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Thread: Ukraine: military (Aug '14 to mid-June '15) closed

  1. #2741
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    Ceasefire is virtually over if this fighting keeps increasing.

    Fighting in #Pisky all day, explosions now also heard in #Donetsk city center. #Shyrokyne battle resulted in 1 #Russia|n tank destroyed

    #News
    Russian forces attacked #Avdeevka 4 times with 122 mm artillery and twice with tanks over the day.

    #Donetsk
    Still powerful explosions, machine gun - sound of battle from Airport / #Pisky area right now.
    Also #Opytne was attacked 6 times with different weapons, including tanks.
    Same for #Pisky,where several Ukr troops were killed and injured.

    Telegraph: #Putin's war of attrition - Is #Lithuania next? http://uatoday.tv/news/telegraph-put...xt-416877.html … pic.twitter.com/t48DRYhfTW

    #NATO Commander: West must fight #Russia in information 'war.' Drag the false narrative into the light and expose it:
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015...ation-war.html

  2. #2742
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    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    David--what amazes me is that for months of throwing in the face of the world and Kyiv that Ukrainians are Nazi's and that a Nazi junta overthrew a proRussian Ukrainian President who was close friends to Putin AND then in the home of the Communist Revolution with the battleship still in the harbor Putin holds a Nazi rally of all the far right European political parties now questions Russian sanity.

    An old professor of mine who taught terrorism many years ago and was a RAF and Red Brigade specialist and who wrote books on terrorism from that period had a theory that stated if terrorism is a circle then the extreme left and the extreme right will met each other on that circle--and they both have the same enemy namely the nation state ie a government which they both view to be corrupt and against their political views and under control of the capitalists.

    Years later Putin proves him right.

    We are entering now a totally new phase where Putin is aligning with the far right to undermine the EU and the individual EU members and he has been successful now in six EU countries.

    I do not think the current EU leadership is fully understanding the threat to their individual civil societies.

    Example--years ago it now seems-- actually 1986 I was approached by a German agency and asked if I could trace the source of 22M USDs that was slowly drifting in to Germany and going to German neo Nazi groups via bank transfers---in the same year German authorities stopped over 8 tons of Nazi materials coming into Germany from Lincoln Nebraska--the American Nazi Party.

    Couple that with EAP (European Workers Party) which got into the EU Parliament the first time out and is run by the daughter of LaRoche--who once stated you do not have to wear brown to be brown now to LePen.

    RT @RuslanLeviev #Milchakov one of Delegates at today's "conservative" Forum in St Petersburg, Russia pic.twitter.com/wWc7bWmINM

    Russia @udovoigt, who has been found guilty in #Germany for glorifying the Waffen-SS is an "anti-fascist".etersburg.html … pic.twitter.com/UMafyTPqI3

    The core question now is--- has first the KGB been using the right during the 80s especially during the NATO Perishing 2 and Land Launched Cruise Missile stationing debate and now is Putin using the right to weaken the sanctions and support him in the Ukraine?
    The Putin paradox: anti-fascist, fascist Russia
    http://www.examiner.com/article/the-...fascist-russia
    pic.twitter.com/HvLvu9Mbxf

    #Russia's Fascist Forum: Europe's Far-Right Ultranationalists Come to St. Petersburg. http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/03/2...st-petersburg/ … pic.twitter.com/5JdD084N3d

  3. #2743
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    Since Russian has been in "an altered state of reality" for over a year now--some of their statements are reaching a new level but I am not sure what name to give them.

    Russia has no influence??—if there had been no Russian troops invading in August just as their mercenaries were actually losing and had not Russia supplied and is still supplying troops, mercenaries, money and weapons/munitions (150 tons per day) as of yesterday---this would have been over and laid to rest in August 2014.

    No influence??—no wonder Russian officials get laughed at in Conferences where they repeat what is below
    .

    Peskov: "A coup orchestrated from abroad happened in the center of Europe ... It is dangerous for all of us"

    Peskov: "Putin has some influence on them because they respect him, but he cannot order them to lay down arms"

    Putin has some influence on LPR/DPR militias, "but he cannot order them to lay down arms". TASS http://tass.ru/en/russia/7843

    Peskov: "Contrary to what NATO and European countries say, self-defense forces in Donbas are not our puppets"

    Even more “altered state of reality statements”---Crimea was never to be a part of the Freedom of Movement” process until the Ukraine was allowed to go visa free by the EU—the Russia visa free agreement discussions were stopped as part of the EU sanctions.

