'It's hell down there:' Inside the battle for eastern Ukraine

CNN ^ | June 6, 2014 | Tim Lister

[1rudeboy]

Slovyansk, Ukraine (CNN) -- In a forest of pines to the east of Slovyansk, Prapor and his seventy men were digging in Thursday. A man in his late-fifties with a magnificent beard and four different weapons, Prapor freely admitted he was not a local. But he was here -- he said -- to resist the "Ukrainian fascists" in Krasny Liman, a nearby town just recaptured by government forces.

He was dismissive of the group that had fled Krasny -- "Cossacks," he sneered. He had already lost seven men, but his fighters were the bravest. They would not run away.

Meeting Prapor was revealing in several ways. Pro-Russian separatists working in eastern Ukraine are better organized, better armed (Prapor's group had a truck-mounted anti-aircraft gun that was clearly working), and more of them appear to come from beyond Ukraine. And they are building a maze of roadblocks and defensive positions across the region.

But a few kilometers beyond, in rolling countryside under a hot sun, a very different group was setting up camp: a substantial force of Ukrainian paratroopers, with armored personnel carriers and artillery. Above, a reconnaissance plane drifted in loops.

Both sides look -- at least militarily -- more competent than they did a few weeks ago. Checkpoints used to be few and far between. Now there is a maze of them -- more separatist than Ukrainian -- dotted across both the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The insignia of the "Vostok Battalion" -- a group that includes both Russian and local fighters -- is common at the roadblocks that have sprung up on the main roads leading into Donetsk.

A few weeks ago, we watched the bedraggled remnants of the Ukrainian army's 25th Division surrounded and harangued by locals near Kramatorsk. Now there is a sense of purpose....

[Krosan]

Obama is only giving the limited support to Ukraine because American people want it. 55% of the Republicans and 23% of the Democrats say Obama's handling is not tough enough. Only a miniscule amount says it is too tough.

http://www.people-press.org/2014/04/28/bipartisan-support-for-increased-u-s-sanctions-against-russia/

[Thunder90]

In this case, it is Obama handing Crimea to Russia, and planning to hand the rest of Ukraine to Russia after the midterms.

[caww]

...”the Rebels have gotten at least one old WW2 relic running”....

I saw a video of them starting that up while it was still on the concrete square monument. I could only think of the great determination these people have.

Unfortunately with the force of shelling the Ukraine Gov. is doing now there is no way they can handle that. But then the idea is to destroy the east infrastruction etc. as we know, so that the IMF and other corporate bottom feeders can get their cut and funnel the “Recovery” funds to the highest bidder....Ukrainians will fair the least when all is said and done..if that.....Ukraine will be a full Debtor state as planned....note that Russia is in the black....

[John S Mosby]

In the days of the last tsar and kaiser wilhelm (who were cousins), wilhelm sent several commissioned portraits to tsar Nicholas which depicted the two of them as Christian soldiers defending the West from the muslim horde (the turks in particular).

This featured strongly later with the intrigue from the russian foreign minister with the austro-hungarian empire- to pressure the turks into letting russian ships through the Dardanelles, in exchange for Serbia being under the control of austria-hungary. Unfortunately, the a-h empire annexed Serbia, and later a Serbian nationalist assassinated
Franz Ferdinand (heir apparent) and started WWI.

The russian orthodox church features in Putin’s plans and alliances, as they did in former times— as a bastion agains islamofascism. On the other hand, the obamaumaoists are supporting the elements who are not in the russian sway, and this includes descendants of the collaborators with Hitler (einsatsgruppen Ukraine). This makes sense when one clearly sees the world socialists in obamaumao’s regime for what they are— pure socialist/marxists. And Putin— Stalin re-incarnated in the passion of russian nationalism and old alliances. Not to forget the central issue— natural gas to EU and control of it.

[Justa]

That's an old graph.

It's worse than that -or better depending on your perspective.

[mac_truck]

That must be an old map, the national debt in the United States is 17 trillion and growing.

[dfwgator]

.” The only official language in Ukraine will be Ukrainian.””

At least it isn't Swedish.

[caww]

Probably... as the debt raises faster then they can change the maps...HA!.....There was a time when it was easier to grasp the interest...now even that is going off the maps...

[caww]