Tue May 27, 2014 5:34 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.
Second Stage Interoperability: NATO Trains For Combat In Europe
Rick Rozoff
U.S. Army Europe is currently conducting a fifteen-nation, 4,000-troop military exercise at the Hohenfels Training Area in Germany, at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in that Bavarian city.
The war games, code-named Combined Resolve-II, involve military personnel from thirteen European nations and one pseudo-nation, Kosovo.
All fifteen parties involved were identified on NATO's Allied Command Operations website as NATO allies (members) and partners (prospective members) "training for future operations."
This is perhaps the first time that the 28-nation, U.S.-controlled military bloc has acknowledged Kosovo as an alliance partner, although the latter's fledgling army, the Kosovo Security Force, was created by NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) and has been trained and provided with arms, armored vehicles and even uniforms by NATO as a whole and by respective member states of the bloc.
One of the other NATO partners, a member of the bloc's Partnership for Peace program which has been used to prepare all twelve post-Cold War alliance members for accession, is Serbia - the nation that NATO wrested Kosovo from fifteen years ago after an overpowering 78-day air war against the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia of which Serbia was the core.
In addition to the U.S., Kosovo and Serbia, the other participating countries are NATO stalwarts France and Belgium, new NATO members in Eastern Europe - Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovenia - and Partnership for Peace members Austria and Georgia.
The NATO account of the event reiterates a theme commonly addressed over the past eighteen or so months: that with the drawdown of troops from no fewer than fifty NATO member and partner states in Afghanistan, the bloc's new integrated, combat-melded global military force - trained and hardened by over twenty years of war and post-war deployments in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Iraq (only partially acknowledged as a NATO operation), Libya and the Horn of Africa - is now being used by the U.S. for use in Europe.
The most significant paragraph of the NATO account of Combined Resolve-II (which includes the use of "cutting edge battlefield simulation equipment") cited above states:
"NATO and many Allied and Partnered nations have served most recently in Afghanistan and trained together for many years to develop and refine their standard operating procedures. Training on the scale of Combined Resolve-II allows these nations to test these standard operating procedures in near combat like scenarios."
The website of the Joint Multinational Readiness Center offers an intriguing history of the Pentagon's Hohenfels Training Area, one that is surely pertinent to contemporary developments.
The training area was established by the Nazi German Wehrmacht in 1938, the year before Berlin's invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II in Europe.
In 1951 it passed into the hands of the American armed forces, which employed (and doubtlessly expanded and modernized) it exclusively until 1956. With the U.S. and NATO allies assisting in the formation of a new German army, the Bundeswehr, in West Germany in 1955 and its immediate incorporation into NATO (thereby provoking the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies to found the Warsaw Pact) , U.S. military personnel at the Hohenfels Training Area were joined by West German forces and the facility was used by NATO nations until 1988 under the name of the Combat Maneuver Training Center.
Toward the end of 2005 the latter was renamed the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC), which transformation, in the words of its website, "leverages the unique capability of the JMRC to train U.S. forces for joint and multinational coalition warfare" and "provides the best opportunity for U.S. Forces to train with their coalition partners prior to joining them in combat."
The site reports that over 60,000 U.S., NATO and NATO partnership forces are trained for the above purpose each year.
Stage two of Washington's use of NATO to train, deploy and employ the international military force that they have jointly crafted in the post-Cold War era has commenced. Trained abroad, it will now be used at home: Europe.
==============================
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Second Stage Interoperability: NATO Trains For Combat In Europe
Rick Rozoff
U.S. Army Europe is currently conducting a fifteen-nation, 4,000-troop military exercise at the Hohenfels Training Area in Germany, at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in that Bavarian city.
The war games, code-named Combined Resolve-II, involve military personnel from thirteen European nations and one pseudo-nation, Kosovo.
All fifteen parties involved were identified on NATO's Allied Command Operations website as NATO allies (members) and partners (prospective members) "training for future operations."
