"Le razioni di cibo, acqua e carburante le hanno terminate, rimangono solo le munizioni per un paio di giorni di combattimenti. Sono entrati in trattativa con noi.
La loro proposta è di distruggere tutte le attrezzature (circa 70 unità), consegnare munizioni e armi, e noi togliamo l’assedio", ha detto il rappresentante della sede. La milizia, a sua volta, chiede di lasciare intatta tutta l'attrezzatura.......[La Voce della Russia]
3/8/14
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Army 'heading for victory' - defence minister...
ReplyDeleteUkraine's defence minister has said his forces are gaining ground significantly against rebels in the country's east.
Valeriy Heletey told the BBC there would be victory "very soon".
He blamed the rebels for the difficulties faced by international experts in getting access to the MH17 crash site.
His remarks came as civilians in the east prepare for a siege as government forces close in on the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Residents are stockpiling food and supplies and are sleeping in basements, with reports suggesting Luhansk is virtually surrounded and without power.
At least nine civilians were reported killed in Donetsk and Luhansk on Saturday.
The region has been unstable since April, when rebels in the east declared independence from Kiev. More than 1,500 people are believed to have been killed since fighting began.................http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28632292
4/8/14
U.S. reconnaissance plane crosses into Sweden to avoid Russians - NY Times...
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - A U.S. reconnaissance plane crossed into Swedish airspace last month as it sought to avoid being intercepted by Russian fighters, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing U.S. military officials.
The episode occurred on July 18 when Russian aircraft approached an Air Force RC-135 electronic surveillance plane as it was flying in what U.S. officials said was international airspace over the Baltic Sea, the Times said.
"The aircraft commander, acting in a professional and safe manner, maneuvered the aircraft to avoid a possible encounter by Russian aircraft," the United States European Command said in a statement, according to the Times.
Ties between the United States and Russia have plunged to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine, which Washington accuses Moscow of fanning with weapons and support for rebels fighting the Kiev government.
The United States has expanded its intelligence-gathering in the region, including reconnaissance missions by RC-135 aircraft, the Times said.
It said that according to Swedish news media, the episode last month occurred as the RC-135 aircraft was flying near Kaliningrad, a heavily militarized Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania that includes a major port for the Russian Baltic fleet.
After being approached by Russian aircraft, the RC-135 pilot sought to avoid the encounter by maneuvering his aircraft into Swedish airspace, flying over Gotland Island.
Sweden is not a member of NATO, and the European Command said in its statement that the RC-135 had been directed toward Swedish territory "incorrectly by U.S. personnel," the Times reported.
The plane left Swedish airspace after Swedish air traffic controllers informed the aircraft of the mistake, the newspaper said.
(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Eric Walsh)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/04/us-usa-russia-airplane-idUSKBN0G402L20140804?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
3/8/14
Ukrainian fighter jet downed by eastern insurgents..
ReplyDeleteMOSCOW, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said Sunday they confirmed shooting down a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet.
The jet was found between the towns of Yenakiyevo and Makiivka in Donetsk Region, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted spokesman of the DPR as saying, adding that the search for the pilot is ongoing.
The Su-25 was allegedly shot down on Saturday, but the militia could not confirm it until they found the downed plane.
Andriy Lysenko, spokesman of Ukraine's National Defense and Security Council, said on July 24 that two Su-25 jets of the Ukrainian Air Force had been shot down in eastern Donetsk region by missiles fired from Russian territory, which was immediately dismissed by Russian Defense Ministry as "nonsense".
Fighting kept on going in eastern Ukraine between insurgents and Ukrainian government troops, which added more difficulties to observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring checkpoints on Russian-Ukrainian border.
Earlier on Sunday, Russia's Gukovo checkpoint was shelled from the Ukrainian territory and brought observers working there under mortar fire, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. No one was hurt and the observers continued their work.
Russian Foreign Ministry Wednesday urged Kiev to immediately stop military operations in order to ensure the security of the OSCE observers.
http://english.cntv.cn/2014/08/04/ARTI1407110694016558.shtml
4/8/14
Russia to conduct military exercises with 100 aircraft near Ukraine - Interfax....
