Fierce fighting reported in Ukraine's Mariupol
Last edited Fri May 9, 2014, 10:17 AM - Edit history (3)
Source: RTE
Fighting between troops and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's southeastern city of Mariupol has left 21 people dead.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said 20 insurgents and one police officer were killed.
Mr Avakov said that five policemen were wounded and four rebels were captured.
The Interfax-Ukraine news agency said police were trying to take back control of the police building when they came under fire from pro-Russians who had taken the interior ministry building.
Read more: http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0509/616263-ukraine/
(Sky News)
Eight pro-Russian militants have been reportedly killed in eastern Ukraine as Vladimir Putin landed in Crimea for his first visit since it was annexed by Moscow.
Ukrainian troops used large-calibre weapons as they tried to take an occupied police HQ in the southeastern port city of Mariupol.
Sky's Katie Stallard, in Mariupol, said there is black smoke over the city and heavy fighting.
She said the police HQ was taken by pro-Russian gunmen on Thursday night, and Ukrainian forces are now trying to retake it.
http://news.sky.com/story/1258205/ukraine-crisis-eight-rebels-killed-in-mariupol
https://twitter.com/shaunwalker7/status/464764465133944833
2:50 PM - 9 May 2014
https://twitter.com/shaunwalker7/status/464764958421823488
2:52 PM - 9 May 2014
Tank with local youth speeds past flying Donetsk Republic flag. Today in Mariupol feels more like civil war than any day so far
https://twitter.com/shaunwalker7/status/464765440481591296
2:54 PM - 9 May 2014
= new reply since forum marked as read
Only part of the U.S. government are teabaggers...
Only part of the British government is Plaid Cymru.
Only part of the German government is the Party of Bible-Abiding Christians.
Only part of the Itialian government is the Monarchist Alliance.
I doubt we collectively define these governments by these particular parties (however, I do understand that bias often compels us to hold one thing to a much higher standard than we may hold a similar thing. Part of human nature, I'd guess...)
Scrap Avakov's "20 killed." So far they're officially reporting 9, with added reporting of 2 more bodies of policemen found in the armory, dead from inhalation.
One version says "police were in the building and had occupied it; refusing to obey orders, the military attacked them and killed X many."
I can't find coherence in a version that says the police and the military attacked at the same time.
A third version has the the police trying to seize the building back from gunman--nobody says "successfully." But then the building was surrounded by separatist reinforcements arrived to fight the police. The military showed up to support the police, sandwiching the separatists between part of the building and on the street.
The videos, apart from the assumption that the entirety of the Ukr military and National guard are "right sectors," show armored motorized vehicles moving in. Not a question. But everybody that is a political dissenter or suspected of being a Ukr supporter is, from the POV of the separatists fascist and "right sector". It's a general term of abuse at this point and can't be taken at face value.
But the videos also include shots from inside the building where there are men and women apparently at peace inside. The building is being surrounded and then assaulted by "black men." Perhaps those taking the videos are "separatist" occupiers and the men in black are police, but that seems hardly likely. Why?
Because the men in black also are seen celebrating the "seizing" of a broken amphibious vehicle (which was reported as seized, even though as soon as the military returned to tow it off only civilians were left; video shows it being looted, though, carefully edited to not show the faces of those stealing arms from the vehicle). The black men are also carrying off the wounded--but apparently are being jeered. Black men have turned up in a few cases, though, and I'm hard put to categorize them. Green men are invariably separatists.
Still, if the men in black were police they wouldn't celebrate "seizing" the vehicle. Wrong side. I can see how some would jeer separatists. Support isn't 100% for them, esp. if they're the ones that triggered the "invasion."
It also doesn't make sense that Saenko, the DAI chief (think "subsection of police"
, was kidnapped before the military showed up and, according to reports, killed. If the separatists and police were on the same side, that's unlikely (unless he called in the troops).
When the military shows up the military are in camo, not in black. And the two groups are fighting as far as I can tell.
Still can't make sense of either narrative; there's always something that fails to fit. RT's or Avakov's. I lean towards AVakov's. And I suspect that the police ousted the gunmen (so they could be in the armory), were under seige by separatists in black, plus civilian supporters who invariably are there and provide a kind of human shielf for them; the men in black were then caught by the military. Still don't buy Avakov's #s.
The dead and injured are carried out of a burning building; more bodies lying in the street; prolonged exchanges of fire as armoured carriers smash through barricades; and, with the violence, anger and calls for revenge.
This is Mariupol, in eastern Ukraine, after a day of bloody strife that slid Ukraine further towards civil war. The country’s caretaker government can be accused of trying to blow out flickering hopes of peace by launching a military operation on one of the most revered anniversaries in the Russian-speaking half of the country – the commemoration of victory over Nazi Germany.
The military action is accompanied by stridently aggressive rhetoric from politicians in Kiev who are crowing about the numbers of “terrorists” killed and threatening further lethal punishment.
By the evening there are differing body counts ranging from 20 to five, with around another 25 injured. But the accuracy of statistics has meant little in this confrontation. What matters is the perception. For many in this port on the Azov Sea, today greatly reinforced the view – relentlessly promoted by the separatist leadership – that fascists from the west of the country are coming to attack.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-crisis-bloody-assault-in-mariupol-dashes-hopes-of-avoiding-civil-war-9347972.html
