BREAKING: Ukraine Steps Up Attacks in Donbass in Wake of Visit by US Ambassador to Kiev

- Unlike this paradise, the Donbas is suffering from artillery mayhem. Coincidentally, it got worse after the visit of the US ambassador Kurt Volker. A civilian was killed by a shell in the village of Golmovsky near Gorlovka a young woman, born in 1985. Let's see what's happening in Donetsk. Alexander Sladkov. Our military correspondent is here live. Sasha, is the escalation of attacks tied to the visit of Kurt Volker to Donbas?

Alexander Sladkov, VGTRK military correspondent: Yes, definitely. Americans came to Kiev, and then, the delegation of military experts visited the frontline. On the day before their visit, a village of Chigari was captured. It's located, let's say, on the outskirts of the Gorlovka region because Gorlovka is actually huge, bigger than Donetsk. There was an... accident on the outskirts. They promised not to invade and then invaded Chigari. It all happened one day before the visit of the US ambassador who intended to visit the frontline. Our goal is to convey the information shared by the locals. They believe it's a PR stunt. And here's what happened: 40 Ukrainian soldiers came and purged the village. They started capturing civilians and took them to an improvised checkpoint where each of them was interrogated by the Ukrainian security police. According to the current data we received from the people, not the administration, today the people of Chigari were ordered to abandon their homes. Take the bare necessities and out to Ukraine or DNR. There were families there, not some tumbleweed-people. They had to abandon their homes land that feeds some of them in summer. Four schoolkids. Where are they supposed to go now? To Ukraine? To DNR? It's complicated.

 

Plus the obvious military escalation. It's been almost 24 hours since they launched their artillery attack on Gorlovka. More than 40 buildings have been destroyed within a week. In Gorlovka, five people have been injured. One woman was killed today. So yes, it's war here and the Ukrainian military is getting more aggressive.

- We heard you visited the bombing site, Sasha. We received a new report of the filtering station being bombarded. You talked to mayor of Gorlovka Ivan Prikhodko and many civilians. What do the people say? What impact did the attack have?

- You see, there are several filtering stations here we're speaking about the one in Gorlovka. It supplies the people of the region with pure water. It was attacked with 40 rocket projectiles launched by a Grad MRLS. The situation is very serious. The international law implies responsibility for such actions. All essential life sustaining facilities are not to be attacked. Same as civilians aren't to be killed. Go fight the soldiers. And if there are no soldiers, don't kill civilians.

The format's been changed. We've discussed it multiple times: Since April 30 the Ukrainian Donbas Mission Control decided to deploy military instead of the security police. The troops are led by the infamous General Sergey Inayev. The situation's got a lot more intense. OK, if it was a bold, honest, resolute offensive of the Ukrainian troops attempting to settle it like men and take by force what they couldn't take by deception or any other way. But no, they're biting like bugs. They're attacking the civilians. We've recently received information, that the military is allowed to respond because they can't take it any more. The frontline is being reinforced but once again, it's the Ukrainian military that's escalating the conflict. It's not a way to resolve a conflict. They're firing assault rifles, Javelins, all the big guns they have. Aviation is not present since it's been excluded. Fleet? The current hymn of the Ukrainian Fleet about one small raft kind of describes the situation. Negotiate! Talk! Everything can be solved through negotiations. The locals just want the war to stop. They want to live, work, and bring up their children. No, they choose a military solution but are too weak to solve anything. That's it. They are just escalating the conflict.

- Thank you very much. Alexander Sladkov live from Donbas. We've shown the results of the attack. Once again, they coincided or didn't coincide, depends on the way you treat it with Kurt Volker's visit. We've received footage from Chigari that Sasha's just mentioned. Here's their "gradual offensive." The soldiers have recorded an address to Poroshenko. Let's hear it.

"The Ukrainians. We tried to force our way into Gorlovka. But separatists disrupted every our attempt. We've got casualties. They told us to gain foothold. Where are we supposed to gain foothold? It's a freaking swamp! Why do we need to do that? They promised to send reinforcements, tanks but sent nothing. Who benefits from us being here? Is that what victory feels like? That's not a victory. Mr. President, I address you personally. Tomorrow you'll have no soldiers to fight your war".

- Well, this requires an explanation from Zakhar. Is it the gradual offensive they promised? They said they were going to slowly…

- I just can't hold it anymore. You're showing us a guy who's addressing Poroshenko in Russian with a Moscow accent. Are you showing us a fiction movie? It's an obvious fake!

Zakhar Prilepin, DNR commander: Different people fight in their ranks, some of them might speak Moscow-Russian.

- It gets even worse! Unfortunately, there are even Russians in your ranks which is a surprising yet unfortunate fact.

