The reports that forces loyal to the Kiev government repeatedly fire on civilian targets come in ever day, and many check out - up to Amnesty International confirming these facts, as well as live video of some attacks confirming the direction of incoming fire. The fact that government forces often hit completely non-military targets was clear as far back as the Slavyansk siege, when the resistance did not yet possess heavy artillery, yet unexploded howitzer shells and shell shrapnel were recovered from damaged civilian buildings daily. In my opinion, there are three factors at play here: 1. Bad training and faulty equipment. Government forces are mostly staffed with untrained conscripts - and their "professional" soldiers that haven't practiced using their weapons in ages (see "3 Guys One Mortar"- basically plastered government soldiers trying to fire a mortar unsuccessfully for a while). Moreover, explosives and propellant powders (not to mention electronics and plastics) have a certain "expiration date" and tend to slowly and unevenly degrade over time. This is exacerbated by chronic lack of funds in the Ukraine armed forces, meaning weapons were not properly stored and maintained. For example, there are plenty of videos of Tochka-U SRBMs sticking out of a random swamp, or people's yards. However, when people film them closely, we can invariably see arsenal codes from the 80s. When we see conscripts firing missiles that are much older than them - the surprising thing is not that these museum pieces fly off-target or fail to detonate, the surprising thing is that they fly at all. http://ift.tt/1rrooJt * That said, we must keep in mind that militia is somewhat subject to problem #1 as well - although they are generally defending cities and not attacking, and rely less on heavy weapons, some degree of collateraldamage is unavoidable in war. Especially during counterattacks south of Lugansk, by Novosvetlovka and Hryashevatoe, civilian areas suffered as blockading government troops were shelled by the militia. A particularly sad case was the death of multiple civilians during the government retreat from Hryashevatoe - although immediately billed by the government media as "terrorists killing refugees", multiple witnesses later confirmed(video coming soon) that soldiers simply stuffed random people off the street into their trucks before the breakout, and two of the trucks got burned while trying to break through. 2. The second factor is, basically, random malice among rogue soldiers and units. Since the government media are running an Orwellian propaganda campaign pushing the idea that anyone asking for self-determination (or, you know, political representation, human rights, etc) is a dangerous terrorist and Muscovite slave - not to be reasoned with, but only silenced by force... It's not a far stretch to imagine that some soldiers do in fact buy into that and start acting mercilessly. Also, pro-government forces are notoriously poorly organized and controlled: it's enough to remember the Ilovaysk story, when each unit acted separately - police forces ran before they were attacked, army beat a fighting retreat and eventually surrendered their vehicles, and the volunteer paramilitaries tried to counterattack and got stuck deeper. Under these conditions, it's no wonder that some artillerymen can decide to take a potshot or two at separatist-held cities while no one is looking. Furthermore, the same Orwellian alternate reality the Kiev government created for itself means that its supporters can do no evil, and hence war crimes are never investigated, or even acknowledged. Prime examples of this are the government response to its forces targeting airstrikes against Stanitsa Luganskaya and the Lugansk City Hall, both non-military targets, resulting in numerous civilian deaths. In the former case, the government declared that its planes were not in the area, case closed (must have been UFOs, I suppose). In the second case, when the plane firing and rocket volley landing were caught on tape (as well as rocket fragments and later unexploded rockets), the government doggedly maintained that its plane was firing elsewhere, and the string of explosions were caused by a "separatist MANPAD misfire" (??) - even after OSCE confirmed the airstrike. So there is zero incentive for the troops to exercise caution - both unintentional and intentional attacks on civilians go completely unpunished. 3. Finally, there is the theory that random "terror shelling" is deliberate, to force ethnic Russians to leave Ukraine, thus carrying out the longtime nationalist slogan of "Suitcase - Train - Moscow!" (*even though areas around Donetsk and Lugansk are historically Russian lands that were never part of a Ukrainian nationalist state before 1991, being taken by Russians from the raiding Tatars roughly four centuries back). There are certain facts that prove that this "terror shelling" theory is also, regrettably, at least partly true. - Destruction of key infrastructure by shelling is too commonplace to be accidental (not to mention cases like Aidar battalion saying they mined 2nd largest coal power station in the country, to deprive Lugansk of electricity, and the station later mysteriously going up in flames due to "terrorists"). This is ideal for forcing people to move out - a single hit to a water treatment plant can force the whole town to evacuate without killing anyone. - Other government policies (not paying salaries and pensions in rebel areas, not providing medicine, not providing refugee camps) point to the same goal of forcing the population to leave to Russia. - While in many cases attacks against civilian targets and infrastructure can be attributed to faulty equipment or rogue units, some are too large-scale to be explained like that. For example, three SRBMs that hit Donetsk a few days back could not have been launched without headquarters clearing that operation (during a truce, no less!). In summary, all three theories are likely true to some extent, and each explain part of the ever-present shelling that kills civilians all around Donbass daily. All of them can be blamed on Poroshenko's anti-Ukrainian government - on its negligence, incompetence, lies, ignoring, condoning, and ordering war crimes. http://ift.tt/1t3Igit (gruesome, 18+) Dixi.



from Liveleak.com Rss Feed - Search results for 'fail' http://ift.tt/1t3Igiv

v

General V Ruban - Our forces are shelling the civilians in Donbass

Uploaded by: jironde

Views:

Category: Liveleak.com Rss Feed - Search results for fail

Share

Tweet