariupol or even much more.. who knows. The fighting could also start again or continue.

Say what? Unless Putin cuts the cable (and maybe not even then), there's fuck all he can do about culture. Even most extreme nationalists love premium content (we have one here on GOG); the only ones who are confused are a handful of fucknuts living in sycophantic bubbles with heads deep up their asses:

A Russian Orthodox priest wrote a Harry Potter fanfic in which Harry Potter is a Masonic Zionist FTM transgender who eats Christian babbies. The book was published and widely advertized on the taxpayers' dime, with predictable results (a bunch of bloggers reviewed it for the lulz). Now Ramzan Kadyrov's crony wants to create a homegrown version of Hamas TV, starting with a cartoon in which a Chechen superhero beats up Transformers. Again, not a single ally has the balls to tell him it's fucking idiotic. Sure, it'll be another waste of taxpayers' funds, but they'll be wasted anyway, big deal.

Meanwhile, Russians watch Hollywood blockbusters, play vidya and torrent Game of Thrones.

The economy is contracting, and will continue to.

3 variants:
1. People overthrow not-a-junta on their own - unrealistic, they don't have weapon, nationalists have.
2. According to ukrainian general, which switched side to militants, army would revolt by autumn
https://translate.google.ru/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Flenta.ru%2Fnews%2F2015%2F06%2F22%2Fgeneral%2F&edit-text=&act=url
3. Pessimistic - US would use radical islamists from Chechnya, which fight on Kiev's side
https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B9%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D1%96%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%96_%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D1%85%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0_%D0%94%D1%83%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%94%D0%B2%D0%B0
to blow up one of ukrainian nuclear power plants. This would be used to put blame on Russia, US would impose full embargo, and then EU would suck US dick and purchase LNG from US, which they build infrastructure for in Trinity bay.
It can't compete with russian gas from pipelines, so full embargo is a must.

PS:I'm pissed at gog for losing 2 hours of typing :(

Lol. Still seeking for Russian profit?
US invested 5 billions in revolution on Ukraine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2fYcHLouXY
Gains?
They cockblocked trade between EU and Russia, and took EU share of market,
In 2014 US sold goods to Russia for $20 billions more than in 2013.
http://i.imgur.com/wzfreAx.png

Be proud, you are buying US weapon against evil Putin. You need this weapon against evil Putin. Don't stop believing it.

Lemme pop your bubble of ignorance.
Have you heard about Latvia, EU member?
http://imgur.com/gallery/TrvCa
Good looking?
Green country = no manufacturing, no jobs
No jobs = people succumb into prostitution
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-cost-searches-2015-4
Most searched product in Latvia. (Ukrainian too)
There is no foreseeable improvements in their future, so people emigrate, seeking better place to live.
Same with Lithuania
And Greece. EU doesn't have market and job capacity for greeks to be profitable.
All in all - there are no place in EU for 20+ millions of ukrainians, you don't have them for thousands of migrants from democratized middle east.

Continue to believe in it. For 2 years I'm asking for an eye-opening information, and nobody can provide it. I'm right here, right now. What I don't know? Suppressed opposition and press, fml.
You mean Kasyanov, who directly related to disappearance of $5 billions from Russian budget, which caused default of 1998 and famine? Can you imagine mother's tears, which after 14 hours job can afford only a 2g galina blanka cub? For two kids? I remember it.
Or Nemtsov, who fucked whores on US grants and lived in million dollar flat? Or, I don't know, Khodorkovsky, which did 1 trln roubles(~$300 bln at time) in damage of unpaid taxes? Death of these people would be national holiday, man.

Think of the Greece. They have bigger GDP than Ukraine and TEN TIMES less people. There are not enough money in the world to make Ukraine work.

Bump for vidya-related news.

Holy shit separationists discovered a cache of American weapons! (Undeniable proof of American involvement! OPEN YOUR EYES SHEEPLE!!!1!1)

...which are crude props made by referencing Battlefield 3 weapons found through Google images, with every typo lovingly preserved. Whoops. (Also, hur hur.)

Привет всем

Our media still operates the same way it did during George Orwells times who described this in his preface to "Animal Farm", which was ironically self censored by his publisher. And because it does this out of economic self interest and not by decree, nobody even suspects it. So you have to forgive my fellow westerners here, Gremlion, they just can't know better.
But you gotta give the few here credit for still caring about Ukraine at all in any way, because our media has abandoned this topic long ago, it has been 99% about the middle east/african refugee flood for months (and before that islamic state, people get bored quickly). Maybe once a week there is a small article in the average big publication, but at this point if you ask people about Ukraine, most would be shocked to hear that a conflict is still going on.

Shame, Ukraine provides Russia with endless source of hysterical laugh.
Pretty easy to google statistic - their AVERAGE MONTHLY wage is about $50.
When they hear about welfare in EU being $500, surely between working hard or not working at all for ten times more money they pick second.
You see, ukrainians for ages was a buffer zone between Poland, Russia, Lithuania and even Turkey.
'Natural selection' here went into 'survive today, tomorrow owner can change', so in result they are awful at longterm planning and very treacherous by nature(instant gain now better than good investment).
Sounds familiar?
Yes, they are white niggers.

And their capital is like Ferguson:
ukrainians protest against good democratic Poroshenko and throw grenades into his antiriot forces...
http://lenta.ru/photo/2015/08/31/kiev/

EU politics also look funny when they try to hold straight face while chewing lemon 'we want to see Ukraine as part of EU'.