    Russian FM blatant lie nothing more—not even “disinformation”.
    MFA Russia ✔ @mfa_russia

    The European Union's decision to grant no visas to #Crimea'ns violates the #FreedomOfMovement principle http://sputniknews.com/politics/2015...019874931.html

  4. #2744
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    Anyone in the mainstream western media push back on this Russian official statement-not a single media outlet nor western leaders with the exception of the SACEUR.

    If one wants to slowly win against the Russian informational conflict someone has to get active on the Western side of this "conflict" letting such actions below go unanswered gives the illusion the actions are correct.

    #Kremlin says #Kiev not fulfilling #Minsk agreements on conflict in east #Ukraine - Reuters

    Kremlin accused the Ukraine of 52 attacks in violation of the minsk 2 agreement---Russia is now counting the actual mercenary and Russian troop attacks as being Ukrainian attacks---the number 52 matches the number of attacks claimed by the Ukrainian NDSC.

    SEVERE MINSK II VIOLATION: Russians fire GRAD rockets on Orikhove overnight
    http://www.unian.info/war/1058678-mi...overnight.html … pic.twitter.com/LB05nQbFEt

    VIDEO #Russia T-72 Tanks parked in warehouse #Makeevka WITHIN #Minsk2 security zone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehqfZK9u1WQ … pic.twitter.com/hhFfQBq3Em

    NATO's top general says Russia's still pouring arms to Ukrainian rebels. @joshrogin http://www.bloombergview.com/article...ing-in-ukraine … via @BV pic.twitter.com/eutJ4uMJOb

  5. #2745
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    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    Since Russian has been in "an altered state of reality" for over a year now--some of their statements are reaching a new level but I am not sure what name to give them.

    Russia has no influence??—if there had been no Russian troops invading in August just as their mercenaries were actually losing and had not Russia supplied and is still supplying troops, mercenaries, money and weapons/munitions (150 tons per day) as of yesterday---this would have been over and laid to rest in August 2014.

    No influence??—no wonder Russian officials get laughed at in Conferences where they repeat what is below
    .

    Peskov: "A coup orchestrated from abroad happened in the center of Europe ... It is dangerous for all of us"

    Peskov: "Putin has some influence on them because they respect him, but he cannot order them to lay down arms"

    Putin has some influence on LPR/DPR militias, "but he cannot order them to lay down arms". TASS http://tass.ru/en/russia/7843

    Peskov: "Contrary to what NATO and European countries say, self-defense forces in Donbas are not our puppets"

    Even more “altered state of reality statements”---Crimea was never to be a part of the Freedom of Movement” process until the Ukraine was allowed to go visa free by the EU—the Russia visa free agreement discussions were stopped as part of the EU sanctions.

    Russian FM blatant lie nothing more—not even “disinformation”.
    MFA Russia ✔ @mfa_russia

    The European Union's decision to grant no visas to #Crimea'ns violates the #FreedomOfMovement principle http://sputniknews.com/politics/2015...019874931.html
    This is the perfect example of how little the Russians fully understood the Maidan events.

    Their friend and deposed Ukrainian President failed to show up for work after the Maidan truce agreement, and then fled the Ukraine for parts unknown and even the Russians did not know exactly where he was if you believe Putin's own documentary where he basically stated as much.

    Then Peskov seems to have forgotten that Yanukovych's own Party of the Regions voted to oust him as President with all memebers voting against him in the Rada-- a seemingly simple but major point that the Russians always overlook.

    Peskov: "Someone decided to remove [Yanukovych] from power, and it is absolutely unacceptable"

  6. #2746
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    The European Neo Right/Fascist and Nazi’s Forum in St. Petersberg yesterday before it was disturbed by a bomb threat

    Insanely fascinating overview of the modern European far right from inside a Petersburg Holiday Inn, by @maxseddon - http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/eu...ues#.agdNEYEN1

    Your blood will boil. Outrageous Kremlin fascistic-militaristic perspective from Rostislav Ishchenko via Valdai Club http://valdaiclub.com/near_abroad/76060.html

    "When the war resumes", "nothing good in store for Ukraine", "no more than half of Ukraine’s current population will survive"

    max seddon ✔ @maxseddon
    Marine le Pen's people got in touch about the far-right forum in St. Petersburg yesterday. http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/eu...-shared-values … pic.twitter.com/qKk599y8eN

  7. #2747
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    The "fighting ceasefire" activities just keep growing all the while no one on the western leadership side is calling for a total stop of Russian activities per Minsk 2 and flashing all available satellite evidence onto large media screens around the world.

    Seems that it is only social media that is carrying the informational war back to Russian.

