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Analysts: Russia Saying One Thing, Doing Another

Jamie Dettmer

   MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin is presenting himself as a
   peacemaker in the Middle East, the go-to arbiter to whom all regional
   leaders can turn to, secure in the knowledge that he considers
   incumbency a good thing and regime change bad, analysts say. When it
   comes to neighboring Ukraine, though, the picture is different.

   Russian-backed separatist forces have increased attacks in recent days,
   and Wednesday mounted a heavy bombardment of Ukrainian defensive
   positions around the port city of Mariupol, according to both the
   Ukrainian government and independent observers.

   Pro-Moscow separatists opened fire on Ukrainian forces more than 30
   times on October 16, killing a Ukrainian soldier and wounding another
   in the process.

   The day before, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed by a sniper,
   according to Ukrainian military officials.

   Ukrainian officials also accuse Russian-backed forces of engaging with
   82 mm mortars, proscribed under the 2015 Minsk agreement struck between
   Russia and Ukraine. The agreement aimed to resolve the conflict in
   eastern Ukraine's Donbas region -- a Moscow-fomented insurgency that's
   claimed more than 14,000 lives since it erupted in April 2014, shortly
   after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

   Why Kremlin-sponsored forces have been intensifying their attacks is
   unclear and goes against the grain of recent moves by both Kyiv and
   Moscow to get down to serious negotiations and finalize a peace deal
   which would see two breakaway republics in the Donbas become
   self-governing, although still part of Ukraine.

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