Background Image

Sharp Increase in Shelling Intensity - Disrupter of Minsk at Any Cost - Provocations Against Russians All Over Ukraine

Voice of Donbass - 17.08.16 18:41

After attempting a large-scale provocation in the Crimea in the middle of the past week, the Ukrainian military in Donbass subdued a little. But, as usual, for a very short while.

By the end of the week, the intensity of the shelling of the Republics has again risen sharply. Yesterday, according to the DPR Defense Ministry, the number of bombardments approached 700 per day, including about 200 rounds made from heavy artillery. In addition, Kiev again used tanks in the shelling.

Massive attacks were carried out in all three directions of the front: Donetsk in the center, Gorlovka in the north and Mariupol in the south.

According to the local authorities, as a result of attacks, 28 homes and buildings were damaged, including a secondary school and a kindergarten, as well as a pipeline. In Gorlovka alone, there were damaged 12 homes, 10 of them on the northern outskirts, where, according to the DPR soldiers on positions, the Ukrainian military narrowed the buffer zone up to a hundred meters.

The locals wrote in social networks that on the northern outskirts of Gorlovka, the Ukrainian military used white phosphorus.

On the outskirts of Yasinovataya, a town located between Donetsk and Gorlovka, a local resident was wounded during the shelling, with a shell landing straight in his house. Residents of this locality said that they had not experienced such attacks since 2014, despite the fact that in their locality there are no DPR army positions.

The DPR authorities associated the increase in the intensity of attacks with revitalization of Kiev’s reconnaissance operations with UAVs. Only yesterday, in the Donetsk and Gorlovka directions there were detected 5 Ukrainian drones.

In just the past week, according to the DPR Defense Ministry, Kiev opened fire on the territory of the Republic over 3,000 times, and about 90% of the rounds were made from heavy artillery.

The authorities of the Republic reported that among civilians, weekly casualties amounted to 3 persons killed and 8 wounded. The DPR army lost in clashes 1 soldier killed and 3 wounded. Over the week, there were also damaged or destroyed 54 buildings, with the Ukrainian side continuing to deliberately bombard objects of vital infrastructure.

The DPR military authorities also note that the Ukrainian military are trying to circumvent the Minsk Agreements, "modernizing" non-prohibited weapons in order to increase their destructive capacities. These "advanced" missiles were discovered in one of the districts of Donetsk, where two civilians were killed and a 16-year-old girl wounded in a past week’s shelling.

In addition, according to the DPR intelligence, Kiev began to deliver to the contact line old-fashioned artillery systems made, in particular, in the 40s of the last century. It is possible that the lack of more modern weapons is due to the Ukrainian army command actively selling them abroad. Since the fighting resources of the old weapons were long ago worked out, no one can guarantee their accuracy, which leads to a further increase in non-combat losses in the Ukrainian army.

In particular, the DPR intelligence reported that in the Donetsk segment of the front, one of the Ukrainian army units was inexplicably hit by a shell released another unit, resulting in about 10 Ukrainian soldiers killed and wounded.

The increase in losses of the Ukrainian army is supported by data on the number of wounded arriving at one of the Kharkov hospitals, which are regularly published on the website of the Ukrainian public organization "Sisters of Mercy". While at the beginning of the past week, this hospital received 10 wounded Ukrainian soldiers, by the end of it their number increased to 22 men.

At the same time, Kiev continues to strengthen its groups in Donbass, delivering to the front line all increasingly deadly weapons. During the past week, the DPR intelligence reported on arrival at the Ukrainian positions of not only motorized artillery systems, tanks and anti-tank cannons, but MLRS "Grad" and air defense missile complexes as well.

The intelligence data are confirmed by reports of the OSCE observers. Over the past week, they found 50 122 and 152mm howitzers, about 40 tanks, over 10 anti-tank cannons, 50 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles and one air defense missile system withdrawn from the sites of the Ukrainian weapons and equipment storage.

The LPR military authorities also note the arrival at their segment of the front of the heavier Ukrainian weapons, including tanks, air defense systems, MLRS, air defense missile complexes and anti-tank guided missile complexes. In addition, the LPR intelligence notes an increased activity of Ukrainian subversive groups along the contact line. During the past week, the military of the Republic discovered and neutralized two such groups.

