via Russia Times.
Scores of casualties were reported as eastern Ukrainian militias were allegedly closing in on Mariupol port hours before a ceasefire pledged by President Poroshenko was announced. Authorities say they repelled the attacks and the city is calm.If the above photo is accurate then there is no longer any doubt.
The fighting near Mariupol has cost the cost the lives of seven civilians, including two children, during the two days, Konstantin Batozsky, adviser to the Head of Dnipropetrovsk Region, said on Friday.
“Yesterday, the fighting led to the deaths of four civilians, including two combine operators involved in harvesting. Today, three civilians were killed (including two children). A total of 23 people were injured,”Batozsky wrote on his Facebook page.
On Friday, Shirokino village, some 20 kilometers west of Mariupol, remained the main battleground in the Donetsk Region, with “no fighting taking place within Mariupol’s city limits,” Batozsky said at a press conference.
The cameraman for RT’s Ruptly video agency confirmed that fighting is currently taking place outside Mariupol – in Shirokino village.
Russian forces are definitely in Ukraine.
NATO was negotiating from a position of weakness. They have no forces in the area and indications are that they're not willing to commit any in the future. Meanwhile, according to the Pentagon, the Russians have assembled an extremely capable, technological impressive fighting force on the border---and apparently inside the country.
They can talk of negotiated peace all they want. This won't end until the Russians consolidate their positions, achieve all strategic/tactical goals and only then will their guns be silenced.
That's simply the way of war.
some say, the ukrainians shot themselves in the foot practically.....they negotiated with the separatists, now they are "legitimate"...
ReplyDelete"transnistria" all over again, that would be closed when they'll get a corridor to crimeea...when they will be next to crimeea probably they will make another cease fire deal when they will have the road to crimeea covered also and that's it...
I dare to say that's a useful cease fire at the moment. Because the army started to lose positions and need reinforcements and regrouping. Now they have time to regroup and can receive new weapons if US or NATO will do something instead of the speeches.
DeleteThe Separatists will do the same. I dare say that Russia will rearm and reinforce them far better than NATO and the EU will Ukraine.
DeleteWell that's an Ukrainian BTR-3, first time I see them in action.
ReplyDeleteWhy would photo of an Ukrainian vehicle confirm Russian boots on the ground ,even if BTRs editions are hard to follow the funky digicamo is ukrainian issue.
ReplyDeleteInterstinglly piss poor ukraine army is mostly in kevlar helmets and wests while supposed russian stormtroopers run around half naked in rag tag combination of old soviet gear.
because Ukraine has been sending second line units to the fighting while holding their first line units back. their appearance in the fighting indicates to me that the quality of the opposition has improved. ergo, Russian forces are involved in the fighting.
DeleteThat's not true Ukraine has been sending all it got. And opposition has improved but it's not like they haven't been curb stomping Kiev forces while at the same time being careful to not get themselves surrounded in small pockets while bleeding and stretching Kiev force. Until the seps themselves were ready and and could counter attack. Which i'm sure some of that flow of Russian arms that seem to have started last month helped also. (thank you Europe)
DeleteBasically everything went as far as I predicted month+ ago on this blog.
Also, interview with voluntary battalion that are fighting the Seps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rwsNEKI1txQ#t=0
Translation Summary:(Not done by me but it's accurate)
- They believe there is a movement to eradicate the volunteer battalions.
- They are upset leadership and oligarchs that they believe started this war have not changed and are still in power.
- They said they are fighting with many guys they used to serve with and would like an answer why they are made to be killing each other.
- They are largely of the opinion this war has been manufactured by those in power in Ukraine.
- They say it's wrong that if they go to European Union, Russia is their enemy. If they go to Russia, European Union is their enemy. He says that maybe both are our friends instead? Why treat either one as enemies?
- He says if European Union is not helping them, why are they wanting to go there?
- Interestingly, a captain from Donbas Battalion interjected and says he somewhat disagrees with the guys in that their battalion's position is that they want Ukraine to be part of EU and NATO.