In your dreams.

All over the Russian internets, "what's up with the [Ukrainians]?", along with "at least we snatched Crimea", serves as a persistent refrain to every piece of [bad] local news.

Massive embezzlement, uncontrollable wildfires due to utterly defunded forest service, destroying food in the face of rising food prices and hunger, orthodox terrorists vandalizing museums, Putin's chief PR man being literally the worst at PR, child rape in the church, child brides for elderly pedos in Chechnya, fucking dipshits with "WAR TROPHY" stickers on their mercedesses, hordes of Putin's reps with US citizenship, the minister of agriculture playing Veggie Samurai, 100 roubles per month for poor families in Crimea to buy stale bread.

"But what's up with the Ukrainians?" Yeah, nothing about it is sarcastic.

We read different internets then.
First one I see only as welcoming phrase for dozens of ukrainian bots posting links in comments to their bullshit.
As for the second one - Crimea belongs to Crimeans, they made their choice. You can't 'snatch' huge territories.
Oh, right, chief democratic country didn't like that, we should've bombed Kiev first, using Kosovo as example, right?
As for embezzlement - I'm fine with regaining control over actives stolen from Russia during Retardtsin's rule.
Poor Khodorkovsky, he suffers in Switzerland, right?

Situation with wildfires - citizens of these regions burn forests themselves.
Damaged by wildfire forest should be cut down to prevent diseases, so people burn them, get rights to chop them and sell damaged wood.
Should government hire enough police to protect every tree? You will bitch about police state due to high policemen per capita, right?

Destroying contraband food... Personally, I understand both pros and cons. Personally, would've prefer giving it out.

Hunger? I remember hunger during late 1998-early 1999 caused by Eltsin's team stealing $5b from IMF credit, when my family barely could afford chicken per month, and coroners describing this period as 'never in my practice I have seen mummified bodies of seniors died from starvation'.
Oh, some useless papermovers lost their 'jobs' and can't pay for iphones, purchased in credits? That's awful.I'm from dynasty of engineers, I simply don't know anyone who is doing real job and can't afford apartments and food.

Museums... Biggest damage in last ten years was done by fire in INION, and majority of it is due to personnel giving zero fucks about their job.

Orthodox bigots, child molesting,... exposure of these problems is better than hiding and suppression. Can lead to solving.

Stickers on cars being one of the biggest Russian problems... Ok. I thought we can't afford food, and you say about cars, and even with spare money on stickers.

What a low level of discussion. This is not worth answering. Basically just hate speech.

I think you are underrating the media (let's count all possible sources of information together as media). The coverage of the war in the Ukraine is still there and still people die everyday and still no political solution is in sight but apart from this nothing has changed substantially in the last time. Naturally you do not write every day that everything is still the same or do you?

Also I don't write much here in this thread anymore because I already said everything I have to say. And I doubt strongly that here nobody knows that the conflict is still going on. They know. You may underestimate your fellow citizens quite a lot. It's naturally that the countries which are directly affected have a much stronger media coverage. But then you actually find regularly articles about Ukraine and the fighting.

Unfortunately Ukraine is not the only crisis in the world. What about IS? What about Israel and the Palestinians? What about Boko Haram? They probably deserve the same attention like Ukraine and Russia.

And the refugees are dieing too on their way over the mediterrean sea or swimming between Turkey and Greece or in trucks in Austria. And some German nationalists throw stones and occasionally set a house being prepared for refugees to fire since dumb, idiotic nationalists unfortunately exists everywhere.

But expected 800,000 refugees is a huge number. They don't only flee war but also poverty and corruption and general hopelessness. This problem is big. I genuinely think it is bigger currently than the war in the Ukraine and rightfully deserves more attention. Not only organizationally but also politically there will be extreme tensions and winter is coming (luckily not the Russian one). We simply have to concentrate on this and also this is where we can achieve most. Integrate as many of these refugees as possible will avoid a lot of problems. Hopefully this can be done. This topic is important and deserves a lot of attention (although 99% is also exxagerated).

Coming back to Ukraine and Russia: I don't see an easy solution. The war can go on for years and people will continue to die. Why they have to die - why people had to start to fight - I still don't know the answer to this crucial question and I'm beginning to compare the hatred that developed between Russians and Ukrainians to the hate between Israelis and Palestinians, but I'm tired to write about the same thing over and over. This doesn't change anything. Basically everyone who kills others and takes up arms to anything else but defend himself (not the Israelian version of forward defense) is on the wrong side. Therefore it follows that this war will only be over if both sides want it to be over and without it it will go on and on. I genuinely think that the people in Russia and Ukraine want the war. Otherwise they would much, much more oppose it. That's just my opinion.

Politically I would say that the eastern Ukraine is still a part of Ukraine. Before the war broke out there lived at least 50% Ukrainians and you cannot dismiss this. Ukraine has the better claim, especially when giving autonomy status to this region. Russian leaders are mostly war mongers and unfortunately their people are following them being ultra nationalistic. However now this area is controlled effectively by Russia (and Russian troops) but for some reason they do not dare to annex it like Crimea. So the conflict goes on and on.

Russia is a tragic figure of history. Rich beyond dreams in land and resources but they will manage to waste it all one way or the other. How ironic.