This is perhaps the first time that the 28-nation, U.S.-controlled military bloc has acknowledged Kosovo as an alliance partner, although the latter's fledgling army, the Kosovo Security Force, was created by NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) and has been trained and provided with arms, armored vehicles and even uniforms by NATO as a whole and by respective member states of the bloc.
One of the other NATO partners, a member of the bloc's Partnership for Peace program which has been used to prepare all twelve post-Cold War alliance members for accession, is Serbia - the nation that NATO wrested Kosovo from fifteen years ago after an overpowering 78-day air war against the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia of which Serbia was the core.
In addition to the U.S., Kosovo and Serbia, the other participating countries are NATO stalwarts France and Belgium, new NATO members in Eastern Europe - Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovenia - and Partnership for Peace members Austria and Georgia.
The NATO account of the event reiterates a theme commonly addressed over the past eighteen or so months: that with the drawdown of troops from no fewer than fifty NATO member and partner states in Afghanistan, the bloc's new integrated, combat-melded global military force - trained and hardened by over twenty years of war and post-war deployments in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Iraq (only partially acknowledged as a NATO operation), Libya and the Horn of Africa - is now being used by the U.S. for use in Europe.
The most significant paragraph of the NATO account of Combined Resolve-II (which includes the use of "cutting edge battlefield simulation equipment") cited above states:
"NATO and many Allied and Partnered nations have served most recently in Afghanistan and trained together for many years to develop and refine their standard operating procedures. Training on the scale of Combined Resolve-II allows these nations to test these standard operating procedures in near combat like scenarios."
The website of the Joint Multinational Readiness Center offers an intriguing history of the Pentagon's Hohenfels Training Area, one that is surely pertinent to contemporary developments.
The training area was established by the Nazi German Wehrmacht in 1938, the year before Berlin's invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II in Europe.
In 1951 it passed into the hands of the American armed forces, which employed (and doubtlessly expanded and modernized) it exclusively until 1956. With the U.S. and NATO allies assisting in the formation of a new German army, the Bundeswehr, in West Germany in 1955 and its immediate incorporation into NATO (thereby provoking the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies to found the Warsaw Pact) , U.S. military personnel at the Hohenfels Training Area were joined by West German forces and the facility was used by NATO nations until 1988 under the name of the Combat Maneuver Training Center.
Toward the end of 2005 the latter was renamed the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC), which transformation, in the words of its website, "leverages the unique capability of the JMRC to train U.S. forces for joint and multinational coalition warfare" and "provides the best opportunity for U.S. Forces to train with their coalition partners prior to joining them in combat."
The site reports that over 60,000 U.S., NATO and NATO partnership forces are trained for the above purpose each year.
Stage two of Washington's use of NATO to train, deploy and employ the international military force that they have jointly crafted in the post-Cold War era has commenced. Trained abroad, it will now be used at home: Europe.
==============================
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==============================
Tue May 27, 2014 5:34 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://en.ria.ru/world/
RIA Novosti
May 23, 2014
‘Color Revolutions’ Cause Apparent Damage to International Stability – Lavrov
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that “color revolutions” cause obvious damage to international stability.
“Regime change operations in sovereign states, various ‘color revolutions’ provoked by external forces, cause apparent damage to international stability,” Lavrov said at the Moscow International Security Conference.
“Attempts to impose homemade recipes for internal changes on other nations, without taking into account their own traditions and national characteristics, to engage in the ‘export of democracy,’ have a destructive impact on international relations and result in an increase of the number of hot spots on the world map,” the minister added.
Lavrov has previously accused the United States and the European Union of an attempt to stage yet another “color revolution” in Ukraine.
The “color revolutions” were a series of regime changes caused by protests in several post-Soviet republics, including the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004. A more violent Tulip Revolution took place in Kyrgyzstan in 2005.
