In Ukraine, Separatist Commander 'Strelkov' Seems To Be Getting Frustrated

The commander of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine was once fond of using social media to boast about his fighters' victories -- large or small -- over Ukraine's military forces.

But as Kyiv has moved to surround the last bastions of rebel control, Igor Girkin, known by his nom-de-guerre, Strelkov, or "Shooter," seems to have soured.

With Moscow placing as many as 20,000 Russian military personnel along the border with eastern Ukraine, but so far resisting his call for a full-scale "peacekeeping" mission, Girkin is now lashing out at his own supporters for the military losses.

In a post on Vkontakte, Russia's most popular social network, the former military reenactor, whom Kyiv accuses of working for Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), announced that Ukrainian forces had taken the strategically important town of Krasnyy Luch.

The self-proclaimed separatist republic of Donetsk is "fully surrounded" Girkin says, before tearing into a brigade of pro-Russian Cossacks.

"The Cossacks, keeping with tradition, ran," he says while facetiously congratulating them for recent defeats. "They are awaiting new great achievements. The brilliant Donetsk Cossack battle path has been marked by landmark achievements like [their] surrender of Krasnyy Lyman in one day, the surrender without a fight of Poposna, the surrender of Debaltseve, and the surrender without a fight of Fashchivka. Now Krasnyy Luch has joined the list. Hooray! We will wait for new achievements."

A map released by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council on August 9 shows the shrinking self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk now fully cut off from each other, but a Ukrainian military spokesman said he could not yet confirm that Krasnyy Luch is in Kyiv's hands.

And separatists, who have lost 75 percent of what they once occupied, appear increasingly desperate for assistance.

In a recorded video in late July, Girkin recorded an urgent call for volunteers, expressing dissapointment that so few had decided to take up arms against Kyiv.

Calls from the commander and his supporters for a Russian invasion have also taken on a tone of increasing urgency.

On the Russian side of the border, Russian military vehicles have been seen with peacekeeping logos and some suspect Moscow may send in troops under the pretense of a "humanitarian" operation to stave off a complete Ukrainian victory.

But while there is strong evidence that Moscow is already sending increasingly powerful equipment across the border, an invasion would likely lead to further sanctions from the European Union and the United States, which in July agreed to sharpen trade penalties following the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines flight that many have blamed on pro-Russian separatists.

Some separatists have expressed disappointment in the level of Russian support so far.

In a video uploaded to YouTube on July 9, an unidentified separatist supporter expresses dismay at the current situation.

"Stop placing your hope in Vladimir Putin," he says as he holds up his hands about 20 centimeters apart. "The promise was the ocean -- and this is the ocean [we got]."

Let us be absolutely clear: it is the continuing separatists’ violence that is responsible for worsening humanitarian situation in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Where there no separatists - there no humanitarian distress.

In those cities and towns that were liberated by the Ukrainian government life is returning to normal. IDPs are returning to their homes and Ukrainian government is working to repair and re-establish public services. There had been no reprisals.

In contrast, in those areas that remain under the separatists control, civilians are increasingly vulnerable. UN reports that the separatists deliberately targeted critical public utilities, including water, electricity, and sewage. They replaced a rule of law with what the UN describes as the rule of violence, creating atmosphere of fear, intimidation, and harassment.

The latest report of the Human Rights monitoring mission, released on 15th of July, leaves little doubt about violent and abusive nature of the separatists’ groups. It describes in detail the abduction of civilians, their looting, their torture, their killings and executions of civilians. Recent reports indicate that the separatists’ groups have been refusing to allow fighting age men to evacuate the areas under separatists’ control. These illegal armed separatists groups have no grounds to pursue their campaign of the violence. They must lay down their arms, vacate all illegally-seized government buildings, and address grievances to exclusively peaceful and democratic means.

We must also address the root-causes of this situation and not just focus on its symptoms. Despite professing concerns for Ukrainian citizens in the East, Russia has at no point called upon the separatists to cease their violent and illegal insurgency. Instead it has fueled the crisis, sustained the violence and prolonged the humanitarian distress. It has been equipping separatists with sophisticated heavy weaponry – including GRAD rocket launchers and artillery, tanks and Surface-to-Air Missiles. It has been recruiting and training fighters and waging a propaganda war on their behalf. There has even been direct shelling of Ukraine from Russian territory.

The truth of the matter is that this is not an insurrection born in the Donbas; it is an insurgency manufactured in Moscow. It is led by Russians, using Russian-supplied weapons, in a deliberate effort to destabilize Ukraine and to exert control over Kyiv.

The profile of the separatist leaders makes this abundantly clear. Last month Vladimir Antyufeev, joined the ranks of the separatist military command alongside Igor Strelkov and Alexander Boroday. Antyufeev is wanted for his role in suppressing pro-independence demonstrations in Latvia in 1991 and was most recently the KGB Chief in Transnistria. All three of these individuals are Russian citizens, and all three have worked for Russian intelligence.

It is deeply ironic that Russia should call for an emergency meeting of the Council to discuss a humanitarian crisis largely of its own creation.
We agree that there needs to be an end to violence. We agree that alleviating humanitarian distress is a matter of priority. But Russian cannot credibly present itself as supporting the people of Eastern Ukraine when it is the architect of the violence that afflicts them.

Ambassador Lyall Grant of the UK Mission to the UN.

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