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Russo-Ukraine War - 2014
Anti-Terrorist Operation

August 2014

Russo-Ukraine War Russo-Ukraine War - May Russo-Ukraine War - June Russo-Ukraine War - July Russo-Ukraine War - August August 2014 - Week 1 - 1-7 August August 2014 - Week 2 - 8-15 August August 2014 - Week 3 - 16-23 August August 2014 - Week 4 - 24-31 August Russo-Ukraine War - MH17 Shootdown Federal State of Novorossiya Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) Ukraine Military Guide Ukraine Political Crisis - 2014 Russian Military Intervention Russian Annexation of Crimea Russia Military Guide Russian Rapid Reaction Forces Russian Special Forces 45th Airborne Spetznaz Regiment

The fighting in eastern Ukraine ebbed and flowed since erupting in late April and early May. After repeated battlefield failures, Ukrainian forces seized the initiative in July, re-taking strategic towns around the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The new Ukrainian government's vetting of troops, decisiveness and willingness to take and inflict casualties gave its military an edge. And the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine did a poor job of generating popular support. The weapons flow from Russia increased dramatically in early July in response to the government forces' successes.

Advances by the Ukrainian army forced the rebels out of most of the towns they had occupied in Russian-speaking east Ukraine and squeezed them mainly into Luhansk, which had a population of about 400,000 before the conflict, and Donetsk, which had about 1 million residents. Fighting ragedy on the western outskirts of Donetsk as the advancing Ukrainian army tried to seize control of the rebel stronghold. In danger of being encircled, the separatists renewed their calls for Russia to send troops to their aid. To support their operations, the pro-Russian fighters have been confiscating vehicles and food from residents and businesses in Donetsk.

NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told France’s Midi Libre newspaper NATO now considers Russia a foe. "I regret this because we must develop a fruitful cooperation between the West and Russia. But we have to adapt to this new situation," he said. The alliance will draw up new defense plans in response to "Russia's aggression" against Ukraine, Rasmussen warned. "We will strengthen military exercises and prepare new defense plans," he said. "I will encourage NATO countries to increase their defense investments,” Rasmussen added. “Over the past five years, Russia has increased its spending on defense by 50 per cent, and NATO countries have reduced theirs by an average of 20 per cent. We must reverse the trend."

Government forces made major gains over the previous month and said they were getting close to cutting off the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk from the Russian border and the second insurgent bastion of Lugansk. Kiev's military top brass promised to stamp out the insurgency in the near future, but analysts warned the fighting could drag on as rebels were holed up in major cities and pledged to battle to the death.

In July Ukraine's superiority was about 3-5 times over the insurgency, which managed to inflict destruction, displacing the militants, forcing a retreat. Since early August, the insurgentss were massively reinforced, and received equipment and fighters from Russia. As a result of the balance of power was evened out. Now the Ukrainian superiority of power is only 2-2,5 times. The losses incurred by the Ukrainian army in hardware were so great that in the very near future if Ukraine didn't get support from outside, the fighting will come to nothing. The problem is that obsolete tanks and armored personnel carriers taken from the storage bases often stall on the battlefield and crews are forced to drop out.