by GH Eliason for The Saker Blog

For 5 years Ukraine has bamboozled supporters by using” independent” researchers like Bellingcat that work with Ukraine’s Intel to fabricate its innocence.

On November 25th, the Kerch incident happened, worsening the West’s relationship with Russia ahead of the G-20 Meeting in Argentina.

Seemingly right on cue, Russian planners couldn’t find anything better to do than cause another major international incident right in front of the entire world. They did this even as Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to meet with US President Donald Trump. The formal meeting that never happened was canceled because of Ukraine’s hyper histrionics.

Special Rep for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker wasted no time getting on Ukraine’s already crashing wagon by citing Bellingcat’s conclusion that the Ukrainian ships “may have been” fired on in international waters. Bellingcat suspects the Russian ships may have been 500 yards outside of their territory. This flaccid statement by Bellingcat is all Volker and Ukraine found to stand behind.

Volker is undeterred even though the Bellingcat report’s only value is to spin another nut into Ukraine’s InfoWar machine.

Bellingcat is a western based arm of Ukrainian Intel and InfoWar. Bellingcat OSINT school attendance can be cross-referenced against people from Ukraine and the various Diasporas supporting a nationalist Ukraine or Syria. When Ukrainian supporters at the seminars are multiplied by a per seat value, we can know exactly who built Bellingcat’s reputation and how Bellingcat receives financing.

When Bellingcat’s OSINT results are looked at against Ukrainian Intel, Bellingcat is anti-American, anti-Democracy, against Christianity, against free-speech,  support Ukraine’s Bandera nationalists and ISIS.

In fact, the same Ukrainian Intel groups who provide Bellingcat with its Syrian and Ukrainian Intelligence did the official Opposition Research on Candidate Donald Trump in 2016. To do this the Ukrainian operatives were given access to US State Department and DNC servers.

They say openly these groups feed Bellingcat important information from their Ukrainian perspective for Bellingcat’s inciteful’ and fanciful reports. Ukrainian Intel and Bellingcat work together through the Atlantic Council and its DFR Lab.

On Ukraine’s InformNapalm (Ukraine OSINT and hackers) website under “Our Main Achievements, InformNapalm claims they were the ones identifying people involved in the shootdown of Flight MH17 over the occupied Donbas “(this information was used in the reports by our colleagues from Bellingcat team).”

In other words, Bellingcat merely provided an acceptable funnel for the information to be made public through.

The Ukrainians will be thrilled to step out of the shadows because Bellingcat doesn’t do much without them. They are financed by Ukrainian Diaspora groups like the Ukrainian Congressional Committee of America (UCCA) and the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC).

Both of these Ukrainian Diaspora groups bought the bullets for Ukraine’s Maidan coup in 2014. The UCCA is the Ukrainian Diaspora’s lobby in the US Congress and Senate. They lobby for funding Ukrainian political nazis and ISIS in Syria.

Groups associated with Bellingcat like InformNapalm which contain Ukraine’s OSINT, State Hacking, InfoWar, and CyberWar teams had Russian all-stars working for it in 2014-2016.

They provided Huma Abedin’s hacked State Department passwords. Afterward, they were indicted by Mueller for the DNC hacks and Russian election interference. For some reason, Mueller forgot the group and country (Ukraine) they were working with is the same group Bellingcat works with at the Ukrainian Information Ministry (InformNapalm).

What’s all this have to do with the Kerch incident?

If these groups which are providing Intel to the EU and US about Ukraine, Russia, and Syria only give highly politicized propaganda through services like Bellingcat, it’s only a matter of time before Ukraine starts WWIII.

 Information fabricated by Ukrainian Intel making it into the US President’s Daily Briefing (PDB) is influencing US and EU policies on a daily basis.  If Kurt Volker is citing the Ukrainian Intel fed Bellingcat reports in an official capacity, that is the information Donald Trump was given in the PDB which defines current threats to the USA.

