Donetsk Peoples Republic

This article has been adapted from Member of Kiev's top brass 'defects' to anti-govt forces, predicts more like him (22/6/15) | RT. this article includes an embedded 1:05 minute video of Aleksandr Kolomyets speaking to a press conference. This story is confirmed by Former Advisor to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Defects to Donbass (22/6/15) | Sputnik. See also: Brothers in Arms: Two Kiev Officials Defect to Fight for Lugansk (15/6/15) | Sputnik A man claiming to be a Ukrainian major general and former assistant to the country's defense minister has announced he is now working with the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

"I am Ukrainian Armed Forces Major General Aleksandr Kolomiyets. My latest posts are chief analyst of the Ukrainian armed forces, assistant to the Ukrainian defense minister," the man said at a news conference at the Donetsk news agency loyal to the self-proclaimed republic. Kolomiyets had also spent 19 years as the chief enlistment officer in the Donetsk region.

As the Ukrainian army launches a new attack on the Donetsk Peoples' Republic, claiming to have retaken Donetsk Airport from 'separatist' forces, the justification for such an attack has once again become a subject for discussion. While the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says the new offensive is aimed at 're-uniting' Ukraine, and Western media believe this both to be a reasonable objective and the real one, the actual situation is entirely different...