Russia's military aggression against Ukraine 21/03

Russia's military aggression against Ukraine 21/03

1. 1. Vilyen Pidgornyy – MOD Spokesperson RUSSIA’S MILITARY AGGRESSION AGAINST UKRAINE (weekly update)
2. 2. Day-by-day review of cease-fire violations against UAF (March 13 – 19) 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Cease-fire violations Heavy arms
3. 3. Number of cease-fire violations by the Russia-backed militants Luhansk sector Donetsk sector Mariupol sector 122 257 239
4. 4. Enemy drone activity 9 episodes
5. 5. Russia’s supplies to militants • 24 railroad tank cars with fuel • 8 trucks with ammunition • 62nd “humanitarian convoy” consisting of 40 trucks carrying over 500 tons of unidentified cargo
6. 6. Enemy losses 11 militants – killed 27 militants – wounded
7. 7. Combat casualties of Ukrainian Forces 7 – KIA 40 – WIA
8. 8. Civilian casualties Injured during enemy shellings 1 teenager in Valuiske 1 woman in Luhanske 2 women and 1 man in Avdiivka
9. 9. Civil buildings and infrastructure damages • 29 residential buildings across the front line in the Donetsk & Mariupol sectors • 3 non-residential building in Avdiivka & Krasnohorivka • a kindergarten in Avdiivka • a humanitarian supplies distribution center in Zaitseve • power line in Hnutove • railway track sections in the frontline area in the Donetsk sector

EU Slams Russia Over Crimea Annexation On Third Anniversary

The European Union on March 17 condemned Russia’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea territory, calling Moscow’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula a “direct challenge to international security.”

The statement by EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini came one day ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s formal incorporation of Crimea that was dismissed as illegitimate by Ukraine, the United States, and more than 100 countries in the United Nations General Assembly.

“Three years on from the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation, the European Union remains firmly committed to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Mogherini said.

Both the EU and the United States hit Russia with several rounds of sanctions in response to the land grab and Moscow’s backing of separatists whose war against government forces has killed at least 9,940 people in eastern Ukraine.

That conflict continues to grind on despite a 2015 peace deal reached in Minsk, Belarus. The Ukrainian military said on March 17 that two of its soldiers were killed and eight others wounded a day earlier in attacks by the separatists in the swathe of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas.

Separatist leader Igor Plotnitsky vowed on March 17 that a referendum would be staged on the incorporation of separatist-controlled areas into Russia.

Prior to annexing Crimea, Russia staged a referendum on the peninsula following the seizing of key government buildings there by unmarked Russian special forces after former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia amid mass street protests across the country.

Moscow used the poll, rejected by Kyiv and the West as illegal, as justification for taking control of Crimea, claiming it represented the will of the people there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's drew international condemnation last month by signing a decree ordering Russian authorities to recognize identity documents issued by the separatists who hold parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The Kremlin however, is not considering integrating the separatist-controlled areas into Russia, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 17.

"We do not see any eventual deliberations as possible in this context," he said.

He accused Ukraine of "deliberately rejecting" the region, criticism that came days after Ukrainian authorities announced the suspension of all cargo traffic with areas held by the separatists.

Addressing the anniversary of the Crimea annexation, Peskov told reporters that Russia hopes that "sooner or later Kyiv will start to treat the will expressed by the several million Crimean residents with respect and will accept the results" of the 2014 referendum staged by Moscow there.

Russia has portrayed its military operation in Crimea following Yanukovych’s ouster as necessary to protect ethnic Russians and other residents of the peninsula from oppression by pro-Western officials that eventually took power in Kyiv.

That narrative is rejected by Ukraine and Western governments, which accuse Russian-backed authorities in Crimea of rights abuses against Crimean Tatars and others opposed to Moscow’s rule there.

Referring to the annexation, Mogherini said in her March 17 statement that the EU “reiterates that it does not recognize and continues to condemn this violation of international law.”

“It remains a direct challenge to international security, with grave implications for the international legal order that protects the unity and sovereignty of all states,” she said.

While U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to improve ties with Russia and previously indicated he could consider lifting sanctions against Moscow related to Crimea, his young administration has repeatedly denounced Russia’s takeover of the peninsula.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a March 16 statement that Washington “again condemns the Russian occupation of Crimea and calls for its immediate end.”

Attacks on Ukraine by Russian Armed Forces and their Terrorist's

BREAKING NEWS BREAKING NEWS BREAKING NEWS BREAKING NEWS BREAKING NEWS

Dozens of Russian generals in Syria killed after a car bomb hits their military base

The military base that was hit by the car bomb is considered one of the most important military centers of the Russian forces on the Syrian coast, located some 15 kilometers from Latakia.

Dozens of Russian generals at a military base near the eastern Syrian city of Latakia were killed Sunday afternoon in a deadly car bomb attack committed by two opposition factions, Ahrar al-Sham and Bayan movement, Syrian opposition groups reported on Wednesday.

According to the media office of Ahrar al-Sham, the two factions, in coordination with local jihadists who were located at the Russian military base, decided to bomb the car after they observed a gathering of senior Russian generals at the military base.

