In violation of the Minsk Agreements, Kiev’s military has deployed a column of armored vehicles, including tanks and Grad and Hurricane volley fire rocket systems, from Izyum in the Kharkov region to the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone.
According to the official speaker of the People’s Militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Morochko: “The Ukrainian military continues to violate the Minsk Agreement provisions on placing military vehicles close to the contact line, and continues to build up their unit capacity in the ATO zone.”
Marochko told journalists at a press briefing: “According to our information, yesterday a large convoy of military vehicles of the armed forces of Ukraine was moved from Izyum in the Kharkov region to the so-called ATO zone. Specifically: tanks, self-propelled artillery, Grad and Hurricane volley fire rocket systems, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers loaded with servicemen, and ammunition.”
“In the town of Slavyansk,” the lieutenant colonel reported, “the convoy was divided. One portion of military vehicles was sent in the direction of Avdeevka, and the other in the direction of Mironovsky. UAF servicemen are concentrating their forces for possible offensive operations in the Avdeevka and Debaltsevo area.”
In addition, Marochko stated: “The movement of the Ukrainian armed forces’ vehicles in the direction of the contact line during night and the seizure of a farm in the village of Vidrodzhenny have been noted.”
A video showing Kiev’s troops and tanks in the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdeevka emerged online, posted by a BBC correspondent working in the area. Earlier, the OSCE warned tanks were headed there, slamming the move as a violation of withdrawal lines.
“We met Ukrainian troops and tanks in Avdiivka [sic] who seemed ready for action – and we could hear that there is no ceasefire here,” BBC correspondent Tom Burridge tweeted along with the video.
The video shows soldiers in Ukrainian military uniforms crowding around at least two tanks among high-rise apartment buildings in what appears to be a residential district. The 13-second-video also shows an OSCE car nearby.
A picture posted on Twitter by a Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent Aleksandr Kots a little earlier appears to show the tanks in the same Avdeevka neighborhood on Wednesday, February 1.
Official representative of the press center for the Ukrainian military in Donbass, Leonid Matyuhin, denied any Ukrainian tanks were in Avdeevka.
“I’ve been in Avdeevka the whole day today. I have not seen a single tank, I saw one police CRV [combat reconnaissance vehicle] with large letters on it saying ‘Police’,” Matyuhin told RIA Novosti.
Yet, on Tuesday, the OSCE special monitoring mission (SMM) reported that Kiev’s tanks were spotted in the vicinity of Avdeevka, close to the disengagement line between pro-Kiev forces and the rebels in the east.
“In violation of withdrawal lines, the SMM observed … two tanks (T-64) between government-controlled Orlivka (22km northwest of Donetsk) and Avdiivka (17km north of Donetsk),” the report says, stating also that Kiev’s military equipment, from howitzers to Grad rocket launcher systems, has been spotted in Kiev-controlled Talakovka, Ivanovka and Aslanovo, along with troops and “stacks of what appeared to be ammunition boxes.”
In another report, published on Wednesday, the mission claims it noted a significant increase in ceasefire violations recorded in both Donetsk and Lugansk regions and recorded the widespread use of multiple-launch-rocket systems in Avdeevka, Yasynuvata and Horlivka, with over 10,330 explosions recorded within the past three days alone.
“On 30 January, positioned in government-controlled Avdiivka, the SMM heard 1,224 undetermined explosions and about 1,400 bursts of heavy-machine-gun and small-arms fire 2-5km east-southeast, 1,635 undetermined explosions and over 200 bursts of heavy-machine-gun and small-arms fire 2-7km east-southeast, south-southeast, and 22 outgoing explosions 1-2km north,” the OSCE claimed.
Avdeevka has been suffering intense hostilities for days, with the spike of violence being the largest in months. Earlier this week, Ukraine officially acknowledged that its troops began a slow advance on rebel positions in eastern Ukraine. Igor Pavlovsky, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, however told the Ukrainian media that the step was provoked by actions from anti-Kiev forces.
“As of today, despite everything, meter by meter, step by step, whenever possible our boys have been advancing,” Pavlovsky said on Wednesday. He justified the advancement, saying that the “entire Donbass is Ukrainian territory.”
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began back in 2014, when the people in Donetsk and Lugansk regions rejected the armed coup in Kiev, which saw the then-President Viktor Yanukovich ousted and what later became President Petro Poroshenko’s government installed. The new authorities launched a military crackdown, which led to a bloody conflict that has claimed over 10,000 lives to date.
A ceasefire and roadmap for reconciliation were negotiated in 2015 with the help of Russia, France and Germany, dubbed the so-called Minsk Accords. It imposed an OSCE-monitored withdrawal of heavy weapons, which was supposed to be followed by other measures, including greater autonomy for the regions.
