UKRAINE AND PRO-RUSSIAN REBELS SQUARE UP FOR SHOWDOWN
[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]
Kiev aims to win back control of Donetsk and Luhansk as rebel groups
gather in big cities after abandoning smaller strongholds Luhansk
Harriet Salem in Donetsk, Oksana Grytsenko in Slavyansk, and Shaun
Walker in Moscow The Guardian, Thursday 10 July 2014 17.13 BST
A burnt out car seen during a Ukrainian forces shelling attack this
week. Photograph: ITAR-TASS / Barcroft Media
The Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian rebels are squaring up for
a final showdown in the east of the country, as Kiev aims to win back
control of the key regional centres of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Rebel groups have gathered in the big cities after abandoning a number
of smaller strongholds, now taken back by the Ukrainian army.
Without Russian help they face almost certain defeat, but with
civilian casualties inevitable if Ukrainian forces attempt to fight
their way into the city centres, the Kremlin and some European leaders
are calling for a resumption of a ceasefire in the troubled region.
On Wednesday evening, a convoy of more than 100 armoured personnel
carriers, tanks and multiple rocket launchers was seen advancing
towards the region’s administrative capital, Donetsk. Coming off the
highway and ploughing through sunflower fields and village back roads,
the upbeat troops – who declined to say which battalion of pro-Kiev
forces they belonged to – said they were advancing toward rebel
positions and were ready to battle with the pro-Russian fighters
holding the nearby city until the very end.
By nightfall the Ukrainian forces were just 10 miles south of the city,
bringing the two sides within artillery range of each other.
The move came just two days after Ukraine’s President, Petro
Poroshenko, approved a special plan to “liberate” Donetsk and Luhansk
from the grip of armed pro-Russian rebels who launched their effort
to seize power in Ukraine’s east in early April. They have been given
logistical help informally from inside Russia, but the Kremlin denies
that the fighters have Russian backing. President Vladimir Putin ended
their hopes of a full Russian incursion into east Ukraine last month,
when he asked parliament to rescind an order from earlier this year
that allowed him to use the army on Ukrainian soil.
On Saturday hundreds of armed rebels from nearby Slavyansk fled to
Donetsk after receiving the command to evacuate their positions as
the Ukrainian army moved to take back the city of 100,000 people
after three months of heavy shelling and gun battles.
Slavyansk has emerged from three months of shelling that has destroyed
the city’s infrastructure in a state of shock. There is no running
water or electricity in most homes, public transport has ground to
a halt and almost all the shops are closed. Thousands of people have
fled, many to refugee camps in other parts of Ukraine and Russia.
“People are exhausted, we’ve not had a proper night’s sleep for
so long,” said Lina Ivanova, 64, as she picked up food aid from
the under a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Slavyansk’s main square –
a donation from residents of neighbouring villages.
There are mixed feelings about the Ukrainian army in the town. Many
people hold them responsible for the violence of recent weeks. When
troops arrived in the city quietly on Saturday, some residents hailed
them as liberators, while others were scared and angry.
Earlier in the week, when a group of national guard had delivered
sausages as humanitarian aid, locals identified three men they
claimed had been helping the separatists. They were detained by
Urkainian soldiers.
Natalia Akimova, 50, said she was delighted that the Ukrainian army had
taken over the town but was still scared the armed separatists might
return. Akimova, who spent months hiding from shelling in the corridor
of her apartment, said Ukrainian authorities should arrest and punish
hundreds of people in the city who had supported the separatists.
“Many of those who were wearing St George ribbons [pro-Russian symbol]
and said they wanted to be part of Russia have now changed clothes
and are just walking the streets as though nothing has happened,”
said Alina Bondarenko, a 39-year-old pharmacist.
Gurgen Arutunyan – who escaped war in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia
and Azerbaijan in 1990 and now runs a business in the village of
Semyonovka outside Slavyansk – said the scenes of devastation reminded
him of Karabakh. He sympathised with the rebel movement, and now plans
to move to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in March:
“I’m against war, but I’m against these authorities as well. They
need to talk to these people instead of shooting at them.”
Pushed from their barricades, the Slayvansk fighters are now
re-grouping in Donetsk for what is widely seen as the rebel republic’s
last battle. Scores of displaced gunmen have taken refuge in the
city’s university dorms, abandoned by their usual occupants.
Standing outside the student halls, 18-year-old Ivan from Gorlovka
described watching fellow rebel fighters die on the frontline during
a three-month stint in Semyonovka.
The loss of Slavyansk – the rebels’ heartland – was a major blow to
the pro-Russian fighters and Ivan, like many of his comrades, says
he was disappointed by their decision to abandon the city. “We did
not want to go, but an order is an order so we left,” he said. “Now
we will avenge our fallen brothers.”
Rebel leaders, who are adamant they will stand their ground in Donetsk,
have defended the decision to leave Slavyansk saying that the strategic
retreat was made to avoid further civilian casualties in the city.
“Donetsk is definitely the last line of defence. What started here
will finish here. If they enter the city we will fight to defend
every street, until the last drop of blood,” said the commander of
the Russian Orthodox Army, known as “Kerch”. “We have the advantage
in guerilla warfare tactics and the Slavyansk fighters who have
substantial experience in frontline fighting.”
Rebel bravado is, however, tinged with a pained recognition of the
superior firepower of the forces heading their way. Ukrainian forces
now hold positions to the north, south and west of the city.
Government troops are also stationed inside the city’s airport less
than 10km from Donetsk centre. Rebel commander Igor Strelkov, a Russian
citizen, has made several urgent appeals for military aid from Russia,
but – at least openly – the Kremlin has not been forthcoming.
“We are surrounded – we will defend our city to the end, there is
no room to move back … we have a situation were we must win
or die,” Pavel Gubarev, one of the founders of the Donetsk People’s
Republic, told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. Gubarev –
who called the war “unfair” – acknowledged rebels had blown up bridges
on the outskirts of the Donetsk due to an “insufficient number of
men to secure the [city’s] perimeter” and issued a plea for Ukrainian
soldiers to “use their honour and courage and disobey orders”.
Inside Donetsk, fearing a repeat of the siege of Slavyansk is imminent
in their city, anxious citizens are preparing for the worst, stocking
up on food, medicine and cash.
Despite statements by the authorities in Kiev that there will be
no airstrikes on Donetsk or Luhansk, on the outskirts of Donetsk
33-year-old Aleksander – who runs an internet and cable TV company –
showed the Guardian his efforts to transform the basement below his
office into a makeshift bomb shelter. “There is no other way to take
back the city but full-scale war, they will bomb us, this is the only
possibility, and if it took three months to take Slavyansk, imagine
how long it will take here, Donetsk is 10 times bigger” he said.
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From: Baghdasarian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/10/ukraine-pro-russian-rebels-show