Confusion, tension over ‘destroyed’ Russian army vehicles in Ukraine

[88m3]

MILITARY & DEFENSEMore: Ukraine Russia
A Bunch Of Russian Military Vehicles Have Just Crossed Into Ukraine

• JEREMY BENDER AND REUTERS

• AUG. 14, 2014, 2:54 PM
• 11,606
  
• 23

A column of Russian armored personnel carriers (APCs) have reportedly passed over the Ukrainian border into eastern Ukraine. The APCs had earlier been seen traveling alongside the Russian aid convoy, but the carriers broke off and continued over the Ukrainian border alone.

The Guardian's Moscow correspondent, Shaun Walker, and The Telegraph's Roland Oliphantwitnessed the APC convoy cross over the border alongside other military vehicles bearing official Russian military plates.

The APCs had been traveling alongside a humanitarian aid convoy of unmarked white trucks that Vladimir Putin's government was sending to Ukraine. Military vehicles started traveling alongside the convoy earlier on Thursday.

Most of the fleet of more than 262 vehicles within the humanitarian convoy, including about 200 trucks carrying aid, stopped 15 miles from the border of Ukraine's rebel-held eastern region of Luhansk. The convoy had been planned to go through a Ukrainian-held border crossing by the city of Kharkhiv, but it unexpectedly changed course and instead stopped by the separatist-held Izvaryne border crossing.

After the humanitarian convoy stopped, the fleet of APCs continued over the border into Ukraine.

Walker does not believe that the APCs constitute an invasion force. Instead, this movement of Russian forces into Ukraine is likely a continuation of an ongoing Russian policy along the border, where Moscow has constantly pushed the limits of Ukrainian sovereignty in its attempts to aid pro-Russian separatists inside the country.

Four months of fighting in the east have produced a humanitarian crisis in parts of eastern Ukraine. People in the main cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, on the border with Russia, are suffering acute shortages of water, food, and electricity.




NSDC

The military situation in Ukraine, according to Kiev.



The past few weeks have seen significant government successes against rebels who have abandoned a string of towns under heavy fire. Kiev says rebel leaders, some of whom are Russians and who seek union with Russia, are receiving arms from Moscow, something the Kremlin denies.


The approach of the convoy presents Kiev with a dilemma.

Ukraine says it fears it could become the focus of tension and conflict once on its soil and provide pretext for a Russian armed incursion. At the same time, Kiev does not want to seem to be blocking aid and providing a moral basis for Kremlin action.

Moscow, which sees Russian-speakers in the east under threat from a government it considers chauvinistic, said any suggestion of a link between the convoy and an invasion plan was absurd.

Russia has continued to increase its military presence along the Ukrainian border despite international pressure. There are an estimated 20,000 Russian troops currently deployed along Ukraine's eastern border who are "capable of a wide spectrum of military operations," according to Pentagon press secretary Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby.





Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-military-vehicles-crossed-into-ukraine-2014-8#ixzz3AOo3oGXI

 

[Aje]

 

[88m3]

15 August 2014 Last updated at 13:32 ET
Ukraine 'hits Russia armoured column' amid aid impasse
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The BBC's Steve Rosenberg, who was given access to some of the Russian aid trucks, says many of them are "almost empty"

Continue reading the main story
Ukraine crisis

• Ukraine's city under siege
• Russian aid or Trojan Horse?
• Army far from victory
• Fears in Sloviansk

Ukraine says it has partially destroyed an armoured column crossing from Russia, as a controversial Russian aid convoy still waits at the border.

Nato said the column was a military "incursion", prompting the UK to summon Russia's envoy to explain.

Russia's defence ministry denied any such column had entered Ukraine.

Meanwhile Ukrainian border guards have arrived to inspect Russia's aid convoy, which was sent to help eastern Ukraine cities held by pro-Russian rebels.

Berlin meeting
The alleged incursion by Russian military vehicles into Ukraine was witnessed on Thursday by two UK newspaper reporters.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says the crossing was a reminder of the extent to which the Kremlin has been backing the rebellion in eastern Ukraine.

It is not known whether the troops moving with the military column were Russian or pro-Russian separatists.

The Russian aid convoy is still awaiting clearance

A pro-Russian militia tank moves along a street in Donetsk
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said on his presidential websitethat he had discussed the incident with UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

Mr Poroshenko said the information was "trustworthy and confirmed because the majority of the machines had been eliminated by the Ukrainian artillery at night".