The deal, however, stalled at the withdrawal of heavy weapons, with violence still breaking out. OSCE monitors regularly report violations of the truce by both sides of the conflict.
Germany is preparing to deploy its most modern ‘Leopard 2’ tanks and more than 600 infantrymen to Lithuania as it joins NATO’s biggest military buildup since the Cold War, German media reported citing the defense ministry.
The plans to deploy not infantry and tanks to the NATO member state bordering Russia were announced by the German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen at a two-day meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers in Brussels.
Deployment of “heavy weaponry” was then confirmed to the German daily Die Welt by a defense ministry spokesman, who said that tanks will be only part of the military equipment that Germany is going to deploy to the Baltic State.
A NATO battalion under German command will be stationed in Lithuania In February. The battalion’s personnel will amount to 1,000 soldiers, with from 450 to 650 of them coming from Germany and the rest being deployed by France, Belgium and Croatia.
According to the German daily Der Tagesspiegel daily, this will be an autonomous combat-ready unit equipped with tanks and armored vehicles that will also have snipers, engineering troops, military medics and even military police. The battalion will be fully operational starting from June 2017, German media reported.
The decision to send tanks alongside with the infantry to Lithuania should “send a clear signal” that Germany takes security concerns of the eastern NATO members “seriously,” von der Leyen said during the ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
“It should send a clear signal that an attack on any NATO member state would be regarded as an attack on all 28 members [of the bloc],” she said, as cited by Der Tagesspiegel. At the same time, she stressed that the deployment of German forces on the Russian border was a “strictly measured” step that has exclusively “defensive” purposes, as reported by Die Welt.
In 2015, von der Leyen ordered 100 new Leopard 2 tanks for the German army, the Bundeswehr, “in response to the Ukrainian crisis.” Additionally, all tanks that are currently in use by German forces should be modernized starting in 2017, according to the defense ministry’s plan.
The upper threshold for the number of tanks in the German army, which was set at 225 in 2011, was then increased to 328 in line with the ministry’s new plans, Die Welt reported.
However, the plans to station tanks almost on the Russian border provoked criticism from some German politicians.
“Sending tanks to the Russian border means forgetting the history,” Sara Wagenknecht, the head of the Left Party’s faction in the German parliament, told the news agency DPA. She also denounced the move as “a step towards further escalation of relations with Russia.”
“Those who really want to preserve peace in Europe should eventually return to relying on the traditions of the policy of détente instead of continuing to support the confrontational course that is neither in German interests, nor in the interests of the EU,” she said.
With Joe Biden and Victoria Nuland visiting Ukraine this week, it would seem they have brought some gifts with them – death and destruction. Towns such as Gorlovka are a 24/7 hot spot of action, with Pisky, Spartak and the New airport Terminal also receiving a daily barrage. The concern is that the UAF has regrouped since the Minsk II ceasefire agreement and has many new recruits and new toys from Washington. The map below shows how the UAF are approaching the contact line:
DPR forensic analysis reveal how Ukrainian Tanks are able to shell the center of Donetsk from a distance of up to 20km.
Comment below video:
“Ukrainian” … Ukrainian you mean Americans or Knowledge from Americans !
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We all know Americans cannot function unless they are Killing / Murdering people of Other Countries … Over 200 Million Innocent Unarmed Civilians Since 1945 have been Murdered by Americans so that the American Flag can fly in another Country !
“Tochka-U” missile exploded in the sky over Donetsk
As reports claim, yesterday, on April 11th, on the eve of the biggest Orthodox Christian holiday – Easter – “Tochka-U” ballistic rocket was launched on Donetsk by Ukrainian military. As a result in several districts of the city a shock wave as felt. Several sources say the missile blew up at the height of approximately 1200 meters. Whether it was hit by the anti-aircraft forces of the Republic or exploded because it was out-of-date is still not known.
Kiev Tanks Attack Donetsk Airport, Repulsed April 12th, 2015
By Arthur Zavgorodniy, for Vesti Latvia – translated by Joaquin Flores
Ukrainian security force tanks attempted to break through the DPR defenses at Donetsk airport, Deputy Commander of the Defense Ministry of the DPR, Edward Basurin, told reporters.
“Last night near the village Zhobunki, located in the vicinity of the airport, tanks tried to break the line ” – confirmed the commander.
Earlier it had been reported that the village of Zhobunki was attacked at night by Ukrainian infantry, which was successfully repulsed the militia.
Basurin noted that there are numerous documented cases of attacks on the territory of the DPR from guns of Ukrainian tanks. “In the whole day, Ukrainian tanks let off more than 98 shots.”
