Just coming in from Reuters:
EU'S TUSK SAYS EU, U.S. ARE UNITED IN DETERMINATION TO MAINTAIN SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA
EU'S TUSK SAYS IMPORTANT FOR EU, US TO STAY UNITED ON UKRAINE CRISIS
OBAMA SAYS NEED TO MAKE SURE U.S. AND EUROPE WORK TO MAKE SURE EFFECTIVE MONITORING OF MINSK AGREEMENT ON UKRAINE
U.S. military unit headed to Baltics for training mission
WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - About 750 U.S. Army tanks, fighting vehicles and other pieces of military equipment arrived in Latvia on Monday as a part of a training mission to reassure NATO allies worried about potential Russian aggression due to the Ukraine crisis, the Pentagon said.
Some 3,000 members of a 3rd Infantry Division brigade combat team will begin flowing into the region next week as part of a 90-day deployment to participate in multinational training missions with NATO partners in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the department said.
Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the unit would take over responsibility for the land forces training mission from the U.S. Army-Europe's 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which will depart later in March.
Warren said the rotation was part of the U.S. military's Operation Atlantic Resolve, aimed at demonstrating commitment to NATO allies in light of Russia's aggression in Ukraine.
He said the equipment, which arrived in Riga, Latvia, by ship, was part of a regular armored brigade combat team set, including two battalions of tanks, two battalions of fighting vehicles, artillery, helicopters and other equipment.
Current plans call for the tanks, fighting vehicles and other heavy rolling stock now arriving in Latvia to remain in Europe after the 3rd Infantry Division brigade departs in 90 days, a U.S. military official said later.
U.S. military officials have said they planned to preposition equipment in Europe this year for a full brigade combat team so troops rotating to the region do not always have to ship over their equipment. It is not yet clear where in Europe the equipment will be permanently based.
Russia's support of anti-government rebels in Ukraine has raised concerns across the region about whether Moscow might make similar moves against other countries in eastern Europe.
The latest from AFP:
Kiev, March 9, 2015 (AFP) -- Ukraine accused pro-Russian separatists Monday of using mortars and a tank to fire on government positions near the eastern port of Mariupol in clashes that lasted several hours, violating a nearly month old ceasefire.
The militants had fired on Ukraine's positions and were attempting to "force our contingents from Shyrokyne," a village about 10 kilometres east of Mariupol on the Azov Sea coast, the headquarters of the army's operations in the east said in a Facebook post.
Mariupol, a steel-making city of 500,000, is the biggest urban centre in the conflict zone still controlled by Kiev. The frontline runs through Shyrokyne.
"Starting at 10:00 am (0800 GMT), the militants began to brazenly violate the Minsk accords, firing from 120-millimetre mortars and a tank at Ukrainian forces," said Oleg Sushinsky, a military spokesman in Mariupol, referring to the ceasefire signed in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
Four Ukrainian soldiers were wounded, he told AFP.
It was impossible to immediately verify his claims.
Use of heavy weapons would violate the February 12 Minsk deal, under which both sides were supposed to withdraw mortars, rockets and other large calibre arms from the frontlines to end fighting that has killed at least 6,000 people.
BREAKING FROM AFP:
US says 3,000 troops to train in Baltic states
An excerpt:
By Karoun Demirjian
DESNA, Ukraine -- In a military training class north of Kiev late last month, volunteer instructor Viktor Mosgovoi led 30 would-be officers through hours of jumps, breathing exercises and group massages -- Ukraine’s first mandatory psychological training for recruits.
“How do you feel? You feel uplifted!” Mosgovoi drilled the group of men in heavy boots and fatigues. Most of them followed along with blank looks or smirks on their faces. A few erupted into giggles. “Sing a song about what you see,” Mosgovoi suggested as a way to beat the battlefield blues. “And don’t drink.”
In nearly a quarter-century of independence, Ukraine’s military has seen so little combat that the country’s defense minister estimated the nation had only 6,000 battle-ready troops a year ago. Over the past 10 months, the Ukrainian army has drafted almost 70,000 soldiers in a war against pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. And most of the fighting has been carried out by recruits and volunteers with no prior combat experience.
On the lighter side...
An excerpt:
The last time Marina Karpa spoke to her husband was when he called her on his mobile from a battlefield in east Ukraine on July 29 last year.
A member of the country’s special forces, Captain Taras Ivanovich, 26, had been sent on a secret mission deep into territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists to rescue the pilot of a Ukrainian SU-25 jet fighter shot down near the town of Snizhne.
His unit of 19 elite soldiers was ambushed and came under heavy enemy fire.
“I’ve been shot in the stomach. I’m bleeding . . . I think I’m going to die. I love you so much,” Taras muttered into his mobile phone, a gun-battle raging in the background. Then the line went dead.