    ATO spokesperson: Ukrainian police uncover arms arsenal in #Donetsk region. Contained grenade launchers, maps, kevlar vests

    Russian Iskander-M was spotted in Rostov-on-Don on Saturday pic.twitter.com/x6wSRhyVEC

    Russian military ramps up excuse to attack. TASS: "Ukrainian forces violate ceasefire 52 times over last 24 hours" http://tass.ru/en/world/784302

    Tymchuk: Militants acquire highly mobile Grad-P systems
    http://www.unian.info/war/1058704-ty...p-systems.html … pic.twitter.com/z3bKSE11rZ

    Russian TU-95MS Bear H bombers circumnavigate Japan on Mar 20 http://www.mod.go.jp/js/Press/press2...0150320_01.pdf … pic.twitter.com/Ss2MGnQWtA

    Battalion Azov filming how Russian invaders shell Shyrokyne with 120 mm mortars today
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LGpGkZeJLc

  8. #2748
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    Y-day in Pisky 5 OUN battalion servicemen, 2 border guards were WIA right when #OSCE came to check on "#ceasefire" https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=AW8pIda_k7I

    7 Ukr troops got injured in #Pisky during an @OSCE_SMM visit to the village.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW8pIda_k7I … pic.twitter.com/XQ1DLNxOYT

    At #Donetsk direction enemy fired at Pisky w/ a 120mm mortar, fired at Opytne from tank https://www.facebook.com/ato.news/posts/969161916427948 … pic.twitter.com/5TdT75beGJ

    #Lugansk @ukrainebang: 'This night forests behind #Stanitsa in #Olkhova area were on strong fire, UKR positions'

    Terrorists used tanks, Grads and mortars to shell ATO positions at all directions. All http://24today.net/open/351141

    10-12 tanks were brought to occupied Horlivka. Militants bring artillery, MRLS to frontlinehttp://mvs.gov.ua/mvs/control/main/u...rticle/1408600 … pic.twitter.com/SjQEHXtMZa

    Russian "Brigade Kalmius" 2S1 training in occupied #Donbas.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25wHp7UY-h4
    Can anyone geolocate their base? pic.twitter.com/Z781mr1qSe

    Enemy shelled Orikhove w/ Grad. At 3am Ukr forces repelled an attack near Sokilnykyhttps://www.facebook.com/ato.news/posts/969161916427948 … pic.twitter.com/yqvZ0J92oq
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 03-23-2015 at 06:36 PM.

  9. #2749
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    As the "fighting ceasefire" picks up this comment below is now coming up often via social media.

    Putin regime seeks showdown with NATO using Ukraine/Baltics. Kremlin considers US/EU politics most weak/fractured now. Russia will attack.

    NSDC of Ukraine ✔ @NSDC_ua
    UA Ministry of Interior detains killers of SBU operatives: 11 suspects & 4 executioners.

    NSDC of Ukraine ✔ @NSDC_ua

    Russia increases the flow of military supplies via uncontrolled parts of RU-UA border

    NSDC of Ukraine ✔ @NSDC_ua
    UA Army clashed with insurgents by #Opytne. Attack repelled.

    NSDC of Ukraine ✔ @NSDC_ua
    Russia rotates its military forces in eastern Ukraine that fight since Dec 2014.


    NSDC of Ukraine ✔ @NSDC_ua
    After midnight, militants shelled #Orikhove from Grad multiple rocket launcher & mortared #Shyrokyne

    NSDC of Ukraine ✔ @NSDC_ua
    Pro-Russian militants attacked UA positions from tanks 5 times, shelled from artillery twice

    Russian Contract Servicemen of the 205th SMRB in Ukraine: https://en.informnapalm.org/russian-...rb-in-ukraine/ … via @en_informnapalm pic.twitter.com/TJ5QecimvQ

    Ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine continue with attacks on Ukr. positions and injuries http://uatoday.tv/geopolitics/ceasef...es-416976.html … pic.twitter.com/M0TcNsgOCI
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 03-23-2015 at 11:38 AM.

  10. #2750
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    Well worth registering and watching---some interesting insight into Putin’s current disinformation campaign and how he has started believing his own propaganda-not a good thing—disspells as well a number of Russian propagated “myths”.

    You can now watch Putin's entire Crimea annexation propaganda film here, in English. http://sales.vgtrk.com/en/catalog/modern+history/43450/

  11. #2751
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    Seems that the problem with "an altered state of reality" is that the people who voice it actually believe it--examples:

    The LNR wants to separate from the Ukraine and become "New Russia" but they want the Ukraine to pay for everything.

    An amusing piece on Rossiya 24: a young guy at an LNR rally in Luhansk: we will keep on rallying to get our salaries/benefits back from Kiev

    AND the problem with Russian fascists is they do not really know what they want--this from their ideological father.

