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Russia is winning the Ukraine crisis. While Moscow may have suffered some economic sanctions, the world saw a disobedient Russian neighbor being forcibly brought to heel. The land grab was no doubt designed to encourage the others—Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Georgia – all those unfortunates who live nearby. And it will. There are other winners, even on the side of the somewhat hapless angels. Like Germany, which is currently less an angel, and Poland, which is currently more. Before taking a mildly more aggressive position on sanctions Friday, Germany had been the least enthusiastic major European power about aggressively confronting Russia....

Watchdogs from several European countries have noticed no indication of a massive build-up of Russian military that would threaten the security of neighboring states, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Sunday. According to Mr. Antonov, as many as seven inspection groups paid visits to Russian border territories over the past month. “Our facilities and deployment areas along the Russian-Ukrainian border were twice checked by the Ukrainian military,” he noted.Monitors from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Finland scrutinized Russia’s military camps stationed on its borders with neighboring nations. “It must have been a simple...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - With a few strokes of his pen, Vladimir Putin has in recent days both created the Republic of Crimea and annexed that new entity into the Russian Federation, thereby violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine. To hear Putin tell it in his address to the Duma, this action is not only perfectly legal, it also rights a historical wrong in which Russia was “robbed” of its rightful claim to the Crimean peninsula in 1954. President Obama has disputed the legality of these actions, observing that “President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers making a...

WARSAW — Vice President Biden sought in a visit to the Polish capital Tuesday to reassure allies anxious over Russia’s takeover of Crimea, denouncing Moscow moves to annex the region as a “blatant, blatant disregard of international law.” Appearing with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Biden offered the moral support of a “steadfast ally” but promised only modest assistance to help Poland modernize its army and explore how to lessen its dependence on Russian natural gas.

The White House says Vice President Joe Biden will travel next week to Poland and Lithuania amid tensions in nearby Ukraine. The trip is part of a U.S. effort to pressure Russia over a military intervention in Crimea that has the entire region on edge.

For the America which is well aware that sometimes in life you get beaten up by someone on the street, two things are clear. Firstly, instead of being surprised and naively trying to change the world, you have to equip yourself with a shotgun. Secondly, if the Republicans were in power right now, things would look completely different. Did Mitt Romney not point to Russia, saying that it is the biggest threat to the U.S.? He was not wrong! Did Sarah Palin err when she fired off that comment in 2008, saying that if Obama became president, Russia would invade...

Russia has deliberately sunk three of its own ships to block Ukrainian navy vessels entering a lake off the Black Sea, officers say, highlighting Moscow's determination to wear down the morale of Kiev's forces in Crimea. The Ochakov -- a Soviet-era warship decommissioned in 2011 and set to be sold for scrap -- was towed to the entrance to Lake Donuzlav on Crimea's western coast from the Russian base at Sevastopol on Thursday and blown up. It capsized and, along with two smaller Russian vessels, is now blocking the narrow gap between two spits of land, its hull beaten by...

The United States is sending a dozen F-16 fighter jets to Poland as a part of a training exercise, amid continuing tensions between Ukraine and Russia, the Polish defence ministry said on Sunday. Three hundred US service personnel will also be sent to Poland as part of the exercise. The deployment will be completed by Thursday. Chuck Hagel, the US Secretary of State for Defence, and his Polish counterpart Tomasz Siemoniak agreed the deployment during a phone call, according to a statement from the Polish ministry. "The unit will be composed of 12 F-16 planes and will transport 300 soldiers,"...

My ostentatious being is what you must become, The nectar of my spirit attracting others to My kingdom, For you are my lilies out in the field, Sobriety to the weak so my spirit may harvest as they yield, Now a light in the darkness just as you, Release "my" wisdom my children for you are my morning dew, Just as My tribes harvested The Manna early each day, You are my hidden Manna revealed in a new way, For now the veils are lifted for through my spirit you shall have breakthrough, Both to the Gentile and the Jew,...

Polish Defence Ministry decided recently to continue a service of 32 Su-22M4/UM3K attack aircrafts used by the 21st Tactical Air Base in Swidwin. The variant of a service longer than 3 or 10 years (until to 2025 years) is considered. This is related with the technical modernization of the Polish Air Force. The reason was a current in the fall of 2013 plan for the withdrawal of all Su-22 until 2015. Not so long ago, in the Technical Modernisation Plan for the years 2013-2022 there was a record for the modernization of airport in Åšwidwin and the purchase of 16...

