- Residential areas of Slavyansk shelled by mortars and artillery starting at 11:00 local time.
- School #13 in Slavyansk was hit by a 12.2 cm mortar shell. School is also used as a kindergarten. 9 civilians injured including a 4 year old boy. Unknown if the casualties were at the school or in other areas under bombardment.
- Very strong fighting commenced approximately 15:30 local time in the area of Donetsk Airport but not at airport. Airport terminal is heavily damaged from fighting Monday. Fighting is ongoing as of 17:00 local time.
- Artillery bombardment in town of Rubezhnoye in Lugansk Oblast. Casualties unknown. Reliable sources say there are no Lugansk Self Defense forces in or near the town.
- ZU-23-2 antiaircraft gun system seen in public video in possession of Donbas Army.
Saker Message:
Wasn’t the captured ZU-23-2 destroyed by the ukie air force monday?
Putin’s inaction here is disgusting.
Negotiations between the different parties in the region for a common-sense settlement was the right answer, killing is not.
If the West is scuttling the former for the latter, Putin needs to step in. These are Russians under attack by foreign powers.
It appears Putin has given a green light to this operation.
There seems to be no good english language source for updates on the battle for the airport. RT and Voice of Russia have occassional live updates, but coverage is spotty. Does anyone have suggestions, web sites, or social media sites?
Am I wrong in forming the impression that the Kievista’s are playing with fire?
If this comes to reality, there is no hope for EU:
“Poland on Wednesday put forward its foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, for the job of the European Union’s top diplomat.
The role, officially called the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, is held at the moment by Britain’s Catherine Ashton, but the make-up of the Commission will change after the weekend’s European Parliament election.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/28/us-eu-candidates-poland-idUSKBN0E81RS20140528?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
He and Carl Bildt should be deported to USA for happiness of us all.
Critique of the action at the Donetsk airport.
Владислав Шурыгин: О боях за донецкий аэропорт и неотложных проблемах ДНР (Vladislav Shurygin: the battle for Donetsk airport and urgent problems DND)
http://rusvesna.su/recent_opinions/1401284113 (trans) http://translate.yandex.net/tr-url/ru-en.ru/rusvesna.su/recent_opinions/1401284113
2 Afterthought
You absolutely don’t understand the situation. West needs Putin to go to Ukraine. So they do everything just because of it. Then they could blame him for EVERYTHING bad in the world!
The Prime Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Boroday says on Russkaya Vesna that the Donbass People’s Militia / Army currently has 4-5 thousand people.
Бородай: “Пять тысяч ополченцев против армии карателей с авиацией” – 28/05/2014 – 22:50
Boroday: “Five thousand militia against punitive army aviation”
I do not know if this number includes the Lugansk Militia.
Afterthought @ 16:34, Vopice @ 19:00
Afterthought is absolutely correct, there is a “categorical imperative”, a moral obligation for Russia to liberate Novorossiya. It is right for Afterthought to say so; it should be said on every Western forum and repeated over and over again.
On the other hand, there are other considerations. There is a world war going on. Russia must also save Syria, and most important, it must save itself! Strategic thinking cannot be overruled by morality. Russia must be free to act when and how it chooses. It must not allow itself to be drawn into a trap. There are very good reasons for delaying action as long as possible. Beside, Russia can only help those that are willing to help themselves.
***
Almost everyone on the pro-Russia side now agrees that the West desperately wants Russia to invade – and fall into the trap. I first said this on February 6th. Now I am no longer sure. It is this belief that may now be preventing Russian intervention. What if the “trap myth” is an artifact of Western disinformation?
Nation states are not moral agents. War is not waged to rescue. It is feasible that in the calculus of power Russia will let the barbarism continue on the Ukraine side of the fence as it has nothing material to gain by intervention. Boris Kagarlatsky observed that Putin gains nothing by intervention. This is true up to a point-Russians do not like Russians being murdered and populist sentiment may force limited intervention, but not outright annexation.
Why are so many people talking about the situation in black-and-white? There are more options than “send in troops” and “stand by doing nothing”. Russia can send in people (preferably experienced officers that are so badly lacking), money, weapons, consultants in other areas. I am hoping that at least some of that is being done covertly.
It should also be kept in mind that the rebels have not really lost and the hunta has not won anything yet. The Donetsk airport operation was badly planned and carelessly executed by the rebels. Hopefully they have learned their lesson and will think their actions through better next time. The civilian body count keeps growing and it is extremely hard to watch, but the amount of panic at the moment is not completely justified. As Strelkov said, the Ukies can’t take cities solely by artillery, air power and tanks, or they would have done it already. They have to go in and inevitably sustain significant losses, and the Ukie infantry is in no way prepared to do that. So we will have to wait and see.
War Nerds show probably avoid blogs like this one if civilian deaths are too troubling. It’s pretty obvious the OSS (misdirectionally identified as CIA) is behind this operation. Terror and slaughter is and always has been their stock in trade. If they were really about intelligence, I have to believe they would be better at it.
Of course, they have never liked doing their own dying, which is where Greywater comes in. Greywater does not come cheap, which is probably the main reason the chocolate dipped Criminal in Chief is demanding they git’er done real soon. My back of the envelope estimate says the rumored number of Thugerines probably cost at least 40-50 Billion, on an annual basis, in increasingly shaky dollars. If the war carries on too long, the OSS drugs slush fund might not be enough.
When your opponent is affected by hubris, why complain?
Why hope for the EU as it is your opponent?
Why expect “morality” and “obligations” from states?