No respite for Ukrainian Army

The following is from Ukraine Liveblog Day 183: Ukraine Fights to Retake Ilovaisk.

Hromadske TV reports that 150 pieces of Russian military hardware, including tanks, and 1200 troops with Russian uniforms (but lacking chevrons) have broken through to Lugansk today.

Dmitry Tymchuk reports that Unfortunately, the fact is confirmed that today, a convoy of military vehicles has broken through to Lugansk to aid the local fighters. Some of it had come from Russia earlier, and some from RF territory today into Donbass. According to our information, several dozen vehicles have come into the outskirts of Lugansk, of which up to 40 are heavy armored vehicles. Some of this convoy has entered the city.

Dmitry Tymchuk also reported that During a withdrawal of refugees from the settlements of Khryashchuvate and Novosvitlivka near Luhansk, insurgents struck the convoy with a massive attack of mortars and “Grads.” The convoy was moving under white flags, but this did not save it from almost total destruction. Dozens of civilians, many [of them] children were killed. 

Terrorists from the LPR claim that the convoy of refugees from Lugansk shelled yesterday was not done by them. I. Polotnitsky, one of the leaders of the fighters, has made this statement. This statement could possibly confuse the outside observer who could regrettably surmise that the ATO forces could commit this monstrous act by shelling the convoy by mistake. If it were not for one thing. The leader of the terrorists immediately began swearing that the armaments had not been transferred to the fighters from Russia, that supposedly "all the military vehicles are trophies and have been taken in battles." ...The lie about the arms proves the lie about shelling the convoy as well.  But the leader of the fighters is so tangled up in lies that he doesn't even turn on his brains when he sticks his lying on the public.

Earlier today there were reports that Russian-backed separatist artillery opened heavy barrages of outgoing fire from the center of Donetsk, Ukraine's fifth largest city. There is an interesting theory being circulated at the moment. Earlier, there were a series of reports, all posted at the same time and coming from multiple sources, which suggested that it was separatists who were firing artillery rockets, probably Grads, out of the center of Donetsk. But artillery rounds and rockets have also fallen in the city. But we have not seen signs that the Ukrainian military has moved on Donetsk today, and Reuters saw no evidence of Ukrainian soldiers in the area. Are the separatists shelling the city themselves to blame the crisis on the Ukrainian military?

Ukraine has banned 14 Russian television channels accusing them of spreading war propaganda.  While the Ukrainian crackdown on Russian media outlets has been widely condemned, it is also important to remember the context. When Russian troops began to take over Crimea, one of the first things they did was arrest Ukrainian journalists and raid television and radio broadcast centers. The signals of independent Ukrainian news outlets were then replaced with those of Russian state media.

EuroMaidanPress reports a new tactic on the part of the terrorists who are preparing military bases "strengthening the mining belt: Stakhanov, Alchevsk, Kramatorsk, Sniznhe, Torez, Krasnyi Luch. This is an attempt to create supporting bases in the event that Russia invades.”

In other news Paul Goble's blog has an item regarding the revival of Soviet style anti-Semitism. Russia is becoming increasingly Nationalistic, almost virulently so. An instructor at the Russian foreign ministry’s training academy told participants at a government-sponsored youth camp that “Zionism is a movement for the establishment of the world rule of Jewish bankers,” that it “finances pagans to destroy Orthodoxy,” and that it has so “Judaicized” Catholicism that “almost nothing remains” of that faith. ... What makes these words so disturbing is that they remind us of the ugly Soviet-style anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. This may be a result of Vladimir Putin’s increasingly authoritarian and imperialist rhetoric and the Russian government’s media outlets ever more virulent attacks on ethnic Ukrainians and others. 

There were a great many warnings posted about the potential for Putin's independence referendums and promotion of federalism to backfire. There are demands beginning in Siberia that Moscow respect the Russian Federation Constitution and allow true federalism in other parts of the country.  The authorities came down hard, blocking a march in Novosibirsk and arresting the leaders on trumped up charges.  The notion however has spread to several other parts of Russia according to Paul Goble's blog.  Ain't Karma a sweetheart?  Stay tuned for more excitement on the home front.