Backfiring sanctions, warships with guided missiles heading for the Black Sea, F-15 fighter jets on Russia’s border. As in so many Latin American and other countries (‘banana republics’) in the past, Washington has recognised and committed more than $5 billion to an illegal right-wing government that seized power from elected officials in Kiev. The CIA and MI5-fed Western media have always lied about the reasons for war, from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Libya and Syria. Here are ten things the media will not tell you about what is happening in the Ukraine.

1. Washington planned the coup in the Ukraine.

The foul-mouthed U.S. State Department official Victoria Nuland was caught on tape plotting who would be the next head of Ukraine. She bragged that the U.S. had spent $5 billion funding the ‘democracy’ movement there. Senator John McCain and EU Baroness Ashton went to Kiev, spoke at rallies and were photographed with the leader of the Fascist Svoboda party. Neo-Nazi forces took over buildings and threw out the elected government in a coup d’etat, then passed new laws with no quorum in the parliament building; some elected representatives were not even allowed inside by thugs standing guard outside with baseball bats. Intent on the destabilisation of the Ukraine, the Western policy is in fact to divide and rule it.

2. There has been no Russian invasion.

Western officials have threatened Russia for ‘invading’ the Ukraine, an artificial, Communist-devised country consisting of a small part of eastern Poland and a large chunk of western Russia, that has existed for only 23 years. This is a lie meant to cover up Western involvement in the coup. Russia rents a military base in Crimea, part of Russia for 200 years until 1954, and is legally allowed to station up to 25,000 troops there. Russia has merely said that it may act to protect civilians if they are threatened by the Neo-Nazi Uniats in Kiev. As for the Crimea the people are to vote in a democratic referendum on Sunday about if they wish to be governed by the Neo-Nazi junta in Kiev or join Russia. Apparently the West is against democracy and self-determination in the Crimea, though it is for it in Kosovo, Scotland and elsewhere in the world.

3. The U.S. war buildup.

The US Navy has deployed the USS Truxton, a warship armed with guided missiles, to the Black Sea. Six F-15 fighter jets and 60 military personnel have been sent to Lithuania, in addition to those already stationed there. The U.S. and Berlin (= the EU) are imposing sanctions and travel bans on Russian officials. Western politicians and the tabloid media have compared the democratically-elected and immensely popular Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Western leader Hitler. When preparing for war, the West always uses this bogus comparison to demonise leaders of opponent countries.

4. Neo-Nazis dominate the new government.

The openly racist, anti-Semitic and pro-Hitler Svoboda party is one of three major parties in the government. Svoboda led the street actions that forced elected President Yanukovych to flee. The Right Sector, armed fascists from Uniat and schismatic Galicia (the far west of the Ukraine, formerly Poland) who have beaten opponents and vandalised public property, are now in charge of the military. Immediately after the coup, Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman, urged Jews to flee Kiev. The government’s first act was to ban the use of Russian (83% of the inhabitants of the Ukraine use this language in everyday life) and other languages as official languages. Opponents of the coup have been beaten, disappeared, or had their offices and homes vandalised and burned.

5. Coup leaders hired snipers to justify their takeover.

A leaked call between Estonian and European Union officials reveals that people behind the new government hired snipers to kill protesters and police in Kiev. The snipers were seen leaving the US embassy – there are between 3,000 and 5,500 foreign mercenaries in Kiev, many from the US. President Yanukovych was blamed for the killings and this was used to justify the coup.

6. Big business wants to control the Ukraine – and Russia.

Oil and gas pipelines in the Ukraine bring fuel from Russia to Europe. Western big business wants to control the pipelines to cut the flow from Russia and increase their own profits and even take over Russian resources.

7. NATO’s drive to expand.

As part of the Western drive to dismantle Russia, the Pentagon wants to establish military bases and missiles on the Ukraine/Russia border. The U.S.-run NATO alliance has expanded aggressively into Eastern Europe in the past 20 years, adding 12 countries so far. U.S./ NATO forces continue to occupy Afghanistan to the south.

8. Billions for the illegal coup in the Ukraine, cuts for food stamps in the U.S.

In early February, Congress and the Obama administration agreed to cut food assistance benefits for hungry families by $8.7 billion, claiming there is no money. Yet just weeks later, they announced $10 billion in assistance to the bankrupt neo-Nazis in Kiev. Secretary of State John Kerry personally delivered the first billion on March 4.

9. Power for the oligarchs

The new regime has appointed corrupt oligarchs as governors of rebellious regions of Eastern Ukraine. It has also agreed to an IMF austerity plan drafted by Washington to cut workers’ pensions, unemployment insurance and social programs – just like the cutbacks and ‘austerity programmes’ that workers in Greece and elsewhere have faced from the EU elite.

10. People across the Ukraine are resisting.

People in the Eastern, Southern and Northern Ukraine are resisting the coup. Some have taken over regional and city buildings and refused to hand them over to the junta. Others are marching on military bases and demanding that the troops disobey the commands of the Neo-Nazis in Kiev. Most of the Ukrainian Navy has defected to the side of the people, as also parts of the small Ukrainian Air Force. Patriotic Ukrainian troops are refusing to obey orders from the junta in Kiev, which is planning to set up a secret police. called a ‘National Guard’. Some are pleading with the Russian government to protect and assist them against the Euroterrorists in Kiev. The people of Ukraine remember well what Nazi rule was like during World War II and they will not stand for it again from a Berlin-ruled EU.