Ukraine Says Russian Forces Lead Major New Offensive in East

[Valin]

NY Times:

ANDREW E. KRAMER and MICHAEL R. GORDON

AUG. 27, 2014

 

NOVOAZOVSK, Ukraine — Tanks, artillery and infantry have crossed from Russia into an unbreached part of eastern Ukraine in recent days, attacking Ukrainian forces and causing panic and wholesale retreat not only in this small border town but also a wide section of territory, in what Ukrainian and Western military officials described on Wednesday as a stealth invasion.

 

The attacks outside this city and in an area to the north essentially have opened a new, third front in the war in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists, along with the fighting outside the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

 

Exhausted, filthy and dismayed, Ukrainian soldiers staggering out of Novoazovsk for safer territory said Tuesday they were cannon fodder for the forces coming from Russia. As they spoke, tank shells whistled in from the east and exploded nearby.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Ukraine's OSCE envoy says Russian forces seized city

8/28/14

 

VIENNA (Reuters) - Ukraine's envoy to European security body the OSCE said on Thursday that regular Russian forces had seized the southeastern city of Novoazovsk, but his Russian counterpart said no Russian forces were crossing the border.

 

Ihor Prokopchuk, Ukraine's representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told reporters that "what we registered is a direct invasion of the Russian military into the eastern regions of Ukraine".

 

Speaking on the sidelines of an extraordinary OSCE meeting in Vienna, he added: "The city of Novoazovsk and a number of other cities close to this one have been seized by regular Russian forces".

 

(Snip)