Tag: Geneva convention

US military veterans training Ukrainian frontline troops say NATO’s artillery and rocket launchers are essential for Ukraine to beat Russia

Ms. Cat1 Comment

US military veterans training Ukrainian frontline troops say NATO’s artillery and rocket launchers are essential for Ukraine to beat Russia

The Mozart Group is a cadre of US military veterans helping train Ukrainian soldiers. Established at the start of the Ukraine war by Andrew Milburn, a Marine veteran, the group has been described as the Western counterpoint to Putin’s elite Wagner Group.

So they’re the equivalent of Blackwater?!

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U.S. officials have described many of the suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban affiliates it holds at Guantanamo Bay as unlawful combatants either for taking part in hostilities against the United States or by supporting the hostilities while not part of a nation’s military.

By that standard, some of the private guards in Iraq and Afghanistan also could be seen as unlawful combatants, particularly if they have taken offensive action against unarmed civilians, experts said.

America’s own unlawful combatants? via Wikipedia

Andrew Milburn retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel in 2019 after a 31 year career. His last position in uniform was Deputy Commander of Special Operations Central (SOCCENT), and prior to that commanding officer of the Marine Raider Regiment and Combined Special Operations Task Force – Iraq.

Since retiring, he has written a critically acclaimed memoir: When the Tempest Gathers and has had articles published in The Atlantic , USA Today, JFQ, and War on the Rocks, in addition to the Military Times . He is on the Adjunct Faculty of the Joint Special Operations University and teaches classes on leadership, planning, ethics, command and control, mission command, risk, special operations and irregular warfare at US military schools. He is a co-host of the Modern War Institute’s Irregular War Podcast, and Irregular War Initiative.

Andrew Milburn, BIO

I’ve been to Ukraine, Niger, Somalia and Tunisia. I’m training people who will use what they’ve learned in the real world almost immediately.

Andrew Milburn, 02-2020

Who are the Mozart Group? Former U.S. Marine Training Ukrainians in War

Tortured Russian prisoners: videos verified by “Le Monde” implicate a battalion of Ukrainian volunteers

Ms. Cat

The analysis, by “Le Monde” and independent investigators, of a video supposed to show Ukrainian soldiers shooting at Russian prisoners, confirms its authenticity. The Ukrainian volunteer unit was present at the scene of the abuse in Ukraine.

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To activate English subtitles, click on the top right of the video.

Machine Translation: Tortured Russian prisoners: videos verified by “Le Monde” implicate a battalion of Ukrainian volunteers (original, in French)(video on YouTube, turn on auto-translate)

Corporate media parrots the Azov Battalion

Ms. Cat

Corporate media parrots the Azov Battalion

A cheerleader for Ukrainian nationalism and war, [Illia] Ponomarenko regularly posts gory photos of dead Russian soldiers and calls for NATO to intervene in the war on Ukraine’s behalf, thus assisting a social media campaign by Ukraine’s armed forces and the far-right that directly violates the Geneva Convention for the humane treatment of prisoners of war.

Notably, [Illia] Ponomarenko’s employer, the newly created Kyiv Independent, receives its funding from western imperialism, including Washington’s National Endowment for Democracy and the EU’s European Endowment for Democracy.

More recently, photos of the apparent killing of civilians in Bucha first appeared on the social media accounts of figures such as Ponomarenko and the far-right “activist” thug Serhii Sternenko. The photos and reports were then fed to Western media outlets, which again seized upon them to call for increased sanctions against Russia and the prosecution of President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.

Photo captions by the New York Times indicate that Azov Battalion soldiers were among the first to enter Bucha on April 2 after Russian forces left the town on March 30. Despite this fact, claims of a wanton Russian massacre are promoted uncritically while those calling for investigation before judgement are smeared as “Russian trolls.”

Previously:

The Washington Post Finally Admits The Role of the ‘Far Right’ Azov Battalion in Ukraine

Ukraine – from Euromaidan to Afghanistan

Ms. Cat

Recently, Douglas MacArthur, a retired colonel and adviser to the US Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration, a multi-decorated war veteran, openly criticized the official policy of Washington, which he said was deliberately trying to transform Ukraine into an Eastern European version of Afghanistan. It is common knowledge that for the United States, war is first and foremost a business, an opportunity to make good money on the long-running bloody conflicts that Washington is fueling worldwide with a global hybrid war against all disobedient nations and ethnic groups. As in all previous wars initiated or sponsored by the USA with the use of these perfidious tactics, Ukraine is also seen as a new great opportunity for the American military-industrial complex controlled by the deep state to make fabulous profits.

Ukraine – from Euromaidan to Afghanistan

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