The
Ukrainian government today claims that Russia has “violated the
state border of Ukraine” by sending tanks across the border this
morning.
“At least 10 tanks, two armored vehicles and two trucks from
russia crossed into Ukrainian territory at 5:20 a.m. Monday,
potentially bound for the key port city of Mariupol on the Sea of
Azov. The highway leading to Mariupol is currently under control of
the Ukrainian military,” The Washington Post
reports, based on information from Ukraine’s military
spokesman.
Reuters
notes, “Earlier, a separate military statement said border
guards had halted the armored column outside Novoazovsk, Ukraine’s
most south-easterly point on the Azov Sea, and local residents,
reached by phone, spoke of seeing tanks and other armored vehicles
moving near the town.”
“The new military thrust by the rebels… appeared to open up a
new southern front in the five-month-old conflict that has claimed
at least 2,000
lives and force tens of thousands to flee their homes,”
explains Al Jazeera.
Tensions flared on Friday when 200 or so
half-empty “humanitarian aid” trucks from Russia entered
Ukraine
without approval or inspection by Kiev or the Red Cross. The
convoy
allegedly stole Ukrainian military equipment on the way out.
The Obama administration, NATO, and the E.U.
condemned Russia’s border violation, but the Kremlin’s foreign
minister today announced that he plans on
sending in another aid convoy “in the next few days”
NATO claims
that it has “seen transfers of large quantities of advanced
weapons, including tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and
artillery to separatist groups in eastern Ukraine. Moreover, NATO
is observing an alarming build-up of Russian ground and air forces
in the vicinity of Ukraine.”
The Associated Press
reported yesterday that Russian-backed insurgents were parading
captive Ukrainian soldiers in “tattered” uniforms through the
streets of Donetsk, one of the cities still held by the
insurgents.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Ukraine yesterday to
celebrate the twenty-third anniversary of its independence. She
committeed 500 million euros to rebuilding the wartorn east and
condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “violation to the
territorial integrity of Europe.”
Tomorrow, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russia’s
Vladimir Putin will meet in Minsk, Belarus to discuss the war. A
member of the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies
suggests that “the Kremlin’s moves to boost the rebels’
position … while seeming to contradict Russia’s stated desire to
reach a deal, are aimed at entering the talks from a position of
strength.”
Read more Reason coverage of Ukraine here.
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