Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday, 5 June 2015

The European Union Times


Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:51 AM PDT


The Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is reporting today that President Barack Obama made a highly secret nighttime visit to Boston on Tuesday (2 June) where he met with US Air Force surgeons and medical personal fighting to save the life of US Secretary of State John Kerry who was gravely wounded this past Sunday (31 May) during a gun battle with what has been described as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) assassins.
The SVR had previously reported (1 June) [read full report HERE] that Secretary Kerry suffered “one of more” gunshot wounds during a gun battle at a French military base in the Moselle department (France) where he was meeting with the US State Department’s top ISIS commander Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov in a strategy session ahead of the 2 June Paris summit intended to develop a plan in dealing with this terrorist organization.
In this new report the SVR states that immediately after Secretary Kerry was “violently wounded” in this gun battle, he was transported by a French military medical helicopter to Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève (HUG) where he was stabilized.
Due to his age (71) and the extreme blood loss he suffered as a result of his wounds, this report continues, US military medical authorities authorized Secretary Kerry’s immediate evacuation to America and dispatched a massive Boeing C-17 Globemaster belonging to the US Air Force’s 86th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, located at theRamstein Air Base in Germany, to fly to Geneva.
Upon landing the C-17 medical flight landing in Geneva, this report says, Secretary Kerry was then flown by a Swiss medical helicopter from HUG and was immediately put into the care of US Air Force surgeons and medical personal attempting to keep him alive.
The reason(s) behind Secretary Kerry needing such a massive US military medical response and evacuation, this report explains, is due to the 86th Aerospace Medicine Squadron being the “best in the world” when it comes to treating traumatic battle related injuries, and with this massive C-17 “airborne hospital” being fully equipped with both medical personal and equipment, he could have not have been in better hands.
To how grave Secretary Kerry’s condition was, this report notes, was confirmed by subsequent SVR “interviews” with Swiss medical authorities who first treated him confirming that he was at “deaths door” upon his first arrival at HUG.
Secretary Kerry’s grave condition was further evidenced, this report continues, by President Obama’s secret flight to Boston from Washington D.C. to meet with the medical personal aboard the C-17 when it landed.


Confirmation of President Obama’s secret flight to Boston to meet Secretary Kerry’s C-17 medical flight, this report notes, was verified by SVR signals intelligence sources that showed a Boeing C-40 Clipper aircraft belonging to the 89th Airlift Wing (89 AW) of the US Air Force, based at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington D.C., left with the American leader on board and landed in Boston just minutes ahead of Kerry’s flight.
As to Secretary Kerry’s current medical condition this report doesn’t say, but SVR health experts contributing to it do note that the US State Department press release that says “This morning Secretary Kerry underwent a surgical procedure to repair his broken femur. The procedure was performed under a regional anesthetic and the Secretary was conscious throughout the four-hour operation.” is an “obvious falsehood”.
To the American propaganda media continuing the “cover story” that Secretary Kerry broke his leg while falling off of a stationary bicycle in France when he was supposed to be in Switzerland, needed an immediate evacuation back to the US aboard the American military’s largest and most advanced airborne medical hospital, and then stayed awake for 4 hours of grueling surgery, this report concludes, is a falsehood so blatant only the most unsophisticated of persons could ever find it plausible.
Remember though…when it comes to the American people believing everything their propaganda media and oligarch elite masters tell them is true there is more evidence than any library of books could have showing this is true. After all, these are the same people who still believe a plane hit the Pentagon 14 years ago, on 11 September 2001, that left no debris behind and made a perfectly round hole in the side of this building the size of a cruise missile…so of course they believe all the lies being told about Kerry…isn’t that what “children” are supposed to do?



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Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:24 AM PDT
Legislation requiring colleges in Texas to allow handguns on campuses is now on the verge of becoming law.
Texas legislators approved two bills legalizing the open carrying of handguns in public and on university campuses, overcoming objections from gun control activists but caving in to pressure from law enforcement on some provisions.
Known as House Bill 901, the open carry law would allow holders of the concealed-carry license to carry handguns in public in a hip or shoulder holster. After a week of fierce debate and a threat of a Democratic filibuster that never materialized, the bill cleared the state House on Friday with 102 votes in favor and 43 against. It was approved by a 20-11 vote in the Senate.
“Open Carry just passed in both the Texas House & Senate. Next destination: My Pen,” tweeted Governor Greg Abbott.
Some Second Amendment activists thought the open carry bill did not go far enough, since it did not abolish the licensing requirement. Police chiefs mobilized to successfully defeat an amendment that would have prevented officers from demanding to see people’s licenses. The so-called “cop stop” amendment was championed by a coalition of Democrats who wanted to prevent racial profiling and Republicans concerned about unreasonable searches.
“There is no evidence to show the open carry of handguns makes Texas safer,” said Sandy Chasse, a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the Texas Tribune reported. The gun control group argued against the bill on grounds of public safety.
Once signed by the governor, the bill should go into effect on January 1, 2016.
The House also approved the so-called “campus carry” bill, approved by the Senate in January by a vote of 98-47. The law would allow college students and staff with valid concealed carry permits to bring their handguns into dormitories, cafeterias and other portions of public university campuses.
Guns would still be banned at sporting events, though, and provisions were made for universities to designate gun-free zones. Private schools will have to follow the public universities’ lead. The bill’s implementation will begin in August 2016 at four-year public universities, expanding to junior colleges and private schools at a later date.
Critics of the bill, including University of Texas System Chancellor and former US Navy admiral William McRaven, have argued that allowing guns in the classroom would stifle academic interaction and lead to an increase in injuries.
Supporters have dismissed such fears as unfounded, pointing out that existing laws limit concealed carry permits to persons 21 or older, in effect excluding the majority of college students.
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Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:16 AM PDT
The United States has devolved into a “soft-core totalitarian dictatorship” and other nations should disassociate from it, activist and radio host Rodney Martin says.
The United States has devolved into a “soft-core totalitarian dictatorship” and other nations should begin to disassociate from it, according to an American activist and radio host in California.
Rodney Martin, the chairman of the All Nationalist Association and former US congressional staffer, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday, commenting on the approval of a bill that will allow resumption of the government’s sweeping surveillance program.
US President Barack Obama is expected to sign the USA Freedom Act after it was approved by the Senate 67-32 on Tuesday.
“The Senate approving the NSA surveillance, it’s not a surprise, even with Rand Paul’s filibuster, the minor amendments,” Martin said.
“The fact is that we are a surveillance society. There are no more civil liberties; there is no more right to privacy, regardless to the Constitution,” he added.
Although the Freedom Act would curtail some of the National Security Agency’s now-expired powers it gained under the Patriot Act in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, it would authorize the agency to still track those potentially deemed as threats.
Republican presidential candidate and Senator Rand Paul voted against the measure. The vote came two days after the Patriot Act expired because the Senate could not “overcome parliamentary maneuvers by Sen. Rand Paul.”
“Rand Paul’s filibuster was more for presidential theatrics than any real substance. The fact is this bill was going to pass, and the amendments and the so-called changes are cosmetic,” Martin said.
“The fact of the matter is that the Freedom Act is really no different than the Patriot Act. All the government has to do now is say that someone is dangerous or they’re suspected of being a terrorist, and they can collect the data,” he noted.
“The fact is that the United States has devolved into a soft-core totalitarian dictatorship. There’s no right to privacy. And the American people, if they carry around a smart phone should seriously consider getting rid of it,” the journalist said.
“They should very seriously consider what they write in their emails and be very cautious of that, because even dry humor can be construed by the government as ‘terrorism,’” he stated.
“It’s a sad state of affairs, and hopefully other nations, particularly Europe and around the world would begin disassociating and disaffiliating with the United States,” Martin concluded.
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Posted: 04 Jun 2015 04:55 AM PDT


US President Barack Obama said that his administration has retrieved the reputation of the United States as “the most respected country on earth.”
Obama made the statement while answering questions with YSEALI Fellows, an exchange program for community leaders from ASEAN, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Monday.
“People don’t remember, but when I came into office, the Untied States in world opinion ranked below China and just barley above Russia, and today once again, the Untied States is the most respected country on earth.
Part of that I think is because of the work we did to reengage the world and say we want to work with you as partners with mutual interests and mutual respect.
It was on that basis we were able to end two wars while still focusing on the very real threat of terrorism and try to work with our partners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s the reason why we are moving in the direction to normalize relations with Cuba and the nuclear deal that we are trying to negotiate with Iran,” Obama said.
Would you say that the USA has indeed become the “most respected country on earth?” What do you think the Obama administration has turned the US in?
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Posted: 04 Jun 2015 04:28 AM PDT


“This is a Christian nation,” said the Supreme Court in 1892.
“America was born a Christian nation,” echoed Woodrow Wilson. Harry Truman affirmed it: “This is a Christian nation.”
But in 2009, Barack Hussein Obama begged to differ: “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.”
Comes now a Pew Research Center survey that reveals the United States is de-Christianizing at an accelerated rate.
Whereas 86 percent of Americans in 1990 identified as Christians, by 2007, that was down to 78 percent. Today only 7 in 10 say they are Christians. But the percentage of those describing themselves as atheists, agnostics or nonbelievers has risen to 23. That exceeds the Catholic population and is only slightly below evangelicals.
Those in the mainline Protestant churches — Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians — have plummeted from 50 percent of the U.S. population in 1958 to 14 percent today. By accommodating the social revolution of the 1960s to stay relevant, mainline churches appear to have made themselves irrelevant to America’s young.
The decline in Christian identity is greatest among the young. While 85 percent of Americans born before 1945 still call themselves Christians, only 57 percent of those born after 1980 do.
If we want to see our future, we should probably look to Europe, where Catholic Ireland just voted in a landslide to legalize same-sex marriage and where cathedrals and churches are being turned into tourist attractions and museums and even bars and restaurants.
What are the causes of a de-Christianized America?
High among them is the Supreme Court, which, since the Earl Warren era began, purged Christianity from all public schools and the public square — and has been met with a puzzling lack of resistance from Middle America to the secularist revolution being imposed upon it.
Second, an anti-Christian elite captured the cultural heights — the arts, elite universities, popular culture, the media — and began, through movies, books and magazines, an assault on Christian beliefs and morality.
Third was the social revolution of the 1960s, which began with the arrival of the baby boomers on campus in 1964. Five years on, Woodstock Nation was wallowing in the mud, listening to Country Joe & the Fish.
The counterculture of the ’60s would be used as a foil to build 49-state landslides for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, but then the ’60s views and values were embraced by the elites and came to dominate the culture in the time of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Given his baggage, “Slick Willy” of Yoknapatawpha County would have been a comic figure in the 1950s. Today he is the Democratic Party’s beau ideal of a statesman.
Many churches came out to meet the cultural revolution halfway. The results were irrelevance and scandal — too many Elmer Gantrys in televangelist pulpits and too many predators in priestly cassocks.
What are the consequences of a de-Christianized America and West? Si monumentum requiris, circumspice. (If you would seek its monuments, look around you.)
Half of marriages end in divorce. Fewer children are being born, and of these, over 40 percent are out of wedlock. Record drug use rates and dropout rates and soaring crime rates that have declined only because we have an incarceration rate that rivals South Africa’s.
Despite astonishing advances in medicine, we have far more and far more varied and deadly STDs.
As Christianity dies, individualism, materialism and hedonism replace it. “Selfies” could be the name for the generation for whom Easter Sunday long ago took a back seat to Super Bowl Sunday. More than a million abortions a year, assisted suicide and euthanasia are seen as the milestones of social progress in the new America.
“Panem et circenses,” bread and circuses, were what the late Roman Empire was all about. With us, it is sex, drugs and rock, with variations on all three.
Historically, as the faith dies, the culture and civilization to which it gave birth die, and then the people die. And a new tribe with its own gods comes to occupy the emptying land.
On the old and new continents, it is the native-born of European ancestry who are de-Christianizing, aging and dying. And the nations they created are the ones depopulating.
To occupy Rome, the barbarians came from the east and north. To occupy the West, they are coming from the south. And like the Romans of the fourth century, we seem paralyzed and powerless to stop them.
Christianity was the founding faith of the West. That faith and the moral code and culture it produced once united this disparate and diverse nation and civilization.
As Christianity fades away and the moral code and culture it generated recede into irrelevance, what will hold us together?
Economically, we are dependent on foreigners for the necessities of our national life. Our politics are poisonous. Our racial divisions, once ameliorated by shared belief in the same God and Bible, are rawer than they were in the 1950s.
As for equality, diversity and global democracy, who will march and die for that?
Historian Arnold Toynbee said it well: “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.”
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of the new book “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.” To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.
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Posted: 04 Jun 2015 04:06 AM PDT


A former senior FIFA official, Chuck Blazer, claimed he and others took bribes in exchange for supporting World Cup candidate countries in 1998 and 2010, an unsealed paper says. South Africa has denied paying any bribes. French reaction is pending.
The 40-page transcript of a secret court session was published online on Wednesday, revealing more details surrounding Blazer’s 2013 guilty plea to charges of corruption, racketeering and money laundering.
“Among other things, I agreed with other persons in or around 1992 to facilitate the acceptance of a bribe in conjunction with the selection of the host nation for the 1998 World Cup,” Blazer told US District Judge Raymond Dearie during a hearing in New York in November 2013.
“Beginning in or around 2004 and continuing through 2011, I and others on the FIFA executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup.”
The 1998 World Cup was eventually hosted by France and the 2010 Cup by South Africa.
It was also revealed that South African Football Association president Molefi Oliphant allegedly asked FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke in 2008 to withhold $10 million from the 2010 World Cup budget to find a ‘Diaspora Legacy Programme’ under the control of then-CONCACAF President Jack Warner.
Reacting to the news, South African Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula denied that the money was paid as a bribe, stating it was an “above-board payment” to develop the game in the Caribbean region.
“We are not in defensive mode…[but] we have a responsibility to defend the legacy of the World Cup…and our country’s reputation,” he told journalists.
Blazer was facing up to 20 years in prison before agreeing to cooperate with the authorities. The cooperation involved the use of recording devices to aid the investigation. Blazer’s testimony helped to uncover a corruption scandal within FIFA, eventually leading to 14 other indictments of officials and businessmen.
The news comes a day after FIFA’s long-time president Sepp Blatter announced his resignation and called a special congress to elect a successor just days after he was re-elected.
The timing of the string of revelations on the corruption scandal – which has been going on for years behind the scenes – has been questioned by experts in geopolitics. This, and Blatter’s sudden resignation coincided with the stepped up pressure on FIFA in relation with the 2018 World Cup bid by Russia and Qatar’s 2022 bid.
Reuters reported Thursday that the FBI is investigating the two countries’ bids, according to a source in US law enforcement.
Geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser believes the scandal is directly tied to Washington’s confrontation with Moscow.
“First and foremost, it needs to be understood that this issue is really not an issue of sports and in fact it’s not really an issue of corruption: this is a political issue, in fact a geopolitical issue. That is to say, it’s part of an ongoing propaganda campaign and, let’s call it, an asymmetrical war that the United States is waging against Russia in various theaters from Ukraine to now football and sports, and sanctions, and economic warfare of various kinds – I think it fits in this larger context,” Draitser told RT.
According to the analyst, by raising allegations of corruption around Russia’s World Cup bid, the US government wants “to justify their narrative that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Russia are the bad guys, that Moscow is the enemy and that the US is upholding truth, justice and the so-called American way.”
The reason this narrative is so important for Washington and the Western hegemony is because “they’ve seen that their narrative has collapsed in Ukraine, they’ve seen that their sanctions regime has not worked, it has not crippled the Russian economy… and so this is essentially a new front in the ongoing campaign,” Draitser said, adding that he believes it to be essentially a “campaign against the non-Western world.”
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Posted: 03 Jun 2015 03:17 AM PDT


Feminist clergy within the Church of England wants Christians to refer to God as a ‘she,’ despite Jesus referring to God as His Father.
Women and the Church (WATCH), an activist clergy group best known for pressuring the Anglican Church to accept female bishops, wants to modify the official church liturgy to include female language and imagery to describe God.
“In the last two or three years we’ve seen a real resurgence and interest in feminism, and younger people are much more interested in how gender categories shouldn’t be about stereotypes,” the Rev. Emma Percy, a member of WATCH, told the Guardian. “We need to have a language about God that shows God can be expressed in lots of diverse terms.”
The chairperson of WATCH, Hilary Cotton, said that several clergies were already using female pronouns to refer to God.
“The reality is that in many churches up and down the country something more than the almost default male language about God is already being used,” she told the Telegraph. “Quietly clergy are just talking about God as ‘she’ every now and then.”
But doesn’t that make Jesus sound like a transsexual? For instance, what’s stopping the feminists from turning the Holy Trinity into the Mother, the Son and the Holy Spirit?
In the Bible, Jesus referred to God as His Father, so would the feminists also change His quotes to say that God is His Mother instead?
And the Nicene Creed, the profession of faith at the core of the Church of England, refers to God as the Father Almighty in its very first sentence. The question is, when you start revising the core teachings of a denomination to satisfy current trends, does the denomination really stay the same?
Furthermore, the Bible already teaches equality. Galatians 3:28 reads:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (ESV)
It’s excerpts like these which influenced the concepts that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law – men and women – and that everyone – men and women – have a right to life, liberty and property.
So if feminists really want to teach gender equality, all they have to do is actually read and teach from the Bible instead of modifying its pronouns.
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Posted: 03 Jun 2015 02:51 AM PDT


