Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Ukraine mini-SITREP: still expecting an attack

Novorussia is still expecting a Ukrainian attack.  First, according to RT, "Kiev is not fully committed to the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, Russian deputy UN ambassador Aleksandr Pankin said during Wednesday's UN Security Council meeting. He added that the Ukrainian military is amassing forces along the front line".  Then from the Novorussian front lines, we have the blogger Colonel Cassad who reports that a friend of his has just visited Donetsk and spoke with some top people - including 'Motorola' - and that she reports that:

1. The airport has not yet been fully taken and that combat operations are still taking place there and that both sides are engaged in artillery battles.
2. The shelling of Makeevka has been strongly reduced thanks to the counter-battery fire of the Novorussians against Nazi positions in Avdeevka and Peski.  They are trying to stop the Ukie shelling of the city of Donetsk.
3.  They are still expecting a Ukie attack and the NAF are preparing for defensive combat operations.  Novorussian soliders are reporting that Polish soliders are deployed north of Dontesk.

It could go either way, I suppose, and this might be yet another false alert.

A quick note about sources:

Speaking of 'Cassad', I want to recommend him again as one of the best sources of info about the situation Novorussia.  Along with another blogger, "Basketok", he provides very good info.  The other big quality of Cassad is that he is very factual and avoids all the hysterics that so many bloggers tend to engage in.  While Cassad writes in Russian, somebody is translating his writings into English and doing a very good job.  Check out the 'English Cassad' blog and, as a good example, this November 11th translation of an article published by the Russian Cassad on the 10th.  Today is the 12 but the info contained is still valid and interesting.  In other words, the Cassad+English Cassad combo provides pretty solid info, pretty fast.  Frankly, as English language sources go, I recommend Colonel Cassad's blog as the first place to go.

Second, I recommend Russia Insider.  No, not because I am a contributor there, but because there is *a lot* of fresh info there, and that it's "reach of topics" is wider than Cassad's.  So Cassad for fresh info about Novorussia, Russia Insider as fresh "context info".  RT?  Alas, no.  I like CrossTalk a lot, but that is a discussion show, not a source of info.  But the info on RT is mostly stale and vague.  There is also the Voice of Sevastopol in English and the Youtube channels of Kazurra and Anti-Maidan (with whom Basketok is associated).    That's about all the English-language news sources about the Ukraine I could recommend.  As a general news website to go to I would recommend Information Clearing House and the Asia Times (especially anything written by Pepe Escobar).