As we've continued our coverage of the vehicles being sent in to fight the Ukrainian government and aid the glorious Russian soldiers of Novorossiya Ukrainian rebels, some commenters have cast doubt on that narrative. Today, that narrative was proven right. By the US government, of all people.
Thanks US government!
The State Department just said that the initial smoking gun was that pictures were circulating of T-64 tanks being driven through Eastern Ukrainian streets, and the T-64 is model the Russian military itself hasn't used in a while, but conspicuously keeps in storage, according to the New York Times:
"Russia will claim these tanks were taken from Ukrainian forces, but no Ukrainian tank units have been operating in that area," the State Department said Friday afternoon. "We are confident that these tanks came from Russia."
"We also have information that Russia has accumulated multiple rocket launchers at this same deployment site in southwest Russia, and these rocket launchers also recently departed," the State Department added. "Internet video has shown what we believe to be these same rocket launchers traveling through Luhansk."
Two out of the three tanks in the convoy pictured above were destroyed by Ukrainian forces before they could make it very deep into Ukrainian territory, though they are almost certainly not the first pieces of heavy arms and armor to make it to the insurgents.
This conflict is still going on, and likely to get a lot worse before it gets better.