To: combjelly who wrote (802361 ) 8/18/2014 11:10:38 AM From: tejek Respond to It looks like progress is being made.The Ukrainian army has tightened its siege on Donetsk in recent weeks, and inside, a breakdown in discipline among the hard-pressed rebel fighters had locals on edge. Residents said rebel fighters had taken to carousing drunkenly at night and wearing civilian clothes at checkpoints, a change of clothes that would allow them, at a moment’s notice, to throw down their weapons and blend in with the population. Ukrainian police at a checkpoint Sunday reported capturing four separatists dressed as Orthodox priests, making their way toward Russia. And Saturday night, rebels drunkenly fired pistols in a street outside the Havana Banana bar, causing guests to dive under their tables for cover. This month, three drunken separatists crashed a car into the curb outside the Ramada hotel, ejecting two people from the car, and Saturday two separatists crashed at the same spot, rolling their vehicle and scattering shorn-off car parts, broken glass and bullets on the street. In an interview, a deputy minister of defence of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, Fyodor Berezin, conceded that problems were emerging but insisted that the force could still defend the city. “You understand, hundreds of people got weapons and felt power, and didn’t understand it was for a purpose,” he said of the erratic shooting that has now become general. “They thought, ‘Now I have a machine gun, I have power,’ and they didn’t understand they had a function: to fight the enemy, and not terrorize the population or rob people.” In recent weeks, as the Ukrainian military has steadily advanced against the rebels in the east, officials have often spoken about the possibility of creating a corridor that would allow insurgent fighters who had arrived from Russia to put down their weapons and retreat back across the border. The seemingly imminent defeat of the rebels also raised the possibility that the huge convoy of trucks waiting to bring aid from Russian to civilians in Lugansk and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine might also be used to carry fighters and weapons out of the country. During random inspections by journalists, a number of the trucks have turned out to be mostly empty, and Russian officials have not offered much explanation other than to say they were trying to account for the possibility that some trucks might break down. The convoy has been mostly parked at a military base near the border, but 16 of the more than 200 trucks moved closer to the line Sunday, stopping near a border checkpoint. Officials in both countries said there was still no agreement to let the convoy cross into Ukraine. In the past week, three senior rebel leaders have left the war zone, in moves seen as setting the stage for a possible negotiated settlement by removing contentious personalities or Russian citizens from top positions. In Lugansk last week, the prime minister and military commander of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Valery Bolotov, announced in a recorded video address his “temporary resignation” as leader and departure for Russia for medical treatment. Alexander Borodai, a Russian citizen, stepped down and was replaced by Mr. Zakharchenko. Mr. Borodai later announced that a fellow Russian who had been the military commander, Igor Girkin, who uses the nickname Igor Strelkov, or Igor the Shooter, had also resigned and a Ukrainian national appointed in his place. Mr. Borodai said Mr. Strelkov had left the eastern Ukrainian war zone for a “vacation,” and would return. theglobeandmail.com
