One year ago, bloody battles raged throughout the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. The traditional autumn “rasputitsa” (mud season) usually ends by January: The dirt freezes, allowing trucks, troops and heavy military equipment to maneuver through fields and use unpaved roads. By mid-January 2015, the Donbas separatist forces—armed, trained, led and often reinforced in battle by the Russian military—began a major offensive to capture the main terminal building of the Donetsk international airport, which was the scene of many months of pitched fighting. The joint Russian-separatist forces also attacked the crossroads town of Debaltseve, northeast of Donetsk, which had been …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation