The Ukrainian offensive against the population of the eastern Ukraine is large, but does not seem to yield any tangible results so far.  Here is a map of the affected cities:


The worst situation appears to be in Kramatorsk were attacking force has fully surrounded the city and a number of elements have penetrated inside using secondary roads.  It is hard to get a clear image of what is going on but my personal feeling is that the attackers are making a show of force and then they withdraw without really attempting to storm any key building or hunt down and destroy defending forces.  I have to stress that the information coming out of the region is exceptionally sketchy and that it is impossible for me to get a better picture of what is going.

The cities not yet attacked by the Ukrainians are reportedly on full mobilization and are preparing for an attack.

The big story is, of course, the massacre in Odessa.  There is evidence coming out that this was a very carefully orchestrated event with agent provocateurs infiltrated into both groups.  For those of you who can understand Russian, here is an extremely interesting report about the “red-banded” infiltrators seen amongst the pro-Russian, pro-junta and even the police (I will try to have the audio translated as soon as possible and post it her):



That’s it for now.  Tomorrow should bring some clarity to these issues.

I will try to keep you posted.  Stay tuned,

The Saker