Russian Armed Forces renew military activity in Donbas

Russian special operations forces are assisting Donbas separatists in transferring a training base for saboteurs and fighters to territory under Russian-terrorist control, said on Nov. 6 Markian Lubkivskiy, an advisor the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The operation is being financed by the Russian government and involves “many high-ranking experts,” he said. Russian trucks disguised as humanitarian convoys recently transported targets and exercise machines to prepare gunlayers and drivers of armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, Lubkivskiy told the television show.

A column of Russian armored vehicles entered Ukrainian territory from the Russian Federation on the early morning of Nov. 7, reported Dmytro Tymchuk of the Info Resist website. In addition, a Russian Armed Forces tactical battalion arrived at the Luhansk district of Shchastia. In the last 24 hours, Russian-terrorist forces attacked Ukrainian positions in the vicinity of Debaltseve 15 times, Donetsk 12 times, Pervomaisk 10 times and Luhansk seven times, Tymchuk reported this morning.

Russian-terrorist fighters directed cannon fire at the Donetsk airport on Nov. 6, reported the press center of the Ukrainian government’s anti-terrorist operation. That day, three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and four injured in 26 armed conflicts with the separatists, it reported. The Donetsk People’s Republic controls the Russian-Ukrainian border crossing at Novoazovsk and the road to Mariupol, the OSCE reported on Nov. 6.

Zenon Zawada: The Russians could be gearing up for one last military offensive before the harsh winter arrives. On top of reports of local military experts and officials, the aggressiveness of the Russian side can be seen from the Nov. 6 statement of its Foreign Affairs Ministry, which rejected the Ukrainian government’s attempt to return to negotiations in a “Geneva format,” involving representatives of the EU and the U.S.

If this materializes, we expect an attempt to conquer the key strategic areas of the Donbas region that remain under Ukrainian control, particularly the port city of Mariupol, which had a pre-war population of 458,500 and is home to two of Ukraine’s largest steel factories. The city also lies along a key route from Russian territory to the Crimean peninsula. The territory of the ruined Donetsk airport, as well as Donbas’s biggest railway junction of Debaltseve, are also key targets for conquest.