Zakharchenko: we are ready for anything that might happen
2015-08-10
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
With the collapse last week of talks in Minsk over removing more heavy weapons from the front line, Donetsk president Aleksandr Zakharchenko said Sunday that his forces are preparing for more war, according to Russian language news accounts.
In the media, Donetsk envoy Denis Pushilin accused the Ukrainian government all last week of sabotaging peace talks which were about the removal of more heavy weapons from the line of contact, even as rebels claimed to have removed weapons from all areas but where the heaviest fighting was taking place. Talks in Minsk are ongoing still, but meetings intended to address reducing the number of heavy weapons are not scheduled to take place until the last week of August.
Since last week, according to rebel media, Ukrainian artillery has been hitting areas such as western Donetsk city and Gorlovka, which is north of Donetsk city, with rebel artillery responding in kind. Now, it appears that renewed fighting has taken place in Shirokino, a town just east of the Sea of Azov city of Mariupol that rebel forces voluntarily left last month as a unilateral gesture towards demilitarizing the town.
In his remarks, Zakharchenko made references to the last two rebel victories over the Ukrainian Army when Ukrainian envoys rushed to an agreement even as rebel forces began their offensive operations. All this suggests that rebel forces may well decide to begin a new limited offensive operation as a means of not only gaining ground, but of forcing the Ukrainians back into talks.
Zakharchenko said the rebel forces have reserved the right to fire on Ukrainian forces because, his words, "Ukraine has violated the Minsk Agreement." The reference to return fire is to rebel contentions until last month that their forces did not respond to Ukrainian artillery fire.
Ukrainian media charged the rebel forces fired on their forces more than 70 times, including areas of western Donetsk city such as Opytnoye and Avdievka, which were hit by rebel 120mm mortar and 122mm artillery. Rebel artillery was fired on Ukrainian positions near Mariupol.
The Donetsk ministry of defense website said that Ukrainian forces fired on their forces 48 times since last Saturday.
On Saturday, rebel media said Ukrainian artillery fire hit rebel positions at the Donetsk airport and Spartak, and in the Petrovsky, Kuibyshevskiy and Kievskiy districts of western Donetsk city. Ukrainian artillery firing on those areas are said to have originated in Avdievka and Opytnoye. Gorlovka was struck by Ukrainian artillery fire as well.
On Sunday, rebel media claimed that Ukrainian forces fired on rebel forces 18 times. Artillery fire was directed onto rebel positions at Spartak and the Donetsk airport.
Gorlovka again was hit by artillery which originated from Dzherzinsk. Several utilities were hit as a result of Ukrainian artillery including electrical power and water. According to a separate official report, one unidentified civilian female in nearby Zaitsevo was killed in the artillery strikes. According to that report, most Ukrainian artillery fire takes place at night.
Fighting in Shirokino
According to a news account in korrespondent.net, which took data from the Facebook page of Igor Mosiychuk, rebel forces attacked Ukrainian naval infantry positions in Shirokino early Saturday morning.
Mosiychuk is a member of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada legislative body, and a member of the Ukrainian Radical Party.
According to the korrespondent.net article, rebel forces attacked using tanks, killing one Ukrainian marine and wounding three others. Reports in tsnesor.net said that the attacking forces were special forces armed with suppressed weapons, supported by mortar and sniper fire.
Mosiychuk said that while rebel tanks were involved, they did not fire on Ukrainian positions. A total of ten tanks were at the battlefront, a tank company. An artillery duel took place as well. Mosiychuk said that the rebel attack was forced back.
The use of suppressed weapons, according to Mosiychuk, suggests Russian Federation forces may have been involved in that attack, except that rebel recon groups, used to probe enemy defenses, routinely use suppressed weapons as a means of location of direct fire means. And timed artillery strikes are used by rebel forces as a means of covering the withdrawal of rebel reconnaissance missions.
Last week, Ukrainian commanders moved the fresh naval infantry unit into Shirokino after rejecting rebel calls for a joint patrol and a demilitarization on the town, now almost completely destroyed by artillery fire duels between the forces.
Rebel media have yet to address the rebel probe in the area.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
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