Crisis in the Ukraine

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Nyet Brat. Under Armour is Kapitalist Imperialist Amerikan pig-dog Brand.

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Ukraine says it 'destroyed' part of Russian armed convoy
Aug. 15, 2014 - 12:55PM |

By Doug Stanglin
USA TODAY

An elderly man looks at a pro-Russian tank moving along a street in Donetsk on Friday. Shelling killed 11 civilians and wounded eight more over the past 24 hours in the besieged rebel stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
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NATO: Alliance observed Russian incursion
Ukrainian troops on Friday destroyed part of what Kiev says was a Russian armored convoy that crossed into Ukraine around the same time as a truck convoy of humanitarian aid reached the border, according to Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko's

Poroshenko informed British Prime Minister David Cameron in a telephone call that a "significant" part of the Russian armored column had been destroyed, according to the Ukrainian leader's website.

"Much of this equipment was destroyed by the Ukrainian artillery at night," the website says, according to Ukrinform new agency.

Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Security Defense Council, also reported that parts of the armored were "destroyed."

"Appropriate actions were undertaken and a part of it no longer exist," Lysenko told reporters. He said the military convoy had been closely observed since crossing the border from Russia.

A reporter for The Guardian said he saw a column of 23 armored personnel carriers, supported by fuel trucks and other logistics vehicles with official Russian military plates, crossing into Ukraine "through a gap in a barbed wire fence that demarcates the border."

Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Leonid Matyukhin tells Bloomberg News by phone earlier that the vehicles were painted white to camouflage the operation as a peacekeeping mission.

NATO leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen earlier confirmed that "a Russian incursion" over the Ukrainian border had been observed.

"It is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine," Rasmussen said at a news conference in Denmark, according to the news agency AFP.

The British foreign office summoned Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko "to clarify reports of Russian military incursion," the BBC reported.

Russia's Security Service denied that Russian troops had crossed into Ukraine. The mobile military teams "operate strictly within the territory of the Russian Federation," a spokesperson for the FSB Border Guard Service in Rostov region told RT.com.

Russia's foreign ministry, meanwhile, said only that Ukrainian forces are engaging in intense fighting in Eastern Ukraine to stop humanitarian aid to the region.

The ministry warned that Ukraine was trying to halt the Russian humanitarian aid from reaching besieged areas controlled by rebels.

"We draw attention to the sharp intensification of military actions by Ukrainian forces with the obvious goal to block the route, agreed upon with Kiev, of the humanitarian convoy from the Russia-Ukraine border to Lugansk," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The MFA said Moscow had information that the 262-truck Russian humanitarian aid convoy, which was stalled near the same border area where the armored convoy purportedly crossed, "may be attacked by Kiev's forces, with the 'punitive' Aidar Battalion planning to mine the road that the vehicles will use," according to RT.com.

Ukraine had insisted that the goods -- food, generators and medical supplies -- be inspected and reloaded before being allowed to proceed to hard-hit areas of eastern Ukraine, particularly the besieged city of Luhansk.

For several days, as the trucks wound their way from Moscow, Ukrainian officials expressed concern that the trucks might contain military equipment as a cover for a military invasion.

The BBC reports that many the trucks in the aid convoy were almost empty. It quoted on driver as saying those trucks were to be used to pick up the cargo from any trucks that might break down on the journey.

Ukrainian officials were quoted earlier Friday as saying the inspection was underway, but later Ukrainian national security spokesman An

The head of mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Paul Picard, confirmed to the BBC that the inspection had yet to begin. Ukrainian officials said inspectors were still waiting for the relevant paperwork from the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to Interfax Ukraine.

The U.S. State Department also weighed in, saying that the U.S. had warned Russia that it "as no right to send vehicles or persons or cargo of any kind into Ukraine without the government's explicit permission," according to U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf on Thursday.

Under the deal finalized Friday morning, 41 Ukrainian border guards and 18 customs officials were tasked with inspecting the trucks, Ukrinform reports. Only one driver per truck, not a full crew, was being permitted to take the goods into Ukraine.

In line with Red Cross policy, there will be no military escort. The Red Cross will also exclusively carry out the final distribution of the goods.

The Russian white-tarped trucks had been parked since Thursday near Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, about 17 miles from the border. Much of the border in this part of eastern Ukraine has been under the control of the pro-Russia separatists

Russia sent the convoy south to the rebel-held crossing after deciding not to abide by an earlier tentative agreement to deliver the aid through a government-controlled border crossing in the Kharkiv region.

Laurent Corbaz, the International Committee of the Red Cross' director of operations in Europe, said the plan foresees the aid being delivered to a central point in rebel-held territory, then distributed through the region. It was unclear how long the operation might last, but "it's not going to be solved in one week," he said.

The humanitarian crisis emerged during four months of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian troops and rebels, who had declared the region independent. Government forces in the past two weeks have surrounded the key rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, which has been without water or electricity for three weeks.

The United Nation's nearly doubled its estimate for the number of people killed in eastern Ukraine to 2,086 as of Aug. 10 from 1,129 on July 26.

In announcing the deal, the Ukrainian foreign ministry did not hide its disdain for the separatists who control the border crossing and wide swaths of eastern Ukraine.

"It has been agreed that all humanitarian supplies, including Russian humanitarian aid destined for territory controlled by terrorists, will be delivered exclusively by the ICRC. The Committee will perform all of the logistics associated with storing and distributing the aid," the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in statement.

Sergei Astakhov, an assistant to the deputy head of Ukraine's border guard service, said Red Cross representatives would observe the inspections. Representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were also on hand to observe the handover.

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NATO: Alliance observed Russian incursion
Aug. 15, 2014 - 10:55AM |
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-CRISIS
A Russian military truck transports a self-propelled howitzer Friday near the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in the Rostov region, Russia, near the Russian-Ukrainian border. NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance has observed a Russian 'incursion' into Ukraine, which Russia denies. (Sergei Venyavsky / AFP via Getty Images)

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Ukraine says it 'destroyed' part of Russian armed convoy
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance has observed a Russian “incursion” into Ukraine, which Russia denies.

During a visit to Copenhagen on Friday, Fogh Rasmussen told reporters: “I can confirm that last night we saw an incursion (into) Ukraine.” Rasmussen did not give details of the alleged incursion but said “what we have seen last night is the continuation of what we have seen for some time.”

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s security council, said some Russian military vehicles had crossed the border into Ukraine. Two British journalists said they saw Russian armored personnel carriers cross the border.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said Russian forces are patrolling the border area but denied that military vehicles had moved into Ukraine.

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Jura said:

Only now I had time to look over Central European, Ukrainian, Russian servers ... I guess many people wonder about the alleged engagement, mentioned at the official website this afternoon:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

and dismissed by the Russians about one hour ago:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

using the wording (my translation): "There was no armored convoy, which would, during night or day, cross the Russian-Ukrainian border. And it would be best if a phantom had been annihilated by Ukrainian artillery, not refugees or Ukrainian troops."
Many posters on "a moderate" Ukrainian server ask for pictures, coordinates ...

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solarz said:

IIRC, this isn't the first time Kiev claimed to have destroyed a Russian armored column.

In any case, isn't it pretty difficult to destroy an armored column on the move with artillery? You'd first have to know what route the column is taking and at what time, and then you'd have to either have the artillery in place already or rush it into position. You would basically need to catch your enemy with their pants down with your forces in the right place at the right time.

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