For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Ukrainian president Piotr Poroshenko appointed his Ukrainian National Guard chief, Lt. General Stepan Poltorak as his minister of defense, replacing Colonel General Valery Geletey, who resigned Sunday, according to Russian language news reports.
Russian and Ukrainian language reports conflict as to the reason for General Geletey's departure, most of them centered on the disaster in Ilovaisk in late August, where dozens of Ukrainian troops were killed after being surrounded by militia troops. Other reports say that that General Geletey resigned to head up a key Ukrainian military academy.
The appointment of General Poltorak is seen by both Russian and Ukrainian media as showing Poroshenko's intention to continue military operations against the two breakaway oblasts (provinces) of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Rebel fighters and Ukrainian military forces are supposedly withdrawing from a line of demarcation agreed to last month in the Minsk ceasefire, but some of the requirements such as withdrawing heavy weapons have been slow in coming.
General Poltorak served as Ukrainian head of Interior Troops and then the National Guard. Because General Poltorak himself has been directly involved in the fighting against Donetsk and Luganks militia, he is seen by Ukrainians as an endorsement of Ukraina's involvement in destroying the rebel movement.
Leonid Slutsky, part of the Russian State Duma’s committee for CIS affairs, called the appointment an endorsement of war, according to a news item posted on the Itar-Tass website, calling General Poltorak "Donbass’s worst gendarme."
Russian politicians have claimed that Ukrainian troops fighting in the region were involved in atrocities against civilians as well as militia fighters, a charge which Ukrainians have thrown right back at the pro Russian militias and Russians alike.
Slutsky also said that the appointment is seen as an attempt by President Poroshenko to bolster his party's fortunes in the upcoming elections in less than two weeks, October 26th.
General Poltorak is Soviet trained and has been an Interior Troops commander since 2002.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com