Rebels Retreat To Donetsk: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 55)

Via comment by cavmedic68w  on Goodies from Ol' Remus

On July 5, the pro-Russia rebels who had been occupying the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk for the past three months retreated to Donetsk, marking a pivotal shift in the conflict. After Ukraine's military recaptured Sloviansk, VICE News visited some of the former rebel checkpoints surrounding the city, interviewed a pro-Russia rebel in Donetsk, and went to a "peace rally" where Pavel Gubarev, the pro-Russia governor of The People's Republic of Donetsk, proclaimed that the rebels would not be defeated. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko plans to continue his government's anti-terror operation until Ukraine is rid of the rebels.

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 "A pregnant lady" – abandoned by her lover to face her fate

Evidently Kiev is using the Communist tactic of shelling all, women, children and soldiers.

Rebel mountain tribesmen armed with our [American] weapons and Communist B-41 rockets and AK-47 rifles shot into the convoy, while Communist artillery struck from all directions. Many trucks were hit by shells and burst into flames and exploded. The trucks were crammed with soldiers, children, and old people. They fell everywhere. Those who walked fell to machine gun bullets. Their blood flowed in tiny streams. The roaring artillery, crackling small arms, screams of the dying and crying of the children combined into a single voice from hell.

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 By noon on March 16, a mass of humanity; troops, dependents, civilians, and deserters; was clogging the old road. Some 400,000 civilians, 60,000 ARVN, and 7,000 Rangers began the attempted escape to the sea.²⁹

By the time that the last straggling men, women, and children had reached Tuy Hoa on the coast; 300,000 civilians, 40,000 ARVN, and 6,300 Rangers were missing, never to be accounted