Does the US have a functioning Intel agency left or is everything farmed out to the private sector?

Back in the day, the US had Intel agencies that someone like Bellingcat’s Eliot Higgins could quote in a historical sense because no current information was available.

Now, the same Intel agencies that report to the President of the United States through the PDB quote groups like Bellingcat that have no real qualifications and use highly politicized information provided by 3rd rate software jockeys otherwise known as Ukraine Cyber Alliance and CyberHunta (Pravy Sektor nationalists) whose connection is provided by the Atlantic Council its DFR Lab.

Time and again, Ukrainian neo-Nazi Intel groups refer to Bellingcat as their western counterpart. The neo-Nazis make it clear Bellingcat is part of Ukraine’s Intel team.

Why is Kurt Volker showcasing the Ukraine’s Intel groups that worked to overthrow candidate Trump in 2016? This is the same Ukrainian Intel group the Chalupa sisters used to accuse Trump of colluding with Russia. This is the same Bellingcat that wants to destroy the Trump presidency today.

Elliot Higgins Bellingcat counterparts in Ukraine also known as InformNapalm, RUH8, Ukraine Cyber Alliance, and CyberHunta put over 40 journalists, politicians, and activists on the Myrotvorets death list in November 2018. Their crime was documenting, reporting, and observing the elections in Donbass.

” I am a hacker, and my goal is to To break, spoil, rob, entangle, blackmail, frighten, divulge, mock and mock the defenselessness of the victims. Because I can. Hate is my name. I will harm the Russian Federation. And I do not care who you are — a liberal or a guardian, Russians must suffer.  Traitors and spongers of Russian invaders must suffer.  Pensioners and functionaries, Buryats and October, must suffer.  If I find a way how to harm you, even for a penny, I immediately use it.  Do you live in Russia?  Bad luck.  I will not tolerate, will not be merciful, I do not forget and do not forgive.”-RUH8,  aka Sean Townsend  -Ukrainian Intel Hacker, Atlantic Council DFR Lab, InformNapalm, CyberHunta, Ukraine Cyber Alliance, DNC Opposition Researcher for Team Clinton

As an American who believes in the 1st Amendment, I am shocked Special Rep Volker entertains information coming from the worst of the worst neo-nazi groups in the world (Pravy Sektor). They say they want to get the US and EU into a hot war with Russia. That’s the goal.

According to the hackers, information from Ukraine’s neo-nazi Intel operators RUH8 is what Bellingcat reports are based in. He provides the information. When discussing Ukraine Intel, RFE/RL had no problem using RUH8 as an in-house expert throughout the Obama years.

This information has made its way into the US President’s Daily Briefing (PDB) since 2015 through the Clinton and Kerry staffed US State Department. Because of that, this little intellectually and morally bankrupt stump of a Ukrainian neo-nazi has more say on what’ going on in US policy than the many sane voices in US Government.

How closely do the US State Department and Bellingcat’s Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Intel sources work together?

If you want Bellingcat information closer to the source about Syria or Ukraine, contact Ukrainian Intel manager Kristina Dobrovolska for the first-hand data. She works with InformNapalm, CyberHunta, the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance, Ukrainian Intelligence, the Ukrainian Information Ministry, and the US State Department.

Shown in the article linked directly above about her, this Ukrainian Spy Handler also works as a liaison and interpreter for the US State Department through the embassy in Kiev. She managed the Ukrainian DNC opposition research team that interfered in the 2016 US elections through her dual position with Ukraine’s Informnapalm and Ukraine’s Information Ministry.

She can be reached through the US State Department, or you can reach her through Alexandra Chalupa, Andrea Chalupa, and Irena Chalupa at the Atlantic Council.

Her boss Dmytro Zolotukhin  @ua_intelligence is the Deputy Information Minister in Ukraine. The Information Ministry handles Ukraine’s Cyberwar, Infowar, and Ukraine’s Information Operations. Together, they are personally responsible for Ukraine’s murder list website Myrotvorets. Along with more than 40 other politicians and journalists, they put me on their official death list in November 2018.

