Two trenches, each 200 meters long, filled with human bodies. [Photo courtesy of Russel Bentley]

A Part of Obama’s Legacy that Presumably Won’t Be Celebrated in his $482 Million Presidential Library

I recently witnessed the exhumation of human remains from a mass grave that contains more than 200 bodies. It was a profound and profoundly disturbing experience. Each body in this grave represents an unnecessary and unjust death, a murder, and each of these more than 200 murders can never be forgotten or forgiven.

There is a message that cries out from these bones that must be heard and understood, and acted upon by all good people in the world. Otherwise, history will repeat itself, and again, the killers and the killing will continue, and more mass graves will be filled.

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[Photo courtesy of Russell Bentley]

After seven years of war, a war that continues to this day, these 200 bodies are being exhumed from a mass grave that the war forced them into back in the summer of 2014, during the heaviest attacks and siege by the Ukrainian “punishers” against the people of Lugansk.

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Valery Bolotov proclaims the Act of Independence of the Lugansk People’s Republic, May 12, 2014. [Source: wikipedia.org]

In those terrible days and nights of constant shelling and ever-present danger, there was no water or electricity, no safe place to process the bodies, no chance at all for a regular funeral. Only now are conditions and resources finally available to put these peaceful and innocent civilians, along with some of their heroic defenders, to rest with a proper burial. 

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Monument to dead in mass graves that were established in 2014 when the war in Eastern Ukraine broke out. [Source: aljazeera.com]

All decent people must ask how mass graves (this is not the only one) came to be here, in Donbass, on the edge of Europe in the second decade of the 21st century. They must ask exactly who did this and why, not just who pulled the triggers, but even more importantly, who gave the orders, and they must demand to see justice done, to respect and understand history, and to prevent more mass graves from being filled with innocent civilians, not just here in Lugansk but throughout Europe and the world. 

Map of eastern Ukraine
[Source: bbc.com]

The Obama/Biden Maidan Coup and Siege of Lugansk and Surrounding Region

When the Obama administration orchestrated the coup d’état against the democratically elected Viktor Yanukovich government in Kyiv in early 2014, they used a grisly assortment of secret agents, neo-Nazis, and oligarch traitors to depose then-President Yanukovich and install a quisling regime—headed by Petro Poroshenko and now Volodymyr Zelensky.

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Maidan Square in Kyiv in February 2014 in the midst of the U.S.-backed coup. [Source: newcoldwar.org]
Yanukovych, Viktor
Viktor Yanukovich during his inauguration as President of Ukraine, February 25, 2010. [Source: Britannica.com]

The new regime’s primary traits are fealty to the U.S., avarice, and a willingness to terrorize their own civilians while suppressing even the slightest resistance or even peaceful dissent.

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Protests against Ukrainian army brutality. [Source: newcoldwar.org]

In the summer of 2014, the Ukrainian Army launched a major offensive to isolate the cities of Eastern Ukraine and seal the border with Russia. The people of Lugansk and Donetsk had voted in a referendum to secede, as they regarded the newly imposed Ukrainian government as illegitimate and had close economic and cultural ties to Russia.

During this attack, the city of Lugansk (pop. 400K) was surrounded and under siege for several months. Water and electricity were cut, no people or supplies were allowed in or out, and the city was subjected to constant shelling by heavy artillery. Hundreds were killed, and the infrastructure was overwhelmed.

War Crimes

The Lugansk city officials were forced to make a mass grave in which more than 200 people, mostly civilians but also some militia members, were buried. The victims were killed primarily by the Ukrainian Army including by shellings—not by the Russians.

War crimes were also committed in neighboring villages, including some occupied by right-wing militias that Kyiv had to rely on because many Ukrainians did not want to join the army to fight their own people.

Members of the Azov Battalion attend a protest against local elections in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine in Kyiv on May 20, 2016.
Fighters with the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion—a wing of the Ukrainian Army fighting in the Donbass that committed war crimes. [Source: rferl.org]

In Nyzhnia Krynka village, occupied for a period by the neo-Nazi Azov battalion, a medical examiner told RT News that male victims were found in their underwear with multiple gunshot wounds to head and body and their hands taped behind their backs.

Makeshift burial site in the town of Nizhnaya Krinka, eastern Ukraine, September 23, 2014. [Source: rt.com]

Galina Kolomiytsev told RT that before he “was shot dead and buried in the ground like a dog,” her son, Nikita, 21, had been taken by the Ukrainian Army in a prisoner swap—indicating that he was killed in captivity, a breach of the Geneva convention.

Exhumation of dead bodies who were shot and buried by Ukrainian Army forces like dogs. [Source: rt.com]

Amnesty International found strong evidence implicating Kyiv forces in the alleged extrajudicial executions of four men buried in two graves near the village of Komunar.

