Posted on 08/06/2014 3:07:04 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
As Ukrainian government forces close in on pro-Russia separatists' final strongholds, Western security strategists have sounded the alarm that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be preparing to invade eastern Ukraine to rescue the embattled insurgents.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday added his voice to the chorus of warnings that a massive Russian troop buildup on the border with Ukraine may be more than Kremlin saber-rattling.
“It’s a reality, of course it is,” Hagel said during a visit to the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. “When you see the buildup of these troops, the sophistication and training of these troops, the heavy military equipment that’s being put on the border, of course it’s a reality and it’s a possibility.”
On Tuesday, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the movement of Russian troops, tanks, armored vehicles and war planes to regions bordering the areas where separatists are fighting off Ukrainian troops signaled a substantial heightening of tensions and risk of invasion.
"You do such things either to exert pressure or to enter," Sikorski said, citing indications that Russian forces might be deployed across the border under the pretext of providing humanitarian aid to the largely Russian-speaking population in the embattled Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I believe the word they were looking for was ‘flounders.’
“Founders” works, in this sense.
It’s probably the reason for this:
Dutch premier halts search for MH17 victims in Ukraine
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/08/06/dutch-ukraine-mh17-victims/13675529/
and the fact that they scoured the shootdown site for a week with 100 searchers and still didn’t find any of the 70 bodies still missing.
Putin will probably claim that he needs to send in his “piecekeepers” to find them.
It would be very uncharacteristic if Putin didn’t invade, the much weaker Ukraine.
Especially while he can still afford to pay his army.
As Putin’s domestic and foreign policy failures mount, he is likely to become increasingly desperate. No one should be surprised if he engages in more terrorist acts.
If the supply lines between Luhansk and Donetsk are severed, the Russian will immediately impose a “No-Fly Zone” over all territories east of the Dneiper River.
They will then send “Peacekeepers” into the Donbass and also will seize Kharkiv.
The problem is that Russia can still trade with China
And, there is a matter of using front companies in Belarus and Kazakhstan. If the US and EU were smart, we would go after those governments as well for their support of the Russian Regime by slapping the same sanctions on them. We also need to get tough against China, including threatening and implementing sanctions on them if they don’t boycott Russia.
And, finally, the EU/US sanctions do not hit hard enough. They needed to put “State sponsor of terrorism” level sanctions on Russia and its puppet states to have any impact, and also threaten China with similar sanctions if they do not cut off Russia. This includes banning travel to those states.
Well, even without sanctions, Putin’s weak and incompetent economic policies have ravaged the Russian economy. Putin has surrounded himself with gangsters and thieves. This base line fragility makes the Russian economy more vulnerable to sanctions. They will hurt.
Putin is a paper tiger—he will sit back while the “Rebels” are slaughtered—They failed in their attempt—Failure isn’t in Putins vocabulary. He fears sanctions and his tottering economy—He couldn’t take on Ukraine and win even if he tried. If he moves-—Ukraine will have NATO and USA move in and clean Putin’s Clock. Not going to happen. Ukraine is the new Soviet Union. Watch as Putin turns weak kneed in face of Obama and Merkil of Germany. He’s all show but no action. Good news—WW III will NOT start there—look to the Middle East and Baghdad—its in the Bible.
Putin is stunned no one other than the Ukrainians are opposing his acts of war. He is seriously weighting escalating his invasion.
Well, Obama did send some MRE-s to Ukraine as help so Ukraine should win it any minute now.
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