During training sessions held in Kharkov, Ukraine during 2015, Zolotukin acknowledged Bellingcat’s Aric Toler as his American counterpart and representative of their Bellingcat team. He did this officially. This is weird because Toler has no US government position and therefore has no official Ukrainian government counterpart.

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that Bellingcat and Aric Toler work for Ukraine’s Intel and Ukraine’s Information War team.

Should the Ukrainian hacker Sean Townsend aka RUH8 have any input in Ukrainian, EU, NATO, or US foreign policy? That is the real question that needs answering. By providing the information or adding insight into the US President’s Daily Briefing (PDB) through their assets at Bellingcat says Ukrainian Intel hacker RUH8 does exactly that.

As an example of how probable the impossible can be, in late 2016, as soon as it became convenient, Townsend, RUH8 disavowed his Russian colleagues who provided the so-called Surkov Leaks to Ukrainian Intel and gave Mueller someone to prosecute for 2016 election interference. From 2014 through 2016, Shaltay Boltay (Fancy Bear) was part of Ukraine’s RUH8s Cyber Alliance and CyberHunta.

Does Neo-Nazi RUH8 (Sean Townsend) complete his only goal by starting a war between the US, EU, NATO, & Russia? His group of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Diaspora operatives is where Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council, and some members of US government get Eastern European and Syrian (pro-ISIS) Intel.

Is this a credible source for Intelligence that governments should pay attention to?

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur is a perfect example of this. She supports both Ukrainian nationalism and ISIS members in Ukraine. Kaptur said Americans owe the families of her Nazi SS serving nationalist cousins in Ukraine an apology for fighting them in WWII. Kaptur offered a eulogy for one Ukrainian ISIS member killed in Ukraine.

Should US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker @SpecRepUkraine listen to a Pravy Sektor Neo-Nazi RUH8 and its associated group Bellingcat for Intel and policy decisions?

Pravy Sektor became famous during the overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2014. They believe in a fascist totalitarian violent nationalism. If you disagree with them, they will torture and murder you if given the chance.

Special Rep Volker provides Intel and insight directly into Donald Trump’s PDB. He’s the guy that’s supposed to know what’s going on in Ukraine. He should be relying on US agencies, not groups that want to overthrow his president.

How pervasive is Ukrainian nationalist thought in US diplomacy? Does the following sound like a career Diplomat or the same Ukrainian neo-nazi  Sean Townsend?

“We want the Russians to absorb the message that they need to release the crews or there will be consequences and the pain will grow over time.”  Anonymous Special Briefing Senior State Department Official Washington, DC December 4, 2018

The only time Ukrainian neo-Nazis RUH8 and his minions aren’t spewing hate, murder, or revenge is when they feel bad or sad about their situation. Neo-nazi murderers like RUH8 aka Sean Townsend and Kristina Dobrovolska are notoriously thin-skinned and populate the Ukrainian hit list website to feel better about their inadequacies.

“I am deeply saddened by the fact that Aric Toler from #BellingCat have mentioned us in his latest article at #AtlanticCouncil https://goo.gl/v80WdW as “Ukrainian hacker groups”, and no single reference to #InformNapalm at all. We at #UCA (Ukrainian Cyber Alliance), #CyberHunta and InformNapalm put tremendous efforts into gathering and publishing information dubbed in press as #SurkovLeaks. Unlike hackers of the past we never dump raw materials anonymously. Publishing the data derived from our materials without proper credit is a clear disrespect from Aric’s side. It undermines our joint mission to fight back the Russian aggression.” – RUH8 Sean Townsend “Open Letter to Aric Toler”

Whoever takes Bellingcat or InformNapalm information seriously on any level has to believe the ramblings of insanely murderous nationalists like RUH8 make sense and are already hellbent on starting WWIII. There is no room for any other conclusion.

