Valentina and her friend Irina walked wearily up the hill from where the Azov Sea meets Ukraine’s coast, to a leafy promenade that is the pride of the modest town of Novoazovsk. “We lived in Donetsk, near the airport, but left a month ago after the shelling became unbearable,” said Valentina.
“We came to the seaside because it was quiet and peaceful, so our parents could get some rest. But the fighting followed us. Now the war has found us here.” The region around Novoazovsk, only about 10km from southeast Ukraine’s border with Russia, is the new frontline in fighting between government forces and pro-Moscow rebels who the West says are backed by Kremlin troops and armour.
As the two ladies spoke and looked out over the sun-splashed sea, local people gathered in twos and threes to observe a plume of white smoke rising soundlessly from a dark, distant speck on the glittering water. A man with binoculars – albeit with only one intact lens – said he could make out the shape of a ship when the breeze cleared the billowing smoke for a moment.
“I heard the militia hit a border guard cutter,” said Vadim, a heavy-set man in shorts and stripy T-shirt.
“We’re not really sure who they are, they’re not local guys, but at least things are quieter since they arrived. When they were coming in we had shelling, and before that we had the national guard here, and some of them treated us like dirt.”
Vadim’s fellow fisherman, Oleg, complained that members of the national guard and pro-government volunteer fighters had acted towards the people of Novoazovsk with little respect and casual roughness. “They made me get on the ground and put my face in the dirt, and pointed a gun at me just to check my documents,” said Oleg. “And that happened twice.”
“The new guys are polite,” added Vadim. “And if they make life stable again, then they are fine with me. We are not into politics here, we just want peace.”
The West says peace in Ukraine is what Russia is making impossible with its alleged introduction of soldiers, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and rocket systems into what was until last week a peaceful strip of southern Donetsk province.
Analysts say it is hard to explain how the rebels suddenly turned the tide of the battle for eastern Ukraine without a timely injection of professional troops and heavy armour from across the porous border with Russia.
Weapons across the border
Nato has presented satellite imagery that it claims shows Russian weapons crossing the border, but Moscow insists only volunteers are fighting Ukrainian forces in a conflict that has killed some 2,600 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
"I would love to get reinforcements and weapons from Russia, but all we have has been taken as war trophies from the Ukrainians. Now, thanks to them, we are armed as well as them," said a stocky, bearded man who goes by the nom de guerre Svat, and leads a rebel unit of the same name.
“My men took control of Novoazovsk on Wednesday, at about 15.30. There was little resistance and I don’t expect a counter-attack from Ukrainian forces. I’m not telling you how many men I have, or what armour, but we have enough of each.”
Svat – which means “matchmaker” or “go-between” – says he is a Ukrainian special forces officer who was inspired to join the rebels by a fire in his hometown, Odessa, that killed 42 pro-Russian activists in May after fighting with groups that supported Ukraine’s revolution and subsequent pivot towards the West.
He says his unit belongs to the army of Novorossiya, a tsarist-era term for parts of southeast Ukraine that used to be part of Russia’s empire, and that its mission is to reunite that territory and help establish it as an independent state.
“Russia won’t take us in, but we are part of the Russian empire,” said Svat (45). “And [Russian president] Vladimir Putin is not my commander-in-chief, much as I would like him to be.”
With a quick smile of apparent pride, Svat said his men had struck the Ukrainian border guard ship smoking out at sea with an anti-tank rocket.
Vessels hit
Ukrainian media said two coastguard cutters had actually been hit, possibly by a military plane or helicopter, and that some on board had been injured.
Some 40km down rutted roads winding between fields of sunflowers and wheat, the government-held port of Mariupol was preparing for attack.
Workers and volunteers dug trenches and tank traps around a strategic city that lies between Novoazovsk and Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed in March. “Without doubt we will move towards Mariupol, and beyond,” said Svat.
“As to when – allow me to keep my little military secret.”