The foreign minister’s comments came at the third Moscow International Security Conference, attended by military experts and government officials from different countries, including China, Belarus, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Serbia, and others.
==============================
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==============================
RIA Novosti
May 23, 2014
‘Color Revolutions’ Cause Apparent Damage to International Stability – Lavrov
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that “color revolutions” cause obvious damage to international stability.
“Regime change operations in sovereign states, various ‘color revolutions’ provoked by external forces, cause apparent damage to international stability,” Lavrov said at the Moscow International Security Conference.
“Attempts to impose homemade recipes for internal changes on other nations, without taking into account their own traditions and national characteristics, to engage in the ‘export of democracy,’ have a destructive impact on international relations and result in an increase of the number of hot spots on the world map,” the minister added.
Lavrov has previously accused the United States and the European Union of an attempt to stage yet another “color revolution” in Ukraine.
The “color revolutions” were a series of regime changes caused by protests in several post-Soviet republics, including the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004. A more violent Tulip Revolution took place in Kyrgyzstan in 2005.
The foreign minister’s comments came at the third Moscow International Security Conference, attended by military experts and government officials from different countries, including China, Belarus, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Serbia, and others.
==============================
Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
Stop NATO website and articles:
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.
To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status:
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==============================
Tue May 27, 2014 5:35 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.
Georgia: NATO Grooms New Member In The South Caucasus
Rick Rozoff
НАТО готовит Грузию к вступлению в свои ряды
http://inosmi.ru/world/
This past week the North Atlantic Treaty Organization continued its ongoing efforts to prepare the nation of Georgia for full membership in the military bloc.
A meeting of the NATO Military Committee, consisting of military representatives and the chiefs of defense of the 28 full members of the alliance, and the chief of the Georgian armed forces, head of the General Staff Major-General Vakhtang Kapanadze, occurred in Brussels a week ago.
According to the Georgian Defense Ministry, issues discussed included assorted partnership matters and, with no details being offered, plans for the further development of Georgia's special operations forces.
The meeting, held within the framework of the NATO-Georgia Commission, established a month after Georgian government of President Mikheil Saakashvili precipitated a five-day war with Russia in August of 2008, was presided over by General Philip Breedlove, jointly NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the top commander of U.S. European Command.
Shortly thereafter, Deputy Defense Minister Mikheil Darchiashvili led a delegation of Georgian defense personnel in a meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission in which the Georgian mission in Afghanistan and continued efforts by the nation's American and other NATO nations' sponsors to further interoperability between the Caucasus state and the North Atlantic Alliance in regard to weaponry, military tactics and command structure and equipment were deliberated over. The results of the exchange will be forwarded to the North Atlantic Council, NATO's top governing body.
At the time of the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia, provoked by Tbilisi's assault on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinval, Georgia was the third-largest troop contributor for the military occupation of Iraq, providing 2,000 personnel, with only the U.S. and Britain supplying more. Those Georgian forces were flown home on American military transport aircraft during the aforementioned war. Currently, Georgia has over 1,500 troops serving under NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, the largest contingent of soldiers assigned for that war by any non-NATO member state.
The Georgian armed forces have been trained by the U.S. and its NATO allies over for past twelve years.
Georgia, which NATO promised full membership at the bloc's summit in Bucharest, Romania in 2008, is one of four aspirant countries, as NATO calls them; that is, those nations next in line for full membership in the U.S.-controlled military alliance, the longest lived in modern times - having celebrated its 65th anniversary this April 4th - and the largest in history, with 28 members and over 40 partners. The other aspirants are former Yugoslav federal republics Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro.
Georgia: NATO Grooms New Member In The South Caucasus
Rick Rozoff
НАТО готовит Грузию к вступлению в свои ряды
http://inosmi.ru/world/
This past week the North Atlantic Treaty Organization continued its ongoing efforts to prepare the nation of Georgia for full membership in the military bloc.
