"You not say Ukraine weak."
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 ...
This is what happens when you don't spend anything on defense.
You'd think their "friends" in the EU would offer some money and basic equipment.
But not even those countries in Eastern Europe have any spare change?
Russia will send them all the military they need, in short order.
Russia will send them all the military they need, in short order.
Nope. 45 million Ukrainians. 5 cities of a million people. Putin wants no part of policing that. It’s all psywar right now to bully Ukraine politically.
Putin has pulled the fist team FSB/GRU and they are long gone from UKR. Now it’s a Pro-Putin rabble with pistols, Chechen terrorists, etc. Huge mess for the Ukrainians to clean up. No worries. They will do it.
Yep! I’m not sure if Putin blinked. But something happened.
Obama says such action will bring Russia ‘consequences’
And his word is better than action.
"You not say Ukraine weak."
It's somewhere in the middle of those two.
Putin will not walk away from the East NOR Odessa.
He will by hook or crook bring the eastern 1/3 together with a coastal strip (which includes a land bridge into Crimea) that runs through Odessa into Transwhatever.
You may not see annexation or Russian tanks, but it won't matter.
He's very likely to take it. And take his time doing it.
Nothing good will come from this
Ukraine is a resource rich country of 45million educated people. They have industry and technology.
And they can't even put a few credible combat brigades together.
But, don't look now because neither can Romania or Bulgaria. Two of the dumbest ideas NATO ever had.
Did I copy the article title of your thread correctly?
” - - - Obama’s poor military can only hope it never has to fight Russia - - - “
If I have hit the wrong keys, I apologize, as that would have been a bone-headed mistake!
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/05/09/227043/ukraines-poor-military-can-only.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy
And? That's really not much.
Iraq defeated Kuwait, which had a population of over two million, with an army of 120,000 in a single day.
265,000 coalition forces steamrolled through Iraq (population: 25,000,000) in 2003.
It really doesn't take many soldiers to hold down a large population of civilians, many of which are too young, elderly, disabled, unwilling, or, in the case of east Ukraine, about one-third on the side of Russia.
If it is true that Putin blinked, Obama and his MSM lackeys will make sure he gets the credit for it.
Ukraine is not Kuwait. It’s Texas size. With 10 cities with more than 500k people. If the Ukrainian people fight, the army will. If the people and Army fight, Putin has a big problem. That’s why he won’t be invading. Crimea integration is estimated at $30 billion cost to Russia. Invasion and occupation of Ukraine would be hundreds of billions obviously. There is no way the a kleptocratic petrostate like Russia could afford that.
Odesa is off the table. The local citizens are very organized and will give Putin another butt kicking if his Green Men show up again. He would need an outright invasion to take Odesa and that won’t be happening.
Mariupol seems to be the big developing battleground. Total anarchy there right now as the corrupt local police have gone AWOL. Seems Putin intends to terrorize the city and use the chaos to bully Ukraine politically.
I agree with that assessment. 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.
The makeup of the "Ukrainian people" depends upon where in Ukraine you go. In the east, a great many "Ukrainian people" will be fighting on the side of Russia against Kiev. Ukraine as presently constituted is a demographic and political basket case, and untenable. Russia will likely dominate the area east of the Dnieper River.
You are right about that one.
Nobody wants to challenge Russia. They are too dependent on them for energy and, except perhaps Britain, in no place to challenge them militarily.
The best Ukraine can really do is small resistence movements throughout the country, trying to bog down Putin.
“Ukraine as presently constituted is a demographic and political basket case, and untenable. Russia will likely dominate the area east of the Dnieper River.”
That is yet more false propaganda designed to dishearten would be defenders of the Ukrainian people. The ethnic Russians represent no more than about a quarter to a third of the mainland Ukrainian Oblasts. In other words, the ethnic Russians are a small minority of the Ukrainian citizens. Even among the ethnic Russian Ukrainians, support for Putin’s Russian takeover of their Ukrainian Oblasts is a minority of their opinions. This is why Russia has sent its covert military forces into the Ukraine with large sums of money to incite the small fraction of ethnic Russians to use armed force and terrorism against the unarmed majority of people supporting the right of the Ukraine to remain independent of Russian conquest.
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