RUSSIAN troops and heavy armaments including tanks and howitzer artillery have reportedly streamed across the Ukrainian border contrary to a supposed ceasefire and signalling a significant escalation of hostilities in the region.
The move comes amid first-hand reports that Donetsk, the Russian-backed militia’s unofficial capital in east Ukraine, has descended into chaos.
Sources inside the embattled city have told News Corp Australia the city, without electricity or gas, was rife with indiscriminate violence including rapes and murders and daily deadly bombings.
Most of the victims have been civilians who have either yet to flee the region or have nowhere else to go.
The Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council today accused Russia of sending at least 32 tanks, 16 weapons systems including Howitzer cannons, radar systems and 30 truck loads of armed fighters and ammunition.
Spokesman Colonel Andriy Lysenko said the latest convoy of troops and armaments came through Izvaryne border post which is in militia control.
“Redeployment of military equipment and of Russian mercenaries to the frontline continues,” he said.
The entry of the equipment also in the Luhansk region came as five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 16 injured in the past 24 hours.
It was not clear whether the movement of armaments was the start of a new offensive to wrest the east of Ukraine for Russia or the reinforcing of the Russian-backed militia’s position along the eastern border of that country.
Either way, the escalation in violence and reports of armament movements flies in the face of a technical ceasefire that was created on September 5 between Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The violence particularly about Donetsk also all but rules out any potential move by Dutch and Australian air crash investigators on returning to the region to finalise their investigation into Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, shot down by a missile on July 17.
Sources inside the embattled city say the violence has steadily increased over recent weeks and no one left in the once beautiful regional capital felt safe.
“They bomb us from all directions, the west, the east, the south and it is killing people,” one local hiding in his basement told News Corp.
“We don’t have electricity or gas, no water and it is very hard. People are cooking what they can, potatoes, on open fires but it is all very dangerous.
“Western people no longer hearing I think about the killings, many children die going to school. “Two boys were killed playing football in their school and 10 or maybe more taken to the central hospital. Many people die at hands of both sides.”
He confirmed reports there had been rapes as well as random assaults of locals.
Meanwhile, there were unconfirmed reports former Soviet soldier and Russian-backed militia leader Igor Beslar who allegedly admitted responsibility for the shooting down of MH17 had been killed in an internal militia conflict.
That came after Russian radio reported he had been removed from his post after failure to unite the various militant separatist factions from Donetsk to Luhansk.
NATO could not confirm the report of the death nor the movement of armaments and men across the border from Russia.
“If this crossing into Ukraine is confirmed, it would be further evidence of Russia’s aggression and direct involvement in destabilising Ukraine,” a spokesman said.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the movement “if confirmed ... would be another blatant violation of the Minsk agreement,” referring to the September 5 pact.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed “deep concern” about the reports of Russian troop movements and spoke by phone Friday with Mr Poroshenko.
http://www.news.com.au/world/europe...scalating-crisis/story-fnh81p7g-1227116565043
I know The Crab is often accused for many things - dictatorship, homophobia, shooting the MH17 personally - but nationalism?..
You may say, Novorossia is the new Dixieland, opposing the United States and their henchmen.
