Russian-backed separatists fighting to control Mariupol outskirts

Russian-backed separatists are attempting to force Ukrainian soldiers out of the village of Shyrokyno, where fighting has been waged in recent weeks, reported on March 3 Dmytro Tymchuk, a military expert and head of the InfoResist news site. “Also, at the given site, the terrorists are acting as though they are ‘withdrawing armies’,” he reported. “In reality, the arms withdrawn during the day are returned to their positions at night. In the words of the fighters themselves, ‘the carousel is turning’.”

 

Russian-backed separatists began to shoot Ukrainian positions at Shyrokyno using mortar fire on the afternoon of March 3, reported deputy internal affairs minister Zorian Shkiriak on his Facebook page. “The enemy continues to regroup and significantly accumulate its forces in the southern flank,” he wrote. “No withdrawal of heavy hardware beyond the separation line is occurring. The concentration of Russian-terrorist armies near Novoazovsk (another town located nearby Mariupol) and neighboring districts is continuing. The Kremlin is continuing to dispatch to the terrorists heavy arms: tanks, Grad rapid-fire missile launchers, armored personnel carriers, positioning of long-barreled artillery. Soldiers are arriving.” Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and nine injured in the 24 hours leading into noon, March 3, the government reported.

 

The situation in Donbas is relatively calm though shootings were heard, reported on March 2 the special monitoring mission of the OSCE. In particular, its monitors heard rifle and machinegun fire in the northern part of Shyrokyno, a village 23 kilometers directly east of the port city of Mariupol. Also of concern is the situation at the Donetsk airport and surrounding villages. In the 24 hours leading up to 8:00 March 2, there were 39 recorded cease-fire violations, 26 of which occurred in the villages surrounding the ruined airport.

 

U.S. President Barack Obama decided on March 4 to extend for a year sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation on March 6 for its illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the White House website reported.

 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called upon the EU on March 4 to refrain from premature optimism regarding the Feb. cease-fire agreement and to continue to use its influence on the sides to ensure its fulfillment. In the same telephone conversation with EU Council President Donald Tusk, Poroshenko discussed the possibility of holding the next Ukraine-EU summit in Kyiv at the end of April.

 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told reporters on March 3 that he doubts the prospects of a long-standing cease-fire in the embattled Donbas region, as reported by Agence France-Presse. “The situation is very complicated and tense despite the declared cease-fire,” he said in Tokyo. “Shooting from the side of the terrorists is continuing.” The Ukrainian government can’t rely on its agreements with the Russian government, he said. “There has always been a lack of trust in relations between Ukraine and Russia,” Klimkin said. Trust can be renewed with the help of the OSCE in reviewing and monitoring the efforts of both sides in upholding the cease-fire agreement, he said.

 

Zenon Zawada: With the fighting having significantly calmed since the battle for Debaltseve, Obama is refraining from any decision on dispatching weapons. However, that’s an option that remains on his desk should the fighting escalate, and we share Klimkin’s view that will happen, sooner or later.

 

Reports from the Ukrainian government confirm the Russian-backed separatists are using this relative calm in fighting to regroup and reposition their forces, particularly surrounding the strategic port city of Mariupol. Taking control of the towns of Novoazovsk and Shyrokyno, also situated on the Azov Sea coastline, will be critical in achieving that goal and they are working on it now. That the OSCE failed to report on the active fighting in Shyrokyno in its March 2 report lends some doubt to its effectiveness.

 

Various reports have surfaced that the U.S. has begun to supply arms to Ukraine, for example, through allies such as the United Arab Emirates, where Poroshenko visited last week. Its government denied the report, and we can’t confirm whether that’s the case. However, it’s possible that this has already begun and we are confident that defensive armaments will be dispatched to Ukraine eventually.