generalspeaking

Imperial Russia Renascent

"Russia continues to send additional reinforcements, weapons, ammunition to the rebels."
"There's a 'high probability' Russia is preparing provocations such as terrorist attacks or shelling that it can blame on Ukraine as a pretext to send in 'so-called peacekeepers'."
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko, Kyiv

"Even Jen Psaki said that the State Department doesn't have the information about this [whether Russia has sent troops and tanks into Ukraine]. If Psaki doesn't have it, I don't."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

"The most recent reports by the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine about convoys in separatist-held areas with substantial amounts of heavy weapons, tanks and troops without insignia moving westwards represent a very worrying development."
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini

As far as Ms. Mogherini is concerned, Moscow has an obligation to "fully assume" responsibility in maintaining restraint, keeping weapons and fighters on the Russian side of the border between it and Ukraine. In failing that responsibility, it is beyond quaintly precious for Foreign Minister Lavrov to defer to US. intelligence, claiming that he himself has no knowledge in particular of his President's decision-making on Ukraine.

If the United States with all its vaunted intelligence (humint) resources cannot state with assurance that Russian troops and tanks have crossed the border at Luhansk how can a mere top-flight Russian executive-level dignitary possibly have that information? Blink-wink, ha-ha. As black sarcasm, his sense of humour if not proportional responsibility is qualitatively robust.

Smoke rises above an old terminal (L) and an administrative building of the Sergey Prokofiev International Airport after the recent shelling during fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, November 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev)

Donetsk is experiencing the most serious shelling in months with signs that the Ukrainian military and the secessionist ethnic-Russians may be preparing all-out military offensives. The two-month ceasefire appears to have outlived its hope that some agreement could be reached whereby the conflict might be resolved and life return to normal for the people in east Ukraine.

The airport to the north of the city where a Ukrainian garrison has been fighting against rebel forces for two months appears to represent the major venue of the fighting. With artillery fire coming from both the separatist and Ukrainian positions in an intensified atmosphere that has permeated since the Sunday leadership 'elections' for the 'Donetsk government'.

Each condemns the other for perpetrating fatal violations of the September 5 Minsk ceasefire signing. The arrival of multiple military convoys into the Donetsk area over the past week has fuelled speculation that Russian-backed separatists' forces are preparing for a fresh offensive. Ukraine announced 32 tanks, 16 howitzers and 30 trucks had crossed from Russia near Luhansk on Friday.

Unmarked military vehicles travel along a road outside the separatist rebel-held town Makiivka, 25 km (16 miles) from Donetsk, eastern Ukraine on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014. AP reporters saw more than 80 military vehicles on the move Saturday in separatist-controlled areas, indicating intensified hostilities may lie ahead. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

That announcement was verified by independent observers, journalists who stated that they had personally witnessed the passage of the tanks and troops. As well the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe issued a statement on November 8 that convoys of unmarked trucks and tanks had been seen in Donetsk and nearby Makeevka.

The shy little game of peek-a-boo! Now you see me, now you don't, with Moscow denying it has any involvement whatsoever in the courageous activities of the Ukrainian-Russian separatist movement, but recognizes with no equivocation whatever the newly elected statesmen of the Donetsk, and wishes them well ... wishing them all success in their future endeavours has created massive frustration for its neighbours.

With Estonia, for one, wondering whether, like Georgia, like Ukraine, it is next on the list of sly conquests passing as invitations to join the Russian Federation.

"Putin has showed [by attacking Ukraine] that he has no respect for international treaties. He has nothing to brag about at home - oil prices are low, the ruble is collapsing, the economy is stagnant - so the only thing he can offer to Russian people is fear of an outside enemy and fantasies of imperial greatness. What we are seeing in Russia is a resurgence of imperialism and nationalism in its most dangerous form."
Garry Kasparov, Russian chess-master in exile

Labels: Civil War, Conflict, Russia, Secession, Ukraine

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, November 11, 2014