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 ...
you do know communism is dead in russia right?
And by definition Russia is more capitalistic then usa with lower corporate tax and lower income tax then usa
Ukrainian military...
Russian tank tread lubricant
Brought to you by the GAY one.
Too bad Bandera and crew pissed off the Poles, Ukrainians and the AK could have made a good team.
The issue has never been communism, but Russian imperialism. The Bolsheviks reconstituted the Russian empire in spite of their stated concerned about international brotherhood. Brotherhood, that is, as Russian provinces. The collapse of the Soviet Union wasn't, in Putin's words, "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century". It was the moment that prisoners of the Russian empire cast off their shackles, almost 30 years after the last outposts of European imperialism were finally given up.
Let the Russians have the Crimea as long as the Ukraine keeps the rest of their coastline. The Ukraine is in political chaos and needs to spend it’s energy on getting it self back in order.
"If the Ukrainians were suicidal Nazis to the last man, woman and child, all yearning to kill all the Jews and Slavs in Ukraine to make way for Nordic settlement, it would still make sense to help them repel the Russians"
"Too bad Bandera and crew pissed off the Poles, Ukrainians and the AK could have made a good team."Only in a wishful thinking way, though. He hated Russians, Jews and Poles, probably in that exact order. I don't think he could rise above that basic creed.
We are debating national, not parochial interests. From a strictly tribal standpoint, I understand where you're coming from. Ultimately, though a bigger Russia is a more dangerous Russia, and strategic threats from empire-builders predate Communism and Nazism by thousands of years and will undoubtedly be around thousands of years after nobody remembers either ideology.
The Ukrainian fringe probably hates Jews for similar reasons - a good many senior Bolsheviks were Jews. Trotsky, in particular, felt that the Soviets were being too soft in slaughtering opponents of the collectivization program. These Ukrainian fringe is presumably suggesting that Jews should be collectively punished for the deaths of 7m Ukrainians through the efforts of Jewish Bolsheviks during the Holodomor just as you are suggesting that Ukrainians as a whole should be punished by the Russians for the views of the Ukrainian fringe.
I understand the point you’re trying to make.
In a strictly national interest sense it is against American national interest to allow any hegemon to dominate on the Eurasian continent, no matter what civilization or ethnic makeup they represent. Communist, Buddhist, Orthodox Christian... we will always be at war (cold or hot) with Eurasia. Even if the Russian Empire never had a revolution, and there was never USSR, it would come to having to limit their influence and scope.
“Let the Russians have the Crimea as long as the Ukraine keeps the rest of their coastline....”
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I don’t think that (keeping the rest of their coastline) is going to happen. Wherever in Ukraine ethnic Russians constitute the majority or a “substantial” minority, Russia will be moving in to “protect” them. Take it to the bank.
I'm thinking land, mineral resources and manpower. This was why we needed to come to the aid of the Fascist Chinese Nationalists who were being aided by Nazi Germany during the Sino-Japanese War. If China had been incorporated into the Japanese empire, Japan would have become an economic and military colossus. Communism in China bought us 30 years of respite (until its turn to capitalism in 1979), but I expect that a fully developed China will, in 40 years' time, become half (or more) of the world economy. At that point, they will take anything they want. Hopefully, I'll be long gone by then.
Ultimately, to build support, via a sense of outrage in the West and domestically, the Ukrainian government will have to let the Russians have their way for a bit, before finally initiating hostilities. We'll find out soon enough Russia's and Ukraine's respective uncle points as regards war casualties.
"The Ukrainian fringe probably hates Jews for similar reasons - a good many senior Bolsheviks were Jews. Trotsky, in particular, felt that the Soviets were being too soft in slaughtering opponents of the collectivization program. These Ukrainian fringe is presumably suggesting that Jews should be collectively punished for the deaths of 7m Ukrainians through the efforts of Jewish Bolsheviks during the Holodomor just as you are suggesting that Ukrainians as a whole should be punished by the Russians for the views of the Ukrainian fringe."First of all I am not suggesting that all modern Ukrainians as a whole should be punished for the view of the Fascist fringe. Only of the Fascist fringe becomes the drive and and the unifying force behind the new Ukrainian national identity (this has not happened to this date, but time will tell.)
Great add to keep minimum wage at present levels, or do away with it so folks get paid what they're worth - whether they can live on those wages or not....
And that means not have a Pill Pedaling Homo as a President screwing up everything he touches.
Ubama is a thug, but Putin is an even bigger one. And Russia's Thug isn't going along with our Thug's Plans.
Putin is KGB
Obama is Acorn.
Results are on display
The Ukrainians welcomed the Germans in 1941. A week later the Nazis started slaughtering them. Ukrainians don’t consider themselves German nor Russian but Ukrainians .
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