Could the fire at the Europe’s largest munitions depot be Ben Hodges’s fault?

After hitting rock bottom will Ukraine begin to rise again? Hitting a rock bottom can be very educational, as I found out this week. After I dropped a piece of chocolate into a tin can with sweetened condensed milk, I decided that one cannot exist on sugar alone and bought a bottle of wine, to add an item of nutritional value to my diet. What else should I consume to keep up with the superhuman energy of our Ukrainian none-brothers?

 

For a starter, a devastating fire at the 65th rocket and artillery arsenal died out on March 24th. Kiev authorities and the state controlled Ukrainian news agencies proclaimed the fire to be “extinguished,” which is their way to tell the world that the monitions depot has burned out of its own.

A Ukrainian Daily News channel posted a video of what’s left of the 65th Arsenal  in Balaklaya

 

The same news channel has also posted a video of some Ukraine military activities titled “How the military extinguished the fire with fire fighting tanks”

The video doesn’t show much with an exception of a serviceman transporting an artillery shell on his shoulder and two others assisting him.

 

The following is data posted by the Ukrainian news channel “Ukraine 112“

“Military unit A 1352 (65th rocket and artillery arsenal) is deployed in the city of Balakliya. Until recently, it has been considered to be the largest place in Europe where different types of ammunition are stored.

It was established in 1918. Its technical area is 368 hectares. According to the passport, this base is designed for 150 thousand tons of ammunition, currently 125 thousand tons are kept there.

As of 2009, approximately 30% of all artillery shells in Ukraine were stored there. The media reported (with reference to some inner sources) that they store ammunition from small-caliber artillery shells to S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, but many of them were to be subjected to utilization. In 2010, Kharkiv regional state administration reported that the military unit A 1352 in Balakliya was by 20% loaded with ammunition; it was quite risky, so the object has been gradually unloaded.”

 

The last sentence gently guides us to a conclusion that for the past seven years, the load of ammunition was “gradually” “utilized” due to the “risks” of its “storage.”

I am sorry… I am laughing so hard, that I can barely type. God bless the Ukrainian journalists, they have got some ways with words that we have not even started to explore.

The Ukraine 112 channel confirms our common suspicion that the 65th Arsenal has been practically emptied out at the time of the fire. The most obvious reason is that the depot is located just 150 kilometers from Donetsk and was the source of munitions for the war on Donbass.

There are, however, a few other reasons why Ukraine is running out of its weapons, and few other places these weapons are going.

After the separation from the USSR in 1993, Ukraine had the largest military force in the world, after the US and Russia. The largest supply of the Soviet Union weaponry, like tanks, artillery, fighter jets, bombers, fire weapons and ammunition of all kinds, got concentrated on the territory of Ukraine. I personally believe that this was done by the people who divided the USSR with a war between Ukraine and Russia in mind.

Over the past twenty five years Ukraine has been the largest vendor of the Soviet made weapon in the world.  “In the wake of the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited from the USSR one of the biggest military-industrial complexes, employing over 3 million people at more than 3,000 enterprises across the republic. Twenty-four years later a mere 140 such enterprises are still at work.” says the news-front’s report, “How Ukraine sells its weapons” due to an ongoing scandal over Ukrainian-made explosives and armor plates seized by Syrian armed forces from Daesh terrorists.

Just recently there were some sightings of the Cyprus-flagged cargo reefer with alleged load of illicit Ukrainian weapons destined for the North Africa.

 

What precipitated this fire, however, was the visit to Ukraine of Lt. Gen.  Ben Hodges, a commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. His visit was announced by the Ukrainian extremist nationalist online outlet maintained by SBU called censor.net. An announcement came just a few hours before the Arsenal went up in flames.

“Hodges visits Ukraine: NATO’s efforts to deter Russian aggression …en.censor.net.ua/…/us_army_europe_commander_hodges_visits_ukraine_asks_ukrain…3 days ago – Frederick Ben Hodges, commander, U.S. Army Europe visited Ukraine’s National Defense”

 

I can’t find any second source confirmation for this visit, with one exception being this video taken on March 23rd by someone in Balaklaya. At 1:30 a person on the video says that the arsenal was expecting some kind of foreign military commission that was supposed to do an inspection of the supplies, and that’s why he believes the depot was blown up.

It could be that this commission was visiting Ukraine in preparation to a full-fledged deployment  of the American ground troops to Ukraine.

Over the past three years, the US conducted ongoing deployment of its military servicemen to Ukraine, with no prove that any of the troops have ever left the country. Some 10,000 US Marines are guarding Poroshenko’s residence and Kiev authorities.

This is just one November 2016 announcement of deployment:  “1 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Oklahoma Army National Guardsmen with 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT), conduct squad-level lane training Nov. 22, 2016, during their pre-mobilization at Camp Gruber Training Center (CGTC), near Braggs, Oklahoma, in preparation for their deployment to Ukraine. The 179th is the first of two six-month rotations to the Ukraine as part of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, a training mission focused on providing defensive and security training to Ukrainian forces within the U.S. Security Cooperation agreement. (Photo Credit: 1st Lt. Leanna Litsch) VIEW ORIGINAL “

 

There are many indications that the US troops are the driving force behind the war on Donbass.

On March 22nd,  addressing the US Congress Curtis Michael “Mike” Scaparrotti, a four-star general in the United States Army, and is the current Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations, said

“In terms of lethal support, the Ukrainians are in a very tough fight which you saw. They are very disciplined soldiers, but they are facing what we say are separatists, they are actually Russian proxies in my mind. They are being provided very lethal equipment; the Russians are providing the separatists that.”

 

Following his speech, on the night between March 22nd and 23rd, the munitions depot near Kharkov went up in flames.

On March 23rd, President Poroshenko announced on his twitter that he ordered his power ministers to bring the NATO troops to Ukraine.

Kharkov region has started its descent into hell, with thousands of people evacuating, and the national guards taking over the region and immediately, claiming a need to “fight with marauders” have started the arrests of the locals who  refused to leave their houses.

 

Prime Minister of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman promised seven days of this hell.

A few hours later everything suddenly stopped.

Don’t’ tell me that it’s because of the Friday night and  Sabbath.

There are two things I want you to think about while I am researching further.

First, a radioactive level in the region went many times up.  Chief military Prosecutor Anatoly Matios has denied on Friday that Ukraine has any nuclear weapons.

Second, a few hours ago witnesses reported powerful explosions around the Mariupol region, which is south from Kharkov. According to the statement issued by the  “command of an anti-terrorist operation,” explosions were controlled and conducted due to the “scheduled utilization of munitions.”

 

to be continued

 

Scott Humor