What Happened on Day One of the War in Ukraine
6 March 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
To show what happened on the first day of the war in Ukraine, I shall first present a 3-minute video of an incident which occurred that day on the road between Kiev and Crimea to its south, in which some ardent supporters of and participants in the overthrow which had occurred that day of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych trapped and stopped 8 busloads of Crimeans who had been at the Maidan Square holding placards opposing the overthrow and who were en-route home to Crimea, and the bus that had been carrying these escapees southward was set afire by the supporters of the overthrow, and the occupants of this bus were then beaten by those supporters of the overthrow.
The original video was uploaded on 20 February 2014, footage originally intended pro-Maidan (i.e., anti-Yanukovych) and posted on 20 February 2014 to youtube:
and then it was copied into the anti-Maidan (pro-Yanukovych)
https://vk.com/video-66053649_168256146?to=L3ZpZGVvLTY2MDUzNjQ5XzE2ODI1NjE0Nj8-
with the same title
"Протестуючі спалили автобус біля Маньківки який перевозив тітушок !”
or
“Protesters burned a bus near Mankivka that was transporting goons [of the President, Yanukovych]!”
by Роман Похольчук Roman Pokholchuk, (an opponent of Yanukovych)
The video shows a burning bus on the road between Kiev and Crimea, and the people (who had been its passengers) fleeing from the burning bus, who then are shown being beaten with bats on the side of the road, and are heard screaming.
However, despite the given title (given by the PRO-Maidan Pokholchuk), this was one of the 8 buses taking anti-Maidan pro-Yanukovycvh Crimeans fleeing back to Crimea, from Kiev — NOT a bus taking “goons” of Yanukovych fleeing toward Crimea. Crimeans themselves knew immediately who was whom in that video, and so they didn’t object to that word “goons”. However, whereas Pokholchuk was calling the occupants of the bus “goons,” Crimeans overwhelmingly viewed the people who had blocked the bus, and then set it afire, and then beat with baseball bats the people who had escaped from it, as being the “goons.” It was a difference of perspective.
No video was posted online of what the anti-Yanukovych “goons” were doing at the sites where the other 7 such buses were blocked and intercepted.
Later, that video was again posted anti-Maidan, pro-Yanukovych, and accompanied with a description of it:
“Ukraine. Crime of the "Right Sector" near Korsun 20.02.2014”
On their way home, near the town of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi in Cherkasy Oblast, about three hundred people were ambushed by armed Ukrainian nationalists. What happened here would later be called the "Korsun tragedy."
On February 20, eight buses with Crimeans who had participated in the "anti-Maidan" actions were returning home. Near Korsun, Cherkasy Oblast, the convoy was ambushed by armed extremists. The Crimeans were expected.
Ekaterina Solodilova from Simferopol was riding on one of the buses. She recalls with horror those endless hours of fear that she had to endure. …
That incident was on day one of Ukraine’s war. It shows native Ukrainian Maidan operators (of the ‘Revolution of Dignity’), who were supporters of Obama’s coup, beating up a busload of opponents of Obama’s coup in Ukraine.
Here are some more videos of this particular incident, which in Crimea and among Russian-speaking Ukrainians (and former Ukrainians), is often called the “Korsun Massacre” (it occurred on the 70-mile stretch of road from Korsun to Mankivka):
And there is also a video about this that had been previously on youtube but then was zapped, and this is the only version of it that I find still to be live online, so I have (yet again) tried to archive it, HERE. It contextualizes the entire Crimean situation at that time — presents it in historical and personal contexts.
And, finally, I shall link to videos of a former prosecutor in Yanukovych’s Government, who did manage to escape safely back to her home in Crimea, and who was then interviewed on Crimean TV, regarding the situation — this time I’ll link only to the current live youtube, but if it’s no longer live by the time you click onto it, then maybe try finding another copy of it, by searching for it at the browser
https://yandex.eu/?
:
“Truth about Maidan seen by Crimean Prosecutor, part 2. With english subtitles.”
On 16 February 2015, I headlined regarding that interview, “Evidence About the Connection Between the Ukrainian Coup and Crimea’s Breakaway”.
Here are all 3 parts of the interview:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Many people in Crimea were deeply moved by her description of the overthrow and of her escape from it.
The present article is about ONLY the Crimean aspect of the war between America and Russia in the battlefields of Ukraine, which Obama started on 20 February 2014. But it helps, I think, to understand everything that has happened since.
The war in Ukraine did not start when Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, but instead when Obama grabbed control over Ukraine by means of a coup during 20-26 February 2014. His coup grabbing Ukraine was the act of aggression against Russia, and finally on 24 February 2022, Russia took the necessary defensive military action to prevent Obama’s plan (for taking over Russia) from ever being able to succeed. The aggressor is America, NOT Russia. It is unambiguously clear though never reported to the peoples within the U.S. empire — it is kept secret from the empire’s subjects.
PS: If you like this article, please email it to all your friends or otherwise let others know about it. None of the U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media will likely publish it (nor link to it, since doing that might also hurt them with Google or etc.). I am not asking for money, but I am asking my readers to spread my articles far and wide, because I specialize in documenting what the Deep State is constantly hiding — what the ‘news’-media ignore if they can, and deny if they must. This is, in fact, today’s samizdat.
—————
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
most excellent. thank you.