Undeclared War: Putin's Covert Invasion of Eastern Ukraine

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/russia-expands-war-in-eastern-ukraine-amid-web-of-lies-a-989290.html



Moscow has continued to deny direct involvement in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. But evidence to the contrary continues to mount. NATO says up to 1,000 Russian soldiers have joined the fray and the pro-Russian separatists have made a remarkable turnaround.

Undeclared War: Putin's Covert Invasion of Eastern Ukraine
By Benjamin Bidder, Moritz Gathmann, Christian Neef and Matthias Schepp
September 02, 2014 – 06:00 PM

In the middle of a field of withered sunflowers stands a man in a white shirt wondering if war or peace will ultimately prevail. His name is Paul Picard and he is the head of the OSCE Observer Mission on the Russian-Ukrainian border in southern Russia.

For weeks now, volunteer fighters, weapons and even heavy military equipment have been trickling into Ukraine through this segment of the border. The soldiers are coming to provide support to pro-Russian separatists in their battle against the Ukrainian military. They're members of Vladimir Putin's secret army in Ukraine.

Picard, a Frenchman, is witness each day to the events taking shape along the border, but there's little he can do to stop them. His mandate with the observer mission is limited to the scope of a few meters inside the border because Russia and the other OSCE member states failed to reach an agreement on anything more extensive. Picard and his 15 staff don't even have permission to inspect the cars and trucks that are legally crossing the border. Nor do they have the right to stop people who are penetrating the border into the Ukraine through unguarded fields.

One of the border crossings under OSCE observation is located near a city on Russian soil with 50,000 inhabitants. The municipality is surrounded to the north, south and west by Ukrainian territory. Strangely, the city is named Donetsk -- the same as the embattled bastion of pro-Russian separatists some 160 kilometers (99 miles) to the west in Ukraine.