Well, the Great White Aid Convoy entered Ukraine on Friday after a mere 34 trucks had been inspected at the Ukrainian border. Russian soldiers pushed the Ukrainians aside and all the trucks crossed the borders. Sans ICRC people, as they could not get guarantees of safe passage from the Terrorists. Russia claims they could not wait any longer to deliver bottled water and 30 tonnes of salt as well as 800 kg of tea to the suffering civilians in Luhansk and Donetsk.
No one has yet seen a complete manifest of the contents of the trucks, though Russia of course says they "met all requirements". The truth was they never met any and never intended to. The Russians kept announcing agreements though neither the Red Cross nor the Ukrainian government really agreed to anything other than Thursday to begin inspections of the trucks. Which agreement the Russians promptly broke.
What ever was in the other trucks has been safely delivered to "those for whom it was intended" in Luhansk and Donetsk. And the trucks left on Saturday. Carrying the contents of two munitions factories, one in Luhansk and one in Donetsk The equipment had already been packed and was waiting to be loaded. There is some historical precedent for this as the Soviet Union packed and moved dozens of factories in front of the advancing German Army, reassembling them on the other side or the Urals. The factories apparently made radar equipment and small arms magazines or something like that.
Reuters,
WaPo (best story),
EuroMaidanPress,
Not sure what it will take to "prove" to the world that the terrorists are strengthened by Russian military personnel as well as Russian supplied heavy arms and equipment. Russia is also shelling and firing rockets from the Russian side of the border. Russia keeps claiming that any Russian military people found among the terrorist fighters (eg the Chechens and Cossacks) are purely volunteers. Right.
So why did Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attend a ceremony on the 22nd to give the Suvorov award for valour in battle to the 76th Guards Air Assault Division of Russian Airborne Troops from Pskov? Any number of clues seem to point their active engagement in Ukraine, including the alleged recent capture by the ATO of Russian paratroops complete with documents. The story is here on the Russia Today blog of The Interpreter Magazine. REad it and decide for yourself if the documents are real or "part of the ongoing information war".
BY24.org reports that in Moscow there was a secret funeral service for 14 members of the 45th Regiment of Special Purpose Airborne Troops, all of whom "died by accident while on vacation". No one was talking to reporters at the funeral, especially other members of the 45th. The article goes on to say (Google translated from the original):
It is worth noting that at the time of the mysterious death of 14 soldiers from Special Forces Russian airborne troops are no military operations involving airborne forces in this country have been conducted. There was no major military exercises, during which theoretically could occur group accident. Of course, the fact that the Russian military under the guise of alleged local "militias" are engaged in armed terrorism in the territory of Ukrainian Donbass, official Moscow media did not say. But at the same time, say numerous witnesses in Russia in recent days in a strange funeral frequent various so-called "Cossacks", military special forces and other fortune seekers.
Recall that in the course of anti-terrorist operations in the Donbass Ukrainian Army and National Guard are increasingly unable to destroy large groups of militants who have seized several towns of Donetsk and Lugansk regions. In particular, only the first day after the end of the allotted President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko term unilateral ceasefire, which the terrorists and did not get to add weapons, force headquarters ATO has reported on the elimination of more than 1,000 armed bandits . The same information is confirmed and have been so-called "militia". A few weeks earlier from Ukraine was organized delivery in Russia on the refrigerator corpses of Russian citizens , who fought on the side of terrorists and were killed during the battle for the airport in Donetsk. How and where was the funeral of those killed, none of the Russian media did not tell you suggesting a complete secrecy of mourning ceremonies. Recall, the Russian authorities have repeatedly officially stated that "there are no Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine."
Ferguson Police must be taking a leaf from the Russian propaganda machine. They allegedly doctored the tape of the convenience store robbery to remove the bits where Michael Brown paid for the cigars. Russian news is famous not only for using actors in various "on the spot interviews" but also for videos of incidents which occurred in other countries and pretending they were "live" from Ukraine. The Polish border, Syria and Chechnya and all served as proxies for footage from Ukraine. Add Kazakhstan to that.
The explosion on the right took place in Kazakhstan in 2013 during a failed rocket launce at Baikonur but was doctored into a news item allegedly showing Ukrainians attacking a village with rockets.
It is already Sunday 24th August in Ukraine. The 23rd anniversary of Ukrainian independence. On Tuesday, Proroshenko will meet with Putin in Minsk. He had hoped to retake both Luhansk and Donetsk cities from the terrorists by Sunday but the white trucks put paid to that. I do not hold out any hope for Minsk, I am afraid.