Julia Davis

Russian military regulars fighting in Ukraine is an open secret –a “secret de Polichinelle.” Putin’s ghost army is ravaging the Ukrainian countryside, while Russian officials continue to deny their presence in a neighboring country, brazenly lying to the world. Russia is quietly transporting its wounded soldiers,checking them into hospitals after-hours and omitting their names from the general registries. The dead of Russia’s undeclared war against Ukraine are being buried in secret. Injured survivors are ordered not to admit where the said injuries occurred, at the risk of losing military benefits. Their families are also discouraged from speaking out.  Russian government labeled the non-profit group Soldiers' Mothers a “foreign agent,” after its chairman, Ella Polyakova (also a member of the Kremlin's human rights council) openly stated that Russian soldiers were fighting in Ukraine. Russia’s former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov was gunned down near Kremlin wa...

President of Russia Vladimir Putin arrogantly scoffed at the defeat of the Ukrainian military in Debaltseve, gloating at their “shame” of losing the battle “to yesterday’s coal miners and tractor drivers.” In reality, Ukraine is fighting against Russian military that is hiding behind the fraying veil of local “separatists.” Much like Russia’s “little green men” in Crimea, Ukraine is crawling with regular Russian troops and armaments. Russia is using its most sophisticated weaponry in eastern Ukraine, including the truck-mounted SA-22 surface-to-air missile system (Pantsir-S1). Ukraine does not possess these types of weapon systems, which immediately dispels ludicrous claims of separatists about “capturing” weaponry from the Ukrainian armed forces. Russian media dropped the pretense of tractor-driving local separatists with the recent report published by Ilya Barabanov in Russia’s newspaper “Kommersant.” It confirms longstanding reports by Ukrainian soldiers that they were figh...