by Stephen Lendman

The signs are ominous. US combat forces are directly aiding Ukraine's military.

It's readying for resumed war on Donbass. Congress wants more heavy weapons sent to Ukraine than already.

They've been covertly supplied since conflict began last April.

According to Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Prime Minister Alexander Zakhsrchenko: "The United States is already supplying weapons there. For instance, in Debaltsevo we saw US ammunition. That’s a lethal weapon."

"NATO planes land at the airports of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv every day."

"Ukraine has not pulled back weapons. It is bringing them back. The pullout was a fake."

Zakharachenko believes junta forces may attack from the south and northwest to separate Donetsk from Lugansk.

"The way I see the situation, I believe there will be three attacks," he said.

"The main group of the Ukrainian forces is concentrated in the areas of Volnovakha, Krasnogolovka, Artyomovsk, Kurakhovo and other communities."

They're positioning to attack. Minsk is dead. Ceasefire is pure fantasy.

Junta forces violated it multiple times daily - over 50 times in the last 24 hours.

The Saker reports Poroshenko acting "as bellicose as ever, making grand statements about everything and running around (like a generalissimo) in battle fatigues."

So far he has Washington's support. For how long remains to be seen.

On Tuesday, Russia's Foreign Ministry blasted US and EU interference in Ukraine, saying:

"The policy of unabashed meddling in the domestic affairs of sovereign states was implemented also in Ukraine where direct US and EU support led to the unconstitutional power change of February 2014 which, in turn, ignited a civil war in southeastern Ukraine."

"Unfortunately, numerous crimes committed against civilians by the Kiev military, the mass killings and the humanitarian catastrophe in Donetsk and Luhansk regions is something those who once bemoaned the human rights abuses in Kosovo just couldn’t care less about."

"The sheer logic of global progress and common threats and challenges urgently begs for collective decisions made within the framework of internationally recognized formats."

Instead, US bellicosity risks setting the entire continent ablaze.

Washington wants Russia eliminated as a global rival. Its aggressiveness may launch WW III.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg repeatedly lies about nonexistent "Russian aggression" in Ukraine.

He said NATO is strengthening its collective defense more than any time since Soviet Russia dissolved.

He lied saying "Russian troops crossed the borders of its neighbors."

"They have annexed a part of another country and that is the first time since the end of the Second World War that that has happened in Europe."

He lied claiming Russian forces in Moldova and Georgia are working to destabilize Eastern Ukraine.

NATO is strengthening its Eastern European presence in readiness for war.

No Russian threat exists. US-dominated NATO invented one as pretext perhaps for war.

Britain marches in lockstep with Washington's imperial agenda.

A report titled "Re-thinking defense to meet new threats" focuses on so-alled "reassurance measures" needed to meet nonexistent Russian threats.

Including menacing large-scale military exercises and beefing up US-led NATO's presence in countries close to Russia's borders.

British MPs want NATO's Eastern European presence enhanced. The report states:

"The US has made it clear that it perceives the UK's commitment as the lynchpin of the broader NATO commitment to increase defense spending."

"The current national security strategy is no longer adequate for this changed world, nor is the future force structure."

"The UK will need to make tough choices within limited resources, about what to do, and perhaps more importantly, what not to do."

"But it is vital to rethink the fundamental assumptions of our defense planning, if we are to help arrest the descent into chaos, which threatens to spread from the Western Mediterranean to the Black Sea."

The report is an exercise in fear-mongering. It's used to justify unjustifiable military spending.

Nonexistent threats are invented. Britain has NATO's second largest defense budget.

It's the EU's largest. Hawkish MPs want UK resources badly needed for other purposes spent preparing for war.

On Wednesday, Normandy Four countries France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine are meeting in Paris.

They're discussing Donbass conditions as this article is being written. In February, they agreed on Minsk ceasefire terms.

Kiev breached them straightaway - like Minsk I and other Russian-spearheaded efforts to end conflict.

Days earlier, Sergey Lavrov called on his French and German counterparts "to immediately take necessary joint steps…to prevent (further) deterioration of the situation."

Ceasefire is more myth than reality. Low-intensity fighting continues, heading for greater escalation.

Just Russia party first deputy chairman Mikhail Emelyanov wants Putin given authorization "to use armed force in Ukraine if the US decides to send sizable arms supplies to that country."

"We believe our parliament should not ignore" America supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons while claiming it seeks peace.

"We should not be shy about supporting the militia, including with weapons and (giving Putin) the right to send military units onto Ukrainian territory."

Moscow can't let Ukraine become an "international militant aimed at Russia," he stressed.

Washington isn't interested in deescalating conflict, he added.

"The US is trying to arm Ukraine at all costs, because it views Ukraine as a country that is tying Russian down, something that the US needs in order to prevent Russia from developing into a superpower."

Russia bashing remains intense. New York Times editors gave feature op-ed space to neocon Henry Jackson Society Russian Studies Center director Andrew Foxall.

He took full advantage repeating the same litany of Big Lies we've heard for months - including nonexistent Russsian "land grab(bing) (and) intimidati(ng) (its) neighbors."

Claiming throughout his tenure, "Mr. Putin has built a system in Russia in which opposition voices are silenced, individual rights are trampled on, freedom of expression is restricted, organized crime is rampant and property rights are arbitrarily enforced."

Truth is polar opposite. Foxall cited the junta controlled Kiev Post lying about "85 incidents of harassment and censorship against reporters in Crimea during March 2014 alone."

Anti-Russian propaganda is intense. Times editors publish some the worst.

They systematically bury hard truths. Neocons like Foxall get feature op-ed space to vilify Putin. He barely stopped short of urging war.

Things head recklessly in this direction. Lunatics in Washington may start WW III.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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