Posted on 03/12/2014 1:06:43 PM PDT by Strategy
Russia could launch a 'full scale' invasion that would see troops overrun Ukraine in hours, a senior security official warned today.
The secretary of Ukraine's National Security and National Defence Committee Andriy Parubiy claimed Russia has 80,000 troops, 280 tanks and 170 aircraft massed on the border ready to invade.
'They are adding to this military potential,' he said. 'We have a critical situation on the entire southeastern border. The Russian army is only two to three hours from Kiev.'
Ukraine's defences would be incapable in the face of a Russian invasion, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Uh, yeah, Obama is a real hero for freedom.
How is that a reply to anything I wrote?
” Have they tried accusing Putin of racism yet?
Perhaps that will work in international affairs as much as it works at home.”
accusations of “homophobia” didn’t seem to work either...
If the U.S. was involved in anything, it was against the developing tyranny of the Russian puppet.
Sorry if I misunderstood.
The nineties are calling, they want their Kenyan goofball back.
Slick.
It was a very good idea at the time and its still a very good idea. A corrupt bankrupt nuclear power is not good for the Eurasia or the Europe.
Tell Vladimir I’m more flexible in my pink panties after my next election.
WOW...scairy, but so eloquent post...I fear you may be so right. During WW II we had strong,patriotic young men who were ready to fight to protect this country...Now we have so few honorable men who are brave and answer the call. And the families during the 30’s and forties were strong, believed in God and country and could survive a depression and World War..Rosie the Riveter is now replaced by Beyonce wannabe’s.
Lord, have Mercy on us.
Good points!
with wisdom comes vexation....
Oh please they already have the Universal Service Draft order waiting on Charlie Rangel’s desk from this time last year.
Like other WW they will draft people and I do mean people ...as it is a Universal Service Draft.
They’ve been dying to do this for over a decade, they just need their ‘reason.’
Are you two related?
Artillery shakes the earth...Makes people crazy thinking the world is coming to an end. For many it does. Even on the friendly end it’s down right scary.
I think Americans often fall into the trap of thinking the Russian army has not changed since 1942. The idea that the Russians still use human wave tactics using soldiers with no rifles and masses of antique armor is simply no longer true. That is North Korea, not Russia. Putin commands a modern military that for all its flaws decisively won three wars over the last decade and is full of battle hardened veterans.
Crimea was classic blitzkrieg using a combined push of sleeper units, special forces, navy, airpower, infantry, fifth column traitors, and a massive propaganda campaign (so successful that it is routinely echoed on FR). They caught the West with their pants down and achieved a significant and even bloodless military victory. Sure, Russians are still behind us in technology, but the idea that these are untrained peasants, with one gun per squad, that need to be shot at from behind to advance is false.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has given permission for a surveillance flight by Ukraine over Russian territory near the border between the countries. Kiev had claimed Moscow was building up its military presence there. Russia and Ukraine are entitled to surveillance flights over each other's territories following the Open Skies treaty signed in 1992. “We have decided to allow such a flight. We hope that our neighbors are assured that there is no military activity that threatens them on the border.”
Russia Deputy Defense Minister Antonov vehemently denied a statement Tuesday by Igor Tenyukh, defense minister for the Kiev coup-appointed government, that Russia had amassed more than 220,000 troops, 1,800 tanks and over 400 helicopters in regions adjacent to eastern Ukraine.
"I would dissuade Mr Tenyukh from adding fuel to the fire of the crisis, which is what he appears to be doing."
http://t.co/G7c5nHtbvz
I don’t even think the Serbians want Kosovo now as long as those Serbs who live there are safe. Have you ever been there?
It’s typical that when you criticize Putin you’re accused of being in favor of Obama. It’s as if some of the Putinistas believe that we must be for one form of statism and the cult of personality. While many of us thing it’s obvious we should reject both Putin and Obama and that neither is in anyway a conservative. That truism is beyond the ken of the Putinista true believers.
Maruerite...I’ve been hours on line about Ukraine..EU...IMF and the political and action groups... who are all moving more than quickly to undergird Ukraine and give it’s Gov. recognition. Billions are marked to go to these guys!
Here’s a taste of what the USA is going to do....one government committee to go there after another (who we will fund!) Just get a look see at this!
Increased U.S. Cooperation with Ukraine
Fact Sheet
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
March 12, 2014
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Ukraine is facing a moment of historic challenge and historic opportunity. In the coming months, the Government of Ukraine will need to take steps to restore economic stability and to conduct free, fair, and inclusive presidential elections to allow the Ukrainian people to choose their own future.
