For several months, the signals of increasing activity of separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk have intensified. The number of incidents and casualties has also increased. Kiev talks about 22 soldiers killed and almost 60 wounded as a result of the fire from the so-called "separatists" and unmarked soldiers operating there from the beginning of the year. This means an escalation, because there have been 26 deaths in the entire period since the armistice of July 2020. According to the Ukrainian intelligence services, the forces of the so-called The "separatists" are not only intensively trained and equipped with new equipment, but have also been reinforced by Russian snipers and reconnaissance groups.
On March 30, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Ruslan Chomczak, announced that since the beginning of 2021 the Russian Federation had transported 19,000 people to the territory of Ukraine occupied by separatists. tonnes of fuel, 335 tonnes of ammunition, 35 military vehicles, 3 tanks and a large number of multi-rocket launchers and specialized equipment and weapons.
Information from the so-called "republics": Donetsk and Luhansk coincide with significant displacements of equipment and people in the adjacent areas of the Russian Rostov Oblast, but also in Krasnodar Krai, which connects with Crimea by the Kerch Bridge . On this bridge, for example, on March 29, a train carrying numerous military vehicles was photographed, including the 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzers and BMP-2 and BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles.
In the same period, columns of armoured vehicles were observed in Krasnodar and the Crimea, and in Rostov-on-Don, the main junction of communication with Donbas, rail transport carrying, among others, BTR-82A armored personnel carriers with painted-over markings of affiliation and tactical numbers. This is a practice observed in recent days with many combat vehicles transported in the area. A large column of Russian military fuel tanks was photographed on April 1, northeast of Sevastopol. Probably one of many. All this together indicates a significant concentration of troops, but also ammunition and fuel supplies necessary for operational activities.
There was also a lot in the air in the last days of March. In the Rostov Oblast, at a distance of several dozen kilometers to each other, two formations of helicopters flying west were recorded by random people. In the Morozovsk region, in the north of Rostov oblast, it was a group of 16 Mi-8 helicopters, while in the south, near the Salsk airport, a formation consisting of at least 4 Mi-28N attack helicopters and a similar number of Ka-52 helicopters appeared. Most likely they belong to the 55th Independent Helicopter Regiment stationed in the nearby Krasnodar Krai. The unit is armed with about 50 machines, ¾ of which are the Mi-28N, Ka-52 and Mi-35M attack helicopters.
The "icing" on this military "cake" is the relocation to Crimea of the 56th Independent Airborne Guards Brigade, a sub-unit of which already took part in the fighting in Donbas in 2014. Currently, according to official information from the Russian Ministry of Defense, it will be transformed in Crimea into the 56th Airborne Regiment, part of the famous 76th Guards Landing and Assault Division from Pskov. The location is quite peculiar, but it justifies, for example, the transport of this unit's equipment in recent days, including a significant number of Tor-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems.
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