Here is a map of today's military situation in eastern Ukraine issued by Kyiv's National Security and Defense Council (click map to enlarge):
This was published a week ago, but is still worth reading if you haven't come across it already: an excellent "Letter from Ukraine" by Oliver Carroll for "Politico" on the "Cossack People's Republic of Stakhanov" in Luhansk:
The nearer you get to the frontline, the better the soup. This unexpected principle is one of few that still unify the warring parties in eastern Ukraine. And in the heavily sandbagged military HQ in separatist-held Stakhanov, no amount of artillery fire in nearby Pervomaysk or evident difficulties in the food supply chain can get in the way of cook Galina Dmitrevna’s exceptional borsch.
Dmitrevna is one of six women working 24-7 in three shifts. She does so without respite, feeding dozens of ragged and largely uncommunicative fighters that stream in and out of her kitchen. The only time she seems to look up is to register emotion at the news coming from the other side of the front, as dutifully transmitted by “Cossack Radio.” The updates are unrelentingly gloomy: “Two pensioners have been violently robbed by Ukrainian soldiers”; “Ukrainian teachers are being forced to work without pay”; “The World Bank is discussing ending financial assistance to Ukraine.” Only Russia is the beneficiary of good news: The West is now, apparently, ready to remove all sanctions. It’s an exclusive of sorts.
A few doors down from the kitchen is the smoke-filled nerve center of Commander Pavel Dremov’s military operation. Dremov is a 37-year old former bricklayer who has emerged as the savior of Stakhanov, a hitherto-forgotten mining town in the northwest corner of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic. What is interesting is that the commander has styled himself in complete opposition to his fellow separatists in Luhansk and what he calls its “shady businessmen,” who deal “money, power, and ceasefires with the Kiev ‘junta.’” Dremov has offered Stakhanov citizens an alternative vision—a new, socialist, neo-Soviet “Cossack” republic that works for the people, especially the poor and elderly. And, as goes without saying, one that ignores any talk of a ceasefire deal.
It’s a call that falls on easy ears in Stakhanov. Named after the Soviet shock worker famed for record coal production (fallaciously, historians say), the town’s best days are long behind it. For a start, this most-famous-of-all-mining towns no longer has any working mine to speak of. The decline of Stakhanov, which accelerated during the post-Soviet 1990s, saw working men and women undergo a humiliating transformation from the Soviet Union’s most privileged class to one living among a cancer of crime, poverty, gambling and oligarchy. Many Stakhanov citizens were forced to travel to Russia in search of any old seasonal work to support their families. Others reluctantly acquiesced to the new ways of working. In short, Stakhanov was looking for a break; and when Ukraine fell into revolutionary anarchy earlier this year, some of its more active citizens took their chance.
Read more here
Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with this report from our news desk about the sighting of military convoys in eastern Ukraine:
The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) says it is "very concerned" after its monitors witnessed columns of military equipment moving through territory in east Ukraine controlled by pro-Russia separatists.
In a statement issued on November 8, the OSCE said its monitors had observed "convoys of heavy weapons and tanks" in the rebel-held city of Donetsk and nearby Makiivka.
It comes hours after the AP news agency said its reporters had seen more than 80 unmarked military vehicles near Donetsk on November 8.
The OSCE report also came a day after Ukraine's military accused Russia of sending a column of 32 tanks and truckloads of troops into the country's east to support pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces.
Russia has denied backing the rebels with fighters or arms.
"More than 40 trucks and tankers" were seen driving on a highway on the eastern outskirts of Makiivka, the OSCE monitors said.
The OSCE said 19 of these vehicles were large trucks without markings or number plates, and carrying personnel in dark green uniforms as well as towing howitzers.
Separately, the OSCE monitors also said they had seen "a convoy of nine tanks -- four T72 and five T64 -- moving west, also unmarked," just southwest of Donetsk.
The Swiss foreign minister and OSCE chairperson-in-office, Didier Burkhalter, said he was "very concerned about a resurgence of violence in the eastern regions of Ukraine."
"He urged all sides to act responsibly and to do all in their power to further consolidate the cease-fire," the OSCE said in a statement.
The OSCE monitors have been tasked with monitoring the shaky cease-fire signed by Kyiv and the pro-Russia separatists in Minsk in September.
AP said its reporters had taken photos and video of three columns of armed vehicles and other military hardware: one near the city of Donetsk and two near Snizhne.
Most of the vehicles were transport trucks but there was at least one armored personnel carrier.
AP said several of the trucks were carrying troops.
Earlier on November 8, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States and Russia had agreed to exchange information about the situation on the Russia-Ukraine border.
Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Beijing ahead of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Lavrov deflected a question about whether Moscow was sending tanks and troops to help the separatists.
(AP, AFP)
We are now closing the live blog for today. Don't forget you can keep up with all our ongoing Ukraine coverage here.