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - Russia is conducting new military exercises with more than 100 aircraft in the country's central and western districts, an air force spokesman was quoted as saying on Monday, a show of strength near the border with Ukraine.
Igor Klimov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying it was the first session in a series to enhance the unity of the air force this year and did not mention Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels are fighting Ukrainian government forces.
He said aircraft such as Su-27 and MiG-31 fighter jets, Russia's newest frontline bomber Su-34, and Mi-8, Mi-24 and Mi-28N helicopters would be used in the exercises and the aircraft would conduct missile practice.
The exercises were planned for Aug. 4-8.
Russia's Defence Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment...................http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/04/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-military-idUSKBN0G40CH20140804?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
4/8/14
NATO’s top commander has become entertaining the idea of a regional headquarters specifically focusing on Article 5 violations – which requires members to come to the aid of another member if it is attacked – ahead of an alliance gathering in Wales...
ReplyDelete“Right now, I think the nations agree that we have the force structure we need. We just need to adapt it. For over 12 years, we have been fighting very successfully together in Afghanistan. We focused on the counter-insurgency fight. And now as the mission changes to resolute support, it is time for the existing force structure to begin to train for more Article 5 kinds of defense missions,” Turkey SACEUR Gen. Philip Breedlove told CNNTürk and that Hürriyet Daily News during a visit to U.S. troops based in Gaziantep, adding that the alliance’s military wing was looking into a broad set of measures to make NATO more responsive to threats from Russia.
“Right now, our Reaction Force does exactly what we ask it to do, and it does it very well. But the new threat we see from Russia requires that we increase its responsiveness. We will look to pick some headquarters to be focused on these missions and that will be a political decision,” Breedlove said. “It may be that we may need HQ in the north, in the center and in the south, these will all be looked at. But the most important thing is we will all look into measures to make NATO more responsive to crisis such as the ones in Crimea, in Ukraine, et cetera.”
While the alliance is debating among its members measures to dedicate more financial and human resources to the capabilities, Breedlove said he would not specifically ask for an increased military posture, or more special forces capability.
Retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former SACEUR now at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said in an op-ed in June that NATO members needed to prepare more special forces for threats coming from the southern border of the alliance, especially Iraq and Syria, and to deter Russia.
NATO sources are not ruling out Turkey’s possibility of hosting one of the regional headquarters focusing on Article 5 violations, but Poland is lobbying actively to be the front runner.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/crisis-in-ukraine-many-convince-nato-on-regional-hqs.aspx?pageID=238&nID=69927&NewsCatID=359
4/8/14
Confirmed: US spy plane fleeing Russian jet invaded Swedish airspace...
ReplyDeleteUS officials have confirmed Swedish media reports of a mid-July incident in which an American spy plane invaded Sweden’s airspace as it was evading a Russian fighter jet. The maverick plane was spying on Russia when it was intercepted.
The incident, which happened on July 18, went public last Wednesday after a classified document from Sweden’s Defense Ministry was leaked to the press.
The plane, a Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint, entered Sweden’s airspace after permission to do so was denied by traffic control, Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper said. It passed from the east over the island of Gotland and flew more than 200km over 90 minutes before leaving.
The aerial incursion was caused by a Russian fighter jet, which scrambled from a base in the exclave Kaliningrad Region and approached the American reconnaissance plane.
Neither party involved in the incident confirmed or denied it, but a source in the US military told CNN on weekend that it indeed happen.
The source said the plane was conducting an electronic eavesdropping mission on the Russian military when the latter locked on to the aircraft with a radar station and sent at least one jet to intercept it. The quickest path of escape was through Swedish airspace, which was what the spy plane pilot did despite the Swedes’ objection.
The source said similar incidents may happen in future, a fact which the US officials made known to Sweden. The CNN report didn’t elaborate on how it was perceived by Sweden, a country that is not even a member of NATO and maintains a non-alliance stance................/rt.com/news/177720-us-spy-plane-sweden/
4/8/14
Over 400 Ukrainian troops cross into Russia for refuge...
ReplyDeleteMore than 400 Ukrainian troops have been allowed to cross into Russia on Sunday night after they requested sanctuary, Russian border guards reported.
