Donetsk rebel claim Ukrainians violated ceasefire 30 times
2015-03-11
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
More than 400 separate violations of the newly signed February 12th Minsk Ceasefire have occurred, 30 of them in the last two days, say rebel leaders in Donetsk.
Donetsk defense ministry spokesman Lt. Colonel Eduard Basurin said Tuesday that almost all of the violations, which include separate artillery attacks, have taken place around the airport area northwest of Donetsk city.
According to Basurin, one rebel effective was wounded in the attacks.
Rebels make much of the claim that they have already withdrawn all their heavy weapons from the line of contact, while the Ukrainian side have repeatedly delayed displacing their artillery units. Rebel say their artillery units are under strict orders now not to respond to "provocations", as the rebels put it, by returning artillery fire.
The restriction on the line of contact now is for weapons with bores no larger than 100mm. That rules out every weapon available to both sides except for the 82mm mortar, 73mm SPG recoilless rifle and the main gun on the BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle. All three wespons have been used in an indirect fire role since last fall.
According to Basurin, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have witnessed and recorded the artillery attacks.
Attempted Assassination of Alexei Mozgovoi
One of the top combat formation commanders in Lugansk was attacked last Saturday evening after returning from a conference in Lugansk city, according to various web reports.
Alexei Mozgovoi, commander of the "Ghost Brigade", was being driven in an SUV along with a small security detail near Mikailovski, about 30 kilometers west of Lugansk, when his vehicle was struck by a directional mine.
Mozgovoi was hit on the right side of his face, and shrapnel almost tore off his right ear. The vehicle he was riding in, a Ford Explorer was damaged, but still drivable.
According to a video posted on the Internet, the explosive used was a form of commercial grade dynamite used in mining. According to the unidentified investigator in the video, it is unlikely the attack was a Ukrainian hit.
Mozgovoi's brigade, deployed near Alchevsk, was involved in the later stages of the liquidation of the Debaltsevo pocket last month.
Mozgovoi was featured in a video where he was walking around an unidentified area, and at one point looking into the camera saying, (paraphrasing) "Do you think you really matter, now, Plotnitsky?"
That is a reference to Lugansk president Igor Plotnitsky, who has had problems in dealing with the military units in Lugansk. It is not certain why Mozgovoi singled out Plotnitsky in the video, but the name surfaced again in a video in which the investigator said he was uncertain if Plotnitsky was involved in the attack.
That would hint that there is bad blood between Mozgovoi and Plotnitsky, enough so that a military formation commander would go to lengths to diminish Lugansk's top politician on a public forum.
It is also well known and established how Plotnitsky and the Cossacks deployed in Lugansk have had their problems as well, but like Mozgovoi, it is uncertain as to the causes.
One incident which took place late last December was the death of Aleksandr Bednov, a popular staff officer with the 4th Rifle Brigade, who was killed by security forces aligned with Plotnitsky.
For about 18 hours after that attack, it was speculated that the attack in Georgievka, a suburb south of Lugansk city, which killed Bednov and six of his security detail, was a straight up hit, given that the security elements deployed in the attack used fuel-air explosive RPG rounds in what appeared to be an ambush.
It was later announced by Plotnitsky that Bednov was under investigation for the murder of four people in Lugansk last July. Little about that investigation has been released by Plotnitsky's government to date.
That incident also may have colored Plotnitsky's relationship with the military formation commanders in Lugansk.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. Click here for a list of stories in the The 2014 War in Ukraina category.
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Click here for a list of stories in the The 2014 War in Ukraina category