Ahrar al-Sham claims that dozens of Russian generals were killed and injured in the explosion. According to the movement, the announcement of the terror attack was delayed until Wednesday to ensure that the jihadists who committed the attack returned safely to opposition territories.

The military base that was hit by the car bomb is considered one of the most important military centers of the Russian forces on the Syrian coast, located some 15 kilometers from Latakia.

The belated announcement of the car bombing came shortly before the Syrian truce was scheduled to start on Saturday. Russia and the US have already announced that the ceasefire will not apply to ISIS and al-Nusra Front, but in light of this terror attack, Russia might demand the exclusion of Ahrar al-Sham as well. 

Ukraine Army take out Russian Position

Ukraine Mil 58th takes out position of Russia forces  - assisted by Army SOS Drone

RUSSIAN SLAUGHTER OF CIVILIANS CONTINUES IN SYRIA

BREAKING NEWS @ 1506 UK Time 24.02.16

Breaking Report YPG forces captured the "Youth Housing Complex" outside Sheikh Maqsoud today, Aleppo Syria

Rovenki in occupied Donbas after 2 years of TOTAL Russian Militarisation & Brainwashing.

RUSSIAN WAR CRIME - HOSPITAL IN AZAZ DELIBERATELY TARGETED BY RUSSIAN FORCES

ANOTHER RUSSIAN WAR CRIME - Azaz hospital air raid: 'No terrorists, no fighters, just babies'

The UN says that 50 people were killed in attacks on at least three medical facilities including a children's hospital in northern Syria on Monday, with one medical charity saying it appeared they had been deliberately attacked by Russian or government jets.

On Monday evening, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon called the strikes "blatant violations of international law", with a UN spokesman saying the attacks had "cast a shadow" on the ceasefire agreement made between the 17-country International Syrian Support Group last week.

Fears of an escalation of the five year civil war were further sparked as Syrian government forces and Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters reportedly took Tel Rifaat on Monday night, a key town enroute to the city of Azaz where air strikes fell on Monday.

As Turkey shelled Syrian targets across its border for the third day in a row, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday his country would not allow Azaz to fall to Kurdish fighters.

Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry said Turkey's shelling was "open support to international terrorism".

Syrian government forces reportedly told Al Jazeera late on Monday that they planned to continue their march to Azaz, a flashpoint town in Aleppo province near the Turkish border, where it would appear a major escalation in fighting could occur.

'Only babies'

Earlier in the day, at least 14 people were reported killed when bombs hit a children's hospital in Azaz.

A video posted by a French NGO operating in Syria reportedly captured the first moments after the attack, saying that there were "no terrorists or combatants, only babies".

"We have been moving scores of screaming children from the hospital," medical aid worker Juma Rahal told Reuters.

According to Storyful social news agency, Syria Charity built the hospital.

Two other hospitals in Maaret al-Numan, Idlib province, were also hit. At least seven people were reported killed when four bombs destroyed a hospital supported by the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity.

Air strikes also hit the National Hospital on the north edge of town, killing two nurses, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and opposition groups in Syria said.

MSF said it believed its hospital was attacked by either Russian or Syrian government forces, while Turkish officials separately said Russian planes hit the Aleppo hospital.

Neither report was independently verified or confirmed by the Russian government.

Russia has been conducting an intense bombing campaign against rebels in the nearby province of Aleppo, and has also hit targets in Idlib.

Russian planes also resumed air attacks on Monday in northern Latakia province near the Turkish border, bombing rebels to allow the Syrian army to advance.

Rescue workers and rights groups say the bombing has killed scores of civilians at market places, hospitals, schools and residential areas in Syria.

Massimiliano Rebaudengo, the head of MSF's Syria mission, said the Idlib attack "appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms.

"The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict."

MSF said at least seven people were killed and at least eight members of staff were missing after four rockets hit the 30-bed facility, which had 54 staff, two operating theatres, an outpatients' department and an emergency room.

The charity's president, Mego Terzian, said he believed Russia or Syrian government forces were behind the attack.

The MSF organisation supports about 150 hospitals in Syria, with 16 hospitals - or about one every three days - hit this year alone.  

A video shared by investigative website founder Eliot Higgins reportedly shows the aftermath of the bombing on the MSF hospital, although the footage is yet to be verified by the group.

Her name was Basma

Her name was Basma, meaning a smile.

She was killed today Saturday February 2016 by Russian Bombers (Source - Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently The Syrian Campaign Against #ISIS and #Assad regime in #Raqqa

#Daraa #Syria

Russia Dropping Cluster Bombs over Civilian Areas in Syria

Russian bombers are dropping cluster munitions over Raqqa, Syria, the city known as the de facto capital of the Islamic State terror group, sources inside Syria confirmed to Breitbart News. Sources say Moscow is also indiscriminately targeting civilians neighborhoods populated by Sunni Muslims, killing innocent women and children in the process.

Russia remains loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which has also indiscriminately targeted non-Alawite civilians throughout the country and is estimated to have killed far more Syrians than the Islamic State terror group. Forces loyal to Assad have slaughtered over 85 percent of the 250,000-plus Syrians killed during the war, according to estimates.

