Ukraine launches assault on Donetsk rebels
Source: Aljazeera
Ukraine has launched a heavy assault on the rebel-held city of Donetsk, as international investigators arrived in the region to examine the remains of 298 people killed in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines airliner.
A separatist leader on Monday said Ukrainian government forces were trying to break into Donetsk and fighting was under way near the city's railway station. It is the heaviest outbreak of violence in the region since the MH17 airliner was shot down on Thursday.
Sergei Kavtaradze, of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said at least four tanks and armoured vehicles were attacking his men. Two rebel tanks were reported heading to Donetsk railway station.
A Ukrainian military spokesman said the operation was in progress but he would not comment on troop movements.
Read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/07/ukraine-launches-assault-donetsk-rebels-20147218382937765.html
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Rubizhne in the north, Dzherzhinsk in the north-central area, Yubileinyi and Heorhiivka (near Luhansk), Pisky near Donetsk and a bunch of other smaller areas have gone from rebel-held to Ukraine-held in the last 36 hours. Debal'tseve is held by Ukr forces and it's a crossroads between major N-S and E-W highways.
Troops are fighting in Horlivka, Severdonetsk, probably the NW corner of Donetsk and the NW and SE parts of Luhansk. They're to the city limits of Lysychansk in the north.
It's pretty clear that Donets'k and Luhansk and Severodonetsk are pretty much cut off from serious supply routes and surrounded. The major roads from Luhansk to the border are severed, and the roads from the border to Donetsk are controlled by Ukr forces. That may change by evening.
Ukr forces claim to hold part of SE Luhansk. The rebels say the city's entirely under their control. Some reports are that a commander in Luhansk called "Leshii" ("wood devil"?) is assuming some powers from Bolotov but this is disputed by Bolotov. Lots of rumors about which commanders have left or stayed.
Strelkov-Girkin went from saying "no strategic locations have been taken" at 3:00 am and that this battalion and that batallion have been utterly destroyed to reluctantly admitting that a number of places are taken, sometimes by the very battalion that he claimed was destroyed just 18 hours before; in some places the villages and towns may still be slightly contested as they're "cleansed" (which means "mopping up operation" but also has the ominous meaning "purged"
. Ukr seems to say a place is taken if they've taken a big chunk of the place and the downtown/central area, Strelkov seems to say that his guys are holding onto a city or town if they still retain control over a building.
Reports are that groups of Russian citizen, many Chechens, have been taken captive. Including some "little green men." A constant stream of citizen reports from Luhansk, esp., about people being kidnapped by rebels in camo continues. Every day there are a few more--now a reporter, now a businessman, now somebody who posted something wrong or was seen on a mobile phone near an area hit 5 minutes later by Ukr mortars.
Ukr government sources are saying more armored vehicles and fighters crossed the border at Izvaryne last night.
The Ukr government has chortled (that's the right word here) that they've broken the rebels up into three distinct areas for disposal. Looking at a map, that's not quite true. There's still a strip from Torez to the border that's a problem. I count four--Luhansk, Donetsk, Severodonetsk, and that strip running mostly West to East to the border. That's going to become their new rump LPR/DPR if the flow of men and arms across the border doesn't stop.
And, humorously, the area "liberated" from the rebels some people have taken to calling "Girkinshchyna," sort of "Girkinland" after Strelkov's real surname. Luhansk has the nickname "Luganda" (Luganskaya narodnaya republika, LNR).
