Note: See beginning of the thread to note that Ukranian military was defecting, bankrupt and had no supplies...Now they seem to bve armed, organised and "pounding"

10 August 2014 Last updated at 16:13

Ukraine crisis: Army pounds rebels in Donetsk

Ukraine's military has pounded the main pro-Russian rebel stronghold of Donetsk with artillery fire, damaging buildings but few casualties are reported.

A military spokesman said the rebels were in "panic and chaos" and had begun to desert en masse.

Ukraine is mulling the possibility of allowing a humanitarian mission into the area, as residents struggle without power or reliable sources of food.

Some 1,500 people are estimated to have died since the conflict began in April.

Rebels sparked the four-month battle when they overran large swathes of the east and declared independence from Ukraine.

Hardship and fear

The rebels have sent out mixed signals in recent days, calling for a ceasefire but also insisting they would carry on fighting until the army laid down its weapons.

Russia, which is widely accused of providing military support to the rebels, has repeatedly offered to send a humanitarian mission.

Russian media quote Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying he is in talks with the Ukrainian government, the Red Cross and the UN about an aid mission.

Western powers had expressed fears that Russia would use a humanitarian mission as a pretext to send in troops.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said late on Saturday he would consider an aid mission, but only if it was international and unarmed.

Ukrainian troops are encamped around the city

Donetsk residents are living under increasing hardship, many taking refuge in basements and bomb shelters.

"This is a real war: it's impossible to live in this city. I've been sleeping in the basement for the past week," Inna Drobyshevskaya, a 48-year-old lawyer, told the Associated Press.

The AP reported constant shelling on Sunday morning.

Buses were still burning on the streets on Sunday after apparently being hit in firefights.

Residential buildings were also badly damaged, according to AP.

Military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said a number of strikes on enemy positions had been carried out overnight.

"A large number of enemy hardware and personnel was destroyed. Panic and chaos have been noted among the terrorists," he said.

Some 300,000 people have already fled the city, which had a population of one million before the conflict began.

In the other rebel stronghold of Luhansk, residents have been without power for a week and are struggling to find reliable sources of food.

Reports on Saturday claimed the army had recaptured Krasnyi Luch, a city on the main road between the two cities.

The city's recapture would in effect divide the two rebel strongholds and allow the army to further squeeze Donetsk.

21AUG2014:

28AUG2014:

Rebels opened a new front in the south by seizing the coastal town of Novoazovsk.

Showdown for Mariupol

25JAN2015:

1. Rebels attack Mariupol which is strategic town linking Russia to Crimea
2. A solider with American or Australian Accent caught on Camera fighting Rebels...Is this real? If so whose stupid idea is it to send Western SOldiers into Ukraine? Are they trying to kick off WWIII???
3. "Possible" Russian Army Officer on what would happen if Russian really attacked Ukraine!

January 25, 2015
Anti-Maidan Kharkov - Facebook page
Translated from Russian by Kristina Rus

We will not name the author of this material, as he is an active officer of the armed forces of Russia, but he perfectly described the situation - What would happen if the Ukrainian military faced the Russian army?

The titles of some complexes we have SPECIFICALLY designated with the letters of the Latin alphabet not to write their name, as mentioning some of them is undesirable for the author. However, I think that military people will understand what are the systems in question:

"According to our Ukrainian partners, commenting on the latest ATO news, and referring to the "intercepted data from reports of the Russian army", today another division of the Russian army was destroyed near Lugansk...
------

I want to briefly explain to the Ukrainian colleagues, what is the modern Russian army, and what would happen, if it would come to visit them in reality, and not in their wet dreams.
 

1. Firstly, today we use digital radio communication with local encryption. You can intercept it, but you cannot decipher it. The code changes in 50 minutes, an hour, an hour and twenty-two minutes - on arbitrary unpredictable schedule. Ukrainian military and the armed forces of Novorossia are using an old analog model, which you can listen to. And the Russian army now has communications which was previously only on secure communication lines, - you can only hear the crackling and a characteristic murmur.
2. Secondly, if the Russian army appears in front of UAF, it will be easy to determine.
3. The first sign - failure of all means of communication, full discharging of batteries in vehicles, tanks and other equipment, at the same time, discharge of batteries in mobile phones, the targets, and radio stations. Then, there is a rapture of electric circuits throughout all the equipment - all of it. This is EMP. All engines stall, no way to restart. This is how the system "X" works (in order to protect the author we do not specify the name), with a range of up to 20 km.
4. Second - complete failure of all systems using LCD monitors, the failure of all target-locating devices of the air defense system. This is how the complex "Altair" works (this is a known complex in the world, we can name it).
5. Third - a failure to deploy any kinds of guided missile weapons - from MANPADS to PTURS [anti-tank guided reactive missile]. Upon launching, the ammunition liquidates itself. This is a  battalion complex "Z" - on the basis of MTLB [multi-target light armored transporter]. Range - 15 kilometers.
6. Fourth - it is impossible to use a drone and low-flying aircraft. Their on board electronics will fail. This is system "Y". Then there is a complex "Avtobaza", which can forcibly land a drone.
7. What will happen next? Dozens (hundreds, if necessary) of the latest combat helicopters, flying over all the roads, start hunting for single armored vehicles, trains, cars. Railroad is paralyzed, bridges blown up. The  lights go out on the home front - electric stations are out of service. Civil and military headquarters on the home front and separate leaders simultaneously are liquidated by the recon-subversive groups.

This is roughly how the Russian army would conduct military operations today. Therefore, the wet dreams about the "hero-cyborgs", spitting flame on hundreds of Russian tanks, are better left to science fiction writers."

23MAR2015:

bigstory.ap.org/article/4af1788a18994375950062d9f8abe244/...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Monday overwhelmingly approved a resolution urging President Barack Obama to send lethal weapons to Ukraine to protect its sovereignty in its fight against Russian-backed rebels.

The resolution was approved 348 to 48.

There is bipartisan support in Congress to provide the arms to Ukraine forces battling the rebels. Russian President Vladimir Putin denies arming rebels in the war in eastern Ukraine, which began last April after Moscow annexed the mostly Russian-speaking Crimean Peninsula.

State Department officials say Obama administration officials are discussing lethal assistance but are waiting to see whether the agreements that led to February's cease-fire are implemented.

01OCT2015: PUTIN DIPLOMACY MASTER CLASS!

Russia has pulled a fantastic diplomatic victory by snatching the lead from the dithering Arabs & Americans in the Middle-East

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/russian-air-...