A source with Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a citizen journalism network that was created to document the atrocities of the Islamic State, told Breitbart News that Russia is targeting almost the entirety of Raqqa with cluster bombs, munitions that carry explosives which on impact, disperse hundreds of deadly metal fragments. When these submunitions deploy, they spread out over hundreds of yards of territory, creating a situation where individuals far away from the target site are subject to being killed or seriously injured. A single cluster bomb may hold hundreds of sub-munitions.

The citizen journalist network posted photos of the Russian strikes on its social media pages.

Using Cluster bombs against Civilians in Raqqa is A WAR CRIME, international community should take responsibility

Kremlin Trapped In Its Own Web Of Lies

The Kremlin has played an astute hand in the Ukrainian crisis, lying to the international community and the Russian people about its innocence in the conflict while simultaneously ratcheting its aggression. In Crimea, the Russian government and media initially denied that the Russian military was involved in securing the peninsula for Russian control and a sham plebiscite. It wasn’t until April that Putin admitted that Russian troops were responsible for disarming the Ukrainian military in Crimea and facilitating its illegal annexation. The Kremlin progressively increases its involvement in Ukraine, forces the international community to accept the new status quo by hinting at de-escalation, before intensifying its aggression even more. This strategy was successful as long as the Russians dying in Ukraine were primarily volunteers and social outcasts—members of fascist organizations, hired mercenaries, and ex-convicts. When these fighters died in Ukraine there was little outrage; they had volunteered to fight. However, this same approach will not work when Russian servicemen, rather than ideologically-motivated volunteers, fight and die in Ukraine.

 

Evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine is now irrefutable. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian government revealed that it had captured Russian servicemen on Ukrainian territory.

 

The soldiers admitted that that had been ordered, some of them unknowingly, onto Ukrainian territory. Rapid militant advances in the Donbas at the moment are known to be done with the assistance of Russian military troops and heavy weaponry. Even Alexander Zakharchenko, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, admits that several thousand Russian soldiers operate in eastern Ukraine, who he dubiously claimed are volunteers and on temporary leave from the military. Despite continued denials emanating from the Kremlin, the Russian government will find it increasingly difficult to cover up the death and capture of its own soldiers, even to Russian society itself.

 

Russian civil society organizations are increasingly expressing concern that its soldiers are being secretly deployed to Ukraine without the notification of family members. The families of those Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine publicly pleaded to President Putin and the Russian government to secure their release from Ukraine. The Committee for Soldiers’ Mothers, a Russian NGO, has stated that approximately 15,000 Russian soldiers are currently serving on Ukrainian territory.

 

NATO, on the other hand, has stated that there “at least” 1,000 Russian military soldiers in Ukraine.

Furthermore, Russian reporters have said that they were attacked when following a story about the surreptitious burials of Russian paratroopers killed in Ukraine. According to journalists from newspapers Pskovskaya Guberniya and Telegraf, when reporters arrived in Pskov, to the site of alleged burials, armed thugs threatened them with death, eventually attacking their cars and erasing photographs of the site. All the while, the Kremlin denies that the soldiers buried in Pskov are related to the conflict in Ukraine.

 

Unlike the extremist Kremlin-supported Russian volunteers who have been fighting in the Donbass, the Kremlin will not be able to deny responsibility and sweep the deaths of Russian soldiers under the rug. These soldiers, many of them conscripts, have families that will ask questions about the disappearances, injuries, and deaths of their loved ones. Additionally, civil society organizations that support the welfare and interests of Russian soldiers, such as Committee for Soldiers’ Mothers, remain among the most independent NGOs in the country.

 

Clamoring voices are already revealing the Kremlin’s web of lies and prevarications, debunking the narrative that the Russian government is neither assisting the militants nor sending Russian troops into Ukraine. As Russia’s involvement deepens, which is overwhelmingly evident over the past several days, the Kremlin lies will likely fall apart not only in front of the international community, which has long recognized Russian prevarications, but in front of the Russian people as well. Only so many Russian soldiers can end up captured, injured, or killed before friends and relatives start asking questions and demanding answers. Soon, Putin will either need to come clean about Russia’s involvement in Ukraine, or face increasing scrutiny and distrust from his own people.

NSDC: Russian invaders in Novoazovsk apply methods of fascist propaganda

Kyiv, August 31, 2014. Yesterday nine Russian paratroopers were exchanged for 63 soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine at the checkpoint in Kharkiv region, reported Colonel Andriy Lysenko, spokesperson of Information and Analytical Center of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

 

Andriy Lysenko said that in the last 24 hours four Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 34 got wounded. According to NSDC representative, the Ukrainian military engaged the terrorists and the Russian military 33 times in the vicinity of the following ​settlements: Stanytsia Luhanska, Heorhiivka, Krasnaya Polyana, Andriivka, Lutugino, Kruglyk, Uspenka, Berezove, Vergunsky Rozyizd, Fedorivka, Zempliane, Maryinka, Adrianopil, Makarovo, Fashchiivka as well as near “Luhansk” airport. The spokesperson for the National Security and Defense Council said that the ATO forces destroyed two tanks, an “Urahan” [‘Hurricane’] installation, six Grad systems and more than 100 terrorist militants.

