Posted on 11/21/2015 4:32:44 PM PST by WhiskeyX
F ar from international front pages, the situation in eastern Ukraine is once again on the verge of open warfare.
While the situation around Donetsk, the capital of the Russian-backed fighters, has remained strained since the announcement of the newest cease-fire in September, with sporadic small-arms fire reported almost daily, it has deteriorated significantly in the last two weeks. In the first month of the cease-fire regime, both sides were reporting calm, even playing down attacks that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was reporting; but the Russian-backed separatists in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) are now reporting more and more Ukrainian attacks, often alleging use of heavy weaponry. Meanwhile the Ukrainian military is now reporting attacks numbering in the realm of what was last seen in August during a period of particularly intense fighting.
On November 9, the Ukrainian military claims, Russian-backed fighters conducted 52 attacks, with more reported the next day. By noon on November 11, a Ukrainian military spokesman announced that one soldier had been killed and five wounded over the previous 24 hours.
Notably, the fighting is not limited to the Donetsk area now. Several other key flashpoints have seen attacks over the last week, including the lines near the separatist-held town of Horlivka, the Luhansk town of Schastye, and Shyrokyne, on the Azov coast. Early on November 11, the Ukrainian military reported fighting across a large span of territory -- nearly the entire front from the Russian border east of Luhansk to the Azov Sea near Mariupol.
Russia appears to be bringing tanks back to the fore, with the Ukrainian General Staff claiming early on November 10 to have spotted 20 in the center of Donetsk and another four deployed near the front to the west of the city. [....]
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
From another board:
It seems like Ukraine just commited an act of agression against Russia, blown up powerlines to Crimea and caused large scale blackout across whole peninsula including Simferopol, Sevastopol or Yalta...
Crimea is the unlawfully Russian occupied territory of the Ukraine. Russia is the aggressor, and Russia’s leadership should be prosecuted for their crimes against peace and war crimes the same as the leaders of the Third Reich of Germany at the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg.
RT 4 minutes ago
Most Ukrainians think country headed in wrong direction on 2nd anniversary of #Maidan uprising http://on.rt.com/6x8l
Putin is a pluralist and Christian engaged in protecting Crimeans from themselves for no other reason than that he is a freedom loving capitalist crusader.
Putin is the leader of one of the world’s largest and most dangerous criminal gang organizations.
Of course. He is good at disappearing people though.
So is Obama.
“So is Obama.”
Does a bear toilet in the woods?
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