Legislators Denounce Russia for War with Ukraine

It has been eight months since Russia invaded Ukraine and seized Crimea. Soon afterward Russian mercenaries – its hired guns from many countries – began pouring into eastern and southeastern Ukraine, waging war and razing peaceful Ukrainian towns and villages.

For nearly three-quarters of a year very few government leaders and pundits refused to accept the terms invasion and war in reference to what Russia has been doing in Ukraine. They rather chose a variety of antiseptic terms that did not force them to undertake uncompromising actions to stop Russia from subduing Ukraine, re-subjugating Ukraine, then invading the nearest former captive nation and doing the same.

Sanctions failed to stem the flow of Russian mercenaries, tanks, armor, artillery and now regular Russian troops into Ukraine. The world remains pathetically fearful and tepid in its response to Russia.

However, today’s Russian rapid escalation of its war with Ukraine has caused a few to take note of the invasion and war.

President Barack Obama said today about the situation in Ukraine that he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and that the two agree “Russia is responsible for the violence in eastern Ukraine.”

“The new images of Russian forces inside Ukraine make that plain for the world to see,” Obama said, noting he would meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko next month at the White House. But enough about Ukraine, he then turned to the crisis with ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Regrettably, it’s not violence that should cause you concern, Mr. President, it’s Russia’s war against Ukraine.

US legislators are continuing their criticism of the White House’s inaction and denouncing Russia for waging this historically inevitable war with Ukraine.

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ), a member of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus who represents northern New Jersey issued a statement today forcefully admitting that Russia is “supporting, arming, and fighting alongside the separatists,”

 “While multilateral sanctions are an important part of stopping Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, we must also ensure the Ukrainian people are able to defend their families and homeland. The United States stands with the Ukrainian people, and I am proud to have helped introduce bipartisan legislation that would authorize the President to provide military assistance to Ukraine and reaffirms our commitment to helping Ukrainians. Even though they are not in NATO, Ukraine is a friend of the United States, and it is unacceptable that we not provide them the means to defend themselves and preserve their territorial integrity.”     

Pascrell is correct in urging Washington to treat Ukraine as a friendly country that needs and deserves American help – to preserves its territorial integrity, an important statement that attests to Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and indivisibility.

Also today Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) released the following statement on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:

“Russia's ongoing aggression in Ukraine can only be called one thing: a cross-border military invasion. To claim it is anything other than that is to inhabit President Putin’s Orwellian universe.

“For months, the critics of providing arms and additional assistance to Ukraine have warned that doing so could provoke a Russian invasion. Everything the critics said would happen if we did more to help Ukraine has now happened anyway. Believing that the answer now is to do more of the same, or to do even less, is folly. Such a minimalist policy has been a large part of the current problem. It is most certainly not the answer now. Instead, the United States and our European allies should immediately begin providing intelligence and defensive weapons to Ukraine, including anti-armor systems. We should also impose real sectoral sanctions on Russia – not the half-measures taken to date, but full sanctions on Russia’s defense, financial, energy, and other sectors.

“This is a moment to speak and act with clarity. A sovereign nation in the heart of Europe is being invaded by its larger neighbor. This runs completely contrary to the civilized world that America and our partners have sought to build since World War II. If we will not or cannot defend our own values now, as well as friends who share them, the future will be dark and dangerous indeed, not just for Ukraine but for us too.”

There will be more statements in the near future. Governments, such as Canada and the US have also announced boosting their military presence in Eastern Europe. Indeed, they and others must fulfill their commitment to protecting the x-captive nations.

Words will not stop Russia from fulfilling its imperial manifest destiny. The battle to do so must be waged in Europe or else it will be waged on the Atlantic Coast of the United States.

Traditional friends of Ukraine are continuing to call for military aid for Ukraine while America’s and global liberals have turned a deaf ear to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ending the Russian War vs Ukraine

President Poroshenko tweeted this statement after the Minsk meeting. This is my translation of his original Ukrainian:

“We do not impose and do not want anyone to impose on us a form of internal device or external direction of integration. Ukrainian people made their choice in favor of a unitary, democratic and European state.

