Russia's Continuing Support for Armed Separatists in Ukraine
Russia's Continuing Support for Armed Separatists in Ukraine and Ukraine's Efforts Toward Peace, Unity, and Stability
Fact Sheet
Office of the
Spokesperson
Washington, DC
July 14, 2014
The United States’ goal throughout the crisis in Ukraine has been to support a democratic Ukraine that is stable, unified, secure both politically and economically, and able to determine its own future. Therefore, we support ongoing dialogue among the foreign ministers from Ukraine, Germany, France, and Russia to work toward a sustainable ceasefire by all parties in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine that would build toward a lasting peace. We should emphasize, however, that our ultimate goal is not just a temporary halt to violence. We want Russia to stop destabilizing Ukraine and occupying Crimea, a part of Ukraine’s territory, and allow all of the people of Ukraine to come together to make their own decisions about their country’s future through a democratic political process.
Ukrainian President Poroshenko has proposed a detailed peace plan that includes a promise of amnesty for separatists who laid down their arms voluntarily, and who are not guilty of capital crimes, decentralization of powers within Ukraine, and protection of the Russian language. He also implemented a unilateral ten-day ceasefire on June 20 to create room for a political solution, which unfortunately was not reciprocated by the separatists and their Russian backers.
While Russia says it seeks peace, its actions do not match its rhetoric. We have no evidence that Russia’s support for the separatists has ceased. In fact, we assess that Russia continues to provide them with heavy weapons, other military equipment and financing, and continues to allow militants to enter Ukraine freely. Russia denies this, just as it denied its forces were involved in Crimea -- until after the fact. Russia has refused to call for the separatists to lay down their arms, and continues to mass its troops along the Ukrainian border. Many self-proclaimed “leaders” of the separatists hail from Russia and have ties to the Russian government. This all paints a telling picture of Russia’s continued policy of destabilization in eastern Ukraine.
Here are the facts:
• Russia
continues to accumulate significant amounts of equipment at
a deployment site in southwest Russia. This equipment
includes tanks of a type no longer used by the Russian
military, as well as armored vehicles, multiple rocket
launchers, artillery, and air defense systems. Russia has
roughly doubled the number of tanks, armored vehicles, and
rocket launchers at this site. More advanced air defense
systems have also arrived at this site.
•
• We
are confident Moscow is mobilizing additional tanks that are
no longer in the active Russian military inventory from a
depot to send to this same deployment
site.
•
• We are concerned much of this equipment
will be transferred to separatists, as we are confident
Russia has already delivered tanks and multiple rocket
launchers to them from this site.
•
• Available
information indicates Moscow has recently transferred some
Soviet-era tanks and artillery to the separatists and that
over the weekend several military vehicles crossed the
border.
•
• Social media videos of separatist
military convoys suggest Russia in the past week alone has
probably supplied the militants with at least two-dozen
additional armored vehicles and artillery pieces and about
as many military trucks.
•
• Publicly available
videos posted on July 14 of a Luhansk convoy on the road to
Donetsk revealed at least five T-64 tanks, four BMP-2
armored personnel carriers (APC), BM-21 multiple rocket
launchers, three towed antitank guns, two ZU 23-2
antiaircraft guns, and probably a 2B16
mortar.
•
• A video of Krasnodon, near the
Izvaryne border crossing, on 11 July showed two BTR armored
personnel carriers, two antitank guns, and various trucks on
a road heading in a westerly direction towards
Donetsk.
•
• A video filmed in Donetsk on 11 July
showed a convoy of three BMD-2 APCs, two BMPs, one 2S9
self-propelled gun, and a BTR-60 APC.
•
• In
addition, after recapturing several Ukrainian cities last
weekend, Ukrainian officials discovered caches of weapons
that they assert came from Russia, including MANPADS, mines,
grenades, MREs, vehicles, and a pontoon
bridge.
•
• Ukrainian forces have discovered
large amounts of other Russian-provided military equipment,
including accompanying documentation verifying the Russian
origin of said equipment, in the areas they have liberated
from the separatists.
•
• Photographs of
destroyed or disabled separatist equipment in eastern
Ukraine have corroborated that some of this equipment is
coming from Russia.
•
• Recruiting efforts for
separatist fighters are expanding inside Russia and
separatists are looking for volunteers with experience
operating heavy weapons such as tanks and air defenses.
Russia has allowed officials from the “Donetsk Peoples’
Republic” to establish a recruiting office in
Moscow.
•
• Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who
has long had a distinguished career in the Ukrainian
military, was taken by separatists in mid-June. She is now
being held in a prison in Voronezh, Russia. According to the
Ukrainian government, she was transferred to Russia by
separatists.
•
• Separately Russia continues to
redeploy new forces extremely close to the Ukrainian border.
We have information that a significant number of additional
military units are also in the process of deploying to the
border.