    Dugin, ideologist of Russian imperialism, dreaming about alliance between #Russia and #Germany against #USA and #UK: http://dynacon.ru/content/articles/5053/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl34H11Qv0I …#Russia TV: "Foreigners understood that #Putin was a sincere&normal person."

    Luhansk People's Republic promised better life without Kiev. They failed. People are jobless, hungry and angry. pic.twitter.com/g9WiTSoBMk
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 03-23-2015 at 06:40 PM.

  12. #2752
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    #Update from #Azov in #Shyrokyne
    Russian forces punded the town for the whole night with mortars but stopped around 5:40. Small arms cont.

    From Situation Map East #Ukraine it appears #Russia intent is to gradually encircle territory & seize it #Minsk2 Joke pic.twitter.com/SB7OkHr1Mh

    UTTER BS! #Putin Spox"Kremlin:#Donbas militia not #Russia puppets "YOU RUN THIS SH******! http://tass.ru/en/russia/784314 … pic.twitter.com/duqhgHv91w

    Convoy of app 12 #Russia(n) tanks enter #Horlivka WITHIN #Minsk2 (JOKE) Security Zone http://www.5.ua/ato-na-shodi/Vnochi-...iak-74165.html … pic.twitter.com/pdCMrKQv4h

  13. #2753
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    When the NATO SACEUR starts criticizing the Obama Whitehouse and with it the NSC then one knows we have no clear strategy on how to handle either Russia and or the eastern Ukraine.


    NATO Chief: Obama’s Plan Isn’t Stopping Russia http://thebea.st/1alOmcc

    Battles near Avdiyivka, Krasnohorivka, Donetsk Airport, Opytne, Peski, Shirokino & on Bakhmutka highway http://www.interpretermag.com/ukrain...n-odessa/#7617

    Attacks Throughout Night On Several Fronts http://www.interpretermag.com/ukrain...n-odessa/#7617

    Russian regime TV celebrates the fall of #Debaltseve with impressive drone views.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMGlwSR9Oqk
    Advice: Turn off the music!

  14. #2754
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    NATO Chief: Obama’s Plan Isn’t Stopping Russia http://thebea.st/1alOmcc

    After watching the interactions between the NATO SACEUR and the National Command Authority as an American residing in Germany going on 30 something odd years the current relationship to say the least is a disaster.

    I am no longer exactly sure just what the American strategy is concerning Putin as Putin is Russia and the Ukraine where 43M Ukrainians made a clear civil society decision on what they wanted for their society and have been punished for that decision by a far stronger/larger neighbor.

    This Whitehouse and it's NSC seem to locked in fear as what to do --meaning will it damage my legacy, will it lead to war, do I want to get involved in basically an European issue, if we supply weapons they will sold on the black market or worse Ukraine will then invade Russian, or if supply weapons Russia will escalate and escalate and on and on go the negative comments.

    Never once hearing that the US has a moral reason to support the Ukraine just alone on the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that we the US convinced the Ukrainians to sign and this President was also involved in that process of disarmament.

    This article is literally full of contradictions --it is being argued "well if we supply defensive emphasis on defensive then Russia will escalate--has not Russia already escalated four times since Crimea and the US has sent nothing in the way of defensive arms and it is escalating daily over the last five days alone. Has not Russia actually threatened to use nuclear weapons against the US and several NATO countries the last one being Denmark and was it the US that suspended the concept of MAD or was it Russian in the last year?

    Is in fact the Minsk 2 agreement after the clear violations of Russian troops and her mercenaries firing heavy weapons from inside the clear zone over the last five days a "failure"--is not the continuous Russian military rail shipments in the Ukraine of Russian troops and her mercenaries, weapons and munitions in the last week not a clear violation of Minsk 2, is the failure to pull back Russian troop and her mercenaries heavy weapons and place them under OSCE monitoring also not a clear violation of Minsk 2.

    Was not the massive 80K man Russian exercise a clear violation of the Vienna Convention and related OSCE agreements--and yet still no comments by this WH and it's NSC.

    Sometimes I have a gut feeling that social media and a homeless man living in a box under a bridge have more insight and common sense.

    From the Ukraine today:
    Two OSCE statements today, alarmed by intensified fighting at #Shyrokyne, east of Mariupol. Monitors unable to access the village.


    NATO Chief: Obama’s Plan Isn’t Stopping Russia

    The U.S. and its allies are giving nonlethal supplies to Ukraine—and punishing Putin financially. But that’s ‘not changing the results on the ground,’ NATO’s top general admits.

    NATO’s top commander bluntly told the Pentagon on Wednesday that the allied effort to slow Russia’s advance in Ukraine isn’t working. He delivered that message as the Obama administration appeared to back away from earlier indications that the U.S. would arm the Ukrainian army against pro-Putin forces.

