Too little, too late by Putin?
Ukraine: is it war?
If it isn't an invasion, it's looks like something very close it, as reports
come in from
here, seemingly confirmed by a
Ukrainian official, that a Russian convoy of 150 vehicles, including 40 MBTs, has broken through into the greater Luhansk city area.
What seems to stack this up is a report in the Mail, which has picked up tank transporters carrying what it says are T-90s heading towards the Ukrainian border, and returning empty (top and below). As of this morning,
the Kiev Post is endorsing the earlier reports.
Even as we see a
graphic report of an air attack on Luhansk,
Reuters seems way behind the curve, and I don't see any other media reporting the convoy breakthrough. But if the reports are correct, we are about to see a major turnaround in the fortunes of the separatists, with the Russians seemingly unconcerned about concealing their involvement.
It could, of course, be the case that the tanks seen by
the Mail have merely been laagered close to the Ukrainian border, awaiting orders. But that much heavy metal close to a war zone bodes no good. At the very least, this racks up the tension, despite the
New York Times talking of a "fading rebellion".
At worst, the NYT is hopelessly off beam and we're looking at all-out war.
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'Fighting underway' in center of Ukraine's Luhansk
Dmitry Tymchuk's military blog: Russian military equipment breaks through to Luhansk to reinforce militants
The bad news:
1. Unfortunately, we can confirm the fact that the column of Russian military equipment broke through to Luhansk today to back up the local militants. Some of the equipment arrived from Russia earlier, while other vehicles entered Donbas today from the territory of the Russian Federation.
According to our data, a few dozen units of military equipment broke through into the neighborhood of Luhansk, up to 40 of them are heavy armored vehicles. Part of this column entered the city.
How the column of vehicles could have broken through the blockade line, considering the fact that Luhansk is being blocked by a circle of checkpoints and fortified strongpoints of ATO forces–we currently cannot say.
2. LNR [Luhansk People's Republic] terrorists argue that the shooting of the refugee convoy yesterday near Luhansk–was not them. This claim was made by I. [Ihor] Plotnitskiy, one of the insurgents’ leaders.
This statement could possibly confuse a casual observer who might erroneously think that this sinful deed that was committed, that such a terrible crime could be attributable to the ATO forces who shelled the convoy by mistake. If it were not for one “but.” The leader of the terrorists began swearing that the insurgents do not get thrown weapons from Russia, he said, “all military equipment is battle loot and was captured in battle.”
And here everything falls into place. It’s hard to assume that the insurgents could seize dozens of tanks and MLRS [Multiple Launch Rocket Systems] from the Ukrainian army, and it’s even less understandable where Ukrainian troops would get weapons and equipment available only in the Russian army, such as armored KamAZ trucks, the newest armored BTR-82 vehicles, Kord machine guns, AK [Kalashnikov] Series 100 automatic rifles, etc. etc.–this list is endless.
This lie about the weapons also proves the lie about the [fact of] the shelling of the convoy. But this little warlord, stuck deep in his lies, didn’t even use his brains when feeding his lies to the public......