As Russia’s 300-strong ‘humanitarian’ convoy of white trucks slithered towards the Ukraine border, it appears, according to The Guardian, that, in spite of the market’s exuberance at this morning’s comments of “avoiding conflict,” Vladimir Putin sent a real ‘green’ military Russian convoy across the Ukraine border late Thursday evening.
So @RolandOliphant and I just saw a column of APCs and vehicles with official Russian military plates cross border into Ukraine.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) August 14, 2014
.@shaunwalker7 and I just witnessed a not insubstantial column of APCs and trucks slipping across the border into Ukraine.
— Roland Oliphant (@RolandOliphant) August 14, 2014
Didn’t even turn off their headlights. Saw Russian military plates on support vehicles, but no markings I could make out on APCs.
— Roland Oliphant (@RolandOliphant) August 14, 2014
While the white trucks came to a halt well short of Ukraine’s border, a different Russian convoy did cross into Ukrainian territory late on Thursday evening.
The Guardian saw a column of 23 armoured personnel carriers, supported by fuel trucks and other logistics vehicles with official Russian military plates, travelling towards the border near the Russian town of Donetsk.
After pausing by the side of the road until nightfall, the convoy crossed into Ukrainian territory, using a rough dirt track and clearly crossing through a gap in a barbed wire fence that demarcates the border. Armed men were visible in the gloom by the border fence as the column moved into Ukraine.
Kiev has lost control of its side of the border in this area.
The trucks are unlikely to represent a full-scale official Russian invasion, and it was unclear how far they planned to travel inside Ukrainian territory and how long they would stay. But it was incontrovertible evidence of what Ukraine has long claimed – that Russian troops are active inside its borders.
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The armoured column seen by the Guardian appeared to be further evidence of Russia’s incursions, which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
A column of armoured vehicles and military trucks crossed the border from Russia into Ukraine on Thursday night, in the first confirmed sighting of such an incident by Western journalists.
The Telegraph witnessed a column of vehicles including both armoured personal carriers and soft-skinned lorries crossing into Ukraine at an obscure border crossing near the Russian town of Donetsk shortly before 10pm local time.
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We assume this means Stocks will give back all their gains? lol…
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Of course, we suspect if one were to ask Putin, this is merely an entry into an independent sovereign republic… not Ukraine per se… although we are sure he knows full well how the West will interpret this action.
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1BhQ5IL Tyler Durden