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, added: "Appropriate actions were undertaken and a part of it no longer exists."

The UK Foreign Office summoned Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko "to clarify reports of Russian military incursion".

Russia's defence ministry said the incursion reports were "some kind of fantasy".

It said: "There was no Russian military column that crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border either at night or during the day."

Meanwhile Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin sent out a tweet saying he would be meeting Russia's Sergei Lavrov in Berlin on Sunday, along with their French and German counterparts, adding: "We need to talk."

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "We see a continuous flow of weapons and fighters from Russia into eastern Ukraine, and it is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in [its] destabilisation."

Later, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels issued a statement saying: "Any unilateral military actions on the part of the Russian Federation in Ukraine under any pretext, including humanitarian, will be considered by the European Union as a blatant violation of international law."

Russia's government has consistently denied directly arming or training the rebels, who sparked the conflict in eastern Ukraine in April when they took control of several cities.

'Likely to take time'
Nevertheless, Ukraine has expressed fears that the Russian aid convoy might carry military supplies for the rebels.

Russia has rejected the accusation.

A pro-Russian rebel looks on as a gas pipeline is ruptured by shelling in Donetsk

The Red Cross checks a second aid convoy - sent by Ukraine - for cities in the east
On Friday Russia's foreign ministry issued a statement saying: "We draw attention to the sharp intensification of military action by Ukrainian forces with the apparent aim to stop the path, agreed on with Kiev, of a humanitarian convoy across the Russia-Ukraine border."

Ukrainian border guards have yet to inspect the aid convoy.

Mr Lysenko told Ukrainian TV that the inspectors were still waiting for the relevant paperwork from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg, who has been following the convoy, says some of the lorries were opened up for the media on Friday, and the main thing that struck him was how empty many of the vehicles were.

The ICRC's Head of Operations for Europe and Central Asia, Laurent Corbaz, said: "The agreement... foresees that the trucks will be checked by the customs officers of Ukraine on Russian territory and then be allowed inside Ukraine with ICRC people accompanying the convoy and then unload somewhere in Luhansk and go back to Russia, empty."

He said that given the size of the cargo and the security constraints, "implementation is likely to take some time", not in one week and possibly "much longer".

The conflict in Ukraine's east, which has claimed more than 2,000 lives, has intensified in recent weeks.

The violence began when pro-Russian rebels seized government buildings and tried to declare independence.

The Ukrainian military launched an operation to retake the region and stepped up its activities in June.

Are you in the region? Email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk adding 'Ukraine crisis' in the subject heading and including your contact details.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28810622

Putin doesn't seem to be very good at this game


@Futuristic Eskimo

 

[Futuristic Eskimo]

My initial reaction, without having the time to read what went down exactly, is that the Ukrainians fukked up. The shouldnt be giving Putin any kind of grounds to further escalate the situation militarily, even if that means ceding their territorial integrity in the short-term.

Edit:

Have your military repelled by Ukrainian artillery, brehs

 

[Techniec]

15 August 2014 Last updated at 13:32 ET
Ukraine 'hits Russia armoured column' amid aid impasse
Jump media player
Media player help

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg, who was given access to some of the Russian aid trucks, says many of them are "almost empty"

Continue reading the main story
Ukraine crisis

• Ukraine's city under siege
• Russian aid or Trojan Horse?
• Army far from victory
• Fears in Sloviansk

Ukraine says it has partially destroyed an armoured column crossing from Russia, as a controversial Russian aid convoy still waits at the border.

Nato said the column was a military "incursion", prompting the UK to summon Russia's envoy to explain.

Russia's defence ministry denied any such column had entered Ukraine.

Meanwhile Ukrainian border guards have arrived to inspect Russia's aid convoy, which was sent to help eastern Ukraine cities held by pro-Russian rebels.

Berlin meeting
The alleged incursion by Russian military vehicles into Ukraine was witnessed on Thursday by two UK newspaper reporters.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says the crossing was a reminder of the extent to which the Kremlin has been backing the rebellion in eastern Ukraine.

It is not known whether the troops moving with the military column were Russian or pro-Russian separatists.

The Russian aid convoy is still awaiting clearance

A pro-Russian militia tank moves along a street in Donetsk
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said on his presidential websitethat he had discussed the incident with UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

Mr Poroshenko said the information was "trustworthy and confirmed because the majority of the machines had been eliminated by the Ukrainian artillery at night".