- They say that both sides (separatists and them), instead of killing each other on an open field and having the winner march on Kiev, should perhaps march on Kiev together.
That's a big leap to make Sol. Ukraine could just be sending 1rst line units to engage separatist ones that are kicking the asses of their 2nd tier troops.
DeleteReally, if Russia were there in force, it would be blindingly obvious to everyone.
"That's not true Ukraine has been sending all it got."
ReplyDeleteThis has been a long war.
Ukraine has/had been keeping its heavy kit out of sight, thats why months ago we saw tracked mortar carriers from the 50s driving around 3 or 4 months ago.
There were serious and reasonable concerns that once the Seppos brought the Ukraine front line troops out in the open, Russian air power would splat them.
And we have seen that happen, well, rocket artillery rather than ground attack aircraft.
Its possible they are just desperate of course
"Meanwhile, according to the Pentagon, the Russians have assembled an extremely capable, technological impressive fighting force on the border---and apparently inside the country."
ReplyDeleteWhere are the sattelite pictures, some solid proof, radio intercepts maybe ??
How come the vast US monitoring aparatus did not show any proof ?
"Ukraine has/had been keeping its heavy kit out of sight"
And what are 300mm Smerch rockets, taktical ballistic missiles, heavy mortars then?
Not to mention how many aircraft they lost, the fact that they use MiG-29 in air to ground shows how low on Su-25 they are. And many other things, too bad many western people rely on media translations :)
The biggest problem for the ukrainian army is not lack of manpower or equipment, but the fucked up , chaotic non profesional command of the operarion.
Not to mention very poor sometimes non existent logistics.. On that thought do you remember in 2003 when the US armored formations drove so fast towards bagdat that supply and fuel columns could barely keep up .
Well here there are almost non. Tell me how many ukrainian fuel supply columns have you seen burn and ambushed ??
ok. watch your mouth on this one cause you're mixing apples and oranges. on the Army side the issue wasn't that the supply lines couldn't keep up. it wasn't a matter of supplies not keeping up on the USMC side either.
Deleteit was a deliberate decision by leadership to bypass enemy strongpoints and continue with the assault toward the campaign objective instead of slowing down to conduct deliberate attacks against those same towns that we looped around.
was it a mistake? in my opinion yes. can it be argued that it saved IRAQI lives? probably. but it made the tactical problem alot tougher than it should have been. did it end the initial phase of the fighting sooner? i would say yes but at the same time it created the conditions for an insurgency that no one has ever talked about.
what is the Ukrainian excuse? they're operating in their own fucking country! you can't compare their poor tactics on the strategic level with the mission that US forces was given in the invasion of Iraqi.
taktical ballistic missiles?
DeleteThere was not a single case of using this type of weapon by Ukrainian side.
Shas, cmon there are a lot of pictures of the fallen rocket booster of the Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile in ukraine, not to mention heavy MLRS like Uragan and Smerch.
Delete@storm
Deletewow....they use Smerch and uragan and those russian columns are still intact and moving?!..................
Storm I saw two more or less good pic of OTR-21 fails but both turn to be from Georgia War. I did not saw any BM-30 before in action there, the first I saw near Mariupol that is reinforcing defense of city.
DeleteWell the strange thing is NATO slience on this matter.
DeleteThey confirm then deny then they are not sure and so on.
If it was 100% sure that NO heavy MLRS and TBMs are used then they would dissmis it on the moment with evidence.
Poroshenko for BBC: "Russia has one the most numerous and well equipped armies in the world. In the same logic, Russia can't conquer just Kiev but also Riga, Vilnius and Bucharest, if we are not united in the face of this threat. We are not fighting rebels in eastern Ukraine, we are fighting the russian army."
ReplyDeletehe also mention Warsaw
ReplyDeletefull video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TozuOzVHE00
the only result of NATO military intervention at this stage would be a real overt war between NATO and Russia , which is stupidity at highest degree and every NATO member want to avoid. They can get by with covert support to ukraine, while limiting overt support to non lethal aids, thus the war will be fought secretly with both sides disavowing their involvement.
