Ukraine: Russian tanks have crossed the border

Pro-Russian rebels ride on a tank in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, August 23, 2014.
(AP Photo)

• On April 7, 2014, following the 2014 Crimean crisis, separatists occupying the Donetsk Oblast administrative building declared independence from Ukraine and held a referendum on separating from Ukraine on May 11, 2014.
• Donetsk Oblast is an oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine.
• It is the most populated oblast with around 4.5 million residents.
• Its administrative center is the city of Donetsk; however, its Regional State Administration was relocated to Mariupol, a temporary measure due to the ongoing crisis in Donetsk.
• Pronunciation from Merriam-Webster:
  Donetsk: \də-ˈnyetsk\
  Mariupol: \ˌma-rē-ˈü-ˌpȯl\

(from Associated Press) KIEV, Ukraine — A column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles has crossed into southeastern Ukraine, away from where most of the intense fighting [between Ukrainian military and pro-Russian rebels] has been taking place, a top Ukrainian official said Monday.

Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security Council, told reporters that the column of 10 tanks, two armored vehicles and two trucks crossed the border near Shcherbak and that the nearby city of Novoazovsk was shelled during the night from Russia. He said they were Russian military vehicles bearing the flags of the separatist Donetsk rebels.

[“This morning there was an attempt by the Russian military in the guise of (pretending to be) Donbas fighters to open a new area of military confrontation in the southern Donetsk region,” Lysenko said, according to Reuters.]

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday he had no information about the column.

The reported incursion and shelling could indicate an attempt to move on Mariupol, a major port on the Azov Sea, an arm of the Black Sea. Mariupol lies on the main road between Russia and Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed [took over] in March. Capturing Mariupol could be the first step in building a slice of territory that links Russia with Crimea.

Although Mariupol is in Ukraine’s separatist Donetsk region, most of the fighting between separatist rebels and Ukrainian troops has been well to the north, including around the city of Donetsk, the rebels’ largest stronghold. A full offensive in the south could draw Ukrainian forces away from the fight for Donetsk.

Lysenko said Mariupol has enough defenders “to repel any attack of uninvited guests.”

Ukraine and the West (including the U.S.) say that Russia is supporting and supplying the rebels and that since mid-August, Russia has fired into Ukraine from across the border and from within Ukrainian territory. Moscow denies those allegations.

Fighting continued elsewhere in the east, notably around the town of Olenivka, 15 miles south of Donetsk. Lysenko said Monday about 250 separatists had been killed in that fighting, but did not specify in what time period. On Sunday, rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said two-thirds of Olenivka had been wrested away from Ukrainian control.

Ukrainian forces had made significant inroads against the separatists in recent weeks, but the rebels have vowed to retake lost territory.

Russia announced plans, meanwhile, to send a second aid convoy into rebel-held eastern Ukraine, where months of fighting have left many residential buildings in ruins.

Russia’s unilateral dispatch of over 200 trucks into Ukraine on Friday was denounced by the Ukrainian government as an invasion and condemned by the United States, the European Union and NATO. Even though the tractor-trailers returned to Russia without incident on Saturday, the announcement of another convoy was likely to raise new suspicions.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said Monday that Russia had notified the Ukrainian government it was preparing to send a second convoy along the same route in the coming days, but Lysenko said he had no information on that plan.

Lavrov also said the food, water and other goods delivered to the hard-hit rebel city of Luhansk was being distributed Monday and that Red Cross workers were at talks on how best to distribute it. There was no immediate confirmation on that from the Red Cross.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

In sending in the first convoy, Russia said it had lost patience with what it called Ukraine’s stalling tactics. It claimed that soon “there will no longer be anyone left to help” in Luhansk, where weeks of heavy shelling have cut off power, water and phone service and made food scarce.

The Ukrainian government had said the aid convoy was a ploy by Russia to get supplies to the rebels and slow down government military advances.

On Sunday, as Ukraine celebrated the anniversary of its 1991 independence from Moscow, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that the government would be increasing its military spending in a bid to defeat the rebels.

In rebel-held Donetsk, captured Ukrainian soldiers were paraded Sunday through the streets, jeered by the crowd and pelted with eggs and tomatoes  (see second video under “Resources” below).

Note:  This article first published August 25, 2014.  Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission from Associated Press. Visit the website at ap .org.