This article is very, very contrary to many of the main stream media news items from todayIt simply begged to have more attention paid to it.More at the link belowHeavy Losses suffered in counter attack
MOSCOW--Ukraine suffered heavy losses Thursday in a counterattack along a key supply route to the separatist capital of Donetsk, signaling that despite steady advances by government forces pro-Russian rebel fighters still pose a significant threat.Losses have mounted recently and the fierce fighting adds more pressure on Kiev to seek a compromise at peace talks next week in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, where Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet face-to-face for the first time in two months.
If Kiev was doing well, would they even consider seeking a compromise?
The attack in the town of Ilovaisk left 19 fighters from pro-Kiev volunteer battalions dead and 42 wounded, said senior Interior Ministry aide Anton Gerashchenko, without giving a time frame. The government has been steadily eating away at rebel-controlled territory and had said it regained control of Ilovaisk on Wednesday.
Col. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine'sNational Security and Defense Council, said the government had repulsed the insurgent counterattacks and that reinforcements had been sent to help bolster the town's defenses. Separatist leaders, however, said they had surrounded Ukrainian units in the town and prevented reinforcements from getting there.The losses in Ilovaisk, "shows how fierce the fighting is there," Mr. Gerashchenko wrote in a post on his Facebook page. The four battalions fighting in Ilovaisk are from four volunteer units, and Mr. Gerashchenko said they were acting effectively as army units but without heavy weaponry.Kiev forces have increasingly relied on the committed but poorly trained volunteer units in recent weeks. Mr. Gerashchenko wrote in his post Thursday that a problem in the operation was a lack of coordination with the army, which provides artillery support for operations.The months long conflict has begun to weigh heavily on Ukraine's already weakened economy. On Thursday, Economy Minister Pavlo Sheremeta said he had submitted his resignation because he was unhappy with the pace of reforms and the appointment of a trade representative without his approval.Mr. Sheremeta's departed with a broadside at the government's attempts to overhaul its moribund economy, which is forecast to contract by more than 6% this year."We need to change this whole paradigm: The system, the people, the processes," Mr. Sheremeta said Thursday.Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, an economist who threatened to quit last month over the slow pace of reform, has warned that restoring infrastructure in eastern Ukraine could cost billions of dollars and that the conflict was hamstringing much-needed economic overhauls.At the same time, Col. Lysenko pointed to government progress in the battle for control of the rebel's easternmost stronghold of Luhansk. Over the weekend, Ukraine took control of a district police station not far from the city and on Wednesday, Col. Lysenko claimed troops had taken control of "a significant part" of the city," without specifying what additional gains had been made.The rebels deny that the government has made any serious advances into the city. On Thursday, Col. Lysenko said that fierce fighting continues to take place there and that soldiers working in small mobile groups were moving to take out rebel units and checkpoints.
Interesting, no?