Russian forces hold military drills in breakaway statelet near Ukraine

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian forces in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria that borders Ukraine held military drills to practice covert movements and firing grenade launchers, Russia's Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.

The drills took place against the backdrop of a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine and a surge of military activity that has put the West on edge and stirred fears Moscow plans to attack. Russia denies any such plan.

The focus of those concerns are deployments in Western Russia, annexed Crimea and Belarus where Moscow and Minsk plan to hold joint drills. Kyiv has also raised concerns over Transdniestria where Russia has more than 1,000 troops and peacekeepers.

Ukrainian military intelligence accused Russian security services last month of readying some kind of unspecified "provocation" against Russian servicemen in the region that would allow Moscow to level accusations at Ukraine.




Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-forces-hold-military-drills-in-breakaway-statelet-near-ukraine/ar-AATn0f9

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Trying to surround Ukraine on all sides.

[LudwigPastorius]

1. Emperor Vlad is a shithead.

Too bad Ukraine gave up its nukes. Those might have reigned in some of these punk moves by the gangster Putin.

[oldsoftie]

8. The fantasy of "disarmament" exposed for all to see.

What a joke that was.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Vlad is just a butthurt old Soviet

Running out of dance steps.

[IronLionZion]

3. Flanking maneuver

it's pretty blatant what Vlad is doing. Trying to provoke something to use as a pretense for invasion. Not a good time to be Ukrainian these days.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

4. Flanking 100 miles of a 3000 mile border, if that. Routine stuff inflated by Twitter.

[IronLionZion]

5. Yes routine used by the US military too

lots of exercises in an area to get people to ignore when the real one happens. That's how it was when the US dropped the MOAB in Afghanistan and got Bin Laden in Pakistan. Routine stuff before the real stuff.

[blue-wave]

7. Sure.

Just like the Russian invasion of Ukrainian Crimea was "inflated". And what about all the "flanking" in Belarus, Russia (along the north and eastern parts of Ukraine) as well as to the south of Ukraine in Russian-occupied Crimea? Don't forget the Russian special forces in the Ukrainian Donbas region. Nothing to see here folks, now move along. Twitter did it!

[sarisataka]

11. It's called dispersal of forces

A force cannot be strong everywhere at once. The more places they have to defend, the weaker they will be at the point of attack

[Turbineguy]

6. Once they hold exercises,

they can withdraw and tap the West for stirring up hysteria.

It could be a face saving ploy.

[oldsoftie]

9. We can hope. The next 6 weeks is the time frame. After that it begins warming.

Russia wants to bring in heavy weapons; tanks & heavy artillery. They can't do that unless the ground is frozen. Middle of Mar the temps will be creeping up

[Bayard]

10. Send in the Irish Fishermen!

They seem to be the only ones getting results.

[oasis]

12. "Tokyo Rose" Tucker Carlson will likely give a report showing Ukrainians

as the aggressors.

[Turbineguy]

14. Tucker is the son of

Tokyo Rose and Lord Haw-Haw.

[Xolodno]

13. We'll know more about Putin's intentions..

...once the war games in Belarus conclude. If they do them and then exit, this was all probably to exert some pressure on NATO and Ukraine, plus get intelligence on Ukraine's capabilities. And of course the added benefit, a spike in energy rates.

And its also entirely possible they may station some troops permanently near the Ukraine border. Thus substantially reducing capabilities of knowing an advance strike and/or intervene should there be a collapse in the government in Kyiv.