1 September 2022

Facts on Ukraine that you won't be told by the New Zealand government or media.

A certain number of soldiers belonging to the New Zealand Defence Force are fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine. We have not been told how many. In fact we were not told anything at all about New Zealand forces being actively engaged in the war until one (Corporal Dominic Abelen) was killed in action and his body fell into the hands of the Russian military.

The New Zealand government first told us that it was only sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Then it admitted to sending "non-lethal military aid". Some time later it confessed to sending "lethal military aid". Then it was sending troops, but only to the United Kingdom where they would be training Ukrainian troops. Throughout, the New Zealand government has consistently declared that it was not sending troops to fight in Ukraine.

The first indication we have that New Zealand troops are fighting in Ukraine came when one of their number was killed and the New Zealand government now declares that it did not know that it had troops in Ukraine. Apparently these soldiers are on "leave without pay" from the New Zealand Defence Force.

That raises a number of questions.

Did the NZDF ask the soldiers applying for leave where they were going, for how long, and to do what? If not, why on earth not? Is the NZDF not concerned about whether its soldiers go to fight for Ukraine or the Islamic State or Mexican drug lords or any other cause which recruits foreign fighters?

If they were asked, did the soldiers tell the truth or did they lie to their superior officers?

Were any checks made to determine whether New Zealand soldiers on leave were in fact traveling to a war zone?

Did the Ukraine government advise the New Zealand government, which is a close ally, that New Zealand troops are now fighting on behalf of the Ukraine government?

Whatever answers may be offered to the above questions, there can only be two possible explanations.

The first explanation is that the New Zealand troops lied to their superior officers, and defied the instructions of the New Zealand government. The New Zealand government then failed to notice that the soldiers had departed their own country and entered Ukraine. Ukraine for its part failed to notify its New Zealand ally that New Zealand soldiers had signed on to the Ukrainian military. Neither the New Zealand Defence Force or its Military Intelligence division or the Security Intelligence Service, or ASIO or MI5 or the CIA had the slightest idea what the New Zealand troops were up to.

The second explanation is that the NZDF let it be known that any serving personnel who wanted to fight in Ukraine would be given leave without pay, and that their service in Ukraine would not be unhelpful to their subsequent career prospects in the New Zealand military. New Zealand soldiers in Ukraine would continue to be paid their New Zealand salaries out of the $5 million which the New Zealand government had committed through the NATO Trust Fund for Ukraine. Therefore no questions were asked when soldiers applied for leave, and the SIS, ASIO, CIA and MI5 took no particular interest in the movement of New Zealand troops to Ukraine. The Ukrainian military were expecting the arrival of New Zealand troops and were able to confirm their bona fides with the New Zealand Defence Force (this being a crucial point since foreign fighters can never be safely recruited without exhaustive checks to ensure that they are not in fact enemy agents).

Of these two possible explanations we cannot completely rule out the first which reduces to the claim that the New Zealand troops are practiced and plausible liars, New Zealand's intelligence services are grossly incompetent, and the New Zealand government is profoundly ignorant about where its soldiers are fighting.

But the second is the more credible explanation. That is, the New Zealand and Ukraine governments, the Five Eyes intelligence services and the New Zealand military knew exactly what was going on but the people of New Zealand were left in ignorance. The only lies told were told by the New Zealand government, and the only ones lied to were the peoples of the world.