Ukraine to launch huge offensive in east – analyst
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is refreshing forces in the east in an attempt to launch a new attack on pro-Russians in the region, says an analyst.
“This development is not surprising at all,” said Manuel Ochsenreiter, Berlin-based editor-in-chief of Zuerst, in an interview with Press TV on Friday.
“It is well known that Petro Poroshenko was ordering new troops. He was refreshing the troops in the east of Ukraine at the ceasefire line and of course you regroup your troops to launch a new attack,” he added.
Kiev and pro-Russia forces inked a truce agreement proposed by Moscow in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk on September 5, in a move to put an end to heavy clashes in eastern Ukraine. Fighting, however, continues in these regions despite the ceasefire deal.
Locals in Lugansk say there “never was a real ceasefire,” Ochsenreiter stated, adding that according to the self-defense forces in that region, “there was always fighting of much lower intensity than before the truce.”
Poroshenko has ordered the deployment of more military units to eastern Ukraine in an attempt to foil probable attacks by pro-Russia activists.
Russia has accused the Ukrainian government of breaching the peace accord.
Ochsenreiter also stated that the government in Kiev has a very clear agenda, which is to regain control of all the lost regions, even Crimea, which is only possible by “fierce” violence.
He concluded by saying that sooner or later Poroshenko will launch a “huge offensive” and this offensive will be covered by the West, namely the European Union and the United States.
The people of Ukraine’s Crimea voted in favor of joining Russia in March. Kiev launched military operations in April to silence pro-Russians in the east.
Violence intensified in May after Donetsk and Lugansk regions held local referendums, in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine.