Before dawn broke in Washington on Saturday, \u201cUkrainian pro-Russian separatists\u201d \u2013 more accurately described as federalists of southeast Ukraine who oppose last February\u2019s coup in Kiev \u2013 unloaded desperately needed provisions from some 280 Russian trucks in Luhansk, Ukraine. The West accused those trucks of \u201cinvading\u201d Ukraine on Friday, but it was a record short invasion; after delivering their loads of humanitarian supplies, many of the trucks promptly returned to Russia.<\/p>\n
I happen to know what a Russian invasion looks like, and this isn\u2019t it. Forty-six years ago, I was ten miles from the border of Czechoslovakia when Russian tanks stormed in to crush the \u201cPrague Spring\u201d experiment in democracy. The attack was brutal.<\/p>\n
Once back in Munich, West Germany, where my duties included substantive liaison with Radio Free Europe, I experienced some of the saddest moments of my life listening to radio station after radio station on the Czech side of the border playing Smetana\u2019s patriotic “Ma vlast” (My Homeland) before going silent for more than two decades.<\/p>\n
I was not near the frontier between Russia and southeastern Ukraine on Friday as the convoy of some 280 Russian supply trucks started rolling across the border heading toward the federalist-held city of Luhansk, but that \u201cinvasion\u201d struck me as more like an attempt to break a siege, a brutal method of warfare that indiscriminately targets all, including civilians, violating the principle of noncombatant immunity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Michael Walzer, in his War Against Civilians<\/i>, notes that \u201cmore people died in the 900-day siege of Leningrad during WWII than in the infernos of Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki taken together.\u201d So the Russians have some strong feelings about sieges.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a personal side for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was born in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, eight years after the long siege by the German army ended. It is no doubt a potent part of his consciousness. One elder brother, Viktor, died of diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad.<\/p>\n
The Siege of Luhansk<\/b><\/p>\n
Despite the fury expressed by U.S. and NATO officials about Russia\u2019s unilateral delivery of the supplies after weeks of frustrating negotiations with Ukrainian authorities, there was clearly a humanitarian need. An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team that visited Luhansk on Aug. 21 to make arrangements for the delivery of aid found<\/a> water and electricity supplies cut off because of damage to essential infrastructure.<\/p>\n The Ukrainian army has been directing artillery fire into the city in an effort to dislodge the ethnic Russian federalists, many of whom had supported elected President Viktor Yanukovych who was ousted in the Feb. 22 coup.<\/p>\n The Red Cross team reported that people in Luhansk do not leave their homes for fear of being caught in the middle of ongoing fighting, with intermittent shelling into residential areas placing civilians at risk. Laurent Corbaz, ICRC head of operations for Europe and Central Asia, reported \u201can urgent need for essentials like food and medical supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n The ICRC stated that it had \u201ctaken all necessary administrative and preparatory steps for the passage of the Russian convoy,\u201d and that, \u201cpending customs checks,\u201d the organization was \u201ctherefore ready to deliver the aid to Luhansk … provided assurances of safe passage are respected.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201csafe passage\u201d requirement, however, was the Catch-22. The Kiev regime and its Western supporters have resisted a ceasefire or a political settlement until the federalists \u2013 deemed \u201cterrorists\u201d by Kiev \u2013 lay down their arms and surrender.<\/p>\n Accusing the West of repeatedly blocking a \u201chumanitarian armistice,\u201d a Russian Foreign Ministry statement cited both Kiev’s obstructionist diplomacy and \u201cmuch more intensive bombardment of Luhansk\u201d on Aug. 21, the day after some progress had been made on the ground regarding customs clearance and border control procedures: \u201cIn other words, the Ukrainian authorities are bombing the destination [Luhansk] and are using this as a pretext to stop the delivery of humanitarian relief aid.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Decision to Act\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n Referring to these \u201cintolerable\u201d delays and \u201cendless artificial demands and pretexts,\u201d the Foreign Ministry said, \u201cThe Russian side has decided to act.\u201d And there the statement’s abused, plaintive tone ended sharply \u2013 with this implied military threat:<\/p>\n \u201cWe are warning against any attempts to thwart this purely humanitarian mission. … Those who are ready to continue sacrificing human lives to their own ambitions and geopolitical designs and are rudely trampling on the norms and principles of international humanitarian law will assume complete responsibility for the possible consequences of provocations against the humanitarian relief convoy.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite all the agreements and understandings that Moscow claims were reached earlier with Ukrainian authorities, Kiev insists it did not give permission for the Russian convoy to cross its border and that the Russians simply violated Ukrainian sovereignty \u2013 no matter the exigent circumstances they adduce.<\/p>\n More alarming still, Russia\u2019s \u201cwarning\u201d could be construed as the Kremlin claiming the right to use military force within Ukraine itself, in order to protect such humanitarian supply efforts \u2013 and perhaps down the road, to protect the anti-coup federalists, as well.<\/p>\n The risk of escalation, accordingly, will grow in direct proportion to the restraint exercised by not only the Ukrainian armed forces but also their militias of neo-fascists who have been dispatched by Kiev as frontline shock troops in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n Though many Russian citizens have crossed the border in support of their brethren in eastern Ukraine, Moscow has denied dispatching or controlling these individuals. But now there are Russians openly acknowledged to have been sent by Moscow into Ukraine \u2013 even if only \u201cpilots\u201d of \u201cRussian military vehicles painted to look like civilian trucks,\u201d as the White House depicted the humanitarian mission.