Posted on 05/10/2014 8:55:17 PM PDT by Mariner
KIEV, Ukraine — Understanding the depths of the crisis Ukraine faces today takes only a visit to historic St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral.
There, beneath distinctive blue and gold onion domes, as the cathedral’s patriarch prays for “calm and security for all Ukraine,” parishioners peel away to visit two donation boxes. Each box is labeled. One is “For the church” while the other is “To support our armed forces.” On a recent night, parishioners typically slid folded bills into each.
Boxes urging support for Ukraine’s armed forces can be found seemingly everywhere: in shops, along Kiev’s Independence Square, or Maidan, and in thousands of other spots around the country. In the past month, they’ve gathered about 116 million Ukrainian hryvnia, or $10 million.
In the scheme of a modern military, that amounts to pennies. But Adm. Ihor Kabanenko, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, used a news conference this week to express the gratitude of a traditionally woefully underfunded military.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
Ukraine has a standing army of 88,000 men. A modern army of that size should be able to EASILY wipe aside the poorly armed and disorganized militias in the East.
That Kiev has only been able to field a couple of hundred men in any operation, and those being mostly expensive failures, should speak VOLUMES as to the military, and their reliability.
An Airborne Company surrendered their weapons and equipment to a mostly unarmed civilian mob in Slovyansk, as but one example.
The Right Sector National Guard, as the slaughter in Mauriupal has clearly shown, is poorly-trained, and even more poorly disciplined.
The Putin puppet and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych would never have been allowed by Putin to support the strengthening of the Ukraine’s military. During the Cold War, we used the phrase Finlandization to describe how the Soviet Union would keep its neighbors weak and politically neutral. That’s what happened to Ukraine during its brief time without direct Putin dominance and his Russian-backed warriors disrupting the Ukraine, as they are today. Putinista supporters of Putin buy into arguments about pan-Russian chauvinism and how picked on Russians are, but behind that cynical justification is Putin playing power politics for the benefit of his former KGB buddies and the oligarchs in Russia.
“Russia will likely dominate the area east of the Dnieper River”
Which has been my call from day one.
Putin is playing Obama like a violin.
To which "Ukrainian people" do you refer, and who are these would be defenders that are so disheartened? Ukrainians are on both sides as Ukraine is sinking into civil war, without Western outsiders supporting and advising the new Kiev government in the west, and Russian outsiders actively supporting and advising the pro-Russian separatists in the east. The fight will likely end with either an official or a de facto partition of Ukraine, with Russia controlling the east.
I doubt Putin wants any part of policing the western half of Ukraine, which is anti-Russian and more naturally allied with Poland. But eastern Ukraine is a different matter. Aside from the large pro-Russian population in the east, Russia has strategic interests in its provision of a broad land bridge to Crimea and the Black Sea and in the key military industries centered around Donetsk. This in an area Putin must and will hold, one way or another.Correct. Putin wants the East... and he will get it.
Between underfunding and corruption Ukraines military is in poor condition. When they were with us in Iraq we handled all of their logistics. They ate better were healthier and in all around better condition than at their home bases
“Yep! I’m not sure if Putin blinked. But something happened.”
Indeed. Russia hasn’t even recognized the fake sham of a referendum.
With Russia in a bad recession and investment pouring out of Russia over the last month...maybe the economic sanctions (which are very minimal at this point) are beginning to have Puti’s financier’s moaning.
I’m not sure what is up...but something is up.
“Nobody wants to challenge Russia. They are too dependent on them for energy and, except perhaps Britain, in no place to challenge them militarily.”
You can’t support those statements. NATO would crush Russia on the battlefield. In detail. You overestimate Russia, they are a paper tiger bully who will only pick on weak and isolated nations. And you highly undervalue the West’s technology on the field.
Should, could, would, but they will not. Europe does not have the will to oppose Russia, otherwise Russia would not have invaded the Ukraine.
“Should, could, would, but they will not. Europe does not have the will to oppose Russia, otherwise Russia would not have invaded the Ukraine.”
LOL, you have it backwards.
Russia only annexes and invades Ukraine because NATO and the West did not bring it into membership.
You will notice Russia hands off Poland, Estonia, Latvia etc. Putin knows better.
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