Jeffrey Steinberg

The United States is trying to provoke a confrontation with Russia and using the crisis in Ukraine as an excuse to achieve its goal, a political commentator says. Jeffrey Steinberg, senior editor at Executive Intelligence Review, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday.

“I think, this entire crisis, if you look at it honestly, has been provoked from the United States and some other NATO member countries in Europe. The illegal coup d’état that took place in February was in reaction to the fact that the legally- elected Ukrainian government refused to sign a partnership deal with the European Union that would have meant economic destruction of the country.”

“And that government is violently overthrown by… the children and grand children of the wartime pro-Nazi Ukrainians, who fought with the Axis (the Axis powers) against the Soviet Union, United States, Britain and others in World War Two."

“These violent people carried out the military coup, and the United States and most European countries have refused to acknowledge that, and fully support the overthrow of a legitimately-elected and certified government.”

“Now they have turned against Russia because Russia has told the truth about the neo-Nazi networks deeply involved in the coup, about the illegality of it. So, now Russia is being punished basically for telling the truth and for defending the Russian minorities in Ukraine at a time when they are genuinely under threat."

More »

Finian Cunningham

We know that a massacre happened in the Ukrainian city of Odessa last week in which more than 40 pro-Russian civilian protesters were killed when a public building they were seeking refuge in was deliberately set ablaze by neo-Nazi supporters of the Western-backed Kiev junta.

Apparently, the victims died from the blaze or from smoke inhalation, or when they jumped from windows to the pavement below.

But in the aftermath, new shocking images have been published in various reputable Russian media sources that tell a far more harrowing story.

Photos show victims lying on the floor of the Trade Union building who were only partially burned, with their heads and upper limbs incinerated, the rest of their bodies strangely unscarred.

Suspiciously, in many of the images the surrounding space where the bodies lay bears no evidence of fire damage.

Other victims also appeared to have gunshot wounds to their charred heads. And in one particularly disturbing image, the body of a pregnant woman is photographed bent over backwards on an office desk. The victim appears to have been garrotted; neither her body nor theoffice where her remains were found shows any signs of fire damage.

Russian media report survivor accounts saying that the rooms they were hiding in to escape from the effects of the blaze were broken into by assailants who pretended to be pro-Russian protesters. On entering the offices, those inside were attacked by the intruders.

This suggests that persons associated with the neo-Nazi crowd outside the building somehow gained entry to the Trade Union building and then systematically set about murdering those inside.

More »