Posted on 04/26/2014 7:58:44 PM PDT by BurningOak
Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- A perilous face-off intensified Saturday when Russia state news complained that Ukraine had mobilized 15,000 troops in the suburbs of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine "in order to wipe out the city and its residents."
Quoting a Russian Defense Ministry source, RIA Novosti said satellite photos showed the force forming around the city that has become a friction point between the Ukraine military and pro-Russian militants.
The Defense Ministry source said the number of Ukraine troops put the pro-Russian militants at a disadvantage because the latter are "armed only with small amount of pistols and shotguns." Many eastern Ukraine residents have Russian roots and sympathize with Moscow.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Blockade would be the best thing at this point. No supplies for pro Russia Guerrillas.
Russia is like an abuser that beats you more when you resist, and blames your resistance for the beating.
Maybe Putin should order Obama to stop sending Socks and MRE’s to Ukraine they’re getting bold
I was thinking seige warfare.
I agree about the wisdom of a blockade, but fear Russia will find an excuse for war anyway, might makes right and all that. Putin will simply order separatists to attack the roadblocks, any violence will be blamed on Ukraine and used as an excuse. Or the separatists can start executing hostages and force a response, if they are not above kidnapping journalists and peace observers, they are not above beheading videos. Or Putin can do some Nazi style special forces operation across the border and blame Ukraine for it.
If Kremlin wants war it will get war.
LOL.
Don’t kid yourself, Slavyansk is basically Russian in culture and sympathy. Debate the reasons why, point out when they became “Russian”, etc. Argue whether Russia has a right to intervene no matter what the sympathies of Slavyansk, etc.
But stay in reality. Western Ukraine is solidly in favor of the Kiev coup. They support it happily.
And conversely, remember that Slavyansk’ oblast went about 96% for Yanukovych in that election.
Ukraine really is between a rock and a hard place. Their cities are being overtaken by Russians. If they attack, war breaks out which is exactly what Putin wants. Their other option is to keep allowing Russia to take more and more without opposition. I don’t see a happy outcome.
And I will always believe this is what Obama meant about being flexible.
It is obvious what Putin is/has been doing. Are Russians so gullible that they believe Putin is there to “protect/rescue” Russians in Ukraine?
You know the cartoon where the big bully is beating up the little kid, a cop walks by, and the bully explains “He kept hitting my hand with his face, officer, but I think I’ll be OK”
.... THAT’s Russia vs. Ukraine
0bama should have thought about that when he was giggling about sending his gay athletes to represent the U.S. in the Olympics, and especially when 0bama was spending $5 Billion to fund the Maidan protests that ousted Yushenko.
...but 0bama is an idiot who had no Plan B and was unprepared for Russia to actually respond.
This may be the contrived impetus to enter Ukraine, clearly before the election is a necessity for the Russian thinking. If thats the final objective, they will do it and not much resistance may occur, if they stay east of the Dniper river. Really for Russia, Ukraine can be rolled up, “Like Grant took Richmond”. To use the slightly inaccurate term. They more than likely will. The west will piss and moan, more sanctions levied, but the sanctions may hurt the west in the long run more than Russia. Obama may be at this moment, after leaving the mosque he is visiting built over a former church, in Malaysia today, order more MRE’s sent in a massive airlift. (The Chili MRE is a personal favorite) perhaps the M&M’s and other treats inside can be handed out to the Russian troops on the March.
People believe what they want to believe. Russians have an inferiority complex and express it by showing their strength against weak targets. Good propaganda doesn’t just lie and tell half truths, it tells people what they think should be the truth.
But the overlooked bottom line is that this is all window dressing for both sides. Neither side gives a tinkers damn about ANY stripe of Ukrainian.
NATO and the EU wants to finally complete their expansion directly up to the actual Russian border.
And Russia insists on a buffer because of all the European invasions they have endured. They view this the way we would view Russian tanks and bases right up on out Mexican border, IF we had been catastrophically invaded by Mexico several times. (back in the days when we had one that is)
Russia intends to do anything it takes not to let Ukraine become a NATO staging ground. Making it more emotional is the Nazi element in the Kiev interim government. (Russians really really hate Nazis)
And the fact that Kiev is the epicenter of Russian history and culture.
They’ll fight for it. And Obama is just fun enough that he’ll start a war on a whim in Ukraine if the Russians roll in. He’s actually that deranged.
Its very insane.
I do not buy the propaganda line that NATO and Russia are two sides of the same coin. NATO and US are not innocents and they certainly are capable of evil deeds, but there is no comparison to the fascist dictatorship in the Kremlin. I do not buy this moral equivalence. Both sides want hegemony but one side promotes freedom and personal rights while the other side is an imperialist dictatorship.
“if they are not above kidnapping journalists and peace observers,”
Journalists are being grabbed off the street in Kiev, too.
I get the feeling Ukraine is trying to force a confrontation, at the urging of Washington, to justify western intervention, (they have already called for it, many times) but the troops in the field aren’t cooperating much.
The polling data shows that the majority of people in the East and South do not support annexation or federalization. You have no evidence for your claims that the Russian-led separatists enjoy any popular support.
But stay in reality. Western Ukraine is solidly in favor of the Kiev coup.
You repeat this in every thread but you always run away like a little girl when I challenge you on it. There was no coup. The Interim government in Ukraine is, in fact, the Ukrainian Rada that was democratically elected in October of 2012. Yanukovych fled the country to a foreign enemy after the entire Rada condemned him, including his own party, for his constitutional abuses, abuses on the Ukrainian people, and his looting.
Every time you describe what happened as a "coup," you are spreading Kremlin lies.
“Blockade would be the best thing at this point. No supplies for pro Russia Guerrillas.”
Yes, a government in Kiev, literally surrounded by armed right sector Nazi camps, should try to starve out a city who is resisting. They should re-enact Stalingrad and Leningrad. And like the Nazis, they should call their actions in eastern Ukraine anti-terror operations.
Talk about tone deaf. That’d be about as bright as Russians deciding to arrest all small farmers, and just calling them kulaks for convenience.
What Kiev should do is shrug and walk away. Better for all involved.
When the Ex-KGB, S.O.B., Hard-line leader of Russia is holding the moral high ground over the President of the United States, you truly know that we, as a nation, have jumped down the rabbit hole.
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