On March 13, the European Court of Human Rights delivered a scathing ruling, holding Ukraine responsible for the massacre of scores of anti-Maidan activists in Odessa on May 2, 2014.
This ruling has received limited coverage in Western media outlets, as it confirms the Ukrainian regime’s support of the neo-Nazis through its inaction and refusal to take any measures against the killers.
On that day, nearly 50 anti-fascists were massacred. Activists were attacked by a racist neo-Nazi mob and driven into the House of Trade Unions, which was then set afire. Some anti-fascists were burned alive; others were shot or beaten to death as they tried to escape the blaze. The youngest victim was just 17.
(For more on the Odessa massacre, see the interview with massacre survivor Alexey Albu conducted by Struggle-La Lucha co-editor Melinda Butterfield in Simferopol, Crimea, in September 2014.)
The Court ruled that there had been “violations of the right to life/investigation on account of the authorities’ failure to… prevent the violence in Odessa and to ensure timely rescue measures for people trapped in the fire.”
The Court decision makes clear that firefighters were instructed not to respond to emergency calls from people trapped in the city’s House of Trade Unions when it was set ablaze. The Maidan coup regime actively wanted these people to die.
The 2014 Maidan coup
In February 2014, a U.S.-backed coup overthrew the elected government of Ukraine and installed a far-right regime representing Western imperialist interests, local oligarchs and neo-Nazis. It’s known as the Maidan coup, which refers to the central square in Kiev, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, where pro-NATO rallies were staged.
Many Ukrainians resisted the Maidan coup, particularly in the working class. In the Maidan civil war, fascist gangs emerged as a force for the coup. Resistance to the coup was strongest in the eastern section of the country. In Odessa, a neo-Nazi pro-Maidan gang targeted the Odessa House of Trade Unions, near the center of the resistance. The building was firebombed and at least 46 anti-fascists and labor activists were burned alive.
The resistance to the Maidan coup has continued from 2014 to today. The independent Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic were created when the people there voted overwhelmingly (89% and 96%) to secede from the Maidan regime. They have been subjected to continuous attack since then, particularly by the Ukrainian National Guard’s Azov regiment, a neo-Nazi stormtrooper-like operation. More than 14,000 were killed in Ukraine’s war on Donetsk and Lugansk before Russia’s special military operation to stop the neo-Nazi war on these independent republics.
The U.S. had orchestrated the 2014 Maidan coup, seeking to seize control of Ukraine’s resources and to dominate the region, particularly targeting Russia. After years of bloodshed, their plan failed.
Rare Earth minerals
Now, Trump wants to stop the massive military campaign against Russia (estimated cost so far is $183 billion since 2022) to focus on a bigger target: China. Don’t mistake Trump’s tactics as a pursuit of peace. Trump is demanding a massive price for ending the proxy war against Russia: Ukraine’s mineral wealth–said to be worth $13 trillion total.
As John Helmer reported,
Because the U.S. auto, aerospace, and artificial intelligence industries are heavily dependent for their supplies of lithium, titanium, and other rare earth minerals (REM) on two enemy states, China and Russia, they should be replaced as quickly as possible by a friendly source…
The cheapest solution is to take over the Ukrainian sources of these minerals and metals at zero cost of acquisition–zero cost because Ukraine can be pressed to hand over its sources as payback for the U.S. financing of the war against Russia.
Who proposed this solution to Trump? “It was Elon Musk,” Helmer reports.
His Tesla company is the largest consumer of lithium and producer of lithium batteries for electric vehicles in the U.S., with his annual tonnage exceeding the four next largest producers combined. Musk also is a large consumer of titanium, both for Tesla cars and for his SpaceX company’s rockets.
Also, in Musk’s plans for cornering the artificial intelligence (AI) market with his xAI company, rare earth metals (REM) are essential. In fact, these metals are not rare—it’s just that they exist in low concentrations, which are difficult and expensive to extract. They are crucial components of the semiconductors that provide the computing power that drives AI. They possess uniquely powerful magnetic qualities and are excellent at conducting electricity and resisting heat.
Trump has won Zelensky’s agreement to turn over Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. But that’s not enough. The fact is (and this isn’t being reported in any U.S. media) about 53% of the titanium, lithium, and rare earth minerals that the Ukraine regime claims are located in the four regions annexed by Russia in September 2022 (Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson) This is where Russia began its special military operation against the neo-Nazi incursion by the Kiev regime headed by Volodymyr Zelensky.