Ukraine crisis: rumble of tanks brings shadow war into the light

It was an open secret Russian tanks had ventured under the cover of night to the separatist regions. Now they no longer have to operate in the shadows.

A tank in eastern Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of Russian troops. Picture: Reuters.

The tanks were being loaded on to military transporters in a muddy field a few kilometres from Russia’s borders with separatist-held territories in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

On Monday evening there were about 30 tanks lined up across the flat, almost featureless Russian steppe. Within hours of President Vladimir Putin recognising the Kremlin-backed breakaway republics as independent states and ordering a “peacekeeping” mission in the Donbas, fewer than half remained.

Residents said it was an open secret for the past two weeks that tanks had often made their way under the cover of night to the neighbouring separatist regions. But Putin’s decision to recognise the territories means that the Kremlin no longer has to operate in the shadows to provide them with military support. It can now openly deploy troops and could establish military bases in the Donbas.

On Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday AEDT) The Times saw several tanks being driven along a road in the direction of Russia’s border with the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR). There were, however, few signs of large-scale troop movements.

Security was noticeably tighter on Russia’s side of the border, apparently in connection with a visit by Denis Pushilin, head of the DNR.

In front of a row of inflatable tents that have been used to provide shelter for people fleeing the fighting in the Donbas, Pushilin told Russian state media that Ukraine still planned to retake the rebel regions by force.

“We need to evacuate as many civilians as possible so as not to risk a single life,” he said. Kyiv has denied that it is planning a military operation to recapture the territories.

Russia says 90,000 people have arrived in the country from the Donbas since the separatists announced mass evacuations on Friday. Some have been housed in holiday camps in and around Taganrog, a seaside town near the border. Others are being put up in hotels or have been sent to cities in central Russia. Officials in the DNR say that the number of people fleeing to Russia could eventually reach 700,000.

Further north, refugees were also leaving the other separatist-controlled area, known as the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), and crossing into Ukrainian-controlled territory.

But not everyone on the Russian side is happy to see them. Many in Taganrog are angry at Putin for promising 10,000 roubles ($175) to every refugee. “You have to work really hard to earn 20,000 roubles a month in our town,” said Alexei, 54. “And now Putin is handing out cash to them for nothing. Why doesn’t he take care of people here first?”

LNR officials said they would need 1.5 trillion roubles in aid from Moscow to rebuild the region’s economy.

Nikolai Pankov, Russia’s Deputy Defence Minister, told the Russian parliament the situation in the DPR and LNR was “very difficult … and is worsening”. He added: “We have to take the residents of these young states under our protection. Hundreds of thousands are citizens of Russia.”

Russia’s Rostov region bordering the breakaway republics is dotted with monuments honouring those who died repelling the Nazis. But despite the Kremlin portraying Kiyv’s pro-western government as “fascists”, ordinary Russians have little appetite for a war.

“Almost all of us have friends and family in Ukraine,” said a businessman in Taganrog who asked for anonymity. “It would be like fighting our relatives.”

While opposition activists have applied for permission to hold an anti-war march in Moscow in March, anti-Western rhetoric is reaching new heights. Svetlana Goryacheva, a senator, urged the Kremlin to expel Western businesses and nationalise their assets.

She also said Moscow should cut supplies of gas and oil to Western countries. “We have warmed enemy countries for too long,” she said. “Enough!”

THE TIMES