•
Ukraine’s Good-Faith Efforts:
In a bid to unify the country, President Poroshenko
outlined a comprehensive peace plan on June 7. President
Poroshenko’s plan offers amnesty to separatists who lay
down their arms voluntarily, and who are not guilty of
capital crimes; commits to providing a safe corridor for
Russian fighters to return to Russia; establishes a job
creation program for the affected areas; includes an offer
of broad decentralization and dialogue with eastern regions,
including the promise of early local elections; and grants
increased local control over language, holidays, and
customs. President Poroshenko also has reached out to the
residents of eastern Ukraine and is pursuing constitutional
reform which will give local regions more authority to
choose their regional leaders and protect locally-spoken
languages.
President Poroshenko implemented a unilateral seven-day (later extended to ten days) unilateral ceasefire on June 20. He also proposed meeting with leaders from eastern Ukraine - including separatists - despite their stated unwillingness to abide by the cease-fire or to negotiate.
Yet Russia and its proxies in Donetsk and Luhansk did not act on this opportunity for peace. Hours after the ceasefire began, Russia-backed separatists wounded nine Ukrainian service members. During the course of the ten-day ceasefire, Russia-backed separatists attacked Ukrainian security forces over 100 times, killing 28 service members. The separatists continue to hold more than 150 hostages, mostly civilians, including teachers and journalists. Separatists have refused all offers by the Ukrainian government to meet.
This timeline of events leading to, during, and after the unilateral Ukraine ceasefire illustrates how the good-faith efforts of the Ukraine government and European leaders to broker a ceasefire with Russia and the separatists it backs have been rejected. Russia and the separatists they are supporting continued to destabilize Ukraine throughout the ceasefire, and continue to destabilize Ukraine today.
• May
25: Petro Poroshenko, who had campaigned on a
platform stressing reconciliation with the east and Russia,
is elected by an absolute majority of voters in
Ukraine.
•
• June 8-17:
President Poroshenko hosts five rounds of contact
group talks, facilitated by the OSCE envoy, in the lead-up
to his announcement of a
ceasefire.
•
• June 12:
Poroshenko initiates a call to President Putin to open
communication.
•
• June 14:
EU-brokered gas talks end with a final EU brokered proposal:
Ukraine accepts the proposal, but Russia rejected
it.
•
• June 19: Poroshenko
meets with eastern Ukrainian leaders, including separatists,
in Kyiv.
•
• June 20: Poroshenko
implements a seven-day unilateral ceasefire. Hours later,
nine Ukrainian service members are wounded by pro-Russian
separatists, foreshadowing separatists’ 100 plus violent
actions over the next 10 days.
•
• June
23: The contact group meets in
Donetsk.
•
• June 25: NATO
Secretary General Rasmussen notes that there are “no
signs” of Russia respecting its international commitments
with regard to Ukraine.
•
• June
27: Ukraine provides constitutional reform
provisions to the Venice Commission for review. This reform
would allow for the direct election of governors and for
local authorities to confer special status on minority
languages within their regions.
•
• June
27: Poroshenko extends the unilateral ceasefire
another 72 hours to allow another chance for OSCE contact
group negotiations to show
progress.
•
• June 28: Ukraine
shoots down two Russian UAVs violating Ukraine’s airspace
in the Luhansk region.
•
• June
30: Due to the separatists’ refusal to abandon
violence in favor of negotiation, President Poroshenko
allows the cease-fire to expire.
•
• July
3: President Poroshenko in a telephone conversation
with U.S. Vice President Biden reaffirms that he is ready to
begin political negotiations to resolve the situation in
Donetsk and Luhansk regions without any additional
conditions.
•
• July 8:
President Petro Poroshenko visits the former rebel
stronghold of Slovyansk to meet with local residents after
government forces recapture it from pro-Russian
separatists.
•
• July 9: Ukraine
restores electricity and train service to Slovyansk, and
Ukrainian security forces distribute food, drinking water,
and humanitarian aid to the
population.
•
• July 11: The
Ukrainian government establishes an inter-agency task force
in Slovyansk that is conducting damage, security, and
humanitarian needs assessments.
•
• July
11: The Ukrainian government reports that it
delivered over 60 tons of humanitarian aid supplies in
Donetsk Oblast over the preceding 24 hours, bringing the
five-day total to 158 tons. President Poroshenko announces
that Ukrainian security forces had successfully cleared
nearly 100 mines and roadside bombs from liberated
territory.
•
As General Philip Breedlove, NATO’s
Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, stated on July 1:
“The cease fire in Ukraine was not ended because of
accusations; it was ended because Russian-backed separatists
responded with violence while President Poroshenko tried to
open a window for peace. Russia’s commitment to peace will
be judged by its actions, not its words.” As the United
States and our European allies have repeatedly stated, we
call on the Russian government to halt its material support
for the separatists, to use its influence with the
separatists to push them to lay down their arms and abide by
a ceasefire and to release all hostages. Only then can the
process of bringing peace to Ukraine truly
begin.
ENDS