Ukraine says Russia will soon have over 120,000 troops on its borders | Reuters
Russia will soon have more than 120,000 troops on Ukraine's border, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday, calling for new Western economic sanctions to deter Moscow from "further escalation".
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ReutersMatthias WilliamsRobin Emmott2 minutes read1/3
Service members of the Ukrainian armed forces attend a training at a firing range in Donetsk region, Ukraine April 20, 2021. REUTERS/Serhiy Takhmazov
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Russia will soon have more than 120,000 troops on Ukraine's border, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday, calling for new Western economic sanctions to deter Moscow from "further escalation".
Washington and NATO have been alarmed by the large build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine and in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Western officials say the concentration of forces is now larger than during that annexation. The figure given by Kuleba is higher than Ukraine's previous estimate of 80,000 Russian troops, of which 50,000 were new deployments.
"Russian troops continue to arrive in close proximity to our borders in the northeast, in the east and in the south. In about a week, they are expected to reach a combined force of over 120,000 troops," Kuleba told an online news conference.
"This does not mean they will stop building up their forces at that number," Kuleba said, warning of what he said was Moscow's unpredictability although he said Ukraine did not want conflict with Russia.
"The cost of preventing Russia's further escalation will always be lower than the cost of stopping it and mitigating …
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This is starting be a situation where things are going to get out of hand quickly......
The UK acting tough expecting the US to bail their asses out if something goes wrong.
I can see NATO start massing troops and ships in a joint "training exercise" really soon. This could be bad. Really bad.
So long as we stay out of it. Of course NATO doesn't do heavy lifting w/o the US. NATO will wag the US dog yet again with Biden in charge.
Remember Russia is the aggressor here not NATO or Biden. Or do we not come to the aid of our allies anymore?
We have been poking the Russian bear for so long we no longer know what we are. We have been flipping former Soviet border states for the last several presidencies.
1) Putin doesn't give a shit about his people, his troops, or anyone else for that matter. We have diminished his standing; and isolated his power to the point he has nothing left to lose. He either forces the US and NATO to back down; or he goes down swinging. He is a piss poor leader; he only cares about staying power.
2) Think that China, NK, Iran, and Russia aren't coordinating things? They have seen that NATO/US are asserting power across the world. They either check that power or get picked off one by one.
3) Ukraine is as fucked up as it gets when it comes to a country. Think their pro Western government is any less corrupt than the pro Russian government it overthrew? We are pouring good money after bad. But it seems to be a hot spot for politicians to send their family members for sweet heart jobs and consulting deals.
4) I asked the same questions about Syria. Is this the country the US wants to draw the line in the sand and start WWIII over? If the answer is no, then WTF are we doing?
We need to make it clear that a Russian military operation against Ukraine will not be tolerated. I expect you are right as far as NATO announcing an exercise. Depending how things go you may see more US forces deployed to Europe as well.
I'm sure there are meetings and phone calls going out as we debate this.
I just watched a movie where things in the Middle East got out of hand and the world blew itself up
Anybody think the timing by Russia in the Ukrane, and China in the South China Sea are by coincidence?
There are plenty more.... There is an old truism in war.... "In chaos, there is profit."
Should I add that the Open Skies Treaty was one where the United States officially withdrew on 22 November 2020...., and furthermore.... scrapped the surveillance aircraft that performed that function.
That treaty went a long way in everyone knowing what the other guy is doing, thus helping to keep the peace.
Treaty on Open Skies - Wikipedia
I just read that Russia put radar on the seized natural gas platforms. And that the US called off sending 2 warships to the Black Sea just days before Russia started closing off 27% of the air space in the Black Sea.
If the US doesn't get involved right now Russia will take Ukraine. More sanctions aren't going to do much now.
There is little more that sanctions will do to Russia/Oligarchs at this point. The issue about the Black Sea is that it's access is through Turkey which has become more hostile to the US and it's fellow NATO members, all while being more receptive to Putin and Russia. US and UK ships might get in, and never get out.
Turkey is still pissed the US allied with the Kurds. They may find themselves someday wishing they hadn't gone so hardline.
I don't remember Russia or China being this aggressive when Trump was president
Don't get them started- they think Trump being soft on Russia and China is the cause of all this.
It doesn't matter how many facts that you hit them with either. They have forgotten Trump deploying ground forces in Syria; Trump authorizing the sale of US weapons to Ukraine (not just non lethal us goods like Obama); Trump expelling over 60 Russian diplomats; and the Trump administration cranking up sanctions on Russia. The whole US/China tariff and trade war seems to have been forgotten as well.