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, added: "Appropriate actions were undertaken and a part of it no longer exists."

The UK Foreign Office summoned Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko "to clarify reports of Russian military incursion".

Russia's defence ministry said the incursion reports were "some kind of fantasy".

It said: "There was no Russian military column that crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border either at night or during the day."

Meanwhile Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin sent out a tweet saying he would be meeting Russia's Sergei Lavrov in Berlin on Sunday, along with their French and German counterparts, adding: "We need to talk."

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "We see a continuous flow of weapons and fighters from Russia into eastern Ukraine, and it is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in [its] destabilisation."

Later, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels issued a statement saying: "Any unilateral military actions on the part of the Russian Federation in Ukraine under any pretext, including humanitarian, will be considered by the European Union as a blatant violation of international law."

Russia's government has consistently denied directly arming or training the rebels, who sparked the conflict in eastern Ukraine in April when they took control of several cities.

'Likely to take time'
Nevertheless, Ukraine has expressed fears that the Russian aid convoy might carry military supplies for the rebels.

Russia has rejected the accusation.

A pro-Russian rebel looks on as a gas pipeline is ruptured by shelling in Donetsk

The Red Cross checks a second aid convoy - sent by Ukraine - for cities in the east
On Friday Russia's foreign ministry issued a statement saying: "We draw attention to the sharp intensification of military action by Ukrainian forces with the apparent aim to stop the path, agreed on with Kiev, of a humanitarian convoy across the Russia-Ukraine border."

Ukrainian border guards have yet to inspect the aid convoy.

Mr Lysenko told Ukrainian TV that the inspectors were still waiting for the relevant paperwork from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg, who has been following the convoy, says some of the lorries were opened up for the media on Friday, and the main thing that struck him was how empty many of the vehicles were.

The ICRC's Head of Operations for Europe and Central Asia, Laurent Corbaz, said: "The agreement... foresees that the trucks will be checked by the customs officers of Ukraine on Russian territory and then be allowed inside Ukraine with ICRC people accompanying the convoy and then unload somewhere in Luhansk and go back to Russia, empty."

He said that given the size of the cargo and the security constraints, "implementation is likely to take some time", not in one week and possibly "much longer".

The conflict in Ukraine's east, which has claimed more than 2,000 lives, has intensified in recent weeks.

The violence began when pro-Russian rebels seized government buildings and tried to declare independence.

The Ukrainian military launched an operation to retake the region and stepped up its activities in June.

Are you in the region? Email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk adding 'Ukraine crisis' in the subject heading and including your contact details.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28810622

Putin doesn't seem to be very good at this game


@Futuristic Eskimo

au contraire mon ami, putin is looking for an excuse to escalate

send in a "convoy", it gets hit, claim self defence

 

[88m3]

au contraire mon ami, putin is looking for an excuse to escalate

send in a "convoy", it gets hit, claim self defence

hard to claim an oops on his side when he orchestrated it and the world saw.

The convoy that got reportedly hit were BMPs not the aid one which is extremely dubious to read about in itself...

 

[Blackking]

Just one more excuse

 

[88m3]

Confusion, tension over ‘destroyed’ Russian army vehicles in Ukraine

• 
  

Ukraine's military has "eliminated" several armoured vehicles that crossed the border from Russia, Kiev said Friday. The statement came soon after NATO said that Russian forces had illegally entered Ukraine late Thursday, a claim Russia denies.
The statement from Kiev came soon after NATO said that Russian forces had illegally entered Ukraine late Thursday, a claim Russia also denies.

"I can confirm that last night we saw an incursion [into] Ukraine,'' NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters during a visit to Copenhagen Friday, but he declined to elaborate.

Ukraine's president said that most of the Russian military vehicles that allegedly crossed into the country had been destroyed. A statement on President Petro Poroshenko's website said that the majority "had been eliminated by Ukrainian artillery at night".

But Russia’s Defence Ministry said no such military force had crossed the border into eastern Ukraine. State news agency RIA quoted a ministry statement saying: “There was no Russian military column that crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border either at night or during the day.”

It called the Ukrainian report “some kind of fantasy”.