Along with the increasing number of attacks on the territory of the Republics, Kiev continues to make other provocations aimed at forcing the LDPR army to attack and thus, disrupt the Minsk Agreements, or at least, give the appearance of such a violation by the Republics.

A week ago, the Kiev-controlled town of Dzerzhinsk came under attack. This fact was not mentioned in the report of the press service of the ATO headquarters, from which it can be concluded that the Ukrainian side to the JCCC (Joint Centre for Coordination and Control) had not recorded an attack on the town by the DPR. However, the Ukrainian media made a report on the devastation of the town and presented them as a result of the shelling by the DPR army, while the intelligence of the Republic found that the shelling had been carried out by nationalists from an OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) unit.

Residents of Mariupol, the largest city in the south of Donbass, already reported that the Ukrainian military were building fortifications outside the city, and, remarkably, in the direction of Ukraine. Two days ago, they also informed that all Ukrainian army units had left the city and settled in the built fortifications. On the outskirts of the city, in the direction of the DPR, were left only a few groups of nationalists.

At the same time, in the city, there is a large number of Ukrainian TV crews waiting, apparently, for a decisive attack of the DPR army on the seemingly defenseless city.

With larger provocations from Kiev possible, the Head of the DPR Alexander Zakharchenko held a press conference on the same day, at which he said that the DPR army was forced to prepare to repel a Ukrainian offensive in all three directions of the front. The Donetsk authorities were given the order to prepare all the bomb shelters in the city.

The unceasing attacks on civilians of Donbass do not bring Kiev long-awaited results. The army of the Republics refuses to rush into an offensive, depriving the Kiev authorities of a possibility to get rid of the Minsk Agreements and accuse Russia of another invasion.

It looks possible, therefore, that the last week Kiev moved to direct provocations against the Russian Federation, accompanying them with a demonstration of its apparent weakness.

Earlier the past week, on the border with the Crimea, Ukrainian subversive groups attempted an act of terrorism, which received a harsh response from the President of Russia and its Prime Minister who did not rule out a possibility of severing diplomatic relations with Ukraine.

The same day, the US Vice President Biden, in a telephone conversation, called on the President of Ukraine Poroshenko to prevent the escalation in relations with Russia.

The next day, during the exercises "Heavenly Shield", Ukrainian planes practiced landing on roads, demonstrating that the Ukrainian authorities were ready to admit the loss of airfields during an invasion.

The leader of the Nazi regiment «Azov", Andrey Beletsky, who had disappeared from public view some time ago, suddenly came up on Ukrainian television with a statement that, in the case of Russia’s offensive, Ukraine could not rely on help from the West.

Yesterday, a minibus of the deputy of St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, who delivered medications to Donbass, came under targeted fire from a 122mm howitzer. According to the politician, at the time of the attack he was in a civil quarter, far from the front line.

In addition, last week, the Ukrainian nationalists finally dropped masks in their attitude to the Russian or Russian-speaking fellow citizens.

On June 22, 2016, during the direct line of the Head of the DPR with residents of Kiev, one of the participants of the line accused the Republic of lying, saying that in 2014, Kiev had had no intention to Ukrainize Donbass, and that Russian-speaking residents of the capital did not suffer any discrimination to the day.

Last week, the portal News Daily Ukraine announced the beginning of a public campaign «Beat the Muscovites». The organizers called on Ukrainians to catch the "Muscovites" in every city, village, in every street, in a market, in a shop, at a bus stop, in a park - everywhere ‘where you can heard the clearly expressed Russian speech’.

A few days later, the page describing the action was removed, but then another action was officially declared in Ukraine, the "Movomarathon". In this action, the participants voluntarily agree to speak only Ukrainian for 25 days, starting on 24 August, the Day of Independence of Ukraine, in honor of its 25th anniversary.

Thus, another Overton window is being opened in Ukraine. The campaign is already widely advertised, in such a way creating public opinion about the unacceptability of the Russian language, even in everyday life.

On the basis of the logic of the Ukrainian society development after the coup of 2014, the subsequent complete ban of the Russian language in public institutions, kindergartens, schools, universities, already numerous sues of Russian-speaking employees of stores and pharmacies, no one can guarantee that, when the 25 day period after August 24, 2016, comes to an end, all residents of the multinational country will not be forced to speak only Ukrainian, with all the willingness to do it left behind.