Ukraine crisis: rebels seize key coastal town as they open new front near Russia
Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine seized a key coastal town on Wednesday in a move which opened a dangerous new front against the Kiev government. Separatist forces flying the flag of the rebel Donetsk People's republic entered the coastal town of Novoazovsk, depriving Ukraine of control of its southernmost section of border with Russia and putting the insurgents within striking distance of the centre of regional government in Mariupol.
The lightning advance took place in an area tens of miles from territory previously held by the rebels, suggesting that the troops originated at least in part from the Russian side of the border. Combined with a series of other defeats and the capture of Russian soldiers inside Ukraine on Tuesday, it increased speculation that – despite official denials – Russian regular forces have now entered the war alongside the separatists.
Kiev claimed that a vast column of "
up to 100" tanks and heavy weapons from Russia was later spotted moving towards Temanove, a government-held town 20 miles to the north of Novoazovsk. "We believe that this is Russian equipment. You cannot buy 100 tanks at a market in Donetsk or Luhansk," a Ukrainian army source told AFP in reference to the column.......
Journalists also reported several armoured personnel carriers flying rebel flags that were manned by men in uniforms similar to those worn by Russian soldiers who overran Crimea prior to its annexation by Russia in March.
The advance puts the separatists just 25 miles from Mariupol, a key port town where Sergei Taruta, the pro-Kiev governor of Donetsk region, has been based since rebels took over Donetsk itself. If they can take Mariupol, the separatists would be poised to strike along the coast creating a corridor to link up with Crimea, the province Russia annexed from Ukraine in March – a nightmare scenario for Kiev that had until recently seemed impossible.
The claims follow mounting evidence that regular Russian forces are now fighting openly alongside the separatists who have been locked in a civil conflict with Ukrainian government forces since April. Ten Russian paratroopers who were captured inside Ukraine on Monday were paraded for a press conference in Kiev on Wednesday. Mr Putin and other Russian officials have not denied that the soldiers crossed the border, but said they had done so "by mistake" during a routine patrol.
While Russian citizens serve openly in rebel ranks as "volunteers", the Kremlin has consistently denied that regular troops are involved in the fighting there. However, doubt is growing amongst Russian press and public over official denials about involvement in Ukraine. Reports of secret military funerals and mysteriously wounded servicemen prompted Vedomost, a liberal broadsheet, to publish an editorial demanding asking "Are we fighting or not?" on Wednesday.
Russian journalists investigating reports of mysterious funerals of servicemen said name plates had been removed from the graves of two paratroopers from Russia's 76th airborne division, Leonid Kichatkin and Alexander Osipov, who were buried in a cemetery in the unit's home town of Pskov on Monday.
The suspicion that Russian forces are fighting an undeclared war across the border has drawn comparison on social media with the beginning of the first Chechen War in 1994, when Boris Yeltsin denied sending a column of tanks into Grozny......