Ukraine rebels: We have 30 new tanks
REBELS in Ukraine boasted yesterday that they have received reinforcements from Russia as Vladimir Putin defies the West.
Alexander Zakharchenko, the self-proclaimed prime minister of the Donetsk rebel area, hailed the ‘good news’ that he had secured 30 new tanks among 150 pieces of military hardware.
To counter gains by Ukrainian forces, he claimed his rebel forces had been joined by 1,200 fighters ‘who have received four months’ training in the Russian Federation’.
‘They have been brought in at the most crucial moment,’ he said in defiance of the latest warning to President Putin from the United States to halt his ‘extremely dangerous and provocative’ destabilisation of Ukraine.
Zakharchenko’s claims came after eyewitness accounts last week of Russian armoured vehicles covertly crossing into rebel-held Ukraine – which Russia strenuously denies.
In another development, Kiev’s SBU secret service alleged that the drivers and other personnel accompanying a 280-truck ‘aid convoy’ sent from Russia to the Ukrainian border were troops in ‘disguise’. The trucks yesterday remained 20 miles from the Ukrainian border. But last night, the convoy was given the green light to proceed after an agreement was struck.
Under the terms of the deal, Red Cross officials will be allowed to inspect every truck.
Meanwhile, troops who defected from Ukraine to Russia when Crimea was annexed are suspected of shooting down Malaysian Airways flight MH17, in which all 298 passengers and crew died. The SBU believes that MH17 was shot down by mistake.
As tensions continued to rise yesterday, Ukrainian troops at a checkpoint near Donetsk were pictured arresting and beating a man accused of spying for the pro-Russian separatists.