Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Are Grocery Disputes The Cause For The Current Round Of Fighting In Ukraine?

Ukrainian soldiers work on a new underground bunker in Hranitne, Ukraine, Nov. 4, 2021. In the hair-trigger state of the Ukraine war, minor episodes between separatists and Ukrainian government forces can grow into full-fledged battles. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times) 

Seattle Times/New York Times: How a dispute over groceries led to artillery strikes in Ukraine 

Artillery shells fired by Russian-backed separatists shrieked into this small town deep in the flatlands of eastern Ukraine, shearing branches from trees, scooping out craters, blowing up six houses and killing one Ukrainian soldier. 

It was an all-too-common response to the smallest of provocations — a dispute over grocery shopping for 100 or so people living in the buffer zone between the separatists and Ukrainian government forces. But in the hair-trigger state of the Ukraine war, minor episodes can grow into full-fledged battles.

Hunkered down in a bunker, the Ukrainian commander, Maj. Oleksandr Sak, requested a counterstrike from a sophisticated new weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal, a Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 armed drone. 

Deployed for the first time in combat by Ukraine and provided by a country that is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the drone hit a howitzer operated by the separatists. Things quickly escalated.

Read more ....  

WNU Editor: There are many reasons why both sides are shooting at each other in the Ukraine war. Having access to groceries is not one of them.

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