“I am convinced that today the only possible tool to stop the bloodshed and to ensure post-conflict reconstruction of Donbass is a peaceful settlement. I called on all participants in Minsk to consider and adopt it as a basis for resolving the situation. It is imperative to do everything to stop the supply of equipment and weapons to militants and such control is possible only with the involvement of the OSCE in monitoring and verification of the border.

“Glory to Ukraine!”

What President Poroshenko said is great for after the Russian war versus Ukraine has ended. And it can only be considered ended if Russia concedes, surrenders, withdraws and agrees to reparations.

“Glory to the Heroes!”

23rd Anniversary of Ukrainian Independence

With Ukraine embroiled in a life-and-death war with Russia, it is heartening to recognize that the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, is an self-confident Ukraine patriot, who has not shirked his leadership responsibility in these times that try men’s souls, and is capable of rallying the Ukrainian nation not only to defend Ukraine and reaffirm its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Without overestimating his vast enlightening influence on Ukrainians, Petro Poroshenko is the Ukrainian leader whose time has come.

Assuming the presidency at a time of Ukraine’s war with its age-old nemesis, Russia, Poroshenko has stood shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainian people, encouraging them to soldier on and consoling them when they buried their dead. He has looked Putin in the eye without blinking and he has called on the world leaders to stand up and support Ukraine now.

Taking part in the Independence Day military parade is a president responsibility, also performed Poroshenko’s predecessors but his message far surpassed anything that they have uttered.

Today, Poroshenko declared: “We swear allegiance to you, Ukraine!” on the occasion of the 23rd Anniversary of the Independence of Ukraine, converting all who heard and read these words into one, unitary Ukrainian family.

He also emphasized: “Never in 23 years has this day been so majestic as today. People have never celebrated it as sincerely as today, with Ukrainian flag in every window, on every balcony. And all of it is happening despite hard times for the country.”

Poroshenko acknowledged that developments of recent months are a real war for Ukraine – not a hybrid war as some in the West would call it – though it hasn’t been declared as such. He predicted that perhaps it will go down in history as Patriotic War 2014.

“The war against foreign aggression. For Ukraine, for its will, dignity and glory, for the people. For Independence,” Poroshenko said, reinforcing in the minds of Ukrainians everywhere that this inevitable war with Russia is about the livelihood of future generations of Ukrainians. Undoubtedly, what is happening today should have happed 23 years ago for a revolution or war of independence that is not blessed by blood does not have staying power.

Poroshenko emphasized that fight for victory became a nationwide movement, a matter of urgency for everyone. “I am confident that the battle for Ukraine, for independence will end up successfully for us due to the nationwide solidarity multiplied by courage and heroism of our warriors,” he stated.

Poroshenko said a new Ukrainian army was born in the past six months under hell fire and brimstone battles. The expression “defender of Motherland” has received concrete meaning, he said. “There are a lot of battles and dates in the heroic chronicle of the Ukrainian army worthy to become the Day of Defender of Motherland. Ukraine will never again celebrate this holiday under military-historical calendar of the neighboring country. We will honor defenders of our Motherland, not someone else’s!” Poroshenko emphasized, tearing yet another chain that has linked Ukraine to Russia for too long.

Poroshenko thanked warriors for their allegiance to oath, service to Ukraine, their sacrificial defense and noted that he would like to bow to every Ukrainian woman “who lost husband or son, grandson or brother … who believes in victory and is waiting for the return of her native, best, beloved.”

Poroshenko expressed particular gratitude to volunteers. “Your help has been especially important in the first weeks of aggression when we inherited the state without army, police, special services, weapons,” the President said.

At this point we’d like to pay our respect to the only Ukrainian American who gave his life for Ukraine’s independence – Mark Paslawsky who was killed in combat in Donbas.

“Our enemy has been training hard for a long time to attack Ukraine. And we were not prepared for such an insidious treachery,” the President emphasized recalling the ancient Roman wisdom: “Si vis pacem, para bellum” – “If you want peace, prepare for war.”

