'I can hear rumbling, explosions... people are hiding': Ukrainians tell how column of Russian tanks appeared out of nowhere
Ukrainian officials said the column was an incursion by
Russian troops which it alleges are fighting alongside pro-Moscow
separatists, a claim Russia quickly dismissed as disinformation. That is
a now-familiar ritual: the five-month conflict over eastern Ukraine is
one of claim and counter-claim by opposing sides, often centering on
what role Russia is playing.
'I can hear rumbling, explosions... people are hiding': Ukrainians tell how column of Russian tanks appeared out of nowhere
- Ukrainian officials said the column was an incursion by Russian troops
- Alleged the Russians are fighting alongside pro-Moscow separatists
On
Monday, a resident of Novoazovsk in south-eastern Ukraine said she saw a
column of armored vehicles approach the town and start shooting.
'It
all started at 8am this morning, tanks appeared, no fewer than seven of
them,' the woman, who gave her name only as Lyudmila, told Reuters by
telephone. 'Right now I can hear rumbling, explosions ... the residents
are hiding.'
In
Kiev later that morning, Ukrainian officials said the column was an
incursion by Russian troops which it alleges are fighting alongside
pro-Moscow separatists, a claim Russia quickly dismissed as
disinformation.
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A resident of Novoazovsk in south-eastern Ukraine said she saw this column of armored vehicles
Armoured column: Ukrainian officials said the column was an incursion by Russian troops
That
is a now-familiar ritual: the five-month conflict over eastern Ukraine
is one of claim and counter-claim by opposing sides, often centering on
what role Russia is playing. With the battlefield mostly too dangerous
for reporters to safely move around, verifying who is doing what is
usually impossible.
On
Tuesday, in a continuation of the pattern, Kiev said it had captured a
group of Russian soldiers who had entered Ukraine on a 'special
mission', while Moscow said they were there by mistake.
However,
the armored column that appeared on Monday in the far south-eastern
corner of Ukraine, where it abuts the Russian border, was unusual
because the spot was far removed from any territory held by the
separatists.
It was
therefore difficult to see how the column could have appeared in
Ukraine without having come across the Russian border, unless it made an
amphibious landing from the nearby Azov Sea which is improbable given
the number of heavy vehicles witnesses said they saw.
A
Reuters reporter was able to observe the situation in the area where
the column was seen, first at the start of August and then most recently
on Sunday afternoon, a few hours before the first sightings of the
column were reported.
Those observations, combined with interviews with rebel leaders, Ukrainian soldiers, and other research, indicated two things.
It is difficult to see how the column could have appeared in Ukraine without having come across the Russian border
Before the armored column appeared, the area had come under artillery fire
It was not possible to establish
whether the people driving the column and firing the artillery were
Russian soldiers or separatist rebels
First,
that until late on Sunday there were no rebel formations within about
30 km (20 miles) of the area where the armored column first appeared,
and had not been for weeks beforehand.
And
secondly, that before the armored column appeared, the area had come
under artillery fire at times when the nearest rebel positions were
beyond the range of most types of weapon that could have delivered the
strike.
It
was not possible to establish whether the people driving the column and
firing the artillery were Russian soldiers or separatist rebels. But
there were strong indications that whoever it was doing those things
operated out of Russian territory - something very unlikely to have
happened without Moscow's consent.
Ukrainian soldiers sit in a military camp near Luhansk, Ukraine
A Ukrainian soldier looks through his binoculars at a military camp near Luhansk, Ukraine
Fighting a civil war: Ukrainian soldiers eat at a military camp near Luhansk, Ukraine
The
question of Russian involvement is at the core of Western governments'
response to the Ukraine crisis, and could be crucial to how the conflict
plays out.
The
European Union and United States have already imposed sanctions on
Russia in part based on allegations Moscow is arming the rebels. The
West has warned of more sanctions if Russia provides further help.
A
Ukrainian national guard unit stationed on the outskirts of Novoazovsk,
on the road towards the Novoazovsk-Veselo-Voznesenka border crossing,
showed a Reuters reporter a crater left by an exploding munition near
their position.