    “Right now we are not arming the Ukrainians with lethal weapons, and what we see is that Russians continue to provide their force, continues to build the capability,” Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, the supreme allied commander of NATO and commander of U.S. European Command, told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday after testifying before the House Armed Services Committee hours earlier.

    A decision to provide that lethal aid “could cause positive results, could cause negative results,” he added. “But what we’re doing now is not changing the results on the ground.”

    Breedlove, however, said he was ready with plans for the U.S. to provide military assistance to a beleaguered Ukrainian Army fending off Russian backed rebels—should the Obama administration ever make a decision.

    The U.S. has conducted comprehensive studies of Ukrainian military needs, he added, and has a good sense of what it could provide to assist with an effective defense with Russian troops in the east.

    Breedlove—once an advocate for a stronger U.S. stance in the Ukraine conflict—painted a bleak picture of a Russia increasingly intervening in the war there, as the West debates whether to help.

    “It’s getting worse everyday,” Breedlove told reporters. “We have seen a steady escalation.”

    Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s involvement in the conflict had evolved from opaque to direct, Breedlove said. The commander added that Russia had sent “well over” 1,000 combat vehicles.

    Breedlove also said Wednesday he could not say “what’s going on in Mr. Putin’s head,” but that Putin’s goal “is to keep Ukraine out of the West and the West out of Ukraine.”

    Advocates for arming Ukraine are growing increasingly aghast at the passing time without lethal aid from the United States.

    A decision to arm Ukraine “could cause positive results, could cause negative results. But what we’re doing now is not changing the results on the ground.”

    “It’s disappointing that it still hasn’t occurred,” Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Daily Beast. “[The Obama administration has] put the decision off. We’ve pressed them in Congress, we’ve passed legislation. It passed unanimously on the Senate floor to authorize them to [provide lethal defensive arms to the Ukrainians].”

    Supporters of providing such weapons argue Ukraine cannot defend itself otherwise and Russian aggression cannot go unanswered.

    “The West is endangering their own interests by taking so long. If Ukraine is forced to capitulate to Putin’s agenda, then all of those worst fears that the West has will begin to materialize because based on the rhetoric and everything that we hear coming from the Russian state, Ukraine is not the end. Ukraine is just the beginning,”
    Pavel Yarmolenko, a spokesman for the Ukraine Freedom Support Group, told The Daily Beast.

    But there are risks—serious risks—to providing those arms. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry acknowledged that it was impossible to know how Putin might react if the United States were to provide more lethal aid to Ukraine, but retorted that the world has seen “how he has responded without us providing weapons, and that isn’t going very well.”

    Breedlove stopped short of advocating for lethal defensive weapons as some has urged in the last few weeks. The administration now appears to have moved away from such a decision in the face of vehement opposition from the U.S.’s NATO partners. Instead, he called the military part of a multifaceted arsenal that includes diplomatic and economic efforts.

    “This will not end militarily,” the supreme allied commander told reporters. But Breedlove did not describe his own personal opinion on the issue of lethal aid.

    “Gen. Breedlove has supplied his best military advice to the chain of command on options so that Administration can make their decision. To openly discuss his [position] jeopardizes his best advice and our role to inform our leaders on what we assess to be options,” Captain Gregory Hicks, a spokesman for the general, told The Daily Beast.
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 03-23-2015 at 06:45 PM.

  15. #2755
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    Clashes rage in Ukrainian town, making mockery of truce

    Associated Press
    By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV
    40 minutes ago

    SHYROKYNE, Ukraine (AP) — To reach rear-guard government positions in the seaside town of Shyrokyne, Ukrainian soldiers gingerly wind their off-roaders through private gardens hugging a precipice along the Azov Sea.

    The truce announced in mid-February has never taken here, so traveling by the main roads is too dangerous.

    Government and Russian-backed separatist forces face off in daily gun and artillery battles across an unseen line cutting through the town. The skirmishes are fierce, but contained — for now. Still, the enduring unrest arouses deep anxieties that a conflict which has already claimed more than 6,000 in eastern Ukraine could flare up again across the entire 450-kilometer (280-mile) front line.

    Shyrokyne itself is not much of a prize. It is the industrial port city of Mariupol, 10 kilometers (6 miles) further west, that Ukrainian forces want to defend from the rebels at all costs.

    Residents and government troops alike believe the separatists' ultimate aim is to take Mariupol — and eventually create a land bridge between Russia and Crimea, which Russia annexed last March. Crimea has no physical link to Russian territory now and a bridge being discussed is years away from completion.

    Government forces in Shyrokyne are only truly at ease behind three defensive lines separating them from the heat of fighting in the center. At a makeshift garrison installed there, on the grounds of a restaurant near the shore, two tanks stood parked Sunday under a striped awning.

