Moscow warns West against sending troops to back Ukraine

[DonViejo]

Source: Agence France-Presse/Yahoo News



Anastasia CLARK
Fri, April 2, 2021, 7:02 AM·2 min read

Moscow warned the West Friday against sending troops to Ukraine to buttress its ally, after Kiev accused Moscow of building up troops on its border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday accused Russia of massing troops on the border and Washington pledged to stand by Ukraine in the event of Russian "aggression".

Weeks of renewed frontline clashes have raised fears of a an escalation of the long-simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev's forces are battling pro-Russian separatists.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would be forced to respond if the US sent troops to Ukraine.

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/moscow-warns-west-against-sending-110204270.html

[Lovie777]

1. ugh . . .

flexing their muscles.

[taxi]

2. Is Ukraine a distraction?

It's said that an injured bear will circle around and get you from where you're not looking. It may be true.

Concomitant with the Kremlin’s moves to significantly expand its economic footprint is a clear effort to enlarge and expand its military presence in Belarus. The two countries are currently wrapping up back-to-back exercises that lasted most of the past month. They have scheduled a record number of exercises this year, culminating with the massive Zapad-2021, which is set to take place in September.

Speaking on The Power Vertical Podcast last week, military analyst Michael Kofman, a senior research scientist at the CNA Corporation, noted that the increase in joint exercises appears to be an effort by Moscow to replicate what NATO has been doing with its rotation of forces as part of its Enhanced Forward Presence in Poland and the Baltic States.

“What Russia has been doing for the past year is that through these exercises they can maintain a permanent presence in Belarus de facto,” Kofman said.

Moreover, on March 2, the two countries’ defense ministries signed a five-year strategic partnership agreement for the first time. Russia and Belarus have also announced plans to establish three permanent joint military training centers in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod and Kaliningrad regions and in Belarus’s western Grodno region, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Significantly, Lukashenka now appears ready to drop his long-standing objection to a new Russian airbase on Belarusian territory. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/soft-annexation-inside-the-russian-takeover-of-belarus/

[Javaman]

6. putin is trying to claw back the old warsaw pact nations.

I think this will be his eventual undoing.

[NCDem47]

3. Or what Russia??

Ukraine is a sovereingn nation. It can do what it wants. It left your club of thugs back in 1991. STFU!

[-misanthroptimist]

5. +1

[abqtommy]

4. Awww, is Pooty-Poot missing his lapdog former guy already?

[modrepub]

7. Beware of Overpromises

I sincerely doubt the US is going to do much more than wag it's finger at Putin if he does try and put Russian troops in the country. Maybe underhandedly supplying Ukraine with resources to fight if they actually can put up some type of sustained resistance. In any event, it's probably more than Russia can handle if it decides to try and take the whole country. Most likely outcome is a protracted ugly long simmering conflict for both sides.

Putin probably needs a boogie man to distract from his county's woeful economic system. Unfortunately for his neighbors, that about as far as he can project. It's a little more manageable for Russia these days given the current and projected bounce back in oil prices. Probably not all that much help given how corrupt the Russian economy is. The rich will grab the lion's share of the profits and the poor will be stuck serving in the military doing the dirty work.

[Martin68]

8. Putin's popularity is falling, Navalny's is rising: must be time to invade Ukraine.

[BigmanPigman]

9. Bingo!

[Xolodno]

10. If NATO troops or...

...heavy arms show up in Ukraine, Russian tanks will be in Kiev a few days later.

But I suspect this is more sabre rattling. Now they may push for a land connection to Crimea, but that's as far I think it will get. Moscow has what it wants, territorial disputes that make it ineligible for NATO inclusion.

But on the other hand, I read that the Joint Chiefs of Staff did have a phone call with the Russian counterparts recently. Which was also followed by calls with France and Germany. And the subject was Ukraine.

[Martin68]

11. I rather doubt Russia would risk attacking NATO troops, but I also doubt NATO will commit

any troops until Russia has made a move. I think the troop movements are designed to practice for an invasion, probe what kind of responses they will provoke, and could also be used to habituate the West to such movement so that a future exercise can be used to invade Ukraine if the West seems to be napping.

[EX500rider]

12. "Russian tanks will be in Kiev a few days later" I am not so sure about that

The Ukrainian ground forces have 170,000 active-duty troops versus 350,000 for Russia (and over 500,000 in the U.S.). Since 2014 Ukraine has reorganized and upgraded its ground forces and currently has as many combat ready brigades as Russia. Ukraine also has more reserve troops, who are better trained and dedicated than their Russian equivalents. In other words, Ukraine is not exactly helpless against a Russian invasion but most of the fighting would take place in Ukraine and civilian casualties would mostly be Ukrainian, as would the property damage. If the Russians did not sense a quick victory, they would probably propose peace and Ukraine would accept. As much as Ukrainians would like to humiliate their ancient Russian oppressors militarily, practical considerations take precedence.
https://strategypage.com/qnd/russia/articles/20210401.aspx

Plus the Ukrainians defending their own country would most likely fight much harder then the Russian conscripts who probably wouldn't want to be there.

[Sapient Donkey]

14. I wonder if it would be more like what's going on in eastern ukraine.

Maybe start sending more money, weapons, and "volunteers" not only in the current conflict zones, but even further west wherever there is a significant Russian identifying population.

[Sapient Donkey]

13. But those Ukraine girls really knock me out...