A meeting of the NATO Military Committee, consisting of military representatives and the chiefs of defense of the 28 full members of the alliance, and the chief of the Georgian armed forces, head of the General Staff Major-General Vakhtang Kapanadze, occurred in Brussels a week ago.
According to the Georgian Defense Ministry, issues discussed included assorted partnership matters and, with no details being offered, plans for the further development of Georgia's special operations forces.
The meeting, held within the framework of the NATO-Georgia Commission, established a month after Georgian government of President Mikheil Saakashvili precipitated a five-day war with Russia in August of 2008, was presided over by General Philip Breedlove, jointly NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the top commander of U.S. European Command.
Shortly thereafter, Deputy Defense Minister Mikheil Darchiashvili led a delegation of Georgian defense personnel in a meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission in which the Georgian mission in Afghanistan and continued efforts by the nation's American and other NATO nations' sponsors to further interoperability between the Caucasus state and the North Atlantic Alliance in regard to weaponry, military tactics and command structure and equipment were deliberated over. The results of the exchange will be forwarded to the North Atlantic Council, NATO's top governing body.
At the time of the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia, provoked by Tbilisi's assault on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinval, Georgia was the third-largest troop contributor for the military occupation of Iraq, providing 2,000 personnel, with only the U.S. and Britain supplying more. Those Georgian forces were flown home on American military transport aircraft during the aforementioned war. Currently, Georgia has over 1,500 troops serving under NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, the largest contingent of soldiers assigned for that war by any non-NATO member state.
The Georgian armed forces have been trained by the U.S. and its NATO allies over for past twelve years.
Georgia, which NATO promised full membership at the bloc's summit in Bucharest, Romania in 2008, is one of four aspirant countries, as NATO calls them; that is, those nations next in line for full membership in the U.S.-controlled military alliance, the longest lived in modern times - having celebrated its 65th anniversary this April 4th - and the largest in history, with 28 members and over 40 partners. The other aspirants are former Yugoslav federal republics Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro.
Tue May 27, 2014 5:35 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Boyle, Francis A" facboyle
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (phone)
217-244-1478 (fax)
(personal comments only)
From: Boyle, Francis A
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2014 11:35 AM
To: Killeacle
Subject: Ukraine's Potemkin Village Election for Obama's Chocolate King
OPINION: Ukraine's Elections Nothing but PR with Gloomy Outlook
RIA Novosti
May 26, 2014 Monday
Copyright 2014 RIA Novosti All Rights Reserved
[https://advance.lexis.com/
Length: 435 words
Byline: РИА Новости,РИАН
Body
MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti), Nastassia Astrasheuskaya - As the early Ukrainian presidential elections conclude the future looks even gloomier for Ukraine than its present or past, says American political scientist Francis Boyle.
"These elections are only for international show and public relations purposes. It's not really serious. They are designed to give a fig leaf of legitimacy to the neo-Nazi junta in Kiev. Regretfully, I am afraid these elections will make things worse," Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, told RIA Novosti on Sunday.
Ukraine has been plagued by deadly protests for more than six months. Tensions moved from Kiev eastward, after the ousting of the former president Viktor Yanukovych on February 22.
The Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where dozens perished in clashes between the nationalist special forces and federalists, held independence referendums earlier this month.
The scholar and legal adviser during the war for independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Boyle said Ukraine followed the scenario of the Balkan states.
"The future does not look very good. It will only get worse and degenerate into civil war, ethnic cleansing and genocide. That's the Bosnian precedent," he said, adding that the worst part was that the United States were encouraging that.
The alleged victory of Petro Poroshenko, former foreign and trade minister of Ukraine and now a chocolate tycoon, owner of Rochen confectionary, who got more than 50 percent votes, according to exit-polls, is another card in favor of the US, and even more so of NATO, Boyle said.