    Several hundred meters away, mortar shells landing in the sea sprayed up columns of water.

    "They are hurling anti-tank shells at the lighthouse. Another one just came this way," said a bearded, barrel-chested fighter with the government's Azov Battalion who gave only his nom de guerre, Al.

    As reports came that two enemy tanks had been spotted, Al's thoughts turned to the combat ahead. "It is all about to start," he said.

    To proceed closer to the area where the battle is fiercest, soldiers abandon their cars and race on foot toward a school, climbing through a hole in the fence. The asphalt on the road had been torn up by explosives, so only armored vehicles could get through with ease.

    The responsibility for defending Shyrokyne is shared between the Azov and Donbass battalions, who take weekly turns to serve in the town. Coordination is sometimes poor, however.

    As Azov troops jogged for cover behind the school Sunday, one soldier shouted: "What are you doing? Are you crazy running like that? There are booby traps there."

    Another soldier corrected him. "Nah, the booby traps are over there," he said, waving his hand vaguely to the left. "The Donbass guys put them there."

    Inside the school, children's drawings still decorated the walls. One man fried sausages and another chowed down on boiled oats as a mobile phone blared out music by a Russian death metal band. Underfoot, amid the spent bullet cartridges and shrapnel, students' art collages lay covered in fallen plaster.

    As the sound of mortars grew more intense, all the men ducked inside for cover.

    "There they go, they've started again," said an Azov spotter with the nickname Mathematician.

    A cease-fire between Ukrainian and rebel forces was forged after marathon negotiations between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France on Feb. 12. Under the truce, fighting was supposed to stop and heavy weapons were to be pulled back from the front line. Responsibility for verifying the cease-fire lies with monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

    Mathematician said the rebels always wait for the OSCE teams to leave before resuming their attacks.

    "As soon as the OSCE leaves, the firing starts," he said. Separatists accuse Ukrainian forces of similar deviousness, and it's hard to know definitely even at the front line who started any specific round of firing.

    A short while later, a sound resembling outgoing mortars could be heard from a nearby field. Soldiers refused to give an AP reporter access to the area.

    "We don't have any mortars," Mathematician said, smiling. "They only allow us to have small arms. But when they (rebels) get really brazen, we call in support and flatten them."

    Many in the Azov Battalion have unabashed Ukrainian nationalist sympathies, prompting rebels to label them neo-fascists.

    From time to time, Azov fighters in Shyrokyne greeted one another with ironic Roman salutes and then grinned at their own humor. That kind of idle larking and the battalion's flirtation with neo-Nazi symbolism is seized upon as confirmation of their critics' worst fears.

    The infamy appears only partly deserved, however.

    Some embrace fervent Ukrainian nationalism as a repudiation of the heavily Russian-dominated Soviet legacy, all while serving with fighters from a wide array of political and ethnic backgrounds. Chit-chat switches casually from Ukrainian to Russian and back again.

    The best view of the skirmishes raging inside the village is from the House of Culture, a building in the faux Neo-classical style popular across the Soviet Union during Josef Stalin's rule. From there, fighters unleashed salvoes from an automatic grenade launcher and 73 mm caliber anti-tank guns.

    Ukrainian forces hold the elevated sections of Shyrokyne, giving them a tactical advantage. Smoke could be seen billowing from houses in the lower-lying buffer zone. One shell apparently flying in from rebel positions landed by a church.

    All at once, the men on the House of Culture roof cried out in a jubilant chorus, pointing toward the village.

    "Did you see those flames? We hit a tank. Two direct hits," one government fighter said.

    By the day's end, the final Ukrainian tally was at least one enemy tank destroyed and two relatively light injuries among their ranks.

    Almost every day brings new casualties — on occasion, some fatal — but their determination to stop the rebel advance along the Azov Sea coast is intense.

    One Azov fighter calling himself Tantsor — Russian for dancer — said the rebels were clearly hoping to take Mariupol by stealth.

    "They are violating the cease-fire everywhere and using any chance they get to advance even by one centimeter toward peaceful Ukrainian towns," he said.

