Rebels beg Russia for help as fighting rages

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

MOSCOW (AP) — Intense fighting raged Thursday in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia insurgents said they were losing the battle with government forces and begged the Kremlin for military help.

NATO's chief, meanwhile, accused Russia of resuming a military buildup along the border designed to intimidate Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been under pressure from nationalists at home who have demanded that he send troops into eastern Ukraine to help the rebels. But Putin has stonewalled insurgents' pleas to join Russia and welcomed a peace plan and proposed cease-fire put forward by new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

That plan, however, requires a secure border between Russia and Ukraine, Poroshenko says — and it's not clear when that will happen.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140619/eu--ukraine-33a6645313.html

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A pro-Russian fighter holds a gun during a handover of the bodies of Ukrainian troops killed in the plane shot down near Luhansk, at a check point in the village of Karlivka near Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, June 18, 2014. The two sides managed to arrange a brief truce Wednesday evening in the eastern town of Karlivka to allow pro-Russian forces to hand over the bodies of 49 Ukrainian troops who died when the separatists shot down a transport plane bound for the airport in Luhansk last weekend. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

[freshwest]

1. People are dead, guy with gun and leg on bridge smiles. Not an endearing image to me. n/t

[davidpdx]

2. No it isn't.

It seems to me despite the offers of a cease fire, the pro-Russia side wants to continue to fight. That's there choice, but at the same time the blood is on their hands.

[Bosonic]

3. New battles as Ukraine says 300 separatists killed in fighting

New battles as Ukraine says 300 separatists killed in fighting

(Reuters) - Fighting raged for a second successive day in the east of Ukraine on Friday, a day after clashes in which Ukrainian government forces said about 300 separatists were killed.

The casualty figures for the pro-Russian separatists could not be independently confirmed though a rebel commander said on Thursday the rebels had sustained "heavy losses" when they were outgunned by government forces backed by heavy armor.

The government forces said seven of their own number had been killed in Thursday's fighting. The new fighting on Friday was about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Russia.

Fighting broke out just east of the town of Krasny Liman early on Thursday after pro-Russian separatists refused to lay down their weapons in line with a peace plan proposed by President Petro Poroshenko, the government forces said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/20/us-ukraine-crisis-fighting-idUSKBN0EV0KP20140620?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=992637