As fighting continues in east Ukraine, U.S. releases images said to implicate Russia

.....The State Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, both of which distributed the photographs to journalists Sunday, did not indicate the source of the images, which were labeled with the imprint of Digital Globe, a commercial satellite and aerial-imaging company.

The high-altitude images released Sunday “provide evidence that Russian forces have fired across the border at Ukrainian military forces, and that Russia-backed separatists have used heavy artillery, provided by Russia, in attacks on Ukrainian forces from inside Ukraine,” according to labels on the pictures provided by the U.S. government.

The most recent photograph, taken Saturday, shows what are described as “blast marks” from rocket-launcher fire on the Russian side of the border and “impact craters” inside Ukraine.

A photograph labeled as having been taken Wednesday shows a row of vehicles described as “self-propelled artillery only found in Russian military units, on the Russian side of the border, oriented in the direction of a Ukrainian military unit within Ukraine.” On the other side of the border, “the pattern of crater impacts near the Ukrainian military unit indicates strikes from artillery fired from self-propelled or towed artillery, vice multiple rocket launchers,” the label says.........http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/fierce-battle-between-military-and-rebels-in-eastern-ukraine-halts-plane-investigation/2014/07/27/b695809c-1582-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage
27/7/14
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Related:

• Washington fully shares responsibility for bloodshed in Ukraine (Russian Foreign Ministry)

• Ukraine to Call Up More Reservists (and men under 50 to fight rebels in eastern Ukraine)