They said the artillery fire was coming from over the border inside Russia, about 10 km (six miles) to the east.
'There
were about 500 salvos from Grad (multiple rocket system) and mortars.
There have been and are no rebels here whatsoever. They're just firing
straight from Russia,' Roman, the commander of a Ukrainian national
guard unit, said on Sunday, before the armored column appeared in the
same area.
Reuters
saw no direct evidence of this, and Russian officials have repeatedly
denied that their military is in any way involved in the conflict in
eastern Ukraine, between pro-Moscow separatist rebels and government
forces.
A
spokesman for the Russian border guard service, when asked to comment,
said: 'This is stupid. Russia doesn't fire at anyone.' The Russian
defense ministry did not respond to a faxed request for comment.
But
with no rebel presence within range inside Ukraine, it was not clear
what other source there could have been for the artillery fire.
Even
if rebels has somehow snuck into the area and fired the artillery, it
seemed impossible they could have done that without using Russian
territory to move about, given the distance from the nearest rebel-held
locations.
A Ukrainian soldier prepares a gun close to a military camp near Luhansk, Ukraine
The
crater seen by the Reuters reporter on Sunday, before the clashes with
rebels, was in the corner of a field behind a defensive trench dug by
the Ukrainian national guard unit. A metal fragment that appeared to
come from a munition was found in the hole.
Reuters
showed the photographs of the crater to four European weapons experts
who said the crater was either made by an artillery rocket, most
probably a Grad, or by a shell from a self-propelled 122 mm gun.
According
to one of the experts, Konrad Muzyka, Europe and CIS Armed Forces
Analyst with IHS, a consultancy, the maximum range for the 2S1 Gvozdika,
the Soviet-designed self-propelled 122 mm gun in use in ex-Soviet
states, is 15.3 km. That is extendable to 21.9 km when rocket-assisted
projectiles are used, he said.
'This
is not a war of fronts, it's a civil war. Movements of troops can take
place here practically instantaneously. All of us here are insurgents
Muzyka
said the maximum range for the most commonly used Grad rocket,
designated as 9M22U, was 20.33 km. He said other variants have ranges of
up to 40 km, but they are less widespread.
The
rebels' self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) says its forces
are pushing south from their main stronghold in the city Donetsk, but
the settlements they said they had taken by Monday which were closest to
the Novoazovsk-Veselo-Voznesenka crossing were Telmanovo, about 30 km
(20 miles) away as the crow flies, and Novokaterinovka, about 60 km (40
miles) away.
That
may have overstated the rebels' reach: a Reuters reporter who drove
through Telmanovo twice on Sunday saw no sign of a rebel presence in or
near the town.
One
of the experts who reviewed the photographs, British-based independent
weapons researcher Eliot Higgins, said he believed the crater was caused
by a Grad rocket. He said the shape of the crater suggested the
munition was fired from the north-east, the direction of the border with
Russia.
The
Ukrainian unit said most of the artillery struck in the area between
their post and the border. Reuters was unable to inspect the other
craters left behind by the strikes because of the risk the artillery
fire could start up again.
Members
of the unit said Russian artillery had been landing on the Ukrainian
side overnight from Thursday to Friday, and again on Friday night.
On
a previous visit to the area, on August 1. Ukrainian border guards at
the crossing point between Russia and Ukraine showed a Reuters reporter
broken windows and holes in the roof of their building.
They
said the damage was caused by mortar rounds fired from Russian
territory. 'There isn't a single insurgent around here for 50 km,' said
one of the border guards, Artur Zakharov. 'A mortar can travel 6 (km).'
Asked
by Reuters on Monday how the rebels could fire artillery so far from
their positions, Andrei Purgin, DNR deputy prime minister, said: 'In the
conditions of modern warfare, 20 km is no kind of distance for
artillery.'
'This
is not a war of fronts, it's a civil war. Movements of troops can take
place here practically instantaneously. All of us here are insurgents.
You come home, you grab your weapons and you go and shoot.'
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