In April of the 2014 Kiev launched a military operation in the eastern provinces to suppress the revolt of the Russian-speaking part of the country against the violent change of power (facts of Maidan).
The war events followed involved population centers, infrastructures and large sections of the defenseless population causing the death of thousands of civilians.
Little of this has appeared in the Western media which portrayed the Russians as fomenters of the uprising and primarily responsible for those events.
Currently in the Donbass the armistice derived from the Minsk agreements is officially in force, despite both Kiev and the authorities of the DNR, report continuous violations of the ceasefire.
The assurances given by NATO on the strengthening of the defensive / offensive system of Eastern Europe and the massive military exercises of NATO troops (including units of the Italian Army) along the northwestern border of Russia encouraged Ukrainian leader Poroshenko to feed the "Front" by sending heavy vehicles and artillery near the line of contact between the parties, despite official assurances. In the Pervomáiskoe area, one of the many Donbass localities destroyed during the fighting, the redeployment of at least 14 artillery systems, 13 tanks and six Grad rocket systems was observed.
It is likely that the Kiev government is preparing a new offensive to recover the territories controlled by the separatists.
Despite the possibility of a new offensive remains in fact still on paper, the only risk of escalation could precipitate the situation and provoke the direct intervention of Moscow in defense of the Russians of the Donbass.
The bellicose declarations of NATO Secretary Stoltenberg during the recent Warsaw summit and the harsh stance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel towards Russia, contribute to raising the tension, making real the risk that the military situation between Moscow or the West will precipitate.
From antagonistic sectors and from those who for decades railed against NATO's "war-fighting militarism", few voices of protest have been raised. The dynamism of NATO today goes quietly above all in the environments that until Moscow looked to Moscow as the ideal interlocutor.
Peace evidently takes on a different value depending on the color of the flags.
(Adriano Tocchi, President of the National Paratroopers Association of Italy)
(photo: DO)