 

Colonel Lysenko said that the shelling of ATO positions continues from the territory of Russia. Thus the position of Ukrainian military near the village Horodyshche was fired upon with anti-tank guided missiles. In addition, the Ukrainian-Russian borderline in Luhansk region,  and the bridge over the Kamyshnaya river near the village of Nizhnebaranovka (Bilovodsky district), as well as the positions of the ATO forces in the village of Makarovo (Stanychno-Luhansk region) suffered from the shelling which originated from the territory of the Russian Federation. The NSDC representative emphasized that yesterday Ukraine recorded four Russian drones close to the village of Rosa Luxemburg (Donetsk region) and near the village of Yuhanovka (Luhansk region).

 

Lysenko cited numerous facts of destruction of Donbas infrastructure by the terrorists. He particularly pointed toward the evidence of shelling of Lutugin scientific and industrial roller mill, and the downing of the bridge over the Kalmius river near the village of Granite, Telmanovsky district. On a separate note, Lysenko reported that the Ukrainian forces found and disabled 163 units of ammunition and explosives.

 

Commenting on the situation in Mariupol, which is under the threat of a Russian invasion, the NSDC spokesperson said that the city was preparing for the defense, noting that yesterday more than a thousand residents of Mariupol stepped out creating a human chain at the checkpoint on the road coming from Novoazovsk, which is now occupied by the Russian army. In Novoazovsk, according to Andriy Lysenko, the Russians have been recorded to disseminate leaflets on “How to deal with the peacekeeping force of the Russian troops,” where the local population was suggested not to resist the Russian invaders and take the collaborationist position. The leaflet also assures that “no one will be shot down just for no reason.”

 

Colonel Lysenko noted that the National Guard of Ukraine received several Mi-8 MTV1 helicopters which have been redesigned and modernized to be able to evacuate the wounded and provide first aid. According to the NSDC representative, the helicopters have successfully passed the flight test and have no analogues in the world.

 

Notably, on August 30 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko held a series of meetings with European leaders, including the British Prime Minister David Cameron and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte. Reportedly, the European community condemns the Russian occupation of Crimea and aggression in eastern Ukraine. In addition the European Union calls on Russia to immediately withdraw its troops and equipment from Ukraine and fully supports President Poroshenko’s peace plan.

NSDC: Russia keeps sending military equipment to Eastern Ukraine

Within the last 24 hours ATO forces inflicted powerful damage on the enemy. Ukrainian servicemen eliminated the enemy’s convoy of 30 vehicles on the move towards Luhansk – Alchevsk. Two more vehicles of Russian mercenaries moving towards Zugres – Khartsyzsk were also eliminated. In total Ukrainian armed forces eliminated with fire 2 tanks, 3 APCs, 1 Uragan and 6 Grad multiple rocket launcher systems as well as 35 militants. The information was presented by Col. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman of the Information-AnalyticalCenter of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine at a briefing in the UkraineCrisisMediaCenter. “Direct military aggression of the Russian Federation continues in the East of Ukraine. Russians keep sending military machinery and mercenaries to Donbas. The situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions is getting more complicated due to activities of the Russian Armed Forces. Following yesterday’s combat with terrorists and Russian troops near Komsomolske village Ukrainian forces got on defensive positions and set their strongholds,” added Col. Andriy Lysenko.

 

Ukrainian army started offensive in Luhansk region. Over forty terrorists were eliminated. Planned operational work was conducted in several settlements in Slovyano-Serbsky district, Krymske and Sokolnyky villages. “Active combat is on at the Luhansk direction. Regular units of Ukrainian Armed Forces got an order to retreat from Khryashuvate and Novosvitlivka of Krasnodonsky region, they took defense positions near Luhansk. In Luhansk region positions of ATO forces near Horodyshe and Makarove of Stanychno-Lyhansky district came under fire from the territory of the Russian Federation,” informed NSDC spokesman.

 

Ukrainian servicemen keep bolstering fortifications in Mariupol. In Mariupol district of the Donetsk region border guards jointly with volunteer battalions have organized round-the-clock patrolling to discover subversive and reconnaissance Russian groups. All main entries to Mariupol have been reinforced by dog support units and border guard specialists. Special units to repel tanks attack were additionally established.

 

On 29 August Ukraine’s Security Service detained Russian citizen, Serhiy (Gennadiyovych) Chernysh, date of birth 1965, who took part in terroristic activities in Ukraine. Citizen of the Russian Federation together with other mercenaries illegally crossed Ukraine’s state border at a Russian border crossing point. “Together with the militants Chernysh previously experienced in “hot spots” took over a role of instructor, coordinated groups activities, ensured terrorists’ retreat under attacks of ATO forces a number of times. Russian mercenary was detained when he was on special mission to find the pilot who managed to escape from an aircraft downed by the terrorists. Detained is in custody, investigation is underway,” explained Col. Lysenko.

 

Enterprises making part of state-owned “Ukroboronprom” group will work in 3-shifts mode. Production effectiveness is thus expected to be increased by 40 percent.

 

Servicemen of the Russian Federation are holding propaganda activities to get support for pro-Russian oriented terroristic organizations. Propaganda promoters also offer financial reward in exchange for information on dislocation places of Ukrainian armed forces units, Ukrainian special forces servicemen and members of their families.