Emphasizing that war was not Ukraine’s initiative and it had been launched from abroad, Poroshenko noted: “Our choice is peace, implementation of the peace plan for the Donbas which I have elaborated and offered in June already. But steps towards peace cannot be unilateral and be made at the cost of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine.”

Noting that unfortunately Ukraine will always face a military threat, Poroshenko said Ukrainians must learn to live with that. “We must always be ready to defend independence,” he said revealing that billions of hryven would be allocated for the upgrade of arms and military equipment already until the end of the year. It is planned to allocate 40 billion hryven for the rearmament and upgrade of military equipment in 2015-2017.

“We will manage to defend the Independence, life and security of everyone, our right to live freely on our Ukrainian land at the cost of colossal efforts of the entire nation,” Poroshenko said.

Poroshenko’s words today have something in common with Roosevelt and Churchill, whose oratory contributed to the free world’s defeat of Hitler’s Nazi Germany in 1945.

We wish Ukraine and President Poroshenko the same good fortune on Ukrainian Independence Day 2014.

NATO Could Certainly Help Ukraine vs. Russia

Despite Viktor Yanukovych’s best efforts to undermine and disable the Armed Forces of Ukraine, after nearly eight months of intense combat with Russian mercenaries, commanders and tanks, missiles and other heavy combat equipment, Ukrainian soldiers are beginning to record battlefield victories against their vicious enemy.

Ukraine’s regular Armed Forces, the National Guard and volunteer paramilitary battalions are liberating town after town in their campaign to push the Russian invaders back to Russia. The war has reached a critical point for Russia not only because of the political alienation it is enduring because the war with Ukraine but also because its key commanders are leaving the trenches.

Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the war with Russia, or as Churchill opined the end of the beginning of what is being called Russia’s inevitable war with Ukraine, but the fighting will not stop in the foreseeable future. While Germany last week naively called for a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine, Berlin and the world must understand that the crisis in Ukraine is not based in politics. Russia has invaded Ukraine in order to defeat and re-subjugate it. Moscow could no longer tolerate an independent Ukraine on its border that ousted its hand-picked governor in the person of Yanukovych and is fulfilling its goal of joining the European Union and in time NATO.

In order for Ukraine to realize its mission, the United States, the EU and NATO must stand up and support Kyiv and President Poroshenko politically, economically and militarily.

A couple of days ago Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin was quoted as appealing to NATO and the European Union to provide military support for Ukrainian troops fighting pro-Russian separatists and said the Western military alliance needed to come up with a new strategy toward Kyiv.

Klimkin told German radio station Deutschlandfunk that the EU and NATO needed to consider what they could and would do if rules get broken, adding that this was the case when Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March and was also true of Russia’s actions in Donetsk and Luhansk now.

“It’s a really tough question for the European Union and NATO: What can they do if a war is practically ... being mongered in Europe by a European country?” he said according to a transcript of the interview. “And that’s why, if they say “We can't do much there,” it gives rise to the question: How can you then continue to be seen as a responsible partner?”

Asked if he was appealing to the EU and NATO for military aid, Klimkin emphatically confirmed: “Yes of course. We need military aid because if we got such aid, it would be easier for our troops on the ground to act.”

He said Ukraine is facing a tough situation economically and financially so it needs help now but would later repay this aid. Alongside direct aid, the country also needed the EU to help it implement reforms, Klimkin said.

Indeed, will NATO’s new European allies, the former captive nations, regard the alliance as a serious partner? How will NATO reassure them that it will protect their interests after it failed to save Ukraine?

Fortunately, NATO’s commanders understand the cost of losing Ukraine. The alliance’s top commander said in an interview published on Sunday that if Russia tries to infiltrate troops into a NATO country, even out of official military uniform as it did before it annexed Ukraine's Crimea, NATO will respond militarily.

US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and a commander who understands the threat Ukrainian is facing, said although NATO had no plans to intervene in non-NATO member Ukraine, NATO countries in eastern Europe needed to start preparing for a possible threat from “little green men” - referring to the Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms who stormed Crimea.