During Prime Minister Yatsenyuk’s visit to Washington today, we discussed specific steps the United States is taking to support Ukraine at this critical time, including the $1 billion loan guarantee we are working with Congress to provide, and the package of technical and other assistance we are preparing, to meet Ukraine’s priority needs. Specific U.S. assistance measures and initiatives discussed today include the following:
Reaffirming our Partnership
We intend to resume activities of the Strategic Partnership Commission at the Ministerial level with the goal of deepening the U.S.-Ukrainian Strategic Partnership in the areas of nuclear security and nonproliferation, political dialogue and rule of law, energy security, security cooperation, and science and technology.
The Department of Commerce will organize a U.S.-Ukraine Business Summit in Washington, DC that will bring together senior-level USG and GOU officials, U.S. companies with investments in Ukraine, and leading economic and legal experts on the Ukrainian market, to discuss how to increase economic growth in Ukraine and deepen our bilateral commercial relationship.
The Department of Commerce, working together with the State Department and USTR, will develop an Innovation Council that will focus on creating the eco-system required to accelerate entrepreneurship and develop the legal culture and infrastructure for innovation in Ukraine.
Special Envoy for International Energy Affairs Carlos Pascual will visit Kyiv this month for a meeting of the Energy Security Working Group, which will focus on efforts to boost Ukraine’s energy security, including energy efficiency and the development of alternative energy sources.
The Department of Defense will hold U.S.-Ukraine Bilateral Defense Consultations with Ukrainian counterparts in Kyiv within the next month.
A senior-level Department of Commerce delegation will travel to Kyiv to conduct relationship-building with key GOU officials, streamlining future bilateral work on market access cases, pending investments, and means for addressing systemic issues affecting our bilateral commercial relationship.
We will hold a meeting of the bilateral Trade and Investment Council through the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office to address barriers to trade and investment and explore expanding commercial ties, boosting the investment climate.
Immediate Assistance
Support for the May presidential elections. The United States will double its planned assistance to support electoral law reform to improve election administration, provide election monitoring, and promote robust involvement by a strong and independent civil society and media.
Department of Defense (DoD) personnel will organize a Humanitarian Assistance Planning Conference with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. DoD will provide Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Support for asset recovery efforts. Department of Justice and FBI teams are already in Ukraine to provide strategic advice and capacity building to locate the proceeds of corruption looted by former officials. The State Department also will offer additional assistance and technical expertise for bilateral and multilateral efforts to facilitate Ukraine’s efforts to recover these assets located in overseas financial institutions.
New technical support to help Ukraine with immediate economic management challenges. The United States is providing expertise to help the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance and Central Bank navigate near-term economic challenges. The Department of Treasury has already deployed an expert advisor and the United States stands ready to provide additional assistance to meet Ukraine’s near-term economic and financial management needs.
Enhancing People-to-People Contacts
The Department of State will expand funding for the inaugural year of the U.S.-Ukraine Fulbright Science and Technology Education Program (”STEP”), a pilot project that will fully fund the travel and studies of a select group of Ukrainian graduate students at U.S. universities in the 2014-2015 academic year.
The Global Undergraduate Exchange Program will double the number of Ukrainian students for the 2014-15 academic year.
Over 50 additional future leaders of Ukraine will be eligible for short-term exchanges and professional experiences in the United States in critically important fields.
The United States will establish an Alumni Innovation Grant Competition for Ukrainian alumni of U.S. Government exchange programs to allow the best alumni to launch ideas that will benefit their country’s future.
It costs Putin nothing to drive ten or twenty artillery pieces back and forth along the border. They have no targets to shoot at, and they have no offensive value that I can comprehend. However they have plenty of value to scare the new government in Kiev - the government that has no experience in governing and that has no support from the Ukrainian Army (and that has no Ukrainian Navy at this point.) This activity is just to fill time before Crimea can vote on a referendum that is scheduled for March 16, in about 3 days from now. Its results are easy to predict, if opinion polls in Crimea make any sense. Crimea may be given considerable trade preferences.
Once that happens, the new government in Kiev will have to explain to the remaining (so far) Ukraine how they managed to lose Crimea. It's not a good plan for a politician to begin the reign with a major loss. Ukraine may easily lose several other Eastern provinces; if that happens, Crimea and Russia will be connected with a land corridor. It is not unreasonable to think that this may happen - Ukraine is so poor (due to mismanagement, not due to lack of resources or of educated workers) that merely joining Russia already boosts the income of the population. After the dust settles, Westerners will only have their historical territories, and they will be surrounded by people who have centuries of animosity against them due to the complicated nature of many land grabs in the last 1,000 years.
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