ReplyDeleteand at this stage, what good will NATO units do to ukraine ? If they tried to harm the separatist directly then they will eat Grads.. Relying on airpower will be impossible unless NATO prepared to attack russian AD sites on russian soil. Smart move would be to use the baltic nation's special forces and volunteers discreetly , preferably those who sprak russians, to blend with ukraine army (like what the polish PMC and specops already did in ukraine)..
i dont think russia will forget about polish's deep involvment in this ukraine debacle, even if polish goverment just obeying US's bidding.. There will be future repercussion to poland, not necessarily military retaliation..
We are rather accustomed to "repercussion" from Russia for a long time. Just as president Putin take charge will are in more or less permanent state of economical war. We are even preparing for sometime for full stooping of gas import and in this day we can clearly say that we are almost ready to go in to other sources if Russians will stop sending resources. International insults, creating huge scandals for trivial things, ban for products export on nonsensical reasons...
DeleteIn military cases the clown of Kremlin regular threaten Poland with nuclear annihilation. The show of force in form of nukes in Königsberg that is remind to all neighbors from time to time.
Russia never forget nations that resist them, that's why Russian government. will be always hostile to Poland. That's was in the past, that is now and that is the future... same old deal.
Past & future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fZKkBXEG-g
DeleteIdiots... pure idiots. Fucking ultra nationals, even Russians mainly stooped using the worn "fascist" slogan against Ukrainians and they put Nazistic symbols on helmets. You will find those dubasses in every country, but for the sake of Ukraine this type of idiots should been isolated not shown. This is a water on the mills of Russian propaganda.
DeleteFFS. Nuclear armed nation feels threatened mentions nuclear weapons. Is it all rhetoric and chest thumping? Yes, but a little bit no too. States have armies and sophisticated weapons systems to protect themselves. Are we suggesting that the day the Soviet threat (supposedly) disappeared and before we dismantled our militaries (in Europe) we should have marched on Moscow? Just because it has taken 20 years or so to nearly surrounding them doesn't mean them responding robustly is unfair or underhand. It is like digging up your neighbour's front yard one year, his back yard the next, take his garage the year after, and then being shocked when he reaches for his AR when you try to move into his lounge. What kept the peace in the Cold War was the threat of nuclear weapons everybody running the show our side grew up in the shadow of the Bomb and should know better. If the US and EU want to act like an empire they should learn from history and see that empires die by over extending themselves and not valuing border zones to give depth. They need to find their balls admit it has gone too far and use their supposed power to split the Ukraine up, give the Russian parts up (and let any other large ethnic group go as well), let the western part become de facto neutral (which means we stop playing about in there too), and make them have another go at some elections run by us and dare I say the Russians. Then we can all go on to address our real problems, our finances and our own border security. While our leaders are pissing about with all this the BRICS are carefully dismantling the dollar based trade system. China, India, and Gulf states are buying up Africa. Our leaders can't manage what we have they don't need another slice of the globe with which to play. As for Eastern Europes each day I am more and more convince they are bunch of self serving dicks.........
ReplyDeleteWait... wait... you mean, let's do a partition of country. Give two regions to Russians as war prize, if some other group want some for themselves, give them. And what left... it will be neutral. So it's full loose for Ukraine, loose for EU, and big win to Russia.
Delete20 years for surrounding? Who? Where? How? After Poland and Baltic States join NATO where you see any type of surrounding Russia? Did the Finland go in to NATO, NO. Did Georgia go in to NATO, NO... what other country join NATO that have borders with Russia?
The main sin of Georgia and Ukraine is that they don't want to be under the boot of Russia anymore. And Russia react the same ways id did in times of Soviet Union... with military force.
And before you call Baltic States self serving dicks maybe you put yourself in to theirs position. They have borders with aggressive nationalistic self deluded empire. They have large minorities of ethic Russians in country and they afraid that Russians use the same tactic to destroy them as they use in Ukraine.
