On the eve of the anniversary of the presidency of comedian Zelensky in Ukraine, the Donbass front broke out and has now flared up to the state of an actually active phase of the war.
Artillery shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reached an unprecedented intensity even for the last period of Poroshenko’s reign. Last night, the population of Donbass, living in relative proximity to the front line, spent in bomb shelters. In Donetsk social networks every now and then come across messages: "Staromikhailovka sleeps in basements today - for the first time in two years." The content of these messages, plus or minus, seems to change only the names of the settlements - Spartak, Kirovsk, Zaitsevo.
This is far from the only factor that flashback brings us back to 2014-2015, when the Donbass front was moving, and the summaries were full of lists of civilian victims who died as a result of inaudible (or who knows, maybe, on the contrary, illegible) artillery fire of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Having no ability and courage to resist militia units, we recouped in the peaceful neighborhoods of the cities of Donbass. I have written more than once, and I repeat: the fact that now the number of victims is less than before does not mean a weak intensity of shelling.
It's just that the inhabitants of the Donbass region, under the pressure of external circumstances, learned to hide well from them.
So, after the intensity of the shelling for the first time in a long time - maybe even since the leadership of the DPR by the Donbass leader Zakharchenko - the heads of the Donbass republics, Pasechnik and Pushilin made ultimatively harsh statements against Kiev and brought the troops into full combat readiness. In fact, this means that the patience of those who are called separatists in Ukraine and Europe simply burst. Observing all this time “Minsk-2” (often to the detriment of their own military successes), the Donbass republics this week made it clear: they are not going to put up with the lawlessness of the Armed Forces and radical nationalist battles anymore and will respond harshly to any provocations of the Armed Forces.
According to my information, in the LPR the 7th and 4th brigade, together with the 6th Cossack regiment, with the support of all mechanized corps units, have already moved into their areas of responsibility as part of the BTGR. Moreover, for the first time in a long time, Lugansk artillerymen received a clear order from the command: in case of enemy activity, shells to suppress firing points should not be spared. In addition, the LPR began to mobilize reservists.
The situation is similar in the neighboring DNR. From there, I received reports that local military enlistment offices urgently called up the former militia, who had left the NM for some reason or another some time ago, for the possibility of their return to duty. Which, in essence, is also mobilization measures.
Does everything happening and harsh statements by the Pasechnik and Pushilin, supported by the military, mean that Donetsk and Lugansk decided to bury the Minsk agreements?
Not at all. Their rhetoric can be reduced to a simple formula: if the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not observe a truce, then the Donbass is ready to start an operation to force Kiev to comply with Minsk-2 and, if necessary, will act in response to aggression by force.
“If they shoot at us, we will answer, but we will not shoot first. We don’t shoot at Ukrainians, we respond to the militants, ”comedian Vladimir Zelensky said at his press conference on the anniversary of the presidency without blushing. As rightly noted by the author of the Telegram channel RealDoc, the famous Donbass documentary Maxim Fadeev, who has been literally living at the front for the last six years, the hypocritical position of Kiev can be called "over the abyss of lies." In his commentary, he reveals the scheme by which the Ukrainian military learned to fool not only European observers, but also the local JCCC (joint center for monitoring and coordinating the ceasefire).
Vaseoushniki informs in advance to the SCCC command line that they allegedly carry intensive fire from the republics, and after that they themselves begin to shoot, formally making secure and covering their own asses in the event of proceedings on these incidents at the diplomatic level. And such a scheme on the Donbass front is used by Kiev everywhere.
It might seem to someone in Ukraine that so stupid people are leading the front in Donetsk and Lugansk that they are not able to reveal these essentially childish and deceitful tricks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The day before they were shown that this is far from the case and all these maneuvers are really sewn with white thread and transparent for Donbass. But now Kiev, which has lifted its foot to cross a critical line, has been warned that further manipulations of this kind will be harshly suppressed.
Will there be a big war tomorrow in the Donbass? Now it depends only on Kiev. If there they hear and correctly understand the Donbass message, the shelling should decline. If Ukraine turns out to be deaf and continues to ignore the Minsk agreements, the APU will face serious troubles. Donbass republics are ready to remind them of the defeats of six years ago and do everything so that the Ukrainian military, together with the Kiev political establishment, refreshed in memory how unsweetened they were in Ilovaysky and Debaltsevsky boilers.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the publisher.