Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Кипячение лягушка (Ukraine War Update): Say Hello to Our Little Green Friends

It has been a while since I have written an update on the war in Ukraine.  The fighting never stopped.  It was confined immediately at the start of the ceasefire to the Donetsk Airport area, Shyrokyne and Debaltseve.  This has now spread up and down the ceasefire line.  The Ukrainians have taken a few villages, but these were originally on their side of the line and the DNR had been doing 'salami tactics' to slice away a small piece at a time.  However, the front hasn't moving?  Why?

The reason the front hasn't resumed moving just yet (the muck of Ukraine):


As I said though, there is still fighting and Russians are up to their lying necks in it.  Two Spetznaz were caught outside of Shchastya. They killed a Ukrainian on duty in a trench and were shot at by the other Ukrainian soldiers.  Two were wounded and captured.  They were operated on and interrogated.  Russia claims they are not part of the armed forces and left them hanging in the wind.  They maintain different and give full account of their unit, officers and orders. 

Russian Spetznaz in Ukraine [part 1]: two GRU Special Forces Soldiers caught...after killing an Ukrainian Soldier



They are not the only Russian Special Forces  (Spetznaz) there.  The doofs record themselves, as has happened multiple times.  Operational security is really screwed with the modern smart phones.  You almost have to wonder if it was intentional. 

Russian Spetznaz in Ukraine [part 2] or why cell phones are the worst thing for OpSec out there:


Even the virtually useless OSCE has noticed the number of DNR tanks.  They spotted growing numbers of tanks:
Despite claims that withdrawal of heavy weapons was complete, the SMM observed 37 tanks, mainly T-72 type, in two concentrations in “DPR”-controlled areas east of Donetsk city and nine tanks, mainly T-72 type, in government-controlled areas north of Donetsk. Furthermore, the SMM observed 10 tanks, mainly T-64 type, in government-controlled areas north-west of Luhansk city.

The SMM unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) observed a concentration in “DPR”-controlled territory, 61km north-east and 30km east of Mariupol, of at least 10 main battle tanks (MBT) of unknown type.



What the OSCE sees is just a fragment, a glimpse of what is going on.  The DNR is said to have more tanks now that Germany, France, Italy and  British combined.  (as an amusing aside, the Poles have more than those four countries combined.  I can see it now: the Poles marching to Brussels to possess the "Imperial" capital and getting Brussels at the end of the march, too!)  

Al Jazeera observed tanks and whatnot with their insignia removed and moved to the border of Ukraine.  Reuters has followed unmarked Russian tanks in the border area in large numbers.

The LNR has their own large army as well:

A Motorized Rifle Battalion Moving into Lugansk:



A Su-24 buzzed the USS Ross, an American Burke class destroyer in the Black Sea.  It hardly chased away the Ross despite what the Russian media claims.

Oh and the New York Times did a long expose on the Russian Online Troll Army (ROTA) and its chilling abilities.  ROTA has been obvious to those online in the Russophonic section of the internet and those who have been observing the confict in Ukraine from the outside. 

Ukraine also made Saakashvili the governor of Odessa.  oy.  I'm going to see if I can find out what the locals think of this.  Ukraine has a strong sense of 'other' and Georgians are viewed as very much other.  Stalin is far from loved in Ukraine and he's remembered as a Georgian.

Russia has banned numerous EU officials from traveling in Russia.  The EU Parliament has protested.

The DNR has been claiming the Ukrainians are going to attack right at the time of this post.  Somehow I doubt it.  OTOH, claiming the Ukrainians are attacking and launching a "counterattack" seems entirely possible.

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