Rebels launch #39;intense #39; attacks on Ukraine government troops: Kiev military
Rebels launch #39;intense #39; attacks on Ukraine government troops: Kiev military.
By: 7BILLIONHUMANBEING
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Rebels launch 'intense' attacks on Ukraine government troops: Kiev military - Video
Story highlights Fighting has erupted in past week at Ukraine's Donetsk airport Michael Kofman: U.S. has no good choices, only hard decisions to make
Now, as the tenuous ceasefire observed over the holidays falls apart, the question is whether this latest violation of the Minsk ceasefire agreement is the beginning of a separatist offensive to claim more territory.
It certainly looks that way.
On January 13, the leaders of Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), one of the two breakaway pro-Russian enclaves in Ukraine's Donbass region, issued Ukrainian troops an ultimatum to surrender Donetsk airport. Since then, the long standing derelict control tower, subject to months of shelling, has finally collapsed and with it any likelihood that this conflict will stay frozen over the winter. The assault triggered a Ukrainian counterattack, and erupted into a full scale conflagration.
Michael Kofman
Ukraine's defense ministry has said it has withdrawn from the main terminal at Donetsk airport, but it is doubtful that separatist forces only have that in their sights anyway. After all, although the site holds symbolic value for both sides, it is a hulking ruin and of little strategic relevance. And the leader of DNR, Alexander Zakharchenko, has made clear he believes the borders of his breakaway republic should include the entire Donetsk region, which is double the current territory he controls. Such ambitions are not likely to be realized during the freezing cold of January, but separatist forces are now engaged in combat north of Luhansk and as far south as Mariupol.
It is difficult to see Russia's army sitting out on the sidelines as all this unfolds, leaving the stage set for another battle between Ukrainian and Russian regular forces as Ukraine's leadership and army are put to the test again. True, the separatist force barely numbers 25,000-30,000, and only a fraction of it is combat-capable.
But the timing of this latest operation is clearly aimed at fostering instability in Ukraine at a moment of economic weakness, rather than taking advantage of any newfound military opportunity. Ukraine's cash reserves fell to $7.5 billion in December, while the political leadership is desperately awaiting a new tranche of funding from the IMF, without which Ukraine may soon go bankrupt.
Meanwhile, Ukraine faces an incredibly difficult year due to GDP contraction, inflation, currency devaluation, and anticipated fiscal austerity measures. Since much of its army depends on volunteer donations to survive in the field, prolonged fighting will create unbearable strain, on the people and the country. And despite Russia's economic woes, as well as the impact of Western sanctions, nothing seems to have visibly constrained Moscow's policies in Ukraine. In retrospect, it is clear Russia had no intention of starting this year with negotiations, rather than military action to change facts on the ground.
Russian leaders are for their part trapped in a dilemma of their own making. They are unable to secure Russian influence in Ukraine through the current agreement, in a manner that relieves sanctions, and satisfies separatist desires for a viable independent territory.
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Time to rethink Ukraine deal - CNN.com
Kiev, Ukraine Ukraine's president said Sunday that intercepted radio and telephone conversations prove that Russia-backed separatists were responsible for firing the rockets that pounded the southeastern city of Mariupol and killed at least 30 people.
The attack on Mariupol, a strategically situated port city that had been relatively quiet for months, alarmed the West and looked likely further to aggravate relations with Russia.
Putting the blame squarely on Moscow, President Barack Obama said the US would work with its European partners to "ratchet up the pressure on Russia."
European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini later announced that EU foreign ministers would hold an "extraordinary" meeting in Brussels on Thursday to discuss Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking separately with Mogherini and US Secretary of State John Kerry, told them the Ukrainian government bore responsibility for the latest military escalation, according to statements released by his ministry. Lavrov did not, however, directly address who had carried out the attack on Mariupol and said that it should be investigated.
Separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko initially announced that his forces had begun an offensive on the government-controlled city of Mariupol. But after the extent of civilian casualties became known, he backtracked and blamed Ukrainian forces for Saturday's carnage.
