Friday, October 31, 2014

The 'Cyborg' Defenders Of Donetsk Airport

The airport's main terminal is now a shell, only two years after it was opened

Ukraine Conflict: The 'Cyborg' Defenders Of Donetsk Airport -- BBC

Mention a cyborg to a Ukrainian these days and they probably won't think of "cybernetic organisms", or man-machines of science fiction. Instead, the word now conjures up images of rugged, heavily armed men holed up inside what remains of Donetsk Airport in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

The airport has become a symbol of Ukraine's fight against separatists, and the "cyborgs" are Ukrainians who have held on to it despite persistent rebel attack.

The nickname was first used online and has since become a media staple in Ukraine. It stuck, because to some the Donetsk airport defenders' exploits have appeared superhuman.

The separatists have been trying to capture the airport since May, allegedly with backing from the Russian military.

Read more ....

My Comment: In western Ukraine they are heroes ....  in eastern Ukraine they are occupiers and murderers. As to what is my pint of view .... they should leave. All that these Ukrainian soldiers and 'volunteers' are now doing is ranching up the hatred between and east and west and making any sliver of hope for reconciliation in the new year next to impossible.

13 comments:

Jay Farquharson said...

Rumour is, of a new ATO, a pincer strike to cut off and surround, Donetsk, before winter, which if sucessful, would "kill" the Autonamous Republics.

Rhaegar said...

I agree, also what is your view on the huge separatist military movments near Mariupol?

Also did you post that Putin speech earlier this month? If not I posted some sources reffering to it in the Pentagon Warns SEAL who shot Bin Laden Not to go on FOX News post.

War News Updates Editor said...

I did post on Putin's speech Rhaegar. If memory serves me correct it was last week.

War News Updates Editor said...

Thank you for the links on Putin's speech Rhaegar

Rhaegar said...

Ok, sorry must have missed it, and also you're welcome

mlacix said...

Graham Philips making a good coverage of this battle but from the rebel's side. We see both side, very personally, and most of them are totally normal people, without way too much radical ideologies and so, but still they fighting against each other and die for a reason. As the article write for some the defenders are heroes and the rebels are the bad ones but on the other side everything just the opposite, and Motorola, Givi and others are the heroes. Whoever want to get a closer and actual view into this are I just could recommend to follow the already mentioned Graham Philip's video reports in this subject. In the actual military situation I expect the UA to retreat / loose without major reinforces before the end of this year.

Rhaegar said...

I agree, and thank you for the recomadation, just to ask does Graham Philips use subtitles on his videoes? Since one of the huge problmes I have when I read the separatist sources is that they are always in eighter Ukrainian or Russian, it's fine with text since i use google translate but on videoes it's a huge problem, but I shall check him out. Also thank you for separtist sources since my opinion is that the separatists have very little news coverage from their side, while the Ukrainian government has the media support of the whole west, so it's nice to get some youtube videos from separtists perspective, are there any other sources that report from separatist perspective? I would preffer the articles to be in english, and the videoes it, would nice if they are texted/spoken in english or in Norwegian, since thats my motherlanguage.

mlacix said...

He upload videos with and without subtitles, but when the name of the video is in English it's mostly mean he will put subtitles on it. Also because he is from the UK he usualy commentate whatever happening to make it easier to understand even without subs. To be honest I not really trust any news source from the Ukrainian conflict since both side "twist" the informations on their own favor. Graham is great on the quality of the videos, the subtitles and the rare footages such as the training with Vostok battalion and being burried alive. All those videos just let us see this conflict from a different point of view which is rarely seen related to any conflict.

Other than that AnnaNews (Abkhasian National News Agency) was a good channel and with the Syrian conflict cooverage they made an awesome job but in Ukraine they just went to almost full propaganda. Still sometimes they cover some interesting event that not really got attention, for example a few day ago rebels ambushed a UA convoy, destroying 1 tank and 2-3 APC. The video quality great but no subtitles sadly. Upon that I mostly using different blogs (russian ones, which not specified to this conflict only) to find videos and images. I not really searching for text based news.

Rhaegar said...

Thank you for all of this info, good to know. I agree with you that you shall always take what you read with a pinche of salt, since there is always bias in a media, but it's often very subtle. Just to ask can you read Russian or do you use google translate to translate the Russian text to english? I did that when I read Strelkovs blogg, also just to ask does the Donetsk Peoples Republic have a official website? And just to ask which side in this conflict do you suport or are you neutral? Its totaly fine if you don't want to answer that question, if it's to personal I understand.

mlacix said...

No I do not speak Russian, yet. I already started learning it, but I'm just at the beginning. I not really seen a well organised DPR website nowadays, maybe some months ago I found something, but I'm not sure in that. Thats not mean it's not exist, we just don't know about it yet.

Since I monitoring conflicts sometimes I "picked" a side, but not all the time. For example in this conflict I do not support any side. I think both side equally responsible on what happening there now. I not see it on this way all the times, like for example I "supported" the governments in the Lybia, Syria, Mali and Sudan conflicts, but "support" is not the right word for that. I do actually not support them, I just see them as a "best" (but still bad) solution to end a conflict. In Ukraine both side take their parts to be here now, but instead of name which side I agree the most, I would say the ones I blame the most for this situation, and they are the radical Ukrainins. If back in March the moderated political elements would stood up against the radical element in Kiev, I belive this conflict could been ended without blood. Having National feeling and being a normal Nationalist view is okey, and I respect that, but all the thing they did in Kiev in this Spring, was something I cannot accept. I don't hide that I could never agree with any form of radicalism, and here in Hungary I experiance how bad it is. Not easy to be neutral when you choose from the news sources you have, and feeling led everyone, but I try to keep neutral and objective as possible, to find the informations which stand the closest to reality.

War News Updates Editor said...

Yes Laszlo .... if the extreme Ukrainian nationalists were stopped in implementing their anti-Russian legislation after the revolution .... laws that were later rescinded by the interim Ukrainian government as too decisive and discriminatory .... this conflict would not have happened. Too little .... too late .... and now we have this utter mess.

mlacix said...

Yes WNU. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet and TV, almost every information can be shared and wars also got their own coverages. Peoples all around the world have the chance to hear the news, learn from others mistakes but still they geting into conflicts that cause all these deaths. This all just make me very sad. Back in when protesting started in Syria or in Ukraine, how many protesters would thougt this will be the result? Probably none or just a very few, while it was clear it's just a mater of time what will come after some decision. Some just stood up for a reason like corruption or "lack" of democracy, which is fully understandable. But then came the other elements and took away the lead and changed the goals. During the last few years I only remember for one country where they made the right move and by that they avoided the war, and it was Tunisia during the Arab spring. Sadly no other country and peoples followed their example.

Hamilcar Barca said...

Wow the blog dude just sayd that he is taking the Ukrainian terrorist side ? Probably next time he will say that ISIS are pacifist.