An armed pro-Russian separatist stands in front
of damaged buildings following what locals say
was shelling by Ukrainian forces in Donetsk.
Ukraine and Western officials on Wednesday
warned that Russian forces are opening up
another, major front in the war, according to The
New York Times.
“This is what happened: they crossed the border,
took up positions, and started shooting," Sgt.
Aleksei Panko said after telling The Times that
about 60 armored vehicles crossed the border
near the town of Novoazovsk. “This is now a war
with Russia."
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said
Wednesday that Russia’s “incursions” in Ukraine
"indicate a Russian-directed counter-offensive is
likely underway" in Luhansk and Donetsk, which
she said was of "deep concern" to the U.S.
She accused Russia of "sending its young men
into Ukraine, but not telling them or their parents
where they are going or what they are doing."
"These are not steps you take when you are
operating in a transparent manner," Psaki said.
"We are also concerned about the Russian
government’s unwillingness to tell the truth even
as its soldiers are found 30 miles inside Ukraine.
An Ukrainian serviceman shoots during fighting
with pro-Russian separatists in the eastern
Ukrainian town of Ilovaysk, Aug. 26, 2014.
U.S. officials added that there is proof Russia has
provided advanced air defenses not known to be
in the Ukrainian arsenal — and thus could not be
"looted" by separatists — and routinely flies
drones over head to gather intelligence for the
separatists.
Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,
wrote on Twitter Tuesday that Russia's recent
moves in Ukraine "may indicate that a Russian
counteroffensive is underway" in southeastern
Ukraine, where fighting between the Ukrainian
army and pro-Russian separatists has raged for
months.
The Times reports that the counteroffensive
"pushed the Ukrainian army off a 75 mile-long
highway from Donetsk south to the Azov Sea."
A key new front is on the road linking Russia to
the Ukrainian port of Mariupol and onto Crimea,
Associated Press reports. The excursion raises
the fear that the separatists, with the help of
Russian forces, are trying to create a land link
between Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea.
"The Russian military’s use of artillery from
locations within Ukraine is of special concern to
Western military officials, who say Russian
artillery has already been used to shell Ukrainian
forces near Luhansk," Andrew Kramer and Michael
Gordon of The Time report. "And along with the
antiaircraft systems operated by separatists or
Russian forces inside Ukraine, the artillery has the
potential to alter the balance of power in the
struggle for control of eastern Ukraine."
An administration official told the Times that they
believe "that self-propelled artillery is operated by
Russians rather than separatists since no
separatist training on this artillery has occurred to
date."
Interpreter Magazine has translated a report from
an online Russian publication that claims, with
photos, that the Ukrainian army attacked a
Russian military convoy between the rebel
stronghold of Donetsk and the Russian border. It
surely sounds like war (via The Interpreter):
Last night, 26 August 2014, Ukrainian artillery
destroyed a convoy of Russian paratroopers who
advanced on BMDs. The Russian Federation
soldiers were moving toward Ilovaisk with the
purpose of destroying the position of the
Ukrainian army. As soon as the column was
noted, strikes were delivered.
Photographs of the destroyed vehicles were given
by soldiers to Dorozhny Kontrol journalists who
are on the scene of events. As can be seen from
the photos, the paratroopers were dressed in the
RF military uniform and had Vintorez rifles with
them, which are not in the arsenals of Ukraine.
Most of the paratroopers were destroyed, but
some were taken captive.
Interpter Mag notes that the photos show a "blue
beret of the paratroopers, the label from a Kevlar
vest manufactured in the Russian city of Kazan, a
Ukrainian soldier holding up a VSS Vintorez (a
rifle only used by Russian Spetsnaz ), and the
dead bodies of soldiers."
Mini Invasions
Twice in the past three days, Ukraine has accused
Russian soldiers of crossing the border and
fighting alongside pro-Russian rebels in
southeastern Ukraine. Ukraine's state security
service said Monday it detained 10 Russian
paratroopers who crossed into Ukrainian territory.
A group of Russian servicemen, who are detained
by Ukrainian authorities, attend a news
conference in Kiev, Aug. 27, 2014.
On Tuesday, dozens of heavily armed strangers
with Russian accents and military gear without
insignias appeared in an eastern Ukrainian village
and set up a roadblock.
"The people at the new checkpoint, they were
polite military men wearing green. Definitely not
Ukrainian. They're definitely not from around
here," one man told Reuters.
The "green men" are a reminder of the Russian
special forces that were used to annex the
Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
About a month after Russia annexed the strategic
peninsula, Russian President Vladimir Putin
acknowledged he had sent in Russian forces to
protect Russian-speaking citizens in Crimea.
"Of course we had our servicemen behind the
self-defense units of Crimea," Putin said during
an annual televised call-in with the nation in April.
"We had to make sure what is happening now in
eastern Ukraine didn't happen there.
The officials told The Times that Russia has
provided support for separatists in the region of
Luhansk, where government forces recently had
success in routing pro-Russian rebels. And they
are also aiding a separatist push in the south
toward the town of Mariupol, a major port on the
Azov Sea.
According to the report, Western officials believe
the Russian military has fired artillery from within
Ukraine. They said it has already been fired to
shell Ukrainian forces in Luhansk.
“Russia is clearly trying to put its finger on the
scale to tip things back in favor of its proxies,” a
senior American official told The Times. “Artillery
barrages and other Russian military actions have
taken their toll on the Ukrainian military.”
The Times notes that Putin, who is in Belarus for
trades with Ukraine and European leaders, may be
"calculating that Moscow could intervene in
eastern Ukraine with conventional Russian forces
without risking further Western economic
sanctions !!!
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