 

In Makiivka militants installed “Grad” multiple rocket launchers and shell Donetsk and Yasynuvata.

US Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham urge to immediately start supplying weapons to Ukraine and introduce more powerful economic sanctions against Russia as a result of its military invasion on Ukraine’s territory.

 

Minister for Foreign Affairs of France Laurent Fabius claimed to be in possession of undeniable proofs of military invasion to Ukraine by the Russian Federation and stressed on the possibility to step up sanctions provided that Moscow refuses peaceful settlement of the conflict.

 

German government’s spokesperson Steffen Seibert said that numerous violations of the Russian-Ukrainian border testify on military intervention of the Russian Federation to Ukraine. In this regard official Berlin requests from Kremlin explanation of the above situation.

 

Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte outlined the need for the EU member states to introduce additional sanctions against Russia in response to conflict escalation in Eastern Ukraine.

 

Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic considers invasion of the Armed forces of the Russian Federation to Ukraine being a threat to peace and stability in Europe and urges Kremlin to pull back its armed forces from Ukrainian territory.

Assassination Attempt Made on Zakharchenko, PM of 'Donetsk People's Republic'

An assassination attempt was made on Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the appointed "prime minister" of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" (DNR), ITAR-TASS reported.

 

The attempt was made during the day on August 30, a source in the DNR told ITAR-TASS. Shots were fired at the car in which he was traveling, Interfax reported.

His driver was injured, but Zakharchenko escaped unharmed.

 

The attack came after Zakharchenko replied to President Vladimir Putin's call on the "Novorossiya militia" to open up a humanitarian corridor to allow Ukrainian soldiers encircled by Russian-backed separatists to escape. Zakharchenko said he would approve the corridor if first Ukrainian battalions gave up their heavy weapons and vehicles. The Ukrainian soldiers began leaving the area of fighting near Ilovaisk yesterday morning, amid reports that they were fired upon nonetheless by separatists.

Zakharchenko was installed August 8, after the resignation of Aleksandr Boroday, and as a man with some military training, said he would make the unification of the separatist command and victory on the battlefield a priority.

 

Speculation about the nature of the assailants ranges from rival separatists to Ukrainian forces to Russian intelligence but there is no information available at all on the attackers.

There were reports on August 28 that Valery Bolotov, the former "governor" of the "Lugansk People's Republic" was assassinated, after disappearing soon after resigning from his position, citing the need to recover from wounds. The reports have not been confirmed.

 

Another DNR leader who suffered repeated assassination attempts was Denis Pushilin, former chairman of the Supreme Council. In a June 7 attack, his aide Maksim Petrukhin was killed; on 12 June, his car was blown up while he was away in Moscow, and two people were killed. He left his post on July 18.

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday hailed pro-Moscow Thugs in eastern Ukraine as “insurgents” battling an army that he likened to Nazi invaders during World War II, and the Ukrainian government raised the prospect of joining NATO as it seeks help to repel what it calls an outright Russian military invasion

 

Pro-Russian separatists walk past an unmarked grave at Savur-Mohyla, a hill east of the city of Donetsk.

 

In a statement published on the Kremlin’s Web site early Friday, Putin also urged the separatists to release Ukrainian soldiers trapped since Monday in the southeastern town of Ilyovaisk.

The double-edged statement — couched as a humanitarian gesture but perhaps aimed at helping the rebels consolidate control — came a day after the government in Kiev said Russian soldiers, tanks and heavy artillery had begun rolling into the region to help the separatists reverse recent Ukrainian military gains.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Friday that Ukraine may seek to join NATO, announcing the submission of a bill to parliament that would repeal the country’s “non-bloc status,” the Interfax news agency reported.

A Ukrainian military spokesman, Col. Andriy Lysenko, told reporters that Russia continues to send troops and materiel across the border.

He said the force includes tanks bearing inscriptions such as “We are going to Kiev.” 

“I assure you that on our shells we won’t have any messages like ‘to Moscow’ or ‘on to Moscow,’ ” Lysenko said.

“We are not aggressors. We’re just trying to liberate Ukrainian lands.”

Lysenko said the Ukrainian army, after retreating from the southeastern coastal town of Novoazovsk, was ready to defend the key port city of Mariupol, about 28 miles farther west on the Sea of Azov.

Putin did not answer accusations by the Ukrainian government and the West about Russia’s military presence in southeastern Ukraine.

Instead, he praised the separatists as “insurgents” who had undermined “Kiev’s military operation, which threatened lives of the residents of Donbas and has already led to a colossal death toll among civilians” — a reference to the eastern Ukrainian region known as the Donets Basin, or Donbas, whose unofficial capital is rebel-held Donetsk.

Ukraine’s military responded quickly, saying that Putin’s call for an exit corridor for encircled Ukrainian troops showed that the separatists are “led and controlled directly from the Kremlin.”

Pro-Russian separatists said they would comply with the Kremlin’s request, but it was unclear whether Kiev would accept the offer.

At a youth forum later Friday, Putin said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had agreed to a prisoner swap that would include sending 10 captured Russian paratroopers back to Russia.

