There's an interesting report in "The Telegraph" today by Tom Parfitt, who has been keeping company with pro-Kyiv paramilitaries and says Ukraine's use of such forces ought to send "a shiver down Europe's spine."
The Azov battalion has the most chilling reputation of all. Last week, it came to the fore as it mounted a bold attack on the rebel redoubt of Donetsk, striking deep into the suburbs of a city under siege.
In Marinka, on the western outskirts, the battalion was sent forward ahead of tanks and armoured vehicles of the Ukrainian army’s 51st Mechanised Brigade. A ferocious close-quarters fight ensued as they got caught in an ambush laid by well-trained separatists, who shot from 30 yards away. The Azov irregulars replied with a squall of fire, fending off the attack and seizing a rebel checkpoint.
Mr Grek, also known as “Balagan”, died in the battle and 14 others were wounded. Speaking after the ceremony Andriy Biletsky, the battalion’s commander, told the Telegraph the operation had been a “100% success”. “The battalion is a family and every death is painful to us but these were minimal losses,” he said. “Most important of all, we established a bridgehead for the attack on Donetsk. And when that comes we will be leading the way.”
The military achievement is hard to dispute. By securing Marinka the battalion “widened the front and tightened the circle”, around the rebels’ capital, as another fighter put it. While Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, prevaricates about sending an invasion force into Ukraine, the rebels he backs are losing ground fast.
But Kiev’s use of volunteer paramilitaries to stamp out the Russian-backed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics”, proclaimed in eastern Ukraine in March, should send a shiver down Europe’s spine. Recently formed battalions such as Donbas, Dnipro and Azov, with several thousand men under their command, are officially under the control of the interior ministry but their financing is murky, their training inadequate and their ideology often alarming.
The Azov men use the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel (Wolf’s Hook) symbol on their banner and members of the battalion are openly white supremacists, or anti-Semites.
“Personally, I’m a Nazi,” said “Phantom”, a 23-year-old former lawyer at the ceremony wearing camouflage and holding a Kalashnikov. “I don’t hate any other nationalities but I believe each nation should have its own country.” He added: “We have one idea: to liberate our land from terrorists.”
The Telegraph was invited to see some 300 Azov fighters pay respects to Mr Grek, their first comrade to die since the battalion was formed in May. An honour guard fired volleys into the air at the battalion’s headquarters on the edge of Urzuf, a small beach resort on Ukraine’s Azov Sea coast. Two more militiamen died on Sunday fighting north of Donetsk. Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president, called one of them a hero.
Read the entire article here
A Ukrainian military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, has told Reuters that Kyiv's forces have now cut Donetsk off from the other main separatist-held city of Luhansk in the east.
He also said that a total of 568 Ukrainian troops have been killed during the past four months of fighting and that 2,120 soldiers had been wounded.
This from newsru.com. Russia is conducting military exercises near the Estonian border.
Interesting if true. Via Kevin Rothrock: "Ukraine claims rebel leader Igor Strelkov has fled Donetsk & is “drinking heavily.” Russia fired on a Luhansk suburb?"
We wrote last week about Strelkov's growing frustrations.
And here's the latest situation map on the fighting in eastern Ukraine from the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's information center.
And here's a picture of the shelled prison:
And here's more from our news desk on the artillery strike on a prison in Donetsk:
In eastern Ukraine, more than 100 inmates have escaped from a prison in the city of Donetsk after it was hit by an artillery shell fired in fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels.
One inmate was reportedly killed in the artillery strike.
In a statement, the Donetsk City Council said the high-security prison housed dangerous criminals. Spokesman Maksim Rovenskiy said the fugitives include people jailed for murder, robbery, and rape.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian military spokesman says government forces are preparing for the final stage of recapturing the city.
Andriy Lysenko told Reuters that Kyiv's forces had now cut Donetsk off from the other main separatist-held city of Luhansk in the east.
Ukrainian media reports, citing residents, said Donetsk came under renewed shelling on August 11.
Meanwhile in Russia. A tank biathlon.