I am proud to announce, that the short lived Donbass republic has almost fallen to Ukrainian forces! The rebels are confined to a desolate and abandoned metropolitan area in Donetsk. Military experts predict that the republic will fall in less than a week, or shorter, pending on escalation of Russian artillery. The republic has lost over 50% of its territory during the course of the war. Before.... After... http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN0G40YI20140804 With rebels fleeing to Russia en' masse, we can now celebrate glorious victor! Sweet Ukraine, you made me proud! Now lets bask in the nationalist glow of Ukrainian Revolution music. [video=youtube;bHzHlSLhtmM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHzHlSLhtmM[/video]
OP somehow missed the distinction between "falls" and "almost fallen" and "fighting there." The fighting has reached the region's capital city of Donetsk it seems: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28665050 Considering the low level of competence portrayed by Kiev thus far, anything could happen. The rebel's territorial losses thus far were supposedly part of their intention to fortify Donetsk and may not be indicative of a Kiev victory.
That isn't what our OSCE reports are saying. Rebels are fleeing to Russia in the 100's, civilians fled from the city, and they no longer have an economic base. How do you think they afford weapons and produce money when they are confined to downtown donetsk, surrounded on 4 sides? This is called a siege, and it ends bloody for those being starved. The rebels can choose to die out inside the city limits, or attack a superior and larger force waiting outside. Over 10,000 rebels have left the Volstok battalion and People's militia. Are you also denying the expert opinions? Do you say what is true or what you want to believe?
You should provide links if you want me to argue with you. The BBC report mentions Ukrainian military trying to take refuge in Russia (that probably did not end well for them) and there have been a lot of refugees heading into Russia. That a city under siege no longer has an "economic base" is not so weird. Otherwise I can't go into any more detail than that.
300 Ukrainian soldiers fled battle during the Lungansk offensive. Considering there are 35,000 soldiers deployed in Donbass, 40,000 mobilized troops, and only 15,000 rebels, how do you seriously expect the rebels to win? It is simply impossible. Sorry, but they are outnumbered 9:1 The point remains the same. They aren't producing money anymore, can't get weapons into the city, and are surrounded by an extremely large force. The only hope for them is for Russia to take their call for troops, but they've been checked already, ceasing artillery strikes after the recent 5 corporate riots.
You got a reading comprehension problem, OP? Your own linked article is about UKRAINIANS running into Russia, NOT the rebels. Here's the entire article. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ KIEV (Reuters) -Ukraine said on Monday it was in talks with Moscow over the return of 311 Ukrainian soldiers and border guards who had been forced by fighting with separatists to cross into Russia, but Russian border authorities said the troops were seeking asylum. Both sides seemed set to use the fate of the troops to score propaganda points as Ukrainian government forces extended steady gains it has made against the pro-Russian separatists since a Malaysian airliner was downed over a rebel-held area on July 17. Ukrainian defence spokesman Andriy Lysenko said a group of soldiers and border guards, who had been caught between the Russian border to the east and rebel positions in the west, had crossed into Russia in the early hours of Monday. He put their number at 311, telling a news briefing they had retreated into Russia for safety reasons after helping their comrades break through rebel lines. Kiev, he said, was now negotiating with Russian authorities for their return. In Moscow, authorities acknowledged that Ukrainian troops had crossed into Russian territory - though they put the number at 438 - and Russian border guards said they had crossed during the night seeking asylum. "They were tired of the war and wanted no further part in it," Vasily Malayev, spokesman for the border guards in the Rostov region of Russia, told Reuters by telephone. However, he added that 180 would be returned to Ukraine later on Monday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking to Itar-Tass and Rossiya24 TV, said Russia would facilitate the return of the Ukrainian soldiers but suggested they would be vulnerable to prosecution for desertion once they returned home. "I expect Ukrainian authorities to understand that it is absolutely unacceptable, when Ukrainians ... are forced to fight with their own people, to treat those who refuse to do so as traitors to the motherland," Lavrov said. RAILWAY HUB Ukrainian government forces recaptured the important railway hub of Yasynuvata on Sunday from the rebels, Lysenko said, adding that five soldiers had been killed and 15 others wounded in fighting in the 24 hours up to Monday. However, the rebels, who seized Yasynuvata -which lies just north of the city of Donetsk - in May, denied that government forces had retaken the railway hub. Government troops, who have been battling the rebels since April, have now all but encircled the separatists' second-largest stronghold of Luhansk and rebels have declared a "state of siege" in Donetsk, the largest city they hold. Luhansk has been left without electricity or running water and the mobile network is also down, local officials said. At the crash site of the Malaysian Boeing, international experts resumed their recovery and investigative work on Monday. "After a delay due to fighting, the team of Australians, Dutch and Malaysian experts began work," a statement by the Dutch mission said. A large group of international experts began work there on Friday after a lull in fighting in the area allowed them finally, after lengthy delays, to reach the site. The victims included 196 Dutch, 27 Australians and 43 Malaysians.