A Donetsk People’s Republic militiaman is at the site of the graves of peaceful residents discovered near Mine 22 “Kommunar” outside Donetsk. [Source: rt.com]

Sergey Litvinov, a captured Ukrainian soldier from the ‘Dnepr’ battalion, who admitted to killing civilians including women and children in the villages Melovoye, Shiroky, Makarovo and Kamushnoye, said that he received a money reward for the killings from his leadership sponsored by Ihor Kolomoysky, the Kiev-appointed Dnepropetrovsk governor and oligarch who was the titular owner of Burisma, the energy company which appointed Hunter Biden to its board.[1]

Ihor Kolomoisky offered bounties for the killing of Donetsk self-defense fighters. [Source: 112.international]

Eventually, the Ukrainian Army offensive in Lugansk failed, the siege was broken, and the Ukrainian Army was driven back beyond the city and surrounding regional limits, but they are still within artillery range, and sporadic, sometimes heavy shelling still continues to this day.

Exhumations

The exhumations are being conducted by an international team of top-level police investigators, and each body is being treated as forensic evidence in a war crime and murder case.

According to the Lugansk media center, the first exhumation of a Ukrainian aggression victim by the working group took place in the village of Sabovka, Slavyanoserbsk district, on August 11. As of August 31, remains of 40 people had been retrieved from graves in the Slavyanoserbsk and Pervomaisk districts. On September 3, the working group reported the exhumation of another 28 Ukrainian aggression victims from a grave in Pervomaisk on the Southern bug River. These totals are in addition to the 200 victims in Lugansk.

Police investigators digging up war victims in Lugansk. [Source: lug-info.com]

After identification, the remains were handed over to relatives or re-buried. “The gathered information will be included in the body of evidence of Ukraine’s crimes against the Donbass people and passed to international bodies for holding Ukrainian criminals responsible,” the working group said.

Project Ukraine and Biden’s War Responsibility

From the very beginning the man who was in charge of Obama’s Project Ukraine—and bears key responsibility for the atrocities there—was none other than current U.S. President Joe Biden.

The U.S. main motive was to try and pry Ukraine away from Russia and expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) there and establish a base for destabilizing the Putin government in Russia, which has restored Russia’s sovereignty from the era of Boris Yeltsin.

Obama delegated Biden—a lifelong cold warrior and Russophobe—as his point man on Ukraine and he ruled like a proconsul or mafia chieftain. in 2013, Victorias Nuland, a top level State Department official, admitted that the U.S. had poured in $5 billion since the fall of communism to transform Ukraine into a Western proxy.

What Joe Biden Actually Did in Ukraine - The New York Times
Biden with Poroshenko in 2015. [Source: nytimes.com]

Biden’s orders to crush the legitimate uprising in Donbass, including by war crimes and mass murder, gave his Ukrainian Association of Patriots (UKROP—a right wing nationalist party) henchmen no pause, and they scurried to fulfill their master’s orders, just as the Bandera collaborators had done for their German Nazi masters 70 years before. 

Stepan Bandera is hailed as a hero in western Ukraine but regarded as a Nazi collaborator in the eastern part of the country. Photo: Russia Insider
Ukrainian protesters display image of Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator during World War II. [Source: ejinsight.com]
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Soldiers of the neo-Nazi supported Azov battalion display the flag of the Patriots of Ukraine. [Source: wikipedia.org]
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A woman in the suburb of Yubileynoe walks in front of her house, which was damaged by Ukrainian Army shelling in 2014. The strike caused an internal wall to buckle, nearly trapping her beneath it, and caused severe structural damage to the building. [Source: aljazeera.com]

Vice President Biden personally made six trips to Ukraine, half of them in 2014. This was during the heaviest attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces and the neo-Nazi battalions against the people of Donbass, and Biden’s visits preceded, by only a few days or weeks, the worst crimes of the war.

These crimes include the murder of more than 100 protesters and unarmed Berkut police by snipers at the Maidan in Kyiv, the mass murder by burning to death scores of peaceful protesters in Odessa on May 2nd, the airstrike in Lugansk on June 2nd, and the false-flag attack that murdered 298 innocent civilians on MH-17 on July 17th. 

Lugansk
Bloody scene in downtown Lugansk after a Ukrainian Army missile struck an administration building. [Source: ronpaulinstitute.org]
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[Source: russelltexasbentley.com]

From Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt [U.S. ambassador to UKraine during the Maidan Square protests] hand-picking the new, unelected Ukrainian government, to every legal, political, economic, and military decision, Ukraine’s quislings jumped every time their U.S. masters said “jump.”

Nuland's biscuits again: Maidan midwife's plan for US policy on Russia is  dumb, delusional and dangerous — RT Op-ed
Victoria Nuland, then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, with Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine looking on, handing out cookies to demonstrators in Maidan Square. [Source: rt.com]

The orders were clear—suppress the uprising in Donbass by every means, legal or illegal, and the more brutal and ruthless, the better. And the attacks were brutal and ruthless, and now, Biden is back again.

