A message from Kramatorsk:

Kyiv is receiving information that is absolutely distorted.

In reality, most of the residents of the city have an active pro-Ukrainian position, and help our military, and are holding a ‘For Ukraine!’ rally today with national symbols.

It was a hired crowd together with organised criminal groups from Donetsk led by Russian officers that blocked and disarmed the paratroopers.

Virtually everyone from the hired crowd is not local. The total amount of these hired ‘colorados’ [separatists wearing black-orange St.George ribbons] is around 300 people.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov reported that the police in Mariupol “had conducted an operation to localize a gang of 300 assailants.”

During the night of April 16-17, unidentified armed attackers stormed military base 3057.
“There are no losses among our servicemen. According to preliminary information, 3 assailants were killed, 13 were wounded and 63 have been detained. Their weapons were confiscated. Their communication devices and mobiles are connected to Russian operators. We’re currently proceeding with the identification of the attackers.” wrote Mr. Avakov on his Facebook page.

“Let’s remember one thing: for two months, people stood on the Maidan absolutely unarmed and demanded punishment for those guilty of beating students on Nov. 30 – Dec. 1. By contrast, in the easternmost oblasts, we are seeing militants in Russian uniforms and gear, shooting and taking over the government buildings,” Ukrainian political scientist Oleksiy Haran told BBC Ukraine.

His colleague Mykhailo Pohrebinskiy says that there was far less weaponry on the Maidan even during the violent phase that started on January 19. He points to yet another difference between the Maidan and supposedly pro-Russian movements: “The public arena does not have any obvious political leaders in…

By Robert van Voren

Yesterday’s long awaited and seriously delayed army intervention can best be described as a day of humiliation. As if the Ukrainian people and its army needed anything like this.

What happened yesterday? The anti-terror law backfired spectacularly. The wrong legal framework, the wrong material and operational plans that were known to the Russian command even before it reached the Ukrainian soldiers finished the Ukrainian army off. A slow moving Ukrainian army equipped with tracked APC’s slowly moved as if they were on their way to conquer a field rather than a city. As shown on Western media, a well in advance positioned single truck blocked the road, forcing them on a dirt road where a dozen demonstrators subsequently forced them into a field and the mud. And that stopped the Ukrainian army: confused soldiers had no idea how to handle a dozen demonstrators.