  16. #2756
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    More Russian military exercises:

    Russian logistics brigade (1,300 troops, 300 equip, Kemerovo reg, CMD) put on alert for combat readiness. RIA 23 Mar http://ria.ru/defense_safety/20150323/1053978452.html

    1/3rd of Russian artillery training carried out at night during recent exercises in Far East. http://function.mil.ru/news_page/cou...2011314@egNewshttp://function.mil.ru/news_page/cou...2011313@egNews

    Russian Central MD logistics brigade exercises involved transporting fuel for over 1,000 vehicles. RU MoD 23 March http://function.mil.ru/news_page/cou...2011212@egNews

    Russian Western MD (Kursk region) combat training under nuclear/biological/chemical (NBC) conditions. RU MoD 23 Mar http://function.mil.ru/news_page/cou...2011380@egNews

    Bordyuzha: Post-Soviet CSTO bloc ready to send peacekeepers to Ukraine if decision is made. TASS 19 Mar http://tass.ru/en/world/783808

    Bordyuzha: Joint military drills of CSTO peacekeeping forces to be held in Armenia in September. TASS 23 Mar http://tass.ru/en/world/784457

  17. #2757
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    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    Clashes rage in Ukrainian town, making mockery of truce

    Associated Press
    By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV
    40 minutes ago

    SHYROKYNE, Ukraine (AP) — To reach rear-guard government positions in the seaside town of Shyrokyne, Ukrainian soldiers gingerly wind their off-roaders through private gardens hugging a precipice along the Azov Sea.

    The truce announced in mid-February has never taken here, so traveling by the main roads is too dangerous.

    Government and Russian-backed separatist forces face off in daily gun and artillery battles across an unseen line cutting through the town. The skirmishes are fierce, but contained — for now. Still, the enduring unrest arouses deep anxieties that a conflict which has already claimed more than 6,000 in eastern Ukraine could flare up again across the entire 450-kilometer (280-mile) front line.

    Shyrokyne itself is not much of a prize. It is the industrial port city of Mariupol, 10 kilometers (6 miles) further west, that Ukrainian forces want to defend from the rebels at all costs.

    Residents and government troops alike believe the separatists' ultimate aim is to take Mariupol — and eventually create a land bridge between Russia and Crimea, which Russia annexed last March. Crimea has no physical link to Russian territory now and a bridge being discussed is years away from completion.

    Government forces in Shyrokyne are only truly at ease behind three defensive lines separating them from the heat of fighting in the center. At a makeshift garrison installed there, on the grounds of a restaurant near the shore, two tanks stood parked Sunday under a striped awning.

    Several hundred meters away, mortar shells landing in the sea sprayed up columns of water.

    "They are hurling anti-tank shells at the lighthouse. Another one just came this way," said a bearded, barrel-chested fighter with the government's Azov Battalion who gave only his nom de guerre, Al.

    As reports came that two enemy tanks had been spotted, Al's thoughts turned to the combat ahead. "It is all about to start," he said.

    To proceed closer to the area where the battle is fiercest, soldiers abandon their cars and race on foot toward a school, climbing through a hole in the fence. The asphalt on the road had been torn up by explosives, so only armored vehicles could get through with ease.

    The responsibility for defending Shyrokyne is shared between the Azov and Donbass battalions, who take weekly turns to serve in the town. Coordination is sometimes poor, however.

    As Azov troops jogged for cover behind the school Sunday, one soldier shouted: "What are you doing? Are you crazy running like that? There are booby traps there."

    Another soldier corrected him. "Nah, the booby traps are over there," he said, waving his hand vaguely to the left. "The Donbass guys put them there."

    Inside the school, children's drawings still decorated the walls. One man fried sausages and another chowed down on boiled oats as a mobile phone blared out music by a Russian death metal band. Underfoot, amid the spent bullet cartridges and shrapnel, students' art collages lay covered in fallen plaster.

    As the sound of mortars grew more intense, all the men ducked inside for cover.

    "There they go, they've started again," said an Azov spotter with the nickname Mathematician.

    A cease-fire between Ukrainian and rebel forces was forged after marathon negotiations between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France on Feb. 12. Under the truce, fighting was supposed to stop and heavy weapons were to be pulled back from the front line. Responsibility for verifying the cease-fire lies with monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

    Mathematician said the rebels always wait for the OSCE teams to leave before resuming their attacks.

    "As soon as the OSCE leaves, the firing starts," he said. Separatists accuse Ukrainian forces of similar deviousness, and it's hard to know definitely even at the front line who started any specific round of firing.

    A short while later, a sound resembling outgoing mortars could be heard from a nearby field. Soldiers refused to give an AP reporter access to the area.

    "We don't have any mortars," Mathematician said, smiling. "They only allow us to have small arms. But when they (rebels) get really brazen, we call in support and flatten them."

    Many in the Azov Battalion have unabashed Ukrainian nationalist sympathies, prompting rebels to label them neo-fascists.

    From time to time, Azov fighters in Shyrokyne greeted one another with ironic Roman salutes and then grinned at their own humor. That kind of idle larking and the battalion's flirtation with neo-Nazi symbolism is seized upon as confirmation of their critics' worst fears.