As President of the U.S, his administration is expanding military aid to Ukraine and threatening Russia as the conflict in the Donbass is beginning to flare up again.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Biden’s abandonment of Afghanistan should be a lesson to Ukraine, not just to the common people, but to the marionettes he put into power there. Just like the Afghan puppets the U.S. appointed, the Ukrainians too are absolutely expendable at the slightest indication they are no longer useful.

Work to Be Done Following Biden-Zelensky Summit | Wilson Center
Biden puts out hand to Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky during his visit to Washington in late September. Zelensky—who has advocated for reigniting the war with Russia—may find himself expendable, just like U.S. client rulers in Afghanistan and so many other countries. [Source: wilsoncenter.org]

And just as the fate of Afghanistan should be a lesson for Ukraine, the fate of Ukraine should be a lesson for the people and countries of the EU. The blatant hypocrisy and double-dealing self- interest with which the U.S. has handled Europe is now clear for all to see, as are the fatal consequences for those who have allowed it. 

And all of the above must be a lesson for U.S. and UK citizens as well. What goes around comes around, and here it comes, now it is your turn. Unless you stop it. The crimes of empire your rulers have committed against other people around the world, with nary a word of protest from you, will look and feel much different when they are happening to you, to your family and to your friends.

But, if you stand up for yourselves and for Humanity, all good people in the world will stand with you, and support your courage and effort in every way they can.


  1. There is evidence that would indicate that Burisma operated as a CIA-front corporation to funnel money to right-wing militias in Eastern Ukraine under the direction of Kholomoisky. Why else would Burisma have appointed the CIA’s former #3 man Cofer Black to its board along with Hunter Biden?


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About the Author

51 COMMENTS

  1. Sergey Litvinov’s lawyer Viktor Parshutkin found out that the victims of the alleged crimes did not actually exist, and neither did the streets on which they were said to have lived.

    The charges were dropped, and in 2015, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the country’s main federal investigating authority, apologized for the false accusations.

    That people read this deranged filth, bothers me deeply.

  2. […] Acht Jahre lang haben die Präsidenten Selenskyj und vor ihm Poroschenko schamlos ihr eigenes Volk im Donbass angegriffen und getötet. Ihre Gönner in der nordamerikanischen und der EU-Führung ließen dies nicht nur zu, sondern lieferten auch reichlich Waffen und hochentwickelte Ausbildungsmaßnahmen, damit die Ukraine den Donbass noch effektiver angreifen konnte. Insgesamt wirft Russlands Militäroperation in der Ukraine ein Schlaglicht auf die umfassende Unredlichkeit der USA und ihrer EU-Verbündeten. […]

  3. […] The regime’s plan was to put the Donbass peoples into special “filtration” camps, and forcibly relocate them to Russia—at least those among them who would survive the ordeal. When the people of Crimea responded to the clear menace from Kiev by overwhelmingly voting to be annexed by Russia, and the Russian peoples elsewhere began to wage armed resistance so they could form their own governments, the regime and its imperialist backers waged genocidal war. This is the only way to describe the atrocities that Ukraine has committed in its attempts to regain the eastern territory, both within the conflict’s direct battle zones and in everyday Ukrainian life. Russell Bentley, the communist who defected from the U.S. to fight for the Donbass peoples and who’s since served as a journalist documenting Kiev’s war crimes, has written: […]

  4. […] Mass graves in Luhansk where neo-Nazi militias attached to the Ukrainian army killed and buried civilians. But you won’t read about this in The New York Times or even alternative media sources except RT. [Source: covertactionmagazine.com] […]

  5. Thanks for the article. I do have one quibble, however. The use of “Nazi” is entirely inappropriate, whether by you or others covering the situation. “Nazis” were opposed to usury, Jewish influence, and were nationalistic. The coup was staged and funded by Jews and those that want usury to continue. The fact that these people supported Porky and Zelinsky, both of whom are anxious to turn Ukraine into a waiter for the US and EU is evidence that they have no interest in nationalism.
    These people are mercenaries for sale to the highest bidder.

  6. Thank you, Russell. The things that have been done and are still being done by the American government is the height of corruption. The ruling families in this country have bankrupted so many countries, and now they are bankrupting the USA itself. I don’t even know what to pray for anymore, except for safety and survival for myself and my relatives.

  7. In reference to the first picture with the caption ”Two trenches, each 200 meters long, filled with human bodies. [Photo courtesy of Russel Bentley]’ there is nothing in this picture that provides conclusive evidence that the two trenches are filled with human bodies. Although I am relieved that the photo did not reveal this,
    I am wondering why the writer did not take a photo that would provide more conclusive evidence.

