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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
English language press sympathetic to the Ukrainian side are currently buzzing with the news that "up to 200" Russian soldiers were killed in artillery fire at the Donetsk airport around the first part of December.
According to the Facebook page of a woman identifying herself as a human rights activist Elena Vasilyeva, the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation confirmed the deaths of the soldiers in a report. A link to the report has yet to emerge.
As a matter of course, the Russian ministry of defense doesn't post documents to its website, nor do they prepare news briefs to reporters.
About a month ago the Ukrainian defense ministry claimed that a total of 200 Donbas rebels were killed in artillery attacks at the Donbas airport, which if true, would account for about 80 percent of the known Donbas rebel forces at the scene.
So far, Donbas rebel media have not confirmed anything, except that military bloggers have said in the recent past that one rebel unit, totaling 20 effectives, were killed in a rocket artillery attack at about the same time.
It turned out in that attack, that rebel commanders had been mugging for Ukrainian television, which had broadcast the images, leading Ukrainian artillery units to grid the location and open fire.
Such massive casualties even in rocket artillery fire are rare, especially in the targeted force are trained soldiers, as any Russian targets would certainly be.
Whatever the status are of Russian forces in eastern Ukraina, both sides in the conflict have been fighting despite agreeing to a truce. Just a few days ago officials in Lugansk, along with ceasefire monitoring military officers from the Ukrainian and Russian armies along with observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, agreed to a total ceasefire to begin December 5th. Much of the fighting in the area, concentrated near the north and on the right bank of the Northern Donetsk River, continued despite the December 5th deadline.
Meanwhile in western Donetsk around the region of the airport in northern Donetsk city, artillery fire and direct combat intensified over the weekend, with Ukrainian forces attempting what Donbas rebel characterized as a reconnaissance in force leading to Makeevka using tanks and other armored vehicles, according to the Voice of Sevastopol Russian language news website.
It later turned out the attack was a diversion as Ukrainian forces relocated other forces from one sector of the front to another.
The heaviest fighting since December 6th centered around Gorlovka and Debaltsevo, northeast of Donetsk city, where fighting included massive artillery fire from both asides, including counterbattery fire by rebel artillery units. The issue in the ground maneuvers was a rebel attempt to open the road between Gorlovka and Dzerzhinsk, to the west.
In Debaltsevo, east of Gorlovka, Ukrainian and rebel artillery exchanged fire, and both sides hit targets in the area, with rebel artillery hitting a Ukrainian checkpoint both at Debaltsevo and Uglegorsk, and at targets at Kamenka settlement, as Ukrainian artillery hit the nearby settlements of Yuzhnokommunarovsk, Redkodub, and Nikishino.
On December 7th, Ukrainian ground units including tanks probed rebel defenses at Gorlovka, near Shirokaya Balka and Glubokoye using tanks for direct fire artillery. Ukrainian artillery units positioned at Dzerzhinsk, Novobakhmutovka and near Zaitsevo fired into Gorlovka, according to rebel media. Rebel artillery units attempted counterbattery fire on Ukrainian artillery.
In Nikishino, both sides exchanged artillery fire. A small rebel force attempted a probe, but was driven back with the loss of one soldier.
Lugansk
Fighting continued on December 6th but on a smaller scale around the town of Stanitsa Luganskaya, where rebel units have been trying to take over the town. Despite that, Ukrainian ground units reprotedly have been pushed further in towm, and north of the town, as rebel units continue to push forces into town, and into the bridhehead.
Rebel artillery units hit Ukrainian checkpoints along highway T1303, and small arms firefights were reported near Tryokhizbyonka and Krimskoye.
By December 7th, artillery fire was almost non existent in the region near highway T1303.
Ukrainian artillery units hit at targets at Vesyolaya Gora, south of Schastye and at Zelyonaya Roscha west of Stanitsa Luganskaya. Artillery fire was heard around T1303.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.