Comment: As Poroshenko and NATO ramp up the bellicose war rhetoric, and attacks against civilian targets in eastern Ukraine, under the justification that regular Russian military forces are in Ukraine, the OSCE has AGAIN stated that there are NO RUSSIAN TROOPS OR MILITARY EQUIPMENT IN UKRAINE.

The OSCE, by the way, is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Like NATO, its membership spans North America, Europe and also Asia. Unlike NATO, however, it does not conduct military offensives under US control. In other words, it has no vested interest in advancing American geopolitical aims in Eurasia.


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Liar, liar, pants on fire
The chorus of allegations about a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has President Poroshenko calling for an emergency meeting of the country's security and defense council, while the Prime Minister Yatsenyuk is calling for a Russian asset freeze.

"I have made a decision to cancel my working visit to the Republic of Turkey due to sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk region, particularly in Amvrosiivka and Starobeshevo, as Russian troops were brought into Ukraine," Petro Poroshenko said in a statement on his website.

The Russian representative to the OSCE Andrey Kelin has given a firm response to the allegations, saying that "We have said that no Russian involvement has been spotted, there are no soldiers or equipment."

"Accusations relating to convoys of armored personnel carriers have been heard during the past week and the week before that," he said. "All of them were proven false back then, and is being proven false again now."

"There is no sense in these accusations,"
he said.

Yet, Ukraine is going to call for a meeting of the UN Security Council, said Poroshenko.

"The world must provide assessment of sharp aggravation of the situation in Ukraine," he added.

Poroshenko added that on Thursday there will be a meeting of Security and Defense Council to elaborate the plan for further action.

"The President must stay in Kyiv today," he said.

As with previous allegations of smuggled troops, equipment and other underhand tactics, no evidence has been offered.

Given the confusion arising out of the recent capture of alleged Russian paratroopers and the subsequent videos with interviews released by the Ukrainians, the government is going to the US, EU and the G7 to ask for a freeze on Russian assets.

Meanwhile, the OSCE has announced that it's calling an emergency meeting in Vienna - for the second time in August - giving no further details.

Yet when the head of its Ukraine mission, Paul Picard, was asked if the monitoring team saw any evidence of Russia crossing the border with troops and tanks, the answer was "no." He told journalists of round-the-clock surveillance by a team of 16 people. The team said "we are hearing shooting, but it's difficult to tell just how far."

This didn't stop the Ukrainian government from alleging that the border town of Novoazovsky in the south-east has fallen under Russian control - a mix of troops and members of the eastern-Ukrainian uprising.

"We only know that the mayor of Novoazovsk said that after 10 rounds of artillery were heard, the Ukrainian soldiers retreated from the city, and the self-defense forces entered," Kelin said.

He added that "the Ukrainian ambassador has offered no claims to counter this information."