Ukraine War Update - 13 August 2015

Thursday, August 13, 2015  9:45 AM PDT

General Staff shifts responsibility for Ilovaisk on soldiers, - Butusov

   (Censor.NET) --- Some facts in the General Staff report on Ilovaisk tragedy are wrong.

   This is announced by the Censor.NET Chief Editor Yurii Butusov on his Facebook page.
   "Heroes of Ilovaisk are killed once again after a year. This time, with a lie. This time, by their comrades," Butusov outrages.
   "I've just read the General Staff report on its version of the Ilovaisk tragedy. It's a shame in front of hundreds of dead guys we let the liars and scoundrels desecrate their memory and shift all responsibility on the dead soldiers," Butusov says.
   According to Butusov, its one of the most cynical and false allegations reads:
   "The anti-terrorist operation HQ and the General Staff started to receive intelligence data on columns of military equipment of the Russian armed forces crossing the state border of Ukraine on Aug. 25, 2014."
   "Do you know why they are lying they learnt about the Russian invasion on Aug. 25? To justify the ATO Commander Viktor Muzhenko, who traveled to parade in Kiev on Aug. 24 to receive shoulder boards of colonel-general, while Ukraine was being intruded. At the time Muzhenko was putting the boards on, his soldiers were dying near Ilovaisk and no measures were taken by the ATO command. And now, in order to hide the crime, the General Staff falsifies the report having removed the official documents from it..., " he continues.
   According to the journalist, Ukrainian military intelligence warned about the invasion in early August. A BMD-2 IFV was captured near Heorhiievka on Aug. 20. A journalist Roman Bochkala wrote on Aug. 21: "Board number 275, from the 1st Airborne Company, military unit No. 74268, Pskov Airborne Division (platoon commander Lieutenant Popov). I talked to guys having dealt with Russian paratroopers. They are fighters of the 24th Brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces and the special forces unit "Storm". The battle took place near the village of Heorhiievka. The battlefield was strewn with blue berets and Rollton noodle packs (Russian instant noodles - ed.) The pictures show an IFV and with a PKT machine gun mounted on bearing the name of a gunner - private N.D. Surnachev. The same name and initials are listed in the evening roll-call journal, as well as the names of other Russian soldiers apparently fighting in Ukraine." This IFV is currently in Kiev at the Motherland Monument (among other exhibits evidencing of Russian invasion of Ukraine - ed.)
   "The war diary of the D sector has records confirmed by officers from the Verkhovna Rada investigative commission that at 2:30 p.m., Aug. 23 the ATO Commander Muzhenko and the Chief of Staff Nazarov were informed by General Lytvyn of the invasion of Russian troops witnessed by Ukrainian officers, in particular, Colonel Romyhailo, who had repeatedly reported to the ATO HQ. Aug. 24, the ATO command received detailed reports on the Russian invasion from the SBU, border guards, military, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. At 5 p.m. I contacted the 28th Brigade company commander Dmytro Zavadskyi, who was in Starobesheve, and he told me he was personally watching Russian tanks cut the main road to Ilovaisk and that soldiers disguised as locals approached Russian military. Surely, this information was communicated via all channels including the ATO HQ.
   "We need a trial the soonest possible and a verdict. The court should present all the documents and orders for everyone to become aware of what happened and who is to blame. Anyone who deliberately delays the trial is a partner in crime, the same as Putin's murderers," Butusov concludes.

Thursday, August 13, 2015  9:15 AM PDT

Donbas rebels admit heavy casualties near Starohnativka

   (Zik) --- Donetsk rebels admit they lost 136 servicemen killed during the Aug. 10 battle near Starohnativka, a source told Apostrof Aug. 13.

   Simultaneously, separatists disseminate information that Ukraine army is preparing a major offensive. They even started to evacuate local residents from touchline areas.

   Meanwhile, Ukraine army intelligence reports that the rebels do little to engineer defensive positions, saying it is an indication that the separatists have other plans than defense. 

Thursday, August 13, 2015 2:43 AM PDT

Two soldiers killed, 10 wounded yesterday, - NSDC

   (Censor.NET) --- Over the past day, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in combat activities in the east of Ukraine, 10 received wounds.

   This was announced by the NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov from B sector of the Ukrainian defense, Censor.NET informed citing NSDC press service.
   "Over the past day of our work in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area, the enemy shelled the Ukrainian positions 153 times," Turchynov said, adding this killed two soldiers and wounded 10.
   The NSDC secretary called this day "a black all time high" since the Minsk agreements were signed.
   "This intensity of fire corresponds to that of active hostilities," Turchynov stressed.

Thursday, August 13, 2015  2:34 AM PDT

Militants shelled Stanytsia Luhanska suburbs with 122-mm artillery in the morning, - Luhansk region Governor Tuka

   (Censor.NET) --- The terrorists continue actively using heavy weapons banned by Minsk II.

   It is reported by the press service of the Luhansk regional military and civil administration, Censor.NET informs.

   The statement reads: "The terrorists shelled the village of Bolotene in the Stanytsia Luhanska district with 122-mm artillery today at 7 a.m. The information on casualties or inflicted damage is being specified. The attacks from small arms were recorded in Stanytsia Luhanska. The gas pipeline was damaged on the outskirts of the village but it has already been repaired in the morning.

   "A soldier of Kiev-2 special patrol police battalion received injuries having tripped a land mine in the Krymske village in Novoaidar district."

   "The militants again employed weapons banned by the Minsk agreements in the morning. They just impact civilian population disregarding international law and simple sense of humanity," head of the Luhansk regional military-civilian administration Heorhii Tuka said.

