generalspeaking

Decimating Ukraine

"Attempts to talk about a ceasefire will no longer be undertaken by our side."
"We will hit them until we reach the border of Donetsk region, and ... if I see the danger for Donetsk from any other city, I will destroy this threat there."
Alexander Zakharchenko, Ukrainian Russian separatist leader

"The intercepted radio and telephone conversations, which were given to me by Ukraine's security services, irrefutably prove that the attack was conducted by the terrorists, who, unfortunately, are supported by Russia."
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

"The city is in shock. The streets are empty, and people are boarding up their windows and preparing for the worst."
Yelena Khorshenko, Mariupol resident

"In effect, it is no longer an army but a foreign legion, in this case NATO's foreign legion, which does not of course pursue the aims of Ukraine's national interests."
"[Those aims were] connected with achieving the geopolitical objectives of containing Russia."
Russian President Vladimir Putin

Separatist leader Zakharchenko stated that his rebel fighters are on the offensive to forestall a Ukrainian attack, while the rebels are busy gaining additional territory, to wrench Ukrainian geography away from Kyiv and present it to Moscow as a gift from the heart by the rebels, to the Russian federation. The rebels, he insisted, would push government troops beyond the border of the Donetsk region.

The peace deal that has gone stale in a week, forged in Berlin calling for Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists to pull their heavy arms 15 kilometres back on either side of the line dividing them, forgot to mention that a withdrawal of troops would help to accommodate a 'peace deal' in the making. The insurgents, however, according to Eduard Basurin speaking for the rebels "will no longer consider the Minsk agreement in the form it was signed".

The official position of Russia was to pledge respect for the Minsk agreement. While sidestepping its end of the agreement, requesting the withdrawal of foreign fighters and the monitoring of the Russian-Ukrainian border by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Meanwhile, rebel fighters were advancing in three directions in the region of Donetsk, pressing attacks in two areas in the Luhansk region.

U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove speaking as a NATO official, confirmed the westward push of the rebels and that reinforcements from Russia had given them momentum. Air defence and electronic-warfare equipment all detected in eastern Ukraine, the very same military hardware that had coincided with the Russian troops incursion into Ukraine in the past, enabling Russia to annex the Crimean Peninsula.


According to President Poroshenko, intercepted radio and telephone conversations are proof-positive that Russia's backing of separatists has emboldened them, and holds them responsible for firing the rockets that slammed into the south-eastern city of Mariupol, killing dozens of civilians. It had been feared months ago that the strategically located port city was in Moscow's sightlines for additional geographic acquisition, to conveniently link Russia directly overland with Crimea.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov informed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini that the Ukrainian government is responsible for the military escalation. Without, however, addressing the attack on Mariupol as a rebel action, though he did venture the opinion that it should be 'investigated'.

As for Alexander Zakharchenko, he hadn't hesitated to state his forces were behind the offensive on the city of Mariupol, under government control. Once the extent of civilian casualties became public knowledge, the rebel leader blamed Ukrainian forces for the carnage that took place on Saturday. But the rocket attack resulted after the rebels had rejected the earlier peace deal they had signed, claiming their intention to launch a multi-pronged offensive against Kyiv to grab additional territory.

According to the Organization for Security and Cooperation, monitoring the situation, the Grad and Uragan rockets that smashed into Mariupol were fired from areas under rebel control. Its Permanent Council was set to meet "in light of the rapid deterioration of the situation in eastern Ukraine." Meanwhile, in Mariupol emergency workers were busy disposing of rocket parts. Two unexploded rockets were found in a bank and an apartment building.

Labels: Aggression, Conflict, Propaganda, Russia, Secession, Ukraine

posted by Pieface @ Monday, January 26, 2015