  8. Hi and thanks for the update of the truth of matters u discuss

    For the first comment I am sad to report they really are doing away with real music but I digress

    For the second commentor I want to state that like so much I later see elsewhere the best and only site for real newsworthy matters at the time they occur you Must go to global research.ca that is Michelle choussedovsky’s site
    I read about these crimes while they were happening on global research.ca the Ca is for Canada and check there adjunct sites too like Mondialization.ca which has French and Canadian news et Al

    Now for my comments

    When I was born with a name no one in Americurse could pronounce I was in Moscow

    I was told that is Russia

    Russia meant the USSR when I was born but also like the city and county of SF meant the local Russia too

    Similarly people say SF to mean the whole Bay Area….Russia meant most of the world really

    Then later under Djimmy the welcome back cotter the vile Zbignew destroyed my home land or plotted too and had help….I had long departed….now we speak of Federation of Russia….the F de R….. But mean a much smaller space and not the whole world next to Asia Europe and China . No more USSR

    And this is because the US wanted those first two capitol letters removed at any cost…

    Luckily there is still the last letter. R.
    Russia is not going away

    Victoria Nuland ain’t gonna pull those cookies out of her …. And sweep all the war crimes away

    BidenHoe can call Putin a killer all he wants…

    The facts stand as they are reported here.

    Except I heard that $ 5Billion had come in 2014
    Maybe that’s just when I heard about it

    I think the American dream is long dead

    Who killed it ?

    Obama? Not Osama

    The CIA? Not the KGB…

    I mean the concept of Freedom in America has been quite a Whopper of a lie

    Except the freedom to be silenced or placed in solitary

    America has been the biggest failure for anything like Freedom
    Ask Julianne Assange…

    It is all a big lie

    And if u protest too much there’s a nice jail cell waiting

    When u get there they will tell u…

    “This is Jail.”

  9. Thank you Russell Bentley. Good to read your revealing article. I’l like to say, however, that what happened was not Barack Obama’s fault. Had you been the President of the United States of America at that time, the same would have happened. Each US Presidents has his own personality and style, but they all share one thing: they are puppets manipulated by MIC (Military Industrial Complex).

    For me, the message that cries out from these bones that must be heard and understood, and acted upon by all good people in the world, is: ABOLISH MILITARISM, GLOBALLY. Stop Machine guns, bullets, grenades, landmines, bombs, rockets, torpedoes, are made EXCLUSIVELY FOR KILLING, They have NO OTHER PURPOSE

    When asked why he allowed the sale of Canadian tanks and air-fighters to Saudi Arabian, knowing people in Yemen would be killed with them, Justin Trudeau answered: “I’m the Prime Minister of Canada. I’m paid to look after the citizens of Canada. My choice was between dead Yemeni or Canadian unemployed”.

    Why do you think countries have embassies, staffed with Trade and Military Attachés? to ban massacres and wars in general, whilst accepting Armed Forces and th e military industry is as illogical as accepting the manufacturing and sale of pianos, guitars, violins, flutes, trumpets, etc, the existence of music academies, concert hall, the recording industry, etc, and then expect Governments to ban music

    If we don’t act now, as you say, ‘history will repeat itself’, and again, we’ll have more massacres and what MIC are desperate for, WORLD WAR THREE.

    Alberto Portugheis
    President HUFUD
    http://www.hufud.org

    • In reference to the comment attributed to Justin Trudeau I have heard Justin Trudeau make some questionable comments, but that does not sound like something Justin would say. I am skeptical that he would make this comment. Is there some way that I can verify that he made this comment?

    • I don’t agree. US presidents may not have that much power to change policy, but Obama not only did not try to change foreign policy, he was an enthusiastic promoter of the Ukraine disaster and many other expansions of the US death machine abroad (Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, the spread of Africom, etc.) We did see that, when he reached a cease-fire with Russia over Syria near the end of his second term, the commanders on the ground (and in the air) nevertheless went ahead and bombed a Syrian Army encampment at Deir Es Ezzor, killing about 100 Syrian soldiers and effectively scuppering the ceasefire, leading one to believe that Obama was not, in the end, calling all the shots. Still, he did virtually nothing to steer foreign policy away from the death cult (Trump made far more of an effort, though he failed), and remains guilty of war crimes. Obama, to my mind (though I voted for him in 2008), was an utter disaster and betrayed the mandate handed to him to end the wars. His purpose in office was to deceive, which he did quite well, and with passion. An evil man. CIA all the way.

  10. This is a big news story, I am perplexed as to why I cannot find this big news story in any news outlet other than in this article written by Mr. Bentley. Are they any reputable news outlets that have also reported this story?

    • The Duran, The Greanville Post,, SOTT.net, RonaldThomasWest.com, TheLibertyBeacon,globalpolitics.eu
      There are several more, all “reputable news outlets”, as is Covert Action Magazine.

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