“The towns of Shirokino and Spartak were shelled the most “, said the representative of the Ministry of Defense.
“I recorded that the provocation was made by regular forces”, said Basurin. ” We made this conclusion from the statement of the Ukrainian side, which states that they have replaced the “volunteer” battalions with regular forces of the Ukrainian army. “
Earlier today, the DPR Ministry of Defense noted an increase in the intensity of provocation from the Ukrainian security forces at the line of contact (ceasefire line), including attacks and attempts to break through.
On the eve of Easter the Army of the DPR rebuffed the attack of Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the Donetsk airport
A clash between Ukrainian military and the DPR Army took place in the night from April 12 in the area of the Donetsk airport, reported the Ministry of Defense of the DPR today.
“Today on the Holy Night two infantry units of Ukrainian military attacked settlementZhabunki in the outskirts of the Donetsk airport. A direct clash took place, and then the attack was rebuffed. There are no casualties among our troopers”, said thepress-sectetary of theDPR Ministry of Defense.It is also reported that no one was injured as a result of a mortar-gun mine hit on a residential building in Kuybyshevskiy district of Donetsk
“The mine hit a private house, There are no casualties. The shell as launched from the positions of Ukrainian forces. Experts are conducting investigation on the scene”, the Ministry of Defense reports.
Earlier it was reported that a mine hit a residential building today at about 7:30 AM in Azotnyi residential area of Kuybyshevskiy district.
“In general, we can say that the ceasefire is over – the entire front is under fire, including artillery. Shock troops of the enemy moved to the forefront.”
Shells are whistling again over the cities of Donbass. In Donetsk the sirens of ambulances and emergency services are heard. Under fire: Kievsky district, Oktyabrsky village, Panfilov mine village, Gladkova, Severny, Putilovka.
The entire evening of April 9 there was a battle in the village of Spartak and near Peski. The punishers used artillery guns, tanks, mortars, heavy barreled artillery. Under the cover of artillery, the enemy attempted to seize the positions of the militia in Spartak and near the airport. During the battle, this attempt was severely suppressed.
Also suddenly the positions of the militia near the town of Yasynovataya were attacked. There was a battle using small arms. To the West of Petrovsky district of Donetsk working mortars are also heard, as well as grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.
From the occupied Volnovakha Dokuchayevsk was fired on. The outskirts of the city are under a heavy fire of the enemy, the people are hiding in shelters fearing the assault on the city by the punishers, who have assembled the biggest formation in this area of about 8 thousand people.
According to a resident of Dokuchayevsk, “Locals demand that the militia do not leave them alone and hold positions at any cost, women are hysterically crying, saying that Ukrainians will go into the city and start a massacre. Older women bless the passing trucks with soldiers and pray for the victory and a speedy liberation to the district from the Ukrainian troops”.
Over Donetsk about a dozen enemy drones were spotted, one of which was shot down near the Lidiyevka mine.
The militia is put on full alert and is ready for a full-scale attack of the enemy.
Shirokino
On April 9, 2015 near Mariupol in Shirokino there was a fierce battle. There were dead and wounded among the militia and the Ukrainian occupation troops.
Ukrinform
March 6, 2015 Putin wants to destroy NATO – General Hodges
U.S. Abrams tanks
KYIV: Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to destroy NATO.
This was announced by Commander of the U.S. army in Europe, Lieutenant-General Frederick “Ben” Hodges, the Yevropeiska Pravda online newspaper reported with reference to an article published by The Telegraph.
“I’m sure Putin wants to destroy our alliance, not by attacking it, but by splintering it,” he said.
Hodges also said that Russia may try to destabilize one of the NATO member states by using “rebels” as in eastern Ukraine, or other forms of “hybrid warfare.” He also proposed positioning some of U.S. tanks in the countries located along the eastern flank of NATO to make it a limiting factor for Putin. In particular, he said, these are Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, and Bulgaria.
We are receiving the first reports concerning the approximate numbers of equipment captured in the Debaltsevo cauldron.
Armored vehicles. By first estimates, Novorossia captured over 80 tanks in repairable condition. Some of them were fully operational, even loaded with ammunition. Some have been abandoned without fuel, others were abandoned after their tracks were damaged, most of the vehicles captured have light or medium damage. This is sufficient for at least two tank battalions.
According to the official Kiev GenStaff announcement, as many as 15 tanks managed to leave the cauldron…out of at least 5 battalion tactical groups which were originally in the cauldron and 4 additional ones that were sent in to help.
Over 100 BMPs and BTRs have been captured in repairable condition. The junta managed to take out only about 50.
Artillery. Not fewer than fifty 122mm and 152mm weapons (not counting 120mm mortars), many of which are repairable, and about 15 BM-21 122mm Grad launchers. At least 500 tons of artillery ammunition.
