Pro-Russian Rebels Take Strategic Eastern Ukraine Town
August 27, 2014
by Gabe Joselow
The battle for Ukraine's strategic coastline intensified Wednesday as pro-Russian rebel forces entered a key town in southeast Ukraine after three days of heavy shelling.
The fall of Novoazovsk, a resort town of 40,000 on the Sea of Azov, is a strategic move as the town sits on the road linking Russia to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol and Crimea on the Black Sea.
Rebels in eastern Ukraine also appear to have seized swathes of territory from government forces.
Reports from journalists said Ukrainian forces abandoned vehicles and ammunition as they retreated from the advancing rebel forces.
Ukrainian national security spokesman Andriy Lysenko on Wednesday told reporters in Kyiv shelling from Russian territory had begun to increase on Tuesday. Moscow denies supporting pro-Russian separatists battling Ukrainian armed forces in eastern Ukraine.
“Russia continues to build up its military presence at their border,” he said. “During the last 24 hours, Russian military vehicles concentrated in border districts mostly in the Rostov region.”
Minsk meeting
Lysenko's updates come as the leaders of the two countries met to discuss a possible peace plan.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladmir Putin met Tuesday in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to discuss the conflict and other issues of contention between their two countries.
A statement from the Ukrainian president's office Wednesday said the two sides discussed the closing of the border to “prevent the movement of armored vehicles, mercenaries and ammunition.”
In a press briefing following the Minsk meeting, President Putin called the conflict a domestic issue for Ukraine but said Russia would participate in efforts to stop the bloodshed.
“Russia will do everything to support this peaceful process, if it will start,” he said. “From our point of view, this process should start immediately,” he said.
Putin also called for renewed dialogue on outstanding trade issues, including the implementation of an agreement creating stronger ties between Ukraine and the European Union that Putin said poses a “significant risk” to the Russian economy.
Ukraine's former Russian-backed president, Victor Yanukovich, had refused to sign the deal, sparking protests in Kyiv in February that eventually led to his resignation and significantly raised tensions with Moscow and pro-Russian Ukrainians, setting the scene for the present conflict.
The United States and the EU have imposed sanctions on Russia for its alleged support of the separatists.
NATO military exercises
Also on Wednesday, NATO announced it was stepping up exercises in Eastern Europe. Alliance chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen added he expects NATO members next week will approve sending temporary forces into the region.
The NATO announcement follows Ukrainian Prime Minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, on Tuesday saying that the former Soviet republic needed "practical help" from the U.S.-led NATO alliance.
Kyiv has repeatedly accused Moscow of arming and otherwise supporting the rebellion in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east. Moscow continues to deny involvement.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government said a Russian counter-offensive was under way in the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki at a briefing Wednesday expressed concern about the reported counter-offensive.
Psaki said the Russian government has shown an "unwillingness to tell the truth even as its soldiers are found 48 kilometers (30 miles) inside Ukraine.”
She said "Russia is sending its young men into Ukraine, but not telling them where they are going or their parents what they are doing."
Psaki said “these are not the steps you take when you are operating in a transparent manner.”
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