John Kettler Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Newsweek explicitly stated here on January 23, 2015 that thousands of Russian Federation troops--Special Forces, no less--finally allowed the capture of the hotly disputed, fanatically defended Donetsk Airport Terminal, breaking, pardon the expression, the Ukrainian Army "Cyborgs" who held it for months. I think this report is a very big deal. We're no longer in the category of "misidentified vehicles" and "misunderstood actions" in some obscure village or near some town people have barely heard of. This article is describing a significant main force Russian infantry attack with the best Putin has: Spetsnaz FSB or FSB Spetsnaz, in any event the most elite combat troops of the Russian Army, the men who formerly formed the striking arm of the GRU (Chief Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff). Men spearheading the attack at what is, in many ways, the focal point of combat in Ukraine. Regards, John Kettler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waycool Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 (edited) go figure. They had to pour in some Russian troops again for these fresh pushes. Edited January 27, 2015 by Waycool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacKLed Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 (edited) I want to believe this, and I partly do, but the truth lies somewhere in the middle I believe. Here is a 50 minute long video from the offensive (pretty great cinematography, editing, and covers the soldier's experience in the battle for the New Terminal) just last week (translated into English): Most of these guys seem like ripe old separatists to me, and I have seen them in multiple videos since the escalation in August. Granted that theiy equipment is OBVIOUSLY supplied by the Russians. There is no doubt about it. It's kind of fishy to see that "Green Man" camo mixed in with them. Maybe it's just the fact that this was a small contigent of "Motorola's" men. I just haven't seen much proof besides the concrete proof back in August from NATO satellites. Again I do believe Russian troops are in Ukraine, but we just need more concrete evidence then Poroshenko saying "See! There they are!" or a former diplomat. Edited January 27, 2015 by TacKLed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan/california Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Putin cannot admit even partial defeat in Ukraine, it would probably sink his government. So the Russians will escalate as necessary, or until they go broke, I mean breadlines in Moscows broke, breadlines in the provinces don't count. I don't see how this gets better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Putin didn't 'capture' anything. Two or more days ago Ukraine had told the press they were going to withdraw from the airport. Putin 'occupied' abandoned ground, not 'captured'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacKLed Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 (edited) Putin didn't 'capture' anything. Two or more days ago Ukraine had told the press they were going to withdraw from the airport. Putin 'occupied' abandoned ground, not 'captured'. Nope. That is not what happened at Donetsk Airport. The Ukrainian Army had rotated soldiers there when the fighting flared back up again. Separatists bombarded the airport for like a day before assualting. They finally cornered the UA and killed around a plataoon (Ukrainian estimates is like 34 I believe) and captured some more. (These are the ones you see paraded around on Separatists videos). The UA was trapped on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the new terminal I believe with the Separatists on the 1st and 4th. They just wore them down until the actual terminal collapsed in on itself and killed a handful of soldiers. There was nothing left to defend and the Separatists took some prisoners. Of course there was a wider battle going on around Pivsky and the other suburbs around Donetsk. The UA trusted to take back the airport and they made gains at first, but they were pushed back into the airport was cut off and the defenders were defeated. And this happened like a week to 10 days ago I believe. There is a lot of videos out there of the fightiing and the aftermath. Along with Ukrainian sources stating that they were "decisively defeated". There was no withdrawal. Edited January 27, 2015 by TacKLed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Na Vaske Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 One of the captured was a Brigade commander and Dmitri Yarosh was wounded. The piece linked to in the OP stated both sides had referred to the Ukrainian soldiers at the airport as "cyborgs". Maybe the author doesn't understand the intricacies of the Russian language. All separatist uses of the term were in a mocking manner and in a very negative context. And of course Kiev will state that they withdrew, but it is clear that they were pushed from the position, but the airport was symbolic only, the more important battles are the ones being fought to complete/prevent another encirclement of government troops, I'm not sure how successful this one will be. The southern cauldrons in the summer made use of the Russian border as the anvil, in this case the entire encirclement must be manned making it a much more difficult task. I'm not sure why "FSB" would be working outside of the borders. Even in the event of some covert operation we have organizations for that before we would send internal security troops. Out of my own curiosity, are there FBI units fighting battles in Afghanistan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFF Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Na Vaske, the first rule about responding to anything Kettler writes is to view what he says with a huge grain of salt. