Posted on 02/27/2014 1:54:54 AM PST by cunning_fish
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia ordered 150,000 troops to test their combat readiness Wednesday in a show of force that prompted a blunt warning from the United States that any military intervention in Ukraine would be a "grave mistake."
Vladimir Putin's announcement of huge new war games came as Ukraine's protest leaders named a millionaire former banker to head a new government after the pro-Russian president went into hiding.
The new government, which is expected to be formally approved by parliament Thursday, will face the hugely complicated task of restoring stability in a country that is not only deeply divided politically but on the verge of financial collapse. Its fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, fled the capital last week.
In Kiev's Independence Square, the heart of the protest movement against Yanukovych, the interim leaders who seized control after he disappeared proposed Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the country's new prime minister. The 39-year-old served as economy minister, foreign minister and parliamentary speaker before Yanukovych took office in 2010, and is widely viewed as a technocratic reformer who enjoys the support of the U.S.
Across Ukraine, the divided allegiances between Russia and the West were on full display as fistfights broke out between pro- and anti-Russia protesters in the strategic Crimea peninsula.
Amid the tensions, Putin put the military on alert for massive exercises involving most of the military units in western Russia, and announced measures to tighten security at the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
The maneuvers will involve some 150,000 troops, 880 tanks, 90 aircraft and 80 navy ships, and are intended to "check the troops' readiness for action in crisis situations that threaten the nation's military security," Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Russia would roll thru the east with little problem. Might take two or three weeks to crush the western part if they really wanted to. The EU send troops? Lol! Sorry for that but even the us isn’t Going to be facing up to russia in the ukraine. Its Obama who is rattling sabers. Russia will do whatever is in its best interest and the pipeline is both its excuse to roll and a weapon to withhold gas from europe.
“..I can’t think of a reason why anybody, least of all Vladimir Putin, should take a US warning seriously at this juncture....”
Correct. Absolutely no credibity domestically or internationally. They’re clowns in the eyes of the work. Well, our Congress and Supreme Court as scared spit less of him, but Putin?
Naaaa....he ain’t afraid of the gay girly man. Matter of fact, I think he takes pleasure of making a fool of him even though it doesn’t take much every time.
HAHA! Really. And with WHAT measure does he plan on carrying THAT threat out with?
wars sometimes start because of misunderstandings. when SecDef Hagel announced the defence cut proposals it didn’t make us look like we needed to be taken seriously.
Dang, ya beat me to it! He doesn't even have the guts of a "Dean Wormer" to put them on double secret probation and kick them off campus....
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