Anti-govt
forces ‘circle 1000s of Kiev troops, capture 2 tank battalions’
in E.Ukraine
After sustained defensive combat against Ukrainian troops in the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk during August, rebels are now reporting of entrapping two large groups of Kiev troops and seizing military hardware in a counteroffensive.
RT,
24
August, 2014
The
main headquarters of the DPR army has made a decision to stop
operations in small groups and form full-bodied independent military
units, the anti-Kiev forces say in a summary of their operations
filed on Sunday.
They
also say they are blocking a large “punitive
force”
near Alekseevskoe, Blagodatnoe, Voykovsky, Kuteinikovo, Ulyanovskoe
and Uspenka.
Some
5,000 Kiev troops “with
military hardware”
including some 50 tanks, over 200 armored vehicles and 50 artillery
rocket systems (including Grad) are trapped in the area, the DPR
claims.
“DNR’s
army has surrounded the staff headquarters of the 8th army corps,
28th and 30th mechanized brigades, 95th air mobile brigade of the
army of Ukraine, and also punitive battalions ‘Aidar’, ‘Donbass’
and ‘Shakhtersk’,”
the document claims.
However,
Ukraine's National Security Council (SNBO) denied the claims.
"Over
the last three days not a single person has been surrounded.
Ukrainian troops are securing their outposts and continuing their
advance on areas occupied by terrorists,"
SNBO spokesperson Andrey Lysenko said in a briefing on Sunday.
All
the new subunits have joined the newly formed fighting force, the
rebels said.
Three
infantry brigades will be organized from the existing detachments of
self-defense militia, the document reads. A new volunteer regiment
has also been formed consisting of miners from the Donbass region and
soldiers and officers from the Ukrainian army, who have opted to side
with the People’s Republic of Donetsk.
Moreover,
the DNR army says it has destroyed four ‘Smerch’ multiple rocket
launch systems, 12 ‘Grad’ multiple rocket launch systems, 17
tanks, 30 armored vehicles, 50 supply trucks, and killed over 150
enemy personnel.
“We
have captured 7 military supply depots with large quantities of
armaments, munitions, aids and appliances, food rations and property
of the citizens expropriated by the National Guards during mopping-up
operations, including all-terrain vehicles. From now on we intend to
utterly annihilate enemy forces trapped near Olenovskoe and the
communities of Kuteinikovo-Blagodatnoye-Uspenskoye,”
HQ said.
The
DPR army has also reportedly “liberated”
a number of communities such as Agronomicheskoe, Klenovka and
Stroitel from the Ukrainian troops’ and National Guards’
“punitive detachments”.
Some
of the seized hardware was paraded by anti-Kiev forces in Donetsk
Sunday. However, it was not clear where the trophies came from.
Ukrainian
troops have vigorously pursued military operations in the country’s
Donetsk and Lugansk regions, where a majority of the population is
demanding federalization.
The
Ukrainian Army had planned to capture the militant stronghold city of
Donetsk by August 24 - Independence Day in Ukraine.
According
to the UN’s “very conservative”
estimates more than 2,000 people have died and over 5,000 have been
wounded in the fighting in southeastern Ukraine since April, when the
Kiev government launched its military offensive against rebel
militias they refer to as “terrorists.”
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