Russia’s strategy in the Ukrainian crisis Analyses 2014-03-05 Marek Menkiszak The toppling of the Yanukovych regime and the taking over of power in Ukraine by the opposition were a strategic defeat for Russia, whose aim had been to permanently block the process of Ukraine’s European integration and make the country part of Russia's own integration project, the Eurasian Union. It also delivered a blow to the image of president Putin as an effective leader. After the failed attempt at creating, with Russian political support, an alternative centre of power in Kharkiv that would represent the eastern and southern regions of...

17.42 Poland's defence ministry has confirmed that the US military will send 12 F-16 fighter jets and 300 service personnel to Poland next week for a training exercise whose scope was expanded in response to the crisis in neighbouring Ukraine. Tomasz Siemoniak said the training exercise, centred on the Lask air force base in central Poland, was originally to have been smaller and involved only transport aircraft. He said Poland requested it be beefed up after Russia's intervention in Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula.

Poland could handle being cut off from Russian supplies of natural gas by turning to other sources and improving domestic infrastructure, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday. "The current gas reserves and the fact that winter is coming to an end allow us to say that Poland is no longer vulnerable to possible gas sanctions on the part of our neighbour to the east," Tusk told parliament. The EU country of 38 million currently imports 10.5 billion cubic metres of gas from Russia each year, about two-thirds of its demand. Starting next month, Poland's imports "from alternative sources to the...

Defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak says a 40-strong OSCE delegation, including two Poles, were blocked from entering Crimea by unidentified men wearing military uniform. "The mission has been detained, they cannot go further. They landed in Odessa and they were traveling by car from Odessa towards the Crimean Peninsula, but they were detained by unidentified men in fatigues," Siemoniak said on Wednesday afternoon, adding that they may be allowed to go back the way they came but would not be allowed in to Crimea, Reuters reports. OSCE spokeswoman Natacha Rajakovic has confirmed the observers were blocked from entering the region. The...

Poland, which borders Russia and Ukraine, played an active role in the deal that ended the violent conflict in Ukraine. But this time, Poland's shot at successfully mediating between its neighbors is slim, experts say. Poland's increasing anxiety over the situation in neighboring Ukraine became evident as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that the world "stands on the brink of a conflict" that would affect states everywhere. The consequences could be dire, and a matter of survival for his country, the Prime Minister told reporters on Sunday in Warsaw. Poland, which borders the Russian exclave Kaliningrad in the north...

Poland has sent two military observers to Ukraine as part of a 15-nation OSCE delegation which will attempt to stop further “military incursion” and encourage dialogue. 2 Polish officers will participate in the OSCE military observers mission from 15 countries, which will start tomorrow [5 March] in the Crimea at the request of Ukraine," Poland's defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak tweeted on Tuesday. Daniel Baer, the US's chief delegate to the OSCE, said the aim of the mission - which has a week-long mandate, although this could be extended at Ukraine's request - will be to try to prevent a possible...

Washington (AFP) - The United States plans to expand military cooperation with Poland and Baltic states to show "support" for its allies after Russia's intervention in Ukraine, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.

Sen. John McCain warned that the United States and Europe should avoid allowing Russia to set a precedent in Ukraine that could be later used for an incursion into Poland. “If Vladimir Putin gets away with saying he’s defending the rights of Russian speaking peoples, that is the same thing — excuse that Hitler used,” the Arizona Republican said, invoking arguments made by Nazi Germany about the ethnic German population of the Sudetenland.

Full Title: Statement by the North Atlantic Council following meeting under article 4 of the Washington Treaty The North Atlantic Council has met at Poland’s request to hold consultations within the framework of Article 4 of the Washington Treaty, which states that “the parties will consult whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence, or security of any of the parties is threatened.” Despite repeated calls by the international community, Russia continues to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to violate its international commitments. These developments present serious implications for the security and stability...

President Putin claimed on Tuesday that "well prepared" and organized protesters in Kiev who brought down the Yanukovych regime were "trained in Poland and Lithuania". In his first in-depth comments since the Russian parliament gave the green light for military action in Ukraine on Saturday, Vladimir Putin told a press conference in Moscow, "look how well they were prepared." "They underwent preparation in bases in Lithuanian and Polish border areas, and [of course] in Ukraine itself. Their instructors were ready for a lengthy time, you saw how they were prepared, like special forces, they were even divided up into squads,"...