Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov posted a defiant message on Facebook in the past half an hour:
"No Putin 'convoy' will pass through the territory of the Kharkiv region. No cynical provocation by an aggressor is allowed on our territory.
"As far as I'm concerned, Putin can pour these 30 tons of salt as 'humanitarian aid' on his...
Via @ShaunWalker7.
From Reuters:
Twelve Ukrainian nationalist fighters, battling a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine, were killed early on Wednesday and an unknown number taken captive when rebels ambushed their bus, a spokesman for their group said.
The separatists opened fire on the bus, that was taking the men to fight just outside the rebel-held city of Donetsk, at the nearby village of Mandrykino, said a spokesman for Right Sector, extreme nationalists who are supporting government forces.
"They were taking part in a military operation early this morning near Donetsk and were ambushed. Twelve Right Sector fighters were killed," spokesman Artem Skoropadsky told Reuters.
Among the many points Ukrainian military blogger Dmitry Tymchuk makes in his Facebook post this morning is this one, after he quotes a military commander lamenting separatists' attacks on medical vehicles:
What a shame: A country that used to have the most powerful tank-building industry in the U.S.S.R....is unable after half a year of hostilities to arrange the production of common gun trucks, i.e. armored cargo trucks!
As warnings pour in from Kyiv, the Internation Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and Washington, Moscow continues its determined insistence that "Russia has accommodated the wishes of Ukraine regarding the convoy’s route, cargo inspection and other details of the operation." This Foreign Ministry tweet simply links to its statement of yesterday, as @BBCDanielS noted:
After an explosion at a depth of more than 800 meters, a fire has been burning for around 24 hours at the Skakhtoupravleniye Pokrovskoye mine in Krasnoarmeisk, in the Donetsk region, according to Interfax and other media. There does not appear to have been any word yet on casualties.
This is unconfirmed, obviously, so treat accordingly. We haven't seen images of any "rest of convoy heading to Donbas":
:-))
As @StateOfUkraine points out, this photo appears to show license plates being placed, removed, or replaced on trucks in the Russian convoy.
Recall that despite warnings from Kyiv, a puzzling ITAR-TASS report quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggesting a simple change of license plates might be sufficient.