“Putin IS actually moving troops and tanks back to their bases now....”
I have said all along that an actual “invasion” wasn’t in the cards.
BUT...
There is a very large, live-fire aircraft training op planned in Southwest Russia, for the same day as the Ukraine Prez election.
It is already scheduled to include around 100 aircraft, including fighter-bombers, and the TU-160 Supersonic Bombers. Watch that one, carefully.
If Putin is going to intervene in the Civil War, it is going to be with an Obama-stlye “No Fly Zone”, which will allow him to bomb anything in sight, in the Southeast.
I think it all hinges on the election outcome. If Right-Sector/Svoboda don’t give up power after Poroshenko wins, he’ll act, I believe.
That said, I don’t think they will go without bloodshed. They are already trying to outlaw the Communist Party, before the election.
Yep....you did just that...I agreed...he could have made an advance at any time of his choosing long before things escalated.
However, I just can’t see the Right Sector handing over their power any time soon...especially outside the Government where these fights are fought.
Keiv cannot control them...so if things continue as have been with them I wouldn’t doubt if Russia and Kiev actually unite to rid them of the area, once the election is over. For they have served their purpose as the strong arms of the conflict, and the protests.
Poroshenko will udoubtedly be the next Pres. Interesting Putin can and will work with him despite the candy company being shut out of Russia.
I also agree that if Putin does act on the South-East it will be with focus and direct strategic hits. He has so many on the ground there, even long before the Protests, that he knows where everything is when the time comes for any action.