Posted on 03/01/2014 6:35:18 PM PST by Jim Robinson
KIEV, Ukraine — The new government of Ukraine called an emergency session of its national security council on Saturday in the face of the Russian military’s seizure of Crimea, but the leaders are facing a grim reality: Their armed forces are ill equipped to try to reconquer the region militarily.
Crimea has always been a vital base for the Soviet and then Russian Navy, serving as the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, which has controlled the waters off southern Russia since 1783. After a period of tension following Ukraine’s independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia got to keep its base in Crimea on a lease, extended until at least 2042 by the now-ousted president, Viktor F. Yanukovych.
But the Ukrainian military has only a token force in the autonomous region — a lightly armed brigade of about 3,500 people, equipped with artillery and light weapons but none of the country’s advanced battle tanks, said Igor Sutyagin, a Russian military expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London. The forces also have only one air squadron of SU-27 fighters deployed at the air base near Belbek.
A senior NATO official said that Ukraine’s small naval fleet, which was originally part of the Black Sea Fleet, had been boxed in by Russian warships.
The Russian takeover of Crimea was relatively easy, in part because the Ukrainian military was careful not to respond to a provocation that would excuse any larger intervention. The military — which has seen its top leader change constantly with the political situation — has also made a point of staying out of the internal political conflict in Ukraine.
The current military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Mykhailo Kutsyn, was named to the job only on Friday,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
President Ronald Reagan:
"Our enemies may be irrational, even outright insane,
driven by nationalism, religion, ethnicity or ideology.
They do not fear the United States
for its diplomatic skills or the number of automobiles
and software programs it produces.
They respect only the firepower of our tanks,
planes and helicopter gunships."
Undoubtedly the Ukrainian politicians made deliberate decisions to weaken their military for short-term political gains, just as American politicians have made decisions to weaken the US military for short-term politicals gains.
It will likely have the same effect.
The WH is over its pay grade,
Cause the TV Tells me she is stupid and stuff.
They have enough to get the party started. I’m just wondering how far Putin is willing to go. I always said he was a ruthless KGB thug.
Also, Putin has replaced Stalin's "Socialism in one country" with his own "Kleptocracy is patriotism" formulation.
No offense but what in earth has this conflict to do with Usa interests ? We should stay out of this
We know how the Liberal Messiah has hurt America. Now the world is seeing how He is hurting the world. Tsar Vladimir is taking advantage of the Liberal Messiah’s weakness. Ukraine is paying for the stupidity of the Obama voters.
Obama is a leader so weak freaking Jimmy Carter is like Reagan in comparison
The Russian SU-34 and SU-35 are good. Damned good. The MIG-29 is a solid fighter. And they have a lot of them.
He's a ruthless Russian thug. The Russian media pointed to Ukrainian removal of Lenin statues as evidence of Ukrainian Nazism and fascism. What does it say about Russians in general that Lenin statues are all over Russia and Lenin's Tomb retains pride of place in the Red Square, the seat of Russia's government? What would we say if Germany was dotted with Hitler statues in public squares and the Bundestag had a Hitler statue right on its doorstep? What if Germany accused its neighbors of being Communists for removing Hitler statues from their public areas?
odd i thouight they were talking about the svoboda thugs who are literally sieg heiling lets throw the jews in the oven thugs
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Come-home-Ukrainian-Jews-342324
How is it that Ukraine is not armed and one of the only decent supply’s of cheap ammo in this country is from Ukraine?
America, we are being disarmed.
Expect the Ukrainian production ammo to disappear quickly from America.
How are we better off than Ukraine to defeat totalitarianism?
No one should be surprised that Putin will take control of the Crimea.
If that is as far as this goes, massive bloodshed may be avoided.
Obama is playing a stupid Kabuki Dance with Putin. He intends to do nothing, Putin knows that, but the O_tard gave Putin the pretext to be “insulted”. I am sure there are some in Russia who want him to grab the whole of the Ukraine, which he can certainly do if he decides to.
Vlad is no fool. The O_tard is in over his head and looks even more stupid on the global scene than before.
You’re falling for the media’s cover up of Obama’s bungling before this conflict.
Sure, advantages we get from a Crimea unintegrated into Russia are not worth going to war ove, but they were worth maintaining by diplomatic means. Which, obviously, Obama didn’t do.
Obama not only can’t play “The Great Game”, his stupidity prevented professional foreign policy people from playing it.
If the Ukraine wants it’s land back, they will need to rapidly scale up two areas. First, a militia that puts a rifle in every person’s hands. Second, the creation of a sniper core that will be able to infiltrate into the break away regions. The use of a large sniper core that can neutralize the Russian hardware / tactical advantages will allow a period of time where the Ukrainian forces can build up and slowly move to control the breakaway regions.
In short, low intensity conflict using sniper teams to put pressure on the Russian forces, not the civilian population.
Jim, am sensing that NATO is being invited into a trap via only dispatch readings have seen. Not certain dispatch was reading was misinformation but looked legit. Dang, fog of it all. Wonder if our Military People will walk into a trap willingly? Almost looked like an invitation per my interpretation to come on in offering full protection for walking in to NATO which of course means U.S.
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