Dmitry Tymchuk’s Military Blog: Summary – July 14, 2014

byVoices of Ukraine

15/07/2014

2 minute read

Brothers and sisters!

Here’s the Summary for July 14, 2014 (for previous summary, please see Summary for July 11).

The bad news:

1. Today, the enemy shot down our [cargo] plane An-26. There is no clear information regarding all the crewmembers, let’s hope that the guys will be alright. It is currently known that two pilots have been captured by the insurgents. I believe that the Ministry of Defense will do everything possible to ensure their release.

The plane was shot down at an altitude of 6,500 meters [21,325 feet]. The MANPADS used by terrorists (including the latest Russian 9K333 “Willow”) don’t shoot this high. On these grounds, the RNBO [National Security and Defense Council] suggests that our plane was shot down by either a Russian fighter jet, or a Russian MANPAD from the territory of the Russian Federation.

Taking into account that the Russian army no longer hesitates to support terrorists by openly moving its equipment designed for insurgents across the border, there was nothing surprising about such “support.” And the more successfully the ATO advances, the less effort the Kremlin is making to mask its aggression against Ukraine.

2. NATO has once again called on Russia to withdraw troops from the Ukrainian border. Meanwhile, the leaders of some European members of NATO are all broadcasting about some “negotiations of parties in Ukraine through Russia as an intermediary” and the “peaceful settlement of the problem.”

Those leaders can be understood. They [act out of] their obviously selfish interests–”Gazprom” neither sleeps nor skimps. And it is quite obvious that these gentlemen are more frightened of penniless old age than the safety of their own continent.

3. Once more about the unhealthy resonance around the “Russian invasion.” I already gave a separate comment about the “Russian invasion of July 15″ (regarding the media broadcasts of my morning announcement), let me repeat it again.

Nobody says that tomorrow there will be a Russian war against Ukraine in a different format than the one that we have been seeing for [the past] four months. As of tomorrow, the commanders of the Russian special forces groups must be ready for deployment to Ukraine. We already went through it in April, when the Russian subversive and reconnaissance groups [SRG] roamed around Donbas just like in [their own] home.

We, the IR group, do not think that Russia is ready for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine–with escalating numbers of Russian troops on the border, we don’t observe “complete” operational and tactical groups, which will be able to carry out such an invasion. Perhaps there will be attempts to invade under the guise of “peacekeepers,” but this is clearly a fallback. For now, the Kremlin’s task is to maximally destabilize the situation in Donbas with the goal to draw the conflict out into a full-blown civil war.

There is one way to counter this scenario: to effectively continue the ATO, and to begin with carving out terrorist groups from the Russian border. And this is generally what the ATO forces are doing now. I sincerely believe that these efforts will be crowned with complete success. But just the very preparation by Russia to expand the format of its secret aggression against Ukraine is not encouraging.

Dmitry Tymchuk, Coordinator, Information Resistance

Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

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January 22: Whereas Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov said again, mockingly, that he yet needs to be presented with any evidence that Russian army is indeed fighting in Donbas

January 22 – On August 24th, 2014 (Independence Day of Ukraine) Putin's army entered Ukrainian Donbas en masse and started its offensive. On January 22nd, 2015 (Day of Ukrainian Unity – celebrating the unity of Eastern and Western Ukraine) Putin's army has ostentatiously "conquered" a symbolic Ukrainian site – Donetsk airport – today Ukrainian military left behind most parts of the airport. Whereas Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov said again, mockingly, that he yet needs to be presented with any evidence that Russian army is indeed fighting in Donbas.

January 22 – 10 Ukrainian military were killed and 16 wounded in ATO on January 21st, – informed the spokesman of the General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces Vladyslav Seleznyov.

January 22 – Whereas NATO would like to re-establish communication with colleagues from the General Staff of the Russia's Armed Forces, – stated Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations, US General Philip Breedlove (Reuters).

January 22 – The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov hasn't ruled out offensive operations by the militants in the near future (stated by Turchynov as a result of his visit to the war zone, according to NSDC press-service). "New terminal has been almost completely destroyed, but our Armed Forces have strengthened their positions near the village of Pisky and inflicted a series of very strong assaults", – said Turchynov.

January 22 – Militants of the terrorist group "People's Republic of Donetsk" have "paraded" captive Ukrainian soldiers along the streets of Donetsk. Abuse of prisoners and torture of prisoners violates Hague Convention on the rules of military operations (The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907). Abuse of prisoners is punishable under Hague Tribunal. Instead, Ukrainian government is trying to start negotiations on the release of prisoners of war captured at Donetsk airport, – informed NSDC spokesman Andriy Lysenko.

January 22 – Self-proclaimed leader of Donetsk-based terrorists Oleksand Zakharchenko has said that they intend to "push the frontline" further from Donetsk. It has been previously reported that in September 2014, when explaining the invasion of the city of Novoazovsk and other areas by the militants and disguised Russian soldiers, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained that the main objective of the militants is "pushing the frontline further".

January 22 – In Donetsk, the terrorists fired at a trolleybus with a mobile mortar, killing seven civilians. The site of the attack is located 20 km from Donetsk airport. For several days now, the terrorists have been travelling around Donetsk in a van with a mortar, shooting at residential areas, trying to encourage the residents to take up anti-Ukrainian views.

January 22 – During the meeting in Berlin of the heads of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the countries of the "Normandic foursome," progress was made only regarding one issue of the Minsk agreements. This was written by Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pavlo Klimkin on his page on Twitter. "Yesterday in Berlin there was a Borodino – a diplomatic battle, which no one won or lost. We made one step forward on one point of Minsk agreements," he wrote. According to him, it concerns a ceasefire.

January 22 – Facts confirm that Russia is directly involved in the army operation in Eastern Ukraine. This was stated by the President of Lithuania, Dalia Hrybauskaite to the Lithuanian journalists during the Davos Forum, writes Delfi.lt. "This is open territorial aggression, carried out not by some terrorists-seperatists, but by Russia itself, because neither the separatists nor some other people can have such weapons. These cannot be bought at the market or on the street; they are very specific – they can only be owned by big countries," she emphasized. "All the more, there are direct indications that not only the weapons, but the army itself (Russian), its subdivisions are involved," said Hrybauskaite. According to her, Russian representatives are openly lying about the situation in Ukraine. "We really see an enormous demonstration of lying when they say one thing and do something totally opposite, when they blame one side, but, it turns out, that the obligations are not being fulfilled by the other (side)," said the President of Lithuania.

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