Ukrainian Sergeant: ‘This Is Now A War With Russia’
Michael B Kelley and Brett LoGiurato
BusinessInsider.com
Aug. 27, 2014
Ukraine and Western officials on Wednesday warned that Russian forces are opening up another, major front in the war, according to The New York Times.
“This is what happened: they crossed the border, took up positions and started shooting,” Sgt. Aleksei Panko after telling the Times that about 60 armored vehicles crossed the border near the town of Novoazovsk. “This is now a war with Russia.”
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday that Russia’s “incursions” in Ukraine “likely indicates a Russian-directed counter-offensive” in Luhansk and Donetsk. She accused Russia of “sending young men into Ukraine, not telling them or their parents where they are going.”
“These are not steps you take when you are operating in a transparent manner,” Psaki said. “We are concerned about the Russian government’s unwillingness to tell the truth even as its soldiers are found 30 miles inside Ukraine.”
U.S. officials added that there is proof Russia has provided advanced air defenses not known to be in the Ukrainian arsenal (and thus could not be “looted” by separatists) and routinely flies drones over head to gather intelligence for the separatists.
Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, wrote on Twitter Tuesday that Russia’s recent moves in Ukraine “may indicate that a Russian counteroffensive is underway” in southeastern Ukraine, where fighting between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists has raged for months.
“The Russian military’s use of artillery from locations within Ukraine is of special concern to Western military officials, who say Russian artillery has already been used to shell Ukrainian forces near Luhansk,” Andrew Kramer and Michael Gordon of The Time report. “And along with the antiaircraft systems operated by separatists or Russian forces inside Ukraine, the artillery has the potential to alter the balance of power in the struggle for control of eastern Ukraine.”
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