An advocacy group called Soldiers’ Mothers has been pressing Russian authorities for answers on the fate of troops believed to be fighting in Ukraine.

Russia responded by putting the Soldiers’ Mothers of St. Petersburg on a government list of foreign agents.

In the same appearance, Putin said the recent Ukrainian offensive against pro-Russian rebels reminded him of “the events of the Second World War, when the Nazi occupiers, the troops, surrounded our cities — for example, Leningrad — and point-blank shot at these settlements and their inhabitants.”

He added: “It’s awful. It’s a disaster.”

Although Putin skirted the issue of Russian military involvement in Ukraine, his remarks directly addressing the separatists and his disparaging comments about Ukrainian forces served to escalate the rhetoric surrounding the crisis at a time when Moscow and Kiev are supposed to be talking about prisoner swaps, humanitarian convoys and other matters.

Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko is scheduled to meet in Brussels today with top European leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Russian and Ukrainian border security services are also expected to meet at the Nekhoteyevka checkpoint in the Belgorod region of Russia, near to the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, to discuss the situation along the Russian-Ukrainian border, and strategies to prevent militants and military hardware from crossing back and forth. 

Putin also said that Ukraine should not fear federalization, asserting that Russia itself would be moving further in that direction, possibly by shifting some central government authorities to Siberia.

That declaration comes barely two weeks after activists calling for more federalism in Siberia were detained and protests on the subject were banned.

However, Russia would not “meddle” with Ukraine’s internal affairs, Putin added. 

U.S. officials said privately Thursday that they consider the Russian show of military force this week tantamount to an invasion.

Speaking at a news conference, President Obama did not use the term but said it was clear the uprising in eastern Ukraine was not “homegrown.”

“The separatists are backed, trained, armed, financed by Russia,” he said.

In a response Friday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry again accused the United States of hypocrisy — this time for what it called U.S. disregard for civilians in eastern Ukraine.

“In any other conflict, whether in the Middle East, Africa or anywhere else, the West has consistently opposed actions causing harm to civilians,” the ministry said on its Web site.

“It is only in relation to southeastern Ukraine that it holds a diametrically opposite line, in gross violation of international humanitarian law.”

A total of 2,593 people, including civilians, have been killed in the fighting in eastern Ukraine since mid-April, a senior U.N. human rights official said Friday.

“The trend is clear and alarming,” Ivan Simonovic, U.N. assistant secretary general for human rights, told journalists in Kiev.

“There is a significant increase in the death toll in the east.” Simonovic said the number would be close to 3,000 if the 298 victims of downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were counted.

Civilian casualties would continue to rise “as each side increases its strength, through mobilization, better organization, or the deployment of new fighters and more sophisticated weapons and support from outside,” he said.

Simonovic had sharp words for both sides.

“Armed groups continue to commit abductions, physical and psychological torture,” he said of the separatists, whose tactics he said were aimed at terrorizing the population under their control. But he added that the United Nations has also heard “disturbing reports of violations committed by battalions under government control.” 

Russia’s Foreign Ministry criticized the U.N. official as repeating “fabrications against the militia forces of Donetsk and Luhansk” but commended him for addressing “the criminal actions of the Ukrainian army” — although the ministry maintained that his report did not go far enough.

“The mission was forced to admit the obvious,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

Resurgent Pro-Russia Thugs Brim With Confidence In Ukraine After Gaining Ground

STAROBESHEVE, Ukraine — As the survivor of a tank attack on a Ukrainian army truck was being carried into an ambulance, he was showered with verbal abuse by a rebel fighter.

Ukrainian loyalist fighters from the Azov Battalion stand guard on a hill on the outskirts of Mariupol on August 30, 2014. Pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine warned on Saturday that they will launch a fresh offensive against government troops, days after seizing swathes of territory.

“Why didn’t you say before that you were alive? Why so quiet?” the rebel taunted.

Minutes later, the Ukrainian soldier drew his last breath.

Under the gaze of rebels, Ukrainian soldiers loaded the bodies of six other dead comrades onto trucks outside the village of Starobesheve.

A couple of kilometres away, in the village itself, other rebels made wisecracks and boasted about dealing another punishing blow to Ukrainian forces.

After weeks of yielding ground, the Russian-backed separatists are brimming with confidence following a string of seemingly effortless victories.

On Saturday, Ukraine announced it was abandoning Ilovaisk, a city 25 kilometres north of Starobesheve.

Surrounded on all sides over several days, they sustained fire so intense that the government was compelled to plead for a corridor out.

“We are surrendering this city,” said Ukrainian Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the national security council.

“Our task now is to evacuate our military with the least possible losses in order to regroup.”

Lysenko said that regular units of the military had also been ordered to retreat from Novosvitlivka and Khryashchuvate, two towns on the main road between the Russian border and Luhansk, the second-largest rebel-held city.

Ukraine had claimed control of Novosvitlivka earlier in August.

Adding to that, Ukrainian government forces are now facing the prospect of an onslaught from yet another front along the coast of the southeastern Azov Sea. 

Ukraine and numerous Western governments have said they believe rebels have been amply supplied with powerful Russian weaponry and that regular Russian troops are engaged in combat.