The rocket attack came a day after the rebels rejected a peace deal and announced they were going on a multi-pronged offensive against the Kiev government in Kiev in a bid to seize more territory. The rebel stance has upended European attempts to mediate an end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine that has cost at least 5,100 lives since April, according to United Nations estimates.
"The intercepted radio and telephone conversations, which were given to me by Ukraine's security services, irrefutably prove that the attack was conducted by the terrorists, who, unfortunately, are supported by Russia," President Petro Poroshenko said during an emergency meeting of his Security Council.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation's monitoring mission said Saturday that the Grad and Uragan rockets that hit Mariupol were fired from areas under rebel control. The OSCE said its Permanent Council would meet Monday in Vienna "in light of the rapid deterioration of the situation in eastern Ukraine."
In Mariupol on Sunday, emergency workers disposed of rocket fragments left by the attack. Police said two unexploded rockets were found in a bank and an apartment building.
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Ukraine says phone calls prove rebels attacked coastal city, killing 30
Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko speaks at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine on Sunday. Mykola Lazarenko/ITAR-TASS/Landov hide caption
Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko speaks at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine on Sunday.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko says he will "calm" fighting between his forces and Russian-backed separatists in the country's east a day after rocket fire killed 30 people in and around the port city of Mariupol.
Poroshenko, speaking after an emergency meeting of Ukraine's security council, said reviving a shattered peace deal agreed in September was the only way out of the conflict.
The Ukrainian leader also said that, in case there was any doubt, intercepted radio transmissions showed conclusively that it was the rebels who attacked government-held Mariupol, hitting an open-air market and a residential area.
The Associated Press notes that "the attack on Mariupol, a strategically situated port city that had been relatively quiet for months, alarmed the West and looked likely further to aggravate relations with Russia."
President Obama, speaking in New Delhi, said the U.S. was prepared to "ratchet up the pressure on Russia" to get it to stop supporting the separatists.
"We are deeply concerned about the latest break in the ceasefire and the aggression that these separatists with Russian backing, Russian equipment, Russian financing, Russian training and Russian troops are conducting," Obama told a news conference in India.
"I will look at all additional options that are available to us short of military confrontation and try to address this issue. And we will be in close consultation with our international partners, particularly European partners," he said.
The BBC has a bit of background:
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Ukraine's President Hopes To Revive Shattered Peace Process
US President Barack Obama vowed Sunday to ramp up pressure on Russia after a rocket barrage blamed on Kremlin-backed Ukrainian rebels killed 30 and threatened to open new front in the war.
Saturday's assault on Mariupol -- the main city standing between separatist territory near the Russian border and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea that Moscow annexed in March -- came a day after the insurgents pulled out of peace talks and vowed to capture new land.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told an emergency security meeting that Kiev had intercepted calls proving the attack was masterminded by terrorists who receive support in Russia".
And Obama said he would now look at all options -- short of military intervention -- aimed at restraining Russian President Vladimir Putin's alleged proxy war aimed at stripping Ukraine's pro-Western leaders of their vital eastern industrial base.
He pledged to "ratchet up the pressure on Russia" and signalled that he took a dim view of some EU members' desire to revive their ailing economies by restoring full financial and trade ties with Moscow.
"If Mr Putin and if Russia are hell-bent on engaging in military conflicts, their military is more powerful than Ukraine's," Obama said during a visit to India.
"The question is going to be whether they continue to pursue a path that not only is bad for the people of Ukraine, but is... bad for the people of Russia."
New European Council President Donald Tusk -- a former Polish prime minister who had long been suspicious of Putin -- also called the Mariupol attack evidence that "appeasement encourages the aggressor to greater acts of violence.
- 'No alternative to truce' -
"Time to step up our policy based on cold facts, not illusions," Tusk tweeted.
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Ukraine scrambles after new rebel attacks