<\/p>\n Moscow\u2019s move is a difficult one to parry, except for those \u2013 and there are many, both in Kiev and in Washington \u2013 who would like to see the situation escalate to a wider East-West armed confrontation. One can only hope that, by this stage, President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union realize they have a tiger by the tail.<\/p>\n The coup regime in Kiev knows which side its bread is buttered on, so to speak, and can be expected to heed the advice from the US and the EU if it is expressed forcefully and clearly. Not so the fanatics of the extreme right party Svoboda and the armed \u201cmilitia\u201d comprised of the Right Sector. Moreover, there are influential neo-fascist officials in key Kiev ministries who dream of cleansing eastern Ukraine of as many ethnic Russians as possible.<\/p>\n Thus, the potential for serious mischief and escalation has grown considerably. Even if Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wants to restrain his hardliners, he may be hard-pressed to do so. Thus, the US government could be put in the unenviable position of being blamed for provocations \u2013 even military attacks on unarmed Russian truck drivers \u2013 over which it has little or no control.<\/p>\n Giving Hypocrisy a Bad Name<\/b><\/p>\n The White House second-string P.R. team came off the bench on Friday, with the starters on vacation, and it was not a pretty scene. Even if one overlooks the grammatical mistakes, the statement they cobbled together left a lot to be desired.<\/p>\n It began: \u201cToday, in violation of its previous commitments and international law, Russian military vehicles painted to look like civilian trucks forced their way into Ukraine. …<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ukrainian government and the international community have repeatedly made clear that this convoy would constitute a humanitarian mission only if expressly agreed to by the Ukrainian government and only if the aid was inspected, escorted and distributed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). We can confirm that the ICRC is not escorting the vehicles and has no role in managing the mission. …<\/p>\n \u201cRussian military vehicles piloted by Russian drivers have unilaterally entered the territory controlled by the separatist forces.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House protested that Kiev had not \u201cexpressly agreed\u201d to allow the convoy in without being escorted by the ICRC. Again, the Catch 22 is obvious. Washington has been calling the shots, abetting Kiev\u2019s dawdling as the supply trucks sat at the border for a week while Kiev prevented the kind of ceasefire that the ICRC insists upon before it will escort such a shipment.<\/p>\n The other issue emphasized in the White House statement was inspection of the trucks: \u201cWhile a small number of these vehicles were inspected by Ukrainian customs officials, most of the vehicles have not been inspected by anyone but Russia.\u201d During a press conference at the UN on Friday, Russia\u2019s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin took strong exception to that charge, claiming not only that 59 Ukrainian inspectors had been looking through the trucks on the Russian side of the border, but that media representatives had been able to choose for themselves which trucks to examine.<\/p>\n Regardless of this latest geopolitical back-and-forth, it\u2019s clear that Moscow\u2019s decision to send the trucks across the border marked a new stage of the civil war in Ukraine. As Putin prepares to meet with Ukrainian President Poroshenko next week in Minsk \u2013 and as NATO leaders prepare for their summit on Sept. 4 to 5 in Wales \u2013 the Kremlin has put down a marker: there are limits to the amount of suffering that Russia will let Kiev inflict on the anti-coup federalists and ethnic Russian civilians right across the border.<\/p>\n The Russians\u2019 attitude seems to be that if the relief convoys can be described as an invasion of sovereign territory, so be it. Nor are they alone in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n On Friday at the UN, Russian Ambassador Churkin strongly objected to comments that, by its behavior, Russia found itself isolated. Churkin claimed that some of the Security Council members were \u201csensitive to the Russian position \u2013 among them China and the countries of Latin America.\u201d (Argentina and Chile are currently serving as non-permanent members of the Security Council.)<\/p>\n The Polemic and Faux Fogh<\/b><\/p>\n Charter members of the Fawning Corporate Media are already busily at work, including the current FCM dean, the New York Times\u2019 Michael R. Gordon<\/a>, who was at it again with a story titled \u201cRussia Moves Artillery Units Into Ukraine, NATO Says<\/a>.\u201d Gordon\u2019s \u201cscoop\u201d was all over the radio and TV news; it was picked up by NPR and other usual suspects who disseminate these indiscriminate alarms.<\/p>\n Gordon, who never did find those Weapons of Mass Destruction that he assured us were in Iraq, now writes: \u201cThe Russian military has moved artillery units manned by Russian personnel inside Ukrainian territory in recent days and was using them to fire at Ukrainian forces, NATO officials said on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n His main source seems to be NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who famously declared in 2003, \u201cIraq has WMDs. It is not something we think; it is something we know.\u201d Cables released by WikiLeaks have further shown the former Danish prime minister to be a tool of Washington.<\/p>\n However, Gordon provided no warning to Times\u2019 readers about Rasmussen\u2019s sorry track record for accuracy. Nor did the Times remind its readers about Gordon\u2019s sorry history of getting sensitive national security stories wrong.<\/p>\n Surely, the propaganda war will be stoked by what happened on Friday. Caveat emptor.<\/p>\n Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. After serving as an Army infantry\/intelligence officer, he spent a 27-year career as a CIA analyst. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).<\/i><\/p>\n