Ukrainian Unity Destroyed

"We destroyed a checkpoint of the fascist Ukrainian army deployed on the land of the Donetsk Republic."
"The weapons you see here have been taken from the dead, they are trophies."
"People living in western Ukraine: Think about where you are sending your brothers, fathers and sons, and why you need any of this."
"Bes" Pro-Russian rebel commander, Horlivka

Residents of Volnovakha, 30 kilometres south of Donetsk described the latest assault by Russian-speaking thugs that occurred near their town. An armoured bank truck was used by the attackers. The Ukrainian soldiers at the checkpoint near Volnovakha, never suspecting what the bank truck was being used for, waved it through. And at that point the soldiers were mowed down at point-blank range.

An Ukrainian soldier walks past charred APCs at a gunfight site near the village of Blahodatne, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, May 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

The leading rebel commander showed off an array of Ukrainian weapons he claimed were seized at the scene of the assault. They included automatic and sniper rifles, rocket grenade launchers and bulletproof vests. He showed them off in the courtyard of the Horlivka police headquarters, now rebel-occupied.

In a field at the scene of the attack, three Ukrainian armoured infantry vehicles with turrets blown away stood charred, destroyed vestiges of war machines that will never again see action. Alongside them stood several burned-out trucks. And close by lay scorched bodies, victims of the explosion and fire, scattered about, covered with blankets.

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry explained that the attackers had hit an ammunition section in one of the vehicles, causing it to explode into a killing fireball.

Bodies covered with blankets lie in a field near the village of Blahodatne, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, May 22, 2014  (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

In all, thirteen Ukrainian soldiers were killed by attackers firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, wounding another 30 soldiers. One rebel is said to have died during the surprise attack. Witnesses, among them a medical worker, said some of the wounded were in grave condition; all were being treated nearby at medical facilities.

The bloodletting reminded authorities in Kyiv, as though they needed an additional jolt of reality, that thanks to the intransigent separatist fury in east Donetsk and Luhansk declaring independence from the central government, pledging to derail the May 25 vote, there is little hope that it may be possible to stage the vote in some of the eastern areas.

It is not just that the pro-Russian rebels have stated they mean to derail the vote by boycott as some fearful residents, shrinking at the real potential of increased violence have suggested, but that election officials and voters have been afflicted by intimidation and in some instances death threats as well. 

 

Vladimir Putin has expressed his opinion that Ukraine is now in a full-blown state of civil war.

No small thanks to his undercover agents dispatched to produce the fertile ground for violent standoffs between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian antagonists. While stating that he awaits the results of the May 25 vote, he cynically bides his time before committing to additional assaults on the geographic integrity of Ukraine.

Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in accusing Russia of escalating the conflict in his country's eastern regions and further making covert efforts to disrupt Sunday's election, knows very well of what he speaks. He called yet again for an urgent session of the UN Security Council, claiming that Ukraine is prepared to present evidence of Russia's involvement. 

 

Which will do nothing to dispel Russia's veto power at the UN.

Speaking on Russian television, Pavel Gubarev, representing the Donetsk People's Republic, accused Ukrainian nationalists from the Right Sector militia of firing on Ukrainian soldiers because of their refusal to attack civilians. 

 

A pledge was made by Kyiv that the Russian language would be granted official second-language status in the east, and greater autonomy would be offered. Offers that the separatists sneered at as too little, too late.

They are firmly committed to delivering Ukrainian territory to Russia.