A huge amount of small arms, including heavy machine guns, RPGs, RPOs [flame rocket launchers used for assaulting fortified positions and buildings]. Storehouses of food and medicine. Other goods.
Novorossia commanders are especially grateful to the numerous volunteer organizations which have equipped the junta’s forces so well: the hundreds of night vision devices, digital radio stations, thermal imagers, modern ballistic computers and fire direction gear, wound treatment and anti-shock kits of Western origin, Kevlar helmets (even though Russian ones are better, there aren’t enough of them), modern body armor, will be of great use.
J.Hawk’s Comment: Just to reiterate, these are the weapons and equipment which are in repairable condition. Many of UAF’s losses were irretrievable—there are many photos circulating on the internet showing fields and roads littered with burned out armored vehicles left behind by the UAF.
Judging by the “LifeNews” report on February 19, 2015 about Novorossia fighters collecting trophies after Ukrainian troops withdrew from Debaltsevo, among other finds, NAF received one whole complex of LCMR (Lightweight Counter-Mortar Radar), supplied by the United States as part of military assistance to Ukraine.
The U.S. has decided to send to the armed forces of Ukraine 20 LCMR radars, the first three of which were delivered in November 2014. According to the information, received by our blog from the most serious sources, soon after the transfer one of the stations was damaged during transportation, and then another station was damaged by artillery fire of the enemy at the first attempt of its combat use by the Ukrainians. We can assume that the LCMR radar, abandoned by the Ukrainian troops in Debaltsevo is the third of this ill-fated first batch of the three stations.
The vehicle was one of the many seized from the UAF at Debaltsevo and its vicinity. It seems to be in perfectly good working order. I suppose the most surprising thing about it is that the UAF had no time to put it up for sale, as it did the British-supplied Saxon APCs…
NAF: Thank you to Canadians and Ukrainians for supplies! (Video)
February 19, 2015
Novorossia TV
Translated by Kristina Rus
00:00 – 13:00
NAF commander Terek is in charge of a drone recon unit of the First Slavyansk battalion. His unit of 25 people works with drones doing intelligence gathering near Debaltsevo.
Military correspondents of Novorossia TV delivered humanitarian aid to the unit from humanitarian battalion “Novorossia.” Some deliveries are addressed to specific units and fighters.
– Is this a good bulletproof vest?
– It’s average, so so, but better then nothing.
– I am wearing a police one.
– If you crawl on the ground, the pockets start to tear. The detachable pockets are better.
The correspondents asked commander Terek, what they need.
– Thermal boots, or at least warm leather boots
– Everything is mined, there are not enough sappers, so we use drones to save the lives of our fighters who go on recon missions.
– We need thermal underwear, thermal socks, thin warm hats under helmets, tactical gloves, knee pads and elbow pads.
This is regarding the personal equipment, but as far as military equipment we have plenty of trophies left by Ukrainian troops. New drones. You know they had truckloads left in Nikishino. When they run, they leave everything behind. Were do you think our drones come from?
We do need radios with closed channels. They cost 25 000 roubles, unfortunately. At least a few would be nice. We had to shut them off in Nikishino. Because their artillery works on signal very well, they strike on the signal of our drones.
We need serious things, because they get serious things from America and Europe.
– Night vision goggles – at least couple, not to stumble on their positions.
– We have nothing to charge the radios, phones with, no heat, we need generators, better diesel – because there are problems with gasoline.
– We got dry meals, thermal underwear, hygiene products for women. Thank you to the Russian brothers for helping us! The war showed who is our friend and who is our enemy.
A large amount of ammo and equipment was left by the Ukrainian troops.
– We got lists of who was in Redkodub, even with phone numbers.
Tank ammo, Vasilek ammo, 82 mm grenades, 120 mm grenades, RPG, 762, TURs.
We are almost on a frontline.
This is ammo left by the Ukrainian troops in Redkodub.
This is only a tenth part, a lot has been taken out already.
Mines, bullets, we are not supposed to have anything else.
Several Ural truckloads were taken out just by our brigade.
American, NATO helmets, goggles, about 40 bulletproof vests, good quality, neck protection, 4th generation.
– So you got your own humanitarian aid from Ukrainian volunteers?
– Canadian helmet with excellent quality. Comfortable. Thank you to Canadians and Ukrops for deliveries of supplies!
– Ukrainian army left us some excellent weapons, 120 mortar in great condition.
TUR – anti-tank rocket system
– Why does a mortar unit need TUR?
– We want to be prepared for any breakthrough. We have our own TUR, RPG, muhi, now we are not just a mortar, but a mobil assault brigade!!!
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