Ukraine troops surround Donetsk, rebel leader says

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By YURAS KARMANAU

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces have seized a key town and are surrounding Donetsk, the largest insurgent-held city in eastern Ukraine, a top rebel commander said Saturday.

The statement by Igor Girkin, a former Russian special services officer, appeared to be a significant admission by the rebels that Ukrainian government forces are gaining the upper hand in the four-month-old fight.

He said the town of Krasnyi Luch, which lies on one of two main roads between Donetsk and the other rebel-held city of Luhansk, "has been taken by the enemy."

"The Donetsk-Horlivka group of the fighters of Novorossiya is completely surrounded," he said on a rebel social media page. Novosrossiya, or "New Russia," is a term widely used by the rebels for the eastern area that seeks independence from the government in Kiev. Horlivka, where rebels and Ukrainian forces are also fighting, is 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Donetsk.

FULL story at link.



http://apnews.excite.com/image/20140809/151364165464-APTOPIX_Ukraine_20140809.html?date=20140809&docid=eu--ukraine-49e8b540a1


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140809/eu--ukraine-49e8b540a1.html

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. Meanwhile, in Europe...

[7962]

2. Former Russian special services officer. Yeah, "former". Ha!

[Igel]

3. No official confirmation.

In fact, rather the opposite.


From rebel sources, quoted by Ukr MSM:
http://www.unn.com.ua/ru/news/1374166-u-dnr-zayavili-scho-separatisti-vzyali-pid-kontrol-krasniy-luch

The DNR has retaken the town of Krasnyi Luch.

The official word is that the Ukr forces are merely fighting on the outskirts of Krasnyi Luch, which is where they've been for a few days, and have only taken a few minor bergs here and there. Nobody in authority has announced the Ukrainians have taken Krasnyi Luch.


http://tsn.ua/politika/teroristi-poshiryuyut-dezinformaciyu-dlya-diskreditaciyi-ukrayinskih-zmi-dmitrashkivskiy-362515.html tries to claim that this is "disinformation" for one of several possible purposes. To discredit Ukr news sources; to try to make the "humanitarian crisis" worse and worse sounding, to help Putin push aide and soldiers in as Russian peace-keepers; to increase the prestige and authority of the rebel forces.

The last seems likely, both for the glory of the Novorossiya forces as well as for demoralizing the Ukrainian forces. (There's little point in calling the rebels much else. Their uniforms, at least many, have Novorossiya patches on them. Which is oddly the name they use for the territory. And their flag is the same as the military patches is the same as the Novorossiya political party ... pretty much one one party allowed. Perfect union of army, party, and country. Heil Stalin.)

The middle rationale is ever present, with so many calls on varying grounds for Putin to send in the troops. "Think of the Russians," "Kill the fascists," "Think of the children," "Keep your word," "Think of Russia's glory and greatness," etc., etc. Unlike US/UN peacekeeping missions where there must be peace and they guard it, but don't impose or enforce it, the Russian's default "peace keeping" is to impose peace with tanks and artillery.


The other news is that the rebels have taken and even held a grand re-opening ceremony at one border point. The net response was another couple of tank platoons crossing the border, and a dozen Grads. Not that the police convoy, expedited passing through the Russian border checkpoint, or the blind eye turned by city officials along the way in any sense indicates that there's any official support for this obvious illegal non-providing of any military aid to the rebels. We also can't forget the artillery and Grad fire. One town shelled was something like 15 miles from the border (Grads can hit a bit farther than that), just about the time that the Ukr forces were shelling rebel positions even farther from the border. Russians killed some Ukrainians, but that's what big brothers are. They're bullies and we love and respect them for it.

The additional border crossing will make it a lot easier for "humanitarian" aid to get through. Kadyrov has reportedly sent $7.5 million. The last aid not only included MREs and uniforms, but gas masks, night-vision goggles, and truckloads of bullets and artillery shells. None of it went to the population. It was "humanitarian aid" for rebel fighters, sitting in the warehouse as the rebels stripped a super-center-style store of pretty much everything. (Not the first, and the response from the store after having several of its stores stripped bare was to call it quits: They're not restocking if it's all going to be taken as "war tax" for rebels ... right down to the women's panties and stockings.)

And the last bit of good news is that after fingerprinting the Ukrainian officers forced across the border by Russian artillery fire, and holding them for several days with accusations and threats of charges for war crimes, the Russians finally announced they'd return them to Ukraine. Of course, the Russians did return another large contingent to Ukraine. Oddly, the rebels knew exactly where they were being returned and at what time, and the convoy of unarmed soldiers being returned were struck by rebel artillery shelling a few minutes after the Russian escorts turned back.

[Igel]

4. Two towns are periodically referred to as "humanitarian catastrophes."

One is Luhans'k, where it's pretty dismal. There's one power plant for a large area, mostly because during an attack rebels managed to hit a transformation station that linked the Luhans'k grid to the rest of Ukraine. It'll take a while to fix it. That one power plant had a railroad bridge necessary for supplying it with coal taken out (the LPR folk proudly claimed as part of a series of "bridge falls&quot but it'll hold for a few more weeks. Cell phone service is out, food's available but not abundant.

Donets'k is the other city. Here's downtown Donets'k as of Aug. 9. http://novosti.dn.ua/details/231859/ Lots of photos. The text says that in some areas there's a power outage, something like 100 "dom" and in another area 4000 people. A "dom" is basically an apartment or condo building that's maybe 4 floors high, maybe 15 or 18. Usually the ground floor has small shops or businesses in it. Converting from "dom" or "building" to population isn't something I know how to do, the average varies from city to city.

Novosti Donbassa "News of the Donbas" is based in Donets'k, the regional center. They're "liberal" in some ways, not pro-DPR by any stretch, but are perfectly happy to criticize Poroshenko and the Ukr government.

[davidpdx]

5. Maybe the leaders of Donetsk

should be calling Ted Nugent for some diapers.

[Xolodno]

6. Hope this comes to a peaceful conclusion....

Ukraine can't just level the cities while Israel who is supported by USA is leveling Gaza. Otherwise, this goes to street to street combat....lot of lives will be lost, both troops and civilians who couldn't get out.