“The most important work to prepare a nation for the problem of ‘little green men,’ or organizing of Russian (speaking) population, it happens first. It happens now,” Breedlove said in an interview published online by German newspaper Die Welt.

“How do we now train, organize, equip the police forces and the military forces of (allied) nations to be able to deal with this?” he asked, according to a transcript of his remarks in English provided by NATO.

“If we see these actions taking place in a NATO nation and we are able to attribute them to an aggressor nation, that is Article 5. Now, it is a military response.”

While Ukraine isn’t a formal NATO member, it should be regarded as a kindred spirit.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also seems to understand the situation. On Friday he accused Russia of an “incursion” into Ukrainian territory.

“Last night we saw a Russian incursion, a crossing of the Ukrainian border,” he told reporters in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to Reuters.

However, we are baffled by his cautious use of the word incursion. Why not assert that Russia has invaded Ukraine and continues to pour soldiers and heavy equipment into its eastern region.

“It just confirms the fact that we see a continuous flow of weapons and fighters from Russia into eastern Ukraine and it is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine,” Rasmussen said. 

In fact, why are all allies of Ukraine not raising the alarm of invasion when none of them are denying that foreign troops are battling in Ukraine? Why is NATO toying with phrases such as there is a “high probability” that Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine?

NATO’s military intelligence agents did not serve its commanders well in the past six decades, or at least since the collapse of the USSR because Russia’s war against Ukraine has apparently driven the alliance to re-analyze its original mission: how to protect its old and new members against a very real Russian threat. NATO is being caught without a plan or afraid of carrying out its mission. It will hesitate while someone else’s soldiers die in a war far away.

Stalling will only bring the war closer to Europe’s capitals and America’s shores. Will the free world be able to explain why Ukraine was lost on its watch?

Russian Agents Target Ukrainian Diaspora

It’s not merely a grave. It’s not merely the grave of the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) Stepan Bandera who was assassinated by a Russian agent on orders from Moscow on October 15, 1959. It is a symbol of the Ukrainian nation’s undying quest for freedom, independence and sovereignty around which most of the nation is uniting today.

And now his grave in Munich, Germany, has become the target of vandalism.

Has Russia widened its war against Ukraine by targeting the Ukrainian Diaspora and its most visible historical symbol of its battle for independence and sovereignty from Moscow?

Apparently it has.

Historical venues associated with Bandera and Ukrainian wars of liberation in Ukraine have been targeted by pro-Russian vandals. However, there have not been any reported attacks against Ukrainian sites in the Diaspora.

Since independence on August 24, 1991, and especially since the Maidan Revolution, numerous Lenin monuments have dramatically tumbled across Ukraine. A few more joined the garbage dump in the past couple of days in newly liberated towns in eastern Ukraine, demonstrating that Russia’s war against Ukraine of late has not been going according to Putin’s plan.

This attack against the symbol of Ukraine’s quest for independence cannot be belittled. The Ukrainian community in the free world must bring this to the attention of their local authorities and raise the level of vigilance in all countries.

Moscow is continuing to fulfill its manifest destiny.

Zhirinovsky: Buffoon or Harbinger of Apocalypse

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the vitriolic, bellicose Russian chauvinist, has been spewing his hatred against neighboring nations for years. He doesn’t espouse his love of Russia but he regularly rages against Ukraine and the other x-captive nations. Lately dressed as a colonel in the Russian armed forces, ranting and salivating, Zhirinovsky looks and behaves like a buffoon. But what if he isn’t?

His latest tirade came during an appearance on a talk show on Russia’s Rossiya 24 network. Zhirinovsky, who is also leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), shed a series of new threats against the x-captive nations.

Zhirinovsky, a deputy speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, not only threatened those countries, he also suggested launching pre-emptive strikes against Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as Poland. He justified the remarks by suggesting that Russia “cannot allow” peripheral nations’ missile defenses and air forces to be within striking distance of Russia, and that Russia should seek to destroy them “a half hour before they launch,” according to the Euromaidan website.

