Total Krieg: Kiev’s NATO-Backed Junta Prepares Full-Scale Offensive in Donbass
Ukrainian security officials are preparing a full-scale offensive in Donbass. This was reported by the operational command of the DPR. The Republic's authorities called on the OSCE and the international community not to allow this.
Our military correspondent Alexander Sladkov is talking to us live from Donetsk.
- Hello, Alexander. What did you find out? What are the details?
- Hello. It's true that today, the DPR military called journalists that work here in the DPR, to a special press conference. Eduard Basurin, Deputy Defense Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, reported several interesting details. Worrying, interesting, suspicious ones.
The first one. Eduard Basurin confirmed the suspicions that have been discussed here for a long time — the civilians in the Donbass area that's under Ukrainian occupation note a significant increase in Ukrainian troop deployments on the demarcation line between the parties to the conflict. That was first.
Secondly, referring to information coming from the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine, Eduard Basurin stated that the Ukrainian military is bringing in military equipment which, according to the Minsk agreements, must be restricted to certain areas, but is being deployed to the front line.
One more interesting point is that the 30th and the 57th infantry detachments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to the DPR military, received money for military upgrades and bonuses for their servicemembers.
All this means only one thing — they're preparing for a full-scale offensive. That's what Eduard Basurin said.
Eduard Basurin: "The Ukrainian side, violating the Minsk agreements, is actively preparing for an offensive throughout the whole demarcation line. An attempt to kill the Minister of Defense of the Republic, General-Lieutenant Kononov, only confirms the intensification of sabotage operations by the Armed Forces of Ukraine's special operations units. Our conclusions have also been confirmed by the Ukrainian General Staff's statement published by Ukrainian media about the preparation of offensive operations. The authenticity of this document has been confirmed by military experts and analysts. The composition of the forces mentioned in the document matches our intelligence reports completely".
The DPR military insists that now is the best time for Ukraine to attack Donbass. Here's what Basurin says.
Eduard Basurin: "Ukrainian strategists chose this moment for an attack not by chance. First of all, we suspect that it's connected to the fact that the international community's attention will be directed to the Russian presidential election and the World Cup in Russia. In connection with the armed aggression planned by the Ukrainian command, we're asking the international community to call on Ukraine, represented by Poroshenko, Poltorak, and Zabrodsky, to remember its obligations under the Minsk agreements related to not resuming the military conflict in Donbass".
The situation is difficult, and the shelling continues. But the Republics go on with their normal life, although they're also fighting for it.
- Alexander, thank you. We'll be hoping that Ukraine comes back to its senses and doesn't do what the intelligence reports show.
Alexander Sladkov talked about the situation in Donbass.