US mercenary dies near Donetsk
2014-08-20
Posted by: badanov
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
An American identified as Mark Paslavski, 55, has been killed in the fighting in the Donetsk oblast of southeastern Ukraina, according to Ukrainian English language media reports.
According to a press report which appeared in the online edition of Kyev Post, Paslavski was a native Ukrainian who owned property in Lviv, but lived somewhere on the eastern seaboard of the United State. He had assumed Ukrainian citizenship, and was a private in the Ukrainian police unit "Donbass".
Paslavski died in one of several artillery strikes directed against Ukrainian military units around Ilovaisk, which is southeast of Donetsk.
According to a separate Associated Press news account which also appeared on the Kyev Post, the "Donbass" battalion commander, Semyon Semenchenko, was also wounded during operations in that region.
The "Donbass" battalion is a police unit, one of several which operate under the auspices of the Ukrainian interior ministry, which pro Russian militia dub "punisher" battalions because of their work as follow-on police units.
According to Russian language and pro Russian news accounts, the "Donbass" battalion was forced to retreat under heavy artillery fire near Ilovaisk, losing several armor vehicles in the process.
According to a separate report which appeared in the pro Russian online edition of Voice of Sevastopol, all attacks by Ukrainian military units have been beaten back with a loss to the Ukrainian forces of two tanks, two infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and 30 effectives.
Also in the same region near the village of Nizhnyaya Krinka Ukrainian military units lost equipment including a BM-21 battery (six launchers).
Pro Ukrainian press have stated that pro Russian militia are themselves in danger of being surrounded by Ukrainian airborne forces, and have charged that they have been receiving artillery fire from Russian howitzer and rocket artillery units, by their count, ten times throughout the night of 18 August and 19 August in Petrivske, Saur-Mohyla, Snizhne, Faschevka, Kuteinikovo and Debaltsevo.
Ilovaisk is in the same region that Ukrainian military units have been trying to penetrate to fully encircle Donetsk for the coming battle, set to complete by mest Tuesday, August 26th. Based on graphics supplied by pro Ukrainian sources, the situation is dire for pro Russian nationalist forces, as Ukrainian forces converge on Donetsk.
Despite that, pro Russian militia claim that Ukrainian troops near Amvrosiivka are surrounded. Pro Russian militia forces attacked positions on the line Luzhki-Petrovsky-Novoyekaterinovka and in Alexeyevskoye.
Amvrosiivka is about 17 kilometers southeast of Ilovaisk.
Meanwhile in Mospino, which is about 8 kilometers southwest of the Ilovaisk region, Ukrainian artillery unit have started pounding civilian areas, resulting in the destruction of 40 homes, according to pro Russian militia.
Further north, near Faschevka, which is about 17 kilometers northeast of Donetsk on Ukrainian Highway M40, pro Russian militias claim to have two Ukrainian military units encircled, the 80th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the "Aydar" police battalion. Attempts by elements of the two units to break out of the cauldron have resulted in four Ukrainian dead and four wounded.
Pro Ukrainian press have claimed that pro Russian militia are abandoning Gorlovka due to Ukrainian pressure. Gorlovka is west of Faschevka and is still very much a point of contention between the two combatants.
Chris Covert writes news for Rantburg.com
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