Several massive explosions rocked the Gaza Strip on Thursday night amid multiple reports of Israeli jets buzzing the area. It follows reports that two rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel but failed to cause any damage.
At least three major blasts rocked Gaza city as Twitter got flooded with reports of residents waking up to the sounds of airstrikes and Israeli F-16 jets flying over.
The strikes took place in the western part of the strip, near the Maqousi Towers residential area. Khan Younis and Ubaidah garrison of Hamas-affiliated Al-Qassam Brigades were also struck.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, said Times of Israel citing Hamas media reports. Hamas said its military facilities were targeted.
Earlier on Wednesday, two missiles were fired into Israel from Gaza. However, it was not Hamas, but its rival Salafist group called Omar Brigades, loyal to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) that claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We are continuing with our jihad against the Jews,” the group said in a statement, claiming the rockets were fired in retaliation for Hamas killing of an IS supporter on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
An Israeli army statement cited by Haaretz blamed Hamas for Wednesday’s missile attack. IAF jets struck three “terror infrastructures” in the Gaza Strip, the statement said.
The outlet reported that Hamas’ Gaza headquarters had been evacuated prior to the strikes, but the group adamantly denied being behind the launches. Hamas reportedly pointed a finger at the Salafist group, accusing it of trying to provoke a new all-out conflict in Gaza. Hamas security services had reportedly eliminated a senior Salafist, who had been planning attacks against the Palestinian group, just a few days before.
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Posted: 03 Jun 2015 02:44 AM PDT


So rapper Lil Wayne has announced he “unintentionally” walked on an American flag while shooting a video, I think he is still in the wrong! He may not be intentionally stomping on the flag, however walking on it after realizing it was under his feet, and continuing to do so, has a lot to say about his character.
Let us also take into consideration the wealth this man has amassed during his career from Americans in a lot of cases who lay their life down to ensure he still is free to make millions from the people of our great nation. Well I have a message for you, Lil’ Wayne, you may have just lost half of your income.
Too often I hear people say that stomping on the American flag is freedom of speech or expression. This isn’t about freedom of speech, this is about disrespecting this country because that flag is a symbol for this country, you disrespect it then you disrespect the country. I dare you to go to ANY other country and stomp around on their flag! One of two things will happen to you, you’ll either be thrown in prison for a long time or you will be executed on the spot. There’s a fine line between being disrespectful and freedom of speech, this is being disrespectful, especially to the men and women who would protect these POS with their lives.
I call to all Americans to boycott this man and show him the mistake he’s made.
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Posted: 03 Jun 2015 02:42 AM PDT


In an historic ruling, a Canadian court has ordered three tobacco companies to pay $15.6 billion to smokers for the damage done to their health.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Brian Riordan ordered the following three tobacco firms to split the fine accordingly: Imperial Tobacco is to pay $10.5 billion, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges $3.1 billion and JTI-Macdonald $2 billion.
The three tobacco firms said on Wednesday they will appeal against the court verdict, arguing that the smokers in the case were aware of the health risks of smoking for several decades.
The plaintiffs include an estimated one million Quebec smokers whose habit had led to throat cancer, lung cancer or emphysema, and who followed the lawsuit for years saying the companies fully knew that they were putting out a harmful product while hiding its negative health effects.
The companies continued to argue that the dangerous health effects of tobacco were never hidden to the public.
“People knew about the health risks associated with smoking for many decades and the federal government who licensed and enabled us to sell those products knew about those health risks for many decades,” Imperial Tobacco Canada spokesman Eric Gagnon said earlier this year.
Many scientists, surgeons and medical practitioners have confirmed that smoking is a high risk factor for a huge range of diseases, including cancer, heart disease, stroke and bronchitis.
However, one Swedish study on 6,000 men suggests if men kick their smoking habit soon, they could regain their health and vitality. The study was published in the journal Science.
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Posted: 03 Jun 2015 02:00 AM PDT


