Amid conditional unilateral truce, terrorists continue to build up their forces and perform treacherous attacks against Ukrainian uniformed services. We hear the first news regarding appearance of 122mm artillery systems in the hands of militants. This is evidenced by the shell stabilizer found yesterday in Kramatorsk.

In the evening the day was saddened by the new tragedy: the terrorists with MANPADs shot down a MI-8 helicopter with 9 Ukrainian servicemen who had to track violations of the peaceful resolution of the conflict within the plan of unilateral ceasefire.

In addition, during the day the terrorists performed seizures of municipal facilities in Luhansk and Donetsk. The rates of fortification of Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, Mykolaivka, Semenivka are also of particular interest. The situation in Kramatorsk is worsened due to the fortified area thought out by German specialists during WWII, which is now being rebuilt by the militants.

Amid this militants continue to build up their attack forces in Seversk and Rubezhnoye. According to I. Girkin’s daily summaries the terrorists expect an attack by the ATO forces from the north. They also strengthen their defensive positions in Krasny Luch, Antratsit and Snezhnoye.

The terrorists have also destroyed the radar sites in Avdeyevka (Donetsk region). Besides, according to local residents the armed militants together with local police collect in Manezhnaya St. (near Donetsk airport). This may indicate preparation to assault the airport which is now controlled by Ukrainian military.

General mental approach of terrorists and their accomplices was undermined by Putin’s last petition to the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) to cancel its March 1 resolution that allows to use Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine. Deputy Head of the Federation Council’s International Committee Andrey Klimov confirmed the upper house will back Putin’s proposal and repeal the resolution on Wednesday, June 25.

In their Zello channels separatists are bewildered by this step and suggest that “Putin wimps them out” (one of the records of this conversation is available here).

However, in our opinion it is too early to rejoice because the real situation is in sharp contrast with Putin’s statements: Russia continues to draw up forces to the Ukrainian border in the Rostov region.

For example, there is a fresh video (June 24) where a column of signal troops is repositioned towards the Ukrainian border.

In this video one can see:

• R-330ZH Zhitel jamming communication stations which are capable of jamming of GPS and GSM signals within 20-30 km from the operating station;
• RP-377LA Lorandit complex for radio detection, direction finding and jamming;
• BTR-80 (8×8 wheeled amphibious armored personnel carrier) with RB-531B Infauna signal intelligence and jamming complex;
• Control and repair automotive station “Konsol”.

This is only a small part of vehicles and equipment that is drawn up towards the border.

However, care should be taken in rear directions as well. According to eyewitnesses, today in the morning they observed movement of the convoy from Moldova towards Kyiv. Seven cars with Moldovan plates in a dense column followed through Berdichev, all cars were equipped with Logan MCV radio stations. Neither the affiliation of this convoy nor its destination is known. Although we do not want to be paranoid but this is what the times dictate. The country that has not known for 23 years of its independence what terrorist acts were has now faced them thanks to the Russian terrorist state machine.

Roman Burko
Russian version: “СОБЫТИЯ И АНАЛИТИКА ЗА ДЕНЬ 24.06.14”