Situationen i Ukraina just nu, del 3

An ashen-faced man in a loose-fitting military uniform shuffles past a blood-soaked stretcher propped against the wall. Slowly stirring a cup of tea, he watches Ukrainian military officials announce the day’s casualties – one killed and 20 wounded.

“Don’t believe what they tell you,” he says, checking the door is closed before continuing.

“There are many, many more. At least 280 were injured in just one day last week and 30 or 40 killed. There were many more killed this week, Debaltseve and Konstantinovka are the worst cities now. I take 18 wounded to Kharkiv myself every day.”

The man, who didn’t want to be named, is a medic in Ukraine’s overstretched, under-resourced army. Clearly traumatized, he speaks quietly and hesitantly, barely audible over the low rumble of artillery fire from the outskirts of town.

His words confirm Ukraine’s worst-kept secret - that the Ukrainian army is drastically understating its casualties. But only now is the scale of that understatement starting to become clear.

http://www.kyivpost.com/multimedia/photo/ukraine-hides-devastating-losses-as-russia-backed-rebels-surge-forwards-378321.html

Ukrainian forces acknowledged they had ceded control of the village of Vuhlehirsk to Kremlin-backed forces on Jan. 30, giving separatist fighters a vital foothold west of Debaltseve with which to bombard Ukraine’s only supply route into the strategic rail and road junction.

Armored personnel carriers and ammunition trucks continued to speed down the highway between Artyomovsk and Debaltseve, but with rockets already landing either side of the road, Ukrainian positions were dangerously close to being cut off.

“Vuhlehirsk is under the partial control of terrorists,” said Semen Semchenko, commander of the pro-Ukrainian Donbas Battalion. “We retain some of our strong points. A terrorist attack occurred yesterday, after artillery fire struck tanks at the positions of our forces. Over the past few weeks this group of terrorists had infiltrated into the city disguised as civilians and [we were] hit from the rear. In Vuhlehirsk there are enemy armored vehicles, sniper nests in people’s homes, the city is actively being reinforced.”

With Russian-supplied artillery able to hit targets up to 30 kilometers away, the rebels can use Vuhlehirsk to pour fire on a large stretch of the main road. Residents of Debaltseve were hurrying to evacuate the city as the shelling intensified, with another seven people killed today when a rocket hit an apartment block.