Russia’s security service, the FSB, said there was a border guard unit in the area to prevent any infiltration of armed groups onto Russian territory. But the security service stressed that the unit was operating exclusively inside Russia.

“In this regard, information on crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border [by] a group of Russian soldiers is not true,” the RIA Novosti news agency quoted an FSB official as saying.

A European Union statement Friday demanded that Russia put an "immediate stop" to hostilities on the border with Ukraine and warned that Russia was at risk of breaking international law.

"Any unilateral military actions on the part of the Russian Federation in Ukraine under any pretext, including humanitarian, will be considered by the European Union as a blatant violation of international law," it said.

Britain also summoned Moscow's ambassador to Ukraine to "clarify" the situation. "If there are any Russian military personnel or vehicles in Ukraine they need to be withdrawn immediately or the consequences will be very serious," British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.

France calls for new peace summit

French President François Hollande called on Russia to respect Ukraine's borders and for a halt to any "escalation" of the conflict.

"I call first on Russia to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine," Hollande said, adding that leaders in Moscow and Kiev must "make all necessary effort to stop an escalation".

On Saturday, Hollande met with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to discuss the escalating situation in Ukraine.

“Both men underlined the humanitarian urgency and the needs of the population in the east of Ukraine,” said a statement from the French government after the meeting, adding that France is ready to host a new Ukraine-Russia peace summit like the one held in Normandy in June.

“France is ready for a new summit in the Normandy format to support the process. The meeting of French, German, Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers planned for Sunday could be a first step towards that meeting,” the statement said.

The White House, which said it could not confirm that a Russian military convoy had crossed the border, warned Moscow that any intervention into Ukraine without Kiev’s permission was unacceptable.

Military vehicles 'join aid convoy'

Western journalists had earlier reported seeing Russian military vehicles accompanying an aid convoy that was poised to cross into Ukraine.

The fleet of some 280 aid trucks stopped Thursday in open fields near the Russian town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, about 20 km (12 miles) from the border with Ukraine. Russia says its trucks are carrying 2,000 tonnes of water, baby food and other aid for people in east Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists are fighting government forces.



A Reuters correspondent reported seeing two dozen armoured personnel carriers (APCs) moving near the border with Ukraine on Thursday night. The UK's Guardian newspaper reported Friday that one of its reporters had seen several APCs crossing the border into Ukraine.

Western powers – including NATO, the European Union and the United States – have warned that the convoy could be used as a cover for a Russian military invasion, a claim Moscow has described as “absurd”.

Kiev has said the convoy would not be allowed to enter Ukraine without first being inspected by the Red Cross.

In a call to US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ”guaranteed” the convoy did not include Russian military personnel and would not be used as a pretext for intervening in Ukraine, the Pentagon said in a statement Friday.

Moscow in turn accused the Kiev of trying to sabotage aid deliveries to eastern Ukraine. Shoigu told Hagel the Kremlin was “seriously concerned” by increased NATO activity and called for a ceasefire to get aid into Ukraine, RIA Novosti reported. The agency did not specify what Western military movements he meant.

Fears that Russia will invade east Ukraine have risen steadily as Russia has amassed more than 40,000 troops near the border. Russia says it is conducting military exercises and has no plans to invade.

It also denies Western claims that it is supporting the pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine with arms and funds.

The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia over its alleged role in east Ukraine and the earlier annexation of Ukraine’s region of Crimea in what has become the worst crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

Ukraine hits back at rebels

Relief agencies say people living in the rebel-held cities of Luhansk and in Donetsk face shortages of water, food and electricity after four months of conflict that have left more than 2,000 people dead and forced some 285,000 to flee their homes.

Kiev blames Russia and the separatists for the plight of the civilians, but their situation has grown more acute as the Ukrainian military has pressed its offensive.

Artillery shells hit close to the centre of Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk for the first time on Thursday and local authorities said Friday that the bombardment had killed 11 civilians and injured eight more over the past 24 hours.

Fighting raged overnight in central and western districts of the insurgent-controlled industrial hub, the city council said in a statement.

Meanwhile, government troops pushed on with their offensive across the region by retaking three small towns, the military said in a statement.

Fierce clashes had also taken place in the outskirts of Luhansk, the military said.


(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, REUTERS)

Date created : 2014-08-15

http://www.france24.com/en/20140815-ukraine-army-destroys-russian-military-armoured-apc-border/


I guess they're going to deny it...