Several dozen eastern Ukrainian refugees were killed today, including a large number of women and children, when their buses came under fire by artillery and Grad rockets.
The attacks came about 5 miles from the Russian border, and southeast of Luhansk. Both sides have traded blame for the incident, with the military claiming the rebels launched the attack specifically to blame them.
It is impossible at this point to conclude which side actually attacked the convoy, because both are using BM-21 Grad rockets in the war, but the military’s claim that the rebels precisely hit vehicle gas tanks to start fires and ensure the slain were burned to death is preposterous, as Grads simply aren’t that accurate.
The rebels noted that the Ukrainian military has been shelling the road where the incident occurred almost constantly over the past several days, and said they were the culprits. Since Ukraine has been attacking areas along the Russian border, that is the more probable cause.
Oh, for God's sake Jason it's obvious that the Kiev butchers executed this War Crime as well. Stop with the weasel words.
Is this the convoy that Kiev claimed destroyed just 24h earlier or did the hit really happen "today"? The closeness-in-timing is weird.
Any word from the beltway mavens who probably have examined tweets and youtube videos in detail??
Gee, I wonder if it was not the same guys who rejoiced at the deaths of "Colorado Beetles" a few months ago in Odessa.
Who you are going to believe, a lier that got paid by the USG $5billion dollars to start a Neo fascistic regime in Ukraine or people who do want to be ruled by the Neo fascism that got paid by USG $5billion dollars, where the USG Vice President son has given the post as one of director of Ukrainian gas company.
I'm interested to see that Mr Ditz is such an expert on the accuracy of Grads, but if the rebels' Grads weren't accurate enough, neither were the Ukrainian army's! More interesting is the Reuters report linked to which points to increasing disintegration in the rebel ranks.
One need not be an "expert" on Grads to know that that the Grad is an area weapon — a multiple rocket launcher system which achieves its effects by blanketing a target area.
The Ukrainian claim is that the Donetsk People's Republic forces "targeted the gas tanks" on vehicles with Grads. That claim is clearly complete bullshit. Of course the invaders' Grads weren't accurate enough to do that either — but nobody made that bullshit claim about what the Ukrainians did.
You mean the same Reuters that keeps hysterically warning of a Russian "invasion" that never seems to happen and the same Reuters that just two days ago ago was trumpeting a story about an invading Russian column that, as usual, turned out to be complete bull****?
> accuracy of Grads,
Grads are just modern versions of the Stalinorgel and Nebelwerfer and are what Israelis would call "precision weapons". Enough said.
It’s probably a cover story: the Kiev forces were trying to interdict the road and caught the refugees incidentally. To counter the publicity and to gain some propaganda for themselves, they spin it as a secessionist atrocity – with the amateur touch about the fuel tanks. Remember the oil slick in the Persian Gilf during the first Iraq War? First the “coalition” boasted they’d hit Iraqi tankers at a jetty; then the slick was discovered; then the cock and bull story about Saddam Hussein deliberately polluting the Gulf. This is the same tactic but the propagandists – and journalists – are stupider.