The Battle for Novorussiya

[David Guyatt]

Speaking of a needed provocation, here's Poroshenko trying to rustle up just that. 500 tanks, no less.

Russia sends 9,000 troops into Ukraine, says Petro Poroshenko

This deployment of Russian forces would be the biggest since the crisis began


Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko holds a part of a damaged commuter bus hit by a rocket strike near Volnovakha that killed 13 people as he speaks during a session of the World Economic Forum Photo: AFP



By David Blair

6:27PM GMT 21 Jan 2015


Russia has sent more troops into Ukraine than at any time since the crisis began, deploying 9,000 soldiers inside its neighbour, according to theUkrainian leader.

Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, said Russia had also dispatched 500 tanks and other armoured vehicles over the border. A total of five Russian infantry battalions are now believed to be inside eastern Ukraine.

Separatist rebels have controlled a large area of Donetsk and Luhansk regions since last summer. In the last week, however, Ukrainian forces have successfully counter-attacked, strengthening their grip on Sergei Prokofiev International Airport in Donetsk, only five miles from the separatist headquarters in the centre of the city.

The latest Russian deployment appears to be a response to Kiev's success. Whenever Ukraine's troops have gained ground against the rebels, Russia has generally reacted by sending troops to reinforce the insurgents.

Mr Poroshenko said the only way to bring peace was for Russia to obey the Minsk agreement signed last September, providing for a ceasefire and a withdrawal of forces. "The solution is very simple," he told the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Stop supplying weapons. Stop supplying ammunition. Withdraw the troops and close the border: a very simple peace plan."

Last summer, Russia sent about 3,000 troops into Ukraine to aid the rebels. If Mr Poroshenko's figures are correct, the latest Russian deployment is the biggest since the fighting began.
The scale of this incursion will raise suspicions that Russia's objective could be more ambitious than to strengthen the insurgents or capture Donetsk Airport. Ukraine fears that Moscow might seize more of its territory, perhaps by capturing the port of Mariupol and then occupying a land corridor to Crimea, which Russia annexed last April.
Nato declined to confirm the size of Russia's latest incursion, but Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, said: "We have seen an increase in Russian equipment inside eastern Ukraine."
However, the Kremlin denied that any Russian troops were inside its neighbour. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said that none of his country's soldiers had entered Ukraine and demanded "proof" of their presence.

Obviously, this report is from The Daily Bellylaugh.