!!! BREAKING NEWS !!!
The wires are now also reporting APCs with Russian flags:
So pro-Russian unmarked militia now has armored troop carriers & are driving from Kramatorsk to Slaviansk. A definite escalation of tensions
— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) April 16, 2014
One of the six tanks of the Ukranian army that I just saw in #Kramatorsk that switched sides. Now w Russian flag. pic.twitter.com/Ig0qJQ5jWM
— Raniah Salloum (@Ranyah) April 16, 2014
Russia previously had said the use of force against pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine would imperil the talks in Geneva between Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and the European Union.
Ukraine's security forces retook a small military air base in the east in an "antiterrorist" operation launched on April 15.
The separatists continue to occupy official buildings in about nine eastern Ukrainian cities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Ukraine is "on the verge of civil war."
Ukraine's parliament is to discuss the crisis in the east behind closed doors today.
The UN Security Council is due to meet later today to discuss the human rights situation in Ukraine.
This may be start of the Ukrainian Civil War: Pro-Russian men in 5 armed troop carriers & special forces in truck driving toward Slaviansk
— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) April 16, 2014
Pro-Russian armed men driving through Kramatorsk on 4 troop transports & 2 trucks, w/Russian flag. Where did they get the armor!?
— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) April 16, 2014
Along with the Russian tricolor, which Moscow City Hall has encouraged residents to hang from their balconies to show their approval of the Crimea takeover, the St. George ribbon, also known as the Georgian ribbon, has seen a major revival as the authorities seek out symbols to unite the country behind its controversial actions in Ukraine.
The ribbons have been worn for years to commemorate the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Now they have been adopted by Russians who oppose the Western-backed regime in Kiev, which the Kremlin says is led by Nazi sympathizers and "fascists." Members of the Berkut, the special units of Ukraine's police notorious for their brutality, also wore the ribbons before being disbanded by the new Ukrainian government.
Read more here
My photo report from the first day of war in #Ukraine in and around #Kramatorsk is here: http://t.co/PbE3L300cE pic.twitter.com/n0ascypxfp
— Petr Shelomovskiy (@stopnarcotics) April 15, 2014
Best lede yet out of E Ukraine, by @pete_leonard & @mashadanilova: "The fuel is local, but the matches are Russian" http://t.co/DymJNV66FA
— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) April 16, 2014
Locals have used a green mini bus to block the path of a column of Ukrainian APCS in the old city of #Krematorsk
— Eleanor Montague (@EleanorMontague) April 16, 2014