"You don't have legitimate authentic leaders over there - oligarchs in the pocket of the United States and the NATO states. Kiev put all the oligarchs allegedly in control of the Russian speaking portions of Ukraine. And some of their employees go out and attack innocent people," he said, adding that the Obama administration wasn't exercising any restraint on the Right Sector, and was even commending them "for preserving law and order."
"The real danger here is that this new president of Ukraine may turn around and ask the US and NATO somehow to defend it by providing troops, weapons, equipment, supplies," Boyle said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that Ukraine joining NATO was his biggest concern.
"Tomorrow Ukraine may join NATO, while the day after tomorrow parts of the US anti-missile system could be deployed there," he told the St. Petersburg investment forum on Friday.
He also said his decision to make Crimea part of Russia in March was partly a measure to protect it.
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (phone)
217-244-1478 (fax)
(personal comments only)
Tue May 27, 2014 5:57 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://en.ria.ru/world/
RIA Novosti
May 27, 2014
Nearly 100 Killed in Monday’s Donetsk Hostilities – Federalists
DONETSK: Over 50 members of local self-defense forces and nearly the same number of civilians were killed in clashes on Monday with pro-Kiev troops in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said Tuesday.
“We have lost more than 50 militiamen. A lot of people were injured when the Ukrainian army attacked two Kamaz [trucks] transporting the injured from the area of clashes near the airport. At least 15 people died then,” Alexander Borodai told journalists who gathered outside a city morgue.
On Monday, Donetsk was targeted by a special operation of pro-Kiev forces. After a battle at the Donetsk airport, the self-defense forces retreated after having been bombed by Ukrainian aircraft. National Guard units of the Kiev regime began moving towards the center of the city, but federalists blocked their path with vehicles, and shooting broke out.
“Two of our Kamaz vehicles were shot both from the air, from helicopters and from an ambush on the ground. The shooting of the injured contradicts all the international conventions,” Borodai said.
Most of the federalists were killed when Ukrainian troops deployed helicopters and fighter aircraft against them, he added.
About 50 civilians died when Ukrainian troops opened fire at self-defense forces who were retreating through residential districts.
Several dozen corpses were shown to the journalists. Most victims among the self-defense activists were local citizens. No Russian citizens were among them, he said.
There were also casualties among the Ukrainian troops, Borodai said.
The Ukrainian army is now controlling only the airport. All roadblocks approaching the city are under the control of the self-defense forces.
The deadly clashes came after Sunday’s presidential vote in the country amid a large-scale military operation launched by the new Kiev authorities to crack down on protesters refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the government.
After claiming victory in the election, Poroshenko said the special operation in eastern Ukraine should continue and become more effective. On Monday, Poroshenko said he was ready to sit down at the negotiating table with all people of the turbulent Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but added illegal armed forces must lay down their weapons.
==============================
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/
Itar-Tass
May 27, 2014
Shooting breaks out near Donetsk airport, fighter planes fly over
DONETSK: Automatic fire has broken out again near the Donetsk airport, with helicopter gunships and fight planes flying over, a militia representative told ITAR-TASS. Helicopters opened fire at militia units' ground positions, according to preliminary reports.
Jets have returned to the air space over Donetsk on Tuesday, but pilots have not been conducting any operations yet, ITAR-TASS reported from the scene.
Ukraine’s law-enforcers have blocked all exits from Donetsk and do not even let passenger buses leave the area of military operation, a militia representative told ITAR-TASS.
"The only road out of the city is towards the settlement of Makeyevka, but you'll need detours to get there anyway," he said.
Meanwhile, the city has scrambled to evacuate schools and all the housing and public utilities departments have been ordered to prepare bomb shelters in case of active fighting and bombings.
The press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said that the Kiev authorities had resumed the punitive operation in the Donetsk territory at 12.00 pm local time on Tuesday. The population had been warned beforehand that they might leave the Donetsk territory, but the people are reluctant to leave their homes.