NATO estimates that at least 1,000 Russian soldiers are in Ukraine even though Russia heatedly denies any involvement in fighting that has so far claimed at least 2,600 lives, according to U.N. figures.

Preparations for the evacuation from Ilovaisk were spotted by AP reporters Saturday morning in the village of Mykolaivka, 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, where 20 flatbed trucks were parked in line primed to go and collect stranded Ukrainian troops.

Anxious Mykolaivka residents reported hearing blasts of artillery Friday and the convoy made painstaking progress throughout the day to avoid rebel ambushes.

After more than an hour’s travel through tortuous country roads, the convoy reached the countryside outside Starobesheve and joined up with about 15 government ambulances readied to collect the wounded.

As drivers awaited the order to move, a green army truck drove in from the opposite direction packed with weary and evidently traumatized soldiers.

Speaking over one another, they said rebels reneged on promises to provide a safe corridor out of Ilovaisk and opened fire on departing Ukrainians troops.

Although palpably frustrated with what they see as fatally indecisive leadership from the authorities, rank-and-file troops are reluctant to go on the record with their complaints for fear of reprisals.

But their rage Saturday was mainly reserved for their opponents.

“We came from Ilovaisk bearing white flags,” said one soldier, who declined to give his name and had his face covered with a mask.

“They shot us from all sides. We were not engaged in military actions. We were just on the move.”

While none could offer a specific estimate of how many had died, they said the deaths may have numbered in the dozens.

Ukrainian National Guard Lt. Col. Mekola Hordienko, who was accompanying the evacuation operation, said the attack on departing soldiers constituted a violation of international conventions.

The surrounding area has been scene of skirmishes and shelling attacks over the past week.

In Starobesheve, the dozens of rebels milling around the otherwise deserted rural settlement were jubilant Saturday over having trapped a column of Ukrainian tanks and armoured personnel carriers after a brief battle that morning.

Standing in groups, some fighters shared jokes and battle stories, while one showed off pictures taken on his phone of insignia from troops in the trapped Ukrainian battalions.

At one stage in the afternoon, three rebel tanks raced up to the local police station, which now operates at the local rebel headquarters, only to be angrily ordered back down the hill by the local commander.

One separatist fighter, who provided only his first name Sergei and the nom de guerre Frantsuz (Frenchman), said the Ukrainian armoured column was intercepted while it was travelling to Ilovaisk to assist in evacuating government troops.

“They wanted to take Starobesheve, but this operation failed,” he said.

“Starobesheve remains under our control and their equipment is under our control.” 

After hours of negotiations, dozens of Ukrainian troops were allowed to leave the village riding on six APCs, but without ammunition.

Frantsuz said rebel commanders agreed to allow ambulances and trucks to travel to Ilovaisk to take away the injured and the dead.

Near a bridge on the road out of the village, six bodies lay in disarray around a medical truck that was torn apart by a rebel tank shell.

Ukrainian army personnel dragged away the bodies with cables — a precaution adopted to avoid impact from possible unexploded ordnance.

A man in the recovery group wretched after one especially mangled body was loaded into a truck.

Although the bodies showed signs of having lain in the open overnight, one severely injured man in the crew was found to still be alive and was carried away for treatment.

About half an hour later, he too died and was tipped face down into the back of the truck along with the other men.

After months of supporting separatist rebels to stir up trouble in eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an overt (if relatively small-scale) invasion of eastern Ukraine sometime around August 21, sending in tanks, mobile artillery, and at least 1,000 troops.

 

Putin, Czar of the "Evil Empire".

 

This seems likely to come back to hurt Putin.

The US and European countries were already imposing tough economic sanctions that had pushed the Russian economy on the edge of recession.

It is all but certain that these countries will heighten sanctions — even German Chancellor Angela Merkel, normally hesitant to take such action, is suggesting as much — and damage the Russian economy further.

So why is Putin doing it?

In the short-term, Russia's goal appears to be bolstering the separatist rebels, who have been losing ground to Ukrainian military forces in the weeks since those rebels shot down Malaysian Airlines flight 17.

But that's just a short-term goal.

What is Putin's long-term aim?

Four compelling theories exist, and while there is almost certainly some truth to all of them, it is the fourth — that Putin was pulled into invading by a crisis whose momentum is beyond his control — that is both the most plausible and the most frightening.

1) Putin wants to annex eastern Ukraine 

This is the big fear: that Putin will do in eastern Ukraine what he did in Crimea in March, occupying the region militarily and then declaring it to be part of Russia.

The evidence for this is two-fold.

First, Putin wouldn't go to such great lengths to defend the rebels unless he really wanted them to hold that ground, and he's been hinting ominously for weeks that he may have to intervene to save eastern Ukrainians against the fascist Ukrainian army (this is a fiction, to be clear).

Second, Russian forces just opened a second front far south of rebel-held territory, in the Ukrainian coastal area near the town of Novoazovsk.

It looks like maybe they are trying to open a route from the rebel-held areas around Donetsk and Luhansk to the Black Sea — either to open supply lines or to make it a more viable slice of territory for annexation.

The evidence against this is that, even for Putin, it would be just bananas crazy.

