There is some intense fighting going on. OSCE is up in arms with calls for immediate cease-fire:
_http://www.osce.org/cio/135461 said:
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office welcomes Declaration by participating States calling for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine
BELGRADE 20 January 2015
And what is happening on the ground in some places like Gorlovka? This is a report from a blogger in Donetsk reposted on the Novorossia-INFO English FB page by Helga Green.
_https://www.facebook.com/groups/300259383483318/permalink/409650532544202/ said:
Once more I had a chance to talk to the people I know – the dwellers of Gorlovka. The situation is very bad there.
I really do not understand. In the 21st century a European city with its inhabitants is being shelled from heavy artillery, shelled from various directions, with Ukrainain army methodically devastating the infrastructure and murdering people. And everyone is silent. People who are expressing their indignation in social networks do not count, as they have no impact on things.
Do not tell me that we are not a part of Europe and that no one cares about the citizens of Ukraine or the DPR – it does not matter what you call them.
You mean they do not know anything there on the top? I do not believe.
I may be wrong, but I would say that it is understandable that when fighting for the Donetsk airport took place the shells at times hit Oktyabrskiy and other surrounding residential areas. The military could be missing their targets. It is understandable, not forgivable, though, but at least it has some explanation, when shells from the area of Peski and Avdeyevka hit Kiyevskiy district of Donetsk because hostilities are underway nearby – they are also missing. Shelling of Petrovka and Tekstilshchik is harder to explain, but still one can have a try.
But Gorlovka… it is plainly being exterminated... the entire city!
And everyone keeps mum. Russia, the OSCE, all kinds of human rights activists, politicians, volunteers etc. are silent.
Are political games above all? It is possible… Only all those silent people do have their own homes, pets, families, children, whom they bring up with the help of telling them about kindness, loyalty and cooperation…
The video was made several hours ago.
Yulia Karunina, blogger, Donetsk
_https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP1na-4d7I0
Via the FB page one can watch it, but it says in Russian, "not for people with weak nerves", so if anyone access it via the FB link, be warned. In the video, after a couple of minutes of walking in the city, passing by a shelled building, one arrives at a busstop where two people have died just a short time before.. One woman is lying in a pool of blood and carries signs of having suffered a direct hit to the face, which is completely gone. An old woman arrives to take the bus and begins crying uncontrollably when seeing the ugly site of the two dead bodies. Then an army man speaks some words of anger against the culprits who bombs the civilian population.
In the comments Helga Green remarks that 135 people have died over a five day period, that there are many wounded, hospitals are full, morgues are overflowing, and no one can be buried because of continuous shelling.
According to the Wikipedia, Gorlovka had 250000 inhabitants _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horlivka
As a small addition, yesterday, I went to a the opening of a phote exhibition organized by some local Ukrainian association. It was opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Then the Ukraine ambassador to Denmark spoke, she mentioned Je Suis Volnovakha, http://www.sott.net/article/291603-Ukrainians-march-in-Kiev-holding-Je-Suis-Volnovakha-banners and how much Russia in general was to blame for all the problems in Ukraine, how much Ukraine wanted to be part of Europe (EU) and that they needed help from countries like Denmark etc.
The photos in the exhibition showed the war in Eastern Ukraine from the Kiev perspective. I got the impression from the photos that the UA soldiers fight a war that is away from home and against an enemy that has been dehumanized, objectified and alienated as something out there. There was a photo with the president in uniform, soliders being trained, soldiers saying goodbye to their loves, soldiers on tanks, veterans with amputations, female conscripts who make military clothes, soldiers coming back from the front, burned vehicles, bombed buildings, suffering children and women, maybe 200 photos, all in all. As far as suffering is concerned it did not look much different, from what one can learn by following Donbas reports, only the angle and parental control had been in to make it still okay for young children.
No mention of MH17 by the way, no mention of the suffering caused by ballistic missiles fired or 500 kg airbombs, incendiary weapons, cluster bombs, bombing of civilian targets, no acknowledgement of the role of the EU,US,NATO in creating all this mess, no mention of Odessa massacre, no mention of Mariopol massacre, etc. They did mention though that soldiers had been shot at in Illovaysk and how unfair that was. - And maybe it was, maybe they had been shot at after surrendering, I don't know the circumstances, but compared to all that was left out, I was disappointed.
Below is a picture I found on the above FB page