Armed clashes in the area of Donetsk Sergey Prokofiev International Airport began on Monday morning. The Ukrainian law enforcers have used combat aircraft, including jets and helicopters, in the rebel territory. The fighting in the area of the airport continued throughout Monday and last night.
==============================
http://www.interfax.com/
Interfax
May 27, 2014
Slovyansk militia claims 3 were killed as projectiles hit apartment building (Part 2)
DONETSK: Fierce armed clashes between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and local militiamen took place in the city of Slovyansk and nearby villages last night, a spokesman for the local militia headquarters told Interfax.
"Three people were killed and scores were injured when two projectiles hit a section of a nine-storey apartment building last night. The National Guard launched strikes against us from the Severny neighborhood and the village of Semenivka. There have been casualties and injuries on our side. Their exact numbers are not yet known," the spokesman said.
A Slovyansk diocese, for its part, said in a press release that a woman died as a result of a mine explosion near the Church of the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God in the Artem neighborhood of Slovyansk.
The force of the blast blew out several windows of the church and damaged the building facade and the fence. The mine landed just ten meters from the church, which was empty of worshippers at that time, it said.
"Strikes targeting this part of the city started at around 7:30 p.m. Five mines were launched in the direction of the Artem neighborhood, damaging residential buildings and a dormitory, where students were staying. Another mine damaged an apartment building located 200 meters from the church. The information available suggests that two people, a man and a woman, were killed in this building," according to the press release.
Artem is Slovyansk's most densely populated neighborhood, where approximately 40,000 people live.
The Church of the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God is the center of the district's spiritual life. It took local residents three years to build it. Parents and their children frequently walk near the church when no religious services are taking place inside it.
==============================
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/
Itar-Tass
May 27, 2014
Leader of Sloviansk’s volunteer force suggests evacuating people
SLOVIANSK: Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the leader of Sloviansk volunteer units, has suggested evacuating everybody who wishes to leave the city.
“We suggest preparing children and adults who wish to leave the city for evacuation. We have everything ready to evacuate them. I believe that today we will decide where they can go,” Ponomaryov said at a meeting at the administration of the self-rpoclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. According to him, Sloviansk’s civilian population could be resettled to other parts of the republic, including Svyatogorsk and Brusino.
Meanwhile, Denis Pushilin, chairman of the presidium of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, told ITAR-TASS that casualties from Ukraine’s military operation that resumed on Monday could reach a hundred people, including 20 to 50 civilians.
RIA Novosti
May 27, 2014
Nearly 100 Killed in Monday’s Donetsk Hostilities – Federalists
DONETSK: Over 50 members of local self-defense forces and nearly the same number of civilians were killed in clashes on Monday with pro-Kiev troops in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said Tuesday.
“We have lost more than 50 militiamen. A lot of people were injured when the Ukrainian army attacked two Kamaz [trucks] transporting the injured from the area of clashes near the airport. At least 15 people died then,” Alexander Borodai told journalists who gathered outside a city morgue.
On Monday, Donetsk was targeted by a special operation of pro-Kiev forces. After a battle at the Donetsk airport, the self-defense forces retreated after having been bombed by Ukrainian aircraft. National Guard units of the Kiev regime began moving towards the center of the city, but federalists blocked their path with vehicles, and shooting broke out.
“Two of our Kamaz vehicles were shot both from the air, from helicopters and from an ambush on the ground. The shooting of the injured contradicts all the international conventions,” Borodai said.
Most of the federalists were killed when Ukrainian troops deployed helicopters and fighter aircraft against them, he added.
About 50 civilians died when Ukrainian troops opened fire at self-defense forces who were retreating through residential districts.
Several dozen corpses were shown to the journalists. Most victims among the self-defense activists were local citizens. No Russian citizens were among them, he said.
There were also casualties among the Ukrainian troops, Borodai said.
The Ukrainian army is now controlling only the airport. All roadblocks approaching the city are under the control of the self-defense forces.