The language used in the broadcast was considered especially inciteful, not only for calling for the carpet bombing of the four countries, but their entire annihilation.

“What will remain of the Baltics? Nothing will remain…in Poland, the Baltics, they are doomed. They’ll be wiped out…Let the leaders of these dwarf states reconsider this. Eastern European states will place themselves under the threat of total annihilation, and only they will be to blame…we’ll have to teach them the lessons of May 1945,” declared Zhirinovsky, also a close ally of Putin.

As for the USA, Zhirinovsky said it will not be threatened because it is too far. About Ukraine, which is next door, he said: “All questions of war and peace in general and in particular those relating to Ukraine will be solved by one person, the head of the Russian Federation.”

Understandably, Poland and the Baltic states, witnessing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are already concerned about their destinies. This angst is certainly compounded by Zhirinovsky’s latest venom.

In quick order, they summoned the Russian ambassadors in their respective capitals to meetings with their officials to protest his threats.

Latvia strongly condemned the threats. The Foreign Ministry in Riga summoned Russia Ambassador Alexander Veshnyakov “to hear Latvia's position regarding the issue,” the ministry said.

“Statements of this kind are a strong testimony to the wish of Russia's ruling elite to restore the Russian empire,” Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said. “This also demonstrates that the sanctions applied by the EU and other states against Russia in response to the latter’s actions in Ukraine are appropriate and fully justified.”

Rinkevics added that Latvia would take these comments into account when it discusses with its NATO partners additional measures for the security of the Baltic States and Poland.

A day earlier Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski summoned the Russian ambassador in Warsaw, saying Poland had to react because Zhirinovsky is not a private citizen or even an ordinary lawmaker.

However, Valeria Perzhinskaya, a Russian Embassy spokeswoman in Warsaw, obnoxiously said the ambassador didn’t feel he should have to explain the comments of Zhirinovsky, who does not speak for the Russian government. The Polish government would have been well within its rights to send the Russian envoy home.

The LETA news agency reported that Russian embassy officials further warned against “pre-election rhetoric” and accused Latvian government officials of making “russophobic” comments in the past. That is a standard Russian defensive counter-argument against any sovereign country that disagrees with its policies.

In 2013, Zhirinovsky had threatened the Baltic States, saying that they would be occupied or destroyed since they had dared to support the intervention of the Western countries in Syria.

None of these threats can be treated separately from what the Kremlin is doing. Zhirinovsky is not an unknown commodity in Russia. And he is not alone. Putin stands at the top of Russian triangle and he too is known for threatening near and distant countries. Last week, his former chief economic advisor Andrej Illarionov, said Putin seeks to create “historical justice” with a return to the days of the last Tsar Nicholas II, and the Soviet Union under Stalin. Putin is even targeting Finland.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Russia began military exercises in a Pacific island chain, parts of which are also claimed by Japan, which could be a potential blow to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to keep the door open to dialog with Moscow despite strains over the Ukraine crisis. Japan has sided with Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“Exercises began involving military units in the region, which are deploying to the Kurile Islands," Col. Alexander Gordeyev, a spokesman for Russia’s Eastern Military District, told the Russian news agency Interfax. Gordeyev said more than 1,000 troops, five Mi-8AMTSh attack helicopters and 100 other pieces of military hardware would be involved in the maneuvers.
A Japanese foreign ministry official said the ministry was checking whether the exercises were taking part on islands that Japan considers its territory. The islands are known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.
“If they are conducting a military exercise on the Northern Territories, we can by no means accept that in light of Japan's stance on the islands. We've already informed the Russian side of that stance and asked for clarification,” the official said.
Even NATO has expressed concern that Russia’s imperial ambition goes beyond Ukraine, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has opined.

"We have seen the illegal annexation of Crimea, we have seen a strong Russian hand in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine," Rasmussen was quoted as telling journalists on a visit to Iceland. “But actually we also see Russia behind the frozen and protracted conflicts in Transnistria and eastern Moldova, in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Georgia.”

