U.S. troops have arrived in Donbass in Eastern Ukraine, Pravda reports, raising concerns about their growing presence in the war-torn region.
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The situation in Donbass, which comprises of the primarily Russian-speaking Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, has become worse in the past few days.
The far-right Ukrainian government has shelled dozens of homes in region, leading to downed power lines and damaged infrastructure. Kiev has also led violent military attacks against civilians who they believe are “Russian aggressors.”
“The arrival of military instructors from the United States in the area has been established,” Eduard Bazurin, deputy commander of the People's Republic of Donetsk, told Pravda.
“One of the goals of the arrival of U.S. instructors was to check the readiness of Ukrainian Armed Forces for combat operations.”
Since 2014, the U.S. has provide military assistance to Kiev regime. Thus far, the assistance has been limited to uniforms, armoured vehicles and “humanitarian” military supplies. But now that the U.S. is providing military instructors, its role in the regional conflict is coming into question.
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Sergei Baryshnikov, Director of the Center for Political Analysis and Technology in Donetsk, said the main reason why the situation is worsening is because the Minsk II agreement has had “zero effect.” The agreement was signed in 2015 between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany in an attempt to alleviate conflict between the far-right Ukrainian government and anti-fascist separatists.
“They shell us all around the clock, and it does not matter whether they have a day or a night shift,” Baryshnikov told Pravda.
“It appears that they have to implement a certain assignment. Water supplies are likely to be cut because they target a filtering station near Kamenovskaya. There are other infrastructure losses, but the worst is civilian casualties.”
Political tensions in Donbass came to a boiling point in 2014 when the Ukrainian government began attacking Russian-descendent activists for seeking territorial autonomy.