UPDATE 2 (08/18/2015): One of the wounded people has died, bringing the total killed in the attack to 3. And the latest report Special Monitoring Mission of the OSCE has this statement: “In government-controlled Sartana (15km north-east of Mariupol), the SMM observed and carried out analysis on 11 craters, concluding that either 122 or 152mm artillery rounds – mostly fired from the east – had caused them.” That means that Russians, using weapons that were supposedly withdrawn, did the shelling.

UPDATE 1 (08/17/2015): The numbers for Sartana appear to be 2 killed, 6 wounded, and 46 (or 52) buildings damaged.

A few days ago, the Russian foreign ministry was mouthing off to anything that would listen about August being the time for American and/or NATO provocations against Russia. This, from the people who couldn’t figure out why the West would take the unprecendented move of imposing sanctions on them. Completely out of the blue! Totally unprovoked! What armed invasion of a sovereign country?

Unfortunately, the US/NATO/West/World wasn’t being provocative enough, so Russia has decided to launch multiple attacks along the contact line, including against villages in the Mariupol area. Tonight the Russians were pounding Sartana, a town about 20 km NE of Mariupol. There were civilian causalities and the cannonade was audible in Mariupol.

It is likely only a matter of time before Mariupol is under direct attack (again).

I think it’s time to stop thinking about sanctions and provocations, just deal with the problem. I noted a looooong time ago that I didn’t want to see Ukraine be the newest Afghanistan, but I think that might be unavoidable now.