It's nice to sit many miles from Russia and act like you know what to do, whereto do and how to do. You would no be so cocky with them in the border.
That's the crux of the issue. We are many miles from the UKraine. Keep your war to yourself, don't piss on the feet of the big boy in your play ground, and don't expect us to bail you out either with treasure or the lives of our young. You are where you are live with it. It may not be fair but life isn't fair. History is littered with states and empires that have come and gone. My country has been a going concern with roughly the same borders since 927 AD and I want it to continue that way. Make the best of your lot; that is why 95% of humanity has to do. Your understanding of how geopoltics work is at best schoolboy verging on the naive. If you don't think Russians are going to feel threatened by NATO 20 years ago sitting on the inner German border and now sitting on the border of Belarus then you truly don't understand anything.
DeleteNow you're contradicting yourself. If Russia was the same way threaten by NATO when they control everything to the border of DDR as now... then nothing change. First you say that Russia was threaten by expand of NATO by Poland and Baltic State, now you say they were feeling the same when those nations were not part of NATO. So there is no mater how many nations are in or out Pact, Russia will react always the same time.
DeleteAnd if you think that every nation that is bordering with highly nationalistic and aggressive country like Russia is doing everything to piss it off and want to dig up the war axe... then you are not only naive but, excuse me that I will say, extremely stupid. You really believe that nation like Lithuania with less then 3 million citizens want to go in war against Russia...
I remind you that not a single NATO member attack Russia, in opposite Russia invade and attack neighbors all the time. When the last time NATO member treated other nation with nuclear weapons? Now think... who piss on who.
For now we have an open aggression against NATO member, the Estonian internal security officer was kidnapped by FSB from Estonia. FSB admit that they have them, Russians and Estonian border guard admit that he was captured INSIDE Estonian territory.
ReplyDeleteEstonian officer, NATO member was kidnapped by Russians from territory of Estonia... I don't know how about you lads, but for me this is clear act of aggression.
NATO clearly said that they will protects Baltic States against Russian aggression, now the Ivan just say "check". If NATO command will not react, well we will so how much worth are theirs words.
BTR-3E meet its end.
ReplyDeletehttps://scontent-b-fra.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/l/t31.0-8/1487914_10152637581689831_941758742222468768_o.jpg
https://scontent-a-fra.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/10541394_10152637581809831_9143220950174242580_o.jpg
Rate at which armor is being/was destroyed in this conflict is stagering ,imagine now that big and rich Nato members like Germany and UK are downsizing to something 250 MBTs each . I have my doubts on how long this gear would last in real fight with someone more sofiphistcated than the middle eastern ragheads
ReplyDeleteNever mind a supporting logistical chain that is next to none existent. Yet our leaders here in the West think the Russians could be at the Channel in a couple of days, I exaggerate a small bit that it the story the governments want to believe that Putin is the next Hitler. This is a bush war in all but name; the only difference unlike say Africa where everything is done on foot there is fair sprinkling of vehicles. Instead of letting them fight to standstill the West wants to antagonise the Russians seemingly overlooking that what the latter lacks in conventional terms they certainly make up for with nuclear weapons. If a 20th of their nuclear arsenal works it would be a disaster. One Hiroshima sized bomb here would cause our systems to collapse. But hey we got to put everything on the line for some wheat growing farmers and their neo-fascist kelptocracitc rulers in a dispute over imaginary lines on a map with a dollop of bigotry all so they can grab EU and US money and their young can gain access to Western job markets leaving the poor behind them.
DeleteOh for crying out laud... stop with that "fascist" bullshit. The presidential election already show how many supporter the whole nationalistic groups have in Ukraine. For fuck sake, the Right Sector & Svoboda combine that is supposedly ruling Ukraine receive less support then LDPR (that is a lot more radical then both of them combine) in Russia.
DeleteYeah... Ukraine is fascist country.
http://youtu.be/4r_Nf2VK5_4
ReplyDeleteDoes an artillery shell really does that to an APC?