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn2002 Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Na Vaske, the first rule about responding to anything Kettler writes is to view what he says with a huge grain of salt. What kind of remark is that? Kettler is right, isn't he? Or are we opening a new agency for Russian propaganda at this forum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snake_eye Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Russia has learned a lot since the Georgia war, everything going on these days has been ever since thought off and well prepared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMS Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 That happened 2 weeks ago actually. In airport was Ukrainian aiborne (in fact - mecn inf) units mixed with motivated, but also not expirienced "Right sector" fighters, with support of large amounts of artillery in near towns to the west and north. Full scale assault would be smashed by artillery, so all that time there were small scale skirmishes. Finaly militiamen found safe aproaches and assaulted new therminal building. They infiltrated at 0 and 2,3 floors and blasted Ukrainians at 1 floor. Than they fought with suvivors some time. That was followed by large assault by Ukrainian forces, with company or more of tanks and several inf companies. It was failed with large losses. Journalists are lying of course about "thousand" and about "Russian troops". Assault group was not more than a company size. And they were ethnicaly Russians probably (and Ukrainians), but it was not "Russian unit". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niall78 Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 (edited) What kind of remark is that? Kettler is right, isn't he? Or are we opening a new agency for Russian propaganda at this forum? This is an international forum - there will of course be many different opinions about the news coming out of the Ukraine. Unless the owners deem this a site for propoganda from the Ukrainian perspective there will be wildly divergent views expressed about the ongoing situation and different viewpoints expressed about that situation. Edited January 27, 2015 by niall78 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Joch Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 (edited) we love JK, he is a fixture around here. He is also known to have interesting theories and he has his own website...http://www.johnkettler.com/ufo-war-now-covers-entire-pacific-exploding-story/ the only site where you can get up to date news on the ongoing UFO wars. Edited January 27, 2015 by Sgt Joch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stagler Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I'm sorry chaps but I'm with Aragorn on this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 (edited) LukeFF, You may be a former medic, but you act like a sniper. That's twice now, in two different Forums (GDF and here), in two days or so that you've taken a direct or indirect shot at me. On the GDF, you ordered, not requested, me to take a discussion on an apparent real breakthrough in understanding addition elsewhere. By what authority? You're no Mod, and you most certainly aren't Admin, either! Here, you're defaming me for no legitimate reason under the Forum Rules to which you agreed in order to be able to post and interact in other ways with the members. In neither case did I do anything violating Forum Rules, a direct request by Steve or special strictures imposed on me by ChrisND. Nor did I attack you in any manner whatsoever. Note also that I'm characterizing your behavior, which I find wholly unnecessary, rude and offensive, and not indulging in name calling, which is also prohibited by the Forum Rules. You appear to have some weird erectile issue regarding me, so you feel compelled to insult and demean me and to tarnish me in the eyes of other Forumites. I strongly suggest you process your issues, whatever they are regarding me, internally and stop lashing out publicly. In my #1 here, I reported what Newsweek said and linked to the full article, thus meeting the criterion for full source disclosure, as was explicitly required of me by Steve. Sgt Joch, I appreciate your support, but I wish you hadn't posted a link, for it only encourages bad behavior by certain people and no good can come of it. No disrespect to you, but you've now put me in a real bind. If someone goes there and says something here, no matter how bad, nasty and incorrect, my hands are completely tied, for I'm not allowed to say anything about either the subject matter or where it appears--on any of the BFC Forums. I therefore request you or the Mods to please remove that link. TacKLed, Thanks for providing the video, but it's long and I need to get some sleep. Shall have a crack at it later today. Regards, John Kettler Edited January 27, 2015 by John Kettler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisND Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I'm just going to lock this now because there is nowhere for this to go but downhill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts