On Aug 5th, 438 Ukrainian troops entered Russian territory, where some have been put up in a tent camp. Moscow said the troops had sought asylum, while Kyiv said they were forced to flee into Russian territory after running out of ammunition. The UNHRC has reported that more than 700,000 people have left Ukraine for Russia during the country’s four months of conflict. In addition, 117,000 people have become displaced within Ukraine. It is no surprise people are leaving. The four months have brought nothing but destruction and fear (propoganda and real violence). A week of combat in Luhansk, the separatists' second-largest bastion, has meant that municipal rubbish collection has stopped. What is even worse are the 250,000 people who have been left without water, electricity, internet or telephone, according to local authorities.
Human Rights Watch reports that separatists have targeted medical workers. In a statement Tuesday, HRW reported that separatists had "threatened medical staff, stolen and destroyed medical equipment and hospital furniture, and compromised the ability of civilian patients to receive treatment." HRW also accuses separatists of commandeering ambulances to carry fighters.
The independent defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said Russia had supplied more serious weapons to the rebels and trained its own special forces near the border in response to the Ukrainian advance. Russian media reports have suggested the rebels now have TOS-1 tank-mounted rocket launchers, which can shoot two dozen fuel bombs in quick succession. "Right now Russia's introducing powerful weapons that can cause mass casualties and destruction of Ukrainian troops, hoping that will stop the Ukrainian offensive," Felgenhauer said. "If the fall of Donetsk and Lugansk and Novorossiya seems imminent, then Russia could intervene covertly, with special forces and air support and more powerful weapons. I would believe that's right now in the cards." Novorossiya or "New Russia" is a term used by supporters of Moscow for the regions in southern and eastern Ukraine.
The Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has said that Russia had concentrated troops and military hardware on Ukraine's border 'to exert pressure or to enter'.
Nato officials have confirmed 20,000 Russian troops were gathered on the border, with 8,000 deployed in the last week. A Ukrainian military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, put the figure higher, at 45,000 soldiers accompanied by tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery and rocket launchers.
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