What makes the Kerch Incident a short story is the passage Ukraine made through the channel with warships in September 2018. According to the 2003 agreement which governs transit from the Black Sea to the Azov, ships have to follow a specific procedure that isn’t confined to Ukrainian ships.

Ukraine took warships through the Kerch Strait with Russian escort. This is a matter of record that was and video evidence is abundant showing a Russian escort with a much smaller Russian ship sailing ahead of it.  According to the Russians, the Ukrainians used pilot services. Looking at video evidence, this seems to be the case.

However, directly after, the Ukrainian Navy called it a victory saying they did not call or confirm transit or use a pilot to navigate the shallow channel.

According to the Kyiv Post, in September the warships radioed ahead to enter the Azov Sea through the Kerch Strait as they approached it.  It says they did not follow the official procedure to request permission. This notation is important.

The Kiev Post goes on to say the ships received pilot services from the Kerch port authority free of charge. According to Ukrainian naval expert Taras Chmut  “For the first time, we didn’t just react to the Russians’ steps, but started to set our own game rules.”

If the September record, which includes the Kyiv Post article as well as onsite video is looked at, the accepted law and procedure in place can be shown and every parties action in November can be weighed against that and the actual agreements.

Western sources claim the Russians violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This is a nonstarter because the Azov Sea is a private internal sea by both Ukraine and Russia. It is not the high sea and it contains no exclusive economic zones. If either was the case, it would have made the UNCLOS applicable.

The accepted law and procedure in Ukraine are described in “Navigating Straits Challenges for International Law” which specifically states the services of the Vessel Traffic Control Center (VTC) are compulsory.

Ukraine was well aware of its own established law as well as the language of the treaty governing Kerch Strait transit. This voids any concept of free navigation regarding the Strait because transit is done at the discretion of the port authority and established procedures.

Ukraine’s other complaint that Russia unfairly targets Ukrainian vessels for searches or longer queue waiting is out of line with reality.

On November 25th there were 166 vessels waiting in queue to make transit through the channel. Statistically, a lot more Russian ships are subject to searches because many more Russian ships go through. There was no way that the Ukrainian vessels which had no position in the 166 vessel queue were going straight through ahead of Ukrainian commercial traffic, Russian commercial traffic, and international commercial traffic that were following the transit procedure.

Ukraine has once again taken advantage of the hate and prejudices its drummed up against Russia and the world is dancing to it.

The Kerch Incident is hardly worth the time to sort out because in reality, it was a border crossing incident that no country other than Ukraine should give a damn about. And even giving Ukraine every consideration, when you are left with the facts, Ukraine makes supporters look foolish once again.

The only real news about the Kerch Strait story is how this narrative and other stories are developed.

For the last four years, there has been a massive uptick in how much information and Intelligence from politically deviant sources like RUH8’s Bellingcat are tainting the President’s PDB, NATO Intel, EU Parliament, and US Congressional inquiries.

Ukraine is using innocuous and non-threatening personas like RUH8 associates Eliot Higgins and Aric Toler to give a benevolent look for information developed to maximize the nationalists advantage.  Behind RUH8, Eliot Higgins, Toler, or Aaron Weisburd are people who provide logistics for surly headchoppers in IGIL and Ukraine’s neo-nationalist groups like Azov battalion and Pravy Sektor.

It’s high time for the world’s developed countries to stop dancing to Ukraine’s beat and look to their own Intel apparatus for answers. The only difference between Ukraine and their head-chopping murderer associates in ISIS is the Ukrainian nationalists completed their coup in 2014.

What did it bring the world? Is Ukraine better off? The people are suffering under Poroshenko more than they have under the entire 27-year history of Independence.

Donald Trump, Russia, and European leaders have to get together and agree the path to reconciliation for Ukraine to be at peace isn’t listening to Bellingcat Neo-Nazis or people who get their information from them.