BBC News: Is Russia orchestrating east Ukraine violence?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27633117

30 May 2014 Last updated at 09:58 ET

Is Russia orchestrating east Ukraine violence?
By Patrick Jackson

BBC News

Russia is widely accused of orchestrating the separatist insurgency in Ukraine's eastern provinces despite the Kremlin's attempts to portray it as a home-grown movement and its repeated denials of involvement.

After two months of fighting and the loss of hundreds of lives, Moscow's strong propaganda campaign against the new leadership in Kiev now comes with mounting evidence of Russian military engagement in the two provinces just across its border, Donetsk and Luhansk

After militants downed another helicopter on 29 May, killing the general responsible for training Ukraine's new National Guard in combat, Washington said it was concerned about the separatists' continuing "access to advanced weaponry and other assistance from the outside".

The implication is that Russia or forces in Russia are supplying the heavily armed militants, who are known to have anti-aircraft artillery and armoured troop carriers in their arsenal, as this photo by the BBC's Will Vernon shows.
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