You're reading: RFE/RL: ‘Our tanks are ready’ – Ukraine braces for escalation in eastern war

RFE/RL: ‘Our tanks are ready’ – Ukraine braces for escalation in eastern war

Published Feb. 3, 2017. Updated Feb. 3 at 1:44 pm

A tank and an armoured personnel carrier from the Ukrainian Forces are stationed outside a building in the flashpoint eastern city of Avdiyivka that sits just north of Donetsk on Feb. 2, 2017.

Photo by AFP

AVDIYIVKA, Ukraine – “Attack. Counterattack. Attack. Counterattack.”

That’s how Kyiv regiment commander Yevhen Deydey described the battlefield maneuvering taking place on Feb. 2, as Russia-backed separatists stepped up attacks against Ukrainian government forces in this embattled eastern Ukrainian city for a fifth straight day.