by Stephen Lendman

Kiev war crimes include using banned chemical weapons, cluster bombs and white phosphorous in Donbass - including against civilian neighborhoods.

Reports indicate US experts are helping Ukraine produce chemical weapons for use against rebel forces. Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) intelligence learned they're being secretly developed for escalated dirty war.

On Tuesday, reported fuel-air (thermobaric) explosives targeted a Donetsk chemical plant - fired from junta held Kurahhovo village 30 kilometers away.

These weapons suck oxygen from open areas and human lungs. They generate intense, high-temperature explosions. They're much more destructive than conventional explosives of equal weight - especially when used against people in bunkers, shelters, caves and other enclosed places.

It's virtually impossible for civilians to shelter against their destructive effects. A Russian military scientist once called their capability comparable to low-yield radiological munitions.

Used in large numbers, they're enormously destructive - separate blast waves reinforcing each other increasing their overall power. They use fuel and explosive charges creating a massive blast wave. They were first used in Vietnam by US forces.

An earlier CIA study said their effect "within confined spaces is immense. Those near the ignition point are obliterated."

"Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, and thus invisible injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, rupture lungs and internal organs, and possibly blindness."

With air sucked from lungs, victims suffocate to death besides other injuries sustained. Make no mistake. These are terror weapons - yet not banned under international law.

Ukrainian forces targeted Donetsk's chemical plant storage facilities where mining explosives are held. They tried earlier using inaccurate Tochka-U missiles. They failed again this time. Crater evidence showed thermobaric weapons use.

Western media ignore these type incidents - including multiple daily attacks by junta forces on Donbass.

Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Defense Ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin said junta forces used artillery, mortars, grenade launchers and small arms in the last 24 hours alone. The pattern repeats daily - including willfully targeting civilian neighborhoods.

Russian upper house Federation Council International Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev blames US-dominated NATO for exploiting nonexistent "Russian aggression" in Ukraine.

He expressed concern about belligerent NATO actions - calling deploying heavy weapons close to Russia's borders "the height of irresponsibility to all peoples of Europe."

Is "another large-scale military conflict planned," he asked? "(W)hat is going on in Ukraine is a direct consequence of actions by the West, which upset the security and power balance in Europe by its (power grab in) Ukraine."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov said "(n)one of the Russia-NATO programs that used to (operate) are functioning at a working level." Nothing is being done to repair ruptured relations.

Moscow justifiably is concerned about US-dominated NATO's planned Eastern European buildup - creating more dangerous flashpoint conditions than already.

Russia intends responding appropriately to protect its security against hostile Western actions. Days earlier, a Foreign Ministry statement said:

"We will keep an eye on the United States’ and their allies’ steps towards building a global missile defence system and other factors impacting Russia’s security, such as the United States’ stockpiling non-nuclear strategic weapons within the Prompt Global Strike concept and its persistent unwillingness to undertake legally binding liabilities not to deploy weapons in outer space."

"…Russia reserves the right to take (all) necessary steps to protect its security and defend its national interests."

Russia's Foreign Ministry accused Washington of provocations "designed to aggravate bilateral relations."

Moscow wants mutual cooperation with all nations. At the same time, it'll defend itself responsibly against hostile US actions. Whether East/West confrontation can be avoided remains to be seen.

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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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