The deadly clashes came after Sunday’s presidential vote in the country amid a large-scale military operation launched by the new Kiev authorities to crack down on protesters refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the government.
After claiming victory in the election, Poroshenko said the special operation in eastern Ukraine should continue and become more effective. On Monday, Poroshenko said he was ready to sit down at the negotiating table with all people of the turbulent Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but added illegal armed forces must lay down their weapons.
==============================
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/
Itar-Tass
May 27, 2014
Shooting breaks out near Donetsk airport, fighter planes fly over
DONETSK: Automatic fire has broken out again near the Donetsk airport, with helicopter gunships and fight planes flying over, a militia representative told ITAR-TASS. Helicopters opened fire at militia units' ground positions, according to preliminary reports.
Jets have returned to the air space over Donetsk on Tuesday, but pilots have not been conducting any operations yet, ITAR-TASS reported from the scene.
Ukraine’s law-enforcers have blocked all exits from Donetsk and do not even let passenger buses leave the area of military operation, a militia representative told ITAR-TASS.
"The only road out of the city is towards the settlement of Makeyevka, but you'll need detours to get there anyway," he said.
Meanwhile, the city has scrambled to evacuate schools and all the housing and public utilities departments have been ordered to prepare bomb shelters in case of active fighting and bombings.
The press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said that the Kiev authorities had resumed the punitive operation in the Donetsk territory at 12.00 pm local time on Tuesday. The population had been warned beforehand that they might leave the Donetsk territory, but the people are reluctant to leave their homes.
Armed clashes in the area of Donetsk Sergey Prokofiev International Airport began on Monday morning. The Ukrainian law enforcers have used combat aircraft, including jets and helicopters, in the rebel territory. The fighting in the area of the airport continued throughout Monday and last night.
==============================
http://www.interfax.com/
Interfax
May 27, 2014
Slovyansk militia claims 3 were killed as projectiles hit apartment building (Part 2)
DONETSK: Fierce armed clashes between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and local militiamen took place in the city of Slovyansk and nearby villages last night, a spokesman for the local militia headquarters told Interfax.
"Three people were killed and scores were injured when two projectiles hit a section of a nine-storey apartment building last night. The National Guard launched strikes against us from the Severny neighborhood and the village of Semenivka. There have been casualties and injuries on our side. Their exact numbers are not yet known," the spokesman said.
A Slovyansk diocese, for its part, said in a press release that a woman died as a result of a mine explosion near the Church of the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God in the Artem neighborhood of Slovyansk.
The force of the blast blew out several windows of the church and damaged the building facade and the fence. The mine landed just ten meters from the church, which was empty of worshippers at that time, it said.
"Strikes targeting this part of the city started at around 7:30 p.m. Five mines were launched in the direction of the Artem neighborhood, damaging residential buildings and a dormitory, where students were staying. Another mine damaged an apartment building located 200 meters from the church. The information available suggests that two people, a man and a woman, were killed in this building," according to the press release.
Artem is Slovyansk's most densely populated neighborhood, where approximately 40,000 people live.
The Church of the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God is the center of the district's spiritual life. It took local residents three years to build it. Parents and their children frequently walk near the church when no religious services are taking place inside it.
==============================
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/
Itar-Tass
May 27, 2014
Leader of Sloviansk’s volunteer force suggests evacuating people
SLOVIANSK: Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the leader of Sloviansk volunteer units, has suggested evacuating everybody who wishes to leave the city.
“We suggest preparing children and adults who wish to leave the city for evacuation. We have everything ready to evacuate them. I believe that today we will decide where they can go,” Ponomaryov said at a meeting at the administration of the self-rpoclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. According to him, Sloviansk’s civilian population could be resettled to other parts of the republic, including Svyatogorsk and Brusino.
Meanwhile, Denis Pushilin, chairman of the presidium of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, told ITAR-TASS that casualties from Ukraine’s military operation that resumed on Monday could reach a hundred people, including 20 to 50 civilians.
