UKR foreign ministry:Recent Russian actions clearly demonstrate that Moscow is bluntly drawing Ukraine & entire world into a full-scale war
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) August 28, 2014
RFE/RL's Andrei Babitsky is in Donetsk and has sent us this footage of fierce fighting on the streets of the eastern Ukrainian city this afternoon. (WARNING: Graphic content, including footage of dead bodies):
RFE/RL's Glenn Kates has been writing about the reaction in Russia to their troops apparently fighting in eastern Ukraine:
But now, as Moscow reinvigorates a flailing pro-Russian separatist insurgency with a barely concealed incursion into southeastern Ukraine, indications are that Russian military men are dying. And as captured Russian paratroopers are paraded on Ukrainian television and servicemen are buried in secrecy, some Russians are asking a seemingly simple question:
"Are we at war?"
The answer to the question, originally posed in an editorial in the "Vedomosti" business daily, is one that is becoming increasingly obvious for military families. It is the details that they say are not forthcoming.
In Kostroma, 1,300 kilometers from Russia's border with eastern Ukraine, family members of a group of 10 Russian paratroopers captured in Ukraine say all their information has come from secondhand, online sources.
One mother, Olga Pochtoyeva, says when she originally approached officials with photos on her son's Vkontakte page that appeared to show he had been taken prisoner in Ukraine, her claims were dismissed as "provocations." "We showed them [these pictures] and they didn't believe it," she says. "It's Photoshop, they told us. I'm sorry, my son has never used Photoshop."
Read the entire article here. (Kates' piece also includes this video of RFE/RL's Russian Service speaking to relatives of the Russian paratroopers detained in Ukraine:
#Ukraine protesters want better leadership, weapons in war against #Russia http://t.co/DR6LQGRaT0 pic.twitter.com/EbsEEuxukI
— Brian Bonner (@BSBonner) August 28, 2014
Here's the latest Ukraine-related update from our news desk:
The United Nations Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting today on the presence of Russian troops in southeastern Ukraine. The meeting comes after Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said Russia had brought forces into Ukraine.
The meeting comes after Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said Russia had deployed forces in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned of "further consequences" for Moscow unless it halts the advance of Russian tanks into Ukraine.
A top NATO official said on August 28 that more than 1,000 Russian soldiers have invaded eastern Ukraine, with 20,000 more mobilized just across the border.
Kyiv's National Security and Defense Council says Russian tanks and troops seized the Ukrainian border town of Novoazovsk on the Sea of Azov, and that others were taking positions in the east.
A Ukrainian military spokesmen said government forces have regrouped to defend the city of Mariupol to the west of Novoazovsk.
(AFP, Reuters, BBC, ITAR-TASS, Interfax)
#Donetsk city center up in flames pic.twitter.com/RJH5a21FnE via @PaulaSlier_RT http://t.co/EgyzdWncpg
— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) August 28, 2014
Russia's NGO Soldiers Mothers says 250 more paratroopers from Ryazan to get dropped in Ukraine next week http://t.co/BQY4wOXlf2
— Ryskeldi Satke (@RyskeldiSatke) August 28, 2014
Twitterplomacy http://t.co/wakR1m5T7D Canada tweets snarky 'Not Russia' map pic.twitter.com/pP8IqDFl51
— BBC Trending (@BBCtrending) August 28, 2014
Leonid Bershividsky has been writing for Bloomberg View about what happens now that it seems undeniable that there are regular Russian soldiers involved in the fighting in eastern Ukraine:
The involvement of Russian airborne troops in the conflict appears to be a recent phenomenon. Ukrainian servicemen had never captured regular Russian soldiers before, and reporters in the conflict zone had only seen nationalist volunteers and some Chechen fighters helping out the Ukrainian separatists in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The flow of Russian weapons into the area was documented, and the participation of instructors from Russian intelligence strongly suspected, but that was the extent of it until this week.
Now, with the rebels being hammered by the Ukrainian army, such support is presumably no longer enough. Unwilling to surrender the fight, Putin is surrendering his cherished deniability instead.
European and U.S. leaders are nevertheless careful not to call this a Russian-Ukrainian war. Nor has the first credible evidence of Russian troops engaged in eastern Ukraine led to calls for further economic sanctions. To call Putin's increasingly obvious bluff would necessitate supporting the Ukrainian side, possibly with military aid. No one is prepared to do that.
Read the entire article here