In launching an offensive against the Ukrainian coastal city of Mariupol, pro-Russian separatists have selected a target of both strategic and symbolic importance in their bloody conflict with the government in Kyiv. Located on the Azov Sea, some 100 kilometers from the rebel-held provincial capital Donetsk, Mariupol is seen as a key element of a potential land corridor from Russia to the Crimean peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed from Ukraine in March, should the city fall to the rebels. But because Mariupol and Crimea are separated by several hundred kilometers of territory controlled by the Ukrainian government, the citys sea access and status as a temporary regional capital controlled by Kyiv could be of more significance to the separatists, analysts say. Every town -- especially such a big city, and quite symbolic as well -- lost by the Ukrainian government undermines the morale of the Ukrainian side and encourages the Russian rebels to go farther and farther, said Oleksiy Melnyk, a military expert from the Razumkov public policy center in Kyiv. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in June declared Mariupol the provisional capital of the Donetsk Oblast, whose official capital, the city of Donetsk, is largely controlled by rebel fighters. rferl.mobi/a/ukraine-mariupol-strategic-symbolic-target/26811511.html
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 12:34:00 +0000
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