A column of Ukrainian armored vehicles stopped by self-defense forces on their approach to Luhansk is heading from the border to its base.
“We are returning from the border to our base,” one serviceman, who was involved in negotiations with the self-defense forces, told Interfax.
A column of six armored personnel carriers and six howitzers was stopped on an old tank road in the woods between the towns of Schastia and Raihorodok (a suburb of Luhansk). Local officials and self-defense representatives started negotiations with the military to persuade them not to fight against their fellow citizens.
The troops accompanying the column of armored vehicles are bearing no insignia that would identify their rank, division and country, an Interfax correspondent reported from the scene.
The serviceman called on reporters and local officials “not to believe that we were sent to Luhansk, Donetsk or somewhere else.”
“We do not want a civil war, let alone some conflicts with the population,” he said.
The military stressed that they intend to leave the Luhansk suburb the next morning and urged locals to refrain from “provocative actions to which we shall have to respond.”
For their part, the Luhansk self-defense forces stepped up security at their checkpoint on the road, and local residents have started building barricades of tires on a bridge near Raihorodok.
