It wasn’t so long ago that the Ukrainian military was treating the eastern war as a done deal, mopping up with an eye on the last two rebel cities. A counter-attack is changing that, and the war is again expanding into the southeast.
The fighting along the southeastern coast saw rebels taking control of the strategically important port town of Novoazovsk. In addition to giving the secessionist rebels a port, it is along a key highway linking neighboring Russia.
News of the port’s loss, along with leaked videos of fighting, have fueled new protests among western Ukrainian nationalists, who are clamoring for the military to escalate the war to crush the mostly ethnic Russian easterners.
The east-west divide has long defined Ukrainian politics, and the push for eastern secession, as well as calls by westerners to wipe out eastern resistance, has turned that long-standing dispute into a full-fledged war.
Interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk claimed that “practical help” is coming from NATO. Exactly what that means is unclear, though there has been talk of sending weapons to the Ukrainian military to aid in the crackdown.
This Neo fascist government in Kiev needs to have NATO saving his assssssss, NATO is no different then what Kiev government stands for, they are a land grabbing militarized institution paid by EU governing buddy and USG just for what they are good at. Killing people, stealing their lands and their national resources and dividing them for their united stands against Neo fascism in Europe.
The next move has already be done by Kiev.Poroshenko annonced new election of the Rada.It means that the separatists will have no deputies and that the party of war will be ruling the country.
“Practical help”so far, from a whole block occupied by CIA in Kiev, is intelligence, advisor's, US mercenaries and some equipment.
In practical terms it means that for whatever the sophisticated help, arms, or otherwise the Nazi death squads get´s, so does the Novorossiyan anti-Nazi defence, but despite a lot of hot air from NATO kriegs-Fuherer Anders Foggy Ratmussen and Obozo there is not much they can do to save this practically dead Frankenstein`s monster on life support. The economy will collapse in a month´s time and their exhausted army before that.
The US (and Hunter Biden & the US fracking industry) will of course fight Novorossiya and Russia proper to the last Ukranian, if they can but short of starting WW3 for it, no.
The US has bitten off WAY more THAN it can chew. Putin IS ABOUT TO GIVE Amerika a valuable lesson .
"Strategically important port"??? Novoazovsk is a tiny place (12000 inhabitants) and is thus of no "strategic" importance whatever. Its importance lies in the fact that it is close to the Russian border. I would guess that the rebel colonists are preparing to abandon Donetsk. There's no point in retiring into Lugansk because they're just going to be encircled there by the Ukrainians, so they wanted Novoazovsk so as to fall back into it and from there, slip accross the Russian border. Acording to European media sources, the rebels are now claiming that many of their members are not from Ukraine at all but have been brought in from Russia. Obviously, such people would not be covered by a Ukrainian amnesty and will not want to fall into the hands of the Ukrainian military (to say nothing of the enraged civilian population!). So not an "escalation" but just a further step in the collapse of the rebellion.
to be fair, Micheal is correct its not important but what is important is the Kievian forces flung everything it had into offensives to cut off Donetsk and Luhansk. got major units cut off and encircled and then left vast gaping holes for the Militia to advance into south of Donetsk.
the Eastern Militia are are only 40 minutes up the road from Maripol again.
A link to a operations map http://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/ka… from a website supporting the rebels but since i couldn't find anything like it on the pro Kiev websites and it sounds reasonable.
How does population size relate to "strategic importance?" The fact that they have recaptured territory at all at this point, as "heath" says, is in itself important. Any Black Sea port is in fact "strategically important" for the rebels at this point, since losing Mariupol. How is it that the mighty Ukrainian military not only is unable to take the last two major rebel cities, but has managed to start losing territory AGAIN?
"So not an "escalation" but just a further step in the collapse of the rebellion."
Yeah, just like the insurgency in Iraq was in it's "last throes."
You are neocon material. They can lie so beautifully. This is a skill so sought after today — to make a lie sound truthfull to define murder as respectable and give solidity to a pure wind.
Your kind declared — and are on record, audio and webportals, that they wanted to exterminate Russian people from Ukraine. Since Russian population is native to this land — they decided to stay and fight for what is theirs. Ukrainian soldiers are demoralized, as they know that they are asked to committ crimes against civilian population. The whole world can see what is being done to people of these regions. Today, your darling, the head of the Right Sector, Yarosh, has declared that he will take all of his battalions from the battle and onto Kiev, where he will "reform" the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a record time. The Minster in question then replied that he, Yarosh, is responsible for taking ILLEGAL units into battle, that he has betrayed those people and turned them into cannon foder. Oh, my. They are now accusing each other of war crimes — Russians just need to keep quiet and watch the show. President that has no power, National Security Council choke full of nazis like Yarosh, and the illegal government, since Svoboda and the great Tyahnibok, left the ruling coalition. But, everything is possible in Ukraine — picking a version of constitution that suits the purpose, they dismiss Rada, and keep the "government", those heros walked in from the street with chains and iron bars, to occupy the armchairs of govenance. Now, these creatures are going around the world, signing agreements with EU, NATO, and are so lovingly embraced by US… So dirty, so stupid. Who on earth is running US foreign policy? They must hate US!
“Acording (sic) to European media sources, the rebels are now claiming that many of their members are not from Ukraine at all but have been brought in from Russia.”
Ah yes, “European media sources” which typically regurgitate Imperial MSM propaganda.
It’s almost always interesting (and amusing) to read Mr. Kenny’s delusional interpretations of the world.
Michael Kenny, that’s *some* collapse of the rebellion we’re seeing here:
http://rt.com/news/183240-ukraine-troops-russia-b…
http://rt.com/news/183368-ukraine-novoazovsk-kiev…
Keep dreaming.
The Ukraine as we knew it is practically finished. I can not imagine Russian speaking Ukrainians wanting to go back to that political unit anymore – not after atrocities that country inflicted on them in so called anti-terror operation. Unless US and NATO decide to fight to the last man and kill all of Russian speaking Ukrainians. US instigated shooting on Maidan after France, Germany and Poland signed a deal with Yanukovich in February. Same escalation of violence and wholesale killing started after MH 17 shoot-down. However Russia is still very close to let it happen.