Kiev Government's "anti-terrorism" troops surrounded, forced to retreat. [View all]

[another_liberal]

Last edited Thu Aug 28, 2014, 05:44 PM - Edit history (2)

Kiev has suffered a major reversal in its plans to quickly quash the independence movements in Donetsk and Lugansk. It would appear the Ukrainian forces overplayed their hand in trying to so quickly subdue the self-defense forces defending those two ethnic Russian population centers. Their troops are clearly in a very tight spot as a consequence.

Members of Ukrainian volunteer battalion Dnipro stand in a truck covered in steel plates near the small southern Ukrainian city of Novoazovsk, Donetsk region, on August 27, 2014.(AFP Photo)





Kiev loses control of Novoazovsk, rebel troops advance in southeast Ukraine

Kiev’s troops had to leave the eastern Ukrainian city of Novoazovsk to save their lives, said the country’s Security and Defense Council. The authorities admitted that self-defense forces are advancing and leading a counteroffensive in the southeast. Along with Novoazovsk, Kiev troops have lost control over the villages of Amvrosiivka and Starobeshevo in the Donetsk Region of Eastern Ukraine. According to Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, on Wednesday Kiev’s troops were shelled by Grad rocket launchers and then attacked by two military columns of self-defense troops. The columns included tanks and armored infantry vehicles. “Later in the afternoon two Russian columns entered Novoazovsk,” the council said in a statement.

Now Kiev’s forces are reinforcing their defenses in the city of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine. The council added that self-defense troops had a BM-27 Uragan multiple rocket launcher system near the village of Holodnoe, 17 kilometers from Novoazovsk. However, there is no confirmation of this report.

“The situation in the area of the anti-terrorist operation worsened in the last 24 hours,” said Ukraine’s National Security Council spokesman Andrey Lysenko. He added that on the other parts of anti-terrorist operation zone there is “active fighting” in Lugansk Region (suburbs of Lugansk, and the villages of Novosvetlovka and Khryashchevatoye) and Donetsk Region (the cities of Ilovaisk, Marinka, Starobeshevo, Elenovka).

Self-defense forces said that several tanks from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) entered the city of Novoazovsk on Wednesday. “The DPR tanks entered Novoazovsk and camped in the city’s western suburbs. The offensive is successfully advancing,” said a statement from the republic’s HQ. Self-defense troops added that they “took control of checkpoints in the suburbs of [Novoazovsk] as well as the bridge over the Gruzskiy Elanchik River.” According to the militia, Kiev’s forces were leaving Novoazovsk overnight in the direction of the southeastern city of Mariupol, in the Donetsk Region. On Wednesday, all 400 soldiers from the Ukrainian “Prikarpatie” 5th Battalion laid down their arms and surrendered from the area of the so-called anti-terrorist operation in the country’s east, Ukraine’s TSN TV Channel reported.

(snip)

Read more, and see videos, at: http://rt.com/news/183368-ukraine-novoazovsk-kiev-troops/



Update:

Putin calls on E. Ukraine militia to provide blocked Kiev troops with safe corridor to Russia

President Putin has called on the self-defense militias in Ukraine to provide Kiev's military units blocked in the east of the country with a safe humanitarian corridor to cross into Russia.

“It is obvious that the militia has reached a considerable success in curbing Kiev’s military operation, that had been a deadly threat to the population of Donbass and already led to heavy casualties among civilians,” the Russian leader said in a statement.

“I urge the militias to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian troops that were surrounded, in order to avoid meaningless victims and provide them with the opportunity to freely withdraw from the battlefield area, to be reunited with their families, to return to their mothers, wives and children,” Putin said.

http://rt.com/news/183520-ukraine-russia-putin-militia/