According to the Rostov Region’s border guard spokesman Vasily Malaev, a total of 438 soldiers, including 164 Ukrainian border guards, have been allowed into Russia.
On Sunday, the Russian border guards reported of 12 Ukrainian soldiers seeking refuge in Russia.
And in late July 41 Ukrainian troops fled to Russia to escape fighting in eastern Ukraine. They are now being prosecuted in Ukraine for deserting in the heat of battle.
The flow of deserters from the ranks of Ukrainian Army and National Guard seems to be increasing amid the escalating violence in Donets and Lugansk Regions, where Kiev is fighting against armed militias.
Several Ukrainian units have been reported to recently to be cut off from supply lines after attempted offensive operations, which brought them behind the militia-controlled territories and close to the Russian border.
/rt.com/news/177740-ukrainian-military-russia-refuge/
4/8/14
To our Western media partners - about humanitarian corridor of a special kind on the Russian-Ukrainian border:....
ReplyDeleteOver 400 members of the Ukrainian armed forces asked Russian border patrol agents for asylum on Monday, and were offered a humanitarian corridor, representative of the border authority of Russia’s Federal Security Service for the Rostov Region, Vasily Malayev, told RIA Novosti.
“Tonight, 438 members of the Ukrainian armed forces asked Russian border patrol agents for asylum,” Malayev said.
Border patrol officers opened a humanitarian corridor so that these servicemen, including 164 members of the Ukrainian State Border Service, could cross into Russia.
https://www.facebook.com/MIDRussia/posts/523099887789457
4/8/14
La Russie dit que 400 soldats se sont rendus, l'Ukraine dément...
ReplyDeletePlus de 400 soldats ukrainiens en opération dans l'Est du pays se sont rendus et ont été admis sur le territoire de la Russie, a annoncé lundi un responsable russe, un événement que l'Ukraine ne confirme que partiellement et sans citer de chiffre.
Les soldats ukrainiens "ont demandé à bénéficier d'un corridor humanitaire dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi" à la frontière russo-ukrainienne, a indiqué un responsable régional du Service russe de sécurité (FSB) cité par les agences russes Interfax et Tass.
"Les garde-frontières russes ont ouvert un corridor humanitaire et ils ont admis (sur le territoire russe) 438 soldats de l'armée ukrainienne", qui ont rendu leurs armes et parmi lesquels figure un blessé, hospitalisé depuis à Goukovo (sud de la Russie, près de la frontière avec l'Ukraine) a poursuivi ce responsable, Vassili Malaev.
Un porte-parole ukrainien a indiqué pour sa part qu'un nombre non précisé de soldats ukrainiens "ont été contraints de se replier vers un poste frontière russe à la suite d'une tentative de percée".
Mais ces soldats "ne se sont pas rendu", a affirmé Oleksiï Dmitrashkivski, porte-parole de l'"Opération anti-terroriste", appellation de l'organe ukrainien en charge des opérations militaires contre les séparatistes prorusses dans l'Est du pays........................http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_la-russie-dit-que-400-soldats-ukrainiens-se-sont-rendus-l-ukraine-dement?id=8327744
4/8/14
Luftwaffe startet Großmanöver im Westen Russlands...
ReplyDeleteDie russische Luftwaffe hält inmitten der Ukraine-Krise ein groß angelegtes Manöver ab. An der Militärübung in westlichen und zentralen Regionen des Landes seien ab dem heutigen Montag mehr als 100 Flugzeuge beteiligt, meldete die Nachrichtenagentur Interfax unter Berufung auf Luftwaffensprecher Igor Klimow.................http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/3849149/Luftwaffe-startet-Grossmanover-im-Westen-Russlands?_vl_backlink=/home/politik/aussenpolitik/3824780/index.do&direct=3824780
Water, electricity supplies cut in Luhansk.......
ReplyDeleteArtillery strikes have left the conflict-torn east Ukrainian city of Luhansk without electricity, water supply and telephone communications, the city council said on Monday.
“Residential areas and infrastructure facilities have been under heavy artillery fire since morning,” the council said adding that daily updates on the situation in Lugansk will be posted on its website.
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/743427
4/8/14