Ukraine's Position

"The United States has shared intelligence information with NATO today regarding strikes that are occurring from within Russian territory, firing into Ukraine territory."
(anonymous) NATO military officer

AP Photo/U.S. State Department    This first page of a four page document released by the U.S. State Department in Washington, July 27, 2014 shows a satellite image that purports to shows ground scarring at a multiple rocket launch site on the Russian side of the border oriented in the direction of Ukraine military unites within Ukraine. The United States says the images back up its claims that rockets have been fired from Russia into eastern Ukraine and heavy artillery for separatists has also crossed the border. 

 

The U.S. State Department has released a four-page document showing blast marks from rockets launched inside Russia, and craters, where they eventually landed, over the border into Ukraine. The images, sourced from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence indicate that heavy weapons were fired between July 21 and July 26 which would be after the July 17 surface-to-air missile attack that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Speaking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday urged him to put a halt to the flow of heavy weapons and rocket and artillery fire emanating from Russian territory into Ukraine, according to a State Department official. Nor did Mr. Kerry accept Mr. Lavrov's staunch denials that Russia had anything to do with the contributions of heavy weapons mysteriously appearing in the hands of the rebels.

Ukraine armed forces continue mounting their major onslaught against ethnic Russian separatists determined to gain control over the wide area where the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was shot down, to enable investigators to finally have full access to the site, knowing full well that in the interim evidence has been tampered with and taken away, while decomposing bodies of passengers remain uncollected, their belongings rifled through, much of it never to be returned to their families.

In Kyiv a military spokesman stated that Ukrainian forces were steadily coming under increased fire from across the border. The Ukrainian military recently shot down three Russian surveillance drones one of which had been used to target a Ukrainian base close to the town of Amvrosivka, coming under heavy rocket attack.

Andriy Lysenko, speaking for the Ukrainian military, explained that Ukrainian forces were engaged in heavy fighting not far from where two Ukrainian fighter jets were struck down last Wednesday by what they claim was a missile attack from the Russian side of the border.

This July 19, 2014, file photo shows pro-Russian fighter guarding the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

In recent days Ukrainian forces have managed to retake at least ten towns, diminishing the territory under rebel command in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, enabling a substantial advantage, freeing up some of the region's main highways. Officials believe that with three weeks in their favour the defeat of the rebels would be well in hand, as long as Russia restrains its compulsion to provide the rebels with further weapons or undertakes a direct Russian force invasion.

Ukrainian government complaints about the flow of weapons, tanks and volunteer fighters across the Russian borders are long-standing, but more recently there has been an acceleration of direct Russian intervention, far more seriously impacting the situation in recent weeks A Ukrainian military transport plane was shot down by what Ukrainian officials claim was a powerful missile on July 14, fired from Russia. On July 15 a Russian plane bombed an apartment in the town of Snizhne, killing 11 residents.

And then on July 16, a Russian MiG-29 crossed into Ukrainian airspace engaging two Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jets in a dogfight, then shooting down one of them. It was the following afternoon that the Malaysian Airlines Jetliner with its 298 truly unfortunate people aboard, was blown out of the sky. According to a senior American official, Russia had about 13,000 troops and over half a dozen combined arms battalions assembled close to the border with Ukraine.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, reported a column of Ukrainian armoured personnel carriers, trucks and tanks had entered the town of Shakhtarsk, 15 kilometres west of the site of the Boeing 777 crash. By controlling the town, the Ukrainian army could cut off vital rebel supply lines.

Ukraine's National Security Council announced on Sunday that government troops have Horlivka, a key rebel stronghold encircled. The city is around 30 kilometres north of Donetsk. "[The armed forces] have increased assaults on territory held by pro-Russian mercenaries, destroyed checkpoints and positions and moved very close to Horlivka." 

According to the separatist military command in Donetsk, rebel fighters were holding their positions.