Shelling intensified in eastern Ukraine overnight on Wednesday, with Kiev and rebels trading blame for opening fire. Local officials said 19 people, both civilians and militiamen, were killed and over a hundred injured in the bombardment.
“With the onset of daylight the Ukrainian artillery carried out a large-scale shelling of settlements in the Donetsk People’s Republic almost on the entire extension of the contact line. The most violent unsighted bombardment by the Ukrainian artillery targeted Donetsk, Shirokino, Gorlovka and Spartak,” Eduard Basurin, spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DNR) Defense Ministry, told the press.
The shelling saw 5 civilians killed and 24 others wounded, nine of them seriously injuries, he said.
As for the losses incurred by the DNR militia, “the number of the deceased is 14 people; 86 are injured, including 18 – seriously,” Basurin is cited as saying by Tass.
Earlier, Donetsk mayor, Igor Martynov, said that six civilians had been killed in the city’s south-western Kirov and Kuibyshev Districts on Wednesday, while 90 people “both militiamen and peaceful civilians” sustained injuries.
Chief Doctor at the Petrovsky District Hospital, Igor Rutchenko, said that the Ukrainian forces persisted in shelling the hospital even as the injured were being brought there, forcing a patient evacuation.
“The hospital has been without energy for over two hours. The shelling of the area goes on. It was decided to evacuate the victims,” the chief doctor told Donetsk News Agency at around 3:00 pm GMT.
The Donetsk mayor’s office said that patient evacuations have also begun at other hospitals in the shelled Petrovsky district, Intefax reported.
The General Staff of Ukraine said that Kiev’s forces were using heavy artillery that had previously been withdrawn from the frontline under February’s Minsk peace deal.
“In order to stop the enemy’s offensive and to avoid casualties among the troops, the Ukrainian military command – after warning all of its international partners – was forced to use artillery, which was in the rear areas defined by the Minsk agreements,” the General Staff’s press-service said as cited by RIA-Novosti news agency.
Moscow is deeply concerned by the deteriorating situation in the Donetsk Region, largely provoked by the armed forces of Ukraine, Dmitry Peskov, the Russian President’s press-secretary, said.
“Naturally, Moscow is closely watching (the situation) and is deeply concern by the provocative actions of the armed forces of Ukraine, which, as far as we can tell, largely instigate the situation,” Peskov is cited as saying by Tass.
Moscow “expects the unconditional implementation of the Minsk agreements” and will form its position depending on the developments on the ground, he added.
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) is closely watching the situation in Donetsk, Michael Bociurkiw, SMM spokesperson, said.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, reported that Moscow had addressed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), asking for a report on the number of killed and injured in the latest escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
“Judging by the information we’re getting from the frontline, self-defense militia are reporting disastrous damage to civilian infrastructure – hospitals, kindergartens, schools and residential buildings. And its civilians who are dying there. The Ukrainian army reports its losses are mainly on the military side,” Lavrov said.
Overnight Kiev’s armed forces shelled rebel positions “across the entire frontline,” according to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s defense minister, Vladimir Kononov. He reported 15 dead, both fighters and civilians.
“They opened fire on our positions across the entire front line: at Shirokino, Elenovka, Maryinka with 120,122 and 125-mm rounds. We have been engaging them for seven hours now,” he added, as cited by the Donetsk news agency.
The DNR blames Kiev for “provoking” its troops at around 3:45 this morning.
Kiev denies any provocations and blames the rebels. Kiev’s ‘Anti-Terror Operation’ spokesman, Andrey Lysenko, believes a rebel offensive is underway in Donbass.
“At three in the morning, the enemy started firing on our positions near Maryinka and Krasnogorovka, using heavy artillery. They are trying to make advances, but our forces have repelled every attack and are keeping the situation under control,” he said as cited by RIA Novosti.
Donetsk authorities also say that 37 electric substations in the city have been incapacitated “due to various circumstances.”
Three mines in Donbass lost power following artillery shelling, trapping almost 1,000 miners underground, according to Basurin.
“The Abakumov and Skochinsky mines lost power, trapping 379 people,” he said, according to Interfax. Later he reported that the Zasyadko mine in Donetsk’s Kiev region had also lost power, trapping a further 576 miners underground.
All of the trapped miners at the Zasyadko mine had been evacuated to the surface by mid-day on Wednesday after “electric power supply was restored,” the DNR Emergencies Ministry said.
40 miners were also rescued at the Skochinsky mine, the ministry added.
Donetsk mayor Martynov says over 3,500 buildings have been damaged since Kiev’s military operation began in Donbass, over 350 of them being completely destroyed.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 08:17