No one wants to admit this, but as illegal and hugely offensive as Russia's annexation of Crimea was, the region has a large Russian ethnic population, a real degree of preexisting pro-Russia sentiment, and a bizarre history by which Russia handed it over to Ukraine during the Cold War.

That is not to say that Russia's annexation of Crimea was at all acceptable — it was not — but world leaders were only willing to go so far to oppose it.

Eastern Ukrainians are majority ethnic Ukrainian and appear far less okay with the idea of a hostile Russian invasion.

There is no historical or demographic case for Donetsk as part of Russia, and world leaders have made very clear that they see Russian intervention there as far more offensive than the annexation of Crimea.

2) Putin wants to maintain a perpetual crisis in eastern Ukraine 

It looked, in the first months of Putin's meddling in eastern Ukraine, like this was the aim: not to annex outright, but just to foment enough chaos there that Ukraine would be unable to fully break from Russia's orbit; that the low-level violence would be Moscow's gun to Ukraine's head.

The Ukraine crisis began, after all, when Ukrainians protested en masse in autumn 2013 to push their government away from Russia and toward Europe, something that Putin fears.

The evidence for this is that Putin has long pushed specific policy requests for the Ukrainian government as part of peace negotiations.

The biggest is for Ukraine to adopt a federal system, which would allow province-level Ukrainian officials in more pro-Russia areas greater autonomy, and thus more room for Russian influence.

The other bit of evidence is that Russia has used this strategy before to force its influence in former Soviet states.

As Clinton-era Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott tweeted, "Putin's strategy in Ukraine includes creating 'frozen conflicts' in east, much as Russia's done in Georgia, Moldova, and Azerbaijan."

In this thinking, Putin is not invading to annex eastern Ukraine, but to protect the Russian-backed rebels that were in danger of being overrun by the Ukrainian military, so that he could keep his destabilizing influence there.

3) Putin wants to force peace a deal that favors him 

Before Russia invaded, the Ukrainian military was looking awfully close to overrunning the rebels.

Had that happened, Putin would have lost his ability to kick up trouble in eastern Ukraine — and thus lost a lot of leverage with the Ukrainian government.

All Putin would have to show for his trouble would be a Russian economy devastated by economic sanctions.

Maybe, then, this is Putin's last, desperate attempt to salvage something from the crisis by escalating it beyond what he knows the West can tolerate.

The Ukrainian military is too weak to defend against Russia's, after all, and there's no way NATO will intervene and risk World War Three over the status of Luhansk.

So perhaps Putin's ambition is to force Ukraine, the US, and Europe to accept some sort of peace deal that will grant Russia some face-saving concessions.

4) Putin, boxed in by his own rhetoric and earlier escalation, has simply lost control 

This seems the most likely: that Putin did not choose to invade eastern Ukraine, so much as he was pulled into it by his own rhetoric, his own propaganda, and the degree to which he attached his political legitimacy to the crisis.

This is the only way that the invasion really makes sense.

Even if Russia's invasion of eastern Ukraine achieves the best possible outcome for Putin (maybe that means annexation, maybe it means Western and Ukrainian concessions), the long-term consequences will be so dire for Putin and Russia that it could not possibly be worthwhile.

There is one place where the invasion does make rational sense: in the fantasy world that Putin has constructed in Kremlin propaganda and Russian state media.

The official Russian narrative, which is disturbingly popular among Russians, is that Ukrainians are crying out for Russian liberation from the fascistic, American-run puppet regime in Kiev.

The narrative also says that Russia is not just saving fellow Russian-speakers in Donetsk but is fulfilling its destiny as a great power, retaking the dignity that was lost with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The stakes are high for Putin personally.

Since taking power in 2000, he has governed through an implicit deal with the Russian people, one that has proven generally popular: he delivers high economic growth, and Russians accept some curbs to political and individual rights.

But then the economy began to slow, and in March 2012 a small but significant number of Russians protested against Putin's sham reelection, and he shifted strategy.

Since then, Putin has based his legitimacy less on generating economy growth and more on stirring up old-style Russian nationalism.

That appears to have been a big part of what drove his invasion of Crimea and his instigation of a rebellion in eastern Ukraine, which have been hugely popular in Russia.

To juice that popularity, Russian state media has relentlessly and shamelessly fear-mongered about the supposed threats in Ukraine and praised great leader Vladimir Putin for standing up to the West and to the Ukrainian fascists there. Putin, unable to resist, repeatedly threatened a Russian humanitarian intervention.

All of that paid of nicely for Putin, until it looked like his rebels were about to be expelled by the Ukrainian military, which would have been a disastrous humiliation for him and a repudiation of the nationalism on which he has increasingly based his legitimacy.

It would have left him without the nationalism and certainly without an economy, which is nearing recession.

Meanwhile, far-right nationalist voices within the Russian media and Putin's government have been urging him to escalate.

So, no other way out, he did.

If this is truly what is driving Putin, it means he may well be operating without a clear strategy or objective in mind.

If one of the world's largest militaries is invading just to invade, then it is not at all clear when the tanks will stop rolling, or what sort of political compromise or concession would turn them back.

Putin is not crazy, but he may have created a crisis with an internal momentum so great that it has broken beyond his control.

That is a truly scary possibility.