Well I think there is little doubt now that the latest offensive by the Ukrainian army against the Donbass rebels has gone the same way as the previous ones and ground to a halt.
It does seem to illustrate that irrespective of where the troops come from, that for whatever reason (and I am sure that there are many) the Ukrainian army is not prepared to storm rebel held areas and make a real fight of it.
The impression given is that the army is prepared to make a general deployment, but only really prepared to set up check points outside of the occupied towns and make the occasional raid on an outer position or trade some sniper fire. Even in Mariupol (a relatively soft target by all accounts) where the army went in and recaptured the city hall, the rebels simply moved out in advance, waited for the army to withdraw and simply re-occupied the building.
RT is reposting the movement of heavy armour and artillery (incl grad rocket systems) around Slavyansk and has posted video in support. I have to say though, that like so many deployments in the area, it looks mostly for show and that even if Kiev was insane enough to issue the order, I very much doubt that the commanders would obey it.
Should such an order be issued and carried out, you do not need to be a psychic to predict the likely consequences.
It is now four days to go before the Donbass referendum on Sunday.
The military tasked to retake the Donetsk regions cities and prevent it are making no progress
In many areas of the country, the civil police are abandoning their posts in utter disillusionment
Kiev is having to draft in its new Civil defence units to bolster or replace police
Kiev itself is surrounding itself with multi layered security to prevent the risk of attack from its opponents, mostly anticipating trouble on May 9th, the anniversary of the victory of the Red Army over the Third Reich.
The big question and one still awaiting a clear answer, is how much the ordinary Ukrainian citizen, throughout the country, is tiring of the ongoing crisis and the clumsy actions of Kiev and prepared to accept the Federal solution as the answer to preserving national unity and stability?
