Ukraine-bound Russian convoy stuck amid bickering
Source: AP-EXCITE
By ALEXANDER ROSLYAKOV and SERGEI GRITS
VORONEZH, Russia (AP) — Hundreds of Russian trucks carrying aid intended for rebel-held eastern Ukraine remained parked Wednesday in the southern city of Voronezh, their fate shrouded in mystery as Ukraine accused Moscow of plotting to use them as a cover for invasion.
Fighting between government troops and pro-Russian separatists increased as the U.N.'s human rights office released figures showing the number of people killed in eastern Ukraine appears to have doubled in the last two weeks to more than 2,000.
Other than a few local supply runs, the roughly 260 vehicles in the convoy lay idle at a military base in the southern city of Voronezh well into the afternoon, one day after making the 400-mile (650-kilometer) drive from outside Moscow.
Ukraine and Russia tentatively agreed Tuesday that the aid would be delivered to a government-controlled crossing in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, which hasn't been hit by the months of fighting that have wracked neighboring regions. The cargo would then have to be inspected by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
FULL story at link.
A convoy of white trucks with humanitarian aid park at the military base not far from Voronezh, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. Russia on Wednesday dispatched some hundreds of trucks, although only a small proportion were counted in this convoy, covered in white tarps and sprinkled with holy water on a mission to deliver aid to a rebel-held zone in eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140813/eu--ukraine-1400c08c5b.html
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It hasn't done it yet.
There's a lot of speculation. One is that it's been divided up into several, smaller convoys. In which case some may go the legitimate way while others go round to Izvaryne, a separatist-held crossing point. Perhaps that was always the plan, and it was simply necessary to make sure there were white military trucks in the area--after all, who's going to be able to count them and make sure they didn't multiply?
It's been an invasion. It's just been informal and unannounced. This may have been--and may yet be--a pretext for a formal, announced invasion. The unannounced kind hasn't exactly gone as smoothly as probably expected. In fact, it's only been recently, as the front lines have gotten a bit more compact and Russian transfer of men and materiel has ramped up in response to losses that the lines have stabilized and the rebels have even gained a bit of ground in some places, even though they've lost ground in others. Where they've gained ground is entirely in the East, closest to where the new armored vehicles cross the border and where they need to keep supply lines open.
In this map, put out by the Ukr government, Kharkov province is just NW of the colorful area of the map. The blue and yellow just means "Ukraine held". The cross hatch is rebel territory as of some time in June, not the greatest extent ever. The tan area is rebel held. Dark brown is Russia. Red border is rebel-held. In some cases what is clearly Ukr or rebel-held is a kind of no-man's land, where there are forces but they're not spread out so the territory is still porous. For the most part these maps have been pretty accurate; they often reflect retreats that aren't announced.
