Pro-Russian militants staged a predawn
400-man attack near Ukraine’s eastern border today, prompting the
U.S. government to reaffirm its support for the unstable
nation.
The Associated Press (AP) reports
on the battle, which took place at a border guard base and
persisted into the afternoon:
Serhiy Astakhov, the spokesman for the border guard service,
[said] that a preliminary assessment indicated that five rebels
were killed and eight wounded in the attack on the walled compound
on the western fringes of Luhansk, a major city not far from the
Russian border. He also said seven servicemen were wounded, three
seriously. …An AP reporter saw at least one dead rebel soldier about a
kilometer (half-mile) away from the base. Fellow fighters
approached and broke into tears as they viewed the body. One
insurgent said the dead man was a leading rebel commander.
The militia was armed with rocket-propelled grenades. Whether or
not they were part of a larger, coordinated offensive is unknown,
but in another city, Sloviansk, rebels apparently laid landmines
around power plants and in yet another, Donetsk, they kidnapped a
local newspaper editor.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security
Affairs Derek Chollet said at a press
conference today that the Luhansk attack is “a further example of
the destabilizing activities that we believe are supported by
Russia in the east.” He reiterated at a press conference this
morning that the U.S. has pledged $18 million toward “strengthening
our long-term defense cooperation, especially in helping Ukraine
build a highly effective armed force and strengthening its defense
institutions.” The State Department maintains that the funding,
which was first announced
in May, will only be spent on “non-lethal security assistance.”
According to the Kyiv Post, though, Chollet also
hinted that the U.S. may provide “more aggressive help” to Ukraine
after today’s attack.
On Wednesday, President Obama will meet with President-Elect
Petro Poroshenko, who has
requested direct military aid to rebuff the forces.
For its part, Russia offered “humanitarian aid” to
eastern Ukraine last week. The Ukrainian government rejected this
and maintains that Russia is engaged in “undisguised aggression”
against Ukraine. The situation increasingly looks like an all-out
war. Rebels recently shot down a military helicopter, and although
Russia officially denies it, some militants
claim themselves to be part of a Chechen “savage unit” on
official orders. One Russian official shrugged this off saying, “We
can’t control where our citizens go.”
Here
is a video of a fighter seemingly dragging himself to safety.
Below is
a video allegedly from the early hours of today’s attack:
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1pAc2P1
via IFTTT