After the talks between Vladislav Surkov and Victoria Nuland, another assault by the AF of Ukraine on Donbass was delayed a bit, but not completely cancelled; therefore one should not be too delusional. And peacefulness has nothing to do here. All prepared provocations will be carried out at the predetermined time.
Immediately after the meeting in the city of Pionersky of the Kaliningrad Region, I asked myself a question: why, after all, Surkov who at the time of appointment was not being especially trusted in the Kremlin received an informal position of the coordinator for Donbass? I can find only one explanation—due to the long friendship with Victoria Nuland and other similarly odious representatives of the White House. It wasn't much of a concern that he could be killed by the saboteurs controlled by the American PMCs—there are more than enough of the saboteurs there. And even if he gets killed by accident—not a big loss.
Surkov and Nuland met, talked, and then Saakashvili made a demarche and revealed the locations of the secret checkpoints. History is silent whether it happened because of the Surkov-Nuland agreements or contrary to them. But the fact remains that the army is set on the positions, so is the military equipment and the AF of Ukraine won't leave Donbass amicably. The economy of Ukraine is in a total shambles; only the war is saving the Yatsenyuk-Avakov-Jaresko government.
The signs of the imminent provocation can't help but being noticed.
http://www.vz.ru/news/2016/1/24/790307.html (24.01.2016)
"The shelling is no longer provocative, it is a preparation for a major offensive. Because it can be indicated by the fact that the Ukrainian officers who were a part of the JCCC (the Joint Centre for Control & Coordination) since last year, have been recalled," he is reported saying by RIA Novosti.
"They (Kiev) have removed all their representatives in the JCCC in the territory of the DPR except for the south direction. Their JCCC representatives remain only in the south. They have been taken from all other areas of the DPR," said Basurin. [end of quote]
http://regnum.ru/news/polit/2048278.html
Lugansk, January 3, 2016, 14:55—REGNUM
Acting Chief of Staff of the People's Militia Corps of the Lugansk People's Republic Igor Yaschenko told reporters that the AF of Ukraine are preparing firing positions for the heavy equipment near the front line. Yaschenko told about that at the briefing today, January 3.
In particular, he said that the AF of Ukraine continue using "silent mode" to build fire and defensive positions along the whole front line.
In the vicinity of Kamyshnaya village, the LPR's reconnaissance detected preparation of defensive positions up to the company strong point. Around Nizhniaya Olkhva, preparation of artillery positions is under way. Near Kryakovka discovered preparatory work to build positions for multiple rocket launchers BM-21 "Grad".
In addition, reconnaissance detects that heavy weapons and troops are being moved to the front line.
"According to our reconnaissance information, in the village of Stanitsa Luganskaya, located 1 kilometer away from the line of contact, on the territory of the railway station a large concentrations of mixed equipment is observed. That includes ten tanks T-64 and five units of Self-Propelled Howitzer 2S1 "Carnation", said Yaschenko. [end of quote]
http://в-деталях.рф/в-обсе-сообщили-об-исчезновении-отвед/62180/(03.12.2015)
... Observers of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have reported that Ukrainian security forces were not seen at the sites where the weapons had been pulled back to. It was written in the mission's report.
«SMM has visited the location where the military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) was permanently warehoused; all previously registered weapons have not been found there," says the report. At the same time it adds that outside the warehouses was spotted a convoy of seven T-72 tanks. [end of quote]
Several Russian MSM outlets picked up on the apparent misinformation.
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2900297 (24.01.2016)
Adviser to the head of the MIA of Ukraine Zorian Shkiriak stated that he is in possession of information that alleges that the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk Seople's Republics (DPR and LPR) Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky put a hit on each other's lives. Mr. Shkiriak, citing sources close to the leaders of the DPR and the LPR, said that Mr. Zakharchenko and Mr. Plotnitsky are in negotiations with the possible organizers. He wrote in Facebook that the hit may cost each of them $1,000,000 or more. [end of quote]
http://lenta.ru/news/2016/01/24/skiryak/(24.01.2016)
The leaders of the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, put a hit on each other, said adviser to the head of the MIA of Ukraine Zoryan Shkiriak in his Facebook page.
"From the sources close to the leaders of the terrorists (this is the term Kiev uses to call the militias—a note from Lenta.ru) it has become known that the LPR's boss Plotnitsky puts a hit on the DPR's boss Zakharchenko. And Zakharchenko, in his turn, is thirsty for Plotnitsky's blood," wrote Shkiriak. [end of quote]
The salvo of the information war in this case misses the target. For everybody, except the sofa soldier of the information war Mr. Shkiriak, it is clear that such decisions are beyond the DPR/LPR leaders' power. They won't be able to put a hit on each other even if they really want to. All those in the DPR/LPR who thought otherwise were removed from power by various means long time ago. Mr. Shkiriak may be surprised, but today there is more law and order in the republics than in Kiev. He missed the target and that is obvious to all.
People working in Kommersant are slightly more informed than adviser to the head of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine; why have they repeated this nonsense? I hope they have done that only so that the DPR/LPR leaders step up security and teamwork in the next few days.
There has been seen a trend that the leaders of the LPR/DPR coordinate their efforts in the areas of joint defence and solutions to economic problems; this point of co-operation was the very target of the information salvo made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
And here is another preparatory information salvo.
http://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/201601241618-6bfn.htm (24.01.2016)
On January 25 and 26, in the territory of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, artillery units of Ukraine will conduct exercises, said the Deputy Chief of Staff of the People's Militia Corps Igor Yashchenko. This area is located in the zone of the counter-terrorism operations (CTO).
Similar excercises will be held in a number of Ukraine's settlements. This information was provided by LPR's intelligence service, reported RIA Novosti.
Igor Yashchenko reminded, "It should be noted that on January 23 at the meeting of the Association of Ukraine's Cities, Poroshenko said in his speech that "he won't allow freezing of the conflict in Donbass», which excludes a peaceful solution to the current conflict." [end of quote]
So, when shells fly into the frontier settlements of the LPR and the residential areas of Donetsk, AFU will call that excercises? "And everybody thought, everybody thought that it was just excercises."
Why wouldn't the OSCE's Observation Mission ask preventively what kind of excercises are going to take place in the CTO zone?
The provocation is being timed with the start of the Intra-Syrian talks in Geneva in order to weaken the position of Russia and to strengthen that of the United States, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and "immoderate opposition"—attempts are being made to drag the latter to the negotiations table by hook or by crook.