    The infamy appears only partly deserved, however.

    Some embrace fervent Ukrainian nationalism as a repudiation of the heavily Russian-dominated Soviet legacy, all while serving with fighters from a wide array of political and ethnic backgrounds. Chit-chat switches casually from Ukrainian to Russian and back again.

    The best view of the skirmishes raging inside the village is from the House of Culture, a building in the faux Neo-classical style popular across the Soviet Union during Josef Stalin's rule. From there, fighters unleashed salvoes from an automatic grenade launcher and 73 mm caliber anti-tank guns.

    Ukrainian forces hold the elevated sections of Shyrokyne, giving them a tactical advantage. Smoke could be seen billowing from houses in the lower-lying buffer zone. One shell apparently flying in from rebel positions landed by a church.

    All at once, the men on the House of Culture roof cried out in a jubilant chorus, pointing toward the village.

    "Did you see those flames? We hit a tank. Two direct hits," one government fighter said.

    By the day's end, the final Ukrainian tally was at least one enemy tank destroyed and two relatively light injuries among their ranks.

    Almost every day brings new casualties — on occasion, some fatal — but their determination to stop the rebel advance along the Azov Sea coast is intense.

    One Azov fighter calling himself Tantsor — Russian for dancer — said the rebels were clearly hoping to take Mariupol by stealth.

    "They are violating the cease-fire everywhere and using any chance they get to advance even by one centimeter toward peaceful Ukrainian towns," he said.
    #News
    The @OSCE_SMM sees an escalation in the fighting around #Shyrokyne and "calls on all parties to cease hostilities."


    Russian forces use #Shyrokyne as a "training ground under realistic circumstances", attacking, withdrawing and learning. - Tymchuk
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 03-23-2015 at 06:51 PM.

  18. #2758
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    Ukrainian guerrilla unit "Shadows" --new reported activities:

    #Ukraine Guerrilla"Shadows"Eye for an Eye eliminated Pro #Russia(ns) who tortured ukr soldiers http://translate.google.co.uk/transl...h/&prev=search … pic.twitter.com/Bn5zQs1fe7

  19. #2759
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    Ppl in occupied #Luhansk are out on the streets to demand social payments from... #Poroshenko http://informator.lg.ua/?p=79040 pic.twitter.com/BgGrnmrxeC

    I just used Ukr TV footage to make my #Donbas #map more accurate in the area of #Zolote.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJpxjNQvDMQ&t=32 … pic.twitter.com/0ThovG0ra4

    Nuking the Danish Navy. TASS changes Amb'r Vanin's threatening words from "nuclear weapons" to "precision weapons". http://tass.ru/en/world/784466

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-hPZs49cmo … #Poroshenko takes on #Kolomoisky publicly.#Russia grabs the popcorn.Let's c #Ukraine implode. pic.twitter.com/uPnujbpufj

    VIDEO #Ukraine Machinist/Gunsmith converts #Russia AK Rifle into a Bullpup design https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvsgSsiq1QE … Ingenious! pic.twitter.com/IOJXEAedcf

    Burnt land near #Debaltseve.Doctors says 50 #Ukraine mil.died at the last day of fight-Jan.80more during weeks before pic.twitter.com/SmVlRrNL2V
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 03-23-2015 at 06:52 PM.

  20. #2760
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    Major Udovyk of Ukrainian Army was liberated from captivity thanks to Defense Ministry, Afghan vets Union https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...8330609&type=1 … |EMPR

    Vehicle w/ cargo200 marking KIAs spotted at Kerch Strait ferry line on exit from #Crimea to #Russia, via @HromadskeTV pic.twitter.com/97iocipqIY
    This is unusual as most of the Russian KIAs head towards Rostov.

    Captured #Russia|n soldiers caught fighting in #Ukraine & #Kremlin claim they 'don't exist?'
    https://youtu.be/-AitK5LeV9I pic.twitter.com/TkoEAGE6aT

    VIDEO #Russia(n) Strela-10 (SA-13) Gopher Anti-Aircraft units in #Donetsk #Ukraine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3KV1F4g0LI … pic.twitter.com/fctegdCE43

    Militants fired almost each hour at Avdiivka, #Donetsk region incl w/ 120mm mortars, Ukr forces repelled an attack https://www.facebook.com/ato.news/posts/969423786401761

    #Footage
    The Russian front near #Donetsk #airport getting heavily pounded by Ukraine mortars
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEsZXEOtO4U … pic.twitter.com/tFGGvVI8eR

    What the heck!
    3 primed Russian army Strela-10 systems on duty near #Donetsk city.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9nJSICBAtA
    #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/NI1g35eWPR
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 03-23-2015 at 08:49 PM.

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