Further to my question to RF about Mariupol.... Funny old thing....
The Times today: Ukraine rebels are preparing for war
Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine have cancelled all military leave and are mobilising for “full combat readiness”, a Kremlin-run television station reported. The announcement came hours after President Putin summoned his prime minister, defence minister and security chiefs for an emergency meeting as fighting flared in the region.
Ukraine has blamed the upsurge in violence on pro-Russian forces, claiming that Ukrainian troops were under increasingly intense fire from heavy weapons, banned under a treaty signed in Minsk last February. “The shelling is carried out around the clock using large-calibre artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, prohibited by the Minsk agreements,” Oleksander Turchynov, the head of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, said yesterday. “During the day, the enemy carried out 153 artillery attacks.”.......
Zvezda, a television network run by the Russian ministry of defence, reported claims that the self-proclaimed separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic” was preparing for combat readiness. It quoted the republic’s envoy to the peace talks, Denis Pushilin, who said war could flare up at any moment. All leave has been cancelled for the rebel-backed soldiers throughout August so they can be deployed at short notice.
In a report issued on Wednesday night, the OSCE said it had discovered several empty storage facilities, where rebels must keep their heavy weapons in accordance with the peace treaty.........Observers said they had watched a column of rebel selfpropelled howitzers moving towards the front line until insurgents opened fire on them. Ukraine said five regular army soldiers had been killed and another 42 wounded since militia troops launched a tank assault last Monday on Ukrainian fortifications outside the village of Starohnativka, between the rebel capital Donetsk and the government port of Mariupol..........