He added, “That's why I am concerned that the Russian ambitions go beyond Ukraine.”

Putin’s imperial arrogance is not original but it should be indicative of who the international community has to deal with. Putin also believes that he can win a war with NATO.

Russian pundit Andrei Piontkovsky was quoted by Paul Goble as saying about Putin, “No state or regime goes to war firmly convinced that it will lose it.” Piontkovsky said if Putin goes to war with NATO and even if he escalates that conflict by using nuclear weapons, he will be acting on the belief that he can win it.

Piontkovsky’s observation is also revealing about his intentions with Ukraine. Putin started the war, seized Crimea, then sent his commanders, mercenaries and terrorists into eastern Ukraine and is now amassing tens of thousands of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine – not to mention penetrating the border with a 200-plus convoy of trucks while the world looks on aghast. Putin has a plan and he is convinced that he can win, defeat Ukraine and re-subjugate it.

It is important for world leaders – and the citizens who elected them – to realize that none of this is new or even recent. Putin did not wake up one day in January of this year announcing that he is going to invade Ukraine and take Crimea. Invasion plans are made months if not years in advance.

For decades, even going back to the Soviet days, Moscow had composed security, defense, military and foreign policies that championed its victory. The only difference is that since the downfall of the Soviet Union, Russia’s policies have been openly championing the ancient glory of mother Russia and the longing desire to reestablish its predominance. The Kremlin has a track record, plan and budget to fulfil it.

Consequently, the Western allies, NATO and others would be foolhardy to belittle the menacing saber rattling of someone like Zhirinovsky.

If the West had believed and reacted to Hitler’s Mein Kampf in 1925 and his speeches in Nuremberg in 1934, then there might not have been a war in 1939-45.

Russia Planned to Destroy Aeroflot Plane: Kyiv

As incredible as it sounds, Ukrainian officials have uncovered a Russian plot to shoot down an Aeroflot airliner to justify the invasion of Ukraine.

The SBU head Valentyn Nalyvaichenko reported on the findings at a press conference on, August 7, reported Ukrainska Pravda.

According to Nalyvaichenko, the Russian plane was following the same air corridor at approximately the same time as the Malaysian airliner. It was flight AFL-2074 on the Moscow-Larnaca route, filled with vacationing Russian citizens. It was for this specific dark reason that the Buk missile system, directed by a Russian crew, was delivered to Ukraine. As Nalyvaichenko explained, the Malaysian Boeing-777 was flying at the height of 10,000 meters, and the Aeroflot airliner was to fly at an altitude of 11,600 meters. The Buk missile system, which functions on much higher altitudes, was necessary to destroy the Russian airliner.

Nalyvaichenko explained that this complex was to be set up in the village of Pervomaisk, 20 km west of Donetsk, but “because the experts weren’t locals” they confused the location and transported the Buk to a village further away with the same name, located northeast of Donetsk.

“The Aeroflot airliner was to be struck from the originally planned location, so that it fell on the territory controlled by Ukraine’s armed forces. This terrorist act was cynically planned as a pretext for launching open aggression caused by the mass destruction of innocent Russians,” he said.

According to Nalyvaichenko, the terrorists, including their leader Igor Girkin, expected a full-scale deployment of Russian troops in Ukraine during the night of July 18, UNIAN reported. In fact, it was on July 18 that Russian media began to report on the supposed shelling of Russian territory by Ukrainian troops.

When asked why in the SBU’s radio intercepts the terrorists believed that they had shot down a military transport aircraft of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Nalyvaichenko explained that terrorists at the lower levels were not privy to the real plans. He noted that the terrorist leader Igor Bezler (Bes) reported to Russian security services that the attack had been carried out and then was summoned to Moscow. The SBU wants to question the people who summoned him, Nalyvaichenko said.

He also pointed out that the terrorist Girkin had plans to blow up residential buildings. “When one terrorist act didn’t work, it was to be replaced by another,” he said.

This is not the first time that Russia was caught scheming to kill civilians, including innocent Russians, to achieve its diabolical goals.