Posted on 01/30/2015 2:28:10 AM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine – Trails of fire lit up the sky as rockets blazed towards their targets, bright flashes visible for miles around when they hit in the fading light. Fighting for Debaltseve’s strategic crossroads and rail junction grew ever more intense on Jan. 29, despite the declaration of a “humanitarian corridor” to allow civilians to safely flee from a city that had 25,000 residents before the war.
Explosions could be heard thundering through the fields either side of the main road just minutes after a four-vehicle convoy – three coaches and one minibus packed with civilians – passed the last checkpoint on the outskirts. One driver had written “children” on the front of his vehicle in the hope that somehow it might help spare his precious cargo.
But as night closed in, many more residents discovered they had been left behind. A government-sponsored evacuation of the town, promised for 10 a.m., arrived at 3 p.m. with just three coaches. Shell-shocked civilians complained they had been abandoned without water, electricity or heating.
Others who chose to stay appeared to be hoping Ukraine’s army would be next to evacuate. “What have Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk and Kyiv done but bring destruction on us,” said an aggressive old man with gold teeth, referring to the nation’s president and prime minister, seemingly oblivious to several explosions nearby as shells from Russian-backed fighters rained down.
“I can’t go anywhere, there are too many people already in those other places and no jobs.” But Ukrainian forces show no signs of going anywhere.
Over the past week, Ukraine has strengthened its positions around Debaltseve, digging bunkers and positioning enormous self-propelled howitzers in the fields and villages around it - despite the threat of imminent encirclement from an enemy force that already controls the territory on three sides.
“The situation is stable. The shooting is intensive, but we are holding,” said one soldier, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak to press.
Debaltseve sits on the main road between Donetsk and Russia, and connects Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts by road and rail. Russian-backed forces are unlikely to be able to create a viable separatist state as long as it remains in Ukrainian hands.
Another strategic objective for Kremlin-backed forces is the industrial port city of Mariupol, whose 500,000 residents are bracing for a renewed offensive this weekend after rockets killed two members of the pro-Ukrainian Azov Battalion and wounded another six on Jan. 28. The soldiers were the first deaths in the city since a Jan. 24 attack on a civilian area left 30 people dead and nearly a hundred wounded. Situated squarely between Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, Mariupol’s industrial and port facilities make it an attractive prize. When Russian troops surged forward to Novoazovsk in September, only the Azov battalion’s 500 irregulars stood between them and Mariupol.
That situation has clearly changed.
“Our soldiers are ready at their positions, everyone is in a fighting mood and will stand until the end,” said Dymtro Charli, spokesperson for Ukraine’s armed forces in Mariupol.
“We have everything here; weapons and personnel that can stop a tank and even aircraft. We have our own air force to stop an air attack too. Separatists will not pass.”
Separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko had put the brakes on a planned assault following international condemnation of his forces’ earlier rocket attack, which missed the heavily reinforced Vostichniy checkpoint and slammed into a densely populated residential area instead.
However, artillery again started to test city defences on Jan. 27, causing tensions in the city to soar. Busloads of Ukrainian troops poured in an out of the command centre at Mariupol’s airport complex as the army strengthened patrols outside of the base.
Five positions at key strategic locations in the city have been particularly heavily fortified, with armored fighting vehicles dug in behind a mass of concrete, barbed wire and anti-tank fixtures.
Smaller concrete block-posts were dotted around the city, supported by artillery.
The Azov Battalion too has strengthened, its fighters now veterans of two of Ukraine’s most intense battles - Illovayisk and Marinka. Once a curious collection of heavily armed far-right militants, the Azov Battalion now boasts 800 members from all over Europe, brand-new Spartak fighting vehicles and a variety of anti-tank weapons.
Recently incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard, they also have been promised a tank squadron and artillery units.
“In September, the city would have fallen easily to the Russians,” said Kirt, captain of the Azov battalion’s 2nd company, as he oversaw a regimental training exercise in an abandoned quarry. “But now it’s war, we have more weapons, more experience and are better prepared.”
