It's almost as if they don't want us to know the truth about Ukraine

 

I've said several times in these pages that both Russia and Ukraine are far from blameless in the current war.  Both sides have been duplicitous, dishonest, and downright criminal in their behavior, and both nations are ruled by utterly corrupt individuals and organizations.

We know a lot about Russian corruption and criminality through various investigations and exposés over the years, but there hasn't been as much publicity about Ukraine - largely, I suspect, because the USA helped overthrow one corrupt regime there and replaced it with another.  However, in 2016 Oliver Stone made a very interesting and revealing documentary about that country's internal revolution in 2014.  He called it "Ukraine On Fire".

It's been available on YouTube and other social media sites for some time.  It's described as follows:

Ukraine, the 'borderlands' between Russia and 'civilized' Europe is on fire. For centuries, it has been at the center of a tug-of-war between powers seeking to control its rich lands and Russia's access to the Mediterranean.

The Maidan Massacre in early 2014 triggered a bloody uprising that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, spurred Crimeans to secede and join Russia, and sparked a civil war in Eastern Ukraine.

Russia was portrayed by Western media as the perpetrator, and has been sanctioned and widely condemned as such. But was Russia responsible for what happened?

Ukraine on Fire provides a historical perspective for the deep divisions in the region which led to the 2004 Orange Revolution, the 2014 uprisings, and the violent overthrow of democratically-elected Yanukovych. Covered by Western media as a 'popular revolution', it was in fact a coup d'état scripted and staged by ultra-nationalist groups and the US State Department.

Investigative journalist Robert Parry reveals how US-funded political NGOs and media companies have emerged since the 1980s, replacing the CIA in promoting America's geopolitical agenda abroad.

Executive producer Oliver Stone gained unprecedented access to the inside story through his on-camera interviews with former President Viktor Yanukovych and Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaliy Zakharchenko, who explain how the US Ambassador and factions in Washington actively plotted for regime change. And, in his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Stone solicits Putin's take on the significance of Crimea, NATO and the US's history of interference in elections and regime change in the region.

It's interesting that, amidst a flood of pro-Ukraine and anti-Russian propaganda being spouted by official sources and the mainstream news media in the USA, Mr. Stone's documentary was never mentioned.  Now the powers that be have gone further.  YouTube has removed "Ukraine On Fire" from its service, without mentioning it to anybody;  and any discussion of it in the news media has been "discouraged".  I'm told (although I don't have any way of confirming it) that social media is also downplaying, and perhaps even censoring, any mention of the documentary.

In response, the copyright holder, Igor Lopatonok, has released the movie for general distribution free of charge.  It can be downloaded from Vimeo, and watched on Rumble and GabTV.  I'm not going to embed it, for fear that any such link will soon be rendered useless by censorship:  but I urge you to use one of those sources to download a copy and/or watch it for yourself.  It sheds a very disturbing light on the Ukraine situation, including the activity of neo-Nazi groups in that country - something Russia cited as one of its reasons for invasion, which was poo-poohed by many commenters, but turns out to be genuine.  (If you still doubt that, go read for yourself about Tryzub, Svoboda, Right Sector and C14/S14, as well as the Azov Battalion and Aidar Battalion of the Ukrainian armed forces.  Those links barely scratch the surface of the information available;  if you do a few Internet searches, you'll find much more.)

Right now, the propaganda is flying thick and fast from all sides, a bit like a farm manure-spreader that's got out of control and is operating in overdrive.  Therefore, don't believe anything - I repeat, ANYTHING - you read in the mainstream news media, or on social media, about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, until you've researched it for yourself and armed yourself with sufficient facts to make an informed judgment.  I highly recommend watching Mr. Stone's documentary as a useful element of informing yourself.

Peter