Advancing Ukraine rebels appear to capture frontline town.

[another_liberal]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Pro-Russian rebels appeared to be in full control on Wednesday of one of the towns that has been a principal target of their advance, as they attempt to surround a nearby garrison of Ukrainian forces. The apparent fall of the town of Vuhlehirsk would be a setback for Kiev, which has been trying to defend it and the larger neighboring town of Debaltseve, an important rail hub, from encirclement by advancing rebels. A military spokesman in the capital said Vuhlehirsk was still contested. But Reuters journalists on the ground were freely able to enter about 60 percent of it and saw no sign of areas controlled by Ukrainian troops. Rebels patrolled casually and were in a boisterous mood, using positions in the town to fire artillery on Debaltseve.

Kiev's Western allies are alarmed over the rebel advance in recent weeks, which scuppered a five-month-old ceasefire. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is due to visit Kiev on Thursday amid talk that Washington might begin to provide weapons to the Ukrainian government for the first time.

In Vuhlehirsk, shattered from the combat, metal worker Sergey Kopun, 50, dressed in dirty blue overalls, walked out from a cellar where he had been hiding for days with his wife and quadriplegic mother. "Someone should come to remove these corpses, it is inhumane to leave them here to rot," he said. About 300 meters (yards) away at least four bodies of soldiers with Ukrainian shoulder patches were scattered inside a garden of what appeared to be a restaurant. "They had a good firing point here. We had to use anti-tank weapons to blast our way into this garden," said a rebel commander in his 50s who gave his name as Ironside.

The town, with around 9,000 people before the war, has been one of the main targets of the rebel advance, sitting in a pocket of government-held territory surrounded on three sides by rebel territory and straddling road and rail routes linking major rebel strongholds. Ukrainian forces are still holed up in neighboring Debaltseve, a major rail town of about three times the size and an important stopping point for goods traffic by rail from Russia. Taking the two would link up the main rebel strongholds of Luhansk and Donetsk.

(snip)


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/04/us-ukraine-crisis-hospital-idUSKBN0L80Y320150204

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As the map I linked to (below) shows, capturing Vuhlehirsk puts Separatist fighters only about five miles from the last remaining supply route for thousands of Ukrainian troops still holding Debaltseve, the Separatists' primary target in this offensive. That is no distance at all for even medium artillery to reach.

Vuhlehrisk is at the center of the map. Expand out to see the town's proximity to Debaltseve, Donetsk and Lugansk.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vuhlehirs'k,+Donetsk+Oblast,+Ukraine,+86481/@48.3122305,38.2770321,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x40e06e7423a552a9:0xd3d6af7bf81d28f7

[love_me_some_pickles]

1. The Russian army on the march.

Last edited Wed Feb 4, 2015, 03:24 PM - Edit history (4)

"Rebels" ...that's a hoot!


since I refuse to kick this Russian propaganda, I will respond with an edit.

No matter how much you cry, this has everything to do with the Russian government. Your constant posting of Russian/Putin propaganda does nothing to change that fact.

Proof:



Three RUSSIAN soldiers confronting a UKRAINIAN officer in the UKRAINE.

Prove otherwise or rescind your propaganda.






Now admit you are only posting Russian propaganda, as you must.


Right.........



Backtracking a bit???

[another_liberal]

2. Some people just keep on saying "Russian Army," and "Russian Invasion" . . .

But they can never provide convincing or even believable evidence either is the truth.

[another_liberal]

5. Here are four unidentifiable guys in uniforms, standing somewhere unidentifiable . . .

What is that supposed to prove to me?

[another_liberal]

6. If this individual is who you claim he is (maybe he is, maybe he isn't) . . .

One man, however deadly he might be, still doesn't amount to much of a "Russian Invasion," now does he?

[uhnope]

3. I thought they just want peace. Why are they invading more and more land

fucking Orwellian warmaking fascists

[another_liberal]

4. Who, the United States?

That seems a little harsh.

No, on second thought, I guess it kind of does fit.

[uhnope]

7. glad that you admit your hatred of the USA. It goes well with your support for Putin's fascism.

But otherwise, your post is so childish that it can only hurt your cause, so keep it up

[another_liberal]

8. Don't put words in my mouth . . .

I love my country, the United States, and I have proved that I do. You have no right to suggest otherwise.

Criticism of our government's policies is not the same as wishing our country's destruction. I thought that had been well enough established in the last fifty years or so.

[LanternWaste]

9. I imagine it's very difficult to directly answer straight-forward questions which do not validate yo

I imagine it's very difficult to directly answer straight-forward questions which do not validate your biases, and thus you are compelled to answer a different and irrelevant question in its stead.

You're very deft at that-- I imagine that comes from consistently doing as such.

(below is where you rationalize your response or the question as something it's not to better maintain the recognized pretense of objectivity...)

It does kind of fit, part II

[another_liberal]

10. Care to unwrap that one for me . . .

Please?

[nilesobek]

11. The encirclements will continue unabated.

After these villages they will set their sites on Odessa, and have already been talking about it. Russia is going to take the whole Black Sea coast. There was a chance at peace quite a while ago but now Putin has it in for this Kiev government. Right or wrong thats my view.

[another_liberal]

12. Have you checked how far it is from Donetsk to Odessa . . .

It's hundreds of miles. You expect a lot from a few ad hoc units of Separatist militia. They may be taking a little back right now, but that's largely because Kiev has been so inept at conducting its war.

[nilesobek]

13. Its a long trek but its in the neighborhood.

I'm predicting failure for Kiev here because Eastern Europe and Russia are not the Middle East. They are on to these tactics, overthrow a government, bring on the huge IMF payday loans, start arming everyone.

[another_liberal]

14. We are treating Ukraine much like we did Iraq in 2004-5 . . .

Buy off a few politicians, arm some local militias (don't worry if they happen to be fascists, thugs are what we want) and let the civil war begin. No one is even mentioning that the outcome is very likely to be the same as well.

[KingCharlemagne]

15. Late last night word began filtering out that the Debaltsevo 'cauldron' (or 'pocket') has

now been fully encircled and that NAF controls all access by anything other than stragglers into and out of the pocket. I had heard that some 5-7,000 regime soldiers are trapped within the pocket. If true, this has the potential of turning into a mini-Stalingrad or mini-Dien Bien Phu. The NAF shot down two Ukrainian SU-25s yesterday that were trying to provide air support to the beleaguered troops inside the pocket.