Crisis in the Ukraine

delft said:

I just heard a Dutch journalist speaking from Donetsk on my favorite radio station saying that the news that the Ukrainian army had occupied another suburb of Donetsk could not yet been confirmed, but he mentioned the surrender of those 700 near Shakhtersk as probably true.

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In which case, the Dutch are better served by their media than are those of us in the UK.

There has been a lot of talk about the casualty figures and vehicle kills claimed by the militia and which seem difficult to verify. I found this following video from the Ukrainian side very interesting.
It shows a patrol of about 3 or 4 BTR's patrolling in the countryside. The lead vehicle runs over a mine.
Nobody seems to be seriously injured, but it seems that the vehicle is put out of commission. I do wonder how common an occurrence this sort of attack is, as such equipment losses could indeed very quickly stack up.

[video=youtube_share;Ec65wROiVIY]http://youtu.be/Ec65wROiVIY[/video]

There has been reports said that Kiev government will try those Ukrainian troops who crossed into Russia without their gear (for that you-know-what reason), with at least desertion and up to treason...

Meanwhile in Crimea...

MwRYum said:

There has been reports said that Kiev government will try those Ukrainian troops who crossed into Russia without their gear (for that you-know-what reason), with at least desertion and up to treason...

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So it looks like it is true. Tass is a Russian media and I was tentative initially.

some craters in Shahtersk
[video=youtube;ZMMoQC00nGA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMMoQC00nGA[/video]

SampanViking said:

In which case, the Dutch are better served by their media than are those of us in the UK.

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Not really. The vast majority of Dutch journalists follow the party line enthusiastically and the intelligence of any doubter is declared suspect. It is just a few journalists working in Eastern Ukraine who feel free to think for themselves and I don't think are taken seriously even by their own paper ( this one is from a paper I rarely see ) but my favorite radio station does give two or more sides of a story more easily than others do.

What on Earth do you make of this?



It purports to be a Ukrainian patrol in some militia held city, but just look at them!
Leaving aside the truly lousy tactics for a fire fight (middle of an intersection, using your pick up for cover) I look askance at the clearly improvised 4 x 4 technical to mount the heavy calibre machine gun or cannon.

I have seen a number of recent videos where the militia have created quite complex technicals, including mounting anti tank guns on the back of flat bed trucks, but I am shocked to see the Ukrainian army having to do the same.

I con only think of two possible explanations:
1) These are not the proper army, but right sector radicals in a private militia of their own.
2) The reports of the militia destroying very significant quantities of Ukrainian armour has not simply been sensationalist propaganda, but actually has a basis in fact, leaving some units of the Ukrainian army very poorly mechanised.

From The Vinyard of the Saker I got this reference to an analysis of the downing of MH17:

This looks like serious work. We still have nothing but allegations from Western countries.

I wonder ...
A few weeks ago an Ukrainian An-26 was shot down from the unlikely altitude of 5500 meters, according to Kiev. I doubted that at the time. I now wonder whether Kiev introduced that 5500 meter into the story to suggest that the federalist were able to down aircraft from a relatively high altitude to prepare us for the downing of large airliner from an even larger altitude to be blamed on the federalists.

WOW! Good read but sadly, evidence based due process had been thrown out of the window and the world careens onwards to either a new Cold War or the ultimate war and end of mankind.

delft said:

From The Vinyard of the Saker I got this reference to an analysis of the downing of MH17:

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This looks like serious work. We still have nothing but allegations from Western countries.

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