   The night was calm in other traditional flash points including Shchastia, Troitske, Popasna, and Novotoshkivske not counting minor shootouts.

Thursday, August 13, 2015  12:26 AM PDT

Three civilians injured, power cut by terrorists’ shelling of Avdiivka, – Donetsk region police

   (Censor.NET) --- The militants’ shelling of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region inflicted injuries to three civilians; two more people were wounded in an attack on Dzerzhynsk, the Donetsk region.

   Censor.NET reports citing the statement of the Donetsk region police head Viacheslav Abroskin on Facebook.

   "The militants start shelling our towns when the night is setting in. This night was not an exception: those monsters were shelling civilians in all fronts, not neglecting the occupied territories," he wrote.

   According to Abroskin, the terrorists committed shelling of Kirov Street vicinity in Dzerzhynsk: "Shrapnel injuries were inflicted to a woman born in 1982, and an elderly man born in 1936."

   Abroskin also wrote that the terrorists shelled Avdiivka with D-30 guns today: "Several houses in the old part of the town have been ruined. The town was again left without power due to the damaged power transmission lines. Shrapnel injuries were inflicted to woman, born in 1954, and two men born in 1960 and 1928. Avdiivka police crime scene investigation team is examining damaged houses."

Wednesday, August 12, 2015  23:31 PDT

Ukraine Posts Video Of Captured ‘Russian Soldier’ Asking For Putin’s Help

   (RFE/RL) --- Ukraine’s state security agency has released a new video purporting to show a Russian Army officer who was detained last month in eastern Ukraine appealing to President Vladimir Putin to secure his release.
   The soldier in the video was identified by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) as Major Vladimir Starkov, who Ukrainian officials say has admitted that he was serving in Russia’s armed forces at the time of his capture.
   Ukraine is likely to use the video to bolster its case that Russia is backing separatists fighting Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine in the 15-month-long conflict and undermining a cease-fire deal reached in February in Minsk.
   Russia has repeatedly denied its soldiers are fighting in Ukraine, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The Kremlin has conceded that Russian citizens, including servicemen, have fought alongside the rebels but says they are volunteers operating outside of official control. 

   Moscow has also denied providing heavy, sophisticated weaponry that has been repeatedly seen in eastern Ukraine to separatist forces.
    In the video published on August 13 on YouTube by the SBU, the man, who does not identify himself, is shown wearing a camouflage jacket and is clean-shaven except for a mustache and goatee.
   Speaking Russian, he appeals directly to Putin to acknowledge his service and asks the Russian president to help free him.
   "I'm not a combat officer. I am only a 'paper,' a clerical officer," he says.
   "I served 19 years in the Russian Army. And now they don't acknowledge me. They're saying there's no one by that name. He didn't serve. How could they do such a thing?" he adds. 

'I'm Not A Terrorist'

   It was unclear when the two-minute video was made or whether the man was pressured to make the claims. SBU chief Vasyl Hrytsak told reporters earlier that Starkov had been detained on July 26 at a checkpoint outside the separatist-held city of Donetsk.

   Hrytsak said on July 29 that Starkov had been charged with terrorism, an allegation denied by the man shown in a video released by the SBU on August 13.

   "I'm not a terrorist. I didn't come here to kill anyone. Before my detention, I didn't put up any resistance because I knew that officially, we weren't enemies," the man says. 

   "I request that someone acknowledges that I'm a [Russian] soldier and helps me somehow transfer out of here," he adds.
   Following Ukraine’s announcement of Starkov’s detention, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated denials of Russian involvement in the conflict.
   A day earlier, meanwhile, Euronews also published excerpts of an interview with a man who appears to be the same man from the SBU video. In the interview, the man -- whom Euronews also identifies as Starkov -- was quoted as describing how he was ordered to go to Ukraine.
   "Senior officers gathered us in a conference room and announced that our positions would be the same as promised, but we should do our military service in Ukraine: in the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics," he was quoted as saying, using the names of the self-proclaimed separatist governments.

   "It was forbidden to inform our relatives about this," Euronews quoted him as saying.
   After months of relative lull, fighting has flared again in parts of eastern Ukraine, with heavy artillery reported near the strategic Azov Sea port of Mariupol. 

Ukraine's government blamed separatist forces for the escalation in fighting, while the Kremlin in turn accused Kiev of stoking the violence. 

   The United Nations says more 6,500 people have been killed in the conflict between Ukraine’s military armed forces the separatists in eastern Ukraine since fighting erupted there in April 2014, a month after Russia’s annexation of Ukraine's Crimea territory that a majority of UN members deemed illegitimate.
   Ukraine announced earlier this year that it had captured two active Russian servicemen -- Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov -- who were fighting Kiev’s forces in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine.

   The two men have said they were conducting a reconnaissance mission the Russian military at the time of their capture, though Moscow claims they were not on active duty at the time.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015  13:22 PDT

Donbas rebels getting ready to attack – general staff

   (Zik) --- The concentration of enemy troops near the touchline indicates the rebels are preparing for a major attack, Ukraine army general staff says Aug. 12, Ukrayinska Pravda reports.

   “The rebels are beating their breasts saying the Ukrainian army is to launch an offensive. However, they are not doing anything to build defensive fortifications,” the Ukrainian army says.

   “Intelligence reports confirm that the rebels and Russian troops are getting ready to attack, not defend themselves.

   The army is ready to return to the front the heavy artillery and tanks pulled out under the Minsk agreements, like it happened during the recent enemy attack on Starohnativka when Ukraine army artillery was used to repulse the enemy attack,” the general staff spokesman said.