The Dutch journalist Sonja van den Ende spent the past few days in the Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine. She was taken to a remote army barracks, where to her great surprise an arsenal of tanks, army vehicles, weapons, anti-aircraft missiles, body armor and ammunition were stored.
“But even more astonishing was that it was all NATO equipment,” Van den Ende writes on her website. “This was seized in recent days after fierce battles with the Ukrainian army, which is claiming one victory after another, which the Western media eagerly make into beautiful stories without checking. After all, they can’t, because there aren’t many journalists on the road, not even in Ukraine.”
Spanish reporter on the ground in Ukraine, Ruben Gisbert, has incidentally revealed on social media that Ukrainian forces had threatened to kill him if he continued to report on what was happening on the war front, confirming Van den Ende’s claim.
A Chilean filmmaker, Gonzalo Lira, has also been hiding in the city of Kharkov because his life was threatened by Ukrainians after he reported from the war zone.
Van den Ende pointed out that the propaganda war was running at full speed, especially in the West, while the Russians are more conservative and give press conferences almost daily with an update of the front. So much nonsense is written in Europe that it is almost laughable, said Van den Ende.
She noted that most Russians were proud of their soldiers and army, and understood that Ukraine needed to be liberated from this horror war, which has been plaguing eastern Ukraine since 2014. “Of course, these weapons from NATO countries were used, which is a shame. The same scenario as in Syria, or all the other wars the West has waged against many countries under the guise of democracy.”
It is not clear why Ukraine would have stockpiled NATO weapons since 2014 if not to wage war.
She added ruefully: “We’ll see how it ends. My prognosis is that it will end badly for Europe, especially for its citizens. The era of prosperity and freedom is definitely over and if Europeans don’t fight for this, they will wake up in a totalitarian state.”
Van den Ende alluded to the current controversy over civilians killed in the town of Bucha.
The Pentagon meanwhile said it could not “independently confirm Ukrainian accounts of atrocities by Russian forces against civilians in the town of Bucha”. It is therefore surprising that European countries without the abilities of the US Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency would make all kinds of pronouncements on Russian involvement without at least some proof.
Russia has been denied an urgent UN Security Council meeting by Britain to put forward evidence, a first. Western nations do no longer see the need for a thorough investigation. Instead, based on narrow political motives, Russia is declared guilty.
French President Emmanuel Macron declared unequivocally: “There are very clear indications of war crimes.” He told France Inter radio on Monday that France would “co-ordinate” fresh punitive measures with Germany, without mentioning that France only imports around 15 percent of Russian gas, while Germany imports at least 40 percent.
The Bucha incident evidently is used as an excuse to ignite Wolrd War III. “This is genocide,” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told CBS in an emotional outburst.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed out that more than 8 000 civilians had been killed six to eight weeks after the US invasion of Iraq. About 1000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine so far.