- You're an actual journalist, do you believe in these fairytales? That's just a guy with a Ukrainian patch addressing Poroshenko. And you broadcast it on the national television. A Ukrainian soldier is addressing President Poroshenko…

- Could we please listen to Zakhar Prilepin? Let's listen to Zakhar. The man who's been there will tell you whether these are fairytales.

Zakhar Prilepin, DNR commander: Well, first of all... I'm a writer, I'll explain it to you as a writer.

- He's the adviser of DNR leader Zakharchenko. If you please.

- There are tons of videos on the Internet showing Ukrainian soldiers speaking exclusively Russian because it fits the operational environment. There are some volunteers from Russia. There are some guys in my battalion that speak Ukrainian, or have accent. The troops are mixed. It's a civil war. And both sides have patches. Have you been there to make such bold claims? Have you been there? OK, I get it. Let's continue. The visits of our American guests used to follow the same scenario in 2014-2016: they came, sanctioned a new stage of escalation and Ukrainian troops launched an offensive. It never ended well. We knew that we should await a new attack the day after Americans came. The current situation is different. Americans come and give no new orders. But Ukrainians want to toad. They want to show that they're fighting some enemies. Their actual goal is to carry out a new provocation. Why do they target civilians? To get a harsh response. Why do they capture those villages? Their orders are absurd. Because those are not strategically vital villages. They come and wait for Russians to come there and force them out in order to take photos of the Russian offensive and ask Americans for more money and weapons. It's a large-scale political bargain. When Americans come, Ukrainians suddenly begin reporting their casualties. It appears that 5 or 9 people got killed. All other days while the American guests are away, they never report their casualties. I assure you that there clashes are constantly happening at the frontline. And their casualties are much heavier than those 9 people they reported. We used to inflict up to 30 casualties per day. They always keep that in secret. Our battalion was also stationed in Gorlovka opposite of Toretskaya. We forced their troops out but didn't cease their positions. They entered the village to hide from our fire. We can do the same thing but we don't. We never provoke them. We only respond to their attacks. They organized a showcase for Volker. They demonstrated how cynical, mean, and low they are and how they disrespect the people of Donbas who they still consider Ukrainian citizens. They are shelling houses, making people flee from their homes and then they tell you how they'll come over and build towns and small pretty villages. They destroyed everything and claim that they'll rebuild. It's a cynical disgusting nonsense.

I'll make my bold speculation: I don't think Poroshenko would dare to seriously escalate the situation especially with no support from the US because if his large-scale offensive ends the way they ended before it'll trigger a political crisis in Ukraine. One more mousetrap and Poroshenko's zero-rating will become negative. So they are going to show off until Volker leaves. The next time he comes, they are going to shoot and bomb everything again. But as Sladkov said, they are incapable of acting like men. Unfortunately, those poor Ukrainian boys are hostages of their absurd orders and that nasty situation.

- They can't act like men yet people are dying. Together with Yuri Nikolayevich, we've realized that since recently, we no longer have contacts with Volker. It means the conflict is not going towards a peaceful resolution.

Yuri Shvytkin, member of State Duma: I'd like to take a minute of your time to share my opinion on the events we've seen. There have definitely been violations. During local conflicts, when emissaries came to the militants the latter tried to show that they needed the moral and material support they were receiving. Zakhar was right — these actions are indeed provocative. They are trying to provoke the DNR troops to attack them thus justifying an aggressive response and their nonobservance of the Minsk Agreements. That's first.

Secondly, they aren't aiming to initiate a dialogue. I've already said today that the US has always acted within their system of double standards. Stoltenberg has recently announced that the US is ready to resume the bilateral cooperation with Russia and that their doors are open. In reality, the facts say otherwise. You saw them openly break the INF Treaty while blaming us even though we follow it precisely. It's unlikely they are going to take some peacekeeping efforts. It's absurd, they never will. Our position is clear: we want Ukraine to follow the Minsk Agreements.

- They have the same position.

- Their position is different. Well, their official position is the same as ours. They'll order their peacekeepers to occupy the territory of Donbas and position their troops at the Russian-Ukrainian border. Here you go. They also don't consider DNR and LNR worthy of negotiating with. And they don't want to let them conduct elections on this territory. Our peacekeepers are positioned only at the frontline and only to guard the OSCE mission. I'm sure Volker came to discuss these issues as well. His position is clear: to escalate justify the actions of the Ukrainian troops and blame Russia for being aggressive. I'm Deputy Chair of the State Duma Defense Committee and I'm telling you with all responsibility: there are no our troops there.

- And suddenly all Ukrainians believe you.