Azov’s latest recruit was Andrii, a 52 year-old doctor who left the rebel-held city of Luhansk last week in disgust with the separatist administration there.
Neither wanted to be fully identified because of fear of retaliation.
“There are Russian soldiers and Chechen mercenaries all over the town,” Andrii said. “These are the only people making money. I haven’t been paid for seven months and there is hardly any food and medicine in the city.”
Andrii had never fired a weapon before. On Jan. 27 he emptied the magazine of an AK-47 into the quarry wall.
Kyiv Post editor Maxim Tucker can be reached at tucker@kyivpost.com or via Twitter @MaxRTucker
Editor’s Note: This article has been produced with support from www.mymedia.org.ua, financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and implemented by a joint venture between NIRAS and BBC Media Action. Content is independent of the financial donor.
Looks like War has returned to Europe. Call it what you will—the old God mars has, like antisemitism, and ultranationalism, has returned with a vengence. We better nip this in the bud before it gets worse.
What should we do about this? Send them money? Arms? Our soldiers? For what? To fight for thugs, against thugs?
I’m sure there are many, many good people in Ukraine and I pray for them. However, don’t we have enough of our own issues to deal with?
Looks like they gave away a few secrets in this article. Originally the forces fighting Russian-backed separatists were "far right". Now they are presumably less "far right" and consist of European mercenaries. Interesting war you got there: the Ukranian-backed "far right" (i.e. neo Nazis with a Nazi-looking flag) versus Russian-backed separatists.
Maybe not less “far right”. It appears that neo-Nazis from around Europe have joined the Azov Battalion. We are supposed to cheer for the neo-Nazis?
how is that “cease-fire” working out?
lol.
SO now it is Neo-Nazi’s against commies?
A country that has been invaded and accepts any help it can get is somehow nazi?
Some of the help it got happens to be neo-Nazi. I have also read that some of the help Russia gets is from radical Islamists. To each their own.
Once again, Ukraine military deploys in static defensive positions. Waiting for Russian artillery to pound them to pieces. They need a much more mobile operation. Impossible to fight for and hold every acre of the Donbas. The “checkpoint strategy” has been an obvious failure. They need to be more offensive. Hit and run. Rather than hold and die...
No question of Chechen involvement. Several reports/videos of them at the Donetsk Airport. And Kadyrov has stated Chechens will march on Kiev.
In short, these various jerks can kill each other and it doesn't much matter to me. What matters to me is preventing WWIII, preventing Islamic radicals from having nuclear weapons on ballistic missiles, and things like that.
Ukraine army has little have no money. They have fewer supplies. Russia had infiltrated their government & military hierarchy over this 10 year Russian planned invasion.
Ukraine is fighting The Russian military giant with guts and prayer begging help from their allies.
On September 18, 2014, during a joint meeting of both chambers of Congress, President Poroshenko received multiple standing ovations from lawmakers.
Poroshenko called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, the closure of the Russian border to other troops and ammunition, and the release of Ukrainian “hostages.” He warned that Russian-backed proxy wars and extremist movements first seen in Crimea must be confined. “If they are not stopped now, they will cross European borders and spread throughout the globe.” Poroshenko said, “”Blankets and night-vision goggles are important, But one cannot win a war with blankets.”
Obama condemned Russian aggression, first in Crimea and most recently in eastern Ukraine. But his administration will notrespond to calls from Congress to send arms to bolster Ukraine’s armed forces saying “that would not alter the dynamics of power between Kiev and Moscow.” Obama told Poroshenko “that he is the right man for the job.” During a meeting in the Oval Office, Obama said “the mere image of him sitting side-by side with Poroshenko would “be worth at least a thousand words, both in English and in Russian.”
The Azov Battalion too has strengthened, its fighters now veterans of two of Ukraine’s most intense battles - Illovayisk and Marinka. Once a curious collection of heavily armed far-right militants, the Azov Battalion now boasts 800 members from all over Europe, brand-new Spartak fighting vehicles and a variety of anti-tank weapons.
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