Wrong link, sorry. I had 4 open. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/03/ukraine-army-advance-donetsk-russia-rebels
Even if I accept your unsourced numbers, you are counting 70,000 (40,000 not in the Donetsk region according to you) against 15,000. That'd be 6:1, not 9:1. Seems like you should slow down. The thing to note about this conflict is that we aren't even at the guerrilla warfare stage yet. Even taking Donetsk would probably not be the end of the fighting. The Palestinians have been fighting the Israelis for like 50 years now.
Did you take into account the million reserves and pro-kiev militias? This is much different than Gaza. The rebels have minimal support according to gallup polls, and aren't composed of 15 millitant groups. This is two organizations surviving solely off of proxy funding.
Uh, do you think the Gazans make their own weapons? Or that having more groups is necessarily better than fewer groups? That's a matter of organization and not numbers. Young men who flee into Russia may well be using it as a safe base of operations and then Russian troop maneuvers are to cover their return into Ukrainian territory at night so that satellites can't analyze their tracks during the day. This conflict is probably going to go on for several more years at least.
Ukrainian bombs kill civilians in Donetsk. Family 5 people were killed in the basement of his home.[video=youtube;pwv_Fq8uA7o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwv_Fq8uA7o&feature=youtu.be[/video]
This will not contribute in peace in Ukraine, Poroshenko will have a problem to explain why it was necessary. Collateral damage and no apologies.
Yes but they're dying one thousand to one, and many are being burned alive in tanks...so it keeps equaling out. As for the Ukrainian soldiers, they surrendered because they didn't have any food or water for a week. They said Kiev simply deserted them. Oh well I guess the oligarchs don't care, it's not their kids. It's not your kids either because I don't believe you're a Ukrainian. But that's okay, everyone gets their turn. The rebels are having a hard time holding on to so much land because they don't have that many men and they can't spread them out. Also they care a little bit more about human lives. Anyway we have to wait and see, since as I said, the Ukrainian army is being killed off at a rate of one thousand to one. The concern for Russia right now is the genocide, since the civilians in the Donbas are being left to die without hospitals, water and electricity by the war criminal Poroshenko.
So you're telling me the people of Ukraine want to die for the Nuland Kaganate with its Ukrainian mafias and Nazi recruits. Now let me ask you something, what good is owning a nation if there aren't any people to till the fields, as the saying goes? How do you expect the Ukrainian people to survive when their pensions and wages are being lowered 70%, gas will be non existent and the area which subsidized them has been bombed into the stone age?
No problem, dumb Obama will send US troops to fight for Ukrainian freedom soon.It is well-known that Americans are cannon fodder for some crazy politicians.
Poroshenko will explain nothing, because he is not more, but Obama's puppet.Obama will sometimes have a problem, after dems get 10 % by the next elections and dumb Hussein himself get impeached.
The Kievan regime is lucky it's only got freedom-minded civilians and their ill-supplied fighters to label as "terrorists" and pick on accordingly rather than a properly supplied and organised army.
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